Shikaku and the Raven of the Midnight Void

Shock and Despair

Shikaku smiled as she looked at the tall, gray house with 3 stories.Twigs and needles burst from the wood, threatening to stab them through any unwary person. The front yard was covered in black and white roses, humming to the wind. It almost camouflaged in the night sky as dark blue windows of sapphire gleamed throughout the house. And in the middle, there was a large, neat sign with the words: "The Voltrens".

Not many people visited the Voltrens, as their house was pretty intimidating. The house seemed to howl in the gale. But Shikaku wasn't scared. Emberleigh Voltren was a cool person. She had black hair, though she dyed it white at the ends. Her eyes were pitch-black. Many people would insist that it was just a very, very dark brown, but Shikaku had been around Emberleigh for so long that she knew they were just black. She mainly wore black and white, but sometimes wore blue, and even red to spice things up a bit.

Shikaku skipped over the thorny branches of the nearby trees, dodged the sharp twigs, and then knocked on the door.

Nothing.

Shikaku laughed. "Not one of your tricks again, hmm?" she taunted as a cold draft went down to her shoes.

One time, Emberleigh had thought it was amusing to not answer the door. Worried, Shikaku had kept knocking, asking "Emberleigh? Are you there?"

Two seconds later, a big bucket of ice had been poured over her head. Shikaku was determined to not let that happen again.

"Emberleigh, oh Emberleigh~!" she chanted with a singsong voice. "I know you're there~!"

Still nothing.

Shikaku frowned. Emberleigh would probably be very excited to greet her, to be with her again. Why wasn't she answering the door?

"Emberleigh, if you don't open the door right now, I'll do it!" she threatened harshly.

The sound of crickets and the howling gust of air answered her.

Shikaku sighed. "Fiiive....... Four......... three.... Twooooooooooo......"

She paused. "One and a half.....?"

Shikaku cursed under her breath. "Fine, you asked for it!" she hollered angrily.

BOOOM!

Instantly, Shikaku thrust the door open and went in. Shaking her head, she yelled, "oKAY, Emberleigh, why didn't you-"

She stopped and looked around the living room in horror.

It was all messed up. Chairs were tossed aside, couches were upside down, and there were scratch marks on the wall. All the furniture was either slit open, or just completely destroyed.

"Emberleigh?" she called out very quietly.

And there was nothing. Before long, the painful silence crossed Shikaku's mind.

Oh no... oh no, oh no oh no! Shikaku thought.

Emberleigh could not be gone. Emberleigh was just hiding somewhere. She was just waiting for the perfect time to jump out and scream, scream in her gleeful, sneaky way, and yell "Haha, you totally fell for it!"

But that didn't happen.

Shikaku paused. Not everything was doomed...no, Emberleigh had to just be hiding. This could all be some sort of trick. She could just be waiting for Shikaku to do something really stupid in front of her...

Oh, how she wished that this was the case.

She took a few deep breaths, and went to the kitchen. There was nobody, although it looked quite clean...