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"Caught Between Two Worlds"Written By: Honor Disclaimers: Never say die! Never surrender! Pairings: 4x5, 1x3 established Spoilers: Nope! Warnings: AU, paranormal elements, yaoi, romance,
my weird and twisted humor, language, brief violence Rating: I’m thinking…NC-15 Betas: Velvet and Caitilin Archived: Gundam Wing Diaries and http://honordemandoren.livejournal.com/ Author’s Insane and often Incomprehensible
Rambling: Once again, I can blame this plot bunny on someone! I love
being able to do that. It means nothing is my fault. Emily quite nicely
asked for a story for her birthday. (Hi Emily! Sorry it’s late.)
So here it is. Em, I *still* think you bribed Quatre somehow. And
your story about Milo inspired the plot for this, so the whole thing
really can be blamed on you. *grin* ::ghost talking:: *emphasized* <phone conversation>
" Caught Between Two Worlds" Chapter Five
He glanced at our joined hands, then up to me in surprise. “What?” “Duo,” I grumbled. Curses, I’m not awake enough to deal with that energetic bundle of questions. Besides, I was hoping to use the next fifteen minutes to drag Wufei somewhere semi-private and make out a little before class started. Wufei was struggling to keep his face straight. “Should I go get you some coffee?” “I’ll probably need it, but we don’t have time.” Okay Quatre, chin up and forge ahead. You will survive this. Squaring my shoulders, I started weaving my way around people. I was perhaps five feet away when Duo spotted me. “Q!” Not content to wait, Duo darted forward and grabbed me. “Finally! Hey, Wuffers.” “Wufei,” my boyfriend corrected irritably. “If you can’t manage two syllables, Maxwell, then maybe you should consider going back to kindergarten.” Duo, completely unfazed by the snipping, just beamed. “So I guess it’s obvious that you had a good weekend. Just tell me how you two got together and I swear that I’ll wait until lunch before demanding details.” I dredged up enough mental energy to formulate the most concise explanation I could. “I pounced on him.” It was almost worth it to see Duo’s mouth soundlessly drop. His eyes jerked to Wufei, silently demanding a confirmation. Wufei just smirked, which I suppose was answer enough. My insane best friend grabbed me around the neck and briskly rubbed his fist over my hair. I tried fighting him off, but I wasn’t coordinated at seven-thirty in the morning and Duo’s faster besides. “Q, I’m so proud of you! You actually made the first move!” If he only knew… “Duo,” I sighed in exasperation as I finally extracted myself, “you expect me to behave myself when a guy this hot is nearby? Are you eating those mushrooms out of the backyard again?” Duo ignored that question, grinning evilly at Wufei instead. “You’re blushing, Fei-fei.” Wufei’s eyes narrowed sharply. In the blink of an eye he captured Duo’s head in the crook of his elbow and started giving *him* a noogie. Duo howled and twisted, sputtering (insincere) apologies and pleas to be let go. Me? I stood there watching and cheered Wufei on. Free entertainment. It’s a beautiful thing. + It was a dark and stormy afternoon. I sound like a bad horror movie…but it really was *stormy*. Lightning kept flashing and lighting up the sky, hitting so close that my house shook in reaction. I looked out of the window, smiling ruefully. “I don’t think we’re going anywhere anytime soon.” ::It’s not a good night to do this,:: Emily noted. The brief flashes of lightning did nothing to illuminate her, just threw everything else around her into sharp relief. “You can say that again,” I agreed ruefully. Emily was a rather long-term friend of mine—of the ghostly variety, that is. I met her when I was twelve, and we’ve been friends ever since. At first I kept trying to convince her to let go of this world and continue onto heaven, but she kept refusing. Never said why, just that she couldn’t do that. Now it was just a topic that I wouldn’t bring up. In all the years I had known her, she had never once asked for help on anything. You can imagine my surprise when she came tonight and asked for it. Something else I never asked her about was how she died. She looked roughly seventeen, which was far too young for anyone to die. The topic of death was usually a very uncomfortable one with ghosts, and I’ve learned over the years to just not ask. “Come tell me more about your friend,” I invited. ::I haven’t seen him all week.:: Emily drifted closer, looking visibly agitated. ::Milo was supposed to meet me at the school—he had a favor he wanted to ask of you. But he never showed up, so I went looking for him. You don’t suppose…:: she bit her lip nervously ::that he got sucked into the Robinson place, do you?:: I’ve never been able to figure out why, but every ghost I’ve ever met has been terrified of the old Robinson house. Supposedly, a hundred years before, a woman by the name of Celeste Robinson lived there. From some of the stories, she sounds like a Sensitive (which makes me grateful that I didn’t live a hundred years before, considering what happened to her). After she died, her remains were buried somewhere on the property and the entire thing was sealed with enough wards to make the Ghostbusters’s spirit storage unit look like a child’s playpen. No ghost has ever gone near the place since. “I wouldn’t think so,” I answered with a thoughtful frown. “I mean, all of you are so afraid of that place, I couldn’t imagine any ghost getting near it.” I suddenly remembered Meiran and snapped my fingers. “You might be worrying for nothing. Did you know there’s another Sensitive living nearby?” She blinked at me. ::No! Really?:: “My boyfriend’s cousin,” I confirmed. “Let me call her up. Maybe she helped your friend.” Emily zoomed around me, planting herself between me and the phone. ::Wait a minute! You’ve got a boyfriend? Since when?!” Er…oops. And here I thought I’d bragged, er, I mean, told everyone. “Chang Wufei.” Her eyes went wide. ::The Chinese hottie? The one that goes to your school? When did this happen?:: “About a week ago,” I admitted. It was hard not to blush a little. ::I want details!:: Of course she did. All females do. I resigned myself to telling the story—again. “Let me call Meiran first.” ::Okay.:: The phone had barely rung before it was picked up. <Hello Quatre!> I gotta love people with caller ID. “Hey Meiran. How are you?” <Bored, honestly. Wufei isn’t here.> “I know, he told me about the examination.” Apparently, Wufei had to be certified every year in order to be a registered master with a katana. To ensure he had enough skill to not take people’s heads off? That was my guess, at least. It was a closed examination otherwise I would have been there cheering him on. “Actually, I called to ask a question. I have a friend of mine, Emily, that’s missing a friend of hers. I thought maybe he had come to you for help.” <I take it this is a ghostly friend?> “Yup.” <Hm…haven’t had many ghosts around lately. What time frame am I looking at here?> “A week.” <Oh. Well I had one old geezer about two days ago and a middle aged woman at the beginning of the week. Ring a bell?> I lowered the phone a bit to relate this to Emily. “One old man and a middle aged woman.” Emily shook her head forlornly. ::He’s my age.:: “Oh.” I lifted the phone back to my mouth. “No, he’s around seventeen or so. He was supposed to meet Emily at the school a couple of days ago, but never showed. She’s been looking for him ever since.” There was a thoughtful hum on the other end of the line. <This might not be good, Quatre. Ask her if her friend had any interest in the old Robinson place.> I froze. “Meiran, why are you asking that?” <I walked past there earlier today. I got a really weird vibe from the place—it’s almost glowing it’s so lit up with spiritual energy. And I haven’t had many ghostly visitors the past two weeks. It’s a weird coincidence, don’t you think?> “Meiran, that place has been warded and sealed for decades. All of the ghosts in the area know better than to go near it.” I didn’t like the coincidence either, however. <Still…> Still. “Emily asked me the same question,” I was forced to admit. “Look, let’s wait until this storm clears out then head over there and take a look. Even if we don’t find Emily’s friend there,” and I was praying we wouldn’t, because with all the seals on that place I had no idea on how to get him out, “I would like to know what’s going on with that place.” <Sounds like a plan. The Weather Channel says this storm should pass on in about an hour. Let’s say an hour and a half, if it’s cleared off by then.> “Okay.” + The storm actually took closer to two hours to clear out. Not that I was surprised, since when has weathermen ever accurately predicted anything concerning the weather? It was only about five, but it felt much later than that because of all the dark clouds hanging overhead. I met Meiran right at the corner of the old Robinson place. At this point in time, it looked little more than an old abandoned house. Weeds were actually growing through the floors, you could see the tops of them sticking out the windows. Kinda sad looking, actually. What really caught my attention was the aura around the place. Meiran was right this is really weird. The spiritual energy coming off was so strong I could still clearly see it when I closed my eyes. Just what was going on? “Quatre!” Meiran was puffing a little when she ran up to me. “What do you think?” I smiled at her in greeting, before it melted into a worried frown. “There’s something odd about this, Meiran. Really odd. This isn’t just a warding or a seal—although that’s part of it. There’s a sinister cast to that glow that I don’t like. And it feels…as if it were a magnet somehow. Can you feel the tug on your spiritual sense?” Meiran nodded, eyes growing flat and angry. “It acts like a ghost trap—at least that would be my guess. It explains why all the ghosts are afraid of this place, and won’t get too close.” Emily sure hadn’t. She was all the way across the street, staring at us nervously. That was as close as she would get, and even that was making her anxious. There was no way I could just leave this alone. “I think we need to investigate a little. I’ll go left, you go right.” “Okay.” Meiran turned and walked away slowly, head turned so she could clearly focus on the seals lining the sidewalk. I could hear her mutter something about, ‘where’s Wufei when I need him, dammit?’ as she walked. Actually, my scholarly boyfriend would come in really handy right now. Half of the markings on these seals were completely foreign to me. I pulled out my cell phone and started taking pictures of them so I could show it to him later. With the weather being so crazy, I wasn’t sure if we would get a chance to come back here this weekend. “*Oh* *shit*!” Alarm shot through me. Meiran?! Without thinking I leapt over what was left of the fence and started running in her direction, calling as I went. “Meiran? *Meiran*?!” “Quatre, don’t cross the seals!” she called back anxiously. Er… At this point I was almost on top of her. She was kneeling just inside the property line, looking very fed up and a little nervous. When she saw me, she went very nervous. “Dammit. We’re screwed.” I could feel it clearly, now that I was inside the sealing. I didn’t have to ask her what she meant. Meiran had been right about the purpose of this sealing. It was built to trap anyone with even a hint of the spiritual inside. Ghosts would be a prime target. So would Sensitives. We were trapped. Completely and utterly trapped. “This situation isn’t as bad as you would think,” I assured her while offering a hand up. It almost sounded like I was reassuring myself as well. “I mean, I have my cell phone on me. We’ll just call someone.” Meiran visibly took hold of herself, climbing up to her feet. “Quatre, have you ever tried to use a cell phone or any kind of electrical equipment inside a sealing like this?” My heart sank into my stomach. “No,” I admitted. Almost morosely I guessed, “They don’t work, do they?” “Not at all.” I glanced up at the sky. It was about a half hour from letting loose and drenching us. I looked at the house. If that thing offered any protection from the weather, I would be very much surprised. And no, I hadn’t informed anyone before leaving where I was going because no one had been home. Murphy strikes again. I was almost ready to start beating my head against something when I suddenly remembered that there was at least one person that was still free. “Emily!” I sprinted for the property line, calling as I went. “Emily? Can you hear me?!” ::Yes. Are you okay?:: “Bloody irritated at myself,” I mumbled before raising my voice to answer her. “We’re fine. Just trapped. This place acts like a trap for practically anyone it seems. Look, I need you to go get Wufei. He’ll know how to get us out of this.” Meiran caught my elbow and hissed, “Are you crazy? Wufei might know how to get us out, but he’s not going to be able to sense her! She won’t be able to tell him anything.” I shushed her, still focused on Emily who was wavering anxiously back and forth across the street. “Listen to me, Em. Wufei is completely dead to the spiritual world. You’re going to have to do something to get his attention and explain. Move something, write something—whatever it takes. Okay?” ::Okay. Where is he?:: Meiran gave her quick directions to the dojo, then Emily zoomed off. Thunder rolled and cracked overhead and my eyes automatically went upwards. “While we’re waiting, let’s see how good that roof has held up over the years.” + Normally I love my boyfriend to pieces, but if he doesn’t get here in the next ten minutes then his ass is grass. Meiran and I have been waiting for close to an hour now, and still no sign of Wufei. The storm rolling over our heads had let loose, pouring sheets of rain so hard that you literally could not see your hand in front of your face. One small thing was going in our favor. The house was very dilapidated, but there were parts of it that wasn’t too bad. Meiran and I had managed to tuck ourselves into a corner of the kitchen, and were staying mostly dry. Our only problem was when the wind gusted, because that blew some of the rain in. I peered out anxiously through what was left of the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Wufei coming for us. I saw something else entirely. “Dammit!” Meiran jerked around, eyes wide. “What?” “Nichol is out there.” ~*~*~*~
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