A/N; this is the prequel to a story I've wanted to write for a while, but it keeps getting pushed down the list because I'm enthusiastic about other stories. But I think you can see why I haven't given up on this story yet. I will be really, REALLY impressed if anyone can figure out the movie that this is a 'fix-it' fic for.

Chosen

The baron tried to hold his hand out to Haru, but Mr. Yabuki smoothly slid his way between them to shake the lord's hand himself.

"I wouldn't worry too much about tourism dying down for the area," he assured the man as the police car rolled away with a costumed butler in the back like a cheap children's show. "The story remained fresh thanks to their antics, and people do love a conspiracy story almost as much as they love a ghost story."

"Ah, yes," the baron agreed, trying to sneak a peek around the man's shoulder at his ward. "Well, all of you are still welcome to spend one more night, since it's a bit late in the day to travel anywhere significant or reach any suitable accommodations."

It was a generous offer, but frankly, it's not like they would have been able to leave any earlier than that anyway since the filming crew needed to secure their equipment for the road. Technically they could have stayed for another few days, but Haru wasn't surprised that Mr. Yabuki wanted to leave.

She wasn't even surprised when he hissed instructions to her not to open her bedchamber for anyone tonight, even if it was the baron.

'Ha. He watched me tase what he thought was his ancestor's ghost. I don't think he'll try anything with me, even if he was the type,' she couldn't help thinking a bit smugly as she let herself into her personal room and locked it behind her. 'Never mind that as the master of the house, he'll have a spare key if he really, truly, wanted to sign up for that kind of punishment.'

But her heart couldn't resist quaking a little, thinking about the way the dark-haired man's eyes seemed to follow her, and how that wasn't the first time Mr. Yabuki had inserted himself between his ward and another man he deemed a threat.

Unfortunately, every man was a threat to him. Such a shame. The Baron von Gikkingen might have even been her type if Mr. Yabuki ever let them exchange more than a few words.

Haru tiredly sank into the vanity's chair and removed her glasses so she could rub the frustrated tears out of her eyes. "Come on," she whispered in agony. "Fate, universe, anything that might be listening right now. Send me a sign that I can find something that can set me free."

She dismally remembered the proof she had seen last year of the supernatural, but it was unfortunately the same proof that it needed to stay hidden from anyone's knowledge. It was a movie that started this journey for her, and she'd seen enough movies about monsters to know that Mr. Yabuki would exploit and very possibly resurrect things better left buried if he ever learned about what Haru had seen when she had snuck away from that dinner party. It wouldn't matter how she tried to stay in his way, and she wouldn't put it past him to blackmail her into the marriage anyway if he had that kind of dirt on her.

It was essentially what he was doing right now, and her time was running out.

"Look, I don't need an angel to descend from heaven," Haru decided to bargain just in case something could hear her. "I just want enough proof of magic that no one can contest it before I turn twenty-four. I'll be as good as dead after that but give me a chance to be happy. Maybe even happy with someone that treats me like a partner instead of a trophy."

Her heart seemed to scream with yearning, but thanks to running ragged over the baron's estate, family tombs, and actually apprehending the butler that was in on the ploy, she was feeling too exhausted to even get up long enough to throw herself on the bed. A long yawn was her only protest before setting her glasses to the side and nestling her head on her arms. Even as she fell asleep, she tried to tell herself that wasn't her reflection doing the same, but her mother.

ooOoo

The door violently opened, making Haru snap to attention with a gasp. "I locked that!" she yelped just before being struck dumb by the people who were taking refuge in her room, just as violently slamming the door after them before locking it and running for a chair.

One was all too recognizable thanks to the old family portraits. It appeared that von Gikkingen genes were very dominant, because instead of the current baron's ashy black hair and clear blue eyes, she was staring straight at a man that could have been his twin, but with golden hair and eyes that she couldn't quite tell the color of since the hour was close to midnight but knew from the portraits that they were as green as grass.

Baron Humbert von Gikkingen II wasted no time dragging the chair over to the door to wedge it under the doorknob as an extra measure of delay since there were now angry shouts, but now Haru's attention was dominated by the woman with him.

She had been able to surmise that Baron Humbert had likely fallen in love with someone the family suspected was a vampire or a witch since his coffin was full of crucifixes, dried wild roses and garlic long past their due date, but no evidence whatsoever of a body had been present. But the last thing she was expecting to see was… a shapeshifter? A werecat?

Bakeneko?

In any case, the woman was a standard human height and dressed very properly for the time period, but her head was clearly that of a white cat's.

"I did warn you that telling them would be a bad idea," she informed Humbert guiltily, making him look at her with a sad helplessness.

"I'm sorry I put you through that, love, but we don't have time to hash things out here." He wasted no time grabbing her hand and nearly dragging her to the grandfather clock.

"A secret passageway?" Haru guessed with interest, getting up from her seat to follow them. Neither of the party answered her, but her curiosity was too much to stay put.

Sure enough, Humbert turned the hands of the grandfather clock in three full rotations before pressing on the part of the wood frame that had a rose engraving. The entire clock hissed as it slipped backward, revealing a metal track for it to slide down to create an opening that Humbert wasted no time leading his lady love through.

Haru was just able to join them as the grandfather clock slid back into its former position. She blinked twice and was surprised to just barely be able to see the pair in the absolute darkness. The air was cold and dusty, though not as dusty as she was expecting.

"Not a word," Humbert breathed, pressing a tender kiss to the cat woman's knuckles before using one hand to silently guide the two forward.

Haru followed nervously, especially when she heard someone trying to break down the door behind them. 'Stay calm, Haru. If what I gathered was correct, the family never caught up to them. Or buried their remains out in the woods and told anyone that asked that they never caught up.'

It felt like it took eternity, especially when they were able to occasionally hear commotion from the other side of stone walls. Once they even heard it from their side!

The cat woman whispered some words in a language Haru was actually surprised that she didn't know, pulling her lover to a wall and laying flat against it while holding hands when torchlight was approaching. Much to Haru's surprise, the color of their clothes, his skin, her fur, all of it became the same grey as the stone until Haru had to really pay attention to be sure that they were really there. Since she didn't want to experience having dream people walk through her, she also flattened herself against the same wall to avoid the mob of people running past.

Haru noted with interest that they unconsciously didn't run into the space that the baron and his feline lady were occupying.

"They're here somewhere, we can't let that witch get away with hexing our baron!" a well-dressed servant encouraged the others, who roared their approval as they began splitting up to explore the other passages that Humbert had skipped.

The two waited a few more seconds to be sure they were going the wrong direction, and then hurriedly ran again, losing the stone complexion as soon as they were no longer in contact with the wall.

'This is it!' Haru couldn't resist thinking gleefully as she struggled to keep up with them, since she excelled in gathering and using information, not particularly in exercising her body. 'Whatever this woman is, she has what I need! But how can I ask her anything? All this already happened.'

It was a bit longer before Humbert forcefully cranked a sconce to make part of the wall open up to the outside. The air was still cold thanks to the time of night, but at least it was fresh and clean.

Haru rushed to get through the opening before it closed after the two.

"You know, I can-" the woman tried to say, but Humbert placed a finger to his lips again.

"Please, Louise. Not until we reach the safe point."

They were a bit more careful when they took off running again, likely thanks to the fall leaves that seemed determined to crackle under every footstep. Haru only managed to be silent because her feet weren't really touching the leaves, even when they came down directly on the crisp reminders that winter was not far off.

There were patrols out here as well to catch the two, but the only one that actually found them before Louise could enact their camouflage quickly discovered that the baron was no slouch when it came to fighting, and Louise could whisper a spell that could make men drop to the ground asleep, but only one at a time.

It still wasn't long before they were hiding out on the far side of a larger rock.

"You could go back, you know," Louise whispered sadly. "All I can offer is isolation and love."

Humbert gave her an enraged look before hurriedly pressing her to the rock and kissing her soundly enough to make Haru blush.

"Oh, get a room, and this isn't the time," she muttered, though still a shade jealous of a relationship that had been barred to her before she understood what it meant.

Louise was moaning in appreciation long before her lover pulled back enough to give her a loving glare.

"If you think I want literally anything else than to be left alone with you, it's a good thing I have the rest of our lives to correct you. I can't go back to that… that cage; I'll follow you wherever I have to if it means getting to be your husband."

Such a speech clearly made Louise weak at the knees, and she began pulling at something from inside a pocket in the seam of her dress. But then they both looked up and toward the sound of another search party that found the one they had fought just before.

Humbert swore under his breath before grabbing her hand again and leading her on a careful run again.

Unnoticed by Louise, perhaps still in a love stupor from the heated kiss, the hand that had been fishing around her pocket accidentally flung out a golden pocket watch, making it land with an unnoticed thump against a small bit of earth that didn't have leaves.

"Wait, you forgot your watch!" Haru's good manners couldn't resist calling out a warning.

Much to her surprise, the two stopped dead in their tracks. As one, they slowly turned to look at the young woman who had been following them as if she were the ghost. Haru definitely grew afraid at how their eyes had suddenly changed into an endless agony, and their mouths were set in sad smiles as they gazed at her.

"Then return it, please," Louise asked very formally.

Haru snapped to attention with a loud gasp, realizing that she had woken up back at the vanity. She hurriedly got up from the seat as her back cracked in protest and did a few rounds of pacing before noticing that the room had turned blurry in her vision. Growling a bit, she retrieved her glasses from the vanity and shoved them on, bringing the room back into focus.

The first thing she saw was the grandfather clock, informing her that it was close to the hour it had been when Humbert and Louise had made their escape all those nights ago. Her heart pounded as she looked at it, almost afraid that the dream had been real.

"Come on, this is what you asked for," she whispered to herself harshly, pulling out her phone and checking the battery life before turning on the flashlight in preparation for the secret passageway. She turned the clock's hands three times and pressed hard on the engraved rose.

It was hard to press hard enough, probably due to not being pressed for a long time, and Haru couldn't help being afraid that she was going to get found out as the grandfather reluctantly slid down a noisy track that desperately needed oil.

Haru made a mental note to take care of that when she got back, sliding through the opening and helping the grandfather clock slide back into place. She guessed that the sconce next to the clock's back was how to open it again and began her walk.

The air was cold and dusty like before, but the dust was overwhelming enough to make her pull the front of her sweater over her mouth to keep the worst of it out of her lungs. She tried hard to keep the same pace that Humbert and Louise had set so that she wouldn't miss any of the markers from a different time than they had done.

Haru knew on instinct when she reached the wall that Louise had done her camouflage spell on. She instinctively wanted to press herself against it again, but just barely remembered that if there were any suspicious marks on her laundry, Mr. Yabuki would know before the day was out.

He couldn't find out about this. Not until it would be impossible for him or anyone else to refute it. Haru swallowed another deep breath before continuing the path that the pair had shown her. She bent the familiar sconce down, though it was in need of oil as well, and was greeted with the same opening, though slower than it had been one and a half centuries ago.

'I really should tell the baron about the secret passages in the morning. He can't know about this if it's in such bad disrepair. But how would I explain finding out about them that won't alert Mr. Yabuki?' She shook her head, putting that problem away so that she could continue to that large rock.

This part was a bit more difficult, since one hundred and fifty years was plenty of time for trees to gain new shapes, grow unfamiliar ones as some others rotted away, and even the hard earth under her shoes had a different feel than before.

Thankfully, the rock had not changed, even though Haru's blood ran cold at the sight of it. She paused for breath, only realizing she was exactly where Louise had been pressed for aggressive affection after she was steady again. She hopped off the spot with a furious blush.

"Okay. They wouldn't have asked me if the watch had gotten picked up in all this time." Haru got on her knees and carefully sifted through the leaves in the area she had seen the watch fall but found nothing. She even crawled around trying to widen her search area, but still found nothing by her fingers or her phone's light. Growling under her throat, she got to her feet and started pacing again. "They want me to find it. It's here, I just need to think smarter." Although it felt like a stretch, she started looking at the trees until she brightened considerably.

There was a hollow in one tree that was big enough for a squirrel's nest. And squirrels were known to steal strange things if crows didn't beat them to it.

It had been years since Haru had climbed a tree, but for the sake of her sanity, she had to be both careful and quick in her ascent. She peered into the hollow while carefully using her phone to illuminate, grateful that it was no longer occupied since squirrel scratches would be hard to explain away. Not much could be seen, so there was a possibility the watch was in there. She took in a deep breath, put away her phone since she needed one arm to grasp the trunk for safety, and carefully eased her slender hand into the opening.

The first thing she grabbed was a big fistful of mulching, rotting leaves. "Eww!" she yelped, quickly withdrawing her hand and wiping it on the tree's bark. Then she steeled herself and put her hand back in there and tried to find anything other than the mulch and pieces of nuts that weren't edible. It was disgusting, but she had to know.

She had to bend her wrist at an uncomfortable angle, but she eventually felt metal. Her heart beat unsteadily as she carefully wound a chain around her fingers so that she could extract her hand and the item from the small opening.

It was the watch. Covered in the muck of over a hundred years of leaf residue, but there was no mistaking it.

No longer caring about the mess on her clothes, she shoved it deep into her pant pocket before carefully climbing down. She hissed in pain when the harsh bark scraped her palm at an almost fall, but she was able to jump to the ground.

Wishing that she had some Kleenex or even a handkerchief, she used the edge of her shirt to clean the worst off the heirloom. She blinked, then got out her phone for the flashlight to get a better look.

There were engravings on the watch's cover, but the light markings were unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Squinting her eyes a bit while studying them closely, she realized with a thrill that it had to be the same language Louise used while performing magic!

She held the pocket watch to her wildly beating heart, realizing everything this could mean. Yes, it was too late to return the watch to Louise herself, but with how lovey-dovey she had been with Humbert, there was no way her family line ended with her!

Somewhere in this world, there was at least one cat person that might be thrilled to have this heirloom returned, if they even knew it was missing. She wouldn't have been set on finding the watch if there was no one to give it to.

It was all too perfect. Find that person, return the watch, convince them to do just enough public magic to set her free, if she could find them in time. Maybe even gain her first real friend in years while doing it!

"Louise, Humbert, if you can hear me," Haru stated while looking up into the stars through the trees. "I don't care if it takes past my personal due date. Come what may, I will find your descendant, return their rightful property, and mercilessly pester them with my questions about magic no matter what. This last part's non-negotiable; take it or leave it."

There was a gentle breeze blowing while she announced this promise, but the breeze didn't seem to fully account for how it felt like both of her cheeks were receiving an unseen kiss of gratitude.

xxXxx

A/N: Be prepared. In honor of Halloween, I'll be uploading a one-shot every week! Mwa ha ha ha!