A Halloween two-shot to get me back into fic-writing before I start updating to my stories on here again. And also my first Brochel fic! :) Remember to review. Thanks and enjoy.

He Appeared.

Germany, Early 1800s –

It was raining something terrible when Rachel arrived at the doorstep. Now eighteen years of age, she had been dreading this day for quite some time now. The rain pelted down around her as she approached the huge, intimidating door of the Schuster manor; she felt even smaller and more fearful than she already was. Just the door itself was sharp-edged, and had a doorknocker crafted in a dark shade of gold – it was shaped like the head of a roaring lion, the knocker itself grasped between it's mighty jaws. The manor itself was more like a castle, architecturally speaking. It was so large a manor that Rachel figured it could have gone on forever, with large, tower-like structures and innumerable halls, passageways and rooms. The structures themselves were made just as the doorway was – out of thick, black stone. The Schuster manor had endless land and property to go along with the castle-like home. The grasslands – now overshadowed by the hundreds of trees swaying in the heavy wind – seemed to stretch on endlessly, and Rachel thought of how pretty such a place must look in the spring.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

"Ah," addressed a stout, Indian man. He was dressed in uniform – pressed coat and tie – and once propped he had open the large door was a creaky sound, he fixed his pristine, white gloves. "You must be Miss Berry, correct?"

"Correct," she murmured. The rain had soaked her so much that her deep blue dress clung to her tiny frame, and her usually voluminous dark hair hung damp and limply. Her body involuntarily shook from the cold. This was not a good first impression.

"Yes…" continued the butler. "Please, do come in."

Rachel did as she was told and entered the manor. Once through the threshold, the marveled at the glorified room in front of her: the ballroom. It was huge, just as all the rooms in the manor were, with immaculate mahogany floors, and large, dark ceiling. The ballroom held a grand piano – an open-winged, shiny black one – a small performance stage, off to the side of the room, and shelves lines with different types of interments.

"This…is beautiful," she bayed.

"Well, I'm glad you like it," said the butler. "You'll be staying here for quite some time."

"Yes," Rachel sighed, remembering why she was here in the first place. "I suppose I will."

Arranged marriages were not out of the ordinary, but Rachel feared the thought of hers more than anything.

"My name is Figgions," the butler spoke again. "And you should know I've worked for the family for many, many years. Let me show you to your room."

Once Figgions led her up one of the many great, swirling staircases, they found her room on the last floor of the largest tower in the manor. Her room was just as spacious as any other that the mansion held, but the first thing that Rachel noticed about it was how bare and empty it was. There was a bed and a dresser there for her, and that was it. The walls, too, were painted an emotionless beige, and there were no windows at all to grant her any view or sunlight.

"Figgions…" Rachel started, but when she turned around the face him, the butler was gone. After changing into dry clothes, she paced around the perimeter of her new bedroom, feeling that perhaps this was the calm before the storm. Suddenly, she heard a lot crash, followed by the sound of glass breaking, and a deep scream of frustration. Rachel followed the noise one staircase and two hallways down, until she came upon a tall boy dressed in a long, white lab coat. Again and again, he slammed his glove-covered fists against a cabinet containing an endless amount of glass beakers and test tubes, each one filled with a different unidentifiable chemical or strange substance.

"Damn it!" He seethed, and knocked over a handful of beakers. "We're still missing it…we still need – " But when he turned around to see Rachel there in the doorway, he stopped mid-sentence.

"H-hello," she stuttered to break the silence. "I…I'm – "

"Rachel Berry?" He asked.

"Yes," she responded. "I am."

"I've been expecting you," said the boy. "I'm Finn Hudson."

"You're…you're who I'll be marrying."

"Yes," he answered. "In about two weeks time."

The door to a narrow passageway in the corner of the room creaked open, and a man with curly brown hair appeared in the room with them. He, like Finn, was dressed in a lab coat, and he also wore goggles, now placed on his head and away from his eyes. His coat, goggles, and gloves were splattered with what seemed to be blood.

"Well, I supposed it's about time you two met," he said. "You must be Rachel. Welcome! I am Dr. William Schuster. My family's owned this manor for generations, you see. And since my own son can no longer continue the family line, my assistant Finn here is…to put it simply, he's close enough."

"Thank you, sir," she said with a small curtsy. "For opening your home to me so generously." She spoke these words to the doctor, even though she wished she were anywhere but here. With another look to Finn, the man said:

"Perhaps you should see what we're working on."

"Doctor, no!" Finn interrupted. "She's just a girl, she doesn't need to know about – "

"Might I remind you," said William gruffly. "That soon is girl is to be your wife. Perhaps you should start treating her as such." Finn looked from Will to Rachel twice over, and finally surrendered with:

"Very well. I will show her." As the doctor left them alone, Finn gestured for Rachel to follow him through the passageway that Schuster had entered the room from. Rachel did, and found that as they walked, the hall slowly became narrower and narrower. Finally they reached the room at the end of it – the room was circular and had a strange aura to it. It was clear the doctor's lab because it was full of medical equipment, chemicals, experiments mid-way through, and gurneys with long sheets draped over them.

"This is the laboratory where the doctor and I work," said Finn, not turning around to face her. "And this," he said, walking up to a gurney in the back of the room. "Is our current experiment." Finn threw the sheet off of the gurney and exposed what must have been the corpse of a boy. The boy was paler than anyone Rachel had ever seen, his eyes were closed and his once brown-blonde hair was now limp and colorless.

"Who…was he?" She asked.

"This boy was Kurt Schuster, the doctor's only son," was Finn's answer. "His wife, Emma, went insane many years ago and killed herself and the boy. Through years of research, Dr. Schuster has been able to preserve his son's body, and will stop at nothing to revive him."

"Revive him?" Rachel gasped. "As in…bring back the dead?"

"But we're missing one key component," the assistant continued, ignoring her question.

"And that would be?"

"A heart," he said. "A human heart."

That night, Rachel could not sleep. Everything that had happened to her that day was building up in her head like an enormous weight of pressure. The rain, by now, had stopped, and she decided to explore the property of the manor. The grasslands led to a small forest just west of the mansion. It was odd – under her feet, the rain-dampened grass seemed to get warmer and warmer the farther she walked. The trees became less and less barren and soon all of the trees around her were covered with leaves, buds and flowers as if it were spring. The snap of a twig breaking under her feet broke Rachel's awe-filled silence. And then, as if by magic, he appeared.

"Is someone there?"

Rachel said nothing and started to slink away.

"Please?" The voice asked, with a cough. "Is someone there?"

She peered from behind the nearest tree and saw a boy, his abdomen covered in blood.

"Are you alright?" Rachel asked, approaching him. "Do you need help? Here, sit." She helped him sit down and tore off the boy's blood-stained shirt, examining the wound. "Who did this to you?"

"I don't know," said the boy. "I…didn't see his face…" he seethed with pain and Rachel held him. "Please, don't help me, you shouldn't – "

"It's already," she soothed. "It's going to be alright." She held him until the wave of pain was over. "If I may ask, who are you?"

"My name's Brody. Brody Weston. I'm…sort of a traveler."

"A traveler?"

"I'm not from here. I'm not like these people that live around here. All they know is science. I know something much more powerful…"

"You're delirious," Rachel told him. "Why don't I take you in for the night, and – "

"No!" He yelled. "I'll never go back there! I'll…never…"

Brody collapsed in Rachel's arms, and from his back unfurled beautiful, black wings.

To be continued. Review?