"So…Anyone wanna tell me what exactly happened to my hair?" Rapunzel, Cass, Eugene and Lance all looked terrified.
"Well, you see-"
"It happened kind of—"
"I know nothing, please don't hurt me."
"It was an accident!" Artemis narrowed her eyes as everyone slurred words together at the same time, she had been out of it since the great tree and their fight with her…with Hector, the thought made her hug her arms to her chest, but she still needed an answer about her now unkempt hair,
"Cass did it." Eugene just willing threw the short-haired woman under the proverbial bus,
"Eugene!"
"What?! None of you were gonna tell her the truth." Artemis turned to Cass, "Cass?"
"It was an accident, we found you passed out in the vines when Raps recited the Decay incantation and I tried to cut you down but…I…accidentally…cut off your braid. But, in my defense, things could have been a whole lot worse if Eugene hadn't spotted you."
"Yeah, she could have been left behind after you chased her off at the base of the tree, Cassandra."
"You were gonna leave me there?" Cass looked terrified, "What? No!"
"I should have known better. I should have gone off on my own."
"And if your father had caught you?"
"He's not my father!" Both eyes were glowing in rage and everyone took a step away from the distraught teen, seeing her friends frightened faces she snapped out of it, "I'm…" she stepped forward but everyone took another step back, "I'm sorry…" She went back to the girls side of the Caravan and closed the door behind her.
"Well, it's official. We are stuck."
"I guess we'll have to wait out the storm in here."
"Or maybe not…" outside the window was a strange cottage, "Raps, I know what you're thinking, but that place creeps me out."
"Hang on, I wanna have a look."
"Ugh, could you be more annoying." Artemis poked her head out of the top half of the door, "Why'd we stop?"
"We got stuck."
"Hmm, let me see." Eugene used his tweezers to pull Cassandra's hair, "Ow!"
"Ha ha, would you look at that? I can be."
"Look raps, I can see where this is going, you're going to say something like 'that shell house looks like a warm, gigantic place' and then I say 'let's not rush into anything, we should be careful…' and they're gone…"
Trailing behind Eugene and Lance Artemis watched as Rapunzel knocked on the door, the blonde teen got strange vibes from the cottage and when the door opened, she certainly did not expect someone so well kept.
"Hello. We are so sorry to bother you but our caravan got stuck in the mud."
"A carriage stuck in ze mud is a carriage zat's quite a dud." Everyone shared a look of uncertainty, "It's a rhyme… heh, look 'ow wet all of you are. Do you suppose it's because of ze rain?"
"Uh, could we come in?"
"Of course, of course. My name is Mathews and you are all welcome, except the horses, they shed too much and leave hoofprints in ze carpet."
"Max and Fidella started towards the door but Mathews pointed them towards the stables, "It's the stables for you!" Once inside the fire warmed everyone up, "Wow, this place is amazing."
"It is, yes. But so are pockets, you can put anything in one so long as it is smaller than the pocket itself. You know, I like to put my hands in mine."
"Right, okay. So this place is made entirely of shells?" As Mathews led them up a flight of stairs Artemis let her eyes wander, this place certainly had a lot of reflective surfaces, maybe he just liked mirrors?
"I see you've noticed. Let me guess, you must be ze genius of ze group, oui?"
"No, actually our resident genius is Artemis," Rapunzel drug the teen forward and Mathews seemed to size her up "Uh…hello…" he looked unimpressed by her unkempt appearance, "Indeed, a large shell house in ze middle of ze forest doesn't seem to belong, but zen again, neither do you. And yet 'ere you are! Zere are refreshments in ze lounge and rooms enough for all of you."
"Thank you so much, Mr. Mathews and don't worry you won't even know that we're—"
"Shorty, put those down!" Rapunzel, Artemis and Mathews looked over to where Lance was now juggling glass orbs, "I said put those down."
"No, you said 'Shorty, put those down'" Eugene snatched the ball from the air and put them back in the bowl, "You're ridiculous!"
"Stop scolding him."
"Thank you, Cassandra."
"Stay out of this, lance." Artemis sighed, "Um, Mr. Mathews, it's so beautiful here. What is this place?"
"It's called ze 'ouse of Yesterday's tomorrow"
"Yesterday's—"
"Tomorrow?"
"So then today." Mathews smiled, "I never use one words where two will do. Right, correct?"
"Uh, sure, I guess."
"Oh ho ho ho, you're just milking it now. 'ere are ze guest bedrooms, please enjoy your stay, however long zat may be."
"Somethings not right."
"I agree with Cass, Rapunzel…something's…wrong here." Artemis shrunk into herself as she looked around the room,
"What do you mean?"
"I mean why is this huge place just sitting here in the middle of nowhere and that guy or in keeper or whatever he is just takes us in, offers us food and a place to stay for the night without asking for a single coin? I'm telling you, it just doesn't make sense."
"Look, you two, I know this is weird but you gotta admit, this isn't the weirdest thing we've seen on the road." A knock came from the door and Artemis hopped off the bed, "I've got it." Opening the door she saw Eugene.
"Hey kiddo, what are you three waiting for, dinner's ready." Rapunzel hurried over and Cass sighed in irritation before giving in.
As they sat around the table Artemis stared at the food with mild interest, everything looked good, but the entire table was still fighting, "Oh come on, would you put that thing down."
"And why would I? you never put your sword down—" All eyes were on shorty, the usually disgusting, ill mannered old man was eating like a civilized person, "Uh, Shorty…you're using a napkin instead of…nothing."
"Oh, so I am." He threw the napkin to the floor and turned to the rest of the table, "Please pass the bread." Cass grabbed the basket and passed it over to him, "Thank you."
"Thank you?" Shorty looked confused before randomly blurting out nonsense words, "Beard yam." Everyone went back to eating,
"Shorty, are you feeling okay?"
Artemis pushed herself away from the table, not long after Rapunzel and Eugene left, to head upstairs and into the girls' shared bedroom, however, a sudden thud turned her attention to the boys' room.
"What in the world?"
"Eugene!"
"He must be working out…" Opening the shell shaped door artemis poked her head in to see lance, Shorty, Rapunzel and Eugene,
"You are messing with the wrong people. Because if you think we're scared of a couple of living reflections with crazy strength, well, think again."
As Rapunzel slammed the chandelier down on the now apparently fake Lance and shorty Artemis slammed the door and took off into the girls' room.
Once she knew she wasn't being followed she headed towards the mirror of the bedroom and for the first time really took in her appearance, her hair could look worse she supposed but she probably could have eaten more at dinner, she looked so thin, but it didn't help that in the last 7 months of their journey she had been stressed out, but then again, so had everyone else, and her melodramatic antics and unwillingness to cooperate hadn't been helping anyone.
She turned away from the mirror, but as soon as she did, she heard a tapping and some laughing, "Is someone there?"
"Turn around." Doing as the voice suggested she was met with her own reflection, "What the—" the reflection grabbed onto her and pulled her into the mirror,
"Let me out!" the Fake Artemis giggled, "You're stressed out, right? Why not let me drive for a while?"
"No!"
"Goodbye, Artemis." The reflection left her trapped as it wandered off to find her friends.
"Okay, this is just insane."
"It is insane, don't believe her, Cassandra. I'm the real shorty."
"Okay, Okay. Shorty knowing who Cassandra is, is fishy but him knowing who he is? There is definitely something to this imposter thing."
"Of course the question becomes, if they're not really them, how do we know the rest of us are who we say we are?" Giggling interrupted them as the fake Artemis descended the shell staircase, "Everything is so serious down here, did something happen?"
"Take a seat, Artemis, we're making sure everyone is who they say they are." Artemis shrugged and took a seat at the table, "Okay, so if we're gonna get our real friends back, we have to know who to trust. So I have to conduct some tests to prove there are no more imposters."
"Hold on, you're gonna conduct the tests? Well, you could be a mirror person, too"
"Ugh, you're right. How do you wanna test me" Eugene slid a plate across the table, "The real Rapunzel can find the art in even the dullest situations. Turn it into something beautiful."
"Okay, Okay, huh, let's see…" The reflection artemis was splattered with potatoes and narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "Was this really necessary?" Once the princess was done with her work she smiled and took a step back, "And voila."
"I diorama of Corona, I am impressed. but any respectable artist would be able to create a completely edible replica—" Rapunzel squished one of the edible figurines "Uncle monty!"
"Yeah, that's her."
"Now who's next." Pascal started dancing on the table, "Okay, Pascal. Show me the colors of the Corona flag." The little chameleon turned purple with a gold sun decal on his chest, "Good, now how about the color of a Bimberry?"
"Ooh, now do the color that lance turned when he got poisoned by that spider bite."
"You know, I'm not even the real lance, but that's messed up." The reflection of Artemis looked at the other imposters curiously, "All right, rapid fire. Old lady Crowley, Ulf, Ulf's favorite color, my favorite color." The little reptile did as asked, just shifting between all of the colors, "Oh, that's right because all of them are equally amazing and their own way. He's the real Pascal. Next test." The Fake Artemis sighed and got up to follow them, she had to be careful now.
"Okay, Eugene, just a couple of questions."
"Fire away, Blondie."
"First, what is Maximus' favorite food?"
"Apples."
"What is Pete the guards middle name?"
"The! Also Stans middle name."
"Correct. Now, which of these posters is an accurate representation of the real Eugene Fitzherbert, A.K.A Flynn Rider?" He leaned forward in his chair to get a better look, "Ooh, trick question! No artist can accurately capture all. Of. This." He motioned to his whole body.
"That's Eugene."
"Cass, you're up."
"Now I was going to write in my journal to see if the noise bothered you, but I must've left it in the carriage, however, I did find this apple. So, Cass, chop this into eight perfect slices"
"Now?"
"Yes, right now."
"Well I…I, I, I could break something." Rapunzel rose her arm to present the room, "You've got room."
"Did you see this rug? It'll make a mess."
"Cass!"
"Alright, Alright." She tossed the apple into the air before turning and cutting the imposter Lance and shorty free."
"Yeah, I'm gonna go with not Cass."
"Well, you wouldn't be wrong." Artemis smirked as she walked around Eugene and Rapunzel, "Artemis Too?!" Rapunzel threw down a chair to try and buy her and Eugene some time but the reflections merely jumped over it. Once they were safely tucked away in one of the rooms, the real Artemis tapped on the glass of one of the windows, "Can anyone hear me!?"
"Okay we're back in—Wait…" Eugene opened the Armoire door and looked at the mirror, "Anybody?!"
"Kid?"
"That was cloo…Oh! Artemis?" Eugene and Rapunzel approached the mirror,
"Nice deduction, Rapunzel." The teen narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "Yeah, that's the kid…but when did that switch happen?"
"It must have been after dinner."
"Focus you two!" Something fell out of Eugene's Vest, "Rapunzel…isn't that your journal?" Glancing down her eyes shot back up to Eugene, "Wait, that's my journal…that's how you knew all my secrets!"
"No, I was just holding the journal, you dropped it and uh…"
"Do the smolder." Eugene looked confused, like he had no idea what that was,
"Uh… Ayyy."
"You're not Eugene!"
"Okay, but you gotta admit, I got this Eugene guy down pretty well, right? I mean I was way better than the other doubles…Shorty."
"But how, when?"
"Oh, Rapunzel, Eugene was the first of you to gaze into our mirror. Oh come on, you can't be surprised."
"But Shorty threw you." This whole mess was confusing,
"Well, I had to keep up appearances until we could get you into the mirror." Backing away, Rapunzel purposefully inched closer to the mirror, "What have you done with my friends?"
Behind Artemis in the mirror world, she watched as the others charged the mirror, again.
"I said we shouldn't come to this place, but did anyone listen? No…"
"Is now really the time for 'I told you so's', Cass?"
"No, we did not." Eugene brushed off his clothes as he got off the floor, "but in our defense, we never listen to you."
"You know what, Fitzherbjerk? I've had abut enough of your—"
"Mommy and daddy are fighting again…" the teen sighed, resting her head in the palm of her hand as Lance broke them up,
"Guys, is all this bickering solving anything? I mean, we've been doing nothing but getting on each other's nerves for the last 3 weeks and look where it's gotten us."
"I really hate admitting this, but lance is…right. This isn't helping. If we've got any chance of getting out of here, it's got to be together."
"Exactly, so lets see if we can find the least painful way to get out of here. Come on, Shorty."
"They got you too, huh? Remember when we weren't all trapped inside a mirror?" Everyone sat in a circle, not unlike how they would while camping, "Yeah, this really is the pits." Artemis , Cassandra and Eugene all looked at her like she had two heads, "Did you just say the pits?" The dark-haired woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously,
"Whoa, you don't think anything's the pits, you even call cherry pits fruit rocks."
"No, no, no, I meant this is not the pits" Cassandra rose an eyebrow, "Artemis, stand next to Rapunzel."
"What, why?"
"Your eye does the freaky glowy thing when you get close to her, something's off."
"You think my eyes are freaky?"
"Not the time, you two." Shrugging the teen got up and stood next to Rapunzel. When her usually golden eye didn't glow next to the princess, everyone shot up,
"You are not Rapunzel!"
"Yeah! What are you?" the fake's eyes narrowed as she smirked, "I could tell you, but it would probably be better to show you, Artemis watched in absolute horror as Rapunzel's body jerked in different directions and in unnatural ways,
"I'm going to have nightmares about this for weeks!"
"Exactly how is showing us better than telling us?" the Imposter charged after them, grabbing lance by the ankle and climbing the wall like some kind of demon, "Correction…I might need a therapist."
"It's definitely not her, it's definitely not her!" the evil Rapunzel grinned and jumped off the wall, dragging lance down with her as Cass drew her sword, she whipped the large man at the wall before taking off after Eugene.
"Rapunzel, if you can hear us, help!" Eugene pounded on the reflective surface, "There's a really freaky you in here." The Imposter Rapunzel tossed him around like he was nothing more than a rag doll, "You know, I've had girlfriends get pretty upset with me before, but a Mirror demon girlfriend, that's a new one"
"Oh we're not going down without a fight." Cass charged the fake Rapunzel and Artemis summoned up a cage of rocks to try and trap the demonic copy,
'Uh, very short one-sided fight." The copy was fast, but once the fake Rapunzel had them cornered again Artemis grinned, "Got you!" She trapped the monster inside a black rock prison, "Well, now that the demon version of my girlfriend is taken care of, what do you think the real deal is up to?"
"Hey guys…" Artemis half expected them to brush her off,
"What is it, kid?" She pointed upwards to several pairs of feet standing on the mirror.
"Good eyes, Kid!" they all reached up, grabbing their doubles feet and pulling them back into the mirror and themselves out,
"Get back in there, you handsome devil!"
"Now's not the time to be…. complimenting demonic copies…Lance!" once they were out Rapunzel ran over to hug Eugene, "We did it!"
"You know, I never thought I'd see a mirror I didn't like looking at."
"Is it too late to trade him back for the evil version?" Eugene pulled Cass into the group hug.
The reflections were trying to break out of the mirror again but with a little help they turned the mirror so the glass was to the wall,
"Well, I don't know about all of you but I'd take a night in that rainy caravan over on in this inn any day."
"I'm with you, Fitzherbert"
"Let's get out of here!"
"Must you leave so soon? Oh, did you meet ze people in ze mirror? I should have warned you about them, oh well. You live and learn. Or just live. Ze good news is you are welcome to stay as long as you like, you might even grow to enjoy it."
"Enjoy it? Uh, no thank you, we'll take our chances—" the storm outside had only grown worse, "In the rain…"
"I'll take first watch?" Everyone looked dismayed to have to stay in the house, but they made the best of it. Later that night, as everyone was trying to sleep, Rapunzel was sketching in her journal, Lance, Shorty and Eugene laid on the opposite side of the fire from Rapunzel and Cass and Artemis was curled up in a blanket by the fire and out like a light.
If only they knew what the next day had in store for them.
