Chapter 22: Movie Night
Just like Rowan ordered multiple times—Gray truly had to hang out at his home.
This time however, he was looking forward to it.
To be sure, he kept his phone inside his right pocket just incase his sister needed anything, and inside his left pocket, he hid Casanova's communication device for the same purpose.
He slightly feared what would happen if Casanova needed him to go to the warehouse.
One thing he was sure about though, was that Rowan wouldn't like it.
He always pestered Gray on such things, after all.
He also remembered to do his reality-checks multiple times per day, wanting to become lucid as fast as possible.
"So…how much is this going to take?" Gray asked.
In front of him, Rowan was doing in his best to connect his computer to the massive television attached to the walls of his messy room.
He kept on handling his computer in a way that Gray couldn't help but find inadequate, seeing of how he occasionally struck the monitor, muttering curses under his breath.
'Poor machine…'
For every hit, he couldn't help but shudder, thinking of how the computer was probably more expensive than his sister's monthly paycheck.
Gray then thought that, if he ever got a computer he could call as his own, he would treat it with the utmost care.
"Yeah, wait. The tv is brand new, so I have to set it up," Rowan clicked his tongue in annoyance. "To think that something as pricy as this would have these kinds of issues."
"Come on, don't flex on me now," Gray lamented.
"Yeah, sure." Rowan replied.
"This is taking too much time, go get whatever you want from the fridge. My home is empty, anyways."
"Alright," Gray nodded, starting to make his way towards the kitchen.
The once domineering pressure that the massive, yet almost empty house once exuded was now almost gone.
He was used to this sight, after all,
This place, even though he wasn't too adamant on admitting it, was Gray's second home. It was truly a place of solace where he could hide incase things got tough.
In the worst times of his childhood, Gray preferred staying at home, deciding to immerse in his the books of his mother's library—holders of infinite worlds.
But after meeting Rowan and having him and his parents discover this fact, they felt pity towards Gray and decided to let the him stay in their house whenever he wanted, just in case he felt a little too lonely.
For this, he truly felt that Rowan's parents were good people.
To help someone with almost no relation to them was commendable.
Gray opened the fridge, and after seeing it full of snacks, ingredients, and ready food to eat, couldn't help but compare it to the fridge he and Kathy had when they were little.
The images of an almost empty fridge filled only with one or two vegetables—the cheaper ones—overlapped with the one filled with any kinds of foods.
Unwillingly, he remembered even before his mother's passing, when his fridge was filled with empty cans of beer, wine bottles missing their corks and unspecified bottles with unknown contents inside them.
He looked at the fridge for some moments in silence, and after taking a bar of chocolate, he quietly mumbled an indecipherable word under his breath.
He then started to walk towards Rowan's room, hoping that the movie would turn his attention to it, instead of some of his more unpleasant memories.
Deep down, he wished they would've gotten erased like the rest, but unfortunately, it wasn't possible, for they marked him deeply, carving scars and wounds into his soul.
The only things he could see was some flashes and some unmoving frames, but it still evoked pain, anger, and a deep sense of disgust.
Just as he was about to open the door of Rowan's room, Gray heard his friend yell with satisfaction,
"Finally!"
Immediately, he excitedly opened the door and asked, "Were you able to connect it to the tv?
Rowan laughed and exclaimed, "You bet I did! It took me a long time, but in the end, I was finally able to. Now, we can finally watch this damned movie."
"It better be worth it though! But by seeing just how many times you kept talking about it, it definitely has to be!" Gray stated, a grin etched on his face.
"Now you'll see…" Rowan replied, acting all serious. "Just don't shit yourself by the terror!"
Gray snickered as he unwrapped the bar of chocolate he had gotten earlier. "See, now you are just messing with me. Come on, it can't be that bad."
"Trust me," his friend said once more.
Gray sighed. "This is like the fifth time you say it for a movie…The other ones were also pretty bad," he bit into the chocolate bar, savoring the pleasant taste
"I'm serious this time!" Rowan shouted.
"Alright, alright. Just start the movie, will you?" he replied, his mouth still full of food.
Rowan then pressed his mouse, and after a few seconds, the television finally lit up.
With it, the two of them could hear a male voice say,
"Is it on?"
Then, a female voice replied, "Yeah wait, it's an old camera. It should work in…three, two, one!"
Just as the girl's voice said, a boy's face appeared on the screen.
He was extremely close to the camera, to the point where Rowan and Gray were able to count all the hairs on his nose.
"Get away, you nasty!" the girl behind the camera chuckled.
"Now you call me nasty? What happened to the sweet girl I used to know? Did you forget all the times you jumped in my arms when you were afraid of something?" the boy lamented in an exaggerated voice, stepping back from the camera.
Gray and Rowan were now finally able to see him and the background more clearly.
The young man had shoulder-length, blonde hair, which appeared to be dyed due to the darker color of the roots of his scalp.
While his features weren't striking in any way, they complimented each-other well, making his face appear rather attractive.
He wore a plain green sweater paired with a normal pair of jeans. He also had a cross shaped necklace on his neck, and a bunch of rings on his fingers.
The background behind him was filled with trees.
From what Gray had picked up on, they were at the edge of a forest.
"St-Steph! Don't say these things out loud!" she complained.
Although Gray and Rowan weren't able to make out the details of her expression since she was behind the camera, they could figure that her face was beet red.
"She sounds pretty," Rowan mused, scratching his yellow, buzzed hair.
"You think so? If we are lucky we might see how she looks like," Gray himself was interested in the mysterious girl's appearance.
"Wait," he added. "Weren't you infatuated with Veronica?"
"Doesn't mean I cannot indulge in looking at pretty women, though," Rowan said, shooting a snide grin to his friend.
'Makes sense.'
A tall man then appeared on the television.
If the previous boy, Steph, was the perfect example of pure, youthful attractiveness, the other man was the complete opposite from him.
He lacked hair, but had a jawline that seemed sculpted by the best sculptor in the ancient times.
However, his face was almost deformed, with every feature of it being uneven in some way.
It seemed as if that talented sculptor had left his work to one of his worst peers, with them failing to compare to him.
Since the man's face was almost ogre like, he had put all of his focus in working his body. And even though he was wearing a dark hoodie, everyone was able to see the sheer size of his muscles from the print they left on the fabric.
"Ahhh, will both of you calm down?" the mysterious man chuckled.
"Yeah, you guys really should do that," an another girl added.
The two however, weren't able to see her.
"What?!" Rowan and Gray echoed.
If the other girl's voice sounded pretty, this one was ten-times better, sounding more like a fairy than a human!
"Are you thinking the same as me?" Rowan turned around, a bead of sweat sliding slowly on his face.
"Y-Yeah…"
"She's extremely hot!" Rowan cried out.
"She's extremely hot," Gray echoed.
"Marina! Arnold!" the girl behind the camera said with surprise as she moved the camera towards the two of them.
"Woah…" Gray and Rowan muttered under their breath.
The girl named Marina looked as if she was the epitome of beauty itself. Her most attractive feature was definitely her long, blonde—almost white, eyelashes that fluttered beautifully with every time she blinked.
"Surprised? After hearing the legend of the forest you've told Steph, we had to come," Marina smiled.
'Legend of the forest?' Gray was curious.
"I told you not to tell anyone!" the girl behind the camera yelled, pointing her finger at Steph.
"S-Sorry, Mia. You know that I cannot keep any secret to my bro…"
"Yep," Arnold, the tall and extremely jacked nodded earnestly.
"Steph and Arnold are brothers?! Did Steph steal every good gene from him?" Rowan mocked.
Gray shrugged. "God has favorites, I guess."
"Whatever, let's just go ahead with it. I don't want to stay here until the sun sets," the camera girl named Mia said.
It was clear—she was annoyed by the two's presence.
The group of people then started walking. Marina, Steph and Arnold stayed in front of Mia, so she could record them without any issues.
During the passage, they didn't talk too much, they only only complained occasionally about the sheer amount of branches and roots filling the forest's soil.
One time, the burly Arnold fell face first into the muddy ground, evoking the laughter of Steph, who then ended up falling himself.
After seeing the work of karma, Mia started laughing at Steph, mocking him for his lack of attention.
While the young girl laughed at the poor boy, Marina helped Arnold to stand up, cleaning his muddy face with the sleeve of her pink sweater.
"My dear, is everything alright?"
Rowan's eyes widened, almost turning bloodshot. "N-No way…Could this be?"
As if on cue with Rowan's suspicions, Marina leaned forward to kiss the burly Arnold, who did the same as her, reciprocating her gesture of affection.
"There's no way!" Gray's friend yelled as he pointed his finger to the screen.
"There's no way that someone like him could be with someone like HER—look at him!"
"Love might be blind, after all," Gray noted.
"She should be with me, instead," Rowan mumbled, glaring at Arnold with a tastable killing intent.
'Yeah, sure.'
Once Steph stood up and cleaned his muddy face by himself, with the constant sneering of Mia in the background, the group of friends kept on walking.
The strange thing was that, the farthest they went, the soil seemed to be filled with more and more roots.
Which was strange, since some areas of the forest were completely bare, lacking any trees.
The group didn't seem to find this suspicious, preferring instead to talk with each other to pass the time.
'Common thing for an horror movie, I guess.'
Gray and Rowan were just starting to get bored of hearing their conversations about measly matters when then, they started seeing signs of something unnatural, slightly unnerving.
The same roots that covered the forest's soil, now seemed to intertwine themselves to contain small animals, acting as some kind of macabre, carnivorous plant.
Some contained squirrels, some contained small birds, while some other contained bats.
"What the…?" Steph bent down to inspect the strange roots. "Mia, come here. You should record this."
The girl listened to his instructions, bringing the camera in front of the root that Steph was staring at.
At the same time, Arnold and Marina both distanced themselves from the group, deciding to inspect the other roots.
"W-What? This is not what the legend was talking about…" Mia stammered, "I came here expecting to encounter a werewolf—and even then—I was aware it was bogus…"
"Shhh!" Steph gestured with his fingers, "Look!"
The strange amalgamation of roots that contained a squirrel was now pulsing in a rhythmical pattern, with a strange neon-green fluid cycling through the roots.
The squirrel inside seemed to melt slowly, his flesh decaying and emitting a foul, almost visible wind of air.
Mia winced at the sight of it, but whether it was from the smell or from the view, was unknown to both of them.
"S-Should we go home?" Mia nervously said. "I know I'm the one who wanted to go here first, but this seems too strange," she stammered,
"I-I have a feeling that we aren't meant to be here…"
"Come on, Mia," Steph placed his hands on her shoulders.
"This is what you tried to search this whole time! I saw how bored you were with every time you had to edit the videos in your blog to make them terrifying—we may not be meant to be here, but you definitely are!"
The girl with the camera was about to respond when suddenly, the two of them heard an high-pitched, pained screech.
"Steph, Mia! Come here!" Arnold barked.
The two teenagers started running towards the sound of Arnold's voice, the camera moving in an erratical, almost nauseating manner.
When they reached Arnold, they could see what had produced the sound.
It was emitted by a fox cub stuck inside the intertwined roots.
Since they weren't pulsating yet, Gray thought that the neon-green liquid they had seen was the plant's digestive enzymes.
"Poor creature," Marina bent down.
"S-Should we try to free it?" Steph asked.
"If I'm right, the neon-green goo should be the roots' way of feeding…It should be safe as long as it doesn't decide to start expelling it," Mia explained.
'Just as I thought…' Gray nodded his head in approval.
"Arnold, do you want to do the honors?" she pointed at his brother. "Steph's too weak to do it."
Arnold smiled, nodding his head fervently.
"I didn't train this whole time to stay out of situations like this!"
The ogre-like figure bent down, grabbing the intertwined roots that resembled a giant, bare flower.
With great focus, he tried his best to pry them open, his muscles bulging with effort.
Scared from the bizarre, enormous figure in front of it, the small fox yelped with fear, probably thinking that Arnold would eat it.
"C-Calm down, little friend. I only want to help you," he said, his voice strained from the great exertion.
As if on cue, the small fox stopped crying out and stared at the man with its glossy black eyes.
It was still trembling slightly, but it was definitely better than before.
Arnold was then finally able to pry the roots open.
The fox immediately left its prison and stared at Arnold for some moments—as if thanking him—before running out in the distance.
"Good job, my dear," Marina caressed his arms.
Gray could swear of having seen hearts forming in her eyes, as if the girl had fallen in love with Arnold again.
The man then posed like a superhero, trying to act cool and nonchalant, but couldn't hide his blushing face.
Steph and Mia sighed in relief, happy to see the fox being finally free.
Just as they were about to keep moving towards the centre of the forest, Steph suddenly cursed loudly.
"What the fuck?!" he yelled, pointing at the broken roots Arnold had just opened.
More roots started sprouting from the soil, moving in an eerie, almost 'intelligent' kind of way.
The roots kept intertwining with each-other, until an intricate, small pillar began to emerge.
It was about fifty centimeters tall when a lone root sprouted from the top of it.
Seemingly possessing a conscience, the lone root moved left and right, like it was scanning the place.
As it 'saw' the group, it turned dead-still.
Mia stepped back in fear; Steph was dumbfounded; Arnold was worried, and Marina still looked at her loved one with heart in her eyes.
It started swaying in a hypnotic manner, resembling the snakes controlled by a snake charmers.
"Get behind me," Arnold mumbled, "And start backing down, slowly."
When the group went behind him, Arnold took a fighting stance, protecting his vital organs subconsciously.
Suddenly, the lone root, the sentry of the pillar, shot incredibly fast, too fast for the camera to pick up.
Immediately, it pierced Arnold's body!