Sleipnir
The Eight-Legged Norse Horse
Morgan hummed as Warren answered her and, as she walked in, she stuck close enough to his shoulder to almost be touching him. She scanned the room too, listening to him talk about the possibilities. It felt awfully morbid to think of drug overdoses and allergy flair-ups, and the idea of children being involved made it that much worse. Disgruntled employees coming in and making statements of the violent variety… that made sense, too. “I don’t remember seeing anything in the news,” she told him, turning to watch him as he found the lights. “But…”
When he asked about the ball pit, he got a lovely view of Morgan’s round nose scrunching up before she turned to look at it. “It might be. But if it is,” she answered, “I think I’ll risk finding somewhere else. I’d rather not go home with pink eye.”
Morgan squatted down then to dig through the bag. The place sure was eerie in the dark. The silence was worse than the deafening squeals of children and sharp jingling of the arcade games, overlayed with yet more sound as music played over the sound system. It felt almost distractingly quiet, the way the hills of New Mexico or Arizona felt, or the slick rock when you got far enough away from the roads. Nothing but the wind over rocks.
But the wind here came from a low-running HVAC system, and over that, somewhere, she thought she could hear some sort of mechanical whirring. She wasn’t sure. There were lots of things that could be. So instead she focused on pulling out her red light and her EMF reader.
“Alright. Do you wanna grab the temp gun?” Morgan turned over her shoulder again to hand Warren his spirit box. She already figured he’d want it. Then she grabbed her parabolic mic and headphones for herself. She opened her mouth, for a moment meaning to suggest splitting up, but her voice died in her throat as she looked around again.
The hallways back behind the stage were pitch dark, she couldn’t see a single thing. The dim of the stage swallowed everything, and she could just barely make out Bunbun’s eyes and gaping, hanging mouth if she strained her eyes and stared into the inky darkness beside him. It felt like it was staring at her. Beyond that… she really wasn’t sure what was back there in the bleak darkness.
Morgan felt her stomach drop and she drew a breath as she stood up. “We… should take a look around together,” she decided. “That way if one of us misses something, the other might pick it up, right?”
When he asked about the ball pit, he got a lovely view of Morgan’s round nose scrunching up before she turned to look at it. “It might be. But if it is,” she answered, “I think I’ll risk finding somewhere else. I’d rather not go home with pink eye.”
Morgan squatted down then to dig through the bag. The place sure was eerie in the dark. The silence was worse than the deafening squeals of children and sharp jingling of the arcade games, overlayed with yet more sound as music played over the sound system. It felt almost distractingly quiet, the way the hills of New Mexico or Arizona felt, or the slick rock when you got far enough away from the roads. Nothing but the wind over rocks.
But the wind here came from a low-running HVAC system, and over that, somewhere, she thought she could hear some sort of mechanical whirring. She wasn’t sure. There were lots of things that could be. So instead she focused on pulling out her red light and her EMF reader.
“Alright. Do you wanna grab the temp gun?” Morgan turned over her shoulder again to hand Warren his spirit box. She already figured he’d want it. Then she grabbed her parabolic mic and headphones for herself. She opened her mouth, for a moment meaning to suggest splitting up, but her voice died in her throat as she looked around again.
The hallways back behind the stage were pitch dark, she couldn’t see a single thing. The dim of the stage swallowed everything, and she could just barely make out Bunbun’s eyes and gaping, hanging mouth if she strained her eyes and stared into the inky darkness beside him. It felt like it was staring at her. Beyond that… she really wasn’t sure what was back there in the bleak darkness.
Morgan felt her stomach drop and she drew a breath as she stood up. “We… should take a look around together,” she decided. “That way if one of us misses something, the other might pick it up, right?”