Dark Side Of The Mirror (Emily's War)

by R. L. Austin

  Her uncle was glaring at the mirror. “I’m going to make you pay for that.”

  She could see in his eyes that he would hurt her if he got another chance, but with her inside the mirror and him outside, she didn’t feel immediately threatened. “If you let my parents go, I’ll give you the triad and the watch, but only after I know they’re safe.”

  “You do not make demands of me.” Her uncle pressed his fist against the mirror for emphasis.

  Emily tried to ignore his attempt to intimidate her, but it was hard not to worry about her parents. They were still out there, and they were helpless. Her only consolation was that Mansel had no reason to harm them as long as they could be used as hostages.

  “That’s the only way you’re going to get them back,” Emily insisted. “My parents have to be safe. Then you can have them.”

  Mansel clenched his teeth and growled, but instead of another threat he said, “How do I know you’ll give them to me after I let them go?”

  “You’ll have to trust me, just like I was supposed to trust you,” Emily shot back.

  “Hm, you aren’t such a nice little girl after all. I won’t underestimate you again.”

  Emily smiled at the backhanded compliment. She felt like she had won a small victory, even though the battle wasn’t over.

  Mansel glanced over his shoulder at Emily’s parents. “It will take some time to wake them. Come back tomorrow at noon, and come alone.” He turned without waiting for a response and stomped away.

  The position of the mirror allowed Emily to see the entire room, and she was thankful. It would make it harder for her uncle to surprise her when she came back the next day. She pulled out the watch to see the hands had changed to 8:15. Once she was sure she had it memorized, Emily shifted back to Tyler’s bedroom and stepped from the mirror. Her legs were still shaking, so she sat on the edge of the bed and tried to calm herself enough to formulate a plan.

  Her uncle expected her to return the next day to give him the triad and watch, but she did not trust him to release her parents so easily. She needed help, and Tyler was the only one she was sure would help without trying to stop her. At least she hoped he wouldn’t.

  Emily hardly slept that night, but the long hours of staring at the ceiling gave her time to think. The next morning she found Tyler in the kitchen eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “Good morning.”

  “Hey, good morning.”

  Emily slid into the chair next to him. “I need to talk to you about something.”

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  “It needs to be in private,” she explained. “Could you come upstairs when you’re done?”

  “No problem. Just let me finish my sandwich. You want one? It’s the only thing I know how to make, but they’re good.”

  “No thanks, I’m not hungry right now. Maybe later.” Emily hadn’t eaten anything since dinner the night before, but she was too nervous to think about food.

  Tyler wolfed down the rest of his sandwich and followed Emily to his room, where he slouched on the end of the bed. “What’s up?”

  Emily settled beside him and looked in his eyes to see how he would react to what she had to say. “I have something to tell you, but you’ve got to keep it a secret.”

  The mention of a secret got Tyler’s full attention. “What is it? You can trust me.”

  “You’ve got to promise me,” Emily insisted.

  “Sure, I promise not to tell. Now what is it?”

  “I know why I haven’t heard from my parents since I got here.”

  Tyler’s mouth gaped open before he snapped it shut. “You went back to the house, didn’t you?”

  “Well, I had to find out why,” Emily tried not to sound defensive. “So yes, I went back to the house after dinner last night.”

  Tyler slapped his knee. “So that’s why you were gone so long. I should have known.”

  “You can’t tell anyone. You promised.”

  Tyler gave her a conspiratorial wink and his voice lowered to a whisper, “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t tell on you, even without the promise. By the way, did you see your parents? And what about your creep of an uncle?”

  Emily gave him a quick rundown of her near escape and the bargain she reached with her uncle. By the time she finished, Tyler was vibrating with nervous energy.

  “Your uncle is a moron.” He jumped to his feet and clenched his fists. “We should go over there and pound him until he releases your parents. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for some payback!”

  The idea had a certain appeal, but Emily stood in front of him and put her hands over his fists until they relaxed. “We can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t know what he’s done to my parents, and only he can wake them up again. We have to play his game until they’re safe.”

  “Okay, I guess you’re right.” Tyler sounded reluctant to give up the idea of pounding her uncle, but he did calm down. “So what’s the plan?”

  Emily outlined the idea she had developed the night before. “But I need to test something before we start.”

  “What’s that?”

  “My amulet released me from the doorknob or I would have been caught. It also reacted to the triad.”

  “I remember that.”

  “Before we leave, I need to run some tests, try to understand everything I can about it.”

  “What are we waiting for? Let’s do it.”

  Emily slipped the amulet necklace over her head before she touched the triad to the mirror on Tyler’s bedroom door. The triad clunked against the glass surface, and the tingling sensation intensified until she let go.

  Tyler watched closely. “Hey, your necklace turned it off.”

  “I guess it did.” She took the amulet from around her neck and tried again. This time the triad passed right through, leaving her with no visible arm below the elbow.

  “That is so cool.” Tyler touched the mirror next to her arm, but his fingers slid over the solid surface. “Still doesn’t work for me.”

  Emily pulled her hand out of the mirror and handed the triad to Tyler, along with the amulet. “Here. You put on the amulet and see what happens.”

  “Me?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  Tyler put on the necklace before he grabbed the triad and stepped up to the mirror. “Okay, here goes nothin’.” He put the triad against the mirror, and his hand sank through the surface as easily as Emily’s had. “Omigod! I did it.”

  “Do you feel anything from the amulet?” Emily was watching him closely.

  “No.”

  “I think I know what the amulet is doing.”

  “Yeah, it’s giving me magic!”

  “No, I mean I think I know how it works. It’s reversing everything. The triad normally works for me, so if I’m wearing the amulet it doesn’t work. But the triad doesn’t work for you, so the amulet reverses it and makes it work.”

  Tyler shrugged. “Sounds logical. And now both of us can use the triad, so we’ve got an advantage your uncle doesn’t know about.”

  “That’s what I was hoping for.”

  “So what are you going to try now?” He handed her the triad and amulet.

  “I want to find out if the amulet works the same way on the other side. I also need to find out if the amulet reverses how the watch works.”

  Tyler grabbed her arm. “But you’ve got to go in the mirror, and that’s risky.”

  Emily tried not to be distracted by the warmth of his hand on her skin, but her heart beat a little faster. “I know, but I have to.”

  “But you’ve never tried the amulet on other side. It could be dangerous. What if you get stuck and can’t get back?”

  “It’s a chance I’ll have to take.” Emily tried to sound confident, but she couldn’t ignore a twisted feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  Tyler’s hand slid down her arm to grab her hand. “Then I’m going too. Besides, you’ll need me to try the a
mulet.”

  Emily looked at him, intending to protest, but the bright blue of his eyes was being intensified by the morning sunshine. The longer she stared into them, the more she could feel her resolve melting like ice cubes on a hot sidewalk. With her focus slipping, she closed her eyes and gave a small shake of her head to clear her mind. “Tyler, I’m not going to risk you or anyone else until I’ve done it first. Besides, I need somebody out here in case something does go wrong.”

  “If you think there’s even a chance you’ll get stuck in there, you shouldn’t go.”

  Emily knew it was good advice, but stuck to her plan. “I’ll be careful. I promise. But if anything does go wrong, please tell my parents that I love them.”

  Tyler shook his head. “Oh, geez, you’re killing me. Why do you have to go?”

  “Because I’ve got only one chance to save my parents. That’s why. My uncle understands how these things work better than I do, and I can’t let him win because I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m too afraid to take risks. I just can’t.”

  Tyler’s shoulders slumped, and Emily knew his protest had ended. She stepped into the mirror before he could start another one. The immense hallway on the other side was unchanged, so she reached into her pocket for the amulet. When her fingers grabbed the smooth stone, everything went dark. Not the darkness of a moonless night or even a closed room, this was the total blackout of a deep cave that has never seen the tiniest glimpse of light. When she pulled her hand away from the amulet, the light returned. She touched the stone once again, to be sure, and the result was the same.

  Emily kept her fingers on the amulet and used her sense of touch to find the stem that protruded from the watch. It had always moved easily to adjust the time, but now it refused to budge. She applied as much pressure as she dared, being careful not to break it, but the stem wouldn’t move. She let go of the amulet and tried again. The hands rotated to 11:05, and the scene outside the mirror shifted to the hallway of her uncle’s house.

  She had one final test to try, and Emily arranged herself to be right in front of the mirror before she touched the amulet and everything went dark. She lifted the triad and pushed it forward until it clunked against the glass. She pulled back and tried once more, but it wouldn’t go through. Satisfied she knew how the amulet worked; Emily released it and shifted back to Tyler’s room.

  She stepped out of the mirror right into Tyler’s arms. The triad fell to the floor with a thump, and Emily let herself relax against him. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her neck, accompanied by the rise and fall of his chest against hers, and she thought it would be wonderful to stay that way forever.

  CHAPTER 8

  Tyler accepted a handwritten list from Emily that gave him the settings on the watch that corresponded to the mirrors in her uncle’s dining room, her parents’ bedroom, the hallway, and Emily’s room. He gave it a long look before he grabbed a baseball bat from the corner of his room and followed her into the mirror. Noon would not arrive for another thirty minutes, but Emily wanted to get to her uncle’s house and check on her parents before her uncle’s deadline.

  The first thing Emily noticed was a change in the view from the mirror in her parents’ bedroom. She expected to see the whole room, just like the day before, but the only thing she could see was a wall.

  Tyler leaned forward and peered through the mirror. “Is that wall supposed to be there?”

  “No, it’s not.” Emily could see a small sliver of the bedroom along the very edge of her field of view. It was enough for her to recognize what had happened. “My uncle must have opened the closet door so the mirror is facing the wall, and now we can’t see into the room.” From her limited vantage, Emily saw the toe of one of her mother’s shoes, but no more. “At least we know they’re still on the bed.”

  “Yeah, but shouldn’t they be moving? I thought he was going to wake them up,” Tyler whispered.

  Emily strained for another look. “He said he would, but he also said it would take a while. Maybe they’re still waking up.” Emily had planned to enter the room and check on them, but decided it would be foolish to step into a room she couldn’t see. Her uncle could be standing behind the door, waiting for her.

  She turned to Tyler with a look of decision. “Okay, it’s time for Plan B.”

  Emily used the watch to shift to the mirror in the rear hallway. Tyler was beside her, holding her by the arm, so she whispered, “I’m going to use the rear stairs to sneak up to their bedroom and check on them. Before I leave, I want you to make sure the watch works for you. Do you still have the list?”

  “Yep, I’ve got it. But I don’t need it, because they’re all right here.” He tapped his temple.

  “Good.”

  Tyler accepted the watch and slipped the amulet necklace over his head. When he was ready, he held one side of the triad while Emily grabbed the other. She leaned close and whispered, “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

  She was about to step into the hallway, when Tyler blurted, “Wait!”

  Emily looked back, thinking something was wrong, and got a big kiss on the lips.

  When Tyler pulled away, Emily was smiling like an idiot. “What was that for?”

  “For good luck.”

  “Wow, and thanks.” Emily was still smiling when she stepped out of the mirror and let go of the triad so Tyler pull his arm back into the mirror.

  Emily waited in the hallway until she heard Tyler’s voice. “It worked. I shifted to your parents’ room and back without any trouble.”

  “Cool, then we’re all set.”

  “Yeah, I guess. Just be careful.”

  “Don’t worry; I will.” Emily gave him a thumb’s up before she turned and walked away.

  The pelting sound of rain could be heard throughout the house as Emily climbed the rear stairs to the second floor. The steady downpour was masking any slight noises she made, so it was one time she was thankful for the wet weather. The sound of rain did nothing, however, to silence the pounding heartbeat inside her chest.

  She paused every few seconds to listen as she approached her parents’ bedroom, but she could hear nothing over the rain. When she reached her parents’ bedroom door, she pulled a rag out of her pocket and used it to grab the doorknob, just in case her uncle had set another trap. She felt no warning tingle, so she opened the door wide enough to peek inside. Her parents were awake but securely tied to the bed. They both had gags, but Jean had managed to dislodge hers.

  Emily felt relieved that her parents were safe and her uncle was upholding his end of the bargain. She was about to close the door and leave when her mother spotted her. “Emily, where have you been? I’ve been so worried about you.”

  Emily slipped inside the room and closed the door. “I had to leave because of Uncle Mansel, but I can explain.”

  “You don’t have to. The man’s gone insane,” Jean replied. “And you need to leave again, quickly, before he comes back and finds you here. He’s threatened to hurt you.”

  Her father, unable to speak because of the gag, nodded vigorously.

  Emily had intended to leave, but now that she was here she couldn’t leave them tied up and helpless. She shook her head. “No.”

  “Emily, this is no time to argue. Do what you’re told.”

  Emily had never challenged her parents’ authority, but this time she stood her ground. “I’m sorry, Mom, but the answer is no. I can’t leave you like this. We’re all getting out of here together.”

  Jean shook her head in frustration. “Why are you doing this now?”

  “Because I know what’s going on, and you don’t. You’re just going to have to trust me.”

  Her mother gave the door a worried glance. “Mansel was furious when he found out you were gone, and he kept saying you had stolen something from him.”

  Emily almost denied taking anything, but decided she wasn’t going to lie anymore. It wouldn’t be right after the mistreatment her parents had suffered becaus
e of her. They deserved to know the truth. “He’s looking for a triad and a watch,” she explained. “And, yes, I did take them.” Emily tugged at the knotted ropes that held her mother.

  “But why?”

  “Because they’re magic, and I needed them to help somebody.” It was a poor explanation, but at least it was the truth.

  The ropes that held her mother wouldn’t budge, so Emily went to the other side of the bed to try the knots holding her father. The knots were complex, and Emily tried to focus on what she was doing, but her mind was wondering how much time she had left.

  Precious minutes ticked away, but the knots simply would not come loose, no matter how hard she tugged at them. She was fighting the urge to scream in frustration when she noticed a light tingling in her fingers. Of course, the ropes are magic. She leaned over and whispered “open,” hoping her father wouldn’t hear and think she had gone as crazy as her uncle.

  She was straightening up when a noise made her spin around. Her uncle was standing in the open door, pointing a hollow tube at her. It was slightly thicker than a straw, making her think it was some sort of wand.

  Mansel gave her a smile that held no humor. “I thought you might try this sort of trick. Step away from the bed and tell me where you’ve hidden my things.” He waved the tube, as if in warning. “And no more tricks, because I will use this.”

  In any other circumstance it would have looked comical, and Emily wasn’t sure if the implied threat was real. “What is it?”

  In answer, her uncle pointed the tube at the ceiling, and a small explosion blasted chunks of plaster that fell at his feet. It was a gun, but unlike anything Emily had seen or heard of. A magic gun.

  Her uncle pointed the weapon at her again. “I’m warning you, I will shoot.”

  “Mansel, you wouldn’t.” Emily’s mother strained against her ropes, but they remained secure.

  “I’m sorry, Jean.” His expression softened, but only for a second before it hardened again. “But you wouldn’t understand.”