Anya was staring  out of the car window. The day was rainy and wet and dark and unpleasant. November was truly the worst month. She was triyng to focus on a raindrop gliding down the outside of the glass, when someone called her name.

“Sweetheart? I hate to break your concentration but I need to talk to you right now?”

“Huh?” Anya looked to the drivers side of the car, at her grandmother trying to get her to listen. At least she assumed so. She wasn’t really focused.

“I wanted to know if you had something planned with your friends today? I’m taking Zeter to the bookstore to try to find that comic he has been talking about non-stop.” Anya could hear her grandma was worried. Everyone seemed to be lately.

“I have a vague memory that we had something planned. I’m not sure though.”

Her grandmother nodded, “Tell me if you want to join us though. Do you need anything?”

What a loaded question. What did Anya need? A good night's sleep for one. Answers to the dreams that had only gotten worse since high school had started. A cactus.

“If you happen to find the asexual flag anywhere that would be neat.” she finally settled on.

“Alright, I will try my best.” she expertly parked the car, turning to Anya. “Have a good day at school, okay? Call me if you need anything.”

“Of course, of course,” Anya got out of the car, swinging her bag over her shoulder. “Love you grandma.”

“Love you too sweetheart.” Anya closed the door and started walking towards her school building - which felt way more like her personal hell than anything even remotely close to an educational institute

---

The classroom door slammed open as two people, a pink haired shorter individual and dark haired fairly tall one, walked in about 15 minutes late. Thetaller, much paler one was clearly more embarrassed about the slamming  and quickly apologized to the teacher as the duo walked to the back where their friends were already sitting.

“Anya get your shit out of my chair,” the shorter one greeted the group, pushing up their glasses that had slid down their nose.

Anya only made a sound of acknowledgement and moved her bag onto the floor. The girl with a black bob cut sitting next to Anya, her best friend Lily Averton, turned from the teacher to speak to the newcomers.

“Anya isn’t feeling great today, don’t worry too much about her. How are the two of you?”

“Before Carla can think to answer something stupid, they offered to join me in the meeting with my social worker.” answered the taller girl. There was a resounding “aww” from the rest of the crew.

“Felicity don’t ruin my reputation!” the shorter one- Carla Hess- whispered. The only boy in the group promptly turned from his assignment.

“Can’t ruin what you don’t have.”

“Watch your back Averton.”

“Which one of us?” He wiggled his eyebrows at his twin, Lily,  who was shaking her head in shame. Sam didn’t look like his twin, but that was because they were both adopted. Sam had thick dark brown hair and hazel eyes, while Lily was Korean and had a round face with sharp, almond shaped eyes and pitch black hair. They still called themselves twins because despite having completely different birth parents and having been born in completely different countries, they coincidentally happened to be born on the same day.

“You, Sam, you.” Carla snapped.

“In the back! Focus on the task at hand please! And if miss Aldman would be so kind as to sit down!”

Grumbling they all got to work on whatever math had to offer them today.

---

“Anya? Anya can you hear me?”

Blinking a few times, she looked around the room. The class had apparently ended, as Anya and Lily were the only ones left.

“I can now. What happened?” Lily jumped up to sit on the desk instead of a chair. It was more comfortable.

“Class ended, the rest of the idiots went to eat.” Anya slowly nodded. Lily looked worried.

“I told them you aren’t feeling good, but what’s actually up? You haven’t been like this for months.”

Anya sighed, “It’s really nothing Lily, I promise.”

“You can’t even come up with an excuse?”

“Lily, seriously.” The girl in question threw up her hands in defeat.

“Alright, if you say so. Do you want to go eat garbage that barely passes for food?” Anya smiled.

“I would love to.”

---

“And that concludes why I should have a boyfriend already, thank you for coming to my ted talk.” Sam finished whatever he was saying before the duo made their way to the lunch table.

“How much did Sam say this time?” Anya quietly asked.

“He just said ‘I’m cute and gay’” Carla replied with a long-suffering expression.

The pair sat down with the rest of their friends.

Anya appreciated every single one of them so much.

Carla had been her oldest friend, as their grandparents happen to know each other. Even as a kid their hair had been a strange rose gold colour, but who was Anya to judge, her own hair was bright orange. They had truly only gotten more sarcastic as the years went on. Their obsession with cartoons had also grown, and Anya considered them lucky to have a girlfriend that actually could remember all the info given to her.

The twins got picked up into the group when their family moved close to Carla’s. After Sam and Carla tried to beat eachother up with swords, they had actually formed a group. Sam had been an interesting one from the start. While smart, yes, he also displayed a staggering lack of brain cells with every problem he faced. And a truly astounding amount of pick up lines. Lily was thankfully much calmer, unless you made her angry. From the start Anya had been sure Lily would never like her.

But Lily had become one of Anya’s closest friends, with her hard working, empathy and skills in kicking ass. Funny how things work out.

Felicity was the last one to get picked up by the group of stray children. Felicity had always been such a wonderful person, if not a bit too hard on herself for things beyond her control. Things had gotten better for her, and Anya was happy about that. Not to mention Felicity was the reason Carla didn’t gag at public displays of affection anymore.

Anya kept staring ahead, not really joining in the conversation but nodding occasionally to not haveher friends worry. Until the plans for the day came up.

“So everyone up for raiding a run down house that’s definitely haunted?” Lily said with a smirk. Amidst all the answers that consisted mostly of different variations in the word “yes”, there was a silent “what”.

The group turned to look at Anya who looked very confused, looking between them with suddenly very awake eyes.

“Anya, you got the idea of doing this?” Felicity’s eyebrows were furrowed, and her attention was completely on Anya despite messing around with her half eaten food.

“Yes yes, of course, it sounds like a me plan. Someone run me through it again?” Anya tried to ignore the looks of worry her friends were passing between them. She was fine.

Carla was the one who spoke up, “You take us to a creepy old house you found in the forest, I bring the ghost hunting equipment and also Felicity, Lily kicks things if needed and Sam looks pretty.”

“I know you meant to hurt me but you are correct.”

“Not now Sam.” Lily turned to her brother.

Anya did remember making that plan, at least now. She had been walking around in the forest one day, as per usual, but had had the urge to go to a specific direction. Thinking why not, she walked until she eventually found a definitely haunted house. A week later when she finally remembered to bring it up with her friends, the group had decided to go investigate. Or at least kick down a door.

“Oh, I remember now! Let’s go get them demons!”

---

Anya could feel the same strange pull she had felt last time she went to the woods immediately when they stepped off the bus. Only it was stronger this time, demanding to be noticed. A nagging in the back of her brain, forcing her to onlyfocus on this one thing: getting to that abandoned building. And then figuring out what the hell was up with it.

The group started walking forward, through a ditch into one of the few forests close to them. It wasn’t old, the trees were just about double the height of the teens. It didn’t have the energy of a forest that had seen the rise of man, wasn’t a forest that had been left alone for decades to grow and gain strange powers.

But it was a forest and it had a haunted house.

The first part they walked in relative silence. Carla hummed some theme song from a cartoon they were obsessed with. Lily was walking in front with Anya, trying to keep an eye on her in case her lack of sleep made her collapse. Sam was showing Felicity Tik Toks, occasionally laughing. Felicity seemed interested but tired.

“Can we take a break guys? I need to drink and take a break.” Felicity did look exhausted, already going through her backpack. Carla answered with sitting onto the ground right then and there. The rest of the group did the sensible thing and answered with a yes before finding a place to sit down.

Anya was always worried about her friends, but even more so about Felicity. She was clearly not taking care of herself. Were the both of them in a funk? Or was the whole group not feeling great? Anya stared at the general direction of her friends, as Lily braided Anya's long hair to keep it out of the way. Sam was talking to Lily. Carla was whispering something with Felicity holding her hand and petting her head, which was situated in their lap. Was this a bad idea?

“We’re ducking out friends, I’m forcing Felicity to the doctors.”

“Are you too scared to see ghosts?” Sam turned around to the couple.

Carla scoffed, “No, I’m just in a relationship and I like to support my girlfriend.” Felicity smiled and took their hand.

“Make a Tik Tok of the ghosts so that I can see it?”

“Of course Feli, all of us will.” Lily tied off the braid, letting it fall onto Anya’s back. They both smiled and waved as the couple left them in the forest.

They didn’t dwell on it too long. It was time.

---

“Damn this door is heavy,” Lily said panting. Anya petted her head in what she hoped was support.

“Try kicking again?” Sam helpfully adviced.

“How about you try loverboy?”Lily snapped, turning to her brother. Anya started humming ‘Good old-fashioned Loverboy’ almost immediately, as she tuned out the twins bickering. At least five times either one said “you’re adopted”. It was a bit strange considering both of them were adopted, but Anya guessed that was their way of continuing an argument that maybe should have ended ages ago. She looked up at the house.

The house was really more of a shack. There was one window and a door, and Anya was pretty sure you couldn’t even fit a bed in it. But it had an air of mystery that everyone close by could pick up. It seemed as though it was telling people walking past to not come close. To Anya it was inviting, but she had always loved creepy run down most-likely-haunted things.

Looking back at her friends, Anya decided to try the handle one more time. Couldn’t hurt to try the most obvious solution, right?

“Guys? Guys? I opened it.”