For much of the day, Greyson fought the noise of the nearby mine to catch up on the rest he missed the night before. While he slept, Azure, Rusty, and Raven easily fought off a small band of grimm that had come to attack the building. Dustyn, Ezelia, and Ember ventured around the quarry, investigating the ground Greyson's group had covered the night before. They found nothing out of the ordinary, apart from several piles of mysteriously torn-up dirt. Eventually, the Sun set over the distant horizon, and night came.
Instead of venturing out again, Greyson told everyone to stay in the cabin and rest, and to only go outside for their hour-long shifts on night watch. Dustyn and Ezelia's shifts ended without incident. At midnight, Rusty waved to everyone in reluctance, and nervously walked out the door. Not long after, Greyson walked to bed, hoping to fit some more sleep in before his own shift.
Half an hour later, as Greyson's muscles relaxed and he lay on the border between wakefulness and sleep, a horrified yell from outside roused him to full vigilance. Anxiety clutched his heart, as he immediately knew the scream was Rusty's. Greyson ripped his blankets off himself and ran down the hall to the front door. Raven and Kita had not yet gone to bed, and were the first to let Rusty in.
"Wh-What's wrong? What happened?" Raven worriedly asked, putting her hands on Rusty's shoulders to comfort him. She felt him shaking violently against her hands with fear.
"I was hearing these... creepy noises!" Rusty answered, voice shaking as much as his body. "Then I heard... music? And then... there were these things. There was one right next to the house! It looked... almost human!?"
"That's exactly what we saw last night then," Greyson commented. Raven and Rusty looked at him, unaware he had come into the room.
Raven nodded. "I-I'll go out there though. I-I'll be able to see them better," she reasoned.
"Raven, no. It's... terrifying out there," Rusty argued. "And I don't want something to hurt you."
"I-I'm not as afraid of ghosts and stuff, a-as I am people," Raven explained. "I-It's kind of weird, really. Last night was, well, a little scary... But I th-think I can handle it."
"Fine, but I'm going to stay awake in here," Rusty assured. "If you want in, just knock, okay?"
Raven happily confirmed, and made her way outside fully armed.
Twenty minutes later, Raven pounded the door so hard it nearly shook out of its frame. Rusty vaulted off his cot and sprinted to the door, taking Raven into his arms as it flung open.
"I-It's w-worse... worse than I thought out there..." Raven weakly said. She looked to Greyson, her dark eyes full of dread. "It's worse than last night..."
"We're inside, we're safe now," Rusty comforted. "I can make us some soup or something. We're all going to be okay, these things can't hurt us."
Without a word, and carrying a look of cold determination on his face, Greyson walked into his room, grabbed Blitz and Nimbus, then changed clothes. He calmly stormed out the door, Kita following behind. He walked several steps off the cabin's front porch, looked to the clear, starry sky above, then back down to the black desert in front of him.
"Kita. Do you see anything?" Greyson asked intensely.
"Nothing yet," Kita reported, scanning the desert. The only sound apart from their voices was the buzzing of the porch light overhead. Several moths flew around it, bumping into it foolishly and casting bizarre, flickering shadows across the nearby sand.
"Good. Maybe it was just the moths," Greyson thought, trying to assure himself. "Just a trick of the mind, and a trick of the light. Makes sense..."
"Halt. I do see forms arising in the sand," Kita declared. "Just beyond the light you can see!"
Greyson pulled Blitz and Nimbus from their sheaths. "Who are you? What are you, and what do you want?" he furiously shouted. "You scare my friends, but are too much of a coward to show yourself? Come on! If you want us gone, TELL ME!"
Greyson felt something rub roughly against his elbow. In a panic, he slashed at it. A clanging noise echoed through the darkness as Nimbus smacked into a stone spire, no taller than Greyson's waist. "Damn it," he muttered, running his fingers carefully along the edge of his weapon's blade to check the damage done. He heard the playful laughter of a young woman, one Greyson was sure was not Kita.
"Strange. I do not remember that stone there..." Kita pondered. The slightest gasp of surprise escaped her. "Greyson, they are gone! The figures disappeared!"
Greyson grit his teeth, half relieved the monsters were gone and half angry they escaped without a hint at what they were. Under Kita's instruction, Greyson walked to where the monsters had appeared. He knelt down to touch the dirt, shining his scroll on the ground to provide minimal light. While the dirt was tough and dense, several patches were torn into a fine sand, as if something had dug itself up from below.
"The ground here is shredded..." Greyson commented.
"What does this mean?" Kita asked.
"I'm not sure," Greyson admitted. "They could be subterranean. If that's the case, we need to watch out. We won't even be safe in the cabin." He put away Blitz and Nimbus, and began to walk back toward the porch.
"Understood," Kita acknowledged. "But, I am curious. I do not know how these monsters relate to the laughter, or to the music. These things do not make sense to me..."
"It doesn't make sense. None of it does," Greyson bitterly agreed. "These things are scaring my friends to death and there's nothing I can do about it..." As Greyson walked up the steps to the porch, he felt a chill run down his spine. He knew he was being watched.
The light above, still playing host to half a dozen moths, flickered and went dark. More female laughter. Closer this time. Shaking off the fear, Greyson stepped inside.
"No more watch for the night," Greyson rigidly announced to the few who still had not gone to bed. "Kita, could you fetch me a piece of paper and a pen, please?"
Kita nodded, and walked off into the nearest room in search of Greyson's order.
"Was everything okay out there? I heard yelling," Rusty inquired, poking his head out from the door to his room. Raven appeared behind him.
"Yeah, everything's fine," Greyson claimed. He decided not to tell the two, who had been so frightened, that the humanoid monstrosities may be living beneath them.
Kita returned with a blue pen and a piece of paper. Greyson held the paper to the nearest wall, and scratched a note into the paper; "No more watch tonight, get rest."
"Goodnight, guys," Greyson said. "I'm going to try and sleep." He then waved lazily, walking out of the room and down the dimly lit hallway. To his surprise, sleep came quickly.
Greyson woke with a start in the early morning. The ground rumbled beneath his cot, and knocked several decorative stones from the windowsill. Greyson rubbed his eyes in confusion as he slowly came to. He realized he was experiencing a small earthquake.
"Why is is that whenever we end up in a cabin on some kind of mission, an earthquake wakes us up? Can't we have one full night's sleep?" Azure questioned irritatedly. The rumbling stopped. "Thank you!" Azure concluded, throwing her arms up in exasperation.
Just then, Greyson's heart sank as he started to hear the same song he had heard the past two nights. The song that accompanied the grotesque creatures, the sense of paranoia, and eerie, disembodied laughter. The song was louder than he had heard before, ringing through his eardrums until he shivered with fear.
Character Notes: Greyson Skye
The very first character I created was practically a self-insert that had all the qualities of each of Team GRAE's members. I decided to split that one character into an entire team, and so Team GRAE was formed. Greyson maintained the "confident leader that's good at things" aspect, as well as the appearance of the original OC.
Greyson's original weapon was similar to Raven's. I decided to change to dual blades because I loved Sword Art Online at the time (it was 2013 and I was in high school, okay?). They turn into shotguns because I wanted Greyson's fighting style to be up close, loud, and slightly reckless.
Greyson has a lot of "thunder and lightning" themes, because when I made him, there was a pretty vicious thunderstorm going on outside. "Blitz" is German for lightning, and "Nimbus" is a type of cloud that brings rain and thunderstorms.
Greyson likes a lot of rock and alternative rock. If he existed in this world, his favorite band would be Pearl Jam, followed by Foo Fighters, Cage the Elephant, Muse, and Queens of the Stone Age.
Greyson is adamant that his name is spelled with an "e." If he sees his name spelled "Grayson," he cringes a little.