08-Apr-2002
Title: The Crocodile Pool
Author: Ebonydove
Pairings: 1+2/3+4 later
Warnings: OOC, language, slight gore, mention of rape, some sci-fi.
Disclaimer: I suppose I could trade gumdrops for ownership rights, but I don't think there will be any takers.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: none
Author's Note: Takes place after the wars. After leaving the Preventers from the side affects of a breakdown, Duo travels with Heero to earth for some rest and relaxation, only to find he has been drawn to a place where he encounters a strange mystery.
Heero let out an explosive sigh as he yanked the covers down and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His head was throbbing as another headache threatened to become a full-blown migraine. He kept appearances, but the ongoing stress of Duo's episodes where beginning to take their toll on him. He wanted so very much to believe Duo, but just couldn't believe that ghosts and such existed. It wasn't something he could wrap his brain around. It was intangible, unreal, unbelievable, and he was one for facts. Post traumatic stress disorder or some kind of hallucinations brought on by the wars could be understood and accepted, if only Duo would. He pulled on a shirt and tugged up a loose pair of drawstring pants and went out into the hallway determined to bring his absent lover to bed.
He made his way downstairs and paced through a few rooms, stopping at the kitchen where he poured himself a glass of milk before continuing his quest for Duo. When he came to the library he wasn't surprised to find Trowa ensconced in a book in the warm light of old lamp. "You too huh?" He queried as he sipped his milk.
"Hum?" Trowa raised an elegant brow in reply and closed the book softly, leaning back in the warm, chocolate colored leather of the high-backed chair.
"Missing your significant other."
"Ah. I figured he was with you guys. He was acting strange after dinner so I thought I'd give him some space."
Heero frowned at that. He deduced Quatre was with Duo, but had also been hoping that Trowa would know where the two were. "It seems like neither one of us know where they are then."
"Duo come on, it's right up ahead." Quatre was walking briskly up ahead of him and headed toward a low stone wall that could have been the remains of an old building.
"I don't know Quatre, maybe this wasn't a good idea. Heero's going to be ticked when we get back as it is." Duo had been feeling a prickly sense of dread ever since they stepped out of the formal estate gardens and wandered down the stone path that led to the ruined husk of the chapel and the remains of the crocodile pool.
The pool itself was visible to him from the path and as he walked slowly closer; its shimmering waters glistened like melted silver in the bright moonlight. The air was thick with the scent of flowers and heavy with humidity, making him shiver in the slight breeze as the air cooled his sweat dampened skin. He glanced over to the chapel and felt compelled to move closer to the low stone wall. His fingers brushed lightly over the rough surface as he gazed at what was once a beautiful stained glass window.
"Well? Do you feel anything?" Quatre said quietly over his shoulder.
"You mean other than completely creeped out by all this?" Duo tried to sound sarcastic but his voice held too much barely contained panic to sound convincing. "How 'bout you?" He asked pointing to Quatre's chest.
Quatre frowned and shrugged. "Nope, nothing. I'm going to take a look around."
Duo was white faced as he stood at the edge of the ruined chapel. "Quatre... stop." His eyes were vacant and unseeing as they gazed over the crumbling walls and shattered remains of a once beautiful stained glass window.
Fear ripped through her as the blackness began to creep in from the edges of her vision. She tried to concentrate on the way the moonlight bounced off the shattered remains of a blue and rose colored glass window that jutted up from the arch of the chapel's wall. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It sparkled in the light from the moon, making patterns on the wall, and the rocks below it. In the distance she could still hear the splashes coming from the pool as the crocodiles swam towards the shore and she finally succumbed to the blackness...
"What is it, Duo? Do you see something?" Quatre whispered despite how his heart was racing. All sounds of night creatures ceased as the two stood in the shadowed space of the hallowed ground.
"This is... this is it." Duo's voice was barely audible as his eyes finally reached Quatre's.
"It? It what?" Quatre's brow furrowed with frustration and he was beginning to wonder if coming to this place at night was a good idea.
Quatre's voice, growing in pitch and volume, was dull in his ears as he approached the crumbling wall of the chapel. "It's where she was... attacked." Duo wrapped his arms around his chest as if to keep himself warm from the creeping chill that was crawling over his skin, even though the air was warm and moist. "This is where she died." He was beginning to shake and couldn't bring himself to look at the broken shards of glass on the ground. Tuffs of wild grass had grown up around them and little wildflowers had sprung up to hide most of them from plain view, but in the hazy glow of the moon, they still shimmered like crimson blades.
The deadness in Duo's voice made Quatre shiver. "Duo, are you sure? I don't feel anything."
Duo shook his head slightly and seemed to come a bit back to himself. "Q, let's go back. It's late, and it's getting increasingly dark. I know that the crocodiles have been long removed from the pool, but they are still alive and live in these parts. I don't want to meet one while wandering around in the dark."
Quatre looked about the shadowed area and nodded his agreement. When he turned to go back the way they had come he found Duo inching his way from the ruins of the chapel towards the pool. It was pretty good sized and overgrown with grasses and shrubs, but the bank was clear enough if someone wanted to sit by the water's edge. "Duo? What are you doing? We should go back." Quatre watched as Duo continued moving slowly to the edge of the dark water.
The pool glowed like blue fire in the dark and Duo felt almost drawn to it. Once at the waters' edge, he crouched low and was about to dip his fingertips into the cool waters, when the hairs on his arms stood up and he saw something rising from the bottom of the pool. He tried to get sound to come out of his mouth, but nothing came; so he just stood transfixed as a figure floated to the surface. He saw a girl, surrounded by the billowing white of her dress and the swirling mass of her raven hair; floating like a crown around her, just under the surface. He rose and stood at the bank of the pool watching as the shape of the girl became more apparent. Straining to see her he leaned over the water. Her dark hair swirled around her pale face and her endless white skirts plumed and sank in the dark water. Duo found himself reaching out towards her to touch the silvery skin of her limp, floating hand when the figure sank again into the murky depths.
"Duo! What are you doing?!" Quatre rushed over and felt a sudden push against his chest like some kind of highly focused gust of wind. With a gasp he stumbled backwards and watched helplessly as Duo made his way into the water.
Duo scrambled down the bank of the water and waded in up to his chest and tried to find any trace of her, but she had sunk too low for him to see. Quatre continued to scream out Duo's name frantically, but it was as if Duo was being pulled into the center of the pool by something unseen.
Taking a huge breath and cursing himself for being crazy, Duo ducked under the cool water and reached out with both hands trying to feel for any trace of her. When he opened his eyes it was very dark, with plants and debris floating thick in the water. He was quickly running out of air and decided the ghost didn't want to be found, when he saw something glisten at the very bottom of the pool. He pulled himself down and dug in the muck to try to find the object he had seen from above and came across a small silver locket. He grabbed it and feeling the burn in his lungs from the lack of air turned to begin his ascent to the surface.
When he turned he came face to face with the girl he had been searching for in the first place. She smiled sadly at him; making him frown and then pointed behind him. He turned again and saw Heero brutally slashed open and swirls of crimson blood floating in streams around him. His face was white and slack, his limbs lifeless and eyes unseeing. Duo opened his mouth to scream and felt the water rush in and gush into his lungs. He didn't know which end was up and thrashed as his senses became more and more dulled. The last thing he recalled was the feeling of someone tugging on his arm as he slipped unconscious and sank to the bottom in the dark, cool waters.
"What were you reading?" Heero asked Trowa as he pondered where they should look next for Duo and Quatre.
"Just an old family bible I found on the side table." Trowa's tone snapped Heero out of his momentary calm. "Interesting reading." The throbbing in his head began anew as he saw the look on Trowa's face. "The genealogy goes back into the early 18th century. This house is very old Heero, and has had more than it's fair share of interesting and mysterious occurrences."
"It has something to do with what Duo saw right? Or about this place, or that damned pool." Heero growled out.
"I think so."
Heero folded his arms over his bare chest and gritted his teeth. "Well then, go ahead."
"Sudden and mysterious illnesses, unexplainable deaths, family members going mad or simply disappearing to name a few." Trowa paused and sat forward a bit, placing the book on the table to his right and looking at Heero plainly. "The most recent was the former heirs to this house, which is why I believe it was sold to Quatre's father. The man who owned the home had two sons, Manuel and Renaldo. The later being older by two years. The wife had died a few years earlier of an illness that wasn't clear in the book. Jasper, the father, was getting old and ill so he told the two boys that in order for them to inherit the estate they both must be wed and have a least one child before he died. Whoever had produced a grandchild first would become the sole heir."
"Sounds a little old fashioned to me." Heero commented dryly as he finished his milk.
"Manuel had been seeing a young gypsy girl and announced he would be married by that summer. The next entry in the book was that Manuel had disappeared, the gypsy girl was not known by the family so no heir could be proved to exist by the younger son, leaving Renaldo as the only living heir to the estate."
"And the father, Jasper?"
"Died of pneumonia shortly after Manuel's disappearance."
"What does this have to do with Duo and the episodes he's been having?"
"Well, now for the interesting part. Renaldo the older son, married a well-known society lady named Fiora, and had a son shortly after they wed. They had been having a picnic at the pool when it was said that the baby crawled too close to the edge of the water and was almost dragged in by a crocodile. But Fiora saw it and snatched up the baby, but then was attacked herself and both were killed. Which is why the pool was drained and all the crocodiles removed and relocated." Heero raised a skeptical brow as Trowa continued. "Despite the death of his wife and son, Renaldo had fulfilled his father's requirement and inherited the estate, especially since the brother and his gypsy lover never returned."
"Sounds like a lot of deaths in a short period of time." Heero paused as noted the time. "So how did the pool get filled again?"
"Heavy rains, flooding." Trowa put the book back where he had found it and rose.
Heero raised an eye brow at that. "A very strange coincidence."
Trowa smiled wider and quirked an eyebrow. "Renaldo lived in the estate for a year, but claims he was haunted by his dead wife and other ancestors so badly that he sold the estate and fled. Quatre's father had bought the estate for one of his daughters as a wedding present, but she and her fiancée didn't want it once they learned of how many people had died here." Trowa watched as the Heero digested the information, processed it and came to a conclusion.
"So it is possible that Duo is being haunted in a similar way because he too is somehow related to this family."
"Duo is an orphan. And he lived in spaced most of his life. His relatives could be from some branch of this family though. It's a long shot, but possible."
A creeping chill ghosted over Heero's bare chest and arms and he couldn't help the nagging at the back of his brain that something was wrong. "I think it's time we find them."
"Do you think that Duo saw Renaldo's murdered wife?"
"You think she was murdered too?" Trowa asked dryly. "I think I may have hit a nerve with you."
Heero shook his head and shrugged. "It makes sense. The father was already dead. He had been forced into a marriage and to produce a child. There wouldn't be any evidence with the crocodiles consuming the bodies to prove foul play, so it would be his word alone to go by."
"True, but I didn't think you believed in such things as ghosts coming back from the grave to haunt their spouses, Heero."
"I'll believe in whatever Duo wants me to believe in as long as it keeps him safe and sane."
"You really love him, don't you?" Trowa dropped his eyes and asked quietly. He wasn't one who was known for prying into other people's business.
"More than I ever thought I was capable of. During the wars I didn't realize how precious he was to me. I could have lost him so many times during those times, but was always driven by other things. When I almost lost him after the accident with the Preventers; and later when he had the breakdown, I realized how much of a part of my own soul he is to me." Heero glanced up from the fixed stare he had been giving to the floor to find Trowa smiling a knowing smile. "Love isn't a big enough word to describe how I feel about him. But if you're asking me whether or not I believe in the supernatural, I don't."
"So you still think these are delusions brought on by stress." Trowa asked with a bland expression.
He shrugged again. "It doesn't matter what I believe. I'm linked to him forever that's just the way it is. So that being said, let's go find those two and put them to bed."
Trowa laughed a rare laugh and followed Heero to search for their lovers. The two chatted about going to Mardi Gras the next day and the costumes they had arranged for their lovers to wear, stopping at the kitchen again to drop off Heero's glass. They double-checked the downstairs rooms just in case the two had returned, and finding no trace of them decided to head for the only place they hadn't looked yet, the gardens.
The two were making their way out of the estate to go searching in that direction when they heard the undeniable sound of Quatre scream for all he was worth. Trowa knew the difference between a battle cry and sheer terror, and Quatre was terrified about something. He took off running in the direction of the sound with Heero close behind him.
End Part 8
(:./ebony/pool8)
