Subject Zero: Mirrors (Book 2)

Chapter 4: World ZERO

Wednesday, December 5, 1984
(5 months ago...)
7:40p.m.
The Void

The floor was one giant mirror, and the same applied to all four walls and the ceiling. Everywhere Zero looked, she only saw herself. There wasn't a door, there wasn't a way out. She was stuck with herself. How unfortunate, being trapped in a small room with endless reflections of every version of herself that she knew.

She caught a faint glimpse of Liam behind one of the walls. She quickly ran over to said wall and began to hit her fists on the mirror. Miraculously, they weren't even cracking. That look on his face as he looked at her... as though he found familiarity in her. The guilt of it all shadowed over him. It had for a long, long time.

     "I know, Zee, I know... I wish things were different," said Liam. His tone... He sounded sorry for her. Regretful. "...But your friends won't find him. I'm surprised he's lasted this long."

     "No!" She shouted at him, "Stop it!"

"Zero—"

"Get out of my head!!!"

Her hard and quick breathing was only making her lightheaded. Her head hurt so badly, worse than it ever had before. Tears formed in her eyes and she began to choke on them as they streamed down her face.

Liam stood on the other side of the mirror, doing nothing, saying nothing. Doing nothing but watching her, like he was looking at a version of his own self when he saw her. His heart felt heavy as his expression subtly hardened, yet saddened at the same time.

As she was crying and hitting her hands on the mirror, she said, "I can't breathe in here... I can't breathe in here! Let me go!"

     "Zero... Breathe."

Zero took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. Even then, even while she was afraid of him, she still trusted his worry for her.

His expression softened as he slowly reached his hand through the mirror... And, albeit hesitant to do so, she reached her hand over to his, breathing shakily. All she wanted was her mind to be her own, all she wanted was to feel okay alongside the people she cared for.

But then... he shut his eyes tightly, as if to not watch, when he suddenly pulled her through the mirror, only for her to start falling and falling into the void, deeper into the water which she was previously able to walk on. She screamed, the sound of it somehow echoing louder and louder the farther down she went. She was sinking so far down, she couldn't tell which way was up.

But he couldn't hear her screams anymore when she fell through another mirror.

?

Zero fell through the mirror and onto the ground, which was muddy. The impact made her dazed. She slowly sat up and rubbed her head, which hit the ground when she fell. She looked around, realizing she wasn't in the cabin or in the void. She was in what seemed to be a dark tunnel that had a lamppost. There were a few bones and ripped pieces of flesh lying around, as well as spiderwebs.

She slowly stood up, looking to see if anyone was around. "Jesper...?" she asked. "Norman?"

She could hear faint whispers on one side of the tunnel, but she didn't see anyone or anything there, just darkness. The light began to flicker and the whispers got closer. Zero instinctively took a few steps back.