Ghastly : Unresolved investigations.
Synopsis : My name's Tanenaka Kenshin, twenty six years ago I used to be a loving teacher surrounded by amazing and dear students. However, some events came destroying these precious children's and turning their worlds' into nightmares.
A collection of horror stories inspired by real life events, fictions, urban legends and popular movies or books.
Anime : Yuu Yuu Hakusho
Type : Alternative Universe.
Format : Collection of horror stories (multichapter, one chapter per story.)
Genre : Horro, suspens, fantasy.
Rating : T
Disclaimer : I don't own Yuu Yuu Hakusho and it's characters.
For this prologue only, instead of the classic OC, I wanted the reader to be directly introduced to the story by being part of it ^^ I kinda wanted to make whoever reads this story participate to it's unfolding.
That's my first time trying the horror genre so I hope you'll enjoy it ^^ Don't forget to review and give some feedback.
Prologue : Box
- Ding Dong -
"Hey hurry the postman's here !" an annoying voice shouted at you from the stairs as you were close to fall asleep on the sofa. You jumped up, startled by your sibling's shouting and stroked yourself roughly on the face, trying to focus your hazy eyes on the screen illuminating the room.
The doorbell rang a second time, making you grit your teeth annoyingly.
"The dooooor !"
"Shut up I'm on my way !" you spat full of frustration as you stood up from your warm spot. Everyone was awake and upstairs having fun, none of them had the decency of checking on you for the past three hours yet they still had the nerves to order your around and tore you off from your sweet sleep "Geez, karma's coming for you all I swear ..."
You hurried to the door not wanting to let any chance to the postman to ring the bell again and pulled it open, putting on your most polite smile on the process.
"I'm sorry you had to w-" your words caught up in your throat at the lack of any potential locutor facing you. No postman was standing there, instead a powerful dash of cold air hit your cheeks which made you shiver a bit. You cocked your head to the side and ventured on your family's garden, checking for any presence just in case. However the place was deserted, much like the streets.
"Okay ..." you started to walk back to your house when the sudden sound of glass breaking made you freeze on the spot.
"What seriously ? Darling that's the second bowl you're breaking today, be careful will you ?"
"Ah my bad, I don't know what have gotten into me, I'll bring something to clean mom."
Laughter followed the discussion those people just had. You sighed, scolding at the guest's room window even though you knew they couldn't see you 'They scared the fuck out off me.' As you neared the door your gaze fell on a box wrapped in grey printed paper. You picked it up carefully, furrowing your eyebrows confusedly. You turned and checked the box everywhere but no indications about who the sender might be was written on it.
"Was it from the postman earlier ?" of course you didn't except any answer as you believed your theory was correct, yet you could not suppress the uneasiness you felt.
You stood up and dusted off your jeans, checking the street attentively again before closing and locking the front door.
As you arrived in the living room, credits of the movie you were barely following before were now flashing on the living room's television.
A familiar voice called you from the spot you were standing in "So he brough us a packet ? What's inside?" the person rushed to your side trying to take the box away from your hands but you were quicker. You shielded the rectangular object under your shirt protectively and tightened your arms around it.
"Hey ya serious ? I want to see what's inside !"
You snickered at the pout on your sibling's face, flashing a triomphant smirk their way "You won't, not before I do at least." you dodged the shorter person's second attempt "Eh, you all didn't want to check the door earlier so you don't have the right to take it from me, I'm not your slave, besides" you patted the packet "shouldn't you hurry up and clean your mess upstairs ? I heard you broke a bowl again." you watched as your sibling shifted bashfully their feet under your pointed look.
As they flopped their shoulders and headed towards the stairs you called out to them "Don't make that face, maybe I'll let you take a look later if you behave."
You smiled gently looking at the way their face brightened up before waving them off and falling on the sofa. Grabbing the blanket that was folded on the side with one hand, you took off the box from underneath your clothing with the other.
"So what do we have here ?" You swiftly unwrapped the package and gasped as a small black and red device fell on your lap. Picking it up suspiciously you examined it before realization hit you 'A dictaphone ? Weird …'
By reflex, you accidentaly let your thumb press the 'play' button. The sudden sly voice you heard startled you and you nearly dropped everything.
"I salute you, ladies and gentlemen, before proceding with your lecture, you might want to know some more details about the contents of those files."
You raised your eyebrows questionably 'Lecture ? Files ?'
"In that case, read the following letter thoroughly, that's the only semblance of advice I could give you at the moment, though I'm not so sure you could be of any help to each other."
The vocal recording ended up with a mocking laugh followed by a beep sound. You worriedly looked at the box, all of a sudden reluctant to open it but you shrugged your shoulders and did it anyway. It might just have been a bad joke, some people could be pretty stupid, but you definitly were not one of them to fall for it.
The first thing that met your eyes was a letter, that letter mentionned in the recording probably. It was laid on top of a thick folder, some audio tapes and a cassette player. You narrowed your eyes, confusion increasing even more in you "What even ..."
You took the letter and after taking a deep breath, started to rip it open 'Calm down, it's not that serious, calm down.'
However you could not help the gluping sound that left your throath as you held the letter before you :
October 21, 2018
Dear readers,
Let me introduce myself, my name is Tanenaka Kenshin, and I'm writing this letter while knowing my end is more likely approaching. I have a message, a secret, I wanted to disclose to the most people possible. Unfortunately, my current status and proofs have been judged unsufficients to permit any investigation to keep on going. So I need your help, please just read.
Everything began twenty six years ago, I used to be the principal of Sarayashiki Junior and High, it was a famous school back then. If I had to describe the students and educational body's chemistry I'd say it was lively and unpredictable, much more like any school actually. We had every kind of students : troublemakers, popular kids, outcasts, hard workers and so on but a particular group stood out from the rest.
(The attached files to this box and letter will give you the names of those specifical students so I won't dwell on it, I fear nostalgia might prevent me from developping the frame of the events.)
That group consisted of about seven high schoolers, all with strong and diverse personas, I often wondered how such different people could even be that close and form such a strong bond. They were quite known in that school and it's surrondings for various reasons, bad or good things.
Some were able to hold the whole world into their palms so much were they nice and sociable while others had the unfortunate talent of stirring up everyone's disdain against them but they remained nonetheless reliable people to me. Unlike some teachers at Sarayashiki, I enjoyed those children's presence. They lived their life as it was without looking for too much shallowness, they had been through a lot but still got some kind of youthful innocence to them. In my monotone life and career, sharing my days with this group of friends brought a lot of emotions and happiness to me, I wished it could have continued until they graduated, however one day everything turned into a never ending nightmare.
So, before you even try to either listen to or read the following documents, please let me demand some things from you :
1 - If during your exploration, you realize you might have lived a similar experience or know something more, please don't hesitate to contact me.
2 - Those records' role is to warn you too. If you ever feel something's off please believe your instinct, if you start to live a situation that's reminiscent of the ones described please don't make the same mistakes as my poor students. Protect yourself.
3 - Don't play with fire.
4 - And, please, believe me.
Yours truly,
Tanenaka Kenshin.
After closing the letter, you focused intently your gaze on the materials countained in the box. While you still did not want to take seriously the whole ordeal, you did not find the heart to laugh or dismiss the situation as a joke anymore. Thrills overwelmed you and you deep down felt like the person who wrote this was truly in pain.
With trembling, moist hands, you drew out the thick grey folder and opened it. Your eyes fell instantly on the first page. With a small, almost inaudible voice you read "Unresolved Case number one : Close."
Who do you think Case 1 is about ?