Mirrors

The carnival’s Fun House had been anything but fun for Carl as he walked out through walls of mirrors that no longer distorted or twisted the reflection of what was now his new body.

The Fun House had started enjoyable enough as Carl and his girlfriend enjoyed the silly slides to go down and inflatable floors to bounce on; it brought back memories of their childhoods.

At the end was the Hall of Mirrors, the type where you’d look in and appear tall or fat or however else they could distort the way you looked by bending the mirror.

One mirror was alone at the end of a long hallway labeled “Your Deepest Desire.” Carl rolled his eyes when he got close enough to see a blonde woman in the mirror mimicking his movements. He chuckled, assuming it was some sort of digital trick tracking his movements, and he turned back to the main room. But despite each step he took, he never seemed to get any closer to leaving and the mirror with the woman stayed the same distance behind him. Somehow he knew that going back the way he came was no longer an option, and instead he walked through the mirror.

He found himself returned to the main hall where his girlfriend was laughing how she appeared in various mirrors. She grabbed the arm of another man and kissed him. Carl was ready to be furious, but even in the distorted mirrors he could see that he had changed. He wasn’t the man he had been just moments ago; he had been transformed into the woman from the mirror. That wasn’t his girlfriend anymore. He had a new body; he had a new life -- the entire world was different as a result. As he walked out, all he could think about was just who he was now; he didn’t have a lot to go on...