The House of Morpheus

Chapter 2: The House is Alive?

Rune stopped in front of the large building, this time all by himself. 

He had stayed the night with his older brother but this morning his brother had to work so he had to come by himself. 

He was feeling incredibly nervous, yesterday's first impressions hadn't gone particularly well. 

"Ah - you're the new kid." A man whispered into his ear from behind him, causing him to flinch. 

"M-Mr Midnight?" Rune bowed politely. 

Mr Midnight laughed. "Relax, you can call me Midnight, forget about being polite. I'm not that old, well - not yet anyway."

"I see." Rune felt quite uncomfortable. 

"Well, let's go inside. Everyone is waiting." He said the last bit in an accent as he grabbed Ren by the hand and dragged him inside. 

The door led them to the same room as it had yesterday if you were ignoring the fact that it was the main door. 

"Well, let's get started. My name's Timothy Midnight, code name - The Death Talker. This is Snake, his code name is - The Dream Creator." Midnight pointed to Snake as he ushered Ren into his seat. Snake nodded to him as he sat beside the pretty blond-haired woman that Ren had met before in the stairwell with his brother. 

She spoke up, introducing herself in a flat tone. "My name's Angel, Angel Davis. Code named The Morphing Secretary." Angel pointed to the man beside her - on the other side of her. "This is my twin brother, Axel Davis. He's The Perfect Shooter." The man - Axel - nodded, lifting up his large glasses as he stared at Ren for a second before averting his gaze.

"Well, this place is boring." Another man appeared, he had yellow eyes and curved fingertips. His hair a mess of brown that was stroked back. 

"My name is X or The Eagle. This here is Moon, she's only seven and her code name is The Seer." He sat down and pulled the little girl into his lap. She stared at Rune with interest, her eyes a dark grey and her hair a pure white-ish sliver. While she looked young, her eyes seemed old and her expression showed wisdom and adult knowledge. 

"Ah - we're missing someone." Midnight announced on a large, exaggerated cry, counting on his fingers. 

Then, he frowned. "But who? We have Rune, Snake, Angel, Axel, X and Moon."

Snake rolled his eyes. "Shiro, he's...like a housekeeper, I guess. You'll meet him when it's time - he's horrible shy."

Rune leaned forward. "He's Japanese?"

Snake shook his head and opened his mouth but Midnight answered for him with a simple "Yes". 

"Well then, since everyone is here. We have a new member, Rune and his code name is...The Colourblind Liar."

Everyone turned to Ren and offered up attempts at smiles. "Welcome Rune, to The House of Morpheus." Everyone clapped and then moved along, getting up to go back to what they had been doing before. 

Midnight appeared before Rune with a strange smile. "Ah - Rune, could you do me a favour? Take this letter and head to the back gardens. Look for a man with blond hair, he'll help set you up in the dorms. Okay?"

Rune nodded, taking the paper Midnight offered and leaving through the door that he had pointed at. As soon as Rune had left, everyone stopped working and turned to Midnight, faces blank and yet full of interest at the same time.

"Why a newcomer? In fact why that kid? He seems way too innocent." Snake asked, stroking the tail that was wrapped around his wrist. 

"He interests me. And, before you ask - no, not like that." Midnight settled down into a seat. 

Axel took off his glasses and brushed his hair back to show completely white eyes with a single black dot. "Is that why you had him go find Shiro?"

Midnight smiled, baring fangs that snapped down. "Friendship is key and besides, Shiro is feeling lonely these days."

A moment of silence fell and X moved closer. "It's not his fault that...that man died. He betrayed us first..."

X fell silent when Midnight turned his gaze to him. Midnight avoided directly looking at people but if you were unlucky enough to meet his gaze, you felt like you were staring at the devil himself - in the form of a human. 

"Well, what's done is done. Let the dead rest now, X."

__________________________________________________

Rune looked around, where was this blonde man? He'd been looking for almost half an hour and he swore he was running in circles but still there was no blonde-haired man.

"Are you looking for me?" A soft voice whispered, attracting his attention. 

The man did indeed possess blonde hair, waist-length blonde hair to be exact. He had one purple eye and one blue eye and a soft smile, he emitted a shy smile and shifted his eyes away as soon as they met Rens. 

"Are you...?" Rune fell silent, almost in awe at the beauty that stood in front of him. The man looked like he had been sculpted out of marble, all clean features that were beyond pleasing to the eyes.

The man smiled and answered Ren's unspoken question. "My name is Shiroi Tori, you can call me Shiro - everybody else does." 

Rune frowned. "White bird? It's a unique name." His name suited him beautifully, it seemed to fit well with his shy nature and the aura of peace around him. 

"My name is Rune. Mr Midnight said that you would help me get settled? Ah, my code name is The Colourblind Liar." 

Rune frowned at that and then realized what he had just said, backtracking as fast as possible. "Ah - I'm not a liar or anything like that, I can sort of see...lies."

The man - Shiro - laughed and his laughter was as gentle as his appearance. "I understand. Midnight has a strange sense of humour, you'll get it sooner or later."

Rune stepped forward. "And what's yours?"

Shiro blinked. "Mine? Ah - you mean code name? I don't have one. Code names are given to the active agents on the field. For example, if you have to report in, you'll use your name so that they know it's you. And if you are in danger, you use theirs. A simple system but it works as long as you don't go around telling everyone what yours is."

Rune blushed, Shiro had just reprimanded him but had done so in a way that was incredibly gentle and soft. 

"Shall we head to the dorms?" Shiro asked, stepping closer to Rune.

"Hai." Rune nodded. 

"May I have your hand?" Shiro asked, practically out of the blue. 

Rune stuck out his hand, looking confused. Why did Shiro need his hand?

"This will hurt a little bit," Shiro warned, rubbing Rune's wrist. 

A piece of rope swirled around his wrist, like a snake. It burned a reddish-gold colour, getting more heated as it kept moving. After a sharp sting of pain, the rope disappeared and a small tattoo appeared on Ren's wrist. 

"What-?" Rune's mouth fell open, he seemed to be astonished. 

"This tattoo can only be seen by you and the other members of the dorm. Others can't see it. If there's an emergency call out the door number and open any door, you'll be transported to your room."

Shiro smiled at the expression of shock on Rune's face, letting go of his hand. "I understand it's a bit difficult to comprehend, so why don't you give it a try?" Rune swallowed. Should he give it a try? He guessed he could do that.

"Do I just say the number out loud? Is that all?" Rune asked, rubbing the numbers on his wrist. 

"No...you have to say 'Take me to the place I call home, Shiro' and then your door number. Give it a try."

Shiro stepped back and waved his hand, a door appeared out of nowhere and he opened it to show Rune that the door had no destination, it was just a door frame. He closed the door and stepped even further back, giving Rune even more space.

"Whenever you're ready," Shiro whispered, offering up a smile of encouragement. 

Rune took in a deep breath, focusing on the door. "Take me to the place I call home, Shiro. 206."

He rushed forward and opened the door, falling in as he lost his balance. The door closed behind him with an audible click. The room he was in was large, more like an apartment than a dorm. 

"It's more like an apartment, to be honest." Shiro smiled at Rune, appearing in front of him.

"What -? How are you here? I'm confused, can anybody enter?" Rune scrambled on to his feet, blushing a deep red in embarrassment. 

"No, not unless they have permission from you. But I can because this is my power, it's also why I can't leave. I'm a spirit that controls the building." Shiro admitted with a soft, sad smile.

Rune nodded, it made sense. The building was alive.

"Alright, you have a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen as well as a small balcony. Your neighbour is Snake - you two share the floor. There's a large kitchen downstairs that's regularly stocked up that you can use and a spa room. Just do the same thing as you did before but instead of saying your room number, just call out for the kitchen."

Shiro moved around the room, still keeping his distance. "Ah - you have to stock up your own kitchen and there's an empty list on the fridge. If you need anything urgent, just fill it in and I'll check on it. Do you have any questions?"

Rune nodded. "You said that I'm sharing this space with Snake? Where's everybody else?"

Shiro smiled. "Well, rest easy. I'll see you tomorrow."

Shiro left without answering Ren's question, disappearing into thin air with a strange sad smile. 

Rune looked around his room, signing in relief as he noticed his luggage pressed up against his bedroom wall, his phone on the nightstand. 

He reached for it, jumping in shock as it began to ring before he could even touch it. Who was it?

"Hello? This is Rune." 

"Rune? This is your Okaa-sama. How are you doing? Your oni-sama told me that you like it there. Are you doing good? Don't work too hard, Rune."

"Mother? I'm doing fine. Ignore Yuki, oni-sama is lying. I'm doing fine. What about you?" Rune sat on the bed and sighed. 

His mother Haruka Yume and his father Haruka Takihiro weren't his biological parents, they had adopted him when Yuki was five. He was ever so grateful to them but when his powers came in full force on his eighteenth birthday, he could no longer stay with them. 

"Well, that's good. Remember that you can come back here anytime. Your Okaa-san and Oto-san love you a lot."

"Hai!"

"Saki! Nanaishiteruno? (What are you doing?) Ah, Rune, Okaa-san has to go. Let's talk more later, hai? Sayonara."

Rune put the phone down and sighed, that was another reason he had left. His parents had had another child, Haruka Saki, almost a year ago and he felt uncomfortable in the happy household. 

"Well, life's all about sad things but only you can make happy things happen." 

Rune gasped, jumping off the bed and falling to the floor as he turned to stare at the man behind him.

"Midnight-san, what are you doing here?" Rune touched his chest, trying to slow down his breathing.

"Ah - I knocked on the door but you didn't answer so I let myself in." Midnight smiled, standing up and moving towards the door. "I just wanted to let you know that we have a case tomorrow, so make sure to be ready by 7 am. You, Snake and me are going to be going. Haha, going to be going." Midnight left, still laughing at his poor joke. 

Staring at the back of Midnight, Rune thought 'at least things weren't going to be boring. A thought that he now often regretted thinking of.