Magick Mirror Read online

  He had fallen in love with Magick Mirror over the course of the weekend, and now the quirks of the game began to return to him. He was reminded how ahead of its time the game was, how incredibly interactive the 16-bit dungeons were. He recalled how it was never the newest item, never the mirrors, which helped him solve the puzzles in the end—the artifacts were merely tools used to gain access to the dungeons. Once inside, you were left to use your own cleverness to get the treasure and escape unharmed. He chuckled when he recalled how he’d spent an hour after finding the bronze mirror hurling barrels and rocks against the last puzzle in the first dungeon, and how the solution he eventually found had nothing to do with the super strength the bronze mirror bestowed. All he had to do was arrange the barrels and boulders in a pattern matching the arrangement of boulders and barrels on the barred-off side of the room, and voila! He was in.

  Why, then, had he been so foolish as to think trying to smash the crystal mirror was ever going to solve this puzzle? It could only be solved by using the clues that he had been given and applying his mind.

  Anders didn’t gasp when the realization hit him, but he quit wallowing in his own remorse. He stood, scooped up the mirror, and went to his computer. Fortunately, he hadn’t considered trashing that. He navigated to the bookmarked page on Magick Mirror and reread the description from the back cover translated on the website. It read, “Released for the first time in Japan, this clever mashup of haunted house slashers and puzzle-based RPGs is not for the faint. Only a hero brave and true of heart can face his fears and defeat the dragon within.”

  That’s what the man at Miller’s Bazaar had told him as well. The answer had been staring him in the face all along!

  He shut the laptop, pulled his bike out of the garage, and headed toward the west side of town where Nadine lived.

  7

  TRUE OF HEART

  Anders dropped his bike at the edge of the Mortimer’s lawn. The house was a light blue Cape Cod with bay windows and a wraparound porch.

  Through the lens of the crystal, which Anders raised and brought close to his face so as to get a full view of the truth of his world, Nadine’s house appeared not as a quaint suburban homestead, but as the mouth of a great cave. The earth was rent asunder beneath a burnished orange sky. The beautiful sunset was real enough. Only, through the crystal, trails of smoke twisted into the air.

  He had found the dragon’s lair with one heart remaining.

  He thought about throwing rocks at Nadine’s window but, considering the use of the word “brave” in the game’s description of its hero, decided against it. Anders approached the front door instead, holding the crystal like a shield.

  Shaking despite himself, Anders reached up and rapped the brass knocker three times.

  After an agonizing moment, Nadine’s mother opened the door. She glared down her nose at him.

  “Anders,” she said. “What do you want?”

  He cleared his throat. “Hi, Mrs. Mortimer. Can I please speak to Nadine?”

  “She doesn’t want to see you.”

  Anders nodded and stared at the whitewashed boards of the porch. The Welcome to Our Home! mat seemed entirely too cheerful for this moment.

  He lifted his chin and looked Mrs. Mortimer in the face. “I understand. I made a mistake. I just need to apologize to your daughter and then I’ll leave.”

  She crossed her arms and cocked her hip to the side. Then she sighed. “All right, fine. But I’ll be right here. Listening to every word. And if you hurt her again you will regret it, young man. And I mean it. She doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Anders managed to mumble.

  Mrs. Mortimer clucked her tongue and turned away.

  As she turned, Anders brought the crystal up and looked at her through it. She wasn’t the dragon, though. Mrs. Mortimer was a lean, sinewy lioness, a mama cat protecting her young cub.

  A moment later, Nadine turned the corner. With the mirror held before his eyes, Anders saw her through it, too. She still wore the cute sailor moon skirt, and she looked exactly like herself through the crystal, except for the shining tiara.

  He dropped his arm as Nadine approached.

  “What’s your deal with that thing?” she said

  “It’s a magic mirror. Its power is pure insight. You look through it and it shows you what a person is really like on the inside.”

  “Let me see,” she said.

  Nadine took the mirror and held it up to his face. “Ah, yes,” she said. “I see a selfish jerk who only cares about his own problems.”

  A chill swept over his body when he thought, for a moment, that Nadine was really seeing him with the mirror. That its magic had actually worked for her. He barely stopped himself from running away, hopping on his bike and pedaling madly. He wanted to retreat to his basement where it was dark and safe. Then he remembered how the mirror’s magic hadn’t worked for Ben, and how retreating into the fictional universe of video games hadn’t helped him deal with any of his problems, either.

  Instead, he swallowed the lump in his throat and managed to whisper, “I deserved that.”

  He lifted his face to hers and noticed that Nadine’s eyes were bloodshot like she’d been crying. Her hazel eyes were flecked with shining gold flakes. Her eyes were always so lovely when she was crying. This whole time, through the last month of their mutual silence, Anders had made the foolish mistake of thinking he was the only one who had been effected by the way their relationship had ended. She put on such a brave face at school. Now he knew how wrong he’d been.

  And in that moment, he knew where the dragon was hiding.

  He gently took the mirror from Nadine’s hands, looked into it, and concentrated. For the first time, the surface turned to solid silver and reflected back his own image—the steaming snout of a terrible, toothy red dragon.

  He was the dragon.

  Or, more accurately, his own fears and misconceptions were. He knew what he had to do.

  He opened the front door and chucked the crystal mirror into the grass.

  “I just came to say how sorry I am about…the way things ended. I’m really, really, really sorry.” He took a shaky breath. “I was too embarrassed about…you know…to say anything. I tried to, but I just couldn’t. And then I saw you with Boyd—“

  “I keep telling him to keep his hands to himself but I swear we never—“

  “Really?”

  “Really really.”

  He was about to say “it doesn’t matter,” but he realized it did. Nadine glanced over her shoulder, ushered Anders onto the porch, and closed the door behind them.

  They sat on the porch steps while Anders gathered his courage to continue. “I tried to tell you, but Boyd was around all the time and it seemed like it was too late to tell you how I really felt. It’s impossible to have a private conversation at school or”—he glanced at the closed door behind him—“or anywhere really. You’re always surrounded by your friends, or with Boyd, or in class. I just got so frustrated. And then before I knew it, it was too late to say anything at all.”

  “Oh, Anders,” Nadine said. “I thought you didn’t…like me anymore.”

  “What! Are you kidding? Have you seen yourself in this Sailor Moon costume? How could anyone not like that?”

  She laughed, a sound like a wind chime, and then snorted and covered her mouth with her hands.

  “I love your laugh so much,” he said.

  Anders saw misty words fly across the surface of the mirror where it lay in the grass. He forced down a smile.

  “Really? It’s so awful…”

  “Awfully cute.”

  She smiled shyly. They sat in silence for a moment.

  “So, are you seeing Boyd now, or…?”

  Nadine picked at the paint on her toenails before answering. “We went to the movies a couple times. I don’t know. I guess.”

  Anders fought to keep his voice steady. “All right then. Well, I’m happy for
you, and that’s all I had to say. I guess I’ll see you later.”

  She grabbed a handful of his t-shirt as he stood. “Don’t be silly,” she said. “Stay a little while.”

  He sat back down. She rested her head on his shoulder and intertwined her fingers with his.

  “What did Boyd think of your Sailor Moon costume?” Anders asked.

  “Ugh…he thought I was dressed up as a cheerleader.”

  “No way!” Anders said, chuckling. “Is that why you were mad at him at lunch?”

  “I’m not mad at him. We just don’t have much in common. You knew I was dressed up as Sailor Moon.”

  “Instantly.”

  They talked about everything and nothing until the sun set. Long after the streetlights came on, Anders reluctantly disengaged his fingers from Nadine’s.

  “My parents will be worried,” he said. “I should go.”

  “Okay.”

  “Want to hang out this weekend?”

  “Yeah. Should we go bowling at Lucky Lanes? Linda said they finally got someone in to fix Ms. Pac-Man.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “All right,” Nadine said as she went back inside. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See ya.”

  Anders scooped up the crystal mirror. At his bike, he turned one last time and looked at Nadine’s house through the translucent geode. His hearts had been restored, and a massive vermillion dragon lay limp and smoking in the mouth of the cave.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Born in 1988, my full name is Matthew Gilbert Herron. I write science fiction fantasy under the pen name M.G. Herron. My first novel, The Auriga Project, was published in 2015.

  Books and reading have always been close to my heart. I love epic fantasies and fast-paced action adventure novels. My passion for literature, the dusty vanilla smell of old paperbacks, and turns of phrase that prickle your skin eventually led me into writing, and I now earn my living as freelance writer and storyteller.

  I currently live in Austin, TX with my girlfriend, Shelly, and our dog, Elsa.

  You can find a full listing of my short stories and novels, free books and reading recommendations through my newsletter, and my blog at mgherron.com.

  M.G. HERRON’S STARTER LIBRARY

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  Episode 2: Lost Memories

  Episode 3: Perilous Journey

  Episode 4: High Crimes

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  Episode 6: Early Warning

  Episode 7: Killer Cause

  The Auriga Project

  The Door Below the Comic Store

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