The Mirror Realm

Dr. Hooverhousen

I slap my head repeatedly in frustration. Peter starts howling in laughter and I almost rip my hair out.

Dr. Hooverhousen tilts his head. "Are you feeling any pain?"

"Not yet, just hurry up and get the bullet out of my leg. I took pain killers earlier but I don't know when they'll wear off." I put my head in my hands.

"Well," He sighs. "I'll do my best. Where did you get shot?"

I look up and point behind my leg. "Here, now I'll just flip over and we'll do this right here!"

Dr. Hooverhousen sighs. "We have to be inside. I really don't think the entire population would want to see me perform surgery on you." He gave me a crooked grin, hoping for me to smile.

I didn't, "Just do this as fast as you possibly can, Doc. I'm on a timed schedule!" I tap my nonexistent watch furiously.

Doc rolls his eye. He motions to some people inside and 4 cyclops hustle their butts outside to me with a white stretcher. I'm suddenly hauled on it and rushed inside. Rough hands grab my shoulders and force me to lay down. And let's be clear, I act on instinct. My hand clenches up into a fist and I swing it back around to collide with a square nose. A quarter of my stretcher falls and I become off balance. My legs fly over my head and my whole body slams on the ground; pain branching through my body like electricity. I gasp and tears well up in my eyes.

"Careful!" Doc growls, and when I say growl, I mean growl. "She has to be in shape for surgery." He then eases up and tugs on his jacket.

The Cyclops who I punched starts twitching under his eye, and that's when I get an actual good look at them. They stand about a good 2 feet higher than my 5 foot 8 frame. Their skin tone is a sickly green, and I wrinkle my nose up. I scrutinize the faces, everyone has a bright blue eye with one large eyebrow. The mouths are always half open, in a dumb trance. And the ears stick out a mile. Then when I give them the full body look, I look away. Their bodies are chunky, clumsy, and disgusting. They don't wear shoes, only one putrid white skirt thing over their waists.

"What are you looking at?" The cyclops grunts, a voice like a smoker. I shrug.

I start hearing yells and look up from the floor.

"I told you to knock him out before we do the surgery!" A rough voice shouts and I hear a crash of some kind of metal table falling. My heart beats fast and I look around frantically.

"Hey kid, calm down, it's just a disagreement." Doc puts his hand on my shoulder and I tense.

"How can you hear my heartbeat?" I ask incredulously.

He just laughs. "If we have one eye, we have to be extra dominant in another quality."

Makes sense. Peter mumbles. But I'm still uneasy about them.

"Alright, let's hurry up Doc, like I said before, I'm on a timed-"

"Schedule yeah I know, you've told me. Boys!" He turns his head and shouts to the other remaining Cyclopes to pick me up and continue on.

They push through swingy doors and white lights blind me. I put my hands over my eyes and lean back, moaning.

"Too bright for the pansy?" One of the ugly monsters behind growls under its breath.

"Woah okay, what the hell did you just call me?" I sit up again and look over my shoulder. All of the Cyclopes grunt and shift the stretcher around.

"I called you a pansy. You got a problem with that?" The brute jerks his chin up. The other medical aids around us started laughing, and struggled to keep silent. Guess this guy isn't the 'tough one'.