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“Truth or dare?” My best friend Mabel asked me. I thought momentarily as all the other girls in the circle sat in suspense; They probably thought my answer depended on my life.
“Dare.” I declared. Mabel pulled out a flashlight and clicked it on under her face trying to make it scarier than her zombie Halloween costume.
“Make her eat a cat!” A girl shouted, which interrupted the creepy intro to my dare. “Say ‘I love you!’ to Leo” Another gushed. I shook my head, I didn’t even like him.
“L-A-M-E!” Mable argued.
“Now, legend says that if you breathe in and out 10 times in front of a mirror, something strange happens. Which is why we are going to test the legend.” Mable grabbed my hand and tugged me into the bathroom. There was already a candle sitting by the sink ready. A shiver ran down my spine. No, no, no. I wasn’t going to do this, and I heard about what had happened to the others who had done this. “Jeez, Cian, are you ok? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Wait, did you?” Mabel asked. I shook my head. “Well get cracking, because you’re going to have to breathe in and out 10 times in front of this mirror.”
I trembled, “Please, not this,” I whispered. I touched the glass. It was cold and damp.
“No can do, my friend, a dare is a dare” She replied and closed the door.
I looked into the mirror; the candle under my face glowing brightly. I can do this, I won’t die, right? Inhale, exhale, 1. Inhale, exhale, 2. Inhale, exhale 3. The glass started shimmering but I ignored it thinking I was seeing things. Inhale, exhale, 4. The Mirror was shimmering, I wasn’t seeing things! Inhale, exhale, 5. Inhale, exhale, 6. Inhale, exhale 7. The candle blew out as a gust flew through the room, but I still kept going. Inhale, exhale, 8. Inhale, exhale, 9. The mirror started rippling, and my reflection warped; I stupidly continued. Inhale, exhale, 10. Everything stopped, and I grabbed the door to leave in celebration, I wasn’t dead! Yet. Suddenly, a shadowy claw reached out from the mirror and tugged on my hair pulling me back toward the mirror. CIAN MARY SOLIS! I heard in its raspy growl. I screamed and slammed my body to the door. I hear what sounds like cackling. It can’t be, why would they laugh? The door warped and twisted towards the mirror and I screamed the loudest scream in my life right before the shadowy claw pulled me through the mirror. The mirror became up, and down became life and death, light and dark, past and future…. I sank into an icy cold body of water and I suck in what might be my very last breath of my short 15 years. My lungs burned begging air to come rushing through my lungs. The shadow kept pulling me, it had latched onto my torso dragging my limp body that was deprived of oxygen. I felt the feeling in my fingers dissipate as darkness rimmed my vision. I was going to die, and my family wouldn’t even know what happened. I finally gave into the darkness as I kept being dragged through. The last thing I saw was the world turning upside down.
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Pain seared through me as someone frantically shuffled next to me.“Hello?” Pacing. ” Oh god; I hope she’s alive.” I heard a girl talking to herself frantically. My eyes were still adjusting but I saw a cloudy night sky and grassy sand all around me. Where am I? Suddenly, everything came flooding back to me. The mirror, the portal, the water, the shadowy claw... I sat up instantly and then winced as pain shot through me. I coughed up water from my lungs spitting it on the ground.“Geez, you know it wouldn’t be very smart to sit up that quickly when you almost died.” The frantic girl teased. I opened my eyes and turned towards her crisp voice. A girl was standing over me, and she had piercing but watchful green eyes that looked like emeralds; she had the palest skin I had ever seen and her hair was the perfect contrast to her skin. It was dark wavy and flowy down past her shoulders. She wore a black flowy dress with tiny magenta glittery stars scattered across like a galaxy. The dress stopped right above her knees, and it had mesh sleeves. She had on a round pair of glasses that complimented her slim face. She also wore a black pair of fashionable combat boots with a pair of magenta socks showing at the top.“Who are you?” I asked frantically.“Your savior, thank you very much. With the way you are staring at me, I wonder if you are trying to read me” She said. Heat rushed to my cheeks. I wasn’t staring, was I? Crap, I get caught staring at girls at home too.“What does that mean? Who are you? Where am I?” I asked panicking. She wasn’t telling me anything.“Take a chill pill, and drink some water.” She said handing me a canteen.“Okay but only if you answer my questions,” I replied. She nodded in agreement.“Introductions first,” She started, “My name is Fay Mediocris. I am 16, and I am a citizen of the town Speculum Fabulae. In other words, Legends Mirror. Welcome to Mundus Fabularum or World of Legends. Never mind the reading thing. Okay your turn, tell me why you were floating in The Pool of Nightmares.” She said this all really fast and then looked at me with a curious gleam in her eyes.“Okay, my name is Cian Mary Solis. I’m 15” I paused coughing up water from my lungs leaving my throat sore. “I - Don’t know why I got dragged into the mirror. I don’t think it has happened to anyone else. It was just a legend, and legends aren’t real.” I said staring at the grass. Fay snickered, and I noticed my outfit had changed. I was wearing a maroon dress that was artfully torn at the bottom right above my knees. I wore black combat boots like Fay but I had pink socks showing over the top. I wore what resembled an army jacket but it was pastel pink instead. I felt my blonde hair; It was pulled back into my normal half up half down with my hair wisps framing my face. “How did you find me?” I asked.“I was just passing by for my nightly stroll-”“So you walk by a lake that makes screaming and moaning noises at night?”I questioned judgmentally.“I,” she paused for a moment, “Yes. Anyway, I thought the pool of nightmares sounded weird. It had a creepy high-pitched screech to it (which isn’t normal). I looked over and saw you floating in the exact center with a Warped Moon Tentacle wrapped around your torso, so I did what my gut told me to do; I jumped into the lake and untangled you from the Moon Tentical, which was pretty much dead. I brought you to shore and realized you weren’t breathing. I didn’t know what to do, but then you woke up and coughed up lots of water.” Fay explained.“Well, that's why my lungs burn so much,” I noted jokingly. Fay nodded chuckling. I yawned realizing how tired I was, even though I had just woken up from passing out. I remembered back home how I was at Mabel’s Halloween slumber party the night before. My family probably wondered where I was, and I missed them. Still tired, I yawned again.“Look we need to get you some rest. Waking up from almost dying is hard work. C’mon, I’m going to take you to my house. I’m sure Pa won’t mind.” She said helping me up and leading me down a path toward what looked like a tall grass and corn maze.
“Please tell me you know the way,” I begged and hoped for the best.------We walked for what seemed like hours. The twists and turns we took made me feel like we were lost, or walking in circles. My legs ached from the walking and I wondered how Fay walked this length every night. I was so tired of feeling lost. The path started getting extremely narrow. I had to walk behind Fay instead of next to her which made me a little sad because I was cold from my damp hair and clothes from taking a dip in the Pool of Nightmares. Fay was the only heat near me. It kept getting colder, and fog rose. I became more and more aware that there was no more heat. In less than a couple of minutes, I could barely see Fay in front of me.A rock slipped and I fell forward clinging onto Fay’s back. Heat rushed to my face as she turned around to steady me. “C’mon, I’ve got you,” she said grabbing my hand and making sparks flash under my skin, “ Wow, you have warm hands. Anyway, we can’t linger here, it's not safe.” She pulled me along the path still tangling her fingers with mine.There was rusting in the tall grass next to us. A branch snapped. There aren’t trees near us.“What was that?” I asked a little louder than I hopped. Her hand slipped from mine taking away the warmth from her touch.“Shhh!” she ordered, “there is something here.” She led on. I realized she had a bag on as she pulled out a black, silver-tipped dagger. She pulled out a small metal stick and pressed a button on it. It grew into a staff I assumed was meant for fighting. She handed it to me.“I don’t know how to fight with this,” I whispered. I don’t know how to fight.“It's okay, you’ll figure it out, trust your instincts,” she replied. There was more rustling in the grass, Fay whipped her head towards the sound and held the dagger with a ready stance. We kept going down the path.The wind started picking up and it whipped my hair into my face. A shiver rolled down my spine and made itself comfy in my toes. I felt a hot tingling in the back of my brain. Snap! It said. Power! GROW! It declared. I snapped. Sparked flew up my arm and lept to the grass. Flames encircled but didn’t burn. Fay whipped around to look at me. Embers lit up the sky falling into the dry grass and lighting it ablaze.“Shit, shit, shit,” Fay muttered.Suddenly a large cat with a wolf-like face jumped out from the burning grass. It was covered in long dark fur and had long sharp fangs that were dripping in blood. Its large paws had long sharp claws and it had yellow glowing eyes with dark beady pupils. It looked ready to pounce. Fay aimed her dagger in a way that light from the fire glinted off of it into the beast's eyes. The beast suddenly had a change of heart and dashed away into the burnt ashes of the grass. Silence fell over us. Rain started falling and started to put the fire out.“What just happened?” I asked a few seconds later, still shaken.“The Beast of Bladenbor it’s just another wild cat in these areas, but over in the town of Bladenboro, if you asked someone about it, they would shake in their boots and tell a story about a beast that killed their entire family. It's nocturnal, so it doesn’t like the light.” Fay said, “Lets go, the fire in the grass will go out completely, how did you do that, by the way?”“I’m not sure, my hands sparked and then the fire started,” I replied. I have no idea what happened… I guess it just did.“Hmm, I’ll ask my Pa. We should get going before the sun is up, so no one wonders where I am.”We trudged on through the thin path, through the tall grass. I was still shivering, but I was thinking about how many mosquito bites I would get. The fog rose, and the rain stopped. The path started getting wider, and as the fog lifted I stopped shivering from nervousness but damp coldness still lingered in the air. Mice scittered along the path holding little bits of food in their mouths. By now it was dawn and the sun was barely wisping the horizon line. Finally, we made it to a small town as the path opened up, presenting small houses with foggy reflective siding and windows.“Welcome to Speculum Fabulae. Don’t look in the mirror at night. Bloody Mary is real, but I heard she had a kid with a Semidragon.” Fay smirked and grabbed my hand to pull me forward. “C’mon! I want to show you my life!” I rolled my eyes laughing. I was ready for anything to come, but first I needed to sleep.I stepped into the house and I looked out from the porch into the town, but deep in the alleyway, I saw her. I saw Mabel, my best friend from home. I blinked and she was gone, replaced with a dark shadowy-looking snake. It flicked its tongue at me then slithered away.