[LOG] Ghosts on the ship
Characters: Echizen Ryoma, Liliadent Krauser, Dan Taichi
Location: all over the ship
Time: Near midnight
Rating: PG13
Summary: A different ex-Freshman trio go ghost hunting to exorcise the disquiet spirits and run into something much much worse
Blue eyes stared at the water of the pool, arms crossed, waiting, the story he had read going through his head again and again. It seemed that the one named Inui knew about this amazingly strange thing. And he had told the one called Yuuta. That while the ship was being built, there had been two brothers. But the one was mad at the other and went to go somewhere. There was an accident and the one brother got caught in a fire. The other brother tried to help him…but got caught as well and they both died. And because of that, there was no Deck 13.
He looked to the heavens for a moment, long blond ponytail falling from his shoulder down his back. Out at sea, the stars were especially bright. It was a perfect night. More perfect because it would be nice to catch up with a very old friend and do something fun. Like hunt for ghosts. Because it had to be true. Someone as smart as Inui wouldn’t tell such stories without factual proof behind it. Besides, he had even said he had heard voices and phantom footsteps. So, it had to be true. And the concept of such a thing excited the pretty man as maybe he could somehow help those poor ghosts finally rest. Especially now, with so many more strange things happening. Like that music. Or the girl’s clothing suddenly in his suitcase or the spiders he had heard about.
Now he just had to wait for his friend to come, so they could go together and look for the special elevator that would take them to the Ghost Deck of the ship. Liliadent hoped that he wouldn’t have to wait too long though. He didn’t want to miss it.
Mostly, Ryoma thought that nights were made for sleeping, but every once in a while, he was too distracted to fall asleep properly, and then, nighttime adventures could be fun. At least he hoped they would be. Liliadent was yet another person with whom he had lost contact, but he supposed they at least were excusable; Lilia wasn't a teammate, he was a friend - who, yes, during the U-17 camp, had evolved into something more than simply a casual acquaintance - from a completely different school and prefecture. So, meeting up with him after all these years wasn't as nervous as meeting with his old team, and he was glad for that.
Another good thing was that he could speak English with Lilia, as he was still working on brushing up his Japanese again.
Wearing a dark gray pullover, his golden necklace, his black and red jacket and a pair of black, warm jeans, Ryoma figured he was dressed appropriately for the occasion. He wandered up on deck and spotted the tall German immediately; he was difficult to miss, really.
"Lillia," he called out, thankfully falling back into English as if it was the most natural thing in the world. (And it was.) "Didn't know you believe in ghosts~!"
It had been a very long time and they had grown up quite a bit since last they had seen one another, but there were very very few people who called him “Lilia.” and there were even less of those people on this boat. So he knew before he even turned who it was. He was still happy to see the other. It seemed that Ryoma had grown since then, but that was normal. So had he. His friend had really matured, but he hoped deep down that he was still the same Ryoma he had grown so fond of at the camp, way back when.
He turned and grinned at the other. “Ryoma! Hallo!” He called back in a friendly tone. His English, as always, was heavily accented in rich Bavarian tones. Tones that skipped all the boring formalities of “you look good” and “it’s been so long” and went right back to what it had been like before. Like the years had never been there. He strode over to the other, long legs carrying him quickly and he eagerly nodded.
“Well, I believe in a lot of things.” Most of them fake because his trusting nature made him easy to deceive. “But I definitely believe in ghosts. In fact, back home, there are rooms at the university where lights go on and off by themselves and Father Gregor had to go and cleanse the room of evil spirits and devils.” Which was what he was planning on doing. He pushes his tail back over his shoulder and thought for a moment. “I’m glad you decided to come do this with me.” After all, what a better way to spend a night with a good friend then to look for things that might or might not exist. A good friend that was sure to have his back and be strong enough not to get attacked or possessed.
He had forgotten just how tall Lilia was, but it could have been worse. Ryoma was close to 170 centimeters now, well, relatively close at least, which was a lot better than being around 150... "Cool. Okay, what do we know? Like... Two brothers, right? And one was batshit or something? And burned the 13th deck? Or bombed it? Or... What was it?"
He realized how nice it was now not to have to really crane his neck in order to talk to his dark haired friend. He doubted the other would be as tall as him, but Liliadent could admit to himself that he always thought Ryoma was far bigger on the inside. He was now closer to fitting the size of his personality.
The other man asked what they needed to do, and Liliadent hadn’t the faintest idea. He had never really been ghost hunting before. But he was sure that between the two of them, they could figure it out. But he thought it was best to tell the story he had heard to Ryoma, so the other knew what they might be up against. As he did, he reached out and lightly laid a hand upon the other’s arm. A action Liliadent often had done back in the day. He had always been a very physical person. “Yes. They worked together. But one always got more than the other. So the other got mad and decided to show his brother and went to the floor below. Then something bad happened and the floor above caught on fire. And the brother down below tried to save him and he couldn’t and they burned together.” He concluded. “But there are other ghosts too, I think. Maybe the spirits brought more spirits.”
He let go and pointed towards where the stairwells were. “So...I think the best way would be to find the stairwell where the footsteps are heard. Then we go to the elevator...” he thought for a moment. “I think if we go inside right at midnight and hit the closed button when the door opens again, maybe we’ll be on the 13th deck.” He held out his hand to the shorter male, shifting a small book into his other hand. In his country, holding hands with another man was actually pretty normal. “Let’s go. I don’t know how much time we have before midnight.”
"We'll just have to hope the elevator isn't haunted," Ryoma muttered, mostly to himself actually, as he eyed Lilia's hand. Holding hands might be normal in Germany - he had no clue, really - but it felt a tad awkward. Why did he surround himself with so many touchy-feely people? It was sort of... Odd. He decided on a compromise and grabbed a hold on Lilia's wrist, pulling him along.
"The highest point of the ship is the bridge. So if we can find a way to sneak into the staff's elevator, we've won half the battle already. And I wouldn't worry too much, it seems like the security's been pretty lax lately anyway, you know?"
He laughed a little when his wrist was grabbed and let himself be dragged off. He didn’t know if the elevator was haunted or not. But he had his Bible and his holy water, so he was sure things would be fine. So he followed along, towards the bridge, he supposed, nodding. “I noticed this. I was very surprised how poor it was. I think even someone like me could sneak up there.” Because he did sort of stick out like a sore thumb. “I wonder why. Could it be the work of the ghosts, you think?” And what were the ghosts after? It was quite a lot of questions to have answered.
Dan had been wandering around the cruise for at least one hour; he couldn’t tell because his watch broke down in the morning. He was trying to find a nice parlor he had seen and he wanted to photograph it, just to try the new compact digital camera he had bought (his didn’t want to work anymore) and he sort of… got lost, and it was dark and cold and he didn’t recognize anything anymore, and there wasn’t any crew member to ask for directions and when he finally heard footsteps, he followed the sound. He was so relieved when he saw Ryoma and another boy, and even if he didn’t understand anything they were saying he…wait...“G-G-Ghosts-d-desu?”
"Maybe, I mean, why no---" Ryoma cut himself off and blinked. He thought the boy that approached them looked vaguely familiar. He squinted, waiting for his memory to catch up with him, when it hit him. "Dan." He switched over to Japanese for a moment. "Yeah. We're ghost hunting. Lilia, this is Dan Ta-- Ta... Uh. Right. Taichi. Dan, this is Liliadent Krauser. He's the same age as us." It felt awkward, doing the presentation, since it was a very polite thing to do, and Ryoma wasn't overly polite by default.
Liliadent stood quietly while he let Ryoma introduce them. He knew it was pretty awkward, especially admitting that he was the same age as the two of them. He had never looked their age, even when they had all been at that camp. He smiled a little at Ryoma and then turned that smile on Dan. “Danke Ryoma. Hallo Taichi.” Bad habits died hard. “Ryoma and I are going to try and finding the ghosts so I can try and chase them away.” He explained in the best Japanese he could muster. He then looked to the other man... and then to Ryoma. It wasn’t safe for Dan just to be out with ghosts about and he didn’t think the other would slow them down too much. Besides, three was safer than two. A holy trinity. “Would you liking to join us...” He looked to Ryoma for an okay that he had invited Dan along.
All he could do was to gap like a fish out of the water at the sight of the other boy. Was he really their age-desu!? He really looked like a model of a western magazine or an idol of some kind...”N-nice to meet you, Lilia desu!” He bowed. He turned back at from he had been walking for too long and it was as dark and cold as before and he didn’t want to go back, but he was lost and was scared of being found by ghost alone . “Ghost hunting, desu?”
"Yeah." Ryoma shrugged. "I mean... You've noticed all the shit going on, right? We kind of think a ghost did it, so Lilia here's going to exorcise it. Hopefully." Ryoma looked Dan up and down, hands on his narrow hips and a challenge playing in his eyes. "You're coming along too. Aren't you?" I dare you to say no, his gaze said.
The fact was, he was a model for a western magazine and he’d been a smash hit during Paris fashion month. But rank and things like that didn’t matter here. Here, he was just Ryoma’s German friend from the U-17 camp. Just like Ryoma was just Ryoma and nothing else but his good friend. To try and explain more, he held up his flask of water and his Holy Book. “My coach back in Germany is a Catholic priest. Father Gustov told me how to use these to try and make the ghost go to their rest.” he was trying to make Dan feel less scared perhaps and maybe himself as well. “It should work. He says all you need to faith and smarts and strength of will.”
Dan opened his eyes wide. “I-I...” It sounded like a very dangerous mission but Lilia looked like a hero of a western movie and nothing could go wrong with Ryoma coming along right? Right? He thought about the reports he once read about ghost hunting. That could be a great story to hand over at the magazine he worked for: ‘Atobe Keigo’s hunted Cruise’ But it was so scary, desu! What if they were evil ghost and... Dan looked once more to the Bible and the water the blond was holding and braced himself. He tightened his grip on his camera. “I’ll go..” He whispered. “I’ll go, desu!!”
Ryoma's face was a big, smug grin at that. He threw his arms behind his head and started towards the staff section of the ship. "You see, Dan, we have to find the thirteenth deck. Did you hear about it? Lilia, tell him about those stupid brothers, will you? I'll keep a look-out." In case someone decided that they definitely were up to no good...
Once more, Liliadent told the story of the two brothers. It had been easier to tell it to Ryoma, because he had been able to do it in English. It was harder to do it in Japanese. He was sure he left something out because he didn’t know the right words. He tried hard to. “And so they died together taking the thirteenth floor with them.” He concluded. He was about to say more when he heard the sound of feet running towards them. Towards them..and then past them. Only there was no one running. It was just the three of them. Excited, he announced, “Ryoma, Dan...we are getting close. Ghost footsteps!”
The young reporter had been putting attention to every word the blond said, taking notes in a pocket notebook; they were unintelligible since his hand was shaking so badly, though. He jumped at least one 1ft at the sound of the the footsteps and got hold of the nearest thing he had to protect himself: Ryoma. “Ouh, s-scary, desu!!” He was clinging for dear life to Ryoma’s jacket.
Ryoma wasn't sure what made him jump the most; the footsteps or Dan suddenly clinging to him. He let out a rather loud, undignified yelp, staring in front of himself and where the footsteps slowly faded out of hearing range. If he had to be honest, he had up until now taken the ghost story with more than a small grain of salt, but now... He swallowed, trying to hear his own voice over the beating of his heart. "R--right. Okay, okay, fine. Then we know where to go. Let's follow the footsteps before they vanish completely!"
Liliadent shifted the stuff he was carrying and pulled a rosary out from where it was hidden under his shirt collar. “It went this way!” He called and started the way the steps had gone. His long legs could have easily leave the others behind. But he didn’t want to do that. He needed his backup. So he kept himself in check, heading towards a dark hallway that he knew led to a dead end. Even more surprised that he thought he saw a few lights floating around as he went further. Orbs...the ghosts were REAL...and though he was scared, he didn’t want to show that it was scary. It had been his idea after all. “Ryoma....Dan...tell me...you are seeing this too?”
Dan stared at orbs with his mouth open. “Y-yes, desu!!” He was trying his best to keep up with the other two, not completely letting go of Ryoma’s jacket. He was seeing ghosts, nobody at the magazine would ever believe him. He yelped and turned around quickly. “Something just touched my back, desu!! Just right behind me!!”
"Don't say that when you're standing right behind me," Ryoma exploded, his voice a little bit too high. He twirled around, forced to squint as one of the orbs shone its light right in his eyes. "Motherfuck...!" He grabbed Dan by his shoulders and moved him so that he stood between himself and Lilia, and he himself took a step backwards, heart beating in his ears. "Oi, Lilia, where are we going? This is a dead end, man! Think fast."
Liladent hadn’t meant to get too far ahead of them. He had been trying to chase the footsteps, even if they were leading him straight into a wall. But the sounds and the words from the others made him stop completely and turn around. The ghostly lights were everywhere, buzzing around them like summer fireflies. He had to keep calm. He had to remember what Father Gustov told him to do at times like this.
He pulled his rosary from his shirt and held it up. “I expel you!” He stated in cool, somewhat harsh German. Not the soft pretty notes of his Bavarian roots. This was hard old German that the Gutenberg Bible had been printed in.
The orbs just hovered there, as if confused. That’s when it dawned on Liliadent...What if the ghosts were Japanese? Would they understand the command to disappear? He looked to Ryoma and Dan. Then in English he asked, “What is the Japanese for I expel you?” leave it to him to be the one ghost hunter in existence to not be able to speak the ghosts language well enough.
Dan watched with wide eyes everything that was happening while clutching tightly to his chest his camera. The strange sounds that came from Lilia when trying to get rid of those things made him have goosebumps. “W-What’s happening d-desu? What aren’t they gone desu?” He turned to Ryoma and to Lilia consecutively, just like he was watching a tennis match. “Why isn’t it working? They’re... they’re not evil, right desu? We’renotgonnadieRyomadesu?” Suddenly, as an opponent sensing a weakness, one of the orbs charged at them.
"Exorcize is haraikiyomeru," Ryoma mumbled to Lilia, before turning to Dan. "Uh... I don't think the ghosts understand Lilia or something. I don't know..." He cut himself off as he noticed the orb charging towards them and he pushed Dan aside. The orb slammed into him and he felt like he was touching a cold metal beam with his tongue, felt like he was dipped in cold water, felt like he was jolted by... something. And he thought he heard voices. I'm definitely dreaming, he thought, dazed. It didn't exactly hurt, but all the hairs on his body stood up straight, his skin covered in goosebumps. The light enveloping him faded. "... Huh."
Liliadent tried those words, but it seemed too late. The light had already hit Echizen and faded away. He frowned and went to his friend immediately. “All you okay? It didn’t hurt you?” He asked in rapid English. He didn’t know what happened to people that got hit with spirit lights, but he would never forgive himself if Ryoma had gotten hurt because of him. He then turned his eyes to Dan. And looked between the two of them. He didn’t hear the footsteps anymore and he wasn’t sure what time it was anymore. They might have missed their time. If it was passed midnight, the brothers wouldn’t appear. And even if they did, he didn’t want to endanger his friends anymore.
“Ryoma! Are you okay, desu?!” Dan checked his friend all over it. He had been the manager of his tennis team back in highschool so he had learned first aid care... but he only cured scratches and bruises, though. Maybe ghost attacks were different. “How many fingers do you see?!” He shoved two fingers in front of Ryoma’s face. He frowned. “What are those things desu?” He said to Lilia, forgetting already the other couldn't understand it. It was his imagination or it was getting colder?
"You're gonna poke my eyes out," Ryoma complained, taking a wobbly step backwards. "Uh. Yeah, I'm okay, just... Uh... Three fingers. Right? No. Uh..." He shook his head as he tried to clear his thoughts, the nerve ends in his brain still feeling a thought fried. So very, very odd. He shivered. That feeling of the cold metal beam lingered, but it had spread from a merely psychological sensation to a more physical one. It was cold. "... Great." He almost wanted to call it quits, but Echizen Ryoma never backed away from a challenge. No stupid ghosts were going to get the upper hand on him if he had something to say about it.
It was getting colder. Even Liliadent shivered a little. He didn’t like that feeling at all and he wasn’t sure anymore if they should continue or not. Especially because Ryoma was having obvious problems. And what was more, he didn’t quite know how to answer Dan, plus he wasn’t sure anymore what time it was. “I think,” he answered in Japanese. “That was an orb. A small ghost.” He turned to look at Ryoma and frowned even more.
“Maybe we should turn aroun...” He heard a ding from a place he was sure was a dead end. Turning, he went pale. More pale that he already was. He blinked. There wasn’t an elevator there, yet there he was, staring at an open elevator. Open and beckoning. Unsure, he looked to his friends. “Should we?”
Dan turned to look at where the blond was staring at. He sighed relieved. “Look! We won’t have to go back to those ghosts! There’s an elevator, desu!!” He grabbed Ryoma and Lilia by the wrist and dragged them into the elevator without a second thought. Out there were ghosts that attacked people! “It was just too dark for us to see it, desu!!” The door closed immediately, almost violently. Dan looked at the panel, it had so many buttons. Was the ship really that big? “Ano... where should we go, desu?”
Still a bit dazed, Ryoma didn't realize that the elevator hadn't been there a minute before. He didn't object as Dan pulled him and Lilia towards it and into it, and instead stood there, staring at the panel for a moment. "Well... We're going up, aren't we? You guys think that one of these things lead to the 13th floor...?"
He wasn’t sure they should even be in this elevator but it was too late now. Doubt would only cause more ghosts. He wasn’t allowed to have any such thing as doubt. Not when the door was closing. “Well...” He looked to all the numbers on the panel. “There is a 13 button.” He pressed it and he felt the elevator lerch, taking them down to the floor that did not exist.
“I do not know what we will be finding down here, so we must be on our guard!”
“On our g-guard, desu? Do you think those things going to attack us again!?” Dan asked with big wide eyes. He looked from Lilia to Ryoma; the number on top of the elevator’s doors coming dangerously close to the number 13. He looked at Ryoma and he still looked a bit off. He frowned. Even if it was scary but he wasn’t going to allow those things to hurt his friends again. Dan turned to Lilia “What do we do to protect ourselves?”
The elevator came to a sudden stop; the doors opened and a scary nerve-curling laugh was heard. Dan clawed at Ryoma’s arm. “W-What was that, desu?!”
"I--I don't know." Maybe they should just head back down again... But that would be running away and Ryoma wouldn't run, but his friends had to be safe... Damn it. He winced a little, wondering if his arm would bruise from Dan's grip, and then carefully pried himself free. "I'll go check it out." He looked seriously at his two friends. "You two... Be ready for anything." This felt ridiculously dramatic, but hell, they were dealing with ghosts! So... Ryoma inhaled slowly and stepped out onto the floor. The odd thing about it was that it looked more like an engine room or a car deck than a proper floor. The smell of oil and rubber was strong, and it was uncomfortably warm. As he wiped sweat from his brow, the laughter could be heard again, and there was a loud noise like something large and metallic falling over. Startled, Ryoma missed a step, and he stumbled, leg folding underneath him. "Son of a...!" He braced himself with his hands against the floor, and then blinked in confusion. The floor was warm, nearly hot.
He took hold of his holy water and watched Ryoma leave the elevator. He should have stopped him. He was the one with the weapons against the ghosts. But Ryoma did what Ryoma did. He watched the other step out and then trip. Liliadent didn’t hesitate, he was out of the elevator, calling back to his other friend. “Dan. Please to be holding the door open button. I do not know what will happen to us if the elevator door closes.” They might be trapped on the ghost floor forever. “And keep an eye out for anything like ghosts. It is not me or Ryoma, you yell to tell us it was here.”
He stepped out to get to his friend and immediately felt the heat. Like something was burning. He could smell the smoke too. It made him cough and he could feel himself starting to sweat from the heat. “Ryoma! Are you alright?” He asked, hurrying to him, not quite seeing the strange shadow starting to form, trying to be louder than the eerie laughter.
Standing on the door of elevator to stop it from closing, Dan watched warily at the other two. He was starting to feel the heat and everything felt... oppressive, like when is summer in a completely closed room and it’s hard to breath. He leaned into the opened door and caught a glimpse of something in the elevator’s inside mirror. He could see himself and Lilia next to Ryoma and...
Dan went extremely pale and he tried to speak but no words came out. He tried again, heath replaced by cold and fear. “R-R-Ryoma...” He half whispered pointing at the man standing next to the other two; his face was half hidden by the poor lighting but you could easily see he had his face burned to the bone.
"Stupid foot, it's..." Ryoma cut himself short as he tried to stand up, since it became quite obvious that his ankle was twisted. Typical. "Lilia, I'm gonna need your suppo-- Eh? What is it, Dan?" The way the other boy looked made Ryoma feel cold, despite the suffocating heat. What... What was he pointing at...? Ryoma turned his head ever so slowly, and then, quite undignified, screamed.
There was a dark shadow over them and as Liliadent was trying to help Ryoma up, he noticed it. He saw the way the other’s foot was turned and there was....a foot next to it. One burned up foot, to a charred leg, to ….”Gott im Himmel....” He felt suddenly very sick to his stomach but his eyes kept moving up...And up more, to that burned face, that angry, hate filled burned face. And his ears hurt suddenly. Pained by the cry of the smaller man right next to him.
Everything that his priest had told him over the phone went out of his head with the abject fear that this wasn’t a game any more. There was a ghost. A very angry ghost. And they were all going to be dragged into hell.
Desperately, he opened the flask. He splashed some of the water onto the....charred figure and could hear a strange sickening sizzle and the sound of pain and a cry of even deeper hatred. He shoved it at Ryoma and announced, “I am picking you up! Keep splashing him!” The words were in German. In his terror, Liliadent had forgotten even how to speak English anymore. He was then trying to get Ryoma up and towards the elevator where Dan was, aware that he could hear the thing right behind him...And what was more, even more cries, further back in the deep darkness of Floor 13.
Ryoma, however, wasn't very good at German, especially not in a panicked state, so the only thing he managed to do when the flask was thrust at him was to grab it and toss it at the ghost. The entire thing, not just simply the holy water. (But was it a ghost? If it was that solid, maybe it was an undead instead... There was a difference there, he knew that, but... It was all very vague. Maybe. Probably.)
He didn’t know what Ryoma had done. He was too focused on getting back to the elevator. He could hear the clattered of the metal flask and the pounding of his own heart and the falls of his feet as he scrambling. And the sound of being ran after. They were being chased. And by more than the thing they could see.
He all but dove into the elevator, calling out. “Dan...door close! DOOR CLOSE!!”
“I’m trying desu!!!” Dan screamed back; compulsively pressing down the ‘close door’ buttons. “IT’S NOT WORKING, DESU!!!” The thing that was chasing them down started laughing maniacally and was coming nearer and nearer..... Dan screamed and backed off when it reached the elevador. Suddenly, the doors closed trapping one burned hand inside the elevator. The... undead howled in pain and started cursing them with strange words in an unknown language.
“WHAT DO WE DO NOW, DESU!!??”
The door shut. The hand did not get pulled out. Instead, it fell to the floor. The severed hand on the floor of the elevator wasn’t disappearing though. In fact, like something possessed, it started to try to move. Clawing it’s way towards them. The screaming angry voice went through the metal. He thought he could hear a clock in the distance, chiming...chiming...but there wasn’t a clock like that anywhere that he had seen. 10...11...12....13? He must have counted wrong...He had to have.
Liliadent didn’t know what to do. His priest had never ever prepared him for this. Not for this. Desperately, he kicked at the hand to keep it away from them and just started to press elevator buttons. Any floor...Any floor would do. His other hand fumbling with the rosary he was wearing, muttering desperate Hail Marys. At last the elevator lurched, heading back up.
The lurch propelled Ryoma forward, and he grunted as his injured foot took the most of his weight as he tried to steady himself. One hand against one wall of the elevator to reduce the strain on his bad foot... And he used his good one to stomp down on the hand as it tried to crawl towards them again. Adrenaline pumped in his blood and some mad part of him almost found it amusing to hear the brittle bones crack underneath his shoe.
Dan cringed at the sound. The hand twitched and writhed even if it wasn’t able to move by itself anymore. His eyes were opened wide and he turned a sickly greenish color. “I’m gonna be sick desu.I’mgonnabesickdesuI’mgonnabesickdesu” He clasped both hands over his mouth. Thankfully, there was ‘ding’ and the elevator came to a sudden stop. Dan stumbled his way out through the elevator doors, not caring what floor it was or what might be in it and threw up.
Liliadent turned and grabbed his friend again. With Ryoma’s ankle the way it was, he didn’t want to risk leaving the elevator only to have it shut and take Echizen back down. “I am sorry!” He stated as he manhandled the slightly smaller man, getting him out of the elevator as well. He was so busy leaving and making sure they weren’t in a worse place than before, the elevator behind them vanished, becoming just a normal wall again. He could hear Dan retching and he felt sick too. “I am sorry.” He repeated again to them both. “I...am so so sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say and it wasn’t like he could ask them to pretend all of this never happened, even if Liliadent was going to be calling up his priest as soon as he got back to his room to ask him what the hell went wrong this night. “Is everyone...all right?” A silly question because right now, he doubted any of them were actually okay.
What am I doing...? Ryoma's thoughts were muffled, a strange sense of distance going on between him and his friends. He saw Lilia's worried face and heard him, but it was as if he was staring at him from beyond a long corridor. The same with Dan's retching. He could hear it, and he was worried about him, but it seemed so far off. He guessed he was in some sort of shock. They all were, probably. "... We're alive," he stated, matter-of-factly.
Dan wiped his mouth with the edge of his t-shirt when he was done and leaned into a wall to support himself. The room was spinning but at least it looked normal. Beside the fact he felt like screaming and fainting at the same time and all he wanted to do was crawl under a blanket... “That was amazing desu!!!”
Ryoma simply stared at him. "Amazing?!" Yeah, he couldn't bring himself to say anything else at the moment.
“Yes desu!! I’ve never met a person that have been chased by ghosts before desu!! And that awesome!! I mean I thought we might die at some point but... It was so exciting, desu!! Don’t you think so, Ryoma!!? And the lights and the burned zombie and the... By the way, where’s the elevator? Oh mmm right!! I’m sorry for your ankle desu!!” Dan said and hurried to help Lilia to support Ryoma, almost falling to the floor himself because of the dizziness. “Mou... I forgot to take pictures desu...”
The German blinked at the small man’s excitement over it. How could he be excited. They had almost been killed, and all because he had been trying to be some exorcist. And he’d seen how that had worked out. Ryoma was hurt, Dan was dizzy and he was in shock still. Reaching up numbly, he slapped himself hard in the fact to bring himself out of it. “The elevator disappeared and we should probably be getting Ryoma to the medical room, yes?” They probably all needed to go and get checked out, because who knew what might be wrong with them after their brush with the supernatural.
"No one's gonna believe us, are they...?" Which probably didn't matter. What did matter? He wasn't sure. They had seen ghosts. (And he doubted they would have been caught on camera anyway, but then again, you never knew...) Ryoma shook his head, trying to clear it at least somewhat. He wasn't overly successful. "... Maybe we should all get to the infirmary. Just in case." Maybe they could all use a sleeping pill or two.
“But they must desu!! We saw them!! Even Ryoma got hit by one of them desu!!Oh the hand, desu!! That was creepy desu!! You felt it, right Ryoma? It wasn’t an illusion desu!! What was that desu? I always believed that ghost were like transparent and you couldn’t touch them desu...” Dan said happily, helping Lilia to take Ryoma to the infirmary, because he felt alright desu, the things were the ones that kept moving. He stopped suddenly and turned to see where the elevator had been moments ago. Ghost could go through walls but... “D-Do you think that thing can escape and murder us in our sleep haunt us down? I mean he can’t go through wall, he needs a way out, right desu?”
He shook his head. He agreed with Ryoma. No one would believe them. Even with the three of them. Mass hallucinations. Maybe a prank. No one. No one would ever believe them. They’d be put in little white jackets and placed in padded rooms for the rest of the trip. They...they couldn’t...they couldn’t tell anyone (with the exception of the priest), Liliadent decided.
He supported Ryoma as they walked towards where he remembered the infirmary was. As he did, he listened to Dan prattle away. “Nein...Nein...We cannot. No one can know. It will cause panic and no one needs that. This must remain a secret, between the three of us. Forever.” He frowned when the other turned back around and felt a chill and hoped to all that was holy that they indeed hadn’t been followed.
He thought a moment at the question and shook his head. “I do not know. But I do not think so. If he could, he would have already been everywhere yes? I think he is stuck down there. He might need someone living for to bring him back up. He tried to grab us and maybe he was trying to get into the elevator before it shut on him and trapped him again. So as long as we do not go on any strange elevators, we should be fine. And I will asking my priest later to find out just what we should do about this.” He quieted then and focused on getting to first aid.
Location: all over the ship
Time: Near midnight
Rating: PG13
Summary: A different ex-Freshman trio go ghost hunting to exorcise the disquiet spirits and run into something much much worse
Blue eyes stared at the water of the pool, arms crossed, waiting, the story he had read going through his head again and again. It seemed that the one named Inui knew about this amazingly strange thing. And he had told the one called Yuuta. That while the ship was being built, there had been two brothers. But the one was mad at the other and went to go somewhere. There was an accident and the one brother got caught in a fire. The other brother tried to help him…but got caught as well and they both died. And because of that, there was no Deck 13.
He looked to the heavens for a moment, long blond ponytail falling from his shoulder down his back. Out at sea, the stars were especially bright. It was a perfect night. More perfect because it would be nice to catch up with a very old friend and do something fun. Like hunt for ghosts. Because it had to be true. Someone as smart as Inui wouldn’t tell such stories without factual proof behind it. Besides, he had even said he had heard voices and phantom footsteps. So, it had to be true. And the concept of such a thing excited the pretty man as maybe he could somehow help those poor ghosts finally rest. Especially now, with so many more strange things happening. Like that music. Or the girl’s clothing suddenly in his suitcase or the spiders he had heard about.
Now he just had to wait for his friend to come, so they could go together and look for the special elevator that would take them to the Ghost Deck of the ship. Liliadent hoped that he wouldn’t have to wait too long though. He didn’t want to miss it.
Mostly, Ryoma thought that nights were made for sleeping, but every once in a while, he was too distracted to fall asleep properly, and then, nighttime adventures could be fun. At least he hoped they would be. Liliadent was yet another person with whom he had lost contact, but he supposed they at least were excusable; Lilia wasn't a teammate, he was a friend - who, yes, during the U-17 camp, had evolved into something more than simply a casual acquaintance - from a completely different school and prefecture. So, meeting up with him after all these years wasn't as nervous as meeting with his old team, and he was glad for that.
Another good thing was that he could speak English with Lilia, as he was still working on brushing up his Japanese again.
Wearing a dark gray pullover, his golden necklace, his black and red jacket and a pair of black, warm jeans, Ryoma figured he was dressed appropriately for the occasion. He wandered up on deck and spotted the tall German immediately; he was difficult to miss, really.
"Lillia," he called out, thankfully falling back into English as if it was the most natural thing in the world. (And it was.) "Didn't know you believe in ghosts~!"
It had been a very long time and they had grown up quite a bit since last they had seen one another, but there were very very few people who called him “Lilia.” and there were even less of those people on this boat. So he knew before he even turned who it was. He was still happy to see the other. It seemed that Ryoma had grown since then, but that was normal. So had he. His friend had really matured, but he hoped deep down that he was still the same Ryoma he had grown so fond of at the camp, way back when.
He turned and grinned at the other. “Ryoma! Hallo!” He called back in a friendly tone. His English, as always, was heavily accented in rich Bavarian tones. Tones that skipped all the boring formalities of “you look good” and “it’s been so long” and went right back to what it had been like before. Like the years had never been there. He strode over to the other, long legs carrying him quickly and he eagerly nodded.
“Well, I believe in a lot of things.” Most of them fake because his trusting nature made him easy to deceive. “But I definitely believe in ghosts. In fact, back home, there are rooms at the university where lights go on and off by themselves and Father Gregor had to go and cleanse the room of evil spirits and devils.” Which was what he was planning on doing. He pushes his tail back over his shoulder and thought for a moment. “I’m glad you decided to come do this with me.” After all, what a better way to spend a night with a good friend then to look for things that might or might not exist. A good friend that was sure to have his back and be strong enough not to get attacked or possessed.
He had forgotten just how tall Lilia was, but it could have been worse. Ryoma was close to 170 centimeters now, well, relatively close at least, which was a lot better than being around 150... "Cool. Okay, what do we know? Like... Two brothers, right? And one was batshit or something? And burned the 13th deck? Or bombed it? Or... What was it?"
He realized how nice it was now not to have to really crane his neck in order to talk to his dark haired friend. He doubted the other would be as tall as him, but Liliadent could admit to himself that he always thought Ryoma was far bigger on the inside. He was now closer to fitting the size of his personality.
The other man asked what they needed to do, and Liliadent hadn’t the faintest idea. He had never really been ghost hunting before. But he was sure that between the two of them, they could figure it out. But he thought it was best to tell the story he had heard to Ryoma, so the other knew what they might be up against. As he did, he reached out and lightly laid a hand upon the other’s arm. A action Liliadent often had done back in the day. He had always been a very physical person. “Yes. They worked together. But one always got more than the other. So the other got mad and decided to show his brother and went to the floor below. Then something bad happened and the floor above caught on fire. And the brother down below tried to save him and he couldn’t and they burned together.” He concluded. “But there are other ghosts too, I think. Maybe the spirits brought more spirits.”
He let go and pointed towards where the stairwells were. “So...I think the best way would be to find the stairwell where the footsteps are heard. Then we go to the elevator...” he thought for a moment. “I think if we go inside right at midnight and hit the closed button when the door opens again, maybe we’ll be on the 13th deck.” He held out his hand to the shorter male, shifting a small book into his other hand. In his country, holding hands with another man was actually pretty normal. “Let’s go. I don’t know how much time we have before midnight.”
"We'll just have to hope the elevator isn't haunted," Ryoma muttered, mostly to himself actually, as he eyed Lilia's hand. Holding hands might be normal in Germany - he had no clue, really - but it felt a tad awkward. Why did he surround himself with so many touchy-feely people? It was sort of... Odd. He decided on a compromise and grabbed a hold on Lilia's wrist, pulling him along.
"The highest point of the ship is the bridge. So if we can find a way to sneak into the staff's elevator, we've won half the battle already. And I wouldn't worry too much, it seems like the security's been pretty lax lately anyway, you know?"
He laughed a little when his wrist was grabbed and let himself be dragged off. He didn’t know if the elevator was haunted or not. But he had his Bible and his holy water, so he was sure things would be fine. So he followed along, towards the bridge, he supposed, nodding. “I noticed this. I was very surprised how poor it was. I think even someone like me could sneak up there.” Because he did sort of stick out like a sore thumb. “I wonder why. Could it be the work of the ghosts, you think?” And what were the ghosts after? It was quite a lot of questions to have answered.
Dan had been wandering around the cruise for at least one hour; he couldn’t tell because his watch broke down in the morning. He was trying to find a nice parlor he had seen and he wanted to photograph it, just to try the new compact digital camera he had bought (his didn’t want to work anymore) and he sort of… got lost, and it was dark and cold and he didn’t recognize anything anymore, and there wasn’t any crew member to ask for directions and when he finally heard footsteps, he followed the sound. He was so relieved when he saw Ryoma and another boy, and even if he didn’t understand anything they were saying he…wait...“G-G-Ghosts-d-desu?”
"Maybe, I mean, why no---" Ryoma cut himself off and blinked. He thought the boy that approached them looked vaguely familiar. He squinted, waiting for his memory to catch up with him, when it hit him. "Dan." He switched over to Japanese for a moment. "Yeah. We're ghost hunting. Lilia, this is Dan Ta-- Ta... Uh. Right. Taichi. Dan, this is Liliadent Krauser. He's the same age as us." It felt awkward, doing the presentation, since it was a very polite thing to do, and Ryoma wasn't overly polite by default.
Liliadent stood quietly while he let Ryoma introduce them. He knew it was pretty awkward, especially admitting that he was the same age as the two of them. He had never looked their age, even when they had all been at that camp. He smiled a little at Ryoma and then turned that smile on Dan. “Danke Ryoma. Hallo Taichi.” Bad habits died hard. “Ryoma and I are going to try and finding the ghosts so I can try and chase them away.” He explained in the best Japanese he could muster. He then looked to the other man... and then to Ryoma. It wasn’t safe for Dan just to be out with ghosts about and he didn’t think the other would slow them down too much. Besides, three was safer than two. A holy trinity. “Would you liking to join us...” He looked to Ryoma for an okay that he had invited Dan along.
All he could do was to gap like a fish out of the water at the sight of the other boy. Was he really their age-desu!? He really looked like a model of a western magazine or an idol of some kind...”N-nice to meet you, Lilia desu!” He bowed. He turned back at from he had been walking for too long and it was as dark and cold as before and he didn’t want to go back, but he was lost and was scared of being found by ghost alone . “Ghost hunting, desu?”
"Yeah." Ryoma shrugged. "I mean... You've noticed all the shit going on, right? We kind of think a ghost did it, so Lilia here's going to exorcise it. Hopefully." Ryoma looked Dan up and down, hands on his narrow hips and a challenge playing in his eyes. "You're coming along too. Aren't you?" I dare you to say no, his gaze said.
The fact was, he was a model for a western magazine and he’d been a smash hit during Paris fashion month. But rank and things like that didn’t matter here. Here, he was just Ryoma’s German friend from the U-17 camp. Just like Ryoma was just Ryoma and nothing else but his good friend. To try and explain more, he held up his flask of water and his Holy Book. “My coach back in Germany is a Catholic priest. Father Gustov told me how to use these to try and make the ghost go to their rest.” he was trying to make Dan feel less scared perhaps and maybe himself as well. “It should work. He says all you need to faith and smarts and strength of will.”
Dan opened his eyes wide. “I-I...” It sounded like a very dangerous mission but Lilia looked like a hero of a western movie and nothing could go wrong with Ryoma coming along right? Right? He thought about the reports he once read about ghost hunting. That could be a great story to hand over at the magazine he worked for: ‘Atobe Keigo’s hunted Cruise’ But it was so scary, desu! What if they were evil ghost and... Dan looked once more to the Bible and the water the blond was holding and braced himself. He tightened his grip on his camera. “I’ll go..” He whispered. “I’ll go, desu!!”
Ryoma's face was a big, smug grin at that. He threw his arms behind his head and started towards the staff section of the ship. "You see, Dan, we have to find the thirteenth deck. Did you hear about it? Lilia, tell him about those stupid brothers, will you? I'll keep a look-out." In case someone decided that they definitely were up to no good...
Once more, Liliadent told the story of the two brothers. It had been easier to tell it to Ryoma, because he had been able to do it in English. It was harder to do it in Japanese. He was sure he left something out because he didn’t know the right words. He tried hard to. “And so they died together taking the thirteenth floor with them.” He concluded. He was about to say more when he heard the sound of feet running towards them. Towards them..and then past them. Only there was no one running. It was just the three of them. Excited, he announced, “Ryoma, Dan...we are getting close. Ghost footsteps!”
The young reporter had been putting attention to every word the blond said, taking notes in a pocket notebook; they were unintelligible since his hand was shaking so badly, though. He jumped at least one 1ft at the sound of the the footsteps and got hold of the nearest thing he had to protect himself: Ryoma. “Ouh, s-scary, desu!!” He was clinging for dear life to Ryoma’s jacket.
Ryoma wasn't sure what made him jump the most; the footsteps or Dan suddenly clinging to him. He let out a rather loud, undignified yelp, staring in front of himself and where the footsteps slowly faded out of hearing range. If he had to be honest, he had up until now taken the ghost story with more than a small grain of salt, but now... He swallowed, trying to hear his own voice over the beating of his heart. "R--right. Okay, okay, fine. Then we know where to go. Let's follow the footsteps before they vanish completely!"
Liliadent shifted the stuff he was carrying and pulled a rosary out from where it was hidden under his shirt collar. “It went this way!” He called and started the way the steps had gone. His long legs could have easily leave the others behind. But he didn’t want to do that. He needed his backup. So he kept himself in check, heading towards a dark hallway that he knew led to a dead end. Even more surprised that he thought he saw a few lights floating around as he went further. Orbs...the ghosts were REAL...and though he was scared, he didn’t want to show that it was scary. It had been his idea after all. “Ryoma....Dan...tell me...you are seeing this too?”
Dan stared at orbs with his mouth open. “Y-yes, desu!!” He was trying his best to keep up with the other two, not completely letting go of Ryoma’s jacket. He was seeing ghosts, nobody at the magazine would ever believe him. He yelped and turned around quickly. “Something just touched my back, desu!! Just right behind me!!”
"Don't say that when you're standing right behind me," Ryoma exploded, his voice a little bit too high. He twirled around, forced to squint as one of the orbs shone its light right in his eyes. "Motherfuck...!" He grabbed Dan by his shoulders and moved him so that he stood between himself and Lilia, and he himself took a step backwards, heart beating in his ears. "Oi, Lilia, where are we going? This is a dead end, man! Think fast."
Liladent hadn’t meant to get too far ahead of them. He had been trying to chase the footsteps, even if they were leading him straight into a wall. But the sounds and the words from the others made him stop completely and turn around. The ghostly lights were everywhere, buzzing around them like summer fireflies. He had to keep calm. He had to remember what Father Gustov told him to do at times like this.
He pulled his rosary from his shirt and held it up. “I expel you!” He stated in cool, somewhat harsh German. Not the soft pretty notes of his Bavarian roots. This was hard old German that the Gutenberg Bible had been printed in.
The orbs just hovered there, as if confused. That’s when it dawned on Liliadent...What if the ghosts were Japanese? Would they understand the command to disappear? He looked to Ryoma and Dan. Then in English he asked, “What is the Japanese for I expel you?” leave it to him to be the one ghost hunter in existence to not be able to speak the ghosts language well enough.
Dan watched with wide eyes everything that was happening while clutching tightly to his chest his camera. The strange sounds that came from Lilia when trying to get rid of those things made him have goosebumps. “W-What’s happening d-desu? What aren’t they gone desu?” He turned to Ryoma and to Lilia consecutively, just like he was watching a tennis match. “Why isn’t it working? They’re... they’re not evil, right desu? We’renotgonnadieRyomadesu?” Suddenly, as an opponent sensing a weakness, one of the orbs charged at them.
"Exorcize is haraikiyomeru," Ryoma mumbled to Lilia, before turning to Dan. "Uh... I don't think the ghosts understand Lilia or something. I don't know..." He cut himself off as he noticed the orb charging towards them and he pushed Dan aside. The orb slammed into him and he felt like he was touching a cold metal beam with his tongue, felt like he was dipped in cold water, felt like he was jolted by... something. And he thought he heard voices. I'm definitely dreaming, he thought, dazed. It didn't exactly hurt, but all the hairs on his body stood up straight, his skin covered in goosebumps. The light enveloping him faded. "... Huh."
Liliadent tried those words, but it seemed too late. The light had already hit Echizen and faded away. He frowned and went to his friend immediately. “All you okay? It didn’t hurt you?” He asked in rapid English. He didn’t know what happened to people that got hit with spirit lights, but he would never forgive himself if Ryoma had gotten hurt because of him. He then turned his eyes to Dan. And looked between the two of them. He didn’t hear the footsteps anymore and he wasn’t sure what time it was anymore. They might have missed their time. If it was passed midnight, the brothers wouldn’t appear. And even if they did, he didn’t want to endanger his friends anymore.
“Ryoma! Are you okay, desu?!” Dan checked his friend all over it. He had been the manager of his tennis team back in highschool so he had learned first aid care... but he only cured scratches and bruises, though. Maybe ghost attacks were different. “How many fingers do you see?!” He shoved two fingers in front of Ryoma’s face. He frowned. “What are those things desu?” He said to Lilia, forgetting already the other couldn't understand it. It was his imagination or it was getting colder?
"You're gonna poke my eyes out," Ryoma complained, taking a wobbly step backwards. "Uh. Yeah, I'm okay, just... Uh... Three fingers. Right? No. Uh..." He shook his head as he tried to clear his thoughts, the nerve ends in his brain still feeling a thought fried. So very, very odd. He shivered. That feeling of the cold metal beam lingered, but it had spread from a merely psychological sensation to a more physical one. It was cold. "... Great." He almost wanted to call it quits, but Echizen Ryoma never backed away from a challenge. No stupid ghosts were going to get the upper hand on him if he had something to say about it.
It was getting colder. Even Liliadent shivered a little. He didn’t like that feeling at all and he wasn’t sure anymore if they should continue or not. Especially because Ryoma was having obvious problems. And what was more, he didn’t quite know how to answer Dan, plus he wasn’t sure anymore what time it was. “I think,” he answered in Japanese. “That was an orb. A small ghost.” He turned to look at Ryoma and frowned even more.
“Maybe we should turn aroun...” He heard a ding from a place he was sure was a dead end. Turning, he went pale. More pale that he already was. He blinked. There wasn’t an elevator there, yet there he was, staring at an open elevator. Open and beckoning. Unsure, he looked to his friends. “Should we?”
Dan turned to look at where the blond was staring at. He sighed relieved. “Look! We won’t have to go back to those ghosts! There’s an elevator, desu!!” He grabbed Ryoma and Lilia by the wrist and dragged them into the elevator without a second thought. Out there were ghosts that attacked people! “It was just too dark for us to see it, desu!!” The door closed immediately, almost violently. Dan looked at the panel, it had so many buttons. Was the ship really that big? “Ano... where should we go, desu?”
Still a bit dazed, Ryoma didn't realize that the elevator hadn't been there a minute before. He didn't object as Dan pulled him and Lilia towards it and into it, and instead stood there, staring at the panel for a moment. "Well... We're going up, aren't we? You guys think that one of these things lead to the 13th floor...?"
He wasn’t sure they should even be in this elevator but it was too late now. Doubt would only cause more ghosts. He wasn’t allowed to have any such thing as doubt. Not when the door was closing. “Well...” He looked to all the numbers on the panel. “There is a 13 button.” He pressed it and he felt the elevator lerch, taking them down to the floor that did not exist.
“I do not know what we will be finding down here, so we must be on our guard!”
“On our g-guard, desu? Do you think those things going to attack us again!?” Dan asked with big wide eyes. He looked from Lilia to Ryoma; the number on top of the elevator’s doors coming dangerously close to the number 13. He looked at Ryoma and he still looked a bit off. He frowned. Even if it was scary but he wasn’t going to allow those things to hurt his friends again. Dan turned to Lilia “What do we do to protect ourselves?”
The elevator came to a sudden stop; the doors opened and a scary nerve-curling laugh was heard. Dan clawed at Ryoma’s arm. “W-What was that, desu?!”
"I--I don't know." Maybe they should just head back down again... But that would be running away and Ryoma wouldn't run, but his friends had to be safe... Damn it. He winced a little, wondering if his arm would bruise from Dan's grip, and then carefully pried himself free. "I'll go check it out." He looked seriously at his two friends. "You two... Be ready for anything." This felt ridiculously dramatic, but hell, they were dealing with ghosts! So... Ryoma inhaled slowly and stepped out onto the floor. The odd thing about it was that it looked more like an engine room or a car deck than a proper floor. The smell of oil and rubber was strong, and it was uncomfortably warm. As he wiped sweat from his brow, the laughter could be heard again, and there was a loud noise like something large and metallic falling over. Startled, Ryoma missed a step, and he stumbled, leg folding underneath him. "Son of a...!" He braced himself with his hands against the floor, and then blinked in confusion. The floor was warm, nearly hot.
He took hold of his holy water and watched Ryoma leave the elevator. He should have stopped him. He was the one with the weapons against the ghosts. But Ryoma did what Ryoma did. He watched the other step out and then trip. Liliadent didn’t hesitate, he was out of the elevator, calling back to his other friend. “Dan. Please to be holding the door open button. I do not know what will happen to us if the elevator door closes.” They might be trapped on the ghost floor forever. “And keep an eye out for anything like ghosts. It is not me or Ryoma, you yell to tell us it was here.”
He stepped out to get to his friend and immediately felt the heat. Like something was burning. He could smell the smoke too. It made him cough and he could feel himself starting to sweat from the heat. “Ryoma! Are you alright?” He asked, hurrying to him, not quite seeing the strange shadow starting to form, trying to be louder than the eerie laughter.
Standing on the door of elevator to stop it from closing, Dan watched warily at the other two. He was starting to feel the heat and everything felt... oppressive, like when is summer in a completely closed room and it’s hard to breath. He leaned into the opened door and caught a glimpse of something in the elevator’s inside mirror. He could see himself and Lilia next to Ryoma and...
Dan went extremely pale and he tried to speak but no words came out. He tried again, heath replaced by cold and fear. “R-R-Ryoma...” He half whispered pointing at the man standing next to the other two; his face was half hidden by the poor lighting but you could easily see he had his face burned to the bone.
"Stupid foot, it's..." Ryoma cut himself short as he tried to stand up, since it became quite obvious that his ankle was twisted. Typical. "Lilia, I'm gonna need your suppo-- Eh? What is it, Dan?" The way the other boy looked made Ryoma feel cold, despite the suffocating heat. What... What was he pointing at...? Ryoma turned his head ever so slowly, and then, quite undignified, screamed.
There was a dark shadow over them and as Liliadent was trying to help Ryoma up, he noticed it. He saw the way the other’s foot was turned and there was....a foot next to it. One burned up foot, to a charred leg, to ….”Gott im Himmel....” He felt suddenly very sick to his stomach but his eyes kept moving up...And up more, to that burned face, that angry, hate filled burned face. And his ears hurt suddenly. Pained by the cry of the smaller man right next to him.
Everything that his priest had told him over the phone went out of his head with the abject fear that this wasn’t a game any more. There was a ghost. A very angry ghost. And they were all going to be dragged into hell.
Desperately, he opened the flask. He splashed some of the water onto the....charred figure and could hear a strange sickening sizzle and the sound of pain and a cry of even deeper hatred. He shoved it at Ryoma and announced, “I am picking you up! Keep splashing him!” The words were in German. In his terror, Liliadent had forgotten even how to speak English anymore. He was then trying to get Ryoma up and towards the elevator where Dan was, aware that he could hear the thing right behind him...And what was more, even more cries, further back in the deep darkness of Floor 13.
Ryoma, however, wasn't very good at German, especially not in a panicked state, so the only thing he managed to do when the flask was thrust at him was to grab it and toss it at the ghost. The entire thing, not just simply the holy water. (But was it a ghost? If it was that solid, maybe it was an undead instead... There was a difference there, he knew that, but... It was all very vague. Maybe. Probably.)
He didn’t know what Ryoma had done. He was too focused on getting back to the elevator. He could hear the clattered of the metal flask and the pounding of his own heart and the falls of his feet as he scrambling. And the sound of being ran after. They were being chased. And by more than the thing they could see.
He all but dove into the elevator, calling out. “Dan...door close! DOOR CLOSE!!”
“I’m trying desu!!!” Dan screamed back; compulsively pressing down the ‘close door’ buttons. “IT’S NOT WORKING, DESU!!!” The thing that was chasing them down started laughing maniacally and was coming nearer and nearer..... Dan screamed and backed off when it reached the elevador. Suddenly, the doors closed trapping one burned hand inside the elevator. The... undead howled in pain and started cursing them with strange words in an unknown language.
“WHAT DO WE DO NOW, DESU!!??”
The door shut. The hand did not get pulled out. Instead, it fell to the floor. The severed hand on the floor of the elevator wasn’t disappearing though. In fact, like something possessed, it started to try to move. Clawing it’s way towards them. The screaming angry voice went through the metal. He thought he could hear a clock in the distance, chiming...chiming...but there wasn’t a clock like that anywhere that he had seen. 10...11...12....13? He must have counted wrong...He had to have.
Liliadent didn’t know what to do. His priest had never ever prepared him for this. Not for this. Desperately, he kicked at the hand to keep it away from them and just started to press elevator buttons. Any floor...Any floor would do. His other hand fumbling with the rosary he was wearing, muttering desperate Hail Marys. At last the elevator lurched, heading back up.
The lurch propelled Ryoma forward, and he grunted as his injured foot took the most of his weight as he tried to steady himself. One hand against one wall of the elevator to reduce the strain on his bad foot... And he used his good one to stomp down on the hand as it tried to crawl towards them again. Adrenaline pumped in his blood and some mad part of him almost found it amusing to hear the brittle bones crack underneath his shoe.
Dan cringed at the sound. The hand twitched and writhed even if it wasn’t able to move by itself anymore. His eyes were opened wide and he turned a sickly greenish color. “I’m gonna be sick desu.I’mgonnabesickdesuI’mgonnabesickdesu” He clasped both hands over his mouth. Thankfully, there was ‘ding’ and the elevator came to a sudden stop. Dan stumbled his way out through the elevator doors, not caring what floor it was or what might be in it and threw up.
Liliadent turned and grabbed his friend again. With Ryoma’s ankle the way it was, he didn’t want to risk leaving the elevator only to have it shut and take Echizen back down. “I am sorry!” He stated as he manhandled the slightly smaller man, getting him out of the elevator as well. He was so busy leaving and making sure they weren’t in a worse place than before, the elevator behind them vanished, becoming just a normal wall again. He could hear Dan retching and he felt sick too. “I am sorry.” He repeated again to them both. “I...am so so sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say and it wasn’t like he could ask them to pretend all of this never happened, even if Liliadent was going to be calling up his priest as soon as he got back to his room to ask him what the hell went wrong this night. “Is everyone...all right?” A silly question because right now, he doubted any of them were actually okay.
What am I doing...? Ryoma's thoughts were muffled, a strange sense of distance going on between him and his friends. He saw Lilia's worried face and heard him, but it was as if he was staring at him from beyond a long corridor. The same with Dan's retching. He could hear it, and he was worried about him, but it seemed so far off. He guessed he was in some sort of shock. They all were, probably. "... We're alive," he stated, matter-of-factly.
Dan wiped his mouth with the edge of his t-shirt when he was done and leaned into a wall to support himself. The room was spinning but at least it looked normal. Beside the fact he felt like screaming and fainting at the same time and all he wanted to do was crawl under a blanket... “That was amazing desu!!!”
Ryoma simply stared at him. "Amazing?!" Yeah, he couldn't bring himself to say anything else at the moment.
“Yes desu!! I’ve never met a person that have been chased by ghosts before desu!! And that awesome!! I mean I thought we might die at some point but... It was so exciting, desu!! Don’t you think so, Ryoma!!? And the lights and the burned zombie and the... By the way, where’s the elevator? Oh mmm right!! I’m sorry for your ankle desu!!” Dan said and hurried to help Lilia to support Ryoma, almost falling to the floor himself because of the dizziness. “Mou... I forgot to take pictures desu...”
The German blinked at the small man’s excitement over it. How could he be excited. They had almost been killed, and all because he had been trying to be some exorcist. And he’d seen how that had worked out. Ryoma was hurt, Dan was dizzy and he was in shock still. Reaching up numbly, he slapped himself hard in the fact to bring himself out of it. “The elevator disappeared and we should probably be getting Ryoma to the medical room, yes?” They probably all needed to go and get checked out, because who knew what might be wrong with them after their brush with the supernatural.
"No one's gonna believe us, are they...?" Which probably didn't matter. What did matter? He wasn't sure. They had seen ghosts. (And he doubted they would have been caught on camera anyway, but then again, you never knew...) Ryoma shook his head, trying to clear it at least somewhat. He wasn't overly successful. "... Maybe we should all get to the infirmary. Just in case." Maybe they could all use a sleeping pill or two.
“But they must desu!! We saw them!! Even Ryoma got hit by one of them desu!!Oh the hand, desu!! That was creepy desu!! You felt it, right Ryoma? It wasn’t an illusion desu!! What was that desu? I always believed that ghost were like transparent and you couldn’t touch them desu...” Dan said happily, helping Lilia to take Ryoma to the infirmary, because he felt alright desu, the things were the ones that kept moving. He stopped suddenly and turned to see where the elevator had been moments ago. Ghost could go through walls but... “D-Do you think that thing can escape and murder us in our sleep haunt us down? I mean he can’t go through wall, he needs a way out, right desu?”
He shook his head. He agreed with Ryoma. No one would believe them. Even with the three of them. Mass hallucinations. Maybe a prank. No one. No one would ever believe them. They’d be put in little white jackets and placed in padded rooms for the rest of the trip. They...they couldn’t...they couldn’t tell anyone (with the exception of the priest), Liliadent decided.
He supported Ryoma as they walked towards where he remembered the infirmary was. As he did, he listened to Dan prattle away. “Nein...Nein...We cannot. No one can know. It will cause panic and no one needs that. This must remain a secret, between the three of us. Forever.” He frowned when the other turned back around and felt a chill and hoped to all that was holy that they indeed hadn’t been followed.
He thought a moment at the question and shook his head. “I do not know. But I do not think so. If he could, he would have already been everywhere yes? I think he is stuck down there. He might need someone living for to bring him back up. He tried to grab us and maybe he was trying to get into the elevator before it shut on him and trapped him again. So as long as we do not go on any strange elevators, we should be fine. And I will asking my priest later to find out just what we should do about this.” He quieted then and focused on getting to first aid.