43
Mirror, Mirror
“Okay, come again?” I asked after shaking my head a few times and asking myself if I had heard her correctly.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Sophia told me in that dismissive way that people do when they want you to move past something and quickly. I knew this when she ignored my inner freak out and started speaking again, only this time it wasn’t to me, it was to Pip.
“But I thought they were all destroyed back in the 1600’s?” Sophia asked, clearly surprised. Whereas I was still about 400 years stuck in the past asking myself what was going on?
“You mean after the great booming fire in London, which was to cover up the demon outbreak of 1666,” she said making Sophia groan.
“Yeah don’t remind me, your husband was certainly a pain in the ass for us back then,” she replied making my mouth drop and Pip frown.
“Well, what do you expect, he was angry, being locked up for all those centuries and…”
“Oh, don’t you give me that, we all know it was when he first met you, so you can just go ahead and take the little Miss Innocent act off the table and tell her to piss off!” Sophia argued back, but it was at this point that I held up my hands in surrender and said,
“Okay, someone is going to have to explain this one to me.” Pip just folded her arms and gave us a pout.
“I take it she knows how you first met lover beast boy?” Sophia first asked Pip who shrugged her shoulders like a pissed off teenager.
“Yeah, she told me when we were in Germany together,” I answered for her.
“So, you know she got sent down because of the outbreak of the Black…”
“Don’t say it!” Pip shouted, hating it when people mentioned it.
“…Death?” Sophia finished, making Pip wince as if she had been shot.
“So, after being on the run, and having to hunt her ass…”
“Yeah, thanks for that by the way!” Pip interjected, sarcastically.
“Wait a minute, you hunted her and sent her to Hell?!” I shouted back at Sophia who was now not only frowning at Pip, but now at me.
“Of course I did, she managed to kill 40,000 people!”
“38, 472! And don’t forget one of those had a bad heart anyway so he doesn’t count,” Pip said in her defence and I remembered back to that day hearing her saying the same thing to me, now giving me the strangest form of déjà vu.
“Oh yeah, ‘cause that makes it better. Anyway, we found her hunting some guy, who we now know coerced her into doing something stupid like bringing infested rats from China into the country,” Sophia said in a kinder tone this time.
“My bad,” Pip added, proving that this was still a much loved motto after all.
“So, what does this have to do with a Demon outbreak?” I asked wondering where these two tales would interlock.
“1666 was when Pip was sent down and as punishment was given to Abaddon.”
“Oh, yeah she told me that,” I said but still not really understanding, so quickly following this up with a question.
“But how did Pip meeting cause an Outbreak topside?”
“Oh, would listen to our little Tooterina, all grown up and talking like one of us, calling it topside and all…”
“Stop trying to change the subject, Squeak,” Sophia said making Pip sulk.
“The reason her meeting him caused an outbreak was to save herself from being eaten, as what she no doubt failed to mention, was after she first entertained him by dancing around and laughing, she then quickly found another, shall we say, very inventive way of doing it further,” Sophia told me, and I was about to ask as my brain was obviously not up to the task at seeing the obvious, but Pip beat me to it.
“How was I supposed to know the big guy was a freakin’ virgin and it was his first time and also that an orgasm was literally going to break the confines of Hell and open up a fucking window…it’s not like I was playing ballgames inside the house!” she argued, meanwhile my brain was still stuck on them having sex!
“No, you were just firing them at the glass with a fucking bazooka!”
“You had sex with Abaddon the first time and broke Hell?” I asked utterly gobsmacked. She gave me a cheeky grin and then looked at her nails to blow on them before telling me,
“What can I say Toots, it was earth shattering,” she said with a wink.
“Anyway, that might have technically been my fault, but the next biggy was on you guys!” she argued this time making Sophia groan.
“The next Biggy?” I asked trying to keep up with these two.
“Oh, you know when I told you about when they tried to take me off him the year later which ended up killing 80,000 people in the Shamakhi earthquake! You know that number which is double the amount of deaths my shit caused!” Pip said in a know it all tone making Sophia throw her hands up in the air as though she was dealing with a naughty child that wouldn’t listen.
“Here we go again.” I muttered shaking my head wondering whether I should just let these two wrestle it out and have done with it.
“Oh, I see you told her that part right but leaving out the demon horde… nice.” This was when I snapped again.
“Okay, okay, enough!” I shouted getting in between them and holding a palm out to them both.
“Please tell me that these issues were dealt with years ago and we are not choosing now, a time where there is zero to spare, going over something that happened four hundred years ago?!” I said in that exasperated tone. They both looked at each other and said at the same time,
“She has a point.”
“She’s got a point.”
“Yeah, totally our new motto, and Dancing Danny is so gonna get a lot of work coming his way!” Pip added, now strangely looking excited.
“Dancing Danny?”
“My T shirt guy,” she told me before going back to searching the ground for something…but what, I had no clue.
“Oh, is he a dancer as well?” I randomly chose this question to ask.
“No, why?” she replied frowning. I looked to Sophia, silently asking her if what I asked was beyond the realms of comprehension, when she just shrugged her shoulders, so I thought it best at this point to just let it go.
“Never mind, so what is this thing anyway?”
“You mean a Testis Circulo?” Pip repeated, now on her hands and knees poking at the ground as if testing it for something.
“It was known as a Testis Circulo, which is Latin for ‘Witness Circle’ but then after the…” she paused a second and looked at Pip whose lips were pouting as she waited for what she would say next. Sophia released a sigh and decided a safer way to go was to call it something else.
“…The incident, the Witness circles were used as portals to gain access into this world, so therefore my brother gave the order to have them all destroyed.”
“So, they were all knocked down like this one?” I asked.
“No, no, this one probably just fell into disrepair not long after King James VII and William II were driven into exile. Which then prompted the Jacobite Risings and a string of armed attempts to restore the Catholic Stuart line…” Sophia said in a way that she thought was common knowledge and I really didn’t want to tell her at this point that I had no clue what she was talking about. Even as a history buff, I wasn’t that hot on all the dates and names of the Royals. Which is why my confusion doubled when Pip added a scoffed,
“Yeah and they tried for about fifty years, daft buggars.”
“Anyway, I can see that I am losing here, so I will get to my point, what was destroyed in the Witness Circles was what powered them, not the buildings themselves.”
“So, they were used as portals?” I asked again, making sure I had this right.
“Yes, their power and purpose were reversed, so to speak, and they were used for walking into their future, not seeing into their past as was intended.” This was when I finally got it.
“So that’s why we are here, for me to look into my past?” Sophia first looked to Pip to see her nod, before turning to me to do the same, now that she had Pip’s master plan confirmed.
“Okay, so I feel like I have to ask here…why would that help me?”
“Because, my question asking loving friend, you said if only you could go back and find out how this all began, well, this is what we are doing here.” Okay so she was right, I had said that this morning and now her earlier comment was starting to make sense. She wasn’t planning on sending me back to the past literally, she was just making it so that I could play it back somehow…or at least I hoped this was what she meant.
Pip still looked busy, now strangely on her knees down in front of four cut out squares that were in the higher part of what remained of the small wall. There was also a tourist plaque in front of them, obviously explaining what the room was used for, but I was too far away to see. So, I took a step forward about to walk through the gap in the wall, when Sophia held me back.
“Not yet.” I frowned in question, but this was as far as I got in actual asking. Instead I watched as Pip seemed to be trying to locate something and then when she stuck her hand in the third hole she shouted,
“Boo yeah! That’s the sucker!”
“No way! Is it still in there?” Sophia asked seemingly excited herself.
“Too right it is, I knew that slimly little toad Belphegor had done a shit job,” she said standing up and patting the dirt off her knees.
“Wait, where have I heard that name before?” I asked recognising it being said but it had been years ago.
“You know it because that asshole Sammael and he had been partners once,” Sophia answered with a sneer. And this was when the memory hit me. It was shortly after my dream of Sammael in the bathroom and shortly after me and Draven first became an item. I had just finished drawing him and had showed the picture to Draven, which was when I first learned about Sammael’s past. One that included the demon Belphegor being one of his partners in crime.
“Okay so this Belphegor, I get it, obviously a bad dude…” I stopped when Pip snorted a laugh.
“Yeah, he wishes.”
“What do you mean?”
“Belphegor is a drunk and a demon lackey for hire and that’s it. He’s about as scary and as dangerous as a bumblebee on a daisy!” Sophia answered before Pip added,
“Yeah, unless you consider his farts as a weapon, although he did manage to clear out the pub that one time he shit himself and I don’t care what he said, that was not follow through but just his lazy ass that couldn’t be bothered to get up and use the drunken little demon room!” Pip finished by holding her nose like she could still smell it.
“Eww.”
“Yep, eww is right. Well, anyway whichever dipshit put him in charge of anything other than wiping his own ass is beyond me, but I knew the second I saw him drag his baggy ass up here, that he would be useless!” Pip said with a face of disgust.
“Wait a minute, you did something, didn’t you?” Sophia asked and this time she didn’t look angry about it but instead impressed.
“I might have,” Pip replied looking sheepish.
“Oh come, spill… you filled a void, didn’t you?” Sophia pressed, making me wonder what filling the void meant? Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long, making this one less question I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from asking.
“Okay, so yes, I made him believe he had done it, so his slobbering mouth could go back and say, ‘Mission completed’ and no one would be the wiser…hence my very own personal Witness Circle,” Pip told us, holding out her hands as if presenting it proudly and my only reaction to all this was,
“I have to say, neither of you paint a pretty picture of this guy.”
“Let’s put it this way, think Quasimodo’s older, uglier and definitely smellier cousin and you’re about half way there to imagining how revolting this guy is.” Well, after that I would say that Pip was painting a pretty good image in my head and she knew this when I wrinkled my nose as if I was now the one smelling rotting cheese.
“Right, now let’s get this Kazzy Toot show in the Dovecot!” Pip said clapping her hands and jumping up onto the wall before leaping off it like a cheesy 80’s Rockstar with an air guitar and landing next to me.
“Okay, but you’re definitely sure about this…right?” I asked adding this last word, aiming it at Sophia as Pip started to lead me past her. I had to say her shrugged shoulders didn’t give me the confidence booster I had been looking for.
“Yeah sure, why not…? Right, so I want you to kneel down and put your hand inside the third hole,” Pip said, pointing down at it. So, I did as I was told, trusting that neither of them would let me do something stupid, like say, go back a couple of thousand years in the past after first leaping through a portal that usually killed people. A thought that naturally prompted me to ask,
“Uhh…are we sure about this?”
“Totally!”
“Not really” Both answered me and neither answer had me feeling good about this, not when the only positive answer had come from Pip, our crazy but equally loveable naughty Imp.
“Okay then,” I stated in a strained tone, and just as I was about to reach inside, I ended up taking one look at the sign now in front of me. This ended in me shouting,
“You’re kiddin me, this is where the birds were kept!”
“Well yeah, it’s a Dovecot, what did you expect would be kept in there, spare dolphins?” I gave Pip a look that said it all before squatting further down with a groan.
“Okay, now reach inside until you feel a jagged piece of rock…do you feel it?” Pip asked after watching me for a few seconds.
“Yeah, I feel it, and there is a dipped smooth bit beneath it, is that it?”
“Bingoni!” she shouted, sounding like this was a new Italian version of the game.
“Right, so that smooth bit below is like a little cup that will drain down to drip onto what is called a Hell’s Opal. When that happens, you need to be stood in the centre on the mark I drew in the dirt.” I looked behind me to find a symbol I had never seen before drawn there, telling me that was what she had been up to earlier.
“What’s a Hell’s Opal?” I couldn’t help but ask, making Sophia chuckle when Pip groaned,
“I swear I am going to swap Toots for Curious Cathy if she carries on asking questions.”
“What do you expect, she is still a demon baby,” Sophia told her with a shrug of her shoulders.
“Hey!” I complained, one they both ignored.
“It’s a precious stone that was once mined in Hell and is formed from underground caverns that connects to the river of blood that surrounds Lucifer’s Palace,” Sophia told me and had me utterly fascinated, which meant I was just about to ask a ton more questions when Pip ordered,
“Now stick your hand in there and let’s boogie.” I gave her a wry look, but knew my mind was still stuck on river of blood and palace in Hell where Lucifer lived. Things like what did it look like and did he have a cleaning lady that came once a week? But then one look from Pip and I did as I was told, sticking my hand in there. Then I waited for a few seconds. It was only after nothing happened that I had no choice but to ask,
“Okay, so what do I do now?”
“Say three Hail Marys.” Pip said.
“Really?”
“No, of course not! Now just think of a time you want to be shown and then cut your hand in the jagged piece of rock, so you can feed the stone your blood,” Pip told me on a giggle, but the second she said the words, ‘cut’ and ‘blood’ she had lost me.
“You want me to do what?!”
“It’s only a little prick, don’t be a baby!” Sophia said on a laugh.
“Ha, that’s not what she said when she was trying for that baby!” Pip joked making me growl but then burst out laughing as I had to give it to her, the joke was funny.
“Okay, I can do this!” I said psyching myself up and rolling my shoulders as if I was about to go ten rounds with someone.
“Yeah and while you’re at it, can you do it a bit quicker, as time’s a wasting Tootie not yet bleeding.”
“Okay this is it, wish me luck!” I said giving them both one last glance to find Pip holding both her thumbs up at me, whilst Sophia mouthed a ‘You will be fine’ at me. I gave them both a nervous laugh in return and then closed my eyes, before dragging my palm across the stone and crying out as I felt it tear into my skin.
“Oww!” I said holding it there after Pip told me to and when she started pumping her fingers in and out to get the blood flowing, I did the same. Then when we all heard a grinding noise she shouted,
“NOW!”
I quickly got off my knees and went to stand where she had said, as I waited for whatever was supposed to happen. Then I heard the grinding of stone against stone getting louder and louder, making me look around to see if I could spot where it was coming from.
“What’s happening?!” I shouted as now I had to yell over the sound as it was getting so loud. I expected to hear a response, but when I looked to the girls I noticed that now their figures had started to merge and blur with the rest of the world. As if they were now being viewed through a cloudy veil or some warped version of reality. Pretty soon you couldn’t even make them out as being two people stood next to each other. As though someone had painted them and then whilst the paint was still wet, the artist had run an angry hand through the portrait.
But this was soon to be the least of my problems, as the second my nerves got the better of me I tried to move, quickly finding myself unable to do so. It was as if the earth beneath my feet had rooted itself to me. As if, now that the offer of blood had been made, I had unknowingly signed an unbreakable pact. One that wouldn’t release me of my invisible chains until the deal was done and that first meant caging me in.
“What the Hell?” I asked myself when suddenly the stone wall around me started to grow, moving around in a corkscrew as if it was rebuilding itself. Its walls grew higher and higher as though it was taking back time.
It started to reach up storeys above me until it formed a dome at the top and only then, when each stone level had nowhere else to go, did it forge together. I now knew, after seeing the diagram on the tourist plaque, that I was looking at how it was back in the day when it was first built. That was minus the hole at the top, which had closed in forming a closed roof. But each of the walls were covered with rows and rows of square holes and the only thing missing were the birds to go in them and a doorway to get out.
But the second the grinding sound stopped then another quickly followed it and this time, it was one even more scary to face. Well, that was considering now I was faced with being stuck in an enclosed space, one that didn’t look the best for ventilation…or should I say more importantly…drainage.
Because what I now heard was the sound of gushing water as if it was travelling up the walls behind a hidden cavity.
“Oh no…no, no, this is bad, this is very…” I was quickly cut off at the sight of water suddenly bursting out and start gushing from the holes all at once. And my reaction, well it was instinctive. I crouched low and covered my head, waiting for it to land all around me, hammering into my body as it did…
But it never came.
I don’t know how long I waited, wincing and bracing for impact, one I thought would no doubt kill me by drowning. But like I said, there was nothing. I knew by now I should have felt something but not even a single drop of water had dripped on me, which in the end, forced my decision to look. So, with caution, I opened one eye a tiny crack and then found myself soon staring wide-eyed and in awe of what was above me.
“Impossible,” I whispered in amazement. It was incredible and like looking into a pool of water in reverse. I was now staring up at my reflection looking down at me through the water that was magically suspended above me. It was such a mind bender that when I stood up I wobbled, nearly falling over from feeling dizzy. Almost as though I was trying to walk after first standing and being twisted around on my head for an hour.
“I don’t understand?” I told myself as my head started to tilt to one side and it was like looking into a mirror on the ceiling and finding someone in control of your other self. It felt so familiar that I tried to take a step back, but found like before I couldn’t move from the symbol on the ground. I shook my head as if this would help rid me of the strange feeling, but nothing worked. It was stuck to me, hanging there like the sticky remains of a memory I couldn’t shake off.
Which was when it hit me where it was coming from. Which memory it was that had me now too scared to move.
It was me and Katie.
All those tortured looks calling out to me in desperation. A life being shared by two souls sharing the same body. One was sacrificed and the other got to live, but which of us was the one trapped in the water now? Which one of us had this part to play, because right at this second as I stared back at myself, it didn’t feel like me.
And just like that time, I had no power over what my reflection did as she started to beckon me closer. But something in her eyes told me this wasn’t right. That I wasn’t to trust in my own image and the blood I had shared was creating this new fear for me now. Which was why I wanted to pull away and recoil from her, but something had me trapped, as if I just couldn’t stop myself. Half of me wanted to escape the spell and the other half that was a part of me just couldn’t let go.
That was also the part of me that was reaching up.
‘Closer’
I could see myself mouthing the luring word down back at myself and the second I started to pull my hand away, the water would ripple as if something beneath it was being disturbed. As if I was trying to break the connection and that wasn’t right. I tried to remember why I was here in the first place and what I was on a mission to find. I knew this was my only chance at this and what if what I saw ended up being the key to all of this. What if this offer of my blood was my only shot at saving the man I loved from being ripped in two?
So, with that in mind I decided to do something stupid, hoping that eventually it would lead me to somewhere knowledge was the key. A knowledge that would lead the way for yet another journey I must take.
So, I reached back up as if ready to touch it when the image above me started to become clear again, after the ripples had calmed. And the second it did I screamed.
“AHHH!” I cried out in horror, because there I was, my face now so close to the surface it was haunting. It looked like me, but I had changed…I was now also the face of death. One floating in the water, as if caught there demanding to be let out of its eternal cage and mimicking me as she too was silently screaming back at me. And in that silent scream I saw myself suddenly back to that day. A day when a bloody shard of broken mirror showed me another reflection…
One of death.
This was enough to jolt me into action. I was just about to yank my hand away when suddenly her own hand burst through the water and grabbed me. I cried out and tried to fight it, but I knew the second my feet came off the ground that it was useless.
I was being dragged up into the water and the second I was pulled through, my very last thought had been a chilling one,
Why were my arms slashed and bloody just like they had been that day…The day I felt like I died for the first time? Which was when it hit me. Pip had told me to think of a past I wanted it to show me.
And a past I did think about, just the wrong one.
One that was ruled by the name…
Morgan.