Mirror Walker

Chapter 13

She barely managed to get an hour of sleep.

The night was long, and she was restless, waking and tossing at the smallest sounds, unable to make herself comfortable with the bumps lining the inside of the log that awkwardly dug into her head and bum. The dampness was not welcome and, being afraid of spiders, she constantly succumbed to the paranoia that there was something crawling up her spine.

It was still dark outside when she woke for the fifth time, choosing to dully glare at the exit instead, where the field was visible with the forest beginning again a few metres away. It felt like forever until the familiar chirps of birds foretold that the sun was about to rise. It must have only been an hour, but surely it was the longest hour she'd ever experienced, reminding her of when she wouldn't be able to sleep as a child because she was too excited for the next day and would be left waiting, plainly staring up at the ceiling and praying for morning to come quickly while the rest of the house slept.

There was nothing exciting about this.

Instead of filling her mind with the fun events to come, she was left to question why she hadn't woken up yet. Why? Why, why, why, WHY? If this was a dream, then it should have ended long ago. Yet, she fell into a light sleep countless times, waking up to the same clammy surroundings with the same low temperature that made her fold into herself deeper.

She didn't have a coat, everything was damp, and she was cold, so much so that she couldn't feel her fingers. Then again, at least it wasn't snowing. It was warm enough that it must have been spring, or a cooler summer, perhaps early autumn though the leaves seemed far too green.

Still, it wasn't warm enough.

Once the birds had fully bursted into life with an orchestra of song to wish each other good morning, Charlie stiffly angled herself to fall on her knees, and creeped out to the end of the log.

It wasn't a good morning for her.

The sky was still dim but had begun to pale into that odd blue-grey that hinted at dawn, light ever so slowly spreading across the land and making the trees visible outlines instead of ghastly shadows. Droplets had settled on the green blades that brushed at her laid out palms, the brook nearby continuously babbling away as the water excitedly rushed to where she presumed the lake was situated.

She didn't immediately come out, goodness no, bending down and only popping the very tip of her head from her refuge, just enough to ensure that the nasty creatures from the previous night weren't sat in waiting. They weren't. Only then did she proceed to stumble out without any grace, grumbling to herself angrily while she felt her eyes fall into a squint from lack of decent rest. They must have been baggy as hell, even more so than usual.

Wonkily jumping to her feet, she brushed herself off, frustration making her actions hasty and intense as she simply couldn't shake the bafflement that clouded her better judgment. She couldn't understand where she was, how she got here, how to get back and most importantly... if this was real. It was the same questions blowing up in her mind without a single reasonable answer though her heart throbbed with the suspicion that she bore for the necklace.

But a magic necklace? How absurd!

There must have been a logical explanation, one supported by science and common sense. Though the idea of magic thrilled her, she was no longer a five-year-old that could allow herself to conjure the most ridiculous of conclusions. No, she lived in a world where magic was nothing more than a fantasy, a thing of fiction written into exciting fairy tales that didn't exist anywhere other than in her imagination and the page of a book. She lived in a world where everything was being revealed to have rule and order, governed by newly discovered forces and theories constantly being founded by the most intelligent intellectuals of her time. There was still much left to uncover, but the general deduction always was the same. Magic does not exist; everything has a reason.