Fable (on hiatsu)

19. Intrusion

The moon splashed brilliant shades of white across the school yard. We moved like shadows that somehow managed to stumble on every rock, plant and bucket. In other words; we made a racquet that would raise the dead. And more.

It was surprisingly quiet for Hallowe'en night. The kind that precedes a storm.

We tried to make our way to the back door without anyone noticing, but I'm pretty sure we were being tailed by seven curious ghosts, two harpies and an army of zombies. I glared at my friends.

"There has got to be a limit to how much noise you two make!" I hissed at them, my voice barely higher than a whisper.

"But, Craft... This place is really, really creepy at night," Toby whined. His bright blue eyes watched every dark corner with apprehension. He was scaring himself shitless for absolutely no good reason. Its not as if anything was hiding there.

I did absolutely nothing to calm him down an simply sped up the pace.

Jo, who was apparently trying his best at self control (and had been succeeding up till then), suddenly broke into a terrified run to the doors. Though the school was probably much scarier inside, it was our only destination. Jo's action made Toby lose control and the two ran for their lives like two scared chicken.

All the while, I walked calmly on. Well, it seems like increasing the pace made them think I was scared (I wasn't, this was one of many nocturnal trips I've done to the school). Well, that was a mistake.

I caught up and somewhat savoured their petrified expressions. Toby's shaking hand held the back door's key.

I don't even want to guess how he got it. Some things are best left unsaid and unthought.

Our prankster then passed the Mighty Key to Jo, who had far more stable hands (though his expression mirrored Toby's). He opened the door with a sque-aak that made them shudder and we all piled in. We slammed the door shut, for good measure. My companions then had the amazing idea to check out their surroundings.

The dark corridor stared bleakly back at us. It's gaping maw waiting for the prey (us, who else?) who would succumb to the fear it installed in us. The walls that were usually a pasty light yellow now looked as if they were liquid, glistening wetly. The checkered floor, black and white, and shiny as if it had been newly waxed looked slippery. Our imaginations stretched like wild beasts. Further along the hall, in the shadows, was that dark spot a patch of wet blood. Were we going to be eaten by some nameless monster?

The ghosts of laughter drifted to us, and I snapped back to reality. I lifted a finger and said a single word.

"Hi" (pronounced 'he') A bright gold light flared at my fingertip. I felt more than saw my friends jump. Glowing in front of me was the character ' 火 ', meaning fire, light. Teeny tendrils of the golden light left my finger and danced softly on intangible winds.

"That is some damn cool magic, Craft!" Jo whistled. HIs burgundy eyes were light up eerily by the light.

"It's not magic," I said pointedly, "It's my spirit energy. Issa-san calls it wisplight, because it gives off this kind of... will o' wisp look? Something like that, anyway."

"Do you think I could learn to do the same thing?" Toby asked, eagerly. I thought for a moment, evaluating.

"Probably. But it's gonna take a lot of practice." I started walking. "Now, come on. We only have five hours to get this over with." They groaned.

"It's gonna be morning in five hours," Jo complained, bending his head with weariness.

"So?" I'm pretty proud of saying I can do several all nighters with next to no side effects on my body (there are mental scars though, from the times I've done that).

"WE HAVE SCHOOL TOMORROW."

"Well, we won't be late. Since we're already here."

I opened a classroom door at random and looked around. No one in sight. As I was closing it I spotted a fae walking along the window sill. I stopped what I was doing and walked inside, instead. I tapped on the glass, drawing it's attention. The tiny spirit simply fluttered it's four wings while giving me a dejected look.

"What do you want?" It's tiny voice tinkled through the window. I smiled politely.

"Can you give us some directions, Fae-san? We're looking for a time-bound Spirit here." It stopped it's wings.

"Why? Are you looking for one of the Allhallows Beings? There are way too many for me to know where one of them is, ya know." It buzzed irately.

"Nonono! We're looking for a Spirit that only appears here on the last day of each month." I corrected it.

"Oh. So you're looking for Her, huh." It looked disgusted. "Good luck with that. She only makes herself visible on the last day of the month. She hates talking to people and that's usually the only day she manages to get in a happy enough mood to support it. Some moron annoyed her when she was like that, last time, so she snatched him. Apparently she's still deciding what to do about him."

"Thank you, that's a lot more stuff than we knew before, but... Do you have any ideas where she could be right now?"

"Some. Word is that she'll be participating in the ball downstairs, in the gym. Before you ask, yes she's taking the boy." It fluttered its many wings, tiny pointed face set into a frown. "Is that all?"

"Yes, thank you for your help." I got up and left the fae. It was in a bad enough mood already. No need to worsen that.

Joining up with my friends again, we walked down the hall, a vague destination in my head. I told them everything the fae had said on the way.

"Then it's obvious! We should go strait to the gym!" I cut his enthusiasm with my words, carved from knives.

"Not! We have to go to the theatre club room first."

"Huh? WHY?"

"Because we need costumes, dimwit. We don't want to be taken for humans there do we?"

"Um, Craft? Sorry to pop your bubble, but we are humans." Jo interrupted.

"Yes, I know that." My voice oozed with barely contained poison."But we have to pretend we're not, unless you want to be the next hors-d'oeuvre on the plates they're serving out there."

"Oh."

And so, we made our noisy way to the club rooms where we were going to dress up as mythical creatures. And if we didn't do it right, we were going to be roasted and sliced finely for a parade of veritable demons. What a fun night. And it was only beginning.