♛ OPEN TO ALL ELBOW GREASE GROUP VERSE MEMBERS
( in response to this beautiful wild card. )
this whole experience was beyond ron’s wildest dreams. or at least, beyond what his summer would have been like if he’d been back home fighting with his siblings and being put to work tending his mother’s vegetable patch in the garden. in fact, the whole college experience had been the best thing he’d ever done. sure, he kind of hated his classes and had become rather amazing at looking like he was paying attention while he caught up on some sleep, but the rest of it was great. even now, with the humidity and heat climbing a little too high for his condition, as his mother put it considering they were a family at risk of being badly burnt, ron loved it. while he hadn’t made any solid friendships as of yet, he knew most people by face at least and could at least make some small talk which made the whole gathering around and swapping some drinks here and there, while roasting marshmallows or something so very american camp-esque, a little easier.
hell, ron had been feeling somewhat merrier than usual after the couple of cups of beer and scavenging whatever snacks were floating around. it had been pretty good, really. he’d been a little more animated and open and friendly, although he couldn’t remember anyone’s name or face that he’d spent the evening talking to. in fact, at some point, the whole merry deal had turned into this weird somewhat merry but crushing feeling. his skin felt weirdly tight on his body and strangely itchy, he could hear his own shaky breathing as he realised it felt like someone was crushing him in some uncomfortable hug. everyone around had gone into this strange cinematic mode where they were moving all slow and staggered and their voices sounded like they were beyond some water pool.
for some reason, ron’s eyes had been fixated on the treed beyond the clearing, his head tilting ever so slightly as little reflections of light caught his attention. at first, he was sure it was just some twinkling lights, probably from some of the girls setting up the most instagram perfect area. but then, as his eyes focused in on the lights, he realised that they were in some slow blinking, irregular pattern. almost as if they were eyes. a frown settled on his face as he pushed himself up off the mossy, dead and rotting log he’d been sat on and stumbled across the gathering towards the trees to get a better look. clearly the beer was messing with his eye sight. or maybe he should have gone to specsavers just like the twins had teased him with ever since he happened to misread one bloody sign.
a heavy sigh left him then as he stopped, not too far away from the tree line with the majority of people going back to their cabins. as he heard footsteps behind him, the uncomfortable crushing feeling came back which left him breathing slow and ragged. ❝ there are people in there. ❞ it wasn’t announced to anyone in particular. hell, he’d said it quietly enough that maybe it was just for him. but with the trees waving in an unpleasant manner and the sounds of the gathering warping into some horror movie soundtrack of squealing and unclear chatter, ron felt panicked. if there were people in the trees, then maybe they were hurt. alternatively, the weird voices he could hear sounded nothing like the people he’d spent the evening with. instead, they were chilling, leaving the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck standing on end despite his skin being clammy and sticky to the touch. ❝ did you see them? ❞
