Set during series 3, after Annie returns from purgatory.
Chapter 1 - New House Mate
~ Amsterdam ~ May 1942 ~
Delilah Weiss stood in the shadows, keeping out of sight from the rowdy men who had been stumbling after her. She waited until the men were out of sight and ear shot then hid her Star of David beneath her dress and folded her arms the best she could to conceal the yellow star stitched to her coat, she didn't fancy any more trouble on the way home. Walking as fast as she could without looking too suspicious, avoiding the worst of the back alleys and keeping off the main streets, sticking to the shadows.
She hurried past a man slumped against a wall - drunk, she suspected - but as she rounded the corner, he grabbed her. He moved so swiftly she didn't even have time to scream as he clasped her to his chest with one arm and clapped a hand over her mouth, dragging her backwards. His grip was too strong for her to even fight against, so all she could do was sob, anticipating the things she'd heard about; what men would do if they found a Jew wandering the streets alone. Her friend Hannah had been attacked only last week, she was still just lying in her bed - too exhausted with the way they were being treated to even move.
The man dragged her kicking and struggling through a door way where her legs were grabbed by another - even stronger - man and she was carried down a dim flight of stairs, a damp, musty smell filled her nose. Neither of the men spoke to her but suddenly, from nowhere, a cloth was pressed over her mouth and nose. A few restricted breaths later and blackness clouded her vision.
When she regained her consciousness she was tied to a chair in a small damp room with a single dim light bulb flickering overhead. There was a man leaning against the wall and a woman sat opposite her, leaning on the table between them, she smiled gently at her.
"Hello Delilah, I'm glad we can finally meet" she said, as if she were simply one of her mother's friends. Delilah didn't respond she just watched the woman carefully; she had dark brown hair and blue eyes, there was a yellow star stitched to her coat - the same one that was stitched to Delilah's. The woman had a red band pinned round her right sleeve. Delilah recognised the band, it had a black, five-pointed star embroidered on it - a pentangle - and the words 'Mortuorum evocatur' were embroidered beneath it. No one knew what this word meant, but some more educated people said it looked Spanish or Latin, roomers said that the words meant 'blood' or 'death' but no one really knew.
There were stories of people going missing because of these people, German supporters and Jews alike. But Delilah hadn't done anything wrong! She'd kept out of trouble and didn't get involved with any of the riots. Not matter how much she wanted to beat Germans to death with a blunt instrument.
The woman chuckled when she realised why she looked horrified "Don't worry, you're not in any trouble"
"Then why am I here?" she asked quietly
Her question wasn't answered, not at first "My name is Ivonne Schneider, and we've been watching you for a long while now..."
~ Barry Island ~ Present Day ~
Nina looked into her cup of probably cold tea, pondering. It was a good idea and she knew it, but... it could be dangerous. It's just that there was so many rooms-
"You all right Nina?" asked George between mouthfuls of bacon and eggs
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." she muttered, glancing at him reassuringly and he went back to his food, as did Mitchell, and Annie went back to watching "Do you think we should rent out a room?" she blurted. George spluttered.
"What?" he asked, once he'd recovered, his voice shooting up the way it did when he was shocked
"It's just that there's so many rooms here, more than we need and a little extra money wouldn't hurt" she explained
"Are you forgetting who we are?" asked George, his voice still high-pitched "Two werewolves, a vampire and a ghost, what happens if they find out and-and go to the police or-or-"
"Actually they wouldn't even be able to see me" pointed out Annie
"And even if they did go to the police, who's going to believe them?" added Mitchell
"Don't tell me you think it's a good idea!" exclaimed George
"I didn't say that!" Mitchell protested "But there's not exactly a queue of people waiting to employ me is there? So I tink a little extra money might be useful yeah!"
"Oh, okay then, so what happens when one of us is transforming in the basement once a month huh? What do we tell them? That we're keeping a really big dog in our basement and it only ever goes completely mental on a full moon?"
"No," protested Nina "Annie and Mitchell have both said that you can barely hear either of us from up here, so we just play music all night until we change back."
George spluttered for a moment before starting to clear away his cup and plate, taking them to the sink and beginning to wash up. Muttering about this being crazy.
Despite George's persisting protests, that weekend an ad - written primarily by Annie - had gone up in the Sunday paper. "Room for Rent" read Annie, proud of her handiwork "Single room with south-facing view. Applicant must be non-invasive of others business and at home with myths and legends such as werewolves, vampires and ghosts." she didn't bother reading the cost or phone number, as that had been Mitchell's work. She beamed proudly at the others and George pinched the bridge of his nose, already anticipating the kind of freaks that were going to respond to that ad.
~ A Few days ago ~ Scottland, South of Thurso ~
Danni drummed on the steering wheel as she raced down the A9, the road was almost deserted (it was the middle of the night after all) but this only seemed to poke at her already jumpy nerves. After a moment she flicked on the radio - Justin Biber's prepubescent voice met her ears - "Piss off..." she told her radio, tuning out of the station then reaching into the CD-case between the passenger and driving seats and picked up the first CD that touched her fingers, pushing it into the player. When the disk loaded the pleasant C-sharp chords of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata played on the guitar filled the Land Rover and Danni felt her muscles unclench and she relaxed in her seat. Beethoven's sonatas at least never failed to relax her jittery nerves, even if she was the one playing them.
When her heart-beat had calmed to normal, she slowed down and reached over to the glove-box, pulling out a battered, slightly out-of-date, A-to-Z and flicked to a random page. Glancing at it, she laughed light-heartedly at the loch it had landed on. "Things aren't that bad yet" she muttered, her heart fluttering nervously at the irony before flicking to another page "Right," she said, having glanced at the page "Cardiff it is then"
Earlier that evening Danni had packed up her things in a hurry, packed them into her land rover and just left. She'd left a note should anyone start worrying about her disappearance and notify the police, and she'd also sent her boss a message saying that she'd quit then broken the Sim card, but other than that, she was cutting off all connections, everyone. Yet again she'd fooled herself into thinking that she could just blend into society, be human, yet again she'd been proved wrong.
~ Cardiff ~ Present ~
The add had only been up for about three days and already they had a viewing, a woman had called yesterday saying that she'd seen the add. They'd arranged a viewing at 9:25, less than two minuets away. Annie straightened a picture on the wall as Nina finished off her last bit of polishing. George was at work and Mitchell, having being declared useless by Annie, was restricted to sitting on the sofa and doing a crossword. Then, less than a minuet away from the specified time, there was a knock at the door. Nina discarded her cloth into a cupboard and straightened out her clothes before opening the door to a woman no older than herself, who was wearing tatty blue jeans, red converse, a t-shirt with a Beatles album printed on the front and a jacket with the sleeves rolled up. She had curly hair, dark eyes and glasses.
"You must be Danni White," said Nina, reaching out and shaking her hand "I'm Nina and this is A-" she resisted the urge to introduce Annie, who she probably couldn't see, and gestured over to Mitchell "um... Mitchell, that's Mitchell."
"Alright?" he asked in greeting, looking up from the crossword puzzle.
Danni smiled at him "Nice to meet you"
"My boyfriend also lives here, but he's at work at the moment. If you'd like to come this way..." she led Danni through the house, pointing out things like the bathroom along the way, and to the room that was up for rent. If Nina was completely honest, Danni didn't seem to care all that much about the poor decor in the room, or the fact that it was tiny.
"Well?" George asked his friends when he got home from work and had seated himself next to Nina on the sofa. "What kind of nutter turned up?" Mitchell looked up from the newspaper.
"She seemed quite nice actually" he said
"Oh really?" he sounded disbelieving "And she didn't care about the mention of Werewolves or Vampires?"
"She didn't mention it no" said Annie, who had followed Nina and Danni through the entire tour
"She did say however that she'd be willing to pay the next two months of rent now if she can move in sometime this week"
"Doesn't that seem even a little bit desperate to you?" he asked skeptically "What do we even know about her really? She could-"
Mitchell cut him off before he could go off on one "I say we let her move in," he said
"I agree, I got a good vibe from her," she said wisely
George nodded sarcastically "Oh, of course, a good vibe! Then she must be perfectly normal, if a ghost thinks she's fine!"
"Me too." cut in Nina