"Sasuke! Sasuke, wait up!"
Naruto Uzumaki jogged down the stone steps of the high school, where his best friend, Sasuke Uchiha was waiting for him. Naruto's cerulean eyes glanced up at the dark grey, cloud-filled sky. Rain was already drizzling around them as they started walking off of the campus.
"You picked the worst day to take your car to the auto garage!" Naruto said, groaning as the raindrops came down harder, soaking through his shirts. Because of the chilly weather, he had decided to wear a long-sleeved black shirt underneath his short-sleeved orange shirt today - fitting seeing as how it was October 31st. It was Halloween.
They walked down the road, keeping to the sidewalk as best as they could with the wind pushing them around like puppets attached to flimsy strings. Naruto laughed as he was blown into his friend, playfully exaggerating the strength of the wind as he knocked into Sasuke.
The sky darkened further, blocking any rays of sunlight from shining through. It was eerie, but the blond paid no attention to the nearly black sky, instead focusing on getting out of the worsening weather. A rumble of thunder seemed to shake the earth that the two eighteen-year-olds walked on.
Sasuke's black hair whipped around his face, partially obscuring his vision of the sidewalk in front of him. His eyes squinted through the pounding rain, wind raging and whirling around them.
"Maybe we should take the shortcut!" Naruto yelled over another clap of thunder. Lightning struck across the sky, illuminating everything in the vicinity for a split second. Then darkness enveloped the world once more.
Sasuke nodded, lightly guiding Naruto over to the woods that guarded the school campus. The trees provided a slight shelter from the rain and wind, but the thunder and lightning were still eminent threats, seeming to chase after the two teenagers. Branches whipped their faces and thorns clung to their clothes, ripping at their jeans and shirts.
Naruto could feel something coming. He felt it as the rush of the wind propelled him forward. Was it his mind playing twisted tricks on him? Shapes appeared before him, and he couldn't tell if they were trees, animals, people, creatures, monsters -
He felt something grab his wrist. He lurched forward, pulled by something with incredible force. He tripped over a log, but found his footing again, fallen leaves crunching under his shoes.
"Naruto," Sasuke's voice reached his ears. Suddenly, he wasn't afraid anymore. He looked at Sasuke's face - into his ebony eyes… Raindrops clung to his eyelashes, small and shining like little crystals. Sasuke's normally stoic expression was gone, and in its place was a look of sheer urgency and something akin to worry.
"Just a little farther," Sasuke said, his voice barely audible over the storm. Naruto nodded to show his understanding.
The two trudged through the woods, grabbing wet tree trunks for support as they slipped through the slick mud and leaves. The edge of the woods was clear - the house ahead was a sure sign. The old abandoned house that nobody ever went near - the Grimm House.
Naruto and Sasuke only passed it when they took the shortcut home from school. Despite Naruto's yearning to explore the old place, they had never approached the house. Now, with a storm upon them, it was the only building around. It would take at least fifteen minutes on foot to get to Naruto's house, and Sasuke's house was even farther than that.
They stopped at the edge of the woods, rain pouring down from the heavens all around them. Puddles that looked more like miniature lakes formed in the grass before them. Sasuke was staring at the house ahead, squinting through the gloom to see it. Naruto looked at his best friend and back at the old, derelict building.
"On the count of three," he said, flinching as a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.
Raindrops slid down his face, leaving trails in its wake on his caramel skin.
"One…" he started.
"Two," Sasuke said, hair tipping forward as he knelt closer to the ground, looking for all the world like a track star about to take off.
"THREE!" was lost with a rumble of low thunder as they took off, sprinting across the distance, rain stinging their faces as they ran towards the house.
Little did they know…they were being watched…. Hunted.