The Holiday from Hell

[scotch_egg]

Who: Alec, Anthony, Ellie and Fell
What: Going on a house sitting holiday to terrifying jolly old England.
When: 09/20-09/30
Where: Across the Pond.



Alec squinted at the house as it rose on the horizon. He was tired and jet lagged from the plane. Tired and sore from the long ride over bumpy roads in a small cab, crowded against one window by Ellie who was smushed in the middle with Anthony on the other side. Fell, being the guest, took up the front seat and was probably cramping Anthony's legs all to pieces with how much room he left which Alec felt strangely justified in.

Anyway, that house held memories, both good and bad and, mostly terrifying, but he was oddly looking forward to it. After all, everything was a little bit frightening until you knew its secrets.


---
Info on Abaddon House and the environs

Comments

Days 3-4

[scotch_egg]

Exploring outside the house

Way outside the house in Thorn Village - Ellie & Anthony

[serpentinthegarden]

The house they were staying in might've been well on the outskirts but if one were up for a brisk walk through the footpaths in the moors they could make it to Thorn Village. Had it always been so seedy looking? No matter really... he sidestepped a grumpy looking older man and leaned close to Ellie's side.

"Just shopping for a few things, hitting the pub and back, yeah?"

What holiday was complete without the obligatory shopping trip! Though as he looked into one window full of boxes of salt and crucifix's he did wonder how successful the endeavor might be.

"Looking for postcards? Thought I might drop Wei one if there is a good one."

[seawalled]

"You know, I hadn't thought of postcards," she said, brightening. "I wouldn't mind sending one to John, now that you mention it. And maybe Lisa, she seemed like such a sweet girl. ... Not to the fam, though, if they get wind I'm here they might come try and talk me out of moving."

[serpentinthegarden]

"I was thinking about that. I should pop over to say hey to mum. I'll catch Hell for not visiting..."

But it was as Ellie said. If he did it would then be difficult to leave. There were advantages to being away from New York, the Bureau, and all it's shit. Not much of a nightlife up in Hexham though.

"You haven't told them yet?"

[seawalled]

"Not yet, no. Still trying to figure out what exactly to say. They knew I'd been planning to go eventually, so I could watch Alec, but ... if I pull a fib and say he's worse ... they'll coddle and smother him and I'll have hell to pay, even more than I already do. ... There's got to be some other reason I could fast-track this."

She paused, glancing sideways at her cousin so she could pinpoint his reaction to what she was about to say - half-teasing, half-wondering.

"Maybe helping plan a wedding?"

[serpentinthegarden]

Lies seemed to form rather easily these days and didn't one fly right to the forefront of his mind when Ellie leveled that adorable, 'do I get to help plan a wedding,' smile at him. So like mums!! He blurted out an alternative before he was drawn too deeply into considering that!

"A job! You were offered a job too tempting to pass up. They still won't like it, especially your mum, but you can't say no to a good position."

Anthony glanced away before his cheeks grew too red under that scrutiny.

"Besides... I don't think mentioning the m-word so soon after that mess I made of the first engagement would really go over so well. I don't even know if Fell..."

Would say yes? The sentence drifted off into nothing as a different thought took it's place.

"How do you like him?"

[seawalled]

"Then I'll just have to spend some time here on my phone job hunting. ... If I can even get a signal. It's not a bad idea, but you know she'll ask a million questions, and I'll need to be able to answer." She was a rubbish liar, after all.

His ruddy cheeks were all the response she needed, though. Whether or not Fell would say yes, whether or not the time was right ...

"It doesn't matter how I like him, Anthony, it matters if you love him. And that much is pretty plain. ... Either way, like I said when we got here, he's a total sweetie. You should have seen him when I gave him a tour of the house, he was all eyes and 'oooooo'. Bit like Penfold on Danger Mouse. Only more endearing. D'you remember Danger Mouse? Might be a bit past your time."

Coal Beach - Open to Anyone

[serpentinthegarden]

Ever since Anthony had discovered the beach during that one long summer he had fallen in love with it. True it was spooky, like everything else in the area, but that trait kept most people away. If one arrived early and staked out a place you could spent the entire day on the sand like it was your own private beach.

A pair of serpentine themed swim trunks had been packed specifically for this occasion but while he was still dry he also wore a light billowy black cover-up shirt. Even if he was in a largely abandoned corner of England he could still look flash as hell.

He had set up his lounge chairs, one for each of them, and an umbrella near the tall grass of the shore where the waves wouldn't be a problem. A few stones and some drift wood made for a perfect firepit which could be used later to fry up some freshly captured crabs. It was an old beach tradition to catch and cook your own with whatever else you might find. He was knee deep in the water plucking some mussels off a rock and dropping them into his pail by the time anyone else came by.

[temptationaccomplished]

Flash as Hell. Really. Was that what they were calling that level of ridiculousness these days? Still, however ridiculous Aziraphale thought the ensemble was, Anthony as always wore it well. He was fairly certain Anthony wore nearly anything well.

Aziraphale's outfit looked a little like what he had worn to the zoo, or the beach party, complete with the a panama hat and with his light-colored pants rolled up neatly to just beneath his knees so that he wouldn't get them too wet or too sandy.

"Oysters?" He wadded in about to his mid-calves to inspect Anthony's bucket of goods, peeking down in and then smiling up at him, the picture of innocence. "Thought I was supposed to tempt you there."

[serpentinthegarden]

If it seemed ridiculous to other people then he was absolutely oblivious to it. What he wasn't oblivious to were the pair of knees which came splashing towards him. He couldn't remember if he had ever seen Aziraphale's knees before. They would be pale, naturally, given that they were always hidden from the sun. He wondered if they would be dimpled as he looked into his bucket of oysters, these having been the easiest ocean creature to harvest so far.

"Well... you can't exactly tempt me to eat them if we don't have any."

This explanation worked for him.

"I do have a spare spade if you feel up to grubbing around?"

[temptationaccomplished]

"...Suppose you do have a point."

The explanation worked for Aziraphale, too.

He pursed his lips and pretended to be thinking it over before holding out his hand expectantly for the spade. "Alright. You've convinced me."

Grubbing, as Anthony called it, seemed like it would be good fun, at least for a while--a bit like gardening, he imagined--and even if it wasn't, Anthony was here to keep him company and distract him from the task at hand. He was very distracting, and not just for the usual, obvious reasons.

"But! Only because it's hardly fair to make you do all the groundwork for your own temptation."

[serpentinthegarden]

"Not making me fish for my own temptation is very fair minded."

It was quite like gardening actually! The spade was handed over with a little purposely failed precision so that their hands might touch during the exchange and Anthony's smirking expression marked this down as a rare win for his side.

"Have you ever done this before? You rake that along the sand and if you are lucky you might come up with some cockles to go along with this other. And keep a good watch out for crabs."

[temptationaccomplished]

"That's why I'm the angel, darling."

Aziraphale marked it down--not that he was keeping score, mind--but he marked it down as drawing even. Or letting Anthony's side win, which was sort of like drawing even.

He shook his head. No, couldn't say he'd ever done this before. His grandfather liked to enforce manliness and survival sorts of things with hunting and horses, not digging in the sand, and most of Aziraphale's friends and companions over the years had been more of the indoor sort.

"Why?" he said, attempting to mimic Anthony's motions just badly enough to be noticeably, plausibly wrong. After all, Fell worked a very dexterous job; failing miserably would look silly and he did have standards to uphold. "Do I lose points if I rake up a crab?"

[scotch_egg]

Alec is dressed appropriately for the occasion in gray and black sweats and a coat and trainers. He stands there a fair bit from the water, arms folded and staring at the sea.

He hates it.

He hates the small of the air and the grit of sand and stone, he hates the terrifying immensity of the sea, he hates the sound of the water and the chill prickling over his skin, he hates the loneliness it implies and the present danger and the fact that his baby cousin is being completely blasé about the whole thing, dressed in swim trunks as if he actually might go in.

"Be careful around the water, there's riptides around here."

[serpentinthegarden]

Actually he was surprised to see Alec make his way down to the beach at all given his love of the place. It all made sense when he was shouted the warning about the riptides. Alec thought he might drown.

"Relax!"

He called over a shoulder as he waved a paddle at him.

"I'm only in up to my knees!"

[scotch_egg]

"Mmh." He didn't like it. Even up to his knees was too far out. He shouldn't even be in the water at all. Alec came a bit closer, squinting at him.

"It must be freezing. You'll catch a cold."

[serpentinthegarden]

"Its not freezing... At three in the afternoon?? It's as warm as it will get!"

He took a few steps forward, splashing into the cool surf as he moved into the deeper waters to snag what looked like a cluster of shellfish making a nice home on a length of old abandoned rope.

[seawalled]

Ellie doesn't completely share her brother's distaste for the sea, but she's far more about enjoying the scenery than actually venturing into it. The sea is for fishermen and fools and people in boats, not for swimming by anyone with two brain cells. She bought herself a cheap anorak on the way in, a garish orange and navy one, and is standing next to Alec as the waves roll in.

"Surprised you came down at all."

[scotch_egg]

There was something surreal about standing with Ellie on the beach, something that made him absolutely squirrely. He can see in his mind's eye the boy washed up on the beach... Or had he been washed up?

No, no that didn't seem right somehow. He hadn't been bloated like the girl who had been in the water for three days. Had he fallen from the cliffs above? He shifted, almost to see but was greeted with the gray hilly shoreline of where he actually was.

He shivered feeling bone cold and tried to remember what Ellie had said.

"Ah-- well, someone has to keep an eye on him." He gestured at Anthony. "He's too careless. A demon now, have you heard?"

[seawalled]

If he'd said something about it, she would have been comforted that she wasn't the only one thinking of the boy. But that little revelation immediately jostled her thoughts.

"Come again, a wot?"

Millford House-Locked to Fell

[scotch_egg]

There was something unsettling about Millford Place. What it was was hard to say, it looked like any other townhouse in the row, narrow doorway, pitched roof, small garden in front that had a few roses clinging to life in the deepening autumn. Though it was only four or so in the afternoon, the oppressive gray sky that had been somberly threatening rain made it so the curators had turned the lights on, which shone out the windows and through the lace curtains. It should have been cheery, but like much in Horn Village it was tired and gloomy. That and the windows always seemed to give the impression of staring eyes, as if some part of the house is alive.

"Good place for a mystery writer, eh?" This to Fell who stood beside him. There was something different about this today, what he couldn't say, but something shifting slowly, or maybe eroded away like sand before a tide, but millimeter by millimeter.

"Have you heard of Elizabeth Millford?"

[temptationaccomplished]

The house was stunning in how well it embodied the spirit of 'mystery writer house,' and he couldn't help but wonder if the house had been bought specifically for that reason, or if it had become that as an outward reflection of the work that happened within. And then he decided that was silly romanticizing of a building and it was probably just the weather. ...Right?

"Oh, oh yes," he agreed, pulled from his distraction by Alec's question. "Very apt. And, ah, I believe I may have read one of her books, years ago, but feel free to refresh my memory. ...Did you ever meet her?"

[scotch_egg]

"Maybe, I was too young to remember. Ah..." He paused before going up to the steps. "Do you mind just staying out here by the pavement for a second? Let me know if anyone is coming?"

He waited until he got a nod from the man before coming up to the house and peering in the windows. It was closed for tea as it always was this time of day and they'd be gone a good three hours. He carefully picked the lock and slid the door open just enough to disarm the security system with a solid whack at the inside wall. He waited until he heard the chirp then nodded at Fell.

"Come on. Quick."

[temptationaccomplished]

He gave one last concerned look back out to the street and then followed along to the door.

"What did you do?" he accused in a whisper. "Did you-- Alec, did you just break in? I can't believe you--of all people--"

And then, after safely inside the house and slightly more intrigued than alarmed, "Does that make me your accomplice?"

[scotch_egg]

"It's a publicly funded museum isn't it?" He shut the door behind them and locked it again for good measure. "And you do not want to be lead around by Beatrice Smalls, she's eighty-five if she's a day, walks slower than a turtle with hemorrhoids and will ask you every question in the book before talking about her massive extended family. If you're very lucky she may even tell you about the house. Also yes. If we go to prison we go together."

He handed Fell a pamphlet.

"Where do you want to go first." There was the writing room, the portrait gallery, the old bedroom, the guest bedroom, the pantry and--not on the list-- the murder suite. But he'd get to that one last.