"I gotta admit, it *is* compelling," George, the handsome quarterback, said as he got his character sheet out, fishing in his bag for his dice as he continued, "but how do we know it's not just some bull that hobos came up with to entertain themselves?"
"Well, first of all ghosts aren't real," Marie, the ginger chemist, replied as she turned on the overhead light before the sun dipped too much below the horizon, "and secondly there's no real location specified. Just a weird bunker in the woods out east."
"Even if ghosts aren't real, it'd still be a cool thing to check out. Might even give us some more ideas for adventures," Abraham, the slightly pudgy geek, said as he pulled out his binder and books.
As Abe was setting up his GM screen, the rugged hunter in the camo windbreaker, Jason, decided to speak up after taking it all in. "The legend says it's east of town, right? Down by where the old Lakely place was, there's a bunker that was built about what? 7 years ago? The door was improperly sealed and it rusted off ages back."
"So you know where it is?" the jock prodded cautiously.
"It's the only place I can think of nearby. The forest by it felt off since the thing was built. That stretch has some of the biggest deer I've seen in the area. Some truly evil coyotes too."
"So..." Abe started as all eyes turned to him, "wanna head there next week instead of playing?"
After almost a minute of thinking it was decided, they'd be visiting the "Haunted Cave" next week.
The pale young man changed the song, thinking that the previous song clashed with the conversation. He glanced over at his friend who just told the group about a legend he just heard, "And you're sure you heard this, Ross? Your beanie wasn't just too tight?"
Ross gave him the side-eye and pulled out a little cigarette box, tapping it a few times before flicking it open and pulling a rolled smoke out. As he lit it another of the group reached out, "Ey, you mind?"
He took a deep drag and gave his friend one, chuckling to himself as the other started coughing. The coughing friend looked over at Ross and back to the smoke in his fingers, "What did you use this time?"
A grin spread across the young stoner's face, "Good stuff. And to answer your dumb ass question, Jesse, I overheard Jackson and Jamie talking about it. One in gym and the other in between classes. I'm not the only one who knows about it."
Jesse goes to respond only to be interrupted by a loud coughing fit, "Dammit Devon, you knew it was gonna be strong so take smaller hits. Anyways, it really sounds fishy. I mean seriously, a haunted cave? Around here? Come on."
"I didn't even know there were caves around here. Forgotten rooms off the drain line? Sure, but not caves" Devon interjected, managing to stave of his coughing fit for the time being.
"Didn't the legend say it wasn't actually a cave?" the brunette in black piped up. "It was built by some dude to hold his daughter. It was probably a bunker or some kinda storm shelter."
"Yeah, that makes more sense," Devon responded with a finger gun towards the young woman, "a bunker around here would be pretty safe. Especially if it was dug into a hillside."
"And since he kept his daughter there, it's likely she would have pined for her freedom right? That sounds like ghost material to me, right Morgan?" pointed out Ross before taking another drag as the brunette nodded thoughtfully.
Jesse thought about it for a second and also had to agree. He was about to say so when the door opened and the last member of the group walked in.
"Hey Randy, I was wondering when you'd get here."
"Hey man, yeah there was an accident. Someone hit a deer and they closed off the road," Randy responded and took the smoke Ross offered him, smelling it first and reacting instantly "Gods man, where do you get this stuff?"
Ross only winked and tossed him a lighter. He took a slow hit. "So," he exhaled, "whatcha talkin' about?"
"Haunted bunker" replied Morgan.
"Oh yeah, heard about that. Wasn't it supposed to be near the property that old rich dude owned?"
"Wait," Jesse stopped him, "there's a property owned by a rich guy out here?"
"Yeah apparently some rich guy called Millicent owned some forest land outside of town," he took another drag, " Apparently he built something out there half a decade ago and kept coming back until he died."
"Hold up, his name was 'Million Cent'?" Ross asked with a lazy smile.
"It was something like that. Anyways, if that's where it is then I have a good idea of where it'd be. You wanna check it out?"
Everyone looked between each other and shrugged, agreeing to head out next week.
NOVEL NEXT