Lilith.
"So," Fynn said, standing against the wall in an alley, "we jump the fence, break into this weird ass place that I'm sure wasn't there last month, and grab this weird ass thing, is that right?"
Lilith nodded from the opposite wall. "That's almost exactly what we do."
Darcy shook her head. "Sorry, why are we doing this. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm always up for it. I'm just a little confused as to why exactly we are doing this."
"Yeah, is it like a school project thing?" Raine asked, tilting their head.
Lilith nodded again. "Yeah, something like that. Look, I just need to get this thing and take it back to my— instructor. He needs to make sure something like this is safe." She shook her head, putting her hands in her pockets. "It's not a real thing, it's like a prop or something. Don't worry, it's not like a huge deal except that it's a big percentage of my grade. But this assignment is basically like a scavenger hunt. They said that we can have help from other people, just not from our class."
Alrik shrugged against the wall from next to Aven. "Makes sense to me."
Aven looked at him weirdly and shook her head. "No, it doesn't."
Lilith sighed. "Look, I know it's confusing. To dumb it down a little, it's a scavenger hunt for a really important prop for a big percentage of my school grade. I can't mess this one up."
Fynn chuckled. "I didn't think that you were so interested in school things."
"I'm normally not. But this assignment is more important than any of the others that I've done." Lilith shook her head. "This matters. Everything else can get shit on."
Aven tilted her head. "Lil, are you okay?" she asked, pushing herself away from the wall. She walked over to Lilith slowly, earning a weird look from her. "You've been acting— different lately. Is something wrong?"
Lilith shook her head. "I'm fine, seriously. Just a little stressed is all."
Raine tilted their head. "No, Aven's right." They squinted slightly. "You've been acting off." There was a pause before they glared and huffed. "I swear to god, Lilith, if that asshole did something to you, I will fucking kill him—"
"Mattheo didn't do anything, Raine. Everything is fine," Lilith said, starting to walk away. The others exchanged glances and didn't move. She turned back to them and shrugged. "Seriously. If there was something wrong I would tell you. Now come on."
She turned around and the others followed after her. "Well," Darcy said, "you do kind of keep your problems to yourself."
"Darc, I'm fine, I assure you."
☯︎︎
"You think we can jump an electrical fence?" Fynn asked with a 'seriously' look on his face, pointing to a sign on the fence.
Alrik stood next to Fynn, furrowing his brows while he read everything on the sign. The fence buzzed, and he took a step back, grabbing the back of Fynn's shirt to pull him back.
Raine shook their head. They pointed at the fence. "You're kidding, right? We've done a lot of dangerous shit, but that is begging to get electrocuted."
"Hold on," Lilith said, taking a step towards the fence. It made a zapping sound, blue electricity was showing every few seconds. "If I remember right, they turn this thing off in a minute," she lied.
They, in fact, did not ever turn it off.
There was one thing that Lilith could do, but she didn't know if it would work exactly. She wasn't amazing at this specific spell either, so that would mess it up a bit.
Nonverbal spells weren't taught yet, so this was going to be half difficult.
She closed her eyes and took a breath in, focusing. A moment later, the buzzing and zapping stopped. She opened her eyes and touched her finger to the fence.
Nothing happened.
"See?" she asked, starting to climb the fence. "I thought you guys trusted me more," she joked, chuckling.
The others exchanged glances before following her up and over the fence.
They hit the ground and the fence gave a small buzz but cut out a second later.
"Let's do this shit," Fynn said, cracking his knuckles as he stopped next to Lilith. He looked back at the others. "Ready to go, bitches?" They nodded, and he turned back forward, nudging Lilith's arm. "Ready, whore?"
"Ready," she said, nudging him back. Fynn chuckled and started walking, pulling her with him carefully. The others started following them, all of them keeping quiet.
The building looked like it was abandoned. Why it had an electric fence, they really didn't know. It didn't seem like anything valuable was there.
"Why is the fence electrical if this place looks like it hasn't been touched in sixty years?" Aven asked as they crouched behind a set of very dead bushes.
Lilith shrugged. "I'm not sure. Probably part of the assingment. Now, let's go."
They kept their crouched position and started towards the old door. The door was rotting and had moss covering it. If it was stuck, it shouldn't have been too hard to kick open, or break through.
Lilith went to open it, but the doorknob looked brand new, and the door was definitely locked.
"Wait," Raine said, tightening the laces on their combat boots. "Step back."
They all took a step away from the door as Raine started taking a few steps forward.
"I hope your school doesn't care if this things breaks," they said, kicking the door as hard as they could.
It hardly budged.
"What the fuck," Raine muttered, kicking the door again.
"That's weird," Darcy said, walking over to the door. She ran her fingers along the wood. "That should have given in with no problem."
"Aven, can you pick the lock?" Alrik asked, nodding to the door knob.
Aven nodded and started towards the door, pulling a lock picker in the shape of a pocket knife out and flipping the lock picking part out. She crouched down in front of the knob and started picking it as Darcy continued to furrow her brows at the door.
There must have been some powerful magic on the door if it was that old and didn't even bend.
A moment later the door clicked and Aven smirked. "Would you look at that," she said, smiling as she stood up and put the lock picker back in her pocket. Grabbing the knob, she pulled the door open roughly.
Lilith muttered a thank you and walked in first, all the others following behind her.
The room was dimly lit, with the same old wood as the outside. There was one wall with wallpaper on it.
Lilith thought it seemed weird that the lights were on and they weren't visible from the outside, considering how many holes were in the wood sides.
Alrik was the last one in, and the door slammed so hard behind him that they all flinched.
Aven shivered, putting her arms around herself. They all split up, walking in the same area. "I don't like this place," she muttered, shaking her head.
"We went to an abandoned asylum," Fynn said, looking at a spider web, "and this is creepier."
"No, yeah, you're right," Raine agreed. "Some bad fucking vibes in here."
Lilith couldn't disagree with them, the place was creepy. And it was weird, she just didn't know why it was so— different.
She walked over to a broken window, which had a trash bag duct taped onto it. There was a hole, and the wind was blowing through. She moved it slightly, looking outside into the dark.
"What the hell did I get myself into," she whispered to herself, squinting into the darkness where she could almost make out a figure.
"Hey, Lil," Fynn said loudly, making everyone turn to look at him. He pointed to an area of the wallpaper. "This doesn't seem right. There's a bit that isn't— right."
Lilith turned to look at Fynn as the others did too. She started walking over to him, the others slowly walked behind her, stopping a few feet behind her. Fynn took a step back towards the others.
Lilith felt along the wall. There was definitely something there.
"It's like," she said, feeling in the shape of a rectangle, "a door or something. But there's no door knob."
"There's no door," Alrik said, furrowing his brows.
"No shit sherlock," Aven muttered, shaking her head.
Lilith reached into her boot and pulled out a switchblade, clicking the blade out. She put the blade to the edge of what she thought was the cut out.
Something buzzed along the blade, making it flash a green color for a moment.
Without hesitating, she started cutting the wallpaper, following the outline.
After it was all cut, Lilith started feeling around the door still covered by wallpaper. There were hinges, so it was definitely a door.
At the right of the door, there was a small space that wasn't sturdy under the paper. Lilith clicked the blade back and spun it around her fingers. She hit the paper with the back of the switchblade, and it gave in easily, showing a doorknob hole.
She smirked back at the others, slipping the blade back in her boot before hooking her fingers in the hole before swinging it open.
(do not make that sound wrong, i know you will.)
They followed after her, all stopping when they saw what was on the other side of the little room.
"Oh hell no," Aven said. "That's a fucking death trap."
"That looks like it would break with an ant in it," Raine said, crossing their arms.
The elevator did indeed look like it would break under the slightest pressure. A simple spell would prevent that though.
The doors were rusted over, and the buttons on the right side of it looked like the metal panel was about to come off from the plants growing around it.
"Well, may death be forever kind," Lilith said, and walked to the elevator, clicking the button. A moment later, the doors screeched to an open, and the others hesitantly followed her inside.
There was only one choice for the floor, so Lilith clicked that one. The doors closed and they started going down, the elevator jerking slightly.
"No music?" Fynn asked, looking around the old space.
"That's just rude," Lilith said. "You would think even just a little tune would be nice."
"Exactly!"
"I hate both of you," Alrik muttered, shaking his head.
The doors opened and they all got out of the elevator.
This room was smaller and had concrete walls. Tar dropped down some of the walls, while moss and plants grew from other places.
There was a stain on the floor that looked too close to dried blood for comfort.
Lilith stopped short when she saw what was on the table at the other end of the room, and the others stopped quickly behind her to look at it.
Why the hell would he want this?
And if it was so important, why was it so easy to get into? You get past the fence and it's a piece of cake.
It was one of the most valuable things Lilith had ever seen, but the energy it was giving off was really bad. Like there was a dark soul in it.
But why the hell would he need Helga Hufflepuff's goblet?