Hauntingly Beautiful

Chapter 1: Haunted Apartment

BREAKING NEWS: Nineteen year old found dead in apartment. Police and detectives suspect murder. Investigation still ongoing. Murder weapon, motive, murder(s) yet to be found.

-Wardington News, 1975

There was a story that went on for nearly forty-two years in Wardington that apartment 86 in Magnolia Apartments was haunted. The story goes that there was a foreign exchange student studying abroad from Russia who was nearly finishing up her freshman year of university, was murdered in her apartment. The investigation for the murder of the college student lasted for about a good year or so before the police and detectives decided that the murder case wasn't worth their time and the case hasn't been touched ever since then. Rumor had it among Wardington residents that the spirit of the girl haunted the apartment she died in, bringing fear to the new tenants who lived in it. People have claimed that they heard screams emitting at exactly 8: 26 A.M. each day, the time she was supposedly killed among other rumors.

Twenty year old Shun Kazami never believed that story and rented the apartment because it was dirt cheap. He moved back to his childhood city due to a change in universities and his childhood house was already sold to another family when he left for Bayview. He was forced to rent an apartment because he found apartment 86 cheaper than living in the dorms at his school. The cherry on top was that when his landlady, a kind, elderly lady, found out that he was a college student, she made his rent cheaper than what it already was and the college student supposed that it was because of the spirit. When he signed the papers, agreeing to the terms and conditions, he was all set. He would move in as soon as possible and there was nothing that could stop him from doing otherwise. That is, until his best friend found out that he was living in that apartment.

"You're living in THAT apartment?! You're crazy!" His best friend, Dan Kuso screeched. "Haven't you heard of the story? A college girl was murdered. MURDERED."

Shun rolled his eyes as he sipped on his cup of green tea. When his friends found out that he was moving, they threw him a good-bye party at a café that reminded him a lot of the Misaki's café, much to his chagrin.

"Dan's right, Shun. There's a lot of rumors about that apartment. I heard that a tenant left because he would always see floating kitchen knives." Dan's longtime girlfriend, Runo Misaki added on. His other friends, Julie Makimoto and Marucho Marukura, yelped at that rumor.

That's just an urban legend." Shun waved it off. He never believed in ghosts or spirits and he certainly won't let his best friend convince him otherwise. "Besides, it's too late now. I already signed the papers."

"Well, alright then man. I'll see you on the other side." Dan raised his cup of orange juice. One of Shun's hazel eyes twitched in annoyance when he found his other friends raising their drinks as well, solemn expressions on their faces.

It had been nearly three weeks into school and Shun almost completely forgot about the legend. His schedule was packed; he had four courses to take care off as well as being a part-time martial arts instructor, so really, he had no time to even think about the spirit of the dead girl. As for the screaming at 8:26, he was usually at the library at around 8:15, so he could never really say for sure that that rumor was true. As for the floating kitchen knives rumor, Shun had very little household items to begin with. He mostly ate at the main dining hall or when he did eat at home, he mostly ate instant ramen or noodles that only required wooden chopsticks and a few plastic spoons and forks. He knew that eating instant ramen wasn't healthy for him, but it was cheap and he needed the money to pay rent-because hey, even if this apartment was already cheap as heck, working part-time didn't pay that much and plus, he was trying to pay for his textbooks that costed a ton of money. Besides that, he usually passed out once he came home from either work or school, and would stay passed out until the next morning, so again, Shun can't really vouch for the rumor of the spirit haunting the new tenants at night. Except, there were a few times when he woke up the next morning to find himself tucked in with a blanket, even though he swore that he didn't went under the covers that night. With those instances, he would usually brush it off, blaming it on his tiredness and sleep-muddled mind.

One day, his grandfather appeared in the front of his apartment door on a Saturday afternoon, who shook his head at the sight of his grandson's apartment.

"Why is your fridge so empty? Why are the only things I see are packs of wooden chopsticks and bags of instant noodles?" His grandfather tapped the fridge door with his wooden cane. "Don't tell me the ghost ate all of your food!"

"There is no ghost, Grandpa." Shun answered as he handed his grandfather a glass of water. "I've just been too busy-"

"Busy? Ha! Too busy to go buy food?! Give me your laptop, we're ordering real food for you, not these instant noodles you've been consuming." The younger of the two males obediently surrendered his laptop over as the elder typed who-knows-what onto Google as Shun looked at what his grandfather was doing. He was ordering groceries on a grocery delivery website.

"Neat, eh? Fabia taught that to me when she stayed with us." Grandpa Kazami grinned up at his grandson. Fabia Sheen was another one of friend Shun's friends; he met her and her soon-to-be-boyfriend, Ren Krawler, during a vacation with Dan, Marucho, and Jake(another friend) about two summers ago. Before summer ended, Fabia and Ren decided to spend the remainder of summer in Bayview and the couple stayed with Shun and his grandfather. The elder took a quick liking to Fabia and they both taught each other new things; Grandpa Kazami with technology and Fabia with martial arts.

Shun rolled his eyes as his grandfather typed and clicked in random places and just before the elder paid for the groceries, he stopped and took out his credit card, ushering Shun closer.

"Here, this is my credit card account. Use it to buy groceries. I don't want to see you eating any instant noodles or anything like that again." Grandpa Kazami said sternly, although Shun knew that his grandfather was showing his compassionate side. His grandfather rarely showed any compassion towards him, but times like those made Shun smile, knowing that his grandfather was more than just a grumpy old man.

"I will." The college student lied. Although he came from a decently well-off family, Shun didn't want to keep asking his grandfather for money; he wanted to be independent. He supposed that the next time his grandfather came over, he'd just buy some groceries to make it seem like he was 'using' the money from his grandfather's credit card. Hopefully Fabia didn't teach him to check his credit card account online.

While waiting for the groceries to arrive, the two men caught up with each other, making small talk. Dan and Runo were both attending Bayview State University while Julie was studying abroad in Australia. Marucho was offered a scholarship to a prestigious university in America, allowing him to skip his senior year of high school. When asked about what Shun was up to, the twenty year old mentioned his classes as well as partaking a part-time job as a martial arts instructor, much to the delight of his grandfather.

When the groceries came, Grandpa Kazami was quick on his feet to prepare the food, not allowing his grandson anywhere near the kitchen. In less than twenty minutes, his grandfather had made Japanese curry rice alongside dorayaki for dessert. Shun ate without saying a word, besides saying thanks for the food as well as asking for seconds. His grandfather was pleased.

His grandfather stayed until Sunday morning, deciding to leave because Shun had class the next day as well as wanting to get back home out of 'fear' of the ghost.

As the two men waited for the bullet train to arrive, his grandfather slipped him his credit card. Before Shun could refuse though, the bullet train arrived with his grandfather walking as fast as he could to avoid any arguments with him. As the bullet train began moving, Shun could only sigh in annoyance as he stuffed the card into his wallet, preparing for a walk home to his apartment. Once home, he placed the credit card on the kitchen counter, before delving into his textbooks to prepare for his classes the next day.

A month passed and just like the ghost, Shun had nearly forgotten about his grandfather's credit card. His homework began loading up and his part-time job got a bit more demanding and neglecting his grandfather's words of eating healthier, the college student continued to consume instant noodles and food from the main dining hall at school. Like the credit card, Shun could care less about the ghost at that point. He would collapse right after he forced himself to eat a pack of noodles and prepared for bed, not bothering to pull a blanket over him or anything like that. So when he would wake up the next morning with a blanket over him, he blamed it on his sleep-deprived brain for fabricating things up.

It wouldn't be long before Shun would soon remember about both the ghost and the credit card.

End of Chapter 1.

Note: *imitates Britney Spears* Oops, I did it again!

No, seriously though, I did it again. Anyways, I apologize for being on such a long hiatus and when I finally do come back, I come back with another story instead of an updated chapter. orz PLEASE FORGIVE ME! Anywho, I was inspired by four different stories/T.V. shows for this story. THAT'S RIGHT; FOUR! Anyways, this is my first attempt at a mystery/drama story and I do apologize if character in here so far seems very OOC or anything like that. I also apologize if this fic has many errors; I wrote this all in a span of an hour, all without a beta reader as well. And I'm also sorry that this first chapter is very lengthy (this is the first long chapter I've ever written!) and I hope it wasn't a pain in the neck to read through it all. Anyways, please leave a review for your thoughts, concerns, hopes, dreams, fears or whatever you want for this story! I hope to talk to you soon! Bye!