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Annals of Fear II	By : DeathNoteFangirl Category: Death Note > Yaoi-Male/Male > Mello/Matt Views: 5803 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note and I do not make any money from these writings

Chapter List
- 34
- 35
- 36
As soon as she heard the news that Matt was coming after her, Kiana started driving.   It was all a little unsteadily, because even the drama of the evening had not yet sobered her entirely.   She had drunk generous portions of whiskey down on that beach.   And the Mother knew that she was sorry for it now.   But she had not been expecting to drive.

It had been a dram for the ancestors and a dram for herself.    Keeping out the cold with a bonfire and whiskey.     Honouring those gone before and those coming through the Veil.    It was Samhain.   It was meant to be a celebration.     Here she was, driving through the dark, down random lanes high in the Welsh mountains, without a clue to know where she was going.   With a gun on her lap and a sobbing man bound, in a foetal shape, in the back of the Land Rover.   She had his emotion to contend with too.   It was coming from him in waves.   Devastation.   She kept hissing out platitudes, "Hush, Mello, please.   It'll be alright."    But she didn't believe them herself.    She could kill Liam for this.    But she was damned if she was going back to that house, to sit in the courtyard, with the dead staring back at her.    "Mello, please hush, you know I'm not going to be hurting you."

The track ended in a driveway, straight into the dusty yard of a farm.    Kiana tensed, waiting to see if any dogs were going to come see her off.    There was nothing.    She peered at the farmhouse.   There were no lights there.   In fact, the more she looked, the more it dawned on her that this place was abandoned.    There was no livestock.   The barn seemed locked.   Kiana wondered if it was worth calling Liam and bawling him out.    Try to make some fucking sense of this situation.   Or check on Mello.    He seemed so upset.    Tiny.    She bowed her head, brushing her hair from her face.   Right now, she did not feel like a High Priestess.   The High Priestess of fucking shit, that was all.   Then she saw something from the corner of her eye.

On the seat beside her was a long skirt and a hand resting on the knee beneath it.    Solid as a living thing, but the hackles were raised on Kiana's neck.   They had been all along, but the whole area was sparking it.   The temperature had dropped considerably, but they were exposed on a mountain slope.    The hand led to a sleeve.    A dark material, navy blue, brown or black, it was too dark up here to tell properly.    She could see the woman's coat, large buttons all up the front, tight over a substantial bosom.   Every instinct inside Kiana told her to flee, but this was her job.   This is what she did.   She was the fucking Aisling!

Kiana's head snapped up and she met the woman's eyes.   And the ghost's stare cut through her sensibilities and moved Kiana's hand to the door.   But she didn't open it.   She knew, from whatever ethereal source plonked this information into her head.   She knew this woman's name.   It was Zlata Janakovac. Kiana had seen her before, in half-seen flashes from Mello's own mind.   The apparition didn't speak.   She didn't need to.   Her eyes bore into Kiana.   Her elderly flesh seemed so there!   Like it was no ghost, but a real old woman sat there, in the Land Rover, just inches away.   But those eyes.   Those eyes were the eyes of a phantom.   Sentient, blank, filled with such emotion, that seared into Kiana and she moved now.   She jolted backwards, into the door, her hand flailing to find the handle.    Then she was stumbling out into the night and racing around to the back of the vehicle.

The back doors opened and Kiana revealed Mello.   His hands and feet bound with gaffa tape; his knees up to his face.   He was breaking his heart with tears and she just wanted to comfort him.   Kiana glanced up.   The seat inside was empty.   No Slavonic spectres staring back.   Kiana exhaled, a slow, long, shuddering breath.    She laid a hand onto Mello's arm and felt tears in her own eyes.   She didn't have the gun.   It had fallen from her lap, in her zest to be out of the Land Rover.   She took several deep breaths, trying to work it out.   "Fucking Hell, Liam Tighe, I'm going to fucking have your hide. Bastard!"

Then she heard the screaming of tyres on the track and an engine roaring towards her.    How the fuck had Matt found her?   She didn't need a sighting to know it was him.   She had nowhere to go.   This farm was the end of the track.   She only had a moment to decide what to do.   She left him. She raced back around the Land Rover, leaned in to snatch up keys, gun and handbag, then fled towards the shadows of the barn.

The red Camaro came into view.   It stopped with a suddenness that made the wheels lock and the car spin sidewards.    Only a 45 degree turn, before it shrieked to a halt.    Matt rose from it, bloody and terrible, not even cutting the engine before he left the car.   He didn't look around him.   He didn't care who was there.   He didn't take cover from any potential gunshots.   Kiana had the gun primed, though she would only be using it as a last resort.   She had a clear shot.   It was blocked.   Zlata Janakovac's eyes filled Kiana's vision; so close that they were all that could be seen.   Kiana's outstretched arms, with the gun clasped between her hands, were inside the ghost.   Freezing her.   Chilled down to the bone.   Kiana reared backwards, but she was already up against the wooden slats of the barn.   She closed her eyes and held her breath, like a child not wanting to see the world. Then found that she dared not open them again.

Kiana's 'phone rang in her handbag.   Its ring signalling out, for all who could hear, where she stood. She gasped out a shuddering breath and started running, sidewards, along the barn.   After a couple of steps, she opened her eyes.   She hunted frantically in her bag for the 'phone, as she ran, but she couldn't find it.   It rang off.    She glanced back.   The Camaro was still there.   The Land Rover with it.   Her back door was still ajar.   She could see neither Mello or Matt.   She could not see Zlata Janakovac at all.   Her 'phone rang again and she got it this time, hurrying through the exposed darkness beyond the barn.   She shrieked into it, "Liam! You fucking arse!"

"Ki, I'm going to be needing my climbing gear. Where the fuck are you?"

"What?" She screamed incredulously into the 'phone.

Fenian was walking.   She could hear the crunch of gravel beneath his boots.   "I had no signal at the house.   Had to walk half a fucking mile to call you.   Where are you?   You still got Mello safe?"

"Ha!"   Kiana responded, realising that her pitch was bordering upon hysterical.   She had so much to yell at him that she could say nothing at all.   She turned to see how closely she was being followed, but she wasn't.   She sat down, heavily, onto the sodden sheep grass and tried not to give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry.

"Kiana?" Fenian's voice had dipped, less accusing and more conciliatory.   "Are you ok?"

"Sure!   Nice of you to finally ask!   You fucking, incomparable arse!"

There was compassion there now.   "Shit.   What's happened?"

"What do you think is happening, Liam?   It's Samhain! The dead are coming back and you've brought me to one of the most fucking haunted places on Earth!    Now I'm stuck on a fucking mountain-side, no fucking idea where.   And I'm cold and I'm wet!   And I've had to put up with a man breaking his fucking heart in the back of my Land Rover.   And now Matt's found us." Kiana realised that her tears were sounding through the anger in her voice.   She stopped speaking.

"What?"    He waited.   She heard him sigh.   "Kiana, I'm sorry, mo mhuirnín."

"Do not 'mo mhuirnín' me." Kiana snapped.   "Where's the fucking witch bottle?"

Fenian swallowed. "It's back under the tree.   I put it there five minutes ago."

"What?" Kiana's hand flew to her mouth, as she choked back an actual sob.   "But he was still crying!   Oh!"   She scrambled to her feet and looked around again.   The moon was bright and she saw no shadows on the mountain-side.   But the same could not be said for the farm above her.   She was a sitting duck.   She was an open target.   "Fuck! I don't even know where I am!"

Deontic's voice cut through, startling them both, "You are at the Roberts's farmhouse.    Perhaps half a mile over the slope from the manor house.    Mello is wearing a GPS.    I've been tracking you all over the Cambrian Mountains."   She sounded brisk and professional.   "Apologies for intercepting the call, but I've had it on standby.   Fenian, even Watari couldn't force a connection, while you were in the house.   You need to know that the readings are off the scale.   When you took the lid off the altar, they spiked further.   I have the audio off, but recording, and I'm watching EVP readings being triggered almost constantly. You need to know that the EMF reading is especially high. You may be subject to hallucinations.   Fenian, I'm also getting the GPS reading from the device in your pocket.   Please switch the audio-visual on too."

Fenian spoke first. He managed to keep the shock from his voice. "You've tapped Kiana's fucking 'phone?"

"No." Deontic replied.   "I've intercepted the network connection from the 'phone number given to me by Hal.   And you need to know that you're too far north.   Swing south-south-west, in order to find Kiana more efficiently."

Fenian breathed heavily into the 'phone. "Thank you.   Where is Mello now?"

"Still in the Land Rover."

"Now you're sure about that?"

"Yes. He has his audio-visual switched on."

Fenian reached the crest of the mountain.   Kiana could see his outline there.   She didn't know whether to run towards him or flee in the opposite direction.   Fenian began running towards her.   "What's Mello doing now?"

Deontic replied, without any hint of emotion, "He's crying like a baby."

"And Matt?"

"He's with him."   Deontic typed something. They could hear her fingers clicking.

Fenian reached Kiana. She gave him a look to kill and punched him square on the jaw.   "Fuck!"

"You fucking arsehole!"   Kiana screamed into his face.   "We are so fucking over!"

"Kiana, like fuck!" Fenian moved back further, his hands out to catch her wrists, should she try to hit him again.

She paced irritably, the 'phone clutched in her hand. Without another word to Deontic, she cut the connection. "I don't even know who you fucking are, Tighe. This whole fucking macho man, point scoring, fucking idiotic behaviour. People are getting fucking hurt and..."

"I apologise for that, mo mhuirnín. It was necessary in the circum..."

"No, it fucking wasn't!" Kiana glared. "Are you not even seeing that, you fucking toerag? Your man was breaking his fucking heart in the back of my fucking Land Rover, and I couldn't even work out why I was keeping him like that. You fucking..."

"Shit." Fenian remembered Deontic listening in on his own 'phone. He lifted it back to his ear. He had been on too long. She probably had him traced and his number was in her notes by now. He'd have to change it. "Call you back, Dee." He cut the connection. "Ki..."

Kiana flicked her hand at him and started to match back up the mountain. She had her gun lifted out of her handbag again, held stiffly at her side. She'd only gone a few paces, when the howling began. It filled the valley from their side of the mountain. A ghostly, wailing cry, seeming to arise from many locations at once; from the slopes beneath them and above; from the copses in the distance; and from all around the farmhouse. Kiana froze, her mind flashing through the bean sidhe and Gwrach-y-Rhibyn. She turned and saw Fenian, just standing there, listening, turning slowly around to let his night vision find the clues. "Foxes?"

"Is it supernatural, Ki?"

Kiana's hair was all on end. Her instincts were torn between flight or freezing. She tried to ascertain the source in her own way and ended up shaking her head, unable to tell with all else that was in the atmosphere.   From above, a second type of keening sounded once and then was stopped.   Kiana's eyes widened, "That was human."

"Sure." Fenian strode up the bank to catch her up. "I'm going up there. I'll deal with Mello. Get your Land Rover." He looked at her and she both saw and felt the suppressed fear in him. "Then can we talk?"

Trapped between horror and fascination, and feeling like she was somehow letting herself down by even contemplating it, she set off up the slope.   She hissed, "Yes." But didn't look back. He ran alongside, then overtook her. His gun was in his hand. Kiana hurried after him, stopping with him, pressed up against the barn wall. The sounds still filled the valley. Eerie, unnerving. She had herself convinced now that they were foxes. She didn't know if that certainty helped or not. Foxes were Morrighan's creatures. Foxes and ravens. She glanced up, as she followed Fenian to the corner of the barn. There was no cawing up in the skies or rooftops. If the Goddess of War was here, then there would be blood. But this was Wales, not Ireland. Kiana bit her lip, she couldn't even remember who the Welsh goddess of war was.

Fenian peered around the edge. His gun was ready. His hand raised, palm upwards, to give her pause. She heeded him and waited, wondering if they could even resume this row, now that the argument had passed. Wondering if she was really going to dump him. She was angry enough, but that was receding. She had the unsettling feeling that it had really been fear and retribution speaking. She hated the notion that she'd been that weak. But he actually was being an arsehole.

Fenian stepped out, sliding along the shadows of the side of the barn. Kiana followed, seeing now what he'd seen. Hal was there. That was the first surprise. Her car was parked up, with its engine still running, behind Matt's. Mello was untied. He was down on his knees, on the ground, between the rear of the open Land Rover and the bonnet of Matt's Camaro. Matt stood over him, sleeves drenched to the elbow with blood, hands clasped protectively over Mello's head. He shivered, but watched Hal with a wary stillness.

Hal was already moving away. "I'll get a blanket." She said, then noticed Fenian emerging into plain view, at the very edge of the shadows. "Fenian."

It occurred to Kiana that her man could be shot. Any one of those three could be armed now. Mello was obviously in a state. Matt was a fucking psychopath. Hal might have motives that Kiana couldn't fathom. They all had agendas, these Wammy's House people. She raced forward, beside him, though he instantly reached out an arm to push her behind him again.   Fenian trod carefully, closer to the ghastly tableau of them, and no-one shot him. Mello didn't even look up, sobbing uncontrollably into Matt's thighs. Fenian took a deep breath. "We're just wanting the Land Rover. Mello, I'm sorry I fucked with you. You'd have done the same, in my position."

Mello seemed to discern Fenian's presence for the first time. His head rose. His expression horrorstruck; his eyes like a coney's caught in the snare. He scrambled to his feet and Hal hurried between Mello and Fenian, watching them both. But Mello had turned again, his arms around Matt, moving him backwards. Mello as a human shield, manoeuvring Matt towards the passenger side of his Camaro.

Kiana whispered. "Someone's going to get killed." She had no idea where that came from. It was out of her mouth before it was in her mind. Fenian gave her the strangest glance, but quickly resumed watching Mello and Matt. He grabbed her bicep and roughly propelled her towards the driver's side of the Land Rover.

Hal was professionally calm. "No-one's going to get killed. We're all going to keep it cool here." Her attention alternated constantly between the two couples. "We're going to keep our distance from each other and all will be well."

Kiana had the door open. She climbed into the driver's seat, then clambered across to the passenger side. Fenian's gesture had warned her to keep her head down. She cowered in the footwell, remembering belatedly that the back doors were open. She stared anxiously up at her boyfriend, so afraid for him. Her hands rose, resting on the seat, with the gun ready in it. The foxes were still shrieking. The sound rendered an already tense situation tingling on the edge of endurance.

Fenian leapt into the driver's seat, as Hal moved to the rear of their vehicle. Hal called out, "I'm closing the door. We're all good." They shut, conveying a certain sense of safety inside the Land Rover. Fenian had the key turned in the ignition. He tore his gaze from the rear view mirror, just long enough to glance at the space in the yard.   Hal had already anticipated his next consideration. She called out.   "You have room. Just pull forward. You can turn and go." She patted the side of the Land Rover, though her attention was mostly on Matt. The redhead was just dashing around the front of his car; pausing by the fender to watch, intently, Fenian's next more. "Come on, Fenian, let's go."

"Stay down." Fenian instructed, though Kiana hadn't tried to budge. Her mind's eye saw him shot, through the window, through the head. It felt like paranoia and wild imaginings. There was no certainty in it. No compulsion to act.   Fenian was already driving forward, hard lock on the steering wheel. Hal was rushing to stand between them and the Camaro - a one-woman barricade. Matt had been actually at his door, but ducked back to stand right behind Hal. She moved with them, with Matt keeping pace, as Fenian put his foot down and sped them out of there. They just had a quick glimpse of the back of Mello's head. Bowed over his hands, as he sat in the passenger seat of the Camaro. They heard Hal's quick question, left unanswered in the air behind them. 'Where are you going next?' She had asked. Kiana rose from the footwell, pondering the same, but Fenian was just intent on driving them out of there. "You ok, Ki?"

Kiana shuffled onto her seat and sat there, heart thundering. She didn't know how to answer that question. She felt a little shocked and that had rendered her numb.   She couldn't immediately prioritise her own needs, wishes and duties. She examined her reactions to see how drunk she still was and determined that she wasn't anymore. Adrenaline had seen to that.   She felt a little angry. Fenian had asked her to drive whilst drunk. Then worried. Fenian, whose parents had been killed in a car crash, had asked her to drive drunk. Tipsy. Drunk enough to be hyper-attentive to her driving, which accordingly made it worse. Drunk enough to be bombarded with Mello's emotions, without even thinking of shielding from them.   She shuddered, thinking of Zlata Janakovac's eyes.

"Ki?" Fenian was watching her more than he was watching the road. It didn't make for a smooth navigation through the twists and sharp turns of the mountain road.

"Liam, just fucking drive. I'm sorting my head out." She stared at the fiery red leaves of an aspen tree, which had just come into view. Then transferred her gaze to the aspen beyond, with its autumn gold seeming to glow from within. She didn't feel guilty about being the emotional one for once.   He had promised to keep Samhain sacrosanct, when they had discussed coming here.   He hadn't once said that he was going to metamorphose into a complete twat; nor that he was going to so ruin their Samhain, their New Year's Eve, that she would be seriously considering dumping him, as her first act of the new year.

"For the record, I never intended you to get involved so deeply."

Kiana contemplated whether or not she was leaving him.   She focused on another distant aspen. Even in moonlight, it was a bright spot on the mountainside.   Its leaves seemed translucent with a divine yellow glow.   Kiana's practical side explained it away, as the vibration of precise colours in contrast. It wasn't real light. It was the illusion of light, as perceived in the mind of the viewer. Nature as a Raphael painting.   The foxes were still calling. She wished that they'd stop. She noticed that Fenian was signalling, then taking them into a trackway. Kiana snapped to attention. "Where are you taking us?" So many of these lanes looked the same, she could have been mistaken. But her instincts were ringing and she knew she was not.

"Pick up Century." Fenian replied and she could tell, from the look of him and the fast flicker of his eyes, in her direction, that he was lying. "I'm sorry, Ki, I'm really sorry. I'm going to get us out of here as soon as possible."

Kiana was watching the wind rocking the branches of the copse that edged the track. She could sense the staring of unseen eyes; not just in the darkness around the trunks, but up there too, amongst the translucent leaves. The drystone wall was in the way. "Liam." Kiana sat up a little straighter, craning her neck to catch just a glimpse of what she knew was out there. But a sudden instinct made her twist in her seat, while also falling back from the window. There was nothing there. There was nothing but a memory of vengeful hatred and eyes burning into the core of her. "I thought you said that the witch bottle was back in its place!"

Fenian frowned, his hands rigid on the steering wheel, as they approached the gate. "It is."

Kiana found herself mouthing the words of a protection charm. Her hand moved automatically through the contours of the ward. All around the Land Rover, the air was thick with tracers. The barely formed, infinitesimal beings, whose tie to this plane was weakening or else hadn't yet consolidated.   Merely suggestions of shapes or tiny splats of energy. They could sense her. She could help them and usually she was happy to do so. But not this many. Not this density of grasping, beseeching emotions. Fenian couldn't see them, but he could see her. He had just crossed himself. Kiana spoke tightly to him, "Why have we stopped?"

"Erm." Fenian whipped up his cigarettes from the dashboard.

Kiana followed his gaze to the gate. Indignation gushed, strangled, from her mouth, "You cannot surely be expecting me to open your fucking gate!" The tracers were just a sideshow, when compared with the fully materialised ghosts. They were gathering. They were waiting at the gate, and all the route towards it. They swarmed as much of the driveway that she could view within. Kiana dared not turn, for fear that they would already be in her Land Rover.   "Are you absolutely fucking insane, Tighe? Are you out of your...?" She didn't get any further, before he opened his own door and sprinted off to unlatch the gate. Kiana watched him go, because, frankly, Fenian was the one spot of life rushing through.

She counted, trying to calm down, even as he lingered at the open gate, watching to see if she would drive the Land Rover through.   Kiana felt paralysed in her seat, overwhelmed by the assault on her senses. She tried to tune them out, but their pleas pressed down upon her. She did not yet physically feel their touch, but intuited well enough their cold clamour. Kiana felt sluggish and she looked up with a view to soliciting help from Fenian. He was already at the driver's door, casting her a sharp look.

Kiana spat out, "And you left Century here alone?"   The last word was emitted shrill and desperate. Fenian was in the driver's seat now, releasing the handbrake and taking them forward.   He looked grimly, silently furious, but the emotions radiating from him were mostly anxiety and determination.   The ghosts watched them as they passed.    Kiana took a deep breath, "Liam."

"No." Fenian replied.   "I did not leave Century here alone."   But they had entered the driveway and Kiana could already see the couple by the yew tree.   Lauren was sitting on the roots.   Century was standing beside her.   Both wore that same expression of bland attentiveness, that Kiana was starting to associate with the orphans of Wammy's House.   "She turned up when we came out to get my climbing stuff."

Kiana looked at him in horror.    "You are going climbing?   Here? Now?"

"Yes." Fenian bowed his head.   "Kiana, I love you, but I have to do this."    Century appeared alongside the door. Lauren did not stand up from her perch on the roots.   "Please?"

Kiana was already fighting the urge to flee.   Both hands gripped the seat beneath her.    Now she bit back the angry retort that filled her mouth, and settled instead for saying, tightly, "You cannot see as I am seeing right now.   You cannot feel as I am feeling.   The fucking dead are gathered!"

Fenian's breathing wavered, then he appeared to make up his mind.   He sat bolt upright and reached to open the door.   He commented, irritably, "Then I wish I'd brought an Aisling with me to deal with them."

Kiana felt slapped.   Her jaw dropped.   She watched him hurry to the rear of the Land Rover, with Century quietly updating him en route.   Fenian opened the door and pulled the box full of ropes, clasps and pulleys towards him.    He did not look at her, though Kiana's gaze must have burned into him from the front seat.    "Go to fucking Hell, Tighe."   Kiana exhaled finally.   "You fucking idiot."

Fenian's hands shook on his sorting. She noticed that now.   "Sure." He replied, quietly.   "And when your curse works, remember that I loved you."    He pressed several ropes into Century's waiting hands, then picked up the bag that he'd been filling from the pile.   "I won't be long now, I promise."   He closed the door with a decisive slam and began walking with Century across the yard.

Kiana stared after him, stung by his words, mostly because he was right.   They didn't veer off by the stables, as she had expected.   They walked through ghosts.   They walked through energy traces so thick that she was amazed they weren't repelled.   "Fucking bastard."   She exhaled, then realised where they were going.   Into the house.   She scrambled to open the passenger door, despite the figure looking in. "Excuse me." She gasped. "Sorry."   Then yelled after them.   "Where the fuck are you climbing?"

But they were already entering through the open kitchen door; into a house that made every instinct inside Kiana ring out a red alert.   She suddenly felt deathly afraid for him.

"Kiana."   Lauren called out from beneath the tree.   "Did Mello get out ok?"

Kiana slowly turned to look at her.   The blond Finn had a communicator clasped to the front of her padded coat.   Kiana took a breath to steady herself.   "Where are they sending my man?"

"I'm sorry."   Lauren answered steadily. "I'm afraid I only report to Mello."

"Fuck you."   Kiana ejaculated the words, then closed her eyes, letting the temper go.   She found the core inside herself and steadied her emotion.   She closed the Land Rover door and strode towards the house, pulling down the Tower of Light as she went.   By the time she reached the entrance, she was invoking the protection of the Macha.   She felt the black wings of the goddess rise up around her and Heaven, Hell and Tír na nÓg could take any who challenged her now.   She was ready for them. "Liam Tighe!" She yelled, "Where the fuck are you?"   If he answered, she didn't hear, for the music of a live band started up above.    And between that and the foxes, and the sound of running feet, and the whispering cacophony of pleas and screams, there was barely a worldly sound to be heard.   Kiana grit her teeth and went in search of her man.As soon as she heard the news that Matt was coming after her, Kiana started driving.   It was all a little unsteadily, because even the drama of the evening had not yet sobered her entirely.   She had drunk generous portions of whiskey down on that beach.   And the Mother knew that she was sorry for it now.   But she had not been expecting to drive.

It had been a dram for the ancestors and a dram for herself.    Keeping out the cold with a bonfire and whiskey.     Honouring those gone before and those coming through the Veil.    It was Samhain.   It was meant to be a celebration.     Here she was, driving through the dark, down random lanes high in the Welsh mountains, without a clue to know where she was going.   With a gun on her lap and a sobbing man bound, in a foetal shape, in the back of the Land Rover.   She had his emotion to contend with too.   It was coming from him in waves.   Devastation.   She kept hissing out platitudes, "Hush, Mello, please.   It'll be alright."    But she didn't believe them herself.    She could kill Liam for this.    But she was damned if she was going back to that house, to sit in the courtyard, with the dead staring back at her.    "Mello, please hush, you know I'm not going to be hurting you."

The track ended in a driveway, straight into the dusty yard of a farm.    Kiana tensed, waiting to see if any dogs were going to come see her off.    There was nothing.    She peered at the farmhouse.   There were no lights there.   In fact, the more she looked, the more it dawned on her that this place was abandoned.    There was no livestock.   The barn seemed locked.   Kiana wondered if it was worth calling Liam and bawling him out.    Try to make some fucking sense of this situation.   Or check on Mello.    He seemed so upset.    Tiny.    She bowed her head, brushing her hair from her face.   Right now, she did not feel like a High Priestess.   The High Priestess of fucking shit, that was all.   Then she saw something from the corner of her eye.

On the seat beside her was a long skirt and a hand resting on the knee beneath it.    Solid as a living thing, but the hackles were raised on Kiana's neck.   They had been all along, but the whole area was sparking it.   The temperature had dropped considerably, but they were exposed on a mountain slope.    The hand led to a sleeve.    A dark material, navy blue, brown or black, it was too dark up here to tell properly.    She could see the woman's coat, large buttons all up the front, tight over a substantial bosom.   Every instinct inside Kiana told her to flee, but this was her job.   This is what she did.   She was the fucking Aisling!

Kiana's head snapped up and she met the woman's eyes.   And the ghost's stare cut through her sensibilities and moved Kiana's hand to the door.   But she didn't open it.   She knew, from whatever ethereal source plonked this information into her head.   She knew this woman's name.   It was Zlata Janakovac. Kiana had seen her before, in half-seen flashes from Mello's own mind.   The apparition didn't speak.   She didn't need to.   Her eyes bore into Kiana.   Her elderly flesh seemed so there!   Like it was no ghost, but a real old woman sat there, in the Land Rover, just inches away.   But those eyes.   Those eyes were the eyes of a phantom.   Sentient, blank, filled with such emotion, that seared into Kiana and she moved now.   She jolted backwards, into the door, her hand flailing to find the handle.    Then she was stumbling out into the night and racing around to the back of the vehicle.

The back doors opened and Kiana revealed Mello.   His hands and feet bound with gaffa tape; his knees up to his face.   He was breaking his heart with tears and she just wanted to comfort him.   Kiana glanced up.   The seat inside was empty.   No Slavonic spectres staring back.   Kiana exhaled, a slow, long, shuddering breath.    She laid a hand onto Mello's arm and felt tears in her own eyes.   She didn't have the gun.   It had fallen from her lap, in her zest to be out of the Land Rover.   She took several deep breaths, trying to work it out.   "Fucking Hell, Liam Tighe, I'm going to fucking have your hide. Bastard!"

Then she heard the screaming of tyres on the track and an engine roaring towards her.    How the fuck had Matt found her?   She didn't need a sighting to know it was him.   She had nowhere to go.   This farm was the end of the track.   She only had a moment to decide what to do.   She left him. She raced back around the Land Rover, leaned in to snatch up keys, gun and handbag, then fled towards the shadows of the barn.

The red Camaro came into view.   It stopped with a suddenness that made the wheels lock and the car spin sidewards.    Only a 45 degree turn, before it shrieked to a halt.    Matt rose from it, bloody and terrible, not even cutting the engine before he left the car.   He didn't look around him.   He didn't care who was there.   He didn't take cover from any potential gunshots.   Kiana had the gun primed, though she would only be using it as a last resort.   She had a clear shot.   It was blocked.   Zlata Janakovac's eyes filled Kiana's vision; so close that they were all that could be seen.   Kiana's outstretched arms, with the gun clasped between her hands, were inside the ghost.   Freezing her.   Chilled down to the bone.   Kiana reared backwards, but she was already up against the wooden slats of the barn.   She closed her eyes and held her breath, like a child not wanting to see the world. Then found that she dared not open them again.

Kiana's 'phone rang in her handbag.   Its ring signalling out, for all who could hear, where she stood. She gasped out a shuddering breath and started running, sidewards, along the barn.   After a couple of steps, she opened her eyes.   She hunted frantically in her bag for the 'phone, as she ran, but she couldn't find it.   It rang off.    She glanced back.   The Camaro was still there.   The Land Rover with it.   Her back door was still ajar.   She could see neither Mello or Matt.   She could not see Zlata Janakovac at all.   Her 'phone rang again and she got it this time, hurrying through the exposed darkness beyond the barn.   She shrieked into it, "Liam! You fucking arse!"

"Ki, I'm going to be needing my climbing gear. Where the fuck are you?"

"What?" She screamed incredulously into the 'phone.

Fenian was walking.   She could hear the crunch of gravel beneath his boots.   "I had no signal at the house.   Had to walk half a fucking mile to call you.   Where are you?   You still got Mello safe?"

"Ha!"   Kiana responded, realising that her pitch was bordering upon hysterical.   She had so much to yell at him that she could say nothing at all.   She turned to see how closely she was being followed, but she wasn't.   She sat down, heavily, onto the sodden sheep grass and tried not to give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry.

"Kiana?" Fenian's voice had dipped, less accusing and more conciliatory.   "Are you ok?"

"Sure!   Nice of you to finally ask!   You fucking, incomparable arse!"

There was compassion there now.   "Shit.   What's happened?"

"What do you think is happening, Liam?   It's Samhain! The dead are coming back and you've brought me to one of the most fucking haunted places on Earth!    Now I'm stuck on a fucking mountain-side, no fucking idea where.   And I'm cold and I'm wet!   And I've had to put up with a man breaking his fucking heart in the back of my Land Rover.   And now Matt's found us." Kiana realised that her tears were sounding through the anger in her voice.   She stopped speaking.

"What?"    He waited.   She heard him sigh.   "Kiana, I'm sorry, mo mhuirnín."

"Do not 'mo mhuirnín' me." Kiana snapped.   "Where's the fucking witch bottle?"

Fenian swallowed. "It's back under the tree.   I put it there five minutes ago."

"What?" Kiana's hand flew to her mouth, as she choked back an actual sob.   "But he was still crying!   Oh!"   She scrambled to her feet and looked around again.   The moon was bright and she saw no shadows on the mountain-side.   But the same could not be said for the farm above her.   She was a sitting duck.   She was an open target.   "Fuck! I don't even know where I am!"

Deontic's voice cut through, startling them both, "You are at the Roberts's farmhouse.    Perhaps half a mile over the slope from the manor house.    Mello is wearing a GPS.    I've been tracking you all over the Cambrian Mountains."   She sounded brisk and professional.   "Apologies for intercepting the call, but I've had it on standby.   Fenian, even Watari couldn't force a connection, while you were in the house.   You need to know that the readings are off the scale.   When you took the lid off the altar, they spiked further.   I have the audio off, but recording, and I'm watching EVP readings being triggered almost constantly. You need to know that the EMF reading is especially high. You may be subject to hallucinations.   Fenian, I'm also getting the GPS reading from the device in your pocket.   Please switch the audio-visual on too."

Fenian spoke first. He managed to keep the shock from his voice. "You've tapped Kiana's fucking 'phone?"

"No." Deontic replied.   "I've intercepted the network connection from the 'phone number given to me by Hal.   And you need to know that you're too far north.   Swing south-south-west, in order to find Kiana more efficiently."

Fenian breathed heavily into the 'phone. "Thank you.   Where is Mello now?"

"Still in the Land Rover."

"Now you're sure about that?"

"Yes. He has his audio-visual switched on."

Fenian reached the crest of the mountain.   Kiana could see his outline there.   She didn't know whether to run towards him or flee in the opposite direction.   Fenian began running towards her.   "What's Mello doing now?"

Deontic replied, without any hint of emotion, "He's crying like a baby."

"And Matt?"

"He's with him."   Deontic typed something. They could hear her fingers clicking.

Fenian reached Kiana. She gave him a look to kill and punched him square on the jaw.   "Fuck!"

"You fucking arsehole!"   Kiana screamed into his face.   "We are so fucking over!"

"Kiana, like fuck!" Fenian moved back further, his hands out to catch her wrists, should she try to hit him again.

She paced irritably, the 'phone clutched in her hand. Without another word to Deontic, she cut the connection. "I don't even know who you fucking are, Tighe. This whole fucking macho man, point scoring, fucking idiotic behaviour. People are getting fucking hurt and..."

"I apologise for that, mo mhuirnín. It was necessary in the circum..."

"No, it fucking wasn't!" Kiana glared. "Are you not even seeing that, you fucking toerag? Your man was breaking his fucking heart in the back of my fucking Land Rover, and I couldn't even work out why I was keeping him like that. You fucking..."

"Shit." Fenian remembered Deontic listening in on his own 'phone. He lifted it back to his ear. He had been on too long. She probably had him traced and his number was in her notes by now. He'd have to change it. "Call you back, Dee." He cut the connection. "Ki..."

Kiana flicked her hand at him and started to match back up the mountain. She had her gun lifted out of her handbag again, held stiffly at her side. She'd only gone a few paces, when the howling began. It filled the valley from their side of the mountain. A ghostly, wailing cry, seeming to arise from many locations at once; from the slopes beneath them and above; from the copses in the distance; and from all around the farmhouse. Kiana froze, her mind flashing through the bean sidhe and Gwrach-y-Rhibyn. She turned and saw Fenian, just standing there, listening, turning slowly around to let his night vision find the clues. "Foxes?"

"Is it supernatural, Ki?"

Kiana's hair was all on end. Her instincts were torn between flight or freezing. She tried to ascertain the source in her own way and ended up shaking her head, unable to tell with all else that was in the atmosphere.   From above, a second type of keening sounded once and then was stopped.   Kiana's eyes widened, "That was human."

"Sure." Fenian strode up the bank to catch her up. "I'm going up there. I'll deal with Mello. Get your Land Rover." He looked at her and she both saw and felt the suppressed fear in him. "Then can we talk?"

Trapped between horror and fascination, and feeling like she was somehow letting herself down by even contemplating it, she set off up the slope.   She hissed, "Yes." But didn't look back. He ran alongside, then overtook her. His gun was in his hand. Kiana hurried after him, stopping with him, pressed up against the barn wall. The sounds still filled the valley. Eerie, unnerving. She had herself convinced now that they were foxes. She didn't know if that certainty helped or not. Foxes were Morrighan's creatures. Foxes and ravens. She glanced up, as she followed Fenian to the corner of the barn. There was no cawing up in the skies or rooftops. If the Goddess of War was here, then there would be blood. But this was Wales, not Ireland. Kiana bit her lip, she couldn't even remember who the Welsh goddess of war was.

Fenian peered around the edge. His gun was ready. His hand raised, palm upwards, to give her pause. She heeded him and waited, wondering if they could even resume this row, now that the argument had passed. Wondering if she was really going to dump him. She was angry enough, but that was receding. She had the unsettling feeling that it had really been fear and retribution speaking. She hated the notion that she'd been that weak. But he actually was being an arsehole.

Fenian stepped out, sliding along the shadows of the side of the barn. Kiana followed, seeing now what he'd seen. Hal was there. That was the first surprise. Her car was parked up, with its engine still running, behind Matt's. Mello was untied. He was down on his knees, on the ground, between the rear of the open Land Rover and the bonnet of Matt's Camaro. Matt stood over him, sleeves drenched to the elbow with blood, hands clasped protectively over Mello's head. He shivered, but watched Hal with a wary stillness.

Hal was already moving away. "I'll get a blanket." She said, then noticed Fenian emerging into plain view, at the very edge of the shadows. "Fenian."

It occurred to Kiana that her man could be shot. Any one of those three could be armed now. Mello was obviously in a state. Matt was a fucking psychopath. Hal might have motives that Kiana couldn't fathom. They all had agendas, these Wammy's House people. She raced forward, beside him, though he instantly reached out an arm to push her behind him again.   Fenian trod carefully, closer to the ghastly tableau of them, and no-one shot him. Mello didn't even look up, sobbing uncontrollably into Matt's thighs. Fenian took a deep breath. "We're just wanting the Land Rover. Mello, I'm sorry I fucked with you. You'd have done the same, in my position."

Mello seemed to discern Fenian's presence for the first time. His head rose. His expression horrorstruck; his eyes like a coney's caught in the snare. He scrambled to his feet and Hal hurried between Mello and Fenian, watching them both. But Mello had turned again, his arms around Matt, moving him backwards. Mello as a human shield, manoeuvring Matt towards the passenger side of his Camaro.

Kiana whispered. "Someone's going to get killed." She had no idea where that came from. It was out of her mouth before it was in her mind. Fenian gave her the strangest glance, but quickly resumed watching Mello and Matt. He grabbed her bicep and roughly propelled her towards the driver's side of the Land Rover.

Hal was professionally calm. "No-one's going to get killed. We're all going to keep it cool here." Her attention alternated constantly between the two couples. "We're going to keep our distance from each other and all will be well."

Kiana had the door open. She climbed into the driver's seat, then clambered across to the passenger side. Fenian's gesture had warned her to keep her head down. She cowered in the footwell, remembering belatedly that the back doors were open. She stared anxiously up at her boyfriend, so afraid for him. Her hands rose, resting on the seat, with the gun ready in it. The foxes were still shrieking. The sound rendered an already tense situation tingling on the edge of endurance.

Fenian leapt into the driver's seat, as Hal moved to the rear of their vehicle. Hal called out, "I'm closing the door. We're all good." They shut, conveying a certain sense of safety inside the Land Rover. Fenian had the key turned in the ignition. He tore his gaze from the rear view mirror, just long enough to glance at the space in the yard.   Hal had already anticipated his next consideration. She called out.   "You have room. Just pull forward. You can turn and go." She patted the side of the Land Rover, though her attention was mostly on Matt. The redhead was just dashing around the front of his car; pausing by the fender to watch, intently, Fenian's next more. "Come on, Fenian, let's go."

"Stay down." Fenian instructed, though Kiana hadn't tried to budge. Her mind's eye saw him shot, through the window, through the head. It felt like paranoia and wild imaginings. There was no certainty in it. No compulsion to act.   Fenian was already driving forward, hard lock on the steering wheel. Hal was rushing to stand between them and the Camaro - a one-woman barricade. Matt had been actually at his door, but ducked back to stand right behind Hal. She moved with them, with Matt keeping pace, as Fenian put his foot down and sped them out of there. They just had a quick glimpse of the back of Mello's head. Bowed over his hands, as he sat in the passenger seat of the Camaro. They heard Hal's quick question, left unanswered in the air behind them. 'Where are you going next?' She had asked. Kiana rose from the footwell, pondering the same, but Fenian was just intent on driving them out of there. "You ok, Ki?"

Kiana shuffled onto her seat and sat there, heart thundering. She didn't know how to answer that question. She felt a little shocked and that had rendered her numb.   She couldn't immediately prioritise her own needs, wishes and duties. She examined her reactions to see how drunk she still was and determined that she wasn't anymore. Adrenaline had seen to that.   She felt a little angry. Fenian had asked her to drive whilst drunk. Then worried. Fenian, whose parents had been killed in a car crash, had asked her to drive drunk. Tipsy. Drunk enough to be hyper-attentive to her driving, which accordingly made it worse. Drunk enough to be bombarded with Mello's emotions, without even thinking of shielding from them.   She shuddered, thinking of Zlata Janakovac's eyes.

"Ki?" Fenian was watching her more than he was watching the road. It didn't make for a smooth navigation through the twists and sharp turns of the mountain road.

"Liam, just fucking drive. I'm sorting my head out." She stared at the fiery red leaves of an aspen tree, which had just come into view. Then transferred her gaze to the aspen beyond, with its autumn gold seeming to glow from within. She didn't feel guilty about being the emotional one for once.   He had promised to keep Samhain sacrosanct, when they had discussed coming here.   He hadn't once said that he was going to metamorphose into a complete twat; nor that he was going to so ruin their Samhain, their New Year's Eve, that she would be seriously considering dumping him, as her first act of the new year.

"For the record, I never intended you to get involved so deeply."

Kiana contemplated whether or not she was leaving him.   She focused on another distant aspen. Even in moonlight, it was a bright spot on the mountainside.   Its leaves seemed translucent with a divine yellow glow.   Kiana's practical side explained it away, as the vibration of precise colours in contrast. It wasn't real light. It was the illusion of light, as perceived in the mind of the viewer. Nature as a Raphael painting.   The foxes were still calling. She wished that they'd stop. She noticed that Fenian was signalling, then taking them into a trackway. Kiana snapped to attention. "Where are you taking us?" So many of these lanes looked the same, she could have been mistaken. But her instincts were ringing and she knew she was not.

"Pick up Century." Fenian replied and she could tell, from the look of him and the fast flicker of his eyes, in her direction, that he was lying. "I'm sorry, Ki, I'm really sorry. I'm going to get us out of here as soon as possible."

Kiana was watching the wind rocking the branches of the copse that edged the track. She could sense the staring of unseen eyes; not just in the darkness around the trunks, but up there too, amongst the translucent leaves. The drystone wall was in the way. "Liam." Kiana sat up a little straighter, craning her neck to catch just a glimpse of what she knew was out there. But a sudden instinct made her twist in her seat, while also falling back from the window. There was nothing there. There was nothing but a memory of vengeful hatred and eyes burning into the core of her. "I thought you said that the witch bottle was back in its place!"

Fenian frowned, his hands rigid on the steering wheel, as they approached the gate. "It is."

Kiana found herself mouthing the words of a protection charm. Her hand moved automatically through the contours of the ward. All around the Land Rover, the air was thick with tracers. The barely formed, infinitesimal beings, whose tie to this plane was weakening or else hadn't yet consolidated.   Merely suggestions of shapes or tiny splats of energy. They could sense her. She could help them and usually she was happy to do so. But not this many. Not this density of grasping, beseeching emotions. Fenian couldn't see them, but he could see her. He had just crossed himself. Kiana spoke tightly to him, "Why have we stopped?"

"Erm." Fenian whipped up his cigarettes from the dashboard.

Kiana followed his gaze to the gate. Indignation gushed, strangled, from her mouth, "You cannot surely be expecting me to open your fucking gate!" The tracers were just a sideshow, when compared with the fully materialised ghosts. They were gathering. They were waiting at the gate, and all the route towards it. They swarmed as much of the driveway that she could view within. Kiana dared not turn, for fear that they would already be in her Land Rover.   "Are you absolutely fucking insane, Tighe? Are you out of your...?" She didn't get any further, before he opened his own door and sprinted off to unlatch the gate. Kiana watched him go, because, frankly, Fenian was the one spot of life rushing through.

She counted, trying to calm down, even as he lingered at the open gate, watching to see if she would drive the Land Rover through.   Kiana felt paralysed in her seat, overwhelmed by the assault on her senses. She tried to tune them out, but their pleas pressed down upon her. She did not yet physically feel their touch, but intuited well enough their cold clamour. Kiana felt sluggish and she looked up with a view to soliciting help from Fenian. He was already at the driver's door, casting her a sharp look.

Kiana spat out, "And you left Century here alone?"   The last word was emitted shrill and desperate. Fenian was in the driver's seat now, releasing the handbrake and taking them forward.   He looked grimly, silently furious, but the emotions radiating from him were mostly anxiety and determination.   The ghosts watched them as they passed.    Kiana took a deep breath, "Liam."

"No." Fenian replied.   "I did not leave Century here alone."   But they had entered the driveway and Kiana could already see the couple by the yew tree.   Lauren was sitting on the roots.   Century was standing beside her.   Both wore that same expression of bland attentiveness, that Kiana was starting to associate with the orphans of Wammy's House.   "She turned up when we came out to get my climbing stuff."

Kiana looked at him in horror.    "You are going climbing?   Here? Now?"

"Yes." Fenian bowed his head.   "Kiana, I love you, but I have to do this."    Century appeared alongside the door. Lauren did not stand up from her perch on the roots.   "Please?"

Kiana was already fighting the urge to flee.   Both hands gripped the seat beneath her.    Now she bit back the angry retort that filled her mouth, and settled instead for saying, tightly, "You cannot see as I am seeing right now.   You cannot feel as I am feeling.   The fucking dead are gathered!"

Fenian's breathing wavered, then he appeared to make up his mind.   He sat bolt upright and reached to open the door.   He commented, irritably, "Then I wish I'd brought an Aisling with me to deal with them."

Kiana felt slapped.   Her jaw dropped.   She watched him hurry to the rear of the Land Rover, with Century quietly updating him en route.   Fenian opened the door and pulled the box full of ropes, clasps and pulleys towards him.    He did not look at her, though Kiana's gaze must have burned into him from the front seat.    "Go to fucking Hell, Tighe."   Kiana exhaled finally.   "You fucking idiot."

Fenian's hands shook on his sorting. She noticed that now.   "Sure." He replied, quietly.   "And when your curse works, remember that I loved you."    He pressed several ropes into Century's waiting hands, then picked up the bag that he'd been filling from the pile.   "I won't be long now, I promise."   He closed the door with a decisive slam and began walking with Century across the yard.

Kiana stared after him, stung by his words, mostly because he was right.   They didn't veer off by the stables, as she had expected.   They walked through ghosts.   They walked through energy traces so thick that she was amazed they weren't repelled.   "Fucking bastard."   She exhaled, then realised where they were going.   Into the house.   She scrambled to open the passenger door, despite the figure looking in. "Excuse me." She gasped. "Sorry."   Then yelled after them.   "Where the fuck are you climbing?"

But they were already entering through the open kitchen door; into a house that made every instinct inside Kiana ring out a red alert.   She suddenly felt deathly afraid for him.

"Kiana."   Lauren called out from beneath the tree.   "Did Mello get out ok?"

Kiana slowly turned to look at her.   The blond Finn had a communicator clasped to the front of her padded coat.   Kiana took a breath to steady herself.   "Where are they sending my man?"

"I'm sorry."   Lauren answered steadily. "I'm afraid I only report to Mello."

"Fuck you."   Kiana ejaculated the words, then closed her eyes, letting the temper go.   She found the core inside herself and steadied her emotion.   She closed the Land Rover door and strode towards the house, pulling down the Tower of Light as she went.   By the time she reached the entrance, she was invoking the protection of the Macha.   She felt the black wings of the goddess rise up around her and Heaven, Hell and Tír na nÓg could take any who challenged her now.   She was ready for them. "Liam Tighe!" She yelled, "Where the fuck are you?"   If he answered, she didn't hear, for the music of a live band started up above.    And between that and the foxes, and the sound of running feet, and the whispering cacophony of pleas and screams, there was barely a worldly sound to be heard.   Kiana grit her teeth and went in search of her man.

Author's Note: This story is being discussed here: http://mrsjeevas.joharrington.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=11
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Annals of Fear II