Chapter 4: The Haunted Mansion


Namine opened the front door to her house and Roxas followed closely behind.

"There you two are! I was beginning to get worried." Tifa said as she came into the living room to greet them.

"Sorry mom, we ran into that gang of Seifer's today in the Sandlot. They tried to give us trouble as usual but Roxas here handled them for us, didn't you Roxas?" Namine said with a smile towards him.

"Roxas? Is that your name? When did you remember it?" Tifa asked him.

"I didn't." He said to her.

"Well what he means is that I decided to call him that." Namine said to Tifa.

"And I think it's a very fitting name. Now I can officially meet you." Tifa said as she expended her hand to him. "Nice to meet you Roxas, I'm Tifa." And this time Roxas took her hand and they shook.

"Now who wants some dinner? I ordered us a pizza and it got here about five minutes before you two showed up."

"Pizza sounds great! Come on Roxas." And the all headed into the kitchen.

Tifa and Namine grabbed themselves a few slices but Roxas declined the food offered to him, saying he wasn't hungry. Namine thought this was very odd but she didn't force him to eat anything he didn't want to.

About an hour after dinner the house started to settle themselves into bed. Namine had walked Roxas to his room.

"Don't worry about what happened today, we all get carried away sometimes. Seifer did need a good butt kicking though. But from now on try to remember, don't shoot to kill. Ok?" Namine said to him.

"Alright."

"Goodnight Roxas." Namine said and then she gave him another hug. He still didn't understand what it was she was doing, but he still didn't stop her.

When he walked into his room and shut the door, he went to go look out the window, on watch for the man in the black robe. But as he stared out the window, all he saw was still darkness.

…………………

"Master Ansem, it appears the girl is housing him." Riku said into his communication device.

"I was afraid of that, now there won't be any capturing him in the night." Said Ansem.

"I guess we will just have to come up with a way to draw him away from those other kids when we catch him." Riku concluded.

"We have no other choice. Experiment 8 is coming along well, its levels have improved greatly since the last time it was to be awakened."

"That's excellent to hear master, I can't wait to see how this one comes along too." Riku said with a little excitement in his voice.

"Yes, both of our hard work is paying off well. I believe I'll have experiment 8 ready for awakening in two days or less at this point." Ansem said through the receiver.

"Sir, it looks like experiment 13 is keeping watch out of the window, I can see it resting on the sill."

"It took me quite a while to make its body adapt to sleeping once every three days and eating every other day, this might work against us in capturing it. But it will come in very handy when it is raging war against the Heartless armies."

…………………

There was a knock on Roxas' bedroom door, and he called out, "Come in."

Namine came in the door and she saw him sitting on his bed, staring out the window.

"What are you looking at?" She asked him as she walked over.

"Nothing in particular." He responded.

"Hey are you hungry? Mom and I are gonna make some pancakes."

"Yes I am getting hungry, come to think of it. What are pancakes?" Hr asked her.

"Pancakes are one type of breakfast food, and they taste great! Help us make some and you'll see what they are." And so Roxas followed her out of his room and into the kitchen.

"Why good morning Roxas, ready to make some pancakes?" Tifa said to him.

"How can I help?" He asked. So Namine and Tifa showed him the instructions and Namine explained a few other things, like how to measure the ingredients. Namine began to giggle when she saw how seriously he took getting an exact measurement of pancake mix. After all the ingredients were in a large bowl, Roxas stirred it up quite quickly to Tifa's surprise, but by now Namine was used to these sort of things.

The batch was large enough for them all to have three pancakes each and after they all drowned their pancakes in syrup and powdered sugar they ate in the living room as they watched TV together. After their big breakfast, they all cleaned up and changed out of their nightclothes. And when they were done doing that, Namine got a call from Olette.

"Hey mom, Roxas and I are going to go hang with Hayner and the group, ok?" Namine said to her mom.

"Sure thing hun, see you when you two get back, have fun!" And then Namine and Roxas went out the door and headed towards the train station.

…………………

"So do we got everything?" Hayner asked.

"Nets, camera…yep, its all here! Just waiting on – oh hey, there they are." Pence said as he noticed Namine and Roxas come through the gate to the Usual Spot.

"Ok, we're here! What are we up to today?" Namine asked.

"Ghost hunting!" Hayner said raising a fist into the air.

"Ghost hunting? You mean we're going to that old mansion?" Asked namine.

"Yep, Hayner says the place is just over run with ghosts and we could get famous around here if we got some pictures." Olette told Namine.

"And besides, I'm just dying to get a chance to use my new camera." Pence said as he held it up.

"Well what are we waiting for? Were all here so lets get going!" Hayner said as he grabbed up his net and walked outside with the rest of the gang following close behind.

…………………

"Well here we are!" Hayner said as they all stopped in front of the huge gates outside of the old abandoned mansion.

"Oh man…" Pence pouted.

"What's wrong?" Olette asked him.

"Just look, the gates are locked up tight." He said as he pointed to them.

There was indeed a huge lock on the gate, locking them all out.

"If no one has lived here for years then why in the world is it locked?" Hayner said with frustration in his voice.

"Looks like that plan of ours is washed down the drain." Namine said with a frown on her face.

"If the gates were unlocked we could still go in, right?" Roxas asked her as he noticed her disappointment.

"Well yeah, but I don't see how we're going to do that." She said to him.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." Roxas said as he walked over to the eight-foot tall brick wall. He looked up at it for a moment, then knelt down a little and jumped with all his strength and grabbed the top of the wall and pulled himself up with ease. Then he jumped down to the other side and walked over to the inside of the locked gate and undid it, opening the gates for his friends.

They all just stared at him with their jaws dropped, just as they did the other day when he kicked the ball into the sky and out of eyesight.

"Blondie, you are the man!" Hayner said as he ran though the gates, the rest of the group followed at a walk behind him.

"I told you his name is Roxas, Hayner!" Namine called out after him.

"Yeah, yeah, Roxas. Got it." He said as he opened up the double doors in the front of the mansion.

When they all looked into the mansion, they saw how trashed the whole place looked. There was debris all over the tile floor that looked like pieces of the ceiling and furniture. There were missing tiles and everything was coated in a layer of dust. All the windows were foggy with dirt so the light coming through them was a dirty golden yellow color. There was two stair cases that both lead to an upstairs hallway that lead to two rooms on ether side. The carpet on the stairs looked like dust moths ate it because there were so many holes and tares in it.

The foyer itself was a huge room, and every step the group took echoed slightly. As they all reached the center of the room, a loud "BOO!" came from behind them. Everyone except for Roxas jumped and screamed then turned around to see Hayner laughing so hard they thought he would wet himself.

"Oh man I got you guys so good!" Hayner said in between his laughter.

"Hayner you big jerk!" Olette said as she started pounding her fists on his chest.

After Hayner's little prank, the group split up into two parties to explore the haunted mansion faster. The first group was Hayner and Olette, the second group was Pence, Namine and Roxas. Hayner and Olette stayed in the foyer to explore it a little more while Pence, Namine and Roxas went into the room to the left.

"Wow, look at this room, I think it used to be a dinning room." Pence said as he took a few pictures. There were armchairs spread all throughout the room, and the large table in the center of the room was crushed by a chandelier that had obviously fell from the ceiling.

"Roxas, what's wrong?" Namine asked as she noticed how he looked worried and jumpy.

"Its, its nothing. I'm just, spooked is all." He lied, and she knew it. She's seen him with this paranoid look around town as well.

"What was that!" Pence yelled out.

"What?" Namine said as she spun around the room.

"Just now! Something white ran across the wall!" He said, pointing to the wall across the room.

"Knock it off Pence, Hayner was enough of a heart attack today." Namine said.

"No I'm not trying to scare you, I really saw something!"

"Uh-hu, of course you did." Namine said as she rolled her eyes and turned back around.

"No, I saw it too, it was right over there." Roxas said, pointing to the same wall Pence did.

"Are you serious? Ok, I want out of this room in that case." Said namine as she walked towards the door.

"I have to try and get a picture of whatever it was first. What if it was just a piece of trash being blown around by the wind through the broken window?" Pence said as he got out his camera and aimed it towards the chair he saw the white figure go behind.

"Then go scare it out and take the picture, this room is really giving me the creeps." Namine said as she hugged herself.

"Uh, Roxas, could you go behind the chair and see what it was?" Pence said with a nervous tone in his voice.

"Sure." And with that he walked over.

"Wussy." Namine said just loud enough for Pence to hear.

"Hey, I don't see you going over there ether." He said back to her.

Just as Pence turned around to where Roxas was, he saw the white figure dart back across the room to hide under another chair, and as it did so he took the shot.

"Whoa, did you see that?" Pence said out loud.

"Yeah, and I hope you got the picture because we're leaving this room right now!" Namine said as she grabbed the back of Pence's shirt and dragged him out of the room. Roxas following close behind.

When they got back to the mansion's foyer, they saw Hayner and Olette rubbing off some dirt on the window so they could see out into the backyard.

"Hey you two, find anything scary?" Pence asked as they walked up to them.

"Not really, so far this place has been a let down." Hayner said in disappointment.

"Oh I wouldn't say that, Namine, Roxas and I ran into something pretty exciting." Pence said with an eyebrow raised.

"You did? What did you guys find?" Olette asked in excitement.

"I think we really found a ghost! It was white and everything! And I might have even gotten a picture of it, I hope I did anyway, that thing moved like lightning." Pence told them.

"Awesome! Lets just explore one more room before we leave." Hayner said, then they all headed upstairs.

The next room they all entered together looked like a small library.

"Wow, look at these books! They're so old." Namine said as she took one off the shelves. It was coated in so much dust she had to wipe it away to even read the title. "Oh man, this book is 75 years old."

"Dude, this mansion must have been built when Twilight Town itself was!" Pence said as he looked around at the books on the walls.

"Well, it looks like we're not going to find anything in this room, lets head back to the town guys." Hayner said.

They all left the room and headed back down the stairs. But then half way down the stairs Roxas stopped dead in his tracks and was transfixed on something all the way across the room. His face was drained off all color.

"Roxas, what's wrong?" Namine said with urgency in her voice. "Roxas!" She said as she then put her hand on his shoulder and shook it a bit. He then looked back at her, then back over to the far corner of the foyer.

"There, there was a guy in a black hooded robe! Over there in that corner, but now he's gone. I really think we should leave – now." Roxas then hurried down the stairs and ran for the double doors in the front of the mansion, yanked them open and bolted outside.

"Roxas wait!" Namine called out and they all ran after him, all of them were now as scared as he was. They didn't stop running until they got back to the Usual Spot.

"What…as that…all about?" Hayner huffed as they finally came to a stop. Everyone was out of breath but Roxas, who was still looking around wildly.

"Hey guys, lets develop the film and see what it caught." Pence said as he took his camera out.

"Good idea, lets see it." Olette said.

They then printed out all the pictures in the camera. Most of the pictures were just of the different rooms they were in, but the one Pence had taken in the destroyed dinning room showed something different. It was blurry, but the shape was clear enough. The white creature had an oddly shaped head, no eyes, and big teeth. It's body was slender and had very thin arms and legs that were tucked to its sides, it seemed to be slithering through the air.

"Is that what you guys saw? That's freaky!" Hayner said as he looked at the picture.

"I could have sworn it was just a trick of the light at first." Namine said.

"Wait, what's this last one?" Olette asked, picking it up.

"Oh, I took that one just before we ran out. I think it might be what Roxas saw." Pence said, taking a look at it too. The whole gang did, and they could make out a man standing in the corner wearing a hooded black robe.

"That mansion is without a doubt haunted! And we have proof!" Hayner said.

"Yeah, no denying that now." Pence said, collecting together his photos.

"Well it's getting late, I got to get home before mom starts to worry again." Namine said.

"Yeah you're right, I got to get going too." Olette said, checking her watch.

"Aw, come on guys! It's the last day of the weekend! Don't ya wanna hang just a bit longer?" Hayner asked.

"Of course I do, but as you mentioned there is school tomorrow and I have to get ready and get some rest for tomorrow, no midnight adventures for me." Namine said to him.

"Oh ok, see you two later then." Hayner said as he waved to them as Namine and Roxas walked out of their Usual Spot.

On the way back to the train station, Namine asked Roxas some questions.

"Towards the end of that mansion trip, that figure really got to you didn't it?" She asked. Roxas just nodded his head.

"Why did that black figure scare you so badly if that white ghost thing didn't phase you at all?"

"Not sure." Was all he said to her. She figured he didn't want to talk about it so she dropped the subject.

When they had gotten home Tifa offered them dinner, which Roxas declined because he had eaten breakfast that morning. Roxas sat with Namine on the couch as they watched TV while Namine ate her dinner. Tifa had gone to bed no too long ago. After Namine finished her dinner she set the plate on the table in front of her and continued watching TV with Roxas. Not too much later she had fallen asleep and slumped over and rested her head on Roxas' shoulder. He knew she was asleep so he did not wake her.

Roxas' mind was going wild with the events of today. He had realized what that mansion was and that who and what the things were he saw in there. He wondered why he didn't recognize the mansion sooner. But then remembered that when he escaped it was all too dark to see details.

In the basement of that mansion was the laboratory Roxas was created in and escaped from. The white "ghost" they saw was one of the Dusks sent after him, and the black hooded figure was none other than Ansem's assistant, Riku. Roxas was puzzled as to why Riku and the Dusks didn't make a move to capture him.

He started to get sleepy himself, for the first time in three days. He let himself fall to sleep and when he did so, he slowly fell over to the side, Namine laying on him as he did so.

…………………

"Master Ansem, why didn't you let me capture experiment 13? I could have done it with ease, all the Dusks were positioned perfectly! And I highly doubt it will ever willingly go into the mansion again now that it's seen me and the Dusks!" Riku complained into the communication device while sitting on a rooftop outside of Namine's house.

"Because Riku, the other children were there, I have told you already that I do not want them near when you do so. And that is because it will without a doubt get extremely violent in order to get away, I do not want you or those children harmed." Ansem explained.

"I…I understand sir. I'm sorry." Riku said with a little disappointment and shame in his voice for his little out burst.

"You've no need to apologies Riku, I understand your frustration. And I must say I am sorry for asking you to constantly follow our experiment." Said Ansem.

"It's of no burden to me sir."

"Ether way this should not last much longer, for tonight I am awakening experiment 8. It is ready. Tomorrow I want you to come back to the laboratory and meet it, but leave the Dusks to trail experiment 13." Ansem told Riku.

"Will do sir." And with that, Riku ended the transmission.


Chapter 4 end!

Poor Roxas doesn't know what a hug is D:

And Hayner is still calling him Blondie :3

So Ansem is all ready to awaken Axel! Or "experiment 8".

What will he be like? Is he just what the doctor ordered to catch Roxas? Or can Roxas out smart Ansem, Riku and 'experiment 8'?

Till next time,

- Dragon's Blood

p.s.

Thanks for those reviews! You reviewers are awesome! As for those of you who read and run, you're lazy D: