Beethoven

chapter five: cinderella

         A scream that I've never heard before escaped from the back of my throat as I fell on my knees during the process. It was only so natural to if you see something so unnatural happening right before your eyes.

         It was enough of a scream to startle Ludwig (or was he actually?), and to the staff outside of the mirror house. In a matter of seconds, there were more people than just the two standing in front of the mirror.

         "What's the matter?" a middle aged man walked in gruffly. He wore the very unflattering Playland uniform. He gave a menacing eye to Ludwig, who was still at a loss for words. He didn't notice that Ludwig wasn't in the mirror. "Was this boy harassing you?" he asked me instead. A part of me was surprised that the man saw Ludwig as well, that I wasn't just imagining him being here with me this whole time.

         "No!" I said and leapt onto my feet. Pain from the sudden weight on the palms of my feet made me bite my lip for a second. Then, avoiding to look to the mirror beside me, I  explained, "I just thought . . . I was going to faint."

          The man wasn't amused. "Keep your jokes to yourself," he snapped, and stalked back to his post.

         That's when I glanced back at the mirror. My legs unbuckled, feeling loose and wobbly. Beethoven still wasn't there. But he was clearly standing right beside me. What was he? A vampire? A ghost? Or was it just some sort of crazy hallucination I was witnessing?

         Ludwig however looked so humanly sincere as he clamped his hand on my shoulder. A long strand of his dark hair fell over his eye. It would've looked nice if he had gelled it. "Kiara?"

         "I. . .I. . ." I didn't know what was right, and what was supposed to be right anymore. "I think I'm gonna go throw up," I lied, making a dash out of the mirror house. Ludwig was running after me, and I didn't mind, as long as I wasn't looking back to the mirrors that surrounded us as we made our way out of the mirror house.

         "I think I'm going to be sickly too," Ludwig said from behind as we approached the bathroom stalls. I didn't even bother to correct his grammar.  It made sense for him to be feeling sick though; it was his first time ever to come to Playland. He continued to trail behind me.

         I stopped him just at the nick of time. "Hold up," I said, pushing his chest back with the palm of my hands. "You can't follow me in here."

         "Why not?"

         "It's the girl's bathroom," I explained, pointing to the sign on the door with the ladies symbol.

         A woman with her kid squeezed by us as I was standing right in front of the entrance. She gave us a dirty look, as if we were horny teenagers or something.          "Come on," I said, nudging him to the entrance to the men's bathroom which was on the opposite wall to the women's. "You use that one. There's probably a line up in there, so stand there, and you'll know what to do. You can throw up in one of the toilets."

         He nodded obediently, staring at me for a long second before entering the bathroom, following a burly man that was coming in, too.

         I never thought I'd have to explain to someone how to use a public restroom.  Or maybe he did know how to use one, but he didn't say anything. They probably have one in Germany. . .

         I couldn't think of a single place in Germany where they'd have toilets for the general public to use. At the castle? Or were there even any castles in Germany? I hardly knew anything about the place my blood and heritage belonged to.