Day one – April the First

"Meeeeeeeeeerliiiiiiiiiiiin!"

Merlin mumbled something in his sleep and turned over. The sky outside was still dark and stars were scattered across over the ink-coloured night. A pale, full moon was just hanging above the horizon, lighting the ground beneath it. Everything was quiet. The silence was interrupted, however, by a loud voice coming from the cabinet.

"Meeeeeeerliiin! Waaaake uuupppp, Meeeeerlin!"

But there was still no response, and it annoyed Arthur immensely. He was sitting with his back against a closed door, which was the entry to Merlin's bedroom. In his hand he held a remote control; he pressed a button to turn up the volume of the CD player, which he had hidden in Merlin's closet. It was his intention to give his room-mate a rude awakening, thus scaring the living daylights out of him. After all, it was April Fools' day! Okay, it didn't have to be a special day to prank Merlin, but it was a perfect excuse...

He had started the tape at 0:02 am, but when he checked his watch, it was 8 minutes later. In that time, he had upped the volume three times, and Merlin still hadn't woken. Trust that raven-haired idiot to do this to him in his moment of glory…

Arthur was getting restless. It was taking too long! He had never known his friend was such a fast sleeper! He decided to help destiny along a bit.

"Meeeerlin!" the tape groaned in an unrecognisable voice, which was definitely Arthur's. Softly, with his knuckles, the blonde tapped the door. When this did nothing, however, he made a fist and slammed it upon the wood. There. That should wake Merlin.

"WHAA!!! WHO?! WHAT? HOW?!" The tumult of confusion sounded from inside the room. Finally! He was awake: Arthur changed the CD to track two.

"Meeeerliiiin, I'm the ghoooost of your scaaaaaaarf's paaaast!" the voice groaned loudly. Arthur heard Merlin shriek; the boy was probably hiding away under his sheets, and Arthur had to hold his hand over his mouth to restrain himself from laughing.

"Meeerliin! Do you rememberrr the scarf you got last yeaaar? For Chrrristmaaaas?"

"Yeeaah… I do? So? Leave me alone!"

"Why did you abandon me, Merlin? Why?"

Merlin took in a sharp breath.

"I didn't abandon you! I look after all my scarves!"

Arthur was sliding to the floor, laughing uncontrollably now, but trying to stay silent. He couldn't miss what was going on! Just wait till he confronted Merlin with this the following morning…!

"You left me, Meeeeerliiiin!"

Arthur just knew Merlin's bottom lip was trembling.

"I didn't leave you. I… I would never leave you –" he started, but a wrenching sob devoured his last few words. Tears were probably running over his cheeks, Arthur thought. He pressed another button and the CD changed to track three. He had carefully planned this, went trough it step by step, and, in the end, perfected it.

"Crying is too late now, Meeeerliiiiin. I'm already looooooost. Foreeevaaaaaaah!"

He heard something moving, and the bed issued a creak. Shaking in his terror, Merlin had pulled the pillow over his head to block out the voice. Arthur airily turned the volume up. The voice was now shouting through the doors of the cabinet, filling the room with an awful noise, quite possibly loud enough to wake the neighbours. And awakened they were! They started banging the walls, creating an even more spooky effect. Arthur made a mental note to thank them for that.

"You left me in the park, leaving me there on the bench, to soak in the rain, to erode by the forces of nature, to be taken by strangers, chewed on by dogs…"

"Noooooo, please stop!" Merlin whined. But the voice carried on.

"…to be thrown in the garbage, to be thrown on a landfill, treated like rubbish and lie there, completely forgot– wait, that isn't right…"

Arthur's eyes widened. He didn't… Oh no! He smacked his hand against his forehead. He had put the wrong track on the CD! While recording it, he had made a mistake in reading the lines.

"Let me do that again," he heard himself saying out of the speaker, with his normal voice. Frantically, Arthur started to search for the remote control, pushing the stop-button a couple of times.

There were a couple of loud thumps, feet crushing down on the wooden floor, and Arthur fell backwards as Merlin opened the door.

"You…" Merlin said, his eyes filled with fire and… remaining tears. "I just knew it was you… Why would you –?!"

"APRIL FOOLS!!!" Arthur yelled, pointing his finger at Merlin. Even though he hadn't reached the end of his prank, he had succeeded perfectly!

"Not funny…" Merlin closed the door in Arthur face.

Hi everybody! Thank you for reading! I know this is complete madness again, but I just cannot help it! :P I wanna thank MagicbyMerlin for letting me steal her ideas. Sorry, Gemz!
Anyway, tomorrow there will be another chapter! And the day after that, and the day after that... and they day after that...