Forbidden

Amazon Bunny: Gah! I apologize for the late updating. I have been very busy, school, home stuff, and other random crap. It's also sad to say that I've lost a great deal of interest in Tales of Symphonia, and rarely play it (I blame AnimalCrossing and Soul Calibur II...I've been getting new items and leveling up in theWeapon Master mode). Of course and as always,the bug isn't fixed, words are jumbled...blah blah blah di blah.I appreciate your patience (you had no choice, but still). Here it is...Chapter 5 of FORBIDDEN.
-There has always been a tale about the famed Aurion estate. How the current master's late wife still walks amongst the living. Hauntingly beautiful, with brawn and brain to boot, everyone says "no one can replace her". As soon as the second Mrs. Aurion steps into the house, she feels a presence that was lost, but not forgotten, a phantom preserved as perfectly as if she were alive; as she treads in the shadows of her predecessor, she is determined to uncover the lost, chilling tale of Anna Aurion.
Lunch in Asgard was an absolute nightmare.
We walked into the restaurant, the La-Delicicasisse, and immediately, were ushered to the most lavish, the most luxurious, corner, where we were sure to have the most privacy the littleeatery had. I was frustrated, Asgard left bitter memories lingering at the back of my mind.
"Fish en Papillote for two" I heard Kratos tell the busboy. "Andthe day's salad, one with Italian dressing, and the other Russian. Also, the Mullitawgany and Gazpacho."
I wrung my hands,nodded my head to whatever Kratos said, and gave anoccasional smile. I felt small, out of place, and shy.
Where was my old, confident self? I screamed to myself.Why am I like this?
I was still wringing my hands, the plastered smile upon my lips.
"Gazpacho for theMissus," the waiter said professionally. "And Mullitawgany for the Mister. Enjoy."
I could try.

Kratos ate slowly, enjoying his food. The food tasted well enough, guaranteed this was the best eatery on the continent, but the food had tasted bland and dry in my mouth. I was afraid. My mind lingered on his quote, "Do you? Do you?"
I pushed away my plate of half-eaten endive salad, and only then had I realized I was wringing my handkerchief in my hands. It was a fantastic mass of creases. I sighed inaudibly and pocketed it. Picking up my fork, I noticed Kratos looking at me strangely.
"Are you alright?" he asked. "I've been talking to you for the last ten minutes, and you didn't say a thing."
I nodded my head freverently. "I'm fine. I just don't have much of an appetite. I'm sorry."
He laid down his fork and faced me. "You've been thinking, haven't you? About what happened at the Hot Springs today." He wasn't stupid. "Don't think about it any longer, sweetheart, don't worry about it."
Easy for him to say...
I picked at the endive, moving it around my plate to seem like I had eaten it.
The busboy came over to our table, walking leisurely, breezing through his day. "Anything for dessert, sir and missus?"
Kratos looked to me. "Do you want anything, dear?"
I shook my head. "I've had enough. Really."
"Then the bill, please," said Kratos.

Money had been tight for me, after the Regeneration. We hadn't collected much Gald, and whatever we didn't spend on gels, weapons, and other miscellaneous supplies was given to Pierre to reconstruct Luin, and distributed to the citizens of Heimdall and Ozette to put their lives back in order. Being a schoolteacher in a small village didn't pay much, and of course, I still had to rebuild my home with what little Gald I had left that hadn't gone up in flames. I remember that some summers, money was so much a problem that I had to work as a translator for foreign citizens who wanted to tour the Martel Temple. In some cases, I woke before at dawn and came home when the moon was high in the sky. It wasn't easy, I tell you. I had lived in debt for years, and when I finally paid it off, I moved to Asgard to forget all the memories I had for Iselia. Luckily, Asgard remembered me, and renovated one of its smallest storehouses to accomodate me. It wasn't as big as my old home in Iselia, but it was good enough, especially when it was paid with Asgard's taxes. It didn't cost me a cent until the Wind City had a new mayor, who demanded I pay up every cent that had been put into the construction of the little home.
However, Kratos took the restaurant bill with extreme ease, and paid off the 1,500 Gald meal without blinking an eye. He really must have come from a wealthy family.

After a bit of window shopping, Kratos insisted that we head for Altamira, before the evening. It was barely four in the afternoon by the time we arrived, and it was packed. We checked into the hotel to get our room keys (we stayed VIP, on the fifth floor), and took the Elemental Railway to the Lezareno Company, first. George's grandson, Frederich, greeted us. Frederich was the head manager, since Regal's will was found sealed up in a box in his office, stating that he would the company would fall into the control of Genis and Presea if anything had happened to him. Virginia and Alicia, their daughters, would take over the prosperous company afterwards, and their children, and their children's children, and so on.
We took the elevator to the Sky Terrace, and laid flowers on Regal and Alicia's graves.

That night, Kratos and I attended the Katz play. It reminded me of the Broadway musical "Cats", only with caffiene highs and a little too much catnip. The pink Katz yowled quite often, and at higher and higher intervals, that one woman's baby began to cry. I thought the whole thing cute and funny.
At any rate, this proved a much better affair than lunch, and I had my mind occupied by the singing animals. The cool night air felt good on my skin, and the moon and stars twinkled cheerfully overhead. For the first time in a long while, I smiled contently.

In Hotel Altamira, Kratos took my hand and led me to our room.
"What did you think of the play, dear?"
"Kratos, please, don't call me 'dear'. But I liked it, anyways. It was really funny. Cute," I said, inserting the key into the doorknob.
"Hmm. How would you like to spend a day in Flanoir tomorrow? Or would you rather stay here and enjoy the beach? Swim a little bit, even." He smirked, remembering my deathly fear of water.
"Oh please," I said, rolling my eyes playfully. "What about the time when Colette forgot your hatred of tomatoes, and made spaghetti? You waited it out and then fed the whole thing to Noishe that night when the others were all asleep. No, don't you lie to me, Kratos Aurion," I said in a mock-'stern school teacher' voice, seeing as he was going to contradict me."I wasn't asleep that night. Not yet, anyways."
Kratos smirked, catching my hand in his. "So you did," he said. "So you did." He lifted me in his arms and place me on the bed.

Now you're probably thinking what most young, hormone-driven children think about when you put a married couple together on a bed--- that Kratos and I...well, you know. Well, that wasn't the case. We slept, fully clothed, even if my nightgown was a hitched just a bit above my thigh, until the sun was high up in the sky, blazing with all its might.
We had a light brunch on the third floor of the hotel (a bagel with cream cheese and a blueberry muffin), and headed out for a little souvenior shopping, and then enjoyed the place just as a normal couple would, without worry, without fear, without the memory of a terrible Hot Springs expirience and devilish housekeeper waiting at a vast estate. We soaked up the sun, ate watermelon, ran sprints across the hot sand that stung the bottom of our feet, and even went swimming. Of course, I stayed toward the beach, making sure that the water didn't come above my knees, and crabs didn't snap at my toes.
The next day we spent the day at the Amusement Park (yes, the Amusement Park). We looked rather out of place, with little kids barely up to my waist swarming around us, giant furry mascots, and masses of cotton candy. Kratos won a gigantic stuffed teddy bear for me by throwing balls at bottles. I got a plastic sword and pirate eyepatch.
The rest of the week was spent at other places- Flanoir, a few days of pelting snowballs, sipping hot chocolate by a hot fire, and warm sweaters. Triet was probably my favorite place- we toured the Triet Ruins and bought some trinkets to remind us of that day.

The week actually passed quickly, and soon enough I found myself staring at the large mansion, and a eerie, gaunt skull staring down from the steps.
"Welcome back," she said, though she obviously looked as if she wished that we, or rather, I had fallen from the rheiard and plunged into the deep, dark sea. She opened the heavy front doors and led me inside. Before the doors creaked shut, Jack hurried past us, giving us a small smile before putting the Rhieard away. Kratos was telling him what to do still. Mrs. Casper turned around to face me. I dropped my wrinkled handkerchief.
"The Lady never had a wrinkled handkerchief. Go find Frieda or Mona and tell them to iron them. It's positively appalling." Sniffing disdainfully, Mrs. Casper said nothing else, and headed into the kitchen. I felt so insignificant.

Mona was busily dusting, her crimson hair put up neatly in a french twist, humming to herself. She saw me, and smiled broadly. "How was the trip?" she asked.
"Very well, thank you," I replied. "Altamira was amazing. I thought it was going to be just a bunch of bunny girls and bikinis, but it wasn't." I felt calmer, more at ease now. The girl was just so happy, her personality seemed to nullify all the hate and fear this home had.
"Yeah?" Mona nodded. "That's what Frieda said. She lived in Altamira, before she came here. I didn't believe her, but now that you say so, I guess it's true!" She giggled girlishly.
"Say, Mona," I wondered. "You, Frieda, and Jack are all half-elves, right? I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but how old are you?"
"Hm, well, Frieda's a little older than me...she's eighteen. I'm nearly seventeen. And Jack, well, he doesn't talk too much, he's usually out in the stable, but I'm thinking he's...maybe, around three hundred? Mrs. Casper's nearly one thousand years old! Imagine that!"
I laughed. "Well, I'm nearly one hundred and twenty four. How's that?"
"That's not nearly as old as Mrs. Casper."
I shrugged. "Still a lot older than you."
We laughed.

I left after Mrs. Casper came to tell Mona she was slacking, and needed to get back to work. Needless to say, I embarrassed myself again, and nearly panicked. After Mrs. Casper had left, I apologized to Mona and headed toward the Sun Room. It was very airy inside, a perfect blend of beige and dusty pinks, and I could tell right away that it was a woman's room. A delicate cupid vase with a harp in hand perched on the mahogany table, and looked positively exquisite. More valuable antiques were around the room, and a large, fancy desk stood by the arched windows on the far side of the room, and all around the room was books. Bookshelves full of books. I was going to love this place...until I turned to look to my left. There stood a clothes rack, and on one of the rungs was a coat that was not mine. Its owner was taller than I, and a strand of long brown hair was on it. It smelled faintly of lilies, the same flowers that were in Anna's room.
I tried to ignore the coat, and examined the desk instead. Pens were neatly placed in the porceilian cup, pigeon holes filled with letters to be sent, and to read. It was as if the former mistress was still alive, and I was the ghost.
I sat down, and pulled a letter out from a pigeonhole. I recognized the dark, slanted handwriting, and felt sick to my stomach. So this was her room, after all. I was about to rip the letter to shreds, and set it on fire like I had the first page of the book, but just as I took the letter in both hands, a shrill buzzer went off, and I dropped it. Just as soon as it had rang, it ceased. I stood up and scurried to the bookshelf, near the cupid, my heart still pounding. The shrill buzz pierced the air again, a minute later, and I jumped, and collided rather painfully with the cupid vase. It fell off the table and smashed to pieces on the ground. I nearly fainted as I saw that it was in hundreds of pieces, and it would be unfixable. I gathered a large envelope and gathered the large pieces, careful not to cut myself, and put them in the bag. I gathered the rest of the shards with a broom and a dustpan, and cleared up the "crime scene" as if nothing had happened. I put the envelope into a box and set it on top of one of the bookshelves amongst other boxes. It was unrecognizable. I sighed.
Not even a minute later, the door swung open, and my heart dropped. It was Mrs. Casper.
"Madam, I called up on the House Transmitter, why didn't you answer?"
"House...Transmitter?" I tried my best not to look guilty. My heart was throbbing painfully, I was sure she could hear it too.
"Don't tell me you've never heard of it? Surely you must have seen it." She pointed to the desk, and sure enough, a round disk was attached to it. "You push the red button and you'll be able to hear and see me, or whoever tries to contact you with it." She said it so obviously that it sounded as if she was disciplining an unruly toddler. "I was just trying to ask you if you liked the supper menu I laid out. That should be on the desk. Ah, but I daresay, you've already been poking around and seen it?" She held up the letter I was going to rip apart. "Reading the Lady's letters?"
I blushed and twisted the handkerchief in my hands.
"I thought I told you to have Frieda or Mona to iron that? And weren't you just talking to Mona not an hour ago?"
I didn't know what to say to that, so I walked over to the desk and picked up the menu. Roast beef, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and chocolate mousse. "The menu sounds fine."
"What kind of sauce?" Mrs. Casper asked. "The Lady was always particular about the sauces."
"Well...what kind did she have?" I asked meekly.
"She would have preferred the beef gravy for the potatoes, and wine sauce for the roast beef."
"We'll have the same, then."
I breathed a sigh of relief when Mrs. Casper left, the door clicking shut behind her.

"Frieda, I'd like for you to tell me where the cupid is," Kratos' voice floated sternly through the door to the study. "What did you do with it?"
"I don't know!" Frieda said, exasperated. "I'm perfectly sure it was there when I left!"
"Well, it's not there, and Mrs. Casper informed me that you were the last one in the Sun Room."
"I was, but I didn't do anything with it!" Frieda protested, on the verge of tears.
My heart plummeted through my stomach. That damn cupid! I knocked hesitantly on the door.
"Come in, good God, come in," I heard Kratos say. He looked furious. "Raine."
"Kratos...could I...speak to you for a moment?" I asked. "Alone?" I swallowed hard, glancing at Frieda.
He sighed, and waved his hand to dismiss the purple haired half elf. "What is it you want?" he asked me, his face now slightly more relaxed, though still strained. The door clicked shut.
"It's about the cupid," I began.
The door opened again, and Mrs. Casper came in, looking worried. "It's not in the West Wing, sir," she announced. "The cupid's disappeared. Should I fire Frieda?"
"No!" I burst out. "She had nothing to do with it." How silly I must have looked, half-crazed and twisting that damn handkerchief again.
"Well, then, tell me where it is," said Kratos.
"I...I broke it," I stammered. Confessing was much harder when Mrs. Casper was in the room with us. "I broke it when I heard the buzzer go off. It scared me at first, and I bumped into the statue and it broke."
"What did you do with the pieces?" Kratos asked, his voice half amused, half anxious.
"I put them in the box...In the Sun Room library," I said quietly. I felt like a criminal being interrogated by the police. "They're all in the envelope."
Mrs. Casper looked amused. "Is that so? It sounds like something a-"
"Are you honestly going to finish that sentence?" Kratos said swiftly, cutting her off.
Her gaunt face looked shocked. "Of course not," she said darkly. "I was just ranting. Forgive me, sir." She bowed and retreated to get the pieces of the vase.
"Much better," he said, once she had gone. "But really, Raine, it does sound like something an untrained servant would do here."
I nodded, ashamed at my behavior. Years of being alone in the world really took a toll- not only was I shy, but I was timid and afraid of the smallest things- like my own shadow. "I'm sorry."
I wished I could be in my former skin- the bold, tough Raine. That's what I wanted to be again.

Kratos gave Frieda a day off for accusing her for stealing the cupid vase.
"Was the vase expensive?" I asked, scared of his possible explosion.
"I don't know. All I know is that it was in storage until renovations. Then the entire west wing was redone and everything was put in the rooms. I don't even recognize half the stuff we had."
"Oh..," I felt better. Then the damn House Transmitter went off again.

Lemurian-Girl : Hey, it's one of my favorite books too! I thought it was amazing! And since I usually don't like to read, and it actually got my attention for so long, I thought it deserved something haha...It's sorta wierd though, I like to write, but I don't like to read...Ah well, it looks like I haven't updated in more than a whole month...so I made this chapter longer than the others! Yay long chappies! Thanks for the review!

RWT : Nope, she sure didn't know what happened to Lloyd, lol! Lloyd a genius...although it was possible...I mean, Kratos isn't an idiot...so it must have either been Anna or falling off that cliff. haha! Thanks for the review!

IBnBandgrl : Rebecca is an amazing book. Strangely enough, my grandma was the one who recommended it...and I usually don't like books she reccommends lol! And this was my favorite book! Well, I guess this story's gonna be your birthday present, huh! Thanks for reviewing!

Zelos the Swordsman: Ahh! I'm updating! Updating! lol Thanks for the review!

Scarlet Kratos : Yeah, you had better update Roadtrip Rampage! It's amazing! LOVE IT! Thanks for reviewing!

Chaotic Rei: heheh I even wonder myself what's going to happen...I write with the flow of my mood, I guess you could say! It all depends on my mood, lol Thanks for the review!

Miss Raine Sage : I'd get lost in a house like that too! Yeah, Mrs. Casper is a lousy, good for nothing...is shot Thanks for reviewing!

Healing Wind : Hey! Thanks for reviewing! I love reviews lol it makes my story seem so popular! love em! Thanks so much for the review!

Aether Mantis : No, I'm getting a wierd vibe too, and I'm writing this story! Whenever I write about Mrs. Casper, my hands get cold! Creepy! And that's not my imagination lol Thanks for the review!

Amazon Bunny: HEY! Got this chapter done! Whew! Took me...four hours! FOUR hours to write! Now my eyes are tired...oh well! I made this chapter extra long to make you guys all happy because I didn't update for so long lmao! Y'all review and I'll update! Little shoutout to some buddies: Scarlet Kratos! YOU'D BETTER UPDATE "ROADTRIP RAMPAGE"! IBnBandgrl! HEYY MAKE SOME MORE STORIES! I HAVEN'T SEEN ANY NEW ONES IN A WHILE! I promise I'll update one of my stories if you update yours, both Scarlet Kratos and IBnBandgrl! Pwu-lease? I promise I'll update sometime soon.