TITLE: Icarus Manor, chapter 1
AUTHOR: lillywhite1, but you can call me Casey.
SUMMARY: In a mysterious mansion in a secluded part of North America, a man 
discovers that he is far from alone in the world. Here at Icarus Manor several species of 
non-human description live together to survive in a world that does not know they exist. 
THIS CHAPTER:  Icarus Manor takes in a stray. Most main characters introduced.

PAIRING: Eventual Dominic Monaghan/Billy Boyd
RATING: PG-13; still setting up the base for the affair.
FEEDBACK: is my neutella on a spoon that makes me go all gooey and melty and 
mmmmm...
A/N: Text in asterisks (*) represents italics. This is a book and a work in progress. Be 
gentle. Comments to cswann1@gmail.com.

Chapter 1
	
It was one of those tempestuous nights when even the most dangerous animals didn’t 
dare venture outside their caves, yet Elijah volunteered to take the late shift at the gate. 
He never minded the rain. In fact, every time it rained he wished it would come down 
heavy enough to flood the entire world and cover the obtuse icons of mankind with 
cleansing waves of hydrogen and oxygen in their life giving triangular formations. But it 
never rained like that here.

Sean, on the other hand, disliked the rain and hated the usual lightning that accompanied 
it. Elijah smiled as he thought of Sean’s short, stocky form jumping at the crashes and his 
brown eyes pleading silently for a reprieve. Sean could be the puppy or the wolf, but 
never anything in between. But not all crashes sound the same in the dark and rain. 
Sometimes there are those that chill you to the very bone and make you wish you hadn’t 
heard them.

This particular crash came at some ungodly hour when Elijah caught himself sleeping in 
the guard house. He didn’t need to see the blinking red light or hear the tiny beep that 
told him that someone had touched the intercom on the other side of the gate. He had 
heard it clearly enough in his half-awakened state: The scrape of skin on metal; the 
scratch of nails on the plastic intercom. Then loud raised voices. Angry voices. Animal 
growls and hisses. Then screams and yelps as the voices continued.

*Oh no.* He thought. *This is going to be bad. I can feel it.*

Elijah had several talents that he didn’t like to brag about, but the ones that he used the 
most were his excellent hearing and his gut-instinct. He tore out of the guard house and 
sprinted the hundred feet to the gate with his large metal flashlight clanking at his side.

It was just as he feared. Whatever had been there before was gone, but left something 
behind.

"Poor thing." Elijah crept toward the unconscious body still half-hanging on the metal 
bars of the gate. He gave a cautious glance at the woods that lay just outside the gate: just 
the tall green oaks and smaller saplings dancing in the dark and sighing as they drank the 
summer air. There was no one else there, at least, not anymore. He swiped his key-card, 
drilled in his password, and the gate buzzed open. 

The stranger could not have been much bigger than he was, and the effort to drag him 
inside the gate wasn’t too terrible. With the man lain down on the gravel of the driveway 
with face turned heavenward Elijah saw how charming it was. The man’s chin was cleft, 
his ears large and childlike with a rounded nose and a naturally curious expression now 
marred by a bruise or two. He was about as young as the stranger. Elijah guessed that his 
youth could have been part of the reason that he was beaten so badly. Who knew why or 
how this pretty stranger had been punished so brutally. 

But that wasn’t for Elijah to worry about now. Now was the time for action. Elijah 
dashed down the gravel driveway back to the guard house and the working phone lines. 
Sean picked up the receiver at the other end barely after the first ring. 

"Elijah, are you okay?? What’s the matter?!" Sean’s constant worrying about him might 
have been annoying at any other time, but now he could use that energy.

"Sean, I need you to wake someone else and get out here to the front gate. I need at least 
two more people to help me lift someone into the house for medical attention."

"A stranger?” Sean questioned, “Are you sure this is a good idea? He could be dangerous. 
The last thing we n – "

"Sean, get someone else and get the hell out here. There isn’t time to argue; he’s hurt. 
We’ll keep him locked downstairs until the morning just in case."

"But what about Mr. Boyd?" 

"Just hurry the fuck up!" Then he slammed down the receiver and ran back down the 
drive, yanking off his coat to cover the stranger until help arrived. 
~

*On all fours he runs. Green looks black by night. Fear. They are right behind him.  Keep 
running. Panting hard now. Turn to face them at the edge of the wood. Too many to win. 
Bared fangs. Barks. Snapping of jaws. His friends. His family. Not anymore. Bite. 
Scratch. Swipe. He yelps. Bite. Scratch. Swipe. He cries. They leave him. Defeated. 
Ashamed. Reach up. Fall. Failed. Reach again. ‘I’m going to die.’ They left him here to 
die. Alone.*

Dominic woke with a headache that would have made him cry, but the urge was pushed 
down when he realized he didn’t recognize where he was. The room was bare and white, 
and it smelled sterile. He was lying on a simple cot which had successfully given him a 
crick in his neck.

Realizing the pain in his neck brought to attention the other places that he felt pain. His 
ribs were tender and as he peeked under the gauze wrapped about them he saw claw 
marks and various scratches. They really hadn’t taken it as easy on him as he thought 
they were going to. The scratches were deep, but healing thanks to the stuff that had been 
smeared on them. Whatever it was, it smelled of menthol and some sort of wild mint and 
other plant scents he couldn’t identify completely.

Where the hell was he? Was this a prison cell of some kind? An asylum for the insane? 
He dreaded to think it was anything more complicated than one of those, and he hoped to 
god it was not a hospital. The doctors always started out kind, then they locked you up 
and did experiments on you till you died.

Dominic pushed that thought aside and took in more of his surroundings. He could hear a 
little through the window of the door, but there was no one there. There was some light 
scuffling going on above him on the next floor, a vacuum perhaps two floors up and fifty 
meters to the left. Two maids were chatting quietly a hundred meters or so down the hall 
about...well...about *him.*

Looking down at his clothes, he saw himself dressed in a white t-shirt and black linen 
pajama pants with red polka-dots. 

*Polka-dots?*  He thought momentarily before the door opened.

It was a young man who stood perhaps a little shorter than himself, slight of build. His 
hair was jet-black and spiked stylishly. His skin was so white it could have been 
porcelain shining. His nose was a bit beaky, but charming. His entire face was electrified 
to life by a pair of blue eyes that glowed like sapphires held up to the light. The captor 
smiled a little in a boyish way.

"Hello. I am Elijah --."

"I’m Dominic and I’m sorry to interrupt but I get very anxious when I have no idea where 
I am." His English accent came out slightly thick with sleep and disuse. It sounded 
strange contrasted to Elijah’s American tones.

The pretty boy nodded sympathetically. 

"I understand completely. You are exactly where you collapsed last night except now 
you’re on the other side of the gate. You are a guest here and you are free to leave at any 
time, but I don’t think you’ll want to do that just yet."

"Why not?" Dominic shifted uncomfortably. There was something about Elijah that 
didn’t sit well with him. Listening carefully Dominic could barely hear his heartbeat. It 
was much slower than his own. There was also something about the white gloves Elijah 
was wearing that set off an alarm in Dominic’s head. *He’s hiding something.*

"Well, because you haven’t met the other members of your rescue team. They’re all very 
excited to meet you. After the state we found you in last night, well...you grew a little 
dear to us. We don’t get many visitors...OH, wait, here comes one of them..." 

Elijah turned toward the door just in time to get nearly bowled-over by a lanky man with 
waves of dark brown hair who was wearing black slacks and a vibrant purple collared 
shirt. He smelled just as loud as he dressed with a large amount of cologne and something 
kind of like a just struck match. The two bodies of Elijah and this man collided with”oof" 
and bounced the aubergine into the room.

"Jesus, Elijah," It nearly screamed as it looked at its shirt in utter terror, "One bump and 
all the wrinkles that should belong to Morgan Fairchild’s face are on this shirt."
He tried to smooth them out and then tossed his head back and sighed dramatically at the 
ceiling.

"Sorry Dominic, this is Orlando. He’s a little– "

"Flaming!" Orlando exclaimed and threw both arms upward with amazing relish and 
terrific mood change causing Dominic to jump back on his cot. "If there was a queen to 
this castle it would be me. Oh, and if that bothers you, you’ll really be crept out when I 
tell you that those are my PJ pants you’re wearing." Orlando leaned in toward Dominic 
and grinned in utter glee. "Did you take a good look at the polka-dots?"

Dominic swallowed once and looked down at his own crotch. The dots definitely had 
more character to them than he had originally seen. Sitting on the cot still he brought one 
bent knee up to his face. Were they hearts? No... They appeared to be tiny penises 
...complete with two testicles!

Dominic burst out into raucous laughter that made his sides ache. Orlando’s musical 
bellowing echoed off the walls and Elijah’s hard giggles were heard above all. Orlando’s 
laughing died down to a sigh and he wiped a tear from his eye as he clapped Dominic on 
the shoulder and pronounced him "divine." When he touched Dominic, Dominic could 
hear his heartbeat. It was very fast, but changed its beat regularly which was very odd. 
His temperature also had fluctuated several times since he’d entered the room. Now with 
his hand on his shoulder, he gave off a slight wave of heat as he smiled.

"Welcome to Icarus Manor."
~

"And this is the OTHER drawing room next to the OTHER music room." Orlando rolled 
his eyes and shook his mass of curly hair.

"One must have several muses to fill up all that creative space." Dominic smirked.

A tour of a wing and a half later left Dominic, Elijah, and Orlando all famished so they 
headed for the main kitchen.

"...where hopefully we’ll meet the other man who helped drag *ahem* I mean bring you 
inside last night." Orlando said as he patted Dominic on the back. 

Elijah strode, Dominic stepped, and Orlando waltzed into the kitchen. Orlando sighed, "I 
love those swinging double doors. They always make me feel like I’m John Wayne."

A young man with a slightly stocky form, sandy hair, and large, brown, intelligent eyes 
smiled but kept his eyes glued to a clipboard. 

"Orli, if this were an old Western saloon, you would be the prostitute at the bar, not the 
gun-slinging hero. With your limp wrist, you’d probably shoot yourself in the foot if you 
pulled the trigger."

Orlando turned his nose up and rewarded the busy man with a slap on the ass that 
must’ve left a mark for the sound that it drew out of the victim. Orlando retorted, "That’s 
one thing a limp wrist is good for, Seanie." 

Elijah quickly jumped in with an introduction, "Sean Astin, I’d like to you meet our new 
friend–”

"Dominic Monaghan." Sean completed the sentence for Elijah. Dominic’s grey eyes 
locked with Sean’s. Both of their bodies stiffened like two dogs with their hackles up. 
Dominic could smell his musk. He smelled like roots, pine needles, dirt, and blatant 
hostility. Dominic knew this stranger’s name.

"Sean Astin. Your reputation precedes you. I never expected to actually see you, but it’s 
nice to put a face to the name." It wasn’t nice at all, and Dominic didn’t sound like he 
meant it. 

"Uh, Seanie, do you have anything in here by the way of lunch. I’m starving and so are 
the other two." Elijah popped open the refrigerator and rummaged. The two men relaxed 
slightly but never took their eyes off each other. 

"There’s your usual sushi, ‘Lij, and Orlando’s fruit and such, but don’t feed him anything 
that’s labeled mine. I’ll see you later." With a harsh look in Dominic’s direction, 
Sean left the kitchen.

"Jeee–sus." Orlando chimed. "You two know each other?" Then chomped down on one 
of his four sandwiches.

"Yeah." Dominic didn’t feel like elaborating at the moment. Seeing Sean face to face was 
a bit of a shock. That was an understatement. They hated each other. Silence set in. A 
plate dropped itself in front of Dominic from Elijah’s hand.

"I hope you like peanut butter." He smiled apologetically, "It’s all I could find."

Dom smiled back. He was getting to like these two very much. "You throw a cup of 
coffee and some aspirin in there somewhere and I will love anything you find."

After the three had quieted their appetite, they headed out the swinging saloon doors back 
into the Spanish tiled hallway.

"Now, since you’ve seen at least eight of our seventeen bathrooms and all three billiard 
rooms, shall we see some of the outside?" Orlando bowed gracefully as Dominic and 
Elijah followed him down the hallway toward a pair of glass doors so heavily gilded that 
the outside could barely be seen, but if one had to look at the outside, wouldn’t that be 
one of the best ways to see it? Dominic smiled to himself.

"Dom, you are about to see the coup de grace of this little tour. Prepare yourself." And 
without allotting much time to, Orlando swung open the French doors and the brilliant 
sunlight framed him as if he were the sun himself.

It was nothing like Dominic had ever seen. Rounded hedges surrounded a large courtyard 
of an astounding shade of green. It was electric: Almost as if the plants were screaming 
with happiness. The flowers at the base of the ten foot hedges were large and exploded 
multicolor blossoms that climbed up the hedges as tall as they could before displaying 
their wonder for all to see. The flowers even patterned themselves. Some dotted, some 
striped even. And there was one particular flower growing up the edge of the building he 
could’ve sworn was changing colors as he stared. Further out than he could see, Dominic 
could detect a maze for games, a tennis court, and two domes. One which must’ve been a 
green house and another...

"– covers the pools." Elijah grinned. "That’s my favorite place. I’ll show you that later."

Pools. Not one, but two at least. Dominic grinned. What a place this was. There was a 
river uplifted in the courtyard that ran from one end from a fountain, to the other at a 
small pool. Brightly colored fish darted and frolicked in the water that gave Dominic the 
distinct impression that they were very happy to be there. Dominic looked at Elijah next 
to him.

"This is incredible."

“That it is.” Smiled Orlando proudly. “What’s even more amazing is that it stays like this 
all year ‘round. It can be snowing just outside the hedges, but it never comes in here. It’s 
always summer in here.”

“It’s beyond beautiful.” Dominic was stunned.

Elijah grinned wide and whispered, "You’re not even *in* the garden." Then he 
beckoned to Dominic and dashed down a narrow set of stairs. The vividness of the garden 
became only more pronounced as Dominic got closer. It was like stepping into a rainbow 
it was so colorful.

Dominic strode over to the river-ette where Elijah was sitting. He had removed his white 
gloves, and his small pale hand was dipping into the water. One of the large fish had 
swum up to his hand. Dominic watched as he touched the fish with one finger lovingly. 

"They let you pet them?" Elijah looked a bit startled. His big blue eyes flashing.

"Not everyone. I just know how to pet them." Elijah turned back to the fish that were 
slowly gathering at his hand.

"Elijah, what is this place?" But before Elijah could answer, a loud American voice 
interjected.

"ELIJAH!" It was Sean, damn him, "Mr. Boyd wants to see your new friend. Now. In his 
office." Sean stared down from the balcony from whence they had come with a menacing 
look in his eyes. He sneered vaguely at Dominic and then left through the golden doors. 
Orlando looked back at the two men sitting by the river-ette and shrugged.

There was much about Sean that made Dominic furious. This simply added to it. He 
could feel the rage screaming to get out. The nails on his fingers growing sharp with the 
threat to tear his face off. To rip the skin off those smirking little lips and make them 
scream in terror. He could feel his body trembling with adrenaline, but he pushed it 
down. He couldn’t become a monster in front of his new found friends. He breathed 
deeply, and then Orlando was beside him much faster than humanly possible. 

"We were going to have you meet him anyway considering he is your host at the present 
time. Don’t worry. Seanie makes it sound like a death sentence. It’s really not." Orlando 
smiled reassuringly. "Think of it like an interview, Dom."

Dominic thought of "interview" as a strange choice of words but nevertheless headed up 
the narrow staircase with Orlando and Elijah toward the glass doors.
~
Email comments to cswann1@gmail.com.