Chapter 7 #2
“Wait…” Yanking my hand out of Austin’s grip, I stepped up to the girl in the mirror.
Everything in me told me this wasn’t real. There was no way she could be here. Yet there she stood in the same yellow pajamas she wore that night. Every detail was perfect. She even had the same checkmark scar on her forehead that she got from falling off her bike. Was it really her?
“Bethie?”
“Why didn’t you play with me, Mazie?”
Oh my God, it was her. How was this happening?
“I’m so sorry, Bethie.” I should’ve played with her.
Austin said something and tried to pull me away. I ignored him and stepped closer to the mirror. I couldn’t leave Bethie. Not again.
“I couldn’t breathe, Mazie. I was so scared.”
My mind told me that there was something wrong with her voice. The normally sweet tone sounded almost hollow, but I didn’t care.
“Don’t be scared, Bethie.” Desperate to touch her one last time, I reached out and flattened my palm on the glass. “I’m right here.”
“No, you’re not.” Bethie’s lips curled into a frown that broke my heart. “Why did you leave me alone, Mazie?”
“I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did.” Bethie’s eyes flickered down and then floated back up to me. All the innocence on her face vanished, replaced with anger and hurt. “You left me for him.”
Guilt welled up in my throat.
“No,” I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that.”
But it was just like that. While Bethie was fighting for her life, I was drinking and messing around with my boyfriend, because sex was fun and my baby sister wasn’t. My selfishness cost her everything.
“Did he make you feel good, Mazie?” Her head tilted exactly the way it used to. “Was he worth it?”
Her words stabbed deep in my heart. Tears slid down my cheeks while shame rolled through me, drowning out Austin’s voice shouting from somewhere in the background.
I pressed my palm harder against the mirror and pleaded, “Bethie, please—”
“I drowned while you were fucking him.”
“No. I can go back…. I can change it all.” I’d die instead of her. I’d make different choices. I’d even push my boyfriend in the pool if that’s what it took. Just please, let me take it back.
“You can’t take it back.” When Bethie stepped forward, her yellow shorts rippled as if there was something underneath her skin. “I’m gone, and it’s your fault.”
No, she wasn’t gone. She was right there. “We can change it, Bethie. I can make everything better.”
“You’re not my sister.” She hissed so loud that I swore I could smell the candy on her breath. “You’re a liar.”
“No.” The glass under my hand throbbed, and for a second, I thought if I pushed a little harder, I’d be able to tumble through and grab her. Tumble through to the pool, and to the night that I could never undo.
“You never cared about me. You’re a slut.”
“No.” My body leaned forward, desperate to sink into the reflection.
“You’re a killer, Mazie.”
No. I wasn’t. I couldn’t be. “Bethie—”
A hand seized my arm.
“Mazie!”
It wasn’t Bethie’s hand. It was Austin’s.
“She’s not real. Do you hear me?” His commanding voice pulled me back to reality. “There’s no one there.”
I fought him for half a heartbeat and reached out for the girl in the yellow shorts. Then the reflection shimmered, turning Bethie’s eyes black. I stared in horror as her mouth stretched open wider and wider, elongating her once sweet expression.
My shoulder screamed as Austin yanked me back hard and dragged me further into the maze, away from the horrific reflection of my sister. I didn’t mind being pulled away. Austin’s grip on my hand felt like the only solid thing.
He wasn’t letting go or slowing down. Determination etched across his face as he wove us through various corridors. My legs stumbled to keep pace while Bethie’s words clawed at the back of my mind.
“You’re a killer, Mazie.”
Then the applause came. Slow and mocking.
“Well done, Poppet.”
Felix.
His shirtless figure bled into the mirrors. More and more of him stepped in, until reflections of the ringmaster surrounded us. Each and every one seemed to catch a different angle of the sinister smirk on his face.
“You managed to leave her behind again.” He drawled. “Poor Bethie. Twice abandoned. Once for a boy, once for your own life. Tell me, Poppet…” his light eyes glittered as he tilted his head. “Does it sting less the second time?”
A pang of guilt tore through my heart while Austin spat out, “Fuck you.”
Felix’s chuckle seemingly came from everywhere. “Ah, come to rescue the damsel in distress, have you? How heroic. But are you really saving her, or are you saving her for yourself?”
What was that supposed to mean?
The look Austin gave in response made me wonder if Felix’s tone was mocking because he enjoyed tormenting us, or if there was some other meaning. Maybe Austin wasn’t the good guy he pretended to be? Everyone had secrets, right?
“Tell me, sir,” Felix continued. “What happens when the predator turns prey?”
I wasn’t so sure about his grip on my hand anymore. “Austin?”
“Ignore him, Mazie. He’s just messing with your head.”
Felix’s voice rippled through the mirrors, low and velvety. “Whose hand are you holding, Poppet? The hero, or the villain?”
“Ignore him, keep your eyes on me.” Austin hissed.
Keep my eyes on him? That was easier said than done. I wanted to ignore Felix, but the glass wouldn’t let me. He was everywhere. A thousand lean torsos gleamed in the sconce light while a thousand mouths whispered the same poison.
“You cling so desperately to your savior, Poppet. But what if he’s not your savior? What if he’s not there at all? What if it’s me you’re grasping for in the dark?”
A shiver raced down my spine. His voice was too intimate, too knowing. As if he’d already tasted that part of me I tried to hide. Could he sense the beast clawing inside? Did he hear it beg to be released?
Sometimes, I wanted to give in and forget for a moment. I wanted to go back to the time before my world fell apart. When all I felt was pleasure. No tears or dead eyes looked back at me. There was just freedom and ecstasy.
“He made you feel good, didn’t he, Poppet. Good enough to forget her.”
Bethie’s reflection flared in the corner of my eye, making me stumble.
“Ah, there it is,” Felix purred. “That dark part of your soul you try so hard to hide. It calls to me, Poppet. It tempts me with your desire and shame. You want to give it to me, don’t you? You want to be free of your shackles.”
His words sank into me like hooks. My pulse shuddered, and for a heartbeat, it felt like the floor tilted toward him. Toward the promise of punishment coated in pleasure.
I wanted to give in. Fighting was exhausting. It would be easier to fall into his reflection and forget.
But Austin wouldn’t let me.
“Come on, Mazie.” He tightened his grip on my wrist and yanked me forward. “Don’t listen.”
The path suddenly split into three, causing our images to multiply until I couldn’t tell which way was forward. Images seemed to stagger off in every direction. My powdered cheeks, wet with tear streaks, mingled with Austin’s frustrated scowl, and in the background, smiling back at us, stood Felix.
“All mazes end in parting, Poppet. Dolls crack, sisters drown, and friends stray.”
The corridor suddenly buckled, making me stumble back.
“Fuck.” Austin grumbled as my wrist slipped free from his grip.
Panicked, I lunged for him. “No.”
But it was no use. The mirror bent like water between us. Austin got dragged left, as a force pulled me right, and a pane of glass slammed down between us with a resounding thud.
“Austin.” I pounded my palms against the glass.
He slammed his fists on the other side and yelled, “Don’t stop, Mazie, I’ll find you.” Then he turned around and rushed away.
“So much for playing the hero,” Felix snickered.
I stood there with my palms on the glass as Austin ran away, leaving me alone with the ringmaster’s diabolical grin.
“Don’t worry, Poppet. We won’t leave you alone in the dark. You’re one of us now.”
Steady footsteps crept up behind me. That was when I saw another face behind my reflection.
Flynn’s painted grin stared back at me. Firmly gripped in his hand was the knife he used to violate me and end Gina’s life.
“We’ll show you how freeing the dark can be.”