Damaged (A Marauders Era story)

First Year, Part 8 (The Grand Prize)

"Wait, we're being timed?" Alice asked. "The twins said nothing about being timed."

"Maybe it means that if we don't hurry, the other teams might find all six chests before us," I said, standing up.

"But where is the attic?" Lily asked as we began to make our way upstairs.

"It's at the end of the hallway," Jugson said. "The one with that creepy little girl standing at the end. I saw a door above her head."

As we reached the second floor, I could see no sign of the little girl who had been standing there before. Just as Jugson had said, there was indeed a door in the ceiling. We ran over to it.

Jugson tugged on the rope that hung from the door. The door flung open, and a set of rope stairs fell down. Jugson climbed up to the attic first. We followed him and reached the top one by one.

I gasped in surprise when I reached the top. It wasn't like any attic I had ever seen. It had mirrors everywhere; even the walls were mirrors. The black and red tiled floor made me feel slightly dizzy.
It looked as if there were a hundred of us standing in the attic. If it weren't for the fact that I knew I was standing next to my team, I wouldn't be able to tell the mirror images from the actual people. There were no lights I could see in the attic, but it was bright none the less. A small rectangle hung on the wall. It had the number 5 on it. There were only five teams left.

Right on the floor, there was a small blue chest.

"Well this is easy," Lily said, stepping towards the chest.
Lily made a grab for the chest, but her hand closed over nothing.

I turned in a circle. All around me I could see the little blue chest on the floor. Its reflection in all the mirrors made it appear as if it was right there.

Suddenly, Lily let out a loud scream. Her reflection in one of the mirrors had moved, not the same motion as Lily, but as if it were a different person. It had grabbed hold of Lily from behind and was now pulling her into the mirror.
I reached out, trying to grab hold of Lily to pull her back. My arm only felt a mirror as I tried to grab Lily's arm. The other Lily pulled our Lily into the mirror, and all around us in the mirror's reflections, Lily screamed, pounding her fists against the mirrors.

"Let me out! Help!" She screamed, over and over.

"Lily," Alice yelled over Lily's panicked screams. "Calm down. Take a deep breath. Maybe if we can get the chest, the mirror will free you."

Suddenly, another person came into view. All around me I could see Alice, Lily, Jugson, myself, and now there was a small girl in all of the mirrors, surrounding me. I recognized her as the girl with the teddy bear we had seen on our way to the third floor.

It looked like she was standing right next to me, but I knew it was probably just the mirror reflection.

"You're right, Alice dear," the voice that came out of the girl's mouth didn't sound like a little girl at all. It barely sounded human.

I wondered how she knew Alice's name.

"Find the chest, and Lily will be free," the girl said. "But, if you can't find the chest before the time runs out, Lily's mine forever. Better hurry, time's running out." The little girl placed an hourglass on the floor. It's sand streamed through the middle at an alarming speed; the top was emptying too fast. The girl began to cackle. The sound echoed through the attic and went on and on. The noise could drive a person crazy.

Wasting no time, we all began to grab at the blue chests that were all around us. Every time we reached for it though, we only came in contact with a mirror. The hourglass was already half empty, and it had been less than thirty seconds. Maybe that's what the clue had meant when it said time was running out. It was telling us that our next task would be timed.

"Quick!" Alice shouted. Although it looked like a hundred Alices were standing right next to me, her voice came from across the room, not near me. "We need to break the mirrors so they won't reflect the chest. That way we can see where the actual chest is."