"And so, we have been dragged to the pits of hell." I stood in front of an unfamiliar building. She said it was somewhere I've been before, but this was a good 10 miles out from town. "So... what the hell were you talking about earlier about places I'd be 'familiar with'?"
"I dunno..." She shrugged, "I dunno what you do throughout your day, dude."
"Not go 10 miles out from town, that's what!"
"Look, I drove us here, we can drive back just as easily... that's if you're a pussy that is."
Now, you see. I'm not one to often fall for provocations. I'd say that I'm a pretty level-headed individual in the right circumstances. So level-headed in fact that I didn't let rumors get to me, so that false accusations wouldn't stick to my back (not that it helped much). But in general, I don't often fall for bait. I typically like to play it cautiously. But there are times with friends or against specific people I hate, in this case, around friends, where I just can't help myself. "Bet? Fine, alright."
"H-Hey," Jordan raised her hand, "I-I don't mind being that, by the way, can I just leave?"
Shit I forgot Violet dragged her along, "Uh... what're we gonna do?" I looked at Violet.
She pursed her lips and then smiled, "Come on, Jordan! I'll give you 20 bucks if you come with us!"
Bribery is her solution, I guess. "H-Hell no! Not! You aren't gonna bait me with 20 bucks!"
Violet looked disappointed for a moment, then smirked again, taking out a clean 50 out of her wallet, "How bout this~?
Jordan hesitated for a moment, "Nuh uh, nope. Please drive me back to town." And then looked at Violet expectantly.
Almost on queue, Violet pulled out a crisp 100-dollar bill, a massive grin on her face. She pulled it light a taut string a couple times, raising her eyebrows seductively.
"Throw in the 50 and we have a deal."
Violet took the money, everything she had in her wallet, and placed it into Jordan's palm. before cocking a brow, "Deal?"
Jordan pocketed the money, "Alrighty, let's do this." Jordan hopped over to me, "You'll be my shield, right?"
I sighed, "I guess, sure?"
Violet crossed back over to her car, gathering a bunch of equipment she had stored in her trunk, closing it with one foot. "Alright! Who's ready for some ghost hunting!?"
We made our way inside the abandoned building, which was nestled in between a family of trees that sort of grew partly into the stone walls. I love it when the natural growths of the world sort of encroach on the unnatural creations by humans. It creates such an interesting artistic aesthetic. If I had my sketchbook, I'd be drawing in it by now. Rarely do that nowadays, but it would've been nice. We go through the winding halls of this ancient bit of architecture, ancient being at most 20-50 years ago, but let's not talk about that. It looked to be some sort of abandoned school building.
It had worn down desks, chairs toppled all over the place. There were chalkboards barely hanging off the walls, pieces of debris loosely clinging to rebar. Here and there, we'd hear the place settle, the rusted metal creaking in response to the winds. We were near the ocean, so it wasn't too much of a surprise.
Violet set herself up in a specific classroom that seemed to have remnants of art supplies rotting in the sinks, unused paint buckets laid out within cabinets, carrying a humid scent of sour milk. She got her camera ready and wrapped one arm around Jordan, startling her. "Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Channel Violet, where we explore the various myths surrounding the town of Inastro, known for its myths and legends, similar to the forested ends of the North and Mid-Wests of America... but... this town is special, for we are in California~! Where myths don't really go around, y'know? Additionally... all of my previous searches have been duds~! But... I got my most valuable source recently, and have investigated this place on my own and have found horrifying discoveries! Follow me on my newest venture~! I'm Violet Frymannn, and this is Jordan Fionn Cretan, along with someone you've all seen once before~!" It was a long time ago, but I used to help her with her videos, "Gael Driskoll!" We were in middle school then.
She panned the camera to me before putting me in the same headlock she had put Jordan in previously.
"During this terrifying new escapade of mine, we'll be looking for a ghost of ancient myth~! The Vampire!"
"Vampire?"
"Yep, a Vampire."
I blinked, "I thought we were Ghost Hunting?"
"This is close enough, Gael. It's the same thing, different flavor!"
"So like... is this gonna be edited down or--?"
"We're live!"
"Oh, shit?"
Jordan's eyes widened, "We're live!?" Jordan fumbled a bit with her outfit before waving to the camera nervously, shutting down the second she tried uttering a word.
Violet watched this like an observant cat before turning back to her camera. "Anyway! Right now, we're just waiting until the sunsets, so how are you guys doing? Do you have anything to say before we get started?"
The comments were in chaos, talking about various random things or observations, which ended up with Violet having to put them on slow mode momentarily. I guess it's a TikTok live stream given the amount of traction she could gain there, cause I don't think that sort of attention is possible for a small time streamer like her.
Once the chat slowed down, one of the chatters began asking questions about the group, like how old we were and what our deals were. Violet pointed at herself, "19," Then at me, "18," and then at Jordan, "17."
"Right down the list, huh?"
"Jordan is the youngest of us, but her birthday is a couple of weeks from now, so we aren't that far apart. Like... my birthday was just earlier this year." She looked at me, "How close are ya to nineteen?"
"Uh..." I thought to myself, "About like, a month and a week away?"
"See? We got a bunch of awkward times for our birthdays and all that jazz."\
"Pretty normal in my opinion."
"I know you all won't believe this, but... as you heard, yes, I'm the oldest here."
"Hard to believe, for sure."
A comment came up, "Damn, look at that glare, pull up your bangs."
Violet looked at me expectantly, and I did what I was asked, and the chat seemed to like that. Violet smirked, "They're callin' ya handsome."
"Handsome? Weird."
Violet is shocked by some of the comments going a bit too far in their language about me. "Wow, cool it down, people."
I was confused, "Damn, they seemed to like that... why?"
Violet was confused, "Cause you look good? Some people like that scary look and stuff." She imitated horns on a devil.
"Weird."
"Honestly, with the right style, you could get into modeling, dude."
"I think whoever was working with me would be very confused by my disposition."
Violet leaned into her camera, "By the way, they look pretty cool in a skirt."
"I rarely wear them."
"You should wear them more, like you used to."
"I dunno about that."
Jordan observed the conversation and decided to chime in with a question. "You wear skirts?"
"Sometimes," I answered.
Jordan wore a confused expression before Violet leaned over toward her, telling Jordan of my situation. Honestly, my sex had always been a debate. I stopped caring eventually, though. My body is a mix of male and female, I'm intersex. I don't talk about it much cause people don't take it the right way, but I'm not... well, I am Gender Neutral, but only out of necessity, I guess. Plus, I've always been so used to being in the middle that I sort of just accepted it. So... if I had to get into it, what's underneath all of the clothes we'll say? My body is mostly that of a woman's. I have hips, breasts, and the like. Other than that, I won't go into detail. That's all you get for now, but I'll just say this now.
I do have to take medicine every so often to keep my hormones in check, but honestly, I don't need to keep at it too consistently. God, this is hard to explain. I hate doing it. There are some inconsistencies, there are some consistencies. I'm not a fucking doctor, alright? I like being ambiguous, I'm fine with the way that I am, even if it's confusing. There are probably a bunch of factors that made me the way I am, but I'm not nearly intelligent enough to get the hang of it. Like I said, not a doctor.
Jordan was surprised by my ambiguous nature, but accepted it pretty quickly. She's always been good with such things, it's why she befriended me even though I had all those rumors muddying my social cred.
I sighed, putting the issue behind me like I always do, noticing the darkening skies outside. "Looks like it's almost time."
"Hell, yeah, let's start getting into action." Violet chuckled, grabbing her camera. "Alright, boys and girls! Are you ready!?"
The chat celebrated in response.
"The ghost hunt begins!" Violet threw her arms up in celebration.
"Yay?"
We began wandering the halls of the abandoned school. I patiently observed my surroundings behind everyone, feeling protective due to being the only one who could possibly do anything to the supernatural.
"So... like. We're searching for what, again?"
"Like I said, we're searching for Vampires."
"So... you think there's a Vampire here?"
"Think, no, I know."
I thought back a bit, and I feel like I've heard her say that before. "Sure..."
After a bit of walking, we began searching individual rooms.
"Okay, so... we're hunting a Vampire, yeah?"
"Yep."
"Do we... have any way to defend ourselves?"
"What do you mean?"
Jordan chimed in, "Like... uh... holy water, garlic, wooden stakes? Maybe silver? A cross?"
"I have..." Violet began rummaging through her pack. "I have crosses for us individually, uh... I also have... garlic, but just a jar. Yeah, I have basic essentials."
I chuckled, "Why did we have to ask for these?"
"I forgot!"
"Of course, anyway." I took one of the crosses and snatched a clove of garlic from her jar, popping it into my mouth, Jordan doing the same. "Well, at least we have that done."
"By the way, sorry about not having silver or wooden stakes. You'd be shocked at how difficult it is to find those things."
"I guess? Sure?"
"Like, silver--" She began moving again, "Super expensive, barely anyone uses it nowadays. Wooden Stakes... well... I tried a bunch fo ways but I didn't want to break any of my furniture just for it, y'know? So I tried looking for dump sites, barely anything there either, so... uh... sort of just fell on a dead end for that, and I figured that the crosses may be a good enough measure to run or something since, y'know, I'm parked right outside."
"Okay, so... what do we do if like... I dunno. Maybe the Vampire pops your tires or something, so we don't escape? I'd imagine they're cunning since, well... Vampires are predator-like entities. They lull people into a false sense of security before pouncing. Silver-tongued entities."
"We'll be fine~! Plus, if worse comes to worse, we can probably just hole ourselves out here for the day since Vampires can't come inside places they're not invited to."
"Let's just hope that not everything about Vampires is only things seen in myth, then. If there are even Vampires in real life to begin with, that is." I paused, "What research did you do anyway to make you so confident?"
"I stalked this place for about two weeks and saw some suspicious activity."
"Oh god, are we in a crack den?" Jordan immediately looked concerned by my comment.
"Don't immediately assume that! There are tons of possibilities, but... I suspect Vampire most of all. See, nobody comes around this area during the day, but every time it becomes night, I always see someone sneaking in here."
"They look vampirey in some way?"
"Uh... I dunno! But even if there isn't a Vampire, it'd be interesting to see what their deal is!"
"What do they look like?"
"Uh... from what I could see, they're like... moderately sized. Looked like a well put-together young individual, I suspect some nefarious activities.
"Bold assumptions, much?"
"Look, it's suspicious, no?"
Gave her a good 2-minute stare in response as we continued to move. "Wait, so this guy was going in and out of this place, without permission?"
Violet froze. "L-Look! Alright! Let's just have a bit of fun, okay!?"
"Alright, girl. Keep walking."
Jordan stopped in her tracks, causing us all to collide into each other like dominoes. Violet, confused, propped herself against Jordan, peeking past her shoulder, "Why'd you stop?"
"Look."
We looked down the hallway, seeing a figure bathed in moonlight. Their head snapped to look at us, Violet focusing her camera to get a good shot of them.
I knew that this was gonna turn into a fight.