Mirror Mirror

When Maggie discovers a certain secret her father has been hiding from her for years, how will she react? How will her life change?

Story
"Father?" Maggie began timidly, knocking lightly on the door to Magnus' office. Normally, she wouldn't be bugging him when he was in there, but having just spent a semester at Ever After High, trying to get good grades and work around her Mirror curse, she had finally decided that now was the time to get some answers.

"What is it Maggie?" Her father, Magnus Mirror, asked, without turning around. Maggie took a deep breath and entered.

"Father, who cursed me? Who made it so I have to go into the mirror or all of my life force will drain?" She asked him.

Magnus clenched his fists. "Forgive me for answering a question, with a question, young one, but why do you wish to know this?" Her father didn't usually display emotion, he thought it was "unseemly", but Maggie could tell her question was making him angry.

"Well, I thought that if I knew who cursed me, I could get them to undo it so I didn't have to constantly enter the mirror." Maggie said excitedly.

"Undoing this curse is not possible." Magnus said in an emotionless voice.

"Why, Father, why is it impossible?!" Maggie herself was starting to get angry. Every curse had some sort of reversal. Why didn't hers?

"Maggie, how many times have I told you to never question me! When I say you can never undo this curse, I mean you never can!" Magnus yelled at her.

"And how are you so certain of that?!" Maggie demanded, her own fists clenching.

"I'm the one who placed it on you!" Her father exploded.

She felt as if her world had stopped. "You...cursed...me...?" She stammered out.

"In a sense yes. I suppose now you are old enough to hear the true story of how you came to be." Magnus said, losing his anger.

"It's not really a curse Maggie, at least, not a normal one. I married your mother so that I would have an heir to take over my factory. But a little bit into our marriage, I discovered she could not have children. I could not find it in me to divorce her over that, so I went to my old friend, the Evil Queen. I told her what I wanted to do, and she told me the best spell to use." Magnus began, watching his daughter, with cold, unfeeling eyes.

"To do what?" Maggie was trying to grasp what her father was telling her. What had he wanted to do? How had she come to exist?

"While your mother slept one night, I went out and bought a porcelain baby doll. I came back and recited the spell in full view of your mother. The final ingredient was your mother's spirit. I carefully removed it by magic, and placed it inside of you, giving you the ability to grow and breathe. But the cost was your mother's life. You have to enter the mirror as often as you do, in order to strengthen the magic that allows you to live." Magnus said this all matter-of factly.

"You...you monster!" Maggie yelled.

"Maggie..." Her father began to a warning tone, but she didn't care anymore.

"You are a wicked, heartless man! You're insane!" She shoved him back.

Magnus raised a hand and smacked her cheek. "I do not regret any of what I did. I needed an heir, I needed you. Now go to your room and don't come out until school starts again. I shall bring you food, but I do not wish to see you anymore."

Maggie ran to her room, slamming the door behind her. She peered at her reflection in her mirror. One cheek was slightly red, her black eyes were full of unshed tears.

At the school, many of the students joked that she looked like a porcelain doll, and asked her if she was as breakable as one. Little did they know, she was a porcelain doll. A real one, alive because her...mother's...spirit was embedded inside of her.

She burst into loud hysterical sobs. She had never ever hated her father more than she did right then. He killed his wife, so he could have an heir. He was horrible.

She began to feel light headed and weak. She knew the signs, she had to enter the mirror.

But what if she didn't? What if she punished her father for being such an a monster, by undoing his action?She'd just be a harmless porcelain doll that did not possess any piece of her mother.

But if she did that, who's to say he wouldn't do this again and take someone else's spirit, someone he didn't even know?

She slowly, shakingly stood up, and entered her mirror, feeling her strength returning to her. Her heart started to pound. She placed a hand over it, or where it should have been, she was no longer sure if she really had one or if it was a trick played by magic.

She felt something inside her seem to awaken, making her feel stronger, more alert than she had ever been. Maggie smiled. Maybe she could pretend that a part of her mother was still alive thanks to Maggie, and now she would live the life her mother never could. She would not end up like her father, she would be different.

But for now, she would keep the story of her origins a secret to the best of her ability. No one else needed to know, and no one would, so long as they didn't outright ask about it.

She exited her mirror. "Mother?" She whispered to the still air. "I promise, I will do my best to be what you would want me to be. Please guide me, since I know Father won't." She begged.

She felt suddenly all warm and tingly inside. "I'll take that as a yes." Maggie said, giggling.