Well, he can fuck off then.
Moving to shove myself off Caleb, I slapped wildly through the air, as uncoordinated as me on my fifth beer.Lizzie was at my side then, appearing like she popped in out of the shadows, and I jumped back.Her hands went to the side of my face, her middle fingers touching my temples, and I tried to swat at her.
“Temps, come back to me.Don’t let the pull get to you.Come on.”
Warmth buzzed through my skin.Something solidified, and I corrected myself in a snap, pain zinging through my brain as I gripped the bridge of my nose.It was as if I’d rushed through the process of being hungover and then all right again.
“Fuck.What was that?I…Oh gods,” I shook my head as I faced Caleb, “I didn’t mean to say that.”
“It’s alright,” Caleb soothed, his eyes now sympathetic where before I saw irritation.“It’s the tent.There’s a lingering effect.The details aren’t important.We just need to move.Come on.And keep an eye out for a window or door or anything.”
Turning, Caleb pushed forward toward the only other exit out of this room, and Lizzie looped her arm through mine as we hurried to follow behind him.Like before, we had to shove our way through an almost visceral layer of shadow, and when we came out on the other side, I smacked into something cold and solid at my right.
“Jesus fuck, seriously?”Lizzie dropped my arm, patting the air in front of her as if she were testing to see if she’d smash into nothing as well.
I looked around, realizing what had happened.“A house of mirrors?Dammit, I hate these!”
The room was dark, all the passageways—false or not—showing rows and rows of matching frames that led off into the dark.The mirrors themselves were dusty and splotched, aged from possibly decades of use.Around them, those frames that reflected all around us were red and white, bulbous curves that looked like harmless circles or skulls piled on top of each other, depending on how you look at them.
Straight bars of white light criss-crossed over the ceiling, illuminating the mirrors to create the infinite hallway effect.The floors were black, as were the undersides of the arches that framed the mirrors.I saw unending versions of myself reflected back at me, mirroring my movements perfectly.
Except for the smiles.
I wasn’t smiling.Why the fuck would I?But the chain of Temps were all grinning at me, mad glee in their eyes as the three of us stepped into another trap.When I looked at the reflections of Caleb and Lizzie, it was the same, but they both turned this way and that, trying to figure out the path forward.
“Wait!”I called out, moving to Caleb to grab the sleeve of his leather jacket.“Stop turning.I can’t keep track of you when you keep moving.”
But as I groped wildly for him, my knuckles hit glass—a reflection.I turned around, set on going back toward Lizzie, but as I took off in the direction I’d come from, or at least what I believed to be the right path, I got another handful of steps and ran into a mirror again.
I was alone.I’d lost them.
“Caleb!Lizzie!”Frantically turning around, I tried to peer through the halls of reflections for any sign of them.“Where are you?!”
“Temps!”
The sound came from behind me, and maybe a bit to the right?I held a hand out in front of me, pressing it to the cold surface I knew was glass and not the way forward.I kept running it along the edge until my fingers could hook around the edge of the frame and turned, following the path that I prayed led out of here and not just right back where I’d come from.
Using my sense of touch, I kept going until I hit another mirror, forced to turn left when every instinct in me was saying to turn right.For a moment, I paused, keeping my fingers on the mirror as I looked over my shoulder and then back ahead.
Am I going the right way?Dammit.Where are they?
The endless versions of myself all grinned at me, their eyes too wide, the smiles stretching too far.This was bad.I needed to find Lizzie and Caleb and get the fuck out of here.Movement to my left caught my eye, the flash of what I thought was Caleb’s jacket.I went toward it, keeping my fingers to the glass but skipping the open passing to my right and moving straight ahead, where I saw the back of Caleb’s jacket more clearly.
But how was I seeing him from behind if he was supposed to be somewhere in front of me, and I’d yet to pass him?
Physics wasn’t my strong suit, and they weren’t lining up no matter how I rearranged my thoughts.So, I shook it away, still hurrying forward toward Caleb’s reflection.He was so close, just up ahead, but when I reached him, I touched glass again.Spinning around, Caleb had to be someone who was nearby to reflect like this, but I came face to face with that odd smile pinned on my professor’s face this time.
“You’re not Caleb.”
“Aren’t I?”The voice sounded like it was coming out of a speaker.“Or is it that one?”
Mirror Caleb pointed, and I turned to see the row of infinite arms doing the same, their backs to me.How was this possible?One of the reflections, several down the line from me, turned this way, breaking form from the others.It stepped into the black space between Caleb’s reflections and mine, seizing one of them and yanking on the wrist that both did and didn’t belong to me.
Ithurt.
I was taken down to a knee, staring at my wrist as indentations appeared in my flesh, icy tendrils skittering up my arm.It burned and froze, my skin feeling like it was going to crack as the pressure reached my bone.As I huffed out a breath, crying out and fighting against the hold, my breath turned white in the air around me.
“Temperance!”
