Chapter Twenty-Two: Horror
"Arthur, should we be doing this?"
"Quiet, Euphy. We need to concentrate."
He ignored the tremor in his sister's hand in favor of walking further down the hallway. It was hard, especially with his sister leaning back and trying to run away from him, but Arthur wouldn't let her. She was the one who had asked about it in the first place and had looked up everything. It was only fair that she come along as well. Besides, he didn't want to admit that he was scared of the dark. He was nine years old, far too old for silly, childish things like that. And, being a year older than his sister, it was his job to keep her safe while they were away from the other parts of the palace.
He glanced at the walls, trying not to shiver himself. He didn't want Euphy running off on him, but it was just too weird in the dark hall. Arthur was used to the brightly lit passages of the main part of the imperial palace, where the hallways always had a guard on them for the two royal children. While it was neat to not have someone following him so closely, it was strange not to have their reassuring presence right behind him.
Arthur swallowed and looked around. Thankfully, they didn't have to go all the way to the end of the hall, just to the third door on the right. After that, the hall didn't have any more doors on either side; the third rooms elaborate suites for the emperor. Except that no one had used them since Emperor Lelouch had died. His mother had moved back to another wing of the palace, taking rooms on the ground floor. Because of the move, everything was closer to her and no one bothered to come to the hallway anymore.
That and there were rumors that a ghost haunted the hallway.
Everyone knew how the evil Emperor Lelouch had died, killed by Zero before he could murder more innocent people. It had taken a bit of convincing by Euphy for a guard to tell them what had happened to the body. The man had sworn that he had seen the emperor burned and the ashes scattered. That should have been enough to stop a ghost from every story that Arthur had read. But Euphy had been the one to turn up with the idea that maybe the ghost was haunting a specific object. After all, they both knew that the rooms hadn't been touched since the day that Lelouch had died. It made sense that the object was still there, and Arthur wanted to find it. What he would do with it would come later, but he wanted to be the one brave enough to go where none of the guards dared to walk. It would show them all that he was a brave prince, brave enough to rule Britannia when his turn came.
He stumbled to a stop when he felt Euphy yank her hand from his. Arthur tuned, ready to yell at his sister when she held a finger to her lips, whispering around it. "What's that?"
"What?"
"Shhh." Euphy tipped her head to the side. Arthur stared at her, listening as hard as he could. But there was nothing. He shook his head, Euphy looking disappointed. "I thought I heard my name."
"You're just hearing things because you're scared."
"I am not!" She stomped her foot, Arthur afraid that she run off and leave him alone like she usually did when she was mad. He didn't want to be alone in the dark hallway even if there were no voices. It was creepy enough on its own.
He swallowed and held out his hand again. "Well, maybe you just thought you heard it because you're expecting to be scared."
That seemed to calm her down, Euphy huffing and taking his hand again. Arthur pulled his sister closer, glad that his attempt at an apology had worked. He wasn't gong to apologize all the way, not when he knew that he was right. She had probably just heard the swishing of her dress anyway, the one that he had told her not to wear because ghost hunters didn't wear dresses. Euphy had just glared at him for that and had worn the dress anyway. With all the noise that it was making, they had probably scared the ghost away.
The two of them crept towards the third door, Arthur pulling them up just in front of it and staring at it. It looked just like all the other doors in the palace and not at all creepy. He puffed his cheeks out in annoyance. Maybe the guards had lied to him, laughed at him because they thought it was funny that the prince was scared of a hallway. In any case, he would tell his mother about them and she would do something.
Arthur was distracted by his thoughts of vengeance as Euphy pulled away from him. "We got to the door and nothing happened. Can we go now?"
"No. We have to go in."
"Why?!"
Arthur jumped for her and pressed a hand over her mouth. "You have to be quiet; we don't want anyone finding us here."
Euphy nodded and whispered a quieter, "Why?" when he took his hand away.
"Because they're going to redo this whole wing. I heard Mother talking about it. If they do that, then the thing that the ghost is haunting will go away. That's why we have to find it now and get rid of it. We'll be heroes."
"Like Kallen Kozuki?"
Arthur sighed, but nodded. "Yes, like Kallen."
That got his sister to move faster than anything else he had said to her. She pushed past him, standing up on her tiptoes to slap at the panel by the door. Arthur almost scolded her, because there had to be a code, but the door slid open anyway. Euphy smiled at him before leaning forward to peer into the room, Arthur resting a hand on her shoulder and looking in himself.
There was nothing in the room, no glowing object or red-eyed ghost floating in the middle of the room. It just looked like the sitting room to their living quarters. Arthur bit his lip and took a step back, suddenly very disappointed. He had been so sure that they would find something right away, because all the stories had the guards finding something quickly.
Maybe it was because the ghost didn't know about them; they had both been born after Lelouch had died. Maybe they had to disguise themselves as someone that the ghost would know to draw him out.
He looked back at his sister, who was edging away from the door with a pout on her face. She glanced between him and the empty room, not bothering to keep her voice down. "Now what?"
"We could look through all the rooms."
She didn't look happy about that suggestion. "And what if there's nothing there?"
"I don't know, Euphy."
"Euphy?"
Arthur spun around at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, staring at the man that had stood behind him. His mouth dropped open as he saw that the man was mostly see through, only visible because the walls were so dark. Even partially visible, Arthur recognized the man; he had seen pictures in books and on television.
It was Lelouch.
He sucked in a quick breath to hold back a scream, trying to be as brave as his father was. Besides, there was Euphy to think about, his sister clutching at his arm tightly. Arthur stepped in front of her, puffing out his chest as he tried to ignore the pain in his arm. He would protect his sister from the ghost as long as he needed to. Although how he would do that he wasn't sure. He had thought that it would be easy to defeat the ghost of Lelouch, but they hadn't found the object that the ghost was haunting and Arthur didn't want to go into the rooms with the ghost following him.
His knees stated to tremble as Lelouch leaned forward, the ghost frowning at the two of them before it took a step to the side. "Euphy?"
Euphy let out a high pitched scream and let go of his arm. Arthur turned to watch her run down the hallway towards the safety of the rest of the palace. He glanced back towards the ghost, watching it straighten up before making his decision. He turned on his heel and raced after Euphy, screaming at the top of his lungs.
With every step he expected to be grabbed and dragged back into the rooms. He had heard all of the stories about Lelouch, even the ones that the grown ups didn't want him knowing. Lelouch had done evil things when he was the emperor; forcing people to fight for him, torturing people, killing them. Arthur could imagine what would happen to him if he got caught, and then what would happen to his mother and father when they came after him. He started to cry as he ran. He didn't want his mother and father to be hurt by a ghost, but they would be and it would be all his fault.
Someone stepped into the hallway in front of him, Arthur only having a moment to recognize the familiar silhouette, but it was enough. He sped up, hoping to get to safety before the ghost caught him. "Zero!"
Zero glanced at him, Arthur not paying attention to the mask as he darted under the safety of Zero's cape. He reached up for the man's hand, grabbing onto both hand and arm while trying to slow his breathing down. He didn't care about wiping the tears away, he was still too scared. From the other side of Zero, he could hear Euphy sobbing, which meant that she was safe. Arthur risked a glance over, seeing his sister tucked under Zero's cape as well, sobbing into the man's knee. He wanted to reach out and hug her, but that would mean coming out from the safety of Zero, which he didn't want to do.
He was in the safest place in the palace at the moment. Zero had been the one to kill Lelouch when the emperor had been alive. He would be enough to protect them when the emperor was dead.
He tugged at Zero's arm to get the man's attention before turning to point down the hallway.
Arthur froze in the middle of the motion, starting at the empty space in front of him. He gave a sharp gasp and scrambled to get closer to Zero. The ghost had been right there and now it was gone. It was probably lurking invisibly somewhere. Zero was a great man, but he couldn't fight something that was invisible. It was too much. He sniffed, pressing his forehead against Zero's hand and closing his eyes.
"Hey."
Arthur felt the cape shift as Zero moved, yelping and grabbing it to pull the fabric close. The move stopped Zero, the man gently wiggling his hand until Arthur freed it. He relaxed when the hand was pressed to the top of his head, a firm reminder that they were safe.
"Why were you screaming?"
Arthur tipped his head back to look at the mask, ready to tell his story when Euphy beat him to it.
"Arthur wanted to see the ghost. I told him not to, but he wouldn't let me go back."
"Euphy!"
"You wouldn't! So we went down the hallway and I told him that I heard someone calling me, but he didn't believe me. Then we opened the door and the ghost was right behind us." Arthur heard her break down into sobs again. "It was trying to grab us."
Arthur felt Zero's hand stroke over his head, the pressure gone a moment later as Zero strode forward. He shouted and grabbed onto the cape, seeing Euphy do the same on the other side. "No! He'll get you too!"
"The ghost?" Zero looked back at them, the mask making it impossible to tell what he was thinking. But Arthur was used to it, used to waiting for a slight tip of the head that meant Zero had come to a decision. He sighed the moment Zero relented, the man taking a step back. "Alright. I'll take you back to your mother, but I'm going to come back."
"No!"
"I'll be fine. It's only a story anyw-"
Zero was cut off by Euphy's scream, Arthur feeling a chill run down his spine at the same time. Arthur turned to stare at the space in front of Zero, letting out a shriek of his own when he saw that Lelouch's ghost was right in front of them, Arthur level with the bloodstain that ran down the ghost's front.
He tugged frantically as Zero's cape, trying to get the man to move as Euphy ran out of the hallway, screaming for their mother. He wanted to follow her, but he couldn't leave Zero behind. "We've got to go!"
Zero didn't answer, Arthur looking up to watch in horror as the ghost took a step forward, one hand reaching up to caress the right side of the mask. Arthur felt Zero jerk back, but the man couldn't pull away. The ghost was too strong.
The ghost seemed to realize that, smiling at Zero as its other hand went to rest on the back of the mask before pushing through it. "Suzaku."
Arthur barely had time to recognize the name before the ghost was stepping forward, almost into Zero. The ghost's face disappeared inside of the mask, Lelouch using whatever hold he had on Zero to draw them closer.
Arthur let go of Zero's cape, stumbling back a few steps as Zero crashed to his knees, the ghost bending over him to stay in position. Zero swayed in place before reaching up for where part of the ghost's head could be seen sticking out through the mask. Zero's hand hovered in the air, inches away from touching the ghost's hair when there was a shout from behind them.
"Arthur!"
The familiar voice was enough to send him running back to his mother, Arthur throwing himself against the side of her wheelchair in his haste to get into her lap. It didn't matter that Euphy already occupied it, he needed to get somewhere he felt safe. Zero hadn't been able to defeat the ghost and Arthur didn't know if his mother could. Unable to get up into the chair, he pressed his face into her skirts, sobbing as she stroked the back of his head.
"It's alright, Arthur. I'm here now. You're safe."
"It was the ghost. I saw the ghost."
"Sh, I know you did. And you were very brave to protect your sister." Arthur looked up at the praise, catching his mother's smile before it disappeared. She looked away from him, back towards the hallway. "Zero?"
He turned to look at the hallway, whimpering when he realized that it was empty again. It was only a matter of time before the ghost appeared again, and he wanted to make sure that he was far away when that happened. Arthur pushed against the side of his mother's wheelchair, stopping when Nunnally put a hand on his shoulder.
"Zero, what's wrong?"
It took Zero a moment to answer, the man getting to his feet. "Nothing, your majesty."
"Well, the children don't believe that it was nothing. It would be better if we left here."
Zero nodded, walking out of the hallway and to Nunnally's side.
Arthur whimpered as his mother gently pushed him away, eventually taking Zero's hand under her steady encouragement. He thought he felt Zero squeeze his hand gently, but he was too busy looking back at the hallway and the ghost that stared mournfully after them.