Fantasy The Three Wishes

[NekoQueen49]

The building was worn down, muted red bricks and a foggy window greeting any curious passerby. However, it was clearly maintained as best as the poor owner was able. The red tulips by the worn out yellow door were fresh and alive, the welcome mat kept neat even if it was missing patches. Inside, the effort was even more clear. Items up for sale were neatly arranged on the wooden shelves and tables in middle of the floor. Any rugs were vacuumed and the rest of the wooden floor was swept and mopped.

As for the items themselves, it was a strange arrangement. It was mostly decorative items, ranging from porcelain dolls that stared with unblinking eyes to lamps to painted portraits of people long forgotten. The only anomaly was the tanned sheet covering a large, thin object hidden in the corner.

The elderly man that kept the antique store was on the opposite side of the room, currently scribbling some notes into a book at the counter. A pencil rested on his ear even though the man already had a pen in his hand. It stood out clearly against his short white hair and pale, wrinkled skin. The man frowned, looking up from his book to the door that rarely opened and breathed a small sigh.

 

[Lotus]

Laney was on the hunt for some sort of cool old style hair piece for her curly dark brown locks. She had long hair that reached to the waist point of her white linen sundress. Her friend, Darla, had told her about some sort of shop that had a bunch of antique and figurines. Darla also claimed she had found a few things for her house at the shop including a few pretty portraits. Her white sandals clicked down the pavement as she navigated towards the shop. After she had turned a corner, the freckle faced girl had found the building. It was a brownish red brick building with the smallest sign only in the window of the shop. She opened the door slowly as it looked like an old door, and walked into the shop.

She saw across from her an old man whom she assumed was the owner, given the ‘old geezer’, description her friend had given her. As Laney approached the man, she passed by some figures and a few creepy looking dolls that she could have sworn followed her movements. A giant covered object in the corner also had caught her attention. Things in shops usually were not covered up, but opened up for display to be sold.

“Hello, I was wondering if you had any umm...Accessories, hair clips are what I am most interested in but.” Laney slid her glasses higher up on the bridge on her nose. “Jewelry or trinkets would be alright too.” Talking to others had always been difficult for her. Ever since she was a child, people always made fun of her for her almost grey colored eyes. Laney blinked a few times then turned her head back at the covered object.

 

[NekoQueen49]

The older man lifted his head, almost looking shocked by the girl's sudden appearance. He didn't get many customers so he probably was shocked. He laughed a little in embarrassment, scratching behind his ear with the pencil behind it. The motion caused it to fall to the floor, where it rolled over to the object covered by the sheet. "Oh my goodness girl, I didn't hear you come in!" He said with a self concious though warm smile before fully realizing her request. "Hair ornaments you say? Let me see here..." He walked with a slight limp towards one of the shelves by the window. A few jeweled necklaces were displayed in a velvet box and two pairs of earring were put beside it. One of the necklaces looked like it was slightly rusted and a pair of earrings were mismatched, one holding a blue jem and the other purple. Otherwise the options seemed limited at best.

The man crossed his fuzzy arms, highlighting his slightly protruding belly. "I might have some in the back but I doubt it," he added with a hum. "And it might not be a very salesman-like of me to say, I don't think any of these will do you much justice. Most of the people who come in here are elderly folk who want to add to their old-timey collections. Not that I don't appreciate the younger crowd of course, but I doubt that many of em would like what I have to offer."

 

[Lotus]

Laney followed the man to the display and looked down at the pretty and rustic and rusting items. They looked so pretty and she wondered who they might have belonged to once upon a time. A smile came across the girl’s slightly yellowed teeth when she replied. “Oh, that is alright. I just had a friend tell me to take a look at this place. She uh had gotten a few pictures of landscapes.” She turned on one heel as her gaze turned once again to the covered object. Slowly her skinny legs moved closer to the object. “You um. You dropped this?”, Laney asked as she reached down, her delicate and slim hands picked up the pencil.

She spun around to give the man his writing instrument back, but mid turn the cloth covering the object had tripped her. Her hands were out in front of her, her fingers grasped for something to hold on to to prevent the fall. Laney’s left hand had caught onto something soft, something not solid. White shoes with brown soles got a good glimpse at the ceiling as the girl flipped backwards. What she had caught onto was the top of the covered object, well the cloth cover part of it. “Ah!”, her high toned voice went even higher in her shriek. A loud thud echoed the clean shop as Laney’s shoulders hit the ground, soon followed by her lower back and legs. “I am so sorry! I will pay for whatever damages I caused.” A frown came across her face as she looked up at the ceiling sprawled out on the floor like she was going to make snow angels.

 

[NekoQueen49]

Landscapes? The man frowned slightly, trying to remember if he had ever had seen someone taking pictures of his shop but couldn't recall. However, he easily lost his train of thought at the young lady's offer of his pencil. "Oh thank you very much, miss. I've been lookin for that!" The man eagerly reached for his precious pencil as she turned to pass it back to him. That was until he realized that she was going to fall to the ground. He reached over to catch her but he wasn't as mobile as he once was and she landed onto the floor. The man winced at the hard thud.

"Are you okay?!" The man instinctively asked. "Don't worry about it, young miss," he assured at her apology. "Are you hurtin anywhere? Do you need me to call someone for you?" He squatted near her, arms spread as though he was going to pick her up. He didn't as he was afraid of both hurting her further and being accused of being a pervert that was just trying to grab at her. Mostly the latter if he were being honest. "H-here, I'll go get you some ice," the man finally decided and hurried, as fast as he could at least towards the door hidden behind the counter.

A tanned, scarred face watched the exchange. A young man enclosed behind a gilded, almond colored frame of a mirror that was revealed as the sheet was torn off. He raised a dark eyebrow which was marred by a mysterious red colored marking left behind by what looked to be a claw mark if the other two scars beside it were to be observed. His equally dark eyes looked down at the girl with almost ambivalence if not for the slight humor and mocking that showed in the quirk of his full lips. "You're a real klutz aren't you?" The face scoffed.

 

[Lotus]

The owner of the shop knelt down next to her as she slowly turned her head to look at him. A wave of nausea came over her as she used her hands to try to prop herself up to a sitting position. Laney was however not successful. “Owie..I should be more careful about where my feet are...Especially in stores full of stuff you couldn’t get anymore.”, she mumbled to herself. Her nostrils flared as she took three long deep breaths in and out. Because of how her head was positioned the mirror had a slight fog to it from her breaths. A nervous and hot pain hit her lungs as her body flipped itself back upright.

For being so clumsy, Laney was actually quite nimble. She had done gymnastics for almost seven years before she had broken too many of her bones at the same time to continue. Having both an arm and ankle broken was too much to do anything in her hobby with so she abandoned the art. Instinctually her hands reached down to brush off and adjust her dress.

For the first time the object that had been covered was revealed. Upon further examination it was a beautiful mirror. Laney looked at herself in it, but for a split second she thought she saw someone else. A male figure, tan and a bit rough looking. The figure frightened her for a second. She tilted her head to the side and looked again. The only thing looking back at her then was herself. “Must have been seeing things.” She waddled over to the front desk, still in pain and dizzy. Her front half flopped over the desk making the poor girl look like a drunkard falling over unable to hold themselves up.

 

[NekoQueen49]

The boy in the mirror huffed in annoyance. Apparently she couldn't see or hear him, which was frustrating to say the least. He crossed his arms and watched as she muttered to herself before brushing off her dress. "You're a mess," he called, insulting her like he did to any other customer that he would hear. The only difference now was that he could actually see her. And she looked... fragile. From her skinny limbs to her dark hair that made her paleness stand out. She might have a freckles but the boy didn't get a good enough look to make sure.

His observation was cut short when the door behind the counter slammed and the old man appeared again. "Here you are, miss," he said while offering an ice bag wrapped inside a ragged looking washcloth. Seeing her bent over the counter, ended up setting it down beside her. He backed off a bit, trying to give her breathing room.

That was when the man looked up and saw the uncovered mirror. A small smile lifted his wrinkled face and the boy in the mirror scowled. "Old fart," the boy scoffed.

 

[Lotus]

The mirror, there was something about that mirror that was drawing her in. It felt like the mirror was calling out to her, besides the fact it was a grand sort of mirror, like the one someone important would have had on their wall. Laney picked herself up slowly with stiff movements back into an upright position. “Thank you, this will help a bit.” The wrapped ice parted some of her hair as she applied it to the base of her neck. With the free hand she waved it over at the mirror. The fall had taken it’s fair toll on her body but was nowhere near as bad as the majority of the falls that she had made in the past.

“That mirror there, why was such a beautiful thing covered up?”, the girl inquired with a raised eyebrow. Laney took a second to extend her legs out for a good stretch, and pointed each foot’s large toe straight down into the floor. Her body was now turned sideways so that she could see the object in question that much better. “I also feel obligated to buy the mirror as I think I may have done the damage to the top of it.” She moved closer to the mirror and gestured to it’s top half. There, on the top was a slight scratch in the frame that lead about an inch down into the large mirror. It was hard to see but Laney still felt bad about it. She pointed to her right hand and showed the man her ring. It was a small silver band that was about an eighth inch wide and housed a small triangular diamond. “I think my ring got it as I fell.” Upon closer examination of the scratch, once again Laney saw a different person looking back at her. Her mind shifted to her fall and a smile crept up on her face. ‘My fall might have been worse than I thought. I am seeing thing now, how wonderful!’ The thought of her going insane was a bit too much to bare at the moment so she pushed the thought out just as quickly as it had entered.

 

[NekoQueen49]

The man smiled pleasantly at her gratitude. "Think nothing of it," he said.

However to the introduction of a new subject, his pleasant smile fell and a dead sort of expression took it's place. One that didn't belong to such a jovial man. The man scratched his arm in an awkward motion. "I keep it covered ta protect it from the elements and what have you," the slight accent growing stronger in the coldness of his voice. He cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure from before. Straining to do so, the man continued, "There isn't room for it up the stairs so I keep it down 'ere in the shop. It, unfortunately, isn't for sale. Even if it breaks completely," he gestured towards the scratch, "I won't take your money for this ol' thing. An old family heirloom and all that."

"Come on, pops," the mirror murmured to him. The older man looked into his own reflection, glaring into it with harsh dark eyes. "It's the least you could do..."

"But... If you want it, you can just take it," he finally said in an empty tone of voice. Then added in a more warm way, "Might do it good, ta get it out of the shop and see some use. Goodness knows it's just hiding behind a curtain 'ere. Take it as an apology that you trip and fell because if this silly ol' thing."

 

[Lotus]

A mirror that wasn’t for sale? She pondered the response, let it sit around with her for a few seconds. Normally she would have never dreamed about taking such a thing, especially after he had disclosed it was from his family. She carefully set the ice pack down into a bowl that was close by, not wanting to set it on anything that could be ruined by the dampness. “I would love to have it, if you really mean it.” Laney couldn’t stop herself from saying no.

// Later back at her home//

Laney’s house was a small one, with it being only two bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms. The outside was a light tan with brick with coffee brown shingles covering it’s pointed top above the doorway. The peanut colored front door needed to be propped open by what looked to be an old chewed up door stop even though there were no signs of pets in the home. A girl in a dress carefully and awkwardly hauled a large covered object down the paved path through the dead grass and into the entry room. It was a wide open space with just an orange couch and coffee table set sitting opposite the empty brick fireplace. The walls were an off white, sort of cream colored without the yellow hue. The bedrooms were to the right and to the left stood a kitchen and dining combo. There was a small kitchen table that looked as if it could sit four but only two red painted chairs accompanied the small table.

She marched down the right hallway to her room and gently rested the mirror down on the bed. Her bed faced faced the door pushed almost all the way to the right side of the room. A small table was next to the bed with an old style writing desk to it’s left. On the wall to the left of the bed was a window and a blank space. To the left of the door was a closet, cut out of the room itself making it feel quite cramped. Her fingers ran over the cover if the mirror as she pulled it off. “I think you should go right by the window.” Her fingers grasped the edges of the mirror as she hung it on the wall. Luckily for her, the old mirror she had was about the same size and she was able to hang it from the same hook like device. Laney took a few steps back and peered into the glass, wondering if she could see what she saw earlier. The sun escaping from the curtained window made her black wire glasses glistened in her reflection.

 

[NekoQueen49]

The boy stayed silent throughout the transportation though wincing at the rough treatment. Who treats a mirror like this? he thought grouchily. Don't you know it's seven years bad luck to break one of us? Even so, he almost felt bad for the skinny girl lugging such a heavy thing. Almost.

He took in his new surroundings with interest. Being stuck in one place for ten years against their will will make anyone excited for a change in scenery. Add to that two years behind a curtain. It was enough to drive anyone crazy.

The house was nice but he had hoped for fancier duds. Still, one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth as it were. That was until all he could see was the ceiling. Ahhh what a nice ceiling. Lovely ceiling. Oops now it was gone. He laughed a little at his own private joke before staring back at the girl who had taken him home with her. What a crude way of putting it. The boy smirked again at his private joke.

Crossing his arms, he wondered when she might see him fully. He gave a small, "Hello," as a test, tilting his head in amusement. Even if she didn't ever see him, he imagined he could have a lot of fun unnoticed in a girl's bedroom.

 

[Lotus]

There was no doubt about it, she was not in fact crazy and there was someone what looked to be in the mirror. A feeling of panic shot down her spine when it looked like the person in there might have said something. She had seen it on the mouths of hundreds of strangers and hundreds more on those she knew. Those words…

Filled with wonder the girl’s mind went into overdrive. She began to wonder what kind of strange mirror this was and if it was even a mirror at all. She began to wonder if it was some sort of trick mirror or maybe a painting inside the layers. No that couldn’t be. She shook off the thought and moved back to reality. She didn’t believe in magic or anything supernatural, no monsters under the bed or chanting in the bathroom, nor did she believe objects could do whatever she was witnessing.

Laney took her palm and placed it against the reflective surface. Her head came closer and tilted to the side. Then she jumped back, taking off her glasses as she then rubbed her glasses against her dress. Her glasses were back on her face in an instant and she was right next to the glass once more. “I really wish I could hear you…”, she muttered at the boy while looking at him in the glass.

 

[NekoQueen49]

The boy watched with interest as the girl displayed strange behavior. Could she see him after all? Expressions flitted across her face: Shock, horror and amazement. Either she was having a crisis over her appearance or she finally did see him. It didn't matter to him, the boy would be amused either way.

He outright laughed when she took off her glasses to clean them. Like somehow he was a speck on them.

But then, how else would react to seeing a stranger in the mirror? Should he play along with her movements to make her think that she had somehow transformed into his handsome self? No, it was too late for that. She had already seen him move of his own accord. Now that was a shame.

"I really wish I could hear you," she said. So she couldn't hear him?

Slowly he drew on the glass separating them: I-C-A-N-H-E-A-R-Y-O-U

 

[Lotus]

He moved, he didn’t just move but he responded. This was strange, so strange. It took a minute for her to understand what was going on, she just couldn’t process it. Her mind was in a dizzy spell and the girl felt quite feint. She closed her eyes to try to stop the spinning but it wasn’t stopping. She took a breath in and slowly opened her eyes. Opened them to see something on the mirror. “You can hear me?”, she trembled. Her legs fell out from under her and she fell to the floor.

Laney had passed out from the fear. The pure feeling of being afraid, the feeling of terror and shock. The face looking back at her with those scars. His skin, his hair and eyes. Everything seemed to be in a dream like state. She saw the mirror in a dark space. It was an empty black space with no visible floor or walls. Laney was still able to walk closer to the mirror. She looked inside and did not see the other figure anymore. When the thought of him entered her mind she could hear him speak.

About an hour had passed before she woke back up. Laney used her hands to put herself back into a sitting position and brushed her hair back to where it should be with her left hand. “Try...try again. My name is Laney, I am sorry I had a um..Reaction, I was scared and you can’t tell me you wouldn't be either or at least have some sort of reaction.”

 

[NekoQueen49]

Oh. It seemed as though it was too much for her. The boy watched passively while the girl collapsed to the floor, her legs giving out on her. Was she really this weak? Oh dear. Though his face only showed ambivalence, irritation at the girl's weak will proved to only irritate the boy.

That was until he felt something foreign brush against his consciousness. Against his 'world'. Despite her fear, it appeared as though the girl was accepting him. Or trying to invade him. The boy couldn't say for certain. Not that she would ever be able to invade him unless he allowed it. It wasn't just personal confidence that made him certain of it. It was also part of his 'payment' which might as well have been a curse. A curse that he had brought upon himself. Which is why it was a payment. But he was just repeating himself at this point.

He focused his attention back onto the small girl that had penetrated his consciousness. Sighing, he said, "There's no need to apologize, you dumb girl. Just get up." There was no need to worry that she wouldn't hear him now that she had glimpsed into his 'world'. He was grateful for it. It made his plan easier to execute. If it could even be called a plan with it being put together just now.

 

[Lotus]

There it was, a bit if a harsher response for sure but it was there. His voice was clear and she was able to hear it. It took a few seconds for her to come up with something to say. Laney got back up on her feet using her knees as leverage and turned so she could fully see the mirror and the person inside. A large smile was showed across her face as she took a deep breath in to calm herself down. “I can hear you!”, she clapped her hands and spun around in a circle, making her dress’ bottom open like an upside down flower around her legs.


“This is amazing, I don’t know what to say. You know you could be a little bit nicer to me.” Laney hummed as she went back over to the cloth that once covered the mirror. She held it up with both hands and waved it around like she was a Matador and the mirror was a bull. It did contain something with what she thought was going to be an attitude given his first statement. “I can always cover you back up again!” The playful smile her face forked was like that of a child who had caught their parents doing something wrong and teased them about it.


“Either way, do I get to know your name?” The girl inquirred at the mirror. She had so many questions, she wanted to run and get a tablet to write them all down on. Laney doubted that they were going to get answered any time soon but there was always a hope. “How long were you covered up in that store?” She took a second to think about how that might have been. Sitting in a corner with the lights off, only being able to hear people. For all she knew he was able to talk to them but, she doubted it being covered up. Did that mean he was unable to hear too? Questions like these flooded her mind. Laney intended in asking them all at one point or another.

 

[NekoQueen49]

He raised an eyebrow at her excitement. Well, it was good for him as well but the boy quite didn't understand why she was this over the top. With a spin and everything. Like a schoolgirl with a crush.

The boy stared blankly at the threat of the sheet before yawning. "Oh no, the sheet, what ever will I do," he said blankly and with great sarcasm. He continued, watching her flit across her room, "My name is Samir and around ten years. It's hard to tell time under that thing. Don't tell me that you're going to start flogging me down with questions?" Even though he asked that last question with disdain, Samir knew there were worse reactions that he could have gotten. She could have still been passed out cold on the floor. Now that would have been a boring reaction. "If so, before you start, isn't it polite to introduce yourself as well. If you don't, I'll just have to assume your name is Dumb Girl."

 

[Lotus]

“Samir, huh?” Laney looked at him with a smile. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. She had been correct in her assumption that he would have some sort of an attitude issue. Though he may have the right to be. Ten years, she paused and stopped to think about how long that was. Someone can grow up from being a baby to ten years old, and aware of the world in that time. A few haunting memories came back at the past ten years of her life, her best moment turned into her worst. The hobby she once spent hours on, the thing she loved doing after school for so long. She lived on the high beams but, like her life had been in the past three years, she had fallen and became somewhat broken. “Laney, and I am really am a dumb girl.” Her expression went neutral as she looked him straight in the eye. “I do have more questions, but you don’t need to answer them if you don’t want to. I have some things I need to do, if you want to be left alone.”

The girl turned to leave the mirror and wandered over to her bed. She opened up the compartment on the underside of the bed and pulled out a pencil and paper. “I’ll write them down so I won’t have to bother you with them right now.” Laney looked sad, she was excited but the other person didn’t seem to be. She couldn’t truly picture how he felt but she could at least try. All of her efforts had been put into trying to make something work. If he needed time, or whatever he needed, she was going to have to give it to him. After all, he was really just going to be hanging around from now on.

 

[NekoQueen49]

Samir frowned when Laney agreed with him on calling her a dumb girl. He hated when people made fun of themselves like that. It made them less fun to tease. What she followed with was even more annoying. Perhaps it was the lack of interaction for 10 years, but he wanted to keep talking to her. Or it might have been the fact she was the key to breaking his curse. Thinking more on it, it was probably the latter. "I never said that I didn't want to answer your questions. Go ahead and ask. Believe it or not, I do understand how strange of a situation this is. It would be best to give something of an explanation," he offered. It did occur to Samir that this would be the first time that he wasn't antagonistic towards her. Laney didn't seem like the type of girl to be able to stand his type of bullying very well. If his plan were to succeed, he would have to dial it back a bit.

 

[Lotus]

When she heard that he would answer some questions, Laney put a smile back on her face and threw her notebook off the bed with one swift arm movement. “Well, this makes things more fun!”, she turned back so she could see the mirror and got into a comfortable position. She lay with her stomach on the bed and her legs bent at the knees crossed with each other upwards while her feet seemed to fiddle with each other. The girl’s shoes were kicked off and her hands were on the bed supporting her chin as she gazed at Samir. “So um, this is going to sound kind of mean and I don’t mean to offend you or anything but.” Laney’s face turned slightly pink, “Are you real? I mean in the sense that if you were real, you would not be able to live in a mirror for ten years.”


Her hand reached out to the mirror from the bed and formed a pointed finger. “You, how old are you? Do you age in there or are you just frozen in time?” There were too many questions, she figured he deserved to give a few answers and she should make sure she doesn’t ask anything he would give answers to in the future.

 

[NekoQueen49]

He almost sighed but refrained himself. How quickly she bounced back from her depression. Samir could tell that he was going to get whiplash from her ever changing moods. The boy eyed her bare calves and ankles warily. It made him somewhat uncomfortable.

Samir consciously decided to focus on her questions instead of... anything else. "Am I real?" He scoffed haughtily. "I'm as real as you! Mostly. I don't have a body anymore but I used to. I was 21 years old when I was put inside of this thing and since then I have been trapped inside this mirror... What year is it? I forget." Samir scratched his head, trying to recall. It was hard to tell time underneath a sheet, true enough but how much he was transported also complicated matters. He looked to Laney for help considering how long it's been, it was nearly impossible to accurately guess.

 

[Lotus]

"What year is it? It is currently 2018." Laney nodded as she spoke and then turned upside down on the bed so her head and hair dangled on the floor. The blood rushed to her head and her face turned red. "Samir, do you mind if I ask you where you are from and how you got to be in there?" Her tone turned to a sarcastic one before she said, "If you are who you say you are that is." Laney laughed at her own joke and got herself up from the bed. She went over to the mirror and sat in front of it wit her legs crossed and her dress covering her knees. Sitting in such a manner was not the best thing to do in a dress but, she had not thought about that part until after the fact. Her hands cradled her face once again as she looked into the mirror and really looked at the person that was in there. He wasn't that much older than her, but they looked different in so many ways. Everyone's body tells a story, and she was trying to figure out what the story of those strange looking scars were. Laney didn't have the nerve to ask about them at the moment because she didn't wish to drench up some sort of traumatizing experience for him when they had just met. She didn't understand why she was taking too much precautions though, this was not how one would normally meet another human being in the slightest.

 

[NekoQueen49]

2018? That was a lot longer of a time than Samir thought it was. Wasn't it supposed to be 2013 still? This time he did sigh, feeling a bit sad over the lost time. "That long, huh?" Samir murmured before shaking his head to clear himself of the feeling. He looked over to his new companion blankly. It was best to push those feelings down as he always did.

Something that was a bit harder to achieve when Laney asked after his past. Samir waited until she situated herself in her new position before he began, looking slightly annoyed at her implication of him lying. "Out of everyone, you would suspect a magical mirror person of lying? Well. Then again. It's not that dumb. I could very easily be lying. So believe me if you want to. It's not a requirement." He crossed his arms, looking down at an unknown space before continuing.

"I was born April 2nd, 1973 in a city called Basioun. That's in Egypt for you if you didn't know. There has been a long history of curses found in my country. Most people brush it off as superstition but I'm proof that that isn't the case. Curses and magic are very much real. However, depending on how you play it, what happened to me isn't a curse at all.

"It was a wish. A wish to see... Someone as they really were. Without the lies, the deceit that they were wrapped up in. I had found a mirror similar to this one, a bit smaller, hidden in my father's things. I didn't think that it was anything special so I took it. Little did I know that a harmless phrase, wish, whatever changed me. I got what I wanted of course. But this was the price."

 

[Lotus]

Her eyes grew sad as she looked at Samir. 1973 was a long time ago, and she felt some sort of strange age gap even though it did not look like one. She put her hand on the side of the mirror and asked, "If that is not the mirror you were in before, how did you get into this one? What do you mean, wish? Do you mind," Laney stood up so she could look him closer in the eyes. "If I ask you, just a simple question. How are you? Are you doing alright after all this has happened to you?" She wouldn't have thought that any sort of normal human being would be able to be sane after spending what was it, at least spending half your life trapped in something like a mirror. She had heard about stories of people who go crazy after much less, so she was trying to be concerned yet careful about how she handled the situation. Another thought slipped into her mind as it was maybe not the best to ask at the time she kept her mouth shut about it for now. Had he tried getting out before, the answer was most likely yes and she also wanted to know all of the things he had tried.

His story was an interesting one and she really did want to help him get out of that mirror, as who would want to live in such a place. If it was anything like her dream, it was a terrible and lonely place to be. She felt fear and sadness while there and even with Samir being there too, it was just a dreary nothingness that frightened Laney. It was then that she decided if it was within reason she would learn more about Samir and help him research how he would be able to get out of there, as long as it wasn't some sort of evil curse like you had to swap who was in that mirror. They weren't quite friends yet, and she would have to really think about taking the place of someone she loved in that mirror, even if it was one of her parents.

 

[NekoQueen49]

"I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it was created with magic, maybe it is the same mirror after all. I wasn't really paying attention when it happened."

Samir rubbed the back of his head and sighed, taking Laney in. She actually looked concerned! Something in that worried expression hurt him more than anything else. Laney was the more fragile looking one, with her glasses and skinny limbs and body and Samir with his rough looking face and near constant sour expression. Similar to the one he wore right now, actually. His black eyebrows furrowed as Samir pondered the question. "Am I okay?" He echoed. Samir didn't answer immediately. It took several moments that seemed longer than they were. It seemed that each second he delayed, the more his weakness was exposed. But at the same time Samir didn't know how to answer such a simple question. Was a simple 'I'm fine' suffice? Instead of directly answering it, Samir grinned down at Laney. "How kind of you to worry. But as long as I see an end to my imprisonment, I'll work through it."