Jewel: Here's a kinda dark fanfic inspired by The Hitchhiker by Lucille Fletcher.
Tadase: How dark could it be?
Amu: ...Really? Do you honestly need to ask?
Tadase: What?
Ikuto: Dude, it's Jewel we're talking about. It's going to make kids shit bricks when they read it.
Jewel: That was my primary intent. I don't own Shugo Chara, The Hitchhiker or their characters.
~What's Insanity?~
Ikuto P.O.V.
...Am I insane? What's happening? I... I don't remember anything... Wait...
...It was a dark rainy night when it happened. Amu, Tadase and I were heading over to Kukai's house to meet up with Utau and the rest of the group to watch horror movies. What else would we do on Halloween? There was no way in hell we were going to go trick-or-treating. We're in high school for crying out loud.
Anyways, back to us.
"Do I really have to go with you guys?!" Amu whined as she grumpily played with the bottom of her jacket. I smirked and suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder, making her squeal and jump slightly as she froze. Tadase burst out laughing with me as Amu huffed and glared daggers at the both of us. "That wasn't funny!" She shouted and stomped her boot in a puddle, getting some rain water on our jeans.
"N-No... It was hilarious!" Tadase said right as he caught his breath, only for him to lose it again as he was lost in a fit of hysterical laughter. I wiped a stray tear from my eye and sighed.
"Alright... Sorry. I'll make an extra bag of popcorn for you when we get there, okay?" I comprimised. She seemed to forget the fact that she was about to watch three horror movies in a row as she smiled and skipped a few beats ahead of us. I sighed at her sudden burst of cheeriness.
"That's one hell of a girlfriend you've got there Ikuto." Tadase commented with a small grin as we both watched the sixteen-year-old in front of us splash in some puddles as if she were a child. I chuckled and nodded.
Suddenly, Amu came to a stop, making us come to one as well. Tadase and I glanced at each other and looked at Amu. She was practically frozen in place as she stared over at the farthest corner of the intersection up ahead. She wore a mixed expression of curiousity and confusion danced in her eyes and crinkled her nose, her eyebrows in a downward slant.
A car passed by us, only a foot away from the sidewalk, honking loudly and coming to a skidding halt a few yards ahead of us before starting up suddenly and driving off at a ridiculous speed.
"...Amu?" I called out. She didn't move an inch. "What's wrong?" I asked and looked in the direction she was staring. She turned her head slightly but kept her eyes fixed firmly on the empty corner.
"...Do you... see that..?" She asked and pointed at the corner with a lone lamp post illuminating the empty spot. We frowned at her.
"...Amu, there's nothing there." Tadase stated. Amu shook her head and her hand started to shake.
"No, th-there's someone there." She claimed. My eyes widened at her accusation and I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Look, Amu, there's no one there... Are you okay?" I asked, not sure myself whether I was teasing her or genuinely worried. She shot a quick glare at me, turned back to the intersection but her angry look faltered as she searched the area for something. "Amu?"
"Wha-Bu-They were right there..." She mumbled. I gently placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly, making me flinch in pain seeing my beloved girlfriend like that.
"Amu, I think you're just a little spooked about the movies tonight. You just need to relax. When we get there, you don't have to watch them. I'll stay with you in the kitchen, because you're honestly freaking us out." I suggested. She looked at me with an unreadable expression and nodded. I gently grabbed her hand and we continued to make our way to Kukai's house.
We finally got to the house a minute or two later and we were greeted by Nagi at the door.
"Hey guys. What took you so long?" He asked and leaned against the doorframe. "We were about to start the movies without you guys." He stated. Tadase cleared his throat and I looked to the side awkwardly.
"Tell you about it later. C'mon." I pulled Amu inside and straight to the kitchen and waited for Tadase at the door to the dining room.
There was a loud crack from outside the front doorway and I went to go checkit out but found him standing outside the door still, a fallen branch behind him. I jogged up to his still form and frowned. "Dude, are you gonna come in or do we have to pull you in?" I joked with a blank stare. He continued to stare at something down the street by a few houses.
"...I-Ikuto..." He said under his breath. He raised his arm half way and managed to point at something. I took a step behind him to look down the street but didn't see anything.
"Tadase, hurry up at get your ass inside before I get somebody else to haul it in for you." I said, slightly annoyed by the delay. He shooked his head rapidly and looked at me with frightened eyes.
"I-I'm n-not kidding... Th-There's someone there!" He shouted and turned to the sidewalk in the distance again. His gaze scanned the road in a flurry, confused by something I didn't understand. "...How..?" He muttered and turned to me as if I had the answer. I gave him an odd look and slowly pulled him inside by the wrist.
"Whatever you guys are trying to pull isn't working too well." I said lamely and pulled him into the dining room where Amu was shivering from the freezing rain and fear. "The both of you need to calm down." I declared. Rima and Utau walked in, both raising an eyebrow at the two sitting.
"...Should I ask?" Rima questioned. I sighed and shrugged.
"Both of these idiots said they saw someone in the rain on the way here." I explained. Nagi walked in and frowned.
"That's what happened?" He asked. I nodded, ignoring the fact that he was evesdropping. "That's what's gotten these two all shooken up?" He asked with a questionable look. I felt slightly irrated at the disbelief in his tone because I felt as if he was taking this as a joke.
"All I know is, whatever the hell this is about, it's not going to affect our movie night!" Kukai shouted, bursting into the room. Amu and Tadase almost jumped out of the seats and onto the cold tile floor at the sudden outburst. We all glared at him while Utau and I hit him upside the head simultaneously. "Ow... What the hell was that for?" He asked in a more reasonable tone. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.
"God damn... Get out here." Utau barked and dragged him into the living room by his ear. I went upstairs, pass the bickering couple in the living room, to make a phone call.
As I passed the window in the living room that showed the front lawn, I saw something from the corner of my eye but brushed it off and continued. On the third stair from the top, I trip a little and stumbled back a step or two. "Are you alright Ikuto?" Utau shouted from the living room. I groaned and nodded.
"Yeah. Just tripped a bit." I answered and made my way up to Kukai's room. I dialed Amu's mom's number and waited for the oldest Hinamori woman to answer.
"Hello? Ikuto?"
"Hello Midori. I know this is last minute but would you mind if Amu stayed over for a bit? She's not feeling to well." I lied. Midori chuckled from the other side of the line.
"Oh Ikuto. You and I both know she's probably scared stiff right now because of all those scary movies you're watching. Of course she can sleep over! Take care!" And with that, she simply hung up. How did she know about the movies when none of us told anyone about them? I frowned at my cell but heard my name being called downstairs.
I moved to go downstairs but something on Kukai's desk caught my attention. I walked over to the desk pressed against the wall and smiled at the picture of all of us for a year ago. I picked up the framed photo and admired it.
I finally saw it.
Something caught my eye again from outside the window on the front lawn. I growled in annoyance and turned to the rain beaten glass and froze dead in my tracks. The was someone standing out in the middle of the street. Nothing about them was frightening, but they had a feel that made you wanna scream your head off just at the sight of them. I could feel their heavy aura radiating off of them, through the rain and glass.
For moment, I wasn't sure what to do. I was paralyzed from the shock and fear.
The lights went off, probbably due to the heavy rain outside and lightening.
After what seemed like hours but was probably minutes outside of my mind, I regained the ability to move my body and took a few shaky steps back before scrambling down the stairs, falling about halfway down since I could barely see where I was going, earning a few future bruises. Everyone crowded me at the bottom with a flachlight and worried expressions.
"I-Ikuto! A-Are you alright?" Amu asked and helped me up. I was torn between nodding and shaking my head. I tried to speak but nothing came out.
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Kukai joked but Nagi elbowed him in the ribs, preventing anymore wise-cracks for the mean time.
"Ikuto, tell us what's wrong." Utau said in a soft voice. My breaths came out ragged and short. I didn't know what to say.
"...I-I s-saw it..." I managed to say after a few more breaths. "Th-The person w-was in the road..." I explained, afraid to look out the window again. Everyone else, except Amu and Tadase, glanced at each other with concerned looks.
"...Um... I have no clue what you're talking about... But Nagi said he might know." Utau added as Amu helped me up and we made our way to the kitchen once again. We all sat around the large table and sat in an uncomfortably silence. Utau came back with a candle and placed it in the center of the table, hardly lightening up the kitchen.
"...I think I know what's happening to you guys." Nagi stated, finally breaking down the tall quiet barrier. "There's a saying that your life flashes before your eyes before you die. Well, that's based off of a different, old saying. They say an angel comes down to guide you to your death." He explained. I frowned in frustration at him.
"How does this involve us?" I asked impatiently.
"...Instead of an angel, I think it's death that's coming to you." He stated. My eyes widened but I had no time to react as he continued. "Can you describe what the person looked like?" He asked. I turned to Amu and Tadase, because I couldn't really remember.
"...It... was a girl." Amu said. Tadase nodded and grimaced at the table.
"Yeah... She wore a dark grey hoodie with faded jeans..." Tadase recalled.
"The hood covered the top half of her face but she looked really pale, from the little skin I saw, and her black hair showed a bit." Amu finished. Now that I thought about it, that was exactly what the girl looked like.
Nagi narrowed his eyes at the table and sighed.
"That sounds like a pretty good match... Dark clothing with faded skin..." He shook his head. "The thing is, they say that you see death themself-herself in this case- right before you die." He clarified. My throat felt like it knotted up a million times at once as I tried to swallow.
"B-But we're still alive and we saw death." I argued.
"No you're not." A voice said in my head but I quickly dismissed it as I waited for Nagi to continue.
"...H-How much longer d-do we have?" Amu asked, unable to contain her nervousness as she shook violently. We all wait for Nagi to answer but suddenly, everyone but me, Amu and Tadase vanished. We all stood up in shock but froze as the girl we all saw sat where Nagi had been sitting. She looked up at us, her red eyes dark like cherries, a deadly shark grin adorning her pale complexion.
"You're already dead." She stated. It was the same voice in my head.
...The three of us all stood in pure darkness, our figures illuminated by nothing. I looked around but saw nothing. Amu looked down to grimace but quickly covered her mouth right after taking in a sharp breath. We gave her a strange look and looked down, terrified by what we saw.
Amu's parents along with Tadase's mom were crying, my father a few feet away sulking. In a different spot, our friends were mourning over something we couldn't figure out.
"Wh-What is this?" Amu stuttered out. I shook my head, unable to form words to answer her cry of confusion. An old antenna TV appeared in front of us, on the screen was static. I walked forwardon nothing and reluctantly touched the screen. Suddenly, it went to a news channel.
Tonight, a grave tradgety has struck on this dark Halloween night. Three teens were killed unsuspectingly but horrible incidents. On their way to their friends house, Hinamori Amu and the two other victims, her friends. Hinamori was killed in a hit and run. In a rush to tell their friends about the tradgedy, Tsukiyomi Ikuto and Hotori Tadase rushed to the Souma residence.
At the house, Tsukiyomi rushed in to tell their friends about the accident that had just happened while Hotori was caught up by something, not noticing the wind the storm had brought break a branch of a tree standing near the door, the large limb falling on Hotori, crushing the poor teen, piercing several areas, including his lungs.
Terrified and taken aback by his friends' sudden deaths, Tsukiyomi rushed upstairs to call their parents, only for him to fall down at the very top due to his speed and lack of balance. He was confirmed brain dead moments later.
Friends and family members of the teens wish for no other information to be shared, and we will happily comply with their requests, hoping that they soon are comforted by their loved ones. We thank you for watching, we will return soon-
The screen turned off, and the TV disappeared.
We were sitting at a different table this time, is was a large glass table held up by a metal column with an intericate design. Death sat across from us, gently placing the remote on the glass surface before turning to us with her blood red eyes. She gave us a wicked smile and let out a small laugh.
"Welcome to your deaths." She greeted. "I hope you're happy with killing your friends, Ikuto."
...Wh...What..?
Explaination:
Alright, so when Amu first saw death, it was Ikuto who was supposed to see her and die. So death tried again but ended up killing Tadase. Ikuto was about to die on the stairs but he didn't really see death so he survived until he finally saw her outside the window in Kukai's room. No one remembers dying because they all went a little crazy and thought they were still living, refusing to accept their deaths. Whoever sees death first, is the only one who can see her and is the next victim. Death thought they had enough time imagining so she brought them in and had the news channel tell what was happening in real life, and how they died. All in all, Ikuto was supposed to die but everyone else saw her before Ikuto.
~What's Insanity?~
Jewel: I hope you like it!
Ikuto: ...WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!
Jewel: What do you mean?
Amu: ...We... died?
Tadase: Apparently.
Jewel: Yup. Please R&R.