26. Level Four- True Reflection
CHAPTER 26
Level Four- True Reflection
Rez
A n unladylike groan vibrates out of me as I stretch, and my back pops before I lean down to put on Reaper’s armor once again. Protection first . Giving him some water and some meat, I turn to check on everyone else before reattaching my weapons.
“Do we have a game plan for this level?” JP asks with half-lidded eyes as he leans against Zeke, the latter licking the fresh wounds in his neck close.
A part of me is jealous that I’m not the one feeling the euphoria from Zeke’s bite, but I’m grateful that JP is taking care of our man’s needs.
“Surviving would be a good plan,” Lynx chimes in as he walks by, heading to the bathroom and winks at me.
“I agree,” Ryker calls out as he attaches more knives to his thighs.
“Who knows if we’ll even be together,” I grumble, shouldering my pack. The tent goes quiet, and I look back at everyone. “What? I’m only saying what we’re all thinking. We didn’t know it was a thing until the last level.”
“True. My only advice is not to rely only on your eyes with Sitri. He is the Prince of Deception for a reason,” Knots reminds us.
“Way to point out the obvious Door Knob,” Lynx yells from behind a flap. Knots’ jaw clenches as he grabs a bottle of water.
“‘Sitri shall inflame men with women’s love, and women with men’s love; and causes them also to show themselves naked if it be desired.’”
“Is Ryker speaking in tongues? Do we need to perform an exorcism,” Lynx asks, popping his head out from the bathroom with a toothbrush in his mouth.
“No. He’s quoting one of his many books he’s read about demons,” Levi supplies with a deep chuckle, and Ryker rolls his eyes. Watching their laidback interaction brings a small smile to my lips as I notice how far Levi has come from his reserved persona.
“So you’re saying he’ll make us strip?” Moni asks with wide eyes and light teal bark.
“Not likely.” Ryker chuckles.
“So, what, you’re saying he’s a sadistic cupid?” I arch an eyebrow.
Ryker smirks. “There’s some truth in every myth.”
Great. Just what we need.
“Come on, Reaper,” I call as I step out of the tent before it evicts us, taking in the sunny landscape ahead of us. Compared to what we’ve been through, this one seems desolate and plain, with the stairs leading into dusky, dry hills as far as I can see.
“Well, at least it doesn’t look like it’s crawling with monsters,” Chester comments, pushing up his glasses.
“From what you can see with your naked eye,” Knots remarks, and I bristle at his reminder. I’m not sure if this place is getting to me, or it’s just the fact that he’s pushed me away that I’m irritated about, but I’m on edge either way.
Fluttering grabs my attention, and attached to the tent is a paper. Pulling it off, I read out loud.
“Welcome to True Reflections, where the demon you face is one you never see. Can you figure out what your truth is within three hours?”
“Well…that doesn’t sound like an orgy at all. Who said he controlled secrets and made people fall in love? You were WRONG!” Moni points out, coming up behind me.
“True,” I agree, stifling a laugh, knowing it was JP who just told us about Sitri, but I adjust my bag and continue. “Let’s go. Hell can’t wait forever.” L.A.M.B. is counting on us to open the portals, and we need to remember why we’re here.
I take a deep breath and start down the stairs. The muscles in my shoulders relax once I reach the ground and turn to see everyone with me. Okay, at least this level we’ll do together. The path leads us through a ravine where suddenly the sky is gone, and the floor lights up with a zigzag light, highlighting long walls of mirrors inside a rock cavern at least four stories high. Red rock formations of stalactites and stalagmites, large and small, are littered throughout the tall chamber, going hundreds of yards in all directions, all lit up by low lighting that gives off an almost wonderous appeal.
“Wow, you were right about not trusting just our eyes, Knots,” Moni exclaims as we stop to take in the new look.
“Unfortunately, I was hoping I was wrong,” he admits with a frown as I stand in front of a mirror that reflects an image other than mine. Instead of seeing my reflection, I see Levi’s, even though I’m in front of everyone.
“Don’t worry, Door Knob. A broken clock is right at least twice a day. A door can’t be that much better than a clock, so consider that you’re one chance at being right…you’re bad news from here on out.” Lynx literally hisses at Knots and activates his claws, showing his intent.
I love his intent and his protection of me, plus the sour look on Knots’ face makes me feel warm inside, but now is not the time. Thankfully, Levi doesn’t react to Lynx’s craziness and keeps us on task.
“That’s creepy,” Levi states, moving in front of me and looking at his doppelganger, but the reflection is dressed as a Roman gladiator in his barely-there loincloth, with shin and arm guards and sandals. The image swings his spear back and forth.
“Ya think? Look at that one.” Lynx motions for the one on the other side.
“Oh my God! Look at me!” Moni squeals, zipping around in front of it without a drop of coffee spilling from her cup. “I look like I’m a goddess or maybe a water nymph. Or is that a hooker? She definitely has better boobs than me. Hey Chestie, do you even care that my boobs are the size that they are? I wonder if there’s a spell that can make them bigger or filled with honey butter or something. Ohhh! Wouldn’t that be awesome? Levi, is that possible? Just think of all the stuff we could do. All the possibilities.” She takes in a deep breath, and Chester reaches out to catch her and her travel mug as her eyes roll back before she faints.
“She’s getting better,” he admits sheepishly.
“I’m kinda curious about the whole breast and spell thing,” Lynx speaks up, looking thoughtful.
“And I’m traumatized,” JP adds, turning slightly green.
Ignoring my men, I stand in front of the mirror that shows a human version of what I can only imagine would be Moni, and I wonder what the purposes of these mirrors are.
“Do we have any idea what these mean?” I ask, drawing a blank.
It’s crickets as everyone looks around, some of them shrugging. I spot a mirror with an image full of woods and greenery that pulls me toward it. Inside is a version of me, but in simple clothes, kneeling and picking up herbs.
“This has to be different parts of us,” Knots calls out, pulling my attention away from my mirror.
In front of him is a younger version of Knots on a farm, milking a cow. The living picture brings back memories of the time he told me of the farmer who took him in before meeting War.
Continuing down the path, I take in each mirror as we pass. We’re all mesmerized seeing the different aspects of each of us: Lynx wearing a tux, Zeke wielding a sword, Knox dripping in blood while standing over a corpse, and Chester as a bodybuilder. It’s eye-opening and fascinating yet strangely terrifying to see how much we could change from who we are right now.
We continue until we come to a hub with nine paths like an open outdoor hedge maze made of walls of stalagmites and stalactites to divide them. The paths are closed off by a mirror at each entrance, and in the distance, planted inside the cavern wall at the end of the paths, is a glowing red ticker counting down to our last hour.
“Which way?” Moni asks nervously.
“Which one of our pictures was the least scary?” Chester throws out as he pushes up his glasses.
“That would be you,” Lynx snorts, moving to Chester’s tunnel, which shows a mirror of a young six-year-old Chester rocking on a tree limb. Lynx walks confidently toward it as if he knows how this level works but bounces off an invisible barrier, landing on his ass with a thud.
Zeke helps him up, and we examine it with new curiosity.
“Well, I guess that’s the wrong one,” Lynx scowls as he brushes the dirt off his ass.
Chester walks over cautiously, glancing at Lynx before extending his arm, but his outcome is unexpected. With a slurping noise, he’s sucked into the tunnel.
“Chester!” Moni yells, her bark a light teal, showing her worry.
“I’m alright,” he assures us quickly. “I’m okay. I’m not hurt.” He smiles back at us from inside the mirror as Moni pounds on the invisible surface with her tiny hands. He pushes up his glasses, looking the same as when we first started this level; the six-year-old image gone now. “It seems this tunnel is just for me, and it’s filled with all my mirrors that we passed. At least you can still hear me, so I’ll meet you at the end.” He places his palm against Moni’s and lowers his voice to say something that only she can hear to calm her down. She blushes a slight pink across her bark before turning her normal greenish brown.
“Okay, let’s divide up, take our assigned mirrors, and meet at the end. Stay in contact,” Knots adds, and I don’t argue even though I don’t like him stepping up into this leadership role. For some reason, it irks me, but his advice is solid and makes the most sense. So I grab Reaper and go in search of my tunnel.
Mine showcases the woman in the woods picking herbs, and it’s the last one on the left, next to Knots. I hold in a groan as he looks at me pleadingly.
I almost growl at the fact he’s giving me this look—as if he’s sorry for breaking up with me. Isn’t that how most guys are, though? Once they break up and get into a good position mentally, they come and try to make amends. Well, neither will that work nor do I have the damn time for it. We’re in Hell, and if I’m going through it, he should too…in whatever way that means for him.
“Are you okay?”
“Peachy,” I deadpan as I let the tunnel suck me and Reaper into its dark and wet gelatin abyss. Coming out of the other side, I’m taken aback by the long hallway formed by rocks. From where I stand, I can only make out two mirrors down the darkened hall with the faint light that surrounds them. Chester said his path was filled with all of his mirrors, yet I only see two of mine so far. Maybe he meant that he only sees his mirrors and not everyone else’s. Let’s hope that’s the case and that I didn’t already mess up with the level.
“Rez, I’m sorry,” Knots starts, and I roll my eyes, grateful that he can’t see me. I never could have expected I would be in a maze of mirrors that only I can travel down but still be able to talk to everyone else in the cavern. This alone is pretty trippy, and I can’t imagine what it would be like if I were under the influence of some fey wine.
“Sorry. For what?” I feign ignorance, pitching my voice high and glancing at the solid wall of stalagmites between us. “It’s not like you didn’t get what you wanted. You should be ecstatic, dancing down your hall of mirrors.” He shouldn’t miss my sarcastic undertone; it’s practically dripping off me.
I could hear his sigh before speaking. “Rez, that wasn’t me.”
“Really? So, you have clones now? Point me to the machine because I’m all for tapping out and letting someone else take over my position. I could really use a break,” I point out, catching sight of a version of me that doesn’t know how to use a comb or a washcloth.
Eww.
I continue on, passing more potential reflections, until I walk to a small opening and pause.
“What I mean is, it wasn’t only me—what the hell? Did you just run into a dead end too?”
The dark room is nothing but plain mirrors, depicting the “real” me, this time with Reaper at my feet. Moving my body, I watch as all the mirrors reflect my actions.
A deep, smokey male voice rings out through the cavern, halting me. “You can’t love others before you love yourself, but how well do you know yourself?” The mirrors rise off the floor and close in to encircle me. “The good, the bad, the destructive, the bloodthirsty, revengeful, the weak, the power-hungry, even the deadly side of you.” With each word he calls out, an example of me portraying them flashes in the mirrors as they spin around me. “You might not love it, but to pass through my level, you must accept it…can you?”
Boom.
Shattering glass rings out as I duck, grabbing Reaper and pulling him underneath me, protecting us as the mirrors rain down around us. Thankfully, nothing cuts us, and everyone sounds off simultaneously, saying that they are fine, though Moni, JP, and Lynx ask what we should do next. All of their voices echo faintly but ripple with different tones. Some sound panicked while another set of echoes sounds funny, as if they’re underwater. What the hell is going on in this place?
Standing up, I look down at my feet and take in the mess surrounding me. Among the wreckage, I find two broken images of me in the mirror’s reflections that almost look whole. The gatherer’s left eye and cheek are looking at me, and a deadly entity’s right eye and cheek stare back at me, splattered with blood.
The gatherer represents a time when I was with my mother and how we often tried to live off the land. It’s a part of my childhood and brings a warmness to me that I thought I had lost. Seeing the blood-splattered image of me makes my stomach churn. This, though…this person covered in blood is a warrior who had to step up and fight for her loved ones and what’s right. At least, that’s how I see the broken image in front of me. It’s not one that I want, but I realize it’s who I’ve become lately.
Crouching down, I push them together and find they fit close enough, but what am I missing? I take a few moments to study the newly combined image and what these parts mean to me. He said I had to accept myself. As in all my flaws? But what if they aren’t flaws?
I enjoy nature and feel one with it when I’m out in it and looking for herbs. It brings me peace and comfort. Yet, especially recently, there’s a darker side of me. A side that needs that outlet to release the rage that has built up inside me, the rage I didn’t even know I had. They are just a part of me!
Click.
Looking down, the two pieces that were close enough but the edges weren’t lining up are now flush and whole, a seamless combination of those two versions of me. I quickly stand up with the completed piece in my hand and shout.
“I figured it out!”
Everyone quiets while I explain how to fix the puzzle, describing my thought process with my own two pieces. “Hopefully, it will work with the other parts,” I joke, looking around and feeling relieved that the torso pieces on the floor are bigger. There are a lot to choose from, but since I’ve already picked the gatherer and entity, hopefully that means I don’t need to pick them again.
“Well, we only have forty minutes to figure this out,” Levi calls out, and I turn to find the clock above us, counting down the time.
Yep, that’s all we need. More stress.
“Okay, Reaper, help momma out,” I utter as I get back on the floor and reach for more pieces.
It doesn’t take long to find pieces that match up to what I believe are me. The time-consuming part is identifying and accepting those parts of myself, the good, the bad, and the ugly. One by one, the others finish their mirrors and call out once they pass through the barrier. Deciding to finish this level together, they wait by the stairs as the others finish. Hearing their triumphs as they pass only brings more anxiety my way because I know I’ve made a mistake somewhere, as the last piece doesn’t meld. Either I don’t believe in myself that this is really a part of me, or I picked the wrong pieces, but that’s impossible; all the others match up. It’s easy to find pieces that look close enough to one another, but it’s a whole different aspect when you’re trying to believe that those pieces are who you are. What the hell am I missing?
Glancing down, the only piece that I can’t get to work or meld is my right hand. There are seven other hands to choose from, but I’m running out of time and options. I’ve already tried the hands that represented healing and animals, but they didn’t work. However, I kind of figured that since those reflections were already used in my torso and right leg. I switch it out for one that represents power, judging by the bright white orb in the hand, and I try that one as Knox sends me a wave of calm as he feels me starting to panic. Of course, that piece doesn’t work. I sigh and bow my head. I already have the glowing hand of power attached to the other hand.
I’m the only one still behind the barrier while everyone else is waiting for me by the stairs. Taking a deep breath, I will the hand to work, but I get a cold shock as I pick wrong once again.
FUCK!
Reaper whines and pushes a piece of glass toward me that I haven’t seen before, and my stomach drops. Where did he find this, and oh God, no. The piece must have been pushed under other sections because I can swear I’ve moved all the parts around, and I haven’t seen that one before. I would remember this one.
Why is it here?
‘Rezzi-bear? You okay? The fleabag is saying you’re flipping out. Do you need help?’
Lynx’s voice pulls me from my shock, and I pick up the glass with shaky hands, placing it next to the image of mismatched parts that make up me.
I’m immune to it therefore it only makes sense that we’re connected, right? But…how? I have no idea, but either I’m a part of it, or the Sulks is a part of me.
Click.
The hand with the Rebels’ tattoo on my wrist, holding the Sulks as it wraps around my hand and wrist, like a living being, moves as the barrier opens and lets me through.