Took us a week to finally get our leaves accepted by the top brass. Stating that it was a 'family trip', we prepared to look for our old professor. Didn't take us long to find him. His house had the highest fence in the neighbourhood, with barbed wire on top to boot.
We rang the intercom at the entrance.
BZZZZTTTT!
No response.
BZZZZT! BZZZZZT! BZZZZZTTTTTTT!!!
We could hear some shouting coming from within the house. Which was astounding, given the thickness of the walls. Guess the old man never changes. His voice came over the intercom.
"What? Who is it? If it's you brats again, I swear I'll...."
"Professor, it's me, Donald."
There was a pause.
"Alice is here too."
"Heya professor!"
More silence. Then a soft voice came from the intercom.
"I'll be right there."
Suddenly, the thick wooden door of his house opened. The man that appeared almost couldn't be recognized. He was already thin before, but now he's almost like a stick. His clothes were sagging off of him, and the cap that he wore was a bit too small for his bald head.
But I saw a sight that I thought I would never see in my life. He was smiling, with a smile that I never saw before in all the times I was under his care.
There was an almost awkward silence as he approached us and opened the gate. Then Alice decided to break it by rushing over to him and giving him a hug.
"Professor! How are you? You've lost so much weight you know!"
"Yes, my dear, I haven't exactly been eating well. You seem to be doing well enough though."
Then he looked at me.
"What are you standing there for, my boy? Come in, come in!"
The two of us went into the house, and was led into the pantry area. Stanton served us some tea, then sat down with us.
"Ooooh my, how many years has it been? Are you two still with the Research Centre?"
We could see that he frowned a bit the moment he mentioned the place.
"Yes, we are, and actually...that's kind of related to why we're here today."
"But I've been out of the field for so long, I don't think I can help you much here."
"Actually, Donald and I feels that you're the ONLY person who can help us on this."
Stanton adjusted his glasses, and looked at us with an incredibly familiar expression. This was the face of the researcher we knew. It's as if the kind grandpa behavior earlier was just a ruse.
"Mirror-men. You researched this, didn't you?"
"What of it? No one believed me. I was even kicked out of the Centre for this."
"I believe I saw them, professor."
He stood up, and slammed his hands on the table.
"What did you just say? Say it again!"
"I think I saw it, professor. But we need your confirmation on what exactly is a mirror-man to know further."
"How sure are you that you saw it?"
"We're very sure, professor. Here's a camera recording of Donald's encounter with one."
As he watched the recording, first his face was wide with disbelief. However, it soon turned into a smile, and then an unexpected laugh.
"Finally! Proof of my theory!"
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Stanton dragged out his whiteboard from within his storeroom. How he manages to store one inside his house, I'll never know. But then again, his house is ridiculously huge.
He got to work explaining the mirror-men to us.
He drew two black lines on the whiteboard.
"Imagine that these are parallel dimensions."
"Alright, simple enough."
"It gets more difficult from here. Try to imagine that in these parallel dimensions, we are doing the exact same thing. Everyday when we wake up, what we do, where we go. Exactly the same between us and our...other selves in this other dimension."
"Hence the name mirror-men?"
"No. Please keep quiet unless you want me to toss this marker at your face like I did in class."
Alice giggled.
"The main reason they are called mirror-men is because of...well, mirrors. What we see in those mirrors, isn't ourselves. It's them. It's our other self. Doing the same thing as us, at the exact same time, with the exact same behavior and results. We think the mirror shows our reflection, but it isn't. It's another version of us."
"Wait wait wait. You can throw a marker at me if you want, but I have to ask this. So all along, all of those mirrors in our house, in all households around the world, are showing our other selves from a different dimension? But that's...just not possible! It goes against what a mirror actually is!"
"Well, what IS a mirror? When was it created? Its history goes back so far long, there's no way to know for sure. Who was it that originally said that mirrors are only objects that shows our reflections? Come on, boy, you work at the Fringe Science Centre! Your job is to question the possibility of things!"
It almost felt as if I was back in class. But he was right. There are no possibilities in my line of work. Seeing that I've already calmed down, he continued.
"Here comes the worrying part. There is only one reason why your other self is doing something different than you. The sync between our dimensions are wrong."
"Sync?"
"That's the only word I can use to describe it. It's what ensures that our two dimensions are perfectly parallel, that both us and our other self is doing the exact same thing at the same time. Now it's getting out of sync."
I kept silent as I tried to digest his words.
"How often are these sightings?"
"I first saw it around 4 months ago. Then it happened again 2 months ago. Then a month after that. Last time I saw it was last week."
Stanton paced around the room, mumbling to himself. Then he looked at me.
"The sightings are becoming more and more frequent. The sync is getting worse. Quick, there's no time! We have to head back to the Centre and come up with a way to stop it from happening!"
"Stop what, exactly?"
"What do you think will happen when the sync comes completely off? Everyone would notice. Chaos will happen on the streets. Even now, I believe that there are countless people around the world seeing this, but is regarded as crazy people. And then there's the risk of invasion."
"Invasion?"
"Yes, by our other selves. You see, I believe that this sync also acts as some sort of barrier. Otherwise, the moment we touch the mirror, we'd touch our other selves. Makes sense that there must be something stopping us from doing so, correct? Hence there has to be a barrier of sorts. But with the weakening of the sync, this barrier will also be weakened, and I fear that it would be completely broken soon."
"Okay, one last question, before we go."
"What? We have no time for more idle chatter."
"This is really important to me, professor, I have to know this."
Realizing the seriousness in my eyes, Stanton nodded.
"Go on then."
"Why me? Why can't Alice see it? Why can't other people see it?"
"When were you born, Donald?"
"1980, why?"
"Where?"
"England. Why are you asking this?"
"England, England. 1980...were your parents near the town of Flixborough?"
"Why yes, how did you know that?"
"There was an explosion at a chemical plant there at 1974. I believe that your parents must have inhaled some of the chemical gases, and that caused you to be unnaturally sensitive to your other self. This caused the differences."
"But how did you know about that explosion in that town, professor?"
"Well, Alice...I was originally from that town."
"Wait, so you....!"
"Yes, Donald, I can see it too. How else would I have known about this enough to research about it in the first place? Now let's get into the car."
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It was a long drive back to the Centre. Due to some of the health problems the professor had gotten due to his age, we had to make multiple stops. A two-day journey became a week-long affair.
Finally, we were back at the Centre. The moment we entered, a lot of the staff gasped at the sight of us. Actually, it wasn't really us, but more on Stanton. Everyone knew about Stanton, his findings basically catapulted the Centre to fame.
A guard came forward, seemingly about to drag him back out like what happened so many years ago. I stepped up front, ready to somehow defend the old professor. Suddenly, the guard stopped right in front of me.
"Professor Stanton, Donald, and Alice. The chief wants to meet you."
We looked at each other, and nodded. While it was weird that he wants to talk to us on his own accord, it saved us the time to schedule a meeting with him. This was as good a time as any to talk to the chief about it.
As we entered, the chief looked stern, starting at his computer screen.
"Stanton. Never thought I'd see you again."
He turned his chair around and looked at us.
"You've lost weight, old man."
"Still standing, kid."
"Hmph. Enough chatter, come look at this."
On his screen were countless reports and documents. It made even my eyes cringe a bit.
"These are all reports of people seeing...things in the mirror. According to the reports, their reflections are not doing what they are doing. I remember you researched about 'mirror-men' before, right?"
"Yes, before you scrapped the damn thing and dragged me out like a piece of trash. AFTER ALL I'VE DONE FOR THIS CENTRE!"
Stanton's voice boomed across the room. Alice approached him and comforted him down. He can't afford to have outbursts like this every time, not with his current condition.
"...I'm sorry about that I did. I was younger then, naive. I didn't believe in what you said."
"Well, how about now?"
"I have to. My wife...she says she's seeing this as well."
We all sat down, and discussed about the incidents.
"How often are these sightings?"
"They came in about 2 week ago. Things would be quiet for a couple of days, then reports came in again. Now they're coming in almost every day."
As if suddenly realizing something, Stanton stood up when he heard that.
"We're too late. It's starting. We're too late!"
"What's too late?"
He turned and looked at me.
"The sync! It's already broken! As the sightings become more and more often, it meant that the sync is getting weaker and weaker, reducing the delay it took for a sighting. And now that it's happening everyday..."
"It would mean that the delay could be hours or even minutes by now."
"And the barrier is...broken."
We all were silent. The ringing of the chief's mobile phone broke the silence.
"Samantha? What's happening? Did you see it again?"
As he heard his wife's voice from the other side, the chief dropped the phone onto the floor.
"Samantha...she's saying that...that a hand reached out from beyond the mirror."
"The invasion...has started."
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