Chapter Eight: Things That Shouldn't Be There

"Have you talked to Yuki at all?"

Rini looked at her eldest son with a look that just said 'are you kidding'?

Ayame sighed, "I bet it would make him feel a whole lot better. I mean… back in that dark room after everything he's gone through…"

"Ayame, just stop it. We came here to discuss your clues, not to waste words on that pathetic little…"

Rini stopped, seeing the slightly angry look on Ayame's face. "Never mind. Well... let's see what you have."

Ayame pushed the papers in front of her, some that had to have been remade after Hatori lost them. Two clues, Am and Tricked had come earlier that morning.

"So… have you thought about what they might mean?"

"No…"

"Well, what do you think they mean?"

"…I thought you were going to tell me, mother…"

"Do you have a brain, Ayame? There you go again, wasting my time!"

Rini stood up angrily and headed for the door.

"Mother?"

She turned around again.

"You're supposed to meet with Yuki and Rin today, right?"

Rini sighed. "Yes, Ayame."

"Can you… go easy on him, okay?"

Rini rolled her eyes and left the room.

-+-

"That's… I just can't even… we have to do something!"

As Hatori had expected, Kohatio didn't really seem very surprised at the news that the murderer was at it again. Hatori didn't need any of Ayame's clues. He knew that this man, this "Sam Kohatio" was the murderer, hands down.

"So what do you think we should do?" Hatori pressed.

"Oh, well, certainly, this needs to be taken care of right away," Kohatio stroked his abnormally large mustache in thought. "I know! We'll have everyone clean out their rooms and dispose of everything suspicious!"

"Alright…" Hatori forced a fake smile, and turned on his heel to tell everyone of the cleaning.

-+-

Kureno Sohma had been gone for three days.

He hadn't left, really. He was in hiding.

But nobody could find him.

That was good. After the incident with that Honda girl, practically everyone in the house thought he was the murderer.

But he wasn't.

He couldn't tell anyone that without getting murdered himself, though. He needed a plan.

And the answer was right in that very room.

-+-

"I like your haircut, Tohru."

Tohru forced a kind smile at Momiji as they searched he and Shigure's room for anything that wasn't supposed to be there. Tohru did not want to think about the short hair that Kagura had fixed up for her. It only made her think of that terrible day that was still so fresh in her mind.

Tohru turned at Momiji's scream.

"This… this isn't supposed to be here!"

She peered into the box Momiji had taken out from under his bed.

It contained a gun.

A loaded gun.

"Put it down!" she cried, and Momiji set the box down on the bed, slowly backing away from it.

"HATSUHARU! COME BACK!"

Momiji and Tohru were distracted from the new discovery as Black Haru came flailing down the hallway with Yuki following and screaming.

"HARU! CALM DOWN!" Yuki screamed at the angry boy as he slammed himself into the front door and pounded on it furiously to no avail. Some of the snow had melted, but still not enough to get the door open.

"LEAVE ME ALONE, DAMN RAT!" Black Haru yelled, going for a punch but missing.

"Haru-san! Yuki-kun!" Tohru exclaimed, and Momiji attempted to hold Black Haru down foolishly.

It was hopeless.

"You KNOW I like her! You KNOW I ALWAYS HAVE! SO WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU TAKE HER! I THOUGHT YOU UNDERSTOOD! I THOUGHT YOU HATED HER!" Haru couldn't concentrate on fighting and yelling at the same time. Yuki blocked his every attempt to strike.

"Hatsuharu! She's just a girl! Why are you getting so worked up over her?"

"BECAUSE I LOVE HER, YOU DAMN IDIOT!"

"Is it possible to refrain from making so much noise?"

Yuki let his guard down at the sound of his mother's cold voice and Haru punched him in the stomach.

"Don't you know you're supposed to be cleaning out your rooms?" Rini snapped, and Haru was no longer Black after punching Yuki so hard and hearing a different voice from down the hall.

"We have been."

Rin stood at the end of the hallway with a box similar to Momiji's in her hands.

"And Rini, I know you don't like your son very much, but could you quit leaving these explosives under his bed? It's getting rather annoying."

-+-

Both Kisa and Kagura refused to enter their room.

They knew it was kind of silly, but they just couldn't. It was too frightening, even after both Hatori and Kyo had searched a million times for anything else that wasn't supposed to be there. Neither of them wanted to play the game anymore, not after all of the things that had happened in the strange house. Both wanted to go home.

"There you are," Shigure grunted as he set the last of Kagura and Kisa's things on the pile in Kyo and Hiro's room. "We'll look for some more beds… It may get a little crowded in here, but it's the best we can do…"

"I'LL SHARE A BED WITH KYO—"

"Thanks, Shigure," Kyo mumbled, cutting off Kagura quickly in annoyance.

"Kyo… did you clean your room?"

Kyo looked down at Kisa, who stared up at him with worried eyes. He, of course, had not cleaned his room, but he knew that wasn't what Kisa meant. Kisa meant, in Hatori's words, had he 'disposed of anything that wasn't supposed to be there'.

"Everything's fine, Kisa-chan," he mumbled, ruffling her hair and still not wanting to share the room with either of them.

Shigure smiled reassuringly and Hiro entered the room with Hatori following behind.

Kagura backed away immediately at the sight of the sick boy, but Kisa instead moved forward and touched his hand. "Are you better, Hiro?" she asked sweetly.

"I ain't contagious," Hiro told them. "Food poisoning."

"Not food poisoning," Hatori reminded him, "Poison in your food."

-+-

Ritsu sat alone in the dining room, away from the noise and distractions of everyone else. He chose to spend this rare peaceful time studying his textbooks. The college professor would never forgive him if he came back from winter break and had forgotten everything.

He tried to focus on his government research, but found himself distracted. He could hear a noise, but he didn't know what it was. He would've said it was coming from the room next door, but there was no room next door, aside from the empty kitchen. Spontaneously, he put his ear to the ground.

Yes.

He could hear it.

It was coming from under him.

Screaming.

Yelling.

Arguing.

Someone getting hurt?

Ritsu desperately looked around. How was he supposed to get to the room below him?

Unless…

There was a secret staircase?

Ritsu stood up and scanned the floor with his eyes. He didn't know the Main House well enough to be sure, but the room was floored with hard wood, none of which looked loose or trap-door like. As he took a step forward, he tripped over one of his inconveniently placed text books. To catch his fall, he put his hands out and contacted with the white wall next to a large tapestry bearing the Japanese characters for the zodiac.

Tapestry!

That was it!

The staircase could've been hiding behind the tapestry!

Slowly, he lifted up the zodiac tapestry and looked behind it.

Yes, that was it.

Smiling yet nervous, Ritsu felt his way down the dark, cold, stone staircase.