Beyond A Mirror

4: The Other Side // Lillian

Lily's eyes were closed shut as she walked into the mirror, excitement and wonder coursing through her. The mirror was glowing brightly as everything faded to darkness around Lily, she opened her eyes to find that she was left in a never ending, black inky void of nothingness.

"H—hello...?" Lily whispered, her breath visible.

It was cold as she looked around, she slowly began shivering, her fingertips turning blue. The girl gasped, she was freezing. She looked down at the ground, which was nothing but black for miles. She felt tiny and insignificant.

Lily turned around to see a doorway-sized light in the distance, she gasped again and began running towards it out of instinct. She ran through of it, tripping on something invisible on the way out, screaming as she fell and closing her eyes.

A voice rang out from the darkness as she fell. "No... not yet." It said, sounding raspy and distant, creating an echo.

Lily felt something underneath her. It was hard, she could feel something touch her.

"H—hey, are you okay?" A male voice said.

Lily couldn't see them, her eyes were still closed. She slowly opened her eyes and raised her hand to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight. Trees and plants surrounded her as she sat up, she could hear various environmental noises around her.

"Uh, excuse m—me, miss?" The same male voice said.

Lily turned her head to where she heard the voice, she rubbed her eyes as she saw who the voice belonged to. A boy that looked to be around Finn's age, maybe older, stood in front of her. His eyes were a shockingly bright blue, his hair a strange white color with a pinkish hue, his skin fair. He wore a red hoodie with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and black pants. The strangest thing that Lily found about him weren't his eyes nor hair, but his bare feet. They were in the middle of a forest clearing, and he chose to stay barefoot? He was also much taller than Finn, Lily knew that for sure.

"Wha... where—" Lily jumped to her feet and looked around frantically. "Where... where am I?" She looked at the boy again, full of confusion. "What is this place? Where am I?" She said, her voice sounding panicky.

The boy tilted his head curiously at Lily, blinking his bright blue eyes. "You're in the Winding Woods, r—right outside of Firefly..." His voice trailed off as he pointed behind Lily. "You j—just... appeared. I turn around for one second and when I look back, you just... appeared!"

Lily turned around to where the boy had pointed and tilted her head, puzzled. There was nothing. Some blades of grass had frost at it's tips. Was it from the coldness of the void?

Lily froze as she took in her surroundings. It was quite beautiful, the sky was a clear blue, the trees were an unnatural, bright color of green. Flowers of all kind bloomed around her. She swore she saw a flying rabbit with a cord-like tail and brown bird wings fly above her, cooing happily. Oddly colored birds with long, scissor-like tail feathers soared above her and into trees. Smaller mammals scurried across the ground as she turned around to face the boy again.
"What... what is this place?" She asked in awe, gawking at the area. "And who're you?"

The boy smiled at her as he took a step forward. "My name is Courier." He said a bit sheepishly, looking away from her.
Courier pointed behind Lily again, causing her to turn around. The ground with the frosted-tipped blades of grass was glowing brightly. It suddenly became blindingly bright as a figure materialized right in front of their eyes. The boy, Courier, was holding his hand in front of his eyes to shield them. Lily did the same before finally closing her eyes. When she reopened them, the glowing was gone.

Lily gasped again in disbelief as she ran towards the unconscious body on the ground, quickly recognizing them.

"...Finnian?"