Visionen im Spiegel

**Visionen im Spiegel** is the eleventh episode of *Violent Hearts: A Western Epic* season two, the fifth and final part of the El Camino Chapter, and the twenty-first episode overall.

## Summary

Terminus XXII. The group, led by Amaru Dorian, arrive in an empty room from the spiral staircase. Realizing it is some sort of vestibule, they open the door in front of them to reveal a straight hall way containing six doors -- including the one they opened.

The group begins opening doors at random. First the music room is discovered, housing a variety of instruments. The group then opens what seems to be a storage room. The group then crowds around a third door, and Kinta decides to knock on it as she did in Mystery of Hyde Manor, Part I. After several moments of silence, knocking is heard in return. The group then attempts to open the door, but it will not budge. Roso steps up and bashes the door down with immense strength. Upon entering, they see that the door was being barricaded shut by a chair.

While exploring this room, a music box on the dresser begins to play on its own. The group listens to the tune that the box plays until it ends, and then the investigation is continued. Adam sees a cow skull over a window, and investigates it. He finds a key in one of its eyes, and the group moves onto the next door in the hall -- the central northern door. The door seems to be locked, and so Adam uses the key and unlocks the door. Before opening it, however, the group attempts to open the middle southern door, but to no avail. Turning back to the other door, the group finally opens it and finds a pile of bones on the ground covered in storage containers. While rummaging through the junk, the southern door mysteriously opens, and the group enters.

The room the group finds is an otherwise empty room containing only a circular carpet surrounded by a nearly full circle of standing mirrors, all facing inwards. Nora immediately suspects something is under the carpet, and lifts it to reveal a circular black mirror, which is missing a single shard on one of its edges. Gwen realizes that the black mirror shard she found in the master bedroom must complete this strange artifact. However, as the group begins to discuss what to do, the Jackal appears in the reflection of the mirrors, standing behind Koda. Roso, bent on killing strange entity, rushes at the Jackal and attempts to fight the creature, despite it being invisible to him.

Roso manages to grab ahold of the Jackal, but is unable to grapple it due to its immense, unnatural strength. The Jackal then appears to jump through the nearest window, behind Leonora, and claw her back. The aberration then proceeds to psychically fragment her psyche, causing her immense mental duress and irrational fear. The group struggles to combat the otherworldly creature for the next few moments, as it travels through other mirrors surrounding the black mirror. Finally, however, Roso grapples the Jackal and forces it onto the black mirror. Almost reflexively, Gwen places her shard into the black mirror, and it reforms and activates. The black mirror suddenly opens up into the Mirror World, causing Roso, the Jackal, and Kinta to fall inward. Frankie, however, was able to jump to safety at the last second. Roso grabs the edge of the mirror while letting the Jackal go, causing it to instantly descend into the misty world below. Kinta fails to grab anything, but is caught by Roso. He then lifts them both out of the hole. The group then sees two glowing eyes begin ascending, before Gwen shoots wildly into the hole. One bullet strikes the edge, and the black mirror shatters again, causing the Mirror World's gateway to be closed again.

After defeating the Jackal, the group rests and reviews all that has happened in the last few hours. However, shouting from outside interrupts their victory. Looking out the window, the group sees that a large group of Templeton agents are charging up to the door, attempting to break into the manor. Knowing that they must go, the group rushes to the spiral staircase, but are blocked by three suits of armor facing them. Unsure what is about to happen, the group pauses. The suits of armor then salute, and the Ghost of Hyde Manor appears to them and salutes as well. Gwen, and then Frankie, salute back. The Ghost then disappears, and the suits of armor fall apart, freeing up the path. The group quickly discusses how exactly they should escape, and a course of action is devised.

The group rushes down the stairs and into the foyer area. As they run for the hole in the floor, they see that various suits of armor are holding the grand doors shut while continuously barricading them with furniture. Shouting and banging on the other side suggests that the Templetons are attempting to force their way into the structure. The group, one by one, fall down the hole and make their way through the wine cellar into the dining room. Looking back one last time, the group sees that the door suddenly explodes open from the other side. The group makes it out the back of the house, and finds their horses and stagecoaches waiting to the west of the property. Each person mounts up and rides off into the wilderness. Several minutes later, Hyde Manor bursts into a fiery explosion from the distance, likely killing numerous Templetons.

Sometime later, the group finds a road to travel along. As they are riding, Gwen alone sees a figure up ahead on the road, walking the opposite way. As the group passes, Gwen makes eye contact with the stranger. Though she does not know him as the Stardance Kid, she has a feeling that there is something enigmatic or peculiar about him.

### Coda

Sometime around sunrise the following day, the Templetons are shown to be busy at work trying to recover the bodies of the dead and anything substantial from the burned ruins of Hyde Manor. Special Agent Mark Burgess overlooks the procedures from the front gate. He is deep in thought when a subordinate interrupts him to show him something from the debris. The agent unravels his handkerchief to reveal a black mirror shard. Highly interested, Burgess takes the shard and pockets it, stating that the Federal Inquisition will be interested in this finding.

## Characters

### Protagonists

* **Adam Andrews**
* **Roso Blackhide**
* **Gwendolyn S. Blackwood**
* **Amaru Dorian**
* **Kinta Gardner**
* **Frankie Mitchels**
* **Leonora Ryder**

### Antagonists

* **Special Agent Jeff Burgess**
* **The Jackal** (Final appearance)

### Major Characters

* **The Stardance Kid**
* **Clementine**
* **Koda**

### Minor Characters

* **Elijah Hyde III** as **The Ghost of Hyde Manor** (Final appearance)
* **Knocking Ghost** (Final appearance)

## Insert Songs

This episode has one insert song, which plays at the end of the episode when the group escapes Hyde Manor.

* "Heel On The Shovel" by 16 Horsepower

## Trivia

* This is the third and final part of the Violent Hearts 2019 Halloween Special.
* The episode's title, "Visionen im Spiegel" literally means "Visions in the Mirror". This refers to the Jackal, and is also referring to the Mirror World in general. The term is also a reference to *Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.*
* The group's suspicion towards the suits of armor ends up proving true, as they are shown to be able to move and do things as per the instructions of the Ghost of Hyde Manor.