Shattered Glass, Broken Hearts
Fragmented Reflections
Natalie came crashing down the stairs into the lobby to find Kris laying
on one of the couches while Jessica leafed through some papers in the
office. All seemed quiet yet Natalie knew that soon enough the lobby
would be filled with girls as they headed in search of food. Her mind
raced as she tried to think of where Kim's double could have hid.
"Jessie!!" Natalie rushed over to the office window and peered in at the
girl, "Have you seen Kim?" She asked still panting from running down
three flights of stairs.
"I thought she was still in her room with Jenn." Jessica replied
confused by the question.
"Sort of..." Natalie nervously glanced at the clock above the office,
ten to eleven, less then an hour to find Kim before lunch hour.
"Sort of?" Jessica was puzzled by the look of urgency on Natalie's face,
"Is there something wrong, Nat?"
"Maybe..." Natalie set her head on the frame of the window, "I don't
think you'll believe me if you tried."
"Well try me." Jessica stated, irritated by Natalie’s attempt to dodge
her questions, "There is nothing that can surprise me today." At this
time Kris was sitting up on the couch interested to find out what the
commotion was about.
Natalie took a deep breath, "There is a mirror double of Kim running
around the dorm and we need to find her before lunch." She blurted out
in one breath.
"A what!?!" Kris leapt over the couch unsure of what she'd just heard,
"A 'Mirror Double'?" She repeated in disbelief.
"It would seem so." Natalie said with a nod, "She approached me in my
room then attacked Nicole and disappeared. The real Kim is still in her
room sleeping so it has to be a double. She is an exact copy down to the
cut on her left ar-" She stopped abruptly then touched her own right arm
that reflected the wounds on Kim's arm.
"What is it?" Jessica quickly followed the girl with Kris closely
behind.
"How stupid of me..." Natalie muttered.
"What is wrong?" Kris repeated the inquiry.
"When I asked the double how her arm was, she rubbed her left arm."
Natalie recalled, "However, Kim was cut on the right arm."
"You certain that you didn't just dream this?" Jessica asked
suspiciously.
Natalie retold the girl's what Alyson had only recently told her and
what she experienced with the double, leaving out some of the more
incriminating details. "If we don't hurry the double will just disappear
in a crowd and we may never find her."
"Do you know how to return it to Kim?" Kris asked worriedly.
"Why would I want to do that?" Natalie asked a little disgusted at the
idea.
"You can't just remove a part of someone." Kris stated, "They will never
be the same. You might not have noticed that side of her, however it was
there, in small ways, but still there." Kris clenched at her chest, "You
can't just leave her like that."
"Well, first we need to find this double." Jessica admitted, "Then we
can figure out what to do with her." The girls nodded in agreement. They
all decided it would be best to split up and search the entire dorms and
meet back in the lobby.
****
"This is ridiculous." Jessica said as she returned to the lobby and
approached Natalie who was standing near one of the windows, "How are we
supposed to find this girl. She could be hiding anywhere in the dorms."
Kris entered the room, "I could not find her anywhere."
Natalie was in deep thought while gazing out the window, "Maybe we are
thinking too small." She leaned on the windowsill and turned her head to
the side; "If she is not in the dorm then she must be somewhere close
by." She spoke more to herself.
Alyson and Nicole came rushing in, "Have you found her?" Alyson panted,
trying to catch her breath.
"Did you discover anything?" Kris asked the girls.
"Not much," Alyson glanced over at where Natalie stood, "I found a book
that references something called 'Fragmented Reflections' that seems to
be in the right direction. It says that she might be the repressed
memories and emotions from the original Kim and that it is probably she
is scared and lost looking for something or someone she feels
comfortable around."
Natalie lowered her head, "So, she came to me and we scared her off."
She punched the frame of the window, "How stupid of me. I should have
known better."
Kris approached the girl, "How were you to know?" She asked
sympathetically.
"All she wanted was to feel safe." Natalie said ashamed of herself for
pushing the girl away, "I forgot she can sometime act that way." She
knew Kim so well and yet she didn't realize that this was her friend's
deeper side. She glanced out the window again and watched the wind
playing with the trees, "The trees!!" Natalie suddenly stood up straight
and started to head out of the dorm.
"Where are you going?" Alyson asked.
"She mentioned sitting under a tree during lunch." Natalie glanced at
the clock; "It is almost lunch time now."
"Do you think she will stay put this time?" Alyson asked, "We did attack
her..." She too felt foolish for jumping to conclusions.
"I'm not sure," Natalie said shaking her head. This Kim knew so much
about herself that Natalie should have realize it wasn't some fake,
"Have you figured out a way to put her back?" She asked, starting
towards the doors of the dorm.
"Sort of..." Alyson admitted lightly.
"Sort of?" Natalie stopped just before the door, "You either did or you
didn't?" she said baffled by the answer Alyson had given.
"Well... there wasn't much written on the subject." Alyson reiterated,
"and only so much time to research the problem. I'm certain this will
work." She said confidently, "Maybe..."
Natalie rubbed her head, "Have you ever tried to save a 'Shadow" or
whatever?" She asked not to sure about trusting her friend, "You did say
that she was a part of Kim so I don't want you to hurt her or anything."
"Don't worry so much." Alyson reassured the girl, "I promise to not harm
her in any way."
Still not certain Natalie grudgingly exited the building with the
entourage close at her heels. Before they rounded the front of the
school the lunch hour bell rang, calling the end of morning class.
Natalie doubled her pace around the Academy to the front of the school
and across the lawn. Within moments they approached a large oak and as
Natalie expected she could see the redhead's legs sticking out from
behind the tree. She signalled for the others to stop where they were
and began to step towards the girl, and stopped again, quietly she took
off the necklace. The worry in Alyson's eyes was evident however she
didn't protest verbally as Natalie handed the necklace over to her
sister.
"Hold this for me will you?" Natalie asked ever so quietly.
Nicole nodded as the necklace dropped into her small hands. She smiled
up at Alyson who forced herself to return the smile. Only when Natalie
was sure no one was following did she advance towards the redhead's
twin, whom was sitting on the ground with her back against the tree.
"So I find you again." Natalie said soft enough not to startle the girl.
"I knew you would come here." Kim said watching a couple of birds in the
sky, "You remembered after all."
Natalie slowly lowered herself beside the girl, however making sure that
she was not too close as to scare off the girl, "How could I forget? I
spent every lunch here even after you disappeared."
Kim lowered her head and gazed down at her hands, "I'm sorry... I
worried you." She said sadly, "I... I didn't mean too."
"Now, there is an understatement." Natalie chuckled lightly, "I find
your parents dead and you missing for over a year. Of course I was
worried."
"I..." Kim continued to stare at her hands, "I killed him you know..."
She whispered so quietly that Natalie almost couldn't hear her words.
Natalie turned to the girl in shock, "You did?" She said, "but I
thought..."
"He found out about our sleep over." Kim began to quiver ever so
slightly, "He got angry and pushed mom... she didn't move... then he
came after me and I... I..." She buried her face in her hands, "I am
dirty... I'm sorry... Kim even locked me away." She sobbed, "I don't
mean to be a bad girl. I just didn't want him to touch me anymore. I
couldn't stand it anymore."
Natalie lifted her arm and wrapped it around the girl's shoulder,
pulling her in close, "You are not dirty and you didn't do anything
wrong." Natalie held he girl tight, "Your father was evil and to tell
you the truth I might have killed him myself." She said bluntly.
"But..." Kim choked on a sob, trying to sort out her thoughts, "He
keeps... keeps returning... keeps coming after me. I see him in the
night... He is always waiting..." Tears streamed down her cheeks, "Nat,
I'm scared. I just wanted him to go away." She let out a deep sob and
clung onto her friend's shirt; "I'm sorry..." she wept.
"It’s alright." Natalie hushed while gently wrapping her arms around the
girl, "You are safe now. I'm sorry I was not there to save you
earlier..." Natalie let out a deep sigh then glanced up in time to see
Alyson creep around the tree, revealing a metal large hand mirror from
behind her back. Natalie became aware of what the girl was about to do a
little too late and was only able to deflect the mirror with her wrist
so it merely tapped Kim on the head instead of coming crashing down. The
mirror very heave and even with Natalie’s metal blade housing under her
sleeve the mirror hit hard enough to hurt and Natalie winced at the
sting it caused her own arm, and head, as the mirror also hit Kim in the
head.
"Owwww!!!" Kim cried out as she clenched her head.
Natalie snatched the mirror from Alyson's hands, "What do you think you
are doing?" She tossed the infernal thing to the ground and rubbed her
own head. It would have seemed that her link to the real Kim worked with
this version as well, "Was that your brilliant plan?" She growled.
"The book said you could return her to the mirror just as simply as she
appeared." Alyson explained in confusion, "I thought... I thought it
would work..." She nervously stepped backwards and glanced at the
ground.
"Well, it didn't!" Natalie snapped, "All you've done is hurt her even
more. Nice work."
"Are you alright?" Kris ran up to the girls with Jessica and Nicole at
her side. She stared down at the crying redhead in Natalie's lap, "I
guess it didn't work." Kris said shaking her head, "It seemed a little
silly to me."
"A little silly!" Natalie vented, kicking the mirror further from her,
"I can't believe she really did that." She gently and kissed the top of
the girl's head.
"So now what do we do?" Jessica inquired kneeling next to the girls,
amazed that the redhead before her wasn’t the real Kim, "We can't just
leave her running around like this."
"She is coming back with us." Natalie stated firmly, "She will stay with
me if she wishes."
"Nat?" Alyson shuffled her feet in shame.
"I don't want to talk to you right now." Natalie said without looking at
the girl.
Jessica brushed Kim's bangs out of her eyes to have her cower into
Natalie more, "How do we explain this to the Head Mistresses?" She
asked.
"We don't." Natalie answered, helping the girl to her feet, "They don't
need to know about her."
"What about the real Kim?" Alyson interjected, "She should not meet her
double."
"Did you read that in the same place you read that hitting someone with
a mirror will trap them in the mirror?" Natalie asked coldly.
"No... but..." Alyson found herself lost for words as Natalie started to
usher Kim's double back to the dorms.
Jessica rubbed the back of her head, "Things are definitely gotting to
be interesting around here." She stood up and followed Natalie to the
dorms.
Kris glanced from Alyson to Natalie and back again and took a step
closer to Alyson, "Listen, she'll get over it. It was an honest
mistake." She patted the girl on the shoulder before following the other
girls, leaving only Alyson and Nicole standing under the tree.
Nicole picked up the mirror and brushed it off, "I thought it was a good
idea." She said as she handed the mirror back to Alyson.
Alyson took it and gazed at her reflection in the mirror's surface,
"Maybe I'm the one who belongs in this." She whispered bitterly, "I'm no
better than that reflection." She turned away from the school and
started to leave the dorms.
Nicole was left standing on her own unsure if she should follow her
sister or Alyson. She sat upon the ground, curled her legs close to her
chest and stared at her sister's necklace in the palm of her hand. After
a time she slipped the pendant over her head and smiled at the way the
sun caused rainbows to appear on her shirt, "I thought it was a great
idea." She stated gazing up at the trees, "Don't you?" She asked the
branches and smiled as if someone spoke to her.
*****
To be Continued...
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