I scare little children. I scare adults. I scare my friends.
Everyone. Everyone, I've been able to scare, except her.
She was the exception. No matter how hard I tried, I always failed.
But I was determined. No matter what, I would find a way to scare Haruhi Fujioka.

~Prelude~

My name is Umehito Nekozawa, and I wasn't always scary. I was born as a beautiful blond boy, with shimmering blue eyes. I still have those two features. Yet they are not displayed the same any longer. Light has forced me to let out my dark side. Darkness has consumed me.

I wear a wig. Black and approximately the same length as my real hair. I do nothing to hide my eyes. They shine out blue to anyone who dares look me in the face. But they are all afraid. Except him.

Day and night I wear a cloak. It has become my regular attire. It allows for eternal darkness. A shield from the light that bores down so heavily upon me. To put it simply, you could say I was allergic to the sun. But it's much worse than that, for I am cursed.

Light burns like fire. Drains my energy. Causes me to suffer. So I hide. In the beginning I only stayed inside, closed off from the outer world. But as I grew up, I began to embrace my true nature, and began interest in the occult. Since then I've practiced dark arts and have been a fearful thing to all.

Some say it's my voice. It rattles like dead chains. Some say it's my puppet. A creepy cat with glaring eyes. Others say it's the fact that I make an entrance silently and without notice. But most say, or think if they don't dare say it, that it's my appearance. A teenager with dark black hair hanging across his face, shrouded in a dark black cloak, hunching over as he walks. I don't try to be scary. I just am.

I have since embraced this undeniable fact and have taken a new joy in scaring people. In fact it has become a certain hobby of mine.

But now I have reached a dilemma. Never before have I had trouble scaring people. Haruhi is the first.

A very strange young boy. Girlish in appearance. Large brown eyes. A serious attitude. And, as yet I've seen, an inability to feel fear.

I've tried everything. Sneaking up on him. Offering him cursed eyeballs. Even dangling skulls in his face. He doesn't react at all. Or if he does, it is with polite words, showing not the slightest hint of fear.

I've hidden notes in his desk. I've even tried cursing him. I've done everything I could possibly think of. But I'm not giving up. It may seem hopeless, but I cannot stand knowing he doesn't fear anything. Everyone must fear something. Yet he seems apathetic to everything.

~Chapter One~

The morning light glistened through the library, as I huddled in the corner, darkness enveloping me. I stared across the room at the object of my recent obsession, Haruhi Fujioka. I was determined to find it. His weakness. The way I could scare him. I knew he had one.

Haruhi glanced over and caught my eyes. I held him there, my mouth turning into a wicked smile.

Haruhi blinked then returned the smile warmly. He then resumed work on his papers and ignored me.

"Er…" I cry, frustrated. The same response. Nothing more than that. No sign of anything. Yet another failure.

I stood up prepared to try a different approach. I exited my sanctuary of darkness, pulling my cloak tightly around me to block as much sun as possible. Several long strides across the oven and I was standing before Haruhi.

"Fujioka-san," I began, putting on a drawl that would make spiders drop dead. "I must request a service of you." I leaned in closer to him, a wicked grin planted on my lips.

Haruhi didn't even stop to think about it. "Sure, Nekozawa-san. What do you need?"

I sighed internally. This was not going as planned. I continued anyway, already seeing that my plan would fail. "I've a cursed body I found sprawled on the floor in the closet of my clubroom. It is fairly heavy, and I need to remove it as soon as possible or the whole school will receive the same terrible curse that caused him to meet his demise. Would you assist me?"

Haruhi stared at me. Then he spoke, "Why are you asking me? Don't you need someone stronger? Why not ask Mori or one of your club members?"

Good point. As always Haruhi saw through my every attempt. Though he still was unaware of my quest to scare him clean out of his wits. I smiled painfully. "But I want you to assist me, Fujioka-san."

Haruhi sighed and stood up. "When do you need my help?"

My face lit up with glee. "Right now would be perfectly fine, if you'll come with me down to the clubroom." Excellent. A new plan was springing to life in my mind. If I could get him into my clubroom, I might finally succeed, The place itself offered so many ways to scare Haruhi, if my special ritual wouldn't be enough.