Dlbn: Hello there everyone! Welcome to my Loveless Halloween fanfic! Now, I know it's way too early for Halloween, but this story is so long it needs more than one chapter. I'll try to update once or twice a week so, so that I get it all done by Halloween day, when I'll post the conclusion.
Nbld: Sounds good. Now let's get started. This story is based off of a song, but we won't reveal that song's name until the end of the story, that way no one can listen to the song and learn the ending early. Mwahaha.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Loveless or anyone in it. It all belongs to Yun Kouga. I make NO money off of writing this story.
Disclaimer 2: I do NOT own the song *** by ***, which this fic is based off of. I make NO money out of referencing it.
000
It had been five years since that fateful day. Aoyagi Ritsuka's mother had finally snapped upon learning that her now ex-husband, Ritsuka's father Aoyagi Aidien, had had an affair and was leaving her for the woman he cheated with; Her and her ten year old son and their not yet born daughter. She was too far gone to realize that lighting the house up in flames was not only inappropriate and life-threatening, but would also kill them both. Ritsuka had bounced from foster home to foster home after that incident. He had no other family that could-or would, he reminded himself with a grim grin-take him in, so the foster care system as his only choice. He hated it. Some homes were better than others, some worse than his own former home. They could never predict how his memory issues, clinical depression, and general annoyance at the world would cause several families to send him away for being too 'difficult'. The last woman he was with was a kind old lady in her mid-forties. She had six other foster kids and her own two biological daughters, but she took the time to make sure every child in her care felt special and important. That was part of the reason why Ritsuka had been saddened to learn that once he was eighteen, he'd have to go and be on his own instead. She had insisted he could stay, but the foster system had practically grabbed him by the collar and tossed him out the front door the day after his eighteenth birthday.
'Happy birthday, Ritsuka.' He had thought, bitterly. 'Here's your stuff, enjoy being homeless'.
Lucky for him, he still had some older friends that he could crash with for a while. Being twenty years old, he had gotten tired of living off of his friends a year or so ago and had turned to stocks and trading in order to make up some money. He wasn't a genius, but he was intelligent enough to learn when to invest and when to let go of an investment and cash in on it as soon as he could. He'd racked up a small fortune that he planned on working on and increasing once he found his own place. He hadn't found anything in his budget in Tokyo or surrounding cities, and that was what brought him to the country in search of a home. He was going to meet with a real estate agent he'd been communicating with for the past two weeks about an old two-story, one bedroom home he'd found online. When Ritsuka stepped off his bus and was able to at last stretch his tired limbs, he took the time to look around the small town. He was staying in a hotel for the night and meeting the agent tomorrow. The town had a bit of an eerie feeling about it. The foggy night was accentuated by pale golden streetlights, and a good half of the houses and building looked decimated. He shuddered as he made his way to the hotel he was going to be staying in. It was nestled between a couple small homes behind the center of the town, where a chipped and waterless fountain was standing. He pushed open the door and walked in, thankful that the chill in the air hadn't penetrated the air inside.
The young black haired male at the counter smiled a rather creepy grin as the traveler approached the front desk.
"Greetings." The man stated. "You must be Aoyagi-san."
"Yes, I am." Ritsuka's ears perked in interest. "How did you guess?"
"We haven't had a visitor in this town in years…you're the only one I was expecting for the night."
"Oh."
The man chuckled; a dark, rather eerie sound. Ritsuka fought off the shiver.
"So…yeah…it was one twenty-five for the night, right?"
"For the first guest in over a century? Make it twenty-five." He grinned.
"Are…are you sure…? If you don't get a lot of business, how is charging me less going to help you profit?"
"Ah, you're some sort of businessman, I see. Business has never been my strong suit, actually. But I figure there's no harm in doing something nice for a stranger that might one day become one of us."
"Why thank you." Ritsuka handed the man the money he had asked for. "I really appreciate this."
"You'll need every penny you can get together to get that old place. There were a ton of people from town that have checked it out in the past, but no one ever took it. The last time someone looked at it was a few years ago. A stranger like you, but he came and left the same day. Didn't need a room." The man handed Ritsuka a key.
"Name's Akame Nisei." He stated. 'If you want anything, give me a ring." He tapped on the rotary phone sitting on the counter.
"I will, thank you."
"Goodnight, stranger."
"Goodnight, Akame-san."
Ritsuka left the counter to go to the stairs for the second floor, as he had been given the key to room 217. He didn't hear the young hotel worker chuckle quietly and mutter under his breath into the phone receiver as he left. If he did, the events that followed probably wouldn't have transpired.
000
The following morning, Ritsuka was woken up by the sound of chirping birds and the bright sunlight shoving its way into his room. He got out of bed and pushed open the rather disgusting colored curtains on the windows out of the way and was surprised as what he saw. The town that had seemed so abandoned and depressing the night before was now lively and overflowing with life. A good hundred people or so were rushing around, creating a hustle and bustle he hadn't seen since he lived in Tokyo before his mother went psychotic. He leaned on the window frame as he pushed the window open to let in a little air. The room had gotten surprisingly stuffy overnight. He took his time getting dressed and packing up his suitcase that would be staying there in case he didn't get the house. He wondered why so many people were turned off of it. With a shrug, he went downstairs and was greeted by Akame at the front desk.
"Have a good sleep?" He wondered.
"Yeah, I did, thanks." Ritsuka nodded. "But I'm a little hungry. Tell me, where is the best place in town for breakfast?"
"Well, many locals prefer the café down the road, Lazuli Cappuccino." Akame stated. "I'm not a fan of coffees, but their deserts and breakfast items are to die for." He chuckled.
"Great, sounds like a place I should try." Ritsuka smiled. "I know this is going to sound odd, but the town seemed…dead…last night. The fountain was destroyed and had no water, most building were dark as a pit…"
"Oh, they shut the fountain off at night. As for the homes, most everyone is well on their way to the dream world by eight PM. You arrived here at nine."
"I see. Makes sense. I'm just paranoid. Being in a new town and all."
"I see."
"I won't keep you from…whatever it is you do when no one is here. I should go." Ritsuka offered, stomach growling. "Should I get you something?"
"Ah, no thanks. I ate already."
"Alright. See you later." He waved as he left.
The doors swung shut behind Ritsuka; a deafening clank following. The people of the town seemed to stop and stare before moving back to what they were doing before as if it had never happened. Ritsuka began walking, not quite certain where this café was. 'Down the road' wasn't a very good direction. He passed many different kinds of people; from women in knee-length dresses and men in ties to scruffy street kids and a couple punk rockers with oddly colored hair. There was a group of people around his age sitting near the fountain playing some kind of card game. He was surprised that the fountain was repaired compared to the day before, and that crystal clear water was rushing form the spouts. The kids were lucky that their cards weren't getting wet and ruined by the water. He spotted a young boy with dark hair and grey tips sitting on the other side of the fountain reading a book and decided to ask him where the Café was.
"Excuse me." He greeted, pleased that the other had looked up and smiled instead of getting startled or telling him to get lost. "I'm looking for Lazuli Cappuccino. Do you happen to know where it is?"
"Sure, it's about six buildings down that street." The boy greeted, shutting his book and adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses on his nose. "You're…not from around here, are you…?"
"No, I'm new to town." Ritsuka admitted. "I'm meeting with a real estate agent today."
"Real estate? There are unoccupied homes in town?"
"Well, it's kind of right outside of town."
"The house with the red roof over on top of the hill?"
The boy nodded in the direction Ritsuka would need to go later. The plum eyed neko turned and spotted a grassy hill at the end of the cobblestone path, which turned to dirt and traveled up the hill. There was a little light grey house with a red roof and red window frames sitting on the grassy top of the hill.
"Yeah, that's the one." Ritsuka nodded.
The other boy paled and stood quickly. "Whatever you do, don't buy it." He warned.
"Huh? Why not?"
"That place is cursed!" The boy countered, making some people stare. "There's a reason no one ever goes in there and all potential residents are scared away. There's an evil presence in that place. It's even forbidden for townspeople to go there!"
"Cursed?" Ritsuka laughed. "Curses don't exist!"
Though one could say his life was cursed with all the bad things that had happened to him in life. Form getting a concussion and suffering severe memory loss when he was ten to his mother's beatings and eventually his mother committing both homicide and suicide in one foul swoop, he was stuck in a string of misery.
"They say someone died in there a few years ago and has been haunting it ever since. People have seen weird lights and pearl white orbs around the area when they're alone at night."
"Seriously?" Ritsuka cocked an eyebrow. "Sounds like something off of Paranormal Encounters."
One of his first foster brothers had been obsessed with that show and convinced he should hold a séance.
"I heard that the house is built on top of an old cemetery, and the spirits of the people who were buried there were angered and cursed the house." A pink haired girl informed quietly. "Whatever the truth is, it freaks me out!"
"They sound like a couple of tall tales to me." Ritsuka commented. "I don't believe in that kind of thing."
"Trust me," the bespectacled neko stated, "if you go there, you'll notice just how creepy it is and run away just like everyone else. Don't you have somewhere else to go?"
"Nothing I can find in my budget."
"What about your parents?" The girl wondered.
"My mother killed herself and my father in a fire in a psychotic rage when I was in school when I was fifteen. I don't have parents. The foster system won't let me stay with my foster mother anymore, and because of my age, she can't adopt me."
"That's horrible!" The girl launched at him with a hug, making his ears shoot up. "You poor thing…"
"And you don't' believe in that kind of thing?" The boy scoffed. "Sounds like something possessed your mother."
Ritsuka rolled his eyes. "She was always unstable, even when I was a kid, but I honestly don't remember that far back. Memory loss when I was ten."
"You're just a victim of circumstance, aren't you?" The boy tsked. "I'm sorry all that happened to you, but you really shouldn't go there. It's for your own good."
Ritsuka shrugged. "It can't hurt to check it out."
"Just try and be careful…" The pinkette offered.
"Come on, Yuiko, he's clearly not going to listen. Enjoy your breakfast."
The boy stalked off, his bubbly pink haired companion giving chase. Ritsuka sighed and shook his head as he continued on to the café.