Hi Alex Rider fans! *waves* I'm Starie, and I decided to wander away from Hardy Boys for a moment because this little story has been bothering me since I thought of it.

So, the reason why I came up with this instead of continuing my other stories for the moment is because of speech and debate. You see, Anthony Horowitz has also written some short horror stories, once of which I abridged a bit to use as my speech piece. During a tournament while waiting for my round to start, I realized that the protagonist in the story I was using, "Twist Cottage", shared the same first name as Ben Daniels, who is (for some reason) one of my favorite characters in Alex Rider. So the lightbulb went off, and I started working on this story in my head. As it was a one shot, I figured I would type it all up. I didn't realize it would be as long as it is, but hey, it was fun.

And as for a comment on the length: I couldn't bring myself to cut it up. It flows better this way in my opinion.

And another note for the plot: it's Ben's point of view with a ton of alluding and randoms bits here while others missing there. It's supposed to focus on something (which you'll understand once you read it, if you dare continue *evil laughter*) so... yeah...

So now for warnings! Um... well, there's a bit of OOCness in here. There's death (bet you didn't see that one coming *sarcasm*). A bit of swearing. And a lot of references to Twist Cottage you might not get. It's okay, because you don't have to know what happened in it, as it'll all be explained (well, explained towards the end, but it'll still make some sense if you read it... I hope...). And if anyone wants the book title of where you can find Twist Cottage, it's "More Horowitz Horror."

And I own Alex Rider in the same way that I own Hardy Boys: that's to say, I don't at all.

Enjoy!

Ben Daniels froze while looking at the papers in front of him. He then looked up at the man who had placed them in front of him. "Dad, I can't."

The man across the desk didn't even flinch at the harshness of the words. "Ben, I have no one else to leave it to. You know that the real estate agents would rather give up their jobs than handle the house-"

"You know why. The house is haunted." The soldier-turned-spy kept his tone even, but the emphasis of the last word could easily be heard.

"Ben-"

"You lied to me about that, Dad. I remember it. How else did all those women die? Just one accident after another that leaves all the victims dead is not a coincidence!" Ben looked down, somewhat embarrassed that he was yelling as he had talked more. He was supposed to have self control in this conversation, wasn't he? He had been trained to control his emotions for spy work, so why couldn't he keep them in check when talking to his own father?

Because Louise didn't deserve to die.

"Ben." The retiring college professor took the same tone that had once condemned Ben for admitting what he had seen all those years ago. "Your line of work already tells you the value of a life."

It was obvious that the man wasn't actually talking about the living. "It isn't the same."

"Louise was as cruel as some of those men that you have killed." His father's voice kept at an even tone. "You know that as well as I."

"Did she really deserve to die?" Ben asked. "She was still a person in the end. And don't think that I don't regret all those lives that I take at one point or another."

"I never said that I thought that. You saved her life that first time, and I knew that you would do so again if you were there."

"I just wasn't there that time." There was a hint of bitterness in his voice, not for the lost life, but for the very nature of the idea.

"She wouldn't have survived anyways. You had school."

Ben nodded his head once to admit that it was true, despite the bitter taste in his mouth from thinking of the truth like that. He closed his eyes as he carefully said, "Do you have any remorse?"

"Look how you turned out, and tell me that I'm not somewhat satisfied with the results."

The spy didn't answer as he looked over the papers before taking the fountain pen from the desk. He quickly signed his name, officially beginning his ownership of Twist Cottage.

The blond teenage boy looked up at the man. "So we're moving into a house, and you're making a rule that no females for any reason can come inside said house."

The hint of sarcasm coming from his charge made Ben cringe inside a little. He knew this was coming sooner than later now that they were moving into the house. He just hoped that Alex would take his words at face value. "Just trust me on this, Alex."

"Does this rule apply to you as well?" Alex asked.

"Yeah."

It was not the answer that Alex was expecting, if the slight widening of his eyes were an indication. However, the teen said nothing more as he stabbed his salad with his fork.

Ben studied the teen spy. Alex Rider had fallen under his care less than six months after the Snakehead mission. His housekeeper had suddenly up and left without any sort of indication except a picture of a one way ticket back to Washington DC. Not knowing what had happened, Alex turned to MI6 for some kind of assurance or proof that Jack Starbright was okay, only to discover that he truly was abandoned.

They (as in Jones, as Blunt had probably tried to get Alex into a less than caring environment) appointed Ben as the guardian. What started as a comfortable silence grew into a comfortable sibling-like relationship within a matter of a month. Alex had apparently lost his last friend due to the missions that Blunt sent him on with Ben. With no one to turn to at the age of fifteen, Alex opened up to Ben. They had talked as much as they would have if they had known each other for quite some time. Alex talked about his life before Ian had died, and Ben talked about his childhood.

Just never the part about Louise.

Alex sighed. "Is there a really important reason for that?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Ben received a nod in return. "Okay."

And that was the end of the conversation between them about Twist Cottage before they moved in. Alex never asked anything else, even though Ben was sure that someone else told him about all about the deaths like Carol had once told him.

The day of moving in was quiet, which suited the two fine. Neither had bothered to call up actual movers. Instead, they had packed up the things within Ian Rider's house and rented a moving van. It was all by themselves, which Ben was sure had to have meant something.

He had thought that Alex would protest more. When the older spy first moved into the Rider house, Alex had placed him in the guest room. It was a later search that revealed that both Ian's and Jack's room had been left untouched. It had taken the boy months before even suggesting to begin to clean them out and pack away the items.

Ben wanted to move Alex out of the area in order to keep him away from the other kids, but had agreed (after much protesting that he still could not fully comprehend) to let the teenager finish the rest of the school year. The gift from his father (if he could even call it a gift) came at the right time, as the man was searching for someplace that he could afford that was far enough away from the school and bank. But Ben hated to think about it. Like he was once told, "Who would want to live in a house with all those deaths?"

The day had gone on quietly. There were no accidents that resulted in near death experiences like the last time the soldier was moving into it. He wasn't sure if it was a good sign or just the quiet before the storm.

Alex took the room that he had once slept in when he was a boy. The man, in turn, took over the room that his father had resided in with his stepmother. At least, for as long as Louise allowed the two to share a room.

The unpacking took over a week to complete, but the result was worth it. For once, Ben felt like he could call the place home. That was, until he found a single splatter of blood near the staircase that could have easily been missed by anyone. But he had been searching for it. It was proof that the terrible things did happen in the house.

Hopefully they would both be safe. They were both male, after all.

She wasn't supposed to come back. She had abandoned Alex in the end. That was almost a sure definite that she didn't care anymore. Right?

Jack Starbright had literally burst into the cottage a bit after Alex had arrived home from the library. The two men had been talking about the teenager's choice of classes and a possible future that did not involve spying when the woman had entered, and the man was the first one up.

"What are you doing here?" His words were defensive, and already he could feel himself ready to make the woman turn around. For one, she did not deserve the chance to reconcile with his charge in their house. They had made it to reflect them, and in a way it symbolized the fact that Alex had moved on from Jack. He was a different teenager now, with a new school to look forward to with a new guardian. He didn't need to deal with any bullshit right now.

The second issue was that Jack was the first woman in months to have entered Twist Cottage. There was no question at all that she was in danger.

Her eyes stared coldly into his. "I made a mistake. I should have stayed instead of letting you take him away from his home."

"His home is here."

"No, it isn't. It's where Ian had planned to raise him." Already, she was trying to get to the teenager. "Besides, why should I let an MI6 agent rule his life? You people don't care for him at all."

"I do care."

"Jack…" Alex got up from his seat. Cautiously, he walked towards the American woman. "I… I thought-"

"We're going." And with a simple grab of her hand, the two disappeared out of the house to the outside.

Ben had chased after them, but forced his feet to stop when Alex just shook his head slightly. The teenager mouthed the words, "I'll try and fix it." Then, the two disappeared into the car Jack had used to drive into the cottage set apart from all the others.

It would be two months before Ben would hear from Alex again.

The spy's day started like it did for the past months. The first thing he did was curse the ghost, wondering why, out of all the times that it had tormented the females who had dared entered its space, that it didn't get Jack before she had taken Alex away. Then he scolded himself for thinking such thoughts. After all, no one deserved to suffer with such a fate.

Mrs. Jones had promised to make the previous guardian realize that simply taking Alex back would not fix her mistakes. Unlike Alan Blunt, she wanted Alex to get an environment that wasn't full of betrayal and easy manipulations, something that Starbright did not consider when she took the teen away. However, it seemed that the woman had hardened and refused to let Alex out of her sights. Ben could sympathize, but only so far. Jack didn't see Alex break down in the middle of the night because he had no one from his old life to turn to anymore. She hadn't stayed at the crucial moments of freedom. She had missed everything important.

So, to say that Ben was shocked to find the two standing at his doorway later on during the day would be an understatement.

"Al… Alex?"

The teenager smiled in return. "Hey." Whether it was on purpose or not on Alex's part, Ben saw the strained look on the other's face. "They… they wanted to move me to a different school. I was hoping that… well, that my room was still available."

"Of course." Ben moved aside, catching the look of relief on the boy's face, before turning to the woman. "And is it a packaged deal?"

Starbright sighed loudly. "Like I would let Alex deal with you people by himself."

The coldness of the statement seeped into the soldier's veins, but not for the reasons that the caretaker would have hoped for. Instead, he recalled how Louise had once been pleasant and kind, before falling down whatever pit she had tripped into of becoming cruel and lazy. Somehow, he knew that Jack Starbright was going the same way.

Ben never found himself obligated to follow the one rule he had placed upon anyone within Twist Cottage.

Alex sneaked into his room at about midnight.

"She's… a control freak." The words were a struggle to simply say. "I… I mean, well, she…"

Ben adjusted himself from his sitting position on the bed, letting the teen take his time to talk. Sometimes, that was the only thing that worked with the blond.

"She tells me who to hang out with. She made a schedule for me to follow, and if I don't she goes after me and yells at me for hours." The words began to simply fall out. Alex kept an even tone as he stared at his hands in his lap. "I… She…"

"Have you told her?"

Ben was given a curt nod in reply. "She went on about how it was for my own safety. But I want my freedom. Is that… wrong?"

"No," the man said almost instantly. "I hope she realizes that she is hurting you, but if she doesn't…"

"Yeah." Alex made a move to get up, signaling that the conversation was over for the night. But he paused, his eyes trained upon the highest stack of books on the shelf that was built into the wall. "Ben, why did you leave that book in sideways?"

"Just a habit. I picked it up from my father." Ben never said that his father had hidden that exact book from himself in his study at the university where he once worked. He didn't say a word about that day when Ben found out that his father was capable of leaving people for their deaths, and even leading some to the end of their lives. He didn't say anything about the curse placed upon the house by the woman who had once owned it.

Instead, he watched as Alex left for his room, and silently wished that the ghost of Joan Barringer would hurry up and kill Jack Starbright. Alex didn't need to suffer as much as he had because of that stupid woman.

He realized that it was probably the exact thoughts that his father had thought when Louise had terrorized them. He booted up his laptop and watched as his email flickered on the screen. The room filled with light as he typed away.

Dad,

I finally understand.

He clicked the send button, turned off the laptop, and went back to sleep.

For the second time in his life, Ben watched the curse on the house make the impossible happen in order to steal the life away from a woman. He had hoped that it would be like the way Louise had died: he would be out of the house and walk into the place with a body and no explanations for what had happened.

Instead, it was more like the first time with the garden hose. He could save a life by simply reaching out and…

Alex was the one away this time. Ben was preparing for his next mission, which was to take place within a week. Starbright said that she was taking a bath to relax her nerves after "dealing with the MI6 bastard" (as that was what she called Ben) after threatening him, once again, to leave Alex alone. The soldier was wondering if the curse would do away with the woman before he had to leave. Alex definitely did not deserve to deal with the woman by himself.

That's when he heard it.

He had truly thought that the banging was something else at first. That's why he went to see what had happened. The sight shocked him before settling into something he couldn't identify.

Jack was kept down in the bathtub by some invisible force. And once again, Ben would become the determining factor on whether someone would drown or not.

But this time was different.

This time, he had already experienced death far more than he had when he was fourteen. He knew that a death weighing on him wouldn't be as devastating as Louise's almost death would have been. He knew that some people were so hurtful to others that sometimes it would just be easier to kill them off. It was a cruel world, and he had to make the best of it.

For Alex.

And yet, he was walking up to the bathtub. The face trapped beneath the surface had some sort of relief, while the fear still etched in some of her features. He reached out and let his hand slip underneath the water. The woman clung to it with enough strength to pull him down if he did not brace himself. With a sudden surge of his strength, he pulled her out. It was if he were pulling her from some thick syrup, yet it fell away from her body the way water was supposed to.

Already, Starbright's other arm was trying to cover her private parts, even though Ben had made it a point to show that he wasn't looking. "There is something wrong with your house! If Alex-"

Ben leaned down so they were looking eye to eye. She became startled and tried to harden her face in order to stand up to whatever threat he was posing.

The soldier, however, knew that he had to be quick. "You've ruined Alex's life far more that I thought possible by your actions. He didn't cry to me over bullet wounds, but for the fact that you had left him. If anything, he deserves more than you."

"What-"

That was the last word that she ever uttered before Ben shoved her back into the water.

He stepped back as his clothes absorbed whatever water from the splash came his way. A grim satisfaction filled his mind as he watched as the surface became a barrier again, with Starbright's fists pounding against its changing form. Limbs flew against the force, but never got through.

He left the bathroom, not sparing the woman another glance. He would look at her again when she was dead. By then, he felt as if the death would finally settle its weight on his shoulders and haunt him as if it would have if he had let Louise drown that day.

But if it didn't sting as much as it should have, he was sure that he couldn't bring himself to care for the difference.

Blunt should have been expected. He would have wanted to take Ben away to control his most useful spy, after all. Even Jones couldn't keep the man at bay forever with the current guardian out of the picture.

"Where were you?" the man questioned, watching as Ben skilled his face to not reveal anything. He shouldn't have investigated the noise. Then there would be at least some truth to whatever lies he had to spin. If he had learned anything, some truth was better than nothing.

"He was with me." Alex stepped forward, with more defiance in his eyes than Ben had seen of the blond teenager in the time they had known each other.

"And where would that be?" Blunt was obviously becoming impatient in finding a way to trap Ben (and therefore Alex).

"Hiking. We… we had to lie to Jack, though. She was becoming…" A slight wave of panic filled his face in with more than a teenager his age should ever have. "…abusive." The word came out speedily with all the emotions that Alex had within him attached to it. "I… I needed an escape. I… I was planning to tell Ben what was happening, since you obviously weren't listening-"

"I fail to see why I would need to."

"I called! I figured that she wouldn't suspect the assholes that ruined my life! But you just ignored me! So I was going to tell Ben, but… he just came back to make sure he didn't leave the stove on and…"

"The bath water was left running," the soldier said, stepping in. Silently, he congratulated the teenager for his performance. Alex had seen the man's ideas, since reading men like Blunt was sometimes simpler than going through a child's book. "It was spilling onto the stairs, so I went into the bathroom. When I saw Miss Starbright, I immediately tried to revive her with CPR, but it appeared that it was already too late."

Mrs. Jones nodded her head, and before Blunt could say a word, she said, "We'll keep in contact about what has happened. I'm sorry that we couldn't help you before this unfortunate accident happened, Alex."

The teenager nodded, immune to the lack of emotion in the voice. Ben knew that she really did care, but the presence of Blunt had forced her to step into the mold that their world needed for things of this nature. The brown eyes watched as the two left the house, and never turned away until the car they had been driven in was long out of sight.

The silence that had stayed in the cottage seeped into the weight on the older spy's shoulders. If anything, it was more painful than the death that he had not prevented. In fact, he had helped in a sense.

"So Joan Barringer got another victim."

Ben's response was one full of surprise. "How do you know?"

"That book. You left your confession thing in it." The boy made a face that seemed to be a mixture of confusion and annoyance. "You could have told me yourself."

They didn't talk much after that. But at dinner, the blond teenager had fished out the old book from the shelf and laid it at the table. Gently, he took the old papers with the written words that Ben could easily recall out. The penned words reminded the older man about the blood that had hit the wall when Louise was actually killed. The wall had been fifty feet away.

"I wonder if it really is her ghost and not some curse." Alex opened the book to the legend that started it all. "That would mean that she could kill any of us."

"I-"

"It's okay. She obviously didn't kill you, so maybe she won't try to kill me." The teenager just shrugged. "I mean, it just seems… sad, you know? She should have also been mad at her husband. But maybe she loved him too much to blame him in the end."

"You… you actually believe in it." The statement was supposed to sound more like a question, but something in Ben told him that it had already been a fact that Alex had accepted the impossible.

"You said it yourself. You saw it with your own eyes." Alex closed the book, before pulling it into his arms. "I'll hide it, if you don't want to see it."

Ben took the pages that he had once poured his heart and soul onto in order to tell himself that the madness was real. Whatever remained of him afterwards was already seen by the world. "If… if you want."

A single nod passed between the two. It took weeks for Ben to realize that Alex had hidden the book in plain sight: sitting flat on the other books on the highest shelf.

There was irony there, but at the moment Ben didn't really care to notice it. Instead, he had gone back to the yellowed pages and hid them from himself between two of his old text books from his school years.

They never directly talked about Starbright's death until K-Unit stormed the house.

Ben had just gotten back from a mission to find himself in a worse confusion than expected. All of Alex's stuff seemed to have been tossed out the window. Some of the items had taken the two story fall onto the ground better than others. Shards of glass and china littered the area as papers danced themselves into the garden.

"Alex?" Ben called out. When he saw the head peaking out the window, his temper instantly flared. "What the hell did you do, Wolf?"

"The kid really is your charge? Shit, he was telling the truth." The head ducked back into the house, and Ben could pick up the sounds of speech but couldn't make out the words.

He pulled out his cell and put speed dial on. The teenager at the other end picked up after the third ring. The blond's voice revealed nothing of how he was feeling. "Ben? Are you-"

"What did those bastards do?" The question wasn't supposed to come out as harsh as it did, and the man hoped that the other understood that it wasn't meant for him.

"They stormed in as if they owned the place. I told them that you were my guardian, but they didn't believe me. They told me to go back to my parents and basically kicked me out of the house."

"You didn't fight them."

"It wasn't worth destroying the living room for them."

Ben's gut twisted at the words. He had some antiques passed down from one family member or another that he had placed on a shelf or two, providing enough space so that they wouldn't easily be destroyed. "But they're-"

"I know, destroying my room. I wanted to stop, but I heard a gun go off-"

"I'm going to fucking kill them," Ben hissed. "Destruction is one thing, but using a gun in my house… Where are you?"

"I went to the library. You know, finish homework so that we could hang out tonight."

"I'll try to be quick."

"Ben… do you think Joan Barringer is upset? I mean, she loved her house a lot and now…"

The man caught the words. "Listen, how about I deal with those three later. Right now, I think we need to talk."

"I'll meet you in the library, then."

Ben snapped the phone shut, ending the call without a proper goodbye. He picked up the habit from the younger spy, who would often leave whatever message he needed to leave before stopping the answering machine from getting any kind of identification. It had forced both of them to learn to identify each other by voice, something that was easily becoming a second nature.

"Fox-" Whatever Eagle was going to say was cut off by a glare. Ben dropped his bags before fishing through his jacket pocket for the car key. Realizing immediately afterwards that driving while pissed off certainly wouldn't help Alex, he shoved the keys back in and began walking towards the road.

"Fox, what the hell?" Wolf's voice had demanded an answer, but Ben was not going to give it to him. Too often he had at least spared the man a glance and some sort of answer and apology, but that was before he learned what hell there could be on the earth with no unit to help.

"Alex's parents died when he was one year old. His uncle died years ago, and since then MI6 has been blackmailing him to do their dirty work. He has suffered more than you can imagine." Ben finally turned to face his former team members, watching each of their reactions with some satisfaction of his words. Snake at least had some decency to look ashamed. Eagle just looked curious with a hint of sorrow, while Wolf had a mask of anger.

"They wouldn't-"

"He has a bullet wound right next to his heart that almost took his life," the spy hissed. "Do you know how hard it was for me to make sure that he was kept out of that world? That the head of MI6 was this close to landing my ass in jail because-" He choked on the words, reminding himself that he couldn't connect himself with Starbright's death. "-because they wanted to place Alex in a situation where they could blackmail the poor kid into their bidding again? If I hadn't taken this job, they would have sent him on more missions until he was insane or dead."

"Doesn't he have someone else?" Eagle asked hesitantly. Somewhere in the back of Ben's mind, he realized that he was scaring his former unit. However, he was at beyond the point of caring and in the realm of schadenfreude.

"No. His past guardian literally upped and left, only to come back as an abusive bitch who was trying to control Alex's life. If she hadn't died from whatever weird accident that happened in the bath, we would both be in a worse condition than we are now."

The soldier turned away and continued away. He didn't say another word to them, and wished that he never had to speak to them again.

But the world was filled with unnecessary conversation sometimes. He was ready for that moment, despite his wishes of just banishing the other three men beyond the realm of living.

It took Ben about twenty minutes to reach the library. By then, his anger had slipped away into fear. It still wasn't the weight of the death that had haunted him, but the lack of conversation between the two spies about what had happened. At this point, it was obvious that Alex knew that Ben had been in the house when Starbright was killed. And yet he had lied for him, not even question what had gone down while Ben was at the house.

Alex was sitting at an otherwise empty table near the doorway. He looked up quickly when Ben approached the area, before turning back down to his book. "I'm almost done."

The soldier nodded, going off to the section with the DVDs lined up against the shelf. Maybe after the initial talks were over, the two could have a movie night. Just like they usually did before Starbright came around.

By the time Alex was ready, Ben had checked out the DVDs he thought looked interesting and was waiting by the door. The two stepped out into the chilly autumn air, and Ben cringed as the wind blew into their faces. He wished he did take the car, but then again it wasn't completely bad. At least it wasn't snowing.

They picked the local grocery store to stop at. The small restaurant attached was appealing to both men so they went in to eat.

They started really talking once the menus and orders were taken.

"Did you want Jack to live?" Ben asked slightly.

Alex's eyes didn't look up from the silverware. "Of course I do. I wanted the old Jack to live."

"The old Jack."

"She was great to have around. She was the sister that I never had. I thought that she would stay for a long time… I thought that she would leave later on. When she really did have enough, and then we would talk."

"What if she did talk to you?"

"It would have made it better, wouldn't it? I mean, it wouldn't have hurt as much. I wouldn't have run to MI6. Hell, I could have escaped it all."

"Does that mean-"

"No. You being my guardian has been one good thing in my life since my uncle was killed. Between you and Mrs. Jones… well…" Alex finally picked up his head. His brown eyes, which had been worn by the manipulations of the rest of the world, pierced Ben's. "It would be worse. Believe me."

It took Ben a moment to gather his words together. "Alex, I-"

"Thank you."

The soldier waited, knowing that if Alex didn't continue, that he would never know what the teenager was thinking.

The blond did. "She was blaming the house instead of thanking you for saving her life. I can understand that she cared for me, but she doesn't care about who I really am. All I have to be is safe. Not well, happy, but safe. You… you understand."

Realization hit him like a bullet. "You were there."

"I… watched her. I had to see the end of it. She looked so angry and scared… but she still didn't understand. I had to escape somehow." His gaze turned onto the knife. "She could have killed me if she thought it would spare me pain. It was going to happen either way, I think. She was going to die somehow."

"But it was horrible for her."

"It's always horrible in our world. I always thought that it would be an assassin or something that would kill her. I never thought she would turn out like that. For so long, I hoped that she would be able to change herself back. But she didn't. So we did what we would have to do."

"I'm sorry that you loss her."

"I'm sorry too." Alex looked up, and there was fear sketched into his face. "I… I thought that I was enjoying watching her die. I thought she deserved it. The new her, I mean. And… and… I'm worried."

Ben thought back to the day. He remembered the satisfaction he had when he knew she was going to die, no matter how grim he thought about it. He remembered the pain that he felt from the idea of being taken away from Alex, rather than the fact that he had left the woman to die. He thought abut the lack of dreams that had once haunted him. He remembered when he was fourteen, feeling sick about the idea of his father leading Louise to death.

"Don't worry. I'll be here," the older spy offered, feeling a bit lame and cliché. "And we'll be okay."

"We?"

"We both played a part. And we…" The last words slipped out slowly. "We both enjoyed it."

In the back of his mind, Ben couldn't help but wonder if Twist Cottage got its name from something else besides the twisted corpse that had once been Joan Barringer once she hanged herself. Maybe it also told people that their ways of thinking and their basic morals would be twisted.

K-Unit returned to the house later that week. They had disappeared while Ben had been comforting his charge. Honestly, the spy couldn't have felt any more relieved and annoyed at the same time. He would get them back one day. For Alex's sake.

When they did come back, they had towed with them some random items from here and there that they thought a fifteen year old boy would like for his room. It was a lame attempt, as the coordination that they showed when getting matching things had failed beyond all hope. The theme seemed to be more for a child than a man (which was pretty much what Alex had become after dealing with MI6 missions), with trucks and sports being the main idea. The colors clashed horribly and made the spy cringe when he saw them.

The teenager had refused to leave his room when the voices of the unit filled the cottage.

Ben was somewhat glad that the lack of the teenager's presence made the soldiers all the more regretful. Or, at least, as regretful as those people could get. He turned down the items, saying that Alex would pick out the things himself and certainly would not appreciate the things they had gotten. This had been more hurtful then the lack of Alex had been, which made the harsh comments worth more.

"You've turned into a bastard, Fox," Wolf complained. "Seriously, Cub should just come out and face us. Not hide in his room."

"He's not hiding," Ben lied. "He's making up all the homework and papers that you tossed out the window. It took me forever to explain that to all his teachers, by the way. I almost told them that a bunch of SAS men just came and stormed his room like they were drunk for no apparent reason. Not to mention the bullet holes in the walls. Did any of you at least think how he would react to you blowing up his room with a gun? Not to mention that it's my house!"

When the duo had returned to assess the damage, they had discovered that quite a bit of the room was in disrepair. A complete fluke of luck had all of the loose paper caught within some plant in the garden or another, and they salvaged what they could off the lawn. What had really startled Ben the most was the actual room. There were several bullet holes in the walls (which lead to those bullets continuing and piercing through walls of other rooms) and remains of the light fixture. Everything that had managed to not get tossed out of the window had been scattered across the room, some of the items taking dents or cracks along the way.

Alex had sarcastically said that his room needed a makeover anyways. Then he gathered what he could before going out for a broom for the shards scattered within.

Snake visibly cringed at the verbal abuse. "Do you need help fixing it?"

"Alex is helping me. He already knows what we have to do."

"Fox-"

"What Eagle? Are you sorry? You freakin' trashed my house and then disappeared by the time I came back! You didn't even try to clean up any of it! You just left!"

"Is that the big issue?" Wolf's voice sounded bored, which just made Ben even angrier.

"No! You didn't give a damn for a teenager who has saved this world more times than you have. In fact, he probably has done more for everyone than all of us put together! Why the hell would the world make a child save people who don't give a damn about him is beyond me!"

The men of the unit stepped back, startled. Once upon a time, Ben would have been appalled at himself for yelling at his teammates in such a matter. But that old version of himself had long since passed away. His existence now seemed to be tied into the well being of Alex. It wasn't just because the teenager was his charge, but because they suffered through similar horrors. While the soldier was sure that his experiences can, and maybe never will, compare to the one of the teenager's, they had an understanding. It was lonely in the world of spies, after all.

Eagle's bravery (or, more likely, his stupidity) made him the first one to confront Ben. "You act like he's your kid."

Ben answered back without any hesitation, "Yeah, he is. And he's better company than you lot put together."

After that, they didn't bring up the topic again.

"Should I start calling you 'Dad'?" Alex asked hesitantly. The stack of books acted as a barrier that really meant nothing to the two, but it remained on the table nevertheless as the teenager searched for more sources for his history paper.

The fact that the blond had listened in on the conversation didn't faze Ben anymore. They had picked up their quirks from the constant threat of dying, and to find that it had become every day life despite the lack of danger wasn't worrying. After all, hearing doesn't necessarily mean speaking.

"Only if you want to. I just said it to shut them up." Ben flipped over a page of the newspaper, his eyes scanning over the inked words.

"You're more like an older brother, anyways."

"Then that's what I'll be."

A smile appeared at the corners of Alex's mouth. "Thanks."

Another piece of silence settled within the room before Alex spoke again. "I wish I could get back at them."

"They're not girls," Ben joked, a slight hint of regret in his voice.

"I… I did some more research. Into the house, I mean." The blond pulled a book from the near bottom of the stack that was near his elbow. "There have been incidents before they closed down the house for a long time. Men died of mysterious accidents, too."

"What?" Ben almost literally sprung up from his chair as he reached for the book that the teenager was holding out. It couldn't have been true… could it? He had seen the legend himself.

"It's a book about mysterious deaths," Alex explained. "There are a lot of women listed there that lived in this area. I'm guessing that they came near the house at one point or another. But there are some men in there, too. They have something in common."

The soldier flipped the pages until he got to the page bookmarked by another sheet. He read each of the mini biographies carefully, before looking up. "They were carpenters?"

"Not just that. Those are the type of people who fix homes. As in, destroy and rebuild. Or alter drastically. I guess if it was just to fix up something, she wouldn't have minded." Alex pondered the thought for a second, before answering Ben's questioning look. "She loved this place a lot. Maybe even more than her husband. Haven't you ever wondered why this place was never torn down if so many people had died here?"

"So, there's more to the curse?"

"Maybe it was unintentional. You know, like how those crappy movies you always get have the love thing in it that makes everything right."

"My taste in movies is not bad."

Alex shrugged. "Anyways, did you hear what almost happened to Eagle?"

The older man could feel his heart beat faster. "What?"

"He almost fell down the stairs." A grin cracked on the blond's face as he added, "He swore that something was trying to trip him."

Ben woke up to pounding in the middle of the night. The weather was turning colder with each sunset, so the man was somewhat reluctant to leave the bed, but his instincts had kicked in and he was out and running.

It was only when he passed Alex's room when he realized that there were three distinct fists pounding away at the wall.

The soldier could hear the door knob rattling as if the thing was locked. But it made no sense, really. After all, the lock was on the inside, not to mention that it was new enough to not jam…

He stopped in front of the door that marked the room that K-Unit had housed themselves in for the time being. The pounding had increased, as if the men on the other side of the barrier were trying to escape something.

Could Alex have really been right?

He was about to reach for the knob to at least get an idea of what was going on when the picture frame hanging on the wall the door was a part of fell to the ground, the glass shattering within the frame. But it only diverted his attention for a moment, when his eyes realized that where the photo once was had light pouring out into the hallway. Cautiously, he stepped around the glass and looked directly into the spot.

It was as if a window had been placed behind the frame the whole time. Ben placed a hand against the area to find an invisible force against his fingers. He withdrew his hand quickly, hissing at the burning cold that he felt. He distanced his face from the window, noticing that frost had begun to form at the edges.

That makes no sense. It's not that cold in the house. Unless the idiots broke a window, and-

His thoughts came to a complete halt when he realized that the frost was melting into the image of a woman's head. Unconsciously, he traced the outline of the face in the air as he stared into what were the eyes. They were warm, staring directly into him just like Alex's would, but there was something else there. Something that marked a person who has killed so many people with no drop of remorse in them.

It was amazing that he could get all that from frost shaped like eyes, but he was sure it was really there.

And all at once, the face and the rest of the frost vanished. Behind the cover, the room truly looked like an artic version of what should have been there. Frost covered what it could, and the areas that it didn't seemed to be stiff from frozen joints. Off to the side, he could see his teammates still pounding on the door. Within that second, the thuds that Ben had not been paying attention to filled his ears before they stopped. Mummers took their place before faces filled his vision. Each one was full of panic, desperately searching for a way to escape, trying to reach out to his side of the world and…

Carefully, Ben reached for the frame as he ignored the faces. Shaking off the loose shards, he placed the frame back in front of the window, hiding the faces of his former teammates. The pounding resumed, this time more desperate than the last. But they began to fade, allowing the peace to settle back into the air.

"Ben?" Alex stepped out from the corner that hid that part of the hallway from the other. "What happened?"

"Nothing, Alex. Go back to sleep."

Once again, Ben could not find himself to really care for the deaths. The police were beyond baffle, as the temperature outside was not at all at a level to freeze the three men in the way that they were found. The police found no window from the hallway to the room. The glass within the frame had fixed itself overnight. The rumors flew faster than ever when it was realized that three men in the same room died from hypothermia while the other two members were left unharmed.

Blunt didn't stop by that time.

Jones had talked to Ben over the phone, inquiring on how the two spies were dealing with the deaths. The man said that they were doing okay, as they were not as close to the unit as they once had been.

He couldn't but wonder if Alex had ever been close to the unit at all.

The two didn't speak about the night. Instead, they went back into their little worlds as if nothing had happened. The one time they did hint at the moment, Alex had simply said, "Nothing really did happen for us. It's not like they mattered much to us at the moment."

Nothing else needed to be said.

The older spy had planned for the best birthday that the teenager could get for the sixteen years he was alive. Well, at least, best in relation to the past few ones that he had with an uncle missing some of the times and staying in the hospital the other.

"Are you sure?" Alex asked once again, checking his coat to make sure that he had zipped up. It was a cold February day, the kind that teenagers Alex's age would spend indoors with friends.

"Yes, I am. Spend the day with your friends. I have something to do while you're away, so don't worry about it." Ben smiled and he watched as it was mirrored back to him. "Now go. I'm sure that your friends have some sort of surprise waiting for you."

"Yeah, waiting to jump me." The boy shook his head. "Well, I'll call if they kidnap me or something."

"Just make sure that you aren't being dragged to a strip joint."

Alex made a face. "I swear, if they do, I'm destroying his car."

"Alex…"

"Okay, fine. It'll just mysterious be found in some river."

The blond then slipped out the door, taking his usual method of not ending the conversation properly. Ben couldn't help but smile at the work he had created. If anything, Alex was more of a teenager now than he was when they meet on the Snakehead mission.

Minutes later, Blunt entered through the same door.

"Ah, Mr. Blunt. Thank you for coming over. I never got a chance to properly show this place off." The door slammed itself shut, startling the cold man's face into showing surprise. "Welcome to Twist Cottage."

The head of MI6 woke up on the basement floor, groaning as he tried to get up. The coldness had seeped into his aging body, however, and hindered some of his progress. Ben watched with satisfaction.

"You should have known better, Blunt," he said. "You tried to hurt Alex again."

"Daniels, if you do not-" Whatever else he was going to say was suddenly cut off, as the older man's voice was suddenly lost. His face twisted with frustration, but still no words came from his mouth.

"Thank you Joan," Ben muttered softly before continuing his speech to Blunt. "You were so sure that Alex would stay under your thumb when he was sent to me, weren't you? At first, you thought it was wonderful that an agent would be controlling the boy's life. Of course you protested that it wasn't direct control, but it was still better than having Starbright ruining your plans over and over."

He sat down on the chair next to the stone wall, wrapping his coat tighter around him. "You thought I would be a heartless bastard like you were, right? Well, you got your wish in your way. I have helped the curse on this house kill four people."

The shock and disbelief made a smile appear on Ben's face. "You can see for yourself. If you manage to get up, you'll realize that there's a barrier around the area where you are. You won't be able to get out, and no, it is not glass or plastic."

Blunt did as Ben had instructed, and with agony filling his eyes, he discovered that the words were true.

"In the fifteen hundreds, during Queen Elizabeth's reign, there lived a witch named Joan Barringer. She had a husband who cheated on her with a local village girl. She cursed the girl to die, and the girl did," the spy said, reciting the story that his heart had memorized since that day when he was only fourteen years old in his father's office. "The villagers were going to burn her at the stake, but she came back here. Before hanging herself, she cursed the house to kill any woman who dared entered. It was a bit flawed, since women who only stayed for a brief time only had very hazardous attempts at their well being, but for the most part any woman who lived here would die."

Ben pulled a picture out of his pocket and flung it towards Blunt's direction, watching as it hit the invisible force and landed with the photo showing. "That was my stepmother, Louise. She was a true bitch, hiding her nature until my father had married her and couldn't escape. She was the reason we moved here when I was a teenager."

Memories slipped back into the spy's mind. "She was supposed to drown, but I save her that day. I couldn't have lived with myself if she drowned. Only a week later, while I was away, she was minced by the lawn mower. It made a terrible mess. And it was only later when I discovered that my father knew of the curse on the house. He knew that only Louse would be targeted, and let the curse play itself out."

"He kept the house, even though we moved. He rented it to men who wanted to get rid of some girl in their life. You wouldn't believe some of the people they brought. The money he made was for me, but I never knew. Hell, I only just found out that he made sure that the women deserved to die before taking an offer. He was a college professor, after all. Not the type of man you would think to be doing this."

"Anyways, less than a year ago, he retired and gifted me the house. I didn't realize how much I would come to love the place that I once hated. I didn't understand, even then, that some lives just don't deserve to be left alone. Of course, now I do. So I let Jack Starbright and what was left of K-Unit to die. I did not kill them directly, but I might as well have."

"After K-Unit died a few months ago, I looked into ghosts and curses. Turns out that the library here had a few books. One was contacting ghosts. So I figured, that day you pretty much kidnapped Alex and forced him to go on a mission against both of our wills, that I would ask Joan Barringer to kill you. You have hurt Alex the most, probably more than Starbright and K-Unit combined. It turns out that the ghost doesn't just kill women. Joan hates people who try to completely alter or destroy her house. That, and she loathes people who harm children. Who knew?"

Ben took a breath, realizing that he had been talking for quite a while. It was deserved, in some way. If anyone, Blunt should know his fate before suffering through it. "So, she agreed to take your life too. I honestly can't guess her method this time, but I really don't care. In a few hours, you'll be dead. Jones will succeed you and make sure that Alex is not ever used again. You don't know how much I worried that he would come back dead from that last mission. But at least he'll be able to celebrate his birthday without having to worry about you."

The man got up from the chair, ignoring the glares that Blunt was sending him. "This is the last time I'll see you alive. And I'm the last person you'll see alive ever. Enjoy hell, Blunt."

And with that, Ben left.

Blunt was killed by suffocation under mysterious circumstances. Jones did succeed him in MI6, and Alex never had to worry about the pressures of being a spy for the rest of his teenage years. It would be his choice in the end whether to pursue his father's style of life, and only his.

Alex had smiled at the birthday gift, before suggesting that they would go eat cake and open gifts. They had called the cops the following day. And, for once, the curse did not try to attack the woman who entered the house, who turned out to be Mrs. Jones.

"You sure?" The blond held up the key. "You know that I could get anyone killed in there."

"Yeah." Ben smiled at the college student standing in front of him. "You'll be responsible enough. I trust you."

"I'll use the force wisely." Alex saluted the other, which brought laughter out of both of them. "What about you?"

"I'm visiting Dad in America for about a month. We still have to talk about what happened. After that, it'll probably be some missions, paperwork, and hopefully someone to settle down with. I can't be a bachelor forever."

"Wanna bet?"

The older man frowned. "Are you trying to imply something?"

"Maybe." The blonde cracked a grin, before letting his face settle into a truly sincere smile. "Thank you. For everything."

"You deserved the best, Alex. I just had to make sure that you would get it." Ben shrugged. "Just be careful."

"I always am." The two shared a hug before Alex turned towards the dorms. He stopped, however, and glanced back. "You better stay alive, Ben."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

As Ben thought about the years they had spent together and the deaths that had come about because of him, he thought that there was truth to the words. He wasn't haunted with any form of guilt. It should have troubled him, but it felt nice.

No one could prove the deaths were murders. They all seemed like freak accidents.

And even past that fact, there was another one that had comforted the spy as he lived in Twist Cottage with the young spy. It was the same reason why his father had moved the family into the house. He cared for Ben, more than the man had ever admitted or shown.

And this time, for Ben, it was all for Alex.

So... everyone enjoy the ride? Yeah, I did make Ben a bit more... what's the word... darker than he should be. But then again, it was only for this story. If I get around to writing more Alex Rider stories, I might remember that he's a good guy. But until then... yeah.

Well, I hoped you all enjoyed!