Summary: Friday nights are movie nights for the high school basketball players of Kanagawa. A scary movie one such night marks the start of a series of horrific adventures. Ongoing. Edited and re-uploaded (with no little misgiving).
A/N: Originally published between March and May 2008, making it one of my first fics on this site. I deleted this way before the "Purge", and have lately been revising it pretty heavily, mostly for grammar and choice of words. I made some embarrassingly bad choices with regard to characterization in the foolish days of my youth, which I have rectified. Still editing this, but I will try uploading chapters periodically.
Also, I've used the character names (i.e. first names for some characters, last names for others) that are used in the English dub, because that was all I was familiar with in the time period adverted to above.
EDIT: I've restored the names to their proper form. Not a big deal, since I'm editing this story anyway.
When the Clock Strikes One
Chapter 1
Friday nights were movie nights for the high school basketball players of Kanagawa. Every Friday Mitsui, Rukawa, Sakuragi, and Kogure of Shohoku, Sendoh of Ryonan, Maki, Jin, and Kiyota of Kainan, and Fujima and Hanagata of Shoyo would meet at one of their houses to watch movies.
This Friday it was Sendoh's turn. Sendoh was waiting in the living room for his friends to arrive.
"They're late," he said to himself, glancing up at the wall clock.
The doorbell rang, and Sendoh got up to open the door.
"Hey guys," he said cheerfully. "You're late."
"Sorry," said Kogure. "We were kind of caught up at Sakuragi's house."
Sakuragi fumed.
"Rukawa's the reason we're late," he complained.
"Whatever. Come on in."
They stepped into the foyer.
"Parents are not in town," said Sendoh, leading the way to his home theater.
"What are we watching tonight?" said Kiyota.
Sendoh snickered evilly, and turned around, holding up a DVD.
It was When the Clock Strikes One.
"No way!" said Kiyota, eyes widening. "That's the scariest movie of the century."
"Are you sure you want to watch this?" said Jin.
"Of course," said Sendoh, smiling widely.
"I only ask because I heard that about half a dozen people died of heart attacks at the first screening."
Sendoh waved aside Jin's concerns.
"It was probably because of the loud noises. I'll turn down the volume in the loud parts."
"When do we start?" said Mitsui.
"Ten-thirty," said Sendoh.
It was 10:20 then.
"What do we do until then?"
"I'll make us some popcorn."
Sendoh went into the kitchen, followed by Jin and Kogure, and returned a short while later with five big bowls of popcorn.
Then they started the movie.
Everyone munched on popcorn excitedly. Even Rukawa was wide awake. Hanagata wiped his glasses with a handkerchief as the previews gave way to the movie.
The very first scene was a scary one. It started with a teenage boy who lived in a large house all by himself. He came home from a party late one night, and heard voices in his bedroom. When he entered he saw a woman hanging from the ceiling by a noose. Her skin was decomposed, and her eyes were wide and glassy. Her body turned gently in the air as the rope twisted and untwisted against gravity. Then suddenly the camera closed in on her face, and her mouth curled into a grotesque smile, revealing rotting teeth and gums. The boy screamed. A week later, the neighbors, who grew suspicious about the boy's sudden disappearance, broke into the house to find the boy hanging from the ceiling where the ghost woman had hung earlier.
Everyone's eyes were wide with fear. Kogure was watching in excitement, Rukawa was still, Mitsui frowned slightly, and Kiyota and Sakuragi were shaking. Jin swallowed a few times, and Maki sat with his arms folded and a serious expression on his face. Hanagata was smiling from ear to ear, and Fujima's eyes were narrowed. Sendoh felt a chill run down his spine, and suspected that hair gel was not the only thing keeping his hair spiky that evening.
The movie switched to a different scene. A young woman returned to her apartment late one night, and entered without turning on the lights. She worked in construction, and set her hardhat down on the couch with a sigh. Then she went into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. She opened the fridge with her back to the kitchen door. The camera focused on the door, where the silhouette of a woman appeared suddenly. A flash of lightning. The silhouette belonged to a sallow-skinned woman with disheveled black hair that reached the ground and dead glassy eyes. Her black dress billowed in a nonexistent wind. Then the screen turned black, and the woman's scream pierced the night.
This was enough to frighten even Rukawa, who swallowed, eyes wide as saucers. Kiyota and Sakuragi were hugging cushions, digging their nails into the fabric. Kogure was grinning almost maniacally, sitting on the edge of his seat. Mitsui yawned, Maki exhaled deeply, and Jin wiped sweat off his forehead. Hanagata, like Kogure, was on the verge of bursting into maniacal laughter. Fujima smiled lopsidedly. Sendoh shifted awkwardly in his seat, and collided with Maki, who patted him on the back.
It transpired that the woman was the ghost of a village girl who had been cursed at the age of sixteen with eternal life because she had had a child with a man out of wedlock. The curse operated on her soul, which was forced to languish on earth even after her mortal body had crumbled to dust. The spirit found eternal repose at the end of the movie. The last scene took place in the bedroom of a young girl. She lay asleep on top of white satin sheets. Haunting crib music played in the background. Suddenly the girl opened her eyes to reveal the same dead glassy eyes that the ghost woman had had.
Maki turned on the lights as soon as the movie ended.
Kogure laughed.
"I loved it!" he said exuberantly. "It was such a good movie. Thanks a bunch, Sendoh!"
Sendoh smiled tepidly. He was more shaken than he had expected to be.
"Honestly, I thought it was pretty boring," said Mitsui with a yawn. "I mean, they didn't explain how the village folks' curse worked. Like, the physics and stuff behind souls and life after death."
Kogure cast a confused look at Mitsui, since Mitsui had never struck him as the sort of person who thought a great deal about the physics of things.
"I agree with Mitchy," said Sakuragi. "It didn't make any sense."
Kiyota laughed.
"That's 'cause you're dumb."
Neither he nor Sakuragi would ever acknowledge that they had been the most frightened.
"Honestly, some scenes were just gruesome," said Fujima, who looked faintly green.
"You're too squeamish, Kenji," said Hanagata with a click of the tongue.
Maki yawned, and glanced at the wall clock. It was past midnight.
"It's getting late. I think we should make a move now."
They exited the home theater, and went out into the foyer.
A rainstorm had started outside. Flashes of lightning were visible in the windows, followed by deafening claps of thunder.
Maki groaned.
"I really don't want to walk all the way to the train station in weather like this," he said.
"You're welcome to stay," said Sendoh. "Like I said, my parents are out, and I think I can lay out some rugs, grab some blankets."
Fujima nodded.
"Thanks, Sendoh."
The grandfather clock at the bottom of the staircase began chiming.
"It's one o'clock," said Sendoh with a sigh. He laughed in an attempt to shake off his unease. "I guess we can expect weird things to start happening."
"What's the matter?" said Mitsui. "Scared?" He yawned widely. "It was just a movie."
"H'm," said Sendoh.
Then a clap of thunder shook the house, louder than the thunder had been previously, and the lights went out.
"Oh boy," said Sendoh with a sigh.
"Don't worry," said Kogure the ever-prepared boy scout. "I have a flashlight."
He unzipped his backpack in the dark, rummaged through it, and pulled out a powerful flashlight, which he proceeded to shine in everyone's face and around the foyer.
"Where are we sleeping?"
"Living room, I guess," said Sendoh, wincing as Kogure shined the flashlight in his face. "It's big enough for everyone to sleep comfortably on the floor. And get that light out of my face."
Kogure laughed sheepishly.
"Someone needs to come upstairs, and help me with the blankets and pillows," Sendoh went on.
Maki and Hanagata followed Sendoh up to the second floor, where Sendoh, using the light from Kogure's flashlight, picked out ten blankets and a few pillows from the storage closet at the far end of the hall. They carried them downstairs. Together with the cushions on the couch they would have ten pillows.
"I can sleep on the couch," said Hanagata, figuring that only nine people would be able to fit on the living room floor.
Then everyone settled down to sleep.
Silence for five minutes. Then Kiyota broke the silence.
"I can't sleep."
"Neither can I."
"Neither can I."
"It must be the adrenaline from the movie," said Hanagata. "We're going to have a hard time falling asleep, unfortunately."
Rukawa was snoring.
"Well, some of us anyway."
"Why don't I tell a story?" said Kogure in a sly tone.
"If it's scary, you can forget about it," said Maki. "It could kill some of our weak-hearted friends."
He was alluding to Kiyota and Sakuragi.
"Fine," said Kogure. He sounded disappointed.
"Do you guys believe in ghosts?" said Sendoh at length.
Kogure stammered something about desperately wanting to believe, but ultimately conceded that he didn't. Everyone else said that they didn't.
All except for Hanagata.
"As a matter fact, I do," he said. Then he went on before Maki could protest. "Let me tell you this story—a true story—that took place when I was living in Tokyo. I was about ten years old. One day we had an event or something at school, and all the students in my grade were required to participate. Parents had to come and watch their children make fools of themselves.
"A friend of mine and I had organized a play. It was a pretty brilliant concept, now that I think about it, and we were all pretty excited. An hour before the start of the show we were supposed to be in our costumes, and ready to go onstage at any time. My partner still hadn't shown up, and the teachers were getting worried, because he had a pretty major role. I mean, without him, there might as well be no play. Knowing my friend, he was too committed to the thing to miss it. If he'd been sick, his parents would have sent word through me or one of the teachers. In the end, our play had to be canceled, much to everyone's dismay.
"I was worried about him, so I went over to his house. The air was thick with gloom, for some reason. It was very strange. His parents were sitting at the table. His father's expression was dark, and his mother had been crying. They didn't have to tell me he died, because I knew at that moment that he was no more. It turned out he had been hit by a car that morning when he was crossing the street, and died on the spot. His father died of a heart attack a month later, and his mother went to live with her mother. The house was locked up, furniture and all. I guess she never tried selling it.
"A year passed. One evening I found myself walking in front of the house. The sun was setting, and it was already pretty dark. I looked up at the second-floor window of his bedroom, and saw a flickering light inside, like the light from a TV. The neighborhood was quiet enough so that I could make out the sound of his favorite video game when I walked up to the porch. It was all very strange, since the windows on the first floor were all boarded up, and a large padlock hung on the front door. The voice in the video game suddenly exclaimed, 'You won!' After that I heard a triumphant 'Yes!' in the voice of my friend. I could have recognized it in a crowd.
"I was pretty scared at this point, so I called up to the window, 'Who's there?' Then the video game stopped suddenly. The light from the TV vanished. Silence surged back into the neighborhood and into my ears. I turned to look at the house one more time as I walked back up to the street. It gaped at me like a lifeless thing. No, there couldn't possibly have been anyone inside. I decided never to go back to that neighborhood again.
"Once or twice after that I thought I caught a glimpse of his face in a dark alley, or on the back of my eyelids when I closed my eyes on a bright day. Sometimes I thought I saw the heels of his favorite sneakers disappear around a corner on a busy afternoon. That's the most that happened.
"Then one day, when I was in junior high, I unwittingly found myself in front of his house again. It had aged a great deal over the years. In fact, it was almost nothing like the house I used to visit every day as a kid. The lawn was overgrown, and the little garden path had completely disappeared under grass and mud. Ivy covered the first-floor walls, and the paint had worn off everywhere else. The porch was littered with dried leaves and branches that knocked against the rotting wood and swirled in the wind. One of the pillars on the porch had broken in half, giving the house a kind of lopsided appearance. The window to my friend's room still looked over the street like a terrible eye. I looked up, expecting to hear that old video game again, but all was quiet.
"Only a few weeks later I read in the newspaper that they had demolished the house, and were planning on building a park there. A year passed, and I was in my second year of junior high. The sun had already set, and I was passing by the park where my friend's house used to be. It was empty except for a boy of about ten swinging gently on an unoiled swing. I couldn't see his face in the dark, but something told me that this was the boy who had failed to show up to the school play he and I had organized all those years ago, and had died while crossing the street. I suppose I wanted to believe that more than anything else. I turned my back on the boy, on the park, on my friend's house forever, and moved to Kanagawa in my third year of junior high.
"Even now, sometimes, when the wind blows from the direction of Tokyo, I like to imagine that I can hear his voice, shouting 'Yes!' as he wins his video game."
An eerie silence followed Hanagata's story.
"Wow, Hanagata," said Kogure, wiping a tear. "You're an amazing raconteur."
"That wasn't a story," Hanagata insisted. "It was all true."
"But the way you said it was pretty chilling," said Mitsui. "I would rather listen to your stories than watch When the Clock Strikes One."
"I told you, it was not a story." Hanagata grinned in the dark. "But I suppose I chose my words well?"
"You sure did," said Maki.
"Aw, Hanagata," said Fujima as two sets of teeth chattered violently next to him. "You scared Sakuragi and Kiyota to death."
"Let's try sleeping now," said Maki, who was tired.
Then something crashed in the kitchen.
Sendoh sat up bolt upright.
"What was that?"
"We'll have to go and see," said Maki.
tbc.
A/N: As you can see, it still reads like something written by a kid, which it sort of was. Let me know if it sucks or something.
Fun fact: This fic was inspired by the fic Movie Night by delusional-lady. At least the parts about it being a horror fic, about Friday nights being movie nights, and about players from all over Kanagawa gathering to watch movies.