Paradise Lost

Clinging to the mirror, whose shine has long since faded, I slowly begin to regain my sense of reality.

The girl who had been cloaked in a beautiful silver sheen just moments ago is nowhere to be seen. Beyond the mirror, where no light reflects, only a vague shape remains.

When even those eyes glaring at me as if they wanted to kill me disappear, I feel my facial muscles move and realize the expression in the mirror was my own.

An immutable fact I'd tried so hard to forget all this time.

Deep within me, I keep repeating it so I won't forget. The world must have brought this mirror here to reflect that duty of mine.

How cruel. What on earth did I do to the world to deserve this humiliation?

'Other than skipping church when I was eight, at most...'

On the day of service back then, my parents led me into an unfamiliar building, and I couldn't adjust to an environment that was far more boring than I'd expected.

Of course, since I was a little kid, the people at church and even the pastor did their best to indulge me and keep me interested...

Unfortunately, for the mischievous and energetic eight-year-old boy I was, that place was just another stretch of the hell that was school...