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It all started when Kohane mentioned that her parents were going to be away for the weekend.
An paused cleaning the dishes. “All alone for two days? Are you sure you’ll be alright?”
“I should be fine, although this is my first time staying home all night without my family,” Kohane answered.
“You’re not scared of ghosts or anything like that?”
“If you’re worried about Azusawa, why don’t you keep her company?” Toya, who happened to be sitting at the counter with a cup of coffee, suggested.
“Good idea Toya! Then that’s settled, let’s have Vivid BAD SQUAD sleepover at Kohane’s house–!” She hurriedly turned to Kohane. “If that’s okay with you of course.”
“I think it’s a fun idea, I’ll have to talk to my dad first.” Kohane answered.
“All of Vivid BAD SQUAD…? Seriously, how did I get dragged into this?” Akito, who was also there, mumbled.
And that was how the An, Toya and Akito all ended up on Kohane’s front door. An rang the doorbell and Kohane answered.
“Sorry if it’s a bit messy,” Kohane said as she led her teammates into her house. The inside of the building wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t incredibly clean but it was messy in a way that felt like familiarity and home.
“Aww, is this you?” An, who had already gotten familiar with the house, awed at a picture hanging on the wall. A younger, more round-faced Kohane was in it and beside her stood an older man who must have been her dad. “And that must be Count Pearl?” At the bottom of their feet lay a plastic container with a snake inside.
“Yep! This photo was taken the day we got her,” Kohane replied, and then turned to Akito and Toya. “You two can set your stuff in the living room, I already laid down the mattresses and blankets.”
“Thanks.”
“Thanks Azusawa.”
Kohane returned her attention to An. “You’ll be sleeping in my room, follow me.”
An followed her partner to the bedroom. It was spacious and clean.
“Your room is adorable Kohane!” Once again, An gushed.
“Thanks An,” Kohane said, feeling a bit flustered.
The ombre haired girl set her stuff down, which wasn’t much as it only contained a set of pyjamas and bathroom items. After having settled down, the four of them regrouped.
The rest of the day went fairly normal. They baked cookies and other kinds of snacks, which ended up with Toya being banned from the kitchen and a container of frozen mice falling onto Akito when he opened the fridge. Count Pearl became a temporary idol as Kohane introduced her to her friends. They planned for their next event which led to An and Akito bickering about something completely unrelated. Toya then picked a horror movie, something about a group of friends exploring a haunted house, in which An totally didn’t scream while watching. After that, they all got ready and went to bed.
“An, are you sure you’re okay?” Kohane asked.
“I’m fine, I don’t even remember what the story was about.” It wasn’t a complete lie, An kept her eyes closed for most of the movie after only 15 minutes of watching. The only knowledge of the movie she had came from the gasps and commentaries her friends were making. Stuff like: “Wouldn’t it be more logical to travel in a group?” and “Stop standing there and run!” Other than that, all An knew was that the main characters all died in the end.
An collapsed onto Kohane’s bed immediately after changing. “Your bed is so comfy~” The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was Kohane giggling quietly and putting a blanket over her.
Ssssss
Her eye twitched.
Sssssssssss
She shifted onto her back.
Ssssssssssssss
Something touched her left arm.
Silence
Unconsciously, she rubbed the arm that was just touched. And then she jolted awake. She was sleeping in the same bed as Kohane so sudden contact shouldn’t have alarmed her if not for the fact that she was sleeping on the left side of the bed and her arm was hanging on the edge. The only reason she didn’t scream was because Kohane was still asleep. Despite her efforts to not wake up the other girl, Kohane’s eyes blinked open.
“What is it An…?”
“Ah it’s nothing…Just thought something touched my arm that’s all.” Truth was, An was deathly afraid, but she wouldn’t go as far to disrupt someone’s sleep.
Kohane hummed in response and she blinked tiredly as if about to fall asleep, but then said, “I think I know what happened.”
She got out of bed, turned on the bedroom lights and walked out with no further indication of what happened. An just sat on the bed as she waited for Kohane to come back. After a few minutes, she returned.
“Count Pearl escaped,” Kohane said as stood at the doorway.
“Huh–the snake?”
Kohane nodded, hand rubbing her eye. “You can stay here, I’ll go look for her.” She unplugged her phone from the wall and then she disappeared into the darkness of the hallway to look for the runaway snake.
“Ah okay…”
The light was still on (not that An minded) so it was now just An in Kohane’s brightly lit bedroom by herself. She fell back onto the bed and tried to fall asleep again. But terrifying images that flashed through her head prevented her from doing so. She could just imagine it, a see-through figure following Kohane through the dark hallways, the poor girl unable to defend herself with the effects of sleep still wearing down on her. How long has it been? An hour? It was possible it’s only been 5 minutes but it was difficult to tell in this situation. Outside, lightning struck with thunder following as if it was a sign for An to make sure Kohane was okay.
An gingerly got up from the bed, orange eyes focused on the pitch black rectangle that made up the doorway to the hallway. She swore there were eyes returning her stare, but she had to be brave, for Kohane. She approached the hallway and cautiously felt the wall with her hand to find the lightswitch. After some feeling around, her hand found the lightswitch. So far so good, she was still alive, now she just needs to switch it on-
“AHHHHH!” Her hand jumped back to her side as the cold skin of somebody’s else’s hand touched her own. They were so cold she swore it belonged to a dead person.
The ghost, or the zombie? Anyways, they let out a short yell in response to her high pitched screaming.
The lights flickered on and for some reason An screamed again, perhaps it was the shock of realising that it wasn’t a dead person but her teammate, Toya.
“Toya?”
“Shiraishi?”
“Geez, I didn't think a human was capable of making that sound,” Akito said, coming from behind Toya. An didn’t know he was also here. Both of them were holding their ears with their hands.
“Ack, sorry…” An also didn’t think a human was capable of making that sound. “But what are you two doing awake?”
“We heard some strange noise and wondered where it was coming from,” Toya answered. “Also Akito still hasn’t recovered from the movie from earlier.”
“Shush, you didn’t have to mention that…” Outside, the storm continued to rage on.
“What about you Shiraishi?” Toya ignored him.
“Apparently Count Pearl escaped.”
“The snake? You’re telling me Count Pearl was just wandering the house while we slept?” Akito said.
“Yeah, so Kohane said she was going to search for her.” A worried look then overcame An’s face. “But it’s been a while and she still hasn’t come back.”
“Wouldn’t Azusawa have heard all the noise by now?” Toya said as he put a hand to his chin.
Chills went down An’s spine. “You don’t think-?” But she never got to finish her sentence as lightning struck once again. The window flashed white as the sky erupted into thunder. At the same time, all the lights turned off.
It was difficult whose scream was whose and whose hurried footsteps belonged to who. They all somehow ended up on Kohane's bed. None of them dared to put a foot on the ground in fear of a hand reaching out from under the bed and grabbing their ankles. With a snake on the loose, Kohane missing, a storm raging on, a power outage, and having just watched a horror movie; it was difficult to think rationally.
“Something touched me!” An screamed.
“Oi! Don’t push me off!” Came Akito’s gruff voice.
“Sorry Shiraishi, that was me,” Toya said. He had gotten too close to An during the chaos.
After some rearranging and calming down, the remaining three managed to sit comfortably on the bed.
“...Now what.” Akito asked.
“W-we still need to look for Kohane, we can’t just sit here!” An replied.
“How are you going to find Kohane in that condition? You’re shaking all over.” Despite the blunt words, concern laced his tone.
“He’s right. You can stay here while me and Akito search for Azusawa,” Toya suggested.
An grabbed his sleeve. “No, she’s my partner…I said I would always protect her.” Toya couldn’t see his teammate’s face but felt the determination wavering off of her.
“Okay.” He nodded back, even though he knew An couldn’t see him. Thunder rumbled.
“This feels more intense than it should be…” Akito commented.
Toya suggested a system so that they would not lose each other in the darkness of the house; and that was to hold each other’s hands. As one with the most knowledge with the thriller genre, he knew that the last thing they’d want to do was to be separated from each other…and it also provided some comfort. Toya led the way, with An in the middle and Akito at the back. The three of them tiptoed into the living room.
“Kohane…” He whispered. No response. He didn’t dare to raise his voice any louder.
He continued to feel his way around the room; feeling the smooth surface of the kitchen counter to navigate. He yelped as he accidentally knocked a remote control off the counter and onto the hard floor.
THUD!
An screamed and let go of Toya’s hand to latch onto Akito, who surprisingly squeezed her back as he was also caught off guard by the loud sound.
“Sorry, that was my fault. I knocked an object off the counter.” Toya winced.
An tugged at his shirt.
“What’s wrong Shiraishi?”
“What do you mean Toya?” An replied.
That’s when he realised that An’s voice was coming from a completely different direction than the hand that was tugging at his shirt. His heart stopped as lightning flashed outside and painted the room white. There was just enough light for Toya to see that the hand was too small and too smooth to be Akito’s or An’s.
Now, Toya wasn’t athletic by any means, but when the lights turned on and was suddenly face to face with a snake; he jumped.
An screamed, Akito yelled his name, Count Pearl hissed, and Toya fell to the floor.
“K-Kohane?” Toya heard An said and looked up from his place on the ground.
It was indeed Kohane, with the missing snake around her shoulders.
“KOHANE YOU’RE OKAY!” With tears in her eyes, An ran to hug her friend before quickly backing away after noticing the snake wrapped around her.
“An…are you alright?” Kohane worriedly asked after noticing the other’s teary face.
Meanwhile, Akito walked to Toya and helped him up.
“Dude, are you good?” Akito steadied Toya as he slightly wavered.
“Yeah…just surprised…that’s all…” Toya said, a hand placed on his still beating chest.
After some needed calming down and putting Count Pearl back in her tank, the four of them sat down in Akito and Toya’s makeshift sleeping area.
Hugging a pillow, Kohane asked, “What were you guys doing in the living room?”
“We were looking for you after you disappeared!” An explained. “We thought a ghost got you!”
“Who’s we?” Akito asked.
“Huh? Oh…” Embarrassed, Kohane started to rub the back of her neck. “Actually, I fell asleep while looking for Count Pearl.”
“Fell asleep where?”
“In my dad’s room.”
“Wait, but how did you find Count Pearl then?” Toya asked.
“Well, I woke up a bit later and continued searching using my phone’s flashlight.”
Ah. That was smart.
“Why didn’t you think of that?” Akito turned to An.
“Huh? Why didn’t you think of that?”
“Well my phone wasn’t in the room-”
“Shush guys.” Toya placed a finger to his mouth and then pointed to Kohane.
Still hugging the pillow, Kohane was now curled up and asleep on top of the blankets.
“She sure fell asleep fast,” Akito remarked.
“Even in her sleep, she’s like a hamster.” An playfully poked Kohane’s cheek before starting to yawn. “I’m starting to feel tired too…”
“You’re not going to go back to Kohane’s room?” Akito asked.
“Nah, Kohane is already asleep here so why bother moving?” An mumbled, her eyelids already drooping
“There’s a lot of blankets and pillows to go around, if we do some shuffling, there should be enough room for everyone to sleep,” Toya said.
They rearranged themselves until they were all comfortable and Toya went to turn the lights off. The intense sound of rain fell into a quiet murmur outside, a sign that the storm was calming down. With the comfort of knowing Count Pearl was in her tank and that their friend was safe, it was easy for them all to fall asleep.