A Further Turn of Events
The doctors at the emergency room had been unable to find anything wrong with Dawn. In point of fact, she had been the picture of perfect health. In fact, she was healthier than she’d even been. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this good.
The police had spoken to her too, but she’d been unable to give them any information. She’d left her job at the library, gotten knocked out from behind, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in a room full of unconscious cultists and one unnerving pile of ash. Still, she had promised to talk to them if she remembered anything else. Dawn just counted herself fortunate that they’d found her purse.
She’d managed to get her keys in the door of her tiny apartment and collapse into bed before pure exhaustion took her.
***
Who art thou?! What hath thou done to me?!
The voice was cold, almost cruel, and deadly accusing. Through the mists of her dream, Dawn was a tall, dark-haired woman, glad in what was either black or deep, dark green. She was angry, enraged, her anger devoted solely at her…
RELEASE ME!
***
Dawn awoke with a jolt, the morning sun streaming in from her window. Reluctantly, she dragged herself into her bathroom, running cold water to splash on her face. She studied her reflection intently, looking for signs of… she didn’t know what. Something. Anything. Anything that would tell her about the strange sense of unease she felt. Her hair was a mess from sleep, there were dark rings under her eyes from too many nights of not enough sleep, her eyes…
Her eyes were gray.
She blinked and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Gray. Definitely gray. Which was wrong. Very wrong. Her eyes were green. Eyes did not just change color like that. It wasn’t natural.
“This is impossible,” she said to herself. “Really impossible. What the heck happened to me?”
She studied her face further, looking for any other changes, but could find none. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, but she opened them she gasped in shock.
Her entire reflection was not her own. Instead it was of a much taller woman, with sharp, refined features, dark hair, and cold, gray eyes. “Let me out!” the woman screamed and reached through the mirror to grab her…
Dawn screamed and fell backwards, landing hard on her backside. But when she looked again in the mirror, the woman was gone. Dawn briefly looked around the bathroom to see if there were any other signs of the woman, but there was none.
“That’s it,” Dawn said. “I’m losing my mind. Gone stark raving bonkers. I’m too young to be going crazy.”
She took deep breaths, steadying herself with the sink.
“There, see?” she said to herself, as she looked in the mirror again. “No psycho woman trying to kill you from mirror land. Now pull yourself together, because you’ve got to be to work in…”
She checked the clock. “Twenty minutes ago.”
***
She was shelving books, and paused as she picked up one on Norse Mythology. Idly, she flipped through it for a moment, skimming over various passages. She flipped faster and faster, reading faster and faster, her expression growing all the more sour while she did so.
“Wrong,” she whispered. “It’s all wrong. How could they get all of it wrong?
“IT’S WRONG!”
She realized she had yelled that last part, and glanced around. Fortunately, no one had been around to notice. Nevertheless, she felt her cheeks turn red hot with embarrassment.
Dawn took a deep breath, steadying herself with the book cart. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come in after such a traumatic experience. But she needed the money. But did she need it at the cost of her own sanity? Because it was clear she was losing her mind. How could a book of mythology be wrong? What had prompted her to think that way? Sure, there were people like Thor and some of those Defenders people that were in the city these days who claimed to be Norse Gods, but no one really believed that. It was impossible.
And even if it wasn’t, what did that have to do with her?
