Post by Kat on Aug 3, 2014 13:50:48 GMT -5
So I wrote a story a long time ago about the ten spending a night in an abandoned mental hospital! Sadly I've lost that particular story, but I really loved it and thought about it often so I decided I'd just re-do it from the start. For anyone who may possibly remember the original - it's different. The first version kind of got right into one of the main elements, whereas this version is taking its time. I just can't bypass plot points any more in my writing. 
Anyway, that's enough chit-chat! I am trying to write this with them being specifically pony in their actions, but it's so foreign to me since I prefer thinking of them as people. So if any of the pony-specific actions sound weird or phrased strangely, let me know.
Also - the kids are 16, and there's alcohol and mature subject matter and some bad language! Nothing too bad, though, but I did want to point that out.
Title Seeking Asylum
Rating/Warning PG-13 for language, mature content (underage drinking and possibly more), and discussions of violence and abuse
Characters The main 10 from the show, Buddy, and Logan
Summary City council is nearing an agreement to tear down an abandoned mental hospital, so the group of 12 sixteen-year-olds decide to spend a night inside the building's haunted walls before it's gone for good.
"So this is the place? Not creepy at all," Starlight muttered sarcastically as she stepped out of Ace's car, already wary about this stupid idea. It wasn't that she was legitimately afraid of anything in particular - but there was a laundry list of issues that could go wrong. What if the place wasn't as abandoned as they thought, and they came across some drugged-out homeless pony? What if there were rabid animals holed up in the building, protecting their habitat? What if there was serious mold growing in there, and they all got sick after breathing it in over the course of the night?
"Are you backing out on me, Star?" Ace asked, coming to stand beside her, an amused grin on his lips. "If so you'll have to get yourself home, unfortunately. I'm not driving you back," he joked, before kissing her cheek lightly.
"No I'm not backing out," Starlight retorted, a little annoyed. He was not even going to try and say she was afraid of the dark, or she'd really let him have it. "I just hope you and Patch really scouted this place out before hand."
"Afraid of monsters in the dark corners?" Ace teased.
"More like rabid animals and mold," Starlight replied, shooting him a look that told him to not even try to assume she was actually afraid of the place itself. Because she wasn't. She didn't believe in ghosts or spirits or anything even remotely occult-like, though she still humoured her friends when they wanted to do things like hold seances and go ghost-hunting in old abandoned buildings. But none of it was believable in her eyes.
"The place was tested for mold last year when city council was first thinking of tearing it down, and it passed with flying colours. The animals though, no idea there. We'll just have to make sure we stick to the back of the group so we can be the first ones out the door when a snarling raccoon comes to investigate," he replied with a laugh. "Anything else plaguing your brain about this place?"
She shook her head at his lame joke. "The only plague I can see right now is you," she shot back, grinning when he frowned at her. But she still felt him move closer to her and nuzzle her cheek.
"You're such a sweet talker, Star," he said with an amused tone to his voice. "Maybe you and I will have to separate ourselves from the group at some point tonight," he suggested slyly, half joking and half serious.
"Ew, are you kidding me? There may not be mold in there but I'm sure it's not exactly sanitary," she replied, also only half joking. Maybe, if they found a jug of sterilizing product hidden in a corner... "Let's get our stuff and start heading up to check out the front before the others get here."
"God, Patch, can you hurry it up? We're only staying one night, not a week, you don't need that much food," Melody said in an annoyed huff, watching as her best friend added another bag of chips to her basket.
"Oh stop whining, Mel. You know people tend to overeat when they get scared, I'm just looking out for the others," Patch said with a wink. "After all I did tell them not to bring food, that we'd be supplying it all. Half of this is just for Bon Bon."
Melody grinned and shook her head. "You know her bag will be stuffed with food anyway, regardless of what you told her," Melody followed Patch down the aisle, reaching out on a whim to add a bag of popcorn to the basket. When Patch shot her a quizzical look about it, she just shrugged. "You're buying my food too, for not doing your shopping earlier."
Patch rolled her eyes and continued down the aisle, adding a few bags of chocolate bars to the stash of junk food. "All right, I think I'm set, let's go pay."
Melody watched as Patch made her purchases, annoyed when the shop clerk engaged her in small talk. Melody just wanted to get out there already and get set up so she could try communing with some spirits. Ever since finding an old deck of tarot cards her mother had used back in university a year ago, Melody had thrown herself into the world of the occult, as a joke at first, but enough coincidences had happened already that she firmly believed in it now. She knew half her friends didn't, a few others were unsure, but a couple of them were into it. That was enough shared excitement for her to keep going.
Another two minutes passed before Patch finally pulled herself away from the counter and joined her glaring best friend by the door. "Oh be quiet, Mel, she started asking me about mom's new quilting project for the hospital, I couldn't just walk away, that would have been rude." Patch winked at her and pulled the door open, gesturing for Melody to go first.
"I should have gone with Ace and Starlight, they're probably already there," Melody retorted, in no mood to hear Patch's excuses.
"Probably, though you'd have to listen to them playfully bickering like an old couple before finding some deserted corner and making out," Patch replied with a laugh as she headed to Buddy's waiting car.
"You have a point there," Melody agreed. "Granted that would be fine, because then I could get my stuff set up with no one bothering me," Melody reached the car first and opened the back door, helping Patch stow the bags on one side.
"How much stuff did you guys buy?" Buddy asked from the driver's seat, bewildered.
"Enough for us and the old spirits wandering the halls," Patch replied before sliding in the front passenger seat, while Melody sat behind Buddy.
"Did you get me sour cream and onion?" Buddy asked Patch.
"I did buy that flavour, but who said it's for you?" she teased him, before glancing back at Melody, who was miming throwing up. "Oh shut up Mel," Patch retorted at her friend, who just stuck her tongue out at her.
"If you're going to knock Ace and Star for it, don't think I'm going to sit by quietly while you and Buddy get started," Melody replied with a grin. "Speaking of which - pedal to the metal, Buddy! We're late."
Clover parked next to a car she recognized as belonging to Ace, but didn't turn off her mother's van just yet. "I don't see them anywhere, do you think they went inside already?"
"Probably, knowing them," Bon Bon replied, feeling nervous as she looked up at the looming building. She'd been nervous all week about this - a little excited too, but way more nervous. Of course it was worse because she'd had to lie to her parents all week about where she was going. As far as any of their parents knew, they were all going camping for the night. No one knew they were actually spending the night in this abandoned mental hospital. Which seemed even more stupid now that they were here and Bon Bon was seeing it up close! "We probably should have told someone we were coming out here..."
"We'll be fine," Logan said from behind Clover. "We're a big group, so we'll be safe as long as we all stick together."
"As long as we stick together," Clover repeated, "That's the problem. Ace and Starlight haven't even waited for us!"
"We don't know that for sure, maybe they're just looking at the outside of the building, it is pretty cool architecture after all," Logan said, before unbuckling his seat belt and opening the side door. "Come on, let's go find them."
Clover and Bon Bon both turned to look at one another, frowning in unison. "I'm scared, Bon Bon," Clover admitted, feeling a little better after speaking it.
"Me too," Bon Bon replied, reaching out to lay a hoof on Clover's foreleg. "But we'll feel better when everyone else gets here."
Clover turned off the van and both girls got out to join Logan, who had already taken out his flashlight. "Ace? Starlight? You guys here?" He walked over to Ace's car, shining the light over it, confirming they weren't actually inside still. "They must be around somewhere. Do you guys want to go check out the front porch? We won't go inside, just to see if they're there?"
Clover shivered a little, looking up at the old building. "I don't know, why don't we wait for everyone else?"
"Oh come on," Logan said, trying to sound as brave as he wished he felt (because he would never admit it to the girls, but he kind of was a little freaked out) "We won't go inside."
"I'm with Clover," Bon Bon said, standing next to her friend.
As the trio stood and debated, Ace watched them from just inside the building. It would be so easy to prank them all right now - so easy! He turned to Starlight, who was reading the remains of an old bulletin on the message board. "Star," he whispered just loud enough for her to hear.
Starlight looked over at her boyfriend, wary of the look on his face. "What?" she asked, wondering what he was planning.
"Logan and the girls showed up," he replied, and she knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Leave them be, Ace," she said, wondering if she should interrupt his formulating plan and simply go outside to meet them.
"Oh come on," he said quietly, pouting ever so slightly. "Let's get them."
"Maybe if it wasn't those two. Clover told me she had a nightmare about this place already," Starlight admitted with a laugh. She probably shouldn't have shared that with Ace, but he was rather trustworthy with secrets. At least when they weren't about his male friends.
"Seriously? Amazing," Ace replied, before moving away toward the main staircase. "I wonder if we could get them to actually come inside," he questioned, while Starlight remained watching by the door, paying him no attention.
She was surprised they hadn't heard Clover driving up, wondering if the building's insulation was sound proof to prevent noise from getting out. The idea was enough to make her shiver, wondering what sort of sounds you'd have heard coming from the building back in the heyday of its operation. While there had never been any proof of wrongdoing, there were assertions and accusations. Couple that with the mass unmarked grave that had been out back (the city had dug it up and properly identified and disposed of the bodies three years ago) and it was highly likely that all kinds of nasty things had gone on here. It was a creepy place.
Just when it seemed like Logan had convinced the girls to make their way to the front porch, Starlight felt someone grab her from behind and even though she knew in the back of her mind that it was her boyfriend, she couldn't stop the scream that came out - which set the other three outside screaming along too!
Ace pulled away then and she whirled around, glaring at her boyfriend before punching him in the chest. "You not a very nice person! Don't do that to me," she took a deep breath, willing her heart rate to lower. He hadn't scared her - just surprised her. That was it.
After rubbing his chest where she'd hit him, he couldn't help but grin and reach out to hug her. "Sorry, I got impatient," he whispered, watching the other three over her shoulder. They had retreated back to the cars before getting a hold of themselves.
Now that the moment was over (and Ace had wrapped a foreleg around her shoulders in a much more delightful way) Starlight couldn't help but laugh. "They're probably going to think I was in on this," she said, shaking her head at her still grinning boyfriend.
"Probably," Ace replied, kissing her temple. Just then they heard a yell from outside - Clover, calling for her. "You should probably answer that," Ace said before pressing his lips against hers, trapping her voice in a kiss.
She engaged him though, tongue pressing against his as she heard Clover yell a second time. She pulled away but kept him close, almost tempted to ignore the call and go back to kissing Ace. But she couldn't do that to her friends. "All right come on, let's go show ourselves," she pulled way from him. "I'm all right Clover, we're both fine," she walked out of the front door, Ace following behind her.
"We just heard you scream! We were so worried, Starlight!" All the nervous tension and fear Clover had been feeling deflated the moment she saw her friend walk out of the building, her boyfriend following behind her. "You guys weren't supposed to go inside before we all got here!"
"We're sorry," Ace said, clearly not sorry in the slightest.
"So what was the scream about? What happened?" Logan asked, a little embarrassed he'd freaked out when he heard Starlight scream. Luckily only the girls had been there to hear, and neither of them had probably even noticed.
"Starlight thought she saw someone in the shadows," Ace jumped in to explain before his girlfriend could say anything, "Turned out it was just a skeleton, though." He hoped she wasn't glaring too hard at him to give it away as a lie.
"A real skeleton?!" Bon Bon asked, creeped out. "I am not going in there now!"
"No," Ace said, trying hard not to laugh at Bon Bon's outburst. "Just a plastic one, you know, the kind you see in a doctor's office."
"Oh, right," Bon Bon replied, a little embarrassed that she hadn't thought of that.
"Well let's stay out here and wait for the others?" Logan said, thinking that they could all use a bit of time to calm down after the scare they'd gotten.
"I guess that's a good idea," Starlight agreed, smiling at her friends before turning back to Ace. She leaned in close to him, pressing her lips to his ear. "Don't think for a second you are off the hook for that stunt, or the lie," she told him.
"Are you saying I should expect payback?" he asked her, eyes alight with the promise of competition.
"Bet on it," she told him, before kissing him once more.
Teddy felt restless sitting in the back of Lancer's car, listening to he and Brighteyes discussing the history of the hospital they were all spending the night in. Any normal pony would be focusing on the brutal history of the place - the allegations of abuse and violence, but not these two. Oh no. Trust them to actually talk about legitimate treatments for mental health issues - he wasn't even sure how Brighteyes knew about all the awards some of the doctors had gotten for their work! Who cared enough to look this stuff up? All he wanted to do was roam around the building and try to scare his friends.
He turned his head to look at Sweetheart, sitting next to him and listening to the conversation going on in the front. She had nothing to add to it, but she was still politely listening, and Teddy couldn't understand how she wasn't bored out of her mind. She had that exceptional ability to listen to someone discuss the most boring topics possible and still find their words fascinating. Just then, as though she could feel his eyes on her, she turned to look at him and reached out to pat his leg.
"We're almost there, Teddy," she said in a whisper, not wanting to interrupt the two in front.
Teddy huffed in annoyance (she was used to it, so he knew she wouldn't think he was annoyed at her) before replying. "We should have gone with Ace and Starlight," he said, because he knew that car ride would have been more fun than this one. At least Ace would play better music.
Sweetheart just smiled at him and shook her head, amused at his constant grumbling. It was endearing most of the time, though sometimes she was tempted to tell him just to shut up and stop complaining. Right now though she was willing to put up with it, mostly because they really were almost there. She was excited and a little freaked out about their plans for the night - she'd never spent the night anywhere without adults around, for one thing, and she just wasn't thrilled at the idea of an abandoned building. But she would be with a lot of friends, and she knew they'd have fun. She also knew Teddy was really looking forward to it, so she was excited because he was excited.
Finally they reached the private road to the site and turned, the headlights of Lancer's car settling over two other vehicles - Clover's van, and Ace's car. Teddy seemed to perk up now that they were here, and he was out of the car the second Lancer stopped it.
"Hey guys, man it's about time! I thought I was doomed to listening to Brighteyes and Lancer talk about medicine forever," Teddy ranted as he approached the group, directing his comments mostly at Ace.
"You poor thing," Ace replied, faking a look of sympathy. "Did you bring our beverages?"
"Of course," Teddy replied, "They're in the red cooler. Non-alcoholic wimp drinks are in the blue cooler," he said with a smirk, looking pointedly at Logan.
"You guys aren't drinking are you?" Bon Bon was not pleased with the idea of alcohol being present - her parents were staunchly against underage drinking. She was too, of course, but her parents rarely even drank themselves, really only at family functions or a nice dinner. Then only a glass or two of wine each. If they heard about this...
"No one is getting drunk, if that's what you're worried about," Ace assured her, "We're not that stupid,” his eyes settled on Teddy, who was back at Lancer's car, unloading the coolers. “I'll watch Teddy though, just in case.”
"That's probably what has everyone worried," Starlight joked.
Ace frowned and looked at her, "Did you say something?" He asked with a hint of amusement.
Starlight grinned back at him and kissed him on the cheek. "No, nothing at all," she replied, before breaking away to head over to Lancer's car to help with the unloading.
Logan stood next to Bon Bon, sharing her opinion about the threats of alcohol. "We'll watch both of them," he said quietly to her, which made her smile.
"I know they'll be responsible, I still just don't like it," she admitted, glad that he at least shared her concerns. She'd been at one party before where some of her friends had started drinking, but as far as she knew none of them had gotten out of hand. Maybe they'd be okay this time.
Just then the last car pulled up, Buddy parking next to Lancer. Patch hopped out of the car and set about apologizing for their lateness. The entire group reunited - all twelve of them, finally gathered all their gear and headed into the building, led by Ace and Patch.
After a brief look around, everyone had decided that they would feel best about setting up camp in the main hallway by the stairs, near the entrance door. Patch had wanted to set up their sleeping area in one of the dormitory wings, but was outvoted by everyone except Ace and Melody. While the rest of the group was excited now that they were here, there were still a lot of nervous jitters to go around, and everyone felt better about being close to the exit and their vehicles.
Once everything was set up, they decided to do some exploring. Melody and Patch wanted to visit the children's ward, while Ace, Teddy, and Buddy wanted to check out the laboratory area. The others weren't so keen to venture too far away just yet (Starlight would have accompanied either group where they were going, but for now she wanted to sit tight and plan out how to get back at Ace for earlier, because she was not letting that go) so they decided to split up for the time being.
The boys each grabbed a can of beer and flashlights before making their way down the hall toward the basement stairs, none of them feeling the slightest bit nervous at the moment. That changed a little once they found the staircase, though.
"Wow, kind of creepy, huh?" Buddy said, reaching the area first and shining his flashlight down into the gloomy depths, where moonlight wouldn't penetrate the way it did on the upper level. The staircase was littered with all kinds of debris - papers, chunks of plaster, even toys. "I thought this went to the labs, not daycare," he said, his light shining on two curly haired dolls lying together.
"Yeah why would they have toys in the lab area?" Teddy asked, before taking a sip from his can and starting down the stairs. He wasn't nervous - not at all! That's why he wanted to go first, so no one would accuse him of being scared in the slightest. Buddy had hesitated - but Teddy wasn't going to. Halfway down the stairs he stopped, playing his light around, prepared to say that he was just checking to make sure there was no damage to the staircase before someone plunged through broken steps, when all of a sudden something went flying by his head, missing him by mere inches!
He reacted with a jerk, moving back up a step, before seeing that it was just one of the dolls. He took a calming breath and turned around, watching as Ace shrugged. "Sorry, must have kicked one of those things, I should really watch where I'm stepping," Ace said with a grin.
"Except that he actually picked it up and threw it at you," Buddy said with a laugh, his initial fear overcome now that they were joking with each other.
"Lies," Ace retorted, shaking his head.
"Dude your aim is terrible," Teddy stated with a tone of disgust. "I've seen girls who throw better."
"I'm sorry, did you want me to hit you in the head with that thing? Because I can go and throw it again if you want, and I won't miss on purpose this time," Ace asked.
"I thought you said you just kicked it?" Teddy replied, grinning when Ace shrugged again.
"I lied." They all laughed before continuing down the staircase, and when he got to the doll, lying face down in a dusty corner of the step, Teddy kicked it down to the bottom.
"Would you check out the face on this bear?" Patch said, staring in fascination at the mural on the wall in the children's ward. "I swear I can hear it screaming from this picture alone."
Melody walked over to inspect the picture, eyes wide at the disturbing quality of the painting. "Who would paint this in a kids' area? This is so creepy," she agreed, her eyes turning to a rabbit dressed up like a clown. "Man, as if clowns don't scare kids enough as it is, look at this bunny! He's probably what the bear is screaming about," she joked, which earned her a laugh from Patch.
"So what do you think? Are your senses tingling?" Patch asked teasingly, knowing that Melody was scouting locations to break out the ouija board later.
Melody stuck her tongue out at her friend in response before moving away from the mural, walking to one of the many beds that lined the hall. This room did make her feel anxious and nervous, as though someone was watching. There was a level of creepiness here that she hadn't felt anywhere else yet. "I am so summoning something from this room later," she eventually admitted, lifting the sheets on the bed. Underneath was a layer of dead leaves. That seemed odd to her, and she looked around at the windows. Of course none of them opened - there were heavy bars blocking them all, and none were broken.
"Looking for a nap spot?" Patch joked, coming over to stand next to her.
"This is weird, right? I mean how did these leaves get in here? None of the windows are open, which would at least explain the leaves in the room. But they were under the sheets. Weird," Melody let the sheet drop over the bed of leaves, turning to the one next to it.
"Maybe some other visitor like us did it," Patch replied, watching as Melody pulled back sheets on all the beds. None of the other ones were hiding leaves, though some hid toys and pyjamas.
"Maybe," Melody replied, looking again at the first bed.
"Or maybe whoever used to be in this bed had a leaf fetish and collected them," Patch joked, barely able to say the sentence without laughing.
"Ew Patch! This is the children's ward! Stop talking about fetishes," Melody protested, though she was laughing too. Just then her eyes fell across something peeking out from under the bed of leaves, and she picked it up. It was a book.
"Ooh, maybe the kid was hiding something? What's the book?" Patch asked, curious now.
Melody flipped it over - it was a child's workbook, like they'd used in school when they were learning to write. She hesitated before opening it. She couldn't help but feel like she was being slightly intrusive.
Patch plucked it from her, her impatience ruling over her manners. "Allegra Pinoy," she read out loud, "Looks like some little kid's writing work book. Wonder how old she was, her penmanship is terrible," she joked, before handing it back to Melody.
"No idea, but maybe she'll tell me later," Melody stated, deciding that she would definitely try to contact this kid. She flipped through the book, not really sure if she was looking for something. It was mostly filled with typical little kid words - apple, dog, pink. But she froze when she got to the last few pages. There, written in the same little kid penmanship as the rest of the book, was a mass of repeated words.
"help me help me help me help me"
"Patch," Melody whispered, a shiver passing through her as she stared down at the page.
"What it is?" Patch noticed the change in her best friend's voice, coming back over to look down at the book. She was silent for a moment, her eyes taking in the words. "Okay, that is creepy."
"Look at the next page," Melody whispered, turning it again, and once more one word was repeated continuously.
"stop stop stop stop stop stop stop"
Both girls were silent, neither of them really sure what to think about this. This was the sort of thing they'd excitedly talked about finding all week, but now that they had it - the excitement was replaced with something else. Melody put the book back down on Allegra's bed, closing it so only the cover was showing. She'd be back for it later.
Brighteyes reached out to wipe away a layer of dust that had settled itself over the plaque by the door, reading the name out loud. "Doctor Rook Conners," she stated, before turning away and wandering to the next door. "I don't recall ever reading his name anywhere, must have just been a general physician or something," she explained to Lancer, who was following right behind her. While they'd been fine to sit with the others at first, setting up their camping area and having a bite to eat, eventually Brighteyes had grown restless, and had decided to try and find the offices of some of the noted psychologists who'd worked here. Lancer had decided to go with her, while the others had decided to stay behind.
"What name are you looking for?" Lancer asked, deciding to head to a different door and speed up the process. It wasn't that he was afraid, necessarily, but he'd feel better if they sat down somewhere instead of wandering the halls. It wasn't as creepy now that they were here, at least not in this hall. There were large windows overhead in the upper galley (barred, of course) that allowed a lot of moonlight down into the hall. He didn't even really need his flashlight (except to look at the name plaques).
"Either Kingsley Barrett or River Cunard," Brighteyes answered, "They founded the theory of psychological behaviourism. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find any notes in their offices on their studies."
Lancer stored those names in his head as he brushed away dust over the name plaque on his door. "Not this one either," he relayed, though he did store the name away as well. Hemlock Pinoy - it wasn't every day you came across someone named after a poisonous plant.
"Whose office was that?" Brighteyes asked, wiping away another name plate. Tempest Woodard - how many doctors had this place employed?
"Hemlock Pinoy," Lancer answered, headed for another door.
"Pinoy?" Brighteyes asked, her voice rising. She turned from where she was headed and made her way for that office. "There were weird things written about Pinoy," she started to explain, standing in front of his door. "Well, not directly about him, but it was widely assumed they were about him."
Lancer stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at her. "What sort of things?"
Brighteyes hesitated, her hoof on the doorknob, as though she was contemplating whether or not to go in. "Well, a few different people talked to the media about this place, when allegations of abuse started coming up. They all used to talk about this one doctor whose own children he'd committed here. They never mentioned Pinoy by name, but while some of the other doctors did have children who lived on the hospital grounds in staff housing, Pinoy's were the only ones who actually lived in the dorm with the committed children."
Lancer didn't like the sound of that. "What was wrong with them?"
Brighteyes shook her head. "That's the thing - if you asked Pinoy, nothing was wrong with his kids. He used to say that he just wanted them close while he worked, while other people used to say that he used them as controlled test subjects. Right before this place got shut down there was a minor riot in the laboratory area."
"A riot?" Lancer asked, curious and nervous about the details. "In the lab? The one downstairs, where the guys went?"
"That one," she replied, still standing with a hoof on the doorknob. "It wasn't even the patients who rioted, so the records state. It was actually some of the staff, the orderlies. Apparently Pinoy was doing something horrifying, and what with all the bad press the place already had, I guess this was the last straw."
Lancer was silent for a moment, contemplating that news. "What was he doing? Did anyone ever say?"
"No," Brighteyes answered, "No one would talk about it."
"What happened to Pinoy?" He asked, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.
"One of his eyes was stabbed out," she answered, "And he had nerve damage in one of his forelegs from someone stabbing him repeatedly."
Lancer shuddered at the horrifying news, stopping himself before he started envisioning the scene. The last thing he needed was to play that whole thing out in his mind and have it fresh for the rest of the night. "I really wish you hadn't told me that," he said with a forced laugh. "Now that's all I'm going to be thinking about."
Brighteyes chose that moment to pull the door open to Pinoy's office. "Oh stop worrying Lancer, that happened nearly fifty years ago." She stepped into the office, and Lancer stood there alone for a moment, wondering if he should follow her. He didn't really feel up to poking around in Pinoy's office. Then again, he didn't exactly want to wander around alone, and he didn't want to leave Brighteyes either. So he followed.
Buddy stopped to look in through a door, shining his flashlight around in the room. It looked a little like a tornado had gone through the area - tables were thrown against the wall, cabinet doors were hanging by hinges or ripped off completely, papers were scattered everywhere, and there were even syringes embedded in the wall. That last bit was equal parts cool and terrifying. "Hey guys, check this out!" He yelled to the boys, who were still checking out a previous room.
"What?" Teddy asked, wandering over to jostle Buddy out of the way and shine his own light around the room. "d**n, what happened in here?"
"Check out the needles in the wall," Buddy said, shining his flashlight beam on them.
"That is cool," Teddy said, walking into the room to investigate further. "I wonder if people were just playing darts with them," he asked with a laugh.
"Not a bad idea," Buddy said, entering the room himself. "Think we should try it out?"
"Why not?" Teddy said, reaching out a hand to grab one of the syringes. "Hey, there's still stuff in here," he mentioned, pulling the hypodermic syringe out of the wall and holding it in the light of his flashlight. "I wonder what it is?"
Buddy came close to added his light to the syringe as well. "You want me to stick it in you and we can find out?" He asked with a grin.
"Yeah no, how about I stick it in you instead?" Teddy answered, brandishing the syringe like a weapon.
"I leave you two alone for thirty seconds and you're already talking about sticking it in each other? How about I leave you alone for thirty minutes, instead?" Ace called out from the doorway where he was leaning and watching his two friends.
"Dude, not cool," Teddy replied, shaking his head. "We were trying to have a scientific discussion about what's in this needle," he said with a grin, trying not to laugh. "Should we bring it back for Brighteyes?"
Ace approached them, but didn't reach out for the syringe. "Why, so she can tell you it's old rusty water?" he asked, playing his flashlight over the wall.
"How do you know? It could be something else," Buddy objected, pulling his own needle out from the wall. "They're all filled with the same stuff. We should take some, just in case."
"In case what?" Ace asked, looking at Buddy.
Buddy shrugged. "I don't know, just in case."
"Fine, suit yourself," Ace replied, "But don't say I didn't warn you when you accidentally jab yourself in the leg and you wind up in the hospital with tetanus."
"We were actually going to try playing darts before you showed up to ruin our fun," Teddy replied, still wondering if they should attempt it. Ace did have a point - what if there was something really nasty in the needles? Then again, it wasn't as if they'd be throwing them at each other. Right?
"Well don't let me stop you," Ace said, backing away from the two. "I'm going to look around a bit more, so you guys have fun playing darts with syringes."
Buddy watched him leave the room before turning to Teddy. "He can be so much fun sometimes, and such a killjoy at other times." They both laughed before deciding to go ahead and at least try throwing the needles they were holding at the wall.
Meanwhile Ace walked a bit further down the hall, turning a corner and seeing double doors at the end of the short hallway. It looked like an entrance to a typical surgery room, so he headed for it. He stopped before the doors, shining his flashlight through the window. The place was surprisingly clean, compared to the rest of the rooms they'd been in so far. Or maybe not clean, but at least it wasn't full of broken things and scattered garbage. There was an operating table there, in the middle of the room.
He opened the door and walked in, and right away he got that prickly feeling as though someone else was there, just out of sight. He'd have to tell Melody about it, because while he was skeptical of her occult stuff, sometimes the coincidence was enough to contemplate whether or not there was something to it. She tended to love rooms that had weird vibes to them. He stayed by the door, shining his flashlight around the entire room, into all the corners. There weren't really any hiding places in here, unless you hid in the lower cupboards. He walked over to them, pulling each one open. All empty, of course.
He still had a weird feeling, though, as if someone else was here. He stood in the middle of the room and looked around slowly, playing his light around the room, before finally turning it on the table. It was empty, of course, nothing on it. But he felt wary about approaching it, as though he knew in the back of his mind that something very terrible had happened here once. Which of course wasn't a stretch - it was an operating table in a mental institution. They'd probably performed numerous lobotomies in this very room. But something about it still creeped him out - he'd almost be willing to say he actually felt afraid, standing in this room. Afraid of what - no idea. But he wasn't really in the mood to stick around and find out. In fact, he kind of wanted to get out of the basement altogether now, head back up and find the others. He might not even tell Melody about the room. Or maybe he would. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad with more people around.
Just then he heard a sound behind him - and his first instinct was to hide. He was looking over at the cupboards now, wondering if he could contort his body to fit in one. No one would think to look for him there, would they? He walked a few steps closer before shaking himself out of fear's grip. If anyone was there, it was just Teddy or Buddy.
He turned around and played his flashlight over the wall by the door, seeing nothing. Who had he thought, briefly, was there? Why had he felt compelled to hide? He never hid from things. If a dangerous situation popped up, he was usually the first in line, shielding his friends. He'd been born with a natural inclination to protect those weaker than himself, but a moment ago the last thing he'd felt was strong.
There was just something odd about this room. The longer he stayed here, the weirder he felt, the less like himself. Maybe he should get Melody and bring her down here to get her opinion. Maybe there was something down here, some spirit trapped in the operating room, in a constant state of fear, maybe who died during an operation?
Why the hell was he actually contemplating this stuff? Maybe all he needed was another beer. And his girlfriend. If Starlight was here, he was certain he'd be fine - not because he refused to show weakness in front of her (they'd both been through some pretty rough things together, personally, so he wasn't afraid to admit to her when he needed help) but more so because she was so staunchly rooted in reality and facts that something as simple as a bad feeling wouldn't even cross her mind and if he told her it was crossing his she'd lecture those feelings out of him.
What he needed at the moment was less thoughts about Melody and her search for spirits, and more thoughts about Starlight, who was probably plotting revenge against him for his earlier antics. That was the way his girlfriend operated.
Starlight was standing in front of the building map, studying the diagram of the layout. She'd gotten over her initial concerns about potential issues in the building – she'd inspected walls and papers and hadn't found any physical signs of mold, there were no animal droppings, and no sign of ponies having been here recently. She was bored and tired of sitting around and listening to the others - she wanted to go exploring. She was looking at the route to find Melody and Patch, who'd gone to the children's ward. At first she'd thought of going to look for the boys, but wandering a pitch black basement with three sixteen year old guys made her realize how dumb that sounded. While Ace was usually pretty smart and responsible when they were together, she knew guys had a habit of getting themselves into really stupid trouble when they were in a group, and Teddy and Buddy didn't exactly have Ace's usual sense of responsibility. She wasn't really in the mood to babysit them.
But as she mapped out her route to the girls, she noticed a large library on the way. She wondered what kind of books they'd had there? Was it a scientific library, or one for the patients? She decided to go and find out. Now the only trouble would be leaving without the others insisting that she not go alone.
"Hey guys, I'm going out to find Patch and Melody," she announced to the group, really hoping no one would give her any trouble.
"By yourself?" Sweetheart asked, just a little concerned.
"Yeah, no big deal, the children's ward is easy to get to from here," she said, brushing it off as though it were no big deal. Because it wasn't.
"No way," Logan said, jumping up. "Maybe we should go with you, to make sure you find them? Then we can come back if no one wants to stay there," he said, looking back at the others.
"Unnecessary," Starlight said, feeling just a little annoyed. "I can find them perfectly well on my own."
"I don't know, it just seems dangerous, none of us should be going off alone," Logan replied, feeling like he ought to at least offer to accompany her himself. "If you guys don't want to go, I can walk her myself," Logan offered, looking from the other girls to Starlight.
"Logan, honestly, I don't need a babysitter," Starlight replied, allowing a hint of annoyance to creep into her voice. "I know how to get there, I will be fine."
"He does have a point, Starlight," Clover spoke up. "What if something happens to you before you find them?"
"Nothing will happen to me," Starlight said, "And even if it does, they'll find me on their way back. There's only one way to get there from here." That was a lie - but she knew none of them had studied the layout of the building yet. "Honestly you guys, I will be perfectly fine."
"I don't know," Logan said, "I have a bad feeling about this. I should go with you."
Starlight felt like screaming, but she somehow managed to remain calm. "You should really stay here." Just as they were about to continue their debate, the guys showed up.
"Where are you trying to go with my girlfriend, Logan?" Ace asked, as he walked up to Starlight and stood next to her. He could see the look of intense irritation on her face, so he kissed her just to make it worse, before fixing his eyes on Logan.
"Um, I just," Logan wasn't sure why he felt nervous at the moment - he had just been trying to be nice! "She wanted to go find Patch and Melody and, um, well we thought she shouldn't go alone," he finished lamely. He couldn't help it - he always felt a little intimidated when he talked to Ace. It hadn't always been that way - really not until Ace had started seriously dating Starlight again last year. Not that he had a crush on her or anything. Not at all.
Ace grinned - this was perfect! He knew how irritated Starlight got when anyone tried to tell her she couldn't do something. "Well that was awfully generous of you," he said, "but I'm back now, so I'll go with her. I need to talk to Mel anyway."
"Sure, fine, you guys can go," Logan said, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment. At least it was dark and no one could see. He wasn't even sure why he was embarrassed! This was stupid.
Starlight watched as Ace grabbed himself another beer and a bag of chips before turning to her and winking. She shook her head in amusement before grabbing a can for herself and turning on her flashlight before starting off up the stairs. She didn't bother turning back to say goodbye to her friends - she was still a little annoyed with Logan – hence the beer. She could hear Ace following behind her, and behind them everyone was listening to Teddy and Buddy tell stories of what they'd found in the basement.
She was silent until they reached the top of the stairs and there she turned to face her boyfriend. "That was good timing, by the way," she said, glad that he had shown up.
"Why, did I stop you from punching Logan?" He asked with a laugh.
She laughed back and turned down the hall, heading for the library. "Something like that."
"You're not surprised by his behaviour, are you? I mean, he does have a huge crush on you, so I think he was just looking for a way to get you alone," Ace teased, although he was pretty sure that Logan really did have a crush on his girlfriend. He wasn't the least bit threatened though - Logan couldn't compare to him in any facet.
"Oh don't go saying that," Starlight replied, hoping he was only joking.
"Why not? Suppressing feelings of your own?" He teased again.
"Oh yeah, Logan is definitely everything I've ever wanted. I love a guy who's unsure of himself," Starlight joked. One of her favourite things about Ace was his unwavering confidence in himself. That confidence usually had a way of passing on to others around him - provided they weren't in the midst of competition, of course. That was when Ace's ugly side came out.
Ace laughed. "His stammering speech doesn't do it for you?" He joked, which made Starlight laugh.
"Total turn on, you better watch out," she replied, before turning down another hall. "Okay so joking aside, we're not actually going to find Patch and Mel, sorry," she told him.
"What? Where are we going?" He asked, a little bothered because he did want to discuss the basement with Melody. Once he'd left the operating room he'd been surprised at how much better he'd felt. The room definitely had something weird going on in it.
"The library," Starlight replied.
"Library? Are you serious? Are we meeting up with Brighteyes and Lancer?" He asked sarcastically.
Starlight grinned and looked back at him. "No, they're investigating doctor offices."
"How thrilling," he replied, voice still full of sarcasm.
"Oh come on, think about it. Would you rather go find Patch and Mel, or go to the library with me, where we will be alone?" She waited until he looked at her before winking at him and taking a sip of her beer. While making out with Ace hadn't really been on her list of reasons for wanting to visit the library, it was a good way to get him to stop whining about it.
"Good point," he relented, "Should have brought along a blanket." They both laughed at the comment, walking side by side down the hall. The library was ahead.
"I honestly just want to see what kind of library it is, you know? Scientific, or packed with fiction?" She explained, as she stopped before the library doors. It looked much nicer than she expected, with large windows letting in a lot of light.
"Well, it looks pretty nice for a hospital library," he stated, before pulling a door open and gesturing for her to go through.
"Ah such chivalry," she said sarcastically as he held the door open for her.
"Hey, with Logan after you, I have to up my game," he replied jokingly as they went inside and made their way to the large barred-over windows. There was a sitting area there, with two couches and some chairs. Everything was rather dusty, of course, but Ace did what he could with the cushions on one of the couches. They angled the couch so it looked out through the windows, the night sky and surrounding trees visible.
"This is actually a really beautiful view, if you look past the bars that is," Starlight said, electing to not think about how gross the couch cushions still were despite a brief shaking. She cuddled next to Ace, leaning her head against his shoulder.
Ace smiled and had to agree with his girlfriend - it was a lovely view from the library. "Maybe we should officially separate from the rest of the group and sleep in here tonight," he suggested slyly, before taking a sip of his can.
"We'll see," Starlight replied, not really opposed to the idea. It was almost like camping with this view. "For now hand me that bag of chips, I'm hungry."
------------------------------------------
That's it for now! There is a lot more story to get to, but let me know what you think so far!
Anyway, that's enough chit-chat! I am trying to write this with them being specifically pony in their actions, but it's so foreign to me since I prefer thinking of them as people. So if any of the pony-specific actions sound weird or phrased strangely, let me know.
Also - the kids are 16, and there's alcohol and mature subject matter and some bad language! Nothing too bad, though, but I did want to point that out.
Title Seeking Asylum
Rating/Warning PG-13 for language, mature content (underage drinking and possibly more), and discussions of violence and abuse
Characters The main 10 from the show, Buddy, and Logan
Summary City council is nearing an agreement to tear down an abandoned mental hospital, so the group of 12 sixteen-year-olds decide to spend a night inside the building's haunted walls before it's gone for good.
"So this is the place? Not creepy at all," Starlight muttered sarcastically as she stepped out of Ace's car, already wary about this stupid idea. It wasn't that she was legitimately afraid of anything in particular - but there was a laundry list of issues that could go wrong. What if the place wasn't as abandoned as they thought, and they came across some drugged-out homeless pony? What if there were rabid animals holed up in the building, protecting their habitat? What if there was serious mold growing in there, and they all got sick after breathing it in over the course of the night?
"Are you backing out on me, Star?" Ace asked, coming to stand beside her, an amused grin on his lips. "If so you'll have to get yourself home, unfortunately. I'm not driving you back," he joked, before kissing her cheek lightly.
"No I'm not backing out," Starlight retorted, a little annoyed. He was not even going to try and say she was afraid of the dark, or she'd really let him have it. "I just hope you and Patch really scouted this place out before hand."
"Afraid of monsters in the dark corners?" Ace teased.
"More like rabid animals and mold," Starlight replied, shooting him a look that told him to not even try to assume she was actually afraid of the place itself. Because she wasn't. She didn't believe in ghosts or spirits or anything even remotely occult-like, though she still humoured her friends when they wanted to do things like hold seances and go ghost-hunting in old abandoned buildings. But none of it was believable in her eyes.
"The place was tested for mold last year when city council was first thinking of tearing it down, and it passed with flying colours. The animals though, no idea there. We'll just have to make sure we stick to the back of the group so we can be the first ones out the door when a snarling raccoon comes to investigate," he replied with a laugh. "Anything else plaguing your brain about this place?"
She shook her head at his lame joke. "The only plague I can see right now is you," she shot back, grinning when he frowned at her. But she still felt him move closer to her and nuzzle her cheek.
"You're such a sweet talker, Star," he said with an amused tone to his voice. "Maybe you and I will have to separate ourselves from the group at some point tonight," he suggested slyly, half joking and half serious.
"Ew, are you kidding me? There may not be mold in there but I'm sure it's not exactly sanitary," she replied, also only half joking. Maybe, if they found a jug of sterilizing product hidden in a corner... "Let's get our stuff and start heading up to check out the front before the others get here."
"God, Patch, can you hurry it up? We're only staying one night, not a week, you don't need that much food," Melody said in an annoyed huff, watching as her best friend added another bag of chips to her basket.
"Oh stop whining, Mel. You know people tend to overeat when they get scared, I'm just looking out for the others," Patch said with a wink. "After all I did tell them not to bring food, that we'd be supplying it all. Half of this is just for Bon Bon."
Melody grinned and shook her head. "You know her bag will be stuffed with food anyway, regardless of what you told her," Melody followed Patch down the aisle, reaching out on a whim to add a bag of popcorn to the basket. When Patch shot her a quizzical look about it, she just shrugged. "You're buying my food too, for not doing your shopping earlier."
Patch rolled her eyes and continued down the aisle, adding a few bags of chocolate bars to the stash of junk food. "All right, I think I'm set, let's go pay."
Melody watched as Patch made her purchases, annoyed when the shop clerk engaged her in small talk. Melody just wanted to get out there already and get set up so she could try communing with some spirits. Ever since finding an old deck of tarot cards her mother had used back in university a year ago, Melody had thrown herself into the world of the occult, as a joke at first, but enough coincidences had happened already that she firmly believed in it now. She knew half her friends didn't, a few others were unsure, but a couple of them were into it. That was enough shared excitement for her to keep going.
Another two minutes passed before Patch finally pulled herself away from the counter and joined her glaring best friend by the door. "Oh be quiet, Mel, she started asking me about mom's new quilting project for the hospital, I couldn't just walk away, that would have been rude." Patch winked at her and pulled the door open, gesturing for Melody to go first.
"I should have gone with Ace and Starlight, they're probably already there," Melody retorted, in no mood to hear Patch's excuses.
"Probably, though you'd have to listen to them playfully bickering like an old couple before finding some deserted corner and making out," Patch replied with a laugh as she headed to Buddy's waiting car.
"You have a point there," Melody agreed. "Granted that would be fine, because then I could get my stuff set up with no one bothering me," Melody reached the car first and opened the back door, helping Patch stow the bags on one side.
"How much stuff did you guys buy?" Buddy asked from the driver's seat, bewildered.
"Enough for us and the old spirits wandering the halls," Patch replied before sliding in the front passenger seat, while Melody sat behind Buddy.
"Did you get me sour cream and onion?" Buddy asked Patch.
"I did buy that flavour, but who said it's for you?" she teased him, before glancing back at Melody, who was miming throwing up. "Oh shut up Mel," Patch retorted at her friend, who just stuck her tongue out at her.
"If you're going to knock Ace and Star for it, don't think I'm going to sit by quietly while you and Buddy get started," Melody replied with a grin. "Speaking of which - pedal to the metal, Buddy! We're late."
Clover parked next to a car she recognized as belonging to Ace, but didn't turn off her mother's van just yet. "I don't see them anywhere, do you think they went inside already?"
"Probably, knowing them," Bon Bon replied, feeling nervous as she looked up at the looming building. She'd been nervous all week about this - a little excited too, but way more nervous. Of course it was worse because she'd had to lie to her parents all week about where she was going. As far as any of their parents knew, they were all going camping for the night. No one knew they were actually spending the night in this abandoned mental hospital. Which seemed even more stupid now that they were here and Bon Bon was seeing it up close! "We probably should have told someone we were coming out here..."
"We'll be fine," Logan said from behind Clover. "We're a big group, so we'll be safe as long as we all stick together."
"As long as we stick together," Clover repeated, "That's the problem. Ace and Starlight haven't even waited for us!"
"We don't know that for sure, maybe they're just looking at the outside of the building, it is pretty cool architecture after all," Logan said, before unbuckling his seat belt and opening the side door. "Come on, let's go find them."
Clover and Bon Bon both turned to look at one another, frowning in unison. "I'm scared, Bon Bon," Clover admitted, feeling a little better after speaking it.
"Me too," Bon Bon replied, reaching out to lay a hoof on Clover's foreleg. "But we'll feel better when everyone else gets here."
Clover turned off the van and both girls got out to join Logan, who had already taken out his flashlight. "Ace? Starlight? You guys here?" He walked over to Ace's car, shining the light over it, confirming they weren't actually inside still. "They must be around somewhere. Do you guys want to go check out the front porch? We won't go inside, just to see if they're there?"
Clover shivered a little, looking up at the old building. "I don't know, why don't we wait for everyone else?"
"Oh come on," Logan said, trying to sound as brave as he wished he felt (because he would never admit it to the girls, but he kind of was a little freaked out) "We won't go inside."
"I'm with Clover," Bon Bon said, standing next to her friend.
As the trio stood and debated, Ace watched them from just inside the building. It would be so easy to prank them all right now - so easy! He turned to Starlight, who was reading the remains of an old bulletin on the message board. "Star," he whispered just loud enough for her to hear.
Starlight looked over at her boyfriend, wary of the look on his face. "What?" she asked, wondering what he was planning.
"Logan and the girls showed up," he replied, and she knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Leave them be, Ace," she said, wondering if she should interrupt his formulating plan and simply go outside to meet them.
"Oh come on," he said quietly, pouting ever so slightly. "Let's get them."
"Maybe if it wasn't those two. Clover told me she had a nightmare about this place already," Starlight admitted with a laugh. She probably shouldn't have shared that with Ace, but he was rather trustworthy with secrets. At least when they weren't about his male friends.
"Seriously? Amazing," Ace replied, before moving away toward the main staircase. "I wonder if we could get them to actually come inside," he questioned, while Starlight remained watching by the door, paying him no attention.
She was surprised they hadn't heard Clover driving up, wondering if the building's insulation was sound proof to prevent noise from getting out. The idea was enough to make her shiver, wondering what sort of sounds you'd have heard coming from the building back in the heyday of its operation. While there had never been any proof of wrongdoing, there were assertions and accusations. Couple that with the mass unmarked grave that had been out back (the city had dug it up and properly identified and disposed of the bodies three years ago) and it was highly likely that all kinds of nasty things had gone on here. It was a creepy place.
Just when it seemed like Logan had convinced the girls to make their way to the front porch, Starlight felt someone grab her from behind and even though she knew in the back of her mind that it was her boyfriend, she couldn't stop the scream that came out - which set the other three outside screaming along too!
Ace pulled away then and she whirled around, glaring at her boyfriend before punching him in the chest. "You not a very nice person! Don't do that to me," she took a deep breath, willing her heart rate to lower. He hadn't scared her - just surprised her. That was it.
After rubbing his chest where she'd hit him, he couldn't help but grin and reach out to hug her. "Sorry, I got impatient," he whispered, watching the other three over her shoulder. They had retreated back to the cars before getting a hold of themselves.
Now that the moment was over (and Ace had wrapped a foreleg around her shoulders in a much more delightful way) Starlight couldn't help but laugh. "They're probably going to think I was in on this," she said, shaking her head at her still grinning boyfriend.
"Probably," Ace replied, kissing her temple. Just then they heard a yell from outside - Clover, calling for her. "You should probably answer that," Ace said before pressing his lips against hers, trapping her voice in a kiss.
She engaged him though, tongue pressing against his as she heard Clover yell a second time. She pulled away but kept him close, almost tempted to ignore the call and go back to kissing Ace. But she couldn't do that to her friends. "All right come on, let's go show ourselves," she pulled way from him. "I'm all right Clover, we're both fine," she walked out of the front door, Ace following behind her.
"We just heard you scream! We were so worried, Starlight!" All the nervous tension and fear Clover had been feeling deflated the moment she saw her friend walk out of the building, her boyfriend following behind her. "You guys weren't supposed to go inside before we all got here!"
"We're sorry," Ace said, clearly not sorry in the slightest.
"So what was the scream about? What happened?" Logan asked, a little embarrassed he'd freaked out when he heard Starlight scream. Luckily only the girls had been there to hear, and neither of them had probably even noticed.
"Starlight thought she saw someone in the shadows," Ace jumped in to explain before his girlfriend could say anything, "Turned out it was just a skeleton, though." He hoped she wasn't glaring too hard at him to give it away as a lie.
"A real skeleton?!" Bon Bon asked, creeped out. "I am not going in there now!"
"No," Ace said, trying hard not to laugh at Bon Bon's outburst. "Just a plastic one, you know, the kind you see in a doctor's office."
"Oh, right," Bon Bon replied, a little embarrassed that she hadn't thought of that.
"Well let's stay out here and wait for the others?" Logan said, thinking that they could all use a bit of time to calm down after the scare they'd gotten.
"I guess that's a good idea," Starlight agreed, smiling at her friends before turning back to Ace. She leaned in close to him, pressing her lips to his ear. "Don't think for a second you are off the hook for that stunt, or the lie," she told him.
"Are you saying I should expect payback?" he asked her, eyes alight with the promise of competition.
"Bet on it," she told him, before kissing him once more.
Teddy felt restless sitting in the back of Lancer's car, listening to he and Brighteyes discussing the history of the hospital they were all spending the night in. Any normal pony would be focusing on the brutal history of the place - the allegations of abuse and violence, but not these two. Oh no. Trust them to actually talk about legitimate treatments for mental health issues - he wasn't even sure how Brighteyes knew about all the awards some of the doctors had gotten for their work! Who cared enough to look this stuff up? All he wanted to do was roam around the building and try to scare his friends.
He turned his head to look at Sweetheart, sitting next to him and listening to the conversation going on in the front. She had nothing to add to it, but she was still politely listening, and Teddy couldn't understand how she wasn't bored out of her mind. She had that exceptional ability to listen to someone discuss the most boring topics possible and still find their words fascinating. Just then, as though she could feel his eyes on her, she turned to look at him and reached out to pat his leg.
"We're almost there, Teddy," she said in a whisper, not wanting to interrupt the two in front.
Teddy huffed in annoyance (she was used to it, so he knew she wouldn't think he was annoyed at her) before replying. "We should have gone with Ace and Starlight," he said, because he knew that car ride would have been more fun than this one. At least Ace would play better music.
Sweetheart just smiled at him and shook her head, amused at his constant grumbling. It was endearing most of the time, though sometimes she was tempted to tell him just to shut up and stop complaining. Right now though she was willing to put up with it, mostly because they really were almost there. She was excited and a little freaked out about their plans for the night - she'd never spent the night anywhere without adults around, for one thing, and she just wasn't thrilled at the idea of an abandoned building. But she would be with a lot of friends, and she knew they'd have fun. She also knew Teddy was really looking forward to it, so she was excited because he was excited.
Finally they reached the private road to the site and turned, the headlights of Lancer's car settling over two other vehicles - Clover's van, and Ace's car. Teddy seemed to perk up now that they were here, and he was out of the car the second Lancer stopped it.
"Hey guys, man it's about time! I thought I was doomed to listening to Brighteyes and Lancer talk about medicine forever," Teddy ranted as he approached the group, directing his comments mostly at Ace.
"You poor thing," Ace replied, faking a look of sympathy. "Did you bring our beverages?"
"Of course," Teddy replied, "They're in the red cooler. Non-alcoholic wimp drinks are in the blue cooler," he said with a smirk, looking pointedly at Logan.
"You guys aren't drinking are you?" Bon Bon was not pleased with the idea of alcohol being present - her parents were staunchly against underage drinking. She was too, of course, but her parents rarely even drank themselves, really only at family functions or a nice dinner. Then only a glass or two of wine each. If they heard about this...
"No one is getting drunk, if that's what you're worried about," Ace assured her, "We're not that stupid,” his eyes settled on Teddy, who was back at Lancer's car, unloading the coolers. “I'll watch Teddy though, just in case.”
"That's probably what has everyone worried," Starlight joked.
Ace frowned and looked at her, "Did you say something?" He asked with a hint of amusement.
Starlight grinned back at him and kissed him on the cheek. "No, nothing at all," she replied, before breaking away to head over to Lancer's car to help with the unloading.
Logan stood next to Bon Bon, sharing her opinion about the threats of alcohol. "We'll watch both of them," he said quietly to her, which made her smile.
"I know they'll be responsible, I still just don't like it," she admitted, glad that he at least shared her concerns. She'd been at one party before where some of her friends had started drinking, but as far as she knew none of them had gotten out of hand. Maybe they'd be okay this time.
Just then the last car pulled up, Buddy parking next to Lancer. Patch hopped out of the car and set about apologizing for their lateness. The entire group reunited - all twelve of them, finally gathered all their gear and headed into the building, led by Ace and Patch.
After a brief look around, everyone had decided that they would feel best about setting up camp in the main hallway by the stairs, near the entrance door. Patch had wanted to set up their sleeping area in one of the dormitory wings, but was outvoted by everyone except Ace and Melody. While the rest of the group was excited now that they were here, there were still a lot of nervous jitters to go around, and everyone felt better about being close to the exit and their vehicles.
Once everything was set up, they decided to do some exploring. Melody and Patch wanted to visit the children's ward, while Ace, Teddy, and Buddy wanted to check out the laboratory area. The others weren't so keen to venture too far away just yet (Starlight would have accompanied either group where they were going, but for now she wanted to sit tight and plan out how to get back at Ace for earlier, because she was not letting that go) so they decided to split up for the time being.
The boys each grabbed a can of beer and flashlights before making their way down the hall toward the basement stairs, none of them feeling the slightest bit nervous at the moment. That changed a little once they found the staircase, though.
"Wow, kind of creepy, huh?" Buddy said, reaching the area first and shining his flashlight down into the gloomy depths, where moonlight wouldn't penetrate the way it did on the upper level. The staircase was littered with all kinds of debris - papers, chunks of plaster, even toys. "I thought this went to the labs, not daycare," he said, his light shining on two curly haired dolls lying together.
"Yeah why would they have toys in the lab area?" Teddy asked, before taking a sip from his can and starting down the stairs. He wasn't nervous - not at all! That's why he wanted to go first, so no one would accuse him of being scared in the slightest. Buddy had hesitated - but Teddy wasn't going to. Halfway down the stairs he stopped, playing his light around, prepared to say that he was just checking to make sure there was no damage to the staircase before someone plunged through broken steps, when all of a sudden something went flying by his head, missing him by mere inches!
He reacted with a jerk, moving back up a step, before seeing that it was just one of the dolls. He took a calming breath and turned around, watching as Ace shrugged. "Sorry, must have kicked one of those things, I should really watch where I'm stepping," Ace said with a grin.
"Except that he actually picked it up and threw it at you," Buddy said with a laugh, his initial fear overcome now that they were joking with each other.
"Lies," Ace retorted, shaking his head.
"Dude your aim is terrible," Teddy stated with a tone of disgust. "I've seen girls who throw better."
"I'm sorry, did you want me to hit you in the head with that thing? Because I can go and throw it again if you want, and I won't miss on purpose this time," Ace asked.
"I thought you said you just kicked it?" Teddy replied, grinning when Ace shrugged again.
"I lied." They all laughed before continuing down the staircase, and when he got to the doll, lying face down in a dusty corner of the step, Teddy kicked it down to the bottom.
"Would you check out the face on this bear?" Patch said, staring in fascination at the mural on the wall in the children's ward. "I swear I can hear it screaming from this picture alone."
Melody walked over to inspect the picture, eyes wide at the disturbing quality of the painting. "Who would paint this in a kids' area? This is so creepy," she agreed, her eyes turning to a rabbit dressed up like a clown. "Man, as if clowns don't scare kids enough as it is, look at this bunny! He's probably what the bear is screaming about," she joked, which earned her a laugh from Patch.
"So what do you think? Are your senses tingling?" Patch asked teasingly, knowing that Melody was scouting locations to break out the ouija board later.
Melody stuck her tongue out at her friend in response before moving away from the mural, walking to one of the many beds that lined the hall. This room did make her feel anxious and nervous, as though someone was watching. There was a level of creepiness here that she hadn't felt anywhere else yet. "I am so summoning something from this room later," she eventually admitted, lifting the sheets on the bed. Underneath was a layer of dead leaves. That seemed odd to her, and she looked around at the windows. Of course none of them opened - there were heavy bars blocking them all, and none were broken.
"Looking for a nap spot?" Patch joked, coming over to stand next to her.
"This is weird, right? I mean how did these leaves get in here? None of the windows are open, which would at least explain the leaves in the room. But they were under the sheets. Weird," Melody let the sheet drop over the bed of leaves, turning to the one next to it.
"Maybe some other visitor like us did it," Patch replied, watching as Melody pulled back sheets on all the beds. None of the other ones were hiding leaves, though some hid toys and pyjamas.
"Maybe," Melody replied, looking again at the first bed.
"Or maybe whoever used to be in this bed had a leaf fetish and collected them," Patch joked, barely able to say the sentence without laughing.
"Ew Patch! This is the children's ward! Stop talking about fetishes," Melody protested, though she was laughing too. Just then her eyes fell across something peeking out from under the bed of leaves, and she picked it up. It was a book.
"Ooh, maybe the kid was hiding something? What's the book?" Patch asked, curious now.
Melody flipped it over - it was a child's workbook, like they'd used in school when they were learning to write. She hesitated before opening it. She couldn't help but feel like she was being slightly intrusive.
Patch plucked it from her, her impatience ruling over her manners. "Allegra Pinoy," she read out loud, "Looks like some little kid's writing work book. Wonder how old she was, her penmanship is terrible," she joked, before handing it back to Melody.
"No idea, but maybe she'll tell me later," Melody stated, deciding that she would definitely try to contact this kid. She flipped through the book, not really sure if she was looking for something. It was mostly filled with typical little kid words - apple, dog, pink. But she froze when she got to the last few pages. There, written in the same little kid penmanship as the rest of the book, was a mass of repeated words.
"help me help me help me help me"
"Patch," Melody whispered, a shiver passing through her as she stared down at the page.
"What it is?" Patch noticed the change in her best friend's voice, coming back over to look down at the book. She was silent for a moment, her eyes taking in the words. "Okay, that is creepy."
"Look at the next page," Melody whispered, turning it again, and once more one word was repeated continuously.
"stop stop stop stop stop stop stop"
Both girls were silent, neither of them really sure what to think about this. This was the sort of thing they'd excitedly talked about finding all week, but now that they had it - the excitement was replaced with something else. Melody put the book back down on Allegra's bed, closing it so only the cover was showing. She'd be back for it later.
Brighteyes reached out to wipe away a layer of dust that had settled itself over the plaque by the door, reading the name out loud. "Doctor Rook Conners," she stated, before turning away and wandering to the next door. "I don't recall ever reading his name anywhere, must have just been a general physician or something," she explained to Lancer, who was following right behind her. While they'd been fine to sit with the others at first, setting up their camping area and having a bite to eat, eventually Brighteyes had grown restless, and had decided to try and find the offices of some of the noted psychologists who'd worked here. Lancer had decided to go with her, while the others had decided to stay behind.
"What name are you looking for?" Lancer asked, deciding to head to a different door and speed up the process. It wasn't that he was afraid, necessarily, but he'd feel better if they sat down somewhere instead of wandering the halls. It wasn't as creepy now that they were here, at least not in this hall. There were large windows overhead in the upper galley (barred, of course) that allowed a lot of moonlight down into the hall. He didn't even really need his flashlight (except to look at the name plaques).
"Either Kingsley Barrett or River Cunard," Brighteyes answered, "They founded the theory of psychological behaviourism. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find any notes in their offices on their studies."
Lancer stored those names in his head as he brushed away dust over the name plaque on his door. "Not this one either," he relayed, though he did store the name away as well. Hemlock Pinoy - it wasn't every day you came across someone named after a poisonous plant.
"Whose office was that?" Brighteyes asked, wiping away another name plate. Tempest Woodard - how many doctors had this place employed?
"Hemlock Pinoy," Lancer answered, headed for another door.
"Pinoy?" Brighteyes asked, her voice rising. She turned from where she was headed and made her way for that office. "There were weird things written about Pinoy," she started to explain, standing in front of his door. "Well, not directly about him, but it was widely assumed they were about him."
Lancer stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at her. "What sort of things?"
Brighteyes hesitated, her hoof on the doorknob, as though she was contemplating whether or not to go in. "Well, a few different people talked to the media about this place, when allegations of abuse started coming up. They all used to talk about this one doctor whose own children he'd committed here. They never mentioned Pinoy by name, but while some of the other doctors did have children who lived on the hospital grounds in staff housing, Pinoy's were the only ones who actually lived in the dorm with the committed children."
Lancer didn't like the sound of that. "What was wrong with them?"
Brighteyes shook her head. "That's the thing - if you asked Pinoy, nothing was wrong with his kids. He used to say that he just wanted them close while he worked, while other people used to say that he used them as controlled test subjects. Right before this place got shut down there was a minor riot in the laboratory area."
"A riot?" Lancer asked, curious and nervous about the details. "In the lab? The one downstairs, where the guys went?"
"That one," she replied, still standing with a hoof on the doorknob. "It wasn't even the patients who rioted, so the records state. It was actually some of the staff, the orderlies. Apparently Pinoy was doing something horrifying, and what with all the bad press the place already had, I guess this was the last straw."
Lancer was silent for a moment, contemplating that news. "What was he doing? Did anyone ever say?"
"No," Brighteyes answered, "No one would talk about it."
"What happened to Pinoy?" He asked, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.
"One of his eyes was stabbed out," she answered, "And he had nerve damage in one of his forelegs from someone stabbing him repeatedly."
Lancer shuddered at the horrifying news, stopping himself before he started envisioning the scene. The last thing he needed was to play that whole thing out in his mind and have it fresh for the rest of the night. "I really wish you hadn't told me that," he said with a forced laugh. "Now that's all I'm going to be thinking about."
Brighteyes chose that moment to pull the door open to Pinoy's office. "Oh stop worrying Lancer, that happened nearly fifty years ago." She stepped into the office, and Lancer stood there alone for a moment, wondering if he should follow her. He didn't really feel up to poking around in Pinoy's office. Then again, he didn't exactly want to wander around alone, and he didn't want to leave Brighteyes either. So he followed.
Buddy stopped to look in through a door, shining his flashlight around in the room. It looked a little like a tornado had gone through the area - tables were thrown against the wall, cabinet doors were hanging by hinges or ripped off completely, papers were scattered everywhere, and there were even syringes embedded in the wall. That last bit was equal parts cool and terrifying. "Hey guys, check this out!" He yelled to the boys, who were still checking out a previous room.
"What?" Teddy asked, wandering over to jostle Buddy out of the way and shine his own light around the room. "d**n, what happened in here?"
"Check out the needles in the wall," Buddy said, shining his flashlight beam on them.
"That is cool," Teddy said, walking into the room to investigate further. "I wonder if people were just playing darts with them," he asked with a laugh.
"Not a bad idea," Buddy said, entering the room himself. "Think we should try it out?"
"Why not?" Teddy said, reaching out a hand to grab one of the syringes. "Hey, there's still stuff in here," he mentioned, pulling the hypodermic syringe out of the wall and holding it in the light of his flashlight. "I wonder what it is?"
Buddy came close to added his light to the syringe as well. "You want me to stick it in you and we can find out?" He asked with a grin.
"Yeah no, how about I stick it in you instead?" Teddy answered, brandishing the syringe like a weapon.
"I leave you two alone for thirty seconds and you're already talking about sticking it in each other? How about I leave you alone for thirty minutes, instead?" Ace called out from the doorway where he was leaning and watching his two friends.
"Dude, not cool," Teddy replied, shaking his head. "We were trying to have a scientific discussion about what's in this needle," he said with a grin, trying not to laugh. "Should we bring it back for Brighteyes?"
Ace approached them, but didn't reach out for the syringe. "Why, so she can tell you it's old rusty water?" he asked, playing his flashlight over the wall.
"How do you know? It could be something else," Buddy objected, pulling his own needle out from the wall. "They're all filled with the same stuff. We should take some, just in case."
"In case what?" Ace asked, looking at Buddy.
Buddy shrugged. "I don't know, just in case."
"Fine, suit yourself," Ace replied, "But don't say I didn't warn you when you accidentally jab yourself in the leg and you wind up in the hospital with tetanus."
"We were actually going to try playing darts before you showed up to ruin our fun," Teddy replied, still wondering if they should attempt it. Ace did have a point - what if there was something really nasty in the needles? Then again, it wasn't as if they'd be throwing them at each other. Right?
"Well don't let me stop you," Ace said, backing away from the two. "I'm going to look around a bit more, so you guys have fun playing darts with syringes."
Buddy watched him leave the room before turning to Teddy. "He can be so much fun sometimes, and such a killjoy at other times." They both laughed before deciding to go ahead and at least try throwing the needles they were holding at the wall.
Meanwhile Ace walked a bit further down the hall, turning a corner and seeing double doors at the end of the short hallway. It looked like an entrance to a typical surgery room, so he headed for it. He stopped before the doors, shining his flashlight through the window. The place was surprisingly clean, compared to the rest of the rooms they'd been in so far. Or maybe not clean, but at least it wasn't full of broken things and scattered garbage. There was an operating table there, in the middle of the room.
He opened the door and walked in, and right away he got that prickly feeling as though someone else was there, just out of sight. He'd have to tell Melody about it, because while he was skeptical of her occult stuff, sometimes the coincidence was enough to contemplate whether or not there was something to it. She tended to love rooms that had weird vibes to them. He stayed by the door, shining his flashlight around the entire room, into all the corners. There weren't really any hiding places in here, unless you hid in the lower cupboards. He walked over to them, pulling each one open. All empty, of course.
He still had a weird feeling, though, as if someone else was here. He stood in the middle of the room and looked around slowly, playing his light around the room, before finally turning it on the table. It was empty, of course, nothing on it. But he felt wary about approaching it, as though he knew in the back of his mind that something very terrible had happened here once. Which of course wasn't a stretch - it was an operating table in a mental institution. They'd probably performed numerous lobotomies in this very room. But something about it still creeped him out - he'd almost be willing to say he actually felt afraid, standing in this room. Afraid of what - no idea. But he wasn't really in the mood to stick around and find out. In fact, he kind of wanted to get out of the basement altogether now, head back up and find the others. He might not even tell Melody about the room. Or maybe he would. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad with more people around.
Just then he heard a sound behind him - and his first instinct was to hide. He was looking over at the cupboards now, wondering if he could contort his body to fit in one. No one would think to look for him there, would they? He walked a few steps closer before shaking himself out of fear's grip. If anyone was there, it was just Teddy or Buddy.
He turned around and played his flashlight over the wall by the door, seeing nothing. Who had he thought, briefly, was there? Why had he felt compelled to hide? He never hid from things. If a dangerous situation popped up, he was usually the first in line, shielding his friends. He'd been born with a natural inclination to protect those weaker than himself, but a moment ago the last thing he'd felt was strong.
There was just something odd about this room. The longer he stayed here, the weirder he felt, the less like himself. Maybe he should get Melody and bring her down here to get her opinion. Maybe there was something down here, some spirit trapped in the operating room, in a constant state of fear, maybe who died during an operation?
Why the hell was he actually contemplating this stuff? Maybe all he needed was another beer. And his girlfriend. If Starlight was here, he was certain he'd be fine - not because he refused to show weakness in front of her (they'd both been through some pretty rough things together, personally, so he wasn't afraid to admit to her when he needed help) but more so because she was so staunchly rooted in reality and facts that something as simple as a bad feeling wouldn't even cross her mind and if he told her it was crossing his she'd lecture those feelings out of him.
What he needed at the moment was less thoughts about Melody and her search for spirits, and more thoughts about Starlight, who was probably plotting revenge against him for his earlier antics. That was the way his girlfriend operated.
Starlight was standing in front of the building map, studying the diagram of the layout. She'd gotten over her initial concerns about potential issues in the building – she'd inspected walls and papers and hadn't found any physical signs of mold, there were no animal droppings, and no sign of ponies having been here recently. She was bored and tired of sitting around and listening to the others - she wanted to go exploring. She was looking at the route to find Melody and Patch, who'd gone to the children's ward. At first she'd thought of going to look for the boys, but wandering a pitch black basement with three sixteen year old guys made her realize how dumb that sounded. While Ace was usually pretty smart and responsible when they were together, she knew guys had a habit of getting themselves into really stupid trouble when they were in a group, and Teddy and Buddy didn't exactly have Ace's usual sense of responsibility. She wasn't really in the mood to babysit them.
But as she mapped out her route to the girls, she noticed a large library on the way. She wondered what kind of books they'd had there? Was it a scientific library, or one for the patients? She decided to go and find out. Now the only trouble would be leaving without the others insisting that she not go alone.
"Hey guys, I'm going out to find Patch and Melody," she announced to the group, really hoping no one would give her any trouble.
"By yourself?" Sweetheart asked, just a little concerned.
"Yeah, no big deal, the children's ward is easy to get to from here," she said, brushing it off as though it were no big deal. Because it wasn't.
"No way," Logan said, jumping up. "Maybe we should go with you, to make sure you find them? Then we can come back if no one wants to stay there," he said, looking back at the others.
"Unnecessary," Starlight said, feeling just a little annoyed. "I can find them perfectly well on my own."
"I don't know, it just seems dangerous, none of us should be going off alone," Logan replied, feeling like he ought to at least offer to accompany her himself. "If you guys don't want to go, I can walk her myself," Logan offered, looking from the other girls to Starlight.
"Logan, honestly, I don't need a babysitter," Starlight replied, allowing a hint of annoyance to creep into her voice. "I know how to get there, I will be fine."
"He does have a point, Starlight," Clover spoke up. "What if something happens to you before you find them?"
"Nothing will happen to me," Starlight said, "And even if it does, they'll find me on their way back. There's only one way to get there from here." That was a lie - but she knew none of them had studied the layout of the building yet. "Honestly you guys, I will be perfectly fine."
"I don't know," Logan said, "I have a bad feeling about this. I should go with you."
Starlight felt like screaming, but she somehow managed to remain calm. "You should really stay here." Just as they were about to continue their debate, the guys showed up.
"Where are you trying to go with my girlfriend, Logan?" Ace asked, as he walked up to Starlight and stood next to her. He could see the look of intense irritation on her face, so he kissed her just to make it worse, before fixing his eyes on Logan.
"Um, I just," Logan wasn't sure why he felt nervous at the moment - he had just been trying to be nice! "She wanted to go find Patch and Melody and, um, well we thought she shouldn't go alone," he finished lamely. He couldn't help it - he always felt a little intimidated when he talked to Ace. It hadn't always been that way - really not until Ace had started seriously dating Starlight again last year. Not that he had a crush on her or anything. Not at all.
Ace grinned - this was perfect! He knew how irritated Starlight got when anyone tried to tell her she couldn't do something. "Well that was awfully generous of you," he said, "but I'm back now, so I'll go with her. I need to talk to Mel anyway."
"Sure, fine, you guys can go," Logan said, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment. At least it was dark and no one could see. He wasn't even sure why he was embarrassed! This was stupid.
Starlight watched as Ace grabbed himself another beer and a bag of chips before turning to her and winking. She shook her head in amusement before grabbing a can for herself and turning on her flashlight before starting off up the stairs. She didn't bother turning back to say goodbye to her friends - she was still a little annoyed with Logan – hence the beer. She could hear Ace following behind her, and behind them everyone was listening to Teddy and Buddy tell stories of what they'd found in the basement.
She was silent until they reached the top of the stairs and there she turned to face her boyfriend. "That was good timing, by the way," she said, glad that he had shown up.
"Why, did I stop you from punching Logan?" He asked with a laugh.
She laughed back and turned down the hall, heading for the library. "Something like that."
"You're not surprised by his behaviour, are you? I mean, he does have a huge crush on you, so I think he was just looking for a way to get you alone," Ace teased, although he was pretty sure that Logan really did have a crush on his girlfriend. He wasn't the least bit threatened though - Logan couldn't compare to him in any facet.
"Oh don't go saying that," Starlight replied, hoping he was only joking.
"Why not? Suppressing feelings of your own?" He teased again.
"Oh yeah, Logan is definitely everything I've ever wanted. I love a guy who's unsure of himself," Starlight joked. One of her favourite things about Ace was his unwavering confidence in himself. That confidence usually had a way of passing on to others around him - provided they weren't in the midst of competition, of course. That was when Ace's ugly side came out.
Ace laughed. "His stammering speech doesn't do it for you?" He joked, which made Starlight laugh.
"Total turn on, you better watch out," she replied, before turning down another hall. "Okay so joking aside, we're not actually going to find Patch and Mel, sorry," she told him.
"What? Where are we going?" He asked, a little bothered because he did want to discuss the basement with Melody. Once he'd left the operating room he'd been surprised at how much better he'd felt. The room definitely had something weird going on in it.
"The library," Starlight replied.
"Library? Are you serious? Are we meeting up with Brighteyes and Lancer?" He asked sarcastically.
Starlight grinned and looked back at him. "No, they're investigating doctor offices."
"How thrilling," he replied, voice still full of sarcasm.
"Oh come on, think about it. Would you rather go find Patch and Mel, or go to the library with me, where we will be alone?" She waited until he looked at her before winking at him and taking a sip of her beer. While making out with Ace hadn't really been on her list of reasons for wanting to visit the library, it was a good way to get him to stop whining about it.
"Good point," he relented, "Should have brought along a blanket." They both laughed at the comment, walking side by side down the hall. The library was ahead.
"I honestly just want to see what kind of library it is, you know? Scientific, or packed with fiction?" She explained, as she stopped before the library doors. It looked much nicer than she expected, with large windows letting in a lot of light.
"Well, it looks pretty nice for a hospital library," he stated, before pulling a door open and gesturing for her to go through.
"Ah such chivalry," she said sarcastically as he held the door open for her.
"Hey, with Logan after you, I have to up my game," he replied jokingly as they went inside and made their way to the large barred-over windows. There was a sitting area there, with two couches and some chairs. Everything was rather dusty, of course, but Ace did what he could with the cushions on one of the couches. They angled the couch so it looked out through the windows, the night sky and surrounding trees visible.
"This is actually a really beautiful view, if you look past the bars that is," Starlight said, electing to not think about how gross the couch cushions still were despite a brief shaking. She cuddled next to Ace, leaning her head against his shoulder.
Ace smiled and had to agree with his girlfriend - it was a lovely view from the library. "Maybe we should officially separate from the rest of the group and sleep in here tonight," he suggested slyly, before taking a sip of his can.
"We'll see," Starlight replied, not really opposed to the idea. It was almost like camping with this view. "For now hand me that bag of chips, I'm hungry."
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That's it for now! There is a lot more story to get to, but let me know what you think so far!
I'm reading it now! 
But yeah, I guess you're right. It's great inspiration, reading all of the roleplays and stuff. So yeah, someone appreciates it.