Mirror

I was surprised by my own strength, as I assume one would be, when I picked myself up by the collar of my blouse and pulled myself, limbs flailing, through the narrow passage of the mirror and into the womb of the world behind. I bounced off a sink and collapsed to a chipped tile floor below. The small bathroom, perfectly arranged in a fashion just the opposite of my own, rang with the echoes of my shocked and frightened screams.

I stared up into my own eyes which looked narrow and angry. My hands clasped my ears to escape the shrill sound of my screaming.

"Shut the fuck up!" my reflection shouted down at me. "Jesus fucking Christ, you're loud!"

I looked up at myself - this person who looked like me, but with her cowlick on the wrong side.

Questions stampeded through my head like so many lemmings racing for an early demise. It was overwhelming. I tried my best to catch one and apply it to my lips. Unsuccessfully. "You're not wearing any pants."

"Well, why the fuck should I? The mirror is just a medicine cabinet, and it's placed so high that we are lucky just to get a chance to view the bottom of our chin, eh? Why waste so much energy creating details like pants when they are never seen."

I began to arrange my legs underneath me in an attempt to stand up. Certainly, some body parts would soon yield bruises. "There's got to be an explanation for this," I muttered to myself. And, I suppose, myself. "Someone must have spiked my orange juice... LSD, or something..."

"Sorry, bitch, you give your friends too much credit - what few of them they are. Our meeting has been arranged by me at great effort and expense. So, get your fucking head together we have to talk." I, uh she, whatever, reached down and pulled me up to my feet. "Come on! Get off your cute little ass!"

"Fat..." I muttered under my breath.

"Stop that right now!" Mirror Me jumped in my face and even though she was exactly my height it felt like she was towering over me. Scowling.

"Yoww!" I screamed as she reached out and pinched my nipple. Even through the padding of my bra cup her grasp was quite painful.

"You diminish both of us every time you say something like that," she exclaimed. "We're hardly fat! Nothing like your friend Elle certainly. I can't stand that bitch. Why do you invite her over?"

"Elle? She's ok."

"Fuck that! The bitch must live on a diet of post-menopausal skunks. She uses our bathroom and stinks the place up for fucking days. Do you know how hard it is to get that stench out? Meanwhile you force me to spritz my nose with that saline shit and inhale. I may look content in your mirrored view, but believe me, I'm retching. If she asks to come over again, tell her to fuck off!"

Mirror Me directed me out the bathroom door and into a small bedroom completely unlike any room I had in my own apartment. The room was furnished with a large four poster bed. The walls were covered with shelves stuffed tight with books of all shapes and sizes. Light emanated from above. There was no light fixture per se, simply a featureless glowing expanse of nothingness.

"So, what do I call you? What is your name?" I asked nervously.

"Duh!" Mirror Me looked at me as though I had forgotten a year's worth of remedial coursework. "I am your reflection... I have your name!"

"Oh, Siana, I just was-"

"Except backwards. It's Anais!"

"Oh, of course."

I stared at myself- at Anais and she at me for a moment. "You're so cute," she said, finally, "when you have that lost puppy look."

"So, you, uh, live here?" I asked turning to peruse the stacks of books.

"Ah... small talk..." Anais scoffed. "You'd be pretty fucking surprised if someone else lived here, wouldn't you?"

Wow, I'm rude!

I pulled a book off the shelf and opened the cover. "I don't recognize any of these books."

"Well, first, it helps to read the book from its beginning." Anais flipped all the pages over so they rested on the left hand cover. I tilted my head back and forth staring at the words. "We read from right to left here."

Ah! Backwards.

"You wouldn't recognize the books because they have all been custom written for me," Anais explained.

"All of them?" I looked around at the piles. There must have been thousands.

I walked over to a clothing rack that contained the top half of all my outfits.

Anais patiently watched me explore for a moment then held out her arm. "Who wears this shit?" she asked. "I mean, besides you?"

I looked at her with my mouth hanging open. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Well, don't you ever consider wearing something that might be just a little bit fashionable?"

"'Fashionable' costs a lot of money," I explained.

"Treat yourself, bitch! Every once in a while maybe."

I continued looking around. "Are there any other rooms?"

"Access to more rooms would require for me to have more doors, now wouldn't it?" Anais stated bluntly. "Nope. It's just your grimy bathroom and my small bedroom."

"But, I have other mirrors in my apartment. How do you get to them?"

"Oh, those are totally different us's. Every mirror is a gateway to a different reflective universe... small as they may be. Every mirror is a different Anais."

"What do you eat?" I asked looking for a refrigerator.

"You eat for both of us, sweetheart. The only food I get is those crappy bits of shit that pop out from between your teeth when you floss. Spit that shit out! Don't swallow it! That's fucking disgusting."

I accidentally let out a minor exasperated laugh.

"What? What's wrong?" Anais asked accusingly.

"I uh... I was just wondering if I come across to people like you do since, you know, we are the same person."

"Ah! You're worried that you are a crass, rude, bitch? That's what you wanted to say, right?"

"Nooo! No, no no..." I said staring at the floor. "Yes."

"Don't worry, sweet nips. You come across as sweet. Sweet sweet, even. Disgustingly saccharine, nasty sweet. And milquetoast. Oh my god, yes! Totally wimpy, mild milquetoast. So, don't worry."

"I... I won't," I said, my hand covering my mouth.

"You see, like all things, the multiverse likes balance. You are right handed. I am left handed. Whereas you are a submissive, boot-wiping, floor mat, I am a type-A, alpha bitch. Balance!"

"Oh! Like matter and antimatter?" I suggested.

"Don't try to think, bitch. You'll give me a fucking headache."

I looked around the small room briefly. "So, why am I here?"

"Don't you remember? I reached through the mirror, grabbed your ass and yanked you through. Quite a trick, huh?"

"Well, what do you want?"

Anais turned from me and paced across the room unbuttoning her blouse as she went. "You've been packing your bags. You're getting ready to go on trip."

"Yes, I am."

"How long?" she asked.

"Three months."

"Where to?"

"England. Ah... I see!" A smile spread across my face. "You're going to miss me. I won't be here looking at you in the mirror."

"No," she said bluntly. "Who are you staying with?"

"This girl I met a while back."

"A girl?"

"A girl."

"Do you like her?"

"This is kind of like the inquisition."

Anais rolled her eyes and threw the blouse across the room to the rack of clothing where it bounced and slid into a heap on the floor. "Just answer the fucking question."

"If you are me, don't you already know the answer?"

"Yes. But you always talk to yourself even when you are not with me. How is this interaction any different?" Anais released the fastener for the bra and randomly flung it to the floor.

"You're just going to get naked, I see," I said.

"It's nothing that you've never seen before. Or don't you look? So, do you like her?"

"Well, yeah! I mean, she's a friend of a friend. She was visiting the States. We hung out for a while. She stayed here for a night. We had fun."

"You didn't sleep with her," Anais said.

"No! It was just one night! She is a only a friend."

"Easy, bitch! That wasn't a question. It was a statement. You didn't sleep with her."

"No," I stated wistfully.

"Ynnej."

"Bless you!"

"No, you fuck! Ynnej. That was her name. On your side she would have been called, umm... Jenny?"

"Yeah," I looked up at Anais as she leaned against the post of her bed. Her left arm was stretched up over her head. She looked very pretty - sexy even. "Yennj?"

"Names don't always translate so well between our worlds."

"I guess not," I said turning back to look through the book shelves. "Wait a second! You met her?" I asked, turning back to Anais.

"Met her? She was at your place for, like, fifteen hours. Do you think she never went to the bathroom? Hell yeah I met her. Damn, bitch! I even fucked her."

"What?!" I pressed the palm of my hand to my forehead.

"Yeah! She was one mean bitch..."

"You didn't like her!?"

"I did! She was quite a fighter, but I ended-"

"You raped her!?"

"No, you fuck! She just likes it rough. I got her down in the end, though. At least that's my story and I'm sticking with it." Anais began to chew on the fingernail that I can never seem to grow out.

"Oh, I get it. Ynnej is mean, because Jenny is so sweet. I'm in opposite world."

"Not opposite, bitch. Balance! There's a difference." Anais spit the fingernail fragment at me.

"Well, Jenny is sweet! And very pretty..."

"Fucking hot!" Anais gazed off into a memory.

I pictured Jenny in my head, as well. "Mmmm... She has the most beautiful soft round lips..."

"Very bite-able." Anais agreed.

"I like the graceful curve of her back when she stretches..."

"Which looks even better when covered in welts, I must say."

"And her eyes..."

"...when they are covered by a heavy blindfold..."

"...Beautiful!" we sighed in unison.

I looked back at Anais who was idly scratching her crotch. She stopped when she caught my look of disdain. "Fuck, bitch! You should trim it up sometimes. Fuck!" Anais pointed at her crotch. "It's like a goddamned marmot. You're going to be in some particularly romantic situation. Maybe Jenny has just leant towards you and placed a kiss upon your lips. Her hands start to slide up your waist and tug at the buttons of your blouse. Instead of channeling an irresistible sex goddess like you should, all you will be able to think about is the fact that you have a marmot between your legs."

I rolled my eyes and gathered a deep breath.

Meanwhile Anais began prancing around and screaming "Marmot! Marmot! Marmot!" She jumped up on the bed. "Eee! Get that thing away from me! Marmot!"

"Alright already!" I screamed. "You're so vile."

"Me!? I don't choose to carry around a large rodent in my pants."

"You don't wear pants!" I screamed.

"How could I? There wouldn't be enough room for me and your rodent."

"Grrr..." I had to change the subject. "Anyways... Jenny has a room that I will be able to use as a base while I explore England. For three months. And, you know what? I need to get back to packing my toiletries. Is there anything else that you need from me?" I turned back towards the bathroom.

"Yes. There is. Take off your clothes. We are going to have sex."

I turned back around with my mouth open wide. "What!? I don't think so."

"Oh, come on! Basically, you'll be having sex with yourself. It's just like masturbation. And, admit it! You're the queen of masturbation. What was it? Five times this past week?"

"How do you know that?" I huffed back towards the bathroom door.

"You're going to pass this up? Come on, Siana, O Queen of Water Based Lubricants, take off your goddamned clothes!"

"Ha!" I screamed, spinning back around. "Look at your little love nest here. You probably lie around all day in your four poster scratching your crotch," I retorted, while bending my fingers like little quotes in the air above my head to emphasize my use of the term "scratching".

"You are so hot when you get worked up... But, for your information, bitch, each day that you masturbate, I can't. Each day that you don't masturbate, I cunt. Ha ha! Get it?"

I stared at her for a moment. Surely, she was joking.

"It's one of those multiverse balance things," she explained. "And believe you me! You are having much more fun than me, Miss Fingers! If you did it in front of the fucking mirror, it'd be a different story... Jesus!" Anais looked genuinely sad. She was staring at my feet, arms crossed - even her lips were a little pouty. I had no idea that my private pleasure had any sort of effect somewhere else on someone else.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know," I said as I took a step towards her and placed a comforting hand on her arm.

"Can I try those on?" Anais asked pointing at my shoes.

"Don't you-" I started, but then realized that if she didn't have reflective copies of my pants, there was no way she would have copies of my shoes. I slipped my feet out of them. They were just an old pair of leather flats.

"Now, I love these!" she exclaimed as she slid her feet into them. She jumped up and down in them, then began prancing around the room again. She stood on the ball of her left foot and spun herself around in a circle screaming "Wheee!" until she lost her balance and fell into my arms.

I held her naked body against mine for a second staring into her large blue eyes. She felt so nice pressed against me. I saw details of my face in hers that I had never seen before. Slowly, she straightened up, leaned forward, and our lips met.

I am not the most kissed woman in the world. I've had enough, though, to be able to categorize the quality of a particular kiss quickly and easily. And so, it is with some confidence that I may suggest that this kiss was heads and shoulders above anything I had experienced before. The moment our lips touched a feeling of electricity began to spin through my body. Our lips fit together perfectly. I was surprised at the feelings that this kiss sparked within me. I was surprised at how soft and full my lips felt.

As the feeling grew, we both simultaneously advanced our tongues to taste, feel, and explore. I felt hands begin to unbutton my blouse. MY hands were unbuttoning. MY my-hands were unbuttoning my blouse, not her my-hands. I wanted her. I wanted me. It was weird, but so, so wonderful.

As I popped the fastener on my bra and it fell away, Anais was pulling down on the hem of my jeans. "There's a zipper that you have to undo," I whispered between kisses.

Soon, Anais moved around behind me kissing my neck as she went. I leaned against one of the bed posts as she pealed my jeans down. My panties quickly followed. I felt Anais's breath in the small of my back. A line of kisses tickled their way up my spine. Her fingers slid down the length of my right arm. They slid over the back of my hand and intertwined with my own fingers in a loving caress.

Then she let my hand go and grasped my wrist. Her touch turned from warm and soft to cold, unyielding and heavy. Confused, I looked down to find my wrist encircled by a heavy cuff. A sturdy chain was attached to a d-ring embedded on the cuff and the chain rose off towards the ceiling.

Before I could react, I heard a click and realized that my left wrist was now held captive as well.

I looked up to see where the chains were connected. They simply rose past the top of the bed posts and faded into the mysterious glowing void above us. The chains began to tug my arms upwards.

I looked at Anais. "What's going on?"

"I know your deepest and darkest secrets, lover-bitch Siana," she smiled. "And, I'm going to give you a vivid taste."

"No!" I screamed, shuffling around on my feet, twisting in my chains. "Please! No!"

I know my deepest, darkest secrets too, and frankly, they instill at least as many parts fear as they do fascination. "Please, stop, Anais!"

My arms were pulled up until I was being lifted off of my heels.

Anais shook her left arm a few times until a multiply tailed leather flogger appeared to grow from the palm of her hand. A strap formed around her wrist and a handle settled firmly between her gripping fingers.

"Oh, god, please!" I begged. "Don't! I'm not ready for this!"

Anais held the flogger up to her lips. "Shhh! If you can't trust me, then who will you ever trust."

She raised the flogger and brought the straps down on the upper left side of my back. She followed up with a series of perfectly placed strikes. I danced on my toes trying to get away from the pain, grunting and whimpering.

Anais stopped for a moment, wrapped her right arm around my torso and pulled my back tightly against her breasts. They felt particular cool against the areas on my back which she had assaulted.

"You don't have to prove to me how tough you are, pussy willow. Scream..." she whispered into my ear. "Loudly..."

She pushed me away and continued her attack - this time on the upper right side of my back. I complied with her wishes and let my voice go wild, loud, and ragged. Tears were pouring down my face. I felt like I was going to throw up. Still, at the same time the fire that Anais ignited on my back fed a smoldering heat down below.

"Siana!" Anais sang. "Who is the fairest of them all?" She struck me even harder with the flogger, laughing at her little joke.

She paused for a moment. "Well? Answer me!" she screamed.

"Ow, ow! You are!" I cried. I had thought she was being rhetorical.

"Good answer," she replied. "But, wrong!" Another volley of strikes rained down upon me causing me to lose my footing briefly.

"Who?" she asked again.

"I don't know!" I cried. "I don't know!"

I cowered as best as I could, waiting for another round of lashings. Instead she stepped around in front of me and kissed me gently on the lips. "You and I are the same, Silly! The answer is 'We are'."

I whimpered.

"So, who is the fairest of them all?" she asked again.

"We are," I gasped.

"Correct!" Anais screamed and she started flogging me again.

"I answered!" I screamed. "Stop hitting me!"

Anais stopped. She caught a tear running down my cheek with her thumb and sucked it into her mouth. "I'm not flogging you based on wrong and right answers, Siana. I'm flogging you because you want me to."

"No!" I cried.

"You don't want me to flog you anymore?" she asked.

I tried to answer but I was suddenly gripped by a pathetic series of uncontrollable gasps and blubbering sounds. So, I shook my head.

"You can't lie to me, Siana." Blows began to rain down again. "Lying to me is the same as lying to yourself. Why do you lie to yourself, Siana?"

"I'm not," I whimpered.

Anais stepped around in front of me again, sighing. "Siana, Siana, Siana..." She stared at me with a distinctly accusatory look. Eventually, I turned my eyes to the floor simply to avoid her gaze.

"I've got an idea," Anais said as she raised a handkerchief to my nose and dabbed drool off my chin. "I'll make you a little more comfortable." She twisted my hair into a ponytail and pulled it over my shoulder so that it draped in front of me. Some strands were already wet with sweat.

"I know how much you like chains."

Oh, no! I whimpered and let my frame sink until I was supported by my wrist cuffs.

"I'll get you some chains to wear. Really, really heavy ones."

Anais raised her hands to my neck. I felt something cold and solid clamp firmly against my skin. I heard a resounding click. A collar had been locked around my neck. She touched her hand to the side of my neck and as she raised her hand away a series of thick, heavy gauge links materialized at the base of her palm as though she were extracting the chain from within her being. She reached up and affixed this chain to my cuffed wrist. Then, she repeated the process on my other side.

Next Anais wrapped her arms around my waist. As she brought her hands forward from my back to my abdomen, I felt a similarly stout chain settle loosely on the flare of my hips.