46: A Small Guiding Hand

“Where did you come from, big sis?”

As I was led by the faintly glowing hand of the little boy, I found myself lost in thought.
A strange suspicion stirred within me—could the man with the fishing rod I met at the pond have actually been Tom all along?
Perhaps he had used advanced AI technology to disguise himself and fool the tyrant Dan.
Or maybe… he was a different version of Tom, from a parallel world.

“Hey, big sis with the long hair… is that a school uniform?
But there’s no school here, or teachers or anything.”

I was taken aback by the boy’s sudden question.
Somehow, even in this darkness, his eyes could see.
He accurately described how I looked, down to the uniform I was wearing.

“Eh? Oh, sorry… Um, I’m not really sure myself.
Anyway, you’re Tom, aren’t you—”

“Shhh! Hold on a second.
Take this, and whatever you do, don’t let go, okay?”

He handed me something that felt like a piece of cloth.
My eyes had started to adjust slightly, but the surroundings were still dim.
The only thing guiding me was the faint glow outlining his form.

“Cover your eyes with it.
Make sure nothing can see you—and you can’t peek either, got it?
Just walk slowly.”

“What? What are you talking about?
Cover my eyes…?”

Confused by his words, I hesitated, but ultimately chose to trust him.
I pressed the cloth to my face, feeling its softness as I adjusted it carefully.
I tied it behind my head to keep it in place.
The idea of blindfolding myself in complete darkness felt bizarre and only heightened my anxiety.

“You okay, big sis?
Watch your step.
Things are… a bit strange around here.”

His voice, for some reason, calmed me.
It was the only anchor I had.
As he led me forward, the darkness began to lighten slightly, or at least it felt that way.
Still, the ground beneath my feet was inconsistent.
One moment it felt like soft soil, the next like hard cobblestone.
The shifts made it difficult to tell where I was, and every step sent a new wave of uncertainty through me.

“This is the Mirror’s Entrance.
If they see you, you’ll be taken.
I’ve seen it happen to many people.”

He said it casually, but the weight of his words struck me hard.
Was this what Dan had been talking about when he mentioned the world of mirrors?
I had assumed jumping into the pond would return me to the real world—but maybe I’d been heading straight into its deepest layer instead.
The thought sent a chill down my spine.

“It’s safe now, big sis.
You can take off the blindfold—and look behind you.”

I untied the knot and slowly opened my eyes.
When I turned to look back at the path we had taken, I saw a corridor stretching endlessly behind us.
Lining both sides were countless mirrors, each one feeling like a window into a different world.

The sight was both surreal and terrifying, yet at the same time, strangely comforting.
As if, just maybe, one of those mirrors might lead me back to the world I once knew.