into the woods » open starter
They walked in silence for a while, dodging and avoiding things with each othersâ help. Mickey could have sworn heâd heard wolves in the distance and hoped they wouldnât come anywhere near the two of them. How do you make yourself smell less appetizing to carnivorous animals? Mickey thought. He wasnât sure, but he sure wished he was. He didnât know how to explain it, but even just having Rex walking behind him, a silent pillar of strength, made it much easier to press on without completely freaking out. Maybe it was in Rexâs serious nature, the way he asserted how things were going to go. Maybe it was just having another person, someone from Torchwood, on his side.Â
Finally, they reached â a mirror. Interesting, Mickey thought. It shined brightly, like diamonds, and Mickey was confused why because there didnât seem to be any sun shining on it. Mickey didnât want to go anywhere near it, lingering back while Rex, ever the braver one, approached it. âWhoa!â he exclaimed when the mirror rippled as Rex touched it. âWhat the proper fuck?â Mickey didnât curse that often but this was a situation that called for it. Mickey searched the ground for something, anything, and finally found a pebble. Picking it up, he approached the mirror, watching very closely as he tossed the pebble at it - it disappeared, going right through it. âDo you thinkâ?â he began to ask, but he knew the answer to his question already. This was the way out. Instead, he began to head toward the entrance. âIâve got to go find Clara.âÂ
Rex didnât often always on impulse. Heâd lost too much by doing so. But as he stared at the mirror and watched the realization dawn on Mickeyâs face through the rippled reflection, he just knew what he had to do. Â Â
Blinking when Mickey turned around, he shook his head and grabbed hold of Mickeyâs arm. âYouâre not going back out there. You go back out there into that forest and youâre sure to get yourself killed.â Rex snapped, tugging him back toward the mirror, and then as if to accentuate his point, a pack of howling wolves sounded near by.Â
Thatâs when instinct took over and he shoved Mickey into the mirror, watching as he disappeared through it and with one look behind him and seeing a pair of glowing eyes staring back at him, he jumped through himself and hoped for the best.Â
----Â
Jumping through the mirror was a strange sensation. Almost like heâd been drenched in water, however when heâd hit the ground he was just as dry as he had been before. Â
âMickey!?â He grumbled, pushing himself off the ground before he realized that he had landed on solid ground -- he was no longer outside. He pushed himself off the ground and looked at his surroundings and it took about an entire minute to realize he recognized where he was. It had been over a year since heâd been there, but it looked exactly the same as it had when he left it. Â
His apartment bedroom. Â
The billboard leaning on the wall above his his dresser still had his notes and possible ideas on the location of Gwen and Jack. Â
His stomach did a strange sort of leap and turn as the realization that he was back home sunk in and furthermore that he was alone. Just as he had been before he showed up in that Pocket. Â Really, he knew he should have been relieved that he had made it home-- if he really was home -- but instead he just felt... defeated. Â
In an unexpected fit of anger, he grabbed hold of that stupid bulletin board full of misleads and through it at the mirror attached to his closet, frowning when instead of going right through it, the glass shattered and fell to the ground before slumping down onto his bed. Â
Well. All he could do now was set back to work in trying to find them. Actually being there might give him some help in trying to figure out what happened. Or better yet, maybe since heâd made it home, everyone else had too.Â








