'𝓓𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓜𝓪𝓬𝓪𝓫𝓻𝓮'

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 8

   In the morning, April found that she had buried herself under the pillow at some point in the night. Uncovering herself, the tired girl stretched and got up to lay at the other end of the bed towards the foot of the bed.

   She opened her eyes once she realized she couldn't go back to sleep, sitting up to look for Sodo. He wasn't on the couch nor anywhere else in the room. April absolutely was not going to touch the door leading out, so instead she got up and sat at the desk. Fixing her clothes, she looked at her phone.

   Quite a few messages from different people but most of them from her parents. She sent them short messages saying she had bad internet, which was a lie, and that she tried to send texts when she could. After sending reassurance, April set up her camera on the lamp, pressing record.

   "It is currently about 8:45 in the morning, and it is day two of staying inside the satanic church off of Lakewood Road. I have had some... shocking... discoveries and I'm not very sure how much longer I will stay. Until then, I'm going to explore this room a bit more so I'm at least a little familiar with my surroundings."

   April talked to the recording, pressing stop once she was finished explaining a little bit. Then, since she was still left alone, she decided to start by looking in his closet just beside the bathroom. It was mostly filled with hoodies and a few fancier black clothing. It looked funny, like it was victorian-esk.

   She pushed through the hoodies, taking one off the hanger and pulling it on. It fit perfectly, so she kept it on while she looked. At the bottom of the closet there were a few masks.. helmets? They were in a box, just sitting there looking creepy.

   Deciding that was enough of the closet, she now moved towards the nightstands beside the bed. Opening the drawer, she found a cigarette box, a few lighters, and a few vapes. Other than that it was random junk like hair ties and such.

   So, she moved on to the otherside, pulling the drawer open happily. It took her a moment to process what she saw. Just as she picked up an item from the drawer, the door opened, Sodo walking back into the room.

   He froze when he saw the girl who was just as frozen as he was. Shoving the fluffy handcuffs back into the drawer, she quickly shut it and put her hands behind her back, facing him. Her face was a bright red, her face heating up from being caught.

   The room seemed to get hotter when Sodo composed himself and saw an opportunity. He had made his way over to April, rolling his sleeves up above his elbows. She didn't dare move an inch as he stood in front of her, a smirk on his face.

   Sodo held her face, gently running the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone then slowly over her lips. Her heartbeat sped up, filling his senses. All he could hear was how her heart raced. "First you ask me to sleep with you..." he started, leaning closer to her face,"Now you're stealing my cuffs?" He hummed.

   April stuttered under his gaze,"I— Uhm.. I-I'm so sorry." She whispered, not needing to speak any louder for him to hear her. Sodo let go of her, the smirk never leaving as he backed up,"I want you to meet everyone."

   She was too confused to process what was said until he repeated it to her. "No! No. I'm not doing that!" April folded her arms over her chest, trying to stand her ground. Sodo chuckled and shook his head before changing the subject, "I want you to meet the others. I'll be there with you all the while. They're all nice and once you meet them, you'll see that." He reassured her, going to grab his phone.

   April thought about it and watched him start to type on his phone. "What are you doing?" She asked, twisting her ring around her finger. "I'm telling my friends to make sure to be nice and not scare you." He hummed. "Do you trust that they'll listen to you?" Sodo just nodded, and with that confirmation she made her decision.

   "Fine.. I still don't know why you're holding me here so I would like to ask whoever I need to understand," April paused and thought back to when she was exploring his room,"Also where were you this morning?"

   Sodo stretched and opened the door for her,"Band practice, Princess. So was everyone else so you were safe." He hummed, placing a hand on her lower back so he could guide her to the common room.

   April nodded, allowing herself to be led along. The fire ghoul would be lying if he said he wasn't just a little nervous at how the meeting may go. He looked down at her as she continued to nervously fidget. Noticing the ring on her middle finger, he was curious,"What's with the ring? Got some boyfriend back at home?"

   They stood in front of the common room and waited for a second. "No, No boyfriend. I've never had one." She answered him, staring at the closed door of the room filled with ghouls. He raised his brows, his interest was obvious. April shrugged,"It's a symbol of virginity." Sodo stared at her in shock as she opened the door to the common room.

   In the room, most of the ghouls were sitting but two were standing. All of their heads snapped towards the girl and she had to resist her urge to turn back around. Copia stood in the middle of the room, clapping his hands together with a happy smile.

   "Hello! Welcome, you've been here a few days now and we've only just met you," Copia spoke with a louder tone that somewhat stunned April,"Ghouls! This is the girl that will be staying with us for the next two weeks. Please, introduce yourself." With that Cardi C allowed her to stand in the middle of the room.

   Everyone looked at her as she stood there silently. She was still in her pajamas, the stitch sweatpants and now Sodos hoodie. Sodo went and joined someone on a couch off to the right of her. He raised a brow when he noticed the hoodie finally. He was only just now noticing it since the whole morning was filled with chaos.

   "I'm April... and I'm here for a college assignment. I'm 22 and I'm not sure what to say..." The girl smiled nervously, waving slightly. She took a deep breath and pushed her unfixed hair out of her face.

   The first to stand up was the man she knew as Swiss. He offered his hand out to her and smiled,"It's nice to properly meet you." The multi ghoul winked as she took his hand. He slowly pulled her hand up to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on the back of her hand.

   April raised a brow at his attempt at flirting but he was pushed out of the way by a girl,"I'm Aurora. I'm new here too, so I hope we can get to know this place together." Aurora honestly somewhat comforted April, so she relaxed as the others introduced themselves, each taking a stand then sitting back down.

   It didn't take long for introductions to wrap up and since it was still the morning, everyone moved their conversations to the dining hall. Sodo stuck to Aprils side as her and Rain talked. He pulled a chair out for her to sit next to him as people came in and started to set out the food.

   Without realizing it, Swiss had sat on the other side of her, pouring himself a drink. When April realized she had tried to ignore him, picking up things to put on the plate in front of her.

   "I'm sorry for scaring you. If there's any way I can make it up to you just call me." Swiss once again winked at her but quickly he turned away when he saw a certain fire ghoul had placed his hand on her thigh.

   April looked at Sodo and smacked his hand roughly,"Hands to yourself, mister" She whispered harshly as he pulled his hand away quickly. He grinned and started to eat, shrugging at her way of brushing him off.

   "I want to give him a chance now that I'm coming to terms with it," She explained to Sodo who kept looking at his plate,"Besides, he's already treated me better than you did when we first met." April finished with a satisfied 'Hmph'

   "That was one time, I'm trying to do better!" He huffed, stabbing his fork into a waffle, clearly a little upset. Why was she accepting swiss more than him?