Wednesday 31st October

The Halloween event started as soon as school ended, and by the time the sun had set was in full swing, with students and other children and teenagers hanging around and having fun. Spotlights focused full beams on the little streets of stalls, and the night was cool but not rainy.

Hiroki was in charge of shooing trembling girls and boys away from the back of the literature club's haunted house structure. Miyagi was around the front trying to lure people in, while across the way Misaki was helping the cookery club ply bystanders with sweets and Halloween related treats. Hiroki paused from attempting to get rid of a particularly obstinate crowd of first years and wandered around the back of the structure. Here he had an excellent view of the baseball club's set up, which involved a coconut shy type thing, and Nowaki in his uniform. Shinobu was about there somewhere as well, but Hiroki only had eyes for the tall boy and the trousers he was wearing. And perhaps the way the shirt sleeves strained against an impressive set of biceps – Nowaki had the internal heating power of a radiator, and the cold didn't seem to bother him.

At the rear of the haunted house structure, there were a row of crates to help stabilise the wall, and one person had stolen one of them to use as an impromptu seat. A cigarette glowed in front of a pale face and Hiroki rolled his eyes and padded over to accompany Akihiko in looking out into the night.

"I still think you should have stayed at home," he said, kicking Akihiko's feet off another crate and sitting on it himself. "Your face is a nightmare to look at right now."

Akihiko's face was indeed a sight; his left cheek one giant welt of scratches from his jawline to his hairline, eye bruised puffily and lip curled up in a snarl from the tautness of the skin. His right arm was also bandaged up in a hefty looking bandage from the elbow to the tips of his fingers, tucked up in a sling against his chest. Hiroki had not had a chance to look at the wound he had sustained, but if Takahashi's description was anything to go by then he was glad of that fact.

"Why do you think I'm staying back here?" growled Akihiko, taking the cigarette from his mouth with his non-dominant hand and nearly dropping it. It didn't help that was obviously dosed to the gills on painkillers and antibiotics and no longer appeared to be on the right planet anymore.

"I thought you might be hunting out that thing again, because you've clearly mistaken yourself for some sort of hero," said Hiroki snidely. This was now the second time Akihiko had blundered his way into fighting the thing, and Hiroki was starting to worry that maybe he did still have that death wish. Mostly, though, he was annoyed that Akihiko had not thought to tell him yesterday what had happened, and Hiroki had worried through the night until the Usami limo had pulled up at their normal meeting spot and Hiroki had discovered the blond boy within.

While Akihiko was out of his mind on painkillers, he wasn't stupid, especially when dealing with Hiroki's moods. He puffed on his cigarette again and fixed the brunette with a slightly fuzzy gaze. "I did say I was sorry for not telling you, didn't I?"

Blushing with rage that he was so easy to figure out, Hiroki growled that yes he had apologised and yes it was mostly all forgiven.

"It's the principle of the thing!" he added, irritably fumbling through his pockets to check his lighter was still there. "You could have been dead somewhere, and I never would have known."

"Yes, yes," said Akihiko, "And I am sorry. I wasn't thinking entirely straight after my near death experience." He laughed sourly. "I even had a conversation with my father in the hospital that involved neither of us being unpleasant."

"God, you must have been out of it," said Hiroki, not being completely sarcastic.

"He was incredibly bemused when I told him I was coming into school today." Akihiko stubbed out the end of his smoke and stretched carefully, sparing his right arm as much movement as he could. "But I insisted."

Hiroki stood up and shook his head. "You're insane. You could have stayed at home and been safe, you know."

"And miss the fun?" Akihiko patted his coat pocket, where his cigarettes and lighter were tucked close to his chest. "Not on your life."

Not deigning to answer, Hiroki padded back around the back of the haunted house and took up his position silently, severely surprising a sextet of older girls and their younger sisters with his sudden appearance. As they took off, Hiroki let his mind wander again. Akihiko would have been much safer at his home, even if the thing did know where he lived, as the school was a hive of potential prey, most of them oblivious. Out of his mind on pills and with one hand crippled, Akihiko wasn't going to be much use to their attempts to defeat the monster. On the other hand, they really needed all the help they could get…

Hiroki sighed lugubriously; yesterday he had been full of get up and go to defeat the creature, but now… They had seen what it could do if it wanted to, and it had been getting gradually more daring and vicious as time had gone on. And now was Halloween of all days.

"Hiro-san?" A cheerful voice broke his reverie and he started, finding himself staring into someone's broad chest. He glared up and found himself looking at Nowaki.

The biceps were even better up close. The trousers weren't too shabby either, and Hiroki's palms began to itch at that thought.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" he exclaimed, punching the taller boy on the shoulder lightly, and scowling when Nowaki stepped back, laughing and clutching the area like he had been wounded.

"I didn't really sneak up on you, Hiro-san," said Nowaki, finally controlling himself and adjusting the fit of his baseball cap. "I asked Miyagi where you were."

Hiroki looked at the direct line of sight he had to the older boy, waiting at the entrance to the haunted house, and scowled even deeper. "Whatever. What did you want?"

"I wanted to know if you wanted to have a wander around? I haven't seen much of the other stalls, and it looks like a fun night. Plus, Misaki's selling another batch of those caramel apple things and I thought you might like one."

"I can buy my own sweets!" grumbled Hiroki, but he signalled to Miyagi that he was taking a break anyway.

"Oi, wait! You just took a bloody break!" called Miyagi behind him, as Hiroki walked away.

"Get Akihiko to do it instead. He's hiding behind the stalls and he looks like a horror show already – he'll fit right in!" Hiroki cackled to himself as Miyagi's face lit up with the idea, and then towed Nowaki away before Akihiko could find out who ratted him out.

They wandered the festival, dandering from stall to stall, wandering inside to the gym hall to check out some of the attractions there as well. By the time they came back out again, one of the spotlights had been switched off, and Hiro-san seemed to find this worrying.

Nowaki was less concerned – he'd heard some of the other clubs complaining the bright light was ruining the atmosphere – and tried to calm his boyfriend down, but Hiro-san was having none of it and marched them back towards the haunted house.

Hiro-san was in front, storming through the crowd with a determined set to his shoulders, and Nowaki was shouldering through the crush of people with more difficulty despite his greater size. Just metres from the haunted house, where Akihiko was now terrifying people into leaving by dint of his face alone, the other spotlights died.

Screams rang out across the campus grounds, and Nowaki tried to lunge forward, to grab Hiro-san and keep him safe, but the crowd was too thick, people pushing him back. The stink of death rose to his nostrils again, and he pushed harder, cold tendrils looping about his arms.

A particularly loud shout rang out near him, the sound deadened by the gloom, and Nowaki's heart sank to beneath his shoes. It was Hiro-san, yelling at something to leave him be, hysterical anger in his voice. Nowaki broke out of the crowd by pushing sideways and found himself free of the worse of the gloom. The bulk of it rose up in front of him, the deep dark centre where the monster stood towering above the haunted house, and Nowaki took a deep breath and aimed for it.

The crowd was flooding away from the darkness, and Nowaki struggled a bit against the tide but he made good headway, until , suddenly, the darkness wasn't there anymore.

And neither was Hiro-san.

Nowaki stopped in his tracks, not able to believe what he was seeing. Had Hiro-san fallen? Was he hiding behind something? Had… Had it taken him?

A hand grabbed his arm, and he span around to see Akihiko, face set grimly.

"Come on!" He barked. "Miyagi's following, but we can't let it get too far ahead!"

Nowaki was wrenched through the crowd of people, and was pulled out into the gloom of the night. They were running across the sports pitches as the spotlights chunked on again behind them, but little of the light reached them and it was hard to prevent from turning an ankle on the turf.

Presently, Akihiko slowed and let go of Nowaki's arm. The younger boy could hear him cursing quietly, panting thickly. Nowaki wasn't feeling as winded as that, and was ready to rush off again.

"Why are we stopping?" he demanded, and Akihiko gave an exasperated growl.

"Shut up and listen," he hissed.

Nowaki did as he was told. The distant sound of the festival getting back to normal was the loudest noise, but if he strained, there was a tinny set of shouts from in front of them. He caught Akihiko's arm, and pulled the other boy forward, heading towards the shouting and hoping it was the right direction.

A spot of light flickered up and Nowaki headed towards it like a moth to a flame, stumbling at the last moment as they came across the edge of the pitches and found themselves climbing a slight slope to the edge of the wood.

Miyagi's face was illuminated by the flickering glow from his lighter; he looked pensive and pale.

"It went in there." He nodded towards the forest. "I don't know how we'll find it in all of those trees."

Another shout rang out, this one pained and terrified. Nowaki nearly bolted into the wood, but Akihiko's restraining hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Don't be stupid," he snapped, the trembling light making his eyes look milky and distant. "Use your fucking brain… There is a stream that runs through this forest."

"And?!" Nowaki tried to shrug Akihiko's hand off, but the fingers squeezed tighter.

"The thing stays near water!" Akihiko momentarily lost his temper and barked the words out. "Where the fuck do you think it's going to go?"

"You know the way?" demanded Miyagi.

"Follow me."

They wound into the forest, Akihiko moving as quickly as possibly through the trees. More shouts rang out, but they were much closer this time, and no one held him back when Nowaki snapped and ran forward.

He tripped and rolled headlong down a sharp slope, knocking his shoulder against a tree root and splashing face down in the stream. Immediately, dark coldness swirled over him and he thrashed his way up, reaching into his trouser pocket and hoping the lighter wasn't damaged. The thing was already turning around from its victim, looming down over him and Nowaki flicker the wheel clumsily and shouted with triumph when the mechanism sparked.

There was no flame though.

Skeletal hands were already reaching out and Akihiko and Miyagi were nowhere to be seen. Nowaki lobbed the lighter at it, laughing when it recoiled. He groped about for anything else to throw, and bombarded it with a few river pebbles and what had felt like a stick.

When his hand came across the running shoe with the foot still inside, he realised that had not been a stick at all. He dropped his grisly find in horror, body freezing with disgust and shock. The thing resuming its looming, starting to open that great mouth, chock full of teeth, and Nowaki couldn't take his eyes off the littering of bones and clothes he had landed himself in.

"Nowaki!" He brought his eyes up from a macabrely grinning skull, and saw Miyagi leap midway into the stream, wielding a broken branch like a bat. Akihiko splashed in seconds later, hauling Hiro-san up with one clumsy arm and trying to drag him away.

Hiro-san! Nowaki had forgotten! He shoved his emotions away brusquely and rolled over clawing his way up the bank and looping around a tree to go to Akihiko's assistance. Hiro-san was blood stained and unconscious, but he was breathing still; Nowaki helped Akihiko haul the smaller boy up the bank and then threw him over his shoulder.

"Miyagi! Run, now!" Akihiko shouted, pushing Nowaki on. "Do not stop!" he hissed for Nowaki to hear. "Just head for the school. Get him inside. That's all that matters right now."

Nowaki ran off, struggling to get through the forest with the ease that Akihiko had shown earlier. Eventually though he broke through to the open ground and the welcome sight of the lit up school beyond. Now he really began to run, even as his shoulder ached and his legs throbbed. Through the pounding in his ears, he distantly heard footsteps running after him, but he didn't turn to see who had made it out. He just ran.

It had been fifteen minutes since the lights had died and the thing had showed itself. Since then, Shinobu had seen no sign of Miyagi, Akihiko, Nowaki or Hiroki, and was feeling intensely worried. He had left his baseball club and crossed to Misaki, who was also twittering away with anxiety.

The crowd had been swarming about anxiously after the shock, but had now settled down and seemed to assume the light dying had been somehow planned. Only Shinobu and Misaki knew the truth.

Suddenly, out of breath and bizarrely soaked, Akihiko appeared from behind the haunted house. He ignored Isaka's cry for attention – he and Asahina had taken over control when Miyagi, Hiroki and Akihiko had disappeared – and elbowed his way through the crowd.

"We need to get out of here," he said. "We've stolen Hiroki back from it, but I think it's pissed off."

To prove his point, one of the spotlights exploded.

Akihiko didn't wait, and grabbed both younger boy's hands, dragging them towards the school and into the corridors. In the cold fluorescent lights, he looked like a skeleton, shadows cast down over his eyes and hollowing out under his cheekbones. His clothes clung to him damply and his hands were like blocks of ice.

"What happened?" squeaked Shinobu as they were dragged along. Akihiko was casting wild eyes looks around each corner, eyeing the windows suspiciously. They were simply weaving through the corridors, glancing down each of them in turn. "Akihiko!"

"It took Hiroki, we got him back. There was a stream involved. Go, quickly!" He peered around another corner and pushed them around without any ceremony. Miyagi, Nowaki and a sprawled form were half way down the hallway and the other three ran to join them.

Nowaki and Miyagi were panting heavily – so was Akihiko, now that Shinobu took the time to notice – and crouching over the sprawled form. It was Hiroki, and he looked like he had been chewed on. Shinobu swallowed the bile that crawled up from his stomach and crossed over to see if he could be of any help.

"We need to tell the ones outside," said Nowaki, "We shouldn't have come in here."

"And what do you expect us to accomplish out there? We'd lead it to more prey. If it focuses on us, then they are safe!"

"Someone died because of that thing!" Nowaki shouted suddenly, looking up from Hiroki. "It was Igarashi-sensei, I saw his bones!"

"And what can we do now?" snapped Akihiko, wiping his mouth where blood had trickled to the corner of his lips. His face wounds were reopened and weeping gruesomely. "It's following us, it's angry and you still know damn well no one is going to believe us! I won't lead the wolf into a flock of dozy sheep!"

Darkness was already swirling at the end of the corridor. Shinobu could see it spooling out of light fittings and cracks in the walls, but no one seemed to notice.

"Hiro-san is badly hurt! This is stupid!"

"I know," shouted Akihiko back, cuffing his cheek again and hissing as he rubbed too hard. "But if we can lure it to the other side of the school then we might have a chance." He turned to Misaki and asked for his lighter.

"Uh…" Misaki patted his pockets hopelessly, and produced a packet of matches instead. "Um." He looked distraught that he had misplaced the lighter, but Akihiko took the matches gratefully anyway.

"We'll go to the technology room again," said Miyagi, helping Nowaki haul Hiroki into his arms.

There was a bone trembling rumbling from down the corridor, and then the ceiling fell in.

Miyagi watched in horror as the thing coalesced in front of them amid the ruins of the roof. Crumbling plaster and boards rained down on them, one striking Shinobu square on the temple and knocking him flat to the ground. Miyagi abandoned Nowaki to deal with Hiroki, and shot across to heave Shinobu into his arms instead.

"Run!" he ordered.

The thing seemed to be playing with them now, crashing and destroying the corridor just behind them as they struggled to get to the technology room. Water pipes burst and wires sparked furiously, and the thing seemed to swell in size the further they got. By the time the technology room was in sight, it was three times the size it had originally been, arms almost long enough to grab them.

It paused to rip a fire extinguishers to shreds and they darted into the classroom, Akihiko slamming the door behind them as if it would have any effect.

"Here, Misaki!" Miyagi set Shinobu down and indicated for Misaki to take his shoulders. "Go out of the fire door. Get him away from the building and then run around to make sure everyone is being evacuated. Got it?"

"But I can't…" Misaki looked over at Akihiko, green eyes brimming with tears, but the blond boy stared back impassively.

"Go," Akihiko said, "Misaki, just go now!"

Choking a sob down, Misaki towed Shinobu away, hammering a hand against the bar on the emergency exit and kicking the door open. Miyagi made sure he was gone and turned to Nowaki, who was still holding Hiroki like the smaller boy weighed nothing.

"You get out too, Nowaki," he said, "Get the other three to safety and make sure they don't come back in."

"But you and Akihiko will still be here." Nowaki struggled for a second but overcame it on his own. "Right!" He tore out after Misaki, and Akihiko and Miyagi were left alone.

They had a second to exchange glances and Miyagi almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the lighter, holding it so tightly the plastic creaked in his grip.

With a low roaring sound, the doors burst open and the thing crashed through the frame, knocking tools and workbenches flying. Miyagi ducked to avoid being crushed by a band saw, and lunged forward. He would end this now.

A huge hand batted him away like he weighed nothing. He landed amidst the wreckage of a table, pain shooting out from his chest so badly he could barely breathe for a second. His grip on the lighter failed and it skittered away from his grasp, but the agony that was his ribcage as he fought for breathe distracted him.

There was a yelp, and a sickening thud. Brain struggling to work, Miyagi realised that Akihiko must have just met much the same fate. Now it was silent, except for the rushing of water, sparking of wires and the buzz of the fire alarms.

The creature was deciding which it would eat first, he realised, as a cold, long nailed hand closed about his ankle. It dragged him out of the carnage slowly, almost teasingly as it pulled him past his lighter, just beyond arm's reach.

He kicked out as strongly as he could, gasping when pain surged through his chest again, and spat at it. "Fuck you," he growled, not willing to give up yet. It didn't care. It leant down towards him, and opened its great, horrible mouth – an abyss lined with grey fangs. Miyagi closed his eyes as its stinking breath washed over his face.

There was the hiss of a match striking.

The world exploded.

Already the festival attendees were moving away from the school. The lights were all dying and the fire alarms were screeching, eerie shadows flickering through the windows as fires began to start on the destroyed floors. Misaki had pulled Shinobu all the way to the car park and left him in the care of a teacher he had spotted, when the ground shook and huge flames spewed out of the side of the building.

That was where the technology classroom was. Initial delight that the monster had to have been destroyed in those fires was crushed almost instantaneously by the realisation that Akihiko and Miyagi had been in there with it.

He started forward, intent on going back in, but Nowaki grabbed him about the waist and shouted that it would be suicide. Misaki slipped out of his grasp like a fish and wound through the shocked crowd, dodging frantically when he spotted his brother and Takahiro began to shout his name. Swiftly he butchered part of the apron he had been wearing for the cookery club, and tied it about his mouth, taking a deep breath of fresh air and running into the school again.

The hallways shimmered with heat, and smoke was pouring up from under the baseboards. Misaki ignored it all and headed determinedly for the technology class rooms.

Fire blocked his way at every turn.

Crying in desperation, he ran back outside. Now Nowaki was hovering close to the doors, the fear Misaki felt written large on his face, and this time he didn't try and stop the younger boy. Together they ran around to the side of the school, and this time braved the fire escape again, ignoring Miyagi's orders to stay away.

Inside was dark with lung clogging smoke. The walls blazed fiercely, and wreckage from what had been the ceiling was strewn about the ground.

There was no sign of the thing, but there were two human like shapes sprawled amid the debris. Nowaki grabbed the closest, turning him over and hauling him from under the wood and plaster – it was Miyagi. Misaki left him to it and leapt across the room, trying to keep his feet off the scorching ground as much as possible. He reached Akihiko's side and tried to haul him up, but the bigger was deeply unconscious and heavy. Nowaki had already dragged Miyagi out, and Misaki couldn't draw enough breath to call him back in. He threw all his energy and might into pulling Akihiko across the rubble strewn floor, but the remains of the ceiling was collapsing, and fire was threatening to block the escape. Misaki knew he should leave and abandon Akihiko, but there was no possible way he could do that. He just pulled harder and hoped Nowaki would return.

Thankfully, he did Big hands closed on Misaki's shoulders and pushed him towards the fire exit. Misaki, through eyes streaming with tears, saw Nowaki heave Akihiko up and start to safety himself before everything clicked and he moved too.

Outside the air was light and smoke free. Misaki tried to take a deep breath as his face hit the cold air, but his lungs spasmed and refused to inhale. He coughed and stuttered as he staggered the distance to where Nowaki had set Miyagi down and where he was currently collapsing, coughing dryly. Akihiko was sprawled out beside him, and Misaki staggered over. He wanted to reach out and check that Akihiko was still breathing, but it was just too hard to keep himself going.

He let the darkness pull him down.

Wahey! One more day and we're done!

Incidentally, don't do what Misaki and Nowaki did at the end. Not unless you're a fireman anyway.