Phantoms

Chapter 1

The Beginning

Rated: T Probably lower but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Warning: none.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters used nor do I have any rights to the book I read to get the inspiration for these stories. The book "Phantom Animals" was written by Daniel Cohen.

Let me start by saying that this story is one of the reasons that I'm being so slow to bring out the next chapter of "Spiral".

These chapters will be short but I'm releasing them as a set for Halloween. The ghost stories used will be based on "true" ghost stories, though I will obviously be changing some aspects to make them fit into this story. As with all of my stories this has no Beta, so please forgive (and/or point out) the errors that I might avoid or fix them in the future.

0.o

A gentle breeze floated through the woods shaking the tree branches and sending the leaves into a delicate dance. On it lingered the scent of a previous rain but the quite of the moment was ruined by groans that cut through the once peaceful night.

"What in the world happened?" A light feminine voice asked.

"I had to swerve to avoid a dog," the normally humorous voice of the red-headed driver replied in a dazed toned.

"What dog? I didn't see anything," the third voice coming from a shy boy spoke hesitantly.

"Don't be an idiot, there was no dog. The tire blew out is all," the fourth person in there group answered roughly, biting back another groan as he rose to his feet.

After the others rose with varying grunts and groans of their own, they gathered near their dark-haired friend as he surveyed the damaged car lying in a small ditch, its front crushed and partially wrapped around the tree in front of it.

"We were lucky that we were thrown free," the dark-haired girl spoke her voice coming out more calmly.

"Is everybody okay? Lenalee, Lavi, Allen." The rough voice cut sharply through the night again as he looked from one to the other and took in their conditions. Dark-hair, red-hair and rare white/silver-hair all bobbed in the night as their owners nodded affirmative, though Allen gripped his left arm a bit awkwardly and the others looked a bit shaken up they seemed in pretty good condition all things considered.

"What do we do now, Kanda?" The shy pale-haired boy, Allen, asked in a still shaky voice as he gazed between the remains of the car and the dark long-haired man, now identified as Kanda.

Kanda frowned a little as his hand went to the place on his belt that his cell phone usually hung from, finding it empty he asked the others. "Does anybody still have their phone?"

Lenalee looked but couldn't find her purse, while Lavi quickly checked his pockets and he quickly discovered that he didn't have his either.

"Should we check to see if they're in the area?" Allen asked as he stood by Kanda looking nervous, nobody minded that he did search for a phone as they knew that he didn't have to money to purchase one.

"Don't be stupid," Kanda snapped at him in irritation making Allen flinch slightly.

"I'm afraid it wouldn't do any good, in this place they could be at our feet and we'd still never see them," Lavi spoke gently.

Indeed looking around with all of the leaves on the ground one could be standing almost on them in broad daylight and never notice them.

"So what do we do then?" Lenalee asked seeing that Allen was too afraid of making Kanda angrier to ask again.

"Let's get away from the car the smell's giving me a headache," Kanda grunted back in reply.

The others agreed readily as from the smell the radiator had apparently cracked, sending coolant onto the engine to be burnt off, resulting in a thick cloying scent that was easily overpowering them.

"We shouldn't go too far though, if someone else comes along we want to be able to see and hear them," Lavi put in as Kanda started to walk away.

"How about over there," Allen spoke, pointing to the small incline on the left of them. "We might not be able to see the car but we should still be able to see the road and we'll be more protected from the wind."

The wind was indeed starting to pick up, the branches and leaves now beginning to clash together. Slightly shivering the others quickly made their way to the small hill.

"I'm freezing. I wish that we had a fire or at least a blanket," Lenalee said, giving a small pout as she wrapped her arms around her bent knees trying to get warmer. Lavi took the hinted offer and pulled her to his side and sharing his warmth with her by winding his arm around her shoulders.

Allen nodded in agreement as he curled himself into a tight ball taking care to avoid further aggravating his arm and fought off the shivers wracking his small body. 'This is certainly not the way I was expecting the night to go when I got Lavi's invitation.'

"Well, I don't think that we'll be making the party but I really hope that somebody comes along soon," as if answering Allen's unspoken statement, Lavi spoke his voice somewhat muffled because of his hunched position around Lenalee.

"I wouldn't count on it," Kanda snorted, his voice sounding between amusement and disgust. "Everybody else is either at a party of their own somewhere or at home asleep."

It was probably a safe assumption considering that it was almost around 11:30 pm on the night before Halloween. Their party was set to begin at midnight and, because it was the weekend, was set to keep going well into Halloween itself.

After another heavy gust of wind left them all shivering again Allen hesitantly spoke again, "Isn't there a lighter in the car?"

A stunned silence fell among their little group as it dawned on them that there was indeed one.

"I can't believe I forgot about it," Lavi exclaimed.

"Kanda, can you go and get it?" Lenalee asked, a pleading look in her eyes.

"Why can't Lavi get it, it's his car."

"Because I'm cold and I don't want to freeze more," she stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Then what about Allen?" Kanda asked stubbornly.

"He came up with the idea, he shouldn't have to retrieve it. Besides you can't ask him, look at how cold he is already." Pausing to give said boy a gentle look as he shivered again she gave the coup de grace. "He'll get sick if he doesn't get warmer soon. You don't want that, do you?"

Kanda could only give a muted growl as he got to his feet and headed back to the car to retrieve the lighter.

"Get a pit started, we don't want to burn the forest down!" He snapped over his shoulder.

0.o

Though Kanda was looking a bit paler when he returned to the group the overall mood was considerably more cheerful now that they crowded together around a fire blazing in the make shift pit.

"What should we do to pass the time now?" Allen inquired.

Their last activity of "I spy" didn't end well when Lavi keep using leaves as his item and Kanda threatened to feed him to the flames.

"Hey, I've got a great idea!" Lavi proclaimed proudly.

"I'm going to kill you if you even think of mentioning the word leaf," Kanda promised darkly, while Lenalee and Allen giggled.

"Oh, come on I've seriously got a great idea, I promise," Lavi insisted with shining eyes, waiting in anticipation while the others became more curious.

Allen was the first to break the hush, "What is it?"

"We should tell ghost stories!"

A brief moment passed among them as they took in his idea, even Kanda was wearing a thoughtful expression.

"That's not a bad idea," Lenalee agreed clutching Lavi's arm and catching his excitement.

"I will help to pass the time," Allen agreed happily.

"Not bad, Lavi." Lavi's face broke into an even bigger smile at Kanda's comment.

"Plus it will help take our minds off the cold," Lavi nodded assuredly to himself.

"Idiot, ghost stories are supposed to give you the chills."

Lavi's face fell briefly at Kanda's statement but he quickly recovered his grin as he looked at the others, "so who wants to go first?"

0.o

A/N: The ghost stories start in the next chapter I hope that you'll enjoy them.

Feedback is appreciated. If you don't like it it's fine but please give me a reason so that I may try to fix or avoid the faults in the future.