Episode I

May Your Life be Interesting

Carnivals were all fun and games until someone demanded to see the manager.

The confrontation occurred at the base of the Ruby Cat Ferris Wheel, though the ride had nothing to do with the disagreement—it merely served as a backdrop of crimson color, adding a bit of gaudy absurdity to the confrontation.

“Sir, I run a hot dog cart.” This much was true. The cart wasn’t even all that impressive—wooden, with fading paint and holding fewer toppings for the delectable treats than would be ideal. There were much fancier carts in numerous places around the Cat-Ival grounds that were far better equipped to meet the needs of the hungry public for “reasonable” prices.

“A hot dog cart with exorbitant prices and terrible customer service!” the man shouted, glaring down at the hot dog vendor.

The vendor gave him a blank stare. Taking this as a challenge, the man stared back like his life depended on it. After a few seconds of this, the vendor rolled her eyes and started licking the back of her paws—like all the workers at the Cat-Ival, she was a cat.

“You didn’t…”

The cat twitched her pointed ears in the feline equivalent of a shrug. “I did.” She took a moment to adjust the red cap on her head that marked her an official vendor of the Cat-Ival.

The man forcefully gripped the front of the hot dog cart with his hands, leaning forward with enough pressure that the cart threatened to tip over. He leaned into the cat’s unperturbed face, slowly spitting out words like each one burned his tongue, “I. Demand. To see. The manager.”

“Dear,” a woman said, grabbing the man by his sleeve. “Let’s leave the poor cat lady alone…”

The man turned to his wife. “She’s the one making this an issue! All I asked was to see the manager, and—“

“That’s not all you did and you know it,” the woman interrupted.

“She still has no reason t—hey!” He glared at the cat again. “Just because I’m not talking to you doesn’t mean you can ignore me!”

The cat raised her equivalent of an eyebrow and flicked her tail. “Oh, sorry, I thought relationship-ending marital drama was happening.” Leering, the cat continued, “Is that… still going on?”

A dark look came over the woman. “What are you implying…?”

The cat rammed her face into her paw. “Oh no, not you too…”

Now the woman leaned forward, pointing an accusatory finger at the vendor.

A short way behind them, their daughter let out a deep, pained sigh. It looked like they weren’t going to be done with this anytime soon. She probably shouldn’t have asked for that hot dog. It wasn’t like she’d even been hungry; it had just seemed like a good treat. But, alas, it was not to be, for the cat had to be a cat and her parents had to be her parents.

Catching her father’s eye for a moment, she indicated that she was going to go wander around a bit. He didn’t stop his rant at the vendor, but with a quick glance and a nod, he managed to communicate that she should stay within sight of them. Which she would have done anyway, she wasn’t stupid.

She hoisted her backpack up, setting it comfortably on her shoulders; careful not to rest it on exposed skin. One would think she was wearing a sleeveless shirt because it was a hot summer day, but the periwinkle outfit wasn’t exactly light and it was so long it went down to her knees. The long black pants under it weren’t doing her any favors, either.

The simple fact of the matter was that she didn’t have a practical or an aesthetic fashion sense to speak of. She’d woken up that morning, decided she wanted to get dressed quickly, and thus ended up in her current situation. Not that she would have cared that much if she’d noticed: in fact, she would have been proud of her strangeness. After all, today her shirt had a mathematical equation printed on the front, and she would be the first to brag to other kids that she knew what it meant—e to the power of x.

After taking a moment to shake her head and get her stark black hair out of her eyes, she began her slow walk around the Cat-Ival. For a carnival run almost entirely by cats, it was certainly interesting that it catered mostly to humans like herself. Almost all the rides had human seats, the doorways were tall and vertical, and most of the food was meant for an omnivore’s palette rather than what were essentially carnivores. The most striking part about it were the pedestals all the cats had to sit on to reach average human eye level—though anyone taller than the average could still look down on the felines.

The girl found herself wishing she could get up on one of those pedestals. It wasn’t that she was short for her age—she was actually quite tall—but she’d never liked being small, and she waited with bated breath for the day she didn’t have to stand on her toes to look over a countertop. Here, this desire manifested itself in the not all that unrealistic thought that the cats were looking down at her as though she were some kind of prey animal.

Deciding she’d had enough of the cats, she looked high and low for something that wasn’t a cat. This was rather difficult since the entire point of the Cat-Ival was to put cats on everything and cash in on the cuteness factor. The Ferris Wheel had cats, the balloons had cat ears on them, the few workers who weren’t cats had cat ears sewn into their employee caps, and even the obviously rigged games used baseballs with little cat faces drawn on them. It was all a bit frustrating.

However, she was an eagle-eyed girl, and she was able to pick out a few stands that weren’t cat-related. There was a plushie stand that sold a variety of cute cuddly animals, most of which weren’t cats, but it was still tangentially related, so she passed it over. Instead, she set her sights on what appeared to be a potion stand run by a woman with chalk-white skin and pink hair. Something about her and her sparkling concoctions just grabbed the girl’s attention.

Alas, she was interrupted on her way to the stand by the person selling all the plushies.

“Why hello there, little one!” The man said, drawing her attention. “You look like you could use a new stuffed friend!” The most striking part of him was on his face, a pearly white mask with six eye slits cut into it. His dark black suit smelled vaguely of old straw, which gave the girl pause.

He took advantage of her momentary curiosity. “Please, feel no need to buy anything—just look around. I am Sir Freddloi, proprietor of this fine establishment.” He gestured to his collection of merchandise. There were the usual animals—dogs, rabbits, pandas, dinosaurs, etcetera. And cats, of course. There were also a few unusual creatures the girl couldn’t identify, such as a green orb-like creature with five limbs.

“I’m Amaris,” the girl said, managing a smile. “I like your name.”

“Most do,” Freddloi said, tilting his head to the side.

Amaris mimicked the motion with her own head, finding it difficult to read him, given the mask. Maybe that was the point?

“So, Amaris,” he continued, “what brings you to this feline-infested carnival?”

“Vacation,” Amaris said with a shrug.

“Are you enjoying your vacation?” Carefully, he placed a golden teddy bear down in front of her.

Amaris noticed that he purposefully hid the price tag out of her view, but she didn’t comment on it. “I guess? It’s been nice, and all, but…” She glanced back at her parents, still at the hot dog stand. Her dad waved at her, letting her know she was fine where she was. She waved back before returning to Freddloi. “Well, it’s not exactly the best thing ever.”

“Trouble with your parents?”

“You’d think that, but no.” Amaris smirked as she turned the golden teddy bear around. Yeesh, that’s more expensive than the tickets to get in here. “My parents are great. Mathematical artists, they call themselves. They just… get fixated on things sometimes.”

Freddloi crossed his arms, leaning on the counter of his stall, craning his ear toward her. “Oh? Then what is the issue?”

“Life is boring,” Amaris said, flicking the golden bear in the nose and knocking it over. “I’ve been on most of the rides already and they aren’t that different from other carnivals I’ve been to. Vacations are supposed to be exciting and new but really it’s just more of the same.” She shrugged, not exactly sure where she was going with this or why she was telling it to this random guy.

“So your problem is one of boredom.” He carefully sat the golden bear back up, patting it on the head as if it were his pet. “An issue becoming more common in this day and age. It seems that, with progress, the mystery of the world loses its charm.”

Amaris blinked. “…What?”

He waved a dismissive hand. “Never mind all that, young one. I suppose I shouldn’t expect everyone to understand.” He gestured at his wares. “Please, consider getting yourself a new friend. They do wonders to alleviate the inherent, ah, monotony of existence!”

Amaris was mildly surprised; most adults didn’t expect her to understand words like those. “I prefer friends that aren’t stuffed. They’re far more interesting.”

“But you can’t take live ones wherever you go!”

Amaris actually chuckled at the strange man’s little joke. In response, she lifted her left hand, letting a living, breathing, black snake out of her bag, the animal coiling around her arm like a rope. The reptile was only about twice as thick as one of her fingers, but even so, Amaris had found it was always shocking to have a snake’s flicking tongue inches from one’s face.

Freddloi jumped back. “What in the Eighth!?”

Amaris chuckled. “This is Pitch. Don’t worry, he’s harmless.” She used her free hand to scratch Pitch under his head. “I always have him with me. Most of my backpack is outfitted for him. He slithers in and out all day…”

Freddloi was silent for a few moments. Then, slowly, he leaned in. “Your parents are mathematical artists, you’re clearly of above-average intelligence, and you have a pet snake you take with you at all times.”

Amaris frowned. “Have you been taking notes?”

He ignored her question. “And yet, you think your life is boring?”

Amaris slowly took a step back. “Um…”

The jovial tone in his voice was gone, replaced with a venomous ire. “An ungrateful little brat…” With a swift motion, Freddloi grabbed the golden teddy bear and ripped it in half, sending stuffing flying across the countertop. Before Amaris knew what was happening, he’d thrown the bear’s head into her face.

It bounced harmlessly off—as a plushie should—sending sparks of gold over her face and into the air.

“May your life be interesting, Amaris,” Freddloi growled.

“Freaking… what’s wrong with you!?” Amaris didn’t wait for an answer—she backed away from the stand, more than a little afraid of this teddy bear massacring psycho. She glanced to her parents, relieved to see that they were still there, but apparently they hadn’t noticed her get beaned by a decapitated plushie. In fact, as she looked around, nobody seemed to have noticed the occurrence at all.

Amaris considered screaming and drawing attention to the whole thing so he would be fired, but at that point she noticed that the potion stand was completely gone. No sign of the woman, her elixirs, or even that there had been a stand there in the first place. This sudden absence unnerved Amaris enough that she decided she was done exploring for now.

Keeping one eye on Freddloi—who hadn’t stopped glaring at her this whole time—she cautiously walked away until she was back with her parents.

The tables had turned in the hot dog discussion while she was gone. The cat’s expression was still one of conflict between apathy and annoyance, but her parents had swapped roles. Her mom was clawing the counter’s edge with her fingernails while her dad seemed locked in a permanent facepalm.

Amaris decided enough was enough. “Mom? Dad? Can you just… pay for it so we can go do something else?” Still unnerved by her encounter, she rubbed her arm nervously.

Her mom must have picked up that something was wrong because she immediately dropped the discussion. Fixing Amaris with a sad smile, she wordlessly pulled out her credit card and gave it to the cat. Kneeling down, she patted Amaris on the head. “All right, for you, we’ll give in to the evils of capitalism.”

Amaris couldn’t help but chuckle. “Moooooom…”

Her dad lifted her up. “Amm’s right, we are on vacation. We can let them rip us off just this once.”

The cat twitched. “I can still hear you.”

“Just dish up that hot dog,” Amaris said. “You… really don’t want to get them going again.”

The cat lifted a paw in a half-shrug and set to work.

~~~

It took less than an hour for the interaction with Sir Freddloi to pass out of Amaris’ mind. Once again, the apparent monotony of the Cat-Ival drove itself into her mind. Cats, rides, food, more cats, more rides, more food. All the same, same, same. She was getting desperate for some kind of new experience. But none of the coasters or games felt like much of anything.

She was trying to hide her feelings, but she knew she was failing given how her parents kept glancing at her. They really were trying to give her the best time, going out of their way to ask her where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do. It made her feel a little bad that she didn’t feel excited about much of anything.

Have fun, she told herself. You can have fun. That is the entire point of the Cat-Ival. Have fun and they’ll be happy. She may have been a smart girl, but she lacked the wisdom to know the one way to ensure a terrible time was to try and force herself to have fun.

With this somewhat unfortunate mindset, she grasped hold of the first attraction she saw and put on a smile. “Look, the house of mirrors!”

The building in question was rather large for a simple house of mirrors. It had multiple stories, fancy chrome cat statues at the front, and apparently moving parts given the soft rumbling of an engine coming from inside.

Her parents, seeing Amaris light up, jumped on the opportunity like a couple of hyenas. They rushed to the house of mirrors as fast as they could, almost running over a passing cat in the process.

“Hold it!” a cat said, his white paw sticking out at about chest level. “The house of mirrors is not covered with the basic Cat-Ival ticket.”

Amaris’ dad clenched his jaw. “How much more for a ticket?”

“Fifty. Each.” The cat grinned.

“Now listen here y—“

His wife elbowed him. “She really wants to.”

Amaris felt her throat clench up. “Dad, no, you don’t have to—“

But it was too late. He’d already handed over the money; enough for one pass, which he handed to Amaris. “You have fun in there. We’ll be waiting out here at the exit. Take as long as you need—explore, have an adventure.”

Amaris could only smile nervously at this.

“We’ll be waiting right here,” her mom said, pointing at the exit door a few feet from the entrance door. “And then you can tell us all about it!”

Amaris looked at the pass in her hand. This is it, Amaris. Go in there. Have fun. You’re going to have fun and you’re not going to think it’s boring. It is a house of mirrors! There’s going to be things in there you’ve never seen before! She almost believed herself.

Quickly, she hugged her parents. “Thank you!” With what she hoped was an excited skip, she climbed a few steps and entered the twisting maze of mirrors.

She was mildly impressed with the design; she had no idea where the light was coming from, but she could see perfectly. Below and above, reflections of herself spread out to infinity, alternating the soles of her shoes with the inky sheen of her hair. Already, the mirrored walls were a lot more than just flat panes—they were beveled in, out, and some even swirled, creating a chaotic cascade of Amaris-like mutant forms in every direction.

Her grin became genuine. Yes, this will work. She held out a hand and began to trace her fingers over the beveled mirrors, watching as the entire universe around her responded to her motions.

Pitch slithered out of the backpack, resting on her neck.

“You like the mirrors too?” Amaris asked him. Being a snake, he didn’t respond beyond flicking out his tongue. “Yeah, it is cool.” She walked forward—bonking her head on the smooth mirror in front of her. With a joyous laugh, she turned to the left and walked down the actual path.

The next hall had a moving wall, giving Amaris an appreciation for how complex light could be. Fractal patterns appeared within the reflective sheen, and the slight tilt of the mirrors made it look like the room was spiraling off to infinity…

Of course, at this point, she registered that the mirrors weren’t perfect—none were, it was a physical impossibility. As the light reflected back and forth and back and forth, eventually the deep reflections became dim and greenish.

Amaris shrugged and moved on… to another hall with beveled mirrors. Granted, this one had bevels on the floor and ceiling too, but it was essentially the same. By the time she came to the end and climbed up a mirrored staircase, the smile plastered on her face looked more forced than legitimate.

Pitch licked her face.

“I… am having… fun.” She grit her teeth and continued on, forcing herself to look at every mirror, trace every beveled edge, and appreciate all the math that went into designing such a complicated structure of mirrors. Needless to say, she was ruining it for herself. Had she gone in without any need to have fun, she would have found it all delightful.

Now, she was so soured she started pushing on the mirrors around her a little harder than probably was wise. For her trouble, when she traced her finger across a divide between two mirror slabs, a rough edge cut right into her finger.

“Agh!” Amaris called out, pulling her hand back. Crimson blood poured out of the cut onto the reflective ground below. “Oh for the love of…”

Pitch slithered down her arm and started licking the wound.

“Yeah, yeah, I bet you find that delicious…” Amaris grumbled. “I need to stop this bleeding. If mom and dad see this they’ll yell at the cats for hours about safety violations or something equally dumb…” She rested her arm on a flat mirror wall while she used her free hand to reach into her backpack. In addition to Pitch’s accommodations, she knew there was a pack of bandages somewhere in there…

She heard a soft crack.

“Huh?” She glanced at the wall she was leaning on. It sounded like—

The support that held the mirror in place gave way and it fell into the wall, taking a shocked Amaris with it. The impact with the ground knocked the wind out of her, and the cloud of dust kicked up from the other side didn’t help her breathing any.

She sat up, coughing furiously. “P-pitch!?” she called out, the snake noticeably absent from her shoulders. A soft hiss from below let her know he was fine. She gently opened her hands and he slithered back onto her, soon resting around her neck once more.

With the dust clearing and her bearings returning to her, Amaris managed to stand up, coughing every few seconds. One mystery was solved—the destroyed wall revealed where the light was coming from. Shining from behind the mirrors, there were little white LEDs. Light could pass through the panes in one direction, but was reflected the other way. This was fascinating enough on its own, though the realization was quickly overshadowed by what was in the newly exposed area.

The space was the size of a large closet, and none of the walls were mirrors—instead, it was black panels with numerous supports holding it up. Most of the supports were wooden, and several were rotting. The one she’d broken had apparently been all but dust before she leaned on it, and her weight had finally disintegrated the poor thing.

Amaris’ initial thought was that the area was simply an empty space in the house of mirrors that none of the mazelike paths covered, so it had been left unfinished. However, the pedestal in the center of the room called that theory into doubt. She wasn’t sure what it held at first, since the only light came from the mirrored hall she’d just come from, but on closer inspection it revealed itself to her: an ornate handheld mirror with golden relief that was studded with brilliant white gemstones.

“Wow…” Amaris picked up the mirror in her hands without hesitation, finding it to be much heavier than it looked. Idly, she wondered if it was real gold. She hefted it in her hand and traced the edge of it. Until that moment, she had momentarily forgotten her bleeding finger, reminded only when she smeared the red fluid over the mirror. “No! Agh, how could I be so—“

She never finished, for the mirror flashed with a silvery light. A moment later, all the blood Amaris had smeared on the reflective surface was gone, as though it had been absorbed by the mirror itself.

Amaris blinked. “Uh…”

The mirror did nothing else. As far as she could tell, it had just cleaned itself.

“Interesting…” With a soft smirk crawling up her face, she turned around, intending to examine the mirror under better lighting conditions.

To her shock, there was someone standing there. At first, Amaris thought it was just a reflection coming from one of the many mirrors in the hall until she noticed that the girl held no mirror and was standing with her hands behind her back. It was Amaris—and yet, it was not.

“Woah…” Amaris said, letting her arms hang limp. Pitch let out a hiss.

The other Amaris waved awkwardly. “Uh… yeah. Woah.”

The two stared at each other in silence for several seconds.

“Sooo…” Amaris said, rocking back onto her heels. “You’re, what, my reflection?”

“I… think so?” the other Amaris said.

“That’s…”

“So cool!” they both shouted at once, and proceeded to high five and giggle like it was their birthday.

Amaris quickly held up the mirror. “A magic mirror… trapped behind a wall in a house of mirrors!”

Her reflection nodded. “Kind of weird, don’t you think? I mean, who hides a magic mirror in a funhouse? People come here all the time, not the best way to keep it hidden!”

“Very weird, but I’m not complaining!” Amaris held up the mirror so they could both look at it, creating reflections of both of them. “Wow, we’re identical...”

Pitch hissed, letting Amaris realize that he didn’t exist on the other Amaris, though the backpack did.

“I guess he doesn’t count,” the other Amaris said, holding out a finger to pet Pitch. “His blood is not your blood, or something.”

Pitch snapped at the reflection’s finger, biting down on her. She recoiled with a gasp. “Dumb freaking snake!” Pitch may not have been venomous, but his fangs were sharp enough to puncture skin. The duplicate’s blood ran down her finger and onto the ground below.

Amaris’ stared at her copy’s injury with wide eyes. “I… I’m so sorry, he’s usually such a good snake!” She glared at Pitch. “We’ve been through this, Pitch! We don’t bite people!”

Pitch let out a tense hiss.

“We’re not arguing about this…”

“You can’t argue with a snake,” the copy said, applying pressure to her finger with her other hand. “Just an animal.”

Amaris put her hands on her hips and let out a huff. “So what? Pitch is amazing.”

“Right. Whatever.” The reflection locked her hands behind her back. “Maybe he just doesn’t like seeing two of you.”

“I don’t see why. This is, like, the best thing ever!” Amaris beamed at her counterpart. “Think of all the things we could do with two of us! The pranks we could pull… and two brains are better than one! I bet we could figure out that weird integral dad left for us back home!”

“Sure is exciting, isn’t it?” The reflection fixed Amaris with a blank stare.

“Well, yeah!”

“Not boring in the slightest.” She turned her back to Amaris, taking a moment to trace the edge of a mirror wall with her finger. “It’s what you wanted, after all.”

Amaris paused, tilting her head. “You know, you’re right. This is what I wanted. “

“Yes, so dissatisfied with your life that you couldn’t even have fun at a carnival.” The reflection tapped her foot, as though she were impatient.

“I… what?” Amaris frowned. “Are you okay over there?”

“I’m only as okay as you are.” She flipped around, grinning so widely that it made Amaris uneasy. “You messed up, Amaris. Your parents got worried! Ca—“

“Oh, my parents!” Amaris gasped. “How are they going to deal with two of me!?”

The duplicate laughed. “They w—“

Amaris dropped her fake concern and kicked her doppelganger in the stomach, knocking her to the ground. Amaris had been prepared for this from the beginning—after all, blood absorbing mirror? That just screamed evil. Amaris had hoped it was just a pure duplicate, but it clearly wasn’t the case.

While the reflection was recovering from the shock of being kicked, Amaris took off at a run back the way she had come through the house of mirrors, already accessing her mental map of the place, working out the fastest escape route. She gripped the magic mirror tightly in her hand.

Pitch hissed in her ear.

“Yes, yes, you were right,” Amaris huffed. “But hey, this is exciting, right? On the run from an evil dopplega—“

The doppelganger in question stepped out of a mirror in front of her. Amaris attempted to skid to a stop, but the slick mirror floor was of no help. The doppelganger grabbed her by the shirt collar, bringing the two of them face to face.

The doppelganger’s grin remained. “You’re smarter than you look, but I’m afra—“

Amaris kicked upward as hard as she could. The doppelganger may have been a monster, but she still had Amaris’ body—the force of the impact was enough to make her lose her grip.

Scrambling, Amaris pushed her legs as hard as she could. Despite a few slippery first steps, she managed to get her footing and bolt. “Hah!” She allowed herself a confident smirk. “You can’t catch m—“

The doppelganger grabbed her by the backpack, stopping her flight in an instant. Instead of letting out a biting remark, the reflection only growled. With a shove, she thrust Amaris into the mirror in the floor like it was some kind of thick liquid.

With a panicked flail, Amaris grabbed hold of her counterpart’s collar, dragging her into the mirror as well.

“No!” The doppelganger shouted. “I’m not going back!” She planted her feet and resisted Amaris’ pull, all the while using a free hand to pry Amaris’ fingers off her one by one.

Amaris felt the strange, syrupy nature of the mirror pass her stomach. She could no longer feel her legs at all, as though they had been numbed with anesthetic. Soon, her arms would go under, and then her head, and she might not be able to keep hold any longer.

In desperation, she swung the magic mirror at the doppelganger.

She paled. “You idio—!“

The magic mirror shattered.

And so did the mirror Amaris was falling into. Suddenly, the feeling returned to her legs and feet—but now she was falling in utter darkness. Looking up, she saw her duplicate falling as well, and above her there was a white square of light quickly receding from view.

Amaris became aware of the painful pounding of her heart now that there was no noise from the struggle. It was deafening. Somewhere in her mind, she recognized that her heart was incapable of making a noise of that volume, and it was just her panic and adrenaline mixed with the absolute silence of her surroundings that made it seem as such. This did little to quell the feeling that there was a drum in her chest trying to break out through her ribcage.

She was fortunate the shock of falling and the intensity of her own heartbeat distracted her because it allowed her to land perfectly on the chrome slide below. Had she been angled a different way, she could have easily broken her neck. As it was, the gentle slope rose up to meet her and carried her down.

Contact with the slide shook her to her senses. Above, there was darkness, but below, there was a field of chrome covered in spikes, slides, and unusual geometric shapes that rose higher into the sky than any building Amaris had ever seen. Everything she saw on the journey down was perfectly clean and smooth, and looked like they could have been taken right out of a math textbook.

The incline of the slide gradually shifted until it was almost flat, depositing her on an expanse of chrome that served as the ground for this strange realm. It was so smooth there was only the slightest amount of friction, so she went sliding for several dozen meters on the expanse.

It was at this point that Amaris realized she had no reflection here. The chrome structures acted like she didn’t exist—only reflecting each other. Not her, and not the doppelganger sliding a short ways behind Amaris.

Amaris tensed up—she was in this alien realm, alone, with that… thing. She needed to get up and do something. She was moving slow enough now that she could get her feet under her, but that was about the extent of what she could do. Wobbling considerably, and with her arms extended, it took all her effort just to keep from falling over.

The doppelganger didn’t even bother getting up. She remained on her back, arms splayed, only lazily looking at Amaris as they slid along the chrome field. “You… idiot. You broke it. You broke everything.”

Amaris glanced at the magic mirror. It was still in her hand, but there were only a few shards of actual mirror in it now. The bare golden backing dominated its appearance.

“Now we’re both trapped here,” the doppelganger groaned. “Forever stuck in these pillars of chrome.”

“I’m… sure there’s a way out…” Amaris said.

“There isn’t.” The doppelganger audibly ground her teeth. “That mirror was it. Now it’s busted. And this prison… is eternal.”

“D-don’t talk like that,” Amaris stammered. “I’m sure if we work together we can put aside our differences an—“

“Work together!?” The doppelganger snorted. “You’re a naïve, foolish child.” She flopped over into a reclining position, fixing Amaris with a condescending expression. “The only reason I’m not flaying you open right now to satisfy my need for revenge is because it will be much more entertaining to watch you starve to death.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to get every ounce of entertainment out of you I can before you die horribly, Amaris.”

“W-why?” Amaris stammered.

“Because you were my one chance at getting out of this prison!” The doppelganger shouted with such intensity that Amaris could see the veins in her throat. “We could have swapped places and the rite would have been satisfied! I would have been free! But you stopped that, and you will pay for that.”

Amaris forced herself to swallow. “But wh-what if there is a way out…? Maybe we c—“

“I’ve always hated people like you,” the doppelganger said, finally spending the effort to rise to her feet. “Arrogant little morons who think they understand how life works…” She let out a bitter laugh. “Guess what? It’s not what you think it is! It’s cruel, brutal, violent, and will chew you up and spit you out.” She pointed an accusatory finger at Amaris. “How’s your boredom level now!?”

Amaris’ couldn’t say anything else. She wiped her eyes.

Something about seeing the tears twisted something within the doppelganger. “…Pathetic.”

Amaris made the attempt not to break down in tears—she knew this was a dangerous situation, that she needed to stay on her toes. But, as strong and plucky as she was, she was only a kid. Her composure fell and she started bawling. In the process, she lost her footing and fell painfully to the ground.

The doppelganger scowled. “Shut up.”

To her credit, Amaris did try. She tried to quiet herself and do as the monster standing across from her said. Her attempts, however, were futile.

“…I said shut up!” The doppelganger ripped off her reflection of Amaris’ backpack and slammed it into the ground, shattering much of the chrome below. “…Shut up or you die early!”

Amaris’ breath caught in her throat. She attempted to hold her breath, but her breathing was too ragged—too uncontrolled. All she could do was look up at her counterpart with red, panicked eyes.

“Die early it is.” The reflection picked up a shard of chrome off the ground, gripping it hard enough to draw blood from her hand. With a surprising burst of speed, she slid across the chrome plane like an ice skater, angling right for Amaris.

Amaris could only move in panic. She jumped up at just the right time to avoid the attack entirely, sheer fortune all that kept her from a stab through the stomach.

The doppelganger growled—she had to skate around in a wide arc to go back for another pass at Amaris. By this time, Amaris was already moving away—her instincts from ice skating on the lake back home taking over.

“Where are you running!?”

Amaris was not in any state to fully consider those words. All she knew was that she had to run. Everything depended on it. She slid forward, placing one foot on the ground at a time, skating through the endless chrome.

“There’s nothing here but you and me!” There was a crack in the doppelganger’s voice. “All this running does is give me exercise!”

Amaris looked around frantically for something she could do. But, in her state, all she could take note of were the chrome shapes zipping by and, of course, the creature that looked exactly like her in pursuit. The only differences between them being the busted magic mirror and the backpack.

The backpack. A spark went off in Amaris’ mind, giving her some control back. The doppelganger was gaining on her because she no longer had the backpack and weighed less. If Amaris dumped it—

She realized with horror that Pitch had taken refuge inside the backpack. If she discarded it, she would leave him with it.

I’m not abandoning him.

With newfound fervor and determination, she whirled around to face the doppelganger. She was still crying and more terrified than she had ever been, but her mind was her own again. As she slid backward, she focused her gaze on her copy.

“What are you going to do!?” the doppelganger shouted as she neared. “Fight me!?”

“S-something like that!” Amaris called, somehow managing an awkward smile in the process. This only made the doppelganger angrier.

With a twist of her waist, the beast hurled herself at Amaris, the chrome spike aimed for her heart.

Here goes… Amaris swung the magic mirror, hitting the chrome spike dead on. The spike easily thrust through the golden frame, but that wasn’t what Amaris had been concerned about. She’d just wanted to make sure the doppelganger’s blood touched the few remaining slivers of the reflective surface.

The mirror absorbed the doppelganger’s blood.

The doppelganger’s face twisted into one of confusion. “Wh… what? What will that do?”

“I-I don’t kn—“

Before Amaris could finish, the chrome beneath her gave out, becoming akin to syrup.

“No!” the doppelganger shouted as the chrome spike was torn out of her grip by the sudden motion. “No!” She tried to dive after Amaris—but Amaris was already through, and the floor became solid once more.

Amaris made out tears forming within the doppelganger’s eyes before losing sight of her. That haunted, agonized expression stuck in her mind as she fell through the darkness, the kind of face she wouldn’t forget for the rest of her life.

As she was still reeling from what had happened, Amaris fell out of a mirror onto a hard, wooden floor. The mirror itself was tall, the kind that was set up in a bedroom or dressing room. Given the sheer number of clothing racks around Amaris, it was probably the latter—though she didn’t care too much about this. All she cared about right now was that it wasn’t the chrome place.

With haggard breathing, she laid there, motionless. Her chest was pounding like a soldier’s march, and every breath felt like a relief. She couldn’t think, she couldn’t move, she just focused on calming herself down with what little she could scrape together for what felt like an eternity.

In time, however, she became more and more aware of herself, though it wasn’t until Pitch licked her face that she bothered to sit up and wipe her eyes, holding Pitch close. “We’re… alive.”

Pitch hissed in response, his tiny tongue flicking out to taste the air.

Carefully, Amaris picked up the magic mirror. There were no shards of the reflective surface left. Now it was just a hunk of gold and gemstones with a hole stabbed through it. Pretty, possibly valuable, but not magic. Amaris let out a sigh of relief—it would no longer be a problem.

“I… guess it worked backwards with her blood,” Amaris said more to herself than to Pitch. “And… no chrome spike. I guess that can’t exist here.”

She turned to stare at the upright mirror they had popped out of. She saw her reflection. It unnerved her, slightly, seeing the red around her eyes and the bloodshot veins around her irises, but she knew it was her. Really her.

And that was enough for her.

With that immediate issue sorted and out of the way, she was now able to process the fact that she was in some kind of dressing room and not a house of mirrors. She took in a sharp breath, realizing that she probably wasn’t supposed to be in here. Wherever here was.

Carefully, she stood up, finding the only exit to the room—a large oak door. With the intent of being as quiet as possible, she lifted up Pitch and placed him back in the backpack, putting the remnants of the magic mirror in there too. Moving on her tiptoes, she approached the door and put her ear to it, intending to listen for anyone on the other side.

The moment she did so, a key turned in the lock and the door flew open, revealing a fat man in an expensive-looking tuxedo. He looked just as shocked to see her as she was to see him.

He recovered first. “What are you doing in my closet, urchin!?”

“I came out of the mirror!” Her instinct to tell the direct truth in the face of questioning, while admirable, was perhaps not the best option at that juncture.

With a disgusting scowl, the man grabbed Amaris’ shoulders with his grubby hands. “You… little…”

“How about you just throw me out of the house and we can forget this ever happened?”

The man’s eyes narrowed. “I am not one to take lightly to trespassers…”

“Uh… Uh…” Amaris thought quickly. “Right! How about we call my parents and you can tell them all about how I was locked in this closet bawling my eyes out?”

The man frowned. Without a word, he lifted her up like she weighed nothing.

“I-is that, uh, a no?” Amaris stammered.

The man said nothing until he took her to the front door. He opened it and threw her out onto the pavement. “I better never see you again!” He slammed the door forcefully.

Amaris stood up; rubbing the scrape on her arm the pavement had given her. “Not planning on sticking around…” She walked down the driveway, past the rather fancy black car that presumably belonged to the fat man. Taking the sidewalk, she found herself shivering. It sure was chilly out…

With a frown, she looked up. It was still midday—midday in what should have been in the middle of the summer. Why was it so cold?

A sinking feeling began to form in her stomach. It became a twisted knot when she found a newspaper sitting in a driveway, wrapped in plastic. The address printed on the plastic called the city she was in Ambivalence.

She had no idea where that was.

You’re lost in a city you don’t know. What are you supposed to do? Amaris took in a deep breath and continued walking, looking for someone who looked approachable. Her parents had warned her about strangers, so she made sure to be careful with who she approached. The first man she saw wore a leather jacket and had massive muscles. She made sure to steer clear of him. When she came across a woman in a glittering and gaudy red dress, she decided much the same—rich people were often the craziest.

However, eventually, she entered an area of town that wasn’t populated by rich people in fancy houses but was instead a more traditional suburb. People looked more approachable here, and there were even a few kids playing ball along the green lawns. But she wanted to be sure. Someone who would help a child in need and know not to ask too many questions.

At long last, she found an old woman sitting in a rocking chair out on her porch, knitting away while humming a calming tune. Taking a deep breath, Amaris marched up to her.

“Um, excuse me, could you direct me to the police station?”

~~~

The old woman had offered to drive her, but Amaris wasn’t exactly keen on trusting strangers right then—even if they were seemingly nice old ladies. The woman seemed to understand, so she had given Amaris the directions and told her to be careful.

Amaris was. She made eye contact with no one and kept herself in open, easily visible spaces the whole time. After about twenty minutes of walking across sidewalks and various crosswalks, she arrived at the police station without incident.

She walked up to the counter where a large black man sat, reclining in his chair. Piled up on his desk were several boxes of donuts, all with bows on them, and a few with “Happy Birthday!” scribbled on the sides. None of the boxes had been touched.

“What can I do for you?” the officer asked, leaning over the counter to get a good look at her.

“Um, hi.” Amaris swallowed. “I’m Amaris Kelvin. My parents are Dimitri Kelvin and Anastasia Kelvin. I… don’t know where I am or how I got here. Can you help?”

The cop’s expression changed from one of laziness to one of determination. “I will do everything I can.” He turned to his computer, bringing up a database. “Address?”

“Four-Two-One-Nine West Adderstone Avenue, Nuk, Yeshalo. But we were visiting the Cat-Ival in Junetown.”

The officer frowned. “That’s… an out-of-country address. I won’t be able to look that up easily.”

Amaris blinked. “Out-of-country!? How did I get out-of-country?”

“That is a very good question…” He scratched his chin. “This might take a while…” He pulled a donut box off the stack and handed it to her. “Here, have this. Go sit in one of the chairs over there, I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

Amaris nodded, taking the box. “Thank you.” She sat down and pulled out a maple bar, biting into it. She made sure to give a crumb to Pitch as he poked his head out of her backpack.

She watched the officer as he entered query after query into the computer. After that, he pulled out a cell phone and started calling people, asking for more records from other places. Amaris grew especially worried when she overheard him say, “What do you mean, it doesn’t exist?”

Amaris looked down at the box of donuts. She bit her lip.

“How am I going to get home…?”

She looked out the window at the cold day outside. The wind blew through the trees, offering her no help in her plight.

The longer the officer tried to find her home and her parents, the more Amaris got the unpleasant sense that life was never going to be boring again.