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The group just wanted to relax before all the midnight shenanigans. For some odd reason the school bus graveyard in Ashlyn’s backyard seemed to be the perfect spot to do that.
They didn’t choose to get teleported to the Phantom dimension every night, but I guess that's what happens when you walk into a haunted house in the most discreet place in the old town of Savannah.
The concrete was cold to the touch. “What if we hung out in one of the buses instead?..Only if you guys would want to, obviously..!” Logan said, interrupting the uncomfortable silence. They group agreed since they were sitting on the concrete around a fire, Ashlyn had started with a match.
As they put out the fire and picked a bus to hang out, Tyler and Aiden were just glaring at each other, Taylor was just standing awkwardly to the side while side eyeing her brother and Aiden.
By the time they piled onto the bus, their posture and facial expressions said everything. They were tired, If that wasn’t obvious, No one had a watch so they just guessed it was around ten-thirty.
Ashlyn had sat down at the back of the bus, slumping in her seat. She didn’t expect anyone to sit next to her- nor did she want anyone to sit next to her. There were so many seats in the bus to pick from, Plus no one even liked her that much. Guess being the main character makes you not the favourite everyone assumes it would.
She tilted her head to glance at the window, her gaze traveled from the other buses right to the side over to concrete walls and then to the sparkly night sky.
Aiden had thought he would claim a seat next to Ben but he noticed that Ben was just leaning against the back door of the bus so that couldn’t happen. The one next to Ashlyn was the other open seat that wasn’t alone.
Aiden made the choice to sit in the seat next to Ashlyn, which made her take a glance in his direction for a split second. He pulled out a Rubix cube from his puzzle filled backpack and handed it to Ashlyn.
“Wanna have it?” Aiden asked her, lifting an eyebrow. She glanced at the rubix cube. She hesitantly took it out of his grasp and started to slowly play with it, keeping her unemotional face on the whole time. She avoided meeting his longing gaze after that.
His iconic chaotic smile formed into a more slightly soft one on his face as he tore his gaze away from her and back to his bag to grab a fidget for himself to play with.
Tyler and Taylor sat next to each other , Taylor scrolling on her phone while Tyler just sat there staring blankly out the windows, “Tyler” Taylor asked him softly. “Yea sis?” He replied to her, his gaze moving from outside to her.
“Nevermind..” she replied softly and went back to scrolling through her phone, leaving Tyler confused in the process.
Ben originally wanted to sit next to Taylor but realised she was sitting with her brother and decided not to do anything since he didn’t want to interrupt.
Ashlyn put the rubix cube off to the side after she decided it had finally gotten too boring, and decided to look outside again, by no surprise it seemed to have gotten darker but kept its own majestic look to it.
She thought about how much she loved the moonlight and everything. She remembered how her dad used to make comments about her ginger hair being similar to sunset when they would sit outside and stargaze on random Saturdays.
All of the group were drained of energy, which would explain why Ashlyn’s head just randomly fell and started to rest on Aiden’s shoulder.
Aiden froze for a split second, his fingers stopped spinning the fidget in his hand. He glanced over at the ginger whose head abruptly just started to rest on his shoulder. His face started to turn red, he dipped his head down so no one from behind could see how much he was blushing. From anyone else's point of view it would've looked like he had a crush on her.
“Sorry to interrupt the silence but it’s gonna be midnight soon” Logan said quietly, Tyler scoffed at this “great.” Tyler said through gritted teeth.
Ashlyn's eyes fluttered open and she lifted her head from Aiden's shoulder, the day must’ve made her more tired than she had been the day before.“So, you're telling me that we can’t get a rest anymore since time goes by so fast.” Tyler muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
“I would have a sarcastic remark to say to you but I don’t.” Aiden said, glaring at Tyler. “No one was talking to you Psycho,” Tyler replied. “Well now you are.” Aiden said, a devilish grin forming on his face.
“Um,” Taylor started, turning her phone off. “Sorry to interrupt this-…conversation but does anyone know where we left off?” She finished. “I suppose we’ll find out soon won’t we.” Ashlyn replied, her tired gaze meeting Taylor’s.
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One second they were sitting in the bus and the next they were back outside. They would’ve thought that they were in the normal universe if it wasn’t for the blood red sky looking down on them. “Oh, we were here,” Aiden said, waving a hand in the air in front of him.
“My head still hurts.” Aiden calmly stated, his signature smile plastered onto his face. “I would’ve imagined, Mr.Smiles,” Tyler said sarcastically.
“Stop arguing you two.” Ashlyn sighs, she is definitely more exhausted then she thought was humanly possible.
They heard a clang noise coming from the front gate of the graveyard, no other humans were supposed to be there.
“Wow, that’s just perfect. Turns out some Phantoms have gotten in.” Tyler said monotonely.
“SSHH” Ashlyn said, trying to keep the group from making too much noise. But Tyler and Aiden wouldn't shut up, if they kept making noise they would attract the attention of more phantoms.
Snap.
The whole group got caught off guard as they heard the sickening noise, they all turned their heads in unison to where the sound was coming from.
“Well isn't this perfect, Mr. Smiles over here has just killed us by snapping a branch, how wonderful.” Tyler said sarcastically and crossed his arms.
They started to hear strange gurgling noises getting closer, the phantoms were coming their way and they had to flee.
The noise must’ve alerted them of their whereabouts which most definitely is not the best circumstance in this situation.
“Guys, let's head over to the bus.” Ashlyn started but paused taking a shaky breath. “If we manage to get into the bus before they notice we are here. We could most likely be safe for the night until we stabilize an actual plan.” She continued, looking back to face the group.
Tyler scoffed “So? He’s always been a liability.” He said, tilting his head to the side. “Ok that’s enough—“ Taylor started but got interrupted by all the arguing that was happening around her. “Guys, we aren’t going to get anywhere if we keep arguing.” Taylor said.
“Ok, let’s stop— AHHH” Ashlyn started but felt a strong gust of pain fall upon her braids that used to be dangling behind her back that were now being yanked on by a Phantom.
The pain felt excruciating paired with all the gurgling noises of the phantom she hasn’t paid much attention to until it has literally started to come in contact with her.
Taylor saw what was happening and gasped. She grabbed a dagger and started to stab it. Its head snapped to her with its sickening sadistic grin and non-existence eyes.
Ashlyn grabbed the dagger that was hidden in her sock and cut the end of her braids off, “RUN!” she shouted at the group. Meeting Aiden's slightly worried gaze before he and the others started to run through the graveyard of buses.
Ashlyn managed to get the upper hand in the situation and started to run as fast as she could once she got the chance. She had a slight idea of where they would go.
She dashed through the graveyard like it was an obstacle course with tripping hazards and stuff. She tried to get the Phantom off of her tail which was surprisingly not working as it normally would.
“Ash! Over here!” She neared from nearby. She started to look around to see where that voice was coming from and saw Aiden's head peeking out from behind a bus door. “Get over here!” He added, gesturing for her to be faster.
The watch around her wrist started to vibrate, she didn’t pay much attention to it since she already knew what it meant. One second she was running and the next she was sitting in the bus with the group.
“Damn, that was one eventful night.” Aiden said, looking around at everyone. “Who would’ve guessed Sherlock?” Tyler said glaring at him.
“Okay, I’m done with all this arguing for absolutely no reason. Aiden, I get your just trying to speak your opinion, I’m not telling you off for that.” Ashlyn said, shaking her head. “Tyler, you keep making sarcastic comments which don’t need to even be in the conversation, it’s getting annoying fast. And Aiden, you keep provoking him by engaging. Just stop, it's getting old fast guys.” She said, glaring between the blonde and the brunette.
Tyler scoffed in response to that and Aiden continued to play with the fidget spinner in his hands
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“Ok class, today we are going to start making a presentation for the information you've learnt this semester," Mr Thomas said, a cheerful smile on his face. The class started to rumble with voices of people talking over each other. Ashlyn just wanted to sleep, History was the only class the group could rest in. The rest were just strict, they figured that Mr Thomas must’ve seen how tired they look and decided to let them rest a little out of the goodness of his heart.
“The maximum number of people in your group is six even though you guys should’ve already picked your groups.” Mr.Thomas called out.
“Ash! Come sit over here with us.” Aiden called out to her, gesturing for her to walk over. As the session progressed it only got more boring, The soft tickling of the clock until the bell rang.
The group got their lunch and claimed the back table of the cafeteria. “So, we just aren't gonna talk about last night?” Tyler said, making eye contact with everyone as he said it.
The group stayed in awkward silence for a minute until Tyler spoke again. “I think we should go back to where this all started.”
“You're kidding me.” Aiden said, choking back laughter. “You seriously wanna go back to Savannah?" He managed to say.
“Well we need to find answers somewhere.” Tyler said glaring at the blonde. “I don’t see why not, we do need answers..” Taylor said softly.
That conversation ended as quickly as it started, the group just started babbling about random topics. As time went on, no one brought the topic of Savannah up again for a while.
“Tyler, I understand your reasoning but we can’t risk going back there” Ashlyn said, Aiden agreeing with her a second later. Tyler scoffed, this was all pointless in his opinion. He even quit the baseball club for all this, what a waste.
He can’t even propose an idea without it being shut down. How wonderful.
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