I got bored.

*Shrugs* As said above, I got bored. I wrote this and felt like sharing. So here you go, read or not read it, I guess. You might want to try listening to the song being sung while you read this. If you do, here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKlsUrfbiE0







“Minoru, hurry up!” Called Hina as she waved her friend over from the other side of the street. Or was that Rina? Minoru could never tell the twins apart, despite having known them his whole life. It was always something that he envied Gorou in that he could tell them apart with ease.

But then again, he wasn't the one with a massive crush on one of them. If he wanted to go get cooties though, that was his business.

His friends had been jerks and decided to have a race to get home. Somehow they had completely forgotten that he hurt his ankle jumping off the swings earlier today. Or maybe they were taking advantage of that fact, since he was always the one winning their races.

Meanies.

“Okay, okay, wait up!” Minoru called to his friends, limping along towards the crosswalk. He was about to cross over the street when he noticed the stoplight changing color, halting just as the cars began to move. The child just sighed as his friends laughed at him across the way. Now he would have to wait. He hated waiting.

His friends were meanies.

Minoru sighed again, putting his weight on his good foot as he watched his classmates from across the way. Gorou was blushing scarlet as one of the twins hugged him, chattering about something in his ear. That one must be Rina then. Hina had yet to stop giggling at his fate. The child made a mental note to run three times as fast in the next race so he could beat her by even more than usual.

“Come little children, I'll take thee away...into a land of enchantment...”

Minoru paused in his thoughts. What was that? Was someone singing? He didn't recognize the words, but he knew the language. English. Who was singing in English? He looked around, but he couldn't find anyone that looked like they were singing, and it didn't sound like a recording...

By now his actions had attracted the attention of his friends. “Ah, Minoru? What are you doing?” The normally quiet Gorou's voice boomed so as to be heard over the traffic. “Is something wrong?”

Looking at his chubby friend in confusion, Minoru asked him, “Can't you hear it?”

“Hear what?” It was the twins who spoke this time, their voices and faces both expressing their identical confusion. There were a lot of sounds that could be heard, after all, though none of them seemed out of place.

“The singing!” Minoru called, still looking around wildly for the source of the sound. “Someone's singing!”

“Come little children, the time's come to play...”

All three of the kids across the street shared a look. They couldn't hear anything. “No one's singing, Minoru!” Called out Hina. “You're probably just imagining things again!” Their friend was well known for his overactive imagination, after all.

But Minoru shook his head. He knew he wasn't making this up. There was someone singing somewhere, and he needed to find them. He didn't know why, but he absolutely needed to find them. With that sole thought occupying his mind, the boy turned and ran as fast as he was able to in the direction of the voice.

“Hey! Minoru!” His friends cried, unable to follow him due to the traffic.

“Here in my garden of shadows...”

Minoru stopped running after a while, pausing to look around and catch his breath. He didn't recognize where he was, but it didn't matter. He had to find out the source of the haunting melody he was hearing.

There! Minoru's head snapped to the right, seeing an alleyway between two buildings. The sound was coming from that direction. He dashed into it as quickly as he could, unfortunately slowed by his injured ankle.

The boy grit his teeth. His ankle hurt a lot. But he couldn't stop now. He just couldn't. He wouldn't be able to explain why if he was asked, but at this very moment there was nothing in the world more important than finding whoever was singing.

He paused as he rounded the corner. Not far off, disappearing into another alley, was what looked to be the train of a white dress. It looked like the dress that had been worn by the foreigner his uncle married. A wedding dress? Was that the person who was singing? Come to think of it, the voice did sound female...with that in mind, Minoru went after the lady.

“Follow sweet children, I'll show thee the way...through all the pain and the sorrow...”

However, as he reached the alley that the woman had been going into, it was empty. There wasn't even a trace of anyone having been in there. The boy's face was puzzled as he went to the end of the way, looking in both directions she could have gone. No sign of her there either. It was like she had vanished.

The child sighed, leaning against a wall and letting himself slide down. Where was she? He had been so close! And now she was gone, even though he could still hear her crystal clearly. It made no sense, and between that and his ankle, Minoru was starting to get very frustrated.

He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down and think of what to do next.

“Rest now my children, for soon we'll away...”

“Minoru! Where are you? We're supposed to stick together!”

Said boy's eyes opened when he heard his friends calling him. He couldn't let them find him. They never believed him when he saw or heard certain things that no one else seemed to be able to, and they wouldn't believe him this time, no matter how hard he tried to make them. But he knew what he saw, and he knew what he heard. And he wasn't going to let them stop him this time.

Determined, Minoru got up and continued his search though the alleyways.

“Into the calm and the quiet...”

Minoru glanced up at the sky, noting that it was getting late. It was going to be dark pretty soon. He needed to find the singing lady quickly so he could get home before nightfall. If he could find his way home at all, that was...

He looked back down and gasped. There was the train again! It was disappearing right around the corner not more than a few feet in front of him. It wouldn't be possible for him to lose the singer this time. Despite knowing this, paranoia forced him to speed up.

“Wait!” The boy cried out as he rounded the corner.

“Hush now dear children, it must be this way...to weary of life and deceptions...”

His friends, having been trailing aimlessly looking for him, finally ran in the right direction after hearing Minoru shout. They found him standing still, looking towards the sky, but his back was to them so they could not see his expression.

“Finally!” Said the twins together, Hina continuing on. “You know you're not supposed to go off on your own. That was the deal so that our parents would let us go to school and the park without them! If they find out, this is over!”

Rina followed up her sister. “Yeah! Don't mess everything up by chasing one of your imaginary creatures again!”

Gorou nodded in agreement. He was upset by the possibility of not being able to go out without his parents again, but had nothing to add to what the girls had already said. That, and he was more curious as to what Minoru was doing. Normally when they said things lie this, he protested that he wasn't imagining things. But he wasn't even reacting to them, and it was making him kind of nervous.

“Minoru? What's wrong?” The chubby boy asked. The twins stopped their tirade, which had not paused even slightly, now realizing something was strange as well. He walked up beside his friend and put a hand on his shoulder, the other two right behind him. “Are you okay?”

Now that they were beside Minoru, they could all see his expression. It was pure, raw terror.

“What are you looking at?” Muttered Hina as she looked to where Minoru's eyes were fixated, the others following suit.

“Weep not poor children, for life is this way...”

All they would see was a pair of narrow red eyes, staring into their souls and seemingly laughing, before they heard the last words they would ever hear, words that they couldn't even understand.

“Murdering beauty and passions...”






The Hollow licked the last of the blood off its maw, looking rather pleased with itself. It had done a fine job, after all. While consuming the souls of four small children was by no means a record for it, the method to the madness and fear in their eyes was something it took great pride in.

“Tal gran diversión!” Thought the creature aloud, strangely speaking to itself in Spanish. “Pero creo que he mezclado de las dos últimas partes de la canción...” It paused, then seemed to shrug. “Esto mucho más encaja mi camino. Y no es importante.” Continued the Hollow, laughing and grinning to itself. “Ellos deberían estar agradecidos que la última cosa que ellos oyeron era yo, después de todo. ”

The monster left the scene, leaving behind bones and blood-stained walls, singing as it went into the black night. “Come little children, I'll take thee away...into a land of enchantment...come little children, the time's come to play...”

Red eyes, tinged with insanity, seemed to laugh as they vanished into the darkness.

“Here in my garden of shadows...”