The Mirror Realm

42.

His heart feels heavy with hopelessness, with misery. He feels heavy with guilt, a feeling that no one should ever have to feel. His shoulders sag as he's focusing ahead, he watches sullenly as cars race past him. He walks up the street, his bike in hand and the files in the other.

He has tried everything he could to find Amy, to get her back, but there's nothing he's been able to do or find that has the power to uncover her disappearance. He hangs his head, the frigid air slapping him in the face as a gust whips against him. His eyes glass over, as he slings his bike down lazily in the front yard of his house, his car still halfway parked in his father's grass yard.

He makes his way slowly to the front door, pushing it open with heavy shoulders. His dirty blonde locks fall in his eyes, but he doesn't bother to fix or get them swept back up.

"Oliver? Oh my g- Oliver, what's wrong?" Oliver's mother races to him when she sees a single tear sliding down his face. She wipes the tear away with the pad of her thumb, she rubs small circles on his cheeks, this gesture reminding him of Amy, for this is something she used to do to him when she was stressed.

"She' gone mom, and I can't get her back, s-she's g-gone," he admits for the first time out loud. More tears stream down his face now, creating a cascade of emotion.

"Honey, it's alright, everything will be f-"

Oliver pulls away fleetly to his mother's words, "it won't be alright, mom! There are twelve teens missing in our town that will never show up again!" He bellows in his mother's face.

"Oliver, honey, you don't know that!" Her tone is soft, subtle, but it rises at the last word.

"Yes I do! They're all gone because they are dead! They are all dead and they aren't ever coming back!" With his sharp words lingering in the air, he pivots on his heel and leaves. He leaves not caring that he'd just scared his mother half to death with his frighteningly dark tone.

Oliver wipes away at his tears violently, and strides straight to the bathroom. He slams the door shut behind him and locks it. He slams his back against the wall, his hand behind his back as he stares back at his reflection. He scrutinizes his messy locks and his red puffy eyes. His heart beat begins to quicken as thoughts of saying the two words race through his mind like horses in the Kentucky Derby.

Oliver pushes off the wall, inching closer to the counter; he places his palms flatly on the marble countertop and leans over, his nose inches away from touching the mirror.

"Amy," he breathes, "Amy I know you can hear me. I know you're in there. Can you just tell me, why? Why'd you do it? Why were you so selfish? Why did you have to do this to me, to your family? I can't even live a day of my life without thinking about you," Oliver leans his forehead against the cold glass, placing both hands on either side of his head.

His mind begins to clear again, finding peace in talking with himself, though he thinks he's talking to Amy.

"I-I miss you, Amy. I-I loved you, you were the light of my life, but now you're gone," his chest hitches as he inhales a shaky breath. "Do you remember all the times we would go in the woods for hours in the summer? Remember how we would bring baskets full of food we stole from our pantries and have picnics and kiss one another like there was no tomorrow? Do you remember that, Amy? I bet you don't do that on the other side," Oliver lets out a soft chuckle, a sorrowful smile taking over his light crimson lips.

"I miss you so much, Amy, and I would do anything to see you again. That's why I'm going to say it. I'm coming to save you, I'm coming to get you, Amy...because I love you."

Oliver steps away from the glass, staring back at his reflection, an expression of seriousness plastered on his sharp features. He reassures himself over and over that this is going to work, that this is him moment and he will see Amy again.

"Take me," he whispers under his breath.

"Take me," he says it clearer, with more confidence.

"Take me!"

The bathroom lightbulb shatters, the area going completely dark.

"I told you what would happen if you went searching through something that is none of your business, Oliver, did you forget?" A deep male voice echoes through the mirror, as a figure appears with a faint arch of light around them in the mirror. "Here we are, minutes away from your ultimate ending, and there's no way you can beg for mercy now," the voice lets out a low chuckle.

Oliver feels a sudden gravity pulling his closer to the glass.

"That was such a beautiful speech you gave, too bad Amy's off enjoying herself with the Devil, if you know what I mean. She's too busy with her new life, that she can't be bothered to even think of you. Do you remember when you passed out in the cafeteria earlier today, that was her forgetting you. Your body was put into shock, and that stabbing pain you felt, that was her cutting you out of her life," the devilish voice pauses to let the heavy truth sink in. "Do you remember the grey liquid that you spit up after the first week of Amy's disappearance? She was injected with it to make her body sleep for eight days, that was long enough for her body to get used to her new surroundings of Hell, you just happen to spit it up because you two were connected, but now you're not. It's too bad that you won't even be able to get to say goodbye."

Without a second's hesitation, the figure reaches out his hand, groping for Oliver's neck. The hand grabs his neck, and pulls him forward rapidly, Oliver's torso vigorously bangs against the counter with enough force to break it. He lets out a petrifying scream of excruciating pain.

Oliver tries to pull away, but is unsuccessful. In his last breathing seconds, he manages to squeeze out four words.

"I loved you, Amy."

And with those four words looming, the figure on the other side of the mirror twists his neck harshly, breaking Oliver's neck. His body falls limply to the ground, his back hitting the tiles with a loud thud; blood spills from his nose and mouth.

"I told you of the consequences, now you're suffering them," The voice chuckles one last time, and then disappears as the glass shatters, falling all over Oliver's dead body.

The boy was warned weeks ago, but still didn't listen, and now he's paying the ultimate price of disobedience.