[-][L-N+][P-1x1] Light My Way to the Afterlife (closed now)

[BrokenScreamBox]

There is a large and dark house, a mansion, far in the darkest street of a small town. Flourescent lights glow often at night and people who walk in to investigate always run away screaming. Scratching sounds or shrieks come from this particular house. The owner was only last seen about half a century ago, and nobody bothered to buy the mansion in fear of the rumor of his ghost. Once in a while, a candelabra would be seen floating through the streets and scaring people back into their houses to wait for it to go away. In a way, the townsfolk were ruled by the mystery of that house.

In the rain, on the foggiest of nights, a small boy had no choice but to stay in that terrible mansion, not knowing how to get home in the fog. He was cold, frightened, and most of all he was alone. Just as he knocks on the door, it opens and the room inside lights up. Drawn in by warmth, the boy, Sakurai Kochi, walks in as if somebody is welcoming him. He feels someone's hand on his shoulder, but nobody is there... save for a floating candelabra!

Shocked, he ran blindly deeper into the house, crashing into various objects in the dark and ripping through invisible hands that try to stop him. Eventually, he collapses, exhausted, and he sees a person appear where a floating candelabra was.

Rules

♠ No content above PG-13
♠ Please be active
♠ Try not to god-mod
♠ No text talk, since the decoding is annoying
♠ Minimize swearing
♠ Most of the time, at least two paragraphs per post
♠ One-paragraph posts are allowed, just not a continuous pattern
♠ If you're interested, please PM a profile

Character Skeleton

[b][u]Candelabra Brand[/u][/b]: (username)
[b][u]Engraving[/u][/b]: (Name)
[b][u]The ages[/u][/b]: (15+)
[b][u]In a relationship, I could have been[/u][/b]: (USS)
[b][u]Haunting[/u][/b]: (Personality and History)
[b][u]How can you see me?[/u][/b]:

 

[BrokenScreamBox]

The Mausoleum

Candelabra Brand: Crazy_Tomboy313
Engraving: Sakurai Kochi
The ages: 15
In a relationship, I could have been: Uke
Haunting: I don't really believe in rumors and such like that, but I'm still scared of that house. Actually, I'm afraid of anything related to the dark. I'm a kind person, but I tend to be jumpy and I overreact before you know it.

My family had moved into this little town just for a quiet place. I never really liked the big city, either, but I wish I was back there. At least there weren't any haunted areas there. Now I have to deal with a floating candelabra in the streets. To make matters worse, I get lost in the rain and fog and I have to stay in that house! Could my life get any worse?
How can you see me?:

Candelabra Brand: Shuichi-taru
Engraving: Keichi Ashitaka
The ages: 21
In a relationship, I could have been: Seke
Haunting: Keichi has a rather dark sense of humor. He doesn't truly mean anyone any harm but he's been too long alone to get along well with anyone he's just met. He isn't entirely certain how he died or why he hasn't passed on.
His family owned this mansion, but they all have moved on, either to the afterlife or to another city. Only Keichi stayed behind, the plan had been that he stay until he graduated and move on to join his family. Everything had been going fine, sure he was lonely but he only had a year of school to complete and the servants had made sure there was at least someone seeing to his well being. At least up until he died, his spirit roamed the halls not believing he was dead. Not suprisingly this caused all the staff to quit. So he lived, well as much as a ghost could live, wandering around his mansion and sometimes into the streets, searching for someone, anyone to help ease his loneliness.
How can you see me?  

[BrokenScreamBox]

False alarm.  

[BrokenScreamBox]

Fear. That was what Sakurai was feeling right now as he stood on the doorstep of an incredibly old house. It was raining, so he couldn't stay outside, and it was foggy, so he couldn't go home. The only way to escape the rain would be to stay at this particular house, which had been the only one he could see in the fog. Unfortunately, it was the haunted house that everybody had been scared of.

"Don't ever go into the house," many people had said to him. "The cursed candelabra will burn you to ashes if you do." Has anyone ever really seen the person holding it? He heard that it only hung around the house or came out not very often. Maybe someone just likes holding the candelabra. That was what he tried to think of in hopes of chasing away his own growing fears.

Cautiously, he knocked on the door, expecting someone to answer or perhaps chase him away. Hopefully, the occupants of the house wouldn't be so cruel as to leave him out here. Even if the house was haunted, he feared death by cold more. If the house was only empty, then he wouldn't have to worry so much about the candelabra that everyone was afraid of.  

[Shuichi Mhakaraca]

Keichi looked up from his thoughts when he heard the sound of knocking on the door. Who could possibly be knocking at his door at this hour? It was such a rare occurance that it pulled him from his sad thoughts. He rose, the only sign of his movement being a brass candelabra that flared to life as he touched it. Instead of the normal orange and yellow of a repectable fire, each candle was crowned with a ghostly flame of pale greens and blues.

The candelabra drifted toward the front door in a kind of supernatural grace. It took no more than a thought, and the door swung inward. Keichi looked at the youth that stood before him bedraggled by the storm outside. The candelabra moved back a few feet, giving the boy room to enter if he chose. Watching the boy silently, Keichi fought back the flagging hope that the unexpected guest might stay and drive some of his loneliness away.

"You are welcome in my house." The candelabra seemed to speak, hovering seemingly by itself beside the door. A cold wind whipped in through the door but neither the candelabra nor the flames seemed to be affected by it. The ghost reached a hand out to touch the boy on the shoulder.  

[BrokenScreamBox]

Sakurai was startled to find that the door opened and a voice was heard. Walking in, he was barely aware of a strange light beside the door, but he never looked to that direction. It was probably just a nearby light that was put beside the door. This was an old house, after all.

Something was terribly off. There seemed to be the presence of another person, and Sakurai could have sworn that a hand was near his shoulder. As a reaction, Sakurai turned his head to see whoever might have reached out to him, and he was met with a horrible sight.

There was the candelabra floating right there in front of him, the flames mere inches away from a single strand of his hair. Instinctively, he backed away, very slowly. His eyes, which had been curious and worried before, now made him look and feel as if he had seen the Devil himself. There was no doubt that the candelabra he saw was floating on its own.

Before he knew it, he let out a scream and ran, but he somehow wasn't running toward the exit. Everything suddenly became dark and he wondered where he had run. He blindly crashed into many obstacles in his way and he heard some things fall. He wondered if he had broken any priceless objects while trying to madly run from the candelabra.

After a long time, Sakurai tripped and was finally still. He breathed heavily to take in the oxygen that he needed to desperately store. No matter how much he wanted to get back up and run, he could only stay where he was and wait in terror for something to happen.  

[Shuichi Mhakaraca]

Keichi watched the boy turn and the fear that made a mask of the face's fair features. He flinched backward as the boy let out a scream and took off running. With a sigh, he made a motion with a hand and the door closed with a groan. The spirit drifted after the boy, seeing easily in the dark. Was it pity that made him follow or something more.

The candelabra floated sedately through the random destruction Sakurai made. Oddly enough he wasn't upset at the trail of broken vases and overturned tables and statuary. Quite the opposite, there seemed to be a grim amusement in someone being able to affect the objects he, himself had tried to destroy when fits of lonely rage seemed to overtake him.

Keichi found where the boy had fallen and set the candelabra down on a table that had somehow remained unharmed during the boy's flight. His short robe was open in the front as if he'd forgotten to tie it, showing off his pale skin above his pants. The clothing was of a dark color, in the light of the ghostly candles it was hard to tell wether it was black or some other dark shade. It ghost light highlighted his features even as it shone through him. The spirit regarded the stranger warily, uncertain wether to offer aid or to take himself elsewhere in the mansion.

The ghost took a hesitant step forward and looked the boy over carefully. "Are you all right?" He asked after a moment, visibly bracing himself for a hysterical reaction much like the first. If that happened to be the case, he vowed he would simply leave the boy alone and return to his brooding.  

[BrokenScreamBox]

Sakurai didn't even look up from where he was. He only shook and wished that he could tell whoever the speaker was to leave him alone. Unfortunately, he didn't have the voice to do so. He could only lie there and wait for the speaker to do whatever he decided to do, and he really hoped that the decision would be merciful.

He was aware of a kind of light hiding behind him, and he wondered if it was the candelabra that was speaking. It couldn't have been. Inanimate objects, especiallly a candelabra, shouldn't talk. That was just absurd... right? There was probably someone in the house who lived here despite the candelabra's reputation?

After a while of cowering, Sakurai finally regained at least most of his voice. "I-I'm fine," he said quite shakily, though he didn't look up at the person speaking to him. He didn't know what else to say after that. Maybe he should apologize for ruining the hallway, but his throat had practically closed up. Well, so much for a first impression.  

[Shuichi Mhakaraca]

"Huhn." The spirit's voice seemed contemplative. He moved silently forward his feet making the motions of walking even though he hovered a few inches above the floor. Keichi walked around to the front of the boy and crouched down. "Are you sure? What did you come here for, to be scared or for shelter?"

He half expected any offer of aid to be shunned and his features said as much. In spite of that he offered a hand to the boy that lay on the floor in the hallway. "Still you went through my hallway with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. I shouldn't be as amused as I am. Still it will make it look like something horrible happened here."

At this point, the spirit was talking mostly to reassure both Sakurai and himself. "They call me Keichi Ashitaka. You may call me Keichi." He hoped the boy wouldn't get up and flee again, there was alot to destroy in the house after all. Keichi held his pose with patience that only the dead seemed to posess. "I'm not going to hurt you."  

[BrokenScreamBox]

Sakurai hesitantly looked up at the person speaking to him, surprised to find what may be a ghost in front of him. Strangely, he didn't scream or try to run this time. He just simply stared. The person, who introduced himself as Keichi, didn't look much like the typical ghost at all. Or at least, he didn't look like one to Sakurai.

"I'm sorry about the mess," he said, a bit surprised that Keichi didn't seem all that angry. "I can't justify that, but I can say that I was scared and couldn't think straight." He felt a bit embarrassed telling this, but it wasn't like there was anything wrong with being scared. Surely Keichi could understand this, right?  

[Shuichi Mhakaraca]

Keichi gave a rueful chuckle. "Just don't make a habit of it. Still. . " He looked over Sakurai's head at the trail of destruction and shrugged one shoulder. "It's not as if I am in any position to demand much of anything. Some of that mess I've wanted to make myself more than once. If I was mad I'd just chase you back out into the storm."

The spirit smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "You can get up can't you? I'd rather not spend all night stooped over talking to someone and I'm sure the floor isn't quite that comfortable." He drifted back a few feet, so that he wasn't in Sakurai's way.  

[BrokenScreamBox]

"Huh? Oh, right." Sakurai immediately got up from his spot on the ground, dusting himself off once he was standing. He was quite glad that Keichi wasn't angry at him about the mess at all. Nonetheless, he still felt guilty about the mess. Maybe he should offer to clean it all up...

Looking back at the ruin of a hallway, Sakurai gulped slightly. "Um... About the mess. I'll try to get it cleared," he offered, still looking at the bits of shattered objects and turned over stands. "The hallway might not be completely perfect once it's cleaned, though."  

[Shuichi Mhakaraca]

"I wouldn't worry too much about it now. It's something best left for daylight." Keichi didn't add that he rather liked the look of the destruction, it suited his mood most of the time. He studied the boy carefully from where he floated.

"Why did you come here anyway? There's nothing much to see unless you happen to like dust and cobwebs." He gave another self depreciating laugh. The ghost reached out a hand and the candelabra floated over to it. The candles slowly took on more normal colored flames but the wax didn't melt nor did the flames flicker in the slightest. The flames illuminated the hallway fairly well even if they did have the effect of making the spirit a little harder to see.

"Also a name might be a nice thing to know, unless you want to be addressed as 'Hey you.' " Keichi drifted slightly to the left and tilted his head to one side as he waited for an answer. He seemed prepared to wait all night. A flash of lightning illuminated the hallway causing the ghost to simply vanish in the brightness only to reappear as darkness followed the crash of thunder. "Looks like the storm is picking up."  

[BrokenScreamBox]

"Yes, yes. My name's Sakurai Kochi," Sakurai said rather quickly. "As for why I'm here, well, I got lost in the storm. I was kinda hoping that I might stay here until it's over." Or at least until the fog clears up. Because of that, he couldn't find his way home. It was really a problem that comes from not paying attention to the weather.

Sakurai had never really intended to walk into this house, but the storm had left him no choice. It was a good thing that the master of the house, who in this case is Keichi, was kind enough to not chase him out. Maybe he was kind enough to let Sakurai stay until the fog clears up as well.  

[Shuichi Mhakaraca]

"Well Sakurai, you are welcome in my home." He made a short bow and gestured back the way they'd come. "I can find you a room if you like. Not even would be thieves make it far inside so I'm sure there's at least one room that will meet your needs." He gave a dark laugh at the memory of the last person who thought his mansion would be a source of quick and easy income.

The spirit floated around the stranger turned guest, his shoulder actually passing through Sakurai as he led the way back out of the hallway and to the staircase. "I'm afraid some of the amenities are rather. . . lacking but I don't usually have guests that stay for long. It was slightly disconcerting to watch the ghostly host vanish with every flash of lightning but Keichi didn't seem to notice. He paused at the foot of the stairs and turned to see if Sakurai was following.