Twice Lived, Twice Loved

Chapter Eight

She does not know what she had expected, that perhaps the mirror pathway would be a simple curtain that parts to let her through. But in that fraction of a moment that she steps in, the mirror converges on her skin like a thousand sticky tongues, lapping at her and drawing out something within her. She resists the urge to step back into the familiarity of the room she had left and takes another step forward. Suddenly, the mirror releases her and she has the feeling of being shoved as she staggers into a clearing. A little disoriented, it takes her a second to get her bearings before she looks around. She stares in disbelief.

It had worked! She has an insane urge to laugh, or cry, or to tell Ariana about all of this. But she is alone in her new landscape.

The clearing that she finds herself in is in the middle of the forest. She has a thought, wondering if half of these people's lands are not just trees and wildlife. Between her dreams and her current location, she has seen more green life than she had previously seen in her entire life.

She spins around to see if the mirror that had conveyed her here would still be there but there is nothing.

"Hello? Stone-face?" She calls out, looking everywhere for the mirror but she does not find it. There is only deep green leaves, tree bark and branches, and the clear blue sky above her. How am I going to go back then? She thinks in a panic. Why had she thought that the portal would remain pretty where she can see it while she debates on whether or not she wanted to turn back? What if she is stuck in this nightmare forever? She shoves leaves and branches aside, desperate to catch a glimpse of the shining surface of the mirror but there is nothing. She is well and truly alone.

She takes a deep breath and resolves to think rationally. The mirror had brought her here and she had seen the elf-woman come out through it. If not the mirror, there will be some other way she can return to the human world, there is no reason to panic. She digs out her phone from her back pocket and attempts to get some reception. Her phone refuses to switch on at all, talk less of connecting her to anyone. She slaps the phone against her palm lightly and tries to restart it but to no avail. The phone has simply given up, and in such a critical moment too, she thinks with an irritated sigh. She shoves it back into her pocket and wraps her arms around her middle, looking around at her location in the middle of nowhere. She cannot stay here all day. She will have to find civilization somehow. She does not remember the exact reason why but deep down, she knows that it is a very bad idea to remain here by night.

She starts trudging forward, wondering what next. She has chased her answers all the way to this point and has discovered a world that has been hiding beneath everyone's notice but where does she start in finding all of those people that had been in her dream? Are any of them real? Just because the world turns out to exist does not mean that the people did. How is it even possible that she was dreaming of a place like this? Her head aches with too many questions.

She continues forward determinedly, she will not get answers by standing in one place. The floor of the forest is thankfully dry and sturdy beneath her feet. She hears nothing but the chittering of birds and the cacophony of forest animals. The environment is so serene, quiet and devoid of other people that she could communicate with. It makes her feel as if she is the only person in the world.

The sound of a growl behind her freezes her in her tracks and she slowly turns her head to find a huge wildcat behind her. Her heart lunges in her chest as she watches the huge cat sniff the air at her.

"Fuck." She says under her breath, wondering if she should make a break for it. Something tells her that would be a very bad idea. Perhaps if she stays still enough, it will just not notice her?

The cat growls low once again, vivid green eyes on fire as they hone in on her and it paws at the ground. Her eyes widen a second before the creature tenses its muscles and leaps.

"Run!" She orders herself. spinning around and taking off. She hears it land on the spot where she had been standing and she pumps her legs faster.

Surely she is not about to die because of her own recklessness and stupidity. How unfair that would be because seriously? Barely a minute in this world and her life is already being threatened?! What are the checks against these wild creatures? Shouldn't their government do something to contain them?

She hears the creature's footsteps behind her fast approaching, rapidly catching up to her and she urges her legs to go faster. The forest parts around her and tiny little creatures bound out of her way and into their hiding places. She can barely see where she has going but to stop is death and so, she crashes through the forest, a prayer on her lips that she lives long enough to regret her choices. The creature lets out a snarl from behind her and she cries out. Her heels catch on a branch and she pinwheels, catching herself on a tree trunk. Without looking back, she takes off again, not minding the twinges of pain coming from her ankles. Perhaps it is not very wise to run through a forest in heels. Now, if the damn creature would step back long enough for her to rectify that... It sounds like it is right at her ankles. With dismay, she realises that she is not fast enough. The realization comes a moment before the creature at her back leaps, it's huge body crashing into her. The both of them crash to the ground, rolling several times until something hard hits her head and she lies on her back, the world spinning in front of her view.

Damn, death by sharp teeth would not have been her preferred method of death. She can feel the cat's weight on her body, pinning her down and its hot breath on her face. She jerks when she feels the cold rasp of a great tongue sweeping across her face. Her eyes pop back open to find the cat above her, its eyes filled with what looks like concern. Its tongue rasps on the side of her face again and it paws at her as if telling her to get up. She lets out a laugh, and the relief in her own voice causes her to laugh harder.

"You just wanted to play huh?" She gasps out. Docile wildcats, who would have thought? She raises herself up and the cat moves its weight off her. She is nearly giddy with relief and she cannot help the wide grin that spreads her lips.

"You gave me a great scare." She tells it, raising a hand to run over its neck. It acknowledges her words with a sniff and sits on its haunches, proceeding to lick itself free.

When she looks around at the forest once again, she sees it in a different light. There is a sentience to this forest. From the tall identical trees rising up to the form a canopy in the sky, to their leaves and branches swaying gently to the breeze, to the tiny little insects buzzing happily around the petals of the flowers, to the animals that prowl the wild, both small and big.

A deer strides majestically into view in front of her and its eyes take in her condition and the huge cat still lounging beside her and she could have sworn that it shakes its head before striding out of view. Unbidden knowledge flows into her head. These animals are not just the regular animals of the wild encountered in the human world. They are elves.

She blinks as the knowledge infiltrates her brain and she glances back at the huge cat still at her feet in disbelief. It looks up at her as if to question her sudden attention and their eyes meet and hold. No way. She thinks as she raises a hand to the creature's face. It lets her, curious as to her intentions. She is right, God help her, this creature is far from thoughtless. There is a sentience behind its green cat eyes, an intelligence that makes her feel like she might as well be looking into the eyes of a human within a cat's body. Not just the cat but most of the other animals in the glade are elves in their animal forms.

She has no idea how she knows but everything she needs to know about the animals come to life in her brain as if they have just been waiting for the right moment to do so.

There are different kinds of elves other than the ones that she had seen in her dreams. Those ones in her dreams, with their imposing auras and regal features are actually the highest ranked elves. Other than them, there are several other kinds of elves. There are some with the perfect visage of the elves in her dreams but unable to wield the power that those ones can, like when the crytalline-eyed one had thrown magic at the chestnut-haired one in her dream. There are also elves like this cat, and they are of lesser ranks those ones. They are able to transform into other creatures, usually a specific creature for each person. Some of them are able to turn into different kinds of wild cats like lions, tigers, cheetah, panthers. Some fall in the line of dogs such as wolves and foxes, some can change into deers as she had seen, snakes, spiders, hippos, elephants, rabbits and squirrels and all other types of animals. The cat nudges her hand still on its face.

"You are no ordinary cat, are you?" She whispers. "Who are you?" She asks.

Its eyes narrow and it turns to lick at its arm one last time before it rises and begins striding the way it had come from.

"Wait! Where are you going?" She asks it.

It does not turn back around as it takes off in full speed and disappears back the way they had come from. Had her question been wrong? Offensive? This time, her mind provides no answers.

Finally, she is alone once again and she gets up, dusting herself. She is definitely not going back the way that she had come so she begins striding forward in the opposite direction from the cat. She wonders if she will ever get to meet the person behind it.

Her hair has come undone from her ponytail and the wind teases it around her face as she picks her way through the forest, still unsure of her destination. She can however, hear the sound of running water in the direction she is heading and where there is water, she reasons that there should be homes not too far off.

As she continues forward, she cannot stop her neck from turning every which way. If perfection was a place, it would be here. There is beauty everywhere she looks. Butterflies swirl around her, some coming to rest on her head and on her bare skin. She cannot believe that she is still in the same suit and pant trousers that she had worn to see Mr. Daniel Iyke only a few hours ago. It feels like ages, eternities have passed since then. What would the uptight man think if he could see this? She has a feeling that he would handle it all much more horribly than she has. In fact, she thinks that she has done a great job of handling the shock of her new discoveries so far. She practically skips forward, a small smile on her lips.

A little bird flies forward and she raises her arm up to catch it. The bird complacently lands on her outstretched arm and she gives a delighted laugh. It is as if she has always known, deep down that she had always been seeing only half of the picture. The part of her soul that has always felt parched and empty is filling back up with every second that she spends in this world. She still has alot of questions and alot of dots to connect, but for now, she pushes them all away from her mind, only interested in enjoying the moment to the fullest capacity.

She comes across a tall apple tree, bowing with the weight of the fruits it bears and her stomach grumbles loudly. She is reminded that she has not had anything to eat in a long time ans she eyes the big ripe fruits dangling from the branches of trees. How safe is it to take them? Her memory provides her with the answers a moment later. With a stretch of her hand, she plucks a round, juicy red apple from the tree and sinks her teeth into it.

Taking fruits and food cultivated naturally in this world will give her little to no side effects. Unlike if she takes food conjured up by the power of the elves, she will have almost no withdrawal symptoms should she ever need to quit taking food from their world and start taking from her world again. She will have to be vigilant about that, for to taste even a bite of their conjured food which is surely much better and nutritious than her uncouth choice of food is to have her taste buds turn to ash if she ever tries to take food from the human world again. If she takes their food, she will put human food in her mouth and taste only dust, eat human food and never be satisfied, and she will forever crave the nourishment of elven food, for eternity. Yeah, not happening.

She will be here for a short time only, until she can find her answers and appeal to her subconscious to stop torturing her with horrendously realistic nightmares. Immediately she is done with that, it is back to her world to take charge of her life once again, no matter how crass and imperfect her world might now seem compared to the orderly chaos of this world.

The juice from the fruit rushes into her mouth and she moans. It even tastes different from the apples that she is used to. Never has an apple ever tasted this delicious. She finishes it in record time and plucks another. The bird still remains perched on her shoulder.

"So what shall I name you?" She asks the bird who only tweets in reply. "Okay, the first thing that comes to my mind... is May. So you are May from now on, okay?" She says. As if it understands, the bird tweets again and she smiles.

She raises the apple to her mouth and is about to take another bite when her eyes snap up. She could have sworn she heard...

Branches snap around her foot and she cries out as some dig into her leg. With a cry, May flies off her shoulders as a net snaps up from the ground beneath her and sweeps her feet off the ground. Her apple tumbles from her hand to the floor as she is swept up and up, higher and higher up into the trees and then all movement stops.

She is suspended upside down, her legs effectively bound by branches and holding her up, and the rest of her body is held immobile by the unforgiving expanse of the metal net. Caught.

Fury rises within her and her fingers curl into harmless claws at her sides.

Who dares to capture her?

She jerks her body from side to side violently and lets out a growl when she does not come free.

She will make them pay for their insolence!

Deep within her, she knows that these feelings are not all from her but her fury is at its height and all she can see is red.

They will pay.

Frustration bubbles up at her own helplessness and she sneers at her weakness. Goddamn this pathetic human body. Her hands curl into fists at her side but other than that, she can do nothing. She peers between the trees at the distant forest floor, looking for the creature that had dared to cross her but there is noone. She manages to shove her body around enough to be able to see the opposite side of the forest but there is still no one.

Her anger sharpens and she thrashes within the net once again, needing to be free. But her fury has no target and she can only fume, getting more red-faced by the second, unable to move and unable to fight back.

The forest had fallen silent following her sudden capture but with no more sudden movements, activities around the forest resume once more. Time passes and still she fumes as she awaits her captor to show his face. But as time grinds ever onwards, no one comes for her and slowly, the fury recedes. She is left shaky and exhausted.

Elizabeth blinks, feeling as if she is awakening from a short dream and she wonders what just happened. She has never felt so much fury before in her life as she just did when she was captured. In those moments, her thoughts had not felt like they were truly hers. She had been herself and yet she had been so separate from herself that she might as well have been watching herself on a television. The thought is uncomfortable and a little scary. It seems a bit far-fetched but surely she had not been taken over by someone else in broad daylight? No, she is only scaring herself with impossible thoughts.

She takes note of herself, bound and helpless to any that care to help themselves to her. The sound of a bird causes her to look up to find May on a branch opposite her. The bird seems strangely indignant as it ruffles its feathers, its little bird voice chirping noisily.

"Don't feel guilty, there's no way you could have warned me. And I'm glad you got away." She says to the bird who continues tweeting at her.

She decides to tackle her problems one at a time. There will be no chasing dreams and answers, not when she is tied and trussed up like this. She has to get away though no brilliant ideas on how come to mind. It might help to know the nature of her captor. Immediately, her mind is filled with knowledge again.

The creature with this method of capture is called a Boogeyman by humans. His name comes from the fear instilled in humans from his favorite pastime, dining on human meat.

Elizabeth has no time to wonder how their ancestors might have seen or heard of the Boogeyman because the direness of her situation dawns on her. All of the danger that she has been in since she set food in the elven land is nothing compared to the deep s**t she has just found herself in. Once caught by the Boogeyman, noone has ever been heard from again. It is believed that he has an underground lair where he lures all of his victims and feeds on them though in her case, there is no need for a lure considering that she just dropped herself right into the creature's lap like a sacrificial lamb.

She stretches her neck to catch a glimpse around once again. It is not here yet but it will not be too long before it does come. She closes her eyes against a wave of lightheadedness.

A second later, goosebumps trace a path down her arm as a clattering sound shatters the symphony of the forest music. Several animals and insects scatter in a flurry of wings, hooves and paws and her heart uproots from her chest to lodge in her throat.

The breeze changes direction and with it, comes the smell of rotten rancid meat and she gags. It is here.

Its voice crackles out of its chest in a whisper that reaches her ears like a demented soundtrack. It is singing, rasping what sounds like a childhood nursery rhyme except she has never heard of it. What is mist alarming however, is that its voice is definitely coming closer.

Fear cascades down her body and leaves her cold, and she begins thrashing.