Alex had to admit, the shop was a lot bigger than he'd thought it would be. Probably a lot bigger than it needed to be, too, considering it was just a novelty store. The customer base for crystal balls and tacky "magic boardgames" was only so large. How did they even stay open?
"Maybe we should just go. This place seems like a bust," his brother Paul said loudly. Loud enough for the squat, friendly-looking person behind the counter to hear. Alex winced. He hated it when Paul did that. Yelled out provocations right in front of strangers. Luckily, the owner seemed not to hear him.
"Shhh," Alex said, a finger pressed firmly against his lips. "Do you want us to get thrown out?" He hissed.
"Yes!" Paul exclaimed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Alex shook his head. He didn't understand his brother, and he likely never would. They'd been born a year apart, and they looked so similar people often mistook them for twins, but they couldn't be more different. Paul was brash and abrasive and...spontaneous. Alex was none of those things. At best, you could call him cautious, but the truth was he was just a wimp. He never spoke up, especially not for himself. If it weren't for the constant presence of his brother, he'd probably just fade into the background. Alex Madison was no-one, and even though he was currently studying business at college, he probably would be forever.
"Seriously? You're the one who wanted to go in here in the first place!"
Paul shrugged carelessly.
"Yeah, because I thought it sounded cool. I mean, c'mon. 'The Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday'? I couldn't pass that up."
"So, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
"Why are you in such a hurry to stay?"
Alex groaned and threw up his hands.
"Whatever. Just...let me give this place one last pass. Hey, I might see your birthday present in here."
Paul looked like that was the last thing he wanted.
"Seriously?"
Alex shrugged.
"Stick around and find out!"
And with that, Alex was off. This place might have been full of gag gifts, but it had a nice atmosphere. Like, literally. He was pretty sure the owner had been burning incense earlier in the morning. It smelled sweet and delicate, a little bit like a flower shop. Not that he'd ever actually been inside a flower shop. He wasn't that romantic.
Alex let his eyes wander along the shelves. There were six different aisles cutting through the main body of the shop, along with a number of shelves along the back wall. Most of the stuff on the shelves were unremarkable knick-knacks. Boxes with strange labels, the aforementioned crystal balls, and some more modern stuff, like toasters and old cellphones the size of his head. Nothing too interesting. He moved towards the very back corner of the shop, into a space that had seemingly been cleared out specifically to house mirrors. Large mirrors, small mirrors, ornate mirrors, simple mirrors... they had it all.
It was kinda surprising to Alex to see something in this place that people could actually use. Well, maybe that was a little harsh. It still seemed out of place, though.
One mirror in particular caught his eye. If asked, he couldn't have said why, but there was just something about it. An aura that drew him in. Almost...mystical. It was nothing special to look at, just reflective glass set into a simple wooden frame, but it was entrancing all the same. There were some kind of symbols carved into the wood, symbols that Alex couldn't quite decipher.
"Huh," he said, craning his neck sideways in an attempt to get a better look at the symbols.
A tap on the shoulder made him jump. "Ahhhh!"
The owner put a hand over their mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry for the scare, young man. I just noticed your fascination with the mirror."
Alex raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah?"
The owner, who Alex could now tell was a old woman, nodded. "Indeed. That's a very special mirror, you know. Created by students as a way of investigating the many mysteries of other human beings. Very, very special."
Alex nodded slowly, wondering if this woman was nuts.
"Used correctly, this mirror allows you to change your body and life with a snap of your fingers. To literally live in someone else's shoes for a while. Or possibly forever, should you so choose. I would be careful with this one, though. Each life it presents to you has some kind of...flavor, for lack of a better word. They can cloud your mind, make you behave in ways you normally wouldn't. That can be frightening, for some. It also has a tendency to...wander off."
Okay, she was definitely nuts.
"Um...thanks. But I don't think I'll be buying it."
She shook her head, a smile dimpling her cheeks.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I don't want to sell it to you. What would be the point? This one has already decided on you. It would be criminal of me to keep you two apart. Have it. Take it with you."
Alex gaped. She was really gonna give this thing away? It looked expensive. And he could use a full body mirror like this one at home. His last one had broken when Paul had used it as a sled last winter.
"Thanks, lady!" He grinned.
She waved him off. "It's nothing. Nothing at all. Just have fun with it. And keep a close eye on it. Seriously."
Alex ignored the last part and picked the mirror up with both hands before slinging it under his shoulder. He might be a wimp, but that didn't mean he didn't have time to hit the gym every once in a while. He gave the owner a thumbs up before heading out the door.
"Thanks again, lady!"
She just smiled and waved.
'Well, that went well,' Alex thought as he joined his brother who was already standing outside the shop.
"Woah, what'd you get?"
"What does it look like? A mirror, man."
"...Why?"
"Because you broke the last one?"
"No, why do you need a mirror in the first place?"
"So I can see what I look like? In different outfits?"
"Dude, no offense, but you don't look like anything. Why would you care?"
Alex rolled his eyes and carefully placed the mirror in the back of their dad's jeep. He sincerely hoped it wouldn't break back there. Magic or not, breaking a mirror was seriously bad luck.
Paul said no more about the mirror, choosing instead to focus on the drive home. He made some rude comments about passing pedestrians and other drivers, as per usual. Nothing too bad.
Orion Valley was a mid-sized town in a mid-sized state. It was a bit closer to a city than a town honestly, except for the fact their closest neighbor was a few miles away. Perks of living in Nevada. They got home in a few minutes with no real traffic to speak of.
Their house wasn't anything remarkable. Two floors, a basement, four bedrooms, two bathrooms....pretty typical. Actually, it'd be more correct to say that it was their parents house. Yep, Alex still lived with mom and dad at the age of 19. He'd nearly moved out two months ago, but college had proven to be enough of a money sink that he was forced to stay here, with his brother, the high school senior, and his sister, the middle-schooler. He'd say Kate was cool, but he honestly didn't know her well enough to make a judgment on that front.
Paul turned off the car and practically sprinted through the front door. Alex just shook his head and got to work on extracting the mirror from the back. Luckily, it hadn't cracked or broken on the way home. No thanks to Paul's driving, of course. Very carefully, he lifted the mirror up and above all the junk gathered in the back, swinging back down beneath his arm.
He trundled up the three small steps to the door and held it open with his left shoulder while he shimmied both the mirror and himself into the house. He was greeted by the sight of his sister sitting on the steps up to his room, chin resting on the palms of her hands. She looked a little...sad?
"Hey Kate! You okay?"
She shook her head glumly.
"What's wrong?"
She shrugged.
"You can tell me anything. You know that, right?"
"No, I can't. No one listens to me!"
With that, she stormed off, presumably to her own room. Alex shrugged. If she really needed help, she'd find someone. Probably Paul. She seemed closer to Paul than anyone. Maybe it was because she liked skating. That was a sport, right?
"Honey, don't forget to clean the bathroom today! It's way overdue!" His mom called up from the living room. She spent most of her time in the living room after the accident. Her leg was still in a cast. Dad was working overtime to make up for the loss of revenue. He would probably be at work 'til 11:00. That's how it tended to go most days, anyway.
"Got it!" Alex called down. He was really not looking forward to that. Why couldn't Paul do it? Oh, right, he was the big basketball star on the school team. He had to practice with his friends later.
Alex squeezed through the tight hallway that housed both his bedroom and his brother's, along with the entrance to the second bathroom-- the one that needed cleaning. It stank. He was pretty sure Paul had just used it, which was-- how? God, he just lived to make Alex's life just that little bit more difficult, didn't he?
Alex stepped over a tangle of wires as he entered his room. All his consoles and his PC were all gathered around one cabinet, upon which was stacked several monitors/television sets. He even had a blu-ray player AND a VHS. Talk about a blast from the past. But some movies you could only find on VHS. None of them were classics, but they were still worth watching.
His room was just as messy as you'd expect. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Just about the only neat thing in the room was his bed, and that only because his dad had impressed upon him the importance of maintaining a neat sleeping area. He kicked dirty t-shirts and shorts away from a corner of the room and set the mirror down on the beige carpet.
As soon as he did, it seemed to shimmer.
He blinked, certain that he was seeing things. Nope. It was definitely shimmering. A feeling of uneasiness formed in the pit of his stomach. Maybe that lady hadn't been messing with him. Maybe there was such a thing as real magic. What had she said? Change your life and body with the snap of your fingers?
Maybe that wouldn't be so bad...might even be better than being the bland, dull person he was at the moment...now he was deeply curious.
Eyes fixed on his unremarkable reflection in the mirror, he raised his fingers high, ready to snap at a moment's notice. Was he really going to do this? What would happen if he did?