What Game Will You Play

Chapter 33

(Edited)

It does not take us long to reach the Mirror Maze. We make it there within five minutes or so. We make our way to the exit of the maze and enter.

The previous times we were in here, I had to let my eyes adjust to the blinding bright lights that made out the outline of the mirrors. This time that does not happen. The guards must have turned off the power to the building or just turned off the lights in general. Either way, it is pitch black in there.

Aiden gives my hand a squeeze. "Don't let go of my hand."

Aiden walks in first since he has the helmet on, the perks of being able to see in the dark. I follow him inside and close the door behind me. The second I do this, I become very aware that I can't see anything aside from the green light on Aiden's helmet. If it were not for that light, then I would have thought that I had gone blind.

Aiden walks slowly, and I try to do my best not to walk into him. I use my free hand to feel for any mirrors and decoys to avoid walking into them.

"What's wrong?" I whisper to Aiden when he stops walking.

"I used the lights along the borders of the mirrors to see where to go last time. The door to the outside is on a mirror with a slightly larger border of light around it. Now that the lights have been turned off, I am having a hard time figuring out where to go."

"I guess we will just guess then. I mean, we have the time, right? The sun won't be rising for at least another hour or two. We will just have to keep a listen to hear if anyone comes in here," I tell him.

"Okay, let's try this way first, then."

Aiden leads my hand to the left, and we continue that way for a while before he stops abruptly, and I walk right into him. He puts his hand on my waist to help stabilize me after I lose my balance.

"Sorry," he says. "I think I just walked us into a corner."

The light hearted way he just said that makes me want to laugh. I fight it, though, since right now doesn't feel like the right time to be laughing at anything. I take a few steps back so Aiden can get around me, and when he does, he starts leading the both of us through the maze again.

The singular green light from Aiden's helmet reflects on the mirror around us. Walking around here with him feels like stepping inside a kaleidoscope. If he weren't holding my hand, then I would have no idea where he actually was. Sometimes, I can see the reflection of the light off in the distance. Other times, it looks like he is standing to the left and right of me all at the same time.

We continue to make a few more turns, and then Aiden stops again. He lets out a frustrated sigh and states, "We are back at the start of the maze. We are going to have to do this all over again."

I move to the side to let Aiden pass me, and I try to come up with ways to get us out of here faster so that we won't end up stuck in this maze all night.

"Why don't we try pushing on the mirrors a little bit? Maybe we will end up opening the door out of dumb luck," I suggest.

"We can try that, but I am afraid of knocking a mirror down and drawing attention to ourselves."

"We can still try it, but we just have to be careful not to push too hard," I tell him.

Aiden says okay, and as we make our way through the maze again, I give light pushes on the mirrors and probably the decoys, too. I can't tell the difference.

The ones that wobble let me know that they are placed in an area with no wall behind it, and therefore, I am pushing on stuff that is unstable and could crash down, so I push lighter. Once I push on something and it does not wobble, I know a wall is behind it, and we are getting closer to where the door is.