I Think I'm In Love with My Bestfriend's Boyfriend
Author's Notes: Thank you all for reading! Much gratitude to my beta-reader, Walking Green Cucumber! With no further ado…
Chapter Fourteen: Reflections
The fun house was full of mirrors and different challenges. There were seemingly impossible passage ways, and turning floors that tested one's speed. It was the easiest thing to bump into a mirror thinking it was a way out.
"The only thing to do is find your way out." Eriol said, knowing he was right. It was impossible to LOOK for someone if you could not even find the exit.
"Alright." Syaoran and Tomoyo both said, but somehow Tomoyo sounded a bit tight. They separated to the left, front and right, and in a short second they had lost all traces of each other.
None of them had real experiences of being inside a hall of mirrors; Eriol never went to the 'fun fairs' back in England, Tomoyo was too young to remember her visit and Syaoran didn't have a trip to the amusement park before.
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As Syaoran passed through the pathways, his alertness proved to be a problem. With every sudden shift in the reflections, his senses would involuntarily cause him to pause for a moment.
Cursing inwardly his situation, he tried to put his eyes straight ahead and avoid looking at the mirrors. It might lead to some kind of optical illusion, getting him lost in the process.
Brushing his brown hair to the side, he broke into a run, knowing that the longer he stayed at one position, the harder it would be to keep things from mixing up in his minds eye.
He did okay at first, eventually increasing his speed…but when he bumped hard into a wall he knew that things were going to get more and more difficult.
And so Syaoran was lost.
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Eriol scowled as he strode through the paths. The last few days weren't too good for him, and he noticed that his usually genial smile had turned cold into a frown.
Ignoring that fact, he broke into a fast jog, careful not to miss any possible exits or passage ways. While he never went inside a mirror hall before, the hedge mazes in England - those giant paths carved from tall bushes - had taught him a valuable technique.
"One left…" he said to himself as he turned. "Two lefts…" he said again when he passed a further way. "One right…" As he came to a dead end, he smirked at his own wittiness. "So to get back, that's one left and two rights."
It was a time-saving trick.
But eventually, like all shortcuts can, it back-fired.
"Wait…it was three rights and five lefts…wasn't it?"
And so Eriol was lost.
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Tomoyo, on the other hand, was doing just fine. She didn't take any turns at all, and just went straight ahead.
If she found the mirrors turning the path, she simply followed the curve. No lefts, no rights, just follow the yellow brick road.
"Just keep calm and stay focused Tomoyo…"
Whenever she found herself dizzying from the illusions, she would close her eyes and use her hands to feel her way around. This worked wonderfully, especially because all of the major turns were sharp edged, and she would know if she was turning to another direction.
Unfortunately, the main way was later divided into two in very smooth curves…and Tomoyo didn't notice that she went astray from the path. When she looked around, it was too late to find her way back safely.
And so Tomoyo was lost.
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As she struggled to walk forward, Sakura felt a sharp pain in her hand. Dropping what she was holding, she slowly massaged her left wrist with her right hand.
"I can't do this…" she muttered to herself, finally giving up.
"Sorry, mister." Sakura said, saddened. "I'll have to give up the popcorn for now, I can't handle anymore things to carry!"
It was true. Sakura was a living, breathing, moving heap of all the possible kinds of food in the amusement park. Of course, the popcorn would have to wait till later.
"Hey, I'm back…guys?" the girl stuttered, wondering where her companions had gone to. Looking frantically left and right, up and down, behind booths and in front of people, she just couldn't see them.
"Syaoran?"
No answer.
"Tomoyo?"
No reply.
"Eriol?"
No response.
Sakura shook her head in confusion. Where in the world (amusement park) are they!
And so Sakura was lost.
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"Eriol, come over here."
His mother was a very kind and considerate person, always willing to help out even the most distant of strangers. There was some kind of inner force inside her that made her 'an angel on earth': the inner force that his father called 'love'. Her fingers were soft, but firm from the years of the piano.
As he hurriedly skipped through the poppies and to his beloved mother, he felt something was terribly, terribly wrong.
"Eriol…sweetheart…I have to tell you something very important."
From the very first syllables Eriol knew that something was truly wrong. Rarely did his mother speak in such a gently sad tone. In fact, she never did.
Even at his young age of ten, he was aware of that.
"Eriol, I'll be going for a while. To a place far, far away from here. To your father."
Father.
That word, whenever it was said, chilled him to the bone and warmed him all over with anger. Most of all, it seemed to drain him of anything, leaving only a hollow emptiness.
His father was never there; never there to teach him to climb trees, not to talk to him on sunny afternoons, or guide him as they walked by the river. His father was never there to spend the mornings with, skipping rocks into the lake, or the nights reading dust-covered books from the library. His father - he was never there.
There was only his ghost - the smiling, caring man that his mother constantly talked and dreamt about, that one who he wished was there but was not.
The only sweetness he had from the word 'Father' was the fact that he could blame it all on someone else.
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What a change of events.
Tomoyo found herself sitting on the floor, trying to get herself together. Nothing was working; breathing, meditating, talking to herself, talking to her reflections…nothing.
Sighing deeply, she forced herself to stand up and decided to follow whatever path. A building couldn't hold that much pathways, could it?
Feeling sweat starting to form, she reached inside her pocket to find her handkerchief - only to find that it wasn't there. Raising her eyes up to heaven in frustration, she simply continued on her way, unsure of where to go at all.
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He despised that woman that his father had once asked him to called 'Mother': that witch who had charmed his father away from them, from his family. The wicked person who had drove his mother to depressing loneliness.
And almost to the brink of oblivion.
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What a change of events.
Syaoran was leaning heavily on one mirrored wall, not thinking (or caring, really) if the thing would break or not. As he stayed there, glaring at all the copies of himself in irritation as if demanding an explanation from them, he wondered if Sakura was in that mirror hall at all.
Nice timing, genius.
Groaning out loud, he pushed himself upright and continued on his quest.
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One misty sunset, he came home a tad bit earlier than usual, having enough sense to return than to brave the cold bite of the evening. But as he stepped into the usually fire-warmed kitchen, there was no one there. The ashes of the fireplace were obsolete and black. The dinner plates and silverware were not laid out like they always were.
Feeling his blood turn to snow then to slush in his veins, he quickly dashed to the one room he was certain his mother would be: the piano room.
As his heartbeat raced with every step, it felt like forever till he finally reached the large oak door. Twisting the golden doorknob, he found to his great horror that it was locked. Mother never locks any door.
"Mother! Mother! Open the door!"
There was a sharp gasp from the inside, a shocked call of his name, the unpleasant banging of too many piano keys: and most terrifying of all, the loud metallic clank of a knife falling from the floor.
Then the sound of hurried footsteps, the door being unlocked and swung open - and the pale face of a spectre. Like a spectre, his mother, now distant, shoved him half-heartedly to the side and fled from the hallway into her bedroom.
In the room, the only thing that the young boy found to be of interest was the moonlit blade, nearly stained forever.
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Sakura had asked many random people around the park, spending already thirty minutes in her search.
"Have you seen three people around here…um, one black-purple-haired girl and two boys - one a brunette, and one with blue hair, around my age?"
For the past twenty-nine minutes, the response had always been the same.
But now, it was finally different.
While all the others had answered 'no' to her inquiries, this one said -
"Welcome to the Amusement Park. Have fun. Welcome to the Amusement Park. Have fun. Welcome to the Amusement Park. Have fun."
Sakura almost laughed at her own stupidity as she walked away from the greeting robot.
"This is my fault for being on a diet for so long…" she said, finishing the last of her orange juice and popping a straw through her lemonade cup.
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As his bluish-gray eyes stared back at him from the mirror, he felt so terribly weak.
She took everything away from me. Everything that I had.
Shaking his head and forcing the tears back, he allowed himself to kneel there for some moments, contemplating the violent flashback that had just occurred.
Everything that I loved.
He stood up, nearly falling back down with his effort.
I have nothing to love now…except these three.
And there is one I love the most.
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Syaoran was losing hope. He was going anywhere he wanted, aimlessly, not even thinking of a particular strategy or technique. There had to be a way out somewhere, and thoughtless moving around might find it.
Slowly he lost his momentum, and had to take a stop in boredom and dizziness. That is, until something white and pink caught his attention on the floor -
Tomoyo's handkerchief?
Looking forward, with a renewed spark of hope, he ran as quickly as he could down the way the cloth was at.
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Tomoyo jumped from where she was laying down dejectedly on the floor, hearing a sudden sound of rumbling from the ground. Wondering what it was, she held her breath for a moment and strained to listen.
"Tomoyo-chan! Tomoyo-chan!"
Syaoran-kun's voice! It's Syaoran!
"Syaoran? Syao-kun? That's you isn't it?"
Crossing the final yards, they hugged each other tight, simply happy at the human companionship. Reflections just weren't the same.
"We've been here for nearly an hour and a half, Syaoran…" Tomoyo said, burying her face in his long sleeved jacket, content with the situation.
"It's been long."
And they stayed there for a minute, knowing that they were one step closer to finishing their ordeal.
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Surprised, he stepped slowly back.
He wasn't aware that Tomoyo and Syaoran were still…
Eriol smirked inwardly to himself. He always pondered why they so suddenly separated - he had thought in the first place that it wasn't attraction, but friendship in the first place.
This would only make things easier.
Blinded by his need for love, Eriol's mind made the friendly hug seem more like a deep embrace. Returning back the way he came, he decided that his chances of 'reaching' Sakura would be better if he found her first.
And then he would tell Sakura of this little incident he just happened to see…and things would take care of themselves from there.
This was a different Eriol they were dealing with now: not the kindhearted English gentleman, but the vengeful little child who was scarred from his difficult early years.
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Sakura was outside, having decided to wait for her companions to escape from the fun house. The nice old man had told her that he saw them going in there, looking for a girl. Sakura was sure it was them.
She was completely clueless of the trouble that had erupted inside, and the silent eyes that strived for more than just her friendship.