"Do you believe in ghost story?"
He twitched. "Pardon me?"
The other voice chuckled softly, making the situation became worse than before. But he wouldn't ever admit that he was shivering. "I'm asking you, you know? Do you believe in ghost story, Ea?"
The dark-haired teen tried his best not to show the hints of fear on his face. "Why did you suddenly ask about that?"
"Well… You see, some people say that a summer won't be a summer unless you do the ghost story-telling—"
"—Landkarte—"
"—and we've spent our first two days of summer holiday without doing anything—"
"—Landkarte—"
"—and because you decided that staying at home is the best, even after Krowell invited us to go to the beach—"
"—would you please turn on the lamp, you loafer? I can't read anything clearly if you turned it off and put the flashlight under your chin."
This time, Landkarte turned off the flashlight and walked away from Ea. Ea sighed and closed his book for a while, waiting for Landkarte to turn on the lamp. But even after five minutes has passed, the lamp was still turned off.
"Hey, don't play cheap trick like this, you moron!"
"…uhm, Ea?"
"I told you to turn on the lamp, didn't I?"
"…the electricity went off. I can't turn it on again."
A deep breath, several heavy steps toward the staircase, and a high-pitched cry later, Ea finally able to read his book in peace—leaving a certain light-haired loafer fainted on the staircase after his eyes saw a ghostly appearance in the manor.
Oo—O—oO
Their Daily Lives
Oo—O—oO
Genre: Friendship – Family. And a bit of horror in this one.
Rate: T, for safe.
Warning: AU, grammar mistake, and 'Landkarte''s can-be-called pranks. Beware of them.
Disclaimer: 07-Ghost belongs to Yukino Ichihara and Yuki Amemiya, while the urban legends belong to their respective regions.
Oo—O—oO
Story 13
~Urban Legends~
Oo—O—oO
"Landkarte-niichan~!"
The brown-haired child ran happily toward the light-haired teen. They hugged each other cheerfully, ignoring the dark-haired teen's annoyed face because his (not so) peaceful holiday was interrupted with this rather absurd invitation.
Who, on Earth, would like to come to a very distant village only to stay for a few days and—of course—do the ghost-story telling activity?
…it's not like he's afraid to do the last one, anyway. He was just pissed off that he couldn't finished his book in a short time without getting interrupted by someone.
"Eeh? What's wrong with Ea-niichan, Landkarte-nii?" Tiashe asked innocently. His wide green eyes were staring at the gloomy teenager with curiosity. Landkarte just smirked naughtily, and whispered something to Tiashe that made the little boy chuckled amusedly and Ea's berserk mode activated again: "He's afraid that he'll see a ghost or two here. Such a scaredy cat, isn't he?"
Ea still tried to calm himself.
"Uwaah, so Ea-nii is afraid of ghost?"
/Calm yourself, Ea. He's just a child—an innocent one. Vertrag will kill you too if you dare to lay your fingers on him—/
"You have to see his expression when I dressed up as Oiwa (1) yesterday—"
/Oh, shut up, Landkarte. Who won't be surprised if you jump right in front of them and really acted like a poisoned ghost?/
"Really? Then you should dressed up as a Teke Teke (2) then—"
/Please, Tiashe. Stop talking with him. Or I'll be killed by your over-protective uncles later./
"Ahaha, good idea. Maybe I'll try to do it tonight—"
And finally, he exploded—"QUIT MENTIONING THOSE GHOSTS, WILL YOU?!"
And the responses he got were just the innocent laughter from both green-eyed male.
.
Ea couldn't believe this.
Someone, please told him that this was just his imaginary or so-called-illusion. Because—
"Can we start it now, guys?"
-for God's sake, why did Krowell invite Eve and Kurena too? And everyone in their class knew that the long-haired girl always had the worst idea within her brains in summertime. Just like now, when she asked—scratch that, when she threatened and ordered everyone who stayed at the Cottage tonight to turn off every single lamp in the house and sat in a circle with candles in front of them. Even Tiashe, who sat happily between Kurena and Krowell and had his own candle as well.
And sitting right next to Landkarte and Eve when you're doing the ghost-story telling activity was the worst thing to do too, since they'd gladly and absolutely doing some pranks on poor Ea (who was shivering right now—not because the atmosphere they had inside the Cottage, but because his back was facing the opened window and the wind was blowing fast outside).
"Of course yes, Eve~"
"I'm ready, Eve-neechan!"
"…no problem here."
A nod from Kurena.
And Ea could do nothing but to nod as well.
Eve smiled innocently. "Well, then. Who will tell the story first?"
A hand was raised, and Ea's—and Krowell's—eyes widened when they realized that it was Tiashe who did it. "I'll tell mine first! Can I do it, Eve-neechan?"
"Of course you can, my Dear~. What story will you tell us now, hmm?" Eve said sweetly. Her behavior reminded Landkarte and Ea about the existence of Profe, who was gardening in the manor (she really did the gardening-thing at night, just in case you didn't believe it) or probably watching some soap operas alone now.
"It's about 'Square' (3)!"
Even though he clearly said 'square', but the one that appeared in Ea's mind was—"Huh? Squidward?"
Landkarte laughed out loud.
Krowell face-palmed. "It's 'square', Ea, not a squid who doesn't wear any pants everyday."
"…oh. Pardon my interruption, please continue it."
Tiashe nodded zealously, and started to tell his story. "Agas-kun told me about this; there were five people who were trapped in the middle of blizzard. One of them died because of the cold, and the others had to bring the dead one to the nearest cemetery. But since they couldn't find any cemetery, let alone a village, in the middle of blizzard, they went to the nearest abandoned house instead."
The teenagers there couldn't believe that this was Tiashe who was speaking; how could a three years old children like him make that kind of face while telling a ghost story?
"There, they laid the dead body in the center of the room. They had to wake up until morning or else they'll die. Someone in the dark told his idea; each of them should stand up in the corner of the room, and they had to run to the next corner and pat the other's shoulder to tell them to start running too until morning arrives. The room was so dark, so they couldn't see the one who speak about this idea. But they agreed on it in the end, since they couldn't think about anything else."
Kurena looked around; she just realized that the shape of the room was a square too. But since there're six person instead of five in this room, she left it alone and continued to listen to Tiashe's story.
"They do it many times until sunrise and the blizzard ended. And when the sunlight came inside the house, they realized the odd there."
Ea felt his heartbeat almost stopped when he realized what the odd thing Tiashe mentioned there.
"Even though the room was square, they still need one more people to fill the first empty corner, didn't they?"
And really—since when did Tiashe could smile creepily like that?
"They glanced at the center of the room, where the dead body was laid and became paler than before—"
Krowell suddenly had an idea to tell Kreuz to give the mentioned bodyguard before a punishment for making Tiashe like this.
"—there were five people there, weren't it?"
Even after Tiashe blew up his candle and smiled childishly like he never told anything creepy like that, the others were still shocked by his performance. If the brown-haired boy didn't poke his Uncle, maybe the silver-haired teen wouldn't come back from his wondering-land until morning arrived. "It's your turn, Uncle Krowell," Tiashe said innocently, ignoring the shocked looks from Landkarte and Ea.
Krowell blinked slowly, and started his story—still with the trademark stoic face he had since God knew when.
"Well… This is a story from far away. I read it from internet, so you might know about it too…"
"Just continue it; there're too much stories from the Internet I've heard, Krowell."
Krowell nodded softly, and then continued to tell his. "Once upon a time, in a far country, a great temple with many stupas (4) was being built. Centuries passed, and the once large temple almost destroyed by earthquake and nature. Several years ago, the government tried its best to repair the temple. They succeed on it, even though some parts couldn't be restored—just like some stupas whose heads have been lost for centuries. Nowadays, the workers tried to put heads on the stupas without caring whose head it was. And guess what?"
"They got some unlucky incidents?"
"…almost there, Tiashe."
Eve's eyes widened. "They were killed?"
"That's far too much."
"Some stupas appeared in their dreams and haunted them for several days?"
"Headless stupas for more accurate answer, Landkarte." Ea just sighed softly when the light-haired teen cheered. "And with eerie voice, they asked the workers to put off the wrong heads from them. At first, the workers thought it was just a normal nightmare that would gone in days, but they're wrong—it appeared again and again, multiple times until they agreed to do as the stupas asked. That's the end of this story." After a blow from the silver-haired teen, the candle in front of him finally turned off. "Your turn, Landkarte."
Ea's premonition appeared again as a guest star in this story when he saw Landkarte's creepy smirk—a smirk that only appeared when his housemate was planning to do something horrible, just like when he ordered Ea to act like him for a day.
"Well, then. Since it's my turn, I'll try my best to tell you the most creepy story."
That's the evidence of his premonition.
"Similar with Krowell, I found it too at Internet. It has no title, so yeah…"
Tiashe looked at Landkarte zealously, Krowell just stared at him as if he was looking at an alien, Ea still wore his usual poker-face, and the two females in the room was ready to hear the story as well.
"It took place after a great disaster that destroyed every living things, buildings, transportation—everything. There was the last survivor; a human, of course. He was sitting inside a closed room, thinking about what should he do for the rest of his life, until suddenly…"
"'Until suddenly…'?" Eve asked nervously, trying to think positively.
Landkarte smirked. "…there's a knock on the door."
…
Eve and Tiashe jawsdropped, Kurena blinked in surprise, Krowell sighed softly, while Ea… well, as usual, he was face-palming. He knew Landkarte the best between the others in the room, so it didn't surprise him like the others.
"Just that? 'Fin' already?" Eve asked again, this time shocked.
"What? Don't you feel the horror? He was the last survivor of the Earth, yet there's a knock on the door—"
Eve felt like wanted to throw this guy away. Drowning him into a lake might be a good idea.
"Well, it seems like I've finished my turn! It's yours now, E-a~" Landkarte said childishly to Ea, who tried his hard not to hit him with the book on his lap. He was about to start when the wind suddenly blew fast and turned all the candles off. A restrained laughter, and Ea knew whose laughter it was. "…see, Landkarte? Even the nature won't let me do the story-telling. Let me go to my bed instead and sleep like a sleeping beauty until the sun rises, will you?"
"But Ea-niichan, if you don't finish the story—"
"—let him be himself, Tiashe. Kreuz too will angry at me if I let you awake until midnight."
"Oh dear. Since that was the last match I have, seems like we have to postpone it until tomorrow."
Kurena, without saying anything, just walked toward the window and closed it before she went with Eve to their bedrooms. Soon, Krowell left with Tiashe—leaving Landkarte and Ea behind, who still sitting on their place. Landkarte with amused smile on his face, while Ea wearing his usual poker face.
"So, you didn't get a chance to tell yours."
"Hm-mm."
"And you sure you don't regret it?"
"Positive."
"Would you like to hear another one from me, Ea?"
"Hell no."
"Ouch. That hurts."
"I'm not hearing another one for tonight, Landkarte," he said strictly, standing from his place to walk to his current bedroom. "Good night, then. See you tomorrow."
"See you and good night too, Ea."
It seemed like Ea was forgetting something…
…but what?
.
When he arrived at his bedroom and changed into his pajama, he stared blankly at the bed—or more accurately, something (or someone) who was sleeping on top of it peacefully. He had asymmetrical golden blonde hair, now messy because of too much moving when sleeping, and a pair of electric lime eyes hidden beneath his eyelids.
It was Landkarte.
And then, Ea's face paled slowly.
He didn't dare to open the door and checked the living room once more to make sure that he remembered well that someone was still there. He fell to his knees, stared disbelievingly at the bed and tried to think logically. After a minute that full of silence, he stood up again and poked Landkarte's face to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
It was real.
He was not imagining things.
One more poke, and Landkarte grumbled something in his sleep. Another one, and he started to open his eyes then rubbed it slowly. "What is it, Ea~? Why did you wake me up in the middle of the night, huuh? I'm ve~ry sleepy now…"
Ea's face paled further.
"Are you really Landkarte?"
Landkarte frowned. "Of course I am. Who else in this cottage who dares to face your wrath when you find them sleeping on your bed?"
Yep. No mistake—this was Landkarte.
But…
"Since when did you sleep here?" Landkarte blinked when he realized that Ea was shivering. Suddenly, he got a bad feeling—as well as Ea… "Well… since I finished my dinner. I was rather scared to sleep in mine, so I sleep here. Err, why are you shivering like that, Ea?"
The game started a while after the dinner, and Landkarte said that he was sleeping right after he finished his dinner and—
"If you were sleeping here after dinner…" Ba-dump. Ba-dump. His heart was beating fast, feeling that someone was smiling—or smirking—widely right behind his back. "…then who's the one who sat next to me back then, when we were telling ghost stories?"
…
"…tell me that you're just joking, Ea."
"I'm not!"
"But I really was sleeping here until you wake me up, you know?"
"But… But…"
A knock on the door.
They didn't dare to speak a word, nor open the door immediately to check who was that.
Another knock.
Their legs were frozen. Ea grabbed Landkarte's pajama sleeve instead, while his eyes were staring at the door nervously. Landkarte himself was trying his best not to faint or scream.
"W-Who's that?" asked a brave soul named Ea. There was no answer, neither footsteps, nor even a slight sound. The knocks were stopped, and then both of them rushed to open the door—
-only to find nothingness there.
They were stiffened, paled slowly, and three seconds later...
"AAAAAAH!"
...they let out frightened screams together.
.
.
The end.
A/N:
(1) Oiwa: A female ghost from Japan, died because of his husband's poisoning her and returns as a vengeful spirit.
(2) Teke teke: ghost of a young woman who fell on a rail way line and was cut in half by the oncoming train. (source: wikipedia)
(3) Square: Found it on Internet, and I had nothing to say for this.
(4) Great temple with lots of stupas: From my hometown, and I'm not promoting it at all. Lacks of idea, that's it. #slapped
Well… This is the longest chapter, eh? And the first time I put a little bit of horror here and there… #sweatdropped Poor, poor Ea and Landkarte. Hope that they will not get insomnia like me… ( =/\=)U
And, last but not least, mind to give me some comments/critics/reviews?