Young Writers Society

Quinn hadn't meant for it to sound like she was scared of the ghosts, but she decided it was better not to bring it up right now. A fire sounded like a good idea. At the thought of it, she glanced up and over at Gabriel. He had a tiny little smile on his face. He had been listening to the conversation, even though he hadn't said a word, and it was clear he knew exactly what she was thinking about right now.

"Okay," Quinn said. She gave a tiny little nod.

Nothing about this was okay. But Ky kept her mouth shut and instead just trodded along miserably, eyes nervous and flicking in all directions at once. She wished they were nearer to the end of the trail. If they were, she'd just make a run for it, and keep sprinting until she made it to safety. Well. Back to Aleth. Which was arguably as scary and definitely as dangerous. But at least he was a known devil -- unlike whatever that was supposed to be trying to kill them on the path. How many more would there be? What would they do if they couldn't outrun them?

Ky eyed the others. Could she outrun them? She hoped so. Aleth always said that you don't have to be able to run faster than a bear, you just have to be able to run faster than the person you don't like. And, well, that was dark. And she hated she was thinking like that. But, well... ghosts were scarier than bears.

Quinn glanced over at Ky right as Ky was nervously eying the woods and the other members of their group. They didn't make eye contact, but Quinn still noticed how wary she was.

Quinn looked up at Gabriel and made eye contact with him.

Without saying a word, she slipped out from his leather jacket and walked over to where Ky was. She was getting soaked now, too, but Gabriel's leather jacket really hadn't done much to keep the rain out, anyways.

"Are you from around here?" Quinn asked. Gabriel gave a small smile as he slipped his leather jacket back on. He had to know she was asking Ky because she wanted to distract her from how nervous she was feeling.

Ky felt guilty as Quinn walked over and started chatting with her. She was the only person Ky thought she might be able to out run, and now she didn’t want to sacrifice her to the ghost if she was this nice. Pratik and Gabriel both seemed more bullheaded, though. Perhaps they’d be classic Men TM and give her and Quinn a chance to escape.

“Um… no.” Ky shook her head, trying not to be as sour as she felt. “… are you?”

"I've lived in New York before," Quinn said, keeping it intentionally vague. She had lived in a lot of places in a lot of fancy houses. She had lost track of them all, especially now that she was no longer staying in them. Now home was wherever Gabriel and her spent the night.

It was that kind of home that she liked the most of all.

"I've never been this far upstate before, though," Quinn added.

Gabriel stretched up ahead.

"I have," he said, "back before Quinn was born. It was a long time ago, so I don't remember it too much. I did like the forests, though."

Ky nodded. “So do you live here now? Or just visiting?”

Quinn gave a tiny smile.

"Just visiting," she said.

"We like going to supernatural places like this," Gabriel added. Quinn shot him the kind of look a cat owner gave their cat right before said cat knocked over something it wasn't supposed to. It wasn't that he wasn't supposed to admit that, but she knew what he was leading up to. He always made that joke.

“Why?” Ky asked scandalously. It was bad enough if they got forced on this like she had. But they chose this? Multiple times? They were either insane or lying. She supposed she also would have to lie and pretend like this was a choice if they asked — she couldn’t very well get into how she had an abusive employer that kept her as a slave and made her do things like this when she made him angry. That seemed like a second date sort of topic.

Quinn glanced over at Gabriel, searching his face to see what he thought about admitting the truth—or part of the truth. The part that wasn't really all that suspicious and just came across as weird, and not the part where they admitted they weren't really brother and sister. Not by blood.

"We deal with supernatural things," Gabriel said. "We do other stuff, too, but you could call it a hobby. Or a family business-"

Quinn groaned. It wasn't the joke she thought he was going to make, but it was just as bad.

"You promised not to make any more Supernatural references," Quinn said, giving him a betrayed look.

Gabriel grinned.

"For a week," he reminded her with a smug expression on his face. "It was a week yesterday. I'm free to make all the references I want now."

Quinn shook her head and sighed.

Ky glanced between them. How in the world were they joking at a time like this? "...you made a bet?"

"More like a deal," Gabriel corrected, giving a smile that, for a moment, didn't like all that right. Most people would have thought of it as dangerous, but Quinn just saw that as Gabriel being Gabriel.

"I promised to do all of our laundry for the week," Quinn clarified.

“Ah.” Ky tensed and took a step further away from Gabriel. She knew that sort of smile. It always happened just before she got hurt. Well. When she was unlucky. If she got punished when Aleth was in a rage, she just got beaten until he cooled off. When he smiled he was going to enjoy it — which meant it was going to be long and slow and so, so much worse than a simple beating. She didn’t like smiling.

Gabriel's smile faltered. He hadn't expected Ky to tense and suddenly take a step back. His smile had been one that, if anyone had known a thing about demons, would have looked vaguely demonic. That was what Quinn saw most of the time, and she didn't fear it now that she had known him so long.

"I made sure there was a lot of laundry," Gabriel said, his smile becoming more teasing.

"You just finally put into our laundry bag," Quinn said. "Instead of piling it up next to your bed in our motel room."

Ky looked between them, perplexed by this dynamic. But not about to draw attention to herself, even though Gabriel seemed less threatening now.

“I hate laundry mats,” Pratik commented, also noticing Ky’s discomfort and deciding to be a buffer so she didn’t feel obligated to engage if she didn’t want to. “It’s a tall task, to be creepier than the creeps.”