Despite the fiery chaos that sounded out behind him, he solely focused on the couple in front of him, the woman holding a small bundle. This was much more important.

“I’m sorry,” was all he could say.

“You did the best you could do,” she said, peering down at her bundle. “I’m sure . . . I’m sure they would have been proud of you.”

“No. I couldn’t even protect them – the people who were so close to me. I’ve failed them.”

“For a person like you, you should keep your head held up high,” the woman’s husband said. “You saved us hope for the future.”

He gave the couple a small smile and turned away. “I must join them now.” He looked down at his right arm which was transparent all the way through. “I can’t keep this up for long.”

Without any exchange of farewell, he listened patiently, hearing their footsteps slowly dwindle away into silence. Then he, too, became silence.

                                                  ---------------

It was about an hour past noon, and the scorching, dry heat was killing me. It would be nice if Mother Nature waved her magic wand and changed the weather. Maybe even give Southern California rain for once. I doubt that’s going to happen any time soon.

I was lying on the couch, watching random YouTube videos on my laptop. The big, tall fan in the corner of the living room was my only salvation for surviving the heat. Even though the dial was on three, all I could feel was a small breeze as the head of the fan slowly swerved to the right then the left. I paused the video with a quick tap on the space bar and slowly got up from the leather couch. I heard the sound of my sweaty skin peeling away from the leather and grossed myself out. I headed over to the fan and let the wind cool the sweat; it was so much faster this way.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Dalia coming down the stairs in shorts and a tank top. Her brown hair was tied into a messy bun, and her stone gray eyes showed a certain exhaustion in them. Following her was Dimitri, a built man with no shirt but shorts. His dark brown hair was in a wild mess, and he had a spark in his similar-colored eyes. The couple caught the sight of my sweaty self and looked at each other.

“Alanna, what are you doing here?” Dalia asked. “Why aren’t you in your room? You have an air conditioner in there.”

“I can’t really relax in peace when I hear action going on in your room,” I replied, pointing upstairs. “You should really think about getting soundproof walls.”

A good smack could be heard throughout the room, and I watched my infuriated aunt march into the kitchen. I glanced at Dimitri whose right cheek already turned red. He rubbed it lightly and chuckled. I sometimes wonder why they married in the first place.

“I should probably go calm her down,” he said after a while.

“You don’t say?” I rolled my eyes. “You know you’re not in your twenties anymore, right? You’re like forty-one for god’s sake.”

“Now don’t say that. Aren’t we all young at heart?”

I stared at him. “Just go.”

He laughed. “You want anything to drink? I feel bad for having you stay out in this heat.”

“Ice-cold water.”

“I’ll get right on it.”

I watched him disappear into the kitchen then heard another smack. Dalia came out instead with a glass of lemonade and handed it to me. I thanked her, and the both of us sat down on the couch.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s fine. It’s not like I’m a kid anymore.”

“Even so, to have made you go out here and endure the heat? God, I wouldn’t be able to face your mom if she knew all of this.”

I took a sip of my lemonade and motioned her to brush it off. She lightly laughed and grabbed the remote off the glass coffee table. The TV flickered on, and voices rolled out into the room. My cold glass remained in my hands as I blankly stared at the screen, not really paying attention to what was happening.

I then glanced at Dalia, a beautiful woman at the age of forty. For my whole life, she and Dimitri had been taking care of me. When I was still a baby, my parents died in a car accident. Dalia was my mom’s older sister and gladly took me in. Well, that was one of the reasons. The other was that she was infertile – couldn’t have any children of her own no matter how hard she tried. Even so, both of them treated me like their daughter and niece all in one.

Of course, when you find out your parents had died before you even got to see them, you get curious as to what would happen if they were still alive. I’ve had those thoughts. Countless of times honestly. But I learned to grow and accept it – that my life wouldn’t change if I keep thinking about it. So, here I am with my wonderful aunt and questionable uncle.

“Boo!” I heard loudly from behind.

I jumped up and dropped the glass I was holding. It shattered as it hit the wood-paneled floor, and lemonade splashed onto it and my clothes. Dalia looked at me with a bewildered expression, and we both turned to see Dimitri standing behind the couch with a sense of accomplishment. I narrowed my eyes at him and pointed at the mess he just caused.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said, feeling my damp clothes starting to stick to me.

He finally realized what he had caused, and his sense of accomplishment disappeared. He quickly glanced at Dalia, who was now even more furious than before.

“Do you have anything to say?” she said through gritted teeth.

“Ha. . . Look, I understand you’re downright angry with me, and you have every right to be so!” Dimitri said, raising his hands as if trying to calm her.

“Dimitri, how old are you?”

“Ahem. Forty-one.”

“And how old is Alanna?”

“. . . Eighteen.”

“What gives you the right mind that you’re twenty years younger, huh? Alanna is not a child anymore!”

I stared at my “uncle” and saw him more as a guilty puppy than anything else. Well, it’s not like he did too much harm – other than the broken glass on the floor, but that can be cleaned up.

“So, Dalia, what should I do about the mess?” I asked.

She turned to look and sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Can you get out without hurting yourself though?”

“I should be fine.”

She nodded at me, and I proceeded to take a large step outside the mess, avoiding any possible injury. The moment I got out safely, Dalia turned back to Dimitri and sighed again.

“You’re cleaning up this mess,” she said.

“Yeah, I know,” he replied.

“You’re also buying us some ice cream.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

He rolled his eyes yet smiled. He headed back to the kitchen while Dalia turned to me and shrugged.

“You can just leave it to Dimitri,” she said. “It’s better for you to go wash up and change.”

I nodded and went upstairs to my room. It didn’t take too long for me to get some comfortable clothes from my closet and get inside the bathroom in the hallway. I took a long, cool shower to wash off the sweat and sticky remnants of my lemonade. Once I finished and got out, I dried my hair, changed into some fresh clothes, and picked up the hairdryer that was sitting on the sink counter. I stared at myself while drying my hair. According to Dalia and Dimitri, my shoulder-length, auburn hair came from my dad and my ocean blue eyes came from my mom. Both contrasted my pale skin.

I fully dried my hair, combed it, and was about to leave until I caught something weird happening in the mirror. For a second, I thought I was hallucinating or even high.

But that wasn’t the case.

It started off with a splotch of green in the middle of the mirror. It began to fan out, and I was able to make out a tree, then parts of a sky, bushes, grass until it painted itself into a very realistic landscape. I stared at it and couldn’t see my reflection anymore. It was literally a full-blown picture of a forest on my mirror.

“I have got to be seeing things. This did not just happen.” I rubbed my eyes. It was still there. “Yeah . . . yeah, it just happened.”

As the mirror remained in its state, I just continued staring at it. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I thought about fetching Dalia and Dimitri look at it, but curiosity got the better of me, so I touched it. (Very stupid of me, I know.) I didn’t feel anything solid and watched my hand slip through. My eyes widened at the sight, but it was too late to pull myself out as the picture began to eat me up. Eventually, I was completely engulfed and tumbled out into the forest I saw.

I was a little dazed after what had just happened, but all I knew was that I managed to transport myself into the picture. I froze for a second. I looked behind me and found more forest. The bathroom mirror I had supposedly slipped in through was nowhere to be seen. There was no way back. I panicked.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to panic about my situation.

“Freeze!” a voice yelled out.

Before my eyes, soldiers of some sort came out of nowhere and had me surrounded. The thing that really caught me off guard was the weapons they were holding. No guns, but swords, lances, axes, etc. They were still weapons though, and I raised my arms in response, not sure how to respond to this kind of situation.

“You are under arrest for breaking the universal law!” one of the men shouted.

Universal law? Shit. What did I get myself into?