Iris

Salty- Oh! Thank you to all who review! EEE! I, like, don't die inside when I get them! JK! I'm not that emo! Hohohohoho! Any who, I'm in a good mood so...early chapter! Oh, yes, Kuma is the Japanese word for bear, the animal, yes.

Thank you to...

Raf Kowalski, FleurSuoh, and Coco96!

Chapter 7. Charismatic Spooky Tales(Part one)

Kikumaru Pov-

Packing...packing...What should I have brought to Saisai-chan's house? Me and Fujiko-chan were having a sleep over at her house for an over-the-weekend school project...but other than school stuff, I couldn't think of what to bring. It was especially weird since it was the first time I was going to a girl's house.

Mom and dad would have flipped, so I hadn't told them. Yet. But, Fujiko-Chan and Raki-Chan were going so I suppose it would be fine...but it was a wonder that her parents let her have a sleep over with two boys! Mine would probably kill me(if it were reversed, with two girls)!

After a while, I decided to pack up regular mismatched clothes for pajamas and extra-sets of clothes and my backup tooth-brush set. Kuma-chan, my teddy bear, was my main problem.

I wanted to bring him to the slumber party, but what if it made me look girlie and childish? Saisai-chan was new and I didn't want her to think I was childish! In a way, she was like my clean slate, since I hadn't done anything embarrassing in front of her...so...I couldn't be myself!
Or, maybe I should have been myself...The topic was starting to feel more serious than it should have been. And...Kuma-chan would miss me! Well, there was only one way to know for sure.

I sat Kuma-chan onto my bed and petted its light brown fur...that kind of looked like Fujiko-chan's hair, scarily. Then, I stared into its large droopy blue eyes that, again, looked a lot like Fujiko-chan's. Why did I buy it again? Oh, yes, Fujiko-chan bought it for me as a present. Maybe if I brought it Saisai-chan would think that I was obsessed with Fujiko-chan! I couldn't let that happen! No way!

Several minutes of self argument later and I was ready to go! Saisai-chan had given me and Fujiko-chan and Raki-chan directions to her house-actually, it was an apartment complex, and judging by the directions it would only take about an hour. By train. She lived across town!

~I~R~I~S~

When I got there, I saw her almost immediately. Even though it was a really cold spring day, she was out on her balcony in a dark green trench coat and jeans, staring out into space...at the WacDonalds across the street. Her apartment, meanwhile, wasn't bad.

It was more like a motel than anything, in that you saw the doors to the homes immediately and that there was a large, lit up sign above the third floor. According to the directions, her home was the third to the left of the stairs.

I got up there, but she was still staring at the WacDonalds.

"Burger..." she murmured. I burst out laughing. It was then that she noticed me(with wide eyes). "K-Kikumaru-kun!" Ah, it was sort of cute. I couldn't stop laughing, though.

"Burger! It was so random!" She pouted and I tried to stop laughing, as best as I could. I did, but I was still grinning. "S-sorry."

Her eyes shifted and lingered on the tree next to me for a moment. Then she looked to me and pointed at the door.
"U-um...Fuji-kun and Murasaki-san are already in...I was just...waiting for you..." She waited? For me? How nice! "And Kazuma's here too..."
"Your boyfriend?"
"Brother!" I already knew but it was fun to see the flustered look on her face...Wait, was I becoming a sadist like Fujiko-chan? NO!

She opened the door and stepped in, so I followed her to what looked like the living room. On the cream colored carpet was Kazuki-chan and Raki-chan playing some board game and near a desk and large computer was Fujiko-chan spinning in a computer chair with amazing speed. It was almost hilarious, but not, for some reason.

"It's freaking cold in here, Kata-chan!" Kazuki-chan whined. Then he looked up, about to glare at her and grinned when he saw me. "Yo, Eiji-chan!"

Raki-chan looked up too.
"Ah, Toothpaste-san." She looked back down to her colorful board game...wait...that was a Quirilu board! Wasn't that the cursed game that killed everyone who ever played? I backed away...slowly...

"Ei-" Fujiko-san paused as he spun in the other direction. "ji!"

"Mah, I thought I'd be the first to arrive..." Actually, I sort of hoped to talk to Saisai-chan about something...I couldn't really ask in front of everyone else...It was sort of private.

"Guess you were wrong, then, huh?" Saisai-chan looked at me and grinned, sort of shyly. Was she not comfortable with me and Fujiko-chan or Raki-chan yet? Guess I'd have to fix that!

~I~R~I~S~

After half of the project was done at about nine-ish at night, we decided to do the rest on the next day.

"Wah!" Raki-chan stretched out her arms. "I can't believe we did that much in a day! God must be smiling at us!" I didn't exactly understand what she meant, but me and everyone else agreed.

"And the angels, too..." said Saisai-chan across from me in the circle our group had made.

"Yeah," agreed Kazuki-chan, smiling at the ceiling. But what had they meant, exactly?

"I got it," said Raki-chan suddenly. "I know what's missing!" She looked to all of us with wide eyes, as though she had just had a really good idea. "Scary stories!"

!

B-but...Saisai-chan seemed the girlie type! She was shy too, so she probably hated scary stuff!
Why was she smiling so pleasantly?

"Go ahead," she cocked her head to the side. "I'm all for them!"

B-but...surely Fujiko-chan would sense how much I didn't want to hear them-and-and would decide to not hear them as well so I could leave the room or something! Right? Right? Right?

Why was he smiling too?

He looked right at me, eyes open and then looked to Raki-chan.

"Go ahead, but can I tell the last one? Eiji probably doesn't want to."

!

Then, then...then maybe Kazuki-chan secretly hated scary stuff!
He frowned, and shrugged indifferently...

"Sure, whatever. I just suck at story telling, so don't expect me to say anything."

Why God, why?

"I'll start!" cheered Saisai-chan excitedly. She was nearly trembling with her excitement. And suddenly, the lights went out(actually, Kazuki-chan turned off the lights.) "This ghost story is called, Denim Curse." Her voice was unnaturally grave...and hoarse. "It begins with Yuki-chan. She was a rich girl, from Hyotei academy. One of the richest, actually. Some even say that she was a relative of the Atobe family..." She paused and took several raspy breaths...I realized that the little bit of light shining in from the window made her look very creepy, especially since it was only shining on her. "Anyway, Yuki-chan's evil was legendary. She treated her servants like dirt and bullied many of them. Especially, Hitoru-kun. He was several years older than her but she actually was in love with him. The only thing was, she had been excessively mean to him so he probably hated her. For several months, she became kind to him...and eventually told him how she felt. He accepted and they began dating. A year later, he became engaged to a family friend."

"What was her name?" asked Kazuki-chan, which was stupid. Saisai-chan gave him a feral glare.

"I dunno. Rika-chan. Anyway, Yuki-chan hated her and was jealous. So, by using her connections, she managed to get Rika-chan by herself and she strangled her with her own pair of denim jeans. When she felt that she could no longer breath, she left. She let her company clean everything up and nobody said a word, even though she had committed a murder."

She paused. My heart was starting to beat really fast because I already knew what was going to happen. The girl was going to extract revenge from beyond the grave or something.

"Afterwards, strange things began to happen to Yuki-chan. Weird thumps would occur from the drawer she kept her jeans in. Her clothes would mysteriously disappear or become destroyed. The man that she had murdered Rika-chan for died before their wedding. One day the company suddenly plunged into bankruptcy and Yuki-chan had to drop out of Hyotei and live in a box next to her mother outside of a public bathroom." She paused to lick her lips. "After that, the misfortunes stopped...for a day or two. One dark, dark night-one of the nights where you couldn't see out of your box-she heard noises. Weird, devilish noises that didn't make any sense..."
"Such as...?" Raki-chan raised an eyebrow.

"I believe she was getting there, Murasaki-san." Fujiko-chan smiled at Raki-chan, then Saisai-chan. "Please continue."

"Such as pig snorts or strange bubbling sounds. When she went out into the alley way of her box to figure out the source of the sound, she found nothing. After a few moments, though, she looked to the edge of the alley and saw it. The outline of a person with no head, holding a think piece of cloth. 'You've forgotten this, Yuki-chan...You mustn't be so...forgetful...' The outline came closer and closer but Yuki-chan was too curious to move. Eventually, she saw that the cloth in the person's hands was a blood soaked pair of jeans...The very same the strangled Rika-chan. She looked again and saw that the person was a pale skinned, bloodied person...It was Rika-chan. The zombie of Rika-chan continued to edge forward and lifted the denim jeans to stunned Yuki-chan's throat. 'Tit for tat, wouldn't you say?' asked Rika-chan. Yuki-chan nodded and, though it was surely her least moment, smirked. 'At least I got the guy, huh, Rika-chan.' Afterwards, Yuki-chan was no more."

A pregnant silence filled the room.

"So, she died? That was it?" Raki-chan was clearly disappointed. "That was way too predictable." She threw her head back and start cackling, like a witch. I, on the other hand, was still shaking! My heart wouldn't stop pounding either! Why did Saisai-chan and Fujiko-chan have to like scary stuff?

Thunder sounded overhead and it began to rain.

"My turn," Raki-chan smiled maliciously. "Ohohoho...My story is one that I made myself!"

! Raki-chan was scary enough as it was!

"Mine is called, 'The Track Meet of Hell.'" She paused to clear her throat. "Once upon a cloudy day, such as this one, the Seishun academy track team was running about the track until rain pounded upon the field. Once that happened, they all went back into their sports shed. As time passed, the rain became rougher and rougher, and so they couldn't leave the shed. After a while, one of the members thought that they saw something outside of the shed. They went out to investigate, and some others followed. Um...what happened next...oh yeah! Uh, yeah, they went out onto the rainy track-even though the rain and night was so thick they couldn't see. They went out and around and didn't see anything. They went back to the shed and found all of the track members...murdered. Their blood was spilled all around and their limbs were scattered about. The boys were disgusted and so ran out in search of the murderer. What they didn't know was that he was just outside of the shed...and ready to slay them. And he did. The end."

"That was awful!" exclaimed Kazuki-chan. "Why was it night time when they went out! Weren't their parents worried about them or-"

"Excuse me," Fujiko-chan interrupted. It may have been just me but...his voice was calmer and clearer than usual. "I believe that it is my turn." He cleared his throat. "Please, do not take my story for granted. I assure you, it is very, very real."

"Why are we supposed to trust you?" asked Raki-chan. I just knew that she made a mistake.

"Because..." Fujiko-chan paused, smiled and rolled up his long sleeves and showed...bloody scratches! "I was the victim." Raki-chan had nothing to say. Neither did Kazuki-chan, but Saisai-chan was shivering. I think I was the most afraid, though. "Because it is true, I do not have a name for it. However, it has happened recently and I was very afraid, so I may not recall everything that happened. I will try to tell it to the best of my memory." He paused and frowned. "It all started the day that I thought I was being stalked. For some time, I had been roaming around Seishun city and I kept feeling like I was being watched. About a week ago, I confronted the stalker. It was a shy girl from our class. Her name was Dotari-san. When she saw me, she ran away. This confirmed my suspicions." What did that have to do with the scratches on his arms? "Two days ago I met her again, but that time she had confronted me. It was at the back of the school, while no one else was there. She told me that she had been watching me for a while...I told her that I knew. She smiled. I thought it was eerie, but ignored it."

He paused. Saisai-chan shivered again and Kazuki-chan started twitching.

"And then, she opened her mouth in a wider grin and I saw them...and I will never forget what she said after that. 'But there is something that you don't know about, Fuji-san!' There, I saw..."

He opened his eyes and mouth in a huge smile...like Dotari-san. There I saw...them. White...shining...twins...

"Fangs!"

~I~R~I~S~