Escaping Reality

Chapter Four: The Quotev House

"...Well that was a waste of time." Darkfin and her friends were standing right in front of dilapidated version of the Quotev House, which looked a lot more messed up than they'd thought it would be, given its condition in their world.
         The paint was faded and peeling off, half the doors were either knocked off or barely hanging on their hinges, and half the windows were smashed or cracked. Overall, the building looked almost nothing like their beloved Quotev House. In fact, if they didn't know any better, the group would have more than likely left the site to continue the search.
         "Yeah, well it's all we got right now, so I guess we're gonna have to make the best of things," Sasori said, trying to be positive.
         "Is it even safe in there?" questioned a cautious Nightblade, the Autobot fan opening a door only to jump back when it crashed to the ground.
         "Uh, given the number of electric cables hanging from the ceiling, I don't think so," Starblade agreed, a bit started by the fallen door.
         "Well if you wanna be caught out in the rain, be my guest," said Darkfin before braving the building and walking inside.
         One by one, most of the group joined her, thus leaving the Blade Twins, Titaniumwrench, and Katrina outside to discuss what to do next.
         "What happened here?" a confused and slightly disgusted Midnight mused as she kicked a light piece of debris.
         "It got abandoned," Starjinx said blatantly as she looked around the place; they had clearly stumbled upon the main hallway, which was littered with trash and debris from as far as the group could see.
         Once again, Sasori tried to bring everyone's spirits up as well as hopefully coax the three outside into the building. "Well at least it's not completely dilapidated! We should be able to take shelter in here for a while and plan our next move-"
         "Spider!" Everyone whipped around to see Starjinx frantically running her hands over her hair, the translucent seams of a now-destroyed spider web swaying above her head. "Get it off- Get it off- Get it off-"
         "Hold still!" Darkfin yelled as she ran to her friend's aid, getting her to stand still before quickly examining her hair. Seeing a small black spider on the tall teen's shoulder, the black-haired girl quickly flicked it off, obviously not fond of spiders either.
         "Is it gone?!" Starjinx questioned in a slightly panicky voice.
         "Yes, it's gone," Darkfin said with a small eye-roll.
         In turn, Starjinx's face turned a bright shade of red before she and Darkfin made it back to the other two, who were now walking down the hallway to look at some rooms to stay in. Making sure to duck her head from now on, the brunette continued to look with the other three, often opening doors by herself in an attempt to gain back some of her dignity. When water started leaking from certain places in the roof, the girls knew immediately that it had started to rain, which meant that the outside group was most likely going to come inside soon.
         "Hey guys! I think I found a room!" exclaimed Midnight as she beckoned the others over to check her findings. While the door she'd opened was barely able to stay on its hinges, the room was significantly better than most. Everything was dusty and there were cobwebs everywhere as well as a badly cracked window, but there wasn't much of a mess on the floor and so far, no raccoons or anything seemed to be under the bed. Also the roof wasn't leaking in that small room, so things were pretty promising.
         "Wow. We actually found a semi-nice room," Sasori commented, satisfied with Midnight's discovery.
         "Yeah, well I vote we do a bit of cleaning before we go in there and chill," voiced Starjinx, Darkfin teasingly asking, "So we can clear out any deadly spiders?"
         "Shut up!" hissed the brunette as she hid her now-red face, the other two girls snickering in amusement.
         "Hey guys! Is that you?" called another voice from down the hallway, the girls then turned to see four figures appearing as they turned a corner, spotting the other group of four.
         "Katrina? Yeah! We found a room to stay in!" Sasori called proudly.
         "Did you clean it or at least do a quick sweep of the place? I'm pretty sure the room's still nasty either way," Starblade questioned as she approached them.
         "Well we were about to, so you guys can help," Midnight told the three as she gestured to the room.
         "Okay," said Katrina as she peaked inside the room after reaching the group, quickly assessing it with the Blade Twins. "...Yeah looks good, though I'm not trusting those torn-up mattresses over there." She then pointed to the two twin beds in the corner, both torn to shreds by whatever animal that'd gotten to them.
         "Yeah I'm not down with that either," said Starblade with a frown. "There are probably rats in those or something, so I don't know what to do with those. We can't block them, that's for sure, and taking them out of the room could resort in us getting attacked by angry animals or something."
         "The door was closed for the most part," Midnight pointed out. "So there can't be much of anything in there. I say we just clean up our side of the room and leave the beds and stuff alone."
         "Maybe, but I don't feel like waking up with a rat beside my face," said a slightly disgusted Sasori.
         "Hold on guys, I got a better idea." Starjinx then wiggled her way inside the room, holding a rusty metal bar in her hands. "If the bed squeaks or moves, then we-"
         "Dude, if you're trying to redeem yourself after getting caught in that spiderweb, then don't cause I don't feel like looking for another room," said Darkfin as she stepped inside and took the bar out of an annoyed Starjinx's hands.
         "Okay okay guys, calm down. Let's just clean up our side of the room and get this thing over with. We can sleep in shifts," Katrina suggested, trying to pull everything together.
         "Alright. Well, what're we gonna clean with?" questioned Midnight as Starjinx took back her bar from Darkfin.
         "With these?" questioned a new voice, the girls quickly recognizing Nightblade as they stepped into the hallway to see Starblade's brother and Titaniumwrench holding a few brooms. "Um, it's not much, but everything else is pretty much destroyed so..."
         "Where'd you find these anyway?" asked Starblade as she took a broom out of his hands, cobwebs still clinging to it.
         "We passed a storage closet on the way here, remember?" revealed her twin, Titaniumwrench nodding in confirmation.
         "Well, that solves our cleaning problem," Sasori said with a shrug as she took the last broom from Titaniumwrench. "Hey Titanium, can you show us where the storage closet is so we can dig through it and see what we can find?" she asked, the teen nodding in response before turning back around and walking to the location with the short-haired Decepticon fan.
         Nightblade then turned around and jogged after the two to help out, the remaining five going into their new room and beginning to clean. While Katrina, Starblade, Darkfin, and Midnight took to sweeping up the floor, Starjinx was running around wrapping up cobwebs and spiderwebs by using the metal bar from before. It didn't take long for the trio to return either, though all they had with them was an almost useless-looking duster and a cracked dustpan. Working together, the room was soon decent enough to stay in, though of course none of the teens didn't dare mess with the twin mattresses on the far side of the room.
         "Okay, now what?" questioned Starjinx as she propped her metal bar against a wall in the corner.
         As if on cue, Sasori stretched and yawned, Titaniumwrench and Midnight doing the same a few seconds later.
         "Right now? Sleep," Midnight replied, the blonde rubbing her eyes a bit. "I'm tired, and it's obvious we all are to an extent. Anyone with me?"
         Most of the group responded with a few yeahs and nods, though Katrina and Darkfin just shrugged.
         "You guys nap. I'll keep watch in case a raccoon comes in here or something," said Darkfin as she gently propped the door in front of the entrance in an attempt to close it.
         "Same," said Katrina as she added an, "I'm not that tired," to the end of her sentence.
         "Then it's settled. Everyone sleeps while Katrina and Darkfin stay awake," Starblade said before sitting down with the rest of the group, the girl then laying on her side in a curled up position. "Call me when a transformer shows up. Goodnight."
         The group then exchanged good-nights before falling asleep, leaving Katrina and Darkfin awake on their phones. While they couldn't establish a good internet connection, the girls were having enough fun playing with games they'd downloaded prior to their adventure. Neither noticed the other until one of the two rubbed her head, catching Darkfin's attention.
         "Tired?" Darkfin questioned, not looking up from her phone.
         "Migraine," Katrina replied, her hand still on her forehead.
         This answer, while being completely normal, took Darkfin by slight surprise as she turned off her phone and turned her attention to her friend. "Weird. I have a headache too, but I've been trying to ignore it."
         The Autobot fan thought for a second before whispering, "Maybe it's just a side-affect of groundbridge travel?"
         "Hmm.... Maybe," was all Darkfin said, though she felt as though there was more to it than that for some reason. Sliding her phone in her pocket, the black-haired girl laid down and curled up a bit with a small yawn. "Let's get some sleep. Maybe we'll feel better in the morning."
         Katrina thought about it for a second, then nodded before doing the same as her friend. "Alright. Night, Dark."
         "Night, Kat."
         Curled up with the others, the two girls fell asleep, almost completely obvious to the crazy world around them. While none of them knew what was happening, one thing was for sure: Things were about to get even crazier than before.