It takes all of five minutes before I’m thoroughly lost. I keep my hands held out before me, preventing me from running face first into one of the mirrors.
I did that a couple of years ago and my nose was bruised for a week.
A few minutes pass by with nothing but the company of my own reflection. My heart rate is pumping erratically, my breathing uneven with excitement. Despite the pounding in my chest, this is where I feel most… normal.
Off in the distance, I hear a faint shuffling of feet. Not very many people come in here, especially this late, but there’s plenty of people who like to take on the challenge.
Continuing on my wayward path, I concentrate on where I’m going, soon forgetting about anything else going on around me. The trick is to focus on the floor and not your reflection.
Just as I almost face plant a mirror, I hear a dark chuckle. My head snaps up, the tone of the laugh sounding evil. A spark of adrenaline ignites, pumping the chemical into my heart and kicking up the speed further.
Did an employee dressed as a monster sneak in here to mess with me? I wouldn’t hold it past them. They’re known to follow people around and terrorize them.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I turn to find my bearings. If there is a creepy monster in here with me, I’d rather they not get close enough that I have to look at a thousand of their reflections.
Finding my way past the mirror that almost gave me a nose job, I start ahead again.
“Little mouse.” The whisper seems to travel from every direction.
My limbs lock, not sure if my imagination is playing tricks on me or if Zade is actually here.
Unfreezing, I force myself to keep moving, hoping I’m just imagining things.
“Where are you, little mouse?”
I gasp, the deep voice closer. Another sinister chuckle echoes, and Jesus Christ, this man is capable of evil. No one sane sounds like that.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I take three deep, calming breaths, trying to ease my racing heart.
He’s fucking with me. Trying to scare me. And it’s fucking working when I’m trapped in a maze of mirrors, and he’s laughing like a goddamn lunatic.
He can’t just let me have my night, can he? For once, I didn’t think about him and my conflicting feelings. And though Zade doesn’t quite scare me as much—except for maybe right now—the feelings he brings out of me certainly do.
Maybe if I keep quiet, he won’t find me.
Restarting my path, I quicken my pace until I’m speed walking through the labyrinth of mirrors.
I’ve no idea how far I am, but I don’t even think I’ve made it halfway through.
It’s right then that I see the first image of Zade reflected back at me. Dressed in all black, with his scarred face hidden deep in his hood. I gasp, whipping around just to find more of his reflection.
He’s not behind me, but he’s somewhere close.
“Stop it,” I bite out, fear constricting my chest.
He doesn’t answer, and of course, the fucker doesn’t listen. I’m caught in a whirlwind, my body continuously moving in circles, desperate to pin exactly where he is.
“You all alone, baby girl?”
I swallow. “Obviously,” I whisper, still searching for where he is. It feels like I shouldn’t have said that.
“No one here to save you?”
A shot of anxiety hits me in the chest.
“Why the hell would I need to be saved, Zade? You going to hurt me?”
It’s then he lifts his head, just enough for me to provide a view of his mouth. A wicked smirk is stretched across those lips.
I try to remember that he won’t hurt me. He was just in my bed a week ago, sad and vulnerable. By the time I opened my eyes in the morning, he was gone, and I haven’t heard from him since.
But my brain is having trouble connecting who he is now to who he was then.
Because now… he looks savage.
“I’m going to ruin you,” he corrects. I take a step back, a lump forming in my throat. His image moves, his body walking in a different direction. Is he coming closer? I can’t tell. I take another step back, the adrenaline in my system rising to dangerous levels.
He’s scaring me.
“Run,” he growls. My lungs constrict at the guttural command. “If I catch you, I fuck you.”
Eyes widening, I listen, my body catapulting into action.
I run.
In here, I’m completely vulnerable to him. I’m well and truly trapped in the spider’s web, and the son of a bitch is poisonous.
His reflection follows me everywhere I go. There were a few times I was convinced I’d truly lost him, seeing nothing but my own image. And then he’d step out from somewhere, crushing my hopes.