Our Mirrored World

Chapter Two - Mirror

“Ms. Kirstin, why do you keep bugging Zarina? Do you know how scary she is when she gets mad?” one of the department heads asked, so Kirstin snorted before collapsing on her recliner.

“She has to be bugged, she’s too cold so that men in different departments are avoiding her because of the blizzard she carries, she has to loosen up,” she hissed before stretching her hands on her desk.

“Are you sure it’s about that? Or you just want to be her friend?” one of her co-employees c****d their heads at her table, so she glared at them.

“I most especially wouldn’t like to be friends with some ice queen,” she raised her hands in disgust before looking at Zarina’s desk.

She’s working like it was a normal thing for her to do every day, her eyes were staring right into the computer screen like she’s afraid to commit possible mistakes, “She acts like a freakin robot! I didn’t even see her relax one bit!” 

“And you’re acting like you’re the one who’s getting stressed out about it, chillax, that’s how life is when you don’t have a love life,” one of the department heads winked, so she squinted her eyes at them.

She chuckled before shaking her head, “Yeah right, I would like to see that happen, this woman looks like she’s not going to have that sooner or later,” she claimed before she started focusing on her work.

“But she’s so beautiful! How can someone not have a relationship with that face?!” One of Kirstin's people commented so she was distracted again from working as she glanced at Zarina.

She was still typing like a robot that needs to update something from software, so she just sighed before scratching the back of her head. There’s no point in dwelling on that because she’s convinced that Zarina won’t change no matter how much she’s bugged.

“Would you stop that and do your work, James? You haven’t passed your recent work to me!” Kirstin complained as her people started working on their part of the job.

They’re part of the book cover team, it’s a little bit critical because that’s where they'll attract readers aside from the renowned name of the author.

Zarina, on the other hand, was almost done finishing up her daily task, proofreading for her is like traveling to another world where a lot of things couldn’t be found in reality.

She wondered if mermaids, elves, fairies, wolves, even magicians exist. The constantly changing world wouldn’t be so normal if that happened huh? She thought.

Despite her cold appearance and the title of her being a robot or ice queen, she’s a woman that is very interested in fantasy. 

Back when she was still a child, she even claimed that there’s a special world out there hidden among human’s naked eyes. She just can’t believe she believed that after watching a pony movie.

Zarina then rested her back on her recliner before gazing at the fluorescent lights that’s placed on the top of the ceiling. She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment when she noticed that the lights were blinking.

“Did you see that?” She tapped the shoulders of the man who just passed beside her, so he stopped before looking at Zarina.

“S-See what?” You can hear how surprised the man was when she talked to him. She was called the ‘ice queen’ or the ‘cold-hearted woman’ because of her serious attitude at work. 

“The lights, it’s blinking,” she mumbled while pointing up at the ceiling, so that man gazed around for a moment before shrugging.

“I don’t see anything unusual,” he nervously said, so Zarina just nodded before gazing at the top of the ceiling again.

She knows she noticed that she couldn’t be fooled by the bright sunlight outside of their huge building.

Zarina just shrugged and finished up her entire work before she went home and grabbed some coffee, it's her habit to do this kind of stuff to help her relax after work.

She spoils herself if she has money to spare, especially when she wants to walk from her work to home.

Her eyes gazed at the slightly pink salmon and slightly lavender skies. It's nightfall soon and the dew would be bad for people like her who need to wake up early.

On her way back to her apartment, she noticed something odd around her surroundings especially the lights around the streets, the ones gleaming at the top of the posts. Those serve as a light for people like her walking or strolling at night.

“Do people don’t notice that?” she talked to herself while shaking her head, it’s so obvious from the way the lights flicker so quickly.

Zarina slowly approached a lamppost to examine the lights intently, but it was suddenly back to normal.

She just shrugged before she swiftly paced towards her apartment and warmed herself up there. After making a sandwich dinner, Zarina reviewed some of the emails before she decided to take a bath and go to sleep.

After she took her towel hanging on the terrace, she stopped and gazed at the city she lives in, it still astounds her no matter how many times she had seen it.

It was a lively one as the horns of the car were to be heard a mile away together with the laughs of groups that wanted to enjoy their night, aside from that she noticed numerous lights blinking and flickering at the sight of her.

It was the same odd thing that she saw at her office and on her way home. Zarina’s apartment was located at the top, where she could see what was happening at the farthest mile, lights striking and flickering into different houses astounded her, it was breathtaking yet she found it alarming.

She used her hands to rub her eyes just to see if what she's seeing was real, but no matter how much she tried to rub, those lights were flickering, striking like it’s about to explode. 

Zarina glanced at her back and gasped after she saw her lampshades that aren't on are flickering and flashing like it was trying to wink at her.

“W-What the hell is going on?” flabbergasted, she cautiously stepped away and turned around to check what’s going on inside of the city.

Zarina’s eyes widened after she saw a bright light envelop the center of the city. A sharp, whirring sound radiated throughout the whole city which caused her to block her eyes and ears as the sound of her shattering lampshade and hanging light bulbs terrified her.

The whirring, ear-piercing sound quickly came to a halt, as the bright light vanished. Zarina, who was gasping, immediately opened her eyes as she shakingly stood up to check what had happened before her.

What she’s seeing is a dark, sullen city that contains no lights, it was like doomsday all over again. The lively city that she has just seen a while ago disappeared like bubbles in plain sight.

“What the hell just happened?!” she exclaimed before she slipped into her slippers and ran inside of her apartment that’s filled with broken bulbs to look for some candles as the source of her light and a radio to listen to the news.

She expected that there would be times that there won’t be any electricity in this cheap apartment, so she planned this beforehand and bought these survival things with her.

The sound of her lighting up the match was the only thing that she could hear aside from the cold winds entering her apartment because of some broken windows.

After she placed the candle on its holder, she took the radio out of the terrace for her to get a connection.

The static sound of the radio, while she was looking for frequencies, filled her apartment as she tried to look for decent news.

She almost clapped her hands after she landed on a clear station, “Breaking news! A strange power outage caused casualties to all of Lander City! People are suggested not to panic as the authorities are doing whatever they can to fix this problem!”

“Remain calm and help will come sooner as relief goods and candles will be sent by your local authorities, stay at home, and everything, work or school is suspended! If you have more questions, you can call us at--” 

Zarina didn’t listen to what the anchor would say, what she heard was enough for her to determine that she was right.

There was a strange power outage, but why didn’t she hear anything about the explosion of that massive light? She shrugged and went inside her apartment.

She couldn’t just brush off what she just saw, she clearly saw what just happened before her eyes that landed in the middle of their city. Her 20-20 vision couldn’t be wrong and she’s holding on to that fact.

Zarina just sighed before she decided to clean up the broken glasses inside of her apartment, she didn’t want to take a bath with her apartment being this messy. She has a strange mood if she sees things aren’t organized properly.

It was difficult to clean an apartment with no light, that was the only thing that was lingering on her mind as she kept on sweeping the broken bulbs while picking up some big shards of glass she knew she wouldn’t hurt herself by just using gloves.

After she finished up cleaning and throwing some trash, she gently crouched down to grab the tiny candle she only had here inside of her apartment as she put it off before she proceeded to grab some comfortable jackets at her closet.

Zarina wanted to get some extra candles and food since who knows how long this outage would be fixed? It might take them days or a week, she thought.

After making herself look decent, she got out of her house not knowing there’s something phenomenal that appeared inside of her bathroom mirror.

***

“Is this all ma’am?” The cashier asked in monotone, her tone sounding like she was also tired of repeating those statements, Zarina just nodded as she paid for what she bought.

It isn’t much as she bought several candles, another set of bulbs, and of course, she wouldn’t forget buying herself a meal.

Some specific places have lights since they’re using generators. Luckily, she knows a store here that’s near her apartment that uses one.

After she received her change, she gazed at the sliding door of the convenience store and that bright light would probably be visible from the outside.

“Excuse me, have you seen that bright light a while ago before the power outage?” Zarina curiously asked while rummaging on what she bought.

The cashier looked confused for a moment while shrugging her head, “No ma’am, sorry, I’m too preoccupied with doing inventory a while ago when the lights went off,” she explained, so Zarina just nodded disappointedly before she left that store.

That cashier wouldn’t have seen it if she was inventorying at that time.

She gazed outside of the store and used her phone flashlight as the source of her light on her way back to her apartment.

Zarina thought it was odd because nothing seems to be broken around the street's lampposts aside from her apartment lights and lampshades. Why was everything broken inside of her apartment when there’s nothing wrong from the outside?

She shrugged off the thought before deciding to jog towards her apartment. Zarina wanted to take a bath immediately because she felt icky with the sweats that formed due to the massive cleaning of her apartment a while ago.

It didn’t take her a while to arrive at her apartment, fixed her lampshades and lights, except for her ceiling since she couldn’t reach it.

She’ll probably just look for help tomorrow morning since their work is suspended, for the freaking first time. Zarina then took her towel from the sofa to finally take a bath. It flew there a while ago because she was startled at that strange light that surrounded their city.

After she entered her bathroom, her mirror was the first thing that she saw while holding out her candle that she’s about to place at the top of the cabinet she has there for her hygiene kits.

But there was something strange after she gazed at that mirror again, she stopped in her tracks as if she was stunned when she didn’t see her reflection.

Her heart raced as if she saw something phenomenal, her eyes were widened after realizing that the reflection that she’s about to see was different and moving strangely opposite of her.

Plus it wasn’t a woman, it was a handsome man that looks like he’s the same age as her, dressed in elegant wizard clothing looking at her with wide eyes, “Ahh!” they both screamed as Zarina lost her hold on her candle due to her tremendous fright.

The light on the candle disappeared as it became dark and sullen at her apartment again, she decided to sprint away to look for matches.

“W-Was that a ghost?” she said shakingly while she tried to light up the match to light the candle.

She slowly paced towards her bathroom again to peek if what she saw was real, her hopes and dreams thinking that it wasn’t real were crushed after seeing that strange glow in that mirror again.

Zarina backed away for a moment while leaning her back on some cold wall. She was panting like she was almost out of breath, what she saw a while ago was real.

How is that possible? She thought before biting her lower lip, is she finally losing her mind? Countless thoughts invaded her mind, making it impossible for her to think critically.

She looked for her phone and was about to call for some help when someone shouted that astounded her, “Oi! I saw you! Come back here!” she flinched after she heard that low, stern voice.

To be continued...