• The other man’s touch was death. Corcea had that figured out pretty quickly. What he couldn’t figure out, though, was how the man just wouldn’t get tired. At first he thought his own energy was being siphoned into the strange red man, but he realized that wasn’t likely because he appeared to need to touch him to harm him. Skin-to-skin, that is, he had punched and kicked plenty of times. Only one had landed on exposed skin. It had felt like his life was draining to somewhere. Right afterwards, the man extended claws identical to Corcea’s own.

    He was wearing out, making sloppy mistakes. Soon enough, he had gone in to bash the man with the hilt of his saber and the man caught his wrist. The siphoning sensation returned. He had lost to the strange red man, and he knew it. He was going to die. There would be no wounds, nor a discernible cause of death. Just… dead. A tear fell down his cheek, then came the cold embrace of it.



    Mirror was excited. He had learned some new moves from the sword-toting man, and it turned out that the man was a little more than human. Surely, the man and his life were worth looking into. Mirror walked away from the outside world, into the recesses of his own mind. It was strange, delving into one’s own mind and seeing other people there. Stranger still that every last one was either dead or permanently comatose.



    Corcea was amazed he was awake. He looked around and was alarmed to see the red man sitting in a chair at a table with a large dinner set across from another chair. “Please,” he said in a nice enough manner as he gestured towards the other seat. “Sit. Have something to eat.”

    He sat. It was the most comfortable chair he had ever sat in. He grabbed a roll from a basket in the center of the table, and ate in a couple bites. “Any chance you could make this make sense?” Corcea asked nervously after he swallowed. “I mean, you killed me, I felt myself die. Yet here-“ The red man silence him with a raised hand.

    “I’ll be frank. You did die. You’re not in your body right now, but a corner of my mind. Technically, none of this is real. I could have just left your psyche to rot within mine, but you seemed interesting enough to keep.”

    Naturally, this was not something anyone really wants to hear. It didn’t strike him as surprising, just sad. He had had that glimmer of hope, and then it was gone. One question sprang to mind pretty readily. “Why me?”

    Mirror shrugged. “Dunno’. You were there. You were alone. Put those together and at least as far as I’m concerned you’re a free kill.” He held up a hand again to cut off Corcea’s furious response. “I don’t enjoy killing. Let’s get that straight. I kill strictly to become better, stronger, faster and sometimes hell even smarter. That’s rarely the case, though. Smart people are all too lacking out there. When I touch someone, I begin absorbing them. I take on everything that is them. Their mind, abilities, and anything that makes them… shall we say… superhuman?” Mirror extended his newly gained claws. Corcea couldn’t help it. He cried, and didn’t stop. He was dead and gone, and he’d have to spend eternity with this insane red man.

    “If it’s any consolation, I picked you at random. There was a woman alone nearby. When I saw you too, I flipped a coin,” the red man said. Corcea sobbed a bit more. As if that would make him feel better. What could’ve been minutes, hours or days later, he collected himself. As he looked up at the red man, he saw that the man looked to be the picture of guilt. Corcea, on the other hand, had for the most part accepted his new lot in… well not life, so one would suppose death. They stared at each other for a couple of minutes. When he finally couldn’t take it, the red man broke the silence.

    “So your name’s Corcea, eh? That’s an interesting name….”

    “How’d you know that?”

    “Imagine you are a web-page and I am the Internet. As of yet, you’ve been being developed by a private interest for unveiling. You were just completed and uploaded to me. Now anyone, myself included, who is connected to me via similar means can access anything they want about you. In short, your psyche is now a subset of mine, and I can read you like a book. Or would it be more of a magazine seeing as your life was rather short? Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to….”

    He stopped apologizing for the ill-humored joke when he realized Corcea was actually laughing.

    Another long silence followed. “So,” Corcea said, “you know my name, but I don’t know yours. What is it?”

    “As far as I know my legal name is Howard. But I go by Mirror. After all, I’m a reflection of those I’ve killed. My turn for a question. Why were carrying a sword? After all, guns are reasonably easy to get nowadays.”

    “I was coming back from the fencing studio where I take lessons. How come you’re not sure what your real name is?” Corcea asked.

    “Well, I was raised in a lab because not only am I an interesting specimen, I am also a bit of a danger to society. They didn’t tell me my name. I only found out when I killed the labtechs and found out from their memories.” He paused. He realized he should save the rest for later – he was still standing next to a dead body – but it was still fascinating listening to the man’s story. “I have one last question for now, and then we’ll continue at another time. What’s the deal with the claws? They’re way too small to cause significant damage.” He clicked his claws into place. It hurt like bringing them, because it tore the skin on his finger-tips.

    “They carry poisons and sedatives. Each one’s a little different. When I was little I-“ He teared up a bit, then took a deep breath and continued. “I accidentally injected my sister with one. I grabbed her arm and they just suddenly popped out. I didn’t even know I had the damn things. A few hours later, she died.”

    “I’m sorry…” Mirror mumbled.

    “Why? It wasn’t your fault. I’d even say it’s not really mine.”

    “So what? I can’t empathize with you over the loss of a human life? I’m just trying to be nice!” he snapped.

    “You didn’t empathize with me about mine,” Corcea retorted glumly.

    Mirror walked off in a huff. He travelled the halls of his mind, waving or saying hi to his victims he had come to know better. Soon enough, he reached a room marked “CONTROL ROOM NO UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY.” When he walked through the door, he slipped back to reality. The body was still there. He reached down and pried the saber from the corpse’s hand, then took the belt and sheath. Unbidden, one of his more familiar victims walked into the control room of his mind to talk as Mirror made his way home.

    He’s right, you know, the voice said.

    “About what?” Mirror asked as he turned a corner.

    You know the answer to that already.

    “Jack, I’ve already got a moral compass, thanks.”

    When you get home, you should talk to Corcea and apologize.

    “What are you, my mother?” he snapped. He was almost to the apartment he’d “borrowed” from the old occupant.

    As far as I can tell, I’m the closest you’ve ever had. It’s a bit sad, really.

    “Get out of my head, Jack,” Mirror pleaded.

    You know I can’t. Although I’ll leave you alone with your thoughts for a while. Jack went back to whatever corner of Mirror’s mind he had come from.

    As he sat down in the dirty little apartment, he started heading back to Corcea in his mind. When he got there, he was surprised to see it wasn’t how he had left it. Instead of a nondescript room with a table and two chairs, there was now a cozy living room. Corcea was lounging on a recliner next to a lamp, reading a book Mirror had flipped through once to imprint it in his mind and come back to later, because he literally had a photographic memory.

    Corcea put the book down and started talking “I must say,” he began, “that it was an odd thing to find out I could alter my surroundings. That’s a good book, by the way.”

    “Listen, I’m sorry about earlier,” Mirror said a bit insincerely. Corcea pretended like he didn’t notice.

    “It’s alright,” Corcea replied, “I think we’re both having some trouble with this. So, why is it that you kill so many people again?”

    It was then that Mirror realized he didn’t know.