The group's laughter continued to echo in her head. It was a dream. Right? Dream. ...No, nightmare. Sitting upright, the question still went unanswered. She'd had dreams like this before...but this one seemed so...so...real. I wonder if it...if it even was one...maybe I'm imagining things. The latter wasn't uncommon for her to do, anyway, as real-life events somehow overlapped with her dreams...nightmares as well. Maybe I should get some sleep. Tossing and turning in the uncomfortable, awkwardly warm bed, she couldn't find a comfortable position and just gave up.
Opening the door slowly, almost petrified of what could be found on the other side, she stepped out into the carpeted hallway. No voices, no breathing, no noises whatsoever...it almost has a haunted feel to it. Uncertain and morbidly scared, she took a slow step onto the first of the seemingly endless set of creaking and groaning stairs. Never in her whole life had she hated an inanimate object so much. At the bottom of the journey sat...no one. The house was completely ... ... deserted. But why?
Taking small steps, each one careful not to make a noise, she crept into the kitchen area. Unsurprisingly, the room still rank of Len's distasteful pancakes. I wonder if they've been here...
"Twelve of them make one, four of them and we've won."
What? Who said that...and what did it mean...?
"A legacy we will behold, through the ink and paper we fold."
... ... ...
All was silent.
Rin was incredibly confused now. The boundaries between reality and falsity were so thin that they were almost one. She dismissed the presence and voice as a mere figment of her mangled imagination, nothing more than a cruel mind trick.
"The first of many marks the spot,"
What...!
"Only once comes what we've sought."
... ... ...
That voice sounds familiar...in some way...but I can't put my finger on it...
Laughing arose from the clouded being that was her brain. Or maybe it was real. Whatever. She couldn't tell, and why even try to?
Meanwhile ...
"That was hilarious! I can't believe she fell for that. How stupid is she?"
"I know, right!"
(More laughter)
The voices could only be distinguished in pitch - as each one had the same vulgar tone, same evil intent as the rest.
"Oi, what did that riddle mean, anyway?"
An audible slapping noise came from inside the stairwell's room.
"HEY! What did you do that for?"
"Felt like it."
"... ... answer my question ... ... sigh"
"Oi, that riddle? Ha. Nothing at all. I just made it up on the spot. But it sounded cool and mysterious, didn't it?"
The voices were heard screaming profane phrases at each other, and none of them thought that the target of their trick was listening just outside their unprofessional hiding place.
The door, after a bit of tugging, opened to her grasp. The pair of figures shrouded in darkness were distinguished only by height; all other figures were unrecognizable in the stark blackness. Scrambling and panicking, the two mysterious silhouettes tried frantically to locate an escape. There wasn't one.
"RUN!"
She was suddenly rammed into, knocked over, and trampled upon as the laughing convicts quickly sped far away from her.
What the ...
There were no traces of voices, movement, or sound whatsoever. A dark and ominous feel came about the house. Her mood quickly shifted from slightly miffed and confused to legitimately concerned for her life. She moved upstairs, full of fear, to her bedroom; or, at least, what remained of it.
WHAT!?
Rin was always a fairly meticulous person; she spent hours on end making her every possession reflect and sparkle in the sunlight.
Her room was ravaged and torn to shreds. Entire furniture was flipped upside down, and she sat fuming in silence.
Len...
It was simply a distraction. The voices...they were just to bring her attention away...why would she ever fall for such a simple trick...?
Sure enough, a distinguished laugh - practically a howl, was heard from outside the doorway.
I need to take revenge...but how?
"Hey! Hey! Oi, Sis, what's wrong?"
She realized she had been staring off at nothingness, blank-faced and with empty emotion.
"sigh...Nothing...this is probably what I deserve. For that day."
Len's blank, confused expression told her he had no idea what she was saying. Neither did she, to be honest.
"Oooohhhhkayyy...wanna go get ice cream?"
His naughty, prankster-y disposition was replaced by an unfamiliar kind an generous one. He had to be up to something. But what? She made a mental note to keep a close check on Len for the rest of the day, or maybe month. Who knows. Might as well take advantage of free ice cream, though.
...
...
"Here we are."
The old shop seemed abandoned and not under good keep, hardly the sort of dazzling ice cream palace Len had so promised. She decided to enter; after all, maybe she was expecting too much from the small town, a far cry from downtown Tokyo. The doorbell rung as she swung the door open, and she whirled around to Len.
"So, what flavor do you want? They have a ton - raspberry, mint flake, chocolate cream -"
"There's no ice cream here."
It was true, obviously. The old building was once a grand ice cream and candy shop - - over 100 years ago.
"Oh, I guess they went out of business a few years ago. Shame."
"Says here they closed permanently in 1911."
Len shrugged indifferently. "Guess I was off by a bit."
I'm almost certain eating ice cream wasn't his goal by bringing me here. But what was it?
"Don't be so scared, sis, it's not like I'm going to kill you or anything!" Len mused, laughing at what was supposed to be a joke.
I'm really not so sure it's a joke anymore.