The group had all relaxed back into their respective seats after experimenting on the phantom.
Its body had holes and slits cut and burned into it from the groups experiment; and they had found a weakness.
Light.
The phantoms complex was, suggestively, made out of darkness. When Aiden had flashed his torch onto it, its figure had reacted to the light from his phone. It's started sizzling and burning, and after a couple of seconds, melting.
Dominique had tested out her new and improved staff against the body of the dead phantom, and she found that because the tooth produced light, the phantom reacted to it, as well. Mixed with the blade of the tooth, which Dominique had sharpened lightly, her skills with the staff and the light the tooth offered, she was practically unstoppable. She was excited to try out her new weapon in some real combat.
She smirked at the thought.
"Let's talk about Savannah."
And just like that, her smirk was wiped off her face.
Dom rolled her eyes, glancing lazily in Tyler's direction with her chin propped up in her hand. The group was still crowding around the injured and deceased phantom as they figured out what spots melted the quickest, what produced the most reaction, ect.
"We can't hope that things will go back to normal." Tyler pointed out, standing in his seat as he made tense eye-contact with Ashlyn.
"And we can't risk it out there for no reason!" Ashlyn snapped back at him, also standing up out of her seat next to the phantom and taking a step towards Tyler. They both glared at each other, scowling.
"Uhm." Taylor spoke up from beside Dom, who had previously been resting her head on the formers shoulder.
"Going back doesn't mean going back to the house. Or interacting with any phantoms, right?" She inquired, taking glances between Ashlyn and Tyler.
"We could talk to some locals. Broaden our research on myths and stuff." Dominique suggested, squeezing Taylor's hand, proud of her for speaking up.
"I'll agree to asking locals and steering clear of anywhere we had been that possibly contributed to what happened to us." Tyler agreed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Can we open our minds to the fact that what's happening to us may not be strictly because of Savannah?" Dominique spoke respectfully, sending a glance towards Tyler as he reluctantly nodded.
"I don't think what happened to us was coincidental, though, Dom." Ash spoke up, looking toward Dominique with soft eyes, pleading with her to hear her out. Dom nodded.
"There a possibility that that woman we met at the sorrel weed house reached out to us on purpose. There could be other people in on this. We have to watch ourselves. We don't know if Savannah is safe for us to go to yet." Ashlyn explained her point of view with furrowed eyes, she glanced between everyone.
"So you're still against going?!" Tyler asked in disbelief, taking an angry glance at Dominique and standing up, ready to walk over to her.
"Hear her out, Tyler, she wasn't done." Dominique spoke, leaning back in her chair and letting Taylor rest against her, raising a hand in his direction and gesturing to his seat.
Tyler sat back down with tense muscles, still firing glares as Ashlyn.
"I'm not against going. But only if we wait a year." Ashlyn offered, her eyes showing that she wasn't going to budge on this.
Tyler just sighed out, leaning back against his chair as he muttered out an 'okay', still upset.
"That will give us time to prepare. Better out weapons, map out plans and take out time planning our actions." Dominique agreed, and ash sent her a thankful group. The group made noises of agreement, or just nodded, in Ben's case.
"If I see that woman again, however, I can't promise it will be peaceful."
"Did we really need this?" Aiden spoke up with a tilt of his head. Ashlyn glared at him and he just raised his hands in defence.
"We need to start taking this seriously." Ashlyn reminded him, walking toward the whiteboard and ripping the cap of a white-board pen with her teeth.
She scribbled down 'Aquire Better Weapons - Gun Shop' in big, bold letters in the middle of the board.
"This is going to be our first goal." Ashlyn stated, tapping her pen against her writing as she glanced around the group.
"You can count me out of that one, Ash, I'm happy with what I've got." Dominique spoke up, sending ash a thumbs up and gesturing toward her staff in her belt.
Ash just let out a sigh, smiling lightly at Dominique.
"Well, not all of us are insanely talented and practised with our weapons." Ash reminded, and Dom just blushed softly at the compliment, turning away slightly and hiding her face behind her.
"How are we going to do that?" Tyler steered the two back on topic, glaring a little at Ashlyn. Ash just rolled her eyes, turning around and scribbling something underneath her previous writing. She stepped back, letting the group get a better look at what she wrote.
'Bring Jeep into graveyard'
"May I?" Dominique spoke up again, gesturing toward the marker in Ashlyn's hand. Ash nodded, stepping back and hading Dominique the marker. She smiled in thanks and turned, scribbling something above what ash had previously written.
'Fortify graveyard'
"We can't leave until we've built this place up a bit." Dominique raised her voice lightly, making sure the group could hear her.
"It's falling apart. We're lucky Aiden and I spotted the break in the wall, and phantoms are gonna evolve. They're gonna find ways to get in. Like climbing over the wall or digging. We don't know what they're capable of, but I know they're smart." Dominique sated, gesturing to the window of the bus and bringing the groups attention to the lightly crumbling graveyard walls.
"When I faced down that phantom earlier, it knew I was going to kill it. And it knew I had the upper hand." Dom started, pointing toward the deceased phantom's body. She let out a breath, continuing.
"That's why it ran for Logan."
Looks of realisation washed over the groups faces as everyone glanced toward the phantom, then back at Dominique.
"It knew if it injured Logan, or got ahold of him, it would have the upper hand." Dom gestured toward Logan with a reassuring smile, who sent a wobbly, less confident one back.
"These things are much smarter then we are giving them credit for. They'll keep finding their way into the graveyard. So I think, if it's okay, we should focus inside before heading out." She sent a questioning look to Ash, silently asking if that's okay. Ash smiled, then nodded and stepped up next to Dominique.
"A vehicle is our top priority after protection. We need a car to get to the gun shop to acquire better weaponry. My parent's jeep is the closest, so we'll set out sights on that." Ashlyn finalised, and Dom looked at her with a smile before facing back to the group.
"Let's brainstorm. Do we have any ideas on fortification?" Everyone seemed to pale and look away. Dom just sighed, rubbing her fingers Against her temples as she tried to think.
Suddenly, Ben tapped her on her shoulder . She looked up as he scribbled something in his book, before showing it to Dom with a questioning look on his face. Everyone else leaned forward, getting a good look at the drawing.
"Barbed wire?" Taylor questioned, looking at Dominique then back at Ben.
"If they were normal humans, that might work. But that doesn't seem to be the type of this to bother them." Tyler spoke, shaking his head lightly.
"I agree." Dom spoke up. Ben looked a bit dejected, but looked back when he heard Dom start to speak again.
"We shouldn't use it as our primary defence. But we could use it as our secondary." Dominique suggested, throwing Ben a wink.
"We could used barbed wire to block up any gaps in the fixture of the graveyard. We would have to layer it a lot, but I think that would work." She said, rubbing Ben's head affectionately as she smiled. He returned it.
"Well, if the phantoms are affected by light, why don't we use solar beams on-top of the compound's walls?" Aiden suggested, rubbing his chin in thought.
"If we did do that, it would have downsides." Dominique started, rubbing her temples with her fingers.
"Firstly, it would alert the phantoms to where we are. We would basically be a lighthouse." Dom continued, pointing up her finger as she listed.
"And secondly, if our power went out, we would be sitting ducks." Don raised a second finger, before sighing and letting out a tired smile.
"But. It would be the most effective in keeping the Phantoms off the walls. We just need to have some type of backup defence just in case we lose energy in the lights." Dom finished, giving Aiden a thumbs up as he beamed.
"What if we used solar lights?" Logan suggested, pushing his glances up the bridge of his nose lightly. "Then they could run on themselves and we would have to worry too much about powering them." He spoke, sending a glance to Dom, who nodded in thought.
"Agreed. Solar power lights are our best bet. But, I would still like to have some type of secondary defence just in case they burst or something goes wrong." Dominique smiled, ruffling Logan's hair.
"How do we get them, though?" Ash asked, running her hands through her now short hair.
"Leave that to me!" Aiden said, pointing proudly at himself. The group sweat dropped.
"I haven't spent my allowance in a while so it's kinda accumulated." Aiden rubbed the back of his head, a sheepish smile on his face.
"How much do you have-?" Tyler started asking, before getting interrupted by Dominique smacking him in the back of the head.
"Don't ask people questions like that!" She reprimanded, sending Aiden an apologetic smile as Tyler seethed and started yapping in Dom's ear about how she never takes his side.
"So, can you order those lights at lunch, Aiden?" Ashlyn asked, fiddling with her now long hair again as she walked with the group.
"Should be able to, yeah." He replied, smiling at her and trying to trip over Dominique as she walked, who just scowled at him and stuck her let out, watching as he tripped over, but unfortunately caught himself with a victorious smirk on her face.
"Aren't your parents going to ask about them?" Taylor questioned, shuffling a giggle into her palm at Aiden and Dominique's squabbling.
"Nah they're on a trip right now." He replied, smiling sarcastically as Dom who just shoved her hands in her pockets, sticking her tongue out at him.
"I was wondering where the nerd was." Tyler interrupted, looking up from his phone as he spotted Logan getting harassed by Barron in the hallway.
Dom's jaw clenched.