Neku invited his friends over, but harsh weather keeps them cooped up, alone, in a house. Joshua suggests to play a dangerous game to pass the time, and it only ends up to be a disaster. What will become of our favorite gang?
A bored Neku laid down on the couch, holding his phone over his head. Earlier, he invited his friends to come over for a visit. His parents were out of town for a few days and Neku couldn't think of anything better to do. It was 6:00pm, and he was starting to lose hope that anyone would even come.
Then, a doorbell rang.
Neku closed his phone and stirred out of the couch, making his way to the door. Opening it, he saw Shiki, standing there clutching Mr. Mew. Neku gave a smile and gestured her to come in.
"Hey. Is anyone else coming?" Neku half-greeted, while Shiki spun around and gave a thoughtful look.
"They should be. Any second now, I didn't see them too far off-"
And the doorbell rung, again.
Neku walked over, again, and opened the door to see Beat and Rhyme, standing side by side. Beat was scratching the back of his head while Rhyme gave a gleeful smile. "Hello!"
"Hi," Neku greeted, and moved out of the way so they could walk in. Neku looked out the window to see if Josh would come, but no avail. Instead, Neku decided to treat his guests, although they already seemed to make themselves comfortable. Well, Beat did.
He plopped down on the couch with a bag of chips (from who knows where he got them from) and made himself comfortable precisely where Neku's spot previously was, and Neku was a bit disappointed. Rhyme sighed at her brother's impoliteness and sat down next to him, accompanied by Shiki.
Neku crossed his arms and let his eyes wander while his brain was ticking. What should we do? Neku's eyes wandered to a deck of cards. Play a game? Other various games came to his mind.
Spoons.
Neku grabbed the deck of cards, and his friends eyed him. Well, Neku was waiting for Joshua to come by, because he did invite him to come over. He was terribly, terribly late, and the perfect game emerged from the shadows of Neku's brain. "Let's play spoons."
They cast him curious looks. "And what the hell is spoons?" Beat asked, speaking for the rest.
"Follow me." Neku said, guiding them to a room with a round table. He took a lot of spoons from the drawer and set them in the middle of the table.
He fingered the deck. "Ok, the game goes like this. You need to get four of a kind before you can get a spoon. We will always be one spoon short of all the people. Every round that you fail to acquire a spoon you get a letter. Your letters follow as; s, p, o, o, n. Once you spell spoon you're out of the game. If someone grabs a spoon then you grab one too, but at least one of the players must have four of a kind. Get it?"
Shiki tiled her head. "So only one person needs four of a kind?"
"Yes, and once they go for a spoon everyone else can go regardless of what they have. I will pass along the cards. Depending on what you choose your four cards to be will determine if you will take or leave a card. You can only hold four cards at a time. Don't forget to pass along the cards otherwise you might make the others miss out on a four of a kind. Be careful because you might be going for one type of set as someone else so it's not guaranteed that you'll get four of a kind every time." Neku thought his explanation was thorough. "Also, I forgot to mention, we will change the dealer, that way the same person who goes last will change as is with the person who starts it. I'll deal first."
So Neku dealed out the cards and prepared the spoons on the table. This would most likely lead to a disaster, but Neku appreciated the game.
But not anymore. For the last five minutes Rhyme got all fives and everyone got a spoon except Beat and Neku. As everyone else clutched a spoon Beat and Neku went for the same spoon, and they both had it. Their eyes locked, and the air was still. Eventually, they started to tug on the spoon and fight for it. Unfortunately, scrawny Neku didn't win, and got thrown against the wall. Beat was victorious, and sure looked righteous.
"Having fun, Neku?"
Neku froze, hearing that all-too-familiar voice. Beat froze too, and no longer had that triumphant look. He now had an expression that spelled out; The prissy kid's here.
That's right, there was Joshua, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, with his signature smirk. Neku was going to yell at him and ask how he got in here, but he must have been so occupied with the game that he didn't even notice Joshua walking in.
Well, it was 8:00pm, and almost time for his friends to go. Neku looked out his window, and saw that it was pouring rain out there. The winds were crazy, and no one in their right mind would go out in this weather. Suddenly, the TV blasted out a tornado warning.
Parents have called Neku's friends, and there was no way they could pick them up. It looks like they would have to stay there. According to reports from the TV, a dangerous tornado has formed, and it's just about wrecking everything. Joshua didn't really like this, and he opened his phone to dial a few things.
Neku looked over at him, and remembering his time at the game; his phone can do wonders. Of course, Joshua is an asshole, but maybe he's nice enough to protect his house of the tornado. The pompous asshole looked up from his phone. "Looks like we're stuck here, huh?"
The way he said that made Neku think that he created this tornado, but judging by his expression, he didn't really like it himself, but just ending something like that would make the town super suspicious. Maybe as a composer, you would just have to let things slide.
Also, the concept that they all have to stay together for a night did seem pretty interesting, but also insanely boring. They probably have 14 good hours all together and doing nothing did not seem fun. On the other hand, Shiki didn't comfortable with this situation. She's going to have to stay in a house with boys, and probably, growing up, she was taught that boys and girls should never, EVER, God FORBID them to sleep under the same roof, or maybe 20 miles.
"Well, I guess you guys can sleep in my parent's room. Beat, Joshua, you can go either in my room or the couch."
Joshua twirled his hair with his finger. "Why not play another game?"
Yeah. Perfect. Neku thought. It's 9:00pm, I can't see shit outside, why not go out there and play football?
Joshua giggled, as if he read his thought. "Actually, I have a few things in mind."
"Like what?" Neku asked.
"Well, a few things I wanted to try out myself. Clearly, the rules said I cannot do this alone. And with you guys here, it's a perfect opportunity."
He DID plan this! Neku internally growled. "What's the game, anyway?" Neku asked. Shiki and Rhyme were going to go to Neku's parents room, but seeing that a game was about to be played, they stayed and sat down on the couch.
"Well, the first one I want to play… It's called, the Midnight Man."
"Dude, that sounds like something from a corny children's scary movie." Neku responded.
Joshua chuckled, and crossed his arms. "Trust me, it's nothing for children."
"Then what's the rules?"
"Number one, it must be exactly 12:00 AM when you begin the ritual, or else it will not work. We'll need candles, paper and pencils, a wooden front door, salt, a pin needle, and all the lights in the house off.
Step one, everyone who is playing the midnight game must write their names on a piece of paper, then use a pin needle to drop a single drop of their blood onto the paper
Step two, place the paper in front of your front door. Your front door must be made of wood.
Step three, light a candle
Step four, knock on your front door exactly 22 times, exactly at 12 o'clock.
Step five, open your door, blow out the candle, and close it. This 'summons' the midnight man.
Step six, our goal for the rest of the game is to survive the Midnight Man. Everyone who plays must walk with their candle lit around the house, avoiding the Midnight Man at all costs until the clock strikes 3:33 AM. At which time the Midnight Man will leave. If your candle blows out on its own, it means the midnight man is near, and you have 10 seconds to relight your candle. if you fail to relight the candle in 10 seconds you must surround yourself with a circle of salt and wait until 3:33 AM. If you fail to surround yourself with salt in time the Midnight Man will attack and you will have hallucinations of your worst fears until 3:33 AM."
Everyone sat speechless. No one looked like they wanted to play this game, but it looked like they will if another does it.
"…And what are the other signs that… the 'Midnight Man' is near…?" Neku asked, gulping.
"Well, either your candle blows out, you get very cold, you hear whispering, or if you see a dark/black humanoid figure within the darkness."
Neku agreed to this game, mostly because I forced him to for the sake of the readers. But realistically, I believe he wanted to because having a huge sleepover like that would be pretty boring. However, Beat is all up for the game, but he doesn't like the fact that his little sister has to play. Joshua suggested that they should make Neku's parents room a safe haven, but that means that during the game they cannot go in there.
So from 10:00pm up into 11:30pm, Beat and Neku were gathering supplies for the game, and also putting salt around his parent's room, since salt seems to keep evil spirits away (in lore).
And now, its 11:40, and it turns out Shiki decided to play, too. That surprised Neku, but he didn't let that show. There on a nearby table were a few candles, papers, and pencils. A knife lay there, and one by one they pricked their fingers, letting the blood drop on the paper. They wrote their names and stuck it to the door, holding the candles. They opened the door, blew out the candles, shut it, and relit the candles. It was hard to, since a tornado was going on (and the rain was crazy). When the door opened water hit Neku's candle, it scared Neku, and he could feel shivers run up and down his spine as he struggled to get the candle lit again. He looked at the others, and they seemed just fine.
The ritual is completed. The Midnight Man is invited. What will become of our little gang now?
-Yep! That's a cliffhanger!—
Well, I didn't want to add everything because I wanted to see who would really want to read it. I like ghostly stories like this and adding twewy to it will be so much better. Also, I won't be killing anyone in this fic because that's just rude, they've already been dead once! Plus Joshua would keep them safe, in his asshole-like way. Although, I gotta love him. Also I made Shiki play the game because I wanted to add a little hint of Neku x Shiki (not like a romantic kind of thing, more like a Neku-wanting-to-protect-Shiki-because-the-midnightman-blew-out-her-candle-and she's-in-grave-danger kind of thing, and I feel way too cruel making Rhyme play a game like that. Beat wouldn't let her play it anyway. Not over his dead body.)
Please review! I need thoughts, suggestions, (critizism!) and ideas! Plus, after the midnight man, they might do another activity if there's enough interests.
I also would like to credit my sister (aurdox) for providing me information on the game 'spoons'. I may or may not take a little bit of stuff word for word, but hey, she's my sister. She won't mind. PS. PSS.
Next chapter is when the real horror begins. Stay tuned….
And I would like to thank mesomeso-san for beta reading! (You're awesome!)
~~~Also another reminder that if anything seems missing or whatever I tried to make changes from the original, and Microsoft word might mess up a few things. So if you find anything particularly spelled wrong or any grammar mistakes slap Microsoft in the face and tell me!~~~
I struggle with past and present tense! As I type I brainstorm new ideas so it would go WAY over my head. If you catch anything or give me some advice I would love it.
Seeya~
Furiookami