Chapter Fourteen
Lector had been able to spend a relaxing morning, much to Nesbitt's relief. They had shared breakfast with the others still at the house and had even watched a bit of Crump's first Magic Knight Rayearth DVD set. Serenity had joined them for that and decided she liked the show so much she wanted to see it all when things were peaceful again.
Lector had mixed feelings as he took Crump's call when it came. The tale of everything that had happened was horrifying. But he was relieved that his father had been recovered and that he wasn't still with Dr. Raven . . . or in the Shadow Realm. Now, however, there was this new problem.
"You're going out to Adele's old house?!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah," Crump said. "We've gotta go get your family's coat of arms thing before Raven figures out it's there. We're just waiting for people from the prison to come pick up your dad and for the police to arrest this Dove guy."
"Can the Dove guy even be charged with anything?" Nesbitt grunted. "It's not like he can be arrested for putting people under a spell."
"If he had any involvement with his son drugging Marie, he could be arrested for that," Johnson said, leaning into Crump's phone as Nesbitt was doing with Lector's.
"Well, in any case, I need to be with you when you go to Adele's house," Lector said. "Please don't protest. I know things about that place that might help you."
"Can't you just tell us on the phone?!" Crump exclaimed.
"I'm afraid not," Lector said. "I'll be alright, Crump. I've had a good rest and I've been able to relax here for a while." He smiled at Nesbitt, who was giving him a glare. "We'll leave right away and meet you at the port."
Finally Crump exhaled. "You're really sure you havta be there?"
"I'm sure," Lector insisted.
". . . Okay then. But you'll havta take it easy as much as you can!" Crump insisted.
"I promise," Lector said.
Nesbitt was still scowling as Lector hung up. "What's the deal?" he demanded. "Why do you know more about the place than Adele?"
"Adele still needs to stay with Mother and Marie," Lector said. "Dove said he'd release everyone from the spell, but I don't think he has yet." He sighed. "As for knowing more than Adele, I don't, really. But I don't want her going back there anyway. There are too many bad memories."
Nesbitt grunted. "You're too protective of them, after everything."
"I still love them, Nesbitt," Lector said sadly. "Anyway, Adele seemed to want to reconcile."
"Forgive me for not trusting her right away," Nesbitt shot back. He scowled again when Lector flinched. ". . . I'm just worried about you getting hurt again, but then I'm the one to hurt you. As always."
"No, Nesbitt." Lector reached out, gripping Nesbitt's shoulder. "I'm grateful you're worried. And you're right; I don't know that I trust Adele that much either. I've extended some trust, but I can't forget that she was very hurtful like most of the rest of the family was. It will take a long time before we can really start to be close again. Although I do hope that day will come."
"But meanwhile, you're determined to go out to the house," Nesbitt frowned.
"It's either that or I stay with Mother while Adele goes out to the house," Lector pointed out.
Nesbitt considered that. ". . . Going to the house would probably be less stressful and strenuous than the other."
Lector smiled, triumphant. "I'm glad you're starting to see it my way."
Mokuba wandered into the room. "Can I go too?" he asked.
Marik was right behind him. "If it's not dangerous, perhaps we could," he mused, laying his hands on Mokuba's shoulders.
"You'd have to ask your brother," Lector insisted. "There are some steep patches. . . . It's a strange place. But I don't think it would actually be dangerous . . . unless Dr. Raven gets there first."
Mokuba pulled out his phone. "I'll call Seto and ask."
xxxx
Seto wasn't pleased at first, but finally consented that Mokuba could come. So the group that had stayed behind at the house emerged, with Nesbitt driving them to the port. From there, some members of the groups switched places and Lector and Evangeline directed the others to a less well-traveled part of the city. All the homes they passed looked either abandoned or falling apart or both.
"Why the heck was Adele living here?!" Crump exclaimed. "I mean, she had money!"
"Her husband lived here," Lector said. His voice darkened.
"Well, why the heck was he living here then?!" Crump persisted.
"He was a deadbeat," Lector said.
"She still doesn't live in the best digs in town, but anything would be better than these slums!" Crump declared.
"Don't be fooled by outward appearances." Lector leaned forward. "Stop here."
Crump pulled up in front of a bizarre yard filled with dead and twisted trees on either side. In the center was a small hill covered in flowers, sloping upward to where other gnarled tree branches were falling forward over the grass. So far the house itself wasn't even visible.
"What the heck?!" Crump burst out.
"This is a complete dump, except for the flowers," Nesbitt declared.
"The flowers are so pretty, they're totally out of place," Mokuba said as he pressed himself against the glass.
"Adele fell in love with the house because of the flowers," Lector said. He opened the door and slowly got out. He wobbled slightly but caught himself on the door.
Nesbitt was instantly at his side. "You shouldn't have come," he growled.
"I'll be alright," Lector insisted.
"Lean on me," Nesbitt ordered. "I'll make sure you don't fall over."
Lector didn't protest. He knew he was weakened after yesterday. And really, the last several years had been almost non-stop stressful. He was surprised he hadn't worked himself into a nervous collapse before now.
Everyone from the different vehicles converged on the location and began walking up the hill, all the while trying to avoid tripping over or becoming entangled in the tree roots and branches all over the grass. As they climbed, an old wooden house began to come into view. The roof looked ready to cave in, while shutters hung half-off their windows and the porch was drastically sagging. Just the movement of everyone drawing close to it caused the front door to creak open.
"Gah! It's a ghost!" Joey screamed.
"Try 'It's air pressure,' Wheeler," Seto grunted.
"Hey, in this place it's hard to tell!" Joey snapped.
No one could really deny that.
"Is this place haunted?" Téa nervously asked.
"Maybe," Evangeline said. "There's definitely something weird going on in there."
"What?!" Joey wailed.
"You have to see it to believe it," Evangeline insisted.
"Can we even go up the stairs without them breaking through?" Tristan frowned.
"Yes," Evangeline said. "Just be careful of the middle."
Everyone immediately walked to the sides. Lector and Nesbitt took the lead, and as Lector reached the porch he pushed the front door open farther. A dilapidated entryway greeted them, with ragged carpet and a pink tapestry that was barely hanging on to the ceiling. Holes had been punched through the walls, and whether it was deliberate or accidental was impossible to say.
"Oh yeah, this place is a real looker, alright," Crump grunted.
"Wait for it," Evangeline said.
As each person entered the house, the interior shifted before their eyes. Suddenly the carpet was bright and cheerful, the tapestry new, and all the walls and furniture whole and inviting.
"What the heck?!" Crump boomed.
The door slammed shut behind them and they jumped.
"I sure see what you mean," Yugi exclaimed. "Just explaining this wouldn't have been good enough. It's unbelievable!"
"It's crazy!" Mokuba exclaimed.
"I know, right?" Evangeline shook her head.
"I certainly didn't believe it when I first saw it," Lector said.
"But so what's the deal?" Crump asked. "Was it like this when Adele lived here?"
"Yes, but this was its natural state," Evangeline said. "It didn't switch back and forth."
"After Adele moved, the house fell into disrepair," Lector said. "But anytime anyone came inside, it switched back to how it looked when she was here."
"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say the house misses being lived in and maybe even misses her," Crump said. "But that's looney tunes talk."
"I'm seriously starting to wonder if anything is 'looney tunes talk' anymore," Gansley deadpanned, not entirely kidding.
"Yeah, just about everything we used to think couldn't happen is pretty commonplace by now," David remarked. "I kind of miss the days when it was all nonsense and fairytales."
"No kidding," Joey scowled. "Well, we'd better start looking for that coat of arms thing."
Lector sighed. "If we can just figure out where Father hid it. . . ."
Nesbitt grunted. "Well, you said you know things about this place," he said. "If some of that involves secret passages, maybe we should start there."
"That's true," Lector acknowledged. "Yes, Adele showed me several secret compartments. I can take you to them."
"I didn't know about secret places here," Evangeline said in surprise. "Why was Adele showing them to you, Démas?"
"It was mainly because of her husband," Lector said. His eyes flickered at the memories. "She grew to be afraid of him. She told me if I ever came over and couldn't find her or her sons, to check in these different spots. They might be hiding from him."
"That's heavy," Crump frowned. "He must've been a real piece of work."
"That's putting it mildly," Lector agreed.
Mokuba's eyes flickered. That reminded him all too much of Gozaburo. How he had longed to hide from that man so many times! Or maybe more precisely, to hide Seto from him. Gozaburo had mostly ignored Mokuba. If not for Lector, Mokuba would have been virtually alone during the times when Seto was being tutored. Gozaburo had never ignored Seto.
Seto laid a silent hand on Mokuba's shoulder. He could sense what his brother was thinking. It would be impossible not to be put in mind of Gozaburo. Seto had thought of him too.
Lector sighed and looked around the entryway. "Alright, I believe the first place was here in the front hall." He moved away from Nesbitt and slowly walked to a spot on the wall. It didn't look any different from any other place, but when he pushed lightly on the board in that section, it flipped open.
Eyes glittering in approval, Yami Bakura came over to peer into the space. "This is big enough for several people," he said. "But right now it's entirely empty. There certainly isn't any coat of arms in here."
Bakura's attention was elsewhere. "I say, aren't we supposed to be alone in here?" he said in concern. Oreo, looking over his shoulder, yowled.
Everyone started and looked to the dining area, half-hidden by another tapestry. A family was seated around the table, talking and sharing dinner.
Lector went stiff. "That's . . . Adele and her family," he gasped. "And Adele's best friend! But every one of those people is still alive; we can't be seeing their ghosts!"
Yami Bakura turned to look with a jerk. "Then we must be stuck in a time warp of the past. That would explain the house's odd behavior too."
"Do you think they'll see us?" Téa nervously asked.
"Considering they haven't so much as looked over even when the cat caterwauled, I doubt they're aware of our presence," Yami Bakura said.
Yugi blinked. "Well, I guess that makes sense. . . ."
"We're going to have to walk right by them to get to the rest of the house," Lector said, "so I most certainly hope they are unaware of us!"
Indeed, no one in the dining room so much as looked up as the group walked past. Lector couldn't refrain from a shiver. In all the times he had been here, he had never encountered this phenomenon. To see it all of a sudden was more than a little disturbing.
Evangeline shuddered too. "What a weird place. . . ."
"I wonder what would cause a time warp to form here, of all places," Angelique remarked.
"We'll probably never know," Yami Bakura grunted. "I'm starting to think there aren't any normal houses in New Orleans."
"All the weird stuff is normal for here!" Joey whimpered.
Beyond the dining room, on the opposite side of the hall was a large square doorway opening into a back hall and what looked like the bedrooms. More tapestries hung from the ceiling, generally in the doorways of the rooms.
"Man, your sister has weird taste," Joey grumbled, brushing one of them out of the way to look into a bedroom.
"She thought it made the house look unique," Lector said. "She was certainly right about that."
"So what happens if we don't find the coat of arms here?" Crump worried. "Will that mean Raven already has it?"
"I hope not," Lector groaned. "If it's not in one of the secret places we'll have to branch out and search everywhere. It could be hidden in plain sight."
They roamed the main floor for a long time without finding anything in any of the secret places. Finally Lector led them down the stairs to the basement in resignation. But when they arrived at the bottom, the bizarre design of the house continued. Now, not only were there tapestries, but heavy quilts hung every little while to separate rooms. There were no normal walls or partitions for the rooms at all.
". . . Your sister really designed this?" Crump blinked in bewilderment.
"I . . . am honestly not sure," Lector said. "I never remember the basement looking like this when she lived here."
"Oh great!" Tristan scowled. "So what happened?"
"Let's stay calm and perhaps we can figure it out," Gansley said.
"We'll have to go to the outside walls for the secret passages we haven't checked yet," Lector said. "But when I see all this, I wonder if Father hid the coat of arms on a tapestry or quilt. . . ."
"It'd take forever to check them all!" Joey yelped.
"So it's not on a shield then?" Tristan asked.
"We don't have an actual shield, no," Lector said. "I don't recall that we ever did. We just had the design, and Father could have had that put on a tapestry or quilt." He sighed. "But it's possible there is a shield and that's what Father hid here. He could have destroyed the cloth version." He brushed aside several quilts, going deeper into the bizarre maze as he searched for the outside wall.
The others trailed after him.
"Wow, this place is so strange," Yugi exclaimed. "But it's kind of fascinating too."
"It really is," Serenity said. "All of these quilts and tapestries are beautiful. Each one looks handmade." She ran her hand over a teal-colored quilt. "And I just thought of something. Quilts have two parts and then the batting in the middle. What if your dad put the coat of arms into a quilt instead of on one, Mr. Lector?"
Lector stiffened. "He certainly could have! But that would mean we would have to open each one. . . ."
"Oh brother! We couldn't do that!" Crump exclaimed.
"It would be such a shame to do that too," Serenity said. "I wonder if he could have left a clue on the right one?"
"That's assuming he put it in one at all," Duke said. "Maybe he didn't."
"And where the heck is the wall?!" Joey yelled. "It's gotta be here, but the more quilts we move, the more there are!"
"It would be all too easy to become lost down here," Yami Bakura growled.
"And what if that's what's supposed to happen?" Atem said in concern. "If the house isn't supposed to look like this, what if this is Dr. Raven's doing? He could have beaten us here after all and decided to torture us."
"I wish that didn't sound as plausible as it does," Téa moaned.
"Perhaps we shouldn't all stay so closely together," Gansley said. "Maybe some of us should go back near the stairs in case we need to help the rest of you find your way back."
Seto turned to look behind them. "That's all well and fine, if you think you can find your way back."
"Oh man, don't tell me we're already lost!" Joey cried. "It's a few quilts! We couldn't get lost with a few quilts!" He brushed several aside, certain he was going in the right direction. Instead, he was greeted by more. A scream of frustration tore from his lips.
"Calm down, Wheeler," Seto said in irritation. "We'll find the way back."
"Of course we will," Yugi smiled with an encouraging nod. "But first we have to try harder to find that coat of arms down here!"
That was easier said than done. Joey was right that the more quilts they moved, the more there were. It was an impossible labyrinth dragging them deeper and deeper into its embrace.
"For once I actually wish the Paradox Brothers were here," Atem frowned as they continued to search. "Labyrinths were their specialty. No doubt they could find the way out."
"Ring, show us where the wall is!" Yami Bakura commanded in frustration. But this time the Infinity Ring was silent.
Tristan threw his hands in the air. "Well, of course it wouldn't be that simple," he said in disgust.
"I suppose we have to be grateful the Ring has been working lately on more critical matters," Bakura said when Yami Bakura looked like he was silently fuming. "We can't expect every problem we have to be solved with it."
"No, of course not," Tristan sighed. "But that doesn't make it any less frustrating."
"It most certainly doesn't," Lector said. "By now I confess I don't know what to do either. We haven't been able to make it back to the stairs. None of these tapestries or quilts are any help."
"And you've surely been up for far too long," Gansley grunted. "You need to rest! But I don't even see a place to do so except the floor."
"After collapsing there last night, I would rather not rest on the floor," Lector said wearily.
Mokuba brushed another quilt aside and yelped.
"Mokuba?!" Seto looked over with a jerk. "What is it?!"
Mokuba was staring at a twisted tree root rising out of the floor. "I don't know!" he exclaimed. "It looks like one of the trees from outside is growing in here too!"
Evangeline gaped. "What on Earth . . . ! It broke right through the wood floor!"
"Boy, I'll bet that messes up the plumbing something awful," Crump commented.
"Does this happen a lot around here?" Téa asked.
"It shouldn't be happening at all," Evangeline retorted. "Not if there's a proper foundation and floor!"
"And I thought Adele had both," Lector frowned.
Joey tripped over another root. "Well, guess what?! Here's another one!"
Crump flinched. "Hey, you don't think it's like The Lord of the Rings when that tree tries to attack Merry and Pippin and starts pulling them inside it?!"
"I hope and pray not!" Lector retorted.
The house gave an eerie groan under their feet and the visible roots seemed to move. The floor rocked, and everyone started to pitch forward and backward. They grabbed at the quilts and each other to keep from falling.
"Man, I am never coming to New Orleans again! I swear!" Joey yelled.
"Not even to visit our friends?" Serenity countered. But she looked nervous too.
"How about they visit us for a change?!" Joey shot back.
"I think that's a great idea," Angelique exclaimed. "I'd love to see Domino City!"
"So would I," Evangeline said. "But right now, unfortunately, we have to figure this current problem out!"
The floor finally stopped rumbling and the roots lay still again. Slowly everyone began to let go of their deathgrips on the quilts or their friends and straightened.
"I would really recommend leaving the basement, only we can't seem to do that either," Yami Bakura said in disgust.
"And how can we leave the house without the coat of arms?" Evangeline worried.
"You know, I seriously doubt Dr. Raven could find it here any better than we can," Crump said. "And what the heck are we supposed to do with it if we find it, anyway? Are we gonna destroy it so he can't get it?!"
"I don't know," Lector realized. "I would hate to do that, especially since it may very well be the only copy in existence."
Without warning the sound of a door creaked open somewhere in the expansive area. Everyone froze. Could that be Dr. Raven now, having tracked the coat of arms here? Should they stay quiet and lay in wait to ambush him?
"Just what is wrong with you children?!" came Adele's frustrated and sorrowful voice. "You can't even behave at the dinner table! I don't know why you hate on everyone you come in contact with! Celine is my friend. You treat her with respect! Just go downstairs and think about that for a while."
"Aww, Mom," a child's voice whined back.
"Go. Now!" Adele ordered.
Footsteps clattered down the stairs. Hoping to find the stairs, the group tried to quietly inch towards the sound without disturbing the quilts.
"So this is another scene from the past," Joey realized. "You think they still won't see us?"
"We can hope," Lector said. His eyes flickered. He had absolutely no desire to encounter Adele's two older children again, past or not.
A crunch and a yelp. "Oh no! Not again! Stupid stair. . . ."
"That's right," Lector gasped. "One of the stairs was always breaking through. Finally Father had it mended properly. I'd completely forgotten about that!"
"Do you think the coat of arms could be inside the stair?" Téa hopefully asked.
"Let's find out." At last Lector parted the remaining quilts and they were back at the stairs. He shined his Smartphone over them, soon picking out the one that looked newer than the rest.
"So . . . anybody brought a crowbar?" Joey frowned.
Nesbitt actually produced one. "I thought we might need it when we were going on a treasure hunt."
Lector smiled. "I should have known. You do the honors, my friend." He stepped away from the stairs and Nesbitt came forward, using the crowbar to pry off the top of the one in question.
"You should look in it," Nesbitt said.
Lector did, and he soon pulled out an old and folded piece of cloth. "This is it!" he exclaimed.
"Man, it looks ready to disintegrate if you breathe on it," Joey said. "Although maybe that's what we want. Then Raven can't get it!"
Lector held it as carefully as he could. "Let's get out of here before anything else bizarre happens."
Everyone was all too relieved to agree.
