Chapter II
= John: Be Grumpy =
You're mad. No, you're absolutely furious! Why does Dad always have to stop you from going out unsupervised? It wasn't as if you were thinking of going out anywhere dangerous! You were just going to go for a walk around the block! But, nope, no, he just keeps going on and on about how even that would be too perilous a task for his son alone! You snort, kicking your heels back again and again against the leg of your bed. You are perfectly capable of walking around on your own without being under the watchful eyes of your Dad, thank you very much!
You cross your arms with a huff, pouting. It wasn't as if you were going to go that far away, anyway.
And now Dad has you locked up in the house, leaving you to mope about and languish from the boredom. Well, you'd show him! He may have stopped you from absconding from the house but, he'd never be able to take away your freedom! You get to your feet in one fell swoop, raising your clenched fists up into the air in a triumphant way. You wouldn't be beat. You'll find a way out of this!
But first, you need some provisions. Equipment, as you will refer to them, for this expedition of stealthiness and creeping.
You're absolutely positive that Dad has just left, and you zip over to the window to double-check. Yup, he's gone off for some more cake mix or something just as equally bluh. You make a face; just thinking about any of those horrible baked goods makes you feel queasy.
Stepping back away from the window, you turn to face your magic chest of secrets. You walk over to it, crouching and pushing up the lid after releasing the latch. Inside you find all of your awesome pranking equipment; special tools for this all important stealth mission.
You scoop up an armful of them, avoiding Colonel Sassacre's Daunting Text of Magical Frivolity and Practical Japery for now. You could always consult with it later, though the text is a nightmare to skim through. Dumping your prized prankster collection on the floor, you sit down and begin to sift through them. The beagle puss glasses could be used as a disguise, though you don't know how long it would keep your Dad from recognizing you if he was to come back early (you approximate his shopping time to be around forty minutes, or so, yup, he usually takes his time when it comes to shopping for cake ingredients).
You have a pack of cards but, you don't think they'd work in any way shape or form, so you just leave them for now. Aha! Itching powder! That'd definitely be useful. Now, if only you had an exploding cigar… But, then again, Dad gave them up ages ago for a pipe. Although, you could always carefully remove the explosive chargey-thing and place it in his pipe, hehehe.
You captchalogue the itching powder, along with the beagle puss glasses. The stack fetchamacallit is kind of a difficult thing to use still, even after all of these months. You'd change it out for something else but, you're not sure how. Is it even possible? You don't know.
As the pair of items, no, your tools, are stored away, you quickly shove the rest of the things back in the magic chest. You look through the rest of your things in hopes of finding an exploding cigar but, you turn up with nothing.
Mentally listing that as a thing to get for pranking awesomeness at a later date, you straighten up and hurry over to the door.
Now begins the real adventure!
Which actually starts off kind of boring really. You just open the door and are now facing the hall, decorated with those dumb harle-clowns. You scurry down the stairs, keeping your ears strained for any familiar screechy sound of Dad's car returning.
As you make it to the front room, you find yourself facing something. Something odd.
A mirror.
It stands in the middle of the room facing the couch, silver and shiny; brand new. Has the old mirror broke or something? Why has Dad put it here?
Overcome by curiosity, you walk over to it, reaching out to poke the silver frame. It looks like it's decorated in flames and are those lion feet? It has lion feet.
You circle around it to look at the back, then turn back around to the front. The mirror looks kind of misted over. You can see your reflection in it clearly but, there was a sort of weirdness to it that made you look oddly ghost-like. You chuckle as Ghostbusters comes to mind. Wouldn't it be funny if your reflection turned into a Slimer-lookalike? But, it was just a mirror. Nothing magical about it at all.
You grin at your reflection, brushing some of your messy black hair away from your eyes, then pull a face at your mirror image. It copies you, sticking out its tongue and you laugh. You stop, however, when you catch the sight of something blurred and shadow-like behind your reflection. You glance behind you but, there's nothing there. Frowning, you look back at the mirror and step closer. What is that thing?
You squint at it. Whatever it is it still looks the same, even when you lean closer and stand on your tiptoes trying to make out what it is. You think to poke it.
You reach out and touch it, expecting the sensation of cold glass against your fingertip. The surface ripples and shimmers. You step back with a cry of surprise, staring first at your hand, then at the mirror in turn. Had you just imagined that? The mirror hadn't just rippled like water, had it? It was supposed to be solid, right?
You suddenly feel uneasy. This couldn't be right. But, you abruptly start battling it out with a heavy block of curiosity and intrigue. You poke the mirror again; the middle point of your reflection distorting with the shimmer. You pause and chew at your bottom lip in thought.
What would happen if you were to suddenly jump through it? Would you be spat back out here again? Would the mirror just solidify before you can jump through?
What would Dad think?
You breathe in deeply and let it out in one big puff of air. He's left you locked up in the house with only the harle-clown pictures and the ticking of a clock somewhere for company. And you're still mad at him. Revenge, sneak-stealth mode? Or an investigation of this thing that might possibly get rid of your building boredom?
Your brain cuts away that part of your mental sentence and displays it in large blocky letters in the front of your mind; get rid of your boredom. It was one of the most interesting and strangest of things you have ever come across. It is kind of odd how it's here and not upstairs but, your Dad was probably in a rush to get some of those horrible ingredients that helps to concoct the evil baked foodstuffs. A broad grin slowly crosses your face. You could hop in this odd portaly, shimmery thingy and Dad would never be the wiser.
Maybe it could get you out of the house!
"Hehehe, this is perfect!" you say aloud.
Before you have a chance to think it over some more, you're already stepping back and preparing to charge right in. You'll look like some kind of cool superhero or something. Without another thought, you rush forward and dive in; your thoughts on the shadow already forgotten in the excitement.