#and soon. SOON!. the building itself will be open until 8pm which means my shift will move back an hour. and i wont get back on late days

[july-19th-club]

*claims to be devotee of the wild*

*despises winter, objectively wildest season given that it is the time when the land is largely left to its own devices and none but the most hardcore human people venture past the most heated and domesticated parts of the world)*

[cirvat]

Week 4- Creatober

(Ahhh! Week 3 drew a blank! But week 4 brought me back!)

Prompts: Obsession, Become, Repress, Dusk, Exsanguination, and Break

Havenwood Apartments, Maddie mused to herself, was like a feel good monster cartoon come to life. Everything, from the campus grounds to the general theme of the building, was like a bastardization of an Addam’s Family spinoff. 

It was the little things. 

The general color scheme of the building, a dark wood paired with sophisticated shades of teal and gray, evoked a feeling of perpetual dusk. The refusal of the sun to break through the clouds and shine on any part of the grounds. Even the quirks of the tenants were odd.

Ms. Pennyweather of apartment 2A never went anywhere without her needlepoint projects which were always complex collections of foreign words and dark imagery. She would smile in that sweet auntie way while embroidering gory scenes of war and death. Maddie quite liked the bloody embroidery she had done on one of her jackets. She’d called that one ‘Exsanguination’.

Mr. King, in apartment 2B, was never seen during daylight hours, or what passed for daylight hours here. A knock at his door elicited no response before 8pm and his cat, affectionately called Fido, was never in his apartment. The animal was always napping elsewhere, in the kitchen or library or sitting area.

The twins, Misters Warton (apartment 4A), on the other hand never slept. Whenever Maddie got up, be it 7am or 2am, either one or both of them would be up in the library dithering away in their books and debating some inane topic of history.

Finally, there was the Garcia family in 4B who were the most normal tenants in the whole building, and yes Maddie knew that included herself. Or, they seemed like it until she had witnessed Mr. Garcia say, completely unprompted, how chilly a midsummer day was going to be hours before the wind came. 

The only person that seemed halfway average was Regina, Mr. Garcia’s daughter and Maddie’s newly enforced best friend. She attended the same little private school Huang Mulan, Maddie’s latest guardian, had enrolled her in. She giggled like a teenager, watched makeup tutorials, and posted artful pictures of her food to her Instagram. 

The only weird thing about Regina Garcia was how determined she was to be Maddie’s friend. She was kind and helpful and it set Maddie’s teeth on edge like nothing else. She didn’t even complain when Maddie started staring off at the spirits that were haunting her shadow or glaring down the ones that got too close. 

Maddie shook her head, repressing that warmth that bubbled under her skin. She let her eyes refocus back on her newest obsession, although maybe that was too strong of a word.

Watching Huang Mulan, Ms. Huang as Maddie had taken to calling her, paint was quickly becoming one of her favorite pastimes. 

Ms. Huang was honestly the coolest adult Maddie had ever seen. She either dressed to the nines with collared shirts and slacks or she looked like she had just rolled out of bed. Tattoos traced their way from her neck down her arms and spine in waves of dragons and plant life. The septum piercing was pretty cool too. And the pet raven.

“Not a pet.” Ms. Huang said as she dipped her brush in a frankly gorgeous shade of robin’s egg blue.

“What?”

“Have you gotten a chance to explore all that Havenwood has to offer?” Ms. Huang ignored her question as she traced the blue along the tree branches on her canvas. “Perhaps you could allow Ms. Garcia to give you a more in depth tour.”

“Are you really trying to get rid of me right now?” Maddie frowned. “I’ve already seen everything.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, everything I was allowed to see.”

“‘Allowed to see’?”

“Yeah, I’m not a creep!” She huffed. “I didn’t go digging in anyone’s apartments and Mr. Warton told me not to go snooping on the third floor.”

“Hm.” Ms. Huang smiled. “Charlie really should mind his own business on these kinds of matters.”

“What?”

“Madeline. A-Ying. You can go through the third floor.” She turned to look her ward in the eye. “You have my blessing.”

“What, really?” Maddie’s shoulders tensed. 

“Of course.” Ms. Huang turned back to her painting. “Bring your friend along. Who knows what you’ll meet.”

Maddie, who had checked out of the conversation as soon as Ms. Huang had given permission, bolted out of the room. The door of their ground floor apartment slammed open and she turned to the stairs in her sock clad feet. 

She sprinted up the steps, two at a time, to the fourth floor and pounded on the door to apartment 4B. When Regina opened the door she grabbed her arm immediately.

“Huanggavepermissiontoraidthethirdfloor! Mr. Gracia! I’m stealing your daughter!” She screamed into the apartment, hearing something vaguely like an ‘ok’, before yanking Regina out into the hallway. 

“Wait, Maddie, what’s going on?!” Regina stumbled on the carpet. 

“Third floor!”

“What about the third floor? We can’t go there, remember?”

“Ms. Huang gave me permission and told me to bring you so that means you have permission too and we are gonna raid the place I bet there’s some cool shit like dead rats and rotten furniture and maybe you can take a picture for your Insta or some shit! Come on!” She barely spared the time to breathe as she pulled her snooping buddy back down the stairs to the floor beneath them. 

“Uh-Um.. A-are you sure she meant me?” Regina fumbled for her words. Maddie would never understand this girl’s fear of her guardian.

“Who else is forcing their friendship on me? Fido the cat?” She scoffed as she took Regina’s shoulders and frog-marched her to the door for apartment 3A. “He doesn’t give a shit. He’s probably in here all the time.”

“I-I don’t know, Maddie.” Regina rubbed her hands together. “Mr. Warton said that we shouldn’t-”

“And Ms. Huang, you know the owner of the fucking building, said that we could. So we’re gonna.” Maddie tried the door and immediately knelt to pick the lock when it didn’t turn. “She said that ‘Charlie’ should keep his nose out of it.”

“I doubt she said that.”

“Spiritually, she did.” Maddie smirked when the lock clicked and the door opened. 

“You can pick locks?” Regina blinked when she sprung back up to shove the door open. 

“Hell yeah, I can.” Maddie winked at her. “I gotta use these delinquent skills somehow. Come on!”

The room that they entered was nothing like Maddie had expected.

Instead of old wood and dust there were stacks and stacks of paintings. Canvases and frames covered every wall. Almost every square foot of floor space was taken up with statues and busts. There was a small winding path that led through the unlit room. 

The girls glanced at each other before making their way inside. 

“Is this just where she dumps all of the crap she doesn’t sell?” Maddie frowned as she tiptoed along the path. 

“Do you mean Ms. Huang?”

“Yeah. She paints, like, all the fuckin’ time. I just assumed she sold it all to afford shit like this house and art supplies. You ever look at the prices in those art stores? It’s crazy expensive!”

“I guess I didn’t think she had a hobby like that.” Regina shrugged. “I thought she just went around fixing broken stuff and collecting rent.”

“Don’t you do her dirty like th-! Stop!” Maddie threw out an arm, freezing in place. “Did you see that?!”

“See what?” Regina looked over her shoulder. “I didn’t see anything.”

“Sh!” She pointed. “There it was again! Something moved!”

“Oh, god. Do you think there’s actually rats in here?!” Her friend took a step back. 

“No, no! It was up high! Look, look!” Maddie pointed again. This time she caught the movement and watched as a ink-black goldfish slowly swam through the air. It floated over to a painting and disappeared into the canvas, becoming part of the image depicted there.

“What in the world?” 

“There’s more!” The two girls looked up and watched as a school of goldfish meandered through the ceiling beams. Regina glanced to the side staring at one fish as it sailed into another painting and tugged Maddie to watch as the painting itself began to change. 

A young girl swung on a rope swing as a storm slowly approached from behind her. Wind shuffled the leaves, changing their colors, and tugged at the girl’s hair. The fish made its way to her and she started to laugh, cupping the creature close.

Soon they noticed that each painting moved. A seascape patterned through a rushing tide. Ink slowly dribbled across fresh snow. A single wolf shifted in between forest trees. A young man blinked at them from his spot at a low table. 

“Maddie, what’s going on?” Regina tugged at her sleeve. 

“...” Maddie closed her gaping mouth and smiled. “My aunt is a fucking witch!”