"And now, twenty years later, his spirit still lives, haunting the third desk on the front row whispering: 'Miss, I don't understand question six. Miss, I don't understand question six.'"

The lightning flashed outside and the reader flinched slightly as the bedroom darkened.

"Anne, go on."

"No, don't go on!"

Anne took in a deep breath.

"The desk was considered to be haunted so the teachers condemned it and removed it from the classroom to burn it to ashes…"

The clap of thunder came loud enough to make the glass vibrate in the window. Three screams rung out in the dark bedroom and the ten teens turned to the door at the young man who had just flipped the light switch on.

"Really?" he raised an indigo eyebrow at them sceptically "Ghost stories at this time of night? Are you really teenagers or just little kids?"

"I like ghost stories, they're very imaginative," a younger girl with long indigo hair huffed "What are you doing here, Nii-san? This is very unexpected."

"Your phone was turned off so I let myself in with the spare key," the man showed a silver key with a smirk.

"Hm, I should have the locks changed then," the girl reclined on her mattress with a loud yawn.

Anne closed her red leather notebook with a sigh.

"I'm tired of reading," she murmured with a yawn "Can we go to bed now?"

"But you have to finish," the girl with indigo hair insisted.

"Yumi, I really don't want to hear the rest of it," the blonde near her said "Anne hasn't had gore in the story yet and I don't want to hear it!"

"Yeah, we don't want nightmares," the girl with light brown hair in between them drawled.

"You're just scared that the kid will sneak into Maki-san's apartment and get us all," the albino boy of the group murmured.

"Come on, Anne's tired," the boy with black hair and brown eyes wrapped his arm around Anne's shoulders "We shouldn't push her."

"I'll read the rest of it," the boy with black hair and red eyes offered as he held a hand out for Anne's notebook.

"Oh no, not Akiyama-san's voice!" the girl with orange hair shrieked "His voice is so monotone, so creepy and just…ah!"

"Then how about I read it?" the boy with long silver hair offered.

"No, your voice isn't scary enough," the boy with short, gelled, red hair shook his head and rolled his tongue piercing up and down.

"What about you make up your endings and all go to sleep?" the man by the door interrupted.

"You are no fun, Nii-san," Yumi sighed and waved him off "Leave."

"Goodnight, Yumi," the man smiled before closing the door.

Yumi rolled her eyes and pulled out a little paper doll.

"Right, before we go to sleep, there's something I want to try," she said as the others stared at it curiously "It's called the Sachiko Ever After Charm."

"Right and what does it do, exactly?" the light brown haired girl asked sceptically.

"If we do it right, Sachiko will give us our blessing and we will be bound as true friends," Yumi said "Everyone, get a hold of the paper doll."

Everyone leaned out in a circle and took a hold of the little paper doll. Anne smiled up at the boy who gave her a tight hug. Yumi made eye contact with the albino boy and smiled at him.

"Everyone then needs to chant in their head 'Sachiko, we beg of you,' for each person involved and yourself. So that means ten times for us. And to have the charm work, it has to be exactly ten times."

"Got that, Nii-san?" the girl with orange hair grinned "Ten times."

"Oh shut up, Riku," the boy with red hair rolled his eyes.

"Ready?" Yumi asked and her nine friends nodded "Go."

A hush of silence fell over the group as some closed their eyes to chant whilst others stared at the paper doll amongst them.

"Right," Yumi broke the silence after about a minute "Now everyone pull on the doll and make sure you have a scrap with you at the end. You then need to keep this scrap of paper with you at all times to make sure that we're truly bound as friends."

"Right!" her friends nodded "Three, two, one!"

They pulled and the doll came apart between them in ten pieces. The lightning flashed violently, startling some of the teens briefly before laughing it off. Anne smiled and tucked the scrap into her pyjama breast pocket.

"That's cute," she commented and patted her pocket as everyone else put their scraps somewhere safe.

"Not as cute as you," the brown eyed boy next to her grinned and flicked her nose.

"Ah, Zack!" she exclaimed with flushed cheeks.

Zack laughed and tousled her hair.

"My cute little girlfriend," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Hey, don't call me little, that's mean!" Anne whined as a couple of others laughed.

The boy with red eyes beside them just gave Zack a passive look before tucking his scrap of paper in his pyjama trouser pocket. Thunder clapped loudly which caused a couple of screams from Riku, the blonde haired girl and the girl with light brown hair.

"Sheesh, Sakura, you scream pretty loud," the boy with silver hair winced.

"Shut up!" the girl with light brown hair snarled.

There was a sudden movement of the building and Zack fell off the bed in surprise.

"What was that?!" he exclaimed.

"Earthquake…?" the boy with red eyes murmured uncertainly.

Then a rougher quake came and Anne screamed with the other four girls.

"It's pretty serious!" the albino exclaimed as debris began falling from the ceiling.

"Ruka, duck!" the boy with silver hair exclaimed and dragged the boy away from getting hit by some of the books from the bookshelf.

Riku and Sakura clung onto each other underneath one of the beds whilst the boy with red eyes brought a blanket over Anne and held her in a protective manner.

"Riku!" the boy with red hair called out.

"Daichi, watch out!" Zack shoved his friend out of the way to avoid getting hit by the light bulb.

"Yumi!" Ruka called as the floor began to give way.

"Ruka!" Yumi cried as she fell through.

"Yumi-chan!" Anne shrieked in horror.

"Anna-chan!"

Anne turned as the blonde fell soon after.

"No, Grace-chan!" she lurched but the boy held her closer.

"Don't move!" he instructed.

"Anne, are you alright?!" Zack called over the noise.

"Grace-chan! Yumi-chan!"

Two more screams followed as Sakura fell through and Riku grabbed her hand.

"Riku!" Daichi cried out.

"Nii-san!" Riku screamed as she fell through with Sakura.

The floor then gave way to Ruka and the boy with silver hair.

"Nakahura-kun! Oshiro-kun!"

"Anne!"

Anne reached out for Zack's hand and her eyes widened in horror as he fell through with Daichi.

"Zack! Fujimoto-kun!"

Her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Everyone…" she whispered and her stomach lurched when the bed tilted.

"Anna-san, stay calm," the boy holding her instructed as the quake grew rougher "The bed should cushion our fall."

"But…"

Anne screamed and hugged the boy tighter as her stomach lurched again when the bed fell through the apartment floor and they spiralled down into the darkness below.