It was the middle of the night— midnight. Aisha's gentle snores could be heard against the beating of the wind. Elsword's hair flew in directions as he managed to keep his eyes open and his mind alert. Drifting bit by bit, the plane slowly went unattended. As it progressively dropped, Elsword rapidly woke and took control of the wheel.
"Whoa, okay, we need to stop!" He told himself, panicking. This was not safe, for sure.
An arrangement of golden lights shone from the ground, trees surrounding them. Looked like a town to him. The red plane made its descent to the town, Elsword forcing himself awake with the fear of death. The plane skidded against the ground that wasn't visible through the dark, roughly kicking up dirt and rocks. The redhead flicked Aisha's head, her eyes popping open.
"Meanie..."
"We're going to rest. Come on out."
Aisha, reluctantly, pushed herself out of her seat and hopped out. Her body wobbled back and forth as she tried to regain consciousness. Elsword crouched down with his back to his friend. "Hop on." She climbed on and clutched his neck, burying her face into his hair like a pillow. "You're lucky I'm your friend, because you're awfully heavy."
"... Shut up ... Elsword ..."
The town, you could say, was a mixture between modern and old times. Every house was a log cabin, and all the businesses had the signs you might see in a western movie. Despite that, the townsfolk had on steampunkish clothing and amongst them were robots that did work from retrieving water to brushing animals. Besides the mix between time periods, the only odd thing was that everybody was up at midnight with full energy. People were on doorsteps in rocking chairs, atop roofs and horses, and even working in the shops.
Elsword carried his friend through the streets of town. Nobody in particular seemed to care that they were visiting, nor did anybody completely ignore them. A mutual feeling could be felt amongst all the townsfolk.
A gray building with a sign labeled "Inn" was directly to the right of Elsword. He trudged up the steps of the place and swung the door open— well rather, he turned the handle of the door, then kicked it open. Inside, wood counters and a wooden shelf for storing keys were visible. A man with a white collared shirt and yellow vest stood behind the counter, flipping through a book for checking in.
"Two rooms please. " Elsword placed some money on the counter gently, struggling to hold up Aisha.
The man took the coins and pocketed them. "Alright. Rover, show these two their rooms."
A foot-long machine with wheels and two mechanical arms rolled out along the rug on the floor. It gestured with one arm to follow, which Elsword did. The halls they traversed were dimly lit with not a dirty speck in sight, and an intricately woven rug ran down each corridor. The machine stopped in between two rooms and handed the boy a set of keys for each before leaving.
"Okay," Elsword fixed his hands that were holding Aisha's legs and checked the numbers on the keys, "here we go, heavy little girl." With careful precision and swift movements, he managed to unlock the room with one hand.
Entering, the room was quite simple, having a single small bed for the guest to relax in. With that were tables and chairs, a dresser, and bathroom. Elsword walked up to the bed and dropped Aisha on it— that was his workout for the day. He tucked her set of keys into the kitty pouch on her dress and buried her under the covers. sometimes, he really enjoyed playing the nice guy.
"G'night Aish." He leaned over and flicked her ear before retreating to his own room. He also enjoyed playing the annoying guy as well.
And so, after a good rest, our heroes were renewed of their energy. Well, maybe not heroes— what hero sprawls across a bed?
Elsword was laid down with his limbs spread in multiple directions. A trail of spit was left on the cheek facing the ceiling, and his hair was a haggard mess.
Yet, he looked rather peaceful in the cozy bed.
A thin figure tiptoed into the room and stopped by the redhead's bedside. With a giggle, they leaned down very close with mischevious eyes. The person's hand reached out to Elsword, ready to strike him in the side. And with one swift and cruel movement...
They jabbed Elsword in the side with their hand.
"W-What the...?!" Elsword's eyes popped open as he spazzed out and toppled over the other side of the bed.
"Ha! Priceless!"
Well, this was a great way to start his morning... Elsword sat up from the floor and looked at his best friend laughing away. "Aisha...? How the heck did you get in here...?"
The named person put her hands on her hips playfully. "I picked the lock." In her right hand was a brown bobby pin. The talents Aisha possesed— what a weird friend he had.
"What would you have done if this was somebody else's room?" A legit question. If that happened, there was a chance the person would be half-naked. Hold on, he wasn't half-naked, was he? ... Oh thank goodness, he wasn't!
Her mouth went ajar before slapping him fully awake for being one-hundred percent right. A red mark appeared on his cheek in the shape of Aisha's dainty hands. "You big meanie..." Aisha remarked with crossed arms. "That so wouldn't happen!"
And with that said, Aisha promptly left the room for Elsword to do his business. "Hurry up so we can head out!" She headed to the main lobby where it was completely deserted and almost silent to point of it being deafening. Stray machines vacuumed the carpet floor, rolling along merrily without a care in the world. Unseen and unheard, the man from the front desk was missing from his duty. Aisha pondered the absent man, her friend walking out from the halls.
"Hey Aish'. Ready to go?"
The purple girl spun around in place. "Elsword, wasn't there a man here yesterday?"
"Yeah. He probably stepped out or something. I already paid, so we can go." Immediately, Elsword pushed Aisha out the door and into the morning lights.
But... what was bustling before was seemingly abandoned now like a ghost town. All you could hear anywhere was the rushing wind around them. There were no longer pleasant people on every doorstep. No longer people visible through shop windows. No longer animals being cared and attended to— Actually...
Gasping, Aisha pointed to the right of Elsword's view. "Oh my gosh Elsword look at that...!"
A mahogany haired horse was trotting along the dirt path, no rider visible. Behind it, a cart of apples dragged along. Though there was a use of horse blinders, the animal's head looked around in a curious fashion. It began to stray, heading to a water post.
Right on cue, a leather stock whip from the cart was lifted high into the air. Nobody appeared to be controlling the long leather though. It flew through the wind and whipped the air, producing a crack heard miles away. The horse's attention was returned, and it started to trot past the wide-eyed duo.
Aisha let out a petrifying shriek. Elsword covered her mouth and held her shoulder, still watching the unmanned animal. "Stay calm... It was just... Our imagination! Yeah, that's it!" His suggestion only frightened her even more, causing her to cower—what idiot would think that at a time like this?! "A-Anyways, we should get moving!"
Elsword shoved her through the town, passing other strange sights. Like... two floating jars of milk. Or the magical water pump pumping itself. Or the hammer pounding against a piece of iron in a blacksmith's. The only relatively normal thing was the abundant number of robots traversing the town. Aisha couldn't help but hyperventilate and then rush away from the scene, her redhead friend dashing after to catch her.
The building on the edge of town was completely ignored by everybody, including the robots. The bushes were a wild mess, the grass a jungle, the bricks a faded beige. The dark black roof shingles released as much heat as they absorbed. Aisha swung the creaky door open thoughtlessly and hurried in. Elsword came panting, his short breaths filling the room. The two leaned up against the wall and slid down from exhaustion.
"Oh...! My...! Gosh!"
"I was wrong! Not our imagination!"
... What was that sound? Heels clicking the stone floor of the room echoed, almost like the sound of a beating heart. The front tip of shiny black boots peaked from the shadows as a peachy-blonde girl emerged from a dark corner. Her hair stood out especially compared to the dark outfit with multiple chains. The look on her face— it was a look of confusion and shock— made the girl seem even stranger. Elsword and Aisha were petrified by the figure's presence, almost as if they expected the worst to come— who could blame them when they just experienced phantom things.
"Why aren't you two dead?"
