Happy Halloween! I wouldn't recommend reading this adventure alone in the dark... But it might be more fun that way... ;)

Enjoy the chill down your spine tonight, because all too soon the thrill will pass and the sun will rise.

1.

Sanji stacked the last cardboard box onto the pile in the empty dining room. Straightening with a groan, he cracked his back as he stretched before swiping the sweat off his face with his t-shirt sleeve. It was a strange feeling - how easily he could put his whole life into these boxes and just relocate to a place he'd only first set foot in last week. Yet here he was, and it felt like an enormous weight had crawled off his back when he realized that he never had to go back to that apartment ever again. This place was a fresh start - a chance for Sanji to reinvent his life, and even though he'd just hauled in no less than thirty heavy boxes all by himself, he felt invigorated.

This place was new to him, but the house was actually very old. Apparently it had been built in the late 1800s, and it had only been renovated once in the 1940s. This place had to have some cool stories about all the different types of people who might have lived there. Maybe there were secret rooms, or even buried treasure! He'd always been drawn to places like this, and he was thrilled to learn more about the house and its history - but that would have to wait until he was more settled in. For now he was content to admire the quaint architecture of the place, and marvel at the all the history these walls must have witnessed. What lovely walls they were too. There was dark wood and crown moulding everwhere. Sanji especially loved this dining room. He could see himself hosting the most elegant dinner parties here for years to come. All the room needed was some paint, a chandelier and a proper dining table.

Sanji dusted his hands off on his torn jeans as he looked around at all the mess. He had so much organizing to do. He'd moved out of his old place so quickly that he hadn't had the time to label things properly, or arrange the few pieces of furniture he owned before he moved his stuff into his new home. It looked like he'd be up late tonight.

The old, pine floor creaked underfoot as Sanji walked over to gaze out of one of the elegant floor-to-ceiling windows gracing the back wall of the dining room. He hadn't really looked at the yard when he'd toured the place, and he hadn't had time to admire the scenery when he'd spent two days furiously scubbing away all the thick, brown dust that had coated every surface - this place had stood empty for a long time. Outside there were a few gnarled evergreen bushes scattered around the perimeter of what must have been a well manicured lawn at some point. It was hard to distinguish what was wild and wasn't. The surrounding woodlands had crept onto the property and overgrown any paths or flower beds that might have existed.

Sanji grimaced as he looked over the tangle of thorns and vines. There was probably poison ivy in that jungle of weeds. How much would it cost him to hire someone else to go rip all that out? He squinted as he thought he could see a few structures - an old birdhouse on a pole... and a springhouse? Root cellar maybe? Yeah he'd better look into hiring a professional landscaper.

His to-do list was growing longer and more costly the more he looked around this old place. Luckily he had some cash left from buying the house. He'd paid for it in full with the money he'd saved from his job and had earned from selling his ex's abandoned things. The car, the jewelry... the ring - they had all been worth quite a bit. He'd ended up with more than enough money to start over. The house had cost him far less than his current car, and Sanji couldn't have been more pleased. Of course the place had been empty for a number of years and it needed quite a few repairs, but most of it wasn't anything that Sanji couldn't handle himself. He could use a project to keep his hands busy and his mind... off certain things.

His most recent relationship had ended badly.

However, that was putting it in very simple terms. Really it felt like his sweetheart had plunged her manicured nails into his chest and ripped out his heart along with a good chunk of his masculine pride. Thinking of the ring, he shuddered when he realized again just how close he'd been to marrying an awful human being. He doubted that she'd ever actually loved him, and she probably would have sucked him dry if she hadn't found fresher prey and exposed her true nature when she tossed him aside for another man.

Sanji scratched at his arm to relieve some of the uncomfortable feeling that was crawling under his skin. How had he been so blind? So naive? Only an idiot wouldn't have seen through all her manipulation and her lies. It was all his fault he'd wasted so many years in such a twisted relationship - his fault for being too dumb to listen to the people who had tried to warn him before 'she' had made him cut off contact with everyone else.

Feeling dangerously close to tears, Sanji abruptly walked back through the dining room to the entryway and slammed the door shut. The resulting bang made him feel a little better. He locked the deadbolt for good measure and stood there a moment, regaining control. He was a new man now, and he would do whatever it took to make his life what he wanted it to be - starting with the boxes waiting behind him. Taking a deep breath, Sanji turned back to the dining room, muttering to himself, "I guess I should start unpacking..."

The bad feeling crawling over his bones wasn't really gone, but it would get better in time - wouldn't it?

As he stepped through the doorway into the dining room there was a sharp crack from the flooring down the side hall off the entryway as something very large and dark darted out of view. He only barely caught the figure from out of the corner of his eye - it moved so quickly. Too quickly.

All the hair stood up on the back of Sanji's neck and hot adrenaline rushed to his limbs. Cautiously, Sanji backed up and looked back down the side hall. It was empty.

The longer he looked, the blacker the shadows in the side hall appeared. The entryway for the basement steps partway down the hall looked especially threatening, and Sanji edged sideways back into the dining room. He bared his teeth at the darkness for lack of something to scream at and blame for the fright. "Fuck I hope there aren't rats too in this damn shithole!"

The sound of his own voice was somewhat reassuring, and with his courage bolstered by his little show of false bravado, Sanji went back to his pile of posessions in the dining room. He really should try and unpack his toiletries and his cooking equipment before he went to bed. Sanji grabbed his box cutter and began slicing through the tape and attempting to sort through the chaos of each box. As he made piles of stuff - separating them by the room that he planned to store each item in - he couldn't keep his thoughts from uneasily returning to that fleeting shadow. His hair was still prickling on his scalp at the memory. He wouldn't be able to escape something that moved that quickly. This realization increased his unease, and Sanji jumped in fear when his unpacking knocked an empty box onto the floor. He glared daggers at the harmless box, and tried to convince himself that he hadn't actually seen anything. "Don't be an idiot. It was just a shitty shadow!"

Nothing worked. No matter what he told himself, Sanji just couldn't fully shake the feeling of dread that had settled on his shoulders - and he knew that there was no way that 'thing' had been a rat. If anything, it had looked like a person...

Sanji was uncomfortable and jumpy for the rest of the night.

Old houses like this made various sounds - he knew that, but he still found himself checking over his shoulder when the floorboards settled or the pipes hissed behind the walls. Finally he dug his old radio alarm clock out of the boxes and turned up the volume on a pop station loud enough to drown out the sounds of the old house. The music calmed his rattled nerves enough that he found himself adding a little dance to his steps as he put away pans, cookie sheets and other cooking equipment in his new kitchen.

He loved this kitchen. Sanji fondly ran his hand along the old, tile countertop after setting a few cutting boards in a corner. He had so many plans for this place. Take down a wall, put in a double sink, and replace the countertops with a modern cement material and this kitchen would be on it's way to becoming the heart of this home.

Thinking about the changes he wanted to make as he worked did help him feel better and ease his anxiety, but the stress of the day had begun to catch up to his body. Sanji yawned widely as his exhaustion won out. He checked his phone and was surprised to see that the time read 3:29 in the morning. "I guess I should get some sleep."

He shut off the radio and turned off the lights behind himself as he walked through the house. The night was inky black - only lit by a few stars. Sanji had never spent the night without the glare of streetlights shining in the windows before, and he found that he liked the sight of the night sky glittering through the trees as he passed his windows. He went through the dining room to the den and out into the side hall before climbing the stairs. He did cross the side hall quickly, but the night was completely still. There no shitty shadows flitting about here. Sanji grinned to himself - he had obviously been imagining things before. It was easy to do when you were alone in a strange place.

He jogged up the stairs and turned off the hallway light before striding to his new bedroom. The two doors on the upstairs left were empty rooms - but the largest room at the end of the short hall had his all of his bedroom furniture. He'd tipped the moving men to help him get all this shit up the stairs. Thank god that they had been easily bribed.

It really sucked - not having any friends.

Refusing to wallow in any more self-pity that night, Sanji toed off his sneakers and stripped to his boxers before falling face-first onto his mattress. He sighed and let his muscles un-tense as he nuzzled into his sheets. The sounds of a summer night grew louder in Sanji's ears as he stilled and let himself enjoy his fluffy pillow and smooth sheets. Crickets and cicadas filled the night with noise, and he even thought that he heard an owl hooting in the distance. It was a pleasant change from the sounds of car horns and police sirens. However, as he lay there it seemed as if all the sounds kept growing louder and louder - and it wasn't just all the shitty bugs in the county; the damn house was chiming in as well. Honestly, it was the house that was keeping him awake now - all the various sounds were even beginning to drown out the natural sounds from outside.

Creaking, popping and cracking sounded from every corner of the building. The cacophony of clicks and groans that assaulted Sanji's ears blended together into a mess of continuous noise. The complete darkness around him made all the noises seem sharper, and as he listened he found little bits of sound that seemed... strange. He listened closer, trying to figure out where all the racket was coming from, and a chill ran down Sanji's spine when he began to pick specific things out of the din. Voices, footsteps, doors... Sounds came from all around him that didn't belong in an empty house.

Sanji bunched his sheets up around his ears, trying to block out the unnerving noises. It did no good. He groaned when the whispers and crackles seemed to vibrate through the fabric of his bedclothes. He felt frustrated with how anxious those damn noises were making him, and his temper flared when the sound of metal sliding over metal grated from a place that sounded far too close. He ground his teeth and slapped his pillow with his open palm, "Oh my god, just shut the fuck up!"

The silence was so sudden and so complete that it made Sanji's ears ring.

He sat bolt upright in the bed and looked around him in terror. The only noises he could hear were his own movements and his frightened breathing. Even the insects were silent.

What the fuck was going on?

Digging out his phone, Sanji tapped on the screen to activate it and used the light to look around the dark corners of his room. Nothing was there. The creepy silence persisted, and Sanji scooted back into his bed until he felt his headboard against his spine. Was he going insane?

Desperate, Sanji set his phone to cycle through the playlist of jazz tunes he had stored on the machine. He turned up the volume as high as it would go. The music still seemed too soft in the overpowering silence around him... Shouldn't it be the other way around?

He had to do something about this before he lost his mind! His fingers were shaking, and Sanji pressed the wrong button twice before he was able to switch over to his dubstep playlist. The throbbing baselines and wild synthetic melodies were a little better, but Sanji was still too aware of the soundless darkness.

He wasn't sure whether he preferred the shitty voices or the shitty silent treatment, but Sanji knew he was sure as hell getting his television and cable hooked up tomorrow.