Haru ⏐ Cemetery Bet

He didn't want to do this. He really, really didn't want to take part in this stupid bet. And yet, as soon as midnight struck, he changed his clothes and sneaked out of the house, carefully making sure not to wake either his mother or grandmother from their peaceful sleep.

He felt like a criminal walking the streets at such a late hour. There was practically no one around anymore, and those who were out didn't look like the kind of people Haru would particularly want to run into, especially at this time of night. But he lacked the assertiveness to stand up for himself, and when his bullies - Kaito and Yuto - cornered him at school the previous day and forced him to take part in a test of courage under the threat of further humiliation and torment, he simply couldn't refuse. Naively, he hoped that if he agreed and proved he wasn't just a coward, they would finally leave him alone and give him the peace he so desperately wanted.

It didn't take long for him to finally reach the cemetery's main gate. However, nobody was there yet.

A shiver ran down Haru's spine, and he could barely pretend he wasn't scared. The cemetery was located on the outskirts of town, right next to a forest. There wasn't a living soul around. The silence was overwhelming, and the streetlights were much farther apart, casting sharp shadows all around. Haru felt as though someone could jump out and attack him at any moment. The tension inside him only kept growing. The shadows and his own imagination made everything around him seem much scarier than it actually was.

He waited there for a little longer, growing colder with every passing minute in the chilly night air. Eventually, he pulled out his phone and messaged Kaito and Yuto in the group chat they'd invited him to.

"Where are you guys? I'm at the gate like we agreed," he typed before crouching down beside it to avoid drawing attention to himself.

It only took a few minutes for a reply to arrive, and what he read made him feel even worse.

"You actually went there? What an idiot!"

"Bring some shit from the shrine to school tomorrow and you'll prove you're not such a loser after all."

Haru turned off his phone, ignoring the next few mocking messages, and looked over his shoulder towards the gravestones, which were illuminated mostly by a few scattered lanterns. He sighed, angry with himself for letting them trick and use him like that. But since he was already here, there was no way he was simply going to back out, especially when his peace of mind was at stake.

He climbed over the gate and, not wanting to think about it any longer, simply started walking forward. He tried not to look around and to maintain at least some composure, if only to keep himself from running away screaming from invisible monsters. He even pulled the talisman his grandmother had given him out of his pocket to ward off evil spirits. He felt silly doing so, but at the same time, it gave him a little comfort.

Still he flinched at every little rustle. He kept feeling as though he was being watched, as if something were about to jump out at him. And he had to work very hard to convince himself that it was nothing and that everything was surely fine.

Finally, after several minutes that felt like an eternity to Haru, he reached the shrine.

The building itself was small and old. The red paint had long since faded, and in some places, it had completely peeled away, leaving nothing but bare, weathered wood. The doors were slightly ajar, having stopped closing properly a long time ago.

Haru climbed the creaking steps and pushed the door open without much difficulty. A faint light from the lanterns outside spilled into the single room. The dim light illuminated an old stone fox statue standing in the middle, surrounded by smaller figurines and incense sticks left behind by visitors.

He glanced around the interior, looking for anything suspicious. Holding his talisman out in front of him as though it were a weapon, he stepped inside, hoping to grab one of the figurines as quickly as possible and have some proof of his rather unimpressive, but still existent, courage.

But before his hand could close around the tiny figurine, something snapped. Terrified, Haru tried to turn towards the sound as quickly as possible, but lost his balance and fell with a painful groan.

"Please don't eat me. I'm not tasty..." he mumbled, slowly opening his eyes, too scared to see what was there.

The plan was simple.

Sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, break into the cemetery, and steal something insignificant, only to return it once everything was over. What he hadn't anticipated was that Kaito and Yuto would, as usual, trick him, ditching him and leaving him all alone in the middle of the night. Nor had he expected someone to be in such a place at such an ungodly hour.

At first, everything went according to plan - he quickly made his way across the cemetery until he finally reached the old shrine. But the moment he opened the door, instead of an empty little room filled with incense and dust, he found a figure standing right in the middle of it.

Adrenaline immediately rushed through him. He didn't even have time to think. He didn't want to think. His imagination had already started feeding him the worst possible scenarios.

A murderer?

An evil spirit?

A monster?

Haru's legs gave out beneath him, and his knees buckled. He barely managed to keep his balance by grabbing onto the door, hitting his shoulder against it with a painful groan. His vision went dark for a moment, and by the time he regained his senses, he was already running blindly across the cemetery towards the gate, desperately wanting to escape that cursed place, return to the safety of his home, and hide under his warm blanket, forgetting this entire horrible night had ever happened.

However, before he could reach the gate, his foot caught on a protruding tree root, and with a loud thud, followed by a startled yelp and a cry of pain, he landed hard on the stone pavement.

He lay there for a moment, confused and dazed. Blood trickled down his forehead, sticking his hair to his skin, and his knees and hands were scraped. When he finally remembered that he needed to run and tried to get back up, a horrible pain shot through his leg.

At first glance, his ankle didn't seem to be broken, perhaps only sprained, but it was still enough to leave him completely immobilized, preventing him from running any further.

"Shit! I don't wanna die here..." he wailed miserably, tears welling up in his eyes.

A whole day had passed since that fateful night.

Somehow, he'd managed to sneak out of the house that terrible night, break into the cemetery - despite Kaito and Yuto ditching him and leaving him all alone - steal a figurine, escape, and make it back home without waking either his mother or his grandmother - a success.

He'd even managed to show his bullies proof during the school break, but, just as he should have expected, they'd only laughed at him. They had no intention of keeping their word and leaving him alone. Of course, he was angry with himself for letting them use and trick him, but he hadn't expected anything else from them. Besides, he had more important things he wanted to focus on.

Because, more than anything else that had happened, he was much more interested in who or what he'd encountered in that little shrine.

When he'd stolen the figurine, he'd heard something unsettling, but at the time, he'd been far too terrified to do anything other than quickly grab what he needed and run without looking back. Now, however, after having some time to calm down, he was worried that he might have angered some evil spirits haunting the cemetery. That's why he'd not only returned with the figurine, but also brought an offering to appease whatever he might have upset.

In the daylight, with other people walking between the graves, the cemetery didn't look scary at all. In fact, it almost seemed like a pleasant place - peaceful and quiet. The trees that had looked like twisted monsters during the night were now beautiful and full of life, and the sound of birds singing instead of those strange, unidentified rustling noises helped a lot, too.

He walked calmly along the stone path until he finally reached the same old, dilapidated shrine. Even in daylight, it still looked rather unpleasant, but at least it no longer sent shivers of fear down his spine.

He had to wait a little while for the other people to finish whatever they were doing inside and leave. After making sure there was no one around who might catch him, he finally slipped inside, gently pulling the door almost shut behind him.

The interior looked exactly as he'd left it the previous night, with one difference - now, thanks to the little bit of light coming through the small barred windows, he could actually see what the place looked like.

The room seemed much less frightening. Although the enormous fox statue still made him feel strangely uneasy, the rest of the figurines, incense sticks, and old, forgotten furniture no longer seemed nearly as extraordinary as they had before.

Remembering that he'd come here for something other than sightseeing, he finally took out the figurine he'd stolen and placed it back where it had been, right next to the fox statue's stone paw. He even carefully adjusted its position to make sure everything was exactly as he'd found it.

"Um..." Suddenly, he felt rather stupid. He knew he was supposed to say something, but he wasn't entirely sure what. "I'm sorry, evil- I mean... I'm sorry, spirits, for stealing from you. I didn't mean to. I'm returning what's yours, and I even brought you an offering."

Afraid that the spirits might get annoyed by his rambling, he quickly pulled a packet of sweets out of his hoodie pocket, almost dropping it on the floor in the process. He placed it in front of the large statue and, just to complete the ritual, pressed his hands together and bowed deeply.

"I didn't mean to steal from you or make you angry. I hope this is enough and that you don't plan on devouring me or cursing me. Heh... That would suck, wouldn't it?" Haru grimaced at how pathetic he sounded.

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