Sleepover
The children gathered 'round as Choza shifted to join their circle. He sat down and pulled out a flashlight, flicking it on and then setting it in front of his feet. The darkness outside made the glass sliding doors appear black mirrors, and the flashlight a will-o-wisp. The children listened attentively as Choza began.
"This story tells itself best through pictures, but it does still need a bit of narration. Ah-hem. A long time ago, before any of you were born, there were two little girls who lived in this house."
He paused there, and reached behind him. From a back pocket he tugged out a small book. No, not a book exactly, a journal. It's cover was aged cardboard that looked to have been painted a light green at one point in time, it's pages were long-yellowed, and the binding was held together with somewhat new-looking string.
Choza set it down in front of the flashlight, and turned the flashlight to rest on his feet and illuminate the old cover. On it, they could now see, was a faded word, or possibly a name, neatly written in aging ink.
Shorai
It meant "future".
Choza flipped the cover open to the first page, which was blank, and then flipped again to the next, which wasn't.
Flip
On that page, there was a drawing. A child's drawing, judging from the bluntness of the lines, but taking that into account it was a very good drawing. Whoever made it would've become a very good artist later in life. The drawing itself, on the crackling old page, was in crayon. The crayon didn't seem to dull the details somehow, on that child's drawing, rather, it almost seemed to bring it to life. Looking at it, the drawing almost overlapped with an imaginary photograph.
The picture was of two figures, two girls, one taller than the other by a head, but both quite obviously related. They both smiled the same smile, had the same coloring, and they both had the same green eyes. The younger one had short, light brown hair, and the older long, darker hair. The younger was in a green dress. The older in a blue one. They held hands. In the crook of the shorter girl's other arm was a green book. No, not a book, a journal.
Choza continued the story.
"The younger one is a year or so younger than all of you in this picture. The older would've been about ten. This drawing was made when Konoha was new, and the first Hokage still reigned. It's very old, in other words."
He turned the page.
Flip
On the other side of the page with the drawing was another, and that one continued onto the page next to it, warping only the slightest bit where it ran over the center binding. That image was in crayon as well. On the left page the younger girl was bouncing a red ball in the grass and looking at the other page with a lonely expression. On the other page the older girl was standing dutifully in front of a woman who appeared to be their mother.
"The older girl was the older sister of the younger. She was very responsible and obedient for her age, always coming when called. The younger... not so much. But that might've come from never being called. Never being wanted. After all, she wasn't the clan heir, like her sister. There could only be one in the family, of course.
But the younger girl never held that against her older sister. She idolized the older girl and followed her everywhere. They always played together. They loved each other. They shared everything but family title."
Flip
The page was turned again, and on the other side of the page with the older girl and the mother was a blank side. The page next to that, however, held a lovingly drawn picture of the two sisters holding gifts for each other. The older one had a green box for the younger, and the younger a blue box for the older.
Choza held silent for a moment to allow observation of the drawing. It was in colored pencil. He turned the page.
Flip
The back of the page had on it another colored pencil drawing, a bird's eye view of the green box, which was open. Inside were paint tubes, brushes, and... colored pencils. They were done in great detail by a small hand.
Flip
The two girls had paint on their fingers, green for the younger and blue for the older. They were in front of a white closet door, and painted fingerprints had made two caterpillars in the center of it. The sisters were smiling at each other. The caterpillars faced towards each other.
On the other page, the one on the right, the two girls played in a hallway. The hallway was dark, the floor wooden, and running in that dark were the sisters, who seemed to light up the area they chased each other in. A colored pencil drawing once more, as were the ones that followed it. And the artist was getting much better. The detail was like a photograph in pencil. Some time must've passed between that drawing and the one before it.
A page turn.
Flip
The same hallway, the two girls playing a board game. On the page to the right it was the same hallway, and the sisters tossed a red ball back and forth. With each drawing. The view of the two children seemed to close in on them more and more.
Another page turn.
Flip
Same dark hallway, and the same two girls lighting it up with their games on either page. The one they played on the right looked a bit like Jenga.
Flip
On the left side the sisters had a yo-yo each, and both seemed slightly taller. On the right page, they were throwing stuffed animals into the air. Still the dark hallway as a background in both pictures, and still the girls lit up the small areas of wooden floor they stood in. Everywhere else was faded to black.
Flip
Wooden kunai, paper shuriken, and bandanas for headbands. They were playing Ninja in the dark hallway. The view was now almost completely on the two girls, who, upon close inspection, really were taller in the image. The older girl had her hair a bit shorter, and the younger wore hers a little longer.
On the other page, the older girl sat next to the younger, and both leaned against the wall, revealing its color to be an off-white cream. They had a big green book shared between them, and the older was reading the story. They took up the entire page, with only the corners of their circle of light fading to the darkness of the hallway. Looking closely at that drawing, the sisters looked different than in the others. Not only taller, but in a different style of dress, and the older had a white ribbon in her hair.
Flip
The younger girl bounced the red ball all alone. All alone in the dark hallway, and the light at her feet was dim. The dark seemed to close in on her without her older sister there.
On the other page the older sister was standing on the threshold of the darkness. The dark hallway... was part of a lit hallway. She was standing half in the dark, half in the light. There was a crowd of faceless, grey people in the lit hallway, and the older sister was glancing back at the dark hallway. Deep inside the dark hallway, there was a tiny, girl-shaped glow that seemed to be dimming. The older girl didn't struggle as she was led away from it and towards the grey people by her mother.
"She always came when called." Shikamaru muttered to himself.
Flip
Choza spoke before he lifted his hand from the page it covered. His voice was deep and sad. "The younger girl, who's your age now in the story, hardly ever saw her sister anymore. She wandered in the dark hallway."
He lifted his hand, and the picture it revealed was of the little girl. She was in the new green dress, which was almost artificially clean. She had clean white socks, but no shoes. Her hair was longer now, an inch or two past her shoulders, and some of it was braided and then tied back with a green ribbon. The new dress she was in had no sleeves, and her bare arms were wrapped around herself as she slowly walked in the dark. The drawing was of her walking away, her back to the view so that her face wasn't seen. She seemed to be shivering in the dark.
Flip
The pictures were back to being one for each sheet of paper, not double-sided.
"She wandered..."
A side view of the younger girl from the left. The dress she wore was getting too small. Her feet moved purposefully, and both socks were still white and clean, but her posture was lost and lonely. Her arms still wrapped around her chest and midsection, trying to shield herself. The ribbon in her hair was limp and looser, letting the left braid fall out. Looking at the side of her face, you could tell that her expression was one of pain. Her visible eye was squeezed shut, a tear in the corner, and she was biting her bottom lip.
Flip
"...and wandered..."
A front view now. One arm still wrapped around herself, but the other was tearing at the frills and lace of her dress, ripping it out and dropping it behind her. One sock was torn, and the other was a little dirty. The ribbon was gone from her hair, and the braids were in the process of coming loose. Her hair was another inch longer. She looked angry.
Flip
"...and wandered."
The girl was shuffling along in the dark. There was a hole in one sock and the other was torn. Her dress was too small. The braids were long gone. Her arms drooped at her sides. The symbolism was of loss and neglect.
Flip
"Then, one day, she saw a familiar light."
A rectangle of white space was in front of a drawing of the back of the younger girl's head. On it, were the finger-painted images of a blue and green caterpillar. Only the blue one now looked to be facing away from the green.
Flip
The white door of a small closet was open, and kneeling inside was the younger sister. She was looking at the games and toys she'd played with... with her sister.
Flip
The entire page was taken up by a drawing of the girl's face, smiling.
Flip
Angry, stormy, sad, and lonely gray made up the background of the next drawing. The subject of it... was a tombstone. The artist didn't add any inscriptions to the drawing... but the blue flower in front of the awful headstone made that unnecessary.
On the other page, the one on the right, the younger girl was crying. And her hair was cut short again.
Flip
Choza spoke.
"The older sister died when she fell off a balcony. The younger sister who was a sister no more cut her hair short. Made it just the way it was during her best memories. This journal was hers. And she drew this."
The drawing was of the younger sister, solid and sad, being led away from the dark hallway to the gray, faceless people by her mother. She was struggling against the pull, and standing on the threshold between the dark hallway and the lit hallway was her older sister, reaching out. Transparent and clear, like a ghost. Her hair was long, just like it was when the two still played in the light. The younger girl screamed a name, and the older girl was there.
"She always came when called."
Choza paused.
"Years passed."
Flip
The next drawing was very well done, clearly the work of someone older. It was very rushed though, and somewhat shaky, like it was drawn while the artist was scared out of her wits.
It was of the older sister, just as she was in happier days, standing in front of the caterpillar closet. She was transparent, a ghost, and the painted caterpillars behind her see-through head were facing away from each other.
"The younger girl wasn't younger anymore, but we'll still refer to her as that... and she was head of the clan, since her sister had died. Sometimes, she thought she saw her sister in front of the closet door. It scared her."
Flip
On one side, the crowd of faceless people had the girl's mother in front of them. On the other, it didn't.
"The night before the younger girl was to be forced into an arranged marriage, her mother had a heart attack, and the marriage fell through. It didn't happen."
Flip
There was a light green door open, and the view was from inside the bedroom looking out at the hallway. Outside the door, in the hall, a ghostly figure of the older sister drifted by.
"The night her mother died, the younger girl, now a woman, thought she saw her sister's ghost go to her mother's room."
Flip
The next drawing was done by an experienced hand. It was of the younger girl, middle-aged now, in a green dress with a white apron, looking inside the caterpillar closet.
On the other page, the same woman in the same dress was in front of the same open closet. She was holding a red ball.
"The younger girl often went to the closet of toys and games she'd shared with her sister long ago. Then she'd think back, and think of the strings of deaths and injuries that seemed to follow her... the deaths of those who'd known her older sister. When she'd realized that, her suspicion turned to fear, and she looked up ghostly lore. She found ways to keep spirits out, and used them around the house. After that, the deaths seemed to stop. And she no longer saw her sister's ghost. But she could feel it."
The children listening to Choza's story shivered.
Flip
They were nearing the end of the journal. The next drawing was of an old woman in a green dress, lying down in bed. She was looking to the right of the bed, her mouth calling out a name.
On the other page, it was the same drawing with the same woman. To the right of the bed stood her older sister, just as she was in her happiest memories. The old woman was looking at her sister, her eyes tired.
"The old woman, on her deathbed, called out her sister's name. And she came. She always came when called. The old woman had just one question...
"Why?" She asked."
Flip
The next picture, second to last, was of the older girl. The older sister. Her green eyes were bitter and angry, and madness made them gleam. She appeared nearly solid, with a content and twistedly peaceful smile on her face.
Choza continued.
"Her sister's ghost told her.
"It's because they took me away. They made you lonely. Then I died, and I could do things to get them. And it's because you called." The ghost paused, and then said. "Why? Why did you stop me?"
The old woman shook her head. She croaked out. "Because they were dying... What now then? That I'm going to die, and those charms will break?"
Her sister smiled excitedly and clapped her hands together. "I'm not done, but I can finish after you're gone! When I've gotten everyone, then I can move on too! We can be together again!"
The old woman was horrified, but she didn't show it. "But they're all dead already." She said.
"Doesn't matter." Her sister's ghost shook her head, still smiling. "If I get their family, that'll work too! After you're gone, just you wait, I'll be there too real quick!"
The old woman who used to be the younger girl said. "No... please don't. I can do something else for you..."
Her sister's eyes widened, and her expression turned amazed. She seemed to read the old woman's mind, and knew what her sister was offering. "You'd really do that? For me? ... I thought you hated me..."
The old woman shook her head. "No... never have..."
She picked up her journal and turned to the last page. She drew, her hands shaking, but she drew. Her sister's ghost couldn't be seen by anyone else, and so she called her granddaughter in, and told her a story. And then she gave her granddaughter two things. A name, and a journal."
Choza stopped there, and turned the page.
Flip
The last drawing, the one that the old woman had drawn according to the story, was the first drawing. It was the same. It was in colored pencil, and of much better quality, but it was the same. It was of a little girl with short brown hair in a green dress, carrying a journal, and holding hands with her older sister.
Choza spoke again. "The last drawing the old woman made was more than just a drawing. It was a charm, like the ones she'd made to keep her sister from killing. Those broke long ago, but this drawing does the same in a different way. It holds the younger sister's spirit to this world, and she plays with her older sister. Just like when they were happy. But for it to work, the story has to be told, and the name has to be passed on... the name of the older sister."
"Omoide."
Memory.
Out in the hallway, two silhouettes were seen, one chasing the other, and lighting the darkness there. They disappeared.
"Aahhhhh!" The children screamed.
"Hahaha!" Choza laughed. He stood and walked to the screen door. "That was a good story, wasn't it? G'night!" He ducked out and slid the door shut behind him.
In the hall, Choza spotted Inoichi and Shikaku chatting a little ways down.
"Hey, guys!" He exclaimed.
"Hey, Choza." Shikaku replied. "You tell them that bad horror story your aunt told us?"
Choza said. "Well, of course I did! Excellent genjutsu effect, by the way."
The other two blinked. "What genjutsu?" Inoichi asked.
"Not a genjutsu?" Choza scratched his head. "Well, great transformation jutsu for authenticity then!"
Shikaku shook his head. "We didn't do anything. What're you talking about?"
Choza said. "You know, that thing with the two girls from the story running by the screen door and disappearing."
"...We thought that was you." Inoichi stated.
They looked at each other, and they looked at the dark hallway. And they wondered.
AN: This chapter's rather embarrassing... I had to make up a horror story. And a bad one at that. :\ Ah well, please comment in a review!