Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You’re not welcome here,” whispered an eery voice.

Reigen sat up in bed, eyes wide. The room was dark. The voice was young. Serizawa slept next to him, softly snoring in the otherwise silent house. Slowly, Reigen rose to his feet.

“Who said that?”

“Go back,” a little girl said. “Back to what you know. You’re not welcome here.”

Reigen opened his mouth in protest, but was interrupted by a cloud of smoke. He gasped. The smoke circled around his feet. It grew taller and taller. He couldn’t see his own hands.

He hissed as the smoke touched his skin; it left a burning sensation that made him cry out in agony. He fell to his feet. Where was Serizawa? Reigen called for him as the smoke tightened around him like a noose, and lifted him into the air.

“You’re not welcome here.”

Suddenly, Reigen couldn’t breathe. The air was stolen from his lungs and replaced by cigarettes. He coughed as more and more cigarettes were shoved into his mouth. His stomach churned.

His eyes began to water as his mouth turned to ash, teeth falling out and bottom lip splitting. A red hot pain. He was surrounded by teeth and a bloody lip.

Reigen screamed and screamed and screamed as the hand shoving cigarettes down his throat tightened around his neck. It squeezed the life out of him- dying, he realized between coughs, he was dying. He was going to die he was going to di-

“Arataka!”

He sat up in bed, gasping for air. His throat burned and his eyes watered as he choked.
Arataka put a hand to his burning throat and coughed and coughed. Serizawa watched, feeling useless, as his boyfriend’s arms shook. He laid a gentle hand on his back as Arataka continued to cough.

“-zawa,” he managed to say through his coughs.

“Don’t talk if you can’t. Save your breath.”

Arataka hacked. Serizawa stayed at his side, a gentle hand on his back as he shook. Reigen looked around the dark room. He saw no smoke; nothing indicating the house was anything but normal.

“My dreams…” he said. “This one had its hand around my throat.”

Serizawa’s eyes widened. “Around your throat?”

“I don’t think we’re welcome here,” Reigen said.

Serizawa frowned, thinking of the kind family offering them a place to stay. “What do you mean?”

“Something wants us gone,” he whispered. “In my dreams, I can’t see it but…” he looked up at Serizawa. “I think we should bring Dimple in. Maybe an actual ghost will see more. See if we can get a better idea of what this thing is.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Serizawa whispered back.

Their whispers were interrupted by the sound of a scream. Reigen and Serizawa looked at each other before scrambling to their feet. Airi-chan screamed, crying out for help as they ran.

Himawari joined the cries, calling out for her mama. The first door on the right shook. Serizawa rushed to the door, but was thrown backwards. Reigen looked up. He was frozen in mid air. He looked at Serizawa. Then he was thrown against the wall.

“Arataka!”

Reigen groaned as he pushed himself up.

“Let me try.”

The howls continued as Serizawa rammed his shoulder against the door, using his powers to add extra weight.

“We’re coming!” Reigen called as he slammed into the door. “It’s okay, we’re coming!”

The door finally gave, and Serizawa fell into the room. Reigen rushed in behind him. Airi was thrashing in her bed, head twisting as she sobbed. Himawari stared at her in horror, pointing at her sister with a shaking hand.

“R-Reigen-san,” she called. “Help her!”

He rushed towards the little girl, “Airi-chan, it’s time to wake up.”

“She’s here, Reigen-san,” Airi whispered. “She wants me! She wants us!”

“Airi-chan,” Reigen said, “wake up! You’re safe. You’re safe, I promise.”

Serizawa stood over the girl and held out his hands, his powers manifesting magenta that swirled around the girl’s head. Airi continued twisting in bed, shouting. The door slammed open once more as Hakoma-san rushed into the room.

“What’s happening?!”

Objects began to float in the room as the screams continued. Hakoma-san looked around in fear. Himawari ran to her mother and held her tight. The door slammed open a final fine as Hana ran in.

“What’s going on with Airi?!”

“I can’t wake her up,” Serizawa shouted over the roaring in the room.

The girls screams rose higher and higher and the covers began to fall from her body as, she too, rose into the air like a creature of the night. Reigen ran over and grabbed onto her feet as she rose. He clung to her nightgown and fought against the invisible force pulling on her. Serizawa widened his arms and latched his powers onto the girl.

Finally, she was let go. Reigen caught her as she fell from the air. When she fell back into his arms she opened her eyes and looked around in a panic. Her eyes landed on him, and she began to cry. Hakoma-san rushed to her daughter’s side and took her from Reigen’s arm. She sat down on the bed and held Airi as she sobbed.

“Airi honey, you were- you were floating,” she cried. “What- what happened?”

“There was a lady in my head,” Airi cried. She snuggled into her mother’s chest before looking at the room, staring at her sisters with glassy eyes. “She said she wants me…. And my family dead.”

No one said a word. Airi continued to sob as they all stood in stunned silence. Hakoma-san took a deep breath and shook her head.

“Airi honey, we’re gonna get to the bottom of this. I promise,” she said.

Her voice was strong, but Reigen could see her arms were shaking. What did this ghost have against this family, and just how far would it go to get them? Airi-chan glanced over at him and clutched her mom tightly around the neck.

“I don’t want to go back to sleep,” she whispered.

Airi had lost her upbeat spirit. She shivered and shook in her mother’s arms like the little girl she was. Reigen bit his lip, feeling useless. What could he do to help? Before he could think Reigen found himself doing what he did best, talking.

“You know Airi-chan,” he said, “I’m scared to go to sleep, too.”

“You are?”

He nodded. “But you know what? My partner makes me stronger, just like your family makes you stronger. They’re all here for you.”

Airi looked up at him, her lip trembling as she spoke. “Are you here for me?”

Reigen didn’t make like to make promises to clients. He didn’t get too close to the job. He never let himself, that was a rookie mistake. But something about this family was pulling him in heart first. He looked over at Serizawa who nodded. Reigen looked back at Airi and spoke.

“Of course I am.”

The constant tapping of the rain woke him up. Serizawa was the first to rise in the small, crowded room. Reigen was snoring next to Airi-chan, whose hand draped off the end of her bed and hovered above Reigen’s dyed hair. Reigen was clinging to the pink dinosaur Airi had given him.
Cute. Serizawa smiled before looking around the bedroom.

The room was cast in shadow. It was too early to rouse the girls, especially Hakoma-san, who looked exhausted. She was squished between Himawari’s mattress and Hana, who laid on the spare mattress. Reigen and Serizawa had given it up when the family decided to spend the night together. Serizawa groaned as he sat up from the carpet. The real horror here was their uncomfortable floor.

Speaking of horrors, Reigen was unusually still. Serizawa half expected the man to wake up screaming like Airi-chan. Those awful nightmares wouldn’t leave him alone. As if hearing him, Reigen’s breathing began to pick up.

“Arataka?”

“Go ‘way,” he groaned.

Serizawa smiled. “Are you awake?”

“No, no,” he whispered, turning away from his boyfriend.

Serizawa’s smile fell from his face. He worriedly ran a hand through his boyfriend’s hair. “Taka, you okay?”

“Don’t… don’t take ‘em,” he mumbled.

“Take who?”

“Don’t take the girls… please.”

Arataka sat up suddenly, eyes wide as he gasped for breath. The fear in his eyes was wide and red like he couldn’t stop running a race. Serizawa, growing uncomfortably familiar with this routine, put himself in Reigen’s line of sight. He began whispering reassurances as Arataka coughed. He found himself echoing Reigen’s sentiment from the night before.

“It’s okay,” Serizawa said, “you’re safe.”

“Not okay,” Reigen said between coughs. “Something is here.”

Reigen looked up at him tensely. His hands shook at his sides as he gulped. Serizawa reached out his hand and Reigen took it without question, avoiding his gaze.

“What did you see?”

“I saw… I saw the pale lady,” he whispered. “A woman in muddied clothing with red eyes, licking hairy skin. She was- s-she had Airi in her grasp.”

“Airi was there?”

Reigen nodded. “I couldn’t see the others. But there were….” He gulped, “there were so many bodies.”

Serizawa felt a chill run down his spine. Reigen’s hands tightened in his grip. Serizawa looked over his shoulder and saw one of the girls was awake; she smiled at him. She raised a dirty hand and waved. Arataka interrupted their eye contact.

“Serizawa, what are you looking at?”

He frowned and looked at Arataka. “One of the girls, of course. She’s awa-“

“Serizawa, there’s no one there.”

He looked again but Reigen was right, there was no one there.

“There’s no question about it,” Dimple said over breakfast, “this place is definitely haunted.”

“Gee, thanks,” Reigen scoffed. “Who would have guessed?”

“Apparently not you, dumbass! Since you only just contacted me.”

The group heard a gasp behind them. Reigen turned around, expecting another horrible sight. But he was grateful to only see Himawari. Until she opened her mouth.

“Mom!” She cried out, turning on her foot. “The ghost said a bad word!”

Dimple frowned. “Oi, I’m an evil spirit!”

“Ekubo, quit playing around,” Serizawa said.

“Wha- she started it!”

Hakoma-san looked at them in bewilderment. She already understood the notion of spirits, but she wouldn’t stop staring at the new one in her house. Only one of many, if her girls were right.

She and the girls had gotten together for a breakfast of eggs and rice which the businessmen had thanked her for profusely. Everyone had stumbled into the kitchen from a poor night’s rest, but at least they were together. Hakoma tried to remember that as she watched a green spirit talk to the two men like it was a regular Saturday. Maybe for them it was.

Reigen’s dreams had seemed like a nuisance, disrupting his sleep and constantly reminding him of the need to smoke. But this time they’d been helpful. In his dream, Reigen described a large, dark, wet room. Serizawa had questioned if the dreams and this haunting were relayed when Hakoma-san told them of their basement.

The kids didn’t go down there, and no one else used it. The basement covered the entire house and would, one day, make a great first floor. For now, it sat in ruin with boxes and boxes covered in sharpie and a leak that refused to quit. The plan was to start searching there.

The house was on the smaller side, but considering the basement and the large front yard they had a lot of ground to cover. Reigen intended to cover it all within the hour. Frankly it was embarrassing how long it was taking them to solve this case, not that he’d ever admit it .

Serizawa decided to take the front yard since that was where they’d seen the ghost in the first place. Reigen and Dimple would focus on the basement. Meanwhile, the girls and Hakoma-san would get some fresh air and visit their father in the hospital.

“Dimple, let’s stick together,” Reigen said.

Dimple raised his eyebrows. “You can’t handle it on your own?”

“You know two heads are better than one,” Reigen argued. “Besides, I don’t want Serizawa to have to bother with you.”

“Sounds like you’ve missed me,” Dimple said, grinning.

“Hear what you want. Couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Dimple scoffed as Serizawa rolled his eyes at their banter. With that, they split into two. Reigen took the lead towards the basement with a flashlight in hand.

He opened the creaky door to reveal pitch black. Reigen stared into the emptiness. He tried to ignore the cold dread creeping up his spine.

“…. You think anyone’s died down there?”

“Shut up, Dimple.”

Airi had finally gotten over her cold, feeling well enough to have breakfast with everyone that morning. Despite the warm food in her belly, she still felt a chill settling in her chest. Whether it was the cold returning or the pale lady, she wasn’t sure.

Her nightmare had brought another level of fear to the whole situation. She’d seen Himawari’s glasses stained with blood, and a lady with red eyes and bloodied teeth. Just thinking about it made her heart beat faster. But today they were going to see daddy and bring him home. That had to help.

Picking up daddy was a lot easier than Airi had thought. For some reason, she’d worried they’d wouldn’t let daddy go. But the papers mama and daddy signed were quick and easy. Hana had jumped into his arms when they left the hospital. Even she had been rattled by last night. Airi thought Hana was just as happy to have daddy back, but she didn’t say it.

They all piled into their car, laughing and asking and daddy questions about his time at the hospital. Airi wanted to know if he got ice cream for desert. That would be so yummy!

Airi was so excited to see her daddy, she didn’t even think about the pale lady. Little did she know the pale lady was thinking about her. She had plans for all of them.

Reigen and Dimple went through the wet, dark basement together. The stone walls were covered in uneven markings, making faces in the wall. They glared at the two as they stumbled through the unorganized basement.

There were piles and piles of old, dusty furniture. Stacked shelves and folding chairs covered nearly every inch of the floor. A broken bed lay in the corner, covered in spider webs. Reigen shivered at the thought of just how many bugs lived down here.

“Yeesh, someone needs to clean up in here,” Dimple said.

“I wonder why they didn’t have Serizawa and I sleep down here,” Reigen mused.

“Have you seen the place? You wanna spend the night down here?”

Reigen shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”

“That’s just sad.” Dimple shook his head. “I can’t even think of a joke to make that’s how sad that is.”

Reigen didn’t have anything to say to defend himself. He’d spend several nights on couches before, some stranded outside. ADD MORE He didn’t a leg to stand on. The two continued in silence.

“Where are they?!” someone screeched into the darkness.

Reigen shone his flashlight around the room. Who was that? Every corner was filled with furniture, but no people. They were completely alone.

Suddenly, a swirl of smoke entered the room. Just like in his dreams. Reigen’s breathing picked up. He called out for Ekubo, who floated closer to him.

“Calm down, fraud,” Dimple scoffed. “This isn’t your first gig.”

Reigen pointed at the smoke with a shaky hand, “No, but it’s the first time my dreams are coming back to haunt me in the real world.”

“Please, it’s just a little-“

“WHERE. ARE. THEY?!”

A loud howl pierced the walls, making them shake. The screams continued into the darkness. Reigen raised his hands to his ears, dropping the flashlight. They were cast into total darkness.

“Shit,” Reigen hissed, scrambling for the flashlight.

He reached down, towards the dark, dirty floor, and felt something wet. Then, something scurried across his hand. Reigen gaged and held his clean hand to his mouth. When he finally grabbed the flashlight he stood up with a nervous grin, not feeling he’d earned the right to celebrate.

“Dimple?”

Where was that piece of snot? Reigen called his name again but received no answer. He began to sweat as the darkness crept in on him. He crouched down once more, desperately grasping at nothing as he looked for the flashlight.

“If this is some kind of joke, it’s not funny,” Reigen said nervously.

He felt a soft wetness against his arms and hissed, fearing the smoke he could not see. In his dreams, they had burned him. Reigen scoffed at his thinking. In his dreams, yeah right.

“Hey,” a voice whispered. “You wanna see my teeth?”

Reigen jumped in the air, shrieking. He fell sideways, landing against a large block of woods, and felt his hand grasp at piano keys that banged loudly. His eyes widened.

“I most certainly do not,” he said.

A pile of teeth dropped to the ground; they fell around his feet to form a circle. He pushed backwards, trying to escape, but only knocked himself against the piano. The teeth crept closer and closer, crawling up his feet. He gasped and pulled his foot back, but they scrambled faster up his other dress shoe.

He pulled salt out of his jacket and began throwing it at his feet but, as usual, it did nothing. They bit into the leather of his shoes.

“Get off of me!”

The teeth kept digging into his shoes, making him his hiss. He began to feel them crawl up the rear of his body, biting at it his skin as he cried out. What the hell was going on?!

But just as they came, the teeth suddenly disappeared. Reigen let out a sigh of relief. His relief was cut short as he heard a door creak open from the end of the hallway. What nightmare awaited him?

“She means well, really,” a little girl said.

Reigen frowned. “Airi-chan?”

“She wants to help us,” the voice continued. “She wants to help you.”

He squinted down the hall and saw a little girl. She wore a muddy white dress and dirty water dripped from her hair. Drip, drip, drip. She walked closer and closer to Reigen. Drip, drip, drip. He looked the little girl up and down. Her eyes were empty of pupils, and she stared at him with an eery smile.

“Where are the girls?”

The little girl titled her head to the side. Her brow furrowed with confusion. “She wants to help them, Reigen-san. She wants to help you.”

“N-no thanks, I don’t need any help.”

The girl took a step closer, her bones crunching as she walked on broken feet that twisted and creaked. She looked him up and down with a wide grin. Her teeth were gray and muddy water pooled between them as she spoke.

“But you do, Reigen-san,” she continued, not unkindly. “We’ve seen your dreams. We’ve watched you live alone. So alone. The smoking only fills so much time. You have so much time to fill, so you’re not stuck with nothing. That empty, agonizing boredom filled only with your self-hatred. Serizawa can’t understand it. No one can. Not like we can, Reigen-san.”

“L-leave me alone,” he managed.

The little girl smiled with bloodied teeth. “Oh but Reigen-san,” she said. “You are alone. And no one is going to find you.”

The room was cast into darkness as Reigen screamed.

Serizawa scanned the yard as he crept closer to the trees. The dreary front yard was in a pouring rain, casting everything in clouds and shadow. The noose still hung from the oak tree, lightning flashing behind it.

He found the spirit was far more active in poor weather, and hoped to see her. He still had no idea where that little girl from earlier had come from. Where was she now? And what early demise led her to lead such a bleak afterlife? Serizawa stared at the swinging noose and wondered how many it had hung.

He walked under the noose, hoping it would tempt the spirit to come out. Or a spirit. The more Serizawa learned about this house the more questions he had. He had no idea how many spirits there were. Suddenly, he heard the creak of rope above him. He looked up and saw a woman was swinging from the noose. She was smiling at him.

Serizawa gasped and took a step back. The woman staring at him had a face full of scars; lines and gashes were scattered across her pale skin. She smiled at Serizawa with rotten teeth and burnt lips.

“You’re not the same spirit,” Serizawa said, reaching into his pocket for his business cards.

The spirit laughed and began falling to the ground, but Serizawa caught her with his aura. She looked at the magenta light around her and screamed. She struggled against his powers, twisting and turning as she grimaced.

“Who are you?”

“I’m merely a messenger,” she cackled.

“A messenger from who?” Serizawa took a step closer. “About what?”

“We all have the same fate,” the spirit hissed.

“That’s not what I asked, spirit.” Still, she was talking to him. He didn’t have the luxury of turning her away. “What fate? What are you taking about?”

She cackled deep in her throat, lowering her head to cover her face in dark hair. She laughed harder and licked her dirty arms, long tongue creeping around them. Serizawa tightened his aura around her.

“Answer me!”

“The fate we all meet…. Death,” she cackled.

“Not for them,” Serizawa said angrily. “They have many years left. They-“

“They will die when she comes for them. They always do.” She chuckled, licking her lips. “First goes the youngest, the weakest. Then the girl with the glasses; and when that bitch of a mother thinks she has any chance at saving her eldest - well, she’ll be stolen, too.”

“She? Who’s she? I thought you were after this family. That you were behind this. Answer me, spirit!”

She coughed between laughs, her hair hiding everything but her rotting mouth. “I am but one of many. Many she has slain and stolen from.” Her lips turned towards and she spit on the ground. “That bitch took my children, my family! I’m merely passing on the favor.”

“How? Who’s suffering because of you?”

“The one who suffers most is the one who cares the least,” she said, spitting at his feet. “We’re already collecting them. Those who don’t care for anyone else. Those who lose their children to selfishness.”

“Selfishness?” Serizawa shook his head. “You’re destroying their lives, scaring their children. What have they ever done to you?”

“Liar!” She screeched. Her hair was pushed back by the wind and he could see her white eyes were tearing up. “She stole them from me. She stole them. I never deserved what she did to me.” She grit her teeth. “She’ll pay, they’ll all pay.”

“Pay for what? What did she steal?”

“She stole my babies, that wretched brat! That evil bitch stole my babies right from under me! And now I walk this earth cursing anyone who dares defy me in her place!”

“This woman you speak of, what does she look like?”

“Let me down you insolent human,” the spirit growled. “I have better things to do than waste my time talking to the likes of you.”

“Not before you tell me who she is. What does she look like? Who is she?”

“The youngest girl calls her the pale lady,” she hissed. “I call her a demon, an Ameonna. She controls all the spirits here. She’ll come for us all in the end. But first she’ll kill all of you. In fact,” the spirit smiled and looked at the house behind him, “she’s already started.”