Ansem was fully recovered within a week. In that week, nothing had happened supernatural-wise, and Sakkaku had yet to call back with her medium. After a while Sephiroth started to complain loudly about her.
"Is she ever gonna call back? It's a good thing we didn't pay her!" he growled late one night, watching TV with Ansem. Ansem rolled his eyes, and leaned on Sephiroth. They both nearly jumped out of their skins when the phone rang, though Sephiroth ended up on his feet with Ansem laughing his head off at him. Sephiroth gave him a dirty look as he picked up the phone.
"'Allo. M' no' wakin' anyone, am Oi?"
Sephiroth's eye twitched at the familiar accent. "I doubt it," he replied through gritted teeth. "Where the hell have you been?"
"Ooo, touchy, aren't ye? Moi bloody medium was ou' o' town, an' 'ee jus' now got back," Sakkaku said. "We can come ovah t'morrow iffen it suits ye."
Sephiroth glanced at Ansem. "Sure."
"Roight. See ye later, then."
And with that she hung up. Sephiroth blinked, and stared at the phone. "Is she always like that on the phone?" he asked.
Ansem shrugged. "Who?"
"Sakkaku."
"What did she do, just abruptly hang up?"
"Yeah."
"I guess so. She did that to me too."
-
Around noon the next day, everyone except Vexen had, once again, gone out. As he thought about it, Ansem found it odd that almost no one spent any time at the house. But then again, given the past events, he wasn't sure he could blame them. However, Vexen's decision to remain behind had thoroughly mystified Ansem and Sephiroth.
"I want to meet this Sakkaku person," he explained. And that was all he'd say on the subject.
Ansem was reading a book, 'The Thing On the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories' by H.P. Lovecraft for some odd reason, when the doorbell rang. He jumped, and mentally cursed Lovecraft for writing a short story about walking dead things turning up on people's doorsteps. Just as he was standing up, Vexen entered the room. By now he'd taken his arm out of the sling, though he still seemed to favour it.
"Is that your investigator friend?" he asked.
"Probably," Ansem said. "I'm just going to find out."
As he approached the door, he heard a very loud argument, sounding like Sakkaku and someone with a far more refined accent.
"Whoi th' bloody 'ell d'ya hafta wear a bloody suit all the toime?"
"Because I wish to, that's why. And I wish to look more refined than certain unnamed parties usually do, Miss Queen t-shirt."
"Oi, don' knock Queen, or Oi moi' haf ter knock ya ou'."
"I'm not knocking Queen in any way, shape, or form. I'm merely saying that you should dress up once in a while."
"Keep yer snobby upper-class nose outta moi wardrobe, Harper."
Ansem stifled mad laughter. Whoever she was arguing with, they sounded like they were giving Sakkaku quite a hard time. He opened the door, and found Sakkaku glaring relentlessly at a young man in a well-cut dark green suit with short brown hair and yellow eyes. Something about him bothered Ansem. Maybe the curious pointed tips of his ears, or the upside-down silver cross on the dark purple scarf around his neck.
"Oh! 'Allo, guv'nah!" Sakkaku said, noticing Ansem. "This snob next t' me is Tobias Harper, m' medium."
Tobias bowed slightly to Ansem, his eyes never leaving Ansem. "Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise," Ansem said, still feeling a little creeped out. He turned and headed in, followed by Sakkaku and Tobias.
"Hey Sephiroth!" he called as he walked in. Vexen stood up, and turned to Sakkaku and Tobias. Ansem, facing the stairs, didn't see the looks Vexen and Tobias exchanged.
Sephiroth came barreling down the stairs, skidding to a halt in front of Ansem.
"There's something you need to see," he said harshly. "Bring Sakkaku."
With that he turned on his heel and headed back upstairs, closely followed by Ansem, Vexen, Sakkaku, and Tobias.
"What is it?" Ansem asked.
"You know those boxes we pulled out of the attic when we moved here? Well, I was pokin' around in them, and found something highly interesting," Sephiroth explained. He didn't elaborate.
The moment the five of them reached the landing in front of the attic, Tobias collapsed.
"Tobias!" Sakkaku cried, dropping down to examine him. She jumped back as Tobias sat up, an odd look in his eye.
"Who do you think you are, meddling in my affairs?" he growled, in a voice entirely unlike his own. It was deeper and gruffer, without a trace of his accent. "You think you can just come in here and deal with it, just like that? Well I won't have it, you hear? I WON'T HAVE IT!"
"Who are ye?" Sakkaku asked, pulling out a tape recorder and switching it on.
"I'm the owner of this house, dammit! Ian Harland, and you should damn well know that already! This house has been mine since 1864, and it's still mine, dammit!" Tobias snarled, still in that strange voice.
"D'you know wha' toime this is?"
"1875!"
Sakkaku looked at Ansem, Vexen, and Sephiroth.
"Wrongo, mate. It's 2005," she said.
"Impossible!" The voice seemed to lose some of its venom, sounding lost and confused. "It's July of 1875, and… and…"
Sakkaku shook her head. "It's 2005, mate. Trust me."
"That can't be!"
"Wha' 'appened to ye, mate?"
"That bastard Blade Harper, that's what! He's after the house! He'll probably do me in unless I sell to him. But I won't sell, by my honor!" Here Tobias thumped his fist against his chest. "He can threaten me all he likes, but he's not getting my house!" Tobias' eyes glazed over, and he fell forward slightly. His head jerked up, and his eyes had resumed their normal cast.
"What just happened?" he asked, voice back to normal.
"We jus' 'ad a conversation wif one o' th' ghosts 'ere," Sakkaku said. "Said 'is name was Ian Harland."
"And that brings up what I found," Sephiroth interjected. He headed up t the attic, and returned with a yellowing newspaper dated November 1875. "Check this out." The others gathered around to read it.
Homeowner found deadMr. Ian Harland, a prominent member of the community, was found dead in his home last night, with his arms, legs, and head removed. Had he not been carrying a pistol with his name engraved on it, police would not have been able to identify him. It is believed that his killer was Blade Harper, who, it was well known, wanted his house.
It is presumed that Harper broke in through the window and shot Mr. Harland in the side, but that failed to kill him. Mr. Harland managed to inflict a fatal blow on Harper, but died shortly after. Harper mutilated the body, perhaps in an attempt to hinder investigations, and died of his wounds shortly after.
The rest of the newspaper was missing. Ansem looked at Tobias, who didn't look the least bit surprised that he'd been the proverbial ventriloquist dummy for a man over a hundred years dead. He did look a little surprised at the name Blade Harper.
"Blade Harper? He was my great-grandfather," he mumbled distractedly. "He died in his sixties. But he haunts my home in Sussex."
"Well, there's one ghost," Ansem said. "The first one. But that still leaves the monk-like thing Aerith saw. And that doesn't really account for the eyes that Larxene saw."
"Well, Mr. Skeptic? What do you say now?" Sephiroth asked Vexen.
"I'm going to reserve judgment until I really see something," Vexen replied obstinately. Sephiroth threw his hands in the air exasperatedly.
Tobias and Sakkaku explored the rest of the house, but nothing else presented itself to Tobias. Sakkaku received a few abnormal readings on her EMF meter, but that was about it.
"Hmm… 'ow odd," she remarked before she and Tobias left. "Tobias channeled th' spirit o' this Harland chap, bu' nuffin' else…."
The others arrived back home a few hours after Sakkaku and Tobias left, Marluxia heading upstairs to his and Vexen's room. Ansem and Sephiroth were talking to Leon, Riku, and Yuffie about the vampire movie they'd seen and the others were arguing about the merits of bookstores that let you sit around and read the books without buying them when there came a cry from upstairs. Vexen, recognizing it as Marluxia, raced upstairs ahead of everyone else.
The others followed close behind, crowding into Vexen and Marluxia's relatively small bedroom. Marluxia was clinging resolutely to Vexen, eyes wide and horrified looking, and Vexen looked quite grim as well.
"What happened?" Cloud asked. Ansem and Sephiroth exchanged glances.
Marluxia shook his head, burying his face in Vexen's chest.
"Something scared him badly," Vexen replied grimly. "I don't know what, but it must have been pretty bad. Marluxia doesn't scare easily."
Zexion nudged Axel, and jerked his head at Marluxia and Vexen. Axel nodded, and prodded Ansem and Sephiroth. He crossed his fingers as he had before, and Ansem and Sephiroth nodded.
-
Erm… I think I lost control again…. Oops. Oh well.
So, yay! A new character! I rather like Tobias. He's one of my muses, a relatively new one. I'll post a drawing of him on DeviantART sooner or later, whenever I have access to my dad's scanner. I need to get my own, dammit… anyway, there's a link to my account in my bio. It's all obvious 'n stuff. And did anyone catch the hints about Vexen and Marluxia? Didja? Didjadidjadidja?