Day 8: …Or Else Ya Might Regret It…
"So he was really possessed?"
"Interesting…."
Vexen and Marluxia had returned, and Ansem and Sephiroth filled them in on what had happened. Axel and Zexion had since hidden in their room, the past events leaving no doubt as to what they were doing.
"Not really," Sephiroth said darkly, rubbing the back of his head.
"So what did he say he wanted?" Vexen asked.
"Well… Harland said he wouldn't leave until the house was his and his body was found," Ansem said. "But how the hell are we going to prove any of that?"
"I think another visit from Sakkaku is in order," Vexen suggested idly.
-
Zexion was cuddled up to Axel's chest, sort of pinned there by Axel's arms. His eyes opened slowly.
"Axel. Hey," he whispered. Axel stirred, and opened his eyes.
"What?" he asked.
"Why do you think Harland chose to possess me?"
Axel blinked. Then he shook his head.
"I don't know. I guess just because you were there," he said finally. "I doubt there was any other reason."
"Oh." Zexion was silent for a moment.
"Why? Do you wish there was a special reason?" Axel said.
"No, just wondering."
"Why is anyone picked for possession? Why did the devil pick Linda Blair in that movie?" Axel replied softly. "I don't think there ever is a real reason, other than convenience of the possessed to the possessor."
"Oh, okay." Zexion didn't say anything for a moment; then he leaned forward and kissed Axel. "Love you," he said, cuddling up to him.
Axel smiled slightly, and held Zexion close. "Love you too."
-
"Whoa, a possession? Bloody 'ell, nuffin' int'restin' evah 'appens when Oi'm around!" Sakkaku exclaimed. She, Tobias, Ansem, and Sephiroth were standing by the edge of the backyard the next day. Sakkaku and Tobias had decided that they would be the ones to search for Ian's body, considering Tobias' mediumistic powers.
"Yeah, well, we didn't find it too interesting," Sephiroth grumbled. The back of his head still hurt, after all.
"Easy, Sephiroth, down boy," Ansem said.
"Well, we'd best be going," Tobias said. He and Sakkaku headed to the woods. As they reached the fringes, Ansem felt a terrible thrill of foreboding and shivered, despite the warm sunlight.
"They'll be fine," Sephiroth said, holding Ansem's hand.
-
"Vexen, I still can't believe you don't believe in ghosts. Even after everything that's happened."
"I said I wouldn't believe until I saw something. I still haven't. I missed the fly incident, the time Tobias said all that about Ian and Blade (which greatly contradicted what he said before), the possession…."
"But you were there when all hell broke loose in the house! Don't you remember? And after what happened to me!"
Vexen and Marluxia were back in their room, sitting on the bed. Vexen was reading Dante's "Inferno," and Marluxia was glaring at him.
"I still don't really know what happened to you. You still haven't told me or anyone else," Vexen said, turning a page.
"You're so stubborn!" Marluxia grumbled. Then he leaned forward and gave Vexen a quick kiss on his cheek. "But I think that's why I love you."
Vexen turned and kissed Marluxia, and Marluxia fell back, pinned under Vexen.
"You're weird," Vexen whispered. "Whoever heard of anyone loving someone for their stubbornness? But likewise, I love you because you're weird." Vexen kissed him again, harder and more deeply this time.
-
Meanwhile, Sakkaku and Tobias were hacking their way through the undergrowth of the woods at the back of the property. Tobias, for once, had abandoned his customary suits and actually worn jeans for a change, but considering his current activities this wasn't too surprising. He followed behind Sakkaku, who was far more experienced at bush walking than he, making sure not to get in the way of her wildly swinging machete.
"Watch it!" he cried for the fourth time as Sakkaku's blade came alarmingly close to his arm again.
"Sorry, mate." Sakkaku continued on as if nothing had happened. Tobias paused briefly to extricate his shirt from a pricker bush, cutting his finger slightly.
"'Ere, Oi've 'ad a thought," Sakkaku said suddenly.
"Amazing," Tobias grumbled, sucking his finger.
"'Ow the 'ell are we s'posed ter foind this bloke? 'Ow long's 'e been dead again?" Sakkaku continued, ignoring Tobias.
"I don't know. I guess I'll notice whenever we get near," Tobias said thoughtfully. "That said, shouldn't I be in front?"
"No' a bloody chance."
-
Once again, Sephiroth was nosing around the boxes in the attic.
"The rest of that newspaper has to be around here somewhere," he muttered distractedly as he shoved another box aside. A cloud of dust made him sneeze, and he rocked back on his heels and sat on the floor. "Maybe not." He stared at the ceiling for a moment, wondering where he could find newspapers over a hundred and twenty years old.
"Geez, Sephiroth! What the hell are you doing in here?" came Ansem's voice, along with a few coughs.
Sephiroth wiped dust off his nose and turned. "Trying to find the rest of that newspaper article," he replied. "Didn't you notice how one edge of that thing looked torn?"
Ansem peered over Sephiroth's shoulder at the maze of boxes. "Try the basement yet? There're tons of old boxes down there."
Sephiroth suppressed a shudder. "I don't really want to go down there. I never did like it down there, even before all this paranormal shit started happening," he mumbled. Ansem pulled him to his feet.
"Come on, love. I'll go with you," Ansem offered, holding both of Sephiroth's hands.
"Oh, fine," Sephiroth said grudgingly. "I'm blaming you if we see any floating eyeballs or something." He gave Ansem a quick kiss, and the two headed down to the basement.
-
"Tha's it! Ol' 'Arland's remains!"
At the sound of Sakkaku's gleeful cry, Tobias pulled his head out of the clouds and back to earth. He peered around Sakkaku's shoulders, and saw a gleaming white skull grinning up at him. He jumped in spite of himself, inciting a few snickers from Sakkaku. He stepped around her, and bent down to examine the bones. His gaze traveled over the skeleton, which was positioned in such a way that it suggested Harland had been trying to reach for something in his last moments.
Gingerly, Tobias lifted one of the thighbones. He only got half of it. The other half remained next to the hip, the bone being broken in half.
"This is it," Tobias breathed. "This is where he stabbed himself to make it look like my great-grandfather killed him. But why didn't the police look back here…?"
Sakkaku started to reply, but the words died in her mouth as a massive wind gust whipped the fallen leaves into a tornado, swirling and lashing around her and Tobias.
"Ah, shit."
-
Ansem backed up with a fit of coughing. He waved his hand in front of his nose to clear some of the dust.
"Damn," he choked. "Someone should really get back there and clean!"
"Who would?" Sephiroth replied, holding the bottom of his shirt over his nose. "Everyone's too frightened to come down here." One-handed, he pulled a box out of the back, and began rooting through it. "Ah! Here it is!"
Ansem moved next to him to read it. It was the whole article, this time without the end torn off.
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.
Police discovered a trail of blood leading out of a broken window, possibly leading to the woods at the back of the property, but declined to investigate, saying that Harper was likely dead and there was no point in going to find him.
Harper's body is, as of yet, unrecovered. Funeral services will be held for Mr. Harland this Saturday, at one o' clock PM at the church. As he had no living heirs, the house will enter into possession of the state. It is unknown whether the house will be available for sale.
"Wow. So the house, if Blade still owned it, would have gone to Tobias' grandfather…" Ansem mused.
"Interesting read, innit?"
Ansem and Sephiroth started, and whipped around. A ghost stood behind them, this one a monk, with his hands hidden behind his back. He smiled cheerily at them.
"Hello!" he said. "I'm friar Ben. You are? On second thought…." He closed his eyes for a moment. "Ansem and Sephiroth! Well, then, pleased to meet you!"
Ansem blinked. "How did you…?"
"Guess your names? I was telepathic when I was alive. Some of the ability still remains to me," Ben said cheerfully. "Anyway, I've noticed your doings the past few months. Kinda interesting, it was."
"Are you the ghost that appeared to Aerith?" Sephiroth asked.
"Aerith? Oh! The girl in the pink dress? Yup, that was me!" He held up his arms, and Ansem and Sephiroth saw that Ben was indeed missing his hands. The ends of his arms were wrapped in bloodstained bandages.
"What happened to you?" Ansem asked.
"Well, this place used to be a sort of… how you say… summer home, for monks to come when they tired of the church life for a while," Ben explained. "I came here frequently, not because I ever tired of the church, but because I was always getting into trouble at the church. I used my telepathic abilities for silly things, like when the vicar decided a lady's hat looked funny. I told her, and she went right up and slapped him!" Ben smiled hugely, reminiscing for a moment; then he picked up where he'd left off.
"Obviously I didn't exactly endear myself to the other brothers. So they sent me here all the time to get rid of me. There were usually others here, so I could bug them. After a bit, they got so sick of me they told me to push this cart full of produce up that hill to the north into the local village. Well, when I got to the top of the hill, what should the silly thing do but start rolling back?"
Ben grinned ruefully. "It knocked me over and crushed my hands. I mean literally, squished 'em flat. Blood everywhere. Yuck. Anyway, I managed to make it back here, but the others couldn't save my hands. I lost 'em." He shrugged. "I think I died during the procedure."
Ansem and Sephiroth looked at each other. "So why do you…" Ansem began.
"Hang around? Because I feel like it," Ben said with a shrug. "I like pestering people. You lot are fun to annoy. Especially when I plagued those two with the bugs. Heh… that was fun. That Aerith girl, though… she scares real easy. Anyway, I can move on whenever I feel like it."
Ansem and Sephiroth exchanged glances.
"Stay a while, will you?" Ansem said, a mischievous smile forming on his face. "It was pretty amusing when you scared Aerith. Just stay away from the attic, okay?"
Ben grinned. "Nice smile, Ansem. Worn that myself many times. Anyway, sure. I'll stay. This place is fun, even if it isn't full of tense monks," he said. "See ya later." Then he faded from view. Ansem grinned broadly.
"You're evil, you know that?" Sephiroth said.
"I know."
-
So! The end of chapter eight! Things are coming to an end, that they are! The mystery of the monk thingy has been solved (which was a little abrupt and unsatisfying to me, but I couldn't think of any other way), and that just leaves everything to do with Sakkaku, the Harper family, and Ian Harland. Okie-dokie-mokie (so says the King)!
Yeah, I know the yaoi moments are disappointingly short and not very graphic at all, but if I were to go into more detail this'd end up rated "M" cuz subtlety and innuendo is not something I'm particularly good at. I'll just let you all ponder that for a while. ;) But the next chapter is rated "M" anyway. So who cares?
Oh, and you will see more of the not-so-good friar Ben in the upcoming chapters. X3