chapter one: misplaced

Carefully, carefully… I balanced the crucible over the tiny flame I had created, the tongs shaking slightly from the tightness of my grip. Come on, work this time…

"Um… Mr. Ackerman?"

I almost jumped, focused as I was on the experiment, but kept my hand steady. "Yes, come in, Xion. What is it?"

"I was just… it's almost dinner, sir."

"Thank you, Xion." I shifted the crucible from the flame to the wire rack I had set up. That should do it… Behind me, I heard the tiniest scuffle of her feet as she left the room. Shrugging, I removed the lid from the tiny ceramic pot, intent on finishing the experiment before any other interruptions wandered in.

.

"I know it was here…" he muttered, examining the bookshelves. "I saw it yesterday. You don't come across texts like that every day…"

"What are you looking for, sir?"

He glanced sideways, and saw the silhouette of a girl nearby. "Oh, Xion, good. Have you seen Animus Interfectorem? I know it was around here yesterday…"

"It's here." She extended her hand, offering him the leather-bound volume. "But… begging your pardon, sir, I'm not Xion."

Taking the book, he began to leaf through it as the second part of her statement registered in his mind. Zexion looked up. "What did you say-?"

The figure was gone.

.

I was notating down the last bits of the experiment when Zexion came in, clearly shaken. That made me pause in my meandering thoughts- it took quite a bit to make someone like him flinch. "Something wrong?"

"Is there anyone here, apart from us, Marluxia, and Xion?"

My pen twitched, spraying a few drops of stray ink across the page. "Not to my awareness, no."

He sat down next to me, placing a book on the table. I nudged it aside, keeping it clear of the chemicals I had been mixing. "I met someone in the library claiming to be a seventh person."

"Maybe it was Xion? You know, playing a prank? Pulling your leg?" I resumed writing, trying to both pay attention to my conversation and to fix the last details of the experiment in my mind.

Zexion snorted. "Hardly. That's completely out of character for someone like her."

"You've only known her for three days." I scrawled down a final sentence, and then capped my pen.

He stretched out a hand, yanking me around to face him. His eyes hid just the slightest gleam of anger. "Vexen, I am a psychologist. I'm an excellent judge of character. Xion would not do that. It countermands everything that she is and has trained to be."

"Then who do you propose it is? One of Demyx's ghosts?" I glared at him. "We all know that those are just in his head. Remnants of-"

Shaking his head somewhat violently, Zexion snapped, "I don't know who it was, but I'm not Demyx. That person was real, which implies that there is somehow a seventh person here. She could be anyone; more importantly, she could set off a chain of events that we would both never see come to pass."

Under the intensity of his glare, I crumpled just a tiny bit. "We'll ask Marluxia about it. He's the groundskeeper; part of his duties should be to keep a record of those who leave and enter the grounds."

"Fine." Zexion drew back abruptly, turning to his book. "Look at what I found, though. It's a fairly rare, old text. Do you think it could be of any help to us?"

I looked at the cover, reading the words inscribed there with a strange twist of foreboding. "Animus Interfectorem... 'The Mind of a Murderer'? Where did you find this?"

"The library."

"Why on earth would this be there?" I picked it up, flipping through the first few pages. "It's an awful book, not easy reading at all. An intensive look into the psyche of a serial killer who lived centuries ago…"

"I'm aware of its content, Vexen." Zexion repossessed the book. "As to why it's here… I've no idea. You can inquire into the matter all you like. I more care about how we can use it in our current situation."

"I don't see how we can." I flipped to a new page in my notebook, and started scrawling down a reminder to look at the book when I had more time. "Everything in our situation is utterly unlike the one described there."

Zexion hummed slightly, sifting through the pages. "If you think so. But, Vexen-"

A tiny cough interrupted him, and we both turned to see Xion standing in the doorway. "Sirs, it's dinner."

"Thank you, Xion," I said, casting a sideways glance at Zexion. We stood, and followed her toward the dining room.

Traditionally, the servants of a house wouldn't dine with the owners, but Demyx had asked that they did. Xion, who seemed particularly traditional in her mannerisms, was uncomfortable seated at the table with us, but Marluxia was at ease, talking with us and laughing at Xigbar's jokes. I joined Xion in discomfort for the night, staring at my plate.

"Soup again?" Demyx was saying when I sat down. "Ugh. I want something good… like a nice, juicy steak. What'da ya think, Xiggy? Steaks for all?"

The man in question poked the surface of his own dinner with a spoon. "It'd be a nice change from drinking my dinner, to be sure. We have any bread in this joint?"

"I'll get some, sir," Xion volunteered, standing up quickly. Under the table, Zexion kicked me. I jumped, fixing my gaze on Xigbar. "Xigbar, go help her. You wanted the bread, after all."

Xigbar glared at me, and then shrugged. "C'mon, Dem. Let's all just go. 'Sides, we could find better goodies in the kitchen on our raid."

"Sure," Demyx agreed, and then the three of them trooped off.

Marluxia seemed unconcerned by the entire event, delicately sipping at his soup. "That was masterfully done."

"What do you mean?" I snapped, unnerved by his comment. "They just wanted bread. It's unfair to make Xion do all of the work."

"I mean, by asking Xigbar to join her, you cleared the room for a conversation. You've only got a few minutes, what do you want?"

I coughed, trying to order my thoughts. "It's only a small matter, really… earlier today, Zexion met a girl in the library who claimed to be none of the six of us. Is there a seventh person on the grounds?"

With the tiniest of smiles, Marluxia replied, "We're the only people on the grounds, I can assure you. You could ask Xion if it was her. Maybe you misunderstood what she said-"

Zexion looked up. "She said directly that she wasn't Xion. It's difficult to misunderstand. What is the likelihood of someone being on the grounds that you're unaware of?"

"It's possible," Marluxia conceded, toying with his water glass. "It is a big place, after all. People can just slip in and out. Actually reaching the house, for another matter, is much more difficult to do without my awareness of it. But, is it impossible? Not at all."

I shook my head in annoyance. "Is there any way to test and see if someone has entered the house without your awareness?"

Marluxia snickered. "You talk like a scientist. Yes, we could test it, simply by searching for your mystery person. However, she might already be gone by now. Did you take that into account?"

"I did." I tapped my finger on the edge of the table, considering. "We'll search nonetheless. I only care that she is no longer here."

"Should we involve the rest?" Zexion asked. "We could just tell them it's a game, if you don't want them directly aware of the situation."

"That would work," I agreed. "Think of a likely set of rules, would you? I'll break down the grounds systematically between us, and we can start looking after-" I broke off mid-sentence, hearing a clatter that announced the return of the others. I shrugged at Zexion, and returned to eating my soup. It had grown cold.

"Lookit what we found, Vex!" Demyx shoved something under my face, which I nudged away to get a better view of. "Salsa! Won't that make this soup great?"

"Demyx," I said, watching as he bounced back to his seat, "salsa tends to have a very spicy flavor, while this soup has more of an Italian taste to it, which would make-" I stopped talking, mostly because he was ignoring me and spooning salsa into his soup nonetheless. I sighed.

"Anyway," Xigbar said, taking more a practical route and eating his soup with bread, "what did you do today, Vex? We didn't see you anywhere."

"I was conducting an important experiment as to the dissolution of-"

"Yeah, yeah, experimenting was enough of a description for me." Xigbar took a bite of his bread. "We were thinking, me and Dem, that we should go exploring."

Zexion cast me a quick glance. I nodded, just slightly. "We could do that after dinner," Zexion said.

Xigbar raised an eyebrow. "What, you intellects want to stick your noses into the real world? Someone punch me, I think I'm dreaming." I caught out of the corner of my eye Zexion's usual squirm to such statements as he resisted pointing out that pain is the worst test for dreaming. Instead, he nodded, and said, "Vexen and I thought it would be a good idea."

"Then we'll all go exploring together!" Demyx grinned, and turned to Xion and Marluxia. "Xi? Marles? You want to come with us?"

"Sir, I don't think-" Marluxia cut Xion off. "We'd love to." She gave him a reproachful, somewhat helpless glare, and sagged down into her chair. I gave her a tiny smile of sympathy, and then turned to Xigbar and Demyx. "Where would you two like to go?"

"I was thinkin' the attic, or maybe the basement…" Xigbar tapped his chin with a crust of bread, thoughtfully. "Opinions, Dem?"

"Both?"

"Then you can have those two areas. Marluxia, you can show me around the grounds. Xion and Zexion, you can look at the rest of the house, if you would."

Zexion nodded. Xion just stared at her plate.

"That's not together, Vex," Demyx protested, poking his salsa-soup mixture. "That's all systematic and science-y. No fun at all."

I took a piece of Xigbar's bread, and tore it in half. "You're still going to get to go exploring with Xigbar, aren't you?"

"I want to go with Xi," he said, looking put-out. "She's always too busy to hang."

Xion glanced sideways at him, and then quickly returned her gaze to her plate. "I apologize, sir."

"Demyx," he corrected her, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, me and Xi will go exploring in the attic and the basement. Xiggy can team up with Zex or something."

Xigbar glanced at me, and I shrugged, somewhat lost as to what to do. "If you'd like, Demyx."

"Then it's settled," he said happily, and took another bite of his soup.

.

We began the search as soon as the table was cleared and the dishes moved to the kitchen for washing at a later point. Marluxia and I armed ourselves with flashlights before heading out into the fast-growing darkness.

The pink-haired man kicked at a pinecone as we walked, the beam of his flashlight playing across the gravel path that wound off into the depths of the grounds. "We're not going to find anyone in the dark, Vexen. What exactly goes on in that little head of yours?"

I shrugged. "We're hardly needed to search the house. I need to get a better grasp on where exactly I am. We'll just wander for a bit. You can show me anything that's particularly important around here."

"Fine." Marluxia took the lead. "We'll start with the orchards. Anything else on your mind?"

Uncomfortable with how good he was proving at reading me, I stepped up beside him. "I have a few questions for you, as it were."

He snickered. "I'll trade you for them. An answer for an answer. Fair?"

"Fair." I sighed, and considered my first question. "How do you predict what I'm trying to do?"

"Intuition," he replied instantly. "Also, I'm manipulative. I take notes." I grimaced, and took my own mental note to stay clear of any mind games he tried to play with me. "My turn… why are all of you out here, in the middle of nowhere?"

My answer was slower in the coming as I considered my words. "We are hiding from the media." I let a second pass, and then asked my next question. "Why is Animus Interfectorem in the library?"

"It was part of the original collection. My question. Hm… why are you hiding out here?"

Annoyed, I glanced away from him, trying to hide that I didn't want to give up that particular answer. "An incident involving one of us got out of hand. We were forced to leave until such time as it dies down." I took a breath, and then asked, "Are you aware of the circumstances under which Animus Interfectorem became a part of the collection?"

"I am." Marluxia shook his head at me as I opened my mouth to demand the circumstances. "That was your question, Vexen. Now, as for mine… are Xion and I in danger, because of your 'situation'?"

I shone my flashlight into the shadows at the edge of the path. "There's… always that possibility. The eventuality is slim, though." The beam from my flashlight fell on the corner of a building, tucked away in a copse of trees. I stepped off the path, the hem of my pants instantly become soaked by the dew on the grass.

"Vexen, where are you going?" Marluxia asked. I waved him off, approaching the crumbling structure. As I drew closer, the beam highlighted more of its features. It was a half-destroyed building, built reminiscent of ancient architecture. On the other side of it…

There were three rows of stones that I quickly identified to be moss-covered gravestones. I scraped off one of the gravestones, my eyes glancing only briefly over the name, Arlene Corus. Slowly, I looked up at Marluxia, who was shining his flashlight just to my left. A graveyard? But… "Why is this here?"

Marluxia flashed me a grin that was all teeth and no humor. "Sorry, Vexen. I'm all out of questions, so you'll have to find that answer yourself."

.

When we returned to the house, Zexion was waiting for us, leaning against the railing of the porch. I raised an eyebrow as a question to him, and he shook his head in a near-imperceptible reply. I nodded, just slightly, relieved. Whoever the girl had been, I was content to let the mystery sit. As long as she was gone, I didn't care.