1910 AD
Germany

       Hours turned to days, days turned to weeks, but not a hint of inspiration coursed through his veins.  Still haunted by the memory of his deceased love, the young Adolf had turned recluse, hiding away in his run-down flat, scrounging for morsels of artistic talent.  His financial difficulties had left him with nothing but his paintings, pitiful attempts at art on costly canvas.  He would often try to auction them off in hopes of earning enough money to survive the next month, but the crowd cared little for his pitiful artistic – if they could be called that – attempts.
       “It can’t end like this,” he mumbled to himself.  Sitting on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands, Adolf cried out to a nonexistent consoler.  Despair had taken hold of him as he endured day after miserable day.  His world was collapsing; it was crushing down on him, and there would be no savior for him when the brick walls piled on top of his lifeless corpse.  He truly had so very little to live for.
       Digging through his bureau, he pulled out his Mauser and studied its simple – yet oddly intriguing – design.  With tears streaming down his cheeks, he glanced down the barrel.  His attention was diverted as he caught a glimpse of himself in the bureau’s mirror – the only prized possession he had left.  The mirror itself had been a valuable gift, and even in times of desperation such as his, Adolf could not bring himself to part with it.
       With a heavy sigh he shoved the barrel into his mouth, wrapping his lips tightly against the cold steel.  He had never been more afraid in his life, but he welcomed the relief death held with open arms.  Just as he was about to end his life, throwing away everything he had ever worked for or accomplished, a faint image of a face appeared in the mirror.  The vision flickered and distorted, but as it came to place, it became as visible as another human standing beside the young Adolf, staring at his own misery through the sentimental glass.
       The face itself was a terrible sight to behold.  Bony and riddled with malice, it frightened Adolf more than the gun in his mouth, yet he could not take his eyes off the apparition.  The face’s lips curved into a smirk – a smile, he thought, would be quite a feat for such a horrid face – as more of the body came into view.  The face slowly developed a body, and its arms hung limp at its side.
       The figure twitched slightly as it rose its left arm, bones cracking as if the arm hadn’t moved in centuries.  It raised its hand and pointed at Adolf with its index finger, bony and slender as the man had never seen.  It seemed to be trying to reach out to the desperate man, but Adolf knew very well that such a thing was impossible.  It’s not as if the vision was real – in his desperate state, he must have slipped into a hallucinatory state.
       Focusing on the hand, he noticed it draw closer and closer.  But how far could it go, he questioned.  The bounds, it seemed, were limitless.  Just as Adolf thought there to be no more space for the hand to reach out, the very glass construction of the mirror rippled.  The glass had turned to liquid and the small ripple of waves originated from the slender point of the apparition’s finger.  Stepping back in surprise, Adolf had long ago pulled the gun from his gaping mouth, not quite sure what he should be doing.
       The finger emerged from the glass, real as Adolf’s own hand, and approached the frightened man.  On the middle finger, Adolf quickly took note of a ring – the stone he recognized as a red ruby.  Truly wondering what had spurred on this hallucination, Adolf took a step forward and examined the hand.  The face stood unwavering, smirking.  As if propelled by an unknown force, he felt himself compelled to adore the gem.
       Bending forward slightly, he took the hand in his own and kissed the ring.  The gem flashed a faint red aura and returned to its normal state as the vision retracted its arm.  As Adolf opened his eyes, they too flashed the same aura of red before reverting to their normal state.
       From behind the mirror, in a dimension of its own, the vision etched a symbol into the glass, using its own fingernail.  The design resembled two S’s, angled sideways and crossing over each other.  Without so much as thinking, the knowledge of the sign and everything it stood for flashed through Adolf’s head as if he was being force-fed the information.
       “Swastika,” he mumbled softly, now understanding its full meaning.  The figure behind the glass nodded and smirked, and its lips cracked open.  Its voice was harsh and raspy, but Adolf understood each syllable as if he had heard it clearly.  “Carry out your dominion and reign in the name of this mark,” it cackled.  Just as it had appeared, the vision slowly started to fade out of existence, leaving only the renewed Adolf in its reflection.  He caught a final glimpse of the apparition, and it displayed to him a vision of the future – the young Adolf in full uniform, a host of followers and soldiers obeying his every word.
       As the final vision faded, Adolf lost all consciousness and collapsed, falling to the ground.  His will had been renewed, his energy had been recharged – who was the mystical being that granted him this second chance?  Adolf knew very well what to do, where to go, and how to accomplish things he had never dreamt of.  He would rule, and he would extinguish any and all opposition.  He would ascend and claim the title of God.
       As he came to, he shook off the fatigue and horrible feeling of fainting.  The memory of the vision still rang vibrant through his head – but he truly questioned its liability.  Something so lucid doesn’t occur every day.  As he stood, his back to the mirror, he rubbed the back of his head and sighed.  His gun had been misplaced, but his rejuvenated spirit told him he didn’t quite need it anymore.  All he needed was a drink and some rest, he realized.  It was all a dream, he chuckled.  But as he turned about, the mirror on his bureau told him differently.
       “Swastika,” he gasped softly, eyes wide and jaw dropped.  He knew very well what it was he had to do.