A/N: Yep another update...yay for momentum!

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Chapter Thirty: Broken Reflections

My eyes open onto a world that was a vast and empty dark space, like a desert on the verge of twilight and complete night. Only, there were no stars or moon or anything, except a low halo of dull light running the horizon, it felt like the death of light.

As I hesitantly take the first step, I notice that the ground giving off a pale light, illuminating a small halo ring around me, giving me enough sight for a few steps in any direction around myself and it followed underneath me like a shadow. Half wanting to run around like a headless chicken to see if it would follow me, a glowing of blue light slowly dances passed me, leaving an ethereal trail of purple. Watching it, I see another one joining it, travelling further away from me, a soft ghostly chime escapes from them as they move.

Feeling the need to follow them, I quickly walk in their general direction. As I did, I see outlines of charred black tree skeletons but there were only a sparse few. A few more of the wisps sprang up, moving in the same direction I was but in slower speeds, bobbing up and down, like they weren't in a rush. One runs passed my side only to turn into black smoke and dissipates into nothing. Feeling a bit curious at that I keep looking ahead, peering at the trees more closely and saw that a few were crumbling, branches falling off into smoke and disappearing into thin air. This world was dying. And a feeling of déjà vu mixes in with the unfamiliarity of this place. ...Like I had been here before but it's been twisted by this person's reality.

I can't ponder on this. I need to find this girl...I think? Is that where I am again? Whatever it is, I know that is what I needed to do.

Walking passed another tree, I notice that its colouration was split down the middle. On the side that I'm coming from, it was still dark, dead and crispy looking while the other side had brilliant blood red foliage and a dark brown trunk. I stare up at it and a wisp goes through the branches, but as it does, some of the foliage crumbles into the all too familiar darkness, along with the wisp choking into smoke. I recoil back a step.

I walk further along my path and notice the difference as I head further in, the dead wasteland was turning into an autumn forest, sickening from the black rot slowly taken over the trees. The corrosion was obvious, the woodland will soon look like the rest of this place; there was no time left. I bite my lip, not liking where my thoughts were heading.

As I walk under another tree, this time with minimal black rot, I began to hear someone screaming out in distress, echoing from the depths of this place. I try my best to stop my knees from shaking, preparing to meet whatever it is in here. Will it be the Queen? Ready and waiting to rip out my throat? What difference does that make now? Either in here or out there, it's the same. Death.

Rounding a tree, I try to piece together the scene before me.

Between a few trees was a bedroom; two walls strung up like I was looking in on a set on a show. The wall colour was a strong fuchsia pink with a full bookshelf and an unmade bed beside it and on the other end was a small build in wardrobe. On the floor was a thick round pale grey rug that I had a strong urge to roll on; it looked fluffy. There was even a decorative orange and black glass ceiling light dangling from an outstretched branch, creating a false sense of a 'room'. On the floor was a girl who was about my age, looking into a rustic gold oval mirror that was on the bottom of the wall adjacent from me. The girl was smashing her fists against the mirror, sobbing and calling her heart out.

"Stop! Please, stop it! Why aren't you moving? Please! Please! Stop me! Please!"

She continues on and on, her fists thudding on the smooth glass but the mirror doesn't break.

A dreaded feeling rises up in my chest as I suspect who this girl is. What should I do? "Hello," the word awkwardly fell from my mouth before I could tape it shut. Ok, a nice friendly greeting. That'll work...

She yelps in surprise then whirrs her head back at me, then back at the mirror's reflection then back at me –then back at the mirror. Her eyes wide open as she gets onto her feet and backs up to the corner of this 'bedroom', right in front of her bookshelf. She then went back to looking at me then the mirror.

Yep totally going well...

"You-you-you," she points to me then the mirror. "That's you."

I look at the mirror from here, it was only a shiny silver surface to me; it didn't reflect anything and I couldn't help frowning in confusion.

"You're in here but you're supposed to be out there! This is-this- who are you? How did you get in here? It has you...oh my god, don't tell me I sucked you out of your body! It's about to rip out your throat and now you have to sit here and watch it. What'll happen? Will you disappear? I'm am so sorry. So sorry....I didn't want to but I can't stop..." she collapses to her knees, her face in her hands as she starts crying her heart out.

I bite my lip again, trying hard to think as she sniffs. I step onto the creamy pink carpet (nice change from the dead cracked ground) and then the rug, kneeling down to her level, trying not to look stupid (as I'm feeling really awkward). "I'm Kae."

After another sniff and rubbing her nose across the back of her sleeve, she looks up at me, "Kae?"

I nod, staring into her bloodshot soft brown eyes, she is pretty even as a hot mess.

She almost smiles at me, "It's nice to meet you, Kae." She then extend her hand out between us, the one that she didn't use to wipe her face, "I'm Zoe."

I take her offer at a handshake, feeling incredibly shy as I've never really done one of them in about a decade. Even then it was sloppy and awkward but I don't think she cared. She grabs a pastel blue cushion from her bed, hugging it as she curls up, almost relaxing. I take in what she was wearing, I think it's a school uniform. A dark green jumped and a check-pattern tri-coloured skirt with black shoes and white socks that went to just under her knees.

Her eyes flicker to the mirror, "Why aren't they moving? I mean you...and," she hesitates to say, "'me'. Out there. In the real world."

"...I don't really know...but I guess thoughts are instantaneous sometimes...and really I don't think that when you 'dream' that you take notice of the time."

"I guess...I'm sorry for what I've done to you out there...it looked like it hurt...your shoulder I mean. And...your friend..."

"It's ok. He's made of stronger stuff than me."

She shook her head, "You were able to move around even after all that screaming...I saw..."she hesitates to say the next bit and only murmurs it softly, "When someone wondered in before you and your friend, I saw what the voice could do. I-I ripped them to shreds while they just stood there...it was horrible."

"I'm sorry for what you've been made to go through...been made to do..." I feel so much guilt for what this girl has been forced into becoming.

An awkward silence settles between us before she clears her throat and asks, obviously trying to keep the conversation going "So, how did you get in here?"

I shrug, "I can't really explain it...this is the second time I've done this...sorry...I'm not really helpful, am I?"

She gives me a soft smile, "That's ok. How old are you anyway? You look so young."

I sit down on the floor, "Sixteen...Seventeen...? I'm not really sure."

"Younger than me either way. I'm eighteen."

This must be what it'd feel like if I had been on the other side of the Fence...or if this world never existed. I'd be at school...have friends, just random everyday shit. But that isn't the case...I was watching my fingers as I drew them through the plush rug. I needed to distract myself, "...this 'forest' I walked through...and leads to this bed..."

"It's my favourite place...I think I read it in a book once and I've always wanted to go to a maple forest in the middle of autumn and I've always imagined it like this...well...mostly," she paused. She knew about the sickening darkness consuming it, "and this is my room."

Her security and paradise meld together into one another. Dreams never really made sense I guess. I look at the mirror, "Is that how you see what's going on?"

She nods, "...Ever since I can't get out of here, my mirror became a tv," she laughs nervously.

"Can't get out?"

"Yeah. Before I was still out there, I would lapse into here until one day I couldn't get back but I was able to yell at the mirror and it used to listen to me but now it's almost impossible...I've lost all control of my body" her eyes suddenly widen, "...and it's naked, isn't it!?"

"Um...yeah..."

"Oh my God!" she wails into her pillow.

Feeling the awkwardness level rising, I quickly look away and around the room, my eyes landing on an elegant red dress hanging on the door of her wardrobe and I get up to look at it. "This is nice."

She looks up at it and a sad smile glances across her lips, "I was going to where it to prom." She stands up, abandoning the pillow and looks at it lovingly, "It was so hard to find one and then I just saw it one day and...yeah...I saved up for it for months, made the shop owner promise to hold onto it for me and then..." She glances back at the mirror for a second, "But that doesn't matter anymore. I'm in here...this isn't even real and everything is...gone."

I felt only desolate helplessness and wanted to cry for her, my eyes were feeling itchy. "You could still wear it," my voice was barely a whisper.

"How? This isn't real-"

"This is your world. You can decide what's real or not," I urge a bit more strongly.

She looks at me in the face, taking in what I just said and then looked back at the dress, "Turn around."

I did as she asks and turn back out to the forest...and my eyes widen at the sight; the forest this deep had started showing signs of the darkness creeping up and corrupting everything. Shutting my eyes I try to block out the sudden rise of impatience; we were running out of time. Zoe is running out of time.

I let out a breath to try and calm myself, what could I do? ...I knew the eventual answer to that question but not yet. Please just wait a little longer.

"Ok, you can look now."

I turn around and see her standing there rather shyly, waiting for my judgement.

The dress suited her perfectly. It showed her curves without having to dangle out the cleavage much. I might not know much of about fashion or dresses but she really shines, standing there in her red dress. She even managed to apply the right amount of makeup and had her hair in an up-do and dark thick tendrils escaped. She was picture perfect.

She took in my stare and touches her head, "I thought that since you were right, I could imagine my hair the way I wanted it to be and it went like this instantaneously...that's a time saver," she nervously laughs again but then looks at me earnestly, "...is it ok?"

I nod like an idiot, "It's perfect. You're perfect."

She giggles, holding both her hands out for mine, "Then...can I have this dance?"