Are You Afraid?

Chapter II: Tales of the Ghosts

Disclaimer: We all wish we could've thought of a complex storyline before the creators of Tales of the Abyss could. No really. I'm not lying. Yes, sarcasm intended…… never mind, I'm confusing myself.

A/N: Right, so the main pairing is LukexTear. Why? Because Lenne said so, and she goes all MOOEEE, when she sees them together. Also, reviewers agree with me, and they deserve cookies. Yum. Hmm, yes, GuyxNatalia is also a choice. Oh, and Noelle will make her appearance shortly. Thank you for reviewing!

Warning: Please do note, that since the fanfic category was only allowed two genres…… Let me warn you that generally speaking, this fanfic actually has three genres.

Romance.

Humour.

Horror.

Oh my, did Lenne say horror? In fact she did…… Well, you'll see why. It's one of my specialties, and NO gory, blood, flesh, ugh that's disgusting. When I mean horror, I mean scary horror. As in freaky stuff. Like my Click, Click, Slide fanfic. I don't think this will be scary, it will just get a bit freakier from this point on in the fanfiction. So don't read this at one in the morning unless you're full aware and capable of handling it. Haha, I'm writing this myself at night. But don't worry, most of the time it will be humour and fluff of lurve. I don't think this should scare you unless you get easily scared.

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Outside, the raging winds twirled in a synchronized dance with the snow. In other words, it had become a blizzard. The storm had only begun, and Luke was still stuck inside. It was as if Van had planned it out, but Tear had told him that it was impossible to control weather. Like hell it was impossible. Van could create replicas, he could do crap to the Planet Storm, he has too much time on his hands, and worst of all- Van had nice hair just like Tear.

"What the hell?" Luke would often hit his head when thoughts of the sort popped up in his head. No, Luke did not feel attracted to Van, it was just…… anything connected to Tear, or rather, anything that reminded him of Tear…… Thoughts like those would often linger in Luke's mind, a part from saving the world. If he thought of Tataroo Valley, he'd think Tear. If he saw Van's hair, he'd think Tear. Heck, if Luke saw melons, he'd think Tear's chest which would eventually end up being Tear anyway.

It was only yesterday when that twisted game of Jade's had been officially declared. They had a time limit of two weeks to complete the dares, and answer the questions, but none of them had even thought of a dare other than Guy. On top of that, there was no way of escape since all exits were blocked off by the dangerous snowstorm, or Jade himself. It was a not a win-win situation. Everyone had the choice to die or die, though one way consisted of kissing another individual of the same sex, and then lose money.

Luke banged his head multiple times against the window of his luxurious room as he stared out at the blizzard. What the hell would he make Tear do? Others would assume Luke as some perverted moron, but he didn't think about women that way. Well, except about melons, but that was it. No really.

"How about I make her throw a bath tub at Jade?" Luke thought out loud. Actually, that wasn't a bad idea, but that would be suicide for both him and Tear. "Then how about I make her lull Jade to sleep, then I'll throw a bath tub at him?" The redheaded boy figured that wouldn't work either, since there was no way out. "Actually, would Tear even be able to lift a marble bath tub? And why does Jade have to be the referee? I wonder if we're gonna run out of food soon. Then I guess Mieu would come in handy." Luke's train of thoughts went on, and on about nothing in particular until a sharp knock snapped him out of his reveries.

"Hey Luke!" Guy's voice could be heard from the other side of the door. Good, his ol' buddy was here. Maybe he'd have a suggestion or two for the dare-issue, since he wasn't the type to be touching women…… well except when Luke kicked him in the spa, letting him have a feel or two, but nothing else. "Jade's making everyone gather in the main room. Since there's nothing better to do than bang our heads on frozen windows, he'll tell us that tale about that woman who died on top of Mt. Roneal." Sometimes, Luke felt like Guy could see right through doors. Not only doors, but walls, and even clothes…… Ahem...

But wait…… Oh! How come he hadn't thought of this? Tear seemed pretty freaked when Jade wanted to tell them about this story during their adventure on the mountain. This would turn out rather interesting. Luke remembered how the melodist freaked when Jade proposed the little story while they walked up the mountain. He would have never guess that a soldier of her status would be scared of some ghost tales when she could easily defeat monsters. Or maybe it was just some random act she played along back then?

The replica tried to stand up from his position, but something prevented him from doing so. The skin that was exposed to the cold of the window became rather numb from the cold. In other words, Luke's forehead was resting on the frozen windowpane until it became as as white as the snow outside. Yet, the weirdest thing of all was that it seemed like his forehead had been glued to the window- somehow. "What the-"

Tongues were usually what got stuck to frozen things by idiots who either wondered how frost tasted like, or by experimenting like Jade and Dist. Dist probably went through the whole tongue thing, but Luke was in a different situation now. He was stuck at the window- from his forehead, how original. And how the hell did that happen? Skin doesn't get stuck on frozen windows.

"Dammit!"

"Hey, you okay?"

"Y-yeah! Go ahead, I'll come and join you soon!" Luke was already in the process of tugging his face off the window with the help of his hands. It didn't work so well, it was as if his head was actually part of the window.

"Alright, if you say so." Guy probably knew Luke's situation since he could see through walls, clothes, and doors, but he probably decided that his former master was capable of taking care of himself, a.k.a. getting his head off the window.

Oh great, now Luke started to hallucinate. While trying to tear his brain out, Luke could've sworn that he saw blurry figures walk outside, through the dense storm. Actually, it looked like several people made their way across the street, but they were too far away, or too vague for Luke to decipher their identities. As he squinted intensly, the crackling sound went unnoticed until the shattering glass made Luke tumble backwards. Gushing, cold air had already flown in the room, instantly changing the temperature to minus gazillion degrees.

"Agh!" The distressed boy quickly grabbed his sword and dashed out the room. He had almost ran into a laundry cart that stood right outside his room, but he quickly turned on his heels and slammed the door to the room shut. What the hell just happened?

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The main room was coaxed by the warmth of a fireplace. Luckily, it seemed that the place ran on different types of Fonons, offering better heat, light, and comfort. After all, this was the Ketersburg resort. Various kinds of couches that were of similar styles, sat in a way that all of them faced a large, rectangular table in the middle. They were also placed around the fire as different kinds of portraits and plants added to the atmosphere.

In this picturesque room, a group of travelers awaited silently for their last companion to show up. He was sure taking his sweet time, since all of them seemed quite impatient. Though, at last, as one of them started to speak, a clumsy boy landed face flat the second he stepped out of the beeping elevator alerting its boarders of the arrival.

"Wow! Nice entrance there buddy!" Guy grinned. The redhead simply picked himself off the floor, dusted his sweater and plopped himself grumpily on the cushy sofa next to Tear who questioningly gazed at him.

"What happened to your forehead?" She asked. The others had also noticed the reddening mark that oddly took a perfect shape.

Luke tried to look at his own forehead but evidently failed. Grumbling, he took a nearby mirror and examined the mark. His skin became a raw red, and to everybody's shock there was an illegible word imprinted in black. As soon as Luke tried to rub it off, the mark had disappeared, and the wound healed.

"The fu-"

"Anyways, shall I get going to the story?" Jade slipped his hands in the bathrobe he wore. It suited him very well, and seemed quite comfortable too. Besides that, the older man ignored what had just happened including Luke's bewildered glare. Tear seemed to have sunken into the sofa bracing herself silently hoping no one would notice…… She was emotionless but it was quite obvious that the girl didn't want to hear anything about ghosts.

"Hey! Wait! Don't ignore me! What the hell was that thing on my forehead Jade?"

The Colonel looked at his comrade wearily, then waved his hand dissmissively. "It was nothing."

"Leave it until after the story would you?" Natalia brought a cover closer to her chest and scooted over to Guy, who moved further, and further until we was no longer on the couch. "That's not fair Guy. You have to become my servant until this game is over." She stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

The swordsman hesitated, afraid that he'd retort something rude. "B-but Natalia…… my gynaphobia-"

"Well I'll help you overcome it!"

There was no arguing with the princess. What she ordered became law, and law was unbreakable by Guy. After what seemed like a couple of long minutes, the blonde boy sighed, and finally sat next to Natalia at the farthest end of the sofa. Unfortunately, the whole couch started to shake, and the princess shot a glare towards the apologetic Guy.

"S-sorry……" He muttered.

"Well now! Is everyone comfortable?" Jade adjusted his glasses once more and leaned back. This question was more or less directed towards Tear.

"Yes! On with the story Colonel! I just love how you tell us scary stories at night……" The puppeteer huggled her stuffed probably-not-an-animal Tokunaga, and leaned forward in excitement as if Jade was to transformed into a giant, purple dinosaur with green spots.

The snowstorm hadn't helped either. It banged, and whipped against the window, causing quite a ruckus. But what was even more eery was the low moan it emitted through the small gaps in between the walls where the wind could easily flow through. The only source of light in the chamber was the fire that flickered and danced in its little enclosed space. It was a source of pleasant warmth, and could also be considered as the campfire they were all used to.

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Tear wished she had some kind of cover to nestle in, or even a Tokunaga- which she'd certainly prefer- but it would ruin her reputation, and demonstrate her fear of the deceased…… So Tear remained calmly still beside the frustrated Luke. He was still quite freaked about the whole forehead incident.

The young melodist took a sharp intake of breath and let it slowly slip out of her lips. 'Major Legretta wouldn't be happy to know that I'm afraid of stupid things.' The thought of Legretta scowling at her, then preform whatever she had failed to do had put enough sense into Tear's actions. This was her best method of keeping herself calm during life-threatning situations. She looked more relieved.

Once the silence settled in, everyone waited for Jade to start.

It was as if they their group was about to be launched into Outer Space or something, since everyone seemed so anxious. Tear quickly glanced at the swordsman to her left to see whether he was still complaining about his forehead, but to her surprise, Luke was as still as a log, and ready to listen intently.

When Jade started to speak, the raging snowstorm took on a different rhythm, sounding like wind chimes that clinked together melodiously.

"Mt. Roneal as you all know, has had many different tales concerning the wailing, one would hear over the rushing snow as they would make their way to the top." Tear nodded. A man in the city of Ketersburg had tried to tell her about it once, but she told him that she an appointment concerning frozen Cheagles in the mountain to attend, and walked away leaving a perplexe man in her wake.

A thick, and noisy silence filled the room. Even the staff members had leaned closer to hear about this story.

Jade took a slow sip of his warm tea before resuming the tale. He felt quite comfortable and amused at how everyone seemed to be too excited for their own good. "It only happened a few years ago. A single man decided to climb to the top, in hopes of fullfilling a challenge- or would I say, dare- given to him by his friends. He set out on a cold evening, exactly like the one we are currently experiencing. The dare that was given to him would last as long as he accomplished the goal. It consisted of finding the corpse of the woman who died on Mt. Roneal a week prior to his challenge. Apparently, she had committed suicide by freezing to death due to her very painful life, or perhaps it was murder, no one knew for sure."

"But why freeze to death?" Tear heard Luke whispered to himself. She didn't want to interrupt the story to tell Luke that freezing to death was one of the possible choices of the least painful deaths.

"Halfway up the mountain while the man camped in a small grotto near the ice walls, he heard a low moan. Normally, he would think that it belonged to wolves nearby, but something was different about these moans. They were…… feminine. At first, he thought that it was merely the wind, but wind wasn't as high pitched. With a sigh, the big, and good natured man set out to search for whatever made that sound. It sounded like a woman that was trapped deep inside the cave he set camp at, so he decided that as a human, it was his duty to find the trapped woman in distress. Time slowly passed. The further he walked, the more the tunnels stretched. As you could all imagine, it became frustrating. The man was convince that there was no end to it so he decided to walk back, though the moaning that had ceased during his search started once again. This time, it was louder, and longer. The man quickly changed his ming and had dashed forward into the abyss of the cave, now sure that there was someone in trouble. He ran swiftly, though lost track of with paths he took. Finally, when he was out of breath, the man brought his oil lamp above his head to cast a big of light to his surroundings. It was a dead end, but it was some kind of chamber. There was a big stalagmite that stood erect upon the ground, looking ominous, though the room looked very similar to everything else. It was as if he had already passed by this passageway.

The dead silence became but a distracting, noisy buzz that made the big man turn, and twist to see if there was someone there. The crunch of the gravel beneath his feet echoed against the walls of jagged stone, alerting him. He felt that he was being watched. Every movement he made sounded like someone else was approaching…… but it wasn't possible, since he knew no one else came here during the season of snowstorms……

Then, there was the low moan that sounded much like the wind. Not only did it sound like wind, but it was like the whispers of the dead. A sharp gust of wind suddenly blew across the man as he tried to make his way back to find another route. It swished across the dying flame of the lamp, succeeding it making it even darker. Out of the corner of the man's eye, he could've sworn to see a dark figure standing at the mouth of the chamber where he had previously been. He did not dare turn his head to see what it was, for he was too scared. What had really made him panic was the fact that there was no way the wind could reach him this far into the cave.

'W-who's there?!' He shouted, eyes wide-opened un-willing to look at anything other than the stalagmite that loomed over him. Some small rocks from the ceiling of the chamber crumbled down onto the ground from the disturbances. There was another gush of wind, and then the long, dreaded wail hollered again. It came from somewhere very close, almost as if it came from behind the stalagmite…… As if on cue, a sickening and dragging sound rang to his ear. The man instantly dropped his lamp out of his own fear and fell back. That's when he saw a frail-like shadow, standing there unmoving. Its loose arm wildly swung to the cave wall which proceeded in producing that strange, ripping sound. Even from the shadows, the man could tell that its flesh tore at contact of the sharp rocks. Though the darkness prevented the man from seeing what it was, he scampered away nonethless. But while he was doing so, his foot had caught the lamp's handle, resulting in having it half-drag half-bounce behind him. Due to the very small resistance lamps had back then, and the lack of knowledge of light fonons, the lamp shattered. Within the dying flame, the very last thing that man ever saw, was the frozen corpse of a lady leaning on the back of the stalagmite, with her mouth wide open where a long moan escaped her lips." That was the end of Jade's story. He was some kind of story-teller that travelled from place to place in search of audience. The silence gave him another opportunity to take another sip of his tea.

At his right-hand side, Natalia's covers were up to her nose, and to Jade's surprise, Guy had even taken part of the covers and brought it up to his chest. He seemed unaware that he was rather close to Natalia. Both of them stared expectantly at Jade in an out-of-it manner.

On the left side, Tear and Luke were basically statues. The Colonel sighed. He wouldn't be surprised if both of their faces turned blue. It looked like they stopped respiratory activities. –Actually, it seemed that their faces did hold a slight tint of blue. If only he could flick them, then they'd literally shatter…… well if he used fonic arte on them beforehand. But despite their somewhat amusing response to his story-telling skillz of madness, Jade had noticed how both their hands were close to each other. Almost as if they'd grab hold of each other's clothes if something came running to scare them to death.

Anise was the least affected one. At first, her eyes were wide but once the awkward silence settled in, she looked back and forth and laughed. It broke the uncomfortable stillness of the room, but no one dared to talk neverthless.

"Aha- ha! Colonel…… I love your stories." She said in an unusually high-pitch voice.

Jade smiled his usual smilerk, smile-smirk. He then turned to look at Luke, who confusingly blinked. The boy probably didn't realize that the story was over. The Colonel could've sworn he heard several cracks when that redheaded boy decided to bring his hand up and flex his fingers.

"C-Colonel…… Mind telling me- I mean us- we- uh…… Whatever…… you know. The rest?" Truthfully, Luke was hesitant to hear the rest. He was already scarred, why ask for more? Simply because it was the thrill of thrillers and horror stories.

Jade paused. He drank the rest of the contents form the cup and playfully rubbed the delicate porcelain between his fingers. What more was there to know? Oh, right. How the story came to be in Jade's head. "You see Luke."

The tension rose once again despite Anise's constant giggles in the background. They became disturbing too, and added to the atmosphere.

"That man was found in the cave a month later. His body was found in the depths of that cave after a rescue team found him at the bottom of that stalagmite, mouth wide-open. His body was frozen to death, but after extent research, they found out that he actually died of fright."

Jade could tell that the questions were still not completely answered since Luke was frozen anew this time with his hand in mid-air. "The shadow he saw at the entrance of the chamber, was a corpse of another human that was devoured by a monster. It seemed that the monster was quite huge, since the body had a piece of flesh from the neck that got caught on one of the ceiling's jagged rocks. The man that ran through the tunnels didn't have enough light to see it as he passed through, so he must've only noticed it afterwards."

It was Natalia's turn to talk. "What about-…… the dead woman? Was she found?" Guy must have realized how close he was to Natalia. He could feel the heat radiating from her body, and so he quickly returned to the corner of the sofa, out of the covers.

Jade shook his head as soon as that question was asked. He knew that they'd ask that, but he was told that the woman was never found. Mysterious. "Non-believers say that the man must have been hallucinating. After all, human psychology and imagination can go wild when they are in the unknown." Jade shrugged.

Luke suddenly stood up- where Jade remarked that many of his joints cracked- but as he was about to say or declare something, a sudden gust of wind blew into the room which extinguished the fire of the fireplace, and dropped the temperature drastically. The windowpanes flapped wildly around, and the high-pitch whistling of the wind added to the chaos. Screams broke out as the lights went out and everything flew in every direction along with snow.

Anise and Jade were the calmest people—excluding Tear whom must've have some kind of system shut down since she remained frozen unblinking on the sofa-. Both Jade and Anise noticed Noelle's entrance through the open windows. She looked disheveled because of the unruly winds outside, but her arrival made the panic even worse. A nearby maid screamed on the top of her lungs, and even the male cooks and servants had joined in. It was like one, big, family orchestra.

Noelle, the blonde, and beautiful pilot of the Albiore stared at them in shock, as she quickly closed the windows in hopes of stopping this madness. Eventually, after about a dozen minutes, everyone calmed down and breathed slowly in, then slowly out. Most of them were hyperventilating.

The Colonel finally opened his eyes calmly to observe his masterpiece. Natalia was now clinging restlessly to Guy whom didn't seem to mind at first since he too, was scared shitless. But once he realized the situation he was in, his trembling symptoms of gynophonia kicked in.

"Guh-guh-guh-Guy! St-top it-tt." She tried to tell him, but he wouldn't.

Noelle had rushed to the center of the room. Right now, she matched well with the furniture that had atleast a feet thick coat of snow, but knowing her, she'd quickly get fixed up right after this.

"I'm sorry everyone! I didn't mean to scare you like that- although I don't think I'm that scary," Noelle muttered the last few words to herself. "I promise I won't ever scare you guys ever again!"

"Damn right you won't!" Luke shouted from his couch, where he was firmly in Tear's arms, not willing to move. His arms were around her waist too. Jade chuckled. Did Tear have to shield him instead of vice versa? No, it seemed like the son of Duke Fabre, a high noble, forced his way into Tear's grip since she seemed too frozen to move. Though it did look like she was hugging him tightly against her chest with a fixed, and emotionless stare at Noelle.

"Gee, is everyone alright?" The blonde girl sheepishly smiled, while rubbing the back of her head. "I'm sorry. The doors were covered with snow, so I climbed up here to get in. You didn't intend on letting me freeze outside right?"

"Yes, we apologize for all the trouble we've caused you. It is nothing personal. You see, I was telling them a little tale to pass time. Now why don't you go take a break at the spa?" The Colonel smiled warmly at the girl as she nodded in approval and dashed to the elevator. The generator was finally back on as the room became bright again.

"T-Tear?" Luke asked as her as he blushed while trying to get out of her iron grip. "I think everything's fine now…… You can let go."

No response. He'd assume that she was dead, but she started to steadily breathe which told him otherwise. Colour was also returning to her face to his relief.

"Guy! Hey! Can you go get something to thaw her?" Luke shouted, but it seemed that his old time friend seemed to be having problems of his own. Natalia was still clinging to his back, shouting something about overcoming fears. "Anise? Hey Anise! Come here and make Tokunaga hug her instead of me!"

Anise sighed and plopped herself on the floor. She then made her way to the hugging people, and observed them. "That'll cost you."

"Yes, yes! Just do it!"

By the time Luke was finally away from Tear's warm yet cold body, his face was beat red, and the good-smelling perfume or shampoo that she had, lingered around his clothes. He was about to shake her and tell her to wake up, but the fact that Tokunaga was near her seemed enough to snap her back to reality. Or enough for her to utter a few words anyway.

"Luke." She said in a dead-pan voice.

"Wh-what is it?" He asked.

"I-I- That story- it wasn't……"

"Huh? Spit it out already!"

"I wasn't scared."

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A/N: Tough ol' Tear. Refuses to admit she was scared. Or I hope I didn't scare anyone…… I don't think that story was my scarriest. I've written better, and freakier ones. Though you should know that in Click, Click, Slide, the actual urban legend wasn't scary until characters started experiencing similar situations.

Now please review! I'm sorry for the people that expected a happy-go-lucky fanfiction. It is at some point, but it has its chilling ends too. I based it off that little scene on Mt. Roneal, and called it: "Are You Afraid?" for a reason.

Please excuse my grammar. French is actually my first language, and I'm trying my best to write at my fullest. I'm 15, so don't bite me.