Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

[Yoki]

Still the younger boy yelped, taking a step back, a hand going to his cheek. He stood, looking at the ground as if shocked by the outburst, his hand tightened around his phone, which he'd luckily managed to keep a hold of, as he returned his gaze to Callum. Over everything else, his eyes seemed to show upset and hurt for a moment. 


"I just..." He mumbled, "You're awful!" It was obvious to everyone around that he wasn't expecting to get punched, and he certainly didn't enjoy it. Rubbing his cheek again, Lorn chanced a glance up at Tommy, before backing up again and looking down once more. He didn't say anything else to them, he didn't even go close to them again. 


Bella had been leaving, but hearing the yelp, she'd turned around, just to see Lorn backing up with his hand against his cheek and Callum lowering a fist. 


"Boys!" She called, walking over and furrowing her brows at them, "Callum. Why did you punch him? Don't do that." She scolded, "These people are your allies, not your enemies, remember?" Why were they fighting already? They couldn't be fighting internally, not if they wanted to pull off their mission. 


Whilst Bella had his back to her, Lorn could be seen mouthing something, the first letter of the word was clearly a 'W', but after that it was unreadable. Still, with Bella now in between the two, he'd dared to look up once more, still seemingly slightly shaken by the sudden outburst from the other teenager. 

 

[yaint]

Callum could not believe his luck. The boy whipped around, his grey eyes widening at the sight of Bella still lingering in the room. What was she doing here? What the hell was this Lorn guy talking about?


'Why'd you punch him?'


"Wh- hey! I didn't even touch 'em!" he whined out loud. If Tommy-Jones hadn't started stumbling around again in confusion, the younger brother probably would have carried on. Instead, he just made sure to give Lorn a dirty look as they both left to join the group which had left without them. That kid... He knew what game he was playing, and it made him so angry. Acting like a baby... Nevermind. They were gone now, having parted and taken a route away from Lorn with Tommy-Jones acting as a walking barrier between them.


It seemed strangely quiet now that those two were gone. The people in the station café started chattering again like nothing had happened, and a familiar face appeared in the door again.


"Are you - are you all coming?" Jackson panted through the air. His chest was heaving, like he had just run a marathon - or pushed himself all the way down to the car and back, which was a more likely version. The sweat rolling down his pale and dead-looking face didn't help his appearance. "Come on, e-everyone's already gone, and... Agh, Bella, let's - let's just get back to the car, please, I think I moved too much."


"What's wrong, 'ey?" Claire chirped. "The shots? I think we can go now, but I ain't..."


"Are we going or not?"


 The sharpness in Jackson's voice had made the little Irish girl jump, but she was quick to yelp out a little, "Coming!" and bolt to his rescue. His shaking hands went back into his lap as she stood behind him and beckoned, "By t'e way, Bella, when we get back in the car, can I ask you somethin'? I thought maybe you might've seen somethin' I've been lookin' for is all, so we can talk when you're drivin', we can."

 

[Yoki]

"Okay Callum, just go." Bella waved the boys away, they didn't need this drama right now, and whilst she wasn't happy with Callum's answer, she wasn't really to start arguing with him either. They just needed to get out of there. There were much more important things to do than deal with some childish argument over who knows what. 


It was as she'd turned to Lorn to ask if he was okay that Jackson appeared in the doorway, the woman nodded, a little annoyed with what had just occurred. "Yeah, sorry Jackson!" She could see the fatigue on his face, obviously he'd been moving a little too much on his own, "We're coming now. Claire." Motioning with her head, Bella started to move, and Lorn was quick to chase after her. 


"Are you okay?" She asked, looking towards the boy, who was hanging behind a little bit. 


"Yeah. I'm good." Lorn smiled, putting his phone in his pocket and hands in his pockets, "I just...I didn't want him to treat his brother like that, I wasn't trying to make him mad..." 


"It's okay." She smiled, "Your intentions were good, but just be careful, okay? Everyone here has been through something or other that makes them who they are, we just need to be a little more sensitive about it." 


"Okay. I'll...remember that." The boy nodded, speeding up to try and walk next to Bella. 


"Good." Once she'd finished her conversation with Lorn, she turned to Claire, "Something you've been looking for? Um...okay, I guess we can talk about it." What possibly could she have seen that this girl was looking for, as far as she knew she'd seen nothing special, the only people she'd come across were part of her group. To say the thought of that question didn't intrigue her would be a lie. "Let's all just get in the car." 

 

[yaint]

Apart from the occasional glance back down at Jackson, Claire was quite happy to just keep walking as she pushed him, watching her feet slide in front of each other with every step. It seemed like she liked the sound of shoes on tarmac. But that wasn't what she was listening to. Her ears had pricked at the sound of Lorn's voice, and she paid as much attention as she could to every word even though she knew it would all go in one ear and out the other.


Oh well, the girl thought as the memories of the conversation started to disintegrate in her mind. It was interesting while it lasted. All that was left now was a lingering sense of sympathy for this strange boy, and perhaps a stronger liking for the red-haired woman named Bella.


***


By the way Jackson had managed to make the journey between car and station twice on his own, Claire did not really expect it to be such a long trek. Maybe it would have been shorter if she had any idea where she was going, but with the man in front of her too exhausted to dole out useful directions she had been left to linger towards the back and follow Bella's lead. 


Now, though, everyone was in the car again. As usual, Jackson and Bella took the front seats and Claire had some more space to move around in the back now that Tommy-Jones had been replaced by a much smaller teenager. If anything, it was a perfect opportunity to revert back to her old self and start asking questions like she had forgotten about Bella's promise to hear her out.


"So where'd you come from again?" she asked Lorn loudly. "I think you might've told me once before, but I forgot. Oh, oh, how do you spell your name, too? It begins with an L, right? I remember what that one looks like as well, I do, an' it's a pretty one. Where're you from? Oh no, I already asked that, didn't I..."

 

[Yoki]

"Hm?" This time they'd got in the car Lorn hadn't taken out his phone, instead he'd just listened to Claire as she hit him with a barrage of different questions, asking all about him. "Originally?" He asked, but didn't wait for the answer, "I'm from Australia." For most he could have left it there, but he felt the need to clarify, "That's across the other side of the world. Near Asia, if...you know where Asia is." 


Claire's pointless questions made him smile a little, and definitely kept him busy, "L. O. R. N." That's how you spell my name, "It's really simple. Actually... A lot of the people I know have really simple names... Most can be shortened to four letters in some way or another. Huh...that's pretty cool, I didn't realise that." It seemed he was over getting punched by Callum by that point and instead was focused on trading questions with Claire. "You're from Ireland right? Is it nice over there? I've never been to Ireland, before... Gonna go at some point though, maybe when I'm older." 


Hearing the two in the back talking to each other was both distracting and amusing to Bella, she didn't want to stop them, they seemed to be getting along well, but she did need to focus on driving. She supposed that once she got the idea of Claire's question out of her mind she could do that. 


"Claire." Having started the car and got back on the road, she addressed the girl, "There was something you wanted to ask earlier? Saying I might have seen something you're looking for?" She clarified, "Do you want to do that now so you don't forget about it?" If it was important it was best they got it out of the way, it could have been anything...but who knew what it related to. What if it had a drastic impact? 

 

[yaint]

As intrigued as she was by Lorn's claims of Australia, his knowledge of the English language and every question he had fired back at her, Claire's attention vanished as soon as Bella spoke up.


"Oh!" the girl squeaked. "Yeah! I remember now, I was gonna tell you, or... Ask you, or somethin'. I dunno how to say it, see."


In the front of the car, a low groan came from Jackson's direction. He had his arm held through the front of his button-up shirt, hand writhing around to adjust the bandages for which must have been the cause of his fatigue. "C-can you be quick, Claire?" he asked. "This is... It's giving me a goddamn headache..."


"Aight, yup." The girl bounced in her sheet, grabbed at the headrest on the back of Bella's seat and leaned forwards. Her mouth was barely an inch away from the woman's ear, and yet she still spoke at full volume. "So I was jus' wonderin' if you seen a couple of guys I've been lookin' for. I'm s'posed to live with 'em, but the doves chased me out. One of 'em's a big guy with no hair at all and the other one's younger-like, with a northern accent an' all, I can tell. They're gonna kill me when I get back, they are, but I don't even know where they are or nothin'. So I was maybe wonderin' if you could help me look out."

 

[Yoki]

"You're searching for some people?" Bella asked, thiking about what she'd said for a moment... She didn't know anyone who fit her vague descriptions, but...maybe they'd have a chance to get her back to her allies. "Okay...um..." Turning a corner, Bella started to answer Claire about trying to find them. "Let's get all this sorted first, okay? Get to Portsmouth, and get settled, then get the mission done." She paused, "Once that's all done, I'll help you find them." These people must have been what Claire classed as family, of course Bella would help her find them, and she'd get others to as well. 


After a little while of silence, she spoke once more, "You need to give me better descriptions though," Not there, she wouldn't remember them there, "Later, once we've all settled in and know what we're doing. We can sit down and go through it." London was a big area, who knew where these people could be hiding, but it was worth a try. 


If Daryl was able to stumble upon Adrian that one time then they could find the people that Claire had lived with before she'd gotten caught up in this whole mess. 


"The bald guy's your god-father, right?" Lorn piped up, nudging Claire with his arm, he was back on his phone again, now that the attention had been taken off of him, "So who's the northern guy?" 

 

[yaint]

Though her eyes were bright with curiosity, Claire's thin body seemed to sink further into the seat with every one of Bella's promising words. "Ohh... Then I guess I'm gonna have to wait, ain't I," she commented longingly. In the mirror she could see the colour returning to Jackson's face, and started playing with her hair to compare her blonde to the returning gold of his own at the roots. 


Jackson tried to pass back a hint a couple of times by visibly shuddering whenever Claire made eye contact with him, but she kept looking until Lorn thankfully distracted her again. "Oh, he's... Uhm..." As it often did, her young and pretty face screwed up in thought. "I dunno what really I should be callin' 'em but he's part of our new family. His name's Taylor, an' Lee looks after us both. Sometimes I go wanderin' off of explorin' for the fun of it, but not ever for nearly as long as this, I don't think. Aw, I hope they're not worryin' about me or nothin', they aren't."

 

[Yoki]

"Yeah, I hope that's alright." Bella replied, sighing, Claire seemed disappointed, but there were other things to consider. They couldn't go looking for a pair of males who could be anywhere in London City when they had so many people deployed from Aegis to finish this mission, so unfortunately, Claire would have to wait for awhile. 


"Taylor huh, cool." With a nod, Lorn brought a leg up onto his seat and folded it under his other leg, hunching over slightly so that he could rest his elbows on his thighs whilst he tapped at his phone. For a moment it buzzed, like someone was calling, but he proceeded to silence it and turn his deep blue eyes back to Claire, "You'll find them eventually, right? I'm sure they'll be worried for a bit, but they'll be more happy to see you." With a smile, he returned to his device, staying silent after that, something else had managed to catch and keep his attention. 

 

[yaint]

Claire could not help but stare for a little bit too long at Lorn. Maybe she just liked the colour of his eyes, but inside her head she was just wondering about the superglue that kept that superhero mask stuck to his face. For a moment she considered asking if it hurt, but there was a little twisting sensation in her chest when she remembered what they were talking about.


"Oh... Well, yeah, I s'pose so," she agreed, although her voice was somewhat gloomier than it normally was. "Oh no, Lee's gonna smash my face in when he sees me, he is. He's gonna smash my face in an' then he's gonna hug me, but he's gonna smash my face in real good. Hey, Bella? Is it 'kay if I take some clothes back with me? Lee's always complainin' 'bout his scratched up jeans an' I think I quite like trousers. Oh, oh, I should get shoes for Tay too, if that's okay. His feet tend to stink a lot. Mine don't smell, do they?"


***


As Jackson had dreaded, Claire's ramblings had continued on for what felt like hours. The twisting, turning route drawn out on the map kept all of them awake, albeit with headaches not helped by that little Irish voice. It took them far longer than the norm to make any progress west whatsoever - but that was what happened when the most they spent on a highway was ten minutes, and Jackson absolutely refused to go near one road in particular. 'Laced with security cams,' he had explained away, 'And the traffic's horrendous.'


A couple of stops after the conference, having taken breaks to eat, use services and fill up on fuel, night had fallen. They were driving in the dark, and it was becoming increasingly hard to read the map with a lack of street lights on back roads.


"I think it's... Uh... The second left coming. Go straight on past the roundabout and we'll be somewhere on the street," Jackson promised, although he sounded awfully unsure. His round glasses had been propped up on his forehead so that he could stare clearly at the paper on his lap, but it did not appear to be doing much good. The last few minutes of their journey had been spent circling around in the wrong direction, after all, so it was quite predictable what would happen here. It was actually embarrassing for somebody like Jackson, who was normally a competent map reader. Exhaustion must have been affecting him, too.


At least we're in Portsmouth now, he thought as glazed eyes stared at the blurry images of a familiar city he once knew well. "No, wait. Bella - if you get to the seafront, I c- I can tell you where to go from there. Head for the Spinnaker Tower, it's near the harbour, sort of."

 

[Yoki]

"Oh, uh, yeah okay." By the time they'd got to Portsmouth Bella was getting tired, they stopped off a few times, but all she wanted was to get to the end of their journey. Lorn had been silent enough, but Claire had kept rambling, and it seemed to give both her and Jackson a headache. They both most likely wanted out by that point. 


Turning a corner, she noticed the sea directly in front of her, the woman smile, turning around corner to a road that went directly along the seafront. There was a tower not too far away so she decided to assume that that was what Jackson planned on taking them towards, surely they had be close now. 


She didn't drive too fast, she was too tired for that, but it was fast enough to get them there. "Hey..." Turning her head to Jackson for a moment, the woman started to speak, "This the right direction?" She asked, motioning her head to where they were going, "And another thing, are we nearly there? I'm getting bored of this car." 


"Hm?" From the back Lorn's head shot up, his eyes turning to look out of the window, "Where are we?" He asked, a hand pressing against the glass on the window as he surveyed his surroundings. 


"Portsmouth." Bella replied quickly, before focusing back on her driving, "We should be there soon enough, right?" 

 

[yaint]

When Jackson had told Bella that they needed to get to the seafront, he had been a sightless navigator reading names from signs and printed paper. He was ill-prepared to see what he did when he glanced up and stared out of the window to his left, the thin sheet of glass that separated him from a sight that made his eyes widen and become bright with life.


He saw himself in the distance, a child-like figure dancing over the sand on his tip-toes. The other children behind him. His dog. That little flash of a vision barely lasted for a second, but Jackson saw it and he remembered everything all at once.


It took him nearly a full minute of staring, completely transfixed on that little scrap of memory from a better life, for the man to notice Claire cooing in the back. "What'cha lookin' at?" she kept repeating. The girl craned to see out of her own window, but the beaches of Portsmouth were clearly not as interesting as whatever Jackson was looking at.


"Shhh-it," Jackson hissed in a whispering voice. It took him a tremendous amount of effort to pull himself away from that scene, and even when he did his eyes were still glazed over.


"What?" Claire prompted again.


Jackson rubbed his hands together. He wanted to go to that beach and run through the shallows like he had done all those years ago, but they had somewhere to go. "Nothing, it... I just thought of something," he insisted, and then started to fold the map away on his lap. He didn't need it anymore. He remembered the way. "Bella, keep going straight on. The turning is on the right - I'll tell you when."

 

[Yoki]

Bella followed Jackson's directions until they reached the house he was talking about, it was nice, not too small, and probably good enough for them to stay short term in. Once she'd ushered the group out of the car and inside she'd gone to the front door to call Daryl and make sure he knew where he was going. Their journey should have taken longer, but she assumed all of the groups had met up at the train station and were waiting there for a call. 


It wasn't a long wait once she'd managed to get hold of them, everyone had turned up at the house pretty quickly, which meant the place became a lot busier and louder in a short space of time. They had to be respectful of any neighbours and they also had to try and not draw attention to themselves, but that was awfully hard with such a large group of people to manage. 


"Bella." Dane waved the woman down, causing her attention to move from watching some of the younger individuals to the man walking towards her. 



"Oh hey," She smiled, pushing herself away from the wall of the house and walking up to Dane. 


"Hey. Uh, you see Jackson around?"
 


"Uh...he's probably somewhere, do you need him?"
 


"Just to check out a few things." 


---


"G'day." Lorn grinned, leaning up against the side wall of the house Bella had brought them to not too long before. His phone was up against his ear and he seemed to be talking to someone, but the volume was right down, so anyone listening would only be able to heard his voice. "Oi, you're awful narky today, calm it." There was silence for a few seconds, before the boy laughed and shook his head, "Nah, I mean could tell you, but I'm having fun so... Maybe later." He kicked at the wall, seemingly amused by the person on the other end of the phone, "I ain't doing anything, don't spit your dummy, I can handle myself." Again there was a pause for a reply, "They'll be fine." The answer was simple and sharp, "You done? See, I got to go...So I'll be seeing ya. Ab- Ba- Bu- Nothing, bye." After the small mocking stutter to the other person on the end of the phone, before abruptly putting it down. "Damn that man..." 

 

[yaint]

Jackson watched a tiny black spider dance on its web. Nearly every part of the house had been taken back by the wildlife since the years in which it had been abandoned, but it was the state of his old bicycle which told the true caliber of neglect. It was old, rusty, sitting on deflated tyres and stuck to the patio by mud and creeping plants. What used to be colourful stickers depicting flashy fictional characters were now flaky pieces of dark paper peeling from the frame. It was a miracle that the bicycle had not fallen apart at first touch, but Jackson had thought that with a bit of attention it could be returned to a state ready for racing again. So here he sat, bent awkwardly over the object he had treasured as a child whilst rubbing away some of the dirt with the sleeve of his shirt.


Just as a smudge of colour was beginning to return to one of the front lights blacked out by mud, one of the mutterings in the background caught his attention. Sitting in the back garden with the door wide open meant he could hear much of the ghouls' chatter, but this was the first time he had heard his name.


The bike tilted over and fell against the outside wall as Jackson let go of it to move closer to the door. A familiar shape loomed around the other end of the hall, where Bella had been stood for a while. "Dane," he called and stretched out one arm to wave the man over. "Wh-when did you get here? Something wrong?"


***


Lorn's voice was not the only noise to enter the receiver during that call; all the while for which he spoke, there had been endless banging sounds coming from above. It was soon revealed exactly what the source of all that noise was. Claire had been exploring the floors above, and Tommy-Jones had been thundering up and down the stairs with heavy footsteps behind her. 


"Hey, Lorn!" the little voice called down as a white face popped out from above the railing. "Who ya talkin' to? C'mon, you need to come check this out. They have an attic and it's absolutely brimmin' with spiders!"

 

[Yoki]

"Jackson! Ah, there you are." After patting Bella on the shoulder, Dane proceeded to walk towards the other male, shaking his head. "No, nothing's wrong as such." He replied, stopping around a meter away from the other, "It's just there's a lot of people around and few people doing much, I was thinking of making a list or a rotor. Thought I'd run it past you and Bella first, but it might help keep people busy whilst we're staying here."  Everyone needed to pull their weight when they had to many people to cater to, but he needed to make sure he got everyone's name on the list doing something or other, and whether Jackson thought it was a good idea. 


"Oh!" Remembering something, the man carried on, "I also think that more briefing on the mission should be done as soon as you can, people get antsy if you let them sit for too long, but that's completely your call." All he was looking for was the go ahead with the list at that moment. "Also, I wanted to mention something about that new boy to you, you know, the young one?" He tapped his foot, it was probably best to get back to Kedin and Caleb as soon as possible...especially with so many people around. "She says she's not completely comfortable with his presence, she just doesn't think whatever he's saying is the full truth...but she didn't accuse him of lying or anything, he's a kid, he could easily be scared. Just...be wary for a little while, yeah?" 


----


"Huh?" Hearing another voice, Lorn looked up, putting his phone in his pocket, "Oh, no one important!" He called, pushing himself away from the wall. "Why're you guys looking at spiders?" The boy put his hands in his jacket pockets as he started to make his way up the stairs and towards Claire's voice, "You guys don't even have big ones. Only the gutless spiders live in England! They're not even poisonous or anything." 


Getting to the top of the stairs, he looked around a little more, nodding at the size of the house. "Nice place." It may have been old, but that didn't stop him from deducing that it was probably bigger than most people's homes, "These people rich or something?" 

 

[yaint]

People. Yes, that was another concern Jackson had been neglecting to address since they got in this house; being so busy drinking in the essence of his old home had made him afraid to leave, but Adrian's life hung in the balance. Dane was right. Getting everyone on their feet was the only way to make it out to that island without landing in any more trouble than they already had chasing them.


One hand back on his old bike, Jackson patted the frame and brushed off another cobweb. "Right, you're right," he agreed half-heartedly. "I'll be careful with him, thanks." What was it that he needed to do again? Boats and combat equipment were a priority but supplies could be found pretty much anywhere. Food, he thought. And water and medical supplies. All important things.


"Anyway... About the others, Dane, could - do you think you could get as many people working on supplies as you can? There's a pharmacy about a mile away where you can get some med kits - y'know, uh, first aid and maybe about a month's worth of stuff for me too. Food included, it won't cost too much, I, ah..."


Reluctantly at first, Jackson felt around in a front pocket and produced his thick wallet. It was overloaded with expired gift cards and receipts, but most importantly it also hid every penny of cash on his person. "Here," he said, but he fished out Leo's golden bullet before giving it to Dane. The chain went around Jackson's neck like jewellery. "This should about cover it, but if you need more then j-just use my card. The PIN's on a receipt somewhere. And by the way..." He could not help but pat at the bicycle he had been working on. It made him sad that he could no longer use it himself, but any excuse to see those wheels spinning again was good enough for him. "Uh, my old bike's pretty much ready to use again in case anyone doesn't want to walk. I just thought... It'd be a - a shame not to use it is all. It's the perfect size for the kids, and I'm not going to be using it, so... Well, it doesn't matter. Just get everyone on some job, even if it's just combat training. I've got stuff to do too. Think you could find someone to take me out to see a couple of guys I'm looking for?"

 

[Yoki]

"Oh...uh..." Dane took the wallet, feeling a little bit strange about being given it so easily, did Jackson really trust him with all of this? Of course, he wasn't going to do anything but buy what they needed, but...it still took trust to give what was probably all the money you had left to another person... To think, a few months ago Jackson hadn't even wanted to be near any of them. 


With a nod, Dane put the wallet away in his pocket and turned to the bicycle Jackson seemed to be fixing up. "I mean, I'm sure on of the kids will take the offer, we'll just have to see." He smiled, not really understanding why it seemed to important to Jackson that someone rode it...it was just something behind his words...something told Dane that he'd be disappointed if no one decided to ride the bike. It was definitely old, that much was certain, and if Jackson hadn't rode the thing since he was a child...well...it could have been ten or more years old. How was the thing even still together? 


Slapping the door frame with his hand, Dane nodded yet again and motioned with his head, "I'll tell Diana to get a group sorted out, make a rotor and stuff, and I'm sure that isn't impossible. I'm not all that busy now, just got to get a few more things settled. If you come out now someone will be available I'm sure." With a small salute and another smile Dane turned to make his exit, he had a lot to do, as did Diana. Daryl was off sorting out where everyone was sleeping, and probably yelling at people and starting fights as well, and Caleb, Kedin, and Rachael were in one of the far rooms. Dane didn't want to leave Caleb alone, but he was so busy and he couldn't take the boy into crowded places, so he'd left him with people he knew... Just to be safe. 


The one other person helping to run this show had disappeared from outside of the room, where the hell Bella was Dane had no idea, but she'd turn up, she always did. Maybe if he found Diana he'd manage to find Bella too, those two had been getting on quite well recently. 

 

[yaint]

"Okay, I think I've got it. Thanks." With one hand, Jackson cradled Leo's golden bullet against his ribs. With the other, he waved Dane off into the hallway again. There went his wallet, his card, everything he would have traded his life for less than a year ago. It was strange to think how much the perceived value of everything he owned had changed so much in such a short time. Money was disposable these days. The chain around his neck was not. 


Somewhere in the distance, Daryl's voice came ringing through. Of course. If Daryl was awake, he was shouting at somebody. That would be fine in a place as rowdy as London, but these higher-class Portsmouth residents would likely not take quite as kindly to all of the excessive noise.


"Hey!" Jackson called through the echoes which made it difficult to determine the man's location. He had to abandon his bicycle, placing it carefully against the wall for the spiders to take back, before rolling indoors again. He did not notice the way his wheels tracked mud over the vinyl floor. "Daryl? Daryl! Could you, uh, just maybe pause for a moment and come here?"

 

[Yoki]

Daryl was standing in the back, arguing with one of the ghouls from Aegis that he happened to know decently well. The two of them were practically at each other's throats, which, judging by everyone else's reaction to the ruckus, was a regular thing. No one really seemed phased by it. 


Hearing Jackson's voice, Daryl's green eyes snapped around, his head turning with them. A scowl appeared on his face as he realised just who was calling him away, what did Jackson want now?


With that scowl still on his face, he put his hands in his pockets and trudged over, keeping eye contact the entire time. 


"What?" He snapped, still in a bad mood from the argument he'd been having just before, "Well? What the fuck do you want?" He asked, rather too quickly for Jackson to have given a reply in the first place, but that didn't matter to him. 

 

[yaint]

Daryl had not even been giving Jackson the best part of a second to concoct some sort of answer. If the man had not wanted to make a point here, he could well have raised a fist and punched him in the gut for being so impatient. How like him...


"Well - if you'll just give me a moment, it - it won't take long. You're making too much noise, Daryl, all this shouting... What if the neighbours hear us? Gah - you know what, nevermind." Jackson stopped for breath and touched at the wall with his fingers. The paint came back muddy and his fingers covered in dust. This place would need a serious clean-up before anyone could use it as a proper home... Yet another job for all the people they had brought over. Accomodation was a wreck. Luckily, though, that is exactly what Jackson had come here to discuss in the first place. "Actually, can - if you're busy sorting out sleeping arrangements, there's something you might want to know. We've got a basement, it's... It's not exactly kitted up with anything, it's a little industrial-looking. There are probably some spiders. But it's a wide space, so if people don't mind making do with a hard floor then it's some place extra we can keep Leo's guys. I'll take you, c'mon."


A younger ghoul slipped past the two men just as Jackson turned around. He beckoned Daryl over with one arm, rolled back out into the garden and turned to face the wall. There was a set of double doors angled sharply downwards, almost identically to the basement entrance by Zeplin's warehouse, and a padlock tied the handles together.


"The key should be under the mat," Jackson announced. He pointed at a worn and weathered door mat just outside the second entrance.

 

[Yoki]

"Yelling, fucking yelling. Tell half of them to shut up then, not me!" Daryl complained, hands turning into fists in his pockets. He was agitated, but it wasn't with Jackson, not this time... Although the guy could simply agitate him by looking in his direction. God he was so annoying...  However, Jackson was quick to move on from the subject of noise and being Daryl's attention to something else... There was sleeping room in the basement? 


Suddenly, the man seemed to perk up, listening a little more. He'd do anything to get half of those fuckers out of his hair, maybe they could lock them down there or something as well. Then he'd never have to see them for the rest of the time they were here. He'd followed Jackson without hesitation, it wasn't like the guy was going to lead him to his doom or anything, they may not get along, but they didn't want to murder each other. If Daryl wanted Jackson dead then he would have already been dead. 


The two had header outside and stopped in front of an angled pair of doors that looked oddly like the kind of basement doors you saw in older American movies. Raising an eyebrow, Daryl stepped forwards. They were going into that thing? Well...if it was space, they might as well try it.


After being told where the key was he bent down and fumbled under the mat for a second, producing a dirty covered little key that had completely lost its shine. A small smile crossed his face as he moved to the doors and bent down to slip the key in the lock. It was still, that was for sure, but after a few seconds of turning and putting he was able to get the lock off and throw the doors open. 


"Hope you don't keep dead bodies down here or somethin'..." The green haired man muttered under his breath, slapping his hands together to remove the mud and dust which had attatched itself to them. After that he looked down to the steps, then to Jackson, then to the steps again. "Guess I'll check it out." After grumbling, he put his hands back in his pockets and headed down the stairs. It was dark, but he was a ghoul so it was okay, still, he'd at least try to find a light switch. "When was the last time someone entered this shit hole?! Damn..." 

 

[yaint]

Sleeping space was the last thing expected to be able to shut Daryl's oversized mouth up, but Jackson was grateful that it had. There were more important things to worry about than the thoughtless bickering they usually occupied themselves with day-to-day.


"Just be careful down there," Jackson warned as he leaned over the open doors. There looked to be blankets of spider silk pressed in wads against the walls, giving the sloping stairwell a ghostly sheen. "W-we - we left all our things in the house, so there might be stuff down there. Watch your step when you get to the bottom, there should... I think there's a light switch somewhere, it's next to one of the pipes."


Sitting in his wheelchair, stuck for view and with no intention to try and follow Daryl, Jackson could not look to determine whether or not his memory had served him right. But just as he remembered, the room Daryl had stepped into was not empty. A large wire fence running from floor to ceiling made a makeshift wall between the narrow passageway he walked through and the rest of the cellar. Every corner was piled high with old furniture, board games and decks of cards, all of them trapped under mounds of sticky web.


On one shelf which had been roughly hammered into the wall were lines of trophies; gold, bronze and silver, tiny sculptures of men and sports equipment all proudly showed off the dusty achievements of eleven year-old Jackson. 'Best Swimmer 1997'. 'Biggest Catch 1999' with his father, Eric. There was a photograph of the both of them stood together with fishing rods over their shoulders and an enormous mackerel limp on the ground. 'Second Place 2000' for a hundred-metre sprint. 


It was clear from all of the trophies, scattered photographs and items of old treasured furniture that the people who once lived here had loved their lives dearly. The way they had moved out with no second thought or explanation, the way they had left every single belonging here in their old home... Something had always been a bit off about this family.


And there was something very, very off about this room.


"Daryl?" Jackson hollered again. "Tell me what you see, okay? I can get someone to go and clean it out if it's full."


Nearly unnoticeable among the clutter, a little glint of gold in the faintness of the distant moonlight made another shape visible. It had two arms, two legs, a head of grey hair tied up in a neat bun. It also had sallow, rotting skin crawling with the larvae of a thousand insects.


For the first time in twelve years, Matilda Lambert had come home.

 

[Yoki]

The sight that Daryl was first greeted with was like any old happy family's store room, in fact it made him slightly envious. All those trophies, awards, all of that furniture...these people had had a good life, who wouldn't be jealous of that? Sure, he couldn't exactly complain, Bella's parents had done nothing but support and help his family since the day their father took off and never returned...but you couldn't help wishing for the perfect life, the perfect family...even if you knew it was never a possibility. 


He slowed his walk down as he got to the bottom of the stairs, taking a few moments to thoroughly scan the walls and ceiling. This place looked old, he didn't want something to suddenly fall onto his head or for the walls to cave him in. How long had it been since someone opened up this room? 


The man's hand grabbed onto the mesh fencing as his green eyes continued to survey his surrounds, the scowl growing on his face... Why would they leave all of this shit? They had everything...why suddenly get up and go? 


It was at that moment that his eyes locked onto the last thing he wanted to see... 


"Wh- Shi-..." Daryl's words caught in his throat and his chest tightened as he noticed the rotting flesh of what looked to be a face, "What the fuck..." He breathed, letting go of the fencing and stumbling backwards. Now, sure, he was used to seeing dead bodies, he was a ghoul after all...but...in the basement of a seemingly perfect human family, no, that was unheard of, and shocking. "Holy fucking christ." It took him a few moments to regain himself as he watched the maggots and other various insects he didn't recognise, crawl over the face of what was once a person. It sent a shiver up his spine... 


At that point his body was telling him to run, get out of there, grab more people, come back down, but...he didn't... He'd blocked everything out, focusing solely on the basement and the basement alone. This was not normal. 


Daryl knew he had to get closer, so he took one quick look around before creeping forwards as far as he dared to go. He didn't want to get too close, there could be anything on that body... It looked...old...but it wasn't old enough to have completely decomposed. How long had it been down there? This thing...if Jackson hadn't been here in years, if no one was supposed to have been here in years... No. No that wasn't possible, it would be a skeleton by now... "Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit..." The man continued to mutter, attempting to lift a thing or two up so that he could see the body better. Who was this? And what were they doing in a locked basement... 


"Key's...under the mat..." 

 

[yaint]

A lot of the word 'shit' was about standard vocabulary for anybody who knew Daryl, but this was just excessive and it was beginning to make Jackson feel nauseous even without knowing what horrors had been hiding among the cobwebs for all this time.


"Daryl?" he dared to call down again, knowing that impatience was likely to get him shouted at again. "Everything alright? I could g-go and get someone if you need help clearing up, there's probably some old tables we could bring up and use in the empty rooms."


But of course, Jackson could not see that everything was not alright, that his own mother was lying dead just out of reach. Tilly was on her back, sunken eyes now home to maggots and flies, wearing the same light clothes she had been kidnapped in during Alice's last days. The gold glint which had made her visible was the golden cross-pendant necklace she always wore. It was as though she had barely even been touched, and it could almost be believed that she had crawled down here herself if not for the bottle in her hands.


It was a dark green bottle, dusty, with sticky residue left on the side where a sticker had been torn off. There was a trickle of wine left in the bottom, and a rolled-up piece of blotting paper stored on the inside with strokes from a ballpoint pen scratched over the surface. Whoever had left the body here had written a note for the first person to find her.

 

[Yoki]

"Shut up Jackson!" Daryl snapped, "I don't need help!" He wasn't about to tell the guy there was a body down there if he didn't already know, and there was no point scaring everyone else... It could mean nothing, they might just be able to get rid of it, quiz Jackson, and move on...no one had to know unless it was necessary. 


Upon approaching the body he breathed out through his nose and knelt down, "This sucks." He muttered, kicking at a cloth nearby to move it out of the way. There was no way he was touching that thing...it was rotting...but...the female body did seem to have something in her hand... At first he didn't think anything of it, just a bottle of wine, she could have been locked down there and left to rot, drinking her sorrows away. It wasn't until he noticed the piece of paper that he realised something wasn't quite right. What kind of person has paper in their wine?


Scrunching up his face, he knelt down and attempted to grab at the bottle, trying to to touch the body on the process. He was quick, yet careful, snatching the bottle from the hand of the woman and turning it upside down so that the paper fell onto the ground below. 


"The fuck is this shit..." Daryl whispered to himself, reaching down to pick up the small note that had obviously purposely been left. There was something so wrong with this situation. After retrieving the note from the dusty ground he worked on unravelling into and held it up to try and read the contents...only to find it was slightly dark. "Fuck it." Taking his phone out of his pocket he turned on the flashlight and shone it down on the paper, scanning his eyes over it, "Fucking hell."