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Aph had stared at Isi non-stop, blinking so little that his eyes felt dry and brittle. He hated ghost stories! Why did Isi always seem to have a new one tucked away somewhere?!

Chloe's voice startled Aph out of his catatonic state, and he blinked over at the girl for a moment before the question sank in.

"Oh, uh..." he said, voice wavering. "I-I think it w-w-was Isi's T-t-turn." He pushed the dice over so they'd be within the boy's reach. "I think th-that's enough ghost stories for today..."

Riv chuckled at Beauregard and took a few snapshots of him, but when Isi started on the new ghost story, the Raevan had floated closer to give it a listen. He enjoyed stories, they were basically TV shows without the picture... and the pictures he made in his head as he listened were just as good as the real thing, if not better.

Once the story was done, however, Riv frowned. "I don't get it. If his running companion was his hatred for his brother, then how come it's suddenly a ghost? Did it die?" He tilted his head, wondering if his own hatred would die and haunt him someday.

Chloe gave a small, half strangled sound and a gulp. Isi's ghost story dislodged others deep within her own memory. She quickly tried to supress them, a shiver running down her spine as she took her turn with the dice. She leaned slightly to the side, feeling comfortable to have Aphismet, who'd lately seemed to take a turn for the more confident, close to her side.

But the stories wouldn't stop floating forward, one in particular... one that had caused her to sleep with the lights on in her tiny, lonely apartment for possibly a month.

She licked her lips, her voice low at first, becoming a little louder when she was sure she had both Isi and Aphismet's attention. She didn't change her voice to sound creepy like Isi could... but in it's own way her low, trembling words were enough to portray it's own sort of eerieness, her fear leaking into the story she told.

"I-I... I heard of a house once.. near Durem.. where two men lived together. They hadn't lived there long when strange things began to happen in and around the house. It all started when, late one evening while watching television, they both could hear a distant metallic banging. Th-The noise got louder and closer... and soon it sounded like heavy footsteps running across the rooftop above them. From.. where it was loudest above their heads, it kept going on and then faded off in the distance. W-What made it even scarier was that the roof of the houses all around were very high-peaked and had very steep slopes...

This.. this kept happening, but never.. y-you know.. regularily. But when it did, it was always late, late at night. Sometimes the two men would even run outside when they first started hearing the running and would look up.. but.. they never saw anything. Eventually this stopped happening, and they thought that everything was back to normal.

Then... one weekend one of the men was woken up by the sound of the radio in the living room being turned on to full. He got out of bed fast and rand into the living room to turn it off. The other men had gotten out of bed, saw the first man turning the radio off and asked him what he thought he was doing.. he thought that the other had turned the radio on! They both went back to bed.. j-just deciding that it was a coincidence. It kept happening for four nights in a row, and each time it always happened in the very early hours of the morning. Sometimes it wasn't only the radio.. sometimes it was the TV and the lights in the living room as well.

One of the times it happened, the radio came on and one of the men came out to turn it off.. it was very quiet after he did.. and he realized that he was alone in the house.. the other man was still out in the town partying!" She paused here, looking around at the others in the room quietly. She'd gradually scooted closer to the both of them, as though the close quarters would protect from any scary ghost or ghoulie that might come out to terrify them.

"I-...I can stop if you want me to.." She looked down at the dice game, figiting nervously with the hem of her shirt. "Th-There's still a bit more.. th-that.. wasn't the scariest parts of the story... that I just told you."

Isi's grey stormy eyes were turbulent with curiosity and his brows were lifted up in expectation. With his mouth slightly agape and his hands limply holding themselves out for when Aph passed him the dice, Isi nodded weakly at Chloe. He was so interested. It looked like he was logging it all away into his brain and his mind was calculating everything that happened for further and later investigation.

When a piece of evidence was said, Isi would murmur what it was like, 'white noise' or 'poltergiest activity' or 'sound phenonoma'. If Isi had a choice of what to be when he was older, he would certainly become a ghost hunter. He knew almost everything inside and out about ghosts.

"Chloe, keep going..." he muttered, his grey eyes wide with a boyish curiosity.

Aphismet was pale. His eyes were the size of plates. The hand clutching the dice was shaking ever so slightly. He was terrified.

And yet, he had to hear the rest.

"Then what?" he prodded, throat dry and voice hoarse.


Rivener listened raptly as well, fingering his digital camera when Chloe spoke of it. Taking pictures of a ghost? Wow. If Rivener ever met one, he'd have to remember to try and capture it on camera. He glanced over at Aphismet and snickered at his guardian's pathetic image. Lifting up the camera, he flashed a picture of him in this state, to show people later and embarrass him.


The flash startled Aphismet almost out of his skin, and he blinked in confused fear for a second before shooting Riv a dark glare.

Chloe gave a small, apologetic smile.

"W-Well.. th-that's it. That's the end... he never went back.. I-I'm sorry. Oh! Ah... the picture he took of the ghost was completely w-white. A-All the other images developed just fine."

She sat back, giving a small shiver. "I-I think it's scarier knowing the house is still around.."

"Yeah!" piped Isi excitedly. He was disappointed in the story's end, but that disappointment was erased when he heard that the home was still around. That brightened his mood considerably and he bounced slightly on the couch, careful not to disturb his broken leg too much. "Where is it? Do you think we could visit it sometime? We could bring cameras and go for a night visual to try and capture evidence!"

Aphismet gulped and kept his eyes on his feet, hunching his shoulders up. He honestly was warring with himself... He was intrigued, but the concept also scared him out of his wits. He sat still for a long time, until he finally nodded.

"A-alright," he said. "Wh-when are we going to do this? Let's w-w-wait until erm... until it's uh... w-warmer." He mostly suggested this because he wanted to wait until he'd forgotten the fear... If he ever managed to forget it, that is.