Disclaimer: No I don't own it, really I don't. I'm even too poor to own the DVD's *sob*

Chapter 4:

Grave Hill House

It was 9 at night, and if it wasn't for the coffee they had picked up from KFC, Lisbon probably would have been fast asleep hours ago. At around 6 pm, they had pulled over at a public park for a rest stop.

Before heading off again, Lisbon had called Van Pelt, so far they hadn't gotten anything out of Claire Logins, she had denied knowing about the body in the barn, and had simply said that he was a friend. And that the person Lisbon saw in the photo was her husband and not the man in the barn. Van Pelt had also reported that they were still working on the ID of the man, and should have it by tomorrow.

While Lisbon was still on the phone with her, she had asked Van Pelt to look up a hotel for them to stay at, Van Pelt had replied by saying, "I rang up David Logins to let him know you guys would be arriving, and he told me that you guys where more than welcome to stay at Grave Hill House for as long as you needed." Lisbon then thanked Van Pelt for the information, and hung up, as they headed back out on the road for Hollywood.

"Keep an eye out for Grave Hill House." Lisbon voice was tired and unenthusiastic. Jane was sure she'd fall asleep any minute now, and the sooner they got to where they were going the better, he had no intentions of ending up in a car crash. "It should be on the left hand side somewhere." She told him.

"There it is." Jane pointed out, when a side dirt road came up with a small white sign out the front saying, 'Grave Hill Rd'. Slowing the car down, Lisbon turned up the road.

The road was very poor indeed; it was covered in deep ruts and largish rocks. If they had have been in Jane's small Citron, the poor car would have stumbled and bounced, reluctant to go any further into the {what they could see in the dark} unattractive hills. Huge pine trees ran along either side of the road, making it hard to see much past them.

Jane's eyes wondered over what he could see and make out in the dark, it was obvious that this road rarely saw any traffic at all. Why anyone working on a movie would live here instead of a nice hotel was somewhat weird, but then again didn't Van Pelt say they were making a horror movie; most people who played in something like that had to be a bit weird, he thought.

Just then Jane was jogged out of his thought as Lisbon swerved to avoid a rock that was sitting on the road, if she had of hit it, it would have punctured their wheel for sure. Jane kept quiet, as Lisbon really didn't look in the mood to be teased about her driving. They still had another six miles of this hellish road left before they actually got to the house they were staying at. Jane was glad they were in the SUV, he hated to think what his poor car would be going through if he had of come in it. This time he was pulled out of his thoughts again, by Lisbon slamming on the brakes. Not foreseeing this coming, he almost smacked his head against the window, if it wasn't for the seatbelt he had been wearing, his face would have been a bit flat.

"What the heck did you do that for?" He eyed her, but then noticed that she had gone a considerable shade of white. "Lisbon, you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I-I-I think…..I don't feel very well." She then managed to mumble out, before slumping over in her seat.

"Lisbon?" Jane's voice was filled with concern, as he placed his fingers on her wrist and then her neck to check her pulse. It was racing, faster than it should have. He gently shook her, but her eyes stayed closed.

"Lisbon, Lisbon you need to wake up." He told her, still shaking her, but she never budged. "Great." Jane muttered, as he got out of the car, and walked over to Lisbon's side.

He opened the door, and shook her a little more fiercely this time, again she didn't budge. Knowing she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, he reached his arm over her and unbuckled her seat belt. Carefully, he slipped one arm around her back, and then another under her legs. Slowly and carefully he managed to lift Lisbon up and out of the car. She was a lot lighter than he had anticipated her to be, he knew she was short, but didn't think she'd be this light. Just as he was about to open the door to the back seat for her to lie down on, she grabbed at his vest with one hand and snuggled her head into his chest. Her face now had a peaceful look on it.

Jane was taken by surprise, as his heart fluttered inside of him. The last person to ever do something like this to him, was his daughter. They had come home late, and she had fallen asleep in the back seat of their car. He had, had to unbuckle her, and carried her up to her bedroom. While he had been carrying her, she had snuggled into him, but Lisbon wasn't a little girl, she was a grown woman. Now if he just had a camera and could have taken a photo of her like this, it would have made great blackmail for later on.

After a while he opened the back seat door, and laid her down on the seat, before closing the door again. He then got back into the driver's seat.

The car started back on its travels up the road, Jane wasn't sure why Lisbon had passed out, for now he put it down to the fact that she was dead tired. She mustn't have had a proper night's sleep for over two weeks now he guessed, and it had finally caught up with her.

As the car continued down the road, the pine trees soon turned to Oleanders, their branches reached out and touched the car as it travelled along the road. The Oleanders along the side of the road became many and thick, the further the car went. Branches were grabbing at the windshield as it went. The presence of the trees gave the place a feeling of darkness and eeriness. If Jane didn't know any better, he would have sworn that it was day time, and the trees where blocking out the sun. Creating an unwelcoming vibe for all those who chose to enter.

At last the car finally climbed over a hill, and came into a clearing by the gates of Grave Hill House. Jane sat and stared at the gates for a while. Were they going to a house people lived in, in real life, or had they somehow managed to jump into a horror movie. The gate was tall and ominous and heavy, set strongly into a stone wall which went off through the trees. Even from the car Jane could see a padlock and chain that was twisted around and through the bars. Beyond the gate, he could see only that the road continued, still guarded and shadowed on either side by the still dark trees.

Staring at the locked gate, Jane wasn't sure why it was locked, if he didn't know any better he would have sworn it was to stop people from getting out, rather than stopping them from getting in. He shook his head. Since when did he start to think like this, the late night must have been getting to him.

Not wanting to wake Lisbon up from her peaceful slumber on the back seat, where she had begun to now dribble, Jane decided to get out of the car and head towards the gate, there must be something or someone there to unlock the gates for them, surely Van Pelt had told them they wouldn't be getting there until around nine/ ten. And at the moment it was 9:30pm. As he got closer to the gate, he could see a button and a round speaker near it. Guessing the button was there to press to make the speaker work, he pushed it. Soon after pushing it, a voice came out of the speaker.

"What do you want?" The voice was deep and penetrating.

"I'd like to come in, could you unlock the gates please." No need to say more than necessary, he thought.

"Who are you?"

"CBI, we're here to speak to Mr Logins." Jane replied.

"What for?"

"Look, we're expected, Agent Van Pelt of the Californian Bauru of Investigation rung up today, letting a Mr David Logins know that we were going to come and question him on a murder investigation we are working on, he told her that we could stay here for as long as we needed." Jane wasn't in the mood for his usual antics, he was tired, the air was cold, and he still wasn't sure if Lisbon was one hundred percent okay.

"You'd better come back later." The voice said.

"What's your name?" Jane asked, hoping to throw whoever the voice belonged to off. There was silence for a little while before the voice spoke.

"Daniel Carlen. Why'd ya want to know for?"

"Look here Mr Carlen, you come from a large family, and you were the youngest out of all your brothers and sisters. Because of that you never got to be in charge of anything. At the moment you are delighting in exceeding your authority, and once you unlock this gate you will lose the little temporary superiority you thought you had. Though you have to let me in, because if you don't you will be in trouble, wouldn't you. You have your orders, don't you? And you have to do what you were told."

The speaker was quiet for what felt like minutes to Jane, when finally a man came from around the stone wall and walked up to the gate unlocking it, and then opening it. Eyeing Jane he moved back from the gates.

Getting back into the car, Jane started through the gates; he turned to look at the man, he guessed to be Daniel Carlen, as he went past him. In return he got a large evil grin.

Jane was grateful to have gotten through that without having to wake Lisbon up to show the guy who was boss. After a few minutes, Jane could see the makings of a large house come into view, due to the lack of light; it was really hard to make out just how it looked. A few windows had an eerie, dull yellow light coming out of them, showing that whoever was in there must have still been awake.

Grave Hill House was made back in the days when houses where made with towers on them. He wouldn't be surprised if this one had Gothic spires and gargoyles on it, after all the person living in the house was working on a horror film.

He finally reached the house. After finding a suitable place to park the car, he turned it off and got out, the house was much bigger than he had expected it to be, it was more of a mansion then a house. It was not a very welcoming thing to look at; if he had to compare it to something, he would have chosen the Adams family house. It screamed evil, and danger to all those who dared to enter. It was a house without kindness, it wasn't built so that it could be lived in, and it was not fit for people, love or hope. It had the face of dread, despair, and death.

'I should have gone back and on to Hollywood and found a hotel room. We could have come tomorrow when Lisbon was well.' He thought to himself, as he shook of the feeling that the house was giving him a death glare, and headed over to the driver's side back door, to try and wake Lisbon again.

"Lisbon we're here, it's time to wake up." He told her, while shaking her. Her whole body rocked back and forwards, yet she never bat an eye, but remained in her deep slumber. Her hair flew around her face, as the wind came into the car with a huge gust, creating the effect of making her look like she was dead. Her face, which was still pale, had started to be engulfed by her dark hair, which swarmed around her head, like bees around a hive.

The eeriness that had been swarming the place now filled the car giving him the chills, his stomach turned inside out, deep down he could feel something was wrong, very wrong.

He stretched his arm out, and pulled back her hair, so that it was out of her face, and then laying his hand on her forehead, he let out a sigh of relief, it felt normal. She seemed fine, her pulse was now steady, and not racing like it had been the first time he checked.

Being careful not to hurt her, he again picked her back up. Then after closing and locking the car, he headed for the steps, trying hard not to look up at the house as he went, he didn't need that feeling in his stomach, about leaving before it was too late, nagging him again, not yet anyway. Carefully he climbed the steps that lead to its veranda, and aimed straight for the front door. The silence that had engulfed him was soon broken by the sound of his steps echoing through the night, as he walked across the wooden veranda to get to the door.

Once at the door, he had to put Lisbon down on the veranda to be able to knock, since the iron knocker was shoulder level, unlike the car door which he could get at from where his hands where while holding Lisbon.

The knocker had a gargoyle's face on it, and gave the presence of evil being in the house a stronger appearance. After contemplating whether it was too late to now turn back and find a hotel, he finally took hold of the knocker and pounded on the door. It wasn't too long before footsteps could be heard from behind the door. Knowing that someone was coming, he leaned back over and picked Lisbon back up. The door was soon open by a lady, who in every way resembled the man that had been at the gate.

They both had been dark and unwelcoming. Unlike Daniel, she had thick dark black hair, whiles Daniel had silver hair with shimmers of white here and there.

"You must be the lovely Mrs Carlen? My name is Patrick Jane, and this here is Agent Teresa Lisbon, we're from the CBI." He indicated Lisbon by looking down at the body he was holding. The woman eyed Lisbon, before looking back up at Jane.

"What's wrong with her?" She asked.

"She hasn't had a proper sleep in over two weeks now, and the ride was too much for her. We were told by a colleague that David Logins offered to put us up for the night." Jane smiled his charming smile at her, but she didn't weaver, her face remain hard and unreadable, her expression of hostility remained also. After looking the two of them over a few more times, she stood aside and allowed them to enter. When Jane entered, he could see that the woman was defiantly someone to keep an eye on, just like her husband, there was something about the couple that just couldn't be trusted.

The room they now stood in was dark, it was illuminated, but the light from the candle, which was the only source of light in the room, just made the room feel more eerie then it had felt outside. The room was filled with dark wood carvings of humans that from the chest up had the top half of a dog, or cat. Werewolves and Werecats came to Jane's mind as soon as he saw them. While other carvings were men whose legs had been replaced by those of a donkey or a goat. After a quick glance around it was easy to see all the doors where closed in the house.

"Could you take us to our rooms please?" He asked, Lisbon may have been light when he first started carrying her, but now his arms had begun to ach and he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold her. Then as an afterthought he added, "You did say you were Mrs Carlen, didn't you?

The woman didn't reply, but instead just turned and started up the stairs that were in the room, Jane followed behind her; every step he took made the floor boards creak. Mrs Carlen then, once they reached the floor, had headed down the hall passing doors on her right and left as she went, she then stopped and turned right, facing a door with the number 13 on it. The hall continued a little further on from where Mrs Carlen had stopped, and Jane could see more stairs leading back down.

"Nice room, I like the colour, it's a nice shade of red." He told her, not that he meant it, it was anything but nice. It was horrid, how anyone could even make a room like this was beyond him. It had more carving in this room, this time of cat's that looked anything but cute.

"I've got dinner waitin for ya if you want it, better come down and have it now since it's 10 O'clock, and I set dinner at 6 on the dot. So it's cold." She said to no one in particular, well maybe the wall. Jane went across the room, and laid Lisbon down on the bed, then turning back to Mrs Carlen he nodded.

"I don't stay after I set dinner, but der Master said to wait till you got here, since he's already gone off to bed. Now that ya here I gonna go pack everything up and leave. Me and ma husband live in the caretakers cottage a few miles away." Jane just nodded again. "So there ain't gonna be anyone here, so if ya need anything yo gotta get it ya'self." She told him before heading back out the door, and leaving him.

Okay Chapter 1 is all done.

Hope it's all good, sorry for any mistakes.

PLZ PLZ plz review, I'd love to hear what you think about this chapter.