[Old] Mini Missions

It wasn't a traditional camp site by anyone's standards. An old abandoned warehouse in a forgotten area of the city. Three ratty couches, all pulled straight from the landfill, were arranged in a triangle around a burnt out paper waste basket. A fire burnt inside, built from scraps of paper, fabric, and anything else flammable that could be scrounged up. 

It was shit and totally unsafe. Which made it perfect for three teens. Judge and Quilo had taken up perches on the sofas - the latter lounging across the broken seats like some kind of emperor. Jet sat on the floor, leaning over the basket to watch the fire dance and consume its fuel. Her wings were spread out behind her, the firelight casting bizarre shapes onto the walls behind her. 

Empty food cartons and crumpled up sweet wrappers litter the area around the three teens, all stuffed full of junk food and a tiny bit of regret. A further three bags lay beside the couches, each still full with treats and sweets. They all lay (or sat) in silence, each too full to move for any kind of game or horseplay. 

Inevitably it was Jet who broke the silence.

When Judge began to scratch at her cheek, claiming something had bitten her, Jet warned;

"Better hope it is just a bite. Heard one girl thought she got bit but then her face burst into spiders 'cause it laid its egg in 'er."

Judge's face twisted in absolute horror. The scratching became more insistent, more akin to digging in her own flesh than merely scratching an itch. 

"Ignore her." Scoffed Quilo. "That's just an old urban legend. Not a good one either."

Both teens ignored Jet's indignant shout of 'oh fuck you'.

"Ever heard of 'The Girl in the window'?"

---

They went back and forth like that for hours. Each teen took their turn telling a spooky story or Urban Legend and then the next would take their turn, attempting to one up the story that came before. Progressively the stories got less and less scary, growing more and more silly instead of genuinely terrifying. 

Judge was wiping tears from her face, Quilo tried (and failed) to stifle their laughter. Jet was the only one not laughing, instead sitting smugly enjoying the reactions to her truly ridiculous story. 

"Aw man." Judge chuckled. "A haunted warehouse? I'd love to see that."

"What's wrong with the one we're in?" Sniggered Quilo. 

The other two quickly sobered even as Quilo continued chuckling, seemingly at their own joke.

"The fuck do you mean?" Demanded Judge.

Quilo stared blankly at their two companions. 

"You mean you don't know?"

"Clearly we fuckin' don't!" Snapped Jet. "You wanna fuckin' explain?!"

With a soft 'aw geez', Quilo ran a paw over their face, messing up their 'carefully' fluffed up hairstyle. 

"Look, I thought you already knew - that's why you seemed happy to hang out here near Halloween." 

Neither of the two girls seemed happy with that weak excuse. 

With a heavy sigh, Quilo began another story;

"My mum told me this place was the site of a big gang murder - something like ten or twenty guys got tortured here. They were either traitors or from a rival gang depending on who you ask. Either way it ends up the same way; they were all strung up on the hooks they used to lift cargo and left to slowly bleed out. They were left up for months after they passed as an example to anyone else who tried to cross them. Miserable death like that creates angry spirits, and at least five of them refused to pass on. 

The place continued as a gang's base for years after that but things weren't right. Things would go missing, sometimes for months on end, and then suddenly turn up again in places that had been searched hundreds of times. Footsteps, doors slamming, voices in empty rooms. Any haunting symptom you can think of, it happened here. Things got worse when gang members started seeing black figures literally hanging around inside the warehouse - ones that would disappear only moments after being spotted. 

It began to drive members of the gang insane, many quit. Even the gang's leader almost went crazy from the haunting. After a while, no one could take it anymore so they abandoned the warehouse. Since then anyone who's entered has reported hearing loud bangs from the higher floors or catwalks, and seeing strange black figures hanging by the windows."

A strange hush fell over the warehouse as Quilo finished their tale. The fire crackled still in its basket but rather than the pleasant warm sound it usually emitted, it sounded loud. Ominous even.

Jet was the first to take a shuddery breath. 

"What a stupid story." She tried to say with a bravado that she simply didn't possess.

"Yeah." Agreed Judge even as her voice quivered. "Totally stupid."

Quilo shrugged their shoulders, tail flicking at the tip.

"It's just a story after all." They said. "It's not like it's real-"

THUD!