#64: Spooky Season #3 (A Howling Good Time)


Prompt: bloodcurdling, terrified, poltergeist

Lilynette plays the part of a poltergeist while Starrk is recovering in the human world after the Winter War and she has a ball terrifying people away from her 'haunted house'.


The bloodcurdling shriek of a hollow is unmistakable to anyone who's ever seen one of the heartless monsters hunt. It starts as a reverberating animalistic howl that gets louder and higher pitched until it culminates in a sound like a dying a human's screech of pain and terror. Imagine that, then imagine it repeated a hundred, a thousand times in the same second, a different voice for every soul the hollow has consumed, all of them screaming their rage and despair at the world at the same time. It's hair-raising, soul-shattering, and unmistakable.

…If you know what a hollow is.

For an average human, spiritually aware or not, it's enough to cause a hell of a fright. Even if they can't exactly hear the sound, there's a sense of something dangerous that hits them right in the hindbrain and convinces them to leave. Now.

Lilynette doesn't much care about the specifics. What she does care about is results.

"Yeah, that's right! Beat it, punk! This is my house!" She yells, hands braced on her hips, as a young human man scrambles away from her on his hands and knees, the whites of his eyes clearly visible as he stares around wildly in terror. It takes him ages to get to his feet and then he's running down the block like the furies are on his tail.

The little arrancar smirks widely and slams the door behind him with a gesture, the loud bang! Causing the walls to shudder and a window pane cracks in its frame somewhere to her left. There are only two rooms on the main floor of the house and she eyes them both with disinterest. Aside from the moving boxes piled in every corner, there's little to distinguish the two wood-paneled rooms from each other.

"I got 'im, Starrk! I don't think he's gonna come back!" She throws back her head and yells

"Great." A low groan greets her as she hops up the stairs behind her, taking them two or three at a time. She could just sonido, but then she wouldn't get the satisfaction of making a loud 'Stomp!' with every step. She revels in all the noise she can make, and the chaos her actions cause when there are humans nearby.

Her smile dims when she comes upon the first bedroom and gets a good look at her companion.

The primera espada is laying on the floor, a threadbare mint-green pillow the only thing around to provide any sort of comfort. He's curled on his side loosely with one arm clutched against his chest and his eyes are closed tightly, face lined with pain.

…He's been in pain a lot since the battle of Karakura Town.

"Starrk?" Lilynette inches forwards. She'd never really thought of her other half as fragile before their defeat, but now she's deathly afraid he's going to die on her. That he's going to leave her alone. "You okay?"

"I'm still here." He grunts and opens one eye, angling his head to look up at her. "It's healing, just slowly. There's nothing to eat here." He sighs. "Nothing strong enough to eat in Hueco Mundo, either."

"…Right." She doesn't bother offering to find him souls to eat. Not only doesn't she want to leave him alone but no human soul could make a dent in the primera espada's energy levels – good or bad.

He looks at her for a moment before sighing and pushing himself up to lean against the wall. The massive hole in his chest flexes and blood slowly trickles out of it – but just a trickle, compared to the torrents that came out the last time he tried moving.

"Starrk!" Lilynette is at his side in a heartbeat. "Don't do that!"

"It's okay. I'm fine." He grimaces then grabs her wrist and tugs her down next to him. "Tell me about the human you scared away."

Instantly, she lights up.

"This guy was alone, not like the other three, and he came with this weird little board thing and tried stapling pieces of paper all over the place. It was super weird. He got really excited when I opened all of his boxes, though." Her hands gesticulated wildly as she talked, to the point that Starrk had to lean back to avoid getting hit. "He didn't get scared at all for a while. At all! It was insulting. All he did was look at his little box and phone. So I broke them! I grabbed his phone and threw it into the box and they both shattered."

Starrk grimaced. "Bet he didn't like that."

"Nope. Not at all. But he got mad at first, not scared, so when he turned on his little radio thing, I yelled at him that I wanted him to leave. Then he started to get scared, but he didn't leave until I howled at him. A real, big hollow howl. He ran all the way down the street!" She grinned with dark mischief. "I bet he pissed his pants."

Her companion huffed quietly. "Sounds like you did a good job. Was he easier or harder than the others?"

"Harder. Way harder. He actually seemed to know that we were here when he brought his boxes in. He was talking and waving his little box around a lot. The others just heard me, screamed, and took off."

"Hmm…" Starrk let his head lean back against the wall, deep in thought. "We might need to leave soon."

"What?! But I'm doing good!" Lilynette poked at his chest, stopping just shy of actually touching it. "And you need to stay still to heal!"

"Once I'm better, I mean. And you're doing great." The primera slumped back to the floor with a sigh of relief. "But if this place is getting a reputation, the shinigami might come investigate. We don't want to be here when that happens."

"I guess…but I can scare the humans away until then, right?"

"Right." He yawned and put his arm over his eyes. "Keep up the good work."

"Oh, don't worry." Her smirk is downright evil. "I will. I can't wait for someone else to try to move in!"


Happy Halloween!