&& THE GOLD LACED MIRROR [VINCENT][C]

And there he was laying in the middle of the room, minding his own business when this voice decided to interrupt his important thoughts. "Hello~" It said so gently, almost as if he were the most delicate of children. At first Risk didn't really acknowledge it. He was so used to there being a voice around him that he just accepted the fact that there was. “Nice mirror you have here~.I hope you don't mind that I've procured it."

That was when things started to seem strange. Still laying on the ground in the middle of the room he heard the word Mirror. It took a moment for his brain to process that it had been said. But once it was there he couldn't help but mutter... "Mirror? What Mirror?" 

Then he sat up in that spot and started to think much clearer then he was. Something felt... Different. This voice that he was hearing... The pattern was different. This voice didn't sound like his own nor did it sound like a cruel snake whispering venom into his ears. But... This voice was speaking about a mirror? What mirror? He'd been in this room for a very long time and he hadn't felt a mirror. 

It was at this moment that he realized something was different. The floor, he realized, something was bothering him about it. The floor was much too smooth than what it used to be. Something had changed. Something was wrong. He could feel clean, smooth tile against his fingers rather than the rough stone of the maze. What? What's... going...?

He gasped and stood himself up. The floor was different. Which meant... That the world around him could be different too. What was going on here? Afraid to move in any other direction he lifted his fingers to feel that his mask was still there. It was, and he allowed a small sigh of relief. 

Finally he turned his attention back onto the voice that he knew was not his own. "Ohkay, so first you take away all my memories. Then you put me through hell in that stupid maze. You take away the only person that I knew and then you trap me in this crazy silent room only to force me to speak only to my own voice. Now you're trying to get my attention with more voices? No! I'm not falling for it! Unless you are so stupendous god that can magically get me out of this room, leave me alone! I don't need anymore of your torturous crap! You hear me?! I'm so tired of living like this! And I have no idea what you've done to the room that you trapped me in, but I'm not falling for any of your illusions!" 

When he was finished speaking his voice cracked and his energy sapped. It was as if the floor sucked it all up and left him high and dry. In that moment he swayed and fell to his hands and knees exhausted. "No more... Please... No more... Why do you have to torture me like this...?" He said quite softly. 

The conversation began bizarre, but the more the person spoke, the more confused Risk became. He was inside a magic mirror? Really? That... could explain the sudden floor change... But his lack of sight made it really difficult to confirm that. Besides... He was suddenly very tired. He didn't know how much longer he could stand to deal with these ridiculous claims. Why would there have been a magic mirror in the maze anyway? Guess it didn't matter. The maze was insane. Anything could have happened in there. If in fact he had gotten stuck with in a mirror he would need some kind of proof. 

Not because he thought the voice was lying, but because part of him didn't even believe that the voice wasn't just another ruse to get him to become even crazier then he already was. 

“I assure you I don't toy with memories. Nor do I live near a maze. I mean I suppose I am as rich and beautiful as a God, but that's beside the point.” 

Not live near the maze... Was he no longer in the maze? What if this "voice" was right? 

“I'm here to help you. Not torture you.. No, no, no, I'm not that type of person in the least bit. I don't have the stomach for it.” 

Somehow... Risk didn't believe him. All people in the maze were killer types. All people in the maze had stomach for torture. Even himself. But if he truly was trapped in some kind of mirror and was no longer in the maze himself then... Well... The rules would change right? Perhaps he could find out who he was, who he had been before he had forgotten? 

“My name is Vincent...Please, what is yours?”

Vincent... The voice even had an alternative name that wasn't his own. Risk was quiet for several moments. Thinking about how to answer and about the possibilities that would be endless if it were possible for him to actually get out of this useless room. 

"Risk." He said. "My name is Risk... or at least... I think it is..." He sat himself down and folded his legs into a criss-cross apple-sauce position and tried to get himself to relax. He had little strength anyway. 

"If this is truly a mirror that I am stuck inside... How did you get the mirror? And... How do I get out of it?"

“You think? Have you been in there so long you've forgotten your own name? If that is the case, we'll see if we can't help with said, memories...Bring them back to you mind.”

And then Risk stopped and thought. He didn't even respond to this vincent person. How did he know that there were memories missing? He hadn't said that. Perhaps he implied it? But still that didn't seem good. The fact was, no matter how much sense this voice made, he still didn't know if any of it was actually true. He grew very very quiet and for the next couple of moments just listened to the strange voice talk. 

“Well, I procured it from a traveling merchant. I payed a pretty penny too, for a very pretty mirror. He didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I do. Finding out that it was indeed magic was just a sweetner~...”

What... What did that mean exactly? He bought the mirror from a traveling merchant? Why did that sound familiar. He felt like that scenario should mean something to him. 

“Isn't that the question of the day! I would guess we'd need someone to take your place inside. Other than that I'm not so sure on the logistics.” 

Someone to take his place? So... Why would this random person help him out especially if that required someone else to go in. That is... If this person were telling the truth.

“However, I will be using all of my resources to find out how...After all, I can't have you sitting in my foyer looking so drab. You're of no use there, if anything it's a prison. You're also young, you should be out in the world enjoying yourself~. I also don't imagine it being comfortable sitting in filth for eternity." 

Awe yes. That made much more sense. He would need him out of the mirror because he probably didn't match it's brilliance. Of course, He still didn't know how a mirror got in the maze anyway. 

Then it hit him like a club. If this story were true, then this man truly bought the mirror, and that would also mean he, in a way, bought Risk's life. Where had he heard this done before? He felt like this was something he was supposed to know. Mother always said that they'd done some horrible thing to be banished there. But then... How did he get out? Since the banished ones had curses over them so that it was impossible for them to find their way out, and then he just suddenly appears in the wears of a traveling merchant? That was just coincidental. 

Depending on the personality of the person who owned this voice Risk would either be a free man, or he would just be trapped in another prison just without bars. 

"Well?" 

"Well, what? Shut up or he'll hear you." 

"You've got a choice." 

"Shut up. I don't even know if he's telling the truth." 

"You're right. So if you stay here then you won't have to deal with someone trying to trick you." 

"Are you an idiot? He said he wanted me out because I... I don't... know what a foyer is... but.. Its probably because of the way that I look compared to the mirror. He's going to want me out anyway. If I were really in a mirror and that were the case, I probably wouldn't have a choice."

"Who are you calling an idiot? You're the one talking to yourself." 

"I... I..." There was a pause and then Risk growled harshly, his entire body tensing up. The voice, the changing floor, the talk of mirrors, the voice in his own head.... Or was that himself that he spoke to? He couldn't even remember. He lifted his hands and covered his ears. "No..." He muttered. "No.. No... Lie... You're lying. Mirrors... Maze... Who... Who told you to do this? I can see what you're doing. You left me for so long just as a beginning right? Now you're fabricating this story so that I'll trust you and let you use me however you want. No... I won't fall for your games. I want out. Get me out... Stop trying to give me false hopes. Stop trying to confuse me. Just let me out. Please..."

“You do have a choice, Risk. If you don't want to leave the mirror, I can't make you. But if you chose to stay inside... Well.”

There was a pause. Then... “You'd be all alone again. Just you and yourself. I mean I can't keep you out in the open like this. It depresses me, and would no doubt depress my guests. So you'd have to go in the basement. I want to help you more than anything. I want to make you better, it's what I do...But you can't help the unwilling.”

But now Risk had covered his ears, and as he did so he felt completely vulnerable as this was one of his major senses that he needed. He was beginning to panic. He feel his breath come in erratic waves. It was beginning to get a little bit stuffy inside his mask, but he didn't take it off. 

“I'm not lying to you, Risk. This is truly our first meeting...Look, I'll get you out, my dear. I'll even try to do so tonight. I just need you to be calm. I need you to trust me.” 

It worked. His sharpened sense of hearing picked up Vincent's words easily. He should have known. It wasn't worth coving his ears. He could still hear everything... Not that there was very much to hear in the first place. It had always been the silence that had driven Risk crazy while he was in this prison. So, he lifted his hands away from his hearing and instead wrapped them around his chest, as if trying to ward off some evil spirit. 

"You.... You'll get me out?" He asked in a rather bewildered tone of voice. But trusting him would be hard. Especially with knowing that he could become a slave once he got out of the mirror, which he had come to accept as true without realizing it. He couldn't remember the last time he actually trusted someone, even when he trusted his own self. 

“Do you remember exactly how you got stuck? I would need to know some details before I try to recreate the scenario~...Also, where did you say you were from?”

Where he was from? He'd heard mother tell him once. The very first time he had opened his eyes she had said it. What did she call it? She never spoke about it again. Only that once. What world was it said they were from? "I... I don't remember... What world I was from..." He said softly. "I only remember that I was supposedly banished from it into the Labyrinth... Because.. Because I did something wrong..."

Then he paused and thought to himself. How had he gotten into the mirror? "I... I was running. Through the tunnels I was running. It was because... someone had died..."

"Yeeesss. By your hand too."

"Shut up! It.. It was..." He paused and shivered as a cold hand whispered up his spine. But then he completely averted the subject and moved on in his explanation. "It was dark in the lower tunnels of the maze... I couldn't see anything, but I felt my way through the twists and turns. I knew that place by heart after all. I had to... If I didn't I could be killed at any time. I guess I turned down a hall way I'd never been down because suddenly I felt this door open up. Desperate I... shifted directions and walked in.. But then the door disappeared and I couldn't... I couldn't find it."

"Why are you trusting this guy? Why are you falling for his tricks? Didn't your mother teach you anything?"

"Stop talking! The more you talk the more I say!" And the more embarrassing my situation gets. Why would someone want to help me now that they know I had killed my mother? "You aren't helping... But then you never do. All you do is make my life worse and miserable. Now if you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to go away."

There was a laugh, A cold, sinister laugh, that came from Risk's own lips. A flash appeared in his eyes only briefly, and then the moment was gone. There was a pause from Risk himself and he blinked in confusion. What had just happened? That had never happened before. He had always been in almost complete control of his body. His mouth had become a strange exception when he had been thrown into the mirror. But... He didn't feel like talking excessively anymore. At least for the moment.

"Ah... um... I... Can't see... If that makes any difference..."

This unseeable man was going to get him out. He even made a promise out of it. Risk so wanted to believe this random voice, but about 70% of him didn't. His mother had always said "Never expect the best of people. That gets you hurt. Always, always accept the worst." Which he did. He hardly trusted even the maybe one friend that he'd had inside the maze. He had to assume the worst of this Vincent, which meant that his comment about getting squeamish was immediately a lie. However, no matter who this person was, if he could get on his good side, and stay on that good side, he would not only have a place to stay, but also a purpose as well. For now, he really didn't have anywhere to go. And there was no other point in staying in the mirror anymore.

“Banished? I've never heard of someone being banished from a world... But that is very sad. Where I was from originally, we used to execute the unsavory. It was a terrible terrible practice. You must be from a much much nicer place.”

There was a pause from Risk but then he muttered ever so lightly, "I would have rather have been executed..." Whether the man heard him or not was none of Risk's concern. He didn't care. But it was true. He hated the maze. Hated almost everything that happened within the maze. Even hated his mother. But he couldn't have just left her there. That would be abandonment. And he felt that he couldn't abandon anyone else. else? Implying there had been others that he'd abandoned? Of course he did kill and leave her, and going into the mirror he'd left decard by himself as well. Dammit...

“Someone? Ah well, we all end up hurting the ones we love in one way or another. My father met his fate due to one of my mistakes. Poor old man. No need to dwell on the past of course~. You say it felt like a door? Hmmm Interesting. Do you think it being so dark helped open the mirror?”

Which confirmed it. This person was more than he appeared and was probably lying to him in one form or another. Besides, that was how his mother would speak to him all the time. Even when she was slicing into his skin with a barbed whip.

"I'm... not sure if it had been dark in there or not. I just remember that I couldn't see."

“Now...Is it a blindness that happened due to the dark, or have you always been blind? Hardly, I'll guide you with my voice.”

"I've not always been blind... I remember being able to see when... I was able to see at one point, but over time it was taken from me. It was fine in the maze but now... It scares me..."

Play the part. Risk. Theres nothing wrong. He's going to get you out.

There was a pause on Vincent's end and he heard him call out to some unknown person. Then the strange sound of friction and Vincent spoke again. “Whenever you're ready, Risk. And we can begin.”

Risk took a couple deep breaths and then paused. After a moment Risk stood up and looked out into the dark world of his dark eyes. "Alright Vincent... I'm ready."

He was going to get out... Finally after so long. It was almost too good to be true. And somehow... He knew that it was going to happen. The moment that Vincent's voice became a whisper that he couldn't hear, he could feel a pull at his own consciousness. A hunger that inched him toward the way out of the mirror. He was already crawling halfway over by the time Vincent had mentioned to come toward his voice. His breathing became steady and his body became very calm. The only thing that mattered was getting out. The only thing that ever mattered was finally feeling what it was like to feel hunger and energy again. 

It was as if his body knew exactly what was going on and it moved on its own. The moment he reached the mirror and touched the smooth surface of the glass he stood up. There was a moment of pause. It was as if the mirror were calling its new target. The maid girl quickly averted her whole body into the mirror. In the same respect Risk was pulled out of the mirror. 

Out of his mouth came a gasp and he quickly collapsed to the ground. The sudden burden of hunger hit him like an ocean wave. Starving, Thisty. It had been so long since the last time his body had proper energy sources. Exhaustion rushed over his body and he couldn't hold himself up at all.

At first, he was afraid, but he very well didn't have the energy to react to that fear except to shiver and shake. He was so hungry. So... thirsty...