"Trick or—WHOAAA!"

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Their Daily Lives

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Genre: Friendship – Family (And again, a bit of horror in this chapter)

Rate: T

Warning: AU, and happy belated Halloween, all. #innocentsmile

Disclaimer: 07-Ghost still belongs to Yukino Ichihara and Yuki Amemiya.

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Story 22

'Not' So Scary

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Landkarte almost got a heart attack. His electric lime eyes widened in shock when he opened Ea's room's door; what he saw inside disturbed him more than when he heard a mysterious steps last summer.

"What's wrong, Landkarte?" asked the… well… owner of the room, dressed in dark robe with Tengu mask on his face. Realizing his housemate was shivering in fear and shock, Ea removed the mask carefully so it wouldn't be damaged. It's not his, after all. He just borrowed it from a certain dark-haired man in this manor with Profe's permission. Zehel wasn't present at that time, so Ea went to Profe instead and she gave him permission to borrow it ("It's the manor's rule; if you want to borrow Zehel's possession but he isn't at home, go to Profe—Zehel won't be angry if that's her," said Landkarte to Krowell one day, when the silver haired teen stared blankly at the familiar hawkzille before Landkarte got an accident).

"N-n-nothing! Just wanna play trick or treat with you, but that mask's scares me…" replied Landkarte, hands on his chest; trying to calm his fast heartbeat after he saw that mask. "But I'm glad that you're the one who wear that mask this year, Ea. Really."

Ea blinked. "Why?"

Landkarte smiled. An imaginary drop of sweat was hanging behind his head. "If Zehel is the one who wears it again, I doubt that there'll be no victim who died from heart attack."

.

"So… Where're we going now?"

Ea, who hasn't wear his mask yet (he put it inside his backpack), opened his flip phone and read the incoming text. "Krowell said he—and Tiashe—want to walk around with us. They're at the park near our school already."

"Okaay~ Then let's go to the park—" Landkarte froze at mid-sentence. His hands suddenly trembled, his face paled. Ea, who couldn't see what Landkarte saw because the light-haired teen's head was blocking his view, raised his eyebrows curiously. Ea was about to ask when Landkarte suddenly turned his back and hugged the dark-haired teen tightly as if his life was depended on Ea now. "NONONONONOOO! I DON'T WANNA GO TONIGHT! DON'T GO OUTSIDE, EAAA! THAT CREEPY 'THING' WILL HURT YOU!"

"What the heck are you talking about?!"

"Outside! Look—oh, don't! Don't look at outside, Ea! Let's go inside and close the door again~!"

"Let me go, you moron! How can I close the door if you're clinging to me, huh?!"

Landkarte didn't fully release him; he hid himself behind Ea's back and almost crushed Ea's hand unconsciously in fear. He closed his narrow eyes and praying silently that nothing would hurt them—

"TRICK OR TREAT~!"

"WHOAAAA!"

Ea stared at his housemate blankly. Landkarte had released his hand, that's true—but hiding himself behind the sofas after Tiashe yelled at him was just…

"Aree? Did I scare you, Landkarte-niichan?" asked the brown haired boy innocently. He was dressed in black cat costume, not so different with his Uncle, who was wearing… eh…

"…may I ask you something, Krowell?"

"If it's about my costume—"

"—why on Earth you wear Chesire Cat's costume?"

Landkarte poked his head from behind the sofa, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw how his friends dressed in this Halloween night. Especially, Krowell's. "Krowell? Is that really you, who wear that creepy costume? I thought you're a real walking cat!"

That didn't help Krowell at easing his feelings.

From his expression, Ea knew something terrible had happened before they came here—but not the main reason why Krowell wore this costume. Ea and Landkarte knew that Krom's the culprit behind that one.

"Does something bother you, Krowell?"

"…talking about 'walking cat', I actually don't want to wear these things… Can I borrow your clothes and stay here tonight?"

Yep. Something really had happened before until Krowell could be that scared.

.

"So, simply put, you saw a walking cat—and human sized too—at park?"

A nod.

"Are you sure that's not a man wearing costume?"

"If that's a human, Landkarte, I'm sure that he or she wouldn't have such scary gaze."

Landkarte blinked. "'Scary gaze'?"

"That strange thing had veeery sharp and shiny eyes like a cat would look at night, Onii-chan! I saw it too!" said Tiashe, who was wearing Landkarte's old clothes now. A bit loose, though, but it still fitted him. "And Uncle Krowell immediately hugged me and brought me here without saying anything! Scary!"

Ea sweat dropped. "But somehow, Tiashe, you don't look like you're scared…"

Tiashe grinned happily. "Because I'm not! Agas-kun had told me about it before and showed me the picture!"

Krowell and Ea exchanged their glances, mentally agreeing that letting Agas babysitting him for a long time would make something bad happened sooner or later.

While Tiashe was playing with the youngest residents' old toys and Krowell and Ea were talking about something, Landkarte gulped suddenly when he looked at the window.

"Um… Krowell?"

"Yeah?"

"Does that 'walking cat' you're talking about have black fur and large paws?"

"That's right."

"And very sharp fangs?"

"…um, yes…"

"A-a-and very wide, scary, and shiny eyes?"

"…that's what I've told you before, right?"

Landkarte looked like he almost cried. "Can you please tell me that the one which is staring at us like a hungry monster at that window isn't the 'walking cat' you've seen before?"

That alarmed Krowell and Ea. And when they turned to see the window—

"Meow."

-that damned cat had entered the manor, somehow.

If Ea didn't pull his sleeve and ran to the upper stairs with Krowell and Tiashe, Landkarte would've been left behind; fainted from scared and shocked.

After the teenagers disappeared from the living room, a chuckle could be heard from the 'cat's' mouth.

It took of its own head, revealing a familiar face with a naughty grin on his lip.

"That's the payment for using my Tengu mask and hawkzille without my permission, you brats." Ah, Zehel—of course he was. Nobody would borrow something of his without his permission and didn't get anything 'surprising' as a payment. He took off his scary costume, and then walked toward the sofa to turn on the TV and watched something in peace…

…until he realized something amiss he missed before.

"…wait. Krowell and Tiashe did say that they saw a 'walking cat' at the park, right?" And then, a minute full of silence appeared. Zehel frowned and looked upstairs. "But I didn't go to the park today… Nor several minutes before—"

His phone rang. An unknown number called, and his premonition appeared. Something told him not to answer the call, but he did it instead and was greeted by a strange voice: a long, high-pitched meowing sound. And it's very loud, which means the caller was near. But when he looked around and checked the windows one by one, he didn't see anyone outside.

Zehel looked at the table; the teenagers' phones were on it, laying innocently around his own phone.

Then, when he looked at the window again…

…who—or what—was the one that standing outside the fence, holding a phone next to its' ear, and had a silhouette similar with a human-sized cat?

Zehel gulped.

The stranger grinned, revealing sharp teeth that belonged only to carnivores.

Mental note to himself: never disguise himself as a 'walking cat' again, even if that's the last choice he had to be at Halloween. A real one—very real one, since he knew the other residents except the teenagers were visiting their own families and wouldn't return until a week later—would appear and gave him a dangerous warning.

Upstairs, the teenagers could only pray that nothing horrible would happen after they heard Zehel's frightened scream from downstairs.

.

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The end.

A/N: Not scary enough, eh? (_ _)U My apologies. I haven't read horror stories for a long time (except watching Insidious 2, but that's different story since I hadn't finished it yet), so please bear with it. And I posted it late too… #facepalm

Review reply for:

Myrrh: Thanks for your advice. I've told my counseling teacher, and she said that she'll deal with it. And about passing teacher... no one would dare to face his wrath, anyway. :3 #illogicalreason #slap Thanks for reviewing~ I hope I can do it Landkarte's way too~ #innocentchuckles

Anonymouse: What. Breaking the wooden mop? (OAO) That's… cool. And scary. I can't even break a pencil and hurt my fingers instead. (TvT)a Be patient with them, I've felt it too when I was a middle schooler. Being alone for three years and didn't even greeted by your former schoolmates just because you're not popular hurts. A lot. Even though your class is next to theirs. Er, sorry for spamming here. Thank you again for reviewing, by the way. :D

Guest: Okay, then! XD I'll make it as oneshot. But please wait for it, I'll make it somehow between my annoying accounting homework… *looks hopefully at economy textbook* And no—you're not bothering me. What's bothering me is should I go to my friend's house or not... But that's another story. :3

P.S: For Indonesian High Schooler readers (if there's one out there, or middle schoolers too, or even someone who knows Indonesian Education system), does someone realize a big mistake I make in this fic? Guess what, and I'll take the first one who give the right answer's request. XD