Chapter 13: Something Old, Something Familiar
The van doors slammed with a jarring bang, caging the three who bounded inside with the safety of automatic locks and the protection of a metal exterior as a lick of explosive magic came chasing after them. With the cold, dry air surrounding their little safe haven, the sparks of electrical magic engulfed hungrily the fort they held so silently, searching for a weak spot, a tiny crack with which to infiltrate and annihilate, greedy hands of lightning gripping the windows and doors with determination.
The three who had jumped inside breathed heavily within the freezing interior, their exhales creating fog upon the windows lit up so magnificently by the power outside. It must have been at least a minute before those reaching fingers began to recede into the forest with which they came, but to the ones who waited, it must have been hours. Their adrenaline filled the space of a second with the suffering of days, and while they could not hold their breath, it was no less terrifying to be hunted and pursued so violently. As the energy outside faltered in their pursuit, all three gave sighs of breath they didn't have, turning towards each other in a sort of relief and camaraderie that only nearly dying seems to bestow.
The boy lifted two hands to his face, eyes widening as he reassured himself that he was, in fact still alive. The dog, still panting heavily from the jog, had hidden himself at the feet of his owner on the passenger side, burying his face into her hands as he whined through his nose. The girl, on the other hand, had broken into a bout of laughter so strong and shaking, she could feel her sides split with joy and excitement.
"That was amazing! I would never have believed that fae-people could be so...so..."
"Murderous?" Arthur cried out, his voice cracking as he ran his good hand slowly through his amber hair, avoiding eye-contact as he stared straight ahead, "Aggressive? Violent? Cannibalistic? I could go on, you know, I just watched Tinkerbell devour her sisters, after all."
Vivi stuck her tongue out towards her friend with a playful sense of fun, thinking her coworker and comrade was teasing, "It wasn't that bad, you big wuss. They were just playing around is all, they didn't know we couldn't handle massive explosions."
Arthur was still very tense, his metal arm leaving a dent in the steering wheel as he spoke furiously through his teeth, "Vivi, we almost died, and you're laughing about it? This is why I don't let you choose our hunts! You always put us in bad situations, things we only narrowly get out of!"
He was hunched over, squinting into the distance as a fog began to settle around them. His tone of voice was grating on her nerves, and the usually laid-back disposition of Vivi found itself prickling with the heat of annoyance, her voice tainted with distaste and frustration, "Because all the jobs you choose are fake."
Silence. He didn't respond to Vivi, and that in itself scared her more than any ghost investigation could. When Arthur was angry, he argued and spoke through his teeth as like a mouthy teenage boy just begging for a smack on the mouth; when he was furious, he replaced any noise with the subtle and disturbing lack of it, filling the van with that sort of disappointment you only get from a fuming father. He had fallen into the second option, every movement of his stiff body so slow and deliberate as he drove them along the barely lit, abandoned road. With every ounce of his being, Arthur had feared something more than death back there-she could feel it rolling off of her friend in angry waves.
Vivi hadn't been allowed to choose their hunt for a long time, usually letting Arthur persuade her into investigations they both knew were fake or not dangerous at all. It took her weeks to convince him to help banish the fae-folk she had been called about, and even then, she knew he only agreed to it because it looked harmless enough. No one ever would expect playful sprites of anything malicious, but the information she withheld from Arthur-a young girl with a broken leg whispering of a fairy princess and a teenage boy found dead and covered in pixie dust-lead her to suspect they were more than mischievous. She had been so excited to take a real job with a hint of adventure and mystery to it, she may have forgotten to mention how pissed off they get when you try and relocate them from their home in the woods, and how murderous some fairy sprites had been recorded as.
She remembered choosing all the haunts before Arthur and her ended up in the hospital, taking every caller and chatting with every client thoroughly; what had happened? It had been absolutely wonderful for Arthur's social anxiety to take all of their calls and talk through all of their jobs, but after two years, Vivi was starting to feel excluded from the business aspect of her team. Had she been the reason Arthur had lost his arm? Was it through one of the jobs she carelessly chose that they had ended up in that hospital?
With these questioning thoughts, she felt a shot of pain run through her head, and she leaned over with bile rising in her throat, her body suddenly racked by nausea. It hurt, but this was good: it meant she was remembering something, or at least trying to. Every time she had come close to memories of that night she had shied away at the last minute, feeling her head throb and her body weaken, but now she had the possibility presented in front of her and she was going to take it. There was a flash of pink across her mind, magenta across the blackness of her closed eyelids. She could nearly see it, the outline, the fog, even a little bit of color...
Mystery nosed his way further into her hands, poking his head out from her fingers and looking at her with eyes filled with a strange sense of command and sentience, as though he knew what she was trying to do. Somehow, her dog had comprehended her actions, and he did not want her to remember by the look of it; still, she couldn't unsee the picture that had appeared as a blur before her eyes.
The black cave, surrounded by thorns and billowing smoke.
Arthur looked down at her, head in hands and arms on knees as she tried to deal with the sickness that was overcoming her. A tinge of guilt edged onto his expression, and he reached his good hand out to cup her shoulder, "Geez, Viv, I didn't mean to upset you that much. Are you okay?" his eyes flicked between her and the road hurriedly, "I just can't handle hunts like that 'cause I know I can't handle losing you, too. We've given so much of us to this job, and I'm not ready to give our lives away."
It was fairly quiet, the road being so small that only their car drove down it, slowing steadily as Arthur contemplated pulling over. Vivi seriously looked like she was about to hurl chunks, and he guessed the bumps in the poorly maintained street beneath them wasn't helping much. In reality, Vivi was just mulling over his words, letting them sit upon her mind as she reached down to pet Mystery rhythmically. Her shoulders were slouched down, slightly shying away from the touch of her friend as her back began to ache and her headache slowly cleared. Her mind was trying desperately to find meaning in his words, trying to remember what they had given Arthur's arm and Vivi's memory to so long ago, attempting to pinpoint the monster or ghoul or nightmare that had taken the most from both of them.
She was left only with that cave, the imprint of granite clear in her mind.
Vivi lifted up her head, emulating as pleasant a smile as she could at Arthur with her eyes closed pleasantly and bushy head steadied, letting go of Mystery to jump into the middle seat, "It's okay, Arty, I just got a bit of motion sickness, I ain't all that mad," she reassured, opening her eyes just a crack to see Arthur's face, "but you're right, I should be more careful. I've always thought that, even if the world does us in, we've at least got each other-I guess I should focus more on not letting the world kill us off in the first place, huh?"
Arthur looked over at her bright face, feeling his own stone frown mimic her cloudy cheeks easily and eagerly with the forgiveness of a forgetful child. She cast a spell upon him with the lighting of her face, the glowing of her cheeks, and though only a few minutes ago he had been ready to explode on the girl in a mix of angry terror and horrifying what-ifs, now he was just happy to have her by his side. Lewis had been so hard to lose-he still thought constantly about him, even two years later-but if he had lost Vivi that night or any day after, Arthur would not have let himself live.
As he opened his toothy grin to reply with his own thoughts and feelings, he felt something shudder beneath him and within his van, his baby crying out to him in the tiniest of screeched and screams, bumping and sputtering along with what little effort it could give before beginning to slow. Something tragic hit his heart like an arrow, and Arthur dropped his eyes, along with Vivi's and Mystery's, to the dashboard past his metal fingers. On the other side of the little window, the lights and gauges blinked feebly with flashes of pink light, growing and decaying like a beating heart. As the car slowed to a jerky stop, all was silent.
Arthur, mouth dry and hands shaky, feared whatever words came out of his mouth, knowing deep down that whatever he said might not be audible through the shivering of his voice, "Did...did my ol' girl just bail on me?"
Vivi would have snickered if she wasn't touched by a hint of fear herself, pulling out her phone and flipping it forward to check for a signal, "We don't have any bars out here," she looked at Arthur, her eyes accusatory as the dog and her watched him carefully, "didn't you just give her a tune-up less than a week ago?"
Arthur turned towards her, eyes guilty and smile tilted worriedly as he felt a bead of sweat roll across his forehead, "I may have, uh, skipped a few minor checks in order to go to the mall arcade with you. No big deal, right?"
If he hadn't been so damn cute, Vivi might've strangled her best friend to death. She looked out the front window and into the foggy and dark street ahead, her won side window nothing but black thorn, and then Arthur's, hoping to spot something-or someone-that might be able to help them out. Arthur himself was furiously attempting to restart the van, but every time his baby tried to hiccup into life, the weaker and feebler she became and the more distorted her engine sounded.
"Hey, there's a house down that driveway there. I'm sure I can get a phone call in there, maybe a ride into town if we're lucky enough. A jump start would be nice, too, but I don't see any cars-do we know what's up with her?" Vivi suggested, looking at her friend hopefully as he continued to rev the engine. He glanced out his window as she spoke to him, spotting the ominous house and double-taking the scene as he shook his head at her.
"Oh no, no, no. You are not going up there, uh-uh. We are staying put, maybe pushing the van further away from that...that..." A shiver ran through his body as he sized up the gothic mansion, glowing pink windows and all, trailing off as he continued to shake his head vigorously, "We can wait until another car passed and wave them down. We are not going anywhere near that."
He hadn't noticed that Vivi had already jumped out of the car, Mystery following his owner loyally as she stepped onto the damp ground beneath their tires, "You don't have to go, Arty-Mystery will keep me company. You do what you can for our number one teammate, we'll get someone down here to help start her up."
This lead Arthur to his big decision of the day: would he follow the lead of his friend into what he saw as certain death and the loss of everything he loved and held dear, or would he hide behind his cowardice as he watched the ones he loved march so bravely into the afterlife? There was no way that the house wasn't haunted-it glowed with the luminosity of a thousand flamboyantly colored suns-but there was no stopping Vivi now that she had laid her eyes upon it, and . Either they both left this world, or he lived with whatever consequence came afterward.
As his best friend hurried across the open road, it was clear to Arthur that he really didn't have any choice at all. If he was going to keep Vivi safe, give her any chance of survival, he couldn't hang in the van like he used to when there had been four of them. As fast as Arthur's legs could possibly run, he followed Vivi across the empty street and up the stone steps towards the most ominous house he had ever witnessed, the rock in his stomach weighing him down as he looked upon what would clearly change-or end-his life.
Their feet were resonant against the stairs beneath them, Vivi's heels clacking especially noisily upon the well-polished, beautifully constructed ground beneath them. Before they were even halfway up, he could feel the power radiating from the house in front of them, just like climbing waves upon the sea shore. With every new rush of water forward the blanket of ocean pulled itself further up the sand, just as the neon pinkness of the light within the house clawed and grabbed at them. The doors swung open as the power emanating from within reached a peak, spilling the light within in a flood of gushing water, nearly blinding as it reached out towards the curious eyes that beheld the spectacle within. Inside, Vivi swore she could here a distant humming, some sort of siren's song calling them forward promisingly.
All Vivi could think was how beautiful the mansion was.
"Okay, fuck this, I'm not doing this. Nope, not dying today, let's go." Arthur began mumbling, turning around on his heels as he tried to hurry back towards the van and safety. Vivi must have anticipated the reaction of her friend as she shot a hand backwards, grabbing her best friend by the collar of his vest without ever taking her eyes off the magnificence that was the house I front of her, the mystery unfolding like an aged map upon a wooden table.
"No Arty, we're already this far, we might as well see it through." Those words killed him, and she looked back with the same eager smile he remembered so clearly from before, giving his shirt a light tug when he didn't jump forward with enthusiasm like she was so ready to do, "Come one, we have a mystery to solve!"
Arthur didn't want to hear that, didn't want her to latch onto a commitment with this house, and he definitely didn't want her to feel as though she had a duty to explore the depths within fully and totally. Yet, here he was, and there she was, so immersed in the house in front of her that she didn't think one bit of the dangers that no doubt waited within to gobble them up and leave them in eternal despair. As Vivi gave the boy a strong pull forward and towards the opened double doors ahead, there wasn't much Arthur could do to resist-this was the life he had chosen, the life of Vivi, and in that way he was no more than a wayward slave to the whims of the blue girl. She pulled his little raft along, her light the tugboat that pulled him against the merciless currents of the river, and so he followed her so dutifully into the pink light ahead that was so blinding.
He closed his amber eyes to shield them from the brightness that met his gaze, but as they passed the threshold into a new world entirely, it disappeared from behind his lids. Still he kept his eyes shut tight, hoping that is he didn't look maybe it would all disappear, and the house in front of them would be nothing but normal after all. He heard someone singing, their voices muddled by some sort of interference-the walls, maybe, as though something were separating whatever ghostly choir had gathered in order to protect or shield the three who had entered from the ghastly melodies that rose into the dark hallways. There was a chill running in not from behind them and outside, but from much deeper inside the mansion, alluding to something much colder within; definitely a sign of some paranormal activity just waiting to happen or kill them or something horrible.
"Arty, look." Vivi whispered as she paused inside their new setting, absorbing the whole view with eyes wide open and mouth parted as she inhaled everything in, trying her best to completely engulf herself in every aspect of this wonderful, new place, "There's nothing scary here, just...look."
She had let go of his hand, and the frantic search for that little bit of connection with his only tie to safety forced him to spring his lids up like window shades. His protector had taken a few steps forward, her arms held close to her side as she wandered very slowly away, a balloon meant to wander the warm blue sky stuck in this house of dark purple and mystery. He lifted his metal arm up in a pre-flinch, preparing himself for whatever was to come before he knew entirely what was coming, "D-don't wander too far, Viv. I need you back here in the 'I have no clue what I'm doing' squad."
Her head turned briefly, and the smile that graced her lips was worth his current suffering, "You'll be fine, just look around! This place...it feels so-"
There was a deafening crash, and everything became thick with darkness.
Just as the morning sky can be many hues of brightness, the dark of night can be thousands of shades of nothingness. in this mansion, there was a whole new species of black, an entirely different form of oily mystery that wrapped around those who wandered too far in, showing nothing but the whites of the eyes of the beholders. If Arthur had thought the starless sky had been intimidating, he had never truly been exposed to the intense lack of light that he met here, within the mansion of his nightmares.
And yet, Vivi found it soothing, as though she were being wrapped in a blanket and coddled. Her eyes blinked lightly as she slowly began to remember where she had encountered this place before, struggling as she always did to form a picture in her head with the little scraps of parchment she was given by the greedy protector of her locked away secrets. Now, all she could feel was emotion, the wonder of entering a new mystery and holding in her hands the knowledge and wisdom of the spirits within, of hearing them sing as they began now, of watching the candle flame flicker aimlessly with someone's eyes boring adoring holes into the back of her neck, thinking she didn't notice.
Who was the one who had stared at her so lovingly within this house of her memory?
There was a magenta light traveling slowly in front of her now, lead on by an invisible master as the singing from far away grew louder and more concentrated. It didn't pause as it passed in front of the shocked faces of the three visitors, and with the gentleness of new fire, it lit the candles two by two. Patience at first gripped the eager wicks as they popped into the world, but with the expectation and anticipation of guests, they began to accelerate their own birth, jumping into the pinkness of life with the quickness of a foxtrot. The uniform flames bounced to the elaborate chandelier in the gorgeously adorned foyer, and with the force of fire bursting into its nurturing arms, the chandelier was pushed into the brightness of light.
Vivi nearly screamed in excitement and joy as every room was filled with the amazingly bright magenta light that danced so merrily in front of her widened eyes, but Arthur and Mystery weren't so hot on the magical ghost candles. Arthur felt as though their was more to this haunted house than he could recall, that their being stalled wasn't by some accident or coincidence and that something wanted them their, someone had called them to their home with the idea of blood on their mind. Mystery's sixth sense only confirmed that, and his eyes were flitting about the house as he tried to determine the disturbance by smell and sight. This mansion was just a little too much for both the dog and the coward.
Out of the corner of their eyes they saw the paintings in the left hallway light up, their eyes boring curious holes into the intruders with the brightness and color of the candles in front of them. In the foyer, Vivi caught a glance of something pink approaching, the voices growing louder as their owners rose up from beneath the chandelier and into the open with the commanding grace of stage performers comfortable with their craft, moving animatedly from one room to the next without much more than a few syllables and the grace of swans gliding upon the water.
The phantoms ahead of them approached quickly then, appearing behind Vivi and Arthur and Mystery without much warning save for the continuous singing in their voices. If there were words, Vivi couldn't make them out through the excitement that rendered her deaf-her smile spread from ear to ear in an open-mouthed, wide-eyed display of enchantment, as though she were a young child seeing Disneyworld for the first time. Her hands were lifted to her face as she whispered quietly to herself, taking in the situation and absorbing the scene with the hunger of someone who has forgotten everything. This experience, no matter how familiar, was a new thrill that she had never experienced in the time since her rebirth, and she wanted more.
The ghosts were mouthing a syllable, the soft 'mo' that was raised questioningly with the melody. Arthur still held himself mid flinch, ready to bolt as they rose up one by one in an arc around him and his team with an uncertain frown gracing his cheeks. Mystery too observed with caution, his red eyes raised as he lifted his nose to give the air a definitive sniff, inhaling the smell that wafted from the ghosts surrounding them and recognizing it immediately as he looked up at Vivi wit worry flitting in his eyes. Even the dog-in fact, especially the dog-knew that this was not a good place for the girl to be with her current lack of knowledge on their old friend.
As the performers ended the first act of their song, the eyes of the ghosts opened wide, and their mouths distorted as they screamed a shrill note at the three who gawked at them, curling their tiny fingers as they leaned forward and swayed dramatically. This was a little too much for the Mystery Skulls, and with living still on the list of their future plans, they bolted one by one away from the ghosts who had moments earlier been singing so beautifully for them, raising their voices into the darkness and quiet surrounding them and filling it with the melodies of love and the fear of hate. If Vivi hadn't been so busy following Arthur, her mind chasing after him as he shouted a call forward, she may have noticed the gentle hands of the pink ghosts reaching out to grab her longingly with hands running through her hair and gripping her sweater, almost as if they wished to hold her back for themselves.
Their legs, filled with the energy of adrenaline, pumped rhythmically as they accelerated down the hallway Arthur had chosen, surrounded on all sides by the faces of paintings whose eyes moved to watch them diligently like sentries watching the shadows of the night in enemy territory. Suits of armor shifted uneasily under the weight of their metal cages with their heads turning just slightly to gaze at the ones who ran quickly past them, and ahead, Arthur could see the pink tail of one of the ghosts from earlier snake into the helmet of the suit as its eyes flared to life, animating the sluggish phantom into an angry demon. The arm of metal lifted its sword with a jerk forward, and Arthur could see what was going to happen before he really had time to react to the threat upon his life, certain that these thoughts of remorse would be his last.
His body was thrust forward as he felt a strong force meet his back, not quite a hand pushing him to the ground but more like two paws placed firmly on his shoulders as they lifted from the ground. Mystery himself had jumped with paws outstretched, pushing with all of his might to make sure his companion was able to duck in time to avoid the sword waiting for him in the echoing hallway. Vivi too was flung into the air, falling over the sword rather than beneath it as she rolled back onto the ground, landing sorely but safe. Again, if she hadn't been so preoccupied with her Olympic's sprint down the hallway, she would have no doubt noticed the hands of the ghosts lifting and throwing her into the air so that she might miss the sword and stay alive, but she was still too busy thinking her life was in danger to notice that the mansion was holding her in safe hands.
Mystery wasn't so safe however, and as the stunned Vivi sat forward with a hand lifted beneath her chin and the sore Arthur rubbed his rug burns gingerly from their spots on the floor, they noticed that their dog was lacking a head but still moving about just as a chicken might as he prepared to become Sunday brunch. Vivi lifted her hand to cover her mouth as she began to mourn for her beloved pet and mascot while Arthur, who was too filled with terror to really do anything of use, merely flinched as he always did, but lucky for them Mystery seemed to have a second head which popped up to replace his lost one without any damage or gore. The two might have questioned something as crazy as this on any normal occasion, but there was still too much preparing to kill them for the three to take their eyes off of the mansion if even for a second.
They swung around as the portraits surrounding them began to sing, the same voices of the ghosts rising from the frames of finely dressed young men and woman. Unfortunately for the portraits, their three victims weren't quite lined up in the position necessary to go through with their little stunt, and so again the ghosts of the mansion leapt forward to scream at the three intruders with wicked smiles and steady yet high vocals reaching into and echoing off of the walls.
Arthur and Mystery jumped simultaneously into Vivi's arms, gripping the girl for dear sweet life as the ghosts retreated back into their portraits, satisfied with their work. Vivi watched a string swing from the ceiling in front of a particularly fancy young woman, and it wasn't too hard for her to infer what was coming as the gloved hand reached out to grab it from the confines of her frame. Her eyes glanced down, and Vivi found that there was nothing beneath her feet safe a wide open cavern that was surprisingly well lit but no less deep.
This was it, she thought, the day that she died was upon her. The three would fall to their death with nothing more than a scream and then silence to mark their leaving this world. Maybe, she thought, she should've listened to Arthur for once and stayed in the van to wait for a passing truck or two; instead, her little family was going to end up dead and it was all her fault. She didn't want to die, but somehow she accepted it.
With that little cry of thought, Lewis woke up.