Something in the Night (O/A)

[ValidEmotions]

[Past day South Higgins]

 

The sun shone warmly, offering safety and tender light. Blades of grass swayed softly in the faint breeze, hinting at the start of Autumn. Taking note of the position of the sun, it couldn't be any later than mid-afternoon. The hill upon which the pair of girls sat overlooked a portion of the small town. Beneath them, a view of the park could be seen and, from it, the distant chorus of laughter drifted upwards. A group of kids were gathered, no doubt spending as much of the daylight together as possible during the ending days of Summer Break. Upon close inspection, the girls might recognize one or two kids from the group and, from said recognition, come to an estimate of how far back in time they had traveled.

 

Night would be approaching fast after another hour or so and the group would soon disperse, heading their separate ways towards home. Each knew of the dangers that lurked unseen in the evening. The form taken by said danger, however, was unknown and left to the individual's imagination. Some lived closer to the park than the others, giving them nothing to worry about so long as they did not linger. Those that lived farther away, kept an eye on the setting sun and the other on the surrounding area.

 

As shadows grew larger and the few street lamps that lined the main road flickered on, people disappeared into their homes and ushered family or friends inside. Low growls rumbled through patches of trees, too soft to penetrate through shuttered windows and sturdy walls. With the growls, figures began to take form, rising from the ground as wavering masses before solidifying into definite shapes. Some appeared in groups, others on their own. Handfuls took flight and hid within the dark sky while the rest slunk away out of sight like practiced hunters.

 

Distant from the girls' vantage point, a lone figure rushed down the street, flickering into sight whenever it crossed through a cone of artificial light. If the girls paid any attention, they would catch sight of the young male, a high school junior known to be Roodie Forny. Now, if they paid even more attention, they would note that said boy had disappeared shortly before the new school year had begun. A closer look, also, would reveal a loping shadow behind Roodie and, when exposed by a street lamp, turn out to be a Feline-Lizard Nightmare. Both left the exposure of the light, no sound except the tugging wind blowing through the town.

 

A handful of moments passed before the boy came back to sight, pausing beneath another street lamp and pressing his back against the rusted pole. A heartbeat passed in anticipation, the boy holding himself as still and quiet as possible. Shortly, the pursuing Nightmare edged itself into the street lamp's reach, shoulders rolling smoothly as it crept towards Roodie. He pressed himself further back against the lamp, his mouth working but producing no audible sound yet to the girls.

 

"H-Help!"

 

Leaping, the Nightmare yowled and dragged Roodie to the ground, pinning him down with its large paws. Moments ticked away as the boy was forced to stare up at the dark creature. Another Nightmare soon arrived, its slithering body moving to coil around Roodie's stomach. The student cried out, unable to wriggle free from both creatures.

[Skellybones]

Rose looked up, frowning. The sun had set and now the moon hung low in the sky. Despite the heat from previously that day, she was feeling cold. The past had a certain... coldness to it. As if the light was that of a winter's day. Cold, despite the clear sky. "Did you hear something?" She asked, squinting to see further down the hill.

"I thought I did..." Leona paused.

"If this is the near past, won't there be nightmares?" Rose asked, thinking hard.

"Well yeah..." Leona chewed her lip for a moment. "Oh. Oooohhh noo...." She groaned, her eyes scanning frantically along the patches of light from the street lamp.

"What?" Rose inquired, standing suddenly.

Leona looked at her, fear building up inside her eyes. Visible fear, almost terror. "Roodie Forny." Was all she said, before she took off down the hill, running as fast as she could.

Rose followed, still confused, after the slightly older girl, tumbling down the hill, stumbling here and there. Leona was like a bullet. She would just not stop.

 

When she finally did come to a halt, she hid behind the nearby building.

Rose peered out, willing herself to be undetectable, before striding out casually, and gasping at what she saw. Roodie was being dragged by two nightmares- A feline-lizard and... something else. She looked at Leona, her muscles twitching, wanting to move. Leona shook her head, whispering. "It's the past. We cannot change the past."

Rose shook her head, and broke into a jog, following the boy.

[ValidEmotions]

[Present Day South Higgins]

 

Andrew kept his head down, staring at his backpack and barely catching the names of the elected student body. There weren't many students to vote from and almost everyone knew each other. Hard not to when you lived in a small town with no more than roughly 800 or so people. Most had lived in this town since they were born, growing up with all the other students who had been the same. As such, votes were made on popularity more than familiarity (though the two probably went hand in hand).

 

Once the freshman student council was listed, the principal moved onto sophomores. Again, she worked upwards to the student president. "Miss Katarina Gorbachova will be the Sophomore Social Chairperson! " Things had to be interesting. Glancing around, Andrew searched for the somewhat familiar face among the sea of students, finding her a moment later as a teacher was beckoning for Katja to get up and walk over to where the other Student Body Council stood.

 

His fingers drummed lightly against the spine of his book, idly feeling the faint crease made from constant folding. It was a favorite book of his, filled with adventure and suspension and action. He loved the world it created around him. Is the student council all that's being announced today? Nope. After the names were through being called, the principal started to ask if the students were excited for a new school year. About half of the crowd cheered and the other half just shouted things indifferently.

 

"Since it's a new year, some have suggested that we have a 'welcome back' spirit week. Personally, I like the idea. So? What do all of you say?" At this prompting, a majority, if not all, of the students whooped or shouted agreement. Andrew ignored the loud clamor, wondering if he should read his book or wait until he was in class. "Alright, for this year's first spirit week, the faculty and your student councils last year created a list of themes. This week, you'll be voting on those themes and Friday will see them announced in class." With that, the principal dismissed the students and teachers shouted to gathered their classes. Most of second period had been used for the assembly which left voting for a later hour in future day. Andrew frowned faintly, grunting a bit when an older student bumped into his shoulder. On purpose or not, he didn't bother to find out, focusing on returning to class.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Narvix

[ValidEmotions]

((The serpent's just a Bird-Snake. Wanted to make sure you knew, Shadow. ... Hmmm I'm thinking we should come up with some better names for the individual Nightmares.))

 

[Past Day South Higgins]

 

Roodie kept struggling, whimpering and kicking at the creatures that dragged him along the ground. Dirt gathered under his nails as he left claw marks behind. "Somebody! Help!" The boy cried out, catching movement in the darkness and hoping it to be human. "Please!" He could feel the serpent's coils tighten around him as the feline snarled and disappeared. The cat-like Nightmare edged away from the other, turning its attention to the shadows behind it. Something had stirred and spoken but the sound was too soft to be positive. Still, out of the prospect of having yet more prey, the Feline-Lizard hovered to the side.

 

The Nightmares were taking the boy towards the edge of town. In the gloom of darkness, a shape could be seen with close inspection. To the girls, it would - no doubt - be familiar and labeled as the abandoned house outside of South Higgins. However, before the Nightmares actually reached the desolate building, they sunk into the ground; Roodie along with them. Should the girls attempt to follow, they would be disappointed about the vanishing act but, should they try the old house, they would find the crooked door steadfastly locked within its frame.

 

((Don't know if you'd be alright with Leona and Rose being taken back to the present, Shadow. I'll release some better clues within a couple of pages for the characters to start solving what's going on and how to stop it.))

[Skellybones]

((Sure I had written up a reply, but something happened to it, and I couldn't be bothered to write it up again O.o))

 

Leona stopped, a tingling made its way up her arm, spreading over her body. She looked upwards, seeing Rose standing, staring at the boy as he struggled. Sprinting forward, she reached out. Not long. Maybe a minute or so. Her hand closed around the younger girl's arm, just as the tingling reached its climax. "Hold on." She murmured, as a dizzying feeling overcame her. She shut her eyes, waiting for the ground to reappear beneath her.

 

Rose almost yelped as a hand rested on her arm. She was about to lash out when she heard the voice. Anger spiked through her, just as the ground fell away beneath her. Her eyes were forced to close.

 

The both opened their eyes, before stumbling and falling in a field. It was near the farm. In the close distance, the old house rose up.

[coralkiki]

"Miss Katarina Gorbachova will be the Sophomore Social Chairperson! " Katja looked around the sea of people, slightly confused, but happy none the less. She hadn’t thought she was in the running for any of the student body positions, and honestly, it was a pleasant surprise. Made her feel cool. She stood up, and walked over to the rest of the student body. She waited calmly throughout the rest of the announcements, smiling a bit at the thought of spirit week. That was always fun.

 

The assembly came to an end, and Katja trailed a little behind the rest of the students waiting to leave until she was sure that the teachers didn’t have any extra information for her. Finally being allowed to leave, Katja headed outside to find her friends. A rather loud complaint from her stomach reminded her that she still hadn’t had time to eat breakfast, and as she stepped out into the sun, she fished an apple out of her knapsack and bit into it.

 

((I'm just assuming that they've got the rest of 2nd period off. If that's not the case, I'll go ahed and change it ))

[ValidEmotions]

Jason was buzzing with barely contained excitement. He enjoyed Spirit Week, participating as much as he could with his limited amount of clothes. Normally, themes weren't voted on by the entire student body but, it was probably just a new thought for the beginning of the year. He honestly liked the idea of being able to choose which theme he liked best. When the assembly was finished, he waited a bit for other students to clear out of the bleachers before heading down himself, listening for his teacher's call.

 

A glance at the clock told him that lunch was still a couple hours away and he pouted, slumping his shoulders. He was hungry now. Cursing his luck for waking up late and skipping breakfast to get to class on time, the boy followed the rest of his schoolmates down the hallways and towards his third period class.

 

~ Time Skip to Lunch ~

 

The bell rang.

 

Finally! Food! Jason snatched his bag and slung it over his shoulder after stuffing his books into the backpack. As usual, he was one of the first few students to rush out the classroom door, making a quick B-line for the cafeteria and lunch line. Given that most of the food the cooks made weren't all that appealing in sight (they tended to be reheated frozen packages), his mouth still salivated at the smell of cooked meat and warm bread. Hamburgers were passed out everyday as the basic lunch meal while the two other lines provided an assortment of sandwiches or a special hot-lunch.

 

What to eat? What to eat?

 

Trying to see over people was no problem for Jason and he was able to make a rough headcount of the lines. He wasn't picky about what he ate so long as he could get something to eat quickly. Today, the sandwich line had the fewer amount of kids in it and, when he reached the front, he got himself a tuna fish sandwich with an apple and carton of chocolate milk. Food in hand, he went to find a seat and waved over Marcos, Dax, and anyone else he saw that had gone out the previous night.

[Skellybones]

Rose crouched, rocking, with her arms around her knees. She thought back to what happened. Shivers ran down her spine. Leona sat beside her. They both looked at South Higgins with a new light, thinking of all the horrors that lay under the gentle exterior. Rose looked up towards the older girl. "Why didn't you do something?" She asked, her voice tired.

"I did. I stopped you creating a paradox." Rose looked at Leona blankly. She sighed. "A paradox is where you do something in the past, but because you did that, you didn't go back to that point. But because you didn't do it, you go back and change it. It goes on and on and on like that. OK?"

Rose grumbled something, before standing. Leona raised an eyebrow at her. Rose rolled her eyes. "We'd better get off to school, I don't know about you, but my parents will be furious if they find out I didn't go."

Leona nodded. The orphanage punished you for little things like that. She motioned for Rose to take lead, and both girls set off towards the school building, excuses running in circles in their minds.

[coralkiki]

Finally, lunch. Though she wasn’t particularly hungry, Katja trailed along into the cafeteria along with all the other teens. Spying around the room she quickly spotted Jason waving her over, and she casually made her way over to him and the others he had called to him. “Heyheyhey!” She said, giving everyone a gigantic smile as she tossed her bag down on the ground. Two seconds later, she sat down on one of the chairs, crossing her legs and leaning a little casually. “What’s new?” She asked, puckering her lips as she saw just who was gathering.

[ValidEmotions]

((Shadow, go ahead and have your characters catch up however you like, just make sure they're back at school before lunch ends so they can share what knowledge they have :3))

 

"Hey Katja, nothing much." Dax was picking at a bologna sandwich, tearing off small bits of the bread crust and nibbling on it. Truth was, he was shy about eating around other people save his family. At least, within this group as everyone else was eating too, he was able to take a few regular bites before returning to nibbling on crust bits. "Is anyone going to participate in Spirit Week? What possessed Ms. Aklo to agree with a 'welcome back' event? I mean, there's already Homecoming in a couple of months. Isn't that sufficient enough?" Such a downer Dax, I swear. He shook his head, partially combed hair shifting into faint disarray. A light yawn caught him before he could speak again, brought upon him from the hint of exhaustion he still felt. "Do any of you recall the number of Nightmares we fought? It seemed like an awful lot to be attacking Mr. Whicket..." He frowned, wondering about the 'gang-up' tactic. Normally, it was simply one or two Nightmares for each human in a single location.

 

Marcos nudged him, a slight look of confusion underlying his general appearance of ease. "Ah, it doesn't matter right now. What does matter was that we got rid of them and the old farmer's safe." The Salvadorian shook his head, returning to his lunch of some kind of tortilla wrap with meat and other ingredients. Dax rubbed at his upper arm where Marcos's elbow had been ever so kindly - lightly - jabbed.

 

Jason smiled at Katja's arrival, swallowing a bit of his school lunch. He'd gotten a spaghetti dish from the cafeteria line. Half the time, he brought a lunch from home but there wasn't any sandwich meat in the refrigerator at home currently. "Katja! You excited for Spirit Week?" He ignored Dax's dull statement about there already being Homecoming.

 

((I think I'm actually going to drop Christopher and Andrew. For only the three of us, I think it's overwhelming for me to have five characters >_< I'll still keep them in storage or something incase a need arises for them.))

[Skellybones]

((OK))

 

Rose ducked down in the playground, trying not to let anyone see her. Leona followed suit. The canteen seemed a mile away. Rose muttered a quick "Hurry up!" to Leona, as they both turned from quick walk to jogging. Neither particularly knew why, but they were hungry, so they were allowed to break school rules this once... right?

Eventually, they emerged at the door. Leona glanced around for a moment, looking for a free table, before seeing the others they had met last night... or... two nights ago, depending on which timeline you were working with. They both seated themselves, breathing slightly audible, trying to hear what the others were saying and make sense of it.

"...them and the old farmer's safe." That was the only thing either girl heard.

[ValidEmotions]

[[Just bumping upward]]

[coralkiki]

“Of course I’m excited for spirit week!” Katja said, sitting up straight again. “There’s no better way to start of the year,” She continued to ramble, finding the subject of spirit week and homecoming a lot more tempting than that of nightmares. “Since you know, homecoming,” She pointed out, sending Dax a look, “is in a couple of months, it’s not really a ‘welcome back event’” She held two fingers up to mark the meaning of the last words.

 

((Feel free to do whatever you please, Narvix, I totally get where you're coming from^^ and considering I'm struggling to keep up with one charrie, I can't exactly pester you to have five. ))

[ValidEmotions]

Dax frowned, staring at Katja as she replied. "Well... I guess you have some kind of point... But then, why do they call it Homecoming if it wasn't intended to be a 'welcome back event?'" he responded, mimicking her gesture around the same phrase. He smirked, wanting to hear what Katja would use to possibly refute his point. Marcos's elbow nudged his arm again and the boy's smirk faded into slight irritation.

 

"Come on, Dax. Lighten up! It's just supposed to be a fun event. No need to get your boxers all twisted up in a bunch! Just go with it and enjoy the creativity for once. Will ya?" Marcos gently punched the moody boy in the shoulder, earning a faint scowl and an irritated 'fine.' "Hey! There you two are! I was wondering where you disappeared off to!" He caught sight of Leona and Rose as they approached, referring to the night before when they - literally - vanished into thin air. "What happened anyways? Where'd you two go?"

 

Jason, not yet caught on to the girls' arrival, further ignored Dax's remarks and just focused on his conversation with Katja. "I agree! Class is always so boring! Spirit Week brings out all of the cool and funny outfits! What theme are you going to vote for? I'm thinking of aliens or bizarre creatures!"

 

[[Feel free to come up with any theme you like. We'll put together a list in the OOC thread and tally votes there.]]

Edited May 19, 2013 by Narvix

[ValidEmotions]

[[bump]]

[coralkiki]

Katja opened her mouth to come with a witty comment, but she really didn’t have anything to counter Dax with. She closed her mouth and puckered her lips, a little annoyed, before returning her attention to Jason. At least he shared the same enthusiasm as her for spirit week. “You know what, that’s an ingenious idea!” She said, her face lighting up. “I mean, we have enough experience with bizarre creatures, don’t we? Just imitate a nightmare, and we’re good to go.” She bared her teeth and wriggled her fingers in the way you would do to scare a two year old, stopping just as she noticed the arrival of the two girls. “Oh, hey.” She said, suddenly a lot calmer. A little worried look crossed her face as she noticed they were breathing heavily, “Is everything alright?”

 

 

[Skellybones]

Rose glared at Leona, pulling up a chair and sitting in it. Leona did the same, suddenly all self-conscious as the red-head continued to glower at her. She shook her head in exhaustion, giving the others a wary glance. "Time travel. Of all the things I could get... I got time travel..."

Rose narrowed her eyes, taken over by a sudden wave of spitefulness. "Of all the people I could have been stuck with, I got stuck with her. Stuck with someone who didn't value another's life." The pair continued to glare at each other. Leona's hands shook with anger.

"Well I'm sorry, I wanted to help, but I know the rules. Why don't you? Surely you've seen all of those movies where if one single thing were to happen... The whole history of the world would be at stake?" Her words were poison, lashing out at Rose.

Rose herself didn't react well to the comment. "Well we could have done something, that was not that long ago. only the last... I don't know, three days or so were at stake!"

[ValidEmotions]

"Wait, slow down. Tell us what happened," Marcos cut in, trying to stop the girls from arguing and get their minds focused on the present curiosity. He lightly tapped Jason's shoulder, stopping the boy mid-sentence so that he could also listen to what Leona and Rose had to say. "You two just vanished, gone completely from my radar, and now you show up arguing about something." The Salvadorian tended to refer to his ability as a 'radar' since that was basically what it seemed to be.

 

Jason was starting to agree with Katja, too much thought on the coming Spirit Week, that he hadn't fully registered Rose and Leona still. However, he did catch on finally when Marcos tapped his shoulder. "Huh? Oh! Hey! What's up? Where'd you two go off to last night?" He heard Marcos groan and glanced over to see him laugh faintly. Dax, beside him, had simply chosen to roll his eyes. "What?"

 

"Marcos and Katja have already been asking those questions. If you'd pay attention more to your surroundings, you would have known," Dax sighed, frowning.

 

[[shadow, I don't recall if you wanted the others to know Leona and Rose's names already or not.]]

[Skellybones]

((I don't mind, I suppose some of them are in the same class, right? So they would know their names x) ))

 

Leona shook her head sadly, resting her head on a hand. "Time travel. You guys have way more useful powers. But yeah, my power is time travel." She shut her eyes, not wanting to recount her night's experience, but did so anyway. "I took both me and Rose back in time last night. Turns out I didn't go far at all." Shivers ran down her spine, despite the warmth of the room. "We appeared in the recent past." Now, she looked up, fear sparkling in her eyes. Her plait swayed gently. "You guys have heard of Roodie Forney, right? You know he wasn't in school yesterday?"

Rose butted in. "We might have found him. Or at least, seen him. But thanks to this... person, I didn't get a chance to help him."

[ValidEmotions]

[[bumping for Coral]]

[coralkiki]

Katja sent Jason a grin. “See? I can pay attention on occasion.” Happy with herself, she turned her attention back to the two girls, doing her best to understand what had just happened. “Roodie Forney?” She asked. “What do you mean you might have found him? And why on earth did you need to help him?” She puckered her lips; she didn’t like the tone the girls where speaking in, a lot less than even the topic of time travel and paradoxes. It could only mean there was some serious trouble going on.

[Skellybones]

Leona sighed. Some teenagers could be incredibly spoiled. "We found out where he was all right. The nightmares got him."

"Apparantly, we couldn't save him because us seeing him would have meant that we would not have gone in the first place, but us not going would have meant we would have gone which would mean that we wouldn't have gone..."

"Before you start rambling on about nonsense..." Leona glared at Rose. "It would have caused a paradox. Trust me, you don't want to be stuck in a paradox."