Top Priority

20

Taylor's pov

"But yeah this is like a ghost town now, abandoned? What's going on here?" Sam asked, talking with his hands as we sat circled around a table in one of the buildings.  Candles that Brent was letting me smell was our only source of light.

"Yeah, for the past 'hundred years or so there hasn't been any residents besides a lone caretaker or so.  The town had five hundred different buildings, there was four thousands residents at it's peak. We've got like, twenty left you know?" Corey shook his head as Brent spoke, and Sam glanced over at the camera and Colby in confusion.

"Wait, so what happened to the four hundred eighty buildings? Oh god."

"A lot of the them have burned down over the years," Brent shrugged, "Or washed away in a flash flood or something like that"

Sam hesitated before asking his next question, as if our host was to take offense to what he had to say, "Isn't it kind of horrifying being up here by yourself?" 

"I came up here in mid March.  When you're up here for that long things start to happen up here, you know?" He asked, giving off a mysterious vibe to me.

"Hey," I said quietly as one of the candles went out in front of Corey and I.

"Did you do that?" Sam asked, and Corey shook his head.  "Okay, who has a lighter?"

"I got it," Colby said, handing me the camera while he searched his pockets.  I shot a panicked look to Sam, and the only helpful thing he did was laugh.  Which wasn't that helpful but reassured me, now that I knew Sam didn't think I could break their camera.

"Why did it go out?" Corey whispered loudly as he tried to relight the candle.

"Because of your nostril," Colby responded, also whispering.  He slowly took the camera out of my hands, making sure he had a secure grip on it before I let my hands fall into my lap.

His comment cause us all to laugh, and Corey got the candle taken care of before Brent continued talking.  He was talking about a murderer named Billy Crapo, but if you say his last name like Crap-o than he would shoot you in your sleep even though he's dead.

Of course, Sam and Colby had to go around saying it incorrectly and Jake let them know that, "Well, I'm just saying guys, you've already said it like fifteen times," 

"We've already screwed up," Sam accepted lightly, as the candle went out again.

"Okay what the fu-" I cut myself off, unsure of how Brent would feel about poor language.  

"There was like, some weird business stuff that used to go down," Sam said, almost in the form of a question so that poor Brent would have to elaborate.

"Yeah, it was called Lola's Palace of Pleasure," Brent said, rubbing his hands together.

"It's not still open, is it?" Corey asked, looking at him with a confused look.

We all had a laugh over that, and I could feel myself getting distracted again.  I just couldn't stay interested in long conversations, so I stared at the candle, letting my thoughts consume me.

Unsurprisingly, the first thing my mind thought of was Colby.  Which was funny because we weren't technically dating.  Except there was no way we were friends, because friends don't shower together or sleep in the same bed.  And he didn't even call his pretty model friends "beautiful" or let his friends get away with sex jokes that involved them both.  

But what made me so special?

He told me it had something to do with how we met, about how I was more focused on my drink than the man trying to take me to his place and get into my pants.  Which didn't make any sense to me, because what does a drink have to do with saying someone is "different" from the rest of the people in a crowded room?  Or that I saved him from his life as a man who hooks up with who he pleases, though he could still do that.