Hey, yes I am a huge liar, I said I would update this fanfiction like three months ago, I'm very sorry :c I thought I could get it done that weekend but I failed to remember how busy I was so of course it didn't get done, I've had a lot of difficulties emotionally and within school and I promise to try and update more frequently than once a month since I've practically left so many of you hanging for well over a year now? Well all that shit aside, it's thanksgiving break and I will finish this. - Ash.

Love? did he just say he loves me? Fuck. Gilbert's heart was practically beating out of his chest, this wasn't a dream, this was really happening, Oh God if I don't answer he's going to think I hate him.

"Gilbert?"
Gilbert stood and stared at his feet for a while, before a smile slowly found a way onto his face, he liked, no, loved Matthew. But fuck why was it so hard just to come out and just say it.

"Gilbert, please don't hate me."

Matthew started to look sick to his stomach, his eyebrows furrowed in worry and Gilbert could tell he was becoming very anxious about the answer he was going to receive.
Matthew couldn't stand the tension between them at this moment, he knew that Gilbert liked him even if it wasn't in the same way. But this wait for an answer was making it hard just to stand there in silence. Why was Gilbert changed from his cocky self into a quiet boy with no answer to the question? Gilbert looked into matthew's worried eyes.
"Matthew, I.." he knew he liked Matthew but the words barely escaped his mouth in nervousness "I love you too."

He quickly grabbed Matthew's hand and the smile on his face grew.

"See Birdy! I don't hate you I love you."

Matthew sighed in relief, he gave Gilbert's hand a small squeeze.

"So, Uh.. What now?" Matthew asked.

He never had been in a relationship, nor had he really like that many people in the past, he really had no clue what was to become of this moment.

"Well, we have a lot to talk about. What do you say about going to a cafe in town and eating pancakes? My treat."

"That would be great Gilbert."

"Cool, I'll get ready and meet you back out here in about five minutes?"

Matthew nodded his head and watched as Gilbert ran into his house. He was happy but he felt the unnerving that someone or something was watching him, the smile that was once there slowly turned into slight panic, had someone been watching them the whole time? He jerked himself around to see that no one was there, some birds startled at his noise flew out of the trees. He pulled his arms across his chest and gave a small shiver. The breeze was cold coming off the black lake which lapped on the shore idly. He didn't like being alone.

What's taking him so long? he thought to himself kicking at the rocks beneath his feet. Matthew was starting to get nervous.
"Ready to go Birdie?" Gilbert called finally coming outside with a binder in hand, slamming the door shut behind him to which Matthew could clearly hear someone yelling at Gilbert for the noise he was making.

Matthew nodded, and Gilbert opened the garage waving for Matthew to come join him. Which he did slowly walking towards the garage he ducked under the door following Gilbert's lead as it was still proceeding to open. The two boys climbed into the truck. As they pulled out rain slowly started to patter onto the car.

Matthew stared out the window as the two drove down the country road in the rain which had quickened to a gentle rainfall.

"So, um Matt." Gilbert asked "Have you ever been in, a relationship?"
"No, you?"
"Once. I don't want to make you bored with talk of my un-awesome ex." He laughed "I don't hate her, we're still friends but I'm never dating her again."

it went quiet for a while, as they neared town it started to become awkward. Gilbert could no longer stand the silence, He pulled into a parking spot outside the diner and stopped Matthew as he started to get out.

"Matthew, look I don't know if this is where you want this to go, but when I said I liked you, I really meant it, and it would mean a lot to me if you would go out with me." Gilbert sighed "So will you go out with me?"

"Yes."

"Hell yeah, I have an awesome boyfriend. Keseses."

Matthew shook his head as he started to get out of the truck, to which Gilbert ran around to the passenger side and continue to open the already half-opened door.
"Thanks Gil, you're a real gentleman."
To this Gilbert smiled, he was currently on top of the world and nothing could bring him down, despite that on the inside he was a frantic mess, his heart was pounding with excitement, he grabbed his binder out of the car and continued into the diner with his new boyfriend.

They were quickly greeted by warm air as they entered the small town diner, Matthew ran his fingers through his hair to shake out any water, they chose a little table in the corner. The diner was cozy, music was playing softly in the background, a young woman came up to their table, her hair was slicked back into a braid, and she was wearing the typical old country town diner uniform. she smiled sweetly and handed them both a menu.
"Let me know when you're ready to order, I'll bring you complimentary water, would you like anything else?"

"Yeah, I'd like coffee, light on the cream." Gilbert replied.

"And you?" She asked

"Water is fine." Matthew said turning back to his menu,

She then smiled at Matthew and walked off, Matthew looked up at Gilbert who was getting up out of the booth, he watched as Gilbert walk over to the Juke box, he placed in a few coins and selected some rock song that Matthew didn't know. He turned smiling and did an awkward dance shuffle thing on his way back to the table laughing as he sat down.
"That's more like it, that music before wasn't meant to be heard by these awesome ears."

He pulled up the binder he had with him onto the table and opened it, it contained photos and newspaper clippings, The waitress came back with water and coffee, placing the drinks on the table. She took their orders and left.

"I called up a buddy of mine, his name is Francis. Do you know that name?"

"It sounds familiar.."

"Well, I guess I'll have to tell you." Gilbert searched on his phone and brought up a picture. "Francis bonnefoy, if you haven't guessed by now you two are related. He's a cousin on your mother's side just a year older than you."

Matthew was completely in the dark about his mother's side of the family, his father would always say there was just grand parents that he knew about and would leave it at that and change the subject. He knew his mother and her side of the family was difficult for his father, but he deserved to know about them.

"Wow, I had no clue that I had a cousin."

"Well he had no clue that he had a cousin either, from what he says the story of your mom was kept in the dark from him as much as it was from you."

Why was his mother such a touchy subject for both sides of the family? What happened? Matthew's train of thought was interrupted by pancakes which were abruptly placed in front of him. The waitress then walked away allowing them to get back into conversation.

"Any way, I don't think your mom's disappearance has anything to do with Edith."

The blond stopped eating.

"Edith?" He said

"Fuck, Birdie are you ok? The color just drained from your face."

"Edith is the girl, the girl that comes to me in dreams and hallucinations."

"Shit, well this girl was living across the lake from where my house is, from the newspaper I found, it seems they mostly kept to themselves. When their house burnt down no one noticed until it was too late."

Gilbert slid the article across the table to Matthew, it stated:

"The bodies of the Johnson's have not been recovered, we have reason to believe that their child Edith Johnson may have survived we found footprints in the mud leading away from where the door originally stood. Edith is [approximately] 5'0", she has blonde hair and brown eyes. If you know the whereabouts of this child or have seen her at all call the police station at once!"

"Follow ups on the case ended a year later, the whole town gave up searching for Edith, she was given a candlelight vigil and nothing more became of the case." Gilbert said softly picking at what was left of his pancake "It's sad isn't it?"

"Where could she have gone?"

"No clue." Gilbert at this point was dumping the contents of the sugar bowl into his coffee

"Well it doesn't matter now considering I keep seeing her." Matthew sighed moving his now frizzy hair out of his face. "There's no way she could be alive, is there?"

"Well birdie, you've seen her ghost so I doubt it." Gilbert said stirring his 'coffee' "Are you done with your food?"

"Yeah."

The two stood up leaving their money on the table, waving to the waitress as the walked out the door, the rain hadn't subsided, Gilbert and Matthew both climbed into the truck. Matthew was still a bit shaken up learning about the fate of the Johnson family. None of this told him anything about his mom, where was she in all of this?

"Well, do you just want to head back home?" Gilbert asked

"Sounds good."

When they arrived home they both went to Gilbert's house, when they got there Ludwig and Gilbert's Opa were nowhere to be seen, in the kitchen was a note attached to the fridge with one of those tacky travel magnets.

Gilbert,

Me and Opa are going to visit one of his friends in the neighboring town.
We will be back late tonight, DO NOT do anything stupid! If you leave please leave a response note detailing where you went and when you will be back, and leave it on the fridge.

Ludwig

Gilbert crumpled the note, he didn't need his baby brother telling him what to do. Ludwig was always extremely uptight and frankly, needed to pull that stick out of his ass. He quickly tossed the paper across the room and turned back to the blond who was standing behind him staring at his Grandfather's beer stein collection. Gilbert quietly walked over to Matthew and placed his chin on his shoulder, startling him slightly.

"So, what do you want to do Mattie?" He said quietly

"I'm kinda tired Gil, I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Come here."

Gilbert grabbed his hand and guided Matthew to the living room and sat him on the couch, tossing him a blanket out of a basket on the floor, and lighting the fireplace before sitting down. He pulled Matthew closer to him and pulled the blanket on. Matthew laid his head on his boyfriend's shoulder, Gilbert hummed softly, and for once Matthew felt like he might be able to sleep. The sound of the humming softened as Matthew's eyes slowly blinked shut, and he fell asleep. it had been about thirty minutes into his nap that Matthew heard something. Tapping. His eyes shot open, and he looked around. His eyes found their way to the window. TAP TAP TAP. He saw her, Edith. Her large doll-like eyes peering in at him, she raised her hand to the window, motioning for him to come. Terrified he pulled the blanket off of himself, careful not to wake Gilbert who was still fast asleep. Edith still looking through the window smiling, she pointed her finger towards the front of the house and waved at Matthew. Mesmerized he silently walked out of the house, it had stopped raining but it was cloudy and grey, Edith stood at the bottom of the stairs gazing up at the boy.
"W-what do you want." He choked.

"follow me."

Her voice was murky, and quiet. she turned slowly, looking over her shoulder to make sure Matthew followed. As soon as he took the first step she broke into a sprint. Matthew followed, unsure of what to do. She led him into the woods, He ran as fast as he could following her, at one point he lost her, only managing to catch up when he caught a glimpse of her nightgown through the thick trees. All he could hear was the blood rushing through his ears and the giggle of the little girl in front of him. He couldn't find her again, he slowed as he came to a clearing, by now it was pouring rain and the temperature had dropped from that of a summer's day to more of a fall evening, he found himself on an edge overlooking the lake, he gulped at the swirling water below him.

"Boo."

Matthew flung himself around to find Edith perched on a rock.

"Tell m-me. What. Do. You. Want?"

She jumped down from the rock and walked over to him, slowly in a very cat-like manner.

"I want to show you."
"Sh-show me what?"

"Come on Matthew. Let's go for a swim!"
She grabbed his hand pulling him closer to the edge.
"No no no no no no!"

He pulled back trying to get rid of her grip.

Sorry for another cliffhanger after so long! I promise I'll update more frequently, I definitely will update within the next week since this is such an awkward cliff hanger. Excuse any plot mix ups or bad grammar, I tried really hard to edit but sometimes I miss stupid things. Well anyway, I love all of you that still stuck to this story after such a long hiatus. You're all amazing whether you've been a follower or just discovered the story. 3