Mirage held onto the cool painted metal bar of the railing as she stared out at the ocean horizon. It was a cloudless and mild summer evening, and the sun was just setting. Off in the distance she could see the silhouettes of land not far away from the cruise ship.
She would finally be home after her European vacation with her fiancé. Not that it had been a boring vacation of course, for Mirage and Sky had visited several cities in France, England, and Italy that she would have never even dreamed of going.
Sky was a famous rock star who had enough money to take her anywhere she liked, and even if he didn't have the money it would have been easy for him to "borrow" some from any fan of his or even from people who had never even heard of him. He was the type of man that was instantly loved by all around him, even by those who had never met him before! It more than slightly surprised Mirage that he had fallen for her, because she was pretty much the only person who hadn't instantly loved him when she first met him. On the contrary, it was Sky who had instantly fallen in love with her when he first saw her. They had been best friends since high school, but Mirage had never been interested in Sky as anything more than that. However, as time went by, Mirage had gradually fallen in love with Sky.
After they had finished high school, Sky joined his band from high school to find a record company to produce them. Eventually they did, but by then Sky was having some disagreements with the lead guitarist of his band, so he started a solo music career and soon became well-known throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Meanwhile, Mirage was studying graphic design in a local college to pursue an interest that she had developed during her high school career. After she graduated from college, Sky proposed to her and invited her to a vacation to Europe by cruise ship.
Now, they were finally going home to New York. It had all been like a dream to Mirage, and if it were only a dream, she didn't want to wake up.
A cool, salty breeze blew against Mirage from across the ocean surface, chilling her bare shoulders and blowing back her short black hair, which had already been slightly messy. Mirage walked back toward the indoor dining hall, where she knew Sky would be waiting, when the ship tilted gently, causing Mirage to catch her balance. She silently thanked goodness for not wearing high heels to the dinner party that evening, otherwise she might have fallen.
Mirage opened the white French doors that led to the dining hall, and a rush of bright and sweet classical music filled her ears. She glanced around the large room until she caught sight of Sky, surrounded by the usual swarm of fans as he signed autographs, listened to stories of how they had come to know of him and how fortunate they were to have actually gotten a ride on the very same cruise ship that he was on, and talked to them as if they were all his old high school buddies, reunited on this cruise ship by chance. Mirage didn't mind that Sky was famous, but when he was surrounded by his fans, which was almost always, there was almost no way to get him away from them so that she could talk to him privately. Mirage watched the scene for a moment longer, then walked back outside, closing the sophisticated room and classical music behind the French doors.
Mirage started to walk towards the opposite end of the great white ship. At the stern of the ship, she sat down on the deck with her back to the painted iron railing. Pulling her knees to her chin, she buried her face in her arms, letting the gentle sea breeze and the sounds of the soft waves soothe her. She thought about everything that had happened on their vacation and about how Sky was always talking to his fans whenever one recognized him. It made her feel a little sad inside.
After a minute or two of her moment of deep thought, the ship-wide intercom came on.
"Attention all passengers! There has been report of a growing leak in the ship's lower hull. Please evacuate immediately to the lifeboats at the front of the ship! Women and children first! I repeat; all passengers please evacuate to the lifeboats at the front of the ship! Women and children first!" blared the loud speakers of the intercom.
Mirage started to climb to her feet, when the ship violently shook, sending Mirage sprawling on her stomach and knocking the breath out of her. Before she could come to her senses, the ship shook again and tilted sharply, sliding her back over the edge of the ship. Mirage grabbed the corner of the ship's deck, but her gloved hands wouldn't hold long.
"Mirage! Mirage!" Mirage heard Sky's frightened and worried voice sing out above the panic of the rest of the ship as she looked up.
As the majority of the ship's passengers were running toward the bow of the ship where the lifeboats were, Sky was dashing towards her. His blue eyes were wide open in terror as her hands started to slip. When he finally reached the stern of the ship, Mirage could see that his face was red from panic and exhaustion, and sweat dripped down his forehead and dampened his dark bangs.
"Sky, help!" Mirage cried, still out of breath.
"Take my hand!" Sky gasped, holding out his hand.
Mirage let go of the corner of the deck with her right hand and reached for Sky's outstretched hand. Sky started to take it, when Mirage's other hand slipped. Sky saw her hand slip and grabbed for her right hand, but instead Mirage's glove slipped off, sending her falling down toward the lapping waves that continually crashed against the sinking ship's side, calling out to her.
As she fell backwards toward the water, Mirage saw Sky's eyes widen even more and then fill up with tears as his mouth opened into a scream.
Mirage splashed into the ocean. The cold water froze her skin and soaked her dress and filled her nose and mouth, choking her. Thrashing her arms and legs vehemently, trying to resurface, Mirage silently panicked.
When she reached the surface, it was almost completely dark. She looked up at the place where she had fallen off the deck of the ship, which was still sinking fast. Sky was no longer standing at the stern of the ship. Most of the once-luxurious white cruise ship was already submerged. Mirage looked around, but the lifeboats were nowhere to be seen.
A broken piece of wooden furniture floated by Mirage. She climbed onto it clumsily and started to paddle it away from the ship. By the time the ship totally sunk, the lifeboats had probably given up on the search for lost passengers, and Mirage's heart sank, as if going back to the ship after it went under the calm waves. Her dream had just become a nightmare. Shivering, Mirage rested her head on the damp wood of her raft and cried herself to sleep.
Mirage awoke when sunlight gleamed down onto her closed eyelids the next morning. She opened her eyes and sat up to find herself sitting on a deserted beach. Nearby, her wooden raft, which was actually an old wooden desk with missing drawers, lay on its side, seaweed tangled around it. Mirage examined her surroundings.
The air was dense with fog and the sky was gray and overcast. The ground Mirage was sitting on was damp sand, and among some rocks on the side of the beach opposite of the ocean was a narrow dirt path; where it led she could not tell due to the thick fog surrounding everything in the environment.
Being in this foreign land renewed Mirage's sense of dread, but it also sparked a thread of hope into her heart. It would be easier for her to find her way home on land than on the sea. Wiping the wet sand off of her soggy white evening gown, Mirage started to walk up to the dirt path.
Just beyond the rocks that separated the beach from the rest of the land, there was a beautiful green field along either side of the dirt path. Mirage continued walking. About five minutes later, the field's grass started fading, from bright green to dull green to not green at all. Around the point where the grass was completely dead, there was an entrance to a small town. Thinking that maybe she would be able to ask someone in the town about its location and transportation back to New York, Mirage quickened her pace and entered the town, but when she first entered, she stopped in her tracks and froze in fear.
Something was wrong. She hadn't noticed at first, but there were no plants or grass in the town, or if there were they were long since wilted and dead. And there was an unbelievable stillness to the town. Nothing moved; nobody was around, and even the wind seemed to stop immediately after Mirage had entered the town. There was not a sign of life at all in the town.
Mirage looked around cautiously as she took another step into the town. She continued down the road until she came to an intersection. She looked to her right, to her left, and finally she looked ahead again.
All of the houses in the neighborhood were exactly alike. They were all painted with the same plain white stucco, all of their roofs were tiled with the same dark brown wooden shingles, and all of the houses were exactly the same shape and size with the same porch and the same small but dead yard.
Picking out a random house, Mirage walked up one of the identical concrete walkways leading to the small wooden porch and rang the doorbell to the right of the plain brown door. Nobody answered, but to her surprise she heard light footsteps running around from within the small house somewhere. Mirage rung the doorbell again, and after she received the same response as before but without the footsteps, she started knocking on the door. There was still no answer.
"Hello? Is anybody in there?" Mirage called.
No answer.
Deciding that the only choice she was left with was to go inside and confront whoever was inside the house, Mirage grabbed the brass doorknob and took a deep breath. To her surprise, the doorknob turned easily. Mirage pushed the door open and looked inside as she crossed the threshold into an empty entrance hall.
In front of her was a doorway that apparently led to a kitchen, and to the left of the doorway was a wooden staircase. On the wall to her left was a closed door, and to her right was a doorway the apparently led to a parlor with green furniture in it.
Mirage walked farther into the hall, and looked around.
"Hello? Is anybody home?" she called again.
Suddenly, something grabbed Mirage around her neck from behind and something sharp barely poked at her neck.
"Who are you?!" demanded a voice behind her. "How did you get here?"
"I-I'm Mirage," she stammered. "And I got in here from the front door; it was unlocked. I d-didn't mean to intrude, but I need help. Do you live here?"
Mirage's captor let go of her and came around to look at her face. Mirage was surprised to see that the person who had ambushed her was a bony girl with shoulder-length brown hair and wide green eyes that were filled with curiosity. She held a kitchen knife in one hand that was shaking slightly. Seeming to know that her intruder meant no harm, she put it down on a table in the kitchen and then came back to Mirage.
"No," the girl replied, "I don't live here."
"Then why are you in this house? Where are its owners?" Mirage was confused.
"I don't know," answered the girl. "Nobody is here, though. I've looked all over this place. Nobody is here, and the plants are all dead. And when I tried to leave, I couldn't go back the way I entered. Once I got in, there was no way to get out! I've been here for two days, and you're the first person I've met since I've been lost in this town. Where did you come from?"
"I got in from a dirt path, came to an intersection of the road, and entered the house on the near right corner. I'm sure it's not too hard to find, especially since it's so close."
"Really?" the girl's eyes widened even more with hope. "Show me."
Mirage nodded and walked back outside and down the porch steps, then turned around to make sure the girl was following her.
"Umm, what's your name again?" the young girl asked.
"It's Mirage," The girl hardly seemed to Mirage like she had when she had attacked her inside the house.
"Oh yeah, and my name's Alessa," the girl added, smiling a little.
"Okay," Mirage replied. "Let's go, Alessa."
Mirage walked down the path to the road and turned to her left. Then she froze and her jaw dropped slightly.
"Where's the exit?" Alessa asked anxiously, looking around.
Mirage looked to her right, then walked into the intersection and looked in both directions. None of the streets led to the narrow dirt path that she had taken to enter the town. Mirage was dumbfounded.
"I could have sworn it was right here," Mirage mumbled, pointing in the direction she had first looked.
"Oh," Alessa's gaze lowered a little. "Yeah, that's what happened to me, too. I guess we're stuck here, then."
"Don't say that," Mirage told her. "There's still hope."
"Then where do we go?" Alessa whined.
"We just have to keep looking," Mirage replied optimistically.
After aimlessly wandering for a while, Mirage and Alessa came to another residential area of the town that had little more variation than the first neighborhood.
But something was different. A few houses away from the intersection from where they had entered the street was a pale lavender house that was slightly bigger than all of the other plain houses on the street. What also was particularly interesting about this house was that its yard was a brilliant shade of green and in it several flowers were blooming, and the trees in it were green and full of life, quite unlike all of the other plants that Mirage and Alessa had encountered in this town before.
That's something I haven't seen yet," Alessa remarked.
"Maybe somebody lives there," Mirage added. "We should go see."
Leading the way, Mirage walked down the road to the lavender house, and together she and Alessa walked up the walkway leading to the porch. Mirage rang the doorbell next to the elegantly carved door.
"It's open; come in," answered a young feminine voice from inside the house.
Mirage looked at Alessa, and then turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. Mirage crossed the threshold into the dimly lit entrance hall of the house. It faintly resembled the entrance hall of the house Alessa had been in, but it was more homely than that house. The kitchen was through the doorway across from the front door, but there were no stairs in the front hall of this house. There was a closed door to their right and a beaded curtain of ivory-colored seashells strung on it covering a doorway to their left.
After stepping aside to let Alessa enter the house as well, Mirage shut the door and then looked into the kitchen to find nobody in the room. Alessa walked towards the doorway on her left and pulled a seashell strand to one side so that she could see into the room.
"Mirage! Come here!" she called in a loud whisper. "It's this way."
Mirage followed Alessa through the curtain of seashells into a bare room with a single lamp on the ceiling and a young woman sitting on the carpet. Her shut eyes were covered by glasses and she sat as still as death, causing Mirage to wonder if she was really alive and not just a statue or some preserved corpse propped up by something behind it.
However, promptly after Mirage entered the room behind Alessa, the pale figure's eyes opened, revealing a shade of blue that Mirage had never seen in human eyes beside Sky's. Seeing this woman's eyes made Mirage to feel nostalgic, and she wondered if Sky was okay.
The serene figure stood up in one graceful motion, without making a single sound as she rose from the floor.
"Welcome," she smiled as she nodded to the two strangers. The gentle movement of her head brought to Mirage's attention her long and smooth dark hair, which was peculiarly a deep shade of purple, about three shades darker than her house, and it glistened brightly in the overhead light as it rippled down her shoulders and back when she moved.
Mirage hadn't noticed until after her fascination with the woman's hair had faded, but Alessa had stepped back and hidden behind Mirage nervously when the strange woman opened her eyes, but she, too, had been mesmerized by her appearance.
There was a moment of silence among the three in the room, when the tall young woman with glasses spoke.
"I am Fate Nightwind," the woman declared, and bowed elegantly before Mirage and Alessa. "How may I help you two ladies?"
"I'm Mirage and this is Alessa," Mirage replied, gesturing back at Alessa and curtseying politely.
"D-do you know how to get out of here?" Alessa stuttered, stepping away from Mirage a little.
Fate's light blue eyes shifted very quickly, but then she regained her cheerful composure and replied, "Why, you go back the way you entered. Is that not the thing to do when one is lost anywhere?"
Alessa looked as if she were about to cry, but then she stepped out from behind Mirage completely and shook her head, changing her expression from one of a scared little girl to one of a calm adult.
"No," she whispered intensely, and then, raising her voice to a normal level, she continued, "no. I first came to this town two days ago, and I don't care what your excuse is. This town is not anything like a normal town; this town is deserted. There are no people or animals here, and the plants and grass are all dead, except for the ones around your house. Don't tell me I can simply go back the way I came because we both tried that already. This town isn't right, and I think you know why!"
"Alessa--" Mirage started.
"No, Mirage," Alessa interrupted softly. "Don't deny it. You can't deny it because it happened to you, too!"
"Alessa...is right," Fate sighed as the cheerful smile melted off of her face at once. "There is no way to leave this town. It is like an endless living maze that changes whenever some unsuspecting traveler wanders into it. Every few years, someone wanders into it, and after a few days they die and their bodies disappear. It is inevitable."
"Then how come you know so much about this place and you're still here?" Alessa questioned suspiciously.
"I...don't know, exactly," Fate answered helplessly. "I've been here for several hundreds of years, and though I never grow an hour older, I've seen many people enter and disappear from here. I rarely even wonder where missing people disappear to anymore, because I've seen so many here.
"When I first came here and realized that there was no way to leave, I didn't realize that I wasn't the only person who had ever been here. But now it seems to be quite common that I am completely sure that I wasn't the first to be lost in this town. I eventually learned to accept it and try to go on with my life here, when the next group of travelers came to my house for help. I couldn't give it to them, but I let them stay in my house for the night. The next morning they were dead, murdered, it seemed. And when I was getting ready to bury them, they were gone. I never understood it, but I think that there's something about me that prevents this town from taking my life like it did those travelers."
Fate had slumped back down to the floor, but without the same energy she'd had before she told her story. She looked to Mirage like a giant rag doll, sitting helplessly on the bare carpet. After another moment of silence, the violet-haired rag doll spoke again.
"Will you stay with me, Mirage? Alessa?" The once calm and serene voice had become weak and broken. "I have been alone...for so long...I have nobody."
Mirage went to Fate, who had started sobbing quietly, kneeled down in front of her, and put her hand on one of the slumped shoulders. After she did so, the haunting blue eyes raised up to meet Mirage's own plain brown eyes from behind the thin lenses of Fate's glasses.
"No," Mirage said calmly. "We won't stay with you, Fate. But we will invite you to join us to find a way out of this place. There has to be a way out if there's a way in, right? Even if it's not right where we started, we can't just give up without trying! There must be a way, right?"
Fate laughed bitterly.
"You'll soon find that it is not that simple, Mirage," she said, but, smiling, she added, "but yes, I'll go with you and assist both of you in any way possible."
So the three of them left Fate's lavender house and blooming garden behind in search for an exit from the town. Navigating through the streets and neighborhoods of the town was a lot different with Fate leading the group. Mirage could hardly believe that Fate had been there for several hundreds of years, but Fate seemed to know exactly how the town changed to try to confuse the three girls. It was a wonder that even she couldn't leave the town.
After Fate led Mirage and Alessa through the residential areas for a while, they came to a shopping district. On either side of the street before them were stores and other public buildings.
Almost directly beside them, on the corner of the block to their right, was an ancient library. Before Fate could protest, Alessa broke away from her two elders and started up the concrete steps leading to the library. Swinging open one of the double doors in front of her, she dashed into the great library.
"And where is she going?" Mirage wondered and looked at Fate, who shrugged, but then started to follow Alessa. Mirage ran after the two.
Mirage half-expected the library to smell of musty old books, but there was no odor at all in the library. They found Alessa in the local history section of the library, evidently looking for something.
"Alessa, what's up?" Mirage asked.
"Looking," Alessa murmured impatiently in reply.
Suddenly, Alessa caught sight of something beyond the bookshelf she was examining and dashed off again. Fate and Mirage followed her through the library to a row of reading desks. On one of the desks was a book that lay open and face-up to a random page. On the right page was a painting of a great door, painted brightly with several intricate carvings on the face of the door. Alessa was looking at the painting. Under the painting was a caption that read, "The door to the outer tunnel."
Alessa took the book and ripped out the page with the painting on it. Mirage started to argue with Alessa's actions, but then she remembered that this town was empty and that nobody was there to care if she ripped out the pages of a library book.
The three left the library through the front doors they had entered without any further conversation. But outside the library, instead of the groups of plazas on either side of the street, they were still inside another building, probably the basement of a house. The room was unfurnished and the walls were made of concrete bricks that were all exactly alike. Directly in front of them was a hallway through a doorway with lamps on the walls on both sides.
"Where do we go now?" Mirage asked. Fate glanced around the room and then turned around.
"Apparently there is only one way to go," she replied, starting to walk into the hallway ahead of them.
"But what about the door--huh?" Alessa looked back to the way they had entered the room. When she gasped and cried out, "What in the world?" Mirage looked around.
"What happened to the door we entered through?" Alessa asked, looking at Fate.
Fate stopped and turned to face her, then shook her head.
"Things like this are common here," she said plainly. "You should be used to them by now. Let's go."
Fate turned back around and proceeded down the hallway. Alessa exchanged a glance with Mirage, then they followed Fate. At the end of the hallway was a heavy wooden door. When Alessa and Mirage caught up with her, Fate grasped the doorknob and turned, pushing the door open. Through the doorway, cloudy sunlight washed into the hallway, and when they walked outside, Mirage guessed that they were in a backyard, because they were standing in a field of the dead grass that was all too familiar to her by now.
However, a few feet away from them was the brilliant and healthy green grass of Fate's yard, but before Mirage could study her surroundings for very long, Alessa started running to the house. First Mirage started to wonder about the girl's intentions but then saw Alessa's target. An elaborately painted and carved door could be seen from where she stood, and it seemed to lead right into Fate's house.
"Mirage! Fate! Come on!" Alessa shouted from across the yard when she reached the door. "This is it! This is our way out!"
Fate hesitated, but then she and Mirage ran to the door as Alessa swung it wide open. Through the door was a long and dark tunnel that was only lit from the far end. The tunnel was like a sewer; the floor was covered in about three inches of cold water, and the walls were black and sound echoed against them like metal.
Alessa in the lead, the three girls ran through the tunnel. It seemed to be endless at first, and they ran for several minutes. Finally, Alessa reached the door at the far end of the dark tunnel, and Mirage and Fate arrived shortly after her. They took a moment to catch their breath. Then Alessa started to open the door, and through the opening Mirage could see the blue sky and the green grass and life beyond the tunnel they were standing in.
"So...this is what the real world looks like now," Fate murmured dreamily as Alessa and Mirage stepped out into the sun before her.
"Fate? Aren't you coming with us?" Mirage asked when she noticed that Fate remained inside the tunnel.
Smiling, Fate shook her head.
"I'm coming, but this is the part where our paths divide. For when I cross over into your world, my life will end."
"But Fate, you can't die!" Alessa exclaimed, frowning. "You came all this way with us. You gotta live!"
"I've lived without aging for hundreds of years, Alessa," Fate said calmly. "It is past my time to go."
"Fate..." Mirage started as she stepped into the tunnel as Alessa continued to hold the door open. "We'll miss you." With that, Mirage wrapped her arms around Fate's neck and hugged her tightly. "Thanks...for everything. If it weren't for you, Alessa and I probably would have died before we ever left that place and I would never have seen Sky again. Thank you."
Without a word, Fate nodded and, as Mirage let go, Fate took her hand. Together, they stepped through the doorway into the bright sunlight and as Alessa closed the door behind them, it vanished. Alessa took Fate's other hand and Fate's body started to glow a purple that almost matched her hair. As the glow shone brighter, Fate disappeared and dozens of purple butterflies appeared, dancing in the air around Alessa and Mirage and then fluttering off into the sky.
"Well," Mirage said, "there goes Fate Nightwind."
"Hey, look!" Alessa bent over and picked something up out of the grass. Standing up, she showed Mirage that it was a pair of glasses.
"I wonder where we are anyway," Mirage looked around. "Hey Alessa, where are you from?"
"I don't have a home," replied the girl, still fascinated by the pair of glasses in her hands. Mirage took the glasses and examined them. They were definitely the same glasses that Fate Nightwind had worn. But they appeared to be old and rusted, worn away by time.
"Well, then you can live with Sky and me until you can find a place to live on your own." Mirage handed the glasses back to Alessa and stepped off of the grass onto a sidewalk, closely followed by Alessa. She saw a familiar sign by the grass they had come from and exclaimed, "Hey! I know where we are! We're in Central Park! That means my house is just a few minutes away from here!"
She started to walk out of the park when she found a newspaper on the sidewalk in front of her. It was today's local newspaper, but that wasn't what caught Mirage's attention. On the front page, in big black lettering, the headline on the front page read, "Young Rock Star's Fiancée Killed in Shipwreck," and below the headline was a black and white picture of Sky and Mirage that had been taken on their vacation on the cruise ship.
"Won't they be surprised?" Mirage chuckled to herself, tossing the newspaper back onto the concrete where she had found it as she and Alessa started to walk down the sidewalk leisurely.
"Hmm?" Alessa asked.
"Oh, nothing," Mirage giggled, and then stopped at the corner of the sidewalk. She looked at the street signs. "Alessa!! This is it! This is the street! Come on, Alessa, my house is just up this way!"
The two girls broke into a run up the crowded New York City sidewalk towards her house.
