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Since sunset Phantom and Aurora have been barricading themselves in the multi ghoullette's room. It was time for game night! That meant the pack wouldn't get to see a single glimpse of them for a long time.The others knew better than to try and coax the little gremlins out of their “territory”.
Last time Cirrus tried to, it turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes in the den’s recent history. A Game night also came along with a lot of chaos. Coupled with caffeine in the form of the ministry's entire supply of canned drinks, disaster was always bound to happen. The two of them plundered the pantries earlier that afternoon, much to the annoyance of the kitchen staff.
Surrounded by an unhealthy amount of empty soda cans, the two of them were cozily cuddled up on Aurora's couch and indulged in a shared session of Minecraft. A bunch of cards were haphazardly piled on top of each other on the table nearby, the others were scattered around various surfaces, including the shabby shelf next to the couch. A telltale sign of a fierce battle of Uno which took place before they settled down to play something calmer. It was unspoken that nothing which they ever played stayed calm. One of the ghouls was always up to spontaneous shenanigans.
Phantom giggled mischievously as they leaned back against the back-rest of the couch, ready to observe their friend's reaction to what was about to transpire.
BOOM – an all too familiar sound echoed through their devices. Phantom was grinning now, trying to play it off by sipping innocently on their soda. They did nothing wrong, nope, totally no explosion or anything like that.
“Phantom!” Aurora shrieked, she was caught off guard by the loud noise. In game she was moving towards the source of the explosion: her carefully built bee enclosure. There she was greeted by a horrifying sight. A gaping hole in the glass dome, the beehives annihilated.
A quiet whimper of disappointment reached Phantom's ears. They were grinning even more. Aurora's beloved bees weren't cuties anymore but rather a swarm of bloodthirsty beasts which were dead-set on stinging Phantom and her to death. As if she was at fault for Phantom's act of cruelty! To Aurora the bees were nearly as scary as an angry Sister Imperator, but oh well, that woman kissed the dirt a year ago. Just as Phantom would be in a bit (in the game).
“Seriously, fuck you,” Aurora yelled. Her tail thumped against the faux-leather in displeasure. It hit Phantom's shoulders once or twice, accidentally of course.”That... you – you didn't have to commit genocide!”
Phantom did not reply, in return their giggling turned into the ghoul equivalent of a hyena’s laughing. They were kicking their legs back and forth against the couch, unable to repress the physical expression of their feelings. Honestly, this was way too much fun for the quintessence ghoul. Besides, that's what Aurora gets for annexing a large chunk of their territory to build a stupid bee farm.
“You had it coming,” Phantom barely managed to get out between gasps for air.
The multi ghoulette looked up at them, trying to hold her own laughter back. “Mark my words, vengeance will be mine, Phantom!” she proclaimed while she was frantically tapping on her screen. Aurora was attacking Phantom's character with an enchanted sword.
On the sixth hit Phantom perished.
Seven bees stung Aurora to death.
The screen proudly declared their demise:
Game over.
Barely a few seconds passed before Aurora's phone was smashed out of her hands. Phantom had playfully pounced on her. They were now situated on top of the ghoulette, ready to stop any attempted escape-maneuvers. “I don't think so,” they whispered into her ear. A wide grin revealed their sharp fangs.
“Nu-uh,” Aurora replied.
“What do you mean nu-uh?” Phantom's eyes were glinting with confidence. They had the upper hand and Aurora wasn't even trying to get them off.
“Surprise attack!” Aurora yelled as she began to tickle the quintessence ghoul into submission. She knew how to play her cards well, literally and figuratively. She won the earlier game of Uno.
“Unfair,” Phantom squealed. Begging for mercy wouldn't work on her so they started to kick at Aurora. There was no real strength behind the attack, just enough to put Aurora off for a bit. It couldn't even border on a play flight, those were rougher by ghoul standards.
Soon enough the both of them were equally engaged and dangerously close to the edge of the couch. Phantom landed another kick on Aurora's shoulder, the ghoulette tumbled to the ground, but not without dragging Phantom to join her in the pile of snack wrappers and Uno cards. The cheaply built shelf in the corner creaked slightly from the floor’s vibration.
Respite was for the weak. Phantom immediately took the initiative to wrestle Aurora further into the mess on the ground. Now she was the one getting tickled beyond oblivion.
“I'll get you," she growled before headbutting them. Neither of them were ready to give up on the sweet taste of a potential victory. A fierce battle of dominance ensued (they were rolling around on the floor.) The noise probably reached every room on the floor at this point. Tails and horns clinking against furniture weren't really subtle sounds, especially not in such an old building.
Aurora was about to pull Phantom into a headlock during yet another roll, when their tails tangled up. Taken by surprise the two of them struggled to detangle themselves, in turn their spinning trajectory got thrown off towards the corner of the room. A wobbly shelf was towering before them, and they crashed into it hard.
Aurora let Phantom immediately go as she rushed to stabilize the shelf with her upper body pressed against it. It looked like she gave it a big ghoulish hug. Unlike Aurora, Phantom's flight instincts kicked in, the quintessence ghoul had to get away from the dangerous wooden construct. They scrambled for safety. The logical idea of helping their friend didn't even cross their mind once. In the end both of them failed. With a loud noise the wooden structure came down on top of them and hit the floor, ruthlessly burying the friends.
Phantom let out a pained whimper as they slowly snapped out of their panicked haze. The pain in their lower body was disorienting. It felt like a weight was squishing their legs and tail to death. The quintessence ghoul tried to shift onto their back but they were trapped like a fly in an insect trap. Aurora wasn’t in their field of vision.
“Aurora?” Phantom called out quietly. The young ghoul sounded scared. The other ghoul didn’t respond. After a few more attempts Phantom could make out her pained groans. Phantom cursed, Aurora was likeliest injured too.
Aurora blinked a few times as she was coming back to the world of the living. It felt like the heavens caved in around her; Her head hurt like a bitch. Everything was dark and blurry. “Must be heavenly punishment… their crappy god took my sight,” Aurora whined.
Phantom couldn’t quite make out her mumbling, it seemingly came from further down beneath the shelf. “Ora? Are you okay” Phantom probed, hoping that they’d get a proper answer this time around.
“No?” Aurora groaned. “The heavens caved in… The mortal realm is crushing me,” she added after taking a pause. Her cryptic statements worried Phantom, they didn’t know how they were supposed to interpret her slurred words. “No, wait. It’s a tunnel. Yeah.There’s light at the end of it.”
Phantom blinked confused. A tunnel… yeah, that totally checks out. Aurora must’ve hit her head pretty hard. A profane curse left their mouth as they tried to wiggle around to get a glimpse of where Aurora was. Phantom felt their heartbeat pounding in their ears. “Does your head hurt? Does it feel weird?”
Aurora whimpered as she tried to focus on her body. The ghoulette struggled to categorise the sensations in her body. It was weird, she felt dull throbbing in her head but it didn’t really hurt. “No? Maybe… ehh?” Aurora whimpered. The confusion was apparent in the way she dragged the words out.
Then the pain hit her at once. “Fuck, yeah, it hurts,” she cried out.
Aurora managed to regain some sense of clarity. Suddenly she was aware that her current situation was neither a god ordained punishment nor a tunnel. She was lying on the ground beneath her shelf.
“Ah, silly me,” she giggled and tilted her head which she immediately regretted; another wave of pain made her almost throw up. Based on what Aurora could sense, she should technically be able to crawl out on her own. Luckily for her Phantom’s legs were the load bearing point. “I’m trying to crawl out,” Aurora called out.
This nightmarish situation wasn’t as hopeless anymore. Phantom felt how their teeth unclenched. Some of the pressure in their body evaporated.
The pain in their lower body was still present and their friend’s condition still greatly worried Phantom. Maybe the both of them would be able to get out of this mess without having to alert the entire den to their little accident.
Two minutes later Aurora emerged from the fallen furnishing and the rubble (the spilt out items which were previously on it). The world around her was tilting and pulsing yet again. The pain was nauseating but she stubbornly continued to crawl towards Phantom’s position.
As soon as she saw them she couldn’t hold back her grin. “You look like shit,” Aurora laughed, followed by a pain-filled wince.
“So do you.”
“Thanks.”
Once she was situated next to Phantom, the multi ghoulette made efforts to sit up. In a matter of seconds Aurora slumped over again, she braced her fall with her forearms. Her left hand immediately clasped over her mouth.
A sense of dread washed over Phantom. “Don’t you dare barf on me!” they shrieked. They really didn’t want to fall victim to that disgusting scenario.
Aurora shook her head. The movement amplified the pressure in her head and stomach? It was weird. Aurora gagged as she felt involuntary movement in her digestive tract. Aurora tried to concentrate on breathing deeply and with a big swallow, of way too much saliva, she managed to bring a stop to the sensation. “Next time, sorry”
“I’d rather not,” Phantom mumbled, ears drooped slightly. They reached out for her head. A little bit of healing quintessence might help to briefly alleviate her symptoms. “Come here.”
Aurora didn’t even hesitate with softly pressing her pounding head against their palm. The prickly yet cool energy seeped through her flesh and bones, soothing the heavy assault on her nerves. Her pain was gradually soothed until she could only feel a dull pressure.
Phantom too was lost in the sensation of their quintessence, letting it carry their senses into the other’s body. “Concussion,” Phantom mumbled under their breath. “Mild or moderate… it’s difficult to sense.” Phantom blinked a few times, they felt Aurora’s symptoms within their own body. It was draining. They retracted their hand. “That’s all,” their voice was quieter than before. The young quintessence ghoul wasn’t particularly gifted in the art of healing. At best they could somewhat mend bruises or temporarily block pain receptors of others. Anything beyond that was nigh impossible.
“Thank you, that’s more than enough,” she said softly. Her eyes twinkled softly. “I appreciate that.” Aurora sat up, she still shouldn't be upright but it didn’t make her crash down again. Her mind was already occupied with finding solutions to get Phantom out as well. Slightly further down on the other side of Phantom, near the bed, was her skateboard. Aurora snapped her fingers and gestured at it. Phantom’s expression spelt confusion as their eyes landed on the board.
Aurora held her position as it was. Awkward silence followed, as if she expected Phantom to know what she meant. When they didn’t make any moves to try to reach for it, she began to wave around as if that would help to convey her silent request.
“Really?” Phantom deadpanned. Phantom couldn’t read thoughts.
“I need the thing. The one with the rolls,” she mumbled. Her tail was thumping against the floor repeatedly. She couldn’t get a grasp on the word. “The street surfboard!”
Reaching for the item was a cruel task for the still-stuck ghoul. The limited mobility in their lower body made it challenging. Once Phantom managed to make brief contact with it, they contorted their arm in order to give the board a small push. It rolled on until Aurora’s tail intercepted it.
Aurora flashed her friend a grin and immediately got to work. She lifted one side of the shelf just enough to be able to jam the skateboard into the gap. Some of the pressure was taken off Phantom’s right side; The other was still being painfully squeezed. A few seconds later that pressure was lifted as well.
The way Phantom dragged themself forward by their arms could only be described as pathetic. Aurora winced, the sight of Phantom’s broken leg was awful. Luckily it seemed like only that one was weirdly angled.
“You look like you crawled straight out of the pits again,” she mumbled.
Phantom glared at her for referring to that troubling experience. Aurora ceased her commentary straight away and fidgeted with her phone instead, which she picked up at some point during the rescue mission.
“I’m calling Omega,” she bit her lips and faced away.
Instant regret coursed through her as the light of the way-too-bright screen assaulted her senses. Even Phantom’s nerve blocks couldn’t hold the thrumming pain back. With a hiss she dumped the phone onto the floor near Phantom.
“How are we going to explain this to Omega?”
Aurora shrugged as Phantom got a hold of her phone and dialed the older ghoul’s number.
Phantom flipped the shelf off. “Stupid ass furniture.”