Resurrection
By: Alicia Maxwell
It was a beautiful night. Cool, breezy, and creeping with the eerie aura of ghosts. It would be a perfect night to speak with the dead… if the living hadn't dragged me to Relena's stupid costume party.
Heero was a cowboy and Wufei was a ninja. I was sure the two of them were planning to fight and see if a katana could triumph over a derringer so I made sure to stay away from them. Duo and Hildie were both dressed as hippies. The look fit Duo but something about Hildie in a tie-dye shirt looked freaky. Noin and Zechs were dressed as Cinderella and Prince Charming. Relena was a fairy princess, Sally was a soldier because she was dying to put on her old uniform again, Cathy and Trowa were circus performers, and Quatre... well… Quatre was uncomfortable with wearing the Shinto priest costume I made so I let him wear his ordinary clothes. As for me, I was quite content in wearing ten kimonos, which symbolized nobility in ancient Japan.
"Hey Alicia," Relena came up to me. "Is it me or… does the party seem to be… dying?"
"It died when Duo tried to break dance to 'The Monster Mash'," I retorted.
"Is there anything you can do to… liven things up?" Relena asked hopefully.
"You want me to spike the punch?" I asked. "Sorry Peacecraft. I don't do that. Ask Duo."
"Actually I was hoping you'd do something in the area of performance," she replied.
"Like what?" I demanded.
"Sing, dance, play music… juggle fire for all I care," she answered in a whisper.
"How about raising the dead?" I gave an evil grin and led her off into the next room, dragging Quatre along with us.
Basic chit-chat was what the party had been reduced to by the time I finished with the plan. The plan was perfect. I was ready to resurrect the dead. Relena and I reentered the room. Relena took a seat and I stood up in front of the others.
"Ladies and gentlemen… and Duo," I singled out my twin sibling spitefully, "prepare to be amazed!"
"By what, your stupidity?" Duo asked, returning a malicious insult.
"Spirits of the dead, rise and live again. Spirits of the dead, rise and live again.
Spirits of the dead, rise and live again," I chanted softly for a solid minute. "SPIRITS…, RISE!" I shouted.
The room began to spin before me. I was dizzy, cold, tired, and queasy. It was only seconds before the lightning began to flash and by the third clap of thunder, I had passed out, leaving the others to deal with the ghost- the ghost of Treize. Of course, I hadn't really been sick and I had not passed out. Actually, it was all part of the scheme and I was getting a floorboard view of the entertainment… and I was getting it with a camera.
The hologram ghost let out a maniacal laugh that sent shivers down even my spine. "Is t-that… Treize!?!" Duo shrieked, nearly jumping into the nearest person's arms. This "nearest person" happened to be Trowa and Trowa didn't want to bother with it. When Duo jumped, Trowa stepped back two or three feet, leaving Duo to fall flat on the floor.
"Hey, where's Quatre?" Heero asked calmly. "And where did Treize go?"
"Treize is gone!?" Wufei's head jerked around to where he had last spotted the apparition. Sure enough, it was no longer there.
"Guys! Help! Help! Somebody help me! Please! HELP!" Quatre's cried echoed across the room.
"That's Quatre's voice!" Noin gasped when she recognized it.
"Help! Help! Treize has me! HELP!" another cry went out. Then, a thud was heard and all fell silent.
"He got Quatre!" Duo shook Trowa. "Treize got Quatre! And he whacked him! He whacked him!!" he cried hysterically.
"C-calm down, Duo, I-I'm sure Q-Quatre's f-f-fine," Heero told him shakily.
"Ya see! YA SEE!" Duo shook Trowa harder. "Even HEERO'S terrified! We're doomed! Doomed I tells ya!" Duo had released Trowa's collar when he went to flail his arms about while speaking of the impending doom but Trowa hadn't stopped shaking. Now, Trowa, too, was scared.
I slid my foot down onto a key on my hidden keyboard. Time for Quatre to reenter the scene…
A hologram ghost of Quatre came slowly down the stairwell. It paused and smiled warmly, "Hi guys! What's going on?"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" an ear-piercing collective scream echoed across the house and, I'm almost positive, Relena's closest neighbors, who lived a mile down the road, must have heard it.
"Okay Maxwell," Wufei flicked on the lights. "I've had enough of your cheesy light show! Get up off the floor!"
"Heh," I flung myself up and turned toward him, camera still in hand and recording, "How'd you figure it out 'Fei?"
"When I saw what was behind this curtain," Wufei replied yanking the curtain away and revealing Quatre. "He moved enough to open the curtain for a split second and I saw in."
"What's going on?" Duo blinked.
"Alicia and Relena cooked up a little scheme," Trowa said. "Would the genius like to explain her work to the ill-educated public?"
"Thank you Trowa. It all started off with the chant, as you all probably remember. All that happened after the chant- the shivering, the fumbling, the passing out- it was all pure acting skill." I smiled.
"The lightning? That was the one thing I couldn't figure out," Wufei said.
"Pure coincidence. We didn't make the lightning or plan it in any way," I answered.
"Now explain the 'ghosts' if you will, Alicia," Trowa asked politely.
"Okay. The ghosts were just projected holograms I control with this keyboard attached to my ankle," I pulled up slightly on the bottom of my kimonos. "They were projected from that alcove on the next floor," I pointed up. "Then we gave Quatre a microphone and sent him behind the curtain. And, that, in a nutshell, is how I fooled you all into thinking Treize was back and Quatre was dead and got an amazing video in the proce--"
"What is it, Alicia?" Duo asked.
"I have to go there. I have to go there. I have to go there. I have to go there. I have to go there. I have to go there. I have to go there," I droned softly, an eerie look plastered on my face. I remember nothing past the first "I have to go there" but Duo told me what I did.
"You went up to an old tombstone in the graveyard that hadn't been taken care of in years," Duo told me, "and you pulled the weeds off the grave. Your skin took on a ghostly glow and, then, after sitting quietly for a few minutes, you stood up and said in an eerie voice not your own, 'Happy Halloween…'."
THE END
