Vanished
Reflection
*******************************Leo POV***********************************
“My what?” Leo asked dropping the file in his hands and scrutinizing the man across from him.
“your twin brother. You see that incident when you were kids where you drowned. It wasn’t just you that fell into the water that day. Daewon did too.” The scientist went through the details and as he did Leo found himself remembering.
He and Daewon were playing in the back yard with their sister when it happened. Daewon hit a wet spot and slipped. Daewon grabbed onto him but when he tried to grab for his sister she pulled back. Both of them fell in and Daewon panicked dragging both of them down, but by the time either one of them could have done something it was too late. The water was filling their lungs and burning their eyes then everything went hazy. When Taekwoon finally came to they were in the shadow world. It was dark here and for the longest time whether it was hours or even days they didn’t move. They just sat there clinging onto each other and watching the shadows and the creatures in them pass by until one day he saw a light appear in the distance. Daewon wanted to stay where they were insisting that if they waited there their eomma and appa would come, but Leo couldn’t resist the longer the light was there and eventually he ran to it. His mother was on the other side. So was the scientist that he and Hongbin were meeting with today.
“You were there the day my mother pulled me back through. Did she not even mention that there was more than one of us trapped there? You didn’t even try to get my brother back?” Leo demanded. He was quiet but Hongbin knew that sound. His friend was angry.
“Look when you came back through she was relieved but you didn’t remember a single thing about Daewon. Not growing up with a twin, not the accident, nothing. She thought that your brother was dead or erased. The Vanishing is still very hard for us to understand. You were the first person I had ever heard of actually making it back in over 50 years. That’s why against what your mother said I called you here. If anyone is capable of getting your friend Ravi back it should be you.” The scientist insisted. Leo didn’t know whether to believe him or to take Hongbin and go back but then he thought of you and he made up his mind.
“What do I need to do?” He asked.
******************************Ravi POV************************
A new mirror had appeared while he was asleep. He didn’t have to sleep here, but it helped. It made it easier to count the days. One night of sleeping and waking up equaled one day here but there was still no telling how long it had actually been. The monster that had been following him before was right about the mirrors. He’d come across some that had been showing memories of him and y/n and even some that had been reflecting points of his childhood and some still that held images of people he’d never met before in his life speaking languages he didn’t understand. The oldest reflection he’d found wasn’t even a mirror at all but a pool of water and showed a woman in ancient clothes carrying a clay pot to take some of the water. She’d run off terrified when she saw him, but the image was gone before she came back.
“It’s about time you woke up. This thing won’t work for me.” The creature spoke sounding startlingly like Leo again and sliding a long sharp nail on the glass. It made a sharp squealing noise that caused Ravi’s teeth to ache.
“What if it isn’t mine?” Ravi grumbled.
“Humor me before I stop asking.” It hissed back. The mirror was ornate wood and full sized standalone style and nothing that Ravi recognized from either a family home or one of the apartments but when he stood in front of it the scene on the other side held Leo and Hongbin talking to some man that Ravi didn’t know. There were other mirrors all around them showing monstrous things that were definitely also standing in the otherworld just like he was. When Ravi looked back around to the creature he was standing there looking just as human as Leo did in the real world except for his eyes which were still that milky glassy white color and the neat rows of sharp teeth displayed in his excited smile.
“What did I tell you? And there that bastard stands, living the life I should have had. No one cared when Daewon didn’t return. They had their precious Taekwoonie to worry about. He forgot me. So they buried me. Let me disappear. Do you know what it is like for a kid to grow up in a place like this? Well you’ve seen me. I was supposed to look like him, my twin brother, but instead I was trapped in here and left to become one of the things that chased after me for the past however many years. Not anymore. This time he will be here and I will get out. It will work. It has to work.” The creature went from talking to Ravi to muttering to himself.When he paced away from the mirror Ravi stepped up and put his hand to the mirror flat palmed and willed Leo to see him. He had to get out of here. Not even for his sake anymore but to warn Leo about Daewon. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the creature next to him was dangerous and more than capable of hurting all of them.
*********************************Leo POV************************
“Jinjja? How do we even know Ravi can find us here or even which of these mirrors he’ll show up in? And what happens if he shows up in one of the little mirrors?” Hongbin asked demanded pacing. “Look I didn’t say it was an exact science and it may not work for a second time. I just know that last time the mirror had to be broken from both sides, this side by the person with the strongest connection to them and that side by the person trying to get out. We have to be extremely careful when we do this because we don’t want you getting put back into the otherworld by mistake.” The scientist explained. “Why does it sound like that has happened before?” Hongbin asked. “Because it has, Hongbin this isn’t something to be taken lightly. Whatever god or science created the otherworld made sure of that. What you have to decide is if your friend is worth the trouble.”
“He is.” Leo said finally speaking up. “What if we lose both of you this time? Think of y/n, Taek. As much as we all miss Wonsik can you really leave her alone?” Hongbin asked. “It’s because of y/n that I am even here right now Binnie. She misses him. She never stops missing him. I tried. I really did, but I can see it in her eyes. She wishes it was him holding her hand and waking her up in the morning. I love her, but I can’t let him stay in a place like that. I haven’t told any of you this because I didn’t want to give y/n false hope, but I see him in the mirrors sometimes. He’s trapped there and I tried to pretend he was just dead, but I can’t.” The guilt was plain on his face and Hongbin looked horrified at him. “How long?” Hongbin asked. “Mwo?” “How long have you been seeing him in the mirrors Taekwoon? The entire time?! Son of a bitch! What were you thinking? Keeping this from us… from y/n? I can’t believe… Ravi?” Hongbin turned to leave and bumped into the standalone mirror in the room much like the scientist had earlier. “What?” Leo and the scientist turned to face him and followed his line of sight to the mirror.
***************************Ravi POV************************
“Ravi.” Hongbin’s voice came through the mirror causing him to look up.
“Mwo?” Leo finally turned around to the mirror and saw him there. When Leo didn’t fully meet his gaze he knew that his friend had seen him before and just not acknowledged or believed it. For a moment Ravi was furious and saw red. He’d been here for two years. Trying and fighting to get out and get back to his friends and to y/n and the one person he’d trusted with his life before had left him to rot but when Taekwoon finally met his gaze there was such an immense relief in his eyes like he finally had his brother back.
“Can you hear us?” the other man asked. He had to be a scientist. Ravi knew the look from the men that worked with his father in program developing. They usually had mussed up hair and dark rimmed eyes and the faintest hint of yellowed teeth because of the coffee and tea that they consumed to keep them going.
“Ne.” Ravi replied and nodded just in case they couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“You have to break the mirror.” Hongbin said loudly like he was talking to someone who was deaf or hard of hearing.
“Aniyo. It will disappear. I tried that.”
“It has to be broken on both sides at the same time. I have to break it here at the exact same time you break it there.” Leo reiterated. Ravi nodded in understanding and they both moved to face each other in the mirror armed with whatever they could find.
“One more thing, make sure that nothing else from that side tries to come through with you. There is no guarantee that it will be you that makes it out of the other side or that Leo wouldn’t be swallowed up if that happened.” The scientist warned and for a moment Ravi looked around for Daewon before pulling back a fist and slamming it into the mirror. Shards of glass burst in every direction and left little microcuts on his body as they made contact with his skin the sound of wind and shattered glass enveloped him along with the monstrous and triumphant laugh that could only belong to Daewon.
