Chapter 12: Mirror Image
|June 11th|Real People Offices|9:40 am|
"Oh Karen, you're looking great as ever today!" Colette said, as Karen walked into the office wearing a fetching orange and red outfit.
"Thank you! Oh, Amara, you alright? You look exhausted." Karen said, as Amara yawned. A new week had begun, but the Shadow situation was far from ever. Amara was still invested in her artwork, especially making sure the cover page was perfect. Yet, it was harder to focus.
"Yeah, I'm alright. I had a tiring weekend! Artists never take a break, I guess." Amara said, as she tried to hide her fatigue. Stella, however, had a rather concerned look, but kept to herself.
"Hmm. I know what you mean. My divorce has been taking forever, but by Wednesday it should be done for good." Karen said, pleased. "I have such bad luck with men. Ever since..."
"You alright there, Karen?" asked Lucy.
"I'm fine. I just need to stay single for a while. No rebound relationships this time!" Karen said, determined. "Now come on, let's get working! I'm busy arranging interviews for the next edition."
"Oh that reminds me, Karen, I have to ask you about..." Lucy said, as she and Karen walked towards her office.
"Amara, are you going to tell me what's going on?" Stella asked, without the dramatic flair her voice usually had.
"I can't. No one will understand. You were right, though. Your readings are always right." Amara said. "How long have you had this power?"
"Power? I prefer the term 'gift'. The gift was given to me by the spirits, ten years ago. It took me a long time to control such great abilities, and to this day I am refining them still." Stella said, with pride. "It was not my dream to become this, but it is the best gift I have."
"What was your dream?" Amara asked, curious.
"I wanted to...no, never mind. A dead dream is one that should never be mentioned again. I don't need pointless desires coming back!" Stella said, suddenly serious. "Now then, let me give you a quick reading."
"Oh, okay!" Amara said.
Stella quickly drew a card from her deck, and pulled out The Sun in reverse. "A mirror. A reflection of you. It lurks around, and tonight it shall make itself known." Stella said. "The Sun's shadow shall appear, and encounter it's light."
"Huh?" Amara said, trying to think.
"That's all." Stella said. "Be careful tonight, dear Amara. Please don't let anything terrible happen to you."
"Thanks, but I'm quite good at defending myself." Amara said, shaking Stella's hand. "Hey, let's get lunch together!"
"I'd love to!" Stella said, with a warm smile.
Come lunchtime, and the two women were headed towards the cafeteria. Amara, distracted by discussing pointillism, bumped into a tall man with curly blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Ow! Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Amara said, her face red with embarrassment.
"Please don't worry, it was my fault as well. No harm done...these things happen. I haven't seen you around before. Are you new?" the man said, staring into Amara's eyes.
"That's right. I'm the illustrator for Real People. We'll be releasing our first issue soon, actually." Amara said, giving a thumbs up. Stella nodded. "I'm Amara Furaha, and this is Stella Cleon, our Clairvoyant."
"Oh, I see. I'm a writer for the Motus Delicacy. The city's oldest and greatest guide to food and restaurants. I'm Alastair Clark." Alastair and Amara shook hands. Stella held out her hand, but Alastair ignored her. "I normally wouldn't eat at the cafeteria, but with a tight schedule I don't have time to leave the building to go to Café Roma."
"I've heard about it. Is it nice there?" Amara asked.
"Of course. The best Italian food in the city, and the atmosphere there is magnificent. Naturally, just talking about it doesn't do it justice. If you'd like to truly see how delightful it is, perhaps I could interest you with dinner there tomorrow night." Alastair said, with a sly smile.
"Um...I'm busy tomorrow. Sorry." Amara said. She really didn't want to go, but since she was new, she had to be polite.
"I see. Perhaps that was a little bold of me. Excuse me." Alastair, embarrassed, ran off.
"A wise choice. You and him clearly are not meant to be!" Stella said, giggling.
"Maybe, but he had the right idea about Café Roma. I'll go there with someone sometime. Anyway, we have lunch to think about! Hey Stella, you already know the menu?" Amara said.
"Oh yes, they have lots of barbecue chicken pizza today. As well as prawn cocktail sandwiches." Stella said. "Impressed?"
"Of course!" Amara said.
"Don't be. The menu's the same week after week. The lunchlady said so!" Stella said.
She and Amara laughed all the way to the cafeteria, and Amara had felt the happiest at her work since she started.
|Lucille Valley High School|12:31 pm|
Serena had just finished her class and was heading to the cafeteria. Since last night, she had been having scary thoughts, that she'd somehow wind up in the other version of the school. However, despite her paranoia, the school was the same as ever, and all the students were just their normal selves.
"Hey, Serena! Wait up!" Kyle said, as he wheeled himself to her. Serena stared for a minute, relieved it was the same kind Kyle she knew so well. He was like a different person. Could they really be the same? The other Kyle didn't have anything in common with the one she liked.
"Oh, hey! I'm free tonight, so you wanna hit the mall again?" Serena asked.
"Sure! I just hope it's not too busy." Kyle said. "Remember when that new game store opened on the same day Suoer Submarine 3 came out?"
"Oh god, the queues were huge. I mean, it went out and around the mall. So annoying..." Serena said, shuddering. "It should be okay today, though. Anyway, last night I had a really bad dream."
"Really?" Kyle said. "When you have bad dreams, something terrible happened or you were thinking about Nina again."
"...This isn't about her." Serena said, serious. The memories of her older sister flickered in her mind, and once they did, there was no holding them back. Her dead sister, the one she could never be like, the one her parents constantly compared her too...she would have been 34 this year. "No, it was something silly this time. It was so weird." Serena began retelling the events of last night, but without any mention of Amara, Nathan or Blaine, and made certain details rather vague.
"Whoa! So a dark samurai tried to kill you for dishonouring your family?" Kyle said, confused. "Is this because of what your parents said in March?"
"No!" Serena shouted. "It's not about that!"
Kyle looked down. Serena's 17th birthday had been a total disaster. Her parents revealed something she wish she had never known, something that completely changed her life, and made her turn her back on her family for good. She barely spoke to her mother and father afterwards.
"But Serena, if it really bothers you, you can still -"
"Kyle, please! I don't even want to think about it!" Serena yelled, her eyes watering. Some students were staring at her. "Look…let's forget about it. Let's just enjoy today, okay?"
"Alright." Kyle said. "I'm sorry."
"No...I am. I shouldn't yell at you, Kyle. You're so sweet to me, even when I'm like this. But stuff like this is just hard to talk about. It's like you and that boy you used to be friends with." Serena said.
"Enough with the sad talk. We have a mall to hang around after school! Let's do our duty as students with too much time on our hands!" Kyle said.
|Solar Ray Mall - Pizza Castle|6:00 pm|
"I love this place! So much better than the one in Red Gauntlet Alley." Kyle said, munching on a pepperoni pizza. "Besides, there's a really cute girl who works here."
"Cuter than me?" Serena said, half-joking.
"Uh...no! Not at all." Kyle said, blushing. "Oh, it's Kazuya."
"Kazuya?" Serena said, stunned. Sure enough, at another table was Kazuya Miyazaki, but wearing a casual white and orange t-shirt and a yellow headband. Next to him was a pretty girl with her hear in a messy bun, and her face was very familiar. It was Bianca, gazing lovingly into Kazuya's eyes.
"Yeah, this guy called Kazuya Miyazaki. We met online when we were complaining about overpriced DLC. He's a bit older than me, but he's pretty cool." Kyle said, smiling. "I'd say hi, but he's with his girlfriend. Why do you look so panicked?"
"It's nothing. He just reminds me of someone, that's all." Serena said. "I guess I'm still down about the dream. You ever had nightmares?"
"Not since we first met. I guess you're my personal dream catcher." Kyle said.
"Aww, Kyle! That was sweet! Nice chat-up line. I didn't think you had it in you!" Serena said, giggling. "Someone's been working on their Charisma points!"
"Hehe! Well, I had a lot of bad dreams. A lot was on my mind back then, and I felt so alone." Kyle said, looking down at the table. "I told you a little about him. You even mentioned him today, before we left for the mall. His name was Matthew."
"Yeah, you just told me he died not too long before then. I forgot his name. How did you meet him?" Serena said. Kyle continued looking down, as he did when he was sad.
"His name was Matthew. As for how we met, well...it was at the river. He noticed me watching the seagulls, so he got me some binoculars so I could watch them better. Then we just kept hanging out, until..." Kyle trailed off. His eyes were rather tearful as he spoke, and Serena regretted mentioning it.
"Well, don't worry about it. I'm here now." Serena said.
"Thank you, Serena. If I hadn't met you, I'd probably still be moping around." Kyle said. For a second, Serena thought he was blushing, but then she noticed someone come in. It was Blaine, followed by a man she didn't recognise, wearing a bus driver's uniform. "Hey! Blaine!"
"Uh...hi." Blaine said. The atmosphere soon turned tense, as Kyle and the other man gave them probing stares. Serena soon realised her error of judgment, as it looked weird that a man in his thirties knew a schoolgirl without being related to her.
"Serena, how do you know this guy?" Kyle asked, confused. "I mean, he has to be forty-something!"
"More like thirty-nothing! I'm still young, you know." Blaine said, looking at Kyle. He seemed to recognise him, even though the hairstyles between worlds were a lot different. "Well, your friend Serena was in Kanaloa because she was curious, so some punks tried to rob her. I put a stop to them." Blaine said.
"Oh, really?" Kyle said, smiling. "Wow, that was pretty brave of you, mister. When was this? You should have told me you were going there!"
"I don't remember seeing her around. Wasn't there another girl who let you use her phone? Amaretto or something?" the other man said.
"You dumbass, it was Amara." Blaine said. "Oh, this is my buddy, Dan Kingsley."
"Don't listen to a word this guy says, I'm the smart one here! Wait a second, I saw you guys on the bus this morning."
"Oh, really? I didn't recognise you. Then again, I don't pay much attention to whoever's driving the bus." Serena said, surprised "Still, thanks for getting us to school!"
"No problem. I live to serve. And get drunk! Responsibly." Dan said. "You don't want to do that yet, though. Stay in school, kids!"
"Well then, it's nice to meet you two. I'm Kyle McHale." Kyle shook hands with Blaine and Dan, and all seemed well. "Wait, your surname is Kingsley, right?" Kyle asked, staring at Dan's goatee.
"Yeah. Why?" Dan asked, but he seemed to know where this was going. Blaine looked alarmed, also aware of what Kyle was going to say next.
"I knew someone else called that. His name was Matthew." Kyle said. Dan's face went pale, and Blaine looked away. "Relax, he's probably nothing to do with you. He just told me he had an older brother, and he was from Kanaloa, so...oh..."
"Wait a second." Serena said, as she soon realised what this meant. "This is the same Matthew who died, right?"
"Yeah..." Kyle said, looking worried. "Dan, you're..."
"That's right. His big brother." Dan said.
All his cheer had faded away as he said this, leaving nothing but tension behind. Blaine, looking worried, quickly excused the two of them and sat down at another table.
"So that was Matthew's big brother...I wondered what he was like." Kyle said. "Sorry about that. I guess I killed the mood."
"No, it's alright. I guess we've both got sad stories, huh? At least we're not alone." Serena said, holding Kyle's hand.
Meanwhile
"Damn…" Blaine said, staring at Dan. "Um...never mind."
"Don't tell me you were going to say 'cheer up' again..." Dan said, eyes on the empty table.
"Nope, not after last time." Blaine said. "Come on, let's just order something."
"Yeah..." Dan said. Blaine sighed, and thought back.
So Serena knows Kyle, who knew Matthew. Small world. Damn, why did this have to come up again?
When Matthew died, the first year afterwards was hell. Just about everything set Dan off, especially birthdays. Those were days he would never experience with Matthew ever again. Dan spent most of his adult life looking after his younger brother, and Blaine had been right by his friend's side the whole time. He had to admit, it felt empty around the house without him.
What could he do to help Dan move on? That question had been on his mind just about every day since Matthew drowned in that river. Kyle must feel the same way, too. Maybe if he and Dan spoke again, then they could start to heal.
"So we're still going out with Roger tonight, yeah?" Dan asked.
"Oh. Yeah." Blaine said. "I could use a few beers after today..."
|Nathan's House - Nova Albion|4:43 pm|
Nathan and Priscilla's home looked rather regal and classy on the outside, as most houses in Nova Albion's Sylvia Boulevard did. Not far from the sensational Gaia Theatre, it was just as magnificent on the inside. Both Priscilla and Nathan's parents had a hand in designing the place, and it truly felt like home to both of them.
At the moment, Priscilla was cooking dinner, whilst Nathan was searching for anything he could find on Aeternus. Other than archived news articles about their former successes, Nathan found nothing of interest. All he knew was that at the convention, there was a secret group of employees unveiling a project. Yet he could not find a single piece of information on either of them.
"Nathan, darling, did you hear from Tara? She said she's going to be playing in the orchestra next week, and we're getting free tickets!" Priscilla said, entering the living room.
"Oh, really? Fantastic, I haven't been to the theatre in ages. We should invite her for dinner sometime." Nathan said, smiling.
If he could just focus on his normal life, then he could relax. Today had been a peaceful, boring day, but earlier he could have sworn he saw Richard Eden whilst driving to the Albion offices. Yet, this Richard was just a regular young man, and didn't do anything unusual.
"I'll call her later, then! Now, tonight I'm making French Country Casserole, so - argh!" Priscilla screamed, as she looked at the living room window.
Staring at the two of them was…a man with messy short red hair, the same vibrant hue as Nathans. Actually, his face was a mirror image of Nathan's as well, but he had a torn blue jacket, with an entire sleeve missing, exposing the orange tribal tattoos on his right arm and his leather bracer. His skin looked paler, but it was undoubtedly Nathan.
"Huh?!" Nathan jumped up with fright - and at this, the other Nathan ran like the wind. "Who the hell was that?!"
"I don't know, but he looked like you!" Priscilla said, shaken. "I mean…his face…it was exactly like yours! But why?"
"I'm clueless myself." Nathan said. "I'll have to ask my father. I hope that man doesn't go after him."
"Okay. Do you think we should call the police?" Priscilla asked. "I mean, he didn't do anything, but he was kind of scary!"
"Not yet. If he comes back, then we'll do something. Don't worry, Priscilla. I won't let him hurt you." Nathan said, still staring out the window. His other self was long gone.
"Thanks, honey! You're the best. I'll leave you too it." Priscilla went back into the kitchen, still disturbed by the incident. Nathan knew who that other him was, but he could not say a thing yet. Unable to focus on his research, he shut his laptop and decided to contact the others later…
|Outside Motion Publishing|5:05 pm|
"Clear skies, just as I foresaw." Stella said, gazing at the sky. "Our city is so wonderful in the summer, isn't it?"
"Yeah!" Amara said, smiling. "Hey, you should meet my friends sometime. The other ones who went through the ordeal. They're pretty cool."
"I'm sure we'll meet sooner or later. Now then, I'm heading home. I trust you'll work just as hard tomorrow. After all, Karen's become rather fond of you." Stella said, smiling.
"You think so? She's nice to everyone." Amara said, shrugging.
"No, I'm serious. I think she sees something of herself in you. Well, I'm not a mind reader - yet." Stella said.
As she left home, Amara decided to take another walk. After all, tonight she wasn't going to the other world, and all she had to worry about was perfecting her designs for the magazine. Today, her life had been like normal, and her job was keeping her busy. It was nice to have something mundane to work on.
Amara headed towards Silvana Bridge, hoping to take some photos. Often, she took her own pictures to use as references for her artwork, and today she planned to do exactly that. Tonight, she would forget Shadows or Personas even existed, and just work on her art as ever.
When she was finally there, she spent quite some time getting the best angle, and waiting for the right moment. The sun was setting, and it looked breathtaking. The sunset was Amara's favourite time of day, seeing so many colours in the sky. The moment between daylight and night was a time of absolute magic, and Amara wanted to capture it in full detail. Holding her phone up, she took numerous pictures, trying to get as much activity as possible - the ships sailing throughout the river, and all the people walking on either side of the bridge.
"Fantastic!" Amara said, as she stared dreamily into the sunset. She would have given anything to make this moment last forever. Just then, she heard lots of footsteps and shouting behind her. Turning around, she gasped at the person running. They gasped too, and both knew why.
It was a girl with the same tan skin as her, with black hair in a large ponytail, with a pink skull hairpin. She had a necklace with the same skull design, and wore purple jeans and a blazer. She had a scar above her right eye that she was trying to cover with her hair, but you could still see it. The eyes were the same blue hue of Amara's...
"You're me?!" both of then shouted. The mirror image Stella spoke of was real. What's going on? The other Amara stood there, in stunned silence. "What's going on?"
"How should I know? There's no Shadows here or anything! Everything's perfect here! You got lucky!" the other Amara shouted, and then she immediately ran off.
"Hey! Get back here!" Amara said, giving chase. This was a weird sensation, chasing after herself. However, if she left the other Amara around, all sorts of problems could occur. She had to get back into the other world, and fast.
Finally, they were in Farawell again, in front of the warehouse. "Dammit! It still won't open!" The other Amara, angry, kicked the door repeatedly. "Urgh, you! You should just go back to your sweet life with dear old daddy! Leave me alone!"
"Stop! I've been to your world! I can help you get back!" Amara said, holding the key. "I'm fighting the Shadows too. I know what they're like! Here." The other Amara watched as Amara unlocked the door. "The NDD's upstairs! Now hurry!"
"What is going on? Why are there two different cities?" Other Amara said. "I don't want to be here. Not if you're around! I'm going to kill all the Shadows on my own. With Sekhmet, I won't lose!"
"Sekhmet? But my Persona's Hathor!" Amara said, confused. "Please. I know others with Personas in this world. We can bring down Aeternus together!"
"No, don't bother! You're lucky that you can live in this great city, you know. So be quiet! Don't bother coming back, just stay here out of harm's way!" Other Amara said. Before Amara could stop her, she ran upstairs, and vanished into the NDD.
"Damn. What now?" Amara said, stunned. She had finally met her other self, her mirror image, but she kind of wanted to fight alongside her. Now, she didn't want to know, and Amara didn't know what to do. What if the other Nathan, Serena or Blaine wound up in the city? Scared, she left the warehouse and locked the door, and went home.
|Amara's Apartment|8:21 pm|
Watching a re-run of 'Happy Hour', an old 90's sitcom about a bar during World War II, Amara relaxed on her sofa, trying to forget about her encounter. Just then, her phone rang. Thinking it was just her friend from college, Michelle, she answered. However, it was Nathan.
"Oh, Amara, there's something I need to tell you. I saw the other me today. The me from the other world! He was outside my house!" Nathan said. Amara gasped - another Nathan, still wandering around the city. What chaos could they be causing?
"Did anything happen?" Amara asked.
"No, thankfully. It was disturbing, though. Priscilla has no idea what's going on, and no one else seems to have seen him but us." Nathan said. "This is...bizarre, trying to search for myself. You haven't seen him, have you?"
"No, but..." Amara trailed off. Slowly, she told Nathan about meeting the other Amara on the Silvana Bridge.
"I see...so she went back to the other world. Then we may see her the next night we go there. Are you alright?" Nathan asked. "It can't have been easy for you. I suppose it's expected she'd be stressed."
"I'm alright now. Thanks, though. If I see the other Nathan, I'll try and talk to him." Amara said, smiling. "Good night." Hanging up, Amara looked out the window. Everything in her city seemed at peace for now. Yet, she wondered what her other self had been through. Things can't have been easy for her, with all the Shadows swarming the streets night after night for a decade. What would become of their excursions? Only time would tell...
