Mirror, Mirror On The Wall. (Short Story).

Downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Late September.

“The fire certainly destroyed this building, Tommy.” So replied the older man with the small notebook that he scribbled into of his own observations, “What started it?”

Tommy replied quickly, “It was an old building so probably an electric problem. These old St. Paul buildings were not exactly up to fire code.” He looked about the burnt out shell of the two story building that had once been an old antique store, “It was quite the blaze though. Took the firefighters quite the battle to put it out. As you can see parts of the second floor collapsed under the blaze.” He looked about the burnt out and chard ruins of the building, “Ah, funny thing about fire, it does act like it has a mind of it’s own.”

Paul grunted amused, “It’s not alive, Tommy. It’s just fire. It follows the fuel and nothing more. But I will say the fire certainly enjoyed these building. Do you know what it was before it became an antique shop?”

“No idea, Paul.” Tommy Jenkins looked about the room again, “Odd feeling about this place though…”

Paul laughed a bit, “It use to be a orphanage at the turn of the last century, before the First World War. It too had a fire problem.” Adding with his own glance about the building, “It’s supposedly, or was before the fire destroyed it this time, supposedly haunted. As I said it was an orphanage at the turn of the last century, not a big one, but big enough for this town back then.

Humoring the older man, “Okay, it’s haunted or was, Paul, but not anymore. Look at this mess. It will be either torn down or I guess someone will buy it for some reason.” Looking up at the huge gaps of the upstairs floor, “Probably very unsafe to go up there and see what’s up there.”

“Probably very unsafe.” Paul retorted with his own glance at the upstairs through the holes in the floor above, “But I suppose one of us will have to investigate the upper floor.”

“Doesn’t look safe for anyone over thirty pounds or less to walk on.”

Paul remained amused by something about his own weight, “Certainly wont be me. but as I was saying, it started out as an orphanage. Seemed to last a long time and for the most part it ran like any other orphanage of it’s time…”

“You said it was haunted?” He studied the older man with a smile, “I don’t really believe that places can be haunted. I suppose it’s possible but I am too much a skeptic on such things…” Looking about the room, “Though this place does make feel uneasy for some reason. It’s just a burnt out old building with a history. I felt it when I first entered the building…” Runs a hand through his hair, looks about the front entrance they occupied, “Old buildings I guess always give off that vibe I guess. They always seem the right kind of place to be haunted or at least have stories about them being haunted…”

Paul was still amused, “Who are you trying to convince, Tommy?”

Laughing at himself, “Yes, I know, I am trying to convince myself and yes I have too much imagination for this kind of job. But I really don’t believe in ghosts, Paul.”

“Well, supposedly this place was haunted by the lone victim of the first fire to try and destroy this building. And yes, if you must know, I felt the same odd feeling about this building and like you I think it’s just the fact it’s an old building and they do give off that haunted feel to the imagination.” He turned around slowly and seemed lost in a thought that again amused him, “But I must admit I do love these old buildings and their history. There’s a reason I know this buildings history because I always look up their history if their as old as this one. It’s a hobby, Tommy.”

“A weird one, Paul.”

“So my wife, Margery, tells me.” He laugh good natured as he looked about the building that has seen better days even before the fire, “Oddly enough I have been in this old shop before the fire of course. Margery likes to go antique shopping…” He seemed very briefly puzzled by something, “Odd that mirror over there, doesn’t look very much damaged by the fire…odd.”

Tommy finally noticed the mirror that did seem untouched for the most part by the fire that hung still on the wall, “How it survived is strange but how is it still nailed to the wall?” He seemed troubled by something as he continued to notice the mirror, “One would think that as bad as the fire was it would at least be cracked or something showing a dire destroyed everything in the building…”

“It looks old, very old actually. Strange as you said that it looks almost untouched by the fire.” He looked about the room again, “Well, Tommy, not our problem, it’s not our burned up stuff. We are just paid to investigate the cause of the fire and not question or wonder why a mirror seems untouched….” He was saying it but he was also avoiding looking at it, “I suspect of course in these older buildings that it was electrical in nature and that is all there is too it…” He noticed that Tommy was staring at the mirror, “Are you paying attention, Tommy?” He didn’t like the far away look in the younger fellows eyes, “Tommy, are you listening?”

Tommy seemed lost in thought but stared puzzled or something at the mirror.

“Tommy!” He spoke louder, “What the hell are you staring at?” He looked away and at the plain looking mirror, “What are you staring at?”

Tommy’s voice was low, shaking, “Don’t you hear it?”

“Hear what, Tommy?” Perplexed, “I hear nothing.”

Tommy seemed to struggle to explain it but he tried, “Um, the music….I heard music, I even recognize it. It’s a classical piece by Chopin…”

Annoyed, “Listen here, Tommy, I can take a joke…haha, very funny.” He didn’t like the look of his assistant or the idea that he might actually being having a medical problem; Tommy was always a little off he thought. “I don’t hear anything!”

He had started talking a few seconds earlier, “….”I know the piece or at least I know it when I hear it. But it started softly a bit ago and I thought I was hearing something from outside so I didn’t say anything but I hear it very well right now…” Looking at Paul with a look, “You don’t hear it, at all?”

“I don’t hear a damn thing, Tommy, this is not funny anymore.”

“Stranger that it seems to be coming from the direction of the mirror, Paul….”

“I hear nothing!” He looked over at the mirror with great hesitation, “I was only joking about the ghost of this place…”

“Why isn’t the mirror damaged, Paul? It should be damaged like everything else in this building. It’s strange that’s it’s still hanging on the wall as well.” He looked at the older man with a puzzled look, “I’m hearing music and you’re not. Ever since I walked into this building I have not liked it at all…something about it has bothered me even before you started telling me about it….” He frowned a bit, “Something about it seems familiar?” He forced a smile, “I have never been in the building before today, Paul….never.” Looking again at the mirror, “How old do you think that mirror is, Paul?”

“It’s just a mirror, Tommy.” He decided to humor the fellow, “It looks old I guess, Margery would know better it’s age. But I hear nothing.”

“Strange I would remember what I was hearing, I actually don’t remember hearing that piece but I know it. It’s Chopin Nocturne….Number two, B-Flat major…and how I know that is scaring me because I don’t remember pieces that well even when I was taking piano lessons…but I remember it like it was yesterday.” He looked about the room again, the frown came, “I, um, remember the mirror was up there…” He looked at the older man with an odd far away look, “It’s odd, but since I walked into this building….I feel, odd, well, as if I have been here before…but I don’t remember ever being here….” Abruptly, “But the mirror was upstairs. I remember it upstairs….”

Paul didn’t like the sudden change in his friends expression, “What? You’ve never been in this building, Tommy.”

Tommy seemed more interested in the mirror, “It was upstairs, next to the last bed in the upstairs room that….the fire started up there….”

“Nonsense, we know the fire started in the backroom downstairs. What is wrong with you all of a sudden, Tommy?” He noted that even Tommy’s voice was different somehow and it made him feel strangely cold, “The fire started down here…”

“…She dropped a lamp, Mary was always dropping stuff….clumsy girl….the fire just got out of control…we started screaming….running around like crazy little kids….” He was simply staring at the mirror completely still but talking quickly, his voice not quite his, “We all ran but the fire was too quick….but for some reason I stopped running….why did I stop running….it was hot, very hot all around me, the smoke stinging my eyes, everything was chaos….I ran back to my bed….” He walked toward the mirror and stared at something in the reflection that Paul could see from where he was standing; he dimply didn’t want to move.

“Tommy, back away from the mirror….”

“It was my stuffed bunny I went back for….I found her on the bed, but the flames were everywhere…it was burning everything….The flames, why did I go back….” He stepped closer to the mirror, “The mirror was upstairs, it saw it all…I remember the crack of something and the falling and then the pain of the fire and the…”

Paul had been nervously but forcefully making himself move toward the man who was staring choking back something and with a look on his face that Paul would never forget as well. It was as if he was reliving a moment he should really have had no knowledge of.

“Tommy, back away from the mirror…” He stopped cold and horrified by what he saw in the reflection and let out a short gasp of horror. “Tommy? Do you hear me?” He finally choked out.

The little girl in the mirror only stared back with dead burned out eyes staring straight at Paul. And beginning to scream.

“It hurt….the fire hurt so much…” The voice sounded almost like a little girl and it was crying in pain and lost somewhere in a terrible memory, “I just wanted my bunny….”

The little girl in the mirror stared back with out stretched hands holding nothing.

Paul grabbed Tommy and forced him out of the building and refused to look back but he could still hear the little girls voice but it was coming from Tommy. And it was screaming from the mouth of Tommy about a fire that only she could see or remember. It didn’t stop. Paul screamed back in panic and fear to stop screaming but it didn’t.

“I just wanted my bunny!”