"Am I dead? What happened?"
He woke up and realised he was in a narrow pathway whose walls were all covered in glass, his head was throbbing, and he could hardly remember anything that had happened.
He looked into the mirror next to him and realised his eyes had changed to blue. He touched them out of fear, but he couldn't remember how they changed colour.
"Where am I and how did I get here?"
A voice resounded from the walls, answering his weird question
"You fool, you are in the belly of the beast, and you only got here because you were an idiot"
His head throbbed as what just happened shot into his head an image of him being swallowed by a weird abomination, making itself at home in his mind
He stumbled a little before, but got support from the glass walls next to him, only to turn and see a reflection of him staring at him menacingly
He reeled back and leaned on the next wall as his reflection got up and waved to him
"Hi there counterpart, feeling okay, well I'm not"
Arwin gritted his teeth, still struggling to recover his lost memory
"Who are you and what do you want from me?"
The reflection laughed at him mockingly to the point it had to get support from the wall next to it before a sigh escaped its lips.
"Hi Arwin, I am you or will soon be you after I obtain all your memories, but for now, call the mirror creeper your guide through this Arwinl of remembrance that seeks to devour all those sweet memories you have kept deep inside your head"
The reflection held its waist and wore a face of disdain as if talking about the subject was simply revolting.
"To think that idiot would hide his own memories to keep us from finding them, but also, you are not that skilled yet, so how could you?"
Arwin was completely taken aback by the reflection's words, but why would a reflection be talking to him anyway?
"Any way, you wish to know how you got here, well, come on, let me show you how it all happened"
The reflection began to walk, and his body soon walked in unison, though his mind was in complete opposition to the idea.
The reflection led him to a huge rock that was reflecting the world around it.
There were images playing on the screen of the mirror, and as they played, the reflection gladly narrated the weird images.
"You and your friend Tai came to the Juzo glowing caverns and decided to go on a raid, but it did not go so well, and your friend ended up dying in a field of grass"
Arwin's ears rang as a whisper played through his mind
"Don't listen to you, he seeks to devour all you are and replace your existence in the world"
Arwin shook the voice out of his head as he heard the reflection continue
"And as revenge, you decided to go into the cave only to get devoured by a mirror crawler. How cruel can one's life get?"
"Don't listen to him, he is a minion of madness"
Arwin tripped over and fell, only to see the reflection appear on a rock next to him.
"And that is not all, before this, you lost everything, your home, your family and now your closest friend, failure, and you always move hand in hand"
The words caused a sharp pain to resonate within Arwin's chest, forcing him to grip his chest as another headache slammed into him.
"How worthless can one be? That is the question your dad asked you when you failed him, but I can help if you just…take…my…hand?"
He remembered a similar scene that made his entire body tremble. He pulled away from the reflection, whose face slowly lost its smile.
"Why do you back away? Don't you want me to help you?"
An image of him trapped in chains shot into his mind, causing him to pull back in fright. The reflection appeared on the wall he was leaning on, still offering its hand"
"Let me help you…let me help you…let me help you"
The reflection repeated its words over and over, causing him to remember things that made the pain in his chest worse.
"Stop it…Stooop it!"
"Calm yourself, stop fighting it, and let me take you, let Hal return, this is no longer your fight "
His eyes regained their blue glow as all the voices went silent around him. Arwin stumbled and let out a horse breath.
He turned to the reflection that gritted its teeth and scowled at him
"How?! I was this close to getting what I wanted. I had reignited that long-lost spark. I almost gained a better host, but you ruined it, now be struck by my madness"
He felt like there were two personalities battling in his mind at this moment. Was he Hal or Arwin? It wasn't clear
Memories of two distinct worlds clashed in his mind as he held his head and resisted the urge to actually scream
'What was going on?'
His nails drew blood as the mirrors all filled with reflections that began to mumble to him with words that he couldn't understand.
They whispered to him as he squatted down and held his ears, but to no avail; the voices were still as loud as ever.
But then there was a whisper among those of madness that comforted him and made him regain a semblance of himself.
He attached himself to that whisper and listened closely
"Stop playing around, Hal, and wake up"
And with that command, the whispers went silent, and Hal woke up The other personality was gone; he felt strange as he asked himself what he had just gone through
He turned to the only reflection left and saw a boy with golden brown hair and eyes, he looked exactly like him except for those eyes that were once his, except for that innocence he once had
The boy smiled at him with familiarity, and Hal knew him, but just couldn't remember that name, and even if he asked, he felt that the memory of it would simply fade away.
"Tell me, Hal, why do you look so beaten up?'
Hal finally felt the pain of broken bones shoot through his body as he chuckled weirdly.
"Trust me, u wouldn't believe me, even I told me all about it"
The reflection laughed at him with an innocent smile on its face
"I've never seen you smile like that in all the memories I have left, at least"
The reflection looked at him weirdly, as if wondering why he would say such a statement to him, but he was not done talking
"Hey reflection, I don't know if it's actually you, but can I… tell you a secret?"
The reflection nodded at him as he forced his broken body to move close and lean against the mirror wall.
"I'm forgetting who you are. At first, I was convinced I was you and that I had just lost a name, but it was deeper than that, your memories don't feel like mine, and with each passing day, I forget something about you"
His head leaned against the wall as he coughed blood onto the mirror surface before proceeding to say
"It scared me, I wondered if I was fake, if that world was just a dream, so I lashed on to you were, the fear of blood that innocence you had, that pleaser personality I didn't want to lose you, so I forced those traits to be my own, but am I really you?"
The reflection lifted its hand and touched his, although it was through a mirror.
"I don't know either, but there is one way to find out"
Hal smiled
"Regain what I lost from that entity"
"But are you sure you can just give in and forget me, and then you can live a peaceful life here in this world, because if you seek me, you will fade away"
Hal shook his head
"Then so be. I want to know who I am, am I Hal or just a shadow you left behind? No matter what, I will get back what I lost, even if the price is losing me in the process"
The reflection closed its eyes and smiled
"Then so be it. I usually do not intervene, but this once I will"
Hal felt a surge of soul flame pour into his soul as all the injuries on his body started to heal, his bones mended, and his wounds healed with no scar left behind
Hal was tired of hiding behind a facade, and so he turned to the reflection and told it one more thing
"I am sorry, though, for to reach you, I must first lose you, so I will have to completely forget you if I am to survive here"
The reflection shrugged and lifted its hand to reveal a book with a black leather cover. Its hand passed through the mirror and delivered the book to him
"I'm glad, in this way you can have a chance to be Hal and not…."
Its words were mumbled at the end as Hal reached out and grabbed the book that faded away in his hand.
"That book will appear to you when you need it, but as for now me my memories must bid you farewell until we meet again on the mountain that borders this world from the rest"
Hal felt the memories of the other world leave his mind as he summoned the King's edge and, without wasting time, stabbed the reflection in the mirror.
The entire wall shattered as the reflection's eyes turned blue and began to glow. He smiled and bid his farewell as well before the entire thing shattered.
***
Tai stared up as he saw the lizard-like monstrosity fall from the wall it was attached to in shock.
He was panting, and the battlefield around them was battered and partly destroyed as the pieces of the mirror fell down to the ground.
And from the creature's corpse rose Hal, whose eyes were glowing a dim blue. He turned to him, making Tai smile.
"I knew you couldn't die just like that"
He placed his sword on his shoulder as even he could feel that something about Hal had changed.