By all means, the place wasn't very scary. The decoration was great and the lighting provided all the necessary ambience, but the sound system just wasn't able to keep up with the rest. It also didn't help that the thermostat was not set properly, so most of the experience just consisted of uncomfortably walking in narrow corridors while sweating everywhere. In silence. The loudest thing in the room most of the time were Nao's breaths as she braced herself for a jumpscare every time we went around a corner.
Five minutes after we started, Liam had already lost all of the enthusiasm that he started with. Now, he trudged along as if being controlled by some puppet master, just waiting to get to the end of the experience. I gained some enjoyment by poking fun of him for the same. He didn't seem to like it very much, but it caused Nao to laugh once or twice, forgetting that she was supposed to scared out of her mind.
The latest area that we were going through was the storage room of the haunted hospital the experience was about. There were long shelves and bloodstained boxes almost everywhere, from the shelves themselves to the floor and even the ceiling. Making some of them seem like they were floating in the air was probably the smartest decision I had seen made by these designers. It was unique enough to make me remember it for a while. The end of the storage room was in sight, though, and we'd be back to the generic scary hospital vibes once that was done. What a shame.
"I feel sort of pathetic worrying about turning a corner now. It's been however long and there hasn't been a single jumpscare. Are you sure this is a haunted house?" Nao looked at Liam, "More like a walking simulator, no?"
And maybe it was the world working in mysterious ways, or maybe it was just some dude watching on a camera who felt bad about how she had just disrespected their business. Whoever it was, played their card well. Taking advantage of the fact that her attention was diverted, a cardboard cutout controlled by some kind of motor suddenly popped out from our right, banging Nao straight in the face.
Everything that happened after that needs to be recounted in slow motion. Liam tried to warn her, but ended up failing, causing him to move back in laughter. Nao, who had just been gobsmacked with a printout of some kind of serial killer hospital nurse fell to the floor with with a thud. In the process of doing that, she grabbed onto the nearest thing she could find to break her fall - yours truly. Just her should have been fine, but when both of us fell to the floor, it caused the shelf to our right to go just slightly out of balance, and slowly fall over us. By the time it all started, Liam could do nothing but stare. The shelf fell, I covered Nao with my body, taking the entire weight of it on my back.
Then, all of the combined pressure made the floor crack.
I wish I was making up this real life Saturday morning cartoon series of unfortunate events, but the floor somehow gave in, making us fall further into another room underground. This time, my goodwill backfired and I only managed to crush Nao under my weight, which she desparately tried to tell about by hitting my shoulder like it was a wrestling match.
"Oh shit. I'm so sorry." I stood up, and then helped her stand too.
"No, it's...my fault. What the fuck was that?"
We looked up. She took out her phone and turned on the flashlight. The hole we had made in the ceiling was covered by the shelf. We could barely make out Liam's silhouette as he tried to push it around to no avail. Then, she shone it around the rest of the room. It was small, but certainly big enough for us to move around in. The walls were covered with weird childish drawings and there were things like broken, rusted bedframes and bedside drawers everywhere.
"I, uh, am starting to see where they got the idea of the whole haunted hospital thing from." I said, causing my voice to echo across the entire thing.
"Oh, for fuck's sake. Why?" Nao groaned, "I should've just gone home and doomscrolled instead. I'm an idiot."
"Well, nothing we can do about it anymore." I looked up once more and shouted, "Hey, Liam! We're alright. Can you see if you can get anyone to help out?"
"Yeah, on it!" He shouted back and disappeared from view.
I sat down on the floor and leaned against one of the walls, trying to use their cool to fight against the pain from the shelf collapsing. After a while, Nao's flashlight pierced my eyes and I grunted. She immediately turned it off and walked towards me.
"Sorry again. I was wondering where you went."
"I walked, like, five feet."
"Yeah, whatever." She turned the light on again, but was sitting right beside me now, moving the light around to look at all the weird drawings everywhere. It also made me notice that the fall seemed to have broken her hairband, because her hair was completely free now, hanging over her eyes and face. When she looked towards me once or twice, I realized just how pretty she could look naturally.
"I'm not trying to suggest anything, just saying." I thought it was best to be safe before saying something like this, "I just think that, you know, your hair looks a million times better without a hairband. Just in general, of course." She would probably get uncomfortable if someone started hitting on her on the same day as she met him for the first time. Without even wanting to meet him, on top of that.
"Oh." She touched her hair as if she hadn't noticed it was gone, "Um, thanks! I don't really have a choice though. I need to keep it on when I am drawing or writing. The hair gets all over my face and then I can't see properly. Since then, it's just been convenient to keep it pulled back. Too much work needing to put it on and take it off."
"Yeah, I get you. It's the small stuff which truly annoys." I sighed, looking up and hoping to see Liam, "Also, you draw? Liam said you write, but drawing too is insane."
"A-gain, it's not very good. Just basic character sketches for whatever I write. It helps to have an image in your head when you're typing along. Like, you know, the hair thing." Nao touched her bangs, "If I'm ever writing a fight, and anyone in it has long hair, I can't help but mention it. It really annoys me when people do that, you know? Like, it's obvious when an action choreographer's never had it because long hair would be such a fucking annoyance to deal with in a fight, it's unreal. But they never do anything about it. Like, I'm sorry, your cool protagonist might look good, but he is not using a sniper with all that hair in his eyes."
"Hmm." I said. I hadn't expected her to stop randomly. Hell, I hadn't even thought of a reply to anything she did say. The shock of her going on and on had stunlocked me for a good amount of time. It was shocking just how much she was capable of going on about when talking about something she was passionate about. But then again, it wasn't exactly unexpected. I'd probably go off in the same way if you suddenly started talking to me about fantasy or anything even adjacent to it. I lived for that shit.
"I'm sorry." She said all of a sudden.
"What for?"
"I just started going on and on. I didn't mean to do that. I just find it hard to shut up when someone brings up something I like. I'll try, though." Nao shrugged, "As hard as it will be in this room, I'll try."
"What do you mean? This room?" I looked around, but it was all dark again. She had turned off her flashlight. Right as I thought that, she turned it on again, showcasing exactly what she meant.
She brought it over to a certain drawing and stopped. For the first time, I actually paid attention to what was on the walls. It was actually an illustration I was quite familiar with. I'd seen it before a million times. Not this exact one, of course, but others like it. Others of the same general character design.
"That right there is a drake." Nao stated the obvious, "Not to be confused with a lizard, a dinosaur or a dragon. They're completely different things. Close, but different. I just get really annoyed when people say they can't see what I'm talking about."
"Like when someone will look at a damn wyrm and think it's a basilisk?" Is how I decided to reveal my hand.
"Exactly!"
A second later, she snapped the flashlight straight on my face, "Oh my god, you're a fantasy nerd too?"
"I...kind of." I put my hands in front of my face. The words were carefully calculated. I didn't wanna come across as a know-it-all, even though I was. It would probably make her think less of me and turn the whole situation weird.
"Oh that's awesome. I just love fantasy so much. It's beautiful, really." She started trailing off again, "When you think about just how many people came together to create and detail what is basically the same story is insane. Fantasy as a whole might the greatest single world building project in history. Just...so many smart people contributing so much to making sure the rules are consistent, the creatures play off each other, and everything while maintaining just how fun and cool it all is."
"No, I agree. I love how it helps you get away from things. They seem almost lifelike, the way all of them are thought about. You can visualize so easily. It's a problem that I've always had with a lot of other genres. It's cool, but I can't see it in front of my eyes like I can see fantasy."
"I've actually said this to a friend of mine over and over. If you put everything together and allowed it to co-exist, it wouldn't surprise me if it created a whole world of fantasy creatures. They just come together like a puzzle. Them actually being possible does not even seem like a dream when you consider all the lore."
"Uh....yeah, I agree. Totally." I coughed to make myself break focus from the fact that she has just mentioned a monster world. Just hearing about it sent a sudden tingle across my spine. Van appeared in front of my eyes, my brain conjuring her up as if to make sure I didn't forget.
"That's why people getting things wrong annoys me. There's centuries of work in this thing, you know? So much passion put into making sure things work without a hitch and people just act like it's whatever. Either put in the effort of trying to understand the intricacies of it all, or just forget about it and don't interact with the world. Half-assing it and then acting like you're cool is such a scummy move."
"Oh, you're so right." I remembered something, "Probably shouldn't be making fun of our savior right now, but Liam used to be like that. I had to spend a whole night trying to teach him the differences between an orc and an ogre, and he still thinks they're basically the same thing."
"Oh my god, what the fuck?" She looked up with disgust, "I'm not letting that one go at all. I know Liam's a dumbass, but what the fuck do you mean they're the same? Although, wait. Actually, I shouldn't be surprised."
"Wait. He got you too?"
"He did. He got me good." She said, "There was this thing he was reading, and he comes to me one day to show me something. He says its gonna change my life and way of thinking. He says..."
Then she started laughing. Recollecting it, she couldn't hold back. Once or twice, she tried to fight back and break through, but it didn't work out. Then, infectious as her positivity was, I also found myself slowly laughing for no reason at all.
"What?" I managed to ask.
"Oh...oh god. Ok. So, he brings me this book and swears that the writer is a bastion of female empowerment. He tells me the dude is gonna change the narrative and how we think of things. And like the gullible bitch I am, I ended up thinking he was onto something. But then....hehehee. I can't....just,"
She started again. I didn't try to control myself either. Her little laughs were way too cute.
"He....he shows me a page. And it's just...it's an incubus. He read something about it, already knew what a succubus was, and decided that an incubus was something brand new the author conjured up. He reads that and goes 'Hell yeah, gender equality! That's what I'm talking about!'"
And once more, she burst out into laughter. This time, I wasn't able to tag along. Just hearing that word had been a gut punch. As if someone had caught onto a secret of mine and laid it bare for the world to see. I tried to laugh along, keeping up the illusion of the joke, but couldn't help but imagine scenes from that one day. Van's tits, Yumi's ass. Even Caracella's face pipped up in my mind.
"Haha....hahaha....hehe." I let out the fakest laugh this world had probably ever heard. Thankfully, Nao was so deafened by her own voice that she didn't catch on it. Not that it would've made her realize the entire truth somehow. It would just either make her think the joke wasn't funny, or that I was curling up and shrinking because I heard the word 'succubus'.
I mean, I did, but not because I am repelled by anything even vaguely sexual being uttered by a girl. I had my deeper reasons.
"Wow, I brought along help but it seems you guys are doing well down there, huh?" And once more, Liam reminded my why he was the greatest friend a human being could have. He appeared right when I needed him most, and turned the direction of the conversation. But at the same time, I couldn't help but imagine him losing his mind over the existence of an incubus, as if it wasn't natural for an opposite of a succubus to exist.
"Just shut up and move the shelf, bitch." Nao should, shining the flashlight straight at Liam, who repulsed at the beam and stepped away.
It took the entire crew he had brought together about five minutes to remove the shelf. After that, they threw down a ladder which we used to climb back up the hole one by one.
As they explained it, the place had indeed been built in a place where a mental asylum used to be. The place we had fallen into was the underground zone which hadn't been demolished because the contractors saw no reason to do it. What was scary was that there were four more underground levels below it, which meant it was a miracle that we hadn't fallen down once more. Either that or a testament to just now well built that floor was, compared to the brand new one we had managed to break. Anyway, whatever had happened had happened, and we were finally to leave and go back home.
"I guess...you guys sort of had a haunted adventure, right? So not a complete failure!" Liam said once we got out of the place.
"Fuck you, Liam." Nao said and turned to me, "Oh and...Alex?"
"Yup. That is indeed me." I put my hand forward, and she shook it.
"It was nice meeting you. Really was. You wanna, uh...exchange numbers? I'd love to talk to you about just fantasy stuff when I feel like it. Not a lot of people I know who are interested in all that." She smiled.
"Oh sure, yeah. Definitely." I smiled back, and the two of us exchanged information. Soon after that, she said she has something she needed to pick up, so she decided to walk home.
After she left, Liam looked at me and gave a crooked smile.
"Someone took advantage of the situation, huh?"
"It's...not like that." I wasn't sure why I tried to protect my honor like that, but it was an instinct to deny attraction when another guy asked you with a face like that.
"It doesn't matter. It will be like that eventually. I'm guessing she likes you." Liam noted, "Plus, why do you think I made you both meet anyways? You'd be good together. She's a great person. Deserves someone great like you."
I decided to ignore his praise towards me this time, and just said, "She is. And, uh, she's really cute too."
"Oh, now you're talking, huh?" He pushed me towards the car and the two of us got in. After that, he forced me to get drinks with him, refusing to let me go until late in the night.