In hindsight, maybe choosing to burn a poisonous candle without knowing how it would impact them had been a terrible idea, but Cliff wasn’t one to live with regrets. He might have felt a pang of guilt as Ida was gasping for air like a fish out of water in his arms, as if the water from the mirror had actually managed to get into her lungs somehow to drown her. All he knew was he had to get her out of the maze. In the distance he heard the shrieks of other people who had stumbled upon the candle room, but it was too late to turn around – people were just going to have to witness their greatest nightmare until they found their way out of the maze/

His own chest was still tight from seeing his own reflection burnt nearly to a crisp, but right now Clifford was more worried about the girl in his arms; Ida hadn’t seemed like the person who would willingly bury her head into his jacket yet here she was nearly incoherent, mumbling out words that. Whatever thoughts were attached to her looking like a waterlogged body had definitely gotten inside her head, although part of him wondered if she was impacted more because she’d gone and popped her head bubble.

“Hey, that’s my girl.” Cliff murmured as he glanced down at Ida still in his arms; her face was pale and she was still trembling – at least the resemblance to someone drowned had melted away from her face – so he tightened his grip on her, tugging her closer against his body. Another pang of regret bubbled in the pit of his stomach. Her words didn’t make much sense to him, just a few strung together. “Yeah, yeah. I almost met him.” He encouraged her quietly to keep talking. She had to remember the ridiculous nature of her brother coming out to see what was happening, and Cliff had had every intention of tackling him to the ground and stealing his wand before she’d shooed him back inside.

At least it gave her some form of life as she managed to tell him to keep going left. Ah, so Ida had been watching where they were going the entire time. He turned sharply on his heel as he turned left a few more times, brown eyes drawn toward the mirror in front of them; it was a dead end, but he guessed the mirror maze must shift. He opened his mouth to tell Ida as such but she had passed out in his arms.

“Alright then.” He murmured more to himself than Ida as he held her tightly while fishing his wand out from his pocket. “Bombarda.” Excitement bubbled out of his mouth as he cast the spell, a bright red light bursting from his wand toward the mirror; it exploded into thousands of shards and he quickly turned his back toward the mirror, not wanting the shards of glass to cut into her.

It was deafening too, and Cliff’s ears were ringing as he finally turned back around, coughing a bit as the room filled with smoke; he held his breath, cheeks puffing out like a fish as tucked Ida’s face closer to his chest before he stepped into the smoke cloud. Glass crunched underneath his feet. He wasn’t sure it had even worked – maybe the mirrors were indestructible – but finally, finally his lungs pulled in a sharp breath of (almost fresh) air from outside. The side of the tent had ripped too, from the spell. Maybe later he'd feel a sense of pride.

He kept walking straight until the smoke only lingered on their clothing and didn’t surround them. Then he moved to gently lay the girl on the ground, already finding curious eyes upon them, before he sat beside her. His fingers twitched before gently twirling around a piece of hair that had fallen in her face. Cliff tucked it behind her ear. “I’m sorry for making you go through that.” He murmured. Apologies hurt and he loathed giving them, but it felt… right.

---

The following 1 user Likes Clifford Hillicker's post:1 user Likes Clifford Hillicker's post
   Ida Chang