I checked the floor constantly, fearing the worms would come for us, but I didn't see any on the mushroom spore patterned tiles.
"This place is filled with evil spirits," said Spotted Owl. "I will bring offerings to appease them." And she hurried out.
"I don't know if we should stay here," Si said. "After what happened to Will, I think we're better off just trying to kill that thing and taking the liquid gold. I mean, if we dam that shit up with enough rocks, that thing will have no room to grab anyone. Let's just do that and leave Satan's funhouse alone."
"You may leave any time you wish, Mr. Spencer," Dennis said. "But you will forfeit any treasures found beyond this point."
This gave him pause.
"All right, everyone," Dennis shouted. "Stay away from the mirrors. We all saw what happened to Mr. Thorpe."
He turned and faced the exit, giving it a frustrated look.
After a long thoughtful pause, he gave Mr. Spencer a sideways glance, sighing in resignation. "Everyone clear out. We'll figure out what to do with this later. We've still got a river full of gold to extract."
"Do I still forfeit my treasures?" Si joked.
The expression on Dennis's face said, "Don't be a wise guy."
Gina, it would appear, had not `seen what happened to Mr. Thorpe', for I found her gazing through a looking glass on the opposite side of the chamber, her facial expression reflecting a sort of guilty pleasure.
As she stared into the empty fog, I saw her pointing to herself in surprise, as if to say, "Who, me?" to nobody.
When she noticed me watching, she gave me a sheepish grin, and I thought I saw her blushing.
"Oh my gosh!" she said in a conspiratorial whisper. "That girl in there, she's taking it all off!"
She returned her stare to the fog. "She is so hot!"
I, of course, saw nothing.
I vaguely remembered Gina muttering something about a potty break a few minutes before Will died, so I guess she missed the whole subtext about the mirrors being full of deadly slime.
Dennis slapped a heavy hand on her shoulder.
"Gina, listen to me. I know you're lonely, but what you're seeing in there isn't real."
Gina pushed his hand away. "She looks pretty real to me! Look at her! She's a fucking goddess! As soon as I can get past this window, we're going to give that chair of hers some serious exercise!"
Dennis gripped her shoulders with both hands, spinning her around.
"Gina. Listen to me."
When she cast a longing glance to her side, he slapped her.
"Gina. Look me in the eyes." She did. "Nothing in these mirrors are real. Think about it. This vault hasn't been opened for centuries. How could a woman get in there and still be alive?"
She sighed. "She found a back entrance. Or maybe she's a sexy alien."
"Yeah," Brett muttered. "Like that sexy alien that ripped Bruce's head off."
Ignoring him, Dennis said, "Gina, even if that were the case, why are you the only one who can see her?"
Gina pointed to me. "You saw her, didn't you?"
"No," I frowned. "Just a bunch of fog."
She glanced hopefully at Si.
"Oh yeah," he said. "She was fingering her tits and everything." And then he burst out laughing. "I didn't see shit."
It seemed Gina's delusions were not easily dispelled. "Yeah?" she said. "Well maybe she's a shape changing invisible alien who wants to have some fun."
Dennis locked eyes with her. "Gina. We just lost a team member who as absolutely convinced he saw ice cold beer and a woman. This is a tomb on an alien planet. There's no reason why beer or ice would exist here, and yet he was so convinced it was real that he stepped through that glass and something in there killed him."
"The asshole drank the blue Kool-Aid," Si agreed, looking like he were about to cry. "Poor bastard."
"That's ridiculous," Gina said. "That only proves he's an idiot."
"How is that different from you and your imaginary lesbian girlfriend?"
"She's not-" She looked away.
"Gina," he said. "I'm telling you this for your own good. We've already lost three good crew members and I don't want to lose a fourth."
She bowed her head, looking both ashamed and confused. Dennis sighed.
"Gina, I need you functioning at the peak of your capabilities." He pointed at the gate. "Go back to crew quarters. Take a rest."
When she didn't move, he added, "That's an order, Ms. Mendoza."
The expression on Gina's face was one of fear and intense hatred, but she obeyed, slowly marching out.
"It isn't real," I thought I heard Dennis whispering to himself when he glanced at a window. "She died ten years ago."
He quickly looked away.
That's when I noticed Tarnisha stepping through one of the mirrors. The last thing I heard her saying was, "My daughter."
"Tarnisha!" Dennis shouted, running over there, but it was too late.
"She's gone," he said.
Dr. Venn stepped into the center of the chamber, speaking in the booming god voice again.
"Let the wise understand: The path of true desire will lead to God, but woe to those who choose another. They shall reap their own destruction."
This statement gave us pause.
"True desire," Dennis muttered, staring at the mirror Gina had been so fascinated by. "Logically, they cannot occupy the same place as the false..."
The boss touched my arm. "Ellen, I know this is dangerous, but I want you to examine each of these mirrors and tell me what you see."
"Now wait a damn minute!" Brett shouted.
Dennis gave him a cold look that immediately silenced him.
I swallowed. "Seriously?"
"Yes, seriously," Dennis said.
"You're basically asking me to bare all my subconscious desires to you. Forgive me if I find that fucking unreasonable."
His hands clamped around my shoulders. "Ellen, there's a safe way through this, and I have absolute certainty that you're the key to all this. All I'm asking for is open communication."
"Fuck you," I said. "You're not my shrink."
He frowned and shook his head. "Look, Ellen. I...I don't care if you...censor it somewhat, but I want word pictures. Can you at least give me that?"
"Fine," I sighed, though I shuddered at the thought of the task ahead of me.
Whatever I saw, I resolved, I wouldn't linger in front of.
Two mirrors next to the entrance showed nothing at all, no matter how long I stared at them, and I told Dennis as much.
"Keep going," he said.
The next one held clothing.
Stylish, comfortable stuff, designed for my body size. I would be a queen in those outfits. I would kill for the chance to take even one of them back to crew quarters. There were so many shoes...no more foot pain. It would actually fit.
"Clothes," I said, walking on.
The next one held a mountain of gold ore and other precious stones. Some very nice trinkets that didn't look cursed, items that would help I and Brett buy a new house for us and the baby.
"Gold."
The next one held a gun on a metal stand.
How great a game changer that would be. I wouldn't have to be here, obeying Goldike's every whim. I could go back to bed, and if he got in the way, I'd kill him.
So tempting.
"Ellen?" Dennis called.
I didn't answer.
Brett wrapped his arms around me. "Remember, baby. It's not real."
I nodded. And then, to answer Dennis, I shouted, "It's a gun."
I suddenly noticed Spotted Owl lighting a cone of incense in front of one of the mirrors. She had on a wrinkled buckskin robe that I'd never seen before. I guessed she had it in mothballs all this time.
"Ancient spirits of this place, we beg your forgiveness for our intrusion into your sacred dwelling."
I rolled my eyes and kept going.
In the next mirror, I saw a reflection of Brett and myself kissing, tearing our clothes off, until we stood naked, oblivious to the boss and other people, and we walked hand in hand through a mirror containing a strange looking narrow bed with a curving canopy that made it look like a crescent moon. I could feel my legs beginning to tremble in anticipation.
Dennis snapped me out of it. "Ellen?"
"It's, uh, love."
"That's it!" he cried. "Go through that one!"
I didn't move. "I don't know."
He pushed Brett out of the way, giving me a shove.
I whirled around, glaring at him. "All right, all right! It's making love!" I swallowed. "And I wasn't pregnant."
Dennis suddenly pulled me back, away from the glass. He locked eyes with me. "Didn't I say we had to keep communication open?" He held up a pair of clenched fingers. "You were this close to death!"
"And didn't I say you weren't my fucking shrink?"
But then I swallowed. "I'll try to make better word pictures."
Behind me, Spotted Owl was flinging a vial of blood on one of the mirrors.
"Ancient spirits, accept this blood sacrifice in respect to your most sacred dwelling. Preserve our lives, for we are but lowly mortals."
The next picture showed Dennis in some sort of alien torture device, unable to move. A simple looking console stood ready, inviting me to act.
Swallowing, I muttered, "Revenge."
Spotted Owl, in the meantime, was offering the third mirror a handful of corn meal as a sacrifice.
The next one over showed Dennis lying on the floor, dead, apparently from a heart attack.
"A corpse," I said.
"Let me guess," Dennis muttered. "It's mine, isn't it?"
I didn't reply, fighting down a smirk as I heard Spotted Owl leaving the next mirror an offering of ten dollars and forty seven cents.
"Is that ritual helping at all?" I called to her.
She faced me and nodded. "I just saw my father, and he thanked me for the grain."
Both Dennis and I stared at her, both of us seeming to be thinking the same thing.
"Spotted Owl," Dennis said. "Did you desire anything from your father, or anything else from what you've seen in these mirrors?"
"No sir," she said. "I have only desired to please the spirits here. If they have treasure, it is theirs. It does not belong to me."
Dennis rubbed his chin. After a thoughtful pause, he gestured for me to continue.
I expected the next mirror to show me some defense lawyers or sending Dennis before a jury or something, but instead I saw Troy, my ex boyfriend.
The last time I checked, Troy was on earth, and was sleeping with some bimbo who worked at a tattoo parlor.
But there he stood, smiling at me, looking sexy as ever.
Firm, muscular chest and arms framed in a designer t-shirt. Shorts showing off his well toned calves and thighs.
He stood in a narrow hallway in his condo, and I could almost swear I could smell his trademark crepes cooking in the kitchen nearby.
His Celtic tattoos were gone. As much as I missed him, that was the part that broke the spell.
"Ellen?" the voice said behind me.
"A man from my past," I said, moving on.
Brett looked horrified, angry even. "Baby, is there something you want to tell me?"
I gave him an apologetic smile. "It's ancient history. Don't worry about it."
I didn't want to tell him that I still frequently thought about how Troy's hands electrified my body, how he took me places with those hands, another things, that Brett, well...
"He's long gone," I said.
Past that mirror, I found a window displaying (ironically enough) a rocket belt, a chef cooking barbecue, my dead grandmother, now alive and well, and my cousin Robert, who had accidentally shot himself in the head while playing with a rifle a few years ago, also now alive and well.
While I briefly considered the notion that being reunited with my lost loved ones would be a `true desire', I considered the idea both selfish and creepy. Dennis, to my great relief, agreed.
A little boy waved at me from the next mirror.
Just looking at him told me he was mine.
The caramel colored skin.
My angular face and cheekbones.
Head of curly black hair like the one Brett always shaved off.
The eyes.
I knelt before the glass, tears streaming down my cheeks.
"You're my son, aren't you?" I cried.
He nodded.
I chuckled softly. "You're beautiful."
The boy wordlessly pushed the mirror aside as easily as if it were the sliding glass door on a house.
He came forward and hugged me.
"I'm going to take you away from here," I whispered. "I'm going to bring you home, back to earth. Just you, me and Brett. We might not end up with much money, but we'll be a family. We'll take care of you, no matter what."
"I don't believe what I'm seeing," Dennis said. "Is anyone else seeing this?"
"I sure am," Brett said. "And if he's what I think he is..."
He scooped the boy in his arms.
"I'll be damned," said Si. "What the fuck is a little boy doing down here?"
I glanced at Dr. Venn, but he was still in puppet mode.
"I don't know," I said. "I guess he's a projection about my wishes for the baby, or he's a projection of my baby's consciousness. Either way, he's beautiful."
"True desire," Dennis muttered. "Ask him if there's a way past this room, or if there's a treasure vault in here somewhere."
"Honey," I said, stroking the boy's head. "Where did you come from?"
The boy pointed at my swollen belly, making me laugh. He definitely had Brett's genes.
"All right, wise guy. Tell me this. Is there a room beyond this one?"
He silently nodded, pointing to the open mirror.
"If we go in there, will we die?"
He shook his head, then wiped his nose.
"The kid just popped out of a mirror," Si muttered. "Why should we believe anything that comes out of that little creep's mouth?"
No one had an answer to that. I myself was only going by motherly instinct.
"If we go in there," I said. "Will we be able to leave again?"
He nodded.
"Okay," I said. "I really shouldn't trust you, but, caring for you, being a parent...that's the truest desire I have. You have to give me credit for that."
"You will not be harmed, Ellen Ripley," the boy said in a cold alien voice. A chill ran down my back.
"Lead the way," I said.
Brett set the boy down, and we cautiously trailed him into the room beyond the mirror.
