— ☾ ↠ no such thing as ghosts
Not used to the new environment, Winry couldn’t sleep. She was sitting in her bed, knees drawn up to her chest and leaning against the wall. Across from her was the standard desk equipped with a small lamp, pencils, and a notebook, and right above the piece of furniture, was the only window in the room. To her right, was a bureau, where all her clothes were stored, a television set and a digital clock rested.
Everything here was so new and strange to her, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to get used to it at all. Winry sighed and heaved herself off of the bed to sit at her desk. She picked up a pencil and opened up her notebook. Tapping the desk lightly with the eraser side, the blonde focused her gaze outside. There, a person stood in the shade of the tree parallel to her window.
“Huh… that’s weird…” She muttered into her hand, before glancing at the clock. “Why would someone be out so late at night…?”
Suddenly, they fell to their knees, burying their face into their hands. Their shoulders heaved with every breath they took. Winry stood quickly, her chair falling to the floor in a quiet thud. Grabbing her coat, the blonde mechanic rushed out of the dorm, not caring how late it was. The minute she stepped outside, however, she felt chilled. There was no wind whatsoever, adding to the creepy feeling. She made her way around the building, to where she had seen the person, but when she turned the corner, there was no one there.
“What the…” She could still hear the sobbing. It was a lot louder than it had been a second ago, and Winry could feel herself begin to shake. Whatever it was, the blonde didn’t think it was human. Gulping, she stepped away slowly, any courage she had was beginning to crumble. “H-hello? A-are you okay..?” With each word she spoke, the louder the sobbing got. It had come to the point where it was beginning to sound like wailing. Winry took a small step back. She should have stayed in her room. Even as she thought this, words of beckoning tumbled past her lips. “H-hey… are you there?!”
Getting hasty in her retreat and with her fear rising, Winry didn’t realize that there was someone right behind her. As soon as she bumped into the other person, the blonde shrieked and jumped away, falling hard onto the ground. “Owww….”
Harry had the graveyard shift today. Truth be told, he had volunteered. After his recent conversations with Yomi about the possibility of something far more sinister going on, Harry felt he would be more than able to handle whatever popped up in the middle of the night.
Stalking the dark grounds, Harry was struck by how different the normally welcoming buildings and grounds looked in the black of night. He glanced up to check his locations; it looked like he was right around the girl’s dormitories. Despite the lateness of the night, many of the windows’ lights were still on; Harry liked to think they were burning midnight oil, or reading a good book. Jeez. You can be so innocent sometimes, Harry could almost hear Murphy chiding him.
Then, something brushed against his senses. Harry’s head snapped around in the direction of the presence. It didn’t feel like anything powerful, or at least, like anything that could defeat him. But the students on the other hand … Almost as if summoned by that thought, he caught side of a blonde haired girl with a simple coat wrapped around her bursting out of the dormitory, and running around the corner.
Harry cursed and went after her, sending power into his staff as he went, causing it to emit a slowly growing glow. He skidded around the corner, the presence that much stronger telling him he was heading in its direction. He saw the girl up ahead; even from this distance he could see she was shivering, whether in fear or cold or some combination of both, he couldn’t tell. She had begun stepping backwards, so it was probably from fear. Harry slowed, not wanting to surprise her by suddenly knocking into her.
But as fate would have it, she backed into him, and positively screamed, before falling on her butt.
“Owww….”
“Are you alright, miss?” Harry flexed his will and summoned a small orb of light, that floated between the two of them. He extended his hand to help her up. “You shouldn’t be out here so late at night. It’s dangerous; in more ways than one, what with the recent zombie outbreak and all.”
