7. Qualm
Rude stood on the landing in the foyer, staring at an upside-down chair. Reno stood to his left, Cissnei to his right.
"Was it you?" she demanded. Her arms were ramrod straight, her hands tight fists.
Reno raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'was it me'?"
"Just answer the question."
"What makes you think it was me?"
Cissnei exhaled sharply. "You're not going to give me a straight answer, are you?"
"You really think it's me?" Reno smiled an unfriendly smile. "Been two years, y'know. Think you know me well enough to throw accusations like that around?"
She stared at him, nostrils flaring. Then she spun around and marched down the stairs.
Reno balled his hands as he watched her leave, and turned to Rude.
"You think it was me too, big guy?"
Rude was tired of their bickering. So tired of Reno's voice. Without a word, he followed Cissnei down the stairs.
Mrs. Gubbins's stew filled the kitchen with an inviting scent, completely at odds with the stony atmosphere that had fallen over them.
"Oh, great." Reno grimaced at the slimy purple carrot teetering upon his spoon. "These things again."
Cissnei didn't look up from her bowl. Rayleigh kept scribbling into her notebook.
"Hey Ciss. Hear anythin' interestin' in town lately?"
Cissnei glanced at Reno and shrugged.
Rude wiped up a few drops of spilled stew with his napkin. A few ticks came from the cooling oven.
"Rude, buddy." Reno grinned at him. "Wanna hit the pub later?"
Rude gave a non-committal grunt.
A chair creaked softly. Rayleigh's pencil rasped against paper.
"Yo, Prof. Whatcha writin' about there?"
"It's professor," Rayleigh said without looking up, "and this is work."
Spoons clinked against bowls. The light bulb above them gave off a quiet hum.
"So, uh..." Reno cleared his throat. "Guys... Whaddya think of–"
A shrill cry made all four of them whip their heads up and freeze. It was a scream. A human scream, that cut off as abruptly as it had started. Another began right away.
Reno shot to his feet, his mag rod already in his hand.
"Rayleigh, go upstairs. Keep the door locked 'til one of us comes knockin'. Ciss, make sure she gets there."
The professor frowned, but stood up without a word and followed Cissnei through the door. Reno stood still as their footsteps faded, his head tilted to the side and a finger held up in caution. The wait was short; another cry rang out, closer this time.
"Came from outside," Reno said, already striding to the door. "North, right?"
Rude grunted his agreement.
At the turn of the hallway, Reno paused long enough to wave Cissnei over from the foyer. She'd fetched her shuriken: an ornate four-pointed star in red and silver, nearly a third of her height from point to point. She held a flashlight in the other.
"Rayleigh's locked in her room," she reported once she'd joined them. "What's next?"
"Next we figure out who's makin' all that noise." Reno tugged open a door and waved them through. The short passage beyond ended in a heavy wooden door bound with black iron hinges. "Side entrance," he explained as he marched up to it. "The front's too exposed."
The latch on the door slid silently aside. Tendrils of mist swirled in through the gap as he pushed it open.
"Dammit. Can't see shit out here."
In the cone of light that spilled out from the door, Rude saw a thick, pillowy fog that rolled low across the ground. White wisps wove through the barren trees of the orchard like shredded gauze. They built up a barrier thick enough to hide the mountain wall.
Cissnei handed Reno the flashlight she'd brought.
"Not sure it'll help much in fog like this, but it's worth a try. Might help me keep an eye on you, if nothing else."
"Thanks, Ciss. Hold the fort."
Reno took the lead and crossed the flagstone path that circled the outer wall of the building. Rude brought up the rear. The flashlight gleamed upon the sodden boughs of ancient trees and threw shadows across their gnarling trunks. Their branches snarled and tangled into each other, as if weaving a trap for unwary humans. A pale disc, perfectly round, cast its light through their spindly cage. As grateful as Rude was to have the moon light their way, Teo's stories rattled insistently in the back of his head. Nothing good ever happened on the night of a full moon.
"This fuckin' place," Reno muttered under his breath. "Couldn't get any creepier if it tried."
A yelp rang out, impossible to pinpoint in the mist. A scream followed it, shrill, warbling as it drew closer. A blue flash by Reno's side told Rude he'd switched in his mag rod.
"There!"
Someone burst out of the mist. It was a person, a man, screaming as he hurtled toward them. He wasn't running at them, though. The guy barreled right past them and kept running, shrieking and flailing all the while, until he smacked straight into the mansion wall and collapsed like a bag of bricks. His head struck the stone path with a hollow thud.
They waited, holding their breaths, straining both their eyes and ears. Nothing else came out of the fog. Everything was dead silent; everything was as still as the body on the path.
"Holy fuck," Reno breathed.
They took off running at the same time. Reno got to the guy first and dropped down on one knee to check for a pulse. Just as Rude arrived at his side, Reno cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled into the mist.
"Ciss! We need a Cure, stat!"
It was a young man, a teenager. His forehead was split and a thick line of blood oozed into his blond hair. Reno tilted his head to one side and studied the guy's slack face.
"Hang on," he said. "Haven't we seen this kid before?"
Rude took a closer look. The guy looked familiar, but he was too young to be drinking at the pub. Rude could count his visits to the village on one hand, and the only time he'd met someone outside the pub was that first day–
"The SOLDIER wannabe," he concluded.
"Who?"
"The kid who talked to us the day we arrived. Wanted to be recruited."
"Huh." Reno frowned as he gave the guy another once-over. "The hell's he doin' here?"
"You told him to come."
Reno looked up, his mouth open in surprise and confusion.
Movement from the mist drew their eye. Cissnei came jogging down the path, her shuriken at the ready in one hand.
"Guys, step back."
She pulled back her left sleeve and ran her fingers over a sleek, black bangle rimmed with silver. It held three materia orbs; one of the green-tinted ones responded to her touch with a faint glow. She dropped down on one knee by the kid's head.
"It's Caleb Frye," she said. "Lives with his mother near the village square. Father died in the Wutai war."
Reno had turned away to keep watch, but at that he cast her a glance over his shoulder.
"You know this guy?"
"I wasn't gossiping with the local girls just for fun, you know." She placed her hand on Caleb Frye's forehead. "He's not on my watch list, though. He wants to sign up with Shinra, actually."
"So we've heard," Reno muttered, shifting his grip on his mag rod.
Tendrils of green snaked down Cissnei's fingers and crept across the guy's face. Rude looked away. The dank, encircling mist was no less eerie than her materia, but it was a familiar kind of eerie; a known quantity. Even with his back turned, he could feel the magic prickling at the edge of his awareness. He stared stubbornly ahead as his muscles coiled tighter.
"It's safe to move him," Cissnei said at last, breaking the uneasy hush. "I'll fix the rest once we get inside."
Rude grabbed his shoulders, Reno his feet. Cissnei opened doors and guided them to a musty room between the side door and the foyer. The room was a mirror image of the lounge where Rude and Cissnei had shared the wine. The fireplace looked exactly the same, and the same heavy gold-embroidered curtains framed the window. Instead of the blue velvet chairs, this room had a couch in the same style. Rude and Reno dropped their surprise guest on it, sending up a billow of old dust from the upholstery.
Cissnei sat down on the edge of the couch and brushed the wispy blond hair from the guy's forehead. She couldn't be much older than him, if she was older at all. Her face was just as blank as his, too, except that he had the excuse of being unconscious. What else had she seen, Rude wondered, when this didn't even register on her emotional scale? Reno had called the guy a kid. Rude found it hard to imagine anyone saying the same about Cissnei – the real Cissnei, not one of her acts.
Rude turned to look out the window as she called forth another healing glow. He made himself look beyond their reflections, outlined in pale green upon the glass, to peer into the darkness outside.
Shinra's mass-produced materia had been on the market for several years, but he still had trouble reconciling his childhood superstitions with the idea of materia as an everyday tool. Back on the island of his birth, orbs like these were seen as divine, otherworldly gifts from the Planet. He could make a fortune selling Shinra's cheap baubles to the Costan islanders.
Would they be able to tell the difference, Rude wondered, as he stared at the shifting shadows of leafless trees shivering in the breeze. Was it like the difference between shadow-play and threat? If a replica did the job just as well, did that make it just as real? If a figment of his mind made him cower and hide... Did that make it just as real?
Was the threat just as real, that had made this kid scream and run?
"I've done what I can," Cissnei said. "Let's hope he didn't give himself brain damage that a Cure can't fix."
"How long before he wakes up?" Rude asked. His skin itched with impatience, with the need to know what the guy had seen.
She shrugged. "No idea. We'll just have to wait. Do you know what spooked him?"
"No clue about that, either. Didn't see a damn thing, except for this guy." Reno came up behind the couch and leaned over it for a better look at him. "Think we should call someone? His mom?"
Rude his gaze wander over the kid's skinny body, observing the dirt on his hands and knees, the mud caked around his leather boots, the two-inch tear down his jeans just below the knee. He might have seen something that sent him fleeing... or he might have done something. Rude's first guess as to why this Caleb guy had shown up could very well have been right; but he could think of a dozen other reasons a teenage kid might sneak into the mansion's grounds, and none of them were good – especially if this wasn't the first time.
"Later," he said. "Let's talk to him first."
"Sure, whatever." Reno clasped his hands above his head and stretched his entire body into a gangly line. "Well, I'm gonna go grab what's left of my dinner. Anyone else want–"
With a loud gasp, a blond head shot up from the couch. Rude flinched, and Reno flailed out of his stretch with a startled curse – but Caleb Frye didn't look at either of them. He looked wildly around as he crawled backwards on the couch.
"Hey now, take it easy," Cissnei said, smiling sweetly. "What's your name?"
The guy tried to press himself deeper into the armrest.
"You hit your head. Do you remember that?"
His eyebrows scrunched together as he studied her. When he looked over at Reno, his eyes flew wide. Reno had already recovered; he leaned down and rested his elbows on the back of the couch. He was smiling his lopsided good-guy smile.
Better to let them handle the talking. Rude had no patience left for the good guy act; his heart was banging like a drum.
"Looks like you remember me, at least," Reno said. "How about the big guy over there, remember him too?" He flicked his chin toward Rude.
Caleb turned his head. His eyes bulged out even further, and with a yelp he flung himself back into the corner of the couch. It wasn't Rude he was looking at, though.
Rude spun around and stared at the window. He saw the same gangly trees, still reaching for the sky; the same full moon, thinly shrouded in a veil of mist. The same stony path, the same shadows.
Behind him, the kid's rising wail cut off with a strangled gulp. Reflected in the glass, Rude saw his body contort backward over the armrest.
"Shit!" Reno yelled. "Hold him down!"
When Rude reached the couch, the kid's head was almost touching the floor. Rude grabbed his convulsing feet and pulled him back onto the couch. He caught a glimpse of bared teeth and rolled-back eyes, before Cissnei pushed her weight down on Caleb's arms. From the corner of his eye he saw Reno, hand flattened over one ear and PHS pressed against the other, yelling something he couldn't make out over Cissnei's shouting and the kid's frothing grunts.
One second the guy was close to wrenching himself out of Rude's grip. The next, he went limp.
Their gasping breaths hissed loud in the sudden silence. Rude could hear Reno's muffled voice from the corridor, still barking into his PHS. Cissnei released the kid; she checked his pulse, then pulled down an eyelid. He didn't move a muscle, but he was still breathing. A strand of bubbly drool oozed from his mouth.
"What the hell is this?" Cissnei whispered.
Rude found himself staring at the window. All he could see now were their pallid reflections in the glass; otherwise the window was empty, their pictures painted faintly upon the solid darkness.
Yet as he watched it, he couldn't shake the feeling that the darkness was staring back.
Rude shot up, strode to the window, and yanked the drapes shut.
When Rude lumbered into the kitchen for breakfast the next day, the ladies were already sitting at the table with steaming coffee cups cradled in their hands. As he brought out the makings of a hefty sandwich, it became clear Cissnei was filling Rayleigh in on the previous night's events.
Just listening to it made Rude's skin tingle. He moved his arm, letting it brush it over the holster under his jacket. After last night, he wasn't taking any chances.
Reno showed up halfway through her account. He nodded at Rude and shuffled over to the coffee machine without a word. He remained by its side once he'd poured himself a cup and leaned back against the counter. He stared into his coffee as Cissnei spoke.
She omitted some of the details, but everything she did tell the professor was true. She and Rude had taken Caleb Frye to the village doctor, who had been just as baffled and stumped by the boy's condition as they were. The doctor had promised to contact the mother, so the Turks returned to the manor and checked the grounds. They hadn't found anything – though that didn't mean much, considering visibility had been next to nothing.
Cissnei pressed her mug against her bottom lip and stared up at the wall. Her eyes were distant.
"I wonder if he'll be okay."
"I suppose it depends on whether his fit is connected to the head injury," said Rayleigh, "and how long it takes before he wakes up. The longer he stays unconscious, the worse it is for his–"
"Enough about the fuckin' kid, all right?"
The three of them flinched and turned to stare at Reno. He glowered at the table, his shoulders tight and his jaw tighter.
Rayleigh cleared her throat.
"I think I will finish my coffee upstairs."
Reno stared after her until the kitchen door swung closed. His hand crept up to clasp the back of his neck.
"What the hell was that?" Cissnei demanded.
"I, uh..." He cast furtive glances at her and Rude, and let his hand fall. "We need to figure out what happened here last night."
He was staring into his mug again. She waited a while, but when it became clear Reno had nothing more to say, she huffed and shook her head.
"We should check if Caleb is awake. He's the one who knows."
"Yeah, good point." He straightened up, finally raising his gaze. "Wanna come with?"
"I think I'll hold the fort again." She gave him a joyless smile and swept down her coffee.
Reno watched her leave, too, and pushed a hand through his hair. It was likely the first time it had been combed that day.
"Guess Ciss is havin' an off day," he said with a sheepish laugh.
Rude's patience had run out. He had none of it left, especially for whatever games Reno had been playing. With her, with him; it didn't matter. He was sick of it.
"Maybe she's still upset that you went through her things."
Reno finally looked at Rude; it was a cautious look, sizing him up.
"You're sneakier than I give ya credit for, buddy. Got somethin' you wanna say about that?"
"No. Makes me wonder what other rooms you've been into, though."
"Yours, you mean?"
Rude gave him a steady look. Reno chuckled and shook his head.
"Got no reason to, buddy." He clapped Rude's shoulder on his way past. "Now c'mon. We got some questions to ask around town, yo."
Rude narrowed his eyes as he trailed after his partner out of the kitchen.
The village doctor had set up his office in a room on the first floor of his house. A former living room, or a dining room, perhaps. A scuffed doctor's bag in brown leather sat square in the middle of an antique desk. Wooden cabinets with glass doors sealed away potions and tonics and instruments, and infused the air with a curious blend of bleach and old wood. The standalone partition in the corner was folded back, revealing an empty examination chair. The cot beside it was empty, too.
"I let Mrs. Frye take her boy home this morning," explained Dr. Dyer. He was a thin man with graying temples, who was almost as tall as Rude.
Reno's face brightened.
"He woke up?"
"Sadly, no," the doctor said with a sigh. "I'm afraid he's been unconscious since you brought him in."
"Then why'd you let him go home?"
"I had to leave for another patient this morning. Thought it best to have someone watch over him. The Fryes live just a couple of houses over. Practically the same as having him out in my backyard."
Reno frowned at the empty cot.
"I ain't the doctor here, but bein' out of it this long doesn't sound too good. Shouldn't he be in hospital?"
"It's not so simple. I can't find anything wrong with the boy."
Reno gave him an odd look. "But he had a fit last night."
"There's nothing wrong with him now. It's as if he's just asleep."
"No drugs? I know a few things that'll mess you up pretty bad."
"Drugs?" the doctor huffed. "Please. This isn't Midgar. We have a couple of hyper vets, that's all."
"You get a bunch of Midgar engineers at the reactor, though."
Dr. Dyer's mouth flattened into a line of displeasure.
"The tests I do here showed nothing unusual," he said primly. "If you want additional bloodwork done, you'll need a bigger clinic than mine."
"So send him to a fuckin' hospital already!"
Rude couldn't help but flinch at Reno's outburst. So did the doctor.
"It's not that simple!" Dr. Dyer cleared his throat and took a slow breath. "I'm not sure it's worth the risk," he continued with a calmer tone of voice. "The nearest hospital is nearly a hundred miles away, and in terrain like this..."
"Not a problem. If the kid needs a hospital, we've got a chopper parked about half an hour down the mountain."
Rude blinked and turned to stare at his partner, but held his tongue. He waited until they had left the doctor's house and were walking down a dusty path toward the village square, away from prying ears.
"What was that about?"
"What was what?"
Rude let out a long, slow breath through his nose. He was absolutely not in the mood for Reno's slippery bullshit.
They were almost at the Frye house when Reno finally looked away.
"I was just messin' around about the SOLDIER thing." His voice was quiet, almost subdued. "You know that. But if the kid bought it, and that's what got him all..." He glanced toward the Frye house, and Rude could see the muscles in his jaw working. "Ah, fuck it. Let's just figure out what happened, yo."
Mrs. Frye took one look at them and screamed her head off about what they'd done to her boy until they left. The pub owner claimed not to have seen the kid at all the previous day, as did the two old coots who never seemed to leave the place.
Just outside the pub, a teenage girl in a cowboy hat was waiting for them. Rude wondered where she'd gotten it. No cowboys in the mountains, as far as he knew.
"I heard you were asking about Caleb?" she said, looking up at them both with hopeful eyes. A very pretty girl with her glossy dark hair and bright round eyes, Rude couldn't help but notice.
Reno gave her a disreputable grin. He had evidently noticed it too.
"We are, yeah. And who might you be?"
"Tifa," she said, holding on to her hat as she dipped her head in a quick bow. "Tifa Lockhart."
"As in Mayor Lockhart?"
"Yeah. He's my dad."
Reno was studiously ignoring the look Rude gave him. The last thing they needed was an irate mayor hounding them about his daughter's honor.
"Anyway, I saw Caleb last night," Tifa said. "He was talking to old Phemie. Mrs. Gubbins, I mean. Right on the steps there." She turned and pointed toward the stairs up to the Shinra manor.
"Is that right?" Reno shot Rude a glance. "Any chance you heard what about?"
"Sorry, I was too far away," she said with an apologetic smile. "Caleb looked none too pleased about it, though, I can tell you that."
"Well, thanks very much, miss Tifa." Reno flashed another one of those grins. "I might look you up later. Y'know, in case we need more details."
"Oh," she said, tugging her hat a little lower by the string, hiding her eyes. "Sure. Happy to help."
"Well, buddy," Reno said to Rude as he turned to leave. "Time to have a chat with ol' Phemie, yo."
"Before you go," Tifa called quickly, and gave them a shy smile when they turned back to her. "I was wondering... Caleb told me you're recruiting for SOLDIER. Do you... know any of them? The SOLDIERs?"
Reno's smile stayed on his face, but Rude could tell the instant it changed.
"Sorry, sweetheart. Can't help ya there."
The moment he turned his back to the girl, his smile vanished. He crossed the town square with strides so long even Rude had trouble keeping pace.
"Y'know, I'm gettin' real tired of this SOLDIER-lovin' shithole," Reno muttered under his breath as he pulled out a pack of smokes. The third one that morning, Rude noted.
They found Euphemia Gubbins in the vegetable patch of a small cottage, a short walk beyond the ring of houses around the village center. She got up, unfolding her limbs like a giant kyuvildun bug, and slapped caked soil off the knees of her overalls as she watched them approach. She was not surprised by the news.
"I heard, yes." She slowly shook her head. "Such a shame."
"Well, we heard you had a chat with him last night." Reno's voice held an edge.
"That's right."
"Didn't occur to ya to mention this when I called last night?"
It was a heated question; too heated for an interrogation. Rude watched Reno from the corner of his eye. He was scowling at her, and he wasn't even trying to hide it.
Mrs. Gubbins cocked her head to one side and smiled. "You didn't ask."
"What did you talk about?" Rude asked before Reno's temper could flare, and forced himself to meet her colorless gaze.
"Told him to keep off the manor grounds... of course."
"Why?"
"I knew it wouldn't be good for him." She clicked her tongue and shook her head again. "Such a naive, impressionable mind. The old place always did have a taste for the young ones."
"The hell's that s'posed to mean?" Reno cut in.
Mrs. Gubbins looked up in the direction of the manor, as if she could see straight through the mountainside.
"The place can feel... sinister. Especially after dark."
"Were you messin' with him?" He took a step closer, into her personal space. "Puttin' thoughts into his head? That what this is?"
"I was trying to warn the boy. I told him to stay away."
She locked eyes with Reno. He didn't shrink back.
Rude didn't have the patience to wait for a staring match that might never end.
"Mrs. Gubbins," he said, and did his best not to cringe as those pale eyes settled on him again. "Do you know what happened to Caleb Frye?"
"No," she said, and smiled. "I do not."
Their afternoon proved just as fruitless as the morning. Of those who would even speak to them, no one had seen Caleb sneak up to the manor. No one could recall a case like his before. By all accounts, the kid had nothing worse on his conscience than a few pilfered apples from a neighbor's tree.
Every conversation seemed to stack a little more weight on Reno's shoulders. He smoked two cigarettes on the walk back to the manor and barely said a word. Rude was the one who filled Cissnei in when they all met up in the foyer.
"So no one knows a damn thing," she remarked once he'd finished. "Great."
"Maybe we should take a closer look at where he knocked himself out," Reno muttered. "See if... I dunno, maybe he dropped somethin'?"
"I'll go. I'm going stir-crazy in here."
"Want some company?"
There was a plea in his eyes, but Cissnei had already turned away.
"I'll manage."
She left, heading for the side entrance. Reno seemed on the verge of following her anyway, but huffed and began digging through his pockets.
"I need a damn smoke."
He stomped out through the front door. Rude joined him outside. He wasn't eager for Reno's twitchy company, but the manor's gloom appealed to him even less right then.
Reno slumped back against the wall by the front doors, a lit cigarette already in his hand.
"What a shit fuckin' day." He filled his lungs with smoke and let it trickle out through his nostrils. "What a shit fuckin' week."
Rude stared up at the building's facade. Was it safer on the inside, or out? Twenty-four hours ago he would have picked the latter. After last night's drama, though... He turned and scanned the grounds within the gated walls. The fog had lifted, but Rude could barely make out the flagstone paths against the sooty ground. The sun was still up, but dark clouds were gathering on the horizon; the house was shrouded in a gloom that inched ever closer to the front gate.
"Guys?" Cissnei called.
Reno shoved himself off the wall and tossed down his cigarette, hastily stamping it out. They followed the stone path that crept along the manor's facade and spotted her as soon as they rounded the corner. She was crouched down on the path, near the spot where Caleb fell.
"Found something," she said as she straightened up. "Here, right by the wall."
She pointed at the narrow strip of soil between the path and the wall; likely meant for flowers and vines, now barren but for a few scraggly weeds. A patch of earth below one of the windows had been disturbed. Reno squinted, and dropped down for a better look.
"The hell is this?"
Rude would have waited his turn, but the astonishment in Reno's voice made him lean over the redhead's shoulder for a look. What he spotted raised the little hairs at the back of his neck.
He'd expected to see shoe prints – maybe Caleb's. The tracks beneath the window were something very different. The prints had a heel and five toes, like a human's foot – but a human's foot elongated and distorted beyond recognition, to fit tracks like that.
Cissnei brought out her PHS and squatted down, careful to keep her knees out of the dirt. The device flashed twice.
"Dammit," she muttered, squinting at the screen. "It's too dark to get a decent shot."
She looked up at the distant rumble of thunder.
"Sounds like we won't get another chance," Rude muttered.
He peered in through the window. An open fire lit the room within, judging by the flickering light. Then he recognized the blue velvet couch, and the blood drained from his face.
It had been watching them.
He jumped as Reno barked a sudden laugh.
"Yeah, I get it now," Reno said, clambering to his feet. "You're givin' me a dose of my own medicine, aintcha?"
Cissnei and Rude just stared at him. He shook his head and snickered again.
"Nice try, Ciss, but you're gonna have to try harder than that, yo."
"Try what?" Rude hissed, his startled heart racing.
The smile died on Reno's face. Before he could speak, Cissnei piped up.
"It was you all along."
"Well... yeah." Reno looked at the ground, then back at her. "That's why you did this, right? You had me all figured out."
The air rushed out of Rude's lungs. Reno may as well have punched him in the gut.
"You moved the chair. You took Rude's phone," Cissnei spat as she stepped up to Reno, eyes ablaze. "Wasn't enough, was it? Needed to bring the game to the next level, huh? Is that what this is?" She thrust an accusing finger at the ground.
Rude watched Reno's face; half of it was lit from the golden glow from the window, half of it cloaked in shadow. It made him think of the sign on the Loveless Avenue theater in Sector 8. A simple caricature of a mask, half white and half dark. Half smile and half frown.
"My pillow," Rude growled. "That was you? The locked doors?"
Reno's gaze darted between them. He took a step back, raising his hands.
"So I moved some stuff around, locked a few doors. I didn't do this, okay? I didn't fuck up that kid!"
Rude's fists were shaking. All that fear. All that doubt.
"That fuckin' kid," Reno mumbled, staring at the misshapen prints. "That's gotta be why he came up here. Maybe that's why Gubbins warned him off. She must've figured he'd do somethin' like this. It has to be that goddamn kid!"
Cissnei scoffed. "The kid ran into a wall and gave himself brain damage just to fuck with us?"
"So his plan sucked! He's some mountain yokel, what does he know!"
"Oh, come off it! Not everyone is as recklessly stupid as you!"
She shoved past him and marched to the front doors. The lit half of Reno's face was frowning. Rude wondered if that meant the dark half was smiling.
"I trusted you," Rude ground out. "My mistake."
Reno stood silent in his wake as he stomped off after Cissnei.
The foyer was murky and still. A faint metallic screech sounded from high above – the damned weathervane again, Rude recalled. Before he could decide where to go, Cissnei burst out onto the second floor landing from the north wing.
"Trouble?" he called up to her, tensing.
Cissnei pushed her hair back with both hands as she looked from one wing to the other.
"It's Rayleigh. I went to check on her, but she isn't in her room. I can't find her."
"We'd best take a look, then," Reno said right behind Rude. He tromped up the stairs without a glance at either of them.
Rude followed a few steps behind. On the landing, Cissnei fell in beside him.
"If this is another one of his fucking tricks...," she muttered.
As they approached Rayleigh's door, footsteps sounded around the bend of the corridor. Rude recognized the sharp taps of the professor's heels. The Turks stopped outside her door and waited in silence until the woman rounded the corner, heels clicking and skirt swishing.
"Hey, Prof," Reno greeted. "We were just lookin' for ya."
Rayleigh slowed her pace and looked at each one of them in turn.
"Why?"
"Well..." Reno glanced at his companions. "We're just doin' extra rounds, what with all the recent excitement. We'd appreciate it if you'd keep us posted about your comings and goings. Makes our job easier, y'know?"
Rayleigh raised an eyebrow. "I need your permission to use the bathroom now?"
"Nah, it ain't that bad," he chuckled. "Just let us know if you leave this wing of the house."
She shrugged. "Fine."
Reno stepped aside to let her pass. She swept into her room and shut the door behind her. The click of the lock echoed in the still air with finality.
"Seriously, Ciss?" Reno shook his head, snickering. "The can's just down the hall, yo."
"I checked it." She was staring after Rayleigh, her forehead creased in a rare display of confusion.
"You sure about that?" His voice dropped to a spooky whisper. "Maybe the house is gettin' to ya."
"I checked, okay? I knocked, I called her name, I–" She stopped abruptly and pinched the bridge of her nose, her face scrunched up in a grimace. "You know what, just forget it. I've had enough of this."
She pushed between the two of them and stormed off down the hallway.
"Ciss, c'mon!" Reno called after her. "I wasn't–"
She rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.
"Shit," Reno hissed, pushing a hand through his hair. "I was just tryin' to lighten the mood. I didn't mean to…" He looked up at Rude, his eyes large and pleading. "I mean, it ain't like any of it is real! I was just messin' with you guys a little. The kid tried to mess around with us, too, only he was dumb enough to spook himself half to death. That's all it was. Just... messin' around."
He gave Rude a nervous grin. Rude didn't smile back.
Reno wet his lips and averted his eyes. Then his gaze fell on Rayleigh's door, and he smirked.
"Maybe I oughta check in on the Prof a bit later, though, make sure she ain't too spooked. She didn't mind my company last time I knocked on her–"
"I don't want to hear it."
He cemented his words with a glare. Reno's mouth fell open.
"Shit, man, don't tell me you've got the hots for her now." He threw up his hands. "Tho' if you do, it's cool! It's totally cool. The other night was just us lettin' off some steam, y'know? I wanted to get off, she did too. Doesn't mean a thing, okay? I mean, she doesn't even like me."
"Reno," Rude ground out through clenched teeth when the man paused to draw breath. "Shut. Up."
Reno's smile shrank into nothing as he looked up into Rude's stony face. When he dropped his gaze, his whole body seemed to deflate.
"Okay, man. Okay."
Reno pushed his hands into his pockets and trudged down the hallway, head bent low. At the junction, he passed the turn to the foyer and continued straight ahead. If he kept going, he would end up in the dark zone.
Rude didn't care. He turned left and stomped down the stairs to catch up with Cissnei.