Author Notes: Belated Halloween, but still here anyway! This is the piece I wrote the Halloween Savanaclaw zine "Crown of Vengeance and Sorrow"! Everyone worked hard on this zine and it has some truly wonderful pieces, even if mine is admittedly more on the comedic side. This fic features gender-neutral Prefect. I hope you enjoy!
Type: Sfw/ gender neutral Prefect (Yuu)/ Savanaclaw/ Halloween/ fluff/ comedy/ set during Terror is Trending event
Word Count: 1999 Words
Zine Tumblr Link: The Crown of Vengeance and Sorrow
I really should’ve known better than to accept Jack’s invitation to tour the Savanaclaw ghost ship before any guests came for the NRC Halloween festivities so I could give a second opinion. Because if there was anything this school’s students were good at, it was getting into meanness.
In fact, Jack was probably the only reason I agreed to come. I did trust him, at the very least. But even he could get hoodooed into going against his better instincts at times.
Which was probably why I was standing here, like an idiot, in the eerily lit interior of the ghost ship the Savanaclaw dorm had built, all on my own, where Ruggie had shoved me through a hole in the ship's hull. Eliciting a tiny shriek from me while he’d only snickered even as I’d fussed at him.
And I knew precisely what sort of situation this was. Even if Jack hadn’t intended for things to end up this way, I was now officially taking part in a haunted ghost tour. And I didn’t even have Grim to keep me company since he’d scampered off earlier today to find out what sort of Halloween treats Trey might be making.
Something I was now wishing I’d accompanied him for.
I was good mind to just leave, but I found myself staying for reasons even I didn’t understand beyond sheer stubbornness on my part as I glanced around. Frowning at the glittering gold coins that were scattered throughout the space.
I had no doubts that they were a trigger of some sort, so I definitely wasn’t going to touch any of them. Even if I was curious about how the students had gone about making them look so realistic.
Probably some form of magic….
I started forward, already wary of any shadows that I came across that looked overly suspicious.
Jump scares would probably be the go-to attack, knowing the group I was dealing with, so that was probably what I’d need to worry about the most. But I doubted just charging forward with my eyes closed would work. That would probably just result in me slamming headlong into someone.
I imagined there were Savanaclaw students stationed all throughout the ship, and the endpoint of this demented, haunted tour would probably be the deck of the ship.
If any of them tried to playfully make me walk the plank, though, I was not above tattling to one of the teachers. At the very least Professor Crewel or Trein would probably scold them.
I would play along with the ghost tour since it was Halloween, and this could be counted as a test run, though. After all, Jack had mentioned getting my opinion on the decorations as a sort of last-minute review before it was well and truly time for action.
So I wandered around, finding I was unsure if I was relieved that no one had jumped out yet or if that just made the entire thing worse. Because I knew it was coming.
I frowned as soon as I spotted the beaten-up-looking staircase in the corner, though.
It looked like it had come straight out of Ramshackle dorm, which was almost a comforting thought, except for one thing.
That was obviously the path I was intended to take, which meant that way would most definitely lead to jump scares.
I squared my shoulders and started forward, though. One creaky step at a time.
And, as if on cue, there was a heavy footstep behind me, and I froze. Tensing all over even as I inwardly reminded myself that it was just another student. No matter how they were dressed to inspire fear.
And even though I knew I shouldn’t, I looked over my shoulder.
And there was nothing there.
I exhaled and looked back forward only to immediately scream. I stumbled backwards and fell into the coins before I recognized the young man that had seemingly materialized right in front of me and was now laughing.
“Ruggie!!” I all but hissed his name as he snickered and scampered off. Leaving me to scramble my way back to my feet among the fake coins that slid treacherously underfoot. Grumbling indignantly all the way as I started back up the staircase with no interruption this time.
And by the time I’d finally made it to the top, there was, of course, no Ruggie in sight.
I let out a huff, glancing suspiciously around the room I was now in, but I couldn’t deny it. The Savanaclaw boys had definitely put a lot of work into their ghost ship.
Despite the wrecked exterior, the interior was the perfect image of a once decadent ship, now aged and long abandoned after having been wrecked however many eons ago.
Ripped red curtains hung from beams, and the furniture was purely decadent, if aged.
I could only assume they’d used magic to decorate everything, but a small part of me wondered if they really had used Ramshackle dorm as a reference for how to make things look so old and worse for wear but simultaneously so nice.
The only problem was that there was no obvious hiding place for any Savanaclaw students to jump out from and scare me.
But then any future visitors might be supposed to get chased around by Ruggie in here rather than dealing with the way he’d scampered off earlier.
I walked through, almost smiling at the way the boards creaked under my feet as I idly wondered if they were enchanted to do that. It was a nice touch either way, though I imagined it would make for a squeaky fiasco if people were to run around in here.
I could almost picture Jack’s ears flattening in displeasure at the sound of it, and I snorted to myself in quiet amusement as I continued to look around. Suppressing the urge to poke any of the decorations that had been carefully pre-coated in a mixture of dust and cobwebs.
I made it through the room without any issues and opened the door with little to no difficulty. Peering into the room behind it cautiously before I hesitantly stepped through.
I glanced around and noted the large desk before the door slammed shut behind me. Causing me to jump in surprise and whirl before frowning as I put two and two together.
I jiggled the doorknob, but, sure enough, it was shut tightly. In fact, it actually felt like someone was holding it closed from the other side.
“Ruggie? Is that you?” I called out, but there was no response. Not surprising, really, but successful in that it got me to abandon the door. It was obvious I was supposed to continue onwards anyway.
But I didn’t like this room. I didn’t like this room at all. Because this room felt suspiciously like where the captain’s quarters would be. And I had a sneaking suspicion I knew exactly who would be in the role of captain.
I looked around for anywhere I thought a certain lion beastman would hide to no avail. Which wasn’t really that odd, considering Leona could be quite well-hidden when he wanted to be.
I could only hope he was asleep, wherever he was.
I walked further into the room, looking around for anything akin to a staircase before I finally found it tucked away in a corner. A curving staircase that I assumed led to the deck of the ship.
And the entire time I was beyond suspicious. Because this was far too peaceful to be normal.
This ought to be the final room, which should have the biggest scare factor of all. Or it should have built on the rest of the ship to add a sense of horror. But it did neither. Instead, it felt oddly lackluster and more like I was being harassed than like I was going through a ghost ship.
And then the door opened.
I looked back in time to see one of the larger students come barreling in. Somehow knowing precisely where I was as he outright bellowed at me as I stared at him in alarm before my flight instinct kicked in and I turned and bolted.
I all but dove at the stairs as I scrambled my way up the steps with the young man hot on my heels.
I didn’t even hesitate as I slammed headlong into Jack, which only served to startle me more as he tried to grab me reactively. I kept going, though, as more and more students popped up from where they’d somehow hidden inside the stairwell itself as I scrambled my way up to the deck.
I spun to look behind me, half out of breath as I stared in trepidation at the darkened space behind me. But no one came out, and I felt myself faltering, a confused sound slipping out of me as my gaze darted around the deck in search of anything amiss as I exhaled heavily.
Hands clamped down on my arms, and I finally let out a startled shriek before I spun and instinctively swung out. My hand colliding with someone before they caught my wrists with an annoyed sound.
“Enough with the yowling, Herbivore. You’re making my ears hurt.” Leona’s voice was filled with only a mild degree of annoyance, and I froze. Opening my eyes and looking up at him in slow surprise only to find that my hand had, in fact, collided with the side of his face, which was now slightly reddened.
Behind me I could hear Ruggie wheezing in laughter as other students came pouring out of the stairwell, all but roaring in amusement.
Leona let go of me, his ears still flattened as he stepped back with an annoyed shake of his head as I glanced back to see Ruggie was raking in stacks of money even as he continued to snicker to himself.
“What…?” I trailed off in confusion, and Leona crossed his arms.
“They placed bets on how far you’d make it. Ruggie won.”
“I told them you’d be faster than they thought,” Ruggie was wholly guilt-free as he all but cackled to himself over his new riches, and all at once everything seemed to slowly slip into place.
I looked back at the other students as Jack made his way over with a droopy tail and deep frown on his face. And, unlike Ruggie, he definitely felt guilty. “Sorry, Prefect. Ruggie said it’d be the best way to see how good our decorations and costumes really are.”
“...You could’ve warned me,” I crossed my arms, outright frowning at all of them, and I heard a snort from behind me.
I glanced back at where Leona stood, a smirk now on his face as Ruggie responded in his stead, “Now what fun would that have been?”
“Besides, this way you weren’t prepared, and that’s what we were looking for. An unsuspecting audience,” Leona finished with a grin.
Honestly, I wanted to fuss. But I knew perfectly well it wouldn’t do any good. So instead I just shook my head, “You’d best not grab any of the guests like you did me, because I will not be protecting any of you from Trein or Crewel.”
“Nah, that was for you and you alone, Prefect. You got our special run-through,” Ruggie winked playfully. Throwing a casual arm over my shoulders as I let out an unimpressed hum in response.
I frowned as I glanced Jack’s way, though. Noting the guilty look he was still wearing, I let out a sigh. “You might want to throw in a few more scares midway through, but it was pretty good otherwise. And your ship looks nice.”
I watched as he perked up and the other students began grinning. Clapping one another on the back at a successful run-through even as I shook my head slightly with an admittedly fond smile.
If nothing else, I could chalk it up to a new Halloween memory.
any particular spontaneous act of love you could share? like, a sudden kiss or anything?
Um... okay. Let's see... back during Halloween preparations, I visited Scarabia's chosen location, that was the Mystery Shop. Jamil looked so beautiful as a werewolf I felt weak to my knees. In short, we had great visitors overall, but some people were just a mess to deal with; I admit I was very concerned, so while helping dealing with and identifying these 'Magicam Monsters', I took a close look at each location.
And then, Kalim surprised everyone with his convincing werewolf act, and King cobra joined in on the action; I even fell on my back. When he was going to help me up, I... I just kissed him right on the spot.
I apologized A LOT after that, but I was so stunned, impressed, charmed even, I couldn't hold back anymore. Jamil was red on the face, but not offended, and Kalim just said that was adorable.
That's, um... a bit embarassing.
