SPECIAL PROPER MAGIC: Chapter 8
Chapter Eight: The Mirror
“The mirror crack’d from side to side; “The curse is come upon me,” cried The Lady of Shalott.”
—Alfred Lord Tennyson
Adrian found himself standing alone in Ethan’s bedroom, quite disoriented. He had been facing the mirror but now it was...gone?
He blinked and realised he had somehow got turned around; the mirror was now at his back.
But that wasn’t all. The room was somehow wrong; it made him feel dizzy even as he looked around at it.
And then it came to him: Of course. Everything in here is in reverse—mirrored. It only makes sense if—
—if I’m now on the other side of the mirror, he realised.
He took a deep breath and tried not to panic. It’s no problem, he thought, Holly is just on the other side and she can help figure this out.
Even as he thought it, Holly suddenly appeared beside him, gasping as if she had just been running. “Adrian! Oh jeez. Oh wow. You just disappeared and I didn’t know what to do so I just put my hand on the mirror and then I felt this pulling and I fell forward and I thought I was going to fall but then here you are and—”
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Adrian said and hugged her. “We’re both all right. We’re okay.”
Holly took a moment to catch her breath. “Okay. Just… wow. Don’t ever go and just touch something creepy again, okay? You never know what could happen.”
Adrian looked around ruefully. “Well, I know one thing that can happen.”
“Right,” Holly agreed, looking around. “Everything’s backward. We must be on the other side of the mirror.”
“Exactly my thought. Can we get back?” Adrian asked.
“We should be able to, if we just touch the—” Holly reached out and placed her hand flat against the cold glass of the mirror.
Nothing happened.
