Chapter 10: The Mirror in the Attic

It was on one particular visit to Matthew's house that he and Ivan were given a task to do. Francis had asked them to help him clean the attic, it was unexpected for the boys, but they ended up agreeing to it with little protest, how bad could it be to clean an attic?

Evidently worse than thought as Matthew and Ivan currently stood in said attic hunched over due to the low ceiling. Dust flowed throughout the small room as Matthew and Ivan had worked, more and more would join them at every little thing that was moved around. After an hour both boys were beginning to tire, it was hard to breath in the stuffy room as they lifted the heavy boxes.

Matthew currently stood over a strange chest trying to figure out how he might go about moving it. With no handles and looking too large and heavy for him to simply shove out of the way alone, Matthew elected to ask for help. Francis wasn't in the attic at the moment, he had taken a box full of pictures down to some other room, Ivan voiced his disbelief that they had more pictures after the many that were already in the hallway of the household. He eventually answered Matthew's call for help and both boys looked over the chest. After a moment, they each took a side and began to push the chest together.

The chest had been wedged between to larger boxes and seemed to not want to leave its place. After a three harsh shoves by Matthew and Ivan the chest came loose and they slid it over to another side of the attic closer to the opening. They both took a moment to catch their breath hunched over the heavy chest they just moved.

They straightened up and Matthew made his way back towards where they had moved the chest, Ivan followed him. The same object had caught their eyes; it was large, even at an angle, the dusty cloth that covered it gave the object an eerie feel to it.

"What is that?" Ivan asked, hoping Matthew would know what it was.

"...I'm, not sure," Matthew said looking over the object with as much curiosity as Ivan. He felt a pull to the object, and in the pull a wide variety of feelings, fear, excitement, and deep within him, he felt recognition.

With a cautious hand, Matthew reached up and grabbed part of the cloth, a gentle pull made the cloth fall off of the object easily. It landed on the ground with an unceremonious flop throwing up a large amount of dust. Ivan and Matthew coughed and clenched their eyes shut while trying to wave the dust away. It took a minute until the dust finally cleared up enough for them to see what they had uncovered.

What they saw wasn't something either thought they would find. A large mirror stood where they uncovered the object, reflecting Matthew and Ivan's image. The mirror was tall, from floor to ceiling at an angle in the attic and looked over both of them imposingly.

Upon revealing the mirror, Matthew felt an even greater pull to it. He finally realized what it was, a portal, like the many his father had told him about.

Matthew reached up to touch the mirror, when he touched the reflective glass, instead of staying cold and unmoving like glass did, ripples went through it as if the mirror was made of water. The touch sent the largest wave of fear and longing through Matthew, in the touch he immediately knew where this portal lead.

Ivan looked to Matthew, seeing if he had any kind of answers as to why the glass rippled like water instead of staying still. Mirrors weren't supposed to do that were they? Matthew kept his eyes glued to the mirror though, his expression changing to that of interest.

Ivan didn't know what about this mirror pulled to him. He felt a terrifying recognition, like a death he has experienced but did not remember. He wanted to run as far away from it as he could.

Ivan watched as Matthew dragged his fingers across the surface and stuck his hand through the glass. More ripples echoing around his submerged arm.

"Matvey!" Ivan exclaimed. That wasn't supposed to happen, mirrors weren't supposed to do that.

"Ivan," Matthew answered back calmly.

"Why it that mirror, why are you?" Ivan couldn't keep his thoughts together through his confusion, "Matvey, what is going on?"

"Do you-" Matthew stopped himself and hesitated. Ivan could tell that he knew the answer but was contemplating whether or not to tell him. After a deep breath, Matthew continued, "Ivan do you feel a pull to the mirror too?"

"I…" Ivan wasn't sure where Matthew was going with this, if Matthew felt the same pull to the mirror, surely he felt the dread of death with it as well, "Yes, I do. Matvey, why do I-we, feel this pull to the mirror?"

"The mirror is a portal," Matthew murmured breathlessly.

"A portal?" Ivan asked with utter disbelief. Did Matthew actually hear himself?

"Yes, a magic portal," Matthew answered plainly, his arm still in the mirror, Ivan was beginning to get worried.

"To where?" Ivan, despite his better judgement, decided to play along with Matthew's frightening game.

"Home," Matthew said looking at Ivan with tired but happy look before grabbing Ivan with his spare arm and dragging him into the apparent portal.

"Wait! Matvey we don-" But Ivan couldn't finish his protests before his was surrounded by a bright light.

Francis sat on the living room couch, sorting through a box of pictures he had found, getting distracted from the task on hand to clean the attic. Smiling as he came across a picture of him and Arthur together, said English man came into the living room from his study. He stretched and walked over to his husband, curious about the object the man held in his hand. Peering over Francis' shoulder, Arthur's eyes met the picture the other held, his lips quivered in memory of when it was taken. He and Francis had gotten more used to the strange and unknown technology.

"Where did you find this picture?" Arthur eventually asked.

Francis turned around to look at the man, he already knew he was there, Francis could hear his footsteps as he approached him and his breath behind him. "I found them in the attic," he said with a smile.

"The attic? What were you doing up there?" Arthur inquired. It was rare for Francis to go into the dusty room.

"I felt it needed to be cleaned. I'm getting help from Matthieu and Ivan," Francis answered but frowned at Arthur's noise of discontent "What is it?"

"..Are, Matthew and Ivan up there now?"

"Oui, they're alone actually, it was just the three of us cleaning it..." Francis didn't like Arthur's reaction to this, "Is there something wrong?"

"The mirror," Arthur whispered, "The mirror is up there."

Francis' eyes bugged out in understanding, "Oh no..."

Both men locked eyes for a moment, worry passing between them, before they jumped up and all but ran for the attic in panic. Squishing into the narrow stairway together, Francis and Arthur moved as fast as they could to reach the attic. They turned sharply to the left heading down the hallway to their bedroom, Arthur managed to reach the room first and immediately made a right for his closet, Francis following close behind. The extendable stairs that lead from the master closet to the attic were still down and Arthur rushed up them as fast as he could. Popping his head into the attic entrance he froze. Francis squeezed up next to him and stopped as well.

The mirror Arthur had mentioned looked at the men almost menacingly. Its cloth cover had been pulled off and lazily left on the ground. Arthur and Francis began to look around the attic to see if either teen was still there, but the room was empty. Arthur was the first to climb up all the way into the room, he headed straight over to the mirror and put his hand up to it, Francis quickly following the movements. The mirror did nothing besides reflect Francis and Arthur's image.

"They've entered it... The portal sealed..." Arthur murmured growing more and more exasperated.

"How much time until everyone is transported back to our world?" Francis could barely comprehend what was going to happen.

"Five minutes, at most. Where's Alfred?" Arthur asked, already heading back down to his and Francis' room.

"He's at a friend's house," Francis quickly followed after his husband.

"Who's house!?" Arthur shrieked.

"Uh-uhm, I-Ivan's I think," Francis grew more panicked at Arthur's reaction.

"Are you sure? You have to be sure, we can't be separated during the transportation, she'll use that to her advantage."

"Yes! I am sure" Francis yelled. He reach under his side of the bed and pulled a sword out from underneath.

"We have to be quick," Arthur finalized while reaching under his own side of the bed, he pulled out a finely polished stick as it would look to those who didn't know it's real purpose. The wand glowed softly at Arthur's touch.

Arthur popped into Alfred's room for a moment and grabbed a dagger that was hung on the wall. When he came out Francis was already by the front door, impatience showing. Both men shoved their shoes on as quickly as they could before launching out the front door of their house.

Neither spoke again until they reached their destination. Without a moment to lose for being respectful, Francis kicked down the front door of the household, startling everyone from within.

Katyusha was at the stairs when the men came crashing into her home, she nearly fell over at the intrusion. What was going on? She panicked as they rushed past her and left her line of view into the living room and possibly outside to the backyard where Alfred and her sister were. Nearly stumbling down the stairs, Katyusha saw her father lurch out of his seat from the dining room, looking calm but his eyes had widened considerably at the sudden intruders. She whipped around the corner to see the men approach the back door where Alfred and Natalya were easily seen.

It wasn't until she heard Alfred shriek "Dad?! Pops?! What are you doing here?!" That Katyusha finally calmed down a bit. Though her fear for the men still held, these were Alfred and Matvey's parents? Why were they kicking down her door? Where they going to hurt Alfred and her family? Wasn't Ivan at their house now? Where was he? What did they do to him?

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?!" Katyusha's father barked from his place at the table, he didn't move.

"No time to explain monsieur!" The taller man frantically answered.

"Terribly sorry about the sudden intrusion, we really need our son now though. Alfred, take this, and take hold of us, we're going to be leaving very soon," Alfred's other father thrust the dagger into his son's hand before taking his free hand and grasping it tightly. What were they going to do with him? Katyusha didn't know but the weapons frightened her, they looked ready to hurt her family.

"Wait what!?" Was all Alfred mustered back while tightly grasping the dagger given to him.

"You might want to hold onto each other too," Alfred's father said looking at Natalya and Katyusha's father while taking a tight hold of his husband's hand and linking arms with his son.

Katyusha finally entered the room completely, but felt herself freeze as both men locked eyes with his in utter shock. She squirmed under their gazes as they looked her over in a frightened way. Where they planning to do something with her?

Natalya quickly moved towards her and grabbed onto Katyusha's arm as her father put his hand on her shoulder too, but they gave her little comfort as she continued to stare at the men who stared back and began to glow. The taller man's words sent the most terrifying shiver up her back as they were encapsulated in a bright white light.

"You're still alive?"

A/N: Mm yeah! Fuckin' done editing my shit that was already written! Now time to actually proceed with and finish this fucking story. And let me tell ya' the next chapter is a doozy.

If you read the original version of this there was heavy implications towards Amebela, but I don't really ship that anymore and so I've scrapped most all of it in this version. Also 'cause it felt too distracting to the story I was actually telling, nothing ever came from it, I remember that much.

Please review if you like any inkling of this story.