Baltimore, Maryland
May
Lawson bumped into the doorframe as she steered toward the kitchen, book in her
hand. Not averting her gaze from the text, she managed to locate the chair and
sit down. She shoved the box of her sister’s favorite cereal aside, making
space for the book. Still reading, May reached for the bowl.
“Hey!
That’s mine!” Hailey, her younger sister protested, glaring at May.
May
mumbled something inaudible, not affected by the commotion in the kitchen at
all when she was finishing reading. When she read the last paragraph, she took
her eyes off the book and put it away, thinking that it was a nice way to start
her first day of the summer break. She lifted her head and saw that apparently
a little apocalypse came today.
“Richard,
did you pack your toothbrush?” Nancy Lawson, May’s mom, asked in her usual
demanding tone.
“Of
course, dear,” May’s dad answered meekly, opening his suitcase and checking if
he packed that toothbrush indeed – after all no one wanted to cross his wife.
May’s mom was looming above him like an executioner, her blue eyes cold and
unforgiving.
“Better
check if you have everything, I don’t want to have to buy you socks in London,”
May’s mom nagged, her voice threatening.
May
sighed, observing her parents. Her poor dad was nearly cowering in fear before
his wife while the mom kept giving him orders, another normal day in the life
of the Lawson family. The contrast between the pair was impossible not to
notice – May’s dad was a chubby, plain-looking man with glasses whereas her
mother was a killer beauty with her perfect silhouette, blonde hair and
exceptionally pretty face.
May’s
parents were about to head to London for a week and the summer morning had been
turned into a hectic hell. Richard Lawson was about to lead some important
conference and May’s mom was accompanying him as to support him and to control
his expenses. May’s dad, an accomplished
history professor, was an absent-minded person, focused on his work and passion
for collecting antiques – something his more level-headed wife wasn’t very fond
of and was just about to remind him of it.
“I
swear, if you buy any more trash, Richard, you’ll regret it,” Nancy hissed when
the doorbell rang.
May’s
dad flashed a shy smile which conveyed the message “I apologize for living” and
rushed to collect the package. Nancy Lawson huffed, annoyed, and proceeded with
ordering her family members around.
“Hailey,
please eat proper breakfasts and don’t eat too many snacks. Mrs. Hatchets will
pop in order to check on you, so be nice to her,” May’s mom offered her younger
daughter a smile which vanished instantly when she looked at her husband, who
was dawdling in the corridor. Her red high heels clicked as she went to inspect
the newest delivery.
“Richard!”
May winced, hearing her mother’s furious scream. “What’s the meaning of this?
Why did you buy so many antiques? What are you doing? Leave it, don’t unpack
it! We don’t have time for this now,”
Flushed,
May’s mom marched back to the kitchen and filled Hailey’s glass with juice.
“Hailey,
stay at home in the evenings, don’t invite your boyfriend while we’re gone and
rest a bit, you deserve it,” May’s mom smiled warmly to her younger daughter,
combing Hailey’s blonde locks with her fingers.
May’s
mom scanned the kitchens for the survivors who didn’t get scolded yet. Her gaze
slid over her husband and Hailey who was looking like an angel right now to
stop on the one person who escaped her attention this morning – her older
daughter May who seemed to possess a mystical gift of invisibility and
was surprisingly easy to overlook. Nancy Lawson approached her daughter like a
hawk who had just spotted its prey.
“May, I
think you should use this summer break to study hard. If you are to get the
scholarship and go to Harvard you’ll have to try harder during your senior
year. Take your sister’s example; she’s so young and smart already,” May’s mom
said harshly.
“Yes,
mom,” May replied in a monotone voice as a vision of grim future flashed in her
mind – the prospect of studying instead of relaxing and simply having fun
wasn’t what she had hoped for this summer. However, she was already used to the
pressure to be the best and being compared with Hailey all the time.
May
could never compete with her younger sister, no matter how hard she tried. Not
that May was lacking in intelligence - quite the opposite. She always scored
the best marks in the class and worked harder than anybody else at the expense
of her social life; however, Hailey was better. She was three years younger,
but she had skipped a grade, took part in national competitions, was even a
member of Mensa. She never failed to accomplish effortlessly whatever caught
her fancy, while the same things cost May hard work. Hailey was the pride and
joy of their family, and May was the other one, always second best.
Hailey was the perfect daughter, the
little prodigy who had the looks, outgoing personality, wonderful friends and
even a boyfriend. Everyone seemed to adore her. May tried to be proud of her
sister’s accomplishments, but she couldn’t help but to be jealous.
“Hailey, dear, guess what?” May’s mom
asked the younger of girls. “We’ll buy you a new violin in London.”
“Oh, mommy, you’re the best!” Hailey
exclaimed, her sapphire blue eyes sparkling with joy.
May sighed, frustrated, seeing Hailey
and mom fuss over the new violin.
“Nancy, I believe we have to leave
already,” May’s dad called from the corridor and stepped into the kitchen to
say good-byes. Nancy Lawson planted kisses on Hailey’s both cheeks and ruffled
May’s short, brown hair hastily before grabbing her suitcases. May’s Dad hugged
his younger daughter awkwardly and waved to May.
“May,” he addressed his older daughter.
May lifted her head, gazing at her father with hope he would wish her good luck
or say he was proud of her achievements. “Unpack the boxes from the corridor.
Be careful – some of those contain very valuable antiques. You know how I want
them to be catalogued, right?”
The girl nodded; her face turned into a
poker mask and her hand frozen in midair. Soon enough the door slammed shut and
as soon as the parent’s car left the driveway, Hailey made a beeline for the
table. Just when May opened her book again, ignoring her sister making a mess
with her breakfast. She arched her eyebrow, seeing Hailey skip toward the
mirror and critically examining her appearance, frowning with dissatisfaction
at her still small breasts.
May straightened her back, looking at
her sister who was just flipping her long, blonde hair, as though she was in a
shampoo commercial. May and Hailey were siblings, but they were polar opposites
– May’s younger sister resembled their mother so much that May began suspecting
that she could be a clone; tall and slim, stunningly beautiful, blue-eyed
Hailey was entrancing everyone with her exceptionally good looks.
May could be considered quite pretty,
but compared to her mother and sister, she seemed to be terribly plain. Her
face rarely caught passerby’s attention, and she wasn’t skinny and tall like a
model. Having inherited her dad’s perfectly ordinary looks, May never stood out
in the crowd of other seventeen-year-old
high school girls.
The sole things she really liked about
her appearance were her green eyes. Her brown hair always seemed to have a mind
of its own, refusing to look presentable, so it was shoulder length. Her height
was sometimes bothersome too – being shorter than most of her peers, May often
got teased when she was younger.
May observed Hailey march into the
living room to seize the TV and decided to move from behind the table to get
done with unpacking the delivery.
The
sooner the better.
“Oh no, not again,” May whined when she
saw the corridor. The door was barely visible to behind the boxes of all sizes
and shapes. It seemed that her dad went on an antique shopping spree. Actually,
May understood why mom despised dad’s hobby so much – not only it consumed over
half of family’s earnings, but there was barely enough space in the house for
all the new acquirements.
May began opening the boxes, having
decided to unpack everything first and then carry the antiques to the basement.
The girl looked at the multitude of packages and afterwards in the direction of
the living room.
“Hailey,
come here and help me!” she called, but there was no response. “Hailey!”
“What?” A
rude response from the couch in the living room came. May rolled her eyes.
“Lend me
a hand with dad’s stuff, will you?” she called.
Hailey
turned the TV off and marched down the corridor. She rested her hands on her
hips, glaring at May from above; even though she was three years younger,
Hailey was already taller than her older sister.
“I’m
tired,” she said, shamelessly faking yawning. “Anyway, dad told that you should
take care of his stuff, and I should rest. Now don’t bother me when I’m
resting.”
May
looked at her sharply and grabbed Hailey’s shoulder when the younger girl was
about.
“Don’t
even think about wriggling out of this,” she said, pointing at the boxes. “Help
me or I won’t cook you anything for the entire week.”
Hailey’s
blue eyes widened when she heard the ultimatum. May’s face was serious – she
had no intention of giving into her
sister’s whims this time, although usually she had to since dad and mom kept
defending Hailey.
“If you
do that, mom will ground you for a month,” Hailey retorted, but the unsure look
on her face betrayed that she wasn’t too confident.
“Fine by
me.” May shrugged her shoulders; after all, she’d be stuck at home studying
anyway.
Hailey
bit her lower lip, weighing her options, the battle between a week without
dinners versus an hour of effort raging in her mind.
“Okay,”
she grunted eventually and got to work, huffing angrily when she saw May’s
triumphant smirk.
The both
girls were unpacking the various items from the boxes, wondering why their dad
would need most of them. The oriental vase was truly beautiful, but the African
sculpture was hideous. Richard Lawson had a weak spot for various items
connected to occult and foreign religions. The antiques came from all over the
world and May suspected that they were a substitute for traveling – her dad
always wanted to visit the historical sites, but his wife consistently denied
it.
“If a
vampire got into our house, the poor guy wouldn’t stand a chance,” May stated,
discovering that one of the boxes contained over twenty different crosses.
“What’s
that?” Hailey asked, holding up an artwork which looked like it had been
painted by Picasso on a bad day. May shrugged.
“No
idea, check this out,” she said, showing Hailey a long parcel which turned out
to hide a genuine sword in its sheath. The weapon was orange from rust; the elaborate
decorative pattern was barely visible now.
“Is it
sharp?” Hailey asked. May smiled – she wanted to find it out too. She pulled
the handle, but the sword didn’t budge. No matter how hard she tried the blade
refused to leave the sheath. Hailey sighed, disappointed. “It’s because of
rust.”
The
younger of the girls took a piece of paper packed together with the sword and
winced.
“Gosh,
what a waste,” she said after she read the price. She looked a look at the
other information. “Country of origin: Ireland. History… let’s see… it says
here that someone killed a dragon with this piece of rust.”
May
smiled.
“A
dragon, huh? I think it was rather someone’s mother-in-law,” she commented,
putting the heavy sword aside and reached into yet another box. She opened it
with the knife and took the document with price and description of the item
while Hailey reached inside to remove the bubble wrap.
“Country
of origin: Norway. History… now that is interesting. Listen to this, Hailey,”
she read, smiling. “According to the description it’s some mystical mirror. It
is said to have the power to switch
souls of two people if they glance into the mirror at the same time. Even so, it
will only work if the people have the similar souls. I don’t quite get it.”
Hailey put a strand of her blonde hair
behind her ear.
“I think it’s like the Everett
interpretation,” she said, leaving the rest of the bubble wrap in the box.
“What?” May asked, not knowing what
Hailey meant.
“Everett's interpretation, you know,
the many-world interpretation?” Hailey looked at May expectedly, but when the
older of girls was still staring blankly
at her, she decided to give a more thorough explanation. “I guess that talking
about quantum mechanics would be pointless, so I’ll explain it to you in a more
science-fiction fashion. It’s about the parallel universes, different
dimensions, that kind of stuff. For example, in another universe you could be
born in Britain. So, if you from here and you from Britain looked into the
mirror in the same time, you would switch souls.”
“And you’d get a sister who would be
talking with a funny accent,” May said, more or less understanding. Hailey
nodded.
“Right, I think that it should work
that way. However, if it did, we could sell the mirror and buy an island,” she
said, looking with distrust at the parcel which still waited to be unpacked.
“Maybe I’ll go make a sandwich.”
May smirked, seeing her younger sister
move away from the supposedly mystical mirror.
“Are you scared that your soul will be
switched?” May teased. Hailey flushed as though she had just been caught
red-handed.
“Don’t be stupid, May!” she exclaimed,
crossing her arms on her chest and pouting childishly. “I’m not superstitious. However,
if it works, you won’t be missed, unlike me.”
May clenched her teeth, glaring at her
younger sister who, smirking mockingly, skipped to the kitchen to raid the
fridge.
“Brat,” May commented and reached for
the mirror. She removed all the bubble wrap and looked at the antique looking
glass curiously. She shook her head, amused by Hailey’s reaction. The mirror
had a strange pentagonal shape, but other than that it was perfectly normal and
non-magical.
May flipped the mirror over and
examined it. Its shape was odd; it was of a rather medium size, with a plain
wooden frame and seemingly old. May took a breath and looked at her reflection.
Of course, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. The mirror showed what
she expected to see - her own plain face staring back. The same green eyes, the
same slightly too wide nose, which wasn’t her favorite part of her face, the
same childish cheeks and the same brown hair. The same… only longer. Shocked,
May looked once more.
There was no doubt! The May that was
reflected in the mirror had long hair, much past her shoulders, though she
could not say how long exactly. The girl felt something welling up in her
stomach. The mirror reflected the sheer terror on her face. She tried to toss
out the mirror, and scream for Hailey, but her voice wouldn’t come out; her
body was frozen. She desperately tried to loosen her grip on the mirror’s
frame, but she couldn’t move them. It was either the fear that had paralyzed
her or some unknown force that didn’t want to allow her to avert her gaze from
the mirror. She couldn’t do anything as her surroundings started to blur. It
felt like the world was disappearing, or perhaps she was.
May had her gaze still fixed on the
face in the mirror, staring in horror at the same face as her own, but somehow
another’s. She observed as the reflection returned to normal, her reflection’s
hair becoming shorter, like her own. The world around her was beginning to look
more real and not so blurred anymore. May took a deep gasping breath, realizing
that she must have been holding it, and finally managed to flex her fingers.
The mirror fell on the floor. Her knees bent under, and she had to use her hands
to prevent her face from meeting ground. She gasped in shock as her long hair
fell like a curtain around her, and then she drifted into the unconsciousness,
limply falling to the floor.
Elsewhere
“Lady,” a maidservant called.
“You may come in,” a quiet, demure
voice said. The maidservant opened the door and came in, bowing deeply.
Inside sat a young noblewoman, the Lady
of the respectable Thoen family, Maewyn. She looked as if she was deep in
thought. Her long brown hair, now undone, fell softly around her reaching to
the floor as she sat on a cushion. Her green eyes had a slightly melancholic
look in them. The Lady was adorned with a multi-layered dress made of the
finest silk looking every inch of her status. She looked at the maidservant,
who was still bowing in front of her. The Lady smiled gently and told the woman
in her sweet voice to face her.
“What brings you here, Astrid?” Meawyn
asked.
The young servant gasped as she heard
her name being remembered by the Lady... The woman held out a package. Lady
Meawyn glanced at it curiously.
“What would that be?” she asked.
“My Lady,” the woman called Astrid answered. “It was
sent by lord Abrran to Lady Maewyn as a gift to commemorate the engagement.”
A blush begun to show on Lady Maewyn’s
face as, she cautiously took the package that was handed over to her. Lord
Abrran was the man she was going to marry in a matter of weeks; the man to whom
she would pledge loyalty and love; the man who would become the father of her
children. Her destiny, her everything. She couldn’t wait to be married to him.
That was the purpose of her life – to become the wife of such a powerful man,
and she would more than glad to accept it.
Maewyn held the package closest to her
heart, wondering what gift her beloved Lord had sent her. Her heart was beating
faster as the maidservant took her leave. Once the servants were dismissed for
the night, she stood up and sat on the edge of the large bed, anticipating to
see the gift.
The Lady began to unwrap the package.
Inside was a plain-looking mirror. Maewyn was a bit disappointed but told
herself that the gift was given from the bottom of the heart, so it shouldn’t
be judged. She held the mirror in front of her face, glancing at her own
reflection. Suddenly, the Lady stiffened. It was not her reflection. From the
mirror, another person was looking at her. She had her face, but she was not
here. The other one had noticeably shorter hair, like some village girl, not
the knee-length Lady’s tresses, and she didn’t have the royal air about her,
like Maewyn.
“Lord Abrran,” the Lady whispered,
horrified, “Why would you send me a demon sealed in a mirror? Why?”
That was Maewyn’s last thought before
she slipped into unconsciousness.
