Chapter three :
Spooky people aren't the only ones who inhabit haunted houses
It's been half an hour, and I'm already tired of Tai and Davis. At every intersection, they argue over which way to go, which door to open first, who gets to open it, and so on. The first couple of times, I let it go. After twenty minutes of nonstop nitpicking, I'm ready to beat them both over the head.
A hand taps my shoulder gently, and I have to bite my lip to keep from screaming. Ken looks at me with a look of gentle understanding and apology. "Want to leave these two behind? If the place is haunted, the ghost will go after them, first, for disturbing their rest." He smiles, taking the sting out of his barb.
I look at my best friend, and his young protégé, and grin. They won't miss us, and Tai will understand my reasons for wandering off with Ken. "Sure." We've covered a hallway leading into the back of the house, and are standing at the base of a stairwell. With a last glance at our companions, Ken and I start upstairs, leaving them to explore the ground floor without us.
Halfway up, I hear Davis asking Tai where we went. "Don't worry, Davis. Matt will take good care of Ichijouji." I know the smile in his voice, and fight back a chuckle in response. It's great to have a friend so understanding.
The raven-haired teen in question is at the top of the stairs, waiting for me patiently. "Knowing Davis, that comment probably isn't sitting well, though he won't argue with Tai." Ken's smiling at me with tenderness, but a sinking feeling in my stomach tells me that it's not for me.
"Why would it bother him?" I smile back, hiding behind my patented expression of cool friendliness. Ken shrugs.
"He knows that before we started dating, I had a crush on you. Normally, he's okay with us hanging out, but occasionally, he worries that my feelings remain, or have even gotten stronger. Of course, I keep telling him that I love him, and only him, but he doesn't listen." He says it calmly, as if expecting me to know of his relationship with Motomiya.
He turns away, and I take the time to drop my facade, looking at him with eyes that show a heart bleeding for the second time. I think I'll hide up in the mountains, so that I never have to hope again, and I never have to be disappointed again.
A door on the left stands ajar, and he crosses to it, and pushes it the rest of the way open. I follow slowly behind, trying to gain control of my anger and self-pity. He's already inside, standing in the middle of a bedroom.
It's a sparse room, with a rickety cot-bed, no curtains, and a desk and chair in the corner. When the woman downstairs said that the owner had bought it from monks, she was serious. This room looks like a holy man still lived there. "I guess the previous owner didn't believe in redecorating."
He turns to laugh with me, his hair swinging, catching the light through the window. It shines, glowing in the shadowy room. I walk in, moving to the desk so that my back is to him, and I can't stare at his happy face. On the surface lies a single piece of paper, a short message etched on small, rectangular page.
"Long for me, yearn for me
Offer me your heart
Cry for me, live for me
And we'll call it a start."
"What's that?" Ken comes up behind me, and looks at the paper I've picked up.
"It looks like a poem. I wonder if this is it, or if there's more. It's kind of neat." I pass it to him, moving away to put more space between us. Before, I would have drawn out the experience as long as possible. Now it just doesn't feel right.
He shrugs, and hands it back to me before I'm out of reach. "I guess we can look as we go." His smile is gone, and I know that he feels something is wrong with me. "Matt?" Great, now he's going to prove me right. "You don't have a problem with the fact that I'm gay, do you?"
Huh?
"I mean, I thought you knew about Davis and I, and you know about Tai and Izzy, right?" I don't know if that's ironic, or just sad. The guy I've been lusting after is afraid of me being homophobic.
"Man, no. I don't have a problem with any of that. There's just something really weird about this place." That said, I could swear that truer words were never spoken. It suddenly feels chilly, as if someone cracked a window, or turned on the air conditioning. "Let's get out of here."
He nods, and I wait for him to get to the door before passing through. Scary movies like to show doors shutting between to intended victims, effectively shutting them off from each other. I don't want to be alone in this freaky house, so I'm right behind him.
I wish Tai were here. I need his support. Whether I knew it or not, he plays a big part in my esteem and confidence. I need a break from being alone with Ken. "Let's go back down, and find the other two."
"Don't you want to look for more of that poem?" He looks at me as if confused by my sudden cowardice. This is where he offers to stay up here, while I go back. "Why don't you go find them, and I'll tour around up here?" His grin is calm and reassuring.
"Why don't you come with me, and then we can all come back up here together?" I'm starting to feel frightened, and it's affecting my tone and body language. I don't like being scared, even if I've walked into a real-life horror story.
"What's the matter, Matt?" Now he's concerned. I'm starting to wonder if he's playing a trick, or maybe possessed, but he almost sounds mocking. "Let's try one more room, then we can go back. What could be wrong with that?"
Lots, and lots of things. I don't want to, I really don't. Something is definitely screwy, and he's adding to my paranoia. "To be truthful, I'm more than a little worried about your attitude, and I'd like to find the others."
He looks away for a second, as if exasperated, then smiles at me. "Fine. We'll go downstairs. If you can catch me." With that, he starts running away, quickly reaching the end of the hall, and turning the corner before I can stop him, or give chase.
"Shit!" I start running, pumping my legs as quickly as I can. I round the corner, expecting to see him fly around another curve, or duck into a room. Even a door closing would give me a hint of where he is.
No such luck. The hall is not only empty, but it's a dead-end with no doors, just a little cubbyhole that was probably used to stash a dresser, or closet in. I face a blank wall, with no telltale grooves or niches.
"Ken?" He can't have disappeared. It's not possible, possession and kidnapping aside. Even if the house is haunted, why would they take Ken? Have they taken the other two?
I turn back, my breathing accelerated, due more to fear than exertion. As quickly as I can, I run back the way we came up, taking the stairs quickly, and jumping over the last three. I whip around the corner of the stairwell, and spot Tai and Davis coming out of a room.
"Tai!" I run to him quickly, grabbing his shoulders and trying to swallow so that I can tell him what happened.
"Hey, Matt. Let me guess: Ken's being held hostage by a ghost?" His grin his teasing me, his brown eyes flashing with humor that quickly fades as he searches my face. "What happened?"
Davis is catching on by now, and is standing next to his idol, waiting for me to speak. I breathe deeply, and realize for the first time that I'm crying. "Ken's gone!" As the full magnitude of that hits, I sink to the floor, sobbing. "He just walked off, and disappeared. When I went to follow him, I found a wall. There was nowhere else he could go."
My best friend kneels beside me, pulling my crumpled form into his arms. His warmth and presence surround me, but I only cry harder, realizing that if Ken knew what was going on, he was probably scared witless.
"Where's Ken?" Davis is standing over us, and I can feel his agitation and fear. "Where were you guys at? Come on, Matt! Pull it together, and let's find him!"
I nod, knowing he's right. Tai helps me up, and I pull away. They follow me back to the stairs, and down the hallway. We stand in front of the wall, their hands searching over the wood much as mine had done a few minutes before. "I watched him turn this corner, and followed, but this is what I found. Now, tell me where he went."
My eyes are puffy, and an occasional tear still slips down my cheek, but I think I'm pretty well composed. "What happened before he started running?" Tai settles his hand on my shoulder as he waits for my reply. Davis is still touching the wall, disbelieving that his boyfriend could just vanish.
"We were in the room at the top of the stairs, and we found a poem, or part of one." I take it out of my pocket, and hold it out to him, but Davis grabs it from my hand before he can take it. "Then I started feeling really funny, so we came back into the hallway. I suggested finding you guys, and that's when he started acting funny. He made a sarcastic jibe about my being afraid, and then said we could look for you guys, if I could catch him."
"And did you?" We all jump, and Tai's grip tightens on my shoulder as we turn to face the woman from before. "Did you manage to catch him?" Green eyes look at us with a knowledgeable gleam.
"No." I glare at her. Davis moves to stand closer to my side, the three of us forming a line against the most likely suspect. "Where's Ken?"
"This whole place is full of riddles. The answers are a little more obvious than some might think, but they're there if you look in the right place." She glances at Davis. "For a boyfriend, you seem less concerned than your friend."
He looks at us guiltily, then at the woman. "That's because we weren't really dating. It was an act we were going to put on to make the person I'm in love with realize exactly what he's missing. Ken was playing along for my sake."
I look at him, shocked, hurt. If that's the truth, why had Ken told me? Does he know I like him, and want an easy way to spurn my unwanted affections? And why the hell is Davis being so honest with a complete stranger? "Who are you?"
She smiles at my question. "I'm the current owner, Lisa Pendragon. The man at the gate is Phinneas Moondragon. My parents bought him out years ago, and let him stay on as gatekeeper, as long as he didn't interfere with the tours."
"Why did you stop giving tours?" Tai looks skeptical, and I don't blame him. They don't give tours, yet they let us wander around. Ken disappears, and she acts as if nothing happened. "And why did you let us in?"
Her smile widens. "Inquisitive, aren't we? I stopped giving tours because the demon was acting up again, and I let you in because Phin let you past the gate. I generally go along with Phin, since he's lasted here ninety years, and my parents only made it ten. We moved, and I've only recently returned."
"Do you know where Ken is?" Davis' voice is worried, and his eyes look almost as concerned as I feel. Lisa simply looks at him with gently eyes.
"No, unfortunately. This place is cursed, which is why my parents left. The demon has been lying in wait since he kidnapped the bride, Cara Moondragon. Her groom, Martin Pendragon, my ancestor, is said to roam the halls in search of a way to save her."
"Are they the ghosts that are supposed to haunt this place?" Tai asks.
She shakes her head, hair held securely in place. "About a hundred years ago, a rich Comtesse from some obscure country came here with a group of poets, having heard about the vows in poem-form. They came here, and held a séance. It's never been determined, but it's said that the demon grew angry because of all the noise, and killed them. It's their ghosts that wander the halls and greet visitors."
"Why haven't we seen any of them?" Come on, Davis, let's get back on task! Who cares about a bunch of poets? Ask about Ken.
"Because the demon is active again, and they're hiding to escape his wrath. It's said that if you ask for help the right way, they'll answer. There were like six or seven of them, plus the Comtesse Danaria. No one has ever seen her ghost, though."
I am tired of all this nonsense. Forget about poets who are too scared to come out. "Do you know where we can look for Ken?" My voice is abrupt, but I don't care. Even if neither of the other two notices, this is getting us nowhere.
Her smile fades into a pitying frown. "I'm sorry. I only know the legends. I live in town, and only come out in the day to work on a story I'm writing. This place is a great atmosphere for a horror novel. I would suggest trying to get one of the ghost to come out."
With a sad look, she turns and walks away, her pace unhurried, and her feet silent on the hardwood floor. "We have to think of something." Davis looks at me accusingly, and I glare back. It's not my fault that something got a hold on Ken. It's not like I wanted to come here.
I open my mouth, prepared to say that exact thing, when I catch the look of guilt on Tai's face. He's thinking the same thing I am, but blaming himself. My jaw snaps shut.