Beyond The Looking Glass

“Hey Maxie what are you doing still asleep.” A groan came the giant lump that lay on the bed of Max Tate. Tyson pouted at his friend’s response, but it was soon replaced with a smile. Without another word the bluenette known as Tyson Kinomiya jumped on the bed earning a grunt from the sleepy Max. “Ah come on Max if I can get up this early then so can you.

Tyson lifted a piece of the blanket to see Max’s scrunched up face underneath. Sensing his best friend gaze on him Max opened one eye slightly before groaning again and turning over so his back faced Tyson.

With a sigh Tyson got off the bed and straightened himself up. Taking one quick step back from the bed he said the one thing that could get the blonde boy out of bed, “Fine Max, but school starts in twenty minutes.”

A blonde streak rushed past Tyson heading for the closet then out the door into the bathroom. Five minutes later Max reappeared in the room fully dressed wearing a green shirt and fingerless gloves with orange pants and a matching jacket tied around his waist.

The freckled face blonde looked ready to kill, because of this Tyson backed up from the blonde and laughed sheepishly. “So um Max are you ready to go?”

Max glared causing Tyson to mentally flinch. “Yes Tyson but I would have been ready sooner if you had told me how late it was.”

Trying to look intimidating Tyson put his hands on his hips and gave Max his best glare, “Well sorry for waiting for you where we usually meet up to walk to school together and getting worried when you didn’t show up, so out of the kindness of my heart decided to go to your house to make sure everything was okay,” he said in breath.

For a moment Max stood stunned. He did a double blink and then doubled over clutching his chest and burst out laughing. Tyson frowned at his friend’s out burst. “What’s so funny Max?”

Tears began to build in Max’s eyes as he tried to catch his breath long enough to tell him what had caused him to laugh. Taking deep calming breaths he had toned down to a giggle. “Sorry Ty but the look on your face was just hilarious. I mean if only you could have seen yourself. You looked like a hamster that had nuts in its cheeks with blue fur that had fallen head first into a bucket of red paint.” Max started laughing up a storm again at the thought.

Trying to hold back his own laughter Tyson casually said, “That’s not funny.”

Somehow between his laughs Max was able to shout out, “Yes it is!”

The corners of Tyson’s mouth began to raise and that’s when he gave up and laughed, but not before saying, “Your right.”

The two boys laughed so hard that their stomachs began to cramp up and cause tears to roll down their faces. When they finally stopped they were lying on the floor inhaling deeply. Max was the first to recover his breath and look at the clock.

“Holy crap!” Max stood up in an instant and was dragging Tyson by his legs out of his room and down the stairs.

“Max. Ouch! I can. Ouch! Walk. Ouch! On my. Ouch! Own. Ouch!” Tyson screamed out in pain as he hit each step with his head and was it his imagination or were there more steps than there were before?

Max stopped dragging Tyson long enough to allow the blue haired boy to stand up, but only to be grabbed by the wrist and pulled out the door. “Dang it Max,” Tyson screamed while holding onto his hat with his free hand so it wouldn’t fly away. “Where is the fire? In your pants or something?”

“School starts in two minutes,” Max answered. Finally understanding his blonde friend’s antics Tyson picked up his pace, but came to a sudden stop.

Max was jerked back suddenly because he was still holding onto Tyson’s wrist. Fuming he let go of Tyson’s wrist and stomped his foot impatiently. “Uh Tyson hello, school. You know the halls of torture.” Getting fed up waiting for Tyson to respond to him Max grabbed his best friend by the shoulders and shook him roughly while screaming, “C’mon Ty we’re going to be late.”

Without saying a word Tyson grabbed Max’s hands and removed them from his shoulders. “Hey Max check it out,” he said while pointing at an old abandon house that was practically falling apart across the street.

Not seeing what was so important Max just shrugged and said, “What?”

“Look one of the windows is open.” Taking a good look Max saw that Tyson was right but didn’t understand what was so important. Sensing his confusion Tyson explained, “That house has been abandon since before we were born. I’ve always wanted to go in there but it was always sealed up.”

Max could sense where this was going, “No Tyson. We are not going to skip class and go exploring in that rat hole. Besides that house looks like it will collapse at any second. There is no way I’m- hey Tyson wait for me!” Once again Tyson got what he wanted by rushing into things, which in turn pissed off Max.

Crossing the street and trampling over the weeds that were supposed to be a lawn Tyson made it over to the window but there was one problem, his legs were too short to swing over the windowsill. He almost gave up until out of the corner of his eye he saw a clay flowerpot. Smile at his luckiness he grabbed the flowerpot and placed it below the window. He took a step onto it but before he could swing his leg over the windowsill Max stopped him. “Max,” he whined.

“We got school Tyson,” a sad looked crossed Max’s features when Tyson pouted.

“But we’re already late Max and what if someone comes by and blocks up the window. Then we’ll never see what it looks like inside.” Tyson clasped his together and did his best puppy dog face that only worked because people pitied his poor excuse for a puppy dog face. “Please bestest pal in the whole wide world.”

Pondering the situation over in his head Max finally came to a conclusion. “Okay Tyson but only because we’re already late. Oh and you owe me one got it.”

“Got it,” Tyson said happily and gave Max a big bear hug. After almost crushing every bone in his best friend’s body the blue haired boy climbed through the window landing on his feet causing the floorboards to squeak from the added weight.

Max jumped in from the window after Tyson gave him the okay. He glanced around and noticed that there were cobwebs and dust everywhere. “I pity anyone with allergies that enters this place.”

“Hey Max I’ll look upstairs and you look down here.”

“Wait Tyson,” but it was too late Tyson had already gone upstairs leaving Max all by himself. “Oh well might as well check the place out,” He said to himself. During his exploration of the house he found two washrooms, a pantry, the kitchen, and the family and living room. Every room was the same, covered in a thick layer of dust with a spider web here and there and at one point he swore he saw a rat, but it moved too fast for him to get a good look.

“Max get up here quick you won’t believe it!”

Hearing his best friend’s cry Max rushed up the stairs two at a time. “Tyson which room are you in,” he called when he had finished climbing the steps.

“On the right at the end of the hall!”

Following Tyson’s directions Max found his friend in the library, every corner filled with books but that wasn’t what amazed Max. The room was spotless as if someone had been there only moments before and cleaned it.

“Check it out Max,” Tyson said while pointing at a wall. Max’s gaze followed Tyson’s hand and he gasped at what he saw.

On the wall hung a giant painting that showed what looked like a battle. A group of knights and other kinds of noblemen were fighting two ferocious beasts, a giant white tiger and a blazing phoenix to be precise. “Isn’t it amazing Max?”

“Yeah,” Max managed to choke out. It was strange, but for some reason he was scared and he felt like crying but didn’t know why. “Hey Tyson do you feel weird.”

Tyson blinked in surprise, “Yeah right now I feel terrified and depressed but I also feel rather annoyed.” Laughing it off Tyson looked back at the painting and began to reach out towards it.

“Tyson don’t,” Max cautioned.

“It’s okay Max see,” He put his hand on it and nothing happened. Max breathed a sigh of relief but it was short lived for once he breathed it a bright white burst forth from the painting pushing the two boys back. They flew across the room and were about to hit the full-length mirror on the wall but instead flew into it, literally. The only thing either could remember after that was screaming for help and spinning and tumbling down a dark abyss.