Reflection

By Cécilia Mzayek

My bare feet were silently putting themselves one in front of the

other on the hard, cold, floor. I had no idea where they were taking me
until I reached the intended place.
My arms stretched and my hands lay flat on the cold marble
around the sink. My eyes looked into the big, shiny, silver mirror and I
saw the perfect copy of myself behind the flat, glossy surface. Leaning
on the black rock in the small, dark room, I forced my head down and
my eyes to look in the sink, and I started breathing deep slow breaths
until I felt safe.
Once I regained control of myself, I looked around to see if
anything was different in my bathroom, I don’t know why but I
expected there to be a difference. I could feel that I wasn’t in the real
world; I then discovered I was in a perfect copy of my world, a mirror
image of my world, a reflection of my world.
From the corner of my eye, I saw that my twin behind the window
was not moving, she was leaning over the sink and I was standing up
straight. I gave out a soft, unhearable cry and heard a voice I will never
forget.
It was a strange voice, one I had never enjoyed when hearing it
from this point of hearing, one I hated when I was hearing it from
outside of my body. It was my voice, loud and distinct coming from the
girl behind the window. “Look at me” was what she had said.
I tried to run but my legs were forcing me to stay, so I turned
around and looked into the mirror, and looked deep into the eyes of my
reflection.
They were brown, deep, understanding; I felt the hairs on my
neck stand on their ends. She looked at me so deeply and I saw that I
had deceived her. I had no idea what I had done, but tears started
coming in my eyes, but I still looked into hers. “Accept him, love him,
forgive him,” the voice rang in my ears. “Why?” My voice was gone, no
sound came out of my mouth, and I understood that she had borrowed
it.
The next thing I knew was that I had regained the control of my
body, and that she was following my movements again, she was again
a mere reflection of me.
And that’s when I realized that I had woken up. I was in the
bathroom alone, with just a reflection of myself as a companion. I
remembered my dream and understood that she had been my
consciousness telling me what I knew deep inside me, but that I had
denied on myself. I looked back into my eyes’ reflection, then I walked
towards the door to my room, and from the corner of my eye, I saw
that she was walking away deeper into her room - behind the glass -
until she faded away.