Disclaimer: I own nothing.


"I fold," a grin spread across the little girl's face.

"How is it that whenever I have a good hand you fold," the man sighed as he tossed his cards down.

"Oh Dante, you're so obvious with your tells. That and the mirror showing your hand," Patty grinned as she counted her chips.

"What," Dante flipped around. "Damn it!"

"Don't swear," Patty glared.

"Whatever," Dante groaned and leaned back on his sofa.

"Dante! What about my ice-cream," Patty demanded.

"What about it," he laid his head back.

"You owe me," she crossed her arms.

"Hey I'm an injured man," he pointed to his chest. That had once sported a huge hole.

"I don't care if you're a dead man," Patty stood up. Dante held up his hand to signal for her to stop. He then reached into his pocket and produced a jingling object.

"Your keys?"

"You want ice-cream? Drive yourself there," he grinned at Patty who had puffed out her cheeks.

"Dante!" He jingled the keys again.

"What's wrong? The big bad poker player can't drive yet," he snickered and tossed his keys in the air and caught it. She glared at him. "Looks like I win for now," he smirked as he replaced his keys.

"Humph," Patty sat back down and refused to look at Dante. Dante shrugged and laid back to take a nap. A demented look overcame over Patty.

"I bet your brother would honor his deals." Dante shot back up.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me perfectly clear."

"Where did you hear about him?"

"Lady, Trish and I went to the mall together," Patty smiled.

"Great," Dante brooded.

"It was fun. They insisted that I use this address for my tab," Dante looked at Patty in horror.

"How much," he asked.

"I lost count after a thousand," she replied thoughtfully. Dante slammed his hands on the table and looked at Patty with fear.

"You owe me a lot of ice-creams. So I decided to use this as payment instead," she smiled happily.

"Ugh."

"So what's up with that mirror anyway," Patty looked at the object in question. Dante looked over his shoulder at the mirror.

"It's from a old house," he trailed off. Patty rose up and wandered over to it.

"It's very pretty," she reached out and to touch it only to be stopped by Dante.

"It's expensive. So don't touch it."

"Why would you have something this fancy in a dump like this," she complained. "This mirror is amazing!" The mirror hung on the wall. The hand carved frame displayed a heavenly scene of roses and cherubim. This angelic frame proudly held the mirror. Nothing could be said for the glass itself. The mercury in the glass's backing had left a black fog around its edges. Patty looked at her reflection and scowled.

"Couldn't you replace the glass," she turned to face Dante in an annoyed manner.

"I guess I couldn't afford it after all of the shopping excursions," he drawled out.

"In other words you are just too cheap," she glared.

"You caught me," he held his hands up in submission. "Just don't touch it," he ordered.

"Please you already told me that," she looked back at the mirror. "Hey Dante doesn't your reflection seem strange to you.

"It's just a mirror Patty. Hey you're late for dinner by now," he pointed to the clock.

"Oh! You're right," she ran to the door. "Catch you later Dante," she waved and ran out the door. Dante turned back to the mirror.

"Hmm," he walked over to his desk. He wasn't gonna clean up the boxes of pizza and the forgotten game. He would leave that for Patty. He sat at his chair and laid his legs on the desk.

"Just a mirror," he stared at his reflection. His thoughts were interrupted as two figures blocked his view.

"Lady, Trish. To what do I owe this visit too," he sat up and lowered his legs.

"Heard you had an interest in antiques," Lady smirked and walked over to the mirror. "Yes. This is a bit tacky for your taste," Lady winked at her reflection.

"So I looked into your little purchase," Trish adjusted her glasses. Dante watched Lady remove the mirror from the wall.

"Anything that may increase the value is welcome," he smirked. Trish walked over to Lady and turned the mirror to its back.

"This as you may have guessed," she grazed her hand on the back. "Is a portal. I bet you can guess to where." She let a little electricity bounce off her fingers and onto the mirror's back. The sparks removed the paint covering the back and allowed the demonic seal to appear.

"Where did you get this," Lady asked.

"I would like to know as well," Trish laid her hand on her hip and motioned to Lady to replace the mirror.

"That tacky thing is heavy," she fixed her hair in the mirror. "It can't even show my good side."

"Well that mirror was sitting in the old Black Mansion in Winston Forest. Some say there are ghosts there."

"Skip the high school storytelling," Trish removed her glasses.

"I'm getting there. Take a seat ladies," both women looked at each other before sitting down. Lady sat on the pool table and Trish sat on the desk.

"This better be good."

"So anyway, the old building was abandoned when the head of the household went crazy. Thomas Black was a brewer who made a good sum of money. He married Katherine Hall. Later Katherine had given birth to triplets. Two girls and a boy. Their names were Anna, Rachel and Thomas."

"Sounds like the American dream," Lady rolled her eyes.

"One would believe so, but this is early America," Trish smirked.

"You see where this is going," Dante reached into a pizza box and retrieved a slice. "The boy was born with a weak heart. Surprisingly he survived but like a lot of births at the time, Katherine passed away."

"Seems strange," Lady crossed her arms. "Why didn't the entire birth go sour?"

"Trish?"

"Yeah I got it. At the time it was quite common for the rich to play around with things they didn't understand."

"Gives a whole meaning to the rich having too much money," Dante took a bite of his meal.

"Sounds like they just really liked to burn themselves then."

"Historians prefer the term bored."

"Whatever the reason," he motioned with his pizza, "he sacrificed his wife and the son. That boy was a changeling."

"Oh what fun," Lady sighed.

"It is a good story isn't it," Trish stole a slice from the box.

"So what happened next?"

"Well they held a wake at the house. At wakes you are supposed to cover the mirror."

"The whole shtick on that, huh," Lady interrupted.

"Yes the very same."

"Why?"

"Well there is the superstition but we all know that. The issue is the mercury. It holds an image in the reflection. A reflection that only demons could see. That is likely the story for when the mirror was uncovered the soul would be trapped in it," Trish pulled out a book. "The demonic books at our library are convenient."

"So let me guess this mirror was uncovered?"

"Yeah, that's what happened," he finished the slice. "Back to the history lesson. According to the records Trish found, Thomas remarried. This woman was named Isabel. Isabel birthed Tomas a girl, Helen. She became pregnant again. At this point Thomas had hired a nanny or rather a Governess for the children. Her name was Fiona Bell. He had an affair with this woman," Dante yawned. "Of course the missus found out. She committed suicide. Once again the mirror was left uncovered."

"Heavy stuff," Lady grinned.

"It gets better," Trish smirked. "He married Fiona. Fiona wasn't loyal to her vows and while her husband was away, she took to taking strangers into her bed. One of these incidents a left her pregnant. She played it off as Thomas's but when the child was born, everyone knew the truth."

"To be honest," Dante took a swig of his beer, "Thomas was not the family man everyone saw. With each death he used the wake to snip the hair and use them in his ceremonies. He found out about the child's origins and went into a rampage. He took a shard of a certain mirror and poisoned it. He took her life and the child's."

"The mirror looks fine," Lady commented.

"Did you forget what we are dealing with," Trish reminded.

"I'm almost done here. Once again that mirror went uncovered. He had placed the shard back in its place. It had repaired itself. At this point Thomas Jr. was severally ill. Being the only heir he would do anything to protect him. He started using his daughters in his ceremonies. Anna was the first. He wrote fake letters to look like she was being called away by family. He then took her to the basement. He brutally killed her. Slowly. They say you can still hear the screams in the wine cellar."

"I can relate," Lady shook head."

"Once again the wake was held the same way," Trish figured out.

"Yeah, but with no body. Rachel was quick to find out. He father was acting more estranged. He started calling her Katherine. He even bedded the poor girl. Rachel tried to run away several times. Helen walked in on her father talking to the mirror. She was only three but she told her sister. Rachel tried to convince her brother to run with her. Junior being the loving son he was, dragged Rachel to her father by her hair. Thomas then beat Rachel for saying lies. Rachel tried to run away with Helen. But every time their plan was ruined. Almost as if someone had known the future. Thomas Jr. was growing weak once again. Thomas slowly poisoned Helen with arsenic," Dante put his feet back on the desk. "Rachel was beginning to be called mother by her siblings. She was forced to take care of her sick siblings while being forced to act as Thomas's wife."

"That's one sick fuck," Lady was visibly getting upset by the story.

"Tell me about it. Then Helen died and the son grew stronger. Rachel was left alone. She was going mad. At night people would say they saw a lone candle flicking from the windows as they heard a voice screaming and sometimes weeping. Rachel was sixteen when she began to feel her brother's wrath. He was beating her for having her father's attention. She had enough. She climbed to the roof of the mansion but was caught by her father. He took her to the basement. Thomas and his changeling son sacrificed her to a demon. Once the ritual was complete, the changeling turned on his father. He ripped his head off and used the blood and all of the cut hair from the other deaths to make this symbol in the mirror's back. He had opened the portal to his true home."

"That's it? It just ends there," Lady was confused.

"Trish knows the rest," Dante leaned back and closed his eyes.

"Well the mirror's maker was a demon that prayed on the vanity of it's victims. But the mirror would capture the souls of those who died in it's presence. Thomas knew about the soul capturing and caught Katherine's soul. He saw that he could look upon her and talk to her as he pleased. Not that she would talk back. The mirror was one way. Once the mirror had that symbol placed on its back, the souls in it were sacrificed to make a portal to hell," Trish yawned.

"That ugly thing is a portal to hell," Lady looked at the mirror. "It sure fits in your office now."

"Hey," Dante glared.

"I have to agree. Do you know how it works," Trish asked.

"I was almost sucked into it. Of course I know how it works," Dante looked at the mirror. "You just touch the glass. Right in the center."

"And you can't break it," Lady asked.

"The damn thing keeps repairing itself faster than I can shoot it." Dante sat up and pulled out Ivory and shot the mirror. True to his word it was as if the mirror wasn't even touched. "The only thing that can touch it is the black fog of mercury oxidizing on the edges."

"Fun," Trish commented.

"Mind if I have a go," Lady smirked.

"No bazookas in my office."

"Come on. Pretty please Dante," Lady smiled.

"If I agreed to everyone that said that, I would be in even more debt right now."

"Aw you're no fun," Lady sighed.

"We will continue to research the mirror," Trish got up. "Keep it safe Dante. We don't want any accidents. Let's go."

"You're just making me drive you around again," Lady sighed as she followed Trish. Dante watched them leave before approaching the mirror.

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall. Who is the sexiest of them all?" Dante smirked at his reflection. "You don't say," he chuckled and turned away from the mirror. He turned to prepare for a shower. He failed to notice that his reflection stayed in the mirror. The image grinned as the door shut.

"Ever the same, aren't you Dante?"