Chapter Text
“This is the dumbest idea you had so far. I don’t know why I put up with you.”
Despite his annoyed tone, Chuuya looked a lot less confident than he pretended to be.
They were well hidden from view behind some of the old trees that surrounded this place. Still, Chuuya kept glancing around as if he expected someone to catch them snooping any second.
Someone or something.
Dazai just laughed carelessly while he inserted another pin in the old, rusty lock. “Don’t tell me you’re scared? Maybe you do believe in ghosts, after all?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I just don’t wanna get caught like this!” At least, Chuuya was mindful to keep his voice down, despite the indignity in his whisper.
With a satisfying click, the lock gave in and the door swung open slowly, only to reveal nothing but darkness. It was a little anticlimactic, but they had barely started their little adventure. If this old, creepy house had a secret, they would find it. Putting his tools away, Dazai got up from the floor and peered curiously into the hallway.
“Come on. You want to find out if the rumors are true, don’t you?”
Chuuya didn’t reply. In the dim light, he seemed a little pale with his eyes still fixed to open door. Dazai could see why someone would call this place haunted. Something felt off about it, even he had to admit it.
The longer they looked at the open door, the more it looked like a gaping mouth ready to devour them. Well, if the rumors were true, that impression wasn’t that far off.
There was only one way to find out.
Dazai stepped into the dark, lighting the way with his cellphone. In retrospect, he should have thought of bringing a flashlight. The old house was almost unusually dark. Outside the night was illuminated by the full moon, but none of that light reached inside. He had to admit, the old house was unusually dark.
With every step, the wooden floor creaked beneath his feet.
The light emitting from his phone revealed an interior that matched the house well. The furniture was old-fashioned, in a western style and covered with a thick layer of dust. Some pieces were destroyed, probably like trespassers just like themselves. Despite the rundown appearance, it held a lingering elegance.
The faded pictures on the walls told stories of forgotten souls.
Atmospheric, that much was sure, but Dazai was almost a little disappointed. No questionable bloodstains on the walls, no noises that seemed out of place in a building this old.
“Doesn’t seem that haunted to me.”
Behind him, Chuuya made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief. “Good, we can leave then, right?”
Just then, Dazai’s light flashed across a stairway leading up, at the end of the hall.
“Ghosts are always in the basement or in the attic. Let’s check there.”
Or at least, that’s what people on online forums wrote.
It was a little absurd in Dazai’s eyes that some people chose to spend their entire life dedicated to hunting down something they didn’t know existed in the first place. But there amassed ‘knowledge’ gave him something to go off of, right now.
A few days ago, he had come across this online forum full of haunted places and alleged encounters with the supernatural. Completely ridiculous, of course.
He had been about to close the page again when a familiar address had caught his eye. A haunted, cursed house, which was just a few blocks away on the outskirts of town. It would have been a shame not to investigate and if it Chuuya to admit that he believed into stuff like that, that would be an entertaining bonus.
“Did I tell you that some people apparently went insane after going in here?” Dazai couldn’t quite keep his grin out of his voice. Those weren’t the only rumors, but people disappearing without a trace were even more unbelievable.
“Great. I should just leave you in here to rot.” Despite his words, Chuuya still followed him up the stairs, his own phone in hand, brandishing the light like a weapon.
It was colder up here, the stairs creaking ominously with every step they took. Briefly, Dazai thought he had imagined the drop in temperature. A quick glance over his shoulder told him, he wasn’t. The air was oppressively heavy up here. His phone flickered.
“Maybe, we shouldn’t be here…” Chuuya suggested, and Dazai could hear the tremble in his voice.
“What? Scared?” Dazai might not believe in the supernatural, but something was up with this place. It was intriguing, and he couldn’t deny the empty hallway almost felt hostile by now. Either the atmosphere was affecting him as well, or there was really something here. Something that wanted them gone.
Chuuya scoffed, but he didn’t bother replying. He still followed along, obviously determined not to be a coward. It served Dazai just fine.
The first floor didn’t look any different from the ground floor, at least not in any way that mattered. There was nothing truly threatening, yet the darkness seemed denser up here and the cold grew with every step.
Suddenly, he heard something and he stopped so abruptly, that Chuuya crashed into his back. It had been only a faint noise, but Dazai could have sworn that he heard something move behind the door in front of him.
Curiously, he tried to open it. It didn’t budge.
Interesting.
Maybe he had only imagined the sound, but now he wanted to find out for sure. If there was anything in this house, other than them, he wanted to know.
So, he handed his phone to Chuuya for a moment, while he took out the set of lock picks again.
A lock like this should be easy work, but maybe Dazai had gotten a little too cocky. On the first try, he slipped, his hand catching on a splinter.
“Are you okay?” Chuuya’s phone shone onto the scratch. It wasn’t especially deep, still, it was bleeding a little.
“It’s not too bad.” It was more embarrassing than anything, to make a mistake like that. He would take care of it later. For now, he’d rather focus on the mystery at hand. On the second try, the door sprang open and this time, a cold shiver ran down his back.
Taking his phone back from Chuuya, he stepped into the room. It was obviously a bedroom, but there was hardly anything that revealed something about the previous owner. It was a little disappointing, after the build-up, Dazai had expected to find something more exciting.
He almost ended up believing this house was haunted, that just showed how easy it was to get caught up in nonsense like that.
Behind him, Chuuya let out a horrified gasp.
Intrigued, Dazai looked around. The artificial light from their phones fell onto a pair of eyes watching them from the dark. Dazai’s heart leaped into his throat before he realized what they were seeing.
A doll stared at them from atop an old dusty dresser.
Dazai let out a light laugh to get rid of the lingering tension in his body. “A haunted doll, huh? A classic.”
He took a step closer, to examine it a little closer. It was exceptionally well made, a delicate pretty face framed with dark hair. Only the eyes were a little unsettling, wide, empty and alarmingly life-like.
Despite knowing that it was probably some kind of optical illusion, it looked deceptively focused on him.
To shake off the weird feeling, Dazai reached out to ruffle its hair. Beneath his fingertips, it was surprisingly soft. “Aren’t you a pretty thing?”
“You can’t just touch that!” For the first time since they entered the house, Chuuya raised his voice. Still standing by the door, he looked deeply unsettled.
Dazai almost felt bad for dragging him into this just to call him out on his fake bravado. Almost.
Just to spite him a little, he set down the phone and took a hold of the doll with both hands for a moment to right his posture.
As expected, behind him Chuuya sputtered. “What are you doing?”
“It was a little crooked,” Dazai replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
When he picked up his phone again, he realized, there was also a painting in this room, directly above the doll.
He could faintly make out the silhouette of a young man, but the colors were faded too much to make out any details.
It was a pity. Dazai wondered if that person in the picture was also the person that had lived here decades ago. Maybe, he would look into that. Something about the old house fascinated him more than he cared to admit out loud.
“Let’s go back,” Dazai finally said as he turned back around. “There are no ghosts here.”
Unsurprisingly, Chuuya didn’t argue with him for once. By the looks of it, his best friend was pretty happy just to get out of there and back into their dorm.
It was a blessing on nights like this, that their dorm didn’t really care that much about enforcing their curfew.