MIRROR MAZE

Heinrick 'Soupy' Sales, a tall Eurasian boy of eighteen, walked down the concrete footpath of Abel Tasman Drive, Glen Hartwell in the Victorian countryside. Arm-in-arm beside him was his girlfriend, Eli Chong, a tall, fashionably thin seventeen-year-old.
They came to the Spectra Theatre Complex (with only two theatres) at 227 Abel Tasman Drive, and saw a large poster for 'Joker: Folie a Deux'.
"Folie a Puke!" said Eli. "Why couldn't they have made a third Suicide Squad Movie instead? Even with Lady Gaga as Harley, it would've been better than Folie a Puke!"
"My uncle claims there was a time when not all movies were stupid zero films," said Soupy.
"If you mean superhero films, there's nothing wrong with them, if they're done right. But with Folie a Puke, they just didn't even try to entertain people ... They assume people who like superhero films will watch any old crap."
"Isn't that by definition what superhero films are ... Any old crap?"
"Ha-ha!" said Eli, sounding anything but amused.
"I'm just saying some of us would like a choice ... Other than just DC superhero films or Marvel superhero films."
"There's nothing wrong with superhero films ... as long as the producers, directors and writers respect their audience ... But Folie a Puke was an example of them not caring what people want to watch, just assuming we'll watch any old crap!"
"I repeat, isn't that what superhero films are ... any old crap?"
"No!" insisted Eli. "But the directors have to at least try to give a damn about the films they make ... If they keep treating us like morons, the film industry will eventually die!"
"True, but I prefer action films."
"Superhero movies are action films!"
"No, I meant more believable action films ... like James Bond, the Fast and Furious franchise, the latest Matt Helm film ... that kinda stuff."
"Seriously ... you regard those as more believable than superhero films?"
"Well, duh!"
"Well, duh ... what?" asked Eli, genuinely puzzled.
"Well of course, Matt Helm or James Bond are more believable than superhero films."
They were still arguing the point when they came to the mirror maze, at 73 Abel Tasman Drive.

Sheila Bennett, a tall, athletic Goth chick with orange-and-black striped shoulder-length hair, was behind the wheel of the police-blue Lexus, travelling down Wentworth Street, Glen Hartwell. She suddenly turned right onto Matthew Flinders Road.
"Where are we going now?" asked Terri Scott. Top cop of the area, and owner of the Lexus, the ash blonde had expected them to continue down Wentworth Street.
"Just stopping for a minute at Old MacDonald's Pet Shop in Matt Flinders Road," said Sheila, second-top cop of the area.
"I didn't know there was a pet shop in the Glen owned by anyone named MacDonald?" said Colin Klein. At forty-nine, Colin had been a London crime reporter for thirty years, but now worked for the Glen Hartwell Police Force, and was engaged to Terri.
"There isn't," said Sheila, as she pulled up outside the shop. "It used to be called Guido Pistroni's Pets and Stuff, but then Guido decided Old MacDonald's Pet Shop was a clever pun on Old MacDonald Had a Farm."
"It's amazing how wrong people can be," said Terri as all three of them exited the Lexus.
"Aw, I know when you're teasing me," said Sheila as they headed into the pet shop.
"So what are you buying?" asked Terri. "How about a brightly coloured parakeet?"
"Or a nice floppy-eared puppy?" suggested Colin, stopping beside a display of basset hound pups.
Ignoring them both, Sheila walked up to the glass counter and said, "My usual order, Guido."
"Another white mouse?" asked Guido.
"Yep."
"I hope you're not taking that to the Yellow House?" demanded Terri, referring to their boarding house, which was painted yellow inside and out.
"Yeah, Deidre will give you Hell if she catches you bringing a mouse into her house," added Colin.
"Ah, it won't be their long, and she didn't catch me last time."
"Last time?" asked Terri.
"Two weeks ago. It's a present for Venice."
"The city?" asked Guido, sounding puzzled.
"No, that's what Sheils named her Venus Flytrap that she bought earlier this month," explained Terri. "It's a carnivorous plant."
When Guido looked puzzled, Colin explained, "It eats flies, spiders, wasps, and it seems, white mice."
"Don't you have to be careful not to overfeed those things?" asked Colin.
"Yep, no more than one mousy a fortnight. I last fed her a mouse on the seventh of December, it's now the twenty-first, so it's an early Chrissy present for Venice."
"Yuck, not my idea of a Chrissy present," said Terri as Sheila paid Guido and took a small cardboard box with air holes from him.
"Venice loved the last one," said Sheila, as they headed back outside. "Although it took her a while to completely digest it."
"Deidre will toss you out on the street if she catches you bringing mice into her house," said Terri as they headed across to the Lexus.
"Yes, she wasn't happy when you brought Venice in," reminded Colin.
"Aw, I'm her favourite guest, as she likes to call us," pointed out Sheila as they got into the car. "Though I will need you two to run interference for me when we get home, so Deidre won't see what I've got."
Looking at Terri, Colin asked, "Do you get the feeling we could all be out in the streets before bedtime tonight?"
"Aw, she won't throw me out, I'm her favourite," said Sheila. "But if she throws you two out, you can always sleep in the Lexus, or at Mitchell Street Police Station."
"If she weren't driving, I'd hit her," said Terri.

At 73 Able Tasman Drive, they saw a new shop with a silvery sign saying: FREIDRICK GUTTENBERG'S MIRROR MAZE.
Seeing the proprietor standing outside his shop, Eli asked, "Are you related to Steve Guttenberg, the actor?"
"No, but my parents always claimed that we were descendants of Joseph Gutenberg." Then when the two teens stared uncomprehendingly at him, he added, "The man who made the first printing press, based upon a popular wine press at the time, and ran off a couple of hundred bibles in quick time, about twenty of which still exist in complete form."
Eli and Soupy stared at each other again, perplexed.
"You have heard of the Gutenberg Bible, I hope?"
"Nope," said Eli.
Sensing their boredom, rather than risk losing the two teens, Guttenberg said: "How about free tickets to my sensational mirror maze?"
"Why would you give us free tickets?" demanded Eli, staring at the proffered tickets as though they were something nasty.
"All right, forget the tickets and just enter my sensational mirror maze." When the teens still seemed reluctant, he added, "I give five dollars to anyone who can escape the maze in less than five minutes."
"Five dollars each?" confirmed Soupy.
"Of course."
"Okay then," said Soupy, almost dragging the more reluctant Eli along as he headed in through the mirror-fronted door.
That's the last I'll see of them! thought Guttenberg as he slammed the door closed behind them.

Over at the Yellow House at Rochester Road, Merridale, Deidre Morton, a short plump sixty-something brunette, was laying lunch out on the yellow-clothed dining table when Sheila, Terri, and Colin entered the house.
"Keep her distracted, while I give Venice her Chrissy Prezzie," reminded Sheila, heading down the corridor toward the stairs up to the bedrooms.
"Terri, Colin," greeted Deidre as they entered the dining room.
"Where is the mad Goth chick?" asked Tommy Turner. A recent retiree, Tommy was short and fat, and a reforming alcoholic - on orders from Deidre!
"She's just going upstairs to say hello to Venice," lied Terri.
"Anyone would think that Venus Flytrap was a cute little kitty cat the way she treats it," said Natasha Lipzing, at seventy-one the oldest resident of the boarding house.
"Or a floppy-eared little puppy," said Colin, trying not to snicker.

"Here you go, Venice, my beauty," said Sheila, holding up the small cardboard box in her left hand. "Chrissy has come a few days early."
She reached in to grab the mouse by the tail, to lower it toward the clam-shaped petals on the flytrap. Squeaking in terror as the petals began to close up, the mouse struggled furiously in a vain bid to escape.

Arm in arm still, Eli and Soupy started along the corridor of mirrors, feeling more than a little claustrophobic as they were surrounded by their own images. Some looked as puzzled and awkward as the two teenagers felt, some looked lost, others seemed to sneer, or shriek silently at them.
How did they manage to make the mirrors do that? wondered Eli. She had heard of carnival mirrors that distorted your image, but she thought, How do they make the images seem to be screaming, when we aren't? Although she thought she soon might be, if the mirrors closed in any more upon them, as they seemed to be doing.
"Are you okay, babe?" asked Soupy, seeing how panicked Eli seemed to be.
"How do they make our images scream at us?"
"Those aren't us, babe," said Soupy.
For the first time, Eli realised he was right. Not all of the images were of them. Some of the girls were black, some were adults nearly a metre taller than her, and others had red or blonde hair.
"Why would he do that?" asked Eli.
"To cheap out on five bucks," said Soupy. "The more he can freak us out and disorientate us, the less likely we are to escape the maze in time to get our prize.
"Well, I'm going back, money or no money," said Eli. But when she turned, she realised there was no sign of the door they had entered and she had no idea how to escape the mirror maze.
"There's no escape!" cried Eli.
"Of course there is, babe, just don't panic. That's what Guttenberg is relying on. The more claustrophobic and turned about the mirrors make you, the less likely you are to be able to claim the five bucks."
"We must have been in here at least ten minutes already!"
"Nah, just seems like it because we're both a little freaked out! The screaming faces are a clever gimmick! Don't know how he projects them, but it gives new meaning to 'It's all done with mirrors'!"
"Yeah, well my face will be screaming soon, if we don't escape this dump!"
"Relax, babe, it's no big deal," insisted Soupy. However, seeing that some of the faces seemed to be laughing at their confusion, it started to think, Eli's right, this is the least fun I've had in years."
Soupy didn't know how it happened, but one second he was arm-in-arm with Eli, the next minute her arm slipped from his grasp.
"Eli?" he called. Looking around, he expected to see her standing next to him. However, there was no sign of her. Not even her image staring out of the mirror maze.
"Eli?" he called again, a little panicked, knowing she would never have left him there if she'd somehow found a way out. "Eli! Eli! Eli!"
He risked running back the way he had come, looking every which way for her, starting to fear he would never see her again. Then, catching a glance of Eli at the end of the corridor, he started running after her, still calling Eli's name as he ran.
"Eli!" he called again, just before running full pelt into the mirror at the end of the corridor.
Shrieking, Soupy fell to the mirrored floor, with sharp glass falling down upon him, gashing his face and body.
"Eli?" he called, looking up.
Only to see Eli's face silently screaming down at him from a dozen mirrors that surrounded him.

After lunch, Terri and the others returned to the blue Lexus to continue patrolling Glen Hartwell.
"Mind if we have a little music?" asked Sheila, turning on the CD player before Terri or Colin could reply:
"I'll have a black, black Christmas
"And an unhappy New Year
"How can I think of Christmas things
"Without my baby near,
"I'll have a black, black Christmas
"A black, black Christmas
"Dah doo dah doo dah dah."
"Let me guess," said Terri, "The Devil's Advocates have re-released their Black Christmas album this year?"
"Yep, it's roaring up the charts again."
"Could we skip the title track?" asked Colin.
"If you insist," said Sheila, sounding surprised. She pressed the Next button, and it started to play a ballad:
"Christmas time does not bring cheer
"Without your father standing near,
"Poor young Joanie cried and cried
"On the day her daddy died.

"Leaning across the Christmas feast
"Happy times will soon be fleet,
"Thomas starts to thank the Lord
"Then, crying out, falls to the floor.

"The ambulance arrived too late
"To save poor Thomas from his fate,
"A heart attack at just thirty-nine
"Now Christmas is the saddest time.

"Christmas is the saddest time of year
"Christmas is a time that's ever drear,
"No more father for us to love
"The Lord took Thomas up above, so
"Christmas is the saddest time of year
"Christmas is the saddest time of year."
"That's a true story, the group's songwriter saw his mate, Thomas, at church the Sunday before Christmas 2023, and as they were leaving, Thomas waved and said, 'See you next week'. But the next week he was told Thomas had died in front of his wife and kids on Christmas Day."

Over at Wentworth Street, in Glen Hartwell, Lizzie Chong was preening in front of the bathroom mirror, when suddenly a second image appeared in the mirror. Looking like Lizzie, but screaming."
"Eli!" cried Lizzie before fainting to the linoleum-covered floor.
"Lizzie," called her brother, Nate, from outside. He tried to open the bathroom door, then when it wouldn't budge, he looked back and called, "Mum, Lizzie is hibernating in the bathroom again."
Taking an Allen Key from a drawer outside the bathroom, Catherine Chong opened the bathroom door and shrieked when she saw Lizzie unconscious on the floor.
"Sis!" cried Nate, stepping into the small bathroom to help his sister. However, as he stepped inside, he saw what looked like Lizzie's image screaming at him in each of the three bathroom cabinet mirrors.

Forty minutes later, Lizzie, Nate, and Catherine Chong had all been ambulanced to the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital, leaving Terri Scott, Sheila Bennett, and Colin Klein to stare in amazement at the silently screaming image of Eli Chong, which still appeared in the three mirrors.
Sheila filmed the image on her phone for a couple of minutes, then said, "So what now, Chief?"
"You got me," admitted the ash blonde.
They were still staring at the mirror image, reflecting someone who wasn't there, when they received a call to say that Heinrick 'Soupy' Sales was missing.

"He was going for a walk with his girlfriend," said Sandra Sales.
"Eli Chong," said Sheila, having an epiphany as she said it. "Something tell me that was Eli Chong in the mirrors, not Lizzie!"
"You could be right," said Colin, "since she never came home while we were over at Wentworth Street.
"We'd better return to Wentworth Street before putting out an APB on both of them," said Terri.




Some see something small and black racing around the maze.
Others see reflections of missing people in the mirrors, silently calling for help. But they are unable to find the actual people.
Faces of people who vanish in the maze start to appear in mirrors in their homes, silently calling for help.

THE END
© Copyright 2025 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia