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Aphismet opened the driver's side door of the moving van and hopped out, grinning. He never thought he'd one day be driving a van like that; he'd never really had any furniture to move before. The first time it had all burned down, the next time he'd been in a furnished bachelor place... This was new and exciting! And to be moving into such a large house, too!

"Here we are!" he called to the others in the van. "C'mon, let's hurry! It's cold out here! We have to move some stuff around inside, so that there is room for this new furniture..." Aph pulled on his gloves and zipped up his coat. "Br, so cold out here! Let's try to get this over with quickly, okay?" Eagerly, he headed inside to start making room.

Rivener sighed and frowned. He'd been quiet for the past week or so, dreading this day. Isi had been staying with them for a while now, while his leg and ribs healed, but even then it had felt temporary, like he'd one day leave. Now, however... Rivener would have to live here, in HIS house.

The only upside to all this was having Beauregard around. Although the whale made it all more easy to accept, it still left a bad taste in the Raevan's mouth. Sneering, Rivener floated out and, ignoring his guardian's eager asking for help, Riv just floated around to the back of the house, exploring the snowy yard.

Aph knew Isi wouldn't be able to help him get the bigger things upstairs, of course, but there were plenty of old-person-knicknacks around that Aphi wanted to get rid of; he wanted the house to have a completely new look, so that it would feel like a whole new place to the other boy. "That's fine, I'll get the big stuff; you just get all those statuettes and old clocks and whatnot."

Aph entered the house and didn't bother taking his boots off, although he did scuff most of the snow off. He would be walking through with the furniture anyway, soon. Hm, why was it so cold inside? Most likely the thermostats weren't turned on. Aph headed over to the rocking chair. That would be the first to go. He spared a grimace to all the tacky decorations in the room; china plates on stands, crochet "Home Sweet Home" in a picture frame...

"Only keep the stuff you really like down here, okay? We'll make it look less like an old place, and more like a hip living room," he explained with a grin, grabbing the rocking chair and starting it upstairs.

"Rivener, can you grab that other chair in the corner?" he called out, knowing that Riv, oddly strong for a floating thing, would most likely be able to carry it without a problem.

Little did he know that Rivener was not around.

The Frei had floated around the side of the house where the event had happened, on that dramatic night... The snow had covered the muddy spot where Isi had fallen, so Rivener couldn't tell if there was still traces of the boy's impact. Riv looked up, and easily spotted the window Isi had fallen from; it was still broken.

Riv didn't know if he should smirk or frown. Aphi had completely forgotten to get this fixed, apparently. That was amusing. What wasn't so amusing was that the broken window was letting in all the winter cold. The two emotions warred in Rivener's mind as he flapped his wings and made his way up there.

Riv slid in through the window, and saw there were still bits of glass on the floor inside. A few of them had reddish-brown stains on them, and this made the Scorpion gulp in recollection. Riv looked up and around, eager to find something else to think about.

The door was open. If they couldn't close the window, they should at least close the door. Rivener had seen a trick on TV that might be helpful here. Peeking in the room's closet, Riv found an old blanket. He took it and floated outside the room, closing the door behind him. He then bent down and wedged the blanket under the door, blocking as much space as possible so that the cold wouldn't be able to get in.

"Oh, there you are!" Aph said, blinking, wondering how Riv got up here so fast. "Did you get the chair?"

"What the hell are you talking about? I was outside. You forgot to fix the broken window in there, you know," Riv said, pointing at the door he'd just cold-proofed.

"What broken wi- Ah crap! ...I'll call someone about it tomorrow. Just, please go get that chair from downstairs and help me move the bigger furniture, okay? Isi will tell you which chair I mean." Aph continued on his way to the other set of stairs, carrying the bulky rocking chair up to the third, and final, floor.

Rivener muttered to himself, spared a moment to pat Beauregard affectionately, then floated down the stairs to stand in the living room, waiting balefully for Isi to tell him which freakin chair Aphi was talking about.

Rivener nodded, and floated over wordlessly to the chair, picking it up easily. He hefted it so that it rested a little neater in his grasp, not threatening to slip. He then turned and floated up the stairs, once again without word, but offering an off-the-shoulder grunt that roughly meant "you're welcome".

Aphismet was already in the attic, having wrestled the old squeaky door open with one hand as he balanced the box against his chest with the other. Aph walked up the rickety stairs and coughed as his very presence seemed to stir up dust and cobwebs.

"Wow," he said to himself, looking around once he'd put down the box. There were all kinds of really old, really antique things here. Old renaissance-style chairs, grand portraits with gold-flaked frames, dusty old mirrors, even a dilapidated old chandelier rested in the far corner. There were boxes everywhere, and who knew what interesting treasures might be found inside?

"Hey." Rivener interrupted the man's thoughts, dropping the chair. "Cool room," the Frei even found himself admitting.

"Yeah, isn't it? Makes you really realize how old this house is. It must have been around since Durem was founded!" Aphismet grinned. "Well, we can explore all this later. Let's hurry and finish the move so we can fetch Isi's Raevan!" With that, Aph enthusiastically descended the stairs again.

Rivener frowned as he watched his keeper leave. Was he this excited to pick up Riv himself, he wondered? For some reason, he thought not. Aph always seemed to care more about Isi than about Riv. Pouting angrily, Riv decided to stay up here and look around. Let that selfish man move things himself if he was in such a hurry; Rivener didn't care.

Aphismet arrived back downstairs and lifted another smaller chair from the hallway, ready to carry it up. "Hey Isi, have you ever been up in the attic? It's freaking amazing in there! There must be a fortune in antiques there! Not that I mean we should sell any, of course. I just like old mysterious stuff like that." He grinned.

For a moment, Aphismet paled at the other's words. Other people? Did Isi mean... ghosts?

Nah! Isi must just be trying to scare me, Aphismet concluded. He chuckled, albeit a little nervously. "Hahaha, very funny! Someone else up there. It must just have been Maasi trying to scare you! Honestly." He turned to the staircase, but couldn't seem to take more than two steps towards it. "You were kidding, right?" he asked, voice trembling slightly.


Rivener had been looking through an old box full of clothes, lifting out a dusty feather-boa, when the sound wafted out to him, barely a whisper. Frowning, Riv turned to the door; no, it was still closed. Aphismet wasn't back yet.

Turning his red eyes to the room, Riv scanned around for Beauregard... Did the whale make that noise? But no, Beaubeau was right next to Riv. The mammal's voice was never that quiet.

Intrigued, Rivener "stood" higher and tried to peer around the room, towards the back, past all the boxes and cobweb-covered trunks... Not spotting anything from here, the Frei began to carefully inch forward, ready to attack if it turned out to be an intruder.

Aphismet didn't find this joke very funny anymore. The chair was threatening to slip out of his hands as his face drained of almost all color. "Yer ******** kidding me, right?!?" he swore, not even realizing he'd said a bad word.

Aph loved to read about paranormal things, liked to see them on TV, sure... But it was a whole different ballpark when it happening for real. Suddenly it wasn't interesting. Aphismet swallowed hard and tried to laugh it off, a high-pitched nervous giggle. "Alright, enough of that. Now y-you, uh... y-you're j-just trying to sc-... scare me."

He began up the steps slowly, wobbling with the chair in his arms, gaining speed as he went, suddenly in a hurry to get back to Rivener. The Frei might be surly lately, but he was a strong presence, and he had more ways to defend himself than Aphismet himself. Aph was under the impression that being by Riv's side would be much safer.


Rivener reached up and grabbed the little whale slowly, tucking him away under his arm, where he could keep it out of trouble if something attacked. Curious but cautious, Riv floated nearer still, zig-zagging around the maze of boxes, until he spotted... -what? What had he seen?

Frowning, but smiling nevertheless like a brave adventurer, Riv floated around the last corner to face whatever it was that had been giggling and moving about.

Aphismet wondered what Isi was talking about, watch your language... He'd stuttered a bit, but-? ...OH! Oh, he'd said the F-word!

As he stopped paying attention to where he was going, his mind concentrating on recalling what he'd spoken, Aphismet's foot snagged on the last stair to the second floor, and he fell with a loud crash, the chair sent flying from his grasp banging into the far wall.


Rivener blinked in utter amazement. A ghost! He grinned widely and patted around himself, keeping his eyes locked on the boy, looking for his camera. Ah, there it was! Tucked in a pocket.

"Hi," Rivener said softly, trying to distract the thing as he slipped the digital camera out of his pocket, hoping to keep it here until he could get a nice picture. "What are you doing back here?" His voice was the sweetest honey he could come up with.

Aphismet stumbled back to his feet with a nervous chuckle, and dusted himself off, attempting to look like nothing happened. He casually reached for the chair he'd dropped. "I really don't like those stories anymore, Isi. How come you never mentioned that your house was haunted? I think we should have lived somewhere else if this house is really h-haunted..."

Aph suddenly wondered if this was the house that Chloe had told them about, when she'd come to visit the injured child. Hocrap, would Aph go nuts and wake up with see-through men standing at the edge of his bed every night? He felt a little faint all of a sudden... He shouldn't show weakness! He has to be a strong big brother now, he couldn't have the luxury of being scared senseless anymore... Concentrating on keeping his step from faltering, Aph continued up to the attic.

Rivener pouted in dissapointment. That loud crash had happened at the worst time! As Riv looked at the digital screen, all he could see was the corner of the attic with a tiny streak of light going into the wall; it would easily be mistaken for a flaw in the picture, or the reflective light off a burnished silver antique.

Still, there was a ghost here! Riv was ecstatic. At least there would be something for Riv to do in this place, to distract him from Isi's unpleasant presence!

Hearing someone coming up the attic stairs, Riv floated back out to the open area, tucking his camera away again. He frowned as he noticed the two humans.

"Riv, can you give me a hand please?" Aphismet asked, nudging the chair towards him.

Riv sighed and rolled his eyes, but came forward and took the chair, dragging it to a corner and throwing a sheet over it.