T.T.L.S: Ghosts Can Get Scared, Too

A/N: Just wanted to give my readers this little Halloween special to read while I'm working on Chapter 35 of my ongoing story, T.T.L.S. (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). Hope you enjoy!

Note: This will be a two part special.

In Karakura Town, the date was October 31, which could only mean one thing: Halloween. It was a day where it is said that ghosts come back from the dead and haunt those among the living. And not just spirits, but other monsters and creatures of the night join them, whether they were good or not. In the olden days, it was said the people who were alive would wear costumes and masks to disguise themselves as either ghosts or other spirits in hopes of being left alone while traveling at night. Another tradition was that bowls of food would be placed outside their home to please the ghosts and keep them from entering their homes. This eventually changed later on in the years, which then evolved into what we know as trick-or-treating, or what they called, "going a-souling".

These traditions are still used, even today. Children, teenagers, and even adults dressed up as scary beings of the night, or nowadays famous people, food, and other things they found interesting, donning their appearances just for the night. Meanwhile, kids would go house to house, asking for candy or any form of a "treat" at the door. If none, however, is given, then the "trick" was to be done on that house in particular. Teenagers were usually the main culprits, most without even having to trick-or-treat. Houses were littered with Jack-o-Lanterns, ghosts, zombies, and many other decorations that would scare anyone who came by. Haunted houses, festivals, parties, fairs, and so on were opened or held on this day to celebrate, as well.

Regardless of these interesting activities of different variations, there were still those handful of people who were reluctant in participating, no matter what. Ichigo Kurosaki was one them.

"Oh, come on, Ichigo!" Rukia whined, her hands on her hips as she stood in her costume. She dressed up as a witch wearing a thin-strapped, black dress stopping at her knees, matching ankle boots (which were of course off and at the front door of the Kurosaki home at the moment), a black and red cloak, and the classic witch hat. A witch's broom the same size as her was held firmly in one hand, completing the entire costume. "What do you have against Halloween? I just love how humans get to dress up as their favorite monster and go around scary the wits out of people while still getting candy!" A sparkle was in the raven haired girl's violet eyes as she couldn't wait to experience her first Halloween. She'd seen specials of it with Orihime and Alex and read so much about their traditions in the old, English times, along with a few ghost stories here and there, so it was no surprise that she would be excited for the event.

Ichigo lied on his bed with his hands folded behind his head, staring up at his ceiling with a bored look in his brown eyes. "It's not that I have anything against it; I just don't feel like going around asking for candy while dressed up like an idiot," he replied, frankly.

"Oh, so you're saying that I look like an idiot?" Rukia snapped, her face becoming comically angry at him.

Before Ichigo could answer, there was a knock on his bedroom window. He quirked a brow at the sound as he went over and opened it, wondering if anyone he knew was—.

"GAAAH!" he screamed whilst scurrying away from the window. It caused him to fall off his bed and land harshly on the wooden floorboards of his room. He grabbed his head as a shot of pain went through his cranium. Rukia watched the whole ordeal with wide eyes, asking if he was all right, though not in the sense he was thinking of. In response to her question, he unexpectedly shot up from the floor and grabbed something outside the window, yanking whatever, or whoever, inside, close to his pissed off face. "What the hell, Alex!? You don't just go around knocking on people's window, scaring the crap out of them!"

Rukia simply reacted with a dumbfounded stare. Blinking slowly, she just stood there, looking at the laughing girl and peeved boy. Meanwhile, said girl continued to laugh as she held her sides, unfazed by the threatening yet comical glare Ichigo gave her.

Alex just loved Halloween. It was her second favorite holiday, Christmas being first. She even decided to make her own costume instead of just buying one. With the clothes she had in her closet—as well some of her mother's clothes that fit her—she was able to come up with a Renaissance Ghost outfit.

A black corset hugged her waist with its ivory colored laces as it covered her chest with a sweetheart neckline. Underneath was a white and gray, long-sleeved, off the shoulder, tattered dress. The hem was cut into uneven shreds to add effects to the "haunted" or "dead" look. Most of her body was powder white as it was also seen on her legs from the front of the dress opening up to her thighs. The back flowed down near her ankles. On her feet were black, open-toed shoes. With her body being ghostly white, she put black lipstick on her lips and painted her eyes and the skin surrounding it the same color. Her hair was let down, only having to add water to it for the waves. Streaks of white were colored here and there into some of the strands.

The ghost-like appearance of the costume had made the scare all the more effective. To do it, the timing had to be perfect. With little to no civilians walking around the Kurosaki Clinic, Alex leaped up to Ichigo's bedroom window, knocked on it to get his attention, and used a Kido spell's energy to make an ominous, blue glow outline her body while making her hair spray out like a sun. Her expression was blank, almost dead, as if possessed.

"You had to admit—your face was priceless!" Alex said between laughs, tears outlining her eyes.

"Now you see why I hate Halloween; this kind of bull happens!" Ichigo said to Rukia, jabbing a finger at the still laughing Alex.

Rukia sighed. "Well, isn't that supposed to be part of the Halloween spirit?"

Fumbling over his words, Ichigo just gave up and waved it off, going back to sit on his bed. "Whatever, just get out of my room and get your damn candy, will ya?"

"No way! I'm not gonna let you be a bum and just sit here doing nothing while all of your friends are out having fun," Alex objected, finally ceasing her laughter and becoming her usual self. "Even your family is getting into the Halloween spirit!"

It's true. Karin was a zombie baseball player; Yuzu was a pink, fairy princess, and Isshin dressed up as her royal guard, which Alex found sweet and rather adorable.

"Your point?" Ichigo stared at her blankly.

She rolled her eyes at him. "My point is: get your lazy ass up, so we can have some fun. I'll even do your costume for you, like I did mine."

"Wait," Ichigo straightened up, raising both eyebrows, "you customized your costume yourself? You didn't buy it?" After receiving a simply "yeah" from Alex, he became highly impressed by her work. Even so, he still wasn't so sure about the whole Halloween thing. He'd rather stay at home and get some sleep, especially since there wasn't any school tomorrow. Then again, he probably wouldn't hear the end of it from his family and friends, as well as the two in front of him that somehow made his life hell most of the time. But, it was in a good sort of friendly kind of way, according to Alex and Rukia.

He scratched the back of his head, pondering over his decision to join them or not. "Well…"

Both girls leaned in comically and dramatically with impatient expressions, hoping he would make the right choice. This earned them an annoyed stare from yours truly.

Letting out a heavy sigh while shortly closing his eyes, Ichigo finally said, "All right, fine. I'll go—h-hey!"

With cheerful smiles, Alex and Rukia each grabbed an arm and took him to Alex's home, where they would begin to make him terrifying.

"Ta-da!" the girls sang as they were finished with Ichigo's costume. They brought over a body-length mirror in a corner of Alex's room and presented it to him, showing him their masterpiece.

Ichigo was dressed up to be like Frankenstein. They gave him a little white powder to his skin before giving him stitchings almost everywhere on his torso with some patches being colored gray. A long one went across his nose, another one all the way around his neck, where two bolts were placed on either side, two on his biceps that mirrored each other, and two more on his chest—with one around his abdomen and another having been split off from a stitching going down the left side of his chest. Corresponding to his left chest were three more bolts on his shoulder. A black piece of a hard material adorned his right shoulder and part of his right chest. Other pieces of the same material were on his wrists: the left one longer than the right. At the same time, a metal-looking material covered his wrist's forearm. A smaller plate of the same material rested on the back of the same hand, with stitchings on the left.

Topping it off were a pair of faintly green, tattered pants held up by a thick, black belt with a golden buckle around his waist. It went around it once before having the rest of the belt hang off. The legs of the pants were tucked in dark brown boots with many straps and golden buttons on them, reaching just below his knees.

"Well, what do you think?" Rukia asked, proudly folding her arms over her dress. "Pretty scary, huh?"

Ichigo merely blinked in the mirror, staring blankly at his reflection. He was actually quite impressed with the handmade costume. "Wow…."

"He's so impressed by our handiwork that we left him speechless!" Rukia observed, boastfully.

Alex smiled meekly at the two. She was glad that Ichigo agreed to join them in celebrating Halloween. It wouldn't really be that much fun without him… "All right, you two," she clapped her hands to get their attention, "since everyone is out doing their own thing—and my parents thankfully didn't plan a Halloween Bash—we're pretty much going solo tonight."

"Aww!" Rukia whined. "I actually like the parties your parents throw!"

"Tell me something I don't know…" Alex folded her hands over her chest, closing her eyes. "And the reason why there isn't going to be one this year—yes, emphasize on this year—is because of other parties being thrown today. Plus, there's also the festivals, fairs, and haunted houses, too. So, even if my mom and dad did find time to plan and throw the party, I don't think many people would've made it."

She did have a point there. Unlike last time, it was a birthday party, which wasn't celebrated near any holidays—national or international. But now, it was Halloween, a day nearly everyone planned for special events and other things.

With this in mind, Rukia sighed, having to accept defeat. "Well, at least we're not at a total loss; there's still plenty of things we can do tonight!"

"Like what?" Ichigo asked, folding his stitched arms over his bare chest.

"Weren't you listening? Alex said that there were festivals, fairs, and haunted houses! I'm positive for a fact that there's lots to choose from. And if all fails, we'll still have trick-or-treating for candy! Lots of it!" Rukia beamed at her own mentioning of the sweet goodness of the various treats she hoped to receive that evening. She could almost taste those chocolates and Pocky…

"Well, what are we waiting?" Alex smiled, tilting her head a little. "The sooner we get started, the better."

"Yeah!" yelled Rukia, whilst pumping a fist in the air.

"Oh, brother…" Ichigo merely shook his head. This was going to be fun.

The trio of friends arrived at the festival/fair being held close to Alex's and Ichigo's home, at least a twenty to twenty-five minute walk. Upon stepping foot on the spookified environment, the three are met with decorations set up to terrify the kids, activities and fun games like apple bobbing, a haunted house, a house of mirrors, the list goes on! The second they entered through the cobwebbed gates, Rukia was automatically in a trance of fascination, awe, and curiosity. Soon after, she bolted towards one of the booths, wondering how a caramel, candy apple tasted like…

"H-hey! Rukia!" Ichigo reached out to grab the petite Soul Reaper, but she was much too quick for him. He sighed at how easily fascinated she was with things of this world.

"Looks like she couldn't hold it in any longer," Alex observed while coming up to him.

"Yeah, guess so…" A collective sound of giggling reached Ichigo's ears. It sounded pretty close, yet it wasn't at the same time. "Hm?" He straightened up and looked around before noticing a group of second-years in high school gossiping about something. Or in this case, someone.

Alex took note of this, sending comically narrowed eyes to stare/glare in annoyance at the source of the giggling. Her ears picked up on words like, "cutie", "I love his costume!", or "I wish there were more guys like him at our school…" Stuff like that…actually bothered her. Reason why? She had absolutely no clue. However, she did have a clue as to how to deal with them.

Looking around, Alex searched for a sort of projectile to aim and launch at the group of girls, mainly the leader of said group. When her eyes landed on the buckets of apples, a mischievous glimmer shined in them. She casually walked off toward the apple bobbing tables, glad that not many people were at them yet. Careful not to ruin her powdered arms, each apple was picked up by the stem then shaken to get most of the water off. One of them was tossed and caught in the air as she looked for her target. With one final throw in the air, her hand grabbed it with a strong grip.

In a single instant, Alex went from a Renaissance Ghost to a professional baseball pitcher. Her already darkened eyes became that of a demon, narrowing into slits of pure white. The apple in her hand was brought back for a speedy pitch, even with one of her legs going up in the process like a real pitcher, and aimed for her targets.

Meanwhile, Ichigo was walking around, searching for his suddenly missing friend. Little did he know of the stares he got from the previous mentioned posse of second-years. He let out a sigh, rubbing his neck as if it were sore. "Jeez, I could understand if it was Rukia… Where the hell did she run off to?"

"Um, excuse me?"

"Hm?" He turned around to the gushing girls waving at him.

Smiling dreamily at him, the girl in the middle, dressed up as a pirate, pushed her fingers together as she tried to get out what she and her friends wanted to ask Ichigo. "We were wondering if you've already been to the haunted house."

"Oh," Ichigo fully turned his body around to face them properly, oblivious to their love-struck expressions. "Actually, no. I just got here not too long ago with a couple of friends." When they tried to suppress their giggling, he quirked at brow at them.

"Really? Well, my friends and I are headed there now. Would you like to join us?"

"Well…" Ichigo scratched his head in thought, unsure if he should really leave Alex and Rukia by themselves.

"If you're worried about your friends, we promise we won't be long!" another girl said, this one being a sort of superhero.

"Yeah!" added the first girl. "It'll only be a—."

An apple that flew towards the group, whizzing straight at her cranium, had cut her off, easily knocking her out cold, though in a comical fashion as she fell on her side with "X"s in place of her eyes. Her arms were like limp noodles on her way down, as well as her left leg while her right tried to keep her balance. The pirate's friends all freaked out and knelt down to help her, or to see if she was all right.

Ichigo watched with comical shock and slight fright. Snapping his head from side to side, he tried to find out where the flying apple came from. Brown eyes narrowed in the same comedic fashion as they spotted a ghost with white streaks in their hair trying to seem fascinated with the apples floating in buckets. 'What the hell…' He left the flock of girls worrying over their unconscious friend and headed for the single one as she continued to play the "I didn't do anything" act.

Leaning over the small pool of floating apples, Alex did her best to suppress a smirk. It wasn't that difficult for her, though, since something like this happened before. Not the whole throwing an apple or any object whatsoever ordeal, but a problem that needed great acting skills. It's not that she had great acting skills, but it was the fact that she was able to mask her true emotions with either a straight face of indifference, or any other that best suited the situation. She had plenty of practice for it as a kid. It would literally be child's play for her. Although, she was going to be dealing with Ichigo, and he was quite unpredictable, yet at the same time not.

The sound of heavy footsteps marching towards her made Alex switch her gaze from the apples to her orange haired friend portrayed as Frankenstein. "Oh, hey, Ichigo. Where've you been?" she greeted with a bored face.

"Cut the crap, Alex," he snapped at her, though with a comical face. "I know what you did, so don't even try to play dumb with me!"

"And I would be doing that because…?"

"You know what I'm talking about! Your knucklehead-self threw a friggin' apple 200mph at a random girl for no reason!" he accused, jabbing an index finger at her.

"And if I did, what proof do you have?"

"You standing by the apple bobbing buckets is more than enough proof."

"Oh?" She quirked a brow, even if barely seen by the black paint surrounding her eyes. Holding her hands out, she continued with, "Say I were to actually stick my hand in the buckets of water. If so, wouldn't the powder had come off my hands or arms by now, especially after drying them from the water?"

"Well…that's…" Alex had a good point, though. Ichigo could only wince at how right she was, realizing that the white make-up powder was still present and undisturbed by any liquid substance.

On the inside, Alex was smirking at how he fumbled with his words, wondering if he made a mistake to accuse her of doing such a thing at all. Even so, she would admit that she felt guilty for knocking that girl out. She wasn't intending on hurting anyone that far. In fact, she didn't mean to do anything at all! She sometimes wondered why she did what she did…

Ichigo brought her out of her thoughts with a single, heavy sigh. His hands were on his hips as his head was slightly lowered, and his eyes were closed. "Well, if you didn't do it, then who the hell threw the apple like a friggin' baseball pitcher?"

"Hell if I should know," Alex shrugged. Then an idea came to her when her eyes landed one of the fair's attractions not too far from where they stood. "…You know…"

"Hm?" Ichigo opened his eyes, looking at her curiously and waiting for her to continue.

"Well, to take our minds off of this whole thing, why not head over to the haunted house I keep hearing about? Sure, it might not be all that scary, but that doesn't mean we still can't check it out for the fun of it. How 'bout it?" she asked, nudging his arm with her elbow.

Ichigo stared at her with raised eyebrows, surprised that she was into those types of things. He was sure that Alex would be more of the stay-at-home type when it came to holidays like Halloween. But, he obviously thought wrong, since there they were, standing in a Halloween festival/fair in custom-made costumes. Ichigo glanced over at the grand attraction with the appearance of a haunted manor, wondering if he should really go along with her and have a look. "…I...guess we could."

An excited, bright smile broke across Alex's ghostly features. Even with the dark paint around her eyes, Ichigo could see them glimmer with excitement. It made him smile, too, but not to where it was noticeable. He wasn't going to allow himself to be seen going soft around Alex. An image needed to be kept.

Unexpectedly, she took Ichigo by the wrist and pulled him along toward the haunted house. He nearly tripped a few times on the way but managed to keep up with her. 'Honestly…I've never seen her this hyped up before…' Ichigo mused, sending a lopsided smile at Alex's back.

They soon arrived at their destination, greeted with a decent-sized line to enter, which continued to grow by the second. "Wow," said Alex, "I guess the haunted house must be their most popular attraction."

"Yeah…" Ichigo nodded.

Both waited as the line moved closer to the entrance. While doing so, the two looked around at the decorations and how well it was nicely put together. There were even times when Alex jumped at a few of the images set up around the grand building. She was scared to the point where she reached for someone to hold for comfort. With her luck, that someone turned out to be Ichigo. Of course, it had happened without her really knowing it.

"You're actually scared?" she heard him ask her, forcing her to look his way. She was then met with a comical, straight face.

Alex responded to his look with narrowed eyes boring into his soul. "What makes you say I'm scared?" she nearly shouted.

"Well, it could be because your holding my wrist a little too tight for comfort."

Green eyes dropped down to see a ghostly white hand grasping a metallic wrist rather securely. The blush forming on Alex's cheeks was able to show through the white make-up easily. She yanked her hand away from Ichigo's before folding her arms over her chest, huffing and puffing her red cheeks out while looking the other way. "Get real! I was making sure the material wouldn't come off; that's all."

"Sure you were…"

"What was that?" she demanded in a threatening tone.

Ichigo sighed, suppressing the urge to smirk at her obvious fright. "Look, it's okay to be scared of little things like scary pictures or Halloween decorations. No need to be sensitive about it—."

"I'm not being sensitive, and I wasn't scared!" Alex snapped, shooting a glare his way. "In fact, I'll prove it to you. I'll bet you a whole month of service that nothing in that haunted house will scare me."

"Oh, really?" Ichigo smirked, his arms mirroring hers. "All right, deal! If you really can go the entire two hours we're in there without wetting yourself, then I'll wager the same thing."

"Heh," she rubbed her nose boastfully, "then ya better get your suit ready, 'cause by the end of the night, I'll have you as my personal butler!"

"I wouldn't get so cocky if I were you," he warned mischievously.

By the time they were finished, it was finally there turn to enter through the rusty gates of the haunted attraction. This would surely be interesting, considering how quickly things escalated from a simple visit to the popular attraction to an all or nothing bet…

It had only been ten minutes into the personal tour of the haunted house, and Alex was already a single scare from falling off the edge of sanity. On several occasions, she reached for Ichigo's hand, actually grabbing it at least twice. Each time, she would yank it away from him, blushing like a bleeding tomato. All the while, Ichigo would be smirking and sniggering at her struggle, already tasting the sweet humiliation she would get once she was his personal servant. It would be payback for the abuse she and Rukia constantly gave him.

Not too long ago, one of the actors of the attraction popped out from a bedroom with (fake) blood dripping down the wound they feigned. It came from a butcher knife stabbed deep within their cranium. Alex had to use all of her willpower not to let out a mere yelp from her lips, also biting down on them in the process. The poor girl was on the verge of passing out if things kept up like this. Although it was true that she was indeed easily scared, Alex never showed it, depending on the situation. For instance, since it was Halloween, (and she honestly didn't know why) she was more prone to getting scared than the other days of the year. The reason for this, again, was unknown.

After the previous scare from the "butcher knife" actress, Alex and Ichigo were nearing the third leg of the tour. There were six in total, so they were almost done. However, Alex was becoming impatient and rather jumpy at this point. Her eyes would continuously search left and right for anything else that would come out and try to scare them. 'Haunted house, my ass!' she nearly shouted in her head, angrily. 'This is more like a friggin' mansion, if you ask me!'

Feeling something crawl on her bare shoulders, Alex reflexively shot a fist out to her left, hitting something—or rather someone—in the face. Somehow, she managed to suppress a yelp, scream, or any kind of noise. She turned her head and stopped in mid-step, realizing that she punched Ichigo.

Said boy stood up from the floor he recently fell on after getting hit whilst holding his hurt jaw. An angered, comical look began to glare at Alex in the form of white, shark-like eyes. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Why are you blaming this on me?" Alex snapped in the same fashion, shaking a fist at him. "It's your dumbass fault for taking the risk of getting knocked upside the head for pulling a stunt like that! You knew full well that I would react that way, especially since I had a feeling you were going to pull something so simple!"

"How was I supposed to know you were gonna go into friggin' defense mode? Who randomly punches things or people after getting scared like that, anyway?!"

"The hell should I know?! Jeez, you're unbelievable…" Snapping her head in the opposite direction, Alex crossed her arms before going on ahead, finalizing that she was ignoring him for the rest of the tour.

Meanwhile, Ichigo would only narrow his eyes at her, still pissed off about her punching him. Although…technically, it was his fault for trying to scare her like that. So, he really did deserve that hit. Sighing, Ichigo finally calmed down, not really angry with Alex anymore once thinking it over. He just hoped that she would forgive him for scaring her. Knowing her, it would most likely take a while…

The gap between Alex and Ichigo began to grow a bit too fast, so the latter had to hurry and catch up with the fleeing ghost before she would be out of his reach. Once caught up with her, Ichigo checked to see if she was still mad at him. And, she was, as expected. 'Man, I didn't think she would take it this seriously…' He scratched the back of his head, letting out another sigh as he walked next to Alex.

Things stayed that way for the next two legs of the haunted house tour. The two went through numerous opportunities for either to get scared, but there was no effect on them, especially Alex. Ichigo was shocked to see that not even the more realistic ones did absolutely nothing to her. She would merely stare at the actors and frightening objects that popped out of nowhere with a peeved expression on her ghostly features. Some of the nearby groups would be amazed at how immune Alex seemed to the haunted house. If only they saw her in the beginning.

For the final leg of the indoor attraction, Alex and Ichigo were met with a darkened hallway, the only light available coming from the moonlight that dimly shined through the windows. To their right was a sign in "blood" that read, "TAKE ONE", in big letters, a box of flashlights underneath it. They each took one for themselves before continuing with their self-guided tour. Of course, Alex continued to bear her peeved look, which surprised Ichigo, for he thought that she would've been uncomfortable with the darkness surrounding them.

'She must've outgrown it without anyone noticing,' Ichigo mused, raising both eyebrows at how calm she was in the ominous hallway. He and Alex then arrived at a crossroads with another group that was led by a tour guide. The guide halted their group as they shined flashlights on them. Alex stood unaffected by it, while Ichigo shielded his eyes from the brightness of it. 'What the hell?'

"Do not be alarmed everyone," the male guide informed the startled bunch, as part of the act, "it's only fellow wanderers trying to escape as well." At this, the group behind him relaxed, letting out sighs of relief as they were given a short break from the scares. They all hoped it would be over soon, so they could enjoy the rest of the Halloween without being nearly scared to death. Although it was quite a rush, most of everyone in the guided group had enough scares for one night.

Meanwhile, Ichigo began to frantically search around the area for a Renaissance ghost. Once the lights were off him, he noticed the empty space next to him. "Dammit, how the hell do I keep losing people?" Ichigo asked himself as he slouched his shoulders, dark shaded lines of mortification appearing over his head. "Alex!" he shouted, beginning to search for his missing friend, calling out her name, hoping she wasn't still mad at him from before and would actually answer back. "Alex!"

As Ichigo looked for Alex, said girl journeyed on her own in the dark hallway, hearing his calls and choosing not to reply. She wasn't exactly mad at him for scaring her. That was something she already forgave him for. She assumed that if she looked annoyed or unaffected by everything and everyone, then she wouldn't get as easily scared as before. Somehow, it actually worked. 'Maybe it's because I'm focusing my thoughts on pretending to be pissed off that I don't take notice to the scary things coming out of nowhere. If that's the case, then this bet is in the bag! But, at that cost, I'll look like I haven't forgiven Ichigo for scaring me earlier…' Alex's shoulders then started to droop from her previous excitement. A sigh then followed afterwards, causing the entire façade to melt away. Gently appearing on her black lips was a soft, small smile. "I guess I'll have to apologize for that when this is all over. Heh, I might've even drop the current wager and just have the prize being the loser's candy once we all go trick-or-treating after this," she declared, her smile growing into a wider and brighter one.

After making her final decision definite, Alex continued onward toward the exit/shop at the end, where she would wait for Ichigo in the meantime. But the further she got into the hallway, the more confusing everything seemed to be. Almost twice did she come up on a dead end, having to backtrack her steps and go a different direction. Her not being able to maneuver through the haunted house began to bring discomfort to her.

'Calm down, Alex,' she consoled herself, 'keep a steady head, or you might make things worse…'

Alex took in a few deep breaths to help relax her mind. She knew she didn't do well while under pressure. So, as long as she stayed calm, everything would be all right. This was something Alex had to remind herself from time to time as she continued to find her way throughout the grand building.

"Like I said before," Alex groaned in a comic fashion, "haunted house, my ass… I know for sure that this has to be a huge, labyrinth type of mansion. I've passed by this door at least three times now!"

Feeling like she was going in circles, Alex tried checking out a few rooms that might help. A few of them were meant to scare her upon entry, most were quite safe, and others seemed like they were set up to be a sort of break room for the actors and actresses all over. Unfortunately, almost all of them were empty. 'No luck… Guess I'll have to keep looking.'

The same had went for Ichigo as he went around the mansion, asking as many tour guides and staff members nearby that might've had a clue as to where Alex was. None had seen her, yet. With a look of disappointment, he thanked them before continuing his search. He knew she wasn't out yet, because he could sense her presence constantly moving around the… "Man, I'm such an idiot!" Ichigo said, smacking himself in the face as he would simply use her spirit energy to track her down. How could he have not thought of this before? By the looks of it, Alex was all the way up on the top floor. It wasn't too far from where he was.

In all honesty, Ichigo was ready to go home, take a shower, and go bed at this point. All of that running around made him a little tired.

At the same time, Alex, too, was getting tired from the wild goose chase. Although, at least now it wasn't so dark in the floor she was on. She turned off her flashlight before checking out several more rooms. The last room she scavenged seemed like a sort of study, yet it looked like a gallery with all the different paintings hung around the spacious room. Inside, she saw a figure standing near a table of food. 'Finally, someone that can help me!' "Excuse me? Could you help me find my way to the exit? I think I went too far off track from the set up routes."

"Hm?" a young man's voice said as they looked over their shoulder. Lifting up the horrific mask he wore over his quite handsome features, a smile broke across his face as he saw that she had gotten lost. It's no surprise, really. It was the fifth time that night. "Of course! You're actually the third person that's asked me so far. Take the stairs down the hall on your left and…miss?" His blue eyes blinked in confusion at the girl dressed up as a ghost. It was ironic how she looked like she had just seen one. Her body became stiff, and her own eyes seemed dearly frightened as they shook. "Are…are you all right, miss?"

What the young man didn't realize was that while he was pointing in the direction of the aforementioned stairs, he used the kitchen knife he was using to cut up a few donuts in half for his friends as a pointer. While that happened, the moonlight coming from the window reflected off of its blade just before a cloud passed by. It wasn't big, nor was it small. But, the amount of time the moon was hidden from view was enough to trigger Alex's worst childhood memory—the night where the robber nearly killed her.

Alex felt her whole body go numb as it quivered and shook in fear. The hand holding the flashlight lost its grip on it before letting it slip through her fingers and hit the wooden floorboards. Her heart couldn't decide as to whether speed up furiously or slow down drastically. Every single part of her body went cold. Her once lively green eyes that usually held a bored, sarcastic look in them were seemingly lifeless and dilated while trembling. She felt her throat instantly dry up, unable to produce any sounds whatsoever. A couple, strands of hair fell in front of her terrorized face as her black lips slowly parted then closed again. It was as if that same, burly man with his greedy, sweaty hands stood right there in front of her, only this time, she imagined a psychotic grin painted on his meaty features.

He started to move toward her, now, which she believed were her last moments of life. 'I don't…want to die…' Alex kept repeating quietly in her head. 'I don't want to die… Someone…h-help me… P-please, help me… Ichigo… Ichigo…' she whispered, mentally, getting softer with each word.

The young staff member of the haunted house removed his hood to reveal a mess of chin-length, black hair as he neared the shaking girl before her. He couldn't tell if she was getting pale because of the make-up on her skin, so he wasn't able to see if it was a medical issue affecting her. The kitchen knife was already set down on the decorated snack table, so there was nothing in his hands as he reached down to rest a concerned hand on the girl's shoulder. Even now, he never understood why what happened, happened, after that.

"ICHIGO!"

To be continued in Part 2.