Haunted {Calum // 5SOS au}

{ three }

"Oh, hell no!" Teigan proclaimed, shaking her head violently. "Definitely not going there."

Michael sighed heavily, exaggerating the disappointment he felt towards his friends, in hopes he could persuade them.

Calum sighed, too. "Why do you do this every time, dude?" He asked. The irritation in his voice was obvious to both his friends and himself. For a second, he was worried he'd pissed off his friend as Michael kept quiet, but then he just shrugged.

Although Calum was glad to see Michael didn't mind his remark, he still couldn't help but feel bad. He knew how much Michael loved horror stories and was desperate to find out if any of them were true, and here he was acting like a bad friend by not supporting him on this adventure. Sure, Michael had sold it like the perfect way for Calum to impress the girl he liked, but he wasn't stupid. So he sighed, closing his eyes for a second and slightly shaking his head as he damned himself for what he was about to say next.

"I'll come."

As soon as the words had left his lips, Michael's sad pout turned into an lopsided smile. "Thanks, bro."

Calum nodded at him before looking at the others. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen?" He said, then locked eyes with Riley, repeating her words from earlier that afternoon. "Right?"

"There's like rats, maybe even bats, down there," Teigan moaned, tugging at Luke's arm. "Tell them we're not going."

The corners of Luke's mouth curled into an awkward, downwards position showing a pained expression on his face. He didn't want to drag his girlfriend into a dark tunnel, and admittedly he wasn't feeling the darkness of an abandoned, supposedly haunted, building either, but at the same time he didn't want to opt out. 

It had been a while since he'd hung out with Michael and Calum, as he'd been stuck in the house with a bunch of college coursework, so he really didn't want to go home yet if they weren't either.

"I kinda want to stay, babe."

"We can just leave," Riley suggested, looking at Teigan.

"If he's staying, I'm staying. Sorry Ry," Teigan said, giving her an apologising smile.

"Then I guess I'm staying, too." Riley said, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "There's no way I'm walking back on my own."

"Alright!" Michael exclaimed excitedly. "The gang's back together." He was obviously pleased that everyone had agreed to continue without even having to try to convince them.

Michael was the first to walk forward, the others following suit. Whether they realised it or not, they were walking much closer to one another than they had been before they had reached the tunnel. It was possible that it had something to do with the strange, inexplicable air that stirred around them as they stepped inside.

A feeling of unease settled over Calum and he was sure he wasn't the only one who felt it. He glanced over at Michael, who also looked slightly unsettled. Calum couldn't decide if it was a good or bad thing as it either meant there were ghosts present or his friend, who was so into all things paranormal, was scared, too. 

And if Michael was scared, everyone else should be terrified. 

The only lights in the tunnel came from their phones, the beams bouncing off the glistening webs strung almost artfully across the ceilings. The stones of both the walls and floors were cracked and crumbling, and the only noises were the occasional screams that'd come from the girls, or Luke, when they walked into a particularly low hanging web.