A very familiar tree passed her for the fourth time and a loud exhale of aggravation filled the silent car, a rusted Beetle that was white at some point in time. It was pitch black outside and the woods were eerie, Sakura lamented her luck that she would lose her way in such an area. The view of the dirt road before was slightly marred by the Jason hockey mask reflected in the windshield, bloodied for the spook factor. The rumble of the gravel going under her Beetle was loud in the otherwise empty road as she crawled along- Ino and Naruto had always said she drove like an old lady, she recalled bemusedly. The shoulder of the frayed, dirtied brown jacket slipped over her shoulder again and she took a hand off the wheel to tug it back in place with gloved fingers.
Sakura veered the car over to the side of the road onto the grass, she was getting low on gas and needed to get proper directions before she wasted it all. Pulling an old yellow flip-phone out of her pocket, dialing Ino's number. She has to rip off her gloves with her teeth, tossing it to the side, and repeat her actions, this time with somewhat calloused fingers. Placing the speaker next to her ear, she impatiently tapped the steering wheel in quick rhythm and listened to the vibrating tone.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up, pick-," her chant was cut off by a female automated voice.
"Apologies, but this cellular device cannot reach the number dialed. Please try again later or in a different area."
The "No Connection" notice on her screen mocked her. "Damn it!" The exclamation was whispered.
Kicking open the driver's side door she stepped out onto the half-dead grass and raised her phone in the air above her head, narrowing bright emerald eyes to peer up at the Wi-Fi logo. Beeping rang through the night as she locked her car before wandering around blindly, hoping for a signal to be blessed unto her cellphone. The lack of street lights made the place especially eerie and Sakura was eager to get her directions and get going. "Stupid pig with her stupid parties," it was a muttered rant under her breath, along with other choice profanities.
A chilling wind tussled the strands of pink hair that weren't tied up in a tiny choppy ponytail and stung her face. "Sure am glad I have this though," She chattered through shaking teeth, zipping up her almost blue leather jacket, providing some protection against the cold. "I'd hate to think how it'd feel wearing those other costumes Ino tried to get me to wear..." PlayBoy bunny costumes and naughty Red Riding Hood dresses floated through her mind. The shudder that went down her spine had significantly less to do with the cold.
As if the heavens had heard her problems and sent down a gift below, a soft warm glow appeared within the trees to her right. In the dead dark of the night, they appeared like the light at the end of a tunnel to Sakura, and her eyes immediately picked up on them. Upon closer inspection, it became clear they were the windows of a home. "Maybe whoever lives there can give me directions. If not, at least they'll have a landline I can use."
Even so, she backtracks to her Beetle first to reach inside and into the glove box, retrieving the velvet whiskey bag. Glancing inside she affirmed the coveted items were within where they belonged before tossing her fake machete prop into the floor of the passenger seat, not wanting to give the homeowners a scare.
-0-0-0-
Dead leaves cracked under her feet as she shuffled through dirt and damp mud, thorns caught onto her loose gray pants, Sakura thanks her lucky stars her costume had already been dirtied for the aesthetic or she would be furious with the damage done unto her clothing. The lights have become close now and she can't be bothered to think on it further as the thought of heating and safety become tantalizingly close to reality. She breaks free of the last of the prickly brush and the entirety of the home comes into view.
It's tall, two, or maybe even three, stories high, an old Victorian home with purple trim and what probably used to be white paneling. Brown wooden shutters are shut over some of the windows. Even though aged, Sakura had to admit the structure was beautiful. The steps onto the large wrap-around porch creak under her steps as she makes her way in front of the tall mahogany doors, the size of the doorframe dwarving her already small figure. The fair skin of her left hand appears almost ghost-white in contrast to its surroundings, and she brings her still gloved right arm up instead to grasp the freezing metal door-knocker- sculpted in the shape of lion-dogs' heads- and brings it against the wood twice. She can hear the sound resounding throughout the interior of the home.
A few moments pass before the doors open in front of her invitingly. "Thank you so much, I hate to bother you but I was wondering..." The foyer is empty and her words trail off.
A room to the left and over is lit, the glow spilling out of the entryway and she makes her way over to seek out the residents in what Sakura assumes is the kitchen. "I'm looking for the Yamanaka community and seem to have gotten a little turned around." The room is empty, and a tapping noise fills the silence.
It is indeed a kitchen, but one that doesn't appear to have been used in many years. Sakura turns the curved handle of the sink to stop the steady drip, and the light cuts out. "Shit!" the pinkette stumbles around in surprise and trips over something, landing painfully on her behind. Small flames ignite on candles affixed to the walls one by one, bringing back some visibility as she grasps the small obstacle underneath her feet.
"You should not be here." The tone these words are spoken in is emotionless and bland. The young woman whips her head around in an attempt to locate the source of the voice, nothing meeting her eyes.
"What the hell?! Where are you? Who is it?" She fights to keep the tremble in her voice subdued.
"I would prefer that you please treat my anchor with more respect in the future. More importantly, I advise that you take your leave now."
She stands up onto her feet, and finds that the object that had rolled underneath her boots is a paintbrush. She places it onto the dusty kitchen counter. "I'm very sorry for coming into your home. The doors opened so I thought it was okay. I'm just looking for-"
"What do you mean the doors opened?" The voice is in her ear this time, she can feel a cold breath brush against the shell.
With a yelp she instinctually brings an elbow back, nearly giving herself whiplash to look behind her.
A young man is standing behind her, and her offending appendage is inside of his stomach. With a loud scream, she nearly falls over her own feet as she sprints back to the home's entrance in a bid to flee from the phantom behind her.
Boots slide against the hardwood floor as she skids to a stop in the foyer. Except its no longer a foyer, but a horizontal hallway, no doors or windows to be found, as if they had never existed, and instead replaced by a table with a vase filled with roses against the wall. "W, what? How is this even real?"
"Please spare me from your screeching in the future, it grates on the ears. I had thought that by showing myself to you I might foster trust, but I seem to have been mistaken. I'll remember that in the future."
"What is this place? How is the door gone?" She can no longer keep the panic out of her voice.
"This is a house. The house changed." The answer is delivered in a deadpan.
Her eyebrow twitched, anger helping overcome fear at the answer, "That's not what I meant and you know it. Where are you smartass?"
"Last time you saw me you ran away. I don't enjoy being screamed at."
Sakura's response is grinded through her teeth, "Sorry I screamed at you. Can you 'please' come back out?"
He appears again, this time in front of her, slowly becoming visible. He's transparent, like the overlays in photoshop she used to mess with in highschool, but that fact doesn't diminish his good looks now that she gives herself enough time to observe him. His skin is as white as paper, while his eyes and hair are pitch black. His yukata maintains the monochromatic theme and in whole, she is reminded of the old ink paintings she used to view in museums. Sakura hisses a bit in envy of his bone structure and symmetry. As he steps closer, his height becomes more apparent, standing at half a head taller.
He's not so impressed by her appearance however. "Why would you leave the house looking like that Ugly?" A friendly, fake smile tilts his lips.
Her mouth immediately twists into a snarl and her small fist swipes through his smug, incorporeal face, which only serves to frustrate further. This only brings more attempts to damage him, or at least wipe that false grin off his lips.
"I'm not sure why you're attacking me, but I should tell you you're on a time limit."
Her knuckles freeze an inch from his nose, "What does that mean?"
"Once the sun rises you will be unable to leave this place. I will help escape."
Sakura raises a brow, "How's that? The door's gone anyway. And why would you help me after I tried to smash your mug?"
"This house is not a static building within. I believe some of my control has be wrested from me, the doors should've been barred to the outside. It is my duty to contain the residents of this house and protect those outside."
-0-0-0-
She walked alongside "Sai" as he led her back to the kitchen. "Wait, but what are you protecting people from? And how did the doors disappear? How could you lose control or whatever?"
"The residents of this house are not... willing guests. They were selfish, greedy, violent things that had to be locked away. The interior of this house changes constantly in order to fulfill its duty. The place is sealed, however it is the Devil's night, when the enchantment is weakest. Thus you were lured and trapped within this place. Once the night ends and the sun rises it will become sealed once again. I apologize for my failure to perform my duty Ugly, but I intend to make up for it."
Sakura twitched at the nickname, but she had noticed this guy had next to no understanding of socialization and simply let it be.
"How come all of this is your duty? Why not make someone do it, hell, how long have you been here?"
"A few centuries maybe. I was created with this purpose in mind."
"You certainly look a 'few centuries' old..." This was muttered underneath her breath bitterly.
The university student was a bit surprised with how quickly she was accepting this nightmare-ish situation, but blames the way Neji always droned about his family's Holy Men and their legends for softening her up to the concept of the supernatural. Or perhaps she had simply suspended her disbelief in her need to escape.
Sai halts in front of the counter, picking the painbrush up and handing it to her. "Please keep this safe Hag. It's my anchor to this world. If my anchor becomes destroyed so will I, the further I am forced to stray from it the weaker I become, and I can keep track of your location if you become lost."
She glances at the wooden brush, much like the ones used for calligraphy, before pocketing it and zipping the pocket closed. "Now what?"
He's disappeared from sight now. "I will remain hidden for now. You must pass each area of the house before gaining the key to the exit. I must rest and save energy. Good luck Ugly."
-0-0-0-
The kitchen had a thin, flimsy door to the side, but no amount of puching would open it, there was no handle or keyhole, only a stone hawk head, rubies in the eyes, with its curved beak wide open. After searching the kitchen for a tool to pry the door open, Sakura found nothing but half of a shattered plate with the word "Taka" engrave onto its rim.
Leaving through the entryway, she inspects the living room. "How much time do I have?" Pulling out her phone yields no answers, it doesn't even turn on when she holds down its buttons. "Damn it." Pocketing it again, she turns her gaze to the fire place.
On its mantle is a iron frame, within is a chipped half circle. Upon a closer look she finds its a ceramic plate with an engraved feather. Her green eyes light up in recognition of the faint red flames along the rim. Grabbing the other half from the kitchen, she returns to hold the piece ontop of its counterpart to match their jagged edges. Before her shocked gaze, the edges disappeared into a seamless merging until it had once again become whole.
The fireplace came to life and the blue flames all leaned towards the foyer. She followed where it pointed with a shake of her head. "Hopefully I'll still be sane by the time I get out of here."
The wall cutting off the foyer had disappeared, and a entirely new room replaced it. Sakura recognized the weapons displayed on the walls from her history class, except these didn't hold the rust and wear from the examples in museums. They all looked sharp and very deadly. Walking along the walls, she inspected them all very carefully, at a distance, fascinated by them. What stuck out like a sore thumb was the single scroll, held in place by two curved rungs. Unfurling it, she once again saw the word "Taka", along with a simple line.
"'The swift rabbit can only be caught in the jaws of the cunning hawk'. Seriously?" the pinkette is almost disappointed. "This one's way too obvious. The escape rooms I did with Shika were wayyy harder than this."
Hurrying back to the kitchen in a bid to save time, she places the scroll in the open beak of the hawk head. The beak closes around it, and the scroll morphes into an iron rabbit, mechanical limbs squirming while the squeaking joints sounded eerily similar to the death cries of prey. Rustic liquid flows from the beak as the rabbit stills, in a perfectly straight line down before making a sharp turn to the right and solidifying into a door knob. Sakura is sickened, even a bit nauseous, at the display.
Taking in a shuddering breath, she grasps the warm knob and twists it, the door finally opening before her.
A/N: Wow, who would've thought that I would be able to flesh out an outline for a whole story in time for October? This is probably going to be the lengthiest story I've ever written (or will finish). I'm planning to publish the last chapter on Halloween if I can keep pace with the schedule I've come up with between work, but we'll see how that goes. Favorites are lovely and reviews even lovelier. Sorry to be away for so long everyone, but I'm hoping you will be able to see some improvement from my time on hiatus?