Night had fallen some time ago. There was no presence of light on the room besides the moon filtering from the window. The relatively silent ambiance of the suburbs found company of a soft, soothing melody coming from the computer. Despite all of this, James was unable to close his eyes. During the last two hours he kept rolling on his bed, changing postures, putting the pillow on different places. Tired, but restless, he finally sat on the side of the bed and turned on the lamp on his bedside table.

"This is stupid" - He muttered under his teeth while getting out of his bed. He looked around checking his room to see how to pass the time. Several weeks passed with nights where he couldn't sleep easily, and this situation got worse with time. He was 22 years old, he was not studying anything and the only job he ever had, he lost it a few days back. His parents were threatening him with kicking out of the house if he didn't manage to help at home somehow. His nerves were consuming him.

The room was big, but it was pretty cluttered anyways. The walls were filled with several bookshelves, a few posters of martial artists and a Japanese swords set. A set of practiceswords were hanging on the bed along with a backpack and the trusty Piglsayer (A Replica Teutonic sword). The things on the floor made walking a true challenge. Around the bed, on the floor, lied a sports bag, dirty clothes, several magazines and some snacks. In front of the bed, right next to the door, was the computer desk, which filled to the brim with more books.

James looked around in silence for a few minutes deciding what to do until he finally decided that he had to tire himself out if he wanted to sleep that night. He dressed himself with training clothes, and walking as silently as possible, he descended the stairs, crossed the kitchen and got of the house. Once he stepped outside, he looked around. Full moon on the sky made the night a bit brighter than others, with the soothing white light mixing with the street lamps.

"Not a single soul" – James thought while deciding a jogging route. - "Guess I will try the park" he decided. The park was close, and full of lights, but at this hour hardly anyone would wander there. It was less likely there to find a mugger there also, due to the police station being close. James checked his cell phone and took a mental note of the hour. "2:35 is now. Let's see if I can jog for 30 minutes"

The jog to the park was uneventful, but tiring. James used to practice Martial arts but never loosed too much weight due to unhealthy food habits and the last two years of sedentary lifestyle. He arrived at the park 5 minutes later, but he was breathing with great difficulty. Knowing that stopping fully would be bad for his muscles, he continued with a slow walk while breathing slow and deep. AS soon as he could, he resumed jogging speed, but had to stop every 3-4 minutes to walk and catch his breath again.

After half an hour, his clothes were soaked on sweat and could hardly force himself to walk fast, let alone jog. He was tired alright and changed route to his home only this time he took a different route, passing in front of the police station. The walk going back was not as uneventful as the walk to the park; he noticed that there was something off. The police station was empty, and there were no lights. He just noticed that there were no sounds, and his steps almost echoed on a town that seemed to be desert. Scared, James started to walk as quickly as he could to his home while looking around. He was unable to find any signs of life and the shining moonlight gave the sensation that the streets were wider and longer. The thing that scared him the most was when he looked at his cell phone; it was still showing 2:35, like the time when he just exited his house.

He finally arrived at his home and turned on the light. The only sound was coming from upstairs, the same music playlist he left before. After climbing the stairs James opened all the doors and checked all the rooms. Parents gone, sister gone, brother gone. It was just like if everybody just vanished.

"Shit, where the fuck is everyone?" James said aloud while going to his own room. Once he got there, he looked through the window on his room and found something he did not expect. In the middle of the backyard, where a plastic table used to be, there was a mirror. It looked like a giant purple horse shoe, with several curls with matching color around and pink gems embedded on it. It had a round, light blue base with several smaller horse shoes of a darker hue of purple.

James knew that this… horseshoe… mirror… pedestal… thing did not belong on his backyard. - "I don't understand anything anymore…" - He said aloud to himself but then raised his brow and changed his expression. With a more determined look said "I should at least find out what the heck is that thing."

James decided that whatever that thing was, he should be prepared. He was pretty scared at this point and decided to take no risks. He quickly changed his clothes to some blue denim pants with a black belt and a blue plain shirt. He grabbed his swords and tied them to his belt; Pigslayer on his right, and his two largest Japanese swords on his left. He finally looked through the drawers on his desk and grabbed a notebook, a pen and a magnifying glass. Armed and prepared to analyze he went downstairs again and to the backyard.

James stepped in front of the mirror, several feet away from it and tried to check if there was something weird on it. He did notice that it seemed to emit a faint pink light and a warm breeze came from it. He went around but found only that the back of the mirror was plain and featureless, devoid of gems, scriptures or anything. After looking around the mirror, he decided to inspect it closely, so he advanced with small steps towards it. Once he was in reach, he stepped in the base and started looking at the gems, but as soon as he was on the pedestal, he heard a feminine voice coming from the mirror.

"Finally, you took your time" – The voice said, and before he could react, two hooves came out of the mirror and pulled him from his waist. He tried to resist, but he did not have a good standing point. As surprising as it was, the mirror itself proved to not be corporeal as James fell through it. Inside the mirror, without a place to stand or grab, he kept falling into a void full of colorful lights that kept spiraling all over the place.