“The best way to start unravelling a situation like this is to run tests.” Fold announced, guiding me to an ornate mirror by the shoulders, “Now, peer into the future, will you? Or the past. Whichever suits your prophetic eyes.”
I rolled my eyes, “That’s not how it works.”
“Do you know how it works?”
“Well, I know that’s not it.”
“Just give it a shot, will you?” He pressed, “Science is reliant on events that can be recreated. If we can properly observe the phenomenon, then we’ll have something to work off.”
I didn’t really believe him, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I peered into the smudged surface of the mirror, meeting my own gaze in the reflection. If I tilted my head just right, sometimes the light would pass into the world of hallways behind it, giving me a faint look inside it. Nothing definitive. Just murky depths.
I tried to force a vision. Tried to remember the sensation of passive observation that overtook me with every episode. But nothing happened. My eyes bored a hole into my head, and even as I tried to avoid my own gaze, they continued to follow me. Haunting me with their bored constancy.
For someone who spends so much time around mirrors, I found that I despised my own reflection.
“This isn’t working.” I sighed, taking a step back, “Something’s wrong. I can’t figure it out.”
“That’s okay.” Fold assured me, “Let’s move onto something else. Think we can begin the search for this mud-rain place you mentioned finding both bodies near?”
“I can try.” I agreed, “But I’m not sure where I’ll pop out, so stay ready for a call, will you?”
“For you, I won’t even leave the apartment.” Fold agreed benevolently, as if he even left his home for any reason other than a field call.
I let him play the fool, instead moving towards the full-body transportation mirror. I tapped my fingers along its smooth wooden frame as parting salute, “And for God’s sake, man, shut the blinds while I’m gone.”
He scoffed incredulously, but moved to follow my request as I swept through the reflective veil. Behind me, the plastic panels slid down to bar any intruders.
Instead of setting off to look for the muddy brown rain-torn landscape, my first stop was the hospital. Specifically, the room where Dave was being kept. I had been mentally sketching the path from Fold’s study mirror and the mirror on the wall of Dave’s hospital room that I could easily make the trip. Every bend and slope and step was engraved in my mind, to the point where I wasn’t sure whether I had remembered the path correctly, or whether the hallways were rearranging themselves to my liking.
Was that self-centered of me to think? Well, that was simply an observation, wrought from years and years of walking through these ever-changing pathways, which somehow never seemed any different from one another. They always felt like they could hear my thoughts, so it wasn’t weird to think about.
When I stepped through the mirror, a nurse was leaning over Dave’s bed to arrange the tubes connected to his face. She jumped in shock when she caught sight of my, nearly yanking the heart monitor off Dave’s wrist. A sharp whine filled the air.
“What are you doing here?” She demanded angrily, “I’ll call security otherwise.”
“He’s my friend.” I replied, drinking in the view of Dave lying on the bed. Unconscious, but very thankfully alive.
“Sure…” The nurse nodded, clearly not believing me, “I will still have to ask you to leave. Visitors only allowed through the physical entrance.”
I nodded, a knot building up in my throat.
“Well, if you’re going to be like that, then you should take the mirror out.” I added, “Otherwise you’re just asking him to die.” And then I stomped back into the hallways.
From there, I began the search for the place where I had found Dave. The blood pools were all gone, according to Riley’s inside information, so all I had to lead me now were the surroundings and the half-remembered smears of muddy rain and flooded landscape.
I remember specifically the background looked exactly the same between each incident. But did that mean that the area was locked in constant rain? Or that the deaths only happened when it began raining in that area? There were only two instances of this happening, but that was enough time for me to sit up and take notice.
I paced for hours, but not a glimpse of that distinctive muddy world caught my eye. There was nothing there I could see. Maybe the world had disappeared completely once the monster had no use for it.
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When Henry Maximillian was eighteen years old, he took up a summer job. He had always been geared towards the detective route of things, and some connections in his family had gotten him involved with spare jobs in local community services.
He ended up picking up animal control. Walking, feeding, and cleaning future specially trained dogs that were still in training.
There were police dogs, guard dogs, and service dogs under his care. He needed to keep them all organized and serious on every walk and keep track of which dogs were having trouble staying focused during outside excursions.
One group of dogs were a bit different from his other wards. He had them only one day a week, on Fridays, and picked them up from the animal center, walked them around the cul-de-sac for two hours, and then circled over to a public research facility where the dogs were regularly housed.
He didn’t know what they were there for. Not then, anyway.
But a year later, Henry was called into that facility to help control the dogs. That was when he learned the truth.
“Bring them here, kid.” A man in a lab coat directed him through large winding hallways inside the facility. There were mirrors all over the walls, on the ceiling, even the floor. Henry’s reflection stared back at him from every angle as he walked through, the dogs’ nails clicked sharply on the floor as they walked along with him.
“Can I ask what’s with the mirrors or is it restricted?” He asked, feeling another chill travel up his spine.
“We’re running tests on having animals travel into the mirror realm.” The doctor volunteered easily, “Training police dogs to dive in and pursue criminals.”
Ohhh, that made a lot more sense than all the sinister plans he’d been coming up with in his head. A lot more innocent, too. He’d heard about reflection-hopping before. It was all over media, even though actual reflection hopping was nowhere to be seen in his town.
“And it’s… safe?” He asked. There was something about animals that made it impossible for them to invade the mirrors, right? He didn’t know all the details, except for that werewolf reflection-hopping show he’d been obsessed with for years.
“Of course!” The scientist agreed, “We’ve been carefully calibrating an animal-safe set of reflection-hopping charms, and we’re getting close.”
“Seriously?” Henry blinked, “I didn’t think you’d get that far yet.”
The scientist leaned his head back to bark out a laugh, “Innovation waits for no man.” He replied, “Its moving faster than the media can keep up!”
“How fast?”
“Now that’s a restricted question.” The scientist joked, “You’ll have to join the project for real if you want to know more.”
Henry fidgeted with the multi-leash carabiner.
“No, I want to be a detective.” He replied, “Or into forensics, at least.”
The grizzled scientist sighed, “All the promising ones have dreams like that.” He lamented, “You’ll regret it one day, when our specially trained animals become the newest innovation in the police industry.”
Fold didn’t have anything to say that. It was an interesting concept, for certain, but that wasn’t something that struck joy in him. He was just content with watching from the sidelines as all these new tricks were wheeled out for the world to admire.
After summer, he moved on to college. Finally began training for his career of train for real. But he still kept an eye on the magazines and newspapers, eager to see the new rollout of reflection-hopping animals.
Years passed as he waited. They never came. It was endlessly disappointing.
Later, when he started doing consultancies for the police, he found that they never existed. Instead, there was the gateway. A secret project considered to be even more impossible than animals getting through the mirror. It shook him to his very core.
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There was only one proper reflection I could find with rain in it. It showed the view directly outside a museum however, so it couldn’t be the place I had spotted.
No, the more concerning thing I had stumbled over was the vision. The third time this week. It was getting more and more frequent with every passing day. I should maybe contact a psychiatrist.
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But also, wasn’t Henry Maximillian Fold’s real name?
I should ask him about that, see if the details lined up. I knew for sure that he had never told me any of these things before, and while we were having trouble verifying exactly what Dave’s background was, he would easily be able to check out anything I had seen about him. It was an easy fix!
“Any luck?” Fold asked as I sauntered into his office, snapping the blinds shut behind me.
“Not really.” I shook my head, pouring some of his instant coffee sachets into a cup.
“Yeah, wasn’t expecting anything on the first day.” He admitted, “But at least you know the places to avoid now?”
“The place can’t be graphed.” I reminded him, “Maps are impossible, and places are hard to not double over.”
“Why do we think this system is so efficient, again?” He complained tiredly. I took a breath and bit the bullet.
“Not to make this a pattern every time I come back emptyhanded, but I managed something else.” He perked up immediately, and I continued, “Another vision. From the past, this time.”
“Dave’s again?” Fold asked.
“Yours, actually.”
He raised his eyebrows, “Oh? What was the memory?”
“You were eighteen.” I explained, casting my mind out to think it over, “And then nineteen, eventually. Walking dogs over the summers for specialized research facilities?”
“I did, actually.” He confirmed easily, an excited gleam in his eyes, “But never told you about this. So that’s already giving these visions of yours some validity. Was it just the dog walking? Because I can think of some things connected to that job, but I don’t want to guide you along.”
I hesitated for a second, looking him in the eye, “They were training dogs to go through it. Scientists said that they were incredibly close. But then they just dropped the project like a hot stone.”
He snapped his fingers in delight, “Yes! That’s exactly it! You understand what this means, right?”
Fold looked into my eyes so excitedly that I almost felt bad when I shook my head. He sagged a little, but continued nevertheless, “This means that these visions are deliberate! Someone wants you to see all these things.”
“About a failed program with some police dogs?” I asked, “Everyone’s heard of the stories of those, you know? I’m not surprised to hear that they actually were real. They just didn’t work. No need for us to start digging up old cases like that.”
“Well, did you ever consider how they failed?” Fold pressed, stubborn as a mule.
I repressed a shudder, my mind immediately constructing visions of mutilated doggy bodies. Those poor things, they didn’t deserve an end like that.
“Considering it makes me sick, so I’m not going to.”
“Yes, well, your nausea is a good clue as to where we should be heading towards, so maybe we do need to stick our noses into this matter.” He decided, not even taking my opinions into account. There was no making him stop now.
“But what does it mean?” I asked, “If the visions are being chosen deliberately, the others were meant to convey some sort of message, too. So, what was it?”
Fold nodded and pulled out another one of his spiral-bound wide-lined notebooks and a charcoal pencil. His favorite medium of writing.
“Let’s take it from the top, shall we?” He asked, “Three visions. Two from the past, one from the future. The first was a biographical account for Dave Mitchells. The second a vision of you running through the hallways. This one was much more immersive. Presented to you in first person, even as you looked into the mirror. And the third was this one. A clue that we desperately needed. What’s the connection?”
I sat down in the chair across from him, thinking it over, “They were both warnings.” I realized. It was so obvious!
“What makes you think that?” He asked.
“The first one, it was picking out the parts that were important to Dave.” I explained, “Gave me a look into his thought process and motivations. Connected us in a way that we hadn’t been able to in a few sparse days. The idea was to spur me into protecting him. By reminding me of his vulnerabilities or something, I don’t know. But I- I didn’t.”
I had failed. A mysterious and powerful character had reached out to me to protect this man, and I had failed. Didn’t even try, for the matter. Completely missed the signs.
“And the second?” Fold prompted.
“Are you stupid?” I snapped, the stress of the situation already creeping up on me, “A glimpse into the future where I’m being chased by a monster? How is that not a warning?!”
“Sorry.” He wiped a hand down his face, “This case is starting to wear away at my common sense.”
“I’ll say.” I snorted, elbowing him in a desperate bid to cut the tension hanging low in the room.
“So, there’s a sentient being behind the visions.” He announced, “Do you think we should start trying to find it?”
“No! Monster, remember?” I told him, “You need to stop getting sidetracked or we won’t solve any investigation.”
“I’m trying my best, alright?” He pouted like a child, “You need to understand this whole situation is a feeding ground for questions and mysteries that are all begging to be solved and aired out to the world.”
“Methinks you’re just trying to get money from all the newspapers begging for the scoop.” A charming and airy voice laughed. Riley strode inside, hanging up her pink cashmere sweater on the coat hanger.
“Wait, you can do that?” I asked.
Fold shrunk in on himself, “Maybe.”
Riley snorted, “Read: that’s where he’s planning on recouping all the money he’s losing on this case.”
“Listen, we all have bills to pay and food to eat.” Fold defended himself with no small amount of shame, “You gonna fault me for that?”
I didn’t reply, staring at him until he started having the good sense to be concerned, “I want a cut of the profits.” I told him, once the nervous sweats had started.
“There isn’t going to be that much of a profit-!” He gave up before he even finished the sentence, “…Fine.”
“No cut for the good spy?” Riley egged him on.
“You’re a nepo baby, so you don’t need a cut.” He told her primly.
“I’m the one carrying the heavy duty scoop you need, you know?” Riley rolled her eyes, “At least try to suck up to me a little bit or I’m going to think I’m redundant.”
“Of course you’re not!” Fold scrambled to assure her, “There’s a scoop? You got something for us?”
Riley grabbed another chair and dragged it to the desk with one hand, all of her attention fixed on riffling through her purse. Finally, she threw down a crumpled fax report for internal police updates. The handwriting was cramped, messy, and had a lot of abbreviations and shorthand thrown into it. Fold had no trouble parsing through it, though, with his years of police experience.
“Sam got this while we were having lunch.” Riley explained, “They didn’t say what it meant, but got all panicky and tightlipped, and they’re only like that when it’s something to do with the mirror monster case. So I thought I’d grab it on my way out.”
“And you’re right.” Fold agreed, “This is a report of another body. Fully dead by the time it happened. Murdered outside of the hallways, but the corpse was stuck in stasis on the inside. Matches the MO of the killers, so it’s all systems go. They’re planning on skipping regular protocol and begin the search from the outside.”
Fold cursed, pushing himself upright, “This isn’t good. We don’t have any time to sneak around and gather any clues the beast left behind. Everything’s going to land in their evidence box to nowhere!”
“Stop panicking, Fold, I’m sure they keep the evidence.” I tried to assure him, “It’d be really irresponsible if they didn’t, you know?”
“It doesn’t really matter whether they keep it or not, Maddy, it’s more that we won’t be able to get it.” Riley explained, chewing on an extended fingernail in anxiety, “I’ve been playing Sam like a damn fiddle, but even they’re going to draw the line at volunteering information as specific as that.”
“But what can we do?”
“Nothing.” Fold ran a hand through his hair, “It’s a complete dead end.”
I stood up sharply, “Not if I catch up to them.” I pointed out, rushing over to the blind covered mirrors and whipping them open inelegantly. I could make it if I rushed. Spy on them. Maybe we’d even end up at the same rain-filled mud land I had seen around all the other victims.
The hallways twisted and slanted, and I knew that I was being guided straight towards the spot where the body was, the halls all coming to life in response to my desperation. There was no reason for me to come to this conclusion, but I could feel it in my bones.
Electricity sparked through the air. A dull feeling stirred in my gut. Something was about to go horribly wrong, and I knew it. So did the hallways. Or whoever was communicating through them to me.
The hallway I was in began to shrink. This was not an unusual thing to happen, so when it brushed the top of my head, I simply ducked my head down. That soon progressed to having to fully crouch down, and then had to begin crawling along on my knees.
A bright opening came up a few minutes after I had to resort to that. Except it didn’t lead to a corridor. It just cut off midair, several tens of feet above the unforgivingly hard ground. And the squad of police all over the area below. The walls around them really were the exact same medley of greenish brown muddy rain that I had seen around both Minto and Dave.
I nearly crawled my way directly into the bloodied crime scene, but I managed to back away at the right time, tucking myself into the tiny alcove I had found, watching and waiting just out of sight.
There were very few people there, compared to the closeknit fleets that had gone to each crime scene inside the hallways. Barely ten people, if I had to guess. They were more relaxed, joking around and slacking off. Probably had gotten tired of all the theatrics at this point.
The future vision lingered in my mind. Complacency was followed by danger.
A few of them wandered back towards the gateway, yet still I watched, taking note of the police as they wandered away in groups and trios. The numbers dwindled down. First into seven, then five, then three.
And then, finally, there were only two.
They didn’t seem to consider this situation to be alien at all, continuing to snap pictures and measure the silhouette of the fallen corpse. But I could have cut through the tension with a knife. Tension only I could feel. Me and the blurry inside of the tunnel, which was swirling in distress and had turned an ugly purple color. And it takes a lot to make purple look ugly, in my opinion.
Still, they talked below her. Made merry. There was a police dog accompanying them, I could hear it whining and pattering its paws. I didn’t want the poor thing to go through whatever these people were about to.
I didn’t want me to go through whatever these people were about to go through.
But I knew it was going to come eventually. I could run and try to avoid it, but something kept me rooted to the spot. Not the mysterious mirror person, but something intrinsic to me. A curiosity that was brewing inside.
For a few minutes, I thought nothing would happen. That it would all really be alright.
Then the pattering of the police dog’s paws stopped. And then it began howling. Loud, sharp, breaking the quiet of the constantly muffled hallways and tearing its sanctity to shreds.
At least the police seemed to notice that this was a bad thing, too. I could hear one of them cursing under his breath and moving to cover the dog’s mouth.
But the howls only got louder and louder, echoing more and more through the never-ending hallways until it reached a crescendo that sounded more monster than dog.
And then, there was silence. The howls just stopped. Cut off mid-breath by a vicious tug on the leash.
I didn’t see what had happened, cowering away in my tiny alcove. My eyes had been trained on the police officers for so long yet when the moment came for it, the noise had reached such a pitch as to make my eyes water. The sound worked its way into my brain, deafening every thought I had. It was too loud, too bright, and too much was happening all at the same time.
My eyes squeezed shut, desperate to turn off at least one source of distress. It was only for a few, brief seconds, but in that time, the howling had already been wiped out.
I had missed the actual monster.
There wasn’t any extra noise to tip me off about what the monster could be. No sounds of feet or paws or hooves. Nothing hissed or crunched or snarled. Neither of the police officers even screamed in horror. One second, the dog was howling. And then it stopped. Because the dog was gone. Whisked away by the killing creature of the hallways.
It left behind the policemen, at least. But they weren’t alive. They were both sprawled over, dead, and covered with bitemarks. At least nothing was bitten off, otherwise I would’ve thrown up for the third time in this increasingly terrifying week.
A hysterical part of my brain couldn’t help but notice that one of them was posed perfectly as to fit inside the silhouette of the corpse that had been painted onto the ground.
I began walking backwards through the discrete tunnel I had found myself in. If the monster was still watching and hadn’t found me yet, I wasn’t going to make myself anymore obvious than I had already been.
After all, I had figured out its game. I knew exactly what it was, or at least I had a pretty good hypothesis in place. All I needed to do was get this information to Fold, and its game would come crashing down.