Halloween Spirit

'I wonder… Just how did I get stuck in this situation?' Ichigo wondered sitting outside the costume shop at the mall. He was finally at his breaking point, the night where not only did Kiego become a total idiot, but everyone else did too. Tomorrow night was Halloween. So just how did he end up sitting outside the costume shop in the mall? Only one thing, someone blabbed to Rukia about Halloween.

It was a normal response. The usual 'What the heck is this howl-a-ween thing?' and the 'I should participate in order to learn the ways of this world.' …the usual. Thankfully, he was able to convince her it was nothing special… that is until Kiego had to tell them about… haunted houses.

"IICHIGO!" Yelled towards him.

Ichigo intercepted him and casual kept eating his lunch as the idiot whined on about nothingness. He had ignored him for a bit, when he finally tuned in to what he was saying again. 'What is he saying to Rukia? Costumes? Candy? Oh god no.." He finished his thoughts quickly before jumping to Kiego to shut him up as fast as possible, but it was too late.

'Ichigo? What's this howl-o-ween?' she asked as though it was no big deal at all.

He shrugged and responded with a 'Nothing special. Don't worry about it.' But it wasn't good enough for her, as usual.

After finally explaining to her what it was, and why she shouldn't want to go out acting like an idiot, he thought he was safe. That is until Kiego challenged him to a dare…

Why did he take the dare? Simple reason: Kiego swore to never hit on Rukia again, in private to him of course. And although, this shouldn't bother him at all that that other guys liked Rukia, this was Kiego. He HAD to accept.

'Fine then, I'll take Rukia to the haunted house.'

So… There he was, sitting outside, waiting for Rukia to pick up a costume. He had heard that it was rated the 2nd most haunted house in the world… but he wasn't buying it. He had seen a lot scarier then ghosts, and they didn't bother him at all. Suddenly his thoughts where interrupted by a small raven haired girl walking out of the store, in the instant he saw her costume, he knew he was in for a night.

"…It's huge." Said a bewildered Rukia staring at the huge house.

It was huge indeed. A large, and rickety looking, blue-white house. It didn't even look like a tourist attraction. Large weeds grew outside of it, and a large picket fence surrounded the mansion.

"You scared? I didn't think you'd get frightened this quick.. Sheesh." Said Ichigo bluntly.

"Of course not! I just figured more people would be around." She snapped back.

"It is a bit odd. I wonder where everyone is… I guess.. we just go in and pay when we come out? Maybe it's the kind where you only pay if you make it to a certain point…" He noted, a bit unsurely.

They slowly walked towards the house. Walking past a large broken mirror in the yard. Ichigo recapped on his dark robes that gave him an excuse to call himself a "Death God", and Rukia's long white dress with the white bunny ears and tail.(You were expecting something else?)

The house really was huge, when they arrived, they slowly creaked open the front door, expecting a ton of people to be lined up, but when it slowly creaked open, there was no one.

"This has to be a trick. It can't be this empty." Noted Ichigo.

"Well… You're the one that got directions… This IS the place right?"
"Of course it is!" snapped Ichigo back.

"Whatever you say."

They continued in, without any sign of human life. All around them were dark dreary walls devoid of color and pictures with broken edges. Most of the pictures had barely visible faces, and Ichigo silently reminded himself in his head to not try to figure out what the pictures actually were. Every step creaked, and every rug blew up dust and cotton balls.

Suddenly, a small squeal pierced through the hallway that they had gone down, barely noticeable. "O-oi… did you hear that?" Asked Ichigo. "Uhh.. I'm pretty sure it was only the wind… That's what it was…" Replied Rukia assuredly. Ichigo knew right away it caught her off guard too by the shakiness of her voice. They had gone down many different hallways, and still no people were to be seen.

"Are you positive you know where we're going in here Ichigo?" Asked Rukia.

"How would I know?! I've never been here!" He replied, frustrated.

"Wait! I see a door over here!" Rukia cut him off, pointing towards a door concealed under some spider webs. She cleared through them and showed Ichigo more clearly. "No way. The door covered in spider webs ALWAYS leads somewhere bad." Ichigo reminded not only her, but himself. He turned away form the door the walk a different direction whiel still listening to Rukia's protests, when suddenly he heard her shriek.

He turned quickly to see Rukia dangling from a hole in the floor.

"Rukia!" He shouted, running towards her. He quickly ran to her side and grabbed her hand. "Get me out of here you fool! And you were wrong! It's the area OUTSIDE of the creepy door that's bad!" She yelled sarcastically. Ichigo only grunted in reply. It wasn't that fact the Rukia was heavy that was keeping him from pulling her up, no, not the 80ibs girl. It was the fact that something was actually pulling her down.

The struggle didn't last long, as Ichigo was pulled down with Rukia through the hole. After landing in a heap, Rukia quickly darted up to find who had dragged them down there.

"Oi, don't look so frantic, I'm sure you just caught a board or something." Ichigo said.

"No way. There was something there. I know it!" She said matter-of-factly. They had no time to chat, as another louder scream pierced the quiet halls. This time, the fear showed on both of their faces. Ichigo and Rukia both noticed each other's scared expressions… but Ichigo managed to hide his first.

"Scared are we?" he asked quickly.

"N-no… but obviously you're pretty damn scared!" Rukia replied shakily.

"Come on, it's obvious." He replied with a smirk.

"Well… maybejustalittlebit.." she mumbled.

Before he had any chance to reply, a shadow caught his eye. He motioned for Rukia to follow silently. The shadow led them to another door, it was there that they paused.

"You realize this is the same situation right…" Asked Ichigo worried.

"… Well…" Rukia didn't know how to reply. For some time they just stared at the door. Until. "Well. I'm not just going to sit here… if this IS in fact a Haunted House then let's just see it for ourselves!" She asked, assuredly walking towards the door. But as she grabbed the handle an ear piercing yelp cried out. Rukia sprang back so quick you wouldn't notice, that is, unless she was clinging to you like she currently was to Ichigo.

"W-What the hell are you doing?! Don't get so freaked!" He said in a stupor.

Noticing their position Rukia frantically pulled away mumbling quickly about something. "Cough ok then… how about you open the door, oh brave one." She replied with a slight blush.

"Fine since you're too chicken to do it yourself." He said reaching for the handle.

They didn't stick around for very long after that door opened. They were running out of that building faster then Ganjyu when his sister was in a bad mood. Beyond that door they witnessed the horrifying remains of deceased people. Murdered? They really didn't want to find out, all they wanted to do was get the hell out.

When they finally ended up out of the freaky doors of the freaky mansion, which Rukia claimed many times on the way out to have seen more things running around, they heaved a long breathe of relief. Only to realize they were tangled in each other's arms out of fear. They quickly recovered themselves, just as Kiego showed up dressed as a witch with a giant sack of candy.

"Oi! What are you guys doing here?? You totally missed the party!" He said smiling.

"We were freaking running around in this stupid tourist attraction when we got held up by ghosts!" Ichigo and Rukia shouted in unison. "We ran around that stupid place for----…. Wait.. What? We missed the party?" Asked Ichigo confused.

"But we've been here the entire time…" Rukia finished for Ichigo.

"What? No way! Lemme see my directions!" Demanded Kiego

After several seconds of 'looking over' Kiego's face darkened a bit.

"H-hey guys… Funny story! Um… That's a 9.. not a 4.. heh." He said reluctantly. And that's all it took to get Ichigo chasing him.

Rukia sighed in the backround, and reminded herself never to trust men with directions again.