Disturbance
Rating: PG-13/T
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Angst
Summary: For hc_bingo, prompt "Poltergeist". Joshua objects to his father replacing him with Jennifer. Past child death, implied alcohol abuse and kidnapping, spoilers.
Author's Note: I really need to replay this game. I miss this fandom.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rule of Rose. It belongs to Atlus Games.

[-]

Things were happening, and Jennifer wasn't doing them.

"Hello, Joshua. Why did you put the chair on the table?"

Jennifer stared at Gregory. He locked the basement door- more often than not with her in the basement room- and there was no way for her to get out. "I didn't."

"It was funny, Joshua, but I don't want you climbing on the table."

Jennifer sensed that it was going to be one of those times where Gregory couldn't hear her and thus didn't bother defending herself. He wasn't angry, at least; but then, he never really got angry at her.

Or Joshua, as it were.

The chair on the kitchen table wasn't the last incident. The floors and walls of Gregory's house were not especially thick, and so Jennifer could hear shaking and rattling and banging coming from upstairs at night. It didn't take long for her to figure out that it was coming from the locked room, the one she wasn't allowed to go into. The one time she had asked about it, Gregory had gotten an alarmingly dark expression on his face, and he hadn't answered- all he did was wander off to the kitchen and start drinking.

Jennifer didn't ask again after that.

There were other things: Doors and windows would slam shut even though Gregory and Jennifer were nowhere near them when it happened. Things- bottles in particular, as Gregory had a habit of leaving them around- would go flying off of tables and counters, and rolling across the floor; they had not fallen, but acted much like they had been hurled by an invisible force. Other times, Jennifer thought that she could hear footsteps far too light to be Gregory's walking around upstairs.

When she heard those footsteps, or a bottle breaking as Gregory snored, or the slamming of the door or the bumping from the room, Jennifer would curl into a ball on her basement bed and clutch the teddy-bear that had been on the pillow the day she arrived. She would shut her eyes and remind herself that monsters and ghosts weren't real, because her parents had told her so. Then Jennifer would get lost in good memories of her mother and father, secure also in the fact that Gregory would not allow any harm to come to her.

A particularly frightening instance of odd behavior had come when Gregory had left the house and forgotten to lock Jennifer in the basement. He said that it was to keep her (Joshua) safe while he was out working, but really, Jennifer had nowhere to go that might cause her harm, and was not the type of child to get into reckless mischief easily. Her mother had always said that she was such a good little girl.

With a rare chance to explore unhindered, Jennifer decided that perhaps it might be a good time to explore the room that was currently barred to her. She had never been inside of it, but she had been into the room next to it and knew that there was a deck just outside the window. Unless she missed her guess, it would probably connect her to the mysterious room.

Presently, there were no thumps or bumps to be had- everything was quiet, calm, and she dared to hope that maybe she was just being silly. Maybe it was Gregory, or the wind, or some animal that had gotten in and was causing trouble, like mice-

Bump.

Jennifer froze, halfway down the hall when she heard it. The sound had come, it seemed, from the locked room. Fear touched her heart, and she wondered if perhaps turning around and going back to the basement might be the best idea.

But curiosity nibbled at her like a hungry rabbit, and Jennifer told herself that if she could just see what was in the room, she would be content to never go near it again. It was just a peek, just a quick little look to maybe solve the mystery of why Gregory was so bothered by the room in the first place.

Jennifer entered the room beside the locked room. It was empty, save for a few boxes of packing material and old clothing, probably Gregory's (she had never looked too closely). When she checked, the window was able to be opened; and when Jennifer poked her head out of it, she saw that the deck did indeed extend to the window of the locked room.

She slowly, quietly climbed out of the window and onto the deck, cautiously checking to make sure that the window would stay open on its own and not fall shut, potentially keeping her out. Jennifer's trek to the next window was a nervous one: Gregory was very quiet, and he had surprised her before. She did not want him to catch her outdoors: That was more or less the only rule of the house (that he had told her). After managing to wiggle the window up and open, Jennifer hauled herself over the sill and landed in the room.

It was a child's room, that much was certain. The wallpaper was faded and peeling, sky-blue with puffy white clouds and, appropriately, a single airplane hung from the ceiling by a worn cord. There was a shelf to her left and a few broken toys scattered throughout the room, but no bed or lamp or dressers. It had been someone's room, but was not their room any longer.

Jennifer looked down and saw a small toy soldier standing mostly in one piece by her feet. That was a boy's toy.

I wonder…

The noise that interrupted her thoughts was not a bump, a bang or a clang, but a soft whisper of wind on the curtains by the window. Jennifer turned to look more out of reflex than actually being concerned that something had made the noise, and when she looked over her shoulder-

The split-second it took to process the sight of a person standing behind her felt much like how a person must have felt just as they started to fall over the edge of the cliff: Lingering just on the cusp of fear, but not quite feeling it yet. And once the fall happened, once Jennifer realized that yes, there was someone standing behind her that had not been there before, the terror swooped into her heart and seized it tightly.

It took everything she had not to scream in surprise and fright. The boy standing behind her was her age, but his hair was a bit darker and he was just a touch taller. His eyes were blue, like Jennifer's, but there was darkness behind them- the same darkness she had seen in Gregory's eyes when she had first asked about the room. The boy's glare was cold and ugly, and he looked at her as though she had done something awful to him.

In spite of the lump in her throat and the confusion and the heart-pounding fear, Jennifer put the pieces together quickly and found that the answer she came up with only made her heart beat faster.

"Are you Joshua?" It came out as a soft, breathy whisper and Jennifer was concerned that she might faint from fright. It would seem that her parents had been wrong: Ghosts were very, very real, because Joshua was surely dead and therefore (if this was indeed him) could only be standing before her as a spirit.

He nodded.

Jennifer was a little girl. She didn't understand much of psychology or precisely how devastating grief could be on a person's mind and its functions, but she did finally understand- in her own way- why Gregory called her Joshua: He was so sad about Joshua dying that he lied to himself, pretending she was Joshua so that he could pretend his son was still alive. How terrible- Jennifer could understand, as the deaths of her parents had left her in an awful state as well.

Maybe Joshua believed the lie as well.

She slowly began to back away, towards the window. Joshua's gaze burned into her own, and it was so very piercing and frigid. Jennifer only managed to turn away once her back hit the windowsill, and she scrambled out of the window as fast as she could, not caring if Gregory heard her. She darted back through the other window and dashed down the hall, down the steps into the basement and then into her room.

Jennifer slammed the door shut behind her, but when she turned around, Joshua was standing by the wardrobe. This time she did scream, and threw herself onto the bed and curled up into a ball, clutching the bear to her chest with one arm.

But then, curiously, Jennifer saw Joshua's angry, cold gaze break: It became surprised, confused, and she realized that he was looking at the bear. A moment later, the expression twists not into anger but rage, and the wardrobe and bed start to shake with a vengeance. Jennifer looked back and forth in terror, and tried to think of what to do. Finally, she found her voice.

"Stop!"

Maybe he hadn't been expecting her to speak up, because the movements slowed to a stop. Joshua's anger was still evident in the almost evil way he glared at her, but he didn't move or speak. Jennifer had a few hurried moments to consider what to do next, and she settled on what would hopefully calm him the most.

"If you don't want me to touch your bear," She whispered, "I can put him away somewhere I can't touch him." Joshua continued to glower at her and still didn't speak. He did nod, though.

Jennifer looked around the room, and then her eyes landed on the wardrobe. She got off the bed, walked over and, after a moment's positioning, tossed the bear onto the top of the tall structure. Then she turned back to Joshua. "See? I can't touch him anymore."

Joshua seemed slightly, slightly mollified by that. But his eyes scanned Jennifer completely, taking in her too-short hair and the clothing that had once been his, and she could tell that he was not satisfied completely. "I'm not trying to be you," She pleaded. "Gregory just dressed me this way. I don't have anything else to wear. I promise I'm not trying to replace you."

Joshua relaxed just a bit more, but not enough to soothe Jennifer's nerves. She decided to try one more time.

"I won't go into your room again. I promise."

Finally, Joshua's expression calmed enough that Jennifer felt safe to let her limbs go slack. He still didn't look happy, but he looked prepared to tolerate her presence. He gave a small, slow nod, and though he still didn't speak Jennifer sensed a warning in it: Don't break your promise.

She blinked once, twice, and Joshua disappeared. She did not see him again. And in time, the disturbances grew fewer and fewer and almost stopped completely.

Almost.

-End