Merrillian Part 13

The night air swirled softly around them, picking up scattered bits of garbage and plastic bags, dragging them into a dance across the streets and yards. The moon wasn't full that night, and the starlight barely gave illumination to the streets. Streetlights were definitely a blessing.

The trio dressed in black moved across lawns, ducking through back yards, and avoided dogs sleeping in their small houses. In spite of the fact that there was no way they could be followed, they still felt the need to sneak. It pointed to their insecurities about what they were about to do, not to mention their innocence to it. Either way though, they made it to their target without being seen and easily managed to silently congregate in the dark backyard that was surrounded by a thick wooden fence, made to block out the sounds of a nearby road.

Without any words, the blond went first, grasping onto a tree branch and pulling himself up into it with only a small amount of strain. The second boy followed, leaving the last of the group to wait under the tree and watch through the window as Raymond slept in his room, snoring loudly.

Quatre made his way up the tree until he reached the exact branch he needed, then stood up and slowly began to inch across it; his arms outstretched like it were a tight rope. Taking careful steps in the dark, he made his way down the branch until the small shingled eave was within reach. Crouching down, he took a deep breath and stepped over to it, careful to step as quietly as he could. Leaving the branch completely he walked up the outcropping and tested a small window right at the edge.

It was locked.

Heero followed him down the branch and came to stand next to him on the roof. Quatre frowned and shook his head, indicating that the window was locked. A small nod of his own and Heero knelt down to peer at the window, looking for the lock or another way to get in.

They had expected the window to be locked. After all, Raymond had caught Duo sneaking out of it enough times before. It would only stand to reason that he would lock the windows now that Duo was permanently living in a hospital room. Unfortunately, they weren't sure how else to get into the house without breaking something and committing an actual crime... as if this wasn't crime enough.

Heero inched toward the edge of the roof and stepped off, stepping onto the very small sill of Duo's window. Inching across it, he held the top with one hand and looked above. An attic window lay just above it, not too far out of reach. Taking a deep breath and wishing he'd taken more gym classes that focused on arm strength, Heero pulled himself up and worked his way until he was standing on the upper edge of Duo's window. The small outcropping of wood that lined the window was barely enough for the tips of his tennis shoes, but enough for him to balance on as his hands grasped the lower ledge of the attic window.

"Be careful," Quatre murmured worriedly as he glanced down at the ground. They were high enough up that falling would hurt, if not break something. Not to mention that they were now above the fence and could be seen by the neighbors. He just hoped that no one happened to look out and see them.

Heero gritted his teeth and held tightly to the sill with one hand, while his other worked at opening the attic window. Unlike the one for Duo's room, this window wasn't locked. However it only opened outward, and that left him with very little to hold onto as he slowly worked the window open. Two pinched fingers and one bleeding one later, Heero managed to pull the window open and hauled himself up through it, into the attic.

Dropping to the floor as quietly as he could, he stopped and took a few deep breaths, listening to the house around him.

A thrill filled his body as he looked around at the dark room. Adrenaline flew through his veins as what he'd just done sunk in completely. He'd broken into someone's house while they were sleeping, and now he intended to let Quatre in and go about the business of stealing something from Duo's old room. Never in his life had he ever even considered doing such a thing as this before.

But in order for the plan to work they had little choice.

Standing up and taking a few more deep breaths to stay calm, he pulled the window closed behind him and then searched for the attic stairs, which led down to the second floor. Moving down the stairs and through dark hallways, he found the house to be alien and unreal around him.

Nothing moved, the floor rarely creaked, and only the sounds of mechanical clocks ticked and filled the silence. Scattered across the clean walls were several photos of the same young boy, grinning mischievously back at him. Picture after picture were arranged tastefully over the walls until it looked like some strange patchwork quilt, all of the same boy growing up and smiling back at the camera.

Heero couldn't help but stop and take a few moments to look over the photos as he passed them. They seemed to be everywhere, speaking of the pride Raymond had held for his son. School performances, plays, sports, nearly every moment of Duo's child life captured on film for all to see.

But upon closer inspection, Heero found that none of them were actual photos. Rather all the pictures, when looked at closer, turned out to be printouts from a computer. Recent printouts at that, if one looked at the quality of the images.

These photos had been placed on the walls to replace the boy who no longer lived in this house.

Heero took a deep breath and tried to suppress the shudder that moved through his body. He could only imagine what it must have felt like for Raymond to lose his wife and then his son like this. It certainly didn't warrant the way he treated Quatre and his family, but Heero now had a small amount of understanding for the pain this man had endured at losing his family right before his eyes.

Shaking his head and breaking the thoughtful trance Heero picked up his steps and made his way to Duo's room. Ignoring the setting around him, he opened the window and helped Quatre crawl in, both of them giving the signal to Catherine that they were safely inside.

Now they just had to find it.

~*~

Quatre stepped into the room and came to a halt, staring at the darkness.

Nothing had changed.

Duo's room stood exactly as he'd seen it that last time he'd been in this house.

The bed was made, which was about the only change, but everything else seemed perfect. Books were crammed on the shelves, mixed in with figurines and various other odd objects that Duo had taken a liking to for various reasons. Quatre immediately recognized the blue glass bowl Duo had bought for himself at a garage sale so he didn't have to borrow the one from Quatre's house. A deck of cards was spread across the desk, a couple turned over and notes scribbled on a pad in illegible handwriting.

He walked over to the bedside table and found a photo of both of them playing on a pair of swings not too far from this house. Everything about this room was just too perfect. So perfect that any moment he expected to walk in front of a mirror and find that he was ten again and Duo would be beside him, that grin across his face.

Quatre sighed softly and pushed the memories away, turning his attention to the task at hand. They didn't have time to waste reminiscing about the past.

"Where?" Heero asked in the softest voice possible.

Quatre frowned as his eyes scanned the room. Nothing in the place particularly stuck out to him, but he knew it had to be here somewhere. Now where would Duo keep something so important to him? Or rather, where would he hide the Merrillian?

Quatre's eyes drifted to the bedside table once more and he knelt down next to it. Opening the single drawer, he was greeted with a small collection of pencils and notebooks. One particular notebook caught his eye, a diary with a small lock on the front.

Quatre pulled it out of the drawer and muttered a small apology, then snapped it open, ripping the cover in order to get past the lock. He flipped to the end and found the last entry.

"I don't even know why I'm trying anymore. The dreams won't stop, no matter how far back in the drawer that I hide the thing. They just keep coming and are always so vivid. I wish I could forget them. This isn't fun anymore."

Quatre frowned and set the book down. Duo had hid the stone in the back of the drawer? Pulling the drawer out more, he slipped his hand all the way in and quietly shifted the items around.

Oddly enough it didn't surprise him at all when his fingers met with a smooth surface. Wrapping his hand around it, he pulled it from the drawer and out so they could both see it.

But setting his eyes upon the stone turned out to be a huge mistake.

~*~

The boy opened his eyes and found himself floating. The world around him snapped out of existence as silence and darkness roared in his ears. He blinked and looked around him, wondering what was going on, fear starting to rise in his body.

He felt things around him, shadows and whispers of people. Young voices murmured words in many different languages, all speaking in soft tones, which were filled with fear and wonder at the same time. He could see the shadows growing around him, their hands reaching toward him in eerie waves. Like the tides of the ocean, slowly moving in closer with each try.

Backing away, he looked down and found his hands glowed with a red light, a shimmering red crystal sitting in his fingers. Against the darkness around him and the strange shadowy figures, the red light felt warm and comforting. He wrapped his fingers tighter around the stone and found that its warmth grew, seeping gently into his body.

When he looked up at the shadows, they didn't seem quite so scary anymore, but rather more like shades that couldn't hurt him. Yet at the same time, he couldn't help but notice that they seemed to come closer with each time he wrapped his fingers tighter around the stone.

A world of contradictions seemed to fly up around his mind.

Who were the shadows? Why did they get closer when he backed away? Why did they look so familiar? Why did they resemble him so much?

The boy's mind flew into a panic as part of him began to scream. No, something about all of this was wrong. Something about all of this wasn't right, but he couldn't quite place it.

His panic grew, making him shiver and yet clutch tighter at the stone, attempting to take comfort in its presence.

From the distance beyond him, there was the sound of clicking metal. The boy glanced up and saw, above the shadows, a swirl of metallic red. The chains moved through the air like serpents, hypnotic in their movements as they swayed back and forth.

Serpents watching and stalking their prey.

And yet, he wasn't afraid of them. Something about the chains just didn't scare him. Something about them seemed welcoming, almost comforting.

The boy stepped toward them.

Immediately a shadow moved up in front of him, blocking his path. Yet this shadow stood out from the others, more real, more solid.

With a quick movement the shadow's hand came down and slapped against the boy's, hitting his hand hard and loudly.

The stone fell from his grasp, clattering to the floor.

And the vision shattered.

~*~

Quatre shuddered and gasped for breath as Duo's room faded back into view around him. He found Heero standing in front of him with a worried look, watching him carefully.

"Are you all right?" Heero asked softly.

Quatre nodded, his eyes drifting down to the stone on the floor. "I don't want to touch that thing again."

Heero nodded. Walking to the bed, he took the pillowcase from Duo's pillow and used that to wrap around the small red stone. Wrapping the fabric tightly around it, he tucked it in his pocket, most of the fabric hanging out due to its size.

"Lets go."

Quatre nodded and followed Heero out the window.

~*~

Raymond looked out his window as the three figures rushed off into the night. Glaring at the window and the streetlight beyond, he crawled out of his bed and carefully got dressed. Then he was moving.

Out the door.

Into the garage.

He started his car and headed for the hospital.

~*~

Never ever in her life had Catherine thought she would do something like this. She'd always prided herself on being a good friend, someone who could be trusted to help out in most situations. Her friends trusted her. So that trust extended to her co-workers... right?

Apparently not.

Catherine finished erasing the pencil markings on the sheets before her and quickly refilled them where they belonged. Putting away the white-out and pencils, she quickly glanced around again. Luckily the desk worker was still responding to the phony page Quatre had made over the PA system and it would probably be another minute before she came back. Catherine cleaned up all evidence of her visit and quickly left the desk, just as one of the doctors was passing the front desk. Politely, she nodded to him in greeting and continued easily on her way toward Duo's room, clutching the clipboard to her chest a little more tighter then normal. She only hoped that the others were ready with whatever they were planning.

She'd changed the files and schedules as much as she could, but those changes didn't get rid of ten years of habit. The same orderly worked this late at night, and it was perfectly possible for him to just check in on Duo's room without noticing that the list said he didn't need to anymore. They were all walking on thin ice with this, and there wasn't much time to play around with.

Picking up her steps, she ducked into Duo's hospital room and shut the door behind her, locking it and pulling the shade down over the window, praying no one would notice it. Giving a small sigh, she turned to see how the other two were doing.

Duo lay silently in the hospital bed, still looking like a vegetable hooked up to all his cords and the heart monitor, which regulated their movements with its high pitched beep. Heero was watching Duo's reflection in the mirror while Quatre was setting up three candles on the floor around a bowl made of blue glass, filled partially with water.

"What are we doing? A séance?" Catherine asked, setting down her clipboard on the nearest flat surface, which was a small table by the door.

"It's a little complicated to explain, but this is basically the set up we used when we were in Heero's room." Quatre replied, lighting all the candles with a pocket lighter. "Is that right?" He directed to Heero.

Heero turned and looked at the candles and gave a nod. "Catherine, can you get the lights?"

Catherine walked over and flicked them off, then turned back to join the group sitting on the floor, surrounding the candles. Heero sat directly across from the mirror, still watching Duo's reflection.

"You know, you two... anyone else and I'd question their sanity."

Quatre smiled softly, nodding his head in understanding. "Sanity is relative sometimes."

"No kidding. Well, let's get this started. So uhhh... are we going to chant or something?"

Heero and Quatre give small chuckles, Catherine's comment ridding the room of its tension momentarily. Both Quatre and Catherine faced Heero and Catherine suddenly realized something, Heero hadn't explained his plan to either of them.

"Heero? You do know what you're doing, right?"

Heero nodded. Reaching into his pocket he took out the red stone, the candle light flickering across it to make it almost look like it was pulsating in his hand. From behind them, in the bed, Catherine swore she heard Duo take a deeper breath then normal, but she decided against saying anything. Instead, she watched as Heero placed the stone in the bowl of water between them, letting it rest there, inside the circle of candles. The red stone and blue bowl melded together in the candlelight, flashing purple hues around the room. Purple hues that matched Duo's eyes in the picture Heero had showed her.

"Heero..." She said softly again.

"Quatre, I want you to do the exact thing you did the other night. But this time, try and include Catherine." Heero gave a small helpless look. "Does that make sense?"

The blond nodded. "Right. So then I guess you start this. Close your eyes and call for the dream, then I'll let you lead."

Heero nodded and closed his eyes. Catherine followed his example, closing her own eyes and sitting as still as she could. Without thinking she soon finds herself linking hands with the other two boys and lets herself get caught up in the incessant beeping from the heart monitor. The sound fills her ears, blocking out everything else. Catherine lets go, and lets herself melt into the sound.

~*~

The bell rang incessantly at the desk, the large hand hitting it over and over.

"All right! All right! This isn't the emergency ward, hold your horses!"

Raymond Maxwell glared as the young girl raced back to the desk, her hair slipping partially out of the bun on her head as she hurried back to her post.

"Who is in charge of checking on my son tonight?" Raymond demanded, quickly.

"Let me see," the young woman flipped through the papers quickly, nearly giving herself numerous paper cuts as the older man tapped his fingers on the desk. "Your son... your son... he's... not on our list."

"What?!"

"He's not. His name isn't listed here. Solo Raymond, right? Well, he's not on the list tonight, that's strange..."

Raymond didn't stay to hear anymore. Turning away from the desk, he started at a brisk walk toward his son's room.

"Sir! Visiting hours are over, you can't-"

"Then send security! I'm going to check on my son!" Raymond hissed the words at her and quickened his pace toward the room.

The young woman responded by picking up the phone and calling security as she watched him disappear around the corner.

~*~

Quatre took another low breath, concentrating on the blue bowl in front of him and holding onto Heero and Catherine's hand. He could hear their breathing, and it already sounded like Heero was sleeping, his small breaths even and light. They had to be close, and he could only hope that this would work. Taking another breath and letting it out, he relaxed and let go. He kept his concentration on the stone and the presence of his cousin sleeping in the bed.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he heard someone banging on the door.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard it flying open.

But he didn't respond. He couldn't. Instead he just let himself drift away.

TBC...

 

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