The House That Light Forgot
Part Four: True Memories Recovered
Duo jumped up, surprise rendering him mute, and tried to free himself
from the grasp. He found himself staring into the teal blue eyes of the
blond boy, and primitive fear gripped him in its talons. The boy leaned
over him, tightening his grasp, then all of the sudden let go.
"You're real."
Duo blinked up, surprised and still a little bit scared. "Who… who are
you?"
"Who am I? I should be asking the same thing about you. My name's
Quatre Winner, and I'm a reporter."
Duo's fear quickly turned to anger, his heart rate calming down after
the scare. "A reporter. Than you have no business being on this
property."
Quatre snorted. "This property doesn't belong to any one."
"Look, what are you talking about? What are you doing here anyway?"
"I'm investigating the haunting. I thought you were one of them,
actually, but you have a pulse. I was going to corner you last time,
but courage deserted me and I ran."
"One of them?"
"The ghosts."
"Who are you, any way?"
Duo huffed indignantly at the trespasser. "Duo Maxwell."
"I saw you disappearing into there once. What the hell are you doing
here?"
"I'm living here."
"Don't be silly, no one's lived here for six years, not since the
murders took place."
Duo could feel his anger returning again. "What the hell are you
talking about?"
"Look for yourself, it's not the kind of place a person would live in."
Duo blinked, turning around and opening his mouth to yell at the boy,
when his throat caught. In front of him, Nefura manor was in rambles,
ceiling caved in and top floor demolished. It looked, as Quatre had
said, as if no one had lived inside for years. "How…?"
You can't take him! He belongs to
Nefura!
Duo blinked, the voice coming to him unbidden. The words hadn't just
come to him in a dream… Une had uttered them, all those years ago.
You won't take my only family away
from me.
Duo started running, scrambling through the garden's plants, ignoring
Quatre's pleas to wait. He had to know… he had to find out once and for
all. It was the reason, the reason why he had left, with out Heero, and
now he was on the verge of remembering. He swept through the terrain,
finally coming to that odd opening he had found a few days before.
Stumbling into the clearing, he fell in front of the tomb stone.
Brushing the grass away he read, with growing trepidation, the words
inscribed on the surface.
Heero Yuy
AC 180-198
May We Always Remember
And then he passed out.
Years Ago
Duo grinned happily at his lover, helping him to pack things in his
suitcase.
"I can't believe you're really coming. It's going to be so great…Father
Maxwell and Aunt Helen will love you, I know they will, and we can get
an apartment and go to the museums and everything."
"Don't you ever shut up?" His tone was severe, but a smile threatened
to break out on Heero's face.
Duo, in response, laid a big wet kiss on Heero's cheek. "Aww, you know
you love me."
"I know. Not like you'd let me forget."
Duo chuckled happily. "Do you think Une will be okay?"
"Sure. She has her servants, and we'll be back to visit every now and
then."
Duo nodded, serious. "Thank you. For doing this."
Heero looked up from his clothing, smiling a little at his boyfriend.
"I'm doing this just as much for me as I am for you, you know."
Duo smiled. "Well, I guess we should go say bye to the lady."
* * *
They found Une, a few minutes later, sitting behind a desk in her
study. The woman was wearing long robes, her expression stern and
disapproving. "You won't leave me."
Heero sighed. "We've been over this, Aunt Une, I need to get out on my
own."
"We'll be back to visit."
Une turned her gaze at Duo, who had before been silent. "You! You're
the reason he's leaving me!"
Duo cringed, stepping away from Une and her glare. She stood from her
seat, moving towards the two.
"You won't take my only family away from me!"
Duo, sensing some kind of danger, reached out to pull Heero away. He
wasn't quick enough, though, and the other boy wound up in Une's grasp.
"You can't take him! He belongs to Nefura!"
Duo looked into Heero's eyes, finding them large and vacant, then
looked downwards. That's when he noticed the blood staining the boy's
shirt, seeping out of his stomach.
"No!" Duo lurched forward, intent on helping the boy, but found himself
stumbling instead. Blackness enveloped him, and by the time he woke up,
Heero was gone.
They buried him in the gardens, underneath large magnolia trees, in a
plot of land that had been cleared especially for him. Lady Une was
cremated, as per her will, her ashes scattered through out the east
wing. After the burial, Treize had sent Duo home, even paid for his
plane ticket, with the advice that he should forget everything about
Nefura altogether.
And that's what he did.
* * *
Duo awoke slowly, from a kneeling position in front of the grave. His
surroundings swirled around him, affects of his recent nausea. How had
this all been possible…until today he had lived in that house, spent
time with Heero… God, he had… he didn't know what to think any more. A
hand came into his vision, helping him up, and he gripped the wrist. He
soon dropped it, however, scampering backwards, when he realized it had
no pulse.
"What are you doing here?"
Duo looked up into his dead lover's eyes, not knowing what he was
feeling right now.
"I thought I told you to stop coming out here."
Duo forced a chuckle. "Well, you never really said that."
"Let's go inside." Heero reached towards Duo, frowning when the
longhaired boy flinched from his touch. He inched away from the dead
boy, surprised when his hand met empty air and he lurched backwards. He
looked at the hole, eyes widening when he realized it was an empty
grave. "What…what's this?"
"You said you would stay here with me. You said you wouldn't leave me
again."
Fear gripped Duo's heart. "Not like this. Heero, I never agreed to
this."
Heero just shrugged. "There's no other way."
"Heero, I don't want to stay here like this."
"I'm not letting you leave."
Then Heero lunged forward, pushing Duo to the ground. Duo tried to
fight back, but Heero maintained a death like grip on his wrists, and
he was too exhausted mentally and emotionally to really do anything
about it. "Heero."
Heero gripped both of Duo's wrists in one hand, reaching down to grab
something from his side. He held up the thing, silver and shining
despite the lack of light. Duo shivered at the sight of the knife, his
instinct for preservation acting as he thrashed Heero off of him. He
elbowed the other boy, trying to reach for the weapon, when Heero's
shirt rode up. He blanched at the sight, a gaping wound in the middle
of the boy's stomach. It wasn't fresh, or bloody, which was what turned
Duo's stomach the most. Instead, it was large and festering, rotting
with years of decay.
Duo's momentary queasiness allowed Heero to knock him off, and the two
went tumbling along the ground. Duo wound up on the bottom again,
struggling against the other boy, who was trying to force the knife
down. Duo had all about given up, closing his eyes in acquiesce, when
he felt the boy's weight knocked off of him, and he found himself
staring up at Quatre.
"Come on! Let's go!"
Duo grabbed Quatre's hand, and they both started running out of the
clearing and away from the garden. Duo felt himself being pushed inside
a waiting jeep, Quatre climbing in beside him.
"H… Heero?" he asked through his daze.
"I pushed him into the grave. I don't think he can leave the property,
so we should be safe soon."
Duo turned around, half expecting the other boy to appear from amidst
the plants, but he never did. The jeep drove away, the sky getting
sunnier as they drove further away from Nefura, Duo wondering what the
last week had been. After a while a feeling of safeness enveloped him,
as well as something akin to sadness. For one week, he had Heero, and
he was left to wonder if the fate he had been saved from was any better
than the alternative.
"Hey," Quatre said, looking at him with concern, "are you okay?"
"I don't know." Duo forced a grin. "But I will be."
Heero. Gomen ne.
He turned around again, knowing that this would be the last time he
would lay eyes on Nefura. The house that light forgot.
~owari~