Haunted
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Pairing: 1+2 (will lead to 1x2), 3+4 (hints)
Warnings: shonen-ai, angst, horror, supernatural, sap, Duo´s P.O.V.
And the author is no native english speaker and this fic is not betaed. Gomen nasai, minna. I´m really really sorry and hope my english is not too annoying.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Do I look like I would own Gundam Wing?? Don´t even bother to ask me!
Draculas favorite Summer Residence
„You´re joking, aren´t you? That is the safehouse?"
I had had a bad feeling about the whole issue right from the start.
"Uhm, well yeah ... ," Quatre scratched his head and let his gaze wander up and down at the massive building in front of us. "Technically it belongs to me now, but none of my family had lived here for ... at least hundred years. It may be a little ... dilapidated."
A really bad feeling!
"Dilapidated?" repeated a voice beside us. "It looks ready to collapse!" Wufei (of course it was him – our ever present Mr Sunshine) shook his head and darted the house a rather suspicious look. I heard him ramble something about the injustice of the whole arrangement and instantly stopped listening to him. Well conditioned, now am I?
"It uhm ... has a kind of nostalgic charm?" Quatre tried.
"Nostalgic? It´s lifethreatening!!"
"It´s not so bad! At least this place has electricity ... I think."
Q-man is cute, really.
Okay, so I had to admit Wufei was not so wrong at all. Actually it did look like it would fall into pieces if one of us would only sneeze. But that wasn´t the only thing making me feel a little uneasy. That thing was huge! And I mean huge as in ... huge. Really huge. House, my ass. It was a damn palace! The dark and decayed sort of palace of course, but nevertheless somehow impressing.
It was creepy.
Yeah, creepy was exactly the word I had searched for. Admittedly it was not only the house, the grey and stormy weather and the dark wood surrounding us contributed to the average appearance. And after all we were in the middle of nowhere, miles apart from the next village. So sue me, if I wished the instant I caught sight of the house that we would just turn around and search for some cozy motel.
But apparently Wu-man and me were the only ones which felt that way.
"It seems appropriate,"stated a monotone voice behind me in the same second I wanted to agree with Wufei.
I sighed inwardly and remaint silent. Yeah, yeah, what was I thinking? Why should Heero Yuy care about some trivialities like uncomfortableness or general spookiness? It seems appropriate? Appropriate for what? For a funeral? Damn, that thing looked suspiciously like Draculas favorite summer residence!
"Are you serious? We should stay here of all places for the next four weeks??" Wufei sounded as enthusiastic as I felt. "Winner, that thing is a damn heap of rubble!"
That´s maybe besides the point, but as I thought about it, I noticed we all had different nicknames for Quatre. Trowa called him affectionatly Cat, I called him Q or Q-man, Wufei called him Winner and Heero said simply Quatre. Funny, isn´t it?
For the record, I was Duo for everyone, Maxwell for Wufei and Baka for Heero.
"It´s not so bad," pleaded a soft voice on my other side. Poor Quatre. I was sure he felt responsible for the whole argument. "I´m sure it´s much better in the inside. And maybe we can repair ... "
"Repair?? Damn, we´re here for missions, not to repair some old family residence of yours!" Wufei spat.
Uh oh! I flinched. Bad mistake, Wuffkins! Really bad mistake! Nobody snaps at Quatre like that and live to tell about it if Trowa is nearby.
"I think, you´re wrong. It doesn´t look so bad," a cold voice said immediately. "And a tough warrior like you should be able to endure a little uncomfortableness, don´t you think?"
I swear, the guy can give you the creeps with that look! It´s not the famous Heero-Yuy-death-glare (tm), which just blandly says "I´ll kill you" – Trowas look is more like "I know some very slow and painful ways to torture you and you wouldn´t want to know how". I already have seen brave soldiers crumble and beg for mercy under that look.
Wufei sweatdropped.
"Aaah ... maybe we can come to an arrangement with this ... "
I sighed again. Great Wu-man! Just great. Trowa would have been my last hope. Even Heero sometimes listens to him. But now he would defend Quatres idea to stay here no matter what. It seemed I had to face the facts. We would stay here. In "Old Creepy Manor" or whatever the name of this rotten thing was.
I stood up from my suitcase from where I had watched the whole argument and stretched.
"Seems we cannot avoid staying here, right?" I yawned. "So let´s go inside already. It´s bloody cold outside and I´m starving. Maybe we can get something eadible inside."
Hey, where´s the point in discussing something you´ve already lost?
Four pairs of eyes, one green, one black, one light and one dark blue turned to me with all the same expression on their faces. Of course it was Wufei who put the expression into words.
"Is there anything else you think about besides just food, Maxwell??" he asked.
I nodded vigorously. "Yeah, of course," I grinned. "Sleep!"
Quatre laughed. "Well at least this wish I can grant you. Winner Manor has at least thirty bedrooms!" He looked more at ease now and even Trowa and Wufei looked a little more relaxed.
See? Just leave it to the good old Maxwell charm to ease things up.
I still grinned as I turned around and grabbed my baggage. Only as I faced away from the others, walking straight towards the big front door I finally let my grin drop.
I was tired and in fact I didn´t feel the slightest urge to fool around like that. It might have something to do with the mission I had gotten over with. It had been a particular ugly and exhausting mission and I already knew I was going to have nightmares over this one.
Then there was this house.
Like I said – I had a really bad feeling about .... everything, without being able to pinpoint out what bothered me so.
To be honest - I felt wornout to the bones and wanted nothing more than to sleep and not wake up before the war was over.
But someone had to keep their minds up, right?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
We were surrounded by darkness as soon as we stepped inside.
The air was dry and cool, a little dusty and gave me a coughing fit. But after a few seconds my eyes had adapted to the darkness and shadowy outlines took slowly shape.
"Why is it so dark?" I whispered, instantly moved by the dark atmosphere which seemed to leak out of every corner of the house.
"I don´t know," Quatre whispered back. The strange atmosphere seemed to get to him, too.
"The windows are sealed."
We both jumped at the cool voice right behind us. Even so Trowa hadn´t spoken any louder than he always did, which wasn´t very loud at all, it just didn´t seemed appropriate in this atmosphere not to whisper. But he didn´t seemd to care and walked casually to the right where the darkness swallowed him.
Sometimes the guy´s just too cool for his own good.
Seconds later I heard a scratching sound and light floaded inside. Not much due to the pissy weather outside, but enough to see more clearly.
Woah.
That was my first thought and it happen to be the first thing Quatre said, too.
"Woah!" He sounded impressed.
He had been right, relating to the appaerance of the palace´ inside. From outside the house looked old, decayed and creepy, but the inside was much more comfortable and less decayed than I had expected. It looked almost luxurious.
We stood currently in what seemed to be something like the entrance hall. It was gigantic with high ceilings and and blue and golden wallpapers and huge portraits on the walls.
We walked deeper inside, staring at everything flabbergasted (well, besides Heero – he had his gun handy and seemed awefully tense) and Trowa sporadically ripping pasteboard from the windows or opening wooden panelling until there was enough light for us to see clearly.
Everywhere were heavy and luxurious looking furniture, gold-rimmed portraits, chandeliers, plushy armchairs and other precious looking knick-knacks.
"Who ever has been the interior designer of this thing had obviously gotten the instruction "Money doesn´t matter – as long as it´s impressing "," I stated sarcastically. Or they just had said "The more the merrier" I don´t know.
It was a little too much for my taste, too overladen and show-off, but in a florid way kinda beautiful. And still ... something of this exquisite interior made shivers running down my spine.
Something was just ... not right ...
"Early pre-colonialism," Wufei stated reluctantly. "Impressive." Oh boy. Check out Mr. Intellectuall.
"Creepy," That was me. Of course. I seemed to make an excessive use of this word at the moment. "It looks like the Dark Lord is just about to pop up out of nowhere. And what´s with all the golden stuff anyways?"
"300 B.C," Quatre ignored my comment. "One of my ancestors build it. He and the following generations lived here before my family emigrated to Arabia. Sporadically some descendants decided to come back to this house until approximately 50 A.C. After that no one of my family has lived here. I think, they leased it to other people ..."
"Since when is it unoccupied?" a sharp voice interrupted him.
"I don´t know exactly," Quatre turned to Heero with an apologetical gesture. "But don´t worry. It should be safe for us. Nobody has lived here for at least fifty years. And I think there are only few people left who knows from its existence, besides my family."
Heero frowned. His eyes narrowed and scanned through the room, as if searching for something. His whole posture seemd tense.
"Security check," he ordered briefly.
The four of us exchanged a quick glance. We didn´t know what it was that made Heero so tense up, but we wouldn´t disobey him. Our little team functioned as good as it did because we trusted each others instincts without questions.
Trowa was the first one who reacted and nodded. "I take the ground and the entrance hall." He drew his gun and vanished silently.
"First floor," Quatre replied equally short.
"Outside surroundings." That was Wufei. They were all in mission mode now and disappeared as silently and fast as Trowa.
I stayed behind and turned to Heero with a questioning look.
"What´s wrong?"
"Look around," was the strange answer. I did as he told me. As I made no sign of understanding, he sighed and asked:
"Don´t you think it´s strange, that there was nobody living here for at least fifty years now and from the outside the house looks ready to collapse, but in the inside..." he gave me an odd look, "... everything looks as good as new?"
He was right.
I looked around again and realized that every item looked like it had been in use just a few moments ago. Nothing was broken or decayed. There wasn´t even dust on the furniture.
"Creepy," I murmured (again) and he nodded. "Lets go then."
"`K." I was ready to turn around as he stopped me.
"Where´s your gun?"
"My … ah … uhm yeah … " I laughed sheepishly. "Somewhere in my … uh bag?"
Okay, okay, that was probably stupid, but I simply hated to take this annoying thing with me. Well, I´m not Heero with all the mysterious space in his spandex. I never know where to put it and it´s always in my way. Sometimes I envy women and their practical little handbags.
"In your bag," he repeated.
"Yeah … pretty stupid, ne. I seem to forgot … haha …" Oh gosh, he would kill me. I could already hear what he would say. That I was an obstacle to the mission, a mindless idiot with more braid than brain … yadda, yadda …
"Come with me then," he sighed.
"Huh??" Did I hear that right?
"Come with me," he repeated a little impatient. Poor guy had a lot to repeat.
"Why?" I asked dumbfounded. Aren´t you seriously impressed by now by my huge collection of extensive vocabular?
His patience seemed to run low, because he just rolled his eyes, grabbed my arm and dragged me with him. "Baka," I heard him mumble.
"Hey! Heero! Matte! You don´t have to …"
"Be quiet!" he hissed through gritted teeth. "It´s too dangerous unarmed, so don´t even think about it!"
I blinked. And blinked some more, while being dragged throught the living room. That was new. Heero cared about my safety?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
We did an organized sweep throught the house for hours but didn´t find anything suspicious.
Well, exept the fact that we were unable to detect any hints of an entrance to the basement, which Heero was sure had to be there, but that was about it.
I knew that he was still not quite satisfied with the outcome, but he didn´t complain though as I asked him if we could finally move into our new rooms and take a nap. Probably he was tired, too.
Fortunately Quatre had also been right with the large number of bedrooms; I counted actually fourteen alone at the first floor. And within less than ten seconds I had already decided which one I wanted.
"I take this one!" I yelled to no one specific as soon as I had opened the door and glanced inside.
Yip, that room was positively waiting for me!
It had a four-post bed! I had never slept in a four-poster before! The bed was as gigantic as everything in the whole villa, which I had already given the nickname:´ Old Creepy Manor´. Quatre would probably feel offended, but hey he didn´t need to know, right? Anyways – I had always had a thing for large beds and that lilac mammoth was probably the biggest bed I had ever seen.
Instantly I let my baggage fall to the ground and flung myself enthusiastically at my new property.
Hey, that was cool! It didn´t feel as old as it actually was! I jumped up and down a little, testing his remaining flexibility and capacity.
There was a lot more left than I had expected. Fun!
In a heavenly bliss I closed my eyes and continued jumping up and down. Maybe I had been wrong and it wasn´t so bad as I thought? Maybe my feeling of weirdness was just a mere fantasy from my overworked brain?
Slowly I started relaxing a little.
It could be fun, now couldn´t it? More quality time with the guys ... with Heero ...
Heero ... I sighed.
Heero ... *thump thump* ... Heero ... *thump thump* ... Heero ... *thump thump* ...
Hee ... damnit!!
There´s this thing with Heero, you know?
Sometimes I think he and I – we could be really good friends.
Really! Yeah, I know we´re complete opposite characters and unable to talk to each other for longer than ten minutes without arguing, but still ... I had this weird feeling that it could be ... that it was almost in reach ... that we were on the verge of something ...
I sighed. Yeah, it could ... if only I let him.
But I couldn´t. I couldn´t let him get to close.
I had had one friend. And only one. One friend in my whole lifetime and it ... it simply hurted to bad loosing him. I couldn´t stand it again.
And if there was one person on earth who was definetely doomed to die an early, painful death it was Heero – "I-don´t-care-about-some-trivialities-like-releasing-my-parachute-when-I-jump-from-a-thirty-storied-building"- Yuy.
A while ago, when I was really bored, I decided to annoy the guys with asking them questions out of one of those stupid magazine tests. It was something like: "What type of lover are you?" or stuff. And there was this question "Where do you expect to be in ten years?" (What that has to do with being a good lover, I didn´t get to know though ... ) Anyways ... I asked Heero that question and he considered it one moment. Than he answered:
"Statistically I´ll be dead."
That´s it, huh? That simple. That was it for him.
He didn´t even wasted one thought about me. What it would mean to me ... But on the other hand ... he wasn´t my friend, right? Only a comrad. A partner in crime so to speak. Not a friend. So maybe it wouldn´t hurt so bad if I´ll loose him one day ...
At least that was what I wanted to believe. And that was also the reason why I forbid myself to think too often about him.
I openend my eyes again - and found myself looking right into my own tired face.
I hadn´t noticed that gigantic mirror on the opposite wall before! I grinned stupidly at my jumping reflection and watched my braid bouncing up and down behind my back like a little snake. It looked a little abused and dishevelled though, probabaly due to the long drive. I grabbed it and started braiding it anew, without stopping to jump. I´m a artist in braiding, I tell ya!
While braiding I looked around the room and noted that everything was as big and pompous as the bed. The huge golden-framed mirror, the heavy looking furniture and the golden and violett wallpaper. Gold and violett were actually the predominant colours of the room. Well, I didn´t mind. Violett happened to be one of my favorite coloures.
I stopped jumping halfway down and let myself fell backwards into soft luxurious pillows and sheets, sighing pleasant and closed my eyes. Sure, this house was old, probably doomed and looked ready to collapse. But all in all ... people spent half their lifetime sleeping.
So, who were I to refuse such a bed??
With this thought in mind I fell asleep.
^tbc^
Authors note: Okay, that was probably boring and pointless, but I have a plot in mind, believe me. There will be suspense and horror (as well as some sappy shonen-ai) coming! Well, if there´s someone out there who wants me to continue, that´s it … *hint hint nudge nudge*
*makes puppy dog eyes* R&R, please?