Part Two: Growing Danger

“Mirrors can’t eat people,” said Tyler after Johnathan finished explaining what had happened. “That’s just nuts.”

“You saw that thing too,” said Johnathan, walking back towards the dressing table and its mirror. His legs were still shaking, but the shock was wearing off and he was worried about Zoe. Had she gotten away from that thing? It was clearly chasing her for some reason.

“I don’t know what I saw, man,” said Tyler. “But what you’re talking about only happens in those stupid games you and your geek friends play.”

Jonathan whirled on him. “Why are you even here?” He didn’t have time to mess with Tyler right now. Zoe was in trouble and he had to figure out how to help.

To his surprise, Tyler looked at the floor almost as if he was embarrassed. “After you left I started thinking about it. If Zoe’s missing, I want to help find her.”

“Why?” asked Johnathan, crossing his arms. “I thought you said it was every man for himself.”

“Yeah… well… This is different,” said Tyler, almost mumbling and still looking at the floor. “She could be in trouble.”

“And what do you care? She’s not your sister.”

Tyler looked up at that, anger flashing across his face. “What’s that supposed to mean? She’s my friend, and –” he stopped short, the anger leaving his face. “And anyway. I just wanna help. Ok?”

“Fine,” said Johnathan, turning back to the dressing table. “Help me figure this mirror out. She’s in there. I know it.” Tyler walked into the garage and stood beside Johnathan. As far as Johnathan could tell it was a perfectly normal mirror once again. There was nothing odd about their reflections and there was no sign of the strange smoke creature. Tentatively Johnathan reached out and touched the glass. Part of him had expected it to melt around his hand or bend and twist like in the movies, but his fingers just hit cold, solid glass. Tyler scoffed and shook his head.

“Very scientific, Little John. You’re crazy, you know. It’s just a mirror, my mom has one just like it.”

“You got any bright ideas?” Johnathan said, glaring at him as hot anger boiled up inside. “Or are you just going to keep insulting me all night?”

“Yeah, I got an idea,” said Tyler, glaring back and standing tall, which reminded Johnathan of just how much bigger than him the older boy was. “Why don’t you get your head out of whatever stupid fantasy world it’s living in, we get on our bikes and start looking for Zoe? We’re wasting our time here.”

“Because she’s not out there!” Johnathan said, almost shouting as he pointed out the garage door. “She’s in there!” he pointed back at the mirror. “I saw her. She was trying to say something, and when she hit the mirror, it shook. I didn’t imagine that.”

“If she hit the mirror, why didn’t it tip over or break, huh?” Tyler said, grabbing the mirror and shaking it back and forth to demonstrate. “It’s not that sturdy, dude.”

“I don’t know,” said Johnathan. He hated to admit it, but Tyler had a good point. Was he imagining things? No. He couldn’t be. “Maybe the rules are different in there. I know what I saw. She’s in there, and she’s in trouble.”

“You know what?” said Tyler, turning red. “Fine. I’m going to make myself useful. If you want to stay here and play with your ratty old mirror, be my guest. It’s dark outside anyway. I wouldn’t want you to get scared.” He spun on his heel and strode towards the garage door then froze in his steps as a hazy, smoky figure came around the corner and fixed them with its glowing red eyes. “What the..?” Tyler said and began slowly backing up towards Johnathan, not taking his eyes off the smoke creature.

Johnathan backed up half a step, stopping as his legs hit the edge of the dressing table. His legs began to feel weak and wobbly again, and he put his hand down on the table to steady himself. “Still think I’m imagining it?” he asked. Tyler didn’t say anything but slowly shook his head as he took a few more steps backward. The creature’s eyes flashed just like they had before and it rushed forward at incredible speed, passing right through Tyler as it headed straight towards Johnathan, smoky tendrils stretched out before it. Before he could even move it had passed through him and he felt something strong and stinging hot wrap itself around his wrist. He gasped, both in pain and surprise, and whipped his head around. The creature had stopped. Most of its body was still outside the mirror but the tendrils were touching the surface of the glass. In the mirror, the creature’s reflection was more solid-looking than its counterpart, and its tendrils protruded back out of the mirror and wrapped themselves around his wrist. With a powerful tug, the smoke creature pulled back and Johnathan’s arm was yanked toward the mirror. He cried out in surprise as his arm passed through the glass as if it wasn’t even there. With a yelp, Tyler grabbed him around the waist and tried to pull him away from the mirror. The creature tightened its grip on Johnathan’s wrist and pulled even harder. The pain was intense as Johnathan found himself caught in a tug-of-war — and he was the rope. Johnathan thought his arm was going to get ripped right out of its socket until suddenly, with a flash of intense light, the creature let him go and Johnathan and Tyler fell back, landing on the cement floor in a jumbled heap. Panting, Johnathan looked at his wrist. A thin tendril of black smoke was still wrapped around it, but even as he was looking, it dissolved away, leaving only a nasty red welt against his skin where it had been.

“Stay away from the mirror, you fools,” said a stern but girlish voice. “Especially when you’re angry. Don’t they teach you humans anything?”

“Ok, now I know I’m dreaming,” said Tyler with a groan.

Johnathan looked up and gaped in amazement. Something that looked like a young girl was hovering a few feet off the ground in between where they had landed and the dressing table. She had a cute, rounded face and was small, maybe only three or four feet tall if she had been standing, with a pair of large, butterfly-like wings protruding from her back. They were fluttering too rapidly for him to make out the pattern, but it looked colorful, with lots of reds and blues. Softly glimmering blue dust was floating all around her, but not falling to the ground. She wore a green short-sleeved shirt and brown capri pants with large cargo pockets, her feet were bare and dangling freely beneath her. A leather belt was wrapped around her waist and in her right hand she held a glowing white sword that looked like a fencing foil, only much shorter. Her braided red hair was long, down to the small of her back, and tucked in between her wings. Yellow and white flowers were woven into her hair near the top of her head like a crown. Her ears were long and pointed, like an elf’s.

“A fairy?” Johnathan said, almost in a whisper.

“Fairy,” scoffed the flying girl as she rolled her eyes. Her voice was not quite as high pitched as Johnathan would have imagined a fairy’s voice to be, but there was still something of a musical quality about it. “I’m no child. But yes, I’m one of the Fey. And you nearly got yourself dragged into my realm. It’s a good thing I saw that Stormcloud and followed it or you’d be halfway to Acrimony’s keep right now and we’d have a major disaster on our hands. How did you get this portal, anyway?”

With a start, Johnathan remembered the smoke creature and hurriedly looked around the fairy at the mirror and saw that it was still there, pushing against the inside of the glass and trying to get at them. The mirror shook and rattled but the fairy did not seem to be concerned about it at all and just kept glaring at them as if they were misbehaving kindergartners. Tyler pushed Johnathan off to one side and sat up, shaking his head. “Who are you? And what are you?”

“I’m Kelviana, of the Darkwood clan, and your friend was right, I’m one of the Fey.” She glared at Johnathan. “I'm not a fairy. We only call our children that, and I came of age nearly a hundred years ago, thank you very much. Now, answer my question. What are you doing with this portal?”

“You mean the old mirror?” asked Johnathan as he climbed to his feet. His head was about level with Kelviana’s now and little bits of glowing blue dust drifted between them.

The Fey used her sword to point at the dressing table. “This portal,” she said as if explaining that grass was green. “Is a doorway between our two realms. One of the most dangerous artifacts from your world and a problem we thought we had taken care of years ago.”

“I don’t know about any of that,” said Johnathan, shaking his head. “Mom just bought it for my sister at a second-hand store.” Beside him, Tyler climbed to his feet and began examining Kelviana closely. The mirror behind them shook disconcertingly as the Stormcloud – as Kelviana called it – kept throwing itself against it. The Fey ignored it but glared dangerously at Tyler, who thankfully got the hint and backed away a few steps. “Is it safe to just let it keep doing that?” Johnathan asked, looking at the smoky creature in the mirror and its ghostly reflection.

“It can’t pass through the portal unless one of you is foolish enough to be near it while angry again. Even then it can only reach through with its tendrils. Acrimony’s not strong enough yet for them to do any more than that. Eventually, it’ll give up. If not, I’ll take care of it when I go back. They’re fairly harmless to us Fey. More nuisances than anything else.” She stared hard at each of them in turn. “When I do go back, you must promise to break this mirror and scatter the pieces as far apart as you can, then forget any of this ever happened. Got it? The last human who had this mirror should have already done that. You lot have done enough damage to our realm without going around keeping portals open.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Wait,” said Johnathan. “If we do that then how will Zoe get back?”

“Who?” asked Kelviana, looking uncertain for the first time since they had met.

“My sister Zoe. She’s stuck over there. You didn’t see her?”

“You mean there’s a human in our realm right now?” asked Kelviana, her face hardening. The blue dust surrounding her began to drift faster and more erratically.

“Yeah,” said Tyler. “And we think those things are after her.” Johnathan shot Tyler a nasty look. Now he believed him?

“Of course they are,” said Kelviana with a groan. “That’s exactly what Acrimony wants. No wonder that Stormcloud’s all riled up.” She turned in the air and flew back toward the mirror.

“What are you doing?” asked Johnathan, reaching out his hand, though he would never have actually dared to touch her.

“I’m going back there to find that fool girl,” said the Fey as she reached the mirror. She stopped, hovering in the air a few inches from the glass and Johnathan realized that she did not cast a reflection. “Do not move this mirror until I bring her back. If you do it’ll lose the connection and who knows if we’ll ever find another active portal again.”

“I’m coming with you,” said Johnathan, making a sudden decision. Tyler and Kelviana both looked at him as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head.

“Are you nuts?” asked Tyler.

“Not happening, boy,” said Kelviana.

“I want to help find Zoe,” said Johnathan, feeling stubborn all of a sudden. “She’s my sister.”

“Didn’t you hear me? Having a human in our realm is exactly what Acrimony wants. There’s no way I’d willingly let a second human in.”

“Three, actually,” said Tyler, causing the Fey to turn her wrathful glare on him. Tyler stood his ground and crossed his arms. “If Little John’s going, so am I.”

“Out of the question,” said Kelviana, slapping the pommel of her glowing sword into the palm of her free hand. Johnathan had almost forgotten about her weapon. She was much older than him and Tyler and could probably easily do a lot of damage with that sword if they angered her too much. As if to prove that point the Stormcloud threw itself against the mirror once again and the Fey casually struck out with her sword, which passed through the glass and pierced the creature between the eyes. There was a flash of white and the Stormcloud dissolved away almost instantly. She never even looked at it. “Now stay here, stay away from the mirror, and do not move it. Am I clear?”

“I have to go with you,” said Johnathan. “I saw her earlier, through the mirror. She’s scared.” And so am I, for that matter, he thought, but he kept his eyes fixed on Kelviana.

“It’s not safe,” said the Fey, finally placing her sword in its sheath at her side. The room seemed to dim slightly.

“I’m not scared,” said Tyler, standing tall and puffing out his chest, though Johnathan thought he still looked pretty scared.

“Not for you, fools,” said Kelviana. “I mean for everyone else. If Acrimony gets his hands on a human, it’s bad news not just for our world, but yours as well.”

“You keep talking about this Acrimony guy, but you realize we have no idea who that is, right?” said Tyler.

Kelviana sighed heavily. “He’s bad, bad news. Everything you lot do is reflected in our world. Usually, things like emotions don’t affect us directly, but somehow he feeds off your anger. The angrier you people get, the stronger he becomes. He’s obsessed with humans and is desperate to get over here. Only the Fey can freely pass through the portals, though, and he’s not Fey. For centuries he tried to conquer our people and performed all sorts of experiments on us to try and find a way over here but we resisted and destroyed every portal we could find. We thought we had won when the last known portal was found and supposedly destroyed and for many years he has been mostly dormant. Stormclouds still roam the lands, but they’re more of an annoyance than anything else. The one I found today was acting strange, so I followed it. If he learns that there’s a human on our side he will stop at nothing to get his hands on her. And honestly, I can’t say that the Fey will react much better. Your kind is none too popular. We’ve suffered greatly because of Acrimony’s obsession, and it’s common knowledge that your anger is what feeds him.”

“Well you seem alright with us,” Tyler said.

“I just want to get your sister out of my world, break this mirror, and forget this mess ever happened,”

“I’m still going with you,” said Johnathan.

“You’re testing my patience, kid,” said Kelviana with a growl, the blue dust surrounding her started swirling even faster.

“If you go without me I’ll just keep on trying to get in by myself. Zoe did it without your help, I’m sure I can too.”

“I can come back with a dozen more Fey who will be more than happy to make sure you stay right here until we find the girl and bring her back,” said Kelviana, glaring at him.

A sudden thought struck Johnathan. “I don’t think you will. You said this mirror should have already been broken. I don’t think you want the other Fey knowing about this, do you?”

Johnathan and the Fey glared at each other for a long moment. She was intimidating, despite her cute appearance. As he stared into her eyes Johnathan realized they were a deep shade of purple, and it was clear that despite looking younger than him and Zoe she was very much an adult. There was the same look in those eyes that his mother would get sometimes when he was being particularly difficult or stubborn. He usually backed down when his Mom gave him that look. He was determined not to do the same with Kelviana. He just hoped she wouldn’t call his bluff. He was only guessing about her not wanting the others to know about the mirror, but he had played enough thieves and rogues in his games to know when to go with his gut, and his gut told him she would rather not get the rest of the Fey involved in this.

Eventually, Kelviana scoffed and turned away. “Fine,” she huffed. “But you do exactly what I say. No arguing. I’m in charge. Remember that. I’m only letting you come because you know this girl and it’ll be easier to get her to listen to me if you’re there.”

Jonathan sighed in relief. He had done it! He stared down an adult and won! Had he just discovered some sort of new superpower?

“Don’t forget about me,” said Tyler. “I’m coming too.”

“Yes, yes,” said Kelviana with a wave of her hand. “What’s one more human? Why don’t we just put a big flashing sign over the portal that says ‘Fey realm this way, kids and pets stay free, wifi and continental breakfast included’?”

“You guys have wifi?” asked Johnathan, surprised.

“Actually, I have no clue what that is, just that you lot seem to get really upset when it breaks,” said Kelviana. “Now let’s go. We don’t want the Stormclouds finding your sister first, do we, boy?”

“My name is Johnathan.”

Kelviana turned and looked at him. “What?” she asked.

“My name, it’s Johnathan, or John if you want.”

“And I’m Ty,” said Tyler.

“Fantastic,” said Kelviana, turning in midair to face the mirror again. “Now that we’re all friends, I need you to be quiet. I’ve never let someone through a portal before, so I hope this works.”

“What do you mean, you hope it works?” asked Tyler.

“I said be quiet,” hissed Kelviana. She had closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating hard. The swirling blue dust that continuously surrounded her began to slow and congregate in one cluster right in front of her. The glow brightened to an intense level that hurt to look at, then most of the dust drifted over to Johnathan and Tyler and swirled around them for a few moments before the glow dimmed and the dust settled around Kelviana once again, looking a bit dimmer than it had before. Tyler sneezed.

“There,” she said, breathing heavily. “That should get you through, but make it quick. I don’t think it’ll last long.” Tyler waved his hand through the dust a few times, which swirled around in the wake of his hand’s passing and earned him a hard glare from Kelviana. “Get moving, or get left behind, kid,” she said, then flew through the mirror.

Johnathan and Tyler stared at each other for a few moments. “This whole thing was your idea,” said Tyler. “You go first.”

“Thanks,” grumbled Johnathan as he stepped towards the mirror. Tyler was right, he had pushed for this. He gingerly put out his hand – the one that the Stormcloud had grabbed – and pressed it against the surface of the mirror. At least he would have if there had been a surface to press against. The mirror may well have been nothing but an open window for all the resistance his hand met. That alone was enough to make his heart beat a little faster, but what was most disconcerting was something he had not noticed at first; he and Tyler were not reflected in the mirror anymore. Panic swelled up inside Johnathan and he had to force it back down. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, trying to steady his nerves.

“You wanted this, kid, remember?” he heard Kelviana say.

“Right,” he said, opening his eyes again. He paused for only a moment longer as he considered how best to climb through. It had been easy enough for Kelviana, she was small enough that she barely had to bend her head down on the way through. Jonathan was not so fortunate. He leaned over and pushed his head and shoulders through, then climbed onto the surface of the table on his hands and knees. His hands found the surface of the table on the other side and he scrambled somewhat awkwardly the rest of the way through. He was a bit disappointed that there was no strange tingling sensation or wild light display. He could have just as easily been passing from one room to the next. The only odd thing was that now he was suddenly looking out of his open garage door when only a few moments earlier he had been facing the back wall. Kelviana was hovering near the opening. He turned around and saw Tyler watching him through the mirror and looking rather less confident than he had been a few minutes earlier. “You coming Ty?” he asked. “You’re not chicken, are you?”

That seemed to snap Tyler out of his daze. His face hardened and he strode forward, pushing his way through the portal far less cautiously than Johnathan just had. He was larger than Johnathan and his hips brushed against the frame, causing the mirror to wobble.

“Careful!” Kelviana cried, flying over and steadying it. “You don’t want the portal closing when you’re only halfway through, do you?”

Tyler’s face paled and he climbed the rest of the way through much more carefully. He stood up and looked around. “Well, now what?” he asked.

Kelviana drew her sword. It seemed to glow more brightly than before, and now that Johnathan was looking, Kelviana’s floating dust seemed more vibrant and lively as well. “Now,” she said. “We go find your friend’s sister, assuming she hasn’t been captured yet.”

END OF PART TWO