College started again on Monday and thankfully it was a half day to begin with. I'd already managed to stumble down some stairs and end up in the medical room. No injuries, so lucky me. When classes ended I went straight to the quad.

Keith was already waiting for me. He'd bleeped me earlier and was shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Someone was clearly excited for this.

"Wait till you see this place, Junko." He grinned.

He pressed a few panels on his bracelet and I held his hand. The journey from here lasted less than a minute and when my eyes opened we were standing on a grass verge. Keith tapped my shoulder. I turned and looked up.

Winter sun was peeking behind the clouds and I gasped. Keith wasn't kidding. This place was huge, sprawling. I couldn't see how many acres of land it sat on, but the front view was breath-taking.

"Sarah Winchester kept adding rooms to accomodate all the victims of her husband's rifle company," Keith explained. "There are doors that lead to nowhere. It's some trippy shit."

"And the ghosts?" I asked.

"So many of them. Every year or so, one of the ghosts becomes dangerous and needs to be gotten rid of." He said.

We waited on the grass. It wasn't raining today so that was a relief. Someone appeared across the way and I recognised the small figure as Ariana. She was walking across the grass. As she got closer, her expression was nervous.

"Ari looks worried." Keith said, softly.

"We'll look after her, right." I smiled, and he nodded.

"Hey." She sighed as she paused before us.

I soon discovered where her worry stemmed from. Legion leader Debbie had sent Mike along with us. He arrived and said hello to Keith. I managed a smile at him and he nodded. He did look at Ariana, but said nothing. Well, this just became so awkward.

Lemmy had also sent someone too. A guy was ambling towards us. His hair was dark brown, swept sideways. He was pretty cute in a charming sort of way.

"Keith," He smiled. Keith nodded at him.

"Junko, this is Paul." Ariana introduced us.

"A pleasure to meet you." Paul said.

His accent was thick and British. My eyes flicked to Mike. He was looking at Ariana. She didn't seem to be aware though. She was tinkering with her bracelet. The wind was toying with her hair, making it ghost about her soft features. She glanced up and he looked away. Wow, subtle.
We started walking towards the house. The guys walked together, discussing training. Ariana walked beside me. She didn't look at Mike. This must have been so awkward for her.

"He was looking at you a minute ago." I whispered, and her eyes widened.

"Probably nothing." She replied.

I got the sense she didn't really believe me. What had actually happened when they'd tried to converse.

"What happened when you guys spoke?" I asked, and she bit her lip.

"I waited till he left the legion house with Kellin and walked over. I said hello, he looked at me then walked away." She replied.

My gaze went over my shoulder. I'd just made it obvious what I was doing because Paul smiled.

"It's rude to gossip." He chuckled.

We got to the door and knocked. I noticed a poster across the way, advertising tours around this creep hole. The door flew open and a girl was standing on the other side. Her eyes went to Keith, then to the rest of us.

"Welcome to The Winchester Mystery House, please follow me." She said.

The house was just as weird on the inside. We were in a beautiful foyer. There were lots of archways that led to other places in the house. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. It felt like this place was so haunted that the ghosts had their own gravitational pull.

The girl was rambling on. We were allowed to explore, but to be careful as this place was like a maze and some areas were still unknown. As luck would have it, Keith stuck me with Ariana and Mike. Great, just great.

"Up here." I said.

"Leads to nowhere." Mike stated.

The stairs I had discovered trailed up and I poked my head under to find they stopped at a dead end in the ceiling. We found more like that. Doors that opened to nothing, windows that led into small rooms and random rooms.

At one point I was left with Mike whilst Ariana explored one of the window rooms. I glowered at him. His green eyes flicked down to me.

"Seriously, what is your problem?" He asked.

"How come you ignored Ariana the other day." I snapped.

"Maybe because she's an orphan angel and I'm a demon. Unlike her, I don't have the luxury to date who I like." He shot back.

I pressed my lips together in a thin, displeased line. I knew legion leaders were from fairly elite families, but the actual demons in the legions seemed a mish-mash of social groups. Why should it matter that Ariana was an orphan?

"Plus we have nothing in common." He said.

"Opposites always attract." I quoted, then looked away.

Chris had said that. He'd smiled as he'd said it. I missed that smile everyday that I wasn't with him. My heart pounded in my ears. The other night I had looked up what to do when you fall in love. I'd ended up reading stupid articles and revelling in how many of the symptoms I had.
Mike opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Ariana had slid out of the room. She paused and glanced between us. Her eyes lingered on Mike then she looked away again, pretending she wasn't looking. He must have noticed because he frowned then.

"I could feel something when I was in that room. I think we need to go up a floor." She said, turning to walk away.

We both follwed. It took about fifteen minutes of looking to locate stairs that didn't lead to nowhere. The next floor was just as weird though. I'd decided that I hated this house. The corridor we were in stretched around a bend. Something skittered behind me and I whipped round.

"What's wrong?" Ariana asked.

"I-i thought I heard something." I mumbled.

Mike's bracelet bleeped and he pressed one of the panels.

"Hey guys, we're in the basement. There's scratches everywhere down here," Keith said. "They lead to a laundry shoot. This ghost has been travelling through it."

The air felt thick and something cold touched my neck. I leapt back, yelping. A woman was stooped behind me. Her black hair was lank and trailing along the floor. Black venom was dotted along the carpet.

With a deafening wail, she lunged and started clawing the air. Ariana leapt in front of me. I was eager to see what she could do. Angels must have different powers. Ariana drew her hand through the air. A beautiful bow appeared. She grasped the middle of the bow, gripping the string. A pure, white arrow appeared. With a snap of her wrist, the arrow fired.

The ghost howled as it was struck. It reeled back, lunging again, like a predator. A gun shot echoed and i realised Mike had removed one of the guns from his holster. The shot was good and sent the ghost careening backwards. It landed without a sound, but was still here, hissing like a feral animal.

Ariana pulled the string again and fired another arrow while the ghost was distracted. This one connected with the ghost's crooked arm. It moved like a spider and launched itself at Ariana. She jumped back, but the ghost was fast and slashed at her with a claw-like hand.

"No." I whimpered.

My instincts kicked in and I pushed her sideways. We both went stumbling into a wall, but the ghost's attack had not connected. The ghost seemed to sense weakness and flew at us again. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the moment when those venomous claws touched my skin. Nothing happened.

I peeked through a slit in my eye. My vision was blurred and I opened my eye more. Mike was in front of us. His arm was raised above his head. The ghost's nails were embedded in his arm, slicing straight through his jacket. Venom dripped down and the ghost let go, jumping backwards, circling.

Mike slumped down, gripping his arm. Someone whimpered next to me and I glanced at Ariana. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears. I looked to the ghost. It had us on the run. Ariana crawled round me and in front of Mike. She gripped his arm and her fingers seemed to be trembling.

A gunshot echoed and I lifted my head in time to see Keith and Paul. Paul was the one who had shot the ghost, catching it in the back of its head. It circled round, snarling at them.

"Come on, sweetheart." Keith grinned.

The ghost side-stepped and Keith lifted his hand. He had a knife. He launched it like a dart and it hit the ghost right between the eyes. Venom leaked everywhere, but the ghost finally disintegrated. I looked at Mike. The edges of his neck were turning blue. Keith sensed my unease. He appeared next to me.

"Let Ari do her thing." He smiled, winking at me.

Ariana had closed her bare hands over Mike's arm. A soft, pink light shone from her hands. It grew brighter, more luminous. The injuries were disappearing and the blue tinges on Mike's neck were vanishing. I gasped when a pair of white wings sprouted from her back. Once the injuries were gone, the pink glow disappeared and the wings curled inwards.

"And that is why we have angels." Keith said.

Ariana moved her hands and seemed to realise where she was sitting. She got up really quickly and stumbled back. Her face was bright red.

"S-sorry, got carried away." She mumbled.

I stared at her and realised her symptoms mirrored mine. Her small hands were still trembling and she looked pale. She'd used so much energy to make sure Mike was safe. She didn't just like him, she loved him.

"You did awesome." Keith said, and she nodded.

I glanced at Mike to find he was watching her. He stood, eventually. Keith held out a hand to me.

"You all right?" He asked, as he helped me up.

"Y-yeah, it's just sad." I murmured.

Keith seemed to register my meaning and his gaze followed Ariana's retreating form. She hadn't waited for the rest of us. It was like she'd realised that she'd inadvertatly shown her soul to everyone. It was beautiful and heart-breaking all at once.

When we got outside it was raining, but it was light and fine. I took a look at Ariana. She was standing across the way. Her colour was returning, but she was looking everywhere, but avoiding looking at us. She scrubbed her eyes, urgently. I walked forward and was stopped by Paul. He smiled then and nodded. Mike was actually walking towards her.

Were they going to talk? I smiled then and watched as he touched her arm. She looked stunned, eyes widening and she looked behind her, like she thought he wanted to talk to the tree across the way and had gotten the two of them mixed up. Their conversation was quiet and neither one was giving anything away.

"You coming back to see Chris?" Keith asked.

"Y-yeah, I miss him." I replied, and he smiled too.

"Aww, is he all you think about?" He grinned.

"For your information I think about other stuff." I retorted.

I also wanted to grill Ariana. She and Mike had stopped talking and he was walking back to us. She joined and stood next to me.

When we got back Ariana waited till Keith and Paul were gone. She glanced at Mike and he smiled and walked away.

"So?" I asked.

"We talked and agreed to go on a date." She smiled then, wide, joyous.

"Really? That's amazing." I couldn't help but grin too.

"I need to go get ready." She said, sounding nervous.

I watched her go and started walkiing towards the legion house. I could hear someone walking behind me and the person followed me inside. I turned to say hello, only to come face-to-face with Ashley. She must have been coming back from a mission, but her severe gaze made me think otherwise.

Notes