The parking lot was less crowded than before; long lines of cars waited at the stop signs at the exits. Susan pulled over to where Lane and Riley were, giving them a smile.

Lane closed the car door as they sat down in the passenger seat, waving at Riley through the window. The car rolled away, and when Riley was out of view, Lane leaned back in their seat, letting out an exhausted sigh. 

“Hey, Lane, how’d it go?”

“Susan, what do you know about the doors?”

“Like, the band?”

Lane slumped, resting their head against the car window.

“The doors that don’t go to the places they’re supposed to.”

“Oh, those doors.”

Susan thought for a moment, tapping her finger.

“I’ve got nothing.”

The car slowed to a stop at an intersection, there weren’t any cars driving through, but the light turned red and stayed that way. They waited at the intersection for much too long. Lane squirmed impatiently.

“What’s bothering you, sib?”

Lane struggled to form coherent thoughts in their head.

“When I went through the door, I saw some stuff.”

“What was it like?”

“It was… scary, and it made me angry.”

“Hm…”

“Sometimes, I feel…” Lane wiped a bit of condensation off of the window. “Like I never really got out…”

Lane looked really small out of the corner of Susan’s eye.

“What happened?”

Lane lifted their head from the window, still avoiding eye contact.

“I saw something in the changing room, something I saw when I went through the door.”

* * *

Once again, Susan prepped the body scanner for Lane, tapping away at the terminal on its side. The machine hummed to life, and the drawer slid out. Lane layed down on the drawer and it slid back in, clicking in place with a hiss. 

“I’m checking you for parasites, temporal distortions, or any possible body snatch scenario. Any of those would be really really bad.”

“Anyone ever tell you that your bedside manner is terrible?” Lane said from inside the scanner, their voice tinny and muffled.

“My doctorate is in Mad Science, which is not a medical discipline!”

Susan hit the start button, and the machine bathed the lab in a green glow as it whirred away, scanning apparatus sliding up and down inside. Susan watched the machine work, running a finger over her lips anxiously.

The machine beeped, sputtered, and spat out a length of paper. Susan tore it out, her eyes scanning over it, checking and double checking the data. She turned to the terminal and tapped out a few keystrokes.

The drawer slid out and Lane popped up, glancing at Susan.

“Is something wrong?” asked Lane.

“Lane, tell me something from our childhood.”

“You once put glowing red eyes and a voice box into my favorite stuffed animal so it yelled ‘I’m gonna eat you, Lane!’ every time I walked by.”

“I apologize for that.”

Susan stifled a laugh. Lane shot her a look.

“Why did you ask me to tell you that?”

Susan flipped a page in her printout.

“Well, I wanted to make sure your brain was working.”

“W-why? What’s going on?”

Susan handed the printout to Lane.

Printed on the slip of paper was a scan of Lane’s head. Susan pointed to the skull cavity.

Lane’s skull seemed to lack a brain. In its place, just visible through the heavily quantized, high contrast image was a hallway, lined with mirrors, stretching forever into the distance, repeating itself in all directions.

Lane gulped.

“Yeah, your head isn’t supposed to look like that,” Susan said, taking the printout back.

“W-what’s going on?”

“No idea. I was hoping you’d know.”

Lane dropped their head, squeezing their eyes shut.

“That’s the place I saw… the place through the door.”

Susan tilted the paper in all directions, studying it.

“It looks like you’re tied to that place somehow. What was in there?”

“Mirrors. A copy of me that chased me around.”

Susan paused in thought. Lane held their forehead in their hands.

“I think… I keep running away from my problems,” Lane murmured.

Susan looked at them as their eyebrows wrinkled, their expression hardening.

“I just ran away from the mirror copy. Maybe I need to face it,” Lane said. “Maybe beating it will break its connection with me?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Though, wouldn’t fighting it be dangerous? You don’t have any experience.”

“What else do I do?”

Susan sat down next to Lane on the drawer bed, leaning her head against the machine as she watched the ceiling fan, sighing.

“I don’t know, Lane. At least give me some time to research before you do anything.”

Lane gazed at their shoes.

“Also, I’ll teach you how to defend yourself.”

Lane wrapped their arms around their sister in a tight embrace. She returned the hug, patting her sibling softly on the back.

“Thanks, sis.”

“No problem, kiddo.”