Scare War! Part 5
Rukawa Kaede was still asleep. Predictably.
It was very nice, this school. He liked it. Very quiet and dark. Perfect for a good nap.
He was too deep in sleep to realise that he was, in fact, alone. Very alone.
...Or was he?
Not that he noticed, of course. He was having a dream. It was a good dream. He was dreaming that he was...sleeping. Yes, sleeping, on a white cloud. No, it was a pink cloud. He was cruising through the air on his fluffy pink cloud, wafted by cold night air. Above him, the stars held up the cloak of the night sky. He breathed in deeply and sighed, in his dream and in real life. Sleep was good.
A fairy appeared in his dream, wafting its iridescent wings slowly. Its long, candy-floss hair streamed out behind it, also pink. Slowly, it extended an elegant, long-fingered hand and began to stroke Rukawa's hair.
Slowly, Rukawa could feel himself coming out of the dream into the dark, cold-floored realm of real life. He mumbled under his breath and tried to make his arms more comfortable, snuggling his head down on them. But it was no use - whoever it was was still stroking his head. He felt a little puzzled, but he was still too sleepy to figure out why.
The world began to come into focus - it was very fuzzy at first, but slowly objects began gaining sharper outlines.
Rukawa blinked once. Twice. His vision was obscured by a white wall. Only it couldn't have been the wall. It was moving - only slightly, like it was being blown by a gentle breeze, but it was indeed moving. Strange. Walls shouldn't move. Was he still dreaming? That might explain why the fairy was still stroking his head.
There was a slight gasp of surprise above him as he shifted slightly, to get a better look at the fairy. Only - he wasn't sure - the fairy didn't have candyfloss hair and a shimmering dress anymore. It had become a girl - he was fairly sure it was a girl - all in white, with black hair. Hmm. How strange.
This strange girl seemed quite surprised to see him and pushed away from him as he tried sleepily to prop himself up on one elbow, whimpering sleepily. Hurriedly, she pushed something into his free hand and jumped up. She almost slipped on her long white dress scrambling for the door before she disappeared around the corner.
Rukawa didn't have the energy to chase her. He flopped onto his back and began to doze again.
Meanwhile, below Rukawa's window... "Dammit, Nana, he saw you! Why did you wake him up?"
"I didn't! Well, I wasn't trying to! He got the thing, right?"
"Why'd he wake up, then?"
"I was moving his hair..."
"What?! Why?"
"...I wanted to put the thing up his nose."
"...hehehe, hmm, that could have worked...oh, oh, I hear something inside! Shh! Shh! Where's the remote?"
Rukawa squinched his eyes as the moon came out from behind the clouds, throwing an unfriendly beam of light right on the poor boy. He rolled this way, but the light was still there. He rolled that way, but not only was the light still there, but he rolled on something uncomfortable and knobbly. Couldn't he get any sleep anywhere? Why did everyone insist on bothering him?
Forced awake, he sat up, reaching behind him moodily. He was in a supreme bad temper. His hand closed around whatever he'd been asleep on and wrenched it around into his view.
It was a hand.
Rukawa did not see anything wrong with this. A hand had gone around behind him to grab whatever he'd been laying on, and a hand had come back. Well, that wasn't quite right. Two hands had come back. One was his own hand. The other hand wasn't attached to an arm, and from its state he assumed that whoever chopped it off was trying to make as messy a job as possible. It was, after all, bleeding all over him.
There was a long pause as Rukawa tried to comprehend just what he was holding.
The dismembered hand's middle finger twitched a bit and began to scratch his palm.
"EEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Rukawa's piercing scream echoed throughout the hallways as he threw his hands up in a desperate attempt to get the offending article off him. It landed on the floor nearby, on its back.
He sat, as if mesmerised, as the hand waved its fingers desperately in the air, like a bug that was trying to right itself. It swayed this way and that in a macabre dance.
Slowly, as he watched, it arched its fingers back and jerked its thumb, flipping itself upright deftly.
Slowly, as he watched, it began a slow, inexorable crawl towards him.
Silently, a grin of terror on his face, Rukawa lunged forwards and grabbed the hand by the wrist, feeling the dry, rubbery skin, feeling the fingers twitching rapidly as it suddenly left the floor. He whipped around and, with all his considerable strength, flung the disembodied hand out the window.
He stood in the middle of the room, his legs trembling, staring at a point on the floor. His hands were clenched. He had won. No surprise there, of course. He always won.
Imagine his surprise when the hand flew back through the window and caught him full in the face and latched on.
Rukawa couldn't deal with this new development with his usual stoic facade.
"OHMIGODGETITOFFMEEEEE!"
He took off running, straight into the tables and chairs that littered the dark classroom. The hand was twitching against his face and he couldn't see past it, and more than once he went knees-first into a hard piece of furniture.
This hectic display went on for quite some time before he had the presence of mind to wrench the hand off his face. This time, he was going to destroy the damn thing. With a superhuman strength born of fear, Rukawa threw the hand as hard as he could against the classroom wall. It crashed through the glass of the window between the class and the hall, and disappeared into the darkness beyond.
Outside...
"Nice catch, Aoi."
"I think his stupid throw broke my hand. Bloody basketball player."
"You threw it back pretty well, I think it landed right on his face..."
"Wish I never caught the damn thing. Come on, I hear voices coming, I hope Ryuji picked up the hand inside."
Kiyota's sneakers squeaked as he walked down the hallway. He had been elected to go in front because of the amazing power of his torch, which cast a laser-like beam down the hallway. Suddenly, as he walked, he felt something crunching underfoot. Praying fervently that he wasn't standing on bones or millions of bugs or something, Kiyota shone the torch beam down apprehensively, where it glinted off a million pieces of shattered glass. He felt Sakuragi, Maki and Jin all crowding around his shoulders as they looked down at the glass. "What the..."
"Hey guys!"
"Nyuh!" With a starled gasp, Kiyota jerked his torch up, highlighting Sendoh's blinded but still grinning face. Koshino was attached to his arm like a limpet. Kiyota could make out Fukuda and Hikoichi standing behind him, looking nervously over their shoulders for something that wasn't there.
"Hey, we heard someone screaming, so we came back here...was it you?"
"No man, you?"
"Wasn't any of us..."
"Really? You look like you're lying."
"You dare call me a liar?!"
"Yes!"
"You are lying, man! You screamed like hell!"
"What?! Oh, and I guess you were super-quiet, huh?!"
Maki could see at least two different fist-fights brewing, both involving Sakuragi. He cleared his throat. "Well, now that we're here, we may as well stick together."
Sakuragi nodded, glaring daggers at Koshino and Kiyota. "Yes, good idea. Glad I thought of it." He looked around. "Hey, where is--"
"You guys are so noisy."
As on edge as all of them were, credit must be given to them for not screaming as the blood-covered Rukawa appeared in the doorway, scratching his head. He was watching the floor, for some reason.
They stared at him for a while. He noticed their disbelieving stares. "...what?"
"Hey...your shirt...it-it has blood on it..."
Rukawa looked down at his shirt. It was indeed stained with red. It brought back unwanted memories...but for now, he had to fool the others into thinking he hadn't been attacked by a phantom hand and hadn't screamed, or they would all make fun of him. "I...uh...killed a squirrel."
The fact that most of the boys were relieved by such an explanation should have made Rukawa uneasy, had he been paying much attention. But then, he never really paid much attention.
Maki looked around. "Wh...Where are the others, anyway?"
End of Part Five
Author's Notes:
Having fun everyone? Not the best chapter I've done, but I had fun poking fun at Rukawa, plus I really want to write the next chapter...anyway! The rest of the story is already in the works, so hopefully I won't take so long...yeah right...
Right, now for the compulsory teaser questions...what will happen to our intrepid heroes? Will the Spikans get what's coming to them? Just where ARE the others? Find out in the next hair-raising episode of...Scare War!
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