Everywhere I turned, I saw myself. The floors, the walls, the ceilings. Nothing made sense anymore. Even in the darkness I was able to make out the features of the mirrored surface, smooth yet textured, a blurred reflection of my life. The familiar turned unfamiliar. In the house of mirrors, I walked by, not knowing where I was to head. Not only light but sounds reflected off the walls, sounds that seemed source less. A dull thumping turned into a heartbeat; a faded ringing turned into a deafening roar. Streams of red light poured into the House of Mirrors, light that now illuminated the space. The lights seemed to flicker in sync with the roars. The glass walls shook and squeaked. I saw myself fade into a blurry outline on one of the walls. As the glass shattered the room went dark and quiet.
I could make out window blinds, a TV, a bed frame. I could see how these objects seemed familiar. I woke up to realize it was my room. Shards of shattered glass lined the floor. The window blinds blinded nothing more than a bare metal frame. Strangely, the morning light seemed warmer than ever. I walked across the room, careful to not step on any of the glass shards, towards the, now, window-frame. In the corner of my eyes, I caught the clock. It said “01:07”. It surely couldn’t be 1 am, I could clearly spot sunlight. I open the blinds to spot a dull, red sky. The sun was nowhere to be seen. The plants and the birds, stuck as they were. I glanced at Rachel, who was still lying asleep in the bed. Her phone, on the nightstand, lit up. The same deafening roars sounded. It was the EAS. The message? A catastrophic Solar Event. Disturbed from her deep slumber she woke, puzzled at the sounds. I showed her her phone. Through her dry eyes, tears flowed. We stood in silence. This was it. I sat next to her. Not a word was uttered. A glowing orange spot appeared near the horizon. It grew larger and larger. It reached a critical size when it began to change colors. The now red spot filled the view of the sky from my window. Pools of red light poured into the room. A thundering roar sounded. The land shook, as the frozen plants suddenly seemed alive. The window blinds flapping about bathed the room in a dim, flickering light. As the sounds grew louder, the vibrations, stronger, I heard the trees collapse. The time still was 01:07, it had been for a while.
I held her close, staring at the dim red sky, all through the end of time.