Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Missing image
MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL1

In a small dank basement room beneath all the ruckus of the New York Institute of Technology the two men huddled, one with his hands covering and rubbing his face. Hair mussed. The other staring at him, pointing to a diagram he was holding.2

“I tell you it makes sense,” he said. “It’s got to work, because the numbers work. Why can’t we give it a try? What’s to lose?”3

The man who had been rubbing his face ran his fingers through his mousy hair.4

“What’s to lose is time, time and face. This is silly, Harold. You’ve spent too much time on this already. I’m telling you, I simply can’t do it. The administration won’t allow it.” He picked up the wax paper holding the remains of his lunch and folded it over his half eaten chicken salad sandwich, stuffing it back into the brown paper bag. “Now I’ve seen your idea, I’ve given you my opinion…”5

“But you are the administration, Isaiah. They’ll do whatever you say; whatever you recommend!” There was a moment’s pause. “Just get me the equipment then,” said Harold. “You won’t have to take part in the experiment. All I need now is another two mirrors and the recorders. Come on, Isaiah. It won’t be any trouble for you….None at all!”6

“It isn’t the mirrors or the electronics, Harold. It’s the support, your salary, keeping you on the faculty.”7

“What? What do mean, Isaiah? I have tenure here. They can't let me go!”8

Isaiah pulled his gleaming gold pocket watch from his vest and glowered at the time. “It’s getting late,” he said. “Really, Harold, we’ve discussed this before. I have a meeting. I have to go.”9

“I’ve given years to this university, Isaiah. It’s time for them to give back. I’m not asking for much. I won’t be treated like this. Please….” Harold held his hands out in entreaty. 10

“I’ll speak to you tomorrow, Harold, tomorrow.” Isaiah turned to exit the heavy door of the small basement hovel. It slammed behind him, leaving Harold to himself.11

He looked into the new mirror he had purchased for his experiments. His gaunt reflection stared back. The mirror was too new. It would do for part of the project but he would eventually need something larger…older. He lifted his gaze toward the sound system’s speakers; sensitive enough, but not an integral part of what he had in mind. Not yet. For now, it was the mirrors that concerned him. Harold sealed the cracks around the door and pulled the black shade over the little dusty basement window which led into nothing better lit than a subterranean closet. Then he doused the light. Blackness. Harold stood quietly for a moment, then tried to see his own hand. He could not.12

They wouldn’t believe him, but Harold knew that if one could achieve total darkness but still get the surface of a mirror to emit light…but never mind. They wouldn’t listen. No one had ever done it before. The secret lay in the use of two reflective surfaces, exactly positioned. They hadn’t used two mirrors. It was a reverberation principle. Each of the facing mirrors would reflect the image off the other, intensifying what little light there was; magnifying it! It would be old light. Trapped light! The key, Harold thought to himself, was that not all the light off old images was reflected. Some of the image’s light was seized, trapped in the mirror. The light, now, would be coming from within the mirror; from its depths. And there was no telling what that would reveal. Foolish people, thought Harold. They don’t understand. They cannot fathom the significance of my work.13

When Isaiah returned the next day there was a musty odor about the small room. And it was dark.14

“Harold? Are you here, Harold?”15

There was no answer.16

“Harold?” cried Isaiah. “It’s me. I brought you some coffee.”17

Isaiah detected a slight movement in the corner where light had trickled in from behind the open door. Harold bounded up, off his little stool.18

“Isaiah,” he said, in a chilling whisper, "you know String Theory: the tiniest particles…the building blocks of all matter…so-called strings? Nothing more than vibrations? Cannot be halved? Cannot be reduced? Nonsense, Isaiah! How can they reflect light if they are smaller than light particles? They are larger than light particles! Photons are the building blocks! It is light itself that we are created from. Light is the essence of it all. The Bible, Isaiah. The Bible! Let there be Light! This…is our very essence!”19

Isaiah removed the lids from the cardboard coffee containers and walked toward Harold. “You’ve been working hard, Harold. Have some of this. I can get us some lunch if you like.”20

“You don’t understand Isaiah. All those years I spent studying holograms. The same image over and over, whole, intact, no matter how many pieces it is broken into! The answer to it all is in the light. All of it need not be reflected. Some remains caught. Trapped in the mirrors. It is our essence, the essence of all things… and I can get it out! We can see it. Think of it Isaiah. Light from the ages! Images that would have been forever lost captured in the glass…but now, we can extract them! The dead can be resurrected!”21

Isaiah held the coffee out to Harold who did not seem to see him.22

“Isaiah, take a simple hologram and break it in two…in three pieces. What do you have? Three identical, intact holograms. Break each one of them, what do you have? More complete holograms. Replication! They cannot be divided. The light cannot be halved. A basic particle, an essential building block cannot be halved…cannot be reduced. And the particles of light that are trapped in these mirrors are whole…! Like holograms. And we shall see, we shall bring into being, the whole image!”23

“Harold,” said Isaiah, “take the coffee. Let me get you some lunch. You’ve been hard at it.”24

“No Isaiah. I want you to understand first. Like the sound waves and the images we send into space…they go on and on, Isaiah…for eternity!It’s conservation of energy. Bits of light that never die…are never lost! They remain in the glass…forever; until I will extract them! It starts with the light already in the glass…. It is reflected into the other mirror…and picked up, intensified by the first, and on and on, until we see it for what it is. The entire image! I won’t let them stop my work, Isaiah! I can’t let them!”25

“You don’t have to, Harold. I’ll help you. Listen to me,” Isaiah took out his gold watch. The mirror caught the image. “It’s getting late, let me go and get us something. I won’t be a few moments.”26

“No, Isaiah.” Harold lifted the heavy lamp by his side and struck Isaiah with its bronze base. Isaiah fell, the burning coffee airborne for an instant, then splashing down on his tweed jacket. “No Isaiah, you aren’t going anywhere anymore.”27

Harold dragged Isaiah’s limp corpse outside the basement room door that stood ajar and down to the cellar furnace. With no little difficulty he opened the furnace door and sat Isaiah on the edge. Then he pushed his body into the oven’s white hot flames. With a final twist of his shoe and leg, he shoved Isaiah into the blaze and shut the small cast iron hatch to the furnace.28

Back in his cellar hovel, Harold closed the door and knelt down to mop up the spilled coffee and the droplets of Isaiah’s blood. It was then, from his speakers he heard a sound. The reverberation units had been set up to detect sound from the mirrors…if that were to come to pass. At first indiscernible, the sound became clearer: “It’s getting late.”29

Harold looked up. It was then he saw the gleam in the mirror. The speakers sounded louder still. “It’s getting late!”30

The gleam in the mirror was suddenly more than light…it was Isaiah’s gold pocket watch! And the face behind it mouthed the words: “It’s getting late!”31

Harold stood. He faced the long mirror. “No, you can’t,” he said…"you won’t stop me.” He lunged at the image in the glass with the base of his lamp which was still within his reach. The mirror shattered, fragments darting and lacerating, cutting, leaving shards of glass strewn all about the dark room. 32

Each piece of glass bore the full image of a man holding a gold watch…until the light from the open door filtered in and vanquished it. The phrase on the speakers became an intolerable squawk as the images faded, bound for eternity…while Harold’s sliced and bleeding body lay amid the shards, thinking, “it’s getting late.... It's getting late."33

Author notes

For Blue..."Just Another Psycho" OPTION #4
Favored article of clothing: Silk Breast-Pocket Handkerchief

A contest entry

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Comments

1 - 30 of 68     1 2 3  next >  (show all)

  • Inkling
    November 13

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    Awesome story. Psycho much? ^-^ Nicely written and original. Good luck in the contest!


  • dreaminwriter
    November 3
    Edit | Reply
    applause!!! it kept me interested all the way through well done!
    thanks for entering!


  • Olinda
    October 19
    Edit | Reply
    whoah.. thi is disturbing... but its really good. the picture gives a kinda creepy look hehe


  • LivingDeath-Mia silver member
    October 12

    Edit | Reply
    Heh what a psychopath!! Hmm this wasn't all that scary though, sorry to say. But if it wasn't for the contest, I'd say I loved this! It was descriptive awesomeness. But for the contest, hmmm. You'll have to think about that.

    Good luck!!


  • Raeyle
    October 5

    Edit | Reply
    Wow. The ending totally blew me away. Partially Alice in Wonderland meets Outer Limits. Keep on writing for real. The ending. oh boi...the ending..


  • WhySoSirius gold member
    October 3

    Edit | Reply

    Wow

    That was pretty awesome. I'm no science junkie, but it sounded pretty good nevertheless. I was interested most of the time, but the part where Isaiah was killed was very anticlimatic. Compared to everything else, it lacked description. But the epic awesomness of the rest made up for it


  • mharrington05
    September 30

    Edit | Reply
    Very impressive and original to boot! I can't say i've ever read anything like this. I do have one observation i would like to offer, your charachter Harold has seemingly descended into madness, i just feel you may have explored that descent somewhat, all that time spent alone in the dark surely being the aggravating factor, leadinng to his killing of Issiah. As without the insanity properly explored i didn't feel he had the right motivation to kill his old colleague. Still don't let that take away from an excellent piece, very well written and flowed superbly, keeping the reader engaged right until the end. Well done, good luck in the contest.


  • Kaori-Chan
    September 24
    Edit | Reply
    I really like it, nice!


  • Friesian gold member
    September 16

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    wow!

    I love the overall idea! Great thinking! Absolutely deep and mysterious! It really got me pondering...... The descriptions were excellent and the dialogue was insane and realistic! I adore reading about maniacle people! I LOVE the concept of light capturing an image! Very original and astute! Great joB!

    -Lissy


  • HoneyAngel
    September 10
    Edit | Reply
    This was a good story, and had a lot of description; however, a lot of the time, I'm sorry to say it didn't hold my interest. I don't know why. Maybe my mind wasn't holding onto the concept well, or whatever, but yeah.

    Like I said, it was a good story, but I found myself getting a little restless halfway through.

    Good job.

    Angel.


  • tonialoise silver member
    September 10

    Edit | Reply
    nice, I agree with Jeremy that it's got a Poe kind of feel to it, but maybe more twilight zone as Poe would have gone more into Harold's thoughts and psychology.

    Good story when I don't let my technical knowledge get in the way.


  • Prim-Rose
    September 7

    Edit | Reply
    I've read this once or twice before and still the story is as creepy as ever. It was disturbing, yet beautiful and reminded me a bit of Edgar Allen Poe. You did a magnificent job. Thanks for entering and good luck!

    PR


  • Iris Doyle
    September 5

    Edit | Reply
    that is SOOOO Creepy. i love it!! great story. kind of sudden at the end....i like it. haha. amazing detail. even though i dont understand science much, i understood it. amazing concept. has it already been invented? did you make taht up? if you did, i wonder if it would really work! anyway, brilliance. good luck!

  • jeremymiller
    September 4

    Edit | Reply

    Very Poe

    I love the man being driven mad by his own geniur arcehtype and the use of mirrors as a symbol of other worldliness is one I love. Good work.

    . Rewarded 4

  • trowe
    September 4
    Edit | Reply
    sounds a little like something Poe would write, so i like it! very nicely done


  • gezza gold member
    September 4

    Edit | Reply

    A shattering ending

    Very nice work, Gary.

    This is the second work I have read of yours that is pure fiction (I hope!) and certainly the first that crosses out of the genres that I normally enjoy reading from you. Horror, but in the classic style.

    This work is beautifully confined to a small area, with two characters (not counting the multiplication effect of a shattered mirror), and a complex, but singular theory. Simple and consequently well crafted. I agree with an earlier commentator - poe-esque.

    As usual, a few comments from an editing perspective:

    A general and pedantic point - I was taught to have a space after an ellipsis (eg "Fred was dead... sort of"). This simulates the fact that a space is needed prior to a new word. Am I wrong?

    para 6 - not sure "said Harold" is appropriate as part of the dialogue construction in this paragraph. Normally it is used as the introduction of the speaker, not the "continuator", so to speak. Perhaps "continued Harold."

    para 9 - from a stylistic point of view, much the same with "he said". Perhaps instead of stating he is saying something - which we know by way of the dialogue being in the same paragraph as Isaiah being described - you could describe how he is saying it. "he muttered" or something like that.

    para 11 - "Harold, tomorrow" should be "Harold. Tomorrow" as it adds to the emphatic way Isaiah would be saying it.

    para 12 - a minor suggestion: "Then he doused..." onwards could be a new paragraph; again to emphasise.

    para 13 - Not sure you got plural vs singular right in the context of all the sentences toward the end of the paragraph. For example, "light off old images", then "Some of the image's light was seized" in the next sentence. Thereafter it refers to a single image - perhaps a representative image. Not sure here, but just highlighting this.

    para 19 - "so called strings?" - should this be "so-called strings?"

    para 25 - "until I will extract them!" - maybe you can remove "will".

    para 28 - "stood ajar and down to the cellar furnace" - I was wondering if you wanted to add "led" before "down". Stylistic point - would it be better to write "He then pushed..."?

    para 29 - suggest a comma after "speakers".

    I enjoyed this a lot, particularly when it is a genre I visit regularly.

    . Rewarded 8


  • Princess Dawnikins
    September 3

    Edit | Reply
    wow this si really good. Great writting sense it flows. Im writting a storya botu a mirror two. go see soem of my entries to contests and stories in general, thanks.

    . Rewarded 4


  • Anaya Roma silver member
    September 3

    Edit | Reply

    REMINDS ME OF POE!

    An excellent piece of work! I have always enjoyed fairy tales, so the first thing that caught my attention, believe it or not, was the title. After I read a couple of paragraphs I was hooked because technology, science, experiments, and especially the nature of time and light are things that I find fascinating. This is deserving of applause. So there!

    . Rewarded 6


  • lutinperi
    September 2

    Edit | Reply
    wow... do you work in the movie industry? You should be famous by now with all of these awesome stories...


  • Quixotic Greeters member
    August 31

    Edit | Reply
    Read this one before...see previous comment...enjoyed this time to Thanks for entering..


  • Adelaide Blood
    August 29
    Edit | Reply

    Alright

    It was original, and scientific, and such, and it shows you are intelligent and such, but it was boring to me. It moved too fast for me I guess... It was original however, so thanks for the entry and good luck to you.

    Here's to another original mind in the world!


  • kitigrl-sparkloholic
    August 28
    Edit | Reply

    um... its interesting...

    thanks for entring my contest!


  • GrimDeath
    August 23
    Edit | Reply
    Very interesting. Thank you for entering and good luck.


  • Viola.King
    August 17

    Edit | Reply
    2 nominations?!?! That's fantastic! Congrats! Apparently I haven't commented on this story before, but I have read it a while back, and it's really impressive (and creepy). Good luck!


  • ToxicXxXTomatoes
    August 12

    Edit | Reply
    This was a great read. I enjoyed it immensely. *nods*
    Thank you a bunch for entering and good luck!!


  • Why So Serious
    August 11

    Edit | Reply
    Very impressive indeed. I didn't think that Harold was the murderer. You got me there. Everything flowed well and was put in place nicely. I like your writing and style. Take care and thanks for entering this in my contest.


  • The Joker HaHa
    August 8

    Edit | Reply
    I really enjoyed this piece. Impressive work. You did a fair amount of research and you explained it very well. This is a fine example of genius turned to madness.

    Thank you for entering


  • Oblivion Kitty God silver member
    August 3

    Edit | Reply
    Quite impressive. A very unique story. I liked it. Good job on this. String theory is a bit complicated for me, but I think understood it. Lol. Anyway, very good job. Thanks for entering the contest.


  • Talisa Tourniquet
    July 26

    Edit | Reply
    Hehehehe, i loved this. KILLING.
    You have a dark writing i like it very much. Crazy awesome story^_^


  • Migfin
    July 21

    Edit | Reply
    I really liked the idea behind this, so very unique yet so familiar at the same time. Reminds me a lot of The Riddler's backstory I think.

    Your description is very dark and a bit manic, as though your character is saying it as he's seeing it, and I love that. You really roped me in at the beginning, because I almost grew attached to the sort of jittery aspect of Harold's character, but that just made it even better when you turned him into this fast-acting killer, as though he was so comfortable killing Isaiah.

    The ending rounded it off nicely, I liked how it was the man's life work that sort of got revenge on him. Excellent story!

1 - 30 of 68     1 2 3  next >  (show all)