Section One: Freezing the Summer
Author's Note: The sections are different periods of Naru's life and only connected by character arc, but each section will have a continuous plot or theme.
Disclaimer: I was going to say "If I owned Ghost Hunt, would I resort to writing fanfiction?" but then I thought about it. Of course I would! I would write some legitimate stories and some completely ridiculous ones and feel ever so clever writing vague disclaimers. Since, I don't own it, here's a non-vague disclaimer. Ghost Hunt does not belong to me.
Chapter I: Stupid Japan and a Blue Shirt
Oliver Davis crept down the hallway, pressing himself against the wall when one of the mansion's old floorboards creaked. He didn't want to be seen doing this.
Actually, the concealment was less an act of necessity and more the result of mischievousness and boredom. Gene was in Japan doing "research" (he probably was, in fact, doing research, but Noll thought "Japanese girls" could easily be the end of that sentence and still have it be accurate), Luella was downstairs, and Martin was at work. Even if they had been around to witness, borrowing clothes wasn't exactly nefarious.
Besides, Noll sneaking into Gene's room was hardly something new. Over the years, pranks, nightmares, and sibling affection had kept the twins together despite Gene's perfection and Noll's prickliness. Noll was rarely seen studying without Gene gently teasing him into having fun, and Gene was seldom without his quiet, studious shadow. Though they (read Gene) had insisted on having some privacy when they reached their teens, they were still close.
That was why Noll was still a bit miffed over Gene's departure to Japan. It was idiotic and completely unnecessary. There were research opportunities here in England. There were perfectly good exorcisms to learn here in England. There was a lot to occupy a curious medium without abandoning Noll!
Noll didn't care that Gene was gone, of course. He was content with his research, the family library, and, when the summer holiday ended in a little over a month, school. The sixteen year old did not miss his brother's shenanigans. He didn't need them in his life.
He opened the door to his twin's room with a yawn and ran a hand through his dark hair, still untidy from sleep. Yeah, it was after noon. He was a college student on holiday and the meeting with the SPR board to present his latest experiment wasn't for a few more hours. Luella would have received only a passing look of disdain if she had been given the chance to scold him for sleeping the day away. Of course he knew what time it was. He was happy to say that he had the ability to read a clock.
She would never be given the chance.
If all worked as Noll had planned, he would arrive downstairs just in time to leave for the office. There would be no motherly fussing or inane questions to add to Noll's rising nervousness. He would never admit it, but he wished that Gene was there to trick him into calming down. This presentation was the culmination of a year's work and he was proud of his thesis: "Ghosts are affected by the emotions of the place they are tied to and the people around them." It successfully explained why some spirits did terrible things that they would never have done in life, like attacking their descendants. If the preliminary findings were accepted, the subsequent research could revolutionize the understanding of the paranormal.
Noll reached tentatively for his telepathic bond with Gene. Instead of his twin's reassuring warmth, he felt emptiness and a faint wave of green nausea. He pushed it away, concluding that he must have been too tense to focus. He'd talk to Lin about that later. For now, Gene's shirt would have to be sufficient, as he had planned.
He hoped that some of Gene's charisma would rub off on him. It wasn't that Noll was unappealing – he had some people who could be considered friends and he'd even been on a few dates at Gene's prompting. He was smarter than Gene (though not by a lot), more driven, and just as handsome, but the problem was that he was aware of it. People never liked Noll even if they respected him, whereas they all adored Gene. He subconsciously hoped that if he dressed like Gene, it would help him fit into the role and the board members would like him. He consciously told himself that his best clothes had been drenched in holy water during one of Martin's experiments a few days before and they were still wet; there was no reason to do laundry for one insignificant shirt. The science spoke for itself, regardless of what he was wearing.
With that reassuring thought, Noll set about the task of finding the perfect thing to wear, hypocrisy being a description of lesser mortals.
Gene had been gone for a month, but his room still looked lived in, courtesy of a locked door that prevented Luella from cleaning. It was meant to keep Noll from snooping, but he'd effortlessly picked the lock. There were still books written in kanji strewn across the desk ("Come on, Noll. Pleeeeaaase practice with me. I seem completely mad if I'm just talking to myself."). Just looking at it made Noll's head ache.
He quickly turned to the closet. There was a deep blue dress shirt on the floor near the laundry basket among other haphazardly discarded possessions. Blue was supposed to signal honesty, so that could help, Noll mused. Plus it matched his eyes. If it was clean, Noll decided, he'd take that one.
It was sunny outside and a ray of light shown in through one of Gene's eternally open windows. Sometimes, there was an oppressive end of summer heat that Noll hated, because it smothered the world in a dull haze. He preferred clarity. This was not that type of sunshine, though. It was the sort of weather that made everyone run to the beach and the countryside, liberated from the fog at last. If Gene had been home, he would have joined forces with Luella and dragged their two favorite scientists on a family picnic. Noll would have pretended to sulk, but everyone would have ended up discussing paranormal theories by the bank of the creek and he would have enjoyed it. Instead, he was alone with his brother's dirty laundry.
Nose crinkled in disgust, he lifted the shirt to his nose to check its cleanliness. Before the shirt reached nose-height, Noll felt something tighten in his chest. The air grew thick and heavy, and he was being drained of energy more quickly than he ever had in the past. He threw out last a desperate request to Gene to magnify energy for him or pull him to safety, but he was met with ringing silence. Something was horribly wrong.
The shirt reached out and Noll's psychometry dragged him under.
Chapter 2: Stars Without Light
It was night and the air was gentle and clear as Noll walked along the edge of the road, breathing in the earthy scent of the forest.
Not Noll. Gene. Noll was at home in Gene's room. He was . . . he . . .
He felt sort of peaceful, even though he was far away from home, alone for the first time. He hoped that Noll was alright without him. That idiot scientist might feel a little awkward around him sometimes, but Noll was awkward with everyone and he knew that his little brother needed him. He hoped that their time apart would help Noll find his own way out of the lab.
He looked up at the stars as he rounded the bend. The names of the constellations here were so different from the ones back in England. It was exhilarating to walk under a new sky. The new country was neat too, but here he was staring out into billions of meters of new universe. His mind was blinded by the faint glitter of starlight.
The high beam headlights were bright enough to end his reverie.
No!
He knew without needing any sort of paranormal premonition what was about to happen. The sound was what surprised him most. He hadn't known that his body could make that sickening, squelching crunch. The pain, on the other hand, was about what one would expect: complete agony. His back arched in pain and his fingernails sliced oozing lines into his palms.
But he was alive. It wasn't over yet.
The woman rushed clumsily out of the car, her eyes wide and her hands shaking. He noted that her fingernails and her high heels were the same shade of red as her car. She'd been driving too fast.
"Please," he whispered. "Help me."
He could still finish his research. He could still grow up, finish college, meet a nice girl. He could still return home to Luella, Martin, and Noll. He just wanted to go back home.
The woman leapt back in alarm. Then, without looking at him, she hopped back into her car.
He believed that he would die on the side of the road.
With her door still open, the woman drove into him again. A slight trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
But he was still alive.
He didn't feel fear anymore. He couldn't even feel anger at the panicking woman, not because she didn't deserve it or because he was too kind, but because there was only pain and the faint whisper of regret.
He was still alive, but everything was fading to a veiled green, like murky lake water, as the woman loaded him into the trunk.
He watched, unmoving eyes staring into the darkness. He was trapped inside of his body, but he could feel nothing. He had stopped breathing.
Finally, the woman opened the trunk and hauled him out. Under the lonely starlight, she hauled his corpse to the lake and dumped him in. He sunk slowly into the depths. Only the occasional air bubble rising to the surface marked his grave.
Eugene Davis was dead.
Chapter 3: Haze
Why did the bottom of the lake feel so hard?
Noll opened one eye, squinting at the honey-colored wood in front of him in confusion. He was dead. He was dead.
He wanted Gene. Even if Noll was dead, Gene was a medium. Gene would be able to rescue him from this nightmare, as the twins had done for each other every time one of them got lost in his powers. Gene had stopped the poltergeists, Gene had comforted him in the early years when his accidental use of psychometry was a common occurrence, Gene had to have been the reason Martin and Luella adopted them. No one else wanted Noll. He needed his twin.
As his heart raced faster, his head swam and his chest throbbed where he had been hit by the car. He was dead. Why did it hurt so much?
Just before he would have lost consciousness, Noll's body forced him to take a long gasping breath. That was why it hurt. Noll was alive and living people have to breathe.
Then, he noticed the stiff fabric in his left hand and he realized why it really hurt so much, that agonizing pressure in his chest. Gene was dead.
His open eye closed and he pulled his knees to his chest, trying not to whimper. He couldn't remember why, but he knew he didn't want to seem weak. The room swirled around him, bobbing up and down like a buoy. The sun beat down on his black hair, coating his analytical mind in summer haze. He reached out blindly, trying to find something to hold onto, some anchor, but all he had was that idiotic shirt. He hated that shirt.
He pulled the shirt so that it left his face in shadow. The heat was too much, too strong, the light drilling into his skull, making his head hurt. Instead of helping, the shirt added to the heat and scratched roughly against his sweaty face. Even as he gulped for air, Noll didn't realize that most of the water came from tears.
The tips of his fingers didn't feel quite so hot anymore. Actually, they didn't feel much of anything and the numbness was starting to spread. That was new. The closest he had ever felt was after he did that PK demonstration with the heavy mass, but psychometry shouldn't have used that much power.
It didn't matter. He'd rather be numb than keep burning in the awful summer heat.
He clutched Gene's shirt in a tight embrace, breathing in the scent. Even as his grasp on reality faded, unnoticed tears kept dripping down his face.
Chapter 4: The Other Son
Luella Davis found herself making breakfast at 12:30 on the off-chance that Noll would come down in time to eat something. She knew he wouldn't. She had known from the first time she set eyes on his adorable, childish face with those distrustful eyes that he would not be the child who came down for breakfast. That would be Gene, the one who clearly adored her and Martin and whose hesitation stemmed only from the fear that they would try to take him without Noll. Gene's eyes had begged her to please love Noll too.
She had. He was so solemn, sitting there in the orphanage with his small book, trying not to be noticed and hating every second of it. She could feel his anger and some of it was directed at her and her husband, but she understood that it was caused by the fear that he would be rejected and only Gene would be taken. The only surprise for her was that he never voiced his anger. It was always under rigid control, unusual to find in a five-year old. Luella would not discover the reason for his reticence until one day he did lose his temper and objects began to fly.
Luella wanted him to like her. She tried to reassure him, placing a comforting hand on his arm, but he shied away. So she handed him off to Martin and before the end of their first visit, the boy was criticizing scientific theories. Luella was glad that she would be able to call both of the twins her own.
She was rewarded about a year later when Noll began to call her "Mother", still in that serious little voice.
That was why, when he was sixteen and so clearly not going to come down, she still found herself standing there, stirring a pot of oatmeal.
Then, she heard the boards creak. It was not subtle, the groans and whines of an aging house, but angry and loud. She remembered the sound from before Noll learned to control his powers. Absentmindedly turning off the stove, she raced to find her son.
Her footsteps echoed in the otherwise still house, for the banging had ceased, but Noll did not come out of his room to see what was happening. In fact, Noll was not in his room. Luella scanned the hallway with rising panic until she saw that the door to Gene's room was ajar. She entered without hesitation, despite her fear of what she would find.
When she saw Noll, she knew. She didn't know what she knew, but she sensed that whatever life her family had – and it had been a good one – was over. Her younger son lay motionless on the floor, curled in a tight ball around a blue piece of fabric. He was silent, but for the occasional whispered whimper, and tears streamed down his cheeks.
"Noll," she whispered, kneeling down beside him and placing a hand on his back. "It's alright. You're okay. Just tell me what happened."
He didn't reply. In some ways, his limp body reminded her of an over-tired toddler after a tantrum, but no child could feel the depth of the loss that was etched into his face. Psychometric visions were never fun, and there had been other experiments and cases that resulted in her son lying semi-conscious on what Gene had dubbed his fainting couch, but this was the worst Luella had ever seen.
She continued to whisper soothingly as she reached for her phone. Martin was in an experiment and couldn't be reached for another hour, but she could reach one of his assistants, Madoka or Lin.
"Hello," she said, trying to keep her voice even so as not to distress her son even more. "It's Luella Davis."
"This is Lin," a quiet voice replied. "Dr. Davis is in – "
"I know," Luella interrupted, panic rising as Lin's existence slapped her into reality. "Something's happened to Oliver. He's in Gene's room crying and he's unresponsive. He seems to be somewhat conscious though, so I don't want to leave him long enough to show medics in. We're taking him to the hospital ourselves. Get here now."
"Yes, ma'am."
Lin hung up and did as he was told. He tried to quell his concern. Noll was conceited, snide, a bit of a brat, and worst of all Japanese, but Lin had come to care for the kid as he taught him to control his powers. From what he knew of Noll, crying was almost more alarming than not responding.
Within minutes, he was racing up the stairs in the Davis mansion.
He found the Davises on the floor, Luella gently soothing Noll, despite the tears that were beginning to run down her own face. The boy seemed oblivious to their presence.
"Lin, welcome," Luella said, almost as if nothing was wrong. "Come see if you think it's safe to move him."
Hesitantly, Lin knelt beside the younger boy. He reached out a careful hand and laid it lightly where Luella's had been only moments before.
Noll didn't respond.
Lin did as he was told, checking for any injuries. His hand did not find any as he ran it along the boy's spine and, though there were dark, spreading bruises on his torso that looked as if he had been struck by something, the actual damage seemed minimal. Lin finally ran his hand over the boy's head to check for head injuries.
"Gene," Noll murmured suddenly. "It's too hot."
Lin exchanged a startled glance with Luella.
"He's in the sun, but it's not that hot," he said.
Luella shook her head slightly. Lin might be a very powerful onmyoji, but he had never had children. She rested her hand lightly on her son's forehead.
"He has a fever," she answered quietly. "I would guess that it's a pretty high one. What did you find?"
"He doesn't have any injuries that would be aggravated if we moved him," Lin replied.
Luella nodded.
"Do it."
Moments later, Lin was driving Luella's car. He saw her in the rearview mirror, in the backseat with Noll in her lap, holding an icepack to his forehead as tears continued to fall down both of their faces. Lin pushed the accelerator down a little harder.
Chapter 5: Slowing to a Stop
Lin thought the Davis' next project should be proving that time passed more slowly in the hospital waiting room than in any other type of location that could be found on the planet. That had to be some sort of paranormal phenomenon. Gene and Noll had their share of mishaps over the years, and the fallout from each one felt longer than the last. Lin hated waiting.
Finally, one of the doctors came out of Noll's room and walked over to Lin.
"Mr. Davis?" the doctor asked. "You're son's going to be alright. I'm Dr. Lakesworth and I'd like to go over his condition with you if you have a moment."
Lin glanced over at Luella. She didn't appear to have any inclination to reply and Martin still hadn't arrived.
"How is he?" Lin asked, resigning himself to the temporary role of father.
"Asleep and recovering," the doctor replied. "We've brought his fever down and the only serious problems seem to be anemia and exhaustion. I do have to ask how he came to be in this condition, especially given the bruises."
Hell. Lin thought quickly.
"He just got back from a football training camp this morning," he lied. "He doesn't tend to eat much when he's away, so we were surprised when he refused breakfast, but we didn't think it was that unusual. Teenagers, you know."
Lin tried to stay in character as he watched Martin and Madoka enter the room. Madoka winked cheekily at him and he fought an expression of blank stoicism. It was his preferred cover for embarrassment.
"I suppose he must have been in some sort of accident during practice and didn't want his mother fussing over him. She always tells him that he should take better care of himself, you know," Lin continued. It was almost painful, pretending to be so much slower than he really was, but the Davises were a good family.
"Ah, I see," the doctor said, buying his act. "Well, boys will be boys. Tell him that he needs to be careful, though. If he'd been much worse, it could have been fatal. Football's great, but it isn't worth dying for."
"Of course," Lin replied, and, with a last stern nod, the doctor left.
Luella had been trying to tell Noll the same thing for years, but about research rather than football. Noll had feigned deafness, but he'd toned down the level of experiment that he was willing to participate in.
"You're quite the talented liar," Madoka sang into his ear, wrapping herself around his arm.
"And you're not?" he questioned the resident prankster with a faint smile. That smile belonged only to her. Perhaps someday, he'd manage to give her something more, but today was about the Davises.
"What's Noll's condition?" Martin asked as he embraced his wife, straight to the point, as always.
"He'll live," Luella replied. Then, she lowered her voice.
"He used psychometry and then lost control of his PK. I don't know what he saw. He spoke a little, but he wasn't lucid. He was trying to talk to Gene."
Of course Noll wanted Gene. There was nothing to say to that. Martin joined his family in their vigil.
Chapter 6: Behind this Wall of Ice
Noll opened his eyes, drinking in the hum of the machines responsible for monitoring his continued survival. He was alive. That was okay. It wasn't much different from the alternative and someone had to bring Gene home.
He turned his weary gaze onto his pseudo-family. Madoka, surprisingly the ever-keen observer, had already noticed him.
"Noll!" she squealed, elbowing Lin and rushing over to the edge of the hospital bed.
Noll silently raised his eyes to meet hers. He barely flinched at the ripples the harsh noise sent through the stillness in his aching head.
"Oliver, darling?" his mother asked cautiously. "How are you feeling, love?"
Oliver considered the question for a moment.
"I seem to be relatively unharmed," he said as if reflecting to himself.
Madoka rolled her eyes.
"Manners, Noll! In all of that training, didn't I manage to teach you manners? The entire English language at your disposal and that's how you decide to greet your mother after scaring us all like that?"
On another occasion, Noll might have been grateful to Madoka for diffusing the tense, emotional situation. This was not such an occasion.
"Yes," he replied. He gave her a frigid stare.
Luella narrowed her eyes in concern. Her son was seldom verbose, except in pursuit of a theory or when informing someone of his or her inferiority, but one word answers had always meant trouble. They meant Gene had finally pushed him too far, Noll was hiding something, or, in early years, he didn't trust them with the details. It wasn't a habit Luella wanted to see return.
Noll observed her scrutiny emotionlessly. It was just as well if she was suspicious; she would not be completely blindsided by the news that he had to deliver.
"What happened?" Martin asked. "What did you see?"
Having only seen the aftermath, Martin was not afraid to ask. Luella and Lin were just as curious, but their curiosity was intermingled with dread. Despite the Davis' attempts to shelter Noll from the negative impacts of his powers, he had felt many violent deaths. He had sometimes been confused or upset immediately following a vision, but in recent years, once he was fully awake, he showed minimal reaction to the experience. This one was different.
"Perhaps Lin and Madoka should leave the room," Noll answered tonelessly.
"They're investigators too," Martin scolded. "They can handle whatever you're about to tell us."
Noll considered protesting, but he had already forgotten why he wanted them to leave. It must have been something about sparing his parents an audience. No matter.
"Very well," Noll replied, his gaze directed determinedly at the window shade.
Luella had taught Noll that technique. It was easier for him to impart information about his more traumatic visions or for clients to give their accounts without eye contact. She braced herself for the worst.
"I'm going to Japan. I need to find the lake from my vision and bring Gene home."
The words were clipped and brusque, masking the pain from anyone who didn't know him. Everyone in the room did.
"Couldn't you just ask him to come home?" Martin asked, willfully misunderstanding even as Luella clutched his hand more tightly. "I know he left even though you asked him not to, but he's still your brother. Gene will come back for you."
Noll smiled icily.
"I'm afraid there are some limits to what brotherly affection can accomplish," he answered.
The world should have been crashing down around him, but instead, it just seemed static. The cars continued to whiz by in the street below and the seconds ticked past in the hallway clock, but time was nothing. Even if the illusion of seasons continued on this single, lonely planet, it was frozen. Earth had stopped turning, stopped hurtling ever-forward through space with the relentless progression of time. Nothing could move again until Noll's sole directive had been accomplished. He would find Gene. Gene would be brought back to England for a funeral.
"He's never coming back, not even if I ask nicely. Gene is dead."
A/N: So, these little side-panel stories weren't going to become a regular thing, but then my muse kept whispering odd phrases in my ear while I was trying to write. If anyone's seen Ouran Highschool Host Club, picture me as Kyoya and my muse as Tamaki. I sit quietly working and my muse runs in, surrounded by a cloud of rose petals, chattering excitedly about a stupid idea. It only lets me get back to work after I've done what it wants. This side-story isn't especially funny yet, but those of you who branch out to other fandoms may realize where I'm going with this. It's a crossover of sorts and your hint is Tuesday.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt or . . . well, you'll see.
Dead Again Part One
"Where are we?" Mai asked as she read the sign proclaiming the Mystery Spot the most haunted place in the U.S.
Naru sighed.
"I'll explain for Mai, since apparently her English isn't up to reading simple words on signs. Madoka has requested that we investigate this tourist trap for supernatural activity. A man disappeared a few days ago, and Madoka took this as a sign that the place was actually haunted. We will begin our investigation in the morning."
With that, Naru walked into their hotel.
Mai looked over at Monk.
"Is this place really haunted?" she asked.
To her surprise, it was Lin who replied. He slipped her a handful of brochures for fun things to do in town. Some of the activities were highlighted in pink.
"Madoka sent Naru and everyone Naru spends time with to a tourist town with a lot of legends and little actual activity. Do you think there's a case?"
Lin brushed past her and on into the hotel.
Mai smiled. She could picture Madoka sitting at her desk, plotting to make Naru have fun and relax against his will. Vacation!
Important Author's Note: I know I'm already breaking my "the story must be finished" rule, – though every section will be complete before I post it – but I wasn't sure about this story. Are you interested? Do you want me to keep writing it? (Not a ploy for more reviews. If one person expresses interest, I will happily write for an audience of one.) Assuming I continue it, this story will include a pre-Mai case, some scenes not in the manga/anime or that were told strongly from Mai's perspective, and will eventually end as a companion piece to "A Moment from Now". Suggestions welcome, though I do have some idea of where this could go.