Tales of an Exorcist in Training.
Prologue.
There was the house, the damned house. Everyone in town had recommended not to come near it, no to even look at it. The ominous aura surrounding it added to the rumors: it was haunted.
If he looked closely, Allen could see the curtains move with no logical explanation.
Anyone would be afraid, would turn around and continue their way, go back to their normal life and forget about what couldn't be seen through normal eyes, couldn't be analyzed under a magnifying glass.
The point is, he wasn't anyone. He was an exorcist, he'd chase supernatural happenings, walk head on into them and take the reins, search to understand and give peace to the trapped souls. And this house, this three-story high house, with a rusted fence enclosing a front garden gone wild, ragged curtains that moved on their own and an overall fear inducing atmosphere, would be his first official mission as an exorcist.
This was his moment to shine, his moment to save the souls.
A snarl of "Move it, you idiot Moyashi!" and a push that almost made him trip over a stray rock was what brought him back from his musings to reality.
"Aww Yuu-chan~! The kid was just having a moment right there!" came the loud whining from behind him, the merry redhead flowing after the grumpy Japanese that had pushed him aside before. "Weren't you excited at your first mission too?"
"No, I wasn't, and don't call me by that fucking name!" Kanda spat without turning around, glaring at plants in the way with an intensity that would kill them hadn't they already dried long ago.
Allen snorted, already used to the ways of his companions in just the 3 hours that took the trip to the location, and followed after them to the main gate of the house, his briefcase firm in his hand.
"And tell me once again why the hell I have to come with you two, this is at most scratching a level 1 mission!"
"Well, I don't see why either," Allen replied calmly, "as what help can provide someone that has to be reminded of the same thing a thousand times and still not get it?"
"Ok, come here Moyashi" he sighed in defeat, so much for enduring 3 hours if at the end the result would be the same, "you are dead."
Lavi just facepalmed, the kid just was asking for it. But it was fun anyways. Seeing as Kanda was turning around, a hand in his Mugen, he decided it was time for him to intervene.
"Come on Yuu-chan, you can't just jump at conclusions like that! There is still time, no need to rush and kill the joy, is there?" the touchy-feely teen exclaimed, throwing his arm around the white haired boy shoulders.
"Is not jumping at conclusions, is just responding, you know he was asking for it! And I prefer not to waste time, the sooner he is dead, the sooner we are out of here."
"You really should consider taking out that stick up your ass," Allen smartly commented, leaving the arm around him hanging in the air as he walked ahead past the surprised eyes of his companions. Ok, maybe he outdid himself, but he had already lost his manners with the man after 2 minutes of knowing him. "And you can leave if you so much wish so; I'll be finished in a minute here anyways."
There were some noises of struggling behind him, and when looked over his shoulder, Lavi was holding Kanda back, a chorus of "That's it, I'll kill him, I'll fucking kill him" escaping his lips as he waved his katana around.
"Buuuuut Yuu! Your Mugen will go blunt if you use it to cut what it's not supposed to cut! You know what they say about dog blood ruining blades!"
"Then I'll just strangle him, but make it painful! Rip his limbs one by one before! Let go!"
This was getting quite disturbing, Allen liked his limbs, and he didn't like be compared to a dog. How far would Kanda carry his threats? Well, seeing him as angry as he was, he could lose a few fingers if Lavi did let him go.
So, suddenly feeling the need to draw his fingers closer to him, he just waved a quick "see ya' later" before running up the steps to the house's door.
Because in any way you considered it, inside a haunted house was far safer than to stay closer to the scene developing in the garden.
Releasing a sigh of relief at seeing the door open easily with just a creak, he slipped inside.
"Come back here you little fucker!" was the last he heard before slamming the door shut after him.
After calming down for a minute against the door and deeming himself safe, he decided to take a look at the barely lit insides and reconsidered his safety.
The house was kind of creepy, no doubts it'd arise rumors even if it wasn't, in fact, haunted.
The walls were dressed with what he supposed was once a colorful paper wall, now faded to sickening pale mix shredded here and there. Too many paintings with clowns or a circus theme, some were still hanging in the walls, albeit crocked, most on the ground, a bit scratched or completely torn apart.
And it was just the vestibule; he didn't want to imagine the dining room or the master bedroom.
Beer cans and whisky bottles were scattered around on the floor, teenagers looking for a secluded place, he supposed. That was probably also why the door opened so easily. The reek of alcohol and sick reminded him of his time with Cross and so he concluded he didn't like this room.
With luck, the stupid teenagers were the ones behind all the rumors and he was free to go once he looked around the house.
Hoping so, he took a flashlight out of his briefcase and directed his attention to the three other closed doors in the room, each one in a different wall. Carefully not to step in anything that looked suspicious, he made his way to the closest door to his right. Trying the knob didn't work, which probably explained the many cracks it had, as if someone had tried opening it forcefully.
"Teenagers with anger management issues" he muttered to himself, snickering once he thought that that was exactly what Kanda would do.
He tried the others doors, each as solid as the first. He sighed once again, not really sure if that was a good or a bad sign. Good because probably the rest of the house wasn't as thrashed as the room he was in, bad because if nobody could go to the other rooms then activity in there could only be paranormal.
He checked outside through one of the windows to the front garden. The light was slowly growing fainter and probably in no more than half an hour darkness would take over. Lavi and Kanda were nowhere to be found.
"Not even five minutes they waited… How nice, now I'll have to spend the night in the house," he frowned, really hoping that the rest of the house was decent enough to find somewhere to sleep.
Pushing all thoughts that weren't needed at the moment to the back of his mind, he just took out of his briefcase a lock pick set and checked out the intricate lock of the door to the left, but before he could even get to work on it, it soundlessly opened.
He should have looked pretty stupid just crouching there, lock picks in the air and eyes wide open. He wanted to think that the door had finally given in after so many years of enduring kicks.
Determined not to lose a minute more of natural light, he put back his instruments in his briefcase and went past the door, closing it behind him and disappeared into the yet unexplored room.
XXXX
"See! You scared Allen at least!"
"Good, I hope he doesn't come back."
"You are insufferable sometimes," Lavi sighted defeated, rubbing his head where he hit the ground once Kanda broke loose. He didn't get how a lean body like his could be so strong.
"Could say the same about you, all the time," was Kanda's answer as he fixed his hair that had come undone in the struggle.
"Haa… Come on, have you calmed down?"
"Do you know that most of the time that kind of question just adds to someone's anger?" the never leaving scowl in his face just deepened, though he couldn't deny that he had more or less calmed down.
"Whatever, he just ran into the house. Go after him," anyway, how dirty was the ground? The dust just kept coming off his clothes no matter how much he tried to shake it off.
"So you want me to kill him after all?" Kanda raised an eyebrow at Lavi, maybe he wasn't as idiotic as he always thought.
"No! For once, just pay attention!" he could seem pretty happy and careless all the time but, "the kid just ran agitated into a most probably haunted house, and I have the feeling we're underestimating the situation."
"You go then. He said we could leave if we wanted, so I'm leaving," if the Moyashi died, then it was one worry less for him.
"You are also worried, right? Tell me that deep, deep inside, you are at least a tiny little bit worried, Yuu-chan, I know you."
"Don't call me Yuu-chan, stupid rabbit!"
'You didn't deny it, though,' Lavi thought, finally a smile back at his face, he knew that that was the closest to a positive answer he could get from Kanda. "So I leave this to you, try not to kill him. I'll go into town to get as much information as possible at this hour and then I'll come back."
Kanda che'd at Lavi's retreating back, but he preferred dealing with the kid before trying to get information out of people. He didn't want to end at the police station again.
Going up the steps to the door, Kanda tried opening it, puzzled when it didn't open like it did with the Moyashi. Great, he had locked himself inside. Now he could go back and say that the kid didn't let him in, it wasn't his fault. He turned around and started walking back to the hotel.
…
"Fuck!" he run up the steps and started pounding at the door, "Moyashi! You in there?"
Silence was his answer.
He glued his ear to the door. Still nothing.
The reasonable decision now was to throw down the door, but it didn't even move when he kicked it. The windows were high enough that he couldn't reach them without something to step on. Cursing all the way, he walked around the house, noting that the back door was as closed as the front one.
So, how could doors of an abandoned house hold so firm? Easy, it didn't want to let you in.
Rumors sometimes weren't unfounded after all. The house could be haunted. And the stupid Moyashi was locked inside. It wasn't that often that a new true exorcist appeared, to lose a potential one wasn't the best of the options, but if he got trapped inside, something happened and he couldn't handle himself, then once again, he wasn't a true exorcist. Even so, the lost would lie in his hands…
Looking around, Kanda spotted the branch of a tree close to a window. That would have to do for an entrance.
So, hi~ I hope you enjoyed it so far. And yeah, in this AU they are kind of like "real exorcists"? With more of a liberal approach, but anyways… This is kind of the introduction to the prologue, or something. If I wanted to post it whole, it could have ended too long or too rushed, so I'll just publish this and think if I end it after the 'prologue' is over or continue it into eventual Yullen or Laven. The next chapter should be ready soon.
And what do you think of my pathetic attempt to mix humor, mystery and some kind of horror? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I'm sorry for any typos or awkward use of tenses, if you could point them out it'd be lovely~