Chapter Two: Âme House

Glancing about, Link took in his new surroundings. It was something else, all right: he'd never quite seen a place like this before. It was far fancier than he'd anticipated, honestly; given the tales surrounding the place, he had expected something gloomy, and perhaps quite old in appearance, but instead he was faced with a brightly lit entryway, the walls painted a deep, warm red, giving the entire place an almost cozy feeling. Many pairs of shoes were lined up along the wall, like one might see in any normal house, and Link found himself questioning whether or not the stories about Âme House were true. Surely a place surrounded by stories are dark as the ones that he had heard was meant to be… eerier, not this warm and almost welcoming place.

"Follow me," the middle-aged woman said crisply, turning and beginning to walk away. "…And please, remove your shoes. It would not do to have mud tracked all over the floor."

Sheik and Link exchanged looks, quickly removing their well-worn sneakers and trailing after the woman. Link felt decidedly out of place: this house (mansion?) was quite a lot more grand than he had expected it to be. Stepping out of the entryway, shoes removed, the duo was met with a room lined with doors, a ceiling arching high above them. The entire room was a little gloomy, courtesy of the high ceiling, but lamps hung on the dark walls are regular intervals, chasing away some of the shadows.

Off to their left, a wooden staircase curled its way up to the second floor, a fancy handrail adorning the side. On the aforementioned staircase stood the silver-haired lady, dark eyes examining the two of them with an indistinguishable gaze. "Come along," she said, tone a little sharp. "And do keep close. The house is rather large, and it would not do for you to get lost." Her shoes clicked against the wooden stairs as she began to ascend, and Link wondered why she got to keep her shoes on while everyone else apparently had to take theirs off. His feet, now covered with just holey socks, were growing rather cold.

The two young men trailed along after her, Sheik staying rather close to Link. The smaller of the two blonds seemed to be rather tense, Link noted, and he wondered what was wrong. Sheik normally was rather calm, nothing seeming to make him too agitated unless something was very wrong. Then, and only then, would he grow wary: however, Link saw no cause for him to be in such a state in this place (though, he himself was still a little worried, given all the stories that surrounded Âme House… Still, it didn't seem that bad).

At the top of the stairs, the were met with a long hall, lined on either side with closed doors. It was gloomy up here, though lights hung on the walls: the majority of these lights, though, were out, those that were glowing only serving to cast dark shadows over the hall. Link shivered, suddenly recalling with acute accuracy all the stories that he had been told by those that had either visited Âme House for themselves, or had friends who had done so.

"…I don't like it." Sheik's low voice caught Link's attention, and he noted the tense note that laced the frailer blond's tone. "It's… wrong." A muffled cough punctuated his words, the sound a dry one that made Link's own throat ache.

Link made an attempt at giving Sheik a reassuring smile, though he was quite certain that he failed. "Yeah, but we have to. For your sake." This statement was met with nothing more than a shake of Sheik's head and a soft sigh, which was followed by another muffled cough, Sheik stifling it with his hand.

The sound of a door clicking open caught their attention, and Link felt, rather than saw, Sheik tense beside him. Link almost instinctively shifted closer to Sheik: this was how it had been for the past few years. Link would do his best to keep Sheik safe, even though Sheik insisted that he could look after himself. Perhaps it was because Sheik was the only person that Link really trusted in this world (that, and Sheik was so very frail in his appearance), but whatever the case, Link always looked out for the his friend.

However, the sudden protectiveness was uncalled for; the source of the noise was easily found. Several feet away, their guide was standing beside a now open door, arms folded across her chest, causing her neatly-pressed blouse to crease. Glasses glinted in the low light, and the two young men hurried to catch up with her, the only real sound their footfalls. It was at this moment that Link realized that the place was entirely too quiet. This was meant to be a place for kids such as themselves to go when they needed a place to stay: surely there were more people than just themselves in this place. There had been quite a few pairs of shoes in the entryway, after all…

Shaking such thoughts from his mind as they quite disturbed him, Link drew a slow breath, hesitating outside the open door, Sheik a mere few inches away from him. The bespectacled woman caught Link's gaze, uncertain blue eyes meeting a sharp dark, and she motioned for them to enter the room.

Sheik entered first, Link following after him. They were met with an office of sorts, the windows opposite the doors overlooking the dark woods that surrounded Âme House. A large wooden desk took up a good part of the rather small room: a little lamp sat on the desk, feebly attempting to light up the gloomy room. Link wondered if he'd been wrong with his first impressions of the place; the entryway had been almost welcoming, but there were so many dark shadows… It didn't seem right to him. Maybe, though, it was just his imagination taking over, remaining him of all the stories that he'd heard about the place.

Sitting behind the feather stately wooden desk was a large man: his skin was darker, though his hair was almost red in colour. It was difficult to make out many of his features as the room was quite dark, but Link thought that the man was rather intimidating. Perhaps it was because of big he looked, even sitting down behind a desk: it was evident even then that this man was tall and quite muscular.

"New arrivals, sir." Link hadn't noticed their guide entering the room, but there she stood beside them, her tone as crisp and clear as always. He thought that he heard something of an accent when she spoke, but he wasn't certain – if it was an accent, it wasn't any that he'd ever heard before.

A finger was held up by the man behind the desk, signifying that they should wait a moment while he finished reading the paper before him. The silence in the room seemed tangible to Link, and he could almost feel how tense Sheik was beside him. Something obviously wasn't sitting well with his friend, but he wasn't sure what: then again, Sheik had always been more sensitive to things, shifts in the air, than he himself was.

"Now… New arrivals, you say?" The man behind the desk spoke, his voice a deep baritone touched with an accent that Link hadn't heard before. It almost made him shiver, though he didn't know why. "That always is a pleasure." Shifting forward slightly, the man's features were brought into the low light of the room, something akin to a faint smile playing about dark features. "You can call me Mr. Dragmire."

"I'm… Link, and this is Sheik." Link didn't make a move to offer their last names: he didn't see a point in doing so. At any rate, he knew that Sheik wasn't entirely comfortable here, and he saw no point in making his friend any less at ease than he already was. Sheik wasn't the kind to give out information when he didn't have to, after all.

"A pleasure," Mr. Dragmire said smoothly, leaning back in his chair. "You are here to escape the cold, I wager. It has been rather chilly outside lately, hasn't it?"

Link made a quiet noise of agreement, Sheik simply nodding. Link cast a sideways glance at his friend, noting that Sheik's dark eyes were lowered, focusing on the ground before him instead of the man sitting behind the desk. Link thought that was rather odd; generally speaking, Sheik always looked people dead in the eye, almost challenging them, despite his rather small stature.

"Well, you two are more than welcome here," Mr. Dragmire stated, a smile curving his lips (Link could tell despite the shadows that he was smiling from the way the man's teeth glinted in the low light), though it did not touch his deep voice. "We have plenty of room, I assure you."

There was a pause before anyone said anything, the tension in the air almost tangible. Link wondered why the atmosphere was like that; there was no cause for it, as far as he could tell. After all, it wasn't as if something terrible had been said… It was just a simple greeting, and an assurance that he and Sheik now had a safe place to spend the winter. (Well, he said safe, but he wasn't entirely certain that it was safe. There were so many terrible stories about this place, disappearances and death– But it was the closest shelter, and he wasn't certain that Sheik could have gone much further.)

"…Thank you," Sheik murmured, speaking for the first time in a while, though his gaze did not raise from where he was focused on the floor. "We… appreciate it." Link nodded his agreement, forcing a small smile.

"Miss Nasim, could you please take these boys to the dining hall…? It is almost time for supper, I do believe. You two came at a good time, I see." The last part was directed at the two blond boys, another insincere smile being flashed in their direction.

As they were lead down the hall, trailing a few feet after Miss Nasim, as it seemed that silver-haired woman was called, Sheik nudged Link. Blue eyes flickered to meet deep brown (and Link noticed the dark circles surrounding those eyes), a brow arching inquisitively.

"…Can you hear it?" Sheik whispered, looking a little scared – an expression that Link wasn't used to seeing on familiar tanned features. "The whispering, I mean…"

Link paused, cocking his head to the side as he listened. "No," he responded honestly, "I can't." He didn't ask about it, though; he knew he would get the same response that he always did: a quiet 'Oh, I see…', and then Sheik would retreat into his own mind.

Sheik fidgeted, slender fingers tugging at the hem of his oversized shirt that seemed to swallow his slim form beneath his even bigger jacket. "…But, it is so loud…"

Link shook his head, hesitating before he spoke again. "I really can't hear anything. But, I believe you." There was no way that Sheik could be lying from the way that he spoke – and this wasn't the first time that he had heard something that Link couldn't. Other times, he'd wondered if Sheik was simply making things up, but this was one of the times where he knew that Sheik was being completely honest with him.

There was something about this place that wasn't quite right, and Sheik was picking up on it.

Despite himself, Link shivered, shoving his hands into his pockets as they descended the stairs, the wood creaking beneath their weight. He resisted the urge to glance about, doing his best to talk himself out of this irrational fear – they had to stay here for Sheik's sake, even if there was something strange about it. Sheik was getting ill, and being in the cold would only make it worse… And so, they would have to tough it out.

Quietly, he promised himself that he would do his best to make sure that Sheik was safe, even if there wasn't much he could do about it. Whatever was going on here, he was deaf to it – despite that, he would still do his best. It was his job, after all, or so he had been told.

To be continued.