Well sure, it’s creepy but I think it’s kinda cool,” said Armin.

He stood just beyond the entrance of the great mirrored pathway. Amanda stood just behind him, hesitant to walk deeper into the maw of the great passage.

The surfaces of the mirror shimmered with the floodlights he and Amanda had carried down. Shadowed copies of Armin’s tiny form filled the space, his short stature and dark eyes were held captive by endless visual echoes staring back at him in the mirrors.

An extra long extension cord ran up the passageway and out into the great hall, where a portable generator buzzed in the distance.

“Actually,” said Armin, “I think we should get Beth in on this one.”

“Beth? Why Beth?” said Amanda.

“Cause Beth is an Archeologist. Maybe she’ll understand what this place is or what it’s used for.”

“Armin, have you ever heard of a place like this?”

“Well no. I don’t think so.” He paused and took a few more steps down the hallway. Amanda followed him cautiously. Her hand on her holster. She needed the cold comfort of her steel.

“What makes you think Beth has? I don’t think places like this are normal.”

“Eh that’s just cause of all those weird books on the shelves. Lots of those big houses have secret passageways. Rich people love that shit.”

“What about my dream?”

Armin stopped and turned toward Amanda. He looked up into her face. There was a gentle smile.

“Amanda my dear friend, has it occurred to you that you could have accidentally found this place when you were a little kid but don’t remember it? Has it occurred to you that maybe the place scared you so bad that when you found all these mirrors that it implanted something in your subconscious?”

Amanda had considered that. She had spent several nights deciding whether or not to tell Armin about her dream. Of course, she had told him about the passage immediately when he arrived. She knew his positive skepticism would help calm her nerves. She needed that. Sleep was elusive now. Every time the old house was quiet, every sound of the house settling would bring her on full alert. It was like being in combat all over again. She had this strange sense that the house was a battlefield, but was terrified it was something much more sinister than your average war.

“Look, you have to admit this place has a weird vibe to it.”

Armin turned and walked further down the passage and around the first corner. Amanda followed.

“Yeah yeah, but that’s ‘cause you got Poltergeist 3 on the brain.”

“What?”

“Come on; you remember that one don’t you? The one with the hotel full of mirrors where all the ghosts started climbing out of them?”

Amanda replied, her voice raised, “Uh, you’re not helping.” She had to fight down the panic as she walked down the corridor to the left. The bend went a few dozen feet and then, barely noticeable with the endless reflections, it opened up onto a four-way intersection. As the pair peered down each of the four corridors, Amanda had the overwhelming urge to pull out her gun and shoot some of the mirrors or do something to mark the difference. Each passage was a clone of the next and it occurred to her, that if she ever became lost down here, she may never get out.

“We should stop here for today,” she said.

“What already? Don’t you want to see where this thing ends?”

“What if it goes on for miles? What if we get lost and can’t find our way back?”

Armin reached into his jacket pocket and produced something small, skinny and black. “That is why my dear, I brought this.” He turned and drew a big black arrow on one of the mirrors, pointing in the direction of the entrance. He drew a number 1 above the arrow.

            “What’s the one for?”

            “One more corner till the entrance. This way we know how many more turns to expect and we will have a sense of where we are. Every time we come to an intersection, I will put a number and an arrow back towards the entrance.”

            “Damn, that’s actually a really smart idea.”

            “Of course, it’s mine.” He said with a wink.

            “And what if the lights go out?”

Why was she so nervous? She had charged into machine gun fire, exploding buildings and lived through some of the worst that war had to offer, yet she felt like a little girl again, naked and vulnerable.

“Are you kidding me? That generator will last eight more hours before it runs out of fuel. No way we will be down here that long.”

“Famous last words Armin. Remember Murphy’s Law?”

Armin rolled his eyes. “Look, at least having a hall of mirrors, it’s gonna be nice and bright for some of the way right? And, we got our Maglites  after we go around a few more corners.”

She nodded. “Sorry… I just…”

He put his hands on each of her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Amanda, I get it, if I’d had some nightmares about this place and then found it in a creepy old house, I would be nervous too. But here’s the thing, what better way to banish your fears than to explore it and find the end?”

She held up a smile, though it felt like fishhooks were pulling it back down. “You’re right Armin. Let’s find the end.”

They walked down the next corridor, stopping and marking an arrow every few dozen paces.

“Besides, how big could this place possibly be, your uncle wasn’t that wealthy right?”

“No, but he inherited the house from his uncle, who inherited from his, at least I think that’s how it went.”

“Well, that’s a weird way to pass something on, to nephews and nieces?”

Amanda nodded. “Yeah, never thought about it before. It is strange.”

They walked around a few more corners, staring at their reflections, faces shifting between cracks. She put her hand against the mirrors as she walked, and more than once she discovered an opening they had both missed with their eyes. When the floodlights no longer carried in the reflections, they turned on their flashlights and continued for what seemed like a long time.

They turned another corner, and Armin wrote a number 16 under the arrow.

Amanda asked, “How long have we been walking?”

Armin pulled out his cell phone to glance at the time.

“About forty-five minutes so far.”

“That thing have any signal down here?”

He looked at his screen for a moment. “Nope, not a single bar.”

“We could be under the hill behind the house for all I know.”

“Yep. Hey, how about a creepy mirror maze selfie? I’d love to post about his whole thing in my blog. I bet people would eat this shit up. Hell, we could probably charge for visitors.”

She shrugged. “Sure why not. Armin and Amanda, secret passage explorers.”

She put his arm around her and she brushed back her flaming red hair and smiled for the phone camera. The flash burst and echoed in infinite copies on all sides. Armin put the phone back his pocket.

Amanda had to admit; she was starting to settle down a little, starting to get used to the idea of the place. So far there had been absolutely nothing to worry about. Armin was probably right.

They walked for about fifteen minutes more, and when Armin wrote the number 27 on one of the mirrors, he said, “Ah shit.”

“What?”

“Well, I didn’t expect the place to be this big. I only brought one marker and it’s already running out of ink.”

“That’s okay; I’m getting sort of hungry anyway. It’s just about lunchtime isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess. Tell you what though, let’s peek our head around one more corner and see if there is an end to this beast huh?”

“Alright.”

They walked around the corner. Amanda expected nothing to change. After all, the mirrors gave them hints at what lay ahead didn’t they? They reflected their image as far as they could see. But then, around corners reflections became tricky and you may or may not see what lay ahead.

As they rounded this one, they found something huddled in the corner. From a few dozen yards it looked like old brown sackcloth or a pile of old clothing.

Armin, ever the curious one, walked towards it without fear or caution.

“Armin wait.”

He froze and turned, “Wait for what?”

“We don’t know what that thing is, or what’s under it. Maybe it’s a pissed off animal or something.”

Armin smiled at her again, all warmth and cheer. “Amanda, have you seen anything an animal could eat down here? Any sign of rats or anything?”

“No but…”

“Relax, I’m sure it’s nothing. If you’re so worried, draw your gun.”

“Why don’t you draw yours too?”

He looked at for a moment and appeared to decide something. “Alright, I will.”

He pulled his sidearm out of the holster and drew it up to his chest, ready to fire Amanda followed his lead. With guns in hand, they moved towards the object until after a few yards; they were on top of it. Armin kicked it with his foot. There was a soft rattling noise, but it did not move. He bent forward, one hand on his gun and the other reaching for the cloth. His fingers teased the edges, and then, he bent further, grabbed a handful of the cloth and pulled. A corner of a white grinning smile met their gaze.

Amanda screamed.

Armin staggered backward bumping into her, knocking both of them over.

For a moment they both sat there staring, then Armin said, “It’s okay, I think it’s been down here for a long time.”

“Why does that make it okay?”

Armin stood up and helped Amanda up to her feet.

“Poor bastard probably got lost.”

Armin walked over and pulled the cloth the rest of the way off exposing a small skeleton; its face grinning with utter madness. Wrapped in its arms, it clutched a book. Armin reached down and tried to pull the book free, but there was a surprising amount of resistance.

“Hey, help me with this will you?”

“Are you kidding me Armin? We have to go to the police about this. This could be a missing person. It could be a murder victim for all we know. We can’t touch anything.”

“We’ll go to the police, but aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to take a look at what’s in this book? Maybe someone’s last words.”

She shook her head, and he went back to prying the book out of the skeleton’s hands. He was careful but firm. There was no way he could convince her to touch the corpse. Even with all the gooey parts missing, the last thing she wanted to touch was someone’s skeleton. She’d seen enough of that kind of stuff in combat to last a lifetime.

Then it occurred to her. “My god.”

Armin stopped looked at her. “What?”

“What if it’s her?”

“Her who?”

“The woman, Armin. The woman who was poisoned. The one from my dream.”

He smiled and shook his head. “You’re hilarious my dear. There’s no way. There was some creature in your dream too wasn’t there? Didn’t you suggest to me that maybe it would eat her? I don’t see any evidence of that here. No, this is probably some poor person who was at some orgy party like those rich people like to have and wandered  down into  this place, got lost and couldn’t find their way out again.”

He resumed what he was doing, and the book shifted in the bony grasp. He grunted. “And maybe…” He pulled a little harder, “Just maybe…” He yanked hard, and the book gave a little, “The book will tell us a little of what happened.”

“But the police? Won’t they want it?”

He grunted one more time, yanked, and the book came free.

“That’s why we’re gonna put it back after we scan this whole thing into my computer. My printer has a scanner on it. That way when the police take it we can still read what it says.” He turned and smiled at her.

“So, ready to go back?”

“Let me see it.”

“The book?”

“Yes.”

“But you didn’t want to touch it a minute ago.”

“No. I didn’t want to disturb a corpse, but I want to see it now that you’ve got it free.”

He chuckled. “Alright.” He handed it to her.

There was a leather buckle around the shiny black exterior. She unclasped it and opened the book. There were pages upon pages of blotched and stained ink, but there were many words. She was tempted to sit down and read, tempted to find out exactly what this was before they even went back to the surface. Later she would wish she had.

But then something changed.

It was hard for her to pinpoint at first, but the air felt different.

“Armin?”

“Huh?”

“Do you… do you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“Something feels different down here.”

Armin pause for a moment. He sat in stillness. Armin was usually good at noticing little things  – snipers often were.

Then he said, “Yes. Your hair,” And he pointed, shining his light in her eyes,  momentarily blinding her.

She blinked and reached up to touch her hair, and she realized, it wasn’t that something was wrong with her hair, but that her hair was blowing into her eyes.

“There’s wind?”

Armin nodded. “Yeah, which means somewhere down here there must be another entrance.”

She regarded the remains.

Armin said, “Could be this poor person wandered in from somewhere else.”

But Amanda didn’t think so. She was certain the person had come from the house. She wasn’t sure why, but later she would learn – to her horror– that she had been right and that the corpse was only the tip of the iceberg.  

Armin tilted his head.

“Amanda, do you hear that?” His voice had a hint of nervousness.

She did. She couldn’t pinpoint the sound at first, but it was growing louder. Then, it sounded almost like something metal or stone dragging on the ground.

She raised her gun, “Do you think we can get out of here now?”

Armin nodded, and his smile disappeared as a low guttural growl rattled the mirrors.

“Holy Christ. What was that?”

Amanda shivered. Her legs felt like lead. She wasn’t sure if she could run if she needed too. Was she dreaming again? Terror pricked like tiny needles up her legs.

Armin’s voice quavered. “Tell you what, you lead the way Amanda, I’m gonna watch our backs.”

He paused for a moment, then said. “Some animal must have found it’s way down here. Maybe a bear or a cougar or something or...” his voice trailed off.  

“Amanda?” He touched her arm, and for a moment she tightened her grip on the book and then relaxed.

“Sorry. I just..”

He nodded.

They walked back through the passage. Amanda followed the arrows and the numbers. After a while, the noises faded and Armin walked forward again.

“There must be some animal down here,” Armin repeated again. It was his mantra.

She nodded in agreement but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t saying it for her. He was trying to convince himself. Amanda didn’t need convincing.

She still held the book under one arm. It felt heavy like she was carrying a small world. She longed to open it and dive into the words and understand. A hunger.

Armin said, “We’ll scan it in and then call the police and maybe animal control. We can tell them we found it by the body and give it to them. Then we can lead them down here to the body.”

She nodded again.

“You alright Amanda?”

They passed the number 12 and rounded the corner.

“Yeah, it’s just I remembered something else from the dream.”

“Oh?”

She nodded and looked over at him. There was no smile on his face this time.

“What?”

For a moment she considered saying nothing, but like a child unable to keep a secret it slipped out. “Those noises were the same ones from my dream.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Investigation