Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Buna ziua? Mama? Papa? Unde ești?”

Looking around, you could see nothing but darkness. You moved your hands around but could feel no surfaces beneath your fingers. You tried to move your legs, but you could not tell whether you were standing or sitting, or if you even had legs at all.

“Ajutor! Eu nu pot vedea! Cineva aprinde lumina!” You pleaded into the darkness. You did not expect a soft, quiet voice to answer.

“Hush, child. Do not fear. Can you hear my voice?”

“Mama?” You questioned.

“No, I am not the woman you came into the forest with. But that’s all over now, sweet thing. I will be your new mother, if you’d like.”

“Unde e mama mea?” You shouted. You couldn’t understand the soft voice that spoke to you in practiced English.

“My apologies…” The voice replied, and then repeated what it had said again, this time in perfect Romanian.

“NU! Nu vreau o mamă nouă!” You were sent flying into a panic, terrified by the voice’s offer. You did not want a new mother! When no answer came, you shouted again, “Unde e mama mea?”

You tried again to stand up and managed to push your feet against some solid object. It was still pitch black. There was no ambient light in the room to guide you. Were you underground? How could that be?

Unable to see, you stumbled and fell to your knees, crying out. Your mind felt like it was swimming and you tried to recall how you had gotten here. You remembered your mother and were able to picture her face clearly. Her soft hands held yours as you entered the forest. ‘Stay close, dragă mea!” You were searching for sweet berries, and you let go of her hand.

Your head throbbed when you tried to follow the memory further. It was too painful to continue. Questions plagued your mind. Where was your mother? Where were you? Why was it so dark?

Eventually, your stomach rumbled and you grew hungry. You wondered where the soft voice had gone. She frightened you, but she was the only other person here. You worried that you had scared her off or offended her with your demands. Your father always reminded you to respect the elders of the village.

“Domnișoară? Buna ziua? Ești acolo?”

The darkness replied with silence. The woman was gone. You cursed yourself.

You sat down on the invisible floor. It was cold and you shivered. You dug your hands underneath your arms and curled your head in your lap. You felt like crying, tears threatening to spill from the edges of your eyes.

Then, you heard muffled music off in the distance.

You looked up from your lap and swiveled your head around in the darkness, trying to locate the source of the sound. You saw nothing at first, but then you noticed a yellow glow far off in the distance. You lifted your body up and began running toward the light.

As you approached, you noticed the light was contained in a defined oval. You came closer at a slower pace and started to make out details within the oval. It was a room! You could see a room!

Eager to leave this dark prison, you sped up only to slow down again when you realized your view of the room was… wrong. Looking through the oval, it was as if you were viewing the inside of the room from a dirty window on the outside. Confused, you carefully examined the room’s interior.

The foreign melody was being played on a gramophone. A faded, patterned couch was beside the table where the gramophone sat. You didn’t recognize the song. Yellowish wallpaper was peeling from the sideboards and the dark wooden floors looked well-worn. The room seemed strange yet homely. You wished you were in there.

You noticed an obscured figure moving around the space. Your breathing slowed and you were frozen in place, completely immobile. Was it the woman?

Unable to do anything else, you watched the figure silently and were slowly able to make out more detail. The person was swaying and gliding around the room in a carefree manner. You realized that they were dancing. As you observed, you thought the person was built more like a man, with broad shoulders that connected to a defined torso and sturdy legs. He wore brown slacks and a long coat, and had medium length, brown hair that nearly reached his shoulders.

The figure came closer, and you got a better view. From this angle, you could see his face. It was scarred and rough, and his eyes were hidden by dark spectacles. The man was rather close now. If the window had not been there, your faces would have nearly been touching. It seemed as if he was examining his reflection in the glass.

His brow furrowed, and you were suddenly aware of yourself again. “What the hell…”

He backed away from your view, tipping over something made of glass that shattered on the floor behind him. You didn’t move. There was nowhere to go. Both of your faces were painted with a look of shock. He had seen you.

He took a moment to recover before demanding, “How- How’d you get in there?!”

“Ce?” You asked.

“Wha- What did you just say? I asked how you got in there, in the mirror!”

“Mear-or?” You repeated.

“Uh… ‘oh-linda’ or something like that, I think. You know, the mirror!”

“Oglindă? Sunt în oglindă?”

“Yeah! How the fuck did you get in there?”

“Asta e ciudat…” You commented, examining the edges of the oval. It was a mirror? How strange…

“Are you speaking Romanian?”

“Cum ies de aici?” You asked him, earning another confused look.

“Wait, hold on. This isn’t working,” He grumbled. He pushed back his hair with a hand and rubbed his temple. You waited patiently. He was obviously frustrated, and you guessed it was due to the language barrier.

“Sprichst du Deutsch?” He inquired. You simply shook your head and shrugged in reply, and he let out another annoyed sigh. “Fuck…”

He rubbed his temple and started pacing around the room. You assumed he was trying to think of a solution. In the meantime, you placed your hand to the invisible barrier between the two of you. Although you couldn’t see it, your hand pressed up against something solid. If he was right and you were truly inside a mirror… How does that even happen? What kind of magic put you there?

You tuned back to reality—although you hoped you were dreaming this up—and realized the man was staring at you again. You quickly removed your hand from the glass and took a step back, shyness turning your cheeks a light pink. His eyes may have been focused on you, but his mind was somewhere else entirely when he exclaimed, “Oh! I’ve got it! I’ll be right back…”

“Stai, nu mă părăsi!” You called out, but the man was already gone.

Chapter Text

When Heisenberg returned to the sitting room, the girl was nowhere to be found.

He had expected her to be standing there on the other side, but it seemed the mirror was once again an empty glass prism. During the brief time he was gone, the music had stopped. The gramophone’s needle ran along the edge of the record and was now producing static that filled the air. He felt his jaw tighten as he approached the fireplace and looked to the mirror hanging above it.

It was more than likely that the young, wide-eyed girl had been a figment of his imagination. He had seen things in the past, experienced hallucinations. Of his parents. Of Mother Miranda…

“Fucking hell,” He muttered in a huff. The surprise he had felt at the girl’s sudden disappearance quickly turned into something else. His fists clenched and his breathing grew audibly faster. Caught up in another fairytale… Why had he expected her to still be there?

Heisenberg threw his cracked and outdated copy of ‘Romanian to English: A Dictionary and Collection of Common Phrases’ to the floor. All of the metal in the room started rattling as he stalked toward the mirror. He wanted to smash the thing, but his last shred of judgement allowed him to hold back. Instead of flying through his own reflection, Heisenberg’s hand hit the mahogany mantelpiece.

“Ich hatte mir Hoffnungen gemacht,” Heisenberg hung his head as he leaned against the mantel and sighed, absentmindedly picking at the wood with his fingers. After some time, he turned away.

Just as he was about to search for some strong liquid to help him forget the encounter, Heisenberg spied leather out of the corner of his eye. He stopped and reached down to scoop up the discarded book.

“Ce s-a întâmplat?”

The voice drew Heisenberg’s sparkling eyes upward. They were an unobscured shade of green just above the rim of his glasses. She was on the other side of the mirror, standing with her hands folded innocently.

She blinked once. Twice.

It took a moment for his brain to process she was here.

Heisenberg was about to open his mouth when he remembered the purpose of the book he had in his hands. The stained, yellowed pages flew underneath his fingertips as he searched for the phrase. When he did, he underlined it with his thumb, and hoped that his pronunciation was good enough for her to understand.

“Unde te-ai dus?” He looked from the page to her through his lashes and tried to gage her reaction.

“Eu-nu știu. Într-un moment am fost aici și în următorul…” The girl’s trembling voice trailed off.

Heisenberg flipped hurriedly through the book, trying to translate as quickly as he could. She waited patiently as he did so. Eventually, he resurfaced from the pages with an exasperated sigh. A nagging in the back of his head told him to go fetch Miranda or Donna and have one of them deal with this impossible situation, but his heart told him to stay. He looked at the girl again and could practically feel the fear radiating from her huge crystal-like orbs.

“Poți vorbi în engleză?”

“A little,” her attempt was broken and painful to listen to. Heisenberg couldn’t help but wince. Silence filled the space—perhaps it was a void—between them. She shuffled her feet and Heisenberg noticed the condition of her flats, well-worn and stained. He coughed.

“Care e numele tău?” She was practically whispering, as if the question—or maybe its answer—would burn her.

“Heisenberg. Karl Heisenberg.”

A small smile graced her face. “Si al tau?”

The smile dropped. “Nu-mi amintesc...”

She glanced down, tears suddenly threatening to fill her eyes, “Oh…”

“De ce nu-mi amintesc, Karl?” He was a bit uncomfortable, hearing the pleading tone of her voice. It was also strange to hear his first name come from the mouth of this girl. No one used his first name anymore, but he supposed he’d allow it for the time being. He was trying to be nice, after all.

“Nu știu...” He trailed off. “But it’ll be okay, kid. Trust me.”