Chapter 4

Some hours later when Arthur is done with the van and packing, and Vivi, Lewis and Mystery is done with the first search through the house, they all meets up in the kitchen. It was nearing two in the afternoon so Vivi had declared lunchtime. Thankfully so was the house not as aged indoors as outdoors, aside from the old style wallpapers and the occasional old mat. There is new things like proper electricity to lamps and kitchen equipment, stove, fridge and freezer for starters. Vivi was even out on the internet to see that all was in order with the first payment. No problems there. Meanwhile Lewis was at the stove cooking up something easy for lunch.

Arthur himself has not really gotten any time yet to look through the cottage properly but still enough to know the house and have an opinion on it. He though it was quite nice for being a haunted home, it had a feeling of normal.

For a start so had he been wrong on it only being one floor. It looks like that from the front of the cottage but in truth so is there a second floor. Arthur learned that you could see it from the sides, or from the back, of the house. The second floor is where the bedrooms are, both the parents and the child's together with one guest bedroom. Aside from the kitchen so where they nearly the only room with something in them. There was also an other room up stairs but it was empty.

On the main floor is the kitchen, bathroom, living room, a small entrance room, a hallway, and one other big room leading to the back. Arthur couldn't say that the building had a practical design though.

From the front door you get to the entrance room that is small but still have to doors aside from the outside door. The room itself is made for outdoor clothes and shoes, which is where they had put theirs as this is someone else's home and it's rude to track in dirt. One of the doors lead directly to the living room, the other is stuck though and can't be opened. After looking around it become clear it leads to the hallway though.

The living room have also two doors aside from the one to the entrance room. One on the right wall that leads in to the hallway, and the other on the left side of the opposite wall from the entrance that goes to the kitchen. The stairs for the second floor is also found in the living room. It starts in nearly the middle of the opposite wall almost like an other door but stairs instead. If you looked at the house from upside down it would be squeezed in between the kitchen and the bathroom.

There is no door between the living room and bathroom. First you have to go in to the hallway to the right, then turning left in the hall to see the door for the bathroom on the left wall in the hall. The bathroom is installed with one toilet, a basin, and a facility that is both a bathtub and a shower. The only way to the bathroom is through the hallway.

That hallway is the most creepy place in the whole house. It is shaped like a mirrored 'L' so you couldn't see the stuck door that leads to the entrance. The corner is also the only place in the cottage without a lamp and neither other lamps nor light from windows could reach there. Making the corner appear impossibly dark. Arthur didn't even go close to it. The rest of the hallway stretched to the end of the house actually, near the end of it is a second door to the left.

Using that last door in the hallway what will be found is the second big room on the main floor, from there you can either go out the back as there is the back entrance, or you can go to the kitchen. That room was empty though so Arthur have no idea what it is meant for. The only reason he knew the other big room was likely the living room was for the sofa and TV he found there.

In whole so was the house a normal house besides the weird layout for the main floors room, making it a little unpractical to move around in. Feeling a little like it invites for someone to be running around in a circle on the main floor. And Arthur finds it odd that he couldn't find the stairs for the cellar, unless this is a building that goes by the idea that there is only an outside entrance down there. He decides that he will try again later to see if he can find an entrance down there from inside the house.

Arthur had also noticed there wasn't a lot of furniture in the house. That may be explained by the family just moving in but it still felt meager. Even the child's room had felt like it was missing something.

"Hey Vivi."

"Hmm?"

"Is it really right that our clients has tried to move in here already? It just feels like this place is really empty."

Arthur flinched as a plate was put down quite hard in front of him. Looking up he saw Lewis giving him a discreet glare, but used a serious parent voice. "Of course it's empty. The had 'just moved in' remember? It would have been weird if the house had already been fully furniture not the other way around."

"I think I have to agree with Lew, Artie. They really have just moved here so it being empty is natural. If anything it's likely that they have the rest of their stuff in the cellar."

"Oh, I'm… I'm sorry…"

"Nah it's okay. You are likely just feeling jumpy because this is a 'haunted' house. Though I haven't seen anything that would point to it really being haunted so there is a chance that our clients are just overly skittish. But even if there is something here so is there nothing to be worried about. We have both Mystery, a powerful kitsune, and Lewis, a strong ghost. With them around nothing will happen to us. We are perfectly safe." She smiled one of her big and bright smiles at him before going for her food. Mystery following example.

Arthur exhaled quietly as he picked up his own fork and took a bit of the food. Only to find it burning. Not outright horrid but still hot enough to be to much for the small male. Tightening his jaw, he closed his eyes to stop any tears of pain and swallowed down as much as he could manage. It wasn't a lot, most of the food was left untouched. This wasn't the first time Lewis was doing this, no this had become normal, that there was extra spices in his food then the others.

Normally he could leave it behind for the other two to eat. They could take spices a lot better and didn't notice all to often that his were overly seasoned. But sometimes it was just to often, and if Arthur couldn't swallow it then he would have to came up with an excuse to leave with it. So he could get rid of it without being found out. Lewis didn't like it when his food were questioned for the seasoning and neither did he like it if it was tossed away.

Sitting still till the others was nearly done Arthur made the call that it was so long ago since last time he left spiced food that it should be safe. He made a little show of not being that hungry and that he wanted to take a more thoroughly look around the house. He was nearly out the door before Vivi addressed him.

"Okay Arthur but you better eat dinner. Don't think I haven't noticed how you are skipping meals again."

Swallowing his dread Arthur nodded. "Sure Vivi. I will remember to do that."

"Good. Have fun exploring the house." She said before resuming to eat.

The feeling of dread didn't leave Arthur as he continued his look around the house, both inside and outside. But nothing happened to him under that day as he was left alone. Arthur found the door to the cellar by nearly tripping on it. There was no inside door down there, at least no one he could find. What was used was a double kind of door that is almost laying down on the ground. He found it on the left side of the house wall.

Aside from that so didn't he find anything new, gave some notion again that he felt something was off with the furniture but let that be seeing how the others hadn't had any interest in it.

Dinner time came and he managed to make his usual disappearing with his food act, or disappearing 'looking' like he had really had been given any food. Some of the dread was letting go with that, he guessed that Lewis was using the refusal of food as punishment for earlier.

After the 'dinner' Arthur quietly went to his room since it was so late that it was becoming dark outside. It was easy to find where he was suppose to spend the night with how his bag had so 'carefully' been tossed in to the child's room. The idea behind that, and how Lewis had gotten it accepted, was that the ghosts may have been more attracted to the kid then the adults, or vise versa. So Arthur would be the 'child' and sleep in the child's room while Lewis and Vivi shared the parents room, Mystery would be in the guest room. Why the kitsune got his own room Arthur was not sure.

The first plan with the night had been to have two or one stand guard at a time in turns, but that got changed. When the report for the ghost activity had been read through again it had occurred that the ghosts only started to act up when ALL occupants had gone to bed.

So the new plan was changed in to that Vivi, with the help of Lewis and Mystery, would put up protective spells and then thereafter they would all go to bed. The spells was also done so that a 'noise' spell would activate if they got triggered, the point being to wake everyone up.

It didn't sound all that safe, neither did it sound like the best of ideas to Arthur. He had tried to object about it, that surely there had to be a safer alternative. All that did though was to annoy Lewis that in turn managed to get Vivi to agree with him and make her annoyed at him too. So Arthur kept quiet and went along with the scary sounding plan.

He changed to his pajamas that was made up of one orange shirt and a pair of yellow sweatpants. Taking of his prosthesis, he put it on the writing desk that was in the room and then did a knot on the extra part on the shirt's arm. Making his way to the bed he accidentally kicked the toy box in the room so it tipped over.

"Dammit."

Bending down he turned the box right again, slightly wondering how it turned over so easily when he felt how heavy it was, before he turned to pick up the toys that had fallen out. Only to pause as he gets a better look at them. He can see that they are made of either wood or yarn, like really old toys. Picking on up he holds a doll that have a body thats made entirely out of grey yarn thats been twined around itself so it had a body, a pair of arm, a pair of legs and a head without hair. It had a black cloth that was sewn as a coat.

When Arthur was holding it he could feel that it was looking old but it didn't feel like it, he guessed that it had just been very well kept. It was also giving him that feeling of something being off again. More so now then before. Looking at them he counted up to fifteen toys, all small dolls off animals or people and not a single on was wearing a face. No eyes, no mouths.

Feeling discomfort over them Arthur hurriedly throws them in to the box before going to bed. Seconds later getting out of bed to turn of the lights, then back to the bed again.

It took some time for him to fall asleep and under that time he wondered about the toys. There was definitely something with them that struck him, he just couldn't pinpoint what. Think on the rest of the house they didn't stand out, old style and meager. The other, more modern toys where likely also down in the storage. But what child would leave what is likely more fun toys for him, where he couldn't get to them as easily?

He slept for three hours before he was startled awake by the covers being torn away and a strong grip coming on to his arm and an other hand over his mouth.

"Time for a walk Arthur." Was hissed in to his ear.

The next second Arthur is no longer in control of his body as Lewis takes over. And as usually so tries the small male to beg of the ghost to stop, even tries to warn that they might off set the trap spells. But none of that phased the ghost. Instead there was the arrogant answer that those spells has already been tempered with so they wouldn't activate. Neither was he worried for when it, or if, it would be found out. They both knew who would get the blame.

The dread Arthur had from the little 'lunch comment' came back as Lewis led them to the stairs and down to the second floor. Dread growing as he saw them walking to the entrance and out in the night. The world was filled with shadows from the half moon.

"Don't, don't leave me in these woods Lewis. I don't know them. I'm going to get lost in them. Please don't, please-"

"Shut up murderer. If I feel like dropping you in the forest then I will do so. But lucky for you I can't really do so right at the moment, not unless I want to be given the main responsibility to find you again in the morning by Vivi. No, where you will be spending the night is a place much closer and more 'secure'."

The tone that the last word was said in made Arthur shiver internally as well as whimper in his mind, which annoyed Lewis. There was no other comment though, aside from some utterance of him being 'pathetic'. They shortly came up to the left side of the house and Lewis took out the house keys. Preparing to use the one that did not go to the actual cottage.

"No…"

"Have a nice sleep." Said the ghost as he opened the doors down to the cellar and stood at the top of the stairs there. "See you in the morning. Also, next time you get food to eat make sure to eat it all. Stop causing unnecessary trouble for Vivi." And Lewis left him the controls again. Yet there was nothing Arthur could do to stop his fall.

The stairs were of wood without anything on the edges of each step to keep a good grip on them. Still, it hurt a lot to roll down for them and glide down the last few ones. When finally on the bottom he slowly, and in pain, gets to up on his knees and looks up in time to see the doors closing.

"No, no no no. Please don't, don't leave me in here!" He tries to stand, to climb up the steps. But the doors closes leaving him in the cold dark. Then the click of a lock turning sounded out in to the deep.

Denying that he was truly stuck down there Arthur slowly stands up, winching as big parts of his body protested, no doubt bruised from the fall. Even slower he managed to make his way up for the stairs and when he reached the doors he tried to open them.

"Please." He pushed and pushed, even used his shoulder. Yelled some in the hopes that someone would help him, but no one did. The only thing he got out of it all was really that he now was on top of a staircase in complete darkness. The tears was not helping but at lest there was no vision for them to blur up.

In fear of falling down for a second time, Arthur gets down in a crouching position, and slowly pretty much crawled his way down again. Feeling the floor under his foot again he stands up. First he try to feel the wall after some light switch, all he finds is stone walls and remembering that this is a old cottage. Just because the actual living space had been fitted with electricity didn't necessary mean the cellar had it too.

Standing still in the darkness for some minutes Arthur wondered what he should do, or could do. After some thinking he remembers what the letter said about the cellar, that it's used as storage.

"Maybe I could find a lamp or something."

Carefully he starts to move around in the dark and soon he actually finds something. Feeling at it with his hand he determines that they are boxes that where stacked. A sense of accomplishment filled Arthur as what he has to do now is simply to carefully lift down a box and search through it tills he finds something of use.

Giving a silent prayer that he won't accidentally break anything and a quiet sorry to the owners for searching through their things. But as he went for the top box to take it down the whole stack of them started to fall down. Hastily moving to the right in an attempt to avoid being plumped by unknown objects he walked right in to the next stack that also feel over.

Ducking to the floor and curling himself in to a ball with his only hand over his head he waited for the disaster. There was a lot of soft thumps as the boxes hit the floor but no sound of anything heavier doing the same. Opening his eyes again, as he had closed them tightly, he still couldn't see anything but he slowly made his way on his knees towards where he think that everything fell.

Soon he found the boxes. It was also the only thing he found, boxes. Nothing around them and nothing in them. Confused Arthur moves around to search if any of the boxes had anything at all in them. He came up with more nothing. Even after toppling an other stack the result was the same. They were all empty.

"What the hell? Wasn't this the storage for their stuff, then were is everything."

"That's an easy question to answer, considering that there never was anything planned to be in this house to begin with."

A voice said softly right next to Arthur's ear. Making the small male let out a surprised shout and nearly fall over as he lost his balance. The only thing stopping him from hitting the floor was an arm that went over around his back, gripping at his torso. Helping him back up on his knees.

"Careful there. You have already been more hurt then you should have since you got here."

"W-who are you? Why-?" Arthur cut himself of as the other person moved him closer so that he was almost forced to lean on the stranger. Who seemed to be standing on his own knees to, was taler then him too. "Hey! Let go off me."

"Sorry, please stand out with this for just a little while." And then there was a wet cloth over Arthur's mouth, making him panic and start to struggle more. "It will be alright. I'm not going to let them hurt you anymore."

The voice sounded friendly and protective but what he was saying was just creeping Arthur out. Yet there was nothing he could do about it as he felt his consciousness slipping. The only thing he could do was to whimper, which he did. Soon the cloth was gone but he barely noticed as he was still on his way under. He was not really noticing when a hand started to stroke through his hair either.

"Hush. You are safe now."

The last thing he felt was a vague feeling of being lifted in to someone's arms. Then there was just sleep.

Grey eyes observed as the smaller male slipped away, having no problem seeing in the dark, before carefully making his way through the shadows to his exit. Not even giving a glance to the locked doors as he left.