Chapter Seven: Follow Me

Something was hunting him. War drums pounded in the distance, and leaves cracked as they came closer. Yuri's every muscle was taut like a bowstring, animal instincts warning him of predators nearby. A bush rustled, and he bolted. Run, Yuri, run! His chest heaved, his legs burned, his head pounded with distant pain. The hunters were gaining, though - run, run, run!

His head throbbed and pounded in time with his heart. He couldn't run forever, but the thing behind him kept coming as fast as ever. It didn't matter how quickly he ran, the malevolent force behind him would keep coming until he lay on the ground, gasping in exhaustion. A gentle song drifted through the trees, beckoning him. He didn't know what it was, but the sweet notes sang of sunny days and and soft breezes so he dashed toward it in hope of salvation.

Hurry, hurry… the darkness was closing in behind him and, oh, his head hurt so much…

His eyes snapped open, but even though he was certain he'd felt someone standing over him and heard her soothing voice in the millisecond between waking up and opening his eyes, the room was empty. Had he actually heard Melanie singing, or was it part of the dream?

More importantly… what the hell happened? He glanced around at the sunlight illuminating the old wallpaper of their bedroom. His skull pounded and he tenderly probed a lump on the side of his head. When had he gotten here? He struggled to remember the previous evening through his throbbing headache. That wasn't even the end of his soreness, though. Besides the headache, the pain seemed to be concentrated in his right ankle. After lifting his neck, he saw his swollen ankle wrapped in bandages and propped up on a couple of pillows. Raising his head sent the world spinning and he heard his blood throbbing in his ears. Before letting his head fall back to the pillow, he caught a glimpse of two apple gels sat on the bedside table. His hand fumbled over and found only one gel, and he squeezed his eyes shut to try to clear the dizziness.

Once he'd eaten the gel, his headache dimmed and he was able to take a deep breath and sit up with only moderate dizziness. As he pulled himself upright, he heard a bark and the door opened.

"Yuri, you're awake!" Karol burst into the room. "Are you ok?"

A smile broke through his headache. "Hey, Captain. I'm fine. What's going on?"

Judith slipped into the room as Karol jumped on the side of the bed and Repede sat by his side. "Last night, Repede started barking like crazy and woke us up. He went tearing off toward the front of the house. When we got there, we found you passed out at the foot of the stairs. What happened?"

Oh. Passed out in front of the stairs… because someone had pushed him… because there had been some kind of monster attacking him…. Memory came back as he reverse-engineered the night. There's been that shadowy figure that breathed funny, and before that he'd been alarmed because… because… something. He'd think of it later. "You guys didn't see anything?"

"Anything like what?" Karol asked.

Yuri rubbed the egg on the side of his head. "I saw a thing last night." As succinctly as he could, he summarized the events he could remember. Judith listened calmly, while Karol's face went paler and paler. When he reached the end, Yuri tried to sift details out of the seconds right before blacking out, but it was all a muddy mess. He knew someone had pushed him, and he could only guess it had been Melanie based on prior experience.

"That's the last I remember." He massaged the side of his head, wishing Estelle was here. "Some hell-beast tried to eat me or something and then our favourite dead chick pushed me down the stairs."

"Oh, wow, you're really lucky, Yuri." Karol hunched his shoulders and gave him a nervous look. "You could have broken your neck."

"As it is," Judith said, "your ankle is sprained. It doesn't look too bad, though. Stay off it for a couple of days and eat some apple gels and I think it will be fine."

"Great," he grumbled. "That's going to make exploring the house difficult." What he didn't mention was the worry in the back of his mind that he couldn't run on a sprained ankle, and if he couldn't do that, how could he escape if something was chasing him? He shook his head minutely - ow, damn, that made his headache worse - that had just been a weird nightmare.

"I'll get some crutches from town," Judith said. "Until then, we don't have any other leads to act on so there's no harm in lying around for a bit."

"I guess so." Between his headache and sprained ankle, this was not the most restful lying around he'd ever had. That wasn't even counting all the other bruises from his fall and the ones still remaining from getting crushed. When he figured out how to punch ghosts in the face, Melanie was going to be first in line.

"I'm going to get going," Judith said. "I'll give Pavel an update and pick up some crutches and more gels from the doctor. Karol, why don't you make breakfast?"

"Yeah, ok." He hopped off the bed and followed Judith to the door. "Give a shout if you need anything, ok, Yuri?"

"Sure thing."

The door closed, and as it clicked, something else clicked in Yuri's head. Something about a door… the door! That was it, he'd been looking at the door last night before getting attacked. His heart throbbed louder than his head when a vision of stairs stretching into darkness reached him. The room felt a little colder and he almost wished he hadn't remembered. He must be missing something from his memory still, because what he remembered didn't make sense. Where could the stairs lead? There was no third floor! Nothing in this house made sense, but a lot of filled him dread. He'd had a lot of close shaves in here; how much longer could he keep avoiding Melanie's assassination attempts? And how much longer before his friends got hurt, too?

Yuri looked toward the bedroom door, frowning. Karol was going to be all alone in the kitchen. In the beginning they hadn't wanted to leave anyone alone for safety, but that was becoming increasingly difficult. With Raven gone, him laid up with a bum ankle, and Judith out of the house until this afternoon, leaving Karol alone downstairs was the only option. Downstairs, where that shadowy monster had been.

"Repede, go down with Karol and keep an eye on him, ok?"

Repede whined and bumped his nose against Yuri's leg.

"Ow, hey. Yeah, I know my ankle's busted, but I'm worried about leaving him alone down there. I'll be fine, ok?"

Repede growled uneasily, but trusted him and trotted off after Karol. Left alone, Yuri closed his eyes and leaned back. Damn, his head hurt. This thing with his ankle was dumb, too. He experimentally rotated it, but stabs of pain stopped him short. He gritted his teeth with frustration. Really? A damned sprained ankle? He was bedridden because he fell down the stairs and sprained his ankle. He'd been injured many times in the past, and this was without a doubt the lamest story yet. He just prayed it cleared up by the time Flynn got here, or he'd never hear the end of it.

His head still hurt and there was nothing to do until Judith got back with crutches so he could at least limp around, so he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. In the darkness of partial consciousness, his mind drifted. Just what was that thing he'd seen last night? He was certain it had come out through the door, but it seemed to be gone now. More importantly, would it come back? He remembered the way it had rushed toward him with inhuman speed, rushing up the stairs in a blur of limbs. His gut said it would have killed him, or at least seriously injured him, if it had reached him. But then there'd been that shove, pushing him forward even though his legs had been paralyzed with shock. He'd fallen, so it just missed him. It was lucky, actually, that Melanie had pushed him out of the way just in time…

The temperature in the room dropped and he shivered. A breeze gusted by his bed and when he opened his eyes, there she was. She stood at the side of his bed, gazing at his bandaged ankle quizzically. Yuri barely dared to breathe. Was she here to finish him off? Shit, he shouldn't have sent Repede away. He considered calling out for Repede or Karol to come back, but that might startle her into action.

She raised her head and met his eyes. Yuri stared back, not even risking a blink. He could see the floral print of wallpaper through her pale face, and her black hair fluttered in the suggestion of a breeze. Her pale blue eyes bored into him with such intensity he could feel it in his chest. Yuri took a slow breath and whispered, "What do you want?"

There was grief in her face as she raised her hand, reaching toward him.

"I want to help you." His voice came quietly and gently, like he was calming a skittish animal. "We want to help you rest peacefully. What is it that's holding you here? If you explain, maybe we can help."

Bang!

Something pounded against the wall. Yuri's head jerked over but the action made the world spin. When he turned back to Melanie, she had vanished. A second bang arrived, closer to Yuri's bed than the first. The temperature of the room dropped lower than ever, and the next bang came from the wall across from him, making the mirror rattle.

"What are you doing?!" Yuri searched for any sign of her. He shivered, but was too busy worrying about the banging on the walls to try to get under the blanket.

Antique jewellery boxes on the vanity rattled and the white curtains swayed. When his eyes slid across the mirror, a silhouette yanked his vision back. When he looked again he saw nothing but his own nervous eyes staring back. Certainty that he'd seen something gripped him, and his skin prickled with the feeling of a presence uncomfortably close to him. Logic said to get the hell out of the room, but his throbbing ankle said to take it slow and not risk damaging it further by sprinting on it without cause. A series of bangs crossed the wall, each one closer than the last.

A flash of movement beside him. He had half a second to spot Melanie standing over him, and then the blanket he lay on swept over him. She pushed and he rolled, toppling off his bed as an explosive crash erupted through the room. His head banged the floor and he saw stars. Tangled in the blanket, he saw nothing when he heard a a gust of air and then a woman's voice echoing like it came from a great distance.

"LEAVE."

Energy crackled through the room, making the hairs on his arms stand up. Another crash and a shattering of glass, and then cold wind gusting into the room as the curtains flapped. But it was what Yuri heard next that chilled the blood in his veins: a man's quiet chuckle that faded as quickly as it appeared. The voice was deep, ominous, and just close enough to familiarity to frustrate him.

After the chaos of seconds before, it took a few moments for Yuri to realize it was over. In the motionless room, he shook his way out of the tangled blanket. Clearly Melanie hadn't been content to push him down the stairs, because now he ached from a tumble off the bed, too. He pulled himself to his knees, clutching the edge of the mattress. That was when he noticed the shards of glass covering the bed, ripping through the sheets. His own pale face reflected back in the pieces of mirror, and his heart throbbed as he realized the sliced sheets could easily have been his own flesh if he hadn't fallen off the bed.

In the mirrored shards, he saw his eyes go wide as understand lanced through him. Of course. He'd been so stupid. His neck craned around the room, wondering if Melanie was still around. "Hey, are you still here? I'm sorry! I'm sorry I was dumb!" They'd had it all wrong and he felt so stupid and guilty for not putting it together before now.

Using the bed as a crutch, he got to his feet and staggered to the door, mostly hopping on one foot. In the hall, he heard running footsteps and saw Karol and Repede racing toward him, no doubt having heard the commotion. Yuri leaned on the wall and hopped forward, stumbling when his weight accidentally came down on his ankle and he dropped to his knees with a grunt.

"Yuri! Yuri, what happened! Are you ok!?"

"I'm fine." Yuri waved off Karol's fawning when he and Repede reached him. "Karol, really, I'm not hurt."

Karol finally believed him and backed off, while Repede stood in the doorway of the bedroom and growled, fur standing up with concern at the mess inside.

"What happened?" Karol asked, giving Yuri a hand back to his feet. "Did Melanie attack you again?"

Leaning against the wall, Yuri shook his head. "No, not at all. Actually, we've got it all backward." He grinned, too excited about his realization to worry about his throbbing headache and the threatening chuckle. "Melanie isn't attacking us - she's helping us. There's something else in this house; something violent and dangerous. I don't know what it is, but I think Melanie does and she's sticking around to protect us from it."

Karol's eyebrows rose. "Really? But what about pushing you down the stairs, or dropping the bookshelf on you?"

Yuri shook his head, still grinning. "I don't think she was trying to hurt me last night. The shadowy thing I saw," here his grin did slip, because just the memory of that awful creature gave him the shudders, "was definitely trying to hurt me, but she pushed me out of its way just in time. It was my own bad luck I happened to be standing at the top of the stairs. And when the bookshelf fell on me, I don't think she said 'get out' as a warning to me. She was talking to the thing that was attacking me and telling it to go away."

All this time, he'd assumed Melanie's presence at all his near-misses with accidents meant she was the culprit, when actually it was only her presence that kept them misses.


Judith returned from Dahngrest with crutches and an axe. Yuri wondered what it meant when he wasn't even surprised that Judy fetching medical supplies ended in returning with a deadly weapon. They gathered in the hall in front of the door, which was once again as closed as ever.

"At least we know what's on the other side now," Karol said. "Well, sorta. I wonder where the stairs lead."

Yuri leaned on the crutches to keep weight off his foot. He'd explained as much as he could remember about the door, and Karol and Judith were as confused as he was. "I don't know, but I don't think it's anywhere good." He would wonder about the fact that the house had no third storey so clearly a staircase couldn't lead anywhere but the ceiling, but considering the door couldn't possibly exist in the first place, that seemed like the least of his worries.

Judith gripped the axe, standing before the wooden door. "Let's find out." With a hefty swing, she smashed the blade into the door.

Yuri expected a satisfying splinter, but instead it struck with a heavy THUD and then Judith staggered back, nearly crashing into Yuri. He stumbled to avoid taking an axe to the head, swaying on the crutches. "Hey, watch it."

Judith gave him a glance to make sure he was ok, and then turned her attention to the door. "Hm… that's weird."

Karol slipped past her and ran his hand along the wood. "Did the axe do anything at all? It doesn't look like the the wood is even dented."

"Not a crack." Judith leaned the axe against the wall and massaged her arm, sore from the violent ricochet.

Yuri glared daggers at the door, but since it was an inanimate object it didn't properly appreciate his venom. "I'm not even surprised at this point." He'd give it a try himself, but if Judith couldn't even leave a mark on it, he doubted he'd do much better while trying to balance on one leg.

"Ok," Karol said slowly, rubbing his chin. "We can't get through the door like this. But, we know there's something behind it. I guess we could wait until it opens on its own and check it out."

"I don't like the idea of going in there when it wants us," Yuri said. "I'm not a superstitious guy, but I got a real bad feeling from this door. Whatever is on the other side doesn't even fit in our reality."

"We could tie a rope around someone's waist," Judith suggested. "The next time the door opens, one of us will tie a rope around our waist to keep a lifeline to reality and then go in to explore. Whatever is up there, I have a feeling it's our best clue for finding Raven."

Yuri nodded. "It's the only thing I can think of. I don't like it, but someone's going to have to check it out. Two of us, maybe, for additional security, and one staying back here to guard the entrance." In case something else comes out first. There was no need to freak Karol out further with that comment.

"How will we know when the door is open?" Karol asked.

Yuri recalled the tug he'd felt the night before, like some intangible force was pulling him insistently toward the door. He glowered at it. "Don't worry; I have a feeling we'll know."


That night, they sat down for dinner to work out their options.

"We have to get to the bottom of what's in this house," Yuri said as he neared the end of dinner. "All we know is that there's a freaky door that seems to be letting in spooks."

"Multiple spooks, you think?" Judith asked. "We've been assuming that, but I suppose we don't know for sure."

Yuri nodded. "We already know it's at least Melanie and one other. And with all the little things going on in addition to several distinct attacks on my life, I'd say there's at least a few spirits in the house. They seem to have different MOs."

"I think so, too," Karol said. "I get the feeling the things that whisper behind our backs in the hallways and slam doors are different from the thing that tried to kill Yuri."

"What I want to know," Yuri said, "is if Melanie apparently doesn't have a problem with us, why don't the others seem to us?"

"Don't like you," Karol pointed out. "Judith and I haven't had any problems with ghosts except if we're around you."

Yuri stabbed his salad. "Just my luck. I don't know what I did to offend them, but I'd like to figure it out. As far as we know, nobody else died in this building, right?"

"If they did, Pavel doesn't know about it and I don't know how we'd find out."

Judith chewed thoughtfully. After swallowing, she said, "I can think of someone who might know." When Yuri and Karol looked to her, she said, "Melanie clearly knew that whatever was in the house was bad news and that's why she stuck around. If we communicate with her, she might be able to tell us why the house is haunted and how to get rid of them."

"How are we supposed to communicate with her, though?" Yuri asked. "She hardly ever speaks and pops up at random."

Karol shrugged. "She seems to show up whenever you're about to get killed. Maybe we should dangle you off the roof."

"Ha-ha, very funny."

"Karol has a point. I think if anybody is going to have luck contacting her, it's going to be you."

"So what do you want to do?" Yuri put his fork on his now-empty plate. "Have a seance? Hold hands around a crystal ball and ask her to knock three times if there's a monster that wants to eat me?"

Judith gave him a look. "I don't think that would be very useful."

"Seriously, Yuri," Karol said, "you should try to communicate with her. See if you can ask her what's going on and how we can stop it."

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do." An idea was already springing to life in his mind; he just hoped it worked. "When I do, I can also ask what her deal is with me."

"It sure is weird." A slight smirk reached Karol's lips. "I'm more used to trying to guess why certain people hate you."

Yuri gave him a dry look. "Thanks, Captain. Guess I'd better give this a shot."

They finished eating, washed the dishes, and then Yuri led the way across the house. He didn't know if this was going to work, but it was worth a shot. Karol and Judith stayed behind in the next room, and Yuri limped into the music room. Melanie wasn't here now, but she seemed to like this room more than all the others.

He closed the door behind him and looked around the dimly lit room. The sun had set, so only moonlight lit the red wallpaper. Yuri surveyed the room, but there was no sign of life - or unlife. After so many assassination attempts, he was nervous being alone in a dark room in this rotten house, but Karol, Judith, and Repede were on the other side of the door. It would be fine.

Yuri rested the crutches against the piano and took a took a seat. Shadows of tree branches like gnarled hands gripped the smooth, lacquered wood of the piano, and the ivory keys gleamed in the low light. His hands hovered uncertainly over the keys. It had been years since he'd touched a piano. There used to be one in a corner of the Comet that Yuri's own grandmother had given lessons on decades ago, but it had been sold to cover the bills when Flynn's mom was still alive. Still, he remembered learning to play "Mary Had a Little Bunwiggle" when he was seven, so he wasn't totally lost. He flexed his fingers; this didn't have to be perfect. Experimentally, he tapped a key near the middle of the board. After the room's silence, the sudden note seemed distressingly loud. Everything in the house must have heard that!

How did Melanie's song go? There were a few mid-range notes and then it climbed a scale to dainty high notes, skipping around up there like a songbird in the clouds. Yuri tried to replicate this to the best of his ability, taking wild stabs at keys and hoping he hammered out the basics of the tune. It wasn't a complex song, at least. One note followed the other with little overlap. He knew he was butchering it, and every off-tune note hurt his ear for music.

His fingers reached for a low note, and then a pale hand beat him to it. He jumped and glanced over to see Melanie slipping onto the bench beside him. She hit the note, and then wrapped her hand over his. The back of Yuri's hand buzzed with energy as a chill ran up his arm. One of her fingers pressed down, going straight through Yuri's to hit the note. A shudder rushed through him, but he got the hint and when her next finger moved, he moved with her and hit the note in time. With Melanie guiding the notes, Yuri played a basic melody, a tiny segment of her larger song.

After, she pulled her hand away and met his eyes, her face a painting of amusement.

Yuri rested his hands on his lap. "Heh. Sorry, I'm not really a pianist."

Melanie smiled; he was forgiven.

"I thought you might show up if you heard your favourite song. Or, you might come to correct it if I butchered it enough."

She nodded slowly, still watching his face.

"Not much of a talker, huh?"

Her soft smile dropped at the corners, and Yuri recalled the few times he had heard her voice. It had been echoed and forced, like she had to forcefully drag it out of the afterlife. "It's hard for you to talk, isn't it?"

She nodded again, apologetically.

"That's ok. I'll just ask yes or no questions, ok?" She didn't protest, so he took that as an agreement. He slid over on the bench so he could twist and face her. "You're not the one attacking us, are you?"

Relief covered her face as she shook her head.

"Sorry we blamed you." It must suck to put all this effort into protecting people only for them to turn around and blame it all on you. "Do you know who or what is responsible?"

Excitement spiked when she nodded again.

"That's great. Will you tell me?"

She considered this, and then slowly nodded. Before Yuri could ask her to elaborate somehow, she held out her hand. The meaning was obvious.

"You want me to come with you?"

Melanie rose to her feet and drifted to the door. Not wanting her to escape, Yuri grabbed his crutches and limped after her. He followed her out of the music room through the door opposite the others, and through a series of rooms before they made it back to the main entry. Remembering the awful apparition he'd seen last night, Yuri's senses remained on high alert. The only supernatural being tonight, though, was the ghostly woman he was following. She floated up the stairs, and then helpfully waited for Yuri to hop up on one foot. This damned sprained ankle was really obnoxious, but he wasn't going to let it keep him from getting to the bottom of this. Upstairs, Melanie began guiding him again. It was easy to follow her, even in the dark, because she glowed with pale light.

With every hobbled step, Yuri became more and more certain he knew where she was leading him. His muscles grew tense until, sure enough, he faced the impossible door. It was closed, but when Melanie clutched the doorknob, it swung open. A burst of cold, dead air swept toward him, and he froze before the lure of the door could hook him again.

Melanie looked back, questioningly.

Yuri shook his head. "No. If you want to explain, do it here."

The dark stairs formed a backdrop as she faced him, arm extended, beckoning. She didn't speak but Yuri was certain he could hear her words in his head. Come with me… come along, Yuri… follow me…

Unthinkingly, he started moving his foot forward. No! He clutched the grips of the crutches and fought back the urge to follow her. The unnatural sensation from the previous night still oozed from the door and his gut said that no good would come from proceeding up those stairs.

But… she looked so sad that he wouldn't follow….

No, Yuri! If you went upstairs with every girl who pouted at you, you'd have more ex-lovers than Raven.

It could be his only chance to find out what was going on here.

Footsteps ran toward him. "Yuri, are you ok!?"

Over his shoulder, he spotted Karol, Judith, and Repede hurrying toward him. Then he heard a door click shut, and when he looked back, Melanie was gone.

"Hey, guys." Yuri turned away from the door. "I'm fine."

Judith looked at the door instead of him. "She wanted you to follow her through the door?"

"Seems like it."

"That's weird." Karol shifted from foot to foot, standing close to Yuri. "I thought she wanted to protect you? Why would she try to lure you into that door?"

Yuri stared at the door, begging for answers. "Maybe… it's not so bad on the other side?" Even as he said it, he didn't believe it. He knew in his gut that living things shouldn't go through there. He shook his head. "I just don't know."