A late Halloween story with the Vocaloid Family. It's different from what I usually write but if you liked it please let me know!
xxxxJewels
Hand in hand they were running towards the abandoned warehouse, fog coating their legs. The girl screamed, terrified of the monstrous creatures that were on their tails. Her partner urged her to keep running and pulled her into the building. The teenage boy let go of his companion's hand for a moment as he pushed hard at the stiff door, the only barrier between them and the oncoming herd of blood-thirsty monsters. He freed it at last from its rusty edges and slammed it in the zombies' faces. They were momentarily safe from the corpses' wrath, but through the door came the unnerving sound of rotten hands banging on thin metal.
The protagonist wiped some sweat from his forehead, sweeping a few stray blonde curls from his face. He looked over to his girlfriend who was trembling and softly crying into her hands.
"Oh Jayden, I'm so frightened!" she cried, rushing forward to bury her face in her beloved's chest.
He cradled her with his toned muscular arms, bringing her close. "It's alright, Alison! I'm here! Even if everyone we knew and loved got eaten alive and turned into freaky undead zombies just two minutes ago, I'm here for you!"
Touched by his words Alison looked up into his smouldering blue eyes, tears streaming down her pretty face. He smiled at her lovingly, stroking her cheek (which although crusted with dirt and dried blood was still very cute) before leaning down and capturing her lips with his own in a fiery, passionate kiss. Dramatic, heart-warming music played in the background.
"Boo! Quit swapping spit and let the zombies eat her already!" Neru threw popcorn at the TV screen.
"Neru!" Miku protested on the pillow beside her, nudging her blonde friend, "You're ruining the moment!"
"What?" Neru whined, crunching a handful of buttery popcorn between her teeth. "It's a terrible and clichéd movie. Everyone knows she's gonna die in about ten seco―"
"Don't spoil it!" Miku moaned.
"Would you two pipe down? Some of us are actually trying to watch the movie." Neru and Miku's friend Rin sat on a cushion near their feet, chewing on a jelly snake. "B'sides, it's finally getting to the good part!"
Neru, Miku, Rin and the rest of their friends who had come together to watch horror movies on (a appropriately stormy) Halloween leaned forward just as the two main characters heard a loud crashing sound of breaking glass.
"Oh no!" squealed Alison, "The zombies have broken inside through the window, what shall we do?"
"We need to run," Jayden said firmly, bringing his love close to him. "Trust me."
"Oh Jayden!" swooned Alison.
"Oh my!" gushed Miku.
"Oh brother," snapped Neru.
The lovers were interrupted by the growls of the zombies coming nearer and nearer. They began to run again and Jayden didn't notice that his precious Alison was no longer at his side until he heard her shrill cry. Turning, he saw that she had tripped and fallen. The zombies loomed closer to their prey.
"Save me, Jayden!" Alison shrieked, one hand outstretched imploringly to her boyfriend. But it was already too late. No sooner had she called out to him than the zombies fell upon her and started to devour her beautiful body. Sickened at the sight, Jayden looked away.
"Woo-hoo!" Neru cheered, throwing popcorn into the air, showering her friends. They answered with mild complaints and paused the movie to shake the food out of their hair.
"That's so sad," Miku sniffled, moved by the sappy performance. "She was his true LOVE."
"Please don't tell me you're crying over a pathetic cookie-cutter foreign movie that someone somehow thought it was a good idea to bring along to this party." Neru focused her eyes on Kaito who was sitting on a couch opposite to her. He shrugged.
"The cover looked cool so I brought it," he confessed. "It had explosions and stuff. Besides it's my house, don't I get a say in what we watch?"
Neru groaned, doing an almost perfect imitation of the Class B zombies in the movie. The reason she had even come to Kaito's house was to enjoy spending Halloween with her friends while watching the appropriate Western horror movies. The only thing that was remotely scary in the films they'd watched so far was the acting.
"And you said you didn't want to go to the festival they were having in town," Luka pointed out gently from the other couch where she and her boyfriend Gakupo were snuggling up together.
"That's because it would be swarming with kids."
"What's wrong with kids?" Miku asked, having recovered from the tragic event she had seen.
"I loathe them. They have no purpose on this earth other than to annoy me." Neru reached for more popcorn.
"Can't argue with you there," Meiko said, leaning over to grab another beer, "but unlike me, you're still counted as a kid, Neru." She silently offered her beer can to Kaito sitting beside her, but he shook his head. Meiko tossed her head back and took a swig of the amber liquid.
"Don't remind me," Neru grumbled. "But even if I didn't hate the ground those brats walked on there'd still be the fact that we have among us some of the most popular Vocaloids to date."
Even in the dark lighting, everyone could see Miku blushing a deep red.
"It's not my fault!" she said, looking embarrassed.
"Of course it isn't," Len reassured her, sitting on an identical cushion to his sister Rin's. "But I have to agree with Neru, it's hard for a lot of us to go anywhere without being swarmed by fans."
"The Japanese ones I can handle," Gakupo said putting his arm around his girlfriend. "They only want an autograph or two, maybe a picture. It's the overseas fans that are creepy. I had one asking me to give them a sample of my hair."
Everyone nodded grimly in agreement. Sometimes being world famous had its down-sides.
"So anyway, back to what we were discussing before, when are one of you going to cough up a good horror movie? Or are we going to continue watching this cheesy trash?" Neru gestured to the TV screen, which showed a frozen image of Jayden staring handsomely into the camera with his expensive-looking highlighted hair swept sexily to the side.
Or what a lot of the girls watching the movie apparently thought to be sexy anyway. Neru, thankfully, wasn't one of these people.
"I don't know," Rin said, ripping off the head of her gummy snake, "you've complained about every movie we've watched so far."
"And sniggered too," Kaito put in, "Don't forget the sniggering she did."
"Then how about something from my collection?" Meiko suggested with a devilish look in her eye. "You couldn't possibly laugh at this, Neru."
Meiko was holding up a DVD with a fairly simple cover that didn't give away its contents. The writing was in Japanese and Neru vaguely remembered the title even though she had never seen the movie before. Come to think of it, Neru hadn't seen very many horror movies at all.
"So what do you think, Neru?" Meiko asked, "Seeing as you don't seem to be fazed by these movies, you wouldn't mind watching this one would you?"
Neru ignored the chilling sensation in her spine and nodded.
"Of course not!" she snapped back, hoping to sound more confident then she actually felt.
THE END
The ominous words filled the screen before fading out for the roll of credits to appear. The room was quiet.
Luka and Gakupo were still wrapped up in each other's arms, but now both looked shell-shocked rather than cosy. Miku had actually dived behind the couch in the middle of the movie, kicking the bowl of popcorn as she went so the yellow confectionary went everywhere. Even if she hadn't been able to see the movie, she'd unfortunately had no trouble hearing it.
Why oh why did Kaito have to have a surround-sound speaker system? she thought to herself miserably.
A trembling Kaito was clutching Meiko's arm and it didn't look like he was planning to move anytime soon. Even Meiko was looking a little on the pale side. She still had her beer firmly in her hand, but the spills on the carpet around her testified to some jump scares.
The normally fearless Rin had cuddled up with her brother after a particularly gory scene in the movie. Len was not complaining.
Neru hadn't moved an inch since the film had started. She had sat rigidly in her seat, eyes wide open and focused on the screen. The demonic eyes of the girl had possessed her so she couldn't look away. She had been aware of nothing but the atmosphere sucking her into that nightmarish world. She hadn't flinched when Miku jumped up in a frenzy and accidently gave Neru's leg a big kick as she scrambled over the sofa. She hadn't twitched when Len moaned morbidly at the violent death of yet another victim while gut-wrenching noises could be heard as the limp body was torn to pieces.
She was still in the same frozen position when the credits died and Meiko shakily made her way across the lounge room to switch the lights back on, and didn't even notice when Kaito lost his balance and fell face first into the couch once Meiko wasn't propping him up.
"Well!" Meiko said breathlessly to her friends as they each tried to get their bearings, "that was interesting wasn't it?"
Len moaned again, obviously having been terrified of the whole thing. Rin did her best to comfort him, despite being shaken herself.
Then Meiko cast her eyes down on Miku who was still crouching behind the couch, hands firmly clamped over her ears.
"You right there, Miku?" Meiko asked, bending down to her level.
"That was awful," Miku whimpered.
Meiko grinned, patting her shoulder, "It worked, didn't it? Why, even I got scared shit―"
"Shh!" Gakupo shushed her, untangling himself from his frosty-pink girlfriend. "Underage innocent children in the room!" He pointed at Len and Rin.
"I think you're a bit late," Meiko answered him. "If you were so concerned, why did you let them watch the movie?"
Gakupo shook his head solemnly. "You chose it so you should be the one taking the responsibility here."
"What? Why?" Meiko threw her hands up in the air, "It was just a silly movie to give us the willies on Halloween. It didn't actually affect them, right kids?"
Rin and Len looked up.
"O-of course not," Rin laughed shakily, "T-that's kids stuff! Right, Len?"
"Yeah…" her twin mumbled, bringing a cushion to his chest and hugging it. Meiko smirked in cocky triumph.
Gakupo sighed and got up. "Whatever. If Len wets the bed again it'll be on your head."
"GAKUPO!" Len squealed, thoroughly humiliated. He buried his head in the pillow, but not before everyone could see him turn peony. A crash of thunder temporarily silenced the group.
Luka stood up alongside her boyfriend, slipping her hand in the crook of his elbow.
"We'd best be off then," she said smoothly, "It was lovely to see you all again."
People got up to say their goodbyes to Luka and Gakupo who would sadly not be staying for the sleepover they had planned.
"Gakupo snores," Luka had explained when she politely declined the invitation. "It makes the walls shake sometimes. You'd hate it."
Neru was the only one to not say goodbye. She was still staring at the now black TV screen, completely absorbed, as if the terrifying movie was still playing.
"Yo, Neru?" Meiko turned her attention to her sassy blonde friend, picking up on her gormless expression. "You alive in there?" She even went so far as to knock on Neru's forehead.
Neru blinked hazily, her focus slowly seeping away from the horror and back to Kaito's lounge room.
"What?" she said in a daze. She shook her head violently to clear her mind. By now almost everyone was looking at her.
"So, what did you think of the movie?" Meiko wanted to know. "Scary enough for ya?"
Neru thought about the question for a moment and noticed Meiko's little smirk. The sly girl was testing her.
"Not at all!" Neru lied. "Kids' stuff." She folded her arms huffily, attempting to look indignant, but Meiko wasn't fooled.
"Oh really?" Meiko said coyly, studying Neru's features, "that's too bad."
The tone of the brunette's voice made Neru shiver a little. "W-what are you scheming?"
Meiko faked being nonchalant. "Nothing you should worry about. Since you're so set on convincing us that you're not at all frightened I suggest we play a little game."
Neru swallowed. "A game?" she croaked. Her eyes caught Miku's in search of help, but the teal pop diva shook her head, just as out of the loop as Neru was. Meiko was highly unpredictable so none of the Vocaloids were quite sure what she was going to do next.
In this case, Meiko had decided to bound across the room again and switch off the lights, shrouding everyone in utter darkness. Neru heard Miku squeal and felt the blind grab of wiry fingers. Without the soft glow from the television, none of the friends could see in front of their faces. All Neru was aware of was Miku's nails digging painfully into her arm.
Neru could hear Meiko chuckling, which oddly enough fit perfectly as another clash of thunder shook the house. Miku squeaked.
"Cut it out, Meiko!" Neru protested, trying to stay calm. "This isn't funny!"
Meiko continued to laugh with malicious glee. "What're you talking about, Neru? This is hilarious!"
"Turn the lights back on!" Neru cried, her voice thinning.
"Whaaaat?" Meiko whined. "Don't spoil it, Neru. And what have you got to worry about? You're fearless, remember?"
Neru gulped, "O-o-of course I am. But you're spooking the others, I bet! Miku can't handle this sort of stuff remember?"
Neru heard Meiko sigh with disappointment.
"Fine, ruin my fun why don't you?" Reluctantly, Meiko turned the lights on and Neru could breathe again.
Pushing some hair off her forehead she turned to her best friend. "It's alright now, Miku, you can let go of my―" But the only thing left of Miku was the crescent shaped dents she had made in her friend's arm.
Neru screamed involuntarily, making the Vocaloids jump. Until the lights came back on she hadn't even noticed that Miku had left her side. Now Miku had vanished. Without her blue-green companion beside her, Neru felt the twisted knot in her belly tighten.
"Neru, what's gotten into you?" Rin said irritably.
"Miku's gone!" stammered Neru, still staring at her arm.
And indeed she was. Now everyone was looking a little unsettled.
"Well…" Len swallowed, "She couldn't have gone far. Maybe we should go look for her?"
"She could be anywhere in this huge house," said Meiko, "What's it got, three floors?" She stared pointedly at Kaito who shrugged his shoulders sheepishly.
"I've got a lot of brothers," he explained. "Gotta put them somewhere."
Meiko shook her head. "We're wasting time, we should start moving. She's probably hiding in the bathroom or something. How many bathrooms do you have, Kaito?"
"Three."
"Then that makes one for the two of us and Neru can go with the twins." Meiko would have said more, but just then the lights went off again in tandem with another violent crash of thunder.
"Meiko!" Neru howled shamelessly.
"It wasn't me!" exclaimed Meiko. "The power must have gone out because of the storm."
"Yeah that always happens," Kaito sighed. "There are some torches in the cabinet in the kitchen."
Rin tripped over her brother, Len, and banged her shins on the table. "Which is where?" she snapped as she rubbed at her legs. "I can't see anything at all."
Kaito felt his way along the couch, memorising where things were. "I'll look for them, then I can maybe tinker with the power-box outside. Taito usually does it but I think I know what to do to get the power back on."
"But what about Miku? She's probably scared half to death!" Neru pointed out. "Weren't we going to look for her?"
Meiko considered Neru's words for a moment. She was worried about Miku too of course, but the sooner they got the power back on the sooner they could get to her. But what were they supposed to do while Kaito attempted to fix the power-box? Just sit in the dark?
"Alright, we'll do this. Kaito do you think you can make it to the kitchen in the dark and find those torches you were talking about?"
Kaito nodded until he realised no one would see it. "Yes."
Meiko chewed at the skin on the thumb, thinking. "I might be able to help you with the power-box while Rin, Len and Neru go look for Miku."
Rin and Len nodded until they too realised they couldn't be seen and voiced their agreement. Neru stayed silent, thankful no one could see she was shaking.
Kaito blindly searched for the way to the kitchen and after rifling around a few drawers he found two torches. He handed one to Len and the other to Meiko.
"Will you kids be okay?" Kaito asked, concerned about the young teens going around alone in his big house.
"We'll be fine won't we, Len?" Rin said brightly, trying to bring the mood up.
"Mm." her brother replied, fiddling with the torch in his hands.
"You better be careful kids or I'll kill you," Meiko threatened lovingly as she left with Kaito.
"She is such a mum," Rin remarked when they left, "Let's start moving."
Len switched the torch on, the light a welcome beacon in the heavy darkness. After walking a few steps with his sister, he turned around and shone the torch in Neru's face. "You coming?" he prodded, noticing that she wasn't moving.
Pulled out of her stupor, Neru glared at the bright light, hoping Len could see the dirty look she was giving him.
"Of course!" Neru huffed, striding ahead of the twins, "What are you, stupid?"
However she didn't go very far before stopping to wait until they were comfortingly next to her. Neru forced herself to not hang onto Len's sleeve in sheer terror.
"Why are you shivering?" Gakupo asked his girlfriend as they walked side by side in the rain.
"I realised I left my coat back at Kaito's house," Luka confessed. "That was silly of me."
Gakupo brought her close, rubbing her arm in an attempt to warm her up.
"We could go back. You shouldn't walk around in a storm with just a shirt on. You'll get a cold."
"Alright," Luka gave in, blushing at her carelessness, "I'm sure they won't mind."
The couple turned around and started heading back for the house.
"You can let go of me," Luka told her boyfriend, "I'm warm enough now."
"I know," Gakupo grinned through the wet purple hair stuck to his face, "I just don't want to."
Luka blushed again, but this time it had nothing to do with her being forgetful.
"Me neither."
Could this house get any creepier? Neru wondered grimly as she wandered along a narrow dark hallway that was equally as dark as the last seemingly endless hallway they had managed to navigate. Neru wasn't able to distinguish where the floor stopped and the walls began. As the blackness closed in on her, she realised this was possibly the worst time for her to discover that she was claustrophobic.
But she still bit back the terrible thoughts that maybe she really was frightened. After all, the set up that Neru had wandered into was sounding like something straight out of a horror movie.
A blood-chilling creak echoed throughout the deadly silent hallway and it was all Neru could do to not scream aloud as she reached forward to grab onto of the only comfort available. She aimed at where she thought Rin might be, but mistakenly caught Len instead.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEK!" he yelped, jumping about a foot into the air. Neru let go and lost her footing before stumbling into the safety of Rin's arms.
Rin steadied the shaken blonde and let her go. "It's bad enough when I have to grow up with a wuss for a brother but I didn't expect you of all people to be this jumpy."
"I'm not jumpy!" Neru said a little too quickly. "…Sorry, Len," she added belatedly, having probably traumatised the poor boy for life.
Len was wheezing and he leant against the wall to catch his breath and calm his racing heart.
"You'd think I'd like girls throwing themselves at me," he said shakily, "but it's not as much fun as you'd think."
Rin sighed at her hopeless sibling, putting her hands on her hips in a sisterly fashion, even if the image was lost in the immense darkness. "Get over it, banana-boy. Where'd you put the dang torch?"
"I dropped it when I was attacked!" Len said in defence.
"I see it," said Neru, pointing in the direction of the faint light ahead of them and then rolling her eyes when she realised her stupidity. This whole darkness thing was getting old really quickly, "It's up ahead of us. Moron must have thrown it when he had his spaz."
"Hey!" Len yelled, but both girls ignored him. Rin walked ahead and picked up the torch. With its light she could see that there was a door right beside her. Shining the light there, Rin read the word 'KAITO', in bold, blue writing.
"Oooh, this is Kaito's room! Let's go snoop!" And before anyone could stop her, Rin twisted the doorknob and disappeared inside.
"Rin!" Neru called out helplessly, "We're supposed to be looking for Miku, remember?" She stuck her head around Kaito's bedroom door, shuddering. Neru scanned the room desperately for her friend, but could see nothing except the flash of the torch darting back and forth across the room as Rin explored.
"Hey! Blue boy has got himself a diary!" Rin remarked in an excited tone, "I wonder if there's anything dirty in it."
"Rin!" Neru groaned, "We don't have time for this!"
But Rin was too busy reading to pay her any mind. Neru sighed.
"At least give me the torch. You can play around in the dark all you want, but I need to find Miku."
"Sure, whatever," Rin said vaguely. "Hey, Neru! Did you know Kaito has a birthmark on his―"
"RIN!"
"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Rin grumbled, coming over to the door. "Can't blame a girl for being curious."
"I think I could," Neru spat and snatched the torch from her mischievous friend.
They were interrupted by a loud banging noise coming from downstairs, followed by an eerie, scratchy tune that once could've been a doorbell. The girls stood stock-still, feeling all the hairs on their bodies rise.
"N-N-Neru," Rin whispered, "w-what is that?"
"I think someone is trying to get in," Neru hissed.
"Kaito? Or M-Meiko?" Rin suggested.
"No. I'm sure Kaito would have taken his key out with him. And if not him, then Meiko would have remembered. Even if they did forget, Meiko would be kicking the door with her b-boots not pounding on it." Neru finished her words with dread.
"We should go and meet up with Len again," Rin said, her voice reduced to a squeaky whisper. Wordlessly they walked out of Kaito's room and into the hallway.
Neru shone her torch up and down the corridor, but no matter where the light fell there was no sign of the timid blonde boy.
Len was gone.
Together, Meiko and Kaito trudged through the mud along the back of the house to get to the power-box. Meiko was filthy and her mood matched. Her boots now had little pools of muddy water in them and her feet made a squelching sound with every step she took. Her night was basically ruined. Stupid Halloween party. Why had she been stupid enough to come?
Sure she loved hanging out with her friends and she could even bear Kaito's naivety for the most part, but having to put up with both Neru's constant whinging about the movies the gang had chosen and Kaito ever-so-obviously trying to work up the courage to hold her hand had been more then she could take. She didn't really mind, she'd just hoped he'd man up and actually do it. Watching him fidget and squirm had been unbearably irritating.
So, she'd played a little prank to cheer herself up. Given everyone a little fright by simply turning off the light. People got especially paranoid after watching scary movies (and the movie she'd chosen had even gotten Neru to shut her trap for a moment) so it had been the perfect opportunity for payback. But the joke had been taken out of her hands by the stupid storm and no matter how much she'd flicked that switch up and down the lights hadn't come back on. How was she to know? And to add to it, Miku had gone missing in the biggest house Meiko had ever seen. Multiple brothers or no, Kaito still had a ridiculous amount of room.
Sending the young kids on a search for their missing friend probably hadn't been the best of ideas, but Meiko knew Neru would stay loyal to Miku no matter what it took. Frankly, she hadn't wanted to just leave them in the dark either. And now here she was, stuck with Kaito who gave a huge unnecessarily big gasp with every clap of thunder.
Life just wasn't fair.
Finally they fought their way through the storm-mangled garden and reached the power box. Pushing her hair out of her eyes, Meiko realised that for some reason Kaito wasn't moving.
"Uh, Kaito?" Meiko shook his shoulder. "You gonna stand there all day or what?"
"I didn't really think this through. I really have no idea what I'm supposed to do with a power box."
Meiko face-palmed and groaned at his stupidity. Sometimes Kaito could be just a little too much for her.
"Are you serious?!" Meiko shouted at him.
Kaito winced at her harsh tone and Meiko felt a pang of guilt. It wasn't his fault he didn't know what to do and she was letting her grim mood out on him for no reason.
"Sorry," she said in a gentler voice, "but why didn't you say anything back at the house?"
Kaito blushed, "I didn't want to seem so hopeless. It's my house so I should be the one to fix things, right?"
Great. Now she REALLY felt guilty. Meiko shook her head and stepped forward. Hesitating for a moment, she put her hands on his shoulders again and he turned to look at her with those annoyingly adorable blue eyes of his.
"It's not your fault," Meiko said evenly. "We'll figure this out together. And next time, don't try to act like you've got it all together when you don't."
Kaito gave her a wry smile, "Like you?"
Meiko smiled back, "Yeah, like me."
Rin and Neru screamed, clinging to each other.
"Oh geez!" Rin cried. "First Miku, now my brother! This is getting too freaky!"
Neru stayed silent, horror-struck by what had just occurred.
What on earth was going on? Then she remembered their other problem.
"Rin!" Neru whispered urgently, slapping her hand over her hysterical friend's mouth, "We need to get out of here!"
Rin pulled Neru's fingers off her lips, "I'll say! It would probably help if we actually knew the way out; I think I would have left a long time ago!"
"No I mean we need to leave this floor. Some people are trying to break in and it'll only be a matter of time before they do. We need to get away from here."
Rin didn't have to be told twice. Trying to make as little noise as possible, the girls crept upstairs where they found another long corridor.
"What's on this floor?" Rin murmured. Neru shone the torch on the closest door to them.
"More bedrooms I think," she replied, reading the name of one of Kaito's brothers labelled on the door. "This must be Taito's room."
Faintly, the girls could hear the banging even two floors up from the front door. If they couldn't escape, they had to hide.
"We should go in and figure out what to do. I'm sure Taito will have something we can use," Neru figured. Rin, momentarily forgetting she was petrified, moved forward and grabbed the torch again.
"Yay, more snooping!" she cheered and boldly opened the door. Suddenly a skeleton flew down from the ceiling and tried to grab at the girls with its ivory fingers.
Rin shrieked as the torchlight illuminated every creepy feature on the skeleton's body. She flung the torch into the air, before bolting down the stairs screaming bloody murder.
Neru's legs gave way beneath her and she collapsed into a heap on the floor. She lay there, frozen stiff with shock, her eyes locked onto the ghoul, which swung tauntingly in the air by Taito's door. She was hyperventilating. It was all too much for her to comprehend. She broke down into terrified tears, sobbing loudly into her hands.
She was scared.
She was SCARED.
She was positively disturbed.
At least Neru could admit that much to herself now.
At last the sobs ceased and she regained some control over her breathing. Peeling her hands away from her eyes, she saw the torch where it had rolled within reach and picked it up. Hiccoughing, she shone the light towards the door and nerved herself to look again at the terrifying skeleton. It hung there, immobile, its arms outstretched towards her.
Standing up shakily, she took a step forward and examined the skeleton more closely. When she looked hard she could see it was made of simple plastic and was dangling by a set of strings, some were attached to its arms for leverage and the rest were bound to its shoulders. Something yellow was tucked into its hipbone and Neru pulled out a yellow note and aimed the torch so she could read it.
It said: Happy Halloween! Stay out of my room! – Taito
Neru almost fell again she was so startled.
A prank.
Taito must have planted this scare on his door before she and the others came over so that if anyone (like Rin for instance) tried to snoop they'd come face to face with this alarming apparition and not dare go inside. Opening the door a little more, Neru could see that Taito had rigged up the skeleton to fall scarily free when his door was opened.
Neru felt something lodged in her throat and it had already escaped from her mouth when she realised it was laughter. She was laughing so hard, tears were coming out her eyes again. Except these weren't of fear they were of relief. How could something so simple and stupid scare her like that? It was hilarious!
Eventually her chuckling slowed and Neru could smile at the prank skeleton.
"Thank you," she said, promptly leaving to go search for her friends.
"How's it looking now?" Meiko asked, peering over Kaito's shoulder, holding the torch for him so he could see what he was doing.
"I…I think I got it!" Kaito cried happily. He had been fiddling with every wire, pressing every button on the silly contraption, but he had finally figured it out. The excited man flipped a switch in triumph. Nothing happened.
"Did it work?" Meiko looked at his sad face.
"I don't think it did," he said sullenly.
"I think you might be wrong about that, Kaito," Meiko said. Kaito looked at her, puzzled and Meiko sighed, roughly grabbing his chin and pointing it to the sky. Above them, a single light-bulb was glowing, spreading its yellow light over the two of them.
"I did it," Kaito said breathlessly, a huge smile on his face. He faced Meiko again wanting to say something to her. But the words wouldn't come, just like all the other times he had tried to tell her just exactly what he thought of her.
Meiko looked back at him with her chocolate-brown eyes, silently telling him that this wasn't the time or place. However, she took hold of Kaito's hand, showing him that she understood. Kaito's grin turned brighter then the light-bulb as the two headed back….
And saw two very disgruntled people on their doorstep.
"Gakupo, Luka! What are you doing here?" Kaito exclaimed. Gakupo ceased banging loudly on the door and went to face him.
"Trying to get inside!" he explained, agitated, "but no one is letting us in and the rain is only making it worse!"
"No wonder, you're probably terrifying them by that constant banging," Meiko pointed out.
"I tried to stop him," Luka said ruefully, shaking her head, "but he wouldn't quit. We gave the doorbell a ring but I think it's broken."
"Oh yeah, that happens," Kaito admitted. Meiko fixed her eyes on the hopeless Kaito, wondering just how many problems did he have with this house anyway?
"I would let you guys in but…I kind of forgot my keys," Kaito confessed. Gakupo looked ready to commit murder, but Meiko held up a hand up to stop him. With her free hand she reached into her pocket and jangled Kaito's keys in front of everyone.
"He forgot his keys. But I didn't," Meiko said firmly, stepping forward to let her drowned-rat looking friends inside.
"HIYAHHHH!" screamed two voices and suddenly all four of them were tackled to the ground by Rin, who wielded a spatula above her head, and Len, who was gripping a rolled-up newspaper.
"What in the hell?" Gakupo shouted, squashed under the twins' weight.
Len was the first to notice that their intruders were actually their good friends and stopped Rin from whacking them with her spatula.
"What are you doing?!" Meiko said outraged, hitting Len upside the head.
"Ouch!" he wailed, rubbing his hair. "We were trying to stop the robbers from breaking and entering!"
"I don't know if you've noticed but we're not exactly robbers." Gakupo heaved Rin off of him and the twins helped their friends to their feet.
"We only wanted to get inside to get out of the rain and grab my coat," Luka explained, "I'm sorry if we scared you."
"Well now I feel silly," Rin grunted. "I guess the power going off loosened a few screws in our heads."
"The power was off?" Luka asked, looking around to see the now lit room.
"It was until recently," Meiko told the confused Luka and the annoyed Gakupo. "That's why Kaito and I were outside; we were fixing the power box to get the electricity back. I didn't realise the kids could become really frightened because of it."
"I'll say," said a new voice. Everyone turned to see Neru standing behind them, torch in hand.
"Neru!" Rin cheered, instantly wrapping her arms around her friend. "I'm so glad you're alright!" Rin pulled back, "You are alright aren't you?"
"Yeah," Neru nodded firmly, and looked at Meiko. "After I was left alone on the top floor I realised that I really was afraid and the more I tried to deny it, the worse things got for me. I eventually found out that I could laugh at myself for being so stupid," Neru smiled at the astonished brunette. "I'm sorry, Meiko. I was being a brat tonight and you were only trying to prove a point."
Meiko grinned and pulled Neru close into a warm embrace. "Apology accepted."
They continued hugging until Neru realized that they were forgetting someone important.
"Wait!" Neru suddenly yelled. "What about Miku?"
"Here I am," said a small voice. And at their feet, Miku crawled out from under the couch they all had been sitting on before.
"Miku! What were you doing down there?"
Miku flushed, embarrassed.
"After the lights went out, I basically couldn't take it anymore and hid under the couch for safety. I was too afraid to come out or tell you where I was. I'm so sorry for getting you into all this trouble."
"It's alright," Neru said, relieved. "I'm just glad you're okay." She hugged her teal friend, something she would have never done before tonight. But Neru found herself not caring in the slightest now.
"Not that this isn't a touching moment of friendship or anything, but my girl is shivering like a leaf." Gakupo had his arm around Luka who was smiling, but dripping wet and trembling from the cold. His serious face twitched and Gakupo suddenly sneezed on all of them. He rubbed at his nose, embarrassed.
"I wouldn't mind some towels and hot chocolate while we're at it," he sniffled.
Meiko laughed, "I think that sounds like a great idea."
A few minutes later, everyone was lounging on the sofas, sipping their hot chocolate and savouring the warm, soothing brown liquid. Gakupo, Luka, Kaito and Meiko were all sporting towels around their wet heads. Together they talked and laughed about their odd experience on this stormy Halloween night. Rin and Len were deeply ashamed for running off on Neru, but she comforted them saying she probably would have done the same. Everything was forgiven and everyone was happy.
"Anyone up for seconds?" Meiko asked as she collected her friends' mugs. Everyone raised their hands, eager for more and Meiko laughed again, heading for the kitchen.
But on the way she couldn't help but get an idea….
She casually leaned over and flicked the light-switch off.
"MEIKO!" Everyone shouted in the dark.
Meiko flipped the lights back on again.
"Just kidding!" she chuckled.
THE END.