A/N Hi guys ~

So, I got a comment on the first chapter saying that I could've derived the idea from Harry Potter. I actually love Harry Potter to freaking death, however, I actually got the idea from a book I read when I was younger called Behind The Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy. I don't really remember what it was about, but there was this girl that couldn't leave the mansion she was living in for certain reasons, the maids wouldn't let her leave. And all she did all day was play with dolls and talk to herself, and I really liked it.

But yeah. I'm extremely grateful that you guys take the time to read and appreciate my stories. I'm young and I'm not the best writer, but it's what I've been doing since I was little. Before this I was writing stories into notes on Facebook and after that I wrote on Fanpop and then I migrated here.

So please, just leave me a nice review (: Constructive criticism is welcomed, it helps me know what I do wrong.

So, le warning ~

Title: The Boy In The Staircase

Disclaimer: Characters not mine, idea mine

Rating: T

Don't really feel the need to add more than that to this warning. Besides, I'm not gonna start adding characters into it until we meet you-know-who n.n Enjoy!

Hiroto was coming to pick him up. He was excited to see his best friend again and tell him all about his first day in the mansion, and about his father breaking his mother's things, and about the door on the side of the staircase that he found.

His father was getting ready to leave for a short business meeting, and Jessica was busy wiping the billiard balls in the pool room with a microfiber cloth. Tetsuhiro had helped her tidy up a bit in there after he had been reading and sprawling across each chair, the leather molding to the contours of his body. The chairs were so soft and comfortable, he felt like he could sleep in them. Jessica had been grateful that Tetsuhiro was helping her around the house; he thought she had way too much to do as such a young woman.

"Well, maybe you can teach me what you do every day. Teach me how to clean all the different things. I could help you." he had said to her. She was reluctant at first, afraid that she would get in trouble, but he had managed to convince her that as long as she cleaned, she was still doing her job and was still doing the right thing.

He was getting ready, tying the laces on his shoes as Jessica slung his jacket over the fabric board, ironing it out. The foyer bench gave him a perfect view of the item of his everlasting curiosity. The way the wood was old and tweaked, the swirls of rusted brass framing the globe handle. It was obviously old and obviously used, and that just kissed his interest yet again. He itched to find out just what exactly that room was used for. Yeah, maybe it was a utility closet that the owner of the house used. But what if it wasn't? What if he was using it for something else? What if he was storing human body parts in jars in there, using them in experiments to try and find a cure for cancer? What if he had dead animals hanging from bars in there? What if he had maniacal tools of torture in there? What if he and his father were basically test subjects in this house? What if-

"Young Master, your jacket is finished."

He looked up to see Jessica folding the blue fabric over her arm, pushing the sides of the board closed and walking it over to a door at the far right, next to the study. She blew a few strands of hair out of her face that had come loose from her long braid. She had brushed off her dress, loosened the knot on the strings of her apron and retied them. He suddenly flushed, realizing he had been simply watching her and hadn't thanked her. He didn't understand why he was so rude lately.

He stood and bowed quickly. "Thank you very much."

"It was nothing." She waved her hand, flashing him a smile. "It's just ironing clothing. It's nothing that bad."

"I don't know how you can handle all this each and every day," He sighed, gingerly sliding his jacket off of her arm. He fingered the collar of it thoughtfully.

"Handle what? The cleaning? I'm used to it." Jessica insisted, pulling out her microfiber cloth and wiping all the doorknobs and the staircase railing.

"Even so, it's a lot for one person to do." Tetsuhiro slid his arms into the sleeves of the jacket and pulled it on, shaking out the collar.

"Yeah, well… it was a lot easier when there were three of us…" She mumbled, sliding the cloth up and down the polished wood railing.

He glanced at her, a twang of affection going through him. "What… exactly happened to all of you?"

She seemed to tense up before letting out a quiet, dry chuckle. "The Master wanted perfect maids, which barely any of us were. There were five us to begin with, actually, and for some reason he wanted maids of different ethnicities each. I, myself, am Chinese, just like the Master. The other four maids fell into the same mold – there was Kimi, who was full Japanese, then there was Jaehee from Korea, then Harika from Turkey, and Ellie, whom the master recruited from Germany. Harika and Kimi quit within the first few weeks of work, thus why I address myself as one of the 'three maids left'."

"Why did they leave?"

Her shoulders raised in a shrug hesitantly. "The Master wouldn't tell me, and I was never acquainted with either of the girls. We were all young, too, when the Master recruited us. I first came here around eleven years old, but didn't start work until years later."

"What do you mean by recruited?"

"The Master… he… liked to save young girls' lives. And… he would recruit girls whilst they were in a period of turmoil, such as having no parents or that their country was under attack in the middle of war. I was recruited soon after a plague broke out throughout my country, and the Master brought me here. I wasn't the first one here, because when I got here, there were already girls younger than me here."

"The other maids?"

"Some of them. Ellie was the last to be recruited. She simply didn't like living the "stereotypical" German life, and decided to run away. The Master found her in eastern India living some street rats. He had said that Ellie seemed to have been protecting herself for a long time, because when he tried to take her under his wing, she had apparently put a gun to his head."

"S-she…" Tetsuhiro winced, imagining what his father would do if he tried to pull something like that.

"It's a wonder he didn't strangle her, honestly. She was rude, she talked back, and she seemed to have extreme trust issues. She had calmed down when she saw me and the others here, albeit not talking to any of us. Jaehee and I were the most talkative out of all of us. She and I were very close friends, as if we had always been best friends."

Tetsuhiro immediately thought of him and Hiroto. Very close friends… as if we had always been best friends.

"There wasn't one day that while we were in the prime of our teenage years that we didn't try to make friends with the other girls. Harika and Kimi were very shy and friendly people, so it was much a shock when they had suddenly quit. We didn't know why. Jaehee had said that she had accidentally seen the Master trying to force himself upon them while she was heading to the restroom, but she insisted that she was tired and could have been seeing incorrectly."

"What happened then?"

"Well, Ellie wasn't pleased about the news, that's for sure." She chuckled. "Ellie was always rebellious. She hated the dress that the Master made us all wear." When Tetsuhiro glanced at her black ruffled dress, she quickly continued. "Back then, he made us all wear simple white frocks with black ribbons on the sides and white stockings. Jaehee had said that the clothing could have provoked the Master to force himself on Harika and Kimi, but we didn't want to get in trouble by gossiping so we dropped the matter. Ellie tried multiple times to escape and leave, but the Master refused, and at first he didn't want to get violent with her. But time wore away and she distanced herself more and more from us and refused to do her work, and when he had had enough, he sent her packing back to Germany. He revoked her last paycheck and that was the last we ever heard of her again."

"I bet he wasn't used to being disrespected like that…"

"Most certainly. Shortly after Ellie's dismissal, Harika had left, leaving Kimi with Jaehee and I. Harika had insisted that the Master was targeting her now, using her as his punching bag, but there was no evidence leading to this, so we all just assumed that the girl had downright lost her mind. We wondered if the Master had been using Harika for his experiments, because she acted very strangely and very sickly."

"So what happened to Kimi and Jaehee then if you're the only one left?"

"Well," Jessica cleared her throat, walking over to the kitchen to the left and tossing the soiled microfiber cloth into the garbage can, pulling a fresh, clean one out of her dress pocket, "for a while, there were no problems. We worked hard, did what we were told, and we were paid as the Master promised. We were all around your age at the time, Young Master," she nodded towards him with a small smile, and he nodded in return, "and it just seemed like something wasn't right. Kimi distanced herself from Jaehee and I, and she started to take interest in a Japanese university student named Kai. We didn't know him at all. Kimi had showed us pictures on the cell phone that the Master had bestowed her with, and we just nodded our heads and listened to her lovesick rants. She started skipping work and leaving the mansion, most likely off seeing this university student, and ended up getting pregnant. The Master was furious that she had disobeyed his orders to stay sheltered in this mansion."

"Did he… kill her?"

"No. Thankfully, no. The Master slipped into an insanity-driven depression after she had fled from the mansion with her unborn child. He constantly mumbled about his failed experiments and how we were ruining his career, and how Jaehee and I were the only trustworthy ones left, and how disrespectful and independent females are. Th…" She suddenly stopped herself just when Tetsuhiro was beginning to lean towards her in interest. She shook her head, dropping whatever it was she was about to talk about. "Around my twenty-fourth birthday, I fell in love with Jaehee's brother, Minhyun. She wasn't bothered about it at all; she was actually rooting for our love. We thought we could be secret about it, just whispering to ourselves on our break about my experiences with Minhyun when the Master wasn't home. The Master had begun to grow suspicious of me, and had eventually found out that I was dating somebody. After thoroughly investigating me in a panic, he was relieved when he found out that I wasn't pregnant yet. He was afraid that I would turn into Kimi and abandon him again. I promised the Master that I would listen to him and only have kids when and if he let me."

"Was Jaehee there to support you when you did have kids?" Tetsuhiro couldn't help but indulge himself in this conversation. Jessica reminded him so much of his mother, and he absolutely loved to talk with her, regardless of what it was they were talking about.

"She was." Jessica nodded with a smile, eyes closing almost all the way. "The Master agreed to let me have children with Minhyun, and in no time I was pregnant and soon was the mother of two wonderful, beautiful children. The Master wouldn't let them stay here with me, though, so I had Minhyun watching them all day on end. He didn't mind it, because I constantly contacted him in my free time to let him know how I was doing. But eventually, he got sick – very, very sick, and I'm thankful that my children were so young that they did not understand what it meant to be deathly sick. He eventually passed away from pneumonia a year and a half ago on April 17th, a week after Jaehee's birthday."

"Oh my god… I'm so sorry, I…" Tetsuhiro suddenly scrambled over to her side, taking her hands in his. "I'm so sorry…"

Jessica sighed. "It wasn't your fault. Eventually, the Master dismissed Jaehee of her work to let her look after my children. After all, we were his two favorite maids. Now it's only me here. Jaehee still receives child support from the Master, and I still receive my paychecks. She and I never stopped talking to each other. We still do, even to this day."

"I'm so sorry for your loss…" He stroked his thumbs across her fingers soothingly. "My mother died when I was young, too."

Jessica looked up at him. "She did? Oh… I'm sorry, honey…"

"I like talking to you. You remind me of my mother." Tetsuhiro sighed, dropping his eyes to his feet. "That's why I seem to get along so poorly with my father. I'm sorry if we frightened you. I don't like to yell, I really don't."

"I will be your mother if you want me to be, dear." Jessica smiled.

Tetsuhiro couldn't help but let loose a small laugh, feeling tears threatening to bubble out of his eyes. Laughing helped him chase away the sudden sadness. "I would like that."

A loud, very audible clearing of someone's throat was heard across the foyer, and both heads snapped to look towards the front door.

"Aw, I'm sorry. Didn't know I was interrupting ya two."

"I really missed you, Hiroto-kun." Tetsuhiro smiled and looked over at his friend in the driver's seat. Hiroto smiled, his cheekbones peaking. He was telling Tetsuhiro something about liking one of the football players on the high school's varsity team. Each time he would get to a point in his story about him and his love interest having some sort of physical contact, he would gently toss his auburn hair and blush.

"I missed ya too, Angel-kun. Everyone misses ya. Katie, that cheerleader that asked ya for an interview for the school newspaper, she keeps raving about 'cha leaving. She's been kinda depressed since ya left, Angel-kun. I think she likes ya a bit."

Tetsuhiro snorted. "She's the head journalist of the newspaper club, what do you expect? She lost the school's key to selling great newspapers and you're surprised that she's upset?"

"Ohyaaa, not my fault she talks to all the cheerleaders about 'cha. The baseball team's been suckin' lately, too. Haven't won a single game since ya left."

Tetsuhiro smiled and shook his head. "So, are you gonna make a move on that exchange-student-football-all-star you like or whatever he is?"

Hiroto blushed a little bit. Yup, he was head over heels in love with this guy. "Who, Taejoon?"

"Hahaha, so he has a name."

Hiroto growled. "Don't sass me, Angel-kun. I still haven't scored a home run wit' him, yet. Plannin' it, but miracles don't just happen."

"I bet he's good in beeeed~." Tetsuhiro drawled jokingly, laughing out loud at the redness that overtook Hiroto's face. "Oh, Hiroto's blushing, huh? What happened to the Hiroto that asked every guy in the school for a ride in his bed?"

"Dunno." Hiroto insisted with a small laugh. "He fell in love."

Tetsuhiro's face lit up and he gently smacked Hiroto's arm. "Hey, Hiroto-kun! That's naughty!"

"What about it, eh?"

"You're dreaming about some school-famous hunk rather than making a move to get him in your bed. What do you do, take secret pictures of him in the locker room and go home and masturbate to them?"

Hiroto laughed loudly. "What, ya don't do the same?"

"Hey, not my fault that Aki's got such a nice, tight butt. Couldn't resist seeing it in those gym shorts he loved to wear so much. He had a thing for me too, so it was alright."

"Yer such a player, Angel-kun."

"And why does that bother you?"

"Well, ya know, we kinda have a history together."

"That was just a friendly fling."

"Ya, if ya call rummagin' through my porn collection an' insistin' we watch some a 'friendly fling'."

Tetsuhiro smacked the dashboard, suppressing the bursts of laughter that threatened to boil over. "Where are we going anyway?"

Hiroto shrugged, absentmindedly adjusting his wristwatch. "I figured we'd catch up over lunch at a diner or som'n."

"Sounds good."

"So, how's the move been treatin' ya, Angel-kun?" Hiroto pondered as he stabbed his fork into the side of one of his salt plums.

"Well, the house is gigantic. Way much more than I know my father could afford." Tetsuhiro stirred his miso soup with one chopstick.

"Ya, I could tell just by looking at it. Musta cost him a fortune."

"Sure did." Tetsuhiro chewed at a boiled chunk of potato. "But otherwise, it isn't half big. There's so much I'd like to learn from the owner of this place. Get this – he's a registered agriculturist, and his salary is more than I've ever seen! Can you imagine how smart he is? How much he knows and how much he could teach me?"

"Wow, yer really excited about this, ain't ya, Angel-kun?" Hiroto smirked at him, tongue roving around his cheek as he cleared his teeth of the plum remnants.

Tetsuhiro nodded excitedly, a smile creeping on his lips. "The rooms are just exquisite. The owner is so rich that he has his own maid that cleans literally everything. She's so nice and friendly and takes care of me."

"Hm, seems like you be missin' yer mom more and more these days, eh?"

"There isn't one day when I don't miss her, Hiroto-kun." Tetsuhiro glanced down. "The maid is just so nice and comforting, just like my mother was. My dad doesn't seem to appreciate anything about the house. He's just happy to be going back to work and making money. Well, we gotta pay the landlord one way or another."

Hiroto laughed, biting into another salt plum. "Does yer dad even have a sex life?"

Tetsuhiro choked on the broth of his soup, spluttering as he regained composure and began to breathe properly again. Hiroto laughed and leaned over to ruffle his friend's dark hair lightly.

"Don't ever say that again, Hiroto-kun. I might need an ambulance next time."

"Or my dick."

Tetsuhiro couldn't resist laughing out loud this time. He began to choke again, and his pained groans mixed with his hysterical laughter. He held his arms above his head to clear his throat and smacked Hiroto's hand with his chopsticks.

"Hey, don't hit me." Hiroto rubbed his hand and pouted. "I'm just tryna make ya laugh."

Tetsuhiro shook his head. "Oh, that reminds me!" He suddenly looked up to meet Hiroto's eyes. "The landlord, he's supposedly a scientist, and does experiments up on the third floor of the mansion. He's got a greenhouse up there, which is where the maid said he works. He's got all these studies and closets – and I found one on the side of the staircase."

Hiroto paused in chewing what was in his mouth. "On the side of the stairs?"

"Mhm. Strange place for a closet, isn't it? I tried to open it and find out what it was, but the maid insisted that it's locked and that it's forbidden territory. I swear, Hiroto-kun, they're hiding something from me, I just know it."

"Well, why don'tcha ask the maid about it? Maybe she'll explain to you why it's locked up."

"She said that it's the landlord's utility closet, but if it is then damn, she's awfully protective of a utility closet."

"Well, maybe that landlord o' yers has his sex dolls locked up in there."

Tetsuhiro choked on a laugh yet again. "Yeah, that'd be a sight to see."

Hiroto smirked. "I'm just happy that yer happy, Angel-kun."

"I really am, Hiroto-kun. And I'm much happier now that I get to speak with you again." Tetsuhiro smiled. "Thank you."

Hiroto waved his hand. "Anythin' for the school's favorite student."

It was very late by the time Hiroto brought him back home. They had gone to his place afterwards to watch some tv and go for a walk through the central park. It was nice and warm outside, and Tetsuhiro missed the lack of humidity that was the city. Hiroto had even insisted that they swing by the local gym, knowing that most of the school's athletes worked out there on the weekends. They had all welcomed Tetsuhiro with open arms and claps on the back. Tetsuhiro had told them what the move had been like – though he hadn't spoken a peep about the greenhouse or the door on the staircase – and they had all sympathized completely. He really missed his friends and he felt like crying when he was reunited with them.

Hiroto had left him with a chaste kiss on the cheek; he knew Hiroto had always had a thing for them, and they had had a thing in the past, but it didn't last.

Tetsuhiro didn't bother to check the time as he stumbled through the front door. It was dark, that's how late it was. He toed off his sneakers just as Jessica came trotting over to him.

"Welcome back, Young Master." She smiled and shied his jacket off, folding it over her arm. "I suppose you had a nice time?"

"Yeah, it was nice." He smiled at her and nodded. She smiled back.

"And that was your… friend?"

"Yeah. He's kinda been one of my closest friends throughout my entire middle and high school experience."

"Ah." She nodded in understanding, "He seems like a nice fellow."

"He's to me what Jaehee was to you." Tetsuhiro said softly. She looked up at him, sympathy sparking in her dark eyes.

"Oh... it's great to have a friend like that, isn't it? It's an amazing feeling." She giggled.

Tetsuhiro laughed in agreement. The conversation felt a little… awkward. He didn't want to make her feel insulted or make her feel uncomfortable.

"Have you ever been in love, Tetsuhiro-kun?"

"…Excuse me?" Tetsuhiro was surprised that she had asked that so blatantly.

"Ah… was that too much?" She bit down on her lip. "It's just… I've been in love with my husband for years now… and our love really is eternal… I didn't know if you'd ever felt anything like that…"

Tetsuhiro thought to himself for a bit. Had he really ever been in deep love before? He had had strong feelings for someone, before – Masaki, the male captain of the cheer team. All of the school cheer captains were males, because they never had to engage in the choreographed routines. Sometimes the captains actually helped with the choreography.

"…No, I don't think I have." He shrugged.

"I hope you do get to feel it one day, Tetsuhiro-kun." Jessica smiled at him. "It's wonderful."

Tetsuhiro looked down at his hands. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Young Master…"

"He must've meant so much to you! And then… then he… he just died, I mean… how can somebody live on smiling and laughing after that? After loving and losing someone like that, how can you just live normally? Doesn't it hurt?"

"It hurts an awful lot. But mourning over it isn't going to bring him back." She said quietly. "I still have my kids, and I still have Jaehee. It's not the end of the world. I loved him to death, I certainly did. I cried a lot when I found out he passed away. The Master felt bad that I was working so little and had resolved myself by laying on the chair in the billiard room most of the day. I never wanted to work, I never wanted to eat. It made him irritated that a maid wasn't doing what she was told, but I just couldn't, I physically and emotionally couldn't. It took a lot of convincing from both the Master and Jaehee to get me to start to accept Minhyun's death. I wanted to take my own life to be with him, but I couldn't just leave my children alone like that. I couldn't take away both of their parents for my selfishness. I had to live on for them and for myself. I currently make more as a worker than Jaehee does, because I've been a maid here the longest and the Master has put up with me the most." She laughed dryly. "You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say he's in love with me. But he's told us that he doesn't have time for love; it gets in the way of his experiments."

Tetsuhiro was taken aback. "That's horrible! Love is a wonderful thing; it's the world's best medicine. There's no way anybody can be one hundred percent at-peace with themselves if they don't have love to give and don't have love to get."

"I know." Jessica sighed and wiped her hands on her apron. "But, that's all dust in the wind now. And anyhow, you should be getting ready for bed, Young Master. Your father is already in his room."

"What time is it exactly?"

"10:42 PM."

Wow… it was late. "Alright, I'll get on up to bed. You should go to bed also." He pointed her way. "Remember what I told you, and ignore my dad's protests. If your boss isn't here and you keep the house spic-and-span, there's no way of him knowing that you use one of the bedrooms, is there?"

"…I suppose not." She nodded reluctantly, and it made Tetsuhiro smile. "Now hurry along, get some rest."

Tetsuhiro felt so flattered that he had connected with this stranger on such an emotionally familiar level. He had always used Hiroto to pour his emotions to, but he had never had a mother figure around. He missed his mother a lot more than he missed Hiroto, or his friends at school, or the experiences he had becoming one of the school's most prestigious athletes, or the house he grew up in. His mother went above and beyond all of those things. She was the one he had to thank for giving him life.

Something began to bother him deep inside, and questions began to roil in his stomach like vomit. He couldn't help but constantly wonder about this house, and why Jessica refused to tell him certain things, and it felt like it was eating a hole in his gut.

"Oh, Jessica?" He suddenly turned around, stopping her as she was walking away. She peered at him curiously.

"Yes?"

He had to find out what she was hiding from him. He had to.

"Can you show me what's in that room over there?"

To solidify what he meant, he pointed straight at the old wooden door on the side of the staircase. Jessica looked frightened.

"I… I said it was locked! I don't have a way in, Young Master." She became extremely jittery, twirling her fingers around each other as she looked from the door to Tetsuhiro, trying to find an escape route. "And even if I did, the Master has forbidden me from going into there and has forbidden me from letting anybody else in there!"

"I just want a peek, Jessica. Please?" He folded his hands in front of his face and pouted at her, playing the puppy dog card.

"Young Master, I… I can't. What if the Master finds out? That's his property, and I've worked too hard and too long to jeopardize my career!"

"How will he find out? You give me the key, I unlock it, peek inside, close the door, and lock it back up and hand you the key. How will he find out?"

Her lips opened and closed like a fish as she stuttered for a response.

"I'm really sorry I'm causing you stress, but I'm so curious what's in there! It's not like I'm touching his greenhouse, is it?"

She shook her head, hands sliding up the staircase railing. She stared at the door, boring a hole in it with her heat vision.

"I promise, I won't touch anything. I won't touch his experiments, I won't mess up anything. I just want a peek. Please?"

Jessica had seemed to give up on her resolve. There really was no way out of this, with how stubborn Tetsuhiro was. Plus, she felt guilty turning him down. He was young and curious, and she remembered exactly what it felt like to be seventeen. It was a very touchy age, and she wanted everything that she couldn't have. If only Tetsuhiro knew what he was really getting into; if only he knew what was really in that room on the side of the stairs.

"Fine." She sighed as she fished around in her dress pocket and handed him the key. "But please, don't scare him."

A/N Hahaha, Tetsuhiro's and Hiroto's playful banter makes me laugh.

So I really struggled to make this chapter long like the last chapter, so I'm sorry if I stretched out the conversations too much ;-;

And yes, Ellie was completely based off of Ellie from The Last of Us. Great game, anybody played it? I have, and the commercials on tv still make me so excited!

And also, tell me if you would rather me put this story into the M-rated section when it starts getting more explicit and dirty, or if you would rather me keep it in the T-rated section and have me just put a warning on the explicit chapters. Even though… I'll… put a warning anyway…

Review and favorite please ~