Dlbn: Hey everyone, I'm back with a new chapter as promised! Gonna have to do a couple more updates a week to meet up with my deadline. I don't want this fic to ramble on into nothingness, so I won't make it overly long.
Nbld: Like your author notes. Review Corner! Thank you to Promocat for reviewing! Halloween ice cream for you!
Promocat: Thanks! Making things creepy is Seimei and Nisei's job ;)
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
Ritsuka's assignment to get photographs of the local parade was rather simple. He was to work with a young reporter named Osamu and a guy that was apparently paid to take notes on her interviews for her. She had rushed off with the writer to interview some people who were practicing for the parade, leaving Ritsuka alone near the floats. He focused his camera and snapped photograph after photograph of the floats. There were only four of them, but they were rather large. Flowers decorated one while another was painted in bold, bright colors. He vaguely recognized the young green haired male painting away at the base of the brightly colored float, apparently making last minute corrections to fix errors in the paint. He was muttering something to himself as he adjusted the Bluetooth-like headset in his left ear before going back to painting. If Ritsuka could remember right, he was Kio; Soubi's roommate that owned the laundry mat. He didn't know that the other male painted as well, but Soubi had said that they had both gone to art school. Why Soubi had decided to become a real estate agent was beyond him.
Ritsuka snapped a picture of Kio, slightly startling the artist as he was painting. Kio turned to yell at whoever had taken the photograph, but he smiled when he saw who it was.
"Well, look who it is!" He greeted, wiping his hands on his paint-stained jeans and standing. "First day on the job, right? Sou-chan told me."
"Yeah, the editor wanted me to cover the parade with Osamu but…uh…she ditched me to do interviews."
"She's always running around this way and that trying to get the perfect story." Kio chuckled. "It's admirable that someone that young has such drive and passion. From what she said, she's a photographer as well but couldn't find any money in it and became a journalist instead. Talk about opposites, right?"
"You mean like an artist that owns a laundry mat, and an artist that sells real estate?"
Kio laughed. "Yeah, opposites attract, I suppose. Didn't think that applied to careers, but eh, what do I know, right?"
"Yeah, I don't know much either."
Kio was about to say something when a young brunette rushed over.
"Kio, float four has some major paint damage to the hull." She told the artist, giving Ritsuka a gentle smile as she spoke. "Can you fix it? We got ten minutes."
"Can I fix it?" Kio put his left hand holding his paintbrush on his hip, paintbrush pointing upwards to the sky. "Just even thinking of me asking such a question offends me." He laughed. "I'm on it like brown on rice. Rit-chan, I'll talk to you later!" He grabbed up all his supplies and rushed off to work on the other float.
"Rit-chan?" The girl wondered. "Oh, you must be Soubi's boyfriend he told me about. Ritsuka, right? Ignore Kio. His weird nicknames are a character trait, I think."
"Yeah, it's Ritsuka. Soubi warned me ahead of time before I met Kio. It doesn't really bother me."
"Oh phew. I know Soubi hated it when they first met. He didn't like Kio in the slightest. And now they're best friends and live together? Crazy how things change, hm?"
"Changes can happen in an instant. Something or someone snaps and suddenly everything is different."
He knew that first hand better than anyone did or could hope to.
"You got that right." The girl started to speak again, but Kio interrupted her.
"Hanabi! I need my red paint! I left it over there!" He shouted, waving enthusiastically at her.
"Got it!" She looked from Kio to Ritsuka. "I'd better go. Nice to meet you. Name's Hanabi. Welcome to town."
"Arigato." Ritsuka bowed.
Hanabi scooped up the paint as she ran past it to help Kio.
"Hey, I was wondering where you got off to!" Osamu greeted him, appearing behind Ritsuka soundlessly. "Come get a photo of the dancers, would you? They're going to pose for you."
"Sure thing." Ritsuka nodded.
Shots of people were more his thing then festive floats. Osamu ran off and Ritsuka had to jog to keep up with her so they wouldn't separate in the crowd. The skirting of the float Ritsuka had bene working on lifted a little and a face with purple eyes peered out from underneath it. The left eye blinked and the mouth grew to fit the entire face, almost pulling it apart as it watched Ritsuka and Osamu run off. A young woman came closer to the float and the figure disappeared underneath it. The skirting stilled long before the woman arrived on that side, having had circled around to inspect it.
"Alright, everyone!" Hitomi called, clapping her hands once. "Now that repairs have bene made by the artists and engineers, let's get this show on the road!"
000
It was about twenty minutes and a good hundred photographs by Ritsuka into the parade when the camera wearing neko spotted the strangeness on the fourth float that he hadn't noticed when he first looked over at it. It was painted in bright colors of the skirting and base, but the top of it had a brown Paper Mache tree with bright leaves painted in orange, red, and yellow like fall leaves, which was leaning over a cobblestone well. Hanging from the tree was a noose and in it was a hunched over figure of a young boy with black hair and ears. The town had become hushed at the sight of the float. It stopped in the middle of the town square, near the fountain. Kio climbed on top of it, wearing a headpiece with a microphone. He tapped it once, making it screech. Speakers were on either side of the well so whatever he was about to say could be heard from all over the square.
"Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the sixtieth annual Founder's Day parade!" He greeted the crowd, who clapped in response. "Thank you, thank you! Most of you know me as Kio from the laundry mat, but I am also Kio, the one hired to fix the screw ups in the paint jobs of floats I didn't make for no money whatsoever. Now you know where the whole 'starving artist' stereotype comes from."
Ritsuka spotted Soubi on the other side of the square, shaking his head at the greenette's lame joke. He snuck a quick photo of the irritated real estate agent.
"But enough jokes." He went on. "As you know, we have a newcomer in our town now." He gestured out to Ritsuka. "Come on, take a bow, Ritsuka!"
The former neko blushed and waved to the crowd a little before Kio took the attention back on him.
"And what a way to greet our newcomer and introduce him to the town and its heritage like an origin story? So gather round and learn the history of the haunted house on the hill." He used his whole hand to point up to Ritsuka's house as a large spotlight was directed that way. "It was a crisp fall evening much like tonight." Kio began, his voice taking on an eerie edge to it. "There was a chill in the air that this budding town had never seen. The young family living in that very home had a son, about three years of age at the time. Rumor had it that a newcomer had come to town via train, much like our dear old Ritsuka had a few days ago. The innkeeper recalled a young man checking into the inn." Kio gestured to the inn Ritsuka had stayed in, where Nisei was standing, smirking. "But when he went to find him the next morning, he wasn't there. It was as if no one had checked in. Even his signature page in the ledger was missing. Not ripped out, but just…plain…gone!"
Thunder clapped as if to accentuate his point, but the sound was artificial and had come from the float's speakers. Ritsuka noticed Nisei gripping something in his hand, thumb circling a button on top. He must have been in charge of the audio.
"A few days passed since the stranger came to town and mysteriously vanished." Kio went on. "The family from the house on the hill hadn't come down in days. There was no sign of them, but talks of illness and quarantine had made their way throughout the town. After a week and a half, a group of the townsmen went up the hill to check on the family. It looked as if they hadn't ever been there, although everyone knew they lived there and had for generations. The men searched inside the house high and low, hoping to find some trace of the family, but there simply was none. Word spread quickly from the men to the town. People were starting to get scared. What had happened? Had the stranger gotten to them? They all just suddenly vanished within the same time span of a few days, maybe even a few hours. It just had to be connected…right…?"
He received some sounds of acknowledgement from the crowd. Ritsuka spotted Yuiko and Yayoi huddled together under a heavy blanket on one side of the float. She looked terrified. Either Kio was a great storyteller, or she really believed in the urban legend spewing from his lips. Since he personally thought Kio was so-so of an actor and storyteller and should probably stick to art and laundry, it was more likely the latter.
"A bigger group of men went up to the house the next day, accompanied by the local shaman and a few of the townswomen." Kio prattled on, catching Ritsuka's attention. "They searched the house and the grounds high and low…until…from outside the house, in the back yard, they heard a woman scream! The team raced out as quickly as they could. A young woman was standing near the well with one hand over her mouth, and the other shaking as it pointed to the tree near the well. It was then that they saw it! Shouts of surprise and terror amongst whispered words of shock and awe filled the sky as all eyes shifted to the tree. There, the three year old son of the young couple who owned the house was hanging by his neck from a tree!" Kio kicked a spotlight to aim at the tree with the figure in it.
A few young girls squealed in surprise and horror, and Ritsuka caught Yuiko burying her face into Yayoi's shoulder and her head underneath the blanket as if his shoulder and the fabric would be enough to save her.
"The boy had no signs of life, his eyes permanently opened and mouth wide in horror." Kio continued on. "A young man looked down into the well, hearing something coming from inside. When he banged on the side of the well, a large bird shot out towards the sky and disappeared into the crowds, dragging what looked like intestines out with it."
As if cued, which it probably was, long ropes painted a brownish red and dripped reddish-brown paint fell from a trap door in the false clock tower on the third float. People closest to the float scrambled to get away as the wet ropes made sickening splats against the ground.
"The man cried out, calling attention to the well. Inside, were the corpses of the boy's parents. Lying lifelessly in the bottom of the well; drenched in water, coated in blood, and eyes and mouth wide open like the young boy's." Kio chuckled. "They all came to their senses and scrambled to get the boy out of the tree and the parents out of the well. Before the coroner could go to cut the rope off of the boy's neck, the boy's head shot up and he began laughing! Everyone froze. The boy was dead! Corpses didn't start lifting their heads and laughing. There was no way! The shaman looked into the boy's eyes and found a dead doll-like gaze that terrified him. He cried out about evil and began spewing a curse as he pulled a charm out from his robes. He rubbed it with his fingers as he chanted. The boy began screaming in pain. It wasn't the shout of a confused, frightened young boy who had been almost murdered, but rather the demonic scream of a creature the likes of which this town has never seen." He brushed his flashlight over the crowd, seeming to delight in the horrified looks he saw on the faces of some of the townspeople. "The deafening sound grew louder and louder and then…it stopped. The boy fell to his side, dead and not breathing. The shaman warned that the boy had to be buried seven feet deep on consecrated ground or the townspeople would face dire consequences. The mayor took the words of the old shaman to be foolish. Surely a deceased young child couldn't cause any damage or trouble around town. The boy was buried in the town cemetery a few miles that way," Kio pointed his flashlight in the direction of the cemetery. "Five feet deep was the furthest they dug in that time, and so that was how he was buried. The shaman warned the mayor. 'Your pride will be the death of us all!' the shaman had warned. 'You did not heed my word, and now this town shall suffer at your hands!' He placed a curse upon the town as his eyes slid shut and he drifted off into an endless lumber, slumped against the gravestone of the young child that had frightened him so much."
No wonder Yuiko and Yayoi thought the house was haunted. With all this nonsense going on and being told to the town's children, he probably would have believed it too if he had grown up her with the stories and legends. A chill was creeping up his spine for a reason he wasn't sure he quiet understood.
"Of course, the townspeople did not heed his warning. They buried the parents with the boy and put the home up for sale." Kio continued towards the ending of the story. "It wasn't long before an out of town couple purchased the home and moved in. After a few days they began speaking nonsense. The wife would babble incoherent words as if her mind had been stolen from her. The husband wandered around town screaming 'the child lives! The child lives! He is coming for you!' Eventually they were rounded up and brought to a mental health facility a few towns over. Once they were sent away, with the wife babbling incoherently and the husband warning everyone of a cursed child who had come for revenge, the house was thoroughly searched to remove all of their belongings so the house could be fixed up for resale. Inside the home, there were journal writings discovered that detailed how a child who resided in the house when they purchased it, had suddenly come into their lives, claiming he was afraid to come out sooner and didn't want the townspeople to know or they'd kill him…again. Further searches of the home by the town sheriff led to no finding of a child like the couple had proclaimed. There was a room at the top of the staircase that was the last to be searched. When the sheriff opened the door, he let out a strangled cry and shut the door. When he turned around, his left eye was missing. He collapsed! The search party was sent running! The house was condemned, the mysterious room sealed shut by the new shaman that had come to the town after the previous one died at the cemetery." Kio held the flashlight up to his face, sending shadows over his features. "It wasn't until a few years ago that the house was reopened for resale. There had been no mysterious happenings since the door was sealed, and no one expected anything to happen. One by one, people began to more into the house and make it their own. They slowly grew insane and killed themselves in mysterious ways. The only commonality between the deaths were writings of a mysterious child the first disturbed couple had made mention of in their journals. No one from town has ever seen the child, and nothing happens when the house is uninhabited. But every few years, the house is put up for sale once again, and the new owner is warned against living there. 'It's haunted', the people will warn. 'The hell house,' they'll claim, 'no one has ever made it out of there alive, and the ones that did were driven mad! Stay away! For your own good and ours, stay away!'" Kio shouted the last word.
A hush fell over the town. A strange child appearing in the house? People going insane and committing mysterious suicides, or going missing entirely? This was insanity. The child…the doll…could that…could that be connected? No way! The doll was a dream! A nightmare! A figment of Ritsuka's wild imagination! There were no such things as curses or demonic possessions!
"But no one listens. It's always the same thing; a new owner, a new death or disappearance, another new owner. People wonder why the house still goes up for sale every year, yet no one ever stops it." Kio continued. "So beware, Ritsuka!"
The spotlight fell on the bewildered photographer when Kio called his name.
"The Hell House will slowly take you, slowly drive you into madness until leaving or death are your only options. Beware the Hell House. And beware…of the child…called…Seimei…"
The streetlights went out as Kio laughed a maniacal sound and people all around the square screamed. When the lights came back on, the doll in the tree had its face up so people could see. Ritsuka spotted one open plum eye and another shut one, and a large grin that stretched the doll's face. He resisted the urge to scream as the float was driven away, mysterious sounds and a screaming track coming from the speakers as Kio laughed himself into a coughing fit. The townspeople cried out in rancorous glee; cheers, laughter, and clapping coming from every individual. Even Ritsuka found himself clapping. It started off rather…boring…but Kio was quite the showman. Maybe he missed his calling when he went into artistry and laundry and was meant to be an actor instead.
"You looked terrified." Soubi's voice spoke from behind him, making Ritsuka jump.
From the former neko's side, Osamu laughed. "Hey, Soubi, Kio poses a good point. If that old Hell House is such a…well…hell house…why do you keep selling it…?"
"Something needs to pay my bills and put food on my table." Soubi deadpanned.
Osamu laughed, making even Ritsuka smile at the blonde.
"Very funny." He stated.
Soubi pecked him on the lips. "I'm glad you agree."
"I'm going to go interview Kio." Osamu stated. "That story gets better and better every year." She and the writer chased after the showman, leaving Ritsuka and Soubi alone.
"Hey, Soubi? There's no…truth…to that story…is there…?" Ritsuka wondered.
"Of course not, it's an urban legend." He laughed. "Why?"
"Well…something happened last night…I'm fairly certain it was just a dream, but…"
"Tell me." Soubi coaxed, running his thumb pad over Ritsuka's cheek.
Ritsuka sighed and told his story of the doll.
"That just sounds like a bad dream, Ritsuka. You'll forget about it eventually."
"Soubi, Kio said that the child was named Seimei and that doll in the tree had the same plum eyes and creepy grin that the doll I saw had. How could I have known the name? How could I have imagined the boy? I never lived here in my life, and no one told me the legend."
Soubi shrugged. "Maybe you heard some people around town talking, or heard Kio rehearsing the other day." He stated. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's just superstitions. There is no curse, there's no dead, evil child, and there's certainly no living, breathing doll living behind the door that leads to nowhere in your house. Don't worry about it, alright? It isn't real."
Ritsuka hugged himself, shivering against the cold. "I sure hope so, Soubi, I do…"
The blonde led him away from the town square, going on about a Founder's Day celebration at the café where they met. He spared a glance over his shoulder at Nisei, who was sitting on the fountain, tossing the remote for the float's sound effects between his hands. He stopped when he noticed Soubi staring and gave a sarcastic wave. Soubi warned him with a glare and turned around so he wouldn't lead Ritsuka into a person or a building or something like that. Nisei just kept smirking.