Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

The Voice

The two stood in silence for a long time, not moving. Tulip knew it probably wasn't smart, but she knew that Kai needed to come to terms with what they had just figured out. She did, too, if she was being honest.

"So... when we saw Mira's face... was that real?" Kai asked, slowly, and Tulip winced. She hadn't wanted to think about that.

"Um... you know Bloody Mary?"

Kai whimpered. "Why are you bringing that up here?" he whined.

"No, listen," Tulip told him. "When you look into a mirror in low lighting and expect to see a terrible face, then you WILL see one, because you mind will trick yourself into seeing what your afraid of! Even your eyes work against you when you're scared."

"...So... When we saw that face on Mira's face, it wasn't actually there?" Kai seemed like he was forcing the words out. Tulip ducked her head, but she couldn't deny it.

"I don't think so," she answered honestly. "I don't know what Mira was doing there, or why she was acting so strangely, but I think her face was fine, we only saw a terrible face because that's what we were subconsciously looking for."

Kai took a couple seconds to respond. "So it's our fault..."

Tulip winced. "No. I don't think so. Look, Kai, this world is fighting tooth and nail to fight against us! We just have to be smarter from now on, and trust each other. Mira's still out there, we just have to keep looking."

Mira could feel Kai's confusion. "How...?"

"We keep walking along the wall, feeling it to keep us from walking into it," Kipo explained. "We'll be careful. And Mira still has a light, so it'll be pretty easy to keep an eye out for that, right?"

"Oh... Okay," Kai said, sounding relieved. "Yeah, that sounds pretty good."

"Can you reach out and feel the wall?" Tulip asked. She heard some shuffling as Kai reached out.

"Ow!" he cried out. Tulip heard some more, this time unexplained, shuffling.

"Are you okay?" Tulip asked him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Kai replied through his teeth. "The wall was just closer than I thought, and crushed my fingers against the wall. Owwwww."

Tulip listened to this complaining for quite a while before she spoke up again. "Um-."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Kai assured her again, now completely fine, and Tulip suspected that some of the complaining what just for show. She heard Kai reach out to the wall again.

"Okay, I found it."

"Good. Let's get going then, back in the direction we were going before," Tulip said. "And watch- be careful of where you're stepping. This place was hard enough to walk through before when we had light."

"Why do we need to go that way?" Kai asked her, and edge of worry in his voice. Tulip frowned.

"Well... did you notice where Jolene was leading us?"

"I... she wasn't going anywhere, she was just walking randomly, right?"

Tulip shook her head. "I wonder. Maybe, but I'm not sure. I think Jolene knows more then she's letting on about this place, something she refuses to share with us."

"Are you sure?" Kai wondered, sounding skeptical.

"No, not really, it's just a hunch," Tulip replied, and through her own uncertainty, she tried to sound confident. "But Jolene really looked like she knew a lot about this place, for how much she said she didn't know anything. Maybe it's nothing, though, or something really not all that important. I have no idea."