Spooky Encounters [_____]

Tamami gave a prolonged, almost happy sigh as she flopped back on her bed. "Whew...long day," she said, gazing up at the ceiling. Setting up for the spring festival sure was hard work. Admittedly, she wasn't actually supposed to be doing it yet, but given the nature of her own booth for it, she'd gotten permission to start early, so long as everything could fold down and be stored away in the meantime. It limited what she could do, but it beat having to pull long hours the day before in order to get everything done at once.

Even so, she was still putting a few hours worth of work in on top of school, so she had come back to the dorm wanting nothing more than to relax until bedtime and then go straight to sleep. Now that it was finally bedtime, she was laid out, with all the lights off, and just waiting for sleep to take her. She briefly looked to one side, at the empty bed next to her. She was supposed to have a roommate again this year, but apparently they'd moved in with a friend off-campus. She wondered if she'd get another one. It seemed a little lonely, having the room to herself.

Well, that was an issue for another time. For now, sleep beckoned.

MIYU KUHŌIN

The door had not opened... The window was still locked... No other entrances or exits to the room...

There seemed to be no instance of someone leaving or entering, and yet, as Tamami glanced toward the room's other bed, she likely found that it was not as empty as it first appeared. There lied a vague silhouette amidst the encapsulating darkness, entirely motionless, as if a part of the furniture itself--but the shape implied, even in such poor lighting, that the bed's occupant might have been human. The especially strange part about it, aside from the mere fact that this shadow was there, was the complete lack of presence that it held. No rhythmic, quiet sounds of breathing, no rise and fall of their chest.

Not even a single previous implication of their entrance, or even a rustling of the sheets that they now laid on.

Perhaps this was familiar, in a way. There were rumors that floated about campus of these rare occasions in which dorm rooms with only one student were occupied by someone... no, something else. Such stories had been present within the Fukui Academy campus for the past four years or so, and while the stories all varied, one common factor existed above all else: the general consensus became that the new "occupant" was a malevolent, irritable spirit. It'd become something of a legend, with only one rule:

Do not approach the spirit.

Of course, these were rumors...

Maybe it was just a weird trick of the half-light from the window, but at a glance it almost appeared as though the other bed wasn't as empty as it usually was. Tamami did a double take, expecting the shape resting atop it to disappear, or turn out to just be a shadow from her own bed. But no, it seemed to be more solid, and definitely person-shaped. Tamami shifted herself and her covers just to be sure, but the silhouette didn't move. And now that she'd been stirred out of her half-asleep state, she could probably rule that out as well.

"Hello?" she asked, not actually expecting an answer. If it was someone who'd managed to sneak into her room, they were probably asleep already. So she sat up and started standing up to approach the other bed. That was when she remembered the rumors. Utterly ridiculous rumors, that had nonetheless managed to spread around the entire school over the time she had been there, about some kind of malevolent spirit. What was it again...something about it appearing in rooms with only one occupant, and she wasn't supposed to approach it?

Well screw that. She wasn't some kind of gullible first-year who believed in evil spirits. But she was careful, so when she stood up to approach the other bed, she grabbed a length of rope from a drawer, just in case.

The closer the girl crept to the still figure, the easier it became to tell just how motionless it really was. Stagnant, almost lifeless, as if it had been claimed as the person's death bed... and eventually, when close enough, Tamami wouldn't have any trouble seeing the almost inhumanly-pale white skin of the stranger's face. A face that, from every angle, appeared as lifeless as the practical stasis of the body implied.

Bloodshot, wide-open eyes and an expression of pure terror, frozen in possible rigor mortis; this was not a face that belonged to a living person.

Just as that realization might have struck, a whispering tone found its way into Tamami's ear, close enough for her to feel the warm breath of the one who spoke it. "You foouund~ meeeee~..."

The source of that voice would only become apparent if Tamami turned around. The tall, slender figure cast a piercing ruby gaze down upon the girl, gently licking at a pair of maliciously-grinning lips and standing at a menacingly-close distance. The expression on the stranger's face, now rather obviously female, was that of a hungry wolf closing in on a cornered little sheep which had nowhere else to run; the look of a predator who had already secured her prey. Her tone mixed hostility and playfulness in a way that would send chills down one's spine, and...

... Oh, how interesting. The girl that now stood over Tamami a full five-inches taller, amidst the ever-present darkness that allowed only her pale face to be seen properly, looked very much like the figure that laid on the bed.

A corpse and its spirit, perhaps..?

Asleep...yes, asleep. That was it, right? It wasn't like she could have stumbled on some unconscious person (or worse) that had been hidden away in her room, right? No, there was no way that could...but she looked extremely pale, and lifeless, with frozen open eyes.

Alarm bells went off in Tamami's mind. She had to get out. She had to get out and report this. But the moment she came to that realization, someone whispered menacingly in her ear. She turned on the spot, and let out a short but sharp scream as she saw the ghost-like figure leaning over her. Her eyes went wide. She drew back, immediately wanting to run, but only the wall and window were behind her, and there was no way she'd survive jumping from the fourth floor. No, she'd have to go through this obviously hostile person. Evil spirit? No, she still didn't believe that, even if the predatory-looking stranger also looked an awful lot like the figure on the bed. But it was clear that she meant her harm.

Immediately, Tamami slung her rope around the woman, grasping the other end as she tried to push around her. She pulled the two ends back together, hastily tightening them to bind the stranger's limbs together. Once that was done, she wrapped the rope a second time and tried to tie it off, her technique much sloppier than her art due to her panicked state. She could make it look pretty some other time. Right now, surviving the night was more important.

The screaming response was correct; very, very few people avoided reacting in such a manner when cornered this way. What was missing was Tamami's panicked attempts to flee for her very life.

Perhaps the spirit hadn't expected that, because the rope met with no resistance as it looped around and... actually didn't phase right through. Strange. Evidently the spirit was tangible, at least enough so that Tamami's rope did not fall as it circled and bound the stranger's arms to her sides. One might have thought that was good, but the expression that the spirit held did not falter--rather, the grin it displayed widened, implying that perhaps the smaller girl had made a huge mistake.

Arms bound to her sides, yet still on her feet, the spirit leaned slightly forward, having previously remained still as the rope was put in place. "Ten... Nine... Eight..." the spirit began to chant, tone escalated from a whisper to a low, rhythmic hum. Her voice was scratchy and strained, as if she were choking, and the more her countdown progressed, the more she leaned forward. Tamami had only bound the spirits arms, and it seemed like she was running out of time... but for what?

"Seven... Six~..."

Tamami only hesitated for a second as the ropes made contact. Even though she still didn't believe this crazy person was an evil spirit, not for a minute, she was still a little surprised to actually be right. About her being tangible, at least. Tangible spirit was still on the table. Also still crazy, right? Now it would be easy to just get out, lock the ghost lady in, and report this. Right?

No, maybe not. Rather, the woman seemed to be undeterred, and was now counting down. To what? To something bad, no less. And if she wasn't bothered by having her arms bound, then there wasn't much to stop her from chasing Tamami out. What was she going to do then? She couldn't match someone who had managed a haul a body in for strength (something about that was bothering her, but in her current panic she couldn't afford to give it much thought), so locking her in wouldn't work. What then...

Ah! She could bind her legs too if she worked quick enough. Tamami dropped to the ground, snagging another length of rope from under her bed. She slung it around the woman's legs and tried to bind them together, hoping that this ghost lady's preference for theatrics over action would last at least as long as her countdown.

"Fiiive~... Fooouur~..."

Still no reaction from the alleged spirit. As Tamami knelt down, she likely did not see any legs, but rather a shadowy silhouette that, facilitated yet again by the vision-obstructing darkness, might have given the appearance of floating. The lower half was evidently as tangible as the upper, and with no moves made against the ropes, soon the spirit's "legs" were bound just the same as her arms--but the countdown did not cease.

"Threeeee~..."

Amidst her lean, the spirit seemed to make an attempt to actually step--or hover?--closer. The result set a pause in their speech and, after a moment of wobbly posture, begot a tip forward in response to a loss of balance. It might have looked like the spirit was lunging for Tamami, but at the last second, they tilted to the side and, with the soft "thump" that could have just as well been a pillow falling off the bed, finally hit the floor. Maybe the rope actually did restrict movement to some extent. Yet, still...

"Twoooo~... One~..!"

It should have come as some relief that the ghost lady's countdown not only continued at its slow, chanting pace, but even slowed down as she started drawing each number out. But for Tamami, it just increased the tension as she struggled to actually find the girl's legs. Between the darkness and, presumably, what the ghost lady was wearing (assuming she wasn't actually floating or something) Tamami couldn't find anything for a second. But by the third count, she'd found and bound the other rope around something.

With that done, she shuffled away, hoping that it would hold the crazy lady. Once she got a few feet of distance she stood up, backing away and mentally preparing herself to make a run for it. Only a nagging bit of curiosity kept her from bolting right away. Would it hold her? What would happen at the end of the countdown? Despite the obvious danger of finding out, she still kind of wanted to know.

She reached the door and placed a hand on the knob but, seeing that the stranger had fallen over the moment she tried to lunge, she hesitated for a moment. Watching, and waiting. And then, time ran out.

A long, unnerving silence followed as the "spirit" laid now motionless on the floor.

Nothing was happening. No odd sounds could be heard, the alleged spirit made no sudden moves, and the unsettling atmosphere, even, seemed to begin fading away. The immediate danger was no longer present with the spirit bound at this point, right? Yet, the natural response to being tied up was usually to struggle or squirm... but the spirit did no such thing. Frozen there in place, she seemed not too different from the figure that had first been seen on the "unoccupied" bed.

Until she began to twitch, anyways. Just her head and shoulders, very slightly, the reason for which was impossible to tell. Tamami might have seen such a motion before, though, if she'd watched any horror movies; when one suffered head trauma--like they would when they fell, for example--such twitching motions were not all that uncommon when they were unconscious, or worse. If the "spirit" was not dead already, there could have been a chance that now-

"-choo..!"

... Never mind, it was a sneeze.

Followed shortly after by a much less intimidating, cool and smoothly-voiced: "Might you untie me? It's quite tedious to reap your soul with these bindings in place, I'm afraid."

And then...nothing. The countdown just...ended. The crazy lady didn't even try to go after her now that she'd fallen. Actually, she wasn't moving at all. Except for, after a moment, a very faint twitch of the head. That was unnerving. Oh...crap. She couldn't have...no, could she? That was even worse than being attacked! How was she going to explain...oh, she just sneezed.

Tamami visibly sighed with relief. Then again as the 'evil spirit' spoke, this time in a much more normal voice. "OH!" Tamami said, recovering oddly quickly from the scare the lady had caused. "I'm so sorry! You had me so worked up that I did such a shoddy job tying you up. No one deserves anything so sloppy." And yet that had happened because she was fearing for her life and did the first thing she could think of to allow herself an escape. What a weird girl.

"Yeah, I could untie you. But I'd much rather re-do it properly, if you don't mind. Would you let me?"

There was now finally some movement from the "spirit," who turned slowly to lay on her side. A curtain of hair kept the majority of her face hidden at this point, though one small shade of eyebrow could be seen raised, curiously eyeing Tamami from the position she lied in. Judging by the lack of squint or lean, this so-called "spirit" had no troubles seeing in the dark, and the ruby coloration of her eyes, among other things, still painted quite a sinister picture. Like a demon in chains.

"Redo it, you ask?" the spirit replied, a slight, inquisitive tilt of the head accompanying her response. Her words, however, suggested she was still playing the part. "Strange. In all my countless years of whisking away adorable young girls such as yourself from these halls, never have I encountered one who would make such a request of me..."

It was a little unusual, actually. This was the first time someone actually attempted to defend themselves, rather than fleeing in terror, or just huddling up in fear. Perhaps this "spirit" had been a little careless in her approach this time, assuming this particular victim to be as easily intimidated as the others.

"Tell me, are you not scared?"

Tamami was starting to settle down a bit. Her heart was still racing from the encounter, but now that the crazy girl was talking normally and not acting like she was about to jump her, she was able to catch her breath and think clearly. Or as clearly as was permissible to do something like asking to redo the crazy lady's bindings. That was pretty normal for Tamami, though.

Those eyes though...they still made Tamami shudder a bit. Kind of exciting too, though.

"Huh? You were going to whisk me away?" Tamami asked, a little curious. "Maybe I shouldn't have stopped you then," she teased. Wait, actually, that would still be bad. But even so, she didn't mind the thought of being carried away by another woman.

Despite the stranger never giving her permission, Tamami knelt down beside her and pulled a longer length of rope from under her bed. She started undoing the stranger's current bindings first, giving her a short window to react before Tamami would start trying to bind her again. In the meantime, she tilted her head to the side as the girl asked if she wasn't scared. "Not anymore. You had me going just now, though. You're really good at that."

"Oh?" vocalized the spirit, eyes narrowing a tad and mouth curving into a subtle, taunting grin. A much more tame version of the initial expression she'd shown, though in sort of a pleasantly-surprised manner this time around. Seemed as if Tamami's response, attempts to "tease," did nothing to cause the spirit to falter in manner or speech. Rather, perhaps out of interest in it, she didn't make any moves to react or stop the girl from redoing those ties when given the chance.

It was a new situation. As rare a phenomenon as it was, she found herself interested enough not to leave in boredom once the scare had grown dull.

Remaining as she was while tied up a second time, the spirit shifted posture slightly, a sort of cat-like stretching motion--nothing that would interfere with the ropes, though--accompanying that sly grin of hers. Whether it was intentional or not, those motions made it a little easier to see the womanly curves of her body, thanks to the small amount of moonlight filtering in through the nearby window. It wasn't simply fright she enjoyed seeing in a stranger's face, after all. There were oh so many ways to mess with people, and a little harmless temptation was but one of them.

"You speak as if you are out of danger," replied the spirit, head turned just enough to let her peer up at Tamami through the corner of one eye. "Surely you have heard of me, have you not? And surely you know what happens..."

The next several words were spoken in a much lower, more ominous tone. "... when you willingly bind a malevolent spirit, do you not?"

When the stranger didn't stop Tamami from redoing the binds, Tamami went straight for one of the more intricate ties she had used on people. She couldn't exactly string the girl up at the moment, not with the lack of anything in her room to do it from, but that was only one of the binds in Tamami's arsenal. So instead she'd have to do something that just focused on the upper body, and do the legs separately. If the woman took exception to her methods she'd stop and do something a little simpler, of course. But until then she started wrapping the rope around the woman's arms, pinning them behind her and wrapping the rope around her torso as well as the arms themselves. She started wrapping the part around her chest in a manner that would emphasize the woman's curves a bit. And...they were some very impressive curves at that. Tamami couldn't help but stare a bit as she worked, a little too closely with only moonlight to see with.

"I've heard a few rumors, but I don't actually believe any of that 'evil spirit' stuff," Tamami said. She shuddered again as the woman shifted to a more ominous tone, but recovered much more quickly this time. "So uhh...n-no, I don't."

This was getting a bit hard without much light, though. "Ah...this is kind of intricate work. Do you mind if I get the light?"

The vague squirming performed by the spirit might have been part of her teasing, a way to further emphasize that which Tamami was already staring at. Still no motions were made to protest, however, and indeed found herself curious about the unusual way her arms and torso were being tied up in, as well as exactly why this person felt the need to do so. A hidden fetish, perhaps? Very, very easy to take advantage of, if that was the case.

"Oh, please don't," replied the spirit, voice rather articulate in its once-again altered tone. She was putting on the "I'm so embarrassed" act now, spoken in a manner that--if someone were to overhear them--probably would have given very risky implications. They were two healthy young women alone in a dorm at night, after all. "I just couldn't bear being seen in such a compromising position as this. I think I much prefer the lights off~..."

The last line there was meant to have a double-meaning, of course, if only for the purpose of making Tamami feel uncomfortable. Not many people would be ecstatic to have an intruder like this "spirit," who could still not even be seen entirely clearly, making such suggestive comments, but then again Tamami had surprised her once already.

The spirit seemed to wink briefly as she wiggled enticingly amidst the ropes. "Well, if you do not believe me to be a spirit, then you must have me tied up like this for... 'another' reason, perhaps?"

Tamami slowed down a little as the stranger squirmed, but since she wasn't protesting or resisting, she had to assume that the woman was giving her more to look at. Yes, that wasn't an unreasonable jump in logic or anything like that. Even so, she was a little surprised when the woman responded with a very embarrassed-sounding protest to the idea of turning on the lights. Tamami blushed a little upon realizing that despite the lack of protests the woman had realized exactly what she was doing.

"Are you trying to get me excited now?" Tamami asked, trying to work the knots in the dark anyway. She lowered her voice a bit as she added "Because it's kind of working." It would probably be pretty bad if she went too far with this person, a complete stranger, who she didn't even know if she was actually a student or not. But she couldn't help where her thoughts were going right now. Even if they were only going in that direction after getting to this point in tying her up.

"This is what I do. I'm a rope artist," Tamami said. "I just happen to like working with people. You're the one trying to give me 'another' reason, as you say."

The "spirit" smirked at that remark, stealthily shifting back to her taunting persona. "Suggestion is but an extraction of a preexisting desire," she replied, turning her head a little more, her other eye now partially visible. Her patterns of speech were by this point noticeably refined, with the sort of sophisticated pronunciations one would expect of stereotypical royalty in fiction. "Blaming the one tempting you for your weakness to temptation is like blaming a slice of cake for ruining your diet."

Suspicion partially confirmed, in any case; evidently the room's owner did hold an odd interest in tying people up, perhaps rationalized as a mere artistic intrigue, but she wasn't buying it. No action, emotion or interest was without a deeper explanation, however simplistic it might have been. It just so happened that the circumstances at hand pointed toward Tamami's interest being on the more... non-PG side of the spectrum.

Arching a curious, but accusative brow, the spirit added, each syllable laced with an almost seductive undertone, "No need to lie to someone you've already caught. Feel free to profess exactly what you're thinking, I assure you, I am not one to judge."

Ah...this woman was pretty shrewd. While Tamami hadn't been lying (technically), the stranger was right that Tamami enjoyed this sort of thing. She was a bit resistant towards actually admitting it, because she was still a student in a prestigious school, and that kind of thing getting out could get her in serious trouble. Possibly. It depended on who it got out to, really? Everyone? Definitely trouble.

As for her work, yes, it had been inspired by her own desires, and while there was certainly an artistry to what she did, and innocence to most of the work she actually put out and displayed, Tamami really would be lying if she denied that...deeper aspect, to it. "Well, if you insist," she said, although that seductive tone the stranger took had a lot more swaying power than the assurance that she wouldn't judge. "Yes, I do like tying people up, and seeing people tied up. And you're making it a lot more enjoyable, squirming around and talking like that."

The quiet, ironically-angelic sound that the "spirit" now made sounded quite a bit like a chuckle. People weren't hard o figure out. Rather easy, in fact, especially when the information had a source that was present among every living person that was of age to experience it; out of all humanly emotions, by far the easiest to recognize, induce and exploit was lust. She did say that she wasn't one to judge, but that only applied vocally. In truth, she found that this victim of hers tonight, despite perceived oddities, was rather similar to everyone else after all.

Of course, that was no reason to stop teasing.

"Hmm..? Sorry, what was that?" the spirit replied, gently rolling over onto her back. She now laid on her arms, which were still tied behind her back, and the movements from her tipping off of her side--as well as the stationary wiggling that followed, disguised as an attempt to get comfortable--caused the ropes around her torso to move and contract, firmly hugging the curves of her body. Now that she was face-up, surely Tamami could see that the spirit was spectacularly well-endowed. "I can't hear you very well when you're speaking so quietly, if you don't move a little closer."

She did hear, of course, and it was pretty obvious too. The way she twitched and squirmed in place seemed to emphasize the ropes that bound her and the fact that she was trapped in place, potentially unable to stop any "moves" that Tamami might decide to make. With the expression on her face and the look on her eyes, both confident and alluring, it may have felt like she was daring Tamami to make some sort of move.