Hallowed Out.

Calcifer watched over the sleeping bodies that now resided within him. The witch of the waste and the dog Heen had passed out almost as soon as Sophie had given them a place to lay. Markl and Sophie had tidied up a bit from the crash. Sophie had removed all of the debris from his hearth before pulling her mattress out of the rubble pile that used to be a window and sending Markl to bed.

He strained his body as much as possible to see over the edge. She was young again, as she always was when sleeping. He wished he could tell her that all she had to do was see her own self value and be accepted on that same value for her curse to be broken, but he remembered her. She had asked them to find her. She had promised them that she knew how to fix them. He was starting to hate having a heart. Just because it wasn't, his didn't mean he didn't feel it. All the things that Howl would have been put through, he felt instead.

Sophie was buying them time, but that wasn't going to fix the problem. Every time she interacted with Howl his heart was pulled back from the darkness. He could feel the love that Howl was supposed to be feeling for her and, those very few times, was glad to see that a heart didn't just cause pain.

But, tonight something was wrong. Howl's heart was slipping from his grasp and he couldn't seem to figure out why. Howl should be here already! The fact that he was this late just meant that he was in his bird form longer then he should have been, and that was dangerous for them. Howl's natural affinity was for wind, one of the reason the two of them worked so well. A bird was a beast however, and, a beast didn't need a heart to feel things. It only needed the feeling that the body gave, and Howl did have his own body. Being in the bird form was just another way for him to distance himself for the thing he hated most, his own heart, and the ugly feelings there in.

This lead to some of his naturally vain nature, if he wasn't pretty on the inside then he was going to be on the outside. It also didn't help that his heart never had a chance to grow. Demons don't age, so as far as Howl's heart was concerned he was still 10.

Calcifer was glad that he couldn't cry. He was starting to feel like Sophie was not going to figure it out in time, and that just was not a nice feeling.

He darted back into the fire place and the door dial changed to black and the door opened. For a minute he couldn't see anything, even though they were connected. He kept staring and finally Howl came into view. Calcifer wished he hadn't looked. Howl's eyes were getting blanker as he walked and his face was losing its humanity. The squishing sounds drew his attention to the blood being left on the floor.

"Oh Howl. You've gone too far this time Howl."

Calcifer watched for a reaction. Nothing. He just kept moving upstairs. And the heart he was in charge of keeping shrank and started to drift to nothingness.

He was about to call out again when Sophie's sleeping body moved and she looked toward the stairs. Worry plain on her face. He watched as her face grew more and more afraid as she took in the feathers and the blood, till finally it lost all colour as the feather fell apart in her fingers. He had no clue what she thought she could do now, when it was so obviously too late, but she put her boots on and went upstairs to see him anyway.

Calcifer took a moment to tell Howl's heart to hold on before closing in on himself and connecting to Howl.

O.o O.o

Howl heard her footsteps coming closer and felt the fear of her discovering him like this go through him. He ignored it. It didn't matter anymore. She lied. She had no clue how to save them. She hadn't even known what letting Calcifer go out would do to him! He had looked for and believed in her for so long that the fact that she couldn't save them now when they'd found her, would have been enough to break his heart if he'd still had it he was sure.

"Howl?"

Her voice can to him out of the light, letting her see the feathers and casting the cave behind him into shadows. She must have been too fixed on him to notice that she wasn't old anymore.

"Is that you?"

He nearly laughed. Who else could it have been? She was the only person to ever come in uninvited. He would love to know how his little mouse had managed that trick.

"Are you hurt?"

He closed in on himself some more. He must have bled all over everything in the house on his way up. Or had he teleported into his chambers? Either way there must be blood all over his room.

"Go away." He said peeking out from the feathers just enough so that he could see her but not the other way around.

She stood there gathering up her courage. He wished he possessed half the amount of courage she had come to them with and seemed to add to ever day she spent here.

"No. I won't go away. I'm going to help you break the spell you're under!"

Hadn't she already promised this? She hadn't come through the first time why would she promise again? She wasn't the type of person who would like to break vows. Why say it again?

"You? You can't even break the spell you're under."

Go away. Leave me alone. That's what all of this magic is for. I don't need people my house moves so I never have to see anyone! Which he realized for the first time was a lie. He'd invited Markl to stay with them hadn't he? He'd need the interaction with the boy to keep him from going insane. Her next words confirmed why he'd let her in here, to hear the words he'd wished for so badly when he was young.

"Howl! You don't understand. I love you!"

He turned to take in all that she was. Her heart was there, shining out of tear bright eyes. His beast almost hated her for that on the spot. For all his power this girl could do something that he could not. She could find true happiness. Yes, without a heart he experienced moments of happiness but nothing lasting. He had found out the hard way that you needed a heart for that.

But her words seem to chase the shadows away from his mind and give him back control of it. If he lost it again here, she was going to get hurt. His beast would see to that.

"Go away. You're too late."

And then he did something he was very good at. He ran from her. Her old lady voice letting her heart reach out to him as the darkness in the house swallowed her.

"HOWL!"

O.oO.o

It sounded like she was breaking. He landed and used the light and emotions she'd given him to take back his body. Then opened the Waste door, and looked around at the damage he'd cause to Sophie's clean house. On the hearth Calcifer was opening his eyes. Since he never slept that meant only one thing.

"Don't you know some things are private?" Howl asked. His voice sounded funny. Like someone else was speaking.

"Not between us. It reacted Howl! You reacted."

"I don't understand."

Calcifer shook his head at the wizard. Of course he didn't understand. That was what had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

"You will later. May I suggest that we get this cleaned up? We can put her back in bed, and it will seem like a dream to her. Her heart broke at the thought of failing you. You may want to go up and get her, before she gets lost in it like we are."

Howl nodded and headed up stairs chanting as he went, making the place look like it had before he'd come in, using Calcifer's memories of what it had looked like. He all but floated up the stairs and went racing through the cave his room had hidden.

Sophie was collapsed on the floor weeping, pieces of herself out into the air where her tears were collecting. As he approached, everything but her crying seemed to still. He opened his mouth to call her, but as he opened it her tears flew into his mouth, and down his throat, much like when he'd swallowed Calcifer. He waited. Nothing happened. No lungs popped out. He felt almost the same. The only difference was that he felt lighter, freer, and not so. . . lost. Not so afraid.

"Sophie?" he called down to the girl. She was out of it, but he could feel her spirit fight back at his voice. "Sophie it's okay now. You're not too late. You didn't fail anyone. And I don't think you ever could. Come back Sophie. It'll be okay. I promise. Somehow I will make it okay for you, and the family you've made yourself. Even if I'm not here, this will always be your home, and I will make it so you can keep it as long as you'd like."

He watched as she glowed and his darkness the castle kept locked up for him was pushed away from them so they were bathed in light.

"There you go. See? I had a feeling you'd be a lot of fun after I chased the mouse out of you. You have too much courage for a mouse anyway, Miss Hatter."

He carefully made his way down stairs and placed her with the greatest gentleness he'd ever shown down upon the bed and covered her up.

"Calcifer?"

"Ya Howl?"

"Will you still exist if I run out of time?"

"I don't know."

"If you do, this all belongs to her now. All of it. None of the rooms or doors are to be locked to her. I want her to be able to live her with the people that she loves. The people that make her happy. Even if I can't or won't share that with her."

He looked over to the dial on the door.

"They will have tossed those two portals. I guess we'll have to move. Calcifer heat up some water for my bath."

And with that Calcifer watched as he ran upstairs. Howl's heart slightly bigger then it had been before Sophie had come, and gathering her light to it slowly. Howl turned the water on and she jerked awake.

"Calcifer? Did Howl just come in?" he nearly laughed at how easily their plan had worked.

"Yea and he looks really bad too. Better leave him alone for a while." Calcifer answered, already seeing which new portals' Howl planned to put in. He almost laughed. Even without his heart he was learning to do something selfless and also learning that even without a heart people can become important enough to you to die for.

O.o o.O

Okay I have only seen the movie at this point and read fan fiction. I am looking for the book. Can anyone tell me if there's more then one, and if it will be easier for you guys to put all of the one shots in one place? R&R and help fill me in on some of the details. I do know about his family and where he's from, from the stories that are posted on here.

Ja ne

Kat