A/N: Poor Hope can't seem to get a break to getting his concert tickets. Did you guys really except Cain to still be alive? As if things can't get any worse for the young boy, a blackout happens. How will he get his tickets now? He can only hope that they don't go on sell during the blackout. One other thing, don't say anything about my spelling and grammer on Xever's quotes. That's how he talks.

It's a stormy night in Bodhum. Heavy rain, loud thunder. But that changes nothing for those living in the Farron house. Hope is at his computer, keeping his eyes glued onto the screen, while Serah and Snow are watching a romanic movie and Lightning is spending her time away from the couple, which seeing those two together just makes her feel sick, in her fathers study reading her book.

This is it for Hope. The tickets go out in a minute, and nothing is going to stop him or get in his way. Perhaps this one concert will actually be happening for him. Serah and Snow's movie is at the ending, where Shan'do admits his true feelings to the love of his life. They have been waiting for him to say the three words.

It's now ten seconds until the tickets go on sell. "This is it!" Hope says.

"This is it!" Serah says, excited. "Tell her that you love her, Shan'do." Serah clenches onto the remote like it's her life force.

"Five. Four." Hope as his mouse on the 'purchase' button. "Three. Two..."

"Tyrenda. There's something I need to tell you." Shan'do says. "Tyrenda...I-"

Suddenly, the lights go out and the TV shuts down. The same thing happens to Hope, just when there's only one second left. Serah and Hope are all shocked, surprised and disappointed. They can't believe at what's happening right before their very eyes.

"NO!" They both shout.

The power went out on the reading light in the Study. When that happens, Lightning was aware, but didn't react like how Serah and Hope felt. Just on alert and curious. She raises her head and looks around, then she puts the book down and gets up, making her leave. Lightning walks down the hallway, it's just as pitch black as it is in her fathers study.

"Just as I thought." Lightning whispers.

Lightning hears the sound of a door opening, and Hope rushing down the hallway. Hope runs until he bumps into Lightning. They both let out an 'oomph' and fall onto the ground. They both get up. Lightning puts her hands on Hope, feeling him since she can't see him. Realizing his height, she can tell it's him.

"Hope? What are you doing?" Lightning asks.

"Nothing. I was about to purchase the tickets when my computer shut down and the lights went out." Hope says.

"Yeah. The power's out." Lightning says. "Let's just find Serah and Snow and head for the living room."

"Okay." Hope waves his arms in front of him as he steps away. "Now...which way is the living room?"

Lightning walks around. "Be careful. Just watch out for the-" Lightning trips and starts falling, crashing down the stairs.

Hope stops and listens to the sounds of crashing and Lightning's groaning, then a final crash and a loud 'ow!'. "Lightning?" Hope asks.

There was silence, then Lightning speaks in a painful, yet irritated, tone. "Stairs..."

Serah and Snow heard the crashing sounds and they are startled. "Snow, what was that?" Serah asks.

"I don't know. I can't see a damn thing." Snow complains.

Hope goes down the stairs, carefully taking each step so he doesn't trip. Lightning gets up and moves out of the way, only to crash against a nearby lamp table. "Ow!"

"Lightning, was that you?" Serah shouts.

"Serah? Where are you?" Hope asks.

"I'm with Snow, in the Living Room." Serah answers.

"Well stay there." Lightning says, trying to get up. "We'll be there."

When Hope makes it down the stairs, which is right next to the front door, the door bursts open, slamming into Hope's face. The howling wind and the loud rain drops startles Lightning. She turns to see two people, hard to tell in the shadows, are at the front door. They walk in and one of them closed the door. Hope falls back, landing on the first few flat of stairs.

"Are you guys okay?" The familiar voice of Vanille says.

"Vanille? ...Fang?" Lightning asks.

"That's right, love." Fang answers.

Hope moans. Vanille hears the moaning, she was startled at first, then gasps realizing it's Hope. "Hope!" Vanille follows the sound until she's in front of Hope. "You okay?"

"Vanille?" Hope sits up. He moans painfully, falling back on those stairs sure did hurt his back. "What are you doing here?"

"The power went out in our house, and we came to check on you." Vanille says.

"You guys too, huh?" Lightning wonders. "Sounds like Bodhum's having a blackout. Everyone into the Living Room."

Everyone now gathers around in the living room. The fireplace is now lit, brightening the room from the darkness. Serah and Snow are sitting on the couch. Fang is sitting on the arm rest of the couch, Hope is sitting in front of the couch by Snows feet. Vanille is laying on the floor, on her stomach with her legs folded back and swinging back and forth, with her chin resting on her hands and elbows on the rug. The silly girl is gazing at the fireplace.

Lightning joins in with the group, flipping her cell phone closed. "Well, I reported the situation to the power company." Everyone but Vanille turns to look at Lightning. "They're aware of the situation and they're already handling it. So it's gonna be a while."

Everyone but Vanille moans in disappointment. "This stinks." Fang says.

"No kidding." Hope says. "By the time the powers back on, those tickets are going to be sold out."

Vanille looks back at Hope curiously. "Tickets? What tickets?"

Hope seems embarrassed. "Uh...nothing." Hope answers.

"He's trying to get tickets to that Songstress concert in Bodhum." Lightning answers.

"Light!" Hope's tone was shameful and irritated.

"That's great!" Vanille shifts her body around until she's standing up. "I wanna go too if you can get them."

Hope looks at Vanille shamefully. "Yeah, well. Don't give your hopes up. Cause everytime I tried to get a ticket...backfires. I've never been to a Yuna concert, not once."

Vanille tilts her head to the side and frowns. "Aww, that's so sad."

"You know what else is sad?" Fang asks, with a bit of sarcasm in her tone. "Us suffering boredom!"

"Yeah, what are we gonna do now?" Snow asks.

Serah stands up. "Don't worry, guys. There are some deck of cards in the closet. We'll just play while we wait for the power to come back."

Serah walks away from the living room, heading to the closet in the hallway. Lightning sighs and sits on the chair beside the couch. Everyone waits patiently for Serah. Serah returns with the cards and sits on the center of the floor.

Everyone joins in with Serah on the floor, forming a circle, legs pretzel crossed. Serah takes out the deck and starts shuffling the cards. "Any requests?"

"How about poker?" Fang says.

"I don't know, I didn't bring my wallet." Snow says.

Hope raised a hand, just up to his shoulders. "How about go fish?"

"Oh." Vanille claps her hands. "Let's do go fish!"

Everyone else agreed, and they decided to do go fish. Fang was disappointed, she wanted to make some cold hard cash in a gamble. Serah hands five cards to each person, and the game begins.

The game starts with Hope having the most cards, but Fang starts to recover and she and Hope are now tied. Minutes have passed and Vanille won with about eleven fishes, while Lightning has seven, Fang two, Serah three, Snow none and Hope three as well. The poor kid got his three fishes from the start like it was lucky, but his luck pretty much turned for the rest of the game.

Vanille cheers with her victory. "Woo-hoo! I win!" She squeals.

Lightning, Fang and Snow moans in disappointment. "Lucky you, Vanille." Hope says, in defeat. He's mostly down cause he lost against his girlfriend.

Vanille noticed the grumpiness in his tone. "Aww." Vanille reaches over to Hope and pinches his cheeks. "Don't feel so down, Hopey-wopey." Vanille's tone was cutie child-like.

Hope eyes widen open from Vanille's talk, and everyone else just laughs, even Lightning. "'Hopey-wopey'?" Lightning asks.

Hope blushes in embarrassment as he shoves Vanilles hand off of his cheek. "I-I-I don't know what you're talking about." Hope says. "Uh, deal the cards!"

The game of Go Fish went on for two hours. Vanille has won the game three times, Snow and Serah won two of them and everyone else won at none. Evenually, Lightning and Fang got annoyed and quiet the game. Hope gives up as well cause he kept on losing at either last place or second to last. Either way, it's pathetic.

The game of cards dropped. The power is still out, and the group is still trying to figure out what to do until it comes back on.

"So...what now?" Hope asks.

"How about we tell stories?" Serah suggests.

Lightning thinks it's a terrible idea, story-telling. She thinks something like that is for little kids. "Ooh, ooh! Let's do that!" Vanille says with a cheer. And Lightning is right.

"Right. Anyone know any good stories?" Fang asks.

Snow raises his hand is about to speak, but Lightning cuts him off. "If it's Super Hero Sisters, drop it!" And Snow does what he's told, just lowers his hand.

Hope looks at Lightning with confusion. "Super Hero Sisters? What's that?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Lightning says. (A/N: It's a silly tale related to Super Mario Brothers. Much like how some TV shows talk about popular stuff but chance the titles, like "The Thirsty Games" are the Hunger Games)

"All right, Ms. Soldier Girl." Fang jokes. "You got any good stories?"

Lightning thinks for a moment. "Well, I do know one. It's a story the other Guardian Corps officers say when we're having a campout. It's pretty scary."

"Then I forbid it." Fang says.

"Why?" Snow wonders.

"Cause Vanille gets really scared when she hears a frightening story." Fang says.

"I do not!" Vanille protests. "I'm all grown up now."

Fang crosses her arms, giving Vanille a look. "Remember what happened last month when Hamato told the story about the Hunted Poster?"

"I'll be fine!" Vanille says.

"The Hunted Poster? What's that?" Hope asks.

Fang crosses her legs and waves her hand like it's nothing. "Nothing, just some lame scary story. I even wonder if it's su-poster (Suppose to) be scary." Everyone laughs at Fangs pun.

Lightning turns her attention to Hope. "What about you? Think you can handle it?"

"I'll be fine, Lightning...Unless it's about losing mothers." Hope says, nervously at the end.

"Don't worry. It's not." Lightning says. "Okay, I'll tell it then."

Everyone pays close attention to Lightning, as she begins her scary story.

"It was a dark and stormy night, just like tonight. And there were a group of friends who are just having a sleepover. They were all having a fun time, when suddenly, the power went out. The group got scared, wondering what's going on. The next thing they know, they hear banging on the door. Too afraid to answer, the group hides around the house. One of them, however, was hiding near the door, so she saw everything that's happening. The banging gets louder, until the man behind it breaks it open. Rain rages in and thunder storms as the shadowy figure stands by the broken door. The young girl hiding by the door got scared. As he walks in, she was spotted. The man took her away, and she was never seen again...the end."

Everyone has different expressions about the story. Fang was a mix of bored and disappointed, Hope is just plain, Vanille was nervous, she's obviously scared. Snow and Serah are just looking at Lightning.

Fang yawns. "Is that it? I think I prefer the Hunted Poster."

Lightning looks at Fang annoyed. "Like you could tell a better story."

"I'm with Fang. How is that scary?" Snow says.

"I think it was fine, could have been longer or more descriptive." Hope says.

Serah yawns and stretches her arms in the air. "It's getting late, I think we should hit the hay." Serah says.

"But, what about the power?" Hope asks.

"It's most likely not able to come on until morning." Lightning says.

Hope moans disappointed, those concert tickets are definitely long gone to him.

Day 10...?

It's the middle of the night, no one really knows what time it is since everyone's asleep and the power's still out (So who knows it's really past midnight and on the next day?) The storm rages on outside.

Everyone's asleep, all except for Vanille. She's sleeping in that small guest room that was previously Hope's. Fang is pretty much crashed on the couch. Vanille couldn't sleep, she's too worried thinking about that scary story of Lightning's. Tonights condition is just like how it is in the story:

A raging storm

Blackout

All friends gathered in the house for a sleepover

Vanille couldn't help but worry, wondering if the shadowy figure will arrive and take one of them, possibly her, away. Forever.

She couldn't take it anymore, she gets out of bed. Vanille tip-toes down the hallway, where she arrives at Hope's room. She finds the boy sleeping in his bed. Vanille rushes to his side and shakes him.

"Hope. Hope. Wake up!" Vanille whispers.

Hope moans tiresome. He opens his eyes to see Vanille in the darkness. "Vanille?" Hope sits up. "What is it?"

"I'm scared." Vanille says. "The story. It's coming true."

Hope sighs. "Vanille, I love you but you're crazy." Hope says. "It's just a story. Now go to sleep."

"No, no. Think about it, Hope. There's a blackout, a storm is happening and we're all sleeping together in the same house." Vanille grabs Hopes shoulders and shakes him back and forth. "The shadowy figure is coming!"

Hope grabs Vanille and pulls her off of him. "Don't be ridiculous, Vanille." Hope says.

Hope and Vanille becomes startled when they hear the sound of banging. It was a little faint, probably downstairs. "Did you hear that?" Vanille asks, worried.

"I did." Hope says, curious. "But I'm sure it's nothing." More banging happens.

Vanilles voice is quivering. "It's the shadowy figure."

"Okay, you know what?" Hope jumps out of bed, grabs Vanille by the wrist and drags her. "Let's go see this 'shadowy figure' and settle this."

Hope and Vanille goes down the hallway, down the stairs. The closer they get to the living room, the louder the banging becomes. When they get closer, they pace their movement, as if not to disturb any sleeping creatures that's probably gonna eat them.

Halfway down the stairs, they look at the front door. The banging happens, the sound is stronger then before. It's clearly coming from that door. At the last banging, a hand breaks through the door, which startles Hope and Vanille. The hand was close to the knob, which grabs it and turns it, opening the door. Vanille and Hope gasps, it's the shadowy figure.

The shadowy figure walks in. Vanille cowers behind Hope, as if to use him as a shield. "It's the shadowy figure!" She whispers in a quivering voice.

The shadowy figure walks in, he looks up the stairs and spots Hope and Vanille. They both gasp when he spotted them. "What now?" Vanille whispers.

The shadowy figure makes his way up the stairs, towards Vanille and Hope. "Only one thing left to do." Hope says.

Hope rushes down the stairs and slams against the shadowy figure, causing it to fall on the ground. Vanille is shocked to see this, Hope fighting against the figure. After standing back for a minute to see this, Vanille rushes down the stairs and joins him.

The sound of a struggling battle echoes through the house. Fang rushes to the scene and grabs Vanille, pulling her away. "All right, break it up!" Fang says.

Lightning, Serah and Snow rushes down the stairs to see what's going on. Suddenly, lights come on. The power's back on. The shadowy figure, who is Xever dressed in a delivery man uniform in a black hooded cloak, lays on the ground with Hope sitting on top of him and a package on the ground next to him, bending the mans leg back. Vanille and Hope calms down seeing who it is.

"Hey, you're not the shadowy figure." Vanille says.

"The shadowy figure? Is that was this is about?" Fang says. She knows exactly where this is going. "I knew you shouldn't have heard that story."

Vanille tries to change the subject. "Uh...look, the power's back."

Fang groans in disappointment. Xever looks back at Hope. "Get off me."

Hope realizes what he's doing and lets go of Xevers leg and gets off of him. "Oh, sorry mister...wait, the power's back?"

Just like that, Hope bolts up the stairs, towards his room. Lightning, Serah and Snow were surprised, the kid even had to squeeze through them. After that moment, Lightning walks down the stairs approaching Xever. "What do you want?"

Xever grabs the package and stands up. "Uh. I have package." Xever takes out a clipboard. "For...Claire Far-ron."

Lightning is shocked to hear her real name. "It's Farron."

"Vatever." Xever hands the clipboard to Lightning. "Sign here."

Lightning takes the pen and signs her name on the dotted line. "I didn't order anything, let alone a package in the middle of the night...What is it?"

"I know nothing. I'm just doing job." Xever says. Xever takes the clipboard and hands the package to Lightning. "Next time, keep kid under control."

"I have nothing to do what he did, sir." Lightning says.

"Vatever. Have good night." Xever makes his leave.

Lightning looks curiously at the package, Serah stands next to Lightning. "What is it?"

"Don't know." Lightning says.

Lightning takes the package to the kitchen. She takes out a knife and cuts the tape. She puts her fingers on the cardboard, about to open it, when she and everyone becomes startled by Hope's shouting.

"NO!"

Everyone seems worried hearing the boys scream. They waited and the kid walks down the stairs. He seems depression. They all looked at him with concern, then Hope looks up at them with a sad expression. "The tickets...are sold out."

Serah, Vanille and Snows expressions dropped, they fall bad for the kid. "Oh, Hope. We're sorry." Serah says.

Hope sits on the stoll in front of the counter and slams his fists on the counter. "Why!? Why does this keep happening to me!"

Serah stands next to Hope, putting a hand on his back. Just trying to comfort his disappointment. Serah now turns her attention to Lightning. "So, what's the in package?"

Lightning turns her attention to the package in front of her. She opens it and takes out what's in it: Just a stuffed carbuncle doll.

Lightning seems a bit disappointed at the sight of it. "A doll?" She says.

"I think it looks nice." Vanille says.

Lightning sighs and just puts the doll back in the box. "Whatever." Lightning walks off, she heads upstairs, going back to bed.

Vanille turns her attention to the Carbuncle in the box. She reaches inside and pulls the doll out. "Well, can't let it go to waste."

Serah walks up to Vanille, she takes the doll. "I'll take it. Just in case Lightning changes her mind."

Serah takes the doll to her room. Hope returns to his room as well, but in defeat. Snow slept on the couch and Fang and Vanille went home, since the storm is lighting up and the powers back on.