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 Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:52 pm
It was summer, warm and abundant in sunlight and time on their hands. They had curfews, but as long as the sun was up, they were free, and their parents felt safe that they knew better. It had been, bored with running about the town, that they went to the store blocks away, past the library, eating icecream, that they took the sideways, turning on Bottomwood Street, and passed the condemned house on Braxton Road. It was victorian, with a dried up lawn overgrown and humming with the sound of grasshoppers. The paint chipped under years of the sun, and the washed out wood and chipping shingles stood out among the neighboring bright, trimmed houses further off. It had been scheduled to be demolished for years, and they had passed by it countless times.
It wasn't till that night that Zack had stopped, sucking on a Firecracker Popscicle, looking at the house. "I bet that place is just crawling with neat s**t." He said, turning to them, eyes bright with his sudden idea. Bored and feeling pent up, it didn't take long for them to be riled up to talking about their scheduled adventure. Ideas of hidden treasure, buried skulls, and maybe forgotten booze danced in their head, and that night they told their parents they would be over at Andy's house, who's father thought they were out to see a movie and would be dropped off by Greg's older sister.
Dumping their stuff at Andy's, they set out and arrived just as the sun was crawling down. There was still plenty of time before it got dark, but it was well into the evening, and they brought flashlights to help the mood along.
It was hard at first to get inside with the locked door, but it seemed the back door was already open, and they noticed a few cigarette butts and a blanket to show that someone older had been using this as a place to either rest and smoke. They kept their eyes out for crazy hobos, but heard nothing.
It was huge, and after wandering the room they entered, thick with dust and a heavy smell of age, and they moved about to pick at trash and practiced amateur antiquing, judging random junk by turning it and tossing it aside if it looked cheap.
They all spread out, and Melvin headed for the steps, Andy close by. The house had been groaning since they got here, and a few birds sat above on the railing of the steps, looking down.
It happened too quickly, but there was a groan of wood that had been different than the rest, and he barely had time to look at his sneakers, his hands just barely touching the raising as he made his way up the first step, when the wood gave way.
It went dark.
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:04 pm
Sunlight was a boon and a pain at the same time. A summer full of life and a few rampaging kids here and there. It made for a good enough observation point for the ways of humans here and there. A small spook with a bug now and then. Playful fun, really, as long as they didn't get too close to her or her...home. Cricket couldn't really call much of the human world 'home', but she'd found a nice little place that smelled a bit like rot and homed a few delightful little specimens that she had taken to handling. A few had become a part of her collection, floating about inside of her ectoplasm, waiting to break down, reform, and be a part of her.
Everything would break down and be a part of her.
"Okay, now a bit more of th-" a slew of curses followed as the strange concoction that Cricket had been trying to form together inside of a small discarded beer bottle sizzled and turned a sickly glowing purple color. "Too much." she grumbled. She'd been working on this for months, mostly due to the time it would take to regain her FEAR to start poisoning it again in experimentation, but it was frustrating.
The sound of footsteps upstairs didn't make her feel much better in her frustrated state of being. In fact, she glanced up towards the reeking moldy boards as she heard a few steps passing overhead, grabbing up her bag and collecting a few insects that glowed as though they'd been exposed to Gamma Radiation or something similar, before she slowly began to retreat back.
The sound of the floor snapping caused her to wince ever so slightly, but she couldn't investigate it right the-
The bottle.
It wasn't in her hands. She hadn't shoved it in her - "For Jack's sake.." she hissed, beginning to slowly move about the debris that had overtaken where she'd been working. Maybe whatever had fallen through would be out cold. Nobody to find strange and poorly taken care of experiments before she could retrieve them...
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:02 pm
He wasn't out cold. It was the pain that woke him, and a quick inhaul flooded his mouth and lungs with dust and dirt, causing him to cough.
"Melvin! You alright?!" A shower of flashlights darted around him, and he shoved broken boards off as he tried to turn. It hurt. His body hurt, but most of all his legs hurt. He turned, but felt his legs cry out, and tears welled up quickly in his eyes. "I can't...I can't move!" He cried, moving the heavy boards about.
"Don't worry! We're gonna help!" Greg called.
"We should get my mom." Jenny said, who lived closest to the old house.
"And what are we going to say? That we just happened to be here? We're going to get in trouble." Zack hissed back.
"Who cares? Melvin is bleeding!" Jenny shot back.
"He's not bleeding. Greg, your dad has that ladder out back?"
"Yeah." Grey said.
" We can get that and pull him out. Then we can get your mom. Say he fell out of a tree." Zack continued.
"That's stupid! I'm going to tell my mom!"
"Jenny! Do you want us to get in trouble! Just help us get the ladder."
"Hey Melvin. We're getting a ladder." He heard them call, and he laid there, looking up at the hole where he blurry shakes of his friends shined their lights at him. "Just hang tight."
He could hear them moving, and a few still arguing.
He wanted his mom. He wanted Jenny to just get her mom and get something, but at the same time there was the terrifying dread of what hsi parents would say.
Reaching out, he felt around for his glasses. It was getting dark faster than they all predicted, and he needed to find his flashlight. Something was glowing nearby, and he reached for it, pushing as little as he could with hsi elbows, his cheeks wet. He just wanted to go home now. This was stupid. Zack was stupid for telling them to come here. It was just a dumb house and now he was in trouble because of him.
His fingers touched glass, and he reached out, pulling it to him, only to find a beer bottle. Putting that aside, he reached out again, feeling for his glasses.
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:14 pm
"s**t."
Cricket swore underneath her breath as she crawled carefully about the debris. Even with as much of her body as she could mask darkened, the prevalence of her bodily markings and their glow was more and more obvious, especially in the darkness of the house.
As she reached out for the bottle, however, it seemed the boy who had fallen through the floor had grabbed onto it, pulling it out of her reach. She balled her hand up into a fist, frowning before she carefully edged around the human to try and reach for the bottle again, moving carefully around that groping hand.
What was it he was looking for, anyways? Even as she managed to grab onto her rather white trash vessel of experimentation, she kept looking back to the human, then towards the darkness that lingered just outside of that hole from the ceiling. She could hear humans bickering up there as well - children? She pursed her lips, then looked down at the one laying in the dark of the floor.
With a sort of awkward hesitance she pulled one of the glowing insects from her body and set it just out of the reach of the boy's hand. Would the light help at all? As long as he didn't touch the insect, it'd be fine.
As long as she didn't touch him, it would be fine. Humans weren't FEAR, she'd do horrendous damage to him.
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:31 pm
The light helped, and he looked up to see it glow. His flashlight!
Reaching out, he gripped the glowing light, only to find it strange and twisting in his hands. Small digits touched him, the unmistakable feeling of small limbs, and he cried out with a sudden "AH!" as he threw it, then grabbed the dirt frantically around him and threw everything he could at the bug. It was then that his hand touched the bottle, and he remembered it. Holding it as high as laying down would let him, he threw it at the bug, hoping it would die and not crawl it's way over for revenge. He had no trouble with lady bugs or ants, but whatever it was was big, in the dark with him, and could come his way without him moving.
Whimpering more, he kept his eyes out at the glowing thing, feeling around before he got a small piece of wood and held it in front of him, hoping that he could use it against the bug, and then feeling as if his entire skin was crawling. Where there more on him?
Reaching around, he felt slowly, worried he'd touch something else. It was then that he felt his glasses, and brought them to his face. The lense was smudged,, and one was broken. Still, he could see better now, but it was dark and getting darker. "Guysss?" He called, embarrassed by the sound of hsi own voice and how afraid it was.
Whining again, he looked around for his flashlight.
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:40 pm
Nonononono! Don't do th-
KSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
The insect began to squirm and thrum, and for a moment, it was only it hissing in protest for the treatment it had been given...but then nearly every insect in the dark basement began to join in the chorus of the higher pitched noise of upset.
Especially when Cricket got hit with the bottle, the sickly purple fluid staining through her clothing in an instance and causing the same sickened purple to start oozing through her ectoplasm. Poison. He had blindly used her poison on her, and the ghost was upset by it.
There was no use hiding with the cacophony of an angry thrum that was loud enough to likely summon Melvin's little friends back as Cricket's darkened plasm began to fill in with lighter and more visible color.
"Stoppppp touching myyyyy thiiinnnggggsssssssssssssssssss!!" her voice went high, like that of some hissing insect - like a cockroach. Angry.
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:26 pm
His glasses were dirty, smudged, with the lense broken, but he could see. Barely. It was darker now, and he wiped his nose with his dirty hands as he looked around, feeling for the lighter. The fighting upstairs was distant, and he wasn't sure if anyone was around or if they had all left to get the ladder. The thought of being alone terrified him, but listened when he thought he heard rustling - but it wasn't from upstairs.
The room he was in was dark, but as he looked around, he heard the hissing, the walls starting become lighter, first offering him the comfort of seeing, but then making him pale as his eyes went wide, seeing them move. It hadn't been just one bug. The walls were moving, and he saw tendrils of segmented bodies moving over each other, small legs twisting and turning before diving back into the bodies, all glowing brightly green and lighting up the figure nearby.
Turning his head, he slowly looked up as what first appeared to be a woman in a dress stood over him, but her face was twisted, hair brilliant white and long, but far too young to be old. Her skin was a strange green, and she lighting up as she hissed at him, her mouth wide as her voice boomed, nearly engulfed in the sound of the bugs twisting around him.
His breath hitched, heart raced, and just as brain found voice, he screamed, shoving board and dirt as he forgot his pain and scrambled away, looking around and seeing no exit or place to move, and screaming even more. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to go home. He wanted his mom. He didn't want to die. This wasn't real. This wasn't real. This wasn't real!
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:14 am
Her insides were beginning to twist in agony. What had she made? Even as Melvin shrieked in horror, Cricket found herself, clawing at her own 'flesh' (though really she had nothing of the sort), pulling chunks of it away from herself, dropping it to the floor as it continued to hiss in a detached-but-living agony.
Even as he made a point to make his retreat away, Cricket took strides forward towards him. Purposeful and long strides, the centipedes nested in her arms writhing and pulling themselves from her body as it began to almost split apart.
Or rather, that would likely be how it looked to Melvin as her fingers split from each other and the single mouth on her face was suddenly joined by a second one splitting open across where her eyes should have been, each insect seemed to suddenly quiet all at once in reverence to the ghost - the ghost who reached out towards the boy, even while the smallest prickle almost implied she was already touching him somehow.
But she said nothing. No demands to leave, simply a noise that was half pain, half rage.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:02 pm
There was nowhere to go, and he was left moving the farthest he could manage, the boards falling off his legs, and he attempted to get up to maybe find a set of stairs somewhere here, but he fell back down, crying out again. Flashlights were darting about above, trying to return back to the hole where he was.
"Melvin?!!" He heard his name being called.
"Get me out!!" He cried out, looking at the walls but never away from the monster coming at him, walking to catch up. It was just now that he body was falling apart, tearing apart, and she grew more mouths as she howled at him, hissed at him. A noise his brain couldn't even begin to describe aside from pure hell, and he choked on his own sobbing scream, his voice hissing out silently before it finally broke out into a full scream.
The flashlights started to float down, but he had moved away from the hole he had fallen through and was no longer where he once was, now further back in the room.
"I'm getting my mom!" Jenny cried, and heard her racing off.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:10 pm
"RuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!" Cricket's high pitched trill filled the darkened space, perhaps even echoing after the fleeing girl above if she could hear the traces of FEAR that emanated from the ghost. The scream was delicious, actually. If she could get even a small harvest from this run in she'd have enough FEAR to restore herself.
Which was perhaps the selfish thought that prompted Cricket to reach out, her hand brushing over the boy's neck as the glowing centipede on her arm responded and began to wrap around his neck - loosely, but curious, tickling - and burning.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:34 pm
The children did as anyone kid who heard their friend screaming and a strange unease pass over them while in an abandoned house. They ran. Melvin could hear the rushing of many sneakers race out of the house screaming, the light of only one of their flashlights shining from above - abandoned.
For him, there was nowhere to run, and he couldn't move if he tried, paralyzed as panic took hold. If Cricket needed Fear, Melvin was wafting it in waves before it reached a spike the moment she reached out. His hands pushed out, reaching to shove her away, before crying out as he felt the pain burning against his neck as she stood over him. The screaming didn't stop, nor did the tears welling up in his eyes.
"NNNNNNNNNAAAOOOOOOOUUUU!!!" He cried, not wanting to be here, not wanting to see this, not wanting to die.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:42 pm
Cricket's hands slowly reknitted as the less monstrous form began to reseal into the more humanoid figure that would become a more staple of the 'known' for the ghost, her hand retracting, leaving the centipede flailing in a sort of distress, before she reached out, plucking it away again. She didn't grin. She didn't seem satisfied in any way visually, outside of the sudden brightening of her glowing markings.
"Run little kitten." she whispered, her voice almost hushed as the insect life began to pool around her ankles like she was a magnet. "Run away and never return."
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 2:43 pm
She was moving back, and Melvin, despite the pain, was more in a terrified panic to care. Rising up, he hobbled his way to where he had fallen on the floor, away from the monster and the bugs that swarmed to her. He didn't want to be gobbled up, and all reason told him that the only thing he had to do was somehow claw his way up to the floor above.
"HELP!!" SOMEBODY HELP ME!!" He cried, and he heard shouts further off.
Jenny had gotten her dad, her mother no doubt calling up his parents and the fire department to get him.
Her dad showed up, flashlights shooting down his tear-stained face, and soon Andy's father was there with a neighbor and a ladder.
"Hey Melvin. You okay?" He could hear cursing further off. They were all in trouble, but that was such a far off concern for him. He'd be grateful to be grounded for the rest of his life if he was taken away from this place sooner.
"There's som-something down here!" He couldn't say what, fearful of even saying it's name and calling it to him. "My leg is hurt!"
"We got you."
Melvin could hear his parents further off.
"Henry! Over here."
"How is he? Melvin?" His father showed up above among the flash-lit faces.
"He's fine. Just hurt his leg. Jenn already called the fire department. Floor isn't sturdy. HEY! Move back! We can't have all these kids here and let this whole floor fall in. Quin. Get those boys back."
"Dad! Get me out of heeerrreee." He sobbed.
"Hold on. I'm coming." The fire department be damned, Henry was getting his damn son.
A ladder was being brought down, and Melvin kept his eyes on the bug woman.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 4:23 pm
Cricket seemed to look up towards the hullaballoo that was going on up above them, her brows lifting ever so slightly, before another grin came across her face. However, she didn't move. She didn't even seem to react to the adults descending into the dark space beyond the fact that the bug life - even that which was visible to everybody there - began to grow into a frenzy.
It was kind of like the scene in The Mummy where all the Scarabs came crawling back into the world of the living. They just began to scatter everywhere in a hive of activity, all centered around that single ghost.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:59 pm
Mr. Henry Wood heard the bugs, and seeing the tear-stained, pleading face of his soon, took the ladder and with his friends brought it down.
"Be careful, Henry." Mr. Oswalt said, Greg's dad and a bit older than Henry in years. The men held the ladder, waving off everyone else to leave the room else the floor gave away and to meet the ambulance outside. Jenny was crying, while the rest of the boys were being hushed by the parents and scolded.
"I'm coming, Melvin." He told him, stepping down before looking around in the dark. "You guys should see this! No wonder it's fallin in. Damn place being eaten by termites." His attention was taken by his son who, to his own shock and worry, was crawling and squeezing himself up into his arms. For a moment, he held him, seeing a panic he didn't expect, but brushing it off as the shock of being alone in the dark and falling, before adjusting him and starting to slowly head back up the steps.
As Melvin held him, he looked over his father's shoulder into the dark where she was.
He'd never return here.
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