#it’s like I’m in a hotel except one of the owners keeps berating my life choices and telling me I’m making a huge mistake

[fluffyllamas-23]

Visiting family for the first time after moving away is such a deeply weird experience

[therabidjackalope]

Spectral Plumbing

(Old story, inspired by true events)

“Hell no. Never using that again.” I said out loud, trying to bolster my courage with the sound of my own voice. It wasn’t working. Instead of encouraging me, my voice bounced and echoed around the dark and empty bathroom. The soft hiss of falling water the only other sound.

I slowly turned my head toward the only light source in the room, the shower. The blurry black spots were still there, looking back at me. “This is about to become a Clean Up On Isle 3 moment.” I tried again. This time my voice came out as a pitiful squeak that couldn’t even muster the strength to echo.

There were no indian burial grounds or old cemeteries anywhere near my house. I knew this because of hopeful investigating as a kid. Sure, there were times when I felt like I was being watched, but that was always my own paranoia after watching a scary movie. My house had never had any other owners, it was built only a few months before I moved in. So who the hell was that in my shower?

I closed my eyes and began to count, holding onto a childish hope that the old trick still held the magic it did when I was a kid.

One.

I was about to take a shower, just like I did every night before bed. And because I had lived here most of my life, I didn’t need to turn on any of the lights except the one in the ceiling above the shower itself.

Two.

As always, I pulled back the curtain to peek inside, making sure it was empty. This was a habit so old I no longer remember why I started doing it in the first place. Probably because of horror movies.

Three.

The curtain itself was just a sheet of clear plastic covered with little tiny bumps to make it a little opaque. You could see through it, but everything would be blurry.

Four.

I turned on the water, then closed the curtain to keep the floor from getting wet. The water always took a few seconds to warm up and I hated getting hit with it first thing.

Five.

And that was when I saw it, whoever or whatever it was. A form. A body. A body that wasn’t mine. It was pink and blurry, except for two spots of black where it’s eyes stared back at me.

I opened my eyes reluctantly, expecting to see the shower empty. It was all just my mind playing tricks on me. I’d feel so stupid and laugh, a funny story to tell my friends next time we got together. Just a figment of my overactive ima- OH MY GOD! IT’S STILL THERE!

“W-who are you?!” I demanded, trying to sound bolder than I really was. I was terrified. Hadn’t I seen this in a movie once? Didn’t the person end up dead? “What the hell do you want?”

They said nothing. They just stared at me through the curtain with those fuzzy blobs. “Well this is getting me nowhere.” I said out loud again, although I don’t know why I kept doing it. The reverberations of my voice only creeped me out even more.

Slowly I reached down for the plunger, my eyes never leaving the specter in my shower. I had to fumble around a bit before I found it, but finally my fingers felt the smooth hard wood of the handle and I snatched it up, brandishing it like a rapier at the shower curtain.

“N-n-now you get out of there and just… just go away, you hear me?!” I stuttered at the blurry body, mentally berating myself. Yeah, I was certainly intimidating. Fear me or I will unclog your drains, vile fiend!

With trembling hands I reached out with the plunger, hooking the end of the curtain with the rounded rubber, then cast it aside with a swift jerk of my arm.

Nothing was there. The shower was just as empty as it had been when I last looked. Steam billowed out of the opening, wetting my front with tiny droplets of condensation, but there was no one and no thing there. I slowly let out my breath in a loud sigh of relief and slowly lowered the plunger. It must have been some trick of the light, some festering ghoul of my imagination, some… And then I noticed the wet footprints, glistening on the tile floor.

“Oh hell no. I’m getting a hotel room tonight!”

[artificialqueens]

A Heart That Beats So Slow (Biadore) - Mac

AN: Trigger warning for abusive relationships both physically and mentally.

I’d like to preface this by saying that I am in no way suggesting that Roy’s ex was actually abusive in any way. I don’t know anything about his real life relationships. I just wanted to write a Biadore friendship fic where Bianca was the one who was going through hard times. I feel like many stories have Adore being the weaker one, not that there is anything wrong with that, and I wanted to change that dynamic up.

Summary: Roy goes out to a club with Adore for the first time in a long time, and it ends in a way neither of them had expected.

The music is pounding in his ears. “God I am too old for this.” Roy mutters under his breath. A giggle to his right signals that he didn’t say that as quietly as he had meant to. Roy can’t help the fond smile that accompanies the sound. Adore is looking at him with her big eyes, crinkles beside them to match the smile further down her face. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”

Adore just smiles wider. “I can.”

Roy pushes her playfully and she grabs his arm, pulling him after her onto the dance floor. Adore begins to rock her hips and sway to the music, completely unaware of anyone around her. It was sloppy, because she was a little past tipsy, but nonetheless she was mesmerizing to watch. Roy tried to keep up, but found he was incredibly incompetent when it came to this type of music.

He hadn’t been to a club in ages, which he was perfectly fine with. They were too loud and messy anyway. He didn’t have time for messy. Maybe he was just getting old, but he preferred everything to be well lit and orderly.

He was too busy berating his own mind for that thought and he completely missed what Adore was saying. “What?”

“You need to stop thinking so much.” She shouted in his ear, but he only barely heard the words. Roy was about to just call it quits and retire to the bar for the night, when he felt her hands on his hips. Adore pulled Roy closer to her and began to push on his hips so his body was swaying in time to the music. When his hips got with the program, Adore trailed her hands up to his shoulders and began to move his arms as well. The tension slowly began to dissipate from his movements the longer he danced, and after the first couple of songs, Roy seemed to be getting the hang of this whole being young thing. Adore seemed to agree, and smiled proudly as she removed her hands from his body entirely.

The sudden loss of them jolted Roy a bit, and he tried not to think about that feeling too much.

The song changed again and he found himself surrounded on all sides by strangers, except his front, where Adore had begun moving rather seductively. Roy was pressed close to her, and she smirked when their bodies met. Roy tried to not knock into her, but the mass of people only pushed him closer. Adore didn’t seem to mind though, and she flung her arms around Roy’s neck and began dancing into him. Roy went stock-still and did everything in his power to distance himself from Adore. He went to pull away again and felt a hand on his shoulder that didn’t belong to the younger queen in front of him.

Turning to face the hand, he was met with a pair of eerily familiar eyes. It took him more time than it should have to recognize the owner, but when he did, all the blood in his body turned icy. Roy’s face reflexively sunk in response to the searing anger he saw in those eyes. The same firm hand from before grabbed his arm and forcefully pulled him from the dance floor. Roy glanced back at a confused looking Adore with an unreadable expression plastered on his face.

The grip on his arm tightened, as he was lead through the throngs of people. It only let up when he was met with the cold night air in the back alley of the club. Roy shook off the hand and finally had enough sense in him to glare at his captor.

“What the hell are you doing here Jason?” Roy demanded, as he ran a soothing hand over the arm he had been dragged by.

“I could ask you the same damn question.” Jason’s voice was angry and shrill, and Roy cursed himself for shrinking ever so slightly at the pitch.

“I’m dancing with a friend. I thought that was fairly obvious but forgive me, I forget that your intellect isn’t exactly up to par.” Roy spat.

Jason stalked forward, an all too familiar gleam in his eyes. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”

Roy refused to step back or relent in any way, however much he wanted to, and instead just stood up straighter. “You and I aren’t together anymore, thank god for that, so it really doesn’t matter who I dance with or how I spend my time.”

“What, are you dating him then? That kid?” The word him was practically growled into his ear, and Roy flinched backwards ever so slightly.

“No. Adore is just a friend I told you that.” Roy’s tone was still firm, but the longer he looked at Jason, the less courage he seemed to have.

The slap across his face took him by surprise, and a yelp worked its way out of his throat at the stinging sensation it left behind.

“Don’t lie to me. You were dancing all over him like a slut. You want him don’t you? You think he can do anything for you? He is a child.”

Roy was still clutching at his face and all thoughts of confrontation had flown out of his mind. He managed to whimper out, “No I don’t want him. We are just friends.”

Jason’s hand rose in the air a second time but froze as Roy ducked. “Don’t get smart with me.”

Roy’s voice had gone desperate at this point. In the back of his mind he knew what was happening. He knew this was Jason manipulating him, the way he had done so many times before, but it still had the same effect on Roy that it had the first time. “I wasn’t getting smart I swear. I’m sorry Jason. I’m so so sorry.”

“You should be.” Jason spoke harshly. He turned from Roy and walked a few paces back and forth before speaking again, this time his voice was heavy with emotion. “I can’t believe you would betray me like this.”

Roy knew he had done nothing of the sort. He and Jason weren’t dating. He didn’t owe him anything, explanation or otherwise. Roy knew this, he did, but the all too familiar feeling of letting Jason down crept up his back, and he began to apologize profusely. “I’m sorry Jason. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“You think I should forgive you for this?” Jason’s voice rose. “You think you deserve to be forgiven after cheating on me like this?” Without giving him time to answer, Jason spoke again, “Forget it, you know what, forget it. You aren’t worth the trouble.”

“No wait! Jason don’t go.”

This is how it always ended, with Roy groveling in submission. Shame burned in his chest, but it was overpowered by his immense need for validation, validation from the one person he never got it from, Jason.

“I gave you everything I had, and you treat me like this? I thought you were different. I thought you cared.” Jason was on the verge of tears, whether they were real, or just another manipulation, Roy didn’t know, but they still pained him all the same.

“I only want you. I am sorry. Please don’t go!” Tears were falling freely from Roy’s eyes, almost completely obstructing his vision.

Jason walked back to Roy, pain etched into every pore. He took Roy’s face in his hands, and the older man tried not to wince as two fingers came up to wipe his tears away. “Its ok I’m here now. Its ok. I forgive you.” Jason pulled Roy to his chest as the older man sobbed into his shirt.

Roy cried for many reasons. He cried because he knew this wasn’t healthy, and he hated himself for feeling like he needed this relationship. He cried because on some sick level he was glad that Jason had forgiven him. He also cried because he didn’t know if he would ever truly be able to get free of this toxic mentality.

The banging open of a door and a tentative voice calling his name prompted Roy to turn his head. Adore was staring at him, question clear in her expression as her eyes traced the red outline of a hand on his face.

Roy’s only warning was a violent whisper of, “Are you fucking kidding me?” before he was shoved hard to the ground. His head connected with the pavement and he saw black spots appear at the edge of his vision.

“You fucking liar. You are a fucking liar Roy.” Jason was looming over him and spitting each insult down at his immobile form. The tears were coming out full force and Roy heard himself mindlessly apologizing between each nasty word. “You are useless. I can’t believe I wasted my time on such an idiot.” With that, Jason had decided enough was enough, and began to walk away. Roy jumped to his feet to run after him, but a pair of scrawny arms stopped him from moving.

Adore was holding him effectively in place. He cursed at her, blamed her for everything, and called her every name he could think of in an attempt to make her let go, but she held fast. Eventually, Roy gave up and slumped to the ground in defeat. Adore followed him down, never releasing her grip on his body.

Roy began to sob uncontrollably then, and murmured things he had never intended to admit to anyone. Adore just stroked his hair and cried at each of his confessions.

She continued to hold him tightly until he finally fell asleep in her arms. Adore carried him, with a bit of difficulty, to a cab and later up to her hotel room. After cleaning him up as best she could, she tucked him into her bed. As she moved away, he grabbed her arm. “Don’t go.” He whispered.

She felt tears prick at her eyes at the pure neediness in his voice. She crawled into bed alongside him, and they both cried into each other’s shoulders. When Roy finally fell asleep again, Adore made sure to whisper to him everything she hadn’t gotten the chance to say, or the things she couldn’t say when they were awake. In the end, she just repeated the same line over and over again.

“You are loved.“