Some times later, Alice and Mirror were standing in front of the door leading inside the red tower.
Their first problem arose quickly.
"What is that door made of ?" cursed Mirror.
She was trying to open the door leading inside the tower, but no matter how hard Mirror pushed, the door refused to budge.
"I think we need a key."
"Alice... I'm not dumb, I know this door can be opened with a key. The thing is, I would prefer to avoid having to find a key in that ghost town, especially because the key might not even be in that town !"
Mirror hit the door with all of her strengh, making a truly atrocious sound.
Alice was pretty sure Mirror was using an amount of strenght that no girl of her age was supossed to possess...Yet, her attacks were innefective.
Well, innefective against the door.
Alice's hand was bleeding a lot.
"Mirror, I don't think this is going to work."
Mirror ignored what her friend was saying, and unsheated her old-looking sword.
She continued attacking the door... without any meaningful results.
Mirror seemed... angry.
She sheathed her sword.
"What kind of wood can withstand all of that ?"
"We've seen stranger things, Mirror."
"Yeah...But this one really sucks."
"I think we..."
Alice was cut short, when, suddenly, darkness fell.
It was the same things as last time: Alice could not see anything. There was no stars or moon to bring light here. There was only darkness.
In this strange place, here and now, she was blind.
The first thing Alice felt when the darkness fell was pure disbelief. There was no way that much time had passed, right ?
But then she realized that this wasn't Earth at all. Maybe, in this world, day and night were way shorter, or were similar to things like rain back on Earth. If what was going on in the City of Flowers could be considered as a day and night cycle in the first place.
The second thing Alice felt, seconds after the surprise, was... fear.
The last "night" Alice lived here was the single worst night of her life. A night were she met the path of a monster, lost an eye, and was somehow saved by the demonic being inside her.
"There is nothing demonic about me, idiot !" complained Killer.
Alice ignored her.
Instead, she drew her dagger, as if it would make a difference against the beings her and Mirror were up against.
"Mirror, are you okay ?"
"Yes. Wow. I didn't expect the night to fall... so aprubtly..."
"It surprised me the first time too."
"So now... what are we supossed to do ?"
"Now, monsters called Two Mouths will appears. I don't know how much of these monsters exists, there is probably not a lot, but we should avoid them at all cost. Especially, because they could see in the darkness quite well. Or maybe they just have a good sense of smell. Fact is, they are really dangerous."
"I can see in the darkness too."
"What ? How ?"
"My Name, of course. I means, your Name, technically."
Alice was confused.
"I thought the Name of Seer just give a person with strange visions of the past and the future."
"You shouldn't underestimate Names. These things are given by the Godess of Light herself. These Names... they're divine. Each of them is probably powerful beyond reason. If you think about Nikoletta's behavior, it's pretty obvious that Lightbringers are really important people. She even knew english ! And what is the thing that separate Lightbringer from normal people, besides the fact that they're from Earth ? It's the Blessing of Name !"
"All of that is great... but could we talk about it some other time ? I would appreciate if we... I don't know, hid in one of the house or something !"
"Ok. Hold my hand, I'm going to find a super good spot to hide !"
Alice followed Mirror in the darkness.
At this point, she was nothing more than an hindrance to Mirror. She could easily just... let her die here.
But she didn't.
Because Alice and Mirror were friends.
And friends don't just... abandon each other like that.
While walking in the City, Mirror talked:
"You know, that part of our Name that let me see in the darkness... I decided to name it Seer's sixth sense. Or maybe just Seer's sense. After we're out of the City of Flowers, I might teach it to you. Or try to teach it, because I have no idea how to do that... Alice, can you go a little faster, please ?"
"I'm trying ! Running while blinded isn't something natural, okay ? By the way, where are we going ?"
"I don't really know, I'm just following my instinct."
Alice stopped.
"Mirror, this isn't a game. I lost an eye already, I'd love to not lose my life on top of that."
"I know you want us to just hide in a random house... but that wouldn't work."
"Why ?" asked Alice.
"Because the Two Mouths you're so afraid of are in these houses, idiot ! Most of them seems sleeping or something, but we should get away as fast as possible !"
Alice wondered: the Two Mouths... were in the houses ? But she found nothing while searching them !
Was Mirror... lying to her ?
"Alice ! I beg you, continue walking ! Wd can't stay here !"
"Alright, I trust you."
They akwardly ran away for a bunch of time, and then Mirror almost threw Alice.
The young girl touched everything around her, trying to determine where she was.
"We're in a house, but there is no Two Mouths inside. You're safe here. I'm going back in a few minutes, okay ?"
What was Mirror saying ?
"Wait ! Why are you leaving ?"
"Do you really want to know ?"
"Yes !"
"There is three Two Mouths around here, and they're all rushing towards us. I'm going to kill them"
Alice's right eye widened.
She almost died against a single Two Mouths despite Killer's help. Sure, at this point, she had no weapon, and Mirror was way stronger than her, but still...
Had Mirror any chances of surviving against three of these repulsing creatures ?
At this point, Alice felt something. Something in her wanted to follow Mirror, and help her.
This something, was Killer.
She could almost feel the dreadful being trying to get a hold on her body and then...
Alice... pushed her. Outside of her mind.
For the first time, she resisted an attempt to control her from Killer.
Sure, Killer wanted to help Mirror, which was a good thing on paper, but in reality, it would just hinder Mirror. Plus, it was suicidal.
Alice begun crying.
She didn't want Mirror, her only friend, to die. But of course it was going to happen. How could Mirror win against such opponents ?
But then, Alice heard Mirror's confident voice as she was walking away from her.
"Don't worry. I won't lose."
And then, Alice heard Mirror unseathe her rusty sword.