Chapter Text
They'd been sent to Central Europe tracking a broken ley line and it lead them 19 hours out of Prague to the middle of pretty much nowhere. And to a creepy old house and a young girl who'd been attacked along with her friends who appeared to have been killed.
The broken ley lines happened to actually run through the house and even though they'd anchored the lines, scary and strange things continued to happen. Jenkins had surmised that they'd found a mystery house, one with evil intent and that they'd have to destroy the dark heart of the house, whatever that was.
Cassandra and Baird were at odds. Baird, for whatever reason, had become suddenly very overprotective of the younger woman. And Stone had fallen into the fallback position that had served him well as the brother of several sisters, he'd refused to get in the middle of what was going on between his girlfriend and their Guardian. He knew that he'd pay for it later with Cassandra, but to be honest, he was too scared to care at this moment. Right now, he'd be happy to sleep on the couch in the living room for a year as long as he knew that she was safe.
Jones had disappeared and Baird had told Cassandra to take Katie and the truck and get back to the safety of the Annex. Stone had wished he'd at least told Cassandra he loved her, but she'd been angry at Baird and probably angrier at him for not speaking out in her favor. So he'd said nothing, just pled with her silently to go, save herself and Katie. He took a deep breath and followed Baird up the stairs, hoping that he would get a chance to see Cassandra again. The odds were not in their favor, not in this house, god knows what had happened to Jones. All he could cling to was the thought that at least Cassandra would make it.
They hadn't been upstairs very long when some odd noises came from downstairs. Baird rushed to check it out but Stone had gotten distracted. He could have sworn that dollhouse wasn't on the table when they walked into the room . . .
Suddenly he was somewhere else, somewhere where Jones was playing a video game?
"Yeah, it takes a second to process."
"This is the doll . . .we're in the doll house."
"See? Got it in one," Ezekiel continued playing his game.
"Why are we in the doll . . .how are we in the doll house?"
"Well, and this is just a guess, mind you, but I'm going to say magic."
Over the sounds of Ezekiel's game, Stone could have sworn he heard his name being called.
"That's Baird!" He started yelling her name, but got freaked out when her giant eye looked in the window. Of course, she couldn't see or hear him.
"I tried that before. She can't hear you. Samosa?"
"No, I don't want a samosa," Stone started to storm away then got in Ezekiel's face. "What's wrong with you? Baird is out there all alone with god knows what. At least Cassandra and Katie got away."
Ezekiel was going on about snacks while Stone tried the door.
"This house is trying to kill us."
"Pretty sure it's not. Watch." Ezekiel asked for a beer. Stone rolled his eyes even as it appeared.
"What have you been doing this whole time? You've been playin' video games and drinkin'?"
"And samosas. Yeah. I got tired of staring at those damned pictures. And I said, I wish there was something better to do, and boom, Xbox One."
"What pictures? What do you mean pictures? What pictures?"
Ezekiel pointed behind him. Stone stared at the artwork. Some of it was really old and exciting. But as he looked, the story started to form in his mind. What the house was trying to tell him. And if he'd been frightened before, he was terrified now. He felt like he was going to throw up.
"We got this wrong. We got this whole thing wrong."
The tone of his voice and the terror in it got Ezekiel to take notice. He paused his game and turned and looked.
"The house isn't out to get Katie . . .it's tryin' to protect us from Katie."
Ezekiel's eyes widened as he started to share in Stone's terror. "And you said . . ."
"Cassandra is out there alone with her. All alone."
Cassandra ran screaming back into the house. She'd just found to her horror that Katie was the killer not the mysterious figure in the house.
"Colonel Baird! Colonel Baird! Stone! Oh God, Stone!" That's when she remembered in the confusion and fear of earlier that Stone hadn't come running when Baird called him. . . And he'd never not come when she called . . . .
"Jacob? Eve?"
The only sign of Baird was her gun, lying on the floor, Cassandra picked it up. Both Baird and Stone had given her shooting lessons though she hadn't been very good at it. But at least, it was some protection. She heard a thumping sound and went around the corner to see Baird being dragged up the stairs. She looked nearly lifeless . . . .
Cassandra went up the stairs, but she didn't see Baird. She did see a room full of spirits, the people that Katie and her family had killed. Katie's voice drifted up the stairs, bragging about the people her family had killed. About how the house spoke to her and she'd made a wish.
"So you talk huh? Sure wish you could talk to me." And then Cassandra heard it, faint but it was there. Asking for her help, asking her what it could do to help her free it from Katie.
And it gave her an idea . . . .
"Do you hear that?" Stone said after both he and Jones had tried again to get out of the dollhouse. Suddenly Jones wasn't that interested in his game anymore. Just as Stone said that, the chair Jones had been in disappeared. In its place was a couch with an unconscious Baird on it.
"Damn," Ezekiel swore. "She looks pretty worked over."
Stone felt for a pulse. "She's alive. Probably knocked around real good." He sighed, "it's trying to help us. But . . . ."
He jumped up and yelled at the ceiling. "Please, you have to help Cassandra! Please!"
Jones looked over at him, "If Katie hasn't . . . ."
"Shut the hell up!" Stone's eyes were wild.
"I'm sorry," Jones backed away immediately. "I sometimes . . .I say things I shouldn't. I like Cassandra, you know that."
Stone nodded. "You're scared too. I get it."
"Wait, do you hear that?" Jones asked, running to the window of the dollhouse. They couldn't really see anything, but they could hear sounds, like a struggle.
"Cassandra . . . ."Stone breathed.
Cassandra and Katie struggled and Cassandra managed to stab Katie. But as the redhead tried to run out of the room, the smoke man appeared pushing her back into the room.
Katie taunted her. "You're so stupid. Don't you know what I wished for? Don't you know what this house has made me? "
"You're the dark heart." Cassandra whispered.
"I'm death!" Katie lunged at her, but Cassandra was able to dodge that time. "Poor Cassandra. Poor, whiny, pathetic you. Turns out they were right, Cassandra. You ain't good for nothin' in the end."
Katie managed to slice into Cassandra's arm and she fell to the floor with a shout of pain.
"Please, please. Help me. We can stop this. Please help me stop this!"
"Lord. Why on Earth would I want to stop?"
"I wasn't talking to you."
"Oh, someone's tryin' to be clever."
"Do you think the house will help her?" Ezekiel whispered.
"Shhh," Stone shushed him, straining to hear and see what was going on.
"I wish to save my friends, the man that I love."
"Well, I wish to kill them. And I was here first. Huh, man you love? Which one, the fire bug or the coward? Don't matter. It's a shame, so much more fun to let the loved ones watch. Tell ya what, I'll let him weep over ya for a minute before I stab him in the back."
There were some more screams coming from the room and Stone had never felt more helpless in his life. Not even when the cancer had taken his mother.
Cassandra's voice was suddenly very loud in the dollhouse. "You think you're death? I was fifteen when they told me that my death sits right here."
"Poor kid . . . ." whispered Ezekiel. Stone smacked him to silence him.
"So I see it every time I look in the mirror. Every day. Every single day."
"Stop this!" Katie's voice yelled. "You can't! I'm the angel! I'm the angel of death!"
"You're not the angel of death. I know what death looks like and she doesn't look like you. She looks like me."
Ezekiel looked over to the man beside him. Stone had tensed leaning against the window, a sound that sounded suspiciously like a sob coming out of him. For once, Jones couldn't bring himself to say anything witty, especially since he found himself biting his lip to force down his own tears.
Stone slapped the window. "C'mon house. Help her!"
"See I told you. I always get my wish."
Then things got eerily quiet both inside and outside the dollhouse. Then suddenly an unearthly scream broke the silence.
Then Cassandra's voice, rough with terror and tears. "This isn't about wishes, Katie. It's about need. And I really need . . ."