Disclaimer: I do not own Legion or Sinister House.
Probably my entry in the crack pairing contest. I still have time to decide. Anyway, the Sinister House of Secret Love was a gothic horror romance comic DC had in the 1970s. After four issues, the title was renamed and the "love" aspect was dropped.
Another story with young Ebony Dent and comic Garth acting like a father figure.
The Sinister House of Secret Love - Prologue
A Bedtime Story
"Achoo! Achoo!"
Little Ebony Dent wiped her nose with a tissue and sniffled as she cleaned away the drops of mucus from her nose.
It had been days and she was still sick with a 103 fever, even since she accidentally knocked over a vial in the lab. A supposedly empty vial the two Brianys failed to label as containing a host of flu germs, to which the poor girl was not vaccinated against.
Ebony balled up the tissue and tossed it over at a waste basket and missed. She struggled in white sheets under a black comforter, propped up against an army of pillows covered in sheets decorated with designs of patchwork moons and stars. She had on dark blue button-up pjs with yellow lightning bolts. She wiped away a strand of black hair from her face, red from the fever. Blue eyes which were hazy and dozed, as if trying to enter a trance but failing to do so. Her achy arms reached over to the nightstand, to the clock.
9:30 PM.
She moaned and coughed. She couldn't sleep. And when she did, tonight she dreamed of animal men and spider queens. She thought maybe she would draw in one of her sketchbooks. She would draw what she dreamed of, but she didn't have the strength to hold up one of the pencils for very long. She was just too tired. Her feverish mind made her wonder if this sickness was something people died of in this age. Then, salvation came knocking.
Knock knockknockknock knock.
"I don't need a haircut." She replied. The person behind the door laughed. "Come in." Ebony sighed.
In came Garth Ranzz, the older Garth Ranzz of New Earth, just about ready for bed, in sweatpants and a jersey for a magnoball team called "Maxwell's Demons". The jersey matched with his ruly red hair, stubble, and muscles.
"What are you still doing up?" Garth began to lecture. "You should've been asleep an hour ago."
"Sorry, fuzzhead. I can't sleep."
He sighed. "Still not feeling good?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
He put a hand on her forehead.
"Geez, you're burning up."
"I-Achoo! Know." She sniffled.
"Bless you."
"Thanks." She blew her nose again.
"Want me to get you anything?" Garth sympathetically asked. Ebony shook her head, until an idea arose in her mind.
"Read to me?" She innocently asked.
"Sure." He smiled at her request, pulling up a chair near her bed. "What story would you like me to tell you?"
"No faerie tales." She requested.
"Really? Why not?"
"Because those stories are silly, like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White." Ebony tried to make him see her reason.
"What's so silly about them?" Garth inquired to her childhood view. His sister loved this stories when she was her age.
"Because they marry guys they don't even know. How can they call true love if they've only met for five seconds." Ebony explained, still sniffling.
"Sometimes a few seconds is all it takes, kid." He said, thinking of how he felt when he first met his wife. He had to make this girl decide on something. "Well, then what would you like? I'm open to suggestions."
"Anything?"
"Anything." He confirmed.
Ebony thought for a moment.
"Well, I borrowed some com, com, ACHOO!" This was the loudest one in a while.
"Say it, don't spray it." Garth wiped off some snot that landed on his sleeve. "And cover your mouth when you sneeze."
"Sorry." She blew her nose again.
Garth said bless you again as she threw the tissue away.
"Now what's a 'comcom'?" He asked.
"Comics." She clarified. "Over there."
Ebony lifted a wary finger over to a desk cluttered with magazines that smelled like a basement and had bad coloring. They were all very old, from the 20th Century, amazingly. Garth read the names of the covers aloud.
"Let's see. We got Adventure Comics, Action Comics, Detective Comics, House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Ghosts, Sinister-"
"That one." Ebony stopped him. Garth looked at her, then turned his attention to the comic he had in his hands.
"The Sinister House of Secret Love."
The cover had a girl running from a darkened house. The scene was an entirely Gothic landscape.
"Murder! Mystery! Death! Love! What secrets wait in the alcoves of the sinister house?" Garth read aloud
He couldn't believe how hackney people were in that century. Although he had to give them credit when it came to their music.
"I don't think you're old enough for this." Garth said. He didn't want to make her feel any more badly than she already did.
"There's nothing that smutty in it." Ebony told him. "And besides, I'm mature for my age."
"You're gonna be up the entire night if I read this." Garth said.
"I'm not scared. And besides, remember what happened in December?" Ebony reminded him.
"Yeah, you hid under the blankets with Ayla when we got that last phone call." Garth smirked as he recanted that faithful December night.
"No I didn't. You're making it up." Ebony crossed her arms to defy his statement.
"Oh no. The fever's finally reached her brain." Garth jokingly worried.
"At least I have a brain." Ebony retorted.
"No matter how small it may be." He laughed.
"A ha ha ha, chunky kong. The number of your jokes is exceeded only by the number of your weight." Ebony grumbled.
"Yeah real nice way to butter me up." Garth said.
"Come on, please?" Ebony asked with puppy dog eyes.
"You're sure you won't get scared?" Garth asked sincerely.
"I won't. I've got you looking after me." Ebony said. Mixed signals. The girl sure knew how to send them.
"You're a sweet kid." He messed up her hair.
"And you're a monkey."
"Alright, alright." He opened the comic to the first page, which came out in his hands. "Oops."
"Happened to me too." Ebony told him.
He cleared his throat and began to read.
Next Time: Shadows In The House in the Hills!