[Y/N] - Your Name
[M/N] - Middle Name
[L/N] - Last Name
I
["Talking"]
["SCREAMING"]
["Whispering"]
["Thinking"]

[==========================]

-> [ARTISTS / SERIES USED]
- lilredbeany.

<<<<<< I >[---]< I >>>>>>

Fear.

The dread shook her body to the core, making it near-impossible for even air to pass through her nostrils. Her trembling hand opposed how tightly her arm was held, so much so that she couldn't even move it — Terror, confusion, and caution was everything displayed on the eyes of the people in front of her. Unlike them, however, she could not find the strength in herself to turn around and face the aggressor.

Frozen in fear, the girl could only watch as her companions either backed away, or also remained stone-cold in horror — One of them didn't. Clutching something from his back-pocket, the strangest one of them seemed almost ready for a fight. The ginger girl, however, merely glanced over her shoulder, staring deep into those purely-white eyes, and the literal ear-to-ear smirk of the creature's foul desires.

She broke out of her fear, screaming as loudly as her lungs would allow her, and yanking her entire body back. Thanks to the tight clutch that the monster's claws had on her arm, the moment she pulled away, its sharp fingers tore her skin. For a second, though no one could see it, everything shifted — Even if just a single centimeter, everything returned to its original place, all while Ashlyn fell on her ass.

Ashlyn: ["When did it-?!"]

The girl was ready to skittle back to the group, but stopped as soon as she turned around. It could've been her own mind fucking with her, but she could've sworn that everything felt a lot brighter, easier to see. Not only that, but that thing was also nowhere to be seen, leaving behind not even the smallest traces of itself. Instead, all the girl saw was nothing, and could only, very slowly, calm down her breathing.

Ashlyn: ["It's gone...? Ugh, this is getting overwhelming, and actually — Kinda frustrating"] So dizzy that she could barely stand, she raised a hand to cover her face ["My heart hurts. Am I going crazy...?"]

Y/N: ["Where the fuck is it?"]

Taylor: ["WHAT was it?!"]

Logan: ["I-I don't see it anywhere..."]

Aiden: ["One of the ghosts, maybe?"]

Ashlyn, through her quickened and unstable breathing , turned around to face the rest of the idiots she had come with. Taylor kept a bit behind, obviously frightened through her shaking hands. Logan was also a bit nervous, staring through the camera in his hand. Ben rapidly wrote on his notebook with a stone-cold face, while Aiden nonchalantly smirked and looked around — Y/N was still indifferent as usual.

Ashlyn: ["Oh, right... The others saw it, too"]

Tyler: ["Are you guys dumb? Ghosts aren't real. This is just some stupid prank"]

Y/N: ["Rather elaborate for a prank. That thing looked too fucking good to be some sort of projection, and..."] His eyes wandered down, towards Ashlyn, seeing how the girl was still shaking ["For something meant to be unreal, she definitely seems very much phased. Not like any of that is my problem, anyways. Probably best to keep my mouth shut"]

Tyler: ["A group conveniently cancels a reservation, and our guide just happens to have an excuse to leave? Then when we're all alone on a "haunted" house we have a scary encounter?"] He crossed his arms, just scoffing and turning around — While everything did seem too convenient, Y/N was still not convinced ["Immediately after said "scary encounter", the thing just disappears before we can confirm or touch it?"]

Y/N: ["If that's the case, then they probably would need a camera and a projector somewhere. Not that a simple projector on this small house would be able to do that"] Y/N just released the grip on the switch blade he had, also crossing his arm and leaning against the wall with an annoyed sigh ["Then again, it's not like it'll bother us anymore"]

Tyler: ["Come on, Tay. We're going back to the bus"]

The girl did not protest as Tyler snatched her arm and pulled her away. Though Logan tried to convince him to stay, he very much opposed that idea. All Y/N did was keep back, leaning against the wall with both arms crossed. Wandering eyes that moved from person to person, trying to make some, any sense out of what just happened. The lack of a conclusion was all he needed to chalk it up to "Something weird".

Ashlyn: ["Couldn't he see it grabbing my arm?"]

Ashlyn: ["Should I say something? The wound is gone, but..."]

Looking down at her limb, Ashlyn could feel her arm throbbing, almost as if she had just gone through an intense work-out session — It didn't exactly hurt, but her muscles did feel sore. Facing her arm did enable someone to get close to Ashlyn, close enough to where the girl only noticed him when his palm landed against her head. Looking up, she stared into his eyes, all while he gave her a warm smile.

Aiden: ["Hey Ash. Ya good?"]

Just like before, she felt a shiver run down her body the moment Aiden's hand touched her head. As he fiddled with his phone, both thumbs rapidly tapping away at it, Y/N could barely notice a blur moving past him. Though unfazed, he had to turn his head to watch as Ashlyn had, somehow, crawled half-a-room away from Aiden. Though he looked incredulous, he kept his arm raised as if he was touching her head.

Ashlyn: ["Please stop getting in my face!"]

Aiden: ["I kept calling your name, but you weren't answering"]

Y/N: ["... How long are you gonna hold your arm out like that?"]

Ashlyn: ["I'm fine... Just somewhat spooked, I guess"] The girl looked to the side, feeling her arm still throbbing ["Whatever, once we're out of the house it shouldn't matter..."] She stood up, tapping away some dust from her body, followed by a tired sigh ["It's almost 5:30. We should catch up with the others..."]

Y/N: ["Finally someone says something smart"]

◁━━━━━━━━◈ - - - ◈━━━━━━━━▷

Tour Guide: ["Yep, I'm done! Ah... But-"]

Holding her phone to her ear, and a red bag with a strange eastern symbol onto it, the woman turned around. Though she went silent for a while, she could still feel chills from the shift of the experience. Though her phone looked mostly-uninteresting, it had a small paper origami crane attached to a rope on the top. Turning around to face the house, she continued, now finding the strength to shake off that terrible feeling.

Tour Guide: ["Were the other kids supposed to get dragged into the rift, too?"] She listened to the voice, humming along to what the person spoke ["Yeah! It was pretty unexpected, her connection was reaaaaaaaaaaly strong! And that boy with the stone face was also pretty weird"] The woman just nodded and hummed along, agreeing to everything it said or asked ["I had to back up a few feet from the house, or I would've been in trouble, haha! Mhm. I'm headed back. Oh! I got orange chicken, want some?"]

◁━━━━━━━━◈ - - - ◈━━━━━━━━▷

Ashlyn: ["This place is actually pretty big..."]

The girl's eyes wandered across the room, especially the one she shared. Her hair, now down and no longer brainded after the shower, was still being dried before she put the towel around her shoulders. Noticing the wooden floor and nice walls, as well as recalling how good the shower was and the products that it had. Not really thinking about it much else, she just kept on looking at the bed that she would have to share.

Ashlyn: ["When Mr. Thomas said there were going to be 4 people in each room aside from Y/N due to the class' odd number, I thought it was going to be uncomfortably crowded"] She silently thought, letting her mind wander to the words of the teacher not too many hours ago ["Since when did the school have this much money to go throwing around?"]

Taylor: ["Hey Ashlyn!"] She called the girl from the other room ["Wanna play?"]

Ashlyn: ["... No, you guys go ahead. I'm getting ready to go to bed"]

Taylor: ["Eh? Already? It's only 8:30, though?"]

Roommate: ["I doubt she's actually going to bed"]

Roommate (2): ["She's probably just shy"]

Taylor: ["Hum. I've been kinda curious about that myself... From since we were little"] Taylor thought back to her childhood, always spotting a lonesome Ashlyn walking by herself at school ["Up until now, she's always been alone. Isn't that such a lonely life?"]

Roommate: ["Hah! I win!!"]

Taylor: ["AGAIN?!"]

◁━━━━━━━━◈ - - - ◈━━━━━━━━▷

Logan: ["... Um, guys..."]

Everyone turned to face him — Tyler who sat on the arm chair, Aiden who sat on the sofa with his legs on Ben's laps solving a puzzle, and the latter reading his book. Even Y/N, who sat on the floor and rested against the wall, a bit further from everyone else, looked towards the always-shy boy. Logan, now, didn't seem just reserved. Looking down at a revealed photo in his hand, he looked downright frightened.

Distress was obvious on his face as he tightly clutched the photograph in his hand. Logan breathed out rather heavily. Y/N just remained stoic, awaiting for him to say something, anything, but it never came. Not until he swallowed all his fears — Rather literally as his throat flexed from a reflex of fear — And he regained his posture. Both Aiden and Ben looked on, awaiting in interest as well as to what he had to tell them.

Logan: ["Back in the Sorrel Weed House... I took a picture of the creature"]

Tyler: ["Yeah, I'm sure you did. Listen, we're in the 21st Century. There are a billion-in-one ways in using technology to trick people. Whatever you took a picture of, it's what they wanted you to"] The young man stood up, walking towards his room while everyone — Save for Y/N, who remained as static as ever — looked at him ["If you guys wanna waste your time spouting over nonsense, go right for it. Me? I am going to go to bed"]

His room's door slammed.
And Ben's pencil snapped.

Aiden: ["... Yeah, I don't care much for him either. Need to go for a walk?"] Ben merely shook his head, dropping the pencil he just snapped in anger ["Alrighty. Let's see what this photo is all about, then"]

Y/N stood up as well, walking towards the other side of Logan, opposed to Aiden and Ben. The blonde of the quartet reached his arm around poor Logan's shoulder, and took the picture between his index and middle finger. Y/N's eyes locked against it, and he could not help but, inside his mind, wonder what he was looking at — Aiden did not seen too shocked either, and instead, just stared at the photo with some wonder.

Aiden: ["Well, isn't that strange. Ash is standing alone..."]

Y/N: ["But there are two shadows in the picture"]

Aiden: ["You going to bed?"] He asked the shaking Ben, who, with fear, nodded his head ["Hah. He didn't last very long. He's always been freaked out by things like this"]

Logan: ["Yo- You aren't?"]

Aiden: ["Nah, I find it pretty entertaining, even if it ends up fake"] His eyes wandered over, and red soon met Indigo as he gave out a warm smile ["Don't you think so, too, Y/N?"]

Y/N: ["Don't talk to me"] He turned to face Aiden ["I guess"]

Aiden: ["But honestly, if I were you, I'd be more worried about your current situation"] His eyes wandered towards Logan ["Of having to share a room with the halfwit back there"]

Logan: ["I..."] He sighs in frustration ["I'll sleep on the couch..."]

Y/N: ["I already called dibs on it"]

◁━━━━━━━━◈ - - - ◈━━━━━━━━▷

Tay: ["Night, you two! Cya in the morning!"]

She happily waved to her two roommates — Even if she had lost most, if not all of the games that night against those two tryhards — and opened up the door to her room with a beaming smile that slowly shifted into some very obvious confusion at the still-lit light inside of the place. Making her way inside and looking around, she did not see anything of interest — That is, until she looked down towards Ashlyn.

Ashlyn: ["... Ah, sorry. Are you ready to go to sleep?"]

Taylor: ["Ye- Yeah, I wasn't expecting you to still be awake... You're pretty flexible"] The girl held her chest, gasping for air after her silent scream ["Do you do gymnastics or something? Correction, I wasn't expecting to come in and see you bent in half!"]

Ashlyn: ["I do ballet"]

Taylor: ["Really? That's pretty cool!"]

Ashlyn: ["I guess"]

Taylor: ["... She's so hard to talk to..."]

The two fell into an awkward silence for a while, before the two shared the same thought that, right now, sleep was the best course of action. Laying on the bed as Taylor tapped the light shut, Ashlyn turned to face away from her when she laid, also leaving some space between them. Taylor laid on her back, and Ashlyn hugged her pillow while also laying her head against it — But still, no sleepiness came, at all.

Taylor: ["Do you think that what we saw today was real?"]

Ashlyn: ["... Do you?"]

Taylor: ["I'm... I'm not sure, haha... I didn't really get a good look at it"] She looked up at the ceiling, recalling all the rants from her brother and how all of his words fell on her deaf ears ["Tyler insists it was fake, and ranted the entire way back to the bus. You were the closest one to it, so I thought that maybe you might've seen something that we didn't"]

Ashlyn: ["Not really..."] She looked down at her arm, and sighed ["But it doesn't have anything to do with us anymore — Maybe it really was just a stupid prank. Best forget it"]

Taylor: ["... Okay"]

As sleep started to overcome her, the girl could only stare at her arm — From throbbing, it began to sting. As if you were to rub soap and water on a small cut after trying to pull off the piece of skin poking up from your finger. Still, she pushed those thoughts aside, and began to let her eyes falter, until her vision went completely dark. She drifted off comfortably into a peaceful, quiet, and certainly much-needed sleep.

-Lyn...

She groaned, rolling on the bed for a moment, now feeling her body, especially her head, gently shaking. Tightening her eyes even closer than before, and moving to the other side, the voice again called out for her — It was masculine certainly, but also one that, at this point, she was used to hearing. Opening her eyes and rubbing then a bit, she stared up at Aiden, who, with a smile, pointed towards the exit of the bus.

Aiden (?): ["Time to get off the bus, we're in Savannah"]

Ashlyn: ["When did I fall asleep...? Okay..."]

Ashlyn yawned while standing up. watching everyone leave the bus alongside Aiden. Now that she stopped and thought about it, she didn't get a very clear look at his face. It was almost like it was shadowed behind scribbles, like someone who had gone mad at a whiteboard or a piece of paper. Regardless, picking up her bag, she went on to walk — But came to a halt and dropped her bag to the floor, staring out the window.

Ashlyn: ["... Didn't we already get out at Savannah?"]

She looked around — Nobody. All of the students, even "Aiden", had gone from being right in front of her, to the middle of nowhere. Looking out the window of the bus, she saw how the sky was red, and the moon yellow. Stepping out from the bus, and leaving her bag behind, Ashlyn took another glance around the would-be-crowded streets of Savannah, only to find absolutely nothing, and no one, walking around.

She wandered around the place, also noticing how every window was a lighter, more aggressive, bloodier shade of red than the sky. She went through all places — Where they had walked on a carriage, the place where they had eaten and Y/N paid for their food. No one. The streets were still as empty as when she left the bus. Even in other areas, like the strange lamp shop where Aiden had shoved his head inside one of 'em.

Ashlyn: ["What's going on...?"]

Walking quickly, trying to make her steps and presence as unnoticeable as possible, the girl moved through the old ruins where Aiden would go climbing around, the park where they had painted their faces, the fountain where Aiden stole all the coins — Everywhere they had walked, was the same. Red skies, with even bloodier windows and the yellow moon practically burning a role through the back of Ashlyn's head.

Ashlyn: ["...This is a dream right?"]

She retraced her steps back to where all things had begun to act weirdly — The Sorrel Weed House. But still, just like everything else, there was nothing in there. Just the usual aggressiveness of the red windows, the never-ending torrent of fear from the skies towering high above her. Through the same basement where the creature had gotten a grip of her, she wandered — Still unaware of her arm's gashing wound.

Ashlyn: ["Of course I'm dreaming. It'd be weird to not dream after what happened today"] She looked around the place, calmly taking it in ["At least it's not a nightmare, I think"]

RED WAVES

Ashlyn's entire body shivered in surprise at its sudden appearance and sound, crashing down against her ears and making her turn around to face whatever it is that suddenly caught her attention — Nothing. The moment she turned around, not only nothing, but also a strange sight. A second ago she was in the Sorrel Weed House, now? She found herself back inside the bus, as if she had never left in the first place.

Taking another glance around, she still saw nothing and no one, not an indication of harm. So, with a tired sigh, and allowing herself to slump down against the seats of the bus, the girl felt her tense muscles slowly loosen themselves and relax. Looking around the place, and trying to come up with something. This whole thing was starting to annoy her more than actually freak her out — Left alone, she groaned.

Ashlyn: ["I really hate lucid dreams. It makes everything seem so real..."]

Quiet. Both her and the outside world. Everything was eerie-still, so much so that not even the air seemed to blow. Kicking her feet while sitting down, walking around the place, looking out the window. Nothing that she did seemed to make her wake up, and she already knew that on the outside was nothing, and no one that she could interact with. And so, she had only one thing to do — Give herself a rather harsh smack.

Ashlyn: ["Wake up!"] The stinging sensation made her rub her cheek in annoyance ["Ow... Why did that hurt so much? Isn't this just a dream? Hm, now that I think about it.."] She looked down at her arm, taking a look at her still-open wounds and wondering ["My arm is also stinging quite a l-?!"] Something yanked on her leg, and she could barely hold onto the seat ["What the f-"]

And with it...

The red waves followed.

With yet another strong pull, Ashlyn was dragged down and fell, but not out of her seat — Instead, she was yanked out of the bed, tumbling to the ground with an aching head. The covers came down with her, and feeling her aching head, stinging arm, and now the bump on her head, Ashlyn slowly sat up. Trying to rub the dizziness away from her forehead, she slowly turned around to sit on the floor with a pained groan.

Ashlyn: ["Well... At least I'm awake now. That sucked..."]

Taylor: ["Ashlyn? You okay?"] The girl's eyes blink in sleepiness as she begins to wake up ["You okay? Why are you on the floor?"]

Ashlyn: ["Ah, yeah, I'm fine... Just a nightmare, is all"]

Taylor: ["Hm? What happened to your arm?!"]

Ashlyn: ["My arm? It's still scratched?"] She looked down at her arm, feeling it throb with that stinging sensation ["... Maybe I'm not awake yet?"]

Taylor: ["A-Ah we should get someone- Um, some bandages! Or the teachers?"] She frantically breathed in and out, clearly shaken by the sight of those cuts ["Do you need help up? Do you want me to go fetch someone to help? Do you-"]

Ashlyn: ["No, no, don't worry, it's alright... When did she get out of bed?"] Ashlyn sighed in frustration, trying her best not to move her arm around ["I can get up, but I might need some band-"]

◁━━━━━━━━◈ - - - ◈━━━━━━━━▷

A scream woke him up.

Without even thinking, Y/N had already sat up on the sofa and pulled out his switchblade from his pocket. Looking around, and seeing nothing that could do him immediate harm, he just laid down with an annoyed grunt. Pulling the covers over himself and storing his blade back into his pocket, and nuzzling back down on the sofa. His would-be return to dreamland was interrupted when a door opened.

Aiden: ["Did anyone else hear screaming-"]

WHACK

Aiden's head shot back as, right in front of him, another door swung open fast enough to send his entire head back with a rather-nasty crunch noise. More annoyed than worried, all Y/N did was sat up again, clutching the blade inside his pocket in case anything seemed out of place. Though Logan peeked from inside the room a little bit after, the one who came out first was Tyler, frantically rushing out the room.

Tyler: ["TAYLOR!"]

Barely a second late, he had already slammed shut the front door. Confused as everyone else, Logan peeked out of the room that he and Tyler shared, putting on his glasses with both confusion and fear present in his face. Y/N looked past him, and towards Aiden who's nose dripped with blood — It looked like if someone had just punched him, which is technically what the door did when Tyler frantically opened it.

Logan: ["What's going on? Screaming...?"]

Aiden: ["Ow..."]

Logan: ["What happened to your face?!"]

Y/N just stood up after everyone agreed to go after Tyler. He, however, did not. Instead, he picked up his bag that was lying nearby, and rummaged through it. Humming a sing-song tune as his hands wrapped around the object, and he pulled it out. Observing it for a second before he reached his hand deep into the bag again, picking everything he needed — Five for one full, but he took a total of ten to be sure.

Y/N: ["How predictable that they wouldn't investigate our bags. Afterall..."]

Loading one, two, three, four, and then five, a small throw to the side was enough to close it. Giving it a good spin to test if it was still in working conditions, Y/N hummed with the result. Rather impressed, he stood up, closed his bag after taking his pack of cigarettes and lighter, and tossed it away on top of the sofa again. Putting the thing against the back of his waistband, and covering it with his shirt, he walked out.

Y/N: ["What student in their right mind would bring a gun to a school trip?"]

◁━━━━━━━━◈ - - - ◈━━━━━━━━▷

Even if caught off-guard, Ashlyn did not take more than a second to react. Instead, without wasting a moment, she thrusted the sole of her foot against the creature's face, smashing it against the side of the bed, and seemingly knocking it out for the moment. Without waiting for anything else, she scrambled to her feet with no difficulty, even with the open wound in her arm. At her side, stood a frightened Taylor.

Taylor: ["I-Isn't that the thing from the Sorrel Weed place...?"]

Ashlyn: ["Whatever it is, we need to leave before it gets up!"] Taylor did not say anything nor did she react, which prompted Ashlyn to hold her wrist ["Come on, snap out of it! We gotta get out of here!"]

Without waiting any more, Ashlyn, still with a firm grip on Taylor's wrist, yanked the girl back, and away from their room. Slamming the door shut behind them, they ran through the small apartment, and into the main room. Though, even if Taylor had already broken out of it, Ashlyn still held her wrist, as the two turned to face the other room — The room which their two other roommates shared in the same apartment.

Taylor: ["What- What about the other girls?!"]

Ashlyn: ["I'm not sure, they should have heard us scream!"]

Taylor: ["So why haven't they come out yet?!"]

The front door of the place slammed open, causing Ashlyn and Taylor to stop on their tracks, ready for whatever was the worst to come. However, a large smile spread across Taylor's face when Tyler walked in. Not very far behind him were the other two — A still-smiling Aiden, a serious Ben, a worried Logan, and an unshaken Y/N. The first one mentioned rapidly opened his arms, where his sister threw herself into.

Taylor: ["TY?!"]

Aiden: ["Oh, so it was then? What's with all the running?"]

Y/N walked into the room, looking around for a moment. Not spotting anything weird, he decided to just walk deeper into the place — Surely they had screamed for a reason. Was it a cockroach, or a psychopath with a knife? He would find out, put an end to it, and then go back to sleep. While everyone else chatted, he went deeper into the place, now noticing the door to the girl's room starting to shake and tremble.

Tyler: ["Taylor, what's going on?!"]

Ashlyn: ["Something's on the-"]

BANG

Save for Ashlyn, they all recoiled when a gunshot echoed through the room. They were surprised when they saw Y/N walking backwards, some blood dripping from a fresh wound on his face, which remained frozen like ever. Ashlyn instantly recognized the weapon in his hands — A Double-Action .500 S&W Magnum, which he kept aimed forward. And just like everyone else, she also recognized what came after he did.

Ashlyn: ["... Go ..."]

<<<<<< I >[---]< I >>>>>>

[Published in - 02/26/24]
[Word Count - 4.550]

A bit late, and a rather-short chapter, but here we are!

I apologize for the tardiness. I had decided to take a rest day, and then a lot of things came up, and one after the other they got overwhelming, so I didn't have much time to write, but boom! Another chapter is done! I promise the next one will come sooner, I just need to finish dealing with some personal stuff and we're set. I hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I am enjoying writing it — As usual, thank you.