Euphoria

Chapter 4

(Y/N) wandered through the long hallway that was the four-o-clock library, her shoes clicked on the weathered floorboards as she scanned the massive shelves, stocked full of red, white, and black books. "I wonder how these are organized." She thought to herself as she grabbed a white book from the shelf. The name "Kou Minamoto" was printed across the cover, she had seen him a couple of times in between classes but hadn't spoken to him much. She put the book back and kept searching, when an idea popped into her head. "I should try and find my book! I could read my own future!" The idea excited her and filled her with energy as she kept searching through the packed shelves. She walked over to a patch of white books when a pair of hands wrapped around her shoulders, a voice whining in her ear. "(Y/N)! I'm bored!" The playful apparition drifted so he was upside down in front of her, uncomfortably close to her face. "What did you even want to know about me anyway~" A smug grin formed on his face and she took a step back, it was already strange enough being stuck here with him of all people. She was still afraid to reveal anything to the spirit, his demeanor seemed to change at random and she couldn't pin down how she felt towards him just yet. (Y/N) turned her back to him as she began to sort through a few of the black books, her tone was slightly harsh as she picked through the dozens of books, their leather covers scratched at her fingers and shallow white marks appeared on the palms of her hands as she twisted her head to address Tsukasa. "That's none of your business." He was silent for a few seconds before his voice turned flat, it became cold and devoid of emotion. "What did you come here for?" A hand rested on her shoulder and (Y/N) shivered, she could feel his cold gaze on her and knew he had shifted to the part of him that terrified her. (Y/N) was tempted to stay silent, but gave in when she felt his fingers dig into the fabric of her uniform. "I-I just wanted to find out how you died, that's all." Her voice came out meek and frightened, it infuriated her as she smacked his hand away. His only response was a light "Oh." as the malicious tone in his voice practically evaporated into thin air. 

His childish tone took over again as he gripped her shoulders and spun her around to face him, "Well that's a fun story, but how about we add a little twist to this." (Y/N) glanced at him, curiosity and anxiety spreading through her chest as she asked him, "What do you mean twist?" He simply smiled at her, she thought she spotted two small fangs in his mouth as he kept going. "I was thinking, since Sakura doesn't like to play games with me, if you want me to tell you then you'll have to play a few games with me (Y/N)~" She stayed silent for a few seconds before letting out a deep breath, it wasn't as if she had much of a choice besides, her curiosity was gnawing away at her as she nodded. "Alright, your on Tsukasa!" Excitement lit up in his round amber eyes as he clapped his hands together, "Great! Now as for the game.." He thought for a moment before his eyes lit up again, "Hide and seek! I'll give you two minutes to hide, it can be anywhere in school, if you can hide from me for an hour then ill tell you anything you want to know. But if you lose you'll have to help me with a few things~" He smirked as he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, "Clocks ticking (Y/N)~" She quickly sprinted to the entrance of the four-o-clock library and threw the door open, "Gotta find somewhere.." 

About 50 minutes had passed since the game had started, (Y/N) had moved spots a couple of times, about once every ten minutes. She had been close to being caught a couple times but thankfully Tsukasa hadn't caught her yet, she was hiding in one of the storage lockers in one of the classrooms on the second floor. Strangely she became more anxious the closer she got to winning, all the questions she had were bouncing around in her head the entire time she had been hiding. As strange and scary as Tsukasa was, Hanako had still lied to her when she went to him for answers, although she still wasn't sure if she could trust anything either of them said, she just hoped that if she won he'd answer her questions honestly. Her mind snapped back to the game as she heard footsteps walking through the hallway outside the classroom where she was hiding, his laughter echoed through the empty classroom as the footsteps crept closer. "I must admit this has been a challenge, let's hope you hid well enough (Y/N)~" A cold sweat dripped down her forehead and she covered her mouth to keep herself from breathing to hard, the footsteps got farther away as he searched the other side of the classroom. "Only five more minutes (Y/N)~" She began to panic as the footsteps got closer to her hiding spot again, "But I'm so close to winning! There's no way that I can get out of here without him seeing me though!" She tried to calm down and stayed completely still as she felt him getting closer to her, before the footsteps disappeared completely. She slowly removed her hands from her mouth as the silence lingered for a few seconds, every nerve in her body was tensed as dead silence remained in the room. "Maybe he went to look somewhere else, I might've just won this!" Excitement lit her up from the inside as she thought of all the questions she wanted to ask, she fetched her phone from her uniform pocket and checked the time, she only had 1 minute left to go. She peeked through the slits in the locker, but saw nothing as she did her best to keep silent and still. She watched the seconds tick down on the clock in the classroom before she felt something hit her shoulder, thinking it was a broom or something she turned her head around to find huge golden eyes only inches from her face. 

She screamed in shock and instinctively backed up, only to hit her head on the door of the locker, she groaned and sat down again rubbing her temples as he crouched down to her level, laughing to himself. "Looks like I win (Y/N)~" He reached forward and poked her cheek before thinking to himself, "Now what should you help me with?" He stayed silent for a few seconds before an idea popped into his head and he grabbed her hand. She stiffened a little at the sudden contact before black plumes of smoke emerged and engulfed both of them, (Y/N) coughed a little and the smoke cleared after a few seconds. They both appeared into the broadcasting room and she landed on the couch in the corner while he hovered over her, she glanced around confused. "What do you need here?" She stared up at him while he merely smiled down at her, "I thought that you could spend the night here, since Sakura and Natsuhiko left hours ago. Besides it's not like you have anything else to do, am I wrong?" She thought back to her home life and sadly shook her head, she was uncertain if this was better or worse than going home. Even if she didn't go home they wouldn't ask her where she'd been anyway, Tsukasa seemed like a ticking time bomb to her, but she had lost the game regardless, and even for someone as psychotic and unstable as him, at least she had someone around who wouldn't scream at her 24/7. If he noticed her sad look he didn't say anything as he sat down and stared at her, "Now what to do first? You left in such a hurry last time we didn't get to play at all!" Somehow seeing him like this made her relax slightly, a few days ago she hadn't even known about apparitions, they were all simply nameless rumors to her. But her she was having to be stuck with one for an entire night, "It won't be too bad, right?"