Page 18 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)

A fter dinner, leaving John and Jodie at the manor, we all head to the funfair.

“Evening, friends,” Elliot says, smiling at us all. “I’m not expecting anything to happen tonight, but with dark magic, you never know.”

“Is there anywhere specific you want us to look after?” Sly asks.

Elliot shakes his head. “Nope, just wherever you’re drawn to. So, pick an attraction and have at it.”

Adhan looks at our group. “Pick an attraction and stay there for a bit and then change over, groups of two or more, at least two witches per group.”

Ernest looks at me and Sly. “Fancy starting off together? I’ll let you pick.”

“Hall of Mirrors,” Sly quickly says, grinning at me.

“You’re such a child,” I reply, grinning at him.

“What?” Sly asks.

I just shake my head.

“If you get into trouble, send a help message and we’ll all come running,” Ernest says.

We all break up, going in different directions as we make our way to the Hall of Mirrors.

“I don’t think I’ve ever walked a Hall of Mirrors,” Ernest says as we enter.

“Prepare to look weird,” I say, grinning at him. I burst out laughing when Ernest jumps as soon as we walk in.

“Sheesh, that made me jump,” he says, putting a hand over his chest.

We laugh at him.

“Yeah, yeah, carry on,” he says, waving his hand around.

We walk around laughing at ourselves and pulling faces to make us laugh even more.

The mirrors are fun. I look tall, short, wiggly, wide, skinny, upside down, and so much more. We stand in front of them together, as couples and individually. I honestly can’t remember laughing so much.

Adhan and Ernest are a hoot. You’d never think that looking at Adhan, he looks so serious, but he has a total wicked sense of humour, and Ernest is just nuts.

We’ve been in here a while when we reach another mirror.

“Have we not seen this mirror before?” Ernest asks, looking confused.

“Yeah, when we came in,” I confirm, looking around. “The entrance should be here.”

We look, but there’s no door.

“Maybe they have this mirror in more than one location,” Adhan says.

“Maybe. Let’s have another look,” Sly suggests.

I don’t remember seeing another mirror like this on our walk around. I mean, why would they have two mirrors the same?

We start the walk again, but the mirrors have moved. It looks like we are now in some sort of mirror maze.

I send some magic out to see what it can find. Sly and Ernest do the same.

We catch up with some teenagers who walked in before us.

“Are you four alright?” Adhan asks them.

They nod, smiling happily. “We’re having so much fun. First, we were captured in willow branches, with murdering scarecrows and the headless horseman. Then we got hit by rock apples, chased by vampires, captured a leprechaun, and now we’re trapped in the Hall of Mirrors.”

“Seriously, this Haunted Farm and fair is fantastic,” another says.

“I’m glad you’re having fun,” Adhan says, smiling at them.

“There is just one teeny tiny thing,” another says, gazing at one of the mirrors, looking a little pale.

“What?” Ernest asks, looking around.

I’m not the only one who gasps when I see the reflection. “Because that’s not at all creepy,” I say.

The mirror shows us, all of us, stood there covered in blood as if we’ve been stabbed, shot or had our throats slit.

“Pretty sure that mirror wasn’t there on the first walk-through,” one of the teenagers says.

Being closest, Ernest puts his hand out to touch the mirror.

“Don’t,” Adhan says, catching his arm. “You touched the zombie and made it real. Maybe don’t touch the mirror, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that,” he says, dropping his arm.

“Let’s try that way,” I say, pointing in the other direction.

We walk past more mirrors, but every now and then they move position, trapping us, before moving again. The images of us are getting more disturbing. The teenagers are staying close to us.

“Why does something about this seem familiar?” Adhan asks.

“I thought the same thing,” Ernest says, then pauses. “Now I remember. Sal had this problem at the abandoned funfair where he found the box. Everything kept moving for him. Remember, that’s why he was missing for three days,” I reply.

“Three days!” one of the teenagers exclaims.

“Oh, hell no!” I say, looking at Sly. We can’t be trapped in here for three days. What about our brothers? They will completely freak out. The only consolation I have is that they are with John, but we need to get out of here.

“Has your magic come back?” Ernest asks us.

“No,” Sly and I say at the same time.

From somewhere, we hear the sound of glass shattering.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that was a bad sound,” Adhan says, moving to stand in front of the teenagers.

We hear sinister laughter getting closer and then a song. “Row, Row, Row your boat gently down the stream. If you’re stuck inside a mirror, don’t forget to scream.”

What the hell? We’re inside a mirror, how?

“We’re inside a mirror,” Ernest quickly says. “Ebby, Sly, throw your magic out and shatter the mirrors.”

Just as he says this, a clown carrying a red balloon comes into view.

Hell to the no, I’ve seen that film and read the book. I gather my magic.

“Now,” Ernest says.

I throw my magic out, as does Sly with his black magic and Ernest with his light magic.

All the mirrors around us shatter, and we’re suddenly standing on the grass outside the Hall of Mirrors, surrounded by a lot of people.

“It worked,” someone says.

I see Xander and Enoch, and they run over and slam into us. We move around, and the four of us are hugging. Talking over each other, but I can feel a fine tremor running through them.

“I thought we’d lost you both,” Enoch says softly, pulling back and rubbing his eyes. Eyes that show fear and relief.

“We’re safe and fine, I promise,” I say to them.

“We will always come back. You two are stuck with us, remember?” Sly says softly.

Xander pulls back. “The witches let us help pull you out of the House of Mirrors.”

“But you were gone for about six hours,” Enoch tells us. “John helped us stay calm.”

“Well, as calm as we could be,” Xander adds.

I’m surprised when we get hugs from Titus and the others, even Elliot and Madam Cleo.

“Did you have fun?” he asks, grinning like a loon.

“Could have done without some of the things we saw, but we left before the killer clown got us,” Ernest answers.

“Wait, you had a killer clown?” Temp asks. “We had nothing, and you get killer clowns. So not fair.”

I laugh at Temp as Ernest pats his arm.

The boys are still glued to our sides; us going missing even for six hours has scared them, and just when they are finding complete happiness again. I sigh. I’ll need to find something to make them smile again.