Mirror Side

Chapter 1
Mirror Side

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Chapter Description: A basic story, best I could do with the ideas that were developing so it might seem rushed.

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She found it hard to think about what she liked the most about caring for her children, she enjoyed everything about being a mother. And soon she would have more children and she couldn’t wait, she hoped the new arrivals would enjoy themselves here once they arrived.

All she had to do was wait.

Cliché was one word that came to his thoughts when he looked at the house, the thought was due to how creepy the house seemed to look. Like something from some cheesy horror movie.

“Did you remember to bring some extra batteries for the torches? I don’t want to be stumbling around in the dark like the last place we were at” A long time friend and someone who seemed like a sister to him spoke up over the peaceful twilight, the sky not quite dark just yet and not quite light.

“I remembered” He responds, his eyes not looking away from the house once. Jason King didn’t mind tagging along with his friend on her attempts to solve the mysteries that were never solved, but he hated how scared it made him feel.

“Good, I don’t want to be hearing you scream like you did last time the torches went dead” Lauren Pope remarks after shutting the car’s trunk.

“Could we call this off?” Jason asks, Lauren shakes her head.

“You ask that question a lot and you should know the response by now, no calling off, we go in, we investigate, we get answers and we move on to the next mystery. You’re supposed to be the man, be brave or some stereo typical thing” Ever since they were both babies Lauren and Jason have been the opposites of one another in one behavioural trait – Lauren controlled her fear while Jason tended to be nervous about everything. Which was ill fitting of him despite his looks, he looked like the kind of male who would be fearless and ready to face danger with a strut of his chin and a twinkle in his eyes, instead he tended to be cowering behind Lauren while she faced any dangers with a love of exploration.

This behaviour gave Jason the unfair nickname of ‘Coward King’ because he was, in many easy, an utter coward. His dad had given up trying to make him into a ‘real’ man long ago after yet another failed attempt to make him brave by sticking live spiders in his son’s bed while he was sleeping one time, Jason had screamed, wet himself in fear and spent the night behind the sofa in the living room.

So after finishing college Lauren had decided that she needed someone around to help her out with her investigations in to the unsolved mysteries around the world, and she liked Jason, she found his nervous behaviour to be refreshing next to her own behaviour.

Lauren enjoyed danger, she found risking her life to be more interesting than sitting around being miserable in a dead end job. She had her fears and doubts but she didn’t let them govern and dictate her life, she wanted to know, not fear.

“But this place has that extra creep out factor, look at it!” The house in question was fairly creepy looking, it has seen better days, maybe better centuries. It had been built in the early 16th century and received a lot of work until it was abandoned suddenly in 1903 when the owner disappeared, she had been presumed dead and the few people who had entered the house since 1910 were never heard from again.

Lauren had learned of the house several years ago and had always wanted to solve the mystery, she knew of the house’s past and had spent a great deal of free time researching the last owner who had been said to be a remarkable mother who had loved caring for children so much that she had given birth to at least ten of them before she had suddenly disappeared at the age of 90.

A search by the police had revealed nothing, there was no body, no trace that she had left, she was just simply gone.

“Fear nothing, face everything. We’re going in” Lauren comments after checking that the torches are working, then handing one to Jason and walking towards the house. Jason gulps, his born fear of everything making him wonder if he should hide under the car, one of those five door family cars which has good storage space for long road trips, though he knows that Lauren will drag him to the house no matter what.

Taking a breath and hoping he doesn’t make an ass of himself in front of Lauren, who he has always cared about and always enjoyed being with even though they weren’t lovers, just good friends, Jason heads off after her hoping they’ll find nothing but dust.

The lock unlocked with a single wave of Lauren’s electronic master key, an invention of her own making that she had made in college after losing her flat key one too many times, and with a gentle push the door swings open with a cliché creak.

“Is there no self respecting ghost or anything that can keep their door hinges oiled?” Jason says in a whisper as Lauren walks into the house.

“The creak adds atmosphere. Besides that’s something that women like to do” Lauren remarks with a cheeky grin.

“Do what?”

“Keep their hinges well oiled. Well some women anyway. Come on in” Trying not to wet the nappy that Lauren suggested he wear, due to his constant nervous nature Lauren had suggested that Jason wear nappies while they were investigating places, it seemed to calm him and saved on a major mess when his fear got the better of him, Jason enters the house and tries to keep close to Lauren.

“I’m surprised it’s in such good condition after all these years, most of these houses either have a lot of broken windows, damaged floors and more. But this house looks like it’s barely even dusty, it’s been well cared for” Lauren comments after wiping a finger along a nearby shelf, her torch moves around slowly glinting off old ornaments and old picture frames. A slight gust of wind causes the door to close, making Jason jump when it closes with a slam.

“Just the door. If you’re wet yourself then better say so now, got some spares in my pack” Jason tries to calm himself and checks if he’s had an accident, cursing a little.

“Guess that’s a yes, I can see a living room just over there to the right, need help?” Lauren removes her backpack, opens it and removes a thick looking item which she hands over to Jason along with a white bottle.

“I’ll manage” Jason ducks into the room while Lauren waits, sitting down on the nearby staircase as she continues to look around, taking in all the detail she can see. The previous owner had loved her children a lot for sure, there were a lot of framed pictures of ten children from early babyhood to adulthood, chronicling their growth and development.

“A happy mother” Lauren mummers. A few minutes later Jason exits the room, the bulk between his legs newly changed. “Better?” Lauren asks.

“Yeah. Can we just leave?” Lauren shakes her head as she takes the white bottle from Jason and puts it back in her pack, then takes the plastic bag and tucks it next to the stairway to pick up later when they left.

“Not yet, I want to solve the mystery of this place first” Shining her torch up the stairs Lauren notes a few doors that might answer a few questions.

“It’s an abandoned house, nothing we haven’t investigated before”

“It’s an abandoned house that shouldn’t be abandoned, it’s a prime location with great grounds. It’s been well cared for and the previous owner had a lot of children, so why have they not claimed this house, why have their descendents not claimed the house? It’s a mystery to be solved” Picking herself up from the stair she was sitting on, Lauren shines her torch over to the rooms near to them and heads towards one.

“Let’s get started” Jason sighs and follows after her.

Each room revealed more about how much the previous owner had loved being a parent, there were a lot of pictures showing her children through the stages of their lives, up until they were adults, after there the pictures seemed to stop. Where there would have been more pictures were blank spaces, as if they had been removed.

After searching all of the downstairs rooms they proceeded upstairs, searching each room carefully.

After a few hours of this they reach the final room, Lauren tries the door handle and finds that it’s locked.

“Locks holds answers, let’s have a look” Taking her electronic master key from a pocket, Lauren scans the lock then calls up the right key design and holds it over the lock. With a gentle movement the lock clicks and the door unlocks, Lauren pushes down on the handle and the door opens quietly.

“Maybe her kids moved on with their lives” Jason whispers.

“It’s possible, birds leave the nest, birds don’t bother to check in with their parents. Yet those empty spaces are curious, I wonder if she loved her grandchildren as much as she loved her children, or if she was unhappy with them and didn’t want to see any pictures of them anymore”

“She was 90 when she disappeared, right? Maybe her kids removed the pictures when she disappeared, maybe the grandchildren killed her”

“While such a thing is common practice in this day and age, back then there was more respect for elders. But it is possible” Lauren enters the room and finds it empty of all but one piece of furniture, a beautiful looking mirror with a frame made of dark wood. Approaching the mirror Lauren gently touches the framework, Jason shuffling after her.

“Beautiful. See the patterns in the framework? She must have had this mirror made as a reminder of when her children were young” In the framework were craved faces of young children through their stages of growth, all near perfect replicas of the faces in the pictures around the house.

“Creepy” Jason mutters. He hated this house, it was just too creepy for him.

“A mother’s love can be strong if they have such love to give. Hmm, interesting” Lauren gently touches the glass and notices a slight ripple. “Very interesting”

Jason looks around then just as he turns around to look at Lauren, she disappears.

“Lauren?” His voice shakes as he asks. “Lauren?” Approaching the mirror Jason looks at his reflection, then sub consciously touches the glass. The glass ripples slightly, then the ripple increases. He tries to move away but finds that his feet won’t respond.

“Let go!” He cries out, then stumbles and falls into the mirror.

A pair of arms grab him and keep him from landing on the floor, then let him go.

“Should have just walked through” Lauren remarks after Jason straightens himself.

“Something grabbed me I think”

“No, not exactly, the mirror itself seems to hold a person and draws them in. Fascinating”

“Fascinating? What’s so fascinating about a spooky mirror?”

“It’s another part of the mystery, that’s why it’s fascinating. Looks like the room we just left, maybe the house is the same. Let’s investigate” Jason grabs Lauren’s arm as she turns.

“No, we’ve investigated enough, let’s just get out of here”

“I don’t like to leave a mystery unsolved, you know me better than that”

“But we’ve just gone through a mirror, that isn’t normal!”

“Normal? We’ve been exploring old houses and ruins for almost a decade now and you think we should just find something that’s normal? Normal doesn’t exist, it can’t, there’s always something to be solved that isn’t so easily explained without a clear investigation of the facts” Holding tight on her arm, Jason holds his ground.

“Going through a mirror isn’t normal”

“Normal is a term made by those who can’t accept that life is never normal, now let’s investigate and find out just why we passed through a mirror. Or we can stay in this room and you can keep whimpering” Shrugging his hand off her arm, Lauren leaves the room leaving Jason to look t the mirror. He reaches out and his hand only encounters solid glass which feels cool to the touch.

“Not normal” Jason whispers, then runs off after Lauren.

“Lauren!” He calls out as he catches up to her, she had her ear against a door. She raises a finger to her lips. “We can’t stay here, we should leave and forget about this place!”

“Shh, I can hear something on the other side of this door” Slowly turning the handle Lauren slowly opens the door and walks into a nursery, as she does so four sets of eyes look up at her in surprise. Two of them belonged to two young children who looked to be around two years old, maybe younger, one set belonged to a young girl who looked to be around three or four years old and another set belonged to a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties.

“This is unexpected” Lauren comments. The woman gets up from the chair she was sitting in, one arm supporting one of the young children.

“Who are you and how did you get here?” She asks. Lauren examines the woman, then removing her backpack, opens it and takes out a picture, examines the picture then looks back at the woman.

“Miss Young?” She asks, the woman nods then sets the child down on the floor.

“Yes, how do you know of me?”

“History and curiosity. You look to be in excellent health considering you’re almost two hundred years old” Jason peeps out from the door way, then ducks back behind it.

“I see, did you come through the mirror?” Lauren nods after putting the picture back into her backpack.

“You were presumed dead over a century ago, I came here to investigate those claims since your disappearance has been quite the mystery including the disappearances of three people who have come here over the years”

“You and your friend may have become a new mystery yourselves now, by coming here you have trapped yourselves” Beckoning over to some comfortable looking seating Lauren sits down after dragging Jason into the nursery.

“What are your names?” The woman asks.

“I’m Lauren, this is Jason”

“My name is Carol, these are my children” She looks over to the young children, a soft motherly smile on her face and they toddle over to her.

“You have very beautiful children” Lauren comments, Jason saying nothing due to fear.

“Thank you. I have been caring for them since they arrived here, Keri arrived here about a century ago, she was curious, like you until she become the young child she is now. Owen arrived around eighty years ago, also very curious and Harriet arrived about twenty years ago, she used to be a man called Harry, but this place made her yearning into a reality, just as it did for the others and for me”

“This place?” Keri, the eldest of the three children, approaches Lauren and asks in a quiet voice is Lauren could let her sit on her lap, gently Lauren sits her on her lap, Keri cuddling against her.

“I do not understand how this place works exactly, only that it makes a person’s deepest yearning become real. I came across this place over a century ago when I was cleaning the mirror, since then I have been unable to leave. It made me as you see now, the age I was when my children were born. It did the same thing to the others here, it made them all young, it gave their desires reality. Keri used to be the same age as you, she was curious about my house and my disappearance after hearing about it from her mother, shortly after arriving she became the young child you see now” Owen toddles to Jason and Jason backs away from him as best he can.

“We should leave! I don’t want to be some nappy wetting brat!” He whimpers to Lauren.

“I am sorry, young man, but I don’t believe you can leave. Once you enter this place it keeps you. Keri, maybe you should be older for a little while and take care of your brother and sister” Keri pouts then reluctantly hops off from Lauren and leaves the room, returning a minute later as a grown woman in a more adult sized version of the dress she had been wearing, her nappy peeping out from under the skirt.

“She can age back?” Lauren enquires.

“She can, it’s also part of her yearning, though she prefers being a child a lot more. Come with me, I believe your friend is going to need new clothing. This place is making his yearning a reality” Lauren looks over to Jason and sure enough something is happening, his features look softer, more feminine, his body is changing from a more masculine appearance to a more feminine one.

“What’s happening to him?” Lauren asks.

“His deepest yearning. He yearns to be female, he always has, although he has denied it for a long time due to the expectations placed on him due to his male birth. This place is simply making him as he yearns to be” Jason looks down at his changing body and yelps.

“I’m not a girl! I’m a man! Help me!” Carol helps him up from the seating, Lauren getting up as well.

“Of course, please, this way” With Keri taking care of the younger children, Carol leads Jason and Lauren to another room.

“You appear very calm about all of this” Carol remarks to Lauren as they enter a new room.

“I’ve been investigating unsolved mysteries and solving them for almost a decade now, I’ve seen things that aren’t easy to explain. This is just another mystery to be solved” Lauren notes that her underwear feels thicker and slides a hand into her jeans, her eyes widening in surprise.

“Fascinating”

“Your yearning is being made reality, have you always wished to wear a nappy?” Carl asks as they enter the room and she opens a door leading into a large walk in wardrobe.

“I don’t know, I’m usually too busy to think about what I yearn for” Lauren replies.

“You say you investigate things, what exactly do you investigate?”

“How about investigating while I’m turning into a girl?” Jason remarks, Carol gently pushes him into the wardrobe.

“There are clothes there you can wear, this place keeps itself up to date when it comes to clothing, food and more. You are welcome to any of the clothing”

“But I’m not a girl!”

“This place sees the yearning to be one within you, so that is who you are. Now, Lauren, how do I help you?” While Jason continues to panic over his changes, Lauren calmly walks over to a mirror and slides down her jeans, her hands gently poking at the thick nappy that has appeared.

“Fascinating. So this place, what exactly is it?” Leaving Jason to examine the clothing, Carol sits down on the bed.

“I am not sure, I have never been, what do you call it, a scientist. This is well beyond my understanding, all I know is that this place makes a yearning come true, but as a price you can never leave. I have tried many times to leave, as have my children, and we have had no luck”

“Do you hate it here?”

“No, but it would be nice to leave once in a while. We are cared for here, we have all that we need”

“Except for freedom”

“We are free to see the world in this place at any time, it’s just very different from what we are used to. How do you feel?”

“Comfortable. Have you tried to send a message at least?”

“Yes. But just as with trying to leave, it never works. Tell me, what happened when I arrived here back in the real world?” Turning away from the mirror and pulling her jeans back up, and noticing that they aren’t fitting so well now that her new clothing has become even thicker and more comfortable, Lauren sits down on the bed.

“The police searched for you, there were rumours that your children had tried to kill you and had managed to do so, hiding your body in the process”

“They had tried, yes, after their failed attempt I was heart broken. My children were furious with them”

“Your grandchildren continued to commit crimes, they were executed just before the death penalty was banned, at least in this country. Your family line died out forty years ago after their deaths, is that why there are empty spaces in the pictures on the walls back in the real world?” Carol nods in reply, a tear falling from her creek.

“My children felt ashamed for what had happened and they took the pictures down, destroying them afterwards. Do people still do such things?”

“Some do, respect for elders and compassion are pretty rare in the real world due to greed” Lauren replies and gives Carol a small hug. “I find myself questioning something though”

“What would that be?”

“Your children here, are you sure they yearned to be so young, or did you?”

“I do not understand”

“According to what is known about you, you were a wonderful mother who loved her children deeply, who was proud to be a mother. Are you sure it isn’t your own yearning to be a mother again that has turned those who have found this place into young children?” Carol thinks about Lauren’s theory for a few moments, Jason can be heard in the wardrobe.

“You may be right. They have all told me that they never yearned to be so young, it just happened. They enjoy it though”

“To be cared for is something many yearn for”

“Do you yearn for that?”

“I don’t know” Lauren replies, she hops off the bed and checks on Jason. Jason looks at her, now dressed in a purple dress, and looking younger than he was. His body has undergone a complete change and any trace of the man has been replaced with a woman.

“How the hell do you wear these things?”

“With practice. You look younger”

“So do you, and that’s not just with your new underwear being part of it” Lauren looks over to Carol who is looking at her hands, clearly thinking.

“Carol, you need to control your yearnings. Are you sure you’ve tried to leave here?”

“I have, many times”

“Carol, please tell me the truth. I don’t wish to be a child again, despite enjoying this very thick and comfortable item of clothing, and my friend doesn’t wish to be a child again” Getting up from the bed Carol leaves the room quickly without answering.

“What’s going through that head of yours?” Jason, now Janine, asks.

“I think she’s come to rely on this place to help her”

“Oh?” Helping Janine with her clothing Lauren explains her theory.

“Her grandchildren tried to kill her, she set she was heart broken so it’s logical to conclude that she wanted to get away from real life, she wanted to be somewhere where she could be loved. She found that somewhere, here in this place, but she had to wait. Then someone arrived by accident and without knowing what she was doing, she turned that person into the young child you saw. She became a mother again” With Janine now wearing her new clothing a lot better, they leave the bedroom and return to the nursery where Carol is sitting with her children.

“She doesn’t want to leave this place because here she can be loved instead of a target for the greed of fools” Janine looks up from examining herself, feeling oddly less nervous than she was.

“Her grandkids are dead though”

“Yes, they are, but she is still scared of returning to the real world. She is scared that she’ll return there and become the old woman she was, the woman without any children to care for. She’s lonely”

“So we can leave?”

“Most likely”

“And if we do?”

“I don’t know, maybe everything will be as it was before we entered the mirror or we’ll be as we are now. By the way you seem less nervous, are you feeling okay?” Janine thinks for a moment, then nods.

“It’s weird, but I think Carol’s right, this is who I yearn to be. Ever since the last of my maleness melted away I’ve felt more confident, still a little cautious and unsure, but nowhere near as bad as before” Lauren smiles, clearly happy to hear that.

“That is good to hear, maybe your previous behaviour was because you felt like a failure and couldn’t live up to what people expected of you”

“That makes sense. So what do we do now?”

“Now we try to help Carol, but if her yearning to be a mother continues then we’ll be children again very soon” Patting her thick nappy, Lauren looks over to the woman who is tending to her children and for a moment wonders what it would be like to be loved, her parents had never been very supportive of her and had spent more time being drunk than in caring about their daughter.

Their neglect had made her determined to not be a victim, nor to rely on others, but to approach life in a way her parents never would – with a focus and a determination to be someone who was willing to see the world and not shy away from it.

“Lauren”

“Yes?”

“Why the nappy?”

“If I had to hazard a guess it’s due to a deep desire to be comforted and safe, you know what my parents were like”

“So wearing that makes you feel what you never felt with them?”

“Yes. As comfortable as it is however, we can not stay here. Nor can they”

“It’s paradise though, for them anyway”

“Paradise is only good in moderation, if you avoid the harsh reality for too long you lose yourself”

“What if what’s happened here is changed in the real world though?”

“Then we continue as we always have, one day at a time”

“I don’t want to be that coward I was though, not again” Hugging her friend, Lauren smiles in understanding.

“And I don’t want to be as detached as I tend to be. Life happens however. We have to help Carol accept that”

“Her grandkids tried to kill her, that’s not something that’s easy to accept”

“It’s been over a century, they are long dead”

“But there are still people out there who can harm her”

“There always will be, we can never avoid what can harm us, only defend against it”

“And what you’re wearing is your defence?”

“I think so, yes. Now let’s try to help her live”

With some effort Lauren manages to get Carol to talk to her, by now Lauren is nearing six years old and Janine is the same age as Lauren. Carol’s yearnings were strong and they were feeling it.

While Kari looks after the youngest children, Lauren tries to talk reason into Carol.

“If we stay here, Carol, we’ll be too young to do anything. You can’t continue to live here and avoid facing the real world” Lauren remarks after Carol sits her and Janine on her lap.

“This is my home”

“Your home is on the other side of the mirror, it always has been” Janine loses her focus for a second and cuddles against Carol, her age dropping a little more while Lauren tries to resist what she yearns to do.

“I can’t return there, I’m meant to be dead” Lauren ignores the tinkling feeling between her legs, her body dropping farther to match her clothing which has become more infantile.

“You can make a new life there, that is if you are able to return there as you are now”

“A new life? A life where I could probably be betrayed by those who seek money over anything else?” Janine coos happily, now around three years old, her nappy peeping from under her small skirt. Lauren resists giving in to her steadily strengthening babyish yearnings.

“That’s something we all face”

“I don’t want to”

“And we don’t to be stuck here as helpless infants, please, you can’t keep doing this” Lauren coos slightly as her nappy grows warm, she had to fight her yearnings, she needed to. “Pwease!” Lauren pleads.

“Wouldn’t this be better though? You could be safe, loved, I’ll take care of the both of you”

“We no wittle!” Kissing Janine, who has fallen asleep, and Lauren on the forehead each, Carol takes them up to the nursery where she changes Lauren’s nappy and lays her down in a crib.

“I’ll think about it, sweetie, it’s a lot to ask of me when I came here after being hurt so badly” Lauren coos as her ability to speak disappears briefly, her eyes slowly closing as she falls asleep. In another crib next to her Janine cuddles a soft toy kitten, a dummy in her mouth.

As her new young charges sleep, Carol examines herself in the unusual mirror. Was Lauren right? Was her fear of the real world, of what her grandchildren had tried to do truly making her selfish?

Lauren and Jason, now Janine, hadn’t asked to be turned back into such adorable infants, Lauren was headstrong and curious and Carol found that she respected that, one of her children in the real world had been that way. And her words made sense.

Was it fair of her to trap them here just so she could continue to hide from the real world and be the mother she always yearned to be? Didn’t such an action make her as bad as her long dead grandchildren?

“Am I as bad as those who hurt me by staying here and forcing others to stay here as my children? Should I stop hiding?” Carol asks of herself. She was truly scared, scared that returning to the real world would cause her only harm just as it had before.

“Mummy?” Carol looks over to the door to see Kari standing there, her hair was ruffled, her little white nightdress all wrinkled as she gripped a soft toy against herself, her night time nappy slightly visible.

“Yes sweetie?”

“Are you okay mummy?”

“I’m okay, sweetie, mummy’s just thinking about a few things” Kari toddles over to her and opens her arms to be held, sweeping her up Carol holds her gently against herself.

“We going back?” Kari asks.

“I’m not sure, am I being selfish?”

“You’re mummy, you the grown up”

“Even grown ups can be selfish, dear, and I think Lauren is right. I think it’s time for me to stop being afraid”

“What if we be grown up again though?”

“That might happen or it might not, it’s hard to tell. It’s a different time from what you left behind, you might enjoy it”

“No want to leave you though, mummy, want to be with you”

“I know, sweetie, I want that as well. I don’t want to lose my children” Her mind filled with thoughts, Carol returns to the nursery and tucks Kari back into her bed.

“Sweet dreams, angel” She whispers as she kisses Kari on the forehead and leaves the room.

The next morning after changing a few nappies and giving her children their breakfast, Carol sits Lauren and Janine on her lap.

“I don’t know if you can understand me, but you are right. I can’t keep any of you here and I can’t keep hiding, I don’t have the right to let my yearnings interfere with your lives” Lauren gurgles happily while Janine suckles away happily on her own toes.

“I don’t know if things will change when we return, you might still be babies or you might be grown up again” Cuddling her new children, Carol heads up to the nursery to get her children ready to return to the real world.

With Lauren and Janine in her arms, Keri had aged back and was holding Owen and Harriet by their tiny hands, Carol looks back at the house she has lived in for over a century since stumbling across it.

This was home to her and her children, but it was also unfair to expect them to want to live here when they had their own lives to live. Lauren babbles and waves her tiny arms, as if she were trying to say ‘Let’s get going’. Smiling Carol gently kisses the child on her forehead, then walks through the mirror, Kari following after her.

“You’re right, they are comfortable” Janine comments minutes later. After walking through the mirror Janine and Lauren had aged back to their former ages, Janine had remained as female and Lauren found that she was still in nappies and wasn’t bothered by it.

Harriet had aged back, Harriet had stayed as female and Owen had remained as a child and was looking forward to resuming his life as Carol’s son, Keri had also returned to being a child and was happy to be as such.

Carol hadn’t returned to her former age, she was still in her late twenties.

“Maybe this can be how we solve our mysteries from now on, in comfort. Carol, thank you for looking after us and thank you for doing the right thing”

“I’m still scared of being back in the real world”

“That’s understandable. You can probably still use the mirror when you’re ready to, but you have to make sure to never ignore the real world again”

“What of the both of you? What will you do now?”

“We’ll do our job, and maybe we’ll drop round every now and then”

“I would like that a lot, maybe I can baby you” Lauren smiles, she actually liked the sound of that.

“I would like that” Harriet had already left, she had mentioned that she wanted to find her family and try having a better life than she used to. It had been painful for Carol to say goodbye, but she understood and accepted that Harriet wanted to live her own life.

“And what of you, Janine?” Carol asks while Keri hops down from her lap and goes over to her baby brother to play.

“As Lauren likes to say, mysteries to solve. I’m not as scared about everything as I used to be but I feel safe around her”

“Good. When will you be heading out?”

“Shortly” Lauren replies. “Will you be able to sort everything out since you been away for so long?”

“I will, I think the place in the mirror has already done that, I don’t know how I know that, I just do. Making a new family will be great after so long of being in that place”

“A day at a time, you’ll manage. Okay Janine, mystery solved. Let’s head home and look up another one”

Carol watches them leave, Owen and Keri waving goodbye to them as well as herself, and hopes she’ll see them again.

After they’re out of sight, Carol enters the house and begins her new life in earnest. It was long past time to do so.

And Lauren and Janine?

“You said it wasn’t a big spider”

“I said it was a spider, none of the legends said it was a big one”

“I think I just wet myself”

“Me too. So got any bug swatters or do we run?”

“Let’s swat a bug”

 

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