Young Adventurers

by Austin S. Camacho

  Mina looked between the cuffs and M1. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes.”

  “No way!”

  “Don’t you want to get out of here? Don’t you want to see your parents again?”

  Mina glanced at her arm where her bracelet had been. She couldn’t bear the idea of her mother dying knowing that Mina was gone from her. “Yes, more than anything.”

  “Well, then you’re going to have to trust me.”

  “Why don’t you be the bait?”

  M1 looked down at the poker, then back up at Mina. “You seriously think you can nail him with this?”

  Mina shrugged. “But why the handcuffs?”

  “This monster isn’t dumb. That way his guard will be down. He’ll know you can’t fight back.” Just then a groan rumbled from somewhere in the house. “We don’t have time,” M1 said. “He’s smelled us. He’s coming.”

  Before Mina could even think M1 thrust her wrist into the handcuff. She clicked it so tight that it dug into Mina’s skin. Then M1 scurried back and ducked between stacks of crates midway across the room.

  The monster groaned again, this time closer, then the air turned quiet. Mina could see M1’s head poking out from between the crates, just barely. Her hand throbbed, and she began to sweat. She gave a jerk to the handcuffs but all it did was give her pain. Her eyes darted around the stacks of clothes by her feet. In the gray light she caught the glint of a gold thread. She leaned in as close as her cuff would allow and saw it was a necklace threaded between a yellowed husk of something and a sweater. Mina nudged it with her foot. The bundle tumbled down and she saw a dried out, shriveled face framed with black hair.

  “Oh my God, what is this?”

  But she knew instantly what it was, who it was. The face, twisted, shriveled mouth, hollowed eyes, was hers. She looked back at the pile of bundled clothes. They were all her, different versions of her, all drained and dead.

  “What is this? What are you doing?” Mina tugged hard at her cuffed hand.

  The other girl poked her head out. “It’s not painful, not at first, I think, anyway. It’s kind of like a vampire biting you. All the other ones screamed at first but in a couple of seconds they looked like they were drunk or on drugs.”

  “But why? Why would you do this?”

  “Because I don’t want to die.”

  “I thought you said you were going to kill it.”

  M1 shrugged and tossed the poker behind her. It clanged against the concrete floor. “You’d be surprised how hard it is to kill a monster. So I figured out that as long as I keep feeding it, it leaves me alone. Lucky for me there are a lot of other Minas out there. Hundreds. Maybe even thousands. And lucky for me they’re all as nice and trusting–and desperate to get back–as you.”

  “But I thought you wanted to get back to your world.”

  M1 laughed. “My world? Why would I want to go back there? My mom’s an alkie and my father’s in jail. Even if I could find the right world, I’d rather live here among all these monsters than go back there.”

  A rolling moan floated through the air. It was a sound barely human, the sound of something coming to devour every shred of life. Mina screamed and pulled uselessly at her cuffed hand. She glared at M1. “You can’t do this!”

  M1 turned away. “Funny how it gets a just little easier each time.”

  With every tug of the handcuff pain seared down Mina’s arm. There was a door to her left, past the stacked bodies of the other Minas. The sound of the creature came from that direction.

  “Please!”

  Behind where M1 was hiding Mina spied movement. It was a form, small and shrouded. Was it another creature? One of the lobster monstrosities from outside? It was too much, all too much. Mina prayed, though she knew she had little chance against one monster, let alone two.

  The form crept closer to where M1 crouched. Then a flash of metal in the gray light–the fireplace poker that was discarded by M1–swung down upon M1’s head.

  “Aah!” M1 stumbled into the open basement. She sunk on her knees, holding her head. The shrouded form swung the poker again. It glanced off the top of M1’s skull. M1 fell limp onto the cold concrete floor.

  The figure pulled its cloak off. Mina gasped. “Reed! What are you doing here?”

  The cloak was just a brown bathrobe. The boy was dressed in a stained white T-shirt and shorts. He wouldn’t take his eyes off M1.

  “Reed! Look at me. It’s me, your sister. It’s me, Mina.

  “You’re not my sister. My sister is dead.”

  Mina was confused, then she realized that if there were infinite Minas, then there were infinite Reeds. He kept staring at the slumped body of M1. Mina was afraid she was dead until she noticed the slight rise and fall of her back, air inhaling and exhaling. The monster’s groans came closer. She looked at her cuffed hand.

  “Listen to me,” Mina said. “She has to have a key.”

  “A key?” Reed glanced up at her. He seemed as if he’d just woken up.

  “Yes, for this.” Mina pointed to her cuffed hand. The monster cried out. It was nearly at the doorway.

  Reed thrust his hands in the pockets of M1’s skirt and pulled out a silver key. He carefully stepped over the husk of a body and gave Mina the key. She freed herself just as the monster groaned from the other side of the door.

  Mina grabbed Reed’s hand. “Hurry.” She pulled him toward the other exit. Then she stopped.

  “What is it?”

  M1 was so much like Mina, yet so different. “I can’t just leave her.”

  “But she let all those others die.”

  “I can’t do the same to her.” Mina tried to hoist M1’s body up but she was too heavy. It was all she could do to raise her off the floor; she’d never be able to carry her up the stairs, not even with Reed’s help. She lugged M1’s unconscious body to the far side of the basement and rested her against the cinderblock wall. She piled blankets on top of her, hoping that maybe the monster wouldn’t find her.

  Just then the door opened. Mina caught a glimpse of the monster. It looked like it had been human, once. Now it was a lumbering thing, hunched and covered in tumors that glowed in the gloom. She fought the urge to coil up from fear. She pulled Reed out of the room, through the corridor and its ruined toys, and up the stairs to the safety of the first floor, slamming the door behind her.

  “It won’t come up here.” Reed sounded almost robotic. “It never does.”

  Mina cradled her wrist. It was bruised but she was thankful she was alive. “That’s what she told me. Why? What is it?”

  “Uncle Tao slept in the bedroom out front. He had trouble walking, so he moved down here.” Reed wandered out into the kitchen. He stared at the dirty plates. “I should clean these.”

  “Reed, do you know what that thing is?”

  The boy kept his back to her. “Uncle Tao was getting sick. Mom said he had cancer. Then there were these weird flashes, like bursts of light. They were all around the house and then by the lake.”

  “Where did they come from?”

  “I dunno. Uncle Tao was yelling one night. Mom tried to calm him down but I knew something was really wrong with him. She wouldn’t even let us look at him. Then he was gone.”

  Then it dawned on Mina. “You didn’t come through the mirror, did you?”

  “No.” Reed picked up a plate and scraped the moldy food into a trash bag.

  This Reed had always been here, in this world that had suddenly, somehow, turned horrific. “So this is your home.”

  He dropped the plate into the sink. “There was screaming noise from the basement. Dad went to check. He didn’t come back up. Mom called after him but he didn’t answer. Then she went down. We heard her scream. She never came back up.” He cleaned off another plate and rested it in the sink.

  “What about Mina?”

  He turned and glared at her. “The real one, you mean?” Mina nodded. “She tried to call the police but the phone wasn’t workin
g. The sky was gray by then, always gray, even at night. She told me not to go into the basement. She told me to hide. She told me to keep safe. Then she left for help. I haven’t seen her since.”

  Mina thought of those mutants crawling all over the property. “Oh, no,” she whispered. “So you’ve been alone here.”

  Reed cleaned the last plate. “Until the one down there came. I knew she wasn’t my sister. I knew she was an impostor. I thought she was going to get eaten by the monster but she never did. Then there was another, then that one was gone, and then there was another one. I kept count. You were the fourteenth.”

  Thirteen dead Minas. Or was it fifteen, counting the one who lived here in this world? She tried to imagine all these other Minas and what their lives were like. Maybe they were as different as she and M1. Maybe some of them were even happy. “We have to get out of here.”

  He sprayed water on the dishes. “But this is my home.”

  “I know, but we can’t stay here. It’s not safe anymore.”

  He shut the water off. “What if my sister comes back?”

  “We’ll leave a note letting her know where to find us.”

  Reed knelt beside Mina. “She’s not coming back. I know that.”

  She stroked his black hair. It was longer than her own brother’s. “I promise you, I’ll take you to somewhere safe.”

  “Okay.”

  She touched her bare and damaged wrist, more determined than ever to find her way home.

  The second floor was where the monster roamed. Mina couldn’t guess why, and she didn’t have time to solve that puzzle. If the monster found M1 and fed on her–just the thought made her sick–they might have some time to spare. If it hadn’t found her, the monster might be ravenous. They had to be quick.

  There was no sound in the corridor aside from their own footsteps and the clacking claws of the creatures outside. She hurried through the hallway, Reed in tow.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I don’t know.”

  They came upon a set of stairs leading to the attic. Mina bounded up two at a time, nearly tripping. This attic was like the one she came through–a standard attic used to stow the extras of life, not the mad scientist workshop of her world. She spied the mirror on the far wall and ran toward it. She reached out a hand and touched the glass. It was solid. She pressed both hands hard on it, staring at her own angry face. Nothing happened.

  “It’s dead,” she said. “Come on.”

  They ran back into the hallway and found the next set of stairs. The attic looked exactly the same. She touched the mirror but it was solid too. They tried attic after attic, but nothing.

  “We’ll never find it,” Reed said.

  “Of course we will,” Mina told him, trying to sound certain.

  The mirror in the eighth room vibrated with a slight hum. Mina touched the glass. It shimmied and vibrated as if it was no more than a viscous film. She pushed her hand all the way in and then pulled it out. She turned to Reed. “Let me check first.” She pushed her head through the mirror. A few seconds later she pulled it out.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Mina touched her bare wrist. “I think there was a fire in that house. It’s all black, charred wood, nothing else.”

  “What if they’re all like that?”

  “They’re not. Don’t say that. Let’s go.”

  The mirror in the next attic was dead. The one after that, though, vibrated and hummed. Mina peeked into that world and drew her head back out. “It’s okay there, but it’s not my world.”

  “Maybe we should just go there. At least we’ll be safe.”

  Mina thought of her mother, daughterless in the last days of her life. “No. I want to go back to my home.”

  Three more attics with three more dead mirrors. Mina worried they were doubling back on their path, repeating attics. She wished she had a pen to x off the doors. As they ran to the next attic they heard a low groan.

  “It’s going to eat us unless we hurry and find it,” Reed said, “or someplace good enough.”

  They dashed up the next set of stairs. The mirror was alive. Mina pushed her head through and pulled it back grinning.

  “What did you see?”

  “Uncle Tao’s workshop. I think this is it.”

  Reed took a look around the attic. Mina understood that this was his world, and he’d be leaving it forever. “Okay,” he told her. “Let’s go.”

  She watched Reed approached the mirror. He was so like her brother; it hurt to see him so sad. If they made it back to her world, how would she explain this new sullen Reed to her family? How would he fit in their lives? Then another thought hit her. What if he couldn’t pass through the mirror? What if she alone had that power? “You go first, she said. “Just step through and I’ll be right behind you.”

  He looked back at her, then he slipped through the mirror. Mina breathed in relief, then she followed.

  The shift felt like walking through a cool shower, though she remained dry. She raised her arms and wiggled her fingers, noticing with a pang of regret the bare wrist where her mother’s bracelet used to rest. She smiled at the hodgepodge of steel contraptions in the attic of this safe world. She brushed her hair from her face and breathed a long sigh of relief.

  “Are we okay?”

  Reed wore a frown, and Mina wondered if it would ever leave his face. She crouched down and hugged him. “Nothing can hurt us here.”

  Then came a voice from the floor below. “Mina? Where are you hiding?”

  Mina’s heart jumped, though she knew in that instant that she shouldn’t have let it. The voice belonged to the one person who should not have been in this house. She stood and backed away.

  “What is it?” Reed asked.

  “Something’s wrong.”

  Reed scurried away and hid behind one of Tao’s overloaded workbenches. “Another monster?”

  Mina waited as the feet climbed the stairs. She stared at the door, caught between ecstasy and fear, while it opened. There, before her was her mother, Norah, looking like she did before cancer ravaged her body

  “Where have you been? Didn’t you hear me calling for you?” Norah gave Mina an exasperated look. “Dinner’s been ready for ten minutes.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Have you been up here the whole time?”

  Mina couldn’t help but stare. She nodded.

  Norah cocked her head. “You look different. Did you do something to your hair? It looks longer for some reason.”

  Mina couldn’t take it anymore. She ran over to the woman and hugged her tight. Her body was warm and alive and vital, not weak and dry. Her skin smelled perfume fresh, not like tangy sweat. “Tell me you were in the hospital, and you got better and you drove up to meet us. Tell me, please.”

  Norah pulled back. “What on earth are you talking about? I haven’t been in the hospital since I gave birth to your brother.”

  Then Mina noticed her mother’s wrist. On it was the blue and silver bracelet. This was not her world. This was not her mother. Her heart felt shredded into a thousand pieces. She glanced back to the mirror. “How long have I been up here?”

  “I don’t know, maybe a half hour or so. Are you feeling okay?”

  She looked between the mirror and this woman, and then a horrible realization came upon her: this woman’s daughter was most likely one of the dead Minas. This woman would never see her daughter again.

  “Mina, is something wrong?”

  Her mind spun. She could stay in this world: she was soon to be a motherless daughter, and this woman was now daughterless. They could both be happy. They could both have what they needed. All it would take was for her to say yes, to break that mirror and sever the link with all the other worlds.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Mina said. “I’m just so glad I’m here.” She gripped Norah’s hands. They felt so warm, so healthy. Her heart pumped with joy at the idea of this new, safe life.

  “I swear I wi
ll never understand teenagers,” Norah laughed.

  The laugh was so clear and bright that it brought Mina back to the last time she heard her own mother laugh so freely, before she fell sick. Mina couldn’t help imagine her own mother in her hospital bed, dying. And in that moment, because of that laugh, she knew she couldn’t let her mother die with a vanished daughter and a broken heart. This was not her world. She didn’t belong here.

  The mirror lay against the wall, beckoning her. It almost seemed to be laughing at her pain. She turned back to Norah. They looked so much alike. It wasn’t fair. “Don’t worry about me, mom. I’m fine.”

  The instant Norah let go of her hands Mina wished she could grab them again and hold them forever. “Well, come on down for dinner before it gets cold. We’re all waiting for you.” Norah cocked her head, and Mina wondered if she knew she wasn’t her daughter.

  The sadness of the coming loss caught hold of Mina. She thought of what this woman would go through when her daughter never returned. “Mom, I love you. Remember that, always, okay?”

  Norah shook her head and chuckled. “I swear, sometimes it’s like you’re someone else’s child.” Then she was gone.

  Reed came out of the shadows. His frown was firmer than ever. “I know,” he sighed. “Back again.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ve got to try.”

  The attic was the same jumbled mess as before. The air smelled sour and the light from the window carried that familiar gray glow. Mina snapped into warrior mode and ran back down to the maze of the second floor, Reed in tow. They turned a corner and came across a puddle of greenish ooze.

  “What is that?” Mina bent down. It smelled like horrible cheese. She didn’t dare touch it.

  “It comes from the monster.” Reed’s eyes were wide with terror. “It’s here.”

  They ran for the nearest stairway up to the third floor. The mirror there was dead. They dashed back down and ran the maze again. Just before they reached another staircase they heard the monster’s groan. It was the sound of emptiness, of death.

  “We should go back to that other place,” Reed said.