Seven Suns

Second Sun: Midnight Mischief

The last of the amusement park's neon lights flickered and faded as Kai and Rory trudged back to the car, utterly spent from their rambunctious day. As Rory fired up the old Civic's engine, Kai couldn't stop yawning.

"Man, today kicked my ass in the best way possible," he murmured, leaning back into the cracked vinyl seat. "Between the coasters and winning everything in the place, I could honestly just pass out righthe-"

"WHOA whoa whoa, don't go catching Z's on me yet, partner!" Rory slapped Kai's arm, his eyes suddenly alight with mischief. "Who said the fun stops just because the parks closed up for the night?"

Kai raised an eyebrow skeptically. "You got another plan brewing in that tangled mind of yours?"

"You know that abandoned mill factory on the old railroad trail? The one all the high school trippers used to make up ghost stories about?" Rory waggled his eyebrows deviously. "Well this is the kinda time to go investigate the paranormal mysteries ourselves! Think of the adrenaline rush!"

Despite his weariness, Kai felt a tingle of excitement. All his life he'd been too focused on schoolwork and planning his future to ever take part in the reckless teenage shenanigans. But now...now he was living on borrowed time. May as well embrace a little anarchy and chaos while he could.

"You're totally unhinged, you know that?" He flashed Rory a wild grin. "But yeah, let's go make our own ghost story tonight!"

Rory whooped and floored the accelerator, speeding off towards the abandoned factory's rusted gates glimmering in the moonlight. Growing up, the place had always been surrounded by an aura of danger and mystery that made it alluring yet forbidden. As kids they'd heard tales of witches' covens, mob dealings, and even Satanic rituals being carried out within the derelict walls. Whether any of it was true hardly mattered - the imagination could run wild here.

They killed the headlights and snuck in on foot, using their phone flashlights to cut through the inky shadows. Weeds and debris crunched underfoot as looming shapes rose up around them - towering smokestacks, crumbling walls, immense empty warehouses. An owl hooting in the distance made Kai's heart rate quicken.

"Okay, this place is effectively the stuff of total nightmares," he whispered to Rory. "You satisfied your thirst for manufactured terror yet?"

"You kidding?" Rory's eyes shone with exhilaration. "This is where the real haunted adventure begin, broseph!"

They delved deeper into the boneyard of rusted factory husks. At one point, Kai's foot kicked an old steel canister that went clattering across the warehouse floor, the reverberations echoing back in an unsettling way. The pair froze, hearts pounding, suddenly aware of the weight of silence and looming unstable rooftops creaking above them.

"You, uh, you still think this was the best idea?" Kai asked in a hushed voice, suddenly regretting leaving the warm safety of the car.

"Okay yeah, maybe venturing too far inside these decaying deathraps was kinda foolish," Rory admitted, his bravado wavering slightly. "Let's just hunker down out here for a bit and enjoy the extreme ambiance, yeah?"

They settled onto a patch of overgrown weeds underneath a gutted smokepipe, careful to watch for any broken glass or tetanus hazards. As the adrenaline faded, a peaceful stillness settled over them, the half-moon illuminating their small clearing. Rory was the first to break the silence.

"Can you believe that soon this'll all be over? No more small-town summer nights or skirting around abandoned structures just for some fleeting sense of rebellion?"

Kai turned to him, taken aback by the unusual somberness in his friend's tone. In their short time together, Rory had been nothing but boisterous joker, the one injecting levity into their dire circumstances. Hearing him actually confront their mortality was somehow more chilling than sneaking through the haunted factory by moonlight.