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(𝐒𝟏) 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟐𝟗

𝟏ˢᵗ 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖.

"𝐒𝐨... what did you kids want to talk about?" Ashlyn's dad asked us. Ashlyn then sits up straight. "Oh- um.. right." Ashlyn then seems to be in thought for a moment. She then stands up. Her parents look at her confused.

"Do you.. notice anything weird about my shadow?" Ashlyn asks her parents. Her parents look at each other for a moment. As they looked puzzled. "Well- not uh.. not particularly, no?" Her dad tells her. There was a silence between all of us.

'..So they can't see it? They can't see the difference in her shadow? Seems that this'll be more complicated than we initially thought..' I think to myself.

"Are we supposed to notice something?" Ashlyn's mom asked as she visibly sweatdropped.

"Ah- no, never mind. Forget about it. But, we do need your help. This thing is.. Logan has been getting bullied. That's how he got the bruise on his cheek, and why (Your name) decided to fight his bully which lead to her looking a bit bruised up now, and getting suspended for three days." Ashlyn tells her mom.

Her parents turn to both me and Logan i only sheepishly grin at them. Logan seems to slightly shift. I put my hand on his shoulder to try and provide some sort of comfort for him.

"I told him that you guys could probably teach him self-defense but, he's a little anxious to learn on his own, so we offered to learn with him. If you don't mind, could you teach them the basics?" Ashlyn asked her parents.

"..I mean, i don't mind." Ashlyn's dad says and he turns to her mom. "Me neither.. sounds pretty fun actually. But.. are your parents okay with that?" Ashlyn's mom asked us.

I gave them a thumbs up as everyone else sweatdrops in realization that they haven't asked for permission from their parents/guardians.

"Yeah- go ask them first. I don't want any unnecessary drama from other parents when their kids come home bruised." Ashlyn's dad tells us as he sweatdrops.

"Got it, thanks, dad." Ashlyn thanks her dad. "No problem, trooper." He tells her, smiling.

𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐘𝐀𝐑𝐃.

"Don't you think it's a tad bit ironic that we chose this place as our shelter because of the high walls, yet now we have to fortify the walls?" Tyler asks us as he fills a jug with water.

"Yeah, well we didn't exactly predict that the phantoms could scale a concrete, thirteen-foot wall." Aiden says with his usual smile.

"And we didn't choose it just because of the walls. We have various tools and materials here, there's an electric generator, and we're able to bring any items we need during the day because my dad owns it." Ashlyn tells both of them.

"Besides, you voted just the same as the rest of us to use the graveyard, so stop whining." She tells Tyler as she looks through our food supply and such.

"I'm not whining, just pointing out the irony. I'm still not sure if it was worth the effort just to get here." Tyler says matter-of-fact.

"Since we all woke up back at our homes, we were separated at first, so we needed a way to get to get to everyone back together and to also find a safe place to stay." Ashlyn tells him as she slightly shrugs.

𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊; 𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐖 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐌 𝐃𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍.

"So, you want all of us to desperately run through town to get to this graveyard place whereas you'll only have to cross to your backyard?" Tyler asks Ashlyn with his arms crossed.

I take my phone out and show them the convenience store i work at. "Well, I work at this convenience store that's near here.. we could maybe meet up there?" I suggest to them as i shrug slightly.

Tyler sighs. "Fine, that works."

We all as a group walk out the bus and begin walk around the graveyard.

"Well, isn't that convenient." Tyler says and he looks over at my phone. "Oh, that's near where me and Ty live.." Taylor says. Tyler nods in agreement.

Logan nods as well before speaking. "Yeah, it's near where i live with my grandparents too."

"Well, since it's basically in the middle of all of our houses, we'd all be at the same risk going there. Then as a group, we run to the graveyard. I'll also be able to bring my dad's rifle for Logan when we meet up since he's the weakest." Ashlyn explains.

I could see that Logan's eyebrows slightly furrow as she mentions him being the weakest.

I put my hand on his shoulder and i give him a small smile for comfort. He looks at me and slightly smiles back.

"Until then, he'll have to use whatever he can find. So, let's take a vote. Is everyone okay with the location and plan?" Ashlyn asks us. We all nod in agreement.

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄.

"Well, we're here now, so let's just make the best of it and move on." Taylor says with a shrug as she sweatdrops.

"Agreed." Ashlyn says as she agrees.

"Another benefit of the graveyard though, is that we're able to set up traps during the day as well." Ashlyn says.

Once the evening comes around we all dismiss each other and take our separate ways to go home.

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Word count; 862
April 22ⁿᵈ, 2024
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EDIT;
Word count; 918
June 18ᵗʰ, 2024

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