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]

"Rabbits don't have thumbs, Aya, and it'd be a long, long time before they could evolve that kind of dexterity."

Dilan was half-dozing, not thinking enough to go "WAIT JOKE".

Braig, however, chuckled at both of them and started sticking rabbit strips on skewers.

[mitochondriaaya]

"But they are wiggly bastards! Get a rabbit on either end of a rope and have them jump through loops and tug tight..." Yes, she'd totally run with the idea of evil bunnies?

And no eye rolling allowed when she used flint and steel from a pack to light the fire! SHE COULDN'T DO MAGIC!

[sliceitwithwind]

"Aya, you're weird." it was, to be fair, said from a Dilan whose eyes were closed and in response to the rabbit conversation, not the fire.

Neither boy would roll their eyes, ever, at Aya's need to use flint and steel. It wasn't fair to her, and it was something Dilan fully planned on researching later. Dilan was a halfbreed, Braig was very short for an adult male, and Aya couldn't use magic. That's just how it was.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yeah, but so are you guys so it's okay." She snorted and got a tiny spark. A bit of careful tending and there was a fire for the meat!

And eye-rolling was the new biggest thing in school. It was safer than snickering in her presence and didn't involve teacher interventions! "And we'd be boring if we were normal."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yup." Dilan agreed, stretching and opening his eyes again when the warmth hit, "Mmmm, that feels good Aya. My bones have been hurting lately."

"Boring? As if. We'd die first."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Which is a roundabout way of saying you'd die before being normal?" Aya laughed and held a hand out for spits to lay over the fire.

Then? Then there was a worried look at Dilan! "Bones hurting? That isn't normal! We should go to the doctor right?" What if he had bone cancer or something?!

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yup." The spits were handed over to Aya as he finished them, hands moving quickly, but surely. Body habits, like cooking with Aya and Dilan, were comfortable.

Dilan nodded a little, "I did. He said I'm probably getting ready for a growth-spurt. I'm hoping for at least five-two, like Braig."

He'll be getting an inch shy of seven feet. Ooops?

[mitochondriaaya]

Aya laid the spits out properly just as mechanically as Braig assembled them, still looking Dilan over worriedly. "Well, it'll be cool if we all end up at Braig's height, but still. Your bones hurt. How can we help that?" Because that wasn't normal, or comfortable, or even close to 'okay'.

Some thought, some thought...

..."Maybe we could ask Elsy about a trip to a hotspring?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Ooo, that'd be nice." Dilan agreed, "I love the hotsprings. Keeping warm helps a little? I think it's just something I'm gonna have to deal with until it's over."

Braig sighed, "I admit it. I'm, like, worried too. Mom says that it's normal for Dilan's clan-members to have some pain prior to growing, but..."

"I'm a half-breed, and we don't know how that's going to work."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Did we bring a cell phone? We can call home and ask now before we forget." And if they got Elsy on it, they wouldn't need to worry about putting it off too long...

Naturally she was going to ruffle Dilan's dreads then reach past him for a bag to dig through. She might be able to find one before the boys answered! "Normal or not, anything that helps is good."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Mom doesn't know either!" Dilan protested, "It's a guess, it's all a guess. I don't wanna talk about it today."

"Sheesh, okay." Braig held his hands up, shaking his head.

[mitochondriaaya]

"...fine." Aya held up her hands too, then pushed the bag away with her foot. "Won't then. REMIND ME LATER." to ask Elsy. She didn't think she'd forget but!

FRET.

"So, we're cooking meat in a haunted brothel. What else are we suppose to do tonight that leaves me unwilling to tell others about it and/or crawling out of my skin?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well...if you tell other people it'll mean they don't get to have the same experience. It'd, like, ruin it." Braig said, and this was logic that had held up as long as the tradition had.

"We could tell scary stories, if you want." Dilan mused, wiggling over to put his head on Aya's lap. So weird to have her bigger than him, but whatever. He could still eat on their level...more than usual, even! "I've got some good ones about student housing and class signups."

Their take on "scary stories" was a little different from most people's.

[mitochondriaaya]

She turned spits of meat then fell back into the natural 'pet the lap kitty' bit. It didn't matter that her knees were boney now, she still had a lap! "Well, you are right about that. I guess I won't tell people unless I'm getting tortured or something then." Because she wasn't going to make a promise without some limits!

"Oooo, yeah, I have to know about those things soon." So these stories were important? "And knowing how armed to be when I go..."

[sliceitwithwind]

"That's fair." the boys allowed with Braig adding, "You're way more important than any secret."

Dilan grinned at Braig, and Braig started in on horror stories about cramped dorm rooms, bad roommates (some of their friends have them), and getting all the wrong classes.