Violet Eden Chapters 04 - Endless

use it in emergencies. This was an emergency: I needed my best friend. I dialled Steph’s number and sighed.
    Message bank.
    I eyed off the leather couch and considered sinking into it but grabbed my pack instead and went upstairs. I ferreted out a stash of musty-smelling towels that were going to have to make do and chose the room I thought was Evelyn’s. It would have been nice to see more evidence of her around the place, knick-knacks or photos, or journals even – but the cabin, while charming, was personality sparse.
    The biggest shock was when I turned on the shower and actually felt hot water. I didn’t deliberate too long, jumping in to wash before it ran out.
    Lincoln still hadn’t come back and I didn’t think he would for a while. I got it. Sometimes space was the only answer. So I settled for finding some well-packed linen that wasn’t nearly as old-smelling as I would’ve expected, and made the bed. Unsurprisingly, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
    I was in a long dark corridor. The walls, floor and ceiling all consisting of dark-tinted mirrors, reflecting things that weren’t there and not the things that were.
    I stared into the glass, focusing on the substance that lurked somewhere within the space that my reflection should have been. I looked behind me. Nothing. What was it? And why was it familiar?
    My gaze travelled down the narrow corridor. I was not alone. Sitting in a simple chair at the end was Uri. Dishevelled as always, unshaven, shoeless. When I had seen him in the desert, the sands had seemed to roll over his feet as if they were a part of him. Disturbingly, the mirrored floor now did the same, like a liquid ocean beneath his feet. He nodded to me, expressionless.
    I turned. Nox was perched on a high stool at the opposite end of the corridor. He was predictably pristine, today sporting a full tuxedo with tails. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he produced a top hat. Unlike Uri, the metallic ocean seemed to move in currents away from him.
    I nodded to them both, the awkward arrangement making it impossible for me to keep both of them in my sight simultaneously.
    ‘Am I dreaming?’ I asked, just to be sure. They’d never come to me in a dream before.
    Uri nodded. ‘We thought it might be easier if we visited you together. Dreams have their purposes as much as a crossover.’
    ‘Have you seen everything that has happened?’ I asked.
    ‘And more,’ Nox replied, smug.
    I looked into the dark mirrors again. Something was definitely moving within them.
    ‘Still intrigued by the reflections?’
    I realised then, these were the same things I’d seen hovering in the background when Uri and Nox had visited me in the past.
    ‘What are they?’ I asked, as my hand stretched out to skim the glass surface. It was ice cold, but it wasn’t solid. When I took my hand away, my fingers were tipped in silver.
    ‘Only when you must know, can you know,’ Uri answered.
    I rolled my eyes, but my attention quickly returned to my silvered fingers.
    ‘What is this?’
    ‘Beginnings. And endings,’ Uri said.
    Nox stood, gaining my attention. ‘Do they still call to you?’ he asked, gesturing to the reflections in the mirror.
    ‘Why are there more of them here?’ I asked.
    Nox tilted his head, studying me. ‘There are not. You simply see them better.’ He glanced down the hall to Uri, a small smile playing on his lips. ‘She grows.’
    Uri remained seated. ‘She must.’
    I watched the reflections cruise along the mirrored surface. Something about them was so lonely, so lost. I took a step towards the mirrors, felt my arm extend as if of its own will. They were beautiful and they were terrible and I understood them somehow. I took another step.
    Nox sighed. ‘As interesting as this could be, now is not the time – child of Sole.’
    I heard Nox, but I couldn’t seem to stop. They were calling to me. My hand went again to the mirror and towards one of the reflections that was wavering in mid-air.
    A firm hand with long fingers pressed into my upper arm and yanked me back. Nox’s voice sounded uncomfortably close to my ear.
    ‘If you go to them, you may never return.’ With his words a coldness bled into me, leaving me just a taste of the terrible isolation this place offered. I stepped back with a start. He let me go.
    ‘You are running out of time,’ Uri said, sounding bored.
    ‘Time?’
    ‘The Hag grows stronger. You must open your eyes, see who your allies