I groan as my eyes flutter open. It was one of those night; the bed was too warm, clothes too restricting, the silence too loud, your brain too awake. I try to shake off the night and head to the washroom, flick on the burning light and pick up my toothbrush. When I looked into the mirror my soul about left my body. I remember me screaming before hitting my head on the bathroom floor.

“Well that helps no one…” I hear coming from the counter. Nope. No way that was real. I refuse to believe I just saw… myself banging on the mirror. IN the mirror…. “Hey, are you taking a nap down there?”

I get up on my knees and peer over the counter, she… I… am standing with my arms crossed and a scowl.

“Listen to me please, I don’t have much time and I need to deliver a message.” I take a deep breath and stand up, facing her directly.

“What is it you want?” I saw trying to sound braver than I actually am.

“Is this realm 8.504?” I make to stammer out a random reply, maybe something like “live long and prosper” would do the trick but before I could she begins to giggle, “sorry, I’ve always wanted to do that, your realm hasn’t figured out about any of the others yet so you would have no idea your realm number. But this is earth right?” I feel a little insulted on behalf of my ‘realm’ but I nod.

“You have to listen to me very carefully. There is a man in your realm planning on separating you guys from the rest.”

“The rest of what?”

“The rest of every other universe, keep up.” She sighs but continues, “he doesn’t belong in your guys’ world, he’s from mine; realm 2.309, he believes worlds that haven’t yet evolved enough to understand parallel universes shouldn’t be connected to them.”

“He can’t do that.” I respond.

“He can and he’s going to.” She looks down a flash of pain across her face, “I volunteered to contact my parallel self to stop him.”

“What does that-“ she cuts me off;

“There isn’t time to explain all of this! I will help you in any way I can. Starting with you need to go to the public library.”

“The public library?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Yes! And quickly! I don’t know how much of a head start he’s gotten!” I leave the bathroom, quickly change into jeans and a sweater. I forget about breakfast but glance at my purse, I dig through it and pull out my pocket mirror and keys. Shoving both in my pockets I lock the door behind me.

I get in my car and take a moment. Am I really doing this? Going on a random goose chase like a little kid? Believing in another universe just because I saw a reflection.

I flip open the mirror, giving it a moment, worry creeping up that she won’t appear and I really was just going crazy but she does. She’s standing as perfect as she was in my bathroom mirror.

“Okay I’m on my way over there.” I start the car and head down the road, I know the way to the library but I’ve never gone for such an extreme reason. It was only about a ten minute drive away. “So am I allowed to ask why you’re taking me to the library?”

“Time works differently between realms, he got a two hour head start before we were able to create something to warn your world. Two hours might have been two years here.”

“This is insane…” I hold the mirror like a cellphone, noting how weird or self centred I look to other drivers.

“Yes, he might have gone by a different name but we are finding anything about what he is doing. In order for him to separate your world from the rest he has to destroy a mirror.”

“A mirror?” I raise my eyebrow, side eyeing her but her face stays unchanged.

“Not just any mirror, there’s a mirrored pool that exists somewhere in a body of water. A lake, an ocean, a river. It would be considered a freak of nature but have some form of science backing it but it belongs to the mirror realm.”

I struggle to comprehend this idea, I try to make sense of it but am given more information each time I even start.

“The mirror realm is what I’m in currently, there’s a mirror going to every single universe, it’s an in-between place that connects us all. The connection we are using is very small but the connection from that pool could quite literally bring me into your world.”

“Is that how he got in?”

“Yes, which means there is something about his discovery of it.”

“What if he never released it?”

“He has to. Otherwise he couldn’t get the tools he needs.” I nod as I make my finally turn, not searching for a place to park.

Satisfied with it I get out and head inside, still holding the mirror.

I feel myself deflate, the library is huge. Two stories with thousands of books and hundreds of people.

“How are we going to find one book about a special underwater pool?” I ask searching for a section that matches, I stop in front of ‘Discoveries’ and begin scanning the shelf. I hear a thud and look beside me, a book laid on the floor a few steps away from me. I pick it up and read the cover ‘bodies of water and aquatic discoveries’

“How did you…”

“I can do more than just give advice and lore.”

I roll my eyes, find a table and begin reading. Finding the section on pools and flipping the pages until one catches my eye. I open it to that and see a massive green pool surrounded by dark water. I read about it, the discovery of an underwater pool. I flipped the page and I saw it:

Mark Allan discovered an underwater pool while hiking near the shore of South America. He volunteered to then lead a group of people to study the lake and noting its large concentration of algae, salts and minerals. The lake isn’t swim able but claims have been made about the rocks underneath. A study was approved to drill to the bottom and collect samples.

“This is it! That drill seems harmless enough but just it piercing the surface will separate your universe.”

“But this is all so, sciency… how am I supposed to stop him from it?” We think and ponder this for a moment… I could find someone who knew what they were talking about, maybe they could stop it.

“What about reporting in?”

“Reporting in?”

“He needs that drill to break through right? If it’s found the lake should NOT be drilled then they can’t. It could buy us time, even years based on how long it takes them to re-decide.” I ignore the sly comment but she isn’t half wrong. Anyone could make an anonymous report, there was just one issue.

“Yeah but I’m not knowledgeable enough in this topic to make a report.”

“Don’t worry, I do. I’ve spent my whole life in labs, it’s what my parents did and the reason i volunteered for this experiment. Just write down everything I say.”

I hop onto one of the library computers and begin the email, I type everything she says. Even to me it sounds professional, if I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought she had done hours of research. Something about the minerals preserving the rocks and exposed to oxygen could destroy the entire phenomenon.

An hour or so later I sent over the report and let out a breathe.

“Well I guess that’s that.” I hear coming from the mirror I set down on the table.

“Guess you gotta head back to your own world huh?” I stretch but it’s silent on the other end, “right?”

“I can’t go back… we were only able to figure a way to get inside, not to get out.”

“That can’t… you can’t be trapped in that mirror realm forever!”

“Until my parents can find a way to get me out but like I said, time works differently. Especially in here. I could be here for hundreds of years.”

My heart sinks. Before this morning I never even knew there were other universes and here was my alternate self, sentencing herself to a life of solitude for someone she never knew.

There was a lot more to this world than I ever knew.