MidReal Story
Parallel Realms: Embracing Shadows and Light
Scenario: "It is said that there are positive and negative sides to the world. How nice it would be if you ran into that healthy one of me." "In that world, maybe there's a weaker me that needs her care?"
Create my version of this story
With a jerk, I sat up in bed, my heart pounding.
I glanced around the room, but everything appeared to be in place.
I didn’t see any broken glass on the floor, and my mirror was still whole.
So what had made the noise?
What had caused me to wake up in a panic like that?
Maybe it had just been a dream.
I’d been having some strange dreams lately—more like nightmares, really—and that could have been one of them.
I pressed a hand to my forehead, trying to will myself back to sleep.
I must have fallen back asleep because when I woke up again, soft sunlight was streaming through the windows, casting warm shadows across my bedroom floor.
Shaking my head, I climbed out of bed and walked toward my bathroom, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
But then something caught my eye.
I spun around and gasped in shock.
My mirror was shattered, just like I’d thought it was last night.
I walked closer to it, unsure how I hadn’t seen it when I’d first woken up.
The glass was completely broken into a million pieces.
Maybe the noise hadn’t been a dream after all.
Maybe my mirror really had shattered last night, and I’d just imagined seeing it whole when I woke up in the middle of the night.
But .
I stared at the pieces of glass on the floor.
At least half of them were still missing from the mirror frame.
So if I hadn’t knocked over my mirror last night, what could have made that noise?
Feeling a shiver run down my spine, I walked back into the bathroom and turned on the sink.
It was probably just nothing, I told myself.
There was no reason to get freaked out over some silly noise in the middle of the night.
And yet, as I looked at myself in the mirror while washing my face, I couldn’t help but feel a wave of unease wash over me.
Maybe it would be better if we left for New York early this year after all.
I glanced at myself in the mirror and sighed.
It wasn’t as if I was trying to look good or anything—I’d only just woken up, after all—but even still, I couldn’t help but feel like I looked awful.
My long blonde hair was matted and tangled around my shoulders, and there were dark circles under my blue eyes.
My skin was splotchy and pale, and even though I’d lost fifteen pounds after being sick earlier this year, I still had curves in all the places a girl didn’t want to have curves.
I didn’t look terrible—just not as good as I felt like I should after all the work I put into looking my best.
All things considered, it was no wonder Ryan never looked at me twice.
My sister Lily was so much prettier than I was—and so much more glamorous.
The only thing we had in common was our height and our smiles.
If you covered everything else up and just looked at our faces, you might even think we were identical twins.
But that was where the similarities ended.
I could hear my sister moving around a little bit in the bathroom next door to mine.
I wondered what she was doing up so early.
Usually she slept until almost noon on the weekends and then took hours getting ready for whatever event or party she was going to that night.
I still had half an hour before we were supposed to meet Mom for breakfast downstairs.
I quickly rinsed off my face and body and then got dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
I grabbed my purse and walked out the door.
Lily was standing in the hallway waiting for me when I arrived.
She was dressed to the nines as usual, her long brunette hair cascading down her back.
She was wearing a tight red dress that showed off her beautiful curves and a pair of heels that made her five-foot-seven frame look statuesque.
“Hey,” I said.
“You’re up early.”
“I was just excited about going shopping today,” she replied with a smile.
“I can’t wait to get some new clothes for the trip.”
“I know,” I said with a laugh.
Lily rolled her eyes.
But you’re definitely going to need some new clothes before we go.
You look like you’re about to go work in the garden, not spend a week in one of the most iconic cities in the world.”
“Shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” she said, grinning from ear-to-ear.
“You already look like a supermodel.”
“Not even close,” I replied.
“Let’s go.”
We walked down the stairs and met Mom in the hotel restaurant.
She made small talk with us until our food arrived, and then she launched into her usual lecture about how important it was for us to make a good impression in New York—and not just because Dad was there.
“Remember what happened last time,” she said, lifting an eyebrow at me.
I felt my cheeks grow hot.
It wasn’t my fault Lily had gotten sick last time, and it wasn’t my fault that Ryan had dropped me like a hot potato once he realized he couldn’t have her.
But I supposed it was better than if he’d never loved me at all.
Maybe the best thing that had ever happened to me was him breaking up with me.
It had been a rough year, but at least I’d been able to move on.
And now we were back in New York, and I was determined not to make the same mistakes again.
When we left the restaurant, Lily and I said good-bye to Mom and then took off for the mall.
After we’d been there for a few hours, we were walking past a shoe store when something caught my eye.
I glanced at the storefront window, wondering if I’d seen one of my friends outside.
But instead of seeing one of my friends, I saw myself.
A perfect version of myself.
She was beautiful—breathtakingly so.
Her hair was long and blonde and shiny, her skin was completely blemish free, and she was smiling at me with her big blue eyes.
She was wearing a tight red dress that showed off her curves exactly the way they were supposed to be shown off.
But even more than that, there was something about her that made me feel .
as if I weren’t good enough.
I stepped closer to the glass, wondering if it was some kind of trick.
But she stepped closer to me too.
I took a step back.
I tried to look away, but I couldn’t.
Her eyes were so beautiful—so full of warmth.
I was shocked when she raised her hand and pressed it against the other side of the glass.
“Lily,” I called.
She was standing beside me now, staring at the girl in the window.
“Do you see that?”
I asked her in a whisper.
“Do you see her?”
Lily shook her head.
“Is something wrong?”
I turned back to the window and saw that my double was still there.
“Can you talk?”
I asked her.
But before she could answer, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned around and found a short woman with curly hair staring up at me with wide eyes.
“You can see her?”
she asked me.
“Of course,” I replied.
The woman glanced behind her and then stepped closer to me.
“I’m your negative half,” she said in a low voice.
“I need your help.”
She raised her eyes to mine and gave me a pleading look.
“Please,” she said.
And then she pushed past me and Lily and ran away through the mall.
“What was that?”
Lily asked me as soon as the woman was gone.
“Did you know her?”
I shook my head.
“I thought it was one of my friends at first,” I said. “But it wasn’t.”
We went home after that, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something strange had happened at the mall.
When we got home, I went straight to my room and turned on the lights, half expecting my double to be waiting for me there too.
But instead of seeing her, I saw myself—looking tired and bleary-eyed in my dirty old work clothes that were two sizes too big.
I sighed and walked over to my bed to collapse into it.
But just as my head hit the pillow, something happened that made me jump up again.
The light on my vanity turned itself on.
I stared at it for a moment, wondering if I’d accidentally left it on before.
But I knew I hadn’t.
I went over to the vanity and sat down in my chair.
And that’s when I saw her.
My perfect double.
She stepped out of the mirror and smiled at me, but this time I didn’t smile back.
“Who are you?”
I asked her.
“I told you,” she said, stepping closer to me.
“I’m your positive half.”
She stared down at my hands, which were resting on the table in front of me, and then she raised her eyes to mine.
“You can fix this,” she said gently.
“You can make this all go away.”
“What do you mean?”
I asked, feeling a little defensive.
She didn’t have to remind me of what my negative half had been doing to people for so long.
She didn’t have to remind me that I’d let things get out of control, or that I’d let my negative half use me as a shield for so many bad decisions.
“It’s not too late,” she said gently, as if reading my thoughts.
“You can let me help you.”
“Why would you want to help me?”
She smiled at me again, but it wasn’t a happy smile—it was a sad one.
“I just want you to be happy,” she said.
“You’re so unhappy right now.”
“That’s not true,” I said, trying not to let her see that she’d hit a nerve with me.
But she could see it anyway, and she nodded at me as if to say, “See, I told you so.”
“You need to take better care of yourself,” she said.
“What are you talking about?”
I asked, looking down at myself again.
There was nothing wrong with me.
But then I looked at her, and I realized that there was something wrong with me—there was something very wrong with me.
The skin on my hands was pale and dry—almost sickly looking—and my nails were broken and dirty.
My clothes were old and ratty, and my hair was all knotted up in tangles from where I’d been lying down.
I looked even worse than usual, and it was all because I hadn’t taken care of myself.
I kept telling myself that there wasn’t enough time or money, but it wasn’t true—I just didn’t care enough to try.
I sighed as her words sank in, feeling ashamed of how far I’d let things get before this moment finally came.
It was too late for me now, though—my life was already ruined.
And even though it wasn’t my fault, part of me knew that it could have been different if I’d tried harder.
“Why are you here?”
I asked her, trying not to let her see how upset I was getting now.
“Why are you saying all of this?”
“Because you can change,” she said simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“But it won’t be easy,” she added after a moment’s pause.
“But you can do it.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I said bitterly, remembering all of the things that had gone wrong before.
“You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
“But that’s all in the past,” she said, shaking her head as if it was obvious.
“The future is still ahead of you, and there’s still time to change.”
“But what about everything else?”
I asked her, gesturing around me at the ruined room and the broken mirror.
“What am I supposed to do about all of this?”
She didn’t have an answer for me this time, and I could see the doubt in her eyes when she looked away from me to stare into the mirror behind us.
“I don’t know,” she said after a moment’s pause.
“But you have to try.”
There was no use arguing with her—I could see that in her eyes.
But there was one thing I still had to say to her, even though it might be too late for me now.
“I can’t change who he is,” I said quietly.
“He’s always going to be like this, no matter what I do.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized how foolish they sounded—how much they sounded like excuses.
