01 – Step inside the mirror, see what’s there

“So, they basically only replied to me because I sent the email from my work address!”

Jacob was playing games on his laptop, sitting uncomfortably on the hard, wooden chair that was too high for the table it was under. His legs barely fit in the narrow space that was left, and his arms were too far high to play comfortably even if the laptop was on its elevated base. The fans of said base were broken, they stopped turning a long time ago, but still it was a handy thing that allowed him to not strain his neck.

“I don’t know?”

“Oh, and when will we know, uh?”

He was listening to the conversation, but it only registered in bits and pieces while his mind was occupied with something else entirely. He was relaxing after a long day passed studying tedious and boring subjects, only so that he could have a degree and not be penalized when looking for a job. Eventually. That was all in the future for now, his only thoughts being how to have the most fun possible while also relaxing.

Looking at him from the outside, though, it seemed quite the opposite. There was a tablet on the side, and many tabs were displaying various information gathered from obscure wiki pages all around the internet. They talked of recipes and items, of technology and magic. All with a common theme.

“Ah, finally.” He exclaimed.

He looked with satisfaction at his last creation within the digital space of the game. The complex assortment of pipes, gears and wires that made up the mechanism that he had been trying to build for days.

“Jacob, honey, dinner’s ready!”

His mother’s voice grabbed his distracted mind, pulled it out of the game and back to reality. He paused the game, closed the lid of his laptop, and went to the nearby kitchen where his father was already eating his meal.

“Hey, dad.”

“Son. How’s school going?” He asked in a monotone voice.

“School? Come on, I’m in college now!”

“Oh, I know that. I’m paying for it.”

“George!” His mother joined in, loudly.

“I know. Sorry son, didn’t mean to say that. It’s been a bad day.”

“It’s okay.” Jacob reassured him. “It’s going fine. My head hurts though.”

His father forced a laugh. “Too much study, then.”

“George, stop it. He’s been doing nothing but study all day! It’s not his fault that when you came in, he was playing his game already. You can’t assume things if you don’t have enough data.”

He waved his hand. “Yeah, yeah, miss Einstein. Remind me who’s doing all the work in this house?”

Jacob’s mother made a face. His father shut up.

The rest of the dinner went by, mostly in silence, but even if there had been conversation Jacob didn’t pay attention to it. His mind was back at his game again, trying to figure out the best ways to improve his home base. It was this, or more family drama, and he was fed up with that already.

He sat back on the horrible chair. The question of why he was here and not in his room crossed his mind, but he already knew why, and didn’t dwell on it. He opened the lid.

“Oh.”

He sighed. He opened the launcher back again, clicked on the right sequence of buttons to start up his heavily modded game, and got up. It would be at least ten, if not fifteen minutes to start it up again. Too many mods, but it was those that made the game so good and fun to play.

He went to the toilet, in the meantime, so that he would not waste any time while the game loaded up.

He opened the sliding door to the bathroom, revealing the dark room ahead. He flipped the light switch. None of the LED lights lit up, but instead what happened was that where the mirror was supposed to be, he saw a starry night sky.

It was beautiful beyond words, impossible to describe, its ineffable beauty peerless on the surface of the earth. He stepped closer, a shadow of a thought roaming in his mind and telling him that was he was seeing was something that he was familiar with.

Without even him knowing how, he stared at his right hand as it loomed closer and closer to the surface of the mirror that now felt so magical, so mystical.

When the fingers touched the surface, he felt that his very existence left this universe and went somewhere else.