Chapter Text
Mully had always been told growing up that if any of his friends had told him to jump off a bridge, he would jump with not a moment to spare.
It never seemed like a bad thing; at least to him. Most of the time, it was said endearingly, like after he had gotten in trouble at school for defending one of his mates or for getting up to no good in their small town. It was mostly his mother who said it like that, a straightforward fact that was as simple as breathing.
(“A lamb to the slaughter. Poor boy will always follow his friends.” His mum chattered. It was behind his back one day after supper when she thought he had gone upstairs. “He’s a loyal one.”
“Idiotic more like it.” His step-father grumbled under his breath. Even amongst the noise of the living room TV and the neighbour’s dog barking upstairs, his step-dad may have said it loud enough to his face and hit him square in the chest.
Whatever. It never bothered him anyway.)
Though behind situated in a small fucking car in 40-degree weather with no air conditioning, sweat soaking through his shirt and sitting next to his ego-maniacal friend, he’s starting to see where they may have been coming from.
”So… remind me what we’re doing in bum-fuck nowhere? In a car with no air conditioning? Just the two of us?” Mully asked, leaning back in his seat, fiddling with the camera in his hands. “Or have you finally cracked from stress and gonna murder us both in the middle of the desert?”
Josh’s attention shifted from the trails of greenery and round-down roads to stare at him. Even with the dark sunglasses covering Josh’s eyes, Mully could sense Josh sending him one of the most unimpressed (but not surprised) deadpan stare before sighing and rubbing at his forehead in exasperation.
”First of all, I am not murdering you in the middle of nowhere. I’m insulted that you would think that,” Josh muttered, pouting. He couldn’t help but laugh at the older man’s pout, which evolved into receiving an elbow from Josh. “Second of all, it’s, like, on the outskirts of Gawler, okay? In an… abandoned-ish building—“
“Ah, we’re gonna break in, eh? Doing illegal shit for views now, mate?” He joked, ribbing Josh back.
Josh rolls his eyes, and on any other day, Mully would joke that his eyes would get stuck like that, but being stuck in a car for so long sitting in the blistering heat has completely stopped any brain cells from processing this thought (alongside his motivation) to say it.
Josh breaks him out of his mulling (heh) and says, “We’re not breaking in, bitch. We—“
“You.”
“— and Dose got permission from the owner. I already explained it before; did you pay attention before?”
Mully shrugged. To say yes, he did. It’s just after the fact that when Josh started spewing shit about cults and demonic possessions, he started zoning out and considering a career change again. Maybe he should go back to being a chief again. That wasn’t too bad, he thought idly to himself, or maybe getting new friends. Ones that didn’t get daily impulsive ideas of doing batshit things in front of a camera.
He’s so convinced that if he ever broke a bone, there would be no doubt that Josh would be right at his side to record it. Nothing like friendship powered by viral moments!
”Sure did. Just wanted to make sure that you aren’t actually losing it.” He said simply.
Josh shook his head for a beat, feigning fake annoyance, despite the smile creeping up on his face. “It’s been abandoned for a few years. The owner’s uncle owned it before—had rumours of ghost sightings, and to everyone’s surprise it was on top of a burial site. He’s not sure how his uncle bought the house, but tons of spooky activity. No one’s lived in it for… 30-ish years?”
“So… you’re sending us to another shit-hole? Alone?” He said, exasperated. If Josh turned his head from the road to Mully, he would see the intense look of disinterest and utter judgement written all over his face.
“Yeah, well, we’re only checking it out today. Tomorrow, we’re coming with Alana and Dose as backup.”
“And the camera?”
Josh shrugs. “We might get some cool stuff tonight. Think of it as promo for the viewers.”
“Dude, we are so gonna die.” Mully groaned, shaking his head. Why Josh thought this was a good idea was anyone’s guess. Though you could argue that he was a bigger idiot for going along with it blindly. “You’re a sadist with a death wish.”
“Trust me, Mulls, it’s just a shit-hole. The worst that is gonna come from it is maybe a few ghost interactions and getting lost in the middle of nowhere. What’s the worst that could actually happen?”
~*~
In the end, Josh was right. The place was a shit-hole, if you could consider that.
If you asked Mully, he would say that was the understatement of the century, with the place looking like it had survived through multiple tornadoes and twenty floods.
From a faraway distance (and maybe if he squinted his eyes), it looked fairly normal. Just a typical house, and honestly, if you didn’t look any deeper you would never know it was abandoned. But eventually, eyeing the various holes in the roof, lined with broken glass and shattered beer bottles lining up the path, he imagines that this is where dreams and hopes go to die. Even from the enclosed car, the smell of decay finds a way to invade his nostrils.
Gross.
Stepping outside of the rental car, he stares at the building for a beat. Seriously, this is one of the worst places they had gone to, and they hadn’t even stepped inside of it. The smell of rotting food, dead animals and mould was so strong that it would’ve made him gag if he wasn’t a weak(er) man. Next to him, Josh is seemingly oblivious to the conundrum Mully was in, hopping out of the car with pep in his step to stand next to Mully.
“Ta-da,” Josh said, giving jazz hands, as if that would make this house look better than the pile of shit they were looking out. “If you just ignore all the junk and stuff, I say it’s quite charming.”
“We are going to die tonight.” He laughs, shaking his head in pure disbelief and exasperation. “This place reeks of piss and squatters!”
“It’s locked up, like 99% of the time anyway. And we have the key.” Fishing the key out of his pocket, Josh practically skips to the entrance of the manor and starts attempting to unlock the door.
Mully watches for a beat, wondering if he could justify driving away in the car and abandoning his short, idiotic, lovable friend. Why would they even do this? He thinks for a moment before realising, oh that’s right Dose. That motherfucker; it wouldn’t be a surprise if he found this place on Reddit or something. Man always liked finding dangerous stuff for videos, alongside Josh. Something about getting “views” or something. When combined with Josh’s own short hindsight, it was a recipe for disaster. Something he is now paying the price for.
When he notices Josh struggling to unlock the door, he swallows down any complaints he was about to make and hesitantly joins his friend.
At least one of them was having fun.
Sighing, he lets the hot wind brush over him for a moment before joining Josh. At least if they can get in, they can beat the heat beaming down on them.
“Alright, how are we gonna get this door open?” He asked, jabbing at the door slightly. The door was so rusted that even with a single shove, he could feel the door jammed in. There was no way they were getting in.
Josh shrugged. “Shove and hope for the best?”
Mully groaned.
After a while of awkwardly shouldering at the door (man, his shoulders are gonna get so bruised), while Josh tried to turn the key through the rusty door handle, he swears he’s seconds from giving up because this door is super-glued shut—
The door files inward with a screech.
“Fuck—!”
Left with nothing to support himself, Mully couldn’t help but curse as he stumbled forward, nearly eating shit on the wrecked floorboards. Thankfully, even for being half his height, Josh managed to snag the back of his shirt before he faceplanted into a suspiciously black stain on the ground. Gross.
”Careful, dickhead.” Josh snickered, stepping beside him.
He groans, dusting himself off. “Careful? You almost sent me to the other side of the fucking country.”
“If I remember it right, I saved your ass. Don’t be a baby, Mulls.” Josh said, now holding the camera that was in his pocket prior. Stepping further into the hall, he does a wide sweep with the camera before turning it back to Mully with a grin. When he notices the lenses are pointed at him, he flips off the camera. Josh, who decides to be the bigger person (figuratively), ignores him and continues to talk. “Anyways, hey guys! Today we’re checking out one of South Australia’s supposedly haunted abandoned properties—“
“It smells like someone died in the walls,” Mully mutters sourly under his breath.
”—with my boy, Mulligan!”
“Piss off, Josh.”
Laughing, Josh swings the camera from his own pissed expression and towards the foyer. Now that he’s not actively dying and ignoring the smell, he couldn’t help but feel creeped out. This whole place was creepy. Like real creepiness. Not like those fake-ass haunted mansions in the Royal Adelaide show. Like, real creepy.
There was something heavy settling onto the house like a dark cloud. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the rotting walls, the lack of furniture or the sudden chill that entered the house, but it was… wrong.
A chill crawls down his back. Despite the brave, asshole-ish act Mully likes to put on during the times when Josh dragged him out to film for their channel, The Boys, something about haunted houses scared him to his core. Even if they did find little to no evidence. There was just something about houses that held people’s memories and lives long before him that seemingly freaked him out?
Josh though? Not so much. With the unbound energy of a golden retriever, or when Milky wanted a treat, Josh beckoned him with one hand and started the trek down the hall.
Mully, who has definitely questioned who he’s friends with since stepping outside of the car, followed like a fool.
The entrance hall stretched further than he expected, lined with peeling floral wallpaper that had faded with age and stained from water and god knows what else. He was confident that the brown stain that grew from the top to the bottom was blood. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed entirely, exposing the dark wooden beams overhead them like broken ribs. Dust coated every surface and was so thick that every step they took was left behind like snow. It lingered in the air so much that multiple times both him and Josh had to scrunch their noses to try and prevent themselves from sneezing. Before he could open his mouth to question Josh if they had found enough footage for the “promo” and get the fuck outta here, because holy fuck was this place freaky—
A loud sound echoes above their heads.
Flinching, he paused mid-step. Goosebumps lined his arms as he nervously darted to stare at the roof. Josh, who had been giddy mere seconds ago, froze as well, moving the camera up to watch the roof as it would get a good view of what they heard.
The silence was so thick that underneath his thundering heart he could hear a pin drop from a kilometre away.
Josh broke the silence first. “You heard that too, right?”
“Josh, shut the fuck up.” He hissed, ears straining to hear anything else. Maybe it was nothing? Or perhaps a door moving against the wind? Surely it wouldn’t—
Another bang echoed upstairs.
It felt deliberate. That this wasn’t the wind moving against the door or a coincidence. Like something was luring them upstairs. Like what sirens do to pirates.
Fuck that.
Shaking his head, snapping out of the stupor, Mully moved to grab his short friend’s arm before he got any idea. He could practically see the gears running in Josh’s mind, and the strange glint he got in his eyes when he had an idea that would either humiliate, stress or injure someone. Josh had broken his own sister’s leg before. That man was crazy for anything.
Especially when cameras were on and rolling. That was a recipe for disaster; a disaster that anyone could see rolling out Australia’s outback.
“C’mon, mate, we’re getting the fuck outta here. Ain’t no way are we investigating whatever the fuck that was; I’ve seen way too many horror movies.”
Josh turned to him with the gaze of a thousand suns in his eyes, and Mully felt his heart drop to his ass.
Oh.
Oh.
…
They’re so fucked.
”Dude.”
“No.”
“Dude.”
“Absolutely not. Are you insane?!”
Josh was already climbing the staircase two steps at a time, like a kid sneaking away to get a cookie out of the jar when their mum wasn’t looking. When the fuck did he escape his death-grasp anyway? Slimey little gnome—
“Josh, you’re an idiot. Get down before someone jumps out and bashes you or something.”
Josh ignores him in favour of staring down the hall, exclaiming, “Dude, there’s footprints up here.”
Shaking his head at the rotting wooden board, his mind is racing to come up with every colourful word under the English language to insult him, before hurrying up after him. Just in case the idiot accidentally got possessed or stabbed by whatever the fuck was up there. However, when he got to the foot of the stairs, he hesitated for a moment, head turning wildly to find something heavy. Just in case, y’know, if someone is fucking up there. Eyeing the loose piece of wood, Mully gripped it and pulled until it broke off as a type of cricket-bat. Good enough, right?
Shouldering it, he moved up the stairs until he was right next to Josh. If he thought it was dusty downstairs, upstairs had looked like it was snowing inside the house. It had been clear that no one had been upstairs for a fair while (Mully couldn’t even fathom why). Even standing on the top floor, he could feel the floor trembling under their combined weight. It was like standing on top of a card tower; something that would collapse under the breeziest of winds. However, as clear as day, there were two sets of footprints, and judging by how clean these sets were, it was evident that people had stood here not too long ago.
Both were so silent for a moment. He side-eyed Josh as the man adjusted the camera (still rolling—of fucking course it was, that man had no common sense—)
“Creepy.” Josh muttered, scrunching his nose in disgust, “Smells worse up here. Like something died in the walls.”
“Or a methead…” Mully whispered back and they snickered. Eyeing the two sets of footprints that trailed down the hall and out of sight, he went to ask, “Seriously, though, we ain’t going to follow those footprints, right? I mean it’s always white people that die in horror films.”
“Oh, we’re definitely going down there.” He grinned back. Slimey motherfucker— “C’mon, Mulls, don’t tell me you’re scared of ghosts.”
He let out a bark of laughter. “Ah, fuck that, I don’t believe in that shit.”
Not really, anyway. Though it can be utterly terrifying when you’re stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere with ghosts threatening your safety.
“But that?” He pointed into the darkness that is begging for them to get murdered. He’s smart enough to know that ghosts aren’t the only thing taking up residence and people; people are crazy enough to be hiding in a place like this. “That ain’t ghosts, Josh. It’s probably fucking, like, methhead squatters who’ll jump and bash ya or something.”
His words seemed to hit Josh. Josh shuffled his weight between his feet, staring up at Mully for a moment, before looking down the hall, calculating the risk of going down there.
Finally, he said, “Aw c’mon mate, just one look. Trust, if someone does come up, you’ve got it handled, huh?”
Slapping his back, Josh follows the track of footprints like a dog looking for a bone, and ultimately to their death if he thinks too hard about it.
Sighing and like a lamb being led to the slaughterhouse, he follows. Because, hey, if they’re gonna die, they might as well go out together, right?
”Dumb, dumb, dumb idiot.” He mutters, dragging his feet as he followed his friend into the endless array of doors and hallways.
~*~
The first few rooms had nothing much to them, much to his relief. Apart from the rotting floorboards, water-damaged wallpaper and an assortment of items abandoned by previous owners. Some were not limited to: an old doll hanging apart by mere threads, a spider the size of his head (terrifying), and old furniture that was destroyed and left in the wake of people to stumble upon.
Yanking the door open, he stepped back into the hallway, taking a moment to stretch out his back and shake dust off his shoulders. The afternoon light slowly bled out during their expedition upstairs, leaving only the creeping moon and sparkling stars as a testimony to the bullshit Josh and Mully were up to.
At some point in the late afternoon him and Josh had split. They had quickly discovered that while downstairs had been an interconnected, open space, upstairs was the exact opposite. It was a labyrinth with doors leading to all nooks and crannies, with secret rooms for no fucking reason. It had been Josh’s idea, of course, and he had gone along with it, wanting to search the space as quickly as possible and leave.
Now, where the fuck was Josh?
Staring down the hall, he willed Josh to pop out from one of the doors, shove his gloating with his dumb-dumb face and all the while laughing, before leaving. However, Mully learned that life wasn’t fair. And when Josh didn’t appear from one of the doors he had called dibs on hours ago, Mully let out a deep sigh and moved towards the nearest door, on his left.
“Josh, where the fuck are you… I swear to god, if you’re planning on scaring the shit outta me, I’m leaving you behind.”
No one answered.
He let out an even bigger sigh and jerked the door open. Unlike the first room and—oh, who was he kidding, it was like any other fucking room he’d stepped through this afternoon—was fucking empty.
Whoop-de-doo, who’s shocked?
But still, no sign of Josh. Flashing his camera light on, he’s quick to notice footprints that match the shoes Josh is always wearing (something that Mully had made fun of ages ago). Bingo.
“Josh? You good, man?” He called out, hushed amongst the silence, as the door swung closed. He’s not sure what made him whisper. The darkness? The eerie emptiness? Or knowing that something was in the house amongst them?
Ignoring the goosebumps trailing down his arm, he took another hesitant step further into the room.
The room didn’t seem like much. It must’ve been a bedroom before, judging by the single wooden bed shoved to the side under the open window, bearing a broken leg. The floral blankets that may have been pink were now a dusty magenta and torn apart by rats. This room, like the other rooms, was uneventful. Plain. Boring. A nothing burger.
When he smelled blood, he couldn’t help but freeze, like ice water pouring down his shirt, his heart coming to a stop. It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve encountered danger; whether it would be in-between filming at random places for videos, or other nonsense they’d gotten up to in the past few years. Whatever bullshit they’d gotten into together, they always got into it together, through thick and thin. So it didn’t matter if he knew that something like this could happen, if Josh ignored all the warning signs and was now in trouble; Mully wouldn’t leave him in danger.
It was the other side of the bed, with another set of doors, when he spied a wave of blood. Okay, he was being a bit dramatic, but eyeing the blood stain the size of his palm, he felt himself panic again.
Whose blood was it? Please don’t let it be Josh’s…
”… Josh? Don’t fuck with me, man, this isn’t funny.” He called out, ignoring the lump in his throat and how his voice wavered.
No one answered.
He gripped the plank tighter.
The room suddenly became smaller and harder to breathe in. It was eerie. Too eerie. It was suffocating in a way that he could physically feel, with each breath harder to take than the last. Without Josh by his side, Mully couldn’t help but think of all the possibilities that forced their way into his mind.
What is Josh fell through the floor? Or got jumped by squatters? Or did something so catastrophically stupid because he hyped himself on camera for a “good shot” or viral clip.
“Josh?” He called louder.
Nothing. Then—
“What the fuck do we do about this?” A voice asked, exasperated. It was male; deeper and slightly withdrawn and not anyone he’d recognised. The person was whispering as if trying not to wake anyone up. Or, not alert anyone to their presence.
His stomach dropped just about to his ass. Oh, Jesus fucking Christ.
“I have no clue, man,” another voice hissed back. Also male, but quiet and less gruff than the previous one. “This is so fucked. Shit, do you think Juicy is okay?”
If Mully wasn’t trying to be quiet, he would’ve let out a bark of laughter. Not because it was funny (quite the opposite, actually), but of fucking course, he had the displeasure of finding someone actually in the building. Like he warned Josh hours ago!
Stumbling away from the door, he cursed under his breath. He needed to find Josh right fucking now. Of course there were people in here while Josh was still MIA. It would be just his luck if Josh had somehow found his way to these people before Mully could find him.
(Unbeknownst to him (while he was currently living his life as a classic white-male horror protagonist), Josh was living his best life. While the rooms he encountered were devoid of what they once were, Josh found some pretty neat things. Some old faded letters, cracked plates lined with floral (the same ones Josh’s mum used to have) and a creepy-ass vintage doll. Under any circumstances, he would never touch the doll (it was definitely haunted or cursed), but he figured that Mully would get a kick out of it (he always seemed to enjoy the toys they find in these places). When he went to go find Mully—
He was just… standing in the middle of a room, pale-faced and more serious than Josh had ever seen him. In any other circumstance, he would question why his friend was so uneasy, as he was mostly unfazed by most things. Uneasiness washed over him. Still, it was his nature to be curious, and curious be damn it won over in the end.)
“Mully? What the fuck are you doing?” Josh asked incredulously behind him.
Like a sane and rational man (and like anyone would be in his situation, fucking bite him, Josh—), he whirled around, yelping, swiftly moving the plank above his head. Even under his heartbeat pumping in his ears, he managed to register the sound of Josh’s laughing and stopped himself from whooping the shit outta Josh.
”You fucking dickhead! Do you know how close I was to smacking the shit out of you?” He hissed quietly, eyes moving to check the other door, waiting to see if the other people had heard his outburst.
Thankfully, it still seemed like they were too busy arguing to hear Josh’s sadistic laughter.
Josh, bless his heart, hadn’t seemed to figure out Mully’s panic and relished the feeling of scaring him. Josh definitely enjoyed scaring him in places, which is (usually) a feeling the pair enjoyed.
“Sorry, dude, I was in the other rooms,” Josh laughed a little before tilting his head in confusion when Mully shushed him. “But seriously, what the fuck are you standing here?”
“There are other people in the room. Like two feet away from us,” He hissed back, pointing in the direction of the doors. “And we need to leave, like, probably right now.”
“Are you being serious?!” He watched as Josh nervously shifted his eyes between him and the doors. “Fuck.”
“Fuck indeed. Dude, let’s go.”
“Wait. Sh—should we… call the police?”
“The police? The fuck for?”
“I don’t know! Like, they broke in! What if they’re on the run or some shit?” Exasperated Josh tossed his hands up into the air.
“And that is exactly why we need to leave, dude.” He stood up, not meeting the others’ eyes as he brushed down his shirt. Fuck getting the cops involved and fuck getting involved in general. He had his own motto—fuck around and find out—and to be honest, he’s not interested in doing that while in an abandoned house. “We are not getting involved.”
Straightening his back, Josh reluctantly nods. Thank God. He was not in the mood to try and convince Josh from doing anything stupid, and thankfully, he seemed to sense something off with whoever was in the house with them. There weren’t any signs of any breaking in at the front; so how did they manage to get in? On the second floor nonetheless?
For a split second, Mully considered ghosts. It was no surprise they found some creepy shit while investigating, and it wouldn’t be the first time they heard something behind their backs. Though it sounded more real. He wasn’t sure how to explain it—maybe it was the way their voices were so vivid and loud, not unlike the hallowed hushes of ghosts—plus judging by how they stomped through the floors so not ghosts.
Doesn’t explain anything else, though, and quite frankly? He isn’t keen on finding out.
However, like most days, something has to fuck up. Like the final card on this wobbly, shitty, half-baked card-tower of a plan, it had all gone to shit. Some sort of God who thinks their whole existence is a whole fucking joke.
It starts with a creak. When Mully bears his weight onto the floorboard, it bends under his weight like putty. The shitty, shaking woodboards finally decide to break, and he is the unfortunate victim of it. With a shuddering crack, and his whole foot falls through. He scrambles, breath catching as his leg falls deeper. Thankfully, his brain manages to catch up far faster, and he instinctively, half-hazardously leans back, scraping his palms on the wall next to him. What’s left behind is a hole in the middle of the floor, heart pounding, and missing one shoe.
“Mully!” Josh stumbles to drop the camera before scrambling over to him, pulling him further away from the destroyed floorboards. “Jesus, you okay?”
Patting himself down, he lets out a nervous laugh, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah—fuck I’m okay. This place fucking sucks.”
Before Josh could open his mouth to agree, a different voice interrupts him.
”What the fuck was that?”
Mully snapped his head to face the door so quickly his neck cracked. In between nearly falling to his death and Josh pulling him up, the voices had stopped arguing.
Shit, this was bad.
He moved before he could think—scooping the wood plank off the ground— standing to his full height all while pulling Josh behind him.
”Stay behind me.” He warned.
Josh, thankfully, didn’t argue and took one step backwards. “Wait, Mully, let’s—“
The door opens with a creak. Whipping his head towards the bright light, he spies the dark figure of a man. Or, at least, what he had assumed so, which didn’t reassure Mully in the slightest. When the figure takes a step forward, he instinctively takes a step back as if his body warning him of danger.
Before he could even register the two hands up by the man’s head like a white flag waving in surrender, he moved on instinct. Swinging his arm back like a batter about to hit a home run and with as much gusto as he possibly could, he swung the plank at the figure.
THWACK!
His aim was a little off—especially when everything was shrouded in darkness—so instead of hitting the assailant’s head, he managed to hit their shoulder with a satisfying smack. The assailant falls to the ground ungracefully like a tree axed down, all while yelping and clutching at his shoulder in pain.
”Ah, dude, what the fuck?” The man groaned. Now that he was in the vicinity of Josh’s flashlight, he could see the bright orange jumpsuit and… a handcuff?
What the fuck.
His own brain shortcuts before blurting out, “How the fuck did you get in here?!”
The man flinched at his tone, nervously glancing between him and Josh. Mully could see the cogs running in his head before responding hesitantly, like trying to placate a toddler having it’s sixth tantrum that morning.
“It’s… a long story?”