This is the beginning of a story I have been writing in my free time. It is an ongoing piece of work that might end up as a short story or novel. But for now it is a fun piece of fiction writing.
So anyway, there I was, surrounded by hundreds of reflections of myself. I could tell they were me, yet they were all somehow wrong. They had missing eyes, were covered in hair. Terrible things had been done to them. As I looked at them, it almost seemed as if they were alive, versions of me from other lives, dimensions, or worlds. I wasn’t sure, but it occurred to me that they might not be as evil as I was lead to believe. I could tell they had suffered; were suffering. They all seemed to have unending pain, being trapped in the mirrors of their worlds and I realized I had to help them.
I knew what I was going to do and I looked at the reflection, which was not truly a reflection, closet to me. I would call her “One”. She had my brown hair and green eyes but her skin looked lifeless, a grayish paste that made her look nearly dead. And her eyes had a deep sorrow to them, giving the impression that she had witnessed an unspeakable horror or been through terrible pain. She was extremely skinny, much thinner than I. You could see the shape of every bone on her through the rags that barely clung to her skin. I walked toward the mirror and proceeded to touch it but I felt no hardness, it was as if the mirror was a gateway itself, and I began to push my way through.
Going into this mirrored room was quite an accident. The carnival had come to town that week and my friends convinced me to sneak in after the carnival closed. I was the good girl of the group. Good grades in school, and I had never got in trouble when I lived at home. Even once getting to college, I tended to stay in and study instead of going out and partying. But it was spring break, I had no homework and my friends were bored. I didn’t particularly want to mar my good status, but my friends can be very persuasive.
“Come on Jen! Don’t be a baby!” Chris yelled at me. “It’ll be fun, no one will find out!”
“Yeah Jen! We’re all going. You’ll be the only one who isn’t going. Besides, nothing bad is going to happen!” Lindsey yelled at me, her red hair blowing in the wind.
“Fine!” I shouted. “But if anything happens, I’m blaming you guys for it!”
A cheer went through my small group of friends. We walked toward the back of the carnival. It was very dark outside and the wind was blowing hard. I could hear the creaking of the rides inside, and a lion roared in the distance. I shivered. It wasn’t a very cold night, but the wind made it seem chillier. I was glad I brought a jacket.
“All you need is a little booze in you, and you will be all warm and fuzzy inside!” Dan laughed as he said it. I wasn’t a huge drinker, but I knew that getting a few drinks would loosen me up and I wouldn’t be so paranoid about getting caught.
Lindsey leaned over and whispered to me, “I’m really glad you are going. I didn’t want to be the only girl hanging out after dark at the carnival.”
“I know, I just hope we don’t get caught. My parents would KILL me!”
We got to a dark area behind the carnival and the boys thought it would be a good place to hop over. Chris went over first. I couldn’t help but stare as he hoisted himself over. Chris was very muscular, and his dark brown hair shook as he landed on the other side. He was one of those people who looked good no matter what he was doing. He looked at me with his dark brown eyes and said, “Your turn Jen!”
I’ve never been good at anything sportsy, so I looked at the fence and gulped. Dan held out his hand, offering to give me a lift over the fence. Dan was also pretty muscular, but he always seemed to look a bit nerdy compared to Chris. He had dark blonde hair and blue eyes, and always wore glasses. Dan helped me over the first half of the fence, and Chris caught me on the other side. I held onto Chris a little longer than I should have, but it felt good being in his arms. Lindsey came over next, she was a small girl and got over easily. Dan shoved the case of beer over the top of the fence, and then shimmied over himself. We all glanced at each other, unsure what to do next.
Chris took the lead, and we followed. We wandered around the carnival looking for a place to sit and drink a little. Passing the game booths was a little creepy. There were shadows everywhere from oversized stuffed animals; it felt like they were watching us as we walked through the gate. The wind picked up a little, and I shivered again. It felt like a night out of a horror movie, and the killer was waiting around the corner to kill us. But no such killer was around the corner, and we finally reached the ride area. We followed Chris as he made his was toward the carousel. Each of us took an animal and Dan started passing out the beer.
I sipped my beer slowly as I took in the surroundings. The carousel was a typical carousel, there were prancing horses wearing intricate harnesses and saddles, both tan colored horses and black and white ones. There were also jumping deer and antelope in many shades of brown. Poles went through each animal and they were bright gold; it was a beautiful carousel.