Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Locker ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: What's mine is mine, what's theirs is theirs. I don't own these characters and would very much not like to be sued.

AN: *smacks self* >_< I can't believe I did that…thank you Rosedreams, for bringing to my attention, that I DID make two Hilde's. Oops. My bad. Just pretend it's someone else. Or if you havta be a critic, I changed the person. It's no longer a Hilde, but a Dorothy. Besides, Quatre's `friend', isn't ever in the story again. I was just dying to put the part about the fish in, because it happened to one of my friends. I couldn't think of anyone else that would be that clumsy besides Duo himself, but he obviously wouldn't work. ^_^;

Oh, and one other thing. I probably should have said this sooner. In case anyone is confused…

_blah_

means italic. So, whenever you see a sentence or a word surrounded by _blah_ minus the blah part, then it's italicized. Now that that's covered, on with the story, and sorry for the long wait. -_-; It's the end of the school year; I'm going to be graduating soon, what do you expect? ^_^

Chapter Six:

"What on earth's the matter!"

I can only imagine what I must have looked like, standing there with my back pressed against the wall, arms out to my sides, trying to breathe normally again. Poor Aunt Hilde rushed over to me and put an arm around my shoulders and led me straight over to the bed.

"You're white as a ghost! What happened?"

"I thought I felt something," I mumbled. "I mean, I _did_ feel something…I don't know…"

"What, dearest? What did you feel?"

"Eyes." My voice dropped and I leaned against her still trembling. "I felt eyes watching me-"

"Eyes!"

"But I don't feel them now." Gently I disentangled myself from her arms and ran one hand across my forehead. "Really. I'm okay."

"I told you," Solo said.

I hadn't noticed him standing in the doorway, and now he came into my room, exchanging solemn looks with Aunt Hilde. I wished they'd go away and quit fussing-I felt silly now for making such a commotion, and I hated the way both of them had stopped looking at each other and were now staring straight at me.

"I'm just tired," I insisted crossly. "You know how hard it is for me when I start a new school."

"Hmmm." Aunt Hilde redirected her gaze onto the floor, and her lops pressed into a thin line-a sure sign she was thinking really hard before she said something. At last she added, "You looked so strange this morning."

"I look like I always do!" My voice rose defensively. "If that means I look strange, I can't help it if that's the way I look."

I knew I was being childish, but I couldn't seem to stop myself.

"Maybe we should have a discussion," Aunt Hilde began helpfully, but I jumped off the bed and pushed past Solo into the hallway.

"I'm going to take a walk," I announced.

Aunt Hilde jumped up after me and nodded with forced brightness. "What a great idea! Fresh air will do you good."

"Coward," Solo mumbled, but I ignored him and ran down the stairs and out the front door.

For several minutes I just stood there on the porch, waiting for my heart to settle down into my chest again. I could smell early flowers and the hint of rain in the air, and the freshness of new leaves just out on the trees. I leaned for a while on the porch rail, but then, as I straightened up again and glanced at the house next door, I realized someone was sitting over there in the porch swing.

"Hi," said the voice, and I caught my breath in surprise.

"Heero?" I asked cautiously.

"Yeah."

He sprang into full view and draped his body lazily over the front railing. I could see he wasn't wearing his coat now-just jeans and a green sweatshirt with holes in it-but the cap was still turned around on his head and his yellow hightops had come unlaced. As I watched. He pulled off the cap, shook his hair out of his eyes, then smashed the cap down onto his head again, lopsided.

"Hi," I said again quietly. "You look surprised."

"Shouldn't I be?" My tone was accusing. "What are you doing?"

"I live here."

"You do?" I must have sounded shocked, because there was the slightest touch of laughter in his voice.

"Yeah. I do."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't you ask?"

"Well, I usually don't go into a new school asking every kid I meet, hey, do you live next door to me?" I was sort of embarrassed, like he'd played a trick on me. "I didn't see you around this weekend."

"I wasn't here," he said, not offering to tell me where he'd been. "I just got back late last night."

"Oh."

He hopped up onto the railing, his arms straight out at his sides, as if walking a tightrope.

"You as crazy as old lady Une?" he asked casually.

"I might be," I said.

"Just wondering." Again that hint of laughter in his voice, though he kept his face expressionless. I watched him and thought how jealous I was again of his perfect skin and those perfect eyelashes and that perfectly formed mouth.

"You're thinking…you've seen me in some other lifetime," he said, and I snapped back to awareness.

"I'm not thinking anything about you," I lied.

"That's why you keep looking at my face. Am I familiar to you? Did we meet in some other dimension? Were we friends or maybe lovers?"

"I wasn't looking at you face."

"Yes, you were." He hopped off the railing and landed at the very bottom of the porch steps. He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans and leaned lazily against one wooden column of the porch.

"So how's it feel living in the museum?"

I almost laughed at that. "Like a museum."

"Maybe you should sell tickets and take tours through."

"Maybe. I could use the spending money."

"So how was your first day? Any more confrontations with your locker?"

"I don't want to talk about that."

"How come?"

"It was embarrassing, and you'll just laugh."

"No, I won't."

This time he crossed his yard, leapt lightly over the fence, then stood there staring at me as I watched from my porch.

"That was Wufei Chang's locker," he said.

"I heard. A boy who disappeared."

He nodded. His blue eyes looked almost sad.

"He was a nice boy. I liked him."

"Did you grow up with him, too?"

"No." Squatting down, he ran his long fingers slowly over the ivy that grew up through the cracks in the walkway. "He was an outsider. His dad was on the construction crew that came through here when the new highway was being built. He and his family were only living here until his job was over."

I let this sink in, feeling a prickle race up my spine. "Did his family happen to rent _this_ house?"

He looked surprised. "No. They had a place outside of town. Why?"

Now I felt stupid. "No reason. I was just curious."

"So is it?" he asked me.

"Is it what?"

"Your house like a museum?"

I had to laugh. "You can come in if you want. Check for dead teenagers in the basement."

He looked at me, and his smile seemed sort of strained, and for just a split second everything seemed to freeze around him, as if I were looking at a movie still.

"No, thanks," he said casually. "Some things are better left un-" But before he could say anything else, a woman came outside and called to him, something about not forgetting what he was suppose to do before dinner.

"I have to go." He jumped up and swung himself back over the fence into his own yard. "See you around."

"Yeah," I said. "See you."

He started toward his house, then stopped in his tracks and spun around to face me.

"Why don't you come?" he asked.

"Me?" I looked around widely, as if there might be four or five other people standing around behind me that he might be talking to.

"Yeah. Come with me. I'm just going out to Lost River. I won't be long."

"I…uh…have homework to do."

"Do it latter. I'll help you."

I shook me head at the offer, but as I stared into those big dark eyes, my heart betrayed me. Who could have resisted an offer like that?

"I'll have to tell my aunt," I said.

"Go do it."

It only took a second to make my announcement and grab my jacket, and then I was back out again, hurrying to meet him where he now waited in his driveway next to a battered old gray Mustang.

"Okay?" Heero let the hood crash down. He wiped his hands on a rag, wadded it up, and tossed it onto the porch. Then he tilted his head at me with a sidelong glance.

"Hope you like bumpy rides."

"I don't mind them," I said.

"Good. Climb in."

I did, and he did, and then without warning, the car gave a tremendous lurch and bounced off, throwing me right up against him as I desperately tried to keep my balance.

"Sorry!" I shouted. The windows were wide open, and I could hardly hear myself think, and as I struggled to hold on to the door handle, the car swerved and I bounced right into him again. "Sorry!" I yelled for the second time, but he only gave me that faint little smile and made the Mustang go faster.

It didn't take long to get out into the country.

Since the ride was so bumpy and noisy for conversation, I concentrated on the scenery as we sped along, noticing how we turned off the main highway and then, after several miles down a two-lane blacktop, off again onto a dirt road. It got quieter then, and we slowed down nearly to a crawl, winding back and back through deep twisted woods. I wondered how anyone could ever find his way through there, with the shadows so deep and deceptive, and the early twilight almost full dark. I must have shivered a little because Heero suddenly reached over and touched my arm.

"Cold?" he asked.

"Not really. It's just so dark out here."

He nodded, curling his body back into his seat, resting one arm lazily across the top of the steering wheel.

"Country dark's not like any other kind of dark. And the river's even worse."

We rounded a bend in the road, and the headlights picked up a dilapidated little house far back from the curve. Obviously abandoned, it leaned a little to one side, and the weeds grew up as high as the shuttered windows.

"Wufei used to live in that house," Heero said. "You know…the boy whose locker you have."

I moved closer to get a better view. Shadows angled down over the roof, spilling in black puddles across the sagging front porch.

I shuddered. "It looks haunted."

Heero shrugged and began to whistle. His glance flicked briefly to me and then out his window again.

"Tell me about Wufei Chang," I said quietly.

He didn't act surprised at the request. In fact, he didn't act any way at all. He stared straight out at the curving road and thought for several moments and then smiled.

"He was nice," he finally said. "I didn't mind him."

"But what was he _like_? I mean…what kind of person was he?"

His eyebrow lifted, and his face took on a puzzled look. "Why all this interest in someone you don't even know?" When I didn't answer, he added softly, "Someone you're _never_ going to know."

That made me sad. I moved away from him and rested my head against the door, staring out into the gathering dusk.

"I guess it bothers me," I admitted, "Having his locker and all. Maybe I feel…you know… connected to him in a way." I looked down and gave a sheepish laugh. "I know that sounds weird."

He didn't answer. He rested one elbow on the ledge of his open window and leaned his cheek against his palm.

"You really care about people, don't you?" He sounded slightly mystified. "That's so rare these days. Most people don't care about anything."

"Oh, please-"

"No, I mean it. Here's this boy you don't even know-I mean most of _us_ hardly knew him-and you're…you know…concerned about him."

"It's just that…" I tried to find the right words, wanting to make him understand. "The whole thing seems so tragic to me. One of those horrible things you always read about that happens to someone else-except it happened to a _real person_ who used to have my locker. And now…it's like he never even existed. But he _did_ exist! He had a _life_!"

In the shadows I could feel his eyes upon my face, could feel the curious way they were watching me.

"Maybe you shouldn't think about it," he said at last. "It makes you too unhappy, and there's nothing you can do. It's been over for a long time."

"But it's _not_ over, is it? Not really. Not till someone finds out what really happened to him."

"Most people have stopped wondering by now. They've gotten on with their lives."

"They might _not_ have stopped wondering if he'd been from here." I sighed.

"But he wasn't," Heero said. "He was an outsider."

"Is that how everyone's classified? You're either a townsfolk or an outsider?"

"Something like that, I guess." The idea seemed to amuse him. "Why? You afraid you're gonna get tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail?"

"I'm beginning to worry."

I head him laugh softly under his breath. He rearranged his cap in the same crooked position, and then he brushed absentmindedly at the hair blowing in his eyes. I sat there gazing at his profile and head him say softly, "Quit looking at me."

"I'm not looking at you," I said, and he gave me a sidelong glance.

"Yes, you are."

Maybe it was because he sounded so self-conscious about it that I couldn't help teasing him.

"It's your smile," I said.

There was a long silence.

"Don't you want to know what I think about it?" I persisted.

"No."

"Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. It's a sweet smile. A wonderful smile. Sort of funny and whimsical-"

_"Whimsical?"_

"Yes, and kind of teasing and secretive and sly all at the same time." I hid a smile of my own as the silence dragged on and on. "It makes you look like a little boy," I finished.

"It does not."

"Yes, it most certainly does. Cute and shy. And vulnerable."

No answer.

I leaned over and put my face to his. He was trying to keep his eyes on the road, but as I kept staring at his profile, pretending to study every feature, I saw a muscle move in his cheek, and he stole a glance at me.

"Are you blushing?" I whispered.

"No response.

"Hmmm…" I mused. "I think maybe you are."

I could feel him squirm uncomfortably, and it was all I could do not to laugh.

"I told you, you were shy." I couldn't help sounding smug.

His eyes shifted onto mine. That little smile played at the corners of his mouth.

"Stay close to me like that, and I'll show you how shy I am," Heero said.

I stared at him.

I moved back.

I turned my face to the open window and let the cool air blow across my warm cheeks, and I heard Heero laughing softly.

"Now who's blushing," he murmured.

The last shred of sunlight was finally slipping away. As we followed the road out of the trees, I could see a molten glow oozing over the hillsides, and the air smelled wet and earthy. Off in the distance I could see the ruins of a barn, rotting silently in an empty field.

"Did Wufei really live back there in that awful place?" I asked quietly.

Heero didn't answer at first. He kept his eyes on the road ahead, slowing the car even more as we came to a steep incline.

"It wasn't always that bad," he said, shifting into low gear and starting the climb. "Out here it doesn't take long for nature to reclaim things, especially when nobody's using them anymore."

"Did you ever go out with him?"

The question popped out before I could stop it. I heard the words hanging in the air between us, but by then it was to late to do anything but feel like an idiot.

Heero didn't look at me. His hands tightened on the steering wheel.

"Once," he said.

I waited for him to go on. He didn't.

Instead he coaxed the old car over the top of the hill, and then he leaned forward, squinting through the shadows and pointing to something I couldn't even see.

"Look-there's the bridge," he announced. "Welcome to Lost River."

The road came to an abrupt end.

Heero stopped the car and jumped out, walking forward onto a rickety wooden bridge and pulling back a heavy chain with a sign on it that said PRIVATE.

"Where are we?" I asked him. We must have been riding for half an hour, at least. My ears were still ringing from the wind and the noisy engine, and I gingerly patted my head, and fiddled with my braid.

"We have a summer cabin down here," he informed me, hopping back in again. "My dad just wanted me to check on some things."

I craned my neck out the window as we drove slowly across the bridge. Broken boards sagged beneath the weight of the car, and in the glare of the headlights I could see what looked like a ravine yawning below. Shuddering a little, I drew back inside and watched as the dirt road sloped up a gentle rise, and wound through another stretch of woods, widening at last into a shadowy clearing, where it promptly dead-ended.

"That's out place," Heero said.

I looked out at the small wooden cabin, its roof and porch and stone chimney practically swallowed by the surrounding trees. Dormer windows jutted out from the second floor, all of them heavily shuttered, and the encircling yard was tangled with weeds and dead leaves and fallen tree limbs.

"The Taj Mahal it's not," Heero added. He stopped the car and turned off the ignition, glancing over at me with a shrug. "But we spend lots of time here. It's a great place to bring friends. Lots of privacy."

"That's the river down there," he said, heading around to one side of the cabin. "It's high right now-we've had a lot of rain."

I could see now that the cabin was built at the top of an embankment. As Heero walked to the edge, I came up behind him a gazed down into the muddy water below. A flight of wooden steps led down to a narrow dock, but I could hardly see it for all the overhanging trees. The place looked dark and spooky, and I pulled back nervously, all to conscious of the spongy ground underfoot.

"Be careful, it's slippery," Heero warned me, reaching out for my hand. "You'd think we'd be safe here, wouldn't you, being up this far? But the truth is, a few good storms set in, and it's nothing for that water to come right over the bank. I've seen it flood so bad, we've had to leave the car way back down the road and paddle the boat in over the bridge."

I couldn't even picture the river this high. As Heero let go of my hand and turned back toward the cabin, I lingered behind, taking another peek at the dock. The bank was matted with weeds and twisted clumps of tree roots, and as a stared, something slithered out of the shadows and into the murky water. Nervously I redirected my gaze into the middle of the river, where I could see a slow, lazy current swirling along. But down there along the bank the water didn't seem to be moving at all-just lying there deep and thick and stagnant…

_Dead…_

A chill crept up my arms.

Suddenly, more than anything else, I wanted to get back to the safety of the car.

I started to turn, and to my horror, felt my foot slipping in the mud. Panicking, I whirled around and gasped.

I hadn't heard Heero come up behind me. I thought he'd gone into the cabin.

But now, as I locked eyes with him, I also felt something hit my arm, shoving my off balance.

I grabbed wildly for something-_anything_-to hold on to.

But there was only the wet ground dissolving beneath my shoes, and the shrill echo of my scream, and the endless rush of dank, dark air as I plunged into nothingness.

TBC……

AN: I have decided to up the rating on this story and put in a lemon scene for one of my dedicated, reader/reviewer, Anya. But I don't know how soon. Could be next chapter, could be last chapter, but it will be there. I have to get Duo and Heero more comfortable with each other, after all, they just met.

I love feedback. Good or bad, I won't feel bad. If you have suggestions or something you'd like me to add, just say so. I might and I might not though, so don't hurt me. ^_^;