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Seeing is Believing

The mirror rapidly and massively curves inwards. You find yourself unable to take your eyes off Albert's reflection, which narrows and attenuates like one of those Hall of Mirrors reflections. It's almost comic, watching the bodybuilding gator apparently undergo a catastrophic crash diet. You suddenly become aware of a sound like a wet finger on a wine-glass rim, and the pitch is rising as the mirror bows further and further away from you.

A few seconds after it all started, the convex reflection inverts on the surface a millisecond before the edges become detached from the frame. In the blink of an eye, the liquid surface appears to collapse into a self contained line and then pop out of existance. The gale stops dead, dropping several items onto the floor. It seems to be a definite anticlimax to events. Somehow, you were expecting more... pizazz.

You stare at the empty frame, then in the tradition of all idiots everywhere, gingerly poke your hand through the space to see if you can spot the trick. Nope. It's gone, alright. The few remaining half-burned candles in the circle are now smoking puddles of melted wax.

You now think to turn your attention to the rest of the room. The floor is littered with broken bits of occult doodads, and several large cushions have been impaled by flying candlesticks. Fred is a cowering, whimpering lump under a small table, although how he squeezed his bulk under there is a mystery to you. Quite amazing, really. Of Carla, there isn't a sign. Somehow, she seems to have made a getaway.

Albert- You blink and double take, then just let your jaw hit your mighty chest. The gator is still standing in the doorway, but he's THIN! A toastrack chest has been strung on a beanpole, and the shoulders were obviously forgotten. You blink, and focus again. No, he isn't emaciated, just thin. Physically thin, as though his width has been compressed down (although you're pretty certain most ofhis muscle is missing too: it wouldn't fit on him now). Even his face looks a little thinner, you decide. And isn't he usually taller than that? In fact, he looks almost exactly like his... reflection...

...looked just now, in a mirror designed with the sole purpose of changing your appearance. Ah.

In the dead, ringing silence that follows the maelstrom of the last minute or so, you wonder how you should break this to him.


Written by Lupine (edited by wanderer)

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