People Don't Haunt Houses

"...These perturbations, this perpetual jar

Of earthly wants and aspirations high,

Come from the influence of an unseen star

An undiscovered planet in our sky.

And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud

Throws o’er the sea a floating bridge of light,

Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd

Into the realm of mystery and night,—

So from the world of spirits there descends

A bridge of light, connecting it with this,

O’er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends,

Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss."

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

~~JONATHAN~~

An endless desert of black sand. The sky was... dim, and wrong, and somehow also terribly bright.

He walked, had *been* walking, hoping to stumble across some sort of clue. Time didn't seem to have any meaning in this place. The sky never changed. He felt no thirst or hunger. Where was he going? Was this a punishment, somehow, or had he intended to end up here?

He needed help, he needed... There was someone-

"Derek," he spoke aloud. Who was- Wait, his voice sounded... Had he even spoken? The words happened in his mind, but no sound reached his ears. He tried again. "Derek!"

The name made an invisible wound in his chest ache, but he didn't know why.

Before him, the sand flattened into a perfectly level path. Knowledge from nowhere, the same as his own voice in his mind but from a different source.

[DEREK Δ VIRGA | CROWN SHYNESS | LIANA.]

Hope surged in him from memory he couldn't access. He set off hopewards at a light jog.

***

A house was formed by the sand at the end of the path.

Above it, an enormous storm system poured rain out that never reached the house or the ground.

[VIRGA. Danger cannot touch this place.]

Trees surrounded it. Their branches moved too quickly and constantly, shuffling and re-shuffling the arrangements of their leaves but never once touching the branch of any other tree.

[CANOPY SHYNESS. All knowledge is absorbed before it may expose this ground and is shared equally amongst all who reside here. Everything beneath the canopy is hidden.]

Climbing up the trees and the sides of the house in mandala-like patterns, woody vines that glowed with a golden light rippled over every available surface. The light felt warm and loving, like just standing in it could cure any ache or sorrow.

[LIANA. Sunlight will be brought to ground wherever it can be and utilized for growth. All who reside here will have everything they need to thrive provided for them.]

He opened the front door slowly, reverently. The knowledge that wasn't his had said...

"Derek?"

***

~~DEREK~~

How many times had he stood before this golden door, trying to work up the courage to knock? Every inch of its handsome surface was familiar to him, yet he'd never seen the inside.

He rubbed the brand on his chest, the one they said would bind Jonathan to him forever. It was colder than the rest of him.

Looking at the house from the outside, you could tell that it used to be just like all the other houses in the village. It had the same bones with all the same geometry and glasswork. It had been modified, though - they had started as subtle changes a few weeks in, then escalated into new rooms, a workshop in the backyard, and an entire third floor. It was now nearly twice as large as it was originally, and not one of the additions played by the rules of the original structure. New lines evolved the old ones almost teasingly, daring to angle off in brave new directions. Color palettes were expanded and allowed to blossom in outrageous places.

A rootbound plant. Jonathan hadn't had the chance to flower past this one construction, this single contribution to the world he'd had the chance to undertake before he-

Derek's favorite part of the house was the intricate wood paneling designs that brought so much warmth to several faces of the home that had before been cold glass and stone. The eye was drawn by them to a subtle motif in the woodwork where Jonathan had placed his home's map in brushed-metal gold plating to match the door.

The map read: VIRGA | CROWN SHYNESS | LIANA.

More like a prayer than a map, but he supposed homes were prayers in the first place anyway.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there before hearing the main building's door open and close down the street startled him into action. Wishing he could have been allowed a little more time, he quickly stepped inside and closed the door as quietly as he could behind him.

Perfectly silent, perfectly dark.

The smell of recent rain followed Derek into the dark foyer, dulling the scent somewhat, but - he crumpled to the floor, a shocked grunt escaping him. Jonathan's scent.

The subtle oils of his skin warmed by a hundred campfires on arms wrapped around him so gently, the cologne he sometimes wore when he felt nervous, the smell of his hair...

He wasn't ready for this. He hadn't even *seen* anything yet and he was already on the ground gasping for breath. Control was wrenched away from him and given to the torrent.

Derek had *failed* Jonathan, failed him to such an impossible degree.

"Jonathan, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry- I didn't-"

The table, the straps, those awful masks. The *knife*. That cave he had never known about, that he would have- if he'd-

The grief was rage, boundless, everywhere-pointed rage that scathed him with the images he couldn't hold at bay, shamed him beyond redemption. Mr. King was holding it up so high, everyone just watched, everyone just watched, how could they just watch- the *sound* it made-

He needed to stop screaming or they'd come, they'd find him in here and stop him from breathing Jonathan's air, they'd breathe it without care and ruin it with their own scents, the scents of his murderers-

He had begged, he was sure he had begged when he saw the knife, the *shame*-

They had killed *sunlight incarnate*, the miracle no one at all deserved, the only person that mattered, *they killed him*! He saved the whole world in so many beautiful, perfect ways and they tied him to that- and they- and the cut was so deep it was *purple* inside-

It was too much. The darkness took him back from the world once more.

***

~~JONATHAN~~

The inside of the house was filled with water that didn't spill out when he opened the front door, like it was being held back by invisible glass. It seemed to be rushing by at an impossible speed, far too fast for how large the house was, but the water was too dark to see where it was coming from or going.

He placed a hand on the vertical surface of the water tentatively.

[GRIEF | RAGE | LOVE]

The water yanked him inside and slammed the door shut behind him.

The water made him remember. This was Derek. Derek was lost in this, *his* Derek. That precious heart that had worked so hard to open back up to the world, who had chosen him as his safe place and who stashed poetry books under his mattress and had ticklish ears and always fell asleep in the shower. *His Derek.*

"Derek, I'm here! I remember!" he tried to call, but he couldn't even hear himself in his mind. Unbearable despair wrapped itself around him, crushing and absolute.

***

~~DEREK~~

When he woke, he was still on the floor and nothing felt real. He had vomited at some point and rolled around in it during his convulsions. It was all he could smell now.

He mopped it up with his jacket as best he could and threw it outside, not caring if anyone saw. He had been screaming and no one had come.

There was still vomit caking the side of his face and his shirt. It was keeping him from breathing Jonathan.

He would have to make it to the bathroom somehow without passing out again if he wanted to breath Jonathan some more, but he couldn't get there in the dark. He would have to brave seeing it all.

He flicked on the light. It was everything he knew it would be and despaired that it was and thanked the universe existed.

A couch with his impression in the cushions for Derek to lay in, worth more than all the gold in the world; a coat rack with his coat and scarf and hoodie hung up for Derek to wrap himself in, armor that would save his life; blankets, sketchbooks, movies, books, a thousand things for him and no one else. Everything left of Jonathan, all for him.

He would touch none of it until he was clean. No more mistakes.

He climbed the stairs and found the bathroom upstairs, forcing himself to ignore every room he passed. The bathroom was surprisingly simple compared to the rest of the house, but Jonathan's essence was too dense there--his toothbrush, his cologne, his razor, a towel that he hadn't washed before he-

Derek flicked the light back off and fumbled his way into the shower fully clothed, determined not to succumb. This was *sacred ground*. He needed to be strong. He made sure the water was as hot as it would go.

When the vomit was all gone, he stripped his clothes off and left them in the shower. A clean towel from the cupboard by the shower used and then left with his clothes, similarly quarantined. He left the bathroom nude.

The bedroom instantly became his permanent sanctuary, the axis the planet rotated around. He would measure all future journeys in distance away from this point. He would hide under those covers for the rest of his life, however long that ended up being, and moaned with weeping as he crawled under them. The end of twilight faded through the blinds. Jonathan covered every inch of his body. He was finally safe. Finally safe.

He slept.

***

~~JONATHAN~~

Eventually, the water faded.

Derek was a silhouette of perfect light, a thousand thousand colors in the shape of a broken man.

He watched mutely as Derek stood and wiped up his vomit, followed him up the stairs passed all his old trappings, now meaningless to him. Derek was all that was left, all that mattered.

"What can I do for you?" he whispered when Derek had finally drifted off. "How can I fix this?"

Around his sleeping form, dreams like kaleidoscopes of meaning. Nightmares and memories all mashed together, trying to make sense of it all. Jonathan's death was the only scene of them all that played out with perfect clarity.

"No, no. Don't do that, please don't, you have nothing to be ashamed of." He tried to push the dream away, but it was like pushing on a concrete wall. "You didn't do that. You didn't do any of it, Derek. You saved me."

He watched the knife fall. He hadn't seen Derek's face when it had happened, but he could see it now. He pressed a kiss to his forehead and curled up to wait for him to wake up, resolving to never let him look like that ever again.

***

~~DEREK~~

Derek woke to find a tiny sun about the size of a basketball hovering just above his chest, painting the whole room in golden tones.

No, not just above his chest - above the *brand*.

He stared, too shocked to move. No thoughts could occur to him to think.

Its light pulsed once, gently. *Derek?*

A long, stunned silence, then hope and disbelief rushed through him. It was too good to be true. Derek gasped and grabbed at it with both hands, but they passed through it with only a surprisingly cold sensation. "Jonathan? Jonathan, is that you?!"

The light sang from gold into pure white, joy incarnate. *I'm here. I'm sorry it took me so long.*

Derek sobbed and continued to scramble at it, trying desperately to hold it to himself. "What do I- Please-"

*I'm here, I'm here. Everything is going to be okay. I'm not going anywhere.*

He curled his body around the little sun as much as he could and wept. He was here, he had thought the brand hadn't worked or that Mr. King had made it all up or that something had gone wrong but he was *here*. In all the history of all the world, there had never been a person who had had the opportunity to experience the emotion Derek felt. It was nameless, somewhere far out past relief.

*I saw. You've been in so much pain. I'm so sorry.*

Derek could only nod and sputter noises of agreement, trying to speak past the tears.

*It's okay now. I'm not going to let anything hurt you like that ever again.*

"I- you're dead, and I was- I thought it didn't work, I thought you were gone, are you gone? Is it the brand, or- where are you?"

*I'm right here in the house with you, just on the other side. I can protect you from here. The sand listens to me, tells me things. It says if I stay, then the brand will work like it's supposed to.

"You can protect me? From Mr. King?"

*Yes. He can't find you here, but you can't stay here forever.*

A ring of light emerged from the little sun and centered itself around the brand on Derek's chest, which began to glow.

*Derek, the brand is beginning to do its work. Do you remember what's going to happen now?*

Derek nodded again, trying desperately to collect himself. They were going to combine. They'd never be apart again. "Yes," he managed. "Please, yes."

*Okay. I love you, no matter what.*

"I love you, too. More than anything."

He forced himself to sit back. The brand got colder and colder until it was almost unbearable as the little sun was pulled into it, shrinking bit by bit until the room was once again almost completely dark.

***

~~DEREK | JONATHAN~~

Jonathan's soul met Derek's, and the black sand was a forge upon which creation poured through them.

[The Only Ocean pours through the Black Hole at the Center of the Universe to become the Endless Light at the End of Time]

[The Foundation is the first emergence from the Dark Waters, an endless expanse of PILLAR | TREE | TOWER from which the Boreal Forest grows]

[The North Wind gathers DRIFTWOOD you are DRIFTWOOD you are carved you are an EFFIGY of your own carving you are burned the flame is BOREAL]

[Script on the skin, SKY WRITING, the EFFIGY is inscribed, what is burned is burned complies, TIDAL LOCKING]

[KEY | CAST | HORIZON | VINDICATION | AKTISONAUT | ARBORA]

When it was done, they were no longer two separate people - but neither were they one person. Their minds and souls had been permanently bridged, two knots untangled and tied together. An alloy of two metals.

Neither ever woke again, but the new entity had never been born before, either. He staggered to his feet in two worlds, screamed with pain in one and laughed with joy in another. He was alive, he was dead, he was a body with two souls and a soul with two bodies, and he would never be apart again.

Outside,

[VIRGA is undone, its terms overridden by an internal source. Lightning connects what wants to intrude with what was previously hidden.]

lightning struck the roof with an unbearable pulse through the black sand that floored DEREK | JONATHAN. He heard the front door slam open seconds later.

"I know you are here!" Mr. King roared, tearing his way through all the rooms on the lower floor. "I know it activated! You are MINE!"

He scrambled to his feet, footsteps already sounding on the stairs. Knowledge was needed and given in the same moment.

"MOONLIGHT | PASSAGE | TIMBER."

[BRIDGE OF LIGHT. The oldest invocation, written by the first death. A path carved from one world to another.]

His voice was like nothing either of them had heard before. It was a voice that would never beg again. It roared.

What had previously only been Derek's body raised its hand commandingly, and the sand shifted. The path to escape became simple, obvious, and they took it without issue. A flight path he grew wings to follow, an open window he jumped out of in exactly the right way to land silently.

He disappeared into the forest, into hyperspace. Behind them, a monster haunted an empty house.