Chapter Text
Thomas gazes up at the large wooden building, nearly a mansion, surrounded by miles of forest property that seems to go on forever. Flowered vines crawl up the walls, vibrant moss making its home in the cracks it makes. The shutters at the windows were once brightly painted, he can tell, but now all that was left were a few steaks and chips of faded color. He can’t help but wonder how his great grandfather had managed to take care of all this by himself for so long.
“Huh, so this is the place he left you to inherit?” Joan comments, stepping out of the car to stand beside him. Dressed, of course, with their usual bright orange beanie they never leave without.
Talyn puts a hand on their hips and knocks their shoulder into Joan’s, their ever-colored hair bouncing slightly from the movement. “It reminds me of those old haunted houses in movies, you think this one’s got any ghosts?”
“Hardy har har, I’m sure it’s not that bad.” Thomas tries for a smile, turning to his friends. “It’s just been left alone for a year, I’m sure it just needs some cleaning up and then it’ll look as friendly as I remember it.”
Joan squints up at the house. “Hm, possibly, but first things first is getting you moved in.”
“Right!” Thomas smiles brighter, coming over and popping open the trunk of his old car. “The rest of my stuff should be coming later with the moving truck, so I only brought more of the essential stuff for now.” He picks up one of the large boxes stacked in the car, all of them messily labeled with sharpie.
The trio makes their way into the house, piling the boxes where they go and emptying a few. Thomas was just working on putting a few things away in the kitchen. The house itself was pretty nice, a bit rustic for his tastes but maybe a few new things here and there could fix it. It will feel more like home when he moves some of his own furniture and trinkets in, and fixes the numerous scratches littering the floor.
He didn’t know his great grandfather all that well. He got to visit a couple of times that he could remember as a little kid, but after a particular accident and a few arguments between his parents, they stopped letting him come. He was rather surprised to get the news that Grandfather Alkwin had set him to inherit his home and what he has been told is an animal sanctuary and reserve.
Hopefully, the animals here were in good shape with no one around to check on them in almost a year.
Thomas jolts out of his thoughts at the sound of Joan shouting upstairs somewhere, sounding delighted. Curious what the commotion is about he sets down the plates he had just pulled out of the box and quickly heads up the stairs. “Joan? What’s going on?”
As Thomas makes it up the stairs Joan peaks around the corner of the hall waving him over, looking rather ecstatic. “Dude come look at this!”
Joan opens the door to a bedroom, looking oddly clean and used for a place no one’s visited in awhile. Fancy coffee mugs littered the dresser, with a few polaroids dispersed throughout. Picture frames hung on the walls, full of pictures of landscapes or a couple people. A pair of sunglasses layed on the bedside table. On the bed, looking rather unimpressed by the humans invading its space was an extremely large and elegant cat. It gazed at them with eyes that seemed to hold far more intelligence than a cat should.
“Holy cow!”
“I know right! The cat’s huge!” Joan laughs. “I think it’s a Mainecoon but I’ve never seen any that big! Do you think it was your grandfather’s?”
“I don’t know, maybe? This isn’t his room as far as I know.” Thomas steps inside, glancing at the mugs and polaroids. “These look too recently used to have been just left here.” He picks up one of the mugs, causing the cat to hiss and jump over to glare at Thomas.
He finds himself putting it back down, suitably chastened. The cat purrs and rubs against his leg, looking up at him. He leans down and offers it his hand to sniff and it does so, purring louder and bumping its head against his hand.
“Hey Talyn, get on over here!” He hears Joan yell, followed by footsteps running up the stairs. The cat turns its head to Joan and padds over, mrowing curiously.
Joan crouches down offering his hand to the cat cooing at them just as Talyn comes up to the room. “Wow giant cat!” The cat seems immensely pleased with all the attention, strutting around slightly and trilling at the two for more pets.
Thomas hums, turning away from the group to look more closely at the pictures on the walls. He recognizes his great grandfather in a few with people he doesn’t know...some of them looked off somehow, though he couldn’t quite place why. There was a guy in a few photos wearing sunglasses and a small fur coat.
“Huh, I think my grandfather did have someone living here, helping him. There’s a guy in some of these pictures that has the same sunglasses on as the ones on the table.” He comments with curiosity.
“You think this might have been his room?” Joan asks, glancing up at Thomas with a raised eyebrow
“Maybe, and I think he’s still living here. If all the coffee is anything to go by.”
The cat makes a strangled sound, distinctly not cat-like and arches its back. It looks around for a moment and then leaps away, scrambling out the window. Scaring a few crows who immediately squawked and flew away, fading into the distance.
There was a moment of silence among the trio.
“...Alright that, uh, that was weird.” Joan comments as they help Talyn to their feet. “Wanna see what other strange stuff we can find in the other rooms?”
“Oh, there should be a big library or study somewhere downstairs, think my grandfather has some interesting things in there.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
The trio make their downstairs going down a long hall of doors. Most rooms in the house were empty, cleaned out of whatever his grandfather had stored in them. One room that caught his friends’ interest seems to have been turned into some sort of greenhouse area.
Thomas lets them admire the strange plant room as he continued down further to the end of the hall where a room stood with large double doors, leading to a humongous library. Only to freeze at the sight of someone else in the house!
“Wha-whe-who are you?!” Thomas oh so eloquently shouted in surprise.
It seems the young man in the library was just as surprised to see Thomas as Thomas was to see him apparently, nearly dropping the book he was putting back on the shelf.
Thomas could have sworn he looked odd, something being off, something not quite right and different about him, but just as he had the thought it disappeared as the man ran a hand down his chest as if to smooth nonexistent wrinkles in his outfit.
“What? Who am-- Who are you?!” He spat back, glaring through thin wooden framed glasses.
Thomas sputters, taken aback. “I asked you first!” The guy’s outfit was too neat and fancy to be some thief trying to rob the house, plus Thomas hadn’t seen any other cars parked nearby so what the heckity heck was this guy doing here?!
The stranger didn’t seem to like that response, wrinkling his nose as his brows furrow further. His dark eyes seemed to spark with something dangerous. “I don’t care who asked first, you are trespassing on this household. If you do not leave soon…” He pauses, a hand moving from his side and opening slightly with the sound of wood creaking, echoing through the cavernous library. “...You will not be leaving at all.”
Thomas quickly puts his hands up in peace, taking a step back away from the threatening man. “Woah, hey! I’m not trespassing, I own the place! Or, uh, inherited it from my grandfather. If anything you’re trespassing!” He points an accusing finger at him.
The man pauses. “Wait…” He cocks his head. “Thomas?”
“Yeah, that’s m’name.” Thomas finger guns awkwardly.
The man’s whole demeanor changes, dropping his arms and looking rather horrified with himself. “Oh Gods! I hadn't realized it was you! Alkwin only showed pictures of when you were--” he stopped himself, “Never mind that!” He waves a hand as if to wave away his previous sentence. “Have you settled yourself in fine? Got all your belongings unpacked?”
Thomas can’t help but rub his neck nervously, the guy had just been threatening him and was now checking in asking if he was moving in ok?...Wait.
“You know my grandfather?”
“Why, I-” The guy clears his throat, returning to a stiff posture and gaining a serious air to him. “We were compatriots, I helped him care for the land here.” He hums, seemingly realizing something. “How rude of me, I haven't introduced myself. Please, call me Logan. I’ll be here to help you, just as I did for Alkwin.”
“Right, um, thanks.”
There’s laughter in the hall, getting closer. Logan tenses up, eyes darting to the door with that same dangerous spark form earlier.
“Oh right, I brought some friends with me! Should, uh, probably introduce you to them, heh.” Thomas quickly makes his escape, leaving the library to meet his friends halfway and stopping them before they go any further.
“Aw geez, Thomas you ok?” Talyn puts a hand on his shoulder, looking him over worriedly
“Well that depends, I think I just found a friend of my grandfather’s who’s somehow here and just threatened me? Before checking in to see if moving is going well?” He runs a hand stressfully through his hair.
Joan nods. “Think that’s how most family reunions have been for me for the last couple years too,” They joke.
“Joan!” Thomas playfully shoves them away, laughing. “Just get in here and be my moral support would you?”
“Of course.”
When they enter into the library, Logan is nowhere to be seen, simply vanished it seemed. Or if the open window was anything to go by, possibly climbed out from there.
“Huh, guess they got worse social anxiety then you do.”
“Joan!”
“What! I’m just joking,” They laughed.
Talyn had wandered over to the desk in the room, digging through the drawers. “Guys look at this.” They pull out a mini statue of clay, about six inches tall, looking extremely life-like, and sets it on top of the desk.
“Was your grandfather some kind of sculpter in his spare time?”
Thomas shakes his head, staring confusedly at the statue. “I don’t think so? It looks awfully familiar though, he likely bought it from somewhere?”
“It’s got a strange symbol on the back,” Talyn turns it around, revealing some kind of strange possibly hieroglyph type symbol on the back of it. “I don’t know what it means.”
“I don’t either, I think for now we should just put it back. It’s gonna get late soon and I need to finish unpacking the few boxes I have left.” Thomas picks up the statue, an odd feeling of familiarity to it as he sets it back into the drawer.
“Right! Then let’s get those boxes finished so Talyn and I can head home before it gets too dark.” Joan states, making their way out of the room with everyone else close behind.
Several hours later, with his two friends sent on their way home, Thomas sighs, looking at the wide space...of his new home. There was still all of his grandfather’s furniture here, but it still felt so empty with just him in the house.
How did his grandfather do it? Living in such a big space by himself, Thomas already felt lonely and his friends just left!
With a shake of his head he heads upstairs to the bedrooms, making his way to the end of the hall. He had chosen to stay in the room right across from where his grandfather’s room was, where he would stay when he used to come for visits.
Running a hand lightly across his shirt where he’s memorized the faint scars on his chest were, he pauses in front of his grandfather’s door. Peering into the room. It doesn’t look all that different from his memories, there are a few new succulents by the window, a new dream catcher sporting rainbow colors. Thomas can’t help but wonder if he put that up in honor of when he finally came out to the whole family or if his grandfather just wanted a splash of color.
He slowly sits on the bed, smiling at the memories. He would run in here climbing onto the mountain of a bed as it seemed at the time when he was so small. Seeking his great grandfather for comfort when the spooky sounds outside scared him...He lays down, strangely emotional. Curling up on the top of the comforter and closing his eyes. Willing his tears away and taking a deep breath of the familiar scent of the room. Of wood and something else, he could never place.
A small mew startles him as he opens his eyes, spotting the cat from earlier looking up at him, somehow looking sympathetic. It jumps up, nuzzling itself under Thomas’s arms and curling up close to his chest.
He lets out a watery chuckle, closing his eyes again.
It’s going to be okay.