Souls In Hiding

House of Nightmares

"It's not much, but it's something." Shuichi's lips tugged themselves into a smile as the other three spewed with adoration for their new home, the new cabin in the woods. The other three excitedly raced through the rotting, rickety door to only be met with a minute of pure dejection. Furniture was all over the ground along with previous contents of shelves, holes littered the roof and walls and the floorboards - along with some wooden furniture - had rotted away.

The vampire erupted with a constant stream of 'I'm sorry' and 'I'll clean up everything'. He gently squeezed past Kokichi to start cleaning and yelped as he stepped on a rotten floorboard. Rantaro instinctively pulled him to safety before he could fall into the muddy foundation.

"We'll help! One person can't do this alone and besides, we all have different abilities that could be useful!" Kaede grinned and jumped towards the broken board to initiate the remodelling. Latin effortlessly spouted off her tongue as she seemed to glimmer in the light, her friends stared with their mouths agape at the beautiful magic show. Kaede smiled at the boys and bent down, ripping up a floorboard with ease and laughing at the shocked looks she received. "You think a strength spell is cool? Well, watch this!" She chanted another spell, a flurry of white and pink sparkles brought new planks of wood, stone roofing and thick black fabric just behind them on the soft, green grass.

With Shuichi's help, both of them used their strength abilities to move heavy furniture and rip out the old, rotting floorboards and supporting beams (with great care for safety) with the occasional muddy splat from Shuichi. The two also cleared the floor of small rocks and rubble that was unsalvageable, creating a small pile outside to recycle anything that might be useful in the future. 

Rantaro was in charge of removing the plants that had taken refuge in the cabin. He willed all of the overgrown plants outside and carefully removed any plants that had rooted themselves in the home and collected them to replant them outside near the stream. He couldn't hurt an innocent living thing, especially plants as they were seen to the fairy as his kin. Rantaro created a matrix using the surrounding tree branches to help Kokichi build the roof along with adding a bit of decoration to the walls, giving the monochrome stone walls a little bit of spice.

Kokichi cleaned what he could on the roof and places where the other couldn't reach, whizzing around above their heads and lugging stones and hay to patch up the roof and walls. Once everybody had finished their jobs they took the black fabric Kaede conjured up and created simple, thick bedsheets and curtains from them. Kokichi and Rantaro both cleaned the dust from the four bunk sets (sixteen beds total) whilst Shuichi and Kaede made the curtains, keeping the dusty, glass windows covered for Shuichi's sake.

The vampire yawned and stumbled on his own two feet, being caught by Kaede as she giggled at the boy in her arms. "Why don't you take a nap?"

"Come to think of it, aren't vampires usually nocturnal?" Kokichi piped up.

Shuichi groaned and rolled his eyes into the back of his head. "We aren't owls. Most vampires just go outside at night because it's easier to run away and hide if we're caught." Kaede and Rantaro couldn't help the chuckles at the boy's rant. "Hey! Don't laugh at me!" Shuichi pouted, causing more laughter from the other three at the contrastingly soft vampire unknowingly cuddling into Kaede's arms as she still hadn't let him go.

"Let's go to sleep then." Kokichi's laugh suddenly shifted to a frown as he snatched Shuichi from Kaede's arms and led the now half-asleep vampire into one of the beds on the ground level. He glared at the witch before flying into the bed above Shuichi and angrily flopping into it, facing the wall. Kaede and Shuichi shared a confused glance as Rantaro climbed into the bed next to Kokichi, Kaede eventually followed and slipped into the bed on the other side of the boys. She silently wept as she glared a hole into the wall, the realisation that she was an outsider yet again hit her like a brick.

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Bodies stirred from the screaming filling the walls, the boy tangled himself in the bedsheet and dropped to the ground with a painful thud. Rantaro jumped out of bed and knelt next to Kokichi to envelop him in a hug, soothing the phantom by running his fingers through his hair. "Rantaro i-it happened again I-" 

"Shh, it's okay Ko-Ko. It's over now." The phantom leant into Rantaro's touch as hiccups and broken sobs forced their way from his throat. 

"Kokichi what happened?!" Shuichi's face was wrought with concern as he tried to approach the boy only to be met with Rantaro shaking his head, mouthing the words: 'don't overwhelm him.' However, Kokichi looked up and reached out for Shuichi. The vampire grabbed his hand and held on tightly as Kokichi pulled himself up to hold Shuichi tighter than a boa killing its prey.

"Rantaro... can you..." Kokichi mumbled into Shuichi's shirt.

"Of course." He smiled, carefully covering Kokichi's ears before turning to Shuichi and Kaede - who was sitting on her bed too afraid to approach the hysterical boy - and started to explain. "Ever since I've known him Kokichi's had a series of nightmares where he gets crushed under different things, usually it seems to be a building." 

Shuichi's shirt was damp with tears but he didn't mind, he just held the purplette closer in the embrace as he tried not to cry too. He felt horrible, he wanted to find a way to ensure Kokichi would never have those dreams again but, unfortunately, such a thing was impossible as far as the vampire's knowledge went.

"Don't worry Kokichi I have a fear of being hanged, sometimes I get dreams about it too!" She held her fists in the air, her smile radiating caring energy that wasn't well-received by the boys but none of them would show it, instead they smiled at her.

Kokichi wiped his eyes as he hesitantly pulled himself from Shuichi's arms, shuffling over to the ladder to climb back into his bed as he held the blanket close to his chest. Rantaro and Shuichi shared a quick hug of appreciation before climbing back into their respective beds too, the four criminals went to sleep yet again for the night. The owls outside lulled them all to sleep as Shuichi's brain ran thoughts through his head as he fell into unconsciousness.

He wanted to hold Kokichi again, the aroma of grapes and roses wafting from the purplette during the hug surprisingly calmed the vampire. He wanted nothing more than to take the burden of Kokichi's troubles and place them on his own shoulders. Shuichi's eyes closed and a smile grew on his face as he fell asleep to thoughts about the phantom.