The City Sleeps In Flames
Scary Kids Scaring Kids
The notorious group of friends were standing in the middle of an intersection downtown. The wind blew ever so slightly as they stood there looking up at the courthouse in the middle of the town's center. It was silent. The ashes still fell as if there was an every burning fire or maybe even the houses burning on the other side of town. From where they stood there was no way to tell and no one was willing to break up from one another to find out.
"Now what?" Hikaru asked as she looked around, rubbing her arms. She didn't like this, not one bit. In fact, she fucking hated it.
"Who knows..." K23 mumbled as he too looked around though it didn't help any as they couldn't see very far ahead.
The walls were all boarded up and there was blood all along the boards that were smeared in a very gruesome way. Some of the windows were boarded up and some doors were hanging off their hinges, revealing torn up stores and fallen products. It was as if a full on raid had occurred in the small town and the family had missed out on all of the action.
"What the hell happened?" Nisorin said in a small cry of outrage, especially after he saw the condition of the electronic store that Nisorin worked at. "I mean seriously? What the fuck?"
"We seriously need to get to the bottom of this." Gaser mumbled.
"Yeah." K23 was silent for a moment. "Lets split u-"
"NO." Ino screeched, her voice echoing out in the ash-filled air. " I'm NOT splitting up! You god damn moron!" she said in outrage as she, once again, clung to Orph's arm in an attempt to protect herself. "Slenderman is gonna get us." she said in a more whimper like tone.
"Or...well..." K23 seemed to be lost for word. They really did need to split up, as it was the only way they were ever going to cover the entire town in a shorter time period. There wasn't anything else he could do. With a sigh he said, "We have to." he stated, flatly, trying to make it obvious that this was what they were doing and they had to go with it.
"But...but.." Ino whined as she looked from K23 to Orph with wide eyes. "We can't..." she whimpered as she started to shake a bit, tears forming in her eyes.
"It's gonna be okay..." K23 said in a soothing voice before turning to the others. "Now, lets go." he then said in a more forceful tone. Without really needing to explain it everyone split up into the initial groups they were with from earlier with only some slight moderation.
Hikaru, in her typical pissy mood, glared at just about everything. She was scared and even though she didn't admit it, you could kind of tell she was, especially when she would hold herself differently when there was a noise and with the way she would particularly hold herself against Gaser. In fear.
Ino kept herself clung to Orph's arm as the three of them, Orph, Ino, and K23, walked down the street to search for...well, anything really. Any signs of life, perhaps, or maybe a clue as to what the fuck had happened to their little town. Even though they weren't seen all that much in the town anymore it didn't change the fact that they still cared. A little. Not to mention this particular group always ended up in either trouble or trying to figure something out even if it got them nearly killed and/or in trouble.
The ash seemed to keep falling in an endless cycle. The fog never cleared up entirely but they were starting to be able to see past their general range of 20 feet, at least for now. However even if this was a good thing in a strange situation, it didn't make the town any less of an eyesore. The blood was, well, everywhere. There didn't seem to be a place that there wasn't some sort of blood mark on or any boarded windows and it seemed, the farther they went down the street, there wasn't any house that was left untouched.
"This is...really disturbing." Ino commented, suddenly in a different mood. That was one of the strange things about her - no, not along with the bipolar disorder. Her mood seemed to shift in an entirely awkward situation, such as now. Ino always found it interesting to explore abandoned towns and houses that had strange histories and their town had suddenly appeared to be one of these things in what seemed to be over night. "Maybe we should actually look in some of the houses?" Ino asked as she stopped in the middle of a street, gazing at a house that had toddler toys in the front yard and the porch light still on; her heart ached at this scene. "But not this one." she mumbled to herself.
"No..maybe not the houses but some of the stores." K23 wasn't looking at the house but instead ahead of them, towards the high school they all went, and some still going, to. "I have a feeling maybe something with be there?"
"HOLY SHIT." Jeebus cried as he darted off into the fog, UnStellar behind him along with Zak, Red, and Lyoko. "RUN."
A bird-type thing, a mutated-fucking-pigeon was following them with claws the size of daggers and a beak as sharp as a scythe. It made a high pitched caw sound as it flew above them, swooping every now and again in an attempt to snatch one up but failing as Jeebus or Stellar would cry in outrage and throw something random at them.
"RUN FOR THE CARS." Stellar added after Jeebus as they all sprinted back towards the impromptu parking lot the family had made. Jeebus slid on some gravel, though managing to stay upright, and attempted to open his car.
After a few failed attempts on getting the key in the slot he managed, however the door wouldn't budge. At all. "WHAT THE HELL." he cried as he tried again. "God dammit!"
"Break the window!" Stellar said as he stood next to Jeebus, holding his rocks for ammo, waiting to defend Jeebus and the others if needed be.
Jeebus only paused for a minute before he used his elbow and broke the window, getting in and hitting the unlock button before trying the ignition. "Of course the fucking
buttons work Jeebus growled as he tried to start the car with only the disappointing sound of the engine turning over. "Fuck!" he yelled as he punched the steering wheel in anger and setting off the horn. This seemed to startle the bird and it flew away with an indignant cry of disappointment.
"If it was that fucking easy to chase the bird away I would have stomped on Lyoko's damn foot." Red mumbled as he glared at the retreating bird.
"Well guess the car is out of the option." Jeebus sighed as he slumped in his seat and his face fell against the wheel. "I'm going to assume the other cars don't work as well either, as this is a brand new fucking car and the others range from the same condition to being worthless pieces of shits." Jeebus let out another loud and long sigh as he glared at the Malibu, the community car; it had a shit ton of miles on it and Orph had used it in an attempt to get the fuck out of dodge, in the winter, to no avail. What a shame, as it was a nice car, too.
"We need to find the others." Stellar said as he looked around; silence had fallen once again around them. "Seriously, we can't stay here any longer. Especially if pigeons are trying to eat us and shit." Red nodded profusely in agreement to this statement.
"Yeah, because we're totally going to find them so fucking easily in this town. Who knows what the fuck else is out there." Zak said, going against what Stellar said entirely before sitting in the car and shutting the door in a defiant way. "I'm not going out there again, not back in that town with shit like this. You all can but I can stay here happily."
"Whatever, bro." Jeebus said before he got out. "Have fun with a broke window." he said before shutting the door and heading back towards town with the other three. Zak stayed where he was as he watched them leave with a huffy looking facial expression.
"See ya!" Stellar waved in a smartass way before he ran to catch up with Jeebus, Red and Lyoko following.
"Ew." Hikaru said in disgust as she prodded a form on the floor in the master bedroom with a stick. It had flies around it and a funky smell to it.
"Careful, Hikaru, that's a dead cat." Nisorin said before he walked into another room and shifted stuff around, laughing to himself when Hikaru shot him a dirty look before quickly backing away to look at other things.
Nisorin, Gaser, Hikaru, Zai, and Thunder had gone into a large and well furnished house out of one, curiosity, and two for clues. Even though K23 was suppose to be with them, as it was their initial groups, he decided to go with Orph and Ino figuring that he couldn't let the two wonder alone and he sort of had to make it up to Ino for deciding to travel the town.
So far they hadn't really found anything interesting but then again they were only on the first floor of three. Aside from the dead cat that Hikaru now felt like she should grieve over nothing special had showed up. Scattered papers were everywhere, ranging from old bank notes and receipts to pictures of kids, families, and get-togethers. Some of the furniture was torn up and some frames were broken but nothing really stood out and begged for attention. Well, aside from the blood that seemed to have no source and was spread everywhere.
The groups were dispersed roughly in the corners of the town, with Orph, Ino, and K23 wandering towards their high school, Hikaru, Nisorin, Thunder, Gaser, and Zai creeping on the richer part of town's area, and Jeebus, Lyoko, Red wandering the cemetery (why? who the fuck knows). They were split up and searching for signs of things but nothing, absolutely nothing, came up. It was a dead end everywhere they went, literally.
Just when the family was about to give up and head back to their cars, the sirens went off.
K23, Orph, and Ino froze in their tracks. "What the hell is that?" K23 looked around, taking in the fact that the sky was suddenly growing darker, as if that was possible, and something just felt off.
"Tornado sirens." Ino said, barely audible as the sirens wailed. Her face had gone pale and her eyes wide. "But...I don't think that's what this is for..."
Without hesitation Ino bolted for the front steps of the high school, throwing all of her weight into the door and disappearing in the darkness. Orph followed after her sprinting just as fast with the thought of her in mind and hoping she hadn't fallen into something dangerous, knowing her. K23 watched the two of them leave before he looked around. He saw a moving shadow but it gave him the creeps and when it seemed to come closer he darted for the door also, slamming it behind him.
In the graveyard the shadows seemed to be even bigger, shaping and shifting as Jeebus and the others walked through the grass. Jeebus paid no attention to them but Red and Lyoko sure did, both of who had a very creepy feeling just as K23 did. "I think we should...go back into town." Red mumbled as he tapped Jeebus on the shoulder.
Jeebus didn't even turned around, instead kept walking, ignoring the action entirely. Red pulled his hand away as if it was bitten by frost and stared in wonder at Jeebus who finally stopped walking. "What the hell..?" he asked but his voice trailed off as Jeebus's form grew and his head took on an entirely different
shape. "Run!" Red cried out only to be punched squarely in the face and knocked away into the trees.
"Oh shit." Lyoko stared up at Jeebus's new form as he felt like he crapped himself. Darkness followed and Lyoko was in the same condition as Red was as he too disappeared in the trees. Jeebus then stalked off at a slow and limping form as the sirens continued to buzz and whine. He was entirely different.
Nisorin shoved the others inside a walk in closet before he followed, slamming the door after them, much to Hikaru's protesting. "What the hell are we doing?!" she said in a muffled voice as she was squashed against the back wall. All that she got in an answer was "saving your ass".
The group was silent as they waited for the sirens to go away but what they didn't realize was that as they waited, the town started to burn away. Where the blood had been smeared it seemed to grow in proportion as the walls peeled away and revealed the skeleton of buildings. The tiles broke away and revealed a never ending fire underneath the town, the flame flicker and dancing closer to the surface every now and again. By the time they realized the sirens were long gone and over with, they had fallen through to the basement where the creatures that surfaced near K23 and his group surrounded them.
"Oh, fuck." Gaser said before the little terrors jumped on them, consuming them all in darkness.
Jeebus was no where to be found, or at least not the Jeebus everyone else had known. Instead he had an oddly shaped head made of metal and as he progressed in moving down the street his arms grew gradually bigger, thicker, and a bit paler even and red slash marks appeared. His clothes seemed to deteriorate and in place was a white cloth wrapped around his lower body. His hands were an angry blur. He was searching for...something.
"Holy fuck." Ino screeched as she slid on a random board laying in the hallway and went surfing down on the tile before sliding down a flight of stairs and crashing into the wall. "Ung..."
"Ino?" Orph called down from a stair set above, his shadow elongated on the walls and sent at an odd angle when it hit the corner. "You okay?" he asked, more out of wondering how pissed the fall made her than truly caring.
"No, you fucking moron." Ino stated bluntly as she attempted to unfolded herself from the awkward position she was in. Just as she was about to lift herself up from the hard, cold floor she froze.
Down in the darkness the paint began to peel away revealing picket chicken wiring and dark, blood encrusted wood. The paint that peeled away floated up into the air before disappearing within itself entirely; the noise it made sent cold chills up Ino's spine. And then, the distinguishable sound of bugs crawling and making chirping like noises.
"Oh...shit.." Ino said before she jumped from the ground, slinging the pieces of wood back and into the abyss of bugs as she bolted up the stairs, snatching Orph up by the color of his shirt and dragging him down the hallway.
"What's going on?" K23 called out as the two ran past in a flurry of fear.
"SOMETHING'S HAPPENING." Ino shouted as she bolted out the doors.
