The constant hum of the Cicadas and the summer heat made Samira feel drowsy. This weekly hobby was forcing her to cut back on her sleep time. She sighed and for the tenth time that day, regretted her decision to join this club. Samira had always felt like she had nothing good going for her except for her job, so when she saw an Instagram page for a local hiking club, she thought why not? The club would randomly create groups of 6 people and every weekend, they would explore a new trail. 

Committing to 6 AM hikes on the weekend sounded good at first, but now Samira wasn’t so sure. This was only the second week but she was sapped, sleepy, and sweaty. It also seems like a stupid decision to explore an isolated trail with five other people she barely knows, but she wasn’t really thinking about the facts when she joined. She did it on an impulse. By the looks of the group, however, Samira could tell that they were all very passionate about this and meant business. All of them were experienced hikers. The person always taking the lead was Eliza. She was constantly telling everyone what to do and often made all the decisions on their expeditions. Arlo, the youngest of the group, (he was still in college, while the rest of them had graduated) was a complete bird enthusiast. Every five minutes, he went off on a tangent about a new bird call they had just heard. Samira enjoyed it at first, but later began to wish he would talk about something other than birds as well. Aziz, the photographer of the group, was always pointing his camera at something. Alice and Harley were tolerable enough – they were agreeable and always went with the flow. Out of all the people in the group however, the only person Samira could see herself becoming friends with, was Harley. She was the quietest one, but she always shared a smile with Samira when someone said something dumb. 

As Samira and her companions went further, they eventually came to a fork in the trail. Right ahead was a sign that pointed to ‘River Run’ to the left, and ‘Tin Town’ to the right.

“A town, out here?” Arlo asked, puzzled. He was voicing everyone’s thoughts.

“I’ve heard of Tin Town.” Aziz stated. “It used to be a factory town, but has been abandoned for a few decades now, ever since the factory shut down.” 

“That’s so interesting! We should check it out.” Alice was practically bouncing with excitement.

Samira was unsure, but the factory town definitely seemed more intriguing than the same trees and rocks she had been looking at for the past hour, so she nodded. “I agree, we might find something cool.”

Everyone was looking toward Eliza for her approval. Eliza seemed uncomfortable, but she said,  “We would be deviating from the route, but if it's what you guys want to do then I’m okay with it. We have to be really careful though, since we don’t have cell service and I won’t know how to get back if we lose our way.” 

Everyone nodded. “We’ll just retrace our exact path, and we’ll be okay if we stick together.” Arlo reassures. 

And so they started down the trail to Tin Town. After what seemed like forever, the trees started becoming less dense, and the trail finally began to widen, until it opened into an empty street alley. When the group walked through the alley to the other end, they found themselves on a street lined with old shops on either side. There were also a few gigantic sheds that had holes in random places, like people had thrown stones or tried to burn them down. 

There was one building that was the biggest on the street. Samira and the rest of her group were immediately drawn to it. The building was the biggest one that had come across so far. It looked like the equivalent of a modern-day mall, only smaller and creepier.

“MULTIPLEX” The sign on the front was missing the M and had a lopsided L, but it wasn’t hard to make out what it once said. 

“We should go in.” Harley said. It was the first time she had spoken since they entered the town. 

“Hell no, that is so creepy.” Arlo hugged himself.  

“I agree, we don’t know what’s in there. I’m hanging back here, you guys can go ahead if you want to.” Aziz said this in a manner that made it clear he wasn’t going to change his mind. 

“This also doesn’t seem very safe, who knows how long the building’s been standing, it could fall apart at any moment!” Eliza said. 

Samira knew that Eliza and Aziz were right. But a part of her wanted to go anyway. She looked toward Harley, who was now a few steps away, standing at the entrance of the mall. She was smiling the biggest Samira had ever seen her. “I’m going! Who’s coming with me?” 

Samira decided to follow. What was the harm in looking around a bit? They’d be back in no time. So the two of them went inside, while the rest hung back. 

The first few minutes were just awkward silence. Harley didn’t say much, and Samira was never good at starting a conversation, but they were both too excited to think about making small talk right now.

Most stores inside the multiplex were just empty rooms now, and it was hard to tell what they might have once been. However, the girls eventually came across a store that had mannequins in the window. Some of the mannequins still had outfits on them. 

“I don’t know about you, but I love a good thrifting expedition.” Harley said as she pointed at the mannequins. “There might be some really cool finds in here. Something vintage that we can pull off. Let’s take a look.” 

Samira smiled. For someone so mellow, Harley sure had an adventurous spirit. “Sure”

Before they went in however, Samira noticed her reflection in the store window was very distorted. She shook it off, it was probably just a trick of the light.

The store was somehow even creepier than the rest of the town. It was dark inside, and what little light came in through the entrance cast strange shadows on the mannequins, making them look even more eerie. There was a dim glow in the back of the store. Curious, Samira slowly crept toward it. She didn’t hear Harley behind her anymore. She was probably off exploring another part of the store. Samira reached the source of the glow at the end of the store. It was a mirror inside a dressing room. The mirror was old-fashioned, with a thick wooden frame. Samira realized that the glow had simply been the mirror reflecting light. Disappointed, she turned around to go and find Harley. 

Just as she was leaving, a rat scurried across the floor. Samira jumped back in surprise and ended up tripping over herself. The last thing she felt was a pull in her stomach as she fell back and her vision darkened. 

When she woke up again, Samira felt lost and disoriented. She found herself on the floor of the dressing room, her legs and arms sprawled out around her from the fall. She raised a hand to the back of her head where she must have hit the ground when she fell. She began to become aware of a throbbing ache at the nape of her neck. As she slowly sat up, Samira realized that her friends were probably looking for her. 

How long had she been lying here? And where was Harley? Samira felt a mix of fear and anger at the thought of her group leaving without even bothering to look for her. She hurriedly took out her phone to try and contact them, but it was dead. Samira quickly got up and walked back to the entrance of the multiplex, yelling for Harley and the rest of them the whole time. Maybe they were waiting outside? But when Samira got outside she saw no one. The sun was a lot higher up in the sky now, which probably meant it was around noon. When they entered the multiplex it was early morning. Samira felt incredibly alone – it felt like she was the only living being for miles. She shuddered. The panic was starting to set in now. Even if it had been multiple hours, she couldn’t believe her group would just leave her like that. Some friends they were. She knew she wasn’t the most likable person, but for them all to go back without her was just rude. 

But there was no point dwelling on it now. The longer she stayed in this town, the creepier it got. 

She quickly started to walk back to the trail. Luckily, she had been paying attention to her surroundings and was able to retrace her steps back to the beginning of the trail. Fortunately, they had chosen a trail today that wasn’t too far from her neighborhood, so getting back home from the trail wasn’t too difficult. By the time she finally made it onto her street, Samira was exhausted. She was starving and her head was pounding. So much so that she thought she imagined it when she saw that her house was on the right side of the street rather than the left. The first thing she did when she got inside her house was go to the kitchen. She opened her fridge for the leftovers from last night but the fridge was oddly empty. Samira felt confused. She was sure she had leftovers. Or did she just imagine that as well? “Maybe I should go to the doctor,” she thought aloud. “I might have a concussion.” She remembered that her phone needed to be charged so she grabbed the charger in the living room. That was when she noticed the weird placement of all the furniture. The couch that was usually against the left wall was now against the right wall. Everything felt flipped. She checked the time on her phone. It said 5 pm. Outside the sun was starting to set. She had always loved that she could watch the sunrise through the window in her living room. But today she was watching the sun set. Getting more and more confused by the minute, she ran to the bathroom and splashed water on her face in the hopes of waking up from whatever this haze was. Right at that moment she heard a car pulling into her driveway. She never had visitors. Scared of who this could possibly be, Samira grabbed a knife from the kitchen and hid behind the door. When the door knob jiggled and she heard keys, Samira readied herself to pounce. But then the door opened, she stopped in her tracks. 

Standing in front of her, was…..herself. She was face to face with a girl identical to her. The fake Samira had the same dark hair, the same arched nose, and the same thick eyebrows. She was even wearing the exact same outfit that Samira was wearing. The girl’s eyes were wide open with panic, her arms raised in self-defense. It was strange to see the face she knew so well to be her own staring back at her. “Who are you and what are you doing in my house!?” yelled fake Samira.

“Who am I? I should be asking you the same questions! Why do u look like me and how did you get in?”

“This is my house. Of course, I have the keys.” Fake Samira held up a set of keys that did in fact look identical to her house keys. “And as to why I look like you….I’m wondering the exact same thing.”

Now confused, Samira also took out her own keys. For a few seconds, they both just stared at each other in disbelief. 

Finally, fake Samira said “I think I know what is happening. Come with me”

She then walked over to the mirror in the bathroom. Samira followed behind. When they stood in the mirror, to their surprise, neither of them had a reflection.  Samira couldn’t fathom what was happening. It all felt like a bad dream she had to wake up from. 

“Okay, this confirmed my theory. I have read about this happening before. Sometimes, the boundaries between our worlds blur, and while this happens very very rarely if you happen to come by a portal when it does, it is very easy to cross into a different world. However, I haven’t walked through any portals today. At least not to my knowledge. Have you?”

Fake Samira asked this so casually, that it made Samira angry. As if this was a common event. As if people fall through portals into parallel worlds all the time. 

“I…. I don’t know. I can’t believe this is happening to me.” She leans against the sink as she says this. 

Fake Samira puts a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I know this is a lot to process. But you have to trust me. Let’s start small. Tell me what you did today. Did anything strange happen?”

Samira thought back to all that had occurred that day. 

She remembered the weird dressing room mirror and how she couldn’t seem to recall what happened when she fell. “Do these portals happen to be weird mirrors?” she asked. 

Fake Samira nodded, her eyes widening. “So you are from the real world! This is crazy, I never thought this would happen to me. I have always heard so much about your world. People who have traveled there often say it is better than ours.” 

“What is your world?” Samira had a feeling she knew, but she wanted to confirm. 

“The mirror world, of course.” Of course.

“Are there people? I mean..people who have traveled to the real world?” 

“Yes. Not everyone believes them but I am one of the few who do. I have always dreamed of visiting your world.” Fake Samira says this so seriously, that Samira believes her. 

“Oh but I have to mention, nobody can predict when a portal will open or close, so if you want to return, you have to hurry now. I can come with you to the location.”

Samira panicked, “I can’t get stuck here, I have to go now.” 

The two quickly rush back to the trail, which is even scarier at nighttime. During the walk, mirror and real Samira tell each other about their lives, and they find that while they are identical, their worlds could not be more different. Both worlds have their own rules, and Samira realized that the real world was in fact much better than the mirror world, but she didn’t state this observation out loud. 

As they reached the multiplex and approached the store inside, Samira noticed the faint glow of the mirror once again. But it was dimmer now, almost like it was fading away.

“We have to hurry!”

When they reached the mirror, Samira thanked fake Samira. “As crazy as this adventure was, I am glad we got to meet. Thank you for telling me how to get back to where I belong. I owe you.” 

The fake Samira smiled. “Oh also – time passes differently in the two worlds. A day here is only about an hour over in your world. So your friends should still be waiting for you on the other side. Fingers crossed. Be safe out there.”

Samira nodded and took a deep breath. She stepped through the glass, once again feeling the familiar pull in her stomach. When she opened her eyes, she was back in the store. However, something told her she was back in her own world. It just felt right. But she wasn’t alone. Samira heard a sound, and she turned around to see that fake Samira had just come through the portal, now standing there and smiling.
“What are you doing here?”

“I like your world better, so I have decided to switch.”

“What? But you told me that the two of us can’t live in one world together, there would be consequences.”

“Exactly. You are a quick learner.” fake Samira smiled sinisterly and grabbed Samira’s wrist. Before Samira could realize what was happening, she was being shoved toward the portal. Luckily, she caught the edges of the mirror just in time, and was able to hold on. 

“What are you doing?” Samira yelled. “I thought you were nice.”

The fake Samira laughed. “Everyone in my world knows the real world is better – we’re always looking for a way to get out. I was too, and then you came along and practically handed me a way out. How could I possibly let this opportunity go? Besides, it’s unfair that you get to stay here, while I stay in the mirror world. It was about time we swapped places anyway.”

“No, wait, don’t do this –” 

“It's time for you to say goodbye.”

But before fake Samira could push Samira in fully, someone pulled her back. Harley and the others were standing in the back, yelling at Samira to get away from the portal. Not needing to be told twice, she got out of the way and used fake Samira being disoriented as an opportunity to put her back in her world. With the help of Harley and the others, they pushed her inside moments before the portal finally closed. 

Samira, unable to fathom what just happened, stared at her companions in disbelief. “How did you guys know I needed help?”

“We just overheard your evil twin talking and took a bet that she needed to be pushed into the portal.” Aziz said. 

“I’ve watched a fair share of fantasy movies and figured out what was going on, still very confused though.” Eliza added.

“Are you okay?” Arlo asked as he handed her a bottle of water. “That scene was terrifying to witness, I can’t imagine actually being in your place.”

“Yeah seriously, are you alright? If Harley hadn’t alerted us and hadn’t insisted on looking inside this store, we probably would’ve never even found you. All thanks should really be going to her.”

“It’s only because I have read of this phenomenon. Mirror worlds and people trying to enter our realm. I had a feeling this mirror was the culprit and had a lot to do with your disappearance.” Harley then came forward and hugged Samira. “I’m glad you’re back. Mirror you gave me the creeps.” 

Samira almost cried, but she stopped herself. This group that she had initially felt so strongly about had just saved her life. She judged them too soon. 

“Thank you guys. I wouldn’t have survived without you all.”

“I don’t know about you all, but I am still very confused and starving. How about we get out of this weird place and discuss everything that happened over lunch?” Alice suggested. 

Samira looked around the group and smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”