Chapter 1
Ring! Ring! Robert, lying on his bed, opened
one eye and peered at the door. Scratching
his curly, brown hair, he slowly dragged
himself out of bed, only half awake. Opening
the door with his dry hands, he popped his
head around the door frame and blinked his
watery blue eyes like crazy. “Who is it?”
When he peeped out from behind the door, there was a long corridor with nothing inside but he had a
feeling that something was moving around out there. He stared into the gloom. As soon as he stepped
out, the door slammed behind him and he was alone in the dark. He didn’t dare take another step but
something made him step forward. When he was walking slowly, he felt soft wind brush past his red,
chubby cheeks. “It’s only my imagination,” he mumbled to himself. Taking a deep breath, he took another
step forward and fell into a deep hole. He shut his mouth in case someone heard him but landed with a big
thud. He sat still and listened cautiously. He crawled to a wall and stuck to it. The footsteps stopped for a
second and the sound faded away.
He stood there for a minute or two and wandered off again. He staggered forward and bumped into
something. It was quite low and Robert softly laid his hand on it. Soon, he realised it was a small, dusty
table. He slid his hand across the table and a miniscule mirror scratched his hand. He stroked it and got
pricked quite a lot by the shattered glass hanging from the wooden part of the mirror. He decided to take it
so he put it in his pocket and pattered on. After a while, he saw part of the wall next to him beginning to
glow. It got stronger and stronger until he couldn’t look at it properly.
Chapter 2
When he could finally open his eyes, he realised that everyone was staring at him. He quickly got up and
went up to an old man and asked if he could stay with him. The man raised his eyebrows and stared
carefully at Robert through his thick glasses. A child had never spoken to him before. He stretched out a
wrinkly hand and Robert flinched as he was in fear of what the man could do to him. The man introduced
himself as Mr Brown and they walked for hours and hours until they arrived at an old mansion.
Inside the mansion, there were lots of rooms; some were spotless but some were filled with cobwebs. He
decided to stay in a sparkling clean room. Every morning, when Robert woke up, Mr Brown would give him
a great meal. One day, Mr Brown asked Robert if he would like to follow him to his other house which was
a bit far away but Robert happily followed him.
They pattered through the rain as it was pouring buckets. Robert
kept on asking Mr Brown what was in there but he wouldn’t tell
him. They finally arrived at a dusty and an extremely old building
that made people think that it would fall down if they poked it
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slightly with the tip of their finger. Mr Brown went up to the door and pulled out a hand full of keys from
his deep pocket. He tried nearly every single one and found a key that would fit into the keyhole at last.
The building was nothing but a hall with a table in the middle of it. Mr Brown bolted up to the table with an
anxious look on his face. “No! It can’t have disappeared! It can’t have!” he shouted in tears. Robert asked
Mr Brown if he could tell him what had gone missing. Mr Brown told him about a mirror that one of his
ancestors who lived a thousand years ago had owned and that could have made him a lot of money if he
sold it and that it had gone missing.
Robert soon realised that it was the mirror he had taken. His heart started thumping and he was sweating
badly. “Are you alright, Robert?” Mr Brown asked, his voice softening suddenly. Robert said it was just a
cold and he wanted to go back home. Then, they did exactly what he wanted.
Lying on his bed, he soon found out that he had actually caught a cold. He thought about all the things he
could do after he sold the mirror. Then, he thought that he would have to give the mirror back to Mr
Brown but in the end, he decided to keep it.
About two months later, Mr Brown had completely forgotten about the mirror and was living normally but
Robert was always worried sick.
Chapter 3
Early one morning, when Mr Brown was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, Robert slipped out of bed,
packed his bag, wore his thickest coat and silently went out of the house.
Robert didn’t know where to go so he was just going where his feet would take him. He did manage to eat
because he had stolen a bit of money from Mr Brown’s safe.
He experienced lots of problems during his wandering life. One day, he was very tired of walking and when
he was trying to rest, he saw Mr Brown walking near him so he ran as fast as he could into the opposite
direction of Mr Brown. Another day, he lost his backpack and when he found it, a group of boys were
kicking it and looked inside but they ran away when it started raining heavily.
When Robert couldn’t stand it any longer, he went to a place with lots of people and shouted, “A thousand
year old mirror on sale!” Everyone looked at him but he carried on shouting at the top of his voice. Just
then, Mr Brown appeared and Robert saw him out of the corner of his eye; Mr Brown had spotted Robert
of course. Mr Brown looked furious and he started running like the speed of lightening towards Robert so
Robert grabbed the mirror and started running too.
They both ran at their full speed but Robert was faster and he managed not to be caught. He took the
mirror out stared into it. “Do I really want this mirror?” He asked himself, “It’s too much trouble.” “I’d
rather be at home, watching the telly instead of being chased by a man!” He sighed then put it back in his
bag pack after a long time of thinking.
Soon, he drifted off to sleep for he was tired of all the shouting and running. When he woke up, his whole
body was stiff so he was nearly unable to move. Robert arduously managed to sit up and he looked inside
his bag to check if the mirror was there. The mirror was there but all the money he had brought from Mr
Brown’s safe had gone. Someone must have taken it when he was fast asleep. From then, Robert started
starving of hunger because he had no money to buy any food.
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Chapter 4
After a few weeks on a stormy day, Robert was so skinny that you could see nearly every single bone in his
body. He was shivering in the storm as his thick coat he had brought was scratched, ripped and was quite
wet. Suddenly, out of the dark, came a woman, fussing about her wet clothes and tangled, scruffy hair. She
glanced at Robert and frowned. She stepped forward to have a better look at him. He stared back at her.
The woman asked Robert if he wanted to come home with her and Robert answered straight away.
When they were walking together, they introduced themselves and Robert realised that the woman’s
name was Mrs Phillips and that her husband was in France, working in a wine cellar. Then, Mrs Phillips
asked Robert to tell her why he ended up living outside and Robert told her everything except the mirror.
The house they arrived at was a small cottage with lots of different flowers around it. Inside, it was
extremely clean, comfortable and cosy. It was much smaller than Mr Brown’s mansion but Robert
preferred the cottage much better. Mrs Phillips was always nice to Robert, even more than Mr Brown.
One day, when Mrs Phillips was out, Robert went around the house to see if there was something
interesting. On a table, he found the exact same mirror as he had so he sprinted off to his room to check if
his mirror was there. It was. The two mirrors looked exactly the same. Even the cracks on them were the
same. Robert was confused and a bit scared. He wasn’t sure what he was scared of but he was scared of
something related with the two mirrors. Just then, he heard the front door open so he put Mrs Phillips’
mirror back where it was and went to his own room. After putting his mirror in his bag, he went out to see
Mrs Phillips smiling sweetly at him. First, he wondered what it was but after hearing that she was just
happy because the vegetables were cheap, he couldn’t hide his disappointment but Mrs Phillips didn’t
seem to mind.
Robert really wanted to ask about the mirrors but he wasn’t brave enough to do such a thing so he just
kept his mouth shut and one day, he had forgotten all about it.
One day, when Robert was digging inside his bag for some socks, he found
the mirror, squashed at the corner of his bag. It didn’t take him long to
remember about the things that had happened to him. He spent hours
staring into the mirror not knowing that the sun was falling. Even when it
was nearly midnight, he was still awake, staring hard into the mirror. As
soon it was 12 o’ clock, the mirror started shaking and soon, it formed a
small tornado that was just bigger than Robert and it soon sucked him in
with great force.
Chapter 5
He woke up, in disgrace because he had experienced so many awkward things. He found himself, back in
his house and he wasn’t sure what had actually happened. ‘It might have been real or maybe I’ve imagined
it.’ He thought. Then, he decided to have a delectable meal when the doorbell rang. He went out and
everything was totally black. The door slammed behind him. Everything was starting again…
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