The Night Is Rising // O/O // Closed

"Holy shit," she swore, backing away. "It's happening. I thought it would be something else! No no no no no!" Ana backed away. "We need to go. Come to my house. I have some stuff there that we might be able to use," she said to Laurel.

"What?" Laurel looked at Ana with a confused look on her face. Had this happened to her before? How did Ana know this was going to happen? Was it the dream that told her? "Alright, lead the way," Laurel said, trying to keep her voice steady. The monster was still standing there, and if Laurel wasn't mistaken, it looked slightly… confused. But she didn't think it would stay confused and still for long.

Ana shook her head. There was no time to explain. She brushed her hair from her face and motioned for Laurel to come, darting back towards the trees, where it offered some semblence of safety. "My house is through here," she told the girl. "But we'll have to hurry. Who knows how many more will be coming?"

Laurel tore her eyes away from the monster and followed Ana towards the trees. She understood why the explanations had to wait. The monster's head followed them as they moved, further reinforcing the idea that they had to hurry. And was right– who knew how many more monsters would appear?

Ana's house showed up through the trees, and she almost gave a sob of relief, but didn't. There were people around, and she couldn't lose her cool.

She darted up the hill, glancing behind her to make sure that the girl was following her, before getting to her door. She flung it open, and turned to Laurel. "There are weapons in the basement. The door to it is just down the hall, to your left. I'm going to get some stuff from my room."

Laurel almost commented on how cool a house in the woods was but decided not to. It wasn't the time to be gushing over stuff, even if it was pretty cool. She followed close behind Ana, glad she had let Laurel come along. "Weapons?" Laurel asked, stopping herself before she ran into Ana. "Okay. Any specific weapons you want?" Another gust of freezing wind swirled around Laurel, making her shiver slightly. "Or would any do?"

"I have some in my room. But… thanks." Ana sent her a small smile. "Do you know how to use anything? Like, a gun, or knives, or anything?"

"Um… no. I didn't exactly prepare for this." Laurel admitted, suddenly feeling embarrassed that she hadn't been training for this day. Ana seemed to have been preparing for this day, or a day like this, and Laurel… well, she had read about days like this.

"Can't be helped," Ana said briskly. "I can teach you. My older brother has a safe house. We can go there, and I can teach you." She frowned. "But it's pretty far from here." She shook her head. "We can worry about that later. Get some weapons. There should be some sleeping bags and backpacks and watter bottles down there. Get what you think you'll need, and you can raid the kitchen if you want."

"Okay." Laurel nodded, trying to keep her face neutral. Why did Ana's brother have a safe house? "Okay, I will." She nodded and headed towards the basement. What kind of weapons should she grab? What kind of weapons did Ana have? Laurel shook her head slightly as she walked down the stairs. Her mind was full of questions, but she didn't think anyone could answer even half of them. She flicked on the light at the bottom and stood at the foot of the stairs for a few seconds, taking in everything in the basement.

There were all sorts of weapons, from knives to swords, from hand guns to machine guns. It was full of weapons, some of them looking like they weren't even from that century!

Ana raced up the stairs to her room, where her supplies were stored. She kept them in her room, not downstairs, in case she couldn't get to the basement. She picked her backpack up, threw it over her shoulder, and looked around, making sure she didn't need anything. Her room wasn't very personalized, so there was nothing she needed. She pounded back down the stairs, going to the kitchen to pack some food and filling up the water bottles.

Laurel gaped at the assortment of weapons. Had she accidentally wandered into some sort of secret army? She walked closer to the weapons. What should she grab? She wanted to grab a sword, but she didn't think she could wield it without killing someone around her. Instead, she grabbed two knives. Laurel also grabbed a backpack, a sleeping back, and some water bottles she found as Ana had suggested. She cast one last look around the basement, then turned out the light and hurried up the stairs.

When Ana heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs, she stiffened, before remembering Laurel. She finished filling her water bottle, before stuffing a bit more food in her bag and glancing at the girl who had just come up the stairs. "Ready to go?" She grabbed her car keys.

"Yeah. I just need to fill these up," Laurel said, holding up the water bottles. She quickly filled them up, then stuffed them into her backpack. "I'm really lucky I met you, huh? I think I would be in much worse shape on my own." Laurel laughed weakly and ran a hand through her short hair. "I'm ready now," She added, just in case it wasn't obvious.

Ana gave a weak laugh. "Yeah. Not a lot of people prepare for the apocalypse the way I do." She shrugged. "I take a lot of things seriously." She heaved her bag over her shoulder and stepped out the door, going to her garage and opening it. Three cars were there. She went to the middle one, a two-person jeep, and tossed her stuff in the back, going around to the driver's side and climbing in.

"Well, it's a good thing you do," Laurel said, following Ana outside. She was a bit jumpy about being outside and kept expecting a monster to appear out of nowhere and eat her. But nothing of the sort happened. Laurel copied Ana and tossed her stuff into the back, then climbed into the passenger's side. This was still feeling very surreal, and she couldn't help but wonder what all the 'normal' people were doing. Cowering, maybe.

"It can be," Ana agreed. "But sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy." She shrugged and started the jeep, driving out and into the wild world. She drove very quickly, probably not the best with a vehicle with no doors, but it couldn't be helped. They had to get to the safe house.

A beast appeared out of nowhere, and she swerved to avoid it, slamming on the breaks, then doing a wild swerve that left the smell of burnt rubber behind.

"Well, right now, I think 'crazy' is a good thing." Laurel shrugged, holding onto the side of the Jeep. She could understand why Ana was driving like a crazy person, but it was still kind of scary. When the creature appeared in the road, Laurel let loose a strangled scream and held on tighter to the Jeep. "Ah… Good driving," She breathed.

Ana sent her a half smile. "It's a wonder you've managed to hold on this long," she said, faint laughter in her voice. "I am most certainly not a good driver."

"Not in a traditional sense, but here you're fantastic." Laurel glanced over at her, an uneasy smile on her face. "Do you think you would have actually hit that thing?" She looked forward. "They look like they're made of shadows, don't they? Could they even hurt us?"

“I don’t know,” Ana said grimly. “But I don’t want to find out.” She shook her head. She regretted not putting her hair up before she started driving. The wind whipped it into her face, and she didn’t dare to remove a tightly clenched hand from the steering wheel to brush it away.

"Agreed." Laurel nodded, turning to look out the window. She couldn't help but feel like they were both being watched. Like there was something just beyond her sight, keeping tabs on what they were both doing. But it didn't make her feel scared… this presence felt friendly, for some reason. Laurel looked back at Ana, whose hair was whipping all over the place. "Can you see okay?" She asked, glad that her hair was so short.

"I'll be fine," Ana replied, which wasn't strictly true. "Hopefully. Probably." She glanced around, all her senses on alert. There was no one on the road. No one at all.

"Okay," Laurel said, not sounding at all sure. She turned back to the scenery passing along beside her. In an amateur survivalist move, Laurel let her mind wander. If she stared hard enough, she could almost imagine someone running through the woods beside them… wait. There was someone running in the woods alongside them, somehow. She wasn't totally there, though. She looked like a ghost! A ghost who was screaming something at Laurel. But no matter how hard she listened, Laurel couldn't hear a thing. She blinked, and the ghost was gone. Turning back to the front, Laurel tried to convince herself that it was just her overactive imagination. The ghost lady didn't really exist.

After a period of silence, Ana glanced over at Laurel. "You okay?" She asked, sounding concerned.

Telling Ana about the ghost lady would make Laurel sound crazy. Then again, having monsters from her dream appear in real life was also crazy, so it didn't really matter. "There was a ghost running next to the car." Laurel pointed out her window, but the ghost lady was still gone. "She was screaming something at me, but I have no idea what." She shrugged. "Sounds crazy, ri–"
"Laurel." A warm voice came from right next to her, but it wasn't from Ana. Laurel turned to see the ghost lady sitting between them, smiling kindly. Laurel started to scream, then clamped her hand over her mouth. Screaming didn't seem like the best reaction. "Nice to see you too, Ana." The ghost lady turned to Ana. "I'm glad I was finally able to make contact with you two. The Shadow King has a tight grip on this place."

"What the f-" Ana jumped, her sudden movement jerking the steering wheel, so that the jeep careened to the side, before she righted it. She stopped the car with a screech of brakes and turned to the ghost. "Why are you in my car?"

"Because I have to tell you something." The ghost said, as if it was obvious.
"Who are you? Are you dead?" Laurel asked, leaning away from the ghost. She couldn't believe this was happening. First those monsters, and now ghosts? What was next, aliens?
"I am Queen Alina. And I am not yet dead." Alina sighed, her gaze suddenly very far off. Now that Laurel had a clear view of her, she could see that the ghost– Alina– had been very beautiful at one point. But there was something off about her. All the colors, from her gold hair to her green eyes, were a little too bright. And Laurel could see two strange holes in the skin of her forehead hiding under the fringe of her bangs.

"Um… are you sure you're not dead?" Ana's heart was pounding hard in her chest, fear rising in her. She was okay with monsters, but ghosts? That was a whole other level. "Because you look pretty dead to me."

"I'm not! It just takes a lot of energy to project myself here, so I had to cut a few corners," Alina exclaimed. "But I'm running out of time. Do you know about the weapons yet?"
"The what?" Laurel squeaked, still trying to get as far away from Alina as she could.
"I'll take that as a no," Alina sighed and snapped her fingers. A gold line appeared in the road in front of them, leading farther down the road. "Follow that line and you'll find something to answer most of your questions." Alina turned and looked behind her as if she had heard something no one else had. "I have to go. Follow that line and stick together and you'll do fine, my heroes." She smiled at both of them, then disappeared.