Ch.9: Wishing Mirror

                                    

                                          
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" A young girl with chestnut hair asked, her bushy eyebrows furrowed in worry, "My grandparents said this place has an evil spirit in it. Also some kids disappeared here, right?"
A boy with hair darker than her own scowled at her as he straightened his back and marched forward with an air of confidence. His siblings beside him whispered to each other as they made their way to the rumored abandoned mirror store.
The kids had heard about the place from rumors that swarmed around town. It was a former town attraction for its lovely collection of mirrors before the owner mysteriously died. Since its abandonment, squatters and thieves had gone missing entering the store. Parents had warned their children against going to the store, claiming there was an evil spirit that lived there.
Thus, the rumor of the wish granting mirror started to form. It circled all around town and although it was an obvious case of a false tale, children previously had tested if it was a true rumor and since then, more and more have gone missing.
Yū, along with his siblings Kana and Koro convinced Ito, their friend, to test her courage by going up to a mirror and summoning the wish granting spirit, Kagami-kun.
Upon the four children entering they were greeted with an empty entrance. The walls were beige and peeling held a look that gave it a vibe that told them that the store was abandoned for a very long time. There was broken glass scattered across the floor, causing the older boy to carefully move it away with his feet to prevent the girl who was looking around anxiously from accidentally stepping on some in her clumsiness. 
Ito looked around and froze due to her lack of vision. She could only make out a rough outline of the store and even that wasn't enough to calm her nerves. She tugged on her short hair out of nervousness.
"Yū-kun...I can't see anything. I'm scared and we don't have a light. Please can we leave?" 
She felt her eyes well up with tears as the boy turned to her but due to the lack of a light and the moon in the night sky passing over the store uselessly, she couldn't quite make out his expression.
"Why are you such a baby Ito? There's nothing here!" Yū yelled at her before he turned around in a huff. He heard mocking echoes of "Baby, baby" made by the others which he snorted at.
He tried not to flinch when the girl's sniffles grew louder and louder. 
'Shit! If she starts crying then we'll never hear the end of it from her grandparents,' Yū thought as he stalked up to the crying girl and softly brought his hands to her cheeks and gave them each a soft pat, then blew at her open forehead, which caused her to stop.
His siblings giggled behind them. Each sound out of their mouths mocked him and his cheeks burned in embarrassment.
"There, there...please stop crying," He lowered his voice as low as he could in an attempt to soothe her, "This is a way to make you more confident, remember. You want to grant a wish for your grandma, right?"
Ito nodded and tried to put on a look of confidence before Yū took the lead again and he walked ahead, leaving her trapped in the lightless room. Or it would have been lightless if it wasn't for an orange light escaping a small crack in a back door. 
Forgetting her crippling fear for just a moment, Ito walked towards the light and when she reached the door that stood in her way between much needed brightness and what felt like an endless abyss of darkness she pushed it open with all of the effort she squeezed out of her eight year old body. 
She managed to fully open it and after she basked in her victory for a brief moment, she turned towards her friends who already walked up behind her while their faces lit up with curiosity.