Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Lure

Chapter 52 - A Bump in the Night

The two detectives were already plunging down the stairs when Shinichi realized that it might have been smarter for one of them to stay behind at the sealed door to monitor whether the noises—and their cause—remained there, but it was already too late. And he doubted either of them would have wanted to volunteer to be the one to stay behind.

On the other hand, if his memory of the house's floor plan were accurate, that might not be an issue.

There were two paths inside the house between the main house and the west wing. One, incidentally the one that they had used, was on the ground floor. The other had been the currently sealed door. Inside the west wing, there was only one flight of stairs connecting all the floors—and they would soon be climbing it. That meant that anyone at the sealed door would have to descend the stairs past them to reach a ground floor door to the outside or take a dive out a window to exit the west wing.

The sound of their pounding feet must have wakened others in the house, because Shinichi heard Asami's voice crying out for Yuu to be careful as he joined them on the stairs.

The weak light from Shinichi's watch nevertheless revealed that he was carrying a hunting rifle.

Shinichi felt a moment's pause at the sight of the weapon. Such things were not meant for self defense. They were also very much unfit for use indoors.

Catching the look on Shinichi's face, Yuu grinned. "I won't fire unless we really see the beast."

Hoping it wouldn't come to that, Shinichi, Heiji and Yuu hit the ground floor running, charged into the west wing then stampeded up the stairs there. It seemed to take forever for them to reach the landing of the floor they were after. But then they were finally there and pelting for the sealed door and whatever had been causing the strange, scratching, thumping sounds.

"Watch your step," Yuu warned between gasps for breath. "There are tools and things lying around."

His warning came not a moment too soon as Hattori, who was in the lead, came abruptly upon a stack of flooring tiles outside what was presumably a bathroom of some sort. It was only by dint of careening wildly into the wall that he avoided tripping over it. He subsequently hit the wall so hard that he rebounded and almost tripped over the tiles again, but Shinichi and Yuu each grabbed one of his arms, steadying him.

"Thanks," he said, righting himself and setting off again.

Their progress slowed considerably, but it was mutually agreed that this was preferable to risking painful falls and possible injury. They all chafed at the slow speed anyway as their ears strained in search of any sound of another entity moving about in the dark. Unfortunately, it was difficult to hear clearly over the sound of their own pounding heartbeats and uneasy footsteps.

Then they were turning into the hallway on the west wing side of the sealed door, muscles tense for action.

None of them knew what they expected to see, although all three would vehemently deny even considering the possibility of seeing a monster (this would be a lie. No, none of them really believed there was a monster, but that couldn't stop their imaginations from painting the picture for them).

And they weren't proven wrong. There was no monster.

In fact, there was nothing at all.

The hall was deserted.

"Damn, we took too long!" Heiji cursed, sweeping his flashlight this way and that over the walls and floor. The place was a mess of wood chips and plaster bits, but it had been a mess already when they'd visited earlier that day, so he couldn't really say with certainty if anything had been disturbed. They would have to review the pictures Shinichi had taken for that.

Though perhaps they should start by taking more pictures now. Just in case.

Ichimiya Yuu let out a breath of released tension. "I'm going to put in an order for a batch of security cameras first thing tomorrow morning," he declared. "There's no point waiting for the renovations to finish if our work keeps getting interrupted. Do either of you detectives have suggestions for good products for our situation?"

"We could probably give ya a few tips," Heiji agreed, beginning to pick his way over the debris to start photographing the scene of the, er, disturbance? He supposed he couldn't call it a crime until he'd proven the vandalism had spawned.

With Yuu and Heiji focused on the door and the short hall before it, Shinichi was the one who turned his watch light towards the adjoining halls. Since this was one of only two doors into the main house from the west wing, it was a hub of several hallways leading off into other portions of the west wing. With the minimal light, all the halls seemed like dark tunnels stretching away into the infinite unknown. You almost expected to hear the rustling of bat wings or the telltale dripping of water from ancient stalactites into deep, still pools that had not seen the light of day in centuries.

Shinichi couldn't see far from where he stood with such a weak light in such deep gloom, but he could swear when he peered down one of the neighboring halls that he saw movement.

There was a shadow there, darker than the rest and larger too. Man-shaped? He wasn't sure. But it was moving, and he would swear he could hear the whisper of stealthy feet.

"Who's there?" he called out, both to warn his companions of the potential intruder as much as to try and catch the intruder's attention. Now that he knew he'd been seen, would he turn and face them? Or would he run?

If he had a bone to pick with the Ichimiyas, he might take this chance to have it out with Yuu. But instead the shadow fled.

Instinct kicked in the instant Shinichi saw the figure whirl and bolt, and the detective bolted after him. Behind him, Heiji let out a startled cry for him to wait up while Yuu cursed his hunting rifle and its clumsiness indoors.

"Don't shoot!" Shinichi shouted back at the man. "No matter what. You don't want to hurt someone."

But then he had to focus on running without tripping over the uncertain footing while not losing sight of the figure fleeing the scene.

Whoever it was, they knew their way around the west wing far better than Shinichi did, and it was all he could do not to lose them. Halls, turns, stairs and windows whirled by, and, if asked later, he wouldn't have been able to retrace his steps (strange. Hadn't they been told that there was only one flight of stairs? But he knew he'd followed the shadow both down and up, and surely it hadn't all been on the same set of steps. Or had it? He was already totally turned around). He wasn't even sure what floor of the building they were on anymore.

Nor did he have any idea if Heiji or Yuu were still behind him. All his thoughts, his attention, were focused on that shadow.

That shadow that had reached a dead end.

It turned, but here in this windowless room, the darkness was like ink. Thick and impenetrable. But Shinichi could feel its presence. Hear its harsh breathing.

Then Shinichi smelled it. There was something sharp and bitter in the air. Something acrid that burned. His vision hazed. His breaths were coming in fast gulps, but he couldn't seem to breathe. It was as though there was no oxygen in the breaths he managed to capture.

He gasped then started to cough, but it didn't help.

His lungs were filling, but with what, he had no idea. It wasn't oxygen, and he knew he was suffocating.

He backpedaled, trying to get away from the smoke, but he collided with something and dropped to his knees, dizzy and disoriented.

His world tilted and spun crazily.

Somewhere in the distance, he heard coughing, but he couldn't have said if the sound was coming from his own throat or another source. Still, he squinted through watering eyes at a landscape gone hazy and distant.

And there in the twisting, writhing darkness, he saw eyes.

Two glowing, crimson eyes like burning coals.

Then he heard the growl, and, for the briefest of instances before he lost consciousness completely, he thought he caught a glimpse of the glimmer of long, ivory fangs in the dim, wavering beam of his watch light.

Was this the beast? Was it about to attack him?

He didn't know, and he wasn't going to find out because he finally blacked out.

-0-

In her short life, Haibara Ai had encountered numerous major upsets. Unlike for many others, however, she had had the good fortune to get the chance to really, truly start over—from, essentially, the beginning.

For her, getting to grow up again was an unexpected boon, especially since she was getting to do so with a family. Professor Agasa and Kudo Shinichi might not be related to her by blood, but that didn't matter. They had been with her through the worst times of her life and helped her through it. They were her family in all the ways that mattered.

So now, with a new family, a new life, and no more evil organization to hide from, she was finally beginning to give some thought to what her future might hold.

Because she knew now that she actually had a future.

She wasn't in a hurry to make up her mind though. At present, it was enough to take the time to appreciate all that she had been blessed with.

That being said, she was a genius living a grade school student's life with, now, no difficult projects to occupy her considerable intellect with. She had more free time now than she'd ever had before, and she wasn't entirely sure what to do with it all now that she felt she had just about finished enjoying the respite.

It wasn't just that she no longer had the antidote for Shinichi to work on, she mused as she flipped idly through one of her fashion magazines. It was also that, without Conan around, the Shounen Tantei weren't seeing many cases these days—which was a good thing, don't get her wrong. Those children got into way too much trouble and had yet to learn the value or skills of self preservation. Such was the way with the young and naïve. They never believed that they could really get hurt until it was too late (and Ai would prefer that they stay naïve rather than learn the hard way of their own human fragility). But it also meant that she wasn't being called upon nearly as often to help out with cases.

She wasn't a mystery nut like certain detectives, but she did have an active mind that needed a good challenge now and then.

She had started spending more time helping Agasa out with his inventions, but, well, not many of his projects were the sort that really captured her interest.

She should start a project of her own, she mused. The question was, what?

She turned another page.

Something tapped at the window.

Startled, she looked up and did a double take.

There was a man outside her window.

She stared.

He waved.

Ai blinked, decided she wasn't hallucinating, and closed her magazine. Then she stood and wandered over to her bedroom window. Flipping the latches, she pushed it open.

"I didn't realize thieves knocked," she said.

Her visitor grinned. "Ah, but a gentleman should announce his presence before entering a lady's room."

Ai snorted. "So to what do I owe this visit from the great Kaitou KID? Or did you get lost on your way next door?"

"Far from it," he assured her. "I actually came to invite you on a little expedition."

This comment sent both of the little scientist's eyebrows up under her bangs. "What sort of an expedition?"

"I don't suppose you'd invite me in?" the thief asked. "It's not a short story, and I'm sure we'd both be more comfortable not conversing through this window."

Ai smiled, amused and intrigued. "Since you ask so nicely, I suppose I have no reason to say no. Although I do request that you use the front door."

-To Be Continued-