Licorice Allsorts
Not much to say really, besides it took me too damn long to get another short story up for Licorice Allsorts. It's been, what, about 2 years or something?? Oh well…
Anyway, I wanted this chapter posted before October 31st, and due to the fact that it's actually only about 3 days before that, this version hasn't been edited yet. I've sent my illustrious editor, Bunni, a copy to edit, but for now, I'll let you read this one. I'll post up the revised version later. (I'm being optimistic in hoping that it won't need much of a change) I know, I was being slack…
Originally, this was going to be an April fools day themed story (it was originally called 'April Fooled), but as April fools day had been and gone, I decided to tweak it a little and make it a Halloween fic. Afterall, pranks are a part of Halloween too, right? (Personally, I'm only guessing, we don't really celebrate Halloween much over here…I feel jipped…)
Oh, and i tried my hand at all the 'chan, kun' etc bits, dunno if i did it right, just thought i'd try
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. (Any 'chapter' breaks will be indicated by a '1010101')
Trick or Treat
Our school is haunted.
That is the newest and, currently, the most wildly believed rumour making the rounds at our school.
Personally, I don't believe it. I guess I have Yamazaki-kun to thank for that. Basically, anything he believes in, I won't. Simple as that. A touch harsh some of you may think, but after years of listening to the sort of nonsense he spouts on an hourly basis, simplifying things so they're short and concrete saves you a headache. Quite a lot of people have adopted this way of thinking, actually, with the exception of Sakura-chan and Li-kun (poor dears, they may be older, but still so naïve in the ways of Yamazaki-kun), most people are inclined to just roll their eyes or look around for Chiharu-chan to sort him out. But events in the past few weeks have certainly proven to a number of students that maybe, you may want to sit down for this, Yamazaki-kun is telling the truth and that our school is indeed haunted.
You see strange, inexplicable things have been happening. Not strange, inexplicable things like that which catapulted my very best friend into becoming the most powerful sorceress known to sorceress-kind, but strange, inexplicable things that were, well, inexplicable.
I for one believe that there is a logical explanation for everything…although I guess my idea of what is logical has become a bit strained over the years. Having a best friend who just so happens to be an all-powerful sorceress will do that to you. Anyway, there are things I will believe in and there are things I don't, and I don't believe in ghosts.
People swore we had poltergeists. Or ghosts, or spirits, ghouls, phantoms, specters or whatever you actually wanted to call them. All of which turned my aforementioned friend into a trembling pile of nerves, to which no amount of coaxing, whether it be by me, or by her ever watchful and protective boyfriend, could convince her that they weren't real and that she should go and investigate. Because ghosts aren't real and if there are strange things happening, then it's something that only she can check out. Because it's probably magic.
Logically speaking…
But, oh no, the second that rumour reached her ears she would not have anything to do with it. Nope. She didn't care if she was the most powerful and respected magician in the world, she vowed, and this is a direct quote, the she 'won't touch one with a forty-foot Clow staff.' Which was a shame, because she still has to go to school, she just does so with apprehension and a very pale face.
But, I digress. You may be wondering where and when all this started.
It began, more or less, about two weeks ago. The day it was decided that our school festival theme this year would be Halloween. The school, or at least part of it, funds permitting, was to be turned into a haunted house.
Before even Sakura-chan could squeak in unabashed fear, the minor details had been finalized, the letters confirming details and wishes for parent volunteers had winged there way home and the first stages of organizing such an event were thrown into action.
The rumour didn't manifest itself as a reaction to this proclamation. Surprisingly enough, people actually had reason to first start then spread the rumour.
It was a day after the letters had been sent home that the first of a long list of mysterious events occurred. It was home room, and it had been decided that our class, as well as helping to outfit the school in cobwebs and the like, would be dressing up to feature in the 'haunted house' ourselves. A suggestion that, at least at first, was met with much jubilation.
"Really? Cool. I want to be a mummy!"
"A mummy?!? How lame is that? The whole point is to go as something scary. Go as Donald Trump's hairstyle, that's pretty damn scary…"
Hoshi-sensei, our homeroom teacher, waited patiently at the front of the classroom, smiling the serene little smile of his until the chatter died down. It was amazing what the man could achieve with a smile what normally took threats, detentions and a lot of yelling to do when anyone else was concerned. His smile widened as he placed a box onto his desk. "You will indeed be dressing up for our haunted house, but to avoid anyone coming dressed the same, and to make things a bit more fun, I have decided that your costumes will be chosen by a random draw. I will call you up here one by one, and you will draw a costume theme out of a hat. What you pull out is what you will be wearing on the day, no arguments." At this point a number of the students exchanged some pretty wary looks.
"And don't look like that," he smiled, "it will be fun, I promise. Now," placed his pen on the attendance book and gave it a spin.
"Ahh, Kinomoto, Sakura." She stood up with a steely determination that would normally be reserved for her gymnastics final or for when she had to go up and collect her Math tests results, but amidst a few encouraging cheers from her friends and a few whispered words of encouragement from her one-and-only, she made her way up to the front of the class, dipped her hand into the box, withdrew a slip of paper and unfolded it to read what was written…
I believe in bad luck, not ghosts, and it was bad luck, not ghosts that made Sakura-chan draw that name out of that box.
I could tell even before she went pale and fainted.
As luck, or indeed as some would have you believe, poltergeists, would have it, Sakura-chan was to go as a ghost.
And no, the rumour didn't start here. After all, it wasn't really that strange. But later on, after the strange incidents started to build up, people would look back and say, '…and you remember that day, when we were getting our costume ideas, and Kinomoto-san got picked, out of all things to be a ghost?! Everyone knows she's touchy about ghosts. And she has got to be the luckiest person alive. Just look at the guy she's dating. He practically treats her like royalty. But she got picked to go as a ghost. It's not bad luck, it's too much of a coincidence to just be bad luck…'
There was another incident that day to which the rumour manifested itself. All because of a bit of unusual behaviour and an off-hand comment made by one Takashi Yamazaki.
Once Sakura-chan had been awoken and carried back to her desk, it became a habit of the other students to carry their slips of paper back to their desks before opening them, lest anyone else get a shocker and feel the need to kiss the floor, so to speak.
The names where called out one by one until it finally came to Sakura-chan's one-and only, the light of her life, her knight in long green robes, Syaoran Li.
He got his slip, he sat down, he unfolded it and his eyes darted side to side as he read, frowned, re-read then narrowed his eyes to a glare that should have ignited the little scrap of paper if it had any sense. His nostrils flared as he turned slowly and with a look that could have stripped paint of the walls, he pointed at Eriol-kun. "YOU!"
Eriol-kun pointed to himself, the picture of innocent confusion. "Me?"
Li-Kun started to rise out of his seat, a manic glint in his eyes. "YES YOU! YOU-YOU BASTARD! THIS IS YOUR FAULT, I KNOW IT!" And like a man possessed, to which many think is a literal assumption, he leapt from his desk and spear-tackled poor Eriol-kun to the ground. At first, we, that's the teacher included, could only watch in shock as Li-Kun proceeded to pummel the stuffing out of Eriol-kun. In the end it took the combined effort of Yamazaki-Kun, Sakura-chan, Chiharu-chan, Naoko-chan, Rika-chan, Hoshi-sensei and a bucket of cold water to separate Li-kun from Eriol-kun. (No one else really knows him as well as we did, so no one else was willing to step in) Eriol-kun, sporting a black eye, a split lip, a missing chunk of hair, broken glasses and more bruises than you could count, and Li-Kun, sporting a death look and a weeks worth of detentions were escorted first to the nurses office so that Eriol-kun could get an icepack and then to the principals office for explanations. It wasn't until the teacher had returned did we finally decide to see just what had set Li-Kun off.
On the tiny innocent little piece of paper was the word 'mermaid'.
Poor, poor Li-kun was to appear in the festival dressed in naught but a wig of long wavy hair, a seashell bikini and shimmery-scale fish tails…
"I mean, I know his costume kinda sucks, but why would he go off at Eriol-kun like that? Eriol-kun didn't have anything to do with the costumes." Said Rika-chan, clutching the scrap of paper, having been the one to reach it first.
Yamazaki-kun, rubbing his chin and for once looking like he was actually telling fact not fiction, replied. "Yeah, it almost seems like he was possessed or something…"
That's all it took.
But I guess rumours don't really need much to start. It's only once a rumour actually starts that they gain anything that could be deemed as evidence to actually support it.
Though Li-kun has since become, for lack of a better word, 'friends' with Eriol-kun over the years, he still hasn't forgiven him for all the things he did to Sakura-chan and mostly, for all the danger he put her in, and all those little incidents have been building up and festering for years. It can happen at any time, at any place and from something completely random, but eventually, he was going to crack. Li-kun knew that the teacher had chosen the costumes, but Eriol-kun was there, Eriol-kun certainly has the means to pull off a stunt like that and Li-kun just decided that all sense and logic should just go have a nice holiday. He cracked, he attacked and that's that.
But ask anyone else…
Ghosts. Plain and simple.
That happened a week ago.
Eriol-kun has since recovered from most of his bruises, Li-kun has finished all his detentions and the costumes had been hired. (I was kind enough to save Li-kun the cost of hiring a wig, as I told him I still had the wig he wore when he played the princess in that play in elementary school. He didn't seem too pleased though, but I guess he has never seen how much wigs cost to hire…)
It was the day of the festival when things really started to get strange.
There's a logical explanation to all of them, of course…It would be a cold day in hell before I start believing something that is based solely on something Yamazaki-kun said.
Coincidentally, it was a very cold day. So it's just lucky that this isn't hell…
Though the day dawned bright and clear, with barely a wisp of a cloud in the sky, the sun shining and the birds singing, it was cold. It was one of those days where the sun somehow seems weak and the light breeze that blows can only be described as frigid. Probably not a good day for anyone resigned to an outfit involving seashell bikinis and a fishtail…
I had just stepped from my limo (I could drive, but why would anyone want to drive if my other car was a chauffeur driven limo…) and had just bid my driver and my bodyguards a good-day when an elongated 'HHHHHHOOOOOOEEEEEE!!!' coming from a blur that could only belong to my very best friend Sakura-chan, broke the early morning tranquil silence. That was until she came to an abrupt and somewhat uncomfortable stop in a nearby bush.
One rollerbladed foot, the wheels still spinning erratically, was all that could be seen of Sakura-chan, so I leaned forward and pushed a few branches aside. "Sakura-chan…are you okay?"
She was looking more than a little dazed, and a good portion of the bush had taken up residence in her hair. "Hoee…" She blinked slowly and not completely in synch as she looked blearily up at me. "Oh, Good morning Tomoyo-chan, are you running late too?" She sounded very much out of it.
"I'm not late Sakura-chan, you're early."
She frowned and checked her watch as I hauled her out of the bush, all the while swaying unsteadily on her feet, then grabbed my wrist and checked my watch. She groaned and rubbed her face with her hand, muttering something I didn't quite catch.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded wearily as she rubbed her eyes. "I think…I think I'm going to go have a shower…" I patted her sympathetically on the back as she tried to run a hand through her disheveled hair, only to get her hand stuck when her fingers hit knotted hair and twigs. She grimaced as she tugged at the mess. "I'll see you in class Tomoyo-chan." I smiled ruefully as she rolled off, shedding twigs and leaves as she headed for the gym showers.
Sakura-chan is always sprinting to school; she almost always runs late…she was just running late a little earlier than usual…
It's not ghosts...since when to ghosts wind watch times forward anyway?
But the fun didn't stop there…
I was at my locker, a little while later, when I heard muffled giggles somewhere down near the entrance door to the hall. I didn't pay much attention to it; after-all, giggling school girls wasn't really that much cause for alarm, but it was when the giggling didn't stop, when it just got louder, not necessarily because of the growing number of people that where joining in, but because it seemed to be moving up the hall towards me, like some sort of giggling Mexican wave effect, that drew my attention. Then the oddest thing happened. Amongst the giggling, someone started to make car horn noises.
After a few more seconds of the incessant giggling and another round of 'honk honk!', I finally conceded and turned, and saw Li-kun, his hands stuffed in his pockets, making his way somberly down the hall. He had his trademark 'I'm not going to talk to you unless I have to' scowl on his face…not to be confused, of course, with his 'I find you annoying and inferior', his 'I like you, but I have a reputation to keep up', or even his 'Hello Hiiragizawa' scowl. A muscle was twitching under his right eye; it was obvious it was taking a lot of effort on his part to ignore the giggling behind him which, upon further examination, seemed to be directed at him. I glanced past him to see one of the giggling girls nudge a confused looking friend, then point to Li-kun's back. The friend covered her mouth with her hand, started to laugh then called out "Honk honk!"
Li-kun twitched and stopped in front of his locker next to mine, swung his backpack around, slamming it up against the locker on the other side and started to rifle through it. I could hear him muttering darkly under his breath…something about 'bunch of giggling hyena's' and 'torture'. The word 'rack' was making frequent appearances, although I suspected that he was referring to the torture device, rather than the slang commonly used by males to describe cleavage.
"Good-morning Li-kun." I said cheerfully.
He jumped, obviously just realizing that I was actually there and muttered, "Oh, good morning Daidouji-san…sorry, I didn't see you…"
He ran a hand through his forever messy hair, a look of mild frustration on his face.
"Yes, you did seem a little distracted there," I answered mildly.
He scowled and glanced behind at the students milling around, some of them who were watching him not-so-discreetly from behind their locker doors. "Is this just some sort of Halloween prank that I'm not in on? Or has everyone just decided to see how long it takes before I crack again?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure, perhaps I should go ask-" I paused and frowned.
"What? What's wrong?"
I had happened to glance down at Li-kun's back-pack and had noticed something stuck on the front of it. "Li-kun, what's that?"
He flipped his bag around…then went very red in the face.
I blinked as I saw just exactly what was stuck to his bag. Now I'm a very composed person, but even I had to bite down hard on my lip to stop from laughing.
Most people were quick to jump to assumptions, because most people know that Li-kun is pretty damn perceptive of his surroundings.
For someone to do what they did, they would either have to be very stealthy, smart or as everyone was quick to believe, a ghost.
There, stuck on the front of Li-kun's back-pack, for all the world to see, was a bumper sticker that read 'Hooker for hire. Just honk, I'm cheap.'
I on the other hand carry the belief that everyone can have a bad day, and that Li-kun was just a little off today. And there are a number of people that I am aware of that are quite capable of being a reverse pickpocket.
I crossed my arms and using the hand covered by my arm, pinched my side because my lip had gone numb.
"Well Li-kun," I started, my face starting to twitch in the effort not to laugh, "Though I respect your individuality, I would strongly suggest taking that off before you go anywhere near Touya-kun."
What? I was just trying to lighten the mood…
He scowled, muttered something in Mandarin that I was quite glad I couldn't understand, then switched to something that sounded English as he tore the offending sticker off. It, of course, as stickers do, refused to come off cleanly. It now read, 'Hooker for Hire, Just honk.' He switched between Mandarin and English three more times before the offending sticker was completely removed, and with the vain hope that people would forget it, he paused, took a deep breath and followed me to class.
Unfortunately, funny little stories, like rumours, have a long shelf life…
"Hey Li-kun! How cheap is cheap?!?"
"Li-Kun! My friend wants to know if you wear fishnets or thigh-highs!"
"Syaoran-"
"NO! YOU CANNOT BORROW MY GARTERBELT!"
Sakura-chan, her hair still damp from the showers, took a step back and blinked. "Okay…I was just saying good morning…" Her taken aback look was momentarily replaced with an odd, almost wry expression. "You have a garter belt?"
Li-kun squeaked, literally squeaked, in a dog-chew toy sense, went red, then white, then fainted.
After liberal use of smelling salts, we managed to re-introduce poor Li-kun to the world of the conscious and after apologizing profusely and promising to spoil her rotten to make up for yelling at her (even if she did actually know that it was an accident) we made our way to our seats to await the rest of the class.
Though the haunted house didn't officially open until much later that evening, we still had a lot to do. About half of it had already been set up the night before, but we still had several rooms that needed to be outfitted. The room that Li-kun was to feature in needed to be done today. As with most of us, his job was to give hints and clues to guide people through the haunted house. And to go with his costume, his room was to be outfitted to make it look like an underwater scene.
He had to sit on a rock.
And giggle.
He also had to give people a clue which read as thus,
'Well done, weary travelers, for reaching my grove…'
But your journey is far from over.
Go East at the place where the messages gather,
Then ascend to the minstrel's playground,
There you will find the mummy's tomb and the next clue that awaits.'
Basically it says to go right at the message board just outside Li-kuns' 'grove' and go upstairs to the music room, which, as stated by the 'riddle', was now a mummies tomb. A person in appropriate costume was within and would give out the next clue.
Li-kun also had to flap his tail and act all girly-like, a feat which I'm sure will cause severe mental trauma to anyone who witnesses it.
Oh, and in case you were wondering about the costume I was to be donning…
You remember that mummy's tomb mentioned earlier..?
Yuh…
Now, some may think there is only so much you can do with a bunch of bandages, but then, some people don't have as an impressive repertoire of costume designs as I have. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I know how to make an average costume look good.
I tried to convince Kero-chan and Suppi-chan to be my mummified pet cats, as was the in thing to do in ancient Egypt; they were basically cat shaped anyway, and the bandages would have covered up the wings and the few little oddities they had compared to your domestic cat, but Suppi-chan just gave me a look which clearly said that 'things like this are beneath me and don't-you-dare-mention-a-word-of-this-idea-of-yours-to-Eriol-because-you-know-he'll-make-me-do-it-anyway', and Kero-chan merely said he had better things to do, which I'm sure I can hazard a guess at what he means by that. How playing video games for hours on end and consuming 10 times your own body weight in junk food constitutes as 'better things to do with ones time' is beyond me.
Sakura-chan was one of a small group of students who were either to give false clues and lead the visitors astray, or just drift about and scare as many people as possible. Sakura-chan herself didn't have to give out false clues, but for those that did, it led to a dilapidated looking room that had a sign in it that read. 'Do not believe all that you hear. Know that not all can be trusted.' Sakura-chan was just to move through the 'house' as quietly as possible and to sneak up on people to scare the bejeezus out of them. Apparently they had a bet going as to who could scare the most people. How they are going to keep tabs on something like that is beyond me, but then again, the school has security cameras and, well, me, so I suppose they will go back and check later. As with Syaroan-kun, the rest of us were stationed at various points, (a few more of us with the themed rooms, and the rest that would wander the halls) to give clues that would eventually lead everyone out.
You had to give credit to Hoshi-sensei, he sure knew how to throw an impressive shindig.
Anyway, I am rather impressed with myself over Sakura-chan's costume. It looks like an old-world type dress but I made to look basically like something someone had died in.
It was amazing what one could achieve with a little whited-out facial makeup and liberal amounts of off-white gauze.
But, I digress. Sakura-chan, Li-kun and myself had sat down to await the rest of the class when a sharp bang of a door being opened a bit too forcibly drew our attention.
It was Yamazaki-kun, and he looked, well, nervous.
"Are you okay Yamazaki-kun?" inquired Sakura-chan, the picture of concern.
Yamazaki-kun twitched at the sound of her voice and seemed to briefly come out of whatever state he was in to answer. "What? Oh, sure Kinomoto-chan…" was his vague reply.
We all turned to watch him make his way to his seat and sit down gingerly in his chair, clutching his backpack as though it was his life support. His eyes darted around the room as he sat in silence. He was nervous…or frightened, it was hard to tell which, but it became apparent a few seconds later just which it was…
He twitched visibly, and a look of fear flashed across his face as he jerked to his feet, knocking his chair back with enough force to push the table behind back a good 4 feet, and clapped his hands to his ears. "NO! STOP SAYING THAT! I DIDN'T TAKE THE COOKIE FROM THE COOKIE JAR!"
We all stared at him with wide-eyed confusion. Sakura-chan, her voice quiet, presumably not to frighten him anymore than he was, spoke up first, "Uh…Yamazaki-kun?"
Yamazaki-kun twitched violently and spun to face us. He had such a crazed gleam in his eye that all three of us sub-consciously pushed our seats back.
"You heard it too, didn't you?! You heard the voices right?!"
"Uhh…What voices?" asked Li-kun.
Yamazaki-kun whimpered and, twitching like a mouse that knows the only reason for its existence was to feed something long and scaly, he sat down with a thump on his chair, his eyes wide, and pulled himself closer to the desk, so as to hide under it as much as his chair and his frame would allow.
We all blinked. Showing that even the selectively blind can see things on the odd occasion, Sakura-chan said, "Do you think he's actually telling the truth, or do you think this is just one of his pranks?" Momentarily taken aback by this uncharacteristic show of Sakura-chan-Yamazaki-kun understanding, I replied. "You know, I think he's telling the truth. I've never seen him this frightened before."
Li-kun nodded and stood up slowly, cautiously extending a hand as one would to a frightened dog that is as likely to bite as it is to bolt and said, "Um, Yamazaki-kun, do you want to see the nurse or something?"
A mad twitch started around his eye as he stared off into space. "The voices said you'd say that…" He said quietly. "They told me you would all think I'm crazy…"
Li-kun had a look on his face that suggested that he was thinking 'yes, I do think your crazy, and incidentally, don't you agree that straight-jackets are so in this season…' "Ahh, we don't hear any voices..."
"Of course not…" He sagged a little, seeming almost to come back to his normal state of mind, "Only the duck man can hear the voices, and I am the duck man..."
Well, almost.
At this revelation the duck man, sorry, Yamazaki-kun picked up his bag where it had fallen to the floor and hugged it to his chest again. We all stared at him in silence as the rest of the class filed in.
Yamazaki-kun quieted down considerably as the students took to their seats. Perhaps the added noise from the students drowned out the voices in his head. He almost looked relieved, to tell the truth.
The rest of the morning proceeded without further incident, if you ignored the Look of Death Li-kun flashed anyone who dared to even so much as turn to look at him. It was even worse when it was time to do his themed room. I never thought it was possible for someone to scowl so much without getting lock-jaw. But it was finished none-the-less, and soon enough it was time to get into our costumes.
Sakura-chan was eerily calm as I applied her make-up. "Sakura-chan?" I inquired, eyeing her slightly glazed expression.
"Mmm?"
"Are you okay, I mean, you seem awfully calm for someone who is dressing up as their biggest fear…"
"Oh, yes…well, I have a theory…"
"A theory…" I busied myself touching up some of the make-up at the back of her neck, "What's your theory?"
"My theory is that as long as I don't look in any mirrors I will be fine."
I paused and thought this through. "Then I would avoid the gym completely." Using the mirrors that are usually situated on the gym walls, we had made a small maze of mirrors. It even took the people that put the thing together a good 20 minutes to get out of. I don't even want to think of the sort of state Sakura-chan would be in if she stumbled into there…
I smiled as I stepped back to admire my work as I reached for my camera to capture the moment in high definition digital glory. I paused and looked at the device, a slightly puzzled look on my face.
"What's wrong?" Sakura-chan asked, carefully avoiding looking into anything with a reflection.
"Oh, it's nothing…I was just sure I had picked up the Fuji this morning and not the Sony…"
Sakura-chan snorted softly. "Honestly, I don't know how you can tell the difference, they all look the same to me…"
Resisting the urge to enlighten Sakura-chan on the finer dynamics of a Fuji camera as apposed to a Sony, I shook my head and started to record. Sakura-chan, smiling nervously, leaned a bit to look behind me and to the makeshift changing area behind me. "You know, Syaoran-kun has been awfully quiet for a while there…do you think he is alright?"
I turned and looked pointedly at the screened off area. It was suspiciously quiet. It also seemed to be emitting an aura of fuming embarrassment I'm sure people on the floor above us could feel.
"Li-kun?" I queried. "Are you okay in their? You don't need Sakura-chan to come give you a hand do you?"
Smiling slightly at the embarrassed squawk (both from him and Sakura-chan), I pointed the camera at the screen blocking Li-kun from view. "You have to come out sometime…"
There was a pause, then a mumble. Using a dangling bit of bandage (I had already changed) I wiped a bit of dust of the lens of my camera and replied sweetly, "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?"
"I said," Li-kun replied, a bite of impatience in his tone, "I can't get it on, it's too tight…"
"It's supposed to be tight, it wouldn't look right otherwise. And besides, you got it on the other day when I was fitting it for you. Don't tell me you've been into the chocolates again..."
My remark was rewarded with a characteristic growl as Sakura-chan smacked me lightly on the arm. "Don't say things like that to him Tomoyo-chan!", Sakura-chan hissed, "He'll probably go anorexic now just to prove a point!"
"Oh, don't be ridiculous, he knows I was only joking…don't you Li-kun?" I called out to him.
There was a pause and then he replied in a slightly hurt voice. "I have not put on weight…"
I rolled my eyes, lest I burst out laughing and never get any recording done and replied a trifle impatiently. "Then the fabric specifically made not to shrink, has shrunk. Now would you hurry up," I said quickly, before he could remark. "We have places to go, people to scare…"
Their was a sigh from the screens, followed by a soft thumping noise, similar to what you'd get from someone, say, hopping on the spot trying to pull on something a few sizes too small, and a string of muttered curses. This was soon followed by a loud thump as the screen shuddered violently, as might happen when, for arguments sake, someone hopping on the spot, trying to pull on something several sizes too small had inadvertently fallen over.
"Oh dear…" I sighed.
1010101
I let the green and blue streamers and celephane drop neatly behind me as I followed Sakura-chan out of Li-kun's 'grove'.
"I don't know why he was so unhappy…" Sakura-chan mused as we passed the message board. "I think he looked quite good, all things considered…"
I swallowed carefully, hoping Sakura-chan wouldn't think to turn around.
"And it's not like it's anything to be ashamed of…it's not like it's revealing in his case…"
My eyes where watering from the effort of restraining myself…
"I can see how a girl might be a little embarrassed…but he's got no reason to be modest. He doesn't even bother to put on a shirt if the doorbell rings while he's training…"
Oh God, Sakura-chan, you're killing me…
"And the wig isn't all that bad. He doesn't look half bad blonde…"
Oh, to hell with it...
"Tomoyo-chan! Stop laughing!"
"Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"
1010101
I blew a bandage away from my face where it was tickling my nose and pushed the light button on my watch. The glowing face told me it was precisely 2 and half minutes since the last time I checked before I slipped it behind the bandages on my arm once again. I was bored, and the papier-mâché coffin I was standing in was starting to get stuffy.
It had been a good 30 minutes since my last visitors and I was trying hard to stamp down on the growing pit of worry in my stomach. From the amount of people I had seen lining up outside earlier, I should have been busy right up until close. I had heard a bit of screaming earlier, not really to be unexpected, but then…nothing. I was about to go looking for someone when I heard footsteps coming down the hall, then a rustle of fabric as the dilapidated looking curtain covering the door was pushed aside. On the third footstep in, I pushed open my coffin (it made a nice realistic sounding creak, all thanks to someone's idea of using old, rusty hinges on the coffin door). "The Sun God must be smiling upon you,
For you have reached the-Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?"
Sakura-chan looked nervous. "Have you seen anyone lately?"
"Well, no, actually. I was just about to go out and look around a bit when you came in."
Sakura-chan bit her lip and hugged herself as she looked around fearfully. "I don't like this Tomoyo-chan, I've been all over this floor and I can't find anyone. And I bumped into Chiharu-chan and Yamazaki-kun and they said that they hadn't seen anyone either, and that they had looked all downstairs too. Well, Chiharu-chan said that. Yamazaki-kun kept saying that the voices where telling him to give up his life as a human and go start life anew as the Pink Cow of Surprises."
I had to blink a few times at the revelation. Shaking my head, I turned Sakura-chan around and marched her out the door, making sure to grab my camera from behind the coffin as I went.
"Come on, let's go, I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for everything…" I paused, looking down at the camera. "Didn't I say I accidentally brought the Sony camera today..?"
"I thought you said you brought the Fuji instead of the Sony." Sakura-chan said a little distractedly.
"No, I said I was sure I had picked up Fuji instead of the Sony this morning…so why does the logo say Philips?"
Sakura-chan paused and turned around. "Wha-?"
I stared at the little camera and for the first time in my life, with a trace of fear. "I was meant to bring the Fuji, but when I checked before, I was sure it was the Sony instead, but it says Philips here on the side." I showed her the camera as proof.
Sakura-chan squinted at it in the poor light. "Hmm, still looks exactly the same as all the others…" She said as we headed out the door.
"It's not, besides the logo, each different brand of camera has a number of key differences that set them apart. For one thing…"
Sakura-chan obviously wasn't listening. Actually, when we got to Li-kun's grotto, her sigh of "Oh, finally", sounded just a bit too relieved…
"Well-done-weary-travelers-for-reaching-my-grove-but-your-journey-is-far-from-over-go-East-at-the-place-where-"
"Li-kun, please tell me you've been saying that with a bit more enthusiasm for the visitors. And mermaids don't read paperback novels!"
A pair of mildly smoldering brown eyes glanced up at me from the tops of a thick novel. "This one does."
I frowned from behind my camera, as I scolded, "Mermaids are supposed to be cheerful and lively, not surly and monotonous, and don't even get me started on the book…"
"Okay then, I won't…"
I let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, you deal with him, Sakura-chan. He'll listen to you…"
Li-kun jumped when he noticed that Sakura-chan had come over and was perched next to him on his boulder. The fact that he hadn't noticed her sit next to him was a little worrying, but the fact that Li-kun wasn't having his usual calming effect on her was even more worrying still. She was still looking around nervously, as though she was expecting something unpleasant to melt out of the walls.
"Are you okay?" Li-kun asked concerned, gently rubbing her back.
"I…I don't know…" she shuffled closer to him, which would have been really quite romantic if he hadn't been wearing the mermaid suit and admittedly looking quite silly, and continued. "Something's wrong…I can't…I keep sensing things, but they're not right."
Li-kun frowned. Sakura-chan was more sensitive to magic than he was, so he asked, "Not right, how?"
"Well, I can sense Kero-chan here, in the school, but I can also sense him at home, in my room. And I can sense something strange…below the school…almost like something is gathering underneath it."
"…Under the school…" I tapped my finger to my chin. "Does this school have a basement?"
Sakura-chan looked thoughtful for a second. "Actually…come to think of it, I think Touya mentioned something about a basement a while ago."
Li-kun frowned, something of a reflex to whenever Touya-kun's name is mentioned, and said. "What did he say about it?"
"He said that it's a place where druggies and no-gooders go to skip class and that I am under no circumstances to go down their ever…"
"Really…"
"…on pain of death, or at least certain humiliation."
My curiosity peaked, I asked. "What has he got to humiliate you with?"
Sakura-chan's expression got very grave. "You don't want to know…"
"…but what if I do?"
Li-kun coughed and cut in. "Um, perhaps we should go find this basement…"
"Yes, let's do"
"…but Sakura-chan…" Stronger people than I would have trembled at the look Li-kun shot me so I trailed off and headed for the door.
"Okay, let's go!" Li-kun went to hop off his boulder…"KUSO!-CRASH!-owww…" and promptly landed flat on his face having forgotten that he was still wearing the rather restricting fish tail. We hauled him to his feet as he grumbled.
"Perhaps you should take that off…" I offered helpfully.
Another look and a few more mumbled profanities and he unzipped the tail so that he was just wearing the board shorts underneath. "Right, let's go." He said, this time with a shade more annoyance than before. We had barely made it to the door when, "Syaoran-kun, why is there a sticker stuck to the back of your wig?" Sakura-chan enquired.
Li-kun paused for a brief second as I stepped back to look and said in a careful tone, without turning around, "…what kind of sticker?"
"ahh, bumper sticker…" Sakura-chan's voice was slightly strangled.
Li-kun's hands curled into fists as he said in a slightly dangerous sounding dead-pan, "What does it say?"
"Uhh…I don't think you want to know…"
"Has Tomoyo-chan seen it?"
"…Yes, she's taping it and everything…"
"Does she sort of look like she's in pain?"
Sakura-chan glanced at my slightly pained 'I-will-not-laugh-I-will-not-laugh' expression. "Ahh, yes…"
"What does it say…"
"err"
"Sakura…"
She let out a sigh, "…'my other car is a pimpmobile'…"
I'm going to have to edit out the whole scene that followed. It wasn't as if he was actually saying anything, it's just his whole body language suggested, in much more vulgar language, something along the lines of 'I am extremely angry. The little faeces-head that did this to me is asking for an extremely uncomfortable medical procedure involving my boot and their backside'. All I ended up getting was a shot of the bubbling mass that was the wig.
Li-kun stomped off down the echoing hallway, Sakura-chan following closely behind looking nervous and distracted, as I brought up the rear.
Something occurred to me.
"Um, Li-kun..?" I tentatively asked.
"Diadouji-chan, I really don't want to hear it."
"O-kay," I sighed, trailing off. If he was going to be a grouch then he can just continue to wear the seashell mermaid bikini it was obvious he had completely forgotten about. At least Eriol-kun respects me. And if I get a front-on shot, what with Li-kun also still wearing the pretty make-up, well, Eriol-kun is just going to love me.
We rounded the bend and headed towards the stairs. Touya-kun had mentioned in passing, that day he so vehemently forbid Sakura-chan from going where she was just about to go, that the door to the basement was on the back wall in the janitors storage room, so that's where we were headed. Upon passing the office, Li-kun paused and said. "Wait here a second, I want to go do something."
I watched him with interest for a few seconds (Sakura-chan, seeming to have drifted off to her own planet, was staring quite fixedly at the floor) as Li-kun knelt down and started to inspect the lock. "Do you have a hair clip?" he asked, reaching out a hand.
"Umm…yeah..?" I pulled one from my hair and handed it to him. He bent it out of shape and inserted an end into the lock.
"Li-kun, where did you learn how to pick locks?"
"Internet."
"Why did you learn how to pick locks?"
"You never know…"
"You'll never know what?"
"If you'll ever be in a situation where you need to get in or out of a locked room."
"Should I be taping this? I would hate for it to be used against you when your life of crime is cut short because you get caught for breaking and entering…"
Li-kun gave me a quick but none-the-less effective dirty look before turning back to his work. There was a light click as the lock gave way and Li-kun got up, pocketing the bent hair clip, and went inside. "Do I want to know why we're in here, or is this another of those things I shouldn't really be taping?"
I didn't see his expression (he had his back to me) as he walked over to the office p.a. control system. Ignoring my question, he replied, "I don't know about you, but that damn soundtrack is annoying me."
To tell the truth, I had completely forgotten about it. I hadn't really been hearing it. One of the students brought in a soundtrack, titled 'Ooh creepy. Sounds and screams for your haunted house', for a more authentic…err…'ooh creepy' atmosphere. It was the usual clinking chains, howling winds, odd thumping noises type affair and I had zoned it out a long time ago. Obviously Li-kun didn't have that ability.
He pressed the stop button on the CD player and was about to sigh with relief when the soundtrack didn't stop. He frowned. "Hmm, button must be busted…" He pressed the eject button and pulled out the CD, but it proved to be just as ineffective as before. Even pulling the power plug from the outlet failed to put a stop to the howling and the creaking of the chains. We both looked at each other, our faces pale.
"Okay, I am officially creeped out."
"No kidding…maybe someone is using magic?"
Li-kun shook his head. "I can't sense anything from it…but maybe Sakura can." He looked behind me and blinked. "Uhh, where is Sakura?"
I spun around and looked at the spot where Sakura-chan had been not seconds before. "She was right there!" A quick glance back in the hall showed that she wasn't out there either. "Sakura-chan? SAKURA-CHAN?!" I listened carefully as my voice echoed down the hall, but all I could hear in return was that stupid haunted house soundtrack.
"Here, give me your camera, maybe we'll see something on that." I handed over my recorder but all it had caught was a shot of Sakura-chan as she walked into the office (still looking like she wasn't entirely aware of her surroundings), then I had focused onto Li-kun until he had mentioned that she had gone. I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I still refused to believe that the school was haunted. There must be a logical explanation.
"Maybe she went to the toilet or something."
"She would have said something. It's not like Sakura-chan to just wander off like that without saying something. Although…" I trailed off and bit my lip.
"Although what?"
"Well, you have to admit, she has been acting strange tonight."
"Yes…but I just figured she was just a little freaked out by the whole haunted house thing and not to mention the fact that she had to dress up as a ghost, of all things." Li-kun's eyes became suddenly distant. "I'm going to have to have a little chat with Hoshi-sensei because of that…"
"Yes yes, very good, but can we go looking for Sakura-chan now? I'm worried."
"Of course, let's go." He looked to the left and to the right, then to me. "Do you want to split up or should we stick together?"
"I think it would be better to stick together. I don't want to be alone." Li-kun nodded and headed to the left. "Wait! Where's my camera?"
Li-kun gave me an incredulous expression. "How can you possibly be worried about that at a time like this?" I was about to launch into a very detailed explanation of why a video recorder was critical at just such a time like this but Li-kun must have recognized the warning signs and waved his hands in front of him. "No! Nevermind! I left it on reception!"
I went to retrieve my camera.
"AAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEHHHHH!" Li-kun bolted in. "What? What's wrong?"
I pointed a trembling finger at my camera, innocently sitting on the receptionists' desk. "It'sa-it'sa-it'sa…Sony."
Li-kun looked at me with a face devoid of emotion. "You have been spending far too much time with Hiiragizawa if you're making sick jokes like that at a time like this…"
"No!" I shrieked. "I'm serious." My voice was getting more shrill as I spoke. "I thought I was just being forgetful, but I am positive that my camera is getting switched. Every time I put it down for even only a second it gets changed!" I hugged myself and looked frantically around the walls. "Maybe this school is haunted..."
Li-kun snorted. "It's not haunted. I did a report on the history of this school. No one has died in it, there have never been any reports of mysterious circumstances other than a few which where because of the cards being released and the school is not built on any ancient tribal burial grounds. These rumours only started recently, about the same time that it was suggested that the school be turned into a haunted house for the festival."
"Are you sure it's not haunted?"
We both jumped out of our skins.
It was Sakura-chan.
"Sakura-chan!" I shrieked as I hugged her. "Where have you been? I was so worried!"
Sakura-chan frowned vaguely. "I have always been here Tomoyo-chan, where were you?"
Something about her expression and the way she had said that sent a chill down my spin, heck, just the fact that she had drifted away and back again was freaky enough as it was.
Li-kun gently grasped her shoulders and watched her carefully. "Sakura? Are you okay? It's not the costume is it? You should get changed if it's bothering you."
She tilted her head to the side, a considering look on her face. "Why are you still wearing make-up Syaoran?"
Li-kun blinked, still clutching Sakura-chan's shoulders. His jaw clenched as he swallowed. "Can you excuse me for a second?" Sakura-chan nodded, then waved slightly at his rapidly retreating back.
I sighed and said, although my voice was still a little shaky, "It's such a same my camera is possessed, that would have made a great shot…" There was a scream echoing from the direction of the boys toilets. "Ohh, I guess he saw in the mirror that he was still wearing that seashell bikini…another great shot missed…" I turned back to where Sakura-chan was standing…
"LI-KUN!"
He bolted back, his face wet, mascara trailing from his eyes, as he hastily pulled on a shirt which I guessed he had gotten form his locker. "What now?!"
"She's gone again! Sakura-chan disappeared again!"
1010101
Our school is haunted.
I said I didn't believe it, but due to current circumstances I am now inclined to believe it. Too much weird stuff has been happening and it all seems to be culminating tonight, the night of our haunted house themed school festival. Everyone has disappeared except for myself, Li-kun, Chiharu-chan and Yamazaki-kun. Sakura-chan would be in the 'still-here' list if she didn't keep disappearing for undetermined amounts of time and returning again. Her behaviour was quite frankly…ghost-like. As for Yamazaki-kun, he's still claiming voices, in a tone of voice that suggest that he's actually telling the truth and the 'Ooh creepy' soundtrack keeps playing, despite the fact that the CD had been removed and the whole p.a. system being unplugged; as if it was a real haunted house. My camera kept changing brands, every time I wasn't holding it. Someone couldn't have physically been switching them because most times it had been out of my hands were only for a second or to, and in places a person couldn't possibly hide to pull such a trick.
And bumper stickers where still appearing about Li-kun's person, somehow without his knowledge. The newest one had been placed on his board shorts, right across his derriere. The newest one had said 'Call me for a good time. 1800 THONG. Ask for Princess Jiggly.' He had gotten most of it off, although you could still make out a bit of the word 'thong'.
We had bumped into Yamazaki-kun (dressed as a mad professor; quite appropriate really…) and Chiharu-chan (dressed as a witch) a while ago, in one of Sakura-chan's disappeared times, and they had joined us, saying that they had seen someone dressed like Sakura-chan wandering down one of the halls they had passed. They had chased her, calling out her name as she rounded a corner, but when they followed around the same corner, the hall ahead was completely empty.
"I still don't know what you mean Tomoyo-chan," Sakura-chan said, having just re-appeared again a few minutes earlier, (successfully sending my already pounding heart straight into my throat and causing Li-kun to jump 3 feet into the air, fall awkwardly onto his foot and sprain his ankle). "You are the ones that keep disappearing, not me." She turned her worried gaze to Li-kun who she had offered to help walk. "And how did you sprain your ankle Syaoran?"
Li-kun grimaced. "I just tripped over, that's all. Don't worry about it, I'll be fine in a minute."
So sweet, and again, it's such a shame that my camera is possessed…
We were currently walking down a musty, damp hallway in the basement. Which was an oddity in itself. This school is well funded and well run, everything, even the basement is always well kept. Well, should be well kept. The basement just didn't make sense; it was a little too typically 'bad teen horror film'.
We had been walking for quite a while with the only change in the hall being the eventual fading out of the 'Ooh creepy' soundtrack, and the increase in the steady 'drip-drip-drip' of water. We had taken so many twists and turns it was hard to tell if we were even still under the school. "Something is definitely wrong. You think we keep disappearing and we think you keep disappearing. And I keep getting the feeling that I'm being watched and quite frankly it is freaking me out."
Li-kun snorted quietly. "Now you know how we feel whenever you have your damn camera with you…"
"Well, I don't have it with me now, do I? So you can relax." I said, my tone bordering on waspish.
"I was just making a point. You don't have to get all defensive on me."
"I wasn't getting defensive!"
"Yes you were!"
"Isn't that one of your camera's Tomoyo-chan?"
Our encroaching argument came to a grinding halt at Chiharu-chan's statement. There, sitting in the middle of the floor, all innocent and inanimate, was one of my many video cameras. It seemed to be mocking me with its lens.
We all stared at it. Well, all of us except Sakura-chan who was looking at the nearby wall with a frown on her face.
"Do you think we should look to see if there is anything recorded on it?"
"You mean other than what I have recorded myself…" I asked, my tone doing little to hide my unease and fear.
Chiharu-chan nodded grimly. "I don't want to either, but it might hold some clues." She knelt down and picked it up. "I want all this weird stuff to stop. Yamazaki-kun genuinely sounds like he's telling the truth about the voices and it's just not something that I can stomach, I sorry to say..."
"The voices bit or the telling the truth bit?" Added Li-kun.
"The telling the truth bit." She shrugged. "I know. It doesn't mean I like it, but after so many years listening to him tell stories, I've kinda gotten used to it."
She pulled out the little viewing screen and pressed play. For a few seconds it showed the time when Sakura-chan pointed out the second bumper sticker, the one that had been stuck to the back of Li-kun's wig, but then it turned to static. I felt myself relax slightly when the static continued, but the chill down the spine returned with a vengeance when the static cleared…and showed the shadowing image of a man in a raincoat, frightening similar to that worn by the killer in 'I know what you did last summer', standing in a hallway very similar to the one we were standing in. We all watched, eyes wide, pupils dilated in fear, as the figure just stood there. It was facing us, but due to the shadows we couldn't see his face, which I for one was quite glad for. The figure beckoned with an outstretched hand then turned to walk down the hall. The screen returned to static once more.
"…Anyone else need a change of pants?"
"Shhh! Can you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Those footsteps!"
"…"
"…you can hear it, can't you?"
"…"
"Can't you?"
"Shut up! Shut up! I'm choosing not to hear it!"
"Why is everyone whispering?"
"So the crazy hook wielding maniac can't find us!"
We collectively went pale and huddled more closely together.
"What should we do?"
Chiharu-chan bit her lip. "Please don't think I'm crazy for suggesting this, but maybe we should keep going."
"What, where the raincoat guy was indicating?"
"Well, yeah…"
"…"
"I've got a few words other than 'crazy', if you want to hear them…"
"I'm serious Li-kun. If this is a prank or…something else, we won't find out just standing around here. The only way we can go is down this hall. And what about all those people that disappeared? Maybe they're down here too. They might need our help."
"Who cares about them?! They've probably been dissected by the raincoat man by now, and I for one don't want to join them."
"I thought you were brave Li-kun. You're not going chicken on us, are you?"
"I am not chicken! It's been a very long night!"
"Look, would you two stop bickering?" I took a deep breath. "Chiharu-chan is right. We need to keep going."
Li-kun's mouth snapped shut as he brooded.
"And you are being chicken…"
Sakura-chan put a halt to the impending free-for-all when she said "Would everyone be quiet? I think I can hear voices…"
"Oh great, voices and footsteps. What's the voices saying, 'Tremble, tiny victims, while I sharpen my gouging hook'?"
"No! It sounds like people." We all paused to listen. At first I couldn't hear a thing over the dripping of water, but after a bit I heard it. It was very faint, but I could hear it. The sound of people yelling, calling out for help.
"C'mon. We've got to help them." We jogged forward, Sakura-chan in the lead, the rest of us in a cluster behind. Sakura-chan was running a little too fast for the rest of us, so she rounded the corner before any of us did, and it was in the split second between when she rounded that corner and when we reached, that my overly wound up mind quickly thought 'and what's the bet that she isn't going to be around that corner…'.
We rounded the corner.
"Hey, where's Sakura-chan?" Inquired Chiharu-chan as she slowed down, looking confused.
Really, I should start up a clairvoyance business or something…
Li-kun scowled. "Not again…"
"Why does she keep doing that..?" Inquired Chiharu-chan.
"Because she is the duck…it's how she's supposed to act…", added Yamazaki-kun, who up until now had been in a state of dreamy silence, and who was promptly ignored by everyone.
"I don't know, but she'll turn up soon enough, and claim that we were the ones that lost her…" Li-kun started forward. "C'mon, the voices sound like they're coming from up ahead."
As we got closer, it became apparent that the voices where coming from a door at the end of the hall, and by the sounds of it, there were a few of them.
Li-kun reached the door first and rattled the handle, expecting it to be locked, but was momentarily thrown off guard when the door swung open.
Then he was momentarily deafened by the collective shout of "DON'T SHUT THE DOOR!"
We stared at the people inside the room in shock.
They stared back at us looking relieved. "Finally!" said an approaching fairy; it was Rika-chan.
"What happened? Why is everyone in here? And how come you couldn't get out? The door wasn't locked."
She waved a hand at the inner side of the door, where an important part of a door, the door handle, had been removed. You could only open it on the outside. But that still didn't explain why they were all stuck in here. Maybe the first person, but surely that person could have called out before the next person closed the door…
As the other people started to file out, (looking very relieved, but still a little skittish), Rika-chan explained, "We were all chased down here by this creep in a black raincoat. We were so scared and when we came to this hall we just bolted for the door, and slammed it shut behind us. It happened too fast for anyone to give a warning." She frowned. "How come you weren't being chased?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I think we've all been part of someone else's sick joke. We've seen the raincoat man, but it was on a videotape, and he was beckoning us to come forward. That's the last we saw of him, up until now." The few people that were passing us when I said 'raincoat man' shivered and hurried out a little faster.
Li-kun frowned. "Hey, you haven't by chance seen Sakura, have you?"
Rika-chan shook her head. "Haven't seen her all night." She frowned. "She isn't missing still is she?"
"Well…" Li-kun quickly told her about Sakura-chan's little disappearing act. Rika-chan shivered. "That's weird…it's hard to believe something like that would happen to Sakura-chan…"
She didn't know the half of it. Sakura-chan was just so powerful a magician that it was almost infeasible for something like that to be happening to her…
"Is there anyone else you know that's missing?" asked Chiharu-chan, "Where's Naoko-chan?"
Rika-chan sighed and waved a hand to the back of the room, as the last of the other people left. "I wouldn't disturb her if I was you, she's a little touchy…"
Naoko-chan, dressed up as a skeleton, was sitting cross-legged in the corner, looking all the world like she had just one the lottery, a private jet, a car and about three puppies, and was typing away furiously on her laptop.
Rika-chan smiled grimly. "She says that this is 'gold' and that she doesn't want to miss any details. She was one of the first people that got trapped down here, but out of all of us, she's the happiest." Rika-chand shook her head and turned back to face us. "Anyway, the only person I know that isn't here, besides Sakura-chan, is Eriol-kun…"
It hit me like a jolt. Eriol-kun, I had completely forgotten about him. Well, not completely. He had entered my thoughts a time or two, but I had never dwelled on it. I knew he could look after himself, he wasn't as powerful as he was before, but he still was by no means powerless. But to just not think of looking for him…I tried to remember the last time I had seen him.
It was when he had just gotten changed into his costume; he was dressing up as a pirate, and I was pinning the parrot plushy to his shoulder when he said something. It didn't strike me as odd at the time, but it was really quite strange, on reflection. "Have a good time Tomoyo. And remember, it's all fake, so try not to get too scared." The look on his face as he said that, kissing me on the cheek, was cheerful, but it was slightly guilty too, as though he knew something I didn't…
I mentioned it to Li-kun and the others. His expression instantly went dark. "He's behind this, I know it."
"Now, Li-kun," I said, using my most soothing voice, "don't go jumping to any conclusions yet. Eriol-kun says a lot of weird things…"
"Yes, and every time he says something weird, something weird happens."
"Not every time…" I said, knowing full well that it was a pointless argument. He was, unfortunately, somewhat right.
I leaned a bit closer to Li-kun, so no one else could hear what I was saying. "Do you think it's odd that I haven't really thought of looking for Eriol-kun? Besides you and Sakura-chan, he's the other person I would always go to for help."
Li-kun snorted in contempt. "I don't think it's odd at all. It just means you've finally come to your senses." I frowned at him, but he wasn't looking at me anymore.
"What's wrong?"
He held up a hand for silence, and stepped over to the open door, putting himself up against the wall next to the door frame. The group froze.
"Li-kun" Chiharu-chan hissed. "What's wrong?"
He frowned, his body tense. "I can hear something…sounds like footsteps…"
Everyone huddled a little closer to the person closest to them.
Well, everyone that wasn't Naoko-chan or Yamazaki-kun. Naoko-chan, stars in her eyes, was now typing even faster on her laptop, so fast it was getting hard to see her fingers. As for Yamazaki-kun, he was sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth. He was muttering something, but no one was game enough to go hear what he was saying.
"C'mon," Li-kun beckoned. "Let's go."
"What?" Chiharu-chan tried to shriek without going out of a whisper, "Why should we?"
"Because," Li-kun said, slipping through the open doorway. "The person making those footsteps is heading right this way, and in case you haven't noticed, this room doesn't have a back door…"
He looked both ways, then back at us, huddled together in the room and grinned in a very sadistic and not at all reassuring way. "On the other hand, having you there will give the raincoat man something to eviscerate, giving me a chance to get away safely." He shrugged and sighed, ignoring our shocked, pale faces. "Well, if that's what you want to do. Just remember to struggle a lot, I want as much time as possible…" He turned and walked off…
1010101
"Ow! Diadouji-chan, do you have to grip my arm so hard?" I stuck my nose in the air and 'hmmphed'. "Well, if someone hadn't gone and said something's that will haunt me for the rest of my days, then I wouldn't have to, now would I?"
Li-kun sighed and move his other arm. "Hey, I'm not going anywhere buster…"
Li-kun sighed again. We looked a bit weird, I'll admit. Li-kun, having scared us into leaving the room, was currently the eye of a very scared cyclone. I was clutching his arm, Chiharu-chan was clutching his other arm, Yamazaki-kun was trailing behind us, dragged along by Chiharu-chan, and Naoko-chan was following along behind us, having decided that all the exciting things seem to happen around us. She was scribbling furiously in a small notepad, as she couldn't type while she walked, not that she didn't attempt it a few times.
"We've got to get out of here…" Yamazaki-kun suddenly said.
"That's the best thing I've heard you say all day…" Chiharu-chan quipped. "Did the Pink Cow of Surprises tell you that?"
"No," Yamazaki-kun looked distressed. He stopped walking, jerking Chiharu-chan's grip from Li-kun's arm, and causing the rest of us to stop and turn. "It's…the raincoat man…the voices say the raincoat man is coming…"
Li-kun was obviously getting a little tired of things. He scowled. "Well good. When he gets here I'll knock him out and steal his raincoat. The weather report said there was a chance of rain tonight…"
"Don't say things like that! "Rika-chan hissed. "You'll get him angry."
"No I won't." Li-kun said, throwing his hands in the air. "He's not even here, he's not even real!"
"Uhh…"
"This is just some stupid Halloween prank that has gone on for far too long, and I for one am sick of it!"
"Uhh, guys..?"
"Not now, Yamazaki-kun. And another thing, what's so damn scary about a man in a raincoat anyway? You've all just watched too many of those damn teen horror movies." Yamazaki-kun was tugging on Li-kun's shirt sleeve, making strange little whining noises. "WHAT?!?"
Yamazaki-kun whimpered and pointed.
We all turned.
We all screamed.
And then we all ran.
1010101
"How-(puff)-how can he keep up with us-(puff, pant) if we're running, and he's (puff) only walking?"
"Because this is just like one of those damn teen horror movies, that's why!" We rounded the corner at a full run, the raincoat man, still shrouded in shadow despite all the lights he walked under, somehow only a few steps behind us.
Chiharu-chan was fading fast. "I-(puff puff)-I don't think I can run any longer!"
"It's not that far now, we're almost out of the school!"
We ran full pelt for the beckoning doorway.
"Almost there!"
SMACK!
The locked doors rattled violently as all of us ran into them head on. We bounced off and landed in a heap a few metres back.
"Why is it locked?"
"How the hell should I know?"
"Aargh My laptop! Please don't be broken…"
"Worry about us, not the laptop!"
And as we squabbled, the raincoat man got closer. He started to chuckle, as I felt everyone start to tremble with fear. "Yes, keep running, it always makes you bleed more when you run, MWAA-HAA-HAA-HAA!"
"No!"
"Get away form us!"
"Can you hold still so I can take a picture of you for my story?"
"NAOKO-CHAN!"
"MWAA-HAA-HAA-HAA!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!"
We all cringed back as he raised his hook and broke into a jog, the halls filling with his horrible laughter and our screaming.
My life was flashing before my eyes when a figured jumped out between us and the approaching figure, "YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!", and promptly kicked the raincoat man in the shins.
Hard.
The raincoat man yelped and clutched his leg, his hook dropping to the ground to reveal a normal human hand.
"Dammit Sakura-chan, that hurt…" The voice, though in pain, sounded amused.
Sakura-chan, our saviour, put her hands on her hips and gave the hopping raincoat man a very livid glare. "Good! It was supposed to!"
"Uhh, Sakura-chan…you know him?" I ventured.
Sakura-chan turned, her expression dark, and helped us to our feet. "Of course I know him," She turned and gave the silently chuckling man a smoldering glare. "He's my brother…"
"…"
"WHAT?"
Chuckling, the man pulled back his hood to reveal that it was indeed Sakura-chan's brother. He grinned at our dumbstruck expressions. "Happy Halloween!"
"But Sakura-chan," I asked as Rika-chan, still looking pale, Chiharu-chan, looking relieved that it was all over, Yamazaki-kun, looking a little confused but relieved, having said that the voices had gone, and Naoko-chan, looking a little disappointed that it was all over, left for home, "Your brother didn't do all that other weird stuff that happened tonight…"
We were following Sakura-chan towards our class room, and she replied as she walked, "No, he didn't…" Her tone was very dark, and her answer fell well short of what I would call helpful.
"But Sakura-chan…" She stopped in front of our classroom and held up a hand by way of answer. I exchanged glances with Li-kun, as I pushed the door opened and stepped into the room, one of the few that hadn't been decorated for the event.
We got quite a shock. Inside, bounded to various pieces of upturned furniture, was Kero-chan and Eriol-kun.
"Good evening I trust, Tomoyo-chan dear?"
"Wha-?"
"I KNEW IT!" Eriol-kun continued to smile benignly as Li-kun stomped up and glared him in the face. "I knew you were behind this, you bastard."
"Now now, Li-chan, it was all for fun."
Li-kun growled and looked to inflict grievous bodily harm to Eriol-kun if Sakura-chan hadn't pulled him back. "Now now, Syaoran, calm down…"
"GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF MY SISTER BRAT!"
"SHE HAS HER HANDS ON ME!"
As Li-kun and Touya-kun started yet another of their never ending arguments, Sakura-chan in the middle, trying to act as referee and peacemaker for both sides, I sighed, tried not to listen and went over to free Kero-chan and Eriol-kun. "Would either of you like to explain what's going on here?" I asked wearily. "And please don't say ghosts, I'm rather sick of the whole subject really…"
Kero-chan grinned as I untied him from the leg of an upturned table. "Simple, when those letters about the Haunted house came home the other week, Touya-kun decided he'd be one of the volunteers it asked for. I decided to make things interesting by coming along and pulling a few pranks to keep everyone on their toes. I asked Suppi-chan to help, he refused, but then he told Eriol of our plans, and he decided he wanted to be a part of it all."
"So all of the weird stuff, like the voices…"
Kero-chan grinned, "That was me, I hid in the kids' backpack, most of the time, as for the rest…" He shrugged, still grinning, "his costume has big pockets…"
"And the bumper stickers..?"
"They were Touya's idea, but I put them on…" Kero-chan grinned, looking smug.
"And my camera?"
Eriol-kun patted me on the shoulder. "Sorry to have to do that to you Tomoyo dear, but we couldn't leave you out of the fun."
"But how did you..?"
Kero-chan waved a paw. "Me again!"
I sat back to think. "Okay, that makes sense, but what about Sakura-chan, she just kept disappearing…"
"That was me, actually," said, Eriol, cleaning his glasses. "That didn't work out as planned, but ended up being quite more effective than I had hoped for. The spell was supposed to make her go a little transparent, but it went wrong, probably because she's so strong, magically speaking, and was just ended up moving her around a bit. Still, I guess that counts as 'disappearing' in the end…"
"And what about-"
"I had another copy of the CD. Touya-kun wired his portable CD player into the p.a. system."
"And…"
"Yes, about that," Eriol-kun looked apologetic. "I couldn't have you or Li-chan getting it into your heads to go looking for me, otherwise it would have ruined the whole thing. It's a harmless memory charm, only lasts a few hours."
"So this whole night has just been one big prank."
Kero-chan nodded, looking pleased. "Yep! Are we good, or are we good?"
"Well, it all depends…"
"On what?" They both asked.
I beckoned them both closer with a finger. They glanced at each other first, then inched closer, to hear my whisper.
"On whether you got it all on tape, because if I find that I have something I know was missed I will personally dress you both up in pink taffeta party dresses, have Sakura-chan's five-year old neighbour to do your make-up, tie you to the school flag pole and charge people to get their pictures taken with you."
Eriol-kun and Kero-chan went pale.
I sat back and smiled, as the dulcet tones of Li-kun, Touya-kun and Sakura-chan all tried to get the other to either shut up, grow-up or go jump off something tall (preferably with pointy sharp things below) echoed through the classroom.
Ahh, Halloween, a time for everyone, even those with a charming and passive disposition, such as myself, can put on a costume, pretend they are someone or something else, and scare the living daylights out of people who expect it from you the least.
Trick or treat…
Fin.
1010101
Finally…I finished this bloody chapter…(collapses in a heap, twitching slightly) normally I wouldn't be so relieved on finishing a chapter…it almost sounds as though I don't enjoy writing…I do, it's just that this one had a particular deadline, and I have had zilchfree time…seriously! With work and my course I have two days to do homework, household chores and whatever else I've had to put off because of work and my course!
Hopefully I'll crack soon so I can have a holiday in a nice mental home…
Anyway, don't expect anything up for Blessed Be for a while (if you're familiar with my writing habits, you probably weren't anyway…) I have a break somewhere around Christmas but up until then I need to focus on my course. (It's hell of a lot of fun, but we have so much to do…and only a limited time to do it in.) Anyway, I find writing quite relaxing, so if up until then I need to chill, I'll probably get a few pages written now and again, but it's definitely not going to be ready until sometime next year. (And if you really think about it, that's not too far away…Actually, that's a mildly frightening thought…I don't want to think about it…)
Anyway, enough of me crapping on, please review (don't be too harsh, this is the self-edited version remember…) and ciao till whenever I actually get time to write the next chappie for Blessed Be!
- StarDragon, the increasingly frazzled one…