They both stood, their skin goose bumped from something other than cold. Loki walked slightly ahead of Emily, ever the gallant man protecting the lady from danger.
"What the fuck?" Emily said as she inspected it. "There's something behind this." Emily pushed the mirror and the whole thing spun from the center towards the right. "Holy shit! There's another room back here!" Emily said. Far from being a dark secret passage way the space was lit with the same style light bulbs and wall sconces that proliferated the rest of the house. They stepped over the lip into the narrow hallway which had a small room at each end. The hallway was filled with paintings just as large as each mirror. Loki looked at the spacing of each of them and realized that they were the backside of each mirror in each room. All eight bedrooms were interconnected through the mirrors and bathrooms.
"Oh my. Emily, we could break into your Mom and Dad's room and none of them would know how we did it." Loki said as a concern crept into his heart.
"This is cool!"
"This is bad! Emily this is a security problem. What if one of my guests figures this out and sneaks into one of the other guest rooms and violates somebody?" Loki said.
"Oh for fuck sake! Can't you just enjoy the moment? Come on, you can spy on my brother. If you're lucky you can catch him rubbing one out and mount him." Emily said. Loki shook his head as he stared at the 20 year old. They walked past a couple of paintings before noticing their content.
"Emily, look at this," Loki said. "Isn't this beautiful?"
"Eh. It's fruit," Emily said.
Loki frowned. Why do New Yorkers have to be so damned jaded? The painting was masterfully done. It was a still life of a feast of sorts, except that the chair was empty as was the main serving tray where the remnants of some sort of roasted beast could be seen. The main serving platter had meat juices and bits of flesh and a lot of garnish around the edge. They moved on to the next one, this one a painting of a bank vault based on all the gold coins piled high. It was the last painting on that side of the hallway.
"We should totally bust through this mirror and scare the shit out of Daniel." Emily said with glee.
"But that's not Daniel's room. That's your parent's room. Daniel's room is on the end and it doesn't have a mirror. See, this open space here, this is why Daniel's room and the corresponding opposite room are so much shallower than the others." Loki said as he gestured to the inner sanctum in which he entered. It was a small hidden circular room that led down the hallway full of paintings and at the end was the stained glass window. In the center of the chamber was a pedestal, empty of whatever was supposed to be there. Behind Loki was the secret door that had been plastered and wallpapered over. The room was designed to be entered through the main hallway of the upstairs floor, into the chamber and then to walk down the secret hallway of paintings to the stained glass window on the end.
The window was a simple sky scene depicting heaven and a golden sun shining down on a green meadow. It was uplifting like the windows at church, reminding Loki that God was always watching.
"This is beautiful. I love this bench in front." Loki said as he took a seat on the stone bench to admire the window. It will look even better during the light of day shining in from outside. Emily regarded the window for a moment.
"It's okay. I like the mirrors better," Emily said.
"That's because you like being sneaky," Loki said.
Something about the layout of this room made sense to Loki then. Getting to the window meant passing by all the paintings/mirrors, offering multiple ways out. There were four mirrors on one side and three on the other, seven in total.
Loki walked back down the hallway to look at the paintings again. Each had a different color theme that Loki noticed matched the color theme to which the painting was connected. The feast scene had a dominating orange color. The yellow painting, the room Emily's parents were sleeping in, had gold and money in the painting. On the opposite wall was a red themed painting depicting a sword and a vacant spot where there should be the missing subject matter. A green themed painting depicted a ladies' vanity seat complete with mirror, hair brush, and powder. The painting behind the Antoinette room depicted a bed, not made neatly but appearing slept in. Wet pools of sweaty spend were evident in the middle of the bed, though the lovers that created it were missing from the painting. Across the way from the Antoinette room was another blue painting, lighter in color showing stacks of books, plates, and trinkets piled high and teetering. Lastly was the one belonging to the sole bathroom that had a mirror. The painting depicted a field of purple flowers. The room had one way in but many ways out and only the straight and narrow path lead to God.
"I like this room." Loki said.
XxXxXxXxXx
"You guys are not going to believe what we found last night!" Emily chirped at the breakfast table. Loki was serving up Crab Benedict for breakfast.
"There's a chapel in the middle of the house upstairs." Loki said.
"What do you mean upstairs?" Mr. Stark asked in a surly tone. Loki noticed his furrowed brow and quiet demeanor when he came downstairs.
"Upstairs between the bedrooms, there is a secret hallway and a secret room. Almost all the bedrooms are connected to it. The mirrors are doors." Emily said. Mr. Stark choked on his orange juice then, causing some of it to trickle out of his nose. Mrs. Stark looked horrified.
"You were spying on us?" Mr. Stark asked clearly agitated.
"No Mr. Stark." Loki said.
"We have no interest in listening to you two have sex." Emily added.
"You weren't spying on me were you?" Daniel asked.
"You don't have a mirror in your room Daniel, so no." Loki said to calm him. Daniel held back a loud sigh.
"Loki those mirrors are a safety hazard and a legal liability. You have to seal them off. If any of your guests or cleaning staff discovered that hallway they could steal from your other guests or do other bad things." Mr. Stark warned.
"I realized that Mr. Stark. I will figure out something." Loki said.
"Have you heard from Detective Thompson about your parent's case lately?" Mr. Stark asked out of the blue. His face looked like it was carved from stone and Loki was confused by it.
"No Mr. Stark. I suspect he'll call tomorrow. He never did forget my case. He always calls to check on me and let me know if there is any progress, and even if there isn't." Loki said. Mr. Stark relaxed marginally at that. His eyes followed Loki for the rest of breakfast and he noticed an uneasy tension coming from both him and Mrs. Stark.
"So what are we going to do today?" Daniel asked Loki.
"I was thinking we could explore the meadow and the creek out back and then you guys could give me some wedding reception ideas." Loki felt grateful for the change in subject. He smiled at Daniel as he polished off his orange juice.
Beyond the garden in back there was an overgrown meadow filled with wildflowers and tall grasses and beyond that a tree line. Cutting down the middle of it was a little creek that fed into a large pond further down the road. A light breeze whipped around the fabric of Emily's dress.
"This is odd." Pepper bent over to inspect the ground.
"What did you find?" Mr. Stark asked.
"There is a line of broken mirror pieces here at the tree line." Everyone bent over to examine the ground with her. There was a very thin but distinct line of pulverized mirror pieces that appeared to stretch a great distance.
"Let's follow it." Daniel said. As they explored the grounds they noticed that the mirror line was curving. By the time they were on the other side of the house in back it became plain to them that the line formed a circle around the edge of the property.
"This is weird." Mr. Stark said.
"It's Hicksville. I'm surprised we haven't heard dueling banjos yet." Emily retorted. Loki did find it strange but did not linger on this strange detail; he was more concerned with where the wedding gazebo should go.
"What do you guys think about this spot?" He asked.
"It's a lovely spot; just make sure to mow the grass first." Pepper said.
#
"Do you want help making lunch?" Pepper asked when they returned to the house after exploring the grounds all morning.
"No, no. I'll be doing this full time and I need to get used to this. Besides I want to try out some recipes on you that I'll be serving my guests. I'm making Shrimp and Grits."
"Mmm. Sounds fattening."
"It is."
"You sure you don't want help?" Pepper offered again, but Loki just shook his head.
"Well alright. I think I'll join everybody in the parlor and watch some T.V." Loki thought about the strange layout of the house as he lingered over the stove. Everything about this house was odd. He wondered how it was possible that an entire town could ignore such a grand estate for the better part of a century? Why is that hallway there upstairs? What happened to the original owners?
For some reason then, Loki thought about his mother. His father had loved her so much. He used to find their constant touching and affection disgusting. Looking back on how they treated each other Loki discovered he hoped to find a love just like that. His mother had always been a striking woman with her albino skin. He inherited his tall slender frame from her. Even as they were falling in front of the train his father had tried to shield her from the oncoming impact.
Their bodies had been too mangled for an open casket burial and in fact, had been smeared together by the wheels of the train. For that reason, Loki had opted to cremate them. Loki touched his hand to the hidden locket dangling around his neck. He always wore it and kept it tucked in under his shirt. In it was a small lock of his mother's blood soaked hair. For him, it was a personal talisman of love and protection and a constant reminder of the evil that men do.
After the meal Loki spent time with Pepper discussing table linens, wedding decorations, and various booking gimmicks to boost reservations. By the time night came Loki felt emotionally and physically exhausted and ready for sleep. Tomorrow the Starks would drive back to the city and Loki would be alone again.
"Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude but what are you doing in my home?" The blonde man said. He was tall, muscular, with the most intense blue eyes Loki had ever seen.
"This is my home."
"Are you an angel?"
"No."
"The mirror tells me otherwise."
Loki noticed he was in a bedroom that was not part of the house. It was not one of the eight upper bedrooms or either of the two basement bedrooms of his apartment. It did look familiar however. Then he recognized the bed. It was from the painting upstairs. The cover and sheets were twisted up exactly like the painting and the large wet spot in the middle smelled of sex.
"Whose room is this?"
"Ours."
Loki was on the bed naked and he was on top of him. He felt his body sing with pleasure as the sound of heavy breathing, skin slapping, and moans of pleasure filled his ears. The blonde man smiled at him kindly.
"I've been waiting for you."