First posted August 2023.

Author's Note

Over on Ko-fi, I'm part of a group called the Author Avengers - a group of authors supporting each other's work and spreading the word so others can find them. We're trying something a little different for August, and we're all writing a little something for the same prompt, plus sharing everyone's responses at the end of the month.

Here's the prompt for this month:

One day, you decide to put two mirrors in front of each to find out what that looks like; it was cool at first, but then you notice SOMETHING in the reflection, and it looks like it's coming right towards you...

Mirrors cannot lie. Truth, so easily shadowed in the world of dreams and illusions, cannot be hidden from the mirror’s cold reflection. Every day she asked the mirror the same question, and every day the answer stared her back in the face. Until, one day, the raven hair curled just so, the blood-red lips parted like this, and the answer was someone else.

Mirrors cannot lie, she thought as a dry, sour taste filled her mouth. She flew to her dressing room, grabbed the silver-handled mirror from the vanity, and ran back down the hall. With her back to the mirror on the wall, she held the smaller mirror in front of her, staring wide-eyed at the reflection over her shoulder.

Mirrors cannot lie, and so the queen saw herself, face pocked with sores, hair unkempt and stringy. In terror, she touched her own skin and felt the smooth flesh sink under her dry fingertips, sinews stretching and shrinking into a spectre of living death. From behind her, a gnarled hand reached towards the glass, and the surface rippled as the long, yellow nails broke the barrier.