The Sorcerer's Gate

two

Now, the pill was kicking in fast and alerting just as the song came to life. The singer's voice exited the speakers from every direction. Aster couldn't tell the difference between her own voice and the singer on the track.

June's bang on the door came like a spark of attention back to reality. Aster was drowning out the actual singer on the track. June rolled her eyes and pushed the button that muted any noise that Aster made coming from inside of the Cabaret Room.

I eat my dinner in my bathtub, then I go to sex clubs watchin' freaky people gettin' it on

It doesn't make me nervous, if anything, I'm restless

Yeah, I've been around and I've seen it all

As Aster moved to each of the marks, she tried not to bother with how much the marks moved in her vision and instead tried to rely on muscle memory of where each mark was ought to be. The girls have all been in each room a thousand times. By now, everything is second nature to them. Beside the fact that the room was spinning and Aster's legs allowed her to prance incessantly, she was feeling amazing. Letting her arms trails up and down her legs, she shot forward towards the mirror a cheeky smile.

Well, you're gone and I gotta stay

High all the time to keep you off my mind, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

High all the time

To keep you off my mind, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

Spend my days locked in a haze

Tryna forget you, babe, but I fall back down

Gotta stay high all my life to forget I'm missin' you

While Aster found herself lost in the trance of the music, the scribbles and writing on the walls that the girls left behind seemed to twirl along with her. She shook her breasts towards the mirror, letting the tassels twirl in circles. When she finally noticed the walls, the writing wasn't twirling nor dancing. They were shifting.

Words were colliding, mixing and matching. Aster shut her eyes tightly and opened them again.

All of the markings from before were forming new words. Letters and words of no use vanished while others became clear and bold on the wall.

COINS COINS COINS shifted to COIN

I have to get out of this place! shifted to GET

Pretend you can see him through the mirror and look disgusted! That'll teach the pig! shifted to HIM/A/TEACH

This room reeks shifted to REEK

Feeding my family shifted to FEED

W.W. shifted to M/M

The little illustration of breasts shifted vertically to form B

The markings on the wall, these words and letters scrambled together into new phrases.

COIN/GET/HIM/A/TEACH/REEK/FEED/M/M/B

It was an anagram. Aster blinked over and over again as the letters rearranged themselves one final time.

C O M E  B A C K  F I N D   M E

T H E  G A T E  I M  H E R E

Aster could not figure out what was happening but she was sure of one thing: Magic.