The Annals of Fear

Mello was waiting for Deontic as she stepped out of the little toilet just inside the backdoor. He hadn\'t enjoyed standing there alone, but talking to her through the door helped. It was better than going upstairs to the proper bathroom. His mind was full of that flat in Southampton, where whole weeks had passed imprinted on his memory only in horrific flashes. He wouldn\'t wish that on his greatest enemy. While Deontic was a rival, he didn\'t hate her. He didn\'t want her to go mad. Logically, her descent into insanity should be viewed as a minor victory. Another Wammy kid showing a weakness, but this one hit too close to home. Mello wondered if he was over-thinking this. Projecting fears of his own decline onto worrying about her.



Deontic\'s face was scrubbed clean, but she looked washed out. Her nightgown touched the floor. Mello smiled reassuringly and put his arm around her, as they walked back to join the others. Century had claimed the settee. Matt was lying right at the other side of the mattress, closest to the stairs, the laptops lining the floor above their pillows. Mello smiled to note that both armchairs had been moved as a barricade between them and the staircase. He saw Matt\'s airy psychology behind that.



"Ok?" Century asked, peering up.



"She\'s fine." Mello answered for her. "Don\'t you think it\'s polite to offer the lady the settee?"



"Oh." Century replied, obviously not wanting to move, though he made a show of touching the hem of the quilt. "But I\'m bigger than you three."



Deontic gestured for him to stay. "I\'ll be alright here." She made no move to get under the covers though. Mello eyed her, smirking. She took a deep breath and stepped over the laptop to scurry under the quilt. She pressed herself as far against the base of the settee as it was possible to get.



Mello sighed. "Pek Wan, if it\'s any consolation, I\'m a raving queen and the only person in danger of being touched up by me is Matt."



Deontic flushed scarlet, while Century roared with laughter. Matt just grinned. "Promises, promises."



Mello stood over him. "And you can move up as well." He noted the ashtray by the side of the mattress with a cigarette still smoldering in it. "Move."



"No." Matt patted the space between himself and Deontic. "Get in."



"Why do you always have to be on the end?"



"Why do you?"



Mello sighed and sat in an armchair to remove his boots. He glared at Matt, but his husband remained unmoved. Mello gave up on him and contemplated having to go to bed in his leather trousers. He didn\'t own any pyjamas and anyway had the feeling that he might want to be in a position to get up suddenly. "Are you still in your jeans?" He asked Matt. The redhead nodded. Mello sighed and looked at Century. It was impossible to tell through the quilt, though he was still wearing his t-shirt. Mello did not want to enquire about the state of Century\'s undress. Mello grimaced and simply unzipped and took off his leather top. He pulled off his socks, stuffing them into his boots, then stepped over Matt into the vacant space. It felt good to be lying down.



Century chuckled. "I can\'t believe that you just said you\'re a raving queen."



"What?" Mello kept the lightness in his tone. "You thought I was straight?"



"Well, no, but...." Century put his head down onto the pillow and lay there smiling.



Mello lay back staring up at the ceiling. Beside him, Matt was still fiddling with the laptop. All of the lights were on and he doubted that anyone would actually sleep. He kept seeing the face of the ghost, seared onto his mind\'s eye. He turned his head to smile at Deontic. She was staring right back, her eyes owlish behind the glasses that were still on. "You are right about the oppressive atmosphere in this house. I\'ve never seen you cry before. Not like that anyway. I\'ve never seen Century freak like that either." He left unstated the fact that they had never seen him panic so much, teetering on the edge of sanity. Any one of those events would have been a feast day for the other children, when they were growing up. It had cost them all a lot in self-esteem to display it now. "We must be really on edge."



Deontic shook her head. "We\'re trained to be on edge. It\'s more. It\'s like something has got under our skin and is probing."



"Huh?"



"Think about it." Deontic urged him. "If anyone can survive oppressive atmospheres intact, it\'s us four. The institution saw to it."



Mello frowned. "You\'re suggesting that some entity in this house is inside our minds?"



Deontic bit her lip, looking close to tears again. "I don\'t know what I\'m suggesting."



"It does make a weird kind of sense." Mello conceded.



Century blinked. "I don\'t want to think of a ghost in my head."



Mello let his hand slide over the back of Matt\'s thigh. "The haunting does seem very psychological." He thought about the album that was recorded here. "The music certainly plays with people\'s psyches." He glanced up at Matt. "What are you doing?"



"Trying to find where the camera was taken. According to this, it\'s still in the room recording, but there\'s no record of us ever entering it, let alone the ghost."



"Matt, just leave it." Mello knew he was exhausted underneath the adrenaline. "Lie down." He slid his fingers between Matt\'s legs, though he felt only denim. Matt gave him a sharp look and Mello smirked. "Lie down."



Century spoke up from the settee, peering across at him. "Mello, you believe in God, is it?"



Mello moved his hand. "Yes."



"Say a prayer over us then. Protection."



"Do you believe?"



"No, but you do and so it might help."



Mello rolled his eyes, but Deontic was still looking drained beside him, so Mello bit back a retort. "I will when Matt lies down." He had meant it as a stalling device. Prayer felt too personal, as something that would be another vunerability to be aired before these people. People whom he had spent most of his life attempting to divert from his true self. But Matt immediately pushed the laptop back, put out his cigarette and snuggled down under the quilt. As an afterthought, he took off his goggles and pushed them under the pillow. Further down the line, Deontic placed her glasses carefully underneath the settee. Mello felt a little trapped by this, but he found Matt\'s hand and held it, then did the same with Deontic. They evidently thought this was a Catholic thing, rather than comfort, because Deontic turned onto her back and reached up to hold Century\'s hand. "Our father, who art in Heaven...."



"Properly, Mello." Matt muttered. Mello glanced sharply at him. "It\'s for our protection."



"It\'s not the words, it\'s the feeling behind it. Noob." Mello informed him.



"Then put some feeling behind it."



Mello sighed. He made to protest, then recalled that they all knew that he was Yugoslavian. It had been admitted in the meeting at Wammy\'s House last year. He concluded that he had nothing to lose from speaking in his native language. "Oče naš, koji jesi na nebesima, sveti se ime tvoje, dodji kraljevstvo tvoje...." It was the last thing Mello remembered saying, before he opened his eyes on a room with sunlight pouring into it and an incessant beeping noise disturbing the peace. Mello lifted his head towards the source. It was Century\'s laptop displaying an Old English font \'C\' against a white background. "Huh?" There was a movement behind him. It was Century blearily rising from the settee and flashing his Calvin Kleins, as he padded across to answer it. Deontic was also raising her head, yawning; her hair was matted on one side, where she\'d been lying.



"Morning, Chrissie." Century spoke into his headset, which he had hurriedly put on. "No, still here. You woke me up."



Mello was staring at Matt. Matt, who was only now opening eyes dazed with sleep. He was bunched up into a foetal position, wrapped up in Mello\'s arms. Mello\'s leg, its knee drawn up, curled around and behind Matt\'s back. For someone who was uncomfortable with being cuddled and swore in the name of SuperMario that he couldn\'t sleep without being cocooned, Matt had evidently slept last night. "Morning, guapo." Mello smiled, resolving that their sleeping arrangements were going to undergo some drastic changes when they got home. Starting with Matt actually removing that quilted barrier between them. Matt just looked stunned, but he always did first thing.



"Been in bed with the others." Century laughed at Chrissie\'s response. It was irritating hearing only one side of a conversation. "Oh no, it\'s haunted alright. Really..." He paused, then looked back at the others. "It\'s two o\'clock in the afternoon!"



Mello had been loathe to release Matt now that he had him like this, but he twisted his head back, craning to read the clock on the laptop\'s toolbar. It was two o\'clock. He never slept in like this. He hadn\'t expected to sleep at all. Beside him, Deontic sat bolt upright. "How is it two o\'clock?" She demanded. "It doesn\'t matter what time I go to bed, I always wake up at 6am. Always!"



Despite the lifting of the intense atmosphere in the house, Mello felt uneasy. Matt was already waking enough to unfurl, his hand reached out to grasp his cigarettes. He was still wearing his gloves. Mello turned onto his front and took in all of the camera feed views. They had all lain here, vulnerable and exposed, for eleven hours. The house appeared intact, Mello scrambled to his feet and stepped over Matt, just for the fact of being up. His mind kept replaying Deontic\'s assertion from last night, that something in the house was inside their minds. He picked up a chocolate bar and took a bite, while he surveyed the scene. How had he slept in these conditions? His trousers were chaffing.



Mello strode across to Century\'s side. "Let me speak with Chrissie." He held out his hand for the headset.



Century looked at him with disdain, but spoke into the microphone. "Chrissie, Mello is beside me. He wants a word." He scratched his chin, with its faint shadow of hair just under the skin. "Don\'t know." Mello wriggled his fingers to hurry Century up and the teenager removed his headset. "Here you go."



Mello put it on. "Chrissie."



"Mello." The signal was faint, but he could hear her clearly enough.



"This is important. You\'ve just had a minute or so speaking with Century. Is there anything odd about him?" Mello hadn\'t thought how to phase the question before he\'d asked it. "Something abnormal, I mean. Has he changed since being here?"



Chrissie hesitated. "No, not really. Why?"



"Just a hunch." Mello stared at Matt. He seemed exactly as Mello would expect upon waking. "Something is wrong and I don\'t know what. There have been a few things affecting our personalities. Chrissie, in all the years that Century has been living with you, have you ever seen him go hysterical?"



Chrissie\'s tone became glacial. "Why would Century become hysterical?"



"Say if there was a gun pointed at his head."



There was a beat, then Chrissie screamed in his ear. "You sadistic, incompetent bastard, Mello! How fucking dare you even contemplate that? I don\'t know why I expected any better from you, you\'ve always been a..."



"Deontic cried." Mello interjected. "And I thought I was going mad. Our sleep patterns are different. At least three of us have slept in a way that we wouldn\'t usually. Chrissie, am I different?"



She was quietly seething at the other end of the line. He could hear it in her breathing. "You really don\'t want me to answer that, Mello." She snorted her frustration. "You really are the limit! Hal assured me that you\'d changed. She told me that you would treat Century with all due courtesy. I should have gone with my instinct. I\'ve known you longer than her. But no, I thought back to how you were when Matt was abducted and I dared to think that you\'d found a shred of humanity in that blackened, twisted heart of yours. Go to fucking Hell, Mello." Her thoughts obviously caught up with her rant. "But get Century to a train station first. I want him home."



Mello stared at Century and tried to work out why he\'d pulled a gun on him. It had felt rational at the time. It was supposed to get him to confront his fear. Now it just seemed bloody stupid. Mello replied quietly. "I\'ll ask Deontic to take him."



"Yes, you do that." Chrissie spat. Then added, "Why is Deontic there?"



Mello blinked. "Because you sent her to look after Century."



"Deontic?!" Chrissie gaped. "Why the fuck would I send Deontic? What\'s she going to do? Philosophise you out of hurting him?" Mello watched Deontic grab her handbag and flee to the small toilet through the kitchen. "Can you believe that I actually trusted you? I could have sent Salvo, but we discussed it and decided that you could be trusted. Salvo spoke up for you!"



Many thoughts were going through Mello\'s head, not least the barbs coming from Chrissie\'s mouth. He tried to prioritise them, as he watched Matt traipse off into the kitchen, probably in search of caffeine. Mello replied, more meekly than he felt, "I\'m sorry. But please don\'t judge me at this very moment. I think there\'s something going on here that I need to work out."



"Don\'t judge you?" Chrissie returned, shrill.



"Chrissie, I need to ask you to do something." Mello moved a ragged strip of chocolate from one side of his mouth to the other. He wondered if it would be better to ask this of Hal instead. "I\'m going to, or one of us is going to, contact you once an hour on the hour. It might be a text or an e-mail." He considered it. "I\'ll open a messenger. Once an hour, someone will type anything just to let you know that we\'re all good. If it gets to five past and you have not received any communication at all, please act."



Chrissie fell silent. The interim before she spoke felt loaded. "Act?"



Mello knew he would need a sledgehammer statement to break through her defences. "Call the Air Ambulance, probably." He heard her intake of breath. "In the meantime, I will get Deontic and Century out of here. I\'ll ask Dee to take Century to the station, after I\'ve found out what the Hell she\'s doing here. Would you watch our backs for just myself and Matt?"



"What\'s happening there, Mello?"



"As I said, I don\'t know, but you\'re not here and that makes you insurance." Mello bit through the chocolate melting in his mouth and chewed it. "Will you help me, Chrissie?"



"Send the casefile, Mello."



"No." Mello took another bite. "It\'s my case. Will you do it?"



"Bastard." She snarled. Then snapped with ill grace. "Yes! I\'ll do it!" Her voice dropped again. "But keep everyone safe, Mello. That is a threat."



Mello nodded. "I understand. Thank you, Chrissie."