Dark Side Of The Mirror (Emily's War)

by R. L. Austin

  “Okay, see you soon…and good luck!”

  ***

  Emily was forming a lump of mashed potatoes into the rough shape of a triangle when her mother said, “It’s nice to see you’re still smiling.”

  Both of her parents were looking at her, so Emily played it up with a big smile that showed every tooth. “Yep, still smiling.”

  Paul gave her a special wink he used only for her. “That’s my girl.”

  He went back to eating, but Jean leaned closer and put her hand over Emily’s. “That is great, and I was thinking. I’ve got to the mall tomorrow to pick up a few things. You should come with me. We’ll make a day of it—just us girls.”

  Emily saw it as the perfect opportunity to show her mother how happy she was, and that she didn’t need to see the therapist anymore. More importantly, she needed something new to wear before Tyler saw her again. “I would love to go to the mall. Just us girls.” Emily felt that things were finally beginning to turn around for her in San Francisco. “I’ll even treat you to ice cream,” she threw in.

  “Oh, you will, will you?” Her mother gave her a friendly nudge with her elbow. “I might take you up on that.”

  “No problem.” Emily waited until her father looked up from buttering his bread to hold out her hand. “By the way, Dad, can I have an advance on my allowance?”

  Paul dug out his wallet with a humorless laugh. “Sure…sure. That’s what I’m here for.”

  Jean offered a toothy grin and held out her own hand. “Well, Paul, while you’re in such a generous mood…”

  His groan was drowned out by a round of laughter.

  ***

  Emily and her mother took all morning to work their way through the first level of the mall, scanning every sales rack, before they took an ice cream break, and later they shared an oversized chocolate chip cookie. The afternoon of shopping stretched into the evening, so they went to the food court and nibbled on salads. Jean was carefully dissecting the seeds from a slice of cucumber when Emily asked, “Mom, are you and Dad going out for dinner tomorrow night?” They had already gone out two Saturday’s in a row, and it seemed like a tradition was developing.

  “Yes, we are, and if I know your father, he’s already made reservations at DiMaggio’s.”

  “I figured.” Emily knew her parents would take the car her father had purchased from a neighbor. The old sedan had a few dings, and the blue paint was faded, but it ran smoothly. The family hadn’t owned a car in New York, so her father liked to drive whenever he got the chance. Emily would also know when they returned from dinner, because the hinges on the garage door squealed loudly enough to be heard throughout the house.

  Her mother gave up removing seeds and pushed the offending slice of cucumber to the side of her plate. “I can have him change the reservation if you want to go with us.”

  “I’d love to, Mom, but I’ve already made plans to hang out with a new friend.”

  “A new friend?”

  “Yeah. We just met.”

  “That’s wonderful. You’ve been so lonely since we got here, and a new friend is just what you need.” Her mother smiled in genuine relief. “Does she live in the neighborhood?”

  There was no way for Emily to explain Tyler, and she did not want to tell a blatant lie, so she mumbled, “Very close.”

  “Have you met her parents? What are they like?”

  “Just Nick, or Mr. Andrews. He works at a museum.”

  “Sounds like an interesting career.”

  “He seems all right.”

  “Well, I don’t know anything about these people, but you do need to make some friends, so I’ll trust your judgment. Go ahead and have fun with your new friend.” Her mother leaned forward and pointed with her plastic fork. “But I want their address and phone number, and I want you home by nine o’clock—no later. Deal?”

  “Thanks, Mom. It’s a deal.” Emily was glad that she hadn’t technically lied, but she still felt guilty.

  The long day ended with a scattering of bags in the back seat of the car. Emily used the ride home to text her friends in New York, describing her new outfits and teasing them with a picture of Tyler. She hesitated to type the word “boyfriend,” but her best friend, Tracy, shot out a rapid series of messages demanding more details on Emily’s new beau.

  “Howd U MEt him? Whats he like? R U suR hes not gay?”

  Emily answered as truthfully as she could while avoiding the topic of voices coming from mirrors, or that Tyler was trapped inside one.

  ***

  Saturday was a long day of waiting. Emily purposefully avoided Tyler’s mirror while she waited for her uncle to leave. It was late afternoon when Mansel plodded out the door carrying the black leather bag. He never told anyone where he was going, but Emily heard him tell her mother that he would be back before midnight. Emily sighed with relief when his taxi pulled away from the curb, and she darted up the stairs to change into the new pair of jeans she had picked up at the mall, along with her favorite pink tank top.

  An hour later, Jean called up the stairs, “Emily, we’re leaving for the restaurant.”

  “I’m right behind you.” Emily ran down the stairs and out the front door in time to catch her parents before they drove away. She stood on the sidewalk, smiling and waving good-bye. When their car rounded the corner, she spun on her heel and went back in the house.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Tyler, everyone’s gone. It’s just you and me.” The thought of being alone with Tyler brought a sense of excitement followed by a flush to Emily’s skin. She hoped he didn’t notice, but if he did, she planned on blaming the house for being warm. “And that means it’s time to see if I can get the triad and watch.”

  “That’s great! I am soooo ready to get out of here.”

  I would be too, Emily thought. She had tried more than once to imagine the place Tyler described to her, dark and empty of anything but the mirror. It had to be a scary place, and it still surprised her how well he was handling it.

  “Hey, you aren’t wearing a dress.”

  Emily was surprised to hear the disappointment in his voice. “Don’t you like this?” She spread her arms and twisted both ways.

  “Uh, heck yeah! They’re different, that’s all, but in a good way. They look good on you.”

  Emily beamed with delight. “Thanks.” She decided not to explain why she usually wore dresses. If Tyler liked them, she didn’t want him to know she wore them only because of her uncle. “Okay, here goes my stab at being Ali Baba. If I’m not back in an hour, send out a search party. Just don’t send forty thieves.” It was a lame joke, but it was the first one that came to her.

  Tyler laughed and said, “Good luck, Ali!”

  Emily walked away thinking about dresses. Most girls didn’t wear dresses, so they made her stand out. Emily wasn’t happy about feeling so different from other girls, but at least Tyler seemed to like the dresses. So even though she hated being told what she had to wear, maybe dresses weren’t so bad after all.

  Emily felt her first set of jitters when she entered the hallway to her Uncle Mansel’s private study. She had only gotten one glimpse into the room, but it was enough to see lots of furniture and rows of tall bookshelves. Mansel had slammed the door and locked it before she could see any more.

  By the time Emily reached the door to the study, she felt dry mouthed. She took two deep breaths before she reached for the antique-looking doorknob with a quivering hand. A few jiggles of the metal knob verified that it was locked. Emily also felt a light tingling in her fingers where they touched the knob, but she dismissed it as nerves.

  Emily ran her fingers along the top of the doorframe, but didn’t find a hidden key. She decided to give the lock another try, and the tingling returned to her fingers when she touched it. That’s weird. A glance told her there was no keyhole below the doorknob. Instead, she saw a raised imprint of a triangle where a keyhole should have been, the same symbol that was on that giant doorknocker. Sh
e gave the handle a firm twist, but it wouldn’t budge. “Great,” she huffed. “I told Tyler this wouldn’t work. I can’t unlock a door that doesn’t even use a key.” Remembering her earlier joke, she muttered, “I’m not Ali Baba, and I can’t use “Open Sesame.”

  The tingling sensation she kept noticing in her fingers intensified, and she heard a click. Emily frowned in disbelief as she twisted the handle again. The knob turned without resistance, and the door swung open. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Emily wasn’t sure what to think about the door opening the way it did, but she leaned forward and peered inside.

  Her uncle’s large study was crowded with furniture, and it had the old man smell she noticed around him. An enormous wooden desk, almost black with age, dominated the center of the room, and all but one wall had floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Their shelves were filled to overflowing with books of all sizes, some of them leather bound, and all of them very old. The fourth wall, opposite the door, displayed a collection of mirrors in various shapes and sizes.

  Emily wondered if people were trapped inside them, but from the far side of the room she couldn’t hear any voices. She decided to stay well away from the mirrors until she saw a heavy wooden chest sitting on the floor beneath them. The lid of the chest was adorned with a large black triangle. The symbol made the chest stand out in the cluttered room, and Emily found herself staring. The longer she looked, the more she felt drawn to it. If the triad was in the room, she was sure that’s where it would be.

  Her feet carried her closer, despite a growing sense of unease about what she intended to do. By the time she stood in front of the chest, she was covered in goose bumps. A heavy metal lock dangled from a large iron hasp, and on the bottom of the lock was another triangle, this one crudely painted by hand. Emily knelt down in front of the box and ran her hands over her arms, trying to smooth away her goose bumps. “Here we go.”

  She grabbed the lock and felt the same tingling she had from the doorknob. A couple of tugs verified that the lock wouldn’t open. Her heart sank, but she had come too far to simply give up. There was no keyhole on the front of the lock, so she flipped it over. The back of the lock was unadorned except for a raised imprint of yet another triangle.

  As ridiculous as it seemed, saying “Open Sesame” had unlocked the door, so Emily half-jokingly repeated, “Open Sesame.” The tingling sensation intensified, and she felt a small click before the lock fell open in her hand. No one’s going to believe this.

  Emily grabbed the corners of the heavy lid and bit her lip as she lifted. The inside of the chest smelled musty, and it was filled with an assortment of items that reminded her of magician’s props. There was a large crystal ball, half a dozen wands, and a small pile of tarot cards. Uncle Mansel’s a magician? “No way! He hates people.” Despite the seriousness of the moment, Emily smiled at the mental image of her uncle stumbling through a series of magic tricks at a child’s birthday party.

  The strange idea of Mansel the Magician was interrupted when Emily glimpsed the corner of a black box beneath the cards. She remembered Tyler saying the triad and watch were found in a black box, so she pulled it out and placed it on the floor for a better look. The box had another one of those strange locks. “Open,” she demanded, but nothing happened. “Open Sesame.” The lock remained firmly closed. “Hm.”

  Emily cradled the new lock in her palm and felt the same tingling she had before. It made her wonder if she had to be touching it. “Open Sesame,” she repeated, and the lock popped open as easily as the last one. “Cool.” It didn’t even seem weird anymore.

  The triad was sitting next to a pocket watch that matched the one Tyler had described. A brief inspection verified that it was missing the stem, the small screw used to wind it. Emily couldn’t believe she had found them so easily, and Tyler was going to be ecstatic.

  Distracted by the chest and its contents, Emily had been ignoring the mirrors on the wall over her head, but now she heard a faint collection of voices. Most of them were crying, while others begged for help. Not begging to her, just calling out from the darkness she knew was all around them. The thought of never-ending darkness inside a mirror made her shudder. If she ever got trapped in a mirror herself, she was sure she would go mad.

  Emily pushed the voices to the back of her mind and refocused on the contents of the box. She picked up the black triangle, noticing how light it was, but dropped it with a startled yelp when the voices above her changed from faint whispers to loud shouts, something that had never happened before. She looked down at the triad, wondering if touching it had caused the change in the voices. She couldn’t be sure unless she touched it again, and she was trying to decide whether or not she wanted to when she realized every mirror had gone silent. Emily looked up.

  “Who’s there?” a voice called out from the nearest mirror.

  “Is someone there?” another voice asked from another mirror before they all cried out.

  With so many voices calling to her, each of them desperate to make contact, Emily felt overwhelmed. What should she say? What could she say? Hi, I’m Emily, and I’m here to steal something from my uncle? No, it was better if she didn’t say anything at all.

  Emily grabbed the triad, and the faint calls over her head returned to shouts, but this time she was ready for it. She was replacing the triad in its box when she noticed the stack of tarot cards had fallen over inside the chest, exposing something green. She gasped when she recognized the necklace she had lost the day after her family moved in. The green amulet, attached to a simple gold chain, was a present from her grandmother, and Emily had worn it every day before it went missing. He stole it. Emily wanted to scream with rage, but her anger melted when she remembered that she was there to take something from her uncle. At least she didn’t have to feel guilty anymore. She was just getting even.

  She pulled the necklace from beneath the cards and was surprised to feel the same tingling she had felt when touching the doorknob and the locks. She had worn the amulet every day in New York without any tingling, so why now? Emily took her hand off the box with the triad, and the tingling sensation stopped. “Huh?” She put her hand back on the box, and the tingling returned. Something about the box with the triad was making the amulet tingle.

  Emily remembered the day her grandmother had given her the necklace. She had placed the amulet around Emily’s neck while saying, “I made this for you. It’s magic, so keep it close to your heart and it will always protect you.” It made Emily wonder if the tingling meant the amulet was protecting her, and if so, from what?

  Emily slipped the necklace into her pocket and closed the chest. The mirrors above her head had returned to soft cries. She grabbed the two halves of the lock and pushed them back together, hoping they would catch, but the pieces fell apart when she let go. Now what do I do? She felt the first glimmer of panic, but forced herself to be calm and think. If the chest unlocked with “Open Sesame,” maybe reversing the spell would lock it. She held the pieces together and whispered “Close Sesame,” so that no one in the mirrors would hear. The lock clicked shut, and Emily smiled with success. It did feel like magic. She relocked the door the same way after she exited the room with the black box.

  “I got them!” Emily made a proud display of the box when she arrived at Tyler’s mirror.

  “I knew it. I just knew it,” Tyler shouted in elation. “Now get me the heck out of here!”

  “What? How, exactly, am I supposed to do that?” Emily shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know how this triad thing works!”

  “Oh. That’s right.” Tyler sounded deflated. “I didn’t think about that.”

  The gloom in Tyler’s voice made Emily regret being so quick to dismiss the idea of using the triad. She had gone to a great deal of trouble to get it, so she might as well try before she gave up. “Wait a minute. I didn’t say I wouldn’t try. I’m just not sure where to start. Do you have any ideas?”

  Tyler had no suggestions to offer, so Emily decided to
use a practical approach. “Well, I guess I’ll start by taking it out of the box and see if it does anything on its own.”

  “Good idea,” Tyler eagerly agreed.

  Emily knelt in front of the mirror and opened the box. She placed the triad on the floor in front of the mirror, but nothing happened. She placed the watch beside the triad, hoping it might do something, but there was no change in them or the mirror.

  “Is anything happening on your side?” Emily asked. She heard a dull thump from the mirror.

  “Nope, I still can’t get out.”

  Emily continued to wait and hope, but nothing visible was happening. When she remembered her necklace, she dug it out of her pocket and slipped it over her head.

  “Hey, where’d you get that?” Tyler asked.

  “It’s mine,” Emily explained. “I found it in the same chest where I found the triad. It was a gift from my grandmother, but it disappeared right after we got here. Now I know why. My creep of an uncle stole it.”

  “I like it,” Tyler announced. “It brings out the color in your eyes.”

  “Thanks.” Emily felt a blush creep onto her cheeks, but forced herself to remain focused on what she was doing. The triad had done nothing on its own, so she picked it up and examined its black surface from every angle. The hard material was etched with runes, but it had no buttons or switches. She pressed it against the mirror, which brought a tingling sensation where the amulet touched her skin, as it had when she touched the box earlier, and she wondered if it was protecting her again. The longer Emily pressed the triad against the surface of the mirror, the stronger the tingling became until she dropped the black triangle with a gasp.

  “What’s wrong?” Tyler called out. “Are you okay?”