Mirror Mirror Part 5 of 7
Mirror Mirror is spread over seven chapers and a new chapter released every Friday.
Apologies this one is a couple of days late :)
This is chapter five, click here to read chapter 1
Roger Hartington loved his wife Melanie with an old fashioned fervour straight out of a black and white movie. He hung on her every word, much to her annoyance at times, and would have died rather than see her distressed. If the mirror was causing her unhappiness it would have to go, much as he liked it himself. Whilst she was out the following morning he duly took it down from the wall, packaged it up and transported it to the very same emporium from which it had been originally purchased. He did not, of course, obtain the price which they had paid for it, but the shortfall was acceptable compared to the relief which his wife would surely feel when she saw that it had gone. Thus buoyed up by an altruistic feeling he made his way back home to await the grateful thanks which would come his way. Melanie was there when he arrived, and in a state of considerable agitation.
“Roger, we’ve been burgled. The mirror’s gone. I’ve checked all around but it appears to be the only thing that’s missing. We must call the police immediately.”
“Steady on, Mel. There’s no robbery. I took it back to the dealer as you were unhappy with it.”
“Unhappy, what on earth gave you that idea?”
“Well, you said so yourself yesterday remember? You were upset about something and called it ugly and old and said you’d be glad when it was gone.”
The full realisation of what she had done now hit Melanie like a brick wall and she slumped down on to the sofa with her head in her hands. Roger was all comfort and compassion but could get no sense out of his wife at first. It was only when the floods of tears had subsided that any sense at all came out of her mouth, and even then he could hardly believe the story which she told him.
They would have to go back once more to the dealer and retrieve the mirror to stand any chance of Pauline returning to them, she said. Roger, although still not entirely sure of why he was doing it, put on his coat as his wife headed for the door with their car keys clutched firmly in her hand. The drive took them over an hour through rush hour traffic and the shop was closed for lunch by the time they arrived. There was nothing left but to sit and wait.
Pauline and the rest of her fellow ‘prisoners’ had been standing before their side of the mirror in anticipation of freedom for quite some time when the covers finally came off the parcel which Roger had so carefully packed. The site which greeted them was not the one for which they had prepared. Maria voiced their concerns amid the stunned silence.
“We’re back at the sale room. Something is wrong. Where is your daughter?”
“I… I… I’ve no idea” Pauline was practically dumbstruck.
“We must convince her to break the glass somehow, or we’ll be trapped forever. We are so close.”
None of them had seen Roger remove the mirror and transport it back there, and it was only now that the owner was alone that they could see what was happening. As new purchaser he would be able to carry out the task if only they could convince him, but with customers in and out of the shop all the time the chances were few and far between. Eventually he put on his coat, turned the door sign to ‘Closed’ and left for lunch.
By the time Melanie and Roger returned to the shop after lunch, the mirror which they had both seen hanging on the left hand wall was no longer there. Enquiries with the owner revealed that it had been sold immediately after lunch just moments before their return. The man sympathised with them and took pity at the edited story which they related concerning the mirror and the ‘object’ which they said was attached to the back lining. He gave then the name and address of the lady who had bought it and they set off in hot pursuit.
Arriving at the address on the note given to them by the shop owner, their approach up the gravelled path was halted abruptly by a high pitched scream emanating from inside the house. Roger’s uninvited entry via the front door coincided with the flight of a terrified form travelling in the opposite direction. Their collision elicited a renewed cry from the unfortunate woman now lying on the floor of the hallway and clutching the sides of her face as she fought to regain control of the situation. Shrinking back from Roger’s outstretched hand, her head rocked from side to side as if in denial of what she had just seen and her entire body was shaking like a leaf in an autumn gale. He pulled back and she pointed with a waving finger in the direction of the door to the right, which he assumed to be the lounge. One glance inside was enough to confirm that the object of their visit was now hanging on the wall just above the fireplace.
Melanie had been standing at the door whilst the drama unfolded, but now crouched at the woman’s side with her arm around a shaking pair of shoulders. Eyes goggling in terror looked up into her own, as brain and mouth struggled to reveal anything of meaning to the rescuers. Roger returned to their side.
“In there is it?” The question from Melanie was more a statement than anything else, and he nodded. She turned to woman, now sitting with arms pulled around her legs and pressed tightly up against the hallway wall.
“Mrs Colmore?”
Daphne Colmore stopped shaking, surprised that this stranger knew her name. She looked at the couple and smiled faintly and nervously. A stream of incoherence spilled from her lips as Melanie help up one hand to halt the flow.
“Listen to me. We know what you have seen in the mirror. You aren’t crazy and it’s not going to harm you, but you must believe what I’m about to say. There are a number of people whose fate is in your hands and you’re going to have to be strong.”
Daphne looked in puzzlement into the faces of her rescuers. Surely they were not going to ask her to go back into that room. She started to shake her head; it was a reflex action triggered by something approaching self-preservation and spurred into a gallop by abject fear.
“No! Don’t ask me to go back in there. Please don’t do that.”
Melanie and Roger outlined the circumstances of the history of the mirror and the people trapped behind its reflective façade. As purchaser in good faith it was she and she alone would have the power to release Pauline and her friends from their incarceration. However at the end of the narrative Daphne was adamant at not returning to the room, and Pauline’s fate seemed sealed.
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