Happy October my ghouls and ghoulies! I am here with a short story for the holidays! Please R&R and I shall see you at the bottom of the page.

POV: Narrator

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, but read if you so dare...


A gust of wind rustles the falling leaves of a nearby tree causing them to dance in the air in spiraling circles. The bright full moon casts dark ominous shadows on the ground while a nearby owl hoots from somewhere in the darkness. There is no other noise and even the last of the trick-or-treaters already heading home and late night parties dying to a close.

Even so, through the silent darkness a small group of teenagers brave their way down an empty street which has been abandoned for many years. Their joyful laughter drowns out the still silence and the flashlight beams in their hands chase away the looming shadows. A few from the group show signs of having a little too much to drink causing their minds to haze over with ridiculous ideas like the one they are pursuing at the moment.

"Where are we going," a young teenage girl with long white hair and dressed in an angel costume asks as she leans heavily into her partner who is having a bit of difficulty trying to keep her up, "We've been walking for hours," She complains drunkenly while waving her six inch heels in the air to emphasize her point.

"Sorano, are you too drunk to remember?" a male with tanned skin and spiky maroon hair asks sarcastically over his bare shoulder, "Macbeth is taking us to a haunted mansion," the boys dressed as a snake charmer informs the intoxicated woman while rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"Then why is fatso with us," Sorano asks while jabbing a perfectly manicured finger towards the oldest male in the group who is dressed up as a wandering priest. He hasn't said a word since leaving the party opting to just silently follow near the back of the group.

Keeping the intoxicated girl from falling flat on her face, the blonde male dressed in a race car drivers uniform mutters dejectedly, "He's our ride back home," to which the girl only snorts in amusement before falling into a laughing fit. Her laughter becomes so bad that even Sawyer, the boy trying to hold her up, almost loses his grip on her, "Angel," the male complains while using her nickname to try and catch her attention, "Quit fooling around."

The girl only laughs harder as she continues to sway and stumble while her escort tries everything in his power to keep her from hitting the floor. If she woke up tomorrow with a single scratch on her there would be hell to pay, even if it was her fault.

Macbeth, the gothic leader of this escapade, stops in the middle of the desolate road to look back behind him at the lonely figure a few feet away, "If you don't hurry up you're going to be left behind," he says causing the figure to jump and pick up their pace.

"Sorry," the girl mutters as she races to catch up with her friend who is still waiting for her, "Are we almost there," she then asks once she's beside him, her chocolate eyes continuously surveying the area with a worried glint.

Noticing the girl's nervous appearance he smiles at her reassuringly while asking, "Are you tired," to which she simply nods with a small smile of her own. They continue down the uneven road with the only noise coming from the arguing group behind them, "I'm sorry about my friends," the black and white haired male apologizes as he takes the timid girl's hand in his, "They're really great people once you get to know them, especially Angel."

"I'm sure they are," the girl murmurs with a bright honest smile and a reassuring squeeze from her delicate hand.

How he was able to get such a beautiful girl to go out with him was beyond his imagination. Sure they weren't actually dating per say, but at the rate they were going it wouldn't be too long before he asked her to be his girlfriend, and even that was beyond his wildest dreams. Even the guys thought he was making things up when he told them that he had a gorgeous friend with sun-kissed hair and melting chocolate eyes. They kept saying she was just a figment of his imagination and at times he even thought that himself until he'd talk to her and hold her hand from time to time. Everyone ate their words like bitter medicine when they finally met her at the Halloween party only hours ago and found out that she was the new transfer student from the grand city of Crocus.

After a few more minutes of walking, the small group of teenagers eventually makes it to the ivy infested gates of the largest mansion in all of Magnolia. The wrought iron gates reach as high as ten feet with the crest of what looks like a bird branded into the middle of the thick black gate. A rusted 'Do Not Enter' sign lies on the floor a foot away from the gate doing little to nothing from deterring the teenagers from proceeding further.

Without hesitation, all six teenagers make their way over the crumbling brick wall using the thick ivy hanging from it to help with their ascent. Once on the other side they continue to trek up the long curving driveway while old rotting trees loom above their heads like sinister monsters ready to crush them with their withered branches. A few of the trees even seem to have faces etched on them in grotesque screaming expressions.

"This place gives me the creeps," Erik, the boy dressed up as a snake charmer, mutters while eyeing the trees suspiciously and the dark shadows they cast on the weed infested road.

"Scared Cobra?" Sorano coos as she leans towards the maroon haired male before cackling eccentrically at his distraught expression.

"Piss off Angel," the teen grumpily says just as they reach the end of the road with a tall rotting mansion standing in their midst.

All six teenagers take in the dark beauty of the abandoned building from its broken windows to its decaying brick walls. It looks like a castle with the same emblem at the gate circling over the main doors to the building with weeds and ivy hanging off of the emblem. More ivy and weeds climb up the aged brick covering the house in shades of sickly green and dying brown. The full moon overhead causes shadows to dance behind grime encrusted windows and the creaking of an open door nearby has the hair at the backs of their necks standing on end.

"Now what Midnight?" Erik asks as he walks up to their guide and earns a puzzled expression from the male who is still surveying the mansion with a calculating eye.

"OOH!" Everyone turns to look at Sorano as she clumsily shuffles away from Sawyer, "Let's dare someone to go inside," she eagerly says while reaching into her purse and pulling out an empty beer bottle, "We can use my bottle to see whose going to go in."

Everyone silently looks at each other skeptically. This wouldn't be the first time the eccentric girl suggested something as crazy as this. There have been countless other times in which she suggested to do something that no one wanted to do but did anyway just to impress the popular girl. They all nod, neither willing to back down from the challenge at hand as the girl sets down the bottle on the cobblestone ground while everyone makes a tight circle as she proceeds to spin her bottle.

With every turn the bottle takes the tension within the group begins to build into uncomfortable intervals. They're all wishing that the bottle doesn't land on them for fear that if it does they'll have to do the inevitable on walking through the aging doors to the crumbling building.

Soon enough all noise is sucked out of the air leaving only the sound of the spinning bottle and their own hearts hammering in their chests. A few of the teenagers have even stopped breathing once they notice that the bottle isn't spinning as fast as it had only moments ago. The bottle is spinning dangerously slow now and within its final heart wrenching turns it stops claiming its victim soundlessly.

Five pairs of eyes look up at the victim staring completely stunned at the brown glass bottle that points at them like an accusing finger. The finality of this leaves them breathless as their eyes begin to burn with emotion that could relate to betrayal and fear. How could it have possibly come to this?

"Sorry princess, looks like you're up," Sawyer says breaking the thick silence with his mocking tone as he brings his heavy hand down on the unfortunate girl whose eyes are as wide as saucers.

"Ooh, so the new girl got chosen huh?" Sorano coos while wrapping her thin pale arms around the shell-shocked blonde who continues to stare down at the empty bottle, "What are 'ya gonna do now blondie?"

"Leave her alone," Macbeth growls while taking the stunned blonde's hand and bringing her closer to him.

He urges her to look into his eyes as he searches her own scared ones and regrets ever introducing her to his psychotic friends. Now that she's been chosen they, at least Sorano, won't let her back down. If she were to back down Sorano would no doubt make her life impossible every chance she got at school branding her a coward. Sorano wasn't nicknamed Angel for the fact that she had a sweet gentle heart if not for the opposite reason. It was, in its way, a joke that everyone who met her learned the hard way.

Gently shaking the frozen girl, Macbeth takes the blonde's warm face in his hands forcing her to look at him, "You don't have to do it if you don't want to," and shoots a warning at the white haired girl who was no doubt ready to argue, "It's fine if you don't want to do it," but even as he says this he knows it's a lie.

If she weren't to do this she'd be branded a chicken by not just his group of friends but the entire school. She'd be one of Sorano's newest victims and nothing in this world would be able to save her from social shame, not even him.

"Don't get your panties in a twist Midnight," Erik says while placing a tanned hand on the nervous teenager, "All she has to do is go up the stairs, step through the door and back out without going all the way in and that's it, right Angel?"

"Yeah, that's fine I guess," the white haired female mutters sounding bored as she plops down on the ground beside Sawyer, "That's all she has to do so we can go home."

Sighing, the blonde pats Macbeth's hand and gives him a reassuring smile, "It's ok, I'll do it," she whispers knowing all too well what will happen if she doesn't do this. In her short time at her new school she's learned quickly that when 'Angel' demands something she gets it one way or another.

Without another word she removes herself from Macbeth before bravely walking towards the mansion that screams for her to turn the other way and run. She fights all the warnings ringing inside her head as she climbs the large stone steps that lead to the grand front doors that are covered in moss and drying vines.

From the corner of her eye she watches a few spiders race across the wall and she has to do everything in her power to keep from racing down the stairs and down the spooky dirt path back to her own home. She hated spiders with a passion and seeing them now did nothing to strengthen her resolve to prove to her only friend's friends that she was no chicken. She needed to do this not only for herself but for Macbeth as well.

Taking in a deep breath, she reaches out and grabs the cool metal of the brass doorknob and turns it completely surprised at how smoothly it turns in spite of it being so old and rusted. The door opens with a deafening creak that shakes her to the bone and the darkness that awaits her on the other side leaves her none the braver.

"Come on princess, you can do it!" Sorano cheers while earning a nasty look from all of the silent males causing her to glower right back at them. What was so wrong about trying to cheer the scared blonde on? The way she saw it the girl would no doubt thank her for it in the long run.

Collecting her wits, the blonde closes her eyes and takes another deep breath before opening her eyes and stepping forward through the threshold. She keeps her breath in as her heart hammers in her chest just about ready to pop out and run like hell. More shadows dance along the walls and empty rooms further into the building from her peripheral vision causing her to gulp loudly. She takes at least four steps into the thin hallway before hearing eccentric clapping from the girl who silently pressured her to go in here.

Turning and ready to run out of the building she sees the faces of her comrades smiling and clapping admiring her bravery. For once since the bottle pointed towards her she feels relieved for going through with this. Maybe now she didn't have to be afraid of trying new things and perhaps Macbeth's friends could somehow accept her timid self. Maybe now she'd finally be fully accepted by people who knew her background and not looked down upon just because her family had money. Maybe now she'd finally have friends.

"Way to go princess," Sawyer hoots causing the blonde to smile widely and give a relieved gasp.

"Let's go out and celebrate Blondie's accomplishment," Sorano yells while pointing her empty beer bottle up in the air.

"You're drunk enough as it is Angel," Erik grumbles while staring at the girl with an incredulous look.

"Let's go Lucy," Macbeth says as he holds out his hand towards the blonde whose smile seems to light up the darkness that she's standing in, but before she can take even one step forward the door to the mansion closes with a deafening crash locking the unfortunate blonde within its haunted grasp.

To this day no one knows what happened to the blonde after that.


So I wasn't originally going to post this story since I already have two other stories waiting to be updated, they will be updated tomorrow I promise, but no matter how much I tried I gave in to my own peer pressure and posted it anyway. Plus it's October, the best month of the year and I just thought why not? Hopefully reading a few horror novels and watching all those horror movies will help me with this story. If it doesn't end up even a tad bit creepy then I am sorry, but hopefully it will be good.

There were plenty of things that inspired this story which has been swimming in my mind for half a year now. For one I have to say that I was inspired by that one episode of Dr. Who where they're stuck in that strange hotel that has a room which supposedly shows you your greatest fear (Yes I'm a whovian, don't judge me), Second would be the marching band show from Frank Sullivan named Paranormal, hence the title (If you've read my previous stories and read through my boring author's notes you'll find that I am a band geek... or was since I'm in college and not in band anymore *forevercries*), Third would be the all too classical The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy, and more recently it is also inspired by the anime show Madoka Magica!

Now if you're never seen that show because you thought it was too cutesy and girly, trust me when I say that you are completely wrong. I thought the same thing until one afternoon during summer break I was bored at home with no anime to watch. I had watched a quarter of an episode before hand but got bored and didn't continue watching it until recently, on Oh My Lord did that anime mess me up! I swear whoever created that anime needs like serious psychological help and you'll need it after watching it. Plus it will leave you in your own puddle of tears and anguish... just saying.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this new installment and if you did enjoy it I also recommend you check out my other pieces of work.

Until next time my ghouls.