Yay! The second drabble is up! And it's a Halloween one!

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ PAST CHAPTER 46 IN THE MANGA

Disclaimer: Pandora Hearts, it's characters and such are all property of Jun Mochizuki. I own nothing except the plot of this story.

Enjoy!

Haunting

"You've got to be kidding me," Eliot said, glaring at the outrageous clothes before him. The outfit was a bright orange and purple motley fool's garb with a matching fool's hat and pair of jester shoes, both of which had green bells attached to them. Eliot glared daggers at the ridiculous costume. "This has to be a joke."

"Unfortunately not," Leo answered, standing behind Eliot in the doorway. "But it can't be helped. Besides, your costume could be worse."

Eliot scoffed and turned to his servant. "As if it could be any…" he trailed off when he saw Leo's costume. He stood there gaping for a moment until brain was able to comprehend what he was seeing. Eliot scowled at his friend and opened his mouth to speak.

"Not. One. Word," Leo said cantankerously. The brunette stood in the doorway wearing an elegant crimson ball gown with rather long, lace black poet sleeves. The gown's skirt was tight around his waist and draped to the floor, hiding the boy's feet from sight. In his right hand, he held a silver scepter. Atop his head was a silver crown adorned with garnet and onyx gems. The whole ensemble was surprisingly flattering on the four-eyed boy, his bifocals seeming to blend right in.

"Why in the hell are you wearing a dress?" Eliot yelled, ignoring Leo's words.

"This is what they gave me," Leo replied. "Apparently the tailors thought it would be comical to make me cross-dress."

Eliot's face twitched a little at the thought. He sighed agitatedly and turned to his fool's getup. "Remind me why we are doing this," he said.

"They already told us in class last week," Leo said. "Remember?"

It was Friday morning and the entire classroom was in disarray. The students had taken the desks and shoved them into clusters, each one for a respective clique. Eliot and Leo had pulled their desks together and were reading out of the same book, blocking out almost everything around them.

There was a loud bang as one of their teachers, Mr. Lawson, a young yet stern-looking man, kicked the door in, making the entire class practically jump out their skins. "Good morning, class," Mr. Lawson greeted stonily.

The class rose from their seats and said in monotonous synchronization, "Good morning, Mr. Lawson."

"Please take your seats so we may begin," Mr. Lawson said as he strode to his desk.

Eliot and Leo, as well as the rest of the class, moved their desks back into their appropriate spots and took their seats. Eliot leaned back in his chair and Leo still had his nose buried in his book as they waited for Mr. Lawson to begin the lesson.

"Now, class, as you all know, we are having the annual costume ball next week," Mr. Lawson said, receiving a loud throng of groans. Slamming a random meter stick down on his desk, he hollered, "Oh, hush! You are all required to attend! Those of you who fail to do so will have water thrown on them the day afterward and you'll fail the assignment. And I'm sure none of you want that, do you?"

An assignment? Everyone was now very confused, but no one dared to speak. The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. So, Eliot decided to be the brave one and raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Nightray?" Mr. Lawson asked.

"What do you mean by assignment?" Eliot questioned.

"The annual costume ball is actually an assignment for the teachers to monitor and judge your behavior at formal social gatherings. A report on your mannerisms is sent to your parents stating how well-behaved you were. That's the way it is every year, but we never bothered to tell you about the graded part because when you all were younger you always looked forward to it."

That's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard, Eliot thought crossly. It's just an excuse for the teachers to invade our privacy and spy on us.

"Now, any more questions?" Mr. Lawson asked. The reply he got was silence. "Good. The tailors will be here tomorrow to take the measurements for your costumes. Now, let us begin our discussion on modern literature."

"Yeah, I remember," Eliot grumbled. "But why in the hell do I have to be a court jester?"

Leo shrugged. "I don't know. Just put on the costume." Leo picked up the costume and flung it at Eliot, hitting his master in the face.

Cursing softly, Eliot pulled the gaudy, bright garment off of his face and glowered at it for a moment. He turned to his servant and said, "Make yourself useful and help me with this thing."

"Yes, Eliot," Leo answered and began helping his best friend with the costume. By the time they were almost done, Eliot was angrily pouting at his reflection in the mirror.

"I look ridiculous," the ash blonde boy huffed. Although the outfit fit him perfectly, he was quite displeased with the costume in general.

"That's the point of the costume," Leo said as he placed the hat on Eliot's head. He quickly glanced up at the grandfather clock in the main part of their dorm. He grabbed Eliot's sword case and said, "We better get going. The ball starts in ten minutes."

Eliot grabbed the case from Leo, slinging it over his shoulder and walked out of the dorm, jingling bells clinking as he moved. Leo followed after him, holding his skirt up a little so he would not trip over it. The two walked in silence, aside from the jingling of bells and clicking of heels, as they made their way through the halls.

The halls of Latowidge always seemed to hold a mysterious presence during the day, which now had escalated dramatically as it was nightfall. The shadows were larger, darker, more ominous, and seemed to hiding something within their depths. The candelabras on the walls were now lit, but they flickered rather eerily. The floorboards groaned and creaked loudly under their weight. The whole effect that the atmosphere provided was unsettling. Especially if you feel like you have a pair of eyes watching you.

"Is it just me or are we being watched?" Leo asked, looking over his shoulder.

"It's probably just one of our classmates trying to be funny," Eliot said in irritation. "Just ignore it."

Leo nodded. "If you say so," he said feeling slightly uneasy, though he gave no indication of it. He had a very bad feeling of dread at that moment. Leo had to try to resist the urge to look back over his shoulder again.

Then, he heard a faint whispering. "Eliot," Leo whispered, "do you hear that?" Eliot nodded, making them both aware that there was someone else in the hall with them. They quickened their pace a little to get to the ballroom downstairs faster, though the whispering was building to a loud hiss.

Suddenly, there was a loud creak behind them. They spun around and froze to their spots. There before them was a girl with blonde hair in a black witch costume. Her face was hidden under the wide brim of her black hat. She was holding an old leather bound book in her and was saying something, but her voice was so soft that it was hard to make out what she was saying. The girl was walking toward them slowly, her eyes seeming to be downcast on her tome as she advanced on them. She raised a hand toward them and a luminescent green orb formed in her hand.

Without any second thoughts, the two teenage boys screamed and sprinted down the hall as fast as their legs could carry them. Leo was having a hard time keeping up with his master as he kept stumbling over himself because of his shoes and cried, "Eliot, slow down! I can't run that fast in high heels!"

"Why are you wearing high heels in the first place?" Eliot shouted, slowing down a little as they ran down the corridor.

They reached the ballroom and stood outside the doors catching their breath. "That was close," Leo said sighed in relief. "But what was that all about?"

"I don't know, but that was definitely creepy," Eliot said as he straightened himself and opened the ballroom doors. The sounds of extravagant music and the sight their fellow guised peers were what met them.

Then, all heads turned toward Eliot and Leo and there was a moment of awkward silence. The kids all stared at them for what seemed like an eternity and then turned back to their friends and began chattering excitedly.

"Oh my gosh! It's Eliot!"

"He looks so different dressed like that."

"Who's the girl with Eliot?"

"Wait, isn't that Leo?"

"Oh my gosh! It is!"

"Why is Leo wearing a dress?"

"Are they supposed to be together?"

Eliot stood there clenching his fists and grinding his teeth, a vein in his head pulsing. What the hell, he thought. Can't I be seen with my servant/best friend without people gossiping?

Leo placed his hand on Eliot's shoulder. "Eliot," he said, "mind your manners."

"But…"

"No buts," Leo said, removing his hand from his master's shoulder.

Eliot sighed deeply and trudged over to the buffet table with Leo right on his tail. He grabbed a glass of some red fruity-smelling beverage and took a sip of it. He looked around and noticed that everyone else in the ballroom had quickly gone back to minding their own business and were paying the two of them no attention. Leo just picked up a cookie as the two of them eavesdropped in on an interesting conversation two girls, a genie and a fairy, nearby were having.

"Did you hear?" the genie asked.

"About what?" questioned the fairy.

"About the old legend of what happened on the night of one of these balls."

"No. What happened?"

"Well, the story goes something like this. There was once a girl who went to this school who was said to have practiced magic. This girl had a crush on a boy in her class and when she asked him to go to the ball with her she was rejected. That same day, she saw her crush ask someone else to the ball. She was so infuriated that she vowed revenge.

"The night of the ball, the girl went to the ball dressed as a witch. It is said that she used some of her magic to make the ballroom go pitch black. And then there were three bloodcurdling screams. When the lights came back, the bodies of the girl, her crush, and the other girl were all sprawled out on the floor in pools of blood."

"How spooky," the fairy whimpered.

"But that's not all," the genie murmured. "They say also say the witch girl's ghost comes back every year and roams the halls looking a new victim or two."

Eliot and Leo both gulped hard. They looked at each other and exchanged nervous expressions. They were both thinking the very same thought. Could she have been the girl we saw upstairs?

"You don't suppose we'll be next, do you?" Leo asked.

"Of course not!" Eliot said trying to be tough. "For all we know, that girl could have just been our mind's playing tricks on us."

Leo heaved a relieved sigh. "You're right. We're getting ourselves all worked up over nothing," he said, calming his nerves down a bit.

"Right," Eliot said nodding.

"Besides, if we run into her again, you're angry face should be enough to scare her off," Leo laughed and took off, running awkwardly in his heeled shoes.

"Why you…get back here!" Eliot shouted as he chased after his hysterically laughing servant.

Eliot and Leo were heading back to their dorm room after a surprisingly fun evening. Despite being a couple of wall flowers the whole time, the two of them had had each other and that was all either of them needed. The two friends were talking about what had happened that evening as they walked down the upstairs corridor.

"Did you see what happened between Annabelle and Marcus?" Eliot inquired.

"Yeah! Can you believe that she…" Leo trailed off as he looked past Eliot down the corridor.

Eliot turned to look down the corridor. There amongst the shadows stood the witch. She had her back turned to them and was chanting a strange incantation. Eliot got a hold of Leo's arm as they tried to ever so quietly make their away down past the hall. Creak went the floorboards and the witch spun around to face them.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" the boys screamed and made a mad dash down the hall.

"Wait!" the witch called after them in an irritatingly familiar high-pitched voice.

Eliot and Leo came to a screeching halt as they turned back to the witch. Finally seeing her face, Eliot felt his temper flare up dangerously. "Ada Vessalius, what do you think you're doing, you pinhead?" he shouted, receiving a smack on the back of the head from Leo for insulting her.

"Oh! I was just trying to be more in character," the blonde girl said hastily.

"Well don't go around scaring people half to…AAAAHHHHHH!" the ash blonde screamed and ran down hall to his room, dragging his servant along with him.

Ada watched as he slammed the door to his dorm room in confusion. She turned around and saw another blonde girl dressed as witch. "Oh! It's you again," Ada said happily. "C'mon! I have a lot of new potions that we need to test." The second witch nodded and the two skipped down the hallway and around the corner.

Meanwhile in Eliot and Leo's dorm room, the boys were sitting on the floor while slumped against the door in shock and fear. "Do you think she's gone?" Leo asked.

"I don't know," Eliot answered. "But I learned something tonight."

"What's that?" Leo asked.

"Costume balls are so overrated," Eliot said as he slumped against Leo in exhaustion.

"Agreed," Leo yawned and laid his head on Eliot's shoulder. The two were fast asleep within seconds, still leaning on the door behind them.

Please review to let me know what you think. Happy Halloween!