MIRR/OR/ED

|Chapter 4|

Chapter 4. Split realities

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Footsteps echo off the hall Tom leads me down, and a silhouette of a Troop member is standing tall next to the interrogation room. A small square of light shines through the dirt fogged window onto the floor below him, Tom's foot stops on it.

"Don't take too long, we must be leaving before dusk. Road exits close at Twenty-two hundred hours." He turns away and his footsteps carry off behind me.

A familiar faced troop member opens the door, the squeak of it itches my mind as it slowly swings open. A rickety unbalanced table is the first thing I see and as I step into the room I see the outline of the man... Sitting with his head in his hands, he flinches up at the sudden sound. His flich is seen in the wall length mirror beside him.

His obvious sweat-stained clothes bring a rancid dog smell to the room. The scrub like material you can see is frayed at the collar, the seams barely holding on to life. His presence hollow for a moment but seems to come to life as he notices me step in. I can't help but sense his aura..

His eyes fall on me like water, and pass over me just the same. Leaving me cold on the inside.

The pent-up anger I had stored for this moment has washed away with it. When going over the interaction in my head I had so many good lines for interrogation, but looking in those ocean eyes has left me tongue-tied.

"Y-you asked for me?" I start. Shifting my eyes from his is the only way I am able to push the words out.

Why are you doing this, what is wrong? I think to myself.

I force in shallow breaths, the oxygen in the room depleting quickly with the steady momentum of my heartbeat. The small breaths that I can take are filled with the nauseating scent of the man in front of me.

I hear a huff and the legs of the table fall back to where it was, his pressure lifting from the unsteady side.

"Yes..." Shifting in his chair with unease he starts. "I wanted to see you before speaking to anyone. I'm having a hard time adjusting to this shift in reality, especially after you flinched away from me.." He trails off a bit.

"What are you babbling about?" I bark at him, harsher than I had really meant it to be. I see my body jerk forward in the mirror beside me. His voice dances on my memory as a tease and it brings anger boiling to the surface.

"I.. There is a lot, but to begin with I know you. Or a version of you, or I did.. That's the part I am having a hard time shifting with. You were in my reality, we had known each other since we were children. The other version of you, or the fake version of you? There are so many questions I am still trying to form the words to and the answers for."

"To be honest, I wanted to see if you were real.." He states.

I scoff a bit, finally having the courage to meet his eyes.

"What the fuck is that supposed to imply?" I ask.

He laughs a bit, bending his knees so he stands from the chair he was leaning forward in. His palms pushing himself up and the table almost gives out in the middle from the pressure.

His body frame moves in the mirror beside us, the two-way reflection is a bit lighter than what you would see in a regular mirror because of the two ways. And I can't help but catch my eye in the mirror for a moment, recognizing my unease.

"I'm not sure why I even questioned it.. " His scoff rolls off his tongue as he takes a few steps between him and the wall of mirror. "The electricity to your touch is not anything like what it was there. Your essence is a beaming light no one can miss." His words strike a chord and bring a bit of a chill to my bones.