gho(st)²ories (yan/obsessive chrollo x reader)

Act 1, Chapter 8

You had heard of Ouija boards, although your belief in ghosts was rather limited.

You never believed in any, so a Ouija board was nothing more than a toy that only made you overreact.

Only the board was in the box, so the cuff was missing.

But where was she?

You weren't surprised why your great-aunt owned something like that, it didn't necessarily have to be hers.

There were people before her who used to live in this house and Ouija boards had been doing the rounds for well over a century, so there was a good chance it belonged to a previous owner of the house.

You set the box aside and placed the Ouija board on top of the pictures you fished out of it so they wouldn't fly away while you were moving.

You caught a crate standing tight against a back wall, its noble and old design made it stand out from the paper and cardboard crates that were otherwise here.

You were curious, distracted from your original goal of finding the cuff, so you pulled it out so you could open it.

The box was quite heavy, you had to really pull it out despite its medium size.

You picked up the lid, it also definitely weighed something and you had to use both hands to pry it open.

The inside of the box was lined with dark purple velvet and when you ran your fingers over it it felt like you were caressing clouds, a 'wow' escaping you.

Despite the long time the box must have been sitting here, the velvet was still incredibly soft, it must have been incredibly high quality, and probably cost a small fortune with the box that encased it.

When you finished admiring the box, you took a closer look at its contents, even as your fingertips kept yearning for the delicate fabric.

At the top were blue beaded earrings, a book with a handshake on it, and a scrap of blue fabric.

A scarf maybe?  Or a forehead?

You put it aside along with the book and the earrings and took out the cloak.

It had been carefully folded and placed in the box, you were almost sorry to take it out but you were curious.

You grabbed him by both shoulder corners and lifted him as high as your arms would allow before pulling him a little more towards you.

Something had been folded between the cloak which now fell out and onto the floor.

It was the cuff of the Ouija board, but you only gave it a cursory glance.

The cloak was a dark purple, the fabric was even so deep purple that in a different light it appeared black.

A large amount of white fur was attached around the collar, and the fur also adorned the cloak at the opening for the hands on the sleeves.

Gold buttons went along the outside of the cloak and when you turned the cloak around you saw a golden Peter's Cross, the inside of the cloak was made of red fabric.

It was a... extravagant coat but not ugly by any means, just not your taste.

In the box was a pair of pants and a top that matched, they were black and greyish and decorated with white fabric.

There was also a suit in the box, but this was completely normal, almost boring compared to the other clothes.

You folded everything back up and put it back in the box, the earrings, the book and the blue fabric also found their way into the box you found them in.

Only the cuff didn't land back where you found it

When you had closed the box again, you let it stand where you had laboriously pulled it before and stood up with the cuff in your hand.

You just put them on the Ouija board which you put face up back in the 'photo' box otherwise you didn't know what to do with it.

You had just grabbed the photos of your great-aunt's wedding when suddenly there was a loud bang and the house felt like it shook under the force.

You jumped violently and almost let go of the images in shock.

Breathing heavily, you placed your hand on your chest to steady your racing heart and looked through the opening afforded by the attic's open hatch down to the upstairs hallway.

Your room door was slammed, a gust of wind must have slammed it shut and not exactly gently.

You needed a moment to recover from your shock before you made your way down.

With both hands clinging to the stairs you went down them carefully.

With solid ground under your feet you made your way to your bedroom to close the window again.

When your eyes met the window, you paused for a moment.

You had almost forgotten that last night you had spun a rubber band around the handles of the window so that it wouldn't simply swing open anymore, said rubber band now lay in several small pieces on the floor in front of the window.

You approached the window and closed it before kneeling on the floor and picking up the pieces of rubber band to get a better look at it.

'Weird..' you thought.

Of course the rubber band could have ripped, after all you had twisted it around the handles on both sides of the window as many times as you could without tearing.

A strong gust of wind could have stretched the rubber, which would have resulted in the rubber band tearing.

But it wasn't just torn in one place, it had fallen into several pieces.

If it had snapped there would only be one breakage but with the many pieces in your hand it looked more like someone had cut the ribbon as it was wrapped around the handles with scissors or out of spite of its current state  torn.

With a furrowed eyebrow, you tossed the broken rubber band into the bathroom trash can, all thirteen pieces ending up there.

You looked at your watch with a sigh, it was already evening and dark outside.

You put the pictures on the side table next to the armchair in your room and then went downstairs to have dinner.