Shinigami-cat: Well I hope you're all ready for this chapter… I OWN NOTHING!

Mad House

Arthur left the kitchen and entered a long hallway in the house. It looked rather beautiful and normal in most aspects, apart from the blood all over the walls and the floor. 'These people… What atrocities have they committed in this place?'

He decided not to think much about it, instead he decided to try and keep close to the shadows as he went about looking for them. Those people had to be around here somewhere and he'd be damned if he didn't find them. If he didn't get to them soon the girl he was trying to find might get killed, if she wasn't already.

He couldn't bear the thought of going through all this only to find out that the girl had already been killed by someone. He prided himself on never failing a mission given to him by the agency.

He sighed a little and walked into a room, softly closing the door behind him. No one was in this room. It was pretty empty, just a few draws and a couple of draws and boxes scattered around the place.

Curiously, Arthur had a quick look through the drawers. He didn't find much. Just a few scraps of paper. One scrap had the words "Delta" written twice on it. One under the other. On another other bit of paper were letters and numbers; A-404 and B-211. He had no idea what any of it meant. He put the bits of paper in his pocket in case he found out what they were later.

Deeming that the room was no longer important, Arthur left the room and continued on his search for the keepers of the key. He walked down the hall, staying close to the wall. After a few minutes he heard something that sounded like footsteps.

When he got close to the source of the sound, Arthur crouched down and peeked around the wall. There was a woman gently swaying from foot to foot, cradling a bundle of cloth in her arms. She would have looked like a perfectly normal mother, if her Victorian gown wasn't coloured red with blood. This woman had to be the Dutches.

"Are you sleepy my precious?" She asked the bundle happily. "Do you need to be changed? Perhaps you're hungry? Well, we'll need to speak to the cook about that. You need to start on solid food now. Maybe you mummy and daddy can get their lunch too." She hummed happily as she walked away from Arthur.

The Brit shivered a little from his hiding spot. 'They are turning that baby into a cannibal like them… Fuck I need to get that child out of here too don't I?' He wondered what he was going to do with a baby, or if he could even protect it. His best plan of action would be to kill the Duke then get rid of the Dutches.

He started to make his way down the hell when he heard the Dutches Shriek. "HE'S GONE! SOMEONE'S STOLEN OUR COOK!"

"Bollox." Hissed Arthur. He quickly moved into another room and quickly hid in that place. This room had broken bits of furniture in it. He hid in the far corner, behind a small cabinet. As he waited for the hysterical woman to calm down and pass by, Arthur started to draw his plan of attack in the dirt of the floor with his finger.

He would need to find where the Duke kept his instruments and kill him when he was distracted. He hoped to cut off the man's head while he was distracted, if that failed he would have to stab him into submission and then kill him. The plan was about the same for the Dutches, but he would have to kill her while she was distracted with her baby.

He didn't like that thought though. He didn't want to kill a child's mother right in front of them. He would have to wait until the Dutches had put the child down in its crib. Then he had to wonder who would be able to keep the infant or if they would even want to keep it. It was the child of these people's oppressors. He would have to worry about that later.

Once he believed that he was safe enough, he left the room and continued on his way to find the Duke. He decided to follow the bloodied footprints assuming that they would belong to the Duke, while the more sweeping blood strokes on the floor would have belonged to the Dutches.

Whenever he heard a sound, he would quickly duck into a room or into the shadows in case they spotted him and tried to kill him in some horrible way. Eventually through his searching he was able to find what looked like a grand dining room.

Well it would have looked grand back in its prime, but now it looked like a waste land. Bowls of long ago rotted fruit lay amongst scattered bones, rotten meat and dirty dishes. The whole display was rather grotesque and made Arthur's stomach turn. The only good thing about this whole ordeal was that everything was so rotten it almost didn't have a smell anymore.

'I need to get out of here…' Thought Arthur. He could feel his stomach quiver a little. He exited the hallway and entered some kind of decadent front room filled with lavished status, broken in some places, a large marble staircase that lead upstairs to the second floor. Hanging under these marble steps was a large painting. Curious as to what it was, Arthur walked over to it to have a closer look.

The painting looked rather gruesome. It was painted in the Baroque style; lots of dark colours with realistic figures that were often twisting in agony. This one was no exception. All this painting was, was a pile of dead bodies in different stages of decay. The freshest kills at the top and the most rotted and decayed at the bottom.

'Why the hell would anyone want something like this in there house?' Wondered Arthur in disgust. It was a gruesome image, and to have it on display in such a place… it made Arthur's head spin.

He looked down to see a small plaque down the bottom of the picture. Curious as to what it might detail, Arthur decided to read it;

"Sword and crown are worthless here. I invite everybody to dance;
Labourers, lawyers, church and gown all make their little prance.
This life is full of random death; and heaps of grief and shame.
So few are soothed by 'accident'; you want someone to blame.
Fire, plague and strange disease;
Drowned, murdered, or if you please,
A long fall down the basement stairs;
None are expected, no-one cares.
I often must work very hard; sweat running down my skin.
After the dance, I then must rest; and the eating can begin."

Arthur frowned after reading that darkened poem. He was about to turn and walk away, that was until he saw the shadow of a man standing next to him. "Time to eat…" Growled the man. He raised something into the air and cackled. "All have the right to be eaten!"

Arthur jumped out of the way, just in time to see hatchet smash the plaque. He quickly glanced at the man and glared at him. He was wearing fine aristocrat clothing, but it was all bloodied and torn. The man's glasses were even missing a lens. His facial expression was something different though. It looked way too calm for someone dressed like that. This man had to be the Duke.

"Sorry chap, but I'm not on the menu." Hissed Arthur. He quickly turned and ran down the hallway. He needed to get far away from that crazed man.

"ELIZAVETA!" Screamed the Duke. "FRESH GAME IS IN THE HOUSE!"

"Shit…" Hissed Arthur. He didn't need this. He quickly ducked into a room and in amongst some of the boxes that cluttered that place. It was dusty and it irritated his eyes and throat, but he could deal with it. He just needed to stay quiet.

The Duke entered. "Where are you?" He called. "Come on out…"

"Why are you making so much noise?" Snapped the Dutches, Elizaveta, angrily. "I just got the baby to sleep and you start screaming about game in the house? What's wrong with you Roderich?"

The Duke, Roderich, frowned a little at the woman. "Wasn't it you before that was screaming about our cook running away?"

"Your locks are shit!" Snapped Elizaveta. "You need to get something better or more of them will run away and I'll have to find some other lock and where the hell am I going to get those locks, Roderich? Where?"

"Don't yell at me about that!" Snapped Roderich. "I didn't catch that one! He must have gotten in here somehow and freed out cook!" Arthur decided to use their arguing to his advantage. With cat-like tread he slowly started to make his way around the boxes to try and find some kind of escape.

"Well that never would have happened if the lock on his neck was tighter!"

"How did they get in here then?" Snapped Roderich. "Was the back door locked? Of course not! They wouldn't have gotten in if you had locked it!"

"LOCKED IT?" Screamed Elizaveta. "OF COURSE I LOCKED IT! I'M NOT STUPID!" She sighed a little. "I'll leave it to you to find him… I need make sure the baby hasn't woken up because of all your useless screaming. Call me if you need any help." She turned around and left the room.

"Always yelling…" Muttered Roderich as he started to search through the boxes for Arthur. "Always yelling about something or another. She has such a beautiful voice… very beautiful… So pretty. It rings in my ears… It's better than Mozart or Beethoven…"

'You're a fucking psycho and a sadist.' Thought Arthur bitterly as he slowly moved around the room. He either wanted to escape or behead Roderich now and steal his part of the key. Seeing as how Roderich still had his hatchet with him, he wanted to play it safe and wait till that monster was disarmed or too absorbed in what he was doing.

He managed to sneak past the cannibal and back into the hallway. Now that they both knew he was in here he would have to be even more careful than he had been before. If he made too much noise he would give himself away, and he sure as hell didn't feel like becoming a meal for those two.

He made his way back to the room with the painting . Arthur wanted to see what was upstairs. Hopefully he could find something. Arthur quickly made his way up the stairs, hearing angry footsteps. Roderich must have been done with the room and was out to get him. He would need to make a trap.

He walked up the hallway and turned into a room, gently closing the door. This room was filled with different kinds of instruments. It was rather spectacular, but like everything in this damned house it had blood all over it. "Disgusting…"

"I think it looks pretty cool." Said White Rabbit.

Arthur almost jumped out of his skin. "When the bloody hell did you get here?"

White Rabbit chuckled and held a finger up to his lips. "Keep quiet. You don't want Roderich or Elizaveta to hear us do you? If they hear us they'll eat us alive."

"Why do you sound too happy about that?"

"Because I'm a sick bastard." Said White Rabbit. He sat down at the piano and chuckled a little. "My oh my… these people are rather sick individuals aren't they? Though you can't blame them for their behaviour…"

"You're defending them?" Hissed Arthur. "Why would you do that?"

He shrugged. "Why do anything these days?"

Arthur frowned a little. "Look, I need to get the bloody key that those cannibals have. Seeing as how they won't just pass them over I need to kill them. So you can either help me or piss off!"

"Sure, I'll help." Said White Rabbit happily. "You hide and I shall lure. I've got nothing better to do anyway."

"Doesn't mean I want you help." Snapped Arthur. "You only turn up to cause me misery! Get lost!"

"But I just wanted to help you." Cooed the White Rabbit. "While those two are alive I don't have much to do."

"They why don't you kill them yourself?"

"Have no need to. They are annoying, but not so annoying that I myself would kill them."

"… You make no sense. How did you get in here anyway?"

The White Rabbit chuckled. "That American guy with that little brunet guy didn't lock the back door. I saw you and the American walk in but I didn't see you come out with him. I could only assume that you were still in here and I was right… You're in trouble now though."

"Tell me about it." Muttered Arthur. "That bloody bitch discovered I freed the cook and that bastard actually found me! Now they are both after my head!"

"Well you do have one advantage over those two…"

"What?"

"Me."

Arthur looked at White Rabbit in disbelief. He didn't understand why that man was helping him now. He chuckled darkly. "What are you? Are you a hindrance or a help? An idiot or a practiced fool? I thought you are just here to block my way and distract me from my mission… To kill me even after you've had your fun. Why are you tormenting me now?"

"Weren't you the one that sought me out first?" Asked White Rabbit. "You went looking for me and you were still looking for me, but are you looking for the right thing?"

"What the hell are you on about?"

The White Rabbit waved him off and ghosted his fingers over the keys of the piano. "My dear, sweet, foolish Englishman… I can't believe how stupid you are sometimes. You should learn not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'm helping you because I'm curious as to what's going to happen…"

"Happen?"

"If you fuck up and get eaten I don't give a shit. After all you did say that I am meant to kill you, so less work for me. If you kill them then I can loot the place. It's a win, win situation for me… So let's work together and have some fun killing people."

"You take pleasure in killing people?" Asked Arthur is disgust.

White Rabbit shrugged. "Wouldn't you take pleasure in killing me, the Duke and Dutches or some other unrighteous person?" He cracked his fingers and started to play a little bit of Beethoven. "I suggest you quickly find a hiding spot. Roderich never likes it when someone messed with his piano."

"What the bloody hell?" Snapped Arthur. "Why are you bringing him here?"

"So you can chop off his head and do whatever else you need to." Said White Rabbit like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Now run along and hide."

Arthur frowned and quickly hid behind some drums near the door. As long as only Roderich came in everything would be okay. If Elizaveta was with him, Arthur would be stuffed.

TBC

Shinigami-cat: Yes, I am leaving it there. Mwahahahahaha. Please review.