They were so innocent. All they wanted was a friend. They would do anything including killing someone in order to be with them forever. This was almost Anya's fate on her trip to Japan with her university. The students had raised enough money to send their class to Japan for a year to study. One day, the class walked through a forest in Osaka to get a look at the different sources of plant life that grew in the area. Anya walked alongside her best friend and crush, Ricky. As the girl knelt to tie her shoe, Ricky waited, that is until his girlfriend Jessica came up and wrapped her arms around him. She wanted to continue walking but Ricky argued that they should wait. Anya, not wanting to see her crush and his girlfriend together, told them to keep going and that she'd catch up. Unfortunately, once she finished, they were gone from sight. To make matters worse, it started raining. As she walked, the rain began to beat down harder, making it difficult to see and even hear. Anya wandered through the rain until she could see a building in the distance. She ran, nearly slipping in a puddle of mud along the way. Walking through the old rusted gate, she noticed old toys such as dolls that had been left in the grass.

'That is so creepy' she thought as she continued into the building.

Inside was dark and dusty, but so much better than being drenched outside. Anya took off her jacket and shoes. She then checked her cell phone but sighed when she noticed that she was too far to have any type of reception. Using the cellphone's glow, Anya searched for some source of light, soon finding a candle and box of matches in a small wooden drawer. After lighting the candle's wick, Anya walked through the hallway of the building. Once she made it to the second floor, she felt uneasy. The hall felt... off. At first it seemed almost inviting, but the darkness quickly ended that. The rain had turned into a full-blown storm, keeping Anya in. She sighed once again and walked down the hall, suddenly hearing the sound of a child's laughter.

"Hello?" she called out; walking closer to the door of the room she heard the voices and laughter. No one answered. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice shook as she gulped. Her only answer was more giggling and voices. Anya slid the door open and saw what she would have never expected.

People. Most of them were children while others seemed around her age. All were wearing traditional kimonos.

"Yay, someone's here to play with us!" cheered a little blond girl.

"We've waited so long" said another with teal colored hair.

A tall purple haired boy, probably the oldest, noticed the tension in Anya's movements and spoke up. "Don't be scared or run, we haven't seen anyone other than ourselves in years."

"Years? You live here? But there's mold growing in the halls." Anya gaped, not knowing what else to say.

"Play with us please" a blond boy, most likely the twin brother of the girl, begged.

"I don't know" Anya mumbled, still uneasy,

"Please, at least until the storm calms down. You can't go back out into there anyway." The teal haired girl suggested. To emphasize the need to play, a few of the youngest children started crying.

"Okay, okay. I'll play, but once the rain lets up I need to get going" Anya caved but smiled as the others rejoiced.

"Let's play Kagome Kagome!" a brunette in a red kimono suggested, she also looked like one of the oldest.

"Wait, our new friend needs to know our names so she can play the game properly. We don't even know her name." said a pink haired girl. She turned to Anya and smiled sweetly. "I'm Luka"

"My name is Anya" the black cherry haired visitor said. The twins ran up to her.

"I'm Rin!" said the girl.

"I'm Len" added the boy.

Anya smiled, "It's very nice to meet you both."

"I'm Kaito, that's Gakupo" introduced a blue haired boy and the tall boy from before.

The girl with teal colored pigtails smiled, "I'm Miku and that is Meiko" she said, pointing to the brunette.

"Are we gonna play now?" Kaito asked, everyone stood up and linked hands, forming a circle.

"Since you are new you can get in the middle. All you have to do is close your eyes as we spin around you singing a song. At the end, you guess who is behind you." Gakupo explained.

Anya nodded and walked between the twins, into the center. She closed her emerald eyes and listened to the chant.

Kagome kagome

When, oh when will it come out

In the night of dawn

The crane and turtle slipped

Who is it in front of behind

Once they finished, Anya guessed. This continued on for a full thirty minutes. Everyone soon sat down to rest. That is until Anya asked a question.

"Why are you all here alone in the forest?"

The room went quiet and took on a depressing air. Luka looked at Anya and took a deep breath. The pink haired girl looked pained as she spoke.

"This building was once an orphanage. Unknown to us, it was also a laboratory. We would all play with Teacher and we were very happy, but we started noticing some people not coming back after going with teacher." Luka looked as if she was about to break down. Miku took up where her friend left off.

"We found out that teacher was trying to find immortality. He… He believed it was in the form of an elixir made with the brains of children" Anya's eyes widened as she failed to hold back a gasp. Gakupo touched her shoulder, causing the poor American girl to jump. Kaito cleared his throat to get her attention.

"It didn't matter if you tried to run away or beg for your life. Usually with the help of the other scientists, he'd blindfold you and use you as an experiment to see if you survived. He cut off heads, arms, legs, eyes…. anything to see if his work was a success." The blue haired boy said without any hint of emotion.

Rin whimpered from memory, "No matter what happened, you lost an arm or your head was crushed, we could never die." She whispered. Her brother wiped away a single tear from her cheek.

That's when Anya started to fully understand the dirty bandages wrapped around them. Some were wrapped around heads and necks, while others looked as if they were to stop the bleeding in one's arm. That was the last thing to push Anya to the edge. She screamed and fought as hard as she could. The room seemed darker than before.

"Don't run away!" Miku shouted, her voice was heavy with sadness. The children began to circle around the American.

"Just drink this" Gakupo said as he pulled a silver flask out of his pocket. "Teacher left it before he died. You can play with us forever" He sounded as if he was going to cry.

"You can't get out anyway, the door is locked." Meiko sighed.

"Play with us forever. Please Miss Anya" the twins begged in unison. "Don't leave us"

Anya stopped fighting and turned slowly to look at each person surrounding her. All that was reflected in their eyes was fear, desperation, sadness, loneliness…nothing that threatened her.

'Maybe I can make a deal with them' she thought.

"I will play with you, only if you don't make me drink that or kill me." She started her voice stronger than she thought. The children looked around, unsure of what to do.

"What if you don't come back?" asked Kaito.

"I will keep coming to play with you until I die… of natural causes." Anya stated. After a few moments they agreed to let her go.

"I'll come back tomorrow night" Anya shouted from the rusty old gate as the ghost children watched her from the window of their room. They smiled innocently as the American left, awaiting her return.


"Did we do the right thing?" Meiko asked, sitting at the rickety old table. Across from her sat Luka who nodded her head.

"It wasn't right for us to curse the other visitors with our burden." Gakupo said from his spot against the wall.

"Plus, I think she'd actually come back" Miku added, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, I like Miss Anya" Len said with a smile and slight blush. Rin laughed at her brother, automatically sensing the crush that was fiercely blooming within him.

Kaito laughed and ruffled the hair atop Len's bandaged head. "She is pretty isn't she?" he said mockingly while looking at Len who blushed even darker and buried his face in his hands.

"I guess it's settled then," Miku stood up from her seat, "Anya is our first living friend!"They all cheered and started to clean the house as well as they could for their new friend's next visit.