The trees don't last much longer. Before long, they're heading towards a brighter area which turns out to be a clearing. There's a path through the trees, and at the far end of it is a large building, with peach coloured bricks and a deep blue roof.
The girl walks forward into the open space, but Takeru stops dead the moment he sees it. Something about that building feels wrong in a way he doesn't know how to explain. Poyomon, seated in his hands, starts to shiver.
"Poyo!" the little blob cries, loudly enough that the girl stops and turns around to look at them both.
"What's wrong, Takeru?" she asks. "Why did you stop?"
He frowns. "I…I don't know."
It's hard to think past the pressure in his head, but that pressure has been there since they ate. Takeru wonders if he should stop eating so much fruit.
"Well, we should keep moving," the girl says. " After all, maybe there's a clue in that mansion over there. It would make sense for the boy to look for shelter."
She turns around and starts walking again, only to stop as Poyomon leaps from Takeru's hands and bounds over to her, shouting "Poyo poyo!" over and over. The little blob overtakes her, then sits in the middle of the path, doing his best to shake his head.
Takeru is quite surprised by the actions of his companion. Poyomon hasn't reacted this strongly to something in a long, long time. He can't quite remember what set his friend off before, but he's fairly sure it was in the woods as well.
"I think he's warning us," he says.
The girl frowns. "But warning us about what? We haven't run into anything dangerous so far. It's like there's no one in this world but us. And there has to be a reason that place is there. Mansions don't just appear in the middle of nowhere."
Takeru raises his eyebrows. "They don't?"
She sighs. "Not normally, no. I… I think there's a reason this place is here. We should take a closer look. Maybe there's a clue about the boy."
Takeru isn't sure, but the girl sounds so certain that he pushes his doubts aside. After all, she seems to know a lot about things.
"Okay," he says. "Come on Poyomon. Don't worry, we'll be careful."
The closer they get to the house, the more Takeru starts to think he recognises it from somewhere. The pressure in his head grows stronger until it turns into another headache, growing and growing until by the time they reach the steps up to the front doors he has to stop, cradling his head in his hands.
He closes his eyes, and cries out as the world tips suddenly, flinging him to a ground which is surprisingly soft. Opening them again, he sees night all around him; above, to the sides, and even below. He's soaring through the air, clinging tightly to a wooden bed. In the air around him are others, too, all crying out with shock and fear. Something big and menacing is down on the ground. No, more than one thing, and there's a boy as well, and he's sure he's seen him before-
Takeru hits the ground with a thump that knocks the air out of him, and his eyes snap open to broad daylight. He gasps with shock and looks around, and for a moment he's surprised to see only Poyomon and the girl. Where are the others? A blink more and he wonders where that thought came from. Who else would be there, after all?
The girl runs over, and helps him get to his feet, asking if he's okay. She looks from him to the house, and then to Poyomon, frowning.
"Poyomon, do you recognise this place?" she asks.
Takeru is about to point out that that's impossible, because Poyomon is always with him and he's never been here before - and then Poyomon nods. The feeling of wrongness comes back, in a different shape this time. That can't be right. Poyomon is always with him, and Takeru is sure he's never…never… He frowns, and looks at the mansion again. It's strange. He knows he's never seen any buildings like this anywhere, and yet… there really is something familiar about it. It doesn't make any sense.
He walks up the steps and over to the door, pushing past the uneasy feeling in his stomach. Frowning, he turns the handle. He's curious now. His head is throbbing and normally that's a bad sign, but if Poyomon knows what this place is, then Takeru wants to know as well. It's only fair, after all.
The door is stiff, and hard to open. It's like the door to one of the outbuildings near the cottage, which only opens if you push with all your strength, and scrapes noisily across the ground when it does move. Except this door opens silently, as though there's nothing to really make it stiff or heavy. Part of him wonders if the door itself just doesn't want to move. The girl comes to help, and they push and push until there's a space large enough to fit through.
Takeru peers around it, into a large, open hall. There are quite a few doors leading to other rooms in here, and the ceiling is high enough that he can see an upstairs pathway around it. It all looks very fancy. There's even a painting on the far wall.
"Poyo!"
Takeru looks around, surprised. He hasn't heard his companion sound so worried before.
"It's okay, I'll be careful," he says, and tries to smile past the throbbing in his head. Turning back to the room, he takes a few steps forward. The picture catches his eye - it seems almost brighter than everything else somehow. Despite the pain in his head growing, Takeru can't help waking forward to get a closer look. By the time he has walked halfway across the hall and can see what it is, the pain is enough to make him dizzy and sick. He clutches his head, suddenly wondering why he wanted to come in here. In an instant it seems like the worst idea ever. The feeling of wrongness rises up, and up, and suddenly he's hot and cold all at the same time. A dark, smiling creature which reeks of wrongness and everything that's bad, bad, bad is staring down at him with red eyes and a wide, menacing smile.
Takeru screams; short and sharp, because his chest has gone all tight and he can't breathe properly. His head feels as though it's been split in two; flashes of other places, other people, and a jumble of feelings all tumble before him, hopelessly scrambled and mixed up. A shadowy figure looms over him, anonymous behind a pair of sunglasses, with spiky hair and a cruel smile. Light flares, and the scene is different: he's out in a wide, sandy space and the dark creature is back, with long, thin, black limbs and tattered wings. It laughs, and beams of darkness shoot from its claw-like hands to strike-
But he doesn't see what the beams strike because suddenly he's back in the mansion and Poyomon is by his side, shouting "Poyo! Poyo poyo!" over and over, and the girl is running towards them with that sad, teary look on her face again. The pain in his head fades, and Takeru gasps for air, wishing he had the energy to run out of the building and get as far away as he can.
The girl kneels down beside him. "Takeru! Are you okay? What happened?"
He stares back at her for a moment, as one clear thought rises out from the hopeless tangle in his mind. His head is throbbing, and he feels as though he's run fifty times around the cottage, but now that the thought is there it pushes right to the front of his mind until it turns into words:
"Devimon," he says. "It was Devimon, only… I don't understand. Who is he?"
A.N.: Wow, this chapter was super hard to write. Trying to decide what to include and what to leave out was really difficult, but I think I've found the right balance. Let me know what you think!
Technically this chapter also comes with the disclaimer that NaNoWriMo is around the corner, and as I'm MLing this year, I may not be able to update for a while. Of course, that was my intention before getting to the end of this chapter, and realising where it leaves off. I will absolutely do my best to get another chapter out soon - if not in the next few days, then in the first week of NaNo when I'm in the throes of Week One excitement and I'm ahead of target. I do not intend to leave everyone hanging for over a month!