"What are you guys doing here?"
Haruhi gave an irritated look at the guys she considered her close friends outside her apartment door, smiling at her as if they were doing nothing wrong.
"We're here to watch the movie with you, Haruhi." Hikaru held up the bag he was holding. "We brought food."
"And dessert!" Honey held up a bright pink box. Most likely filled with cake.
"Guys, I don't know if you guys realized, but the movie night was supposed to be with just Tamaki and me. You know, as a date."
It was a tradition that she and Tamaki had since they had been dating about four years ago. Almost every week, they would watch a TV show or movie together on a day they were both free. It didn't involve the other members of the Host Club, so how did they know that the movie night was tonight?
"Really? Because Tamaki invited us," Kaoru said.
Ah, that's how. Haruhi glared over at her boyfriend, who was sitting at the table with a sheepish grin. "Aww, come on, Haruhi. We haven't had a night out with our friends in a while because of school. I thought having them over and watching the movie with us would be fun."
"It would've been great if you informed me about this before they showed up."
"I didn't mention it to you?" He innocently asked. "I thought I brought it up. Huh…Who did I bring it up to?"
Haruhi rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's stupidity and moved aside for her friends. "I guess come in."
The guys entered her apartment and began sitting around the TV with Tamaki. The twins pulled out some of the food that they brought over. As if they knew that Haruhi would be upset that they were coming over, Hikaru handed her a carton of some of her favorite sushi. She glared up at him, but from the smirk on his face, he knew that he'd gotten her forgiveness. She took the carton from him and a pair of chopsticks and headed over to where everyone else was.
"So, what are we going to watch?" Kaoru asked. "I'm in the mood for something scary."
"I'd prefer not." Tamaki gulped. "You guys know I'm not a fan of horror."
"Come on, Tono. It's almost Halloween. We have to watch something Halloween-themed at least." Tamaki was about to make a suggestion before Hikaru stopped him. "That's not Halloween Town."
Tamaki pouted and looked over at his girlfriend for help. He knew that if she chose to be on his side, the other guys would most likely agree to watch a more happy Halloween movie, but since she was upset with him for having the guys intrude on their date, she wanted him to suffer.
"I think a horror movie would be great," Haruhi said, making Tamaki's expression turn terrified. "What's the scariest movie you guys know?"
"Uhh," The twins looked at each other as if they were deciding telepathically which movie to choose.
"Well, it's not necessarily scary," Kaoru said.
"But more gory than anything," Hikaru added.
"Play it."
"No!" Tamaki screeched. "Please don't make us watch it, Haruhi! I'm sorry!"
"Alright, stop fighting you two." Kyoya sighed, clearly annoyed. "Haruhi, I don't know about you, but I would prefer not to clean up Tamaki's vomit from all the gore in the movie, and I have a feeling neither do you."
"Yeah, Haruhi, I would rather not have anybody vomit." Hikaru shuddered at the thought.
"Fine, then what scary movie would you guys suggest?"
Hikaru shrugged. "How about Halloween? It's not too scary, so Tamaki should be fine."
Tamaki gulped and gripped the fabric of his pants. "Which movie is that one? So I can make sure I can watch it."
Kaoru and Hikaru rolled their eyes at his reaction. "Tall, quiet guy who wears a William Shatner mask and kills people. Jamie Lee Curtis is the final girl. Made in the late 70s. Does any of this ring a bell?"
When Tamaki seemed to be lost, Kaoru took out his phone and pulled up a picture of the villain. "This is Micheal Myers. Does he look familiar?"
"Oh, I know him. Okay…" He seemed to think about it for a few seconds before putting on an unconvincing, brave face. "Okay, I'll watch it."
"Great, I'll pull it up on my streaming account." Hikaru smiled and began logging onto his account on Haruhi's new television that Tamaki had bought Ranka as a birthday present this past year. But before he could play the movie, Kyoya's phone dinged.
He pulled out his phone just to see who texted him, thinking that it was just a normal text message he would respond to later when his expression grew serious.
"What is it, Kyoya?" Haruhi asked. She and Mori seemed to be the only ones to notice his change in expression.
Everyone looked over at him, and Hikaru paused the movie so they would have their whole attention on Kyoya.
"My father just texted me about a new investigation that our police force was given." He looked up at the group, who just looked at him curiously. "Seika Ayanokoji was just murdered."
The room was silent, everyone taking in the information that Kyoya had just said. Seika wasn't the most liked person in the Host Club, especially with her harassing Haruhi when she first transferred to Ouran, but just because she was mean didn't mean she needed to be murdered. From what Honey and Mori had learned from being in some classes with her, she was getting help and trying to be a little nicer to people. Haruhi and the twins thought it was mostly because of the career she wanted. She knew people wouldn't want to work with her if she kept being rude to people. The twins clarified that modeling was networking, and they would find someone better if an unknown model was difficult. However, Tamaki thought that Seika was doing this for herself and no one else. She finally opened her eyes, realized her bad qualities, and wanted to better herself. If only everyone could be as optimistic as Tamaki.
"Did…Did they find who did it?" Kaoru finally broke the silence.
Kyoya shook his head. "No, they haven't. But there is an investigation going on." He scrolled through more of the messages his father sent. "They tried to look at the security settings to see if they could see who the killer was, but there was nothing on it. It's as if they were able to hack into it and manipulate the camera because there is a sudden jump to Seika stabbed and hung on a tree."
"Oh, dear God." Haruhi covered his mouth in horror. She didn't need to see a photo to see everything. It horrified her that someone did that, and she was terrified that a person could do all that.
"It seemed like she was specifically targeted," Mori said. "They had to plan in advance to hack into Sekia's security system."
"Especially one as advanced as hers." Kyoya brought up. "They need to be really familiar with the system to hack through it."
"Hikaru, Kaoru." Tamaki looked over at the twins. "Your father's software company has dabbled a bit in home security. Do you guys know how the attacker could've gotten through?"
"We have no idea," Karou answered. "We just barely know the basics of our father's system. I can't imagine what a high-end system could look like."
"Even if we did know, we wouldn't know how to get through unless it was our father's system," Hikaru added.
They all just sat there, not knowing what to do. Hikaru, sensing that it wouldn't be a good idea to watch a movie about a mass murderer after everything about Seika switched off the movie. No one was crying since they weren't too close to Seika for them to be extremely emotionally affected, but they felt awful. Like if they were kicked in the stomach. Especially if the murder was planned, it made Haruhi wonder if the killer just picked her out when they saw her or if she did something to them to cause them to want to kill her. Was the community around Ouran not safe anymore? If there was a murderer on the loose, what were they going to do?
To try and lighten the mood, the twins put on Halloween Town. Haruhi tried to eat the sushi that Hikaru had given her, but she didn't have the appetite. It did look good, though, so she would save it for later.
…
The next day at school was quiet. The word about Seika's murder was spreading like wildfire throughout the school. It seemed like no matter where you went. You couldn't escape the topic. Haruhi was sitting in her lecture class with the twins, jolting down some last-minute notes before the trio headed to lunch. She was usually a quick note-taker, but she had so much on her mind today that she caught herself spacing out a lot.
"There you guys are." A voice called out to them.
Haruhi looked up from her notes to see Renge making her way over to them. Hikaru made an annoyed sigh seeing her but didn't say anything while Kaoru gave her a tight smile. With the dark atmosphere around the school, Renge's intense energy wasn't the best to be around.
"I've been looking for you guys everywhere." She looked at Haruhi, and she could be mistaken, but it seemed like there was a flicker of surprise in Renge's eyes to see her there. She had her nose in her notebook, so that could've been why Renge might not have seen her. But she couldn't shake the odd feeling though.
"What do you want, Renge?" Hikaru asked.
"Did you guys hear about what happened last night?"
"Who hasn't," Kaoru replied. "It's literally all everyone is talking about."
"No, but there is more." Renge pulled out her phone. "You guys like scary movies, right?"
The twins shrugged. "Yeah, they're alright. Why do you ask?"
"This is why." She pulled up a picture from some internet page of a person in a black robe and with an expression like he was screaming with a long black mouth. The mask looked familiar, but Haruhi couldn't place where it was from.
"No fucking way." Hikaru took the phone from Renge, and Kaoru got up to look over his shoulder. "Are you sure that this is real?"
Renge nodded. "My father got this from Kyoya's since they are business partners. Once I saw them in the photo, I recognized him and thought you guys would too."
"But I thought the killer hacked the security cams?" Kaoru asked, not taking his eyes off the photo. "How did they get this photo?"
"From what my father said, the camera glitched, turned back on, and briefly captured the killer's image before turning back off. It's not much, but this photo tells us who we are messing with."
Haruhi scrunched her brows at the image. Trying to remember where she had seen them. "Do you know who this guy is?"
"You mean you don't know?" Hikaru asked, surprised as if the answer was obvious.
"I mean, he looks familiar, but I don't know him. Is he a well-known killer?"
"I guess you can say that," Kaoru said. "Do you know the Scream Movie franchise?"
"I would need to see a picture."
Kaoru pulled up the franchise on his phone and showed Haruhi. The first image was of a person in a white mask and black robe, just like Seika's killer. She clicked on images and saw the name of the movie's killer. Ghostface.
Then it clicked. She's seen this movie with Mei in middle school when they were home alone. Haruhi didn't find it that scary, but Mei was terrified. Especially since it was inspired by a real person, but the movie was fake.
"So, what? Is someone copying that Ghostface character and killing people?"
"Bingo!" Renge answered.
"But why would someone want to copy a killer in a movie?"
"For clout. Don't you guys know how popular Ghostface is in the media? Especially with the latest movie that just came out. They want to make their own Scream movie."
"Does anyone else know about this?" Hikaru asked as he handed Renge back her phone.
She shook her head. "No one other than Kyoya, probably. I just wanted to show you guys because I thought you'd want to know."
The twins and Haruhi looked at each other uneasily, and Range let out a small laugh. "I wouldn't worry about it, you guys. I doubt that this is going to get any bigger than this. The guy probably had it out for Ayanokoji or her family and wanted revenge on her. I doubt there will be any more murders."
"Range, I would love to think that too, but I doubt that's how you actually feel," Hikaru said. "You've probably read a manga or something that shows that most killers like this don't just stop at one."
"I have to agree with Hikaru on this one," Haruhi said, getting the three others' attention. "I don't think this is the last we'll hear of this guy.
…
Haruhi zipped up her bag after packing up her supplies. Today's tutoring session was a difficult one. The student she was working with had close family ties with Ayanokoji and her murder had affected him greatly. Not only was he mourning the loss of Seika, but Haruhi thought his reason was a bit selfish because he mainly talked about how he was going to try and finally make a move on her whenever she broke up with her boyfriend. Haruhi had to restrain from rolling her eyes at that comment, but his other reason was valid. He was worried that since his family had close ties to Seika's family, they might be targeted next by the killer. Haruhi didn't know how to comfort him because she didn't know if it was true or not.
Haruhi draped her bag over her shoulder and exited the library, where the twins met her. Usually, every day after her tutoring sessions, the twins would wait for her to take her home. At the beginning of the year, Tamaki would wait for her, but with him studying to take over the Suoh business, he had been busy most evenings after school. So, the twins "took" his place until his evenings were free again. Haruhi was first against having the twins wait for her, but they wouldn't budge, and she would have to admit. She actually enjoyed their company.
"I take it by your expression that the tutoring session wasn't good today," Hikaru said as he and Kaoru began walking with her down the hall.
"Don't even get me started." Haruhi huffed, making Hikaru snicker. "All the guy would talk about is how he missed his chance to be with Ayanokoji. I knew many people at this school were self-centered, but this was absurd."
"You should've seen her former boyfriend Hayato in class today," Kaoru informed. "Everyone in the class was consoling him, and he made up this whole story of how he tried and protected her from the killer, but he got overpowered."
"There was also a time where his story changed to where he and Ayanokoji were both tied up, and he begged the killer to kill him instead, but killed her to make him suffer," Hikaru added.
"What an asshole," Haruhi grumbled.
The Host Club and she have known Hayato since her first year of high school. He has always been a pretentious, narcissistic asshole. He got even worse when it was found out that Haruhi was a girl. When they entered college, he would always try and ask Haruhi out, mainly to hook up, even though it was obvious to everyone that she and Tamaki were dating. He even cornered Haruhi again, trying to get her to hook up with him and not letting her leave until she said yes. She was lucky that Hikaru had found her and was able to save her from him. She just had to rip Hikaru off of Hayato before he could kill him, even though she would have gladly watched it.
As they made their way outside, they saw a group of students huddled around the outside bulletin board. As the trio approached to examine what it was, they heard them whispering about the killer. When Haruhi could push her way through most of the crowd to see what it was that had grabbed all their attention, she saw it. In the center of the board was the newest addition of the newspaper club's paper about Seika's murder, with the picture of the blurry image that Range had shown them earlier today. Along with a picture of the character Ghostface from the movie. The title read,
"Real life Ghostface kills Ayanokoji Seika. Is this the start of a slasher movie here at Ouran University?"
'Of course, they published a story about Ayanokoji's murder and focused only on the killer. Nothing even about her in this article mentions her other than her brutal attack. She wasn't the greatest person, but she shouldn't be treated like this after her death.' Haruhi thought.
"How did they get that photo?" Kaoru asked, drawing back Haruhi's attention. "I thought Renge said she and Kyoya were the only ones whose family had access to it?"
"His dad owns the biggest publishing company in the country. I'm sure they were able to get their grubby hands on the photo with no problem." Hikaru grumbled. He squinted at the blurry photo of Ghostface. "If I didn't know that this was the actual killer, by the shitty quality of their image, I would've thought that this picture was supposed to be a bigfoot sighting or something. Especially by the way the killer's stance is in the photo."
Kaoru snorted a laugh but disguised it as a cough to try and hide it. The newspaper club has always been desperate for stories. Even went as far as reporting Haruhi actually being a girl once they returned from Boston. The Host Club didn't know if they were trying to hurt Haruhi's reputation or just all the members of the Host Club in general for the fiasco that happened years before the two clubs, but it backfired. It was the worst reviewed article the club had ever written, and the chairman made them stop publishing copies of their hateful speech. After that, their views were even worse than before, so it was no wonder they jumped at the chance to write an article about this.
Haruhi noticed Hikaru was shifting from one leg to the other, and the pain was evident on his face. "Is your leg bothering you, Hikaru?"
For the past year, Hikaru's lower back has been bothering him. He believes that he must've lifted something wrong and pitched a nerve in his back, causing the pain to radiate down his left leg. It had gotten better until recently when it had grown unbearable to stand for so long. He has been getting help for it, but Haruhi could see the signs when he was in pain.
"Yeah," he grimaced. "But it's more than an aching pain. So it's not as bad as before. Just standing in one place for so long triggers it."
"Let's head out then," Kaoru suggested. "I've heard enough of Ayanokoji's killer for one day. Let's get something to eat, I'm starving."
…
Haruhi stretched her arms over her head and let out a tired sigh. She had finished her last assignment for the night. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and saw it was almost 3 a.m. This law project was kicking her ass, but now she was finally done with the research portion and could now put the case together, which was far more entertaining.
She closed her notebook and began getting ready for bed. She looked at her phone and saw that she had a lot of messages that she wasn't alerted about with her phone being on Do Not Disturb. Most of them were from Tamaki, asking if she was finished with her homework so they could talk on the phone, but his last text was around an hour ago, so she assumed that he had gone to sleep. The other messages were from the twins or her classmates asking for help with their project. However, as she was brushing her teeth, another notification popped up on her phone in a new group that Range had made with all the former Host Club members. It was a video of a news report that aired about an hour ago, and the headline was,
"Ouran Killer strikes again."
The image at the end almost made Haruhi drop her toothbrush into the sink as she stared at it in horror. The bottom picture of the image was blurred, but the image was of the Ghostface killer on top of his latest victim. He had their hair pulled back so that their face was next to his as he took a selfie of them together. Haruhi didn't know who the person was under the blur, but she knew it was another woman who was from their school.