Skyler's arm sank deeper into the mirror. She tried to pull his right arm back with her left, but it was too late.
"Please, help, help me!" Skyler shouted, looking at the black-haired man.
She prayed that the man could help her, that he could save her from the critical situation. But no matter how much she screamed, yelled and begged, the black-haired man continued to remain crouched in the corner of the room staring at her like none of this was his problem.
Skyler was left helpless, her entire upper body was being pulled against the glass. Tears streamed down her face as she surrendered to the unstoppable force of the mirror.
For a moment, everything was still. Skyler blinked for a moment, her eyes adjusting to the dim light—The cold vanished, replaced by a warmth that touched her skin like the soft petals of a flower—Blue flowers!
Thousands of them surrounded her, their faint glow illuminating the strange world she had been dragged into!
Skyler was mesmerized as she looked around in amazement. The ornate mirror, his bed, and his entire room were no longer there. In their place there was only an infinite field of blue roses that stretched ethereally before her as if they wanted to welcome her to the peculiar world in which she found herself.
"But what kind of place is this? How did I end up here?" Skyler thought.
She walked slowly, her footsteps echoing in the narrow brownstone lane, lined with delicate blue roses. The air was cold and icy that seemed to turn her bare feet into pieces of ice, and the blue moon illuminated the endless space. It was as though all of this somehow mirrored her perfectly.
Her eyes shifted to the roses beneath her, their petals glittering in the blue moonlight. Something flickered in the corner of her vision—a sight pulse!
Skyler bent her knees, drawn by curiosity. A golden butterfly had landed on the petals, its wings shimmering like molten sunlight.
"Beautiful… it's the first time I've seen one…" Skyler was mesmerized.
The golden butterfly took flight, hovering in front of her before gently landing on her index finger. Its wings moved in slow, rhythmic flaps, releasing shimmering golden scales that danced around her like glitter in the air. It then flew away, disappearing into the night sky, its silhouette was fading against the backdrop of the moon.
Skyler stood up as her gaze was directed forward. In front of her a pale-white stone archway materialized out of nowhere, its surface smooth, surrounded by dark green and gloomy vines. The hard ground beneath her feet began to shake violently like an earthquake!
"What is happening?" Skyler was in aghast as the earth beneath her trembled.
She staggered, struggling to keep her balance. The sound of stone filled the air, and the world around her was shaking violently. Her heart pounding in her chest like a drum, her palms became slimy as she was fighting with all her limbs and might to remain upright.
And then, out of the corner of her eye, something was being shifted.
Her black shadow. It was abnormal!
The shadow beneath wasn't just her—it moved, a silhouette emerged from the shadow. It was a robust man with gray eyes and black hair—The black-haired man!
"W-why did he follow me here?" Skyler's eyes widened in disbelief as the man's face continued to emerge from the shadows, his gray and dull eyes staring into hers.
Suddenly, the ground stopped shaking. Skyler lost her balance, and fell on her butt onto the hard ground, feeling a slight pain all over her back.
She stood up slowly in pain as her right hand instinctively pressed against her butt. She tilted her back, trying to lengthen the stiffness. She then opened her eyes and turned. With a frown, she glanced at her shadow which had returned to normal, the figure of the black-haired man disappeared completely.
"He must've retreated into my shadow." Skyler said.
Goosebumps ran down her spine making her tremble faintly, but she tried not to care. She then turned again-and froze on the spot.
In front of her, in the mysterious world surrounded by blue roses, an immense ancient palace surrounded by creepy dark green vines stood majestically, its pale-white marble columns gleaming under the blue moonlight. Each column was intricately fluted and rose to support a pediment adorned with carvings of figures familiar to her. Her figures! Figures of Skyler Hall!
"Why are there cravings of me in this place? Why, Why? This all makes no sense!" Skyler's heart skipped a beat, her forehead sweated coldly as her blue eyes moved over the cravings covered by the stone archway.
She clutched the hem of her skirt tightly, and ran.
Ran, she ran, Skyler was running into the pale-white stone archway feeling cold in the palms of her bare feet. Her heartbeat quickened, her vision went blurry as she kept running.
"Wait, maybe there's a way to go back if I go inside…" A thought raced through Skyler's mind.
Her nose was clogged with phlegm, making each breath harder to take. She breathed desperately through her mouth, her pained chest heaving with effort.
She's running, she kept running like a fool over the end of the arch.
And still, she smiled. Her heart pounded hard, her nose dripping snot onto her dry lips, and with her feet numb to the pain—slammed the cold hard ground with every step. She could see it. She can finally see the end.
Skyler stopped, desperately trying to catch a breath, her mouth hung open as she sucked in air. She rubbed her hand softly over her nose, feeling the slickness of soggy snot on her cold hand. She breathed in and out slowly through her mouth, her heart beating regularly.
She looked around, seeing the roof covered with wild wines, sloped, generating eeriness over the ancient entrance in front of her. And then she saw, she saw her figures. Her face, her form, carved in the depths of the stone as if the palace itself had been built in her honor.
Skyler climbed the stairs of the ancient palace, each step sending a jolt of pain through the soles of her feet as a sense of unease grew within her.
She struggled, wondering many things—why was her face on the carvings? What was this place? Why and how did she end up here? While her mind was full of questions without any answers, she heard something—the rush of water coming from inside the majestic palace.
"This place is starting to scare me…" Skyler thought.
She arrived at the entrance of the majestic palace wrapped in green vines. Feeling the echo of her breaths, she moved the creepy vines with her right arm, feeling the itch spread across her arm.
She finally entered the palace, and there, she laid her eyes on that.
"Huh?" Skyler let out a short gasp.
Her mouth dropped open. Her body was shaking like a leaf as her fingers were hard as rocks, unmovable.
The rush of water echoed. The scent of burning incense brimmed in the air with the earthy aroma of the vines. The walls were covered in wild vines and blue roses. Skyler looked at that, and froze.
At the far end of the hall, a colossal statue of her, with sword and crown, draped in gold and ivory stood behind the throne. The gold and ivory glinted in the torchlight, giving the figure an almost divine aura.
"All this makes no sense at all." Skyler's mind raced.
Fear and awe battled within her as she walked, her steps became heavier, towards the golden throne covered in vines. She swallowed hard with every step closer.
Skyler struggled to understand the environment around her—the world surrounded by blue roses, the ancient palace, the throne, and the statue. All things were beyond her comprehension. It was as if this place was designated especially for her.
She looked carefully, finally understanding where the rustle was coming from. Behind the statue, deep in the long hall, something was glittering. Two small lakes of water surrounded by terracotta tiles in the corners of the palace illuminated the throne in front of her.small lakes of water surrounded by terracotta tiles in the corners of the palace illuminated the throne in front of her.
"I really hope to find a way to go back before Benson gets home." Skyler thought back to her uncle with whom she had an argument days ago.
Her vision blurred as she bit her lower lip trying to stop the tears from coming.
A sense of guilt was growing in Skyler's soul as she thought about her behavior—Going out to confirm the death of someone she saw the night before, spending the day with Evelyn without realizing that time was passing, and wasting time talking with a person she barely knew.
"He had every right to scold me after what I did…" She whispered. "This is exactly why I have to go back."
Skyler reached the golden throne, goosebumps ran down her spine as she sat down, making her body tremble. Then she rested her arms on the sides of the throne, looking at the majestic place bathed in the yellowish-red glow of the torchlight.
"What?" Skyler felt a strange feeling.
A color clashed with the torchlight's glow, a shimmering emerald green color was rising beneath her. With a short sigh Skyler tilted her head down, and trembled. A shiny object was floating in front of her eyes, and she realized that the object was familiar to her. Her necklace, once a simple piece of jewelry now glowed with an otherworldly light.
The world around her shook violently beneath her a low, ominous rumble that grew harder with each passing second. Skyler's body shook up and down, holding onto the sides of the throne. Her mind was dizzy, her vision blurred, while small debris fell from the cracks in the ceiling.
"Something, it's…" Skyler muttered laboriously.
She narrowed her eyes, her eyelids fluttering. Despite the narrowed vision, Skyler saw something rising. In the center, a white stone fountain began to rise. It was adorned with intricate patterns of rose. Water, clear green as an emerald, surged from the blue rose tree, cascading down in an arc.
The ground stopped shaking, the debris continued to fall from the cracks with a rustling sound. Skyler Hall jumped up from the throne. Her blue eyes looked at the greenish water of the fountain in disbelief, astonished. It felt as if a cold hand had gripped her heart.
"But that…" Skyler pressed her hands to the edge of the fountain.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes wide and unseeing, paralyzed by what she saw. Her room was reflected in the large fountain. The black-haired man picked up Skyler's body as it lay in front of the mirror, and laid her on the bed.
"Why… why is my room reflected in the fountain?" Skyler's mind crumbled, questions surfaced as she tried to connect everything together.
"Wait, so that—" Before Skyler could finish, something interrupted her.
The harmless necklace around her neck, the jewel that had been floating before, shone again.
"Aaaaaaaah!!" Skyler screamed.
Her throat felt so tight that it itched, her body and the world before her began to fall apart. Skyler clutched the glowing necklace tightly to her chest.
"I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home. I beg you, let me go home." Skyler prayed.
She prayed from the bottom of her heart to go home, to her uncle, to Evelyn, to the black-haired man. She prayed constantly, a tear fell from her face, her lips pressed together.
Her body shakes, she clenches her joined hands tightly, as the green light engulfed her entire body. Everything was collapsing, everything was coming to an end.
From the depths of her soul, from the depths of her heart, from the depths of her existence, Skyler Hall prayed. And then—
Total void.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Skyler's consciousness was awakening, along with her body. She slowly opened her eyes, but her own vision was completely in white. She blinked, and looked around with a frown.
She saw a large mirror with a dark brown frame in front of her, a wooden cabinet next to the mirror, and a yellowish desk with a white bag on it to her left. Looking at these she finally realized that—
"I… returned… to my… room…" Skyler whispered, her voice strained.
She got up from the bed, her movement slow, and sat in the chair next to the desk resting her head on her sore right hand.
"I managed to return to the real world, but how did I end up in that place, and why was my room reflected in the fountain? It was a dream?" Skyler thought to herself.
She was upset. Her thoughts spun around in a whirlwind of restlessness and confusion as she struggled to piece together the fragments of her memory.
Her mind was overflowing with questions—Was it real, or was it a dream? What is that place? Why were there cravings and a statue of her? She couldn't ignore the feeling that something fundamental was missing, but she didn't know what.
Her body trembled with her fingers gripping the edge of the desk, bathed in the crimson moon that illuminated the dark room from the window. She pulled a bronze candle holder out of the drawer, and lit the candle with a match, lighting the desk a light orange color.
"I didn't think my master was so emotionally naive." A voice broke the silence.
A deep, hoarse voice denied the ethereal silence present in the room.
Skyler turned in the direction she heard the voice, holding the candle holder in her right hand, and froze. Her heart was pounding, in disbelief at what she was seeing.
"No… It's not possible." Skyler was in aghast.
The moon cast dark shadows around the room, making the corners seem gloomy. A standing silhouette was illuminated by the moonlight in the corner of her room like a jagged shadow. The man. The black-haired man with dull gray eyes that seemed to deny her existence, spoke with a twisted smile which gave her goosebumps!