butterflies ઇଓ matt sturniolo imagines

𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳

ॱ⋅.˳˳.⋅˙ॱᐧ.˳˳.⋅ઇଓ

most days you are grateful for the brash attitudes and questionable humor of your massachusetts-native boyfriend and his brothers, but today was not that kind of day.

     matt's hometown is just under an hour away from america's witch trial capital, a place you've always wanted to visit; salem has everything creepy all in one place, and during the winter it's desolate and cold and even creepier. so when matt offered to take you on a trip with his brothers, you wasted no time in accepting. you spent a week planning out outfits to wear in your head and researched every oddball museum and shop you could convince the boys to follow you to. this was a trip you'd been dying to take for a long time, and now you were going to experience it with your favorite people.
the drive was easy, and with matt behind the wheel, his speedy tendencies shaved ten minutes off the drive (despite your panicked pleas for him to slow down). the hotel nick booked was old and frigid and rickety and absolutely perfect; your room had peeling floral wallpaper and creaking bed frames that housed two twin beds, meaning you and matt would have to huddle close to even fit on the mattress- and so would nick and chris. you could barely wait to see how funny that would end up being- them, not so much.

you and nick led the trek across the cobblestone town, winding down the fat main roads and dipping in and out of witch shops and bakeries. you had a little list of places you wanted to visit, and they loved letting you do all the work. you saw the wax and witch museums, and the harry potter paraphernalia shop; they begrudgingly breathed in the musty air of at least four run-down bookshops for you; and the four of you raided a gift shop for cheesy t-shirts and keychains and anything else you could get your hands on. even the pub you went to dinner at was beautiful, with aged oak tables and celtic designs across the walls.
you couldn't have imagined a better way to begin a trip, and by the time night fell, you knew that there was no way this day could go wrong... until it did.

     you would expect that the boys would be tired after an entire day of walking and sightseeing, but no- by eleven o'clock at night, they were ushering you out of the hotel room and out into town again.

     "where are we going?" you asked, eyeing the three with suspicion. they were sharing little looks that held secrets from you, and you never liked that.

     "ice cream!" matt said, lacing your fingers together. he brought your hand up to his lips and kissed your knuckles, and that was enough to make you forget how odd they were acting.

     a few minutes of walking landed you right in front of an old, short church with a black steeple. shingles were falling off of the roof, and there were big holes and cracks in nearly every window. it had to be abandoned, for at the least foreclosed. in front of the doors stood a young couple not so different from you and matt, a group of what looked like drunk college kids, and a middle-aged man wearing a windbreaker and holding a clipboard. you squinted to see what was printed on the paper, and in big, bolded letters you read: SALEM GHOST TOUR.

     "matt, you said we were getting ice cream."

     "yeah, we will," he grinned, "after this!"

     chris and nick walked right up to the tour guide and introduced themselves, and matt had to force you to do the same. when you stood there tight-lipped and wide-eyed, matt bit the bullet and did it for you.

     "seems like we're all here, then. light on customers tonight, i guess!" the man in the windbreaker chuckled, moving on from his flat joke, "my name is kenny and i'll be your tour guide this evening. i'm gonna take you around the most haunted buildings we have, and hopefully we'll be in for a few ghost sightings!"