Disclaimer: The King Arthur stuff isn't mine. Everything else is.
Sethe sprawled lazily across the sofa, eyes fixed on the big screen TV currently showing the Princess Bride. The hero, Westley, was currently leading the princess through the fire swamp. He gallantly dove in to a swamp sandpit and froze halfway in, as she hit the pause button.
"The Prince is dead" she announced to the silent house and her sleeping companions. Brenn stirred but didn't wake. Rougi wagged his tail. Brenn was 6'1", lean but muscular, with blond-brown hair and a handsome face. He was currently dressed in a fawn colored button up shirt that was open to his abs and a pair of ragged, loose, worn blue bum-around-the-house jeans. He'd returned an hour ago from work, and had slept since, which was why she was currently bored out of her mind. Rougi was a Great Dane/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix, three feet at the shoulder and a rusty gold color. He was the house pet, though he mostly belonged to Brenn and his half-sister, Bess. He was also completely boring, seeing as he decided that Brenn sleeping meant he slept. Everyone else was out.
"So much for summer break. Everyone else is out, and I'm stuck with a couple of snore masters!" She poked Rougi irritably, then surveyed the numerous game systems with a sigh. There was a motley collection ranging from a Nintendo 64 to the brand spanking new Xbox Amp'd. Also in the collection was the Halo Edition Xbox, a Playstation 3, a Wii, the extremely rare Nintendo 64 2009 remake, and a Playstation 4. A huge shelf beside the TV displayed 157 games, categorized by game console.
Normally, there would be several games strewn on the floor, the most common one being her favorite of all, Legend of Zelda and the Star Compass. Star Compass was the best Zelda Series game since Ocarina of Time, and had been made only for the 2009 remake 64. With a sigh, she gazed at it mournfully, wanting to play. However, she couldn't, seeing as her friends had hidden the power cords. The reason for this cruel punishment was her earlier obsession with the 64 remake. For the first week of summer, she had done little but play with the 64 remake, and other consoles of course, day and night. When she refused to stop, her friends made a plan to steal the power cords. They got her drunk one night, then hid the cords while she was out. So now she hade nothing interesting to do. And all her friends went out, while she was stuck here because her teacher/parental figure Burton found out about her getting drunk and confined her to the house for a week as punishment. At least today was her last day of confinement. Tomorrow she was free to leave the house, which was good, because she might have gone insane if she had to sit inside any longer.
She looked around the large room she was currently in. It was a recent addition to the house, a giant one-story room with a sloping roof and a double-level floor.The area with the massive seven-foot-tall widescreen high-definition TV and all the consoles and the shelf was sunken 30 inches below the floor level of the rest of the room. Likewise, the floor level of the rest of the room was sunken 12 inches below the floor level of the rest of the house. Over in the corner of the upper level of the room sat a huge marble-topped mahagony wet bar, complete with atttached beer fridge, ice maker, and three wine coolers sunk into the black marble top. The entire wet bar was fully stocked with everything from Guinness to high-quality Caribbean Rum. The bar was kept stocked by the three drinking-age occupants of the house, with much thanks from the seven non-drinking-age occupants.
Right now, the bar was locked with an electronic locking system. Only the drinking-age occupants were supposed to know the code to punch into the keypad to unlock the doors. However, one of the drinking-age occupants just so happened to be Sethe's boyfriend, Jonas. So naturally, she knew the code. And right now, she really wanted a beer. Or maybe a scotch with ice. Or a coconut martini. Or a Bahama Mama. She walked over to the bar and tapped in the key code. It took her only a moment to decide that a beer was what she wanted. She opened the door to the beer fridge and dug to the very back, to where the Blue Moon and Guinness resided. The sight of the Guinness caused a sharp pang of longing as she visualised Jonas sitting on the couch, bottle in hand, watching her play Star Compass, his chest providing her a living pillow, his arm warm around her waist. He was the only one in the house who drank Guinness, and nobody else would have dared to touch his beer anyway. Except her, of course. He always shared with her. She didn't actually drink Guinness much. She preferred Blue Moon. No one touched her Blue Moon either, on pain of suffering her wrath. Today though, on impulse, she grabbed a Guinness instead of her usual Blue Moon.
"Cheers Jonas" she murmured as she opened the bottle. Taking a sip, she sighed and thought of Jonas again. These thoughts led her to the end table by the sofa. Flipping up the lid/top, she reached inside and produced a large flip knife, a led light shaped like a shark, a small black and white photo, and a letter written on a piece of paper from a notepad.. The picture showed her and Jonas lying curled together in bed, asleep, faces only an inch apart, hair mussed, dressed in only their underclothes; not as naughty as it sounded, since for her, underclothes meant a cami and her smiley face boxers, and for Jonas, his old soccer shorts. Smiling, she opened the letter.
To my Immortal Beloved,
Surprise! These are for you, gifts to say I love you, and I'm sorry I have to be gone for so long. The knife is six inches long,blackened steel. I got it specially from Ethan Bradford, because I know how particular you are. Now that you have your own, you can stop taking mine! The light is to represent how you light up my world, and make even the gloomiest days sunny. I will miss you far more than you will miss me. I probably won't be able to call, but I will send a birthday present, and a really long letter with it. The picture was taken by Shelfy, the romantic fag, while we were sleeping off hangovers after Chris' birthday party. I would be angry, but it's a really great picture and now I have a memento to take with me. It's funny, I never realized how few pictures there were of us together until I wanted one. We'll have to remedy that when I get back. I have a lot to say, and no more time (or space!) to say it. So, I love you, immensely, eternally, fiercely, with all my heart.
Your Knight In Tarnished Armor, Jonas McEmry
"Jonas" Sethe smiled, "It's only been two and a half weeks and already I'm pining for you. I depended on no one for seventeen years. Then you came along, and now I can't go two months without you! What have you turned me into?" She kissed the picture, then slipped it into her pocket with the letter and the light. The knife she toyed with as she picked up her beer and headed out of the room. She padded queitly through the massive house to the basement stairs. The basement was yet another unique feature of the house. The basement was actually two seperate basements, one below the other. The upper basement held the pool table, air hockey table, foozeball table, ping poing table, miniature bowling setup, and pinball machine. The lower basement held a couple of spare double beds, A sleep sofa, and padded floor space for bunking down in sleeping bags. The padded floor space was actually a huge quilted rug over fifteen airmattresses sewn together. Sethe herself had originally thought up the idea, and was delighted at how well it worked. They could house 21 of their friends down there, or even up to 26 if they crammed in. The house was as a direct result quite popular for sleepover parties.
The two basements were reached by one long spiral staircase. The staircase was carpeted because Rougi kept tripping and sliding on the smooth wooden steps that had been used previously. Halfway down was a small landing-type deal, which connected to the door to the upper basement. Sethe shoved it open and entered, locking it behind her. She didn't really want company at the moment. Moving to the pool table, she stared mournfully at Jonas' pool stick on the rack. His was custom made, with a special grip with white and black sharks on a grey background. Hers was black with blue diamonds with red X's over them. She grabbed her stick, pulled the triangular ball rack from the wall, set up the balls, and started her solo game. It didn't take her long to dunk every ball. With a flourish, she settled into position to dunk the eight ball. She aimed, pulled back the stick...and the lights went out.
Normally, seeing as it was only seven on a summer day, this wouldn't have been a problem as the sun was still up. However, she was in a basement, with the door closed and no windows. It was pitch black. And the basement was filled with so much junk, she feared to move lest she break her neck. And to top it all off, Moby, her friend Amber's cat, started wailing loudly.
"Shit!" she muttered. Stuck in the damn basement while the cat was probably dying. Amber would have her head if anything happened to Moby. And then she remembered the led light. Digging in her pocket, she pulled it out and flicked it on. The whole half of the room she stood in was illuminated. She quickly steered herself to the door and unlocked it. The cat stopped wailing as she stepped onto the stairs. The sound had come from the lower basement. Muttering cursewords, she started down.
"Moby" she hollared, "You better not be dying on me you stupid cat!" Navigating the stairs would have been a tricky prospect without Jonas' light. "Thank you Jonas" she muttered as she reached the door. She shoved the door open. And screamed.