Shawn made his way up the hill, across the dirty parking lot. The sun seemed to sap the energy out of every step.

"It took you three hundred and seven steps to get here." Michael informed Shawn.

Shawn wiped sweat from his brow, the combination of the hot sun and his quick pace. Still, he smiled at Michael, a little proud of what they'd pulled off. "That sounds right to me. Did you get the count you were looking for?"

"Yes." Michael said, not returning the smile and instead giving Shawn the mathematical results of their scheme. " I saw four women, three bar stools and five men."

As dry as his voice sounded--and as deep-- Shawn could tell that Michael was satisfied, if not pleased with the results. "That looked hard. I could never do that. Talking to someone. It seems like it would be a lot of time and effort to learn how to talk to an adult. I want to show you something else." Michael said, getting up and starting to walk back the way both boys ad come.

"It's a little scary sometimes, but I get a lot of opportunities to practice." Shawn took a few seconds to catch his breath, and then trailed after Michael. Was there something else that needed to be counted?

Shawn followed Michael for a good long while, the heat of the afternoon sun on their backs. If Michael appreciated Shawns efforts earlier in the parking lot, he didn't say so. Then again, perhaps Michaels silence and willingness to have company was as far as the boy could go in expressing such ideas.

Finally, the two boys arrived at a shed in Michaels backyard. Through the window, on the second floor, Ralph and Bobby seemed to be having a grand, old time with Michaels siblings, playing with pillows, tossing them around in what looked like some kind of pillow fight.

"Go inside the shed. I will show you a secret in there. We will go in together." Michael promised.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 05:58, Tue 22 Aug 2017.

"Okay." From anyone else, Michael's statement would've seemed ominous, but Shawn was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He pulled open the shed door cautiously, trying not to attract the attention of Bobby and the others.

A faint, sour stench filled Shawns nostrils as Shawn stepped forward into the dark shed. Raking sunlight passed through the wooden beams, thin slivers of light against the moldy backdrop of the rotted wooden floor. There were old, rusted instruments covered with cobwebs. A shovel lay on its side, covered with what appeared to be fresh dirt.

Michael came up alongside Shawn.  "It's under the center of the floorboards." Michael said, giving one stamp of a foot on the floor. The loose boards rattling.

Shawn looked curiously at the instruments, wondering if he could tell their previous purpose. Then he bent down alongside Michael to try and pry up the floorboards.

The three floorboards came up easily, the dust underneath floating in the still, hot air. The stench was stronger and putrid now. An invasive smell, it filled Shawn's nostrils with the unmistakable stench of decay. There was a blue tarp placed over whatever lumpy form was under the sheds floorboards.

Michael closed the creaky shed door shut, increasing both the darkness and the smell.

"There is one tarp." He advised, a signal to Shawn that he wanted him to lift the tarp up.

Shawn found himself holding his breath, inhaling and exhaling only when he had to. He wished he didn't recognise the smell of decay so easily after his time with the Circus. He bent down to lift up the tarp, hoping fervently it was just an animal carcass underneath.

The first thing Shawn noticed was the smell. The foul stench pushed at Shawn, like some great, heavy, invisible wall.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Stamina + Composure with the following results

0 Successes: Shawn projectile vomits, then faints

1 Success: Shawn's eyes water up and he gags but manages to hold it

2+ Successes: Shawn's eyes water up

Shawn's eyes were watering, but he otherwise holds it together.

OOC: 07:48, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 2 successes using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 1,3,8,9.  Stamina + Composure.

The dog corpse was half-rotted. It lay on it's side, eyes open but unseeing, it's mouth slightly open, a fat purple tongue hanging out. Flies buzzed around it's corpse, a swarming mass of insects nearly covered it's whole body. It lay at an unnatural angle, legs splayed out and it's back painfully arched. It looked as though someone had just tossed the dog aside like an unwanted rag doll. It almost did look like an inanimate object. That was of course if it's intestines lay coiled beside it. Something had ripped its stomach open and pulled out the insides. Dried blood pooled around it, tinting it's white stomach a dull red.

Michael poked the stick into the dog's eye causing it to pop right out. His face was an expressionless, mask of stone. He jabbed and poked it in all the harder. "This is the way into the brain," he crowed, "right in through the eye socket."

Despited the smell, and the sound of squishing, Michael carried on as if all he heard was the wind in the trees. "There, I can feel them squishing. If I poke all the harder it'll start coming out better than toothpaste."

"I see..." Shawn desperately wanted to avoid asking where the dog came from. If he didn't know, he could just assume Michael had found some roadkill.

Michael did just that, jamming at the carcass until liquid, putrid smelling goo came out of the dog's nose and eye sockets.

"See? Toothpaste." He observed. Then he dropped the stick and turned towards Shawn. He was just standing there with an expression of nothingness. Shawn could see that there were lines around his mouth, eyes sunken and rimmed with purple.

"Are you okay?" Michael looked weird, though Shawn was willing to concede he was feeling on edge due to the whole desecration of a dead dog thing.

"Yes." Michael said. "I just wanted to know if you wanted to try or not?" He asked Shawn, bending down to pick up the stick and offering it to him.

"I counted to eight when I did it. You can count too if you want. If it makes you feel good." Michael offered, as if Shawn could relate to the counting aspect as something noteworthy and worthwhile.

Shawn declined the stick as gracefully as he could. "Oh, uh, no thanks. I counted when you did it, so I'm good." He gave Michael a smile, anxious get away from the corpse and the smell.

"OK." Michael said dropping the stick. He placed the tarp back over the corpse and then placed the wooden boards carefully over them, his movements neat, and methodical.

He sat there staring at Shawn, the hot summer heat building a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Just waiting, Michael's face was unmoved.

Shawn wiped his brow, hot and exhausted from their 'adventures'. He wasn't sure how much more of this he could take, though he didn't show that thought on his face. "Want to play inside for a bit?"

"OK." Michael said, waiting for Shawn to start moving. Michael was staring at Shawn's hands. Shawn could see the boy's lips move:

'one, two, three..' counting the fingers on each hand, eyes only briefly looking up to meet Shawn's.

Shawn exits the shed, breathing deep of the non-decomposing air outside. Compared to the stuffy shed, even a hot summer's day feels like a refreshing breeze to him.

The boys headed back inside the house to rejoin the group, neither saying a word about the shed or their previous conversation.

OOC: End Thread