In that moment, the world fell silent. Completely

In that moment, the world fell silent. Completely and utterly silent. Like if you were in a library, deaf and dead all at the same time kind of silent. I couldn't turn away as he

hammered up another piece of soundproofing material. "Honey, don't you think we have enough sound foam up now?" He just yelled back, "What? Speak up!" She sighed, her point proven

. An advantage was that in the bedroom late at night she wouldn't have to put up with his unbearable snoring any longer. She would sleep like a log. Soundproofing the house was

one of the best decisions of her entire life. In fact, she slept so well, she literally became a log. When he saw this, he took out his axe and sprayed her from head to toe.

After he'd chopped her up he decided to finally "relax." He put the basketball finals on, grabbed beer and plopped down. Then he felt it. The splinter. She'd gotten under his skin.

Like they all did, like all the women in his life had. Memories of teeth pulled by tying a string to a doorknob and slamming it were forever etched into his mind right next to Anna

and her sister - the pictures they had drawn when they were young. Tucker turned the small stone prism over in his hand until it was warm. He would find a way to stop this.

He picked up the prism and held it up to the light, then threw it against the wall. It shattered into shards, each one reflecting back the image of his dead body. Tucker knew

that this was the end of the beginning of his magical quest. His quest to finally know what lay beyond the mirror called life. He made it past...and now he was on his own.