You filled Grim in as you went along. He wasn't too clear on exactly what was happening. Your little group was going to be expelled if you didn't go get a magic crystal from some spooky mine. You wondered if it was haunted. Well, your dorm was haunted and the school was too, so maybe that wasn't a rare creepy thing here.

Regardless, you were toted along to the Mirror Chamber. It was the room yesterday's Ceremony took place in. There were still floating coffins everywhere but you were pretty sure they were empty. At least you hoped they were. You noticed that the Mirrors that were there yesterday (the ones all of the students went into after the ceremony was done) weren't there anymore. You were curious why that was but you weren't really worried about it. Chalk it up to magic, right?

Ace and Deuce stood before the big magic mirror and you stood cautiously behind them. It was going to be weird walking through a mirror. Would it feel like walking through water? Maybe it would feel like your stomach would drop and then when you opened your eyes you would be in some crazy new place? It was a little worrying.

Ah, well. Worrying was for losers! And you weren't a loser! Deuce said something to the mirror and you jumped on in. You had places to be after all.

You were wrong about what you thought going through a magic mirror was going to be like. You thought you were going to feel something at least. But it felt like going through a normal door. Which is to say, it didn't feel like anything.

When you opened your eyes you were in a much different place that the Mirror Chamber.

You were in the middle of the woods. It was really dark. You hadn't been too sure what time it was when you left, but the sun must have set a little while ago. There was a pretty spooky looking old cottage near where you had ended up. It looked familiar. Oh, yeah, that's right. This place must have been from Snow White. The cottage that she lived in with the dwarfs? You probably should've figured that out earlier. You sighed and held Grim a little tighter in your arms.

Ace and Deuce were quick to follow you through the mirror.

"Is this the dwarfs mine?" Deuce asked, eyeing the area.

"No, I think this is a house." You chuckled to yourself and Ace quietly joined in. "So what was this place even used for?" You asked peering down the dirt path ahead of you.

Deuce explained. "It used to be prosperous thanks to magic crystal mining but--"

"Gah! This place is so creepy. It feels like something's gonna jump out from anywhere." Grim exclaimed, cutting off the boy. Gosh, what was it with people and cutting each other off at this school? Was no one polite anymore?

Ace waved his hand dismissively at the cat in your arms. "Pfft, nah. Come on, let's go check out that house. Maybe someone can tell us something about the mines."

"I was just about to tell you about them." Deuce groaned. "Fine, fine, let's go."

You let Grim down as you walked towards the house. "You sure this place isn't abandoned too?" You asked Ace. He gave you a mischievous look.

"Why don't you go in and find out?" He said in a teasing way.

"What, you think I'm too chicken to open the door of a spooky old house? What's the worst that's gonna be in there, huh? Ghosts? I've been dealing with those guys all day." You stuck your tongue out at him. You walked across the old wooden bridge with a bit more confidence. The woods weren't as intimidating now.

"Oh, but what if there's a monster? Or a big scary man with pointy teeth?"

You raised an eyebrow and smiled back at him. "Then I'll just punch him twice as hard as I punched you."

Ace rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I bet."

Deuce on the other hand, looked a little more worried about the situation. "H-hey, don't just barge in, okay? Maybe someone is in there and they could help us?"

Reluctantly you nodded. No breaking and entering, understood. Take all the fun out of it, why don't you?

You knocked on the front door, to which it slowly creaked open. "That's ominous." Ace muttered glaring into the doorway. You shrugged and led your group inside.

"Maybe this house was built before they invented locks." You suggested while you looked around the room. You winced at the sight.

It wasn't a large room, but it was definitely abandoned. The walls were cracked and cobwebs littered the room from the floor to the ceiling. A few of the small chairs that were at the table were upturned like someone had left in a hurry. Actually, it reminded you a lot of your own dorm. All run down and decrepit. You shuddered.

"Good evening!" Deuce called out. You all paused for a second but nothing answered you. "I guess it is abandoned." He made a face at the dirty room. "It's a mess in here."

"Our dorm is definitely worse." Grim commented, hopping up onto the table.

"Gross." Ace said while he explored the room. "Huh. The table and chairs are really small. Were they for kids or something? One, two," He pointed to each chair while he counted, "Ah! There's seven! That's so many!"

You rolled your eyes. "No, dumb dumb. This was the Dwarfs house."

Deuce chimed in. "This must have been a lively home when the Dwarfs' Mine flourished."

"Oh!" You exclaimed. Your sudden loudness made the boys jump. "We have to get going! Come on, let's get to the mines. We don't wanna be out here all night, yeah?"

. . .

"Gah! We gotta go in that pitch black hole?! No thanks!" Grim hid behind your legs. Yeah, okay, so you weren't the biggest fan of this either, but you were on a mission. You might not have ever been in a cave or mine before, but that wasn't going to stop you. You would admit you were a little nervous though.

Ace snickered. "What? Are you scared? So lame."

What was with him and picking fights with your cat? Grim perked up. "N-no! I'm not scared! Not at all! I'll prove it! I'm taking the lead!" He stormed off ahead of you before you could even try and stop him. You grumbled.

"Did you really have to do that? He's like a little kid. How can we be friends if you're such a bad influence on what's basically my kid?" Ace rolled his eyes.

"Oh be quiet. We aren't going to be friends, you punched me in the face and then had Juice drop a big metal pot on me." Deuce deadpanned at Ace and very quietly corrected Ace that his name was not, in fact, Juice.

"I mean, you're hanging out with me right now so I like to think we're getting there." You shot him a smile. He groaned and quickly followed after Grim. You laughed to yourself.

"Do you really think he's going to be your friend?" Deuce asked you, slowly walking forward. You followed his lead.

"Oh, nah, not really. I just feel bad about being so mean to him earlier so I kinda want to make up for it? I'm usually a real awkward person but I think we're making progress on getting back to good terms. Our banter has been excellent; have you noticed?" You chuckled.

"Unfortunately I have." He laughed quietly. "You won't stop talking."

"Well, yeah, because that's what making friends is all about. Annoying people around you until someone else annoys you back, right? Actually, that might not be it, it's been a minute since I tried to make friends."

Deuce raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I like to think you're pretty good at it." Was that a compliment? You smiled happily. "Where are you from? I used to live in the Rose Kingdom before I came here." You let out a sharp laugh and shook your head.

"That's a story for another time, dude. Let's just focus on not getting you sent back to the Rose Kingdom, alright?" He was a little perplexed by your response but nodded. The two of you started walking faster to catch up with the other half of your group. "Oh! And, again, I'm so sorry about getting you roped into this. If I knew you would have gotten in trouble I would never have asked for your help."

He shook his head. "Don't start apologizing when we haven't even been kicked out yet." He gave you a calm smile. It made you feel a little lighter.

"Alright."

. . .

The inside of the mines looked just like you remembered from the movie. Different sparkling gemstones jutted out of stone walls and several different branching paths were all connected by mine cart rails. Even though these gems weren't exactly magical, and probably weren't worth much, you still took a few of the loose ones. Your robes didn't have pockets, but that was fine. You tried asking Ace for his help but he just scoffed and said that he "wasn't going to hold your dirty rocks." Thankfully, Deuce was a lot more understanding and let you use his pockets to hold your gems.

Just as he was putting your pretty rocks away he paused. "Wait!" He said it with enough force that you, Grim and Ace stopped where you were standing. Ace glared at him. He must have still been miffed by the whole "friend" thing from earlier. Very childish, you would say.

"What?"

"There's something here!" Deuce exclaimed quickly stepping in front of you in a semi-protective manner. You welcomed it, of course, because you had no idea what was going on.

Grim shrieked when he saw something appear in front of your path. You peaked past Deuce and were met with an unfortunately familiar scene.

More ghosts.

Hey, at least these ones had cool cloaks?

"Heee hee hee! Our first visitors in 10 years!" One of them said.

"Yes, yes! Why don't you make yourselves at home... for eternity!"

Ace sighed almost like he was disappointed. "This place is haunted by ghosts too?" Deuce quickly tried to handle the situation.

"We don't have time to deal with them one by one. Let's go!"

"Hey!" Ace snapped. "Don't think you can just order me around. If you hadn't done something so idiotic then we wouldn't be in this mess." Uh oh. They weren't going to--

"You want to talk about who started it? It's because you wouldn't clean!" Deuce shot back. Okay so they were just going to fight right now, that's helpful, thanks guys.

"No, it started when that furball went and burnt the Queen of Hearts' statue!"

Grim growled. "Hey! That's what you get for making a fool outta me!" He stomped his feet on the ground like a toddler throwing a tantrum. You opened your mouth to try and break this all up but Deuce beat you to it.

"Do none of you understand our situation right now? We're all expelled if we don't get back with a magic crystal by tomorrow morning!" He yelled. You winced away. You made awkward eye contact with the ghosts that were right next to your group watching this whole exchange go down. You mouthed to them "I'm so sorry." The ghosts took this as a sign that they should probably step off for the time being and quickly vanished, all wearing very uncomfortable expressions.

Ace was seething. "So stop patronizing me. It's really starting to tick me off."

Alright, it was probably time for you to step in. You quickly stepped in between them, gently trying to get them to back off. "Settle down guys, we don't need to fight about this. We're going to get the crystal and then--"

You paused in the middle of your sentence. The ground trembled beneath you. You could only describe it as if something big were walking towards you. Which you sincerely hoped was not the case.

Around the corner of the path ahead of you, a low voice sounded. You couldn't make out any of the words it said, but that didn't make it any less frightening. You took a cautious step back shivering. Ace and Deuce copied you.

"Wh-what's that... voice?" Ace muttered lowly. Grim whimpered and you quickly scooped him up. Whatever that was, it wasn't friendly. You noticed that Ace backed up behind you, like you were going to protect him from whatever was about to come down the path. You would've thought it was funny if you weren't so freaked out.

You heard it more clearly this time. It's voice was distorted and shaky. It made you freeze where you stood. "St... one... ssss... mine..."

Deuce stepped back too. "I think... it's getting closer."

A loud roar came from around the corner. The entire mine shook with the sheer force of the voice. Huge hands, bigger than your head, groped blindly at the walls and forced an enormous body forward. It's head was the first thing you saw of it all together. A glass potion bottle, filled with some thick black liquid. Cracks in the front of it had the liquid oozing out in fat clumps. It toted a lantern in one hand, and in the other a pickax that was at least as big as your torso. Whatever this thing was, it didn't have any legs. All at once you realized that what you had felt before weren't footsteps; they were this monster's hands hitting the walls of the mines. Its hoarse voice bellowed out violently, "Stone... ISSS MIINNEE!"

All of the boys screamed. You would have too if you weren't so horrified. Grim scrambled out of your arms and took off back the way you had come from. Ace was quick to follow his lead. Deuce grabbed your arm and took off with you down the path. Thank goodness he did, if he hadn't you might have ended up frozen in that spot until that monster killed you.

This was not what you signed up for.