Honestly, the more he roamed about the old mansion, the more he came to realize there were plenty of spirits in this place. But, most of the spirits appeared to be from the time period of the manor itself. Wearing kimonos, yukatas, and other outfits that reminded him of what his grandparents and their parents before him wore for regular outfits. He only recalled wearing such in his younger years for ceremonies and other special occasions.
Did that mean these spirits were as old as the manor itself? Could these ghosts have been in torment for a couple of centuries if not longer? He swallowed as he lowered his camera, sending yet another spirit to rest. At least, he hoped each time he took their photo he wasn't having to hear their pained screams for nothing. And if the specters had been trapped in this place for that long, they deserved a chance to rest.
Though, with how he sometimes still encountered Veronica after their first fight, his heart sank at the likely possibility his camera did nothing to help any of the lost souls here. If he wasn't careful, he could end up here along with them. Permanently.
As he stepped into a courtyard, his mind shifted focus.
He blinked slowly at the snow coming down from the sky always dark and cloudy. He noticed the gravestones off to the side with lit candles in front of them. He furrowed his eyebrows as he recalled something that had happened prior to when the nightmares started.
Shiro walked about the ruins of a manor. Pidge was walking a few feet away from him, examining some of the broken wooden beams. "Really does look like an earthquake or something caused this place to collapse." He heard her say, watching her stand up out of the corner of his eye. "Either that or bad planning."
"You know what the locals said." He decided to remind her with a faint frown. "They said something bad happened here that caused the place to be abandoned and left to ruin like this."
Pidge huffed slightly. "Yeah, but none of them would tell us what the bad thing was. So, it still could have been exactly the stuff I said."
Shiro shrugged slightly as he went down a hallway that was still intact. "True." He called out to her before proceeding down the hallway a bit. He stopped though at seeing someone standing at the end of the L-shaped hallway. "Who's there?" He asked while leaning a bit to see if he could get a better view. Unfortunately, he wished he hadn't.
His heart clenched, and his eyes stung a bit. "A-Adam?" He knew he shouldn't be seeing Adam right now. But, he knew it wasn't impossible. Not anymore. That place now covered in water taught him that along with taking away his-
"Adam!" He called out as Adam turned away and headed down the hallway. He rushed after him, only to feel his mind become foggy. He closed his eyes, shaking his head a bit. Only when the fog cleared did he open his eyes. He looked about and realized he was no longer in the hallway. Instead, he was in a courtyard with snow coming down from the sky.
With gravestones on his right trying to raise up to the sky and candles lighting the way to the door on the other side.
"Is this really the same place?" Shiro slowly walked the path. It was like his daydream had been transplanted into the manor itself. Then again maybe that daydream, which Pidge shook him out of, was his first glimpse of the manor that would soon plague his sleep. He couldn't be sure. But, when he woke up, he would need to bring it up with Pidge and the others, especially Matt and Keith. Because for all he knew, maybe the two had experienced the daydream like he had.
If it was exactly like his dream, then when he opened the door he should see a place with a fireplace and a second-floor loft to it. Instead, when he got to the door and unlocked it with a key he found, the room in front of him was not that one.
He was in some entrance room with a hallway in front of him that looked to be cross shaped. Before he could really figure out more about the new room he found himself in, he saw someone some feet ahead of him.
Shiro's eyes widened. He swore his heart stopped, though he knew realistically it hadn't. Just his breath had left his lungs entirely at the person walking down the hallway in front of him. Even though he could not see their face, he recognized that tanned skin and dirty blonde hair anyway. He swore he even saw the edges of the black glasses the man always wore.
"Adam…" Shiro whispered and tried to follow his late fiancé. But, just as he got close enough that he swore his fingers, outstretched, could brush Adam's back, a white light completely blinded him, and he could no longer register anything.
As if he had been knocked out within his own nightmare, deprived of having some any sort of true closure. Just his luck.
Shiro woke up with his eyes wide and panting loudly, catching his breath. He sat up quickly before swallowing. "Adam." He muttered the name with a frown slowly forming on his face. "Are you somehow there too?" He asked yet prayed that he had only been seeing things. For while he wished he could get the chance to talk to Adam just one more time, he did not desire for Adam to somehow be stuck in that place after his death.
He gritted his teeth as sharp pains radiated from his right shoulder. He didn't dare to glance over his shoulder. Somehow, he just knew it was the tattoo spreading across his shoulder blades. Even if he decided to look, it would only remind him of his limited time. What time he had left until he too became like Veronica.
Once the pain stopped, he got out of the bed and changed into grey sweatpants and a black tank top. He didn't plan on going out today.
He opened his bedroom door and blinked at a bunch of racket from downstairs.
"Lance! Give me back my bacon!" Keith yelled and Shiro found himself moving to look over the railing to see what in the world was going on.
He saw Lance holding pieces of bacon up in the air while standing on the back of the couch. How Lance was balancing and not falling over presently was beyond him.
"No mullet! You had to eat all the eggs! So, I'm going to have the last bit of bacon!" Lance glared down while Shiro saw Matt facepalming and Pidge rolling her eyes.
"Ugh. So immature." Pidge complained loudly with a faint smirk on her face. Shiro saw Lance and Keith turn their heads at about the same time and glare at her.
"No, we aren't!" They said at the same time and then glared at each other.
"Don't be copying me, mullet!"
"No, you were copying me!" Keith jabbed his finger into Lance's chest and grabbed for the bacon.
Lance lifted his hand higher into the air and stood now on his toes. "You aren't getting-ACK!"
Shiro tensed at Lance falling off the couch and hitting the floor.
Even though Pidge, Matt, and Keith laughed loudly, Shiro frowned and stared down at Lance. "You alright, Lance? Do you need any ice or anything?" He couldn't hide his concern as Lance sat up and looked up at him.
"At least someone has manners!" Lance pointed up at Shiro before grinning. "Naw, I'll be fine. I'm used to rough housing with my siblings. I'll live."
"I'm surprised you didn't take that as a chance to complain and play kiss up." Keith teased, and Lance glared at him.
"Really Keith? Not cool man!"
Shiro chuckled softly as the two went back to arguing.
The sight was a welcome distraction from what he had seen. Yet, when he saw Pidge looking at him and pointed between him and her before making a phone sign with her thumb and finger, her usual gesture for needing to talk, he knew there was no way to completely forget their circumstances for long. Not as long as his life and other lives were at stake.
"So, what did you find exactly?" Shiro asked while sitting on Pidge's bed. He saw Pidge sitting at her desk, shaking her head.
"Well, not much, but I think I got a lead to follow up on." Pidge turned in her seat to face Shiro. "You know how we said, after what happened to Veronica, that there were likely others having the nightmares? Well, apparently, there were rumors about that hospital about lost patients."
Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Lost patients? Like literally lost?"
Pidge huffed loudly. "No Shiro, pretty sure the hospital would look quite bad if they couldn't find literally lost patients." She grabbed something off her desk and Shiro noticed it was a notebook. "These patients were called lost because they would start sleeping most the day and become unresponsive. And when they did briefly wake up, they would start humming some lullaby none of the staff recognized." Pidge opened the notebook and flipped through it. "Till eventually they couldn't be awoken at all."
"Like Veronica." Shiro frowned before blinking. "Though wait, they all hummed some sort of lullaby?"
"Yeah, I'm trying to figure out more details on that. Seems odd they would be doing that. Have you caught yourself humming anything when you first wake up?"
Shiro furrowed his eyebrows before shaking his head. "Not that I recall."
"Well, I'll still look at it just in case. Lance did say he thought he heard Veronica once in the few days before her death humming something. But, he couldn't recall the notes or anything." She poked a page within her notebook slightly. "I'm hoping I can find a staff member that maybe recorded the lullaby and see if they'll let me have it."
Shiro smiled faintly. "Always one step ahead, Pidge. Couldn't ask for a better assistant." He stood up from the bed and headed towards the door.
"Though Shiro?" Shiro blinked at Pidge's hesitant tone.
"Yeah Pidge? Something the matter?" He frowned and noticed she was frowning too.
"Yeah…there's another reason I am looking into this whole lullaby thing." She looked at Shiro and placed the notebook back on her desk. "I went to wake up Matt when he stayed over the other night…and I swore I heard him humming a lullaby I didn't recognize."
Shiro's eyes widened and quickly tried to compose himself. "Pidge, I'm sure it's nothing. Probably just heard it on the radio or something."
Pidge scowled slightly. "Shiro, don't. I don't need false comfort. We both know what it likely means."
Shiro headed towards her. "Pidge." He leaned over once close enough and pulled her into a hug. "I swear nothing will happen to Matt, promise." He said against her hair, letting her tremble and cling onto him.
While he couldn't be sure how realistic it would be to promise such, he found himself not caring. He had to keep Matt safe. He had to keep everyone he cared about safe.
He wasn't sure he could handle the loss of yet another person. As he held her and did his best to not let his heart break at her quiet sobs, he shivered slightly. It was as if someone had placed their cold hand briefly on his shoulder. He swallowed and looked over his shoulder. His skin paled at the sight of an identical face peering at him.
"You should know not to make promises you can't keep, Takashi." The ghost smirked a bit before disappearing.
Shiro's heart raced, thumping loudly in his chest.
He found himself gripping onto Pidge tighter, grateful she didn't flinch or comment on it.
For not only was he sure he couldn't handle another loss, but he was sure a certain someone wouldn't mind if he lost everything after what he had to do to survive. And honestly, Shiro couldn't blame him one bit for his hatred. Just why now did he have to haunt him again, or was it the manor's doing that Shiro was seeing him again? He didn't want to question it right now.
He needed to be there for Pidge and the others. He needed to make sure Matt stayed alive. He needed to see if Adam truly was in the manor. He needed to be strong for everyone.
Yet on the inside, he found his heart breaking and barely holding on to a semblance of a not broken person. All because everything hung on a delicate balance with no way of knowing if any of them were going to make it out alive. And for someone like him to admit that was hard and only made the pain inside him worsen.
The pain of knowing he could easily fail and find himself terribly and utterly alone.
