Zeke helps him up, and we examine it with new curiosity.
“Well, I guess that’s the wrong one,” Lynx scowls as he brushes the dirt off his ass.
Chester walks over cautiously, glancing at Lynx before extending his arm, but his outcome is unexpected. With a slurping noise, he’s sucked into the tunnel.
“Chester!” Moni yells, her bark a light teal, showing her worry.
“I’m alright,” he assures us quickly. “I’m okay. I’m not hurt.” He smiles back at us from inside the mirror as Moni pounds on the invisible surface with her tiny hands. He pushes up his glasses, looking the same as when we first started this level; the six-year-old image gone now. “It seems this tunnel is just for me, and it’s filled with all my mirrors that we passed. At least you can still hear me, so I’ll meet you at the end.” He places his palm against Moni’s and lowers his voice to say something that only she can hear to calm her down. She blushes a slight pink across her bark before turning her normal greenish brown.
“Okay, let’s divide up, take our assigned mirrors, and meet at the end. Stay in contact,” Knots adds, and I don’t argue even though I don’t like him stepping up into this leadership role. For some reason, it irks me, but his advice is solid and makes the most sense. So I grab Reaper and go in search of my tunnel.
Mine showcases the woman in the woods picking herbs, and it’s the last one on the left, next to Knots. I hold in a groan as he looks at me pleadingly.
I almost growl at the fact he’s giving me this look—as if he’s sorry for breaking up with me. Isn’t that how most guys are, though? Once they break up and get into a good position mentally, they come and try to make amends. Well, neither will that work nor do I have the damn time for it. We’re in Hell, and if I’m going through it, he should too…in whatever way that means for him.
“Are you okay?”
“Peachy,” I deadpan as I let the tunnel suck me and Reaper into its dark and wet gelatin abyss. Coming out of the other side, I’m taken aback by the long hallway formed by rocks. From where I stand, I can only make out two mirrors down the darkened hall with the faint light that surrounds them. Chester said his path was filled with all of his mirrors, yet I only see two of mine so far. Maybe he meant that he only sees his mirrors and not everyone else’s. Let’s hope that’s the case and that I didn’t already mess up with the level.
“Rez, I’m sorry,” Knots starts, and I roll my eyes, grateful that he can’t see me. I never could have expected I would be in a maze of mirrors that only I can travel down but still be able to talk to everyone else in the cavern. This alone is pretty trippy, and I can’t imagine what it would be like if I were under the influence of some fey wine.
“Sorry. For what?” I feign ignorance, pitching my voice high and glancing at the solid wall of stalagmites between us. “It’s not like you didn’t get what you wanted. You should be ecstatic, dancing down your hall of mirrors.” He shouldn’t miss my sarcastic undertone; it’s practically dripping off me.
I could hear his sigh before speaking. “Rez, that wasn’t me.”
“Really? So, you have clones now? Point me to the machine because I’m all for tapping out and letting someone else take over my position. I could really use a break,” I point out, catching sight of a version of me that doesn’t know how to use a comb or a washcloth.
Eww.
I continue on, passing more potential reflections, until I walk to a small opening and pause.
“What I mean is, it wasn’t only me—what the hell? Did you just run into a dead end too?”
The dark room is nothing but plain mirrors, depicting the “real” me, this time with Reaper at my feet. Moving my body, I watch as all the mirrors reflect my actions.
A deep, smokey male voice rings out through the cavern, halting me. “You can’t love others before you love yourself, but how well do you know yourself?” The mirrors rise off the floor and close in to encircle me. “The good, the bad, the destructive, the bloodthirsty, revengeful, the weak, the power-hungry, even the deadly side of you.” With each word he calls out, an example of me portraying them flashes in the mirrors as they spin around me. “You might not love it, but to pass through my level, you must accept it…can you?”
Boom.
Shattering glass rings out as I duck, grabbing Reaper and pulling him underneath me, protecting us as the mirrors rain down around us. Thankfully, nothing cuts us, and everyone sounds off simultaneously, saying that they are fine, though Moni, JP, and Lynx ask what we should do next. All of their voices echo faintly but ripple with different tones. Some sound panicked while another set of echoes sounds funny, as if they’re underwater.What the hell is going on in this place?
Standing up, I look down at my feet and take in the mess surrounding me. Among the wreckage, I find two broken images of me in the mirror’s reflections that almost look whole. The gatherer’s left eye and cheek are looking at me, and a deadly entity’s right eye and cheek stare back at me, splattered with blood.
The gatherer represents a time when I was with my mother and how we often tried to live off the land. It’s a part of my childhood and brings a warmness to me that I thought I had lost. Seeing the blood-splattered image of me makes my stomach churn. This, though…this person covered in blood is a warrior who had to step up and fight for her loved ones and what’s right.At least, that’s how I see the broken image in front of me. It’s not one that I want, but I realize it’s who I’ve become lately.
Crouching down, I push them together and find they fit close enough, but what am I missing? I take a few moments to study the newly combined image and what these parts mean to me.He said I had to accept myself. As in all my flaws? But what if they aren’t flaws?
I enjoy nature and feel one with it when I’m out in it and looking for herbs. It brings me peace and comfort. Yet, especially recently, there’s a darker side of me. A side that needs that outlet to release the rage that has built up inside me, the rage I didn’t even know I had.They are just a part of me!
Click.
Looking down, the two pieces that were close enough but the edges weren’t lining up are now flush and whole, a seamless combination of those two versions of me. I quickly stand up with the completed piece in my hand and shout.
“I figured it out!”
Everyone quiets while I explain how to fix the puzzle, describing my thought process with my own two pieces. “Hopefully, it will work with the other parts,” I joke, looking around and feeling relieved that the torso pieces on the floor are bigger. There are a lot to choose from, but since I’ve already picked the gatherer and entity, hopefully that means I don’t need to pick them again.
“Well, we only have forty minutes to figure this out,” Levi calls out, and I turn to find the clock above us, counting down the time.
