Ms. Needa shot up out of bed, gasping for breath. Sweat poured from her face and down the side of her neck, soaking her bedclothes. Her heart pounded fast enough and hard enough for her arms to ache. Beside her, Mr. Rose turned over, roused from sleep. He stirred, groaning.
"David," she whispered. "David, are you awake?"
Slowly, Mr. Rose turned over on his side of the bed.
"I am now," he said, still half asleep. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, David! I had the most horrible dream," she gripped Mr. Rose, burying her chin in his shoulder. Mr. Rose put his arms around her and squeezed.
"Again?" said Mr. Rose gently.
"I think Kyrie and Tiger are in horrible danger!"
Mr. Rose sighed. "They're just cleaning some hallways, Tessie. It'll be fine."
"There were mirrors," said Ms. Needa, her voice barely above a whisper. "I dreamt of mirrors again."
Mr. Rose stiffened. Slowly, he pulled away, his hands gripping Ms. Needa's. In seconds, his hands became cold and clammy. On his head, even in the relative dark of their bedroom, beads of sweat stood out on his head.
"How many?" asked Mr. Rose, his face a mask of quiet concern. "How many mirrors?"
"Two," said Ms. Needa, barely above a whisper
"And what did you see?"
Ms. Needa quavered. A growing peal of sobs choked words out. Mr. Rose grabbed her by her cheeks.
"Tessie. Tessie look at me. What was in the mirrors?"
"Kyrie and Tiger! There were two mirrors in the Outside and I saw their reflection and—and their reflections spoke--"
"Tessie—"
"'—They have found us, Tessandrineda! They have found us and we shall have them for ourselves!' I couldn't do anything and… and their reflections laughed at me!"
"Listen to me." Mr. Rose gripped Ms. Needa, bringing her forehead to his. "Listen very carefully. What you saw is not real, understand? It's just another trick of the Outside to get in your head. You know it likes to play games with you."
"They spoke my name!"
Mr. Rose gripped Ms. Needa tight, embracing her. She buried her head into his shoulder, sobbing. Ms. Needa, inconsolable and distraught, chanting into her shoulder before Mr. Rose pulled her away, his pajamas sticky with tears.
"It's just a trick, Tessie. It does this sometimes."
"But they're in danger!"
"We don't know that," said Mr. Rose. "Look. We keep the curtains closed and the kids away from the Outside as much as we can during their sleep times, when the Outside likes to…"he swallowed, "… look for them. But so long as we keep doing that, the Outside will just ignore them, and ignore us. It's just like camping with a bear—"
"I don't know what a bear is," said Ms. Needa miserably.
"A bear is… it's like… aaah… a bear is a kind of animal where I…where I once was from. Big, scary thing, lots of fur and sharp teeth. Bears normally don't bother us, but if something feeds them, they can get used to it. And they come back looking for more. That's when bears can be dangerous."
"Then the Outside is not like a—whatever that thing is,"
"Bear," said Mr. Rose softly.
"Yes. The Outside is not a bear; the Outside is always dangerous."
They were quiet for a while. Mr. Rose sighed.
"Yes," he said. "You're right. But this was a dream that they're in danger, Tessie. Just a dream. And it's not surprising; you know what we're up against in the Outside better than anyone. Much better than me, certainly. Tiger and Kyrie—all the students—they're still just kids They don't know that it's not all blankness and clouds out there. But if we can just get them to the next level, if we can get them to Graduate, they'll be more prepared. That's all we can ask for, yes?"
Ms. Needa nodded. They cuddled for a moment before Mr. Rose rolled over and went back to sleep.
But Ms. Needa could not. She tossed and turned for a while, afraid to dream again. After an hour of shutting her eyes and hoping for a dreamless sleep to come, she gave up and rose up out of bed. She went to the small bathroom attached to their bedroom—a modest thing with few decorations, though Mr. Rose did his best to make it "like home". Ms. Needa was not sure what that meant—her David was from a different world, one that needed such rooms for bathing and that was apparently full of "bears".
She chuckled at the name—it was a strange name, alien on her tongue. But the Outside brought so many different people together, in its way. And she was thankful, however it happened, that it brought her David. She couldn't help but smile and she turned around to look at him as he slept, curled up in a pair of long pajamas. His slow breaths brought a rare moment of peace in her heart—peace that she hadn't felt in a long, long time. Not since she came to the Outside, in fact, and that was so long ago that she could barely remember her life before it.
She went into the bathroom and inspected her own face, feeling the lines that had grown around her mouth and on her forehead. With some effort, she could make them go away. Ms. Needa remembered, once upon a time, she was beautiful beyond description, at least in the eyes of the people she cared for. And she could still be so, if she wanted. For a brief moment, Ms. Needa let herself relax. The wrinkles around her mouth slowly faded away, revealing for a brief moment herself as Tessandrineda, the being she once was. If only she could let her heart be at peace in this place…
Perhaps she was worrying too much. Maybe David was right. Ms. Needa looked into the mirror, smiling.
Then, the reflection in the mirror blew her a kiss.
Ms. Needa stumble back, holding in a scream. But the reflection in the mirror did not move, but crossed her arms, contemptuous and smirking.
"Careful now," said the reflection, sneering, "or you'll wake up your bed-thing."
When she recovered, her face crossed into a scowl. She could feel her skin tighten, even worse than usual. Certainly, she would have a frightful look, but Ms. Needa didn't care.
"He is not a thing," whispered Ms. Needa. "He is a man, unlike you… you…"
"But I too am no man," said the grinning reflection. "I am you. And the bed-thing. I am every reflection of all things, all at once, always."
"You're cancer," hissed Ms. Needa. "You're leeches sucking on the blood of reality. And while I can't stop you from taking the rest of existence, I will keep what is here, you monster."
The reflection put a hand to her chest in a mockery of offense, though it could not even perform this without a wicked grin.
"You hurt me, Tessandrineda. But I know it only comes from jealousy. What else could a former goddess feel?"
Ms. Need bit down on her cheeks hard enough that she nearly drew blood—or what passed for the blood of a goddess.
"Even if you took my world from me, creature, I know who I am."
"You're a loser, Tessandrineda." The reflection's eyes nearly glowed with wicked mirth. "This is what you're good at. You lose. And lose. And lose. You lost your world, you lost your people, you have apparently lost your youth. I would need more mirrors to count the things you've lost. And all that you lose, we gain."
The reflection's grin spread nearly to its ears. In its mouth were horririfc mockeries of teeth, enormous and jagged and impossibly sharp. Ms. Needa recoiled from the sight of the thing's mouth, for in each tooth were countless iterations of other teeth, all jagged and impossible and each one fractaled into ever smaller, sharper teeth.
"And gain. And gain."
"No," Ms. Needa whispered, steeling herself as best she could agianst the horrifying visage.
"Yes! We will! Oh, how we will!" the reflection hissed, its false eyes shivering in unrestrained delight, drooling at the promise of wicked, vicious satisfaction. "And you're about to lose even more. I can feel it. The trap is set, Tessandrineda, and the little fish have swum so gently into our net. And we will catch them, oh yes! We will catch them and through them we will make so… many things of them!"
"No!"
"And then, we will do it again! And again! And again!"
"Stop it! Stop it!"
But the reflection did not answer—it had closed whatever open window there was behind the mirror, and Mr. Needa was taking to nobody but herself again. It took her a mere moment to realize before Mr. Rose had run in to the bathroom, shouting for her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. Ms. Needa turned around and looked into the worried face of David Rose, her only comfort in this strange, hostile land, where no trees or rocks or even sky could exist. A world unlike his and unlike hers, the two of them trapped in this place, trying their best to save the only other living people they knew of—the students at their little School.
Tears welled in Ms. Needa's eyes. Unable to hold them back, she began to cry.
But she did not have long to cry, for the sounds of shouting came from just outside their door. Then a pounding of terrorized fists on their door as a chorus of students cried out!
"Ms. Needa! Ms. Needa! Come quickly, Tiger is hurt!