Goes on beyond reach, the hallway
The wind blows through it, slowly
As smaller the figure, bigger it gets
Cold light above, posters from the gazettes
He goes through, longing to escape away
...
The lights were on so the path was clear, but there was no way for Wirt, let alone small Gregory, to know what part of the building was this one. Vivacious child that he was, enchanting, the misadventure of the Unknown was but a nice memory for him, even with the terrible tribulations, just an episode of childhood, like a funny dream that he would sketch about when bored. For Wirt, the story was different, he knew it was real, he still felt the experiences, how much he had to develop as a human in order to escape the nightmare, months have passed, and he could remember every detail of it, none of the events scared him, but that wasn't his most safe moment, and he had a healthy suspicion towards new adventures. Looking at the weird corridor, with cold sofas and small lamps, decorated with Art Noveau magazines and plaster walls tailored, he started to assume something was very wrong.
"Greg, what is this place?"
"We're at the mall, Wirt! Oh wait, that's a weird mall all the sudden, where are the people?" Said Gregory, walking absend minded, but still perceptive.
"We've been walking on this direction for quite a while! And yet not a soul! What is this place? Does it have no end? Are we trapped here?"
"How come we can be trapped with so much space, Wirt! Ah those chairs are so comfy, when are we going Home Wirt? I miss Mr. Funderburker! It's almost time to feed him", said Gregory, sitting in the chair and tapping his own legs, he had a frog back home, one called Jason Funderburker, that he adopted as his own a while ago. His brother helped him take care of the animal.
"No need to miss Jason, Greg, we will be home soon, don't worry, just stay next to me, we need to find a path to get back" Wirt observed the place, he felt lost! Just a while ago he thought things were alright. How could this be, what was this corridor. The boys kept on walking, Wirt was careful, looking for doors or anything, while Greg, who Wirt told he wanted very next to him, was around, either walking besides Wirt, either running a bit, either sitting on the chairs as well. All Wirt could see was a huge hallway, one side of it he saw decorated walls, chairs, tables, lamps, sofas, on the other were arcs and arcs, filled with mirrors, just like in the old Versailles, a huge hall of mirrors it was indeed, the ceiling was very high, with chandeliers pending from above, monumental.
Suddenly, something caught Wirt's attention, a small shadow in one of the mirrors!
"Do you see that, Greg?"
"See what, brother O'Mine?"
"A... thing... in one of those mirrors, is this a sign? Does it mean we are getting somewhere?"
"Maybe is a secret passage!!"
"No, I doubt it!" Wirt didn't doubt it actually, but the thought of a secret passage make not much sense for him, he was walking next to the doors, looking carefully, and then suddenly he felt like being observed by a frog!
"WHAT"
"What what, Wirt? What is going on"
"A... A FROG, In this, mirror!"
"I can see it too!"
"But how, it's not too clear, maybe there is a secret passage, after all?"
"HA! Told you so!"
"But, how..."
"I think we should follow the frogs, they know what they're doing!"
"More? OH, you are correct, there's.. more! But how..." As Wirt walked, he started to see more and more frogs through the mirror, but even more than frogs, he could see sheeps, and even people, all smartly dressed, and more and more the mirror looked more like a moving painting than a proper mirror!
"This is, amazing!" Is there a way to see more of this?" Wirt started to put his face on the wall, trying to look closer into the scene, he kept on moving doing so, while Gregory would follow him and imitate him as well, finding the whole episode really funny.
A moment later, Wirt put his face on what was to be a door, and it opened, revealing a whole different place before his eyes, Greg followed him.
"Wooow, this is, huge!"
There were so many things going on at that moment, Wirt could see a train filled with hedgehogs and guinea pigs, wearing bullet hats and reading newspapers, he could see frogs passing by, smartly dressed, he saw tables and cats sitting in it, sipping coffee and reading magazines similar to the ones he saw on the wall. Talking about it, the door have closed, and it was shut, leaving Wirt and Gregory in a whole different world. Wirt was too surprised to be scared at the fact that he seemed locked on another place, even more lost than before, but who could be locked in such a huge place? Suddenly, a sheep notice the presence of them and went to talk with them, he was wearing the Hotel Linzs uniform for a lobby boy, at least Wirt read Hotel Linzs written on his flat cap.
"You gentlemen seem lost, would you like some help?"
"Who are you? Where are we? You can talk?"
"Well, I think so, mister, you are on the hallway of the Synklisi Mansion, owned by Mr. Synklisi himself! It's a huge place! Also, we are close to the Linzs wing, that lead to the Hotel Linzs, where I work. I am Minos Belis, here at your disposal"
"But how is this possible?"
"This I can't tell you, well... I'm on my lunchtime at work, so I can help you gentlemen with no problems right now! Just tell me who you gentlemen are and what you gentlemen are looking for."
"Well... you can call me Wirt, and this is Greg, and we look for a way back to the mall..."
"I know a way to the mall, it's not too distant, actually! I can guide you there, won't take me too long, just follow me, and watch your step!"
Wirt was wondering if the sheep foud their meeting as weird as him himself was considering the whole thing to be, the sheep was wearing human vests and was walking with two paws instead of four, they were going through the mansion, carefully was Minos guiding them through the crowd. At one moment Wirt stuble and fell on a railroad of considerable size, not necessarily like the human ones, but even so enough for him to stumble upon.
"Where this all came from?"
"Sometime ago some animals came to live with Mr. Synklisi, they were tired of wander around and wanted to live in a civilized way, Mr. Synklisi had a lot of available space at his manor, so he allowed the animals in. The animals stayed on the unocupied zones of the house and built their whole infraestructure there! It is a party now, oddly enough is a place more clean than the rest of this huge big house".
"Why do I keep on finding Art Nouveau around me? This is so peculiar, on the walls, on the animals... how did we end up here?"
"This I can't tell you, sometimes someone comes here, lost, but they manage to escape to somewhere else, or at least are not seen again"
"So we aren't the first people here?"
"Oh, not at all"
"Are you sure this Mr. Siniski don't mind having all these animals around him?" Greg asked, very curious on everything around him.
"Oh no, Mr. Synklisi is very fond of civilized animals!"
"I wish Mr. Funderburker could see this"
They kept on walking for a while, until they got to a huge door, that said "Main Mall", it was closed, and Minos had to make an extra effort to open it, when he did though, Wirt and Greg got very sad.
"There we are, the mall!"
"This is not our mall" said Wirt, clearly frustrated.
"What do you mean, this is a mall"
"Yes, but our mall was a modern one, it wasnt a gallery like this, and, please forgive me Minos, I am so tired, me and my little brother just want to get home..."
"Unfortunately, this is the furthest I can take you. I can only suggest you to keep on going this way, and you will find the garden of the manor, maybe outside you will know what to do!"
"Yes, maybe... thank you, Minos...".
The boys were staring at four hallways now, each own going their own special way, he could see some elevators from the turn of the century, he could see some small lonely animals going from store to store, in a quite desert gallery. The only thing he couldn't see was what he most wanted, a way back to his world. Wirt wanted to go home. Greg was more relaxed than him, but he missed Jason Funderburker. They both knew their way back was longer than they were expecting.
End of Chapter 1.
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