"He…i… Con… dang…"

Again, it is Kudou's voice. I can't understand what he tries to say.

"…nan is… nger, be careful!"

'Conan', 'danger' is all what I can get from him. What are trying to say? Kudou, what is it you want to tell me?

"Wa.. Up! Hurr…!"

"WAKE UP!"

I was forced awake, pulled out from my dream by something that I couldn't comprehend. When I finally regained full conscious, I looked around me searching for what caused my distress to find Satoshi is still fast asleep next to me. I turned to look at Yamato-keiji who is also still asleep, my gaze passing a figure seated on the edge of his bed. I looked back again to where I thought that figure is and I was surprised to find the patched up bunny there. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes before I looked again to where I thought I saw the bunny, only to find the bed sheets wrinkled but nothing on it. My imagination, I'll just go back to slee… GULP

As I returned my head to the pillow I came face to face with the patched up bunny. It was just sitting there on my pillow beside Satoshi's head staring at me with its only blue eye, right in front of me, partially touching my nose. It was doing nothing other than scaring the shit out of me… I want to scream.

"Hattori! Do you know where he is?" If my heart hadn't stopped before then it jumped out of my body when I heard the voice call. All my neurons have forgotten how to function and my mind and body numbed; therefore, when I turned to look at the speaker, I did it with a dumbfounded look on my face.

"Huh?" That unintelligent response was the only thing I can muster out of the chaos my fears were turning my words into.

"Did you see... ?" The speaker who had barged in stopped his current questioning in favor of a new one. "What's wrong?"

I glance back at my pillow and find it empty. There was no bunny on it. Wha..? Never mind, it's there behind the open door. Awkward, I'm not sure if I was supposed to be this relaxed to actually finding the stuffed animal or the other way round. Whatever, at least now I have someone awake with me. Wait, who is it?

"What?" Oh, it is only Hakuba. It was dark but I could tell it was him by his accent. "Is there something behind the door?" After asking that, he peeked behind the door..

"…? Isn't that Conan's bunny?" The blond carelessly held the toy from its neck. He made me uncomfortable by doing this, as if he were going to be killed by the patch together creature... *Pft* Silly me... He tossed it carelessly on the bed, having its head slam the edge of the post and fall face upward to the ground. I freaked out and I jumped to its rescue but it was too far for me to reach in time. Of course all I get from the brit is a 'What the?'. At the very least it didn't last long before he shook his head "Forget it. Have you seen Conan?"

"Why would I? He is sleeping with you isn't he?"

"Well, he's gone. I can't find him anywhere and the place is still new on me. I don't know where to search! Do you have any idea?"

I shook my head in response, "I'll help you out. Have you tried the balconies yet? He does like watching the moon."

"… No, it didn't cross my mind. I'll search in my room and you-"

"I'll come with you!" Hell no am I going to stay alone after all that! Call me a coward, but I still won't stay.

On our way to Hakuba's room I felt eyes on me and therefore I reflexively turned to take a look at what it can possibly be. I was surprised to find the eyes staring at me were in fact only those of a cat out on a late night stroll. Scratch that to The Cat. The cat Conan plays around with sometimes. It waited for us until it made sure it has our full attention. When it did, its big blue eye turned to face the hallway leading down to the stairs, and it marched. I shared an unease look with Hakuba who was obviously thinking the same thing. 'We better follow'. And that is what we intended to do, but as we turn back to the cat it disappears. Nevertheless we didn't let any fear cloud our resolve. We took the same way as well. Just as we reached halfway down the branch stairway we heard a meow. We look ahead to find the same cat there, waiting at the platform in between the stairs. This time we didn't let our eyes wonder anywhere else, keeping them concentrated on the creature's back as it started leading us downward.

We continued on its trail, though this time I tried to rush my footsteps in order to keep the cat within my reach in case I felt any need to capture it. But the cat wasn't stupid. Somehow it managed to disappear and then reappear ahead of where it had vanished from our sights, as if it merged with the shadows in the corridor that were created by the moonlight streaming in through the large windows. I wonder if it's just me, but it seems as if I am seeing fog floating in the castle-like mansion. When reaching the bottom of the stairs, it did it again, disappearing and then reappearing in a blink of an eye. This time it was in front of a door on our left.

"Does that door lead to the tower?"

I only nod to the blond's correct deduction. The door leads to a tunnel connecting the castle with the tower. "But we need a key-"

Creek

I was disturbed by the sound of the door in front of us opening wide, though no one had touched it, only the cat sat awaiting in front of it.

We didn't get the chance for the mystery of this let our detective reasoning get the best of us before we made our way in behind the cat. We pushed the door further, entering a tunnel-like hallway with many windows on either sides, giving us a good view of the forest surrounding the property. The full moon bathed the forest in an eerie glow as the wind played with the leaves. The hallway was longer than I expected but we managed to reach the only other door. It was odd we that haven't seen the feline since we entered , but not much of a mystery, for there was only one way for us to take and the cat hadn't doubled back on us so there was no other way it could have gone.

Hakuba opened the door, and gave the dead silence a weary look. We were cautious entering the new room, making slow progress to be certain that there weren't any strange traps, especially since the mansion looks like it could possess some. Regardless of our minds playing around with imaginary danger, we found it safe enough to walk in and explore.

The interior of the tower held a small open space surrounded by a spiraling stair case that led too far up to structure of the tower was built completely of rock. Another meow got us moving back again, this time requiring us to follow the sound. It didn't take long until the black mammal was found in front of an ajar door.

Inside it a silhouette of a child could be seen.

"Co-"

"Shh" Hakuba slaped my mouth shut and prevented me from opening the door any further. He raiseed his forefinger and middle finger, pointed them to his eyes and then pointed them to the silhouette. Watch.

The silhouette didn't move for a very long time as it sat on the ground with his legs folded to his sides. Only small movement could be seen. His hands were out of view so we didn't know what the figure was doing. As the wind blew through the opened window it caught the curtain and allowed some more moonlight to brighten the room. The light illuminated droplets of dark liquid around the kid. The only thing that I could relate the dark smears to is blood. Just as I managed to free myself form the brit's hold; the boy raised his arm over his shoulder, holding something sharp in his left fist. He lunged it downward with force, causing more of the dark liquid, that shimmered ruby at the reflection of the moon light, to splatter around like a fountain.

"Wait!"

Regardless of Hakuba's pleas I dashed to Conan's side. But before I could touch him he turned around and faced me with a blinding smile… Another addition to the horror. This sort of normal expression freaked the hell out of me. That was the third horror in less than an hour. Added to the fact that Conan hadn't been capable of pulling off a single normal smile since the incident, he did it perfectly now with blood splattered all over his face, making it all the more unnaturally scary. With my height privilege I was able to see the source of all the bloody mess. It was a stabbing wound in his right hand...

"W..What are you doing? Stabbing your hand like that…."

"Waah!" His self-mutilation made smile turned towards me "Hei –nii, Ha-tan! You're here? What are you doing here?" His tone was cheerful and loud as was his expression for the first time in a very long while. It didn't give me that happy feeling that normally came with a child smiling up at me. I felt threatened by it for some reason. That child doesn't, no, shouldn't know how to smile… It was an unwritten rule

"No, no! You shouldn't be up here! Don't you know?" Conan asked as he tilted his head to one side in an attempt at being cute. "You're not allowed here!" The child then burst out into uncalled for laughter. He was definitely not sane,, at least not at this particular moment.

"Co-Conan-kun, are you alright?"

*Blink-blink* "Of course! Why wouldn't I be? You're so rude ojiisan, but you are so funny! Hehehe, just like always." Again he concluded his sentence with a blinding smile, stretching from one side of his face to the other.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Do you know? The door opens inward. heheh!"

"H-huh?"

"Forget it Hattori! Don't try to reason with him when he's hurt! We should get his hand looked at before he bleeds too much!"

I did as the blond said and I looked at the wound. He's right. The amount of blood isn't reassuring and it's obvious that it needs to be tended to right away. I wished I could get a better look at it but Conan didn't seem to want to sit still. AGRH!

"Ne, ne! Have you ever seen I bloody moon before? Shall I show you one? HAHAHAH! London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down HAHAHHA It falls down HEHEH!" I try and ignore his random outbursts... and the outrageously freaky laughs, for the sake of having a better look at his hand…

He was sitting on the ground with his legs bent outward, his right hand hidden in between his thighs. I reached for his hand as he was distracted, returning his full attention to me as he continued talking with that bright childish air. The next thing I knew there was blood flowing down my neck. I touched the blood with my fingers, tracing it all the way to its source. I looked down blankly at my only possible attacker, but he was still giving me his childish face. It made me doubt myself about thinking that any harm could have come to me from him. I started to believe that he wasn't responsible, even though nothing else could have been, since the child didn't seem to notice what happened. It was so quick that my brain still didn't register the injury and I couldn't feel any pain from it, though I knew I should.

"Hattori, are you alright?"

For some unknown reason Hakuba was still observing the situation from the door. I ignored him and tried again to reach for Conan's wounded hand. For a second time I felt blood, this time running down my cheek. He scratched me under my right eye. I was quick to notice what had happened, but so did he. Now that my wound was within his view, he showed signs of guilt to what he did. The boy's eyes widened and his eyebrows went up, abashed at what he seemed to be doing unnoticed by his on conscience. He had tears on the bridge of his large eyes that, complied with his upset expression, created the perfect puppy expression. His blood dirtied face all added to the ALERT signs running through my head. He raised his wounded hand to my cheek feeling my cut as he spoke.

"Gomen, does it hurt? Are you mad at me? P-please, don't be I – I didn't mean it I SWEAR! I SWEAR I SWEAR I SWEAR! I DIDN'T DO IT! I –I mean I didn't mean to do it, or raise my voice, are- are you mad because I did? Are you?"

"N- no I'm not -"

"YES YOU ARE! Aren't you? I swear I didn't mean it! I swear I swear I SWEAR! Just don't get mad at me I –I – I'll fix it, I swear" As I was about to try and calm him down he leaned forward and brought his face close to mine - too close to mine - and then he... he … He started licking my wound just under my eye! This action made my brain to temporarily stop working.

I only tuned in again after Hakuba's surprised yelps reached me. He was still near the door and I had yet to figure out why he didn't want to enter the room, even after Conan was hurt… I felt Conan's tongue licking my eye once more before he retreated a very short distance and started repeating the gesture on my neck. I don't know what to call the situation anymore but I'm certainly wasn't comfortable with it, in fact I was disturbed beyond all reckoning by it and wished he'd just stop! But no matter what I tried to do to get him off of me, he just kept on coming back.

"You! What the fuck are you doing, Kuzo!" A rough older voice said

"Heiji – oniisan. W-what is the meaning of that...?" Soft and confused one

"Waah Hattori-kun! I didn't think you were into these stuff… makes me feel.." A teasing and annoying one

"Nononono! It's totally not what it seems.." the blond tried to defend

It just had to be at this moment that they decided to show up. Sigh. Now god knows what they think, especially Yamato-keiji and Satoshi-kun. I could care less what the Kudou's look alike thought.

And I thought this day couldn't get any more awkward, and the fact that it is just the night makes me look forward for the rest of it.. Sigh….


I was totally depressed because of the number of reviews for the last chapter, only 1... Sigh, at least I'm really grateful for this one person..

Anyways again than LostInTheDreams for beta-ing this chapter, it was done for a while now buti was just too lazy to put the finishing touches

I hope i open my mail next time to find Something from this site