[1] HOUSE OF CROWS | Haikyuu!! (Murder of Crows) ✓

HOUSE OF CROWS | 07

"What happened here?" You said, glancing sharply at Akaashi when he muttered softly, words you couldn't hear. He seemed dazed, his eyes unmoving from the crow lying dead at his feet. The window, now partially-shattered, was broken into dozens of tiny fissures, running through the glass like veins. A silent breeze passed through, stirring the hair around your face. "Akaashi? You okay?" His lips parted, but no noise came out, and you gently touched his shoulder. He turned, startled, unfocused eyes on you. Then recognition alighted on his face.

"S-sorry. I... got distracted. Where are the others?"

"I don't know," you said, trying not to look at the crow again, laying in a puddle of dark blood. Had one of the others killed it? "Maybe they already went on ahead," you suggested weakly.

Akaashi looked across at you with a pinched expression. "So... why the dead crow?"

You shot him a dry, humourless smile. "I was trying not to focus on that part," you muttered, cocking your head towards the door. "I guess we'd better go and look for them, before they get themselves into any more trouble."

Akaashi nodded, trailing you out of the room with a final glance at the dead crow.

The room was dark when you went across the hall. The window had been boarded up with planks of scrap wood, most of which had rotted and left behind a dreadful smell. Akaashi swung the flashlight left-to-right, but there was no evidence of disturbance here. Just more disarray.

"Do you think they went upstairs?" Akaashi asked as you found yourself back in the hallway, the staircase climbing up into darkness. He shone the light up the steep incline, but the stairs twisted away at the top, and you could see nothing but a wall, the blue wallpaper faded to grey.

"Wouldn't we hear them? It's a small house, and it's old. Surely we would hear floorboards creaking or... or something." There was something mildly disconcerting about the silence. It was out of place. So was the dead crow, and the boys' sudden disappearance. Nothing was adding up. 

As if on cue, wood creaked somewhere above you, and clods of dust showered down into your hair and face. Some caught the back of your throat, and you stifled a cough. Akaashi seemed unconcerned about the cobwebs in his hair. "Guess you were right after all," you muttered as you glanced back at him. "Wait - what was that?" In the hasty look you'd thrown over your shoulder, you thought you'd seen someone walk across the window in the next room; a shadow, just for a moment, that had cut off the moonlight. You were sure of it. "There's someone outside."

Alarm flashing on his face, Akaashi poked his head around the doorway and shone his light at the broken window. There was nothing but the stunted, twisted trees that grew a short distance from the house, and pale moonlight dripping through them. Another creak above your head made the two of you glance up.

"There's someone upstairs as well," Akaashi whispered, retreating from the doorway and taking a step closer to you. "Do you think it's the others? Did they split up?"

"But why would they go outside?" You responded, your glance flickering between the window and the staircase. "Unless they're playing a trick on us."

Akaashi narrowed his eyes. "I don't think so," he said simply. "Should we split up?"

You raised your eyebrows at him. "You really think that's a good idea?"

He gave you a small smile. "I thought you didn't believe in ghosts."

"I don't," you said defensively, remembering the twitch of curtain, the frosted breath on the window upstairs. "But I think there might be someone here. I saw something in the window, when Kuroo and I were looking outside."