[voice of nightmare] - an fye!horror au

[SNOW ♠]

so long story short, this all started when ayu and i were reading a kuroko no basuke horror doujinshi. and then we noted that the GoM are like, the perfectly balanced and dependable group with a high survival rate and all that. so we just, thought of which characters in fye would make the perfect group for a horror survival type situation and well, this monster of plot was born as we just keep on adding detail after detail to the idea |D;; so yeah, i apologize in advance for butchering anyone's characters up. other than that, hope you'll enjoy reading this just as much as ayu and i enjoy plotting it.

prologue

Old floorboards groaned non-stop in protest as they all dashed down the corridor—their footsteps hurried in desperation and raspy breaths loud with fatigue and panic.

“This way!”

He could hardly see in the darkness, but he could make out Ringo yanking open the last door at the right. He followed the older guy in and once everyone filed inside, Ringo slammed the door shut. Grabbing the nearest thing, which was a chair, the informant put it in front of the door. He started to mimic Ringo’s action without question and tossed a table in front of the door as well. Everyone else followed. Feet scurried around the room and hands blindly grabbed whatever object they could reach for in order to use to as a barrier between them and what was on the other side of the door.

It was only when they ran out of decent sized things to toss into the pile of their hasty made defense that the sound of their footsteps became silent. The only thing that could still be heard was their heavy breathings that sounded in uneven rhythms.

Hands on his knees, back bent over and chest heaving in thirst of air as his heart rammed wildly against his ribcage, it took Naoto a few minutes before he could finally manage to force words through his shaking lips. “Do you think…we can hold off that…that thing, with those?” he breathed. Skepticism and slight mockery could be heard in his voice even if he was struggling to get each word out properly.

“That fucking thing…went through the wall the last time I remember…You really think…those pieces of shit are going to save us? Isn’t this just barricading us into our own grave?” He knew that he might not have been the smartest guy, but hell, he didn’t lack something the lines of common sense despite what other people believed. Even if it took him a couple of minutes to fully comprehend their current situation and what they had done. But really, who could blame him?

“We had reached a dead-end and unless we could go through walls like it could, we had to choose a room to give us time to think of something,” was what the Shiro answered. Naoto hated how the tone of his voice sounded rather steady despite the situation they were in. Yeah, there were definitely some traces of fear in it, but compared to everyone else right now he seemed rather calmed; and even though it should be a good thing, it just grated on his nerves.

“Well, Mr. Know-It-All, what do you suggest we do?” he snapped, voice raised. “We’re all waiting on your wise words of wisdom here!” Okay, so maybe sarcasm wasn’t appreciated or even appropriate right now, but he couldn’t help it. “Hurry up ‘cause that thing just may do one of its magic tricks and suddenly appear behind us at any moment now!”

“Shut up! Don’t you dare say that!” Kikue shouted from behind. She was on her knees, her whole body trembling and her slender fingers dug into the carpet on the floor.

Syrena gave him a glare through her tears as she hugged a sobbing Momoko.

Naoto cursed under his breath and focused his attention back to the door, his mind frantically trying to think of something. Anything.

Creak.

He instantly froze at the sound.

Creak.

He heard a whimper from Kikue.

Don’t tell him…

Thud!

The door along with all the things piled up in front of it shook.

“Shit…!” His eyes darted around the room, trying to find something that he could grab and use as some sort of weapon. With most of the things in the room at the door, there wasn’t much for him to choose from. He debated running up to grab something from the barrier they made, but wasn’t sure if he really wanted to run to the front lines like that when it could burst in here at any moment.

The door continued to rattle and shake. One of the small wooden chairs fell from the pile. He reached for it and held it out in front of him, preparing to use it if necessary. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if this measly chair could do him any good after all the stuff he witnessed that thing do, but it was better than not having anything in his hands to work it.

Ringo stepped forward and pried a loose clothes hanger from the pile and took up a fighting stance with it as well.

Naoto bit his bottom lip and tried to physically swallow down the feeling of fear that was forming in the pit of his stomach and was rising to the back of his throat but failed; his mouth was dry and any leftover saliva was stuck to the ceiling of his mouth. Every single muscle in his body tensed and twitched, and his heart thundered against his chest as he watched the door shake continuously.

He tightened his grip on the legs of the chair to prevent it from slipping though his sweaty palms, and ignored the splinters that pricked the surface of his skin.

A lamp was shaken loose and fell to the floor with a loud crash.

He could hear the girls moving further backwards.

His hands were beginning to tremble despite his efforts to keep himself composed. The situation was really killing him. A part of him just wanted to shout, ‘just fucking come in already!’ but he knew better than to do something like that. One, didn’t want to the scare the others further. Two, he wasn’t that stupid as to challenge something this dangerous. And three, he wasn’t suicidal.

He wasn’t welcoming death anytime soon. Not when he still had a football game to win, a new fighting game to play, another party to go wild at, a high school career that he had to finish for his parent’s sake and two little sisters to go home too. Two sisters who he needed to watched out for. Two sisters, who, he’d like to believe, needed their older brother even if Reita obviously thought otherwise. Hell, she might actually be happy if he weren’t to return home. No more stupid Nao-nii for her to yell at, roll her eyes at, glare at and be ashamed of.

The corner of his lips curved up slightly.

Heh…He couldn’t let that happen. No, he was going to be there to bother and piss her off for a while longer whether she liked it or not.

Suddenly the rattling stopped.

Silence befell the room.

Beads of sweat trickled down the side of his head and gathered at the edge of his jaws. He clenched them and felt the droplet fall off.

He didn’t like this at all. He didn’t like this one bit. Instead of providing a sense of relief, the silence did the exact opposite. The air was thick with apprehension and tension to the point of near suffocation. His stomach twisted itself into uncomfortable, painful knots. His breathing started to quicken, causing him to release his breaths in short, quick pants.

And then everything went cold.

It was as if someone pressed a slab of ice down his back, sending shivers down his spine and throughout his entire body.

“Hehe…”

His whole body went stiff.

Naoto glanced at Ringo and judging by the look on his face—eyes wide, facial muscles tensed—he had heard it too.

Slowly, he gathered whatever there was left of his courage to turn around.

Her dress, simple and white. As white and pale as her skin. Her head hung low, long black hair covering her face, and with her thin arms hanging at her sides—the image of a lifeless, fragile doll.

And in an almost mechanical-like manner, her head lifted. Her long hair fell away from her face. Eyes round and dark in an obsidian black, glazed over and lifeless—like glass marbles that stood out on her pale as snow face.

Her lips, dried and cracked—colored in the same white of her face—split into a wide, sickening grin.

“I found you.”

[SNOW ♠]

lol, i had this chapter 2/3 done for the longest time. but yeah, here's the next chapter. and if you're wondering what happened to naoto and the others in the prologue then hahaha...too bad. you're gonna have to wait and figure it out along with these guys. i'm sorry if anyone's ooc. do tell me if someone is and i'll go ahead and try to fix it.

chapter one

“The number you are dialing cannot be reach at this moment. Please-”

Reita hung up, cutting off the message that she had been hearing for the hundredth time the past three days. She looked down at her phone screen, staring at the name on the contact list that she had been trying to reach over and over again for hours on end.

“Where are you…?” she muttered, asking a question that no one had an answer too.

It’s been three days since Naoto had disappeared and none of his friends knew where he had gone off to. The last time anyone saw him was Wednesday evening with a couple of friends at the bar. It wasn’t a big surprise when he didn’t come home after she heard about that. He’d eventually show up sometime the following day with disheveled hair and breath that reeked of alcohol.

But he didn’t.

There was no sign of her older brother that morning. He didn’t come to school either. Again, she didn’t think too much about it, but when she came back home after karate practice and found out that he was still missing, a feeling of uneasiness started to form.

Her parents started to contact every single one of his friends, asking them questions, begging them to remember anything that would be a lead to where he could have disappeared to. The only clue they got was that he had split up with his friends near a bar in town when they called it a night.

He was coming home. He should have been home by now. His friends all confirmed that he wasn’t that badly drunk, so he should have made it back alright without having to shamelessly drop down to sleep at one of the train stations along the way.

So where the hell was he?

Reita dropped her head into her pillow and groaned. When he was around, he gave her a massive headache. When he wasn’t around, he gave her a massive headache too. Stupid, freaking idiotic, retarded, troublesome moron.

The phone in her hand started to vibrate.

She snapped her head up with a small feeling of hope and anticipation in her chest. However, it wasn’t Naoto. It was from Yoite. But wait…maybe he found something out?

“Hello?” she answered.

“Meet me at the manga store near the edge of town in an hour.”

The line went dead after that simple order.

Reita flipped her phone shut, stuffed it in her pocket and dashed out of her room. It looked like Yoite really did find a lead.

“Reita?” She heard her mom’s questioning voice from the kitchen when she ran down the stairs and headed straight for the door.

“I’ll be back. Going to see Yoite,” she said, slipping on her shoes. “If I’m not back by dinner then have it without me.”

Her mom started to say something else, but it was muffled by the door when she closed it behind her.

------------------------------

Reita wasn’t sure why Yoite called her out to meet him as far as that manga store. There was countless numbers of other places they could meet in town. Maybe there was something in that area that gave a hint to where Naoto could have gone off to? Now that she thought about it, wasn’t that bar he was last seen at located not far from that manga store too?

“Reita!”

A familiar voice broke through her train of thought. She turned around and was greeted by bright blue irises and a grin.

“Nevi,” she greeted, brows slightly raised in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, Yoite phoned me up a while ago telling me to meet him in front of some manga shop,” he answered. “Bet this is where he goes to buy his shoujo manga in secret,” he added, voice hushed as to emphasize the ‘secrecy’ of it all.

Reita resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his little hypothesis. Really, sometimes she couldn’t help but be awed at how she managed to stay friends with this guy for years. He could be just as annoying as Naoto at times and equally ridiculous. But aside from that, wait, Yoite called him out here too?

“Nevi.”

She was about to question him on it when a stern voice spoke up, and it was just then that she noticed someone else standing behind him—someone who she never remembered seeing before.

“Ah, sorry, Luci! Totally forgot about you for a second!” Nevi’s voice reverted back to its usual volume. Taking a step to the side, he threw a hand in the direction of the taller man with ginger colored hair. “Remember all the times I told you about being related to a demonic cousin named after the Devil, and who was thrown out of hell because he was too evil even for the underworld?”

“Nevi, just how many people are left with this impression of me because of you?” Nevi’s relative, dubbed Luci by him, said. His right eye twitch at Nevi’s words, breaking his stoic expression. She didn’t blame him.

“Ahahaaa—do you really want me to start counting?”

“Don’t,” Luci curtly cut him off.

If she had to guess the answer to that question, it was everyone. Typical of Nevi. He was the type of person to leave a trail of all sorts of rumors concerning all sorts of people wherever he went, intentional or not. Luckily she has yet to fall victim, which was something quite extraordinary considering how long they knew each other.

Luci stepped forward. “Ferravia Lucifer,” he introduced himself.

“But call him Luci. Guy likes it cause it turns him on in all the right ways,” Nevi piped up with an unneeded comment. It was moments like these where Nevi sounded just like Naoto, which was not a good thing. And it was in moments like these where she just wanted to stuff a bar of soap into his mouth, or pretty much anything that she could get her hands on.

The way Luci’s eyes narrowed slightly, how his jaws seemed to get just a little bit tighter and the harden look that he shot Nevi told her that he was trying very hard to keep it together.

Reita smiled. “Takamatsu Reita. I’m sorry you had to grow up being related this guy. Must have been hard.” Well, seeing as he wasn’t going to stop running his mouth, she’d take the chance to poke fun at him.

“Your understanding is appreciated,” he told her, the corners of his mouth lifted ever so slightly to show a small smile of triumph over getting back at his cousin.

“Hey, heeeey,” came the sound of protest from her childhood friend. Nevi turned to face her with a look on his face that matched that of a dejected puppy; a puppy that deserved to be kicked no matter how horrible that sounded.

“I thought we had something going on, Reita,” he continued, voice overly dramatic and hands clasped over his supposedly aching heart. “Kindred-souls, you and me. You even dragged me out to a quiet corner during graduation, gave me a romantic bouquet of flowers and—”

“Shut up,” she growled, slapping him on the head and earning a small cry from him. She suddenly had the urge to pull out his hair-clips along with a few strands of blonde hair in the process. “Joke time’s over ‘cause I have a serious question for you two.” Her eyes shifted from one person to the other to make sure that they were both actually paying attention to her. “Why did Yoite call you two out here? He called me too.”

Nevi and Luci exchanged a quick glance at each other.

“You’re not the only one with someone missing. I haven’t been able to get in contact with Kikue at all. Dropped by her place yesterday only to hear that she hasn’t shown up in days. Syrena, our sorella from Italy, is missing too.” It was Nevi who spoke first, his tone of voice lacked all trace of its earlier playfulness.

Her eyes widened in shock. Was he serious? Both Kikue and Syrena, even if she didn’t know who the latter was, were missing? “They’re both missing, Naoto’s missing, and Yoite called us all to meet up…Could their disappearances be related?” Reita voiced her thoughts as she pondered over the new piece of information.

“Could be, but we’re never going to find out if we don’t get there,” Luci pointed out as he started to walk forward.

She and Nevi instantly followed. He was right. The faster they get to the meeting place, the sooner they could find out.

------------------------------

It didn’t take them long to find the store and as expected, Yoite was already there waiting for them with Miyuki by his side.

“Yo, Yoite, Miyuki . Sorry to keep you waiting,” Nevi greeted, friendly smile plastered on his face. “Been waiting long?”

“Ten minutes,” Yoite answered.

“You’re not late though. We’re just early, that’s all,” Miyuki added to smooth out the edges of her brother’s usual blunt answer.

“So, what’s with this? Calling all three of us out here?” Reita quickly got to the point. She was dying to know already and Yoite of all people knew very well that she wasn’t a patient person.

Yoite leaned back against the outside wall of the shop. “There’s still one more person who needs to show up. I’m not going to explain things twice.”

Another person? Just how many people were involved in this? This situation was getting stranger by the minute and Reita couldn’t help but feel that things were going to get much more complicated than she would have liked. What on earth did her stupid brother get himself into this time?

Footsteps could be heard nearby, causing her to turn around and saw yet another familiar person walking towards them—someone who she didn’t expect to see. “Speak of the Devil,” she muttered. Literally. Or at least in Yoite’s case anyways because of the nickname he had given this guy.

“Devil, you’re late,” Yoite said, voice void of any friendliness just like every other time he spoke to this person.

“I think I’m quite on time,” Shinkuto remarked, stopping a step or two away from the group.


Yoite’s lone eye narrowed slightly at the response, but didn’t proceed to throw a smart-aleck comment back—something that Reita was grateful for at the moment or else it would take forever for this briefing to get under way.

“Shinkuto-kun,” Miyuki greeted with a smile.

“Miyuki, you’re here too?”

“I’m worried about Naoto and everyone else. The more people we have to help out the better, right?”

If Reita had to guess, another reason she was here was to make sure nothing happens between Shinkuto and Yoite. For as long as she could remember, those two have been at each other’s throat, yet at the same time, it was obvious that they care for each other; they had a special kind of bond that no one else had. It was a complicated kind of friendship.

Reita then turned towards Shinkuto. “Since you’re here…Does that mean you have someone missing too?”

He nodded. “Momoko’s hasn’t come home in three days.”

She felt a sudden wave of nervousness and uneasiness washing over her. Now that just made this situation seem worse that it was. Not that it wasn’t already bad before with her brother missing and a familiar face like Kikue, but it was the fact that Momoko, a young middle school student, disappeared too. How and why would a young girl like that be missing?

“The Shiro went missing too,” Yoite spoke up next.

“What?” Her voice was a higher and louder than she wanted it to be as she and Nevi voiced their surprise in unison. Okay, this was getting crazier by the minute. Shiro Ringo? The Shiro Ringo? That stealthy son of Shiro Tsuneo, head of the largest informant family in Japan went missing? That guy knew how to handle himself in all sorts of situations including dangerous ones. That was how he was brought up. To hear that he suddenly disappeared as well…Okay, this was starting to sound really bad. What the hell was going on here exactly?

“If you called us all the way out here then I’m guessing that his father managed to find a lead, right?” Shinkuto said, facing Yoite. The look in his eyes urged—more like ordered—Yoite to go on.

“The Shiro has a tracker in his cell phone that his family uses to keep track of him. The last signal they received is from this area. They looked into it and—”

“Everyone else was last seen in this area too,” Luci, who was quiet ever since they got here, concluded.

Yoite nodded. “They sent someone to go investigate. Turns out the bastard they sent disappeared as well.”

Everyone was silent.

That made a total of six disappearances now. It was more than anyone would have expected. And to think that the sixth person disappeared after finding a lead…Someone was behind this. Why else would someone who got close to finding out the truth disappear as well? He must have been taken care of to keep his mouth shut. That was the only explanation that she could think of. The question was, who would do something like this and why?

“This time he disappeared at a specific place.” He turned around and started to walk away.

Everyone followed without question.

------------------------------

“So, according to his signal, he was last seen here?” Luci said, head tilted up slightly as he stared up at the building in front of them.

What stood in front of them was a large unoccupied mansion. It towered over them three stories high and stretched tens of meters wide. It was painted in a shade of brown—probably a nice wooden color but the years have reduced it to an old, ugly shade of dark grayish-brown. Rivers of cracks lined the walls and were intersected by vines and leaves that climbed the building like green snakes. Windows were blurred with dust and cobwebs snuggled into the corners.

“Looks like something straight out of a horror movie doesn’t it, Reita?” Nevi remarked. A spark of excitement lit up his voice. “Like that one film we saw last month. House in the Woods, was it? Thought it was going to be some cheap horror film, but that was some scary shit we got!”

“We’re not here to go ghost hunting,” Yoite, snapped.

Reita had to agree with Yoite. Even though she would have loved to be excited with Nevi, the situation wasn’t really allowing her to. If there’s one thing that they shared in common then it was their love for horror. Ever since they were little they would hide under blankets during the night with a flashlight reading the next installment of Moosebumps, and scaring themselves senseless whenever they heard something hit the glass window at the same time Clappy the Clown emerged from the shadows behind the oblivious main protagonist.

She will admit that the prospect of exploring something akin to a haunted house like in the books and movies was rather thrilling, but that was something to do in their free time when they weren’t on a mission to discover the whereabouts of their missing friends and families.

However, she also knew that despite Nevi’s childish and laidback exterior, confirming the safety of his friends was his number one priority as well.

“Let’s just hope that we won’t be running into anything like in that movie, ‘cause I don’t want a headless girl trying to steal my head to replace her own.” To actually run into something like that and having to run for her life wasn’t that appealing despite the adrenaline rush that she’d get from it. She liked challenges, but not one where the chances of her dying were ninety out of a hundred.

“Seeing as ghosts don’t exist, we won’t be.” With that said, Shinkuto started walking towards the building.

He grabbed hold of the doorknob and turned it. The door wouldn’t open. Placing his other hand on the door, he used it to give the door a push as he tried again. Still nothing.

“Tch. Move,” Yoite ordered.

Shinkuto did. “All yours,” he said giving Yoite a pat on the back as to indicate that he had the right to go on and do anything. Although, the pat turned into more of a few quick, small wipe across the back of her poor cousin’s shirt. The action earned a sharp glare from Yoite.

Luckily, the door was there for Yoite to take his anger out on instead of on Shinkuto himself. It only took one powerful charge from Yoite to force the door open.

The smell of rusty metal, old paper, humidity along with dust attacked them the instant their entrance was granted.

“It’s pretty dark in there,” Luci commented with furrowed brows as he waved a hand in front of his face to fan off any dust in the air. Even though it evening was just approaching, it was almost as dark as night inside the mansion. Hardly a single ray of sunlight was able to penetrate through the thick, dusty glass and old curtains that hung over the windows.

“Here are some flashlights,” Miyuki said, pulling two out of her bag. Leave it to Miyuki to be prepared.

“Grazie,” Nevi said, taking a flashlight and handing it to Reita before taking another one himself.

Reita passed the first one up to Yoite and with the device turned on to illuminate the path before them, they all stepped into the mansion.

The inside was just as big as the outside. The flashlights acted as spotlights as it moved from one position of the room to the other. The hallway stretched both ways, leading deeper into the building. A large stairway was at the wall opposite to them and spiraled upwards to a second and third floor. If they were going to explore every single corner of this place then her parents and Mayu will have to just have dinner without her and maybe even go to bed without her.

Suddenly, the ringing of the phone could be heard from the front. Yoite moved his hand to the pocket of his jeans to pull out a cell phone, though at the same time, the ringing stopped.

“Who is it?” Miyuki asked.

“The Shiro’s dad.” He pressed call back.

Could he have new information for them?

A second later he lowered the phone from his ear. “No signal,” he muttered, annoyance tinting his voice. “Wait here.” He turned around to go back, but in that instant…

Bang!

The door behind them banged shut.