---

---

"That's going to happen in a town like this, sweetheart," Claire said in response to the "clashing personalities" statement. She put a hand on her hip as she spoke, looking Tuyen up and down. She looked like she was holding up, but definitely out of her depth when it came to this supernatural nonsense. Well, who wasn't, but Claire was keeping it together better than her. "Farmer Hill's just... too small to hold some of the people in it."

"And what do you mean by that?" Justin asked.

"I mean, all the ego, pride, anger, sadness, lust..." Claire trailed off as she took a puff and looked off to the side. Blowing out the smoke, and then finishing, "... It'd be great in a place like LA, where everyone has their own space - but in a place like Farmer Hill where everyone's heard of each other and word travels fast... It goes without saying." She shrugged.

"I guess I get what you mean." Justin did get what Claire was saying - but he just didn't think of Farmer Hill being "that small." In a way, it was much larger than anyone thought of it being. This whole supernatural nonsense is prime evidence of that. "But, my grandmother always taught me that you can learn a lot from people you dislike - more than people you like."

"Thing is," Claire started off, "Here, people ain't the learning type. They're set in their ways because that's what worked for them. Or that's what they think is working." She thought of Penny, but chose to keep her lips sealed about her.

"... personally, if it wasn't for that vision from the "God-Child," this group would failed before we could even have even started." Claire just said.

"I mean... that wouldn't be the best outcome." Justin said, thinking of Scott and his rampage. The group at the Sucre would have been massacred if they hadn't come. He shrugged, "We'll just have to make the best out of-" Justin was cut off suddenly when a glowing white ghostly tendril wrapped itself around his neck. He choked for a moment, as he reached for his neck as he was hoisted up into the air.

"Justin!?" Claire dropped her cigarette as she went towards Justin... and a being approached them from behind the house. It was the one whom had the tentacle. It was hard to describe. It was like a tall, shape-less blob, that was a glowing white color. It was almost like it was wearing a cloak, along the lines of someone wearing a sheet over themselves - but almost like it was an actual ghost. It had various black symbols floating around it in a halo-like fashion. It had various tendrils at the base of it's strange body.

It hoisted Justin over towards it, and held him above it's own body. "... Where is Reid?" The apparition asked.

Claire had already ran over to the being, and balled her fists as she walked over to it. Her aura had activated as she marched to it. "... Six feet fuckin' under," She taunted, "Now put my friend down if you don't want to join him... whatever the fuck you are."

"As if you could pose any threat to me - Awakened or not, I am above you," The being scuffed off, mocking Claire, "But Reid cannot possibly be dead - we spoke the other day."

The being moved closer to Claire, as they continued, "I have no time for your prattle; tell me where that bastard is, or I'll kill all of you - we have much to discuss, and far too much at stake here."

"Tuyen," Claire said as her blue aura started turning red over time. "Get out of here, and find the others... I'm not sure how messy this will get." She warned her, but she could feel her voice trembling a bit. Even though she figured that she has super strength or something, she wasn't super sure about it. She didn't get the nuances of it, or how it worked.

"Well, it seems you made your choi-" The being didn't give her any other option.



"... I made my choice alright!" Claire shouted as she charged the tentacle monster, "To fuck you up one way or another!" She moved surprisingly fast, even for the monster. She had her fist cocked, and punched the spirit hard as she could in it's center of mass and sent it flying. It collided with the wall, and made one hell of a boom.

"Not so above me, ain't ya!?" Claire taunted as she moved in, but the being whipped her across the cheek with a tendril - her aura absorbed most of the blow, but it was still enough to make her turn her head. Which it tried to take advantage of when it sent another tentacle to spear her through the chest - but she caught it with one hand. She was grinning like a madman as she used her other arm to yank it to her at astonishing speeds. When it got close, hunched her head as she rammed it with her shoulder.

It was forced to drop Justin, and he fell onto the ground unconscious. She saw his aura... but she didn't have any time to marvel at the sight. The beast now had a free arm. It was moving backwards as it wildly whipped at her. She threw her arms up to take some blows, but she continued to push towards it. Where the hell was everyone?!

It had range, and she saw that her red aura - despite all of it's strength, was starting to form some cracks. Damn it. She just let out a vociferous battle cry as she charged it with her arms guarding her face - she noticed that it was going for a sweep before she jumped high up into the air and used that momentum to punch it square into the ground, sliding.

When it used all of it's limbs to pick itself back up - Claire was right on top of it. A wide arced right hook sent it to the side, before she moved in and punched it with a left. She punched it upwards with an uppercut, before she grabbed it mid-air with both hands and slammed it into the ground. She noticed cracks forming on it, so she was getting close to killing it. Or something, she just wanted to be rid of it - whatever it was. Still, this thing was more than just a monster... it had some capability of thought going off of what it said. So, she was going to give it an option to think.

"Fuck off while you can!" Claire said, as she grinded her heel on it, "And don't ever show yourself to us again! Don't think I won't finish you off here and now!" She loudly shouted... she had qualms about killing, but she just wanted to intimidate this thing into going away. It had the same end, didn't it?

"Well..." The being said, as they tried to sneak a tendril over to Justin, "... I'm not leaving without what I came for." That tentacle hit Justin square in the gut, and Claire loudly shouted,

"... Justin!"

It felt everything happened in a few seconds, but the tendrils quickly wrapped around her legs, and before she knew it, she was in the air. "Fuuuuuuuuc-" She shouted as she was slammed into the ground. Now she could see the cracks forming in her aura. She was dazed, tired, and before she could even collect herself, she was swung around like a ragdoll and thrown right towards the gates. She was loudly yelling the whole time.

She didn't even realize that she had flown right into someone's car - but definitely not one from her group. It was a relatively modern minivan, and her aura had been shattered completely on impact with the windshield. She noticed that she was covered in scrapes. She also noticed that she was in someone's car seat. After sitting herself up, she looked to the side and noticed that there was someone in the car seat. A pretty young thing with red hair tied up into a pretty little ponytail, and had a face full of freckles.

She looked scared out of her mind with her eyes widened, and her mouth gaping.

"What the fuck?!" The girl shouted as she quickly dove out of the car and Claire quickly did the same.

"Alright sweetheart, I know it's a lot to take in," Claire said as she put her hand up, "But calm down..." She turned her head to see the tentacle monster lunging towards them.

"... You!" The thing shouted as it slingshotted itself towards her, and before anyone could react, it wrapped it's tentacle around her arm and then there was the horrifying sound of her arm being broken. Claire cringed at the sound as the girl loudly screamed at the top of her lungs in pain. "We have to have a very long talk."

"... She can't do much of that right now." Claire dryly noted, as she grabbed her aching sides. She could see the gal's aura shining brightly... not that she could much, because she lost her own abstraction.

"Shut up!" The aberration shouted as it swung a tentacle at Claire that surely would have knocked her out... if the being didn't fade away into a thousand little pieces. Then out of existence completely. Claire turned her head, and saw that a massive wooden spear had pierced through it's body, and Britney was standing behind with both of her hands out. Claire was happy that somebody dealt the finishing blow.

Still, she had to tend to the girl... Claire walked over to Britney and Sharon.

... but she couldn't help but ignore that buzzing in the distance.

---

_{@Atrophy@He Who Walks Behind@Prosaic@FernStone@Mike73}

---

The group split up... which was rather concerning because she couldn't stand over and supervise the group if they found anything useful. However... she was certain that they'd share anything they'd find. "Come with me, Isabella," Britney said, "Let's check out the basement."

She said as she went to the kitchen, before she found the door into the basement. She pulled it open, and it looked a bit ominous for an instant. The light stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and there was nothing but pitch black darkness... nothing that Britney couldn't fix with a flip of the lightswitch. Letting out a sigh, Britney descended down the stairs and noticed that the basement was going to be a bitch to go through. There was a ton of boxes lying around, then there was also the washing machine, dryer, sink, and John's workbench... she briefly considered getting everyone to come down here and help search through all this crap.

First thing's first, she would do a quick look over for anything obvious, then... try to find something in here. John was too clever to just leave a box full of everything they needed lying around. Out of irritation, Britney kicked a box, and noticed something odd on the ground. Scrape marks. Old and worn, but they were there. They were in front of the shelf, and it was odd, because it was almost like the shelf was moved. John had no reason to move this shelf... but Britney now does.

However, the colossal shock that ruptured through the building and Britney was honestly startled. "What the hell was that?" She asked as she quickly ran upstairs and towards the source to investigate. She went to the kitchen, and her eyes went wide. Aberration. Claire was fighting some kind of ghost monster... and Justin was knocked out. She almost swore, but she knew that she had to help.

She ran towards the front door, and shouted through the house, "Everyone stay inside!" She ordered the group... for their own safety. Right now, she didn't need anyone playing hero and getting in the way while she tried to help Claire. She sprinted out the door, and unfortunately by the time she got there, Claire was sent flying. "Goodness gracious!" Britney hissed to herself as she ran over to Claire...

... A familiar red minivan with a familiar red haired girl made Britney freeze for a minute. "S-Sharon?!"

The aberration went straight for the girl, and Britney couldn't waste a second as the beast broke Sharon's arm. Shouting about how they had to talk... she didn't have time to question what was going on. The minute she got in range, she stuck her hands out and spawned that energy. She created a massive spike out of wood and impaled the beast through the body - and killed it. For now at least, it wasn't their problem. What was her problem was Sharon. The girl was shaking in pain, breathing heavily... and was clearly out of her fucking mind.

"Sharon, sweetie," Britney said as she knelt down, and gently graced her with her soft hands, "Breathe." Okay, things weren't going as planned already. They needed to search John Reid's house, but they also needed to get Sharon some help. She was about to suggest that somebody goes to take her to the doctor, but....

"Um, what's that?" Claire asked as she looked off in the distance... only for her eyes to widen. There was an absolutely massive cloud of insects flying right towards them - with flying ones carrying the slower ones. They almost blocked out the sun. Claire's eyes were absolutely wide. "... Holy shit."

Then Britney turned to see the hellish swarm of insects heading towards them, and saw the light glowing from underneath Sharon's clothes. "No, no, no, no, no..." She immediately pulled up her shirt and noticed the sigil of a hercules beetle. That was glowing. Oh no. This... Britney knew they needed to get to cover.

"... She Awakened! She's sending a swarm towards us unconsciously!"

"No shit," Claire said as she staggered back.

"Grab Justin and get inside! Hurry!" Britney said as she got up and broke off into a sprint towards the house. Because the last place she wanted to be was out here.

"On it!" Claire beelined straight for Justin, and she got there in great time. Adrenaline does that to ya', eh? Claire dryly thought to herself as her aura kicked in and she smiled as she grabbed Justin and lifted him up near effortlessly. She immediately ran inside the house.

Britney wasn't as fast as Claire was due to her having an extra fifty pounds on her. Britney made it to the stairs, but turned around when she heard a scream. It was her friend, Andrea, tripped on a tree root that she didn't notice. She stuck her hand out for help, but the swarm was right on top of her.

"... Andrea!" Britney screamed as the insects attacked her. It was too late, she was surrounded from head to toe in seconds. The girl violently thrashed as bees, hornets, and more, stung her relentlessly, while other insects crawled into her orifices. She was fortunate to suffocate to death before the stinging had killed her. Britney didn't get a good sight of this, because she had slammed the door shut.

She panted as she looked up at Claire,

"... Holy shit!" Britney said, "I- what?!"

"Breathe for fucks sake!" Claire said as she held Justin in her arms like a cradle. "We need to figure out just what the fuck we're gonna do." She hissed.

Britney did just as instructed before the idea hit her,

"Everyone! We need to keep them out! Close all the windows! And barricade them good!" Britney shouted the order through the house. That was the first thing they needed to do.

Second thing was getting out of this mess.

---

---

"It's a good chance," Kimberly said in response to Rien and Nate's theory. What Kimberly wanted to know was what exactly happened to these people. Or who they were. "But we also have to keep in mind that there's an equal chance that this could be someone's hitlist." Which wasn't any better, because who was killing them, and why?

"These photos are so old, that Reese wasn't even a thought when they were taken," Jordan said to Nate, seemingly agreeing with his point. "He probably wasn't even swimming in his daddy's nutsack." She snorted.

"Jordan..." Kimberly scolded her friend for her... crass language. Even if it was true.

"Maybe there was another person like Scott back then..." Jordan just pondered with a shrug, before she added on, "But, why would John have this? This shit looks like some real stalker-level shit."

That gave Kimberly an idea, "... What if John was the one doing the killing?"

The boom that was in the direction of the house put a stop to their conversation. Peaking out, and it seemed like a fight out of a movie. Claire was slugging it with some ghost monster, and Kimberly couldn't believe her eyes. She took her glasses off, wiped them, and put them back on.

"... I'm staying out of that one," Jordan said... eventually, some girl got attacked by it, and Britney came out and killed it. Jordan briefly considered asking if she was okay, but then she noticed the massive swarm of insects coming towards the barn....

Something caused her to freeze. Something that she really didn't expect. Across from the barn, in the fields, was a sight that almost made her piss herself. The Hound. Sitting, and staring right at her, before it faded away when the swarm of insects appeared.

"... Close the doors!" Jordan screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran far back into the garage as she could.

---

---

"Or a monster," Hagan said to Paige as she implied that he was afraid. Afraid of what? Big boss ain't afraid of anything - fear and common sense just aren't synonymous. Though, everyone else seems to be okay with jumping inside of a weird dark tunnel, so he might as well follow them.

"You know what they say," Lynette looked at Caeala and smiled, "Team work makes the dream work." Before she chuckled.

However, that boom caught Hagan's attention, and made him hesitant to just blindly jump down. "Hold up, lemme investigate." Hagan walked over to the doors, and saw Claire flying around. She flew right into someone's minivan! That thing got fucked up! Hagan was about to jump into the fight, before the Williams girl dealt the finishing blow. That was when the bugs started coming. Hagan was never an insectphobe... but he knew that this was too many damn bugs.

Too many for him to handle.

"Holy shit!" Hagan shouted as he ran into the entrance and grabbed the hatch. He closed the hatch as he hopped inside, and was panting.

"... What is going on up there?" Lynette asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't fuckin' know..." Hagan said in between pants, "I saw Claire sluggin' this tentacle monster, and then bugs started coming."

Lynette could hear the huge buzzing... and then she noticed that a significant amount of insects were slipping through the cracks. "Holy shit!" Lynette said, "Run!"

She quickly broke off into a sprint down the tunnel, and Hagan followed.

---

The Reid Farmhouse

---

While everyone had decided to split up, Madeline decided to look around outside the farm first, before checking out one of the buildings. She wondered how the house looked like before it was abandoned, since at it's condition, it would fit perfectly in an old horror movie. Either way, the group was bound to find something, or the trip to the farmhouse was for nothing.

Starting to walk to the garage, Maddie stopped in her tracks to see Claire and Justin getting attacked by an abnormal being, who she couldn't tell if they were a human or not. She quickly grabbed for the hunting knife in her pocket. Yet she was hesitant. The last time she tried to protect someone, she got a big gash on her stomach, and in turn her new healing ability. So what would happen if she tried again?

Before she could run to the other two, another girl ran out of the house and finished the anomaly off. Only for a redheaded girl to arrive and get hurt. Once Maddie arrived at the garage, she stopped again to see a dreadful sight by the barn, one that she could've sworn her heart stopped at. The Hound was there. Not in her strange premonition, but there, with the group. That was her cue to run and hide.

Running inside the garage before the swarm appeared, Madeline held her back against the door. "Get me something to barricade this damn door with, hurry!!"

---

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

---

Penny had been caught off-guard when the abomination had attacked Justin. She had drifted away from the others, largely to keep herself out of earshot of Claire’s grating voice, but when the being that was all tendrils and nightmares had latched itself onto Justin she had broken into a sprint towards the fight. Her body felt like it was on fire as she ran—she was still exhausted from her scrap with Scott earlier that day—and she shouted in distress as she watched the thing throw Claire through the air and into a car windshield like a rag doll. She didn’t like O’Sullivan, but she didn’t want the girl to be killed. Fortunately, Claire was still moving. Unfortunately, the creature had already closed the gap between itself and its target, the girl whose car Claire’s body had ruined, and was entangling her hard. Penny cursed; she couldn’t risk taking a shot without hitting the girl.

Britney, however, had more control over her Abstraction. It vanished as a spear punctured through its chest, but none of them had any chance to breathe a sigh of relief as buzzing filled the air. Penny turned her head to witness insects blotting out the sky like a plague of Egypt. She might’ve been able to swat a few bothersome flies out of the air with her power, but there was no way in hell that she would be able to react fast enough to punch a hole in something that massive. She bolted with the others towards the house, nearly colliding with the mousy girl dressed like an old professor as she crashed through the entrance.

“What’s happening?” asked Rita with a shaking voice. She had caught glimpses of the fight through the blinds of the study, but had not been able to witness the entire thing.

“Giant fucking swarm of pissed off insects hellbent on devouring us like crops,” snapped Penny, punching her fist against the wall. She had witnessed Andrea swallowed up by the swarm, but couldn’t have done anything to help her without being eaten alive herself. Britney had said something about the new girl controlling the swarm. The blonde girl turned on her heels and yelled at her former friend, “Why don’t you wake that bitch up and tell her to stop?”

Meanwhile, Rita followed Britney’s instructions and shut up the window in the living room that she had crawled through. She noted the open fireplace with concern and slid shut the gate, hoping the mesh was too small for any creepy crawlers to squeeze through. She could see the light outside fade away as the swarm descended on the house; they were running out of time. There was no time to panic. Barricades, she had to look for barricades. The coffee table would help board up one of the windows, but it was way too large for her to move it herself. She poked her head into the hall.

“Someone give me a hand! It’s too heavy.”

Penny, despite her protesting, had also gone to work by smashing the entrance mat up against threshold of the door and pinning it into the wall to act like a net to prevent the insects from slithering inside with a handful of pencils and her Abstraction. When Rita shouted she obliged the girl, following her into the living room. The two of them struggled to flip up the table and press it against the wall as they heard the sound of hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny bodies throwing themselves against the glass to get in.

“There’s windows in the study,” said Rita. “We gotta get those next.”

The two hurried over to the room in unison; Penny blasted the computer off of the desk before they stood it upright and pushed it against the window that had been blotted out by bugs. Penny felt her muscles scream with agony, and as Rita darted off to look for any potential breaches in the kitchen Penny caught herself on the door frame of the study before she stumbled and fell. She tried to stand up straight, but all she managed to do was twist her face into a look of agonizing pain and withhold a stream of curses. She buried her face into her elbow and took a deep breath.

“How’s Justin? Breathing?” she said, shouting to Claire over the swarm. She wasn’t just worried about the guy. It would have been nice to have someone who could torch the insects once they slipped through the cracks.

---

Reid Farmhouse - Under the Barn

---

Paige was glad to have gone forward into the cave as enthusiastically as she had done, because now all the craziness was happening behind her, and a bit of a headstart was definitely welcome. She didn't especially care about what was going on above them - she wasn't discompassionate towards the others, she just knew that there was nothing she could do to help or hinder them right now, so worrying was pointless - so she just kept moving forwards as quickly as she could. Which, it was worth adding, was not very quickly at all.

For the second time today Paige found herself running away from danger. Running, and not keeping up, watching Hagan and Lynette and the others gradually get further and further away. Running, and being a liability who was, at best, going to get herself killed, and at worst, was going get everyone else killed as well. Running, and hating herself for being the way she was.

On a less dramatic note, though, Paige was genuinely struggling. More and more insects were slipping through the gaps behind her, and those that were already through were gaining far too quickly. Paige wanted to call for help, wanted to alert the others ahead of her that she couldn't do this, but to do that would be to put them in danger, as well. How could she ask someone to put their life at risk so that she might keep hers? How would she live with herself if they died and she didn't?

Paige wanted to turn and fight, but she couldn't. Nobody could fight a swarm of insects; to try would be a death sentence. Paige just kept limping forwards and hoped for a miracle.

l

---

_{@Surtr Inc}
The Reid Farmhouse – Outside

---

What Claire said about the town made a lot of sense. Tuyen couldn’t help but flinch back somewhat (unnoticeably) as the taller girl looked her up and down, suddenly self conscious. What if she saw something she disliked about Tuyen? What if she just told her to fuck off.

Her fears were unfounded, and Tuyen was about to agree with what the other two had said when a ghostly tendril appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Justin.

“Justin!” Tuyen lurched forward, going to try and grab the tentacle to pull it off. She didn’t have a chance before he was hoisted into the air. She barely heard what the apparition said.

People were in danger and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. She was useless. She was stuck here with an abstraction that was more of a detriment than a benefit. She couldn’t do anything to help.

“Tuyen. Get out of here, and find the others… I’m not sure how messy this will get.”

Claire’s words snapped Tuyen out of her self-deprecating line of thought. That was something she could, and should, do. If she got the others then they could help. There had to be others with useful abstractions.

She turned to go towards the main house… except it wasn’t there. Nothing was there. Where the buildings had been was now nothing. Where had they gone? How could they have disappeared?

How was she supposed to get the others to help now?

Tuyen stood frozen after looking everywhere for a sign of the houses that she could’ve sworn existed. Her shadow moved around her, almost as if it was taunting her. Had it hidden them? But how?

She did see as other people appeared – first a girl attacked by the creature, then Britney to kill it. As the swarm approached everything came into view again. Why couldn’t she see the house before?

Tuyen ran into the house just before Claire, not having to carry anyone. She got herself into the living room and crouched down to try and stop the panicking that had suddenly come to her. She hadn’t helped at all, things could’ve ended earlier if she’d got the others, what if they hadn’t come out? Would Claire be dead? How did they even get out of this?

“Tuyen, are you alright?” A light hand on her shoulder and the voice of her cousin cause her to look up.

“As fine as any of us can be,” Tuyen responded with a weak smile, taking in a deep breath and trying to calm herself down. She had no right to be reacting so badly when other people were in actual danger. They all were, really.

Min didn’t seem to entirely believe her, but didn’t say anything as she stood up. There was a faint glow around him – an aura, almost, that Tuyen didn’t quite understand. “I’m going to help barricade the windows.”

Tuyen was glad when he left to help Penny and Rita.

Forcing herself not to look too nervous, Tuyen approached Claire and Justin. She made sure to keep out of the way of the girl who was trying to help Sharon – there was nothing she could do there. The other person was more likely to have it under control.

“How’s Justin?” Her concern was obvious as she looked over at him. He was alive, at least, but how long would he be knocked out for? It must have been a hard blow.

“Uh, I’m sorry for not getting help faster the house-” she cut herself off, realising that she was about to say that actual reason that she hadn’t. Yeah, let’s not have anyone else thinking she was crazy. “Seemed so far away and I started freaking out.”

---

_{@Surtr Inc@Atrophy@Prosaic@Mike73@He Who Walks Behind}
The Reid Farmhouse – Main House

---

Min had headed upstairs, going into the bedroom first. There was a fair amount of furniture to search in the bedroom. He went over to the wardrobe and began searching in it. There were a fair amount of clothes in there, but they were easy enough to rummage through. He was careful to not actually remove them from the wardrobe - it was best to make it look like it was untouched just in case anyone came to the house. He made sure to touch each item as he moved through them to gleam at least a bit of information.

He didn't find anything useful, both in the wardrobe or from the clothes.

Min was about to move into the bedside cabinets when there was a loud bang that had him running downstairs. He was torn when Britney told everyone to stay inside – his cousin was out there. But logically he knew there was nothing he could do to help with whatever was out there.

So he waited, moving to door to try and watch what was happening. He moved well out of the way as everyone came charging in – but not before he caught a sight of the massive swarm heading their way and the beginnings of a girl being caught in it.

He was glad Tuyen had made it in safely – but it was obvious she wasn’t dealing with it well.

“Tuyen, are you alright?” He approached her, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder while trying not to get any information off it.

“As fine as any of us can be.”

Min didn’t believe her, but he also knew there was nothing he could do to help that. He had to help secure the house first. “I’m going to help barricade the windows.”

He left the already barricade living room to the study, helping Penny and Rita board up the last few bits.

“I’m going upstairs, there’s some windows there that need barricaded,” he told them before running up the stairs.

---

_{@Surtr Inc@Atrophy@Zombiedude101@Majoras End}
The Reid Farmhouse – Garage

---

Everyone was throwing theories about, and Rien had to say a lot of them sounded like they could be possible. None of them, on the other hand, were particularly positive. It was just a bit creepy. If John was the killer then what did that mean for them as guardians? And if he wasn’t, why did he have this picture?

They followed Jordan and Kimberley to look out the door… and kind of wish they hadn’t. The last thing they wanted to see was a fight with some weird tentacle ghost. Was this even real? Maybe this was just a really long and detailed nightmare.

They kind of hoped so.

Rien actually jumped when they saw the Hound. Things just got worse and worse, didn’t they?

Ignoring the fear that was creeping into their mind, Rien jumped to action. They grabbed some kind of straight tool (they didn’t even know what it was) and handed it to the new girl who had ran in.

“Use this to jam the door closed.” Then they moved to the pickup truck. “Someone help we move this, we can use it to properly block the door. Hopefully that’ll keep out the bugs and dog, with tentacle creature dealt with.”

It was easy enough to act nonchalant about the whole thing, even though they were actually kind of freaking out. Better to get stuff done so they could stay safe.

---

_{@Surtr Inc@Ciaran}
The Reid Farmhouse –Barn

---

Teamwork makes the dream work. Yeah sure it did, if you could work in a team. Didn’t seem like that was going to be all to easy with most of the people in the larger group. The people who had come to the barn didn’t seem awful.

“Tentacle monster?” Caelea didn’t get a chance to make some kind of sarcastic comment about that before Lynette told them to run. And with the sound of the buzzing she didn’t need to be told twice. That sounded like an awful lot of insects and she wasn’t going to take a risk that they were friendly.
She set off running down the tunnel after Lynette and Hagan, glad for once that she was actually quite fast and fit. She could probably outrun the insects if she had to. Not that it was a very viable option.

“I hope that whatever is at the end of this tunnel isn’t just a dead end!”

She turned around to make sure that everyone was with them – but the girl with the crutch was behind. Shit. Caelea wasn’t really the most compassionate person in the world but she didn’t want to see someone just die because she was a bit slower than the rest.

Caelea slowed down and moved back until she’d reached Paige. She honestly hated people who depended on others, but the girl hadn’t asked for help from the rest once even though she was struggling. She could definitely respect that. It was far from depending on others.

“Want some help? Don’t want to leave anyone behind.” She offered her shoulder to lean on, honestly unsure how else she could help. She hadn’t really thought it through – she was way shorter and while strong enough, couldn’t exactly offer to carry the other girl.

---

"It's a good chance," Kimberly seemed to be running along the same train of thought as Nate, or at least somewhere close, "But we also have to keep in mind that there's an equal chance that this could be someone's hitlist." Which was what he'd said, pretty much - why else would all the faces be crossed off with something like that written next to it?

"These photos are so old, that Reese wasn't even a thought when they were taken," Her friend, Jordan said to him, "He probably wasn't even swimming in his daddy's nutsack." Kimberly didn't seem to find it quite as funny, but Nate couldn't help but let loose a snort at that one - but her next point was equally unsettling as her last had been amusing. What if Scott Reese wasn't the first to go on a murder spree? What if there were others like him? And why would John keep this list? Just as Nate was about to make his own little pitch... "What if John was the one doing the killing?"

But then, he gave it a little more thought. "If this guy went around murdering all these people, how'd he end up dead when someone like Reese just tanks everything or runs? Why leave all that stuff behind for- shit!" Nate was jerked from finishing his line by a sudden boom outside. Before long, a few of the others had already gone out to investigate - he quickly joined them in time to see Claire wrestling with some kind of... tentacle? Justin lay unconscious on the ground, whilst a redhead he didn't know frantically dove out of a trashed minivan, only for her arm to get twisted at an angle that anyone could've figured for a break.

"Shit, shit - what do we do?" he asked, a question directed towards nobody in particular.

It looked like that thing was about to come down on all of them, only to Britney to step back into the spotlight and spear the ghost-thing straight through with a giant stake. When it dissipated, he felt a brief pang of relief - that thing had come straight out of one of the countless games he'd played, like a cleaner looking version ofs William Birkin's final stage, except this wasn't a game. This was real, so was that fight and so was that girl's broken arm - they could die in this. He could die. It was a sobering thought, one that proved difficult to dislodge - and soon that possibility was altogether removed. A low buzz in the distance, which had originally escaped Nate's concentration whilst he was thinking on these things, had grown lowder.

Insects. Flies, bees, wasps - anything that could fly, even bite and sting - masses of them were approaching from the air. Oh fuck. Nate gulped, reflexively yanking up his hood as they closed in, other voices speaking up. Over the cacophony, he could just about make out Britney's voice calling out to them.

"... She Awakened! She's sending a swarm towards us unconsciously!"

He didn't stop to ask questions, "Close the doors!" Jordan was with him, rushing back towards the garage - Nate might not have been in the best of shape, but his movement wasn't at a limp and he just about managed to overtake her after the first couple of strides. "Shit, shit - close it, fucking close it!" Once they were back in, he practically slammed the doors shut with all the might in his arms, desperate to seal out the coming swarm.

“Use this to jam the door closed.” Rien sounded off, “Someone help me move this, we can use it to properly block the door. Hopefully that’ll keep out the bugs and dog, with tentacle creature dealt with.” That looked like a better bet - but as their little group would find out as Nate joined them in pushing it towards the entrance, it wouldn't budge. "It's stuck!" He wheeled back around to the front, "Shit, why isn't-"

Great. Through the window, he could see that the handbrake was on. Obviously. He'd have to bust it to get inside - he reared an arm back, bracing for it, then slammed an elbow against the glass. "This is probably gonna break my-"

It harmlessly passed through as though it were water and instead of a thunk or a crack, Nate felt the colour bleeding from his vision. "Oh, right. Even better!" He leaned further into the truck, half his body past the shoulder sinking through the metal until he looked as though he'd merged with the cab, just in far enough that he could reach the handbrakd. Please work, please work...

Fingers felt rubber and plastic - a thumb found the buttton and depressed it, allowing him to release the lever. The truck began to roll forward. "Fuck yes!" Nate echoed in the cab, oblivious to the fact that his voice was muffled to the others by the enclosed space.

Colour seeped back into the world as the rest of his body began to pull free. "C'mon, keep pushing!"

---

_{@Atrophy@He Who Walks Behind@Prosaic@FernStone@Mike73}

---

"It's not that simple, Penny!" Britney shouted in response, one part trying to be heard over the swarm, the other part out of exhaust because she was running through the house. "Abstractions are linked to emotions, and she's freaking out right now!"

A tear ran down Britney's eye. She tried to suck it up, but it was so hard with guilt creeping up her spine. It was my fault Andrea was dead. I insisted on dragging her along, and now she's dead. Britney leaned up against the wall, and took in a deep breath as everyone went to work.

"Brit!" Claire shouted through the house.

We're gonna be dead soon, too.

"Britney!" Claire actively shouted a lot louder, to make sure that Britney hears her. Britney turned her head towards Claire who had a lot to say, "We can barricade this house all we want! They're gonna find a way in either way!"

"I know!" Britney knew that Claire was right, but they needed just a second of breathing room. Just so they can take some time to put a plan together. She walked over to Claire, whom Penny was asking about the state of Justin.

"He's... alive," Claire started off, she looked down at him and realized that she could still see his aura. She also could see that Andrea girl's aura for a second before she... died. Claire, for now, was going to pretend as if she Awakened or whatever and saved herself or something. Because... it was an ugly thought that she wasn't prepared to deal with right now. Tuyen spoke, making excuses, and Claire could only shake her head, "Don't worry about the past! Focus on the now! And the now calls that you help!"

The girl, Isabella, said that she could help Justin, and Claire didn't even question it for a second. If she could do it, she was gonna hold her to it. She felt the air warm up, and noticed that her sigil was glowing... well, if she knew what she was doing.

With the house barricaded to Britney's liking, they needed a plan. And they needed it fast. Every second they got closer and closer to getting inside. Then... there was also the others in their support group that weren't in the house. Oh damn it. Britney hoped that they got to safety, because there was no telling what could have happened to them. She had a way of communicating with everyone here... it would be difficult for the uninitiated.

The only person that came to mind that was capable of it... damn it, Britney knew that this wasn't going to work. She sighed as she walked over to Penny without breaking into a damn near sprint. She put her hand on her shoulder, and looked her in the eyes as she said, "Penny." It went without saying what Penny thought of her, while Britney didn't make the hostility go two ways, she knew that she had to be stern with Penny.

Lives were on the line here.

"Your brother is out there, possibly in danger, we need to find him and the people he's with," Britney started off, being to-the-point as she possibly could. "You're the only person who can find him, and communicate with him, even over all of this - trust me."

She nodded her head as she didn't even break eye contact to blink. They didn't have time, "I need you to close your eyes, think really hard about Billy, and send a message his way." She tried to explain, "Like try talking to him with your mind - not your mouth. Try anything."

She sighed.

"Anything will work because once you get one message through, you'll see how easy it is."

---

---

"Jordan?!" Kimberly asked her, turning her head back towards her friend... only to see Jordan curled up in a corner in the back. Okay, the bugs were making her freak out. Kimberly didn't have too much time to question it with the impending biblical swarm flying towards them with very ill intents. Kimberly shook her head, as Rien pulled out a tool, and Nate phased inside to pull the handbrake to release the truck. He called for them to push the truck to seal the garage door shut, and Kimberly didn't waste even a second as she ran over to the truck and pushed it hard as she could... which wasn't that much given how little physical strength she had. But with the help of everyone, sans Jordan, they were able to close the door and keep it shut.

Kimberly sighed as she slumped down to the ground... Jordan seemed to be extremely afraid of something she saw out there. She wanted to find out just what happened... but Kimberly didn't have a fucking clue of what was going on. There was some kind of tentacle monster out there, and now there's bugs. Worst of all, they're the ones who are trapped in a shitty garage. In the dark, cut off from the group. The bugs are gonna get in here no problem.

The first thought that came to mind was her camera, and she quickly grabbed onto it as she turned on the night vision mode. "What the fuck do we do!?"

Meanwhile, Jordan was petrified by the sight of the Hound. Even if it was brief, it meant that it was a thing. A thing that was real. She was shaking out of pure fear of that thing (that real thing) and could hardly move. Or even pay attention to the fact that they needed her help. Like hell they needed her. All she'd do is get in their way...

There was a banging from beneath the floor not too far away from herself that stopped her train of thought. It shook a pile of tools, but there was no way that they'd be able to move it. Was it a friend? She gestured for the group to come over, but the banging got more intense, and there was shouting.

"Is there anyone up there! Open up! Those things are gonna kill us! It's Hagan! Open. Up!"

"Guys!" Jordan shouted as she moved over, and started moving the tools to the best of her ability. But, there was only so much a crippled girl could do. "C'mon, we gotta get to work!"

"Coming!" Kimberly shouted as she ran over and also helped.

---

---

Hagan was, of course, at the front of the group due to being so much faster than everyone else. His phone's flashlight shined the way, while Lynette was right behind him. She really wanted to draw a glyph, but with the swarm right behind her, there was no time. She just kept running. She remembered Paige's comment about hoping there wasn't a dead end - personally, Lynette was hoping that there wasn't more bugs at the other end of the tunnel. They kept running until... they reached a fork. The tunnels split off into two different paths. Hagan didn't even stop to think, he just took the right path.

"Son of a..." Lynette was tempted to go left, but she heard buzzing coming from that tunnel. So it was pretty easy to make that decision. So Lynette followed behind Hagan. Until... until the worst case scenario occurred and there was a dead end. "... Fuck!" Lynette hissed as she looked behind her, and quickly dropped down to try to draw a glyph down, a fire glyph.

"Wait, hold up!" Hagan said, as he looked up... and saw that there was a hatch. He quickly pushed up at it to try to open it - it budged a bit, but there was something on top of it. Out of options, Hagan kept pushing on it, and he shouted, "C'mon! Help!"

He kept pushing, until he started banging on it and shouting,

"Is there anyone up there! Open up! Those things are gonna kill us! It's Hagan! Open. Up!"

---

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

---

The newcomer was freaking out? Penny was freaking out. She wasn’t necessarily afraid of bugs, but the concept of being devoured alive by a swarm of creepy crawlers did not rank highly on the list of her ways to go. She put her hands on her temples, closed her eyes, and tried to think of some kind of means of escape, but everything came back to “kill it with fire” and with Justin, thankfully alive but out cold, that was a play they could not make. She bit down on her lip hard, her eyes shooting open and giving Britney a look of disgust as the other girl put a hand on her shoulder. Penny quickly shrugged her hand away, but she listened as her former friend instructed her to try and reach out to Billy.

“What’s that bum going to do?” asked Penny with a snip in her voice. “It’s your shitty ideas that got us here in the first place.”

Her words were harsh and rang with truth, but the look of concern that flashed across her face when Britney mentioned that her brother might be in danger was proof enough that Penny was willing to try the absurd suggestion. She had already lost one brother in her lifetime—lost, but not dead, she reminded herself—and she knew that losing Billy, even with her low opinion of him that bordered on outright hatred, would completely crush her. She bumped past Britney and took a seat on the stairs, bringing her knees up to her chin as she closed her eyes. She had to find a way to reach him. But how? And what would she even say?

---

The Reid Farmhouse - Garage

---

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. This had gone beyond a fun times, breaking-and-entering, Hardy Boys-esque investigation and dove straight into nightmare territory. Not only were they now creeping around the garage of a potential serial killer, but they had just witnessed some nightmare construct assault their friends before the sky turned dark with bloodthirsty insects. As the others helped Maddied seal up the garage Billy rampaged through the shelves, looking for repellent, tiki torches, a bug zapper, literally anything despite knowing that such an item would be way too little to ward off a swarm so large. He was knocking over a bunch of empty paint cans when a banging came from the floor, followed Hagan shouting.

Jordan called for help, and he joined with Kimberly as they began shoving the tools away from the secret hatch in the floor. Even after the tools were removed the door did not budge, but taking a cue from Jordan’s playbook Billy grabbed the crowbar and pried open the locked hatch with a pop. Never in his life did Billy think he’d be relieved to see Hagan, but he did not have a chance to help the big guy up—or even notice that Aliana had been cloaking them—before he heard Penny’s voice as she yelled: “Billy, you fucking asshole, if you’re dead already I am so going to kill you!”

He backed away from the hatch, looking wild-eyed across the darkened garage. Her voice did not come from the hole in the ground, nor had she snuck into the garage with Maddie. He had even seen her run to the house. “Did y’all hear Penny?” he asked, receiving zero indication that any of the others had. There was no possible way they could’ve; even if she had screamed it from the house, there was no way it would’ve been heard over the swarm. It was as if the voice had only been inside of his head, which was alarming in its own right.

“Son of a bitch, are you seriously going to just ignore me?”

“Penny? Penny?” he said out loud. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Billy, goddamnit, if you’re still alive let me know. C’mon you big idiot. Answer me.”

---

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

---

“I’m not an idiot!”

Penny jumped up from the stairs. She had heard Billy’s voice in her head. She turned towards Britney, a stunned look on her face. How did she know that was going to work? How did that even work? Penny composed herself and, shouting over the swarm, let Britney know that she had gotten through. She paced back and forth in front of the stairs, trying to keep up mental conversation with her brother.

“Yes you are but that’s beside the point. Are you hurt? Is everyone with you okay?” she thought.

“We’re fine, I think. The barn kids found a way to meet up with us. How are you doing this?”

“How would I know? I just am.”

“Oh, great. Well, now what?” he asked.

It was a good question.

“They’re all together,” said Penny to Britney. “Now what?”

---

The Reid Farmhouse - Garage

---

Catching the tool Rien threw at her, Maddie quickly used it to jam the door closed, before running over to the back to help push the truck forward. Once the door was barricaded shut, she slid down to the ground and recollected herself, thinking to herself "What the hell just happened?" First, Claire and Justin got attacked by some tentacle monster, then the red-haired chick got hurt and summoned a hellswarm of insects to attack everyone, and now The Hound, The Damn Hound, was there to make things worse.

Was this what he meant by "The Harvest"? Madeline hoped not. Being stung to death was a hell of a way to die. Or was he waiting till their current problem was over to attack? She shook the thought out of her head, The Hound was smarter that that, he could be planning a supprise attack and they wouldn't notice.

Maddie was brought back from her thought when she hear a banging from the floor. Oh good, more survivors. She quickly over to Jordan, Kimberly, and Billy, and help them push the pile of tools as best as she could.

---

_{@Atrophy@He Who Walks Behind@Prosaic@FernStone@Mike73}

---

"... And I'll get us out of this," Britney started off, blankly looking at Penny, "I promise."

Even though Penny had reservations, she still went along with what Britney said. Perhaps she knew that they had little other options here, even if she didn't want to admit it. She managed to unlock that telepathic link with her brother, and not only is his group alive, but he reunited with the barn group. That was excellent... but Penny brought up a great point.

Now what?

"... That's a good question." Britney trailed off, because their viable options were very, very, slim as it stood. Justin wasn't going to get up for a little bit. All other options she could think of wouldn't work because they had no easy escape routes. So going outside, even for a second, was suicide put any other way. But there was another question.

"... How did the barn meet up with the garage?" Britney asked with a raised eyebrow, coming up with an idea.

Claire herself admitted that the odds weren't that high for them, but she was going to remain strong... or hope that her little barrier kept the bugs out. Just as a test, she activated her shield, and grabbed onto something - a vase. It felt like she wasn't even holding it at all. However, during her test, she heard the buzzing get a little louder. She trusted Justin with the girl - trusted as in the girl better know what would happen if she did anything to Justin - as she walked up to investigate. She saw a beetle flying around, and then she immediately crushed it barehanded.

However, she noticed that there were a lot more bugs inside....

"Guys! They're in!" Claire shouted as loud as she could over the swarm.

But, at that point, a pulse of inverted light came and time came to a complete stop afterwards. The insects that got through were suspended, and the group finally got a minute of breathing room.

---

---

The hatch opened, and there wasn't even barely a second passing before Hagan climbed up. He turned around, and offered a hand to the next person oh so eloquently stating, "Get up here, you dumbasses!" He pulled the person up, and Lynette climbed up herself. Which she found amazing since that wasn't a feat she didn't think she was capable of, but maybe it was all adrenaline! She ditched the glyph down there because there wasn't just enough time to make such a rushed job.

Everyone got up quickly, but not quick enough to avoid the barrage of insect that were coming in behind them. Lynette immediately, on pure reflex began drying a water glyph. "Shit!" Jordan shouted as she tripped over on her bad leg. She loudly hit the ground and groaned in pain as the swarm of insects descended upon her. However, the sigil on her back began glowing brightly.

"Jord-" Kimberly tried to call out, but a massive wave of energy traveled outwards and from the wave came fourth inverted light. Suddenly, the swarm that were about to overtake her were halted in mid air. Everyone was understandably confused, but Lynette quickly finished drawing her glyph and ice came fourth from the symbol and quickly sealed the hatch shut. Dropping the air temperature enough so that it was completely unsustainable for most of the insects.

"The fuck?" Hagan said to himself... but he didn't waste a second of time grabbing a baseball bat and then he wildly swung it towards the swarm of flying bugs that was suspended in mid air. It wasn't the most efficient method of wiping out a giant swarm of bugs, but many of them were splattered against the baseball bat.

Kimberly was quick to pull Jordan away from the insects, as she tried to recover from her leg being injured. Her eyes were closed, and she was quietly sobbing in pain with her teeth tightly clenched. Everyone else did the best they could to get rid of the rest of the insects, and the hatch being sealed insured that nothing else would slip through the cracks.

Another pulse came outwards back to Jordan, and time resumed. All the dead bugs fell to the ground, and all other changes directly happened afterwards. But at this point, everyone was safe. For the most part. They had enough breathing room to operate from under the swarm.

"... Okay, what the fuck was that?" Hagan asked.

"Jordan's abstraction, I believe," Lynette immediately answered. The whole duration of Jordan's freakout, she was glowing. Her aura shined brightly, but only to Lynette. "It's not rocket science, but Jordan can stop time."

Jordan was still in a lot of pain, but with the help of Kimberly, she was able to sit on a pile of tools. Which took a ton of pain off of her leg. She didn't really understand most of the conversation, but when her name was mentioned, she couldn't help but pipe up, "I can stop what?"

"Time." Lynette said, "That was all you."

"That's my..." Jordan thought out loud to herself, "... Abstraction?" It all made a bit more sense... the symbol of an hourglass on her back, but what is the link here? Her pondering came to a stop when Hagan oh so eloquently stated.

"Okay, that's great, but what the fuck do we do?" Hagan barked out with his arms crossed. "She can stop time, but we need to get the fuck outta here, and we gotta do it fast."

Hmph. Hagan had a point. Despite his wording, they needed a plan to get the hell out of here before it was too late. Lynette had a few ideas, but all of them... well, bad. What she needed was more information on everyone's abstractions before she could come up with a plan. "Okay, we need a plan, and we need a good one." Lynette started off before she looked among the group. "What's everyone's abstractions, and does anyone have anything useful they'd like to let the group know?" Lynette asked.

---

Reid Farmhouse - Tunnel
_{@FernStone @Surtr Inc}

---

Paige was very glad to recieve Caelea's help. She hadn't asked for it, because how could she ask anyone to risk their life for her, when the reason she wanted their help was to protect hers? It would have been hypocritical. Still, Paige didn't want to die, and while this girl wasn't the strongest, it was something just not to be carrying her entire weight, and it probably saved her life.

"Thank you, so much," Paige said as the pair moved forwards. "I won't forget this."

When they reached the end of the tunnel, Paige stepped to one side, to let Caelea go first. "You first. You risked your life to protect me, you don't deserve to lose it for me," she reasoned with the other girl.

Once Caelea was up, Paige followed, passing her crutch up to anyone who might be there to recieve it, or otherwise just throwing it up as best she could. Then, in her strange way of doing so, she hauled herself up each rung of the ladder, finally reaching the top as the swarm was becoming unbearable below. Paige pulled herself up and into the garage just as time stopped.

The state of stillness that Jordan had caused was disorienting, but at this point Paige had come to accept that her prior concepts of what was possible had turned out to be wrong, and in similar fashion just accepted that her friend could do this. It wasn't like she hadn't been warned; she already knew that most, if not all of the people that had come here were capable of... something. Honestly, Paige just wished hers would show up soon so that she wasn't constantly relying on everyone else.

Speaking of which, the dark-skinned girl who'd led the way before was asking about Abstractions.

Paige spoke up, still catching her breath. "In terms of abstractions, I've got nada. But, I do have one idea; I doubt there's much ventilation in that tunnel. If we can start a fire, the smoke should clear out most of the insects, and then we won't be trapped. Anyone got anything for that?"

Once done speaking, Paige took a step back, and moved to stand beside Jordan and Kimberly. Not wanting to interrupt whoever was speaking next, Paige only spoke quietly, saying "You alright, Jordan? That hit looked nasty."

---

@Surtr Inc @Prosaic @He Who Walks Behind @Atrophy
The Reid Farmhouse - Main House.

---

It should've been an easy investigation, but of course it wasn't. Jasmine and Grant played their parts as they entered the house, electing to investigate the first floor with Rita though not managing to find much. Things quickly went to shit however, and after so many things seemed to happen at once the two siblings found themselves desperately doing whatever they could to seal off the house from the invading swarm as best as they could. Grant in particular felt useless though, none of his skill sets were applicable here and his Abstraction would absolutely be useless. Silencing an area around himself would do nothing to protect him or the others, if anything they would be at a disadvantage since they would no longer be able to hear how close the bugs were.

Jasmine felt similarly, but she also just didn't know what her Abstraction even did. She knew she had somehow frozen Reese in place back at the Cafe, though perhaps "froze" wasn't quite the right word. But either way, she had managed to do that, but she doubted she could stop an entire swarm with her ability. Though beyond that...she felt there was more to her Abstraction. Ever since she had stopped Reese, she had felt something within her, an energy that she couldn't quite explain. The energy had begun to die down over time, but it was still there and she was sure she could do something with it. But how? And would it even be useful in this situation?

Nonetheless, the two of them did what they could to help. Grant managed to run into Martin during their frantic attempts of sealing every crack in the house. He could see him straining to push an object against a window, so he came up added his own efforts in moving it. Once they moved it in place, he gave his friend a concerned look as he flashed a hesitant "ok" sign. They had to move fast so texting wasn't an option right now, so all he could do was improvise in asking if he was ok.

Jasmine meanwhile had caught on to what the others were doing, and watched in nervous anticipation as Britney appeared to suggest that Penny could speak to her brother telepathically. Was that a unique ability to those two? No, it couldn't be, Penny didn't even know she could do it while Britney already knew about it. Then was it a sibling thing? Could Jasmine herself use it to mentally speak with Grant? It sounded crazy, but everything that had happened was crazy. So, in a weird way, it made sense then.

She didn't get to think too much further about it however as, despite everyone's best efforts, bugs were still managing to find a way to get in. She was about to shout for Grant and tell him to find safety, but at the moment the insects suddenly froze. Did someone use an Abstraction to stop? The power seemed similar to her own, yet the effects appeared to be different. Unlike with her power, the frozen effect lasted more than a second and they actually seemed to be frozen in place instead of having just been stopped. Interesting...but, this was their chance!

"Guys, we need to move. Now!" Jasmine warned everyone, "I don't know how long we've got but these bugs aren't gonna stay frozen forever! We need a safer spot to come up with a plan!"

---

_{@Surtr Inc@Atrophy@Prosaic@Mike73@He Who Walks Behind}
The Reid Farmhouse – Main House

---

Tuyen had absolutely no idea what to do and how they were going to get out of this. If she was honest being eaten alive by bugs wasn’t the way she really wanted to go. It didn’t seem quick or painless. The situation seemed a little helpless. Even if Penny contacted her brother (something that she didn’t quite get) how did that help?

Min was trying to think of solutions. There had to be some way for them to get away from this. He paid attention to Britney as she made Penny telepathically communicate with her brother – yet another thing to add to the list of stuff that shouldn’t be possible. Min wondered if he could do that with Tuyen. Maybe he would try another time.

But now was the time to come up with a plan.

When the bugs got in he was all but prepared to just give up and then everything froze. He grabbed a nearby book and smacked a few of the ones closest to him. He had to agree with the girl that said they should take the opportunity to move.

“We should go to the basement if we need a safer spot,” Min responded to Jasmine, but loud enough for everyone to hear. “It might be easier to barricade so we can figure a way out.”

“How are we going to get out of the basement, a secret door?” Tuyen didn’t try to keep the sarcasm from her voice. Being cheerful was just a bit pointless at the moment.

“Who knows, there might be.” A lot had happened recently that Min wouldn’t have thought possible. It was less magical than time being frozen and people telepathically talking. Maybe there would be something like that.

---

_{@Surtr Inc@Ciaran@Prosaic}
The Reid Farmhouse –Barn

---

Rien had helped with pulling open the hatch before stepping back to let others help those in the tunnel climb in. They’d quickly pulled out their small sketchpad and drawn a pretty accurate bug spray. Upon pulling it out they’d been quite pleased to find out that it was functional. Nice. Now they only need another few hundred of those.

Caelea was relieved to get out of the tunnel, even if she’d felt a bit bad when Paige said for her to go first. But at least she’d helped the other girl get away from the swarm. That was better than nothing.

But it didn’t stop the swarm from following them up, injuring Jordan before some kind of weird shit happened to freeze time.

Rien was very quick to take the opportunity to spray the bugs with the one can she’d drawn up, efficiently killing them (not too hard when they weren’t moving). Caelea grabbed a nearby spade and got to smashing them too – trying not to laugh at the picture Hagan painted hitting bugs with a baseball bat.

Time resumed and all the bugs had been killed. Rien hurried over to Kimberley and Jordan – they weren’t the best at caring but still wanted to make sure their friends were fine. “Shit, are you okay? You need any medical supplies? I can draw them up…”

“I don’t have an abstraction either,” Caelea shrugged in response to Lynette, glad that Paige had spoken up first and she wasn’t the only one. “At least not that I’ve figured out yet.”

“I can draw things and pull them out of paper,” Rien replied, holding up their sketchpad. “I don’t think it can be bigger than what I draw it on, but it’s something.” Then, to Paige. “I can make some matches at least?” 

---

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

---

“They came in through some tunnel. There was a hidden hatch,” said Penny before the bugs had crept through their half-assed defenses. Penny triggered her aura, projecting the trajectory of the insects that were flying towards her and readying herself to begin blasting as many away once they entered within her range. However, they never got close enough. A flash of light rippled throughout the house and then the buzzing stopped, the bugs frozen in mid-air. Penny killed her aura and raised an eyebrow, looking around at their group. Had that been one of them?

Rita joined up with Tuyen, taking advantage of the pause to swat away as many bugs as she possibly could. When the others suggested the basement, she drew upon the conclusion that they were all hoping for, “If there’s a tunnel from the barn to the garage, then maybe there’s one from the house to the garage.”

“Only one way to find out,” said Penny, moving towards the basement. “Claire, you’re a big girl, why don’t you drag Justin downstairs?”

---

The Reid Farmhouse - Garage

---

“How about some bug zappers and a fly swatter?” suggested Billy when Rien mentioned their Abstraction, brushing an escaping bug off of his shoulder. Then, he turned to Lynette to address her question. “I think I can somehow telepathically talk with Penny, but that’s about it. She’s with Britney and the others in the house. I can maybe pass along a message, but that’s about it.”

“Anyway, could we talk about this fire idea? If it gets out of hand we’ll all kind of be screwed.”

---

_{@Atrophy@He Who Walks Behind@Prosaic@FernStone@Mike73}

---

"... I have an idea where such a thing is." Britney said.

She harkened back to when she was searching the basement and found scrape marks on the ground. If there was a tunnel to the barn to the garage, perhaps there's a tunnel that goes from the house. If the tunnels are clear. "Let's go!" Britney shouted as she ran to the basement door, and noticed a few bees, beetles, and wasps floating around in the suspended time. Britney's hand was coated in a wheat colored light and thin wooden spikes came outwards and impaled all the insects floating in mid air just in time for the time to resume. Once everyone was in, Britney closed the door, and placed her hand on the stairs, and created a massive root that filled the crack under the door.

Afterwards, Britney ran down the stairs and pointed at the wooden shelf that she noticed was peculiar. "Guys, move this. I think the hatch would be here."

Claire stepped down the stairs holding Justin, and then gently placed him down on the floor. "Hey Penny," Claire said as she rubbed her hands together. "Ask your bro what his group is up to - what any plans they're cookin' up so we don't run in there and fuck it all up."

---

---

"We're pretty screwed if we stay here anyway, genius." Hagan scoffed at Billy's comment. Seemingly to go along with Lynette's idea, because any idea is an idea.

It was probably up to Lynette to come up with some kind of plan at this rate. Causing smoke to fill up the tunnel would work perfectly... if there was something to burn. Even if Lynette could cause a fire with a mere drawing, how would they cause it to burn enough smoke to fill up the tunnel, and how would they get it through without causing this biblical plague to come through and kill them anyway. Paige and Caelea don't have abstractions (that they probably know of anyway).

But, there was Rien and Nathan that came to mind. And a beautiful idea was hatched in her head.

"Rien, that won't be necessary," Lynette said as she raised a marker in the air. "I got all the fire we need... but, what you could draw was something to burn. Something like cloth or wood. Then that brings me to you..."

She turned to Nathan, and then grinned, "You can phase it through the floor, and then I ignite it. That'll produce enough smoke to clear the tunnels. Or burn enough of them alive."

Then Lynette had to bring up something else, "When we were in the tunnel, I heard the insects coming down a separate path - so that must mean there's a way out of here."

Jordan looked up at Paige and Rien, she would had cracked a smile because they were so concerned about her. However, while it hurt like hell right now, she knew it'd be a lot better if she was far away from here as possible. "Yeah, I'm good," Jordan said, "It's going to hurt like hell for a little while, but nothing some pain meds can't fix." She put her hand up at Rien, "I don't need all that, she might need you more than me."

"I wish I could help, but I have no abstraction..." Kimberly seldomly said, before thinking about the weird symbol on her forehead. A "sigil" they called it. But, she was wondering what kind of abstraction could be mean. A symbol of a camera's eye, as she liked to call it. She always felt a strange pull towards photos since the incident...

---

Reid Farmhouse - Outside

---

The pain was so intense...

Sharon didn't realize what was going on, but she felt nauseous from all the buzzing that was filling up her ears. She looked up, and couldn't see a thing, there were too many insects-

Suddenly, the swarm cleared up around her, and left a bubble where she could see in front of her. At least a good six feet in a dome before the insect swarm made it impossible to see past it. She stood up, still clutching that pained arm of hers. What in the hell was going on? She tried dragging her feet back towards her house, but she couldn't-

The insects cleared up a path straight to her house.

"Am I..." Sharon trailed off for a moment as she released her arm, and let it loosely flop to her size. She raised a palm up into the air, and saw a dragonfly land on her hand. It flew away, but she looked off to the side. She realized she was one of them. An Awakened. It was finally time, but it came at the worst time... she looked up, and closed her eyes as she tried to will them away.

... and they didn't go away.

Maybe... her heart was still racing, and she could barely focus right now. Everything was happening at god damn once and she couldn't... she couldn't think. Not a word. She needed help. She didn't know what was going on, but something was drawing her to the house. She could feel something coming from the house (and slightly from the garage).

She dragged her feet towards the house, towards where she could feel that signil.

---

More had filed in to help haul the truck in front of the door and keep it from opening back up to unleash the swarm upon them, but Nate all the same kept his body pressed against it just in case that tiny little gap he'd sworn he could make in the door wasn't tiny enough to keep out a dozen or so bees, wasps or whatever from stinging or biting them until their throats closed up and they all died a horrible, painful death. Nope was his answer to that.

Most of those who'd been helping secure the door melted away when a commotion arise from the back of the garage - voices? Nate gave thought to it, wondering just where the hell they'd come from and if that meant there was another way in for the bugs. Assorted junk was pushed or otherwise kicked aside, allowing the voices coming from beneath to pop open a hatch and emerge - Hagan came first, followed soon after by Paige, Calea and Lynn - the latter of whom he at least somewhat knew from their past encounter in which her flying chunk of rock had been ready to cave his skull in. That was at least somewhat relieving, given the kind of stunts he knew she could pull - but that relief had almost entirely drained away once he realised a swarm of bugs had managed to follow them up.

Nate glanced between the truck and the stricken group, ready to intervene just as Jordan tripped over - he realised that the bugs had frozen. Not as in ice-cold frozen but literally frozen in place, which in turn gave the others (props to Hagan and Lynn) time to deal with them. Another abstraction? These people were full of surprises.

"Okay, we need a plan, and we need a good one." Lynette had already started cutting into the thick of it, "What's everyone's abstractions, and does anyone have anything useful they'd like to let the group know?"

"You should know since you almost missed me," Nate impulsively remarked, "Dunno if that means I can walk through the bugs or anything." Part of him wasn't exactly eager to test that out, either - but she kept on going with her ideas. She gave Rien a look, "I got all the fire we need... but, what you could draw was something to burn. Something like cloth or wood. Then that brings me to you..."

Nate felt her grinning face staring at him, "You can phase it through the floor, and then I ignite it. That'll produce enough smoke to clear the tunnels. Or burn enough of them alive. When we were in the tunnel, I heard the insects coming down a separate path - so that must mean there's a way out of here."

"Shit, can't you make some kind of bug spray spell?" Nate asked, already aware of the kind of answer to expect - none of this would be easy, "I mean, I'll do it - just don't want to go up in smoke." His abstraction would let him do that at least, right? It beat dying trapped in here and so, reluctantly, he volunteered for the job.

---

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

---

“What do you think I’m doing?” said Penny with an unnecessary snippiness to her voice. She turned her back towards the group and concentrated. It was easier to connect to Billy than it was before. So Britney had been right about that after all, although that only begged the question of how Britney knew about their telekinetic link in the first place. A concern for another time. The words formed in her mind, and she felt herself sending them over to Billy, “We’re trying to find our way into some creepy ass secret tunnels to reach you guys. What’s the sitch over there?'

“Holy shit, don’t do that. Not yet, at least. Lynette’s about to smoke out all of the bugs.”

“Shit,” growled Penny. She turned to see Rita reaching for the shelf. “Hey! Don’t touch that.”

The commanding voice made Rita freeze in place, her eyes popping open wide and her cheeks sucking in as if she had been caught red handed. Slowly her eyebrows lowered and she shot Penny a quizzical look, her left hand still resting on the side of the shelf. Faintly, it glowed. “Why not?”

“Why not? Because Lynette’s about to use one of her witchy glyphs to smoke out the tunnels and because I freaking said so,” said Penny, a slightly confused look crossing her face as she finished her sentence. She hadn’t intended to include that last part; the stress of the situation was clearly beginning to wear on her already slim patience.

“Unless one of you can materialize oxygen masks we’re gonna be stuck here for a moment. Which...can you?” She looked around at the group and frowned. “I have a general idea of what those chucklefucks can do,” she gestured towards Britney, Justin, and Claire, “but I don’t know shit about the rest of your Abstractions. Whaddya got?”

“I-I-I, um, I got nothing, sorry!” said Rita, her voice quaking as she quickly turned away, but not before giving Martin a quick, pleading look. It wasn’t very smooth. If he gave her away, she doubted any of the others would ever feel comfortable talking to her again. Not that she felt like any of them wanted to, let alone even enjoyed, talking to her in the first place. She pretended to find something interesting on the shelf and picked up a dusty piece of junk, turning it over in her hands to avoid having to make eye contact with anyone else.

“Awesome. Great. Why even talk?” asked Penny, letting out a deep, frustrated sigh. “Anyone else?”