Chapter 5 | Rest Period II

"Their Next Little Spot"

Blake had made a lot of bad decisions in her life, chief among them joining a terrorist organization when she was young. Yes, she'd been dumb, and yes, she'd been blinded by love, but she was looking to put all of them behind.

What she couldn't exactly rid herself of, however, are all the things she'd picked up during her days of galivanting all around the place and doing unspeakable things in the name of 'faunus rights'. Gods, she'd been a fool. In any case, when regarding the supposed things she'd picked up, those were mostly skills related to combat and techniques no huntsman academies would have ever thought to teach their students.

Now, what was the relevance of all of that? Well, basically, one thing she learnt was to trust her gut when it came to things. Sounds pretty silly, but consider it more akin to instinct when confronting—or, at the very least, faced with the idea of—danger, of which then it would be so vital to keeping her safe.

And right now, waking up in the morning, she felt like everything in her whole body was telling her that something was going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

The first sign she got was when Jaune texted her early in the morning to tell her that that there was something they needed to talk about. That was enough to make her worry about what was to come, knowing that when a person said that line, it was usually a serious thing. And Jaune plus serious? She literally had no idea what that could be.

The second was Yang. You know, Yang Xiao Long, Miss 'I've got to be the loudest person early in the morning because I'm a badass and because I can' (long name is long, she recognizes that), and the one who's practically the tank of energy for all four members of Team RWBY. Annoying as she could be, that was to be expected.

So something was seriously wrong with the world when, rather than with her typical snore or morning pun-to-go, she wakes up with a maidenly yawn, stepped down her bed, looked at her, and smiled like an angel. "Blake, good morning. Did you have a good sleep?"

Blake stared at her for a hard minute, wondering if she was still dreaming.

"…Wut?"

"I was just curious. You did have quite a fright yesterday. Though I don't know what it was, I'm pleased to see that you're doing okay now," her smile softened, lilac irises shining with joy—not a rambunctious kind, but a gentle one that felt so sisterly and so sweet, she could physically feel her blood vessels clog. "Well, here's to a good day to all of us."

She proceeded to head towards the bathroom. Blake watched her all the while with wide eyes, and she swore she could hear some kind of angelic singing in the background. Hell, she was practically shining, and there were even birds flying around her (how the hell did they get inside?!). Yang giggled, whispering little sweet words to a bird that sat on top of her finger.

Yup. Something was officially wrong with the day, if Yang somehow woke up talking so formally and sounding so courteous; two things that just didn't match her explosive partner. Things were going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

The third sign came a lot later. When they left their room to grab breakfast, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. That shower had thankfully reverted her partner to her typical self, and Ruby and Weiss were fortunately acting their normal selves too. Team JNPR showed no difference in personalities, and that was enough to lower her guard. She'd went to class with nary a care.

What a fool.

"And so, the sabyrs are known to be very agile hunters, working in a pack to overwhelm their prey. However, they lack proper bone plating as many other Grimm do, which makes them less durable than almost all the other Grimm species. In fact, a single bullet would be enough to take it out immediately, though they are indeed effective against large and slow enemies."

She had her jaws agape, unable to believe that the Professor Port was lecturing them like an actual teacher. Others looked at him in disbelief too, though they kept up with him to take notes as well. Not her, though. She was too busy being shocked.

All these signs of the world left her on edge, wondering if something completely bad would come to bite her in the butt down the line. Maybe it would be today, or tomorrow, or the day after.

'No way are you going to catch me off-guard, world..! I'm warning you, I'll do something you'll regret if you try anything!'

"Blake, why are you hissing at that wall?"

She could literally feel her ears flatten atop her head, face burning red with shame as she aimed her glare at Jaune next, making him step back with raised hands. "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything! Well, I did before, and I guess I am saying more things now, but like…"

"Well, you saw nothing. Understood?" He rapidly nodded his head in response. "Good. So, what is it?"

"Um. You don't seem like you're in the mood, so how about I just talk to you later?"

"It's fine," it wasn't like he was the one causing all these world-level anomalies. Then again, he was technically the one who gave her the first feeling that something was wrong, so she was a little concerned. Even so, there was no point pushing him away. "Really, I'm all fine. Just had some, uhh, crazy stuff happening around us this morning."

"Yeah? Like?"

"Better you don't know," she sweat-dropped. "So yeah. What about you, Jaune?"

"Oh, right. So you see, the thing is—" A bell rung. "Ah, shoot. Guess I'll have to shelf that for now. What's our next class?"

"Plant science, I think."

"With Professor Peach, then? Okay, let's get moving."

Blake didn't immediately follow him, remembering the thing he texted her earlier that morning. Was he about to talk to her about that? Great, now she was deadly curious. She shook her head, hoping dearly that whatever it was wasn't so terrible.

The rest of the day had thankfully gone peacefully, but the faunus had chosen to dial up her cautiousness and keep track of her surroundings so that nothing bad happened while she was unaware. At any other time, she might have felt silly for her behaviour being over-the-top, but all the things thus far were signs. And she was not going to get caught with her pants down.

Heck, one time while they were going to the cafeteria for lunch, she almost walked under a ladder, but managed to circle around it so that no such bad luck would befall her. Yang just called her a scaredy cat for being afraid of getting a ladder tumbled down on her, but she ignored her taunt with staunch patience.

Nevertheless, now was combat class, and things were looking normal. Even Miss Goodwitch was being her typical scary self, so that was good. She didn't need more anomalies in her life.

Taking a moment to scan her surroundings, she finally let up once she was a hundred percent confident that nothing freaky was gonna' happen. That gave her enough confidence to let her gaze wander back to her scroll—

"We need to find a new place."

Being told that all of a sudden was enough to make her pause. The sound of something hitting someone, likely Yang's fist into one of their classmate's body, resounds loudly in the background and has everyone in their seats gasping and 'Oooh!'-ing actively. Her eyes left the screen of her scroll as she met Jaune's determined expression.

"Um. What?"

"Oh, sorry," his prior expression faded, a silly smile overtaking his features. "Well, remember when I texted you earlier today? This was what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Jaune, all you said was that you had something to talk about with me," she deadpanned in return. "How was I supposed to gather anything from that? You have no idea how ominous that sounded."

"Okay, I'll admit. That's my bad," he chuckled. "But yeah. Basically, I was thinking that we need to start considering someplace new for any future horror-sharing sessions."

"Why? The discussion rooms in the library are plenty good enough. Privacy, equipment, vicinity…"

"Sure. But there's also the fact that we did cause quite the commotion in there. I'm pretty sure Miss Goodwitch doesn't trust us to be in the library anymore. Not unless we're there just to study."

Well, shoot. She kind of liked that room, even if it had been short-lived. The access to the television screen had been incredible, even if it did make it all that scarier… which is technically the point. She'll never forget all those jumpscares, even though it's already been a week.

In truth, Jaune had told them to give it a break for a while, if only to make sure that the blonde headmistress wouldn't be on their backs completely. She'd calmed after some time, though she probably hadn't forgotten. Jaune was probably right on that front.

"But where else do we go? There aren't that many places on campus grounds that are isolated enough. Plus, we can't go to any of our rooms since the rest of our friends can just walk in whenever they want. And if we're seen out in the open, people will get the wrong idea."

"That's an issue, yeah… I guess the only feasible option we have is to make it a thing for the weekends. Then we could go out of Beacon to hang out," he then deflated. "But I'm sure our teams would have stuff they'd want to do, so there's no avoiding that all the time. Plus, we'd likely want to rest."

"You're not wrong there. What can we do, then?"

"…Honestly, it'd be a lot easier if I was just open about my hobby with everyone, like how I am with you," he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and sounding pretty displeased. "I'm real sorry about this. It's a bit of a nuisance, but…"

"Don't be. Everyone has the right to keep a secret or two, so don't worry about being so protective about it," she tapped him on the shoulder, grinning. "And hey. Someday, you might finally be brave enough to tell the whole world about it. Until then, this can be our little secret."

"Ours and Miss Goodwitch's."

"Sure. Bring her into the group," she snorted, making him chuckle. "But for real, I don't really mind it all that much. It's cool."

"Yeah..? Then, uh, thanks. For being cool about it."

"All good."

Besides, shaming another person for wanting to keep something secret was just mean. Sure, it may not be that dangerous like her past, but she still wanted to respect his privacy, so she was going to keep her lips shut regarding that.

"In any case, where else should we go?"

"I've got no idea. For the time being, I guess it'd be better if we just brainstorm ideas and think about where to go. We don't need to decide right away."

True. But the longer it took, the longer they'd have to wait before they could have their horror sessions again. And she had to admit, they were pretty fun. Jaune always did have a lot of fun things to bring to the table. Fun, horrifying, mind-scarring things.

Really, though. How is it that she can still enjoy them despite them being so terrifying and uncomfortable? Urgh. Psychological effects at play there, perhaps.

One last shotgun shot cracked through the air. The finisher came from no one other than Yang herself (because really, it's expected for her to get the last hit anyways), who easily blew her opponent out of the arena. Plenty of people applauded her, and she ate it up with a look of pride. The guy on the floor, on the floor, was unmoving.

Both blond and ravenette looked at him, and then one another, then shrugged. He'll live.

"Now then, our final match of the day," Miss Goodwitch scanned the crowd, before her eyes fell on her target. "Miss Belladonna."

Aw, for real? The bookworm groaned in her seat, her friend chuckling softly. Maaan. And here she'd been hoping to just sit this one out and read her stories in peace. Jaune didn't know, but when she had the opportunity, she'd literally been going through his list on his blog. There were just that many good short horror stories to read.

Ah well. Since this would be the last one, that meant she could just get a shower after this and relax for the rest of the day. That thought was enough to get her standing up from her seat, stretching her arms.

"Good luck," Jaune said, to which she rolled her eyes back.

"Jaune, I wouldn't need luck. It's just going to be a spar—"

"And her opponent will be Miss Valkyrie."

"Blakeeeey!" Both of them instinctively flinched at the overly exuberant voice coming from one end. Their heads, and practically everyone else's, snapped towards the source of the voice, which came from a girl with bright orange hair and an equally bright smile. "Alright, I get to fight you this time! This'll be fun!"

Sitting beside her, her partner Ren meets her gaze. A myriad of emotions flash through his typically-concrete expression in that single moment, only for him to then close his eyes as he muttered what must have been a silent prayer for her.

She turned to look at Yang, who, even despite being the second best fighter in their year, was practically rushing to get off the arena floor, laughing nervously all the while.

And finally, she looked at Jaune, whose earlier confidence seemed to have taken a real big dive. Like, tower levels of big. He looked away.

"Good luck..?"

Crap.

The life of a huntsman required one to be at tip-top shape. Finesse, stamina and strength, alongside other aspects like a sharp mind, cooperation and the ability to adapt on the fly according to the situation.

All academies sought to build their students into the ideal huntsmen, equipping them with all the necessary skills and techniques required to make them effective in combat, be it against Grimm or against human opponents.

As such, occasional training and sparring could help a lot. Some good things came out of it; like how she and Yang were slowly developing a kind of tag-team move, Jaune was getting a better hang of offense, Weiss finding a better use of Dust with her glyphs, Pyrrha being excellent as ever…

And Blake walking away from all that with a sore body, trauma (physical and mental), and a greater fear towards Nora.

'That girl… hits like a truck… all while laughing like some kind of schoolgirl.'

How Ren manages to survive with her by his side for years eludes her to this day. He must have the patience of a saint, which she certainly felt was truth before. But now? Having learnt first-hand the sheer destructiveness of that boy's partner?

If there was a deity out there, she really hoped they continued to look out after him. And bless him so much for somehow managing to keep her on a leash.

"Whoo! That was fun!" Yang cheered as she leapt onto her bed and fell upon it, the bed shaking somewhat from the impact. The faunus eyed the pillars that played Atlas to her partner's bed, silently grateful that they've managed to keep her bed from toppling onto hers this far. Her books are doing the godly work here.

"You certainly looked like you were having fun while you were busy pummelling the poor lad into the ground."

"Hey, he asked for a spar. At least I got to burn off some energy in the process. Feels good, man…"

"Urgh. I'll never understand you," Weiss rolled her eyes. "In any case, just for the sake of making sure you don't leave it for the morning, be sure to finish up your History assignment. Doctor Oobleck may be forgiving, but I won't have you tarnishing our team's reputation."

"Yada yada, Weiss-cream. I'll do it later."

"Your definition of 'later' is typically when we're about to leave our room and head for class, at which point it becomes a race to finish it as quickly and messily as possible. Don't think I'll be lending you my work!"

"Aw, come on!"

Tuning out their banter, Blake settles onto her bed with a pleased sigh. It's only five in the evening, so there was still plenty of time to get things done. She'd already been done with her assignment before training today, so now, she was left with all the free time in the world.

And what better use of said free time than to indulge in fantasies?

'And by fantasies, I mean switching from romantic fantasies,' and she would never hear it from another person to call them dirty smut, no matter how true they were. 'To nightmare fuel. Guess I've truly fallen.'

Romance stories were always a nice escape from cruel reality. Ignoring all the serious stuff and focus on all the sappy love and… ahem, passionate moments was a nice way to pass the time. She wondered when it was she'd ever gotten into love stories. Perhaps as a kid? She couldn't remember. All that she mostly recalled was her being active in the White Fang protests back then.

If she were to guess on the why aspect, it probably had to do with her adoration of her parents. Though different in nature, both her mother and father loved each other dearly, and that love had brought her to life. It's something that she would never stop being grateful for, and that which she hoped would live for a very long time.

'And I haven't talked to my parents for a long time…'

Just thinking of that got her to wince, a fresh wave of shame and sorrow hitting her, though she was quick to ride it out until all that remained was bitterness and guilt. Her parents… What were they doing now? Were they still alright back home on Menagerie?

It hadn't been pretty. Clash of ideals and convictions had resulted in her running away to take up a more active role in the White Fang. They'd tried to talk her out of it, but she'd been bullish back then, unwilling to relent. Assumed that they were just being idiots. But now…

She shook her head. Maybe she'd burnt her bridges. Maybe she'd speak with them again someday. There was no knowing what the future would bring. All she could do now was just focus on her studies and work hard—

"Hey Blake," she blinked at the round face and silver eyes that were close to her, the genuine smile doing much to soothe her inner war. "What'cha reading?"

"Huh? Oh, it's just a story," she responded, thinking about showing her scroll before deciding elsewise. Just about came close to showing Jaune's blog to her, but saved it at the very last minute.

"Uh-huh? And what's it about?"

"It's… a story about a witch and stuff."

"Really?" There was doubt in her tone, eyes narrowed. "Let me guess. It has a lot of whips and torture and—"

"R-Ruby!" She half-whispered, half-screamed, face burning bright. "No, i-it's not that! And where do you even know that sort of thing?!"

"Ugh. Blake, I'm fifteen, not five," she rolled her eyes with a tone that suggested she'd had to say that countless of times, both to her sister, father and friends. Probably sick of it too. "Plus, it's not my fault you leave your books around and they're wide open at times. What makes you think no one's going to try and take a peek? Seriously, you should know better."

Oh god, Ruby had seen her stash. Worse, she'd read them. And now, Blake was feeling a strong need to take a leap off the roof.

God, she was such an idiot! She knew she'd never made an effort to try and hide her books from her teammates all that much (and how much she regrets it now, for how much teasing she gets from Yang and the disappointment Weiss shoots her way about her choice of reading), but she never thought it could be that bad.

But if Ruby reads them? For some reason, that felt like a severe violation of the rules of nature. As if the consequences of such actions would result in something cataclysmic—and it might just end up that way if Yang ever found out.

She will never. Blake will make full certain of it.

"So, if you're not reading your filth—" Blake whimpered at the hurtful term. "Then what are you reading about?"

"It's… just horror. The actually scary kind. I've started giving them a shot, and there a plenty of good ones out there. So for now, I'm just reading through a couple."

"Huh. Horror? Never thought you'd be the kind of person who'd enjoy that, Blake."

Neither did she, but look at her now. All because of Jaune's insistence, though she would happily say that she didn't regret it, even if some of the stories were threatening to break down her sanity. But the fact that, unlike romance, they were willing to explore all kinds of personal struggles and themes that no other genre could truly encapsulate all that well.

Then again, though, she had a feeling that there was no returning for her. She might've successfully fallen into the deep end. Oh well.

"That sure is a big change from the norm. Ooh, ooh! I just remembered!" She hopped excitedly. "If you like horror stories, maybe you could talk with Jaune about them! He likes them too!"

Oh, right. While none of them knew about their prior meetings to discuss horror stories, he'd made a passing mention about liking horror stories. The only one who knew of their meetings was Miss Goodwitch alone.

Her first instinct was to feign ignorance, but she remembered that Jaune had only ever been against her revealing his hobby. So long as she didn't touch that subject, it should technically be fine to just talk about it.

"Actually, I know," she said, nodding. "He and I talked a bit about them once or twice. The only reason why I've started reading horror stories at all was because he talked me into giving it a try."

"Really? Huh. I never knew."

"I met him one time in the library. He was doing his schoolwork at the time, and we somehow came upon that topic when I saw him reading a book. It was nice. So, whenever he has time, he'd introduce me to a story to read online."

The background noise seemed to halt, replaced with a snort. "Wow. Kitty Kat actually made friends with Noodle Boy without our supervision?" Yang slid a finger across her eye, sniffing. "They grow up so fast…" Both Blake and Ruby rolled their eyes at that.

"Har, har. Thank you. I feel so honoured."

"Hey, come on now! I meant that—for real, for real!"

"Hard to tell, Xiao Long. Your compliments really need work."

"Oh, I'm so sorry that my genuine praise can't satisfy her highness. Might I get you some cake while I'm at it?"

"Why you..!"

While Ruby detached herself from her bed to prevent an explosive fight between her sister and her partner, both girls looking at one another with absolutely murderous gazes, Blake opted to simply return to her scroll, looking through the list of written stories. And then, with curiosity, she decided to change things up and try a video series. She hadn't exactly given them much of a try since the very first one, but remembering just how scary HiImMaryMary was, she was interested in seeing how other series held up.

Man. Hard to choose, hard to choose… All of them were so diverse and so different. Jaune really did cover everything, though she was still averse to the idea of exploring gore stories. Though he hadn't sounded all that bothered by it, she doubted she would be able to stomach it.

Welp, she had time, and what better way to spend it then going through all the stories? Plus, while she reads, she could think about what Jaune was saying back in class about looking for a new place for their hangout. Hopefully, there would be someplace in the school's grounds, so they wouldn't have to go far.

Huh. Now this one was interesting. Vita Carnis? She had no idea what that meant, though it seemed to have eight out of ten points, on account of Jaune calling it a breath of fresh air in the collection of analogue horror videos… whatever analogue is. Might as well give it a check.

Playing the first video started off okay. The second video made her deadpan. The third video almost made her laugh, due to how silly the name of the monster was.

And then, the fourth monster jumpscared her. Blake screamed atop her bed and jumped up, promptly slamming her head into the underside of Yang's bed, and now the rest of her team were staring at her funny.

Jaune decided that they should meet up in the library on Friday, likely to discuss the next steps. The way he phrased his text made it seem as if he had an idea in his head, which she really hoped was the case. No matter what she'd thought, there was no one true satisfying answer.

The first assumption was to just find secret spots around Beacon, but that was easier said than done. Large as it may be, all the students practically went everywhere, and picking out roof spots would be impossible since some students tended to use those places for personal training or chilling, as evident by Jaune and Pyrrha using the roof area near their dorm to train.

There were other places, like the gardens or the courtyards, but a lot of students liked to frequent those places too, especially in the afternoons. The canteen was a no-go, obviously, and they were banned from the library. There was the farm, but like hell they'll go there just to watch horror vids. Aaand…

Yeah, she had nothing.

Tying her ribbon into place, Blake stepped out of the room—currently empty, since Ruby and Yang were off to go buy some comics while Weiss invited Pyrrha for some lunch. Supposedly, Nora and Ren would be tagging with them too, so that's that—and made her way to the library, inwardly grateful not to see Miss Goodwitch anywhere. She went inside, and headed to her old spot, where Jaune looked to be doing some typing work.

"Hey Jaune."

"Hmm?" He looked up from his scroll, smile coming easily. "Oh, hey Blake. Give me a moment. I just wanna' finish my review of a recent game I played."

"Yeah? What was it?"

"Close Your Eyes. It's a game where you have to close your eyes to avoid getting killed by these monsters, and while it's not the highest quality as some others, this came out really well in the end. Stressful from start to finish. I'd give it a good seven."

"And I like to believe that your opinion is, objectively, correct all the time," he chuckled at her words. "But sure, take your time. We're in no rush."

"Got'cha."

It was certainly something to see Jaune at work. While he didn't strike her as a lazy sort, it was still quite the sight to see him looking so focused, mind working on overdrive to sort out the thoughts in his head to put them into text.

While she waited for him, Blake decided to pull out her scroll and continue reading through a selection of horror stories she'd already bookmarked. There were more videos on her list, though she didn't really want to get into trouble again by watching them in the library and freak out. Mortifying enough that she got detention once and all her friends knew. One time is enough.

Eventually, Jaune was done, and submitted the update before setting down his scroll. He cracked his arms above his head with a sigh. "Dooone…"

"Was it that hard?"

"A little. Trying to write a short summary on what it's like, and then writing the entire review. Pointing out the strong points, the weaker bits, stuff to improve… Basically like a movie critic."

Except this time, he was likely trying to be as fair and objective with each one. She'd seen plenty of movies get terrible reviews online from official critics, but the audience felt otherwise. There were even cases of the opposite holding true, so there was some dissonance there. Jaune could be trusted to know his stuff and rate everything appropriately.

"So anyways, back on topic; any ideas on where we could go?"

"Nope. And the more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to go anywhere outside of campus."

"Same. Would just be too tiring to go out and come back in. Plus, teenagers will be teenagers, and Beacon's rumour mill could have some new stories to spread," yeah, that wasn't going to happen. Though she wasn't against experiencing all the things typical students should go through, having her love life being whispered about was not it. "So…"

"So."

The both of them fell silent afterwards, sighing. Well, this was going to go nowhere unless they could figure out something.

Really, though, this wasn't like a super important thing. But it did feel nice to have something to be silly and stress over… sort of. Felt like making a miniscule matter feel so personal and so important, which it technically is for Jaune. She's just a part of the little secret, and that was its own brand of fun, she supposed.

"Well, looks like we have no choice," he sighed. "There's only one option we have left. We're gonna' have to bite the bullet."

The ravenette blinked, leaning a little backwards. "Um. What does that mean? You're scaring me, Jaune."

"Me? Scare you? That's ridiculous. What scares you are those horror stories on my blog," not at all. Those were scary, sure, but the sheer ease of him making all kinds of off-brand comments can often be super ominous, and she liked to think that he was secretly a psychopath—a very gentle, very friendly, very intimidating psychopath. "In any case, it's a simple and straightforward solution, but… a pretty desperate one."

"And that is..?"

"We'll go see Miss Goodwitch and ask her for a room for our sessions."

Off in the distance, thunder cracked across the sky, despite it supposedly being a clear, sunny day outside. And deep inside of her, Blake felt every inch of sanity she had tearing apart like paper.

"What."

"Well, yeah. She's the only one who knows about our sessions, and since she's the deputy headmistress, I thought it would be a good idea to just go to her directly and ask her if there's a room where we can have our horror-sharing sessions together."

"You… You can't be serious."

"Um. About what?"

"You're going to go and talk to Goodwitch?"

"Not just me. The both of us."

"Hold on a minute. Us? As in," with a shaky finger, she pointed at herself, then him. "You and me?"

"That's what constitutes a 'we', Blake. It typically means more than one person," Blake felt even heavier now, left in abject disbelief. "I mean, this is about our sessions, so it may as well be the both of us."

"But, like… Seriously? You want to go to Miss Goodwitch?"

To his credit, he did end up looking rather sheepish by the suggestion. "Yeah, it's a crazy idea. But, come on! She's not that bad!"

"If there was one person I would hate to get on the bad side of besides my parents, it's her. And that says a lot when even Nora and Yang behave around her," she slapped her hands on the table, wincing at how loud they were, then pressed onwards. "She is that terrifying."

"True. But she's a teacher. And if we approach her as students, she'd be willing to hear us out and even help us. Out of everyone here, she's the most responsible teacher there is."

Guh… Why did he have to hit her with brutal logic? It was hard to retort that, damn it!

"Look, we'll just give it a shot. Just once. If it doesn't work, then we'll just figure something out," he shrugged. "But if we go and we do get something great out of it, then wouldn't it be worth the trip?"

"I…" Even the rationality in her head was demanding for her to plead for him to give up on that idea. Still, she recognized that trying anything at this point would be better than nothing, so with a heavy sigh, she nodded. "Alright… But just once, got it?"

"Just once," he nodded, grinning. "So, wanna' go see her tomorrow?

"…You know what? Just because I'd be too stressed thinking about it to the point that I might just end up running away, it's best we get this over with early," she stood up. "Let's go."

"Eh? Already?"

"Like I said, I don't want to end up getting cold feet tomorrow. And we'd have to face our demons eventually. That's one thing I learned in all those horror stories."

"Well… Most of them usually end up dying to their demons."

"Jaune, shut up."

Heading to Miss Goodwitch's office always felt like marching to her death, and her earlier bravado steadily dropped into the negative. By the time they were standing outside of it, she could literally feel her sweat pores working overtime.

Jaune, for how much he pretended like he wasn't unaffected, certainly looked the same, though he was seemingly a little more steady than she was. She envied that. What she would give to be half as calm as he was.

"So… What do we do?"

"Knock on her door and pray?" Good idea. She let him do the knocking and she immediately prayed that whatever deities existed out there had mercy on them. "Excuse us, Miss Goodwitch. This is Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna. Are you free at the moment?"

There was a moment of silence, followed by: "Yes. You may come in."

The two students exchanged glances before heading into the woman's office. Still with the minimalistic design but still very appealing to the eyes, and all her papers were meticulously arranged on the shelves for ease of access. The woman herself was at her desk, working through some documents that looked thicker than even encyclopaedias.

She eventually put them aside, however, gesturing to the seats. "Please, take a seat."

"Thank you, miss," Jaune took the right seat, so Blake took the other one. Okay. So far, so good. A calm Miss Goodwitch was… well, that was her default mode, but it wasn't a bad sign, so she'll take that. "But are you sure you're free? You looked like you were working on some stuff back there."

"Don't worry about it. They're nothing that I can't finish by today," she shrugged back. "Nevertheless, how may I be of service to you too?"

Blake looked to Jaune. Was she supposed to be the one to make the first move? To her relief, Jaune took the charge. "Basically, we wanted to ask you for permission to, uhh, get a room for the both of us."

That was the wrong way to phrase it! And even Miss Goodwitch felt that way, her features darkening. "Mister Arc," both students tensed. "I would appreciate it if you didn't approach me just to find someplace for any forms of indecency."

"I-It's not like that!" He cried out, face red. "It's for our horror sessions! You know, like the ones we had last week!"

"What are you… Ah, the ones you've been doing before this, I assume?" Jaune nodded back. "I see. Well, that's a relief. For a moment there, I was dreading what the two of you were planning."

"Jaune and I are not like that," Blake quickly added, the boy nodding along. "We're just good friends with similar interests. And, uh, we just want to find someplace conducive for our time."

"And you can't go outside of the academy?"

"It'd be a huge waste of time, and we might not always be free. This is just for our leisure, I'll admit, so that's… Well, it's a pretty lame thing, I know, and not that important…"

"Please don't feel too bad. The fact that you approached me for this speaks enough of how much you care about this thing. For that reason alone, I refuse to hear you speak ill of your own hobbies," aw. Well, that was sweet of her. Now Blake felt kind of bad for always calling her scary and all kinds of other things (the scary thing is true, obviously, but this wasn't the right moment to even consider that). "Though I'm surprised you approached me regarding this. I would have assumed you'd have your sessions in the library again."

"We don't exactly want a repeat of last time… Plus, we're pretty sure you'd be a lot more upset if we did that again."

"I would be, yes. I'm pleased to see that you're being rational," phew. Good thing Jaune had the clear mind to avoid doing that, then. "Well. If that's the case, then I believe I have a fairly suitable suggestion for you."

So saying, she pulled open a drawer and produced a sheet of paper. She set it on the table and turned it around for the both of them to read. Jaune and Blake leaned close to read it, and it was… a club submission form?

"Um. Miss Goodwitch, we're not really looking forward to making this a club. It's just for us."

"Indeed. But this is just for formality's sake," she said, waving a hand in the air. "Considering that I might help you acquire a room for your sessions, it would be preferable to have this submitted so that I have proof and permission to provide you with all the equipment necessary."

"Huh?"

"Think about it like this. If I just provide you with a room without this, then there's a possibility that I may be accused of favouritism, or giving you someplace to run to for truancy. Then your room would be revoked. With this," she tapped the paper. "It would feel like an official request, and you'd be permitted to have a room for yourselves."

Blake stared at the paper once more, eyes widening. That was a lot more well thought-out than she'd initially thought. "Wow. You're helping us a lot here. Is this okay? You're not going to get in trouble for this, right?"

"It's fine. Besides, for how large this academy is, it has plenty of unused rooms," she scoffed. "Seriously. I mean, the two rooms on either side of my office are literally empty. I was thinking that you could use one nearby."

"Won't that distract you, though?"

"Rest assured, the rooms have suitable amounts of noise insulation, so no one would be able to hear much from inside your rooms," her visage darkened once more. "And I'm warning you, that should not be an opportunity for you to use the room as a place for flirting or the like."

"We wouldn't dream of it!"

"Good," she hummed, satisfied. Jaune had his face in her hands, and even Blake felt like throwing herself out the window. Urgh, now this would be so awkward. "Now then, write down your names, your club name, and the necessary equipment you'll be needing. Fill in the other details too," she took out a pen and handed it to Blake, who accepted it with a nod.

So, they were going to make an official club. That… felt like the kind of plot device she would find in a slice-of-life school life comic. She can't believe that it was actually happening to her. Check off another point from the list.

Miss Goodwitch returned to her work, which left her and Jaune to fill in their necessary details. She had to fill the vice president's shoes while Jaune took the president role, which was weird since it'd only be the two of them, but again, it was for formality's sake. And she had to admit, having the role felt oddly… satisfying, for a lack of a term.

The weird thing was when Jaune wrote down fridge in the equipment. He met her gaze, and promptly scribbled that off. Yeah, best not get ahead of themselves.

Everything else was relatively simple to fill out. The only thing left were the advisor teacher and club name, which was silly to even think about, but she did think that it would be shameful if they gave it a lame name. Miss Goodwitch had them write her name down as the advisor, so that was that. Okay. Now, the name.

'Okay. Something that's accurate to our activities, but still has that nice sound to it. What could we use?'

Her first idea was to look at it from a 'music and arts' perspective, and while that was true, that felt a little excessive. Some comics always had stuff like a paranormal studies club, but that sounded too sinister. They weren't here to conduct any dangerous rituals, after all!

Uhh. Scary Stories Club? Lame, and they were going to discuss other things like games and movies. Scary Studies Club? Blergh. Too nerdy. Creepy Club? Yeah, no. That's just going to give off all the wrong vibes.

"Jaune? Ideas?"

"The Book Club."

She refrained from hitting him in the back of his head. "You do realize we don't just cover stories, right?"

"Yeah, well, I'm not the best at naming things either," he huffed back. "Paranormal Studies Club?"

"We're not researching ghosts. And most certainly not doing any creepy rituals, right?"

"Like heck we are. As fond as I am of horror stories, I do not want to willingly curse myself," she hummed appreciatively at that. "Spookies Club?"

"Too silly."

"Haunted Club?"

"That sounds cursed as well. Next."

"Oh, come on! What name could we even use? Might as well call it the Little Horror Club and be done with it, then."

"That's..!" She paused. "Actually, no. That sounds pretty good."

Now it was his turn to be surprised, blue eyes going wide. "Wait, really?"

"Yeah. Why didn't you say that earlier?"

"I dunno'! I thought it sounded childish."

"A little," she admitted. "But it's also cute. I like it. Little Horror Club…" Testing the words, Blake found herself liking the name a lot more than she'd initially thought. "Yeah. It's fitting. Let's go with that. Write it down."

"Huh. Well, talk about a lucky shot. Okay, so… Little Horror Club," afterwards, they checked through the document one final time, before he nodded. "Alright. Done. Miss Goodwitch," the woman hummed, looking up from her papers. Jaune held up the club form in front of her. "We're done."

"You are? Good," she accepted it—and Blake was momentarily impressed by how she'd been able to tune them out this entire time. A woman of sheer focus, she was—and began looking through it. "Little Horror Club… Well, that's a cute name," Blake snickered while Jaune sweat-dropped. "And it looks like everything's in order. Very well," she put down the paper, and nodded. "One final request; I must ask that you keep your hobbies to a controllable degree and not allow it to disrupt your studies or others'. And I'm uncertain of the kinds of material you'll cover, but please refrain from bringing anything excessive or mature to class. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Then in the meantime, I will make arrangements to have your room prepared. By tomorrow, you'll be free to use it."

That had to be the biggest surprise yet. "That's so fast!"

"Yes, well, I do like to work to get things done quickly," for a moment, her glasses did that shining thing when she pushed it up, making her look pretty cool. "If you have nothing else, the both of you may take your leave. I shall notify you when the time comes."

"Y-Yeah. For sure," Jaune stood up, Blake following suit. "Thank you, ma'am! We really appreciate this!"

"No worries. Now go on. Pretty sure none of you wish to stay here any longer than you have to."

Some final words said, and the two teenagers were heading back to their rooms, having arrived at an unexpectedly successful outcome. Jaune's smile never faded for the rest of the walk, and Blake would have made fun of him for how silly he was being.

That is, if she herself wasn't grinning so much herself.

'Talk about miracles coming true. Jaune was right; guess nothing bad came out of that. Guess there was never anything to worry about from the start.'

All in all, a happy ending. Completely unexpected, of course, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. All was right with the world—

That thought died the moment Jaune somehow slipped on a puddle on the floor, and proceeded to plant his face straight into the tiles. And then, somehow, a paint bucket from atop a locker landed right on her head, and draped her with a shade of pink even brighter than Nora's apparels.

Needless to say, Jaune was off to the infirmary while she returned to her dorm room, to her teammates' shock. The proceeding shower was one of the most intense ones she ever had, accompanied with furious scrubbing and excessive shampoo usage. And yes, Yang, she'll buy more to replace them, so shove it!

Author's Notes:

Is it rather soon? Yes. Yes it is. But I'm not exactly trying to focus on plot in this story. It's just a chill reaction fic.

Go take a look at Gateway of the Mind. It's certainly a creepypasta I never heard before, but when I found it, damn was it great. It's got the same science-y vibes that Russian Sleep Experiment has, albeit a little shorter and with less body horror.

And Vita Carnis is a series of videos you can watch on the Internet pertaining to the studies of flesh-based monsters. Some are just silly, but things get real worrying down the line. Institutional conspiracies, gross anatomy (lmao. That hits double for me considering I'm a med student),

Close Your Eyes is a pretty sweet game, too. Where most horror games are always about escaping the monsters and keeping your eyes open for where they might come from, this one turns things around by making you close your eyes for several scenarios. Pretty sick.

Also, I suppose some might wonder if these stuff may have their own content features in actual chapters like all the other ones before this. Yes, I can confirm that you might see them again in the future, so that's that.