The younger paladins decided to tell stories to scare each other and ultimately paid the price. Shiro can't help but be amused and exasperated.
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Somewhere in one of the paladins' sleeping quarters, four humans huddled around on the floor in the dim-lit room, blankets wrapped snugly around them as they waited for one of them to start.
"Ok, since it's my idea, I'll go first." Lance said. He reached out for the Altean version of a torchlight that Pidge had found and placed it under his chin, pressing it on. The light shining from the tool cast an eerie shadow on his face.
"Once upon a time," Lance started. "There lived an old mother and her young adult daughter in a cozy little house."
"Of course it has to be in a cozy house and not a forest."
"Shut up, Pidge. Anyway, the daughter was known for her beauty and grace, capturing everyone's heart. The guys would fall head over heels in love with her, asking her to marry them. Of course, she rejected all. Then, one day, a very handsome man came to her and proposed, asking her to be his wife. And as usual, she rejected him. Angered by her actions, he demanded the reason why. With practised ease, the girl answered: "My mother is still living with me. I must take care of her." The man immediately smiled and praised the girl for being a good daughter before walking away, whistling a tune."
"Oh man, this is where everything goes bad, right?"
"Hunk, shhh!"
"One night, someone had called her and demanded to see her at once. Curious and worried, the girl kissed her mother goodbye and left the house, arriving at the promised meeting place a few moments later. There, sitting nicely on the ground, was a note. It said: When you come back home, you will surely marry me. Sensing that something is wrong, she quickly returned to her home."
"Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man-"
"Hunk!"
"Sorry, Pidge."
"Shut up, you two."
"Guys, stop interrupting, will you? Anyway, when the girl arrived, she noticed a trail of something red across the living room, going all the way up the stairs. Quietly, she followed the trail and stopped in front of her room. With trembling hands, she twisted the knob open and there, sitting on her bed with a smile, was the man from earlier, her mother's head still dripping blood on his lap. Horrified by the sight, she tried to run away but before she could escape, a sharp pain blossomed on her side. Collapsing to the floor, she could only breathe harshly as she bleed, looking hazily at the man approaching towards her in cold horror. From now on, we will live happily ever after the man promised sweetly and the girl finally closed her eyes, forever haunted by the sickeningly sweet smile of that man. The end."
Pidge whistled in awe while Hunk whimpered in fear. Pitying his best friend, Lance rubbed Hunk's bad in a soothing circle. "Sorry, bro. But I warned you about it and you still joined us." Lance reminded.
"I clearly regret my choices now," Hunk mourned.
"Ok, my turn now. Stand aside bitches, and get ready to be scared off your shits." Pidge declared as she grabbed the flashlight from Lance.
"Shiro would be giving you his 'Disappointed Dad' look right now."
"Shut up, Lance."
After a few seconds of finding the right angle, she turned her attention towards her audience.
"Let me tell you my story." she started with a low voice. "It started with Jessica. A good gal and very funny. She's also as blind as a bat without her glasses. One day, she was being mean to me and never apologised. So I took her glasses and hid it away from her. Too bad she couldn't see me. Then there was Philip. Philip was an asshole and was being a dick to me. Philip also had long hair. Too bad it blocked his vision. After that was Molly. She was a bit paranoid about everything but she's as bitchy as any other bitches that had walked on Earth. Fortunately, she never checked what's underneath her bed... and then there was you." she looked pointedly at Lance. "You never did anything wrong. You're just too annoying and too focused on listening to my story to see what's behind you." she grinned before the light went off, plunging the others into darkness and eerie silence.
"Uh, Pidge?" Lance tentatively called out as his eyes tried to adjust themselves within the darkness. Suddenly, he went still as he felt something breathing behind him.
"Boo."
Lance screamed bloody murder as Pidge cackled behind him, clutching at her aching side as she did so.
Hunk, who was unfortunately sitting beside Lance, had also screamed in fear and was this close to passing out. Keith just chuckled, high-fiving Pidge in the process.
"Quiznak you, Pidge!" Lance glared at the Green Paladin.
Pidge just gave him a peace sign before settling back into her previous position between Keith and Hunk. "You have to admit, I scared you good." she smirked.
Lance didn't say anything but he couldn't help but agree with her in his mind. Not that he will ever say it out loud. Looking at his best friend beside him, Lance gave Hunk a concerned look. "Hunk, buddy, my bro. You sure you want to continue this?"
"It's fine if you want us to stop." Keith said.
"Yeah, we won't blame you." Pidge piped up.
"No... I agreed to this. Might as well go all the way. But can I go last?"
"Yeah sure, buddy." Lance gave him a pat on the shoulder. "It's your turn then, Mullet." Lance smirked at the Red Paladin.
Keith rolled his eyes at the nickname but said nothing and took the flashlight from Pidge.
"You sure you can handle this, Hunk?" he asked once more in concern. Hunk replied with a shaky smile.
Nodding his head in acceptance, Keith positioned the flashlight under his chin and pushed it on.
"Well, this is a story that I heard from a guy I met once. He told me about a family that had lived in his neighbourhood."
"Wait, you have a friend?"
"No, that guy was just some random guy who suddenly spoke to me. Anyway, he said that several years ago, the mother and the father decided they needed a break, so they wanted to head out for the night at a town. They called their most trusted babysitter to watch over their kids. When the babysitter arrived, the children were already fast asleep in their beds. So the babysitter just got to sit around and make sure everything was okay with the children. Later that night, the babysitter got bored and went to watch TV, but she couldn't watch it downstairs because they don't have cable downstairs."
"The atrocity!"
"Pidge!"
"Anyway, she called them and asked if she could watch cable in the parent's room. The parents said it was okay but the babysitter had one final request - she asked if she could cover up the statue outside the bedroom window with a blanket or a cloth, because it made her nervous."
"Now I'm nervous."
"Don't worry, buddy, I got you."
"The phone line was silent for a moment, and the father who was talking to the babysitter at the time said; "Take the children and get out of the house. We don't own a statue." "
"Omigod..."
"Quiznak."
"The police found both of the children and the babysitter slumped in the pool of their own blood within three minutes of the call. No statue was found anywhere near the house no matter where they looked." Keith removed the flashlight from under his chin and placed it on the floor. "You guys okay?"
Hunk could only let out a muffled sound behind Pidge, while Lance's shaking body pressed hard against Hunk's. Pidge rolled her eyes in exasperated fondness as she patted the gentle giant currently clinging to her with soft pats on his head. "I think we have enough for tonight." she announced to them, which was quickly agreed by the Blue and Yellow Paladin.
Keith got up and made his way towards the control panel to brighten up the room when the sound of something scurrying across the room made him stop in his tracks. Looking back at the group, he was met with three pairs of wide-eyed teenagers staring at him.
Everyone held their breaths and tried to strain their ears to see if they could hear it again. When they heard nothing, they all simultaneously let out a relieved sigh, only to have their hearts skip a beat when the noises came again, only much louder than before.
Glancing at each other, they all came to an unanimous decision and without a single word uttered, Keith slammed his hand on the control panel and everyone scrambled to get out of the room the second the door slid open. They did not stop their movements until they reached Shiro's room and without any warning whatsoever, they barged into their leader's room and crowded around the very surprised paladin.
"What's wrong?" Shiro instantly asked when he saw them. "You looked like you guys had just seen a ghost," he joked lightly, only to make the teens go pale, paler than they were before. Concerned by their reaction, Shiro chose to question about it later and tried to be as comfortable as he can. "You can tell me about it later. For now, get some sleep." he said. With that said, the paladins still looked wary and nervous. Sighing, Shiro gave each of them a ruffle of their hair, earning a pleased hum from them. "Don't worry. Be it ghosts or monsters, I'll protect you from them." he promised.
The paladins instantly relaxed when they heard that. They shift and wiggled a little in their place to find a comfortable position before murmuring goodnights to each other and close their eyes, their breathing evened out as they fell asleep.
Shiro smiled fondly at that before looking back at the tablet he was using, intent to keep his promise to them.
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Damn, this is the longest chapter I had ever written in this series. For now. This story is for dragoscilvio for their ideas. And also, here's a special bonus!
Extra scene:
Back at the room that the paladins had previously evacuated from, three colourful mice chittered to themselves in confusion, wondering why the paladins had suddenly run out of the room like that. One of them shrugged before leading them out of the room and towards Allura's, knowing the princess will welcome them with open arms.