Installment 2 – Welcome To The Rabbit Hole
Author's Notes: So I'm sorry about the long update, this installment was a bitch to write. I had some RL issues: like getting sick, and my kids getting sick. And then my beta, Akime Salt was busy with her own RL issues. In the end it took me a month to get this out. I want to thank everybody who gave reviews, kudos, or just followed this fic. You're interest keeps me going, without a doubt. Thank you so much for your support!
ETA: I also want to remind everyone again that this story is a multimedia fic, but what is posted on here and at A03 is only the plain version. You can find this installment with all the bells and whistles at the darkhaven archive at darkhavenseries x10 dot mx slash efic
Mortimer lifted an eyebrow, and gave him another piercing look, before he finally said: "Why, you are Mr. Harris." He smirked down at Xander's stunned face. "You are the new proprietor of Dark Haven."
Xander blinked, as he tried and failed to compute what the man just said. "Uh, the proprietor?"
Mortimer stared at him for a long moment, before he explained: "The owner of this manor, and the surrounding lands."
"How in the hell did that happen?"
In the next moment, Mortimer's face was only a few inches away from him. The other man reached out and took his hand, it was cool and hard as steel as he turned the younger man's hand around to swipe his thumb across Xander's wrist. Then suddenly a tattoo just ... it just appeared. The tattoo itself was made up of a circle, and inside the circle were six arrows pointing each direction, and the whole thing was tied together with thin curly, wavy lines.
"What is this?"
"This is the tattoo that each proprietor is marked with," Mortimer said, as he released Xander's hand and stepped back. "There is no mistaking you for what you are now."
Xander shook his head, his eyes were wide with disbelief. "No-"
Mortimer just gave him a pitying look. Xander stared at the man for a long moment, before he turned around to take another look at the house that just loomed there in front of him; the outline of the manor was dark and menacing in the moonlight. It just had to be the Harris luck coming out once again to fuck up his plans. But he wasn't going to stay here, Xander didn't really care about what Mortimer said about him, the tattoo, or the goddamn house. He was not going to stay here. He was done with freaky hellmouth shit, and Xander didn't plan on letting this tattoo or this old house stand in his way.
Xander turned around again, to see Mortimer just standing there waiting for him patiently.
"Look, man I don't know what you think you know about me, but I really can't—"
Just then, Xander was startled when he heard a low boom of thunder. "What the hell?"
Mortimer looked up to the sky, before he turned back to Xander. "Come along, Mr. Harris. A storm is coming, and we must head to the manor for shelter." Then the older man calmly walked away, leaving Xander to just stare at his retreating back until he disappeared out of his line of sight..
Xander really didn't want to step one foot inside the manor, but he knew that Mortimer was right, and it was only a matter of time until it started to rain. He threw a resigned look at the house, before he started to run. And tonight Xander's luck seemed to be running true to form because midway there the skies seemed to open up and rain poured down on him; immediately soaking his jacket, t-shirt, and jeans.
As Xander finally approached the house, he paused at the short old rusted iron wrought gate that surrounded the perimeter of the manor. He looked around, but found no trace of Mortimer. Xander shivered, his clothes was now sticking to his skin. , The rusted old gate gave a squeak as Xander opened it, before he hurried down the cobbled pathway towards the house.
"Mortimer?" He called out, but there was no response
As Xander came closer, he was just barely able to take in a few more features of the house. It was old, and it looked like it was only a few steps above being condemned. As the lightning flashed over the sky, Xander could make out that the house was an old fashioned Victorian manor. The windows were in bad shape, the upper story had a few panes of windows missing, but the floor level windows were completely bare of glass, and were instead replaced with plywood.
Xander quickly jogged up the stone steps and froze just as he was about to set foot on to the front porch. Xander swore underneath his breath as he suddenly realized that there were several missing floor boards. He maneuvered as best as he could in the near darkness before he finally made it to the front door.
"Mortimer!" Xander called out again, as he raised his hand to knock on the door. As Xander started to knock, he nearly had a heart attack, when the door suddenly swung open seemingly by itself.
Xander spun around to give one last longing look at the forest surrounding the house. At this point, Xander wished he could just walk away, and go back to his shitty motel room in Boston. However, he was freezing, and it was really coming down hard out there. In the end, Xander really didn't have a choice. So, he squared his shoulders, gathered as much courage as he possibly could, and Xander turned around and stepped cautiously inside.
Xander closed the door behind him, and walked farther into the house. The inside was just as bad as the outside from what he could see. As Xander walked into the front parlor, he noticed that they were walls with large gaping holes in them, and faded outdated wallpaper. The furniture was obviously antique and expensive. There was an a old fashioned settee, an oval wooden coffee table, and two really uncomfortable looking chintz chairs that bracketed the large marble unlit fireplace.
"Hello?" Xander called out, as he walked farther into the room.
Xander almost jumped about a foot in the air, he a felt hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Mortimer standing there, taking in the younger man's panic with a blank face.
"J ...Jesus, stop doing that."
"I'm sorry to alarm you, Mr. Harris." Mortimer quirked up his lips, and Xander glared back at the older man. He had a sneaking suspicion that Mortimer got some sick enjoyment by scaring the living daylights out of unsuspecting people.
Xander's eyes went wide when he finally noticed that the man was completely dry, and changed into a fresh identical looking suit. "H ... How?" Xander stuttered out. He crossed his arms in front of him, as he narrowed his brown eyes at the other man. "I think you owe me some answers..."
"I rather think that you need to get out of your wet clothing first-."Mortimer replied, as he lifted an eyebrow.
"What are you!" Xander demanded, ignoring any suggestion of getting out of his clothes despite the fact he was freezing. This guy raised every one of his 'spider senses', and he had learned to trust his instincts a long time ago.
Mortimer grimaced," I'm... I'm complicated."
Xander opened his mouth to say something, but Mortimer interrupted him again. "Come along now, Mr. Harris. We must get you out of those clothes before you catch your death."
Xander shivered again, and he realized that his teeth were not so subtly chattering. With a sigh, Xander said, "Fine." Yet the unsaid 'this is not over yet' could be heard in that one word.
"Of course, Mr. Harris," Mortimer said, giving a small bow. "Please follow me."
Xander threw another suspicious look at the man, before he finally nodded, and followed Mortimer up the stairs. While climbing up the stairs, Xander noticed that there were several portraits of men and women of varying ages and looks, and the only constant was the tattoo on the inside of their wrists.
He froze as something about the last portrait caught his eye. It was a middle age woman with long curly blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. It took him a moment to realize that this was the woman he had watched die in the alley earlier tonight
"That was Ms. Holbrook."
Xander whirled around, and if it wasn't for Mortimer's steady grip, he would have probably fallen down the stairs. "Stop doing that, dammit!" He put a hand to his chest.
Mortimer raised his eyebrows silently and then let go of him.
After calming down, Xander turned back around to look back at the smiling face in the portrait. This woman - Holbrook lady - was far away from the woman that had bled out in his arms. That woman had been broken and dying. He was surprised to feel anger there, along with guilt. If he had been quicker this woman would have been alive. She would still be a vibrant and alive as she was in the portrait. Maybe this was his penance, or a punishment for being for failing to save yet another soul.
Xander sighed, and then turned around to look at Mortimer, who was just staring at him with indiscernible look on his face.
"Let's go."
Xander followed Mortimer down a long hall with closed doors. They stopped in front of a seemingly random door almost at the end of the hall.
It opened to a bedroom that looked like it was ripped right off the set of 'Downtown Abby'. The bed was a huge four poster wooden monstrosity that took up a good portion of the room. The walls had dark wood paneling, with a few expensive looking paintings hanging from them. In the right corner of the room was a wardrobe, and in the opposite corner was an old fashioned secretary's desk and chair.
"This was Mr. Holbrook's room."
"Her husband?" If the previous owner had been married, why hadn't he inherited the house?
"No, Mr. Holbrook ...Simon...was Ms. Holbrook's brother," Mortimer explained. "He used to stay here often well, before—"
Some indiscernible emotion came over his face, before it was hidden once again behind the man's ever present blank expression.
"Never mind," Mortimer shook his head, before he turned around and walked to the wardrobe and took out a plain light blue pajama set and laid it out on top of the bed.
"Are you hungry?"
Xander was more tired than hungry at this point, so he just shook his head.
"Very well, there is a bathroom two doors down," Mortimer said, as he turned around and walked over to the younger man. He took out his wallet, and handed Xander a card. "And if you need anything, anything at all, please feel free to call me."
"So you don't live here?"
"Heavens, no!" Mortimer shook his head," I live in town."
Xander hesitantly took the card and read it:
iMortimer & Birch
Aleister Mortimer
Attorney at Law/i
On the back was an address in Addams's Vale, and a phone number.
"You're a lawyer?"
"Yes." Mortimer nodded, "I am a senior partner at Mortimer and Birch." Then he sighed, as Mortimer looked down at his watch. "It's getting late, and unfortunately I must be going. "
And with a nod, he spun around and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Now alone, Xander crossed the room, and sat down on the edge of the bed. He put his head in his hands and groaned. "How the fuck do I get myself into these types of situations?
Xander opened his eyes to find himself back in that narrow alley, the place where all this mess started. Yet, instead of the typical noises of the city. Everything was quiet and still. It was like everything around him was frozen in time.
Xander mind's raced as he tried to figure out how he got there, a for a moment he thought that maybe that Mortimer had finally given in and listened to him; that he could finally get back to the ways things have been.
Suddenly, Xander heard a noise, and as he looked down and was startled to see a woman lying in front of him, in a pool of her own blood, her long curly hair flared around her like a halo. The woman was staring back at him with her cornflower blue eyes that were glazed over with pain, and a hint of something else he couldn't quite pin down.
"Please. .. " Xander begged, feeling as if he was being stabbed in the heart. This woman was yet another person that had died because of him. A person that he could have saved if he hadn't been so damn slow, if just followed his fucking instincts, if he just been that bit quicker.
Xander was pulled out of his thoughts when suddenly he felt a cool hand on his face. He jerked away, and looked back down to see that the woman was staring at him with an intense look that gave him a feeling of dread.
"T-Thank you." And Xander remembering those words, tensed in anticipation of the debilitating pain and the white light that had followed the last time. Yet, there was nothing, as the remaining life in her eyes faded away, before she went rigid in his arms.
Xander just sat there for a long time. He just stood there, unable to move, a million recriminations rolling through his brain.
Suddenly, he heard a sound of someone sobbing coming from behind him. Xander turned his head to see where the disturbance was coming from, but there was no visible sign of anyone else there. The sobbing seemed ten times louder in the silence of the alley, and for some undefinable reason the weeping seem to rattle through him and touch something inside.
The despair and the pitiful whimpers yanked something inside him. Maybe it was that same feeling that made him jump into the alley and into certain danger; maybe it was curiosity, or his white knight complex pulling him to investigate the sounds of weeping. Xander just stood up, and turned to follow the sound, until he was almost at the end of the alley. He still couldn't see anything, but then in the corner of his eye he spotted a form of a person crunched up into a ball. The person's face was hidden underneath a long curtain of dark hair. The person was rocking back and forth while they sobbed.
"Hello?"
There was no answer, as Xander tentatively approached her. "Are you alright?" He asked and then rolled his eyes at the stupid question. Of course she wasn't okay!
Xander cautiously reached out to touch her shoulder.
The person jerked away, or rather, the woman; because Xander could clearly see that it was a woman who looked up at him with tears falling down from her dark eyes. "H-Help me." She stuttered out, her voice was quiet, and filled with desperation. "P... Please...Please ... help me."
Xander gasped, and sat up in bed feeling as if his heart was pounding out of his chest. His eyes darted around the room. Xander saw immediately that he wasn't in his motel room. It took him a moment to member the alley, the woman dying, being somehow transported here, meeting Mortimer...
Xander flopped back down on to the bed, and put his hand over his face. "Jesus, what is my life?"
So last night hadn't been some weird dream, or rather nightmare. Speaking of nightmares, Xander thought about the one he just had. Xander sighed, as he thought about the woman (Ms. Holbrook, as he remembered Mortimer telling him last night) dying in front of him. However, there was that girl, the look of sadness, and desperation on her face when she had begged him to help her.
Xander pulled his hand away, and turned his wrist to stare at the tattoo. 'This was all so freaky', Xander thought as he began to trace the interact lines of the tattoo with his other hand.
Xander was startled out of his thoughts, when he heard the tale-tell sound of a car driving up the house. Xander scrambled out of the bed, and walked over to the window. Xander pulled the dark red curtains aside and to his astonishment he saw his shiny black 1960 Lincoln Mark V convertible sitting in the driveway.
Xander quickly pulled on his shoes, and grabbed his ruined jacket, before he hurried out of the door, not caring in the least that he was still in his pajamas.
He ran down the stairs, passed the front parlor, and the foyer, before he was finally out the door. After once again maneuvering through the missing patches of the porch, Xander ran down the steps, out of the gate, and came to a stop in front of the car. Strangely enough, Xander didn't see any sign of the driver. Xander walked over to the driver's side, looking to see the usual signs that his car had been hot-wired, but there was nothing out of place.
Xander suddenly spotted a familiar looking duffel bag sitting in the back seat. He leaned over to pick up the bag and set it on the front hood. Xander opened it to find a thick vanilla envelope with his name scrawled on top of it in cursive. Xander put it aside to investigate the rest of the contents of the bag. What he found were all the rest of his meager belongings: His clothes, his extra pair of shoes, his books, and toiletries. He zipped the bag and turned his attention back to the envelope. Xander opened it up to see a set of keys and a stack of carefully folded papers.
As he took out and unfolded the papers he realized that one of the papers was a deed of this house, listing him as the owner.
Xander took out the keys, and then he turned around to look back at the house. The house seemed to look ten times worse in the harsh light of day. It really looked like it was just a step away from being condemned. With a sigh, Xander looked back down at the deed, and after a long moment he crumpled up the deed in his hand and threw it on the ground.
No matter what a stupid paper said, he wasn't going to stay here. He didn't want or need this house and, nothing that Mortimer creep could do or say would change his mind.
Xander turned around and marched back inside. Xander intended to get quickly dressed, and then he was getting as far away from this house as he possibly could.
The pain started out gradually, so slowly that he barely noticed it at first. Xander had been in too much of a good mood to pay attention to it, as he drove down the road that led into of the town.
Xander was too busy singing along to his favorite country song at the top of his lungs, and taking in the effect of autumn in this part of the country. The various trees that darted along the road wasbreathtaking with their red, brown, and golden leaves swaying in the cool wind.
It was only a few minutes later when Xander finally made his way into town. Addams's Vale looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. It had small quaint looking shops made out of clapboard, mixed in with two or three story brick buildings that looked like they haven't been updated since the nineteenth century. It was all quaint, and cozy, and Xander felt a little out of place in his classic black behemoth as he drove past the buildings that made up Main Street...
It didn't help that people on the street would stop and stare at him, and then they would whisper conspiratorially to each other. Sometimes someone would go as far is to point at him as he drove past.
Xander just shook it off, and concentrated on leaving the town, and the eerie manor behind. However, the further he got out of the town the more his headache grew and finally blossomed into a migraine.
The pain was unbearable, and it felt like his head was going to split in half. Xander's vision was blurry, and he was starting to see spots. However, Xander knew at that point that he should pull over, and if this had been any other situation, he would have.
But he needed to get out, and Xander feared that the longer he stayed here, the harder it would be for him to leave. And there was just no way in hell that Xander was staying in this town any longer.
So Xander gritted his teeth, as he tries to bare through the pain. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, and pressed down harder on the gas pedal; uncaring that his speed was accelerating further and further passed the speed limit.
Suddenly, there was something huge, hairy, and with a whole lot of sharp teeth ran out abruptly into the path of his oncoming car. Xander swore underneath his breath as he suddenly turned the wheel sharply to the right. However, due to his debilitating pain, and his blurry vision his reaction time was off, and he was unable to get his car back in to control before the car smashed right into a utility pole.
Everything from that point on, Xander could only discern brief flashes of sensations: searing pain, the tale-tell sounds of crunching metal, and a flash of brown fur, before he finally slipped into unconsciousness.
To Be Contintued ...