Night 2: Imagination or Real Life?

December 21st

~4 Days Before Christmas~

Zarc was just about to turn in for the night when he heard a soft knock on his door. Confused, Zarc open his door to see Yugo standing there.

"Yugo?"

"Z-Zarc? I...I don't want to sleep on my own. Could I sleep in your bed again?" Yugo asked, staring up at him with pleading eyes. Zarc wouldn't have been able to say no to that face even if he wanted too.

"Alright, Yugo."

Yuya Sakaki, the youngest of the Sakaki siblings was awoken by an odd sound. The young boy sat up in his bed, trying to figure out what the sound was. Was it...growling? They didn't have any dogs. Did they? Confused, but also curious, Yuya got out of bed, leaving his hippo friend on the blankets. He cracked open his door and listened.

Yup. That was growling he was hearing. At first, Yuya thought it was the television downstairs. Since they didn't have any pets, aside from Fangs who was a snake, the growling noise had to be coming from the TV or stereo. However, when Yuya went downstairs to check it out, nothing was turned on. In fact, the growling noise...was coming from the basement.

Being as young as he was, the only conclusion Yuya's brain would come up with was there was a monster in the basement. But that couldn't be right either. Yuto told him so. There was no such thing as monsters. Sylvio's stories were just made up.

There were no monsters. Monsters weren't real. They will never be real.

Yuya jumps as the growling returns, but this time Yuya swears he can hear two of them. Shaking, Yuya ran back upstairs, straight to Yuto's room. Inside, Yuto is asleep with his headphones plugged in. Yuya shakes his brother awake causing Yuto to sit up, blinking the sleep from his eyes.

"Y-Yuya?" Yuto questions sleepily. He pulls out his headphones and turns on his lamp light. "Yuya, what are you doing up? Is something wrong?" Yuya bites back a whimper as he tries to explain to Yuto what he had heard.

"T-There's monsters in the basement, Yuto! I-I know there is! I heard them!" Yuya cries, while rubbing the tears off his cheeks. Yuto lets out a sigh.

"Yuya, you know Sylvio's stories aren't real-"

"This isn't a story, Yuto! I heard it!" Yuya cried louder. Yuto knew that Yuya can be quite gullible when it came to certain stories. He was just going to have to prove to him that Sylvio was wrong...again. Getting out of bed, Yuto slips on his slippers.

"Come on. Show me where you heard the noise." Yuto said calmly. Still sniffling, Yuya took Yuto's hand and showed his brother to the basement door. Of course it would be in the basement. Yuto waited at the top with Yuya and listened, but there was no sound. "See, Yuya? Nothing is down there."

"But...but I heard it!" Yuya whimpered.

"Yuya, I can prove to you that there is nothing down here. Look." Taking Yuya's hand Yuto descended further into the basement even though Yuya protested. When they got to the light switch Yuto flicked it on and gestured at the room, walking around. "Nothing but cardboard boxes, cobwebs, and dust down here. Just like I showed you last time."

Suddenly, something shatters on the ground, causing both boys to jump. Yuya buries his face into his brother's side terrified. Yuto looks around, trying to figure out where the noise had came from until he finally spots the shatter remains of a white vase in front of the old washing machine. Swallowing nervously, Yuto slowly moved his eyes up only to be met by two pairs of non-blinking robotic eyes.

Yuto knew these toys from the commercials he sees on TV all the time. They were called Tattletail, a robotic toy pet that lots of kids wanted. Since when did they have Tattletail toys? And since when did Tattletail come in black or red? Yuto knew the toys only came in blue, yellow, and the most common, purple. The situation gets much more scary and confusing as the toys start talking.

"Hehehe!" The red one laughed. "Uh oh! Uh oh!" The black one joins in on the creepy chanting.

"Y-Yuto?" Yuya is tugging on his shirt now, getting him to start backing up towards the staircase. As the two boys are backing up, the Tattletails' voices are getting lower and lower, making their voices sound more demonic in tone. Just as they are halfway to the stairs, the light in the basement flickered off, leaving them in total darkness. The chanting had stop though.

"Yuya. Yuya, it's okay." Yuto hushed as he turned to face his petrified younger brother. "Th-the lights just went out is all. The lights-" Yuto then feels something breathe on his neck. Hot and heavy followed by a growl.

Yuya screams and Yuto is shoving him ahead towards the staircase. The two of them race up the stairs, but just before they reach the top Yuto manage to look back behind him to see two glowing orbs in the darkness, one red and the other green.

When they get to the top, Yuto slams the door shut, breathing heavily.

"Yuto? Yuya?" They both jump at the voice, but it turns out that the voice belongs to their brother, Zarc. He was standing at the bottom of the staircase, looking at them with mild confusion. Standing behind him is Yugo, their other brother. "What are you two doing up at this hour?" Without so much as a word the two threw themselves into Zarc's arms, sobbing. Zarc was staring down at them in shock now, trying to comfort them but unsure of how to do it.

"I knew I heard someone scream! Guys, what happen?" Yugo asked, concern. Yuya and Yuto tried to explain what had happen, but they were so terrify that they couldn't speak properly. Finally giving up, Zarc gently pushed Yuya towards the staircase.

"Yugo, take Yuya upstairs to my room. We'll be there in a moment. I gotta talk with Yuto." Yugo nods, taking his younger brother's hand and pulling him up the stairs. Zarc stays with Yuto, a comforting hand on his shoulder, until the boy had finally calmed down enough to speak.

"Yuto, tell me what happen."

"T-there was something in the basement. I-...Yuya woke me up, saying that he heard something in the basement. I-I thought that it was just his imagination, especially since Sylvio likes to tell him stories at school."

"Sylvio?"

"A bully. He picks on Yuya a lot when we're not around." Yuto explained, wiping his tears. "S-so I took Yuya down to the basement to show him that there was nothing there and then this vase broke and we...we saw those toys and they started acting really creepy a-and then the lights went out and I felt something behind me. I-I didn't know what it was, Zarc! Something is down there!" Yuto looked close to crying again and Zarc does his best to comfort him.

"Alright, Yuto. Go upstairs with your brothers. I'll check things out down here."

"A-are you sure?"

"I'll be fine, Yuto. Go upstairs." Yuto does listen, going up the stairs but not before casting one last glance over at Zarc and disappearing down the hallway. Zarc goes into the kitchen and grabs a broom and dustpan. The light is back on in the basement when Zarc goes down. He spots the remains of the vase Yuto had told him about, but there were no 'creepy toys' or anything that Zarc could find that would have scared them so much.

Zarc sweeps up the mess, thinking that perhaps Yuto and Yuya had just imagine the whole thing. Even though Yuto is the oldest of the group aside from Zarc himself, he was only 7 years old. Yuya was 5 so of course imagining some giant scary basement creature wasn't too hard for them. Once he had cleaned up the mess, Zarc went back upstairs and dump the vase shards. As he was putting away the broom, a loud knock sounded at the door.

Zarc looked at the clock. It was nearly 3 in the morning. Who could be at the door this late? Zarc started toward the door. The closer he got to it, the more rapid the knocks came. Now of course, Zarc didn't blame whoever was at the door for knocking like crazy. It was the middle of winter, snowing quite heavily so it was pretty cold outside. But did they have to knock so heavily? It was almost like they were trying to break down the door.

Before answering, Zarc looked out his peephole to see who was on the other side. To his disbelief, he saw nothing. Not even footprints on the porch or pathway. Slowly, Zarc undid the locks before opening the door just a crack, but a crack was all the wind needed to blow its way inside.

Zarc was completely taken aback as a huge gust of wind suddenly blew in, chilling him to the very bone. He actively had to struggle to close the door and lock it. When the door was finally shut and locked, Zarc took a few steps back, a hand to his forehead. Never before had he felt a wind that strong before. The weather channel never said anything about winds like that. Maybe he had miss that part.

Writing it off as nothing Zarc went back to his room without incident, thinking that he was just tired.

"Alright, boys, how about we-" Zarc paused mid-sentence, seeing the scene before him. Yugo was fast asleep in the same position he was last night, but now Yuya was asleep next to him, his Hip Hippo toy in his arms between them. Yuto was also fast asleep in the middle of the bed. "I guess he didn't need his music as much as he thought." Zarc thought as he shut off the lights. He's thankful for the size of the bed as he goes to laid down on his side.

Zarc stays up for a little while longer, listening to the soft breathing and snores of his younger brothers beside him. He doesn't understand why, but for some reason he finds comfort in these sounds. Eventually, Zarc does fall asleep.

Downstairs, the basement door slowly creaks open.

And then slowly creaks shut.

And Night 2 comes to a close for Yuya and Yuto! Now things are really starting to pick up and Yuri is the last one!