#c:charlie hall

[charliexhall]

dwellers || charlie & charlie

If there was an option to stay behind, Charlie Hall had missed the warning to do so or the opportunity to say yes. She had simply nodded at the suggestion the group should explore the looming tower casting a dire shadow over their safe haven, destroying any false sense of security they may have all held. Because if she’s learned anything from the past year, it’s that nowhere is safe anymore. It’s kill or be killed these days and she pretends the list of her murders, ever-growing, doesn’t include her mother.

A firearm may have proved helpful, but it isn’t something she’s stumbled upon in her travels and no one had ever gifted her any. Why would they? Any kind of gun or rifle seems like slim chances to come by. She wouldn’t just give someone a gun, even if she had more than she needed. Because there’s always the unexpected that they’re all always expecting. Death is always expected and there isn’t such a thing as being too prepared.

If they’ve traveled together in a pack, the imposing structure must know, must have some form of conscious to protect itself because nothing seems to remain steady after they’re arrival, like the ground could quake beneath them - but it doesn’t tremble in fear, more like a war gong struck deep beneath the Earth’s crust to rally the demonic troops. Wherever her people are scattered, some faces still too familiar and she’s kept her distance from them in fear of recognition - lacking the pride she assumed she’d feel at being some sort of prodigal son - , it’s too chaotic to tell.

The inner workings of the structure are much more complicated than she would’ve believed prior, too many turns, left and right, too many creatures that might infect her flesh, and not enough backup. If the group stood strong and large before, they appear smaller to her now. Charlie mutters a curse under her breath, voices calling out but seeming farther away until the echoes reverberate in some ancient rhythm, like souls lost in the river. Her frame hugs a stone wall as she rushes through the winding corridors of a possible trap, twin axes clutched so tight in a white-knuckled grasp as she recalls the only to escape a maze, because this most certainly was beginning to resonate as one, was to trail one side of the hall. Maybe if it felt like a game, she could think clearly instead of losing herself in the swell of panic threatening to drown her lungs in vicious waves.

Where are her people?

Circles. Squares. Each movement feels like an uncertain whirlwind of winding corridors until lost is the only phrase flashing in her mind, like an exit sign that merely speaks the truth. But the whispered echoing grows louder, like the tunnel expands to a doorway allowing the howling wind from just outside in. Except there’s no draft. Or it’s always been cold inside this tower. Curiosity and a desire to survive might prompt her feet to follow the sound, because it’s too human to the memory of her eardrums and climbing each step resembles some sort of plan they must’ve laid out. Climbing the tower is usually the tactic in fairy tales. Or nightmares.

For a moment, the hall seems to slim, until the walls feel like they might reach out and touch her. A shiver rushes down her spine, stopping her dead in her tracks and lungs aching from a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. There’s a commotion somewhere in the distance ahead of her, something that sounds urgent and entirely human. Whatever it is, it awakens something terrible within the walls.

It’s only then Charlie’s brain registers the cobwebs clinging to the sides of the structure like a thick fog, coating the walls in a white dust to conceal them, as though it could go on forever. Her head slowly being to turn sluggishly as though her curious brain fights the rapid beating of her heart, terrified of what the sounds might’ve disturbed. Corpses litter the musty webs, caught in the trap of some vicious eight-legged creature and before she could scream out the terror, the once living being’s eyelids lift, clouded depths focused on her and a decayed arm reaches out to snatch her shirt.

[beware-of-doors-rp]

change nothing Ω Grayhall high school sweethearts AU playlist

i forget where we were - ben howard || let her go - jasmine thompson || already gone - sleeping at last || rootless tree (live) - damien rice || we won’t - jaymes young & phoebe ryan || jet pack blues - fall out boy || neptune - sleeping at last || caves - haux || words - birdy || house on fire - sia || talk - kodaline || change nothing - i nine

happy birthday marie, my favorite trash queen for life!!! @ventimigrillo​ @deathbymitchell​