by Valy
Sure, they didn’t remember who they were. And yes, they were going to die when the time ran out. But for now, they had names. Names that they loved and fit them as individuals. And that made them feel like they could take on the world.
So once Marie explained the concept of Christmas to Noelle, which made her want the name, even more, they took off to complete their quest. They were going to find the missing person.
Marie had already gone over the beach and the forest. But there was so much ground to cover with the landfills that she hadn’t seen everything yet.
“Okay, we can split up. So, we can cover more ground faster”, Marie proposed.
“Oh, so you can leave me again and I never find you. Two words. No. Way.”, Noelle joked.
“Fine, fine. That’s fair. Let’s just try to cover ground fast”, Marie groaned.
The two girls had covered about a mile of ground in the past two hours yet there was nothing out of the ordinary.
“I’m hungry Marie. Can we please take a break?”, Noelle asked out of breath. She had just spent the last thirty minutes attempting to climb the landfills.
“Sure, Ella- I mean Noelle. Sorry, it’s going to take some time to get used to that”, Marie laughed.
“Same here, Marie. But please, I don’t want any fruit, I’m sick of it. I want real food”, Noelle whined.
“You only ate it once! But fine, would seafood satisfy your needs?”. To which Noelle responded with a quick nod.
“One question though, what’s seafood?”, Noelle asked.
“Ugh, let’s go. I’ll show you”.
Survival is for the fittest. And if anyone was fit; it was Marie. She didn’t think she was this fit in real life but in this reality, she was like a survival master. She had the strength and the knowledge to survive on this island. She knew how to find and get her food. She had built her own fishing pole. With a literal stick, dental floss, a metal hook and some homemade bait. Miraculously, it works.
Noelle sat down and watched Marie do everything. Amazed at everything she was capable of doing. Marie caught two fishes with her miracle fishing rod. She even knew how to make a trap for shrimp and knew where to place it.
“How did you say the pretty fishes were called?”, Noelle yelled out.
“Rainbow trout and they’re delicious”, Marie responded.
Marie prepared the fish so they would be ready to cook. She basically had to take out its guts.
“You’re murdering the fish!”, Noelle yelled out, horrified.
“It was already dead, Noelle. I’m just cleaning it up so we can eat it”, Marie tried to reassure Noelle. But it took a long time to convince her that the fish was in a better place.
After Marie had finished, they both headed towards the forest. When Marie first had woken up, she walked around and found a little cabin in the forest. Now usually, when you find a little cabin in the woods, or in this case a forest, it’s usually a horror story. But the little cabin was cute. It was covered with mahogany wood. It was mostly empty, so it didn’t have a bed or a living room. But at least it had a working restroom and a little stove.
Praise the Lord, Noelle would never have to pee in the ocean again.
The little cabin came really handy in situations like this. Of course, with all the lost things, Marie had managed to find some pans. So, she would have no problem cooking the fish and shrimp.
Which left Noelle unoccupied and bored. So, she appreciated the time and explored every feature of the cabin.
“Marie there’s a loose floorboard in here”, Noelle yelled from inside the empty bedroom.
“Leave it alone Noelle”, Marie impatiently replied, wanting to get back to her cooking. For a couple of minutes, it was silent, and Marie enjoyed it for a change. But knowing Noelle better, Marie knew it was too good to be true.
“Hey, Noelle? You good?”, Marie asked trying to hide her worry.
“Noelle?”, she asked louder this time. She turned off the stove and rushed into the bedroom. Where she was relieved to see Noelle, still sitting near the floorboard shocked.
When she took her attention to the floorboard, she could see Noelle had taken it off. And not only one, but she had taken a couple off. Noelle was so shocked that she couldn't even respond because there was something underneath. There was a tiny door.
After snapping out of it, Noelle’s small hand quickly reached the doorknob on the door trying to twist it open.
“Wait, no! Noelle, we don’t know what’s under there”, Marie warned her, but Noelle ignored the comment. Noelle quickly opened the door before Marie could stop her.
“We’ll never know unless we see”, Noelle flashed a dangerous smile at Marie.
Noelle was adventurous but she had no idea what she was getting into. She pushed her body through the small hole that the door had provided.
“Ooh, there’s stairs. Nice”, Noelle commented as she went down.
Noelle walked down the stairs and struggled to find a light. But once she did, she finally got to see what the door withheld.
It was a dirty tiny basement. It looked dusty and there were spiderwebs everywhere. The walls were filled with mold, which totally ruined the vintage-like paint bad the way. All the excitement was for nothing.
“There’s just a junk down here too. You can come down scary cat”, Noelle teased. Marie noticed she had just been standing there that whole time, so she quickly went through the hole and joined Noelle.
“Wow this is a huge basement”, Marie noticed. It was filled with things that you could buy at an antique store.
“Okay, we looked. Happy? Now, let’s go. This room is giving me the creeps”, Marie grabbed Noelle. But Noelle loosened out of Marie’s grip and took one last look around. Trying to find something interesting to explore.
“But everything is so pretty in here. Please, let’s just look”, Noelle gave Marie her very effective puppy dog eyes. To which, Marie just shrugged.
It took Noelle a second, but she spotted a mirror. She was dying to see what she looked like.
“Oh, look! There’s a mirror over there! Let me take a look at myself”, Noelle ran towards the mirror and Marie grumpily followed.
But instead of seeing her reflection, Noelle saw something different. She saw someone but she was positive it wasn’t her. This girl’s hair was straighter than hers and her skin tone was way lighter. It certainly wasn’t Marie either.
Marie jumped back in surprise while Noelle just stared at the girl astonished.
“Who’s she? Is she a picture?”, Marie tapped on the glass. Testing if this was just an illusion.
Suddenly, the girl in the mirror waved her hand. She seemed friendly and certainly seemed real. Noelle was just so happy to have found someone new. This could be the third person. But Marie was scared out of her mind. She was convinced this was some kind of demon.
“You’re pretty”, Noelle smiled at the girl in the mirror.
And she was. She had sharp features that were stunning. She had the longest and darkest brown hair. And her eyes were pretty dark too, but they had this sparkle in them.
Noelle’s thoughts were interrupted when Marie took the next turn to speak. “Who are you?”.
After a couple of seconds of silence, the girl finally introduced herself.
“I’m Nora”.
PART THREE
the countdown
“Coming together is a beginning;
keeping together is progress;
working together is success.”
Henry Ford
I
The two girls were expecting answers out of Nora.
But Nora had none. Nora could tell that they were waiting for a better answer. Not just her name. But that’s all she was able to tell them.
“Okay, Nora. What are you doing here? Are you in the mirror?”, the blonde one asked.
Again, relief washed over Nora, as she was able to open her mouth and speak, “I’m actually not sure what I am doing here. And am I
in the mirror? What do you mean? How does it look out there for you guys?”
The blonde girl’s eyebrows knotted up in confusion. “Well from out here it looks like you were inside the actual mirror. What is it like in there?”, she questioned.
What was this? An interrogatory?
Nora felt this need to answer her question and she wasn’t sure why. Almost like if they were the master and Nora was the puppet. Like if Nora had to do whatever they told her to and answer whatever they wanted to be answered.
But Nora ignored the need, and instead of answering, she used her ability to speak at the moment to ask a question of her own.
“Before I keep answering your questions- I don’t even know who you guys are”.
The little one’s eyes lit up and she took the lead. “Oh, that’s right. Where are our manners? Well my name is Noelle and her name is Marie”, her brown curls bounced as she talked.
“Marie and Noelle”, Nora repeated. Just processing the names.
“Okay, now you answer my question. What do you see in there?”, the one called Marie asked Nora, again in that rude tone. Nora wasn’t sure she liked this Marie. She liked Noelle much better.
At first, Nora wanted to respond in the same rude tone or come up with some sassy comeback, but she realized that it wouldn’t be a smart idea. Nora needed help and if those two girls left her, she would probably never have another chance like this. So even if this Marie was rude, Nora would just have to kill her with kindness.
“Well, all I can see in here is a room. I’m inside a room but there’s no doors or windows. Or any way out”, Nora explained.
“So, it’s just a room without anything inside?”, Marie asked, confused.
“Well it has a chair- it’s very old looking but it’s actually pretty comfy. And there are pictures on the walls. But I don’t know of who. All of the faces in the pictures were scratched off”, Nora looked around making sure she didn’t miss anything.
“Oh, and a mirror, of course. Which is how I’m seeing you guys”, Nora finished, trying to sound as friendly as possible.
“So, to you, it looks like we are the ones in a mirror?”, Marie asked.
“Yes, to me it looks like you two are the ones in the mirror”
The two girls started muttering to themselves, leaving Nora out. Making her feel quite awkward. Nora wanted to ask what was out there and how they had gotten here. But again, she was incapable of speaking.
“You think she’s the third person? The one that was missing?”, Noelle whispered to Marie.
“Maybe, but then it wouldn’t make sense. She couldn’t be the key to getting out from inside a mirror”, Marie whispered back harshly.
Nora wanted to ask. What did they mean? What missing person? And how could Nora possibly be the key to getting out? Getting out of what? The mirror?
What did it all mean?
But since they were talking to themselves, and not to Nora, she couldn’t participate in the conversation. She could only speak if she was spoken to and she had no idea why.
Did they just forget Nora was there? They just kept talking to each other about nonsense.
“Nora, would you like us to get you out?”, Marie asked, this time nicely. As if her attitude would have completely changed with Nora. Like if they were suddenly friends.
Nora wanted to ask a million questions of her own, but her instinct to answer the question she was asked, got the better of her, “How could you guys get me out?”
“We were thinking that if we break the mirror- it would connect our two worlds. And you could just come out of there”, Noelle proposed, and Marie nodded agreeing.
That was the stupidest idea Nora had ever heard.
Nora opened her mouth to kindly tell them that it probably wouldn’t work. But she felt this urge to make them happy.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea”, Nora smiled at them. She didn't mean to say that. She was going to say the opposite actually. The words just flew out of her mouth. She tried to clear up what she meant, but her mouth wouldn’t open.
Both girls smiled, excited about the idea. “Okay, we will be right back Nora. We promise we’ll explain everything when we get you out of there”, Noelle rejoiced and waved goodbye. And just like that, they were gone.
Oh, no. What had she done?
They were going to break her mirror. And yes, maybe they were correct, and it was the way out of that room. But Nora didn’t honestly think so. It seemed too good to be true. She had a gut feeling that this would only make things worse.
The girls took longer than Nora thought but they did come back as they promised.
“Sorry, we took so long Nora. We had to eat something. We ate this amazing fish. Wow, it was so great- Wait, have you eaten anything Nora?”, Noelle asked as she approached the mirror again.
“No. I actually haven’t felt hunger in here”, Nora responded, shrugging it off.
That was strange but Noelle and Marie ignored it. “Well don’t worry, I left you some fish so you can eat once we get you out”, Marie tried to cheer her on. When Marie approached the mirror, Nora noticed she was holding an object unknown to her. Nora pointed to it curiously and Marie understood the unspoken question.
“Oh, this? This is a hammer. It will break the glass”, Marie explained.
“Okay, you ready Nora?”, Noelle asked. Nora just nodded slowly.
“Okay step aside Nora. We don’t know what’s going to happen so it’s better that you’re at a safe distance”, Marie warned Nora, getting into position. Nora followed her instructions and went to the opposite corner of the room.
“Okay three, two-” Marie started but a terrible ringing in Nora’s ears interrupted her.
Nora threw herself to the ground. Her ears were on fire. Like if the glass would have gone straight into her ears. The high-pitched sound wouldn’t go away. It felt as if she had gone through an explosion. Nora tried to soothe her ears with her hands. But as soon as she touched them, they were wet. She looked at her hands and they were red. Blood.
But she wasn’t bleeding because of the glass, she was bleeding because of how her ears were impacted. She looked up to see if it had worked. And it definitely had. There was glass everywhere.
Regardless of her pain, she struggled to get up and see if she could go through the mirror. The frame of the mirror was still there, and the glass was now all over the floor. But the empty space was now just ordinary an wall.
No, this couldn’t be happening.
She knew it, the mirror wasn’t some portal. It was just a mirror. And now that it was shattered; that’s all it was. A shattered mirror. Nora took the frame off the wall still clinging on to some hope. But it was just the same greenish wall that she had grown to despise. She launched herself at the ground, desperately looking through the shards of glass. She couldn’t help but cry as she looked through them. They weren’t the same, they were different. She couldn’t see Noelle and Marie anymore.
Instead, she saw a girl with bloodshot eyes and blood oozing out of her ears. With long dark hair and the palest skin. Nora’s eyes widened and so did the eyes of the girl in the broken piece of glass.
It was her. It was Nora.
She had lost the only link she had to the outside world. Or whatever world that was. And now, she was in a room with no escape.
II
Nora was gone and it was their fault.
“Marie, where is she?”, Noelle asked, fear rising in her chest.
“She should’ve been able to walk through”, Marie whispered, shocked.
“But she didn’t, so what happened to her?”, Noelle asked but Marie didn’t have an answer. Marie kneeled down to pick up the pieces of glass and hopefully still see Nora.
“Marie! You’re not answering me! We broke her mirror! And now the mirror is broken, and no magic door appeared. Like if she was never there”, Noelle yelled out in frustration.
“I don’t know! I don’t know what happened. Just get down here and help m
e look for her, please”, Marie yelled back.
Noelle quietly kneeled to the ground like a scolded puppy. They both started to pick pieces but noticed the same thing. The glass shards were normal. They showed their own reflection. They couldn’t see Nora anymore.
It was the first time they had seen their own reflection. And they wished that this was a happier moment because they probably would have enjoyed it more. But the fact that they were seeing themselves and not Nora, both terrified and saddened them deeply.
Noelle had been so excited to see how she looked and now that she could, she just felt sad. It’s not because she didn’t think she was pretty. Because she did. She liked the way her brown eyes and skin matched her curly brown hair. Overall, she felt beautiful. But she would trade the feeling of beauty for the knowledge that Nora was okay.
They had just killed a girl.
“We killed her’, Nora sniffled with tears threatening to flow out.
“No, we didn’t. If she did- Wait”, Marie realized something. She quickly reached into her backpack. Marie had found a backpack on the island a couple of days ago and she carried it around everywhere. It’s where she carried basic tools she would need. Like a knife, a match and the stopwatches. She took out all three stopwatches but only two of them were working.
“This one must be hers”, Marie pointed to the one that had stopped working.
“How do you know?”, Noelle asked as she looked at the watches in wonder. This was the first time she had seen them.
“Well, this one is yours. It’s the one with the most time on it left because you’re the one who came in last”, Marie grabbed one of the stopwatches and handed it to Noelle.
“Why are you giving it to me?”, Noelle’s voice raised in pure terror. She didn’t want to have it. The thing that was counting down her time. No, thank you.
“It’s okay. Here, let me put it on you. In that way, you can keep track of it. It’s not scary, it’s just a watch”, Marie struggled to put the watch on Noelle’s rather small arm. Once she did, Noelle stared at it in awe, amazed at how valuable this object was. It wasn’t very fashionable, it was just a black watch, but it meant life or death for them.