Well shit.
I pulled back my sense of self until I had enough left to freak the fuck out. What the hell was I going to do?
The hopelessness of my situation almost made me let go again, but I couldn’t. I had to find my guys again. I had to find my friends. But how did I escape from nothing?
Another warmth pulled at me. One I wasn’t as familiar with, but still had a connection to. The connection it had with the unconscious realm called to me through my weak connection with it.
I followed that connection with my thoughts to one shard of glass and pulled it to me. This time I achieved movement. Either the shard flew toward me, or I went toward it. Either way it hovered in front of me.
I still didn’t have hands, but I reached out thinking that perhaps I could travel through the glass. Mirrors were gateways, after all.
Somehow, with that thought, I stepped through.
And found myself in the middle of a corn field.
Well, double shit.
I remembered this clearing. The weird cornfield vines lay in two body-shapes on the ground, and I’d found Baz’s essence here.
The creepy corn being that scuttled around like an upside-down arachnid stared at me from just behind a row of stocks. A few tooth fairies hovered in the air, made of white bone, possessing jagged teeth just ready to rend flesh, and clutching something’s molars in their tiny, clawed hands.
There was no way I was getting out of here a second time.
Except… Except nothing moved. I reached out, my hand encountering cool glass. Pressing, I heard cracking glass.
It shattered, and the pieces of the cornfield flew off, spiraling into nothing like reflections in a broken mirror that happened to get caught up in a tornado.
I spun around, but the only thing behind me was another shard.
Taking it, I peered close. Nightmare Castle!
Forgetting until it was too late that the castle had just been destroyed, I stepped into the shard.
It was like coming into a carnival fun house of mirrors. Broken ones. I spun around, or the room spun around me. This time I got dizzy and put my hands over my eyes.
I had hands!
Though I couldn’t make out my physical form, I could at least now feel it.
The shards of Nightmare Castle spun away when I reached out, leaving me with a larger chunk of broken mirror. I stepped through.
This time I came out into an oddly familiar sandstone cave. Where was I?
The fracture lines were still there, but the shards of mirror were much larger, almost person-sized. I turned until I saw a tall stand mirror leaning against one wall of the cave. Unlike before, this cave had no opening other than the mirror.
I didn’t encounter any interference when I walked toward the mirror and placed my hands on its cool surface. Inside, terrifying creatures swirled around. Luminescent beings with white flowing gowns, others with skeletal faces and deep eye sockets. They moved fast, agitated, and I couldn’t get much of a look at them.
Wait a minute!
“Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary!”
Hell, I had a voice now.
Moments later the creature in question appeared on the other side of the mirror.
“Princess!”
She was just as terrifying to look at as the first time I laid eyes on the mirror dweller named Bloody Mary. Her skin was stretched tight over her face, lips pulled back showing teeth she couldn’t hide, and scraggly white hair that did nothing to hide her scalp. Her bony fingers pressed against the glass, and I matched my hands to hers. I’d never been so glad to peer into a mirror and actually see something on the other side.