The Annals of Fear

The manor house looked eerily silent, despite the sunlight streaming down upon this side of the house. Deontic slowed and they all surveyed the property through the windows, before she parked her BMW beside Matt\'s Camero. It was no longer patrolled. Both Flight Lieutenant Lees and the local police force had recalled their personnel. If they had expected watchfulness and poised activity, they were disappointed. The whole place simply looked empty.



From the backseat, Matt gave a hiss of frustration. "It still hasn\'t finished loading!" He had closed everything but the programme that he was currently trying to run from a remote server. Mello and Deontic weren\'t moved. They opened their doors and stepped out, Deontic only a beat behind the Slav. "Can you just give me ten minutes?"



Mello turned around, looking up the mountain slopes. He spotted a red kite flying far above, but otherwise there appeared to be no life up there. Even the sheep grass had no sheep grazing upon it. Deontic had already wandered away, marching around the side of the house to view the garden. She had her own demons to disperse in the river below. Mello leaned into the car. "Do not go inside. Yell if anything happens." He took off after Deontic, pausing only to glance at the basement cover. It was a lot smaller than he remembered. It wasn\'t open. He caught up with the Malaysian woman at the corner. "Want me to come with you?"



"I\'m not going down there." She replied, calmly. "I just want to look over the edge." They walked together to the drystone wall and gazed out over a vista of green and grey. Distant Cardigan Bay was just a smudge on the horizon, hemmed in between grey land and a brilliant blue sky. Wisps of clouds lazily drifted across it and the sun was actually quite warm on their backs. Here and there, copses or solitary trees graced the landscape. The river sparkled, glinting as it caught the sunlight, weaving its way through broad expanses of rugged green. The Cambrian mountain range rose across their whole eastern view. Their aspect was a patchwork of colours. The distant purple of gorse; the orangey-grey of shale; the many hues of green, extending to almost black in the furthest expanse of forest. On the near horizon, a flock of birds flew as dots towards the south. Closer to home, a solitary raven went in search of lunch. "It\'s quite pretty, when you\'re not fleeing in terror through it."



"Yes." Mello smiled. He was trying to remember if this looked like his own Žumberačka Gora, the mountains in which he had spent the first part of his life. He had no idea. "It feels like you can breathe up here." He stared down at the river. "So you saw it transform into what? Something bigger and heavier than it is."



Deontic paused, but eventually replied. "The river? Monsoon waters. I don\'t actually recall them, as they were when I was an infant, but I\'ve seen them since in archive footage. I think I\'ve shaped my own memories around them."



"Your parents were washed away?"



"We were trapped in a remote village. The water was contaminated. They died, along with most of the rest of the village, of chlorea before aid could come."



"I\'m sorry."



Deontic shrugged. "It wasn\'t your fault." She looked up to the skies. "And you saw a civil war raging?"



"The thunderstorm didn\'t help."



"No." Deontic agreed. "It didn\'t help me either. However, I can\'t see how whatever is happening in this house caused that."



"The storm?" Mello shook his head. "I think it was just a horrible coincidence." He sent a text to Matt to check that he was alright, then took out a chocolate bar and unwrapped it. "How about the rest? We heard a gunshot that didn\'t exist. I heard a whole war that wasn\'t there. Century certainly acted as if airmen had raised guns and that didn\'t happen either. Mass hallucination?"



"Are you asking for my assistance now?"



"Just checking that our conclusions are consistent."



Deontic stared at him long and hard. "I can never make my mind up about you, Mello. Are you contradictory on purpose?" She narrowed her eyes. "Yes, you are. It keeps people on their toes. They never know if you\'re on side or not." She jumped, startled, as his \'phone beeped the arrival of a message. Mello seemed satisfied with the response. "But you really do care about Matt."



Mello glared. "That\'s not a weakness."



"I never said it was." Deontic sighed. "We\'re achieving nothing here. Let\'s get this over with."



Mello put his \'phone away. "I\'d rather you and Matt stayed in the car."



Deontic started walking back towards the house, "I bet you would." She stopped short, stifling a scream, as a figure emerged from the shadows beside the house. "Oh my God."



Mello hadn\'t flinched. He affected not to have even looked up, though it was obvious that he had. "Dr Jones, I presume."



"Century!" Deontic gasped. "Hal\'s got half of the emergency services looking out for you. Mello thought you\'d gone to Ireland."



Mello turned around now, scowling, "No, I didn\'t. I said it was a possibility." His gaze raked up and down the teenager. "You look like shit. Are you well enough to be out of hospital?"



Century stared back, through eyes rimmed with the dark stains of sleeplessness and worry. "Hal told me that it didn\'t happen. She said that all of us were victims of visual and auditory hallucinations. I saw that soldier raise his gun."



"Yeah, and I heard the White Eagles destroying Gorskica. Deontic saw a monsoon all around her." Mello shrugged. "Put into context, a mere gunshot is nothing." He touched the rosary, which had been fixed by himself back at the barracks. "But I swear to you, in the name of the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit, by Mother Mary and all of the Saints, and on the head of Matt, I did not fire a gun at you."



"He didn\'t, Century." Deontic assured him.



Century nodded. "I know." He nodded back to the alley beside the house. "Do you think I\'d have come out of there, when you turned up, if I didn\'t know?"



Mello walked the few steps to become level with Deontic. "I don\'t know." He flashed a smile. "I thought you were the one who got away; and that you\'d have had more sense than idiots like Deontic and I, who will solve this case if it kills us." He patted Deontic\'s back. "Matt\'s already called us on our shit. It\'s only fair that I call you on yours. Why are you here?"



"There\'s a case to be solved."



"Yeah." Mello responded quickly. "My case." He continued foward to Century\'s side. "You had a heart attack." He peered into the teenager\'s face. "Honestly, should you be here? What\'s your calcium ion count?"



Century raised a bottle of water. "Down."



"Ok. You can stay in the car with Matt and Deontic." Mello took off around the corner. The others followed at a more sedate pace. Mello had already reached Matt and informed him of their swelled ranks, before the other two joined them. Mello glanced sidewards at the teenager. "How did you get here?"



"Taxi." Century yawned. "What\'s the plan?"



Mello pointed to the BMW, "First of all, you and Deontic get in there. Then Matt gives me his car keys."



Matt looked up from his laptop, his gaze sweeping the backseat in a wordless, but very eloquent query about where precisely Century was to sit. Matt had two laptops running, as well as himself sitting sidewards on. Deontic opened the driver\'s side door. "Matt! You\'ve smoked in my car! I asked you not to smoke in my car."



"I opened the door."



Deontic still looked annoyed, as she pulled her laptop out and laid it on the bonnet. "I\'ll letting Hal know that you\'re here."



"She knows." Matt mumbled.



"Century." Mello said firmly.



The Welshman blinked, "What?"



Mello raised his eyebrows. "You\'re definitely not well enough to be here. Sit down in there." He pointed to the passenger seat. Against all expectation, Century sat down. "Matt let me have your carkeys."



"Why?"



Mello just opened the backseat door and flexed his fingers, until a carkey was unhooked from Matt\'s huge keyring and handed over. He jogged around and opened the boot of the Camero. An alarm immediately went off and Matt smirked. Mello glared until it was remotely switched off. He reached inside and came out with a violin case and an amplifier. Three pairs of eyes watched his progress, shutting the boot with his elbow, then back to the open car door, where he handed the key to Matt. "Here is the plan. You three are not to separate, no matter what happens. That includes just going around the corner or just getting out of the car. You\'re to..." Mello glowered as Matt opened the door on the other side of the car and clambered out. He lit a cigarette and just stared at Mello over the top of the BMW. Beside him, Century had just risen again too. Deontic hadn\'t got into the car in the first place. "You\'re all to stay here."



Century swayed slightly. "You\'re going to play music in that room to see if you can recreate the circumstances. Then you also get to see what entity turns up. What then? You ask very nicely for it to stop killing people?"



"I have my own plans." Mello gave him a stare that had worried Mafioso. Century didn\'t even flinch. "Please, all of you stay here." He marched away before anyone could argue with him. They, of course, followed. Deontic pausing only long enough to run around banging shut car doors. Mello stopped at the threshold of the manor\'s ancient door. "Why are you following?"



Deontic hurried to join them. "He has a point. What are your plans? We should discuss...."



"No!" Mello raged. "This is my case. I don\'t have to explain myself to any of you. I will be number one here!"



They all watched him, blankly. In the end, it was Matt who responded. "Mell, are you like thirteen now?"



"Thirteen what?"



"Years old." Matt blinked behind his goggles. "Only you\'re sounding a lot like you used to and not much like the man I\'ve been married to for..."



"What?"



Deontic swallowed. "What Matt is trying to say is that it\'s starting again. It\'s just switched civil wars."



Mello grunted his frustration. "No. I\'m just trying to solve my case in my own way and you three are endangering yourselves unnecessarily." He put the amplifier down, pulling the door\'s key from his pocket. "Please, just stop. Go wank over Near or something."



Century bit back a laugh. Deontic looked affronted. But Matt stared at the Malaysian woman until she noticed him. Their eyes locked and he seemed to be waiting for something. Deontic worked it out. "Mello. I\'d rather watch you at work." The words seemed forced until Mello looked at her. She warmed to her theme. "Your mode of operation has always been startling. Astounding. I wish to become the best detective that I can be and what," she faltered over her words, but Matt was still watching her, "better way of learning than to watch an absolute genius of the genre. A prince of deduction."



The door lay open, but Mello had turned to look at her. His quick gaze took in Matt, then Century, then Matt again. Mello\'s shoulders tensed and then, almost forcibly relaxed, as he leaned against the doorjamb. He eyed Deontic with a small smirk that didn\'t quite reach his eyes. "A prince? Sweetheart, I\'m a king." He lifted the amplifer again and turned on his heels, his head held high. But he no longer tried to stop them following.



"A prince of deduction?" Century muttered.



Deontic was crimson. "I\'ve never been good at words." She cast a sidewards look at Matt, who just smiled and headed into the house. The other two walked in behind him and there was the house\'s interior, looking innoculously quiet and peaceful in the afternoon light.



Mello was practically at the stairs. He peered back over his shoulder. "We all are. Kings and Queens. L\'s heirs."



"Kings and queens of promise." Century replied. "Childen of a lesser God, between Heaven and Hell."



"Yeah." Mello frowned, not getting the reference. He wasn\'t about to let that get him down though. Mello took the stairs two at a time. "So let\'s show these bastards what we can do."