Eli woke up in a dark room, disorientated and hurting. His back and chest ached so much that it hurt to breathe, each breath stinging and aching. He was lying on a cold, hard stone floor, face pressed against the smooth brick.

Groaning softly, he sat up and looked around. It was so dark he could barely see a thing, but from as far as he could tell, he was the only thing in the room. There was a tiny scrap of light coming from between a couple of bricks. Eli could only assume that a window had once been there, but had been bricked up to stop light from getting in.

He shivered, goosebumps forming on his skin in an instant. It was like an icebox in the room, he could barely stand it. He stood, holding his hands out in front of him to feel for a wall or door. He moved slowly around the room, feeling out its dimensions.

On the opposite wall from the bricked up window was a wooden door with a doorknob and tiny keyhole that let in a little light. He twisted the doorknob and found himself unable to open the door, just as he had expected.

He pressed his hands against the cool wood of the door, feeling the panic rise in him. He had no idea where he was, or how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was being pressed up against a tree in the forest near the memorial by Elias. He remembered a hand on his forehead, and then nothing after that.

How long had it been since then? From the light shining through the crack in the wall, he could tell it was daytime, meaning it might have only been a few hours. But that made no sense, there was nothing around the memorial for miles. He had to be somewhere far away from there, somewhere that would take a long time to travel to. Just how long had he been asleep?

An even better question was: why wasn't he dead? Wasn't that what the Mage had wanted? He'd been caught trying to get away. He should be dead, but he wasn't. Seeing his surroundings, he wasn't sure if he was grateful or not. Who knew what was going to happen to him here.

Korian. He'd left Korian behind, and he died. He'd heard him scream, a terrible sound that Eli never wanted to hear again. And he wouldn't because he'd left Korian to die like the coward he was. He should have stayed; he could have saved him. He could have killed the Mage right then and there and they would have left together, safe and uninjured.

Instead, his friend was dead and it was his fault. If only he had been stronger, a better fighter, then Korian never would have asked him to leave. He should have fought harder to stay. He should have done many things, and he never should have run away. He wanted Korian back with him, he felt better with him around.

The door makes a clicking noise, pulling him from his thoughts. The door handle turned as he stepped away from it, feeling his palms become wet with sweat. The door opened, allowing bright blinding light into the room. Eli flung an arm over his eyes to escape the assault.

"Are we awake in here?" a smug voice asked. Elias popped his head around the edge of the door, looking at Eli with a sneer. "Good. Come with me." He reached an arm around, grabbing Eli by the wrist and tugging him out of the room.

Once again Eli's eyes were assaulted by a bright light. Outside the room, everything seemed to be well lit, so well lit that it hurt his eyes to look at. It was until Elias was pulling him down a flight of stairs that he was finally able to see where they were going.

"Where am I?" he asked, voice thick with sleep.

"My castle," Elias replied, tugging harshly on his wrist.

Eli's eyes widened. That was on the other side of the realm from where they had been. "How long have I been here?" he questioned, voice rising an octave.

"Only a day or so," came the answer. "It took us a while to get back here though, days." Eli blanched, it had been longer than he thought, and he was so far away now. There was no way he getting back to where Korian had been.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, the room expanding out into a well-decorated entrance hall. Banners of all colours hung between the tall arched windows on the walls. Another set of stairs on the opposite wall led up to closed doors. A deep blue rug ran down the middle of the stone floor, leading to tall wooden double doors.

Elias pulled him around the stone staircase to a door hiding underneath. The hallway inside was dimly lit by sconces that lined the bricked walls. They walked down the hall together, Elias's hand a constant feeling on Eli's wrist. It reminded him of holding Korian's hand, but darker, the feeling corrupted now.

Doors lined the hall, but they passed every single one except the last. Elias twisted the doorknob roughly and pulled it open, revealing a room filled to the brim with mirrors. Only one light lit the room, but it was enough to touch every corner.

"This is my room of mirrors," Elias started, pulling Eli in with him. "When I took all the mirrors in the realm I put them here so that if you ever decided to show up here, I could get you straight away."

"Then why didn't you?" Eli asked, looking into a mirror. It showed what looked to be a public bathroom on the other side.

"Because I found the one that held you after I came to power," the Mage explained. "I asked my men to bring it to me, and instead they tried to impress me by jumping in and trying to kill you. We can see now how that turned out." An angry expression came over Elias's face as he spoke, lips pulling up into a sneer.

They stopped at a mirror in the middle of the room, large and rectangular. Eli's wrist was finally freed from the tight grasp, leaving it red and stinging. He looked into the mirror and gasped at what he saw, a hand shooting up to cover his mouth.

It was his bedroom, in the same state as he had left it all those weeks ago, bed made and desk messy. Part of him had thought he would never see it again, not with everything that had happened while he'd been in Arumni. The room was empty, the curtains had been closed and the light was off.

"Why are you showing me this?" he demanded, glaring at the Mage. "You're just going to kill me, what's the point?"

Elias huffed. "That's where you're wrong, Eli," he started. "I'm not going to kill you. I was once, but not now."

"Did you have a change of heart?" Eli scoffed loudly.

"Of course not," the Mage answered with a laugh. "But have you ever thought, what happens to you when your reflection is killed?"

Eli was silent. What did happen? He'd never been told. He was meant to kill his reflection without ever know the consequences. "Why are you asking me this?"

"Because I don't know the answer."

"What?"

"Arumni and your world are connected. When people die of old age, so do their reflections. But if I kill you long before your time, do I die as well? Do I get to stay alive without a reflection?" Elias looked over at him, obviously looking for an answer.

"I don't know," Eli replied, looking down at the floor.

"Neither do I," his reflection said. "And I don't want to risk my own life by killing you. My life is much more important than yours."

"So what are you going to do with me instead?" Eli spat. "Keep me locked away here?"

"No. I'm going to send you home."

"What?" Eli cried, looking up at this reflection.

"With you here, there is still a chance you can kill me, just as the prophecy states," Elias explained. "If I send you back through the mirror I can keep an eye on you. I know you won't pose a threat over there."

Eli stayed silent. He wasn't going to die. He was going to go home. That's all he had wanted since he arrived in Arumni, to go home. Get back to his mother, to school, to his friends.

Kory. Eli paled at the thought of him. If reflections died at the same time, did that mean that Kory was dead too? Did he lose two friends that day at the memorial? Did he get two innocents killed because of him? He felt tears welling up in his eyes and struggled to stop them falling down his cheeks.

"Doesn't that sound good, Eli?" the Mage was still talking, but Eli was barely listening anymore. "Don't you want to go home?"

He did, he really did, but what was home without his best friend in it? How could he live with himself knowing that he had killed his best friend? He was barely eighteen and he already had the blood of three people on his hands. He was a monster.

"You're looking conflicted," Elias said, seizing Eli's chin in one strong hand and pulling it to look at him. "How about I give you some time to think about all this, hmm? Does that sound good to you? An hour perhaps?" his voice was soft, but at the last question his face contorted, baring his teeth and scrunching up his face. "And if you're not gone I'll push you through myself!"

He pushed Eli's face away roughly, making the boy hiss at the sudden twist. Elias stormed past, boots thudding against the stone bricks. Before Eli could even have a chance to move, he was out the door, slamming it hard behind him. There was a faint click, and Eli knew he had been locked in.

He had no way out. Except through the mirror.

He looked towards it, finally allowing the tears in his eyes to fall down his face. As he watched, the bedroom door opened, allowing much-needed light into to the room. A tired looking woman entered. His mother, her chestnut brown hair falling messily down her shoulders. Eli gasped at the sight of her. He'd missed her dearly, and he hadn't realised just how much until he saw her.

She sat down on the bed facing the mirror, looking off into the distance. With shaky hands she grabbed one of the pillows from his bed, bringing it to her chest. She dropped her head into it, her body beginning to shake with inaudible sobs.

"Mum," Eli whispered, using English for the first time in weeks. Tears fell down his face in streams. Tears for his mother, who was mourning a boy still alive. Tears for Korian and Kory, who lay dead somewhere he couldn't get to. Tears for the stranger he killed and the family he left behind. And most importantly, tears for himself and the decision he was about to make.

He dropped to the ground, body shaking with grief. What was he meant to do? If he left now he'd be condemning an entire realm to death, but what was left for him here? He didn't have anything tying him to Arumni except Korian and the Village; one was dead and the other burned to the ground. Arumni was not his home, Earth was, and he never should have been thrust into its destiny.

What did some stupid prophecy matter anyway? It had to be wrong, he was not the one to defeat the evil, he couldn't be. He wasn't strong enough, or brave enough, or even good enough. He needed to go home, to get away from this place and the grief that came with it. Elias could have the realm; it didn't matter to him anymore. There was nothing left for him here.

On the cold ground of the room filled with mirrors, a boy cried for everything he had lost. On the other side of the mirror, a mother wept for the son she could no longer find.