Chapter 3.4 Arlyn - What gives?
It was Spooky Day today, and Arlyn had invited a bunch of her friends over for a seance. Yes, a seance. She felt a little silly, but everyone else seemed excited about it. Her parents were visiting family back on Cyrene (Arlyn had still not gone to visit, sadly), and her brother was out with on a date, so she and her friends would have the house to themselves.
Therefore, Arlyn raided grandpa Silas's nectar stash (he, of course, was at the bar, teaching these 'young idiots' how to make drinks), bought a Ouija board online, a bunch of candles, and set everything up in the living room. Now she was just waiting for everyone to get here.
She'd always known that she had a special gift, her visions of the future. She preferred not to look at them, though, wanting to experience everything as it happened. In fact, she hadn't let a vision come through in years, only catching snippets here and there in her dreams. But today, she wanted to find out if she had any other gifts.
And so, she was having a seance.
One by one, her main group of friends showed up: Jen, of course, dressed as a slasher serial killer; Loki as a burglar; Karl as a pirate; and Linn as a princess (Karl and Linn were now a couple, leaving Jen as the 5th wheel, of which she complained about a lot). Arlyn herself decided to dress up as a cheerleader, to complement Jen's cliche horror movie killer outfit.
"Hey guys! Thanks for coming! There's candy next to the door, at least try to leave some for the trick or treaters." Her words fell on deaf ears as the teens all grabbed handfuls of the stuff.
"So how does this thing work?" Karl asked as he shoved some chocolate in his mouth, careful not to smudge his makeup."
"We just put our hands on this triangle thingy here," she pointed at it, "and then uh, I guess we ask if there are any ghosts or whatever around." If there were any, she thought, then remembered grandma Lily fondly, and hoped that maybe she could see her again.
"Then what?" Jen this time.
"I dunno, we talk to it, I guess? I've never done this before."
"Can't you like, see into the future and see if it works?" Linn asked.
"That's not how it works." Linn rolled her eyes, she'd never really believed Arlyn anyway.
"Okay, everyone sit in a circle around the board!" It was time to begin.
After the giggling all stopped, Arlyn placed her hands on the board, digging deep inside her, trying to find anything in her that might tell her if there were any ghosts nearby.
"Is anyone here with us?" she asked.
"Are there any departed in this house?" Arlyn listened for any replies, but all she got in response was the deep rumbling of thunder outside.
"Is anyone here?" she asked again.
A flash of lightning lit up the room briefly, casting stark shadows over her friends.
Arlyn caught a glimpse of a darker shadow behind Linn, in the hallway.
"Hello? Are you there? I saw you." Linn looked up at her then, fear in her eyes.
"You saw something?" Linn whispered.
Creeeeak
Creeeeeeak
Footsteps.
Everyone looked around, trying to find the source of the footsteps, but they were the only ones in the house.
From somewhere in the hall, there was a moan.
Chaos ensued.
"What was that?!" Linn cried, tears already spilling from her eyes.
"Tell it to go away!" Karl yelled.
Jen just stood up, stroking her chin from under her mask. She wasn't really sure what they had all heard.
"Arlyn, make it go away!" Linn cried out again.
Another moan, this time even closer than before.
Loki grabbed Arlyn's arms, "Arlyn, you have to do something," he pleaded. He wasn't going to take any chances.
Arlyn looked back towards the hall, willing whatever was there to go away. She felt warm now, and she imagined a soft light emanating from her, pulsing out. She took that image and pushed it out from her, towards the hall, towards whatever was making that sound. The warmth she felt left her, and the footsteps ceased.
They all stood around for another few moments, listening for any other strange noises, but none came.
Loki grabbed Arlyn and pulled her in for a tight hug.
"Looks like you do have another gift, babe." He said into her hair.
"I guess so." She didn't know what to feel about this, but she certainly knew she was never going to try this ever again.
Linn was still crying but Arlyn didn't pay her any mind, she was a bit over-emotional anyway. Jen just stood there, staring out into the hall, trying to convince herself to go check it out, but knowing she'd definitely be the first one to die if she did. Karl just crossed his arms and mumbled to himself.
In the heat of the moment, Arlyn kissed Loki, her adrenaline still pumping.
She whispered in his ear, "Let's go to my room." She wanted to do this, while she still had the courage.
In her bedroom, Loki gently pushed her onto her bed before slowly climbing over her. He didn't want to push her too far, in case she changed her mind. This was his chance, and he would do nothing to ruin it.
He leaned over her, kissing along her neck before finding her lips. She let his hands roughly roam all over her body. Yep, she was doing this. She knew it was stupid, but adrenaline rushed through her veins, causing her to be much bolder than she usually was.
That night, Loki got what he wanted.
_____
A few days later, Arlyn had dragged Loki out to the fortune teller wagon. He knew that this "fortune teller" was a huge scam artist but he would do anything to keep his girlfriend happy, even if he thought it was stupid. She was incredibly naive, after all. He loved that about her.
He watched as she headed inside the brightly colored wagon, rolling his eyes and laughing. If she wanted to spend $100+ on this crap, she could. She could be really dumb sometimes, but at least she was hot.
"Loki!" Arlyn yelled as she stepped out of the wagon, "I got my fortune read! You'll never guess what she said." She skipped over to him and grabbed his hands.
"She said out love was written in the stars! And to watch out for anyone dressed in orange...I'm not sure what that meant." She shrugged, she was still giddy about the first part.
Loki struggled to keep himself from rolling his eyes in her face, instead distracting her with a kiss, "Of course it was, babe, we were meant to be." The happy noises that she made made his chest swell. He did love her.
______
That night, Loki greeted Ryan at the door. Ryan was here to see Erin, Loki's sister. Apparently they had been dating for a couple weeks now. Loki wasn't entirely convinced this wasn't some sort of revenge for him dating Arlyn, but Erin seemed happy.
Ryan also seemed pretty happy about this arrangement. He leaned over and whispered into Loki's ear, "I got her tickets to see the game this weekend!"
"Hey man, she's gonna love it." Loki whispered back. Maybe this wasn't some sort of revenge after all.
Ryan joined Erin on the couch, a comfortable routine for them. Erin was a bit of a homebody, but she loved sports, preferring to stay home to watch reruns of different games. Ryan just liked being around her. She was so beautiful.
On the other side of town, Arlyn was at the museum, admiring some of the artwork, when she saw Jonas walk in. She tried to ignore him, but she really wanted to set aside whatever issues they had, once and for all. Or at least she wanted to understand what the deal was. They had one terrible date, that's all. She didn't think she deserved to be snubbed over this.
She walked over to him, preparing an apology speak (even if she didn't think she had anything to apologize for), but as she approached, she could see the anger written all over his face.
"Hey..." That came out much weaker than she'd intended.
Jonas put his hand up, right into her face, "Don't." He said.
"But-"
"Go. Away."
"Jonas, please-"
"I said go away."
"I don't understand!" she was practically begging him at this point. No one had ever hated her before.
"You don't want to understand, Arlyn. You don't want to."
"What does that even mean!"
"There's no point trying to talk to you, you refuse to pull the wool from your eyes, to see Loki for who he really is." She was glad they were the only ones in the museum because Jonas was shouting now.
"Why does everyone keep saying that! He's been nothing but kind to me!" First Ryan, now Jonas? What did Jonas even know about Loki anyway! They'd never even spoken before!
"Leave me alone, Arlyn, before you make everything worse."
"Fine!"
Arlyn glared at Jonas, she was pissed at him. What right did he have to butt into her relationship? All he'd done was yell at her anyway. Maybe he had gone temporarily insane when he'd asked her out, before remembering that he hated her guts for literally no reason.
"You've got issues, Jonas. Stop projecting them on to me." She waved her hand at him, dismissing him.
"Don't come crying to me when you figure it all out." Jonas pushed the door open, slamming it against the concrete walls outside. It didn't take her long to stalk off in the opposite direction, even though he lived on her street. She'd take the long way home.
In true teenage fashion, she ran straight home into the arms of her daddy. He would make everything better. Anthony just stroked his daughter's back, murmuring reassurances to her, even though he had no idea what was wrong, considering she was incoherently blabbering about some boy.
Ah, young love.
_______
Authors notes: I found the Ouija board/pose pack and I just really wanted to use them. Throwing parties every week gets pretty boring and tedious so I thought I'd spice things up a little. There wasn't any story arch in mind at all, just a couple teens screwing around with things they probably shouldn't. I just thought it would definitely be something Arlyn would get herself into :) Then, while tending to Ryan (who was on a date with someone named Cassidy something or another), I came back to find Arlyn and Loki woohooing for the first time -_- Teens amirite? So I threw that in there too.
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