Whispered Touches Part 2
Heero sat at dinner, cutting the slice of chicken breast on his plate and pushing it around. Absently, he cut it smaller and offered it to Naoko, who eagerly ate it.
"Careful Heero." A hand was on his, and he jerked back to reality to realize his mom was pushing his hand away. "Your fork is sharper than hers, Heero."
Heero glanced at Naoko, relieved to see the girl chewing happily. "Sorry Mom." He apologized. "I was just thinking about school."
"Anything special?" Kanoko asked.
"Not really. I've a few classes with Trowa, the guy from the store? And he introduced another guy to me. His name is Quatre, and he lives just down the street."
"Invite them over sometime." Kanoko returned to feeding Naoko.
"Sure." Heero nodded. Deep in his mind, however, was the thought that Quatre, and Trowa, may not want to visit his now supposedly haunted house.
~*~
After dinner, Heero had entertained himself by flipping through his programming textbook, but oddly enough, he found that he couldn't keep his mind on it. After a quick shower, he decided to have an early night.
/I don't believe in ghosts, but Quatre definitely seemed afraid. Either that, or he's a really good actor trying to play a prank. But he doesn't seem like that kind of guy./ Heero tucked his hands under his head, staring at the ceiling. /The couple of experiences with haunted houses that I've had included several people dressed up dripping red paint, completely unconvincing. Nothing like that has happened here in the two weeks we've moved in./ Heero turned to face the wall, leaving one arm tucked under his head, the other absently tugging at his blanket. /But that doesn't explain the first night, when Wing was staring at something. And that voice that told me the food smelled good. But I was just thinking that, maybe I said it myself./
Heero rolled over to his other side. /Stop thinking about this. The most you can do is check the net for information about a murder./ With that thought, he sat up, running a hand through his hair. /And I won't sleep without doing that now./ He sighed quietly and moved to his desk, switching on the monitor to his desktop computer. Pulling up the browser to his favourite search engine, his fingers paused. /What do I search? Quatre said a few years, but he didn't say specifically how many./ After a moment's thought, he typed his query into the search bar.
[Berkeley, California, haunted attic]
The search loaded for a moment, then the screen of his computer blanked and the entire system shut down. Heero blinked at it for a moment, then tried to hit the power button again. Nothing happened. He tried to switch on his desktop lamp, but again, nothing happened. Finding his bedside table through the moonlight filtering in from his window, he pulled out his flashlight and left his room.
"Mom? Dad?" Heero called as he padded down the stairs. "Electricity okay?"
"Just went out." His father answered. Heero's keen ears picked up his father's footsteps from the living room. "Guess that means no night time news for me." The older man chuckled. "Let's go check the fuse box." Father and son entered the kitchen to grab another flashlight before heading down to the basement. Heero checked the fuse box, and frowned at it.
"Nothing jumped." He reported.
"Guess it's the neighbourhood then." They walked up the stairs and disengaged the back-up alarm system before opening the door to peer out the street. "Ah, that's the problem then."
Four of the streetlights heading either way from their house were out. The houses around them were dark, but if they looked further, the lights were on in other houses.
"Guess we'll see tomorrow how the electricity is." His father sighed. "Time to head for bed then."
A couple minutes later, Heero was lying in bed once more. As he tried to fall asleep, he couldn't help but think about the coincidence of the power going out just as he had typed in query. He also found he couldn't ignore that he noticed their home was smack in the very middle of the power outage.
/Nonsense./ He chided himself. /Just coincidence./
~*~
Lunchtime the next day was the first chance Quatre had to speak to Trowa about the rumour of the haunted house and attic without being overheard. Heero sat at the table with the two, chewing his bite of sandwhich before he looked at Trowa, who was sitting across from him.
"You heard about it?" Heero recalled that Trowa had lived in the neighbourhood all of his life.
Trowa nodded. "No one likes to talk about it though."
"Oh?" Heero asked. "I tried to do a search on it last night, but we had a power outage. He took another bite and swallowed before asking. "So what do you know about it?"
"I was seven when it happened, I think." Trowa said thoughtfully. "And I remember it because you don't get a lot of violent crime around here." He paused, thinking again. "I don't remember much though. Something about a kidnapping, a ransom, and then the whole family was murdered. My parents didn't tell me much."
"That's pretty violent." Quatre chewed his lower lip.
"But even though all of that happened, what's it got to do with my house? Or attic?" Heero asked. "I mean, who said, or proved, that it was haunted?" He opted not to tell his friends about the strange experience he had in the kitchen cooking his very first dinner in the house.
"When I moved here a couple years ago, Iria, my sister that is, spoke to the neighbours, to get to know them. Then, she asked about the beautiful house with the attic, and asked why the other houses on the street didn't have attics. The neighbours said there was a murder there before, and that the house is haunted. It was best not to talk about it, and the three houses there had been empty for a long time. Until you moved in, Heero."
"I see." Heero nodded. "Did your sister happen to ask about how the house was haunted?"
"Well, the neighbours said that they've seen someone standing at the attic window, back before you moved in. Most people now just avoid looking at it."
"As far as I know, even the neighbourhood children don't venture near it." Trowa inputted.
"That's odd." Heero muttered. "Then why would the real estate guy have sold us this house without warning?"
"Without warning, or you never heard about it?" Trowa asked smartly.
"Point taken." Heero nodded. "I'll ask my Dad tonight. He got the house, and only sent us a couple pictures. Mom liked it, and he liked it, so we got it."
"Let's stop talking about it." Quatre cleared his throat, suddenly noticing that two of the nearby tables had occupants giving them strange looks. "I think if people realize you're living here, things won't be pretty." He whispered.
Heero gave a glance to the other people and merely grunted in answer.
~*~
Knowing his father would not be home until later on in the evening, Heero finished what little homework he had and sat in the nursery playing with Wing and Naoko. He played with the teddy bear like it was a puppet, and soon had Naoko giggling happily, shaking hands with Mr. Bear.
"Heero, phone!"
"Thanks Mom." Heero handed the bear to his sister and grabbed the cordless from his room before returning to the nursery. "Hello?"
"How's it going Heero?"
"Wufei." Heero smiled. "It's been all right." Wufei and Heero, as well as a girl named Meiran, had been friends since elementary school. Everytime Heero thought of Meiran and Wufei he wanted to roll his eyes; the two were completely attracted to each other but both were too proud to admit it. "How's it been for you?"
"All right. School's just started." Wufei answered. "Hold on woman, you'll get your turn in a moment!" Heero heard the wrestling of the phone and another voice could be heard.
"Hey Heero."
"Hi Meiran. How are you?"
"Well." She answered. "How's the new place? Maybe Wufei and I could visit you guys once you settle in."
"That would be great." Heero answered, making a face at Naoko and sending the girl into fits of laughter.
"Is that Naoko? I miss her! Let me talk to her."
"Okay." Heero held the phone up to Naoko. "Say hi to Meiran."
"Hi!" The girl chirped happily before turning her attention back to Wing.
"She's not listening." Heero interrupted Meiran's gushing over the phone. The gushing immediately stopped.
"So anything new? Meet anyone?"
"Woman, let me talk to Heero!"
"Are you two still not together?" Heero asked dryly.
"What are you talking about Heero?" Meiran shot back. "We'll put him on speaker!" She compromised with Wufei, and at the sound of a beep, Heero knew he was now on speaker phone. "So anything new?" Meiran repeated.
"Met a couple of guys at school. Trowa and Quatre. Pretty easy going. And they just told me that apparently my house is haunted. That would explain the lack of neighbours on either side of us."
For a moment, the phone was silent.
"You don't believe them, do you Yuy?" Wufei asked incredulously.
"Not yet." Heero admitted, opting not to inform them of the couple of strange happenings he had experienced. "All I've found out so far is that there was a kidnap and ransom, and it all resulted in a family murder."
"That's horrible." Meiran gasped.
"But I haven't found much else about it. I was going to ask Dad what he knows, seeing that the broker spoke to him only."
"Good idea." Wufei murmured. "Anyway, I can get the car from my parents next weekend. Mind if Meiran and I drop by to visit?"
"You can stay the night if you want. The pull-out couch is in the basement like it used to be." Heero was suddenly nostalgic, thinking back to the days when they were younger and spent nights in the basement sharing the couch or the surrounding ground.
"That would be great." Meiran murmured. "Till then, we'll talk through the net and mic, okay?"
"Great." Heero nodded even though he knew his friends couldn't see him.
"Keep us updated on the ghost story!" Meiran sounded excited. Bidding them goodbye, Heero hung up the phone and returned to playing with Naoko.
Later on after he had washed the dishes and his mother was bathing Naoko upstairs, Heero sat on the armchair and glanced at his father.
"Hey Dad?"
"Yes?" Joseph lowered his newspaper.
"Quatre, who lives down the street? He told me that this house is rumoured to be haunted. That's why no one has lived here and the houses on either side are unoccupied. Did the real estate guy tell you anything?"
Joseph blinked at his son. "The broker told me this house is rumoured to be haunted, yes. But apparently the last sightings of this mysterious ghost was about four years ago. And the house on the left has foundation problems; they're going to tear it down next summer or something. The one on the right has pipe problems, and until someone gets the house fixed it will remain empty. Someone owns it though, but the guy apparently hasn't been around for a while."
Heero nodded as he digested the information. "Do you believe there's a ghost, Dad?"
"I thought you didn't believe in ghosts, Heero." Joseph answered after a moment. "And even if there is, we've done nothing to it, so why would it disturb us?"
"Technically, we've disturbed it's home, haven't we?"
"Well..." Joseph looked troubled for a moment. "If the ghost does exist, and we have disturbed it's home, I guess the best we can do is figure out how to put it to rest." He raised his newspaper once more. "Nothing has happened the past couple of weeks right? If the ghost wanted to throw us out, it should have done so by now."
"I guess so." Heero stood and went to his own room. "Hi boy." He said to the dog, curled on his floor. The dog flicked an ear, then suddenly raised his head, watching Heero. "What is it?" Heero asked. The boy sniffed and let out a short, quiet bark. Heero studied Wing for a moment, then dug out his clothes to take a quick shower. When he returned to the room, Wing was sitting by the window seat, staring at the spot that Heero liked to sit at when he read. Walking over, Heero pet the dog, scratching its ears. He felt a tingling at the back of his neck, and it was gone after a moment. He glanced absently to the novel on the seat, then doubled his glance at it, his eyes wide.
The hardcover novel sat open to the fifth page, and he was certain that he had left it bookmarked, and closed.
TBC...
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