Alternate
I was in a circular room, dark and grey, with crumbling walls. The paint was coming off them, exposing several layers of fading color. The room had one source of light, a large mirror on one of the walls. A light was pouring from it, so I walked to it as in a trance. I saw myself, walking away, alone in a park. The alley was low and on its sides rose two grass-covered slopes, which ended in other alleys, running parallel to the one I was walking on. In the mirror, it was autumn time, and the sky was so blue that it hurt my eyes. The sun shone yellowy and bright and the leaves of the trees were so colorful that I thought that such a scenery could never be real. I couldn't see my own face, as I was walking away, but I could feel the freedom and the peace of that place. The room around me rose gloomily and I remembered my old life, my Mimetic life, where I knew a park just like this one. It was right next to the place where I used to work and every single time I chose to go through the park, all the grief I carried with me went away. It was like it healed me like it took me away from that awful world which drowned my will to live. And when I got to the park, I felt free, free to dream my life away and free to return home to Auri, refusing to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. That' s how I knew that I was happy and at peace in that mirror.
As I walked on, I followed myself, at the same time looking at the yellow, almost shinning leaves and at the bright blue sky. I could almost smell the autumn air and I could almost feel a lazy breeze through my hair. I was at peace in the light and in the mild warmth of the day.
And then I saw her. The alley and the park ended in two flights of stairs, coming from the raised sidewalk which stretched parallel to the park. She was coming down the first flight of stairs, similar to me, but yet so different. She had my eyes, but the glasses on her nose looked old and dingy. She had my blonde hair, but it was long, lanky, tied in a frail ponytail at the base of her neck. Her clothes were navy blue and grey, a shapeless skirt and a wide oversized sweater. She looked tired and lost. The teenagers around her didn't mind her at all, and she seemed not to notice them at all. They were talking and laughing and giggling, but it was clear that they were following her.
From the outside of the mirror, I watched in amazement as the dark-clad woman with the children passed the other me by. They were both me, in different worlds, in different realities, in different dimensions. Each one carried her own thoughts, dreams, and failures. Each one was shaped by her own choices. A chill ran down my spine. That would have been me, had I not met Roy. That would have been me without Auri. And that still would have been me had I never entered Iridia. I felt such sadness and pity for her. There was no spark in those eyes, only defeat.
She stopped for a second, just one single second and looked at the other me, to the one with her back turned to the outside of me. She must have seen some resemblance. But she walked by, hunched by an invisible weight which she seemed to carry with her, wherever she went. The other me stood at the end of the park, transfixed. The teenagers surrounding the dark-clad woman followed her, laughing and talking. She seemed oblivious to their existence and kept on walking. The other me followed the group with her eyes. As she half turned, I saw the shadow of a tear in the corner of her eye. She had understood what had just happened. She had understood who that woman was, that it was her, in another reality. And all the sadness and all the uselessness of that life drowned her. The other me wiped out her eyes and kept on walking. She went down the same stairs as the group.
The mirror stopped me from following her any further. But as she walked by, I could feel her joy. She was going home, to Auri.
