Heya, Shadow here with a one-shot. I know it's nowhere near Halloween and such, but I just felt like doing this. I typed it up around when I was working on the second part of my Black Rock Shooter story, What Happens After... Anyhow, tell me what you think in a review or PM me.
Soul was most definitely not coming out of his room. Forced into a costume by his girlfriend Maka for Halloween, this was not cool, nor was his costume.
"Come on, Soul! We're going to be late for Kid's party. And remember the instructions said to dress up in a costume."
"Then why did you get to keep your outfit?"
She smirked, even through Soul couldn't see it through the door. "Simple. I dressed up as a psychopath. Seems easy enough since we have fell into insanity often enough or come in contact with it on a regular basis."
"You don't look different at all besides the fact your hair is down and there's some fake blood-stains all over your clothes and face. Not to mention you're carrying a bloody knife. So why the hell did I get stuck in this costume?"
"It was the last costume in the store, not to mention you persisted until last minute to get a costume because you said costumes weren't cool and for little kids. Besides I- argggh-"
"Maka?" Soul stood still and heard Maka groan louder and then fall silent. Suddenly he heard a set of high pitched hysterical giggles. "MAKA!" He pushed opened the door with a bang, emerging from his room in a fluffy sheep costume. Maka was bent over, holding a bloody knife, clutching her head, bangs obscuring her face. "Maka?" Soul approached Maka slowly, uncertain if she was acting or had actually fell into insanity. Maka straightened up, eyes still hidden by her bangs, frowning, and tilted her head slightly. She grinned psychotically, revealing crazed eyes, and whispered, "My blood is black you know." She lunged forward, slicing at the air.
"Damn it Maka! Not cool! Why the hell did you fall into the madness?"
Maka began to giggle, and stopped slicing at the air, setting the prop knife by the counter, "You fell for it."
"Maka. Not cool. Totally not cool. You almost gave me an heart attack."
"It got you out of the room didn't it? And besides isn't Halloween supposed to be about pretending to be what you're not?" Soul huffed. "Also as you can see, I can totally pull off the psychopath costume."
Soul gestured at his sheep costume distastefully, "I still don't see how I have to wear this."
Maka sighed, "You need a costume to get into Kid's party, and since you delayed getting your costume, this was the last one I could find. That and you look pretty cute...like a wolf in sheep's clothing."
"A wolf, eh?"
"Do it for me?" Maka pleaded, pouting.
"You know it's kinda creepy seeing you pout cutely with blood all over your face and a knife in hand. But fine." Soul grabbed his keys and held the door open for Maka. Maka walked out, knife in hand and they both headed to Kid's place.
Once they got there, they were both admitted in and shown to a large ballroom full of monsters, ghouls, and Kid passed out in the middle of the floor from the lack of symmetry. Kid was dressed up as a giraffe, complete with large giraffe head. Soul took one look at Kid and burst out laughing. "That has got to be worse than my costume." Maka was too busy giggling to reply. Kid got up and did a double take at the giggling Maka and called for Liz and Patty to transform. They refused and Kid asked why. Liz smirked and said, "Since obviously Maka is giggling over your costume. She's not slicing anybody up, if she was insane she would have started trying to kill everyone by now."
"R...right." mumbled Kid.
Maka caught wind of the conversation and nudged Soul, "See, told you I could pull it off."
"Whatever, let's just go." The two walked towards Patty, Liz, and Kid. Patty was dressed up in a ghost costume and Liz was dressed up as Death, complete with mask. Then Black Star and Tsubaki walked in. Maka started giggling again while the rest of them roared in full out laughter. Black Star was dressed as Maka...er sorta. He had on her coat, blouse, and boots. He even had on the mini-skirt she wore. "Um...Black Star? Why do you have on my clothes...actually where did you get my clothes in the first place?"
"Easy! I took some the last time we came over! Now bask in my greatness!" Black Star strutted.
Tsubaki, dressed up as the Grudge, sidled up to Maka and whispered, "He forgot all about needing a costume so he decided to take some of your clothes and wear that instead."
"I see…" Maka whispered back, gritting her teeth. She made a mental note to get the clothes back later, washed.
"Well, I see all our guys got their costumes last minute. How did you guys come up with yours?" asked Liz.
"Well, Halloween has traditionally been about being what you're not. So I just picked a random book up and it was about psychopaths. It was pretty easy to dress up as, so I just decided to go as an psychopath." said Maka.
"I just picked mine from a random store." said Tsubaki.
"Remember that time we took that mission to go after the Black Dragon? Kid wore his father's outfit, I just took the same outfit since I barely had time to find a costume after Kid's incident on picking one."
"Oh, I heard a little about that, apparently Kid couldn't make up his mind or something?"
"Well, first we found Kid a whole bunch of symmetrical costumes. But then he couldn't decide on one, so Patty just stuck him in the giraffe costume. What about Soul, through? I would have expected him to wear something else than…" Liz snickered, "...a sheep's costume."
"It was the last costume in the store. And since he waited so long, we couldn't find anymore costumes, so he had to wear that one." The foursome watched their guys goofing off and arguing.
"You know guys, it might be a good idea to get a camera out." said Tsubaki.
Maka beamed, a wide malicious smirk spreading across her face, "I like the way you think." And then she started to giggle, one wondering if she had lost her mind or not. Liz went off of fetch a camera and they spent half the night taking pictures of the guys dressed up in their costumes. Soon, the party members had dwindled down to their usual numbers, that is to say only Liz, Patty, Tsubaki, Kid, Soul, Black Star, and Maka. Chrona was off on a mission currently and couldn't make it. Maka got an idea, and she called the girls over and began to whisper. She finished and everyone agreed, even the normally placid Tsubaki. Maka went over to the feuding guys, currently arguing which costume was the worst.
"Mine is! I look like a sheep, don't you know how uncool this looks?!"
"I look like Maka! A god should never look like his followers!"
"You're not symmetrical! Stop moving and messing up your symmetry!"
"GET OVER IT KID!" The two yelled in unison.
Maka gritted her teeth at Black Star's comment and the implied insult. She took out a 1,000 page hardcover book and slammed it down on the boys' heads. "Now, if you are all done squabbling, you guys are staying the night here while we girls are staying at Soul's and my place."
"Why?" Soul asked.
"The girls and I want to have a little girl time. We're leaving right now. Have fun in your costumes, remember this is Halloween, feel free to tell each other scary stories. In fact I was reading last night that Gallows Mansion is known to be the most haunted spot on Halloween, especially if that Halloween falls on a full moon. And if the Halloween falls on the full moon, apparently around midnight some of your hidden fears come true."
"R...right…as if that was true." Black Star stammered slightly.
"You could always find out by staying."
"That's ridiculous. I've lived here all my life and nothing's happened."
"Tonight's special. It's the full moon too. That hasn't happened for over 200 years. You could always ask Lord Death about it."
"Psh. We'll stay the whole night, there's no such thing as hauntings. Right, guys?" Black Star and Kid nodded.
"Sure. Night, guys. We'll see you tomorrow." The girls left.
The guys looked at each other. "Now what?" Soul asked.
"It's late, I'll show you guys to your rooms." Kid said, gesturing for them to follow. The boys were shown to their rooms. Once Soul was alone, he hurriedly stripped out of the embarrassing sheep costume. Next time he was going to listen to Maka and get a costume early. He heard a soft giggle and whipped around. No one was there, "Hello?" He called out. "Must be my imagination." He muttered to himself as he got into bed. He turned off the lights and turned on his side.
Black Star started to do his nightly exercises when he heard a light scratching noise coming from the door. He stopped and walked towards the door and opened it. Nobody was there, he closed the door and went back to his nightly exercises.
Kid checked the symmetry of his room, it was all perfect! The entire room was symmetrical, not one millimeter off, not one centimeter off. He heard a knocking noise coming from the door and walked to open it. There was no one there, he closed it, and turned around. When he did everything was off center by two inches. He immediately fell to the floor in a faint.
The girls met up, each explaining how their operation went. Maka gave the signal to rest for a bit before they started the next phase of their plan to freak the guys out.
One rest break later, the girls went to their respective rooms to start phase two of their operation. They began giving the boys the haunting of their lives, creating sounds, tilting the frames in Kid's room, bugging Black Star. Tsubaki was hesitant about this at first but eventually gave in, thinking it to be fun and in the spirit of Halloween.
The night passed, each boy unable to sleep because of unsettling noises, items mysteriously being moved when their backs were turned, and the unsettling feeling that someone was watching them. It was finally midnight and the girls were ready to go into the second phase of their plan, to make the haunting of Gallows Mansion become reality. It started with Maka, she slipped into Soul's room silently and hid in the bathroom while Liz reported Soul's movements to her. She waited for Liz's command and when she heard it, she slipped out of the bathroom behind Soul carrying her prop knife, now stained with "blood".
Soul felt someone behind him and brushed it off, it had been like that the entire night and after a while of whipping around to see that nobody was there, he had stopped bothering to look, knowing that it would only lead to a glimpse of empty air. He heard a hollow, giggling voice call out his name slowly, drawing it out, "Souulllll…." He whipped around now and saw Maka standing behind him all bloodied and holding an equally bloody knife.
"Maka!" He ran towards her and gripped Maka by her shoulders. Maka's eyes were obscured by her hair, a dark shadow falling over them. "Damn it, Maka! Answer me!"
Maka lifted her head up slightly, letting Soul catch a glimpse of her eyes. He let go and took a step back, her once warm eyes were now cold and frigid, full of insanity. "Maka? Please don't tell me you fell into the madness. Aren't you supposed to be immune to stuff like that?"
Maka giggled, "Maka's not here right now, she went away."
Soul gritted his teeth, "Maka's right in front of me. You're Maka, remember?"
"Yep! It's time to die!" She lunged at him.
Soul dodged, "This isn't cool, Maka! I thought we made a promise to each other to stay cool."
"Die!" She sliced at the air.
Soul thought furiously, several hours Maka had mentioned that legend about fears coming true or something. He had simply shrugged it off as something that wasn't true, a myth. But it seemed to be coming true right before his very eyes. He just wanted to deny it, didn't Maka's wavelength protect her from this? Except...one time Stein had mentioned that her wavelength could be overwhelmed long enough for the madness to take over. And once it takes over...her wavelength won't have any effect unless someone was holding on to her sanity for her. In the past Soul himself did that for her the two separate occasions she had fallen to the madness, but no one was to be seen, and he could see that the knife was an ordinary knife. Maka started to stumble around again and shoved her knife into the wood of the bed stand, giggling maniacally. Soul tried to force resonance with her but for some reason couldn't. Their connection was shut right off, Maka lunged at Soul again, whispering in his ears, "I want to see your insides." Soul shoved her off and rolled to the side as she stabbed at him.
"I don't want to see my insides, what the hell is up Maka? The last time I saw you, you were perfectly sane."
Maka began to roar with laughter, "Eheheh, I'm perfectly happy insane, and blood looks so pretty." She smirked and wobbled slightly, whispering in a dark tone completely different from the ot, "I want to see your blood." She started attacking Soul again, eventually managing to shove Soul to the floor. She straddled him and placed her knife, blood now dry, at his throat. Soul knew at this point after trying everything he could think of to bring her back from insanity that she was going to kill him.
He closed his eyes, that last image of Maka holding a knife to his throat, bangs and shadows obscuring her insanity filled eyes, "Hey, Maka, if you ever do wake up, I love you. It isn't cool to say this right now, but what the heck, I'm about to die." He waited for the final blow, but it didn't come. He opened one eye after another, Maka was still there, looking like she was insane, a malicious smirk spread over her face, but something was different. Maka's smirk softened back into her usual soft smile and the insane gleam faded from her eyes.
"Hi." She said softly, "I love you, too." She kissed him softly.
Soul gaped at her, "Wha…"
"Good night, Soul. Don't worry, you'll find out everything in the morning." Soul was about to say something back when she pinched the side of his neck, hitting a pressure point. Soul fell into blackness as he succumbed to a deep sleep helped along by Maka. Maka got up and kissed Soul again, then she dragged him over to the bed, Patty came out and helped her shove Soul onto the bed. She kissed Soul's forehead and brushed his hair out of his face, "I'll see you later, but right now I have to help Tsubaki and the others." She left.
In Black Star's room, Tsubaki stood in the passageway behind the wall. She kind of didn't want to do this, but at the same time a small part of her wanted to. A small mischievous part that she never knew existed. Maka and Patty walked up to her, "You ready?" Maka said.
"Yep." Tsubaki adjusted her hair and waited for Liz to give the signal. Liz gave the signal and Tsubaki went in, stepping through a small opening to make it look like she was appearing from thin air. Black Star watched, stunned as Tsubaki, "appeared" before him.
"Tsubaki?" Black Star backed up slightly, unnerved by Tsubaki's appearance. Sure, she had worn that outfit when they were at the party, but then she was actually looking alive. Now she looked like an actual ghost...but that couldn't be possible, could it? He searched his brain for an answer to this and remembered Maka's parting words of the legend. And his one fear...that one day Tsubaki might get hurt...or even worse die. He had to prove that this wasn't her. He walked towards her and approached her slowly and carefully. She didn't move. He came closer and pushed her hair out of her face revealing her eyes. Tsubaki snarled and lunged forward at him. Black Star backed up, "Come on, Tsubaki, play time is over. You wouldn't want to hurt your god would you?" Tsubaki lunged at Black Star again and shoved him to the ground, landing on top of him. Black Star stared into those blank, rage filled eyes, so unlike Tsubaki's gentle gaze. There was no doubting it, this wasn't Tsubaki.
Tsubaki watched him for several more seconds and just couldn't take it. She made a signal behind her back, telling them she was going to end it early and to get ready. Tsubaki went and kissed Black Star.
"Wha…" Black Star's mind went blank. Tsubaki pulled away and smiled gently, "I'll explain everything later okay?" She pinched the side of Black Star's neck letting him fall into blissful unconsciousness. She got back up, Maka came over, the two shared a smile, Maka guessing at what had transpired. Maka helped Tsubaki move Black Star to the bed. And the two departed for the last target of the night: Death the Kid.
Death the Kid had a horrible night, every single time he turned around to fix the tilted objects in his room that ruined his beautiful symmetry, the object would mysteriously become tilted again, ruining the symmetry of the room. He couldn't sleep in this condition! He resumed fixing all the objects again.
Liz stood behind the wall, adjusting her new costume. Out of the four, only she had to change her costume since Patty wasn't going to scare Kid and her current Lord Death costume wouldn't work with what they had in mind. This time she was dressed up as a vampire, complete with realistic fangs and pale skin. She took a look at herself in the mirror and shuddered, she didn't get why she had to dress up like this or had to be the one to scare Kid, but apparently this was all lovers only. She walked to the passageway and waited for Maka's signal.
Kid had finally fixed most of the room, making it mostly symmetrical again. Now he just had one more item to fix. The painting that he did a long time ago...he sniffed the air. Something was off and smelled different. He turned around and to the side of his room was a cloud of purple smoke. A figure appeared and Kid felt pissed, this was ruining the symmetry of his room! "Who are you?!" Kid demanded.
A laugh echoed around the room, "Aww, Kid. You forgot me already?" The figure walked out of the smoke and closer to him, showing her face in the light.
"L...Liz?" Kid stuttered trying to make sense of what was happening. This was Liz, alright. He could see her soul, but her appearance was different. The last time he saw her, she actually looked alive, now she looked like a vampiric ghoul, ready to feast upon someone's blood.
"Hello, Kid." She whispered seductively, baring her teeth.
"This isn't funny, Liz. Now wipe off that make-up and help me make everything symmetrical again?"
Liz continued to come closer to him, placing her hands on his chest. She smelled his neck, "Mhm...smells...so good." She started to lick it.
"Liz, stop that."
She pulled him to the bed and pushed him down on it, smirking, "Let's have a little taste of that delicious blood, shall we?" She leaned forward.
Kid felt a slight pinch by the side of his neck and soon fell into murky, black unconsciousness, his last thought was of how Maka was right, and the legend was really true.
Liz sat up, smiling slightly at how cute Kid looked asleep. Tsubaki came out and together the two dragged Kid out to complete the last and final phase of their plan. In the basement, Maka was waiting with Patty, the other two boys already there and tied up. Tsubaki and Liz hauled Kid into the chair and tied him up. Once completed they stepped back and took a look at their masterpiece, Maka nodded in approval, "Alright, take your position. The guys will be waking up any minute." They melted into the shadows, waiting for the boys to wake up. Kid was the first one to wake up, struggling slightly, trying to move as he realized he was bound. Soon the other two woke up, each noticing they were tied up.
"Man, being tied up, this isn't cool. What the hell happened?" said Soul.
"I am the great assassin, Black Star! Who are the puny underlings that dare to tie up their god?!" yelled Black Star loudly.
"I don't know, I woke up like this too. But either way, we must find a way out of these bonds. At least they had the sense to tie me up symmetrically." said Kid.
Maka and the others slowly stepped out from the shadows, each in their own respective horror mode. Maka was clutching her knife again, face shadowed, and an impossibly wide grin on her face. Tsubaki's face was hidden by her hair, dress bloodstained, and hands covered in blood. Liz had two lines of blood flowing down from her chin, a seductive smile on her face, and fangs dripping with blood. They were a sight to behold.
"L...Liz...where's Patty? And why are we tied up?"
Liz walked up to Kid and sat in his lap, smiling, "What about Patty? Her blood was just so good and I helped myself to it. You're going to be next soon. But first, we're going to have a little fun with you." She started to laugh, seemingly thinking back to the time she killed Patty. Kid's face went white, scared and wondering what was going on…
Soul gritted his teeth, the last thing he could remember was of Maka going insane and coming back at the last minute before he fell into a deep blackness.
"Hi, Soul!" Maka chirped cheerfully. "Miss me?" She held her knife under Soul's throat.
Liz reprimanded her, "Don't kill them yet, we're going to have some fun first, then kill them, remember?" Tsubaki snarled in agreement, pacing the edges of the shadows. The boys shivered, it seemed like a nightmare come true. Maka pouted and removed her knife, her hair moving out of the way of her eyes for a moment and giving Soul a glimpse of dark voids filled with insanity and cruelty.
"Now what should we do first with them…" Liz pondered.
"I want to rip their insides out." Maka whispered darkly, a twisted smile distorting her face. Tsubaki growled, lunging at Black Star, hands stretched out in front of her like claws. She fell short while Black Star's face turned paler, visibly frightened. He covered it up with a trembling smirk, "Hey, Tsubaki, you wouldn't want to kill your god, would you?" The clock struck two, Maka tilted her head slightly at the sound and then looked back at Soul, tracing her fingers over Soul's tensed abs. Soul tried attempting resonance with her again, but their connection was blocked and closed off. There was no way he could reach her. Soul slumped back in defeat, "Whatever you're going to do, just do it." He felt his bonds loosen and disappear entirely, then felt someone else's lips on his. He opened his eyes.
"Hey, Soul. Scared enough, yet?"
"Wha…"
Meanwhile with Black Star, Tsubaki stopped pacing around and lunged at him, knocking him down along with his chair, she bared her teeth. Black Star closed his eyes, this was it. He felt a pair of lips on his and cautiously opened his eyes. Tsubaki pulled apart, "So is my great god scared?" She smiled that gentle smile Black Star loved so much. Black Star was stunned, what just happened?
Kid gave up, there was nothing he could do now, not when he was tied up and Liz was bent on drinking all of his blood. He closed his eyes, he didn't want his last image and memory to be of this vampiric Liz. He felt his bonds loosen and fall away completely as a pair of lips touched his. He opened his eyes, "Hey, there." Liz said with a smile, "Is the big shinigami afraid of the little vampire?" The girls got off the guys and stood up, all smirking, even the normally level-headed Tsubaki. The guys just gaped at the girls.
"S...so...so if this is all a prank, where's Patty?" asked Kid.
Patty snuck up behind Kid and jumped on him, "Right, here, silly!" Kid jumped.
"You really think we would kill Patty? It was decided that we were going to show ourselves and Patty was going to remain behind the scenes since Maka's plan mostly revolved around us as your girlfriends." Liz explained.
The boys were all quiet, "Come on, you have to admit, your reactions were slightly funny. Maka, commmeeeee backkkkkkk. This isn't coooolllll." Maka teased.
Soul huffed, but couldn't deny it. "What about the blood?" Kid asked.
"Fake. They have tubs of it in a store, Maka stocked up on it before it was all gone since she was the one who made this plan in the first place. We just agreed to go along with it for the spirit of Halloween. That and it was fun seeing you guys all scared for a bit." Liz replied.
"Sorry, Black Star, but it seemed it like a fun idea at the time." Tsubaki apologized. The boys were silent, absorbing in all the information. Soul made the first move and walked up to Maka, "So how's my little psychopath doing? Killed anyone lately?" He smirked, playing along.
Maka smiled back, playing along, "Plenty. Now let's go home. Maybe we could have some fun together on the...way."
"C'mon, Tsubaki! The great god needs his goddess and his rest!" Black Star offered his arm and the two left, leaving Liz and Patty with Kid.
Kid finally managed to piece together everything and why his paintings and various wall hanging were tilted, ruining his symmetry. "So will the ghost be tilting my hangings and furniture anymore?"
"Nope!" Patty yelled cheerfully. Liz gave out a yawn, "It's getting late and I need to sleep otherwise I'll have bags tomorrow." They left for their respective rooms, finally ending what had been an eventful night.