Hikaru No Go Fan Fiction ❯ Halloween: Night of A Thousand Frights ❯ Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

"…and so until this day, many still believe that his soul haunts all places that have anything related to Go within its walls. He never won a single game no matter how many times he tried." She gave a dramatic pause and closed her eyes, quite aware of how well she had engaged her audience. Opening it up slowly, she lowered her voice until it became `spooky' enough. "Rumor has it that he died over the Go board with his fingers bleeding from the cuts of all the Go stones he had held. And so, his ghost continues to haunt every Go board, until… he… gets… to… win… that… one…GAME!"

"Eeeekkk!!"

Akari buried her face within Shindo's shirt as Nase giggled. The others were faring no better as the older girl's dramatic scream had had them all gasping in fear. Hikaru was aware that his child hood friend was clinging to him but was Akira actually doing the same thing? He turned to face his rival and did notice that the dark-haired boy was holding on to his thigh a bit too tightly. Hikaru's face flamed with color, but he remained silent as he vaguely realized that he actually liked Touya touching him.

"Damn, Nase. You just had to do that, didn't you?" Waya grumbled as he got to his feet to stretch stiffened muscles. He froze midway as the solemn chime of the clock signaling the midnight hour filled the room.

"Looks like its time to move," Isumi said quietly as he too got to his feet. "What do we do now, Shindo?"

Everyone turned to look at the blond and Hikaru could feel a light sheen of sweat break out on his skin. This was it. He had planned everything out in his mind and it was now time to put it in action

"Isumi, you and your team should go towards the loft area and start from there. I'll take the others and go to the storage rooms at the back of the store," he said quickly. "And remember if anyone sees anything remotely suspicious, you let the others know, okay?"

"Okay," came the simultaneous cries of agreement from the group. Honda gave Akari and Touya flashlights and with a small nod of departure, he followed his `team' towards their hunting place.

The four teens remained immobile for several seconds as no one seemed to want to make a move. They could all hear Isumi and the others moving around upstairs. Shindo wondered how long it would be before…

"Well, we aren't going to stand here all night, are we?" Ochi spoke up with faint irritation. He pushed his glasses a bit higher up his nose. "Where's the storage room, Shindo?"

"It's this way," came the quick reply as Hikaru began to lead them down the narrow hallway. Doors leading to the bathrooms were on their left, while a door that seemed like it led to his grandfather's office was on the right. Akari was right behind Shindo, followed by Ochi and Akira who brought up the rear. The dark-haired boy swallowed tightly as the hollow sounds of their footsteps on the wooden floor seemed to resonate louder and louder in his head. He had been tempted to ask on why the lights weren't on, but remembering that this was supposed to be a hunt of sorts, he decided to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Ouch! Watch your head," Shindo whispered harshly. "The door is kinda lowered here." He stooped a little and stepped into the large room filled with wooden crates and cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes. It smelled musty and old and both Ochi and Akira sneezed in response to the rather choking scent.

"Goodness," came the soft whisper of awe from the girl. "I didn't know your grandpa had so much stuff."

Shindo shrugged and ran the beam of his flashlight across the room randomly. He was just about to make his way to the left side of the room, when Ochi gave a loud shriek of terror. "Aaaaargh!"

Akari screamed in response, causing Shindo and Akira to run towards them with growing panic. "What is it?!"

She hitched in a harsh breath, trying desperately to get her message across. "It's…it's…it's a head!!!"

Shindo blinked in surprise as Akira reached over to pull down the dangling severed head of a man. The meijin's son held it by the hair and made a face as the `blood' dripped to the floor. "It's fake," he finally said with a wary look at the blond. "Did you do this, Shindo?"

Hikaru cursed inwardly. Trust Akira to come in to ruin things for him. He had planned to have fun with this and now Mr. know-it-all had come to mess it up. "So what if it's fake! I just wanted to have some fun!"

Ochi, blushing faintly at his childish scream, leaned down to dab his fingers into the red liquid that had pooled on the floor. He sniffed it gently and scowled. "It's fake alright."

"That was a cheap joke, Hikaru!" Akari yelled angrily. "How could you do that?"

"It's supposed to be `Halloween', Akari," the boy explained impatiently. "Ha-llo-ween! It's supposed to scare you!"

"Well, if this is going to be your idea of scaring everyone then I'm leaving!"

"Fine! Go! See if I care!"

"Shindo!" Akira cried out in disbelief. "Don't talk to her like that…"

"Feh, she's just a drama queen anyway," came the haughty reply as Hikaru made his way towards a crate and sat on it without giving the girl another glance. They could hear her angry footsteps making its way back towards the front of the store.

"I'm going to get her back," Ochi said quickly as he began to follow.

"Sure! You're just chicken and want to run away, don't you?" Hikaru taunted. "Sure, go ahead and go, I don't care what happens to any of you any…"

THUMP!

THUMP!!

Shindo swallowed tightly, his hands beginning to tremble a little. It seemed to be coming from upstairs, but this wasn't the sound of several footsteps that could be attributed to Isumi and his teammates, this was a continuous and monotonous knocking sound. It was as if someone or something was trying to get into the store.

"It's them," Ochi croaked out weakly. "It's them!"

"There's no such thing as a `them!'" Hikaru screamed, more to hide his growing worry than anything else. "It's not as if we have haunted ghosts or anything around here!!"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk!!!"

The boys stared at each other with widened eyes before crying out simultaneously. "AKARI!!"

They ran out of the storage room and down the hallway, only for Hikaru to find himself falling flat on his back as he had slipped on something wet. "Ouch!! What the hell…?"

"Is…is this another one of your tricks, Shindo?" Touya asked shakily as his flashlight traveled along the expanse of the floor and towards the walls.

The blond looked quite upset now. "What are you talking about…?" The words died on his lips as he finally noticed what the others were staring out. It was blood. Blood on the floors, on the walls, even up to the ceiling. It was as if someone had decided to go crazy with it and it took another minute for Hikaru to realize that he had fallen on it. His hand was coated with the warm liquid as his face paled drastically. "I…I didn't…didn't do it…"

Another loud shriek had them all looking fearfully at the stairs. It was Nase! In seconds, thunderous footsteps ran down the stairs as Isumi, Waya, Fuku and Honda came down with complete terror on their faces. "Where is she?!" Waya asked angrily albeit in a trembling voice. "Where is Nase?!"

"What do you mean `where is Nase?' she was with you, wasn't she?!" Hikaru retorted as he wiped his bloody hands against the wall.

"Is that blood?" Honda looked terrified as he began to shrink away from the evidence of the thick liquid around them.

Waya growled and snatched a fistful of the blond's shirt to shake him angrily. "We saw all your cheap make up and tricks and we knew you were up to something, Shindo! Nase got upset and wanted to leave and when we tried to go after her we could only hear her scream and she's no longer here! I swear if you had anything to do with this…"

"Akari's missing too! And I didn't have anything to do with it! I've been here all the time with Touya and Ochi!" Hikaru shouted back.

Fuku's harsh intake of breath had them all blinking in surprise. "Look…look…up there. It's a…it's a…"

"A ghost!!!!"

Shindo smiled softly as he watched Sai float above the stairs. The white sheet looked too translucent in the gloom and Hikaru felt a surge of pride at how well his friend had adjusted to his predicament.

"Sai…" he whispered to himself, but unfortunately a certain boy with very sharp ears had heard the word.

"Sai? Did you just say Sai, Shindo?"

"Eh? No…no, I didn't!" came the vehement denial as widened green eyes stared at his rival's. "You must have been hearing things."

"Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…"

Honda had had enough. "Oh man…let's get out of here!"

"Not without Nase and Akari!" Waya retorted sharply. He stared long and hard at the ghost, trying not to show the fear he still felt inside. Swallowing tightly, he took a step towards the stairs again.

"Waya?!" Isumi cried out. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Going to meet the ghost, that's what! I'm going to expose him for what he really is! He's a thief and a criminal!" And brandishing his flashlight like a weapon, the redhead ran up the stairs and gave a desperate lunge at the bewildered ghost.

"Waya…look out…!"

The sound of the boy falling flat on his face had them all wincing. Sai looked extremely troubled as he tried to reach out to help the boy back to his feet. But remembering that they could only see the sheet and not he in person had him feeling even bluer than ever.

"Hikaru? Can I stop now? I don't want anyone else to get hu…eeeep!"

"Die you ghost! Die!" Waya had gotten back to his feet and was making another vain attempt to hit Sai on the head with his flashlight. Isumi had run up the stairs and was trying his best to get the wild teen back to the others.

"Let's just go, Waya! You can't kill it since it's already dead, you moron!"

"Don't you dare hurt it!" Hikaru suddenly blurted out quickly causing everyone to gape at him in surprise. "Uh…I mean…"

"I knew it!" Honda cried out. "This is all your doing, isn't it, Shindo? Talk about overdoing it."

"But it's kind of fun…when you look at it," Fuku said quietly with a small smile. He was still shaken but knowing that it was all a trick made it a bit better now. "So why don't you just tell us where Nase and Akari are and we can all go back home."

The blond shook his head in exasperation. "I told you, I don't know where they are!"

"So you are trying to tell me that they just decided to disappear just like that?" Ochi retorted with a snort. "Stop lying to us, Shindo!"

Akira silenced them with a wave of his hand. "Shssh…listen…do you hear it?"

It was the faint `thumping' sound again, but this time it seemed to be coming from the storage room. The boys, unconsciously huddled together as Akira moved the beam of his flashlight towards that direction. For a moment he wasn't sure of what he was seeing, but the scream was beginning to form in the pits of his stomach. He could vaguely hear someone or something falling to the ground behind him, and something (someone's hands, he was sure) digging into his arm.

"Oh god…Oh god….Oh god…" Honda squeaked breathlessly as he began to move backwards. "I'm getting out of here!!"

"It's the ghost of the disgruntled Go player!" Fuku shrieked. Ochi followed soon afterwards as the looming figure of a man - or what was left of a man dragged its decayed body towards them.

"Lesssh…plaaaaay….Goooooo…." it whispered in a guttural tone. "Theeeessyh weeeere fuuun tooooo plaaaaay wiiiiiith…"

It opened up its mouth to grin and to Akira and Shindo's growing terror, chunks of his teeth fell to the ground. They barely had time to register that the ghost had two things in his hands before they were suddenly flung in their direction. They were heads! And not just any heads! They were the heads of Nase and Akari!!

Shindo shook his head slowly, as he moved backwards slowly. It wasn't supposed to be like this. This was supposed to have been a night of fun and now…now, his best friends had been killed. He felt the tears burn in his eyes as he opened up his mouth to scream in anguish.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!" He fell on his knees and began to sob helplessly, when a hand was placed upon his shoulder almost sending him into a dead faint. He turned his tear-streaked face to look into the…smiling? one of his rival. He blinked slowly, sniffling softly.

"Tou…Touya…Akari…Nase…"

"Are all fine," came the soft reply as his smile widened. "See?"

The lights of the building came back on and Hikaru lifted his gaze to stare at the snickering or grinning faces of his friends. The `disgruntled ghost' took off its mask to reveal the beautiful face of the brown-haired girl. "Hi, Shindo!" she greeted with a wave. "I didn't think you get so wound up like that."

Akari stepped out of a smaller room with a bucket of red dye and a sheepish look on her face. "Hikaru…"

"Haha! Beat you at your own game, Shindo!" Waya shouted in glee as he came down the stairs to wrap an arm around the blond's shoulder.

"You…you all…set this up?" came the soft whisper of disbelief from Hikaru as he watched them all nod.

"I wasn't a part of it though," Akira confessed around a soft giggle. "But Akari told me all about it on the way here."

"It was your grandfather's idea to do this," Isumi explained. "Somehow he found out that we were all going to be helping you out to catch the thief and he allowed us to play for a while."

Sai gave a sigh of relief as he watched them laugh at their acting skills. It looked as if he wouldn't be needing the sheet anymore. Taking it off, he tossed it to the side quickly, only to stiffen as he felt someone staring at him. He turned around slowly, eyes widening as they clashed with the intense green ones of Touya Akira. For a heartbeat, Sai couldn't trust himself to breath. Could the boy see him without the sheets?

Please…please see me, he pleaded desperately.

But he felt his hopes diminish as the boy shook his head and turned away to listen to the others conversation.

"Ah, your screams were the best Nase!" Waya enthused around a grin. "You made it quite believable."

Hikaru didn't say much as he inwardly made plans to have a serious talk with his grandfather when all of this was over and done with.

And then suddenly, the lights went out.

No one said anything for a moment as Hikaru finally gave an inward sigh of weariness. "Alright, alright, you've all made your point. Can we have the lights turned back on now?"

"But…but we don't have anything to do with this," Nase muttered in growing worry.

"Maybe a fuse went out or something," Fuku reasoned.

"A fuse?" Waya began as he made a move towards the light switch. "What do you mean by tha…?"

The sound of a door being slammed above them and the responding sound of someone or something locking the front door from the outside had them all screaming at once.

They were trapped!

And as the group within the shop shrieked and cursed to be let out, the sound of a cigarette lighter opening and closing could be heard in the relative quiet of the outside. The stick lit up with a dull flame and the owner inhaled quickly, only to exhale with a small smirk curving his lips.

"Just how long do you think we are going to keep them in there?" came the worried question from a certain bespectacled boy.

His red-haired companion shrugged lightly and made himself comfortable on the front porch. And with a lazy grin, he replied softly. "Let them suffer for a while, after all the old man said it was all for fun, ne?"

He flicked some ash onto the ground and gave a mock salute to the full moon that glowed brightly in the sky.

"Happy, Happy Halloween!" he said loudly as the continuous screams of terror from the inhabitants of the house behind him echoed faintly into the night.

~OWARI~

OOC: Hmm…wonder who those two could be? ^_^