The wind howls as it rushes through the air while ripping leaves from tree branches and scattering them, leaving crunching trails for passersby to walk over. A full moon casts dancing figures in the darkness underneath the twisted branches of
The wind howls through the air while ripping leaves from tree branches and scattering them across the ground, leaving a crunching trail for passersby to walk over. A full moon casts dark ominous shadows to dance underneath the twisted branches of the bare trees. Shadows that watch late night trick-or-treaters and partygoers already beginning their way back to the safety of their own homes. Everyone, except the stragglers wandering the streets and looking for trouble.
Prologue
POV: Narrator
Dislaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail
Welcome lovelies!
I hope you enjoy!
"Ugh… Where're we goin?" the teenage girl with long white hair asks while leaning heavily into her partner, "We've been walking for hours!" she complains drunkenly while staggering side to wide and waving her heels in the air.
"Sorano, are you too drunk to remember?" A boy with tanned skin and spiky maroon hair asks sarcastically over his shoulder. Sorano simply gives him a dumb look, which makes him roll his eyes, "We're going to the haunted mansion dimwit," Erick, the boy in question, says while continuing to walk forward.
"What the hell did you call me?!" Sorano shrieks while attempting to charge forward before her partner stops her from falling flat on her face.
"Angel, quit fooling around," Sawyer grumbles as the girl who is dressed in and angel costume, "You're going to fall and get hurt and you can't blame me if you do," Sawyer warns while fixing Sorano's dainty arm around his shoulder so he can support her, "How much farther Macbeth?"
"Just a few more blocks," Macbeth, the gothic of the group, responds from the back of the group.
"We shoulda driven there," Sorano slurs a complain while turning to look at the oldest member of the group walking silently behind them, "What's the point of havin you be our designated driver if you're not even going to drive, huh Richard?!"
Richard, the man in question, apologizes softly to her, "The road has too many potholes around here. The car would never make it to the mansion without losing a tire, and I doubt you want to push the car all the way back into the city," Richard states making Sorano give him a face.
They all continue walking through the moonlit path and bickering with one another when Macbeth stops to turn and look behind him into the darkness at a figure walking towards him.
"If you don't hurry you're going to get left behind," he then says while holding out his hand, causing the figure to pick up their pace.
"Sorry," the girl emerging from the shadows apologizes sheepishly as she races to cease Macbeth's hand and allows him to lead her towards where the others were now further away. "Are we almost there?" she asks once she's securely beside Macbeth who releases her hand to wrap his arm around her cold shoulders.
Macbeth looks down at the golden-haired girl who looks around them nervously while leaning further into the boy who squeezes her shoulder reassuringly.
"Scared?" he asks while smiling sweetly down at her. Not at all condescending or sarcastically as the others would have looked at her if she revealed that she was actually terrified.
"A bit," the girl admits while biting her lip when she hears something rustling in a nearby bush, "Did we really have to go see the haunted mansion?" she then asks him with a grimace.
"Unfortunately," Macbeth sighs while looking ahead at his friends, "I'm sorry for having to drag you along. I didn't mean for my friends to peer-pressure you into joining us, but I swear they're great people once you get to know them," Macbeth apologizes, "I promise that once these idiots get their fill I'll take you straight home," he then promises, enjoying the way the girl beams like a star at his gentleness.
"Ok," She says sweetly while wrapping her own arm around his waist to let him lead her towards where the group had finally stopped walking.
Looking down at the girl from the corner of his eye, Macbeth still can't believe that such a beautiful girl would have ever accepted to date him. Sure, they weren't officially boyfriend and girlfriend just yet, but he hoped that with time they would be. Especially since they both seemed to get along very well, in fact, Macbeth secretly preferred her company over that of his rambunctious friends.
Macbeth can remember meeting Lucy for the first time when she transferred to his school at the beginning of the year. He'd never been interested in any of the girls at his school, but Lucy Heartfilia had been an exception. She was beautiful with sun-kissed hair and melting chocolate eyes he swore he could stare into forever, and when he had told his group of friends about her they never believed she existed. That or she would never turn to look his way because of the dark and mysterious way he dressed, but they were all wrong.
Imagine Macbeth's surprise when Lucy approached him first after she caught him reading Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in the deepest corner of the library where hardly anyone ever went to.
"That's a frustrating play," she had said while peering over his shoulder to see what act the boy was currently on, causing him to jump in alarm, "All the characters, especially Claudio, tend to be so easily manipulated by a man that everyone knows to be a villain only wanting to cause trouble. The misunderstanding that happens throughout the play is the frustrating factor that almost causes Claudio to lose the love of his life. It's so… annoying," she says with a shake of her head before then meeting Macbeth's startled eyes, "My name is Lucy by the way," she then greeted.
Since that day Macbeth had met with Lucy in the abandoned corner of the library during their lunch breaks. Talking about literature that they found fascinating and discussing books they were currently reading like their own personal book club. It felt like a breath of fresh air for Macbeth because he had never been able to get his friends into reading literature rather than the comics Sawyer liked to read. Not to mention that neither one of Macbeth's friends would be caught dead in a library when they had their own reputations to uphold.
Macbeth was the intellect of the group, not them.
"Hurry up love-birds!" Erick calls out to the duo who were still a bit way away from the rest of the group, "We need to make this quick before the fuzz does their rounds."
"Coming," Macbeth growls while pulling Lucy along so that they finally reach the group who are all looking through the rusted iron bars of the abandoned gate that leads into the haunted grounds of the infamous Phantom Lord mansion.
"These gates are HUGE!" Sorano shrieks while extending her hands high above her before she stumbles backwards and lands on her butt. Laughing hysterically while Sawyer and Erick try to help the drunken woman to her feet while she continues to wave her hand that held her heels and a bottle of beer she hadn't been holding before "Ooh!" Sorano then exclaims when finally on her feet, "Let's get a closer look!" she then says ecstatically while looking at the others around her.
No one can say no to her before she starts climbing the ten-foot stone wall after placing her shoes and bottle on the other side of the gate. For a drunk teenager, she easily scrambles up the wall by using the thick ivy hanging down as a rope to help her climb. The others, unable to get her to return climb after her in a hurry as she retrieves her heels and drink before skipping up the curving driveway lined with dead, twisted trees.
"I need to make sure that the others get Sorano back safely. Do you want to wait for me here?" Macbeth asks Lucy before climbing over the wall after his friends.
Lucy has half a mind to say yes that she'd wait but looking around at the empty cold street doesn't bode well with her. What would she do if someone came along asking her why she was alone? The last thing she wanted was to rat out her new friends or get in trouble with the law which would not bode well with her father.
"I'll go," Lucy then exclaims while beginning her climb hastily up the wall.
Macbeth helps her as best he can so that she doesn't fall and catches her on the other side so that she doesn't get hurt on her descent. Before they know it, they are then making their way up the winding road where the others had already disappeared down. Lucy remains close to Macbeth when she notices that the twisted old trees looked as if they had expressions of anguish on them. Their branches looking as if they wanted snatch them up and rip them to shreds.
"This place gives me the creeps," Erick says while pulling off his snake charmer's hat to scratch his head as he stares up at the crumbling building before them.
"Shcared Coobra?" Sorano coos while leaning into the boy before cackling eccentrically at his disgusted face.
"Piss off Angel," Erick shoots while gently shoving her away so that she wasn't leaning on him anymore.
"Is it true that this place is haunted?" Lucy asks while looking up at the grime covered windows that had cracks or holes in the glass.
"That's what rumor says," Richard says, speaking up for the first time throughout their walk, while eyeing the windows with a curious eye, "But it's never been proven."
"Lame," Sorano exclaims while downing the last of her drink in one go, "Let's do something interesting!" she then suggests while waving her bottle in the air suggestively.
"Not another one of your dares," Sawyer deadpans while watching the girl crouch down to place the bottle on a somewhat even part of the ground.
Sorano shoots him a glare before waving everyone to make a circle around her that everyone quickly obeys without complaint. Although having expressions of uneasiness should be a sign of a complaint as everyone fidgets nervously while Sorano continues to set up her bottle.
"I'm gonna spin the bottle and whoever it picks hasta walk into the cr… creepy mansion," Sorano explains through a burp while pointing at the slightly open doorway with an evil glint in her eye nearly drowned by the alcohol she had consumed, "Failure to comply will lead in a punishment."
"What punishment?" Erick asks begrudgingly while crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently.
"Try not to find out~" Sorano says in a sing-song voice.
Before Erick can complain again, Sorano spins the bottle as everyone's breath hitches as six pairs of eyes watch the bottle spin. The tension in the air growing as everyone begins to fidget uncomfortably while the bottle continues to spin.
~Come play~
~Come play with us~
Tearing her eyes away from the spinning bottle, Lucy looks up in the direction of the mansion where she thought she had heard something. She looks around, unable to find anything around the building when a collective gasp returns her attention to the bottle pointing. Straight. At. HER!
Five pairs of eyes look up at the stunned victim staring at the bottle pointing at her like a death sentence, and the thought only leaves a cold chill running up and down her back. As if death's icy finger were running a line down her spine and taunting her with something horrible possibly happening.
"Ooh, sho the new girl got chosen, huh?" Sorano claps while receiving a glare from Macbeth.
"Sorry princess looks like you ain't so lucky tonight," Sawyer says, and the comment leaves a bad taste in Lucy's mouth. Especially because she was always called Lucky-Lucy by everyone back home.
"Leave her alone," Macbeth growls while taking Lucy's hand in his and turning her so that she's looking straight at him, "You don't have to do the dare Lucy. I'll do it for you…"
Sorano makes a disagreeing sound while pointing two thumbs down, "No, no, no, tha's not how this works Midnight, and you know it," she says while placing a lot of emphasis on the last four words, "Prinshess is picked, prinshess does the dare. No take backsies or switchies."
Lucy's head swims while Macbeth continues to try to figure out how to get her out of this situation and regrets bringing Lucy along. He had only wanted to impress her and get her friends to accept her into their group. He should have known that something like this was going to happen, and if Lucy went into the mansion Sorano would undoubtedly do something to scare her to the point she would never want to talk to him again.
Why'd you have to allow yourself to get carried along again Macbeth?!
"Don't get your panties in a twist you two," Erick says while stepping up and patting a hand on Macbeth's back, "All blondie has to do is go up the steps and take a few steps through the door and that's it. Simple, right Angel?"
"Yeah I guess," Sorano sighs while lying on the ground beside where Sawyer was standing, "I'll let it go if she just does that. I swearsies."
Lucy looks up at Macbeth wondering what he'll say. He has a strange expression on his face, one mixed with uncertainty and annoyance before turning into defeat that he gives her, and Lucy instantly understands that he can't do anything to defend her.
Although she hasn't been in school with them for long, except Richard who was already in college, Lucy had learned rather quickly how the hierarchal structure of the school worked. Angel ruled supreme and her friendship with the other males meant that they were all equally respected amongst the student body and never messed with. One wrong move and either one of them could ruin the lives of anyone they wanted to, a feat Sorano had already done to many going so far as to make one's life a living hell to the point that they had to transfer to a completely different school.
This Lucy had heard around school as well as warned when discovered by other students that she was hanging around Macbeth during lunch and sometimes after school. A few girls in her class had told her to be careful, that although Macbeth was nice enough to talk to her he would never fully be in her corner. He would never choose anyone else over his friends for fear of losing them and being condemned an outsider. Especially since the group, who called themselves the Oracien Seis even when there was only technically four of them, had been with each other since they were children.
With this, Lucy knew that if she didn't do this "simple" task she'd be listed on Sorano's black list and be ostracized from the rest of the school, not that Lucy had many friends to begin with. However, she knew that if she failed to comply Macbeth would never be her friend again, and Lucy did not want that.
"I'll do it," Lucy sighs shakily, looking down at the ground and feeling her heart hammer in her chest as Macbeth takes her hand in his.
"I'm sorry," Macbeth murmurs to her, sounding so desperately guilty that she can't get herself to look at him while he squeezes her hand.
"I'll be ok… it's just an empty house," Lucy reasons, more for her own sake than his, before releasing her hold on him and turning towards the ominous building before her.
Taking a tentative step forward, Lucy braces herself before she gathers her courage and marches forward with purpose. This earns her a few whoops of excitement from the others who cheer the shaking blonde on. It seems to work because Lucy no longer staggers as she climbs the crumbling front steps towards the slightly open door.
Once at the top of the steps Lucy pushes the door to further open it and it swings on its hinges slowly with an eerie creek echoing throughout the inside of the house.
Not taking a moment to allow the shifting shadows inside the abandoned building to make her lose face, Lucy marches through the doorway to stand in the middle of the foyer. She looks around at the many paintings hanging on the wall of people she doesn't know and stares in awe at the impressive chandelier hanging over her head. It isn't long before she realizes that this place isn't as scary as she made it out to be. In fact, the foyer looked rather beautiful and ethereal bathed in moonlight pouring in through the doorway and floor to ceiling windows.
"You did it!" the blonde hears someone cheer behind her and she is surprised to find that it is Sorano congratulating her. Clapping her hands erratically from where she's still on the ground.
"Your girl ain't too bad," Sawyer says while lightly hitting Macbeth's back who can't keep his eyes off the smiling blonde who slowly makes her way through the foyer and back to the entrance.
He finally releases a sigh of relief knowing that Lucy had passed a difficult task that she was forced to do and couldn't wait to finally get her home and away from his drunk friends. He was also relieved that Sorano had seemed to accept the blonde from the way she continuously cheered Lucy for doing something so simple yet terrifying. It gave Macbeth hope that Lucy would be welcomed into their circle of friends, which meant that she would be safe from being picked on by anyone else in school. A feat he hadn't been blind to in recent weeks where girls in Lucy's class kept poking fun at her for not having many friends.
"Let's go home Lucy," Macbeth says while reaching the steps and climbing them to meet the blonde at the doorway.
Lucy smiles and reaches out to grab his hand, but instantly freezes and turns to look over her shoulder.
~But you are home~
"Lucy?" Macbeth asks, taking a step forward. Concerned as to what it was that Lucy was looking at behind her while shaking furiously in fear.
"Macbeth!" is all she gets to say while giving him a terrified expression before the door closes between them and a bloodcurdling scream fills the air.
*Please read Author's Note for important information*
Welcome my lovely demon children to a re-upload of my story Paranormal! It's now back and better than ever!
If you are new WELCOME! If you are returning readers WELCOME BACK!
I am really excited to return with this revamped version of my spooky story I started back in 2015 but never really got around to finishing. It mostly had to do that I began writing it on a whim and realized I had no idea where I was going with this story, but after finishing S.T.S.O.F -which is another rewritten story you all can check out if you haven't yet - I decided to give this story another go.
Also, because this is my attempt at a horror story, be prepared for many cliffhangers... you have been warned~
Anywho, for those of you who have been with me for a long while we'll be doing things just a tad differently this year. I have developed an updating schedule in which I will be updating weekly save for the first week of the month - not including bonus chapters which I try to sprinkle in while I can - this means you'll get three updates per month. This means that the week of February 3 you will not get an update until the week of February 10.
Now for the fun part, you as my readers get to decide what day I'll be updating, Monday or Friday. Please leave in the reviews which day you would prefer and the one with the highest votes will be the day I will be updating. I'll be uploading chapter 1 this Friday with the results and any more information.
Also, if you guys already aren't, follow me on Instagram! I'm planning on being more active on there this year so if you all have any questions, comments, concerns you can also contact me through there - info in bio - and that is where I'll also be posting any news that comes up regarding uploads, or even writing tips for those of you aspiring to either write your own work or improve that which you have already been working on.
Let's make this new adventure a memorable one!
Until next time lovelies!