42- Vignette- Pre-Game (9 years ago)

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Early Halloween

Staring intensely at the mirror, Shiki hardly recognised herself. Using green and black body and face paint, her mum managed to make her look exactly like a real zombie! The patched brown dress she had only made it look even more realistic.

As she heard her mum approaching, she hid around the corner.

Three...

Two...

One...

"Boo!"

"Oh my!" exclaimed Mama. "There's a monster in the house!"

Shiki giggled. "Mama! It's me! Shiki!"

"Oh no, my daughter turned into a zombie."

"Yep! Now let's go! We'll be late!"

Shiki was excited - this was the first time that she was dressing up for halloween. It was Saturday but her elementary school was having a Halloween party, open to everyone.

The moment they arrived, Shiki was let loose and ran around, looking in wonder at everyone else's costume's. There was a small little boy dressed up like an angel. He was holding on to his parent's phone, a bored expression on his face. She also saw a pair of siblings, both vampires and both baring their fake fangs at everyone they passed.

Wow! This is awesome!

The little girl ran into the building, walking around with a wide smile. She needed to go to the assembly hall - there was supposed to be treasure there!

When she entered, though, she squeaked because it was very dark and it looked like maze had been put up. There was a sign, with red words: 'if adventure is what you seek, go forth. But beware, there are many mysterious things lurking in the Forbidden Maze.'

Oh no...

She should have waited for Mama. There was no way she was going to go there alone. She wanted to turn back but she collided with another kid.

Rubbing her forehead, she found herself facing someone covered in a white sheet, two holes cut out for two blue eyes to look out of.

"Sorry," she said, about to move past.

"Wait! Aren't you going to the middle?"

"Um...I think I'm going to wait for Mama."

"Oh, okay." The little ghost trudged on down he path.

Shiki waited by the door, hoping her mum would come soon. Then she hears a scared cry. The little ghost!

She ran into the path, no second thoughts, and found the ghost on his bottom, whimpering at the skeleton that had been put up. If Shiki ran into that she would get scared too. She slowly edged closer and then offered her hand. "Um...I was getting scared of waiting on my own. Can we go through the maze together?"

"Okay." Accepting her help the little ghost said, "Thank you, Zombie-chan."

"Zombie-chan?"

"U-huh. Since it's Halloween! You're Zombie-chan and you can call me Ghost-kun."

She guessed it made sense to stop calling him little ghost in her head, since she was just as little.

With the hand she used to help him up, she shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Ghost-kun."

Hand in hand, the two children journeyed through the mysterious maze with great courage. Not wanting to look scared in front of the other, neither let out another scream even in the face of a scary looking Oni.

They finally made it to the centre, where there was a giant chest. It was very big and was in front of a still scarecrow. With enormous effort, Zombie-chan and Ghost-kun lifted the top, revealing what looked like sparkling gold coins.

"We did it!" Shiki squealed, eyes sparkling. We got them!"

"Victory!"

The two high-fived triumphantly.

"But how are we going to get it back?" Shiki asked. She went around to the side and pulled. "Yep, I thought so! It's too heavy."

"Let me try! "

"But Ghost-kun!"

"I'm a boy! I'm strong!" With puffed out cheeks, Ghost-kun tugged he chest by its handle but it wouldn't budge. "Wait." Huff! "I've nearly -" Huff! "-got it!"

With a last pull, he fell backwards. Frowning he stood back up. "Stupid chest. It won't move."

"That's because it's cursed."

With the sudden sound of a new voice, the two clung onto each other, shaking.

"W-who's there?"

The scarecrow moved and this time the children really did scream. "None shall remove my treasure chest. Yet, for coming this far, you may be rewarded. Take what you can carry and leave." The Scarecrow pointed to what must be the exit.

"Y-yes, Scarecrow-san!"

They gathered as much as they could gather in their arms and ran out as fast as they could.

Reaching the more crowded school corridor, they saw a lot of other kids sitting down with piles of gold coins too. The coins however turned out to be chocolates.

"Oh, we should sit down and eat too!"

Finding a spot for themselves, the two began munching down on their chocolate.

"That is delicious!" said Shiki between bites.

"It is!" Ghost-kun ate his food under his sheet but Shiki could tell he was smiling.

Once they had finished, they threw away the wrappers in the bin.

"What do you want to do next, Ghost-kun?"

"Next, I want to...Ahhh!" Ghost-kun sounded panicked. "My mum told me that the maze was the last one and I had to go find her to go home straight after! She must be looking for me!"

"Oh, okay." Shiki was disappointed. She wanted to play more.

"Sorry!" In a real rush, Ghost-kun started scurrying towards the exit. He turned, jumping to wave. "I had a lot of fun! See you again, Zombie-chan!"

"Bye!" She said, waving vigorously. Aww. That was such a shame. Oh well, maybe she should go find her mum too. But he did say they would see each other again, so they could play then! They could play a game together!

It was only when she reached her mum, did she realisethat she hadn't seen his face and didn't know his name.

She tugged at her her mum's dress. "G-ghost-kun."

"There you are Shiki. What happened?"

"I want to p-play with Ghost-kun." She looked up at her mum. "W-where is he?"

"I don't know who you're talking about." Mama was confused.

"T-then we can't play?"

Her mum hesitated. "No...?"

"...w-w-Wahhhh!"

Mrs. Misaki spent the rest of the afternoon, trying to calm her child down, wondering just who this 'Ghost-kun' was.


A/N: Tadaa! Though the title says Early Halloween I almost posted this too late xD Anyway hope you guys had an eventful one, unlike me! Happy Halloween!

- Dina (31/10/2013)