With a hesitant lull in the magical craziness that came along with the Halloween rush for work before the next holiday rush during Christmas, Rafayel had been trying to avoid Desiree as best as he could. The mauvian had shown up on his Ring doorbell before the thing had been tampered with. It still worked, at least, but for whatever reason, it no longer registered to record when the mauvian was trying to drop in for a visit.

It made it harder to know if he would find his way home and end up with an earful of why he should be doing things or how he should be better than Hedwig, considering he hadn’t had trouble with his magic. Not that he enjoyed it at all, or the feeling of bugs crawling over him that came with it. Part of him knew it wasn’t real, but the fact that it was so gross had him feeling itchy all the same.

Waiting until it was late, so late that it could almost be considered early in the morning, he finally made his way home after puttering around at a few bars, just sitting and enjoying the music or food. It was crazy in its own way, but the type of crazy he could manage and understand, unlike all the new magical bullshit that seemed to be happening more to him now that all this stuff had been shoved at him.

What he wasn't expecting when he got home was the fact that the door was unlocked, something that immediately had his floaty mood dimming as he groaned. "For ******** sake." Pushing the door open, he shook his phone so that the light would come on and looked around the front hallway before turning the actual light on.

It was quiet, about what he expected, at least until his phone light caught the glimmer of something on the kitchen table. First thing was first, he locked the door behind him and kicked off his shoes. His coat and bag came off next and were tossed haphazardly toward the coat closet. When nothing else made a sound in the house, he sighed and headed towards the kitchen ahead.

On the table was his henshin, but something looked different about it; he couldn't exactly place it, but then again, he never paid much mind to the thing, really. Picking it up, he squinted and looked at it; something felt different about it too. "What did she do to you?" Taking a moment to look at the clock, to check the time as he debated maybe trying to let his wraith do their thing for twenty minutes or so, he shrugged and decided What the hell.

That warm buzz under his skin from a night of partying and drinking was enough reason to take a walk and let the wraith out as well. Heading towards the mirror, he used his henshin and found that nothing else seemed different, still that itching feeling he didn't like and the odd veil and shawl thing. Stepping into the mirror, he was surprised as he entered a hallway, not the alleyway he'd been planning on going to. Around him were mirror after mirror hanging on white walls that seemed devoid of any mark or shadow. It was creepy in a way he didn't have words for exactly.

Looking down as something moved past him, he noticed it was a wraith. Was this that other mirror place? Whatever it was called? Then he noticed the difference. His pants had mold, or what looked like mold, and the sleeves of his shawl draped longer with odd trinkets hanging from them. Then there was the new pattern he noticed, something that looked like a long centipede, which had him disgusted even more about the whole thing. Even though he did like pinning some bugs, he always hated centipedes and millipedes. Too many legs, too likely to be venomous. Also, something he didn't want to wake up to crawling on him in his house.

"What... the ********?" Though no answer came as he stood there in the plain hallway, now twisting and turning to look at himself, ignoring the mirrors around them even if they'd aid in his endeavours. This had to be something Desiree had done; someone had gotten into his home and messed with the weird henshin pen thing.

Turning again, his foot caught something, and he toppled to the ground, face smacking into the floor, leaving him seeing stars as he groaned. This was the worst, more than the worst if he was being honest. Taking time to blink the stars away and really look at where he was, he finally wondered if this was that place that Melpomene had thrown him through to get to that mirror that brought him into this whole mess.

Once his head felt stable enough, he pushed himself up and looked back towards his feet to see what he'd tripped over. It looked like a crystal, odd considering how devoid of literally anything this place seemed, but he picked it up and threw it in subspace for now. Maybe Melpomene would know, but he didn't really wanna find them and ask right now, not with the obvious betrayal or whatever Desiree had done.

Stepping back through a mirror, he popped back out at home and powered down, contemplating throwing his henshin in the trash for a moment before groaning and just throwing it into the junk drawer. He needed another drink, maybe a hit, maybe someone who didn't ask questions and was going before the sun rose. All he knew was he needed to not think about this magic bullshit right now.

Taking a slow breath, he grabbed his phone from the counter and then scrolled through his usual apps, looking for the flavour of the evening. It was easy enough, especially since he had some added help thanks to his time at the various clubs. Once he found a bite, he popped his shoes back on and headed back out into the night. Maybe after some more fun, he might feel a bit better, at least that's what he told himself.

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