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Imperfect Reflections

Maggie smiled at herself the wardrobe's full length mirror, and the mirror smiled back.

It took the calico feline a few moments to process what she had seen. The fact that her reflection hadn't smiled with her, but rather had responded to her smile with one of its own.

By the time she realised the truth, a hand was already reaching out through the glass. A hand with the same markings as hers. The same fingers as hers. The same claws as hers, digging into her wrist, clutching tightly, using her fear and pain to help pull itself free from the swirling, rippling glass.

Before long there were two Maggies standing in the woman's bedroom, eyes fixed upon one another; one pair filled with tears and fright, the other with absolute glee.

"Oh, Maggie... thank you so much."

The mirror-Maggie sneered as she addressed her counterpart, digging her claws deeper into the cat's arm as Maggie began to scream, to wail and sob frantically as she fought with all her strength to break free from her doppleganger's grasp. As she pulled, the wounds in her forearm were torn further open. Wider. Deeper. Before Maggie's eyes, identical wounds tore open in the flesh of the mirrored feline's arm, despite no claws being present to create them. The mirror image just licked her lips, groaning in almost sexualised pleasure.

"No no no... oh god. Oh god no."

The cat stumbled backwards as her cruelly grinning counterpart finally released her. She collapsed on all fours, her face very nearly slamming headlong into the carpet as her wounded arm failed to support her weight. Slowly she scrambled back to her feet, leaning against the bedroom wall for support, and made a break for the bedroom door.

She pulled the door open, and was about to dash out into the upstairs hallway when she saw it. Standing on the landing, mounted on a pine frame in one corner. Another mirror, and in it, another reflection; running towards the mirror even though she herself had frozen in terror. It leapt at the glass, and passed through like someone leaping through a paper-thin sheet of running water.

The new reflection stood before the staircase, blocking Maggie's path. A second later, a strong pair of clawed hands wrapped around Maggie's neck from behind; claw-tips prickling at the flesh of her throat, and a painfully familiar voice whispered in her ear as the second reflection strode towards the first and their shared captive.

"No point in running. How many mirrors... how many windows. How many puddles lie between you and somewhere safe?"

Maggie didn't know what to say. Didn't know what to do. Already she was broken. Already she was as good as dead in her mind. In the past few minutes, her whole world had been torn down from the foundations; the very basic elements of what she knew to be physically possible. How was she supposed to react, how was she supposed to save herself when for all she knew, up might suddenly be down and black might suddenly be white.

"Please. Please."

She begged. Senselessly, but not knowing what else she could possibly do. Already she could feel the wet heat of her own urine soaking down the legs of her jeans. This was no time for bravery, no movie-like dream in which she could be a hero and rescue herself from these impossible circumstances, or even the kind of nightmare where realising that fact might snap her back to wakefulness. This felt as real as any moment of Maggie's life to date, and that fact made her feel all the more hopelessly defeated.

Before and behind her, the two mirror-born versions of Maggie laughed at the original's pleading cries.

"Please?!"

The one in front of her snorted, mockingly, while the cat whose hands were still wrapped around her neck tightened her grip; enough to stifle any further exclamations for mercy.

"What the fuck do you think is going to happen, Maggie? That you're gonna say please and we're gonna let you go? That we're going to suddenly realise that we're being frightfully rude, and take you out for a coffee before we get back to the business at hand?"

Swinging out with the back of one palm, the cat standing before the sobbing, whimpering feline slapped Maggie hard across the face. At that exact moment, the version of Maggie behind her original self let go of the calico cat's neck; allowing her to be knocked to the floor by the force of the blow. Blindly, running on pure adrenaline, Maggie crawled forwards. Towards what she hoped would be the stairs, and any potential chance of escape she had.

A bare foot, just like her own, kicked her in the gut. It knocked the wind from the cat, and the follow up blow made something crack in the female's chest. She screamed, clutching at her midsection, and fell helplessly onto her side.

"N-no..."

She moaned in anguish, staring up at the two versions of herself standing over her.

"Why? Why are you doing this?! What the fuck is happening?"

The two reflections paused, looked at one another, and smiled. They turned their gaze back down towards their progenitor, and one of the pair answered with a simple shrug of her shoulders.

"It's quite simple. We thought maybe you'd be smart enough to figure it out. You're being punished, Maggie. Punished for all the things you've done wrong."

Unable to move, paralysed by pain and fear, Maggie could only stare in dismay at her dopplegangers.

"Punished? W-what?! What are you? Some sort of demons? Something from hell, s-sent to deliver god's justice?"

The two mirror-Maggies howled with laughter at that last part, and with a wry smile one of the pair delivered another swift kick to the calico cat's gut. Maggie began to vomit, a mixture of bile, her last meal and a little blood. Nonetheless, she still couldn't escape hearing the words being spoken in her voice, by a creature that was simultaneously both her, and obviously not her.

"This has nothing to do with religion. And it sure as hell isn't about justice."

The first reflection fell silent, and the second one picked up where she left off.

"If this was about justice... if this was about doing the right thing, we would have stopped you. We never would have let you do what you did."

Maggie's eyes bulged.

"W-what I..."

Her voice trailed off. Her tears, though still flowing freely, became silent as her sobbing ceased. Her expression suddenly became cold and intense.

"...h-how could you know about that?"

The two reflections stared down at Maggie, eyes now burning not with sadistic glee, but with cold, venomous hatred.

"That's your question? You don't deny it. Don't even pretend not to know what we're talking about. You just ask... how we know?"

More figures began to crowd into the hallway. Not physical copies of Maggie like the two standing before the fallen feline now, but shadows. Echoes and outlines of unrecognisable figures, hanging in the air.

"We know because we were there. We were there for every second of it. We did it. Don't you see, Maggie? This isn't some illusion. It's not a trick. We're you. That's how we know."

One of the shadows stepped forward. Between the two reflections of Maggie. They each reached out, and put a hand upon one of its shoulders.

"He was our brother, Maggie. Our little brother. Sure, he was annoying sometimes. He pestered you when all you wanted to do was be alone or hang out with your friends in your room. But guess what, Maggie. Millions of teenagers all over the world have to deal with kid siblings. They make do. They suck it up and deal with it."

The two reflections looked down at the shadow, ashamed and sad beyond comprehension.

"They don't kill them. Don't murder an innocent child. Don't slaughter their own baby brother, and hide him away, and simply let the whole world think he went missing. Let their parents grieve... but worse, let them hope. That one day he might come back. That one day, he might be found safe and well."

From where she lay on the ground, Maggie groaned in horror. To this day, she'd never heard anyone, not even herself, say it out loud. Without having that confirmation, it was almost possible for her to forget about it. To believe that it had never happened.

But now, just like all of this, it was real.

"Five years is a long time Maggie. A long time for a conscience to bear such a terrible weight."

The reflections looked at their fallen progenitor, taking turns in speaking before joining into one unified voice

"Time enough for cracks to appear."

"Time enough for those cracks to grow, and spread, and splinter into shards of glass."

"Time enough to let the guilt build up... not enough to drive someone mad. But perhaps just long enough to drive someone sane."

"And what sane person, could live with the knowledge that they'd done such a horrible thing?"

***************

Blood pooled on the upstairs landing, a trail of broken glass leading out of her childhood bedroom to where Maggie lay.

In one hand, she clutched at the shard of glass she'd used to slice her wrist open to the bone. In the other, the note. The confession that would explain why she was doing this, and why no-one should grieve once it was over.

And it was. At last.

No justice to be found.

No way to right the wrong that had been done to her brother, and her whole family.

But an ending, however tragic, at long last.

By Jeeves