Hey everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't been updating. Man, it's been a LONG time. I've abandoned pretty much every story I've written so far...
But I'm back! And I'll warn you now; it might take some time for me to update stories. High school is hectic with being in mainly all Honors classes.
Anyways, this is a brand new story. Even though Halloween passed by, I'm still in a spooky mood, so I decided to write something along the lines of being and such.
Also, sorry if this seems like a short and choppy chapter. It's being written on an iPad, and writing on here isn't easy when auto correct decides to change a lot of things around.
Enjoy!
He couldn't get those horrid images out of his head, as he woke up in a cold sweat that night.
Damn, he didn't even know why this guy kept appearing in his dreams without fail, and it wasn't helping him with his sleep schedule, which was already bad enough without nightmares plaguing his dreams every night!
Grunting, Sanji slowly rose from his bed, and tiredly shuffled his way to the bathroom. He passed by old man Zeff's bedroom, and it sounded like a grizzly bear was lurking from behind the door. That damned geezer and his obnoxiously loud snoring...
He entered the bathroom, and stepped onto the cold tiles of the floor, chilling his bare feet. He closed the door behind him, and locked it to make sure Zeff wouldn't bust in on him if he woke up while he was doing his own business in the restroom. Turning around, he made his way to the toilet, but paused, taking a good look at himself in the mirror.
"Holy shit..." he mumbled, as he got a good look at his physical appearance. Needless to say, he did look like a walking bag of shit.
His skin underneath his eyes had been encircled with a darker tone, and drooped slightly, as if hanging there without a purpose. He didnt even look like himself anymore, as his baby blue eyes seemed to have lost their magnificent shine they once held proudly. His sleep loss was getting to him, it seemed, but it didn't help when you were "haunted".
As long as Sanji could remember, he was always plagued with the unbearable burden of being able to see the things that the normal human couldn't see. Beyond those blue eyes was a hidden ability that Sanji could've lived without. Anyone could live without seeing the spirits of the deceased, or possibly even interacting with them. But he was getting tired of one particular spirit that demanded to have it's presence known. At this point, he wasnt sure if he could ever forget the features of the male who haunted him night and day.
That mossy green hair, the tanned skin, and those bleak, black voids otherwise known as eyes...
Sanji shook his head, running slim fingers through his blonde hair, as he sighed to himself.
"It'll all be over soon enough, he'll get tired of you, and you won't have to look at that anymore..." he reassured himself, turning on the faucet of the sink, and washing his face off some, splashing warm water onto it. He reached over to the towel rack, and grabbed the towel hanging off of it, wiping his face off. He tossed it onto the floor, into the corner of the room. When he looked up again, he swore his heart had leapt out of his own throat.
Bleak, dark orbs staring right into his own through the reflection of the mirror. His cold figure behind him, staring at him from over his shoulder, a grin spread across his pale and chapped lips.
"Go away!" Sanji cried, as he quickly turned around, seeing nothing but the wall now. His heart was thumping fast in his chest, blue eyes reflecting fear, as they scanned around the room in all directions, not wanting to come in contact with the unwanted visitor again. The air where the green-haired male had been was cold, so cold it sent shivers up Sanji's spine, and goosebumps that made his hair stand on end. Shaky breaths escaped from his lips, and he quickly exited the bathroom, not daring to look behind himself, as if he felt he was being watched.
He quickly entered his room, and dove under his covers, burying his face into his pillow. It seemed like something a five year old would do, but if it meant not seeing that horrible spirit again, then he'd be damned if he stopped now. He didn't dare look up once, underneath his blankets, as he listened to the sound of his own heart pounding in his ear drums, and the utter silence of his room, except for the whirring of the blades of the ceiling fan that spun.
Sanji hadn't slept for the rest of the night, too paranoid to be haunted once more by that male. Hell, he didn't even know his name, but he haunted him for what... Four months now? And he still hadn't told anyone about it. Not even his old man, or his close friends. The last thing he wanted was to drag them into this mess, and have the green-haired menace torture them as well.
He heard his door open, but didn't look up to see who entered. However, it wasn't hard to guess, since he heard the familiar sound of wood clicking against another wooden surface, along with one booted footstep after each click. Without a doubt, it was his old man Zeff.
"Get up you damned eggplant, the restaurant opens up soon and you got work to do!" his voice boomed, and Sanji felt something hit his side a little rough. It felt like a pillow, which was common, since that's usually how he was awoken rudely by his foster father.
"Yeah yeah..." Sanji replied, his voice sounding like nails on a chalkboard, as he was parched from staying up all night with constant anxiety tearing into him like a hungry predator. He slowly rose from the bed, stretching some, as Zeff huffed, before walking downstairs to begin prepping for the morning rounds.
Sanji walked over to his dresser, and changed into the usual work attire, making sure to stuff a pack of cigarettes into his breast pocket, before walking over to his bedroom window. He opened it up, and lit a cigarette, stuffing the lighter into his pocket, taking a long needed huff from the cigarette.
He glanced up at the sky, the sun poking through the occasional cloud, as it seemed like it would be a relatively nice day. Blowing the smoke from his lips, he took a few more huffs from the cancer stick, before crushing it in an ashytray, and heading downstairs for the kitchen. He couldn't let his nightmares get to him, as he had a job to do, and customers to feed.
He had planned to spend some time with his friends that day, but some additional work was needed to be done in the kitchen, so he would have to meet up with Luffy and the others later on, despite his want to go earlier. He sighed, and headed down the wooden stairs, before walking into the kitchen, grabbing his apron off the hanger it always hung on, and tied it onto his slim frame. Without wasting time, he went over to his own work station, and had grabbed some ingredients from the pantry and fridge, beginning to make the dishes on the breakfast menu for that day.
It took him a few moments to get into the flow of work, since he was still shaken by being stared at directly by a pair of black eyes that were lifeless, and that grin he saw in the reflection of the mirror. He shook the thoughts out of his head, and before he knew it, he was lost in the rhythm of cooking, it being one of the only ways he could escape from the real world, and help simmer down his stress and other woes.
Whistling to himself, he reached over onto his cutting board to grab the spatula to flip the golden pancakes he was cooking, but his hand hovered over the cutting board, as he could see something scratched into the wooden surface crudely.
'STOP IGNORING ME AND ACCEPT ME'
His calm breaths soon turned into shaky, short ones, as he held the pan just above the stove surface. His hand then let go of the pan, causing it to clatter loudly onto the surface, and caused other chefs to turn their attention to the rookie blonde.
"Oi, Sanji, what are you doing? Don't ruin the food when it could be served to the lovely customers!" Patty yelled at him, flipping his own breakfast entree.
"S-Shit.." Sanji mumbled to himself, as he looked at the cutting board still, his right hand singed from holding the hot handle of the pan that hovered over the fire of the stove for quite some time. The pancake had soon begun to burn, the golden surface soon turning to a darker shade of brown, then soon to black, as the smell of burning food soon filled the air.
Zeff had come hobbling over, seeing that Sanj was already causing problems, face contorted into anger. He turned off the stove, and put the pan off to the side, before turning his gaze to Sanji, who was focused on the cutting board, which was normal for Zeff and the others.
A hard smack to the back of the head snapped Sanji out of his trance, and he held the spot he was smacked harshly on, rubbing it some.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, you damned eggplant?! Don't go wasting food that could be eaten by zoning out!" Zeff roared at the blonde, who soon returned the same nasty glare.
"The hell, geezer?! At least ease up when you hit someone! If that was someone else, you would've given them a concussion!" he snapped.
"It wasnt someone else, so I don't give a damn! And anyone else would have been cooking, not zoning out on a damned cutting board! Clean up your mess, and get back to work, brat!" Zeff retorted, before harshly stomping off to return to his own cooking, leaving a rather annoyed, yet panicked, Sanji at his station.
"Damned geezer.. If only he knew.." he whispered to himself, glaring daggers at his elder, before beginning to clean up his mess. He went over to the trash can, taking the spatula, and began to scrap out the burned pancake, grumbling.
Once he finished cleaning up, he headed outside for a smoke break, needing it after seeing the words etched into his cutting board. He lit another cigarette, putting the filter to his lips, and enjoying the wave of calmness it brought, before blowing the grey smoke out of his mouth. He had to get his situation under control soon. After smoking the cigarette down to the filter, he threw it onto the concrete, and stomped it out with the sole of his shoe.
He'd be damned if he let this marimo ghost control his life.
Done the first chapter! Leave me a review if you enjoyed it. Hopefully I can continue this story without abandoning it.
Later!
Animelover0160