Chapter Two: The Mirror World
The fall felt endless.
No wind. No weight. Just a blur of light, memory, and silence.
Then… they landed.
Not with a crash, not with pain, but with a soft thud—as if the earth had caught them gently.
Lucas opened his eyes first.
He wasn't in the attic anymore.
Towering green trees stretched above him, their leaves whispering in a slow, haunting rhythm. The sky was a strange mix of gray and violet. The air smelled like rain and stone. A distant river flowed, steady and cold.
He sat up.
His body felt… different. Taller. Broader. He looked down and gasped—his hands were larger, rougher, like they belonged to someone older. His voice, when he called out, cracked with deeper tones.
"Leo?"
A groan came from nearby.
Leo was already standing, blinking hard, looking down at himself with awe. His once chubby teenage frame was now muscled, sharp, and towering.
"What the…?" Leo looked at his arms. Flexed. Then flexed again, laughing. "Dude… what happened to us?!"
Lucas stood, staggering slightly, still dazed. His glasses were gone. Everything looked strange—blurred at the edges—but clearer than he remembered.
Leo took a step forward and crushed a log beneath his foot like it was paper. "Holy crap, I'm strong. Like—really strong."
He leapt, accidentally punching through a tree trunk.
Lucas flinched.
Leo grinned. "This is insane. I feel like I could fight a dragon and win. Wait… where are we? What is this place?"
Lucas looked around. "I… I don't know. Grandma told me not to go near the mirror. She didn't tell me what was inside it."
"That's helpful," Leo muttered. "So we just fell into some magic mirror and turned into adult versions of ourselves for no reason?"
Lucas didn't answer. He was still scanning the area—trees, fog, water, the distant howl of something unseen. His heart pounded. His mind raced.
The mirror had changed them. That was clear.
But why?
And for what?
Leo swung his arms like a boxer, testing his balance. "Okay, okay. So I've got super strength. Maybe we're in some kind of game. Like a fantasy world. Like one of those anime shows."
Lucas frowned. "What if it's not a game? What if this place is real?"
Leo raised an eyebrow. "Then we're dead."
Lucas sighed and sat on a stone. "We need to think."
Leo scoffed. "No, you need to think. I need to move. Sitting around doesn't get us out of here."
Then, with a smirk, Leo walked up and nudged Lucas hard in the shoulder—playfully, but too hard.
Lucas winced.
"Still the same coward," Leo teased. "No powers, no strength, no clue."
Lucas didn't answer. He was still thinking. Still watching.
He didn't feel strong. He didn't feel fast. But he did feel… aware. A flicker in the corner of his eye. A shift in the wind. A subtle crack in the stone near his foot that hadn't been there before.
Then—a sound.
Both boys froze.
It came from the trees. Low. Growling. Wet.
A crunch of leaves. A snapping of branches.
Something was coming.
Not a bird. Not an animal.
Something watching.
Lucas stood slowly. "Leo…"
"I hear it," Leo whispered, suddenly serious.
They turned toward the sound. Still nothing visible—but definitely close. Something was approaching.
Lucas clenched his fists.
No powers. No weapons. No plan.
Only instinct—and a growing certainty that whatever was coming…
…wasn't friendly.
The trees bent with the wind.
The sound grew louder.
Leaves trembled.
Something massive was coming—closer, heavier. The earth itself felt like it was holding its breath.
Lucas backed up slowly, heart thundering. "Leo… what is that?"
Leo didn't answer. His fists were clenched, his chest puffed out. "I don't know," he said with a crooked grin, "but I hope it's big enough to make this fun."
The leaves exploded outward.
A blur. A shape. A shadow.
WHAM.
Lucas didn't even see it coming.
A sudden force slammed into him like a truck, and before he could scream, he was airborne—flung like a ragdoll through the air. He hit a tree trunk with a sickening thud and dropped to the ground, blood dripping from his shoulder.
A stick—or something sharper—had stabbed into his upper arm.
Pain surged through his body.
He gasped. Looked down.
His vision blurred. But in front of his eyes, something strange flickered:
SYSTEM ALERT
HP: 30%
Critical injury detected. Bleeding in progress.
Immediate treatment required.
Lucas blinked.
What?
But before he could think further, Leo turned around—and froze.
From the trees emerged something out of a nightmare.
It had the towering, tusked head of an elephant—eyes glowing gold and steaming breath pouring from its mouth. Its chest was enormous, rippling with muscle like fifty bodybuilders stacked into one. Four arms hung from its sides—each one the size of a grown man's torso. Its lower half was like a monstrous cow, stomping the ground with hooved feet.
And in one of its arms, it held a massive black hammer, pulsing with red cracks, like it had been pulled from the center of a volcano.
Leo's cocky smile disappeared.
He turned and ran.
He didn't even think. He didn't look back.
Branches whipped past him. Trees blurred into green streaks. He sprinted as fast as his body could move—and with his new ability, that was faster than any human had a right to run.
Then…
He remembered.
Lucas.
Back there.
Bleeding. Lying on the ground.
Alone.
Leo skidded to a stop, panting.
He clenched his fists. "Dammit…"
Behind him, the creature roared—deep and loud, like the sky itself was growling.
Leo turned around and shot back through the forest like a bolt of lightning.
He reached the clearing just as the monster raised its massive hammer above Lucas's body.
"HEY!" Leo shouted.
The creature turned.
Leo surged forward, grabbed Lucas with one arm, and dove out of the way—just as the hammer slammed into the earth, sending dirt flying in all directions.
Leo didn't stop. He threw Lucas over his shoulder and ran.
"Hang on, man," he growled. "You better not die on me."