Claudia has always had an adoration for the dreary, the inexplicable, the seemingly unexplored, the left behind. She was left behind herself, once, so long ago that the brighter and sometimes darker years between felt like storm waves to swim through, impossible to surmount. She never liked thinking about her past, but something about this building made her do it. It was fucking annoying. Surely, the place wasn’t old enough to have been around in those small, glowing years of her girlhood. Besides, even if it had, it couldn’t be anything near what it was in those days. Cobble and horse shit, but always the sound of life. Life everywhere, going on, pulsing and deliberate.
Tonight, she didn’t feel like being gloomy. How could she be anyway? She was with Garnet, who understood firsthand how fucking stupid life could be. How life could stranglehold any good and innocent intention, and braid it into something rotten. She leaned in close to her, shoulders touching. She always liked being around her. She could be herself. Some people didn’t enjoy Claudia as Claudia. They preferred the watered down, Mickey Mouse glove version, but never Garnet. She said to the whisper in the curl of her, “Obviously. I can’t resist fuck boy blood.” and skimmed the tippy-tip of her index nail along the line of Garnet’s jaw.
The stairs were creaking and she was hoping they didn’t fucking break. She sighed. “Ugh, no wonder these idiots think it’s haunted. It smells like shit and there’s dust everywhere. Where the fuck is the lightswitch? There better be one or I’m out of here.” but the lightswitch was further down, further. Further until the basement floor came underneath her hypodermic high heels. She felt around the skin of the wall for it. “Do you smell that?” she asked, detecting something else besides ghosts. Something sanguine, something rusty.