AN: Hullo, I'll be your author for this fic. Exits are the back button, the home button, the login button, and pretty much every button except next chapter. Lifejackets are under your seats, and a hostess will be coming around with refreshments for you shortly. I hope you enjoy your stay with 'Remains'.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to someone who isn't me. Story is based on Japanese folklore, but bits have been changed to fit with characters and some stuff that I just plain wanted to write. XD
Warning: Shonen-ai RIKUxSORA. Some gore, no graphic sex, lots of ghosts. Beware; I know little to nothing about things paranormal, so if you know that certain ghosts are on their lunch breaks at 12:15pm and I have the Headless Horseman rampaging at that time, then I'm sorry and I'd love to know what you do about the subject. Please tell me in a review or note or whatever, it's always fun. By the way, the headless horseman is NOT in this fic, just to clarify. XD Thank you for reading!
Remains
Prologue – It's Alright to Scream
One…
She fled through the screen door and onto the outside deck.
…Two…
The plates still inside the room seemed to glow like smug eyes when she looked back, white surfaces spiralling with painted details sinister in their design.
…Three…
He grinned as she ran, taking the wooden sword from beside the door and starting after her… knowing he would win.
…Four…
He caught her by the hair, savagely pulling. Dragging her hair, her clothes, her head back. Her kimono ripped.
…Five…
The blindfold was on in an instant, and he hauled her, screaming, to the yard.
…Six…
The chords broke the skin on her pale wrists as she writhed. Every stroke with the wooden sword bruised her body, suspended above eternity.
…Seven…
Suspended above Hell. And then it was down into dark, into wet, into a place where she couldn't breathe or see or even feel her heart beat.
…Eight…
And then she was pulled back into blessed, sweet air, but her heart didn't beat at all.
…Nine…
Blood mixed with water and she hated him, hated him…
…
Somewhere a tap was dripping.
It wasn't something that would usually bother Sora, but today was not a good day, and his patience was wearing thin.
It was meant to be a good day, specially chosen because of the nice weather and the pale cherry blossoms. A day where children would play and laugh when he'd blush bright red and stammer a confession, and then Kairi would…
Kairi would…
Reject him completely. And why not? There she'd stood, in the sun which made her red hair look like fire. Her tanned face had dimpled when she'd told him not to be so silly. Perfectly manicured nails had skimmed his cheek when she'd told him he would always and could only be her friend. Dazzling eyes had sparkled at him as she laughed it off, walked towards the ice cream shop and told him to hurry up and stop hovering.
Like some sort of bug.
He knew she didn't mean to be callous, but he also knew she wasn't attracted to him in the slightest. Gangly Sora with freckles and soft brown hair that flew everywhere, and eyes blue enough to make you shiver.
The bathroom light flickered as he turned it on, but the tap wasn't dripping like he'd expected. The shower was bone dry as well, but the infernal pattern of water drops continued. Drip-drop-drip…
"Darn it…" He mumbled, turning on the tap and cupping his hands to catch the falling water. The cold sting on his face woke him a little, and he realised he couldn't just mope about Kairi all day. If she didn't like him, then she didn't like him, and nothing was going to change that. It wouldn't stop him from feeling down about it, but she didn't deserve him making her guilty over it either.
Something tangled round his fingers, and he shook his face free of water to open his eyes. Around each slender digit was twined knots of dark, matted hair, clinging to his hands like someone was tying it there. He shook it off into the sink with a grimace, brushing at it when it stuck. It clung still, and he picked up the scrubbing brush disgustedly to get the offending cuticles off. The tap choked as he worked, spurting out hair and water and turning his sink a muddy grey. His heart began to beat faster, breaths coming quicker at the lump in his throat. Sora berated himself for panicking over some hair, but it just wouldn't leave his skin. It fell off in clumps but still managed to coat his hands like long threads of silk. Were they…no, they couldn't be tying themselves together…
Feeling terror rise up, he tore at the mass and flung it at the sink. Finally he collapsed on the toilet seat across the room breathing hard, feeling relieved his hands were finally smooth again.
"Woah…" He breathed. "It's okay, just, just phone a plumber or something. Use some bleach and flush it out of the drain. I'll bet someone's bath water has been getting into the water tank…Ew…" He pulled himself up off the seat and back out into the corridor, leaving the water running to clear.
Wiping his hands on his jeans, Sora picked up the grubby, school-bus yellow phone and pulled out the phone book. There was only one plumber that operated on Sundays, written in plain font at the bottom of the page. The short, to the point advertisement didn't use the pictures and catchphrases of the rest, and in fact looked more of an obituary than an advert. Still, his sink was upchucking hair, so Sora resignedly phoned the number.
It rang for what seemed like forever. Bored of waiting, Sora took the phone to the kitchen sink and reached underneath for the gloves he used for cleaning. Slipping them on, he returned to the bathroom. The phone was still ringing as he opened the door.
"Aw, shit." He cursed. The tap had cleared, but the hair coating the sink had stopped the water from fleeing down the drain. It streamed down the outside of the sink's bowl, flooding the floor and sloshing over his bare feet. It was deathly cold, and he could already feel his feet turning blue.
"Highwind Plumbing, Cid Highwind 'ere. What d'ya want?" Sora jumped at the tinny voice in his ear, amazed someone had picked up.
"Um, hi, my name is Sora. I've got a problem with my sink…" Taking a deep breath, he plunged the glove-covered hand into the hair and pulled out a handful, dropping it like slop into the bathroom bin. Sora made a face and picked out the next handful.
"Yeah, and?"
"Well you're a plumber, right?"
"Last time I checked." Sora turned off the tap when it seemed the water was hair-free and managing to squeeze itself down the drain. With only a few more disgusting handfuls, his sink would be hairless again.
"Look, could you come out to Dresdon Avenue? I think there's something in the sceptic tank of the apartment block. A load of hair and dirt just came out of my tap and it's probably affecting everyone…actually I'll go ask, ugh this stuff's like stringy treacle."
"Hold on kid. My young'un has pneumonia, I can't come out today. Give us tomorrow morning and I'll be round by lunch latest." Sora inwardly fumed. What was he supposed to do with a bathroom like the Amazon in monsoon season? Only he would be so lucky as to have an all out flood on the one day that plumbers in the area decided to take a collective day off.
"Thanks, you're a life saver." He said grimly, shovelling another handful. He'd have to just wait it out, and tell the people downstairs not to worry if their ceiling started sweating. "I'll see you when-" At the sight of a wide eyeball glaring at him from the barely visible drain he yelled and dropped the phone into the deepening puddle on the floor. When he looked back, the sink was empty and his phone was bubbling in the water. He bent down to reach it, grumbling about having dropped the last handful of hair. As he lifted it freezing cold hands wrapped around his ankles to the sound of the dial tone.
He shrieked and whirled. Hair tangled round his ankles that were numb and wrinkled, toes on his feet turning mottled blue. Despite the likelihood of the hair having played tricks on his numbing feet, Sora left his task unfinished and left the bathroom with haste and irrational fears.
Big, black work shoes made him feel safer. The next thing to attach itself to his legs would get a good, solid kick in the jaw…even if it was only hair. Besides, he told himself, he wasn't wearing them to scare off water spirits or whatever, it was because he couldn't walk down the stairs in bare feet. There could be syringes or anything on that stairwell…
Making sure the latch was down on his door, he started down the run-down corridor, almost relieved to leave his shabby apartment. In one corner there was a damp patch that had started to grow mould. The wallpaper there was peeling and the colour had bled down the wall. Someone had abandoned a pram and a broken umbrella on the threadbare carpet, but otherwise the corridor was empty and silent bar his own raking breaths. Feeling eyes on him, Sora sped up and exploded through the swinging doors into the stairwell. Behind him in the corridor was nothing. The feeling was still there though; prickling up his spine and making his mouth dry. He shuffled down the stairs quickly, leapt the last three and marched down the ground floor corridor to warn the Hendersons, hoping that a little human contact would scare away the incessant paranoia that was gnawing at his mind.
"Mister Henderson?" He called, knocking for a second time. Behind him the mirror-lined wall reflected him, bent and malformed from years of abuse. When no-one came to the door, Sora opened the letter box to try again. "Mister Henderson, the water's gone…Oh, hello sir."
Mr Henderson was a very tall, imposing man. Standing in his doorway, Sora couldn't see much past him in his bathrobe, but he knew that the meek Mrs Henderson would be on the sofa behind him.
"How can I help you, Master Strife?"
"Uhm, well there must be something wrong with the water tank because my sink is clogged up with all sorts of things. I've called a plumber and he's coming tomorrow, but I thought you should know. Oh, and it flooded my bathroom so, uh, if you see water dripping through the ceiling…" Sora felt a cold breath wash the back of his neck, and turned around. At that moment the pipes lining the wall opposite started to clank and groan.
"Strange things, hm? I hope your bathroom isn't damaged too much. If you need any help with repairs at all, I'm always available for painting and things."
"Thanks a bunch Mister Henderson, that means a lot. I'll leave you and your wife in peace now."
"Well thank you for letting us know, Sora." Sora flashed him his trademark grin and the man's expression softened.
"No problem. Goodnight Mister Henderson."
"Goodnight." The door began to close and, feeling much calmer and a little embarrassed at having got so emotional earlier, Sora turned to leave. There was a rumble from the pipes as he passed, but he ignored them and began to hum as he tackled the stairs once more.
X
Sora woke up in a dream. Around him was only air, but he felt like he was floating in the darkness, and currents pulled at his pyjamas and hair. Experimentally he took a breath, but found that he could breathe just fine. Kicking out with one leg, his body glided upwards a little. He grinned.
Summersaults were easy in the almost-weightlessness; he could twist and glide like he was flying. All the while he glowed like a night-light, an inner light that kept the darkness warm and fuzzy.
It was inevitable that that light went out.
Frozen arms, whiter than white, wrapped around his slender middle and the light was extinguished, pulling him downward. His shirt felt wet under the unwanted embrace, and although he wanted to scream he couldn't. The darkness became oppressive and water cascaded down his back before any sound was made.
"Please. I need your help." A voice gasped by his ear. It began to breathe heavily, and Sora's heart flipped. He ripped the arms off him, but felt something latch onto his wrist.
"I want to save you. I need your help." The creature pulling him was soaked to the bone, silver hair plastered to a pale face. Clothes were plastered to a defined chest that heaved and he couldn't see the eyes, hidden as they were by a blood blotted blindfold that seemed to be tied tight enough to leave huge red welts in the dead skin beneath. The figure opened his mouth, and water swept down his chin. "I'm trying to-" He gagged. "I'm trying to save you, help me."
"One…" An unknown voice called from the darkness and Sora's hand was released. He pulled it back to his body with a sharp sob, and looked around for the other voice.
"Two…" It continued. Looking back at the thing that had grabbed him, he saw hair, the very same hair that had crept out of his tap, begin to slink from under the blindfold. The figure panicked and began to tug and rip at it.
"Three…" The watery mouth opened again in a haunting scream, and was only silenced when the entire body had been consumed.
"Four…"
Drip.
AN: I've never written horror before. Gosh it would be so much more dramatic if I had visual stuff to play with instead of words…It's so hard to get the sudden terror across when writing. XD Anyway, thanks for reading! I shall start to explain Riku's story next chapter, and do tell if you have any knowledge in writing horror, it's a learning curve for me.