Oscar continued; after discovering the monument, a sense of calm seemed to infect Oscar. He knew that there wasn't just him and the damned white sun in the sky. His steps seemed lighter, his gaze more focused on the horizon ahead of him.
After a while Oscar would encounter other monuments, some smaller, and others unbelievably larger than the one that he had originally encountered. Some were so big that if someone had a big enough chisel they could hollow out the entire Imperial Palace within the confines of the marble.
Having learned his lesson from the first monument, Oscar averted his gaze, after all, if one monument just three times the size of him could almost turn his brain into a brain smoothie, why couldn't one a thousand times the size?
Oscar continued trudging along,
'If there's one thing, I'm grateful for, it's that I won't starve to death.'
Morbid as it was, it was the truth. Oscar had long since lost count of how long he had been hiking through the sea of blood. He had already spent a decent amount of time within the woods before he came without eating or drinking; and the woods? That felt like a millennium ago already.
Oscar fell into a rhythm, the only thing existing in his mind were his two feet, one in front of the other, he repeated this single thought, for what must've been millions if not billions of times.
Looking up at the horizon, Oscar's eyes narrowed, there lingering just barely within his sight was what seemed to be a beach of pure white sand. The blood red water washed gently on the shore, like the waves on the beaches of the eastern part of the Empire.
Quickening his pace, Oscar broke into a sprint before finally arriving on the island. As he stepped towards the shore, the waves of blood splashed against his feet, not as cold as one would expect from an ocean, but not as warm as one would expect from blood.
The liquid left no residue on Oscar as he continued up the beach.
The island was no bigger than the average house in the village, if you took four grown men and laid them down, they would be longer than the island by almost half a full man.
Continuing towards the center of the island Oscar looked down at the sand beneath his feet,
'So white, almost like marble…'
It truly did look like marble, but the color was slightly off more like,
'Ivory…'
Oscar frowned, he wasn't a fan of this sand, not anymore. His senses were now on high alert, as his eyes darted left then right, ensuring that he was the only one on the island.
After his paranoia began to wear off, Oscar finally relented and allowed himself to rest, plopping himself down right in the center of the island.
Dung…
A hollow sound escaped right below where Oscar had sat down.
'God damn, right as I find a comfortable spot.' The morbidity and tragedy of his situation seemed to no longer affect the young boy, as he slowly crawled off wherever he had just sat himself.
Taking a deep breath, Oscar began to use his hands to dig through the sand at the center of the island. After creating a hole that would go up past his knees, Oscar saw a small hatch made of stone, on the side of the stone hatch were holes that conveniently allowed someone to slip their fingers beneath the stone.
Slipping his fingers into the hole, Oscar gave a hard tug.
Crshhhh
The sound of the stone moving resounded across the endless sea, after a few more tugs the hatch finally was free from the entrance it was protecting.
Oscar, sitting on his knees glanced into the hole, it was black, not dark… black. It was as if light wasn't allowed to even exist, frowning, Oscar hesitated.
'What if it's just a drop?'
'No, what do I have to lose? Id rather die than stay here forever.'
Having made up his mind, Oscar began to lower himself into the hole. Oscar allowed his arms to fully extend, straightening his back and extending his toes trying his hardest to get even the faintest touch from the ground that he so hoped to be below him. However, no sensation came.
"Hahh." Oscar sighed, before counting Internally,
'1' His shoulders relaxed, and his fingers loosened their grip,
'2' He took a deep breath,
'3' He let go.
The long fall never came, instead, Oscar almost instantly felt the hard ground below him. In fact, he could see it. The room he had fallen into was no longer locked in eternal darkness, instead torches lined the walls of the circular chamber, allowing a certain subtle warmth to fill the room.
Looking around the room, Oscar quickly realized that it was mostly desolate except for one thing. Standing perfectly vertical in the center of the room was what appeared to be a mirror, it had the height and width of one, the frame was even engraved with small flowery designs.
The only issue was the fact that the mirror was made of pure sleek black obsidian. No reflection would come of it even if someone held it a few paces away from the sun.
The sight brought nothing but confusion to Oscar, paying it no mind for a moment, he paced around the small chamber in search of anything that could be hidden within the walls. He pulled on the torches, not seriously expecting anything, but his mother told him stories of secret hidden chambers in noble homes that could be accessed by a secret door.
Finally relenting, Oscar turned towards the center of the room. His small body wasn't even ¾ as tall as the mirror itself, but he began to inspect it anyways, standing on his toes when necessary.
Seeing nothing of interest from the mirror Oscar's mouth twitched, giving a small kick to the base of the mirror before turning back towards the hatch he had lowered himself into the chamber from.
Right as he kicked the mirror, it began to change, water seemed to pour from the top of the mirror down to the base, finally allowing a reflection to appear within the mirror. There in that reflection, Oscar was walking away. Suddenly, he halted within the mirror and turned on his heels walking straight back to the mirror.
'Hey'
Oscar felt as if someone had just thrown him out into a blizzard, his entire body froze. Before he slowly began to pivot, turning back towards the mirror. There, smiling back at him was… him.
Oscar was beyond befuddled; he raised his arm and began waving it about, the reflection did the same.
'Stop that, I can only talk.'
Oscar took another step towards the mirror, his doppelganger doing the same.
"Who are you?" Oscar asked, his brow furrowed, a cold sweat forming on his back.
'Who else could I be, silly? I'm you.'
Oscar opened his mouth to question, but was quickly interrupted by his reflection,
'Well… sort of. I'm your reflection.'
"What does that mean?" Oscar asked,
'I'm you, but just everything is the opposite I guess.'
"Like what, my father birthed you and my mother impregnated him?" Oscar asked seriously. The reflections brow twitched before his expression returned to normal.
'Not like that… a less literal sense.'
'Come here I'll show you.'
The reflection turned around and began walking away. Oscar, who hadn't had a conversation in what felt like ages, quickly chased after the reflection. Closing his eyes, Oscar braced himself for impact against the dark mirror. However all he felt was rush of chilled air before he stepped into the same exact chamber.
Looking around everything appeared to be the exact same as his original chamber, except for the fact that the hatch was on the opposite side of the room. The mirror had also seemingly disappeared.
"Oh shoot, where did the mir—"
"You really are a kid." The Oscar who had been the reflection still had his back turned, but Oscar could see the small rising and falling of his shoulders as he seemed to chuckle to himself in silence.
"What are you talking about?" Oscar asked, a frown starting to form on his face.
The doppelganger Oscar turned around, this time a smile unnaturally wide adorned his face, the sides of his lips stretched all the way back to his ears and his eyes had grown so large that his nose had moved below his cheekbones.
"It's been so long…" The creature's voice began to distort, becoming deeper, slower, and unnatural. As if someone took a fork to a plate, or their nails to a chalkboard. The sound of its voice was jarring to the ears.
Oscar backed up, remember that the mirror had disappeared his frown deepened, however he had learned to keep calm after this long journey.
"What do you want?" Oscar asked, still slowly increasing the distance between him and the creature.
"What's yours…Hahahaha" The creature chuckled.