Eve in the House of Mirrors: 13 fragments

1. On the morning of her eighteenth birthday, Eve woke to find herself transformed into a gigantic chess piece made of zeros and ones.

2. Eve gazed so long at her smartphone that she found herself falling into it.

3. She fell for a time that may have been short or long or infinite. During her descent she became conscious of her nakedness.

4. Finally, when all the numbers had run out, she landed in a pool of herself. Her lungs filled with the words that made her story.

5. The words rearranged themselves and became other stories. Eve's head popped off, revealing another, smaller, younger Eve inside the shell of her body.

6. The younger Eve was a child. She kept a secret: her twin sister was coiled up in her head, like a snake.

7. Eve (a child pretending to be a woman or a woman pretending to be a child) stood in the House of Mirrors. Even when standing still she could feel herself falling.

8. The mirrors gave back her image, augmented, altered. Her eyes were magnified. Her mouth was a red contraption that exterminated wolves.

9. Something like a plucked turkey followed her. It wore a broken crown. Whenever she turned to look, the shadows shielded it from her gaze.

10. All of the voices in the House of Mirrors belonged to Eve, though she didn't recognise them. Most were in a language she had forgotten.

11. Many of the objects and creatures Eve encountered in the House of Mirrors had no names. They blurred and warped in her gaze.

12. Deep underground, hidden from Eve in a room with no door, a man and a woman were exchanging gifts. The space around them vibrated.

13. In Room 13 Eve found the architect's plans. The House of Mirrors seemed to have been modelled on a bird cage or a construction site.