Horror in Nowhere: Part 2

Xxx

Confusion distorted Naoki's handsome face; he had the sudden notion something had changed without his knowledge. He stopped the Possession spell briefly to check the inventory chapter at the back of the book. Alas, the note at the top of the page told him what he wanted to know: Takeshi has escaped.

Naoki's lips tightened and fury flashed across his face before settling into anticipation. One liberated prisoner could ruin all of his plans; he couldn't let him escape!

He flipped through the book as he waved away the spell in the air. Waving it away was dangerous; whomever he'd placed the spell on could lose their mind or worse, die. But where a normal person would worry and continue it if just to save a life, Naoki didn't have the ability to worry. He had the ability to hate and obsess.

That was something no one knew about Naoki.

He didn't mind if one of the pawns died. It didn't bother him one bit. The only reason he'd feel upset over it would be because he would have less fun with this form of death; he wanted to torture every soul in the house. He wanted to make them scream and sob and beg for release. His black soul was hard to understand.

He had no shame.

No one could possibly ever understand his lifeless being. There were no emotions in him, just pleasure when someone was hurting. The only person he needed to last was Hiroshi. No one could intervene with that.

Naoki ran a bloodied finger over another spell, Curse, but passed it, deeming it inappropriate for the situation-for the moment. He concluded using a different spell, an Entrapment spell, like the one he'd used on Takuro. He had used a strong spell in Takuro's case.

This spell would be two times stronger.

"If anyone else escapes, I'll have to dispose of them before the big show," Naoki huffed with sharp irritation. He clicked his tongue. "What a bother. How boring will it be if I have to kill everybody before they have a chance to witness the magnificum Umbra's return…" He was suddenly washed with a wave of worry; "I'll have to find the last two books before the others do. If not, this plan will be for nothing…"

But he settled on waiting for a while longer before he started confronting anyone; he didn't want to seem suspicious, not when he'd made it this far. Instead, he began to chant the spell that would keep Takeshi locked away for good.

Xxx

Hiroshi bent down inside one of the closets in the back hall and picked up the lighter he'd just discovered. It was old and scathed. The silver was dented in some places, but when Hiroshi ran his thumb over the wheel a flame spurted from the container.

"What is with all of these hidden items?" He wondered quietly.

For a brief second he was sure he had heard a distant cry but dismissed it; it could have been a figment of his imagination or possibly that (or those) oni playing tricks on him. Without giving it another thought he walked back into the hallway and started to the exit door. For whatever reasons the mirrors in the hallway reminded him Satō had disappeared. He honestly didn't feel like searching for him let alone saving him.

It ashamed him he didn't mind Satō, that he wasn't bothered like he should have been. He decided he'd let the manor run its course, whether it involved saving Satō or not. For the time being.

Memories he hadn't touched in a long time resurfaced. They were little recollections, like the day Hiroshi had met Satō. Satō smiled radiantly and shook his hand aggressively. Hiroshi didn't like that; it gave him a bad feeling. He felt ashamed for quite awhile; here was another student Hiroshi had just met and yet he had judged him from the beginning. He hadn't known the boy for five minutes and he was already pushing him away.

The next thing dumped into Hiroshi's mind was the day he had found his lanky science lab partner crumpled behind the gym house. He had told Hiroshi Satō had bludgeoned his week's savings from him; he had brought it to school that day for a fieldtrip to France. There had been several others whom Hiroshi had found that had told him the same thing. But Hiroshi refused to believe it; he doubted anyone could do something so repulsing.

Then there was the day Hiroshi witnessed Satō assaulting another student inside the band room several days earlier. Looking back, Hiroshi felt he should have done something, but at the time he had been too afraid to stand up for the sophomore. His actions sickened him. The action he refused to take rotted him to the core; if only he had just stepped up and confronted Satō that day! Takuro wouldn't have taken that bullshit. Mika would have talked to a teacher. Nikoru would have jumped Satō (and lost). And Naoki…actually, he wasn't sure what Naoki would have done.

But Hiroshi was disgusted at himself. He hadn't the guts to confront anyone. He didn't want to lose his popularity or his position on the school board but he also didn't want Satō on his tail for the rest of their school days.

Hiroshi slumped against the exit door for a moment, clenching his fists around the knob until his knuckles turned white. You are such a coward, Hiroshi…You're a coward…

Now he knew how Nikoru had felt the day she engaged in a fight with Mika. She knew Mika didn't hate her for it, as she had pushed on past that. But every now and then, Hiroshi noticed small changes with Nikoru's behavior when she talked to Mika. Mika was pleasant, as always, but Nikoru looked awkward and sometimes sorrowful. Sometimes she seemed almost as if she were pushing Mika away, not that Mika herself seemed aware of it.

Nikoru just seemed bothered when she talked to Mika. It wasn't consistent, but she was awkward once in a while. After the fight she had even ignored Takuro for a while until she cleared some obstacle between them. She had gotten better at handling conversations with Mika lately, but the month before when shit had hit the fan, they had been almost like enemies.

Hiroshi still wasn't sure what they had fought over, but he was sure it had dented part of their friendship.

Neither of them had mentioned the argument in any way since it occurred.

"No," Hiroshi whispered weakly to himself, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Don't lament, HirohsiPE…Hiroshi…You may not deserve that awful nickname but remember, your friends where the ones who cursed you, or, well, blessed you, with that name. Don't stop, keep going!"

He pepped himself up and hurried back into the foyer. "Think, Hiroshi! What do you need to focus on first?"

The safe in the music room came to him and he jumped on that decision. How ironic, he usually settled arguments between Takuro and Nikoru, not for himself. But everything was becoming estranged lately. He checked his watch, something he hadn't done in quite a while; ten fifty-seven.

Can we make it until morning? He wondered to himself. He wasn't too sure; I mean, Takeshi had run off somewhere, Takuro and Mika were missing, Satō had disappeared, and Naoki was gone, as well. Nikoru was the only one still about, he hoped.

"They'll be fine," he told himself determinedly as he started up the steps to the second floor. "Focus on escaping. You'll find them as you go."

He trotted across the second floor and slipped into the music room quietly, ready for anything. The piano was where he had left it, of course. He pulled the cloth from one pocket and the soap from another and walked to the piano as he dampened the cloth with soap. It came out quickly and he had to catch himself before all of the soap drained. Some splattered on the floor but that was the least of his worries.

He was usually very particular about cleaning up, but this time he couldn't have noticed if he'd wanted to. He was too focused to notice.

He hurried to the piano and wiped off the blood hesitantly, avoiding any contact with the dried liquid. The cloth and soap were effective; the blood came off easily as if it had been erased. There, printed on the keys, were a 7, 5, and 6.

Irritation flooded him like a tidal wave; what the hell did this mean? Glancing at the safe in the background, Hiroshi groaned; of course, the number had to be for the safe.

The cry he was sure he had heard earlier returned for a quick second. Again, Hiroshi refused to believe it was anything more than an trick to make him uneasy, but he glanced over his shoulder and about the room just to be safe. Now, there was no possible way he would ever fell secure out in the open like he was, let alone anywhere else like inside of that closet, but the momentary relief he had at the moment was as close as he was going to get to a secure feeling.

He walked up to the safe and examined it. It had changed since last time; there were small indents in the metal that looked to be numbers; a nine, a one or an 'L', a six, and a nine. Hiroshi narrowed his eyes, puzzled and, again, irritated. What the hell did any of this mean?

First he decided to try the numbers he found inscribed, nine, one, six, nine. He turned them in on a small knob. He fumed when it didn't work.

"What is this?" He growled sharply. "I mean, what is this! This makes no sense whatsoever! How am I to decipher this if there are four numbers and three on the piano? Who's idea was this?" He turned and threw his arms in the air, furious. "This is blasphemy! No, not blasphemy, dammit, I mean-gah!" He raked his head with his nails. "I don't know what I mean!"

He furiously turned and twisted in the piano numbers. Again, nothing. He tried every possible combination he could think of. Then, he decided he'd try in the numbers upside-down just for the hell of it. He was twisting so ferociously he wasn't even sure what he was entering. Finally, as he stepped away in defeat, the safe door clicked and popped open slightly.

Hiroshi was unsure if he was hearing things, but he could have sworn the angels had started singing. Could he really have opened the safe without knowing what he was doing? So 'winging it' did work in some cases. He'd thought Nikoru and Takuro were bullshitting him!

He swiftly jumped back in front of the safe again and eagerly pried the seemingly rusted door the rest of the way open. Curiously enough, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the door. Why had he had trouble in opening it? Ah, well, it didn't matter; he'd found another key.

There was yet another sticky note stuck to its underside.

"What is with all of these sticky notes, by the way?" He inquired himself, thinking hard for an answer as he pulled the note off. "Why would the family leave these keys here like this, with sticky notes, of all things, attached?"

He huffed angrily and unfolded the note:

Kid's Bedroom Key.

"Kid's Bedroom Key," Hiroshi repeated thoughtfully. "Progress. Maybe I can-"

"Hiroshiiiii…"

The hair on the back of Hiroshi's neck stood. That whisper had come from just behind him. He turned slowly, one baby step at a time, expecting another oni.

But that's not what it was.

Xxx

Takeshi fell through the portal and landed on the living room couch. His head was pounding to the point he felt it would explode. Standing from the couch, he was astonished and terrified to find his surroundings were tinted purple. He wasn't sure if it was because he had hit his head on the couch and boggled his vision or if it were the result of the disco lights messing with his head.

All he knew was it was unnatural and that stroke fear inside his heavy heart. This was almost as bad as that bloodstained room. Again, he kept his arms folded in close to his chest and moved to the exit, warily eyeing the table and rug as if expecting them to jump him.

He fled the living room and bolted down the hallway towards the foyer, desperate to find someone and see some life besides himself again. He yearned for it as a Directionator yearns for One Direction.

But when he arrived in the foyer, he found himself alone. His breath caught in his throat and he hurried towards the stairs shouting, "Mika! Mika, where are you? Guys! Where did you go? Guys!"

He received an abrupt chorus of knocks below his feet. It seemed they were coming from the back hallway. He ran back downstairs and rushed through the side isle, entering into the back hallway. "Guys! Guys! Anybody!"

He sped down the hall until he reached the matted area and then stopped. No one was back here. Maybe they were all on the third floor?

He turned around and started for the exit when a symphony of low hums erupted from one of the closets. Takeshi froze with fear. He didn't want to turn around but the curiosity was nagging him. He allowed himself to barely gaze over his shoulder.

He shuddered as his eyes landed on what was the image of a girl in a tattered white gown…

Xxx

Cliffhanger! :D I love torturing characters, especially with pop ups and freak monsters.

Inspiration would have to be from Hot Shots with Charlie Sheen (It's a parody of Top Gun), Eminem's songs Just Lose It and Amityville, Alma from F3AR, and the awesome crazy Bakura from the origional Yu-Gi-Oh. Call him what you will, I think he's awesome. He was like a childhood icon to me, I guess. I used to watch that stupid show every Saturday.

Anyway, follow or fav if you want (you know you want to), and please Review to tell me how I'm doing!

Stay awesome!

-Cappy