Puppet Skin [OHSHC]

Chapter 13

"Here you go, class president," Iiyo chirped. "It's a collection of the most Halloweenish music I could find." Tonight was the night of the festival, and she didn't want the class president's attitude to bring her good mood and excitement down.

The class president gave a sullen look and took the CD case to deliberately put it at the bottom of the pile, and then went to check on how the rest of the class was doing.

Iiyo's evil eye followed him until he was out of sight. "What a jerk!" She growled. Kageru had to be wrong; there was no way the president liked her.

"Is something the matter?" Umehito asked from directly behind, making Iiyo jump.

She glared at Umehito, warning him again not to sneak up from behind, and then grunted. "The class president's being a total jerk-wad again, that's all."

"Would you like to perform a small hex on him? You don't need the moonlight to perform hexes." Umehito's creepy smile appeared. She hadn't seen it in a while, probably because normal club activities had been on hold, but she replied the same as she always had.

"No. While as tempting as that sounds, let's just get through the night. I'll play my music at home. I don't need to perform a curse or a hex or a jinx on someone like him. Besides, if I decide to hex him before the festival, it might affect tonight in a bad way."

"Very true. You never quite know how the curse would affect the surroundings. By the way, I wanted to give you something." He rummaged through his robes and pulled out a thin flip cell phone. "You mentioned that you weren't allowed to give away your number, and you weren't allowed to call anyone but your parents on your cell phone, and since tonight's a big night I thought it would come in handy. I am supposed to drive you home, after all." The conversation between Umehito and Iiyo's dad was a mysterious one. She was almost sure that her dad said something threatening because Umehito was being extra polite and tried his very best (without much success) to sound normal, refraining from occult terminologies, but they both swore that the conversation was on the pleasant side.

"Yeah, that's a good idea, thank you." Iiyo took a closer look at the charm hanging off of the cell phone and raised her eyebrows. "Is this a cat skull? Are you sure the class president didn't mind you wasting his clay?" She had a teasing smile planted on her face. The cat skull was open-mouthed with a clear red marble in it, making it look ghostly. It was better than the closed-mouth version she had imagined. It was even browned, instead of yellow or white, giving it an aged look.

"Whatever he doesn't know won't hurt him, so just make sure he doesn't see it. And this disc above the cat skull is a Solomon seal for protection from all earthly dangers." The disc was a circle within a circle with a cross within the smaller circle. At the top, there was an obtuse six-pointed star, and there were tiny Japanese kanji around the circle and on the arms of the cross. "On Halloween, I'm more afraid of people than spirits, otherwise I would have given you a seal of spiritual protection."

"That makes sense, especially from someone who watches the news every year." Iiyo checked her watch. "I have to go turn in my stories to my creative writing teacher, and then I have to go to Sayoko for a quick make-over, so I'll see you probably in a couple of hours before it gets too dark." She looked down at the phone in her hands and looked up to him to thank him with a smile before stuffing it in her pocket, heading over to her class. The teacher said that he would be in his room later for any late submissions, and Iiyo used every minute she had to get her stories typed up, illustrated for the children's book, edited, and printed out. He wasn't in his classroom, but she saw a stack of other student's stories as instructed, so she put hers on top. Before she left, she had a last minute idea. She took a sticky note, wrote "SURPRISE!" and stuck it to her horror-thriller story.

She skipped out of the classroom with a smug smile, unaware that someone had been waiting for her in the darkened adjacent hallway.

. . . . .

The night was going well so far. Even before the actual festival, a few of the talismans and cell phone charms were sold, and even a wooden beelzenef doll was bought. It was indeed going to be an exciting night. Not only was he looking forward to his own class's station, but when his and Iiyo's shift ended, he was looking forward to exploring the other class' stations. While he was helping the male half of his class organize and add last-minute decorations and making sure that the stands were stable, Sayoko and Wazuka rushed up to him in a panic and started to babble over each other.

Umehito was visibly confused trying to decipher what the girls were trying to say, so Sayoko hushed Wazuka in order to speak. "Fukuda hadn't showed up for her make-over, so we left our post to look around, and when we were getting close to her writing class we heard her scream, but we couldn't find her."

Umehito's mind blanked, petrified upon hearing the news.

"And we came back here and noticed that Minoshita-kun wasn't around," Wazuka finished.

Umehito's mind raced with horrifying images, involving bruises and blood, but he couldn't show that he was panicking—not tonight. "You two keep looking, and tell the class president that Fukuda and Minoshita aren't around. Don't mention the scream or Minoshita's background yet until we're sure of the entire situation." He didn't want everyone else to panic either. "Ask around, but don't make it sound dire." Umehito didn't wait around for any affirmations and darted down the hallway towards Iiyo's creative writing class.

He found the teacher, but he said that he didn't see her, but she did leave her stories on his desk, chuckling at the sticky note she left. Umehito traced his steps toward the Black Magic Club room, where she would have had the dress-up but stopped at the nearest hallway. If Minoshita had been stalking her, he would have waited in this area. He hurried down the hall and called the cell phone he had given to Iiyo, faintly hearing the ring. He kept redialing after the third or fourth ring. Eventually, he heard the phone pick up. "Fukuda-san? Fukuda-san? Are you OK? Where are you?"

"Nekozawa-san." It wasn't Iiyo on the phone.

"Where is Fukuda-san, Minoshita?"

"She's . . . we're in the second science room." Kageru's voice shook. "I don't know what to do. She's shaking on the floor. I don't know what—."

"Just stay right there, and don't touch her," Umehito warned. Within a minute, he arrived at the second science room and slammed the door open to see Iiyo curled up on the floor and Kageru kneeling on the floor next to her. Kageru looked scared, but Umehito was more focused on Iiyo.

She was unconscious, shaking her head, her arm was rippling as if the limb was being electrocuted, and was groaning and sounded as if she was having trouble breathing.

"Go to the nurse's office and tell them that Fukuda-san is having a seizure." When Kageru didn't move, Umehito yelled, "Hurry up!" At that, Kageru bolted out of the classroom.