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Shinonome Akito never cared much for Halloween. He did when he was younger but that fascination with the spooky season soon died away as he realised the ghosts and witches were really just an older sister practicing her makeup and scaring you because she was older, and she knew better. It simply came with the life of being ‘blessed’ with Shinonome Ena.
Tolerating (hating) Halloween was fine and well in the city because there was always someone on the street who gave care a little and always someone who cared less. Ena loved it because she loved dressing up and makeup. She always did it so intricately with special embellishments handstitched onto the cuffs of her outfits. Charms dangling off the top of her witch’s hat as she tried to find the best angle to take a picture and post it online, loving the fame that came with it. She truly adored the season too for the sweet treats that were available and able to have pictures snapped at many angles and after every dainty and purposeful bite. With houses, like her good friend Airi’s, that smothered themselves in decoration she was able to intertwine herself into the cobwebs and seem all ‘cool’. She probably liked it more because she was emo and fucked in the head, but that was beside the point.
Ena was always a great cover for Akito because her friends knew him and knew someone in that household had to stay because he would ignore trick or treaters. One year, Ena had gone to a party and forgotten her keys so knocked at the door and pressed the doorbell for an hour straight. On again and off again until she began to pound on the door and Akito was forced to open it up to realise that it wasn’t a new group of children, it was just his sister.
To say he disliked the holiday was an understatement. He enjoyed the increase in pumpkin flavoured sweets, he tolerated at best the children if they did catch him unaware or he walked by as Ena was giving them sweets. But he never went out of his way to partake in it because it was all superstition and stupid. Pointless really.
He realised that on October 1st, the second day that they had moved into the new town, that it would not be possible to ignore the holiday this year around.
He had fallen asleep on September 30th to what was a dead town, where he imagined tumbleweeds going by in films and led to him questioning his father’s choice to move them there. When he awoke on October 1st, he was assaulted by the pumpkins that lay on the pavement and outside doors, already carved and candles twinkling at four in the morning. Random shops had popped up in the signature orange, purple and black colour scheme for Halloween. Signs written in cursive talking about candles in honour of the witches, random items that were passed off as actual things used within magical rituals. Bunting of skeleton heads clinging from each lamppost that had small spider decals stuck to the glass in some cases, casting an ominous shadow. Music played through the town, and he wondered how they could sleep through the blearing speakers and most of all, at four in the morning, there were people all around happy and racing. Visiting each shop and person, lingering really and chatting.
If Akito believed in ghosts, he supposed that would’ve been his first thought. But he didn’t. It was childish to believe in ghosts, so he thought the town loved Halloween and he was right in that assumption as they all stopped him on his early morning run and imploring him to buy something, anything.
He refused and began to figure out a new path to run from that day onward.
The town was irritating.
But he supposed it had one good thing about it save the scenery and the woods that you just got lost in for hours on end running. The one good thing was Shiriashi An. She was insanely pretty, like a dream honestly and when Akito had first glanced upon her in the school classroom, laughing insanely loudly, he was irritated. Who wouldn’t be? But it wasn’t grating he supposed and that could’ve much worse as she jumped up to greet him all too happily, not dissuaded from him in his hoodies and messy hair. In fact, he was certain that that only served to entice her more. Made her more determined to speak to him and offer him some shred of kindness.
At first, it was irritating. Very irritating especially when she would sit with him unannounced with her best friend Kohane, but now he expected her to plop onto his table, grin, steal some of his food and talk loudly with Kohane about the most mundane of things.
Which was fine by him because he got to admire her and take note of all her little features like the little nose scrunch she did when she was disgusted, or the way she would gasp loudly at something really good such as Ootori Emu and Kusanagi Nene, in her words, ‘finally getting together! Akito, can you believe it?!’
He didn’t like admitting this fact because if she did like him back, she liked a persona. His up tight nice guy personality he found it hard to drop around her on the off chance of what if she did like him back. Ena always said it was improbable though, never impossible because whenever she did say that, he would point out her own girlfriend Yoisake Kanade and wonder how they got together. To this, she would huff, throw whatever she had at him and slam the door before sighing and apologising the next morning.
“So, Akito, whatcha doin’ for Halloween?” An asked when he walked into the classroom that day after pointedly ignoring everyone (the teachers) all dressed up in halls and encouraging people into the classrooms and to attend the school.
“Nothin’.”
“’Nothing!?’ You seriously cannot be in Vivid Street and be doing nothing. This is a major holiday you know!” An exclaimed, racing over to his seat and sitting on his desk whilst he took out whatever he could to ignore her. Which failed because she took away his sketchbook, glancing at it before shaking her head exasperated.
“I don’t do Halloween. I don’t get the fuss,” he shrugged, and it was as if he had said truly heinous with how silent the classroom became.
Everyone stopped their conversations and turned to glance at him warily, judgmentally and kept looking at An sceptically, wondering what she would say to him. She merely glared at him lightly, swung her legs off of his desk and thought deeply, pouting as she did so and cocking her head whilst her fingers created a song off his desk. Tapping rhythmically as if she was trying to place her feelings into a song and that was how she would express them to him.
Then, like magic, an idea came to her, and the tapping stopped, and she only smiled at him evilly. A grin etching its way onto her face as she looked at him thoughtfully. Humming all dramatically and constantly.
“So~~~” she dragged out, hand now leaning on the desk as she leant back on it and looked down at him (because this was the only way she was taller than him much to her dislike). “You’re free tonight, right?”
“Depends. Ena might make me do something with her,” he reasoned and prayed that Ena wanted a new photoshoot done.
“But, if she doesn’t, you are free. Correct?”
“Depends on what you say.”
“So, you are. Then, why don’t you come to my party. It’s a costume one and everyone our age will be there, my parents will be out doing God knows what,” An reasoned, and Akito snorted.
“Absolutely not.”
“Oh, come on! Not even for five minutes! I won’t make you dress up!”
“I don’t believe you for one second Shiraishi.”
An pouted and deflated. Sulking on his desk and kicking her feet all moodily. “But, I wanted you to-“
“Ena likes taking pictures on Halloween and without her best friend, I have to pick up the slack for her Instagram. Such a shame really,” Akito lied and An glared at him and shoved his forehead.
“You are unbelievable!”
Akito laughed and plucked his sketchbook back and she groaned again. “Can’t you even pretend to be upset, just for a moment. Make feel all better and like it didn’t just make a fool of myself.” He quirked a brow at her, and she laughed nervously. “Maybe I’m overstepping boundaries, right?”
“Maybe.”
“Sorry. It’s just, Halloween is big here, you know? And I wanted to spend it with my friend…”
“Why is Halloween even big here anyway? It’s just, you know, a day to give kids sweets or something,” and An let out the largest gasp known to man that caused him to wince and hold his ears.
“How can you live in Vivid Street and not know the history?!”
“I don’t care?”
“You’re gonna start caring today,” she insisted, getting off her – his – table and looking at him, now they were more or less eye level.
She looked him in the eye, a new fire and passion lit into them, and he wondered if he should’ve expressed his distaste to Halloween before hand just to be able to gaze into her eyes. To lose himself in the amber depths that it was like staring into one of his mother’s really face necklaces that glistened and gleamed when the light hit it just right and it sparkled. It made everything else around seem redundant and non-existent which was how he felt as he stared at An.
It was like time itself had stopped and it was only them in the room, and maybe it was with how silent everyone else was. That, however, could’ve been due to them watching the two of them intensely. Witnessing their stare down and whatever else they had.
The door opened and the two of them jumped, An pulling her hand from his (when had her hand touched his?) with her face dyed bright red before she switched it to something like neutrality. The only different thing was the way her eyes gleamed in menace whilst she walked back to her seat, getting a little too close to Tenma Saki for it to be just a normal thing.
She waited for the register to be done and whenever Akito glanced back at her, she smiled that dazzling smile. The one where you could count all of her teeth and her eyes closed entirely, narrowed and thin from how big and hard she was smiling. Beaming really that had the sun all jealous and flustered that each time, it sent a new wave of heat and fought its way through the clouds to remind people, Akito, that the sun was the brightest thing ever and it was not, in fact, Shiraishi An’s smile.
Then she raised her hand slowly, the tension building in the class as she closed her history book over and waited patiently. Eagerly. On the edge of her seat really if that was possible with how close to the desk she was.
“Shiraishi?” the teacher asked, looking over at An in her costume, staring at her over the fake glasses.
“Can we do the history of Vivid Street and the Akiyama siblings?” she asked and the whole class grinned. Akito felt like it was some sort of inside joke he wasn’t privy to from being the newbie and outsider.
It wasn’t as the teacher paused, genuinely considering it as the PowerPoint for the history of Sir Francis Drake appeared on screen. She tapped her foot, the curved heel echoing in the classroom before looking back at them all.
“But don’t you all already know that tale?”
“Akito doesn’t! And he doesn’t understand why Halloween is important,” An reasoned and the teacher’s demeanour changed in an instance. She stared at him scandalised and he winced internally.
“You moved here and you- this is a disgrace! All in favour of covering the Akiyama siblings raise your hands,” and the whole class unanimously (save himself, of course) raised their hands.
The teacher hummed and closed the PowerPoint, shut off the computer. She clicked her fingers together, interlacing them and performing one large crack before taking a pen and writing with it on the board.
“Shinonome, you ought to pay attention,” he was warned, and he tried for a bit.
Admittedly, he was partially interested in the idea of the Akiyama siblings, two sisters one older and one younger, getting separated and dying in vain. But he was wholly disinterested in the story once witches and magic were mentioned and he had to stop himself from laughing at it to himself, feeling An’s hopeful (yet judgemental) gaze burning through his skull.
But being Ena’s brother had proved handy because from a young age he had learnt how to sleep with his eyes open, and that’s what he did. Taking a nap, hand holding his face, eyes open and missing out the part with the supposed ‘curse’ that they placed upon a candle.
What utter nonsense!
#
He awoke when the bell rang and the teacher and students all seemed disappointed, had he missed a cue? Had the story not ended? He didn’t know, but he didn’t need to know as An walked by his side grinning.
“So, how was it? Don’t you see why it’s a big deal!” She rambled to him, blocking the aisle but no one cared because it was Shiraishi An, the most popular student around. The kindest one too.
“Er… yeah, really important,” he settled on, trying to make sure no sleep entered his voice.
An looked at him quizzically, like she didn’t believe him but said nothing more as they walked side by side out of the classroom. She had chemistry, he had biology, but the classrooms were close together, so they did the walk together instead of An pairing odd with Saki or Haruka.
They often walked together in silence, neither one of them knowing what to say sometimes which was strange because once they began talking, they never stopped. Well, more accurately, An never stopped. Akito would listen intensely to her about the most mundane of things to really like school gossip of people he had never crossed paths with or new music she just had to talk about.
But when there were no people around and no personas to fake, the two of them fell into amicable silence. Their hands grazing one another as they walked down the halls, and maybe Akito was imagining it and giving into childish whims, but sometimes it felt like she had begun to reach out to hold it before it was too late, and they reached their destination.
People still lingered and littered the halls, so they weren’t late which meant they could talk for the moment outside of their classrooms.
“So, if you are free and Ena doesn’t have anything to do, will you please just… consider it?” she asked once more, and it was hopeless she had to know it was.
He sighed and nodded, albeit reluctantly and she grinned. Trapping him in a hug, a tight one too.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” she all but squealed and it brought a genuine smile to Akito’s face as he hid it in the top of her head, rubbing his hands down her back.
The bell rang, and they pulled away. An still smiling as she ducked into her classroom and he his.
He would have to beg Ena to be busy tonight. He would do that. He was desperate.
#
He stopped back on his walk home, slipping down random alleys or anything else he could that avoided the busier streets before ducking into WEEKEND GARAGE.
WEEKEND GARAGE was a nice café ran by a kind old man. Not that Ken was old, but he was older than Akito was which therefore made him old in his mind as he headed to the counter. It was warmer inside the café than outside, which felt nice for him as he tried to warm up his extremities.
“Welcome to WEEKEND GARAGE what can I- Akito?” An asked as she took up the counter, smiling over at him in shock. “What a pleasant surprise? I assume you have an answer for me, right?”
“I was just getting somethin’ for Ena,” he answered in turn and An seemed disheartened at that, no longer leaning over the silver counter towards him. She pulled away and grasped her notepad.
“Erm, right,” she began trying to steady herself. “So, what would you like to order?”
“Just a cheesecake… Actually, make that two and a coffee to go,” he requested and An noted it down.
“That comes out to this,” she explained, spinning around the cash register. He hummed and tapped down his card before An began to make the order.
“So, you come here often or somethin’?”
“Somethin’ like that. Surprised I haven’t seen you work here before.”
An laughed, “That’s because this is a costume silly.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, cute waitress. We’re lucky da- Ken took pity on me. He wanted it to be super realistic at the party tonight.”
“A ‘cute waitress’ that’s definitely a costume then.”
She glared at him momentarily, before lashing an empty coffee cup at him. He ducked it and stared at her, mouth agape whilst she grumbled about something under her breath.
“You picking that up, An?” Ken asked, appearing from the backroom and only watching the two teens with a keen interest and knowledge.
“K-ken,” Akito stuttered and An scoffed softly before placing the bags onto the side with the coffee too.
She moved to head from behind the bar, but Akito couldn’t bear to be around and suffocated under Ken’s watchful gaze so picked the cup up for her. Trying to calm himself as he grasped it in his hand before handing it back to her. Their hand’s brushed past one another and her eyes widened, snapping to meet his before looking away and tossing the brown to go cup in the bin.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. I better get home before Ena starts hounding me…”
“Right. See you tomorrow, yeah?”
“’Course. Tell me about the party, won’t ya?”
An rolled her eyes. “The whole school will be talking about it and you will have missed out.”
He raised his hands in surrender, well as much as he could with a bag and steaming hot coffee he really didn’t need nor want. “Blame Ena!”
“I will!” An vowed, and with that Akito left the café, the bell signalling his exit and trudged the rest of the way home. Sipping at the subpar coffee that was still, somehow, in his mind, better than anything Ken had made as of yet.
#
When he walked into the house, he had to hold back an irritated sigh as he was attacked with fake spider webs hanging from ceiling to ceiling and Ena talking obnoxiously on the phone to someone, probably Kanade, maybe Airi, and laughing loudly. She glanced up at him as he entered, placing down his half drank coffee and opening the bag and handing her her cheesecake.
“Kana… I gotta go, Akito’s being nice to me,” she murmured into the phone before getting close and sending an overdramatic kiss to her girlfriend. It was utterly disgusting but he needed her on side before he asked her to go picture hunting for an excuse for An.
She turned to face him once Kanade said goodbye and looked to him impatiently. “The fuck do you want?”
“A favour.”
“Go on…”
“I need to have an excuse to not attend this girl’s party tonight, so what if I take pictures of you?”
Ena hummed thoughtfully as she took her slice of cheesecake and ate it. “This is desperate I’m guessin’… fine! I needed pictures anyway, Airi dressed up as a cute witch this year.” She answered, shoving her phone into his face with Momoi in a purple witch outfit, Hinomori draped around her in a more steel blue kind of colour, whilst at the bottom was Hanasato sat on the floor in her pink outfit, smiling widely at Kiritani.
She pulled the phone away and looked at him. “So, I have an idea. But you’ll need to-“
“Absolutely not. You haven’t gotten me to dress up in years.”
“But Akito, I spent money and it’s a good costume. Shizuku made it just for you!”
“And that’s meant to encourage me?”
“Maybe…”
“Show me it,” he huffed eventually as Ena bolted up the stairs.
She was rummaging around for a while and once he finished his cheesecake, he had nothing to do but scroll through social media. Not that he would see much anyway, his only followers were Ena because ‘I have to make sure you won’t embarrass me if people figure out, we’re related!’, Momoi since ‘I need to make sure Ena’s okay…’ and An.
He hadn’t meant to give it to An, he just kind of did. She just kept talking and it was the cute kind where she rambled far too much you wondered if she was even saying anything comprehendible, but she clearly was and in the middle of her ramble she handed him her Instagram account and then it happened. He could’ve done the smart thing and ignored it, he really could’ve since, well, she didn’t need to know he had it. But he didn’t and requested her, which led to her requesting him back and being greeted to an empty page whilst hers was full of life. Pictures and videos of concerts, celebrities, friends, parties, plants and more. It was used pretty often so he always had a good twenty posts to watch and scroll through and admire.
God.
He was so pathetic. When had he gotten this way? Not even Ena was like this and her and Kanade were a walking joke of a relationship at this point.
“Oooo, you like someone,” Ena jested in his ear, stood on her tiptoes and looking at his phone. “She’s cute.”
“Not your type.”
“I’m too old for her and have a girlfriend. But she seems nice, it’d be a miracle if she liked you.”
“It’s a miracle that Kanade liked you with that personality and attitude. She’s an angel and you’re… you!”
“Mhmm, creative,” she hummed backing away and letting him turn around to see her all dressed up. “Shizuku is such a good designer! I was gonna be a marionette, to match with Kanade and her friend Yuki, but you know… So this was still good, and the horns are a real nice touch, right?”
“Mhm, amazing.”
“You could pretend to care. I could go and message this ‘[an ig handle]’ about how you’re forcing me out of my home to take pictures as an excuse because you hate Halloween. But I’m not, am I? Besides, you would’ve wasted your money on my cheesecake…”
“Every day I wish I was born with a different older sibling.”
“I always wish for another younger sibling, glad we could both agree! But, Akito, your outfit isn’t even that bad! I swear!”
“Do I really have to dress up? You won’t take pictures of me anyway,” Akito huffed, and Ena rolled her eyes.
“Who say’s that? Who knows? Maybe I want to appear with my little brother?”
“You can’t even say that with a straight face.”
“I can’t,” she relented, but she tapped the counter in thought. “But it looks cool. I mean, everyone loves Halloween here and you won’t be out of place. In fact, you’ll be out of place with the hoodie than the costume and don’t you like putting on a façade? Just think of this with a fade but with actual clothes to match with it!”
“You won’t leave this alone, will you?”
“Never.”
He didn’t say anything to her, but just stared her down and the smile that etched across her face had the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. She walked down the hallway and back with a hanger in hand, the costume in a dress bag and handed it to him.
“Be careful with it. We need to do your makeup too and fix your hair-“
“I agreed to the costume, and the costume alone.”
“The makeup and hair come with it. Come on, you cannot think I would be going out in this get up with short hair and looking like this? You’re insane,” Ena huffed as she tugged at her bob. “Besides, all you need is like some root dye thing to make you seem like a brunette and you’ve been- look open the bag please.”
He wanted to protest, but whatever else she was saying was cute off by the fact he didn’t know what he was dressing up as. So, he did what he was told, reluctantly and… it wasn’t bad admittedly. He could see how the pieces fit together and he would look like a lost traveller in a harsh place which was… nice? He didn’t know how to feel about it exactly because the outfit was complex meaning Ena would need to help him in and out of it, but it was nice he supposed. The bandana was really nice and he could see what Ena meant by needing the root dye.
She smiled up at him, expectantly and he scoffed.
“It’s decent,” he eventually settled on.
“’Decent?’ Oh you are so- ugh, whatever at least you’re getting in it even though you can’t appreciate it,” Ena grumbled under her breath. “So, are you getting ready because makeup is a bitch and with you?”
He grabbed an apple and chucked it at her as she batted it away with her long staff and complained at the arm pain. “This is why you should stop being chronically online and go to the gym.”
“Kanade and I went multiple times with Minori. This is from art you dumb ass.”
He hummed, not believing it but headed off with the outfit and it’s fifty million different pieces. It would be a long, long evening.
#
Akito didn’t realise that he hated being Ena’s photographer more than Halloween until this moment in time when he had to walk around and find the perfect lighting, climbing trees (which he wasn’t meant to do in his wonky shoes) to get the perfect angle for her and her big fucking cape. And soon, soon they were heading near where he presumed An lived from the over-the-top decorations and loud music that broke his skull…
As well as her Instagram stories that were playing the same songs as the ones, he was hearing walking up the street. He just had to pray that-
“Thought you weren’t dressin’ up?” An asked, leaning over the white picket fence and grinning at him.
“Thought you were meant to be a waitress.”
“Plan’s change. Besides, a devil is so much cuter and, look at the boots!” Akito rolled his eyes at her antics but humoured her anyway.
“Really nice.”
“You could sound more interested! It’s better than whatever you have going on!”
“I am a traveller!”
“Boring! Seriously, the brunette behind you did ten times better.”
“Don’t encourage Ena, please,” he pleaded, and Ena took that as her cue to stop editing whatever photo and head over to An. “Oh God.”
“Shinonome Ena, it’s nice to meet you…”
“An. Shiraishi An,” she eventually returned, taking Ena’s hand but she seemed a little… upset? It was subtle, very subtle and Akito could’ve well been imagining it but her eyes no longer held that joyous gleam as they did when she spotted him in the ridiculous, large and over dramatic get up.
“Ah! I remember you, sorry, I can’t put names to faces. Too many people to meet.”
An laughed eventually and Akito wanted to savour the sound. “So, what are you meant to be?”
“A hermit. I was going to be a marionette with my girlfriend and her friend, but here I am without a girlfriend in tow. By the way, I love your outfit. The crop top is everything, where’d you get it?”
“The boutique by the flower shop.”
“Actually? I need to visit there. That really isn’t my style but it’s so cute. I love the colours and the ruffles,” Ena enthused, and Akito had to contemplate murder. She wasn’t actually interested which was strange because she hated people not being honest, and here she was lying to An’s face for no-
Oh.
Oh.
Oh no.
“Thanks. Do you two want a drink or anything?”
“No.”
“Yes.”
The siblings replied in tandem, snapping their heads to one another and twisting them confused at the other’s choice whilst An laughed and slipped off anyway, getting them a drink of some sort. Akito tapped his foot and Ena smiled, tapping her own foot on the pavement, the small heel making a ton of noise.
Eventually, An returned, three drinks in hand and passed them to the siblings. “So, An, do you think Akito and I could take pictures here? I post for Instagram and this outside décor is to die for, literally,” she laughed softly and An nodded.
“Of course! Take as long as you like! I should… head back in… See you later, maybe?” she turned, looking at him and Akito nodded eventually.
“Yeah… see you around, An.”
As she walked away Ena made a noise and grumbled. “Hopeless, utterly hopeless! You need to man up and confess, she feels the same you know?”
“Come on, let’s just get your stupid pictures and go home,” Akito mumbled, and Ena glared at him again.
She turned her nose up but said nothing else as she found the perfect set piece and lighting for posing and pictures. Setting herself up to be a total catfish really and looking nicer and kinder than she actually was.
#
Eventually they were done, but Ena couldn’t leave ‘in good conscience without saying goodbye to the host.’ So now they were inside the party, making their way past all of the teenagers partying, sweat clinging to their skin even more so from the bulky costumes they wore but Ena heeded it no mind. She weeved her way through, picking up a new set of punch and drinking it until she found An and smiled largely.
“Shiraishi!” She called out and, somehow, An heard her over the music and smiled back at her.
“Shinonome. Akito. Did you get the pictures?” she asked, turning away from her prior conversation with Kohane and looking at them with a new smile on her face.
She headed to stand next to him, super close to him like they were in the school walkways and Ena noticed this. She smirked and sighed. “Well… yeah, but I want to find something truly spooky. Something really old and special.”
“There’s the graveyard?”
“No graveyards.” She insisted instantly and Akito sighed in relief whilst An laughed.
“I wouldn’t do them either. They’re creepy… hmm… there’s the old Vocaloid Museum. Aunt Nagi used to work there and dad has a key, would could sneak it and sneak out…”
“You trust everyone here to not do anything when they realise the owner was missing?” Akito countered and An rolled her eyes.
“They like dad a lot. Everyone respects him, besides, wasn’t it you who called me ‘little ms popular?’” she grinned up at him and winked overdramatically.
“Fair play. Would this really get what Ena want’s though?”
“Oh yeah, the museum was in their house where they killed Akiyama Hikari,” An explained and Akito furrowed his brow. She looked crestfallen and shook her head, placing down her cup. “I’ll get the keys.”
Ena turned to look at him, puzzled and Akito inwardly cursed himself. Shit. He should’ve listened this morning.
#
“Akiyama Hikari’s hill,” Ena stated as they headed up the hill, she was clinging to his arm as, even though her heels were short, it was still a dangerous walk up. Even An in her boots, though they were heeled too, had to hold onto him as they all walked in tandem. Ena looking around to see if anything around her could be used as a picture spot.
“It was named in her honour after her death. No one named anything after the other sibling though, Akiyama Mizuki, which was strange,” An muttered looking up at the full moon and shuddering.
“Very.”
And the conversation died out.
#
“You know, they found bodies of one hundred children around here. Different bones all scattered about. Shame no one could recognise one rib cage from the next,” An stated to Ena and she was enraptured with the story. So focused that Akito was able to swipe up a twig and grin at them. It was dark enough, right?
“Here’s a thigh bone as proof!” and he tossed it at them which caused An to screech loudly, jumping onto Ena and Ena to flail with her stick and deflect it before growling as he laughed to himself.
“Every day I wish mum never had you!”
An just looked at him and shook her head. But as her heart began to calm down and she stopped holding her hands over her chest and soon a small, albeit it bitter, smile made its way onto her face as she walked up next to them.
#
Ena gulped as they came up to the house, a rotted sign swinging from the outside talking about the history of them which had An talking at length of them and their ashes whilst Akito surveyed the outside. Watching it all warily and holding up his phone torch to step over the overgrown tree roots and bushes.
“I thought you said your Aunt used to run this place…”
“It was closed down years ago,” An argued. She spotted something from the corner of her eyes and jumped. She shivered a little. “Let’s get inside,” she urged them, and Ena hurried to oblige.
It was dark inside, but Akito stepped in so did Ena leaving An behind whilst they took in the smell of mildew and decay. Disease lingering in the hut all over with velvet ropes showing what a guided tour would’ve been if the museum was still even open.
“Hm? You scared?” Akito asked, glancing over at An whilst Ena walked around the rotted hut, hunting for the perfect angle for selfies.
The other girl, not his sister, walked around the hut slowly. Barely in the hut and so close to the door with cobwebs lingering around and the stench of death and wet in the air. Obvious and palpable as he walked in further and An skirted in just the smallest bit further, heading toward the end of the little entry way platform.
“Of course. This is the home of the witches. I mean, I used to sneak in here all the time, but it feels different tonight. Maybe it’s because it’s Halloween and their last known words…”
“You seriously don’t believe in that?”
“’Course I do! You’re looking at the same place I am with cages dangling from the ceiling,” An huffed, stepping down the three small steps. “Come on, can’t we go elsewhere? This is freaky… We can come back tomorrow when it won’t be Halloween and a full moon!”
“What’s so scary about this place?” Ena asked, running her fingers along the books. “It’s just dusty. Okay, well that book in the centre’s a little odd but everything else…”
“This was the home of the three witches. They were awful people and terrorised our town! They’re bad news and this place is bad news,” An explained, and Ena nodded along passively though she was fixing her hair with her phone’s camera. Typical.
“Then why did you break into here?”
“I was an idiot and wanted to impress my friends. I thought I could handle it, and I did. We played Oujia Boards near Book and everything,” An bragged, heading further in and looking at the place with a mixture of awe and distaste.
“What’s book?”
“Book. Is that massive brown book in the centre,” An instructed and headed over with Akito.
“’The spellbook of Vocaloid MEIKO. Given to her and her sisters by the devil and bound with human flesh…’” he trailed off trying to hold back a laugh whilst An and Ena glared at him.
“Come on! Be serious!” Ena hissed out as something clattered against one of the windows.
“Ena, you can’t be serious in believing this…”
“You believe in God, they’re like the same thing. So, I believe An and the witches. Something doesn’t feel right.”
An shook her head and huffed. Akito skirted around the cauldron and peered in before backing away, scrunching his nose at the stench. “Come on! We can go back to the party, there’s got to be some selfie places for you!”
“Hey, An, what’s the whole deal with this place and the witches anyway?” Akito asked, still exploring the house. Opening up chest after chest and trying to find something, anything there.
“Are you seriously still exploring!?”
“Did you not pay attention in history?” the girls cried out at the same time, Ena heading closer to the door and An to the window. Maybe to check for the clattering noise.
“Akito? Pay attention in school? You have so much faith in my brother?” Ena snorted and Akito lobbed an old, hooked shoe at her. She squealed and jumped, dropping her phone and messing up her hair.
She huffed and kicked it away and held onto the stick tighter whilst An continued to walk around and past him.
“Yes, I did. I thought he would like to care about the history of his new place. I guess not,” An mumbled softly and, for the briefest of seconds, Akito felt guilty and like he had done something wrong. He wanted to apologise but An took a deep breath in and opened a window, the rotted wood creaking as she swung it open.
She poked her head out and looked for it, frowning when she didn’t see anything to cause that huge noise they heard before. She rested her head on the ledge and sighed.
“It was years ago, three hundred if what Nagi told me was correct, but it was most certainly long ago. There lived three witches, proud and awful witches who, one day, took a young child and sacrificed her to remain young forever. The child died but the witches didn’t succeed in the spell, they were distracted with the child’s sibling and by the time everything went down, the elders appeared. They were tried and hung,” An explained and Akito held back a scoff.
She was so up in arms about something from way before she was born or even thought about. Something that probably existed as a folk tale.
“But, during their hanging, they made a promise. A vow really. That one night, on Halloween they would return as soon as the black light candle was lit by a virgin, since that was what the spell needed…” An finished. Ena looked over at An, really concerned and she was lost in the fantasy.
It was times like these were Akito wondered if he really was the older sibling and not her.
He looked back into the box, rummaging through it before frowning as he picked up a candle. The wax was smooth in his hand, it was sticky almost and he feared what had been near it and touched it before him.
It looked old admittedly, the wick wasn’t something fancy and new that they had nowadays, just a simple string that was frail and falling apart. If these witches truly did exist, he expected them to have something, anything better. If you could conjure something with magic, why did the candle look so cheap. It had to be a prank.
Akito picked it up and brought it out, trying to find a surface to lay it down on. Not that he would light it or anything, but maybe someone would, and it would prove to An that those witches were not real.
He headed back to the front where there was a turn stand of lighters.
“Fuck!” Ena hissed as a black cat with a bright pink bow tied to its tail jumped in and knocked the candle off the table.
It hissed at Akito, and he stepped away, grasping a lighter from the turn stand whilst An avoided the candle at all costs. “What are you doing?!” she demanded when she spotted him with a lighter and a candle on the floor. “Are you trying to kill us?!”
“Come on, An, these witches can’t be real and exist.”
“You don’t know that!”
“You don’t know that they do either,” Akito reasoned, bending down to pick up the candle before moving away as the cat sat on it and glared at him. “Ena, speak to the cat.”
“No way, I would like to not spend my first Halloween in this place being public enemy number one. Maybe next year,” Ena suggested. But she paused, and something appeared on her face. A realisation and she looked over at him, turning her head, “Seriously, are you going to light this candle though?”
“Why are you asking that?”
“Because if you do and the witches are true… Nothing will happen, right. What’s the harm in us trying An? In fact, come here kitty. Psst, come here baby,” she called out, getting onto her knees and clicking her fingers.
“Ena…”
“Look, so long as Akito lights the candle, we will be fine,” she reasoned, reaching the cat before capturing it in her grip.
The cat began to yowl, and it was grating causing him to wince and close his eyes. Unable to see whilst he struggled to tune out the cat that kept scratching Ena’s arm causing her to yelp in pain as she wrestled with it.
“Ena! Put it down! You’re hurting her! She says…” but An trailed off, her eyes wide as she backed away.
“The cat can’t be speaking An,” Akito tried to reassure her, but she kept backing away.
“It can if you believe in magic. Come on, Ena, don’t you believe?!”
Ena rolled her eyes, and maybe they were related. “An, nothing will happen, right Akito? It’s not like he’s a virgin or anything, so what’s the harm?” The thing kept fighting her as she held it tightly. She adjusted the position and Akito swore he heard An’s heart break, shattering like glass.
“Akito!”
He grasped the candle as soon as he could and before An could stop him and flicked the lighter. The warm, orange glow was comforting for the moment before it touched the candle itself and they all paused. The cat stop fighting, giving up in Ena’s arms.
They waited for a minute and then Akito turned to face An and laughed, “See? I told you, witches don’t-“
There was a loud crack, then a pop and then an engulfing purple light that choked them up from the inside out. An grasped his arms and Ena’s before throwing themselves into a rotted store cupboard with a little gap in the wooden boards to peak through as the house began to shake and rumble. Vibrating wildly that things fell from the shelves, things labelled ‘dead man’s thumb’ and other shit like that. Now, Akito had to wonder if it was real as the sisters formed in front of them.
The first one was a brunette. She was decently tall, wrinkled to hell and back with short hair that was clipped in all the wrong places as she clicked her neck and looked at her hands. Frowning and pinching herself.
The other two came at the same time, one with pink hair and the other bright yellow. The one with bright yellow hair fell instantly before being picked up by the pink haired one who sucked in a breath of air and spun around, her dress flying and sending plumes of dust everywhere.
“Sisters!” the brunette declared, moving around in delight. “We have returned!”
The yellow one clapped her hands happily and skipped around.
Akito wanted to ask what happened, but from the hand Ena had clapped around her mouth to stop herself from bursting into fits of laughter he knew. She was his sister, and that was not her business. However, she was a menace to society and if she knew something about him, she ran with it like she was an Olympic gold medalist and this, this was perfect for her.
The pink one’s nose twitched and looked around the place, her eyes lingered on the cupboard and An started to cry from fear before her gaze drifted away.
“Ah, who is the one who returned is?” the brunette continued and the other two stared at her lost and confused. “What?”
“Can you not smell them? The children?” the pink haired one offered and the yellow haired one danced right past their hiding place.
“Let’s gauge their eyes out!” the yellow one giggled causing the brunette to slap the back of her head and into a potion rack.
She took a deep breath, and Akito swore he could count all the hairs in her nostrils, and she displayed a, what she must’ve believed to be, friendly smile to them and walked around. All happily, surveying the whole place carefully. “Come out, precious ones~~” she trilled.
“We love children so so so~~~~ much!” the pink haired one continued.
Akito was regretting not kidnapping a child, they would’ve had no personal attachment to her but he and An were the only children nearby and Ena had only just become an adult. If the random child was sacrificed, bright side was it wasn’t them, but they would be classed as accessories to murder though… right?
Akito slipped further back into the cupboard and Ena covered herself with the cloak as the door swung open and An was yanked out, claw like nails digging into her arm as she squealed.
The door slammed shut again and Akito rushed to it and watched them circling her like prey. Touching her and choosing what they liked of her whilst she stumbled away, fearful. Fuck. This was all his fault.
He looked back into the cupboard and grabbed a bucket full of rainwater, much to Ena’s distaste as she got up, cat curling up next to her and ready to move.
“Such a pretty thing you are, and a worshipper of our Lord! Such a shame that I’m awfully hungry and you would be such a nice meal.”
“Years of death makes one ravenous~~!” the pink haired one trilled, and the brunette pulled An closer to the door. Close enough that Akito could justify swinging it open and chucking the bucket of water at the brunette, watching it soak her and do nothing.
“It worked in the Wizard of Oz…”
“How the fuck are we related!?” Ena yelped racing out of the way, staff in hand as An ran with her.
She took the staff and batted the other two witches, whilst the brunette was centred on Akito. He gulped and dodged a bolt of lightning that was hurling his way, but in his haste, tripped over and was electrocuted. He hissed in pain as the other two crowded around, Ena and An long forgotten.
“Get him Mei!” the yellow one called out.
“Burn him to a crisp!” the pink one seconded and the pain was searing and excruciating. His eyes kept watering as he sat there and took it all, watching Ena move blearily.
“You bitches!” she screeched, swinging her staff to the backs of their heads. “That’s my fucking brother!”
Mei, but Akito presumed that was short for ‘MEIKO’ spun around, and grabbed Ena’s staff and launched it into a wall before wrapping her hands around her neck. The other two slumped down instantly and Akito was able to scramble away, finding the lighter in his pockets and looking up at the ceiling. It had to have a sprinkler or something, a distraction!
An hobbled over, jumping over the slumped bodies of the other witches and lashed out for Ena before getting swung into the cauldron, blood leaving her mouth from the force. Ena began to gasp, her eyes bulging.
He looked up and was glad for the moment, he shuffled faster whilst An tried to regain her senses, hacking up blood as Ena dug her own claws into MEIKO. He reached up, his fingers touching a little pully that had a cage attached to it. Yanking it down and forcing MEIKO to drop Ena in order to save herself.
Ena held her neck, gasping whilst An grabbed the staff and Akito forced himself to stand up warily. He lit up the lighter and tossed it up, it hit the sprinkler system and water came. He knew it was useless, but An had come up with a cover story. “The fiery rain of death! It is upon us because you angered the great Akito!” she wailed, dragging Ena to door as she scrambled, clinging to the staff whilst Akito raced to the nearest window.
“The book!” the cat yowled, and Akito stopped, thought about it for a moment and picked up the book and then, jumped out the window.
The roll was far, and the water wheel water was awful, and he was soaked right through. But he had the book, and the cat was urging him to join the two girls in their heels and their injured states, so he did. He swam out, and ran alongside them, catching up in no time before the witches were wiser to their lies.
#
They got halfway down the hill, the two girls following the cat’s instructions easily, their heels leaving prints whilst Akito trudged along behind them. Not at a slow enough pace to be noticeable, but slow enough to force them all to slow down as they entered the woods. Ena reached up to get signal.
“This way!” the cat instructed again, and Akito stopped, Ena and An staring at him with tears in their eyes.
“Why the fuck can you talk?!”
“I’m a cat.”
“That’s why I’m confused.”
“We don’t have time for this!?” the cat hissed out, sprinting back and sitting on his shoulder, the pink bow blocking his eyesight. “You have 300-year-old witches on your ass, I think a talking cat is the least of your worries. And right now, I know them the best out of all of you. Got it?”
“Got it,” Akito relented, before the cat scurried back down and began to direct them.
#
When they reached the graveyard, An was nearly sobbing as they entered it hesitantly. Ena was too tired and on the phone in hushed frantic whispers, probably blabbing to Kanade whilst Akito clutched the book tightly. His hair beginning to dry out and some of the temporary dye seeping into his other locks whilst the cat led them straight ahead all calmly.
“Why are we here?” Akito spoke up and Ena glared at him. An just ignored him and followed the cat anyway.
“Hello? Cat?”
“I have a name,” it huffed.
“Can you not piss off the cat please? It’s our Lord and saviour until I can get a car or something,” Ena sighed, holding her phone up in the air.
“We’re all just blindly following a cat though.”
“Because someone decided to light a candle,” An hissed back, her temper fraying as she plucked her red devil headband off and lashed it in the graveyard.
“We wouldn’t have been there if someone didn’t decide to go on a picture spree.”
“Someone bribed me to do so because they hate Halloween and didn’t want to disappoint someone,” Ena snapped back. “You got us into this mess, this cat got us out and I am inclined to believe…”
“Mizuki. Akiyama Mizuki.”
“Like the younger sibling that let their older one die?” An asked for clarification looking at the cat as it, seemingly, glared at them.
“You don’t have to phrase it like that.”
“This is unbelievable.”
“You better believe, Akito, because you just did the one thing I wanted to stop for years,” Mizuki simpered, heading towards him.
“You didn’t try hard enough.”
“Someone’s sister grabbed me.”
“I thought that it would be funny and that it wouldn’t work! I didn’t think he was a virgin and now that I say it aloud,” Ena began to laugh. “I shouldn’t laugh but fuck, when we blame this on you everyone’s gonna-“
An just stared at her and looked back at Akito, irritation clear before she slumped onto the ground next to a grave. Head in hand. She looked at the cat that began to curl around her whilst Ena kept laughing. “Oh, this is amazing, truly!”
“This really isn’t funny,” An sighed. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have… there’s a reason it was blocked off…”
“If I don’t laugh, I’ll cry,” Ena returned, ignoring An’s self-doubt which Akito couldn’t.
He slid over to her and took one of her hands gently into his own and smiled at her, softly. “It’s my fault, An.”
She contemplated his words and smiled for a moment. “It is, isn’t it? But I shouldn’t have made you feel like you had to prove something.”
“I shouldn’t have tried to ruin your beliefs either,” he returned, and she smiled softly at that, a watery grin whilst her eyes shone like diamonds from unshed tiers. She huffed quietly.
“Akito…”
“Ah-ha!” Ena yelled, “Got some bars.”
“I thought you were speaking to Kanade before?” Akito spoke up, pulling his gaze from An and dreading to think about what would’ve happened had Ena not spoken up. Mizuki simply off on another grave with their eyes closed, asleep.
“I was filming videos without sending them as proof of hell and rationalising my thoughts.”
“You can rationalise thoughts?”
Ena glared at him as she tapped her foot. “Yes, I can, and we need to stop blaming ourselves and get rid of that book,” she explained. “I would like to not die so getting rid of the book negates the chance of being attacked. So, let’s chuck it in a creek get in a car, disappear forever and live at Kanades, right?”
“No!” Mizuki spoke up and Ena deflated.
“We get a boat-“
“No leaving! You caused this mess; you fix this mess by keeping that book away from them!”
“Sorry to doubt you Mizuki, but you are a cat that failed to save your sister and I’m trying to save my brother and whatever An means to him,” Ena smiled before it dropped. “Let’s go!”
“Not before I show you something,” Mizuki insisted and Akito groaned, and rested his head on the grave behind him.
“Do we have to? I much like Ena’s plan,” An refused but the cat hissed, and she sprung up, twisting her ankle as she jumped up. Akito looked at her, then Ena, before he too got up and followed the cat in deeper.
An hobbled along, and Akito held his hand out gingerly, only slightly, afraid she would refuse it because he had just signed them all up to die, especially with the book tucked under his arm. But she took it, a light red hue on her cheeks as they headed further in.
The darkness was all consuming and enveloping, the silence was almost louder in a way. Everything made them all fight the urge to jump whilst Mizuki was as calm as anything, engaging in pleasantries with Ena now who had stopped trying to create a log of their death (which Akito thought was very fucking stupid).
Akito said pleasantries very loosely, they were taunting one another and testing the limits of one another. Seeing where the boundary of their jests was, and Ena was enthralled. As much as she was a bitch, she needed someone to spar with him and she just didn’t like sparring with Akito. Mizuki was a better target and in their 300 years of life, had developed a quick tongue and taste for sarcasm which Ena greatly appreciated.
He did too as it gave him time to admire An. He would’ve liked to talk, but he was fearful. Just because she held onto him as her ankle hurt and her mouth still bled, her whole body probably now only beginning to ache as the adrenaline died down, and now all that was left was realisation. He was scared admittedly because his arrogance and cockiness wound them up in this way and what if she never wanted to talk to him again? She was his first, and really only, friend in Vivid Street and-
“You think a lot, you know? For as impulsive as you are, you’re always lost in thought.”
“This is what you want to say to me? Of all things?”
“I can’t be angry at you when we could die any moment,” An smiled softly. “If we live this and the world isn’t doomed however…”
“I will accept whatever you want to give me,” Akito shrugged and An beamed.
She held onto him and rested her head on his shoulder. She was awfully touchy, and Akito didn’t know whether to outright hate it and refuse it, or to accept it because he did like it to a degree. It was comforting almost; he missed her body heat whenever she was away for too long and it was oddly pathetic. He knew that but still…
“So, what did Ena mean by ‘disappoint someone’?” An eventually asked when it seemed to walk would continue for longer, especially since Ena started to genuinely argue with the cat. How awful had their lives gotten that they were speaking to a cat and, in Ena’s case, arguing with it?
Akito looked away. “It’s Ena. You can’t believe half of what she says.”
“The other half?” he glared at her and An smiled sheepishly. “I just… you didn’t have to fake all of this for me. I would’ve been fine with the disappointment.”
“I didn’t wanna upset you… I like you,” he settled on eventually.
An turned to look at him, looked up at him, amber eyes thinking, concentrating, wide too as they reflected the pretty full moon. She sighed softly once Ena and Mizuki stopped walking, what she wanted to say lost in the moment and Akito felt like a fool all over again.
Here he was, all but confessing, laying his heart out in the open and… what was something Momoi would say when she gave Ena hope? At least it wasn’t an outright rejection? That had to count for something, but Akito knew that it was still a rejection nonetheless and he was just being a child once more.
She believed in magic, he believed that she loved him. Both were the same, except one of them had been proven true, courtesy of the talking cat and whatever other wounds they wore. Their battle scars.
“Why are we here?” An spoke up, trying to bend down to the grave Mizuki was so subdued at.
She faltered for a moment, and Akito helped her down, rubbing the dust and debris off the grave. Feeling the engraving. “KAITO. Murderer, thief and drunkard,” Akito spoke aloud and rolled his eyes. “Useful.”
“I was just showing you someone I knew, to show you how awful they could be. I know you want to run, but you caused this so now you need to fight. They don’t take runners well, I should know and so should KAITO,” Mizuki hummed. “Ah, I wish he could tell you, but they cut out his tongue and sewed his mouth shut. After dragging him from the deepest pits of hell. Mutilating his already deceased and rotted corpse.”
Akito gulped nervously and Ena turned to stare at him enraged before rubbing her forehead, creases beginning to form.
“So we fucked up,” Ena cursed. “Great. Fucking wonderful.”
“You can still run,” Mizuki countered. “Just know the consequences. I still run and look at me.”
“How haven’t you killed yourself?” Akito spoke up and An’s eyes widened in horror.
“I tried, watching my family and their families all wither and rot… you don’t think I tried? I can’t die until they do, so I’m stuck here forever. Maybe longer now and worrying about MEIKO, Rin and Luka because of you!” Mizuki hissed out, their back arched and tail pointing in the air.
Akito gulped and the cat suddenly relaxed and he felt… pity for it almost. Defeated really, and the taste of defeat was sour and vile. Nothing that he would’ve liked in the slightest and he hated that feeling, the crushing feeling of failure.
He had felt it when he had quit football, again when he didn’t have a passion in life during high school and finally, now when he couldn’t fight Ena or Shinei or their mother about moving. He had found something good, something tentative, but Shinonomes were truly never meant to be happy or to experience joy, where they? No, of course not! Instead, he had to suffer with potentially ruining whatever they had and befriending a cat that liked everyone save him with good cause.
“Are we going to sulk or do something?” Ena eventually spoke up, irritated.
“The most you can do is protect that spell book. They can’t do much without it,” Mizuki reasoned easily. “Don’t use it, any of you. Only evil can come from that, the devil gifted it to them, and Satan is only capable of evil.”
Akito nodded and ran his hands down the leather. An looked at it with a newfound vigour too.
There was a shadow, and Akito glanced up and cursed. “Fuck…”
“Ow, fuck me,” Ena hissed in pain as an electrical cord hit her head. She glanced up too and blanched.
“Not again!” An protested, getting up all shakily, yanking Akito up whilst they began to run deeper into the graveyard. Deeper into the forest section of it that was all overgrown and submerged in everything.
“So, Mizuki, I know you said not to use it, but what if we used a spell to cast some light?” Ena asked the cat.
The cat yowled at her whilst MEIKO began to trill for the book, the book yearning to fly away and trying to escape the grasp of Akito before Ena shrieked as one of the witches, the yellow haired one landed in front of them on her… mop…
“Question, is that not a mop? Don’t you all use, I don’t know, brooms?” Ena questioned, and An lashed a twig at her.
“This is what you stop us for!?” She screeched at Ena before looking over at the pink haired one and turning her head. “Actually… why are you using a mop?”
“That’s what this is? Huh, weird name. Mop. Mop. Mop…” she repeated giggling.
Akito looked at the two women with him and made a beeline west before retreating as MEIKO landed on her own broom. “Actually, why are you on a mop and why are you on a hoover?”
“That’s what we were saying?!”
“I am surrounded by children,” Mizuki sighed, and MEIKO grinned evilly upon hearing the voice. Akito was glad to have the cat to act as bait and a distraction.
“Akiyama Mizuki, thou mangy feline, still alive?!”
“After all this time Mei, someone needed to kill you,” Mizuki insisted, “But, of course, I at least don’t seem my age. 300 years did me wonders!”
The pink haired one lashed the chord at Mizuki and the cat jumped onto An’s shoulders. She gulped and backed away whilst the yellow haired one squealed in glee and delight. “Bind the kitty! Burn the kitty! End it! End it! End it!”
“Rin, be quiet,” the brunette snapped.
“Children, please, we beseech you, give us the book and we will be out of your hair,” Luka simpered, and they all turned to look at one another. Contemplated it before backing away.
“Why don’t you come here and get it!” Ena challenged them. Mizuki seemed to agree with that, jumping off An’s shoulders and walking all across the ground.
Seriously, that cat and Ena were best friends. Meant to be. Both were prideful and stubborn and-
The witches began an enchantment and the ground trembled. “Mizuki, I thought you said they couldn’t touch us?”
“I thought you said they couldn’t do much magic?” the girls questioned, and Mizuki hummed, as much as a cat-person-thing could before backing away.
“They can’t. But zombies can.”
It took a moment for it to register, and Akito didn’t wait for instructions and just ran. An at his heels whilst Ena still lugged about the staff, Mizuki racing to catch up with them.
There were low groanings and rumblings that reached his ear, grunts and commands from witches that were awful, and Akito really wished this was a dream. A nightmare, something he could pretend never happened and that his life was not at stake in the moment, and he was just dramatic.
He couldn’t, clearly. The ache in his lungs and limbs was real, the terror that coursed through him, through all of them was real too and the fatigue plaguing his mind was real. But Akito was nothing short of resourceful and as they jumped the graveyard fence, swapping the book, he booted open a sewer grid and clambered down, the cat following, then An and finally Ena after some hesitation.
And, once again, they were plunged into darkness. A distinct dripping echoing all around them as Ena complained about the sludge touching her feet from her open heels and the cold all around them. Ena turned on her flashlight and held back a scream whilst An curled up into him in fear, clinging to him. He wanted to be fearful too, but An holding onto him made him resist the urge and nodded as they looked at the coffins that were all around them, poking through.
Mizuki smiled and lounged, sniffing the air. “Mhmm, rats and moles…”
“I’m gonna be sick,” Ena complained, and Mizuki just stared at her.
“Sorry I’m a cat and can’t rock up to a nice place that offers curry or something, you know? A cat has to do what a cat has to do to survive…”
There was a groaning from further down the tunnel. Akito looked to the cat, unlikely and hesitant allies whilst it led them away. “One touch from KAITO and you will all be rotten flesh by tomorrow.”
#
Akiyama’s home was tiny, too small for them but cozy and quaint. It had a kitchen of some sort, and some medical supplies though they were all hesitant to use them from how the home was connected to the sewer. But checking their wounds didn’t hurt, right?
“Hey, you were in here for a while,” An began, entering the little makeshift wound checking that they had created. Akito rolled his eyes as she lingered at the door, he pulled his tunic down hastily, praying she hadn’t seen anything, but she had.
“Do you need help? That looks like a nasty burn…” she muttered out, closing the distance.
“’T’s fine.”
She hummed not believing him and when Akito turned around, they were pressed together chest to chest. He glanced down at her and her wet hair. The peach dye from the end fading away and leaving her with just the bright, striking blue hair that caught everyone’s attention. That trailed behind her as she raced ahead.
She looked up at him and nodded, eventually. “I can place the aloe vera on you,” she offered, reaching behind him for the tub.
He would’ve refused, but it hurt to try and stretch and do it himself. So, he gave up and sat on the nearest piece of furniture and rolled up his shirt giving An a view of everything.
She gulped, flushed and nodded. “Wow.”
Akito snorted at that whilst An glared at him, embarrassed to have been caught, but she said nothing more as she slathered on the aloe vera on the burns. He hissed often and too much that she eventually stopped checking in on him, realising it was futile and a stupid thing because of course it would hurt. The skin looked ripped apart and paper, a bright white really that was disgusting to look at it if he glanced down at it. Even An shared his sentiments, as she reached for the gauze to try and cover it up. You should let air get to it, but the type of his wound.
“There…” she breathed out eventually. “We should get you to a hospital tomorrow.”
“You too. I know you put your ankle in one of those socks, but let’s make sure you didn’t break anything.”
An rolled her eyes but said nothing more and Akito basked in her presence like she was the shining sun. Warm and comforting, something nice swelling within him as he looked at her carefully, and she looked at him too similarly he believed.
“If this… all dies down,” An began, reaching up for him and playing with strands of his hair. “Do you want to go out somewhere?”
He raised his brow, smirking and she rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me say it again.”
“But-”
“No.”
He laughed softly. “I could ‘go out somewhere’ with you,” he shrugged, and she threw her hands up in the air. She grumbled something, frustrated and began to stalk away, before he reached for her arm, taking her wrist and gently, guiding her back.
“I’m sorry.”
“You better be.”
“Think of it as payback for you not answering me when I said, ‘I like you.’”
An opened her mouth like she wanted to protest, but closed it as Ena entered, cape long forgotten as she tapped the door expectantly. She quirked a brow, a smirk forming before she shook her head. “Right, KAITO’s really close by. We only stopped to fix this, figure out what to do with the book and then, well, let Mizuki rest up. We need to go love birds.”
“We are not-“ they tried to explain, but Ena had already left and they knew that they too had to follow along.
#
Akito pushed open the sewer grid and Akiyama jumped out, Akito was bound to follow, but ducked back in as a pair of headlights came towards him. An gasped loudly but said nothing as he pushed open the grid and looked around, before slipping out. An followed behind shakily, hesitantly, whilst Ena rushed out as fast as she could.
“Ew.”
“Is that all you can say? Ew?” An asked, tears welling in her eyes as she looked at the flattened cat.
It was quite gory Akito thought, so he looked away as An cried to herself, eyeliner streaming down her face before they heard a pop, or twenty. When he turned back around, Akiyama was stood standing again and An rushed over to hug the cat tightly.
“What part of ‘I cannot die’ do you not understand?” Mizuki scoffed easily but let An hold them tightly.
“As touching as this is, we still have three homicidal witches on our asses, so let’s go,” Ena insisted, holding out her staff wearily and looking in the sky.
“Where the hell are we going?”
“To find somewhere safe to bunker down in,” Ena explained easily. “Book can’t be destroyed, and I need a car but the bastard and- Did they tell you where they went?”
“To some thing in the centre. Some art exhibition with a party attached, because- Oh!”
“That’s not too far from here,” An mused and they all nodded to one another and ran away. An taking the lead with Akiyama, whilst the Shinonome’s lingered behind, glancing back every so often to see if something was following them, anything.
Nothing was, at least, that was from what Akito could tell. But there was a sense of him being wrong, somewhere within him and that KAITO or the witches were close by…
#
The party was stuffy, and Ena was already despising it as they walked through and looked for their parent’s. An was just lost and confused as she stayed by his side, Ena and Akiyama heading off together.
“Who are we looking for?” An asked.
“Someone that looks like Ena but is more stoic and egoistical and makes her really angry when she has to glance at him.”
“So, him?” An questioned, pointing over at Shinei, whilst the cat sat in Ena’s hood, pretending to be asleep as her temper got the best of her.
“Are you serious? I know you’re the genius artist everyone admires but your daughter and son need help and if you won’t do it for me, do it for Akito because we all know you love him,” She hissed out at him, getting closer to his face before pickpocketing the keys. “You know what, screw this.”
She turned around to face them, paled and turned the other way. Akito and An glanced behind them and followed too, Akito not even waving to his dad as they tried to figure out another exit.
The outside air was so nice and cool. Akito had missed it whilst they were inside for the short moment. They had lost Ena and her staff too meaning they were entirely defenceless as KAITO was chasing them.
“Gah!” An yelled as the zombie broke through some of the wood toward them, she squeaked and picked up a random rake and lodged it into KAITO’s face. She gagged for a moment but shrugged back at Akito, an unsure smile on her face.
“Could’ve been worse,” he settled on and she agreed whilst a song began on the inside. It was hypnotising, and she started to wander back, so did he before he heard the loud honking of a horn and turned back.
He smiled in relief heading toward Ena who was looking at him with wide eyes. “Shit,” he cursed, as he reached the car and looked back, An so close to the door and KAITO.
Ena began to slam on the horn louder, harder and An was determined in her strides. Akito felt sluggish as he moved towards her, so did Akiyama, but eventually he wrapped his arms around her waist, placed his hands on her ears and led her back to car.
She blinked, confused and dazed as she looked up to him and back to the car. She raced ahead, breaking out of his hold and sitting in the front seat, leaving him the back with the staff and the cat.
#
Ena was a reckless driver, and Akito remembered why she didn’t own her own car. She would surely break the car, but that was fine he supposed, so long as they didn’t lose the book and die, they would be fine, surely.
“So, question, what’s our plan now, Akiyama?” Akito asked the cat next to him as Ena was stepping on the gas.
“Burn them.”
“So, like a little lighter?”
“No, Jesus fucking Christ, how are we related?” Ena huffed, as she looked in the side view mirror. “We need to go to somewhere with a kiln, they are too hot, it’s how pottery works. Unless you can get us into a crematorium?”
“Dad might have a lot of sway, but not that much… shit..”
“The party?”
“The party.”
“You won’t have much to worry about,” Ena mused as the drove past a bunch of teenagers walking like zombies. “So long as no one steals anything…”
An glared over at her but there was a tinge of relief in her body. “Wait, the school has kilns.”
Ena slammed on and pulled the car in reverse and headed back to the school. Akito was going to be sick.
#
Watching Akiyama lead the witches on a chase was fun admittedly, whilst Ena clung onto the spell book and he and An walked everywhere to place their ‘children’ scent at the scene. Not that they had to because it was a school after all, but for extra measures to make sure that they were all burnt and now, they were watching the chaos.
Fire was pretty, it was like the colour of An’s eyes whilst Akiyama purred in relief.
Akito jumped back, nearly dropping the book as MEIKO’s hand slammed on the window. “Back to the car,” he instructed, and no one had to wait around whilst Akiyama was lost in thought.
Akito slipped into the back, and the girls in the front. “Thought you said they would die that way, Akiyama.”
“Shit. Fuck. They’re not actually alive tonight as in alive, they’re like spirits…”
Ena spun the car fast, and they all clung to the handles above the doors, and An paled like she was going to be sick. “Question, if KAITO touched like a car, would we live?”
“I don’t know.”
“Great. Anyway, so when do those mother fuckers die?” Ena asked easily, pressing the gas as she spotted KAITO and decided to just drive into him.
“MEIKO mentioned something about sunrise…”
“So, we have two hours to battle it out. Fun,” An mused easily and Ena laughed, winding up the windows.
“We have a car.”
#
They had the car for another hour before they ran out of fuel and were stuck in the graveyard again. The book still in hand and too tired for anything. Only Ena was awake because she was naturally nocturnal and often slept at seven in the morning.
They had gotten out only once, and that was to stop at the house and get changed and changing their scent before they were off again and now, they were waiting. Book on their lap and the moon setting, only slightly.
An had moved into the back with him whilst Ena and Mizuki chilled at the front, Ena tapping away to Kanade and Mizuki watched intensely, peering over her shoulder.
It was calm.
Too calm.
“I think sunrise will look so pretty this morning,” An mumbled sleepily, resting her head on his shoulder. “Don’t you?”
He hummed in partial agreement but said nothing more as they waited. She snuggled up to him and Ena caught them in the rear-view mirror, she smiled to herself and that was Akito’s sign of ‘a good job.’
And he closed his eyes. Ena could handle this; she had proved herself capable and they only had an hour to wait. He could take a little nap.
#
“-Uck,” he heard someone curse, as Ena reached for the stick, the car doors missing as she clung to the book, Akiyama fighting the witches.
“Ena!” he yelled, jumping over the seats, to pry to book from her as she rolled out the car, staff in hand, stabbing the witches.
An bolted awake and leant over and hit the accelerate on the car. It jolted and he clung to the arms at the top for safety because of the lack of a door. “Do you know how to drive?!”
“Does learning by watching Ena count?”
“No, not really,” Akito insisted as An drove them to the cemetery before the car gave out. They jumped out, which was really easy and headed into the place.
“Will Ena and Akiy…”
“Let’s pray they do,” An stated, running over the graves. “I’m gonna hate these places forever more. Fuck ghosts, zombies and witches are fucking terrifying.”
They looked at one another and slump on a grave. An sighed and checked her pockets before cursing. “Shit.”
“Shit?”
“I had salt, Aunt Nagi said it would make ground sacred and shit. Protect us. I don’t have it…” she sighed before shaking her head. “It’s fine. We have half an hour. It’ll take Ena some time to get here.”
“If she’s even alive.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
Akito looked at her and sighed. The hairs on the back of his neck rising before, “Boo!” Rin yelled in his ear, and he dropped the book.
He turned around, neither one of them had weapons to do anything.
“We’re dying,” An admitted, tearfully, holding him as he stomped on the book.
He sucked in a breath and held her as she cried loudly, sobbing dramatically and the book kept fluttering under his feet. This was it. It had to be it and-
“I’m going to break up with Kanade and marry you staff,” Ena vowed as she whacked Rin on the back of the head, sending her crumpled to the floor.
Akito stared at her whilst she passed him the staff. “You were the fighter.” She raced towards them and threw around a little salt circle, Akiyama jumping in to join them.
“Now, we wait.”
“Where are the other two?”
“Chasing me, then I lost them, then I gave up some random kid.” Both of them turned to look at her and she shrugged. “My life or theirs. Besides we have two minutes to wait, what can happen?”
Nothing.
Nothing Akito realised as Rin poofed into a cloud of smoke when the sun rose, and they were all alone. An clinging onto him before she captured him in a fierce kiss.
It was mind numbing and Akito could’ve been there forever but eventually, it had to end, and they had to breathe. Whilst Ena and Akiyama laughed at them to one another. “So, lil’ bro?”
“No.”
“But-“
“No.”
“Akito…”
“…Fine.”
“Can we go to bed, and a hospital?” Ena asked, “I need to tell Airi all this.”
“You say this like dad’s going to let you live for the car.”
“I have a video!”
An laughed and snuggled into him and rolled her eyes.
All was well…
For now.