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]

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.

[mitochondriaaya]

Far later in life Aya would be able to appreciate the ability to get guys to do some of the heavier work by virtue of her being a girl. Some any way. For now though, well, she was a fourteen year old girl with touchy pride and two boys as her best friend. So yes, she appreciated getting a good armful that she could just barely see over.

"Hey, do you think I could interview her for history reports and stuff? Do you think the teachers would believe me?" Suddenly, there were interesting possibilities with this ghost! History reports, female questions Aya woudl be embarrassed to ask a living woman....

[sliceitwithwind]

Not these guys, though. They will always expect her to do her part.

"That's what the rest of us do! You just gotta figure out new questions, you know?"

[mitochondriaaya]

Well, it was always hard to pull things over on people who knew you well? Besides, they would do a lot of the heavier parts of remodeling her house when she got one! Just...for different reasons.

"How do you cite her? I mean, do you just list her as a historian you interviewed?" She was going to figure this out!

[sliceitwithwind]

Species and age, yup.

"You list her by name. I mean, all the teachers from here know her!"