disclaimer:I do not own Detective School Q.

Chapter 3: A Nightmare in the Darkness

In Room 7 of Nogisaka inn, Shizuko was getting dressed for bed. Ryuu was waiting outside, respectful as always. Kyu was waiting outside as well, since Meg kicked him out so that she could get dressed. (hehehe…)

Ryuu knocked on the door. "Are you done?"

"Wait! Just a second!" was the reply.

The door opened.

"Done," Shizuko said, stepping out. She was wearing pajamas. "I'll wait out here while you get changed."

Ryuu nodded, and entered the room.

So Kyu and Shizuko were left outside, in the hall.

Kyu grinned at Shizuko. "So you're rooming with Ryuu, huh?"

"What's wrong with that?" asked Shizuko curiously.

"Oh, nothing. Ehehe…" Kyu replied awkwardly.

Shizuko gave him a strange look.

"It's just that every girl who looks at Ryuu…well, he kinda makes them blush for some weird reason. You're different, though," said Kyu calculatingly.

Her eyes widened in surprise. "W-what? I mean, sure, Ryuu's pretty cute but…"

Her cheeks turned pink for a second.

Kyu pretended to be disappointed. "Oh, well, so much for the record."

Shizuko's mouth dropped open. "Why, you little—"

Ryuu's calm voice interrupted whatever Shizuko was about to say. "I'm done."

Kyu grinned innocently.

Placing her hand on the doorknob, Shizuko gave Kyu one last glare, then entered the room.

Ryuu was already sitting crosslegged on his bed. "Hi."

Shizuko gave him a half-smile as she made her way to her own bed. (take note, there will be NO sharing of beds in this fanfic. I don't know what kind of chaos will ensue if I did make them share beds. )

"What did you think of the case, Ryuu? You were kinda quiet earlier."

"Hmm? Well, I think it's a bit of a challenge, but other than that, it's a pretty simple case."

"Yes, but I wonder if a murder would be as easy."

"It all depends. Sealed-room murders are one of the more difficult kinds of murders, for example."

"I heard you're good at explaining sealed room murders, though."

"Hmm," Ryuu said thoughtfully.


Meanwhile, Kyu was still outside, knocking on the door of room 9. "Hey, Meg! Aren't you done yet? Shizuko's done already, and so is Ryuu! Aren't you going to let me in yet!"

"Just wait a minute, Kyu! Can't you be a little more patient?" Meg shouted through the door.

"Well, I want to dress up and go to sleep too, you know!"

Meg opened the door. She was in her nightgown already. "Well, if you weren't such a pervert sometimes maybe I'd let you in here more often!"

"WHAT! Are you talking about the underwear thing? All those times I didn't mean to peek!"

"Oh, sure! What about that time we were on the Miyaki's cursed flame case? At the hot spring? You and Kinta were peeking on us!"

"What, that? But I didn't even get a proper look!"

"But you tried, and that makes you just as guilty!"

Ryuu and Shizuko heard the commotion and took a look outside. "What's going on?' asked Ryuu.

"What, are you guys fighting again?" asked Shizuko sleepily.

Kazuma and Kinta came out as well. "Well, what's going on with the lovebirds, then?" asked Kinta.

"We're not lovebirds, okay!" said Meg.

"Ooh, you're getting mad, and that means you're in love," Kinta teased.

"CUT IT OUT WITH THE LOVE STUFF!" Meg yelled.

Shizuko and Ryuu looked at each other as chaos ensued in the hallway.

"Weeelll, let's just leave them to it, then," Shizuko told Ryuu. Ryuu nodded, looking a bit awkward at seeing the argument between Meg, Kyu and Kinta. They went back into their room, closing the door behind them.

"Are they always like that?" Shizuko asked Ryuu.

"Yes, I suppose," replied Ryuu.

SBAM!

Shizuko and Ryuu jumped.

"What was that?" said Ryuu.

"Meg must have brought out the heavy artillery," laughed Shizuko.

Ryuu gave a small smile. Shizuko checked her watch.

"Well, maybe we should sleep already. It's nine P.M. Let Kyu and Meg argue till the morning hours."

Ryuu nodded. "Good night."

"Good night."


She was back in the house...

"Ha ha ha…" an evil laugh echoed.

Shizuko turned around suddenly, her heart pounding.

"Kyu? Ryuu?anybody?" she said tentatively, her voice resonating through the empty house.

A door creaked open somewhere to her right, revealing the darkness beyond.

Scared now, she stepped hesitantly towards the door.

Suddenly, a pale, bony hand grabbed at her throat. She gasped, choking as its fingers pressed harder on her windpipe.

She felt herself being lifted up. She was suffocating…

Suddenly the hand let go of her.

She screamed as she fell into a deep, dark abyss. The last thing she saw was the old man's gaunt face…

"No!" Shizuko gasped.

She was sitting up in her bed, panting as though she'd just run a marathon. Her hand went instinctively to her throat. Still breathing heavily, she turned on her bedside lamp. It gave off a hazy glow as she tried to untangle herself from the sheets.

What a nightmare, she thought. She glanced over at Ryuu's bed. She could hear steady breathing. Apparently, he had no freaky nightmares disturbing him tonight.

Not noticing that she was close to the edge of the bed, while she was untangling herself from the sheets, she fell off with a loud thud.

"Ow…" she moaned.

Ryuu's eyes snapped open at the noise. "Uh?" He got up.

"Shizuko?" he asked worriedly. Her lamp was on.

"Over here," he heard her groan. She seemed to have fallen off the edge of the bed.

He walked over. "What happened?"

Shizuko sat up. "Nothing, really. Just a nightmare."

He extended his hand to help her up."A nightmare? What about?"

She took it and pulled herself up. Then, sitting down on her bed, she described her dream.

"I guess this case had a bigger effect on me than I thought," she finished.

"That's natural," said Ryuu.

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, I'm all right now. I think I'll just try to get back to sleep."

Ryuu nodded. He began walking back to his bed.

"Ryuu?"

He stopped."What?" he said quietly, not turning around.

"I'm sorry I woke you."

He turned around. "It's okay," he said softly. He walked the rest of the way to his bed and lay down again.

Shizuko lay down again too, and, strangely enough, she fell right back asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

As an added bonus, no more terrible dreams of freaky-looking inventors bothered her.


rants:this chapter was so crappy, i wanted to kill myself for even posting it here! anyway, this is all i've got for now, i hope you enjoyed it despite my terrible portyal of the characters!