[hr][center][b][h1]Alejandro Sánchez & June Summers[/h1][/b][img]https://i.imgur.com/0Kq7OKe.png[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/L3LZB99.png[/img][/center][right][b]Interactions:[/b] None. [code]The Warehouse Party.[/code][/right][hr][hr] The music felt different. Not quieter-just farther away. Like it was happening in another room, behind a wall she couldn’t quite see. June stood near the edge of the warehouse, her shoulder brushing against cold metal. Her eyes were half-lidded as she watched the crowd move. Not in patterns. Not in anything she could follow. Just... too much. Too fast. [i]Too loud.[/i] [i]Too hot.[/i] “…You good?” Alejandro’s voice cut through it, warm and easy. He stepped in close like he always did-natural, effortless, like space just made room for him. June turned her head slightly toward him. [i]“Fine,”[/i] she said, steady. She wasn’t. He didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he did, and misread it. He leaned one shoulder against the wall beside her, boxing the space in just a little. Not aggressive. Just close. “You disappeared for a second,” he said, a faint grin pulling at his mouth. “Thought you ditched me already.” June blinked slowly, trying to focus on him properly. The world lagged a half-step behind everything she did, like her senses were chasing reality instead of meeting it. “I don’t ditch people,” she replied. Her voice stayed even. Controlled. Alejandro huffed a quiet laugh. “Good,” he said. “Would’ve hurt my feelings.” He nudged her lightly with his shoulder. The contact lingered longer than it should have. Or maybe she just felt it longer. Her jaw tightened-just slightly. “... [i]You’re loud,[/i]” she said, not looking at him. He smirked. “You already said that.” “And it’s still true.” That earned a small laugh. Then he shifted [i]closer.[/i] [i]Too close.[/i] June noticed it immediately-not just the distance, but the pressure of it. The way the space around her shrank without asking. Her shoulders tensed. “Alejandro,” she said, her tone flattening just a degree. He didn’t catch it. Or he chose not to. “Relax,” he murmured, voice lower now. “You’re thinking too hard.” That wasn’t it. If anything, she wasn’t thinking enough. Everything felt a step behind-her reactions, her balance, her sense of where things should land. He reached up, his hand brushing her arm, sliding just enough to test the space. June’s body went still. She turned her head toward him fully now, eyes sharper despite the haze. “No,” she said. It wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. Alejandro paused. The moment hung between them. “…No?” he echoed, like he needed to hear it again to process it. June held his gaze. [b]“No.”[/b] Clear. Final. Something flickered across his expression-confusion first, then something tighter. “Hey, I wasn’t-” he started, pulling his hand back slightly. “I thought-” “I know what you thought.” There was no anger in her voice. That almost made it worse. She pushed off the wall. “I’m leaving.” That landed heavier than anything else. Alejandro straightened, his posture shifting as frustration crept in. He didn’t say anything at first. June steadied herself, just barely. The floor felt uneven under her feet, like it might tilt if she stepped wrong. “I’m leaving,” she said again. Same tone. Same weight. He ran a hand through his hair. “…Alright,” he muttered. “Do what you want.” She already was. June turned and walked. She didn’t look back.[hr] The air outside hit harder than she expected. Cooler. Thinner. Real in a way the inside hadn’t been. June exhaled slowly, one hand bracing lightly against the side of the warehouse. “…Okay.” Her voice sounded steady. That was good. That meant she was still- She blinked. The ground shifted. Not actually moving. Just… wrong. Like it wasn’t sitting where it should under her feet. Her body wasn’t keeping up with itself. “…Right,” she muttered, dragging a hand down her face. “Too much.” The music thumped behind the walls, dull and distant now. She just needed to go home. Simple. She’d done it a hundred times. No thinking required. June straightened slightly, forcing her focus forward. [i]Home.[/i] That was enough. Her fingers twitched as Lux gathered-purple threading through her nerves, familiar, responsive- Except- It lagged. Just a fraction. Like her body moved first, and the magic followed after. Her brow furrowed. “…That’s new.” She tried again. Focused harder. [i][b]Home.[/b][/i] Now. The Lux surged- And stuttered. Not clean. Not sharp. It reached forward- -and slipped. Like missing a step you should’ve hit. June inhaled sharply, her footing shifting as something inside the motion broke rhythm. She pushed more into it. [i]Forced it.[/i] The instinct was still there-go, move, leave- But it didn’t lock. There was no clean “next.” No destination snapping into place. Just a direction. Away. That was enough. It had to be. She moved. The world didn’t shift. It resisted. Then- It gave. But not the way it was supposed to. Space in front of her didn’t open. It bent. Visibly. Like the air itself had weight-like something unseen pressed a thumb into reality, denting it inward. Her stomach dropped. “.... what?” The air tightened. Sound dulled. The Purple Lux didn’t carry her forward-it stretched. Thinned. Pulled taut like something being drawn too far, too fast. The seam of the world- [i]showed.[/i] Not fully. Just enough. A hairline fracture in the shape of space itself. Then- It snapped. Not outward. Sideways. The line split open, not with light or darkness, but with something that didn’t belong to either. The edges trembled violently, like they couldn’t agree on where they were supposed to exist. June stumbled back, breath catching hard in her chest. “That’s not-” The tear widened. Still no sound. But the world reacted. The ground beneath her feet warped slightly, the concrete stretching in a way that shouldn’t have been possible. The wall behind her seemed farther away for a split second-then closer again. Perspective broke. Depth folded in on itself. Cold seeped through the opening-not air, not wind, but absence. A hollow pressure that pressed against her skin and slid underneath it. Her control slipped. Just enough. The Lux surged again-panicked now, uncontrolled, flooding forward in a desperate attempt to correct it- But there was nothing to anchor to. No destination. No endpoint. So it fed the break. The fracture spiderwebbed. Thin lines branching outward along nothing visible, yet distorting everything they touched. The space around the tear warped further, as if reality itself were being pulled toward it, stretched into something thinner, weaker. The seam wasn’t just open. It was unraveling. The fold tore wider. Clean. Silent. Impossible. And June, for the first time since she stepped outside, realized she hadn’t just misfired a spell. She had pulled on something that was never meant to be touched. The boundary between places was strained, bent, split, and gave way in places it had always held firm. The world didn’t break all at once. It started to come apart. And June-[hr]Inside, the music didn’t stop. It couldn’t. The bass still pounded through the warehouse, but it felt distorted now-warped, stretched thin, like it had to pass through something before it reached the room. People kept moving. Dancing. Laughing. Normal. But some felt a shift before it happened. A footstep. Heavy. Wrong. It echoed through the warehouse-not loud enough to cut the music, but deep enough to be felt in bone before it was heard. Someone near the back flinched. Another step. Closer. This time, it knocked something loose. A loose bottle rattled on a table. A metal chair scraped an inch across the floor with no one touching it. [i]Something came through.[/i] The first person didn’t even have time to react. One second, he was standing, drink in hand. The next- Something took him. Not grabbed. Not pushed. Taken. His body jerked violently upward, feet leaving the ground as if hooked by something no one could see. His spine bent the wrong way until something inside him snapped audibly, [i]even[/i] over the music. Then he disappeared and reappeared a few feet away mid-impact. He hit the ground hard enough to bounce. Blood followed a second later. People nearby froze. “Yo-?” No one laughed this time. Another step. Heavier. Closer. The floor responded to it. Warping slightly under something with a weight that didn’t match what anyone could see. A girl mid-laugh choked on her words as her body seized. Her head snapped to the side like someone had grabbed her jaw and turned it too far. Her shoulders followed a split second later-out of sync, wrong-before something yanked her backward. Her nails scraped across the concrete, leaving thin, desperate lines before her body lifted- and then slammed. [i]Once.[/i] [i][b]Twice.[/b][/i] The second impact didn’t sound like bone anymore. It sounded [i]wet.[/i] For half a second- No one moved. Then [i]everything [/i]broke. Someone screamed. Just pure, animal panic. [i]“... What the [b]FUCK-?![/b]”[/i] [i][b]“GO-GO-GO-!”[/b][/i] The crowd surged all at once, bodies crashing into each other as instinct took over. People shoved, tripped, and grabbed at whoever was closest. Drinks spilled, cups crushed underfoot, shoes slipping on something slick that hadn’t been there a second ago. Phones came out immediately. Hands shaking. Screens lighting up. “Call someone-call 911!” [i][b]“I AM-IT’S NOT-IT WON’T-”[/b][/i] [i][b]“I can’t get service-what the fuck?!”[/b][/i] A guy near the wall was already backing away, grabbing his friend by the arm. “We’re leaving-[b]now[/b], come on-come on!” “I dropped my phone!” [i][b]“LEAVE IT!”[/b][/i] Another scream cut through the chaos as someone fell. Not taken-just knocked down in the rush. Three people tripped over them immediately, collapsing in a pile. “Get up-get [b]UP[/b]!” “I can’t-my leg!” Someone tried to help, hauling them halfway upright before the crowd slammed into both of them again, knocking them back down. The footsteps hit again. [i]Felt[/i] through the floor more than heard. People froze mid-motion, just enough to ripple hesitation through the panic. “What is that?!” “There’s nothing there!” A bottle near the bar lifted slightly, then whipped across the room at full force, smashing into someone’s shoulder hard enough to spin them around. They screamed, clutching at the sudden pain as glass scattered everywhere. That was it. Any last thread of control snapped. People started hauling ass for the exits-desperate, messy, violent. Someone shoved past their own friend. Someone else dragged theirs by the wrist, refusing to let go. “Don’t stop-don’t stop!” “I can’t find her-where is she?!” “WHO?!” “I DON’T KNOW!” Near the center, a girl crouched low, hands over her head, rocking slightly. “This isn’t real-this isn’t real-this isn’t real-” Someone grabbed her arm. “MOVE!” She didn’t respond. They let go. Another impact. A body lifted. This time, people saw it happen. Not what caused it. Just the result. A boy was yanked sideways, feet leaving the ground as his body twisted midair like something had grabbed him and spun. He slammed into the concrete shoulder-first with a crack that echoed through the warehouse. He didn’t get back up. People screamed louder. Some cried. Some just ran. Near the exit, it bottlenecked. Too many people. Too fast. [i][b]“GO-GO-GO!”[/b][/i] “I’m trying!” “You’re pushing-[i][b]STOP PUSHING!”[/b][/i] Someone fell. Then another. Then three more. A pile forming at the doorway, people scrambling over each other, clawing for space, for air, for escape. “Help me!” “I can’t!” “I can’t breathe!” A hand reached out-grabbing onto someone’s shirt-only to be torn free as they were dragged forward by the crowd. The footsteps came again. Closer. A girl near the edge of the room turned too late. Something hit her. Hard. Her body didn’t just fall-it snapped forward, like she’d been struck by something massive and fast. She hit the ground face-first and didn’t move, blood spreading beneath her almost immediately. Someone tripped over her. Phones kept recording. Even now. Even as hands shook too hard to hold steady. Even as people cried into them. The room emptied fast. But not fast enough. It was still moving. Still hunting. Still stepping. Each footfall was heavy. Measured. Like it wasn’t in a rush at all. And outside, the night felt wrong. The air itself shivered, like reality had taken a deep, ragged breath. Through the faint flicker of the tear, a shape lingered at the edge of the warehouse lot-a massive black wolf, its fur absorbing what little light remained, and eyes glowing red. It didn’t move, didn’t breathe, and yet it watched everything unfold with a patient, predatory interest. Inside, the chaos escalated. Screams cut through the thumping bass as people shoved past one another, dragging friends to safety, tossing phones into the air to capture what no one could fully understand. Bottles shattered, bodies tumbled, and the air pulsed with a sickening, unnatural rhythm that no one could match or outrun. Every step felt wrong, every sound off, as if the world itself had begun to bend under the monster’s invisible weight. And outside, the tear pulsed wider. The wolf’s red eyes gleamed brighter. It [i]waited.[/i][hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/bemGSrE.png[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/fGCaIL3.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/7gwGxyR.png[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/sHP9Odv.png[/img][/center][right][b]Interactions:[/b] Ella [@FernStone], & Nora [@NoriWasHere] [code]The Warehouse[/code] [s][code]Party[/code][/s] [code]Massacre.[/code][/right][hr][hr] Lupe's eyes scanned the corners of the party—she caught sight of Vicky flailing in the beanbag again, shrieking for attention. Lupe stepped up beside Tuyen just long enough to smirk. [color=E14BC5]“Ella, just let Tuyen finish babysitting the damn cheerleader!”[/color] she laughed, voice dripping with sarcasm. Then, immediately, her gaze flicked to the first wrong vibration beneath the floor—the tremor that didn’t belong, the kind that pressed in on the chest before it even made a sound. It hit the warehouse like a heartbeat gone horribly wrong. A girl nearest the back stumbled, frozen mid-laugh, before something yanked her sideways, slammed her into the concrete, lifted her, twisted her, and slammed her down again. The wet crack of impact made Lupe’s stomach lurch, and she felt her jaw tighten. [color=#eac6ae]“Girls! [i][b]RUN![/b][/i]”[/color] Kari’s voice cut through the chaos like a blade. Her eyes didn’t waver from the room ahead, mapping exits, blocked paths, and anything the unseen monster might use as leverage. The next impact came closer. Lupe’s blood ran cold. People were screaming, shoving, stumbling over each other. [color=#eac6ae]“[i][b]Move![/b][/i]”[/color] Kari tightened her grip on Ella’s arm, guiding them past a toppled table and over a slick patch of spilled drink. Her voice didn’t carry worry—it carried authority. Fear wouldn’t help them now; only action would. Lupe didn’t answer. There was no time for jokes anymore. She ducked low, scanning between bodies and smashed furniture, darting toward the back of the warehouse where Diego and Alejandro could be caught in the chaos. Her eyes caught every flicker of movement, and her muscles tensed. She couldn't see it, but the creature was stepping again. Heavy. Measured. Each footfall pressed down through the floor. Another girl went down nearby, slammed repeatedly, blood glinting in the half-light. Lupe’s heart pounded. People screamed, shoved, and fought over space, but she threaded through them like a predator of her own. Step by step, breath by breath, she advanced, eyes locked on shadows that might conceal her friends—or death. [color=#eac6ae]“Elsa’s coming—don’t stop!”[/color] Kari’s sharp voice kept them moving. She forced Ella, Tuyen, and Nora through the bottleneck near the exit, ignoring the chaos around them. Every second mattered; every hesitation was a chance for the monster to strike. Lupe’s teeth clenched as she skirted another smashed table, caught a glimpse of movement near the far wall, and ducked into the shadows. Diego, Alejandro—where the hell were they? She didn’t have time to wonder, didn’t have time to think, only time to move, only time to survive, only time to search.