Ramshorn RP: Illusions

However you got here, by bus or car, something compelled you to walk the rest of the way... You parted your transport of choice and made the climb up the hill towards the factory. Its daunting burnt out figure silhouetted by the setting sun. You remember hearing stories about this place, how it was once a munitions factory in the civil war, but closed due to an explosion that killed some workers. Later it was rebuilt and converted into a bottling factory, however this too stopped after a fire destroyed most of the building. Ever since it’s been abandoned, the locals refer to it as the ‘cursed factory’, and the school seniors tell everyone it was built on an ancient bury ground, although you’re pretty sure that’s just a lie. It’s a pretty quiet place regardless and sometimes the other kids hold mini raves out here, although you’ve never personally been.

Maybe this card was a secret invite to one? Maybe that would be okay, although a little bit of you is hoping it’s something a bit more exciting. After all it’s not every day you get cryptic messages; you just hope it isn’t one that will end in your untimely death.

You’ve reached the factory’s warehouse now; a big steel red door that appears to slide open stands in front of you. You can see some other figures approaching, other students from the school you think you can tell, yeah you recognize their face.
What you do now is up to you.

Sophie leant against the door, bringing one of her legs up and placing her foot in parallel to the wall. Her hands remained shoved inside the hoodie she had pulled on before leaving and her hair was already beginning to run wild. She subtly blew a wisp of it out of her face and watched the approaching figures. She knew some of them, though it didn't give her any more insight as to what the whole thing was about. She was certain that they'd find out in time anyway, so there was little need to puzzle over it.

Ingram had arrived a full thirty minutes before the designated meeting time. It wasn't because of him wanting to scope out the place before nine p.m. struck, it was because his roommate had company over. Whenever that happens, he prefers to not be around to deal with that situation. That and usually the house is locked tight. He had found a rock not too far from the entrance and munched on a sandwich to pass the time and to sate his hunger. As the time struck, He watched as a someone walked up to the factory. Soon after that, he could see more of people begin to converge onto the factories entrance. Without much else to do, he leaves the perch on his rock to go and join them. As he approaches, he can make out faces, but can't really put names to them except the one standing in the entrance proper. He accesses the recesses of his mind and pulls the name "Sophie" from the myriad of folders.

"Yo.", Ingram says unenthused. "You here for the party or what?" Saying it to no one in particular.

Vivian leaned on the balls of her feet, nervously biting her nails…. Approaching Sophie and Ingram she realised how much shorter she was than them. Of course she didn't know if they knew her, or even had noticed her before but that didn't matter now.

‘Hey, got letters too huh...?’, she spoke in a rather shaky tone, making sporadic eye contact with the two of them. For some reason she found herself standing just little too close which was surely making them uncomfortable. 'You're Sophie right, and... Ingram... ' It was poised like a question but asked like a statement. Vivian chewed on the names as if she didn't like them, but realizing how rude this must appear she carried on.  

‘Let’s go inside right…’ she says grabbing the handle of the door. She pauses for a moment, almost looking for approval.  
‘You guys first right…?’ She forgot that she had completely failed to introduce herself.

Ingram shifts his gaze to the new voice. A small girl he'd never seen before, or maybe he had but had completely forgotten about. Regardless, he takes a step back at her close proximity. He hears her say his name faintly and feels sort of bad for not knowing her's. He shrugs at her offer and motions with his head, "Ladies first." Ingram says in an almost bored tone. He tries to play off this boredom with a yawn, signifying his tiredness. It's not an outright lie, he had been awake for a while at this point. He had hoped to get some sleep before he came here, but that plan was halted by a locked door.

Sophie stared at the both of them, tutted, made a show of a large sigh that she had been stuck with the pair, stepped off the wall and, grabbing the handle, gave a large heave. She was dimly aware that the other girl still had her hand on the handle also, but it didn't really seem important to Sophie.

Vivian recoiled at Sophie's touch, looking slightly shocked. Her eyes darted down and then back to the doorway. 'The name is Vivian... By the way,' she says meekly, trying not to sound upset.

The heavy metal door was now open a few inches. Just enough for a determined teen to squeeze through.

Vivian takes a glance at the two of them, before proceeding inside and into complete darkness. There's no natural light, or artificial light inside, unlike the outside, warmed by the intermittent glow of bronze streetlights and the comforting buzzing of the powerlines above. This was a place no one was meant to be.

Vivian is out of view now, obviously somewhere in the depths of the factory.

"Yeah. Right. Who cares." Sophie said once the smaller girl disappeared inside the doorway. She glanced at the other person there. The boy. She half recognised him from the group of delinquents she had visited a few times. He'd never merited enough attention for her to learn his name though.
"You going in or what?"

Ingram takes his lighter from his other pocket, flicks it a couple of times until the faint light of fire envelopes his face, and then brings it to the postcard. He probably shouldn't have brought it anyway as it took up a bit of room and was an outright burden to carry. The postcard lights up in a brilliant display of fire after a brief amount of time. He tosses it on the ground and stops it out before a real fire starts. He wouldn't want to be the center of attention for causing this god forsaken place to be burned down a third time. He hears a different voice, one belonging to the other girl, most likely.

"When I'm good and ready." He doesn't say this in a mean tone, despite the words might being come across as such. In a fluid motion, he flicks the cap back onto the lighter and places it back into his pocket. Satisfied with his actions and feeling as though he had done a good job of pounding the fire out, he enters the abandoned factory like so many times he had done before.

Approaching quietly from behind, Kurt struggled to keep himself from laughing at his own brilliant idea.
"BOO!" He shouted, as soon as he was close enough to grab the closest student. He vaugely recognised them, though he never really spoke to any of them.

She watched the boy's odd actions and rolled her eyes as he entered through the doorway. She was just about to bend slightly and enter also when a loud noise erupted behind her. Sophie jumped forwards, away from the sound that had frightened her. Spinning as she landed, she saw the face of one of the other students. "TWAT!" She yelled at him. "Was there a fuckin' need?"

Kurt doubled over laughing at the girl's reaction, his ribs starting to hurt.
"Ahahaha, oh fuck. That was funny," He said, in between his bouts of laughter. Once his fit had subsided, he straightened up, still grinning. "Was it one of you that gave me this?" He asked, holding up the postcard.

Vivian was on the one of the Factory's suspended walkways now. Despite the darkness she knew the factory’s layout well enough by now to navigate it with only a few awkward bumps. Watching the three bicker in the doorway she nervously gripped the railing, chipped painting rubbing against her palm.

From here she could close the door with the control panel then sneak out the back. Despite everything, she wanted to explain it all so bad, but who knows how that would turn out. It was painful last time for her too and after the promises she made. She just didn’t know what to do any more.

He hears some commotion start up behind him nearly as soon as he passes Sophie. He turns to look at the aftermath and is greeted with another boy around his age doubling over in laughter. His ears prick up at the words postcard and curses himself for burning the one he had.

"It's a mystery. Maybe the drug dealers who come here want some new business?" Ingram says half jokingly.

Sophie glared at him, her arms crossed in a huff. "We all got one, and maybe some other people too seeing as how you've only just turned up." She added along with the other boy's reply. "There was a girl here too, but she went in first." Sophie gave the newcomer another glare and bent over, clambering through the gap in the doorway. "Stop staring at my arse." She shouted as she did so.

"Don't stick it in my face then," Kurt answered, waiting for her to pass through the gap. He followed, going feet first like a sensible trespasser, though not before he realised he was still wearing his backpack, his orange skateboard hanging from one of the straps.
"Fuuuck," He said, as the bag got stuck. After he managed to untangle himself, he threw his bag through and followed.

Ingram shrugs and turns around. Leaving the others to their devices. He walks a bit further into the factory and begins looking for the other girl who had gone ahead of them. It's not too dangerous here per say, but there are a few things laying about you might get hurt on. He looks up to see someone walking on the suspended walkways. It looked like, to him, she had a handle on things. So he didn't call out to her. "Maybe the rumor of the masked murderer is true and he's found new victims?" Ingram, once again, putting out another explanation for the sudden invitation.

The door, the only source of light on the entire factory floor began to slide to a close. An automated gear whirring a high pitch rusty screech.

Panicked footsteps on the walkways above were sirened by some flustered apology, 'Sorry it's the only way, I'll let you out in the morning!'.

And with that the light was gone.

Vivian attempted to make her escape but as she did so the walkway beneath her began to slide down, giving way and cutting off her entrance... A huge clunk echoed off the walls as the rusty metal fell about six feet onto the concrete floor beneath. Shit, now she was stuck in here with them, at least the darkness hid her position. Maybe she could wait this out if she was quiet enough.

Ingram hears the whirring and the sound of metal grinding and slamming together. With the end of that, a voice giving some half assed apology, and finally a a large bang as something metal crashes into the concrete floor. In fact, it was near him that this happened. Ingram instinctively crouches down and puts his arms over his head in order to block any falling debris that might follow. This does not come, however. Losing some of his composer, he calls out, "What in the fuck was that! Vivian!? He yells as he slowly stands up while looking around.

Hearing Ingrams call, Vivian felt compelled to reply, though she knew doing so would ruin everything. So instead she crept further back, away from the edge and as out of sight as she could be. She was infuriated with her ineptitude, she couldn't afford these mistakes.

Sophie reached into one of her hoodie pockets and drew out a flashlight. She flicked it on and waved it around them a little. It looked as though one of the walkways had fallen down onto the factory floor. In a quieter voice, she whispered "Hey, dickhead. Shut up."

"So who closed the fucking door?" Kurt said loudly, "If this is meant to be a joke, you're a cunt." He reached into his own pocket, retrieving a packet of cigarettes. He put on in his mouth, and after fishing around for his lighter, threw his arms up. "Anyone have a lighter?"

"Yeah, I'll fuckin shut up when that twerp gets down here." Ingram says, biting back at Sophie. His eyes were almost used to the darkness before the flashlight was turned on. He has to close his eyes once more since the light had managed to get into his eye. "Shit." He curses once more. Once his eyes return to normal he looks up at the catwalk above them. Searching for any sign of the younger girl. He hears Kurt's question and in response, brings his lighter out of his pocket, flicks the top up, and flicks it until the flame emerges. "Over here." He calls out, not wanting to move back to where he was.

Kurt walked towards the flame, putting his back back on his shoulders. He took the lighter, lit his cigarette, and passed it back.
"Thanks," He said, remaining completely calm, "I'm Kurt."

"Ingram." Ingram replies while taking the lighter back. He decides to not extinguish the flame, but to use it as his personal light source. The smell of smoke enters his noes and puts him at ease ever so slightly. In truth, he had been trying to quit his smoking habit, but no doubt he had been more on edge lately because of it. Maybe this near death experience was his boiling point. "I guess you ain't got a clue as to what's goin' on either?" He says, asking Kurt.

Vivian's eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and to her surprise the Kurt, Sophie and Ingram seemed to be relatively calm despite the whole, getting locked in an abandoned, dark, creepy factory thing. She was right to think they'd be fine for the night alone here, locked up. I mean, they are starting lots of fires, there isn't anything that can burn in this place is there...? The question to herself is answered with a few vague memories that they'll probably be fine for now...  

Her plan next was far more pressing, she couldn’t exactly stay in here, but to leave she’d have to go through the main door, or make the seemingly impossible leap across the now missing walkway. Maybe, she could unlock the door with her key when no one is paying attention and sneak out the front.

"I mean, someone closed the door." Kurt said, turning his head to look at the way they'd come in. "Pretty shit joke, to be honest." He took a puff from his cigarette, the cherry lighting up as it burned. "Any idea how to open it again?"

Ingram nods, "Yeah, but it looks like the walkway to the switch was brought down to our level. Whoever built this shit-hole was obviously not too great in building planning." He replies while pointing up to the catwalk above them. "Now, I think I saw the first girl who came in here up there dicking about. She's either long gone, or she got trapped up there." He says, letting his arm flop back down to his side. He motions with his head to the staircase leading up to the walkway. "We can take that to get up there."

Oh.... Vivian thought, 'fuck'. This is not good, she's just pissed off everyone and there's absolutely nothing she can do. She looks around, taking note of the crumpled up trash at her feet and a few loose, stray blank CDs, perhaps she could fashion them into some sort of weapon to deter advances from below...

She picks up the first and decides to fling it in the dark towards the group's direction, hoping that maybe it might just scare them off.

Sophie looks at Ingram with incredulity. "A chunk of that walkway has just collapsed. You can go fuck around up there if you want, but I'm not risking breaking my legs for her. If she was up there, she'd have responded to your shout earlier." She gave a look towards Kurt, her flashlight following her eyesight. "Do you have to smoke in here? It's trashy enough."

"Nobody asked ya to go up there. Hell you can stay down here if ya want. If my mates come around knockin on that door and it doesn't open they'll probably try to break in through one of the emergency exits." Ingram says, biting back once more. He actually had no idea if Yuri, Klaus, or Jack would come out tonight. They hadn't been for a couple days now, saying things like they had a bad feeling of this place of late. pussies he thinks to himself. It's more or less just a threat to try to see if Vivian was still around.

His question was somewhat answered as he hears the clatter of something hitting the floor. He swerves to where he thinks the clatter happened and walks towards it.

Sophie turned her flashlight towards the clatter. A CD lay on the floor which Sophie was sure wasn't there earlier. She aimed her flashlight upwards, but the beam was lost in the high ceiling. "Look. There's got to be a backdoor to this place. No factory just has a single entrance. You've got to have fire escapes and shit. Lets just find a way out and then you can come back for her."

"I'll be gettin' my answers from her." Ingram says stubbornly as he crouches down to pick up the CD that had been illuminated thanks to Sophie's light. "I had meant to come pick these back up. Fuckin' cops came around and ruined our fun so I had to leave 'em" He says, turning it with his hand. Using his lighter's flame, he can see chips and scratches in the disc. He heaves a sigh and throws it at a nearby wall, shattering it completely. "The place does have a backdoor, but there's places in here I wouldn't tread. Rumors of druggies gone mad and the like." He walks east until he hits a set of large double doors, his lighter's flame bobbing up and down as he moves. His hand touches one of the doors and it gives way with a loud creak. "Let's go."

Kurt took another long puff of his cigarette, tilting his head back and blowing the smoke upwards.
"What about the meth heads?" He asked, much more loudly than he needed to, "If they've had a smoke, we've got no chance."

Vivian cursed under her breath for throwing the CD, all that did was draw more attention to herself. She knew now she had two options throw more stuff or make herself small enough so that she wouldn't be seen.

Maybe this is a little absurd... Maybe she could explain? Maybe just a half truth? That might work right? A little lie? No that was dumb and hopeful, but maybe she could sustain a standoff till the danger passed.

Listening more intensely she heard Sophie's concerns about the walkway, maybe she could use this to her advantage.

'uhh...' her voice sounded strange with an echoing lilt, as soon as she mutter her face dropped. This was so dumb they would never fall for it.

'don't come up, it's dangerous'.

She waited, no response did they hear her? Was she convincing sounding
'I hurt my arm, do don't come up'.

She repeated herself, teeth gritted this time like a child does when they show a parent a bruise. Yeah maybe she was pretty awesome at this lying thing after all.

"Find somethin to protect yourself with, then." Ingram says as he passes through the doors into the small hallway connecting to the rest of the factory. It would be a lie to say he wasn't afraid. His heart rate spiked and he began to feel a bit anxious. So much so he thought he heard a voice. A very quiet voice. He dismisses it and continues in using his lighter as a guide. It provides some decent lighting, but Sophie's flashlight would probably do the better job. He waves it around trying to look for something, anything to defend himself with in the case of a freshly toked degenerate comes flying at him. The light briefly touches a metal pipe, and he goes to pick it up.

Obviously no one heard your meek pathetic voice, which you can't tell is good luck or not.
Vivian, Vivian Vivian... , she continues to mutter. This is freaking typical you're terrible at this. Terrible at everything. Why can't you just be brave and jump down there, and explain it rationally. Well there's not much rationality to it is there. At least you could...

What's that? She can hear one of them approach, it looks like Ingram exploring below. He's walking with pipe of all things. Goddammit, she knew this would happen, all her predictions. They'd turned against her and kill her... Even if she could convince some, the others would reject it. I mean, She could maybe kill them first? But that wouldn't send the right message... So much for being brave.

The CD felt like a good idea, she could try that again, although to what ends, Vivian is unsure. leaning over the banister with another blank CD she prepares her aim, perhaps it will deter him, or at least make him look a bit stupid flailing at the air. With one silent swing the CD is launched, invisibly spinning with only the slight reflection of it's plastic skin betraying it's stealthy glide as it collides with Ingrams bare face.

He had walked only a few steps into the exposed hallway when suddenly something came crashing down onto his face. A sharp pain exploded and he threw a few curse words out as he clutched his face, the pipe he had just picked up bangs on the ground below following two separate sounds of objects clattering. He noticed something was off about his face, something was missing. It was his glasses. They had fallen off when whatever had collided with his head came crashing down. Now, more blind than ever, he staggers a bit while looking at his hand, checking if what was thrown at him caused him to bleed any. In the light of the flame, he can barely make out a small red stain laying on his hand.

"You're fucking insane, you hear me!" He calls out in anger as he begins searching for his glasses and his weapon.

Welp...
Maybe throwing things from the darkness isn't the most, sensible solution. It sure felt good though and it looks like you really cut his face... These blank CDs aren't as useless as they first appeared. Maybe you could snap one and fashion it into a spear for later use.

But, if he's bleeding, that's kind of defeating the point of what you're supposed to do. Maybe you could play naive, and... call out, say you were trying to get their attention. Yeah that's like what people do.

'Hey... You...'

It really shows you don't have a plan doesn't it...

'Sorry...'

Sophie looked at Kurt after hearing Ingram yell. "Well, I hope he's learnt his lesson. Do you want to go find that backdoor?"

"You told me not to look at your arse," Kurt replied, "But you're the only one with a light, and I'd rather not be stuck in here all night."

She gave him a sarcastic half smile. "You're not funny." Sophie said as she began to move off across the factory floor, stepping around the fallen walkway.

Zeke, having mixed thoughts about actually going to the factory, he felt something in his gut telling him he should go but ended up being about twenty minutes late to get there. Once at the entrance Zeke was a bit puzzled to see there was no one there. Even though the letter was pretty vague he atleast thought someone would be here. Maybe I was too late and they already left? What if it was a girl and I just blew it like a tard.

Zeke walked up to the front door and tried to tug on it but it wouldn't budge. "Shit." He exclaimed before lighting a dart and started to walk around the side of the factory.

"So, do you come here often?" Kurt asked the girl, absent-mindedly looking around as he followed her, putting his cigarette out on the wall.

"Yes. It's a real holiday haunt of mine." Sophie responded. She brushed her free hand through the huge clump of her hair that had been falling in front of her face and kept the flashlight angled around them. "Do you?"

Half a cigarette later Zeke had made it to the back of the old bottling plant. He approached the white door on the building's wall and attempted to push it open but it seemed to be stuck, though it did shift slightly.  The hell are you doing, Zeke.  There's no one here, now go home and pack. "Ah fuck it." Zeke bit down on his cig and slammed into the door.  After feeling an accomplished feeling of getting the door to open, his heart quickly sank as he began to fall into a black void.

"Shiiiiit!" Hitting the ground with a heavy thud, his entire body was in pain.  Laying on his back he was seeing stars on the ceiling.  His cigarette's ash being the only other light he saw at the time.

"No, I follow the rules," Kurt replied, "I'm a good Christian boy." He covered his mouth as he yawned loudly, "Are you gonna tell me your name? Or are we getting out of this life and death situation without- What the fuck was that?" He said, hearing a loud crash from the darkness.

Vivian turned to her left, the light of outside pouring in from the now open door... Her escape route but... She looked down spotting a raggedy figure in the darkness, their dirty faced illuminated by puff of cigarette ash.  
Shit... It’s him she thought... Had she just killed him? I mean he killed himself technically... but... fuck..
‘Hey’, she whispered, ‘you okay?’ Her face peering over the edge of the walkway.

"Yeah! You're gonna be sorry." Ingram cuts himself off as soon as he hears a loud crash coming from the rear of the factory. He quickly finds his glasses, puts them on and then takes his pipe in his free hand as soon as he manages to retrieve it. He doesn't call out again, fearing he might have woken up one of the junkies taking refuge in here with them. A nervous flood of saliva rushes down his throat. Truth be told, he only came into this hallway to prove to himself he could. Anything beyond that would be dangerous, but without much more foresight than that, he takes steps further into his hallway up to the next set of double doors which had been stripped from their sides. Most likely to be used as some sort of terrible mattress.

Zeke was still winded when he heard someone from a distance say something he couldn't make out then another voice he could hear a little more clearly to which he responded in a still disoriented state.  "Letter... locker... Ow."  Once his breath was slowly coming back to him he tried getting up by putting his hand on the ground to push himself up but he touched the hot ashes of the cigarette and cursed while still laying down. "Ow!"