Disclaimer: All characters belong to Hidekaz Himaruya

Gilbert and Berwald, after a few moments of deliberation, decided to break the chains from both sides of the gate to finish the job more quickly. While a chilly wind blew, they started to unwind the chains and yanking them. A lot of the smaller chains were now easy to pull off the gate, slithering out from between the larger chains like metallic snakes as they are pulled out and thrown to the floor behind the pair. The thick chains, however, were proving a big challenge even to Berwald's strength as he tried to pull the rustier ones apart.

"Come on! Where's that awesome strength ya showed me earlier!?" Gilbert cheered and his hands followed along a small chain before grabbing a rusted link. The thicker chains were as thick as an adult man's wrist, but a few links were so rusted that they're crumbling slightly.

"Gilbert—"

Gilbert shushed him and glared a little before gesturing his hands at his dress and his hair and he raises his eyebrows. Berwald sighed. "Sorry, Maria. I want ya to step back. I c'n take these chains down with one pull 'f I hold th' right link."

Gilbert grinned and he stepped away from the double gates. "Got it! Won't the snow be a bother though? What if the gate drags?"

"We'll just pull it out t' have as much space as we need t' squeeze past." With that, Berwald reached out and held onto a large link tightly and tugged back experimentally, seeing what would happen. The gates shuddered and snow fell off, but nothing else happened besides the wind whistling in between the bars. He took a breath and leaned back, pulling the link again harshly.

Suddenly he heard a snapping noise of metal breaking and the link broke, freeing the ends of two chains as they fell and dangled in the air within reach. Gilbert cheered and bounced a little.

"Awesome! Lets bust this thing open and get inside already!" He ran over and pulled at a loose thick chain and stepped back to pull it out more when it seized up. He yelled angrily and yanked the metal again and again.

"Calm down, Gi—Maria," Berwald grumbled. "Look. The large ones are wound around the bars. Just un-weave them and we'll be in in no time."

"I-I knew that!" Gilbert ranted and he impatiently pulled the chains around the bars as Berwald did his side of the gate more patiently.

After a few moments of chinking metals and unwinding chains, Gilbert stared at Berwald as he finished his job. "How did you do your job so quickly?!"

"Haste makes waste." The gate besides Berwald squeaked when he simply pulled at it until it swung open a little, leaving a gap perfectly big enough for them to fit through. "Now lets go."

After the gates, there is a large playground surrounding the front of the mansion. Right now it's buried completely in snow.

Gilbert shivered as he walked, hugging himself. Berwald wasn't bothered by the cold, but he felt sorry for his cross-dressing friend who only had knee-length socks and simple shoes to protect his legs from the cold…

"Inside," Berwald murmured, ignoring the wispy white vapour that left his mouth when he spoke and trudged through the slightly deep snow towards the stone steps and rested his hand on the iron ring-shaped handle. It was freezing cold, but the Swede held on and tugged it. It was obvious that the doors were locked when he tried to push the door as well, and he even tried to twist the ring around to see if it opens the door that way, but nothing happened.

And then there was a hollow wooden sound as the left door swung open and Berwald looked at a grinning Gilbert, who did a mock bow. "After you, Princess Lockstress~!"

Amused by his nickname for him, Berwald walked inside and into a large hall. He stopped to look at the dusty floor, the empty picture frames hanging off the dirty blank walls, the wooden and rotted staircase that's very wide and leads to only a second floor… There was nothing grand about the place. The only thing that's considered "grand" is the size of this hall.

"Wow. A lick of paint would make the place remotely better…" Gilbert muttered under his breath, shivering. "Is it me or is it even colder in here?"

Berwald turned to look at the open door's inside handle. "There isn't a lock on it. Maybe the occupants took everything that has value with them when they left…"

"Say… Big Guy… why did this place get abandoned… assuming that the owners got rid of all the evidence of… abuse?" Gilbert said slowly as he glanced around.

"I don't know. Kids grow up. They either grow up corrupted or grow up to be ordinary adults. While the corrupted ones came from here, you probably got some ordinary children who haven't been hurt, but they knew what was going on and they thought that becoming adults will help them feel stronger, and brave enough to tell the world about the abuses…"

"You're really insightful."

"Thanks, but that's most likely why this place shut down. The owners take the money, and then they run away with the money to go into hiding and put their money in an off-shore account for safety," Berwald said. "Shall we split up and search the ground floor?"

"I don't know… I don't like the look of this place…" Gilbert frowned. "How about we check upstairs first? There should be some sort of office."

"Alright… Top floor, then work out way t' this floor."

Though the pipes in the building rattled and the wind outside whistled coldly, the pair took careful steps up the stairs without flinching out of worry; silently wary about the small pinprick-sized holes in the wood. Their footsteps echoed in the lonely hall until it died down when they reached the threshold of the second floor. Around them is another hall, but it's much smaller and there are many more doors up here along with thin corridors at the corners.

Berwald flinched when Gilbert nudged his elbow and he sighed in relief, shivering a little. "Sorry, I los' it then…"

"Keep calm, Ber, it's only two floors," Gilbert frowned. "But with just many more doors. Just stick by the Awesome Me and you'll be totally fine!"

They explored the first small corridor first, but the rooms only contained 2 bunk beds in each one, making it so that 4 children sleep in each one. But the beds seem oddly long in length for something that kids have to sleep on. The only evidence that showed what the beds were are the steel-frames of the bunks and the extremely thin mattresses which were covered in mould and parasites. The windows were boarded from the inside but some sunlight still came through the holes that the woodworm made.

Berwald realised something. "Those beds ar' adult sized. They're fer adults…"

Gilbert snapped is attention to him, face paling. "Holy shit, I just realised… d-didn't adults with mental learning difficulties and disabilities used to get locked up in these sort of places!?"

The wind didn't chill their hearts this time.

"I'd hate to know what had happened to those who weren't ethnically Finnish…" Gilbert grumbled.

Some of the bunk beds were varied in different lengths, but the order they're in is random, like you have to pick your own bed that you're most comfortable in otherwise your feet will hang over the edge and possibly get bitten by rats.

Then soon Gilbert almost shrieked because he saw a huge dried-up bloodstain on the floor outside a dormitory room along with long streaked marks on the door. Scratches. It was dried up already; it was far too long ago that it dried up to be recent. Besides freaking the hell out of Berwald with that episode, they saw a rat scurrying around until it stopped and looked at them, blinking its surprised beady black eyes before washing its own head and ran off.

But all the dormitories had one thing in common. They only have beds in them. No toys, no curtains and not even a dresser were in sight.

And then they got to the corridor which has less doors, but more comforts to them inside. Berwald and Gilbert assumed that they belonged to the well-fed staff members because inside the rooms were round rugs, large oak dressers, thick dark curtains and empty bedframes. It was a simple design, but it looked even more inviting than the children's bedrooms.

"Sickening," Gilbert growled. "Was it too much to give children a room that COULD keep them warm?"

Berwald said nothing. This was worse than he thought. He did expect an abusive carehome to be this cold and derelict, but bedrooms that are almost bare? That's just horrible. And what the heck was that bloodstain outside a bedroom all about? Those scratches on the door looked too much like they came from human fingernails. This is becoming more terrifying by the minute.

How DID Tino survive his childhood in such a place?

They looked at the dressers, but they're all empty apart from one drawer which has a silver key inside; gleaming, shiny and pristine.

"Sweet~ How much would this sell for?"

Berwald snatched the key out of his hand and walked out the room, trying not to be furious.

"Hey, I was joking! Who would want a boring old silver key anyway?" the German ranted and quickly followed him. Berwald stopped walking and Gilbert bumped into his back, huffing. "What now?"

"We haven't checked the last room on this floor yet… the main office."

Gilbert understood and he took a breath.

They already found the main office, but they couldn't help but feel an odd presence in the room as if someone is sitting in there already.

"Main offices have records… there should be records on Tino in here," Gilbert gulped, staring at the wooden door. "Records are good. Records keep the world in check… h-hooray for records…"

Silently, Berwald twisted the handle on the door and pushed it…

The door swung and squeaked loudly, but there wasn't anything in the room at all. Not a single thing. Not a single desk or filing cabinet was anywhere. Absolutely nothing, but the floorboards, blank walls and a broken window which the screaming wind blew in and brought snow in to build up on the floor under the window.

"Th-that was…" Gilbert leaned against the doorframe, trying not to faint from relief and he took a long shivering breath before sneezing. "Anticlimatic…"

"It was…" Berwald growled lowly and left the room with furious steps. Gilbert gasped in a long breath and quickly relaxed and ran after him when he started to walk towards the tall stairs.

"Where're you going? We got all day to explore the place!"

"I don't care!" Berwald almost shouted and glared at Gilbert. "I found out nothin' about Tino's past, and what will yer boss do when he finds out I couldn't find anythin' useful!?"

"He'd understand."

"What a j'ke."

"No, seriously! He may be a cold-hearted bastard, but even he knows there are limits to what other people can do compared to him!"

"Gilbert-"

"MARIA."

"I don't fuckin' care—!"

SNAP.

They both froze and glanced down at the rotting steps, before the wood broke with another loud snap and they pair yelped and cried out as they fell into the abyss.

A/N: Phew! That's more like it! A better-written chapter without stress holding me down! ^o^