The House That Jack Built: The House That Jack Built

'I don't know,' he said, dropping down to sit on the kerb. 'I just don't know.'

After a moment she sat down next to him. 'We'll have to go back inside,' she said.

He shook his head. 'I'm not going back in there.'

'It's no better out here.' She had become gentle, only too aware of how close Rob was to breaking. He wasn't violent any more, he was too scared even for that. You couldn't fight Jackson Leaves.

'I just can't bear the idea of going back in there, baby,' he said, starting to cry. 'That noise, the blood and water… I just can't…'

'We have to,' she replied. 'Look at it out here, it's just as wrong. Look at the rain.' She held out her hand and swiped it gently from right to left in front of his eyes, and for the first time he noticed that the rain wasn't moving. Droplets were stationary in the air. He suddenly realised the rain was silent around them. Looking back over his shoulder towards the house, the rain there was splashing down on the plants, the roof tiles, that stupid American's car. But here? Stillness…

'How is that even possible?' he asked, sticking out his hand and touching the droplets with his fingers, watching as the glistening balls, fat with the stolen light from street lamps, popped against his touch.

'I'm sure there's a proper scientific explanation,' said Julia with a half-smile. She looked up at Jackson Leaves, noticing movement at the upstairs windows. Right on the top floor, the wide shoulders of the American filled one of the window frames as he stared out into the night, though whether it was the night she stood in she couldn't say. Something told her not; that there was more of a gap between them than simply the hedge and driveway. Directly beneath him, one floor down, a blob of red paisley alerted her to the fat man's presence. Unlike the American, she knew that he was watching her and Rob, and whatever version of the world this was that had trapped them was one that the fat man knew well. He could move along these pavements and roads, of that she had no doubt.

'It's…' Rob was staring along the road into the distance. 'I don't know, something's happening.'

Julia followed his gaze and tried to figure out what he was seeing. There was certainly something wrong, but it was hard to put your finger on. 'We need to move,' she said, as it became clear. 'We need to move now, Rob, while we still can.'

He stared along the street, watching as one by one the cars and houses in the distance disappeared. A great wave of darkness was sweeping towards them, swallowing each droplet of rain, each inch of pavement and road. Who knew what would happen if they were still sat there when it arrived? Julia was right, there wasn't good enough cause to find out.

He got to his feet and they moved towards Jackson Leaves, the sound of the rain in front of them building with every step. He took one look over his shoulder just before crossing the threshold, the darkness was nearly on them, it had taken the houses, the trees, it had even taken his van.

'Come on, then,' he said, and they walked into the moving curtain of rain that would lead them back home.

FOURTEEN

Gwen was getting all motherly, tugging the blanket tighter around Ianto as he shivered. 'What did you see?' she asked him.

'Not much to be honest,' he admitted, staring at the fire Jack had just lit and willing it to get going. If it didn't get a good blaze on within five minutes, he'd start shoving furniture in the grate, he was so cold. 'I've been a bit out of it. I heard the pounding on the walls though, and the TV turned on by itself.'

'Power surge…' said Jack in a casual manner that didn't convince Ianto for one moment.

It didn't convince Gwen either. 'And the walls?'

'That'll be the ghosts,' was Jack's dismissive reply. 'I'm going to take a look around,' he said with a grin, changing the subject before either could ask any more questions. In case they tried anyway, he strolled out of the room.

'That's our Jack,' Ianto muttered. 'Quick with the knob gags and melodrama but light on cold, hard facts.'

'You know what he's like,' Gwen said, putting some more dry wood on the fire.

'Don't I just.'

'There's certainly a lot more to this place than meets the eye,' Gwen said, pulling her PDA out of her jacket pocket, opening up some of the files on the house that she had ported across and handing it to Ianto. 'The history of the building is a tabloid's dream: suicides, murders… and you'll never believe who the first person to own it was.'

'Jack.'

Gwen swore under her breath. 'Fine, make me look an idiot. Everyone knew but me.'

'Sorry. But there's not much about him that I don't know.' Ianto stood up and moved over to the rug directly in front of the fire. 'Actually, that's not true,' he continued, sitting on the rug and holding his hands out towards the flames. 'I doubt I know a fraction of what's worth knowing, but what little of his life is on file I've found it, read it…' he looked up at her and gave an embarrassed smile, 'learnt it. I'm like a stupid teenager swotting up with a copy of Smash Hits.'

Gwen rested a hand on his shoulder. 'You do know that he's…'

'Just a shag?' Ianto nodded. 'Yes I know. I can't help it though, I've never been much good at casual.' He looked up at her. 'Don't tell him. I don't want to look stupid.'

She squatted down and gave him a peck on the cheek. 'I won't, you're not stupid either, just…'

'Deluded?'

She smiled. 'Yeah, that sounds about right.'

'You wouldn't believe how many places he's lived,' Ianto said. 'That's why I didn't mention it. I assumed it was just a coincidence. He's had places all over Cardiff. Lots of them under false names of course, Robert Gossage, Alan Jones, John Smith… But I've followed the chain of sales. He keeps buying places then selling them on.'

'So he watches Property Ladder.'

'It's not that. You know what he's like, he's not interested in money. He's obsessed with trying to find a home, that's what I think.'

'Maybe.' Gwen looked sadly at Ianto. He really had fallen for Jack, hadn't he? 'He did right to sell this place on though,' she said. 'Look at the news reports.'

Ianto got the hint, nodding and reading the small screen in front of him. 'So the question is: did this place turn its residents mad, or are we stood in a psycho magnet?'

'Now there's a lovely thought,' Gwen admitted. 'Perhaps it's just as well the owners did a bunk.'

'They weren't so bad,' Ianto said. 'Just scared. Can't say I blame them either. Still, they tried to look after me, even with everything else going on.' He smiled, the warmth finally creeping back into him. 'That makes them a decent couple in my book. I may send them a Christmas card.'

'"Season's Greetings from the nutter in your airing cupboard"?'

'That sort of thing.'

'Do you remember anything?' Gwen asked. 'Between disappearing on the high street and reappearing here?'

Ianto's face lost some of its humour. 'It was strange… Like a hypnic jerk.'

'A what?'

'That feeling you get when you're just about to fall asleep and your body jolts as if you've fallen or tripped.'

'Oh…' Gwen rolled her eyes. ' That. You're the first person I've met that wouldn't just call it "that jerky sleep thing".'

'I read books,' Ianto joked. 'Get over it. Anyway, it was like that, a jolt through my body, this feeling of being somewhere else… Nothing specific, just a sense of having moved.' An uncomfortable look passed across his face. 'It scrambled my head. I didn't really know what was happening… It felt like there was something else there.'

'Something or someone?'

'Someone.' He shrugged. 'Like I say, though, it shook me up. Who knows what was going on, eh? Next thing I know, I'm waking up on the floor over there with the whole house going mental.'