Haunted Housing

[sliceitwithwind]

In any given town there is always at least one house with a Certain Reputation. In the case of their town the house had two reputations, making it an excellent place for teenagers of all kinds to go hang out.

Yup, the local abandoned house was a haunted brothel. Drab on the outside, but the tales of the inner furnishings promised over-abundant decadence, and it was something of a rite of passage to go there. Break in during the day for hanky-panky, stay overnight for courage.

The brothel had been abandoned a good thirty years before, but nobody could ever figure out, through the tangle of legal red tape, who even had the right to tear it down. So it sat out on the inland edges of town.

Which is of course why Braig decided that since he and Dilan were back from college for the first break, they needed to drag Aya along to the haunted brothel as a bonding activity to make sure she knew that they still were a trio.

Cue camping gear, dusk, and Dilan giggling nervously.

Comments

[sliceitwithwind]

The ghost smiles benevolently at Aya, and starts telling stories about the owner of those trinkets, and her life.

[mitochondriaaya]

Awww, the woman had been saving up to move elsewhere and marry! The delicate earrings in the box had belonged to her mother, the pictures were of her beau, a young man who wasn't a frequent patron of the house.

She hadn't made it out of the fire.

"Should we...bury these?" Aya asked, carefully tucking the things back in the box. it seemed kind of rude to be looking at them now.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Nah." Braig said, "How else will later people know about her?"

The ghost smiled, sweetly, at Aya. Dilan hugged her (Aya, not the ghost) and said, "Yeah. Veronique tells stories about who you find, you know?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yeah, but these were special to her you know?" She patted the lid firmly back on before hugging Dilan back. "Okay, help me get these back up into the closet." And then they could move on?

She had every intention of tucking that cigar box back carefully behind all the hat boxes again.

[sliceitwithwind]

Braig moved into position to hold her up, "Well, yeah, but still. Better to know, man, than be forgotten."

[mitochondriaaya]

Aya clambered back up on the skeletal chair and took boxes that were passed to her. "I don't know. I don't know if I want to be a story for people I don't know, you know?" It was kind of morbid?

"What next now?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"I want to be remembered forever." Braig said, firmly. Dilan just shrugged, he didn't care.

[mitochondriaaya]

"That's cause you're a show-off." Aya snorted, hopping down and then poking Braig's side. "What do you want them to remember about you?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Hell yeah." he said, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her tight, "I want them to remember me as some kind of great brain. Don't know what I'll do," "We'll do." Dilan interjected, "We'll do yet, but that's that."

[mitochondriaaya]

"You're both geniuses. You'll solve world hunger or something, then I'll have to beat reporters out of my town so you guys can have peaceful vacations." Aya grinned. "After that you'll be so sick of fame you'll want to be hermits!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Something like that." Dilan agrees, humming out of tune and dusting the walls.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Something." Aya agreed, reaching out to snag Dilan. "Okay, let's go somewhere else? Or we can get firewood and start dinner!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"I can cook!" Dilan said, "The two of you can keep poking around, if you want." Dilan cooking is Dilan not cleaning.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Deal!" Aya laughed. "We'll get the wood and then we'll poke around a bit more."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Okay!" Dilan grinned at the ghost and Braig, then took Aya's hand so they could run and get wood for cooking.

[mitochondriaaya]

Aya grinned and left the candle to Braig, Dilan had better nearly-night vision than she did and he wouldn't let her run into anything! "Braig, ma'am, we'll see you in the room with our stuff?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Sounds good!" Braig called after them before turning to chat with the ghost.

"Enjoying yourself, Ayay?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"It's...weird." Aya admitted, grinning none-the-less. "A real live ghost! Or dead, live ghost? Umm." What exactly was the term that applied to the situation?

"It's really weird to stand by her. It makes me feel like that time I touched those wires Braig had."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Which one? The telegraph, or that thing we did with the limes? Before I ate the limes?" Dilan is briefly sidetracked by thoughts of dessert, "She's neat, though. I really like her. For, you know, having been here all of twice before this."

[mitochondriaaya]

"The limes I think. Braig threatened to hang me upside down if I jiggled the telegraph lines." She admitted after a moment of thought. "Does the crawly feeling go away? And hey, you've been here two other times? When was the other time??"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, to be fair, we all had a lot riding on the telegraph project." Dilan reminded her, "It does, yeah, eventually. I was here last year, for Sam's turn."

[mitochondriaaya]

"We had a bag of apples and an ice cream certificate riding on it!" That was hardly a lot! "And well, old man Gregory was happy to see it working. I guess that was good? But that wasn't worth hanging me upside down!" Not in her opinion anyway.

"Oh, okay. That's alright I guess." As long as they weren't sneaking off to this place like a secret club she hadn't been allowed to!

[sliceitwithwind]

"They were really good apples." Dilan huffed at her, "And it kept you from touching it."

He picks up wood and starts handing it to her, "You know we wouldn't leave you out of things regularly. Not after we broke our legs."

[mitochondriaaya]

"I just wanted to send Morse code messages too. I totally knew a little!" Aya laughed and held out her arms for better piling upon. "Good. I hate to have to break our legs all over again."

[sliceitwithwind]

"I know, I know." Dilan laughed as well, and gave her as much as he thought she could carry; less than him or Braig, but not so much less that it can't be explained by differences in age and species rather than sex. He'd never, ever discriminate against her by sex. He likes breathing, you see.