The Ghost of His Past (BNHA)

Chapter Five

~Meliara's POV~

I woke with a start not even realizing I'd fallen asleep. The candelabra had burned out at some point encasing the underground lair in pure black darkness. It was so thick I felt like I was suffocating. My heart started to race, this had happened once before and it took an hour of me feeling around before I could find the stairs back up to the crypt. Chancing a glance down at my wrist, I could barely make out the faint residual glow from the glow in the dark skulls. It was five in the morning.

Sighing, I pushed the blanket that had been draped around me off and rolled onto my knees preparing to crawl around to try and find the stairs. As I set my hand down, I bumped into something that felt like a muscular bicep and let out a squeak of terror. What was that?

Whatever it was attached to, let out a soft snore that sounded kind of like a bear growling. It startled me and I scrambled to crawl away from it. In my haste I didn't realize the proximity in which the arm would be from whatever it was attached to and ended up tripping over something big and lean. I fell atop their muscular chest with a yelp.

"What the hell?" I heard what sounded like Enji's groggy voice in the darkness beneath me before I was blinded by light as fire sprang to life surrounding his hands. "Mel? Are you afraid of the dark?" He asked with a smirk.

"Sh-shut up!" I snapped as I hurriedly disentangled myself from him and jumped to my feet hiding my burning face behind my long raven hair. "Not all of us can be nightlights!"

He chuckled and sat up with a yawn before looking around curiously. "What time is it?"

"Five." I mumbled as I scooped up my discarded jacket and the bag of trash before heading for the stairs.

Enji blanched at my response, all the color draining from his face. "In the morning?"

"Unless we slept for sixteen hours." I scoffed, "I don't know about you but I can't sleep for more than four hours." This didn't seem to help, "You okay? You look a little pale."

"I have to go." He sighed as he got to his feet and followed me to the spiraling staircase that led back to the mausoleum entrance. Once we got to the surface, I tugged on my slightly damp jacket and shivered. Enji looked like he'd rather wrestle a bear than leave, something was wrong.

"What's up?" I poked him in the chest as it was about all I could reach due to his height.

He frowned, "I have to go to a matchmaking meeting with my parents." He grumbled.

"A what?" I asked confused.

"An outdated tradition where wealthy families with children meet with other wealthy families with children and see if their children would be a good match." Enji replied as we stepped out of the mausoleum into the cemetery.

"That's fucked up." I grimaced and felt my heart clench at the desolate look on his face. "I could tag along and do some fun poltergeist shit." I offered him with a smile.

"What?" He frowned.

"Well, in my ghost form, I can be invisible, so it's not like anyone could see me, I could make lights flicker, make objects float, make spooky 'ooo' sounds. I bet it would be entertaining." I grinned and felt my heart skip a beat as I saw a small trace of a smile twist onto his lips.

"That sounds ridiculous."

"Ridiculous enough to work?" I giggled.