Cleaning Day, Haunting Night (open) (takes place @ your respective HQ)

It was cleaning day at the Scout Regiment HQ. In other words, a normal day for the Levi Squad. What was left of it, anyway.

Reia stepped back from the window she had been scrubbing and surveyed her work. It was spotless, just like the rest of the library. Reia found Levi in the next room over and told him she was finished. He didn't even bother to check her work, knowing she was just as OCD as he was. Instead, he directed her to clean the tower.

On her way there, Reia glanced at a calendar. It was October 31. That meant nothing to most people, but not to Reia. She had read a lot of books, some of them not quite legal, and she knew that this day used to be called Halloween. It was a day when the spirits of the dead could walk the earth again. But that was just a story. Really, Halloween was an excuse for people to dress up and get free candy.

Reia lifted up the trap door that led to the tower and looked around. The room was empty except for a table and an old chair at the far end. It was also covered in dust. Reia pulled a cloth up over her mouth before proceeding into the room, being careful to leave the trap door open. After setting down her supplies, Reia moved to the window and opened the curtains, letting light flood into the room. Then she got to work, mopping and dusting until the room was clean.

Finally, she made her way over to the table, which was occupied by a crystal sphere. It was unlike anything Reia had ever seen before. She couldn't imagine what it was for, but it certainly was pretty. The only other object on the table was a small music box. Reia opened it, and a haunting melody floated out. She started twirling gracefully around the room, dancing with an imaginary partner.

Suddenly, the trap door slammed shut. Reia gasped, her head snapping toward the door, but there was no one there. It seemed like the door just closed on its own. Reia let out a breath, and it was only then that she realized the music box had stopped playing at the exact same time that the door slammed shut.

"Clean the headquarters!" Orchid mocked in a nasally voice as she swept.
"Make sure that not a speck of dust is on a single surface! Bastard."
She hated the commander, and had no problem saying it to his face. . .Which is probably why she was stuck with sweeping on cleaning day, something no one wanted to do.
The brunette vaguely noticed some sort of music in the background, but shrugged it off; only to have a vase fall off a table near her.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"
Orchid sighed as the commander stomped into the room. Great. This day was getting better and better.

This was ridiculous. Doors didn't shut on their own. It was probably Eren trying to scare her. She moved towards the door, prepared to give whoever it was a piece of her mind, when she heard a voice call out, "Hurry back..." The voice was breathy and quiet, so quiet that Reia wasn't even sure she had heard it. She snapped her head in the direction on the sound. Nothing was there, just the table with the crystal ball. Dismissing it as the wind, Reia opened the trap door and left.

Orchid stuck her tongue out at the commander's back as he left the room, finished screaming at her for knocking over the damn vase.
"Stupid vase." She muttered as she swept it up. She idly wondered what had knocked it over, as there was no wind going.
She shrugged it off.
Then she felt something hit her back, and looked over; behind her, a cup from the same table as the vase.
She felt chills go up her spine.
Whatever this was, Orchid suspected she wasn't going to like it.

Reia found Eren cleaning the horses' stalls. "Did you just shut the tower door?" she asked.

"No. I've been out here all day. Why?"

Reia studied Eren. She had the gift of being able to tell when someone was lying, and Eren definitely wasn't. But who else would shut the door? Levi wouldn't have, knowing she was up there. Without another word, Reia left.

As she walked across the lawn back to the main building, Reia saw a woman standing underneath a large maple tree about twenty meters away, facing away from Reia. She was about 5'3 and had short, strawberry blonde hair that seemed so familiar. The woman turned her head...

"Reia!"

Reia snapped her head around as Levi called her from the doorway. She looked back to the tree a split second later, but the woman had disappeared without a trace, as if she were never there in the first place.

Reia felt a chill go down her spine. It had been Petra standing under that tree. But Petra was dead.

Orchid was starting to suspect that something was messing with her.
Between the cup and the vase, something weird was going on, and she wanted to know what it was.
Another MP was joining her in cleaning the bunk room; the two of them didn't get along.
And she found that a strange feeling was going through the air, and she didn't like it.
Especially when something yanked the broom from her hand, and flung it across the room.
The other MP looked at her weird, and continued cleaning, while Orchid went pale.
"What the hell. . ."

A hallucination. It had to be. That was common, right? People often thought they saw their deceased friends shortly after their death. Reia shook her head and went to join Levi inside. It was just a hallucination. Nothing more.

Levi's eyes widened slightly when he saw her pale face. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Reia nodded and tried to act normal. "It was just a hallucination," she told herself.

Levi looked at her, concerned. Losing the squad had been hard on all of them. Although Reia had tried to remain strong for Eren and Levi, he knew that their deaths had affected her. However, since it seemed like Reia wanted to deal with it on her own, Levi dropped the issue. "Well then, assuming you're finished with the tower, clean the empty bedrooms."

"Alright," Reia responded and walked away. She had almost reached the first bedroom when she realized that she left her broom in the tower. "Tch," she huffed.

Orchid left the room, freaked out. She wandered for a bit, ending up in her own bunk. Now, she was REALLY wondering what the hell was going on.
She laid in her bunk, but then heard a voice right next to her ear.
"You left me."
Orchid sprung up, whirling around to try and find the person talking. . .But no one was there.
She could have sworn that sounded like. . .No. That's impossible.
Heidi's dead. . .right?

Reia grabbed an extra broom from the supply closet and returned to the sleeping quarters. She stopped at the first door. As she reached for the handle, she hesitated. This had been Petra's room. She had been in here once since Petra died, so she could pack up her belongings and deliver them to her family. Now, after what she had just seen, she didn't want to go in again. "It was just a hallucination," she repeated to herself. Then, holding her breath, she opened the door.

The room was empty, save for the standard amenities that came with every room. Reia cleaned it as quickly as she could. Then she leaned the broom against the bed and sat down, surveying her work. Looking around the room brought back memories. She saw it not as it was now, but as it was when Petra inhabited it. With a sigh, she closed her eyes. "If only I had been there..." she thought.

"It's okay, Reia," a sweet, wispy voice said. It sounded like the person was sitting right next to her.

Reia's eyes snapped open. She jumped up and backed away from the bed. As she did, she tripped over the broom and fell. The broom snapped underneath her. After recovering, Reia looked at the bed, then all around the room, but there was no one there.

She took a deep breath. "It's not real. It's all in your head," she told herself.

Reia stood up and examined the broken pieces of the broom. "Tch, Great," she muttered. This was the only spare they had. She would have to return to the tower and get the other one.

To say that Orchid was freaked out was an understatement. It wasn't often she heard the voices of her dead lover, after all.
So, when the commander wasn't looking, she slipped out; she didn't know where she was going, and didn't really care. She just needed to get out of there for awhile.

The sun was beginning to set. Reia hadn't eaten for hours, but in favor of getting the cleaning done before midnight, she decided to postpone dinner. She returned to the tower where she had left her broom, this time closing the door behind her.

Reia found her broom lying in front of the window. After picking it up, she looked out at the sky, watching as the last rays of sunlight disappeared, leaving the world in darkness. Suddenly, the room became cold. Wind blew around the room, making Reia shiver. "Wait," she thought, "the window is closed. How can there be a breeze?"

She looked around for the source of the wind, but stopped when her eyes landed on the crystal ball she had seen earlier. Only now it was glowing green, and it seemed to be filled with smoke. Reia made her way over to the table for a closer look. When she peered into the crystal ball, a woman's face was staring back at her. Reia gasped and backed up a few steps. "A trick," she thought. "It must be..."

Then the woman started talking. "Dark spirits from the grave come forth. Lift us from the black. And show us, show us the way back."

"What?" Reia whispered.

Suddenly, the wind picked up. It was so strong that Reia had to strain herself to keep from being blown over. Strange voices and laughter filled the air, but there was no one around.

Reia didn't know what was going on, but she didn't want to stick around and find out. She turned and rushed out of the tower as fast as she could.

Orchid wandered through the city, her mind still racing.
What the hell was going on? Why had she heard Heidi's voice?
Heidi had died at Trost with the rest of her squad, Orchid had WATCHED her get eaten before fleeing.
"And now it looks like the past is here to haunt me." She muttered, barely noticing she was near the Scout HQ; and barely noticing the Scout until she ran into her, both colliding to the ground.
"What the hell?!" she exclaimed, glaring at the perpetrator.

Reia got out of the tower and just kept going. She looked back as she ran, but there was nothing there. Everything seemed normal. "It was just a hallucination, or a dream. It had to be," she told herself.

Still looking behind her, she ran outside, but she stopped when she ran into someone. It was too tall to be Levi. "Eren?" she mumbled. It had to be. Who else would be here? Blinking, she looked at the person. But it wasn't Eren; it was the MP brat. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

Orchid got up and dusted off her uniform, looking around her.
The Scout HQ? Huh.
She's been so focused on Heidi, she hadn't noticed she'd gone this far.
"Uhm. . .MP business." she said unconvincingly.
Shit. That was dumb, but she had to think fast, and that was the best her frazzled mind could come up with.

MP business? What business did an MP have at the Scouting Regiment HQ? None. It was clearly a lie. However, at the moment, Reia didn't care enough to do anything about it. She was too preoccupied with the fact that she might be going crazy. "Whatever. Just go back to where you're supposed to be," she mumbled and went back inside.

Orchid glared at the Scout's back.
"Whatever." she mumbled.
But she stared at the HQ, deep in thought. Was this the building her mother had stayed? Trained? Laughed?
And eventually, died?
Rose Torran had always wanted her daughter to be a Scout, but there was just too many memories for the girl, and she turned to leave, not noticing the form that watched her from a window; a form with the same black hair, and the same green eyes.

Reia walked slowly through HQ, trying to figure out what was going on. Then, she heard faint music drifting down the hall towards her. As she got closer, she recognized it as a concerto, but one that she had never heard before. It sounded strange, almost creepy. "Who would be playing music?" she wondered. With everything that had already happened today, a part of her didn't want to find out. But curiosity drove her forward, and soon she came to the door of the grand ballroom, which hadn't been used in years. She slowly reached out a hand and, as quietly as she could, she opened the door.

Orchid found herself back in the MP headquarters, and walked in; only to find the commander standing there, his face looking like more of a tomato than usual.
"Where. The. Hell. Have. You. Been."
He spat through grated teeth.
Orchid just shrugged, and walked into the barracks, the commander following her, his angry shouts barely reaching her ears as she fell into her bunk.
She wished she was hearing Heidi's voice instead of this asshole.
"Your wish is my command."

Reia opened the door and peeked inside. Then she froze. The ballroom, which hadn't been used in years, was covered with dust and cobwebs. Candles on the walls and on the chandelier provided a dim light, even though no one had lit them. But that wasn't what rendered Reia immobile. Hundreds of dancing people filled the room. And they were transparent.

After the commander was done screaming at her, Orchid laid in her bunk, staring at the ceiling.
What was happening? Why in hell was she hearing Heidi's voice?
Her lover had died at Trost, and she'd never had this problem before.
"Because today is special, my love."
Orchid turned on her side, her eyes shut to block her tears.
Why? Why was her imagination torturing her like this, by teasing her with the one thing she could never have?
A single tear ran down her cheek.

As the dancers reeled past, Reia began to recognize some of them. She saw Oluo and Petra. Then there was Gunther and Eld, dancing with women whom Reia did not know. After them came many more. Reia remembered seeing some of them around HQ in the past, but there was no one she had been friends with.

Until she saw Cooper. Then CJ. They had been her friends in Shiganshina and had joined the Scouts after they graduated from the Training Corps. They died on their first mission outside the wall. Reia felt a pang in her side as she remembered that day. She tried to save them, but she was too late. And when she returned to the wall, Cooper's mother had screamed and cried and asked why Reia deserved to come back alive when her son didn't. Reia didn't have an answer.

Her old friends passed, and it felt like forever until Reia saw people she knew again. But when she did, she didn't know if she could take it. Dancing before her was every member of her first mission outside the wall. Out of the three squads that had gone, she was the only person who made it back alive.

After a few seconds, Reia realized that everyone in the room was wearing the same thing: a Survey Corps uniform. These were all dead Scouts.

Orchid honestly wondered if she was completely mad.
As she lay in her bunk, she felt something get in the bunk with her, and looked over, finding an all-too familiar pair of bright blue eyes.
"You left me, my love. You left me to die."
Orchid's eyes welled up with tears.
"I. . .I didn't have a choice." she stammered.
"We should have died together, my love."
Orchid grit her teeth, and shoved a pillow over her face, trying to block out the voice.

Ghosts. These were ghosts. Without taking her eyes off the transparent dancers, Reia slowly shut the door. Then she leaned back against it and sunk to the floor.

Reia recalled the ancient legends about Halloween. A long time ago, it was hailed as the day where the dead could once again walk the earth. Was such a thing possible? Reia was determined to find out. She got up and headed to the place where it all began. She was going to talk to the lady in the crystal ball.

Orchid ground her teeth together as Heidi kept talking.
"Join me, my love. We can be together forever, just like we promised!"
Finally, Orchid sprang up.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" she screamed, her voice reverberating through the halls.
She had had enough!

Reia ascended the long staircase that led to the tower. She wasn't sure this would work, but she had to try something. She slowly opened the trap door and looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Reia entered the tower and shut the door behind her. After taking one last look to make sure there weren't any ghosts around, she made her way to the crystal ball.

"Um, hello in there," she said, unsure of how to contact the spirit. She sat in the old chair next to the table so the crystal ball was at eye level. "I've got some questions for you." When nothing happened, she waved her hand in front of it. Still nothing. "Tch. How does this thing work?" she muttered, annoyed. "Hello!" She grabbed the crystal ball to pick it up, and suddenly it filled with green smoke. The woman's face appeared. Startled, Reia immediately let go.

"Whom do you seek?" the spirit asked.