Riddles and Scary Stories

by Xythri

The gang, Mikan and the rest, decided to have a sleepover at Natsume's room since it was large enough for all of them. The ten of them formed a circle on Natsume's bed (big, bigbed). Only the two bedside lamps in both sides of the bed were lit.

"So," Mikan started. "What now?"

"I've got an idea!" Sumire beamed (yeah, and imagine a light bulb flash on her head). "How do scary stories sound?"

"No!" Mikan pouted.

"You're so boring, Mikan" Sumire rolled her eyes. Mikan stuck her tongue out.

"Then what are we going to do now?" Yuu asked.

Natsume snorted. "Why don't you all go back to your rooms and sleep?"

"Aw Natsume, we're already here. Besides, it's too dark to get back to my isolated room." Mikan said.

"Scaredy pig." He murmured.

"I heard that!"

"Hey guys," Anna began. "How about riddles?"

Mikan stared at her bug-eyed. "Like Peter Piper?"

BAKA

"What did I do wrong, now?" Mikan rubbed the back of her head for Hotaru shot her again.

Hotaru ignored her. Nonoko answered for her. "That's more of a tongue twister, Mikan."

"Ohh. Iinchou, since you suggested that, why don't you go first?"

"Okay." Yuu answered. "Here–"

"Wait, wait!" Sumire cut him. "Mikan, do you have your stupid night light?"

"Yeah. Here." Mikan handed Sumire a little thing. "And it's not stupid."

Sumire turned off the two lamps and replaced it with the little night light. Now, the room was nothing but darkness and the dim red light (well, I think that's spooky).

"Hey Permy, we're not doing scary stories." Koko said.

"So?"

"Nothing. Go on, Iinchou."

"Okay." And then Yuu coughed. "Umm What's a good one… Ah!

"This is a suicide case. Imagine opening the door to your bathroom. In the tub with little water, you find a lady with a huge hole in her chest and blood spilled everywhere. No weapons were found in the room. None at all. How is this supposed to be a suicide case?"

Everyone was silent. Even Hotaru and Natsume who were exceptionally smart. They were all thinking of how that could be a suicide case.

Kitsuneme spoke up. "She… used the telephone shower to stab herself? I mean, you said it was a big hole."

Yuu chuckled. "No."

"The lady opened the shower. Because the water was too hot, it made a hole in her chest."

"Very stupid, Koko." Sumire rolled her eyes at him. "What happened, Yuu?"

"She used ice. She sharpened it and used it to stab herself. And then the ice melted, explaining the hole in her chest and the water in the tub."

"Ohh." Everyone said (and take Natsume and Hotaru out on that).

"That's so cool!" Mikan squealed.

"Shallow." Natsume muttered.

"I heard that again!" A vein popped on Mikan's head.

"Okay, okay, let's not spoil the night now." Ruka cut the heating fight of Mikan and Natsume. "Who wants to go next?"

"I have one!" Koko said ecstatically.

"Just make sure it has sense." Sumire told him.

He grinned smugly. "Hah! Here goes.

"In a Japanese Navy ship, someone was killed at two in the morning. When the captain was asked, he said 'I was sleeping.' When the crew was asked, he said, 'I was on the deck turning the flag upside down.' When the cook was asked, he said, 'I was cooking.' Who was the killer?"

There was another silence. But it was shorter.

"The cook?" Mikan asked.

"Why?" Koko asked back.

"I dunno."

BAKA

"Won't you ever stop that, Hotaru?!"

"Never."

"The crew." Ruka answered.

"Why?" Koko asked again.

"The Japanese flag only has one big red circle in the middle. It would still remain the same even if it's turned upside down. So why bother doing that? Unless you can't think of anything else as an excuse."

"Aw man. You got it." Koko scowled.

"Oh!" Ruka suddenly remembered something.

"What is it, Ruka?" Nonoko asked.

"N-nothing." He stuttered… which meant something.

"Tell us, Ruka-pyon." Hotaru smiled at him in a way that could make anyone shiver.

"I j-just remembered something. That's all."

"Oh, it must not be that bad, is it?" She remained smiling.

"But it's scary!"

"Which is better!" Sumire chirped.

Ruka inhaled. "I saw–"

"You saw something?" Sumire cut him off.

"Let me finish. I-I saw Mr. Narumi. There was nobody in the room… an-and I saw him dressed up as a woman!"

Creak creak. Everyone was silent, yet again.

"Ooo-kay." Sumire said. "Next!"

"I have a riddle." Nonoko said.

"There are two buildings. Imagine you're in building one. You looked out the window. In building two, you saw a man who just killed another person. He suddenly looked at you. Then he pointed his finger at you and then jerked it up and down. What does that mean?"

The same answer popped inside their heads.

Mikan voiced out everyone's thoughts. "It means that you will be next?"

Nonoko grinned. "That's what normal people would think. The man is somewhat like a psychopath. Try to think like one and you'll be able to answer it."

Even Hotaru and Natsume had to think about the answer. This was hard.

"What is it, what is it?" Kitsuneme asked excitedly.

"Wanna know the answer?" Nonoko asked everybody. They nodded. "He was counting–"

"Counting?" Mikan asked.

"Let me finish. He was counting the floors."

"Why?"

"He wants to know which floor you are in because you're the next he will kill. He must know first where to find you."

"That's, like, kinda funny but freaky." Sumire said.

"Ooh, I have something." Anna said.

"What's it about?" Ruka asked.

"Psychopaths, too.

"So, imagine you're the psychopath killer. There's this one person you have to kill. You are going to his house to kill him and he knows you're coming, so he hid inside a closet. What would you do?"

The same answers flicked into their heads again.

"Open the closet and then kill him?" Mikan voiced their thoughts aloud again.

"That's what normal people would think." Anna repeated Nonoko's words.

Ah. Hotaru thought. Freaky.

"Stand right in front of the closet. Then assault the person in surprise when he comes out. Of course, he can't stay in there forever." Hotaru said.

Yuu's imagination was so vivid that he unconsciously activated his alice. In front of Natsume's closet appeared a really creepy looking man. He looked at the door as if waiting for something to come out. Realizing what had happened, Yuu immediately deactivated the illusion.

Everyone was scared for a while there. A whimper was heard from Mikan. She instinctively grabbed the nearest thing to her at the moment–Natsume's arm. Natsume, on the other hand, smirked. He was amused. The rest laughed at the both of them.

"My turn!" Sumire exclaimed.

"No more!" Mikan said as her head was buried behind Natsume's shoulder.

"This isn't scary, stupid."

"Ok, go."

"A woman died. She has two sisters. In her funeral, a handsome man visited. The two sisters chatted with him and got to know him better. Some time after the funeral, the sisters tried to kill each other. Why is that? Oh, and this is another psychopath thingy."

"They were rivals, duh." Koko stated. "Of course they'd want to kill each other."

"Wrong!"

Mikan raised her head from Natsume's shoulder but never loosened her grip of his arm. She thought about the riddle. If I'm a psycho, what would I do? Ah… AH!

"I know!" She beamed. "If one of them dies, then in the next funeral the handsome dude will come again and then the survivor girl will get to see him again."

"Mikan actually answered a riddle? A hard one, at that." Sumire said disbelievingly.

"Way to go, Mikan!" Yuu praised.

"Maybe she already knew that one." Natsume reasoned to tease Mikan.

"I so did not!" She crossed her arms across her chest and pouted.

"Whatever."

"I wanna hear Natsume tell his story!" Sumire pleaded.

"I don't." Natsume muttered.

"C'mon, Natsumeeeee." Mikan also pleaded but with big round puppy eyes that you can't resist.

"…You asked for it."