[WM] Did You Say H-h-h-haunted?

[Dominique Winters]

Why was she here again? Right; She had no idea. This was not her scenery at all. This was not what Dom did. She wasn't brave. She wasn't filled with courage and a need to travel. She wasn't adventurous or reckless. She was like a bunny, she jumped at every single movement and sound. Everything scared her. Even though she didn't believe in ghosts, this scared her. She could literally feel her heart race inside her chest. It left her with a very uneasy, pulsating feeling.

Standing in the middle of the room of the first floor of the haunted mansion, Dom looked around with wide eyes, her pale fingers clutching around the flashlight in her hand. Her supervisor had told her this would be a great idea for her to get to know more people.

How was going to a haunted house alone a great way to meet people...?

She didn't have a costume either, but that suited her just fine, really. She wouldn't have known what to wear anyways. She had never really celebrated Halloween before. It wasn't something she did. She'd much prefer being held up in her room, reading a book or playing a game...

This was just horrible. Plain and simple.

Hearing a sound, the blue eyed girl turned around, pressing her back against the railing of the staircase, "H-hello?" she squeaked.

[Deleted]

Cody was... conflicted, to say the least.

He didn't want to go to the haunted house, why would he do that? If he so much as brushed someones shoulder he would feel their fear and terror. What a terrible place to produce such terrible emotions. That was all haunted houses were for. They existed to produce fear.

So then why did he decide to go?

He put on his favorite black jacket, gloves with the fingertips cut out and a dark green beanie. He was just going on a simple walk. That's all he was doing... who was he kidding? He was intrigued by this stupid haunted house idea. Plus, it reminded him of good memories. He had been to haunted houses before, sure, before his mutation took over his life. He could mess around with his friends and feel his own emotions. A haunted house was fun back then.

He decided to just go for it. He turned toward the steps of the Winter Mansion and sighed. This was such a bad idea. He walked in, no flashlight or anything, and saw a girl. He flattened himself against the wall. Wait... why was he surprised that there was another person there? "H-hello?" she said softly. He must have startled her. He sighed, stepping forward with his hands up in surrender, "Sorry about that. I'm not really good at this kind of stuff."

[Dominique Winters]

Her hands clutched onto her jacket, her fingers nervously fidgeting against the soft fabric. It took her eyes a few second to locate the shape in the darkness - and then she realized she could have just used her flashlight. Lifting it with trembling fingers, the brunette bit her lips as she looked at the vastly unfamiliar face; Again, that wasn't surprising, seeing as she barely knew anyone at the school or the town, so she probably should have assumed she wouldn't know whoever decided to come here.

"Uhm," she began, shifting awkwardly. "It's uh, o-okay." She could hardly blame him for startling her; He looked as out of place as she herself felt. There was some odd comfort in that. "And yeah, I guess I know what you mean," she added with a nervous chuckle, her eyes dropping to the floor. "I'm not really g-good at this stuff either." Which she guessed was fairly obvious, considering how she looked at least half as scared as she felt.

Then again, everything scared her, so a haunted house wasn't much different. Especially as she usually considered herself as a non-believer when it came to the supernatural...

...at least she had until she had learned that mutants with super powers existed.

"I'm uh, glad I'm not the only one who... uhm, find these things... Uncomfortable? Well, not glad... but you know.."

[Deleted]

He felt really bad for startling her, but he kept his face apathetic and complacent. He pursed his lips to once side and nodded slowly as he glanced around the room. Which was pretty pointless considering he couldn't even see anything except for that which was lit up by her flashlight. As she chuckled and averted his gaze, he gave himself a moment to take a deep breath and calm himself down. He used to make friends all the time, this wasn't that hard.

She looked scared, and her flashlight was almost shaking. His initial instinct was to go over there and comfort her. We'll do this together, sound good? That's what he would've said as he put his arm around her or offered her his arm to link through. But no. He just stayed his ground and planted his feet, unsure of what to do next. He could at least do some variation of the plan without touching her.

Now it was his turn to chuckle, "I know what you mean. It's strangely... comforting. Right?" he smiled, a half smile. In a way he was actually comforting her. Just like he wanted to. That made him feel a little better. He took a step toward her and gestured to the dark area behind her, "I guess we should get through the haunted house then... right?" he offered. He was still a good eight feet away from her, but he could at least offer to accompany her through the thing.

[Dominique Winters]

Offering him something of strained smile as he spoke, though, she had to admit, apart from the freaky coincidence, it was still nice to hear. "Yeah, I suppose you could say that," she said, chuckling once more. She moved her flashlight again, letting it circle the room slowly. It was as much for getting a feel of the room as to keep her hands busy, but really, it worked both ways. Narrowing her eyes, she looked at him again. Wait, he wanted to go through the house...with her? "Uhm." She hadn't creeped him out with her inability to make conversation? That was a first.

"Sure," she said, offering him a smile, although she doubted he'd be able to see it in the dark. That suited her just fine, and the darkness actually helped making her feel a little more at ease. She then continued to move the flashlight to light up his path; She'd rather not have him trip when she had the light to prevent that.

"You want to check out the upstairs...or downstairs first?" She lifted her head to look around; The house was fairly large with at least two stories and probably a loft too, and maybe even a basement, but she didn't think she was nearly brave enough to check those out, unless of course, the boy somehow decided that he wanted to. Then she'd probably follow just so that she wouldn't appear as more of a coward than what she did already.

"I'm Dominique by the way, b-but most people call me Dom."

[Deleted]

As soon as the flashlight left his body, he felt a small surge of panic. "Don't be alarmed, I'm walking toward you," he warned her as he walked straight to where she was now half silhouetted by the light rotating around the room. Then he stopped when the flashlight was back on him. He was about four feet away now. Almost too close, he thought. When she hesitated at his offer, he immediately decided it was because he was such a dork when trying to make friends with people. He silently chided himself until she said sure. His eyes widened a little for a moment.

"Oh, okay. Yeah." He spoke quickly as he followed the flashlight path to stand beside her. He was relieved to be with someone, now that he thought of it. He was even more relieved that it wasn't crowded. He could handle one person. He glanced around the room as she lifted her own head to take a look.

He contemplated her question, trying to decide where would have the less amount of people. Most people would choose to go upstairs because downstairs are generally creepier... "downstairs," he decided, shoving his hands into his pockets. He turned to cock an eyebrow at her as she offered her name. Dom. It was a pretty name, he couldn't deny that. He was sure she was just as pretty, though he couldn't really tell in the dark.

Not like it really mattered.

"Hey Dom, I'm Cody." He kept his hands firmly in his pockets.

[Dominique Winters]

Even though he let her know beforehand, Dom couldn't help the way her muscles tensed as he stepped closer; She was still afraid of her ability, and though it didn't work through clothing, one never knew with these kinds of things. She'd rather not have another episode. "O-okay." After all, the way her ability had manifested... That poor girl's arm... Sighing, she decided to push those kind of thoughts away for now. As long as the guy didn't expect a handshake or them holding hands, they'd be fine, right? Right. See, there was no reason for her to feel angsty about it.

Then again... It wasn't like she could explain it if something did happen; Mutants were still a secret, right? So telling him would be a bad thing, seeing as how she didn't really know if he was a local or a student like her...

A sigh of relief fell from her lips when he suggested them staying downstairs; She didn't really want to go upstairs, because yes, it seemed much more creepy. She wasn't even comfortable being downstairs, she didn't really need to make things even worse by going further up the mansion. "Okay," she said again, the relief obvious in her voice.

"Hi Cody," she said, though realized how lame that sounded and ended up grimacing before she awkwardly started moving to the side, turning towards one of the hallways. Holding her flashlight in that direction, the brunette started moving. Well, at least she still had the ability to walk, which was saying a lot, seeing as how shaky she felt. God, her feet felt like jello. "Are you a local?" she asked.

[Deleted]

Was she... scared of him? That small 'okay' had so much uncertainty and a hint of fear laced through it that he almost stopped walking toward her. But it had to be something else. She didn't even know him. Which... could be a good reason for being scared of someone... he pulled himself out of the assumptions in his head and back to the present. Her second 'okay' was a little more relaxed, which in turned helped him relax. He wasn't even touching her and he was already letting himself be led by her emotions. He cursed himself in his head.

As they slowly turned to the right and started moving he let her go first, since she had the flashlight. A part of him felt like that was a really unmanly thing to do, but he didn't want to say hey! I'll take the flashlight and lead the way because you're just a scared girl! Yup, he'd sound sexist. He wasn't, though, he just wasn't sure how to go about this in the right way. Should he take up the rear or offer to lead? He decided to contemplate it a little more before making any changes in their situation.

He took his hand out of his pocket to ruffling his gloved fingers through his bangs, which were sticking to the sweat on his forehead. "Well, uh..." he wasn't sure what to make of this situation. He couldn't exactly tell her exactly what he was... but he also couldn't lie. Well, he didn't want to lie. "I go to a special... college in town. I mean, for specialties and stuff..." his palms started to get sweaty too.

[Dominique Winters]

Narrowing her eyes at his response, Dom pursed her lips. That sounded like something she'd say; Maybe this was the time where she was supposed to take a leap and just roll with it? Well, too bad that wasn't Dom at all. No, she wasn't one for taking chances or making any decisions based on curiosity. After all, from what she'd heard from her few weeks at campus, telling the wrong person about the school could potentially cause a lot more trouble than what any of them wanted.

"I see," she said instead. "I go to school here too." Well, obviously.

No, she was probably reading too much into it. Maybe he was talking about a special school as in one of those school for really smart children or something. Chewing on her bottom lip as they continued down the hallway, she didn't stop until she reached a closed door. Stopping in front of it, Dom took a deep breath.

"Do you wanna check out this room, or...?" Oh god, what if he didn't? What if he was just doing this to be nice? What if he didn't even want to be here? Or worse yet... What if he was just pulling a prank on her? What if he was leading her further into the mansion only to steal her flashlight and leave her all alone in the darkness? Did people do that? Wait, of course they did... Unless she'd been watching too many movies. There was no reason for anyone to target a nobody like herself, was there? "It's uhm, totally cool if you uh.. Don't want to."

[Deleted]

His heart was starting to race. Was he really going to give himself away that easily? This was another reason why he didn't go out in public. He didn't know how to cover up his being a mutant. This was a really bad idea. A really bad idea. He nodded slowly at her comment though, about attending school here as well. "That's good," he said awkwardly, "I mean learning is... important... his voice trailed off as he looked ahead, seeing cobwebs and surprisingly fancy paintings hung on the walls. This must have been a nice place back in the day.

When they reached the closed door, after finishing the hallway walk in silence, his heart stopped. He sidestepped around her in order to be a little more in front. He wasn't going to make her open it. He should be doing that stuff... right? "Let me open it. Here, do you want me to take the flashlight?" he offered a hand and turned around to look at her, seeing her face the clearer than he had this whole time.

Her hair was brown, rich and soft looking. Her eyes were incredibly piercing, which startled him at first. He felt himself catching his breath as he took in her features. She looked... nervous, scared and wary. Of course she did, this was a haunted house. But those big eyes were fixed on him, as though she was trying to figure out his motives. He wasn't sure what to say, so he just stood there, dumbfounded, hand extended for the flashlight.

[Dominique Winters]

"Yeah," she nodded in agreement, "Very, very important." Well, this got more and more awkward by the second and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Maybe the educational topic wasn't such a safe bridge to cross, after all. Maybe she was better off making friends at the school -- not that Dom really thought she could make any friends, being as shy and nervous as she was. She was actually rather surprised the boy hadn't ran away yet. She was bent to make the poor guy feel super awkward, right? Oh god, what if he only hung around because he pitied her?

She had to admit though, that when he stepped forward and decided to take the lead, Dom was relieved. Nodding slightly, she lifted her eyes to meet his and handed him the flashlight. Offering him something of a thankful smile, she could feel the heat of the flush spread over her cheeks and she quickly averted her gaze, though, it quickly found its way back up to his. 

"T-thank you," she muttered silently, but stopped as she noticed the way he looked at her. Narrowing her eyes, she just stood there, silently trying to figure out why he looked at her the way he did; God, did she have something on her face? Something between her teeth? Pressing her lips together, she ran the tip of her tongue over her teeth, but couldn't find anything, and she couldn't feel anything stuck against her skin, at least, nothing beside the flush that seemed to glue to her face like never before. She could feel her heart race more than before as the panic started settling in, "Uhm," she said then, and looked down towards the ground. "The d-door?"

[Deleted]

"Gotta love those... teachers..." they were getting nowhere with this conversation, and she was acting just as awkward as he was about it. Maybe she was a lot younger than she looked and she was concerned about sneaking around in the dark with a guy in college... it was only his first year of college! He wasn't that old. Well, she wouldn't know that. "Anyway, schools cool." He said, trying to wrap up the dangerous and extremely awkward subject between them.

He missed the talking when they walked in silent for those few moments though. It was nice to have a conversation in this scary dark place. As she lifted the flash light to offer it too him, he had to look away from her face. He maneuvered his hand carefully in order to not touch her skin as he took the light from her. He looked back up at her to smile in thanks, and caught her showing a thankful smile of her own. There was something else there too... a little more color in her face. When he averted her gaze, he didn't look away. When she made eye contact again, he averted his. It was like playing phone tag but with eye contact.

"Yeah... yeah. You're welcome," he found himself sounding more confident then he felt, and he reverted back to staring at her. Panic starting to seep into her eyes, and he felt bad. Bad that he was staring and probably freaking her out by doing so. As she mentioned the door he spun around to face it. "Yes. Door. Yes, that's why we're here. Okay." He reached his hand forward and gently turned the knob, a strong lump leaping into his throat from his heart.

[Dominique Winters]

The...teachers? "Yeah... They're very... lovable." Wow, okay, she had never thought it was possible, but she'd actually ran into someone as awkward as herself. Granted, the topic they were talking about normally shouldn't have been this awkward, because teenagers went to school, but for whatever reason, they both managed to make things as awkward and strained as they possibly could. Great. Because that was exactly the kind of ego boost she needed. Ah well, it couldn't be helped. "Very c-cool," she added, smiling -- or trying to.

This was like watching one of those lame chick flicks her mother had always forced her to watch. The awkward pausing, the two of them looking, then averting their gaze when the other looked, the beating around the bush -- of course, she knew that it was nothing like the movies, because come on. What were the chances of this turning into-- nope. She wasn't even going to go there. Clearing her throat, she shifted her position from one foot to the other, glad he finally decided to take the flashlight. She was thankful, because that meant she didn't need to pretend to be something she wasn't; Brave.

Turning to fully face the door, Dom clenched her fists, digging her fingernails into the palm of her hand. God, this was painful; In the sense of this being extremely awkward and making her feel oddly on edge. She couldn't remember - wait, no, that was because it had never happened - the last time she'd ever been alone with a boy. However, she did have to admit to herself that his own awkwardness came off as cute, rather than creepy, as she assumed she herself came across as.

Funny how things like that worked out.

"Yes, that's... Why we're here," she repeated with a strained smile. "Not to hunt ghosts or anything... because they totally don't exist." Wow, she didn't sound convincing at all. "At all."

[Deleted]

"Loveable?" he let a nervous chuckle escape his lips as she said that. What a strange thing to say about your teacher! He knew though, he knew that she was only saying it because the conversation was just so awkward and strange that it was just started to get ridiculous. He was starting to feel ridiculous. They made a pretty good pair when it came to making things incredibly tense and unnecessarily uncomfortable. They could put on a comedy act, 'How to turn an entire normal conversation into an awkward rambling session'.

He felt a lot more comfortable, now that he was doing the manly thing and taking the lead. If he was... if this was a few years ago, he would have been a lot more manly and protective. Even if she was a stranger, he wouldn't have let her just fidget with her hands in fear. He would have offered himself as a shield. But things were... different now.

She sounded just as nervous as he did. Though, his was a mixture of being alone with the girl and being in a supposedly haunted house. He nodded and tensed up. He could feel her energy radiating behind him, it made his hair stand on edge. He twisted the knob further and opened the door just enough to poke the flashlight through. After a few moments of his heartbeat accelerating even more, he put a hand on his chest and sighed, "Looks clear so far. None of those totally not real ghosts you mentioned," he turned to smirk at her. Did he just... did he just make a joke?

Haunted houses did strange things to people.

[Dominique Winters]

"Well, no--well, yes, but no, that's not--" she bit her lower lip, "--not what I meant; Or.. it kind of is, but not really..." Oh dear god, this was not at all how she'd planned this conversation to turn out. "I mean, like... They're... They're nice and all, but like, not lovable as in having crushes on them or anything! That'd be super weird. And probably illegal." And of course, rambling about it didn't exactly make this any less uncomfortable for either of them. Hopefully the boy - Cody - would find some humor in her misery.

Not so impatiently waiting for him to open the door, Dom clenched and unclenched her hands into fists, though, when he did open the door, she peeked up, standing on the tips of her toes as she tried looking over his shoulder. When he spoke though, she couldn't quite keep the meek smile from caressing her lips and a faint chuckle fell from her full lips. "Well, that's good," she said, taking a deep breath as she felt herself calm down a little. Not much, but it was better than nothing at all, right?

"Though, that's the uh, thing with ghosts, right? They're supposed to be invisible and jump out when you least expect it. The same thing goes for monsters." Wow, she was really making this already creepy haunted house situation even more creepy, wasn't she? At least, she was scaring herself with the ideas of ghosts and monsters. "They're totally not real either." Boy, did she sound convincing or what. She was fairly certain even her voice was shaking at this point, which honestly made her feel even more pathetic. If that was even possible, of course.