LXXXV
I fell asleep in one of the old rooms, newly renovated as my bedroom. I had updated the furniture to my own taste, as I had the cash to do it. I had planned just a normal afternoon. Gone with the dreary velvet curtains, and the dead animals on the walls.
The other rooms still had the museum quality in it, but this was the first room in the mansion I had made my own. It was a bright breezy robin's egg blue and cream with ceramic accents and nothing dead. I kept a few accent mirrors to tie in the rest of the house, mostly small ones, and one large one to twirl around my new outfits in. I put away the silver dress and boots in the closet with bittersweet memories.
I cleaned and dusted the rest of the house, a kerchief in my hair, wearing a "Kidnap me to Mallorca," T shirt in bright green and denim shorts. It was the most relaxed I'd felt in days.
A sharp, squeal‑like shriek burst out of the library mirror as I dusted it. The rag slipped from my fingers. I stumbled back, heart hammering, breath catching in my throat.
The mirror in my pocket lit up at the same time, blazing like a halogen bulb.
The hat‑man leapt off the table, fur exploding outward, eyes going molten gold. He crouched low, ears flat, tail lashing like a whip.
"Danger! Earth woman!"
The voice wasn't spoken aloud.
It detonated inside my skull.
A familiar alien voice, the shadow‑beings, the ones who had once used my great‑aunt's mirror to steal her soul. The ones who had tethered me once. The same ones who had pledged to make amends as I was returned to this dimension, had just contacted me in the most annoying way possible.
"Your dimension is being invaded by the shades of the dead!"
The bedroom mirror rippled like water.
Then a long‑limbed, cloaked alien leaned through the surface, not stepping out, but pressing its face against the boundary like a swimmer against glass.
Its form was all angles and darkness, its limbs too long, its cloak shifting like billows of smoke.
"There is no time to waste," it said, its voice vibrating inside your bones. "We came to warn you."
The hat‑man growled, low and lethal.
The alien continued, urgency crackling through every syllable.
"The council of the shade realm has gathered enough soul energy to break into your dimension through the mirrors of your world."
My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit.
"They have found you," the alien said, "through your soul resonance to their world… and through the hat‑man's power signature."
The hat‑man hissed, tail puffing, claws scraping the hardwood floor.
The alien bowed its head, a gesture of guilt, of apology.
"We come as atonement," it said. "For taking your tethered soul once. For the harm we caused. For the imbalance we created."
The mirror pulsed again like a warning beacon.
Your robin's‑egg blue sanctuary suddenly felt too bright, too exposed, too fragile.
The alien's voice dropped to a whisper.
"They are coming."
The hat‑man stepped in front of you, his shadow stretching unnaturally long across the floor.
"Darling," he murmured, voice low and dangerous, "it seems your government liaisons are about to earn their pay."
The mirror shuddered. The house felt like it was holding its breath.
Cole and Beef didn't knock so much as attack the door, two synchronized thuds that rattled the frame. I yanked it open and immediately dragged both of them inside by their sleeves.
They didn't ask questions or hesitate. Cole and Beef drew their guns in one fluid motion.
"Library," I hissed, already sprinting.
Beef thundered behind like a freight train. Cole moved like a shadow, light on his feet, eyes scanning every corner. The hat‑man darted ahead, fur bristling, tail puffed like a bottlebrush.
We skidded into the library.
And there it was.
The alien, familiarly long‑limbed, and cloaked, its silhouette bending wrong angles, hovered behind the largest mirror, its form pressed against the glass like a creature trying to breach the surface.
Cole swore under his breath, a soft, horrified little oh hell no.
Beef's gun dipped a fraction.
"Ma'am," he said, voice low, "what is that?"
I didn't flinch.
"Not a what, Mr. Beef. A who. That is one of the aliens you all wanted to contact."
The alien's limbs twisted anxiously, its cloak rippling like smoke caught in a storm.
"Ah," it said, voice vibrating through the mirror, "I see it is wise that you brought backup. This matter may involve the very fate of your world."
Cole muttered, "Fantastic," in a tone that suggested this was not fantastic at all.
Beef's eyes were locked on the creature, but his stance shifted — not fear, but readiness. He looked like he was preparing to punch the mirror if necessary.
The alien leaned closer, its face a shifting void.
"We came to warn you," it said. "Your dimension is being invaded by the shades of the dead."
Cole's grip tightened on his gun.
Beef whispered, "Shades of the dead…?"
The alien scientist pulled open a panoramic view of the shade world I had been in for a while. The church, the graveyard, the grey dead ground, it was all there. Shades of all sorts rose, their wirey fleshless forms shimmering like shifts in the half-light of the myriad sky mirrors. An army of the dead and fading. At their head, the council, nearly livng in their robust forms. Someone had convinced all the shades in the land to gather. At the head a great mirror had been assembled from thousands of mirror pieces, all attuned to the living realm, my realm.
They were set for an invasion.
"When are they coming? How are we going to stop this..." Cole asked.
I had the same question.