Me: 'Ello again! I would like to dedicate this chapter to Jennifurball, for being so awesome. *nudges Ichigo*
Ichigo: ...Yes? Can i help you?
Me: HAND HER THE COOKIE!
Ichigo: *jumps* alright, alright! One giant chocolate-chip cookie, fresh out of Yuzu's oven.
Me: YAY!
Rukia: How could anyone be happy about giving someone ELSE a giant cookie filled with cookielicious-ness?
Me: *droops* ...crap. You're right!
DISCLAIMER: C'mon you guys. It's pretty obvious im not a millionare. In fact, why am I still even GIVING OUT a disclaimer?
Lyrics: Sorry I'm not home right now/ I'm walking into spiderwebs So/ leave a message, and I'll call you back/
A likely story but/ leave a message and I'll call you back. - "Spiderwebs", No Doubt
Even after Peyton's crying jag slowed to a stop, they stayed like that a little longer. They weren't really sure why, but hey- what could it hurt?
This was one day where a bit of a mutual truce existed between them, where they could both be sad and comfort each other like friends, instead of, y'know, biting each other's heads off some more.
But then, of COURSE, a stupid dead person had to clear their throat and ruin the moment.
They both stiffened, glared at the ghost, realized they were actually embarrassed, and moved a good five feet away from each other while avoiding the other person's eyes pointedly.
The ghost- a kid a few years younger than them- sweatdropped. "Wow. I've never seen two people move that quick in my life or death. Especially if they were hugging a few minutes ago!"
"We weren't hugging!" they snapped defensively, as if the very idea disgusted them. Which it did, of course...
"We were, uh.."
"He had something on his shoulder..."
"She was wiping it off with her face..."
"And tears...and I was tired..."
"And cold, it's kind of chilly, isn't it?"
"Yeah!" they explained lamely, and the ghost boy sweatdropped with each line.
"Riiiiigghht. Look, you don't have to explain it to me, I was a teenager too!" They sweatdropped at the suggestive look he was giving them, and Ichigo leaned towards her slowly. "Awkwaaarrd," he stage-whispered, making her roll her eyes.
She then smiled at the ghost boy. "Anyway, what can we help you with?"
"We?" Ichigo hissed. She waved him off with a flip of her hair, which just made his temple throb and eye twitch slightly. "Why you..."
The ghost boy turned sad. "I died two days after my fourteenth birthday. Everyone thought it was my dad, since we argued a lot. But all he did was yell at me for my grades, I swear! Even though they couldn't prove he killed me, everyone in our neighborhood still thinks he did. Wherever he goes, people whisper behind his back. He's not the same. He looks older and...worn-down. But I have proof of who killed me!" he declared.
Ichigo and Peyton perked up, exchanging a look. Solving a murder? Might actually be interesting. He grinned at their obvious excitement and cocked his head towards an old street. "Follow me!"
TWO HOURS LATER...
Peyton shivered for about the eight-millionth time. "Well, what the hell possessed you to wear that skimpy top anyway?"
She shot Ichigo a glare. "One, it is not skimpy. Skimpy would be a coconut bra. This is a camisole. A fancy undershirt, if you will. And two, I didn't know a GHOST BOY WOULD LEAD US ON A WILD GOOSE CHASE!" Peyton yelled loud enough for the boy, Hura, to hear.
He winced and yelled back, "Sorry! It's kind of far!"
"That would've been great information to share with us BEFORE we passed my house! Maybe I could've grabbed a jacket," she muttered to herself moodily.
Ichigo glanced her way. They both knew she couldn't stand going over there after the little crying episode she just had. She didn't want to deal with any of it at the moment as far as her family was concerned.
Finally, Hura stopped dead in his tracks. "...That's it," he whispered shakily. Peyton and Ichigo exchanged a look of pure misery at the ram-shackle house. Rotted wood, a creepy window whining as it wobbled off its hinges in the wind, completely dark inside and out.
"...But of course it is!" Peyton hissed as she walked through the front lawn moodily. Hura grabbed her arm, and she shivered at the extra cold on her already goosebump-covered skin.
"Um...I forgot to mention...I don't actually have the evidence. I was hoping you could find some for me. But I have a good idea of where it should be!" he added quickly at the look of pure horror on their faces.
Peyton gulped and stared at the house with wide eyes. "...I'm gonna die."
Ichigo rolled his eyes and pulled her along. "Oh please. I'm a goddamn Soul Reaper! I'll kick the asses of anyone who tries to hurt you in there...or, more importantly, me."
She shot him a glare. "Oh, well, thank you. I feel so safe now. My hero."
He glanced at her arm. "Damn, you really are cold."
"No shit, Sherlock."
He scowled. "I was just saying."
"I was just replying."
"...Smartass."
Once inside, the creepy factor went even farther off the charts. One look at the stairs, and Peyton gave Ichigo an extra push so he was ahead of her. "You first. You're heavier."
"Oh, yeah, you're right. Since I'm pure muscle and all."
Peyton laughed out loud. "Hahahaha...you're funny, Ichigo! Who knew!" But she ended up screaming and ramming into the railing of the not-so-stable staircase as a black cat wriggled through her shaking legs. "Oh shit!"
Ichigo tried really hard not to laugh as he stated, very seriously, "That was karma."
"SHUT UP AND GO!"
He jumped and shushed her. "You don't fucking yell in a murderer's house, idiot!"
They finally made it up the stairs, and ended up in an even creepier hallway. "This is almost like The Grudge, only creepier because I have no idea what kind of fucked-up monster's gonna jump out at me," Peyton whispered shakily.
Ichigo sweatdropped at that before glancing around. "Maybe we should split up. Cover more ground."
She smacked him upside the head. "Idiot! Do you not watch horror movies? You never, ever, ever, EVER split up!"
Ichigo sighed and rolled his eyes. "Honestly, you believe that crap? I'll be in the room right across from you. Besides; the more ground we cover, the quicker we can leave."
She bit her lip, then sighed in defeat. She was FREEZING. "Fine. But you better not leave me up here. I'll haunt you for the rest of your life, until you die, and then I can kick your ass to some other dimension!"
He rolled his eyes and went into the first room they saw. "Yeah yeah, sure you will."
Peyton took one look in the other room and nearly had a heart attack. Of course she got the room with all the Chappy Collectibles. "Are you freaking kidding me?"
She couldn't help but consider murdering a certain someone as she searched the room. She took it with courage, rifling through drawers and looking under stacks of books and assorted papers until she found something interesting.
"A diary?"
She opened it, and felt a little sick as she read some of it. It was filled with drawings of hideouts, traps, and information on every victim this guy had conquered. Including one that matched Hura.
Peyton closed the book with a shudder and headed for the doorway, going around the opposite end of the coffee table than on her way in. She then noticed she was about to pass the Chappy displays and shuddered again, legs shaking now.
She seriously needed a freaking paper bag right now.
"Alright, P. Deep breaths. They won't try and hug you like that one did ten years ago! It was just a person in a costume back then. It's okay...in and out...in and-"
"CHAPPY WANTS A HUG!"
Peyton screamed bloody murder as the Chappy displays suddenly sprang to life when she passed, reaching out for a hug. "A hug...of DEATH! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" Peyton yelled, bolting for the exit. She ran smack into Ichigo, and screamed again before losing her balance and falling down the barely-even-stairs staircase, falling through the very last one and grabbing onto a piece of wood for support. "ICHIGO? A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE VERY AWESOME!"
Peyton narrowed her eyes into slits, as if that would make the rotten wood stop bending under the pressure of her hand and the rest of her body, which was dangling over a really dark room. She gripped it tighter, which did nothing except make her hand hurt even more.
Then the wood gave way, and she yelped as she fell. But at the very last second, right before she was in the dark room entirely, Ichigo stretched as far as possible and grabbed her wrist, pulling her up quickly.
She sighed with shaky relief. "Seriously, I owe you." Peyton picked up the diary, which had miraculously landed on the stair above the giant hole during her tumble.
She waved it in front of his face. "Looks like we're not the only ones keeping dia-...journals," she corrected at the look on his face.
THIRTY-SEVEN MINUTES LATER...
The cop on duty at the nearest station read it over, making faces every few lines.
"Sick bastard. Guess it wasn't the father after all." He nodded in approval at them. "Thanks, you two. Maybe now the kid's family and neighbors can sleep easier. We'll check out his place tomorrow."
"Watch out for the second room to the right, it's filled with...animatronic Chappies," Peyton warned with yet another shudder. Ichigo and the cop sweatdropped. "I was reliving it," she snapped defensively.
"She's terrified of Chappy dolls," Ichigo informed him, and he nodded slowly. Then he looked her over, brows furrowed with slight concern.
"You look like you could use some first aid, kid. Did the Chappy dolls do that?"
Peyton laughed sheepishly. "Um, no...the stairs did." They sweatdropped again, and as he turned his back, she stomped on Ichigo's foot.
"Ow! What the hell!"
"It was your fault, dumbass!"
"Not my fault you're clumsy."
"Okay, you know what? One more crack and I swear I'll ki-"
A woman cleared her throat, and they gave her an "Oops, my bad" look. "I was told someone was in need of some first-aid?"
Peyton raised her good hand. "That'd be me."
EIGHT MINUTES LATER...
Hura looked her over as they came back outside. Her right hand was wrapped up, after getting the cuts cleaned and about eighty bazillion splinters yanked out not-so-gently, and there was a Chappy band-aid on both knees and her elbow.
She sighed in agitation. "It seems like everyone knows how much I hate Chappy, and they just looove to rub it right in my face. Maybe it's just too funny for them to pass up...?"
"On the plus side, they're glow-in-the-dark," Ichigo pointed out.
She glanced at them and grinned. "That's true! I love those type of band-aids!" Hura laughed and hugged them both in turn, to which Peyton smiled and Ichigo patted his ghostly back awkwardly.
"Thanks you guys! How can I ever repay you?"
Peyton waved him off. "Ah, no worries. Now go rest in peace, or whatever it is you ghosts with finished business do." Ichigo rolled his eyes and went all Soul Reaper, taking out his zanpakuto.
Peyton started spazzing out. "Whoa whoa whoa, what're you gonna do with that thing?"
He blocked her with one hand as she attempted to move between him and the ghost, both Hura and himself sweatdropping. "Chill out."
He turned it around, held it by the blade end, and pressed what she called the stump end to Hura's forehead. He then disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a butterfly, which fluttered away.
Peyton glanced around them. "What happened, where'd he go?"
Ichigo returned to his normal body. "Soul burial. I sent him to the Soul Society. That's what happens when they have no more unfinished business. Another thing Soul Reapers do a lot, besides killing Hollows."
"You never mentioned that part," she muttered moodily as they headed for their neighborhoods.
TWO HOURS LATER...
"It's eleven at night, my sister's gonna kill me," Peyton said to herself miserably. "If I weren't so tired, I'd kick your ass and blame that on you, too."
Ichigo waved her off. "Sure you would. Hey, maybe they remembered about your mom by now, and they'll feel so guilty that you'll be off the hook."
Peyton considered that. "Maybe. ...I hope. I'm tired as it is. That was my twelfth ghost this week, last thing I need is to get chewed out...I might explode."
"Your twelfth? I usually deal with that many every couple weeks or so, not in a few days."
She shrugged. "Remember what Rukia said? Something weird, with the balance? Probably why."
"Ichigo! Peyton! There you are." They looked around through the darkness to find the source of the yelling. Rukia and Seth ran up to them, panting and angry/relieved.
"We've been looking for you two for hours! Where the hell have you been?"
"...Nowhere," they said innocently. Rukia was about to give them an earful, but then Peyton looked at them suspiciously. "Wait a minute. Why were you two looking for us together? How do you even know each other?"
They both turned about five shades of red. "It's nothing like that!"
"We just, uh, ran into each other!"
Peyton and Ichigo exchanged a smug look; they were officially off the hook.
"You're not the only one who remembers what today is, P. Honestly. Have more faith than that, jeez! ...You were just the only one who wasn't too preoccupied to go. I was planning on going later, but I never got around to it. When I got home, Linds was wondering where you were, and I didn't want her to feel guilty, so I said I'd talk to you. ...That way I could see the grave, too. She's just so excited about this wedding, you know how chicks love that shit."
Peyton sweatdropped. "Not all chicks, obviously!"
Seth ignored that. "So I got to the cemetery and you weren't there. Right as I was wondering what the hell you could be doing, Rukia ran up and was all, 'You're looking for Peyton?' And I was all, 'What are you, a stalker?' And she was all, 'Nooo, I'm her friend Rukia. I'm looking for Ichigo, have you seen him?' And I was all, 'That kid with the orange hair that got attacked by raccoons a week ago?' And she was all, 'I dunno about raccoons, but that's the one.' So we figured if we found one, we'd find the other, and we've been looking for y'all ever since," he concluded.
Ichigo and Rukia sweatdropped, and Peyton laughed. "He has a way with storytelling."
"So it seems," Rukia replied with a slight giggle.
Ichigo and Peyton sweatdropped. "Rukia giggles? In a non-maniacal way? Besides when she's doing her Innocent Schoolgirl act?"
Ichigo shrugged. "I guess when you hang with human chicks long enough, they rub off on you."
Seth gave her an understanding grin. "If you wanna go to a friend's house for the night, I'll cover for ya."
Rukia perked up, and Ichigo drooped. "Really?"
"Really?"
"Seth, do you hate me?"
They both gave Ichigo a look, and Seth sweatdropped. "Um...yes, yes, and naw, Ichigo, you're alright."
TWENTY-THREE MINUTES LATER...
"Papa, Peyton's back!" Was the first thing Yuzu said. She said it with such excitement that Ichigo didn't even shoot her a smart-ass comment.
Mr. Kurosaki and Karin's heads popped up from behind a wall, making the three teens jump. "What the hell, you guys!" Ichigo yelled, trying to hide the fact that he was caught off guard.
Karin rolled her eyes. "Idiot. In case you never noticed, there's a wall separating the den from the kitchen."
Peyton grinned. I feel at home already.
Entry #3:
Well then. Today was probably the most eventful so far in Karakura. Filled with random crap. I went to mom's grave by myself, but I didn't expect Ichigo to be there too. Which...in the end, I was kinda glad he was. For a few minutes there, we didn't fight. We didn't cause bodily harm to each other. He just let me ramble and explain my side of mom's death, and he didn't insist it wasn't my fault...that was cool. And then he let me cry on him, which...now, it's kinda embarrassing, but it still felt pretty good at the time.
But then a ghost kid, Hura, ruined it. So we ended up going to a creepy murderer's house to find some evidence to prove his dad's innocence. Hura's dad, I mean.
And NOT ONLY did I end up surrounded by Chappy dolls, but I fell down the stairs and almost fell into some really dark room. Which is probably the basement, where the killer-person would most likely torture and kill me! ...If the fall didn't kill me, that is.
So now I have all this gauze stuff on my hand, from where the nurse lady at the police station mauled it trying to get all the splinters out, and several Chappy band-aids. GREEEAATT!
...But, as Ichigo pointed out, at least they're glow-in-the-dark. I was pretty impressed with him, he saved me back there. But he's still an annoying, giant dumbass.
I'm at Ichigo's house now (again). Oh crap. Yuzu's got a very ominous look on her face. I have a feeling I'm not gonna get any sleep tonight on her floor...Dammit.
ENTRY #3 IN MY MANLY JOURNAL OF THINGS OF A MASCULINE NATURE:
I seriously need to think of a shorter title. Oh well. Takes too much time.
So today, not only did I find out something creepy about Peyton, but I solved a murder.
Oh, and saved her life. Which she never really thanked me for, but then again, it's Peyton. I guess her "Seriously, I owe you one" is good enough.
Anyway. The creepy thing. Her mom died two years ago today. Which isn't creepy, it's sad. I felt pretty bad for her. I've never seen her like that. But the creepy thing is that her mom's death sounds almost exactly like MY mom's. Now THAT'S creepy. And...sounds like a really bad plot to some mystery-romance story or something...in fact, I think Rukia had a manga about something like that...(shudders)
Aside from my mom dying when I was nine, they happened in the same area, and sound sort of the same. I guess I could've told her it was pretty likely a Hollow killed her, and that it wasn't her fault. But that wouldn't help; she'd feel more guilty for falling into the Hollow's trap. I fell for it too when I was a kid.
I guess we're both lucky our moms were there to save us. I used to feel really guilty about my mom, too, and still do from time to time. But I think Peyton feels worse 'cause they were fighting over something stupid and she never got to say she was sorry. But I think her mom knows, and I told her that when she was having her crying jag episode.
You know what was cool about that? For a while there, we weren't fighting or anything. It was like a...a...uhhh, what's it called? Ummm...OH! A truce. Yeah, that's it. I wonder what would've happened if that ghost kid hadn't been there...