Author's Note:: Hello! Thanks for reading! Just wanted to say thanks to Yukio Lover, B. LotusFlower, and Razzeeberry for reviewing! Thank youuuu! And I hope all those usernames show up here because I think the site is taking some of them off as I post, maybe confusing them for spam or something ...
Anyway, just let me know what you think please!
And Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it! I hope you enjoy this chapter! ^_^ Peaceeee!
Haven sat in the dark room, wondering to herself, furiously rethinking the day's events.
The main room had gotten dimmer as the sun set, and Undertaker had left her alone for a while to work in a separate room, so Haven took the rare opportunity to ponder silently to herself.
She sat on a coffin, though grudgingly, and took deep breaths to clear her chaotic mind.
Like a glimpse, Haven could see something far away, a feeling almost.
She remembered something flying towards her, something too quick to see...
Suddenly, a door swung open and Undertaker walked through, giving her a start.
She looked up at him with wide eyes, her heart hammering in her chest, for she had possibly just re-seen a memory from her death.
"Gave ya a scare, did I?" Undertaker laughed, his grin wide on his small face.
Haven's chest rose as she took a deep breath, and she closed her eyes for a moment.
"Oh, no, I'm fine," Haven replied to him, reopening her eyes and meeting his amused gaze.
Undertaker walked toward her, then whirled and opened the door to the room with the cot that Haven had awoken in earlier that same day. He cocked his head at her, as if he had returned to thinking, and then shook his head quickly, making his hair fly all around his face.
"Ya can sleep in here, dearie," Undertaker finally said, his grin widening again. Haven was a tad intimidated by his reaction, and wasn't certain that she felt secure sleeping alone in the same house with him.
Haven hesitated in her answer.
"But then, where will you sleep?" she asked him, her throat feeling dry once again. Even though she'd been served tea earlier, and she'd eaten, she still felt the moisture in her mouth disappear.
Undertaker laughed, doubling over with ferocity, and then straightened back up as he wiped imaginary tears off his face. Haven didn't quite understand what he found so funny, but she patiently waited for him to calm down enough to answer her question.
"I," he started between bouts of guffaws, "I can sleep right here, I can! Got at least twenty-seven places to sleep in this very room!"
He continued to cackle happily, but Haven still wasn't sure what he was talking about.
Undertaker approached a coffin and flipped the top open, acting as if he were about to step right inside and make himself at home.
Haven gasped, as the realisation dawned on her.
"You- you don't plan to sleep IN a coffin?!" she exclaimed, in incredulity.
"Well I don't plan to sleep ON a coffin, my lady!" Undertaker chortled, finding the situation extremely hilarious to Haven's disbelief.
"It doesn't bother you?" she inquired, still surprised that he would offer to do such a macabre deed.
"Bother- me-" he burst into another fit of giggles, and returned into the room he had left earlier, leaving Haven alone yet again.
She gazed into the room he had offered her, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep for a very long while.
...
After what seemed to be an hour or so, Haven could still hear noises coming from the room Undertaker had disappeared into.
In all honesty, sitting around on a coffin, thinking, wasn't doing her any definite good; so she decided to question Undertaker before she fell asleep. Maybe he'd finally answer her questions, and she'd figure out what was going on.
So far, she knew nothing. She didn't even know how she'd ended up in this part of town, with Undertaker. She didn't know how old she was, or what her true name was, or if she was even alive.
But she wanted to find out, that was a fact.
So, Haven stood up from her seat on the coffin and approached his door, where she heard chuckles and an odd scraping noise.
She lifted her knuckles to the wood of the door, and rapped against it, hearing the room beyond fall silent.
"Undertaker?" she asked, and the door suddenly swung open, revealing her mysterious 'friend'. He stood before her, obviously trying to block the room behind him from her view.
Haven tried to see past his shoulders, but he moved purposely into her line of sight, and shut the door quickly with his foot.
"Yes?" he grinned at her, not even trying to hide his suspicious behaviour from her curious eyes.
"Will you answer my questions now?" she demanded, crossing her arms in a definite stance.
Undertaker's grin seemed to falter for only a moment before he replied.
"I've been answering your questions, have I not?" he asked.
"Not really, no," Haven said.
"Name one question I haven't answered! One and only one is all I require!" Undertaker announced, walking farther into the main room, his chin raised a bit in defiance.
"I asked you how I got here, and I received no answer from you," Haven replied, watching him grab a bone-shaped biscuit from the table and clench it between his teeth like a dog.
Haven blinked as he didn't bite into the biscuit, but just held it in his mouth, as he cocked his head toward the shadowy ceiling in thought.
Finally, he removed the biscuit from his mouth and answered.
"How ya got here, hm?" Undertaker repeated. "I suppose I found you."
"Found me?" Haven asked, confusion making her eyebrows crease together. "Where was I? How did you find me?"
"These are all questions for another day, another day, indeed!" Undertaker exclaimed suddenly, biting into the biscuit and then pushing the other half of it into her hand. "We've all the time in the world to discuss this, lady!"
He started to walk out of the room, then stopped and turned back to her.
"Try to have a good rest, now, and good night to ya!"
He ran out of the room in what seemed like a fleeing manner to Haven. Something was wrong, definitely wrong, and Haven wanted to know what it was going on.
Curiously, she looked down at the half-eaten biscuit that had been shoved into her palm, and studied it warily.
Out of nothing but interest, she gently laid the remainder of the biscuit on her tongue and chewed, trying the flavour in hesitation.
It honestly did not taste horrid, as Haven had originally thought it would. It was sort of sweet, and the biscuit melted in her mouth as she chewed.
She swallowed the snack with a shrug and walked into the room that contained the cot, ready to retire for the night. She couldn't bring herself to close the door, though, else she would be reminded of taking her final sleep inside the dark and confining walls of a coffin.
...
Haven had nightmares that night, although when she awoke to the sunlight shining into the room from the door, the dreams had all but dissipated.
She felt as if they were important somehow, and tried to bring them back, but they were just beyond the grasp of her already-impaired memory.
All she had left of the nightmares were the ghostly remnants of a sharp pain in her back and stomach.
Shaking her head to clear her mind, Haven stood up from her bed, feeling a bit disoriented to be waking up from the same cot two nights in a row.
She walked from the back room into the main room, her bare feet almost silent across the wooden floor glancing around in search of Undertaker, but he was nowhere to be seen.
He wouldn't have left her alone in the building, would he? Haven wasn't sure if he had other places to be, that he wouldn't bring her as well.
Maybe he was still inside of a coffin.
The thought made goosebumps rise up onto her skin, and she crossed her arms uncomfortably.
She wasn't going to go around searching for him, absolutely not.
Suddenly, the rug lifted off the floor, and flung itself over to the side of the room as a trap door opened from the ground.
Haven stared in surprise as Undertaker hoisted himself out of the trapdoor, with a grunt, and stood up on the floor as was normal. Dusting himself off, he glanced over at her with his hidden eyes, and didn't make a remark about the door.
"Morning to ya!" he exclaimed, kicking the trapdoor shut behind himself, and bending over to drag the rug back over to conceal it.
"What was that?" Haven asked him, curiously looking over to where he had specifically hidden the door.
"What was what? Oh! That, there, just think nothing of it, dearie, don't think anything of it at all! Just a small something I use for work, I do, and that's that! Come over here and take a gander at this, now!"
Undertaker had spoken so quickly, that Haven had to struggle to keep up, and then grabbed her arm and started leading her toward yet another door that she hadn't even realised was there.
"Another door?" Haven asked, surprised, and Undertaker laughed loudly at her question. He reached out and yanked the doorknob, causing the wooden door to fling open, practically smashing into the wall behind it.
Behind the door was a flight of stairs, in a dark and shadowy hall, leading straight up.
Haven looked up, and saw another door at the top of the stairs, dead-ending as if the builder had gotten bored of creating stairs, so he'd just stopped them as quickly as possible.
But the door at the top, there was something quite odd about it that made Haven wonder if it was even a door at all.
"What is that, Undertaker?" she asked him, turning in his direction. His face had already been close to hers so when she turned, she had to back up to make the scene less awkward.
Undertaker giggled, and turned his face toward her again so the space between them lessened, as if Haven had never backed up at all.
He grinned and leaned in close, as if he had such a great secret to tell her, he could barely halt himself from allowing it to jump from his lips.
"That," Undertaker whispered, "is a door."
Haven felt herself put a hand to her face in exasperation. The tension in her muscles relaxed a bit and her heartbeat calmed to normal.
"If that is a door, then where is the doorknob?" she asked, sounding a bit defensive because of his amused answer to her question.
"It is hidden," Undertaker replied, still laughing. "Come, lady, and I'll show ya, I will!"
He pulled on her arm and they both walked up the rickety staircase, stopping once they had reached the door.
"No one is allowed up here but meself, so-" Undertaker suddenly wrapped his hands around her eyes, blocking her vision. Haven gave a start, and almost pushed him away from her, but his grip was not tight against her face that would make her think he was going to be rough with her.
Instead, his long fingers lay gently across her forehead and the bridge of her nose.
Haven couldn't see because of his hands, but she did calm herself down. He wouldn't do anything to her, would he?
"It's what's above the room that I want ya to see, dearie," Undertaker added from behind her, leading her across the room that had been shielded from her eyes.
"Above the room?" Haven asked, and they stopped suddenly.
She heard Undertaker pull open another door, and his hands left her face, allowing her vision to return.
They were in the hall of another staircase, which also led straight up like the other.
Haven was now growing curious as to where it was that they were going.
"Go on," Undertaker prodded, gently nudging her to get her to walk up the stairs.
Haven did as requested, although she was still a tad nervous from all the dramatics.
"Where does this staircase lead?" Haven inquired as she finally reached the top.
"Well, if I told ya that, then it wouldn't be a surprise, now, would it?" Undertaker replied in his strange way of speaking. He had bent over her so he was right next to her ear, and Haven reached out to turn the doorknob.
The wooden door swung open, and she was greeted with sunlight.
She drew a hand up over her face to shield the light from her eyes, which had grown used to the darkness.
Once her eyes adjusted, she could see that they were on the roof.
It slanted a bit, so she had to stay close to the door where it was flat.
The roof looked out across the entire town. She gasped in surprise.
Haven could see the cobblestone and dirt roads, the houses with smoke billowing from the chimneys. She could see the small park that was a block away, and children with sticks, hitting a rock as they played.
There was a large garden in the park, and she could see a rose bush, a wild one, growing across the green.
She leaned forward a bit and saw that the roses were white, turning red toward the tips.
Something about that... Something about the rose bush that made her think...
She leaned forward and tried to get a better look, but her foot slipped down the angled slope, and she started to topple forward.
Just as she lost her footing completely, she felt two arms wrap around her waist, and pull her close against a warm body.
"Watch your foot, there, lady! Gets quite slippery up here in the morning, it does!" Undertaker laughed, his voice next to her ear.
Haven was speechless, for some strange reason, and only opened her mouth in an attempt to make her voice leave her frozen throat.
"I- I'm sorry," she said, but Undertaker only held her tighter against him, resting his chin on her shoulder as he gazed out across the town.
"This is me favourite spot, it is. Come up here all the time to get some air. I take breaks from me work, and sit up here on occasion. Looking out at all the... people." He paused, and Haven wondered what he'd been about to say before. But then he continued speaking as if nothing had happened. "Ya can come up here as well, dearie, if ever ya want. I just have to come along for the first couple'a times, I do. It gets downright lovely up here when the sun sets."
Haven didn't know how to respond to that.
Undertaker continued to embrace her from behind, seemingly deep in thought once again.
Haven looked back out across the garden, staring at the roses in contemplative silence.
She wondered why the flowers had given her such strong emotions...
"Undertaker?" she asked, and at first she didn't think that he'd heard her, but he finally answered.
"Yes, lady?" Undertaker replied.
"I think I had a memory," she said, and the Undertaker turned his face a bit towards hers again.
"Well, now, that's something, it is! What did ya remember?" he asked, with a chuckle, his chin still resting on her shoulder.
Haven took a deep breath.
"It wasn't anything too distinctive," she replied. "Just... I had the memory of something flying at me, something shiny and dangerous."
"Like a weapon?" Undertaker inquired.
"I don't know," Haven said, still looking out across the garden. "And then, something about flowers..."
Undertaker was silent and let her think to herself.
"Let's be getting back in, now," Undertaker finally said, stepping back from her a bit. "Come along."
He grabbed her hand and helped her walk back inside to the staircase.
Even though Haven's mind was still in disfunction from her assault of snippets, she followed her counterpart down the stairs in silence.