A/N: A little fanfic inspired by that scary movie Insidious.
Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or any of its characters
"This does not look good...this does not look good at all," the professor says as he examines her sleeping body laid out on the bed of the DWMA nurse office.
Soul Eater watches over his sleeping meister worriedly, pacing around the room back and forth, and finally says, "Can you help her, Professor Stein?"
Stein sits back in his chair with a smoking cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and thinks for something to calm the scythe boy down. "There might be a chance to save her from this. But it will be dangerous." Soul stops his pacing and walks over slowly to where she lay, gently caressing her ice-cold hand.
She was alive. Everyone knew and could tell by each labored breath she took and how she cringed every time she had one of her nightmares. But her skin was frozen to the touch, and no one knew why. "Her soul was devoured by the madness," Stein had told the group. "But she's fighting it. That's how she ended up in this coma of hers."
Soul blamed himself for it. For letting his meister fight when they had told her it would be too much for her. But she had always been so determined, so frustratingly stubborn that they would've never seen it coming.
"I think I might have to do more research on this type of madness," Stein says. "This is no ordinary type of sleep. This is the type of sleep that she cannot wake up from by herself." The ache in Soul's chest grew larger as he watched her whimper and toss and turn in her sleep. He only gripped her hand tighter, weaving his fingers in between hers.
"I'm sorry, Maka..." he whispers softly to her, knowing that she would not be able to hear. A hardened hand sternly grips his shoulder, and he looks up into Professor Stein's cold and calculating eyes, searching for a hint of emotion.
"We'll bring her back," he reassured him. "I promise, we'll do everything it takes."
Soul walked home alone today, making his way down the Shibusen stairs and down to their apartment. It was late at night, and everyone else had headed home except for him, who had stayed by Maka's side ever since this morning. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and braved the frosty desert winds of Nevada.
Opening the door to the apartment, he was greeted by the sight of Blair in her cat form waiting for him at the dinning room table. "Soul-kun~" she cooed innocently. "When is Maka-chan coming back?"
He stared blankly at the cat without an answer. "Oh... I see. I hope she comes home soon!" She says sadly.
Soul wished the same thing. Tonight, it was supposed to be Maka's turn to cook. Ignoring his growling stomach, he locked himself up in his room and slumped down next to the door, cradling his pounding forehead. Judging from his headache, he guessed that tonight was going to be another sleepless night; it was either that or the dream that had been constantly replaying whenever he closed his eyes - when Maka had gone up to face that thing, and it had swallowed her up in the madness. He'd been having that dream ever since the mission.
"Do you hear that, Soul? It's nearby!" She said excitedly as she ran through the abandoned building.
The albino boy reflected through his shiny polished scythe and watched her as she went deeper into the hallway. "Are you sure you're up for this, Maka? We don't even know exactly what we're up against." He peered around the area, seeing the empty and darkened rooms around them through their cracked doors and shattered window panes, and the crumbling concrete structure vibrating unsteadily with each step she took.
"I'm sure of it, Soul," she smiled at him. "As long as you're hear to protect me, I'll be fine."
They hadn't even noticed the tentacle slithering around the corner fast enough until it had swiftly wrapped itself around her ankle and began dragging her down the hallway, whiplashing her all around. "Gah!" She cried as she struggled to steady herself while it yanked her. Eventually using the sharp side of her blade to sever it off her leg, and she finally regained her senses as it retreated. "What the hell was that?!" She yelled.
"Are you okay?" He asked cautiously, for he knew his meister could handle much more of a hit like that one.
"I'm okay," she sighed. "It just caught me off guard, that's all." Maka rose up and looked around in the darkness for any sign of it. "We should keep going. I can sense its soul, and it's close. But we have to keep an eye out for those tentacle thingies 'cause there's probably more than one."
"Right," he agreed and continued to watch every corner carefully as she moved slower down the hall. Listening to the endless echo of her footsteps, Soul darted his eyes around and spotted one above them, poised to strike at her. "Above you! 12'o clock!" He warns quickly. She screeches to a stop and swings her scythe ever so skillfully, slashing the tentacle in half before it could even touch her. "Another one! To your left!" Another quick slice. "I think there's one more behind you!" Maka ducks, narrowly avoiding being pierced by the thing, and grabs it with her bare hand. Soul stared in awe at his meister as she wrestled with the squirming before finally stomping on it, and it stopped its moving and shriveled up into nothing. "Nice," he smirked at her, but he was not surprised. He knew she was something else, different from any other of the meisters.
"Let's keep going. It's just around the corner now!" She continued on confidently. At the end of the hall, there was a small little light that wavered up and down, as if taunting them.
"Is that it?" He asked, squinting his eyes to see it clearer.
"Yeah...I can feel its soul so clearly," she murmurs and approaches the light even more. "Be careful, there's something... off about this one." Soul takes another look at the pre-Kishin, watching it carefully. He could've sworn her heard a strange gurgling noise coming from it...
Maka stops running and steps toward the little ball of light with Soul slung over her shoulder. It didn't look like it was moving much, just hovering over the same spot. "It was moving around just moments ago," she said. Suddenly, it shoots upwards and rockets away from them and down the hall. Maka had been startled and whipped her scythe around in front of her, but nothing happened. She waited a few more seconds before relaxing.
"Maka...I have a really bad feeling about this," Soul said suspiciously, more alert than ever. There it was again. That mysterious gurgling sound. "Do you hear that?"
She didn't respond, instead she was fixated on the little bright orb that had darted away and now was all the way at the end of the hallway. A sudden wave of fear washed over Soul and he froze at the oncoming danger that he sensed. "Maka! Watch out!" He shouted, but it was too late.
The weapon watches in horror as his meister is attacked from all directions by a swarm of those tentacles, grabbing her and coiling around the both of them before she even had time to lift her blade in the air. In a desperate gamble to save her, he transformed out of his scythe form and tried to pull her out of the tangled mess, but they smacked him away. They ensnared around her so much that he had lost her image in the black mass and could no longer see her body. "Soul!" She lets out an ear-piercing scream as they engulf her and drag her away.
"Maka!" He screams and dashes after her. Reaching out in the darkness, he manages to hang on to one, clinging on to it hopelessly. But it disintegrates in his hand and he falls into the dark abyss below him. "Maka!" He's falling now, deeper and deeper into the hole as Maka's voice screams his name. Her words reverberate against the endless walls saying the same thing.
"Soul! Help me..." He hears her voice one more time. The world around him spins faster until he could no longer breathe and all he saw was black. "HELP ME!"
RIIING! RIING!
He shot up from his bed in a cold sweat, hyperventilating and pulse racing.
RIING! RIING!
Soul calms down and composes himself before picking up the phone. "Eater and Albarn residence," he whispers, shakily holding the phone in to his ear.
"Soul?" Stein's voice calls him from the other line. "This is Stein. It's urgent news. Come down to the DWMA quickly. I've found out a way to save her."