Halloween-themed one-shot! Set in season three after "How to Succeed in Bassness". I've been needing to write something with Chair together after all the non-Chair crap going on right now on the show (and, let's face it, in my own stories). This started as a chapter for "Luxury" but I decided it worked better as a stand-alone. Major spoilers for the movie "When a Stranger Calls".
"You know what I just realized?" Blair said while pouring herself a large glass of orange juice. "This is the first year in as far back as I can remember that I didn't watch a scary movie on Halloween."
"You spoke to my uncle" Chuck said, reaching for a slice of toast. "That's scary enough."
They were in white fluffy robes having breakfast in the Empire penthouse suite. After the Gimlet party the night before they had opted to stay at the Empire instead of going back to the Palace for the night since neither one of them had wanted to wait for the duration of a cab or limo ride before engaging in the make-up sex they knew they were going to have. Before they had gone to sleep Chuck had told her about his plans to move in to the suite. Blair had yawned sleepily and pointed out that he had been talking for weeks about moving out of his father's hotel so she had already guessed he would relocate to the Empire.
At present she was trying out the full breakfast menu, having ordered up all of it from room service just because she could. She munched on a strawberry and pouted.
"A shame though" she said. "I hate breaking tradition."
"Let me guess, you usually go with Audrey and Hitchcock?" Chuck said, sounding bored.
"It's one of the scariest movies of all time."
"Not the eighth time you see it" Chuck objected. "And come on. Scary movies from those days weren't scary."
"The only so called scary movies you've seen that were made prior to the nineties are 'Friday the 13th' and the like" Blair said with a frown. "They're not real scary movies, they're just slasher films."
"They're not the only scary movies from the olden days that I've seen" Chuck said, calmly sipping his espresso.
"Name one real scary movie you've seen then made prior to 1990. And no, 'the Exorcist' does not count."
Chuck mulled it over for a minute.
"'When a Stranger Calls'."
"I bet you were scared when you saw it" Blair said.
"Not really, no. The opening act was mildly unsettling but the rest sucked."
"Fine" Blair said. "Let's watch it and find out."
"You sure about that?" Chuck asked. "I don't get scared by those movies. You do."
"You got scared of 'Bambi' when we were little" Blair shot back. "I remember in first grade all one had to do to freak you out was hum the hunter's theme. At least the things that freak me out aren't animated."
"I'm not scared by those movies" Chuck repeated. "If you want to spend an hour and a half hiding behind a pillow and jumping at the slightest sound then I can acquiesce. I won't mind coddling you during the movie, or after."
"Now you're confusing romance and sexism."
"You're saying you won't want to curl up close to me when we watch the movie?"
"Of course I will you idiot" Blair snorted. Then she smirked. "I always want to do that, no matter what movie we watch."
"True" Chuck said with a smile. "Which, as you know, is the reason why I'd agree to watch just about anything with you. I just don't think that you'd get much enjoyment out of 'WhenaStrangerCalls'."
"You really think I'm that easily scared?"
"I love you. Which means I know you. I know those movies scare you so what is the big deal? Some people are scared by them and others are not."
"I refuse to believe that I am more easily scared than you" Blair said. "You know what? We will watch that movie today. I am going to either get proof that you find it scary or if you genuinely don't I will prove to you that it's because no one finds it scary."
"Fine then" Chuck said with a shrug, already entertaining himself with thoughts of how he could distract her from the movie.
"Ow!" Chuck winced when Blair's nails dug into his arm. "Geez. Relax a little."
"Sorry" Blair said and released her grip a bit though crept closer to him instead.
Chuck felt tempted to roll his eyes. It was only about five minutes into the movie and the calls to the baby-sitter hadn't gotten threatening yet. The music and the sound of the phone ringing had been enough to make Blair jump a little.
Blair reached out her hand and grabbed a fistful of popcorn from the bowl on Chuck's lap. She frowned and ate a few.
"Why hasn't she checked on the children?" she wondered. "If she thinks it's Dr. Mendrakis calling isn't she failing at her job by not doing what he asks? Who even babysits without ever checking in on the kids?"
"This statement brought to us by your vast experience in babysitting?" Chuck asked and kissed the top of her head.
"Just saying."
The babysitter in the film heard a strange noise and the music cranked up. Chuck could feel Blair tensing up and wondered if he should tease her about it. He knew she was trying to force herself to not be scared but it was fairly early into the scene and she was frightened even though nothing really scary had even happened yet.
"It annoys me that her clothes clash with the couch" Blair said in an effort to seem unbothered "The art department and the costume department really need to talk to each other."
"Wonder if it's a coincidence that her sweater is blood red."
"Is that wind chime part of the score or something she hears in the movie?"
"I… don't know."
"I thought you said you've watched it."
"When I was twelve. And the only thing that was frightening about that experience was the presence of Georgina Sparks. Who by the way dug her nails into my arm the same way you're doing again."
Blair shot him an annoyed look and withdrew her hand. They continued to watch, Blair nervously eating popcorn.
"Great babysitter" Chuck remarked a few minutes later. "Drinking on the job."
"I can't say I blame her" Blair said, eating more popcorn. "Doesn't this feel an awful lot like the opening to 'Scream'?"
"I wish it was the opening to 'Scream'. Drew Barrymore is hot. This chick isn't. Thank God I wasn't young in the seventies."
She snorted at him, kissed his cheek and rested her chin against his shoulder as they continued to watch.
"Why does she keep answering the damn phone?" Blair moaned.
"Why haven't you checked the children?" the caller asked the babysitter.
Blair's eyes widened and she more or less crawled up on Chuck's lap, knocking over the bowl of popcorn. It made him burst out laughing and he reached for the remote to pause the film.
"There's popcorn all over the bed" he chuckled. "This is going to be unpleasant tonight. Let's go back to the Palace and sleep there."
"Sorry" Blair said, blushing with embarrassment. She then laughed as well. "Fine, I'm freaked out by the movie. How do you not find this scary?"
"I'm a big, brave man."
"No I'm serious."
"Come on, let's get rid of this popcorn before we continue watching."
Blair nodded and got up, helping him scoop popcorn back into the bowl. Chuck made a futile attempt at brushing the salt off the bedspread and then just went to grab a blanket for them to lie on top of. After about ten minutes they were back on the bed, Blair snuggling as close to him as she could, having now dropped all pretenses of not being afraid.
"How far into the movie are we?" she asked.
"Thirteen minutes."
"Good grief" Blair complained. "Well at least she put the security chain on the door."
About five minutes later she groaned loudly when the police called the babysitter to let her know the calls were coming from inside the house.
"Get out!" she snarled. "God Chuck I hate it when characters in movies just sit around like idiots instead of having a sense of survival."
"She should get out?" Chuck commented. "What about the children?"
Blair shrieked and nervously shook Chuck's arm which she held in a death grip when a door opened upstairs and the shadow of a man became visible while the babysitter realized she had the safety chain still on the door.
Ten minutes later she sat with a frown and studied the TV screen.
"How the hell did it go from terrifying to boring in just a few minutes?" she griped.
"Be thankful" Chuck said. "I am. I was worried about you there for a while."
Blair just sighed, bored by the direction the movie had taken. They continued watching, Blair's heart rate significantly slower.
"It's bad when a movie dulls up to the point where you have time to think of the plot holes" she commented around the hour mark.
"First of all you yelped just a few minutes ago at a scary scene" Chuck pointed out. "Second, what plot holes?"
"How does a guy rip a couple of children to shreds and the babysitter hears nothing?" Blair demanded to know. "For that matter, how does he manage to kill both with just his bare hands? Once he's gone after the first one shouldn't the other one try to get away?"
"Just shush and watch."
She gave him a playful nudge and he responded by giving her a kiss. She kissed him back and they forgot about the movie while engaging in a make-out session instead. But as soon as the creepy music started back up Blair broke their kiss so suddenly it made Chuck blink.
"Why don't we turn this off?" he suggested. "I like what we were doing five seconds ago so much better."
"We have to see how it ends!"
"Do we really? I'd much rather see how our making out ends."
"Down boy."
Blair gave the movie her complete focus again, wincing at the flashbacks from the opening scene murder one minute, yelling frustrating comments at the cop's inability to catch the killer the next and then claimed she was bored. When she started complaining about the Stephen character's ridiculous hairdo and how she would divorce her husband if he sported hair like that Chuck had to laugh.
"That's it Blair, from now on I'm never watching a movie with you again unless it's one you haven't seen. Your running commentary is what makes the movie."
"What? He looks like a Hobbit starring in a German porno!"
"That's a genre you know a lot about?"
She smirked and was about to reply when the mother at the restaurant got a call asking her if she had checked the children.
"Oh God their babysitter is toast!" she yelped.
"Not to mention their children" Chuck added dryly. "Am I the only one rooting for the killer to off that woman with the seriously grating shrieks?"
Blair gave him an angry look but said nothing. A few minutes later she was complaining about being bored again.
"Come on" Chuck laughed. "The minute nothing's scaring the crap out of you, you think the movie is boring? It's building suspense. Like Hitchcock liked to do."
"Yeah fine" Blair said, trying to mask her uneasiness with the movie by claiming to be bored as many times as she jumped with fright.
"Just enjoy the rest of it" Chuck said and pulled her closer.
Hours later they were asleep. Or at least Chuck was, flat on his stomach facing away from Blair. She was on her back, wide awake, staring at the ceiling. After they had watched the movie they had taken a bath together and caught reruns of "Seinfeld" on TV and the scares she had gotten from the movie had completely left her mind. Now it was the middle of the night in a hotel suite she wasn't used to. She and Chuck had spent an afternoon there when he bought the hotel and now they had been there for about twenty-four hours but the surroundings were unfamiliar all the same, especially in the middle of the night. The glass wall spooked her since she kept thinking she saw things moving around on the other side of it. There were little sounds every now and then, sounds that were completely normal but they were new to her and right now they were scary.
She looked over at her sleeping boyfriend and wanted to wake him. Then she frowned at herself. She wasn't that scared of a stupid movie, was she?
Then she heard another noise and sat up straight. She glanced over at Chuck who hadn't been woken by it. She swallowed and got out of bed, deciding that she could use a strong drink to calm her nerves. Plus it would give her the chance to see for herself that there was in fact nothing amiss outside of the bedroom.
She grabbed the robe hanging on the bathroom door and walked out into the larger room. She had loved it at daytime but right now she thought it was cold and impersonal. And who the hell had a pool table in their living room? She made her way to the bar and carefully took a tumbler, placing it on top of the bar. As quietly as possible she then grabbed the scotch Chuck had praised the first time they were in this suite and poured herself a small drink. She emptied the glass in a few deep gulps and then shook her head.
She groaned. She kept hearing the movie's theme playing in her head over and over. She couldn't seem to stop thinking about how the purpose of the calls to the babysitter had been to get her to go and check on the children and walk right into the room where he was waiting to rip her to pieces. The thought was deeply unsettling. In an attempt to calm herself down she walked around the suite, checking every room. Then she reminded herself that she was in the penthouse suite of a hotel and there were people and security all around her. Unfortunately that made her think of the kind of headlines that would follow if someone still managed to brutally murder the new owner and his girlfriend, and around Halloween at that.
With a yawn she walked back to the bedroom. She did need some sleep. They hadn't gotten much of it the previous night. She crawled back into bed and closed her eyes but couldn't relax. She opened her eyes again and decided to wake Chuck after all. He didn't have to know why she was waking him, she could wake him up with kisses and caresses and all he would be thinking about when he woke was sex. Then she realized that the issue wasn't what he would think if she woke him, the issue was with she herself thinking she was ridiculous.
Deciding that waking him up was the by far best option either way she reached out her hand to him and then paused. She vividly recalled when the character Jill in the movie had reached over to wake her husband and instead found that it was the killer lying next to her. Blair had been out of bed for about ten minutes. Someone could have done something to him in that time and…
She groaned angrily at herself. As if someone would have been able to do anything at all to him without her hearing it. Besides, why would someone even want to do that? She looked over at him and almost laughed at herself for being so silly. She could recognize him anywhere, even in the dark when he was facing away from her. She knew that body just as well as she knew her own, if not better.
"Chuck" she whispered, shaking him a little. "Are you awake?"
"Mmm…" he mumbled. "What?"
"Are you awake?"
There was a pause.
"Well now I am."
With a slightly irritated moan he rolled over on his back and she smiled slightly at the familiar sight of his face.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I'm horny" she lied in a seductive voice.
He groaned in response.
"Well what did you used to do about it when you were single?" he then yawned, clearly not interested in sex at the moment.
"I'm horny for you."
"Do whatever you want with me, just let me sleep" he mumbled, closing his eyes again and adjusting to a more comfortable sleeping position.
Blair shrugged. She hadn't been very interested in having sex anyway. If he had been up for it she wouldn't have minded some intimacy and some closeness and him distracting her from her thoughts but all she had really needed was to know he was really there.
She crept closer to him and draped her arm across his chest, nuzzling her face close enough to his that their noses touched. He moaned sleepily and rolled over on his side, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her closer.
"I'm sorry" he mumbled without opening his eyes. "I should have kept us from watching the movie. I didn't know it was going to unsettle you this much."
Blair blinked, surprised that he had caught on to what was keeping her up.
"I was the one who insisted" she said lamely.
"You know you were right about those plot holes, right?" he said. "There's no way a killer could sneak inside like that without anyone noticing anything."
"Can we not talk about it?"
He nodded slowly. Then he smiled, still with his eyes closed.
"Tomorrow we'll watch 'Bambi'."
Blair giggled at the suggestion and felt a bit better. She shifted until she was lying with her back to him and closed her eyes, comforted by his presence and feeling safe in his arms. Then she opened her eyes again for a second and realized she was facing the glass wall and that her front was a touch exposed if some madman were to come through the door and attack them. She cringed at her own overly active imagination, knowing full well that all of her current fears were completely irrational. Still she would much rather be sleeping on the other side of the bed but she wasn't sure how to arrange that without revealing just how scared she had gotten from that stupid movie.
She turned around and nudged Chuck on his back while throwing her left leg over him and sitting up so that she was straddling him. He blinked up at her, surprised by her sudden movement.
"You know what, I really do want to have sex" she declared.
"Blair, I'm sleeping" Chuck protested. "All of my anatomy has called it a night. Wait until morning."
"Fortunately I am very good at waking you up again" Blair purred and leaned over him, kissing his cheek and slowly working her way further down. "Rise and shine."
Blair stretched out on the bed, leaning back on a large pillow propped against the headboard, and sighed contently. She had been wanting to read this book for weeks but hadn't found the time yet between college and her recent relationship drama but now she had a few hours to herself and nothing better to do than indulge in some literature. Chuck had left ten minutes ago to go play squash with Nate. Before he had left he had poured her a glass of red wine to enjoy with her book. She loved being back on good terms.
She had gotten two chapters into the book when the landline phone on the nightstand rang. It surprised her a little. She had barely noticed that there even was a landline phone and she wasn't aware that anybody knew she and Chuck were spending the whole weekend at the Empire. She hadn't expected anyone to call other than on her cell.
She sat the glass down on the nightstand and grabbed the phone.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Are there fresh towels in the other bathroom?" a man asked on the other end.
"I… don't know" Blair frowned. "I haven't checked."
"Would you please go check?"
"We're not using the other bathroom" Blair said in a friendly tone. "Housekeeping dropped off fresh towels in our bathroom this morning. We have everything we need."
The person on the other end hung up. Blair shrugged and put the phone back. She picked up her book again and read another twenty pages before the phone rang again.
"Yes?" she answered.
"Have you checked that there are fresh towels in the other bathroom?"
Blair frowned.
"No" she said. "We don't need fresh towels in the other bathroom. It's six o'clock, why are you calling me about housekeeping at this hour?"
The other person hung up. Blair scoffed and put the phone next to her on the bed. Twenty minutes later she got another call.
"Yes?" she answered, slightly annoyed this time.
"Have you checked that there are fresh towels in the other bathroom?"
"Have you checked with management, not to mention your psychiatrist, that this obsession with towels is healthy?"
The man hung up. Blair grunted with annoyance and put the phone away. When the phone rang again thirty minutes later she considered taking out the batteries or walking to the other bathroom and stuffing it among the towels so she didn't have to deal with it anymore. She grabbed the phone, counted to five to calm herself and then answered.
"Hello?"
"Have you checked that there are fresh towels in the other bathroom?"
"Yes" she lied. "I checked after your last call and we do have fresh towels in the other bathroom. Thank you."
She hung up and hoped that would be the end of that. She put the phone and the book down on the bed beside her and got up. Grabbing the empty glass on the nightstand she walked out of the bedroom and noticed it had gotten really dark. Feeling a touch uneasy she turned on all the lights and felt a bit better when she could see everything in the room. She walked over to the bar and found the bottle of wine Chuck had opened for her earlier. She filled up her glass and when she put the bottle down her eyes landed on the three bottles of scotch. After pondering it for a minute she grabbed the Loch Lomond and a tumbler and poured herself a drink. She gulped it down in three nervous gulps and then slammed the tumbler down on the counter. Her nerves felt a bit better and she took her wine glass and walked back to the bedroom, making herself comfortable on the bed.
Ten minutes later the phone rang again. Blair stared at it with confusion, wondering what that man wanted this time. Then again it may not be him calling at all. It could be someone calling from the front desk.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Why haven't you checked if there are fresh towels in the other bathroom?"
A chill ran down Blair's spine. Quickly she hung up the phone and tossed it on the other end of the bed. How the hell did this man know she hadn't checked? Her breath came in shallow gasps for a minute and she hugged her knees, trying as best as she could to not freak out. Then she calmed herself. Maybe this was just some prankster making a Halloween call. Perhaps it was even someone who knew they didn't have any towels in the other bathroom and that's why he was calling her again. Obviously whoever it was he was just trying to freak her out.
Her cellphone rang and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Then she quickly got off the bed and hurried to the dresser where she had left her purse. She rummaged through it until she found the phone and answered it, hoping it was Chuck telling her he was on his way back. Where was he anyway? He ought to be back by now.
"Hello?" she said.
"Blair!" Nate's voice came on the other end.
"Nate" Blair said, partly disappointed that it wasn't Chuck and partly relieved that it wasn't that weird man. "Are you guys done with squash?"
"We never started with squash" Nate griped. "Your boyfriend stood me up. I know you guys have just made up from a fight and all but when we make plans he can at least call me if he's going to show up. Make-up sex marathon is not a good enough excuse."
"But…" Blair stuttered. "Chuck stood you up?"
"Yeah. I thought he was with you."
"Well he's not" Blair said, getting worried. "He left…" She glanced at her wristwatch. "He left hours ago. Where the hell is he?"
"Don't ask me" Nate said. "I've called him like ten times and he doesn't answer. That's why I called you."
"Well I don't know where he is" Blair said. The phone on the bed started to ring and she spun around. "Listen Nate I… I've got to go. Something weird is going on."
"Tell Chuck to at least give me a call next time" Nate said. "Have a good night."
He hung up and Blair stared at the ringing phone. Slowly she moved closer to it but before she reached it the ringing stopped. She grabbed it and wanted to shut it up before it started to ring again. She wondered if this was all some prank Chuck had set up but it wasn't like him to do something that would genuinely frighten her. Where was he?
She dialed his number on her cellphone and waited for him to pick up. After several rings the phone went to voice mail. This wasn't like him. She was getting worried now.
Then she cocked her neck. Enough was enough. She was Blair Waldorf and she was not someone you made fun of or played around with. She was always in control and she was going to continue to be in control. She grabbed the landline phone and dialed *69 and planned to give whoever was calling her a piece of her mind and once Chuck got back home she would let him know exactly what she thought of him not answering his phone when the woman he loved was calling.
A phone rang. The sound caused her to jump a little and turn around. She walked slowly towards the door, realizing with a pounding heart that the ringing of the phone exactly matched the ringing from the landline phone as she was calling her harasser back. She hung up and the ringing stopped.
In a fit of panic she realized that the calls were coming from inside the penthouse. She ran over to the nightstand and grabbed the numbers for hotel services, dialing the number to the front desk. A woman answered after two rings.
"Hi, yes, this is Blair Waldorf up in Chuck Bass' penthouse suite!" she rambled. "Someone is in the suite with me, making harassing phone calls."
"Calm down, miss" the woman said.
"Calm down?" Blair shrieked. "I'm not calming down, I'm coming down. Right down with the elevator. Send security up here right now to get a hold of this madman!"
She hung up and ran over to the dresser to get her purse. She decided to try and call Chuck one more time. If nothing else she needed to leave him a message and tell him she was going back to the Palace.
She ran out of the bedroom and pressed the button to call for the elevator, mumbling a quiet plead to Chuck to please answer the phone. Then she froze and tried to listen. She thought she heard a faint ringing. The call she was making went to voicemail and the ringing sound stopped. She hung up and glanced over at the elevator. Then she decided she had to know if she was just imagining the ringing or if it was really real. She called Chuck again and listened hard. Yes, there was definitely a phone ringing somewhere, a different ring than the one when she had called the man back. It was Chuck's phone. Why hadn't she heard it before if Nate had called ten times?
She slowly followed the ringing and realized it was coming from inside the other bedroom. Her call went to voicemail again and she angrily hung up and called again. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The room was in complete darkness. She stood there for a moment, contemplating whether or not she should step inside.
"Chuck?" she called out. "If this is your idea of a prank it isn't funny." No answer. "I'm serious. If you're the one doing this then I sure hope you like taking cold showers because you won't be getting any from me until next Halloween."
Voicemail again. She hung up and called one more time while searching with her fingers for the light switch. She found it and when the lights came on she gasped with shock and fear. There was blood in the room. Blood all over. On the floor, on the walls, on the furniture. And a phone was ringing. In shock she followed the ringing sound and realized it was coming from the closet. She stopped in front of it and wondered if she should just run or if she should wait for security to show up.
She did neither. With a trembling hand she reached out and grabbed the closet door, ready to open it up. She took a deep breath and pulled it open. The shock of what she saw caused her to just blink for a few seconds before filling her lungs with air to scream at the top of her lungs. Before she could make a sound a hand landed on her shoulder and grabbed her hard enough to leave a bruise.
Blair woke up with a shriek, smacking away the hand that was shaking her shoulder.
"Easy" Chuck said behind her.
She sat up straight, panting and sweating, looking around the room with wide eyes. She was in the bed in the Empire penthouse and daylight was coming through the glass wall. Chuck was right there with her, on top of the covers, looking at her with concern.
"Relax" he said. "You were having a nightmare."
"I was?" Blair panted.
"I went to the bathroom five minutes ago and you were sleeping peacefully" he said. "When I got back you were moaning and writhing. Sorry if I woke and startled you but you know I won't tolerate anything or anyone other than my good self making you moan and writhe, especially in bed."
"Oh God…" Blair panted. "That dream was awful."
"It was just a dream though" Chuck said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. "You're wide awake now, safe in bed and I am right here to kiss your fears away."
"Seriously Chuck, it was awful" Blair complained, crawling closer to him. "Why do all my bad dreams have to take place in movies?"
"Which movie was it?" Chuck asked and gently kissed her hair.
Blair hesitated.
"I uh… don't remember."
"You remembered it was a movie."
"It's… not important."
"Ah" he said. "You know, that movie is scary. I admit I was kind of freaked when I first watched it too. But you would never even consider babysitting so I think you're out of the woods in real life."
"I wasn't babysitting in the dream" Blair sulked, annoyed that he had figured it out so easily. "I was right here and you were out and the guy kept calling me and asking me about the towels in the other bathroom."
Chuck laughed and she angrily nudged him.
"I'm sorry" he said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh, it's just… Well it is kind of silly, don't you think? Towels?"
"Hey for your information the towels were not the scariest part" Blair said. "Finding your mangled corpse was a lot worse."
"I'm sorry" he said again and gave her hair another kiss. "You know, even if the towel thing sounds tame when you say it I bet it was scary in the dream. The most ordinary stuff can be frightening as hell when you're having a nightmare."
"I hate that stupid movie" Blair said.
"What do you say we go out and buy dozens of copies of it and then throw them all in the Hudson?" Chuck suggested.
Blair giggled.
"I like your version of therapy."
He kissed her hair, then her cheek, then her neck.
"Feel any better?" he asked.
"I do" she said. "But next year… how about we just watch an Audrey Hepburn movie on Halloween?"
"Deal."
Happy Halloween! Reviews are love =)