SlenderPump Rules

Jane reaches the bar as Ann is mid-pour. She only glances up when Jane sets both palms on the counter like she might climb across it.

"You forgot to say hi," Jane says.

Ann smiles. "Hi."

Behind her, Jeff tightens his grip on a bar towel, eyes flicking between them.

"I'm off at midnight," Jane purrs. "Maybe, we catch up?"

Ann doesn't respond at first. Her eyes move to Jeff, and then her mind moves to Leona and what Eyeless Jackhad had implied to her earlier.

"Maybe, if I'm not busy catching others," she answers.

The crowd suddenly roars as a fire show begins: three demon boys breathing flame from the pool deck. For a second, it's hard to tell if Jane's anger or the fire is hotter.

The fire show behind them casts flickering heat-light across the courtyard, but the bar is still--a stillness charged with old feelings and dynamics ignored.

Ann finishes pouring the drink in front of her and slides it toward a winged creature. "I've been busy, seriously," she adds in weary confidence, eyes meeting Jane's.

Jane leans in, crowding the bar counter, her voice low, short and sickly-sweet. "Too busy for me? Or, too busy hiding from me?"

Jeff steps between them with a laugh just a notch too loud. "Okay! We're cutting this tension with shots." He slaps the bar. "Ann, Jane, EJ: post drinks? My treat." Everyone nods, Ann sending a glance in appreciation.

Jeff smirks. "We haven't had a wild run out since Slender made us do that trust fall exercise in the snake pit," he pats EJ's and Ann's backs.

Jane, once again, takes hold of Ann's glances, and she subtly smiles like she has already won something. "You sure you can handle another round with me?"

"Only if we don't play cards this time," Ann replies coolly. "You cheat."

Jane shrugs, unapologetic. "You fold too easily."

After hours, a hidden bar in the basement below PUMP, where half the fun comes from it being strictly forbidden.

The lights are low, there are old velvet booths and couch cushions, black candles seem to dim the atmosphere even more, otherworldly jazz bleeds from nowhere, and the air reeks of secrets and cigarette smoke. Yet, staff are notorious for coming here to unwind. They weren't having a "wild run out" like Jeff had proposed, but they felt safe enough down here to get blackout drunk.

Ann sits beside Eyeless Jack, her heels kicked off beneath the booth. Jane is across from her, leaning on the table with her chin propped in one hand. Jeff lounges beside Jane with a bottle of something ancient between them.

"Remember when you poured holy water all over me?" Jane recalls suddenly.

Ann snorts, tipsy. "You were summoning something in the break room. Slender would've suspended you."

"I was doing a cleansing ritual." Jane waves her hand.

"Whatever you were using burned through the desk."

"The desk was a portal!" Jane insists.

Jeff interrupts. "Okay, but can we talk about when Ann got her hell stuck in a vampire's neck and rode him halfway across the dancefloor?"

An eruption of laughter pursues.

Ann raises a brow. "That was self-defense!"

Jane's voice softens. "It was a slip-up."

Jeff rolls his eyes. "I don't know how you managed to slip into someone's neck."

There's a pause. Eyeless Jack refills his glass. Jeff sips on his and doesn't look at any of them.

Jane resumes. "I miss our sleepovers. When you used to play your music, make a few drinks, and I'd braid your hair."

Ann leans back. "You ripped my mirror off the wall and used it as a weapon against I don't know who."

"That was later."

Ann studies her drink. "Everything with you is later."

The night is near its end: the laughter has faded, and the drinks are gone.

Ann walks into her apartment barefoot, heels in hand, glitter dried into the lines of her collarbone. The lights are low. Leona's jacket is left over the back of the couch. He's standing in the kitchen, warm tea in his hand. His tail flicks once.

"You're late, like, really late." He looks at his phone on the counter, which reads that it's currently two in the morning.

Ann drops her shoes. "I told you I was going out with the crew, so what did you expect?" She smiles, walking up to him and wrapping an arm around his waist.

He looks down upon her. His eyes are quiet and serious. Not angry, but they seem too calm in this context. "All I see at work is how she treats you."

Ann crosses her arms, a bit baffled. "She's harmless, and this is my good friend you're talking about right now, just to let you know."

Leona scoffs. "She is not harmless!"

Ann tries to laugh. "Are you being jealous?"

"No." His voice hardens, and there's silence that spreads between them fast. Ann moves away from him to sit at a barstool by the kitchen counter.

He continues. "She's obsessed with you. It's weird. She watches you like she owns something. You keep pretending that it's just the way your friendship works, but I'm going to be extremely honest: I hate it.

Ann doesn't answer.

"Because she wants you," Leona says. "And you're naive."

That lands, and she looks away.

"I'm not giving you an ultimatum," he says, quieter now. "But if you don't set a boundary for your 'friend', I will. And I won't be nice about it."

Ann's jaw tenses. "She is my friend, Leona."

"She's not anymore."

Leona walks past her into the bedroom, leaving the door open.

Ann sits alone for a few more moments, glitter catching in the dim light, lips parted, chest tight with memory and guilt and something else she doesn't want to name.

Outside, the monsters sleep or feed. But, inside Ann's apartment, everything's suddenly, awfully, real.