Darkness Falls

By Dyaoka

Disclaimer: I don’t own the Prince of Tennis nor do I own the title…?

Notes/Warnings: Scariness? I dunno. However you feel about this fic so far. If you’ve gotten to this chapter, it’s good enough to say that you don’t think this is very scary though…-_-;;; You peeps likes so far? :D Hopes-fully! XD!!!



SUGGESTION: BEST TO READ THIS FIC AT NIGHT! XD!!!



~°*PART TWO*°~



Inui sighed as he put his cell phone away. “The reception is horrible and Kikumaru hung up on me.”



Fuji chuckled; “If he doesn’t hear anything on the other end, he’ll hang up. It’s amazing how he can be himself at such a time…”



“He probably doesn’t even realize the danger that he’s in,” Inui said. “Tezuka doesn’t have a cell phone, neither does Echizen…What a fix…”



“Did you try to call Oishi or Momo?”



“Momo didn’t bring his with him and Oishi turned his off,” Inui said. “They’re completely susceptible to the danger here.”



“Fsssh…They say ignorance is bliss…” Kaido hissed. “Maybe they won’t meet up with those thieves…Fsssh.”



“W-well, why don’t we go look for them?” Taka suggested. “If we find them first, then we can warn them.”



“And if we meet up with those shady men?” Inui asked.



“The house is big,” Fuji commented. “What are the chances of meeting up with them? Staying in this room isn’t any safer. They know where we are, after all.”



“Fsssh…what should we do, Inui-sempai?”



Their bespectacled senior shrugged. “The chances here are completely at random now,” Inui said. “But let’s leave here quickly and then contact the authorities. They’ll be the better help right now.”



“Right,” Taka said, reaching for the door and unlocking it. He pulled it open and was met face to face with a gruesome scene. The man that had been guarding them earlier had obviously been decapitated. His head hung from the wall right in front of the door, his expression of a horrified shock. His jaw was hanging at an awkward angle, obviously haven been broken. Saliva and blood mixed as they pooled underneath it. Skin hung off of the neck of the man and the Adam’s apple was clearly seen. The body was nowhere to be seen, except for a trail of blood that lead down the opposite end of the corridor, which turned a right.



“Fsssh…! Wh-what is this…?” Kaido stuttered, turning his eyes away from the grisly scene.



Inui adverted his eyes from the hanging head and quickly walked down the hall, opposite of the bloody trail. “Let’s hurry and get away from here. Whoever did that may be back; I don’t want to be here when they do.”



The others quickly followed his exampled and scurried down the corridor, holding the flashlights and lanterns close. Never once, did they look back to see if anyone was following them.



Creak…creak…



Creak…



~*~



The two, Oishi and Momo, had been wandering around aimlessly for quite a while. They’ve moved from the first floor to the second, then to the third and back to the second and their search had still turned out fruitless; they haven’t even seen any of the other groups either.



“Ne…Oishi-sempai, you don’t think they’ve just left us here, do you?” Momo asked, looking around the empty corridor.



“I doubt it…” Oishi said. “I hope they didn’t…I’m pretty sure Tezuka and Inui wouldn’t let them…I think…”



“That is so convincing,” Momo muttered sarcastically. The violet eyed youth frowned and stopped in his tracks, his eyes glancing around the corridor and taking in everything.



“Momo…? Is something wrong?” Oishi asked.



“Oishi-sempai, you don’t notice anything wrong?” Momo asked. “It’s just this corridor…doesn’t it look like one that we’ve walked through before?”



Oishi looked around and pondered for a moment. “…You’re right…” Oishi mumbled. “It does seem rather familiar…”



“Ah…I wonder where the others are at the moment,” Momo sighed with a sigh. Just as they turned a corner, they collided with someone running at top speed. Momo fell backwards with a yelp. “That hurt, bastard!” Momo snapped.



“M-Momo…?”



“Eh? Eiji-sempai? Tezuka-buchou? Echizen? What’re you guys doing here?” Momo asked, pushing a ashen red head off of him.



“We’ll explain later; we must get out of here now,” Tezuka said hastily. “This is getting very dangerous. We leave. Now.”



“Oh…sure…” Oishi agreed, confused. “But did you find Taka and Kaido?”



“No,” Tezuka shook his head as he continued at a quick pace down the corridor, Ryoma’s arm clutched in his hand. The golden-eyed boy followed along limply, as if he was a doll. “I hope that Inui had found them.”



Ring! Ring! Ring!



Eiji yelped as his cell phone rang. “Eiji, are you alright?” Oishi asked with concern.



“Y-yeah…” The red head took out his cell phone and answered it. “H-hello…?”



It was the same as last time; nothing but static on the other end.



Fzzzzt…fzzzt…“…I see you…” Fzzzzt…



Eiji snapped his phone down, disconnecting the call. However, the shiny surface of his cell phone caught the reflection of something in the corridor.



It was an eye.



The red head sucked in a breath and screamed, throwing the phone at where the eye was behind him, but the phone hit a painting.



“Eiji!” Oishi scolded. “What’s wrong with you?”



Eiji sank to his knees, all the while breathing heavily. “O-Oishi, nya…” the red head whispered. “I-I want to go home…I want to go home…nya, I can’t stand this place!”



Tezuka looked at them, his gaze stony and unreadable. Ryoma snatched his arm back from Tezuka’s grip. “That hurts…”



Down the hall, a certain door caught the younger boy’s eye and he begun to walk towards it.

“Oi! Echizen, don’t wander around by yourself!” Momo exclaimed, following Ryoma. The dark haired boy paid no heed to the older youth and opened the door, which was, surprisingly, unlocked. It swung open with ease, causing no squeaks whatsoever. The first noticeable thing about the room was that the window in the room was not boarded up, like all the other rooms. The dark night sky was displayed through the window, like a picture within a frame. The other thing that both Ryoma and Momo noticed was a presence in the room…or what they thought to be a presence.



Someone with long, tangled hair stood there, with their back turned to them, as if looking out at the stars. She wore a pristine white nightgown that was stained heavily with blood, which pooled around dirty, rotting feet that had huge, ugly gashes and marks upon them. The figure slowly turned around, and raised a hand, revealing rotting flesh that fell to the ground with a sick ‘plop.’ A face was revealed as the figure turned completely around. Flesh had been removed from some parts of the skull, and other parts, there were flesh that remained that resembled parts of a cheek or parts of a lip.



Thump. Thump. Thump.



Momo felt his breath hitch in his throat and his heart beat accelerating.



Thump. Thump. Thump.



She reached forward for them, with white, boned fingers that were stained with red blood.



Thump. Thump. Thump…



~*~



Fuji paused in his steps from where he was at the front of the group, almost having Kaido and Taka run into him. “Inui, wait,” the blue-eyed youth said, calling to his tallest companion. Inui raised an eyebrow questioningly, but said nothing. “This way.” Without any hesitation, Fuji led them back the way they came from.



“Fuji-sempai!” Kaido called out. “Fsssh! Why are you going that way?!”



“Fujiko!” Taka called out, but followed anyway. “Wait up!”



Inui sighed and nodded to Kaido and the two went forward, catching up to the other two tennis players.



Down the hall they went, right past the gruesome scene and followed the bloody trail, which ended when they found the body. It was an even worse scene than the one in front of their door…



“The door’s been left open…” Inui observed calmly despite the scene in front of him.



“All the other doors in this house are closed; someone was here before and obviously left in a hurry,” Fuji said, pointing to the trail of footprints in blood and dust.



“Those look like…” Inui paused, running through facts in his head quickly. “Kikumaru’s shoe bottom. You can tell, since the grips on the bottom of the shoes are rubbed off quite cleanly since he rarely takes the time to put them on properly.”



“They went that way,” Fuji said, continuing to run down the hall with the others following behind him.



The hallway became darker and colder, but none of them noticed. They were so intent on finding their friends that when they turned a corner; they all collided with Oishi, who was just standing there in the corner.



“Y-you guys!” Oishi exclaimed in surprise. “G-get off! You’re heavy!”

“That’s…quite rude,” Inui panted as he heaved the rest of the people off of him. He got up from the ground and dusted himself off. The first thing he laid eyes on was a broken cell phone that had obviously belonged to one red headed Kikumaru Eiji. “Kikumaru…what happened to your cell phone?”



“I don’t want it!” he yelled hysterically. “I don’t want it anymore!” Inui sighed and muttered something about spoiled children and placed the broken cell phone into Eiji’s hands anyway.



“Eiji…are you alright?” Fuji asked, migrating over to his best friend’s side. The red head said nothing in return, but his eyes were wide and glassy with tears.



Suddenly, a short distance down the hall, a short muffled yelp came from Momo as Ryoma backed up into him. The two had their eyes trained on the opened door as if something fearful was coming towards them.



“Momoshiro! Echizen!” Tezuka barked. “Get over here!”



Neither of them seemed to hear, but continued to see something beyond the open door and into the room. Tezuka frowned and peered into the room; he saw nothing but an open window. Yet, the other two had fearful expressions on their face. Ryoma blinked and sank to his knees, falling into a light doze. Momo remained in an upright rigid position, trying to back away as far as he could from the door. Tezuka wrenched the door shut.



“Momoshiro!” Tezuka reprimanded. “Don’t go around opening doors!”



The violet-eyed youth looked slowly at his captain, his face having gone pale. “S-sorry…” He looked to the ground and then back up at the bespectacled youth. “Did you…see anything…?”



“No,” Tezuka answered. “Everyone is here; we leave this place now.”



“Right!” everyone echoed, sans Eiji and Ryoma, who were unresponsive to the world. “Let’s go!”



With a resigned expression, Tezuka picked up the unconscious Ryoma and Oishi picked Eiji up; piggyback style. The red head didn’t say anything at all; he didn’t complain nor did he give a hoot of happiness, something he would have done if someone offered him a piggyback ride. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Oishi’s neck and buried his face in the other youth’s back, closing his eyes as he did so.



Down the hall they ran, then down the stairs. They made a left down a corridor and arrived at the huge entrance of the house. They were just about to reach for the front door when the sound of a gunshot went off. The group turned around to face a man dressed head to toe in black.



“Them again…Fsssh…” Kaido hissed.



Drip. Drip.



“Oho…naughty little boys never get any rewards, you know,” the man said with a sneer. “Don’t move or I’ll shoot.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at Fuji, Inui, Taka, and Kaido. “How did you four get out of the room? I thought Yukio was suppose to guard it…Psh. He was always piss-poor at stuff like that. Whatever. Now, step away from the door. Don’t do anything suspicious either.”



Drip. Drip.



Eiji looked up from the back of Oishi to observe what was going on. All he saw was darkness…but a small light caught the corner of his eyes. He risked a tiny look back there and saw crack in the darkness, where an eye was peering at him. He stiffened immediately, but then the image of an eye shifted to one of lips. Half rotting, half grey lips and dirty whites of teeth moved, mouthing something. Eiji found he could not tear his eyes away.



‘Phone.’



Glancing briefly to the phone he held in his hands, he discreetly moved so he had the cell phone opened and he pressed his ear to it.



Fzzzt. Fzzzt.



“…bleed them…”



Drip. Drip.



From where Ryoma was held in Tezuka’s arms, he cracked open a golden orb to observe the scene about him. They were being threatened by a unknown man, everyone was looking at him as he talked, and Eiji was on his cell phone…



Quite strange…especially in a situation like this…



Drip. Drip.



Ryoma gasped loudly, trying to free himself from Tezuka’s grip. Tezuka dropped him in surprise and Ryoma landed on his elbow with a sickening ‘crack.’ However, his eyes were trained to the ceiling and nothing the others were saying caught his attention. He grabbed the nearest light source, which was the flashlight that Fuji held, and pointed it to the ceiling.



Drip. Drip…



Three bodies hung from the roof of the entrance, blood flowing from them in a steady stream of dripping blood. The man with the gun gasped, recognizing his fallen companions, even though they’ve been mutilated beyond recognition. Blood continued to dripp down from the corpses, making faint dripping noises that sound quite flat on the wooden floor. Ryoma was distinctly aware of some people’s gasps and sound of some emptying their stomachs at the sight. The fact that one of the man’s lips was still moving had captured Ryoma’s attention. A part of his throat had been tore out and the blood dribbled from the wound, yet the man continued to try.



“Wh-what happened to you guys?!” the man with the gun yelled, his arm trembling. The more levelheaded of them, Tezuka, took the opportunity to disarm him. Kicking the gun far out of reach from the man, he grabbed the immobile Ryoma around the waist and dashed for the door with the rest of the regulars behind him.



“Let’s go! I can walk!” Ryoma yelled, trying to free himself from Tezuka’s iron grip.



However, the door wouldn’t budge.



“Shit! Don’t tell me it’s locked!” Momo cursed. “Who the hell did that?! Locking doors isn’t a good thing!”



The disarmed robber sneered; “I did that of course. You’re not getting away…”



“There’s someone else here and they’re trying to kill us! All of us! What sort of idiot are you?!” Fuji snapped as Momo tried to pull the doors opened. It wouldn’t budge, even when he turned the knob to unlock it. “Look at your companions!”



The man was undaunted, though he was pale. “What about them?” he asked in a cold voice. “If they’re dead, they’re dead. Not much you can do about that.”



Bang! The sound of a gunshot went off near the foot of the stairs. All their attentions were directed there and they saw the remaining robber, standing there with an old pistol in his hand. “Heh. Whaddya know. This old thing still works,” he said in his absurdly high-pitched voice.



“About time someone got here!” The other robber snapped at his companion. “Hey, where’d you get that pistol?”



“Dunno. Found it in one of the rooms when I ran out of ammunition,” the other said. “There was some weird thing following me.”



Tezuka suddenly became more alert than ever, after the last statement the robber said. There was no other person besides them, the tennis regulars, and the robbers…It could only be that…thing…creeping around upstairs.



“Must’ve been one of the kids.”



Meanwhile, Eiji had just slid off of Oishi’s back and was moving quietly towards the gun, which had been kicked to a corner of the room by Tezuka. He was almost there when he hit a creaky floorboard, drawing the robbers’ attention to him.



Creak…



“Oho…Look at that,” the armed robber sneered. “A little thief is trying to take your gun.”



Creak…creak…



Eiji backed up, trying to get away from the pistol that was pointed at him. “Not towards that gun,” he stated. “Come towards me and I won’t shoot you.”



Suddenly, all the lanterns and flashlights in the room went out, driving the room into darkness.



Creak…creak…



Bang! A shot rang out in the room.



Creak. Creak.



Silence fell upon the room, making every tiny creak, breath, and heartbeat much louder.



Creak. Creak.



Then, there were no more creaks. Everyone was left with an uneasy feeling, knowing that whatever it was with the creaky footsteps had arrived at its destination. They did not know whether or not to take that as a good sign or not.



Ryoma frowned, noticing the absence of the dripping noise of blood. However, there was a sudden yelp and strangled scream and coughing.



Bang! The pistol went off yet again, this time hitting something made of glass and shattering it. There was a horrible sound of bones being cracked and dislocated; and every time a scream accompanied it.



“S-stop it! I-I give! I-I…!” the high-pitched voice of the robber begged. Then, all went silent. No more screams, no more talking, no more broken bones. It all became silent.



The lights came back on.



Where the man once stood was a beating heart, spewing blood out as it beat once, twice, thrice…



Creak…



The occupants of the room looked up to see the door at the far end of the room, leading to the pantry, was opened. A trail of blood was left behind as they watched a pair of legs gets dragged behind the door. Slowly, the door closed with a small ‘click.’



The heart stopped beating and it fell silent.



“Wh-what was that?” Taka asked, breaking the silence.



“It was following us…from the moment we walked into the house…” Ryoma said, remembering the silhouette in the window when he was outside. “It saw us…it saw us…”



“Echizen! Stop talking! You’ve got a fever so be quiet! You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Momo exclaimed hysterically, not quite believing what he had just heard and saw.



“Tezuka! How can you not tell us about this?!” Oishi exclaimed, his eyes darting around the room. The other robber had sank to his knees and seemed to be in a daze whilst still staring at the spot his partner had been at. Eiji was just staring at the heart several feet away from him, his deep blue eyes just seemingly entranced with the red lump of muscle. “Eiji! Get over here!” The red head only looked up at his doubles partner, the other half of the golden pair. His eyes were wide with fear.



“H-h-holy shit!” the robber suddenly exclaimed, clambering to his feet and then running back upstairs, fleeing for all it was worth. Tezuka didn’t even bother to yell at the man and tell him that he would never see the light of day again.



“Eiji, come here quickly!” Fuji suddenly exclaimed.



“H-huh…?”



Behind the red head, was a boarded up window. Well, partially boarded would be the correct term. Nevertheless, throughout the cracks and gaps of the wood, was a shadow of a figure. The moment Eiji had turned around to see the overlooking shadow, the person had gone and dashed towards the door.



Knock! Knock!



Furious knocking and banging resounded on the front door, as if trying to blow the doors off its hinges. Eiji whimpered and rejoined his companions. They did not head upstairs like the robber did, but stayed downstairs with a wary eye on the front door and all the side entrances. Whatever was in the house was still inside…or maybe it was outside trying to get in.



“It’s…someone else,” Ryoma said suddenly. “It’s not her.”



Indeed, as Ryoma said, shouting was heard soon after. “Hey! Is anyone in there?! We’ll be busting the door down!”



“Y-yes! Hurry!” Momo called out, getting over his stage of shock. “Hurry!”



A while later, the front door had given way. With a loud shriek, it fell to the ground with a heavy thud, blowing dust in all directions. Never before had the Seigaku Regulars ever been that happy to see the night sky and police. “Are you alright?” an officer asked, stepping into the house.



Tezuka looked at his frightened and speechless companions and answered for them. “Yes…yes. We…are alright.”



--Finir



W00t! W00t! W00t!!! My first real ‘horror’ story! It had been difficult, but fun…stayed tuned…for the…



EPILOGUE



DUN. DUN. DUN…