Life As A Commander

Chapter 65: Haunted 'House'

"Why in the world is there a haunted house at a water park?" I stated as I stared at the dark hole in the wall with a sign that said 'haunted house' on top.

"Hmm~? Is my familia possibly scared?" August chuckled softly as she grabbed my arm.

"No? At least not right now." I replied as I walked into the dark hole in the wall.

As soon as we walked into the haunted house, we soon found out that the interior was not designed as a house rather as a cave. It would have been more fitting to call this interior some kind of intertidal cave rather than some house. 

"Well so much for a haunted house. It's more like a haunted cave." I said unamused as we trudged through the waist deep waters in this so called haunted house attraction.

"Awww, you don't seem to be too scared." August said with a pout. "And here I thought that you were going to be afraid."

"What do you take me for?" I retorted in a defensive tone. 

"As my familiar of course." She smiled.

"Yeah, whatever you say." I sighed. 

*gurgle*

"EEK!" I jumped up in fear as I hear a low gurgle echo out from the distance.

"I guess I spoke too soon." August smugly smiled as she grabbed my hand and pulled me deeper into the attraction. "C'mon~. I thought you weren't scared."

"I never said that. I mean...No." I replied as I could feel a chill go up my spine.

"You sure about that? You're gripping my hand quite tightly."

"Yes, I am very sure." Almost if it were on cue a smooth slippery object brushed past my leg. "...M-Maybe not very sure..."

"That's what I thought." She smiled as she went further into the attraction with me following behind. "Just follow me and you'll be fine."

"Right..." The deeper we went into the cave, the more and more dilapidated it looked.

"Wow, they really went all out on this." August said with a slight hint of excitement.

"They sure did." I chuckled sheepishly. "This would ten times scarier if...You know what, never mind."

"Hmm~?" Augusts looked at me with an amused expression as if she caught on to what I was about to say. "Oh boy, this would be so much scarier if something were to jump out." She said in a mocking tone as if she was trying to set a flag.

"You motherfu-"

I was cut off by something bursting out from underneath the water. I let out a scream of terror as I sprinted through the rest of the attraction, not caring that I left August on her own. As I rushed out of the attraction, I simply stood there at the entrance, waiting for August to catch up.

LATER

Honestly, you really had to leave me alone in that cave?" August pouted. "And what kind of naval commander is afraid of underwater caves?"

"Oh, I'm just horrified of the unknown." 

"What? Does that mean you were scared when you fought Regenerator?" 

"Well in that case, I had already prepared myself for my first meeting with them." I replied calmly.

"What about the Siren world?" 

"I was more confused that scared at that point." 

"You certainly are a weird individual. You sure you weren't just acting scared?" she smiled. "No matter, that's what makes you unique."

"Thanks?" I don't know if I should take that as a compliment.

"Now that I think of it, you don't really know much about me, don't you?"

"...Yeah, aside from you being a priority ship, I don't really know much about you."

"Hmm...Alright then. Come here." August sat down on a bench. "I'll tell you a little more about myself."

"Well to start off, what's up with the priority ships? Why are you the only one that I've met in person?"

"Oh, that's an easy question. They're simply just too busy at the moment. They're either monitoring the mirror seas or working on their own agendas. But for me, I'm currently on break with those things. I think the next person in line for a break once I go back is Cheshire."

"Oh, the Cat." I said, recalling how I would always get Dm's on Juustagram from Cheshire about how she's always so eager to meet me. 

"What?" August cant help but stifle a laugh. "Is that what you call her?" 

"You cant say she's not one."

"I guess that's true." She chuckled. "But enough about her. How about some questions about me?"

"Hmm...Oh, I've always wanted to ask you this; but why do you call me your Familiar?"

"What, I cant call you my Familiar?" August shrugged her shoulders. "It's just what I wanted to call you. Nothing more, nothing less."

"really?" I gave her a sceptical look.

"If you really don't like me calling you that, I can stop." 

"No, that's fine. You can still call me that. It's fine. If you want to call me that, then so be it."

Then we were both overcome with silence. We had nothing else to talk about. Or at least that's what I thought until August stood up and grabbed my hand.

"Before we go back to the others, can we take a small detour to somewhere." August said with a smile as she dragged me to a photo booth

"I didn't know you were the type to be interested in this type of thing." I said as I followed her inside of the booth.

"What's wrong with being curious? I've never had anyone to do this with, so I'm rather curious about these photo booths." 

"Well aright then." I smiled. "I'll lead the way."