This is just a short story for the Halloween challenge over on Ninelives. Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!

Chapter One

Daryl sat slumped in his chair, his eyes trained on a spot on the wall behind the bald mans head. He had heard this all before. He had been in this damn office every week since school started and he was sick of it. Principle Daniels was a pain in the ass. He was just a know it all pencil neck fuck that thought he was better than everyone else. He got on Daryl's nerves.

"So, Mr. Dixon. What brings you in here today?" The pompous bastard asked, his muddy brown eyes narrowed on Daryl.

Daryl shrugged. "Same thing I was in here for last week."

The mans face reddened slightly. "And why was that?"

"Same thing I was in here for the week before that," Daryl smirked as the vein in the mans forehead started to bulge. He was sure he was going to give the man a stroke before the end of the year. And they said he had no goals.

Daryl didn't even flinch when the mans hands slammed onto the desktop. He raised up, leaning in on his arms. "You think your cute? Is that it? You think you can strut right through these halls and do and say what you want without any consequence?"

Daryl rolled his eyes. "You gonna suspend me or what? That's how I'll learn my lesson. Days off," he drawled, making himself more comfortable in his seat.

"Goddamn it! You watch your tone when you speak to me, boy!" The man roared.

Daryl's brows shot up and he fought a smile. "That how you speak to all your students, or just the ones you think are sexy? I don't know Mr. Daniels. I don't think you're allowed to talk to me like that."

The man sat down in his seat, his face flaming and his eyes flashing angrily. He didn't say anything for a few seconds and then he smiled slightly. "And who exactly are you going to tell Mr. Dixon? Your father?"

Daryl stiffened.

Mr. Daniels smiled. "Oh that's right. He's laid up drunk somewhere right?"

"Fuck you," Daryl spat, standing up from his seat.

Just then the door opened up and Daryl sat back down. A familiar looking girl stepped in, shoving her curly auburn hair behind her ears and looking down. "I'm sorry Mr. Daniels. They didn't say you had someone in here."

The man seemed to relax and offered the girl a smile. "Carol, no worries. What can I do for you?"

She glanced at Daryl and then shifted on her feet nervously. "I was wondering if you still needed some volunteers to help clean up the Winchester Mansion? The Historical Society will be coming in two weeks, sir, and it still needs cleaned."

Mr. Daniels steepled his fingers and eyed the girl. "You do remember that tonight is Halloween, right? It isn't every year that it falls on a Friday. You don't have plans?"

The girl's face flamed a bright red and she shook her head before glancing at Daryl.

Daryl's eyes turned back to the principle's when he heard him chuckle. "Well, now, you are very right. It's time we buckled down and got that old place cleaned up. As a matter of fact, Carol Ann, you are the only volunteer so far. But I can't very well have you working alone."

"I don't mind, really," Carol said quickly.

Daryl scowled as the mans eyes slid over to meet his. "But I do think we can remedy that. As a matter of fact I was just trying to come up with something I can do to punish Mr. Dixon here for the stunt he pulled in the lunch room this afternoon. I think I've got it." The man grinned.

Daryl opened his mouth to say something but he didn't get a chance. Suddenly Carol was speaking. "Mr. Daniels, I don't mean to stick my nose where it doesn't belong but I was in the lunch room today. The only reason Daryl was in a fight was because those other boys were pushing around Milton Mammot and Daryl intervened."

Mr. Daniels looked up at the girl, his eyes no longer friendly. "Be that as it may, young lady, that doesn't mean he didn't just sit right here in this room and curse at me. He'll be with you this afternoon. I'll show the two of you what needs to be done myself."

"I ain't gonna be there," Daryl growled, standing up.

Mr. Daniels shrugged. "That's fine too. But remember that you're close to being held back, Daryl. You want to repeat your Sophomore year? Your brother didn't like the idea and dropped out. Where did that get him?"

Daryl glared. He wasn't going to quit school but he sure as hell wasn't going to go through the stuck in this place any longer than he had to be. The man knew as much and he smiled. "Fine, asshole," Daryl growled as he headed towards the door.

Carol blanched and her eyes went wide at his blatant hostility towards the principal.

He stormed out into the hall, ready to get his shit and get the fuck out of this dump. He had missed his last class since the dumb ass Daniels decided to make him wait for forty five minutes before seeing him. The asshole had probably been in there jerking off, the sick fuck. Daryl couldn't wait until he was out of here for good.

He wanted to blame the damn girl for this mess but he really couldn't. It wasn't like it was her fault that she had found herself at the wrong place at the wrong time asking the wrong goddamn questions. Why the hell was she volunteering her time to clean a dusty old mansion that nobody gave two fucks about anyway?

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, startling him out of his thoughts. He hadn't even realized she was walking with him. "I had no idea he would force you to help me. If you want I can do all the work. You shouldn't be the one getting punished for that fight anyway."

He glanced at her and shrugged. "I don't care either way. Wasn't like I had shit else to do," he said to reassure her, not knowing why he felt compelled to reassure her at all.

She offered him a shy smile and then hurried towards her locker. She must have managed to get a hall pass. She was lucky. He stopped at his own locker, further down the hall and then the bell rang. Five seconds later the other students were pouring out of classrooms. He did everything he could to avoid looking at any of them. He really hated this place but there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it right now.

~H~

Carol felt sorry for the boy. Well, when she wasn't feeling sorry for herself. He didn't seem to make friends easily. He had been in a lot of fights since coming here but one thing she always noticed was that he never seemed to start them. That didn't matter to the teachers though. It also didn't matter to Mr. Daniels, who she had always thought was a fair man until now.

She grabbed her hoodie and zipped it up to her chin before quietly closing her locker. She wished, not for the first time, that she had waited to talk about volunteering to do some cleaning at the mansion. Now Daryl Dixon was stuck helping her and she knew that he probably had better things to do on Halloween. She had probably ruined his whole night.

Shouldering her book bag she headed towards the doors that would lead her out into the gloomy fall day. The weather was dry so far but the clouds were dark and ominous. She smiled to herself. She had chose tonight to help clean the mansion because it was the perfect time of year to get lost in the halls and dark cavernous rooms of the grand house. What could possibly be spookier than being in a long abandoned mansion that was rumored to be haunted on Halloween?

Her parents wouldn't be home until Monday and even though she had hinted around to her friends that she didn't have any plans she still hadn't been invited to go to any of the parties that they had spent the week talking about. She wasn't bold enough to just invite herself and she wasn't pathetic enough to tag along without an invite, or to sulk about it.

So she had decided to do her own thing and volunteer at the mansion. And now she was going to be stuck with Daryl Dixon, who wasn't very friendly at all and who probably held a grudge against her for giving Mr. Daniels the idea in the first place.

They were suppose to meet Mr. Daniels at the mansion at four so she hurriedly changed into an old pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt she had bought recently with a skull on the front. She wasn't one of those goth kids but she did love Halloween so she hadn't been able to resist the purchase.

She made sandwiches and stuffed them into her bag along with chips and other snacks. After squeezing in some cans of Coke she was ready. She hurriedly crunched through the leaves on her way to the old road. She paused at the entrance. Thick trees spread out on either side of the lane, their skeletal branches reaching up as though they wanted to grab hold of the low hanging clouds. She swallowed hard. There was a no trespassing sign hanging on a nearby post and she wondered vaguely why they bothered hanging it up in the first place. She didn't know anyone crazy enough to come here alone. Not anymore.

Other than herself, of course. And even she was having second thoughts. She told herself that the chill running up her spine was due to the cold and nothing more and she told herself that the fine hairs standing on end on the back of her neck was just the electric charge from the pending storm. The stories about the house were only that, stories. The Winchester Mansion was just a harmless dwelling. Sad and harmless...

"So why did you bring that voice recorder and the camera, dummy," she muttered as she pushed through the wrought iron gaits. At one time the place had been scattered with winding paths through lush gardens and well maintained trees and shrubbery. Now everything was brown, overgrown and sagging as if the land itself was in mourning, weeping for the condition it found itself in.

The house was made of stone that had been brought over from England about one hundred and forty five years ago. It was a massive three story Victorian monster that huddled in the center of the property, imposing. It looked like it was waiting for something.

Maybe for her.

She passed a large fountain that sat in the middle of the circular drive, her pace slowing the closer she got to the wide steps.

"You know, you look pretty spooked for this all to be your idea."

She jumped at the sound of a voice coming from the deeper shadows of the porch. She was seconds away from turning around and running all the way back home until Daryl Dixon stepped into the watery light and planted his butt on the top step. She blew a strand of hair out of her face and tried to control her pulse. "I'm not spooked," she said but even she could hear the breathy quality of her voice.

He just shrugged and rubbed his hands together for warmth. "When is Dick Face Daniels suppose to be here? I'm fuckin' freezin'?" He asked, not taking the opening to make fun of her for nearly jumping out of her skin earlier.

She climbed the steps and sat down beside him, making sure she kept her distance because something told her that he preferred his space. She glanced at her watch and frowned. "He was suppose to be here ten minutes ago actually. Have you been here very long?"

"Since I left school. I already tried the door. It's locked."

"I guess we just have to wait on him then," she said as she gazed towards the mouth of the drive.

"Fuck that asshole," Daryl said, standing. "He said to be here at four and I was here before that. He didn't say a damn thing about sitting on my ass waiting for him to get here."

Something like panic had her standing. "You can't leave. Look, we'll just get started without him and then when he gets here that'll be less time we have to put up with him, right?"

Daryl looked at her, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You're scared."

She scoffed and glanced towards the door. "I'm not scared. Maybe I just don't want to see you getting held back."

Now he was scoffing. "You don't even know me."

She shrugged and marched across the wide porch towards the huge oak doors.

"I done told you they're lo-"

She twisted the knob and pushed the door open. Glancing over her shoulder she offered him a sly smile. "You sure you weren't just too scared to go in there by yourself?"

He snorted and pushed past her, walking right into the house without a backward glance. "They were locked. I swear, I tried twice to get in. You're the one scared of the damn driveway, not me."

She scowled, took a deep steadying breath, and then followed him inside, shutting the door behind her.