Scare War! Part 2
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"...and instead of portraits..."
Fujima looked around wide-eyed at the attentive and nervous circle of basketball players, holding the torch under his face and looking dead serious.
"...there were three windows instead."
The room fell dead silent. The dim light of the torch reflected against the whites of the boys' eyes as they stared at Fujima. Until...
"Haaaahahaha! That wasn't scary at all! Nothing scares the tensai!" The outburst managed to revive Rukawa, amazingly. Strangely loud, Sakuragi nudged Miyagi, who was sitting next to him with an expression of something nearing terror on his face. "Ne, Ryochin?"
"U-un." Miyagi nodded slow agreement, but his gaze darted back and forth, watching the dark corners of the classroom for anything from the boogieman to the Loch Ness Monster to Hikoichi.
Fujima smiled at Sakuragi, the effect made all the more disturbing by his wide-eyed stare and the torchlight. "You don't believe, Sakuragi? You doubt it?"
"Of course!"
Fujima lowered his voice and, just for effect, covered the torch with his hand a little to dim the light. "It's right near here, you know. I've been there. Only once. I saw the windows too."
He felt Hanagata shift closer to him, grabbing his shirtsleeve surreptitiously. Big as the Shoyo center was, he'd never been too sure about the paranormal, and telling these stories was a real surefire way to get him nervous and jumpy. When Hanagata got nervous and jumpy, he got clingy. Fujima liked him when he was clingy.
"It's true, I swear." He nodded seriously.
"Oh, yeah right!" Koshino cut in, looking irritated and bored. "This is so not scary. Ghosts don't--"
The door creaked open, revealing the dark hallway beyond.
"--exi...st..."
Koshino trailed off, staring fearfully at the still-moving door. All eyes watched the door as if hypnotised, until it was stopped by the wall.
Maki, outwardly impassive, got up and went to the door. He peered around the corner down the dark hall, both ways. Kiyota appeared by his side with his omni-torch, shining the powerful beam down the long tunnel. There was nothing there.
"There's...there's no-one out here."
"Must have been the wind." Maki muttered, puzzled. They rejoined the circle, shifting closer together. Wind or not, a moving door was a moving door, and it was definitely not something that should have happened, not while Fujima was telling his weird stories.
Fujima himself was puzzled, but not disappointed. The moving door had played havoc on Hanagata and the taller boy was now attached like a leech to his best friend's arm. It made Fujima feel all fuzzy and content.
"You know what we should do?" he asked innocently. "We should split up and explore. We've got nothing better to do. Unless you want another ghost story, that is."
Miyagi, looking quite afraid of the prospect, scooted backwards and stood up, undecided of whether to go and face Fujima's mind-numbingly scary ghost stories or to wander around the school and contend with the forces of darkness. Mitsui stood up decisively. "Well, I'm not staying here, I'm going to find out what the Spikans want. C'mon, Miyagi."
Miyagi, glad for the company, followed Mitsui out of the room, staying as far away from the mysterious moving door as possible.
A few groups broke off to follow the two boys' example, until the only ones left in the room were Fujima, Hanagata, Sakuragi, Hikoichi (who was still diligently taking notes in the corner), Kiyota, and the ever-sleeping Rukawa. Sakuragi was too lazy to go anywhere - in fact, he envied Rukawa for being able to sleep. Kiyota just wanted another chance to scream "Sadako!" again before the night was out. He'd watched the entire Ring series the night before last and this school was reminding him much too closely of Sadako's old school. Rukawa had revived just long enough to crawl into the diminished circle before passing out again on the floor.
Fujima, disappointed but not discouraged, smiled disarmingly before turning off his torch. "It's more fun this way." he said by way of an excuse, happily feeling Hanagata clutch his arm tighter. "Now...I know another story, one that happened right inside Shoyo..."
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Two classrooms down, three young students hid. Two were dressed in long white robes and immensely long straight black wigs that hid their features. The last was tallest, clad all in black. She smiled.
"You two are dressed to kill. Now go make me proud."
Turning, she addressed the small hidden camera. "Kentaro, Ryuji, Operation: Scare War is commencing."
One of the Sadako-look-alikes smiled. "This is going to be fun."
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Everyone was pale.
Fujima had decided to relate a heart attack inducing, graphic account of the terrorising and rather gory death of a supposed fellow student. Fujima's eloquence and confidence were legendary, as the young coach often showed on the court. He had no problems getting the team to do what he wanted...or gullible players believing the most unbelievable things.
That little skill was coming in very handy.
"...and blood all streaming down his lifeless face. You could see straight through his chest to the display behind him. The girl just kept screaming and screaming and she couldn't look away..."
He paused for a second and looked around. Even the scratching of Hikoichi's pen had stopped. Everyone was staring at him with various expressions, besides Rukawa. The sky could fall and that boy would not awake. Hanagata and Sakuragi had gone absolutely pale. Kiyota was beyond that - he was looking distinctly green in the torchlight. About halfway through Fujima's story he'd switched his omnitorch on, 'just so Hikoichi can see what he's writing'.
Speaking of Hikoichi...
"Oi." Sakuragi spoke up. Even he was getting nervous. "Where'd Hikoichi go?"
Kiyota shone his torch into the corner where Hikoichi had been residing. The redhead was right - the boy had disappeared altogether. Kiyota whimpered.
Fujima shrugged, leaning against Hanagata. "Who cares. Probably off chasing Sendoh. Now where was I? Oh yes. So this girl is just screaming. The puddle of blood on the floor suddenly--"
He was interrupted by Kiyota suddenly standing up. He was looking very ill now. "Uh...I-I-I'm gonna go and explore the...yeah, I'm gonna go...anyone wanna come?"
Fujima smiled disarmingly. "Sure, I will!"
Kiyota backed away, waving the torch frantically. "No! Stay away from me! Aaaaah!" He backed against the wall, hugging the torch closely and looking at the smiling brunette with fear in his eyes. Sakuragi stood up. "Well, since I can see you're still a baby, this tensai will go with you! Hahaha!" Truth was, Sakuragi didn't know how much of this story he could take either.
Kiyota wasn't complaining - he was too eager to get away from Fujima's reign of terror to care much about what Sakuragi said. They all but ran out of the room, relieved to get away.
Fujima smiled with satisfaction. "Well, all that talking made me thirsty. What say you and me find the water fountains, To--...Hanagata?"
"U-un." The tall boy nodded, still staring at the spot where Hikoichi used to be, staying very close to Fujima as they walked away.
Leaving Rukawa alone.
All alone.
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The silence outside was deafening.
Kiyota led the way nervously, because he had the torch. Besides, if something attacked from behind, they'd have to get through Sakuragi first. Ample time for Kiyota to go sprinting away down the corridor.
Their footsteps were muted as they tried to go as silently as they could down the corridor. "Hey, wild monkey." Sakuragi whispered, as if awed by the silence. "What are we looking for?"
"I-I dunno...anything helpful?"
"Like?"
"What, I'm supposed to have the answers to everything?" Kiyota was getting irritable. He'd thought he'd heard something down the corridor and having Sakuragi throwing out questions - all two of them - was annoying him.
Kiyota felt the hairs on the back of his neck rising and turned around, flashing the torch to the corridor behind Sakuragi. Sakuragi turned too. The light illuminated only empty corridor.
"Nanda, wild monkey...just trying to scare me..."
"Shut up!" he hissed. He kept the torch trained behind Sakuragi, inching backwards. He could hear it now - soft, shifting noises, of cloth on cloth...a soft whispering, an unearthly sound...
His back touched something warm. Something big. Something alive.
"KAMISAMA TASUKETE YO~~~~!"
"AAAAAAAAH I'M GONNA DIE!"
Kiyota was screaming bloody murder until he realised somebody else was too. Sakuragi, though pale from the shock, looked relieved. Kiyota turned around and his face met the welcome sight of Jin and Maki. Maki had an expression of extreme fear on his face and had grabbed Jin in terror, managing to lift the startled boy a good five inches off the floor. The Kainan captain, realising that the longer he held Jin the more of an idiot he looked, dropped Jin with a quiet embarrassed "Suman...".
Sakuragi recovered quickly and pointed at the three Kainan players, laughing. "Hahaha, what a bunch of scaredy cats you Kainans are! Hahaha! C'mon, let's go! Gimme the torch, wild monkey!" He grabbed the torch from Kiyota and set off, still giggling to himself. Maki and Jin followed, and Kiyota brought up the rear, still flushed at screaming.
A little further down the corridor, there was a mirror at the intersection between this corridor and another leading into it. Sakuragi stopped at it, playing games by reflecting the torch off it. Maki and Jin stared at it, confused.
"Funny, I could swear that wasn't here when we walked up here last." Jin said, puzzled. Maki shook his head and urged Sakuragi forward.
Kiyota stopped at the mirror, looking into it. He could see all the way down the corridor, could see the moonlight from the windows far down it. He grinned at himself in the mirror. Damn, but I'm good-looking, he thought, smoothing his wild hair back and winking at his reflection. He posed a few times happily. Everyone digs me.
He wasn't sure, but he could have sworn he saw something pass by the far end of the corridor. "Eh?" He peered closely at the mirror, a little shaken. No, he couldn't have seen anything, right? Because there was no such thing as Sadako, or creatures of the night, or anything like that.
"Oi, wild monkey." Sakuragi appeared at his shoulder. He was sans flashlight - Maki had insisted he be the one who should carry it, and had gone ahead with Jin. "You coming or not?" He peered at the mirror. "What, your own reflection scaring you? I mean, I can see why, but still..."
"Hey!" Kiyota glared at Sakuragi's reflection, pouting a little. "I look cool, alright? You look like some reject from the army."
"Hey, don't insult this tensai! At least I don't look like a fern."
"Oh please, you look like a lawnmower went medieval on your head."
"Oh, yeah?! Monkey god!"
"Billiard ball!"
"Hey, I look better than you!" Sakuragi flexed his arm, showing off his bicep in the mirror. "See that muscle? The girls love me."
Kiyota posed, turning in front of the mirror and looking over his shoulder at himself. "Check this out. Who would not like some of this?"
It could only have been luck that made them both glance at the reflection of the far end of the corridor in the mirror at precisely the same time. Or perhaps a higher force prompted them to. As they did, they saw someone appear, moving with short, slow jerking steps. Someone with a long flowing dress and long unkempt black hair.
As they watched, the figure stopped.
And with agonising slowness, it turned to face them. They couldn't see its face.
But they knew it saw them.
It SAW them.
And then it moved away slowly, down the corridor, out of sight.
To their credit, they were only frozen for a second or two.
"Sa...sa...sa...da...SADAKO DA! MAKI-SAAAAAN!"
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End of Part Two
Author's Notes:
Another instalment of this weird account. This is getting stranger. What will happen next? Hmm...oh, and a cookie to anyone who can figure out what ghost story Fujima had just finished telling at the start of this chapter. ^^
Thanks to Pleiades for bugging me until I wrote this. Yes, I know there are way too many Ring references but...I couldn't resist. Oh, and I gotta say, meganes DO rule. Yeah.
Oh yes, I should have mentioned this earlier too...for those who are completely lost by the continual 'Sadako' references, Sadako is the evil dead woman thing in the Japanese horror movie 'Ring'. She appears in a strange videotape and a week later, anyone who watched that tape dies of unknown reasons. She wears white and her face is covered by her long black hair. Cool? Cool.
~T