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Blood Maid (blood_maid) wrote in haunted_roads,
@ 2008-02-21 00:20:00

Entry tags:

abigail, mab

Week Two: Wednesday
When: Night
Where: Various hallways of the Old Town Towers
Who: Mab and Anyone

Idly Mab was humming as she floated up and down the halls of the Towers. Today was a slow day; no one was around to play with. Where had everyone gone? It was no fun when they halls were empty and people didn’t want to notice her little antics. Made for a bored Mab which was never a good thing. Made her want to do something big! Something that lots of people would notice. Sure it would make her tired afterwards but when was that not worth it for Mab? So long as she got a giggle out of it and someone screamed in fright like a little girl! Made her snicker even now thinking about it.

She’d scared one already today. Some man that had been rushing up the stairs with flowers in his hand. From what Mab could tell he was trying to find a place to hide them so his whoever wouldn’t find them till tomorrow. Mab thought it was a perfect opportunity to try out one of her ugly faces! Make her eyes look hollow and her skin all peely. It wasn’t easy to do and she couldn’t for long but it was always a blast!

Around the corner the man had dashed, only to run right through her. He felt the cold, he turned around and Mab’s face was right there. All gross and freaky, he’d screamed so loud that a few residents peaked their heads out their doors to see what was going on. Of course they didn’t see anything! Nope by then Mab was all gone and the man just looked like a nutcase screaming in the hallways with his flowers all scattered around him. A few were even trampled on in his rush away!

Had almost been entertaining enough to make Mab’s day. It would have been plenty if she had others to watch later, others to idly annoy or confuse. But no one else came through the hallways today and no one had visited the gardens where Mab loved to linger. It was pretty there…

Pretty and she could stare out the big windows at the city that she couldn’t go play in anymore. But sometimes when she got really lucky she’d catch a car crash or a murder and get all giddy! If only she could go play in the blood and find all the little missing parts of the person’s brain! Sometimes being dead really was no fun at all. But it was better then being really dead. The whole not here anymore moved on go towards the light sort of dead.

Did Mab get a light sort of dead? Huh….she wasn’t sure. Oh well. Mab wasn’t looking to follow the light and go on home. She was home! Even if her room at the Towers had long ago been rented out to someone…if she could only remember the room, she’d haunt it all the time then!

But sometimes things got a little hazy in her memory after so long. Little stuff ran away, unimportant stuff. Or at least Mab was pretty sure it was.

With an audible huff Mab circled around and around, too bad she couldn’t get dizzy anymore! She’d lingered too long to this floor though, no one was home or no one fun. So she moved through the door to the stairs, following them around and around to another floor to go watch. Maybe someone interesting would be there…

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lapislazuli
2008-02-23 03:26 am UTC (link)

Abigail hadn't had a particularly good day. The weather had been drizzly and gray and cold, and the atmosphere seemed to have been infused with a general sense of blah that had left her feeling listless and lethargic. Her mood had progressed to downright grumpy and short tempered, later in the day. Everything seemed to have been designed painstakingly by some sadistic God, to irritate her. A paper she'd just finished and printed off at the university computer centre had fallen out of her bag and in to a muddy puddle. When she went to print it off again, the centre had had an unexpected power surge and had to temporarily shut down. The lecturer had been sarcastic and generally asshole-y when she'd explained the situation to him, and told her that regardless, the usually penalties would apply if she couldn't produce a hard copy until tomorrow. She'd missed her bus and had to wait at the stop for a further half an hour, in the cold, and the batteries in her MP3 player had died (AGAIN) leaving her with nothing to do but read her philosophy textbooks, which she wasn't particularly in the mood for.

In addition, it was Valentine's day tomorrow, and that always put her in a bad mood.

She arrived back at the Towers later than normal, owing to the late bus. For whatever reason, though she pressed the elevator call button at least twelve times, the damn thing didn't show up, so she'd walked the five flights of stairs up to her floor, muttering obscenities to herself under her breath, her damp hair making her neck feel all clammy, now that she was inside, in the central heating.

She marched down the corridor, eyebrows knit in annoyance, just about ready to call it a day, fling herself under a shower, and collapse in to bed. Not that she'd sleep well, but perhaps she had a sleeping tablet squirreled away somewhere that she'd forgotten about. She didn't want to dream, tonight. She was over it.

She arrived at the door to her apartment, and began the standard blind fumble, in her bag, for her keys. No matter how tidy the interior of her bag was (admittedly, on this occasion, it wasn't), she could never find the damn things, even though her keyring was so heavy with charms and keys that it too up a sizable area.

"Fuck." she muttered to herself, hand still buried in the depths of her messenger bag. "Come on. I just want to sleep dammit..."

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blood_maid
2008-02-24 05:25 am UTC (link)

Around and around Mab did spin through the hall, a twirling mass of barely visible energy and bright red hair that seemed to catch the eye of a few but it was more of a side sight. That slight glance that made you quickly turn your head thinking something was there and yet…nothing was. The few that had passed by Mab weren’t what she was looking for. What was it that she was seeking out? Well she didn’t know! She just knew she’d know it when she saw it! That’s how it always worked with Mab. Idly traveling about the towers only clearly visible with those eyes meant to see. It took energy to form so that anyone at all could get her pretty little image after all and not everyone was worth that sort of trouble thank you very much.

Spin spin spin, a faint snickering sound seemed to hint in the shadows down the hall, echoing, bouncing, coming from every little angle at once. A sound not quite noticed at first but the longer someone stood in the halls the more clear it became. A background white noise that tugged tugged tugged upon the mind.

Mab loved doing that, driving people crazy with sounds! Making them think they were just plain losing it. Nothing quite made her snicker more then when they started to scream into their empty apartments for her to shut up! But they didn’t know she was there…it was just in their heads, poor little insane person. Sometimes when she was being really nice she’d give them a glimpse of the culprit, just to make them feel not so nuts.

Or maybe more….hmmm…

“Put the lime in the coconut, you drank 'em both up” Mab hummed as she heard someone in the hallways. Oooo who was that? Intrigue sent Mab creeping closer and closer, a silent little sway to the air that brought her peeking around another corner. The other wouldn’t see her, not yet. No Mab wanted to play for a bit first before trying to play the I’m a real person game!

Was funny when they asked others about her and were told no one lived in the building like that! Mab? Oh Mab died some years back, are you sure you saw her?

Made their eyes get all BIG.

“Put the lime in the coconut, you called your doctor, woke him up, and said” sung a little louder, carried in just a way to reach the grumpy girls ears. She needed a spook didn’t she? It might make her giggle at herself, Mab was just helping right? Right! Mab never did like frowns. Pouts, screams, shock, laughter…but not frowns. Frowns were no fun and grumpy was so much better when turned around. Mab was just a helpful little thing she knew.

Ghostly fingers curled about the edge of the wall, still hidden behind that turn in the hallway. Of course anyone that could see ghosts would find the sight rather amusing since Mab was sideways. Feet on the wall, bad girl she was!

Waiting…waiting….once the keys were finally in hand a sudden burst of energy sought to knock them from the girls hands!

Clumsy little thing…

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lapislazuli
2008-02-24 04:21 pm UTC (link)

Abigail was no stranger to hearing things. It's just that usually, she managed to find some perfectly reasonable explanation for them. The pipes banging, for instance. Or the drains. Or the fact that this was an apartment building, and the walls were probably quite thin. She did believe in all that stuff, of course. The other stuff. The paranormal stuff. She just wasn't falling over herself to blame it for something that probably had a perfectly reasonable explanation. She was a bit Agent Scully, like that.

However, it was difficult to find a logical explanation for suddenly hearing the lyrics to 'Coconut' by Harry Nilsson, softly, but clearly, in an empty hallway.

She turned around, instinctively, one eyebrow raised, half expecting to see some kid wandering towards the lifts, or something. But there was nobody. The corridor was empty.

"You're going fucking insane." she muttered to herself, immediately trying to pass the experience off as her overactive imagination. After all, she did occasionally hear phrases from her dreams repeated in her ears, as if out-loud, though she was positive those were just in her head. Perhaps she'd overheard the song playing somewhere around campus, earlier, and it had gotten lodged in her subconscious. Audial hallucinations weren't uncommon if you were overtired, and she hadn't been sleeping well. Yes, that must be it.

She lifted the keys to the lock as firmly and steadily as possible, trying to force the quiver out of her arm. You're just tired. she soothed herself, quietly it's normal. Just get inside, have a shower, get some sleep. You'll be fine, tomorrow.

The door-key was almost in the lock when she felt an odd sort of pull on one of the many key-ring charms. The keys dropped to the floor, rapidly, not as if they'd been dropped, but rather as though they'd been...well, it sounded stupid to admit it, but it was rather as though they'd been pulled.

"Now you're really imagining it." she told herself, out loud, sternly, bending down to pick up the keys, trying her best not to let adrenaline get the best of her. Her knees were shaking. This was stupid. She was just winding herself up, getting carried away. There was nothing in this hallway with her. Nothing whatsoever.

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blood_maid
2008-02-25 05:54 am UTC (link)

Mab loved the ones that rationalized it all. Of course when they did so out loud they really weren't helping the sounding insane thing! Too bad they didn't always hear her snickering at them. Poor little people didn't have any idea what was really going on. So many of the people she played with she liked to keep in the dark, it was fun when they were blind! Just keep trying to make it make sense! Entertained her just fine.

Mab's feet tapped against the wall, of course making no noise but really it sort of looked like she was swimming in place. Odd little sight for anyone that caught a glimpse but Mab wasn't paying attention to the rest of the halls now. She was pretty sure they were empty anyways. She was far too busy watching the little girl. Human was Mab's guess. Human and cute as a button! Made Mab want to make her eyes go all big and doll like. It would be even better if she paled too, then she'd really look like a pretty little doll.

Back and forth Mab's head tipped, making red curls bounce about her head. Of course she was still humming, once a tune got into her head it stayed there and danced about till Mab caught another song. No music was playing anywhere though and so the coconut song kept going. On and on, lgith and louder. From one end of the floor to the other...Mab loved the noise tricks.

“And said, "Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say, Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?
I say, Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say, Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?"
"Now let me get this straight ",
Put the lime in the coconut, you drank them both up
Put the lime in the coconut, you drank them both up
Put the lime in the coconut, you drank them both up”

Mab crept forward, crawling along the ground all sneaky like even though she wasn’t seen by the little one before her. Still she moved forward, inch by inch, making the song sound a little clearer.

But oh maybe someone had it going in their apartment? Just a hint through the walls and nothing more. Damn those neighbors and their loud music echoing the halls. Maybe…just maybe…a door was open just a little too.

Hmm hmmm…maybe maybe.

So cute she was already thinking herself insane, Mab’s work was doing just what she wanted!

But her little entertainment was trying to run away and though Mab could just follow her right inside she wasn't going to make it that easy on her. Nope it was fun when they got frustrated! All huff and stomp the feet like, little tantrums to make Mab's day complete. A drop of the keys and a push once they were on the floor. Look they were nearly crawling away!

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lapislazuli
2008-02-28 01:10 pm UTC (link)

Abby spun around, her dark hair whipping around her pale face as she scoured the corridors for the source of the music. Well, not even music, really. Just singing. At first she'd thought it was coming from behind her, but now it seemed as though it was up the other end of the hall, near the stairwell, and then, there it was a moment later, as if it was coming from the opposite end of the landing.

Her heart was protesting wildly in her ribcage, but she took a deep breath, closing her eyes a moment. "Don't be silly." she hissed to herself, sternly. Music didn't just come from nowhere. There were all sorts of vents and whatnot in the ceiling. Maybe someone was playing some...bizarre a-capella version of the damned song, somewhere on the floor above, and it was just filtering through the vents weirdly. That wasn't so impossible, really, was it?

After a few moments of telling herself variations on that theme, her heart slowed again. She nodded, a brief inclination of her head, satisfied with her management of the weirdness, and opened her eyes again. Now, to find her keys. She'd just panicked herself, that was all. Her hands had gotten a bit clammy, and they'd slipped out of her grasp. Perfectly normal, rational, sane, and not-at-all-crazy thing to happen.

She turned around again, away from her front door, and bent down to pick up her keys. She'd just reached out a hand to grab them, when, right in front of her eyes, and thoroughly inexplicably, they jerked away, as if kicked by an invisible foot, skittering across the polished floorboards a good foot or so away from where they'd rested previously.

"Alright." she admitted, a slight shake in her voice. "I'll admit. That was bizarre."

She stood up, willing her knees not to quiver quite so much. It made standing difficult. She walked purposefully towards her keys, eyeing them intently, as if, under her watchful gaze, they would be incapable of moving again.

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blood_maid
2008-03-01 02:03 am UTC (link)

Hand’s clasped over Mab’s mouth to still her snickering as the girl frantically looked about! Of course really it wasn’t a needed act as Mab could speak without having anyone hear a sound if she really wished to. But some human habits just lingered about, even when she was floating sideways! Like she still crinkled her nose like she might sneeze when there was a bunch of smoke about. Or um she still got all hungry when she smelled cookies even though she couldn’t eat them anymore! Sad huh? Mab sure thought so…

Mab could hear the girl’s heartbeat a racing in her chest like a song. Pretty little thing, like a caged bird just fluttering about. Was it really so scary to hear singing? What was wrong with singing? Mab loved to hear people sing, it was her favorite thing. Especially when they just let go and got into it! Nothing better…well besides cleaning up fun messes, she loved that even more. Mix the two and it was the best thing.

Mab was pretty torn then. Did she just jump out and scream boo at the girl and disappear away or should she play with her a bit first? Talk to her; make herself seem like a normal resident before suddenly vanishing and making the girl think she’d imagined it all. Coocoo in the brain!

The second one took more time and Mab was fresh out of things to occupy her time tonight, so the girl got option B and maybe an option C would show up in the picture. You just never knew with Mab, she was an unpredictable sort. Before death and certainly afterwards. Maybe even more so if it was possible!

Wait for it…wait for it….Nope keys didn’t go jumping again! Tempting tempting but she didn’t want to push the girl too far yet. That’s when they just up and ran away and though Mab was left a snickering it was the end of the game! She could always go bug Jerzy though…the kid was cute! A little too skittish though, he sometimes jumped at his own shadow! They weren’t so scary really, just like everyone else besides that whole dead factor.

Then again Mab had never found death to be scary in the first place. She sort of found it funny. All the ways the body could be kicked to the curb and told in bright bold flashing game like letters “Game over!”. She’d seen lots of ways to die but she thought she’d gotten jipped, there had to be lots more ways to see and now she couldn’t unless they were near the towers.

Mab lowered herself to the ground and focused, the air around her when drastically cold as all the energy available was stolen away so that Mab could make herself appear nearly solid. It was a very close look but if she turned a certain way too fast that sort of misty appearance could be seen. Most just ignored it, you know their funny eyeballs playing tricks. People were strange that way.

“Think they might bite cha!?” Mab remarked loudly, quickly coming about the corner, likely a scare all on its own! Her eyebrows bounced and she smirked, staring at the keys just as intensely. “Or do they do a trick?”

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lapislazuli
2008-03-04 03:22 pm UTC (link)

To her credit, Abigail did not jump when the woman appeared. Her head twitched up rapidly, her heart beat a little faster, and she took a cautionary step backwards. But she didn't jump. That was something.

It did, however, take her a few moments to recover the ability to speak. Mab had certainly given her a fright. It wouldn't have taken much...she was fairly spooked already.

"Bite me...? Oh. Oh, you mean those?" she gave a weak, sheepish smile, looking down at the keys again. "Er, no. And as far as I know, they don't do a trick. Unless skittering across the floor of their own accord is a trick." she should really quit whilst she was ahead. She sounded like a lunatic. "Just a draft, I expect. Or um...magnates. You know. Kids. Kids playing with magnates...or something." she looked up at Mab again, wondering if the other woman would think her completely crazy, since she was doing a fairly good job of rambling like an asylum inmate.

She had fully intended to punctuate her little rant by kneeling down and picking up the aforementioned tricksy keys...but something prevented her. For some reason she couldn't quite fathom, she didn't want to take her eyes off this stranger. Perhaps it was the way she'd seemed to appear out of nowhere. Abigail was fairly sure she hadn't heard footsteps.

"Did you hear music, just now?" she inquired, as conversationally as possible, trying to keep the intensity out of her voice. Well, she already sounded mad. There wasn't much more she could say that would incriminate her further.

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blood_maid
2008-03-05 02:25 am UTC (link)

Mad...Mab...See how well they went together? Nothing wrong with being a little mad, it made a person interesting! Or at least Mab certainly thought so. It gave them rather nifty conversation pieces if nothing else right? Right. Too bad most of them were all too focused on being normal. What real fun was normal anyways? Seemed pretty bland to Mab. And bland was certainty nothing that she ever wanted to be. No, she much rather leave an impression.

What sort of one was an all together different matter though...

"What else would I mean!" Mab snickered, tipping her head this way and that to make red curls a bounce like they used to long ago. "Awww no tricks huh? Not very fun keys then girl, need to work on that." of course a brow just happened to arch when Abigail continued. "Skittering across the floor you say? Did they grow little centipede legs and just get a walking? Did you make them mad? Not handling them right." she tsked slightly, though a smirk stayed all too etched to her lips.

She peaked one way, then another way, carefully doing so as to not get that odd glance just right where she didn't look so real anymore. "I don't see any magnets around here." now why would old Mabsters believe this odd little chic with the dancing keys huh?

Nope no reason at all.

“Those keys you know though…” Mab began, nodding her head all confirming like even before she had finished the sentence “they can be tricky little things. Coming out of the person all fumbling like and never quite wanting to get back in our hands.” There task was done once you opened the door, so they were just drawing it out, making you really need them. Sounded about right to Mab.

“Music you say?” she fell quickly silent, a slight face made as though she were really really concentrating. Tough work trying to hear music.

“Hmmmm” she pondered, tapping the chin just slightly, careful careful, no hand through the face! “Nope.” She finally answered “But people do like their music around here, did one of your neighbors get volume happy? One near me he likes some of the oddest stuff you see and it just carries on and on all over the place! Old vents, ties the floors together dontcha know.” See, perfect explanation.

For the music at least, the dancing keys that was harder to brush away wasn’t it.

Especially when they moved again. Just a little thing, just a slight jerk to the side, Mab of course didn’t happen to be looking.

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lapislazuli
2008-03-14 01:15 pm UTC (link)

Abby stared at the woman, half bemused, half still a wee bit spooked, as she chirped her lively little monologue about the keys. Good Lord, she wasn't half excitable. In fact, there was something about the young woman that was making Abby even more uneasy. She realised she, herself, must sound completely mental yabbering on about moving keys and magnates and disembodied singing...but this chick was going the extra mile. She looked around the hallway a little desperately, hoping to God someone would come up the stairs, or out of their apartment, so she could escape from this situation without seeming rude. She was beginning to suspect this lady had escaped from some kind of local mental hospice.

"Yeah..." she replied, a trifle distractedly, when Mab 'explained' the music "...that's what I was thinking. Vents, and stuff." oh, shit. You're agreeing with a nutcase. What does that make you? "...it's an old building, and it's pretty drafty. Noise probably carries quite a bit, too - God knows I hear pipes banging all the time, and whatnot." she smiled to Mab, trying to seem friendly, whilst at the same time curbing the young woman's apparent desire for conversation.

"Well, I suppose I should be going..." she bent down to pick up her keys again, just in time to watch them jerk half an inch out of her reach. "Oh!" she exclaimed, startled, withdrawing her hand as though the damned things had burned her. Her heart hammered against her chest unpleasantly. "Did you see that!?" she demanded, straightening up, the keys still not in hand, turning to Mab.

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blood_maid
2008-03-14 03:43 pm UTC (link)

Awww was Mab really so bad? She thought it was fun, after all the girl wanted some explanation for the oddities, maybe the strange lady from down the way was just that! She could have easily been humming and lied right? Right! See Mab was just being helpful for that girls poor spooked spirits. Never mind the fact that she’d been the one to get them so tickled in the first place! Of course Mab was a fidgety little thing and probably looked like she was just ready to burst at the seams. But who could blame her if they knew! No one understood just how boring it could be trapped to one building!

Mab liked to play. Mab liked to explore! Now she was stuck stuck stuck. It would make you fidgety too!

Mab snickered, awww so few people around here were any fun at all. It was really disappointing to the friendly little ghost that was not called Casper. What was so wrong with a bit of forward conversation hmmmmmmm? People of this day and age, made Mab hmph. Before people didn’t much jabbering with even the local nutcase, because it was polite and people were supposed to talk!

Now Mab just had to spook. And spook she would. Of course she’d bug this one, she was quite fun to scare really. Could she explain away that singing coming from inside her room? Or maybe every object she reached for being moved right out of reach. Oooo maybe Mab would make a face at her from the mirror when she got out of the shower. That always made people jump!

“Yep yep.” Mab remarked, making a scrunch of the face and a bright grin. Yep easy to explain, normal old building stuff! That was the ticket. Always was you see, funny considering the place was all redone but shhh that didn’t work with the explanation!

“Whoa huh what?” Mab looked startle as the little girl freaked out. “See what?” ah just in her head again huh? Poor little thing was done losing her marbles! “Oh going, right, have fun with the key chasing.” Mab grinned, circling around her, speaking near to her ear almost but not enough to really be oh my god creepy. “Night….” And as the girl would likely turn to see why this strange woman was speaking to her back, Mab would be poof. Gone far far quicker then anyone should have been able to race away.

But it was okay, Mab would sing for her tonight, no need to feel lonely! But at least this time around those pesky run away keys would stay still.

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