[prompt: rain/high school]
[notes: in this story hu tao lives with her uncle zhongli!!! and xinyan lives with her adoptive moms ningguang and beidou.. you gotta love it]
"Truth or dare?" Hu Tao is staring right at Xiangling this time, and it's not hard to know she's planning something sinister.
"Dare," Xiangling replies, confident as ever.
"You know the abandoned arcade down Fifteenth Avenue?"
Xiangling nods.
"I dare you and Xinyan to spend all night in there. No chickening out, no running away, no faking it. The rest of us will keep watch. We'll say everyone's sleeping over at my house, cuz Zhongli lets me do whatever."
"..Alright."
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Rain drenches our clothes as we walk through the weeds. This place has been abandoned since the 90's, since there was some kind of accident with one of their mascots. Beidou hasn't told me anything more than that.
I'm prepared for anything that could happen. My phone's fully charged, I have the most powerful flashlight I could find and a knife from Xingqiu's kitchen. Xiangling's hand is stuck to mine, she says she'd rather go home.
"I promise I'll protect you," I tell her. "I won't let anything happen to you, not in a million years."
The door to the place is boarded up though the door itself is bent inwards. We crawl in through a broken window, shaking the rain off our clothes. I turn on my flashlight and light up the room before us.
We're in the kid-friendly arcade area. Machines sit unplugged, one with the high scores still burned into its screen, tokens littering the floor. The roof leaks in the corner behind us, making a puddle on the floor. A few steps further, the arcade corner opens into a larger room. Wooden picnic style tables are arranged in rows before a stage, the curtains only half-drawn around a robotic fox colored red and orange. The floor creaks and Xiangling grabs my hand, nearly clinging onto my side.
"Why don't we look around a little?" I ask her, placing a gentle kiss on her head.
I swing the beam of the flashlight around, my eyes clinging to every inch of the place. If Ningguang were to find out about this.. I'm sure Beidou would try and keep it a secret, but Ningguang knows everything. Xiangling doesn't let go of my hand as we leave the room and slip into a hallway.
Water drips everywhere in this place. The roof leaks and the floor creaks, and if I turned around I'm sure something would be following us. I can't say anything for Xiangling's sake or she'd run out of here immediately- but she doesn't have to worry at all! Not while I'm with her!
The doors to both bathrooms are boarded up so nobody can get in, but the kitchen is easily accessible. Pots and pans lie dirty in the industrial-size sink and a cluster of dead maggots surrounds some leftover meat. I don't waste any more time in that room.
There's another large area with more tables and more machines, this one geared towards older kids. A bucket full of tickets lies on the floor, water dripping on it just inches away. The curtains on this stage look as though they've been cut open and pieces lie on the ground. Two more mascots sit on the steps of the stage, both cats with rotten tails.
Something thumps against a wall and Xiangling cries out, gripping onto me with all her strength. Something, whatever it is, is banging on the walls of this place like it's trying to get in. I wouldn't be surprised if Hu Tao was out there trying to make the experience worse for us.
Xiangling's frozen herself out of fear so I pick her up, creeping back to the old arcade machines. In the driest spot of floor I can find I sit down and hold her in my lap, setting the flashlight face-up so it brightens the area. I wrap my arms tightly around her and look around, glaring at whatever might be hiding in the shadows.
"Nothing will even touch you so long as I'm here," I promise her. My fingers slip gently through her hair, acting as a comb.
We sit there for what seems like hours, me whispering stories in her ear to keep her focused on something. The banging comes back every once in a while- I'm certain it's Hu Tao by now.
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Eventually early sunlight filters through the cracks in the boarded windows. There's a sound of glass shattering and then a familiar "Yoo-hoo!"
She certainly didn't expect us to last the whole night in there. "I thought one of you would panic midway through and run home!"
She takes us back to my house and leaves. Beidou's off on a business trip and Ningguang's still at work, so we have the place to ourselves.
"Why don't we just relax for today?" I ask Xiangling. She gives me a small nod.
I dig around in my room until I find the box of bath bombs I got for my birthday. "Have you ever experienced the magic of a bubble bath?"
