Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror (NC-17/M—this means no minors!)

Disclaimers: This is a work of fan fiction and is not condoned or authorized by the parties which originated the characters within. The exceptions are Original Characters, created by myself alone or in conjunction with others. If you recognize a person, place or thing as belonging to another creative entity, it is NOT mine. People with money and lawyers own that and I make NO profit from this work of fan fiction. Further, this work contains sexual situations, swear words, violence and a few dust bunnies. If this bothers you or is illegal for you to read, STOP! Go elsewhere. I understand the Pit of Voles has some benign fics lying about.

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… Your Halloween Box might be delayed a few days. Damned weather… InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, Dracena and Greywolf are Loverly and Wondermous for archiving/hosting. J ProPhile: Yay for weekends! (sorry…best I could do on three hours sleep). Morgan: *gloke * Readers/Reviewers: This story follows “Eloi” and “Tempest in a Teapot” in the Foreververse saga. Thank you SO much for reading and reviewing and being generally lovely ducks. J There’s a hurricane knocking at the coast so the next update might not be out for a day or so if we lose power… wish us luck!

Amara stared into the mirror, her face no longer recognizable as a face but rather a simple collection of shapes and tones. The candle guttered and flickered, blinking out in a breath, but she did not move. The faint light of the moon cast the room in a gold-silver sheen and made the shapes that were her face take on an unearthly sheen, but still she sat. The mansion was quiet as could be expected on a night with no power, a freak windstorm early that morning having knocked out service for several square miles. People moved about in the dark, whispering as if the lack of light meant lack of volume. Someone bumped into the wall near her room but she did not move. Her eyes ached and stung from not blinking and back was sore from sitting so straight for so long, but she told herself she would not move until she saw it, until she saw what made her different, what marked her apart from others. A soft clinking sound at her window teased at her concentration, but she did not budge. After what seemed like eons but was only a few minutes, Todd appeared at the glass, having hopped and caromed between the tree and the brick wall of the house to reach her line of vision.
“Hey, Amara! Didn’t you hear me?” He peered into the darkness, his surprisingly keen night vision picking her out easily. “You okay?”
She shifted only her eyes, letting her dark gaze settle on Todd in the window. “Go away,” she said softly. “I do not feel well.” She slid her gaze back to the mirror and let it lock back into place, her face once again becoming a study in impressionistic vision.
Todd stared for a moment longer, until Lance threw another handful of pebbles up and hit him in the backside. Dropping to the ground, he grabbed up a handful of dirt and fallen stones to lob at Lance. “Your girlfriend is coo-coo for CocoPuffs, dude.”
Lance sighed in agitation and stared up at the darkened window. The streets of Bayville were empty and now was the perfect time to return to the Boardinghouse and see what they could find, but he hesitated to leave when Amara was obviously in a bad mood. “Princess!” he called in a stage whisper. “Amara!”
No answer came. After nearly a full minute of silence, Rogue made a muted noise of frustration. “C’mon. I ain’t gonna stand around here all night waiting for her to get her knickers out of a knot. She’s still pissy about earlier and it’s gonna linger. She’s never been picked at before like that.” Hugging her arms around her waist, Rogue shivered as if from the chill in the air. In truth, she was thinking of the first time someone had marked her as different, set her apart from all others, and how she was still paying for it.
“Damn it,” Lance muttered. “Fuck it. I’ll talk to her later. Let’s get going.” With one rueful glance up at the window, he stuffed his hands into his jacket pocket and trod after Todd and Rogue towards the hole in the fence around the grounds, their secret way out. He felt the distance between him and Amara pull like silvered cords against his back, through his chest and soul. He did not know how to explain it but it felt cold with her now, as if she were closing in on herself. “Hey, Rogue…”
“Yeah, yeah… I’ll talk to her in the morning. I promise.”

Amara stood finally, her knees creaking in thankful protest. She closed her eyes to clear the ache, her mind soft and tired as if she had been drunk. Moving with deliberate steps, Amara went to her bed and laid down. The words of the girls in town rang in her skull, resonating like bells. Freak…whore…weird…vile… She opened her eyes and stared at the canopy again, her lungs aching with a breath she did not realize she had been holding. “Yes,” she finally sighed. “Yes.” She folded her hands over her stomach and smiled softly in the dark. A tiny grain of an idea had been planted in her head and she knew that, by morning, it would reach full germination.

A/N This is just a prologue. The next chapter is the first “real” chapter and a full on one at that.