© Dawn M. Miller
Lionel thought it was a strange place to put a mirror until he saw a piece of paper taped to it saying “Free.” Then the glass was a swirling black as if thousands of iron filings were being moved around by an unseen magnet.
He gaped in awe as another image appeared. “Grandpa’s shed.”
He remembered playing there as a boy. Then a younger Grandpa appeared.
“What’s that he’s dragging? The man slipped and the heavy tarp unfolded for a moment, spilling out part of its burden. Lionel recognized the corpse from old photos. “So that’s what happened to Grandma.”
I wrote this for the Rochelle Wisoff-Fields flash fiction challenge. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 100 words long. My word count is 100.
Given the mirror, I thought I’d add another wee chapter to my Dark Mirror series along with tales such as Reconstructing Gwen and Darfur Misspelled. If I had more than 100 words to play with, I could have expanded this a bit, but hopefully it tells a complete story anyway.
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.
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A person could solve a lotta cold cases with that mirror.
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Very true, Rochelle.
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Magic mirror that tells the past. Nice story.
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It does a lot of things. This was just one of its stories.
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I wish I had one.
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The way I wrote the series, the “dark energy” moves from one mirror to the next, anywhere in the world, showing its owner what they need to see. If the mirror is big enough, you can walk through to another world at any point in space and time, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll get back.
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Heavy physics stuff.
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More mystic than physics.
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A little bit of Norman Bates here. Scary!
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Yeah. Evil Grandpa.
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Someone should get this mirror to the police, quite a few cases could be cleared up this way! 🙂
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Probably true, Iain, but the energy behind the dark mirror never stays in one place very long.
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I liked the iron filings image
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Thanks, Neil.
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Yikes- evil grandpa indeed
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The iron filings image was very graphic. Good one.
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Thanks, Sandra.
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Iron filings image is a definite score! Well he can’t go to the police with that info, but perhaps it is a lead for his own investigation.
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He could tell the police to search the old shed. If he inherited the property, he could give them permission to search without a warrant.
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He could indeed. Or would he cover up for his grandfather, now that he has perhaps bonded with him and seeing that he never met his grandmother?
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For all we know, Grandpa is long dead.
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You have another vote for the iron filings image from me! I wonder where Lionel’s loyalties lie after the shocking discovery?
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As I just mentioned to Fatima, enough time could have passed that Grandpa is now dead. You never know.
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Oh dear. Horrible to contemplate. Very well-written.
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Thanks. A decades old murder finally uncovered.
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Cis would welcome a peek in that guilded glass. Well done a super response.
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Creepy. Brilliant. 🙂
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Thanks.
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Keep looking – I wonder what it will reveal next!
Click to read my FriFic tale
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Only what the watcher needs.
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Would that investigators had access to such a tool…
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Magic isn’t always as reliable as a criminal investigation needs.
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True that!
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Intrigued to know what all the mirror can do.
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If the mirror is large enough, a person can walk through it, but returning home is not guaranteed.
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Wow, a portal to the past, how intriguing. Just crimes ? A gruesome ending indeed !
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It can be anything. Whatever you need the most.
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Perfect for halloween… a truth-telling mirror. No wonder someone wanted to get rid of it. 🙂 ❤
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Actually, the magic of the mirror travels from place to place. Tomorrow morning, it might be in your bathroom mirror. Wonder what it will show you or where it will take you?
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It could show me a beloved Island harbor and transport me back there to a time when I was much younger… that – it would be paradise. Ah, if mirrors were truly magic…. sighs with contentment.
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The mirror of evidence operating like an old tv screen. Fascinating.
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Thanks, Jilly.
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Mirror Mirror on the wall … telling secrets about grandpa.
Mmmm … quite a mystery story in this one.
Isadora 😎
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Glad you liked it, Isadora.
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Grandma in the shed. Doesn’t seem to be a surprise. Boogeymen in real life. Fun story
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Thank you.
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I love the concept.
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What a way to solve a mystery. Nicely done.
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Thanks.
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He recognized a corpse from her picture–not a sentence you hear everyday.:) I love the iron filings image, very easy to picture it swirling beneath the mirror’s surface.
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Scary stuff, well-done! We need more mirrors like this. Think of all the unsolved cases …
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It does a lot more than just solve murders, Brenda. Thanks.
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I’m sure. =)
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Ah! the secrets behind the mirror, now go and dig up the earth beneath the shed. Great build up and ending.
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Thanks, James.
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Wonderfully imaginative!
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Thank you.
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I think that Grandma might be calling from beyond.
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You never can tell, Bjorn. Thanks.
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