|| CHAPTER TWO: Whut ||
|| GLOVERSVILLE, NY ||
|| 2014 ||
"What is it?" I reply, trying not to panic. There's not even anything to worry about, so calm down, I think, although I don't seem to be doing a good job.
"Sollux was cleaning out the storeroom round the back, and he found this box of things apparently." She speaks a lot slower than usual, pausing at the end as if she's waiting for my reply.
"Yeah? What things were they?"
"I'm not sure."
"Well, go and have a look then."
"I can't! I'm blind!" She giggles, but then goes back to her serious tone and calls Sollux's name, asking him what he found and whether he could look through the box. I sigh, shaking my head as I hear the two faffing around and rummaging through the contents of the box.
"Uh… Well, there's a bunch of gaming and skateboarding magazines, and some old penny board. It all smells really weird, like of stale old coppery stuff."
"Is that it?" I hiss. "Seriously? You called me up saying something really weird happened, and I was worried for a second. How the fuck is some shitspewing magazines on video games weird? Your parents spend their whole time cosplaying as video game characters so you should be fucking used to all of this!"
"Not all the time…" Terezi points out. "Like, only when there's a convention to go to. But it is weird, Karkat! Like, they never keep old things, especially when it's no longer cool? And some stinky penny board definitely isn't cool."
"You're wasting my time." I mutter angrily, and stare at my laptop in distaste, wanting to return back to Google for more writing inspiration. I'm about to hang up but then I hear Sollux ask Terezi for the phone.
"KK?"
"What?"
"Uh, you've not gone all dicky again, have you? You don't hate us?"
"No I don't. You two are just massive brainless barfpuppets who need to stop fucking around and go back to work."
He's silent for a second, as if he's trying to think of something to say. For a moment I feel kind of bad about the whole situation, but then remember that I wasn't the person who started the whole prank call business and got somebody unnecessarily worried about a non-existent problem.
"Well, I suppose there was something kind of weird in the box. I think there's a Ouija board." As he tries to say it, his voice shakes as he struggles to pronounce the words. It sounds amusing, but I try to hide my laugh. "I don't know why Mom and Dad would have one. They're not really the satanic type."
"You sure it's not part of a cosplay? Or maybe they used to fuck around with ghosts and spirits back in the day. Who knows?"
"Uh, I guess. It's got a pretty cool pattern on it and it does look pretty funky, but they've been kind of stupid and gotten some purple paint on the corner. Might bring it into school tomorrow and show it to you, y'know."
"Sure, whatever. Anyway, you dickweeds got anything else you want to punk me with, or are you going to get back to work?" I ask. Normally, I'd talk for longer, but I'm not in the mood.
Sollux laughs and says goodbye with Terezi, and then hangs up. I put the phone down on my bed, and start Googling again. It's like hitting a brick wall, though: I can't properly concentrate, and my mind keeps returning to my previous thought. Once again, nothing of much importance comes up on Google, so I give up for the night and soon fall asleep.
The young man stares at the shadowed figure in front of him, his eyes growing wider in fear.
"W-who are you?" He gasps, wanting to know who it is. Somehow, his feet won't let him move any closer to unmask the person, so instead he stands there paralyzed in pure terror. The figure gives no reply, but instead raises a hand to the side. In their hand rests what looks like a baton, but the lack of light is obscuring its true form.
"What are you planning on doing to me?" The man tries to get his voice to sound powerful and strong, but instead it comes out to sound like the young boy he once was. Something in the back of his head is telling him to turn around and face the wall, so he does, using all his strength to do so.
Another message is scrawled in sloppy purple paint.
MOtHeRfUcKiNg MiRaClEs BrO :O)
When I wake up the next morning, my head aches and I feel groggy. Nevertheless, I still get up and sort myself out for school. As I head downstairs for breakfast, Kankri is sitting at the table, flicking through the newspaper and eating toast.
"Hello, Karkat." He says, not looking up. "Was your sleep alright, or was it anguished?"
"What the hell do you mean?" I mutter, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and an apple from the side.
"You were moaning a lot, and it seemed as if you were… triggered by something. I am unsure as to what, since I was not listening fully, but is it possible that you were dreaming about being attacked by some of the poorer people in the area? It is rather annoying when people's dreams and thoughts do not come with appropriate warnings, as mere mentions of certain topics do cause me levels of stress, for example."
I can't even be bothered to answer him and his shitty views, and just head out of the apartment without saying goodbye. Even though Kankri and I are the lowest of the low, and are barely able to afford the payments on our apartment, he still looks his nose down on other people who are below the poverty line, and expects me to talk to people who have money.
Still, the fact that he mentioned that I had been moaning gives me a slight cause of concern, especially since I have no recollection of it. If Kankri wasn't being such a dick I would've asked him more. Urgh, just let it drop. People always moan in their sleep. Pondering that thought, I walk to school cautiously, trying to avoid the glances of people as they stare at my tired figure.
By the time I arrive, the school's buzzing with other students making their way to lessons. Among the sea of faces, I try and find Sollux and Terezi. It takes a while, but eventually I find the two of them by their lockers, talking. In his hands Sollux is holding a carrier bag with a large shape inside.
"Is that…" I ask, pointing at the bag and forgetting to greet them. They both turn to me, Terezi grinning about something and Sollux slowly taking the board out of the bag to show me.
"It is indeed, KK. It was pretty hard to get it out of the house this morning without the parents noticing, but we managed."
"Why do you even want to see the Ouija board so much?" Terezi asks, tilting her head slightly. "I thought they didn't work. They do sell them in the toy store after all."
"Just thought it would be cool to look that." I shrug, but something about the board seems familiar. In a way, it's like I've seen it before, but it would be hard to; Kankri's installed a safe search browser onto our internet and actively promotes secularism, yet the strange patterns remind me of something. "Maybe we could play with it at lunch or something since we have nothing to do today."
"Man, I was going to spend my lunch break doing some casual coding, but I'll give it to you to look after for a bit. My code's getting pretty awesome and some dude in China commissioned me to code his website for him, so I better do stuff for my customers." He hands me the board and I place it in my school bag, making sure I don't bend any of my books in the process.
"That's pretty cool." I'm not really paying attention to Sollux's coding endeavours, but he seems to be getting commissioned a whole lot more at the moment, leaving him with a much larger bank balance than I could dream of. "Anyway, I'm going to piss of to class now, so I'll see you two around."
After my morning lessons, Terezi comes and finds me and we head out to the edge of the field – "So nobody can see us summoning Satan," as she puts it – and sit down under a large oak tree. I pull it out of the bag and rest it on the dusty floor.
"So," I say.
"So…"
"Any idea how to use this?"
"Nope! I can't SEE a way of finding it out either."
I groan at her joke and turn the board around, somehow hoping that there's a set of instructions engraved onto the back or something. As I expected, there's nothing, just a continuation of the trippy pattern.
"Do you think Sollux would have any clue how to use it?"
"Probably not."
"Well, that's helpful." I snap. "Would anybody have a fucking clue or am I meant to randomly guess?" Normally, I would just give up at this point and not bother using it, but somebody about the board's making me curious and I want to see what it is. Terezi, on the other hand, seems to be treating this all as a game, but she goes silent for a second as she tries to think of somebody who would be able to understand it. "Uhh, Aradia went through a goth phase a while back, so she might know. Plus she's pretty awesome and will probably help us."
I'm pretty sure she's still going through a goth phase since she's still acting all super emotionless, I think, but don't say anything. Terezi sometimes talks about her before she discovered ghosts and death and when she actually displayed some emotion, so I don't want to insult her in front of Pyrope's face. We stand up to try and find Aradia, but it's difficult; the lack of goths in the school means she often hangs alone and seldom talks to people.
"Urgh, if I knew how to use an Ouija board I'd try and talk to her through it." Terezi sighs in frustration, turning to me as if I'm expected to know what to do. "Plus it's really heavy and I just want to find a way of communicating to ghosts or whatever."
"Well you don't, so stop being a whiny fucktard. And besides, you were saying about how they're just useless a moment ago."
"Stop being a butt and just try and find Aradia!" Terezi's annoying voice is getting louder, and I'm about to shout at her when I see a small girl stand behind her and cough, her dark hair wildly shooting across her face and making her pale skin look even paler.
"You were looking for me?" She says, her tone sombre. "Why?"
"Oh, Aradia!" Terezi gives a nervous laugh and turns towards her. "We were looking for you!"
"I gathered that, but why?"
"We have an Ouija board, and we were wondering whether you had any idea on how to use one." I mutter, keeping my voice quiet in case anybody else overhears. As soon as I mention the board, her whole expression changes: her face lightens up and she starts grinning, as if we had just offered to take her to Disneyland instead of asking if she could talk to dead people through a toy.
"They're pretty fun!" She says, clasping her hands together. "So do you want to use it? Like, now?"
"Yeah!" Terezi starts grinning as well, since it seems that she's totally reverted back into her pre-goth stage self. "C'mon, let's use it now!" Both girls stare at me, as if they expect me to pull it out there and then and start reading it, totally disregarding the fact we're stuck in the middle of a school corridor filled with incompetent groinhumpers.
"Don't you think we should go outside at least so we're away from everybody?" I ask, raising my eyebrows. "Like, I know you're both so enthusiastic to use it or whatever, but I don't need a bunch of shitsponges over my shoulder asking me to spell out 'ayyy lmao' or 'your mum' or something." Aradia sighs, as if she'd have enjoyed the prospect of speaking to ghosts in text talk, but nods her head in agreement. "I suppose you have a point." She mutters, turning to Terezi. "We better do what the Vantas wants us to do."
"Urgh, he's spoiling the fun, but whatever." Terezi says half-seriously, but the three of us head outside, ready to start communicating to the dead.
author's note: i just wanted to say thanks for liking and reviewing this fanfic! when i read the three reviews i got super happy (to the point where my hands were blushing lols) and i'm very glad that you're enjoying my writing! i hope you continue to like it! but urgh sorry this instalment is kinda shitty n p fillerish n keeps staling but pls forgive me fanfic is p hard 2 write B( still, i think the next chapter's going to be better than this one, so don't give up hope!