Work Text:
Halloweenie
Author’s Note: Set after Digimon Adventure tri. and prior to Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Digimon series.
Pairings: Referenced one-sided (canon) Daisuke x Hikari, established Michael x Mimi.
Summary:
Michael Barton is convinced American horror cinema surpasses J-horror. Motomiya Daisuke begs to differ.
The parking lot was empty. Of people, that is, aside from him.
There were (if the words “parking lot” weren’t self-explanatory enough) a lot of cars.
He couldn’t miss a sound in the ascending (or descending, depending on your point of view) area with solid blackness up (or down) the center. The slow drip of an inadequately screwed pipe, or the rustle of a piece of a paper scrunched up into a ball tumbling by tires on the concrete.
A leak in the gas lines?
He was imagining things. Yes. It was all in his imagination. He hoped.
He double-timed. Walked faster. Then started running.
He heard his own shoes on the pavement of the parking lot, but let his impressionable self turn that into someone chasing him.
Or worse, some thing!
The knock of his soles gave way to heavy breathing. Again his own, but once the “camera” pulled back and suddenly flew behind him…
The perspective had changed.
Another was breathing, even more heavily than he was. Dank, palpable breaths, that were definitely on purpose.
You were seeing the potential victim from the eyes of the tormentor at this point. Not so imaginary anymore.
The killer was stalking him.
The killer of the sanctity of his mind!
He looked back, and regretted his decision to do so. The small sliver of moonlight creeping into the parking lot…Jesus! Was that a kitchen knife in the evil figure’s hand?
No, of course he was the jock in the horror movie! Of course the killer would pursue him!
The jock rarely survives to the end credits. If he has a role to play, it is usually to romance the best friend of the final girl, before getting brutally dispatched by the killer during the same take as the girl he’s involved with.
Was that an indicator the killer had already gotten to Mimi-san?
He tripped, and the shape closed in.
He wasn’t going down without a fight!
Fighting back. Ah yes, when had that ever NOT backfired on the jock in the movies?
No other option remaining, he picked up his dropped bag and swung for the fences.
Nothing.
He fell diagonally from the force of the swing, his bag slicing through unoccupied air.
“What?” He stood back up and spun around paranoidly in the dark.
The killer was gone.
Was the killer there, or was it his imagination after all?
The wind whistled. Deeply unsettling, given there was no wind tonight. He knew because he didn’t have to put on an extra layer prior to entering the night.
He resumed searching for the person from before, finding no one.
He felt he was being tracked, from more than one angle.
Great! I had to leave Betamon at home watching Buffy!
A ritual bell chimed.
“Good. You came to. This place is dangerous. You should never come here again.”
“Who –?”
“Don’t look up,” the voice whispered in warning, so of course the young man who was warned looked.
Thin shadows spread above him like vines or a swarm of disease-bearing insects.
He’d seen this in a movie too.
He didn’t need physical prowess. He needed an exorcist. A medium. A witch doctor. Somebody adept at battling demons and/or laying dead souls to rest!
Who’d offer? It didn’t end prettily for the monk trainee in that movie. Katayama Fukujuro’s character Saion was dragged, lifeless, up into the ceiling. Limper than a puppet.
He didn’t have a prayer, and neither did this sitting duck in the parking lot.
He was –
“YAHOO! FINALLY, FINALLY!”
V-mon jump scare.
“Sup Michael! Did we startle you?” Daisuke grinned in his phone’s light. The very phone he’d pushed a button on to sound the bell’s ring earlier, as well as project a stencilled image of the shadows which sent Michael thrashing to the ground.
…
Two years their senior, rational, tallest among the Chosen Children, and yet somehow Michael Barton was sitting in a corner rocking back and forth, queasy from vertigo.
“What did you do?” Hikari singled Daisuke out with no incriminating evidence.
“A friendly wager!”
“Over what?”
“Michael argued American horror films are superior to J-horror! I bet him they weren’t. It wasn’t hard. The ‘best’ in his arsenal was Halloween!”
“Halloween is the peak of American horror cinema! Michael Myers is a pop culture icon!”
“Michael Myers isn’t scary! He’s a dude in a William Statner mask! They hatched lazy ways for him to get out of dying and return for sequels! A hermit and a cult? Clothes swap with the paramedic?”
“When you put money on the table, I expected more girls crawling out of TVs and cursed video tapes! Not brain bugs and electric pizza cutters! Don’t follow me into any more dark alleys and such, Daisuke!”
“What movie did you show him?”
“Aragne: Sign of Vermillion.”
“It’s a scary one! Like Archnemon controlling all those Insect Digimon to trap us in Giga House!” V-mon raised the roof.
And V-mon deserved commendation. Because of him, Daisuke hadn’t tattled to Armadimon and Wormmon about Archnemon making Digmon and Stingmon attack their allies.
“It’s that scary? Okay, now I’m curious. I may have to rent it.”
“Takeru, is that a good idea?” Patamon worried. “You might wet the –”
“AHEM! Waseight! Waseight! Ixnay on the edwettingbay!”
Hikari chuckled.
Daisuke just stared. “I don’t speak French.”
“Don’t do it, Takeru-kun. I can’t walk down a hallway without it feeling the lights are dimming behind me or seeing eyes on the wings of moths everywhere! For Pete’s sake, Daisuke, I’m afraid of baby strollers now!”
“You never want to gamble against Daisuke-kun. If he plays and you accept, he’ll win.”
“You sure sound sure, Takeru-kun,” Hikari cheeped.
“He’s that type of person! I mean, he has that coin from Kadoetsu with heads on both sides!”
“Daisuke-kun!” she gasped. “That’s the coin you flipped so I’d agree to go out with you, isn’t it?”
Tailmon sighed at his behaviour and shrugged.
Patamon and Takeru covered each other’s mouths.
Daisuke shut up.
Michael checked his arms for bugs.