Chapter 2

It’s strange, having something so familiar change, in such a short period of time. I have had this problem, with many things. I am quite sure that other people have had it, too. It is scary, at the very least. It was terrifying for me, and even worse for my friend. My friend was aghast, horrified, and alarmed.

My friend? Well, his name is Mason. In fact, he’s in 7th grade. He happens to be deaf, unfortunately, but he has learned to use sign language. Mason is quite talkative, if you get to know him. Most people avoid him, for whatever reason. Then again, he did kind of have this glare, perhaps a poisonous look. Sinister, maybe. Many people mistake him for a full grown man. Nevertheless, he is quite kind and loves learning new things.

So what was that dream you had again? Joe communicated through sign language.

It was weird. There was this mirror, out of all things, and it had lots of pretty scenery. Mason replied, again in sign language.

So... what happened?

Nothing much, I just stuck my hand through the mirror and it burned me.

Oh. So why do you think it’s so important? Joe “said”, looking a little disappointed.

I just feel that it is.

I heard that dreams mean nothing whatsoever, Joe replied tauntingly.

Doubt it.

I know that it’s true. My grandpa told me.

Anyway, I think I can remember something else that happened, Mason communicated, trying to break up the quarrel.

Joe tilted his head to the side, looking interested, or at least trying to be.

Mason took a breath and started moving his hands.

When I took my hand back out, it disappeared. I put my other hand where my hand used to be, and I touched something invisible. I think I must’ve touched my hand. Maybe some sort of invisible ink was on me. I put my leg in and I could feel my foot touching something that felt like a sponge. I think it was the ground. The image in the mirror disappeared, it was replaced by a silvery liquid. I put one arm in, then the other. I took a breath and hesitantly put my head in. I looked around then I pulled my other leg through. I was inside the mirror! There was this long aisle with trees lining it… I was hearing a rustling sound. What? I was confused, because my ears haven’t worked since birth. I felt really weird, like I discovered a 5th sense. Actually, I did! It just felt really odd. I think there was something else, but I can’t remember.

Woah, Joe communicated. That was deep.

Mason nodded his head slowly and looked down at his lunch box containing his food. There  was an apple, a fruit snack, and a sandwich. The apple looked oddly familiar, but Mason couldn’t put his finger on it. He shrugged and took a bite. He nibbled at the apple for awhile.

Mason suddenly shot up from his seat. Joe peered at him with a questioning look, just in time to see him run off to the bathroom. Mason looked into the mirror, just to see himself.

What on earth possessed you? Mason asked himself with great disapproval.

You left you friend alone and wondering what happened, and he is probably worried. Go back there and tell him you just had to pee!

But Mason didn’t have to urinate, or extrude any foul matter of that sort. He just stood there, looking at his reflection. Mason tried to move but his legs stayed. Mason was stuck. He felt he was going into the trance again; the only way I could describe this feeling was like going underwater. He held his breath and closed his eyes, certain he was going to plunge beneath water. And mason was right.

When he opened his eyes, there was a long hallway, but filled up with water. Mason swam through the hallway, with some strange force pushing him forward. He almost didn’t have to move, and he flowed forward. He let the current, no, it wasn’t really a current, push and pull his body. This was a very soothing motion, far from stomach churning, like some people might think.

He looked side to side, watching strange things pass him. Pianos, trees, dining-room tables. Wigs, tape, clocks, shoes. There was cows, pigs, flowers and frogs. Fire extinguishers, lunchboxes, rubberducks. Helmets, trophies, tissues, cards and plates. CDs, rugs, picture frames. Many more things passed by, some Mason didn’t know the name of. Such weird items that he was sure no one knew of. People started passing by.

A little creepy, Mason thought.

Politicians, teachers, kings, Larry Bird, dictators, army men, and plumbers were some of the people who passed him.

Mason could see a door at the end of the hallway, and the current nudged him forward. He uncomfortably moved toward the door, eyes down as all of the water people stared at him with glazed eyes. He put his hand on the doorknob and suddenly, it gave him a shock. Electric shock. Unfortunately, he was surrounded in water and the electricity quickly traveled through, killing all of the people who were currently watching Mason. A chill ran up his spine, maybe from the doorknob’s electricity, which he was holding onto, or just seeing so many people get killed in an instant.

The current was pushing harder and harder to make Mason open the door. He had to let go of the doorknob, or else his hand might break in half from the pressure. Mason was having trouble moving, as the current has pushed him up against the door. He was suffering horribly. He made a noise as a cry for help, but the current was pushing him against the door so hard he couldn’t speak. Mason was sure he was going to die. He managed to scream out a few bubbles, but they floated upwards slowly, not helping his situation. Mason watched the bubbles pop!, as they reached the top of the hallway. Mason could not speak, think, or move.

Chapter 1

As she touches the mirror, it burns her. "OUCH!" Yelled the girl. She pulled her hand away from the mirror. It was covered in a forest green glob. She looked down at her hand then into the mirror. It showed the most beautiful forest made up of aspen trees in the Autumn. Their leaves were golden and had purple strings, about an inch long, coming from the tips of the leaves. The grass was still green, lime green in fact, and it was breast length tall. There were these strange plants everywhere and they where like flowers. But instead of flowers, there was a dark juicy red apple at the end of the stem. She could almost smell the rich, warm sunrise. The sky was glowing orange and there was pink cotton candy clouds. The girl could almost eat the red, juicy apples. She could picture her picking it off the stem and biting into that wonderful apple, and could see a little dribble of juice running down her neck. The grass would be so soft, and she could prove it, the grass, the apple, the purple strings on the tall, white aspens, she only had to get into that mirror. The girl took about 20 steps back and then sprinted into the mirror with her eyes shut. When she opened her eyes she saw a tongue. A big one. As tall as seven feet. It suddenly flew towards her, and just before it could touch her....

"OH NO!" Lilly screamed. Lilly's eyes flew open and her dog, Rustle was licking her. She looked around her room. Light purple walls were surrounding her, there was a bed lamp on her right, and Rustle on her left.

  "Silly Rustle, you scared me!", Lilly said in a relieved voice. She got out of bed, kissed Rustle, and took off her yellow pajamas. Rustle jumped at her, which it isn't hard to because yellow is the exact opposite of purple.  While Rustle was falling to the floor, Lilly caught him. Rustle barked and it seemed as if he was saying, "Oh, I don't know what I would do without you!"  

Lilly got on a light green tank top with dark blue jeans. She threw on black boots encrusted with purple jewels, and put on a jet black, high waisted, long sleeved jacket. Lilly opened the door and went downstairs for breakfast. Rustle followed right behind her.

"Hello sweety!" Said Lilly’s mom. "Had any dreams?"

Lilly thought about how her family was a dreaming family.

"Yes, one," said Lilly. "There was a mirror, a big one. And this girl stuck her hand in it and it burned her. There was this green glob on her hands. There was this amazing landscape in this mirror and she wanted to get in there as much as possible. So she took a ton of steps backward and ran into the mirror. But then Rustle interfered with my dream. He made it so that there was a tongue chasing me.”.

“Silly Rustle”, said Lilly's mom, Sara. “ Would you like me to drive you to school today?”

“No”, said Lilly. “I think it’ll be fine.”

Sara waved to Lilly as she got on her bike and rode off to 7th grade. Lilly biked through the neighborhoods gulch and saw three medium sized frogs. She got off and picked one up, it was about five centimeters long and four centimeters wide and had a long mud-brown stripe down its back. The frog had three bright yellow dots on each side of its back. The frog  puffed up its throat and hopped off Lilly's hands. She then hopped back on her bike and rode off to school.

Lilly felt a drop on her shoulder and winced. “Oh no!”, she cried. “I just got this jacket!” She danced through the rain drops until she got to the academy. Lilly parked her bike and looked down and got ready to walk into the big brick building. One of the frogs was at her feet. Lilly couldn’t speak. She just could look down at the frog. Lilly shook her head in frustration, then walked over the frog into the school.

School dragged on forever. She had math for first period, gym for second, science for third, lunch for fourth, and tons of others. She told her friend all about her dream.

“Weird. “, said Alex. “I really wish that I could have dreams instead of nightmares.”, She said as she popped a cheeto into her mouth.

“Well you had that one dream about peanuts!”, exclaimed Lilly.

“I tell you time and time again that I am allergic  to peanuts! Geez.”

Lilly could not find a reply to that, so she just leaned back in her chair and sighed. She started to think about mirrors, and how they make duplicates of everything. Isn’t that strange? Huh, what if…. no. That's silly. But….

Lilly suddenly sat up. Alex peered at her with a questioning look, just in time to see her run off. Lilly ran to the bathroom, and eyed herself in the mirror. She touched it, and it burned her. “OUCH!”, she said. She looked down at her hand, and it was covered with a forest green blob.

“No, nononono…”, Lilly started to look up, hands trembling. No. No no no no, please no. It was the same beautiful forest as before, with all of the aspen trees, etc. Even though the image was comforting, Lilly had the worst feeling in the pit of her stomach. Like this wasn’t supposed to happen. She looked up to the ceiling, blinking her eyes, trying to stop crying. She put her head back down, eyes closed. When she opened them, there was no more tears coming from her eyes. The pain from her hand disappeared, along with the blob, too. And when she looked in the mirror, all she saw was herself. She was too surprised to think, too relieved to stand. Lilly fell down with a thud, fainted.

“Lilly!”

“Lilly?”

“Are you alright?”

……..

“What happened to her, Alex?”
“I dunno. She ran off to the bathroom. After the bell rang for next period, I went to there to see what  happened.”

“Oh gosh, I don’t know what is going to happen. Lilly dear? Can you hear me?”

“Maybe we should put cold water on her hand.”

“By gosh, that just might work! Let me fill up this cup with cold water. Oh, and thank you very much for bringing her straight to the nurse's office.”

“Your welcome.”

“Ok, the cup is filled. Lets wake her up.”

“Wh..what? What happened?” Lilly was very confused. I would say that she is puzzled. Alex would have said cunfuzzled. Yet the nurse would’ve said, ‘You simply look bewildered!’ Whatever the synonym for perplexed is, that’s what Lilly was. She looked around the room hazily and slowly.

“You simply look bewildered darling! At least you’re awake now. Whatever happened?”

Lilly wasn’t paying attention to the nurse. Lilly was zoning out. She could hear Alex giggling in the background, but she wasn't important. The nurse kept saying dear, and darling like a typical school nurse would. The background noises kept getting softer and more muffled until silence. Silence. Just silence. The silence Lilly heard was silent enough to make someone insane in an instance. But it was comforting for Lilly. Ah, silence. Then something snapped inside of her, maybe something fired in her brain. She remembered the mirror and forest again, like it was in front of her. It was in front of her. Lilly was too tired to stress about it, she just looked. She gazed into the mirror in a hazy state, and barely realizes that something was different. Inside the mirror, there was a sinister looking man wearing a camouflage outfit. It wasn’t like an army outfit, it just had apples, grass, and aspen trees.  Wait, what is he doing? He is... beckoning her to come forward. He is calling her name.