Jaci Dawn

Ella couldn’t explain her emotions. She knew the mirror was some sort of clue, but what the clue was, she didn’t know. When had her parents acquired it? She couldn’t remember ever having seen it before, and she’d played dress-up in the attic many times. She had played with all of the magic wands, too, including the one that Gran got to work – and never, never, had anything magic happened.
The mannequin was odd, too, but she vaguely remembered something like it being used on All Hallow’s Eve when she was little: it had been dressed in a long black dress, with a Styrofoam head attached and a rubber mask over the head. Ella’s father sat on the front porch in costume, and scared the bejesus out of his own daughter. Mom had been angry at him, and pranks and dressed up horror models had never been used on the front porch again. Jack o’Lanterns, spider lights, and that weird spider web stuff you could buy at the Dollar Store – those items became the staple of Hallowe’en decorations. Just the way Ella preferred it.
She wasn’t magic like the rest of her family. She always felt like a freak when Aric could do irritating little things like levitate himself or other objects in the room. Her mom sometimes made dinner with a wave of the hand, and Ella told herself – lied to herself – that it had been simmering in the crockpot all day, like normal families. Or that time her father had asked her to run upstairs for something while he repaired a bicycle that had been run over by a backing up car. It was all fixed, not a dent or scratch or spoke out of place by the time Ella returned.
Her parents let her believe what she told herself: that everything could be explained with science. They must have known she didn’t possess an ounce of magic, but it was Aric who had tormented her by hiding her stuffed animals or making them talk at night. He was punished for the trickery, but he always found a way to bug her, like levitating on the last day that Ella did not believe in magic.
Her friends, too, had hidden magic skills from her, good naturedly going along with all of her scientific explanations, and leading her to believe they were just like her. But they weren’t were they? When it came right down to it, that last day, they’d come into her house and started talking about jail, escape, having a plan, and all. Right up to the moment when Deke had turned them into mice and dropped them into the crawl space, Ella had believed that there was no such thing as magic.
That whole bellwether lie that Kitsune gave her – it could all be explained logically, now that she thought about it. She trusted the deer mice because they were mice, like herself. She could understand them because she was a mouse, and they communicated with pheromones and high pitched sounds. She knew the raccoons were trouble, because they were raccoons. Crows were crows. It was all Nature taking its course. Even the stupid toad – any mouse knew a toad was dangerous. Toads ate mice.
That mirror, however. That was strange. She’d looked into a room that noone else could see, and she had a punch-in-the-gut feeling about it. The woman staring at the computer. The dark red oak furniture. It was like being Alice and having a portal to another world.
But why couldn’t anyone else see it?
And why were Gran and Billie acting so put out?
Ella made herself a cup of tea. Everyone else was still in the great room, but conversations had changed. Some of them were playing a card game. Mrs. – Natalie – was showing Madison how to knit. Deke and Aric were head to head on some game they were plaing on a piece of paper. Horace was still roosting. Richard was reading a book, rocking in his rocking chair.
Ella stood by one of the windows and stared out into the wintry scene. A cow elk gnawed at tufts of old grass as it worked it way around the cabin. A light snow was falling, but not the kind of snow that stuck to the ground. Ella wondered where her parents were, and what was going on.
Another elk grazed its way into the scene, a regal four point bull that blew steam into the air as he followed the cow, pulling at tufts of grass the cow missed.
Natalie’s elk, Ella thought. The ones that kept covering our tracks. Even now, they are circling and covering our tracks. Why don’t I have any magic?
But why couldn’t anyone else see the other room?
Richard entered the room quietly, as was his wont. “Is the tea still hot?”
Ella nodded. “Can we make the mirror large again? Only put it in the bathroom, where I can look at it by myself?”
“I would not advise that.”
“I don’t want everyone watching over my shoulder. I need to do this by myself.”
“The mud room is perhaps a better solution.” He nodded toward the back of the kitchen, where a small room led to a back door. A washer and dryer were installed in the room, and the outside door was locked.
Ella walked over and looked. “But I don’t want anyone in the kitchen when I’m talking to the mirror. I don’t know what I’m going to say to it.”
He rubbed his chin. “Only should you promise to not use it as a portal, should I agree to this.”
“I promise.” She looked into his eyes and nodded. “I promise.”
They only let Deke and Aric in on the plan, such as it was. Aric looked doubtful. Deke had to do the magic because it was his spell to begin with, Richard said. Aric insisted that he be allowed to sit in the kitchen, ready to come to her aid should anything happen. Of course. Deke had to be included.
Richard created a diversion: popcorn, sodas, and a movie on the big screen TV in the great room.
The mirror was moved to the mud room, full size, with the magical side facing Ella. The other side faced the locked back door.

Ella ran her hand down the ornate carvings on the side of the mirror. “Where did you come from?” She murmured.
“How about, ‘What do you want to tell me?’”
The mirror dimmed until it was smoky brown. Slowly, a room came into focus, with two men standing before the mirror in an apparent disagreement. Ella moved her hand over the mirror, even as the other hand covered her mouth in surprise.
She was staring into her own attic. Her father, Phoenix, was speaking.
“Why here, Fred?”
“I don’t know. It just seemed like it wanted to be here. I was going to take it to Richard’s house, but it just… pulled me here.”
Phoenix shook his head. “I don’t know. If this is as dangerous a game as you say it is, I don’t know that I want my family involved.”
“It’s only temporary, I promise. Just until I can get rid of this yokel that is zeroing in on the governor.”
“What if he gets to you, first?”
Fred was a little man, slightly stooped, with large glasses on his nose. “Phoenix, you know me well. I’ve been the governor’s body guard for decades. Please, trust me, I don’t want to store it here.”
Phoenix, tall and straight-backed, athletic, with a chiseled face, glanced at the mirror. “I worry most about Ella. What if she comes up here and finds it?”
Fred shook his head, “How often does she come up here? It’s an attic.”
Phoenix shrugged. “She used to play up here all the time. Dress up, some little fantasy game before she had any close friends. I had to deactivate all the magic, lest she discovered she had a gift, and activated something crazy.”
Fred nodded his head. “Yeah, I get kids. You never know. I promise, I’ll be back before the weekend to move it. I just need to talk to Richard about hiding it. He’ll know.”
The mirror faded smoky again, and Ella was staring at her mouse reflection.
“Eek!” she said, automatically reaching up to feel her ears. They felt normal. She glowered at the mirror, “Don’t play around!”

The mirror turned a misty blue, with swirling light blue colors, and she was looking into another room. It was an office, similar to the first one. Fred was standing in front of a very large walnut desk, looking down at his hands, and acting as if he was embarrassed. The governor stood on the other side and seemed to be angry. The governor was a tall, large man who filled out a three piece suit. He wore a blue and white bow tie.
Ella touched the glass, and, again, she could hear the voices.
“You’re telling me that you can’t find anything? No tracks? No sightings?”
“Yes, yes sir, I am.” Fred glanced sideways at the mirror. “I, um, see you moved that into here.”
“What? The mirror? Yes, yes, I moved it in here. Don’t change subjects on me, Fred. I trusted you to get my family heirloom back. You are disappointing me. What do you plan to do now?”
“We could start killing wizards. Put it on TV. The kids would have to come out, then.”
“Killing!?” The mayor started to pace, then looked back at Fred. “When did you get to be devious?”
Yes, when? Ella wondered. “Mirror, is that really Fred? Because Deke has his wand.”
The men in the mirror changed before her eyes. The mayor shrank, his back twisting with scoliosis. He lost hair, and his face became flaccid and wrinkled with age. His hands shook, and he had to hold onto the edge of the desk to keep the shaking from showing. He aged at least fifteen years before Elle’s eyes.
But it was Fred who caught her attention: he grew taller. Darker. A smoke seemed to swirl around him as he took shape. When it dissipated, Fred was taller than the governor, and he was also no longer human in appearance. He was a black fox with three tails.
Ella pulled her hand back as if she had been burned. The image faded, and she was staring at Ella the mouse, once again.
Then she fainted.

She came to on the sofa. The room was hushed. She looked around: everyone was there, Dish kneeling by her head, Billie, Madison. Dylan. Natalie, Gran, Kyle. Aric and Deke stood behind the sofa, trying not to look concerned. Richard was at the head of the sofa, where he had been waving something under her nose.
“How long was I out?” She pulled herself up to a sitting position. “Whoa! Dizzy!”
“Put your head between your knees until it passes,” Natalie suggested.
“No, no. It’s gone.” Ella was pale as the fresh snow outside. “Where’s the mirror?”
“Under the sofa, again.” Deke shrugged. “I thought maybe it sucked the life out of you or something.”
“Twerp.” Ella waved an irritated hand at him.
Richard appeared at her side with a cup of green tea. “Drink slowly. You can tell us when you have a little more strength.”
She tasted the tea: sweet and herbally, it smelled of roses. She took a longer sip, closing her eyes and breathing in the aroma. Without opening her eyes, she said, “Fred stole the mirror. He brought it to our house. Dad didn’t want to store it because he was afraid I would find it in the attic when I went up there to hide. The attic is sort of my safe place, where I go when I feel lonely or Aric has made me especially mad, or I fail a test.”
Another sip of tea. She looked at Dish, who nodded. “Anyway, Fred said it was only until he found this yokel, only he didn’t say ‘yokel’ – he mispronounced it. He was a bodyguard for the governor. Oh, and he kept saying he was going to talk to Richard about what to do with the mirror.”
Everyone looked at Richard.
“He never came to me about a mirror.” Richard frowned.
“Well, he was going to deal with this – um, yokel. I think things didn’t go well.”
“Go on,” Dish urged, one hand on her knee.
“Well, then the mirror took me to another room. The governor’s office. He was arguing with Fred. He was really mad the Fred hadn’t located the missing heirloom, and Fred was apologizing. Then Fred said something really strange that scared me. He said they should start killing all the wizards, to make us come out of hiding. And the mayor called him ‘devious’, like that was a good thing.”
“Kill our parents?”
“Was that everything?”
“Um, no. Every time the mirror got done showing me something, it reflected me, but I was my mouse self. I thought it was being funny, like maybe it had a sense of humor, or Aric was messing with it.”
“No way, Dork!” Aric looked offended.
“I know it wasn’t you,” she replied. She sipped the last of the tea. “I think it was trying to tell me something about our mouse selves, but I didn’t get that far because I asked it why was Fred still alive when Deke has his wand, and he must be dead to have lost his wand.” She shuddered.
“It showed you more?” Billie leaned forward, looking almost like the Billie who was Ella’s friend.
Ella nodded. “The governor got really, really old, really fast. And Fred… Fred turned into this giant black fox with three tails.”
“Yokai,” Richard said, sitting down.
“What?” They all looked at him.
“Yokai, not yokel. Evil Kitsune. The opposite of myself. A shadow fox.”
“There was something else,” Ella interrupted. “The real Fred told my dad that he was trying to take the mirror to you, but that the mirror ‘pulled’ him to our house. The mirror wanted to be in the attic. Isn’t that weird?”
“Not really,” Aric came around the sofa. “I think the mirror belongs to the wizard who can talk to it. I think it’s your mirror, and it was looking for you.”
“Yeah,” Dish said. “I can see that. You didn’t even believe in magic until the mirror was in your house.”
“But why now?”
No one had an answer.
“And why did it keep showing me as my mouse self?” Ella looked at Richard, but he merely shook his head and muttered.
“Yokai. This is very bad.”