Chapter Text
It was a rainy night in the city of Chicago, Illinois, one like many others. The grounds were muddy, puddles forming everywhere you turned. The sight was chilling to the bone, it made many want to cuddle up under a blanket and drink hot chocolate by the dozen. It was on that very, dreary night in the big city that a group of teenagers were huddled around a candle in a lone classroom. Way after school bells had been rang and even after the detentions had been let out, a story echos down the hall, a low voice narrating it.
“It was a rainy evening after school, much like this one.” The voice starts, coming from a raven haired boy whose face was lit in the candlelight. “Running down the stairs, the kindly teacher lost her footing,” He smirks, looking around at the other boys who were also crowded around the candle, “She tumbled, and she fell, and she died.” His eyes display a morbid sense of excitement.
“You’ve all heard the stories, no?” He continues, “Before Pencey Preparatory was built here there was another school built on this property.” There’s a long pause and as the boy looks around he examines the faces of his friends. They all seem thoroughly interested, some frightened just by how creepy he was being.
“Heavenly Host Elementary School, it was called.” He finally says, saying it in the lowest voice he could muster, “Such a horrible thing to happen…” A pause, “The principal was completely devastated. He cared for the school almost as if it were his own child, you see.” The boy now sounds timid, but there’s a fire that burns brighter than the candle in his eyes. It was obvious he lived for telling stories such as these.
“But one thing led to another after the incident…and ultimately, a decision was reached. The school was to be shut down.” A gasp is emitted from the boys’ audience, only causing him to smile. “The principal was so stricken with grief over losing his child that,” Another pause for effect, “On the day of its closure he climbed up to its roof,” With spindly fingers, he reaches up and makes a gesture of walking up stairs, “and threw himself to his death!”
There’s an obvious shuffle of bodies, a gasp, and then silence as they waited for their friend to continue. “Or so the story goes.” The boy shrugs and looks content with himself as he sits back and smiles. “People thought Heavenly Host was cursed, you see. This was just the latest of many deaths to occur there. That’s why it was torn down…” There’s a lull in his story, his eyes travelling to the side as if he was apprehensive.
“However!” He starts suddenly, causing a blonde headed boy nearest to him to jump. “They say the teacher who fell down the stairs has no idea she’s dead, even to this very day.” He says, “And on rainy evenings like this, after our school day’s come to an end…” Most of the people in the darkened classroom look thoroughly frightened, some holding on to each other for support.
“...Some claim she roams these darkened hallways...still believing them to be her own.” The boys’ hair falls into his face as he says the last part, dragging each word out as much as he could. He laughs slightly, looking down and putting a finger just under his chin, “In fact, it’s almost time for her to make her rounds. Just after seven o’clock.” He looks around, narrowing his eyes at the door, “That’s when she appears, always accompanied by a sudden black out that leaves the entire building dark as night.” His eyes flick back to his group of friends in a fast movement.
“‘Knock, knock,’” The boy knocks on the floor below him, “you’ll here from the blackness. Followed by the sound of the classroom door sssslowly ssssliding open…” There’s a giggle that escapes from his mouth, an unnerving one, “As her pale white face cuts through the stillness, her soft voice always echoes the same question: is anyone still here? Then-”
He’s cut off as a loud crash of thunder echoes through the room, the lights switching off simultaneously. There’s a yell from another boy in the back, long and full of fright. You can barely see the raven-haired boy's smile in the candlelight.
The same boy that yelled speaks up, his face and his black hair that was styled into a pompadour noticeable in the light of the candle, “It’s…a blackout!” He points out the obvious, worry lines creasing his forehead.
Another boy comes up to him, the blonde boy from earlier, comes up to the boy and scolds him, “Pete! Pull yourself together! Don’t scare us like that!”
“But,” The boy, Pete, whines, “It was scary, Patrick!”
The storyteller frowns, interjecting himself into the conversation, “Mmm, I don’t like this. This shouldn’t be happening.” This stirs someone else who are scared out of their wits from the other side of the classroom. The walk over with a smirk on their face, clapping.
“Nice one, Way, You had me for a minute.” It’s another boy with raven hair, though he’s shorter than the storyteller, who would have prefered to have been called Gerard.
“It wasn’t me, Iero! I’ve been standing her this whole time, how could it have been? This is a real black out.” Gerard retorts, narrowing his eyes and stepping closer to the infuriating boy.
Iero, or Frank, just huffs and steps away from Gerard, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly. Suddenly another boy stands up, red bangs hiding most of his face out of view.
“Um,” He sounds hesitant, “Does anyone else...hear that?” The question is vague, but there’s definitely a sound coming from somewhere. The red heads best friend stands up, coughs, and then nods.
“I do, Kier, it sounds like it’s coming from the music room.” Another dark haired boy, but this one has obvious eyeshadow around his eyes and his thicker than the other two, but not by much. His name, you would find out was Laurence.
“No way…” Kier mutters to Laurence and, just as he does, Gerard says the same thing. First the blackout and now the door...That could only mean one thing.
Pete lets out a low noise, obviously terrified, falling forward in fear. Patrick startles, screwing his face up in annoyance.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Wentz?! Get ahold of yourself!” He grunts, trying to push the boy off of him, “...a-and get off me! Your heads against my di-” Pete cuts Patrick off by falling backwards.
“Ah, sorry! Sorry, sorry! I’m so sorry, Patrick! I couldn’t see where I was falling, and, and-” Patrick cuts Pete off this time.
“Put a sock in it, Wentz.” The red tint to his cheeks is barely visible, but it’s enough for Pete to feel embarrassed by the situation himself. Just then the noise gets louder, causing the whole classroom to startle once again. There’s a panicked silence that ensues and only is broken by a boy with a pompadour much like Pete’s, but thinner and less pinned down.
“I told you guys we shouldn’t have stayed here so late, didn’t I!” He’s biting his bottom lip, holding onto a lanky, brown haired boy who looks almost bored of everything. He obviously didn’t get scared easily.
“Shut up, Brendon.” The bored boy montones, then he looks as if he’s thought of something, “Actually, B, aren’t you gonna get the door?” There’s a sadistic smile on his face now.
“W-what?” Brendon mutters, eyes wide.
“You’re so brave, B, so aren’t you gonna get the door? For me?” Now there seems to be some life in this boys eyes.
“Uh, sure, Ryan. You’re brave, too, though...so, um, why don’t you get it?” Brendon offers, a sheepish smile on his face. He’s let go of Ryan’s arm now, so Ryan lifts it up and puts his hand on Brendon’s shoulder.
“I’m not as brave as you are, Bren.” That whole sentence sounded as cocky as Ryan could possibly have made it, but Brendon doesn’t hear it. He just smiles up at Ryan and nods determinedly.
Brendon snakes around some people, heading towards the door. Ryan feels a tap on his shoulder, turns around to see that his friend Shane is looking at him disapprovingly.
“That was cold, man.” Shane says, shaking his head and sighing. Ryan just smirks and turns back around. He fucking loved doing shit like this to Brendon.
Once Brendon reaches the door he pauses. After a moment he reaches for the handle, but is startled back from it when he hears an eerie voice from the other side of the door.
“Is anyone still here…?” The voice asks, “Go home, children.” It draws out and not even a second later Brendon is basically pushed back from where he was standing as the door is yanked open. He lands hard on his tailbone, causing all the wind in his body to leave him as he hits the floor.
Instead of some creepy, ghostly being walking in the door, however, it was just their teacher, Mr. Saporta. Brendon could practically hear the screams of joy from wherever the hell his friend William was standing in the back. Mr. Saporta starts cackling, bending over and wiping tears from his eyes as he does so.
Once he calmed down, the teacher looks around at the shocked and angry faces of his students, “Did I scare you?”
Brendon sits up, grimacing at the soreness in his bottom, “Mr. Saporta?!” He asks, his shoulders slumping as he look behind himself and at his classmates.
William steps forward, a lanky, curly haired brunette who had a fedora sat atop his head, one that wasn’t his much to Patrick’s dismay, “Hey, teach.” He practically purrs, a smirk on his face. Almost everyone in the room makes a face, save from Ryan who really wasn’t even paying attention anymore.
“Beckett!” Mr. Saporta smiles, nodding at the boy. Pete was pretty sure that if it wasn’t illegal in the state of Illinois (and probably in the state of everywhere else, too) to date your teacher, then William and Mr. Saporta would’ve already had at least 3 kids and two mortgages flat. Though, Frank had bet that they’d have 4 kids, a dog, and their own garden by now, but that was a little too much in Pete’s opinion.
Though, that was beside the point right now. Gerard was laughing as he walked up to Mr. Saporta, giving him a high five and a cheeky smile. “I’d call that a success, if I do say so myself.” Gerard remarks, smirking at all his friends as he says so.
“We’ve been had!” Kier and Laurence shriek, frowns visible on their faces now that Mr. Saporta has clicked the lights back on.
“Your timing couldn’t have been more perfect, Mr. Saporta!” Gerard laughs giddily, clapping his hands together and throwing his head back. Mr. Saporta smiles at Gerard, obviously not seeing anything wrong in the harmless prank.
“Well, not too long ago I was a student here. I remember all the legends and wives tales, though they were a little more tame in my days as a student.” The teacher shrugs, but looks around at the room of students. In the corner was Kier laughing at Brendon, exclaiming that his reaction was ‘priceless’ and ‘should’ve been filmed, dammit.’
“Language, Mr. Kemp.” Mr. Saporta directs that towards Kier, and although they aren’t at school, Kier acts as if the police just caught him stealing something.
“Sorry.” He rubs his neck sheepishly, looking at Laurence in vain attempt to have the teacher off his back.
“Anyway, Gerard,” Mr. Saporta turns back to the pale boy, “I found a little something waiting in the hall for you.” On that cue, the teacher turns around and ushers a little boy with dirty blonde hair and square glasses in. He goes up to about Mr. Saporta’s waist and is holding a soaking wet umbrella between tiny fingers.
“Gee!” The little boy is quick to latch onto his brother, a wide smile spreading across his face.
“Mikey, what in the world are you doing here?” Gerard bends down, looking his little brother in the eyes, “Did you walk here all by yourself?”
“Uh huh!” Mikey nods, “Mommy told me to bring you your umbrella, because you forgot it.” The little boy shakes the umbrella, tiny droplets of water flinging themselves onto his glasses and into Gerard’s hair.
“Aw, thanks.” He takes the umbrella, leaning it against the side of a stray desk. His knees pop as he stand back up, taking Mikey’s tiny hand in his own larger one. He gets ready to introduce him to his friends, but before he can there’s a hurricane of Drew Woolnough in his face.
“Why didn’t you say you had a brother, he’s so cute!” Drew resembles a crazed mother as he mucks about, pinching Mikey’s cheeks and altogether grinning at him with the widest smile he could manage. Gerard just giggles, rolling his eyes at the short boy and shushing him away from his younger brother, who actually looks like he’s enjoying the attention.
“Come on, Wooly.” Drew is dragged away by none other than Kier, which is strange, considering that would normally be Shane. Although, with one glance in Shane’s direction, it’s obvious that he’s preoccupied with a panda sitting on top of him, the panda being Laurence.
After another couple moments of chitter chatter, the attention is called back to Gerard as he shushes the crowd, even gaining Mr. Saporta’s attention. “Guys, guys, gather around again, please.” Everyone does as told, ears listening intently in the silent room. The rain pounds against the ground outside, creating a gloomy atmosphere.
“Now, we all know why we’re here today, after all. Not just to muck around and have a good time,” Gerard sighs, locking his eyes with Kier’s. Just a couple of months ago Kier had been the happiest he’d ever been, his parents were settled, and his house finally felt like a home. Then his dad's job moved again, much to everyone’s misfortune. Now in two days he was moving basically across country and it broke everyone in the rooms heart.
“Kier, we’re here for you, sort of a going away party,” Gerard smiles sadly. Shane speaks up, teary eyes making him sound choked up.
“You’re my best friend! You shouldn’t be moving, it’s wrong!” He cries, tears finally slipping from his eyes. Kier looks in about the same condition, looking at all of his friends that he’s made over the two years he’d been in the city.
“Guys, don’t get all teary yet!” Gerard pipes up again, diverting all the attention back onto him. The light made his complexion look almost orange, his eyes sincere. “I have something we can do to be best friends forever. All of us!” He practically giggles in glee.
“Oh, no, not another one of those creepy ritual things.” Frank groans, rolling his eyes and glaring at Gerard from exact opposite of the lopsided circle they’d created. Gerard glares back.
“For your information, it isn’t creepy. Here,” Gerard suddenly turns around, reaching for his bag that lay strewn across a desk, fiddling around inside until he pulled out a piece of paper fashioned to look like a doll of sorts. The edges were slightly bent from his bag, but the paper was crisp and white, clasped tightly between two of Gerard’s fingers.
“It’s paper?” Kier questions, not looking like he’s cheered up much. If this was Gerard’s idea of a gift, then Kier really didn’t want to see what else he had in his bag.
“Magical...paper!” Gerard sticks his tongue out, rolling his eyes. Conversations start to arise again, causing a slight ruckus in the classroom. Gerard quickly puts a stop to this, “Come on, guys, listen.”
“Everybody take an edge, any edge.” Gerard held the head, sticking his arm out invitingly for anyone to grab ahold. Everyone is hesitant at first, knowing just how much trouble the storyteller normally got himself into because of these things. Nonetheless, everyone but Frank and Ryan grab it anyway.
“Come on, Ry.” Brendon nudges his friend with his free elbow, giving him a pleading face. Ryan sighs deeply, looking as if he didn’t want to be there exactly. No one really knew how Ryan became a part of their friend group, something to do with Brendon meeting him and forever never being able to shut up about him, probably. No one could see why Brendon liked him so much, seeing as all Ryan did was pester Brendon and be as rude as possible to all his friends.
“Whatever.” Ryan shrugs, grabbing a space next to Brendon. Frank still stood defiantly, arms crossed over his chest, nose upturned. Gerard just looked at him, annoyed expression on his face. This was for Kier, couldn’t Frank see that it could be the last time Kier could speak to any of them. Though, Gerard know that isn’t true, but it upsets him nonetheless.
“Frank…” Kier speaks up before Gerard has the chance to, surprising him slightly. Frank also looks slightly surprised, looking at the short red head. “Come on, friends forever.” He frowns deeply, lines creasing his upper brow. Frank looks guiltily at the paper doll before he gives in, eyes meeting Gerard’s as he does. Gerard understands that Frank’s fingers clamping down onto the doll had nothing to him, but everything to do with the sad puppy that Kier was.
“Now, how many of us is there?” Gerard uses his free hand to count hands, dotting his finger in the air over each of his friends. One, two, three...thirteen, christ. No wonder it was such a tight fit.
“Now, there’s something we chant...thirteen times, unfortunately, but those are the circumstances.” Gerard looks sheepishly over his friends, “We must say ‘Sachiko, we beg of you’ thirteen times. No more no less, no screw ups. That’s final.” Gerard gives his best look of authority. “After that you pull as hard as you can until you tear a small piece of paper off and that symbolises our friendship. Put it in your student ID’s, your wallets, whatever. Just do not lose it.”
“B-but, Gee, what if we mess up?” Mikey asks from down somewhere near Gerard’s hip. The older of the two looks down, lips pressed into a thin line, but eyes reassuring Mikey.
“We won’t.” He says sternly, giving Mikey an encouraging smile, and then looking back at his friends. “On three, guys.” Gerard begins to count slowly and by the time he hits three everyone bursts into a chorus of ‘Sachiko, we beg of you.’
The thunder outside growls, lightning flashing outside the window and the rain pouring down just a little harder, sounding like hail against the rooftops of the neighboring buildings at houses. As for the school, all the students could hear was the rain hitting the glass of the window. The students inside all cheer in glee, each holding a tiny scrap of paper with huge smiles on their faces. Kier had happy tears in his eyes as everyone tucked their paper away respectively.
“I’m seriously going to miss you guys...so much.” Kier sniffles, leaning into Laurence for comfort. Laurence wraps an arm around the smaller boy, rubbing his shoulder affectionately. This causes Brendon to practically fall over as he yells, “Group hug!” Kier laughs as the bunch of wrap him in their embrace, barely aware of the bright light that practically blinds him. He looks up, squinting slightly, barely able to see Mr. Saporta smiling wholeheartedly, a digital camera in his hands.
“Guys, I love you all too, but someone absolutely reeks of B.O.” Kier laughs, pushing them all away awkwardly. There’s a bunch of awkward laughs and loud shrieks of suspects, when suddenly the ground starts to hum in a small vibration. Kier looks down in confusion, smile still on his face. The vibrations getting a lot more violent very fastly, causing Kier to lose his balance and to be sent spiralling forward.
“Earthquake!” He hears someone yell, but as soon as they do the ground being to fall away. This isn’t any normal earthquake, Kier thinks. Before he can think anything else, he’s being sent flying across the floor, shirt riding up as he’s pushed by an invisible force. He’s being pushed straight into one of the many, forming holes in the floor, screaming for his friends as he does so.
“Kier!” It’s Laurence who calls out, scrabbling to reach his friend before he’s sent plummeting to what everyone would assume his death. He manages to catch his hand, but not before he’s sent into the darkness of the hole. Laurence screams as he’s taken down with him, then he see’s black.
The rest of the students are a mess, screaming and attempting to stay away from the massive holes littering the floor, panic settled into each other their stomachs, tears being squeezed from their eyes. A loud boom of thunder cuts into the room, the ground finally shaking so violently that it sends the entire room into the dark pits of nothingness. Though on initial look, that is true, but so much more lies behind them. So, so much more, they’d come to find out.