Chapter 27

27

     Jordan sat in her room, her back against the mirror. She knew it. She felt it. The mirror had been calling to her all day. She simply refused to rub the runes embedded, burned into the mirror’s arch. She’d had all day to destroy the mirror, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. The how was the question.

     She sat at her computer talking to Stacey online, both discussing ways the mirror could be destroyed.

     Wildie13: You culd burn it

     Shortcake: How? Catch my room on fire? Drag it out back 2 the burn pit? Don’t u think it’d b pretty obvious?

     Wildie13: What if u just shatter the glass? That’d b easy enuf.

     Shortcake: I thought about that, but I think the runes at the top will have to b destroyed somehow 2.

     No reply came to that one. How could they possibly destroy the mirror without also obliterating the runes? It was obvious that the runes had everything to do with the mirror’s magic. It was nearly 8 PM and Jordan was no closer to an answer than she had been when she first conceived the idea. She leaned back in her chair, allowing her head to roll around on her shoulders and her mind connected to the mirror instantaneously.

     Without warning Jordan’s hair whipped around her head and the chorline smell assaulted her nose. She fell backward in her chair, twisting onto her stomach to glare at the mirror.

     “I did not summon you!” She screamed as she rose to her knees. The mirror had activated on its own somehow and Jordan was forced to view its prediction.

     Unlike before, this time it played out like a movie scene- no symbols or pictures- no runes- the screen simply lit up like a TV screen and Jordan watched, terrified, as the scene came to life before her.

     In the midst of a roiling fog within the mirror she watched her mother driving down the road, crossing an intersection and the crushing blow of a truck broad-siding her. Her mother’s head whipped to the side, blood and shattered glass flew everywhere in slow motion so that the expression on her mother’s face revealed the very horror she was enduring and then the eihwaz rune, Death, rose to the surface of the mirror, obliterating the scene she’d watched. 

     Already Jordan’s mind was racing to the time- 9 Am tomorrow and she began calculating a plan, but her thinking broke stride when the mirror again activated and Jordan wailed in agony.

     “What?” She screamed. “What now? Isn’t this enough?”

But the mirror wasn’t through. The same tale-tell signs erupted around her and she watched in horror as this time the mirror revealed a very different scene. This time it was her father and the scene it revealed was horrific. She watched her father’s flight rising from the tarmac, not quite clearing the ground, its wing tip dipping too low and brushing the ground, sending the plane into a cartwheel of fire and explosion.

     Sweating and crying Jordan fell back from the visions she’d seen. What had just happened? How could she possibly stop two events at once? Her mind overloaded and erupted into a massive headache and in agony she grappled her hand across the desk, found and threw her crystal paperweight at the mirror, cracks spiderwebbing from the impact.

     Jordan scrambled to her feet, turning she saw that Stacey had been IM’ing her ending in a series of question marks.

     Jordan hurriedly typed in- call me, Now! And within seconds her cell phone was ringing. She recounted the events, crying over the phone and Stacey promised she’d arrive in no time.

     Jordan paced the kitchen restlessly until she heard the front door open and slam close. She ran down the hall, nearly colliding with Stacey who stood breathless, her face etched with tenseness.

     “What are we gonna do?” Stacey blurted and Jordan took up her pacing again.

     “Somehow we’ve got to stop two events, which wouldn’t be so bad- I mean there’s two of us- but I am uncertain where the event happens with my mom. The mirror wasn’t clear. What if I put you one place and it happens in another? There are two main intersections in town and I’m certain it happens in town- that much I could see, but where, which one?” Her voice broke in another sob and Stacey put her hands on Jordan’s shoulders to calm her.

     “What about your dad?” She asked and Jordan explained again what she’d seen. I have to stop him from getting on that flight. It has to be me, Stacey. He simply won’t listen to anyone else. I have no idea how I’m even going to get past the TSA nerds to get to him! It’s all just so impossible!”