13. Mirror Temple

Prompt: Reward

Madeline didn't believe in karma, or whatever name one gave it to things outside their control.

Karma, retribution, cosmical intervention, odds, luck.

Except when it was bad luck.

If good things happened to her, it was mere luck followed by guilt. If bad things happened to her, she deserved it.

Madeline couldn't see through the fallacies of her thinking. For if she believed bad things happened to her for a reason, it was nothing but the reward of her actions or inactions.

If she learned anything so far, was that the mountain amplified whatever problem she had.

She worried something would go awry at the gondola and the mountain infested her mind with the worst-case scenario, only ending when Theo pulled her out of her crap, and now she found herself in a temple that would make the gondola incident look like a roller coaster in comparison.

It was irrational, she was aware. But she didn't choose to climb the mountain to be rational; she chose to be mindful in mindless matters.

Method to madness, as Theo told Madeline at the resort when she said she wanted to help Oshiro, since apparently she knew enough of ignoring one's problems.

it was all the same, it all lead her to the same ending. Ignorance or unawareness. Or worse, willing ignorance. Choosing to stay in the dark, such as Madeline was doing stepping into the temple, following Theo when she knew she shouldn't, but as she did, Madeline intellectualize her way through like a bot in a game, mechanically and logically acting for the best outcome.

Reference point. Eyes sharp. Ears even sharper. Careful steps. Mental map.

All as fast as her mind could think. No room for second thoughts—despite she used her mind at high efficiency.

All for being mindful in a mindless situation.

Madeline didn't catch the fact she could only carry on for so long before she got distracted and her act fell apart, either by herself or by something else. Which one would be worse was hard to choose.

She didn't get lost before she knew it, on the contrary, she knew she was, and just like she feared she didn't know when she got lost.

When did that happened, again?

What was her line of thought?

Madeline had…forgotten. Mind had slipped away.

Now she was left alone in some dismal corner of this place, with the occasional drop of water echoing through chambers from somewhere beyond her reach as her only company.

This was her reward for her actions, her own stupidity if she will, and of course she would. Madeline's talent to do the best of efforts and gain little, next to nothing, shone the most now.

She couldn't even cradle herself at this occasion with the thought of "nothing ventured, nothing gained." For Madeline ventured way too much. All calculated risks, she told herself, but man, she was bad at math.

Her roaming eventually led her to find Theo's smartphone on the ground, next to a large mirror. Although she saw her actual reflection for the first time since she stepped into the mountain, a shiver ran down her spine.

Her mind roamed into the worst-case scenario at once again, all in order to be always prepared, not knowing her restless mind was the very thing that set her off. Madeline was her own cause and consequence. That thought tasted not unfamiliar on her tongue, and left a bittersweet flavor on it she tried to dissipate by swallowing heavily.

She picked up his smartphone and saw if there was anything she could help her find Theo, but Madeline could do little more than stare at Theo's smartphone with the same curiosity the blue bird had that she found earlier at the mountain.

Or the bird found her?

She used it as a flashlight before she returned it to Theo if she found him.

"When I find him." Madeline corrected herself, forcing herself to believe in that outcome. She could not believe in anything else. Madeline chose to turn a blind eye into the unthinkable. She turned away from the mirror to avoid seeing her reflection.

Just because she was mindful in mindless situations didn't mean she couldn't be mindless in mindful situations. Whatever approach she could take, it would lead her to the same reward, the temple would see to that.

The same constant drop of water still echoed through her ears and started to get on her nerves, but Madeline did not realize that drop would be soothing after she encountered the creatures lurking in the shadows in areas far ahead. Each one of its multiple eyes upon Madeline, annoyingly waiting.

Badeline felt her in the temple like a cricket in the middle of the night, she couldn't wait to find where she actually was and made it shut up, once and for all.

And by "shut up" she meant dragging her ass out of this forsaken place.

For all the impulsiveness Madeline could have for noble actions with doubtful results, Badeline compensated it with patience for unhinging acts.

It may not be the most rational course of action, but Badeline believe this time would be different, solely based on the fact SHE was the one doing it this time, with plenty of experience gained from Madeline's mistakes, as if that would allow Badeline to avoid them, unaware of the fact that if things were as they were, it was for a reason.

Understanding was still far from her grasp, and it would only come to her as soon as she tried to change it, and see she could not do so. Not when the objective she was aimed to was to make Madeline quit.

Well, this time it didn't take me a month to update. Hooray me.

About what I said at the previous chapter about Badeline's point of view, I believe it was the right decision Madeline had it here. Badeline's version of this chapter was a tad darker.

Also I have taken a decision about the word limit, and that is I will not let it limit me. I will let the chapters be as extensive as they need to be. If they have to be 2k word long, so be it.

I felt this chapter in particular to be little more than pure introspection. Though I said previously I wanted to avoid right that, I think it's fine now. I'm not thrilled to write about the Mirror Temple, it ironically leaves me in a darker spot to write than Celestial Resort did, but I think I can help myself with that by using the next chapters to solidify the topics I want to explore, which I hope I'm ilustrating appropriately.

I'm doubtful about what should be the next chapter, though judging the pattern of scenarios the chapters have, you should be able to give yourselves a hint about where things are going.

That's all for now. If you liked it please leave a comment, you'd make my day. See ya.