Kaze No Stigma (fan-fiction)

Season 2 Episode 1- Road To A Ghost Town

"I watched you sleep the whole train ride here, Ayano. You looked rather peaceful." I said, smiling irritatingly at her.

"You watched me?! You better not have been thinking anything, Kazuma. Watching somebody sleep is pretty creepy if you ask me." she replied, glaring at me, waiting for me to say the right thing.

"I wasn't thinking anything, honestly. Except that you looked so peaceful. Oh, and I think you may have talked in your sleep some too."

"What? That's ridiculous. I don't talk in my sleep, do I Ren?"

"I'm staying out of this. Sorry Ayano." Ren said, obviously not wanting to get in the middle of what me and Ayano were talking about.

"Look," I said. "We better just get going. We gotta find a hotel or someplace to stay for the night before we head towards that town."

"Yeah, alright. But where are we going to find a hotel in this town? It's so small, it may not even have one." Ayano looked worried about finding a hotel here. And she has good reason to be. She's right. This is a small town. Looks like it could be hundreds of years old. The buildings look like they're about to collapse, the roads are still dirt, no pavement, and I don't even see any signs around. This could be difficult.

I turned around to look at Ren and Ayano. "Let's split up. Its a small town, so it shouldn't take too long for one of us to find a place to stay."

"Alright." they said together. We split up and started looking. I went down the main road, Ayano went left, and Ren went right. The town looks like its a Y shape, one main road and two side roads. Should make it easier finding a hotel. As I walked down the road, I could feel someone's presence. No, not someone, something. An evil presence. It didn't stay long, just there for a second, then gone.

I looked left to right down the road, but not one of these buildings looked like a hotel. I came to the end of the road, and Ayano and Ren came off the side roads and started walking back toward me. As they reached me, we heard someone yelling at us from one of the buildings.

"Excuse me! Are you young folks looking for a place to stay?" We looked around and up in a second floor window was an elderly woman. She had gray hair, about shoulder length, piercing blue eyes, and was dusting some old rugs off.

"Yeah, we are. Do you know a place here that has rooms available?" I yelled back.

"You're looking at it." she hollered back. "This is the inn in this town. Though we don't get many customers."

"Why not?" Ayano asked.

"Come inside and make yourselves comfortable, and I'll explain." she replied.

We made our way into the inn. It was then we realized looks can be deceiving. The outside of the building was old and rickety, but the inside was dazzling. The floors were granite mixed with marble, with swirls everywhere. The walls were stone slabs cut to perfection. It had a massive chandelier hanging in the middle of the entryway. The place was spotless. I've seen places that have been attacked by clean freaks, but this is too clean.

"Please, make yourselves at home." The old lady was coming down stairs that looked like they belong in a castle. "I'll make us some tea."

"Hey Kazuma, do you sense anything weird about this place? I mean, this place is ridiculously clean. There's no way one old lady could keep this place this pristine." Ayano was looking around in wonder.

"I know what you mean. I can't explain it, but there was an evil presence earlier. It didn't last long, but it was definitely here."

Ren turned around and looked at me with some fear I his eyes. "I felt it too. What do you think it could've been?"

"I'm not sure Ren. But something tells me we're gonna have an interesting night if we stay here."

"But what are we supposed to do?" Ayano asked, looking outside. "Its already getting dark out, and we can't walk to the ghost town at night, especially when we're on foot."

"We're going to have to spend the night here. Just don't let your guard down. And don't act suspicious. If there is something going on, we don't want to let her know that we know."

"Right." Ren said, sitting in a luxurious chair. "You guys should really try out these seats. They're so comfortable."

"Here you go dears. I brought us some tea." The elderly woman was back from the kitchen holding a sterling silver platter with four tea cups filled with delicious smelling tea. We all took a cup and drank our tea quickly. "Now, would you still like me to tell you why we don't get visitors?" The old lady looked at us with those piercing eyes. There was something about her eyes. I couldn't put my finger on it.

"No, its OK. You don't have to explain anything." I said. Ayano and Ren both looked at me with astonished faces. "We're actually pretty tired. Would you mind showing us to a room we could stay in please? Oh, and could it be a big room we could all stay in? We'd like to stay together." I smiled at the lady. She smiled back, gave me a quick nod, then went to get the key and show us to our room.

After we were in our room and sure the lady was gone, Ayano started asking her many questions.

"What was that all about? Why didn't you let her tell us? We probably could've figured out what it was we sensed. And why are we all sharing one room? Why couldn't I have my own room?" Ayano finally stopped and let me answer.

"I didn't let her tell us because something tells me we're better off just not knowing and moving on in the morning. And we,re all sharing a room because I feel better knowing that if something happens tonight, we can all get out of here together."

"Its OK Ayano. Let's just go to sleep and leave in the morning. I don't like this place anyway. It gives me the creeps." Ren chose the bed in the corner of the room, opposite the door. The room was fairly good size, and, like the rest of the hotel, looked like it belonged in a castle. It had a huge tiger skin rug in the middle of the floor and a terrace outside the side windows, which I'm guessing are doors.

"Alright. We'll just go in the morning. I'd just really like to know what's going on with this place." Ayano said, obviously picking the biggest and probably most comfortable bed.

"Well, it's probably better we don't know. Let's just go to sleep." I got into the last bed in the room, with a clear view of the terrace.

We all rolled over and tried to go to sleep.