Hello readers! Welcome to my newest Soul Eater fic.
Author's Notes: Although I love KidxLiz as much as the next person I'm not sure if this would be counted as a pairing fic. Ah well, if you want to hallucinate while you squint, you're free to do so!
Extra Notes: This one-shot contains spoilers for those who have not played The Witch's House.
Disclaimer: Dude, if I owned it, I wouldn't be here.
A sharp squeal tore Death the Kid's attention from his book. Jumping, Kid, glanced at the closed door of his room, wondering what Patti was up to this time. She was probably playing with her stuffed animals. Patti could never play quietly, but it was just as well, Kid could tune her out. Truth be told, he'd come to enjoy Patti's excessive need to make noise. While she brayed like a donkey when she laughed-the sound shattering the balance that only perfect silence could achieve- her noise had a certain admirable balance to it as well. A perfect amount of giddiness and exuberance. Smiling to himself, Kid picked up his book once more, immersing himself within the shadow-strewn, chaotic, made-up world of a Bentley Little novel. If Soul could see him now, he'd make some snarky remark about how fitting it was for the son of Death to have a penchant for horror novels. In all reality, it was more of a guilty pleasure. Horror actually held no balance whatsoever. A random assortment of suspense sprinkled here and there with a dash of racing heartbeat brought to a close with one final showdown (which depending on the author, or plot could either be bland or epic), that didn't always result in a happy ending. No, horror was not something that Mr. Symmetry-Obsessed himself would normally be found indulging in. Key-word being normally.
Another disembodied squeal shattered the painting of the pages. Kid groaned. He really wanted to read. They had no assignments. Soul, Maka, Tsubaki, and Black Star, were busy with their own devices. It was the perfect chance to power-read through a good book. However, Kid was not to get his wish as this time a shriek issued through the wooden barrier. Frowning, the mini grim-reaper put down his book and walked over to the door, easing it open. Squealing Patti was okay, shrieking Patti was not. The last time she'd caterwauled like that, she'd found a rather large spider in the living room and had almost destroyed the west wall in an attempt to flatten the poor arachnid.
"Patti?" Kid peered down the hallway into Patti's room. The semi-open door revealed a splash of white wall near a small window through which sunlight blazed on the cream-colored carpet. Silence. No screams, and no younger Thompson sister. Frowning, Kid stepped out into the hall and made his way over to the demon gun's room.
"Patti, is everything oka-" His inquiry fell short when he strode into the room and saw that the petite blonde was not playing with her stuffed friends, but rather sprawled out on her bed, fast asleep. The young meister crossed his arms over his chest. He could have sworn that Patti had been the one making noise. However, now that Situation A had been proven false, that left one option: Liz. Strange, Kid wondered as he made his way further down the hall to Liz's room, what's got her so riled up? A cursory glance of the elder sister's chamber revealed an empty room. Maybe she was downstairs?
As he set his socked foot upon the first step, he could make out a soft, muffled whimpering coming from downstairs. Curious and a bit concerned, Kid tromped down to the first floor. Had she fallen asleep in the living room only to be caught in the clutches of a nightmare? He knew she had some bad ones from time to time. Keeping his ears locked onto the sound. He followed the audible trail down various twists and turns until he found himself in the doorway of one of the many studies that filled the manor. With so many spare rooms and too many books and bookshelves to count, a good deal of the unused rooms in Gallows Manor served as studies. Although not many of them got used (as Kid had a desk in his room and Lord Death preferred to work from his Death Room), it saved the basement from becoming a potential fire hazard. While most of the rooms had fallen prey to Kid's OCD, each one of them sharing the uniform look of having the walls flanked by book cases with a large desk in the middle, this room had been spared due to a need to keep up with advancing technology; and thus, it broke the rules of symmetry, placing only two book cases against the far wall and housing a small desk in the far corner complete with a desktop computer and a comfy rollout chair.
It was here Kid found Liz. Huddled in the desk chair, the pistol had brought her knees to her chest and buried her face in her hands. Her whimpering had died down, but she still shook hard enough to vibrate the chair. Whatever had frightened her had to have come from the computer based on how she was turned away from the monitor, and if Kid had to guess Liz had more than likely kicked herself away from the computer because the chair was sitting in the middle of the room.
"Liz?" Kid said, venturing into the room. He crept up to the terrified weapon girl, being sure not to make any sudden movements. There was no telling when she'd snap out of her prone, trembling state and start swinging.
Liz shook her head, "I'm sorry," she mumbled, "I tried, but I just can't do it." The dirty-blonde sniffed, "…I…I couldn't even get one," she whined.
"Couldn't get one?" Kid echoed, drawing closer to his partner. He laid a hand on her shoulder, "one what, Liz?"
The girl didn't answer. Instead, she pointed over her shoulder at the computer. Kid glanced at the screen. It was black save for some white text which read:
Do you want to play again? Y/N
Smirking, Kid patted Liz on the head, "I understand your desire to overcome your crippling fear of the supernatural, but is playing Slender really the best way to do it?"
That brought her back to reality. Smacking his hand away, Liz stuck her face in his and snarled, "Oh just cut it out with the condescension will you? Like you could ever get a page!"
Standing up, Kid stared down at his partner, still smirking, "actually I have. In fact the highest number I've gotten was five."
Liz looked away, pouting. Kid bit his lip to try and stop a grin from forming and walked over to the computer. Just as he was about to move the mouse and click on the N, Liz called out.
"Wait."
"Why?" Kid asked.
Sauntering over, Liz removed his hand from the mouse, "I want to try again."
The young reaper snorted, "I thought you were too scared."
"Well…I am…" here she gave him a pointed stare, "but I'm not gonna let you beat me," Blue eyes roved over to the screen and glinted with a cold malice reserved for the most hated of foes, "there's no way some faceless freak will allow you to collect pages and not me. Make no mistake, I will get a page. Who knows?" Here her gaze slid back towards Kid. The bright, sharp gleam of malice had dulled to a mischievous twinkle, "maybe I'll even collect all eight."
"Really?" Kid quirked an eyebrow.
"Really."
This time Kid didn't try to hide his grin. Stepping away from the computer, he swept his hand towards the screen, "then by all means, Elizabeth," his eyes glinted with evil mirth, "click 'yes.'"
Liz didn't respond, but that cocky grin twisted into a frown. She glared at the monitor, the arrow hovering over the Y mark. One minute passed. Liz's eyebrow twitched.
Two minutes.
The arrow twitched, jumping a fraction over to the right before once more coming to rest in its initial spot.
Three minutes.
Kid glanced at his watch, "Well, what are you waiting for?"
Liz continued to glower at the screen, with its taunting question. Those little white letters in that no-nonsense, rational font were baiting her back into the blackness behind them. Baiting her back into the nightmare world of creeping shadows and wandering monsters.
Four minutes.
"Liz?"
Dark clouds of anxiety had clouded over that bright shimmer of confidence, sending the cobalt shade of the girl's eyes down into the shadowy recesses of navy. Her hand trembled upon the mouse, causing the arrow to dance around the text. Liz gritted her teeth. A bead of cold sweat ran down the back of her neck. The images from the game flashed across her mind's eye. Shaky, erratic, and coated in that god-awful static, the snapshots of a suited figure straight from her nightmares danced across the plane of her memory.
Yes, Elizabeth, it murmured, let's play again… Come into my woodland home. I'll follow you around until your flashlight goes dark…and then… oho and then we'll have all kinds of scary fun!
Five minutes. Liz hung her head.
"I can't do it. Slender man's way too scary."
Kid rubbed her back, "There, there."
The young girl let out a whine and sunk to the floor, "I'm such a failure. I mean, our job is to go after creepy, evil witches and pre-Kishins that hide in dark, scary places; and every time we get near a dark cavern filled with monsters I freeze up and become useless. You and Patti have to force me into helping out," here she once more buried her face in her hands, "I thought that by playing Slender it would help me conquer my fear, but it turns out I'm just as big a wuss in the virtual world as in the real one."
A soft gaze of gold regarded the miserable weapon on the floor. Kid tapped a finger to his chin and stared at the screen. Then, his eyes lit up. He looked back towards his partner, "Liz, would you go get the chair? I have an idea."
Liz nodded, her face blank as she got up and made her way over to the chair behind them. Meanwhile, Kid clicked out of the game and moved the cursor over the libraries icon. While her meister poked around in the computer's files, Liz wheeled the chair over. Plunking down onto the plush, high-backed black chair, she peeked around Kid's back.
"What are you doing?"
"Your idea's not bad," Kid answered, clicking on a file labeled 'Games', "but I think you went about it a bit too recklessly," from the Games file, Kid opened up a sub-folder labeled 'Indie Games', "you might want to try something a little less immersive."
"Less immersive?"
"Yeah," the Indie folder gave way to various files. Liz watched as Kid scrolled down towards the bottom, flinching back when she saw the Slender file. Once he had reached the bottom. Kid left the cursor hovering over the last file, making the section it was on, light up a pale blue. Curious, Liz scooted closer and read the file name.
"'The Witch's House'?"
Nodding, Kid replied, "It's a horror game as well, but unlike Slender, it's made with RPG Maker as opposed to the Unity engine."
"Uh, sure. Whatever that means," Liz mumbled.
The young death god sighed, "It means that it's not first person. RPG Maker games have layouts similar to ones you would find being used on hand-held consoles. Unlike Unity which, as you've seen, is first person, 3D. The point is you should be okay playing this one. It has jump scares, but since it's not in first person, it shouldn't be as bad as Slender."
He stepped back, allowing Liz to roll up to the computer and click on the file. The game opened, revealing a teal and green background with the title near the top done in white lettering. Near the bottom were three options, 'Begin', 'Continue', and 'Quit'. A glowing white box surrounded the first option. Liz tapped the Enter key. The speakers chimed and the game began. After the screen faded in from black, both meister and weapon were met with the scene of a bright forest. A blonde girl lay in the middle of a three by three tile flower patch. Liz watched as a black cat on a nearby stump talked to the girl, tapping the Enter button to move the text along. Switching her fingers over to the arrow keys, Liz walked the girl around on the screen, exploring the two-dimensional environment, finding a machete and playing around with the inventory and movement keys. Eventually she guided the girl (called Viola) up the path to the witch's house.
"That's one big house," Liz said, staring at the massive, white mansion that dominated the top portion of the screen.
"Reminded me of the manor the first time I played it," Kid remarked.
"So," Liz led Viola over to the cat and had her converse with it, "I guess I go in?"
"You can't get out remember. The way out's blocked by roses."
The gun-girl rolled her eyes, "Right," and so Viola strode into the house. The game gave a small cut scene before fading into black and opening up inside a dimly lit corridor with one door at the end. Pressing the up key, Liz guided the young heroine through the door into a dungeon-like room. Eyes back to their normal shade of cobalt sparkled with suspicion, flicking from the top of the screen where a note could be seen stuck to the far wall to the middle where a crimson splash of blood lay upon the floor. Liz frowned. She didn't trust that blood. Maneuvering Viola around the conspicuous pool of red, Liz read the note.
"'Come to my room' huh? Sure," Viola exited the room, "I'll do that." Kid watched as Liz saved the game and moved to the now open area on the right, "Hey Kid, this'll get scary, right?"
"Keep going," Kid told her.
The tiny, pixelated girl walked up a long, northbound branch of a hallway and into a room with a cornucopia of presents in the far corner. Upon investigation of this, a teddy bear was added to the inventory. Before she could further examine the room, a tin fell off the pile. Liz jumped, "Um…okay…" she commented, "just gonna assume that fell off." Her voice wavered a bit as she continued checking around the room, reading the diary and the note on the wardrobe.
Checking the other room at the eastern end of the branching hallway revealed a second dungeon-like chamber complete with a large wicker bin in the center within which sat a large teddy bear and a note instructing that there should be more than one bear in the basket. However, when Liz tried to put her bear in the basket, its limbs made it too big to fit.
"What do I do now?" She asked, looking over at Kid,
"Head back to the entryway and enter the room on the right."
Liz did as Kid told her to, and her eyes lit up upon seeing a pair of scissors in the far corner. Interacting with them, she was prompted to cut the bears limbs off. Once she hit enter, an awful squelching sound issued from the speakers and as soon as the final fluffy paw had been hacked off, the scissors were coated in blood. Liz blinked.
"Why are the scissors bloody? It's a teddy bear…right?" The quiver was back in her voice and she let out a squeak when a bloody paw print appeared by the door through which she'd come. Saving with the cat once more, she had Viola make her way back to the room with the bear and placed it in the basket. Upon exiting, Liz yelped when she saw the basket move to the left.
"It moved!" She cried, running Viola back into the room, "Kid, did you see that? It totally moved!"
Kid thought about informing her of the major jump scare that was coming her way, but thought better of it. Mean, yes, but if she was to overcome her afflictions, she'd have to get past the many jump scares prevalent in the game.
Back in the entryway, a vase of flowers fell to the floor, shattering. Liz's whimper morphed into another yelp when the candles went out. On the screen, Viola froze. Liz gulped. Should she move forward? Her instincts were screaming something bad was about to happen. She'd known something was off with that teddy bear when she saw the blood on the scissors. Oh man, I bet there was a little kid's body inside that bear! Now that I've hacked it all up, its ghost is gonna come eat me! Liz squeezed her eyes shut tight and began taking slow, deep breaths. No. She was a Thompson, one of the Brooklyn Devils. She'd terrorized countless innocent civilians and even a few mobsters. She would not run from a teddy bear! Even if it was causing poltergeist activity. Taking one final breath, Liz opened her eyes, narrowed them at the screen, and pressed onward.
Only to shriek like a banshee and leap back from the computer when a giant, red-eyed bear came crashing through the opposite door. Within a few seconds it killed Viola, resulting in Game Over.
Kid sighed. Maybe he should have started her out on Ib or The Crooked Man. Those two weren't very jump scare heavy and took a while to build up to the few they did have. He turned his gaze from the now red smeared screen to his weapon who had returned to her original position in the center of the room, hiding her face and shaking.
"Sorry, I guess I should have warned you about that."
Liz nodded, "Uh-huh." She raised her face. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears of fright, "I mean, it's a teddy bear! A teddy bear! They took a symbol of comfort and made it scary!" She then furrowed her brow.
Kid quirked an eyebrow, "Liz?"
"A teddy bear," she repeated, "and they made it scary." Here, she straightened up, crooking a finger beneath her chin, "a symbol of comfort, and they managed to turn it into something terrifying," she looked up at Kid, "that's…kind of cool actually."
The striped boy smiled, "did you want to try again?"
For a moment, she said nothing. Then, her lips curved upwards in a small smile. Wheeling the chair back in front of the computer, Liz replied, "Yeah, I think I do."
Countless deaths, two hours, and one reference to the walkthrough later, Liz closed the game and pushed herself back from the computer.
"That ending was awful!" she said, "Why did you have to make me get the knife?"
"Because I wanted you to get the true ending. It's no fun if you don't get the true ending."
"Liar," Liz snorted, "you just wanted to watch my heartstrings get pulled."
Kid shrugged, "maybe, maybe not. Anyway," he fixed the girl with a hard stare, "do you think you're any closer to conquering your fear?"
"I'm not sure. What do you think?"
"Well…" Kid rubbed the back of his head, "let's just say if your screaming and freaking out are any indication I think we've got a long way to go."
Liz huffed and folded her arms across her chest, "Fine then. What do you suggest, oh omnipotent Reaper?"
"This," Kid said, clicking on a desktop icon labeled 'Steam'. From there he opened up a separate game library, and scrolled down through the various titles therein. When he had highlighted a certain game title, Liz froze. She flicked her gaze from the screen to her meister and back again.
"You can't be serious."
"I am."
"C'mon Kid! I don't want to play Five Nights at Freddy's! I've heard about this game! It's supposed to be incredibly terrifying, even worse than the Slender games!"
Kid looked at her for a moment, contemplating. Finally, he motioned for her to get up from the chair, "Here, get up. I have an idea."
"What?" Liz asked, standing up, "what is it?"
"Truth be told, I haven't played this game yet either," he replied, sitting down, "so I'll go ahead and play and once I'm done you can try. That way, you can watch and have an idea of what's going on and how to prepare for environment. Plus, I figure that since neither of us have played this, only heard about it, we'll both be scared; and if you have someone to be scared with, it might not be so bad."
Liz smiled. How sweet! She moved behind him so she could better see the screen. Kid opened the game. The two were met with a screen covered in static behind which an animatronic bear could be seen. Every now and then a metal endoskeleton would appear beneath the fuzzy shell in short, spasming bursts. Kid turned to Liz.
"You ready?"
The elder Thompson stared into the haunting, glitching eyes of the robot animal. Its empty, soulless grin made her shudder. Soul had played this game before, and according to him this game was one hundred percent nightmare fuel. Shaking her head, Liz squeezed Kid's shoulders. Her meister as with her. She would be just fine.
"Let's do this."
Kid hit enter. The game began…
"You know, I had no idea you could scream like that."
"Shut up."
"Really! You were even louder than me!"
"Please shut up."
"It's kind of cute how you sound so much like a girl when you scream."
"Seriously. Shut. Up."
Snickering, Liz patted Kid on the head, "There, there. I'm sure a lot of people have trouble making it past the second night." The young reaper didn't even bother to reply. Instead, he kept his head down, regarding the keyboard with a blank stare. A failure. He was a horrible failure. The clock hadn't even struck two before Bonnie had snuck into his office and screeched right in his face. He'd been so concerned about checking Foxy that he'd completely forgotten about the other two robots wandering the restaurant. And to make matters worse, he'd shrieked louder than Liz had during The Witch's House.
"Hey, look at it this way," Liz said, ruffling his hair, "at least you died before the fourth night. Soul says that's the worst one."
Kid groaned, "Damn possessed robots."
Liz laughed and reached over Kid, exiting the game for him "C'mon," she said, turning the chair around, "let's leave this little chamber of horrors and step into the sunshine shall we?"
Kid's shoulders sank as he heaved a sigh. He stood up, stretching and rubbing his neck.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea. I'm stiff from sitting for too long."
Giggling, Liz replied, "How can you be stiff when you were too busy yelling and leaping back from the screen?"
Before Kid could respond, Liz ran out of the room. A little while later, Patti awoke to the sounds of Liz running through the house, followed by Kid shouting that he'd fill her room with red-eyed teddy bears and busts if she didn't quit teasing.
If you've never played The Witch's House, I recommend it. It's a great game and it's also free. I tried getting through Slender, and like Liz, I couldn't even get one page. It's the knowledge that Slendy's lurking out in the dark waiting to kill you that keeps me from playing for very long. Ib and The Crooked Man, the other two indie games mentioned above are also free and very enjoyable. They're more story oriented though. At any rate, thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!