A/N: I'm really happy to have scored such a nice review so soon after posting the first chapter/prologue of this story :) I should apologize because you won't be seeing any actual spirits for a few more chapters, but I think the build up should be good enough to compensate for that. Well, time to write chapter two, in which...
Chapter Two
In which exploiting ATMs is perfectly fine in Fia's books and for once MJ isn't complaining about it
"Come on MJ, wake up. Time to get up. Wakey-wakey, eggs and bakey!Well, not right now but we can find a nice small diner and ask for eggs and bacon if you are really up to it." Fia sighed exasperatedly and her sigh turned into a slight growl in the end. She wasn't the particularly patient type when exciting stuff was happening. Like right now. "Come on, MJ, get the fuck up, don't make me bitch slap you into consciousness. That didn't really work well the last time. Or any time, in fact."
Fia looked around herself again and rubbed her arms. She felt like she was freezing. MJ was probably freezing as well, so she had to wake her up as soon as possible. She had no idea where they were, but it wasn't in Paris. Had they even made it home last night? She didn't really have a memory of that occasion, but both of them were properly dressed with their handbags intact.
"God dammit, woman, wake up before we both succumb to hypothermia." Fia bit out irritably and bonked her sleeping friend lightly on the head.
That hadn't been the best idea.
As fast as lightning, a fist shot up and punched her straight in the face, sending her falling on her back with a painful 'Oof!'
"I'm awake, dammit!" grumbled the irritated MJ who immediately sat up and stretched her arms and cracked her neck.
"You broke my nose!"
"Your nose is fine, I didn't hit you that hard, Fiona, and you should know better." MJ answered without missing a beat, not even concerned about the state of her friend that tended to be a dramatic little diva in such occasions. She ignored the further complaints and whining and looked around in slight confusion. "Where are we and why are we here?" MJ asked seriously.
"Well, that's why I was trying to wake you up. We're not in Paris though, that much I can tell you."
"I think I can guess that for myself as well. It's rather cold. Colder than back at your place." MJ rubbed her arms and her eyes kept darting, taking in their surroundings.
"I see pines. The frigging fuck?"
"Fia! Wait up!" MJ exclaimed as the blonde suddenly darted forward and out on the main street of whatever hell hole they were in.
MJ caught the hem of Fia's coat and yanked her back just in time to keep her from becoming a blond splat on the front of a truck.
"Can you at least pay attention to the little things such as...I dont know... STREET LIGHTS?" MJ hissed at the sheepishly blinking blonde. "And don't you dare look at me like that, damn you, puppy eyes work on lesser beings than I."
"Uhm, sorry." Fia chuckled timidly and MJ sighed. Trust Fia to make a nuinsance of herself no matter the situation they were in.
"Just- "MJ took a few calming breaths. She knew Fia couldn't help herself. What if she had been here alone? She didn't want to think about that possibility."Just pay more attention, ok? Next time I might not be here to save you from death by truck."
"I know. Thanks, MJ." Fia smiled brightly and suddenly MJ's bad mood evaporated.
"Let's find out where we are and go home. I'd rather explain the situation to your parents sooner rather than later."
Wherever they were, it looked like a small town that was eerily familiar, with crisp cold weather and snow covering everything with its gentle white fluff. Several minutes later MJ felt irritation bubbling again, as Fia was pacing quickly in some sort of direction, even though the black-haired girl knew perfectly well that the blond had no idea where they were going.
"Could you please stop for one second and tell me what the hell are you looking for?"
"Oh, I'm looking for a sign."
...
"A sign, Fiona? I think whatever happened addled your brains a bit, Fia-"
"Pfft. Not that kind of a sign, MJ. Just a plain, regular 'You are here' sign, so that we know where we are."
MJ blinked, feeling slightly foolish for a few seconds. The moment quickly passed though, because with Fiona, one never knew what exactly she had in mind. God knows she'd been through enough during her friend's Paranormal Investigation phase. And her I want to be a Superhero-uh, no, a Supervillain! Phase. And all those other phases MJ didn't even want to think about let alone remember.
"Why not just ask people on the street?" MJ asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Fia stopped in her tracks and turned around yet again to stare thoughtfully at MJ, actually looking like the thought never occured to her in the first place. Figures.
"Feh, and spoil our epic quest? No way!"
MJ groaned as the blonde skipped ahead. Sometimes it was best to go with the flow.
A bell rung close by and MJ turned to see a small diner and a person leaving it. It looked warm and cozy inside and MJ was kinda hungry. She looked back at Fia who was confidently plowing through the snow like a, well, a snowplow.
"I'm going to get something to eat." MJ stated and headed for the little cozy diner, without missing a beat as Fia spluttered in righteous indignation at her friend's sudden change in plans.
"Hey! Wait up!"
As they sat down and the waitress handed them menus, Fia continued to sulk for a good minute or so untill she notices the unimpressed gaze of her friend and she promptly gave up on that notion.
"You know, we need to do an inventory check."
MJ looked up from her menu. The way she had phrased herself, it sounded almost as if...
"You know something." her eyes narrowed at the blonde.
"It's more of a feeling, you know. I'm just missing a little clue, is all." Fia confessed. "I find it strange that we wake up in the middle of nowhere, out of the blue, you know?"
"Really now? You don't say." Mj replied, voice as dry as ever.
"Mhm, I mean, doesn't this place look ridiculously familiar?"
The waitress came to offer hot coffee which they took gratefully and they placed their orders.
"I beg your pardon, madam, but would you be so kind to tell us where where are? My friend and I appear to be irrevocably lost."
Fia was about to errupt but a quick frosty glance silenced her.
"Oh my, I've never heard your accent before. It's British, yes? You're in Burgess, dearies." MJ and Fia went numb."By the looks on your faces you seem to be pretty far away from home? Poor dears."
"Oh, not that far, really-" MJ tried to say, but Fia cut in.
"Burgess, Pennsylvania?"
"Yes."
As the waitress went away, Fia placed her head in her hands and stood like that for a whole minute.
"Holy fuck. Sweet motherfucking holy shit on a stick with a dick thrice wrapped around it." Fia breathed out in terror, voice barely a barely audible whisper. "We're in the fucking movie. Jesus fucking Christ."
Both were silent then, and MJ eventually found her voice.
"Don't be ridiculous, Fia, it might be some sort of misunderstanding or a prank-"
"This is Burgess, Pennsylvania. Not Burgess, Missouri, not Burgess, South Carolina, not Burgess, Virginia! This fucking hell hole doesn't exist!" Fia took a sip from her coffee, the hand holding it trembling.
MJ felt her mouth go dry.
"We gotta do an inventory check, get ourselves a hold of the situation, settle somewhere, find jobs, get money. You know, the whole she-bang. Holy fucking shit."
The terror was slowly giving way to the hysteria that was bubbling up in the blond and soon enough she was shaking silently with barely suppressed maniacal laughter.
"Fia, get a hold of yourself and don't scare the poor inhabitants of this community. We're planning to stay here right? Until we can find a way back home-"
"Fehehehe, this is fucking brilliant. Abso-fucking-lutely brilliant!" Fia's voice was a hushed, but excited, almost reverent and triumphant whisper. "Don't you get it? This is us! Professional movie griefers, bitches extraoirdinarie, non-believers extravaganza, the sexy-ass gamer girls that never take anything at face value."
"I get it already, now tell me what is so 'brilliant' ?"
"We won't see the fucking sun even if it was right in our faces." Fia finally started cackling. The waitress placed their food and slightly fearfully pulled away. "Don't you get it? Don't you see just how fucking brilliant is all of this!? I mean, come on now, MJ, you're a smart girl. Seeing here is not believing, and believeing is seeing. Think about it, if we are here than that means that they are here and that means we have to find them."
"What I don't get is why are you so amused by all of this." MJ remarked dryly, still rather disbelieving of the whole situation.
"Oh no, I'm not amused, MJ."Fia's chilling smile was like sweet poison. "I am absolutely livid." There was a hint of a growl in her words. The blond woman huffed and pouted, crossing her hands over her chest, looking as indignant as ever. "I mean, think about it, MJ. Really? So we are here but we can't see anything. This is like hunting for pink elephants while sober!"Fia grumbled while MJ raised an elegant black eyebrow.
"Because pink elephants totally exist and hunting is easier when drunk?" MJ deadpanned, voice as dry as the Gobi Desert.
Fia chuckled appreciatively at her and shook her head.
"This is exactly what I'm talking about. We're a couple of disillusioned skeptics that just wish the world was a wee bit of a better place to live in."
"Wish?" MJ's eyes widened. "Bloody Hell! That was your wish on the bloody shooting star, wasn't it, you little hellion!? This...This is all your fault!"
"For fucking fuck's sake, MJ, I didn't wish to be here! My wish was about getting something better in life than...than what I've been dealt with."
MJ shrunk back uncomfortably as Fia looked away, cheeks slightly blushing at her admission.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." Michael apologized softly.
"I know, MJ. It's just... it still hurts to think about it. I thought that he would... it doesn't really matter now, does it? Not anymore, anyways. Now that we are here, we better make the best of it. Things are yet to turn out to have been for the best and... I am looking forward to having an adventure, to be honest." Fia grinned and her flush intensified with her excitement.
The rest of their breakfast was a quiet affair and they used their time to check what they had on themselves and what they could use to their advantage. As stated earlier, both their handbags were intact and they had found, to their relief, both their cell phones and their wallets.
"The one time I decide to leave my lap top at home and this happens." Fia remarked bitterly, as she placed her purce by her side again. She looked out the window of the diner. It had started snowing softly again. Idly she wondered if that had been Jack Frost's doing.
"You have Wi-Fi on your phone, Fia, you won't die without internet, at least."
"Says the girl with nun-chucks in her handbag." Fia sighed." We need to get registered for mobile phone services and I have a feeling that the same would go for our bank accounts."
MJ actually cringed at the thought of being low on money.
"Can't you do something about that?"
Fia snorted at what MJ was suggesting.
"Of course, but not from a ruddy little smart phone." she huffed and shook her brand new and state of the art smart phone. "Well, I can do it from a smart phone and access to Wi-Fi, but it will take way too long and I'll get fustrated and then I might mess something up and then I'd get caught and then I'd go to prison and you'll be all alone and on the streets. And we can't have that. Let's find a library. Libraries always have public computers with access to internet."
MJ nodded in agreement and followed Fia out of the little cozy diner.
The next several hours were the most nerve wrecking they've had in quite a while. Armed with little over five thousand dollars from several different ATMs all over Burgess and on the verge of dying from the immense cold, the two stumbled inside the small hotel they had been adviced to go to and practically collapsed on the beds once they booked a room.
"I just realized something." Fia stated all of a sudden, sitting up on her bed.
"Hm?"
"Turn off automatic updates on your phone."
"Why?"
"Because our smart phones still have information from home. And it's different than the information here, if you catch my drift."
"I haven't really thought about us having such an issue." MJ mumbled and then cuddled up into her warm covers. The bed wasn't particularly comfortable but it was better and warmer than the couches in the library. Fia had taken forever in there. Michael heard shuffling and turned to see Fia, ass up in the air, and head upside down, looking under the bed.
"Fia I want to sleep, what the hell are you doing?"
"Checking for monsters."
"For goodness' bloody sake, Fiona, go to bed."
"No monsters." Fia sounded almost as disappointed as she was relieved and MJ resisted the urge to to roll his eyes and groan.
Sleep, however, was delayed yet again.
"If you can see anything you will tell me, right? You'll protect me?"
" . . . ."
That concluded their first day in another universe.
Not so far away, a mischievous spirit of Frost was gracefully flying above Bugress, spreading merry chills.