A/N: Hello again everyone :D Thank you for your reviews! Though I would just like to state again that I'm still new to writing, so I may slow down slightly with updating, unless I'm on a roll like I have been lately..

Special note: Ubiquiton, thank you for the constructive feedback! I shall be editing the flashback scene from last chapter tomorrow to make sure the segment is in past tense in case anyone gets confused. And then probably edit through the previous chapter and this one. I really do appreciate your critique. If there is anything else you think I need to work on you're more than welcome to tell me! :D

I think I'll try to make sure each chapter is no shorter than 2000 words. If you have any suggestions feel free to review and tell me or tell me if I'm ruining the story yet lol.

And please...can someone explain to a newbie like me how to space out chapters? I've tried quite a few times and I can't figure it out. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

So without further ado…

Chapter Four

Maka woke up exhausted the next morning as she slowly got out of bed. Her legs were stiff while the rest of her body urged to go back to bed. She wondered for a moment on why her body was so tired until she belatedly remembered the monster that was chasing her last night, she frowned. After having a shower and got dressed she walked into the kitchen to make toast. Taking the toast to the living room she glanced down that the scythe still on the floor, this time it didn't faze her as she stepped over it to sit on the couch.

"Hah! Can't fall further than the ground! And after I come home from class I'm returning you." She barked at the inanimate object in a condescending tone. Taking an overly dramatic bite out of her toast for emphasis. After finishing breakfast she gathered her books into her bag walking towards the door not sparing the scythe a second glance.

When she entered her class she noticed the tense atmosphere of the students seemed to be the sense of foreboding, most of their faces looked on at the whiteboard at the front with dread. As she sat down in her usual spot she decided to follow their line of vision she noticed that Stein was sitting at his desk with a maniacal smile threatening to break his face from how wide it was. He repositioned his glasses before standing up, picking up the pile of folders on his desk. Stein turned to them and held one of the folders up.

"Now class we shall be reviewing your new assignment that I expect you to complete in two weeks. Three thousand word essay about the history of heritage towns and cities in America and how the population constructed infrastructure and how the revenue was properly managed. And for your homework you'll research one extinct animal and explain in 500 words explaining the causes on why it didn't manage to survive long enough for me to dissect it." Stein stated, his bizarre grin had long since gone and replaced with a serious frown. A collective groan echoed the class while Maka perked up, finally happy to be given homework. No matter how ludicrous it was.

Today was going to be a good day.

Several hours later it was now three o'clock and her class were over as she walked home humming. Though in the back of her mind was still on high alert in case she had a repeat of yesterday. Much to her immense relief no monsters approached or followed her. Was it a cliché monster? The type you here in stories that only go bump in the night?

Probably.

As Maka entered her apartment she sat down on her couch, placing her book bag beside her she fished out her textbook, notebook and a pen, placing them onto the coffee table. She paused, feeling like she was forgetting to do something. Eyes flickering to the scythe on the floor she recalled returning the scythe, her eyes darted back and forth between the scythe and her textbook, torn between which task to approach first.

'Homework first then I'll return the possessed scythe, it's been so long since I was able to do any!' Sending the scythe a glare she then focused happily on her homework. The homework didn't last as long as she hoped it would of, finishing it within half an hour. At least she had an essay to keep her busy, but it would have to wait for now.

Peering down at the scythe, it honestly seemed innocent. Albeit falling down the first time and nearly cutting her head off started her slight paranoia that it might be possessed and trying to kill her. Maka bit her lip as she mulled it over, was all these strange occurrences just coincidence? She wondered if Black Star was having the same problem…

Her eyes widened in shock as she realised she hadn't heard from Black Star in two days, the last time was when they had just bought the weapons. Snatching up her cordless home phone she swiftly typed in his number, waiting as the dial tone seemed to drag on as she knitted her eyebrows together. After what felt like ages he finally answered.

"Yo this is Black Star!" He greeted in a lively tone. Maka silently sighed in relief before responding.

"Hey Black Star, it's Maka…" She began.

"Oh hey Maka! S'up?"

"Hey this is going to sound a bit strange… but has anything…weird happened lately since you bought that chain scythe?" Maka asked, hoping she didn't sound odd. She heard him hum in thought before replying.

"Come to think of it…there have been small instances that are weird. Like when I pass the weapon sometimes I could have sworn it morphed into a different weapon, but as soon as I do a double take to check it's back to the chain scythe. And then there was the last two nights…I was practicing my godly training outside-" Maka quickly interrupting him in a chastising tone.

"Black Star they are ornamental weapons! They are not real weapons to be used for that kind of thing-" Maka lectured before Black Star interrupted her.

"They ARE real, I can tell!" He shot back before he continued. "Anyway, the last two nights when I was training outside with the weapon I swear I could feel someone watching me, the great me does not like an unseen audience! Commoners must worship me openly!" He complained then continued to prattle on about how much of an expert he is within the two days of acquiring the weapon. Maka tuned him out for a few moments, not like he would be able to tell anyway since he loves to talk about himself. Frowning in thought this new information proved to Maka that she was not making up the weapons being peculiar, and maybe what is watching him is the same creature that stalked her. Catching the last segment on his conversation she interjected swiftly.

"Well, weird things have been happening to me since I bought that scythe as well. I'm thinking of returning it." Pausing briefly her eyes glimpsed towards the scythe, staring at its red eye for a few seconds before getting an unnerving feeling.

"I'm also starting to get paranoid that it's staring at me." She added, quickly glancing away from the scythe before continuing. "Do you want to come with me? You can return your chain scythe too."

"Are you kidding? You can return your weapon but I'm keeping mine! And I can't go to your place today, I've got some errands to do. I'll catch ya tomorrow or something okay?" Black Star said as Maka muttered an okay before they said goodbye and hung up. Dropping the phone onto the couch with a sigh she stood up and walked over to the scythe and plucked the weapon from the floor.

'Time to get this matter sorted.' Maka thought determinedly, grabbing her purse before walking out of her apartment to return to DWMA.

Half an hour later, and a few wrong turns to her chagrin to repeat the mistakes of Black Star, she finally found the weapon antique store. The doorbell jingled once more as Maka strode inside. Sid was sitting on a seat behind the counter, flicking through a magazine before looking up to greet her. Recognizing her his eyes widened slightly before glancing towards the scythe in her hand, he sighed.

Waltzing up to the counter with a small frown she placed the scythe on the counter before looking up at him and pointing to the weapon.

"Take this scythe back." Maka stated in a snippy tone. Sid raised an eyebrow.

"Why? What's wrong with it?" He innocently replied. She scoffed before crossing her arms, opening her mouth to rant.

"I've had bad luck ever since I've bought this scythe! Heck the first night it nearly impaled me! It kept falling down constantly like it was possessed. And then I encountered a monster that was probably sent from hell trying to stalk, eat or kill me! I don't want to deal with this kind of thing so take it back, I want a refund!" She fumed while she glared at him. It didn't faze him in the slightest; he merely raised his hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry miss but no refunds; it's your own fault that the both of you bought weapons that are cursed." Sid stated matter-of-factly. It took a few moments for her to digest what he said before her eyes widened in shock, her mouth agape like a fish out of water. She spluttered for a brief moment before she collected herself.

"Wait..WHAT? Cursed? You have got to be joking! Like…I knew something weird was going on when strange things happened to me. But seriously! You didn't tell me that scythe is cursed! Why the hell didn't you tell me that sooner?" Maka demanded.

"You left the store before I remembered to warn you. I'm extremely forgetful sometimes... sadly that's the type of man I am." Sid replied simply with a shrug as if that diffused the situation. Maka was tempted to Maka-Chop him on the spot.

"The weapon is cursed and you want me to still keep it because of a lousy no refund policy? What's wrong with you!" She shrieked.

"No refunds. So the weapon is cursed…it's not like you've been harmed, wouldn't say the same for another customer who bought one of the Death City weapons." Despite her better judgement she was suddenly very curious about this, temporarily forgetting her outrage. She held up her hand to pause him for a moment, her eyes flickering to the scythe before levelling Sid with a serious glare.

"Okay…so you actually haven't told me anything about the curse…care to elaborate?" Maka questioned. Sid crossed his arms with a contemplative expression.

"Well…usually I'm not the type of man to discuss customer privacy but since curses seem to be a pretty big deal I'll tell you. When I explored Death City to find the weapons I honestly thought they were just the normal type of weapons, when I brought them back to me the first one I sold was to this timid violet –haired woman. Well…I'm pretty sure it was a girl, it was extremely hard to tell." He paused as if to check is memory if this information was correct, he shrugged as he continued.

"I do recall they wanted a weapon for protection, so she bought the long sword I brought with me. However, not so long after she bought it I remember watching tv one night to find that same woman to appear on tv. Apparently driven insane she started attacking people one day when she was at church, the sword still in her hand. The once timid girl was laughing joyously as she slaughtered many innocent people. She was completely out of control. Unfortunately police had to intervene though. .." Sid trailed off meaningfully as Maka comprehended what that entailed.

At first Maka was tempted to state maybe the girl had other factors coming into play to cause such a violent outburst, however if the woman was still holding onto the cursed weapon while attacking people, that only further proves that the weapons of Death City are not to be taken lightly. A few minutes passed as Maka thought about what happened to that poor woman. Her mind wondered briefly about what she felt when she touched her scythe. Maka didn't believe she held ill thoughts when she held it in her hands. Nor the driven need to harm anyone. Only weird instances happening around her. All the anger dissipated from her and now was more curious as to anything else. It felt like a mystery to her, a mystery that needed to be resolved. And she was up for that challenge. Glancing up at Sid she leaned onto the counter, tapping the scythe again in thought as she felt the familiar tingle of warmth from the weapon.

"So Sid…you said that was the first customer to buy a weapon from Death City, correct?" Maka asked. He nodded in reply before she spoke again.

"How many other customers have you had that have bought weapons from Death City?" She questioned further. Sid was deep in thought again as it took a brief moment for him to remember.

"Apart from you and that loud mouth friend of yours, there was one other person." Sid recalled before continuing.

"Come to think of it, he was a very unusual person. His appearance was unmistakable. I do believe nothing bad happened to him, so I presume he wasn't affected greatly by the curse."

Maka leaned forward, her expression pleading to him to reveal more information.

"I remember when he entered the store, he had an extremely peculiar hair color. It was black…but then he had three white stripes on one side of his head. I didn't know if that was a new trend or something at the time, I didn't ask. But as soon as he set foot into my store and glanced around his face contorted like he was witnessing a murder scene." Sid chuckled at the memory while Maka raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"I was very confused when he started shrieking, it looked like he was on the verge of tears. Then suddenly he regained his composure, basically pulling off every weapon on the wall. Of course I'm not the type of guy that would stand idly by as a strange person was trying to destroy my store. I shouted at him and he told me that he was fixing the filthy asymmetrical room that I have, and he was going to organise all of the weapons to achieve symmetrical glory. Maybe the kid didn't need to be cursed, he was already beyond help. The guy had major OCD issues however he was messing up my store so I threatened to call the cops. To which he replied he could easy pay bail if he got arrested since his father was the CEO of some huge company….I think the company was named something that sounded like…Gregory." Sid finished recalling as he stared into her now anxious expression. Her eyes seemed to have caught something of interest in that sentence though she did not seemed thrilled. Maka took a deep breath before speaking.

"Wait…could the name of the company possibly be…Grigori?" She enquired. He snapped his fingers before nodding.

"Yea! That sounds like it. They have strange sounding companies nowadays…Anyway he stopped trying to rearrange my store when he came across the dual pistols that were also from Death City. Practically begged me to sell them to him. I agreed so he could get the hell out of my store, apart from that I have no other information. Sorry." Sid apologized. Maka shook her head and hand in dismissal.

"Well thanks for your help Sid. I'll be taking my scythe back with me." She said while picking up the scythe, she bid farewell to the man before exiting the store heading back to her apartment.

She honestly hadn't expected what she had heard, her mind replaying what had been revealed.

'Maybe the curse varied from person to person? Either way…' Maka clenched the scythe tightly in her hands.

'I'm going to find out more about this strange curse.'Her eyes narrowed, unleashing a rattled sigh.

Maka knew someone who could possibly provide her with the needed information about the OCD kid. With her empty hand she dug into her pocket and withdrew her phone before grimacing. The person she always hated to rely on…

Her papa.

Not even three seconds passed before he answered.

"MAKA! MY PRECIOUS LITTLE ANGEL-!" He basically screamed with excitement. Instantly snatching her phone from her ear to avoid going deaf. Waiting a few moments til he calmed down to the best of his ability, which was not much, before she began to speak to him.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine papa, no I don't want you to visit me…stop and try to listen for a sec okay? I need to ask you a favor."

"Anything for my Maka-angel!" Spirit cooed, Maka resisted the urge to hit her head against the brick wall she was currently walking past.

"Okay…I need you to tell me about your boss' son, like where he lives." Maka supplied, she heard a sudden squawk of protest.

"You want information about my boss's son! No Maka you're too young to be fraternising with boys! Papa won't allow it!" He barked, Maka groaned at his idiocy.

"No papa, I'm not wanting it for those types of reasons, he has some information that I want to find out, and before you ask I don't want to tell you what the information is." She snapped. Hearing him utter a defeated sigh, she grinned in victory.

"Okay, I'll tell you where he lives….but in return I want you to go on a dinner date with me next week." Spirit beamed happily.

The smirk instantly dropped from her face as she halted her walking out of shock. Moments passed while she still stood frozen. She did not expect him to act so slyly, she slowly weighed her options.

Is trying to figure out the strange occurrences of cursed weapons leading to insane people and monsters lurking in the night really worth spending a couple of hours with her papa?

Her finger twitched towards the end call button.

After a massive amount of restraint she resisted the urge and agreed, sealing her doomed fate for the sake of curiosity.

-x- TBC –x-

A/N: I'm sorry guys if this story suddenly sucks for you D:

I'm sorry! If you want to ask any questions/ suggest or give feedback feel free to review.

See you (later) in the next chapter.

-KC