*rattle dazzle*
Jazzy ran into the parking lot, laughing like a maniac. “I beat y’all suckers!”
“It’s too early in the morning to be running,” Sparrow complained.
“You only won because I ran into a tree!” Sherlock argued with disappointment clear on her face.
“Let's get back to the others. They should be at the front desk still.” Pluto said.
“You sure?” Sherlock asked. “We were gone for quite a while.”
“Nah! Nonsense!” Jazzy said. “Oooo! Maybe they found Coach and some snacks!”
“Snacks?” Pluto asked not remembering Coach bringing any food for them when they had left the meet.
Jazzy snapped his fingers into finger guns at her, “Yes.”
“Isn’t it a bit early for food?” Sparrow asked.
“Nah,” Jazzy said.
“I don’t know about you all but I could really go for some coffee,” Sherlock said with a snap of her fingers.
“Last time you had caffeine you literally were bouncing off the walls.” Pluto pointed out.
“I was not!” Sherlock rebutted but then realized Pluto was right, “Maybe a little.”
Sparrow shook her head, “We’ll discuss this later right now we should try and find everyone else.”
“Truth be that little bro,” Jazzy said with a little pep in his step. Then just like that McLovin screeched as he ran out of the lobby. Turtles wasn’t much farther behind him with Pops running with Noodles over his shoulder in a limp state; a noodle state.
“Goddamit,” Pluto muttered, wondering what in the world they had seen.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO NOODLES!” Sparrow shouted in a protective manner.
“Hey, Hey! Wait!” a skeleton ran out of the door behind them. “Damn, I don’t remember travelers being this fast!” The doors slowly closed, catching the skeleton’s collarbone. Like Jenga, the skeleton’s bones tumbled to the ground in a pile. “Every time.”
The group screamed in horror and ran around in circles until they redirected themselves towards the road. Following Pops, Turtle, and McLovin’. They sprinted down the street as fast as they could quickly catching up to the others.
“WHAT IN TARNATION WAS THAT!?” Jazzy screeched.
“I don’t know, but it was cool!” Sherlock replied.
“No one asked you, Sherlock!” Pluto shouted.
“Why is my life not romantic?” McLovin shouted.
“McLovin’ I will feed you to the skeleton, you cold bowl of soup!” Sparrow threatened as she ran fast towards him.
“DON'T YOU DARE!” McLovin shouted as he continued running.
“YOUR THE ONE WHO KILLED MY BOYFRIEND YOU SAPPY XYLOPHONE!” Sparrow shouted.
“He’s not dead. Just temporarily unavailable,” Turtle said through his gasps for breath.
“Why are we running away from the Motel? Isn’t Coach there?” Jazzy asked.
“Coach can fend for himself!” Pop shouted behind him. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m not letting a skeleton steal my bones for their throne!”
Sherlock thought for a moment, “That would be pretty epic though.”
“Sherlock you don’t get to talk, you were playing with a dead fish.” Sparrow pointed out.
“Leave finny out of this!” Sherlock aggressively retorted defending her dead fish.
“You named it!?” Jazzy asked disturbed.
“What did you expect!” Sherlock replied confused. “It was a relationship to die for.”
“It was already DEAD!” Jazzy shouted.
Noodles started to groan at the noise of their fighting over dead fish.
“It moved though!” Sherlock argued.
“The skeleton also moved and yet skeletons aren’t living things!” Pops shouted.
Pluto smiled, “Fun fact, did you know that viruses aren’t living things yet they move a lot and mutate and stuff?”
“This is not the time for useless facts Pluto!” Turtle shouted.
“It's always the time for useless facts.” Pluto said with an icy glare on her face.
Everyone went silent for a moment as they continued to run, but a more set pace. They passed home with boarded up windows and peeling paint. The lawn only had a couple withered flowers on them. The tree that they passed seemed to give off an ominous vibe as they loomed overhead, limbs seeming a bit too sharp for a normal tree. The roots that come out of the ground looked like a major tripping hazard. The potholes that seemed to be a bit deeper then they should have been were every other foot. Overall it seemed a lot more demonic than it had when they first arrived.
“Should we stop here?” McLovin asked.
“Are you crazy, you unnecessary movie sequel? This place looks like a serial killer hotspot!” Sparrow shouted. “The motel looked less suspicious than this.”
“Let’s rest up here for a second,” Turtle told them. “Plus… we need to make sure Noodles isn’t actually dead.”
“He doesn’t smell like it,” Pops said. “That Skeleton really did though.”
“So did Finny!” Sherlock committed with a grin.
“I still can't believe you got that close to it.” Sparrow hissed out diquested.
“You fell into that creek too.” Pluto pointed out.
“Children get in the house,” Turtle said to them, waving them over to the boarded house. He led the group around the house where they found a broken window they could slip through. “Would any of you like to go first?” Turtle asked.
“Yeah!” Sherlock shouted before diving into the broken window with shards that could have stabbed her. She stumbled inside and smiled, “Wow… cool.”
Inside was Sherlock’s and Pluto’s playground. There was a table with marker smudges across it’s broken glass surface. There was a vintage globe and glass geraniums of mold and fungus. It smelt horrible in there, but it was all fine for Sherlock, who wasn’t even fazed by a moving dead fish. It didn’t take long for Sherlock to find a ripped map on the wall with blood spread on the wall behind it. ‘Run’ was spelt in the blood in which Sherlock smiled, “Ah yes, murder.”
That’s when the rest of the group crawled into the house to see it all. Turtle most certainly regretted his decision when he smelt the inside and could see bones deteriorating inside out.
Pops knocked out the rest of the shards with a broken board before slipping Noodles into the house. Jazzy held onto him with Turtles until Pops got in to cradle him. “Whew,” Pops said with a scrunched up nose. It was almost a violent smile that violated the back of their throats. If sandpaper were to grind together, that’s what it felt like with their stomachs about to explode like a volcano.
“I feel sick,” Jazzy said, holding his stomach with a dazy look.
“I wonder if they have any coffee.” Sherlock commented then thought for a moment, “Probably not.”
“Yeah,” Pops said with a pause, “Let’s wake him up and go.” Pops walked into the room next to the study room they had walked into. There was where a bay window looked over the dead garden with a victorian rug under a chestnut coffee table that was falling apart and a green couch with stuffing coming out of it. The boards creaked under her feet as she continued to walk.
Pops gingerly made her way over to the couch where she set Noodles down. She shook his shoulder, “Noodles. Wake up.”
Noodle’s pail face swayed, his eyes tiredly looking up at Pops. His eyes got suddenly wide. “AHHHHH!”
