This part…Is actually pretty scary. At least, I was a little scared typing it.
Now, I'm VERY paranoid, so that could just be me…Plus er…I'm rather…close…to this chapter…
So, if you pee your pants in fear when someone taps you on the shoulder, I advise you skip this part.
To all normal people, however, I say GO ON THEN!
Oh, and this is an extension of chapter 14, so, the story isn't continuing, okay? This story has a LOT more chapters, so if you aren't interested now, I suggest that you stop reading.
THIS IS AN EXTREME NOTICE! NONE OF THE FOLLOWING IS INVOLVED IN THE STORY. THERE WILL BE REFERENCES FOR THE FUTURE, BUT NONE OF THIS IS STORY RELATED! ALL THE CHARACTERS THAT AREN'T ORIGINALLY IN THE STORY AREN'T IN THE ACTUAL STORY! THESE ARE JUST CHAPTERS MADE FOR PURE AMUSEMENT! SO NONE OF THE CHARACTERS ACTUALLY INTERACTED WITH EACH OTHER!
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts; this was purely fan-made and in no way should profit out of this.
I also do not own Sandallyx. They were characters submitted by Zexion83, and I threw them into the story because that was what was desired.
However, I DO own Chance/Cenchax, and he cannot be used without my permission!
Part 21: A Ghost of a Tale
I CANNOT emphasize this enough. Before you reading this part, READ THE EXTREME NOTICE AT THE TOP!
"Now what, Sandy?" Rose questioned, once the beast had been taken away and Zexion recovered.
"The ghost! Where is it?" Sandallyx replied, looking over at Xion.
"It's at the address 94 Eisna Boulevard!" Xion exclaimed, looking at her clipboard. She then looked over at Xemnas. She pointed to an open area not far from him. "Open a portal!"
Xemnas sighed. Were they EVER going to be done…? Nonetheless, he opened a portal and walked through.
What they saw shocked them.
It wasn't a spooky house. It wasn't run down. It wasn't scary. It wasn't old. It wasn't even big.
In front of them was a normal house, white with navy shutters, with nothing ominous about it.
"THIS is the haunted house?!" Xigbar asked skeptically. "You couldn't scare a 3-year-old with this!"
"Oh, it's haunted, alright. We're staying the night here!" Rose chimed. She began walking to the house, adding, "There are enough sleeping bags in the basement!"
"How do you know that?" Zexion asked.
Rose looked back at him, eyes half closed, an impish smile on her face. "Because it's my house!"
Everyone stopped in their tracks, surprised. "Why do you think I gotta lot of mental issues? I'm being traumatized by the paranormal! I just need you guys to confirm it!" Rose exclaimed. "Think of this as an episode of 'The Othersiders' minus Riley, KC, Jackie, Zack, and Sam!" (Author's Note: LOVE THEM.)
"The who?"
"EXACTLY!" With that, she walked through the front door.
Once inside, the door slammed shut on its own. Everyone jumped, startled.
"Yeah, that happens a lot…Probably just the wind…" Rose put on a smile, though the look of fear in her eyes was unmistakable.
"You okay?" Sandallyx asked.
"Sure! I'm always left alone here! I'm used to most everything!" With that, Rose led them through two hallways and down the stairs into a well-furnished basement. On the ground were enough sleeping bags for all of those present. Once everyone was accounted for, Rose turned to the crowd and clapped her hand together.
"Alright, here's the plan; we're going to monitor the rooms of the house. There are 8 places, and two people will be watching the computers. You will be assigned a buddy. You must NOT leave your buddy, at all costs. The ghost, Molly, may not do anything violent yet, but that doesn't mean that she won't try anything funny with so many people…"
Everyone nodded. "The house is small, but has some credible evidence, gathered by me and my friends. A microwave that turns on and off for no reason, a possessed fan that moves on its own, the feeling of being watched or touched, or that something's standing over you, hot and cold spots…Everything. So, let's get started!"
Rose then assigned everyone a buddy. Xemnas went with Saix, Xigbar with Xaldin, Vexen with Luxord, Lexaeus with Axel, Demyx with Xion, Roxas with Cenchax, Larxene with Marluxia, and Sandallyx with Rose and Zexion.
"Alright, there will be two teams switching off watching the computers. For the first half of the night, me, Zexion, and Sandy will watch the monitors, and then, Xemnas and Saix will. Other people can look on, but those parties will be the main watchers. Everyone else can sleep, unless we need to check something out. For instance, if we hear or see something weird, we might wake some people up and send a party out there. We've got a lot of equipment to use, and the entire night to use it! LET'S GET STARTED!"
(Author's Note: I dunno how scary this makes it, but I was getting a little scared while I wrote this. If you're easily frightened, like me, you might wanna skip this chapter…And for those of you who read it and pee your pants in fear the next night, I apologize…There's nothing major here except for a hint of a pairing here and there, and a couple spooky incidents. You won't miss anything if you skip over the chapter.)
"What are we looking out for again, exactly?"
"We're looking for a gray, misty shadow…though we can barely see, dude…" Cenchax muttered back to Roxas. They had been sent to the guest room, where Molly was said to have died in. Zexion and Sandallyx claimed to have seen a mist-like shadow traveling in the room.
Roxas looked around, but the little light there was didn't provide him with the necessary light.
"Cenchax, since it's already really dark, think we should do a bit of Call and Response?" Roxas asked.
"Can't hurt…"
Roxas took out the recorder and looked into the darkness. "Hi, Molly. This is Roxas. I'm here with my friend, Cenchax. We just wanna know if you're here."
Silence.
"Did you die here?" Cenchax asked.
…
"What killed you?"
Nothing. Cenchax thought he saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, but when he looked, nothing was there.
"Did you make that mist shadow earlier?" Roxas questioned.
A crack sounded, but it was just the sound a house makes randomly at some times for no reasons; nothing paranormal. Still, Roxas jumped slightly, eyes wide.
"Cenchax…It's getting scary…" he murmured.
"Not really…"
"Don't you get scared by anything?"
"Well, yeah, but not very easily…" Cenchax didn't get scared by normal things. Ordinary fears didn't make him afraid. The paranormal spooked him a bit, but once he was over the initial shock, he just found it pointless to be afraid.
Roxas, on the other hand, was more easily frightened. "Can we go back?"
"One more question."
Roxas scooted closer to Cenchax for comfort, though there was little that the black-haired boy could do to comfort the Key of Destiny.
"Molly, if you made the mist before, could you do it again…?" Cenchax asked.
There was nothing for a while. Then, just when they were about to go back…
"CENCHAX!" Roxas squeaked in fear, pointing into the darkness. Cenchax looked over. His eyes widened.
The mist was flowing again, in the form of a human shadow, glowing in the faint light. It stood against the wall on the far side.
The radio turned on. "Cenchax, Roxas, do you see that?!" Rose called.
"Yeah, we see it…!" Cenchax hissed, taking a step back. The shadow didn't move.
"Wait…Guys, the recorder is picking something up…!" Zexion murmured.
The room that Cenchax and Roxas shared was eerily quiet.
"What's it doing…?" Roxas asked hesitantly.
"It's saying…'I'm…lonely…'"
The shadow cocked its head to one side. Then, it disappeared. They heard a startled yelp on the other side of the radio. Roxas grabbed Cenchax's hand, quivering in fear. Cenchax blushed, but didn't dare pull away.
"What is it, Zexion?!" Roxas cried.
"It started giggling…!" an exasperated reply came. Zexion seemed thoroughly scared, as though the giggling wasn't like the cute giggle of a school yard girl; perhaps it was disembodied, and sinister…
"Cenchax? I wanna get out of here…!" Roxas exclaimed.
Cenchax nodded. Leading Roxas by the hand, he walked away from the room, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. NOW, he was scared.
Demyx and Xion were sent up to the kitchen, with the microwave.
"Think it'll turn on?" Demyx asked.
Xion was about to reply…
DING!
They both jumped as their heads whipped around and looked at the microwave.
It was on.
Its lights glowed.
It counted down from 5 seconds.
They both screamed. Grabbing each other's hands, they ran off, not wanting to know what happened when the microwave hit 0.
It hit 0 when they were out of the room.
Nothing happened.
…
…
…
…
"Xaldin?"
"Yeah?"
"Nothing's happening."
"No."
"Wanna leave?"
"Yeah."
The two walked out of the bedroom, without a paranormal occurrence.
Vexen and Luxord were in the living room with the fan. It was moving. On its own.
"Hmm…It appears to be moving on its own…" Luxord observed, pulling off a 'Thinker' pose.
"Yes, but there must be a logical explanation…" Vexen muttered. He looked at the ceiling, shining his flashlight. A look of triumph crossed his aged face. "A-ha!"
"What?"
Vexen pointed. Luxord looked at the ceiling where Vexen had pointed. "See the vent there? I submit to you that the air passing through that vent cause the fan to rotate. And since it's a very weak current of air, it gives the fan the illusion that it is possessed, by making its motions jerky and slow."
"AH!" Luxord exclaimed.
Suddenly, next to the vent, an orange orb shined in the air. Vexen turned his flashlight off. The orb stayed.
"Luxord, what are you shining your flashlight on?" Vexen inquired.
"That isn't me…" Luxord, shaking his flashlight, which was turned off.
Vexen looked back at the orb, all sense of logic leaving his cranium. "Any explanation for this?"
"No…I was hoping you had one…"
"Would you like to get out of here?"
"I REALLY wanna get outta here…"
The two ran out of the room, an air of terror following them. Then, a silhouette stood up, snickering from behind the house. The orb disappeared, and a red-head climbed out from behind the couch.
"Suckers…!"
"ALRIGHT! The night is over! Time to go over the data and take a vote!"
And the data was gone over, and logical explanations were given out to what it could be given out for.
The microwave had a faulty wire, and went off for five seconds at random times. Nothing paranormal about it.
The misty shadow was just the humidifier. It had a tendency to stall.
The fan was caused by the vents.
The orb was Axel's fault.
The feelings of being touched, watched, or leaned over were caused by their own fear and paranoia. Some were even caused by other members of the Organization scaring each other.
The hot and cold spots were pipes, usually. One or two didn't have an immediate explanation, but Vexen concluded that they, too, had nothing to do with the paranormal.
All the photographs took were simply tricks of lights.
The videos either had a speck of dust, a bug, a person, or a drafty window. One time, it was even Rose's cat.
There was very little evidence that couldn't be explained. But in it…
Were the voices from the guest room.
The video of a ball moving on its own across the floor.
The hot banister that felt cold to the touch.
The cold spot in the shower, in the shape of a footprint.
And the voice in the kitchen on the recorder, muttering, 'Dinner's served…'
"Alright, Vexen, you have one shot to convince everyone that this all has logical explanations and back it up with your research. Then, we take a vote," Rose said.
Vexen straightened up. Then, he began speaking.
"The voices from the guest room could easily be misread for many things, and the giggling, too. It could've been from a TV program. I know for a fact that he incident in the kitchen was a miss-transmission, for a show on TV the other night had that line in it. It was on in the other house. The ball moving could've easily have been shifted by one of us and had fallen to the floor, then rolled across the camera. The hot spot on the banister and the cold spot in the shower are because they're near the pipes of the house. Believe it or not, science can prove all this to be true."
"Alright, voting time!" Rose wasted no time in getting the voting done.
Xemnas answered first, then down in a row for the Organization, then Xion, Sandallyx, and finally, Rose.
In order…
"The place is a bit spooky, and I can see why one would think it's haunted. However, the evidence here, I don't think is very credible, considering that we searched all night and, out of all that, we only got 5 pieces that couldn't easily be explained. I say it's not haunted."
"I say it's not, and that everyone here is just a paranoid twit."
"Nothing really happened to me. Not haunted."
"Like I mentioned before, science can be used to explain all of this. Definitely not haunted. For all we know, the paranormal might not even exist."
"Not haunted."
"I want to say not haunted, but, when I heard that giggling from when Cenchax and Roxas were in the guest room…That was too terrifying to have a logical explanation. More out of fear, and experience, I say haunted."
"I believe that it isn't haunted."
"It's not haunted! I caused half the stuff in the house! And, for all we know, Vexen or I could've touched the banister or shower, making it hot or cold!"
"It's haunted, alright! That microwave has a MIND OF ITS OWN!"
"I had some frightening experience, but they were mainly caused by an annoying red-head…" A glare shot at an 'innocent' looking Axel. "So, I say not haunted."
"Not haunted."
"I actually think it's haunted, because I was watching the monitors all night with everyone else, except for one time. And that one time, I saw the ball that rolled, before it had fallen to the floor. It was sitting in the middle of a table far away from where anyone could brush against it. It couldn't have been moved by anything other than the paranormal."
"It's terrifying, and I don't think that shadow was the humidifier. This place is haunted."
"Well, I admit, there have been some scary spots, but I don't think it's really haunted. Just intimidating…"
"It's haunted. Just because a TV program said the same thing, doesn't mean it was at the exact same time. That would take a lot of luck!"
"HAUNTED! This place creeps me out! Why do you live here, Rose?"
"Cuz I can't live anywhere else! And, I agree, it IS creepy, and it IS haunted!" She then looked back at her paper. "Alright, that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 for not haunted, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 for haunted! Therefore, this place has been dubbed, 'Not Haunted!'"
Those who had believed in the paranormal looked disappointed, but the rest shrugged it off. "Alright, let's get outside, open a portal, and get back to the Castle for the next part!" Sandy shouted. Everyone but Rose left the room. She simply stood up and began to walk towards the basement stair. Then, she paused.
She looked back at the wall behind her, a small smile on her face. "Molly…" she whispered. "They don't believe me…"
An icy hand seemed to rest itself on Rose's shoulder. She shivered in fear.
"You exist. I know you do. I don't know how to prove it, but Vexen's wrong. You're here. I can feel you…"
Rose ran up the stairs, and was almost out the front door when a shadow flickered in the corner of her eye. Stopping dead in her tracks, she looked around, paralyzed in fear. There was a shadow moving across the wall, but was gone so quickly, it might not have even been there. But then, a voice whispered into Rose's ear. It was so quiet, that it could've been mistaken for the wind, if the syllables hadn't been pronounced with completely proper diction. Rose felt her blood run cold, and her eyes grow wide as the words flowed out the air.
"Don't worry, Rose…They'll believe us…Someday…"
Yeah.
I actually sorta kinda based the house off of my house…
GO MOLLY!
…
So, I'm tormented by the paranormal, science explains everything, and, when in doubt and fear, hold your crush's hand! ^^ Those are some of the many lessons I teach.
~Cat's Eye