Disclaimer: I don't own Man.

"Please take a seat," said the woman, showing Lavi into a cozy living room. "Would you like some tea?"

"No, thank you. I'd prefer if we got down to business," Lavi answered making himself comfortable in a couch with the friendliest smile he could conjure.

The woman smiled and disappeared into what he supposed was the kitchen. Some minutes later she came back with a tray with a teapot and teacups, setting one in front of him on the coffee table. Lavi frowned, but waved it off deciding that it was better to let the woman have her way if that made her open up to him.

"You're not the first person that came to the town looking for information on the house," she said while she poured tea and settled down in an armchair across him. "So, tell me, how can I be sure that you are not one of those idiotic kids wanting to make a 'ghost film'?"

"Well, did you talk to any of those kids? I don't think they'd know much about the matter at hand."

"Certainly I did not. No one said a word to them, so they ended just going into the house and getting scared off," she scoffed and drank a sip of her tea, but behind the controlled act she was pulling now, Lavi could see her hand holding the teacup tremble.

"And why is it now that you are speaking to me, then?" Lavi asked, his smile never wavering.

"Because not long ago a group of people came, they seemed… let's say, 'particular', all dressed in those strange light colored attires and acting like weirdoes," Lavi supposed that she was talking about the finders and suppressed a chuckle, they could seem quite special sometimes. "They ran some tests around, I don't know, with electromagnetic detectors and so on. They went in the house to plant some kind of cameras and what not," the woman seemed disgusted at that, maybe it was best not to talk about how they were related.

"That the house is off limit is a general knowledge in town. Nobody was content with those people messing around. The police tried to intervene, but it was no good, they had the owner's approval… And so, we came to know that they wanted the house exorcised for real. It's better to leave it alone, most people think, but… maybe he doesn't want to stay there anymore. That's why I'm talking to you; you are with those people, aren't you?"

"Well… I could ask how you came to that conclusion…" Lavi trailed off, "but, I'm more interested in what you said before… he doesn't want to stay? Who is he?"

"He…" the woman sighed. "If I'm going to talk about this, introductions first."

"You can call me Lavi, from the Black Order."

"Christina Robinson, a pleasure. And drink some tea; youngsters these days don't take time to appreciate simple things." Lavi glanced at the brownish liquid and tasted some. It had no sugar and he decided to maybe leave it for later.

"So, could you talk to me about what is in the house?" Lavi said ignoring the glare Christina directed at him when he put his full teacup back on the coffee table.

"It's not what, it's who. And that would be Timothy," she said, leaving her empty teacup besides Lavi's. "He was an… acquaintance of mine. He has been dead for 46 years now. We knew each other when we were 6 years old, he died with 9."

Christina seemed sad at the memories, but Lavi wouldn't let her stop there now that he got someone who would talk to him.

"May I ask how he died?" she seemed uncomfortable with the question, but even so she answered.

"He was… killed," Lavi could see her gulp, "by his mother…"

XXXX

"You could have killed me!" Allen shouted, his words falling in deaf ears.

"I warned you, and I already regret it," Kanda said walking past him and over what was left of the door. He would take extra care of Mugen when he got back, but now he wanted to finish this stupid mission, couldn't the stupid ghost appear and be done with? He was getting bored and annoyed thanks to the retarded Moyashi.

"You prick…" the white haired boy muttered before following Kanda into the room. His next words were swallowed at the sight of the room.

If the rest of the house was decorated after some circus theme, it fell far behind this room. The house was large, every room was far bigger than it was needed, and this room in particular consisted in the whole third floor sans the staircase.

From the roof hung bright colored fabrics, hiding from view the foundation, round pillars for support were similarly dressed with painted bulbs surrounding them. Directly in front of the door and one foot over the floor level, stood a checkered stage in gold and red, bleachers forming a semicircle around it opened at the center letting a thick with dust carpet guide them from where they stood to the stage. A heavy red curtain enclosed the area, separating what the spectators were to see and what was hiding behind scenes, parted only at the back of the stage.

An exclamation of amazement escaped Allen's lips, Kanda just voicing a 'che' before he made his way to the bleachers, sitting carelessly in the front row.

"Go make your act, fool," he said to Allen mockingly, an amused smirk on his lips.

If only he could wrap his fingers around that slender neck and press strongly for a minute… But he had to exorcise this ghost first, that would have to come second in his list. "Fuck. You."

"You wish."

"Not in your dirtiest dreams," Allen scowled before his face relaxed and released a sigh of resignation. He walked the path towards the stage and around it, going through the opening of the curtains to drop his coat and briefcase before looking around for something he could use.

Maybe he shouldn't have left the journal in its place but brought it with him, now it was too late and he'd have to remember the best he could what was possible and what wasn't. Thinking about the basics, he grabbed some juggling balls and made his way back to the stage.

He hesitated a little before stepping in the stage, but there was no use in delaying the inevitable. Kanda straightened from his sprawled position looking at the ceiling and glanced at him.

"You are gonna juggle?" he asked incredulous. "I thought you were going to follow the book, where is the lion?" and he actually snickered to Allen's dismay.

"Shut up. Why don't you come here then and do something better?" he argued back.

"No lion, not interested," said Kanda in the most annoying voice possible as he shrugged his shoulders.

"If you dyed your hair bright orange, I'm sure you could pass for one," and ignoring the disgruntled protests of his companion, Allen dropped on the ground what he wouldn't need for now and started juggling with three balls. The hand he hadn't had time to bandage protested, the cut across its palm burning. Allen winced as the balls hit the floor, a miscalculation of strength sending them out of the desired trajectory.

"You call that a performance?" Kanda helpfully supplied his opinion. Allen just glared at the balls, his hand and finally Kanda. He made to pick them up again; if he was waiting for the pain in his hand, he should be able to juggle without much trouble.

As his fingers grazed the closest ball, he froze. All the lights flicked on, focusing in his crouched form, the attraction of the show, and loud music started playing. The balls rolled towards him, and he stood up clutching them as he tried to block the blinding light with his forearm. He threw a questioning look Kanda's way and saw that the Japanese man was as surprised as him. Was the electric current even working before? Though he didn't try, he just assumed…

"No, the lights didn't work before," Kanda answered his unspoken question as he stood up in alert, Mugen in his hand. "Keep your stupid act, it seems to be working."

He didn't need to be told twice to resume juggling, this time ignoring his aching hand, Kanda keeping an eye in their surroundings as Allen focused in maintaining a good rhythm. The next foreign movement they saw was a ball from the pile Allen had left in the floor fly to Allen's hands, and when he adjusted his movements to include it in his juggling many more followed after.

Allen struggled to keep his pace and add the ever coming new balls. Applause and laugher started to echo in the room as he finally found balance, costumes once hidden behind the curtains filling the bleachers as spectators.

Kanda first reaction was to cut the closest one, which just fell to the ground in a heap.

If Allen was glad at first for only bringing a few balls to the stage, he regretted it now as all kind of objects started to make their way from behind him to his hands.

After the first, came the second and the third destroyed costume, and as he went on and on, Allen's act became more lively.

"Kanda! Stop!" he shouted, desperation obvious in his tone. "I can't…!" the pile of objects he was juggling with was starting to tire him, he knew he wouldn't be able to jump on top of the big ball rolling around the stage and gradually approaching him without dropping everything, hatches and throwing knives included. He was deeply aware how this act ended in the altered book: the clown crushed under the weight of everything it was juggling with.

Kanda stopped slicing the clowns for a second to assess Allen situation and frown deeper at how fast it had escalated. Nothing good would come out of it if it continued. He made to step into the stage but as he got a foot on, a ball flew from Allen's hands into the mask of a clown behind Kanda, he having avoided it in the last second. "What the…" he didn't finish as he saw the knives shake in midair and retreated from the stage, not really knowing what to do next.

Allen swiftly looked around and his left eyes caught sight of an especially enthusiast clown, smaller than all the others, he faintly could make the figure of a boy inside the costume. "One… to your right…" he gasped as he moved away from the big ball course. "Smaller…"

He was glad when Kanda understood without further explanation and went to cut through the merry clown, but he was a second too late and the fabrics hit the floor without even gracing his katana.

Even so, the spell was broken, all clowns fell to the floor and Allen was able to drop the objects one by one before falling on his knees panting for air. He noticed the lights were still on. Maybe this wasn't a good idea after all.

XXXX

"The Magnus made it big in the toys industry. They loved children and so put a great dedication into their work. When they came to this town they were already quite rich. The house took years to be built, and then came the couple, George and Larissa Magnus. She was pregnant of three months. They lived in the time my grandfather was here, but the stories are well known between those that have been in this town for generations.

"They were happy with the promise of the new addition, but life loves irony, and so, when the child was born, he took the woman's life away. George Magnus was heartbroken, but he loved his newborn son even so and did the impossible to keep him alive. He sold his company and dedicated all his time to him. The child name was Fabian.

"Fabian grew up and his love for children was at pair with his father's, but… he wasn't completely healthy mentally speaking. Maybe it was too much love. He was obsessed over toys, over children, over fun. But he was a good man. He got married with a girl he met when he was studying in London, Jacqueline. When he came back, his almost insane obsession over kids was gone. Then, George died.

"Fabian went back to his devotion and throwing all his education through the window, he left his pregnant wife at the house and left to travel with a circus as a clown.

"Timothy was born and grew up under his mother loving hand until his fifth birthday, when his father came back for the first time since he was born. Jacqueline welcomed him with open arms when he said he wanted to go back to his old life, after all it was his money they were living of.

"Even when he'd promised to go back to normal, he transformed the house. I went often to play with Timothy and the house was hideous, as if someone had eaten and puked a circus over it. Poor Jacqueline couldn't do a thing, she was a nice woman, but weak. And so, Fabian taught Timothy all the 'magnificence' of a circus. By the time I met him, he was set in the idea of becoming a clown just like his father.

"I said I was an acquaintance of him, but in truth, I was the closest to a friend he ever had. Everyone at school laughed at him, but of course, he was a 'clown', he thought they laughed with him. It became worse when it came to light that Fabian in his little circus adventure had spent most of his father's fortune, all that was left was the house.

"Timothy didn't care though, as happy going and friendly as he acted, he lived in his own small world. The only reason he became close to me was because that damned story he loved, "If I Ran the Circus". You see, it was about a boy that mounted a circus behind a store, the old owner of it being the main performer in the end. My father had a store, behind it there was nothing at the time. He was always talking to me about what my old father could do for his circus.

"And so he grew, with all those crazy ideas in his head.

"When he was about 8 years old, his father began to feel his… abstinence from the circus. He would mount small acts for Timothy, spent most of his time in the third floor where he had mounted a small circus. But that was not enough to settle his urges, he became an alcoholic. Then, one day, he realized that it had ruined his life. He sobered up, something weird for him at the time, and proclaimed that the next day, he would throw away all the clown stuff and return the house to its grandness, fix their lives.

"He never woke up again, a cardiac arrest was said. I can't say if Jacqueline was sad or relived at the moment, but months later it was known that the last gift her husband left her had been another child.

"This one will be a sane one, she once told me. She tried getting rid of everything while Timothy wept, but it was no use. Every time she tried to break something, put them in a trash bag, leave them in the front yard so the collector would take them, they would appear in the house again or she would suffer an accident. After one time she was trying to bring down some costumes and fell from the stairs, she resigned; maybe after she gave birth she would try again.

"My father died around the time. I didn't go to the house anymore.

"The child was born, a girl called Mary. All I know after that is that some months later Jacqueline was taken to prison for the murderer of her two children. She hung herself with the sheets of her bed in her cell.

"The house was passed to her strangled sister, as she was the only relative alive. She came once to check the house, never came back. Put it into sale, no one bought it. It became known as haunted. People would come just to see it. For a while, it was like a tourists' attraction. Then, only 'ghost hunters' and the like would come and run away when they got hurt, never anything serious, some broken bones at most and stories of ghost clowns that wanted to force them to become one themselves.

"We call it the "Clowns' house" for that reason, and it's considered a taboo between us. After all, nobody here lent a hand to the family when they needed it.

"I believe the 'clowns' is actually Timothy playing around, he has his circus now… But what good is a circus with no spectators? He is trapped in his own dream…"

Christina finished her long story, her voice emotionless through the entire tale, as if saying something she had thought over and over.

Lavi had been silent the whole time, trying to figure if she was leaving something out. He didn't think she was hiding anything.

"Can you do something?" her gaze that had been fixed in a spot on the floor while she was talking was directed at him. "Can you help him?"

"Well, I came with two other partners, right now they should be exploring the house and seeing what can be done. By the story you told me, it shouldn't be hard, if you excuse me I'll go let them know right away," Lavi said while standing up, he spared a look at his now cold tea and took a deep breath before he gulped it all down. "Thank you for the tea," he grimaced before lifting his briefcase and leaving the house in a hurry.

As he had thought at first glance, this mission wasn't that of an easy one. The finders couldn't find any rumors to be true and had mostly based their judgment in the activity registered and almost harmless accidents, he wasn't that worried about the kid, Timothy, it shouldn't be much of a problem to solve his case, but a drunken ghost was another story.

If he was right, Kanda and Allen could be in a pinch walking around aimlessly. Hopefully, they wouldn't push any wrong button.

Sorry for the long wait! I got tied in real life…

Anyways, here you have chapter 4, and since I seem too incompetent to efficiently write a multi chaptered story, next will be the last chapter…

Hope you liked it, reviews and critics are more than welcome as well as grammatical corrections. Thank you for reading!