Nevermore

By: Hikari-chan (Chitsuki)

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it still belongs to Gosho Aoyama. Anything that is Edgar Allan Poe's work is (eventually) referenced in the text and belongs, of course, to Mr. Poe. I make no profit from this.

Musings: I just want to quickly thank all my reviewers~ Your kind words are really very much appreciated. I know I'm really terrible at responding to reviews, but I assure you I read every single one of them and they encourage me to post what I've written, despite the uphill battles with formatting I always have on this site. So thank you again! I promise this story gets rolling by the end of this chapter. :) Cheers~

-o-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 2

-o-o-o-o-o-

The day dawned bright and early, the snow reflecting the sun's rays like diamonds, glittering in a field of white. The slopes had been groomed the night before, the ski lifts well-oiled. However, most of the guests at the resort were still asleep, resting during their precious vacation. The same was only half-true for the occupants of one particular room on the third floor. Conan woke up from a fretful slumber, his eyes drooping and his arms more tired than the night before. The bright sunshine through the window and the sound of Genta's snoring had woken him, not that he was sleeping particularly well.

After reading until his eyes protested, he had reluctantly turned off the lights and gone to bed, only to wake up two hours later with the image of Ran's battered and bruised body imprinted on the inside of his eyelids. Even though he no longer had romantic feelings for Ran, they were still close. She was like a sister to him. Not being able to save her in his dream world, he had woken up in a cold sweat and screaming until his throat hurt.

It was a miracle that Genta had just kept on sleeping, his even breathing telling Conan that his roommate hadn't been disturbed.

After that, Conan hadn't particularly wanted to go back to sleep. He sent a random text message to Ran, hoping she would reply by the morning and he could be reassured, then he had gone into a fretful slumber that was broken every half an hour by uneasiness and anxiety. Although Ai had asked him to call her if he couldn't sleep, he refused to disturb her another night. The nightmares were really his problem; he wanted Ai to get enough rest.

He kept his eyes closed until a loud thump and an "ouch!" made him turn on his side and open one eye.

Genta had somehow wrapped himself into his blanket and rolled out of the bed and onto the floor. He sat up and rubbed his side sleepily, letting out a large yawn.

"Morning, Conan," he muttered.

Conan sighed. "Morning, Genta." He glanced at the clock. They only had half an hour until 9:00AM, when they were supposed to meet their class in the dining room for breakfast, so he got up and changed. It was a good thing that both he and Genta were quick at getting ready.

They made it on time to meet their classmates for breakfast. Conan was the first person to sit down at their table, since he only grabbed the biggest mug of coffee he could find and no food. He let out a huge yawn when Ai sat down next to him. He kissed her automatically on the cheek, like when they ate breakfast at Agasa's before school.

"Morning, Ai," he muttered.

She stared at him, but didn't respond. Noting her silence, he tilted his head, trying to read the expression on her emotionless face. He noted that despite her supposed full night of sleep, she still looked tired. In fact, he would wager that she looked more tired now than yesterday, just like him.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

She turned away from him and cut into her Western style breakfast, ignoring his question.

"Hey," he said softly. "What's wrong?"

She stared at him again. "How did you sleep?" she finally asked, her voice carefully neutral.

"Oh...um...," he stammered. "Fine. I'm fine."

"Good to know," she answered. "Do you want to know how I slept, Meitantei-san?"

Conan swallowed. "I'm guessing not well. You uh...look tired."

"I see your nightmares haven't dulled your deductive abilities."

He winced. "What, um, what was keeping you up?"

"I worried that one of the people I care most about in the world would need me, so I kept waking up during the night, since he said he would call me if he was too anxious from nightmares to sleep. As it turned out, my sleepless night was for naught since he slept just fine."

"Ai..."

"Either that," Ai continued as though she hadn't heard him, "or he thinks I wouldn't be able to help him, because it surely can't be because he thinks I'm some helpless flower that needs to be protected while he deals with his problems."

"It's not...I just wanted you to sleep better."

"Good job. How did that work out for you?" Her tone was frigid, and Conan knew from experience that it meant she was angry.

"I'm just trying to do what's best for you," he finally protested.

"I see. I suppose being partners doesn't mean the same thing as equality."

"Why are you so mad?" he asked, exasperated and frustrated. "It's just a lousy phone call I didn't make!"

"Why am I mad?" Ai repeated. She stood up suddenly from the table and picked up her breakfast tray. "You're the detective who doesn't need any help. You figure it out."

And with that, she stalked away from the table, threw out her breakfast tray, and left.

Conan stared after her, half confused and half wanting to scream. Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko chose that moment to sit down and eat their breakfasts. When Ayumi asked him where Ai went, he replied, still somewhat flabbergasted but completely honestly that he had no idea. And when Genta pointed out his lack of food, he merely stated that he wasn't hungry.

That wasn't how he envisioned his morning to go, not even close.

-o-o-o-o-o-

By 10:00AM, the whole school group had finished breakfast and was ready to split into their activities, even Chino-sensei and Choshi-sensei, who had both stumbled in late just 20 minutes before, claiming they had overslept. Conan didn't see Ai at all during breakfast, but he did see her joining Ayumi in the lobby when their class split into three subgroups to go enjoy their choice of winter sports.

Conan, of course, had chosen snowboarding, so he followed Yamaguchi-sensei when their groups were separated. Ai and Ayumi were obviously going skating since their group went out the back doors away from the slopes. The ski group was left waiting in the lobby for the ski instructor.

Mitsuhiko and Genta were with Conan, both eagerly awaiting their snowboarding lesson. Their first stop was the equipment rental centre just on the side of the main resort complex. It was a decently sized building with a staff helping out various early risers. Yamaguchi-sensei lined up their group and helped them pick out boots and snowboards. When he got to Conan though, the fifteen-year-old held up the snowboard that Agasa had made him.

"I have my own," he told the snowboarding instructor.

Yamaguchi looked curiously at the snowboard. "What brand is that? I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before," he said.

Conan laughed nervously. How does one tell his snowboarding teacher that his snowboard is custom-made, with a solar powered battery and a turbo-powered engine built in? Obviously, the answer is – do not tell. "It's a present, so I don't know," he lied easily.

Luckily, Yamaguchi didn't ask too many questions. He merely moved on to the next person, since Conan obviously did not need help. Once they were finally done, Conan followed the group outside. Yamaguchi-sensei chattered on about safety precautions and their first runs down the bunny hill, and Conan automatically tuned the instructor out, letting his mind wander.

So far, he had read through most of Poe's poetry, and he was no closer to figuring out the mysterious note. Unlike some of Poe's other works, 'A Dream Within a Dream' was not in Poe's style of macabre stories, nor does it follow Poe's recurring themes. In addition, he couldn't figure out why someone would punctuate it incorrectly, so it stood to conclude that the punctuation meant something else. But what? And why use Poe's work to send the message? Was it even a message? The professor hadn't emailed him regarding anything unusual at home, so there were no clues there.

He also had the additional problem of why Ai was angry with him. He felt bad that she was worried enough about him to be unable to sleep soundly, of course, but he didn't really know why it was so important to her that he made that phone call if he had nightmares. After all, Ai wasn't a typical girly girl who needed him to call and reassure her of anything. She was one of the few people who could read him better than he could read them, always able to anticipate his next move if she knew the situation. That was what made her such a reliable partner during his cases. Was she angry because he hadn't done as she had expected this time? He couldn't envision Ai being that angry just because her pride was hurt though, not that type of slow burn anyway. She was more likely to mock him until he felt equally stupid.

"Conan-kun," Mitsuhiko's voice brought him back to the present. "Yamaguchi-sensei is going to take us down the first hill now."

Conan looked up at the bunny hill. It was an easy run with a short gentle slope and quite a few beginners tumbling down it. He grimaced. It was going to take him longer to get up that hill than down it. Plus, he needed something a little more challenging to help him take his mind off his problems. Sports always helped him clear his mind.

"You go ahead, Mitsuhiko," he told the other boy. "I'm actually going to talk to Yamaguchi-sensei."

Mitsuhiko nodded and started to move towards the rest of their group. Most of the students were jumping awkwardly around to move forward on the flat ground. Conan got his instructor's attention and pulled him away from the group, explaining that he had been snowboarding since he was in the first-grade and wondering if he could skip the lessons.

"Ah yes," Yamaguchi replied. "I was surprised you didn't ask earlier. I assumed you knew the basics if you had your own equipment. The resort has a testing centre in the equipment rental building. They'll send someone to go with you and make sure you're good for a more experienced level pass."

Conan thanked him and headed back to the equipment rental building. He could probably pass the expert test without much problem. His plan was to spend all day on the slopes. The rush of racing down the expert hills would probably do him some good, and maybe his mind would be clearer by the evening.

He let out a large yawn as he jogged up to the testing centre. Actually, maybe he would take a nap break sometime during the day, assuming his nightmares didn't choose to also plague him during the day.

-o-o-o-o-o-

As he soared into the air on the side of the half pipe, Conan tried to clear his mind and enjoy the experience. The flip he performed in midair changed his perspective of the slopes, and in the distance, he thought he saw something like a hut. He frowned a little bit and tried to look for it again as he went up the other side of the half pipe. Sure enough, there was something that looked like a house, or a hut, peeking just out of a group of trees by the side of the slope with moguls.

Now his curiosity was peaked. Why would the owners of the resort build a hut on the slope?

Finishing his run down the half pipe, he made his way over to the ski lift again, this time picking the moguls slope to snowboard down. He stopped his run when he reached the set of trees he had seen. He undid the fastenings of his boots to the snowboard and walked his way up the trees, looking for the hut. He found it fairly quickly. It was an old wooden structure, not exactly run down, but certainly not looked after either.

As he was standing there, frowning at it, he heard footsteps crunch through the snow behind him.

He whipped around, and found himself face to face with the reporter from the day before and the manager. They both looked surprised to him there.

Enomoto, the reporter, reacted first. "You're that boy from yesterday – the one who came into the Moon Room with his friends."

"Yea," Conan replied. "Are you visiting this hut too, Enomoto-san?"

"Oh yes, I overheard some people talking about seeing a shack up here and had Ryusaki-bucho bring me up," Enomoto explained. "I thought maybe there was a story here."

The manager shook his head. "Like I told you, it's really not much of a story," he responded. "This old hut is leftover from the old ski resort, and since it wasn't in our way, the owner just left it here when he had the new resort built."

"Old resort?" Conan echoed.

"This whole piece of land used to belong to a resort called the Hope Hills," Ryusaki told them. "Their business went downhill after a murder happened right on the resort, and they eventually closed down. Our owners tore down that whole resort when they bought the land. This hut is just a piece that didn't get removed."

Conan's eyes narrowed. "Murder? What happened?"

Ryusaki shrugged. "I don't really know much about it since it's a pretty old case, like before I moved to Otaru 7 years ago. All I know are rumours."

"What were they?" Conan persisted.

"Um...I think it was something about a husband killing a wife?" Ryusaki furrowed his brow, trying to remember. "Although I think I also heard that the case went cold and the victim's ghost haunted the halls of the old resort, so maybe it wasn't a domestic dispute case."

Both Enomoto and Conan were thoughtfully silent after. For his part, Conan was trying to recall something about a murder in Otaru more than 7 years ago. If it was more than 7 years ago, he was probably still in the process of tracking the Organization, or might even have still been Kudo Shinichi. The time frame wasn't specific enough for him to pinpoint a particular case he might just have read in passing.

"So um...do you know what this hut was used for?" Enomoto's question brought Conan back to the present.

Ryusaki trekked his way closer to the hut and tried the door. It was unlocked. Enomoto and Conan followed him inside. It was dark, cast in shadows by the overgrown trees outside, but the sunlight through the windows still allowed them to see. There were some old ski racks and a small table in the corner.

"Looks like an equipment shack," Enomoto commented. "Maybe for emergencies."

"Like I said," Ryusaki replied with a shrug. "There's no story here."

"Well, that's too bad," Enomoto said. "It would have been interesting."

The manager closed the door to the shack after Enomoto and Conan followed him back outside. The trio walked through the snow to the snowmobile Ryusaki had parked next to the trees. Overhead, the snow started to come down, drifting around them like dancers.

Conan declined the offer for a ride down the slope since he had his own snowboard, and watched as the manager guided the snowmobile away. He hopped back onto the snowboard and made his way down the remainder of the moguls.

He checked his watch. He still had a little more than an hour to check out the expert trails, although if the snow kept coming down, it might be less. Maybe he'll see what else was interesting on these slopes while he still had the chance.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The adrenaline from snowboarding all day had faded by the time Conan was done with his early evening shower, but between taking out his frustration on the slopes and the comfort of a hot shower, he was feeling better now than he had been all day. He still didn't really understand why Ai was angry with him though. No matter how he thought about it, he didn't get why looking out for her well-being would be wrong. He was trying to take care of her, like he thought a good boyfriend (heck, even a good friend) should. Why would she be mad about something like that?

He was in the process of pulling his light jacket over his sweatshirt when Genta walked into their room, looking like he had a fight with a snowman...and lost. Genta was practically dripping snow onto the floor by the door, and when he opened his jacket, clumps of ice fell onto the ground.

"What happened?" Conan couldn't help but ask.

Genta looked miserable. "Snowboarding is hard," was all he said as he struggled to take off his boots.

Conan's lips twitched into a smile. Ah, so it was nothing life-threatening. "Who told you it was easy?"

"You always made it look easy," Genta complained.

"I practiced. A lot."

"Maybe I'll try skiing tomorrow," Genta grumbled. "When the storm isn't that bad."

"Isn't it a little early to give up?"

"I don't know. Hey, where were you today? I didn't see you all day even though Yamaguchi-sensei took us through all of the beginner slopes."

Conan had the decency to look a bit sheepish at this. "Oh, I uh...I took the tests to get an expert pass. I went through the hard slopes."

Genta had managed to get his jacket and snowpants off, flopping down onto his bed on his stomach. "Figures," he muttered. "You're always off doing your own thing."

Conan winced internally at the accusation. While it was probably true, he still felt bad about having it pointed out. "It wasn't like that," he protested, his voice sounding tired. "I...I just needed to get away for a bit. I um... I had a...disagreement...with Ai."

Now Genta looked up. "We had lunch with Ayumi and Haibara," he told Conan. "She didn't say you had a fight."

"Of course she wouldn't."

"What did you do?"

"Why do you assume I did something?"

"Because when my parents fight, my mom always says it's my dad who did something wrong," Genta shrugged awkwardly in his position.

"I didn't," Conan insisted. "I just...didn't tell her something because I didn't want her to worry. That's not wrong."

"So she's not worried now?"

Conan frowned. "Um, well she sort of is, since she found out."

"Then what's the point of not telling her?" Genta sounded genuinely confused.

Conan opened his mouth, but no answer came out. What was the point of not waking her up when she couldn't sleep anyways because she was already worried about him?

"Maybe she just wants to help," Genta continued, not noticing that he had already stumped Conan.

Conan shook his head. "It's not something she can help with." It wasn't. The nightmares were his own psychological manifestations; Ai couldn't help him with something like that. At least he didn't think so.

"How do you know?" Genta asked. "You always say we couldn't help. You know, back in our Shounen Tanteidan days. But sometimes we do help."

"Yes," Conan admitted reluctantly. "But this isn't the same."

"It's not?"

Conan frowned. Was it the same? Or at least similar? Was there something someone could do to help with his nightmares? Was there more to why Ai was so mad about a lousy phone call he didn't make? He felt a headache beginning at the base of his skull.

He glared at Genta. "Thanks a lot. Now, I'm confused too."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Conan and Genta met Mitsuhiko and his friend Akira at the elevator on their way down to dinner. He listened absentmindedly to their recall of their snowboarding misadventures, all the while pondering the puzzle Genta had inadvertently given him. Of all the puzzles in the world, women were the worst. He had no logical clues and was no closer to figuring out the real reason Ai was mad than he had been before.

Mitsuhiko and Akira welcomed Conan and Genta to join the computer club at dinner. Conan looked around the dining room and spotted Ai and Ayumi already eating with a bunch of girls, so he agreed to join Mitsuhiko. Apparently, Ai wasn't ready to forgive him yet.

When he sat down, some of Mitsuhiko's friends were discussing their ski lessons, or apparently, lack thereof.

"It's a good thing Igarashi-sensei can actually teach us how to ski, or we would have had to pick something else."

"Yea, and I was really looking forward to skiing. I can't believe that ski instructor skipped out like that."

"The ski instructor didn't show up?" Conan asked, furrowing his brow.

"Weren't you paying attention, Conan-kun?" Mitsuhiko asked. "Our whole class has been talking about it all day. Chiba-sensei didn't meet up with the students who signed up to learn skiing this morning, so Igarashi-sensei had to take over."

"Didn't Ryusaki-bucho look for him when someone told him our ski instructor didn't show?" Conan pointed out.

"Rumour has it that there was a family emergency," Fujisaki answered.

Conan frowned. There was an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He wondered if Igarashi-sensei could tell him more about what the manager had said regarding the ski instructor's absence. He looked over to the teachers' table, and was surprised to find Class 3-C's Choshi-sensei gesturing wildly about. The rest of the teachers seem agitated as well. Was it something to do with the ski instructor missing the session? After all, he was booked to do all of the ski lessons for the classes, and if there was an emergency that he had left for, they would have to find a replacement. Not all the teachers were good at sports like Igarashi-sensei, after all.

His observation was interrupted by Natsubori Takuto of Class 3-C. Natsubori was one of the defenders on the soccer team and had dated Ai briefly before Conan.

"Hey," Natsubori addressed them. "You guys wouldn't have seen Ishihara-san or Hino-san, would you?"

"Who?" was Genta's response.

"Ishihara Nanako-san and Hino Aya-san," Natsubori clarified. "They're both from Class 3-C and in the literature club."

"No," Conan answered slowly. "Why?"

Natsubori scratched the back of his neck, looking worried. "We lost track of them when we split up for the history scavenger hunt in downtown Otaru," he explained, "but they didn't show up at the meeting point."

"They're missing?" Conan questioned carefully, keeping his voice steady.

"Um, maybe? We waited for a bit, but the snowstorm was really starting to come down so we headed back. Choshi-sensei said they might have finished the scavenger hunt early and come back on their own," Natsubori informed him. "But I haven't seen them around and some of the other girls were saying they weren't answering their phones..."

Conan shot up from the table and hurried out of the dining room. From what he had seen, there was no bloody way Choshi-sensei actually knew where the girls were. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so agitated. Add that to the fact that the ski instructor hadn't been heard from since the morning either and Conan was all kinds of anxious. He ran into the lobby and found the manager's office near the front desk, and he hurriedly knocked on the door.

"I need to be let into Chiba Ren's room," he announced without preamble when the manager opened the door.

To say Ryusaki was surprised was an understatement. He looked utterly taken aback, opening and closing his mouth a few times before he shook himself and acknowledged what was going on. "You're with the junior high school group?" he asked.

"Yes," Conan gritted out. "We have two missing girls and your ski instructor missed class with no warning. I need to check his room."

Ryusaki frowned. "Now see here, young man. I do not make it a habit of allowing strangers into my staff's private property," he said, obviously not amused.

"Not even for two fifteen year old girls who are suspiciously missing at the same time as your staff?" Conan narrowed his eyes.

The manager looked uncertain now. Slowly, he stood up. "Let me talk to your teacher."

Conan followed the manager impatiently back into the dining room. Five minutes later, Choshi-sensei had confirmed the fact that two girls were missing and Ryusaki-bucho had agreed to open the ski instructor's suite for them on the condition that if nothing was found, they would leave everything alone. Choshi-sensei and Igurashi-sensei accompanied Conan and the manager out to the far end of the right wing. Conan gritted his teeth impatiently while the manager slid the key card into the lock. Truth be told, he actually really hoped that his paranoia was from the excess amount of Poe he had been reading the past couple of days. When he felt like the manager was opening the door in slow motion though, he reached over and twisted the handle instead of waiting, barging into the room.

There were no missing girls anywhere to be seen, but in the middle of the room, the body of Chiba Ren was lying perfectly still on the queen-sized bed, facing a full-length mirror.

"Chiba-sensei!" the manager screamed.

"Don't come in!" Conan yelled back reflexively.

Ryusaki paused at the authoritative tone in the fifteen year old's voice. So did Choshi-sensei and Igarashi-sensei.

Conan left the door open and walked in. "Nobody come in," he repeated, his voice calmer now, but still commanding.

He walked up to the bed and peered at the body. It was perfectly still, with its eyes closed, looking for all the world like it was just sleeping. He felt for a pulse out of habit, but as he expected, there was none. The body was cool under his touch and no obvious weapons were in his immediate sight. Conan pulled out the handkerchief he always kept in his pockets, reaching around to pick up the arm. It was stiff under his touch.

"Conan-kun?"

He looked up to find that Ai was now standing in front of the manager and their two teachers in the doorway, with Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko wedged in between. They must have followed him when they saw him rushing in and out of the dining room

"Call the police, Ai," he told her, his voice composed but hard. "Dead body onsite at Yukihome Ski Resort, found at 6:30PM on the first floor, right wing, room 109."

Instead of replying though, Ai raised her hand and silently pointed to something behind him. Conan turned around.

Sitting on the night table, propped up against the bedside lamp, was a black card with ornate white writing.

-o-o-o-o-o-

End Chapter 2.

Word Count: 4,435
Cumulative Word Count: 10,569

Chitsu's Curiosity Corner: And we're rolling…. :)