Author's Note: So I started this story forever ago, like a paragraph of it, and a little while ago I decided to start it up again. It IS actually a finished story, with three chapters (obviously this is chapter one of three), so you guys won't have to wait TOO terribly long. But I AM a little mean, so I'll make you wait a little at the very least. I also have to run through chapters two and three to edit/fix them up. ANYWAY. Yullen. Alternative Universe - College/Ghost

Warnings: Consensual sex, torture/violence, mentions of an abusive relationship
ALSO I mention a few things about Mana and Neah that are VERY recent occurrences in the manga.

Chapter 1

The house was haunted.

Or at least that's what Lavi said. It looked like any other empty house up for sale to Kanda, and he really didn't know why he had to be dragged along. And of course, they had to come at night. Lavi said it wouldn't be as creepy if it was during the day, and what was the fun of a haunted house, if it wasn't creepy and if you didn't go at night?

Kanda didn't care. He didn't scare easily and he didn't believe in haunted houses. Especially if Lavi was the one who told him about one. The loser was notorious for saying shit just to get reactions from people and Kanda didn't want to give him any more chances.

He didn't really have a choice this time though. Lavi had literally dragged him from his apartment to the redheads car, where Lenalee was already waiting, claiming they were going to go see a ghost. Lenalee looked skeptical as well, which made Kanda feel a little better about this whole ridiculous trip, but she just gave Kanda a look and shrugged. The Japanese man sighed loudly and slumped against his seat. He would be complaining the entire trip and Lenalee knew this. Lavi probably did too, but didn't care.

"Are we the only ones going?" Lenalee asked.

"Only ones willing to go," Lavi said as he drove out of the parking lot.

"What the hell do you mean willing? You dragged me out of my apartment!" Kanda snarled from the back seat.

"But you let me, didn't you, Yu?" Lavi said with a grin, meeting his friend's eye in the rear view mirror. "I know you could have easily gotten away from me."

Kanda crossed his arms and glowered for a moment at that bright green eye, before looking out the window. He recognized where they were. It was one of the nicer neighborhoods at the edge of town. Lavi drove down the lane slowly looking at addresses. "There!" he said and pointed at a mailbox beside a driveway that disappeared behind the trees, "That's the address." Kanda rolled his eyes as they drove up the driveway, past the For Sale sign, past the mailbox, and past the trees.

"What a beautiful house," Lenalee said, eyes widening a little as they came upon it.

Kanda had to agree. It was a beautiful house. It was a classic southern style place, painted in pale blue and white. The lawn was trimmed nicely, but it took Kanda a moment to realize that the flowerbeds butting up against the porch were, well, dead. He frowned.

It looked deserted, uninhabited, abandoned, even in the good shape it was in. Maybe it had something to do with the dead rosebushes standing brown and black in the flowerbeds, or the fact that there were no curtains in the windows.

Lavi parked the car and got out, grinning widely.

"It doesn't look haunted," Lenalee said, glancing around the house. "It just looks empty. Are you sure it's haunted, Lavi?" She crossed her arms and gave the redhead a look that plainly said she did not believe him for a second.

"Oh come on you two—" Kanda had the same expression and Lavi had seen it. "—where's your sense of adventure? Don't you want to look around inside? What if it is haunted?"

"Ghosts aren't real, dipshit," Kanda growled.

Lavi just grinned and shone a flashlight in the man's face, causing him to glare. "We'll see. Here." He tossed a torch to Kanda and Lenalee then hopped up the steps towards the door. Lenalee followed, glancing at the flowerbeds as well before focusing her flashlight on the door, where Lavi had crouched down beside the lock.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kanda asked, standing beside Lenalee. He let the beam of light travel across the wall and shone it through the window. He couldn't see much past the glare.

"The door's locked," Lavi said, tongue poking out between his lips in concentration. There was a small click and he stood with a grin, letting the door swing open.

"That's how you got into my apartment!" Kanda said, eyes narrowing. "I knew I locked that damn door."

Lavi gave another one of his grins and walked into the house. Lenalee shot a look at Kanda then shrugged her shoulders again and followed the redhead.

It smelled like dust and neglect and the floorboards creaked when they walked through the foyer. "Wow," Lavi breathed, looking around. "Well, if I ever saw a house that had haunted written all over it, this one would be it!"

"Lavi, there aren't any cobwebs or broken floorboards or anything like that. Where're you even drawing this conclusion from?" Lenalee said, looking around before blinding Lavi with her flashlight for a moment.

"Look, Lenalee," he said patiently. "Just look around. I mean, doesn't it look creepy, even without it being rundown?"

"Not really," Lenalee said, looking doubtful. Lavi gave her a quick glace before turning back around and starting down the hallway. Kanda turned in a small circle as he examined the foyer. He looked up the stairs and saw nothing but another hallway. He was sure Lavi would want to check it out once they were done looking at everything downstairs.

"I wonder if there's anything left from the original owners," Lavi said as they poked around the kitchen. There was nothing there but empty cabinets and bare drawers, so they moved on. "If there's anything left here, I bet it's in the attic or basement, right? That's where people in horror movies find things." He grinned and Kanda rolled his eyes, letting out a growl.

"Can you really be that stupid? Lavi, there's no such thing as ghosts! Why do you believe in them? And why do you think this house is haunted?" Kanda demanded. He didn't want to deal with this right now. He was tired.

"Okay fine, fine, fine," Lavi said and his shoulders slumped. "In one of my classes, we were talking about old houses, and well, this one came up. And my professor said that many people think it's haunted. I checked it out and I think it totally could be haunted! Whoever buys it doesn't last very long."

"What do you mean by that, Lavi?" Lenalee asked from the other room where she was poking around.

Lavi followed her in. "I mean, either they move out and sell it quick, or they just disappear and they turn up dead weeks later," he said.

"Why haven't we heard of this?" Lenalee asked.

"It hasn't happened for a while now. The last death was in '93, I think."

"So what you're saying is that this house has been sitting here, empty and for sale for, what, twenty years?" Kanda asked, staring at Lavi. He didn't know if Lavi had finally cracked, or if he was just having fun messing with his two closest friends.

"No, of course not. That was the last death. People buy it, but don't stay for long. It's on market within the year. I think there's something up with it. What if it really is haunted?" Lavi asked in a whispered voice.

Kanda was now concerned with Lavi's sanity. He knew Lavi. He had known the idiot for nearly his entire life and he could tell when Lavi believed what he was saying. Right now was one of those times; Lavi thought the house could be haunted.

"Why did you have to drag us here though?" Kanda growled.

"I, uh…"

Kanda's eyebrows rose and a smirk crossed his face. "Were you scared that the 'ghost' might get you?" Lavi glanced away. "You're scared. God, Lavi you're pathetic."

"Shut up, Yu. If you had read the things I read, you would be freaked too."

"Then why the hell did you want to come here?"

"Curiosity! I really wanted to see if it was haunted!"

Kanda rolled his eyes and turned away. He frowned as he looked around the room and saw that their friend was gone. He looked over at Lavi. "Where's Lenalee? Did you see where she went?"

Lavi shook his head.

"She probably just left the room. Come on, pussy," Kanda said with a smirk, and left, calling out, "Lenalee?"

"Lenalee, where'd you go?" Lavi called.

"Upstairs," Lenalee answered back, voice muffled by old floorboards between them. Lavi took the lead as they headed upstairs.

The stairs creaked softly as the two walked up. "If it's been bought and sold, why does it look so neglected?" Kanda asked as he wiped some dust off the banister.

"I think the last time it was bought was a year or two ago. So it's been sitting here since then. I'm pretty sure somebody maintains it though because it's not too rundown, and the lawn is nice," Lavi said as he walked down the hall, checking rooms for Lenalee.

"What about the flowerbeds?" Kanda asked, skeptically.

"What about them?"

Kanda looked at him with incredulous eyes. "They were dead," he said.

Lavi turned to look at him, eye wide. "No they weren't. There were healthy tulips growing in the flowerbeds…"

Kanda blinked and stared at him. "No there weren't. The flowerbeds were full of dead rosebushes," he said flatly, eyes narrowed. He really hated it when Lavi messed with him like that.

"…Let's ask Lenalee what she saw. Where is that girl anyway?" Lavi asked and kept walking.

Kanda followed, frowning. He glimpsed the insides of the rooms as they passed by, empty, or dusty. One or two actually had furniture in it, which he found as very strange. Hadn't the last owner moved out? And there wasn't much of anything downstairs. As his eyes trailed over another bedroom (how many rooms did this house have anyway?), he caught a glimpse of something. Something human. He stepped back and looked into the room again; nothing except an empty chair sitting in the center. He shook his head. He was letting Lavi and his freaked out stories get to him.

"Kanda, what's the matter?" Lavi asked, causing Kanda to turn around. Lenalee was now beside the redhead.

"Nothing," Kanda said, looking into the room for another moment.

"Kanda, you look a little freaked out…" Lenalee said. "What happened?"

"Thought I saw something," Kanda said.

Lavi's green eye lit up. "Kanda, I think you're seeing things." Kanda shot him a murderous glare. "No, I mean, ghost things!"

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Well, okay, Lenalee, what sort of flowers were in the flowerbeds?" Lavi asked, turning to face her.

"Tulips," she said.

"See? Tulips. Just tulips!"

Lenalee frowned and looked at Kanda. "What did you see?"

"Tulips," he said with eyes narrowed, and then turning away from the two, arms crossed across his chest.

Lavi let out an indignant huff. "Yu! You told me that you saw dead rosebushes. Not tulips," he said with a glower. Kanda could tell that his redheaded pain in the ass knew he was just going along with them. Lavi was very acute when dealing with Kanda's subtleties, which was annoying to say the least.

"You really didn't see tulips?" the girl asked, eyes wide. "You saw dead rosebushes?"

Kanda gritted his teeth and looked at her. "Fine. Yes. I saw dead roses, not fucking tulips. Happy now?"

"Yes!" Lavi said. "It means there's something up with this house! I told you! I told you!" He let out a loud whoop and bouncing from foot to foot.

Something downstairs creaked.

"Did you hear that?" Lenalee whispered, grabbing Lavi's arm and effectively stopping his victory dance. The three looked at each other; even Kanda looked a little on edge. He wouldn't admit to Lavi that he was now nervous. What had happened in this house? Why had he seen dead roses when his friends hadn't? And now what was that noise coming from downstairs? Kanda chided himself; he was letting Lavi get to him. It was probably the house settling – Lavi had said that this house was pretty old, didn't he? Or mice. Or wind.

"Come on, let's go check it out!" Lavi said in a hushed voice, excitement radiating from his entire being. Lenalee paused then nodded and followed him down the stairs, keeping her flashlight on the step before her.

Kanda let out a soft groan. "You two are being stupid," he said and trailed after his two companions. "There's nothing in this fucking house."

"Yu, shh," Lavi hissed, flashing his torch in Kanda's face. "I think it came from the living room…" He took the lead, heading towards the origin of the sound. Lenalee had moved a little closer to the redhead as they entered. Kanda rolled his eyes, because this was getting ridiculous.

"See, nothing here," Kanda said, trailing his flashlight around the room. "Nothing at all. And why the hell are we using flashlights anyway? I'm sure the lights in this house work just fine." He stalked over to the wall and flicked the light switch up.

Lenalee let out a startled cry as the bulb exploded and the two men jumped. Lavi gripped his flashlight tightly in his hand. "Oh good job, Yu. You broke the light!"

"It wasn't my fucking fault," Kanda hissed as the fuse of the broken bulb flickered and sparked until it was turned off. He looked around the room, snorting at how freaked out Lavi looked. "It's just an old fuse or something. You said yourself that it's an old house."

"Yeah, but why did you have to go and try and turn the damn thing on?" Lavi asked. "Scared the shit out of me."

"That's because you're a pussy," Kanda retorted.

"Um," Lenalee said.

"Oh yeah? I'm pretty sure you looked more than a little scared upstairs when you said you saw something!" Lavi said.

"You two," Lenalee's voice was urgent now.

"You were the one who dragged me out of my apartment!" Kanda replied, glaring viciously. He took a step forward, intent on grabbing Lavi's shirt, when Lenalee stepped between them.

"Lavi, Kanda. Would you shut up and just look?!" Lenalee said in a hushed voice. The two men looked at her then turned to look where she was facing. Lavi took a step back and choked on any words he was going to say. Kanda had been pretty close to making a rather unmanly sound himself although he was glad to have caught himself.

Someone was standing near the corner of the room. Someone Kanda had never seen in his life. The man looked a bit older than they were, skin milk white and hair jet black. He stood with ease, a natural grace, but he was too pale. Much, much too pale. He looked like he had been taken from a black and white movie.

"H-how long as he been there?" Lavi asked from the corner of his mouth.

"Since you started fighting," Lenalee replied then raised her voice to ask, "Sir? Hello?" Lavi choked and grabbed at her arm. "Lavi, what the hell?"

"Don't talk to it," Lavi whispered.

"He's not a ghost. There are no such things as ghosts!" Kanda said and turned back to the man. He focused his flashlight over the man, who had finally turned to give them a passing glance. "Don't know how the hell he got in here though. Can he even hear us?"

"Sir?" Lenalee asked again. The man gave no sign that he had heard her. He looked passed the group at something they couldn't see. Kanda turned to see if he could catch a glimpse at what this man was looking at, but as he moved his beam of light across the wall, the three flashlights flickered.

And flickered again then shut off completely, plunging them into darkness.

"It's a ghost damn it!" Lavi yelped loudly and Kanda let out a loud grunt as the redhead grabbed onto him. "I told you it was haunted."

"Shut up and get off me," Kanda said, trying to shove him off. He got some space between them and hit his flashlight on his palm. "It's nothing." He hit it again. "See? Works fine," he said as the light came back on.

He turned his light back towards the man and his breath caught in his throat. Lenalee screamed and Lavi let out a strangled cry. The man, who had been standing there silent and quiet moments before was now swinging from the ceiling by the rope tight around his neck. Kanda had never seen someone hanged in real life before and for a moment he was mesmerized by the sway of the body and the tautness of the rope.

All three of them ran out of the room, out of the house, panting hard. Lavi was letting out soft whimpers as he tried to control his breathing and get his key into the ignition of his car. As Kanda threw himself into the backseat of the car, he could just glimpse the shadow of movement through the window, as if someone was swinging gently from side to side from the ceiling fan, before Lavi was driving from the house.

-o-

"What the hell happened last night?" Kanda asked his friends, leaning forward to rest his arms on the table. He was having trouble believing that what they had seen was real. This morning, it just felt like a bad dream. Nothing real; not a ghost, that was for sure. Just a creepy old house that Lavi had dragged him to.

"A ghost, I'm telling you," Lavi said. "You saw him! The guy. Hanged in the main room! The guy who didn't see us, who was deathly white, who had old styled clothes. He has to be a ghost. There's no other explanation."

"Yes. There is. You fed us some bullshit story and freaked us out. I'm sure you set this whole thing up, just to try and prove that ghosts exist," Kanda said, eyebrows knit together as he stared hard at Lavi. "Don't you know some kids from the theater department?"

"I didn't set that up!" Lavi exclaimed.

"I don't know. I was there and I'm still not sure I believe you," Lenalee chimed in. "I was scared last night, but we all were. It easily could have just been our imaginations getting the better of us. People see crazy things when they're scared and you know it."

"But, wait," Lavi said. "Something bad happened in that house!"

Lenalee looked at him slowly. "Something you failed to mention to us last night?"

Lavi scowled. "I couldn't sleep when I got back to my place, so I, well, went digging. Into the house. Apparently it was the first on the block, set away from town." He pulled a folder from his bag and opened it. The first thing in the folder was an old black and white photograph of the house. "See, this was the house right after it was built." He slid it across the table so the other two could see.

"It looks pretty much the same as it looks now," Lenalee said. "A bit nicer. When was this taken?"

"The house was built right before the 20th century. It's been around for a long time. And see, look, there are roses in the front," Lavi said. "But it was a big deal. The family who had it built was this rich family, owned a lot of land and part of the town even, I think." He slid some other photographs over to them. "And see…it's the dude we saw."

He pointed to someone in one of the shots. Kanda kept his mouth tightly shut so he didn't drop his jaw like an idiot. Lavi was right. It was the same person, but that didn't really mean anything. Lavi could have already known this and still set the whole thing up. You could do wonders with makeup if you knew how to use it. Kanda turned the photograph over and saw small writing in the lower right hand corner. "Can you read this?" he asked Lenalee.

Lenalee leaned in. "I think it says 'Campbell', but that's my best guess," she said.

"That would match all the papers. The Campbell brothers owned it," Lavi said. "They were part of a pretty big family, from what I can find…" The redhead continued to talk, but it became a drone to Kanda as he got distracted. His eyes had fallen onto another figure in one of the photographs next to the man with the dark hair. He stood to one side, straight and proud and he could see the slightest of smiles curling those slim lips. Kanda guessed the young man's hair was very light blonde, because it turned out as white in the black and white picture. He had a jagged scar running down the left side of his face.

"Kanda, you listening?"

"No," Kanda said, not looking up. "Who's that?" He pointed to the young man about their age.

"Uhhh, I think it's the nephew of the guy we saw last night. Walker. Allen, I think. That's what I found. He pops up here and there, but there's very little about him in everything I've found. I think there's a picture of just him somewhere though," he said and picked through the photographs he had collected. "Ah hah! Here you go." He handed Kanda the photograph.

It was on a thick cardstock-type paper, like the others. In it the same young man stood, this time alone, hands on the back of a chair. His smile was easy, gentle and like the sun. He wondered what color his clothes were. The three piece suit he was wearing was dark, the ribbon around his throat blending into his jacket where it overlapped. Blue? Red? Or was it just black? Kanda could see red fitting the young man. He turned it over and read the curling writing with some difficulty. Allen Walker, June 1894.

"What happened to them?" For some reason, Lenalee was speaking in a hushed voice and the strange thing was that it seemed appropriate. Pouring over the images of people long since dead seemed to encourage some sort of respect. Kanda couldn't help but eye Allen Walker. "I mean, did the family just die off?"

"The two Campbell brothers never married. I can't seem to find any documentation about any women in the house besides their maid. Not even a mistress or lover. They have plenty of relatives but none holding the name of Campbell. And then there was this accident with the elder brother. See," Lavi said and pulled out an old, fragile newspaper clipping. Faded ink still eligible read: Eldest Campbell Brother Killed in Carriage Accident with a photograph of an upturned and broken horse-drawn carriage. A horse lay dead beside it, its neck broken. "Then all the clippings and photos just stop, except for this short article about a reporter going to the house to try and speak with the youngest brother. He got chased out by the guy and called him insane and unsettled. The last mention of him is a while later, when the mailman saw something through the drawing room window and looked in. Found him hanged from the ceiling."

"Was…was the lounge where we were last night?" Lenalee whispered.

Lavi nodded, eye wide with excitement and nerves. He collected all of his papers and photographs and carefully placed them back into the manila folder, except for the photograph that Kanda was still holding.

"What about him?" he asked, turning the photograph so Lavi could see. "Where did he go?"

"No one knows," Lavi said.

At first Kanda thought Lavi was just behind his usual ass self, dragging him along and trying to make the story creepier than it already was. But the longer he stared at his friend, the longer he realized that Lavi was telling the truth, to the extent of his knowledge. A chill ran down his spine.

"I guess, when they found the younger Campbell, they looked for the kid, but couldn't find him anywhere. They decided he had run off and started a new life or something," Lavi said with a small shrug. He seemed much more concerned with the death of the younger Campbell brother.

"What are the brother's names?" Lenalee asked. She had been listening carefully and Kanda could tell she was curious as to why he was so stuck on this Allen Walker.

"The older brother is Mana Campbell, the younger is Neah Campbell," the redhead said. "So…are we gonna go back?" He leaned forward in his seat, hands braced on the table. His eye glittered with excitement. "We should! We should see if we, well, find anything else. Maybe poke around in the attic and the basement."

"Lavi, I know you're excited and I know you think this is an actual haunting, but do you really believe there would still be items or documents left from when it was built, all the way in the late 19th century? Especially after so many times bought and sold?" the young woman in between them asked, raising an eyebrow. "Not to get you down or anything, but that seems very unlikely."

Kanda agreed. He crossed his arms across his chest, still holding the photograph, forgetting for the moment that he held it, and watched the redhead and the Chinese girl.

"Don't be such a spoil sport! It won't hurt anyone if we go look around again. You never know, there might be something there!"

He shook his head just a little at his friend and closed his eyes. Realizing he still had the photograph in his hand, he paused then slipped it into his back pocket. Thankfully Lavi didn't notice; if he had, he would have made fun. Instead, he was focused on trying to convince Lenalee to come back. Kanda figured he would have no choice; someone needed to make sure that the idiot wouldn't die of fright, so he resigned himself to going with his redheaded friend. And it seemed that Lenalee couldn't resist Lavi's one-eyed puppy dog stare, because she agreed as well. The college student let out a loud whoop, drawing eyes from surrounding tables.

-o-

Kanda had expected to be dragged to the Campbell estate later that night, but to his surprise that didn't happen. Lavi disappeared for several days. He had been too distracted by the haunted house to do school work, and was now paying for it with a couple papers to finish and a test to study for. Without Lavi, the thoughts of the tragedy of the Campbells and of Allen Walker left his mind and he concentrated on his school work and how he could pointedly ignoring it.

It was only when he was going to do laundry that he found the old photograph of Allen Walker in his pants pocket. He was immensely grateful he checked his pockets before washing them – after Lavi had snuck a candle into one of his pockets, he always checked his clothes – because he would have felt guilty. He didn't know why he would have felt guilty, maybe just because the photograph was old and was one of the last things relating to some young man who was no longer alive, and it would be bad luck to destroy something like that. Having nowhere else to put it he transferred the photograph into his pocket and continued the load of clothes.

Lavi seemed to be on the same brainwave, because an hour later he received a text from the annoying man, saying that he wanted to go to the house again tonight and that he would be by Kanda's apartment with Lenalee around eight, right after sunset.

You'd think that with how Lavi was, he'd be late, but the redhead was always at least five minutes early to everything. Lenalee was perfectly on time wherever she went. And Kanda, well, he was almost always late. Sometimes it was a tossup if he showed up at all. He wasn't surprised when Lavi appeared just before sunset with a wide and eager smile plastered across his face. Kanda sighed and pulled his jacket on then followed his friend back to the car, where Lenalee was waiting in the front passenger seat.

Lavi seemed to be shaking with barely contained energy as he drove, that stupid grin never leaving his face. Kanda looked out the window, watching houses and stores speed past his view. They were in the rich neighborhood and then they were driving into the driveway, past the mailbox and the trees. The headlights of the car lit up the house once more, just like last time, and Lavi kept them on for a moment as he got situated. Then he killed the lights and the engine and got out of the car, flashlight in hand.

Kanda had brought his own flashlight this time, which he flicked on as he got out and trudged after his friends. He stopped on the steps and gave a long, intense look at the flowerbeds beside the porch. Harmless, alive tulips sat silently in straight rows, stems bowing just slightly with the weight of the flower heads. He 'tsk'd softly and turned to follow his friends.

Lavi had already gotten the door open – that still annoyed the fuck out of him – and was walking in. "Where should we start? Basement or attic?"

"Attic? We can work our way down," Lenalee suggested and the other two agreed. Finding the entrance to the attic was easy, but Lavi had to jump to grab the pull so they could get the ladder down. He missed the first two times and Kanda laughed, smirking, but did nothing to help. On the third try, he finally got it.

To the redhead's disappointment, there was nothing in the spacious room. They poked around for several minutes, only to find dust and a dead bird. Lavi grumbled softly.

"Basement, then?" Lenalee suggested. The ginger bobbed his head and went in search of the door that would lead them down into the basement, because of course a house like this would have to have a basement. The young woman did the same and Kanda begrudgingly agreed to this little Easter egg hunt for the basement door.

It proved to be harder to find, but he was the one who found it nestled in the corner of the kitchen. He could have sworn the door hadn't been there that first preliminary search of the kitchen, but maybe they just hadn't been paying attention. It wasn't locked, but the door seemed to have expanded because of age or humidity in its frame – or maybe it was the opposite – and he had to kick it several times before it swung open, unbalancing him. He stepped back and dusted his hands off, smirking a little. The smell of dust and neglect overcame him for a moment.

The sound had drawn the attention of Lenalee and Lavi, over on the other side of the house and they came running. Lenalee's eyes were wide with start, as if she thought something had fallen on Kanda. "Found the basement," he said, smirking at the two. The redhead grinned and poked his head into the doorway, shining his flashlight down the dusty staircase.

"Wow, this looks like it's been abandoned for a long time," Lenalee said as she peered around her friend, eyeing the dust, the cobwebs and the way the steps sagged under the weight of nothing but time. Then she frowned and straightened. "I don't even remember seeing this door…"

"Strange, neither do I," Lavi hummed and his green eye gleamed. "Then maybe there is something down there!"

Kanda expected him to bound down the old and dilapidated steps, but he just stood there by the door, looking down the stairs. "You going to go down or what?" he sneered. "You're scared, aren't you?" When Lavi didn't answer, he continued, "fine, I'll go first." He turned away from the redhead and took the first step down into the basement. Lavi sucked in a breath and held it until Kanda turned to look over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. "It's a basement Lavi. Nothing is going to attack us. And they're sturdy enough." He continued down the steps.

His navy eyes widened as he felt the stair creak and crack and then give away. He let out a startled yell as he fell through the staircase, hitting the basement floor with a hard thud, wood and dust raining down around him. Shit that hurt.

"Kanda!" Lenalee cried out and her flashlight beam flashed back and forth in her panic. A creak of the stairs told him that she had stepped onto the staircase.

"I'm fine," Kanda grumbled. Nothing was broken but he'd have a hell of a bruise on the side of his thigh. "Be careful." He listened as two sets of footsteps slowly made it down into the basement, hugging the wall as they stepped passed the hole Kanda had created during his fall. He rubbed his arm and dusted his pants off, looking around for his flashlight. He had to kick away some of the wood to find it and then picked it up.

Lenalee and Lavi had reached him, breathless and worried. Lenalee hugged him before he could say anything. "I'm glad you're okay. You scared me," she said as she pulled away.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kanda said, brushing dusty hair from his face. He looked up to see Lavi step away from them, starting to take in the basement. "Guess the basement's been ignored for a while."

"Wow," he breathed. "Look at this place. It's as big as the house…"

It was indeed, spanning the entire floor plan of the house. The floor was padded with a thick carpet of dust and cobwebs hung abandoned on the ceiling and off the wooden supports. Their shoes made no noise as they walked. Without walls like the upstairs, it was a huge, stagnant room. Air got caught in Kanda's throat and he had to try hard not to cough. All around the basement were scattered things. Furniture. Books. Boxes upon boxes upon crates upon crates. Empty bottles. Dead rats that seemed to have been mummified, from the lack of rotting-flesh smell. He kicked an empty wine bottle and it rolled across the blanket of thick dust, carving a path as it went.

Lenalee sneezed somewhere to his left.

"Come look at this!" Lavi called from the other side of the stairs and, following the beam of light thick with dust motes and the sounds of shuffling, he and Lenalee found their friend. He was kneeling in the dust and grime, before a crate he had pried open with an old pipe. He held up a heavy, leather-bound book to the other two and Lenalee took it. He stood up and dusted his knees off before standing beside the young woman.

Lavi had already wiped off the front, but it said very little about what was held inside. The name Campbell had been stamped into the leather, but that was it. Carefully, she opened the book, to reveal a photo album. Kanda shifted his flashlight and the three leaned closer to get a better look at the photographs.

There were pictures of Neah and Mana Campbell alone and together. Always smiling. Kanda was surprised at how similar they looked. Even though Mana was older, they looked like they could have been twins, if the older brother cut his hair. There were a couple pictures that looked to be when they were younger. One had the both of them around the age of twelve, standing beside a woman who couldn't have been anyone but their mother.

"She's beautiful," Lenalee murmured, brushing a finger across the photograph before turning the page. She finally stopped at the very last page, eyes wide. It was the only photograph in the entire album that was in color.

In front of the house stood an entire family. Extended family, cousins, aunts, parents, everyone it seemed. A segregation could be seen within the crowd though. The Campbell brothers were set off to the side, a little away from the others. And there was Allen – Kanda had been right, red looked good on him, but that couldn't be right, could it? His hair looked to be silver white – between Mana and a young girl who was all frill and lace. She was holding his hand. Behind her stood a pale sickly woman, hand on her shoulder. Her husband stood close beside her. Next to him stood a man who was a little bit taller, a little bit more handsome, but no doubt his younger brother. This family sure had a lot of brothers.

Carefully, Lenalee slipped the photograph from its place in the album and turned it around. The Clan of Noah. "Looks like you have something else to research," she said, holding it up so that Lavi could better read the neat handwriting. He grinned just a little and nodded as she slipped the photograph back into place.

Lavi took the backpack off his shoulder and took the photo album from Lenalee, sliding it into the safety of the bag before zipping it back up. "Let's keep looking around!" he said and chose a different box to pry open and pick through. Lenalee stifled another sneeze as a cloud of dust blossomed from where Lavi was digging around and stepped back so she could breathe easier.

Kanda turned away from them and let his flashlight trail across the basement. He walked to a box that seemed to have been shoved into the corner and knelt.

"Can we go upstairs with some things? I'm having trouble breathing," Lenalee asked. "We can always come back down for more." The Japanese man nodded from where he was, although he doubted that Lenalee could actually see it, and picked up the box he had reached. He hoisted it up in his arms and came back to the other two, raising an eyebrow at Lavi who was trying to pile several boxes on top of each other.

Together the three of them made it out of the dusty basement and sat in the middle of the kitchen floor. Lenalee paused then tried the kitchen light. It took a moment to turn on but it turned on all the same. The soft, dusty glow lit up the kitchen, making it not quite as horror-movie like and more like a normal house. If a normal house had no furniture and a gaping door into darkness that led to a decrepit basement. She settled down beside Lavi and dragged one of the crates he had brought up to start looking through.

Kanda leaned against one of the cabinets and opened the box he had gotten. Why had it been in the corner? Inside, a random assortment of things were piled. A couple old books with cracked covers. A glass bell jar with a beautiful butterfly. A couple photographs. He set them on the floor. This box seemed to contain some of Allen's possessions, judging by the name written within the books and on several papers. Finally he reached the bottom, to find a journal, tied closed with a red ribbon.

"This is the best historical find in the history of this town!" Lavi said in a voice drenched with excitement. A pause in his voice told Kanda that the redhead was now looking his way. "Hey, Yu, whatcha got there?"

"Allen Walker's journal," Kanda said as he untied the ribbon and let it fall on his lap. He frowned as he turning the pages. The writing was a bit messy and some pages were torn out or eaten by moths or ruined by water or time. Pages had stuck together and were unable to be pulled apart.

"Well, go on and read some of it for us!"

Kanda scowled but nodded and turned to a page in the middle. "'July 7th, 1895. Mana's sick again and I'm concerned. Neah hasn't left his bedside all week and the doctor is still here. I could leave, he wouldn't notice at all, but I don't want to leave not knowing if Mana is alright or not.'" He looked up to his friends, who both had wide-eyed expressions.

"Keep reading," Lenalee whispered and he turned back to the journal.

"The next couple pages are ruined," he murmured then continued to read. Something dark spotted the page " 'October 10th, 1895. Today is the fifth time I've tried to leave, but it's no use. He's done it again and it hurts badly but there isn't a thing I can do. I don't know what happened to the Neah I used to know…I can't write anymore, it hurts too much. I'll write again tomorrow.'"

"Something crazy happened in this house," Lavi said, looking pale. He gripped the books he was holding tightly, looking between his friends.

"You could say that," Kanda said and held up the book so that they could both see the stain that he had just identified. "It's blood."

Lenalee paled and dropped the piece of clothing she had dug up so she could covered her mouth. "What happened in this house?" she murmured. "Allen was a captive? Who's 'he'?" The redhead gave a small shrug and looked back at his box.

Kanda continued reading through the journal to himself. He had to stop for a moment as he stared at an entry. "You need to hear this," he said, eyes wider than normal as he neared the end of the journal. He looked up at his friends. "Some weird shit happened here for sure. This one doesn't even have a date… 'Mana's dead and now he's gone mad. He's locked all the windows and doors and I fear that I'll die here. He's been pacing the halls, talking to himself. He's come in several times, to make sure that I haven't run off and God, I'm too scared to try.'" He blinked. "Here's another. 'He's gone to carrying around his knives with him all the time. It's only a matter of time now, I know it. Whenever he comes, he has fun with it. I don't know how long until he decides it is no longer fun… I don't know how much longer I can last. There is nothing I can do to save him.'"

"What the hell went on here?" Lavi asked. "Is he talking about Neah Campbell? Since Mana died."

"That's the only logical explanation," Lenalee stuttered. She looked sick. "What was he doing?"

Kanda opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the kitchen light exploded in a shower of sparks, just like the light bulb in the entryway. Lenalee screamed and Kanda let out a startled grunt, pushing himself back against the cabinets. Lavi fumbled with his flashlight before getting it turned on and looked at his friends, eye wide with panic. Lenalee had grabbed Lavi's arm in her anxiousness. As he watched, a strong shiver ran through the redhead's body.

"Is it just me, or did it get ten degrees colder in here?" Lavi asked after a long moment. Kanda nodded, looking around. His flashlight hit something that caused his breath to get caught in his throat and slowly he turned it back.

A figure was standing in the middle of the dining room, facing the kitchen. Black hair fell in front of his face and Kanda stiffened, knuckles going white on the journal. He let out a slow breath and it formed a cloud before him. "Shit," he said under his breath. Ghosts aren't real. They aren't. I'm hallucinating. Nothing more. Just a trick of the light. He knew he was fooling himself, because there was no light. No moonlight filtered in through the barren windows. And the only time he had hallucinated was when Lavi had convinced him to try mushrooms and he would never try that again. If Lavi had somehow slipped him drugs, he would kill him.

"What is it, Yu?" Lavi asked, looking up from the book he was picking through, suppressing another strong shiver. Kanda didn't look at him, just kept his eyes focused on Neah. The man, ghost, whatever he was, stood relaxed with a slight smile curving his lips.

Kanda was frightened. Truly scared. He hadn't felt like this in many years.

"Fucking look," he said to Lavi.

The sound of fabric rustling and creaking, dusty pages told Kanda that his friend had turned. The gasp confirmed this. "Oh shit."

"N-Neah," Lenalee said. "Neah, can you hear us?"

"Don't talk to the insane ghost, Lenalee!" Lavi whimpered out, grabbing the girl's arm. Lenalee is the least frightened of the three of us, god damn it. Kanda shot a swift glance at the two before looking back at the younger Campbell brother.

"You're not going to leave. You have to stay with me. You promised." The ghost's voice sounded surprisingly alive, a strong, commanding voice that pleaded for compliance, that suggested love and comfort and endless protection and never ending pain. Kanda was compelled to follow the ghost's wishes, to stay here forever. And by the look that had come across Lavi's face, he was encountering the same confusing feelings. He turned back to the ghost.

And then something changed. It was a sudden change and made Kanda recoil and hit his head against the cabinet. "I told you, you will stay here with me forever!" he commanded, hands clenched in tight fists. Wind whipped through the house, picking up papers and books and carrying them to other rooms. Lavi nearly got hit in the face by one as it flew from the room. The house creaked ominously with the force of the ghostly wind and cabinets were thrown open, only to be slammed closed once more.

"Come on!" Lavi said and scrambled to his feet. "I don't think I want to stay here forever with an insane ghost." He tripped over a box then ran to the door. Kanda followed closely behind with the journal still clutched in his hand, nearly falling as he stepped on the satin ribbon.. The redhead grabbed the doorknob and turned it but the door wouldn't budge. His eye widened and he pulled it harder. "Kanda. Kanda, the door is not opening." Kanda grabbed the doorknob as well and the two of them pulled on it in unison, but all the door did was creak.

"Try the windows!" he said, trying to be heard over the howling wind that still buffeted them. He felt his feet slide against the smooth hard wood floor because of the force of it.

Lenalee tried to tug one open, making sure the lock was undone. It wouldn't budge. Kanda growled and went back to the kitchen, picking up one of the wooden crates. Dumping out the contents on the floor – a pile of clothes and a crumpled and faded top hat – he came back. "Move out of the way!" he snarled.

"Yu, stop!" Lavi called out, but he didn't care. He was getting the fuck out of this house. He drew the crate back and brought it to slam up against the window. It should have shattered. It should have broken into a million pieces. But it didn't. Nothing happened to the window at all.

Instead, the crate bounced off the window and carried him with it. He fell back onto the ground, the crate bouncing across the floor of the drawing room. "Fuck," he snapped. As he looked at his friends, both of which were wide eyed and pale, the wind died down. There was no trace but scattered papers and books to hint at what had just happened. One of the cabinets in the kitchen closed with a dull thud, making them jump. In a futile gesture, Lavi tried to open the door without success.

"I…guess we'll have to spend the night," he said weakly.

Kanda got off the ground, fuming. His palms throbbed painfully from his fall. He was angry that a man who had died over 100 years before had locked them up in his house. Dusting off his pants for what seemed to be the 20th time this trip, he looked around.

"I guess so," Lenalee said. She pulled a hairclip from her pocket and pinned her bangs back on her head and out of her face. "There – there isn't much we can do except wait it out. He hasn't hurt us yet…"

Kanda grunted in agreement, but he figured it was only a matter of time before the ghost got past the point of yelling. After all, there were the horrors mentioned in Allen's journal, some unspeakable torture that the boy hadn't been able to write about, even in his personal journal. "We should find somewhere safe and settle down, get some sleep if we can," he said, letting his gaze travel around the room.

For some reason, Lavi had an excited gleam in his eyes. For a man who had just been terrified out of his skin, he seemed to be relishing in the fact that this was really happening. Some people liked being scared, and Kanda really should have remembered that Lavi was one of them. God knows how many horror movies he'd been dragged to as they came out. The most recent one to date was The Evil Dead, and although it had been scary, the gore had outweighed the terror. Lavi seemed to enjoy it none the less. "I'll be right back!" he said and shuffled off, down the entry way hallway that ran next to the staircase. He returned a minute later carrying three sleeping bags.

"Where the hell did you get those?!" Kanda snapped, staring at him with disbelief.

"I got them from my car while we were looking for the basement. It never hurts to be prepared, right? Especially when dealing with a haunted house!" he said and tossed one to each of them. The long-haired young man caught it and scowled at the redhead.

"You wanted something like this to happen, didn't you?" He planned this all along, that fucker. He gripped the polyester and feather sleeping bag in anger.

"When do we get ghosts doing shit like this?! This is amazing! Terrifying as hell, but amazing! We are living through a horror movie! And what if we could, like, release the ghosts?" He rocked onto the balls of his feet, wide eyed with excitement. He hugged the sleeping bag to his chest tightly and grinned.

"You seem to be forgetting what happens to most people in horror movies," Kanda muttered to himself, holding the sleeping bag in a limp grasp at his side. Neither of his friends heard him.

"What do you mean by 'ghosts'?" Lenalee asked. "Plural? We've only seen Neah…"

"Well, something bad obviously happened to the kid, so it would make sense that he would be here also," Lavi said. "Even if we haven't seen him yet. Tormented souls stick around, right?" Kanda had to admit that that did make sense. He padded back to the kitchen slowly and picked up his flashlight. The ghost of Neah was gone, although he didn't expect him to still be there. No doubt he'd be back though. He came back to the drawing room where his friends were standing and gave them their flashlights, which had been forgotten in the panic.

"I guess we should find somewhere to sleep," Lenalee said. "I think we should go upstairs…it's too open down – what…?" Something dripped onto her shoulder and then face. She blinked several times and wiped the thick, viscous liquid off her skin to look at it.

Kanda and Lavi both turned their attention to the ceiling slowly. The Japanese man had this sinking feeling that he knew what it was and he knew Lenalee would scream once she realized as well.

A dark crimson stain was spreading out along the ceiling.