From Dust 2 Dawn (Part 2)
Just as the sky started to darken, Mikey parked his van in front of an abandoned convenience store called "Dusk 2 Dawn". The teenagers and the Gang stood in front of the wired fence that surrounded the store.
"There it is, fellas! The condemned Dusk 2 Dawn!" Danny gestured.
The others looked at it in awe, while Ford spoke up, "Why'd they shut it down? Was it a health code violation, or-"?
"Try MURDER!" Daryl said in a spooky voice to try to scare him.
Ed pointed at the store, "Some folks died in there, and the place has been haunted ever since!"
"This town has such a colorful history!" Stan exclaimed happily.
Ford ignored his brother, "Wha… are you guys serious?"
"Yeah! We're all gonna die!" Danny joked. He laughed. "Don't worry, man, it's not as bad as it looks!"
Heather giggled as he climbed and hopped over the fence, and the others followed him one by one, until it was Ford's turn.
"Come on, Ford!" Danny yelled.
Ford was on the top of the fence, and he slowly tried to climb down to join them, "Okay! Okay! Just gotta get a foothold…"
"Dude, your brother did it!" Rob yelled. "Even Fids did it!"
Fids was, in fact, with the teens cheering as Stan ran on the ground sideways in a circle while yelling, "WOOP, WOOP, WOOP, WOOP, WOOP!"
"Come on Ford it's not so hard." Fids assured him.
Ford nodded, but before he could move Ed climbed up behind Ford, losing his patience, "Hey, you know what? Just…. There ya go," he threw Ford off the fence, and he fell screaming. "Ha! S-sorry kid!"
Daryl laughed and high fived Ed when he jumped down, "Good job throwing the kid off the fence, genius!"
"Your mom's a genius…"
Ford brushed himself off, slightly irritated by being shoved and being called a kid. He ignored this and followed the teenagers and his friend to the window of the store.
"Wow!" Danny exclaimed. "This place is amazing!"
It was dark, but to Ford, it didn't look any more interesting than, well… a closed store. Rob tried to open the door, but it was locked,
"Let me try to open it," Ford offered.
Rob scoffed, "Oh yeah. I can't get in, but I'm sure junior here is gonna break it down like Hercules!"
"Come on," Heather frowned. "Leave him alone, He's just trying to help."
"Stupid kid should have stayed at home." Rob said.
Ford narrowed his eyes knowingly, if Heather's brother saw him as just a kid, then she probably did too. He had to do something to look more mature.
In determination, he walked over to the dumpster at the side of the store, and he jumped on it to climb in the vents. He could hear their protests and Stan's cheering as he kicked down the screen and climbed into the vent.
Shandra gasped, "Kid, what are you doing?"
"Hey, Ford!" Dan yelled. "Take it easy!"
"Go, Ford!" Stan cheered.
Their voices soon disappeared as he crawled through the metal vents, looking for a way to get in the store. Ford grabbed his emergency flashlight he kept in his back pocket and turned it on. After a moment of crawling and searching, he found an opening where he could jump off safely onto a store shelf. He hopped off the shelf and ran to the door, where Ford undid the lock and opened the front door from the inside. He held the door out with a smug look on his face and gestured everyone to come inside. Everyone cheered for him, high fiving him as each went inside.
"Good call inviting this little guy!" Ed smiled.
Daryl pointed to Ford, "Your new name is Dr. Funtimes!"
"Nicely done six." Dan said.
"Nice work!" Heather agreed and gave him a playful punched on the shoulder. Ford smiled and blushed as she walked by. Once everyone was inside, he followed them in with a little skip in his step.
It was still dark in the store, but Ford kept his flashlight on to look around. The teens were joking around, asking where the ghosts and the dead bodies were.
Danny found the light switch, "Hey, guys! You think this still works?" He flipped the switch on, and the lights came on, lighting up the store, much to everyone's surprise.
"Why would they keep the electricity going in here?" Ford asked. No one seemed to listen to him, so he turned off his flashlight and put it up.
Danny cracked his knuckles, "Guys, it looks like we can do whatever we want!" The teens and the twins cheered, and they split to explore the store. They ran around, throwing food at each other, popping mints into soda bottles, making a mess, and they were having loads of fun. Stan was having the time of his life, but then he found something else.
"No Way!" He gasped. He pointed to some strange foreign candy with signs on it, saying 'DO NOT SELL'. "Smile Dip! I thought this stuff was banned in America!"
"Maybe they had a good reason," Ford pointed out. He was about to warn Stan not to eat the candy, but he was hit by a bag of food, and he ran off laughing.
Stan opened a bag and stuck the candy stick in the Smile Dip. He glanced at the stick before deciding to just pour the entire package in his mouth.
Meanwhile, Ford was now sitting on a shelf next to Heather and Danny. They were all eating ice pops and watching everyone else have fun. His eyes fell on Heather and he blushed as he remember how she playfully punched his shoulder. Heather actually thought he was cool, and he was hanging out with a punch of teen! And they had named him Dr. Funtimes!
Danny laughed at something the others were making Mikey do, "Ford, this night is legendary!"
"Really?" Ford asked.
"Just look around. The guys are bonding, I've never seen Shandra look up from her phone this long, even Rob is having fun! And your brother seems to be going nuts with that Smile Dip."
Ford looked around to see that he was right. He looked over at Stan. His face was covered in the illegal candy, and, to Ford's mild concern, he was chewing on air after talking to himself. Ford was sure he had too much of it.
"He's right." Heather agreed. "I'm really glad you guys came."
"Me too." Ford said as their eyes met.
"You know, Ford," Danny started, "I wasn't sure if you could hang out with our crew at first, but you're surprisingly mature for your age."
Ford was sure that he could scream in joy at that moment, if Danny saw him as mature then surely Heather would think so too! But instead of freaking out, he kept a straight face and nodded, "Yes, yes I am." He said, and accidently smeared his ice cream on the side of his face.
"Hey, guys!" Ed called out. He was shoving a bag of ice into Mikey's pants. "We need more ice!"
"I'm on it!" Ford jumped off the shelf and walked over to the ice freezer. He grabbed a bag of ice, only to drop it on the floor in fear when he saw a floating brain with tentacles and eyeballs inside the freezer. "AAH!" He closed the door and took deep breathes. Once his breathing was back to normal, he slowly opened the door again, only to see that the monster was not there.
"What was that?" Ed asked. "I thought I heard some lady screaming back here."
"You freakin' out, kid?" Daryl asked. The others walked up to where Ford was.
"Uh, no. I'm fine. Everything's just fine," Ford tried to brush off.
Rob pointed to the spilled ice on the floor, "Then what's all this about?"
"That's uh, um uh…" Ford looked around, trying to come up with an explanation or a diversion. He pointed at a video game console. "Hey, look! Dancy Pants Revolution! The game that tricks people into exercising!"
The diversion worked, and the teenagers ran over to play it. Ford chuckled uneasily, "Yeah, let's all- let's go play that…" He glanced back at the empty freezer before joining them.
Mikey went up to play first, and the other teens cheered him on, "Wow. He's really bad at this," Danny commented.
Ford chuckled in agreement, still unnerved by the brain monster from the freezer. He glanced at the glass door, where he could see the reflections of himself, Danny, Rob, Shandra, and Mikey. For a second, he thought that he saw that their skin was gone and replaced with bones. Ford rubbed his eyes and looked at the glass door again, seeing that their reflections were back to normal.
"You okay?" Fids asked.
Ford nodded, but he must have not been convinced because Fids pressed further.
"Look if you want to leave I'll go with you." He reasoned. "Heather's fine, and I think Stan needs help."
Ford looks to his brother, who at the moment is flapping his arms around singing. "I can fly, I can fly!"
Ford shook his head. "I'll be right back," he said quickly, and ran off to the telephone located at the other side of the store and called his grantie's number. The phone rang, but no one was answering. "Come on, Grauntie Mabel, pick up! Ugh, what is she doing?"
(Back at the Shack…)
Grauntie Mabel was, in fact, in the living room knitting and eating ice cream while watching "The Duchess Approves". Waddles had moved from her lap to curl up on the floor next to the chair.
"I don't care about Dukes, or Commoners, or his Royal Highness Lionel of Cornwall! I'm not afraid anymore, Mother!" A young woman in the movie spoke.
"Duchess, I forbid you," the mother said.
"I may be a duchess, but I'm also a woman!" She removed her hat and allowed her long hair to flow in the wind.
"Yes! Yes! In your face, Elizabeth!" Mabel laughed, not hearing the phone ringing in the other room. "It's just like my life… in a way…."
(Back at the Dust 2 Dawn…)
Ford gave up trying to call her and hung up. He tried his next plan, which was to talk to Stan about it. He was sitting on the floor in front of the Smile Dip candy, "Stan, I need your advice. We're hanging out in a haunted convenience store, I can't get a hold of Grauntie Mabel, and if I say anything about it to any of these guys, they'll just think I'm a scared little kid! Plus Heather's too starry eyed for Danny to help and Fids just wants to go home! What do I do?!"
Stan made a gurgling noise, which caused Ford to take a closer look at him. Stan had Smile Dip all over his face and clothes. His eyes were dilated to the point where he didn't look healthy.
"Stan?" he asked, concern.
Stan mumbled something incoherent, but Ford could make out, "Onward Aoshima…"
He held his brother tightly, but the older twin swayed with his head limped on one side in his grasp, "Stan, how many of these did you eat?!"
"Beleven… teen…" he mumbled.
"Oh no!" Ford dropped him and started freaking out. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!"
To make matters worse, Rob found something by the register, "Whoa, guys, you might wanna see this!" Ford left his twin behind and joined the others. They gathered around the tape markings of two bodies. Ford gulped.
"Then the rumors were true!" Ed gasped.
"Ed, I dare you to lie down in it," Rob smirked.
"Good idea," Ed smiled. He turned to Daryl. "Go lie down in it!"
Daryl laughed, "Oh, look! I'm a dead body!" he was about to sit down in the markings when Ford stopped him.
"Wait! Maybe that's not a good idea…"
Ed chuckled, "Looks like somebody's scared," he teased.
"I am not!" Ford retorted. "It's very disrespectful to disrupt the dead, and… I mean, what if this place really is… haunted?" he finished shyly.
The teens booed at him, and Rob called him, "Captain Buzzkill".
"I thought I was Dr. Funtimes," he spoke softly.
"Well, you're acting like Captain Buzzkill! Right?" Rob asked the other teens. They all nodded their heads in agreement.
Ford turned to Danny, who was rubbing his hand at the back of his neck, "Yeah, little bit," he agreed.
"Heather?" Ford asked hopefully, but Heather just bit her lip and looked away in embarrassment.
"I'm blogging this," Shandra said. "Trapped in store with scared 9-year-old."
"I'm not nine!" Ford yelled, marching over to the tape markings and lied down in them. "I'm thirteen! Technically a teenager!"
The tape markings light up and the lights go out as Shandra looks up and dissolves into nothingness.
"Shandra!" Rob yelled.
But the teen girl was gone.
Ford gulped; had cluing in the others about the ghost sealed their demise?
"What have I done..?"
-To Be Continued