Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece nor any of its characters; One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda and Viz Media. I only own my own character, Piper. My friend SweetStar17 owns her own character, Aura.
Author's Note: This is an AU horror story centering on Zoro, Aura, Usopp, and Piper, but it is in no way a romance at all. A lot of gruesome thing happen to them, but please do not be offended! You'll see why later as you read on for a surprise ending. So please enjoy your daily dose of horror. By the way, the plot was inspired by a Horror Sounds CD that I was listening to while typing this story.
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"Haunted Nightmare"
Nighttime came very quickly for four travelers walking together in the vast woods. They had not planned on staying outside all day, but time just passed by in nearly a blink of an eye. To make matters worse, they were lost. One of the travelers, Roronoa Zoro, had insisted that he would find the way out of the thick mess of trees, but then he wasn't the best choice for finding the right direction.
His girlfriend, Aura, knew this very well; however, she thought that he really had found a way to escape the woods and didn't want to interrupt his train of thought. Now she wished that she had stepped in and helped at the right time; the atmosphere of the woods was slowly changing to that of something that she would identify from a scary horror film.
These same thoughts were entering the mind of one of the other travelers, Usopp. Instead of just thinking about the horrific atmosphere, however, he was also expressing his fears with the shaking of his knees and the chattering of his teeth as he kept following the group of friends. He looked beside him and noticed that, despise the scary scenery, his crush didn't seem too be as bothered as he was.
It wasn't that Piper, his crush, was not bothered by the scariness of the dark woods; she just felt comfortable with the company of her closest friends beside her. She did think about how lost the group was, though, and that made her stick closer to the group so that none of them separated in the darkening woods.
The group was just about to decide to sit down and rest before continuing on, until Aura noticed smoke in the air further in front of them; and when there was smoke, there was certainly a house. The brunette showed her friends and pointed out that perhaps whoever lived there would know the way back to the city where they resided. The group felt relieved by this and immediately started to run towards the source of the smoke.
When the group reached the location, they could not believe their eyes. Standing in front of them was a huge mansion of aged façade, no windows, and only one entrance through a rusted door. The travelers cautiously wandered closer to the strange presence of the mansion until they made it to front door. Waiting for whoever was adventurous enough to knock, Zoro finally took the courage to lightly knock a few times before stepping back and awaiting for the greeting of whoever lived in such a vast place in the middle of the woods.
"Hello? Is anyone in there?" Before the swordsman could expect a reply, the door slowly and easily opened with a creak, as if it were already unlocked…or the residents were already expecting their presence. Zoro dismissed this as the first option and stepped into the mansion, followed closely and cautiously by Aura, Usopp, and finally Piper.
"Look at this place. It's so creepy…" Aura had to point out the obviously dusted décor and furniture, the blood red walls and ceiling, the rotting wood floors, and the unmistakable odor of something burning and rotting like cooked stale meat. She took a step forward, but then quickly took a step back as a blood-curdling scream suddenly echoed from the deep dark hallway in front of the group. It was the sound of a man screaming bloody terror, all the while the sound of deep breathing and crunching bones coming from the closest room within the hallway.
"W-W-What was that?!" Usopp asked in a shaky whisper. He felt his arm being grabbed and held tightly, and he turned to see that it was Piper in a frightened position. He had to blush from her closeness but also felt bad for her for having to witness such a scary sight of a house.
Zoro let out a soft sigh, obviously being the only one who wasn't intimidated by the inside of the mansion. He still noticed Aura's uncomfortable expression and wrapped a comforting arm around her waist. "It's just a house, guys," he said to his friends. "Probably just part of the theme, that's all." Still, he thought, something wasn't right.
He began to lead the group down the hallway, drawing closer to the male screams of terror until they finally reach a room that resembled a kitchen. It had an oven, grill, utensils hanging by the walls…and a massive amount of blood stained on the walls and floor. The swordsman flinched at the gruesome discovery, Aura covered her mouth to keep in a scream, and Usopp and Piper nearly stumbled back to keep away from the blood spills.
Then their blood really stopped cold when they saw a sight that none of them wanted to meet. Across from them, with red eyes glowing as bright as the sunset sky, standing up and staring at the group with hungry expressions on their faces with sharp fangs of glinting ivory, were two mutated beasts of the dog breed of demons. One licked its chops while the other was crunching on what appeared to be a torn human leg with the bone sticking out. Both beasts looked hungry for more, though, and their sights were set on the four teens. Growling with satisfaction of finding their next meals, they each stepped forward with heavy paws.
Both girls let out screams of terror and hid behind the boys for comfort. Quickly digging into his pockets, Usopp found his trusty gun and began firing at the hungry beasts. Due to the fact that he was shaking so much out of fear, however, most of his shots missed them by mere inches. One bullet had made its mark on one of the beasts' forearms, causing it to howl in pain. The injured beast, drooling and foaming with anger, glared red daggers at the marksman and howled even louder before jumping forward and charging at him. The other beast followed, but its targets being Zoro and Aura.
"R-RUN!!!" Usopp grabbed Piper by the arm and quickly ran down one path through the hall with her by his side. Zoro did the same with Aura and led her down and different path while the beasts chase their victims the same directions. The marksman searched around the halls for a separating passageway and sighed with relief as he found one just up ahead. As he and Piper came up to the fork in the hallway, he gently pushed the purple-haired musician into the next hall and kept running. Just as he had hoped, the beast kept following him and ignored Piper.
"Get away from here now, Piper! Stay alive for me," were his last words to her before stopping in front of a dead end in the hall before him. He shakily turned around to see the beast panting and growling in front of him, followed by his scream of terror before the beast leapt up to him and took a large bite out of him.
"Usopp-kun!!!" Piper sobbed heavily at the horrible sight, but she had to get away just as he wished for her. Without another look back, she quickly turned and ran down the hallway in front of her.
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Zoro and Aura were running as fast as their legs could take them as the beast continued its frenzied chase after them. That was when the swordsman noticed a door up ahead, labeled with faded letters "Library". The handle was steel, and the door itself a solid oak, just what they needed at a time like this.
He pushed his legs to go faster, but they were already growing cramped and fatigued. That didn't stop him from quitting, though, especially with a hungry demon beast chasing after him and his girlfriend. With the last of his strength, he carefully pushed Aura in front of him and into the room, followed by himself. With a swift swing of his arms, the swordsman shut the door behind him and locked the beast outside. Several growling sounds echoed outside, followed by the thumping of leaving footsteps. They were safe, for now.
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Soft sobbing was all that Piper could do as she quietly walked down the path in front of her all alone without the comfort of a friend. She knew that Usopp was dead, and her guilt for not being able to do anything to save him kept growing and growing with every step. At first she thought about going back and checking to see if he could be spared, but that would be suicide for her to come face to face with the hungry beast. So she kept walking on.
Soon she came across a small room of what looked like a dungeon of some sort. Half of the room was surrounded by steel bars like a prison, and the scent of rotting flesh was overwhelming on her nostrils. That didn't really matter, though, because the sight in front of her was even more horrid than the smell.
An elderly lady, chained to the wall by her wrists and ankles, suddenly screamed out loud about a murderous cloaked man and his bloodied chainsaw. Piper watched with increasing horror as the same man whom the lady was referring to suddenly stepped out of the shadows and, with one swing of his chainsaw, cleanly sliced off the lady's head. Piper let out a scream as the head bounced off the floor twice, then slowly roll towards her until stopping right in front of her path. The purple-haired teen barely had any time to look back up at the man before she, too, shared the same fate as the old lady.
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"Zoro, are you okay?" Aura quickly recovered from the chase and checked on her boyfriend's health. The swordsman smiled and, letting out a heavy sigh of relief, nodded in confirmation. He stood up and looked about his surroundings, taking in the all-too-quiet atmosphere of the library, shelves upon shelves covered with aging books. He picked one book up and read the title, "How to Kill a Human in 10 Minutes". He quickly placed it back.
Aura ventured farther back into the more dusty area of books and magazines. She could have sworn that she heard muffled sounds coming from the back, but there was barely anything worth noticing. That was until she heard a crashing noise beside her, causing her to jump aside. All that she found, though, was a pile of books falling off its shelf. Taking in a sigh of relief, she continued searching.
Heavy breathing soon followed, making the brunette musician freeze in her place. Carefully turning around to find the source, she let out a terrified shriek before a cloaked figure with horns knocked her out and finished her off…
"Aura!!" Zoro heard his girlfriend's last call for help and immediately rushed to the scene. That's when he stopped dead in his tracks and nearly choked at the sight of her body all cut up on the dusty floor. He whispered a quiet curse to himself before frantically looking around for the attacker. That guy was going to pay dearly for this…
"You're next…" The deep demonic voice mumbled from right beside the swordsman. Zoro gasped a deep breath before quickly sidestepping away from the horned fiend. The demon man, however, was faster with his razor sharp clawed hands as he tore at Zoro's chest. Zoro screamed in pain and fell backward on the floor. Still quicker, the horned demon man chuckled deeply before moving in for the kill, opening his shark-like mouth and chopping down on the swordsman's head. Everything went black…
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"No! N—What? Huh?" The green-haired took in deep breaths as he awake from his dastardly nightmare. "That's all it was," he muttered quietly to himself. "It was just a nightmare. It wasn't real. Thank God."
He looked right beside him and sighed with relief as he saw his girlfriend laying beside him, looking peaceful in slumber. Close by he could see Usopp and Piper sleeping away as well. Of course, Zoro decided to have a sleepover with Aura and his and her friends tonight at his house.
Forgetting the nightmare he had tonight, the swordsman smiled with content and just as quickly as he had gotten up, he went back to sleep to hopefully have a better dream later tonight.
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The End.