Lines of Obscurity
Summary: Ulrich didn't believe in ghosts and he never expected that being Odd's friend would involve them. But they get very real, very fast, and he's forced to make choices that puts both their lives at risk.
A/N: This is for the April Story Challenge on Xana's Lair, which was Supernatural. I'm a bit late, but I'm also doing a multi-chapter fic as well. I'm pretty excited to write this, and it will be updated as I write, so expect some long breaks. And don't forget to review! Bonus points for anyone who can tell what TV show theme this title comes from.
Research: I did some research, but I know it's not perfect. If you have anything to add or any questions, don't hesitate to send them my way.

When Odd Della Robbia returned home that summer, it was empty. The door was locked tight and even the window to the bathroom on the second story couldn't be pried open. And it could always be opened, if you were able to climb up onto the roof, lean over the edge, and pull hard enough.

He hadn't gotten his cat-like reflexives on Lyoko from nowhere.

When he hopped off the roof and brushed himself off, he decided to try his last resort. He didn't have a house key, but his mom always kept one buried underneath the lilacs in the backyard.

But, it proved fruitless when he finally found the small gum box and opened it and there was nothing but an earthworm. He put the box back in the ground and covered it up and looked for clues that someone else could have been there or hid it in a different area.

Besides from the fact that his garden had virtually no weeds and was as pruned as he had ever seen, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

He shivered when the wind decided to pick up. Even though summer had started, it was cool that day with overcast skies and higher winds than average. He just wanted to lay down in his bed- his bed, not some random bed that belonged to who knows who before him, and be warm and fall asleep.

But, that wasn't what was in the fate's plan for him. Instead, he was getting colder and colder as he walked around the house, testing out every window on the ground flood and climbing up on the roof to test all the other ones.

None of them would even budge.

He decided to go to down the street four houses, where a kid a few years younger than him lived with two grandparents. They had always gotten along well even if they weren't best friends by any stretch of the imagination.

He knocked on the door and kid answered. Odd didn't notice the way that his eyes widened a bit and how he bit his bottom lip slightly when he saw it was Odd.

"Hey!" Odd said happily.

"Odd," the kid said, and if he said it a little skeptically, Odd chose to ignore it. "I didn't realize that you were back here already."

"Well I am. You know where my parents are?"

The kid shrugged. "I didn't even know where you were. I haven't seen them for a while, I don't think. I thought I had just…"

The boy trailed off thoughtfully and shrugged. "Like I said, I haven't seen them in some time. I thought they were on vacation."

"Thanks," Odd said. "I'll come around later, okay?"

"Make sure you do it secretly. My grandparents are still mad about the time you broke the vase. I got blamed for weeks."

As Odd walked away from the house, he bit his lip in concentration. If his parents hadn't been seen around the area and his house was locked up, it was possible that they were just on a vacation. And that they forgot that school eventually ended.

Though with seven children, surely they'd forget about one or two in all their live. His parents were great and seemed to have no end to what they'd do for their children, they were untitled to a few mistakes on their part.

And it wasn't like Odd was some helpless child.

He walked over to his suitcase and took out pretty much all of his clothes as he searched for something. A few minutes later, he found what he was looking for rolled up in a pair of brown and orange socks he had never worn.

It was a small pouch and in it was a custom lock-picking kit, put together by none other than the wonderful Yumi Ishiyama for his birthday that year.

At one point, Odd could have picked his front door, but when his parents had seen that little piece of work, instead of being proud they changed and upgraded their locks. He hadn't been able to get it open since, not for lack of trying.

So going in the front was out of question. There was one more option. Odd had foreseen situations like this happening (not exactly- his visions usually included his helpless family trapped inside and an evil fire breathing dragon guarding the front). Instead, he climbed back on his roof and walked over to his window.

He had made it so it could be picked. Just in case- so he could capture the bad guys (who were also assassins and the men in black- which was a recent addition to his fantasy) by taking them surprise.

Of course doing so would require his feet to wrap around a small chimney and then for him to lean completely down with nothing but his feet holding on as he picked the rather complicated lock.

He had never tried it before, but it seemed as if it could work.

After two close calls, seventeen curse words, and two cuts later, it did.

He swung himself into his bedroom.

Except that it wasn't his bedroom.

Well, it was his bedroom, only instead of the bright colors he had grown to despise and adore on the wall, there was a dark red that reminded him of the shade Sissi's face got when she was angry. He was well acquainted with the color.

His bed was gone, all of his books were gone. Everything that was his was gone. He walked through the rest of the house.

The Della Robbias thrived on clutter. There was always papers on the stove and shoes in the refrigerator and homework drying on the clothesline. And that was when Odd knew that something wrong was going on. The house was immaculate.

Everything was in its place, the carpet was different and spotless, the furniture neatly arranged. It wasn't his house.

Except for the fact it was his house. But as if someone had come in, torn it all up, and redid the entire thing.

He walked down to his kitchen, where he saw some mail on the table. Her slowly picked it up. The name was displayed neatly:

He didn't know who Carla Bruno was. And he didn't know who Beppe Bruno was either. And he didn't know why their mail was coming to his house.

Looking around the kitchen, he started to notice a few more things. Pictures of people he had never seen before, different designs that his mother would never, ever, in a thousand years put in her house…

Odd's legs gave out and he sank into the chair with a hand on his head. His parents had moved! And they had forgotten to tell him!

He ran outside and got his suitcase where he had left it before his roof-climbing escapade. He pulled out the money he had and smiled. It wasn't much, but it would last him until he got to the bottom of where his parents were. That being done, he quickly located the Brunos' computer and went to the internet where he booked a ticket and printed it off.

And with that, he packed everything into his suitcase and headed for nearest train station. Once there, he waited for the nearest train to Rome and got on. Arriving in the station, he quickly navigated the streets that he knew like the back of hand to another where he bought a magazine and some food and he waited until evening.

The train pulled up and he got on it, settling in for the long ride that was ahead of him. He fell asleep before the train even got close to Orvieto and even slept through most of the stops. Eventually he got off in Munich while it was still dark outside. He wasn't sleepy anymore (the sleep he had gotten had been sufficient for the time being) but didn't want to walk around a country he barely knew while it was dark, so he waited for the first signs of daylight.

Ulrich opened the door to his house and what he saw didn't really surprise him. Was he expecting it? No. Did he think it would have had a possibility of happening? It had never crossed his mind: that was for sure. Was he surprised? Not one bit.

Standing on his porch was Odd, looking a little worse for wear. He had circles under his eyes and was wearing a wrinkled purple T-shirt with some jeans. He had a suitcase that was bulging- just as it had been when they left Kadic.

Ulrich stepped aside. "Are you planning on moving in here?"

Odd stepped into the house with his suitcase in tow. "It won't be too long this time," he said as he started up the stairs towards Ulrich's bedroom.

Ulrich sighed and followed him.

When he got to his room, Odd had already set up shop. His suitcase was on the floor and opened and Odd was piling clothes up along side of it.

"Where's Kiwi?" Ulrich asked.

"There's a nice company that's going to bring him home," Odd said. "The airport was getting sick of me smuggling Kiwi in and there's no way I was going to let him travel like all the other dogs. I just need to call so they don't bring him to the wrong place."

Ulrich closed his bedroom door and sat in his bed. "Odd, why are you here?"

Odd shrugged. "Where else would I go, Ulrich? And come on, I've been here for five minutes, you can't already be sick of me."

"I don't know. Italy, maybe?"

"Funny thing about that," Odd said as he scratched his head and looked up at Ulrich's ceiling. "I think my parents moved."

"What?"

"I don't know. I got back to my house and all the doors were locked and everything was gone. My house was completely different and according to my neighbor they haven't been around in a while."

"They wouldn't have just moved and left you."

Odd took a pillow from the bed and tossed it in the air absentmindedly. "Well, they're not at my house, that's for sure. So I figured I could crash at your place until you can figure out what happened to them."

"I can?"

"Fine, I guess that we can. As long as Kiwi can stay here for a bit."

Ulrich nodded. "But you have to convince my dad that letting you stay here again is a good idea. And remember that I'm the only reason he hasn't tried to get you kicked out of the country."

Odd stopped tossing his pillow and looked at Ulrich. "Show some faith, why don't you. Your dad and I may have our disagreements, but we usually see eye to eye. Of course he has to look down a little bit, but it's because of those shoes he wears."

"It's your funeral, man," Ulrich said.

Odd carefully walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where the Sterns were getting ready for their day.

Ulrich's mom took a look at him and smiled. She walked up to hug him which he returned with enthusiasm.

Ulrich's father was less than thrilled about Odd's sudden arrival. "I think you're in the wrong country. Don't they teach you geography at that school? Though if your grades are anything like my son's I wouldn't be surprised if you thought we were in Argentina."

"Nice to see you too, Mr. Stern," Odd said. "And I know I'm in Germany. My parents decided to take a surprise cruise without telling me. Or inviting me along. I think they forgot I'm not old enough to be in on my own yet. They get me confused with Pauline, you know."

Mr. Stern rolled his eyes. "Well what do you want us to do about it?"

Odd walked over to a cabinet and got a cup the he filled with juice. He sat down directly across from Mr. Stern and started to drink it. "I figured I could stay here for a few days until they got back. You'll hardly know I exist."

"I doubt it," he said.

Mrs. Stern sighed and gave Odd a piece of bread. "Of course Odd can stay. I really should talk to your parents one of these days. This is getting ridiculous."

"You haven't already?" Odd asked as he ate.

She shook her head. "We've emailed a few times, but I've never talked to your parents face to face. I tried calling the phone number you gave it's always off."

Odd nodded. "They loose the mobile phone a lot. Which is one of the problems I'm having now. I don't even know where to look." He completed this sentence by turning to Mrs. Stern expectantly. He also used his hopeless face, a sure way to get pity from adults.

"I'll show you and Ulrich where to start, but I have work now. I'll help you boys when I get home."

She got up from the table and left. Odd looked to see Mr. Stern glaring at him and quickly stuffed the rest of his bread in his mouth and hurried upstairs.

Ulrich was lying on the floor when he got there. "What's the verdict?"

"I can stay," Odd said.

"Great."

"No thanks to your dad."

"What did you expect after the last time you stayed here?"

"Good point. Either way let's find out where my parents are so your father has nothing but good memories to remember this trip by."

Ulrich rolled his eyes but the two decided to get to work. They started by playing video games. Half-way through, Odd fell asleep between the time they stopped playing one level and started playing another.

"What did you do, walk here from Italy?" Ulrich asked.

"Nah," Odd mumbled. "Took the train. Walked a little bit from Munich though. Well, I mostly caught a few rides here and there. Cellphone was out of power."

"You're insane, Odd," Ulrich said. "I bet you just had the wrong house to begin with." Odd didn't respond so Ulrich turned off the power and went to his mom's computer where he did some basic searches.

When Odd woke up a few hours later, the first thing he noticed was his hungry stomach. He walked into the kitchen where he got a bowl of ice cream and headed back upstairs to find Ulrich.

It didn't take him long.

Ulrich was sitting at his mother's desk, staring at something he had found on the computer. When he heard Odd walk in, he slowly turned around and stared.

Ulrich looked pale so Odd walked up to him, licking his ice cream off his spoon as he went further into the room. The room was mostly dark. It had wood floors with a few lamps placed around and dark red curtains, not unlike the ones that were in his room. The computer monitor glowed but odd couldn't make out what it said.

"What's up, Ulrich? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Numbly, Ulrich nodded. He didn't say anything.

"Really, what's wrong with you? If it's about the snake thing, I'm sure your dad will understand."

Ulrich still didn't say anything and Odd was beginning to get worried. "Did you find my parents? Did something happen to them? Are they okay?"

The questions seemed to snap Ulrich back to his senses. "They're dead." His voice was numb, uncomprehending, confused, surprised.

Odd didn't hear those emotions; he just felt his world crashing down. He stumbled back into a chair.

"What?" he whispered.

"They've been dead for over two years."

"What are you talking about? I saw them last Christmas."

Ulrich stared at Odd. "Your entire family was murdered."

Odd rolled his eyes. "Wow, Ulrich. This is a pathetic prank. I think I would have known if my family was killed while I was at school. Delmas may be an idiot but he would remember to tell me!"

"That's not it," Ulrich said in a strained voice, "it was years ago. Before we even meant. There was break-in and a murder at your house. Your whole family was there. You were there too. Everyone died except one person. He was taken to a hospital and treated for severe injuries."

"What are you talking about!" Odd stood up with his hands curled into fists and he was shouting.

Ulrich blinked and turned around.

"Odd Della Robbia was admitted into a private clinic in Italy at age twelve, where he was placed on life support and remains to this day."

You look like you've just seen a ghost.

For all intents and purposes, he had.