Silver streaked walls stretched on farther than the eye could see, farther than the longest road and ending past the glowing, white line where the sky met earth. Dark streaks extended up from the horizon and curled over their heads with broken dots sprayed across its expanse. Odd, shard-shaped stars shining erratic colors red, blue and white and changing with every stuttering step he took. It was dark now, yet his human eyes could very well see, walls of mirrors walled them off but he could yet feel a light breeze through them. He sniffed the air hesitantly, nothing ‘cept a sickly sweet tang which clawed a disgusted retch out his throat. His eyes shot to her corpse-like gaze, sinewy fingers tightened round her arm like a vice till he could see red slush pooling under his grip.

“What trick is this?”

He whispered gently, a tight smile cutting into his cheeks. No one liked his smile, good.

The creature’s eyes widened and she blubbered incoherently, thrashing in his steel-like grip. Her head darted ever direction, exposing a crisp neck like ivory. A heavy lock of red hair slapped him across the face and a wicked smile flit briefly across her alluring, liver lips. Note to any enterprising hoonter, Fairies couldn’t hold an act for shite. He caught their reflection in the mirror. A man, thin as a rail and tall as the sky, with a face twisted like an angry lion. One hand twisted a struggling beauty’s arm till her skin blot red and panicked eyes prickled with tears like dewdrop. Moonlight dusted her visage with a gentle glow. She seemed endlessly delicate, and he, ever a beast.

Bullshit.

His eyes darted around them, searching for any sign or oddity he might use and he dragged his feet forward despite how heavy they felt. The creature in his grasp refused to stop squirming. He took exception to that.

“Where are they?”

His only response was an energetic cackle, like a teenager being told a joke entirely too funny. Her shoulders jumped and teeth sparkled in an open mouthed grin.

Strike two, out.

A fist bashed her across the face. She fell limp for a moment before swinging her neck upwards, fixing him with a pair of hateful red eyes. The thick rubber knuckle of his glove tore a stunning red line across her cheek. ‘Whooo, I’m rusty,’ the thought bounced in his brain, back in the day he could land dead on, three neat circles of perfect pink. Rosy pink to purple, rising slow like bread dough. Shame, he got so few opportunities these days. Ebony skin just wasn’t the same.

“Well?”

Her cheek ballooned on one side, his left eye twitched “no”, fist met face again and squashed the spit down her spasming throat. Been there, done that. Not again. Who knew what disease her kind had on them, best not take any chances.

Strangely enough, the porcelain-skinned femme seemed no worse for wear despite his rather sophisticated persuasive skills. Possible that fairies don’t feel pain as humans do? Maybe typing? He shelved that thought for later and trudged onwards into the endless corridor.

The fairy flinched and shrunk in on herself every time he jostled her closer to the reflective walls.

Odd.

He spun the fairy sideways, pressing his forearm on top her elbow. She roughly wrung her body towards him but his boot swept her ankles out from under her, she flew face-first into the dust with a hearty ‘whump!’. His foot found a comfortable place on the back of her head.

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“AAR-Hg”

Ah the sound of sand eating, ever pleasant. Wait… sand?

Indeed, whitish silvery sand covered every corner of the floor, extending to infinity and as he rubbed his toes in, infinitely deep. Worrisome. He should’ve observed from the get-go. He hated playing host, hostages were annoyingly distracting. ‘Please, I have a family, hic hic’, yes, that’s why you’re here. ‘Please let me go, I won’t tell anyone,’ defeats the purpose of bringing you here, doesn’t it? Regardless, he had more important things to do.

The mirror walls were the first oddity. No dust at all and a perfectly reflective silver. Its sheen alternated colors depending on the angle, another oddity. The third oddity was most worrisome.

A pile of sand marred the reflection of his outstretched calf. Blot the reflection, just in case. He grew up reading stolen R.L. Stein books from the town library. Was it really staling if no one used the building?

The sand stuck to the mirror, almost all of it. Otherwise, nothing of note.

The sky. Nothing, just large black stripes with blurry blue lies interspaced between them. The black stripes were dotted with stars, as he’d observed prior. He focused his vision to them… they seemed… close? Yes, close. He estimated a few hundred feet at most. Comparing the night sky made it obvious, this place was small, much, much smaller. The ‘stars’ were too large and light too close. Possibility: he was in a complex of sorts. Tall, but still finite. Good.

He glanced back at the wall he’d defaced with sand. Sand was not there anymore.

Worrisome.

He kicked more sand.

Waited.

Waited.

Slapped the audacious fairy till she hung limp.

Waited.

Nothing happened.

He blinked.

.

.

.

The sand was gone

Conclusion: He was in an Euclidean complex with morphing topology. Danger level, extremely high.

More information required.

No matter.

He was lucky to have a more than willing source within spitting distance.

He applied gentle pressure on her elbow, hovering dainty pink fingers mere millimeters from the reflective surface.

“Well?” his voice was blank, as usual. His brothers were better at this ‘interrogation‘, they put feeling into it. They could scare someone with a shout. Him? He just didn’t have it in him.

His boot ground her muffled cries into the sand.

“Well?”

Did fairies need to breathe? This one had a nose, but the book said they were natural shapeshifters, possibly mimicking the most valuable prey. He’d find out.

The pressure abated enough for her to twist her head sideways and she screamed in an illegible language, “^** &*^*-”

He immediately stomped her head in the sand, “I’ve heard you speak English, talk or I’ll see exactly why these walls scare you.”

“NO-no-Please I’m sorry I won- please I-”

PAP

A sharp slap echoed off the walls. Her cheek resembled a soft, pink ball with a red streak slashed across the middle. A breathtaking visage. He reminded himself to turn back the violence. Too much and it might get used to the pain. Moderation is king in all things, except success.

“I-I don’t know, please I swear, I don’t know wh-”

He raised a gloved hand in warning. “You claim to have trapped five people, yourself and four enemies, in a place you’ve never been before?”

Her knife-ear twitched, a tell.

“You’ve been here before,”

“No! I-”

“Can’t say I didn’t try,”

He shoved her index finger into the wall. Silver melted around her fingers and engulfed it like slimy, silvery sludge.

“ARRRH HARAAAAA AHHHHHHHHHHH! STOP-pL- STO-AAAHAH AAAA-”

She let out a long, ear-piercing scream. The sound pressed into his eardrums with a constant, uncomfortable pressure. Beautiful cadence to It, could pass for a falsetto if one squinted hard enough.

“-AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-!”

The lungs on this creature.

Must not need to breathe.

He slowly withdrew her finger from the wall. A small stump came out with a wet ‘pop!’ He found no finger, just a bright pink fleshy nub. The line between skin and muscle tissue was smudged to a mushy pink. Similar to chemical burns.

The fairy seemed to have exhausted its lungs. Its eyes were pried open wide as a football, glossy and shooting every which way. Her chest heaved short, hacking breaths and an erratic tremble possessed her form.

Conclusive to acid attack victims.

He caught movement in the corner of his eye, a small hole in the wall where he’d pried stuck her finger in, an even smaller bone sinking into it. An almost inaudible crrk-crk-crrk like when his brothers cracked open chicken bones to eat the marrow.

In no time at all, he was staring at a perfectly flawless mirror.

"Odd," he mumbled.

Mirrors can’t eat people.