Chapter Text
“I think there’s something in my house.”
Allen stared at his phone for a second, struggling to process what he was hearing. Lenalee sounded so calm on the line that he wasn’t quite sure what to say, and he scrambled to find an appropriate answer. “I—Are you alright?”
She let out a frustrated sigh, and he could vaguely hear rustling from her end. “There’s just something in my house and I don’t want to be alone here. Can you please come over?”
“Y-yeah, of course!” Allen glanced around, swearing under his breath when his keys didn’t magically appear in front of him. “Let me grab my keys and I’ll be there in ten minutes, tops, alright?”
“Could you stay on the phone with me?” More rustling, almost drowning out her quiet plea. “I’m kind of freaking out a little…”
“Sure. Yeah. What happened?” He hurried out his room and down the stairs, snatching up the keys from the kitchen table. Timothy looked up from his homework, a question clear in his eyes as Allen waved him off from the front door.
Lenalee sighed again, mumbling into the phone. Allen frowned, climbing into his car. “What was that? I couldn’t year you.”
“I said I heard a door slam when I came home,” she repeated. “And I tried to look around but there was nothing there.”
“Did you see anything weird?” Allen thumbed the speaker on his phone, pulling out of the driveway quickly. “Shouldn’t you maybe call the cops?”
“They wouldn’t do anything. There’s no one in my house.” Again, she sounded so certain, so nonchalant about it that it made Allen’s head spin.
“So then…I don’t get it…” He admitted, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. “If there’s no one in your house then what’s the problem?”
“Because there’s something in my house.”
The implication hung heavy in the air, but implication of what, Allen didn’t know. “Like an animal?”
“Animals don’t slam doors shut on people,” Lenalee said. “It’s…I told you about the weird things missing around the house, didn’t I?”
“Umm…” He struggled to remember, squeezing the steering wheel. “Um, the missing things, right?”
“Things going missing and then popping up in different places.” Lenalee clarified. “But it’s more than that. I don’t know. It’s just weird here lately. It almost feels like I’m being watched.”
“I’m pretty sure cops are better equipped to handle that kind of stuff than I am,” Allen said, pulling into her street. “I’m almost there, alright?”
“Yeah, I see you. Thanks, Allen.” The call disconnected with a click.
She was sitting on the curb, knees drawn up to her chest, and stood as he pulled up into her driveway. Despite what she had just said, she looked more annoyed than concerned about the possibilities of a stalker.
Allen was quick to point it out too, looking up at her house. She shrugged, crossing her arms. “I don’t think it’s a stalker, Allen.”
“What is it then?” He frowned, movement catching his attention out of the corner of his eye. A curtain fluttered in one of the windows. “Uh…”
“Yeah, it does that.” Lenalee sighed in a resigned sort of voice, leading the way to the front door. “Come on.”
“Are you sure we shouldn’t maybe call for some help? Backup? Link doesn’t look it but he works out.” Allen glanced down the street apprehensively, the setting sun throwing everything into shades of fiery red and gold. A small breeze picked at his clothes, but other than the rustling of leaves, there wasn’t a sound.
Lenalee shoved the door open, hesitating at the threshold. “Can you…?”
“Right, yeah.” Clearing his throat and bracing himself for anything, Allen stepped past her into the house. “I think this is the first time I’ve actually been in your house.”
It was a neat little place, the tastefully decorated living room disturbed only by a stack of books on the coffee table. He slowly made his way to the kitchen, tiptoeing to avoid giving himself away. He could hear Lenalee behind him, her shoes squeaking faintly on the tiled floor.
The kitchen was empty, the curtain from earlier undisturbed. The kitchen was a bit messier than the living room, but felt more lived in; more textbooks were strewn across the table, along with an open notebook and a purple mug. The fridge had a magnetic calendar, and from the entryway he could see colorful notes tacked onto it. “Nothing here,” he reported, glancing back.
Lenalee nodded stiffly, fists clenched tight around an umbrella. At his raised eyebrow, she shrugged. “Just in case?”
“I don’t think an umbrella will do much against a home intruder,” he murmured, walking out of the kitchen. From the living room, he stepped into a hallway, shivering suddenly. “Hey, is there a hall light?”
The light flicked on, and Allen continued along. “Thanks, Lena. Which way?”
“Allen?” Her voice caught, and he turned back curiously. She was standing at the entrance of the kitchen, eyes wide, nowhere near the hall. Nowhere near the light.
If Allen had been in a horror movie, he would have turned in slow motion to look at the light, and either would have screamed in terror or been murdered in a horribly cliché fashion.
Instead, he stumbled out of the hall, reaching out behind him to grab at Lenalee. She gripped his arm, fingers digging into his skin. “This is what I meant! Weird things going on when no one’s around!”
As if to emphasize it, a door slammed down the hall, making him jump. Lenalee smothered a shriek into his shoulder, her knuckles white on his arm. He winced, carefully prying her fingers off him, and snatched the umbrella for good measure. “I-It’s fine, Lenalee. It’s fine! I’ll…I’ll go after them, and you get ready to call the cops, alright?”
Hefting the umbrella onto his shoulder like a baseball bat, Allen approached the door. His pulse pounded in his throat, and he took a shuddery breath as he gripped the doorknob. “Where does this lead?”
“Guest bedroom.” Lenalee walked over slowly, wound tighter than a spring. “There’s a window but there’s bars, so if…if someone is in there, they won’t be able to get out.”
“Right.” Steeling himself, Allen turned the knob, pushing the door open, umbrella at the ready.
The room was empty, and a cursory glance told him there wasn’t much in which an intruder could hide in. As a precaution, he crouched down to keep under the bed, but all he found was a couple of dust bunnies and a hair tie.
Lenalee slipped into the room, poking around, but there wasn’t much to the room in the first place besides a bed and a small dresser. Frustrated, she flopped on the bed, digging her palms into her eyes. Allen followed suit, dropping the umbrella on the floor.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” she whispered, reaching back blindly to grasp at Allen. He obliged, squeezing her hand reassuringly. “It wasn’t that bad at first…just little things missing. I thought I was just getting caught up with school, losing track of things, you know?”
“But then lights started flicking on when I wasn’t home, or doors that I thought were open were closed all of a sudden…It’s always cold now…” She rolled over, propping herself up on her elbows to look at Allen. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I…” His throat was dry as an idea wormed itself into his head. “I don’t…know what to tell you, Lena…what do you think is going on? Did something happen?”
“No…not that I know of.” She squeezed his hand, frowning. “It feels like it did when my brother died.”
And there it was. He wasn’t sure how superstitious Lenalee was, and wasn’t sure if it was the paranoia talking, but the idea seemed to have taken root nonetheless.
He could feel her hands shaking as she continued her thought. “I don’t remember much…I was too little to really get what was happening, but after Yuu died, the house felt weird. Komui didn’t like talking about it. He would get upset. I don’t blame him, looking back, but it felt…” She faltered, struggling to find the words. “It felt like this.”
“So…” He cleared his throat, rubbing circles into her hands with his thumb. “So are you saying maybe that there’s a ghost in the house?”
“I don’t think there’s a ‘maybe’ about it,” she whispered, and they watched as the bedroom door swung shut.