Fandom: Naruto
Author: Snow Tigra
Pairings: SasuNaru
Warnings: Horror, as usual and Alternate Universe. The rest is up to my muses
Chapter 4
The next morning found both Naruto and Sasuke sitting in the bedroom quietly, leaning against the headboard. Neither said anything to the other, but both were thinking the same thing. Both had heard the scream at one point or another – though the other didn't know it – and it was the center of all their thoughts. And neither wanted to leave the bedroom until they had some sort of information to set their thoughts at ease.
Sasuke glanced over at Naruto and Naruto glanced over at him, both watching each other in silence.
"Did you… hear something last night?" Naruto asked softly.
"No." Sasuke broke eye contact with Naruto and pushed himself out of the bed, heading for the bathroom. No, he hadn't heard a single thing last night. He'd dreamt hearing a scream, and that was completely different. He pulled the door closed behind him and immediately stepped in front of the full length mirror, frowning softly.
It was the morning after his disturbing dream and his body didn't show a single sign of it. He looked over himself completely, but didn't find a single scrape, cut or bruise to even suggest how close he'd felt to dying. The only hint of it was the sleepy look in his eyes and the hinted taste of blood in his mouth. But the blood could be explained from memory, right?
Sasuke stuck his finger in his mouth and pulled it out, but there was no blood. It had to have just been from the dream. There was no other explination for all of this that was going on.
"Ghosts don't exist," he said to himself softly, glaring into the mirror again. It just wasn't possible.
A knock sounded on the door. "Sasuke?" Naruto's voice was muffled and Sasuke could hear a hint of worry there. But no, he still refused to give into the thought.
"I'm taking a shower, I'll be out in a bit." With that he moved and turned on the water, waiting for it to turn scalding hot. Then he stepped inside and attempted to burn and wash the dream away.
Naruto was found about half an hour later sitting in the kitchen, looking at the odd photo he'd found. The fuzzed picture echoed in his thoughts and he'd considered, for a while, actually returning to that room for that bear, but he didn't like the idea of seeing that kid again.
It wasn't that the kid scared him, in fact it was quite the opposite because he loved the idea of ghosts and he thought that seeing one was one of the coolest things in the world that could happen to him. But he couldn't get the boy's expression out of his mind when he screamed. He couldn't stop thinking about the way his face had distorted and twisted, molding with his mouth to some odd and inhuman shape that seemed to be made of pure fear.
Weren't ghosts supposed to be scary and not scared of you?
And then there was the matter of Sasuke waking up and acting like he did.
In spite of all the zombies and monsters that Sasuke killed on a daily basis from safely on the couch, apparently the thought of believing in what had obviously been a ghost was a bit too much. Then again, Naruto couldn't really blame him, considering that Sasuke hadn't seen the little boy, he only had Naruto's word. Still… shouldn't that be enough? Shouldn't he be able to just trust Naruto?
Maybe that's what was really bugging him about this whole… weirdness; the fact that Sasuke didn't believe him.
Naruto sighed softly and closed his eyes leaning back. He had no idea how to convince Sasuke and there was no reason he should. Damnit, didn't being in a relationship mean that Sasuke should trust him? He groaned softly as soon as he thought that. It made him and Sasuke sound so… old.
Getting up from the table, and abandoning all thoughts of breakfast to a time when he felt better, he left the kitchen and headed for the home theater room. He was semi stressed out and needed time to think, and there was no better way to clear his mind then by kicking a couple digital asses across the screen.
It wasn't too much longer before he was sitting on the couch in front of the large projector, listening to characters scream and yell out futile battle cries in Japanese before he obliterated them with several instant kill moves. None of them stood a chance against his deadly yoyo of doom and soon he couldn't help by smile as they were all blown away by such childlike items as teddy bears and tricycles.
Somewhere in the middle of the game, well into something like his 15th consecutive kill, he heard a soft giggle across the room. Naruto blinked and pressed pause on the game, turning his head. His breath caught in his throat as he spotted the small boy with his worn teddy bear sitting next to him on the couch, giggling softly at what was on the screen.
He was sitting near the edge of the couch, his little legs dangling off the side, swinging back and forth in childish glee. The bear was sitting in his lab and he had his hands around it, bouncing it a bit as if he were holding and entertaining an infant. The smile on his face was twisted and elongated, throwing the rest of his features out of sync, but he still seemed happy and sweet, even if his face looked like an oddly stretched canvas. After he realized the game was paused he turned his head to Naruto and tilted it, his expression floating to one of questioning, shifting as smoothly as water.
"Uhh… you want to keep watching me play?" Naruto couldn't think of anything else to say. What the hell do you say to a ghost kid who just popped out of nowhere to watch your game?
But then… maybe if he kept playing… maybe then Sasuke would come into the room and see the boy. Then he would finally believe Naruto was telling the truth.
Naruto grinned to himself and pressed the pause button, going back to playing the game. And all the while he listened to the boy giggle beside him and watched him out of the corner of his eye, waiting for Sasuke to show up and be proven wrong.
The shower helped a little, but front the moment Sasuke stepped out and began to towel off his now red skin his mind refused to leave the subject of his dream. Growling softly at himself in frustration he toweled off and quickly got dressed, leaving the bathroom as quickly as he could, as if he could leave the memory of that dream behind as well.
Food offered small comfort and really only gave him more time to think about it as he waited for the toast to pop up. As soon as the browned bread came into view he lost his appetite and tossed it in the garbage, going back for his normal can of pop. And still, even that didn't distract him.
All he could think about was the dream, and that office.
Sasuke turned and headed for the home theater where he knew Naruto was playing with one game or another, but he didn't make it far, especially when he entered the same hallway that he knew led, in the other direction, to the office.
Would it really hurt to go see?
But what was the point of going? He knew it was a dream. He knew it wasn't real, otherwise there was no explanation for why he'd woken up back in the bedroom. And besides that ghosts and monsters didn't exist. Houses weren't really haunted, that only happened in video games and movies and the rest could be chalked up to creepy large houses and people with overactive imaginations. Sasuke didn't have an overactive imagination.
He knew what was real and what wasn't.
And yet, a moment later, he found himself walking down the hall toward the office. And, a moment after that, he found himself standing in the doorway, looking inside.
The office looked no different from before. His eyes crossed over the dark wood desk and shelves full of books and odd little decorations that such offices usually had in show houses. There was the required globe which spun on its tilted axis, the leather looking box with an old and rusted lock, and a display case in the back boasting a well locked old fashioned pistol that obviously could never be used now without a couple rolls of duct tape to hold it together.
Nothing in the room seemed out of order or out of place. Sasuke resisted the urge to inspect the shelves more closely and instead leaned down to brush his hand against the wooden paneled floor. But there was no blood nor any stain, just smooth wooden floor which was polished, yet worn from years of use. One part looked a little more washed then usual- but that was probably his imagination.
"Stupid." He muttered softly, cursing himself more then anything else. It was a dream. Of course it was a dream. Of course none of it was real. Why else would the room look like this without any stains or any sand or any gla-
A sharp pain bit into the bottom of Sasuke's foot.
Sasuke winced and stepped back, leaning against the desk. He lifted his foot and slipped off his sock, only to find a small spot of blood on his heel, but he couldn't see… Frowning he hopped over to the desk chair and sat down, pulling his foot closer to see what had cut him.
It took some work, and quite a few held breaths, but finally Sasuke was able to pull out the small shard of glass and he dropped it on the desk, rubbing the bottom of his foot and pressing two fingers where he'd been cut to slow the bleeding. Upon closer look the shard of glass seemed to sparkle in the light and almost resembled…
Sasuke jumped as he heard glass shatter up against the wall beside him. Turning quickly his vision spun, black dots threatening to send him into unconsciousness. He groaned softly and gripped the arms of the chair, pressing his cut foot tightly against the floor to remind himself he wasn't really moving and the room wasn't really spinning. It was all solid under him, something else was making his vision do the flip-flop.
Slowly the room stopped jumping and turning and settled down, so that Sasuke could see. The room was a hint darker now, no sunlight coming from the windows outside. Standing in the doorway he could see a female shape and all around him yelling echoed, angry yelling just garbbled enough so that he couldn't understand the actual words.
Sasuke's mind dropped into a panic. The room around him was still moving, but he really didn't care, he had to get out of here. Survival instinct or whatever it might be called kicked in and Sasuke bolted up from the chair- or rather he tried to. But as soon as he moved, something seemed to wrap around him and clamped him into the chair, much like those roller coaster harnesses that come down over your shoulders. In one movements his body's ability to move was restricted and he dropped back into the chair hard, almost coughing from the sudden change.
The yelling around him grew louder, as if the conversation were growing more heated. Sasuke could hear the deeper of the two voices as if it were screaming in his ear, pain flowing through his head from the sheer anger leaking there. He could feel anger and hatred and betrayl as if they were actual physical things standing next to him, surrounding him and threatening to drowd out everything he knew about the world.
And yet at the same time he could feel what was across the room. He could feel the fear and love and despair leaking from the blurred shape near the door, the higher voice crying and pleading, almost begging.
Sasuke's stomach began to move with the room and he suddenly felt sick, needing to move and bend over and hold his stomach, but he still couldn't move. Instead the voices just got louder and the pure emotion rolled over him, threatening to suffocate him with the intensity.
Then, suddenly, it all snapped off. The emotions, the movement of the room, the sickness in his stomach, it all disappeared in a blink, leaving Sasuke alone in the room holding his breath in surprise.
"I'll kill you." Whispered a low voice in his ear, low, rumbling and scratchy.
Sasuke could suddenly move and he did exactly that, his body jerking out of the chair and stumbling to the floor where he turned around quickly and ignored the shards of glass that bit into his hands.
Behind him, standing behind the desk – if anyone could really call it that – was something he'd never seen before and something his mind couldn't honestly comprehend.
It looked like a blob, that was the first thought. A huge pile of brown swirled mass, slowly rippling and pulsating with life as red veins of color swirled over it's… skin. The thing nearly reached the ceiling and as Sasuke stared at it he managed, just barely, to make out what appeared to be a head, but honestly he could only tell that by the eyes and mouth. The eyes were black and pupiless, looking like deep black holes descending into some other dimension that no one dared look into too long. Meanwhile the mouth was merely a swollen cut just below the eyes, slowly moving as if the thing were breathing.
Sasuke felt his entire body lock up with fear as he noticed the thing seemed to actually be made of sand… and it was slowly moving over the floor, dripping toward him.
"I'll kill you." Those words sounded again in the same low voice and as Sasuke heard them all other sound dropped out. He couldn't move, he couldn't think and all he could do was watch as the thing slowly seeped over his skin, covering his feet with sand that moved too smoothly to be anything but water, but was hard and rough enough that it just couldn't be.
A second later pain bit into his foot and Sasuke's body jerked again. This time he scrambled across the floor so quickly he ran himself into the wall, which he gripped at painfully, pressing his cut hands against it to increase the pain.
Anything to let him keep the ability to move!
He managed to make it to the door, but then the thing seemed to grow in front of him, completely filling his vision. Sasuke coughed and looked up in horror at the large pile of what just had to be living sand in front of him. His exit was blocked, there was no way he could leave. He couldn't go anywhere.
"I'll kill you."
The thing slithered forward and then did the last thing Sasuke expected. Dark black eyes lit up, almost seeming to glow before the sand burst apart, like a floodgate had just been released. Sasuke cried out as he was covered in sand and all air disappeared. He coughed and choked for air and then finally went still as his buried body completely shut down.
"Sasuke?"
Naruto stepped into the kitchen, frowning softly. He'd been playing the game for hours now and though there wasn't a clock in the theater room, he'd been able to see the day pass away from the light shining in from the hall. The little ghost boy had disappeared some time ago, his body and bear fading away with one last giggle as Naruto finished off one of the story modes and was treated to a badly animated video feature with very over dramatic voice actors that brought about more laughter then emotions. Ahh the wonder of dubbed games.
But now that game was over and Naruto was wondering where his boyfriend was. It wasn't usual for Sasuke to up and disappear for hours on end without a single word to him. Sasuke wasn't like that, he always let Naruto where he was, it was one of those things he was all anal about like perfectly folding his clothes and playing a game until he beat it with perfect health and a perfect score. Sasuke was nothing but consistant on the things he thought were important, almost to a level that some might call obsessive. Naruto liked to think he was one of those things… he was, wasn't he?
"Sasuke? Where'd you go?" Naruto walked back from the kitchen, heading to the bedroom they'd been give to stay in. Upon stepping in the room he finally found Sasuke…
Packing.
Naruto blinked. What the hell? Sasuke was packing his suitcase with all his clothes. And what's more, he wasn't folding them, he was stuffing them in with complete disregard for any wrinkles or crushed shirts or buried items. The act was hurried and almost reckless.
"Sasuke… what's going on?"
Sasuke didn't look up at Naruto, though his hurried hands did pause long enough for Naruto to notice the hasty bandages. "I'm going home."
"Wha- wait a second. What happened? Why are your hands… bleeding?" Naruto's voice trailed off as he saw the red seeping through the bandages. His mind wasn't functioning correctly to grasp the situation. All he could do was ask over and over again in his mental voice What happened? What happened? What happened?
"I'm going home Naruto. I'm not staying here anymore."
"What happened? Did you… did you see something?" That had to be the reason right? This had to be what Sasuke looked like when he was panicking right? Naruto had never seen Sasuke panic in the face of anything. Sasuke was laid back, Sasuke was in control, Sasuke was strong. Nothing scared him like this. There was nothing that could. "Did you… see the ghost-"
"They don't exist!" Sasuke's voice came out in a sharp yell as he whirled to face Naruto. The effect was startling enough that Naruto stumbled back, just staring at him with wide eyes. "They don't exist," Sasuke repeated, turning back to his bag and packing. Oddly it was like he was trying to convinse himself that was the truth. But… Sasuke had never yelled at Naruto before.
Naruto swallowed, just watching him quietly for a long moment, his eyes following as each shirt and sock was tucked in the bag. Sasuke wasn't even going after his games which were in the theater. That alone was enough to tell Naruto something was wrong. "Sasuke… please talk to me." He whispered softly, not sure what else to do.
Finally Sasuke's hands stopped their hurried movements and he paused, seeming to take a couple long breaths before he glanced at Naruto. But the glance was small and quick, as if Sasuke couldn't look at him after what had happened. "I know you won't leave, you have a job… but I can't stay here."
"Please tell me what you saw."
"Nothing," Sasuke answered. "I saw nothing. I just can't stay."
Naruto winced, watching him sadly. "Are you… mad at me for taking this job?"
Sasuke shook his head, still avoiding Naruto's eyes as he zipped up his backpack. "I just need to leave. I… I'll call you." With those words he tossed the bag over his shoulder and moved to leave the room.
Normally, when Sasuke left any room Naruto was in for more then a bathroom trip, he'd do something small. If they weren't in public Sasuke would give Naruto a small kiss, and if they were around others, well then a small hand brush was enough. Naruto's heart fell to the floor as Sasuke even forgot that part of his normal routine and just left the room for the front door. Naruto couldn't help the sinking feeling that just seemed to seep over and cover him. He couldn't even make himself follow Sasuke to the door to watch him leave, seeing him act like this was bad enough.
He listened to the footsteps in the hall and the door opening to reveal the sound of the wind chimes and few cars driving by the road. Then the door slid shut and Naruto was left in the room, staring at the single shirt Sasuke had left behind hanging over the bedpost. He stared at it for a few more seconds, then it all seemed to come crashing down. Naruto crawled into bed, pulling the shirt close to him and closed his eyes.
It smelled like Sasuke was next to him and maybe if he closed his eyes tight enough and wished hard enough… maybe then he could convinse himself that Sasuke was there.
For the first time, now that he was by himself, the empty house did seem scary. Funny how that never happened until you were alone.