A/N: I know I shouldn't be publishing another story - how many have I finished lately? However, it has been a long time since I worked on a horror story that I had to give this idea an oportunity. I'm writing an unusual couple, but I hope some of you like it, and this idea is slight based on a TV show and movie. As you know English isn't my first language. Enjoy it! ;)

Heart Of Darkness

Chapter One - Just A House

It is said that a house is just a house. It is a simple edifice made of stone, concrete, glass and wood where some people raise their family and live until the end of their days on Earth while others spend their lives jumping from house to house.

But how can a house be just a house when it has so many stories to tell? Behind those four walls happens more than someone can ever think of. Some have pleasant stories to tell while others hide secrets and are haunted by the past of their previous owners.

A house isn't just a house. Every house has its own tale and some tales aren't supposed to be unveiled. Finding out the truth about a certain house can be dangerous. Too bad some people learned it the hard way.

- We are almost there - Wade Barrett announced to the woman sat on the passenger's seat of the car. He sent a beam in her direction, taking the eyes from the road for a brief moment. She didn't make an effort to look back at him or to smile.

The wearing voyage would come to an end very soon - however, not as soon as the female wished. In no time the married couple would reach their destination.

It was easy to tell that Katie Lea Barrett wasn't enjoying the trip. She had been skeptical about it since the beginning. The woman was certain no one in his perfect sense would travel so many miles and leave all behind to repair a relationship. However, Wade, for some odd and unbelievable reason, convinced her to do it.

She glanced at the outside by the car's closed window. To where did Wade bring her? The neighborhood didn't appear a place where Katie would like to live. The dwellings were absolutely gorgeous, but the Los Angeles suburbs weren't her place. She didn't have the characteristics of the people who lived there.

Years ago, Katie found herself happy in Kentucky after moving from England. Having two oceans separating her from her homeland wasn't easy at first. But at the end she found Louisville a pleasant place to live and met friend for life. And if it wasn't her moving to Kentucky when hired by WWE, she would never have met the love of her life, or at least she thought back then.

After marrying to Wade, the English woman moved to Tampa, the town where her current husband was living because it was easier to have access to the new WWE's train facility. It took her a while to adjust at the climate and at the new residence - she found it too big for a just-married couple. Nonetheless, after a while, a couple of months, she was happy with her new life. Perhaps her adaption would have been faster if it wasn't her crazy schedule at the time that precluded her of spending more time at home.

But now? She travelled throughout the country - state after state was left behind - to find a place in a new town that she couldn't tolerate. And it was all because to run off from the past that would always haunt them. Didn't Wade understand some memories would live forever? They could leave all behind, but the memories would always survive inside them.

A string of dark hair was coyly tucked behind her ear, leaving her pale features visible. Katie always had fair skin, but lately her skin was whiter than it has ever been, showing everyone she was sick. It was his entire fault. He did this to her.

Normal couples would visit a counselor instead of leaving a life behind to start over. Katie wondered the reason Wade didn't think about it. She found it a better option than the one he took. It was less in expensive than moving and it would have the same result: the end of them as one.

Wade stopped the car in front of a detached house different of all the dwellings - most townhouses - she had seen during the long and exhausting trip. Her eyes fathomed the outside. Compared to the other houses it was antique - for some odd reason it gave her a glow. It was large for what Katie could tell, but not enormous as those houses which have an exaggerate number of rooms that would never be all occupied.

Before the raven haired woman could open the vehicle's door by herself, Wade had already done it. While she observed the house, he had won time to act as a gentleman. She rolled her blue eyes in annoyance. She didn't need his gentleness.

- What do you think?

- It's old. - The answer was short and cold. An answer he already was expecting for. Lately, whenever they spoke more than three sentences, it would end up on a fight.

Approaching from the house, Wade tried to reach his wife's hand, but Katie didn't allow him to touch her. The German-born English woman's pace become faster and they weren't side-by-side anymore.

Wade ran his hand through his short dark hair. He was doing his best to put their relationship back on track. Nevertheless, his wife pushed him away every time he tried any kind of contact or to speak with her. He couldn't even hold her hand. The worst part was she didn't send him an angry glance as she did in the beginning. She simply ignored him as he was a strange.

- Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Barrett. - The house seller stood at the door showing her white pearls. The woman in her fifties needed to give the couple a good impression. A smile helped buy a house and she was aware to sell this house many smiles were needed. - I was waiting for you.

- The traffic was awful. - Wade excused their lateness, but Katie didn't make the effort to pull out a fake smile or even to sustain her husband's truthful excuses.

To buy a new house had been Wade's idea, not hers. The English woman was still trying to figure out how he convinced her to do this. A new house wouldn't save what was left of their marriage - as much as Wade wished it to happen.

If they had done the things to her way, it would already be all over between them. They wouldn't drag themselves through this undesirable and miserable situation. Wasn't Wade tired of fighting?

- Are you ready for the tour?

The house was as antique inside as it was outside. The seller told them it had been built seventy years ago by a renamed doctor. It had survived to a fire two decades ago. Nevertheless, with its age and history, it was still in exemplary conditions and ready to welcome new owners.

- This house is ideal to raise children. Do you see all this space where they can play without leaving their mommy and daddy concerned? By the way, do you have any kids? - the woman asked when they reached the backyard.

- We don't want to have children - Katie's answer cut off Wade, who sent her a puzzled glance. Until that day he had never listened to his wife pronouncing those words. It was one more indication to show him that she wanted to put an end to this.

- This house is amazing - Wade exclaimed when they were back inside the house, more exactly on the kitchen. They still had the first floor to observe. He swerved his eyes in his wife's direction. - Don't you like it Katie?

Without pronouncing a word, Katie departed from the two other people surrounding her and went upstairs. It was indeed a marvelous house. Nevertheless, her thoughts were far away from being related to the house she and her husband were seeing.

- Your wife doesn't seem to share the same opinion.

Wade stayed without knowing what to say. Kate hasn't been herself for a long time. He was aware it was his fault - he would carry that burden it until the rest of his days, if she didn't return to the lovely and cheerful woman she was once before -, but he was trying to make everything right. He was trying to be a good husband and to fix his mistakes.

Upstairs, Katie finally found herself alone. It was clear as crystal the woman under stairs only cared about selling the house. She had the feeling the older woman was throwing the house at them due to her wonderful descriptions. A house as this should have a lot more buyers and with better offers than theirs - well, Wade's because she wouldn't give a dollar for a new house. She didn't imagine a reason for the woman be dying to vend them the house.

Katie strolled through the empty hall until she reached one of the divisions. By the appearance, it seemed the master bedroom. The raven haired woman leaned her body against the door frame and scanned the large and illuminated space.

A new town and a new house was Wade's idea to start all over again between them. It was his way of giving their torn marriage a second chance. A marriage she thought being ideal until the day she discovered the truth. Katie closed her eyelids. It was excruciating to remember what Wade did. If he had just…

Why did he have to ruin their relationship? He threw away a four year relationship for nothing and now he was trying to pick up the pieces of it.

Katie inhaled a deep breath and tried to remove those thoughts from her troubled mind. She promised she would let it go for her own sake, but it was too hard to forget his actions. How did Wade expect her to forget what he did? How did he expect her to forgive what he did? When she needed him most, she ended up finding he wasn't the man she thought he was. He shattered her trust and now was expecting her to forgive him; to act as nothing had happened.

- Isn't it perfect? - The male English accent brought her back to reality, which at the moment was less painful than her thoughts.

Turning around, Katie swerved her eyes to the walls in the hall, not to face her husband. The paintings were just terrifying. They were far for being perfect, the words used by Wade to describe the dwelling.

- I don't like the paintings on the walls. They fright me. - And they brought back painful memories; something Katie desperately wanted to forget.

How did someone have the cruelty of drawing on the walls a baby being ripped off by demons? To draw people being burned in red flames? A chill ran thought Katie's spine. If they brought the house those draws would have to go. She wouldn't be able to glance at them every day without feeling a shiver.

- We can easily take care of them. - A bucket of paint and it would like the images had never existed.

Katie rolled her eyes in annoyance. Even if she didn't want to move to this house, Wade seemed decided to do it If it wasn't this house the chosen one for a bright future, he would drag her to another house, as he had done before, until she finally agreed buying one. Why was it so important for him to save their marriage?

- You really want to buy this house, don't you? - the wife spoke, crossing her arms over her chest. - It doesn't seem you need my approval to have it. Don't you think it must be a catch? Why is the price so low?

The woman showed up from nowhere to give Katie the answer she was looking for. There was a reason for the low price and it wouldn't be an enjoyable motive as Katie was about to learn.

- The last owners were murdered - the woman spoke and both husband and wife twisted their bodies to face her. - Well, one of them was murdered and the other committed suicide.

This was too much for the raven haired woman. An assassination? No, just no! She had been against the idea of a new house since the beginning. She clearly wasn't going to reside in a place where someone lost his life.

- I'm not going to live in a house where someone died. - She sent Wade a warning glance. It was better for him to stop thinking about the idea of buying this place. If a new house was going to be bought, it was better no one to have died on its ground.

- In a matter of fact, they died outside, in the backyard, three years ago. It was an unfortunate moment.

Katie's beautiful blue eyes were now sending red flames to the other woman, warning her to shut up, to be quiet. Was she serious? The most important was that someone died in this house and not in which part of the house. If the eyes could kill, the house seller would be lying on the floor lifeless.

- Can you give us a moment alone? - Wade needed a moment to speak with Katie without the other woman around. If he was going to be insulted at least the other woman wouldn't listen to it.

It didn't take them too long to be alone, only surrounded by the dreadful hall. As soon as the woman's steps weren't heard by the couple - they were sure if she was listening to them or not -, Katie spoke and used a serious tone of voice.

- I won't live in a house where someone was killed - she warned her husband. She could read in his eyes he was willing to buy the house, whenever someone was killed or not. Was he so eager to fix their relationship that he would buy this house? - You dragged me from a perfectly fine house and now you want me to live in a place where someone was murdered. Are you out of your mind?

- A perfectly fine house, Kat? Are you listening to yourself? You didn't want to live there. Did you forget everything you did to avoid to enter inside it?

- No woman in her perfect mind would like to stay living on the house where…- Kate cut herself off before going further with her accusations. She did it to protect herself - to stay sane -, not for him.

An acute sound, which seemed to come from the pipes, echoed through the hall. It gave an opportunity to Katie to calm down before started yelling and accusing Wade. It would be so much easier if he agreed to take care of their relationship as she wished.

- This has been the only house you haven't walked away as soon as the tour begun - Wade said when the hurtful sound vanished. - You must have liked it, even if it wasn't much. I understand people died here, but let's give it a shot. You don't need to go to the backyard.

- Isn't it the same backyard where she told our children could play?

This wasn't a battle she would win. Taking a deep breath, she decided she would let him go ahead with his plans, but it didn't mean the war was over. When it came to an end she would leave it victorious, which meant her plans went ahead and not his.

- Can you find someone to take care of the pipes? - Wade raised his eyebrow in confusion; why did the pipes need to be repaired? - I'm not going to lose hours of sleep because of its annoying sounds.

It wasn't a "yes", but it was Katie's form to tell him she accepted to move to this place. He confessed it was more than he was hoping for from her. He was almost expecting that she would tell him to do whatever he wished; she wouldn't take part in the decision.

- And hire someone to paint the walls or do it by yourself. I'll be the one spending more time in this house and I don't want to stare at these… - her finger pointed at the baby; she didn't have words to describe the cruelty of the draw -…every single day.

She didn't take a second look at him before disappearing into one of the divisions. Wade didn't follow her; he stood behind watching her vanishing.

If her devoted husband wanted this house, then he would have it. But at the end of the day, the purchase would be a waste of money and when it was sold again the cash would be shared between them during their divorce process.

If Katie gave Wade what he wanted now, then he would give her what she desired the most in the future.