Chapter One

The cardboard box sat in the mover’s van, and though I’d tried to move it. I couldn’t. Now, I stood over it defeated, panting and sweating. This move had been the worst. I mean, what move wasn’t? None of them had ever gone to plan, but this one… well, I’d three flights of stairs and the smallest doorway in the world to get this monstrosity through. What on Earth had I got in it? I didn’t even remember packing this one…. Oh yeah, this one, this was over ten years old. One I’d never unpacked from moving out of my parents.

“Come on, Kade, the movers want to get the van back!” Alli called from the top of the first set of stairs.

I rolled my sleeves up, ready to tackle it once again. This box was not going to win.

Three.

Two.

One!

With a heave, it was in the air, and I was staggering up the pathway to our new apartment block.

Just three flights. Just three!

I could do this. Alli ran up ahead of me, fresh as a daisy, all full of beans. No wonder she hadn’t been carrying boxes up!

“Don’t you dare drop that,” she ordered.

Right now, I wanted to launch it into space.

One.

Two.

Three.

My arms screamed at me. Nothing prepared me for this, no matter how much I was lifting in the gym. Just nothing.

Alli stood in the main living room, hand on her hips, as I struggled with the huge box. She then turned to pay the movers. I mean, they’d done their job. They deserved the pay. They’d moved almost everything in.

This box. This was mine, even if the movers had offered.

Casually pretending my arms weren’t about to give way and my back wouldn’t snap in two, I dodged the other boxes and bags and deftly got the box into the spare bedroom.

There I sank into a crouch and set it down with a light thud. Nothing in there was ever going to break. It had been wrapped up for a decade.

My heart raced, and I collapsed, finally done.

It wasn’t long before the door slammed shut, and I could hear Alli moving around. When I looked up, she stood in the doorway, hand on her hip, her smile so wide no one would miss it. “We did it,” she squealed.

“We did,” I replied, pushing myself up to go to her.

Alli bounced into the room and jumped up into my arms. Kinda the last thing they needed right now. But she was tiny.

“Our own place,” she whispered, kissing my neck, then me.

I let her joy swallow me whole. I’d never dreamed in a million years we’d get this place. But no one else had bid on it. Now it was ours. The top floor of the old Bakwatt Hotelier. Now some of the most luxurious apartments in the town.

I let Alli slip from my grip without suddenly dropping her, and she took off like a whir into the living space. “It’s just so beautiful.”

It really was. Everything about this place. Felt like home.

Two bedrooms, ensuite, luxury kitchen, living room, offices, and…

Allie flung the patio door open.

Somewhere to sit as the sun set in the distance.

This was perfect.

The breeze from outside cooled the sweat on my skin. I moved behind Alli and wrapped my arms around her to see what lay beyond.

Rolling hills, the sea in the distance.

Alli let out a long sigh, and I kissed the side of her face.

“You stink,” she said and laughed as she pushed me away.

“So, would you shift a hundred boxes up those stairs?”

“Worth it, though, yeah?”

“Yes,” I dragged her back to me.

“Go shower,” she said. The box is already in there; it should have everything you need. I’ll unpack the dishes and order some takeaway.”

On cue, my stomach growled. “Wonderful,” I said. “There’s a bottle of wine by the door too. Off one of the neighbors.”

I could have stared out here all night and not showered, but Alli moved away and pointed at the door. “Go!”

The master bedroom’s ensuite was the size of my old apartment in Grotty Town. White and blue marble and… fuck. I stopped dead in the doorway.

The largest bathroom mirror I’d ever seen.

My foot caught the bathroom box, and I almost stumbled backward. Quickly I leaned down, opened it, and pulled out a towel. That would do for now.

I closed my eyes and approached the mirror, deftly hanging the towel over it. I could shower and not worry, and I didn’t. I’d get it removed or painted. But it was not staying, that was for sure.

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The water was hot, and the power to the head jettisoned all my aches away. The idea was to eliminate my stink, but the relief on tired muscles was better.

Movement caught my eye, and I saw Alli, hand on hip, staring at the towered mirror through the steam. I watched her shake her head, and then she was gone.

But by the time I was done, I heard the doorbell go, and Alli’s soft voice answered it.

Dinner was here.

I, however, had no clean clothes and only that towel…

I drip-dried a little, staring at it, knowing what was beneath it.

Sucking in a breath, I grabbed it, turned around, and stomped out. I’d deal with it tomorrow. Tonight, was for us.

***

“You really want to blindfold me?” I said as Alli stood by the driver’s door, bandanna in hand.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I didn’t,” she protested.

It had been two weeks since we’d moved into our new place. Now it looked perfect, and so did Alli. Sundress, freshly washed hair that shone in the waning light. No one could resist.

“Sure,” I said. “Go for it, but you better hope this is worth it.”

Alli giggled, that incredible tinkling sound I could never get enough of. “I promise,” she made me bend down slightly so she could tie it. It wasn’t totally dark enough. But it made seeing anything impossible.

“We’re not going far, right?”

Alli helped me into the passenger side of her car. The heat here was just awful, so she started the engine immediately and walked the air con on full. It blew out hot air, and soon I was sweating again.

“Not far, no.”

The gears crunched as she popped it in reverse. I’d have to get that looked at. Seemed the clutch was on its way out. Either that, or she’d forgotten how to drive over the last two weeks lounging around at home.

Being driven about with a blindfold on was terrifying. Slight images of things, filtered under the bandanna, flickering light, then darkness. We were heading out into the forest behind our apartment.

“I know you’ve had a hard time,” Alli said.

“Works been hard,” I replied to her and reached over the gearstick for her hand.

Alli took it and squeezed, the softness of her skin, her warmth lit me on the inside. “You work so hard. I thought a nice walk out here would be good. There’s this amazing old place I want to show you.”

“The surprise?”

All went silent, and then, a good few moments later, the car pulled up and stopped. Ending idling.

“Ready?” she asked. The sheer excitement in her voice spread through me. What was it? I couldn’t wait to see either.

Alli had to help me out into wherever we were. I shivered. Was it excitement or cold? A bit of both.

We walked forward, the ground crunching underfoot. Gravel? Then it went soft, so grassy…. I tried to picture where it was, she was taking me. I couldn’t. There weren’t many places I’d not been around here. It had been my hometown before I moved out to the city. Now, I was glad I was back.

“We’re here,” she said.

“Good, I was starting to get worried we’d be in the next city.”

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

I could see Alli’s shoes from under the bandanna as she came around to take it off.

With a flourish and a ‘tada,’ the semi-darkness vanished.

I focused on the wall before me at first. Not realizing what it was. My eyes drifted up, and the faded, rotten hanging sign appeared.

Marshall’s Fun Fair.

“Isn’t it amazing,” Alli said.

I froze.

It couldn’t still be here.

It couldn’t.

The sign swung a little in the breeze. Light rain dusted my face.

I wanted to fucking bolt. Run faster than I ever had and get the hell out of here.

No, no, no, no. No

“Ugh, they said it wouldn’t rain!” Alli said and, grabbing my hand, dragged me toward a set of barricaded double doors.

“You can’t go in there,” I protested.

“Sure we can. There’s no one here. I triple checked.”

I could not stop her from sliding inside a gap, and she pulled me with her.

Memories flooded through me. Images I had never wanted to recall. Smells like I had blocked it. Fresh baking donuts, the sweet, almost burnt scent of candy floss.

Bile rose up my stomach as Alli turned toward another building. Just as dilapidated as the wall was.

Outside, the overgrown climbers crawled over it, the clown-faced monster on the door staring at me. Tormenting me….

Over the doorway, painted in red. Hall of mirrors.

My feet stopped moving.

“Come on,” she begged. “You have to do this, you have to face this problem head on.”

“No, I don’t,” I stepped backward. “What part of I hate mirrors did you not understand? What part of its not just a problem but a fucking phobia did you forget?”

I was honestly dumbstruck. How had Alli even found this place?

Alli wasn’t giving in, though. “You just need to come inside, with me,” she said. In the next breath, she had the door open, and the darkness inside swallowed her.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I couldn’t move.

Time slipped into that forever, never moving nightmare of my dreams.

Memories of laughter and— Steve.

Kids were everywhere, running and screaming. Music blared inside my mind. I tried to stop it… stop the noise. My hands covered my ears. The kids screaming, turned into my screaming.

No, no, no, no. No

Then Steve ran past me…

How could he? Steve was dead….

It wasn’t Alli dragging me inside now. It was Steve.

Steve, who hadn’t changed in ten years, wearing khaki shorts, a holy t-shirt and muddy trainers.

Steve, whose face was covered in sugar and smiles.

“You have to come in,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it…”

I didn’t want to. I didn’t like the idea of so many mirrors in one place.

“They’re bad luck,” I said.

“No, they’re not,” he laughed.

Steve tugged me inside.

“What are you so scared of,” Steve asked. “It’s harmless fun!”

Harmless….

Mirrors were everywhere.

I tried to turn around and was faced with several images of myself, of him, of us together. But not the me I knew now. The thirteen-year-old me. The pudgy kid with the spotty face, the clothes that never fit.

Every version of myself was laughing at me.

The skinny one.

The fat one,

The one where my head was longer than my body.

They all laughed.

I covered my eyes, but all I could hear was that awful, awful laugh.

I couldn’t look anymore.

“What are you so scared of?” Steve asked again.

“Why?”

“Why?”

The voice in my mind echoed, and then I started laughing.

“Can’t catch me!” Steve shouted.

I barely opened my eyes to see the bouncing rollicking image of him running away from me.

My biggest fear.

“Steve!” I shouted. “Come back!”

Time never moved.

“Alli!” I called.

Nothing.

No laughter. No music.

“What are you so scared of?” Steve asked. “Mirrors can’t eat people!”

But they had.

I curled into myself. Tears streaming down my face. My chest fit to burst.

“Kade?” a voice came to me. “Kade?”

I tried to block it. Turn away.

“Kade,” Alli said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was that bad. I’m sorry.”

I looked up into the distraught eyes of the woman I loved.

“Mirrors can’t eat people!” Steve’s voice echoed all around me.

I stood up.

“Mirrors do eat people!” I shouted back at him.

The mirrors all around me vibrated and shimmered. All the images of my childhood, running everywhere, trying to find him.

All the pain and loss of no one being able to.

The police were at my house. The police at school.

The tape was all around the fairground doors.

The news headlines.

“Thirteen-year-old child goes missing.”

“Thirteen-year-old Steve Rash, presumed kidnapped.”

Weeks later.

Months later.

“Kade, I’m sorry,” was all I could hear in the background.

I could only watch the scenes before me unfold. Those memories I’d buried for years.

The mirrors around me vibrated with the words.

“Mirrors can’t eat people!”

Steve was mocking me.

The mirrors changed, though; they started to glow.

Something was there. Something moving that wasn’t a memory.

The surface rippled, and I took a step toward it.

A hand shot from the center, grabbed my shirt and yanked me toward it. A face I barely recognized pixelated in front of me. “Mirrors can’t eat people!” Steve said and then dragged me inside.

“KADE!” Alli screamed behind me. “KADE!”

Her voice faded, as did the brightness of the mirrors.

Then another said, "You are Kade Webster?"

"Yes," I confirmed.

Relocating body mass in three….

Two….