Chapter 2: The Boy That You Loved, The Monster That You Fear

Violet sat there, watching Tate. She was sitting on the basement stairs, and he was down on the floor, against the wall. She wasn't appearing to him.

What she heard today, she had to wonder if he would really go through with it. Torturing someone else just to get across the point that everything that happened was not personally against her.

As of now, she knew what he was capable of, murder, rape. Everything that tore her family apart and broke them.

What bothered her the most was the fact that while they were together, it was all a lie. He could talk to her day after day, knowing what was going on, knowing that what he did was wrong, and acted as if there was nothing wrong. He played the innocent part to a tee. He was able to go along, telling her, convincing her that he was innocent, that he had no idea why he did the things that he did. Telling her about high school assholes while hypocritically knowing that he was the one that went in there and shot and killed nine random high school kids for no reason. He was able to lie about all of that, while behind those angelic eyes, he knew. Without any shame, and without any guilt, he faked innocence and played the victim.

If he was capable of all of that, what else could he do? That scared her more than anything. Not for her sake, not now. She did still trust that he would never actually hurt her, and there was also the fact that she was dead, there was nothing that he could actually do to her.

She was scared for who ever did decide to move in. People were scared of this place now, but eventually, someone would be brave enough to buy it. The stories would subside for a little bit and people let them go. Sooner or later, someone would come along, see the price and think that this place couldn't be all that bad and move in. Those were the people that she was scared for.

This place was dangerous before Tate was here, that was a known fact, but he was responsible for a lot of the recent tragedies that have occurred.

xxx

For the past week, House and Cuddy had been staying at a hotel with Rachel. As of now, both of them had a job in place. They were both trying to find a place that they could live at. Together, they both had a few weeks to get everything together, find a place, move out their furniture, and find a nanny for Rachel.

House laid on the bed watching tv as Rachel sat beside him, playing with a few random toys. They had already gone to look at three houses, and although House liked all of them, Cuddy found something wrong with each of them and insisted that they keep looking.

"Come on Greg! We have to be there in a few minutes," Cuddy ordered, starting to get stressed out. She wanted to leave early and make sure that they were able to find the place. But no. Now, as she stood in front of the mirror brushing her hair, she kept her eyes on the reflection of House laying there.

"How about you just go, and then you can come back and tell me what was wrong with the place?" he proposed, starting to get tired of this whole thing. He wanted to live with her, but he didn't want to have to see fifty homes before he did it.

Cuddy sighed and went to sit down next to him on the bed, seductively leaning into him. "May I remind you, as soon as we find a house, we can have our own bedroom again?" she whispered.

House turned and glared to her. "May I remind you that I liked all three houses so far?" he asked, showing his irritation.

"Just come," Cuddy sternly requested and then stood back up and headed to grab her purse.

"Fine, drag the cripple all around California," he remarked.

"You'll live," Cuddy responded.

"Yes, but will I want to?" he questioned.

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Cut the dramatics."

Looking down to Rachel, he noticed that she had managed to completely block them out. "You ready to go see yet another house?"

"Yes!" she squealed.

He watched as the little girl jumped and nearly ran to go follow Cuddy out the door. "At least she won't be complaining the whole time," he muttered.

xxx

Constance sat outside on the porch. Sunglasses on with a cigarette in her hand and a drink next to her. Michael was out in the yard, running around. The young boy was full of energy, usually very happy.

He scared her though. Ever since the incident with the babysitter, she could see it in his eyes. His father's ways. He was destined to end up like him, it was simply a matter of time. Until then, she would have to watch him, cover up any mistakes that he made and protect him.

That was when she saw the car pull up in the neighboring driveway and the little family get out. Removing her glasses to see them more clearly, she smirked. "Well, would you look at that?"

Michael stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes were stuck on the little girl who was smiling to him, trying to get his attention by saying hi to him. There was something about her. Something that he sensed different about her.

House ignored the little boy as he made his way straight to the porch. He wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

Cuddy however, stopped and smiled to the little boy. After a moment of Rachel trying to get his attention, he smiled back to her and waved.

Cuddy carried Rachel up to the porch and smiled over to House. "Looks like Rachel would have a little friend if we decide to move here," she mentioned.

"He's not her's. Did you see how old she is?" he questioned as if she were stupid.

Cuddy glared to him. "Doesn't mean that this is the only time that he'll ever be over there."

"Hello! You must be the Houses," the young blonde greeted after opening the door. Marcy had given up on trying to sell the house and decided that since she was losing money, just about any job would be better than this, so she took a job at a department store. "I'm Tammy and I will be showing you around the house today."

The young girl was too cheery for House's liking. This made him really want to just get this over with. The only part that stuck out to him though was the fact that Cuddy had called and made the appointment using his name. "Either someone's delusional, or really desperate to get married," House quietly remarked to her.

Cuddy glared to him and then followed Tammy. They stood in the foyer and listened to the girl talk to them about the basics of the house.

Violet and Vivien stood against the staircase, watching the family. "I thought everyone was afraid to even see this place anymore," Vivien stated.

"I had to see this to believe it," Ben said upon entering the room.

Rachel had her head resting on Cuddy's shoulder. With Cuddy's back to the staircase, Rachel stared directly at the three. She went ahead and waved to them.

"Holy shit, I think the kid sees us," Violet announced. Just to make sure, she tried sticking her tongue out at the little girl. Rachel mirrored her action.

"I think you're right," Vivien responded.

"Someone who can see us regardless of whether or not we appear to them," Ben commented.

They watched as Tammy took the group around the downstairs, showing them the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

Tate came up from the basement and passed by them on his way the stairs. He knew that his words were still in Violet's head. There was no way that she could have forgotten about that.

Shortly after, Tammy lead everyone upstairs.

House was aware of the price and still hadn't heard why the place was so cheap. She was hiding something. "So what's wrong with the place?" he bluntly implored once they reached the top of the stairs.

Tammy stopped and turned to him. "Well, I guess I was going to have to tell you sooner or later," she nervously admitted. "The last family here fled, and the family before that, the mother died giving birth to her second child and the father killed himself causing the older kid to run away."

Cuddy looked to her, eyes widened. She then glanced over to House who was unfazed. "Can we have a moment please?"

"Of course," Tammy obliged and then walked back down the the stairs.

House looked to her and immediately knew what was going through her mind. "You can't be serious. You're a doctor, you work in a hospital where people die everyday. It's just a house, just because a couple people died here doesn't mean that the place is haunted."

Cuddy nodded. He was right, but that didn't make this feel any better. "I know. I just find it creepy. It hits a little close to home too. Seems like that's how it would happen to me if I finally ever got to the point where I could have a baby," she explained.

House sighed. "You know that I wouldn't let that happen to you. Also, all I know is that this place is extremely cheap for a stupid reason. Most times you would expect to have found mold or excessive damage, but instead it's some bullshit about a haunting that is scaring people because they believe that it's too much for their home remedies to chase the spirits away," he explained.

Cuddy nodded. He was right, it was a house, and just a house. "All right, let's buy it," she gave in.

Violet stood down at the bottom of the stairs, listening in, her eyes widening. As soon as she heard Cuddy agree to it, she ran up the stairs, passing them as they were on their way down.

"Tate?" She walked over and stood beside him.

Tate turned and looked to her. "Don't worry, I don't wanna hurt people anymore," he reluctantly confessed.

"So, you're not going to do anything to them?" Violet implored. It was hard for her to believe that it was all that easy. Maybe, he did change. Just, maybe.

"Listen, if hurting them hurts you, then I don't wanna do that," he promised. Those eyes, like puppy dog eyes almost, looking into her's.

"All right," she instinctively backed away from him.

Tate took the hint. He turned and walked away.

"You must feel honored, being able to hold that much power over the monster of the house," Chad mentioned.

Violet turned her back away from him, but she refused to look to him. "Yeah honored," she scoffed. "He lied to me about everything and murdered my mom," she said, crossing her arms.

Chad walked closer to her and smirked. "Your're right, I guess if he did do anything, he would just cover it up and then tell you later on that it was to protect you," he stated.

Violet just shook her head and hurried back down stairs. She already had these thoughts in the back of her head, she didn't need to be having everything thrown back at her right now.