Within Darkness We Find Love
Chapter 2: Uninvited
A/N: So sorry for the long delay. Anyway, here's chapter two. Enjoy! Special thanks to my beta Brokenshardsofmyheart99!
Disclaimer: See first chapter.
This alone, you're in time for the show
You're the one that I need
I'm the one that you loathe
You can watch me corrode like a beast in repose
'Cause I love all the poison
Away with the boys in the band
As he tripped for the ninth time, Kurama made a mental note of never going in through the back of a rumored haunted or just vacant mansion that people feared. The farther in he walked, the more he realized that his plan had made no sense at all. Why had he come alone? It would seem that he just wanted to help at first, but he knew himself better than that. When he acknowledged his true reason, he paused in his walking. He took another glance at the mansion and sighed.
"Perhaps this isn't the right choice," he whispered. After another exhale of breath, he turned to his left and walked away from the back yard. He had taken four mere steps when he felt another chill. It wasn't something out of paranoia, but rather something that he always got when someone had been staring at him for too long. The chill shook him, and he almost feared looking around. Trapped in the dark, he was in the right position for anyone that had taken aim and readied themselves to kill him off.
Whether out of instinct or not, he felt his body get ready, sensing every detail around him. Something told him that whoever was watching him was not outside with him. That left him with three directions: right, left, or in front of him. At times, his senses seemed alien to him. However, now they were proving themselves to be useful to him.
To his left and in front of him were mansions, not of the rich, but of those that had inherited them. And to his right there was a greenhouse that he had spotted when he first came to the back yard. It was too dark to take notice of all the plants around him and inside the greenhouse, but he felt that whoever was staring was not in there. The mansion next to him would make perfect sense if the neighbors were still awake and alive. Dismissing the idea of ghosts or spirits being there now, he turned his sights back on the mansion in front of him.
He had to give credit to Yusuke and Kuwabara now. They weren't joking when it came to how sinister it looked from the outside. The windows were covered in dirt and grime, he guessed. Some parts of the mansion were stained with red. The light was dim, so he couldn't tell if it was paint or worse. Mustering his courage, he decided to venture inside.
Finding a way in was simple, more so since the back door was opened. As he entered, he took notice of the condition of the wooden floor first. It made terrible noises whenever he took a step on it, which made him cringe, clench his teeth, and hold in his breath. The next thing he noticed was the walls. It was not that they were at all like the floor; in fact, they were in perfect condition. Not a scratch or tear in them to ruin the appearance. However, what struck him the most was the lack of furniture. Not a single piece was stationed there or anywhere he could see. There pieces of cloths around the floor and some torn curtains still hung from their proper places, but nothing more. If he would have to guess, he'd say that this was the living room. From where he stood he could see a door, or at least where a door once stood. The hinges were visible, and he could tell it was the entrance to the kitchen from the stove that was still in place.
A need to see more struck him and he began walking to the kitchen. It was in fact smaller than what he had expected from the size of the mansion. Another thing he noticed was the lack of a refrigerator. He could feel sympathy growing within him. The thought of the children that had lived there made him close his eyes. Before his thoughts distracted him further, he walked out of the kitchen area and back into the living room. He made his way out of there and into a small area where the front door met the staircase to go up. Just by looking at the stairs, he could feel his heartbeat start to pick up. At that point, he didn't even know if it was either of fear or thrill.
Allowing himself a brief moment where he swallowed, he took the first step and soon found himself carried off until he was at the last step. It was almost like being in a dream or nightmare. Everything he did now was up to him. To take the first step and face whatever laid within or turn back and run off back to his house and hid underneath his pillow and blanket. While the thought had been entertaining, he brought himself back to the decision. Pulling his hair back into a low ponytail, he took the final step and descended into the too-narrow hallway.
There were no portraits or decorations to indicate a sign of life. All five doors looked the same, and all were opened to him. He went past the first three with no problem. Each time he looked beyond the doors and into the rooms, he would find them empty. It seemed strange, to say the least, but after recalling the rest of the first floor, it didn't seem any stranger. Before reaching the last two rooms, he made sure that his feet didn't make too much noise against the floor. It felt like he was inside one of his favorite horror books. The tension of finding something dreadful kept him moving forward.
Leaning against the wall, he made his way to the second-to last room and peeked in. Unlike all the other ones this room held a bed and the window that was located just in view of the door was opened. The gust of air that came in made the dust in the room fly upward and swirl. It made him sneeze a couple of times, but then the wind died down. A fleeting moment went by, where he thought that someone would come out, awakened or disturbed by his sneezing. However, it seemed that for the moment he was safe.
Not lowering his guard, he walked into the room and headed to the window area. Yet again there was no more furniture with the exception of the bed. Rather than making the situation odder, it made it more tense. Alone, the bed would've seem normal, but he took a closer look. The sheets were filthy, though not having been washed in years would do that to them. They looked almost black, but dry, glimmering spots focused his eyes to see beyond the dust and dirt. "Blood," he muttered. Of course, it was just a guess at first. He'd have to get a sample to figure out the many components embedded in there. A loud creak made him turn towards the door.
His eyes met with a sight that he had not been expecting with what his friends had told him. The darkness that surrounded him in the room got darker and bleaker. His heart was beating faster, too much for him to handle. Just before he fell, he heard the floorboard screech.
When he awoke, he felt someone next to him. Startle, he gasped and moved away from the presence. Whether the presence had moved or his mind had been more deteriorated than he thought, he'd never know. Rather than bumping into nothing, he had fallen into someone's arms. It was when the arms brushed against his skin, that he noticed he no longer had his jacket. His eyes focused better and he also realized that he didn't have his shoes on or the keys to his house that had been inside his jeans pocket, bothering him every time he crouched or walk.
In all honesty, he didn't want to be rude or offend the person that perhaps now held his life in their hands. So rather than back away from the body behind him, he remained motionless. He felt the body go from rigid to a more flaccid position. The arms grabbed hold of him and pushed him back into the bed. He landed on his front, but didn't raise his head.
Shards of his earlier encounter with that person came back to him. He recalled strange-colored eyes. They were ruby red, but held nothing extraordinary in them. The person was a boy, he could tell, but a small one. A mere child had been living here all this time. Aside from the strange eyes, he remembered the hair. It was rather messy, but stuck up like if it defied the laws of gravity. Kurama doubted the child had hair gel to get it like that. And he tattered clothes too, but they did fit him just right. The clothes and haired were black, but he didn't recall seeing the boy wearing any shoes.
Feeling foolish from hiding from a child, he picked his head up and looked around for the boy. He spotted him sitting next to the bed, looking at the floor. At once he remembered what Yusuke and Kuwabara had told him about the children that had lived there. However, upon looking at the boy again, he didn't see any of the deformities that they had claimed the children had. Well, perhaps the eyes were something, but that didn't seem to be so freakish. Or at least not enough that the whole town would fear this house because of it.
Kurama cleared his throat, gaining the boy's attention. The look in the wintry eyes made him clear his throat again before speaking. "Were you the one that brought me to this bed?" he asked, but didn't receive an answer from the boy. After waiting for some time, he talked again. "My name is… Well, you can call me Kurama. And thank you for lending me the bed. Sorry to have collapsed, but it happens sometimes," he explained. The boy didn't make an attempt at speaking to him. He remained rigid and staring at him all the moment.
He sighed, low so it was caught by his ears alone. "Do you want me to leave?" When he had completed his question, he saw the new look in the young boy's eyes. Something within them pleaded him to stay, to help him. It was all useless, though. He had no idea if he was right, or if he was, then what to help the boy from. Still, he considered it discourteous to have been helped, and then run off without returning the favor.
"Would you like to…" Kurama stopped himself. If he asked the boy if he wanted to come with him, he might scare him off, and that was the last thing he wanted at the moment. "Are you comfortable here? Do you require any help?" he asked instead.
The child in black bowed his head before shaking it, the first answer he had given to Kurama. It sparked something, Kurama could tell. "May I ask something else?" he said, changing his strategy a bit. The boy didn't nod or shake his head, so he went ahead. "Why remove my jacket and shoes?" he asked, a little bemused at the idea of someone making him comfortable when he could have died.
It took some time before the boy even gave a sign of answering the question. He stood up and walked over to side of the bed, picked up Kurama's shoes and jacket and shoved them at Kurama. The act seemed a bit rash, but the child's face was not twisted into anger. "Thank you, but I'd like an answer much better than my belongings back," he said, tone soft and gentle. It felt like almost like the time he had first met his younger step-brother. The child's eyes looked away from him, as if he was timid about their situation.
From his memories, he remembered how his step-brother had eased up after he had placed his hand on his slender shoulder. Nevertheless, both situations were different, and he couldn't risk harming the young boy in a single way. The child with strange-colored eyes opened his mouth and began to whisper. The voice was too soft for Kurama to hear, but he remained patient.
The whispering had stopped, but Kurama didn't hear any clear words. Looking on the positive side, he was glad that the boy could speak. A scowl came onto the boy's face before he turned his face to look at Kurama. His body became taut again, and stretched out his hand toward Kurama, who took it without a second thought. It was after he landed outside the mansion that he figured out that had been a mistake. That, and he also made a mental note of never falling out a window from the second floor of a mansion. There was something even more stranger to that mansion. He had fallen out of the second floor, but nothing had happened to him. No pain that would shoot out throughout his body, nothing.
He stood up after being on the earth for a minute. After finding his strength, he walked up to the front gates, and climbed over them. Aside from the confusion, the concern for the boy, and the lack of flexibility in his muscles at the moment, the sole other discomfort turned out to be the missing shoes from his feet and the omitted jacket from his upper body. Yet, he figured that the boy had his reasons. And when he came back tomorrow, he would find out what they were.