A/N: Thank you very much for the advice, and for spotting my mistakes! :)
That night Kaoru couldn't sleep, dinner had been uncomfortable and she was certain that the house's other resident could feel her consternation.
Kenshin had looked sincere in his confusion, and Kaoru had felt guilty for making him equally uncomfortable as she had been. After the awkward affair that had been their dinner she had gone straight to bed, all she wanted was to sleep off the bad taste of what she had seen inside that dojo and try to put it behind her. Unfortunately her mind had refused to allow her any sleep as a form of freedom.
Thud.
She started, whipping her head to face the door on her left. Had she really heard that?
Silence.
Great, now she was hearing things. First she saw things move, then things that weren't there and now she was hearing things. Obviously she was sleep deprived and a little more than freaked out.
Abandoning her warm bed she ventured to the cold kitchen, weary of anything that moved on her way down.
She basically plastered herself to the wall at the sound. It had come from the stairs, as if someone was dragging something up them.
Thud.
But, she was standing on the stairs, and there was nothing there. She crouched and peered down from the stair's banister to the first floor, nothing.
Thud.
She crawled a few steps back, Kenshin's room was on the first floor maybe he was doing something that echoed in the large house?
Thud. Scratch.
Well, shit. That did not come from Kenshin's room or anywhere else except almost beside her. Abandoning her desire for a glass of water she turned and climbed up the stairs to her room. Once in the hallway she raced to her door and slammed it shut behind her.
Inside her room Kaoru headed for the bathroom grabbing her wooden sword. Once inside her bathroom she huddled inside the bathtub. The sounds she had left behind where now coming from inside her room. She held in a sob and she couldn't draw in breath; she felt as if she was suffocating.
The noise stopped.
When Kaoru opened her eyes the sun was shining and the light was in her eyes. She was lying on her bed with the sheets tangled around her legs and her pillows on the floor. Her hands where clutching the olive bed covers and her fingers hurt from the tension.
She was out of breath from the suffocation she had felt in her dream, but she was filled with relief. The nightmare had probably been induced from the scare she had received the day before in the dojo.
Letting out a sigh she dropped her head back against her mattress.
Later in the afternoon after almost burning down the kitchen, she hadn't seen Kenshin since breakfast as he had gone to take care of the vegetable garden outside; Megumi arrived with tea in mind, and an irritating grin (permanently) stuck on her face.
Although Kaoru did not trust the secretive woman she was curious to know if Megumi knew something about the dojo stains that Kenshin did not, or was hiding from her.
Turns out the doctor did know about a murder that had happened in the area, and had ended with the bodies lying strewn on the practice hall floors. Not only a murder, but a massacre that had Kaoru wishing she hadn't asked.
Megumi explained to Kaoru that Kenshin probably was clueless about the dojo after all (he was the dense kind), but at the same time weary and not wanting to cause her stress or to give her any reason to leave the house.
Megumi explained to Kaoru the only reason Kenshin worked for was the owners of the manor, and without Kaoru there was no one to work for.
From then on Megumi proceeded to tell her all about the manor, and everything that the agent had apparently forgotten to tell her. Megumi obviously wanted Kaoru to be terrified.
The dojo massacre was not the only horrifying thing to happen near the manor. Other murders and death had taken place on the property or near it, and by the end of Megumi's 'gossip' it had turned into a horror story that had Kaoru with a nauseous feeling on the pit of her stomach.
"But not to worry, I mean you look like a strong girl, and I doubt murder stories are enough to run you out of your new home. It doesn't mean they will happen to you. Although, I would be careful if I were you, you never know if it could."
And just like that she left in a hurry, saying she was late for a meeting with one of her patients.
Kaoru was honestly freaked out, but apparently all the people that had died had either died by natural causes unrelated to one another or product of a mass murderer running free on the streets. All murders had been part of well-known murderers. They had also occurred decades ago, she hadn't even been born. That was one of the reasons why she wasn't running screaming for the doors, that and she was loath to leave Kenshin without a job and herself without a home, again.
But it didn't mean she wasn't going to have a talk with the real estate agency.
That night, after dinner with the reappeared Kenshin, she had her second nightmare.
It was unlike her last one, this time she wasn't being chased. It was a party, inside the practice hall, where people were dressed glamorously and music played loudly from the speakers on the corners.
The edges of her vision were fuzzy, and everything had a weird sepia tone to it. It looked more like an old picture than a dream. It looked to be the 1960's, but Kaoru wasn't really sure. The dojo was impressive, none of the decay she had seen and more like a grand hall than a place to practice the sword arts.
Kaoru was a part of the party, dress in a sapphire gown whose skirt went straight down her legs in lace and impeded wide movements.
Everything looked to be going well, but Kaoru felt dread creeping in the back of her mind. People were laughing and drinking and conversation flowed happily.
The music was sensual, and slowly Kaoru became aware of the shadows that seemed to be growing behind her, where most of the guests were standing chatting. Suddenly everything seemed to freeze, and all she could do was watch as the people and the music stopped.
Even as they were frozen, the wine and champagne in their glasses swirled with their abrupt stop of movement, all of them wore confused stares. Kaoru felt uncomfortable, and she felt a sudden and sharp pain in her sternum that disappeared as quickly as it had come.
She looked down and noticed that the stem of the wine glass she was holding had been cleanly cut through.
Then as she looked incredulously around her, bodies started to drop.
Heads falling off the bodies, torsos sliding off, legs crumpling, wine bottles breaking and blood pooling on the floor.
It was horrifying, but it became worse when Kaoru felt her own upper half sliding off. Some of the bodies crawled, as if trying to get away, and left blood pools that dragged behind them.
Dimly, she thought back to the stains in the dojo floor. Her mouth opened, and she woke up screaming.
The house was eerily silent, still Kaoru stumbled out of her bed and down the stairs for a cup of water. Her heart was pounding with the adrenaline the fear had invoked.
For some reason the oven was on, and it smelled of burnt flesh. In morbid curiousity she walked towards it, the feeling that something was still wrong present in her thoughts, when she heard the clatter of utensils behind her.
Whirling around, expecting to find Kenshin up to something, she came face to face with an angry looking older man.
In his right hand he clutched a gun, in his left a box of matches. His steps thundered on the wooden floor, but he passed right through Kaoru as if she were made of smoke.
It felt odd, but she paid it no mind and followed the furious man into the hall.
A dark silhouette was standing on the last steps of the stairs where a woman with long dark hair that covered her face was sobbing. The figure was faceless and distorted, but he was ignored by the other two as if he could not be seen.
The man raised the gun, (Kaoru moved to stop him, but once again passed right through him, and for some reason she couldn't make any sound) and pulled the trigger.
The woman's head reared back violently then her figure disappeared, and all that was left before Kaoru was the man lighting up the fireplace inside the family room. She could only watch helplessly as the man threw himself inside, agony twisting his features before he vanished just like the woman had seconds before.
But the silhouette had not disappeared, as it turned to leave the family room Kaoru followed it down the hall to the basement door. It opened when the dark figure touched the knob, and closed abruptly after he had passed through slamming on her face.
Kaoru woke with a start, and with the strange feeling she knew the figure in black and with the certainty she had seen the murders that had happened inside the dojo, and the death of the couple that had lived in the manor before her.
(I need a beta reader for my RK fanfics... I've never had one before, and it is because I have a hectic schedule and I try to edit them myself but I find that I am in need of one. So if anyone can point me in the right direction I would so appreciate it. Or if there are any volunteers, better yet.)*
Remember the drill, any mistakes tell me about them.
Poll: Worst nightmare you've ever had?
P.s. Please forgive my late update, spring break hasn't even started and I already have a few projects I have to work on. Warning, updates will be sporadic.