'This one is a 4 star game. Can we go play easier games of 3 stars or less?'
Feather's lost her normal voice. She sounds low, soft, and powerless, but she looks braver and firmer than she did at the beginning.
'The difficulty of games is irreversible. It would be always from easy to difficult no matter how many stars it has. Your next game is always harder than the previous game.'
'If we pick a low star game right now, it will not be easier than a high star game.'
'For example, if we picked the doll catcher machine, the king spider would have come out. Do you get it?'
Ro doesn't feel well about his throat either. He sounds low as well, and gentle.
'Sir, where shall we go then?'
'We have many 5 star games to be picked such as Adventure in the Corpse City, Mirror Maze, Desert Tomb, and Survival Island. Which one do you want?'
'What do you recommend for me to play?'
'In Adventure in the Corpse City, you need to find all the parts of the same person. If you don't have much knowledge about the human body, I don't suggest you to play this.'
'In Mirror Maze, you find the ghost mirror.'
'In Desert Tomb, you need to survive for 3 days.'
'In Survival Island, you need to kill six types of exotic animals or plants.'
'We don't have much time left.'
The sky is turning grey.
The Abyss Amusement Park has daytime as well. When daytime comes, everything will stop running and the living people here will be locked here forever.
Some people didn't manage to get out fast enough and couldn't leave. They had good survival abilities and could bribe the ghosts to get some food and water for them. They lived well here but they had a shorter lifespan.
Feather has parents and her own life. She cannot stay here.
'We will go to Mirror Maze.'
Feather speaks and finds Ro is amazed.
'I trust Mr. Clown.'
Ro gives her a smile in return.
They walk backward and stand in front of the Mirror Maze again.
They see a wall of black stones and there are some broken mirror pieces together forming the letters of Mirror Maze. It must be old, some mirrors are missing.
By looking outside into the door, there is nothing but darkness.
No wind. It is like a giant eye quietly peering at them.
'Sir, can you hold my hand?'
'No.'
Feather is a little scared to get lost in such a dark place.
Ro ties together the red threads on his hand and her hand.
Within a certain range, the thread is able to stretch and connect them.
Feather holds the red thread and follows after Ro.
Sound is forbidden here. Even if she talks, there will be no voice coming from her. Footsteps cannot be heard either.
She doesn't dare to let go of the red thread even though the thread will not fall from her wrist.
She is willing to hold Mr. Clown's limbs even if his body is cold. She misses his legs.
Yet, in a silent atmosphere like this, she hesitates to touch his hand and doesn't do anything except walking and holding the red thread.
Ro is not trying to avoid her, but he knows that everything in the Mirror Maze might be fake. Senses can be fooled as well.
If Feather thinks she is holding his hand, she could have loosened her hand unconsciously and goes on holding hands of other ghosts here, being caught into a deeper illusion.
This place does have some lights. There is a candle every once a while on the wall. Every candle is burning on its end. The guttering of the candles twists into human face features.
Ro has nothing in his mind, not even himself.
Maybe he has too much going on that the mirrors are unable to show them.
In Feather's eyes, every mirror here shows her and Mr. Clown. The reflections move as they move as if they are all normal mirrors.
The lights are dim. The mirrors reflect and amplify these dim lights so that she can see herself clearly in the mirrors.
She sees herself looking pale, and the cherry juice on her dress has dried. It looks like solidified blood stains.
The mirrors don't have her lower body. The candles aren't enough to light her all. Her lower body is in darkness and the path is not clear either.
The red thread is still there. Feather is not too flustered.
A cold wind comes from nowhere and she rubs her arms. While she is not paying attention, she stumbles on an unknown thing on the ground.
She screams and falls heavily on the ground.
As a result of the feature here, there is no sound being heard as if there was a giant monster that eats away all the sound.
It hurts. It probably broke her knee skin.
What scares her most is not the dimmer lights but the missing Mr. Clown.
Both paths ahead and behind have disappeared.
'Sir!'
Her voice is not heard by anyone including herself.
The red thread is still here, stretching to a dark void. She traces the red thread and touches a mirror in the darkness.
The red thread goes into the mirror.
She sees herself in the mirror, touching the end of the red thread.
Is he in the mirror?
In Ro's eyes, Feather stumbles on her own foot and falls. Then she touches the air as if she was doing a dumb show.
She is lost in the Mirror Maze but she didn't know.
She knows a way to test if the mirror has a solid core by putting a finger on it. If the finger tip perfectly matches the reflected one, then this mirror is empty inside and if there is someone behind the mirror, he can see Feather.
If the finger tips don't match perfectly, then this mirror has a solid core and the person behind the mirror cannot see Feather.
Feather points toward the mirror at the red thread.
The Feather in the mirror also points her finger toward Feather.
The mirror is extremely cold. Feather looks up and sees the reflected self giving her a charming but strange smile.
Feather is scared and retreats until she reaches a mirror on her back. The mirror on her back is not that cold.
Now, every mirror has a scared Feather on it as if the smile was just an illusion.
They look all the same.
She didn't get to test the mirror and has to try it again.
She doesn't know which one has the ghost that she decides to use the dumb way to see if there is a difference between these mirrors.
She has tried all mirrors. Every mirror has a solid core. Every reflection has a distance between it and Feather.
Which one is the ghost mirror?
The mirrors are moving toward Feather as if the reflections are besieging her. Finally the mirrors form together seamlessly into a decagon.
No matter where she looks, her limbs will come into contact with a mirror.
Sometimes she touches a mirror carelessly and it feels like touching a corpse.
The ground is still in darkness and leaking some unknown liquid out. Feather looks down and squats to figure out what it is. The reflection in front of her doesn't look down. It looks at Feather with a bizarre smile.
In Ro's eyes, Feather is surrounded by ten medium size mirrors. Her facial expressions switch between scared and calm like a caged bird being alarmed by a sudden change in the surroundings.
It is not the right time yet. Ro sits down and watches Feather circling in the mirrors.
The ghost can change its mirror. If Ro breaks one mirror, Feather will die.
They need to wait until the ghost is relaxed so that they can find it and break it.
In this game, Ro cannot help her as much. She needs to figure it out by herself.
It is normal for an ordinary teenage girl to be fooled by the mirror ghost. She just needs to wait until the ghost is overconfident.
He cannot tell this to Feather because the mirror ghost will know it easily from her.
Wind blows her ears from behind. She turns around and sees the reflection smiling at her vividly and blowing air at her. She looks like a normal girl.
Is this mirror the right one to break?
Feather doesn't dare to act.
Other mirrors are weird as well. She cannot decide which one to break.
'Why don't you act?' She looks at her reflection and figures out the lip language.
Suddenly, all the reflections paste to the mirror and their facial features are pressed and deformed. They all speak at Feather, 'Why don't you act!'
Feather is mad at them and the voices go into her head directly. She has a headache and wants to smash her own head on the ground.
Yet, she doesn't dare to break the mirrors.
A reflection's face skin is peeled off slowly. Another reflection's eyeballs are dug out. Her face looks miserable and twisted while the lip language is saying, 'Help me.'
Other mirrors are similar. There are sawed reflection, boiled reflection, chewed reflection, dismembered reflection... They are Feather's reflection dying in the mirrors.
If they were like a real horror movie, Feather could force herself and just endure watching it. However, the feelings of being killed also come to Feather. A synchronization of pain.
In a silent maze, Feather hears the sound of a chainsaw. From where the sound comes, she feels that part of her body is sawed, including her bones.
Skin peeling, chewing, boiling...
She treats this as a visual reality of 100% pain game and endures it.
If this was real, Mr. Clown would have saved me.
He didn't show up, so all these are unreal.
Feather thinks to comfort herself.
A cold hand raises her head. Someone blows at her ears.
'Girl, you are tough.'
Someone's soft long hair falls on Feather's neck. It has a mournful fragrance.
Feather is not horrified now. She looks back but sees nothing but her corpses in the mirrors.
'Who are you?' Feather hears her own voice resonating.
Quiet.
A puff of grey smoke comes from nowhere and covers the mirrors as if the corpses have grown white hairs.
Feather hypnotizes herself that these are all movie props.
Mr. Clown's words are always correct.
She will find the real ghost mirror.