The World Within The Mirror

• Sophie Murphy, Grade 9, Blayney High School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

I wandered slowly through the forest. It was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and I had to walk slowly, so I could navigate my way through the trees, that grew extremely close together. It was almost midnight. Finally, after walking for about an hour, I reached the clearing, dimly lit by an unknown source. There was a silver, ornate-framed mirror in the centre. I slowly walked up to it and put my hand on the mirror. It was cold to touch, almost burnt my fingers with the emptiness of it. Through the sheet of glass lay a world, full of mazes and shadows, light and glass. I wanted to visit the Reflection World again.
The last time I was there, I had ridden a Pegasus, galloped across rainbows on a unicorn, and even sat on a solid cloud. I don't know why, I hadn't gone back to the world behind the mirror. I guess it seemed too unreal, I thought I had dreamt it all. But now I wanted to go back. I stood there in the darkness, at midnight, an owl hooting in the darkness. There were trees all around me, closing me in, only a small patch of starry sky visible, behind a curtain of leaves. I was in The Clearing Of Mirrors, deep in the woods on the edge of our kingdom. This was the only mirror portal I knew existed in our entire kingdom, you had to travel for days to find another one. The moon was almost there, almost at the hole in the tree-roof. It was a full moon tonight, perfect for portal travel.
Ten more seconds…five more seconds. I readied myself, prepared myself, to jump through the glass. And… time. The full moon came out from behind a cloud, and hovered above the space in the tree's leaves, flooding the little clearing with clear, pure white light. I felt the glass beneath my hands go warm. That was the weird part, when the cold white light heated the glass, which went from almost freezing your hand off to almost burning you in seconds. This light would only last seconds before the moment passed. The glass under my hands was no longer solid. It was now a sheet of glass-like water, the curtain between this and another world. I waited for half a second longer and then I launched myself forward, through the liquid glass and into the cloudy night sky of the other world.