Flipped

1.25

It was true. I knew it was true. And don't ask me how, but I felt from my friends that they knew it was true, too. And yet, none of us moved. We stood stock still, Ava and me invisible in front of the mirror, as if we weren't there.

"So," Taylor said slowly, breaking the silence. "If we're not actually here, or not supposed to be here, or whatever, we can still look around right?"

"Yeah, sure" Ava said. "But we're not splitting up again."

"Honestly, that was a pretty stupid decision," Mike said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "You didn't find anything?"

"No, nothing," Ava said, shaking her head. I turned myself to her so I could see her, and so I could avoid the creepy mirror.

Ava and Mike had already checked out the main floor, which just left the room we had left on the second floor. Taylor led the way as we crept back towards the stairs and upstairs, my light leading the way.

The last door on the second floor was right beside the bathroom. And, of course, it was closed. I glanced over at my friends to make sure they were ready before I pushed open the door.

And the door opened onto absolutely nothing. An empty room.

"Okay. Nothing here," Ava said. She walked into the room just to check. Absolutely nothing. Not even a closet - just a window outside which I could just make out the outlines of a backyard fence.

Where was the photo? Was it even here? Was it somewhere hidden like in a book or something? Maybe we'd be able to do a deeper search if we put our minds to it - we had a few hours before daylight.

We went out into the hallway and started back down the stairs. I was so deep in thought that it was Taylor who saw it first.

"Hey, look," she pointed to an empty room to our left. "Wasn't that where the library was before, Chris?"

I looked over and then did a double-take. What? I went into the room. It looked a lot like the room we were just in, only a little bigger, with a space for a closet in the corner. I shot Taylor a glance. "What the hell is going on?"

"Let's check downstairs"

We trooped downstairs in the completely dark home. The main floor was..also completely empty. Not even lived in. There was no TV or couches in the living room, if that's even what it was. No dining room table. There were counters in the kitchen area, but everything was empty. Even completely shocked, I kept walking towards the sunroom. I had to know.

I entered the back room, with my friends following, and also found it empty and bare. With no mirror. There was nothing at all in the room.

"Well, this is a turn of events," Ava said.

"It's a showhome," Taylor pointed out. "It's totally empty. No one's here, and no one's supposed to be here."

After she said that she stopped. I think the reality of what she just said hit her all at once. She looked at Ava in panic. "What were we doing for all that time?"

Well, yeah. Right.

"I mean, you all were searching with me right? Chris, we searched the upstairs, remember?"

I nodded, and put my hand on her shoulder before I realized what I was doing. I nodded again. "You weren't imagining. We searched upstairs together."

Mike was shaking his head, looking resigned - not even shocked. "No. We only thought that we were searching the house. Clearly, we weren't searching the house. Where is everything? No, we were in some sort of parallel universe or..I don't know. Maybe we're insane. Maybe we're insane. I think that might be my running theory at this point. Somehow, that's the most comfortable place to be." He laughed derisively.

We stood there for a few moments. And then the four of us walked outside. I looked back and saw a completely normal, empty house. Nothing strange at all.

And then we headed home. What else was there to do?