Into The Shadow Realm | Rascal x fem reader story 2023

21| Mirror Mirror [Part I]

"Sleep well?~"

You feel your stomach flip upon making eye contact with a certain someone staring your way already from across your room. In one hand, the joker places with a stack of purple cards, they are suspended in thin air but fall down.

Has he been here all night!?!

When you do not answer while deep in shock, the jester continues. "I knew something was the matter with you~ I could tell you hadn't been sleeping when we switched bodies." There comes Rascal's voice as he eyes you cautiously. "Now tell me (y/n), why didn't you say something hmm?"

You automatically set your jaw, then teleport out of bed to stand beside it with your arms crossed. You are still coming to terms with the fact Rascal had found you last night, and is now sitting in your room, and has been for probably the whole night watching you.

"It is none of your – "

"Oh hooey~! Of course it is my business, I am supposed to rely on your ability to gather negative energy for our master's revival. I can't have subordinates dropping dead around me can I hmm~? Perhaps Nogo did make the wrong decision after all~"

He continues, stands up and hovers over to you when you have no response. "No magical creature is ever in that amount of pain. I never believed that the rumours about them were true, but, clearly I was wrong! You are a visionist aren't you~?"

Visionist. The word makes your heart drop. A visionist; a creature who experiences incredibly vivid dreams, usually nightmares, where pain is involved and is always fuelled on one's fear. As they progress, they begin keeping the rational part of the brain locked further and further away so that the panic always roams free, making them worse each time and if one does not learn how to conquer them, it can eventually lead to...

lead to...

...to death.

You have denied it for some time, perhaps up until you were 17. You never liked talking about it anyway.

A visionist. That is what a visionist is. And you are a visionist.

"Yes." You utter, answering Rascal's question.

It is clear that he was expecting a different answer or reaction out of you, perhaps one of rejection or denial or even anger, so this is why an ounce of surprise flickers across his face. And it is gone just as fast as it comes.

The jester raises an eyebrow.

"Look," you continue, "Nogo did not make the wrong decision," you try to act strong, though it is true you are still overcoming the morning's events, "and I am not going to drop dead, I am going to figure out a way to stop them...the visions."

"Hm~" he hums, cocking his head at you, "I might just hold you to that."

"Listen, I am serious about this, and if the other's find out, if Nogo finds out..." after saying these words, you realise that the worst creature to have found out about this, has just found out. The worst case scenario has already happened, Rascal is the worst creature to have found out, so you trail off, looking around.

Huh.

You definitely do not remember getting back into bed when passing out. Your gaze meets the bed.

"Hang on...Rascal, did you...?" Again, you trail off, unable to even say the words.

A sound comes out of his mouth, letting out what seems to be a mix of a grunt and a gasp. When you return your eyes to him, your find the joker as a blushing mess. On his face is a down turned grimace as he understands what you are meaning to ask.

"W-what!? No I – I-I mean ~"

Suddenly Rascal is saved by an unexpected change in the room. Your surroundings suddenly shift and warp, changing into...

A meadow?

Within a blink of an eye, the Shadow Realm disappears, your room disappears and it is like you have been teleported to a green scenic hilly plains in the Human Realm. You and the joker now stand in a bright green meadow, hills out as far as the eyes can see and a brilliant blue sky above, dotted with fluffy white clouds.

Even though Rascal is such a colour creature and often does not quite fit in the Shadow Realm, he does not fit into this place astoundingly either. It is most definitely because of his mannerisms, you decide.

"What!?~"

"What the – "

In the distance, you spot Ulric, Brute and Brooha gathered together, exactly the living room's distance away if you were back in the fortress. You can already hear the shouting.

"Great~" Comes a sarcastic Rascal before teleporting right over to them. Since you have gotten quite a number of hours' sleep, you are able to do the same, arriving with the others.

The three gather around...a horse? Accompanying these hills are also horses, something you had not properly noticed earlier, they are minding their own business and chomping on grass. But Brute is freaking out over them, and the one closest to the troll.

"This is your worst fear?" Mocks a disapproving Ulric while Brute swats his hand out in front of him in panic, but the horse just continues keeping to itself.

"Get it away! Get it away!"

"Someone spare me the details here?~" Rascal is madly confused and irritated, but decides on keeping a calmer tone.

Though everyone ignores him.

"Yes!" Brooha cackles. "My creation worked! The fear mirror is complete!" Your eyes then travel and arrive on a mirror laying on the grass besides Brute. He must have dropped it.

"A horse!?" Ulric still laughs in disbelief, bursting out laughing.

"Did you just transform the entire Shadow Realm?" You manage to question the witch between Ulric's and her laughter and Brute's panicked screams.

Rascal turns and narrows his eyes towards Brooha when hearing your question, anger now plastered across his face, expecting an answer.

"My mirror can turn anyone's fear into a reality!"

"And how do you reverse it?"

The witch pauses for a moment, then her eyes light up with the answer. "Why, you have to break it of course!"

Instantly without a second thought, you summon a knife and shoot it at the mirror's glass. With a clink the glass shatters, the handle of your knife sticking out of it.

Ulric and Brute stop bickering at this sound and everyone turns to watch while the meadow disappears immediately, arriving back in the fortress's living room.

"Gah! You nasty witch!" Bellows the troll. "How dare you trick me again! Curse you!" With a large hand, he scoops the mirror up by its handle to chuck it over the side of the fortress.

"Well that was entertaining." Comes Ulric. "Which is honestly sad when you think about it."

"Why are you messing around!?~" Rascal cries, still irritated of course. "You know we have bigger problems to deal with right now!"

All three of them develop guilty faces.

"I should probably mention," Brooha adds regretfully, "the mirror can regenerate."