Chapter Text
chapter one: acrophobia
At night, it was always cold in the dark streets of New York city. The most common source of light being bright billboards and -– if you’re lucky -– the moon and the stars, when they’re not being obstructed by the city smog. Many people dislike the city because of that, whilst other citizens find the obtrusive lights looming above the streets almost captivating. However, Fluixon was not like either of those kinds of people. He preferred hearing the sound of buzzing traffic far away, the sight of neon lights looking like a mere smudge in his vision. The city did not seem as large as when you’re standing right beneath the rows of tall buildings. The summer was cold in early mornings like these, especially when you could feel the wind tugging at your hair.
Fluixon stood far above the city, waiting for his friends to catch up with him. If they weren’t careful enough, they would soon enough find pictures of “ominous dark shadows climbing tall skyscrapers” online, with people in the comment sections freaking out over these supposed urban legends, when in reality they were just a bunch of teen adrenaline junkies.
“Can you hurry up? Flux is already at the top, we’ll get caught before you know it bro,”
Gotoga yelled, more specifically at Rotation, who was currently above Gotoga.
Gotoga was one of the most experienced climbers of their group, while this was one of Rotation’s first missions. Gotoga usually started the ascent last and stayed in the back most of the time so he could keep watch over the group and behind them. And if worse comes to worst, he would try to catch someone if they slipped and fell. Thomas was above Rotation, he was averagely experienced but he was also not bad at it. Seraphim and NK on the other hand were insanely skilled: they could easily slip past security without making a noise, and quickly and discreetly climb up long and difficult structures with ease. And Fluixon, just like Thomas, was not amazing at climbing but certainly not bad at it either. Urban exploring requires skill, and they all did have that.
“Shut up Gotoga, always talking about ‘not wanting to get caught’ but then yelling our ears off like every security guard is deaf or something,” Rotation responded.
“Wow, so grateful for everything I've taught you…” Gotoga shot back sarcastically.
The ascent to the top of the abandoned skyscraper wasn’t much different from anything they’ve done before, except for the fact that Fluixon was the first to reach the top.
“When have you ever been the fastest climber…” Seraphim said to Fluixon, carefully moving to the side of the ladder so she could stand next to him on the spire.
“You were taking too long,” He bitterly replied.
“No, you’re acting all rushed and mysterious. That's my thing.”
“I’m not. You’re just making things up now,” He moved his hand to the base of the spire so he could slightly lean back and gaze at the sunrise.
“C’mon, NK has to agree with me. You’ve been acting weird and edgy.”
“What does that even mean?” Flux furrowed his brow at the comment from Seraphim. Seraphim turns her head to look back at NK, who is standing slightly below them.
“Yo NK! Don’t you think Flux is being weird? He’s stealing my vibe!” She yells in his direction.
“Whatever you say bro,” NK replied, occupied with his phone for some reason.
“Whatever it is you’re looking at on your phone right now better be very interesting, because you are currently standing on a skyscraper spire. Do you have any awareness of your surroundings? Any awareness at all?” Thomas sarcastically adds to their conversation.
“Damn, just say you hate me Thomas. I didn’t know you were such a bad friend… I was the one that planned the route, by the way,” NK refutes Thomas’ comment, still staring at his phone screen.
“No shit, I was there when we planned it,” Thomas replied, putting emphasis on “we”.
NK eventually catches up with Seraphim & Fluixon, he also moves to the side of the ladder and threads one leg through a step, holding himself steady with his arms, he is basically sitting.
“Lazy asshole..” Seraphim mutters.
“I heard that.”
“Shut up, I'm trying to enjoy the view but there’s some chud sitting here and ruining it,” Seraphim responds sneeringly, a little too quickly.
“You guys actually hate me. So much for planning the whole route for you guys,”
NK says, in an attempt to gaslight them again.
“We! We planned that route!” Thomas yells, once again.
NK snaps back at Thomas, a little aggressively. “I wasn’t talking to you, Thomas.”
Thomas responds by putting one hand to his chest and looks hurt dramatically. Seraphim ignores their bickering, and returns to look at the sunrise.
A few more minutes passed, and everyone eventually made it to the top.
Fluixon sat in the middle, Seraphim & NK were sitting on the sides and Thomas below them, with Rotation and Gotoga hanging onto the side of the spire looking like they were about to fall off the building.
The group was conversing about nothing in particular, admiring the view and most importantly hanging on for their lives.
“Yo- uh.. Is Flux even alive? He’s just been like, aurafarming or something. I’ve only heard him say like, 3 words this entire climb, and he was complaining to Seraphim or something..”
Rotation noticed.
“Yeah, I told him he was climbing too fast, and acting mysterious. He said I was making things up,” Seraphim agreed.
“I am literally right here,” Fluixon turns to face Rotation, then Seraphim.
“Yeah– well if you’re not gonna talk, someone’s gotta talk for you!” Rotation replies, throwing one arm in the air dramatically. Seraphim nods along.
The wind was picking up, making it harder to hear others, and it was throwing their hair in their own faces, making it harder to see. “Should we go back soon?”
Gotoga asked, then started moving downwards carefully to get off of the spire, and back on the ladder.
“Yeah, it’s getting brighter, and also super windy. I can’t see for shit dude,” Rotation answered, sounding annoyed with the wind.
There wasn’t much else they needed to say before they all began their descent down the ladder. Fluixon was the last to start moving downwards.
Once everyone reached the bottom of the ladder, they had to go back into the building itself. Flux was still staring at the sunrise, seemingly not that interested in whatever shenanigans his friends were up to.
NK managed to unlock the roof hatch from outside of the building, which was a concern for a little while because it didn’t seem to have a handle on the outside. Turns out it did have one, but it was just too dark to notice.
Finally being back on solid ground, they had to run down the stairwell as fast as possible. The building seemed abandoned, but they could never be too careful.
Fluixon had initially planned on walking home by himself, but his friends were seemingly incapable of taking a hint. Which is why his room has now been invaded by five weird teenagers.
Seraphim and NK had claimed the carpet for the night, helping themselves to a game of mario kart whilst Gotoga, Rotation and Thomas were having ‘very intelligent’ conversations about niche subjects.
Flux was sitting on his bed, his legs crossed, staring out the window and gazing distantly at the sky. He suddenly snaps out of his daydream when Gotoga makes a loud announcement.
“Listen, guys! I saw this super tall crane outside of a huge flat. It’s currently in use BUT if we figure out a night where there aren’t any construction workers present, we can climb it! And also, Snowbird lives in that flat! If we’re lucky, we can just knock on his window and jumpscare him,” Gotoga declares, standing up from his seat and making dramatic gestures with his hands.
Fluixon looks away from the sky, distracted from it by Gotoga’s loud announcement. Intrigued, he looks Gotoga’s way. “And… where is this flat?”
“He talks?” Seraphim dramatically acts surprised, making a dramatic gesture with her hands and her mouth slightly agape.
Flux rolls his eyes and averts his gaze towards his phone.
“Wait! Flux, I need your attention right now! This is your thing! Stop ignoring me!”
Gotoga yells, nearly tripping over NK on the carpet whilst trying to run towards Flux to wave his hand in front of his eyes.
Flux looks at Gotoga, unamused. “I looked away for two seconds.”
“Okay, but I need you to figure out which parts of the crane are safe to stand on in the first place! How are we supposed to plan a route if we don’t know whether we can climb it without falling or not?” Gotoga says, sitting down beside the bed, facing Flux.
Flux sighs, “Do you have a map? Or a picture? Anything at all? Or are you just expecting me to use psychic powers to know the surroundings or something?”
“No, yeah, maybe. I mean- we don’t want a repeat of what happened when you weren’t there during our planning sessions,” Gotoga says, leaning on the mattress with his arms.
“What? What happened then? Why do I not know about this climbing mission? You went climbing without me?” He was genuinely confused, furrowing his brow and slightly tilting his head.
“Let’s just say we’re lucky Gotoga has a fast reaction time.” Thomas adds to the conversation.
“Which one of you fell.” Flux asks, straight to the point with an unamused expression on his face.
Everyone looks at Rotation.
“Damn. Maybe you shouldn’t go on missions anymore?” Flux casually suggests.
“Okay– well- everyone makes mistakes!” Rotation responds, trying to justify his mistake.
“I don’t think that saying counts when it’s life or death, Rotation,” Flux responds, like none of the words have weight behind them.
“Well– I'm still alive and- it’s just because you weren't there during the planning sessions!”
Flux changes the subject quickly and turns his head towards Gotoga, who was listening to the conversation unfold. “Alright, whatever. Gotoga, please tell me you have a map. I don’t wanna go there right now, and where even is this crane? You haven’t told us anything yet.”
“You don’t know where Snowbird lives? I told you, it’s at his flat.”
Gotoga shifts his weight slightly, causing the mattress to dip a little.
“No– dude- just tell me whether you have a map or not. Even a picture helps,” Flux replied, clearly frustrated with Gotoga’s inability to answer a simple question.
“Alright, I have uhm-... this picture…” Gotoga responds hesitantly whilst rapidly browsing through his camera roll in search of the image.
He shows a picture of a blurry red structure at night, the only light source being construction lights and a half-broken street lamp. Not only that, it only shows the bottom of the crane.
What the hell were they supposed to do with that?
“What the hell do you expect me to do with that?” Flux furrowed his brows and gestured with his hand. This picture was useless.
Gotoga moved his hands away from the mattress and stood up looking rejected.
“Well Flux, I guess that means we have to go there, don’t you think?” NK interjected.
Seraphim and NK had paused their game of Mario Kart to bully Flux into going outside in a way that isn’t just climbing tall structures insanely early in the morning.
There wasn’t a verbal agreement, but everyone decided Fluixon’s time had come; they were now all prying at him, trying to get him to go outside.
“C’mon Flux, you only go outside for school or climbing, and you never actually go in the light of the sun! You watch as the sun rises, but as soon as the threat of vitamin D is near, you fucking dip,” NK says, trying to persuade him into touching some grass.
“Yeah, you’re pale as a ghost bro. Your skin is like, basically transparent,” Rotation adds, gesturing with his hands in agreement with NK.
Fluixon knew he was fucked the moment Seraphim started actually tugging him out of his miserable room. He wasn’t weak, because you needed a lot of strength to free climb like that, but Seraphim was definitely a lot stronger than him.
This brings Fluixon to where he is now, getting cooked alive on the New York city streets, getting pulled along by some people who he used to consider his friends, and have now betrayed him by forcing him to get some vitamin D in his system.
His miserably worn down converse shoes were not helping. They were probably one or two sizes too small as well. The shoes he uses to climb aren’t even his— they’re from his sister! Flux just steals them at night and hopes and prays to god she doesn’t want to go on a late night or an insanely early morning walk.
“So we should turn left here and then we’re at Snowbird’s flat. The crane is in the back, so we’d need to find a way to sneak into the construction site. But we’ve done worse, right? A construction site in broad daylight with workers shouldn’t be too hard to sneak into, right?”
Gotoga announces, gesturing nervously with his arms, pointing roughly in the direction they needed to go.
“I can’t believe Flux is the only one who doesn’t know where Snowbird lives,” Thomas says, in a tone you could obviously tell he was mocking Flux with.
Flux did not really care though, he was looking at the sky during that conversation.
Gotoga ‘subtly’ points at the fences where the construction site begins. “We need to get past there. How the hell are we gonna do that?”
Seraphim does not give a shit, she directly walks towards the fences and takes a look behind them.
“Walk with confidence, they’ll think you belong here,” she said once. For some reason, it always worked.
“C’mon guys, we’re going in, I don’t think they care. If they do ask, just tell them we’re the local kids. They'll mind their business. Classic NYC-mind-your-business etiquette, they’ve seen worse than a bunch of kids on their construction site!” Seraphim declares with full confidence, pointing towards a crooked fence, that you could just walk around.
“Just walk with confidence. Just look like you belong there, I guess,” She repeats her previous statement.
“In what world do a bunch of edgy high schoolers belong on a construction site?” Thomas asks, rightfully so.
“Err– this one apparently. Just don’t think of it too much, they probably think we’re just curious or something. They think that teenagers have the intelligence of a four year old anyways. Just act confident and dumb,” Seraphim explained, making small gestures with her hands and occasional head movements.
After rightful hesitation and reconsideration, the group headed toward the flimsy fence.
Seraphim walked in like she owned the place, Gotoga followed her closely. Thomas and Rotation were a bit more hesitant, but also followed immediately after. NK was left to convince Flux to follow. The latter really did not feel like dealing with nosy construction workers though.
NK looked at Flux, then back at the others, who had to stand in a way that was not suspicious at all while waiting for them.
“I am not going on that construction site,” said Flux before NK could say anything, and crossed his arms.
“You're so stubborn, why not? You said you wanted to see the crane!”
NK scoffed, pointing towards Flux accusingly with his index finger.
“Yeah– but not in broad daylight with all of the construction workers and security present!”
Flux protested, while gesturing with his hand toward the construction site.
“Come on, the rest is literally awkwardly waiting for you,” NK states, already dragging Flux to the construction site by his wrist before he could protest any further.
The warmth of the sun burned their necks – the tall flat not being any help in shielding them from the inevitable sunburns, because who even wears sunscreen these days? Flux looked up at the crane conveniently placed before the flat, one hand in front of his forehead to shield his eyes from the unforgiving sunlight.
“Not a single security camera in sight. Are they stupid?” Thomas exclaimed dramatically, he was talking with NK and Seraphim, they were already figuring out how to avoid getting spotted; one of the absolute key objectives to urban exploring.
“Definitely. No wonder they ended up with a construction worker career…” Seraphim carelessly made fun of them; she hated those damn (as she calls them) brick-for-a-brain workers because they were always ‘in the way’ of their missions.
A few construction workers passed by the teenagers, but they didn't get paid enough to care about some trespassing kids. They only shot a confused look towards the group and moved on with their day.
“See? I’m always right. They really do not give a shit,” Seraphim confidently exclaimed with a very proud expression on her face. “I think they will ‘give a shit’ the moment we attempt to get anywhere near that crane. I need to at least see it closer to know if we can even climb it in the first place,” Flux crosses his arms over his chest. This was the last place he wanted to be at right now. The sun was practically burning him alive, it was loud and busy everywhere, plus his friends had quite literally dragged him outside against his will.
For a split second Thomas seemed convinced — but before he could state his agreement, he was immediately interrupted by Seraphim, who has been speaking much more than usual and you would even think she is making up for the words Flux is not saying.
“We should just take some pictures, I’m sure Flux can figure it out! I’m pretty sure we all wanna knock on Snowbird’s window at some point. And most importantly, the crane isn’t gonna be here forever, so right now we need to lock the fuck in!” she stated, making rigid gestures with her hands and effectively looking like she was giving a speech, looking towards the rest of the group, then back at the crane.
Flux looked towards the others to see if they would be stupid enough to agree with this ‘plan’, and to his dismay, everyone was nodding like Seraphim had just made the statement of the century. How the hell was he supposed to ‘figure it out’ from just a picture? He doesn’t even know if the gaps between the bars are climbable for them — considering the fact they’re high schoolers, and they were not the tallest.
“You guys seriously think this is a good plan? Can’t we come back at night? You guys all wanna ‘knock on Snowbird’s window,’ so can’t we just… look through his window instead? Or would it be too hard to explain to him that we climb cranes illegally without any climbing gear?” Flux protests, stepping in front of the group while making gestures with his hands as if he were giving a speech but a little more rigid than Seraphim had been earlier.
Hopelessly, he looked at Thomas. Surely he would back him up, right? He was his best friend!
“We could go back at night? Maybe not visit Snowbird though,” Thomas says, to Flux’s surprise.
“Sure. Whatever…" Seraphim sighed, disappointed. She still wanted to take pictures of the crane, though. She really did not want to agree with Flux, but because Thomas had said it first, maybe it was fine.
Both she and Gotoga pulled out their phones and snapped a few quick photos of the structure, although they ended up a little blurry.
They were praying for Flux's downfall, he was pretty sure of it at this point.
Before they could all agree on leaving the construction site, Flux had already made a run for it. He was so done with these idiots. It didn’t take long for everyone to be back to walking on the busy streets of New York city.
Flux squinted at the bright sunlight obstructing his view. The sun rays spread out far in the clouds, spreading out like a net blocking the sky. It is significantly harder to focus on the sky when the sun is bright like this, the beams of light stubbornly pouring in through the clouds and the fog.
Rotation, Thomas and Gotoga were idly chatting whilst NK and Seraphim were arguing on who had the most aura in their group. Flux was trying to look at the sky, to look forward but the sunlight was ruthless.
There were three key parts to effectively planning and executing the missions.
The ability to run, climb and hold on for long periods of time;
Avoiding to get spotted or avoiding security cameras;
And undoubtedly the most important of all; do not fall.
Obviously, all sorts of routes had to be thought out thoroughly. Escape routes, the actual climb routes, where to enter and where to exit. Planning a mission was complicated; Which is why the group organized ‘planning sessions’, with categories assigned to each member of the group.
Flux would figure out if the surfaces were safe to stand on in the first place, if they could even climb it, and how they would do so.
Seraphim & NK figured out where the security cameras were located, mapped out their blind spots and would discuss how to slip past the employees of the structure they picked to climb.
Gotoga and Rotation were usually the ones to figure out what they needed to bring. Both of them had tendencies to bring an insanely expensive camera with them and take pictures of the view. They were also mostly there to remind the group that they don’t need to climb gearless, to which Seraphim and NK would object and say that they would ‘lose aura’ if they were to bring climbing gear.
Snowbird on the other hand was not even aware that his friend group did stuff like this. That was partially because they had been doing this way before they all knew Snowbird. It wasn’t like they had anything against Snowbird, the group was just waiting for a way to jumpscare him through his window, and this crane was a golden opportunity to do just that.
It’s 04:21 in the morning when Flux gets a message from the contact: ‘Gotoga (he needs to shut up), reading:
Gotoga (he needs to shut up) :
Everyone come to the crane rn yall wanted 2 see it at
night you better show up then
04:21
Thomas the powergamer :
i forgor
04:21
Fluixon :
also lwk forgot but im omw
04:22
There was nobody at the construction site, which made sense considering it was 04:50 in the morning. Today it was just Gotoga, Thomas and Fluixon at the crane.
Flux shines his phone torch on the crane, now finally being able to see it up close.
One hand in his pocket, shielding it from the cold summer morning. He shoves his phone in his other pocket and grasps the lowest metal bar of the structure.
After a rather awkwardly long time of some thinking and doing calculations in his head, Flux monotonously says “Okay so, I still can’t do shit with this information.”
“Well, what is this even useful for then?” Gotoga crosses his arms over his chest, and turns to face Flux with a very serious look on his face.
“I think you guys just need to freestyle it. I don’t feel like checking if the metal can hold you guys, this is your problem now.” Flux turns on his heel and walks away, not wanting to deal with Gotoga’s bullshit anymore.
“Did he actually just ditch us?” Thomas turns to look at Gotoga, only to see he was already looking at Thomas with the same baffled expression that reads; “are we cooked?”
A few seconds of silence passed, watching Flux walk away, Gotoga sighed loudly and extremely dramatically. “Do we seriously need to hold him hostage to get him to do anything at all? He loved ranting about cranes when we were planning to climb one, why does he hate us now? What did we ever do to him?” He claimed as obnoxiously loud as possible, so Flux was able to hear it from across the street.
He just turned slightly, and resumed walking.
“Oh my god bro, I’m sliming him out tomorrow during our weekly group meet-up.” Gotoga pinched his nosebridge. He was insanely annoyed at Flux.
Thomas just glanced between the two friends walking separate ways like a lost puppy.
He retrieved his phone from his pocket and dialed Flux’s number.
“We are like five metres apart right now,” is what Flux says right after answering.
The phone call ends. Thomas already knew this mission was going to fail, and that there was absolutely no way the planning session would commence. He stuck his phone into his back pocket, and started walking home .
The clock loudly ticked 05:00 in the morning, the sun had already begun to rise.
Fluixon was alone with his thoughts and the sound of birdsong.
He tried to focus on the sounds. He had picked three familiar noises, the birds, his own breathing and the sound of the clock ticking. None of it was relaxing though, all of it only reminded him of the passage of time.
It felt like he was running out of time, although he was not sure for what, but for something, and it was dreadful.
Flux hated deadlines, he hated homework, he hated projects and he hated the inevitable arrival of the dawn.
Time does not wait for anyone. Even if you can’t keep going, time does not allow breaks, there is nothing to be done about that.
Unless you let yourself get left behind.