#ofaither

if they were, she wouldn't admit it. she doesn't admit it to herself, even though every noise from afar makes her stomach drop and it startles her enough to almost make her flinch, if she wasn't intentionally trying to compose herself. laura lee calling her on it doesn't help, only bringing a scowl from tai that she knows laura lee is undeserving of -- and yet, it's her own defense mechanism, working hard to act as if everything out here doesn't make her panic.

❝  it's the fucking woods. how else would it sound? ❞ her tone is dry as she mostly dodges her question, staring blankly at the woods in the night sky. it does bother her being outside, it bothers her being anywhere here, but getting worked up about any of it would only be admitting defeat. they're all scared; it's easier for her to pretend she's the one handling it all perfectly fine.

𝙹𝚄𝚂𝚃  𝚂𝙴𝙴𝚁  𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂 ↳↳  —  𝙶𝚁𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙳,  𝚔𝚎𝚢𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍  @ofaither  /  ves

"what  do  you  see?"

there's  something  terribly  alluring  about  her,  like  the  soothing  cold  of  a  knife  pressed  flat  against  hot  skin  or  like  the  guiding  light  of  a  bolt  of  lightning  or  a  burning  flame  in  pitch  black  darkness.  she  wears  it  well,  commands  it  like  second  nature,  easy  as  breathing,  easy  as  blicking.  she  feels  like  midnight,  like  the  quiet  spaces  between  night  and  day.

          when  he  looks  at  her,  her  skin  is  the  colour  of  moonlight  and  there's  lightning  behind  her  eyes.  her  features  are  sharp  and  angled,  alien  and  inhuman  dispite  the  careful  curl  of  full  lips.  she's  beautiful  and  devastating,  monstrous  and  divine.

fluster willow or she gets executed

this was his first time staying somewhere overnight without his family.   his mother had become extremely overprotective of him after his sister had gone missing,   even more so after the divorce. he had never given it too much thought;   it just was how things were and school offered him plenty of extracurriculars that he didn’t feel he was really missing out on much.   but he had insisted on being given permission to be part of this trip,   convinced his mom that it would look good on college applications.   “  what do you do in preparation for a big game?  ”   he asked @ofaither.   “  off the record,   i promise.   i’m just…   curious.   i think i’d be terrified.   so, how do you fight that off?   the nerves?  ”

🔎.

𝙹𝚄𝚂𝚃  𝚂𝙴𝙴𝚁  𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂 ↳↳  —  𝙶𝚁𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙳,  𝚔𝚎𝚢𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍  @ofaither

"what  do  you  see?"

the  air  was  wet  and  humid,  the  inside  of  a  hot  box  that  reeked  of  sweat  and  fear  and  at  the  end  of  the  long  corridor  was  a  mouth.  lips  the  colour  of  flaking  ash  and  dust,  skin  peeling  and  exposing  red  and  yellow  sores  cased  in  dead  flesh.

          cosmo  resisted  the  urge  to  gag.  stuck  between  his  world  and  some  other  world,  vision  splitting  between  a  open  doorway  leading  out  of  the  hotel  and  that  grotesque  mouth  that  was  so  like  a  mans  that  he  raised  his  hand  to  touch  his  lips.  the  mouth  opened  and  behind  the  lips  and  the  sores  and  blood  were  rows  upon  rows  of  yellowed  human  teeth.

          the  thing  on  the  otherside  of  the  door  sighed  and  the  stench  of  rot  stung  his  eyes  like  acid  gas.  cosmo  pinched  his  mouth  together  and  walked  forward,  the  smell  growing  worse  and  worse.  he  was  closing  in  faster  than  he  would  like,  approaching  an  endless  tunnel  of  teeth  and  black  death.

          the  hallway  moved  beneath  his  feet,  rising  and  then  leveling  out  as  if  the  giant  had  picked  it  up  and  moved  it  and  rather  than  its  mouth,  cosmo  found  himself  staring  at  a  single  bloodshot  eye.  he  stared  passed  it,  through  it,  ignoring  the  way  the  pupil  seemed  to  sear  right  through  him.

“Hey. Hey-” Voice softened at the sudden embrace while Ryder curled an arm around the girl’s shoulders. Despite the situation he was in and how much it was weighing on him, Ryder found it easy to fall back into the leader role — Being one of the only pillars of authority that the girls had in the woods. And, as fucked up as it was, he was the only one who could really make the girls listen to him. (There wasn’t much Ben could do with his disability). The thoughts were shaken off as he gave a reassuring squeeze to the girl’s shoulder.