My grandmothers’ delicate script filled the dog-eared, tattered and yellowing pages. Here and there the pages were divided with months and days and as I lifted the book from my grandfathers hand, he pointed to one date in particular.
8th June 2009
The recurring nightmare has grown more intense over the past month of sleep. The woman in the mirror is ever present and she beckons me to follow her to the Otherworld, the Upended-Land. I had always passed this off as a dream, something my imagination came up with in it’s spare time to confuse and scare me… however, after today I am sure that is NOT the case.
I have been spending time in the family library and I happened across a chronicle of the O’Nuallain Estate and the family heirlooms that belong to it. The mirror that appears in my nightmare was contained in the chronicle. Furthermore, imagine my surprise at finding the room that occurs in my dream there also… documented in old portraits of the estate!
I am beginning to think I must visit this place and find some answers… after all, I feel as though any answers will be better than what I am currently dealing with.
Joanna
I was now beginning to understand my grandfathers concern with the dream I had explained to him. It seemed that my grandmother had been having a similar vision in the months leading up to her disappearance. If what she had written in here was true then we had now come to one of the places she had last visited… maybe this mirror and that room held the answers grandfather was looking for. Grandfather must have noticed that I was deep in thought because he pointed once more to the journal and another entry therein.
27th August 2009
I have seen the mirror. I have seen the room. I cannot come back. She will never let me come back. My reflection is not my reflection and my mind is no longer my own. What have I done? I can never return. They are coming to take me away.
There.
Is.
No.
Other way….... home.
The strange entry was then followed by a series of strange symbols scrawled across the page before finally being signed:
Joanna
It was at this point that I took real notice of the date. It was recorded as being four days before she had disappeared without a trace. It seemed to be that she had come here and found the mirror before something had happened that had shaken her to the core upon returning home. The other strange things were the slew of symbols across the page. What on earth did they mean? If I didn’t know any better my first instinct would be to conclude that the writer of this journal was mad and in need of psychological help. But I knew my grandmother so I also knew that that wasn’t the case.
I was confused and my head was still reeling when I asked, “What does it mean grandfather? Are we searching for the room with the mirror?”
He drew a breath and said, “I still don’t know what it means either but I am hoping that finding the mirror or the room or any reference to those symbols will bring the answers I’ve been searching for all this time.” Pausing, he sighed, “Now it looks like you could do with some more rest my girl so why don’t you drink this and try to sleep.” He passed me a steaming mug of pumpkin soup and a bottle of icy water. With that I drank what I could before my eyelids grew heavy and I drifted into an uneasy slumber.
