I am the shadows. I am the silence. I am the eyes in those movie paintings that follow you around. I am… the spooky.

"BAAAAAAH!"

"KYAAAAAAAAAA!!!", after getting scared by the scary skeleton, the group of four kids ran away screaming. One of them cried for their mother.

As soon as they disappeared from his vision, Grave started celebrating, "WAHAHAHAHA, another successful spook. That's four in a row! And oh booooy, what do my ear bones pick up? The sound of more people, huehuehue."

Grave hopped back into his hiding spot and waited. Waited for his prey to come closer. After a minute or two, they could hear them talk. This prey seemed to be older than the last batch.

"M-maybe we should go back?", said the first person in a very scared voice, probably female. Grave would enjoy her reaction.

"But it was your idea to come here in the first place… and that was like two minutes ago.", said a second girl voice in a confused tone. She sounded like the older sister type. Someone who would lend voice one a shoulder to cry on. After Grave was done with her, she would need a shoulder herself.

"Yeah, don't be such a wuss.", a third girl said and laughed. This one seemed to be the energetic, outgoing type. She won't want to go out any time soon, once she witnessed Grave in all his spookiness.

"Don't be so harsh on her…", person two said to person three.

"I-It's just scarier than I thought it'd be! I thought it would be fun, but now I kinda just want to leave again…", said girl one.

"Seriously? We didn't even encounter anything scary until now. Didn't look very scary from the outside either. I bet it's just gonna be a walk in the park anyway, so just buck up.", girl three said… or was it girl two? Grave didn't really pay too much attention to their conve- HOLD ON!

Did this foolish fooly fool just say this place isn't scary!? How dare she! This is his domain! His mausoleum of terror. His asylum of screams. His mansion of creaky floorboards. His… his… graveyard of… err… gravity!

To slander it with such words, she deserves the greatest of punishments! Which is… his spookiest of spooks.

While Grave was thinking such thoughts, the girls are getting closer and closer to his position.

"Ok.. you are right. There is nothing to be scared about. I am a grown woman and don't get afraid easily. The times where I embarrass my friends by being so timid have passed. It is time for a new me to be born. Thank you for this lesson senpai.", girl one said and bowed to girl three.

Her senpai just replied, "…I just told you to stop being a wuss. Why are you acting like I gave you an inspirational speech or something?"

"Don't worry about it! Sometimes just a few words say more than a thousand. You showed me with that short sentence, the true meaning of courage and why it's so importaaaAAAAAAHHHHH!", the wuss said, before interrupting her own sentence with a scream.

"It's just the light flickering… seriously, that's like the most cliche horror movie trope ever. I can't believe you got scared by-", the energetic one started before she was interrupted by another scream.

"Hiyaaaa!", the girl who mostly remained silent until now, jumped as she let out a scream. "Something touched my leg! Something hard and cold!"

"C-calm down. I'm sure it's just part of the sh….", the once energetic and courageous girl started. But the feeling of something, like a very cold boney hand, slowly going through her hair and touching the back of her head, made her freeze. But that held on for just a moment before she violently tried to get that thing out of her hair, with her hands. She was screaming and jumping around wildly, trying to grab hold of the hand but it was already gone. When she realized it just disappeared, as if it was never there in the first place she cried out to her friends, "Something touched my hair! Something touched my hair! We need to run, we need to run now!!!"

"Okay, don't panic! Let's just stick together and go back the way we came from ok? Everything will be alright.", the once quiet girl took charge and held her friends by their arms. Looking at both their faces alternately. Once both of them nodded to her that they understood and agreed, she started talking again and started turning around.

"Good. I go in front, stay close to me and we will be out in no… time…"

There was a skeleton. At the end of the hallway, they just came from, stood a skeleton. They didn't see a skeleton when they went through there. Definitely not this one. It was right in the middle of the hallway, there is no way they could've missed it when they walked through there. Yet there it was. Just standing there, motionless. Looking at the three of them out of their empty eye sockets.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Many tense seconds passed as the two parties just stared at each other. As one of the girls wanted to say something, the skeleton slowly opened its mouth. Slowly. Very slowly. In this tense atmosphere, it felt like hours until the skeleton fully opened its jaw and… clack! Closed it again with a loud clacking sound.

"H-hahaha, it's just a skeleton. Nothing to worry about.", one of them tried to calm down the others.

For a moment it even seemed true. It was just a skeleton. Until, without warning, it started running at them at full speed.

"""AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!""", the girls screamed in unison and ran away in the opposite direction. Without looking back once, they ran for their lifes.

The skeleton however, slowed down to a standstill after the girls started running away. There was no point in pursuing them anymore, his job was done.

He watched their butts backs as they ran away until they passed a corner and went out of sight. Only then did Grave speak again.

"WAHAHAHAHA, another successful spook. That's five in a-"

"Grave, what are you doing?"

"KYAAAA- oh it's just you Nyam. Go away, I'm busy. Shoo shoo."

After being surprised by the cat that suddenly appeared behind him, Grave tried to shoo her away with a wave of his hand. Nyam just pouted at him.

"Busy scaring my friends?"

"Oh, those were your friends? Didn't know that. But yes I am, it is part of my job."

"…your job?"

"Yes."

"Grave, this is a Haunted House set up by children to raise money for charity."

"…yes and I'm volunteering as a spooky scary skeleton to help them out."

"Baka"

Nyam shook her head.

"I need to go now. I said I'd catch up to them after taking care of some business, so I need to go.", she told him.

"You mean after you took a poop.", Grave helpfully supplied.

"Shut up. I'm gonna go to my friends now.", Nyam said and walked after her friends.

"Oh, can I come as well? You can introduce me to the one with the big butt.", Grave asked. Nyam held her hand on her chin as if thinking about it before looking at Grave again. "Sure, we'll wait for you outside."

"Aww come on, are you embarra- wait what? You'll actually do it?"

"Yes. But why did you start your sentence like that? Stop doing that it's weird."

"Nonono, you are the one that's weird. You should be like 'Nooooo, baka pervert Grave. Stay away from my friends.' and not actually accept."

"Ashely is actually single and she told me that she's looking for a boyfriend one time, so why not. Don't be late."

With that, Nyam started to get going and left Grave behind. Grave, in turn, was in a dilemma. That was not how he expected that conversation to go. Now he is kind of obligated to join their group and do… whatever they were doing since he was the one to ask in the first place.

He could just catch up to Nyam, tell her it was all just a joke, and excuse himself like that. But should he really let this opportunity pass? This Ashely person did have a pretty nice butt…

"Hmmm… what to do…", Grave mumbled to himself as he just stood there, contemplating his next action.

"Wow, look at this skeleton! It looks so real!", a kid, from the newest group that entered the haunted house, said. Grave turned around and…

"BAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

------

Grave was currently hiding in a dark alleyway, with his favorite suit and tophat on, spying on a certain group of people.

"No Nyam, you don't understand. That skeleton was super scary.", Ashley tried to explain to her friend Nyam.

"Yeah, it appeared out of nowhere and ran straight at us and it was super fast!", Emily said as she made meaningless gestures with her hands. Sahra was still recovering from the incident, sobbing a little bit.

"I think you are exaggerating. They didn't look scary to me at all.", Nyam explained nonchalantly.

"Wait, you saw it too!?", Emily said surprised.

This damn cat… slandering his name like that in front of her friends. She would regret it later, but for now, he had bigger problems. He decided to meet up with them but is nervous about it. He isn't too good with people and he can't make a good impression now either because of the stupid cat and her slander. He sighed to himself and started walking towards them. They were still arguing with Nyam, defending his name, and didn't seem to notice his approach.

"Erm, hello there!", he said loud enough that all of them could hear. At once, 4 heads towards him which creeped him out a little bit.

Nobody said a word for a few seconds and the nervous Grave tried to introduce himself, "well… hello. My name is-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Nyam's friends all started screaming. Dumbfounded, Grave just stood there. Watching them run away from him for the second time of the day.

Nyam walked next to him and looked at her friends run away too, "Hmmm, I think you spooked them a bit too well. They probably don't want to see a skeleton for a long time."

Grave went on all fours and assumed the orz position in defeat. His tophat still sitting on his head somehow, despite him hanging his head down. Nyam crouched down and patted him on the back.