The Mirror Path – Chasm

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THE Mirror Path – Chasm

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Diana walked out behind her twin into the new realm. It seemed large; a canopy of lush green yet the Minotaur had told her that it was smaller than it looked and more a room than a realm. Danni led the way, her blonde hair shimmering in front like a beacon. She seemed so self-assured for once. Diana kept close, shrinking back at every noise.

She’s the strong one really, Diana thought. She always has been. Not me.

On the surface it was the other way around. Danni always came across as ditzy, a daydreamer afraid of her own shadow and in need of her twin’s practical, confident nature to lead her. At heart she couldn’t be more different.

Danni carried an old-fashioned gas light, enclosed in a metal carrier box. It was dark save for the moon; a bizarre, alien moon that was extraordinarily bright, turning the unnatural night almost like daylight. She moved forward with caution but little fear. Diana had never seen her so bold.

This eerie place suits her. It was her last thought before she saw Danni slip in front of her and recover her footing. A second later she was sliding too in a moment that never seemed to end, her feet unable to find any solid ground. When she finally stopped moving she knew she was in trouble.

Diana had clung onto whatever her hands had caught; a vine hanging over a precipice. Her body slapped against the mud and rock as she swayed, too afraid to look down.

“Diana!”

It was Danni. She managed to look up. Her sister was standing over the edge with a fearful expression, still holding the lantern. Damn her, she’d even managed to keep the light in her hand.

“Is it bad?” she shouted bad, fearing she already knew the answer.

Danni didn’t say much but her face said it all and Diana knew then that she wouldn’t survive the fall.

“We have to get you up from there.”

Danni placed down the lantern and began to reach for her, climbing a little way down one of the vines to stretch her arm.

“No! You’ll fall too. Leave me.”

Diana’s heart protested at her own words. If Danni left her, she was lost but she loved her twin. If Danni survived at least that was something.

“No,” shouted Danni with a note of stubbornness. “I can reach you.”

She started to climb down random rocks falling past Diana’s gaze. In the corner of her eyes she managed to see something odd.

“There’s a slope over here,” she shouted. “I think I can swing to it.”

“You’ll fall. If you miss…”

“Then I better not miss.”

They argued about it for a minute, Danni finally climbed back up to look properly at the slope. Eventually she had to concede.

“It’s the only way isn’t it?” Diana shouted.

“Yes.”

Her sister sounded mournful as if she didn’t expect Diana to make it at all.

“I’m going to swing over but I need you to get on the other side of that slop so you can pull me up the slope.”

“Alright,” her twin shouted back. “I’ll be one minute.”

The minute that Danni disappeared seemed to last forever. Diana’s hands were slipping, scraped and sore from the vine but she would not let go and wrapped her arms and legs in them.

“Right!” Danni bellowed.

Diana could just see the glimmer of the lantern above the muddy crevice. She closed her eyes and took a breath then pushed off from the cliff-edge. She opened her eyes as she swung; trying to force her self closer to Danni with her body weight.

When she reached the last point that the vine would reach she let go and her body flung forward to the slippery edge. Her fingers reached the edge put couldn’t hold and as she began to slip towards oblivion Danni grabbed her hand and began to help her up.

She looked into her twins eyes, a mirror of her own but not her own, seeing her twin’s real self. She was passionate, full of feelings, full of fear but she was brave at heart. Diana scrambled up onto the bank, out of breath and they hugged in relief.

“Thanks,” she said.

They parted and Diana nodded to their right. Danni turned and gazed upon the exit, a smooth swirling of colours in the shape of a rough door.

Danni looked into her eyes. They matched the otherworldly green of the world around her. You could see her whole soul in them.

“You, ready?” she asked.

Diana nodded and they held hands. The Minotaur said they had to go through hand in hand so that two could pass for one with the amulet. They passed through together, the world changing around them once again.