The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hall of Mirrors, by Fredric Brown

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Title: Hall of Mirrors

Author: Fredric Brown

Illustrator: Vidmer

Release Date: August 17, 2009 [EBook #29720]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Hall of Mirrors

By FREDRIC BROWN

_It is a tough decision to make--whether to
give up your life so you can live it over again!_

For an instant you think it is temporary blindness, this sudden dark
that comes in the middle of a bright afternoon.

It _must_ be blindness, you think; could the sun that was tanning you
have gone out instantaneously, leaving you in utter blackness?

Then the nerves of your body tell you that you are _standing_, whereas
only a second ago you were sitting comfortably, almost reclining, in a
canvas chair. In the patio of a friend's house in Beverly Hills. Talking
to Barbara, your fiancee. Looking at Barbara--Barbara in a swim
suit--her skin golden tan in the brilliant sunshine, beautiful.

You wore swimming trunks. Now you do not feel them on you; the slight
pressure of the elastic waistband is no longer there against your waist.
You touch your hands to your hips. You are naked. And standing.

Whatever has happened to you is more than a change to sudden darkness or
to sudden blindness.

You raise your hands gropingly before you. They touch a plain smooth
surface, a wall. You spread them apart and each hand reaches a corner.
You pivot slowly. A second wall, then a third, then a door. You are in a
closet about four feet square.

Your hand finds the knob of the door. It turns and you push the door
open.

There is light now. The door has opened to a lighted room ... a room
that you have never seen before.

* * * * *

It is not large, but it is pleasantly furnished--although the furniture
is of a style that is strange to you. Modesty makes you open the door
cautiously the rest of the way. But the room is empty of people.

You step into the room, turning to look behind