A/N: By the way, in the last chapter it totally invented the word "shrieky".
The loud noise from her cellphone gave new meaning to the phrase "rude awakening". Kaoru shot awake from the bed and stumbled down on the hardwood floors of her bedroom. Cursing Misao to hell and back, she grabbed the cellphone and answered with an unintelligible mix between a sigh, a growl and a hello.
"Hey!"
Lying sprawled on the ground Kaoru glared at nothing in particular as she grunted her response to Misao's cheery greeting. How the woman could be so happy in the morning she would never venture to know.
"So? How's the house? Did you manage to unpack everything or do you need any help?"
Kaoru sighed and rubbed her forehead while standing up from the floor.
"Nah, I'm fine. Kenshin helped me with everything and what I haven't unpacked yet I'll leave it for late. I want to check out the dojo in the backyard."
"Who's Kenshin? Ooh, don't tell me, a really cute neighbor who decided to be a dashing knight and came to rescue you from the evils of unpacking?"
Kaoru laughed at Misao's theatrics and rolled her eyes.
"No, he's the manor's caretaker. Apparently he comes with the house or so he says."
"Hmm, lucky you. He wouldn't happen to be a cook now would he, and cute to boot? I mean, it sounds as if you just accepted him."
Kaoru sheepishly laughed at her friend's right on description.
"Anyways, I'm fine. I'll call you later to let you know how everything goes, kay."
She could hear Misao cluck her tongue, but quickly hung up before she decided to actually get serious and start interrogating to find out details.
The house was quiet and she wondered about Kenshin's schedule.
She decided to forego breakfast, and headed outside to the backyard slapping her knee against the screen porch door. She cursed like a sailor and blamed Misao for her misfortune with every piece of furniture available in the house.
The backyard was completely manicured and Kenshin's vegetable garden took up a sizable piece of the yard. She felt slight irritation at the state of the dojo.
Why was the practice hall in such a condition, if the whole house was in prime condition?
It looked rundown, no doors and the once beautiful glass windows cracked and full of cobwebs and dust. The wooden walls were completely destroyed, and falling off in some places. She wondered why had been left to look that way.
Cautiously she entered the obviously not safe structure, dodging what she was sure was a rat and walked further inside noticing stains on the floor. Some of the stains looked as if whatever made them had been dragged and then completely disappeared, like it had run out of whatever it had been dripping. The stains were quite a few, and dark like oil.
Shrugging them off, she walked to the far off wall. The windows faced the woods behind her home. Because of this, most of the dojo was shrouded in shadows but she could tell it had been beautiful when it had been in use.
Other types of stains caught her eye by the windows; because the wood of the walls was lighter the stains weren't dark, at least not completely. These stains, although not as big as the ones on the floor, were still abundant and the wood seemed to have absorbed them just to display them.
They were red, dried up red. They brought a chill when she saw what they were.
She stumbled back slightly and looked back to the bigger ones on the floor. Dread settled on the pit of her stomach. What the hell had happened in that place? Simple practice wounds couldn't be the answer. Those wouldn't cause massacre like reminders on the floor, it looked as if quite a few people had been hurt in there, and looking at the dragging marks, they had also been dragged out of the place.
The agent had not mentioned any kind of accident, apart from the dead couple, and that had happened inside the house. Something like this had not been discussed.
Did they know? Did Kenshin? Why hadn't they said anything? And what the hell should she do?
Shaken and disturbed, Kaoru walked out of the apparent murder scene heading for the back porch of the manor to sit on the steps. Her thoughts churning and tangling up with each other, she failed to notice when the screen door behind her opened and then shut by itself.
She did notice, however, the appearance of her red headed caretaker right before her, complete with gardening tools in hand.
"Are you alright Miss Kaoru?" His voice held the hint of something, to Kaoru almost like a threat, but not quite. When she looked up at his face he sported a concerned looking smile on his face. But it somehow didn't reach his eyes.
She was afraid to ask him about the dojo, about what could have happened there. In that moment, with his strangely expressionless eyes on her, she felt more afraid of him than the stains on the dojo floor.
Shaking herself of such thoughts, she ventured to ask him about the practice hall.
"Apart from the couple, has anything else happened here, perhaps inside the dojo? There were really big stains on the floor that looked like dried up blood."
Kenshin quirked an eyebrow and his face took up a confused look.
"In the dojo? I don't believe I've ever seen stains on the dojo's floor. Regardless, it's been decades since anyone has used it."
His answer was truthful, yet Kaoru doubted about there not being any stains.
"I was just there; I saw the stains on the floor."
Kenshin looked honestly bewildered, but he rapidly wore a goofy smile and seemed to find the subject unimportant because he shrugged it off and changed the subject. Almost as if avoiding her questions.
"Tonight I want to cook up something special, at what hour would you like dinner to be ready Miss Kaoru?"
Kaoru looked at him incredulous at how easy it had been for him to change subjects, ignoring her concerns easily, as if irrelevant or as if she had never spoken of a possible murder in her backyard.
She left disconcerted and without answering his question. Kenshin's face blanked as he threw a glance at the shadows of the dojo, in the darkest corner near the back windows something moved backwards and further inside the dojo.
Please, do not get used to me updating this story so quickly. I don't like disappointing. Also, remember any misspelling and let me know.
P.s. I think I should add that there is going to be romance.
P.s.s. Poll: What do you think is a really scary way to die? You can describe too.