Chapter 5:
Episode 1-4
Departure of plastic and sight.
Three hours... Well, it was more like two by now.
Come 8pm, right as everyone settled into the show, Serah - in her dollish state - made her move. Ironically, Lumina's self-proposed curfew was the very instance Serah proper was meant to die, and a sinkhole would be all that remained. However, taking into account their involvement in the matter, their very presence might have, by chance, tipped the scales just a bit, hopefully giving them added time...
Or taking it away.
Best not to think about it. Instead, she slipped between the folds of the sofa, swimming along carefully so as not to upset anyone and have herself discovered. Popping out near the left corner, she carefully moved to lower herself onto the floor, staying close to Snow's legs until she could squeeze underneath the couch entirely. It wouldn't be too difficult to advance now. Serah used her small size to scamper unseen towards the kitchen, where an open window would sell her an easy escape.
Sadly, while climbing up there was a simple minute of scaling a stepping stool - Serah's shortness had most likely seen Snow making one early on - and a chair, vaulting across the tiny gap from it onto the countertop, and braving the knife rack to make the final jump. Looking out to the drop below, on the other hand, had her wondering if her small size would even survive. At best, there was a drainage pipe beside her, near her immediate right. Serah considered climbing down, but these plastic hands, while articulate, wouldn't have the traction not to slip.
Disregarding the fact those pipes were usually at the corners of houses, she was left at a standstill.
Darn it. Okay, so maybe there were a few more steps than necessary. Turning back, she took a brief little trip around the counter and past the sink to find a paper towel holder. Not exactly parachute worthy, but perhaps it might prove strong enough to act as a rope of sorts; not for scaling down, but to wrap around the pipe and slowly inch along.
It was worth a shot, and so after removing one of the taller-than-her sheets, Serah returned to the window. Having rolled it up into a somewhat thick, but still susceptible to water, rope, she stuck one end through. Taking a mental breath - you needed lungs for the real thing - Serah stepped out and wrapped her arm around the pipe, grabbing the other end just as she started to slip. Slamming her feet against the main flat of the pipe, she had to adjust as they too lacked traction. Still, the pressure from pulling kept her against the metal surface, so long as she didn't let up.
Well, she did let up, several times as a matter of fact on her way down. Three quarters of the trip passed by without issue, but at that point she must have hit a wet spot because her "rope" ripped right in two. Plummeting for less than a second, her back hit the grassy patch, and she rolled over. Sure, it didn't hurt, but without nerve endings she didn't expect it too. Thankfully, every limb remained firmly attached... although she did lose her chest piece.
Well... At least I'm still presentable. Thankfully, Caius and the Yeul's were merciful, and had not given her unsafe sculpting underneath the hood; contrary to what Lumina claimed while convincing Serah of her perceived innocence. She wasn't stupid, and was wholly aware of why Lumina wanted to remain a mere poser. Who can honestly say what the previous l'Cie would do if their legitimacy got discovered, or that her fraudulent self existed at all?
Pulling up off the trimmed grass, but using it to her advantage, she sprinted beside the home and around back to the cellar. Opening it would be another issue, but that could be solved by choosing to squeeze in the cracks instead. Her little hands unlatched it easily, but the weight proved a tad harder to contend with. Regardless - and probably due to the lack of real muscle tissues - she eventually shoved her leg inside to wedge a gap large enough, and soon forced the rest of her body through, leaving the hatch to shut completely again.
The strange thing about being a toy, most of all, had to be the lack of light sensitivity. Oh, sure, she could tell it was there, but from her perspective everything had the same tone. Shadows were fairly absent save a few tints, leaving everything appearing nearly flat and unfinished from an artist's perspective. This came with the added benefit of night vision, albeit one where everything retained its colors.
Plip-plopping down the steps returned her to what they believed to be the location of the DS, and from here she began to expend just a tiny bit of magic. They couldn't really use much of it without alerting everyone nearby of the changes in... whatever sensor happened to pick their magic up - she still wasn't sure how magic was truly perceived, even after the explanation.
Unfortunately, this stirred up the sprite it seemed, and a slight hiss echoed out around.
Oh no...
.
.
"Huh..." Snow had been enjoying - under his fiancé's supervision - the televised drama so far; he was more an action and comedy guy the likes of Die Hard or Eddie Murphy, but was forced to admit that sis nailed it in this move. Then again, pseudo-lesbian romance had him curious as to whether Serah had some underlying emotions to sort out when it came to her older sister.
Bah, he was just being a big ol' goof now.
"Is... this a power outage?" his beloved questioned, only for Noel to crack open the window blinds and peer out, the street lights illuminating the side of his face as he spoke in a grumbly, thoughtful tone.
"Doesn't look like it." Lifting them up so they at least had some light to work with, Noel whipped out his phone and flicked on the flashlight. "Do you still have issues with your wiring?"
"I thought we had that fixed," Serah shot him a worried gaze, her eyes glistening from the faint light and prompting a little ire from him towards their current predicament.
"We did." Standing, he shook his head while grumbling, "And it was a pricey fix too."
Truthfully, there were plenty of issues with the wiring here; unpredictable problems for sure, but still enough to annoy him on the regular. Perhaps he really should just get some training in the field; enough to fix up their home anyway, because he was damn tired of having to find the source of their problems or wait on an electrician to do so.
"It might have been a short surge," Yeul posed, adding, "Could have just jumped the breaker."
"Let's hope," Snow added, waving Noel towards him. "Come on, let's go check it out. I'll need your light to see down in the basement."
"Coming."
The pair ventured down through the spiral steps - Serah always loved the little drill, even if it was the worst thing to fall down - before pressing through the basement door. Beyond such lied various bits and bobs, forgotten appliances that had given up working for one reason or another, and all his failed personal projects, such as the original rocking chair he kept on the end of the living room, before the rocker snapped and became little more than an overzealous seat.
"You really need to get this place sorted out," Noel commented, a playful grin surely spitting the words, much to Snow's own disgruntled agreement. "Looks worse than our backrooms after a flood of new aspiring hunters."
"Trust me, I know," Fighting through the mess of old cords littering the floor far too dangerous for his liking, Snow leaned to the side and let Noel's light target their destination. "I should move half of this out to the shed; most of this wood is still good, and it beats a trip to the hardware store."
"Why not shove a little of it in the cellar too? There's plenty of space in there, and the only thing besides wine and cheese- Serah?"
"Serah," Snow replied firmly, getting a hum as Noel carried on.
"-Are your tools."
"I'd like to," Snow admitted as they finally got to the box, which he promptly unlatched and popped open. "But she doesn't want me mixing our dusty junk with the food; she barely tolerates my tool bench as is. She's worried it'll..."
He was about to expose her concerns over the spread of mold and rust, but seeing every single breaker tripped kind of stunned him.
"Sheesh," Whistling, even Noel couldn't refrain from commenting. "Must have been a wicked surge. I would have thought your place tougher than that?"
"So had I."
In that instant, every single fiber in Snow's body sparked into action. An ear-splitting scream rocked throughout the house, and he didn't even need to tell Noel, because the shorter man took off leading the charge back up. Pure luck was the only reason they hadn't tripped up the stairwell, and after slamming through the door up top they zipped into the living room, Snow himself with his fists raised and Noel itching for a fight.
"SERAH!"
"YEUL!"
Both women screamed... but otherwise never moved from the couch. Eyes rummaging over every inch of space that Noel's phone light scanned showed nothing out of the ordinary, and following some tense minutes of searching, both boys settled down. Serah, his beloved, had become the first to act.
"What is the matter with you two?!" Placing a hand over her chest, she huffed. "You scared us half to death!"
"Scared you?!" Snow, feeling a little bit betrayed that she had the gall to push this solely on him, aptly defended. "You scared us!"
"We heard you screaming," Noel mentioned, softly, himself in disbelief recalling the incident. "I've never heard something so bloodcurdling before; not even from the Old World."
"We didn't scream," Yeul looked to be the only person at least moderately collected in this situation, much to Snow's own regret. He'd like to blame it on his concern for Serah, but even for him, this had been a bit much. Still... every inch of his mind was telling him that if he didn't get to her now, he'd lose her forever.
That was a nightmare too gruesome to relive, and if he could help it, such a thing would never come to pass.
"We were waiting patiently for you two to fix the breaker," Serah, a decent chunk calmer than before, brought the topic back around. "Speaking of, how did it look?"
"Bad." Snow immediately rectified his statement a little bit when she shivered. "Well, bad in a weird way. Every single fuse was tripped."
"All of them?" Serah spat, seemingly in disbelief. "That can't be right."
"We don't get it either." Snow admitted, earning a sigh from Serah, who stood and wandered over to the light switch, flipping it a couple of times before shooting back.
"Why's the light still not working? Didn't you flip on the breakers?"
"We never got the chance," Noel came in, knowing fully that if Snow broke the news she'd probably get more than worked up that she already was. "When we heard the screams, we came running."
"Are you sure it wasn't just something falling over?" Yeul twisted to face Serah. "You mentioned they might have trouble with the mess down there."
"Well... yes, but I cleared most of it to the sides last time I was down there." Embarrassed more so due to the filthy state their basement was in, Serah ultimately had to admit, "Although I suppose something could have tumbled down if one of them bumped anything while walking."
"Nope," Noel interjected confidently, underlying worry to follow. "For as clogged as it was, I know for a fact we didn't knock anything over. It was definitely your voices we heard."
"But we didn't say anything, honestly." Serah huffed, pointing to the quiet one of their little upstairs trio. "Just ask Lulu."
With the torch of attention being passed onto her, Lulu took it with a deep sigh before confirming the statement.
"They didn't scream," before adding, "But I can't say it was a riveting conversation either."
Flinching a little, Serah at least upheld her appreciation for the snarky girl's aid in spreading the truth.
"Thank you."
"Look," Lulu kicked off the couch. "Do you mind if I just call it a night?"
"Oh... um, not at all." Caught by surprise, especially after feeling like she'd been a decent enough host for the little girl, Serah, through a minor tingle of concern, felt the need to see if something was wrong. "You're free to go if you want, but do you mind if I ask why? I'd thought you wanted to spend a little more time with us."
Looking more than a little caught off guard, followed by an uneasy glance and some shuffling, Lulu answered in a slightly unsettled tone; honestly, that alone revealed to Serah just how poor she'd been, if she'd gotten that reaction from the girl at least. Still, she remained vigilant, and opted to do better should their guest stop by for a visit next time; honestly, this was a teenage girl, so she shouldn't have been too difficult to entertain - Serah herself was young once.
"I-it's nothing, really. It just... seems like you might be having a bit of trouble, and I don't want to get in your way."
"I see..." Serah felt a tiny weight lift from her chest, and spoke a little clearer. "But don't worry about that. Trust me, you are no trouble to us. To tell you the truth, I found your optimism towards..." Her mind played back moments of Lulu's explanation of her toy's detail, and she stifled a shudder. "Towards your passions to be a wonderful thing."
"Uh, yeah. That's nice of you to say..." Again, Serah could sense the girl wanted to go, and she'd been about to suggest leading her out - knowing this place like the back of her hand made moving even in the dark no issues - when she noted the way Lulu constantly whipped her head around at the shadows around her: the darkest corners and stretches of the house.
It was here something clicked, and immediately Serah had both the urge to giggle, and cuddle up close to the girl. Lulu didn't want to leave because she felt like a burden: that was just an excuse. And Serah herself wasn't a bad host; Lulu clearly enjoyed the film they were going through, especially quieting down and staring brightly when Claire was on screen. No no: none of those things were why she wanted to leave. Instead, the reason Lulu was in such a hurry to go... was because she was afraid of the dark.
It's okay. There's nothing to be embarrassed about.
Serah herself had been scared of the dark when she was little, and so too was Claire - although she'd never show it, being too busy cuddling her from the side and acting tough seemingly to defend from any imaginary creatures waiting to pounce. With this in mind, Serah calmly returned to the couch, sitting herself and guiding Lulu by hand back beside her, who looked even more nervous now.
"But I must insist you at least wait until we get the power back on, okay? Our house is, despite how it looks, a little difficult to navigate in complete darkness, and I'd rather ensure we can at least see you off."
"You... don't need to do that," Lulu said, pulling back some of her sassy confidence from before to say, "I'm fifteen, not five; I can walk home on my own."
"I'm sure you can, but I'd rather be safe than sorry." Serah quickly looked back towards Snow and Noel. "Besides, these two just need to go back and flick on the breakers; shouldn't take more than a minute or two."
"Not a problem." Noel strode up by Snow, clapping him on the back. "C'mon, before these three get impatient."
Sighing heartily, Snow playfully shook his head and grinned.
"Yeah, I guess we are being pretty slow." Waving, he offered a shorter smirk and wink. "See you lovely ladies in a bit."
Rolling her eyes, Serah chuckled, and once the duo were back down the hall, she spouted some banter of her own.
"With age you'd think he'd have more lines, but I didn't fancy him for his literary wit." Now that they were alone again, Serah turned to Yeul, who appeared to have silently reached the same conclusion as her; not that hard when Lulu was uncomfortably jerking between them. "Lulu," she began, causing the young girl to jerk slightly. "Do you mind if I say something?"
"No?" It came out as a question, which was good as it meant her fear wasn't taking over... And speaking of that, there was no better way to handle these things than with a blunt - albeit understanding and careful - hand. With things in place, Serah leaned in a little more, with Yeul doing the same, and squishing Lulu a tiny bit.
"It's okay to be scared."
"W-what?" Lumina shook, and Yeul soothed after, just as caringly.
"Everyone's afraid of something, even us. There's nothing to be ashamed of."
"I-I-I'm not!" Lumina, with wide eyes, nearly rolled over when Serah giggled.
"Relax. The boys aren't here to see." Taking her hand, Serah smiled brightly. "They'll get the lights on any time now, and we'll be out of the dark."
"T-the dark?"
"It's frightening not being able to see, we're well aware." Yeul, perhaps the closest she's ever been to her other selves back when she roamed with Caius, gave it her all in trying to calm their guest, all the while Lumina felt more like she was seeing her sanity crumble to pieces in all the wrong ways. "But I promise you, there's nothing in the darkness here, no matter what you may read up online."
While the pair were attempting to console the girl for her apparent fear, Lumina herself could only muster a single rationalization, and hearing them mention darkness practically confirmed it. She sunk into herself, feeling them take her hands and lean in, like the comforting wannabe mothers they were, and sighed, accepting the embarrassment while thinking to herself.
You've got to be kidding me...
Author's note
...
Back again, finally.
Sorry for the wait, but like I said I have enough of these going on already that updates on this one would be slow. Hopefully this will satiate those of you who've hopped on for the ride.
VP Serah is on the prowl this time, heading out to check on the mischievous sprite, and while she's gone it seems the power up and left them. Weird things continue to happen, and through it all Lumina is stuck being coddled by older worried women with the wrong idea; figures this would happen.
Things are slow for now, but that won't always be the case, so don't get too comfortable.
Until next time.
Edit:
Fixed Chapter numbering. Also, Chapter 6 is ready, but is delayed until the site accepts the document - might take a day or two.