Crystals of frost creep over the windows. Finally, the fireplaces have been lit to provide some warmth to the castle's walls.

Even an undead body is useless if it's frozen.

Due to the shorter days of winter, by the time Heli awakens it's completely black outside. He turns over into a pile of plush pillows and silky white sheets. While any bed would have been an upgrade, but the four-poster carved with elegant lilies and draping velvet curtains is an absolute luxury. He's comfortable, and there's no reason for him to get up. Not yet.

With a start he realises someone else is there, tracing circles on the back of his shoulder. He rolls over and sees her sitting on the edge of the mattress.

"Did I startle you?" Lamia whispers.

Heli shakes his head as he sits up.

"Happy New Year's Eve," she says. "I brought you something, as a treat."

She reaches over to the bedside table and picks up a glass. He takes it by its delicate stem. Etched onto its surface are swirling leaves, and it's filled to the brim with thick red blood.

"It's fresh, so drink up while it's still warm."

He presses the glass to his lips and takes a sip.

"Whose is it?" he asks.

Lamia shrugs. "Some poor traveller's."

Without the carnival during the winter, it becomes more difficult to find fresh supplies of blood. Though there is a small town nearby, too many visits would raise suspicion. He also doesn't think she noticed, but the seven of them made a promise not to kill. So they'd been making do with reserves from the wine cellar.

A series of quick, sharp pain shoots up his chest. The sensation has been occurring with more frequency if he thinks too hard about where - or rather whom - the blood has come from, but she's watching and he downs the glass anyway.

"Good, isn't it?" She smiles as she stands. "Sadly, there isn't any more where that came from." She takes the empty glass and leaves.

He dresses and discovers the others outside. A thick blanket of snow covers the ground, and a few gentle flakes are still falling. Though it's partly overcast, the white snow makes the night air brighter than usual.

A ball of cold snow smacks his face.

"Sorry!" From a short distance away Noa is laughing. Heli brushes the wet snowball from his face with the sleeve of his wool coat.

"Took you long enough," Shion runs over and grabs his hand. "Come on, you've got to help us pummel Jaan."

"Don't you think that's a bit childish?"

"You're always too busy for us nowadays," Jino replies. "What have you been doing with her anyway?"

Heli ignores them and trudges through the snow to Solon, who is standing at the edge of the frozen lake.

"It's almost the New Year, huh?"

Solon doesn't respond right away. "Sure is."

"What year is it?"

"Fourteen." Solon says.

Heli puts his hands in his pockets and gazes out over the ice.

"Any goals for this year?"

"I want to skate on the lake."

"You can just do that now. What about the rest-"

Another snowball pounds the back of Heli's head. He turns to see Jaan quickly averting his eyes.

"Maybe I will pummel him myself."

Memories of 1914, he finds, are few and far between. No one has said much to him the past couple days, and he knows he's more spaced out than usual. When Eugene tells him he's coming along on their new side quest and it's not an option, Heli figures it has something to do with the fact that otherwise all he'd do is sit around and mope.

"What exactly is a side quest?"

"It's just what we say when we're going to work," Eugene explains. "Like tonight, we're going to look for something, for example."

"Or slay vampires, for example," Viken mutters.

Eugene shoots Viken a glare.

They're in front of a dark mansion. Yellow paint peels off the walls and part of the front porch has collapsed. A circular tower rises from the centre of the structure, and either side is flanked by crumbling chimneys.

"What are you looking for?"

"A magic object. It's an old-"

He stops as the beam of a set of headlights rolls up the drive towards them. The car pulls up next to their van and stops, cutting the grumbling engine.

"Are you serious?" Eugene stomps over to the new vehicle and someone with long auburn hair climbs out. "Sena! What are you doing here?"

"Me? Same thing as you, I'm guessing." The woman who exited walks around Eugene as she surveys the house. "Bit late at night for you, isn't it?"

"The magic only shows itself at night. Where are the rest of your team?"

"This isn't a difficult task, shouldn't need a whole team to look in a house." Sena looks from Viken to Heli. "Who's this? Haven't seen him before."

"None of your business. Go home, you should know how dangerous this artefact is."

"You mean how valuable."

Sena opens a small bag on her shoulder and pulls out a torch. Flipping it on, she marches straight up the house's steps and opens the door.

"Hey! We were here first," Eugene races after her.

"Then you better find it first!"

Viken goes after them with a shake of his head. Heli goes up the steps, ducking under some of the caving wood, but stops in front of the door. The other three are still standing in the foyer, bickering until Eugene notices.

Sena looks up with her light.

"It's not going to collapse, at least not tonight. What's the problem?"

Heli shields his eyes from the beam shining directly into his face.

"You can't invite me into a home that's not yours."

The light turns from Heli to Eugene as Sena shifts to face him. "What's he mean by that?"

"The owners are dead, no one has lived here for 50 years. You should be able to come in."

"Alright," Heli replies but he's hesitant.

"I kinda want to see what would happen if he couldn't," says Viken.

"No way," Sena's light is back on Heli.

He takes a step over the threshold and enters the room. He stands there for a moment, staring at the floor. The footsteps of the other three are clearly visible in the thick dust. Nothing happens.

"See, you're good."

Heli nods and joins the others. Sena is gaping.

"Tell me again about dangerous! Where did you find him?"

"There's nothing to worry about," Eugene puts a hand on Heli's shoulder. "I promise he's harmless."

"So far," Viken adds.

Sena looks Heli up and down but eventually she nods. "You have a real sense of humour, Choi Eugene."

Heli glances up at Eugene who grimaces.

"Anyway, why don't you just let us-" Eugene starts

"Forget about it," Sena surveys the room. Cobwebs fill the corners of the ceiling. What bits of the floral wallpaper aren't peeling from the wall are water stained with deep brown splotches. "Don't cry when you hear how much I've been offered for this thing."

She turns and sprints up the staircase behind them, out of sight.

"What thing?"

"The thing we're looking for," Eugene says. "Is a looking-glass."

"You mean like a mirror?" So that's why it's funny.

"Uh, yeah. We have to find it before she does. She got the better of us with that grimoire last time…"

Viken rolls his eyes. "You let her take it."

Heli can hear Sena's footsteps overhead running across the floor.

"Not going to let her beat me this time," Eugene declares as he also darts up the stairs.

"Hey, don't leave me!" Viken starts after him.

Heli stares up into the dark. The mansion is pretty big. If they're just following each other around and being in the way, they're never going to find anything.

Heli has no idea what this looking-glass is supposed to look like, and he has no reason to want it either. He slips into a side room. There's a sheet covered sofa, a dusty piano and shelves and shelves full of mouldy books. He gives one of the piano keys a tap and an unfortunate thud emanates from the instrument. Every subsequent room he enters has at least one mirror hanging on the wall. Whether they're cracked or just dust-covered, he can't see anything remarkable in them, just the murky reflection of the room and a shadowy blur where he ought to be.

He wanders through a dining room and an empty kitchen. Truthfully, he's getting bored. He can't hear the others anymore. They must have moved on deeper into the mansion.

Stepping back into the main hall, he's greeted by a huge mirror that takes up most of the wall. He sighs. He should have asked Eugene to be more specific about what they were looking for.

As he turns, something in the reflection catches his eye. His heart jumps. Someone is behind him, staring back at him in the glass. Someone who looks more like a plume of bright white smoke than a solid person.

But it is a person. Their silhouette is as clear as day, a head and shoulders, and a gown that reminds him of those worn by the rich ladies under parasols at their carnival.

He looks back over his shoulder. In the hallway, there's nothing there. He expected that.

Overhead something crashes, sending dust and bits of plaster raining down from the ceiling. The light fixtures rattle and someone screams.

He's upstairs in an instant. Loud voices echo through the halls. In a room at the far end, Viken and Sena are leaning over an overturned armoire.

"I told you it wasn't stable, now look what's happened."

"I'm not the one who wanted to open it in the first place!"

"The very least you could do is pick it back up."

"Are you going to help or just stand there and watch?"

"I'll watch." Sena crosses her arms.

With a huff Viken attempts to lift the top of the armoire, but he's barely able to get it off the floor.

"All you had to do was open the door."

"Move." For Heli, lifting the whole thing is an easy task. He props the wardrobe back up. Its doors swing open, dumping the contents onto the floor.

"Thanks," Sena squats down to sort through the dusty pile of fabrics.

"Where have you been?" Viken asks.

"Downstairs."

"See anything interesting?"

"A ghost."

Viken pales. "That figures. Of course. Why wouldn't there be ghosts? Come on, let's hurry it up."

"Where'd Eugene go?" Heli looks around.

"He wanted some peace so he started on another wing of the house."

"Peace from which one of you?"

"Very funny," Viken says. "Did you see any interesting mirrors?"

Heli shrugs. "There are mirrors all over the place but they're all the same to me. How would you know when you found it?"

Sena kicks the fallen clothing aside as she pulls open the armoire's drawers. "You'll know it when you see it." Sena points her light up again. "I'm thinking, next floor. Let's go."

"Let's?" Viken says but she's already taking off for the stairs.

"Who is she exactly?"

"Business rival," Viken replies. "Kinda like us but for some reason always in the way."

The rooms on the third floor are mostly empty save for a few pieces of furniture under musty grey sheets. They look in every drawer and cupboard they come across but are turning up nothing.

Heli pulls the sheet off a tall object which turns out to be another mirror.

"So weird," says Viken from beside him. "Wasn't the story supposed to be that vampires have no reflection? Here I thought it'd be funny to see a set of clothes floating in midair. Why do you look all messed up?"

"I'm not really sure to be honest."

"Silver," Sena calls from across the room. "It's the silver in the mirrors. That one isn't it, by the way." She takes one glance in their direction.

"I still don't understand."

She pulls the sheet off of what turns out to be a china cabinet. Through the glass doors, they can already see that it's empty. "Silver is supposedly too pure to reflect evil."

"Huh. I thought it was because vampires are soulless." Viken says.

"I'm not soulless," Heli retorts. Viken shrugs.

He still had a soul, right?

He looks back into the mirror, just in time to see a white figure step out of view towards Sena, who's still rummaging the cabinet as if something will materialise the more she looks.

"Sena, there's-"

Before he can finish the cabinet shoots across the room, slamming into the opposite wall. Sena falls forward.

"Woah, watch out!" Viken steps forward to help her up as the cabinet as well as the rest of the furniture in the room slowly rise from the floor.

"Ok, let's go, I don't care what kind of payday you're looking at I'm not-" Viken pulls Sena's arm. Behind them the door slams shut.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no."

Heli's already at the door. He tries the knob but it doesn't move. The knob turns, but it's as if the door is stuck in the frame.

"Hurry up," Viken is tugging on shirt. Sena lets out a shriek.

The standing mirror turns in the air, then shoots towards them.

It's been a long time since Heli tried to move anything that large. At the speed it's going, he might just have to shield the others and take the blow. He raises his hand and imagines an invisible wall between them, a barrier to stop the heavy object hurtling towards them. Suddenly, it stops with a shudder and drops to the floor. Glass shards explode from the wooden frame as it hits the ground. Midair, the other floating objects in the room begin to slowly turn.

Sena raises her arms over her head and Viken is still tugging on Heli's sleeve yelling. Heli turns back to the stuck door. He gives it a kick and the weathered wood splits in half. With another push the two halves topple out into the hall.

Viken pushes by Heli out into the hallway. He's closely followed by Sena, and just as Heli steps through the empty frame, the cabinet slams behind him. Just too big to fit through the door, it shakes violently as it wedges further.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Viken screams as they stumble through the hallway.

"Whatever spirit this is really doesn't want us here," Sena says.

"I can see that, I meant you! What did you do?" He points at Heli.

"I got us out, didn't I?"

"Come on, let's just get away from this room." Sena grabs Viken's arm.

They run.

And run.

Though they should have reached the staircase by now, it's nowhere in sight. The hallway stretches on in front of them, deeper into darkness with no end in sight. Sena shines the light the way they came.

"What is going on?"

Sena and Viken are both panting. Sena's hands are on her knees as she tries to catch her breath.

"YEONJUN!" Viken yells into the darkness. He's answered by silence. He turns to Heli. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Do something."

"What am I supposed to do? I don't know anything about ghosts."

"But you're both supernatural or whatever."

"It's not remotely the same."

"Why don't we look and see if there's a way outside from one of these rooms," Sena interrupts. "There should be windows, right?"

Viken nods. "I'm not going anywhere alone though."

"That's fine. Let's just start here." She turns to a door behind her and pushes it open.

It's a nursery. Pale pink paint flakes off the walls. Scattered on the floor are toys and blocks. In the corner sits a crib. Heli walks over to the window. Down below he can see the van and Sena's car. They seem too far away, as if they're up more floors than they ought to be. He tries to slide the window open but it won't budge.

"Just break it," Viken mutters.

"Something's wrong…"

A clattering sound makes them both jump. Sena is dumping clothing from a chest of drawers.

"Are you still seriously looking for that stupid mirror?"

"That's why I'm here isn't it?"

Viken shakes his head and Heli turns his attention back to the window.

"Don't you think we seem to be awfully high?"

Another slam echoes through the room.

The door has shut tight and Heli realises he's also alone. He crosses the room in an instant. The door opens with a slight touch, and at the same time, something brushes his leg.

He looks down and sees a tattered teddy bear. He picks it up.

"You kinda look like…"

He sets it down and shakes his head. It's not the same. That bear is long gone. He walks back out into the hall and stops cold.

This hallway is different. Ash flutters down onto his face and he looks straight up into the night sky. Charred beams cross where the ceiling should have been. The blackened floor creaks and snaps as he steps forward.

"Viken?" he calls. "Are you there?"

No one answers.

He can hear footsteps pass by him, but there's no one, just wisps of white smoke-

He freezes. He can feel his heart pounding and he silently scolds himself. He shouldn't be afraid of anything . This is ridiculous. But at the same time, he can't bring himself to take another step.

"Hey, hey!" Viken is shaking his shoulders. Heli snaps out of his stupour, once again standing in the cobwebby hall of the old mansion.

"What just-"

Viken and Sena both look up at him with quizzical expressions.

"Where did you two go?"

"We've been right here." Sena frowns.

"I just… was somewhere else."

"I think it's trying to confuse you," she explains. "The spirit or whatever. It really doesn't seem to like you here, but probably figured out it can't physically hurt you either. We didn't see anything weird until you came upstairs."

"Do you want me to leave then?"

"How?" Viken scoffs. "We're all stuck here now, together." He stuffs his hands in his pockets and meanders down the hall.

Sena sighs. "I'm not ready to give up yet."

"Are you for real? We almost just died." Viken spins on his heel. "Sena, I don't care what you want to do, but I want to go home." Viken takes a few more steps down the hall.

"I don't think it'd be smart to split up," Heli tells Sena. She nods.

"Don't let Viken out of your sight."

They continue on, trying to backtrack the way they came but the long halls twist and turn. They're lost.

The corridor splits into two equally dark passageways. Sena shines her light down each, but neither appears to have an end.

"Which way, guys? This place is messing with us."

"YEONJUN!" Viken calls out in each direction. His voice echoes down the hallways.

Heli shakes his head. "If this is all a trick then we're-" He stops. To his surprise, he can hear, very faintly, someone calling back.

"Viken?"

"Did you hear that?" Heli whispers. Sena shakes her head and Viken calls out again.

The response is slightly louder this time.

"Which way is it coming from?"

"It's hard to tell, it seems really distant."

"Shut up so I can listen."

"Viken?" The voice reverberates back to them.

"Definitely left," Viken takes off.

"Wait, don't just run off!" Sena starts after him.

Heli stays close to Sena as they go deeper into the inky darkness. For a while, he can hear Viken's footfalls ahead of them, but then they just seem to stop. He picks up his pace. Even at this speed Viken shouldn't have gotten that far ahead of them. But somehow, he has. In the narrow beam of Sena's light, he's nowhere to be seen.

"How could we lose him?" Sena exclaims. "This is just a straight path!"

She's right. There have been no turns, not even a door to be seen.

"Let's just keep going," Heli offers. "We'll have to run into him eventually, right?"

"Don't leave my sight," Sena warns, pointing the light into his face.

"I won't."

The hallway eventually ends with two heavy wooden doors. Sena pushes one of them open and slips inside. Heli's first impression is that it's a chandeliers hang from the ceiling, sending coloured glints of light from the torch in every direction. The floor is smooth and glossy and the whole room is wide and at first glance empty. But scattered around the expansive room are looming objects of bronze and white stone, statues of robe-clad figures of all sizes. The walls are covered, from waist height to the tall ceiling with frames holding paintings of every subject imaginable. A huge landscape of lilies on a pond, a tiny painting of a young girl holding a dog, an impressionist still-life of golden flowers in a tall vase.

"Wow," Sena gasps. She props the torch up one of the statues. Though it's a small device, it's bright and illuminates a wide portion of the facing wall.

Heli could spend hours here looking over the artwork. His mind wanders and he almost forgets they were fleeing from a malicious spirit as his eyes drift from one piece to the next. He stops in front of an oval-shaped golden frame sitting at eye level containing a portrait. The painting directly above it depicts an open field under a sky full of stars. It looks peaceful. Imagine just being there, under the clear sky with no worries, and no curses to think about. His gaze drops back to the portrait. It's so realistic it's almost uncanny.

The portrait blinks.

Heli freezes.

It's not a painting.

The face looking back at him has a surprised expression. Brown hair falls over its deep red eyes, which trace around the features of its own pale face. He lifts the gilded frame from the wall and sinks down to the floor.

"What's that you've got- oh," Sena kneels down next to him.

He doesn't move, even when she places a hand on his shoulder. Even when the moments pass in silence and all he can do is stare utterly transfixed.

"I'll tell you what," Sena whispers. "Why don't you take this one? Just this one time?"

"Huh?" Heli breaks his gaze to look over at her.

"Tell Eugene we're even, but I won't give in next time."

"Wait- is this the looking-glass you're looking for?"

She picks up the torch and motions for him to come closer. "Stand here and hold it facing the doorway. Yes, there, perfect."

Her head turns from the mirror to the open door and back again. "Can you point it the other way? Ok, that's where we have to go."

"How can you tell?" Heli asks as she inspects the mirror again at another turn.

"See how there's only one door in the reflection? That one isn't real. So we need to go the other way."

Though they get turned around once in the long halls of the mansion, they eventually make it back down the stairs and back onto the crumbling front porch. Heli settles down onto the one intact step and watches as she climbs into her car.

"You're not half bad, so don't let Eugene get to you too much," she calls, gazing up into the mansion's windows. A voice drifts out from somewhere deep inside.

"Well where did they go?"

"Sounds like Eugene is fine, but I think they'll have an easier go of things dealing with those spirits if you stayed out here. Take care, okay?" Sena gives Heli a half-smile.

Heli nods.

With a grumble the car engine comes to life. The headlights flip on and she's off, back down the long drive and out of sight.

Heli has the looking-glass perched on his legs as he sits. He lays his arms across it. Sure enough, there they are reflected perfectly in the glass. He stares, not even looking up when Eugene comes stomping out, followed by Viken.

"I didn't see any ghosts, there was nothing haunted, what do you mean you lost them?" Eugene does a double-take down at Heli. "See Viken, I told you, he's right here. Where's Sena?"

"She left."

"She left?! Don't tell me she found the artefact!"

Eugene stares for a moment before realisation sinks into his face.

"No way! How'd you get it?! Did you have to fight her for it?"

"That's it, huh?" Viken cocks his head as he looks down at Heli's reflection. "She was right saying you'd know it when you saw it."

"She said you're even now," Heli replies.

"Even my ass. I still haven't forgotten about the time before the grimoire incident, when she and Dabi took-"

Heli tunes him out. He can't take his eyes off his own reflection, even when they're piled back in the van and Eugene is still recounting all the times he'd been bested by Sena and her friends.

"Turning into a bit of a Narcissus back there," Viken turns around from the front passenger seat.

"What? Oh, sorry." Heli turns the mirror over.

"Hey, Eugene," Viken starts, his eyes still set on Heli.

"Hm?"

"Did you know that he has," Viken stops, searching Heli's face until their eyes meet.

"Has what?"

Heli tilts his head ever so slightly, waiting for Viken to finish.

"No idea how to deal with a ghost," Viken finishes, then turns back around in his seat.

"You saw the ghost, Heli?"

"I already told you, it tried to kill us," Viken groans.

"And yet somehow they still found the looking-glass," Eugene snaps.

"How did you get out though, Viken?" Heli asks.

"I just found Eugene down that hallway."

"You didn't see the gallery?"

"Gallery?"

Heli leans forward. "There was a whole gallery full of art. That's where I found the looking-glass."

"Viken, don't tell me you ran right by the thing," Eugene grits his teeth.

"I didn't see any art!"

"What's the deal with this anyway?" Heli interjects. "I mean, why do I show up clearly in it?"

Viken looks over at Eugene who sighs.

"That mirror is actually part of a set." He takes a long inhale. "One is supposed to show truth, the other lies."

"When we were lost, Sena said the paths that were reflected were the false ones."

"Right. This one is the mirror of lies. So if you were stuck in some sort of ghost labyrinth, you would see the parts that are the deception. Very useful for breaking illusion spells."

"I'm not an illusion though. I'm actually physically here, so how would this work for people?"

"It means you're a liar," says Viken.

"I'm not, I mean, I haven't lied to you." Heli stutters.

"Maybe not, but you're really not supposed to be here. The truth is you should be six feet under, not sitting in the backseat of my van."

Heli leans back into the seat with a pout.

"Don't take it too seriously," Eugene glances back at him through the rearview mirror. "Vampires and mirrors are weird as it is. But for a normal person, they'd be clear if they were deceitful. An honest person wouldn't show up. But no one is ever one hundred percent truthful so I don't think it's practical in that sense, which is the dangerous thing about it. It's very easy to become obsessed."

Heli flips the mirror back over and lays it across his lap. With a slight tilt of the frame, so as to not be noticed, he tips it in Viken's direction. Viken is a soft blur, merely a wash of colour and shape in the glass. He tilts it the other direction to look at Eugene.

Much like Heli, Eugene is as clear as day.