FIREWATCH (my slendermansion take? Idk I did my research and I love the creepies)
Part two: a lot of death threats
(warning: gore/dead body and also my writing is shit)
It was a very sharp knife- and Very polished.
I could see the reflection of my eye in it, even though it was still mostly dark.
The threat?
Surprisingly not Jeff actually.
She was absolutely gorgeous- big fluffy hair with pink stripey streaks. Head to toe was stripes and fishnets, pink, purple, red. Everything that anyone wanted to be if they liked MCR. She also had a big smile shaped scratch in her face, but unlike Jeff, hers was healing.
“Teach me how to cook.” she demanded
“What?”
“Yesterday Jeff came home and I've never seen him like that before- he said you cooked for him.”
I kept staring at her, my eyes focused on the knife. I held my breath. What the fuck???
“HE CAME HOME AND HE ACTUALLY SLEPT! I mean- I've known Jeff for YEARS and I've never seen him try to sleep on his own? Usually he passes out from exhaustion! He kept blabbering about you putting bandaids on smile dog like an idiot-” She started waving the knife around as she talked. She giggled every now and then despite her concerned look. After she unpins me I climbed as far back as my bed would let me.
“Who are you???”
“Oh I'm Nina- I'm Jeff's, well his situmacationship. You have no idea how much I try to take care of that guy- really, he doesn't even shower unless EJ helps me.”
“Who's EJ?”
“Oh he's just one of our friends”
“There's more of you???”
“Oh there's so many of us!” she giggles.
I sit, shocked for a moment. What does that mean. Did Jeff lie? Who are these other people?
“I'll take you there if you want” Nina offers. “If you teach me that is”. Teach her to cook… well that's interesting. She didn't even let me get out of pijamas before I was dragged to the kitchen.
“Ok so what do you want to know how to make?”
“What did you make for Jeff?”
“I honestly just threw together some leftovers.”
Nina looks around the kitchen in disbelief. She looks out of place in the quaint little kitchen.
“Can you teach me anything please? Like pasta or jello?”
“Jello?”
“You get my point.” She giggled again. I decided to show her pasta. I got out dry noodles and cut onions and leftover zucchini, added some sauce and ground beef. She was much more precise with the knife and even though she tried taking the noodles out of boiling water with her hands, she was a quick after quickly trying the pasta, we decided to box it up in one of my numerous tupperwares.
Nina led me outside skipping.
“So where is it? The place where you all live?” I asked.
“Oh oh let me show you!” Nina grabbed me by the hand and began running. She weaved between trees for at least a mile. The clouds started rumbling overhead and a thick coat of fog started to wrap around us. Finally, we found a tunnel. It was massive and looked like some kind of waterway. It had a bright light on the other side and it hurt my head. I'd never seen that tunnel before, even though I've walked all over this woodland. She pulled me through, her footsteps and numerous accessory attachments loudly echo through the tunnel, until I feel the drops of rain on my head on the other side.
Immediately I'm thrown to the ground. The shrubs are spikey and cut into my neck, the dude on top of me wears a blue mask, and he was strangling the air from me, I kicked and squirmed and threw my hands out in front of me- Nina kicked the blue guy square in the head like a soccer ball and he grabbed his face in pain.
“EJ I TOLD YOU TO GET OFF!” Nina stomped like this was a normal frustrating occurance.
EJ scampers off into the bushes like a fucking animal.
Ok I guess.
Nina helps me up from the ground, where I nearly trip on my boots.
“Ok so this place is an old hotel- that's where we live. A lot of us are out on expaditions right now but Jeff is here and that's what's important.” It was clear what she's referring to. In front of us is a huge roadside motel that's missing a road. The windows have burn marks, and the place looks worn down as shit. Big red letters spell [La Bella Muerte] overhead.
One side has a ton of satellite disks and antennas, and the other has a dilapidated wooden shed.
“That one's my room” She points to one of the many windows. I pause.
“You guys live here? Are there any… you know… adults?”
“Most of us are older. I'm 19 now, Jeff is 21, EJ is 24 I think. There's a few of us who've been here since we were younger, but we take care of ourselves.” She stares at the Tupperware in her hands for a long time before making way to the entrance.
She lets us in without a key and the hotel hits me with the smell of nostalgia and rot.
That damp wood smell that I remember from when dad and I stayed in motels across the states. He used to be a warden, but he got injured, and then mom started yelling, and eventually I saw the life drain from his eyes and we started the moves.
A week per town for three months. Musty hotels with secrets under those carpet floors. Residents consisting of truckers and people you hope stay strangers. Then he got a job in Washington- it was really rough on dad- he was never meant for a big town. He's a lot less social than me.
That's when he got approved for Firewatch- of course he'd take the job. It's hard to get approved, since there's only a few hundred left in the country.
It was our gift from God. The one that confirmed our right to keep living.
There's no one at the reception desk, but there's a small lounge with a corkboard wall. Hundreds of creepy notes are attached. The sofas all look incredibly vintage and there's a pile of plastic bags on one of the coffee tables.
“What In the hell do you think you're doing Nina?” A voice rings out.
It's this boy- a really short blonde one, and he's got on what looks like a Link Halloween costume. He's sitting upside down in one of the chairs and playing an old console game. He appears to be glowing.
“You know this isn't your sorority” Nina doesn't speak, but reacts swiftly, throwing a knife to land barely an inch away from his face. The boy rolled his eyes and continued playing his game. I can't even process what happened when Nina takes my hand again.
She weaves through the chairs and into another lounge room, this time equipped with a pool table and a very vandalized looking dart board with photos of clearly disliked people and a lot more knives sticking out.
Before we can get to the staircase, I spot two people on plush chairs. Nina stops in front of them.
To say that these two were Divine was an understatement.
The lady has thick black hair and accessories galore, she's dressed entirely in black with lace, chains, and barbed wire- topped with a very pretty painted white face. Her eyes are deep black and pay no attention to me, but rather to the queen of spades in her hand.
The guy? He looks huge and bulky in that lumberjack sort of way- big leather boots, and a yellow corduroy jacket over plaid. I've never even seen someone pull off sideburns until this. A cigarette hangs loosely from his mouth and his eyes drift from his cards to the table, studying the situation carefully.
Nina pesters the girl.
“Jane, Jane, Jane, this girl I found taught me to cook”
“Did she teach you a recipe or the entirety of cooking?” Says Jane, unfazed by our presence. Nina stares at the box in her hands, then at me. It's an uncomfortably long time before Nina turns and marches up the stairs. Despite my intrigue, I leave the two gorgeous people behind. I remind myself that I have a habit of falling for the first people I see.
After the staircase is a long hallway, but our destination is the first room, which Nina barges into without knocking.
“Jeffery, we have brought you spaghetti!”
“Who's we? Your cooking is shit” Jeff doesn't look up. He's reading a porno on his bed. What's with all the pornos like seriously??? Get a hobby.
His room is disgusting. The walls are beat up and have paper ripped off in certain places, his bed isn't made, he's laundry on the floor, and cups of instant ramen literally everywhere.
“Me and- what's her name…Alice!” I kind of ignore the conversation, and try to study the writing scratched into the wall instead. His handwriting sucks. While I'm in my thoughts, it seems Jeff has taken the noodles and shut us out of his room- I don't know what we were expecting.
Nina motions for me to follow her down the hallway, where a sticker-ified door marks her room. The inside is filled with posters, plushies, and anything fashion related I can think of. Her room is far nicer than Jeff's, be it cluttered- but she's got a vanity and a cheetah print rug, and adorable invader Zim plushies. We sit on her floor and she paints my nails while we blast paramour- which is apparently her favorite band.
“So paramour is my favorite but what's yours?”
“Uh, I like My Chem I guess”
“OMG SHUT UP I LOVE MY CHEM- WAIT WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SONG- and you CAN’T say you can't decide”
I think for a long moment, before picking Cemetery Drive, which sends her into another fit of joy. Her laughter is contagious and she ends up giving me a lot of fashion advice, including some nice hair clips that she says she doesn't need anymore.
It's the most happy I've felt in a long time- when I think of it, I realize I can't actually remember when I was this happy before. I can't help but wonder when this feeling will be taken from me again, and when I'll be alone again. When will I be empty like I always am?
Nina gives me a copy of Fangoria to take home, which she says I'll enjoy since I like horror movies so much, and then takes me downstairs again to resume her training.
Her cooking training.
The training for her to learn cooking.
This time she says she wants to make dinner for everyone- which is a lot of fucking people.
She says that if she wants to let me go, then I have to prove useful, and most of these guys haven't eaten real food in a hot minute. I know I'm needing to get back home soon, but I'm sure I can finish up quickly.
The Bella Muerte kitchen is not as bad as I feared. Not great, but it's got a working stove and doesn't have bloodstains like the rest of the house. The problem is when I open the fridge.
“What the fuck!!??” I fall backwards, and I scream again.
“What's wrong???” Nina rushes to help me up.
“There's a fucking- a fucking body-”
Nina pauses and loses her concern.
“Oh yeah EJ puts them there, they're really gross if they get warm”
I stare in horror. The pale, naked body. Its legs and arms are missing. The white bone sticks out where the shoulders would have been. Its hair is cut off. His head lolls to the side, and a plastic bag is tightly wrapped around the body, suffocating it like a vacuum seal, letting blood pool in the folds and crevices of the bag. I've seen hunters before, skinning deer, but I don't think anything could ever prepare me for it.
For him.
It's slumped at the lowest level of the fridge, where little plastic produce boxes usually go. The wire racks an obstacle that the body has to bend to allow. If they get warm? Ej? What the fuck.
“You actually kill people?”
“Not usually. Our normal missions are pretty boring and stuff but sometimes if people mess with the archive we gotta do it- oh, fuck” Nina turns to the doorway, to meet the dude from before with the plaid and coorderoy. He's focused on me. His eye contact feels targeted.
“I’m sorry, but you're going to be stuck with us now.”
“What???” I ask, getting up from the floor.
“The Operator doesn't like people knowing about the Archive, or really any of this place. If you're here, you have to prove useful, or you're never going home.”
I took a few moments to assess what was said. Then slowly I walk up to the fridge and assess ingredients. Barely anything.
I hear my heart in my chest, and Nina's bored look makes me feel nauseous. The guy in the doorway genuinely looks apologetic which makes me feel a little better.
“Come on, I'll take you to the store” he sighs.
Nina and I follow the guy, who introduces himself as Tim. He's relatively quiet, but lights a cigarette again the moment we're outside, occasionally watching the smoke drift upwards. We pass through the tunnel again, but this time the path looks different, and we're in a new town that I don't recognize. Nina is wearing a cloth face mask, and pulls her hoodie over her hair. Even though she still acts giddy, I see an anxiousness in the way her eyes dart back and forth.
We find ourselves by an old brick supermarket. The building itself is well upkept but it’s so small it might compare to my house. The doors chime open and the grandma looking cashier smiles warmly at us.
“So what are we cooking?” Nina whispers under her hood once we enter the produce aisle.
“I don't know,” I hissed back. I didn't mean to sound aggressive, but I believe I have the right to be.
“Do you know how to make chilli?”
“Of course I know how to make chilli- I'm a proper American”
“Then let's make chilli”
“We don't have time for chilli, it's getting dark- I should make something nice and fancy”
“what about spaghetti”
“We had that for lunch???”
“Oh what about tacos!? GIR likes tacos” Nina hits a silly pose.
“Ok we can make tacos.”
I pick out some small corn tortillas, lettuce, radishes, meat, cheese, tomatoes, spices, refried beans, an avocado, and because this store is blessed; pickled onions. I bring up the items to register before patting my back pocket and realizing:
I have no money.
I have never had money.
The only money I've ever had is what my dad's given me.
My dad didn't give me money today, because I wasn't supposed to go to the store.
Nina shrugs and stares back at me. I begin hearing my heartbeat again and I consider grabbing everything and running, so that I don't end up like the fridge body. Tim taps my shoulder from behind and puts a 50 on the counter, with a dissatisfied expression on his face.
We carry back the grocery bags through the woods, it's starting to get dark already and I can feel the dread all over. My mind pans back to the fridge body. I wonder what his name was. Will I be missed when I'm stuffed in a fridge? Will I even be tasty?
Tim sighs. He ended up carrying Nina's bag since she's skipping off again, her hoodie down now.
“I'm sorry she roped you into this, and I wish I could help you, but I can't fund this place’s food budget. I already have a lot of trouble keeping a job so if I want any money I can't give it away.”
I nod my head apologetically, but my mind is still focused on the fridge body.
“You're probably going to come back here. If you get the chance, don't. But for now just stick with me and Jane, ok? The others can be unpredictable- even Nina.”
He's got a surprisingly soft voice despite being so gruff looking. He's also not as tall as I thought, only being an inch or so taller. He makes up for it by being built larger, but his normalcy comforts me anyways.
When we get back to the hotel, I cook up the meal quickly. Nina says she wants to help but ends up getting distracted anyways. The guy who ends up helping for a little bit is unsurprisingly Tim, and he scares off the blue guy from earlier, who I now know is the owner of the fridge-body.
I finish up the plates before coming into the lounge. Nina calls down a few more people, and there's even more scary faces that show up. I (now entirely regretting coming here) find a corner of the room where I can people-watch, and let Nina take the credit for the tacos. I hope they're ok. .. ..Most of the oddly dressed people have shuffled out of the room- undeniably happy- but leaving a large amount of dirty dishes.
Jeff and the Legend of Zelda kid are trying to steal leftovers- the Jane lady is talking to Tim, and Nina is nowhere to be seen.
The sun has already set by now, and the fluorescent lights above flicker hazardously, before engulfing the place in complete darkness.
[You will not insult my hospitality- you're making a fool of yourself]
My eyes focus in the dark to see the silver outline of The Operator.
