Chapter Text
A gentle breeze coursed through Penny’s golden hair, the setting sun catching it at just the right angle. Her shoes were planted firmly in the grass as she looked up at John, the rest of her subtly shifting. For the fleeting moment they made eye contact, his expression was completely unreadable to her; utterly devoid of any outward emotion. She quickly averted her gaze and crossed her arms over her chest.
Her gaze eventually found itself cresting the hill and observing the desolate site reclaimed by nature sprawling out below them. She bit her lip, her fingers clenching around both sides of her arms and fidgeting with the fabric of her jacket. The canopy of trees and darkening sky did nothing to quell her anxieties, as they provided a thick veil to obscure the silent buildings.
“John, I-” she began, as she had done many times before over the course of the evening, “I-I don’t think this is a good idea…”
A small, slightly comforting smile formed on John’s face. Penny almost recoiled at the sudden shift, but found herself embracing his gaze as he leaned down slightly. She glanced away, a small smile of her own beginning to take shape. His hand cupped her left cheek as he turned her face back to his.
“...Something about this just feels wrong.” Penny finished. She gently gripped John’s hand, squeezing it within her own and keeping it held on her cheek. Shoot, was she being too intimate? She awkwardly withdrew her admittedly sweaty palm and stuffed it in her hoodie pocket.
Her affection for John wasn’t something she necessarily tried to hide anymore once he began to reciprocate it. They weren’t officially dating, but she figured he’d ask her out eventually. However, it had been 5 months since they reached that point. In that time, they had been thrust into an awkward state of ‘will-they-won’t-they’; something that hadn’t gone unnoticed by Max and Sarah, who both stood a few yards away.
Max was the first to call out, jolting Penny from her thoughts. “Hey! Are you two lovebirds gonna come with us or not?”
While Penny could feel her face burning hot, Sarah could only roll her eyes, nudging Max with her elbow. “The night’s still young and the blackout isn’t due for another few minutes. My only concern is if someone catches us loitering here…” Her eyes darted back and forth, as if scanning the perimeter for any officers hungry to make arrests.
“Seriously, does anyone actually give a shit about this place? I seriously doubt there are any active security guards.” Max laughed, nudging Sarah back. “Clearly
someone
does!” she spat, her finger pointing to the bottom of the hill, “They’ve got
back-up
generators.”
Sure enough, sitting at the bottom of the hill was indeed a back-up generator. However, it notably lacked a low hum and a soft vibration; all indicators of a generator hard at work.
“Wait, what?” John started as his gaze followed her finger, his hand drifting away from Penny’s face. “Hmh... shit. Doesn’t look like it’ll be on until the blackout actually happens, though…” His voice was quiet as he pondered to himself more than anything. Penny suddenly felt a hand wrap around her shoulder and pull her closer.
“I guess me and Penny will stay up here and watch for the cops. You guys can go down and make sure that thing doesn’t turn on by the time the blackout’s here.”
“Sticking us with your dirty work, huh…” Sarah grumbled sarcastically, crossing her arms. Max only laughed, “Leaving you and Penny alone? ‘Watching for cops’ my ass! You obviously just wanna get in her-”
“MAX!” Penny shouted. Her face was flushed a deep shade of crimson as she continued, “You know it’s not like that!”
John sighed, “Look, Penny’s on the fence about this whole thing. I think it’ll be better for her if I can… you know.”
Convince me to stop being such a wet blanket.
Penny knew what he wanted to say and what everyone else was already thinking. She felt herself shrinking away from the shame of being the only one to not go along with this.
Why did I even agree to come here in the first place?
But she knew the answer; it was John.
Just as she felt herself subconsciously withdrawing from the group, John’s grip around her tightened and almost forced her back as he brought her closer to him. This elicited a small gasp from her as she was squeezed against his torso.
“Okay, first of all, gross.” Max started, “Second of all, fine. We’ll do your stupid fetch quest. I mean, all we gotta do is make sure it doesn’t work, right? I can think of a billion ways to break a dumb machine!”
Sarah reluctantly nodded, finding herself in the unfortunate position to be in agreement with Max of all people. With that, they began to descend down the hill, their forms disappearing over the concave wall of grass.
“I’m sorry, John. You should just do this without me...” Penny mumbled, her voice trembling. John’s fingers intertwined around Penny’s, bringing their clasped hands upwards and pressing his face into her neck. She giggled slightly, a brief respite from her paranoia, but it didn’t last for long. Her throat cleared as her eyes fixated on the ground. John only straddled her back and forth as he spoke, “It won’t be fun without you though…” His voice lingered on the last word in an almost sing-songy tone.
“I’m serious, John. It’s not a good idea and I don’t think you should be doing this e-either.”
She almost swore she could feel John’s grip on her hand tighten as a shadow crossed his face. His face was once again cold and unfeeling for the quickest of moments, before returning back to that warm and comforting smile. “You’re seriously going to live your life backing out of every opportunity? The worst that happens is that we get caught and they tell us to beat it.”
“They? You mean the cops? You know people have been arrested here, John. I’m telling you, this isn’t a good idea! The last thing we need before our lives actually begin is a stain on our records.”
Is what she wanted to say.
But the only thing that left her lips was a pitiful “A-Alright.” after an extended moment of silence.
She could feel the anxiety boring holes into her gut as she burned up inside. So desperately did she want to yank that sorrowful agreement right out of the air and tell him no. Put her foot down. But how could she, when her knees were so weak? She felt herself stumble, leaning further into John’s embrace as she went to right herself.
“Woah-” John chuckled, “Careful there.”
She could hardly focus on what he was saying before his hands wrapped around her face and brought her back into clarity. “If you want to change your mind at any time, just let me know, alright? I’ll have Sarah walk you back.”
An escape.
“N-No, I think I’m good… just a bit nervous, y-you know? F-First time breaking the um… law, haha.”
Dammit.
Dammit dammit dammit dammit.
“Oh, look at you, so naughty.” John laughed, ruffling her hair. “Don’t worry. Maybe they’ll let us share a jail cell? Imagine us in cute little matching orange outfits! Just two convicts, partners in crime, imprisoned for the most dastardly offense of all: trespassing.”
Penny forced a laugh out of her tightening throat, sounding more like a deflating balloon than anything.
Good one, John! You always know just what to say! A real knee-slapper, that was!
She felt herself internally groan at how awful that attempt at a laugh was. “H-Hopefully we won’t have t-to be in a cell at all…” she muttered quietly, leaning on his shoulder.
Great, now it looks like I can’t take a joke.
Thankfully, John was not as critical of her as she was of herself. At least, she hoped not. He only pulled her in closer, gently pressing his face into her hair. She heard the distinct but subtle sound of puckered lips as he kissed her head. Her eyes clenched shut as he did so. It was normally a gesture she’d find herself head over heels for, but tonight, his touch felt distant. As the last bit of sunlight began to fade from the sky, she started to pull away.
“John?”, she began, trying to muster up all her courage through her warbling voice, “y-you know, we’ve been at this for m-months now… and… I’m st-starting to think–”
That you aren’t taking this relationship seriously.
“...That…”
You’re only in this because it’s convenient for you.
“...We can make this official?”
John stared at her for a few agonizing moments. If her insides weren’t melted from anxiety then, they certainly were now. No, not just melted– they were burning up. She desperately tried to gauge anything, even the slightest sliver of a hint from his face, but she knew better than to look there for answers at this point.
“...I thought we already were?”
Simultaneous relief and rage flooded her body. Relief that he didn’t think she was a creepy weirdo. Rage, because how could he have the audacity to say that? Five months of emotional backflips without so much as an “I love you”. Maybe it truly was her fault… at any given opportunity, they were wrapped around each other like pretzels. Obviously he loved her, she was just too dumb to realize that they never needed a verbal confession to establish their relationship. She soothed herself with this doubt, assuring that his intentions weren’t wrong… he was just a boy. And boys, oftentimes, were like this. She tried to picture Max doing the same, but drew blanks when she struggled to even imagine him around a girl.
“O-Okay! Good, I just– well it… m-maybe we could establish some more communication g-going forward?”
Before she could reprimand herself for daring to question him, the horrible sound of shearing metal split from the bottom of the hill. Penny’s hands flew to the sides of her head as she cupped her ears, letting out a brief, startled shriek. The metal grinding continued for a few more seconds, before a crackle of electricity followed it, just barely concealing a petrified screech.
After that, a darkness swallowed the world around them. Black touched every surface and consumed it in an instant, her eyes widening as they struggled to adjust to the newfound void. Even the stars seemed more muted than before; the moonlight offered no solace from the all-encompassing darkness either.
Her heart raced in her chest as she found herself nearly sliding down the hill with John. The forest around her seemed to stretch, once innocent trees extending gnarled branches out and whipping her skin. She felt her clothes snag on the branches, but she pressed forward as adrenaline fueled her race to the bottom. Eventually, a particularly ghoulish branch had found just the right place in her hoodie, yanking it straight off of her body and sending the rest of her tumbling down the hill.
Grass did little to cushion her fall as forest underbrush scraped against her skin, leaving it red and irritated. But she didn’t have much time to dwell on the pain as the world spun around her, the dull stars in the night sky being the only discernible thing flickering in and out of her vision.
When she reached the bottom, she collided with something warm. Something twitchy. Something raw. The stench of fried flesh immediately filled her nostrils as she came face to face with the electrified corpse of… she reeled, unable to even tell which of the two she was now on top of. Only a few wispy hairs remained on their head, which was almost entirely red and black. But the worst part was the wheezing. Hot breaths gently enveloped her face as whoever this was tried to plead for her with a voiceless cry.
A horrible scream erupted from her throat before she felt a hand clasp her mouth and yank her off the body. She felt a few flakes of charred skin come up with her and stick to her fingertips like morbid tape. She wanted to cry out again, but the hand tightened around her mouth as a makeshift blockade for sound.
“Be quiet. We can still get out of here before the blackout ends.”