Haunted Hymns || Rogue, Alison, Kurt, Bobby, & Wade
"Don't either of you find it super creepy that we're the only people on this bus to Bumblefuck, Nowhere?" Bobby asked, as he peered at Rogue and Kurt through the space between the seats. Kurt looked cute yet mysterious with his flat cap hanging down over his eyes and dark hoodie, hiding what he could without the help of makeup.
"I thought you teachers would enjoy the time away from the noise of school life," Alison said, giving Bobby a playful shove back into his seat beside her. She wasn't wearing the designer labels that might otherwise draw attention to her celebrity status. She looked less like an 80s pop diva and more like a well-groomed lumberjack, donning blue flannel and work boots. Alison could tell the team was getting restless. They had been on the road for at least an hour and a half, far from the bustle of Seattle. The professor's lack of clarity on what exactly was transpiring in the small town didn't help. Alison began to wonder if the old man was testing her. Why make her field leader for this mission when Rogue was clearly the most capable if not for some ulterior motive? Had he been probing her memories of the Mojoverse after all?
"Maybe I would if I wasn't so allergic to whatever is in ze air here, I might enjoy it more," Kurt said, sniffling. He squirmed to adjust his tail hiding beneath his baggy clothes.
"It's all the rain. Mold's got to be everywhere," Bobby said. Alison was beginning to think Bobby was trying to fill the void of silence while Wade was in the lieu. "Making a pit stop in the rain capital of the U.S. probably wasn't the best idea. We should have found a route from Sea-Tac."
"You can't call it a trip to Washington without a visit to Pike's Place. It's the birth place of Starbucks for god's sake," Alison said. The fog outside was becoming thicker. She could barely make out the trees as the bus zipped past them. Was it just the state's notoriously gloomy weather, or was this part of the strange happenings the professor was alluding to?
"I feel like this is the beginning of a Silent Hill game," Bobby said, leaning over Alison to gaze outside. She pushed him away. "If anyone hears an air raid siren in the distance, I'm turning this bus around."
Kurt turned to his sister, saying, "I was reading up on Hollow Ridge—just bits and pieces on ze internet. It's home to a couple of peculiar stories. Zey say there's a dead man's curve on ze outskirts of town where numerous out-of-towners died and haunt ze grounds."
"Come to Hollow Ridge for the fog, stay for... ever," Bobby whispered to Alison.