The Mirror

THE MIRROR

I returned home from a terrible day at work. I had been stuck in an elevator for a long time. My boss gave me an early leave. Instead of returning at 7 p.m. I returned at 5:30 p.m. I reckoned I had a lot of free time.

My apartment looked like its usual state, but it felt off. I just dismissed it as I was in a poor state of mind because of the elevator incident. I decided to sit down and watch my favorite show F.R.I.E.N.D.S with some buttery popcorn. I mean F.R.I.E.N.D.S even managed to cheer me up the day I nearly died in a car accident but that’s a tale for another time. So, I figured it’d definitely cheer me up from that day’s claustrophobic elevator disaster.

I ended up binging quite a number of episodes but I stopped- something was wrong. You see, when I binged the first 5 episodes everything was fine but around the 6th episodes, the subtitles went haywire. The subtitles were laterally inversed. Like a mirror. At first, I thought my TV or Netflix was just acting up. I pulled out my phone to Google out possible causes as to this defect- But to my disdain when I switched on my phone on, the day Tuesday’s spelling was laterally inverted. Like a mirror.

All of a sudden for no reason I looked at the newspaper on the table and it was also laterally inverted.

Now, I was 100% sure something was seriously wrong. Also, when I had looked at my phone, I noticed the time which was 9 p.m. It was impossible since I started binging around 6 p.m. and 5 episodes, 20 minutes each amounted to 1 hour 40 minutes. Also, if it was 9, by now my husband, Adrian would have come. (Yes, I know it looked abundantly clear that I was single but I’m not)

I looked at my living room and squinted- Hard. The whole room was laterally inverted. Like a mirror. Bedroom, kitchen and bathroom were in the same state. Yep, I’m nuts definitely. How can this even happen? I bet I’m dreaming. Or maybe I’m still in the elevator and I fainted and I’m in a coma because of lack of oxygen?

Hell, that sounds more plausible than what I was seeing here. I wanted to call Adrian since I clearly needed assistance but my phone came- No reception though I was sure I paid the data bill last week.

I opened my front door to leave the insanity but what I saw drove me even more insane. Outside my doorstep, was a vast white void with giant black floating cubes. I slammed the door shut.

At this point, I kept pinching myself to wake up from this nightmare but to no avail.

Suddenly I had this stupid idea, and I ran to the bathroom mirror. You know, since I was stuck in a mirror dimension let’s see what the mirror had to say!

In the mirror I could see my undeniably handsome face but suddenly next moment my face disappeared. It was no longer a mirror but a one-way see-through glass.

Through the mirror I could see my living room. I recognized the point of view from which I saw the room- It was a window! Which was impossible since I was in the bathroom. But hey, everything here is impossible.

Then Adrian entered through the front door.

I banged, screamed at the mirror but I couldn’t be heard nor seen by my love.

I noticed he was crying- Hard. Since I couldn’t interact with him in any way I had to guess. He sat on the sofa and he threw down a newspaper on the window still.

It was close enough to me and I read what it said. It was an article detailing how a trapped man suffocated in an elevator. It had my name and picture.

This man who died was me?

See, the thing was I’d lost some people in my life and I’ve reacted but…How do you even react to your own death? I might be the first person in human history to go through this.

I went numb for a while. I guess this explained why my reality was so warped. Maybe this is limbo? This also explained why I couldn’t reach Adrian. He was on the side of life while I was on death.

I sat down on the floor.

How? What? Why?

Millions of questions like that rushed through my head.

Then my emotions hit- Hard. I felt regret and anger. Why me?!?! I was just twenty-six and newlywed, I had dreams and plans…I was happy!!

I got up and looked at the “mirror”.

Adrian just looked blank…He looked like a shell of the person he once was.

Adrian…I couldn’t imagine what he was feeling. What would he do?

It hurt me; even more than my own death, not being able to do anything for him. I watched him for a while and he seemed to get a grip on himself. He looked just slightly better. I knew it was pointless to dwell there. I couldn’t do anything for him.

I could do nothing but move on and accept my death. I had to move forward. Instinctively I opened the front door and ventured into the white unknown. The cubes seemed more comforting when I realized, they resembled my favorite art style- Cubism.

It’s been a while and I still think about him but I am sure he is fine.