Forest of Riddles (Reverse Falls, S1)

MI: Part Seven

Pacifica kneeled in the grass, and she lay the mirror on the ground outside the Shack. Mabel sat on the edge of the porch, and Robbie leaned against one of the support beams to the porch roof.

Pacifica drew back and opened the journal. It felt nice to hold it in her hands again - even if Ford wouldn't necessarily like it if he had found his journal missing. But, for all she knew, Gideon could be in danger, so she needed to take the risk of Ford being mad.

She started flipping through the pages. "All right," she said to herself. "How can we free everyone?"

"It'd be a lot easier if I had my amulet," Mabel grumbled.

"Enough with your amulet," Robbie sighed. He jumped off of the porch and sat on the ground beside Pacifica. "So, what's our deal here?"

Pacifica turned a page in the journal. "I'm not sure," she said, sticking out her tongue in frustration. Was there anything about mirrors in the journal? C'mon, Ford, she pleaded. You've had to encounter something like this at some -

Suddenly she stopped at a page and stared at it with wide eyes.

Robbie raised an eyebrow. "Did you find something?"

Pacifica did a double-take. That couldn't be right. That was Mabel's mirror.

Except a drawing of Mabel's mirror was in the journal.

It was completely identical to the mirror laying in the grass in front of her. Even the paint on the top, even the clasps at the end - everything looked exactly the same. (Except, of course, the real thing looked more weathered and old and slightly rustier than the drawing.)

And there were a few notes at the bottom.

"It's . . . the mirror," Pacifica said, bewildered.

Robbie nearly fell over in surprise. "What?"

"Excuse me?" Mabel moved over to join them, looking at the journal over Pacifica's shoulder. Pacifica held up the journal to the mirror.

"But - why is your mirror in the journal?" Robbie said, glancing at Mabel.

Pacifica squinted at the notes written beneath the drawing.

"There's some notes on it," she said.

"Read them," Robbie urged.

So Pacifica did:

" 'Port has been haunting us for a long time. F finally suggested that we capture it once and for all, so I called in S to help us. S brought over one of Mom's compact mirrors on my request. It took all day, but we finally managed to capture Port and lock him in the mirror. (Note to self: ask S to dispose of mirror. Seems somehow cursed and not exactly normal.)' "

Pacifica paused.

"Wow." Robbie ran a hand through his hair. "So - cursed compact mirror. How nice."

"Wendy was right," Mabel whispered.

Pacifica frowned, glancing at the notes again. "But - that's it?" she said to herself. "Isn't there -"

Then her gaze landed on the note directly beneath the paragraph she had just written, and her eyes widened.

"Wendy was right about what?" she barely heard Robbie say.

Pacifica's fingers brushed against what was written in the journal.

Then Robbie was calling her name and she sat up straight, almost dropping the journal.

"Pacifica, you look -" Robbie paused. "Are you okay?"

Pacifica let out a nervous laugh. "Okay? I'm okay, it's all I could find - in the journal - on the mirror, so -"