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ayumidahA brisk autumn day is broken up by the whispers of boys as they linger around the front steps of the school, caught in a tight circle and trying not to attract the attention of classmate or teacher alike. "It's Halloween night."
"What? Wait, we do... what again?"
Dark eyes roll as tired sighs come from twins standing nearby, listening eagerly. "Follow along, James," Shima says, pointing his finger in a circle from boy to boy, Brendon and Brant standing up a little taller when he looks in their direction. "All of us have to go to that creepy mansion on the edge of Sommers Drive, the abandoned one, you know? We sneak inside and if we make it through the night, then we are exempt from being teased by the seniors for the rest of the year."
It sounds ridiculous, James' brows are furrowed as he tries to see the logic behind all of this. But he's the smallest of the four of them and there's never any real chance at talking Shima out of anything he really wants to do, especially when the twins back him up. So James keeps his mouth shut, agrees and hopes for the best. As always.
The first step is convincing their parents. They all claim they're going off to trick or treat at the others' house, and thankfully their parents are all busy with work and preparing things for the upcoming holiday rush, and no one thinks to double check. So James, dressed up as Peter Pan, meets up with Shima, who's wearing a curious get up that James can't sort out no matter how long he stares at it, and the twins, who are dressed as pirates. They walk down the street as innocently as could be and, as soon as they're out of sight of their houses, ... bolt. As fast as they can, relieved that the sky is overcast and it is dark enough out that they can barely be seen.
The mansion, which has never had a name for as long as the boys have been alive-- all fourteen years-- sits on the corner of the road, dank and desolate. Abandoned after the owners died from old age and bitterness, probably, and since then the beneficiaries had left it to rot. And rot it had. The doors are creaking off of the hinges, the windows are shattered by naughty neighborhood children-- not the four gaping at it currently, not at all--, siding and roof panels have fallen off, the trees and other vegetation surrounding it looking gnarled and wild.
James swallows hard and blinks, realizing that his thumb is coming close to his lips. A habit he had broken years ago. Forcing his hand back to his side, he swallows hard and looks at the other boys, who are also frozen with uncertainty. "Well, boys, are we going or not?"
"Of course we're going!" Shima huffs, brushing the white cape of his outfit-- which Spud thinks perhaps is based on a singer, or someone along those lines-- away and storming up the yard. There are more broken windows along the side and in the back and it's here that they go, using broken debris scattered around the yard to prop up against the wall and scale until they can find a glass-free part of the window frame to hoist themselves up and over.
James goes first, Shima and the twins helping to boost him up when he falters. He lands hard in dust and who knows what all else, coughing and struggling to catch his first breath. He only manages to scramble away before Brant and then Brendon land hard where he was just sprawled, even more dust and soot filling the air. Shima, being taller than all of them, lunges up on his own and basically flops down next to them, laughing and eyes gleaming with excitement until he gets a good look at what's ahead.
Dilapidated furniture, some overturned. Walls covered in graffiti and floors littered in empty cans and foul smelling food wrappers. Even Shima loses some of his swagger in the face of it all, Brendon and Brant looking distinctly uncomfortable as they venture further into the dark rooms. "So we're just supposed to, like, spend the night and then what?"
"A senior comes in the morning and confirms we've been here, and spreads the word. Something like that," Shima says. They're all whispering, clearly overwhelmed by their surroundings, how formidable it all seems. The house spreads out, menacing and terrible, before them, seeming so very large in comparison to their young bodies. It's quiet, too quiet. James already hates it.
Shima must notice the doubts in their eyes because he immediately stands taller, with more of a gleam in his eyes. "Come on, boys. Let's take over this house and make it our own! Maybe after tonight we'll make it into a clubhouse or something, just for us four. No grown ups or girls allowed."
That is truly ridiculous, but James can't help feeling swept up in the others' excitement. At least for a moment. They walk in a line down hallways but before long, James blinks and the twins aren't in front of him anymore. He swallows hard and tugs on Shima's shirt, looking up when he turns. "What is it, James?"
"The twins are gone," he says weakly. Shima looks over his head and immediately curses. Wide blue eyes locked on him, James can do nothing but follow as they backtrack to look for them. Which there's no sign of them and Shima murmurs to himself before disappearing from sight too. James stops immediately and looks left and right. He hadn't seen which way the boy went, there are open doors on either side and the house echoes strangely, the echoes creating even more echoes. He swallows hard and stares ahead with tears in his eyes before sitting down hard right there. "Where is everyone?"
If he sounds entirely, unforgivably pathetic, he can't help it.
---------
"Joe did what?" an incredulous voice demands, growing almost shill over the phone. "Dammit, I thought that stopped being a thing years ago."
"It should have, Daniel, but Joe's an asshole, and Sean isn't much better, so here we are." Daniel's classmate sounds as aggravated, if not more so.
"Who fell for it this time?" a third voice, Bobby, asks. In the moment of silence that follows, he closes his eyes, focused on only one thought. Please not Shima... please not Shima--
"Shima, James, and those twins, um--"
"Brendon and Brant," Daniel supplies the names before cursing. "Dammit!" he repeats for emphasis. "Well, what are we going to do? They're probably at the mansion already, and it's supposed to be cold tonight, so..."
"What do you think we're going to do?" Derek demands sharply.
Within fifteen minutes, the three juniors meet outside of the mansion, armed with flashlights and a determination to see this thing through. Exchanging quiet nods, they go to the window in the back that the younger boys had slipped through and follow suit, although they're all tall enough to get up there on their own without the boxes and things scattered around that clearly had been used to gain access into the house.
It's cold and even Daniel shivers as they walk through the empty halls, waving their flashlights into each room. A beam of light streaks down upon the trashed floor and Derek holds his breath, thinking he'd seen something, heard a noise under Daniel and Bobby's less than graceful footsteps on the creaky floor. Waving the flashlight to motion them on, he catches Daniel and Bobby's eyes before kneeling down and inching towards a shape in the corner that's just visible. "James?" he whispers, reaching out towards where he'd seen the figure scramble, flash of blond hair giving him away. "James, it's me-- it's Derek--" Immediately there's another scramble and thin arms latch around his neck, the older boy holding onto the freshman. "Hey, you're ok..."
"I was so scared, it's so cold and creepy in here," James wails, his Peter Pan outfit smudged and tore on the sleeve. "This was a trick, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, James. A few of us were tricked into it when we were freshmen too." This takes some of the humiliation out of James' deep blue eyes and Derek smiles down at him, poking at the tear in his sleeve. "Those of us who were tend to keep an eye out for other freshmen like yourself so it doesn't happen again. Especially by d-bags like Joe and Sean."
"How did you know who told Shima?" James asks, his lips wobbling as he fights not to cry in front of the older boy.
"Because Joe and Sean were the only ones who found it funny and wanted to continue the tradition, but make it better." Derek sighs and mumbles, "What a couple of tools. Not sure why we ever hung out."
James nods, glancing towards the other rooms. "I was separated from the twins and Shima, will they be alright?" he asks, tugging lightly on Ethan's sleeve.
"I'm sure they will be," he says quietly.
In the room across from where Derek and James are waiting, Bobby walks slowly, keeping an eye out for anything. "Shima?" he finally calls, grinning at the muffled yelp that he hears. Picking his way through the trash and left over, rotted furniture, he makes his way over to a lamp and peeks under the shade, not surprised to find dark eyes peering back at him, gleaming in the light of the flashlight. Holding his hand out, he's stoic when Shima's thin fingers curl around his own and allow himself to be dragged out to safety. "Nice disc jockey costume," he says with a small smile. "What do you say we get out of here, huh? I'll show you the best places to get candy, they'll go wild for this get up." He flicks Shima's gigantic earphones hanging around his neck with a smirk.
Shima nods desperately, giving up on the idea of being immune to teasing for the next year upon being faced with Bobby's offer of freedom. As soon as he realized he was separated from the twins and James, he had lost all of his nerve.
Daniel goes to a distant room after running his flashlight through the interior of every other one he'd found, wondering how the twins manage to get themselves in so much trouble. They'd followed him around since they were young, as they live in neighboring houses and the boys worship him as if he is the best thing they'd ever seen. Which, he thinks with a smug grin, maybe I am. He walks into the room, somehow just sensing that this is the one, and spreads his arms out. "Boys? Are you in here? Come on out, you're safe now."
Immediately there's a scramble, the two boys struggling to be the first to get to Daniel's side, but before too long, both are in his arms, Brendon clinging to him from the left and Brant from the right. He is about to say something teasingly when he realizes that both are shaking and immediately all humor leaves his face, his fingers lightly stroking through their hair instead. "You're alright, I'm here. You're safe." Once they relax and pull away slightly, he smiles down at them. "Let's get you home, hm?"
They both nod eagerly and that's honestly Daniel's plan until he regroups with the others outside of the mansion and Derek explains that he wants to take the group of them out trick or treating before returning the boys to their homes. Bobby and Daniel exchange glances, neither sure of the plan, but the freshmen all look so desperate and still a little shaky from their misadventure that they can't really deny them. "Fine," they say together, immediately rewarded by hugs from Shima and the twins.
James and Derek exchange grins before the group of them continue down the street to get all of the candy that they can carry, the broken down mansion quickly fading from their memories.
"What? Wait, we do... what again?"
Dark eyes roll as tired sighs come from twins standing nearby, listening eagerly. "Follow along, James," Shima says, pointing his finger in a circle from boy to boy, Brendon and Brant standing up a little taller when he looks in their direction. "All of us have to go to that creepy mansion on the edge of Sommers Drive, the abandoned one, you know? We sneak inside and if we make it through the night, then we are exempt from being teased by the seniors for the rest of the year."
It sounds ridiculous, James' brows are furrowed as he tries to see the logic behind all of this. But he's the smallest of the four of them and there's never any real chance at talking Shima out of anything he really wants to do, especially when the twins back him up. So James keeps his mouth shut, agrees and hopes for the best. As always.
The first step is convincing their parents. They all claim they're going off to trick or treat at the others' house, and thankfully their parents are all busy with work and preparing things for the upcoming holiday rush, and no one thinks to double check. So James, dressed up as Peter Pan, meets up with Shima, who's wearing a curious get up that James can't sort out no matter how long he stares at it, and the twins, who are dressed as pirates. They walk down the street as innocently as could be and, as soon as they're out of sight of their houses, ... bolt. As fast as they can, relieved that the sky is overcast and it is dark enough out that they can barely be seen.
The mansion, which has never had a name for as long as the boys have been alive-- all fourteen years-- sits on the corner of the road, dank and desolate. Abandoned after the owners died from old age and bitterness, probably, and since then the beneficiaries had left it to rot. And rot it had. The doors are creaking off of the hinges, the windows are shattered by naughty neighborhood children-- not the four gaping at it currently, not at all--, siding and roof panels have fallen off, the trees and other vegetation surrounding it looking gnarled and wild.
James swallows hard and blinks, realizing that his thumb is coming close to his lips. A habit he had broken years ago. Forcing his hand back to his side, he swallows hard and looks at the other boys, who are also frozen with uncertainty. "Well, boys, are we going or not?"
"Of course we're going!" Shima huffs, brushing the white cape of his outfit-- which Spud thinks perhaps is based on a singer, or someone along those lines-- away and storming up the yard. There are more broken windows along the side and in the back and it's here that they go, using broken debris scattered around the yard to prop up against the wall and scale until they can find a glass-free part of the window frame to hoist themselves up and over.
James goes first, Shima and the twins helping to boost him up when he falters. He lands hard in dust and who knows what all else, coughing and struggling to catch his first breath. He only manages to scramble away before Brant and then Brendon land hard where he was just sprawled, even more dust and soot filling the air. Shima, being taller than all of them, lunges up on his own and basically flops down next to them, laughing and eyes gleaming with excitement until he gets a good look at what's ahead.
Dilapidated furniture, some overturned. Walls covered in graffiti and floors littered in empty cans and foul smelling food wrappers. Even Shima loses some of his swagger in the face of it all, Brendon and Brant looking distinctly uncomfortable as they venture further into the dark rooms. "So we're just supposed to, like, spend the night and then what?"
"A senior comes in the morning and confirms we've been here, and spreads the word. Something like that," Shima says. They're all whispering, clearly overwhelmed by their surroundings, how formidable it all seems. The house spreads out, menacing and terrible, before them, seeming so very large in comparison to their young bodies. It's quiet, too quiet. James already hates it.
Shima must notice the doubts in their eyes because he immediately stands taller, with more of a gleam in his eyes. "Come on, boys. Let's take over this house and make it our own! Maybe after tonight we'll make it into a clubhouse or something, just for us four. No grown ups or girls allowed."
That is truly ridiculous, but James can't help feeling swept up in the others' excitement. At least for a moment. They walk in a line down hallways but before long, James blinks and the twins aren't in front of him anymore. He swallows hard and tugs on Shima's shirt, looking up when he turns. "What is it, James?"
"The twins are gone," he says weakly. Shima looks over his head and immediately curses. Wide blue eyes locked on him, James can do nothing but follow as they backtrack to look for them. Which there's no sign of them and Shima murmurs to himself before disappearing from sight too. James stops immediately and looks left and right. He hadn't seen which way the boy went, there are open doors on either side and the house echoes strangely, the echoes creating even more echoes. He swallows hard and stares ahead with tears in his eyes before sitting down hard right there. "Where is everyone?"
If he sounds entirely, unforgivably pathetic, he can't help it.
---------
"Joe did what?" an incredulous voice demands, growing almost shill over the phone. "Dammit, I thought that stopped being a thing years ago."
"It should have, Daniel, but Joe's an asshole, and Sean isn't much better, so here we are." Daniel's classmate sounds as aggravated, if not more so.
"Who fell for it this time?" a third voice, Bobby, asks. In the moment of silence that follows, he closes his eyes, focused on only one thought. Please not Shima... please not Shima--
"Shima, James, and those twins, um--"
"Brendon and Brant," Daniel supplies the names before cursing. "Dammit!" he repeats for emphasis. "Well, what are we going to do? They're probably at the mansion already, and it's supposed to be cold tonight, so..."
"What do you think we're going to do?" Derek demands sharply.
Within fifteen minutes, the three juniors meet outside of the mansion, armed with flashlights and a determination to see this thing through. Exchanging quiet nods, they go to the window in the back that the younger boys had slipped through and follow suit, although they're all tall enough to get up there on their own without the boxes and things scattered around that clearly had been used to gain access into the house.
It's cold and even Daniel shivers as they walk through the empty halls, waving their flashlights into each room. A beam of light streaks down upon the trashed floor and Derek holds his breath, thinking he'd seen something, heard a noise under Daniel and Bobby's less than graceful footsteps on the creaky floor. Waving the flashlight to motion them on, he catches Daniel and Bobby's eyes before kneeling down and inching towards a shape in the corner that's just visible. "James?" he whispers, reaching out towards where he'd seen the figure scramble, flash of blond hair giving him away. "James, it's me-- it's Derek--" Immediately there's another scramble and thin arms latch around his neck, the older boy holding onto the freshman. "Hey, you're ok..."
"I was so scared, it's so cold and creepy in here," James wails, his Peter Pan outfit smudged and tore on the sleeve. "This was a trick, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, James. A few of us were tricked into it when we were freshmen too." This takes some of the humiliation out of James' deep blue eyes and Derek smiles down at him, poking at the tear in his sleeve. "Those of us who were tend to keep an eye out for other freshmen like yourself so it doesn't happen again. Especially by d-bags like Joe and Sean."
"How did you know who told Shima?" James asks, his lips wobbling as he fights not to cry in front of the older boy.
"Because Joe and Sean were the only ones who found it funny and wanted to continue the tradition, but make it better." Derek sighs and mumbles, "What a couple of tools. Not sure why we ever hung out."
James nods, glancing towards the other rooms. "I was separated from the twins and Shima, will they be alright?" he asks, tugging lightly on Ethan's sleeve.
"I'm sure they will be," he says quietly.
In the room across from where Derek and James are waiting, Bobby walks slowly, keeping an eye out for anything. "Shima?" he finally calls, grinning at the muffled yelp that he hears. Picking his way through the trash and left over, rotted furniture, he makes his way over to a lamp and peeks under the shade, not surprised to find dark eyes peering back at him, gleaming in the light of the flashlight. Holding his hand out, he's stoic when Shima's thin fingers curl around his own and allow himself to be dragged out to safety. "Nice disc jockey costume," he says with a small smile. "What do you say we get out of here, huh? I'll show you the best places to get candy, they'll go wild for this get up." He flicks Shima's gigantic earphones hanging around his neck with a smirk.
Shima nods desperately, giving up on the idea of being immune to teasing for the next year upon being faced with Bobby's offer of freedom. As soon as he realized he was separated from the twins and James, he had lost all of his nerve.
Daniel goes to a distant room after running his flashlight through the interior of every other one he'd found, wondering how the twins manage to get themselves in so much trouble. They'd followed him around since they were young, as they live in neighboring houses and the boys worship him as if he is the best thing they'd ever seen. Which, he thinks with a smug grin, maybe I am. He walks into the room, somehow just sensing that this is the one, and spreads his arms out. "Boys? Are you in here? Come on out, you're safe now."
Immediately there's a scramble, the two boys struggling to be the first to get to Daniel's side, but before too long, both are in his arms, Brendon clinging to him from the left and Brant from the right. He is about to say something teasingly when he realizes that both are shaking and immediately all humor leaves his face, his fingers lightly stroking through their hair instead. "You're alright, I'm here. You're safe." Once they relax and pull away slightly, he smiles down at them. "Let's get you home, hm?"
They both nod eagerly and that's honestly Daniel's plan until he regroups with the others outside of the mansion and Derek explains that he wants to take the group of them out trick or treating before returning the boys to their homes. Bobby and Daniel exchange glances, neither sure of the plan, but the freshmen all look so desperate and still a little shaky from their misadventure that they can't really deny them. "Fine," they say together, immediately rewarded by hugs from Shima and the twins.
James and Derek exchange grins before the group of them continue down the street to get all of the candy that they can carry, the broken down mansion quickly fading from their memories.
