We'll Get There {AntiAverage} (ABANDONED)

14: T B

1204 words

"Trey, look, there's a door back here!", Greyson's voice cut through my low-volume earbuds, and I glanced up to see him poking at a half-hidden iron door in the back corner. My brother had insisted on looking through the basement of the Septic house for Halloween decorations, and that left me to watch him.

Chase was going to come down, but Anti had visibly recoiled at the sight of the cement walls, and that had earned a swift 'never-mind' on dad's part.

I sighed, turning my music off and slipping my phone in my pocket. "Hold on, Grey. Wait for me." I made my way over to the door, weaving through miscellaneous piles of belongings and leaning towers of boxes.

When I stood next to him without fear of being crushed, I reached for the handle. "Don't be disappointed if we don't find anything in here. I'm sure we can buy...", I trailed off as I pushed the door open, revealing boxes upon boxes of overflowing decorations. Fake cobweb and tiny, plastic spiders spilled out of one, while eerie black fabric that was covered in eyes poked from another. A few dollar-tree skeletons were piled in the corner, and a gnarled broom was propped up next to them.

Grey squeaked with excitement, dashing towards the decorations with bloodlust. "Jackpot!", he yelled, dropping to his knees in front of the nearest box. Ow.

He immediately tore it open, discovering a pile of wall decorations that included ghosts, bats, spiders, and witches. I chuckled, stepping over to a pile of plastic pumpkins. No dust brushed off of the one I picked up, and suddenly I realized I had the house to thank for this find.

"Wanna start taking this stuff upstairs?", I asked, still holding the fake fruit in my hands. Grey furiously nodded, a large grin on his face as he got to his feet and lifted the box to his chest. I stifled a laugh, stacking two before picking them up. I leaned back to keep the top one from slipping off, and poked my head around the pile to watch where I was walking.

We carefully made our way upstairs. Every step was nerve-wracking, one wrong move and not only would I wipe out, I'd wipe out with a few pounds of stuff right behind me. Luckily, we made it to the ground floor alright.

Greyson excitedly waddled over to the living room, calling, "We found stuff!"

"Nice, dude! How much is there?", Chase's voice came from... somewhere. I couldn't really see all that well.

"Lots. There's a whole room full down there! It's enough the decorate the whole house!", Grey chattered, setting his box next to the coffee table.

"Really? Well, we'll have to bring it up here.", that was Jackieboy.

"Uh? Trey? That you, dude?", Chase finally noticed me, hidden behind a wall of cardboard.

I rolled my eyes, awkwardly crouching to my knees to set my load down, "Ha, ha."

I curved my back rather than lowering my arms, wiggling my fingers out from between the rug and the boxes once they were securely out of my hold.

Resting my arms across the top of the packages, I looked up at Jackie, Dad, and Anti. "I guess we better get to moving then, huh?"

____

With a magician there to help you, moving stuff wasn't that difficult. Marvin was able to 'carry' almost a dozen boxes at a time, if you counted the ones that hovered around him. Surprisingly, Anti had pitched in, too. He'd trembled so much I was sure his legs would give out from under him, but... he'd done it. His grip on the boxes had made his knuckles go white, and he'd stuck to Chase's side like he'd slip away from reality if he strayed.

I'd been chosen to take the last remaining box up while everyone started to dig into the ones already transported, and that was how I found myself looking down at a discarded cassette tape. I tilted my head, kneeling to get a closer look at the thing. I shifted the box onto the ground to examine it, eyebrows furrowed.

It felt... wrong. Defiled. Like something so terrible had happened in it's midst that it had seeped into the chassis of the object and refused to leave.

And still I pocketed it. Something told me I needed to watch this, like I would miss something critically important to my life if I left it in that room.

Just like that, I moved on. I scooped the box up again and made my way up the stairs, much more confidently than the first time.

"I emerge victorious!", I called, holding the box above my head like it was a dragon I'd slain. Several cheers and whoops sounded as I set the cardboard structure down, and I spun dramatically, "Thank you, thank you."

Cobwebs were already thrown around the door, mantle, and various objects in the house, and they'd somehow managed to get a large vinyl grim reaper pressed against an empty space of wall. Anti was sitting on the floor, intently braiding orange, black, and purple fabrics together, probably on Marvin's orders. They looked long enough to entwine with the railing on the stairs, and I noticed that said location had a deliberate lack of webs.

I grabbed a page of window stickers and began to precisely place them on the large glass pane by the front door. I began to get lost in the small scene I was creating, a cult of spiders surrounding the ghost of their latest victim, finding comfort in the rhythmic motions of placing them.

"Hey, wait, what's today?", Chase suddenly asked, breaking the focused silence. Greyson was sitting on his shoulders, hanging a large sign that read 'Happy Halloween' over the doorway to kitchen.

"Uh...", I quickly took my phone from my pocket, unlocking it to read the date. "The ninth."

"That would mean Anti's birthday is tomorrow.", Chase grinned, kneeling to let Grey climb down.

Anti finally looked up, mildly startled. "I-it is?" He thought for a moment, before a small smile stretched his lips. "It is. I forgot."

"Yeah! We've gotta do something, dude! Maybe we can throw a little party.", Dad seemed excited by the idea, while Anti made fierce eye contact with the ground.

"You dœn't... you don't have to do anything.", he half-mumbled, fidgeting with his sleeve.

Chase stepped over to the glitchy ego and ran a hand against the grain of his hair, adjusting a decoration, "Unfortunately for you, I want to. Nothing big, don't worry. But it'll happen." Anti leaned into the touch, eyes instinctively falling closed.

He looked so terribly like a cat that it was almost funny, had it not provoked such a deep sense of discomfort within me. I'd seen my parents in such similar positions before they'd divorced, for Chase to be running his fingers through someone else's hair so casually... it was almost insulting. Especially when said someone had tried to kill my mother.

Maybe I was overthinking it. But... it still hurt.

A/N: This was supposed to come out earlier, but better late than never, I guess.