Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Specter; Ghost; Ninja... ❯ Chapter 1

The built-in Internet connection on the Highwind beeped and crackled, unobtrusively reconnecting as the ship changed altitudes. The screen glowed eerily in the darkened room, paling the face of the young shinobi curled before it, surreptitiously scrolling down to finish reading the story.

So my cuzzin and me went back and we were like, omg, cuz the guy was gone! And the dog was dead. Yuffie shivered, returned to the main index, and clicked onto the next story. That one had barely been scary but, after countless others in a dark room, the cumulative effect was horrible.

Briefly, the ninja considered turning the computer off, stumbling back to her room in the darkness, and going to sleep so that the next day at breakfast she wouldn't have to listen to everyone's advice on her “unexplained insomnia” and Aeris—could that girl get any more feminine?—talk endlessly about concealer, base, etc. But the monsters from the previous accounts flashed through her head, changing her opinion on needing sleep.

Luckily, nobody had heard the repeated clicking, or the distinctive sounds of the ship's dial-up connection. Cid had been asking around about the weird site that kept showing up on the favorites roster, but as far as Yuffie could tell, nobody had yet realized what she was doing.

It hadn't started the way most addictions did; the kunoichi had stumbled onto this site unassisted and seen the link for Ghost Stories highlighted in red. Since her history hadn't really allowed for much exposure to that, Yuffie had eagerly entered the site. There were hundreds of thousands of stories, most of them garden-variety accounts but some—maybe one in every twenty—were really chilling, scary enough to make you stay up late with all the lights turned on.

“Scratch Scratch Drag” was one such story. It had been the first of the night, and even after 60-odd stories it was still stuck in the back of Yuffie's mind. Ugh, she thought, glancing up at the gruesome picture that headed each story. Some girl who looked like the Grudge with part of her face burnt off stared back with wide, soulless eyes. Wondering briefly how they'd gotten such an image, she focused again on the story, bowing her head to avoid the picture.

And so it went, this time until morning, which had never happened before. The sounds of people slowly waking up and moving about fell on deaf ears, and Yuffie didn't even notice that somebody had been behind her until she heard the distinct intake of breath that meant somebody was about to speak.

“Wow, what horrible grammar,” Tifa remarked. It didn't even matter that her brain recognized the voice. Her body was already in the air, spinning, kicking, and launching itself onto the nearest high-lamp—at least 20 feet in the air.

“She snuck up on me!!” Yuffie realized she'd just lied—too late. Tifa was sprawled on the ground, already sitting up to launch a counterattack. Cloud, Aeris and Cid were staring at her, and the story—which, if you were wondering, was about an evil clown and a doppelganger—was still plainly visible on-screen next to the horrid accompanying picture.

The girl yelped as Tifa grabbed the kunai she'd inadvertently dropped and grazed Yuffie's hand. The pain snapped her mind out of its late-night-web-surfing fog and caused her to lose any semblance of balance, slipping from the lamp. Despite the ample time in her 20-odd foot drop to regain a good landing position, she managed only to fall on Cid, who wasn't ready to catch her and consequently fell flat on his back, the kunoichi half in, half out of his quick attempt at a catch. Despite Yuffie's being the youngest member of the group, and a bit of a nutcase, (A/N: a bit?) none of them had ever seen her in any form, whatsoever, of an ungraceful landing. Cloud, oblivious to the magnitude of the situation, snickered. Cid lifted his head (not an easy task, since Yuffie was sitting/lying on his chest) and stared into the girl's face.

“Somewhere, deep in the recesses of Hollow Bastion, your ancestors weep.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Neither am I. Let me up.” Yuffie stumbled to her feet, staggered over to the computer, and plunked down, continuing to read the story. The others crowded around, wincing every few lines. This was one of the good tales, chilling, gory, and told as if the person were speaking, not texting, not corresponding, with you. The last lines appeared, and as soon as they were all digested the screen switched to the index. Just as the cursor hovered over the next story, Tifa grabbed the collar of Yuffie's nightshirt and yanked her up. The ninja's black-rimmed eyes widened and she flailed in vain, eyes trained on the screen.

“What are you doing?!”

“I'm putting you in your bed, with the curtains drawn, so you can get some sleep.”

“I can't sleep!” replied Yuffie. “Don't be ridiculous. I don't even need…” she stifled a yawn.

“You were saying?”

The teen mumbled something. Vincent, who'd just walked in and was standing opposite Tifa, leaned in. “What was that?”

“I said Scratch Scratch Drag comes out at midnight! I can't sleep, or he'll steal my lower body and leave me in a puddle of blood and various…(yawn)…bodily—(yawn!)—fluids…” she continued with her list of things that would either eat, posses, or mentally scar her if she tried to fall asleep, which wasn't helped by the fact that every minute or so Yuffie had to cover her mouth and stifle yet another yawn.

Cid shook his head. “And here I thought you'd outgrown that imagination of yours…” he turned to the others. “This is gonna be a looong day.”

 

 

 

Props to Saviodsilva.com and their awesome post-your-own ghost story section.

Props to Square Enix for letting me borrow their characters for a while. No money was made in the production of this fic.

Props to whomever posted the story “Click Click Slide” on the aforementioned site. I did use their story as a basis for “Scratch Scratch Drag”, so it's only fair they get credit.

Future props to you, the reader, and possibly the person who will review and tell me if I missed anything, if anyone was OOC, or give hints, because my only knowledge of FF comes from this site and my experience with Kingdom Hearts.

Enjoy the story!

-Kagome