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Once Upon a Time

The night breathed through the apartroan of a floorboard as he slipped out of his rooht He felt it on his skin like a proer

Outside the stars were paled by the glaring lights of the city, and the large apartment was stale with his mother’s sorrow She did not wake as Jacob stole into her roohtstand The key lay right next to the pills that let her sleep Its cool metal nestled in his hand as he stepped back out into the dark corridor

There was still a light burning in his brother’s room — Will was afraid of the dark — and Jacobthe door to their father’s study Their mother had not entered there since his disappearance, but for Jacob this was not the first time he had snuck into the eive

It still looked as if John Reckless had last sat in his desk chair less than an hour ago, instead ofover the chair, and a used tea bag was desiccating on a plate next to his calendar, which still showed the weeks of a passed year

Coed-up , on the dusty desk, and on the glass panels of the cabinet that still held the old pistols his father had collected But the rooer had a father Jacob kicked at the drawers he had searched in vain for so azines fro above the desk, ashamed at how proud he had once been when his father had allowed him to paint one with red varnish

Coh the streets that cut their gleah the city blocks seven stories below, screaht into the night

The sheet of paper slipped out of a book on airplane propulsion Jacob only picked it up because he thought he recognized his father’s handwriting on it, though he quickly realized his error Symbols and equations, a sketch of a peacock, a sun, two moons None of it made any sense Except for the one sentence he spotted on the reverse side:

THE MIRROR WILL OPEN ONLY FOR HE WHO CANNOT SEE HIMSELF

Jacob turned around — and his glance was met by his own reflection

The mirror He still remembered very well the day his father hadbetween the shelves like a shilassy abyss that cast back a warped reflection of everything John Reckless had left behind: his desk, the old pistols, his books — and his elder son

The glass was so uneven one could barely recognize one’s own reflection, and it was darker than otheracross the silver frame looked so real they seemed ready to wilt at any moment

THE MIRROR WILL OPEN ONLY FOR HE WHO CANNOT SEE HIMSELF

Jacob closed his eyes