Quinn
Mia? Where was she? I had lost her while we all dispersed into various directions, running away from the boars. She was meant to stick to me but she didn’t. She had run faster than I did, scared of being mauled to her death in the forest. It wasn’t like I wasn’t afraid of dying too but I had a far greater responsibility than saving myself.
Mia had to be safe. I had to keep her alive. I had started to run after her, watching and protecting her from behind. I was going to run to where she was and we would be safe together.
A fog slid on the path between us and I couldn’t see her again when it cleared up. Where had the fog come from? There was a lot of strange happenings in this place. Where had Mia gone to?
I cursed as I leaned and looked ahead, trying to find her but I couldn’t. This was bad. That had been a fog and not a whirlwind. It wasn’t meant to have carried her away. It was only meant to have blocked my path and it had only there for two minutes. Mia couldn’t have run far within that time, not even John could have with his superhuman abilities.
There was no detour and no else she could have turned to except going straight and yet, I couldn’t see her. I sighed, hoping she was safe. How was I going to face my brothers without her when we finally meet again? I knew they both would have trusted me to keep her safe, how would I tell them that I had lost her even without having a chance to protect her?
I heard a crack behind me and wondered if she was the one. She was a crazily bold lady. She could have noticed the detour and gone back behind me to make a prank on me.
I held my breath as I turned back and let it out with a sigh as I realized that she wasn’t behind me. She was nowhere to be found as I had concluded earlier. I would have preferred her to have made a prank on me with her appearance even though I would be mad at her.
I blinked as I saw a walk behind me. It wasn’t there before and I wonder what was going on. When had it formed? It couldn’t have been formed within the last two minutes and as I looked around, I realized that where I was seemed different. I had probably walked into another part of the forest through the fog. That explained why I couldn’t see Mia despite how hard I looked.
I looked at the wall and grimaced. It stretched far and seemed like there was no end to it. I didn’t have the hope of going around or behind it to find my way out.
That wall had to be what parted the forest I was from where Mia was in. Maybe she had noticed that I was no longer behind her and had been calling out my name but I couldn’t hear her.
I decided to test if I could break the wall and walk through the rumbles. I cried out as my fist made contact with the wall and cracked open. The pain was nothing like I had ever felt before and it went straight to my head. I closed my eyes and winced in pain, breathing out slowly as I waited for the pain to go. I gritted my teeth as my broken bones began to fuse back itself, my body repairing itself.
With a resigned sigh, I decided to keep moving forward when my body was fully healed. I saw a mirror lodged between two trees and moved closer. It could be like the secret door that we had gotten into this place through and I hoped that it was. I could get myself to where Mia was pretty soon. I didn’t feel comfortable knowing that she was out there alone and there was nothing that I could do to protect her. What if the boars had caught up to her? I shuddered at the frightening thought. I couldn’t even bear to imagine the scenario. She wouldn’t stand a chance. We had had to run from the boars instead of choosing to fight, Mia would be easy meat to them.
Dear God, please keep her safe.
I prayed, doing what I had never done in years but at this point, I didn’t mind and I hoped that the supreme being didn’t as well.
I couldn’t rely on my strength to keep my loved one safe, all I could think of doing was reaching out to the one who could. Choosing to believe that gave me hope and courage to think rationally on how to get myself free from this scenario. If it wasn’t for that, I would have become a nervous wreck.
I moved closer to the mirror and as I got close, it began to swirl. I was glad that it was indeed a portal as I had thought of and was about to jump in when the mirror solidified again.
I was relieved I hadn’t been hasty or I would be dealing with another case of broken bones. I couldn’t trust anything in here. There was no doubt that the mirror was going to be as hard as the wall and I wasn’t ready to go through that pain again.
I let out a gasp as the mirror turned into a board and words began to form on it. I read as it formed, impatient to know what was going on and move on.
If you want to go through the portal and move successfully through the Island of Death to get what you want, you have to battle your fears. You will be safe if you can overcome your fears but you will die here if you can’t win over your fears.
“Fears?” I whispered to myself, wondering what that meant and how that could affect my freedom.
I wasn’t done with the thought when a pack of wolves jumped out of the mirror and started attacking me. I shed the bag off my back and dropped the one in my hand as fast as I could, preparing to fight. I wasn’t sure how strange this place was and didn’t want to shift into my wolf form to fight. It would be a nightmare if I couldn’t shift back into my human form and be trapped in a wolf body. How would I make Mia mine if I was eternally a wolf? She was still not open to being with me as a human and would definitely freak out and bail on me if I had to be a wolf.
I breathed and adjusted my stance for battle, reminding myself that it wasn’t real. The wolves were an illusion. They had jumped out of a board and there was no how they were real. I just had to make sure that they didn’t get me.
I gritted my teeth and growled as they charged at me. They could bring it on. I wasn’t going to die here. I had to see Mia again. I pictured her in her mind and drew strength from that as I fought and flicked the wolves away. I was right. The wolves weren’t real. They turned into ashes as my knife went through each one of them. There was not even a speck of blood on the knife I was fighting with. I danced on my feet, my eyes trained on the battlefield as I avoided the wolves trying to crowd in and jump at me, while still keeping my eyes on the target.
I finally fought the wolves, breathing hard as I looked at the huge pile of ashes I was surrounded with. I collapsed on the ground and calmed down my racing heart.
I looked up to see the mirror swirling again and cursed, wondering which of my fears I was going to fight now. Couldn’t I just get a break?
I had understood fighting the wolves but I didn’t know what else I would have to fight. I had always thought of the day I would have to fight my cousin to claim the title of being the alpha and sometimes got afraid of being killed.
I hoped that the dark wizard wasn’t about to step out as another part of my fears. I couldn’t deal with that. If I had to fight the dark wizard, I didn’t want to fight with the fake one. I wanted the real bastard and not an illusion.
I gasped as Mia stepped out of the mirror and walked towards me. My blood ran dry as I saw her. I knew immediately that it was a fake Mia but I was still excited to see her.
Her hair color was different and the look in her eyes as she stared at me was nothing like Mia’s.
“Mia!” I breathed, forcing myself up on my feet and inching forward.
She reached out and stroked my chin with her hand. My breath hitched and I moved closer to her, feeling an insane urge to pull her into my arms. This wasn’t my fear, this was a fantasy.
Suddenly, the look in her eyes and I felt crushed by the intensity of hatred and disgust shining through her eyes. Pain went through my heart, piercing it in a brutal manner. I should have known that the dream wasn’t going to last. After all, I had been warned that I was going to fight my fears to be free.
“Mia, what is wrong?” I asked with a tremor in my voice.
It was strange how weak I always become in her presence. Even knowing that she was fake didn’t stop me from being affected so far she was standing before me with the face of the woman I loved.
“I hate you.” She yelled.
I winced. I dreaded her saying that to me. I shook my head. She shouldn’t affect me. This was a test. I should be strong.
“No, you don’t.” I replied. There was no point reminding her that she slept with me and wouldn’t have done so if she hated me. The lady standing before me was a fake and there was no point in giving out too much information though I doubted this damned forest didn’t know of what me and Mia had done together with each other.
It wasn’t possible that it could project my fears this vividly without having read my memories. I growled at the thought, flexing my hands in annoyance. I didn’t like the thought of someone sneaking around my brain.
“I do, Quinn. Don’t be deceived. I hate you.” The fake Mia said. “I would rather die than be with you.”
The words hurt but I ignored her. Before I could blink an eye, she whipped a knife from a pocket I didn’t even know was in her dress and placed it at her neck.
I stopped dead cold and reached forward to get the knife from her hands. “Mia, don’t.” My heart was beating fast, hoping that she didn’t do what she dared to do. I knew that she was a fake version of the girl I loved but watching her die with that face was still going to do crazy to my head.
“Don’t come any closer.” She hissed at me. “If you do, this knife goes in.”
I leaned back and nodded, hoping to pacify her. “I won’t. Okay? Just drop the knife.” I couldn’t bear to call her Mia.
She had deceived me. The knife went in in a swish, faster than I could have stopped her even if I knew what she was about to do. She pulled out the knife and threw it out on the ground. She fell back, blood gushing out of her neck and her face turned to me.
A wicked smile lifted the corners of her lips as she stared at me. “You will never have me.” She said and dissolved into the air.
“No!” I screamed as I tightened my hands into fists.
Now, that was my fear and as I stayed there, trying to get my emotions under control, I hoped that this painful scene that I had just witnessed wasn’t happening where the real Mia was.
Walking up to find her dead body was going to drive me crazy.