Archive of Our Own

"Is the camera rolling?"

"For the millionth time Adora, yes." Catra held up the handheld recorder, giving it a little shake. "Entrapta would strangle me if we came back without any footage."

"Well last time-"

"We don't need to talk about last time," Catra hissed. She shoved past Adore lightly, moving to walk in front of the girl. "This mission is for new opportunities and redemption."

"Mission?" Adora’s light giggle made Catra’s face heat up even more – out of frustration, obviously. "That's the dorkiest thing I've ever heard."

"That can’t be true. I hear you talking to yourself all the time."

"You're an asshole," Adora rolled her eyes. "And get behind me. I'm the one with the flashlight. You won't be able to see anything on the camera once we're inside."

Inside, indeed. The house itself was shrouded in darkness, looming over the two girls with its grey rotting wood and broken windows. It stretched two stories high and wide across the property, the door barely hanging on its hinges as if it were trying to escape the dismal mansion. The wooden porch, where Adora and Catra stood now, sunk at their feet, threatening to swallow the girls whole. The garden behind them was overgrown with yellow weeds, truly leaving the landscape barren of any natural life.

Supernatural life on the other hand? If the two girls were lucky (bad luck or good luck though, who's to say) then they were hoping to find any proof of its existence.

This wouldn't be the first haunted house they’d scoped out. As Adora mentioned, there had been other times, all ending in bleak failure to find anything out of sorts. It's not like they truly expected to find something in these forgotten ruins they visited, but after a while it seemed almost absurd that despite going out of their way to research the most haunted spots in Etheria, they hadn't found even a single ghost.

"So, what's the story behind this one again?" Catra asked, peeking into the doorway but not entering.

"You weren't listening before we left?" Adora sounded annoyed but she wasn't. "I had diagrams. Very nice diagrams with red strings and everything that I spent a long time nailing to the kitchen cork board."

Catra stepped a little closer into the doorway before Adora pulled her back lightly, holding up the flashlight as a warning for her friend not to charge into complete darkness.

"I was listening. I just figured you might want to enlighten the camera. I mean-" Catra swung the camera to face Adora, zooming in on the blonde's face, "-when we get murdered, whoever gets their hands on this found footage should have an idea of what got us. Before they succumb to their own doom, that is."

"Your confidence in us getting killed is astounding."

"Doooooom," Catra echoed, making her voice sound all ghost-like. The camera wheezed as she continued to zoom in and out on Adora’s face.

Adora let out a long, exaggerated sigh before turning her flashlight on and walking into the house. Before them was a large room, with two spiral staircases off to their left and right that met each other on the balcony above the girls’ heads. Between the stairs was a long hallway, stretching back farther than the two could see with their limited light source. On either side of them were different rooms, all with large archways instead of doors.

"This house used to belong to a rich couple, Mr and Mrs Krytis," Adora explained while Catra followed her inside. "They owned a lot of property in town, most notably the mines that are a few miles away from here."

"We are so going to check out those mines next," Catra whispered to the camera excitedly.

"Right, well, rumor was that they treated the people working in the mines pretty terribly," Adora continued. "They got rich by exploiting their workers and orchestrated a number of coverups for all of the workplace casualties that took place."

Adora aimed her flashlight at the walls of the main foyer. The room itself was pretty much empty except for a tattered rug and some abandoned houseplants. The only things to truly note were the faded paintings hanging on the walls. She waved Catra over, but the girl was already diligently filming.

"The Krytis house had a lot of enemies," Adora's gaze lingered on one of the larger paintings. From what remained of it, the painting seemed to depict Mr and Mrs Krytis. The man sat in a large chair, wearing a crisp suit, but his face had long since worn away, both from the elements and vandalism. The woman, standing beside him with a hand on the man's shoulder, was in a similar ruined state, the only notable feature left being her light blonde hair pulled up into a bun, the face underneath it washed into oblivion.

"Eventually, the two slighted the wrong people," Adora said, turning to look at the camera. Catra fought back a grin. She loved it when Adora got all dramatic during their ghost hunts and she knew Adora did it mostly for her sake. Maybe it was the fact that Catra had a fondness for theater or maybe it was the fact that she had a fondness for Adora (although she would absolutely never tell her roommate that precious information). Whatever it was, Catra couldn't help but smile when Adora's voice got all low, her seriousness completely genuine (and absolutely adorable) as she discussed her research.

"One night, Mr and Mrs Krytis are enjoying a quiet evening in their upstairs study. Normally they would have a small night staff stick around but this night it was just them." Adora turned back to the paintings. Most of the other ones were of the landscape or individual portraits. Never any kids. Not even any family. "No one knows why the staff left. It wasn't likely they were given the night off and when the police came around to ask, everyone claimed they weren't on duty that night."

"Probably paid off," Catra commented. She motioned for Adora to follow her, the two going into the room to their right: a larger than necessary dining room. The table stretched out across the wooden floor, a tattered cloth hanging off of it. There wasn't any silverware, most likely stolen ages ago.

"That's the working theory," Adora said. "Like I said, lots of enemies. So, that night, while they're in their study, a storm comes in. The power goes out and as they're trying to find their way in the darkness-"

A bang from the other room and the sound of breaking glass made both girls jump violently.

"What was that?" Adora whispered, backing up close to Catra, flashlight trained on the large open archway. Catra was glad the girl's attention was elsewhere because she thought her heart would beat out of her chest, not out of fear but out of the utter gut punch of Adora's scared and she went to me for comfort, what do I do, what do I do?!

"Let's check it out," Catra said, her voice steady but a little higher than normal. She'd blame it on the jumpscare. "I mean, that's why we're here, right?"

"Right," Adora nodded. "Okay. Yes. We can do this."

"What if something creepy shows up on the camera? That'd be so cool."

"That'd be terrible, please don't say that."

"Would you rather something pops up in front of us?" Catra asked with a laugh. With a second of hesitation, she grabbed Adora's hand, leading her back to the main entrance.

At the base of the staircase was a broken houseplant. The pot had fallen over, shattering into two big pieces with a few smaller fragments scattered about. The plant that had actually been in it laid weakly on the ground. It had been dead long before its home had toppled but, if anything, seeing the withered leaves lying so helplessly like that gave the girls an uneasy feeling.

"Could've been the wind," Adora reasoned, always the logical thinker though the small waver in her voice betrayed her anxiousness. "It's starting to pick up out there and we left the door open. Maybe a gust of wind knocked it over."

"Or it was a ghost of wind," Catra grinned at her own horrible joke, squatting down with the camera to get a good shot.

"Or it was a ghost," Adora repeated humorlessly, not liking that idea much. She added, mumbling to herself, "And for it to be by the stairs too..."

"What was that?"

"Oh well," Adora looked around cautiously as if she were sharing some grand secret not meant to be overheard, "It's just the story. When the lights go out, Mr and Mrs Krytis try to go downstairs except..." Adora looked back down at the potted plant, a bad feeling building up in her gut. "Except, in their temporary blindness, they fall."

Catra turned the camera to face the spiral stairs. "It's not that tall. And the light from the windows-"

"It's what the police report said," Adora clarified, already a few steps ahead of where Catra was going with her skepticism. "But everyone in town knew the truth. They didn't fall down the stairs that night. They were-"

"They were pushed," Catra finished for her.

Adora glared at Catra, momentarily forgetting she was supposed to be afraid. "Seriously?"

"Sorry."

"I was building up to that this whole time," Adora pouted, walking away from her. "I literally- you know what, fine. Yes, they were pushed and it was all a set up and you are the worst."

"Adoraaaa," Catra whined, following with a teasing grin. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again."

"Liar."

Deciding to leave the upstairs for later – not because they were scared, they were just thorough – the two made their slow tour down the central hallway. With each room they checked, they slowly forgot about the plant scare, more interested in the ghosts of the past instead of literal ones.

“Look at this,” Catra squatted down next to a bed with fancy lace sheets. There were quite a few rips and tears. This guest room was farther down the line too, so it made sense why no one would want the dusty old things.

“Hm?” Adora, who had been looking at the drapes of the window on the opposite side of the bed, came around to stand next to Catra.

“Under the bed,” Catra clarified. “I think I see something. Give me the flashlight, I think I can reach it.”

“You’re going to just stick your whole arm underneath the creepy bed?” Adora handed the flashlight over despite her judgement. “You have actually seen horror movies before, right?”

“Yes,” Catra swiped the flashlight and got down on her stomach, but not before positioning the camera so it was angled to record where she was grabbing. “We have watched plenty together, but I only remember one of us hiding our face behind the blankets.”

“That was only one time! You know I hate Lair of the Undead, you picked that movie on purpose.”

“And you couldn’t even finish The Weeping Princess!” Catra snorted as she strained to reach the object of her desire wedged under the bed. With the flashlight in hand, she could just see a wooden box, about the size of a shoe box, in the small gap.

“Do not pretend that wasn’t scary!” Adora shifted nervously, turning to face the door as if the ghost in question would be there. Without the flashlight, the hallway was just a dark abyss. “That one was based on a true story and everything!”

“Yeah,” Catra grunted. Her fingers just barely brushed the box. “The very real and vengeful Weeping Princess who scours the earth looking for her next victim. You know she’s coming for you when-”

Catra stopped talking suddenly, mouth snapping shut.

Adora, who had still been looking at the door, glanced uneasily at Catra, not liking the sudden silence. Did she forget the plot of the movie? Filling in for her, she finished “When you hear the sound of weeping right before-”

“Shut up.”

“What?”

“I said– Shut. Up.” Catra stayed absolutely still, eyes focused on something in front of her. Adora could see from where she stood the increased rise and fall of her chest. When she didn’t seem to see what she wanted, she whispered, “Please tell me you saw that too.”

Adora was quiet for a few seconds. She looked at Catra and then across the bed. There was nothing there, just the window with the drapes open, a dark sky behind the dusty glass. “I thought you wanted me to shut up.”

“Not the time to be a smartass,” Catra snapped, still keeping her voice low.

“Are you trying to scare me?” Adora asked unsurely. This wouldn’t be the first time Catra had pranked her but usually she wasn’t this good of an actor.

Catra stared under the bed for a little longer before slowly pulling out her arm. Her hand was clenched around the box and as soon as she was free, she scrambled away from the bed and to her feet. The whole time, she never looked away from the other side of the room. The flashlight was forgotten in her other hand, shining down at the floor limply.

“What did you see?” Adora asked, despite really not wanting an answer. Since Catra wasn’t, she bent down to pick up the camera. She made a point not to look at the screen.

“It was…” Catra swallowed, taking in a shaky breath. She looked over at Adora though she had to fight her body to turn away. “I just thought I saw something. When I grabbed the box. Something…” She frowned, noticing the camera in Adora’s hands. “Let me see that.”

Adora handed the camera over willingly, exchanging it for the flashlight and the box, the latter of which she tucked under her arm. As Catra scrolled through the footage, she shined the flashlight on the window again.

“Come on…come on…” Catra whispered to herself as she rewatched the footage. “Dammit! The camera was out of focus. You can’t see it.”

“Can’t see what exactly?”

Catra shook her head. “It was this blur of movement. Like something ran across the other side of the bed, but I didn’t hear any noise. It was right when I grabbed the box. I saw something big move from this corner to that one.” She pointed with her hand from left to right. “You swear you didn’t see anything?”

“I wasn’t looking,” Adora admitted sheepishly. “Maybe it was a shadow? Something outside?”

“Didn’t look like a shadow,” Catra argued. Of course Adora wouldn’t believe her, nobody ever listens. “It looked like something was waiting on the other side of that bed and when I touched the box, it-” Catra cut herself off with a deep breath when she saw the concern on Adora’s face.

“Sorry…” Catra muttered. “Sorry, we were just talking about the stupid movies. I must have freaked myself out.”

“Hey,” Adora stepped forward and bumped her shoulder against Catra’s. Her voice was much softer than the situation warranted. “If you saw something that scared you, then I believe you.”

Studying her face for any dishonesty, Catra didn’t find any. “Right.”

Maybe it was a shadow. Maybe it wasn’t. Regardless, Catra would rather they not stick around the find out. As they left the room though, her eyes lingered just behind the bed all the way until the door closed behind her.

“So,” Adora held up the box to the camera. “Seeing as you nearly died for this, should we see what’s inside? I’ll let you do the honors.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re worried it might be cursed.”

“Wha- no, I- me? I would never-”

“Just give me the stupid box, Adora.”

They went back into the dining room, setting it down on the table. Adora was in charge of both the camera and flashlight as Catra examined her find.

“There’s something engraved on the top.”

“Krytis?” Adora asked curiously.

“No,” Catra traced the lettering with her fingers. “It's…weirder.”

“Weird how?”

Catra decided this was definitely her least favorite haunted house on the list at that exact moment. “Elizabeth.”

“Oh.” Now that was a freaky coincidence. “Definitely cursed.”

Catra nodded. Before she had changed her name to Cyra Driluth, before she ran away to give herself a fresh start, her name had been Elizabeth. Adora was one of the few people Catra could count on one hand who knew that about her.

“If I open this and die, I am going to kill you.”

“But I didn’t even do anything!” Adora pouted. “Why can’t you haunt Glimmer?”

“You are poorly mistaken if you think I am going to spend the rest of my afterlife with Glimmer.”

Knowing she couldn’t delay it much longer, Catra moved to fiddle with the metal latch. It was old and rusted but slid open without too much effort. Readying herself for whatever may be inside – a dismembered hand, the souls of the damned, a mouldy sandwich – Catra flipped the lid open.

It wasn’t what Catra expected. There were two objects inside: a mask and a leather-bound book.

Pulling out the mask first, Catra frowned. She wasn’t sure if there was any practical purpose to it and it certainly didn’t look expensive. It was made of red metal and looked like it was meant to frame the face.

“Huh,” Adora muttered out loud as Catra handed it to her to see. Flipping it in her hands, she couldn’t find any engravings, or even any scratches. The metal was smooth under her fingers. “What’s the book?”

Catra unwound the leather string around it, carefully handling the old yellowed pages. The ink was still dark enough to read. Between the leather and the box, the pages had been protected. On the first page, in messy handwriting, was written: This is the Diary of Elizabeth K. Return if found.

“Hey, Adora?” Catra asked as she flipped through the pages. Some were filled with writing, others had only a few sentences. Photos were shoved in between the paper. “What were the full names of the people who lived here?”

“James and Colette Krytis. Why?”

“Thought maybe this belonged to one of them, but now I’m not so sure,” Catra said, more so thinking out loud. She set the book back down in the box, Adora mirroring her as she put back the mask.

“Would it be wrong to take this with us?” Catra asked. She was undeniably curious.

“I mean…” Adora fidgeted nervously, “If we don’t, someone else probably will. It's a miracle no one had grabbed it before. Unless…”

“Unless?”

Adora looked embarrassed as she whispered, talking fast so her words blended together, “Unless someone has taken it before and a ghost followed them home and killed them and now we’re continuing the cycle.”

Catra raised an eyebrow at her friend who squirmed under the scrutinizing gaze.

“Or…or something like that…” Adora shot Catra a crooked toothy grin, wincing as Catra turned away to hide her own smile.

“We should really find you a new hobby,” Catra teased, leaving the box for them to pick up later. “Come on Ed Warren – we have an upstairs to investigate.”

The upstairs was worse than downstairs. It was so much worse. Or at least, that’s what Adora was thinking as they ascended the steps to the balcony, doing her best not to look down.

She had seen enough horror movies to know if there would be a ghost anywhere in the mansion, they’d be at either the top or the bottom of the stairs – if she could eliminate one of those options, that was fine with her.

At this point, Catra had reclaimed the camera which meant Adora was once more the one leading with the flashlight. Her bravado might have been lacking but at least she could take some comfort in the fact that if she did die, it would give Catra some time to escape.

Unless the ghost came from behind them. And took Catra first. Was it getting too quiet? When was the last time Catra said something? Oh no, what if she’s already gone and once Adora turned around-

“Do you think it's even stable enough to walk around up here?” Catra asked, making Adora nearly jump out of her skin.

“What? Oh, um,” Adora scanned the floor with the light, “It's probably fine. If it can support the furniture, it can support us. Maybe watch your step though.”

Similar to the downstairs, there were rooms off to the side and a hallway down the center, though it was much shorter, with fewer branching rooms, and led to a large looming door that was cracked open just barely.

Saving the best for last, the two opted to examine the other rooms first. On the sides was an office and a mostly empty library. Down the hall they found another sitting room and a bathroom.

As they investigated the latter, Adora may have sent an update text to Glimmer, just for safety’s sake, but she let out a disgruntled noise when it didn’t send.

“What’s the matter?” Catra asked. The bathroom was fairly bare. Nothing too interesting.

“There’s no service,” Adora answered. She held up her phone, trying to get a signal. “It wasn’t this bad when we first got here.”

“It sounds like the weather’s gotten worse since we’ve been inside. That might be it.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Adora still wasn’t satisfied. Noticing the time, she knew it was getting late too. “It's almost midnight. Maybe we should head back, before a storm rolls in.”

“We’re almost done with the house,” Catra shrugged. “We might as well finish. I think there’s only the two rooms left, right?”

“Yeah,” Adora sighed. The master bedroom and whatever horror laid behind the door at the end of the hallway. “Guess we should.”

“You aren’t too scared, are ya Princess?” Catra’s tone was teasing but there was an underlying meaning. Adora knew if she really wanted to, she could ask that they turn back.

But she knew Catra loved this stuff. Adora loved this stuff too, mostly because of Catra – but that was beside the point.

“We came this far and aren’t dead yet,” Adora put on her cockiest smile. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

Adora needed to learn when to shut her damn mouth.

Entering the master bedroom, the first thing they noticed was the immediate chill that filled the air.

“It's cold,” Adora said.

“I’m aware of that.” Catra shivered. She absolutely hated the cold and the jacket she wore was much too thin.

“For the viewers,” Adora looked at the camera.

“And by viewers you mean our inane friends who don’t have the balls to see all of this for themselves? Or the people who will solve the mystery of our disappearance in twenty years.”

“You really think it’ll take them twenty years?” Adora welcomed the banter, especially in the dense darkness of the room.

It had that musty antique smell to it. Like the guest room, it had a large window but the drapes were drawn closed this time. Next to the window was a dresser with some of the drawers completely pulled out. There was a desk too, pushed into the corner, without a chair in sight. Near the doorway was another door to the private bathroom.

What was most interesting though was the master bed. It was larger than any of the others in the house and had a canopy surrounding the mattress in dark reds and purples.

Adora shared a timid look with Catra.

“Not it,” Catra said.

“Hey!”

“Nope, I stuck my hand under the last bed so you get to look inside the canopy.”

“You did that on your own for the record.” Adora shifted back and forth on her feet. “We could just not look inside it.”

Catra pushed Adora forward, not having it. “Just don’t get possessed. Die if you have to, but I am not going to deal with your meat suit.”

Ignoring Catra’s unhelpful advice, Adora slowly walked up to the canopy. She extended a hand, just barely brushing the curtains. Internally she tried to assure herself that there would be nothing there. They were both just high on adrenaline because they were in a creepy, dark mansion, and the primitive parts of their brains were banging pots and pans trying to tell them to leave before some predator killed them.

“Alright,” Adora whispered, gripping the curtain, “Mr and Mrs Krytis, if you’re in here…please be nicer than you were when you were alive.”

And then she ripped back the curtain. As soon as she did, she stumbled back, screaming.

“Adora?!” Catra rushed forward. She steadied Adora as she moved backwards, despite the fact that Adora hadn’t been falling exactly. Still, Adora didn’t move away from Catra’s hands now pressed against her back. “What? What is it?”

“No, sorry,” Adora stammered out, feeling a bit embarrassed now that the original shock wore off. “It's just- just some dead birds. I saw the blood and thought the worst.”

Catra peeked from behind Adora’s shoulder, squinting at the lump on the bed. With the dim beam of the flashlight she could see that there were a few bird carcasses on the mattress. The blood and guts were all dried but it was unsettling against the pale sheets nonetheless.

“This place is getting to me, I think,” Adora admitted quietly. “Are all of our haunts usually this scary?”

She turned to Catra and both girls became painfully aware of how close their faces were. The pressure of Catra’s hands on Adora’s back, the way Adora’s ponytail had brushed against Catra’s nose when she turned her head…they could feel the other’s breath as they breathed a little faster than normal.

From the adrenaline. The scares.

Catra was the first to pull away, leaving Adora staring at her a little dumbstruck before shaking the daze from her head.

"I should probably get closer," Catra said, eyes widening as she quickly corrected herself, holding up the camera, "A closer shot. Of the rats. For the viewers."

“Yes!” Adora nodded. “Right, you…you do that.”

Awkwardly, Adora walked over to the window to busy herself. She was so focused on…whatever just happened, that she didn’t even think as she pulled back the drapes. Luckily there were no scares, but she did find that the window was shattered. That explained why the room was so cold.

It didn’t explain why her face was on fire.

As Catra had mentioned, the weather was worse than before. The wind had picked up and a slight drizzle was coming down.

“Hey Adora, you ready to check out the last room?”

Adora watched the rain a few more seconds before walking back over. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

She didn’t point it out, but the clock on Catra’s camera turned to midnight right as they stopped outside the last door.

“Probably gonna be a big room based on the layout,” Adora pointed out. They could hear the wind whipping behind it, louder than any of the other spots in the house. “Sounds like there’s another busted window, maybe.”

“Only one way to find out.”

Together, they both pushed open the door to reveal a large ballroom. As with most other rooms, anything valuable had been taken. Unlike the others, however, there was significantly more weather damage.

The reason was pretty obvious.

“Holy crap,” Catra gawked at the caved in roof. “This thing has been over our heads this whole time?”

Just left of center was a large hole where the ceiling should have been, revealing the night sky. A small pool of water collected beneath the debris from the fallen roof. Other than that, the room was empty aside from some overturned chairs and tables. The wallpaper was peeling off to nothing and the portraits hung up were completely faded to indecipherable blotches of color.

“The Krytises used to hold big parties for their shareholders and business partners,” Adora explained, remembering her research. “Other times they were just for fun. The parties were always the talk of the elites of the town. It was invitation only and, well, you can guess who was never invited.”

Sticking close together, despite the immense space the room offered, the two wrote off the closeness as necessary for the filming. It wasn’t because they were afraid or because they just seemed to gravitate towards each other.

They were so close that Adora felt Catra shiver beside her. Being exposed to the elements, it was pretty frigid in there. Without a word, Adora shrugged off her red letterman jacket and handed it over.

“What are you doing?” Catra stared skeptically at the offering.

“I run hot and I have two long sleeves on,” Adora shrugged. She had a white dry fit shirt and an orange flannel to keep herself warm. “Take it.”

Eyes narrowed, Catra took it with a grumble. “You just don’t want to hear me complaining.”

Yes, that was the reason. The way Catra’s fingers curled around the edges of the too-long sleeves in the cutest way had absolutely nothing to do with it.

They walked around a bit more, avoiding the weaker parts of the roof. There were many windows lining the longer wall, all of which showed the weedy field behind the house. Of the few withered up trees outside, the thin branches swayed in the steadily increasing rain.

“We should probably leave,” Catra said. “I don’t think there’s anything else here.”

“Don’t forget the box,” Adora reminded her. She did one last scan with her flashlight across the ground…and stopped.

“Catra-“

“Yeah…I see it.”

On the floor in front of the doorway, where it hadn’t been before, was a dead bird. A relatively newly dead one, by the looks of it.

“What color is that?” Catra asked, just to be sure. She was colorblind but there were certain colors she could see pretty damn well. For once she wanted to be wrong.

“Yellow,” Adora confirmed. “So were the ones in the master bedroom.”

“Do you think-“

“Canaries?”

Catra remembered what Adora had said before.

“Mr and Mrs Krytis…they owned a lot of property in town, most notably the mines that are a few miles away from here. Rumor was that they treated the people working in the mines pretty terribly.”

What if, this whole time, they had been worried about the wrong ghosts?

“What should we do?” Adora whispered.

“It’s…there’s a perfectly logical explanation,” Catra nodded, staring at the thing before leaning to Adora to whisper, “What’s the perfectly logical explanation?”

“We aren’t alone,” Adora whispered back. A heavy silence fell between them.

At least it would make a good line for the found footage.

“What was that?” Adora moved the flashlight towards the door, thinking she saw something. Puffing her chest a bit, she said louder, “If someone’s in here, we have pepper spray and, uh…”

“A knife.”

“And a kn- wait, you brought a knife?” Adora frowned.

“Can we discuss this later?” Catra hissed back, trying to see whatever Adora saw.

The floor boards in front of them creaked softly and as Catra squinted, she realized to her horror that, just out of the flashlights beam, there was something moving towards them.

“Adora!” Catra grabbed the girl’s wrist and moved the flashlight to the dark mass in front of her. A harsh yowl filled the air and both girls jumped — as a large black cat hissed at them, back arched.

“Fuck,” Adora clutched her chest, relieved that they weren’t about to be murdered.

At the same time, the cat ran off and tried to slip through the door. The crack wasn’t big enough though and it instead batted at the door in panic, causing it to swing closed.

Now trapped, the creature turned on the two again, an angry growl warning them to stay back.

“Poor thing,” Catra felt herself relax, forcing her body to release its tension. “They’re more scared than we are.”

Catra sat on the ground and then patted the space next to her for Adora to do the same. Adora followed, mimicking Catra’s slumped posture. She remembered that it helped when dealing with strays.

“Hey there,” Catra spoke softly. “Are you the little ghost who’s been messing with us all night?”

The shattered plant. The bed. The birds. It made sense now. Silly, ridiculous sense in hindsight, but sense nonetheless.

Though the cat couldn’t answer Catra’s question, its growls seemed to waver. If the girls didn’t know any better, they’d say it understood.

“It’s alright,” Catra reassured the cat, never letting her volume rise above the bare minimum. She made no moves towards the thing, just watched as the cat slowly assessed them.

This side of Catra…Adora always appreciated it on the rare occasion it would show. The easy vulnerability she'd let seep into her voice to prove she wasn’t a threat, the light glimmer in her eyes as she signaled a clear message: You are safe.

As long as Adora had known her, Catra had always had a talent with calming stray animals. A few times now Adora had seen it – outside their apartment, on the walk to the coffee shop, at the park – when a wandering animal would walk up to Catra like it was nothing.

Adora didn’t have that skill. She was always too loud or clumsy, but she knew when to follow Catra’s lead, when to sit back and watch the magic unfold.

Catra claimed the reason she was so good with strays was because she could never hate an animal the same way she could hate a person, mostly because she really hated people.

Briefly, Adora wondered if Catra could ever look at someone like that. With so much patience and care.

The cat seemingly was as equally impressed as Adora because, slowly, the arch in its back flattened and the hiss died down into a questioning mewl.

“Sorry,” Catra tilted her head slightly. “I don’t have any food. You’re welcome to finish your bird though. Hate to see it go to waste.”

The cat didn’t move, instead looking at Adora. The blonde froze, unsure what to do.

“Do I need to give it permission too?”

“Keep looking and blink slowly,” Catra instructed. “It's all about body language.”

“What if I don’t speak the language?” But Adora did what she was told anyway, blinking as slow as she could.

The cat seemed curious from her attempt, stepping a hesitant paw forward. Its eyes flickered to Catra then back to Adora, letting out another cautious noise.

Wordlessly, Catra reached out a hand, making sure her movements didn’t appear aggressive in nature, keeping her palm facing up.

Again, the cat hesitated before stepping forward once more, and then again, and then it was within sniffing distance of Catra’s fingers. Adora couldn’t help but smile when she saw the faint upturn of Catra’s lips at her own success.

“You’re not that scary up close,” Catra said. “Don’t you know? Showing the monster ruins the suspense.”

The cat bit at Catra’s fingers but it was more of a playing gesture. Catra laughed, not fazed by the small pinpricks. “Alright, fine, you’re still scary. Like…a little melog.”

“A what?” Adora asked, a little too loud as the cat took a step back, glaring at Adora. “Oh, uh, sorry.” Continuing in a stage whisper, she asked Catra, “What’s a melog?”

“Its…y’know that one movie,” Catra thought out loud, “The one with the alien lion things that ate all the space zookeepers. Wasn’t that what they were called?”

“You mean Shot in the Dark?” Adora frowned. “I thought they were the mogwai.”

“That’s Gremlins,” Catra rolled her eyes. “Melogs are better.”

Chirping in agreement, the cat finally bumped against Catra’s hand.

“You like that? Melog?” Catra was fully beaming now. Adora considered stealing the camera from her to catch the sight on film but decided it would ruin the moment.

“What now?” Adora asked, watching as the cat went from rubbing against Catra’s hand to now fully sitting in Catra’s lap.

“Guess we should probably get out of here.” Melog meowed pointedly. “Yes, all of us,” Catra assured the lump of fur with a scratch behind the ears.

Figuring out how to get Melog past the landlord would be a problem for later though, because as Adora got up to open the door, she encountered a slight problem.

“Um, Catra?”

“Hm?”

“It's locked.”

“What do you mean it's locked? Did you try pulling and pushing?”

“Oh, no I didn’t- of course I tried that!” Adora threw her arms up dramatically. She twisted the doorknob a few more times but it wouldn’t budge. “For a house that’s falling apart, this stupid thing is holding on just fine.”

“Let me try,” Catra got up, much to both Adora and Melog’s annoyance. The small cat followed at her feet as Catra tried to push the door open with her weight leaning onto it.

“I’m gonna call someone,” Adora sighed as Catra was now nearly horizontal as she pulled on the knob, heels dug into the wooden floor.

Of course, as to be expected with the storm, the service was still down. Adora couldn’t get anything on her phone or Catra’s. She sent a text to Glimmer and Bow, hoping it would send automatically once they got a connection, but who knows when that would be.

Soon the girls (and their new companion) realized that, for the time being, they were stuck in the grand Krytis Ballroom. The maybe-possibly-still-haunted Krytis Ballroom.

“Well,” Adora straightened up, cracking her knuckles, “There’s only one thing left to do.”

“Which is?” Catra asked, Melog snuggled against her chest, his head poking out of the collar of Adora’s jacket.

Before she answered, Adora walked over to the furniture that had been tossed aside before grabbing what she deemed to be a sturdy enough table and dragging it towards the center of the room.

“We-” She grunted as she set it down, then went to grab some of the chairs too, “-need shelter. And there’s no better place to spend the night in than a blanket fort.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have blankets.”

“We got tablecloths,” Adora insisted, undeterred. “And those curtains. I’m sure we can make it work.”

And by that, Adora meant she would make it work as she was the one who put the most effort into building the actual fort. Catra had her arms full with Melog (“why don’t you just put him on the floor?” “why don’t I put you on the floor?” “that doesn’t even make sense-”).

The fort was a little worse for wear and it didn’t do much to deflect the cold, but it was better than nothing. Not to mention, the proud look on Adora’s face as she admired her creation, hands on her hips, was enough to make it worthwhile to Catra.

She sat down inside the main base of the fort. From where they’d positioned it, they were out of the way of the rain, but close enough to the open roof to see the sky full of clouds, the light of the moon painting them in eerie greys.

“There aren’t any stars,” Adora complained. She liked to look at the constellations on clearer nights.

“Don’t worry, they’re all still up there. You can do your geek thing another night. In the meantime, all we need is some hot cocoa and a good ghost story,” Catra said as Adora sat next to her. It was a tight fit. They were shoulder to shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Adora fiddled with the camera in her lap, the flashlight just outside the fort. “I think we have a pretty good one to tell.”

Melog meowed from inside Catra’s jacket. Carefully, Adora reached over and scratched his head. His claws dug into Catra’s shirt slightly but he didn’t pull away either, even if Adora wasn’t his favorite yet.

“Can we really keep him?” Catra asked quietly, preparing herself for Adora to say no.

Instead, Adora laughed. “I don’t see why not. You kept me.”

Catra watched as Adora hid her laughter behind her hand, a nervous tick she had. It was so painfully Adora that it made Catra’s chest ache. “Yeah,” She bit the inside of her cheek to stop the affectionate smile from showing on her face, “I guess I did.”

The minutes wore on in silence after that. Though both girls were tired, neither wanted to sleep, fighting off the drooping of their eyelids in favor of their shared company. Eventually they had gone from sitting to lying down. Melog slept on Catra’s chest, his little body rising and falling with Catra’s slow breaths.

“Hey Adora?”

“Mm?”

“You still awake?”

“Yeah,” Adora turned her head to look at Catra. “You?”

“Obviously, dummy.”

“Oh…right,” Adora huffed. With the exhaustion setting in, she was just slightly sleep drunk. “What’d you want?”

“Don’t know,” Catra admitted, also looser from her tiredness, “Just wanted to talk, I guess. What time is it?”

Squinting at her phone, still without service, the time read 1:58. “It's been two hours.”

“What? It feels like forever. Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Adora mumbled. “Two hours. So, a little less than forever.”

“Feels like forever.”

“Maybe it has been.”

"What?" Now it was Catra’s turn to look at Adora with the questioning expression.

“You know,” Adora waved a hand in the air haphazardly. “Maybe it has been forever and we just don’t know it. Maybe we’ve been here for eternity.”

“I’m not following.”

“Isn’t that how these kinds of things go?” Adora insisted. “Maybe we’re the ghosts and…and we died up here– because the roof fell on us!” She felt excited as she connected the dots. “And we’ve been dead the whole time. Which is why we can’t leave.”

“We’re dead and we don’t know it? Isn’t that kind of morbid?”

“They do that all the time in the movies,” Adora pouted. She thought she was really onto something. “It would be cool. In a, like, a tragic way.”

Catra nodded, and in her drowsiness decided to humor her friend. “Tell me, where do ghosts in love find their bridal veils?”

Adora looked at Catra, her face heating up when she realized Catra was staring at her. “W-What?”

Letting out a squeaky laugh, Catra shook her head. “Ghosts in Love. Vachel Lindsay. It's a poem. I wrote my term paper on it last semester, for my poetry unit. I read it so many times, I have it memorized.”

“Can…can you tell me the whole thing?” Adora asked, unsure why she felt so nervous about the request. It felt so oddly intimate, for reasons she couldn’t exactly place.

Catra held Adora’s gaze. She blinked once, slowly, before whispering, “Yeah.”

"Tell me, where do ghosts in love”

Glimmer and Bow pulled up to the Krytis house early in the morning. The grass was muddy and the wind cold.

“Find their bridal veils?"

Going up the staircase, they followed the directions Adora sent them: Up to the balcony, down the hallway, to the big door at the end. DON’T LET IT CLOSE BEHIND YOU.

"If you and I were ghosts in love”

They tried the doorknob first, and when that failed Glimmer got out her lockpick – which she had for purely legal, recreational purposes. Bow decided to save the lecture…this time.

“We'd climb the cliffs of Mystery,”

After ten minutes or so, the door creaked open. Both of their jaws dropped as they took in the immensity of the room, the destroyed and decaying ceiling, and…well, quite possibly the strangest thing of all.

“Above the sea of Wails.”

Strange in that, if Catra were awake, she would have never let the two see it. Luckily for them, Catra and Adora were fast asleep, meaning they could take all the incriminating photos they wanted.

“I'd trim your gray and streaming hair”

Catra had her head nuzzled in the crook of Adora’s neck, arms wrapped around the other girl’s broad shoulders. Adora held her back, hands fisted in her own jacket that Catra still wore, chin resting on the top of her head. Sometimes her nose would twitch in her sleep when Catra’s hair would flicker across it.

And, of course, there was the black cat lying in between the girls’ bodies, awake and licking his paws, uninterested in the two new humans’ cooing.

“With veils of Fantasy”

There was a lot of yelling once everyone was awake. Melog might have bitten Glimmer’s ankles but Catra would deny it, while Bow nudged a blushing Adora knowingly.

“From the tree of Memory.”

On their way out, Catra stopped by the dining room and saw the box was still there. She didn’t know why she wanted to take it with her so badly but she figured the dying house wouldn’t need it anymore.

Adora and Catra clambered into the back of Bow’s car. Their bodies ached from sleeping on the floor all night. It didn’t take long for Catra to slide one seat over, leaning against Adora tiredly as she petted Melog in her lap.

They both ignored their friend’s faces in the mirror glancing back at them. Instead, they watched as the Krytis house faded away into the distance, far behind them, soon obscured by the overgrown yellow grass and weeds.

“'Tis there the ghosts that fall in love find their bridal veils."