Mirror of Truth 2

Like a leaf drifting aimlessly in an endless fog, Alex felt like he was floating away. A stinging pain in his knee made him jump. His eyes opened to a familiar sight - the kitchen with its tasteless retro yellow cabinets in his parents' home.

"Alex, why do you let the kids at school bully you so badly?" his mother sighed loudly as she got up from the floor.

Déjà vu. Or was it?

His parents pasted the watercolour painting of a Chinese vase he drew in middle school on the yellowish old fridge. A smell of the sweet and sour smell of baked apples, cinnamon and melting sugar drifted to his nostrils, teasing them and bringing a smile to his face - Mom's baked apple pie, comfort food for the soul.

Alex heaved a large sigh of relief. If there were daydreams, he had a daymare of his entire future life.

"Mom, it's really nothing," Alex said as he winced while stretching his scraped knee.

Dad told him to stand up to his bullies, but that always went south. In the middle school world, standing up to the bullies only worked if he could fight all of them and win.

Not like he never tried fighting back.

The usual gang of five boys in the worst class of their school laughed him off and bashed him harder in the toilet during recess, taking out their frustrations on him.

Then his father complained to his teachers about the other children only to be brushed off with 'boys will be boys.'

The teachers didn't care about him. Alex knew from the first time a bully at school called him a 'mong' and a 'chink' in front of his teacher. Not one word of admonishment slipped from her mouth to discipline his bullies.

At first, he didn't know what it meant until much later when they pulled up their eyes into slits and told him to go back to 'China'. That was his first taste of being different.

Even with the Asian kids in the weekend Mandarin classes, they told him he was white and 'different' from them. Then the big ping-pong game began when the white kids told him he was Asian and 'different'. The bouncing to and fro groups with a feeling of belonging neither here nor there left him introverted.

Ignorance was bliss in kindergarten at an age of innocence.

Alex glanced at his mother opening the oven with those raggedy gloves while the mouthwatering scent of baked apple pie, ready for the taking, gushed out. The temptation to hug his mother overwhelmed him. Something bugged him to do it, or he would regret it.

Alex rushed up and wrapped his hands behind her.

"Alright you, I know you want a slice, but we have to wait until your dad gets home." She patted his hands with her glove.

The sense of anguish and loss, for no rhyme or reason on this sunny afternoon, built up within him, as though he may never see her again. Alex rushed forward and buried his face into his mother's waist, then he started sobbing into her dress, grasping it to smell her scent.

"What's wrong?" She turned around and glanced at him.

Then with a frown, she said, "if it's those boys threatening you with something worse, tell mommy now. Dad is almost home. I can hear his car. We will do something about it."

Her remark dumbfounded Alex. It wasn't those boys. He can't even remember what they did with him.

The distant sound of the car slamming and the tiled porch echoed the footsteps of dad's leather shoes. A turn of the clanging keys and a familiar voice rang out. "Honey, I'm home!"

Wiping her hands on the dress, and neatening her hair, his mother took him by the hand, and marched him out of the kitchen to the living room with its retro couch and box television set.

His tired-looking father stopped loosening his tie and looked at the teary Alex, still sniffling away.

"Oh Jesus, not those boys again!" His father muttered, "I will be talking to their —"

His father gazed downwards at Alex, who was now hugging him tightly. He let out a large sigh and patted Alex on the head, clueless on how to comfort his son.

Alex looked up at his towering father as the cuckoo clock chimed its time at 6pm. Dirty blonde hair, large green eyes with a straight nose. His father was handsome. Then he turned and gaze at his mother, black hair, and so typically of Chinese descent that she sported the phoenix-shaped eyes.

He dragged his father towards her. Surprised by his action, his father followed along, only to find Alex hugging the both of them as tightly as possible, even though the boy's hands couldn't encircle them.

"Mom, dad… I love you both so much."

"Oh puhleassse, I'm gonna puke," a familiar voice spoke up.

Alex knew that voice, but at the moment, he couldn't put a finger on who was speaking. He pushed himself up only for the sight of his frozen parents. Like a pause button on a video player, time had locked his parents' movements.

His eyes gazed at everything. Everything stopped. Even the cuckoo clock with the little bird popping out.

Alex stood back from his parents in position and studied their faces.

Something was not right - his parents were supposed to be much older. Why did he know how they looked in the future? Images in his mind were showing them with strands of white hair. Yet in front of him, his mother's hair was jet black.

A crystalline strange melody wafted in from the door way and Alex swung around only to watch the entire house, the garden and even the neighbourhood splinter into thousands of glass-like shards. Each shard ran a moving image of his life before vanishing into pitch black darkness, only with the quaint crystalline tune in the background.

A small fire flickered in the pitch black darkness, and a face came into illumination staring back at him. The face resembled his, like a mirror image. Then the missing memories slotted into the giant jig-saw puzzle of his mind, piecing his entire life worth of memories together.

Once every part of his memory fell into place, Alex realised the familiar voice belonged to Chongli.

"This isn't my soul realm," Alex said.

"No. You are in the Mirror of Truth, which means it is time —"

"Time for what?" Alex looked at him with suspicion.

"Time for you to unlock your potential," Chongli replied.

Before Alex could protest, the darkness gave way to shimmering lights of a colossal multi planetary system populated by ten bright stars. Pastel pinkish and bluish plasma clouds surrounded several dozen of small specks orbiting around the stars.

Chongli took him by the collar and pulled him alongside as they shot through the nebulas and asteroids like a speeding bullet shot from a gun. Chongli swerved and dodged the obstacles while Alex shut his eyes right when he thought a crash into a large floating space rock was imminent.

Alex opened his eyes again to spot a planet ahead of them. Incredulous, his face turned sideways, only to see the vast darkness behind him.

He tried to open his mouth, but the dizzying speed made it impossible for him to even move his lips.

An orange, reddish blaze formed around them like a shield as they entered the gravitational orbit of a planet which resembled Earth but with less greenery and the blue waters of the ocean.

*BOOM*

Alex tumbled to the ground, staring at the cloud of yellowish dust which soon cleared away to reveal a deep crater. Alex crawled towards the edge of the large crater and looked down to be blasted by oncoming heated gas.

He yelped out in pain.

"Stop behaving like a baby. The heat didn't burn you. It's in your mind," Chongli's voice echoed nonchalantly from the large crater.

"YOU ARE NOT THE ONE IN PAIN!"

"Jump down."

"YOU'RE NUTS!"

A hand rose out and yanked Alex into the excruciating heat, which made him curl up, howling in agony while Chongli stared down at him.

"If you are still human, you would be ashes instantly at this temperature."

Alex peeked and saw Chongli standing on the red molten magma. Then he gazed down on the seeming ground, only to see more flowing magma under him with steam rising from it.

"OWWCHHHHhhh—"

A smack landed on Alex's head.

"Look at yourself, moron," Chongli said.

"I AM BURN—" Alex stopped midway and opened his eyes. The burning sensation vanished, yet flaming magma moved below his form.

"How?" Alex raised his hands and looked down at his feet. Not the bubbling magma didn't singe his clothes.

"Memories, stored in the energy waves, make up the reaction of both you and I," Chongli replied, while fading away into the background.

Alex made a grab at Chongli, only to find his hand going through Chongli's vanishing form.

"Just only the first stage of release…" Chongli's parting words drifted away and the whole scenery shattered again, throwing a stunned Alex into the darkness.