Author's Rants: Here it is! The Halloween special I sorta promised! :) This is in Anna's POV and rated PG-13 because of Anna's (and Ren's) sailor talk. And for some reason, Anna is meaner. o-o;;; This is gonna be a weird story and have lots of suspense and cliffhangers! Muwahahahaa!!! Ahem... :D Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I only own my fewer amounts of snotty tissues!

A Wreath of Roses

Chapter 1: Dimming Candles

Halloween....my favorite, and yet most hated holiday of the year. The spirits in the house are more active and most annoying. Not to mention the fact that the idiots I live with get all psyched up, and even some of them go trick-or-treating. They need to grow up....

Right now I'm just sitting here watching my soap operas with Ren. We snack on potato chips and just enjoy the evening like it was any other. Yoh and Hao are running around the halls, trying to get their costumes on. We try our best to ignore it. About Hao, it turns out that he never really died. The stupid jerk just popped up at the house one day and Yoh greeted him with open arms. Even though it was some time ago, Ren and I never really got used to it.

Manta is here too. He doesn't really live here; he just hangs around this place a lot! Manta really doesn't have much of a life, so he tries to get one here by spending time with the two stooges and the ghosts I guess....

As we continue watching our show, the door slams open and Yoh and Hao stand in the doorway. Ren and I glance over our shoulder and gasp. The two smiled stupidly and then Yoh piped up. "Like our costumes?" What the heck were they thinking?! Yoh was dressed in Hao's poncho, lego gloves and puffy pants along with the lego shoes. Hao was wearing Yoh's fighting outfit from the shaman tournament a few years ago. The outfit I made! Even though Hao looked.....ok in it, it was made only for Yoh! And for some reason, it looks a lot tighter on Hao than it did on Yoh.

Ren was the first to speak after our long silence. "What the bloody hell....?" I snort. "You know, you two are going to have a hard time not attracting any girls..." Hao crosses his arms and pouts. "Can't you two say anything that isn't negative?" Ren and I don't answer. We just stare. "Hehe, I guess not...." Yoh chuckles.

Manta pops up between the two. Ren cracks up laughing at his costume. I just cock an eyebrow. "You're a....turkey?" Ren starts to choke, but still laughing. Manta smiles. "Not just a turkey....a COOKED turkey!" I thought it was Halloween, who dresses up as a turkey on Halloween?!

"Well, we're out! C'ya Anna! C'ya Ren!" Yoh cheers as the three walk out the door. I turn to Ren, who seemed bored out of his mind. It kind of seemed he wanted to go with them. But being as stubborn as he is.....he's here with scary ol' me.....This was going to be a long night....

Later...

The doors bust open and Yoh, Hao, and Manta stroll in acting like a bunch of sick drunkards. Ren and I finish watching scary movie marathons which weren't really scary....more like cheap and cheesy....When the three idiots settle in one room down the hall, they dumped out all of their candy and started their trading. I turn off the TV and went over to their room and watched them, Ren followed. I figure watching them kill each other for a jawbreaker would be a hell of a lot more entertaining then those bogus Chucky movies. (Who gets scared over a possessed doll anyway?!) I figure Ren thought the same thing since he won't stop following me....

I guess it was when Manta saw us from the corner of his mind when he pipes up. "Let's tell ghost stories!!" Riiight...so now the talking turkey is calling the shots....I'm eating him for Thanksgiving....

Ren snorts and crosses his arms. "Fine..." In other words, "Finally! Something better to do than follow the witch!" Hao smiles, sitting Indian style, making Yoh's fighting outfit look tighter on him than it was a few hours ago. For some reason, I grin.....maybe because I think that these guys can scare me more than the old horror flicks made in the mid-late 80s.

I go fetch some candles and my beaded necklace (just for fun). I return to the room and the four boys were already sitting in a circle. I place the candles in the four corners of the room and one in the middle of the circle. Each of us lit each candle and returned to our circle. I lay out the necklace into a perfect circle, resting the candle in the center of our circle into the necklace one. I sit in between Yoh and Hao. "Alright, who's first?" I ask, scanning the boys. Manta is the first to volunteer. I smirk. "Alright Manta....do your best...." Manta clears his throat.

"Alright then.....A long, long time ago, before this house was really an inn, when the first owners lived here, they were a couple, a man and a woman who were in their mid 20s. They both loved each other very much and ever holiday, they would each exchange gifts, and on every birthday of the woman, the man would always give her, her favorite flowers, roses in every different form. From a rose bouquet to a rose ring, it was everything you can possibly imagine. The thing was, her birthday was on Halloween. It didn't seem like much of a problem for the woman, but for the man, it was different. Like all of us, he had a sixth sense and could see spirits and also attract them...just not the good kind. It was also sort of difficult to give his loved one a birthday present every year since on Halloween the spirits came back as vengeful as ever....the only thing was...his girlfriend NEVER knew about his problem because he didn't want her to worry. One year, when the woman was turning 25 the man promised something special. He promised her, a wreath of pure red roses honoring his deepest love for her. The woman was excited as ever to receive it."

Manta goes on and on....I think I'm about to fall asleep. Hao saw me start to doze off from the corner of his eye. He nudges me to stay awake. Ugh....how much more must I suffer?! Manta continues on.

"On Halloween night, before the man gave the woman his promised gift (she was out at the town) he was making a card. He wore a necklace of posies to try and hold back the spirits that were at his door. But...a horrible accident happened. A single thorn from the wreath split his necklace, totally terminating his thin shield. The doors were now about to bust down. The man knew that this was it...he was going to die. But no matter what happened to him, he would not allow the spirits to destroy his present to his loved one. So, before the ghosts destroyed the door he quickly slipped the wreath under the floorboard. Then, the door literally exploded and the vengeful spirits charged at the man full of rage....they then tore him to shreds...."

This was now sort of starting to catch my interest.....sort of....

"Hours later the woman opened the door to the house and called his name...there was no reply..... She started searching for him.....he wasn't in any room downstairs, she crept upstairs. Step by step the creaking of the wooden stairs got louder and louder. When she was near the top, a pool of red liquid flowed about. The woman, scanning the hall looking for the source of all the blood. She saw that it all lead to her lover's room. Every five seconds she'd take another step closer to the man's room, her stomach gaining more butterflies as we speak. When she approached the door she really slow like slid it opened and gasped at what she saw, a puddle of blood, enough for a human to use to live. The strange thing was...there was no body...and there was blood that left a trail out the window. The woman slowly made her way to the window, hoping not to see the worst that trailed in her mind. To her surprise.....there was nothing there. No blood was strained on the outside wall....no blood spills on the grass or bushes. She was bewildered by it. How can that be?! She thought. What has happened?"

I can tell from the corners of my eyes that Ren, Hao, and Yoh were really into this....and so was I. I would wonder the same thing if it was Yoh and me.... I keep listening.

"So became so confused that some say they see her spirit wandering around the streets every Halloween night, looking for her lover. And when the house became an inn, others say that the woman haunted the rooms of the place, looking for her birthday present. But no one knows how she really died. I believe now there's a nursery rhyme made about the two. You should know, it's pretty common these days. It goes, 'ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down....' Ring a bell? Anyway, there are some who have really seen her! And there's been an old rumor that whenever the woman knows something about her wreath, she'll stop at nothing to find it! And—"

"Oh stop Manta!" I interrupt. "Now you're just talking bullshit!" I cross my arms, completely not amused. "First of all, Yoh and I lived here for years! And none of us have ever witnessed this wacko woman!"

The candle light in the center of us flicker.

"I agree with Anna...." Ren snorts. He's smart. Ren gazes at us, having a completely serious look on his face. "This is just a crazy story some people made up just too scary poor little girls..."

"But what if—" Manta starts. "If this ghost girl tries to start something....we can protect ourselves!" I protest. "A-Anna's right...." Yoh joins in. "We're both powerful shamans who exorcise ghosts for a living....except Hao who most likely just steals their souls and feeds them to the Spirit of Fire...hehe..." Hao frowns and stabs Yoh's gut with his elbow.

Manta now looks panicked. "But you guys don't understand!! The wreath....the floorboard it's hidden under....it's in--!"

Suddenly, all five candles blow out. And everything was silent.....

ChibiLaryla: I'm SO sorry for the delay!! I was busy with school! Please forgive me! I'll try and write the next chapter tomorrow (or get some done today.. oo). Ummm....Happy Halloween!!