when horror movies become therapy
it's been a year after the webtoon's final events, and the gang still can't watch real horror movies.
OR a sbg future au consisting purely of fluff, sleepovers, and, well, horror movies.
—
You would think, that one year later, things would have settled down. That everyone would be trying to get their lives back together, figure things out, and leave the past far, far, behind them.
The truth could not be farther from that.
The six of them have huddled together on Ashlyn's slightly bouncy couch, watching a crappy horror movie that was way too loud and way too flashy.
Watching horror movies had become a tradition between them, like a "take that" to everything they'd been through. It was a slow climb, sure, but it was something to do, and it made them all feel a little bit accomplished. Not being scared of another movie felt like giving a middle finger to the horror movie they lived through- almost like a step towards being... normal again.
Plus, they got to do it together.
"Someday," Taylor mutters, "We'll have the guts to go and watch a real horror film without freaking out."
Aiden snorts, shifting on the couch to avoid being squished between Tyler and Ashlyn. "Please, you wouldn't last ten seconds in an actual movie theatre."
She flicks him in the shoulder and sighs in pretend exasperation, "Please, you didn't last ten seconds in an actual movie theatre." She retorts, raising her eyebrows.
Aiden looks away, slightly red and embarrassed, "That was like, three months ago! And it was scary, okay? The ghoul thing looked like a phantom. There's no way you weren't scared too."
She can't deny that she'd also been freaking out, but Aiden's vocal reaction had made the entire group laugh for hours. He'd gotten up on his chair and screamed curses at the theatre screen, then spider-jumped two rows down and bounced outside. No, literally, he was practically hopping, flailing his arms and running out the door like an Olympic sprinter. He denies it, for some reason, justifying it with a flick of his hand and an insistence of it being only for the dramatics.
"Never said we weren't scared," Ashlyn blurts, grabbing a handful of sweet-and-salty popcorn out of an oddly geometrically decorated bowl, "Just sayin' that you didn't need to run out like Logan did when we first met him."
Logan squawks indignantly, "I did not run when I first met you!" He gets up to snatch some popcorn from Ashlyn's bowl, and makes an unpleasant face when he pops one into his mouth. "God, this is like if table salt and caramel had a baby, and then left it alone in a cornfield for a century."
"It's delicious," Ashlyn frowns, "You're taste buds are just deformed."
"I-"
"Guys," Tyler groans, "Can we just watch the fucking movie?"
Aiden leans over to ruffle his hair, causing Tyler to squeak and try to move away. "Aw, poor Tyler," He snickers, "I think he's enjoying the movie. We should all be quiet and let him watch it, then."
"I'm not!" He protests, because the film is terrible and it would be incredibly embarrassing to enjoy it, "I just want you guys to shut up."
Taylor frowns, "No you don't," She declares, definitively.
He groans, "Either you guys watch the movie and shut up, or you turn off the movie and complain about disfigured salt babies for hours. There is no in-between."
Ben types something on his iPad and raises it for the rest to see, Both, please, and thank you. He smirks slightly, clearly proud of pissing Tyler off.
He groans, "You guys are exhausting, I'm leaving. I have to get to practice early tomorrow anyway."
"No!" Aiden screams, launching himself at the tired boy, "You are not allowed to leave, buddy. You are being held hostage by the Phantom Busters, please do not rebel in any form or way."
"I... plead the fifth?" He blinks, knowing that there isn't any way out of this.
"We're having a sleepover," Logan declares, "No negotiations necessary. Or allowed."
Tyler rolls his eyes, but his irritated persona is broken when he smiles, "Yeah, sure, fine, whatever."
Ashlyn grabs another handful of popcorn, "You know, you do have to ask the person whose house it is if you want to have a sleepover, right?"
"Nope," Aiden shrugs, "But I asked your mom already."
She snorts, throwing a piece of popcorn at him, "When the hell did you do that?"
It lands in Taylor's hair, and she swats it off quickly.
"Like, right before we started the movie? You just didn't see me 'cause I'm a fucking ninja," He finger-guns her and swirls around, "Now, if you will excuse me, I must notify my parents that they are free of another morning with me."
The movie has stopped playing, and when Ashlyn finally notices, she furrows her eyebrows, "When the hell did the movie turn off?"
Ben waves the remote and throws it to Aiden, who just put his phone down.
"It's been confisticated," Aiden declares, punching his hand in the air like he's holding a gold medal instead of a TV remote.
Logan sighs, "Confiscated," he corrects.
"That's what I fucking said!"
"Whatever," Taylor waves him off, "We can finish the movie tomorrow. You guys want to play charades?"
"Can I be a clown?"
She sighs, "It doesn't work like tha-"
"Don't worry, Aiden, you don't need to pretend," Tyler grins, then ducks away from the popcorn kernel Aiden chucks at him.
"I hate you," He snaps back, with no heat behind his words.
"Ditto," He replies, still basking in the warmth of Aiden's rage.
The blonde calms down rather quickly, or at least he hides his anger as fast as possible. "You know what, thank you. I am a wonderful clown and as I stand here today, I demand justice for all the clowns in the world! You have wronged them, Sir Tyler of the Hernandez." He bows dramatically.
Taylor wheezes, "I need to get that printed on a T-shirt, oh my god."
Aiden nods rapidly, "Oh my god, absolutely, we need matching T-shirts and like, earrings."
You don't even have your ears pierced. Ben types, sharing an amused glance with Logan.
"What about the clip-on things? We could totally get that!!"
Tyler flops back onto the couch, nearly knocking into Logan, who pushes him away lightly. "Aiden, you have too much energy right now, and it's almost midnight. Can we sleep now?"
Aiden looks at him like he's insane, "Who goes to sleep during a sleepover?"
"Me. Good night, Aiden," Tyler smiles, amused.
"Fine," He grumbles, "Let's get the sleeping bags out."
The fact that they all had sleeping bags at Ashlyn's house only proved that they had slept over way too many times to count. Not that she minded though, it was nice having people around, and now that she was comfortable with them, it was almost relaxing.
Sure, it got tiring sometimes, but it was a small price to pay.
Besides, without them, who else would she watch horror movies with?
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The stars on the left and your heart on the cleft
Them having some peace and a break from pain <3
A minute ago, they were on the bench, gold rays coloring the wood.
He was smiling so brightly
She looked peaceful
In his eyes, she was his peace
. .
"Woah! Be careful when you walk on that" he said, a laughter in his voice.
"Aiden, I have a good sense of balance."
She carefully walked on the edge of the wall, ending the distance between them.
"I think it's a good place here" he sat and tapped on the stony surface beside him, he then lifted his head towards her.
"Really?" She said curiously while sitting beside him, wondering if the stars were as visible as he said.
The stars were bright tonight, as white as the purest pearls.. she was mesmerized by each one of them.
"I was never able to watch them so clearly.." she murmured, her gaze was stuck to the pearly sky.
Aiden wishes he could say the same, but his eyes were too focused on her expression.
"You're not looking, Aiden"
He jumped a bit when she turned her head towards him, he didn't bother hiding it.
"Yeah, I was just surprised to see you so amazed by the stars. You've never seen them before?"
He gave her a tricky smile, which was followed by her rolling her eyes at him before replacing her gaze towards the stars.
He didn't know what to way, was there a need to have words? The silence between them felt almost too good to end.
Suddenly, one of the stars seemed to run across the sky.
"Oh!" Ashlyn suddenly got on her knees and pointed at the stars.. a bit too fast.
So fast that Aiden barely had the time to be startled, Ashlyn lost her balance and fell forward.
"Ash-!"
He grabbed her hand, focusing more on catching her rather than staying in place.. the fall made him lose his balance too.
They both fell with no time to think about landing safely, gladly for them, the fall wasn't too hard.
Mostly due to the low wall not being that tall, and therefore them not being that far away from the ground.
"Ouch.." she winced while rubbing her head, Aiden was right beside her already in a sitting position.
Still in shock, it took him multiple seconds to realize Ash was beside him and wincing in pain.
".. Ash? You alright?"
He carefully got closer to her and put a hand behind her head to help her sit in a better position.
"Are you bleeding or just bruised?" He asked her, checking for any wounds with his hand. She was still wincing, barely looking at him. Her hands covering her ears and her breathe becoming steady.
It didn't take long for him to realize that she lost one of her earbud while falling, the sound of the shock must have been harsh for her.
He stopped talking and put his own hands on hers, making a calm breathing pattern for her to follow.
Once she seemed to have calm down he started to search for her lost earbud, it was some meters away from them.
"Feeling better?" He asked, in a murmured tone.
She glanced towards him and nodded.
".."
He lifted his head and looked at the sky, from this distance they were just as bright.
"From here, we can still see them so clearly.."
He smiled at her and made a gesture with his head to point at the ground.
"If we lay down like this, we will at least spare our necks from constantly raising them to look at the stars"
She seemed dubious but followed him on the ground and laid down.
'it's true' she said to herself. It did feel nicer to look at them that way.
She closed her eyes, so far away yet it felt like the stars were sharing their warmth.
Aiden kept his eyes open, he was scared that if he closed them;
she would disappear.
His hand was close to hers, he approached his own closer;
he didn't dare to take her hand, but being close was enough.
At least it was.
He opened his eyes
he wasn't afraid of closing the gap between his hand and hers
His head felt heavy in the ground, so was her hand
The air was cold, so was she
So was he.
He wondered, how many stars will he see if he turned his head to the right
But he was so afraid of looking at her.
So he derived his eyes to the sky
Pearly white
Shiny, bright like her eyes when she looked at them
He resented them in a way, he was sure if they were shining less brightly, it would have left her some of it
"Ash, look"
He squeezed her hand
"Ash, the stars are so clear even from here"
Her eyes stayed closed
"I wish the stars could grant you warmth again"
( SIKE, lol sorry i play on both sides of this war.)
( for anyone who's confused, the first part was a happy memory. The last part was them both dying, on the ground, holding their hands, they're not dying from the fall, imagine it more as a theorized end of the webtoon, in the other dimension being mixed with the real world.)
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you already know, a little short but its wtv
- Ben has a bunch of weird shirts, yk those ones that are like “I got my lobotomy done at Claire’s!” Aiden bought him one as a joke but Ben thought it was hilarious and got more
- if the group even makes it to adulthood i see aiden as a drag racer or something, he’d get a kick out of the thrill of it
- can you even imagine when they all have to get jobs? ash’s first job would be some kind of customer service and on rough shifts she just goes in the back to scream then come back out like “☺️ what can i do for you?” she quit that job and got a quieter one
- i could definitely see ash working at a library or something though, she gets to listen to music and stock shelves with books and barely interact with anyone? dream come true
- taylor and tyler are lifeguard material for sure, they would love working at the pool/waterpark
- logan once ripped a mannequins arm off in a store after jokingly shaking it and got so scared he hid it in the men’s bathroom
- ash loves old animated movies. the last unicorn, secrets of nimh, the black cauldron, arthur and the invisibles, she just has a collection of these kinds of dvds that are borderline nightmare fuel
- taylor is such an art girly idc, especially with coloring and i dont mean little kid coloring books but those adult insanely detailed ones and she can color and shade them beautifully
- in summertime taylor loves drawing on the sidewalk with chalk she just has such an eye for color
- aiden on the other hand is a doodler at heart, he and taylor will sometimes draw/color in class together
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