“Ah, finally, all things in the kitchen are set,” Camilla said with a sigh.

Camilla and Theo were twins and very close to each other. They never knew who their parents were because they had grown up in an orphanage. When both turned 19, they managed to find jobs and rent a house to live independently.

“That vase doesn’t look good on that shelf,” said Theo, while picking up a big vase. “I’d rather put it on the dining table. I heard there is a flea market each Saturday here. Want to go tomorrow, you can look for the mirror you wanted to take?”

“Hmm, sounds good, alright then,” replied Camilla.

The next day, they both set off for the market, which was at a walking distance. Over there, Camilla went through all the mirrors and finally found one that was very unique. Its boundary was of blood red colour, with neon yellow and green strings hanging at the bottom.

She bought the mirror. As they were coming out from the market, a beautiful girl, wearing a black dress, came up to Camilla.

“The mirror will bring you a surprise,” she said. And before the sibling could say something, the girl quickly disappeared in the crowd.

Camilla and Theo were bewildered as they made their way home. Once home, attached fixed the mirror on one of the walls in Camilla’s room and soon the siblings forgot about the incident as they got busy in their daily errands. Days passed into weeks.

Suddenly one day, Camilla started to feel something weird about the mirror. As she looked straight into her reflection, she felt as if there was someone else’s image in it too, but the next moment it was just her reflection. She narrated the incident to Theo, but he said that she was imagining it all.

But one day, as Camilla and Theo came back from shopping, due to some fault, there was a power outage and the house was dark. Just as they set their stuff on the dining table, they heard someone calling out their names.

“Camilla, Theo, help!”

“Do you hear that? Whose voice can it be?” asked Camilla.

“Seems to be coming from your room. Come let’s check,” said Theo bravely.

“No, no, I’m scared,” Camilla said while sitting on the couch.

Theo grabbed her arm and softly said, “Don’t worry, I’m here!”

They walked into Camilla’s room’s and saw the mirror was glowing red. Suddenly, the reflection of the same girl they met in market appeared in the mirror. Camilla screamed.

“No dear … don’t be afraid, here I have a gift for you, my princess Camilla,” the girl said while holding a beautiful rose in her hands.

Camilla took a step to take the rose from her hand, but Theo held her back.

“I don’t feel right about this all. She is the one we saw in the market, there she acted weird, and now she is inside the mirror. There is something evil about it,” Theo warned.

The girl in the mirror looked angry, but then smiled and said, “My dears, this rose is magical. Come on, take it.”

“How come you are inside this mirror? Tell us the truth,” Theo asked.

“Someone has cast a magic spell and imprisoned me inside it, you actually saw my illusion. I have the power to create illusions of anything.”

Suddenly the power came back ... and there was a knock on the door. As they turned to go out, the girl called them again, and pleaded that they listen to her. But the siblings rushed out and found an old man standing outside their house.

“I have come to end this all,” he said.

Puzzled, the siblings looked at each other.

“That mirror you bought is evil and it has to be destroyed!” he explained.

The siblings knew what the old man was talking about, so they showed him in and gestured towards Camilla’s room. The old man took out a golden rod, then slowly walked towards the room and closed the door.

The siblings were scared, so they sat closely on the couch. Suddenly there was a loud thud and a scream.

“No!” came the girl’s voice.

After a few minutes, the old man came out with a bag full of mirror pieces. Before he went out, he paused and said, “For the past 200 years, this witch has been imprisoned in this mirror. If someone stared in the mirror for 10 minutes, the witch would kill them. I have been searching for this mirror for a long time, and that day when you came to buy it, I also wanted to break it with this magic gold rod. But before I could find it, you bought it. I am happy now that I saved you both and there will be no more tragedies.”

Then, as suddenly as he came, the old man disappeared, leaving behind two siblings confused, but relieved.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 5th, 2025