"Wow," Brian Patterson said, his eyes taking in the vast, cluttered expanse of his attic, "I always forget how much junk we keep up here." He gave himself a brief moment to reconsider his current course of action, then finished climbing the stairs to make way for his three friends to follow.
Justin Davis, Brian's best friend, was next to ascend into the messy space. His skinny chest coughed twice at the dust, then adjusted his glasses. "I changed my mind. I thought this was going to be way easier and a whole lot less depressing. Which of your parents are hoarders?"
"I think it's a combination of the two," Brian guessed, watching as the two large brothers, Sam and Eric brought up the rear into the cramped space.
"So, what are we looking for again?" Sam asked earnestly.
Brian had to love the brothers. They weren't the sharpest, but they were always willing to lend a hand when he needed it, and with their muscular frames, they were always ideal when any heavy lifting was required. "Anything that might be valuable. My mom said I could sell some of the clothes up here that we've kept in storage forever. But she also said there might be a few antiques I could pawn off downtown."
"And why do you need this extra cash again?" Eric asked.
"Cause of the girl, dumb dumb, remember?" Justin responded jovially, gently wrapping on Eric's skull with his knuckles. "The one he works with and wants to ask out. If she says yes he wants to take her to an expensive restaurant to show her he's not the loser we all know he is."
This caused all four of them to laugh as the word 'loser' was sort of an inside joke in their little clique. If possible, all four of them would have tied for 'Most Likely Never To Accomplish Anything in Life' in their senior yearbook. They had all barely graduated four years ago but each had no aspirations for higher learning or the American dream. Instead they had each settled into simple jobs with little to no responsibility, little room for advancement, and never enough money to live on. They could each make the paychecks stretch though, as they each still lived at home. In situations such as this, where the need to impress on a first date was seen as a priority, they had to get creative.
This is what had led them to ransack the Patterson's attic in the middle of summer. Brian had promised each of his friends a tiny cut of whatever it is he could sell, and in his mind it was way better than doing it all by himself.
They opened boxes of useless childhood memorabilia that had not seen the light of day in some time. They scoured inside various chests that reeked of mothballs. And they investigated with the eye of one who can only appraise with imaginative dollar signs in their eyes anything that might come close to being worth some money. They found little, at least, in regards to what they were willing to carry. Some larger furniture items might have been well worth their time, but long ago their creed had been to keep any sort of effort to a bare minimum.
Justin opened a trunk that looked promising but found more of the same clothes that would be worth pennies on the dollar at a consignment store. On the off chance that maybe there was something more, he plunged his hands under the heap of old clothing. As he slid his hand down the length of the trunk's bottom, his fingers hit an impasse. He felt around and was able to get his hand around the mystery item and pull it towards the surface. Out in the open, he saw it was just a small, rectangular wooden box about eighteen inches long. There were no distinguishing marks or design on it. The wood was not anything special. It had nicks and bumps and seemed old but not ancient.
Justin still held out hope that maybe what was inside contained something of value, and he lifted a small clasp in the middle of the box and peered inside. Again, he was disappointed. There was nothing inside but a small, handheld mirror resting on a velvet lining. Justin extracted it from the box and marveled at how cheap and worn it looked.
The mirror's frame was made entirely of wood, but looked like something someone had hand carved and badly. An inch of wood surrounded the mirror and there were markings that had been etched in. The symbols were like nothing Justin had ever seen, but also looked like they could have just been done by several random stabbings at the frame. The handle was the only thing that was the tiniest bit nice. The wood here was dark, smooth and well polished. After his quick examination, Justin put it back in the box and yelled, "Heads up," as he tossed it without warning to Brian.
Justin had forgot to fasten the clasp and as the box sailed towards Brian, the mirror flew out and crashed to the floor. Brian also failed to catch the box which was a surprise to none of his friends in the room.
Justin laughed. "Sorry man. I was going to see if you thought if that mirror was worth anything, but I'm sure it's not now."
Sam and Eric came over to investigate the find as Brian bent over to pick up the mirror, now laying face down. He expected to see reflective shards as he lifted it, but there were none. He turned to look at the mirror's surface and saw there was not even one crack, a miracle given the impact it had suffered. "It's okay. How is it okay? Did they make mirrors sturdier back in the day."
"Maybe it's plastic?" Sam suggested.
Brian scrutinized it, then frowned. "It's not. It should have shattered." And then he threw it on the ground. All four men were astonished as they watched the mirror bounced once, then come to rest again on the floor. No wooden splinters flew and no shards were seen. Brian picked it up again and noted that, other than its shabby exterior, it didn't look as if it had taken on any damage.
"So you found an indestructible mirror," Eric said helpfully. "That's got to be worth something?"
"Not the same with the case it was in," Justin added as he stopped to retrieve the open case. "It's not broken but the lining came out of the top." As he saw the cheap velvet that was drooping down, he saw that it had been held there with a cheap glue. He tugged it lightly and it came out. "Hey, there are words or...something written in here?"
"What do you mean something written?" Brian asked, stepping towards his friend. Justin held up the lid and could see that there did appear to be symbols scrawled on the upper inside portion of the lid. As he pulled the box closer to study it, he let his other hand that held the mirror drop to his side.
The door to the attic opened and Brian's sister's head popped into view a moment later. Casey Patterson was the polar opposite of her brother. She was driven, capable, popular, and in general a delight to be around. She was also gorgeous and Brian's friends were glad she had come home for the summer instead of staying at her college campus. She drastically improved the scenery with her long strawberry blonde hair, svelte figure and long legs.
Casey knew Brian was a bit of a loser, but she loved him fiercely and wanted nothing but the best for him. She tolerated his friends because, though prone to checking her out now and again, they had never behaved inappropriately towards her. She eyed their progress before asking, "Mom wanted to know if you all wanted anything to eat? I see you, um, well you probably haven't worked up too much of an appetite..." she began, noting that no real progress had seemed to be made in their disaster of an attic.
Sam and Eric were already raising their hands. "We'll eat!" Sam said enthusiastically.
"Nothing for me, thanks though," Justin said.
Casey paused, looking at her brother who hadn't seemed to have even acknowledged her presence. "Brian? You want anything?"
Brian had not noticed his sister. He had continued to look at the symbols in the box. Symbols that, the longer he stared, seemed to reshape themselves into words that resembled English. His sister called his name again. One word, the word that he now saw at the top of a list of words became perfectly clear, and he uttered it aloud. "Capture."
The moment he said it he noticed a soft red glow out of the corner of his eye and looked down to spot the source. It was coming from the mirror in his hand. The outer rim where symbols had been etched into the wood were each giving off a dim red glow and Brian saw that the reflection that shown there was his sister's. She must have stepped into it's path while he held it down at his side. He looked up to see her reaction but was surprised to see her standing completely still, her body awash in the red light. And then it was over and she blinked as if she had momentarily lost her train of thought.
"I, what was I...?" Casey began, then nodded her head as she remembered. "Brian, do you want anything to eat or not?"
