When The Snow Falls

Daniel was itching to ask why she was referring to him as her 'late brother' and was stilled by Felix's hand on his arm. There was a reason why he had asked Felix to do the talking.

"Is the weekend all right?" he asked.

"Of course, you're a student so that's the only time," she said. "I have an appointment in the morning on Saturday so we can meet for lunch if you like."

"That would be good, where would you like to meet?"

"I will be in Harajuku in the morning so outside Omotesando Hills? It won't be in the busiest area. Not that it won't be busy."

Harajuku was quite famous so Daniel knew what it was. He had no idea whereabouts the place she had mentioned was though. Felix didn't ask and moved onto something else.

"My boyfriend is a member of the club and we're working on this together. Is it okay if he comes with me?"

Daniel hadn't considered that angle. It would have been awkward if he turned up with Felix uninvited.

"That's not a problem. I'll see you on Saturday then. Make sure to stay away from Takeshita Street- that's going to be the busiest area. Goodbye"

She ended the call and Felix turned to look at him.

"Did I do well?"

"You did," Daniel said. "Do I have to give you a kiss or something?"

Felix grinned. "It would be nice you know."

Daniel gave him one on the cheek and sat back on his bed to think things over. The fact that Lily wanted to meet them in a public place strongly hinted that she didn't trust them yet. He couldn't really blame her for that given the circ.u.mstances.

"What are you thinking?" Felix asked and lay down next to him. "I know you aren't used to talking to other people, but it would be nice if you could include me."

"She doesn't trust us and that's fine. She also called him her 'late brother' which is disconcerting."

"It is," Felix agreed. "I knew you wanted to ask why, but it wasn't the right thing to do on the phone. We can ask her when we see her."

Daniel was feeling like he couldn't wait until Saturday and reminded himself that they now had the key to the old school building so he did have something to work on before then.

***

At the Mystery Club meeting the following afternoon Daniel tried his best to not look too eager and waited patiently for the topic of the old school building to come up for discussion.

"It's a shame it's the old school building that needs to be investigated," Oliver sighed. "We might have to give up on trying to find the source of the Seven Mysteries even though I feel that we have got somewhere with it."

Now was the time. Daniel cleared his throat.

"If I remember correctly, the agreement was that the old school building could be investigated if we had the key."

"Well we don't," Harry said testily.

Daniel held out the key on his finger.

"I have it."

The reaction was immediate and he rather enjoyed it. Amien's mouth dropped open, Oliver whooped whilst Meredith squealed. Harry's eyes expanded widely.

"How on earth did you get a hold of it?" Amien questioned once had recovered from the surprise.

Daniel was quite disappointed with his quick recovery. He had wanted to see Amien speechless for longer.

"Felix and I spoke to Mr Tatsuaki and he gave it to us. He thinks there's something odd going on at this school so he wants to help us."

Oliver beamed widely.

"I knew getting you two to join was a good idea," he said happily.

"Is it agreed we can investigate the old building now?" Daniel asked.

"I don't see why not," Amien admitted.

If even Amien had been persuaded, Daniel couldn't see why the other members would refuse to go.

"I should be able to sneak out," Meredith agreed.

"I can go," Harry added.

"Then it's agreed," Oliver said formally. "We are going to investigate the old school building at night."

They all agreed to meet outside the school gates the following night at midnight. Daniel was satisfied with the arrangements and the number of people going. He was quite looking forward to it.

***

"You must tell me at some point how the son of an Earl became someone that doesn't mind rule breaking and loves solving mysteries," Felix said after dinner.

They were supposed to be doing their homework together. Instead Daniel had streaked through the easiest ones and was now writing up notes for the mystery. His boyfriend was neatly writing out their Japanese homework in a methodical manner. Daniel was planning to copy him afterwards.

"It was a natural progression," Daniel said in a vague tone. "How long are you going to take with the Japanese?"

"You're not copying me," Felix answered lightly. "I know you're not comfortable struggling with a subject, but it's not going to help if you avoid it."

Daniel squirmed guiltily. Japanese was not coming naturally to him like other languages had. Maybe he was getting old. Felix poked his side.

"I'll try to teach you in the easiest way. I'll reward you for every right answer."

Thirty minutes later Daniel had forgotten the mystery, had swollen lips and an improved knowledge of Japanese. Felix was decidedly smug and closed his books.

"All right, let's work on the mystery. We haven't researched anything online yet."

Daniel blinked. The mystery. He leapt into action and grabbed his laptop.

"If we come across a Japanese news article, would you be able to read it?" Daniel requested. "I haven't learnt Kanji."

"Of course," Felix agreed. "Kanji definitely takes a while to learn."

Daniel put Carter Emberry into a search engine and frowned when he saw the lack of results. There wasn't anything with his name, it was only mentions of people with similar names online. He changed the search to only Emberry and the results changed to be mainly about his parents. He sighed when he realised he was going to have to read all the articles for any clues.

"So there's mentions that the Emberries have two children and moved to Japan to focus on the Japanese line of toys. There's no mention of them missing a son," Felix summarised after some skim reading of articles. "There's nothing. Even in anything Japanese as far as I can read."

"Grant was right when he said there were only rumours about it," Daniel sighed.

"There is something off," Felix pointed out. "There's no sign they ever put out anything to ask people to look for their son. It's like they never tried anything to find him."

Felix was right. It was very suspicious that they didn't seem to have put any effort to find their son.

"We need to ask Lily a lot of questions," he said. "We definitely need to ask some about her parents as well."

***

At half past eleven the following night, Daniel and Felix crept through the apartment. The lights were off in the kitchen and living room so they had a clear route through there. He could see from the sliver of light cast on the hallway carpet that the light was on in Felix's parents' bedroom so they were extra quiet when sneaking past.

Daniel gestured in the entrance way to stop Felix putting on his shoes. He picked his own up and opened the door slowly. Felix followed him out and they put their shoes on outside after closing the door. Daniel wasn't worried about getting back in as he had modified the door lock to not beep when a code was input.

It was strange to see the route to the school so quiet. There was no congested traffic to worry about and no cyclists to worry about. He spotted the other members of the Mystery Club standing underneath a streetlight at the end of the road. They were wearing black clothes which showed they had put some thought into it. Amien also had a large backpack and Daniel wasn't sure he wanted to find out what was in it.

"Did everyone bring torches?" Oliver asked like a teacher at school camp.

Meredith held hers up whilst Amien patted his backpack.

"Does anyone know how we should get in?" Oliver asked and scratched his cheek awkwardly which suggested he hadn't considered it before.

"As the leader of the club shouldn't you have planned this better?" Amien sighed. "I should have expected this."

"I have no experience in breaking and entering!" Oliver protested.

That started an argument between the current leader and the former one. Daniel waited for a break in their rants to speak.

"I suggest we walk around to the back wall and go over that. I noticed there were fewer CCTV cameras in the area. That's less chances to get caught."

Amien silently led the way around the corner and to the street behind the school. They stood beneath the wall and assessed the height. As it was brickwork instead of flat concrete there were available footholds. Daniel checked the time on his watch. If there were any more delays, there wasn't going to be much time left before they had to go home.

"Who's the best at PE? They can try it first," Oliver suggested.

"It's probably me," Felix volunteered.

Whilst Daniel knew that was true he was still worried. Felix had been in a coma with a broken arm and legs last year. He didn't want him to get injured again. He watched as Felix scaled the wall easily and disappeared.

"Felix?" he called.

"It's quite a drop on this side," Felix answered. "There's a flowerbed here to cushion everyone's landing."

Daniel had a try next. He nearly slipped down on his first attempt and managed to get to the top on his second go. Felix was waiting on the other side with his arms outstretched.

"I'm not falling into your arms," Daniel protested. "I can get down by myself."

Daniel turned around with difficulty and climbed down the wall. It was fortunate the wall was lit by the nearby streetlight otherwise it would be impossible to navigate.

It took ten minutes to get all members of the Mystery Club over the wall. Amien took the longest much to Daniel's satisfaction. They didn't turn their torches on until the grove of trees came into sight. The school grounds were dimly lit from streetlights dotted around the area which did make it an eerie walk.

"Who's taking the lead?" Meredith asked quietly. "It looks overgrown."

Daniel and Felix exchanged glances and Daniel switched his torch on first. He wasn't scared himself, but he could see that the other members were.

"I'll go through first with Felix," he announced.

Together they wove their way through the trees and Daniel managed not to trip over any roots in the semi darkness or flinch whenever a branch he couldn't see touched him. The same couldn't be said for the rest of the club behind him.

He came to a sudden stop when his foot landed on solid ground.

"I think we're here," Felix said and they stepped aside to let the other members of the club through.

The old school building was a sight. Illuminated only by his torch and the moonlight from the full moon, it was a sinister sight. The windows were boarded up and a lot of the roof tiles were missing which assisted it in resembling a stereotypical haunted house. If it started to rain, it would truly feel like the building belonged in the horror genre.

From the sharp intakes of breath behind him he could tell that everyone else had seen it too.

"I'm glad I'm not here alone," Harry commented with a shiver.

"Do you think it's even scarier on the inside?" Meredith asked fearfully and grabbed Oliver's arm.

"Stop whining and get on with the exploration," Amien snapped. "If it's ghosts you are worried about seeing; they don't exist."

"Don't you have any concerns at all about going in?" Harry demanded.

Instead of answering Amien unzipped his backpack and took out a hard hat.

"I am concerned about the ceiling falling in," he explained. "It is almost certain there is earthquake damage or after effects of land subsidence."

Oliver had a dumbstruck expression on his face.

"I didn't think of that…"

Amien placed the hat on his head and turned to Daniel.

"Of course he didn't. I am also concerned about being out so late- I am an exam student. You have the key so get on with it."

The main entrance was sealed with an industrial padlock. After a brief minute of difficulty due to poor lighting and struggling to hold his torch and with some help from Felix, Daniel had it unlocked and removed the padlock. He opened the door and shone his torch inside.