The doorbell rang at exactly 4:13. I dropped my pen - after finishing my sentence of the newest addition to the long line of stories that were in progress, Darkest Descent – and quickly rushed to the front door, fiddling with my set of keys with shaking hands. The correct key was finally inserted into the lock and I pulled open the door for my friends. They were all calmly waiting on the porch step. "Hey guys, come on in," I greeted, stepping to the side a little to allow the three of them in. Trinity was the first to enter the house (dragging Julieanne by her bicep), gradually taking in every aspect of my home. Corrine winced at Julieanne's pain, stepping into the newly decorated hallway.
"Hey, Charleey," she replied, pulling me in for an extremely tight hug. I must've made some sort of noise of surprise, because she left me go instantly. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"
I shook my head, twisting my head round to spot the others cooing over my Border Collie, Pippi. The dog tilted her head at the strangers, before yapping happily and began to chase her tail. For a dog that's getting on in her years, she does have a lot of energy in her when it comes to strangers. "Come here, Pippi. Come on, you," I coaxed, patting my thighs.
Pippi glanced over and pounded over where I was hunched over, crashing into my legs and causing me to fall onto the laminate flooring. Her nails scratched against the floor as she steadied herself once again. Corrine had burst into a fit of laughter, slowly joined in by Trin and Julieanne. I swear, my dog joined in as well. I glared at each and every one of them, only causing them to laugh harder. "Thanks guys, real helpful," I moaned, gripping my back in pain.
"It's too funny not to laugh," Julieanne cried out, tears spilling from her eyes. None of them helped my back up onto my feet. I watched the three slowly come back down from the hilarity that was me falling over – I still don't understand how that was emthat/em funny. Corrine had already begun to enter the living room, followed by myself afterwards. The entirety of my papers and pens were still messily thrown onto the table. I slid past my best friend and gathered them all up before she was able to read any. It wasn't like I had wrote something down that I didn't want others to read, it was the fact I wanted to finish the entire thing before I got my friends to read any of it.
"So, any requests on what we do for the time being," I questioned, pulling my laptop out from under the side-table to get up the playlist I'd recently created (nothing but classic rock). The others murmured with each other while I logged in, brought up the music folder and pressed 'Hotel California' by Eagles. The opening chords filled the room, the soft melody of the opening chords bouncing off of the four walls. I could've almost fell into a trance – swaying side to side to the song I had grew up listening to – if it were not for the exaggerated exclaim made by one of the other girls in the room. I spun around to face the three to hear their suggestion(s).
There was a beat of silence before Trinity spoke up first. "I was thinking maybe we could try something out that I'd recently found, I doubt it'll work but you know, it'll be a bit of fun."
"Yeah, you say that but the damn thing has to be in another language. /emIf that's not scaring you then you really have some issues," snapped Julieanne, clearly wary of the scroll being produced from the older girl's backpack. The paper seemed to be parchment, the thin curl of the corners worn from the vast amount of times it's been unfurled around the wooden cylinder it was duly wrapped around for God knows how many years.
Trin rolled her eyes, "It's just a small joke, like the damn thing is gonna work anyway. And anyway, if it does, I give you permission right this second (with two witnesses) that you can literally beat the shit outta me."
"On a dark desert highway, cool win in my hair / Warm smell of colitis, rising up through the air / Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light / My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim / I had to stop for the night…"
The song was finally underway; Trin and Julieanne were glaring at each other while the shorter girl neatly laid the paper onto the roundish oak table, the scroll bounding off the edge once it had reached that far. Etched in an angular handwriting were multiple phrases in Latin – of course it's in Latin! The four of us crowded round the one half of the table and examined the small parts we could make sense of. None of us actually got any luck with that. The whole thing was almost impossible to read and none of us were fluent in the almost dead language (sure, I knew the odd exorcism but only thanks to the American show 'Supernatural').
"Do you have any idea on what any of this actually means, Trin," I questioned. To be honest, I was a bit worried but my nerves were simply over-powered by the strongest emotion I had at the time: curiosity.
It may have been the pause that riled up my terror, until our friend in question had begun to recite the words. I think we were all a bit worried at how she seemed so fluent in the language, as if she had once already read the – what even was it, a spell maybe? Some weird ass poem that was only supposed to get us thinking it was dangerous but was just a load of shit? – thing and memorised the entirety of the verses. We all tried to play along… but as Trin got further down the scroll, the seriousness kicked in.
"Trin, maybe we should stop and think about what we're doing," Corrine warned, eyeing up one of the final statements. She didn't stop, however, just carried on like she was in her own bubble. A draught picked up in the room, the hairs on my neck standing on edge. Something definitely was wrong. The whole house was draught insulated, there was no way there would be one unless the doors were open. Unfortunately, there were no doors open and this was really happening. "Trin!"
"Wait," she barked, not even breaking concentration from the verse she was reciting. A wave of uncertainty washed over me, my veins pumping quicker in my wrists. I wish I could've reached out and felt how the others were but no one had that sort of power. Unless they did, I don't know! The final phrase was almost shouted, a gust of wind blew onto our fronts and a single bulb shattered, sparks flying out. We waited patiently, Trinity gripping the parchment in her fists and panting.
"Last thing I remember, I was / Running for the door…"
"It didn't work," Julieanne asked, though it sounded more like a statement than a question itself.
"I had to find the passage back / To the place I was before…"
"I told you," said Trinity between pants, "You should've listened to me, you should've trusted me…"
"'Relax,' said the night man, / 'We are programmed to receive…'"
We all sighed, relief washing over us. My racing heart was slowly returning to a steady beat, the blood no longer being thrown around in my wrists.
"'You can check-out any time you like…"
"What the hell," Corrine breathed out, my head snapping to her startled message. She seemed breathless, her once bright eyes now a misty grey, "I can't see! What the actual fuck?!" Her legs staggered under her weight. I wrapped my arm around her, shifting her weight onto me as she lost all use of her legs.
"Trin, what the hell did that thing do," I shouted, scanning my best friend's feeble state.
The girl in question stuttered, confused on what was happening. "I-it was a letter f-from ages ago, this w-wasn't me…" Was she dying? She couldn't be, the whole Latin parchment was a letter and Trin had to have made sure. Corrine's heart beat quickened, her eyes closing under the pressure.
"No, no, no, don't close your eyes, keep them open," I pleaded, tears forming in my eyes. I carefully rested my hand on her cheek, my fingertips burning at the heat forming on her skin. "God, you're burning up."
The symptoms doubled within seconds, my friend falling into a coma-like sleep not much long after. At least she wasn't dying. Julieanne was the next to be affected, only she had lost her hearing and her eyes were perfectly fine, except for the bloodshot veins that crawled up to her irises which we didn't mention. She too fell asleep within the same hour. Trinity and I were the last to be affected, both of us receiving the same symptoms as each other: confusion, high fever, coughing up blood, nausea. At least we'd managed to drag the other two onto the one sofa before collapsing onto the other.
Light draped over what should've been a firmly shut blind, only it didn't, it just brushed along my arm. I didn't know how I could sense the sensation, all I knew was that I woke up coughing. Blood splattered from my lips and onto the hard feeling that I was laying on. My head pounded non-stop and every limb ached like Hell. I groaned in pain, lifting my torso up with whatever strength I had remaining. Smooth bumps rested in my palm, some sharp that dug deep into the skin. Rocks, gravel. Oh. I was lying on a road of some sorts. I sighed, rolling my head around my shoulders. It was then I realised how deep my voice was. I knew I didn't have such a girly pitch (it was still quite high pitched) but this was definitely not normal for a girl. I brushed my hand along my neck, my fingers grazing rough skin. What the Hell? I felt along my face and glanced along my body. This was definitely not normal. For one thing, my roundish face was not round, the jaw was defined more, the bone noticeable much more than usual. I could no longer feel the comfort of my - almost - waist-length hair, the short strands was brushed in an random direction. My once 'Star Wars' blue sweater was now replaced with a white shirt and deep blue waist-coat like cover. There was a red name badge neatly pinned to the left side, the white writing stating a single word: 'Steve'. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! I couldn't be, I just couldn't. It was a joke the four of us had made, nothing more. So why the Hell was I wearing a Gas 'n Sip uniform and was not a girl anymore?!
A groan to my right caught my attention. I snapped my head to spot a dark haired man curled around himself. His arms were resting in front of his face, his features strangely reminding me of the lead sing of my favourite band. Well whoever he was, he seemed to be in a lot of pain. His mouth and jaw were splattered in blood and emoh crap, he's awake. Act normal, act as though you weren't clearly staring at him...
The man lifted to a sitting position, rubbing his eyes deeply while I lowered my eyes, my hands no longer small and child-like. The hands that I now owned were long and slender, curving in the right ways - unlike my own. I was clearly too interested in my new hands that I startled backwards when I heard a voice ask, "Misha?"
I lifted my eyes to observe the stranger in front of me. "Dustin? As in the Dustin Bates from the rock band Starset?! Oh..my...GOD!"
"Who," he questioned, his golden eyes lingering on my face. I tilted my head in confusion.
"Wait, why did you think I was Misha? I'm not Misha, my name's Charlotte or apparently Steve according to this name badge," I stated, tapping the red plastic. Something flashed in the other male's eyes; he grabbed my arms and pulled me into a tight hug.
"Jesus, Charlotte! It's Trin, not Dustin Bates, whoever the hell that is. I thought you were Misha, you look exactly like him..." he trailed off, pulling away and putting me at arm's length. I couldn't tell whether I believed him or not, Trin was definitely female and the man in front of me - whom I tried not to fangirl over because come on, Dustin Bates, lead singer of Starset and Downplay, Starset being my favourite band, how could I not?! - did actually sort of remind me of Trin. The energetic personality and dark hair.
"Is that really you Trin?"
"Yes!"
I sighed in relief, rubbing the heel of my palm into my eyes. "What the hell happened? For a minute, I actually thought you were someone else..."
Trinity looked over her shoulder, gazing over at the two other sleeping forms. "I don't know, but I'm gonna guess the one that's gonna wake up next is Julieanne since she went before us," Trin stated.
"Wait, if I look like Steve and you look like Mason - from how you described him - would that mean Julieanne's going to look like Dylan and Corrine's going to look like Jensen," I questioned quickly, suddenly realising what may be the truth.
A look of shock was painted on the other man/girl's face (we're both girl's in men's bodies, give me a break) and her breathing hitched. Her eyes looked dull once again, only then did they dart past my face and over my shoulder, her's slumping down, giving her a small appearance. "Yeah, and we got company up ahead..."
I cocked an eyebrow, then glanced over my shoulder. Cruising down the road (along with unmistakable purr of the engine) was an Black Chevy '67 Impala. Even from this distance, it was no trouble on guessing who was in that car.
"As the great Dean Winchester would say - who may or may not be driving down the road - 'SON OF A BITCH!'"
Jesus, it's done...finally. I have been so busy with writing this and writing my non-fanfiction story called Darkest Descent - it's an actual thing, I didn't just make it up for the sake of this. My head is literally killing me but I am so glad it's done. I feel like I rushed it too much, however I was so anticipated to start writing in the male counterparts. I don't actually know if it's good or not because I was rushing, I'm unbeta'd and I wrote the starting paragraph on word (it was like over 1000 words) and the rest on the copy-n-paste part on the doc manager so I have no idea how many words it is. And I may go off on one because I'm tired, my hands hurt and I feel drunk - I'm not drunk, it just happens when I'm tired and ill at the same time. I'm checking now how many words it is...2421, eh not bad. I usually write more though. Also, thank god I copied that into word because it just tole me how many mistakes and I made and I actually corrected them! Anyway, how is everyone? I wanna get to know people so how are you?
God I hate how rushed it all seems, I promise it'll be a lot longer and won't be as rushed, I just wanted to get something published because it's been soooooooo loooonnnnnggggg...
I'm gonna shut up now, I'm gonna make a fool of myself...
(Also, I am so sorry about the state of the chapter just. I really don't know what happened and I've just spent a while fixing it, praying that it doesn't do it again now.)
