Fate/School Days – 13

Sato looked around at the controlled chaos that was Class 1-1's Maid Café. So far things had been going rather well. The room had been cleared of all but two of the student's desks and replaced with circular tables, each with three stools placed evenly around them. The decorations group had chosen to use table cloths in bright, pastel colors – colors matched by the curtains they had laid over the ones already covering the windows.

Emiya-san had somehow programmed the two remaining student desks to act as cash registers, which certainly made handling the customers a lot smoother than he would have thought possible. The uniforms she had provided to the class all fit perfectly; many of the girls were gushing over the designs, while the boys grudgingly admitted they weren't as bad as they were expecting.

Sato, while equally impressed with the fit, was mildly concerned that Karin had never asked for measurements from anybody before having the costumes made.

The food group had decided on serving pastries and other snack items. Though a good deal of it was taken from nearby bakeries, a majority of the students tried to save their budget by chipping in home-baked selections, turning it into a bake sale of sorts. All in all, everything seemed to be running quite smoothly. It was still early in the day, so customers were still mostly absent, but everybody figured the rush would start around the time of lunch or just after it.

Deciding there was still time to spare, he looked around for the Class Rep, finding the boy working one of the registers. "Iincho," he called out.

"Yeah?"

"Mind if I take a quick break before the rush? I want to look around," Sato explained.

The Class Rep checked the clock briefly, then nodded. "Sure, don't be gone too long, though."

Just as he'd stepped outside the door, he was stopped by a pair of students. The red, spikey-haired boy had the uniform of a second year. His companion had her light-purple hair pulled into a ponytail and was dressed like a carhop from one of those American restaurants. She was wearing a set of roller blades on her feet, probably allowed only because of the event itself.

"Hey," the redhead greeted. "This is Koyuki's class, right?"

Sato blinked, "Uh, yes it is..."

"Ooh," the roller-waitress clapped her hands together. "Are you guys serving ice cream yet?"

"Huh?" Sato tried to recall the café's food selection. "Um, not... yet?"

"Darn," she pouted. She turned back to her companion, "Maybe later?"

Sato stared in confusion as the two walked/skated back down the hallway.

Class 1-2 had also put together a café, though once they had gotten wind of Class 1-1's efforts, they had made theirs into a hot-food variety. Sato left the room, munching contentedly on a small tray of takoyaki as he continued down the hallway towards Class 1-3.

He walked into a den of utter chaos. Lights and sounds filled the air; the room had been crammed with all sorts of carnival games. There were several ring-tossing games, a sandbag-tossing game, and several sets of knock-down-the-target type games. He headed for the one with the most people crowded around it, a brightly colored display with rows of small box candies. As he pushed his way through he saw a student aiming at the cans with a plastic rifle. There was a brief twanging sound as he fired, a small plastic pellet striking one of the boxes and knocking it down, but it simply flopped back onto the shelf it was resting on. There was a chorus of groans from his friends around him.

"Test your luck and your skills!" the redhead behind the counter called out. He recognized her as one of Karin's sisters, Keiko. "Forty yen per shot. Knock a prize to the ground and it's yours to take!"

Sato made his way to the front, "Why luck?"

Keiko turned towards him with a smile, "Like you just saw, even if you hit it, sometimes it wont actually fall off. Also random bullets have a... special feature to them which will aid you!"

Sato belatedly noticed that the wall behind the display had an odd pattern of scorch marks...

The previous customer slapped another coin on the counter and loaded another pellet from the provided basket. Taking aim once more, he took his next shot. This time there was a loud crack, and the targeted box didn't fall down, so much as exploded outright. There was mix of whoops and groans from his friends as Keiko picked up the remains of the packaging.

"Congrats!" she cried. "You've won... burnt-flavored candy!" She poked at the remains a bit as she handed it to him. "There might still be a few good ones in there..."

The student raised his 'prize' in triumph as his friends laughed at him, then retreated from the booth. Keiko filled the empty slot with a new prize and turned expectant eyes towards Sato.

"Care to try?"

"Oi, Sato!" A cheerful voice greeted.

"Yo, Harima," Sato said as he walked up to the doorway. He looked his friend up and down. "You seem better."

Harima's eyes and face suddenly went blank. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said flatly. Life, and a grin, returned to his expression, "Looking around? Wait until you see what we've got here."

"Oh, aren't you just running a haunted house?"

"Not just any haunted house," Harima replied. "This one's actually... kind of scary."

As if to punctuate his statement, there was a high-pitched shriek from inside and Harima was nearly bowled over as a burly third year all but ran him over. Sato managed to step aside just in time and watched as the sobbing boy ran down the hallway. He turned back towards his friend, who had picked himself up and was brushing his sleeves in annoyance.

"That's been happening all day," he grumbled. He turned towards the next customers, a nervous looking couple, and took their tickets with a cheerful wave. "See you on the other side~" he said in a deep voice. The presentation was on the wrong side of narm, yet the couple – no, the entire line behind them – broke into shivers at his proclamation. He turned back to Sato, "Want to buy a ticket?"

Sato looked unconvinced. "Well..."

"You have doubts," Harima nodded sagely. "This is expected, that's what all of these people think. Ooh, scary, a haunted house. What will we ever do? But we have something new. Something special!"

Another set of cries echoed from the room and the couple inside ran out as if their lives depended on it. The girlfriend came out first, knocking Sato over, completely ignoring her blubbering boyfriend as she dragged him across the floor."

Harima leaned down and offered a hand up, "You okay there?"

Sato glared and held up a wad of bills, "Shut up and take my money."

Disbelief gave way into uncertainty as he stood in line. The fact that easily eighty-percent of the people who went in came out shrieking seemed somewhat unbelievable. The other twenty percent were quiet, but by no means unaffected. Sato tried telling himself the last room was merely a student asking their customers to act the way they had. Just to hype up the whole experience.

Uncertainty gave way into nervousness. What if this wasn't some odd trick? What if there really was something scary enough in there to strike utter terror into the hearts of the student population? Unbidden, his mind started dredging up unspeakable horrors, traumatizing experiences from his childhood. He looked at the students in front of him and saw faces filled with nervous expectations. Behind him were faces still showing cynical disbelief. He tried to pull himself back into that mindset and failed miserably.

I knew it, this was all just hype.

The first room just inside the entrance was statues, poorly made busts of skulls, vampires, zombies, and the second one involved several students jumping out from recessed areas. Their face paint showed up brightly under a black light, giving the overall impression that their eyes were empty, hollow sockets. It wasn't a bad effort, and truth be told it was more than Sato would have expected from a student-run scare house. But it still didn't induce mind-numbing terror that he'd been half expecting.

The room after that was a gallery of sorts. Sato was wary of any sudden motion, but after a few moments where nothing happened, he decided it really was just some art gallery. The portraits running down both walls were simply crude representations of most of the mythical creatures in Japanese folklore, complete with labels. Though some of them were a bit frightening simply because they were so ugly, there were a handful that were painted abnormally cutesy, leading Sato to believe more than a few of the students didn't quite understand the point of the exercise.

He rounded a looping corridor which seemed to serve no other purpose than to take up space, then he saw a poorly lit room with the exit at the end. Feeling somewhat disappointed, he headed towards the literal light at the end of the tunnel without a backwards glance.

Suddenly he froze. It had nothing to do with the sudden chill that crept down his spine. It had nothing to do with the sudden... silence that fell over him. Where before, he had heard the humming from the overhead lights and the faint sound of conversation – the walls weren't exactly sound-proofed – there was nothing. He couldn't even hear his own heartbeat. It had nothing to do with that.

It had everything to do with the sudden feeling of slimy appendages wrapping themselves around his arms and legs. It had everything to do with the shadowy figure rising from the ground to interpose itself between him and the exit. He couldn't make out any details, dark hair obscured the figure's face and for a brief moment, he allowed himself to wonder if The Ring's Sadako really existed.

Through pure willpower, he ripped himself free of his restraints, stumbling away from the approaching figure. In his haste, he bumped into an immovable object behind him, turning around to look into a shadowy version of one of the paintings he'd just passed. The figure grinned and reached towards him with a limb and he spun back towards the exit.

He blinked. The Sadako figure was closer. He hadn't heard her move and she was standing still even now. Suddenly, between blinks, she was closer still. He shouted in surprise, but heard no sounds escape his mouth. Instead, a high-pitched hum filled the air like a bad horror movie. An arm latched on to his own, he looked over to see a cheerful, cutesy-looking monster tugging on his hand. Like the others, it leeched all the light from the air, a soul-sucking shadow that smiled happily at him. He could almost hear it saying, "Play with us~"

This isn't funny, guys! He tried to say it, but again heard nothing. He wrenched his arm from the little monster's grasp and looked back up to check on the Sadako figure.

She wasn't there.

The exit was clear... he should just get up and get out. Above all else he knew that he should not turn his head. That was the oldest trick in the movies; the victim doesn't take the chance to escape but rather they look back and doom themselves. Yet... something still compelled him to turn his head fearfully over his shoulder.

He stared into a face not two inches from his own. He was close enough that he could stare directly at the wide, possessed eyes through the curtain of hair that separated them. They were black, a complete void, he thought he heard Ominous Latin Chanting as he stared into their depths.

With a strangled cry, he scrambled to his feet and flung himself towards the light. His breaths were coming out in raw gasps and he suddenly realized he could hear again.

He cried out. He could hear himself cry out. He felt such relief at that realization that he screamed again. And again. He screamed all the way back towards the door and beyond, reaffirming his existence through that simple action.

Harima caught him with a surprisingly strong arm. He grinned at his panting friend.

"How was it?" he asked innocently.

Sato punched him.