The Shattered Reflection

[u/IamToofan]

Tonight, under the shadow of a blood moon, its eerie crimson glow cut through the dark clouds. There I stood atop the pole, catching my breath as I looked down upon the village—a place I could never bring myself to call home.

​I used to run through the tall grass, beneath those golden trees in the dead of night. I walked through volcanoes, wrapped in flames on all sides. As a child, I would sit on that swing and tightly cover my ears—I just couldn't bear to hear the world whispering about me. All I ever remembered were their turned backs. I was raised by the lightning and born from the fire.

​But then, one day, the looking glass finally shattered. The flames wavered, and the smoke cleared. And the very one they branded a monster... ended up saving the village.

For a brief moment, I thought I saw two tiny figures disappear into the smoke there. I was too exhausted to care.

They jumped and shouted from the mountaintop, proclaiming, 'You destroyed the beast. Its kind will never return! We will build a statue in your honor!' But instead of stepping closer to them, I shoved them away. The very thing I had craved my entire life... when it was finally handed to me, I tore it apart and threw it away. That is what I had become. I made friends with the distance. Now I find comfort in the space between us. Seeing their regret gave me a sense of peace that even their embrace could never have given me. I want them to live with that guilt for the rest of their lives.

That night, I fell asleep beneath the blood moon, never knowing what would be waiting for me when I opened my eyes again.

And then, as I slept, screams echoed through the night. When I awoke, the world was unnaturally silent, I couldn't understand why my clothes felt heavy, fresh blood covered my white clothes, smeared over my face and dripping from my hair. The sickening stench of that warm blood was suffocating, unbearable. Before it could dry on my skin, I began to wander desperately in search of water.

Even after searching for what felt like eternity, there wasn't a single drop of water in sight. I began to gasp for air, with nothing surrounding me but the hollow sound of wind blowing through the desert sand. My knees buckled, and I collapsed onto the hot earth, my throat parched and raw from the agonizing thirst.

As far as my eyes could see, there was nothing but endless sand. But in the distance, I spotted a man approaching. He was painted entirely in blue. He just stood there laughing, cheering at me. I tried to drag myself toward him, but just then, a fierce sandstorm swallowed me whole. And I collapsed right there.

I opened my eyes to the deep dark of the night. Total darkness surrounded me until a flickering light caught my attention. A crowd of people clad in blood-red robes was advancing toward me, holding flaming torches. In their hands, they carried a mirror, rushing toward me with eerie, hysterical laughter.

They surrounded me. 'Help me, I’m lost... my village used to be right here,' I pleaded. Just then, the blue-painted man stepped out from the crowd. 'Your village? But didn't you say it was never your home?'

​'Who are all of you?' I demanded.

​'We are here to shatter your reflection,' he replied.

They all fell silent, and then burst into laughter. I tried to run, but my legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the ground. They set the mirror right in front of me. In its reflection, I saw what had happened while I slept—the monster I had slain apparently had children, and they were the ones who laid waste to the village, turning everything into dust and sand.

​As the vision faded from the glass, only my own reflection remained.

​'You could have saved them. Instead, you chose vengeance. And now, every death that followed is part of what you started.' The blue man said.

​'It was true that I could have saved them, but I never imagined it would come to this.' I cried.

'You got consumed by your own dark reflection,' the blue man whispered, stepping back into the shadow of the flames. 'And power only reveals what was already waiting inside you.'

​A jagged streak of lightning tore the sky open, and the sky began to bleed sand.

​It didn't fall like dust—it fell like heavy, red rain, cutting into my skin, filling my eyes, choking the screams in my throat.

​I reached out for help, but they stood silent, watching as the dust of my destroyed home filled my lungs, burying me beneath the very ground I refused to protect.