Chapter Text
The next day came as slow as a sloth. I was so excited I couldn’t even sleep during the night. I stayed up watching each minute tick by slowly, my anticipation steadily growing. With nothing to do, I tossed and turned in bed for what felt like forever, my thoughts straying.
‘I wonder why they call it Abyss Hill station?’ I mumbled to myself.
Shockingly, that seemed like a sensible question considering I was sleep deprived and it was 2 am. It was a pretty odd name for a hill station. You’d expect it to be named after some random dude or something.
‘Oh well, I’ll just ask the others about it in the morning.’ I thought, pulling the covers up to my chin, trying my best to get some sleep and ignore the other’s snoring.
After an eternity, morning finally arrived. I had probably gotten 3 hours of sleep and felt pretty tired but the bustle of morning routine woke me up. After wrestling for my turn in the washroom and finally getting ready along with my friends, we grabbed our things and filed out with the other students to the assembly area where the attendance would be taken.
We stumbled into our groups line. The principal was giving some last-minute speech about discipline and behaviour blablah. I was having a hard time staying awake and the boring drone of the speech wasn’t helping.
“Heyyyy, what’s wrong with you??” Nikolai said, poking my shoulder.
“Cut it outtt, I just didn’t get enough sleep yesterday okay?” I lazily drawled out. “I’ll just sleep in the bus.”
Nikolai looked concerned. “Okay.. well, you better be up and ready for when we reach the hotel. I checked it out on Vincent’s computer last night and it had a lot of activities to do. Just know that I won’t let you rest there.” She said.
“Yeah-yeah, I got it” I couldn’t wait to get on the bus and snooze as long as I could. There was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind, like I’d forgotten something. But, I was pretty sure I’d taken everything and I really was just too lazy to check.
After the speech ended, we finally clambered onto the bus and managed to snag the last seats. I took the window seat. Nikolai, Vincent and two of our other friends, Ashton and Robin sat next to me. It took a while but finally the bus started to move. It rumbled onto the street and we were off.
We would be on the road only for like 3 hours (according to what I overheard from Vincent) so I intended to make the most of it. I immediately mumbled “G’night” and slumped in my seat.
“What’s up with her? Is she okay?” I heard Ashton ask.
Nikolai reassured him. “Yeah, don’t worry. Apparently she didn’t sleep well last night so she wanted to sleep on the bus. Buuutt I warned her to be awake when we reach the hotel so we can play games!!”
“O-kay, well as long as she’s not sick, that would be a mood killer.” Robin said.
“If she were sick we would have been able to tell.” Vincent chuckled. “She gets all grumpy and refuses to be moved around. She was in a pretty good mood this morning so, I think it’s safe to say that she isn’t sick.”
The 4 of them soon fall into casual conversation, the calming murmur of their talking lulling me to sleep (though it was interrupted once in a while by some sort of loud noise, mostly made by Nikolai).
Suddenly, I felt myself being shook awake.
“Huh what? What’s going on?” I mumbled. I awoke slowly and realized that the bus had stopped moving.
“Wakey-wakey sleeping beauty. Get up quick so that we can get to the restaurant. I’m literally starvinggg.” Someone said. I opened my eyes and saw Ashton looming above me.
Huh, where are the others? I wondered. Looking around me, I saw that bus was completely empty (except for me and Ashton of course.)
“Hey, did you hear me or are you still asleep? I would’ve let you sleep through lunch but then you’d complain that you were hungry when we reached the hotel so…” Ashton nodded in the direction of the restaurant. “You better get up.”
“Right-right, sorry about that. I hadn’t woken up properly.”
“No problem, though I am concerned. You slept through the entire excitement of the trip. All the students were screaming yet you barely woke. Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked, searching my face for signs of distress.
“Heh, you worry too much. I’m fine… just more tired than expected, I guess. I’m fine now though.” I said while rubbing my eyes.
We got off the bus and headed towards the resturaunt.
I suddenly perked up. “Heyyy, you called me ‘sleeping beauty’ back there didn’t ya? I don’t think Robin would be very appreciative of that.” I teased.
I saw the exact moment it registered: his eyes widened, then the blush spread like wildfire.
“W-Well he looks much better than you anyway! It probably just slipped out because I’m used to calling him tha- don’t look at me like that!!” He stammered out before rushing ahead of me.
I grinned. Teasing Ashton with his boyfriend never got old. They were a new couple but God- Ash had crushed on him for years before they got together. Plus, his reaction never disappointed.
I pushed open the doors to the restaurant and was the met with the chill of air conditioning. I spotted my friends sitting just under the AC. Ashton was sitting next to Robin, his ears still red and Robin giggling at him, his cheeks slightly dusted pink.
No doubt he had told Robin about what I said. I chuckled fondly and sat next to Ashlyn, an old friend.
“Ivy? How are you?” She smiled at me. “We haven’t talked in forever! I didn’t see you in the bus so I just assumed you didn’t come.”
“Ha... yeah, I was so sleepy I didn’t even say anything or else I probably would’ve annoyed the hell out of you for not noticing me.” I said while scanning the menu.
“You should probably get the mushroom Ricotta-style pasta. I remember the waiter recommended it.” She suggested before leaning toward me and whispering. “Also, Nikolai’s glaring at you. Any idea as to why?”
I glanced up and noticed that she was in fact glaring at me. I was puzzled for a second... before I noticed that she was sandwiched between Jack and Rose who seemed to be making… romantic conversation. Vincent was also looking pitifully at her from across the table.
“PFtt..” I quickly ducked my head down and stared at the menu. I could feel Nikolai’s gaze drilling holes into my head.
“I think I have a pretty good idea as to why.” I told Ashlyn.
“I’ll make it up to her later” I added before placing my order.
The rest of lunch was uneventful. We made simple conversation, ate our food, and were heading back to the bus in no time.
We had just gotten seated (Nikolai bopped me on the head multiple times “Why did I have to get stuck with those two?!”) when I noticed the bus driver jogging towards us.
“Where were you? The other buses have already left; we should get going now.” Liam, our PE teacher questioned.
“Sorry-sorry, I was in the washroom. I wasn’t feeling too well so I took a while.” The bus driver still sweating, replied. “Maybe the food didn’t agree with my stomach.”
Liam sighed. “It’s fine Noah. It hasn’t been that long anyway. Let’s get going now.”
Soon enough, we were back on the road when suddenly I remembered, “Hey, uh- The hill station’s name was Abyss, right? Do you guys know why?” I turned and asked my friends.
“Hmm? Nah, I didn’t even really think about it to be honest.” Ashton shrugged. “But it’s a pretty cool name if you think about it.”
Nikolai stuck her tongue out. “Pfttt noooo, it sounds kinda emo to me.”
“No but what if… It had like a scary backstory behind it.” Robin suggested, wiggling his fingers and making a stupid face.
We all turned to him simultaneously. “You may have a point.” I said, seriously.
“Why not just search it up online or something?” Vincent, ever the voice of reason, suggested.
“God… you really know how to make me feel dumb don’t you?” I mumbled in a deadpan voice.
“I got it! I’ll do it!” Nikolai exclaimed, snatching Vincent’s phone from his bag. “Why- You know what… I don’t care.” Vincent sighed, done with Nikolai’s antics.
“Hmmm…. Abbys Hill Station name… origin!” Nikolai typed hastily. I peered over her shoulder to get a look at the results, only to see the loading spinny circle thing instead.
“…Heh?” “Is there no network?” Nikolai and I said at the same time.
“Why is it not loading?” I took the phone from Nikolai’s hands and tried to move it around a bit.
“But there are towers-" “Oh my god, what is that?” Nikolai was cut off by Ashton who was pointing out the window to… a red sky?
“Is it already getting that late?” Robin asked
“No, its probably just a light show or… something.” Vincent answered, squinting his eyes in the direction of the colour.
I could hear the other students murmuring loudly as well. They must have noticed the red sky as well. Even our PE teacher was staring at the colour in confusion.
“Well, this may just end up being the beginning of a horror story.” Robin said, his eyes glinting with mischief.
“Oh, shut up.” Vincent said, swatting at his arm.
“Well, he may just be right.” Ashton spoke up “…Its above us now.”
Gasps could be heard all throughout the bus when I looked up through the window and saw that the red had indeed spread above us. It seemed to move above us with the ease of something that didn't belong to our world at all, gliding steadily, consuming the clouds above.
“Holy shit.”