Level One: Catoptrophobia

"Level one," a scratchy voice said from somewhere above us. It spoke like it was on my side, in the sense that it was guiding me with important information, but the sound itself; it'd be a lie to say it didn't give me the creeps.

To mask that I felt unprepared and disorganized, I automatically built up this shield of anger. I've always done it, but it's not going to be a smart route to take based on how Shyrene and Blake have had to warn us. I decided to get it out of my system before the scratchy voice said 'start' too, because then I'd really be killing us all. I've never wished life was all smooth sailing more than today, that's for sure, and I've never been so let down by not being granted that wish.

"Why is it level one all over again?" I coughed out, under-the-table efforts being done to relax the tension in my muscles. It was a test of how well I can control my own being, and I was feeling pity for every person that's had to put faith in me once I went through with said test. "I worked extremely hard to climb up the levels before and now I don't even have the name or right to say I got there? So what have I been doing all this time? Nothing?"

"It's not going to be an issue. When the surgery is over, you'll be exactly where you left off back in the surface layer of your subconscious. Just think of it as there being several worlds inside your mind. It doesn't mean the others are disregarded. It's stored to your memory. It's not starting over, but doing something new. A challenge." Shyrene had her hands on my shoulders, when she spoke to me eye to eye, doing her best to be reassuring. I can't tell how I felt about it. If it was madness, sadness, of feeling I've failed, — it was a wet feeling, and I wanted to cry.

I glanced over at Blake, who was nodding in agreement with what's been said. "Believe her. She's right." He pointed at the curly haired woman, whose smile managed to get a little wider. "This is for your own good, and your own good is better for us too. We all need the same thing. Calm down the best you can."

"Please, Mars," Camdyn begged desperately, listening in to everything. "This is important for all of us. We're all on the same team and you're leading us, okay? We're just here to support you, so please, keep your tranquility at peak, because otherwise we're nothing too. We want to help."

I curled my lip up a little as he talked, knowing that as much as I wanted to go off at every syllable that came out of his mouth, he was right, and he was trying to be nice despite everything. I breathed in as deep as I could, a strong sensation inside my body as I tried to let my burdens fly. "Okay, team." I responded, scanning each of their expressions. I had to work with what I've got. This is clearly a situation of all or nothing, and I wanted out alive, which meant the first choice was the only one.

The lights were dimming and it was getting darker the more that time passed, I knew eventually we'd be back in that pitch black that I started in when I got here. My steps were becoming more cautious as the light disappeared from us, bit by bit, and that stomach-churning voice returned. "Catoptrophobia, fear of mirrors, will begin in ten seconds."

I laughed when I heard it, my speed getting a tad more careless and a tad too fast for my own comfort. "Jeez, is that a real thing? Fearing mirrors? Someone can have zero self confidence, but that's not the mirror's fault, l-m-a-o."

"Ellie, Calm yourself." Blake exclaimed from behind me. "Remember what we're getting into. Remember the consequences of not taking it seriously."

"Sorry." I apologized, stretching a bit to calm my nerves. I was lashing out this entire time because my insides weren't ready for what was coming. It's said pretty often that the first day of something is always the hardest, and that's because you don't know what to expect. I do want to believe that that's what this is. That it's nothing more serious than that.

"Start." That voice said, the exact doom in it that I was trying to avoid, and it got right into things without messing around. I thought I've known well enough how big of a deal this is, but it's only now I was feeling just how big it was.

SCANNING BOTH PLAYERS FOR CATOPTROPHOBIA...

SCANNING BOTH PLAYERS FOR CATOPTROPHOBIA...

LOADING 24% ...

LOADING 89% ...

PLEASE WAIT...

SCAN COMPLETED! THANK YOU FOR WAITING!

CATOPTROPHOBIA DETECTED! THE GAME WILL NOW PROCEED!

"What? Detected? Who fears mirrors? Camdyn, you fear mirrors?" I couldn't help but ask. It was such an odd thing to me. I'd understand a hatred for mirrors, but not necessarily a fear. I know people who don't like to look in mirrors, and I'm not ashamed to be one of those people who doesn't think the world of herself, but to fear it enough it's considered a phobia? Why? How would it escalate to that point?

"Don't be so quick to speak. A lot of times we fear things we don't even realize we fear." Blake stated, as to remind me. I cocked my head to the side, not convinced.

Each of us were peering into each other's actions and gestures for something that would give away what this level was pointing toward, but each of us, including the two who have been living in my head for how long, looked pretty blank. Our surroundings were the same too; there wasn't much to it. That is, until I felt the most irritating sting at my temples, enough to bring me to the floor, huddled over in pain so much I couldn't think of anything else. It's me. It's been me the whole time. How ridiculous. A girl afraid of mirrors.

"It's a memory tactic approach, and for level one? It's one of the hardest to deal with because we can't even temporarily make it go away. It's all on her. This is fricking messed!" Shyrene shouted, falling to her knees to let me know she was next to me. "Listen to me, okay? This is very important. Do not become too immersed in whatever they play for you. The deeper you get into it, the harder it is to get out of until the level is over."

I began to react to show her I understood, but it's as if I didn't have the energy to. Like I completely collapsed.

"Look in the damn mirror, you idiot child! Do you hear me? Why can't you listen?" Chloe Cortel, was her name — the one who belittled me. My mom had started to bring me to her when I was around five so that I could live her dream that she fell short of. I knew even then it was her dream and not mine, but I agreed to it to make her happy. The longer I did it, the more I realized I wanted as far away from it as possible. She didn't believe me when I'd say that the woman would push things too far.

Cortel was supposed to teach me pageant-like things and skills for the runway, and it's not like she didn't. The woman had her hand pushed up to my tiny jaw, to perfect a pose I was supposed to have already known. I gulped and whimpered, but the pressure came on harder, enough that I couldn't breathe, and if I could, I didn't want to try. To such a small face, her fingers felt like glass shards, but when my tears would fall down my cheeks, they seemed to sting just as bad.

"I am, Miss Chloe. I'm looking." I promised her, finding my reflection. I was in a poof-y purple dress that went down to my mid-thigh, and covered in white colored beads up my wrist and neck. My hair was draped with a headband that made it look tall and thick, and my mascara was smeared from the crying I've been doing.

Most of all that I couldn't get by without noticing was the scars across my feet from walking in too high of heels, or some that would blister because they didn't fit exactly right. If I disappointed her more than she was already, I knew my bare feet would have to go through that agony again as a punishment.

"Ellie? Hey, Mars? Ell? You have to come to. Whatever you're thinking about, it's not real anymore. It's in the past. You don't have to put yourself through it again. You're stronger than that. I know you are, Mars." It wasn't Shyrene as it was a second ago. She seemed long gone, her presence not even close to me. It sounded like Camdyn, but even if I swear my eyes were wide opened, I couldn't see him. I could feel him nudging me, and the sound of his voice, but what swept my attention was Shyrene and Blake, who had the most murderous glint in their eyes that they just as well shine bright red. They warned us, I know, but this—? It couldn't actually be— right? It couldn't actually be them that would do something to hurt me from their own hands.

"You can tell that your head is slightly tilted, Saturn Marie, yeah? Straighten your neck. If you don't do this properly, I won't get paid. You understand that don't you?" Cortel continued, using the name I was born with and what my name was for majority of my life. I hated it, so much it sent a tingle along every vein in my body, and the worst part was as a child, no, I didn't get it. She's the one who was supposed to understand that, and take it easy, yet the pushing into my jaw getting more severe, it felt as if blood was slipping down my chin. "I have more heels for you to work with if that's what you want, sweetie, and you sure are acting like it is."

"It's not, Miss Cortel. I can do better. I will do better." I answered her, but it was a lie. I was giving everything I could possibly give, and again and again she wasn't satisfied. It wasn't enough. Still, I tried to muster up something — anything — that I could bring to the surface. If that meant making slight adjustments to the position of my head, like she was going on about, or adjusting my fingers on my hip to look more elegant, whatever it is that that means, I tried. I really did, and I can say that in all honesty from the bottom of my heart.

"It doesn't seem like it." She responded, clicking her tongue three times and shaking her head. When she was angry, the height difference between her and me as a little girl was petrifying more than it's supposed to be. "I don't think you're built for this industry, girl. Sorry."

"I can really do better, I mean it!" I insisted. That feeling of not living to my mom's expectations was pounding at me hard and there's nothing that I could do to get it to quit. For it, I've become this punching bag designed for boxers, and i couldn't keep on my feet much longer. It was hard to do this, genuinely, but hurting my mother — it's worse. It's a whole lot worse.

"Mars. We don't have much time. Listen to me, please. You have to calm yourself down." His voice came up again, nudging at me more urgently than before. His breath was shaky, and in the distance I could hear the sound of running and rustling in preparation for attack. It wasn't fading, that's definite, and the likeliness of it staying in one place didn't make much sense either. Shyrene and Blake — they must really be coming for us. That's how this jacked up game works and I'm right smack in the middle of it. Is this some sort of unsolvable maze?

"If you don't come to, I'll have to hurt them. I've been told it'll be a life down, Mars, did you hear? But if I don't hurt them, random injuries will appear on you and we lose a life anyway. You'll start limping, or I don't know! It depends on what you're thinking about right now, but I don't want that to happen. The game just started, Ell. I can't watch you struggle until the ending. That's bad for all of us. You're the one supposed to carry us through this!"

"Then wear the shoes. For the runway walks; you have to be ready for them. Wear it, right now, Saturn Marie." Cortel commanded, the tall pair of navy shoes, dangling in her hand. Though it didn't make noise it seemed like every time they'd collide with each other I could hear it. My feet were aching extremely just watching, and I couldn't bear to let myself lace them up my ankle. There's no way.

"I can't."

"What did you say, Saturn?"

"I really can't. It's too mu—."

I couldn't finish when the heels flew across the room, soaring through the air like it's what they're meant to do. They crashed straight into the center of the mirror, and I fell to the floor to avoid the shards that fell down from above me, so it wouldn't hit my face. Curled in a ball in the middle of the floor, cuts on my arms and hands, and drops of blood right in front of my eyes, I bawled my eyes out more than I've ever been the type to.

"I'm scared." I admitted and as I did, I caught my mouth moving so that everyone could hear me and a glow of eyes in the black see it too. My vision panned back out fully to the dimming dark I was in and out of moments ago, to find Camdyn being clobbered by the six of Shyrene and Blake. His hair was disheveled and there was a dark crimson dripping from the top of his hairline.

"Shyrene ran off when she felt that the demon side of her was slipping out, and she brought Blake with her. That distanced gap is what's allowed us to survive this long, but the rest is on you." Camdyn said from the distance, still throwing punches as much as he could to protect himself from what were minor cells of my imagination. "It's okay to be afraid, Mars." He added on, grunting through his struggle, "but sensing that there's danger when there doesn't need to be is half the contribution to losing the fight. Deep breaths, girly, deep breaths."

Light was coming back to us, and though it wasn't much, it was enough for me to realize we were in a box made of mirrors in every direction; top, bottom, left right; our reflections were staring back at us. I trembled at the sight of it because of the Devil in my head, and it got a gasp out of Camdyn when he saw it too, or I assumed. Sitting there in silence for a while longer, I caught on to the gasp not being for the same sight as my fear, but because there was a mirror cracked, and glass shards spread across the floor everywhere. He already knew we were in this box and he was trying to use that to protect himself.

When the dark completely slithered away, Camdyn had one of the longer shards in his hand, which was covered with blood, and on the ground Shyrene was bleeding out in a pool that wouldn't stop, it looked like if she didn't die from that, she'd die of drowning in it. The other five of her and the six of Blake disappeared into thin air, vanishing into nothing and their murderer turned his head to look at me, apologetically.

"I'm sorry. I didn't have any choice."

"It's not like this is a first. So it's been me, and now Shyrene. We might have multiple lives here, but you have no issue with potentially killing people, blood and guts galore, why? Why do you even go this far? This is more proof to the person you are, regardless of being in this dumb game or not."

LEVEL ONE: FAILED, TRY AGAIN

LIVES REMAINING: ELEVEN

ONE LIFE SACRIFICE OFFERING, ACCEPTED

GAME WILL RESTART

RESTORING PLAYER ONE AND PLAYER TWO TO INITIAL HEALTH

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