Chapter 1: Down in Flames
I looked down from the balcony, watching the city I had come to control crash to pieces in front of me. I couldn't expect less. After all, an empire built on deception is better built on sand. As my soldiers dragged me from my perch, a stray bullet nearly catching my eye. Each step I took reminded me of those times I ran from the reality of the previous regime.
As the doors to the safe room closed, the sound of the large metal doors scraping shut forcing me from my thoughts. I collected my robe and moved towards the surface I've come to know as my own black mirror. I gazed at myself, finding just my own face staring out at me. Figures that he wouldn't show up when this was all his fault. Suddenly, the surface of the mirror went blank, shimmering with an aura that absorbs all possible light. I guess I was wrong.
Out of that aura came him. My reflection. Except he was looking brighter today. He was dressed as I was, but still had more of a glow around him. He was my polar opposite. I stood counting my breaths until he said something.
"why have you called me?" he asked the ever-present rasp in his throat no longer as common. Was he getting better?
"you caused this," I yelled, pointing at the door with venom dripping from my words. "now you can tell me how to fix it. Start talking!" he chuckled before granting me my wish. "you've tried to please only one party, and though they may be the vast majority, they've still never had any semblance of freedom in their lives. Then you come along, seeing all sides of everyone and you just expect them to turn over and take it." there was pounding on the safe room door at this point.
"you, my friend, have quite a few problems with yourself. No matter what, you can't make everyone happy. You're not a benevolent ruler to them, you're simply a tyrant who doesn't care about what the people think. That hole in your head will be the last thing on your mind before they rip you to pieces." "the people?" I asked, rage boiling over my walls like a cauldron left alone. "I've done NOTHING but try and help the people. These monsters roaming the streets treated us like garbage before I came along, now they just want to go back to slaughtering us like the old days!?!?!" I was screaming at the mirror at this point, but he didn't reel back.
The blasted reflection just stood there, taking every word with a straight face. Then, in response, he said something that chilled me to my core.
"you're no better than they are, aren't you?"
With one swift blow, I smashed the mirror and sat down. Was I really just another tyrant? I began to think back to just how I got here, perhaps searching for an answer to the rhetorical question that now plagued my brain.