The Count of Castle Rock

Chapter XV- Twisted Corridors

"What's going on," Nemu asks, squeezing herself between the young men.

"I don't know, but I'd like to get out of here." Leesa takes a step towards the mirror. "I know we came this way. Maybe it's some kind of mirage?"

Laughter greets the group, echoing off the walls like taunting bird calls, and the interior of the mirror swirls. Out of the distortion emerges a silhouette of pure shadow with bright blue pinpricks for eyes. The Methuen thing. It presses its hands against the opposite side of the mirror, a prisoner testing the boundaries of its cage.

The three local youths ward themselves and, for the first time, Leesa felt she did the same.

"We should go," Leesa says, moving towards the stairs. When no one reacts, she grabs Hans and Nemu and shouts to Tad. "Let's go!"

"No. Stay," the mirror sighs.

The quartet can't have possibly run faster as they spill down the steps. They follow the hall left then right then left once more. The black bricks run together, each hallway looking the same as they try desperately to find their way back to the main hall. Leesa leads the way as best she can, but after ten minutes they are irrevocably lost.

Eventually, they stop in a space new to their eyes shaped like a hexagon. In its center is a plain wooden table with a single page of parchment, a bottle of ink and a quill made from a peacock's feather. Four archways point in four separate directions. Leesa, Hans, Thaddeus, and Nemu each peer down a different passage before convening at the table.

"Which way do we go?" Hans asked. His chest heaves and Heath's suit shows the beginning of more than a few sweat stains.

Thaddeus's more expensive suit is soaked and the girls are badly in need of a touchup.

"Don't ask me." Thaddeus squints down the hall at his back. "We were following you two."

Nemu nods in agreement.

"Well we can't go back the way we came," Leesa says. She reads the writing on the parchment. "Lost and found, and lost again. The finish at the beginning, and start at the end..."

"What does that mean?" asks the chunky merchant's son.

"It... it sounds vaguely familiar," Hans admits, stepping away from the table and taking a good look at the space around them.

"I'm scared." Nemu shivers.

Leesa follows the girl's gaze to a patch of shadows crawling along the ceiling. She swallows with a throat gone dry.

"Let's keep moving."

Leesa chooses the hallway behind her and leads the group quickly down the passage. At the far end they turn right and emerge in a new hexagonal room. It's only furniture is a wooden table with parchment, ink and quill. They walk past the table and quickly choose a second passage only to return. Frustrated, Leesa calls to the gods Trayvon and Teraji for protection. The group agrees to try a third passage and move on with swift intentions.

At the end of the hall they turn right and notice the hexagon room beyond.

"Look," Hans says.

Behind them the black bricks are gone, replaced by white stones and black mortar. The way back was not the way forward.

"I can't take this much longer," Nemu says as she runs back the way they came.

"Wait," Leesa calls. "We have to stay together."

Catching the eyes of the young men, Leesa takes the lead as they give chase. The white hall joins a new black hall decorated by grotesque paintings of men and beast performing all forms of unspeakable acts. Some are interesting, others revolting. One in particular brings Leesa up short. She stares up at the oil paint artwork and once more feels a chill roll down her spine.