Finding Myself [Rewrite]

Reflection

Content Warning:
Human trafficking ⚠️

Have you ever wondered what it would be like on the other side of the mirror.

To see nothing reflected back but the faces of people that want to use you to see themselves.

What's it like beyond that glass, in that world.

Is it cold?

Is it empty?

Living feels like that at times. Like living in the world of mirrors, where the image reflected back isn't myself, but someone else.

It's always someone else.

I'm trapped in a prison of my own making, and I have no idea how to get out.

But do I really want to free myself from it... This place...

In this world where I can't see myself... I can see her. A face just like mine, with features just like mine.

In the mirror world, I see her. The reason I'm trying so hard to go on.

When I close my eyes, she isn't there, but when I wake up and I'm in the mirror world... There she is.

"What are you thinking about, Luna?"

"Hm... Nothing, really. Well... Something, but it really doesn't matter."

Luna.

That was my name before all this, before everything. It's the name my mom gave me, a name I loved.

I never knew her, my mom, I mean. Lila and I have never met our birth parents, but we've heard stories. Supposedly, they weren't the best people.

Personally, I'm grateful that our mother took the time to name us before we were taken away... Honestly, it's a surprise we were kept together for so long. Even in the foster system, not many people wanted to take in two children.

The system did try to keep siblings together, I think, but the fact that we'd made it from start to end together was shocking. The odds weren't in our favor.

"How long was I out..." I asked, slowly blinking myself awake. Everything felt cold, and I was dizzy, I think. My vision was poor, blurry actually, but I could still see her... My sister.

"Three light holes." Lila pointed upwards to the holes in our containment where the sun's light beamed through. That's how we told time whenever we were shipped somewhere.

The waves would rock us to sleep sometimes, it was the only peace we got, no one bothered us when we were being transported.

"We must be going far this time." I whispered to her, not yet sick of the revolting smell in the inclosed space... Or maybe I was just used to it.

Lila nodded, her hand squeezing mine. "Mhm. The newbies are crying again."

I looked over at a huddled group of girls, dressed in fancy clothes that were dirty from being in the create.

I felt bad for them. Really bad. Crying only made it worse. The people who put us in the shipment container hated it when we made noise. They'd threaten to throw us overboard, or spray us with some stinky water...

"Lila, let's sing them a song." I suggested, resting my head against the container's walls. It was hard, metallic, maybe. It was hot too, it was always hot whenever we got in it.

"Oh, that would be nice... Which song should?" Lila asked, her fingers intertwining with mine. I could feel every cut, every scab from her palm to her finger tips. I could hear the chains sliding against the bottom of the containment as the girl's wept in the corner.