sheriffskid (sheriffskid) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-01-03 17:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | #september 2017, hunter, hunter x mak, mak |
Who: Hunter & Mak (With cameo by Jen)
What: Spooky shit! video chat
Where: Online!
When: Noon, Monday 09/25
Status: Complete
Warning: Hauntings
Hunter had been all sorts of messed up since the party on Friday. Saturday he'd been fighting a hangover with things still going bump when they shouldn't and Sunday... Wow. Sunday had seen him anxious as shit, freaking out about every little thing, even going so far as begging Jen to stay with him. She now thought he was afraid of the fog or suffering from some kind of no-tech-phobia which wasn't far from the truth but not to the point of near crying!
He slept like shit so school getting cancelled was a small blessing though at this point he would have rather gone to school and zombie-walked the halls full of people. Staying home was miserable at best and of course he woke up way before Jen did.
Looking out the window was disappointing too because the fog was still out there, thick and looming. At least he wasn't feeling as crazy scared anymore but there was still this feeling of dread that wouldn't leave him alone. At least the electricity was back on so he could charge his phone and he plugged it in in the kitchen while he went about trying to find something to eat.
He was sitting by the kitchen table with a half finished toast in front of him and his focus squarely on his phone when he caught something moving in his peripheral vision. His stomach lurched and he looked up only to see some shape by the kitchen window, moving closer. Hunter dropped his phone, eyes going wide as his heart seemed to stop in his chest. There were red eyes. Red glowing eyes moving closer to the window and before he knew it Hunter had flailed backwards off the chair and landed on his ass on the floor. He scooted backwards, staring transfixed on the shape, expecting it to come in through the glass but it stopped moving and just stayed there, staring at him. Staring through him.
Seconds ticked by where Hunter thought he was dying but then his heart seemed to start up again, faster than it should, thumping like a frightened critter trying to escape his ribcage. Hunter scooted forward, swiping the phone off the table and running, half tripping up the stairs to get to his sister's room. Half-awake and less than pleased, Jen walked with him through the house though he wouldn't tell her exactly why. Finally she told him he was stupid and he'd had a bad dream and she needed to sleep but Hunter knew he hadn't been dreaming. He'd been wide awake and the tell tale signs of his very real breakfast were still on the table.
He ended up curled up next to his bed in his room, plugging the phone in again before texting Mak.
Video chat. NOW
Mak’s mother had opted to stay home once she heard that school had been canceled. Normally that might have annoyed her -- she wasn’t a baby, she could stay in the house by herself -- but that day Mak was intensely grateful for it. She wanted the company, and to have her mom safe inside instead of driving out in the fog. Her dad still had to go to work, but she worried less about him for some dumb probably-sexist reason.
She’d spent all of Sunday with her stomach in knots, forcing smiles and normalcy while she played board games with her parents by candle light and tried to focus on reading and getting ahead on some homework. She’d felt awful all day, and had only been able to sit still by casually checking in with her friends by text every so often.
She woke up late on Monday, after going back to sleep once her mom had told her the news about school. Mak felt marginally better -- the power was back on, even though the fog hadn’t left, and it didn’t seem from scrolling Twitter that anything catastrophic had happened. She puttered around online in her room a bit, kind of feeling like maybe she could relax, but then her phone buzzed with a text from Hunter.
Frowning some, Mak tapped the screen to tell it to call him through FaceTime.
It was such a relief to see her face, any friendly face really, although Hunter didn't exactly feel calmed by it this time. "Hey," he said when the connection was established and it felt safer there in the nook between the bed and his shelf, like it was little fort just for him. "Have you... seen anything weird today?" He wasn't going to try to play it cool right now, his panic was kind of written all over his face and he could feel it.
The look on her bestie’s face didn’t soothe any of Mak’s worry. At his question, she glanced at her laptop screen like something weird might have suddenly popped up. No notifications of anything. “Uh ... no?” she answered, turning it into a question. “But I’ve just been in my room, pretty much. Mom’s home, so I haven’t been hearing anything ... what’s going on?” He looked like he’d seen a ghost, but that was an incredibly bad joke to make lately, so Mak didn’t. Hunter’s obvious fear alone made Mak’s heart thump harder and faster.
"I saw something outside the window," Hunter said quietly. "I don't think... it was a person." God he felt stupid even thinking it but if anyone would believe him it was Mak. "I think... it was Kevin." Yeah, it didn't feel any better to say it out loud and he hoped she wouldn't think he was being a dick about it and playing a prank. "It had red eyes, Mak. Red. Like some kind of... monster." His heart was beating faster from the thought alone and even if he was on the second floor now he couldn't help but think whatever it was would be right outside his bedroom window if he pulled the curtains.
Mak’s eyes widened for a beat before she was frowning deeper. She definitely didn’t think Hunter was playing any sort of prank -- he wasn’t above pranks, but not like this, and he wasn’t that good of an actor. At least Mak didn’t think so. “Wait wait wait,” she heard herself saying, though part of her brain felt kind of removed from it. “What? You saw something outside the window? How can you see anything out there? It’s foggy as fuck. And like ... what did it look like?” She wasn’t trying not to believe him or anything, that was just ... big. A red-eyed monster? She’d been thinking Kevin was just an unruly ghost, and since when did ghosts look like that? Mak stubbornly refused to look at her own window. Not yet. But her skin was prickling with fear.
Hunter knew she wasn't doubting him but he felt stupid about the whole thing and he knew it sounded insane so he felt defensive and irritated at the question. "That's what I said," he said sulkily. Maybe it had been a prank, some asshole with a sheet and led lights? But he knew it wasn't, he felt it in his bones. How could that someone fake all the really weird shit that had been happening before today? It was all too weird and he didn't like weird. He felt almost instantly guilty for being surly with her and so he gave her an apologetic look before shrugging. "I don't know, it's just been weird, with all the stuff falling down, my phone flew out of my hand at the party, like someone ripped it from me, then this thing outside the window... What else could it be?"
Mak pursed her lips at his pouty look for a moment, though she knew how the question had probably sounded. Her heart was thumping hard and worried, but she was doing her best not to show it. Her freaking out would only make Hunter freak out even more. The bad thing was, who the hell knew what else it could be in this weirdass town? “I know it’s been weird,” she replied, sounding sympathetic, at least. “And it all really sucks. But none of that tells me what it looked like.” Mak smiled faintly and stuck her tongue out at him just a tiny bit.
"Literally just like a shadow with red eyes," Hunter sighed. "I didn't see it very well." He also didn't really want to know what it looked like beyond that horrifying quick glance. "Ugh I wish I could just teleport over to your house right now, I so don't want to tell Jen about all this. Or dad." The thought of even trying to tell Grady about what was going on was laughable and he slumped down a little. "Does it get like this often?" He didn't remember Mak ever talking about it, but maybe he'd just forgotten since autumn fog in Point Pleasant didn't directly affect him until now.
A shadow with red eyes. It did sound creepy, but not like any ghost Mak had ever heard of. Maybe a demon or something ... what if Kevin wasn’t a ghost at all? Shit. It made her skin crawl to think about and she worried at her bottom lip with her teeth. Her eyes wandered to her window again. “It’s never been like this, that I remember,” she murmured. She meant more than the fog, she didn’t think she’d ever felt so ... creeped out before. Not in her own home, at least. Mak glanced back at Hunter on the screen, then started to climb off of the bed, careful not to jostle the phone too much. “But yeah, teleportation should totally be a thing,” she agreed, trying not to sound too distracted. She walked slowly toward her window, the uneasy feeling in her stomach getting worse.
"Where are you going?" Hunter asked and god, his voice came out ridiculously scared. It fit because he was scared but ugh he didn't want to sound like that. "Are you going to the window? Don't go to the window, we're avoiding windows right now." Now he just sounded like he was fucking with her and he hated that even more because he really wasn't, he didn't want her to look out there and see it too because that meant it was totally real and he'd much rather thing he'd eaten something weird or scared himself into seeing shit.
Hunter’s tone gave her a second’s pause, but how could Mak not look outside? The haunting shit had been happening to all of them, and if Hunter was seeing stuff now ... Mak was sure the suspense would kill her more than seeing something out there. “I’m just gonna have a peek,” she said, attempting to muster up a ‘it’ll be fine, silly’ tone and facial expression. It didn’t quite work. “Just to see. I can’t not look, Hunter.” Mak stuck her tongue out at him like that should be obvious, though she wasn’t really feeling the tease. She reached where her sheer curtains were drawn, the light coming through them muted by all the fog. Mak took a deep breath and reached with her free hand to push the edge of the curtain aside. Keeping the phone camera pointed at her face, Mak craned her neck to peer outside.
There was absolutely no logical reason for whatever it was to be outside Mak's window now but Hunter still held his breath, squinting at the phone like he would a horror movie he didn't want to watch. "You better not make some stupid joke," he said, his voice wavering a little. "I swear if you make a joke I'm hanging up and not talking to you for a month." He didn't mean that of course, even if he did he wouldn't be able to hold out that long, but God could his nerves not take it if she flinched or screamed or did anything to startle him right now.
“Like I would ...” At first, there was nothing to see but fog. Which was what Mak had hoped for, if not outright expected. The tension in her back started to ease a tiny bit as she swept her gaze over what was usually a good view of the back yard. Then something caught Mak’s attention and she froze, her eyes going wide. It was two red lights, set close together but hovering higher than any eyes should rightfully be, faint for the first millisecond, then rapidly growing darker and more solid. As she stared, shadow started to coalesce around them, vaguely human-shaped. Mak knew without knowing how she knew that it was looking right at her, like it had been waiting for her to peek. She gasped and ducked away from the window, nearly dropping her phone in shock and sudden fear. Mak crouched down and fumbled with the phone to look into the camera again. The terror in her eyes was real. “Ohshit Hunter I just saw it, it’s out there, ohmygod whatthefuck,” she breathed.
She was so obviously not joking, which just made it worse and Hunter curled up more tightly against his bed, squeezing the phone as if that might help at all. "What the fuck," he whispered and now he felt like he had to go see if it was still outside his house or if it was just this one thing creeping around town because if it was still outside his house that meant there was more than one and Oh God. "If it's there now," he said but the terror was too much and there was no way he was even looking past his bed at this point. He was having nasty images in his head of the window cracking and the fog seeping in, whatever was out there following and doing terrible things to him. Nope. "What was it doing?" he whispered and although he didn't really want to know, he had to.
Mak was having similar thoughts about how could it be at her house when it was just at Hunter’s? How the fuck did it know? Was it related to their ghost? Was it out there harassing the others? Was Sabrina okay? God, that was an awful thought, wasn’t it? It kind of made Mak want to immediately hang up on Hunter and call Sabrina, but that was a shitty impulse, he looked as scared out of his mind as she felt. This whole thing was just ... badness, all around. “It was just ... staring at me,” she told him, whispering too, like the thing out there could hear her even though it had been down in the yard. Fuck, maybe it could. She felt frozen, everything tight and uncomfortable, her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest.
Hunter took a deep breath and willed himself to stand up even if every muscle seemed to protest. "Okay," he whispered. "I'm going to be fucking brave and I'm going to look again... and I'm going to film it." He could see her start to react and he knew that the moment she told him it was a bad idea the reality of it would sink in and he wouldn't be able to do it so he hurriedly added, "I'll call you back."
Did he want to hang up on her? Hell no. Hell to the no! He barely even got himself away from the bed and to the window but there was something a little soothing about turning on the camera, as if having actual video evidence made it too real and nothing bad could really happen. He aimed the camera before pulling the curtain and peeking outside, jumping back when he saw the same thing Mak had seen. It was farther away at least, since he was on the second floor now, but it was still there, red eyes staring up at him, staring through him.
"Oh God oh God oh God," he mewled as he flung himself back from the window and shuffled back to the corner to look at the recording. Of course he hadn't gotten a damn thing, there was fog and too much shaking for anything to really be visible but since he knew what he was looking for he could see a part of the apparition for a second there.
He called Mak back, gnawing on his lip as he waited for her to pick up.
It was ridiculous, but Mak felt more in danger the instant the call disconnected. There wasn’t jack shit Hunter could do for her from his house, but just having him there had been more of a comfort than she’d realized. She cursed and clutched her phone to her chest after he disappeared, gnawing at her bottom lip. Mak felt frozen, locked into place where she was crouching ... until she thought she saw a shift in the dim light shining on her bedroom floor. Like a shadow crossed in front of it.
Fuck that. Mak launched herself to her feet and practically ran out of her room and down the hallway, still holding onto her phone with her heart in her throat. She hurried down the steps, feeling like something was right behind her the entire way. “Ohgod ohgod ohgod,” she chanted to herself with every breath. Her mother was home, which meant someone was downstairs, so that was where she suddenly had to be. With warm, living company. Safety.
Hunter called her back right as Mak rounded the corner into the kitchen. Rachel Richberg was sitting at the kitchen island with her laptop, absorbed in whatever she was doing. Mak dodged into the den before she swiped to accept the call, pacing toward the couch. “Did you get it?” she asked Hunter breathlessly instead of a greeting. Part of her was stupidly glad to see him alive and whole and not ... eaten by some shadow monster or some shit.
"Not really," Hunter said. "But it was there... Which means there's more than one." He didn't know what that meant, maybe these things were all over Point Pleasant, roaming the fog and scaring people but Jen hadn't seen anything and she was as super chill as she always was. It was both reassuring and frustrating if Hunter was to be honest. "Where are you? Were you running?" he asked then, peering at what little he could see of Mak's surroundings on the small screen.
Either there were more than one, or it was some trans-dimensional being that could be in multiple places at once. But if there were more than one, did that mean it wasn’t Kevin? But why would something else harass the both of them? This was all confusing and scary and Mak really just wanted to go back to bed in that moment. Somewhere other than her bedroom. “Not running,” she said, unable to keep from sounding a little defensive. “I just ... wanted to come downstairs.” She moved to sit on the couch, tucking her feet under her and giving the windows a wary glance. “What the hell could it be, Hunter? How can a ghost that like, supposedly lived in your house, be in both of our yards?”
"Maybe it's not a ghost," Hunter mumbled. "Maybe it's... something else and whatever we're seeing is just some projection." What did that even mean? God, he didn't know and he hated even saying shit like 'ghost' because it was stupid, even if it felt real right now. "We need to talk to Sabrina. Get her to just... burn that thing or something." She wouldn't want to, he was sure. It was an antique and it was super pretty to look at. Maybe it wouldn't even make a difference but he had no other ideas. Exorcism? Did that even happen in real life?
“Yeah,” Mak said, though she sounded doubtful. She nibbled on her bottom lip, her brow furrowed as she pulled a couch pillow into her lap to hug on. What were they going to do if Sabrina had seen the same thing? If all of them had seen it? “This is fucked up,” she muttered, though she wasn’t sure if she was talking more to herself or to Hunter. She felt a tiny bit more secure being downstairs with her mom so close by, but Mak knew that was probably just her imagination and that if she looked outside again, that shadow thing would be there. She let out a little groan and looked helplessly at Hunter’s image on her phone. “Are you okay? I know you don’t even like, believe in this stuff.”
"I'm so not okay," Hunter replied honestly. He didn't believe in this stuff and maybe if he did he'd be more excited about having a confirmation or something but this just plain sucked. He didn't want to believe in this stuff, crazy people did and he wasn't crazy, was he? Jen would probably enjoy the hell out of this. She'd start gathering books on it and get all fired up. Hunter just felt tired and annoyed. "It's hard not to believe in something when it's looking right at you," he said sulkily. "I'll be so mad if it turns out to be a prank but I'm literally like waiting for someone to admit it and show me how they did it but at the same time like... I know it's not a prank. I just know."
Mak knew she was at least a little crazy on some level, but maybe not all the way because this didn’t make her excited. Maybe if it had been happening to someone else, someone she didn’t really care about, where she could watch it unfold without being personally involved ... but it wasn’t. It was happening to them. Her and Hunter and Sabrina and maybe everybody else, that was something they probably needed to find out. “Yeah, I know too,” she murmured, looking pained and scared. If only she had some idea of what to do, and there wasn’t this goddamn fog making everything ten times harder and more scary. No way would her mom take her out to buy sage and candles or something today. “Maybe ... should we call Sabrina like, now?” she asked him, sounding uncertain.
"Yeah," Hunter said though he didn't know what good that would really do. They were all trapped at home because there was no way they were going outside in the fog while that thing was out there. "Oh shit I think she like read our minds," he added then as he got a notification at the top of the screen. "Did you just get a message from her too?" He was itching to look at it now, certain it had something to do with the shadow but he didn't want to just ditch the chat with Mak either.
Mak’s notification came through a second after Hunter’s had, right in the middle of his sentence, and she gave a little huff of dark amusement. It probably wasn’t just them, then. Great. “Yeah I just got it,” she said. She couldn’t read it until they shut down Facetime though, and while Mak wasn’t eager to completely let Hunter go, she did want to know what was going on with her semi-girlfriend too. “Okay let’s ... see what she says and re-group,” she said, looking at him through the screen. “Call me again if something else happens, okay? And same here.” Mak wanted to be in the kitchen, closer to her mother, but she wasn’t about to admit that out loud.
"I'm going to go hang out with my sister," Hunter said with a sigh. "And her bugs..." Funny how her bugs just didn't seem the least bit scary right now compared to what he'd just seen. "You call me too, if anything... You know. Stay safe." He got up, not ready to hang up on her while he was all alone so he might as well get going to Jen's room.
Mak nodded. “You too,” she said. She was glad that Hunter had Jen to hang around with. The girl was weird, but hell, all of them were weird. Maybe having someone weirder than him around would help Hunter feel better about all of this. Maybe Jen would have some good ideas or something. Maybe maybe maybe. “Talk to you later. ... love you, dude,” Mak felt compelled to add. Usually she would’ve called him a bitch, but today was different. He was her bestie and he needed to know it.
"Love you too," Hunter said softly before opening his door and taking a very cautious peek outside to make sure there was nothing in the hallway ready to jump him. "Talk soon," he added before ending the call and rushing toward Jen's door as if something might __ out of thin air and grab him if he lingered too long. Hell, something might. How could he know it wouldn't? Everything was wrong and upside down and apparently ghosts were real now. He hated it with every fiber of his being and felt a tiny guilty for being relieved he was at least not alone in this.