AN: Expect this to be either 1 or 2 more chapters long. If you see any errors, please tell me!
-0-
Sena's grandmother had peculiar tastes to say the least. She'd offer gelatinous eyeball candies, cookie milk-bones, and viscous, red fruit punch in the heads of skulls whenever Sena and his parents visited. Her curtains and bed spreads were black and gothic- lace upon lace with ghoulish designs. She had red lightbulbs that cast every shadow into something sinister.
His mother, Mihae, said she was a bit eccentric, but seemed completely unbothered by the atmosphere, having grown up in it after all. His father, Shuumei, enjoyed being away from the office and usually took Sena's grandfather out fishing- but they, too, seemed unbothered.
Sena, a timid child, almost always fainted during the visits, but loved his grandmother regardless. The candies were good, the bone cookies were homemade (he'd seen the cookie cutters), as was the fruit punch. He'd helped press beats, rutabagas, blackberries, cherries, and strawberries to make the drink on numerous occasions.
He always knew his grandmother's house was haunted- just one of those things you accept in life, like the sun, or having parents- though he could never quite prove it. Whenever he'd ask where the ghosts were, his grandmother would just reply, "Sena, here I thought you wanted your grandfather and me around a bit longer!" and wink.
-1-
"Sena, just stay there while we figure out what to do with the house," his mother's voice was faint and crackly as Sena cradled the phone against his shoulder, his hands full of boxes.
"Alright, alright," Sena mumbled. He locked the car and trudged up the creaking steps to the house's entrance. "I have to go now, see you soon."
"Love you," his mother and father chorused.
"Love you guys, bye." Sena rested the boxes on the patio and sighed.
His grandfather had passed years ago- heart attack while fishing-, but his grandmother had only recently died. The loneliness had finally gotten to her. The house stood by itself for three months while the Kobayakawa family grieved. Three months too long, his grandmother would have said. She died peacefully, happy to join the love of her life. In her will, she insisted they hold a party instead of a traditional funeral. (Also, she wanted to be cremated. And for her ashes to be blasted out of a confetti canon during said party. Needless to say that didn't happen.)
But, the time had come for things to be taken care of. Sena was an adult now. At twenty-one, it was the summer before his last year at university. His main concern was to get the house back to livable conditions. Brush away the cobwebs, sort what was left of his grandparent's belongings, do basic maintenance. Tidy up the lives of some of his most precious people.
Can't get too gloomy, he thought to himself. He slapped his cheeks. It was almost nighttime, and he wanted to switch out the creepy red lightbulbs for regular ones before it got too dark.
-2-
The house sat out far from beyond civilization, it seemed. The nearest commercial center was almost an hour away, the nearest hospital almost three.
On either side of the house were two trees, leafless and black. The house's shutters hung crookedly. The wood, all of it, creaked terribly- especially at night when the house settled. Some doors were locked. Others led to bricked dead-ends.
The most off-putting thing was the silence, however. A lonely main road (that stopped being paved about a mile in) ran past the house. There might be a car on that road once a day. There was wind, the trees scratching against the windows, or the odd bird chirping, but there was an eerie silence that was almost deafening.
A white family might call the house a fixer-upper.
Sena, for the foreseeable future, would call it home.
-3-
The areas you should clean and prepare before all else, frequent movers will tell you, are the bathrooms and kitchen.
The bathroom, in all honesty, is the first among equals- takeout can be ordered at any time. Some people, though, refuse to use public restrooms.
Sena was one such person.
Which was why Sena was scrubbing the old clawed-foot tub with a coarse brush. The creepy black décor had been switched out to curtains and towels with a sunnier disposition, including the lightbulbs. He'd already cleaned the toilet. The room smelled like lemons.
But the room was so quiet he could hear the water dribbling down the faucet.
Drip, drip, drip…
It was too eerie, too surreal.
He'd never noticed it before, when he was little, because there were always people here, laughing at his reaction to eyeball candies and skulls full of red punch. Now, without his grandparents, he felt the immeasurable loneliness and silence that had accompanied his grandmother until she'd made her final trip to the hospital.
It probably made sense that house was in such disrepair, then. The bricks weren't falling off and the foundation wasn't crumbling. But there were leaks. There were cobwebs (real ones) and dingy windows and rust stains- all little signs of the ailing health of his grandmother, of her growing death. The pipes rattled, old, as Sena rinsed the tub once again. When he closed the tap, the drain groaned, and the suction noise it made as the water flowed away was deafening.
A little bit of water dribbled from the tub faucet. Drip drip drip drip drip…
Sena started wiping down the mirrors, clearing the grim and condensation. The lightbulbs flickered briefly, and Sena looked up curiously. There was someone behind him when he looked back in the mirror.
Sena turned around, gasping- but the door was just open, showing the shadowed hallway. The tub leaked. He cleaned the bathroom counter hurriedly, ignoring the image in his mind.
A tall person, dark hair. Male. He'd been standing close, less than an arm's distance, only a foot away at most, and Sena had seen his face in the mirror. There were two shadows where their eyes should have been, as if they'd been gouged out?
Dripdripdripdripdrip…
He turned around again, slowly.
The tub was almost half-full, he noticed. He'd have to fix the leak.
Empty hallway again. Right, right. The light and shadows were weird, they- they might have even been what his sleep-deprived brain saw. But, just in case, he thought- just… He made to close the door.
Sena hopped off his stool, not noticing the puddles on the ground.
"Wha-," Sena flailed, trying to find purchase and failing. He fell into the bathtub with a splash. His cheek grazed the faucets edge; hot pain pulsed through his face where the metal scraped away skin. Sena sputtered and groaned, clutching at his cheeks. A thin rivet of blood fell down his cheek.
A drop of blood landed in the water.
The bath drain made another deafening suction noise as all the water was siphoned away. A deeper, more echoey sound punctuated the end- as if the noise had been moaning in the labyrinth of pipes before reaching his ears.
-4-
It was pitch black outside, hot and humid with the occasional gust of wind that rattled the entire house. The radio was illuminated from behind by a brilliant light bulb as it perched on the edge of the kitchen counter.
"Good evening, nightowls," the radio broadcaster announced, her voice mellow. It was close to two in the morning.
Sena slurped his instant ramen, listening intently despite his sleepiness. He sat cross-legged on the floor, wearing pajama pants. Half opened boxes and trash bags surrounded him.
The radio was the only thing that got decent reception, and Sena was dying for entertainment. He hadn't been up the restroom all day. He'd spent the rest of the day cleaning and changing the gauze on his cheek.
"I'm sure we've all had an eventful day. So take this time to relax…" the woman said.
You've got that right, Sena thought as his cheek started throbbing again.
"But try to put your mind at ease," the woman's voice began dropping in pitch with every word she said now, like she was falling down a well. "C-c-c… alm your breathing… calm your heart… heart…"
Sena stilled, eyes darting to the radio. It was still the woman's voice, but it was distorted and warbled, as if she was talking through water.
He got up and messed with the dial.
"Hear… t… HEART," the woman was shouting now, her voice so deep and twisted that she was barely recognizable. An image of the woman with her throat slashed open, gushing blood with every gargled attempt to speak, flashed into his mind.
Sena stumbled for the extension cord and unplugged it. Silence filled the room… He felt nauseous. His mind was playing tricks on him. It- it had to be. He plugged the radio back in.
"Calm your heart," this time the voice was male, deep, mellifluous, the perfect voice for late night radio. "Take a deep breath… fuu… deep breath… fuu… are you listening to me, nightowl?"
Sena felt himself calming. He must have been sleepier than he thought if he imagined such a terrible thing moments earlier.
He breathed in.
"That's right… listen to me. Listen to my voice. Ignore what was troubling you before…"
Sena started washing up, listening to that hypnotic voice.
"Say it was your imagination…"
He turned off the faucet and started putting away his dishes.
"I said, say it was your imagination."
"It… it was my imagination," Sena said, clutching his plate.
"Good, good. With that we'll conclude today's broadcast early. Try and sleep, nightowl, you will need it." The radio hissed into static. Sena scrambled for the radio and unplugged it and took out the batteries for good measure.
-5-
Sena entered the master bedroom. It had an en suite, the same bathroom where he'd fallen, where'd he'd seen that shadow of someone… With a shake of his head, Sena dismissed whatever he'd seen earlier as a trick of the light or not getting enough sleep.
And the radio thing? Probably satellite interference and an active imagination.
Sena's heart thumped in his chest.
Right.
But! This was the master bedroom, and Sena was the master of this abode. So he was going to sleep here, and use that damn bathroom, and use the radio whenever he pleased.
"Stupid, dumb brain," he pulled his pants off, shrugged on a comfortable sweatshirt. Sena stretched out on the bed. The late night was starting to catch up to him.
"Mmm," Sena stretched again. He pulled the comforter tight against him, like a teddy bear, and rolled on his side.
Behind him, unseen, the closet door cracked open.
A golden eye came into view between the door and the frame. There was no pupil, just a bright gold iris surrounded by a black sclera. The color was like a writhing disease and infection. The eye focused intently on Sena's back.
Need to call mom and dad, make sure Pitt's okay, too. Sena curled the blanket around him tighter. Call about the busted AC, too, it's freezing.
He could see his breath.
The eye disappeared.
A shadow twitched from underneath the closet door, twisting and churning, before jerking up and taking form. The bright, shining eyes were back; moonlight reflected off its wide, glistening smile. It had human looking teeth, except they were twice as long and much thinner.
It stepped towards Sena, taking exaggerated slow steps. Whenever Sena would move, it completely froze until Sena stilled again.
It was at the edge of the bed. Its smile got even wider. It crouched right behind Sena's sleeping form, not breathing, not blinking, its bright teeth inches from Sena's smooth neck.
They stayed like that for almost two hours.
-6-
Eventually, Sena turned around, and blinked his groggy eyes open.
"I may not be a skeleton in your closet, but I can give you a bone," the monster winked at Sena.
-7-
Sena's mind was a blurry mess as he started to wake up. He heard the shower running. Had he forgotten to turn it off…?
Images came floating back. The thing in the shower, the smiling thing with long teeth, the voice on the radio… A nightmare then?
"I can't believe you said that," a deep, echoey voice hissed.
"You really laid it on thick." This voice seemed to crackle and fade in and out. It sounded like it was talking through a phone. "It was tasteless."
"Whatever," another voice said, its teeth clicked, "Just wait, he's going to be running into my arms."
Sena groaned.
"Hm, he's waking up now."
"Yeah, I can see that, asshole."
"Fu… you need to stop this childish quarreling or-"
Sena blinked. Above him was the man with the long smile and the one from the shower. Sena blinked again and reached for his phone. It was flipped open, a call having been going on for almost forty minutes.
"Hey," one of the men said, smile spreading so far across his face it had to hurt. His golden eyes peered down at Sena. Sena took in a sharp breath.
"Don't scream!" The other held up its hand, seemingly trying to calm Sena. His skin was a pale blue, like he'd drowned; his ears were pointed. He had no eyes, just empty black eye sockets that stared down at Sena. And he was naked and dripping water.
"Yeah, save that voice up," golden eyes said as he laid next to Sena on the bed, "you'll be screaming my name later."
"Don't pay attention to him, he uses the wrong head to think." The voice was using his phone, like it'd used the radio earlier.
"Both of them are idiots- ignore them." The naked guy took in a breath. "Go out with me."
"No, you don't want him, you-!"
"I may just be a disembodied voice, but this voice can bring you the greatest pleasure. Two words: audio orgasm-"
Sena slammed his elbow into the smiling man's throat. He ignored how cold the monster's skin was in favor for slamming his fist into its nose.
"That was a little- what are you- fuck-" the drowned monster was cut off as Sena jumped off the bed and tackled its legs. The drowned man tried getting Sena off of it, but Sena threw the sheets over its body. It clung to the monster, delaying it long enough for Sena to scramble to his luggage. The smiling thing was still retching and clutching at its nose.
Sena's heart was pounding. He unzipped suitcases. He threw clothes everywhere.
"What are you doing? What's wrong with you?"
Sena held up a mechanical lighter in his shaking hands. He flicked it on and lit one of his cotton shirts on fire. Sena threw it towards the foot of the bed and ran out of the room. He stumbled down the stairs, still running and panting. His eyes stung, and he realized that he was crying.
The smiling monster was waiting for him at the front door, black liquid seeping from its fingers where it cradled its nose.
"What was all that about?" The smiling monster wiped his hand on his jacket. His nose had healed already.
"Y-You," Sena trembled, eyes burning. "Did you... my grandmother, she um, she… did you kill her?"
The radio crackled to life in the kitchen. "I think you're mistaken-"
"You weren't here before, when I was little, did, did you…?"
"You're the first human we've seen."
Sena paused. "Why should I believe you?"
"It's the truth," the drowned monster yelled from upstairs.
"Fuu… we only started haunting here about three months ago."
"Yeah, yeah, before that there was this other guy, wouldn't let us near here. Or anyone for that matter."
"What did the other, um, the other… thing look like?" Sena was still trembling.
"Old man, fishing hat. He was a ghost," the drowned monster said.
"That's right, he had this weird tackle clipped to the hat, looked like a-"
"Shrunken head?"
The smiling monster grinned, flashing its teeth. "Yeah, you know him?"
Sena sat back on the steps and looked down at his lap. His hands caught his tears at the thought of his grandfather keeping his grandmother company. His grandmother must have been thrilled, seeing the love of her life in occult form.
He was broken out of his trance when the stairs started flooding. The drowned man was walking downstairs. That's when Sena realized that he had never turned off the running tap.
And that he'd wrestled with a naked man.
-8-
The voice on the radio was named Akaba. He could take over any device that had a speaker. Radio was his preferred method of communication, but he'd taken over his phone, walkie-talkies, and a really creepy automated harlequin doll once.
He'd wake Sena up in the morning with soft acoustic guitar, and although he couldn't see Sena, he could tell that Sena looked "as fair and golden as the dulcet tones that I play."
"No offense, Akaba, but what the hell," Sena would ask, red-faced.
-9-
The drowned man was some sort of malign water spirit named Kakei. He could only be near water with high enough concentrations of some sort of metal, apparently.
He also liked to sneak in the tub when Sena was bathing. Sena'd close his eyes to rinse shampoo out of his hair, and then there would be Kakei, muscular and wet and also naked.
After the second time it'd happened, Sena had handed over his largest pair of shorts.
"I like the feeling of you against me," Kakei had frowned.
Kakei was blunt, much to Sena's stuttering chagrin.
-10-
"You look great like this," Takeru said. He was the smiling man. Boogeyman would be a more appropriate term. He lurked in Sena's closet and underneath his bed. He had some sort of control over shadows.
"Takeru, I'm naked, can you please." Takeru especially liked using that trick to lock Sena's closet door so he couldn't get dressed. He also liked to sneak into Sena's bed.
"Well, since you begged so nicely… give me a kiss and I can guarantee that I'll open the door."
"Takeru!"
He was also a bit of an asshole.
-11-
It had only been three days since discovering his… roommates, and Sena was at his wit's end.
He messed around with his menu at a local diner. He felt embarrassed and guilty. He actually did like Takeru, Kakei, and Akaba, despite their… quirks. But their flirting was out of control. So, he'd called in a supernatural expert.
"Sena Kobayakawa?"
"Ah, yeah, that's me." Sena stood up and shook the man's hand. He was tall and well built. His voice was deep. Sena felt his heart start to beat faster. That… was unexpected.
"I'm Seijuro Shin. You said that you needed my help?" He sat across from Sena and fixed him with a dark gaze. Sena's face felt warm.
"Yeah- yes. I," Sena blinked, his head fuzzy. What was the best way to say that his house was haunted and that the monsters all wanted to be his boyfriend?