Author's Note: This fic is inspired by the Wicked Promise picture on Deviant Art! Go look up Nijuuni's artwork, she is just amazing! Now, on with the show!

Deep within his magical slumber, the entity within the mirror dreamed.

The dreams were chaotic, as befitted his nature. Sometimes he dreamed of sunshine and birds flying through the air. Flowers grew and flowered then withered at his touch as the birds burned in bright little sparks. He dreamed of poisoned honey and perfumed corpses. He dreamed of his mother and the smell of hair burning in the sunshine. He dreamed of his father and red sands that burned underfoot as skeletal vultures circled overhead.

For an ordinary mortal this would have been a nightmare. For the entity in the mirror it was a pastiche of memory, imagination and symbolism. The dreams did not discomfort it and it ventured into the realms of the mind, undisturbed.

But finally something did disturb it. Light and voices. The entity grumbled and stirred before falling into a much lighter doze. It would awaken eventually but that would take some time.

It had nothing if not time.

"Hhhhchew!" Roxas sneezed violently and rubbed his nose. "I can't believe I let my mom talk me into doing this." His mother was deeply involved in the church and liked to delude herself that her son and husband felt the same way. Roxas liked the pastor well enough but had no use for most of the congregation and normally wouldn't have been caught doing this on a bet. But his mother's guild trips along with a promise from the pastor had finally sweetened him enough to begin cleaning out the church's attic. It was hard work but Roxas was only removing all the random boxes and junk that had accumulated over the years. Anything too heavy he would leave and the pastor would hire some movers to get it out. "Hm?" Roxas frowned as he found an ironbound wooden chest. It had been buried under a ton of other crap. "Hf!" Roxas tried to shift it and found it wasn't that heavy. He could just carry it out… but what was the fun in that? "Hmm." He tried to open it and found it was locked. "Huh!" That was a first. Shrugging, he pulled out a lock pick and set to work. The pastor would thank him for opening it.

Roxas smiled as he worked. His father was a locksmith, which was how he had the tool in the first place. Roxas fully intended to take up the business when his father was gone and was already quite good at it. The lock was stubborn and Roxas was wishing for some WD-40 by the time it finally clicked open. But finally it was free and he opened to chest to see –

"What the hell?" Roxas stared in puzzlement at the bundle of silk in the chest. It was pure white silk embroidered with golden crosses. It looked like the embroidery had been done by hand and it was very intricate. Roxas touched the silk tentatively with one finger and realized there was something beneath it. "Hm." He lifted out the whole bundle and unwrapped it, wincing at the feeling of the silk under his fingers. It was very old and the threads were beginning to part. Such a shame but it hadn't been stored well. Beneath it, though, was something amazing and beautiful. "A mirror?" Roxas lifted it up and examined it, wondering.

The mirror was huge. It was easy to see now why the chest was so big yet not particularly heavy… the mirror was bulky yet oddly light. The wood of the frame had been heavily gilded and shone even in the dim light of the attic. The scrolling was intricate and old fashioned and seemed to represent ferns. There was a woman's face at the top of the frame and Roxas found the detail of it quite impressive. It had to have been hand carved.

"I'm asking for this!" He decided instantly. That was the bribe the pastor had given him. In exchange for his labor he'd be able to select one item out of the attic. Roxas was pretty sure the pastor had been banking on there not being anything valuable up here at all, but it looked like he'd been wrong. This mirror had to be worth several hundred dollars. Maybe as much as a thousand. How old was it? Roxas quickly decided no matter how valuable it was, he was going to keep it. But maybe he would bring it to an appraiser anyway just to be sure. And he'd like to know the history behind it. How had something so lovely gotten locked away in a chest?

Roxas completely missed the tiny silver crosses sewn into the lining of the silk. And even if he had noticed, he would have thought nothing of it.

Later that day, Roxas looked at the mirror in his room with pleasure. His mother had wanted to put it over the fireplace but his father loved the old picture of figure skaters too much and Roxas had made a very good case for it being his mirror. Both his parents had finally agreed and let him install it on his bedroom wall.

Roxas didn't consider himself vain but he couldn't resist staring into the mirror for a long moment. It was probably just the lighting in the room but he thought he looked better in this mirror than the one in the bathroom. Roxas smiled ruefully to himself at the whimsy. Of course it was the lighting, harsh florescent bulbs were kind to no one. Still… he reached out to run a finger along the carving. Sighing softly, he turned to leave the room. He needed to help his mother with the dishes.

Roxas completely missed the brief flicker in the mirror, two glowing dots of green like eyes. Then they vanished.

The entity was confused. Barely roused from its slumber, it tried to escape and found itself enchained. The chaining was painful and the grating as it fought served to awaken it further. It came to awareness with a snarl of rage and if there had been anything to take out that rage upon, something would have died. As it was, the rage flickered aimlessly before guttering out in sullen resignation.

Flexing its abilities for the first time in countless years, it touched minds. A bodiless thing of malice and hate, it whispered through the house like a foul stench. Or at least, so it imagined. The reality was slightly different but the entity had never truly come to grips with its nature.

Parental expectations were always a bit hard to get past.

Roxas dried the dishes mechanically, trying to figure out what he was smelling. His mother didn't seem to have noticed anything but Roxas had picked up an almost appetizing smell. It smelled a bit like cooked pork, a bit like cloves and a lot like cinnamon. It made him think of the Christmas hams his mother sometimes made but he was sure she wasn't cooking anything like that. Was she?

"Mom? Are you making a roast?" He finally asked. She looked up at him, surprised. She was an older woman with flaxen hair several shades lighter than his own. It almost looked white in bright light. She was beginning to show her age but was still a beautiful woman. Roxas had been told by one of the kids at school that his mom was a MILF. Fortunately he hadn't understood at the time or there would have been a fight. Roxas did not want the other kids at school talking about his mom that way.

"No. Why do you ask?" Roxas hesitated. Couldn't she smell it? Maybe she had a cold.

"I just smell ham. The neighbors must be making something. Or I might be imagining it." It wouldn't be the first time he'd imagined a scent. That was the least reliable sense, for Roxas anyway.

"Oh." His mom lost interest and unplugged the sink, letting the water drain. Roxas hurried to finish drying and putting away the dishes. "Make sure you do your homework." She reminded him as she did every night. Roxas stifled a sigh of impatience.

"Yes mom." He replied mechanically. Parents were great but the reminders did get very, very tedious after a while. Roxas rubbed his nose. He could smell the ham more strongly than ever. It was making him rather hungry. Putting away the dishes, he went to grab a snack out of the fridge and took a piece of spicy salami. Casually munching, he went to his room and pulled out his books.

He had a lot of homework to do for tomorrow.

The entity had made contact with the boy. For a long moment it considered what to do.

When it was free it would likely have raped and killed the child, if only out of frustration. Or it might have tried to kidnap him and keep him as a pet, but that wouldn't have lasted long, no matter what kind of fuss it kicked up. Mother wouldn't have allowed it. Shoving aside that unpleasant memory the entity considered. It could try to drive the child mad. That likely wouldn't be difficult. But it was… unsatisfying. The boy seemed so pure. He had a good family and a good home. The entity felt resentment flare. It had never had those things.

Perhaps it would do something more subtle. Looking through the child's eyes the entity tried to understand what he was doing. Work of some sort. Math? And he kept flipping back to instructions. That was very helpful and the entity quickly became absorbed in the lesson.

It had always been very good at math. A pity it had never had instructors.

Roxas sniffed as he worked. He could still smell ham but he was getting used to it. It was rather nice anyway. Grimacing, he tried to understand his math homework. He hated trig. Sighing, he reread the beginning of the chapter. Maybe if the teacher weren't as boring as a piece of rotten cheese this would be easier. Roxas was vaguely aware that he was doodling something with his right hand but all his concentration was given over to the math.

"I think I see." He muttered to himself before going back to the question. "Hm… huh?" Blinking, he looked down at the doodle on his page. It was the math problem complete with a solution… and a little doodle of a stick figure hanging off the top of the triangle, as if he'd hung himself in despair. Roxas examined it for a moment, fascinated. It didn't even look like his writing. "I think my sub-consciousness is trying to tell me something." What, he wasn't entirely sure. That it had had enough maths? But the homework was due the next day. Erasing the little figure but keeping the rest, Roxas went onto the next problem. He glanced up with a blink as he thought he heard a soft chuckle, then frowned before going back to his work. His imagination was active today.

He missed the twinkle of green in the mirror.

Roxas settled in grimly for another day at school. He hated school. Loathed it in fact. Not due to the teachers, they were merely boring, but due to the other students.

Roxas was gay. He'd come to accept that fact and leveled with his parents who were pretty cool with it. It probably helped that his mother's sister was lesbian. Roxas didn't promote his sexuality but he didn't deny it either. In a small town high school that was roughly equivalent to wearing a rainbow t-shirt with the words "THIS BOY LIKES COCK" stamped on in neon lettering. In short, everyone knew he was a fag. A lot of them were not at all nice about it.

Lunch was the worst. He typically ate by himself in a corner. His friends had all deserted him when the truth about his sexuality came out, as if he might contaminate them. But to get to that corner he often had to make it past the other tables. Roxas was sick to death of being tripped and jeered at. Usually he ignored it but today it pissed him off more than usual. Roxas felt a flame of rage slowly growing in the back of his mind and it almost frightened him. Yet… it felt good. Very good. Frowning to himself he settled down to eat his meal, uneasily aware of that flickering anger. Maybe he'd talk to his father about it. He'd had a temper too when he was younger, or so Roxas had heard.

Maybe he could help.

The entity watched, fascinated, as the boy made his way through the day.

Things had changed. How long had it been since it had been placed in this living death? It didn't know. A very long time. There were moving carriages that had no horses. Boxes that showed images from far away. Plundering the child's mind, it soon learned many new words and definitions. The magical box was television. The horseless carriages were cars. Airplane? A machine that flew through the AIR? How could that be without magic?

The entity was glad it hadn't acted too quickly. The world was very interesting and it desperately wanted to know more. It would infect this boy with its darkness until the child was its slave and use him to see the world. Yes. An excellent plan. It settled in to plan Roxas' corruption. It could already see an opening and it would be a pleasure to use.

The entity loathed bullies.