A/N: This was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but the story stretched for so long that I had to split it to two parts.
Anyway, after probably 6 straight hours, I finally finished this~ It's a side story to Tales of Chibi, and it's my Halloween 2011 fic. If you're wondering why I crammed it all now, I'm not going to be here on Halloween, so I had to finish it today or else. Yeah. If you don't understand what's going on after you finish this, reading the original fic, Tales of Chibi, should clear up more things for you. ^_^
I hope you enjoy this! I'm going to sleep. X_X
Three years ago in a small city...
There were six kids in front of a huge abandoned house on a Halloween night. They were about to play a game...a very VERY dangerous game. BUT they did not know how dangerous it was. The leader of the group who was very handsome and strong and confident told em that everything will be alright as they faced the scariest, most terrifying place they have ever known.
But what makes it even scarier...is the game itself.
"Ever heard of the Midnight Game?" the chibi brunette muttered to himself as he typed on the keyboard with an evil grin. He cackled softly as every key he pressed made an eerie echo in the dark room; the only source of light would be the bright computer screen in front of him.
Each of them had a piece of paper in their hands...and each one wrote their full name on it. After that, they let a little bit of their BLOOD drop on the paper...letting it soak and turning it red. Already the other five were scared. But not the leader. He was FEARLESS.
And so after doing that, they gathered in front of the creepy door that looked like it could break if someone touched it. Each of them lit the candle and put it under their name. Then each kid knocked on the door 22 times and the leader was the one who did it last and once he did that a loud rining sound came from the house signaling that it was midnight. The ledaer then opened the door and everyone blew out their candles. The game had officialy began. With their candles, they all went inside one by one. Fearing that the Midnight Man would come to get them. But the leader wasn't afraid. In fact, he looked forward to seeing the Midnight man and KICKING HIS BUTT.
It wasn't before long when everyone got seperated and each and every one of them were alone. One of the girls who had bleu hair was the one that was scared the most and wished that she was with the leader. But this is payback for all the times she smacked me with that wooden spoon.
The cool dude even if he was always calm and blah and not afriad of anything was afraid of whats there to come in the house. But the
"Dan, what the heck are you doing?" said 'cool dude' asked after opening the door and noticing that the lights were off. He then turned them on, which for some reason made the brunette hiss irritatingly. "What's with the hissing?"
"I'm trying to make myself creepy."
"...don't, it's disturbing."
"Exactly."
Shun sighed deeply. "Just get outta here. We're not supposed to be in the office, remember?"
"Hmph. You're no fun."
Clock Strikes Midnight
It was a cool Halloween evening...just before dinner. Most of the chibis were in the play room again playing some new games that the owner has sent over, and some of the others were just chilling on the couch or watching TV. Spectra, meanwhile, was still holed up in his ship doing who knows what. Gale was lying on the couch, napping ever since late afternoon. He was up late the other night, and he wanted to catch some more z's in case he would lose them again another time.
The crimson-haired teen had been sleeping just fine before he was woken up by someone nudging him and a loud voice. "Gale, wake up! I need to tell you something!"
He groaned as his right hand rubbed his eyes and the left went in to clenching that someone's wrist to stop shaking him. "What is it, Dan?" he didn't mean to come out grumpy, but suddenly being woken up by shaking can do that to people.
"Can we play a game-"
"I already did last night-"
"-you didn't let me finish! I was about to say can we play a game later?"
"...later? What game are we going to play?" out of the blue, the brunette's happy grin turned in to a very, very evil one. "Ever heard of the Midnight Game?" he bolted upward from the cushioned seat and just stared at him. "Are you...are you serious? Have you even played that game before?"
"Yep, three years ago with Runo, Marucho, Julie, Shun, and Alice!"
"You're suggesting that we're gonna play it here. Tonight. With everyone else." the brunette nodded. "...are you out of your mind? We...we can't play that! Even if it is Halloween!"
"Oh c'mon, Gale! Don't be such a scaredy-cat. I've played it over before, so there's nothing to be afraid about."
"I couldn't contact you for a full month after Halloween that year, Dan."
"I was busy!"
"Trying to stop yourself from shivering?" the chibi pouted while folding his arms for an added effect. "Gale, please? I really really want to play! It's not every day that everyone's here and to see Spectra scared-"
"Is that what this is about?"
"Yeah."
"..."
"What? Not a good enough reason?"
"One, yes, that's a stupid reason. Two, you've all been shrunken in to your younger selves, which means that you've become more skittish and frightened over the tiniest creak. Three, if we play this, I'm going to lose more sleep compared to yesterday. Lastly, the same thing that happened three years ago would happen again this year, and I don't want to be stuck having to babysit you constantly in fear that the Midnight Man is going to get you."
"Wow, you really thought of everything."
"Yes, so can we not play the Midnight Game?"
"Nope." the teen's face lit up. "We're not?"
"No, I mean we are gonna play it later! I'm gonna round up the others for dinner. And then after that you're gonna help me explain the rules and stuff to them, okay?"
He groaned, but he had no other choice. Once Dan was determined to do something, there was nothing that was going to shake him despite the huge, obvious consequences. "Fine. I'll get Spectra."
"Yay! Thanks, Gale!" he chirped as he hugged him around the waist. After that, he quickly let go and rushed to the upper floors. The teen sighed deeply as he ruffled his messy hair from his nap. I wonder if Spectra will even play this crazy game...
-o-
It was now a few minutes past dinnertime as everyone was done with their meal and were all sitting comfortably in the living room. "Man, I'm stuffed." Volt muttered. A few murmurs came after, agreeing with him or just mumbling what they're gonna do next. Out of the blue, Dan jumped on the large coffee table in the middle; scaring everyone with the sudden, loud thumping sound of the brunette' weight on the wood. Gale mentally face-palmed.
"Okay, guys, we're all gonna play a game tonight!"
"A game on Halloween, this should be fun." Runo muttered while sitting on the same couch the crimson-haired boy was sleeping on not long ago.
"What is Halloween, anyway? I keep hearing about it, but all I see are a bunch of pumpkins, bats, and black stuff." Ace said; lying on the arm of another sofa.
"Well you're soon gonna find out. The game we're gonna play...is the Midnight Game." automatically five other people reacted in the room, namely the five original brawlers. "What? Dan, you can't be serious!" Shun shouted with an expression filled with shock. The others said the same thing along those lines while Alice just glanced around; looking frightened. Everyone else in the room except for Gale was now confused about the negative response. Even Spectra was interested on why it got them so on edge.
"Don't worry, we're gonna be twisting the rules a bit this year! For one thing, we're going in pairs!"
"Pairs?" everyone repeated minus the younger teen again. He knew about this part of the plan since he was the one who suggested it in the first place. If they were going to play this game, they might as well try to tackle it with someone else rather than being alone.
"Yep! I have a box here," he jumped down from the table and fetched a black colored container on the floor nearby. After picking it up, he ran back to his original spot. The brunette was clearly excited about this. "and all your names are inside. Gale will be picking the pairs, and it will be at random, so you have no idea who you're gonna be paired up with. After that, we're gonna explain the rest of the rules."
And so the group spent the next several minutes with a mixture of emotions flying around. Every time Gale's hand reached in to the box and pulled out a tiny, white, folded piece of paper, the room's atmosphere seemed to grow tense. "First is Spectra...and Lync." the blond just glanced at the sniveling Vexos and sighed.
"Next is...Alice...and Shadow." the girl was surprised, and the chibi just shrugged and didn't mind it.
"Next, Mylene and...Ace."
"What? Why am I stuck with her?" said teal-haired chibi objected.
"Just be glad I'm not trying to kill you know, twerp."
He ignored the arguing duo and continued on. "Next pair...Julie and...Marucho." the two exchanged glances; they seem fine with each other.
"Shun...and Hydron."
"Hmph." the Ventus brawler simply folded his arms.
"At least it's not Dan." the Subterra Vexos brawler followed suit.
"Baron and...me. Huh." the red head simply shrugged. "Next, Volt and...Gus. Then...Dan and...Runo?"
"What's with the questioning tone?" the bluenette asked, or more of demanded.
"N-nothing. Just a little surprised, that's all." he turned to the brunette, and it seemed that he regretted the decision of ever having this game. Gale couldn't help but snicker. "And the one alone would be Mira."
"W-what?"
"Sorry, but when I wrote all this down, we're uneven, so there was bound to be someone who wounded up alone. Apparently, that's you."
"What about the butler dude?" Baron asked.
"Oh, he took the night off." Gale told him. "Went to sleep early, so when playing the game, try not to stumble in to his room, okay?"
The last sentence seemed to end with an eerie feeling, but everyone dismissed it. Now comes the fun part for Dan: explaining what the Midnight Game actually was.
-o-
1.) Write your full name (first, middle, and last) on a piece of paper and put at least one drop of blood on the same paper. Allow it to soak in.
Everyone didn't like the idea of having to prick themselves for this, especially the younger chibis like Baron and Lync. But it had to be done, and so with tears in their eyes, the red drop crawled slowly out of their hand and on to the paper. Once that was over, they immediately added pressure on it to stop it from bleeding. Gale was already getting worried about the others' well being. This is not a game for a bunch of four to ten-year-olds to be playing, despite the fact that they were all teens before this.
2.) Turn off all the lights in the house. Go to your door and place the paper with your name in front of it. Take the candle and light it. Afterward, place the candle on top of the paper with your name.
It didn't help that some of the chibis yelped loudly once they killed all the lights in the house. The mansion was extremely quiet, so quiet that the crickets outside can be heard if they concentrated hard enough. Fortunately, the moon was half full tonight, which at least let some white light pass through the windows. The hallways on the other hand were as dark as night, and the candle was not much help, either.
3.) Knock on your own door 22 times (the hour MUST be 12:00AM upon the final knock), then open the door, blow out the candle, and close the door. You have just allowed the "Midnight Man" into your home.
"Is the Midnight Man some kind of old ghost that's like scaring the heck out of people who try this?" Hydron asked as the others were knocking on the door. Some were fast, some were terribly hesitant and slow, only to speed up when the others tell him or her to.
"Yes, yes he is." Dan replied nonchalantly.
"...that's a stupid hobby."
It was the chibi brunette that opened the front door, blew out the candle, and closed it again. They all felt an ominous chill in the air, as if the place had gone down a few degrees. The Pyrus brawler was now having more second thoughts about pursuing this game, but he swallowed them anyway and quickly did the final instruction.
4.) Immediately relight your candle.
This is where the game begins. You must now lurk around your completely dark house with the lit candle in hand. Your goal is to avoid the Midnight Man at all costs until exactly 3:33AM. Should your candle ever go out, it is because the Midnight Man is near you. You must relight your candle within the next ten seconds. If you are unsuccessful in relighting the candle, you must immediately surround yourself with a circle of salt.
If you are unsuccessful in both of these, the Midnight Man will induce a hallucination of your greatest fear until 3:33AM. If you are successful in relighting the candle, you may proceed. If you are successful in creating the circle of salt, you must remain within the circle until 3:33AM.
You must continue until 3:33AM without being attacked by the Midnight Man or being trapped within the circle of salt to win the Midnight Game. The Midnight Man will leave at 3:33AM and you will be safe to proceed with your morning. Staying in one spot the entire game will only result in the Midnight Man finding you. It is highly advised you continue moving throughout the game.
A few things to remember:
-DO NOT turn on any lights during the Midnight Game.
-DO NOT use a flashlight during the Midnight Game.
-DO NOT go to sleep during the Midnight Game.
-DO NOT use another person's blood on your name.
-DO NOT use a lighter to substitute for a candle. It will not work.
-DEFINITELY DO NOT attempt to provoke the Midnight Man in ANY WAY.
That is all. Have fun.