The Dimension Wanderer *HIATUS*

Chapter Five ~no fairytale~

"She just told you her address? A complete stranger, her address? I'm sorry, but I don't believe that."

"I need her help though - please let me in. I'm lost and she promised her help."

"Yeah, yeah, you're a rich prince from the Middle East who needs help and will reward her with millions of dollars later. And all you need is her credit card number, right? I get those emails all the time. I'm not falling for that."

"I'm not a rich prince. I'm not even from the Middle East..."

Aelia groaned and rolled over in bed, blinking the last bits of sleep from her eyes. She wiped a hand across her forehead and sat up. The voices came from her apartment door. There was Kellan... and someone else. She recognized his voice. Boulder, that was him. Boulder! How did he possibly find her apartment?

The events of yesterday trickled back into her mind from where they had hidden in dreams last night, and Aelia felt weariness settle upon her far beyond simple morning grogginess. With another moan, she let her legs tumble off the bed and her feet hit the cold floor. She stood up and shuffled over to the mirror, examining the mess of her reflection. Yesterday's clothes hung over her body, wrinkled like her bedsheets. Mascara smudged down her cheeks and flecked her eyelids. It decorated her dark circles like black freckles on a bruise. The jagged crack in the mirror fell across her face like a battle scar. Her hair was frizzy and tousled and reminded her of an 80's rock band's lead singer. She forgot which band it was. Huh.

Aelia grimaced at herself. She tried to wipe away the remains of her makeup and calm down the nest on her head. She looked better than before, but still more like that rock band member than herself. The smeared makeup almost gave off a gothic vibe. Those two words didn't mix well though, did they? Gothic and vibe. Perhaps a gothic aura? Yes, that sounded better.

A tingling sensation stole through Aelia's right foot. Oh, great. She had slept on it and cut off blood circulation. She stomped it and hissed with pain as the blood shot down through her arteries.

The mirror trembled suddenly, as if struck by a seizure, and Aelia grabbed its edges to steady it. Her grip could barely hold it still. What the heck? Earthquake? No, nothing else was shaking. She gritted her teeth and leaned into the mirror, pressing her feet into the floor.

The mirror stopped shaking. Aelia stepped back, and reached to remove it from the wall.

"Bongo?" She hissed. "Is that you, you clumsy, gluttonous- ow!"

She swiftly pulled her fingers back from the burning hot metal edges of the mirror, shaking them through the air.

"Bongo, if that's you, I am not going to be happy when I find you," Aelia muttered. Now she wasn't so sure it was Bongo anymore though. What if it was Scaly? Aelia shuddered to think what would happen if the creature found its way into her apartment. "Scaly?"

The image of Aelia's rocker self in the mirror shimmered. Her body dissolved into black mist that swirled across the glass like dark fog in the morning. Aelia looked around the room, and picked up her desk lamp to defend herself with. She had no idea what was coming, but she had to be prepared. She placed her feet firmly on the ground(one foot still stinging from having fallen asleep) and gripped her lamp with hard fists, pointing it at the mirror.

"What's going on?" She said, lowering her voice to a threatening growl, though it shook frightfully. She waited, but nothing happened. She tried again. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, or whatever, tell me what's going on or I'll... smash you and make you... fall... or something. Is that how it works, huh? Is this some sort of fairytale?"