Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-Man, I forgot to add this last time, but you know it already…

A long prologue…

The room he walked into didn't show any recent interaction, a thick layer of dust covering everything.

The place seemed decorated by a schizophrenic. A paper wall similar to the one in the previous room but better conserved with vibrant colors. The furniture consisted of two bright orange love seats and a deep purple armchair disposed surrounding a round white coffee table in the center, everything on top of what was once a red carpet. To an open side of the circle, there was a big bare brick fireplace.

The same kind of paintings were hanging on the walls and from the rooftop hung a multicolored chandelier. To the right from the door he came from, there was a light wood colored bookshelf.

So far, it was just a bad taste and poor color combination, if not a curious mix with the couches facing away from each other, their backs to the center of the circle.

There were also toys thrown around in the floor, small colored balls oddly with no dust on them.

Noting two doors in the general direction, Allen walked to the bookshelf and ran a finger on the surface, discovering that under all the dust, it was actually a bright yellow. He frowned at the way the books were arranged, horizontally piled with their backs in a manner that if you wanted to see the titles, you had to take a whole lot down.

Deciding that it was better to take a look before going on, he grabbed a bunch and settled them on top of the coffee table kenneling down beside it. They were all children books, most of them Dr. Seuss ones. They seemed read and reread, a particular one was specially tattered: "If I Ran the Circus".

There was a small noise coming from the corner with the toys when he turned a page with his left hand, his right one holding his flashlight. Startled, Allen resisted the urge to reach for salt and make a circle, and considering it the wise thing to do, returned the books to their rightful place in the bookshelf.

He went to one of the doors, this one was in the same wall that the one he came from, probably a bathroom he told himself and proved it when the door opened revealing a colorful half bathroom.

It was funny how creepy all the colorful things were.

As monochrome as he was, he'd look completely out of place in the house's better years.

Closing the door, he directed his attention to the other one, glad when it opened with no efforts.

Another colorful room, the dining room, even creepier than what he was expecting but nothing out of place in general (well, if he ignored the chairs on top of the table, some turned around pictures and the glass on the table that seemed like it was recently used).

There was an open door that probably led to a kitchen and a closed door that hopefully led to somewhere actually productive.

There was close to no light coming from the windows anymore, he wanted to hurry, couldn't something happen already? Sighing out of boredom, he opened the door, and cue the last famous words, a loud clatter could be heard from one of the rooms upstairs, the main staircase lying in front of him.

Assessing the situation, what would be best? Run for the hills o make a salt circle and lay down hugging holy water till dawn came and then run?

"Fuck! Shit! Stupid house! Who the hell would leave balls around a fucking window?!"

Something told him that salt and holy water wouldn't ward him against who was screaming upstairs.

"Oi, stupid Moyashi! Where are you?! Are you de-?!"

After that there were some muffled words and a loud slam, then a slam closer to him. Turning around, he saw that the door he had just gone through had closed of its own accord. He supposed that no lock pick would work, not in this door, the ones behind the stairs nor the one directly in front of them. Only course of action possible: go upstairs and hope that whatever happened to Kanda would stop him from killing him.

"Argh! Get off!" Kanda's scream came, making Allen jump and run up the steps without further thought, suspecting that the carpet on the stair was trying to make him trip.

Following the now muffled "argh"s, he came to a stop in front of the open door of a room slightly to the left. The scene developing in front of his eyes and the sheer ridicule of it brought him back to earth to think about what he should do.

Let's say, what was the proper thing to do if you found yourself at the door of a room in a haunted house in which a Japanese madman was running around trying to peel a clown mask off his face that refused to let go with one hand while waving a katana with the other in hopes it would cut the clown's balls that were chasing after him? And with "clown's balls" referring to the big balls that clowns balanced on top.

Well, exorcist or not, he was a human being with emotions, so, of course, he laughed.

Then, there was a moment of silence in which only his loud laugh could be heard before he realized the stillness of the previously animated room and could control it.

Kanda's killer glare was directed at him (not a good thing at all), but after a moment, the objects seemed to be content with his laugher, for every ball that had stopped when he first came to the scene started to bounce in their place, as if the same bubbling laughter had taken over them. Hell, even the clown mask started moving its mouth and closing its eyes as if in a fit of laughter.

That gave Kanda the time to slice through the balls and concentrate solely in the task of taking the mask that threatened to move his face with its movements off. A scary thing if you asked Allen, seeing the grimace in Kanda's face at the same time his eyes were glaring bloody murder.

After a few seconds of staring at the fruitless efforts of his fellow exorcist, Allen decided to take action, if only to stops the shudders from horror going down his spine.

"Stay still Kanda, I'll help you" he said tentatively, approaching to him in the same way he would approach an unpredictable beast.

The mask had now complete control over Kanda's mouth, if not, judging by his eyes he would have been met with a ramble of curses.

Watching out for the sword that Kanda still held with one hand, Allen came closer to him, took his left hand glove off and grabbed the mask which instantly glowed green and detached itself from the Japanese's face, finally stopping its creepy movements and stilling at a sad expression. Poor mask, he just had to go and stop its amusement. He threw it on the ground, Kanda stabbed it without remorse.

"Che, so you aren't dead," Kanda said coldly as he sheathed his katana and turned around to analyze what was left of the balls, but Allen could swear he saw a faint blush in his face.

'So he actually can feel something like embarrassment,' Allen thought, trying to conceal his smile, 'demons may feel something once in a while, eh?' or maybe it just was the struggle that had left him breathless. Whatever.

The moment of demonic cuteness was cut short when Kanda turned around, his expression the vivid image of antisocial.

"What is it with this hand?" he asked, suddenly grabbing hold of his left arm and bringing it close to his eyes, inspecting the scarred skin and cross shaped cut in the back of the hand.

Feeling slightly violated, Allen yanked his arm back, cradling it to his chest.

"This is my exorcist weapon, as you have your katana, I have my arm," he answered, looking straight ahead into the eyes that were glaring at him as if yanking his arm back was a mayor offence. "Not something that you should concern yourself with." He proceeded to put on his glove once again.

"Che, just don't bring it close to my face again then," he spat back, kicking out of his way the sad looking balls and walking to the door.

"Yeah, next time I'll just let you suffocate."

Allen noticed the broken glass of the windows, that should have been the clatter he heard before, Kanda's entryway, because doors were too mainstream for him. The balls he had complained about should be the now flat ones.

But what was with this room? Aside from the mentioned balls and mask, there were countless toys and tolls which their right place should be at a circus. Like a playroom of someone obsessed over it. He noticed a cradle against one of the walls.

Anyway, now it was crystal clear that the house was haunted, there was no denying it. Poltergeist, a ghost behind it, and a quite strong one at that if it could move so many things at once.

Now was the time their true work as exorcist started.

First, was to investigate the rumors and the house, check if there was something behind of supernatural character and not some pranks o unfounded fears over an old house.

Not unfounded fears this time. The rumors where previously taken care of by a "finder", the ones responsible of assessing if the situation merited a try or it was most probably nothing. They weren't wrong this time when they say that something strange was going on.

Now Lavi was hearing those rumors again, hoping that some of the information would come in hand. Sometimes, just by listening to a few stories you could tell what the cursed object was, that made the task easier. This time, however, dealing with a haunted house of this sort wasn't as easy. If a ghost was present, they would have to find the terrestrial connection it had left and sever it. It could be something like a "cursed object" too, but most of the times with ghosts there was just a wish, something left unaccomplished before they parted so they were still looking for it from the afterlife.

Something told him that the last case was the one they had to deal with here.

And that was the second part, where the real job of an exorcist started: search and find what held the spirits in between the worlds; and third: help them pass to the other side.

These were things that only a true exorcist was capable of, just someone open to understand and help, not to be afraid but to listen to what held them captives in an unending purgatory in Earth. If not, the ghost wouldn't answer as desired or could be set free around the world in a rampage.

"Fuck it, Moyashi! Why the hell do you space out so much?! We have work to do!" once again, his noble thoughts were broken by the annoying voice of the man that was now glaring at him from the corridor. "Or should I just lock you in here while I take care of it? That would be faster…"

"Shut up, this is my job," Allen said slipping outside of the room before the black haired man decided to take into action his thoughts.

Lavi had told Kanda not to kill the Moyashi; he would have to use all of his self-control.

"The house is big. We better separate to see if we find what it wants," Allen muttered, anything to get away from the PMSing Japanese.

"Che, fine," was muttered before Kanda disappeared to one side of the wide corridor, Allen walking in the opposite direction.

XXXX

He had been asking in the stores around for a while now. This was a small town, everyone knew each other, so how come nobody could tell him anything when he asked about the big abandoned house?! Judging by the way they shut up when he mentioned it, it was obvious that they knew, just that they didn't dare to talk about it.

It was getting late and cold, yet he hadn't found anything at all.

And he was sure someone was following him since a while ago, he was growing tired of it.

He turned around a corner and waited for them. It wasn't long before a figure walked into him and fell on the ground. Lavi, always the polite one, extended a hand to them and offered help. The startled person jumped to their feet, realizing they had been discovered. The sudden movement made them let go of the scarf around their head, revealing an aged face, brown hair with strands of white cascading around what he now knew was a woman, her blue eyes wide with fear.

"I'm sorry!" she all but screamed, before turning around and try to actually run away, if not for a hand that gently griped his wrist stopping her.

"There is no reason to be, or is there?" he asked, with a smile in his face, "but I would like to know why you were following me."

"I-I…" she stuttered, looking around the deserted street, "you were asking for information of the clowns' house, right?" the hurried mutter so soft Lavi had to lean close to hear. When no immediate answer came, she looked about to freak out.

"Yes, I was," he answered before the paranoiac woman could have a fit. "Can you tell me something about it?"

"…" she was biting her lip now, seeming conflicted if she should talk or not. "Not here, not where someone could overhear us… Come, my house is just a block away."

And so, he let himself be led to the house of the weird woman.

XXXX

This house was fucking insane.

Not as many assumed, most haunted houses were actually decent looking, but this… this should be a crime! Kanda hadn't ever seen something so elaborately hideous, as if they had searched for hours the most awful color combinations.

He had passed many rooms, each one trying to overdo the previous in its ugliness. And after that incident, nothing had happened. Creaks here and there, but no flying furniture nor anything of the kind. Maybe he had to break something, like the window, so the house would try to kill him and he could actually do something.

"This is so freaking boring," he said out loud, he shouldn't have come inside. The Moyashi was alright, and it looked like he actually had something to protect himself with. This house wasn't one to be exorcised in just a night; they would have to come once and again probably, know more of the general situation before going jumping around grabbing at thin air. "Fucking stupid creepy house, with a coward of a ghost afraid to come out, with no sense of décor, with idiotic Moyashi inside…"

He didn't miss the small movement in the corner of his eye.

"…And with stupid paintings of not funny clowns, well, not as if any clown was ever funny, as every circus, just a bunch of retards jumping around making a show of who is the weirdest one. I suppose that's why people go to watch circuses, so they can fell lucky that they are normal and not some useless freaks-"

Suddenly every eye in the paintings was staring at him, furniture, toys, even the floor trembling under him.

He smirked, just what he was expecting, and he had already checked around and there was no stupid mask in this room.

XXXX

Through the rooms he had looked around, nothing seemed out of place, just as out of place as the rest of the house. Weird colors, some chairs facing the walls, desks in a vertical position, couches in the middle of the room hindering the way, and the ever present toys.

The room he was in now was a little special. The door was a big arc, there was no furniture, just circus artifacts, going from the usual juggler balls to a stand and a circle as one used to make a beast jump through.

One of the walls was completely a built in closet, with mirrors in its doors. Inside were countless different costumes.

There was a loud sound coming from the corridor, from where Kanda was. Startled, he closed the closet's door he had been holding and half turned to look over his shoulder at the corridor. Should he go? Maybe he was being attacked once again by a mask… Well, it wasn't his problem, right?

Halfheartedly, he turned back to the mirror and was frozen still at what he saw reflected on it.

Over his shoulder, there was the image of a clown mask, smiling with the sickening smiles they always had, as if inviting him to laugh with it. Slowly, he turned around and found that besides the floating mask there was also a pair of gloves holding three small balls.

The apparition retroceded until it was some meters away from him and started juggling. The mask first seemed to concentrate in doing it right, and then it was looking at him, smiling with a bigger empty smile and slowly advancing forward, as if inviting him to laugh.

He tried, he seriously tried to laugh at the small spectacle, but there was just too much creepiness to it for his laugher to sound authentic.

The smile quickly slid out of the mask, the balls hitting its top. But it only took a second for the crest fallen expression to light up with a new idea for a show. It acquired some clown shoes that probably once were red, now brown. Jumping on top of one of the bigger balls, it started balancing itself, throwing the shoes one side and the other before placing them back on the ball.

If Allen tried really hard, maybe there was something funny about it, so he let out a small laugh.

It wasn't enough to convince the "clown" that he was having fun, the sad expression returned and he jumped to balance itself with his hand on the ball, the shoes in the air, an expectant look directed at Allen.

This was just sad; he couldn't even conjure a fake smile anymore.

Completely disheartened, the "clown" threw itself on the floor and started… to whimper?

Without even knowing what he was supposed to do in this kind of situation, Allen knelt beside the trashing figure and tried some comforting words.

"It was great, I wish I was able to do that!" though he actually was able…

The mask looked up, some hope back to its demeanor. The invisible figure jumped back to it shoes with a new resolution. It went to the closet and pulled out a clown outfit. Then it pushed it towards Allen.

Maybe his choice of words wasn't the smartest.

I feel like this chapter is boring… Too much description maybe? I just want to get out of the introductory stuff… Well, next chapter should have more action, and hopefully something that at least scratches "horror". Or humor. But I find horror funny most of the times so it's the same, kinda… right?

Anyways, thanks for the reviews/favorite/alerts! I love to know that at least someone is enjoying what I write. As always, critics and thoughts are well welcomed :)