"If you want to explore the south wing, you take one of the boys with you," my mother stated, turning to point the spatula in her hand at me wildly. "And that's final young lady."

"But Moooooom," I whined, sticking my bottom lip out of my mouth in a pout, "All the boys are at the wrestling match in Cobourg, and won't be back until next week."  And of course, because my life is so perfect, and nothing goes wrong, like ever -note sarcasm- just as I was certain my mother was about to let me go explore by myself, who walked in but Mr Player himself.

"Aha!" My mother declared, pointing her grease covered spatula at Mal, "He can go with you!"

"Whatever it is, no," he said dryly, grabbing an apple off the kitchen table and taking a huge bite of it.

"No way Mom, I'm not going anywhere with him."  He turned to grin at me, swallowing his bite of apple, before he raised one eyebrow.

"You'd hate it if I came with you, right?"

"Yes," I answered immediately.

"And it would drive you nuts if I followed you around all day?"

"Uh huh..." I trailed off, unsure with where he was going with this.  I realized immediately what was going on though, when he turned to my Mom with a wide smile on his face that he reserved only for the use of charming people, and said;

"Then Mrs. Tromp, I would love to accompany Analee on her exploration."

"NO WAY!" I shouted, at the same time my Mother said "Okay!".  I turned to glare at him angrily, slamming up from the table and stomping out of the kitchen.  He followed closely behind, keeping just enough distance between us that I wouldn't be able to hit him without him seeing it coming.

"Oh, is little-miss-princess upset that she didn't get her way?" he asked, mocking me with a voice that could only be safely called baby talk.  It was irritating. It was annoying.  It made me want to kill him.

"Here, I realize that you probably have better things to do, like knocking up half of my varsity cheerleading squad, so I appreciate the offer, but just run a long now, I'll be perfectly fine exploring on my own."

"Actually, knocking them all up is on my agenda for friday," he said dryly, rolling his eyes.  "And I honestly don't have anything better to do, so lead the way Indiana Jones."

"Shut up," I snarled, stalking down the hallway.  I hoped that if I walked quickly enough, he would give up.  But he didn't.  The fact that he was over five inches taller than me probably gave him an advantage though. 

"Where are we going?"

"To the south wing."

 "Why can't you go alone?"

 "I can, just leave and I'll be fine."

 "No.  Why can't you?"

 "It's closed off."

 "Then how do you plan on getting in?"

 "Quietly," I snapped sarcastically, turning to face him.  "It's been closed off since the 1918, when world war two ended."  He nodded mutely, and continued to follow me down the hallway without a word, which I thanked God for. Profusely.  The less he talked, the less murderous I felt.

 I made my way down the left fork in my hallway, and continued until we reached a long segment of door-less wall.

 "Well, this is it," I murmured, pointing at the only part of the house that didn't have oak paneling on the walls. 

  "Oh. What do you do now?"  Because he sounded genuinely interested, I decided to give him an honest answer.

"I usually search the wall for any cracks or places where there could be a door."  I bent down at the far end of the wall and began running my fingers along the wall paper in silence.  I was half hoping the devil incarnate would stay, because quite honestly, I always found this half of the house creepy, but I figured he would get bored and leave. 

 "Can I help?" he asked softly, watching me from the other end of the hall.  It was a wonder I even heard him, that's how quiet he was.  I guess he was feeling the eerie sadness that hung over the area too.

 "Um, yeah, sure, I guess," I stammered, slightly shocked that he would help.  He knelt down on the other end of the hall and stared at the wallpaper.

  "So, uh, what do I do now?" he asked awkwardly, avoiding my quizzical gave.  Why he was suddenly so helpful was beyond me.

 "Just run your fingers along the wall, and see if you find and indents in it that could be the edges of a door."  He nodded, and began working silently, moving down the hallway faster then I was moving up it.  I was so absorbed in my own little world that I almost missed his call.

 "I think I found something Analee."  My head snapped up in surprise, 25% of the surprise was shock that he found something, the other 25% was that he was so quiet about it, and not gloating, and about 50% came from the fact that that was the first time he had ever spoken so softly, excluding the Aiden Incident, of course, and he had called me by my full name, nicely.  Usually my full name was reserved for his mocking or anger.  I didn't mind it though, it felt... nice.  This was why it freaked me out.

 "Analee?" he asked, watching me with his head tilted, "You may want to come see this."  I quickly came to my sense, scampering down the hallway to his side, and kneeling beside him.  Sure enough, the area where his fingers were tracing was indented, the perfect thickness to be the edge of a door.  "Can we rip up the wall paper?" he asked softly, running his fingernails through the wallpaper in the crack.  I nodded mutely.  The one time, one time that anyone comes exploring with me, it has to be him and he has to find the door.  It was ridiculous. 

Mal reached into his back pocket and pulled something out that glinted in the little light provided by our flashlight and the dim hall lighting.  A pocket knife.  What kind of lawyer carries and bloody pocket knife everywhere?

He slid it into the crack he had found, and slowly began tugging upwards, ripping the hideous wall paper, and revealing a wooden looking door beneath it.  I watched in silence as he very quickly began to peel away the wallpaper, to show an old, solid, maple door.

 "Can... Could you go first?" I asked quietly, staring at the once hidden door in shock.  I wasn't sure what I would find on the other side, and I was fairly certain that it wouldn't be pleasant.  There was a reason that this wing was closed off, I just really wanted to know why.

 "Do you really want me to?" He whispered, concern sparking in his eyes.  If someone didn't know any better, they'd say we liked each other, were friends even, but I think we were just overwhelmed by the aura that the door was giving off. I nodded once, and watched him reach for the door and shove it open.

Mal POV

I think it was seeing her crouched on the floor, concentration dotting her face, along with the dirt and grime from this hallway, that changed my opinion of her.  I mean, she was still a little bitch, but she was a little less stuck up then I thought she was.  And when I saw the nervousness on her face, it was like protecting her was a second nature to me, I didn't even think twice about it.  It was weird. Really weird, and the soft feeling in the pit of my stomach really wasn't helping me out all that much.  More so, it was making me uncomfortable, as was the look on her face when I agreed to go in first.  She hadn't really told me much about the house, only that it was old, but even just by standing here in front of the door, I could tell that something had gone horribly wrong here.  It didn't feel right.  What was more irritating was that my first thought was to grab Ana and hold her too me.  I was feeling possessive, and I could tell if I didn't like it or not.

I hooked my fingers into the hole that had once housed a long since removed doorknob, and slowly gave a firm push inwards.  Odd, it didn't move.  In most architecture, the enterances to a room almost always pushed inwards, and yet, when I gave a firm tug towards us, the door gave an ominous creek and began to move.

"Oh my mom is going to kill me," Ana moaned.  I threw her an inquisitive glance, and she pointed to the oak flooring.  "The door scratched the floor."

"Does she even come this far into the house?"

"She's my mom," Ana stated with a flat look, "She knows everything."  

We lapsed back into silence as soon as the door was wide enough for us to slip inside.  The inside was pitch black, only the entrance was lit by the faded lighting of the hallway.

"Give me the flashlight," I murmured, reaching out to take it from her outstretched hands.  She gave it up without much of a fight, and I could feel her warm breath against my neck as she peeked over my shoulder.  

"Careful," she whispered, "This house is full of traps."

Oh.

Hell.

Well that sure makes me feel so much better about this. 

I took the first step into the room, and found that the surface of the ground was a lot colder and rougher then the rest of the house.  It felt almost rocky beneath my sneakers, and I wondered precisely what had this room been used for.

The flashlight lit with a click of the button, and illuminated what we had found.

It was a roughly cut, square, stone room, and I mean completely stone.  An odd thing to find in the middle of a completely wooden house.  A quick scan of the room showed me that there was only one other way ot of here, and that was a dark, slightly frightening looking passageway at the far end of the cellar like room. 

I could practically feel the curiosity rolling off Analee in waves as she stepped up to my side and reached for the flashlight.

"I want to look around," she muttered, taking the flashlight in one hand. I didn't know what it was about the room, but it had immediatly put a damper on any sort of happy mood either of us would have.  A shudder rolled down my spine as I looked around again.  Something was off.  This place was dangerous.

My hand, acting on its own free will, reached out and snagged a one of the belt loops of her shorts, pulling her back against my chest.

"I say we stay together Ana," I murmured into her ear.  "We don't know what's around here."

"Okay," she breathed, and I grinned, happy no know that despite our otherwise 'frenemy' like relationship -her words, not mine- I could still get a reaction out of her like this.  "I want to look over here."  Her words broke my from my reverie as she began to stride towards the passage way.  I exchanged the arm around her waist for holding her hand in mine, twining our fingers together tightly.

"I wonder whats over-" Analee shone the light towards the entrance of the passage, while I continued to glance around the rest of the room, my paranoia causing me to check that the door was still open.  Doors that opened outwards were a hell of a lot easier to block off, and to keep people in. 

Her scream cut my thoughts off.

A high pitched scream of complete terror. 

I whipped my head back around just in time to catch her quivering body as she collapsed backwards, pointing one shaky finger at the shape in the doorway.  At closer examination, I saw what it was.

It was a skull.

And judging by the fact that there was still spots of gruesome looking rotting flesh, and patches of long hair still covering it, it sure as hell wasn't fake.

That thing was real.

AN

AHH! I've been waiting FOREVER to write this bit!

Hehehe, what do you think?

I really think I want some comments on this.  And some votes.  Pretty Please!?!?