A Mirror Image
an excerpt

Where is she? Renee looks at her watch, which has oddly stopped telling time. Ashley looks at her with a bad look in her eye. Renee walks up the stairs to the counter, pointing to the dressing room.
“She’s in the 4th door to the left.” Ashley says, her voice sounding especially high pitched and malevolent. Her lips curl into a small smirk and a shadow crosses over her eyes. Renee takes this as a chance to walk by quickly and jogs to the dressing rooms; ready to pull out a half naked Chloe if need be.
“One…two…three…four.” Renee stops in front of a red dressing room door with a strange cursive “B” on it, near the top of the door. She knocks on the door and impatiently waits for Chloe to get out of the room. After a few long moments, she bends on her hands and knees to see a dropped swimsuit and no feet.
“Oh no.” She whispers. Renee opens the door, amazed that it isn’t locked, and sees no Chloe. She looks to the left, to the store itself, then to the mirror on the left. Ashley stands in the archway, a knife in her hand and a look of death in her eye. A deep laugh comes out of her throat and she starts to run at the terrified girl.
The only thing Renee could think of doing is to get into the dressing room. She grabs the top of the door, her middle finger feeling the indent of the etched in symbol. When she latches the door in place, the symbol disappears and she starts to fall in the darkness.
She starts to fall head first, then feet first, the flips making her queasy. Her world consists of stars to water to forests to stars again. The cycle continued as she flipped to her whirlpool of death. Renee’s heart hits her ribcage and her stomach turns around in her own stomach, the feeling of nausea takes hold of her. She remembers to flatten herself out on her back, and looks up to the sky. Three moons face back at her, seemingly smiling to her.
Turning her body over, she faces the lake that Niagara Falls pours into. The darkened water ripples from another large object that had fallen in it. She is closer to the lake now, able to see the moons’ reflections clearly now. Tears stream down her heart shaped face, from the oncoming air in her eyes and from the fear of almost being killed.
Her body hits the cold water with a combination of a smack and a splash. The cold water surrounds her tired body as she begins to kick her way to the surface. She looks to the shore and sees something swimming to land, land that is currently amidst a very chaotic battle.