Work Text:
You already know how it goes.
"What is up, Lux army?" Parker said into the camera, alone in a dark and cold room.
Yes indeed, the boys are back on their shit again. For once again, they have received an E-mail from someone demanding their presence. This time, from a sweet yet respectable young woman named Felicity. In said E-mail, she described a rather concerning case. She detailed about how her and her girlfriend, a lady named Claire, have been living on Claire's late grandfather's farm for a few months now. While it generally is nice, Felicity has expressed concern about the odd whistling coming from the barn. Something also kept attacking their farm animals, eating the skin off their face and leaving the rest of the corpse untouched. When bringing these problems up, however, Claire always chalked it up to 'Oh, the barn is shoddily built, of course it'll creak and whistle' or, 'we're on a farm, shit's gonna die'.
Well, now Claire's missing, and Felicity is SURE something is wrong, so she called the two cheapest dudes she could find.
Back to our fellas,
Chester sat next to Parker, in the passenger's seat. He always rode shotgun, of course. he set the camera down on the dashboard, and Parker began to drive.
"Dude," Chester began
"Why are we going out to this old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere? If someone really went missing, then it's the police who should be dealing with it!"
Parker cast him a sideways glance.
"Dude, she needs our help. We'll be fine. I mean, when has this ever gone wrong?"
Chester grimaces, but says nothing.
After a long and frankly uneventful drive, the two make it to the property.
They step outside of their car and walk to the door of the farmhouse. the property is, unsurprisingly, situated far from other people. It is set in a sort of clearing among forest. The two men make their way to the front door of the farmhouse. The house was surprisingly nice, unlike every other one they've been to.
"Dude, are you sure about this?", asked Chester
"Of course. We need to help this girl." Parker replied.
Parker knocks on the door. It doesn't take long for a woman to answer.
"Hello?" Asked the wide-eyed Lady.
"uh.." Parker hesitated
"Are you Felicity?"
The woman seemed to relax just a smidge. A small, almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"I am." she confirmed
"You must be Chester and Parker. Please, come in."
Chester looked at Parker like he was getting cold feet, though to his dismay Parker did not react. Whether he was simply tired of Chester complaining or genuinely couldn't tell what Chester was thinking with those sunglasses on his face was unclear. Not like it mattered, since they'd be bumbling through this poor woman's problems anyway.
Felicity lead the two men through her house. It was clearly old, and not entirely pleasant.
"Pardon the mess, boys. We're renovating. Or at least, we were.."
Felicity's voice turned solemn.
"..Before Claire done went and got herself snatched up."
The two paused and the air went stale.
"...snatched up?" Parker repeated
"Aye, boy." She said
"Nobody believes me. Yet I know, I know something got her. It ain't right, what's been going on."
The three arrived to a round table in the center of the kitchen. They all sit down, the atmosphere tense. The house was cold and dark. Did they not own a light?
Chester didn't say anything. The flabbergasted look he gave the camera did all the talking.
Parker, on the other hand, kept asking.
"You said.. there was something with the barn."
"I did." She affirms
"Not right in there. I swear to you, the wind doesn't just pass through the crooks in the wood. It lingers like a ghost and howls like a beast. The animals inside all avert their eyes, nor do they dare to sleep. Going inside makes me feel watched. I saw something out there, once, But I couldn't quite make out what it was."
Parker nodded along. Chester found her mad.
"We'll look into it, Felicity."
Parker reassured the woman and put his hand on hers. She promptly pulled away.
"Very well. You may explore the Farmland and house as you please. Do be careful, though."
And with that, the boys got up and began to snoop through the woman's home.
Chester spoke up finally, beginning his sentence as he begins all of them
"..Dude! This is crazy!"
Parker rolls his eyes.
"She needs our help, Chester. Come on, let's set up cameras."
"...Okay." Chester agreed. He really didn't need much convincing.
Chester and Parker split up.
They set cameras in the hallway, the outside of Felicity's bedroom (because she didn't let them place one inside), the bathroom, kitchen, and finally- the living room.
While setting the camera up, Chester's eyes fall on a small picture on a shelf in the living room.
He picks it up.
"Parker! Come look at this!"
Parker whipped his head to the sound dramatically and shimmied over to Chester.
"What is it?"
"Dude, look! I think this is a photo of Claire."
The photo was a sweet one. A woman with short, brown hair, likely Felicity, standing next to another woman, both smiling. The woman next to Felicity had pale skin and white hair. Her eyes appeared red. They were standing in a sort of field, and they were both wearing pretty-looking dresses.
"Put that down, please." Felicity's voice spoke out, seemingly materializing in the doorway behind the two dudes.
Chester didn't need to be told twice. He set it down immediately.There was an awkward silence. Then Felicity just.. walked away.
Parker turned back to Chester.
"Let's go set the cameras in the barn."
Chester shook his head.
"I am NOT going in there, man!"
Parker was getting fed up with this.
"Fine! Stay here, then."
"Parker, wait-"
But Parker was already leaving.
Parker was outside once more.
The air was crisp and it was dark as SHIT
this didn't deter him. Anything to help a pretty girl. Who said that.
He trudged his decrepit little ass over to the Barn. The animals inside barely responded to him. It smelled like crap. The little city boy was not used to that and wanted to go back inside. But first...
He looked around for a good place to put the cam. his eyes landed on a particular spot.
As he walked further into the barn, he felt that cold wind Felicity talked about. It whistled as it wound through the barn and hit his skin. He tried to pay it no mind, but there was no stopping the shiver up his spine. The animals shifting in their spots, tossing in their sleep and some even bunching closer together certainly did nothing to calm his nerves.
Every bone in his body was telling him to get out of there quickly.
And for once, Parker made an intelligent decision and left the barn as soon as possible after setting the camera up. Yippee!
He tried not to dwell on the sounds he was imagining on his way back.
Finally, back inside. He was greeted by Chester.
"Are you okay?" He asked Parker
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Parker would never admit Chester was right. That barn was freaky.
"..I don't feel good about this." Chester commented
"Dude, relax. We've done this before, haven't we?"
"..huh."
"Let's just go to bed."
"..Okay."
They walk to the room at the end of the corridor, the one Felicity had supposedly prepared for them. They opened the door, and found the room to be nicer than the rest of the house, except for one detail.
There was only one bed.
This.. isn't usually an issue. The two have shared a bed before, admittedly. But this one is.. smaller, than they expected.
"..Should we ask if they have another bed?" suggested Chester
"Why would she have another bed? Let's just set up the camera and go to sleep."
"..'kay.." Chester muttered.
Parker got into bed and Chester followed after him. he didn't bother taking off his glasses. Why would be? He needs to look good for the video.
The two were snuggled up nice and cozy. It was a nice respite from the otherwise cold atmosphere of the house. Though, if you were to ask Parker, it felt like Chester was a bit too eager to get close. Well, Parker didn't exactly mind. Nothing gay about huddling for warmth, right? They're just doing their job.
It didn't take long for them to get taken by the sandman. Or, in other words, fall asleep.
The cameras they had posted up remained on throughout their rest. The cameras must've been pretty old, because everything they picked up was in black and white. Or is that standard for security cameras? Who cares.
Sure enough, spooky things start happening.
At 1:00 AM, so around two hours after they fell asleep, The camera on Felicity's door picks up some odd sounds from inside. A creaky noise, like someone tossing and turning in their bed, quickly followed by a thud.
The video footage cuts to the camera surveying the bathroom. Nothing out of the ordinary. The bathroom is small, with a tiled floor and a shower, sink, toilet, and hardly anything else.
It then cycled through the kitchen, living room and hallway. All rather inoffensive shots. The kitchen, though humble, is quite nice, with several counters. an oven and a sink are next to each other, with a washing machine not too far. the living room offers the view of a couch and to sofas surrounding a coffee table, as well as a view of the foyer. Finally, the hallway is simple. in it is a type of console table pushed against the wall and above it, there is a window.
Finally, the camera lands back at Felicity's door. The noises inside have stopped. It's quiet for just a second before the sweet silence is interrupted by a thud from behind the door. Then something that sounds suspiciously like a window breaking.
Bathroom, Kitchen, Living room. nothing.
In the Hallway, however, there is not just sound but movement. Very faintly, a silhouette visible through the window brushes past quickly, silently.
Another cycle happens with nothing out of the ordinary, until..
Chester is awoken by a shriek coming from outside. It doesn't sound human, more like an animal being attacked. It makes his blood run cold.
"Parker!" he panics, shaking Parker gently.
The sleeping man grumbles.
"...what, Chester?"
"I heard something! Dude, I think something just attacked the animals!"
Parker takes a few seconds.
"..what?"
"yeah! Dude, come on!"
Parker gets up, blinking the grogginess away.
"We need to go check this out."
Chester nods in agreement and the two get up to go check it out.
They stumble almost blindly through the house and step outside. They can't shake the feeling of being watched.
"it is seriously creepy out here." Chester comments unhelpfully.
Parker finds that he agrees.
The two make it to the barn where the animals are still freaking out and squealing. They shine their light and find that, to their horror, find deep claw scratches on the barn's walls. What's worse, one of the chickens seems to have been murdered. The poor thing was missing it's head, there were feathers around the floor. This was, of course, not too far off from the brutal descriptions Felicty gave.
Parker and Chester stood there shocked like sitting ducks for a second, before Chester shook his head in what you could call mild displeasure.
"Man, we need to leave." He reiterates to Parker for the millionth time.
"Okay, I think you're right."
And just like that, neither of them need to say or hear another word. They turn around and start running to the property's gate.
And then, they hear it.
Some sort of low sound, between a groan and a growl. Whatever was making it, wasn't human.
Just as the two men got to the gate, They were met with a certain Felicity, standing in front of the closed gate.
This stopped the two panicked boys in their tracks.
"You can't stay here-", Parker began, only to be cut off by Felicity.
"Of course I can.", She said plainly.
"And where are you two going?"
There was a tense pause.
"..Look, we really have to-"
Felicity cut him off again.
"But you can't go. After all, it's the men like you that make the presence of beasts known to this world. Yet, you run, like cowards. Wouldn't you like to know what it is you've been running from?"
"NO!" Chester asserts quickly.
Felicity points behind them.
As they turn, they see it.
From the shadows, a haunting face emerges. The lights of their phones (that have been fully recording this entire time by the way) illuminate it.
An ungodly half-human, half-animal creature takes a hobbling, unnatural step towards them.
With a face uncanny yet unmistakably human, though its gums protrude and elongate like the snout of a hound, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. The long, white hair that falls over its shoulders and those red eyes..
Its spine bends, forcing the creature to move on all fours. And, god, its feet look more like hands that fingers have fused together.
It makes nothing but a painful-sounding wheeze as it steps forward on shaking, silent legs.
And yeah, fuck that thing, looks like it was designed by a fifteen year old who can't write. Time to go.
With a high-pitched scream, the two sprint away into a random direction.
Felicity laughs.
"How silly! My dear, won't you go after them?" She addresses the.. thing.
The misshapen beast bounds after them, chuffing and breathing heavily as if it were on its last legs.
God, what in the hell.
Thanks to plot armor, the two manage to find a low point of the fence and jump it before the beast can reach them.
"Heel!" Felicity orders, and The beast stops.
Chester and Parker do not look back, Even though they can feel Felicity and that animal staring at them as they run into the woods.