Crimson Shadows - 4. Chapter 4

Lunch had been eaten, clothes had been shoved into the car to be ignored until a later date and the rest of the bedroom had been cleared out, quite a few things moved to boxes that had been marked and tucked away into the right rooms to go through at a later date. Lien sighed and eyed the stairs that would lead them to the attic before looking down at his smaller lover who just smirked at him with a knowing smile. He was starting to hate that ‘I know what you’re thinking’ smile and wondered how to wipe it off of his face.

He would have to try to kiss it away and if it couldn’t be kissed away, it was one tough smile.

“Why don’t you want to go up the stairs?” Markus cooed at his lover, getting a growling sound from the other man. “Oh come on. It can’t be because they’re small and tucked out of the way,” he teased, getting a dark look from the man. “Alright, so it is that reason.” Looking back to the stairs, he eyed them as he thought of how they were set up and why they were set up the way they were. The door was out of the way, looking much like one of the hall closet doors but lead the way up to another door that entered the attic where the only working light switch sat.

“There’s another door right?” Lien asked, getting blinked up at.

“Yeah, but all the windows are dirty so no natural light gets in and the other switch hasn’t been fixed because I haven’t found an electrician to come out and fix the damn thing,” Markus snorted, shaking his head at the thought. “You wouldn’t be able to see a foot in front of you and I’d rather not have to come hunt you down to show you through that part,” he continued, waving a finger and getting a pout from his lover. “Just cling to my hips, you big baby, and I’ll lead the way up the stairs.”

Stepping up, he smiled as large hands settled on his hips and continued walking, Liens steps solid behind him as they walked up the stairs. It wasn’t long before he was opening the door and sneezing at the dust that greeted them. Shaking his head, he was glad that they had face masks and enough cleaning supplies to clean the White House waiting for them at the other stair well courtesy of Maria. Flicking the light, he blinked as the attic was flooded with light, looking around the crowded room.

“Damn, my family are a bunch of pack rats,” he snorted, shaking his head and pulling out a bandana, wrapping it around his head as Lien followed his example. “Remember, to get back here, go in a straight line as you go through otherwise you’re gonna end up walking into a wall. If you do end up against a wall, follow it,” he told his lover, finding the other door after a few minutes of weaving around furniture and boxes.

“So, we need to clean the windows right?” Lien asked, picking up a few of the buckets and the hose that they would use to fill the buckets with water. He was rather liking the fact that hey could use the hose, glad that his lover had splurged and gotten one with the water control on the end that they were going to use.

“Yeah. There are a few that we’ll need the poles for but those are the sky lights in the middle,” Markus mused, pointing to the ceiling, getting a nod from his lover, the two heading to the first set of windows. Each taking half of the windows, they filled buckets with hot water and started to work the grime and spider webs off of the glass and sills, killing a few bugs in the process. Soon the first window were finished, bug bodies were brushed outside and water dumped out the window allowing them to refresh their water and plan on how to put the screens in.

Finally settling on hanging half out the window to get it set in easily enough, Lien and Markus did that before moving to the second window down the wall, repeating their movements with each of the windows. Finally they were done and tossing the water out the last window, deciding to leave the last screen off for the moment.

“Okay, so we need to sweep and spray before going through the stuff finally,” Lien sighed, flopping back onto the window sill, pulling off the latex gloves he had used to keep his hands from be coming raw. “So, what are we gonna do?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as Markus dug around in a corner.

“We use the vacuum,” was the chirped answer as he pulled one out of the corner, plugging it in. “It’s meant to pick up dirt and bugs. We used to do this once a year while daddy was alive and healthy,” he hummed, before moving into the boxes. “Stay put,” came floating to him before the sound of the vacuum filled the attic, leaving Lien to relax and wait for his lover to finish what ever he was doing. They would go downstairs once he was done and suck down some water, he just had to wait for a few minutes for his odd lover to finish with what ever he was doing.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It could hear them move around the attic, cleaning more then likely. What were they doing really? They should have been looking through things! Stupid lazy pains in its ass. It bet that they were taking their sweet time getting to him!

Pausing in its pacing from one end of the box to the other, it tipped its head at the strange sound filtering through towards its ears. It was so loud but not loud enough to track. It couldn’t place the sound even though it was so familiar, something that he had heard often in its half awake, half asleep states, before the bastard had died.

Shaking its head, it bit its lip, blond curls springing forward only to be shoved back into place with a quick, well practiced movement. It knew that they were cleaning, could hear them talk, just barely. So they were close but why were they taking their sweet time getting to it?

It wanted out so badly and freedom was so close at hand it could taste it but the fools were taking their time! And he could hear them on the stairs, leaving the attic silent once more. Biting its bottom lip, the sound of porcelain on porcelain grating even to its ears, it shook its head and settled down in the middle of the box once more, unable to bend its legs as it contemplated its options.

It could continue to wait for them to finally get to it, letting it free. Or it could poke and prod at its encasement, see if it couldn’t get out on its own.

Once more porcelain teeth meet porcelain lip, grating on its ears as it pushed the idea of trying to get out of its box aside. It wouldn’t get very far if it wanted to do its work, get its revenge for the darkness that it had been thrust into for so very long. It would need to do things while being out in the open, the best place to be when it came to revenge as it had found after so long in its body. Along with that, the symbols of faith kept him in the prison made of wood that surrounded him still.

Smoothing a hand over its dress, it hummed as it remembered the whore that had put it into the body of a doll all those centuries ago. It hadn’t meant to be caught by the slut but it had been and since then memories had been lost and its gender wasn’t even its own any more.

It did wonder if it was a he or a she sometimes before pushing the thought out of its head. Sighing quietly, it shook its head and went back to what it wanted to do. Deciding that it would just have to wait for the moment, it laid back and stared at the top of the box, eyes glassy and bored as it contemplated the various ways it would make the fools pay for daring to do this to it.

It would make them pay, oh yes. Even if they had come back rather quickly after their little trip down the stairs.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“So, we start in the middle and figure out what to have hauled down to the garage to be cleaned up and sold off or handed out right?” Lien asked as they walked back upstairs, a cooler hanging between them as they walked side by side up the larger stair well. He liked this one; it wasn’t narrow and trying to kill him by being tiny.

“Yep, pretty much,” Markus replied as he shifted the small stereo system in his hand, cord dangling from one finger. Walking into the room, he put his end of the cooler down onto the ground before finding a good place to put his stereo down to plug it in. Once that was done, he hooked up his IPod and flipped the music on, letting it play for them as he looked to Lien who had put down his end of the cooler down to and was perching on it with a smile on his lips.

Walking over to the other man, he barely stopped the squeak as he was tugged close, arms wrapping around his waist as the older male nosed into his stomach with a sigh.

“So we have a lot of work ahead of us huh?” Lien teased, getting a laugh and a nod from his lover who was looking down at him with loving eyes.

“Yeah, but we can take our time with it, get other friends in to help with the hauling and what not. We’ll also have some professional haulers come in soon to take away what we don’t give to family. I know there’s a couple of cribs still up here that are to go to the younger nieces and nephews once they’re fixed and the such,” Markus said, smirking at the glow in his lovers eyes. “Yes, that means you get your hands on a sixth generation piece of furniture that you get to restore and use for your finals.”

“Yes!” Lien yelped, celebrating by grabbing Markus’ ass before standing and kissing him lightly, enjoying the loud laughter from the other man. “Thank you for making my pathetic little month that much better.”

“Hey, I thought I made your month that much better last night,” Markus teased, tugging on his lovers hair, getting a snort and a smug smile as the other man wiggled his eye brows.

“You made my year with that particular move lover. This makes my month,” he teased before looking around and nodding to the stuff. “Let’s start on going through things. I say we move any boxes down stairs into the study. Maybe if we ask nice enough, Maria will put down a tarp for us to put the papers and other small things onto.”

“She actually was going to do that tomorrow but I suppose today is a better idea, isn’t it?” Markus hummed, the sound of light footsteps heading up the stairwell next to them. Looking down, they had to smile at the small woman who had a bucket full of boxes and bottles, looking a bit harried.

“I heard that you needed the tarp down little ones. Don’t worry, I’ll do that when I go back down. You two forgot gloves and bug spray for those little critters that you’ve missed,” she huffed, handing over the bucket the moment she stepped on the top stair to Markus, who blushed and smiled sheepishly.

“Well, at least your daughter can’t complain about you not getting any exercise,” he chirped, getting a dull look from the older woman. “Right, yeah, we do actually. Thanks, Maria. We can order dinner tonight so you don’t have to worry about that if you don’t want to,” the youngest male offered, getting a small smile.

“That would be nice. Go for pizza, little one,” she said, turning around and heading down the stairs again, muttering about her knees and not being as young as she used to be.

“She’s a sweet heart and am I glad that I’ve known her all of my life,” Markus sighed, shaking his head as he dug through the bucket, eyes smug as he wiggled a little.

“You’ve what, just turned 27 a couple of months ago right?” Lien asked, taking a pair of gloves, a face mask and a container of all natural bug spray that he knew his lover liked using. “I still can’t believe that you’re allergic to bug spray.”

“Yeah, cause I look so young and helpless. Remember, you got shit faced on me and slept in my bathtub in my old apartment and I left you there to teach you a lesson, I can do it again next time you get drunk,” Markus teased, wiggling his gloved fingers at the other man before picking up his own bottle of bug spray, moving to the first cloth covered piece of furniture. Finding himself with a rather lovely piece of a wooden dresser, he started to gently pull open the drawers one at a time, spraying the inside to make sure bugs didn’t take up residence while they weren’t looking. “Trippy right? I couldn’t believe it when I found out that it was the bug spray that we used that caused me to break out in hives and coughing fits. I’m just glad we found this all natural shit.”

“What is it anyways?” Lien asked, shaking his bottle before uncovering another dresser, doing the same as his lover, putting papers he found on top of it. “Something made from flowers wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. Pyrethrin or something like that. According to my research, the shit was discovered back in the 20th century and it works quiet well,” was the reply as Markus put the drawers to the side. Reaching for a flashlight that sat in the bottom of the bin, he shined it inside of the dresser, making sure there was nothing running around that wasn’t supposed to be there outside of the bugs. Biting his bottom lip, he reached back and pressed at the sides and back, jerking when the back gave in and dropped with a few clanks. “Well, that’s new.”

“What is?” Lien asked, putting aside one of his own drawers after spraying a spider with his bug spray. Leaving it to die, he looked over before walking next to his lover and kneeled down, looking in with Markus. “Well, damn. Where did that come from?”

“Probably put there when the drawers were commissioned. My family only kept the things that we spent a pretty penny on despite our pack rat nature,” Markus replied, reaching back to grab the thick journal and papers with careful hands. Pulling them out, he sprayed the back before feeling around for the way to close the back up. Smiling as he did that, he stood up and laid the papers down next to the journal before opening it up, scanning the pages. “It’s my mothers’ journal, from when she first married daddy. We were looking for this,” he said, surprise in his voice as he pointed at the first page that bore his mothers name and the years that it had been written in.

“Looks like she filled this one up to just before she became pregnant with Alexandria. That’s a lot of writing,” Lien mused, opening to the start of the writing. “Today is the first day of my life as a loving, happy wife. The day before I married the man that I fell in love with nearly 6 years ago during my sophomore prom. Hector was gorgeous in his charcoal tux and my wedding dress was just like the one that I always thought of when it came to the day I wedded him,” he read, blinking at the flowing way that she wrote. “Man, your mom had a way with words.”

“Oh yes, she wrote poems quite often. In fact, she had quite a few published in magazines and then was able to publish her own book of poems. She was working on a book that I believe Leons oldest is working to finish,” Markus hummed, stroking the flowing words, almost hearing his mother speak the very words before them. “I think I’m going to read this later. I’ve read all of her other journals and I want to read this one to. We always thought she had destroyed it or something because we never could find it. Daddy got really sad when we found it missing but he was also somewhat understanding about it to.”

“So, now that it’s found, why do you think your mother put it into the back of this dresser? It’s, what, from the early 21st when handmade stuff was getting back into style right?” Lien asked, patting the top of the dresser and getting a nod from his lover.

“Yeah. The same guy who bought the land back in 2003 also bought a bunch of handmade furniture for his wife to be. Something about showing her that he could provide for her easily enough, or so the story goes. She ended up trying to take all his money after a year married. He was smart though and got a pre-nup,” Markus snorted, closing the journal and moving to an empty plastic bin that sat near the stairs. Making sure that no bugs had moved into it while they weren’t looking, he put the journal and the various papers into it before turning back to his lover who was watching with a teasing smile.

“Let me guess, you want to check all the backs and sides of the chests and the such to make sure there aren’t any more hidden panels,” Lien drawled, watching his lover blush and nod in agreement. “That’s what I thought. Come on. Let’s continue on our work. Did you grab a ‘pad to write down info and print out notes to stick to the pieces?” he asked, pushing away from the dresser and going back to his own piece of furniture.

“Maria brought one up so we can that,” Markus replied, pulling the pad out of the bit and printing out a small sticky note, sticking it to the dresser he had worked on. Sliding in the drawers, he smiled at his lover with a small bounce. Lien followed his example after pulling out, spraying them down and checking for any hidden compartments before sliding them back in. Standing up, the older male groaned lightly and rubbed at his back, pouting as Markus simply smiled at him again and stuck a note on it, moving to the next thing that needed to be checked over.

They continued to work on the furniture and various trunks that they found as they went along. Eventually they got to a point that they could move the ones that they had gone over and sprayed into one part of the attic that Markus had swept and cleaned. They took turns sweeping the floor as they uncovered it, tossing the sweepings into a trash bag to keep it out of the way, occasionally pausing to get water or to move more furniture out of the way.

The box that had been designated to hold the papers and other things that they found was slowly filling up, surprising them with how much of the family history had been hidden away in various nooks and crannies of the furniture, some of them dating back to the 16 hundreds. It rather surprised them with the sheer age and quality of the papers and furniture. Apparently Markus’ family was good at preserving and hiding the important things, not to mention forgetting about it.

“Hey, would you look at this? I have black in my family. Apparently one of my ancestors fucked his black slave, when slavery was still all good, and had a kid that looked white with her. Since he couldn’t have one with his wife, they raised the child as their own,” Markus snorted, shaking his head with a smile dancing on his lips as he snapped the journal shut and put it into the bin.

“Does that mean you have mix in your family past?” Lien asked, laying on the floor as he went over a rather interesting desks underside. It was small and the top was a roll top, so to him, the most fascinating thing in the world.

“Yea, but back then I think it was called interracial relationships and it wasn’t as common as it is now,” was the reply as he walked over to his lover, staring down at him. “Need a flashlight?” he asked teasingly, watching a dirty gloved hand come out and fingers wiggle at him. Putting the flashlight into Liens hand, he squatted down and looked under the desk, finding the man running his fingers over the edge. “I hope you sprayed already.”

“I did. While you were reading about your mix ancestor, I was spritzing and opening drawers, tilty,” Lien replied which was followed by a click from the back corner. Shining a bit of light into it to make sure that there wasn’t anything in there that wasn’t supposed to be, he reached in and pulled out an old fashioned snow globe. “Remember that paper that said the kid received a snow globe?”

“Yeah,” Markus hummed, staring at the item in Liens hand.

“I think we just found it,” Lien said, smiling at it as he looked at the copper plaque with an engraving on it. “Her name was what now?” he asked.

“They named her Mary Leoana, after her grandmothers,” Markus replied, reaching in and taking the globe with a smile at the beautiful simplicity of it. “This will stay in the house. I think I’m going to turn daddies room into a mini museum for the family things that are important. I think we have some book cases that can be converted running around here,” he admitted, standing up and brushing off his knees with one hand. Smiling at his lover, he moved to the bins and gently placed the globe down amongst the papers, making sure it wouldn’t go anywhere he didn’t want it to go to.

“So, you have something that comes from your mix ancestor, along with various journals, papers, and other documents. That’s a lot of stuff. You might even be able to get a contract with the historical museum to display the various papers and journals if you wanted,” Lien suggested, getting a smile from his lover as the man looked over the desk for a few moments before printing something off.

“Yeah, I just might be able to get away with it to, at least for a good price,” Markus hummed, sticking the note onto the desk with a smirk. “And this piece is yours to play with and sell if you so wish. As for the rest of it, I’ll call the museum once I get through this stuff and figure out what is what. Maybe they’ll also want some of the furniture,” he mused, watching his lover bounce in place. He had known that he would make the mans day with that one offer to restore the roll top desk but he hadn’t expected the other man to get about as hyper as a child on sugar.

“Thank you, tilty!” Lien yelled before he quickly scooped his lover up into his arms and swung him around, getting unhappy sounds from the smaller male. Finally putting Markus down, he weathered the glare as the man smoothed down his ruffled hair. “Do you mind if I take over part of your garage for this since I live in my mini apartment?” he asked, watching bright eyes roll.

“Fine, go for it. But know that I expect you to continue helping me around the house in payment,” the younger male drawled, fixing his shirt before he narrowed his eyes. He shifted on his feet as Lien turned a knowing leer at him.

“And here I was think I’d be your personal love slave,” Lien purred, tugging the other man close, arms wrapping around his waist and getting a soft snort from Markus.

“Aren’t you already my love slave?” Markus asked in return, pulling off his gloves and dropping them to the side, near the buckets and papers. Wiggling his fingers under the other mans shirt, he smirked a the wide eyed look he was getting. “I mean, you already spend most nights in my bed, finding ways to make me moan, scream or growl your name when I can’t move fast enough to get to you,” He purred, eyes dark with promise.

“And what are you planning on doing now, you naughty little boy?” Lien breathed out as slim fingers worked their way up his side.

“Oh, nothing much,” was the innocent reply before Markus chuckled lowly, sending shivers tripping up and down his lovers back.