Hinata shivered. Kageyama was sitting suspiciously close to him, his eyebrows scrunched together in a show of bravery and his mouth set in a tight line. On his left, Kenma had his default expression on, set half in boredom but there was a strange twinkle in his eyes. He was drumming his fingers on his phone, the rhythmic 'tap' somewhat lessening Hinata's anxiety. When he took a look behind him, Kuroo was staring straight ahead with his lips pulled into an unnerving grin.

"What is it, Chibi-chan?" he drawled, dispelling any vague sense of comfort that the orange-haired teen felt.

He squeaked and Kageyama turned to give him a terrifying glare but remained silent. That was new.

"Alright, are you all ready for this?" Coach Nekomata asked, standing before the large projector screen (sounding all too cheerful).

No. Not at all. Hinata's stomach was churning and he pushed down the urge to rush to the toilet and puke.

A loud "Yes!" akin to those that could be heard in volleyball practices echoed in the darkened gym. Hinata was pretty certain he had heard a few tremors in those shouts. The whine of plastic against the gym floor followed the immediate silence, and they all turned behind to see Takeda-sensei pulling his chair closer to Coach Ukai's, his pale skin having taken an even more ashen tone. He laughed nervously, running hand through his unruly black curls. Coach Ukai was leaning back in his seat, arms folded and the perfect picture of a stoic and composed man.

Hinata gulped and turned back to stare at the screen, waiting for it to come to life and consume his soul. He pulled his scarf tighter around his neck and took a few breaths to calm himself down. He heard a soft but distinct "Geh! Yaku-san!" to his left and he turned to see Lev cowering next to Nekoma's libero, looking absolutely sorry at the further corner of their rather large group of volleyball players (consisting of Karasuno's and Nekoma's players). He had pulled up his jacket as if it would ward off the third-year.

Yachi and Shimizu were huddling together next to the teachers and Coach Nekomata made his way to sit next to Coach Manabu.

As the blank white screen flickered on and the opening credits began to dance across the screen, Hinata wondered if this was how people normally celebrated Christmas Eve.

"Okay, whichever team loses the three-vs-three overall will have to screen the movie at their gym!"

"That sounds good!" Nishinoya jumped onto his feet in the middle of doing his stretches.

"So either way we'll have to watch it, won't we?!" Hinata yelped, peering out from behind Kageyama, flinching as Kuroo turned to give him a dark smirk. "That's right, Chibi-chan. A true test of courage."

"Courage?" Kageyama blinked, piqued.

"That's it," Kuroo grinned.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sugawara asked worriedly, looking to Daichi for help. "Won't they end up terrified instead of being in a festive mood?"

"It does sound interesting," Karasuno's captain admitted, his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Why not give it a try?" Coach Nekomata asked from the open doorway to the gym. "It'll motivate both teams to work harder and avoid having their gym be the memorable site of terror."

"We can arrange it, all of us having something like an overnight stay," Takeda-sensei added, walking in with Coach Ukai behind him. "If your parents agree to it, we could spend a part of the morning after together and exchange gifts as well."

"This isn't going to go well," Tsukishima muttered under his breath. "If we lose, I guarantee no one will have the guts to come here again."

"No need to be so negative!" Tanaka yelled, clapping the blond's back with excessive force. "It'll be fine!"

"I hope so," Yamaguchi mumbled, mostly to himself.

And that was that.

The teachers saw to the arrangement the three-vs-three and received permission from the players' parents to have them stay over at either of the teams' gyms on Christmas Eve as well as the morning of Christmas.

"Oh boy," was all Kuroo said when Nekoma lost to Karasuno. "This'll be good."

Which was how they had ended up dragging their sleeping bags and necessities for an overnight sleepover of sorts to the Nekoma gym. The teachers would be with them throughout the duration of the movie and leave only when it ended. The managers would be in the gym with the players as well, albeit next to the teachers since they were both girls and the parents had concerns despite knowing how well-behaved the boys were. Mostly.

(Although, Shimizu had a feeling the boys' parents should be more concerned for their children.)

Silence befell the occupants of the gym as the movie began.

There were two girls, talking in the gloomy backdrop of a bedroom. Hinata wrapped his arms around himself and he saw Kageyama stiffen visibly from the corner of his eye. His eyes widened as they began talking about a cursed video tape that one of them had watched a while back.

The phone rang.

Hinata swallowed nervously, licking his dry lips. They waited with bated breath as the girl picked up the phone.

"Hello…? Oh, Mom!"

There was a collective release of breath in the gym and Hinata felt Kageyama press closer to him. Despite how he had presented himself initially, Hinata figured the setter was about as petrified as him. He glanced at Kenma, who looked far too relaxed in the situation.

"Shouyou?" Kenma questioned, feeling Hinata's eyes resting on his profile. "You okay?"

"Y-Yeah," Hinata nodded, turning back to the movie. "I'm fine."

"Why'd you watch it if you know you're gonna get cursed?!" Hinata babbled, thirty minutes into the movie, wondering why these people were not only watching it, but making copies of the tape and investigating it.

He grabbed the sleeve of Kenma's hoodie and gripped it tightly. He had an ominous feeling about where this was going and he didn't like it one bit. The second-year pulled Hinata closer to him only to be startled when Kuroo, sitting directly behind the middle blocker, wrapped his arms around Hinata's waist and pressed himself closer to the younger boy's back. Hinata squeaked in surprise but didn't struggle, feeling a little more protected from the things that were possibly out to get him.

Kenma's usually vacant expression changed into one of absolute mirth when he realised that his usually cocky and self-assured Captain was peeking at the movie from behind Hinata's back. He rested his hand on Hinata's thigh comfortingly and the boy did not protest and instead held onto him.

Kageyama, on the other hand, looked like he was itching to join in the cuddle but his pride was in the way. Ten minutes later, he had edged visibly closer to Hinata and their shoulders were pressed against each other as the woman in the movie grabbed her son, away from the television and danger.

"Are you scared, Kageyama?"

"A-As if, dumbass!"

"Friggin' hell!" Tanaka yelped as the horse threw itself overboard, and Yamamoto's shout of disbelief overlapped his voice. As the events progressed, the players who had originally had some distance between themselves began to cluster together into a tight ball of warmth and protection.

"Oh my God," Lev whimpered when the scene changed to the girl in a white dress. "Did he just kill himself?!"

"Asahi-san," Noya whispered, sliding behind the ace, "I think something really, really bad is gonna happen."

"No shit," someone shot back almost immediately.

"It's okay," he soothed the younger boy. Surprisingly, the 'Negative goatee' looks almost unperturbed by the events that had unfolded. Could it be that this man with a heart of glass had no fear for horror movies?

Practically everyone screamed when Samara (or whatever was left of her), turned into a skeleton, except for those who had been stomaching the movie as it came without so much as a squeak, Yachi included. She had her arms around Shimizu and was patting the older girl's hair with a small blush on her cheeks.

"No, oh God, no it's in the TV, she's in it!" Inuoka yelled hysterically, latching onto Shibayama and covering his face with his hands.

"Tsukki, do you see that?!"

"Yamaguchi…"

Tanaka had conveniently pulled up next to Ennoshita and was hiding behind him.

Hinata trembled and closed his eyes, pressing his face behind Kenma who had eventually shifted to sit in front of him, forming an odd train of sorts, Hinata in the middle, Kuroo at the rear and Kenma at the head. Kageyama was the oddball, still sticking to Hinata's side. He hadn't moved for quite a while, only paling progressively.

"Shouyou," Kenma uttered softly, prodding the boy behind him when all had fallen silent. There was a low buzz from the movie. "It's okay to look now." He sounded terribly convincing. Hinata looked up-

There she was, her pale skin forming a ghastly contrast against her jet black hair, and hollow eyes watching him, staring into his soul.

Kuroo, who had looked up at the same time, shrieked with Hinata, their screams melding into one with those of the others who had taken the chance to glance at the screen when all had become quiet. Kenma snorted softly, laughing at their reactions.

"Sorry," he murmured, not sounding sorry at all.

When the movie ended, they sat where they were, too terrified to move an inch.

"Okay, now it's time for all of you to sleep," Nekoma's older coach boomed, walking over to the screen to turn it off. The boys immediately wriggled over to the sleeping bags as a collective bunch and rolled into them, soundlessly. Kuroo reluctantly let go of Hinata, skittering to his sleeping bag and staying close to the others. Kageyama and Hinata stuck together, for once, not making noise and Kenma accompanied them to their corner of the gym, certain they would trip over something and accidentally injure themselves in their obvious fright.

Hopefully, they would all get some sleep that night.

"Feelin' alright, Sensei ?" Coach Ukai helped the older man up, and led him out of the hall.

"Y-Yeah, just fine. Sleep well, all of you!" Takeda managed before he wobbled out of the gym with the blond coach.

Nekoma's coaches followed them out and turned off the lights.

Hinata pushed his sleeping bag as closely to Kenma's as possible and Kageyama took his other side. He took a shuddering breath and wriggled into his sleeping bag, wishing he had brought at least one plushie to keep him company. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to push out thoughts of phones ringing, seven days to live and girls who crawled out of televisions. Comforted by Kenma's watchful gaze over him and small smile in his way- "Shouyou, are you sure you're okay?" and Kageyama's gruff "Go to sleep already, dumbass, and stop wriggling!", he felt himself slipping into sleep.

Hinata's eyes snapped open. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he reminded himself that the dark lumps he was seeing around him were just the others in their sleeping bags. He sat up slowly, contemplating whether his sanity or his bladder was more important. His bladder, he decided, eventually, mattered more. He stood up and picked up his phone. Clutching in his hands, he stepped out of the gym, silently shutting the door behind him. It was cold outside, and it had begun to snow.

Hinata took a deep breath and held his phone's flashlight before him. He didn't look behind and continued walking towards the toilet. He ducked into a corner when he saw the shadows elongating and leaned against the wall rest his trembling legs.

"Just a movie," he muttered to himself. "Just a movie," he repeated, a little louder.

The middle blocker continued walking to the toilet when he became aware of light footsteps, footsteps that were sowly but surely escalating and speeding up.

Hinata made a run for it. A gasp tore out of his throat as he dashed to the toilet at record speed, praying that whatever was behind him would not catch him. The footsteps were getting louder, closer, until he could hear whoever behind him, their breathing amplified by the otherwise silent surroundings.

Something grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back and Hinata screamed, struggling to pull away.

"Leave me alone! I don't wanna die!"

"Shouyou, it's me! Calm down!"

Hinata flailed for a few seconds before he turned around to stare at his assailant, breathing hard. It was Kenma, his cheeks and nose taking on a rosy hue in the biting cold, and his breath coming out in puffs.

"Kenma! It was you… I thought it was something out to get me."

"It was just a movie but anyway… I thought you might be scared so I wanted to accompany you."

"Thanks," Hinata accepted, appreciating his generally silent friend for trying to help him. They walked to the toilet at an accelerated pace and Hinata was done in an instant, the fear lingering over him and enveloping him in adrenaline.

After washing his hands, he was about to call out to Kenma when his phone screen lit up and a second later, it began vibrating. He stood, motionless. The cheerful beat of Karasuno singing "Jingle Bells" should have been his ringtone but the sound that reverberated in the toilet instead was the dreadful default ring of his phone. Kenma popped his head in, his golden eyes widening as they met Hinata's own, panic-stricken chocolate ones. Hinata walked over to his phone, hand trembling as he took a look at the caller ID.

"Unknown"

Omake:

"Hah!" Kuroo snickered, pounding against the floor and rolling around amongst the many Christmas presents that had been unwrapped that morning. "You should've seen their faces!"

"So it was you?!" Hinata yelled, slamming the gym door open and bounding towards Nekoma's captain at a terrifying speed. Kenma was by his side and the duo tackled Kuroo, pushing him to the ground and the black-haired boy wheezed until he had no breath left.

"You brought that upon yourself," Tsukishima commented in passing, towel slung over his shoulder and no one attempted to help the struggling captain facing the wrath of two deadly volleyballers.

The movie was The Ring (2002), based off the original Japanese one with the famed Sadako but the version I watched a few years back was the English one so..

I was terrified. I couldn't sleep properly for two weeks straight and I never touched a horror movie ever again.
This was originally posted on my AO3 (please check the link on my profile for some works which have not been posted here on )
Written for my lovely Koupie. It was supposed to be a Christmas fic of sorts but..