The next chapter of this won't be up until the end of April due to working two jobs and going to school full time as well. I am taking the summer off from school though. So I should have more time for this story.

And I should thank you all for the reviews, favourites, and alerts. So thank you! Your comments really warm my heart.

To Sam: Thanks for the review. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story.


The alarm went off bright and early the next morning. Matthew rolled over and batted at it with his hand in a bid to put it to sleep. He knocked his glasses to the ground instead. Fully awake now, he sat up and turned off the alarm clock. Cautiously, he felt around the floor until he came in contact with his glasses and put them on.

Matthew rubbed his sleep fogged eyes as he headed into the bathroom and started up the shower. He hummed to himself as he shampooed his hair. After making sure he was clean, he shut off the tap. Matthew wrapped a towel around his waist and headed back out to his bedroom to get dressed.

The gleam of morning light caught his eye as it shone off the mirror. Matthew made his way over to it and took a look at his reflection.

"Must not have gotten enough sleep last night," he murmured. "Huh?"

Nestled neatly at the top corner of the mirror frame was a message carved in the wood.

June 12, 1840. I have sealed the beast who dwells within this mirror. Let all ye who come before it be 'ware -

The words cut off right there. Matthew reached up and rubbed at the wood to see if there were any more words hidden by the paint. The writing stayed the same and no more was revealed.

"Odd," he muttered. "I don't remember that being there before. Perhaps someone placed a spell on it?"

Matthew decided to dismiss it for the moment and concentrated on getting ready for school.


A knock sounded at the door. Matthew reluctantly tore his attention away from his pancakes. It was a bit early yet to leave for school and there was only one person that it could be.

"The awesome me has arrived!" Gilbert's shout echoed across the entrance hall. "Where are you, Birdie? I have come to help you eat pancakes."

Matthew rolled his eyes. He figured as much. "In the kitchen."

Gilbert stepped into the kitchen "Did you make any extra?"

"I did," Matthew said amused at how hopeful his friend sounded. "I always end up making more than I can eat."

He pushed a pile of pancakes across the checkered tablecloth. Gilbert plunked himself down and poured syrup all over them.

"I thought you were walking with Antonio today," Matthew remarked.

"Nah, he sucks today."

"What?"

"You know, Lovino? Feliciano's brother? Antonio finally got the guts to ask him out and the guy actually said yes this time!"

"Ah," Matthew nodded sagely. "So you have come to bother me because of this?"

"And the fact that you make awesome pancakes," Gilbert polished off the last of his pancakes in record time. "Your clock is slow by the way."

"What? I just changed the batteries!" Matthew stood up in alarm.

"It's not that slow, Birdie," Gilbert leaned back in his chair and grinned. "Just by fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes?" Matthew shrieked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted pancakes."

"That's no reason not to tell me." Matthew grabbed his backpack from beside the front door and ran out of the house.

"For your pancakes, Birdie, it definitely is." Gilbert sauntered out after him.

Matthew raced down the street at maximum speed. He hated being late to school and he was irritated that his friend hadn't said anything to him about the time. Gilbert was always doing this. It was like he enjoyed seeing Matthew in a panic. Finally, Matthew burst into his first class and gasped for breath as he collapsed on his seat.

"Nice of you to join us, Matthew," Roma said. "Do you know the answer?"

"The answer?" Matthew said blankly.

"Yes, Matthew. The answer to the question. What are the two largest veins in the human body?

"Um," Matthew said. Oh he was going to murder Gilbert later.

"It's the superior and inferior vena cava aru," Yao whispered.

He repeated the answer out loud. "Thanks," he replied the moment the teacher's attention was on someone else.

"You're welcome, Matthew," the Chinese boy replied.

When the bell rung signalling lunch, Matthew headed out of the school to a stand of trees where his friends usually sat to eat lunch. Katyusha was already there when he arrived. He sat under his favourite tree and leaned against its cool bark.

"Hey, Matthew," she said softly.

"Hey," Matthew replied. "Do you know where Gilbert is?"

"No. I haven't seen him since Art," Katyusha replied.

"He'd better get here soon," he muttered. "We have a project due in a couple of weeks for English and he promised to come over and work on it."

"Hey, Birdie!"

Despite his best intentions, Matthew yelped when he was grabbed from behind. He turned to see the German - or Prussian as Gilbert insisted on calling himself - doubled over with laughter. "That wasn't funny!"

"Yes it was. You're just not awesome enough to admit it!"

Matthew socked him in the knee and he fell to the ground. "Oww, your punches hurt!"

"S-sorry. Are you still coming over to work on the project later?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Gilbert said.

Matthew bit into his sandwich. "You'd better."


They headed to Matthew's house after school, idly chatting about their project. Matthew still hadn't forgiven his friend for his antics earlier in the day.

Matthew unlocked the door and pushed it open.

"I always forget just how huge your house is," Gilbert said.

Matthew shrugged. "Papa is the one who insisted on staying here after Mom died even though it's only the two of us. Would you like something to eat?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Would you like something to drink then?" Matthew said. "I have pop."

"Sounds good," Gilbert said. He headed up the stairs towards where he thought Matthew's room lay.

"Umm... Gil," Matthew poked his head out of the kitchen. "I moved."

"Moved?"

"I'll show you," Matthew said. "Just give me a second."

He walked into the kitchen and grabbed two cans of coke out of the fridge. Then he registered the mess and set the pop back down on the counter. Papa would be in tears if he saw the condition that his beautiful kitchen had been left in. The plates from that morning's breakfast had been dumped haphazardly into the sink along with the mixing bowl. The pan that he had used was still on the stove as well. He grimaced at the sight of the pancake batter, which had been somehow been splashed all over the counter and had dried after several hours of sitting there.

Matthew stepped out of the kitchen.

"So. Where's your room?" Gilbert said.

"We have to clean up the mess that we left this morning."

"What's with this 'we'? I'm a guest inside your house."

Matthew raised an eyebrow. "Okay. You don't have to clean up."

He walked over to the sink and put in the drainage plug. He turned on the tap and splattered soap over the dirty dishes. "Of course that does mean no more pancakes for a month."

Gilbert came barrelling into the kitchen. "On the other hand..."

Matthew washed the dishes in a meticulous fashion while Gilbert dried them and put them away. His friend didn't ask where anything went. It just went to show how often Gilbert came over and was forced to do chores for Matthew after the former had raided his fridge.

When the last dish was sparkling clean, Matthew pulled the plug and allowed the sink to drain while he scrubbed vigorously at the counters. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Gilbert watching him with a peculiar look on his face.

"What?" Matthew said.

"Are you finished yet?"

"Yeah, I'm done," Matthew rolled his eyes and dried his hands. He pushed one of the cans of Coke that he had grabbed earlier into Gilbert's hand and headed upstairs.

"So?"

"Just a moment," Matthew said. He jumped up and grabbed a string that was hanging from the ceiling.

The stairway made a loud clunking noise as it slid down out of the open part of the ceiling and landed on the floor.

"You live in the attic now? That's pretty cool, Birdie," Gilbert said.

"Thanks," Matthew said. He stepped around the staircase and started to climb up. Matthew looked down to see Gilbert staring up at him with a grin. "What are you doing?"

"Just enjoying the view," Gilbert said.

Matthew coloured. "W-what?"

Gilbert just smirked back at him. "Are we going to do this project or not?"

"Y-yeah," Matthew muttered.

Matthew snapped on the light as he reached the top. Gilbert came up behind him.

"I still need to get rid of the last of the boxes, but here we are," Matthew said.

Gilbert's gaze was immediately drawn to the large antique mirror in the corner of the room. He burst out laughing.

"You're so girly, Matthew."

"I am not! Papa got that for me," Matthew said indignantly. "Besides, it's starting to grow on me."

"Suuure," Gilbert said.

The albino walked over to the mirror and looked into it. His reflection stared back.

"How old is this thing?"

"I don't know for sure. There is a date on the top right hand corner though," Matthew sighed. "Can we work on this English project now?"

"'June 12, 1840. I have sealed the beast who dwells within this mirror. Let all ye who come before it be 'ware...'" Gilbert turned to look at him. "That's pretty creepy, Birdie."

"It's probably just someone's idea of a prank," Matthew sat down on his bed and began to rifle through his bag. "Most of the time those curses aren't even real."

"And they are the other half of the time?"

Gilbert's voice had been light and teasing, but Matthew couldn't help thinking that he heard some suspicion in that tone. "N-no. B-But they do have some grain of truth in them."

Internally, he winced at his horrible attempt at lying. He'd have to be more careful next time. No one outside of the family was supposed to know anything. Matthew nearly shook his head at the thought. He was probably just overreacting. He knew that if he was in Gilbert's place, he would definitely not expect that his best friend was connected to one of the few magical families left. Or that magic was real in the first place.

Gilbert chuckled, but his eyes were narrowed. Matthew suppressed the urge to gulp. His friend was aware that he was lying. "You're right about that. It would be interesting if it were real. I mean, not as interesting as me of course, but still pretty cool."

"N-not really," Matthew replied. "I'm the one who would have to live with a c-cursed mirror then. C-can we get back to the project now? This topic is really not the best one when I have to live with such a weird piece of furniture in the first place. You're going to give me nightmares."

"You-" Gilbert paused and looked closely at Matthew. "Let's get started on this project then."

Matthew sighed internally. Great. Gilbert probably thought that he was scared of the dark or imaginary curses or something else along those lines. Matthew shifted to put a bit more room between them when Gilbert sat too closely to him. He pulled out his copy of Hamlet out of his bag.

"Have you read it yet?" Matthew asked.

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "Well duh, Birdie. It's due in a few days. What do we have to do again?"

"An analysis on two of the characters and we need to act out a scene between the two," Matthew said.

"Which one do you want to do?"

Matthew shrugged. "Hamlet and Horatio were my two favourite characters."

"We'll do the scene where Hamlet is dying. I'll be Hamlet and you can be Horatio."

"Sounds good to me."

"Alright so shall we each do one character? Possibly the characters that we are are going to be acting out the parts of?" Gilbert asked.

"Yeah," Matthew said. "We can start now."

"Oh Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo. Deny thy father and refuse thy-"

"Are you sure you read the right play?"

"... Yes."

Matthew rolled his eyes and smiled fondly at his friend, his earlier irritation vanishing. There was a light to Gilbert's eyes when it was just the two of them instead of their regular group. His friend had seemed a little depressed lately, and it was nice to see the familiar playful humour that he was so used to return to Gilbert's eyes. Even now he was leaning back against Matthew's headboard, red eyes glinting in the lamplight. Gilbert began to reach forward as if to-

"Don't," Matthew slapped his hand away from his curl.

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"N-no. It just bothers me when people pull it."

"I wasn't going to pull it. I was just going to brush it out of your face for you," Gilbert replied.

"Why would you do that?"

"I just thought it would be unawesome if you couldn't concentrate on the project because of it." Matthew resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It was obvious that his friend was lying.

Matthew flipped his book open with a sigh. "You can't lie to me. You just wanted to yank on it because you know it bugs me."

Gilbert just gave him one of his smirks.

It was dark by the time that they declared themselves finished for the day. Matthew stretched, relieving the kinks that had formed in his body from sitting still so long. He nudged Gilbert.

"What?"

"It's getting late and we're supposed to have company over tonight," Matthew said.

Gilbert chuckled. "You're so awkward, Birdie. Okay, okay I'll leave. See you tomorrow."

Matthew got up. "I should at least see you to the door."

"Nah, I can find -" Gilbert paused as something in the mirror caught his eye. He screamed.

"What? What is it, Gil?" Matthew grabbed the albino's arm.

"I thought- never mind." Gilbert said. He took a deep breath and looked at the mirror. "I'm just over tired."

"You're trembling," Matthew said. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I just thought I saw something in the mirror," Gilbert said. "A guy similar to you but covered in blood was looking back at me."

Matthew walked towards the mirror and peered in, only to see his own reflection staring back at him. He tugged Gilbert towards it as well. "See? It's only us."

Gilbert let out a shadow of his usual cackle. "I told you, Birdie. I think I'm just a bit tired."

"Alright then," Matthew replied. "Just make sure you actually get some sleep tonight."

"I will," Gilbert said.

"Good," Matthew murmured.

He followed Gilbert to the staircase and let the ladder drop out of the floor. Gilbert went ahead first, with Matthew right behind him. As they left the room, Matthew couldn't help but shoot a suspicious glance at the mirror. It sat there innocently as if Matthew was crazy to think that there was something wrong with it.

They ran into Francis who was laid down with groceries at the door.

"I hope you didn't do anything I wouldn't do, chou," he chuckled.

"Yes, Papa," Matthew said automatically. He was far too adjusted to his father's innuendo to react with more than a mild blush.

"I guess I'd better go," Gilbert said. "See you at school, Birdie!"

"Bye, Gil."

He grabbed his backpack and put on his shoes before heading out the door. Matthew waved at him with a smile and then turned to his smirking father.

"What?" Matthew demanded.

"L'amour is beautiful, non?"

"I don't have a crush on Gil!" Matthew said.

"I never said that you were the one with the crush, Matthieu," Francis replied.

Matthew flushed. "He doesn't have one on me. He's just a little friendly. That's all."

"You remember that Arthur is coming over today oui?" Francis chose to ignore his son's spluttering.

"Yes, I remember, Papa," Matthew sighed as they headed into the kitchen.

"Have you finished all of your homework?"

Matthew began to put the groceries away while Francis began pulling out pots and pans.

"Pretty much," Matthew said. "We have a project due later this week which is why he was here."

"Ah, I hope you do find l'amour soon, mon chou," Francis sighed wistfully. "By the time that I was your age, I'd gone through-"

"I know, I know," Matthew said. "I just want to wait for the right person."

His father merely smiled back.


The door bell rang at precisely six o'clock. Matthew opened the door to see his cousin standing there.

"Hello Matthew."

His cousin, as always was dressed in his sweater vest and no nonsense slacks. It made it harder for Matthew to believe what his mother had once told him. That Arthur had gone through a phase where he had worn nothing but punk clothing and had dyed his hair outrageous colours.

"Hey, Arthur."

"Arthur is here?"

"Yes, you frog," Arthur snapped, dropping his gentleman exterior.

Arthur was closer to Francis's age than Matthew's. Though Matthew had always gotten along with him better than his dear Papa. It had been like this since he could remember and according to Francis they had been like this since they were children. The only difference was that the hatred that they had for each other when they were younger had long since faded away replaced by what Francis called light bickering.

"Settle down rosbif! I know that you are eager to sample some real food, instead of the charcoal that you rape your tastebuds with, but you will have to wait."

"Why you-!" Arthur growled.

Matthew sighed. Sometimes he doubted his father's sanity.

"I was wondering if I could show Arthur something," Matthew interrupted. "I was cleaning out the attic the other day and I found a box that he might be interested in."

"Anything to get away from this frog!" Arthur said.

"Oh you know you love me, Arthur," his father practically sang back.

"Papa picked up a mirror at an antique shop the other day. The shopkeeper seemed quite eager to get rid of it. He said that the man seemed scared of it," Matthew said the moment his father had gone back into the kitchen.

Arther frowned. "There are a lot of mirrors like that. Most of the time, it's more a case of the owner wanting to get rid of a piece of unwanted merchandise."

"This one's just a little weird. Could you please take a look at it?"

"Of course, Matthew. Lead the way."

Matthew pulled down the staircase that lead to his new room.

"It's up here," he said.

"That's a rather odd place for a new piece of furniture," Arthur said.

"Actually it's my new room." Matthew began to climb up the stairs into the attic.

"Aren't you getting a little too old to invite people into your room? You should be entertaining them downstairs in your living room, or even the basement. What kind of manners is that frog teaching you?"

Matthew flushed. "It's not like I can drag it downstairs! It's too big."

"There, there. No need to get all flustered, lad."

"Sorry."

Matthew reached the top and stepped into his dark room. He flicked on the light.

"It's quite alright," Arthur was right behind him.

Matthew headed straight over to the mirror. "Here- what?"

The message was now complete.

June 12, 1840,

I have sealed the beast who dwells within this mirror. Let all ye who come before it be 'ware of the darkness that dwells within. Look not within this mirror if the sealing circle is visible, for in it your soul will be lost.

A string of symbols were set underneath with the beginnings of a curved line beneath them. From Matthew's limited knowledge, it was part of a type of sealing circle.

"That wasn't there before," Matthew said.

Arthur came around and looked at it as well.

"Has anything strange happened since then?"

"Uh-"

"Matthew, this is really important," Arthur grabbed his arm and pulled him close to his face. "Has anything strange happened around the mirror?"

"Gilbert thought he saw me instead of his reflection in it earlier today," Matthew whispered. "He said later that I was dressed in an old soldier's uniform. Covered in blood."

"I need to have a look at it." Arthur released him so abruptly that Matthew nearly stumbled. "Go stand by the trap door."

Matthew scrambled to obey. Arthur slipped behind the mirror and tore Matthew's blanket off the bed. He held in a word of protest as Kumachiko went flying. Arthur threw it over the front of the mirror.

Arthur beckoned him forward and together they slowly lowered the mirror to the floor, using the blanket to cushion it. Arthur's posture was tensed, as if he expected it to turn around and attack him.

Arthur's eyes closed as he ran his fingers over the back of the frame. When he found nothing, he and Matthew slipped off the back of the frame. With the frame in pieces on the floor, Arthur's fingers ran along the glass backing completely unhindered. He paused and muttered a string of words under his breath as he ran his fingers over it again. After ten minutes, Arthur's eyes opened.

"I can't find anything wrong with the mirror itself, Matthew," Arthur said finally. "No spells, no seals, no curses or any sort of magic, malevolent or not. What I'm guessing is that somewhere along the lines, someone must have broken the mirror that once resided in the other frame. And they simply used the old frame around it. The frame itself used to be an enchanted one, which is why the back came off so easily. Look, there is very little of the original bonds left. This resin would normally stop us from taking apart the mirror's back frame the way we did."

"It's not that old then, is it." Matthew said.

Arthur nodded "In that you are correct, Matthew. The mirror itself is a newer one."

"What about the spell?" Matthew asked.

"You most likely broke the sealing circle when you two moved the mirror. That's why you were able to see those words. My guess would be that the person who removed the original mirror didn't break the spell by pure accident, or that whoever did it knew what they were doing and planned to claim it was an enchanted item and sell it for a high price."

"So there's nothing wrong with it then?"

"Nothing at all," Arthur said. "Just remember now, fae or some spirits may come poking about because I cast spells here. You know to leave them be and they'll leave you alone as well, right?"

"Yes, Arthur."

Together, they heaved it back into position and Matthew tossed his blanket back onto his bed.

"Thank you for looking at it," Matthew said.

"You are quite welcome, lad. Are you sure you don't want to learn -"

"I'm positive," Matthew said. "It's just not something I'm interested in and Papa would be so disappointed if I did."

Dinner ended up being as much as an entertainment as it usually was when Arthur came for a visit. Matthew mainly stayed silent as he watched Francis and Arthur verbally spar. Matthew glanced down at his food. That was weird. They were using the good china tonight. Lately, whenever Arthur came over for dinner it seemed as if Francis put in just a little more effort than normal and despite the bickering going on between Arthur and Francis, the atmosphere was relaxed. They ended up watching a movie afterwards from which Matthew excused himself claiming that he needed extra rest as it was a school night.


Matthew came out of the bathroom clean and tired. He pulled on his sleeping attire, an old t shirt and boxers with maple leaves scattered all over it. After grabbing his comb, he made his way over to the mirror. The only thing staring back at him was his own reflection. He quickly ran the comb through his hair before setting it and his glasses on the nightstand. Matthew climbed into bed and immediately fell into the world of dreams.

It was late at night when Matthew awoke suddenly. He felt around for his glasses and checked the time. Three thirty am glared back up at him in dull red numbers. Matthew sighed and got up. It always took him a while to fall back to sleep when he woke up so late. He knew from experience that he would be up for at least an hour no matter what he tried. He turned on the lamp beside his bed and padded over to his bookcase. Matthew skimmed his hand over the titles and pulled one out at random. Book tucked safely in one hand, Matthew headed past the mirror on his way back to bed.

A flash of white caught the corner of his eye. The corner of the frame was chipped, revealing the raw flesh of unstained wood. He and Arthur must have done it accidentally when dismantling it the day before. Matthew sighed and reached up to inspect the damage.

"Ouch!" Matthew yanked back his fingers in surprise. "It shocked me!"

Matthew took a closer look and saw that more of the sealing circle had appeared. He shuddered. Arthur was right; it was unnerving. A set of cornflower blue eyes gleamed out of the mirror. Matthew swallowed back a shout of surprise.

That was it. Matthew marched over to his bed, grabbed one of his blankets and threw it over the face of the mirror. He removed the other blanket from his bed and started towards his door. He stopped, turned around and dashed back across the room and took Kumajirou off the bed. Matthew opened the trapdoor and heart pounding in his throat, he heard the staircase creak loudly as it unfolded itself to the ground below. Why did everything always have to seem louder at night?

Matthew froze, and trembled as a soft sigh came from behind him. He hugged Kumajirou tightly and wondered wildly if whatever it was could hear the sound of his hammering heart. Taking deep breaths, he tried to calm himself down. It was just curious spirits having a little fun at my expense, Matthew said to himself. If I wait a few moments, they'll -

Bang! Matthew jumped and froze as the sound was followed by a very human cry of pain. He glanced over his shoulder to see the mirror undisturbed in the lamplight. Another groan echoed through the room. Before he could register what was happening, his feet had already carried him down the staircase. He paused just long enough to push it back into the ceiling, before racing down into the living room.

Matthew curled up on the couch with Kumajirou and took deep breaths until his heart felt a little less like it was going to break out of his chest. As his fear slowly began to give way to exhaustion there was only one thing Matthew was sure of. Arthur had been wrong. Whatever had come to visit him and take up residence in his mirror was no spirit or ghost that he knew of.


Thoughts?

Finally, is working again! Sorry about sending out those replies saying that the next chapter was up. I didn't expect the site to postblock me. Since has been on the fritz rather often lately, I do have this story also posted on if something goes wrong where I can't update, that is where the updates will be.