Mirabel's Doppelganger

Chapter 10: Dangerous Secrets

I froze in terror as Mirabel's feet dropped out from under her and she fell. She still held the rope in her hand so luckily she more swung than fell but my heart beat wildly as she did so. She swung overtop of the ground on the other side and let go, almost actually falling to her death as she windmilled her arms in an attempt to get her balance. I didn't start breathing again until she was away from the edge safe and sound looking at me.

She took a second to catch her breath, her face still looking slightly terrified over what had just happened. But as she looked over at me her mouth turned up into an exhilarated smile.

"That just happened! And I'm alive! I'm on the other side and I'm alive! Whoo!" She did a little bird jump as she yelled in celebration, and once again almost died as the rock fell out from under her feet. Luckily she jumped out of the way this time.

As she met my eyes, I glared at her across the cavern, angry and terrified all at once. I aggressively pointed for her to back away from the edge and she did so. 

"NEVER do that again," I growled across the cavern as I pulled out one of the loose sticks that lined the stairs to fish for the rope that now hung halfway across.

"Was little Y/n worried about me?" She teased. 

I froze, which made me lose grip on the rope that I had already gotten almost close enough to grab. I glared at her again, "Little Y/n isn't the one that almost fell to her death twice in two minutes," I pointed out.

She opened her mouth and then closed it, "Point taken."

She stayed silent as I got hold of the rope and after testing it cautiously swung across. I still barely made it. I windmilled my arms as the cavern opened up behind me, Mirabel grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me to safety, grinning. 

"There, we're even. I terrified you and you terrified me!"

"You don't look very worried to me," I grumbled as we walked forward. She just rolled her eyes in response.

We both stopped talking as we walked further into the intimidating tunnel ahead of us. It had strange carvings of what looked like Bruno on the walls with green swirls, and it kept going forward, the end shrowded in darkness.

A crash made us both jump. Whipping around we saw a small toucan sitting on the ground looking up at us.

"Geez little guy, you gave us a fright!" Mirabel said reassuringly to the bird. She picked it up and it nuzzled into her neck, crawling up to sit on her shoulder.

As I backed up a step I knocked over another clay dish, but this one was inhabited by rats. I shrieked as they ran past us disappearing into the darkness up ahead. Their noises were loud but suddenly stopped as if they had gone behind a wall.

Looking back puzzled I saw Mirabel meet my gaze and nod, the poor little toucan peeked out from her hair terrified.

We both walked forward, and our steps must have been the first in a long time because they prompted a mini avalanche of sand from above, letting in the light which revealed a door a few steps ahead. As we watched the round metal door creaked open, a yawning mass of darkness inside.

By that point the toucan had enough of the jump scares and flew away as fast as he possibly could leaving us in the dust. "I don't blame him," I said laughing as we watched him fly out of view. 

Mirabel just shrugged her shoulders, and bumped her's against mine playfully, "At least we aren't alone."

"Yeah," I replied, swallowing as we looked at the cracked open scary door in front of us.

Faking a brave smile Mirabel led the way, opening the door all the way which shone the light into the pit behind it. Hesitantly we stepped inside, but our nervousness soon faded as we took in the room. It was just sand and rock, nothing else at all.

Did we really climb all this way to come back with nothing!

Just as we got comfortable in the room a gust of wind came through slamming the heavy door closed. It seemed nothing ever felt safe for long in that tower. 

The darkness closed in on us and my heart raced, "You still there Mirabel?"

"Yeah! Right beside you!"

As our eyes adjusted a strange sight greeted us, a gentle green glow was under our feet. Pieces of something were glowing on the floor, arranged almost like the stars in the sky above. They were beautiful. Hesitantly I knelt and reached my hand toward one of the starlike spots sweeping the sand away. Underneath was a glowing piece of green glass with weird silvery lines on it that disappeared depending on what direction I turned it.

By now my eyes had adjusted enough that the room no longer seemed dark, the light from the glass lit it up enough that I could see everything around me. Ripping my eyes away from the piece in my hand I looked over to see Mirabel holding a similar shard of glass. One of the sharp sides of hers seemed to be a mirror image of one of the sides of mine, so I handed it to her to match them up.

I looked over her shoulder as she did so and together they seemed to make up the middle of what looked like a person. Digging through the sand beside us I picked up another shard, and turning it I matched it up to the other two. As she tilted them to the side slightly a face appeared on the three broken pieces. I had to study it for a minute to differentiate between the two of us before realizing it was Mirabel on the glass picture.

"It's you!" I gasped. Handing it gently to me Mirabel went to grab another piece, but as she did so the room began to shake. Looking up I scanned the room to see many cracks along the walls, that hadn't been there when we had arrived. They must have happened while we had been distracted by the puzzle. 

As I watched they began to spread, "Mirabel it's going to cave in! Grab the pieces!"

In response to my shout, Mirabel began to frantically grab shards out from under the sand and I did the same, both of us shoved them into our bags as we worked against the small amount of time we had left before this place was due to cave in. Rocks began to fall around us as we rushed towards the door, but it wouldn't budge as we pushed against it.

"I really don't want to die today," I told Mirabel through my gritted teeth as we shoved the door. The sand was climbing and we were almost out of time when I caught sight of a handle. After pulling it down the weight of the sand pushed the door open sliding us unceremoniously out of the room and down the stairs. If it hadn't been for Mirabel grabbing the post on the way past we would have gone over the lip of the cliff as well.

Collapsing onto our backs we just breathed.

What had I gotten myself into!

~

Hope you enjoyed the suspense-filled chapter! Hope you don't mind too much that it is a little late. I do apologize, from now on I will be posting a new chapter every week on either a Friday or a Saturday depending on the week.

Hope everyone is doing well! This part is dedicated to FalonaPL thank you for your support! I always love to see your username pop up on my notifications when you vote!