Coulrophobia?

Sabrina left Archer to himself and went to the main area in the bunker. She glanced towards the pile in the corner and noticed that Cody was absent.

Huh. He must have left to help Riley.

She made her way to the couch and closed her eyes. She just wanted to rest for a little bit even though she didn't do much. That dream really rattled her so her sleep wasn't all that peaceful.

Pushing memories to the depths of her mind she relaxed and shuffled into a more comfortable position.

Fire.

She tried clearing her head.

Screams.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to concentrate harder in order to banish the visions from her mind.

Her brother's angry face, her father's tears and her mother's panic.

But they always managed to creep their way back in.

Her eyes shot open and he huffed a let out a frustrated sigh.

Why can't I just be left in peace?! It's always something, goddammit.

She abandoned all suggestions of sleeping and resting and decided to keep herself busy.

With that thought, she grabbed her weapon and trudged up the stairs.

The door/vending machine was closed, unsurprisingly but she was scared to open it.

Why? She didn't know. She pushed it, but it didn't budge.

Of course it'll be locked.

She looked around for a switch in the narrow doorway and found a semi-large button on the wall to her left. It didn't really protrude much from the wall and was painted in the same color, so she wasn't that angry at herself for not noticing it.

She pressed it and let go once she heard a hiss come from the door in front of her. Sighing in relief, the teen pushed against it and it opened with some effort.

Gosh, that thing is heavy.

Once she was out, she closed it, making sure it was properly shut and then went to look for her friends. Or was it too soon to call them that? She didn't know. There was a lot of things that Sabrina didn't know at this moment.

The brunette decided that she wasn't going in the restroom.

I need to ask them about that.

She checked in the manager's office- everything was still in a mess- but no one was there so she went into the main shop area and looked around.

No sign of Riley and Cody but she did find a pack of gum, so there was a tiny victory for today.

She cautiously sneaked out towards the entrance of the store thinking that the rebels were around the perimeter of the building.

With her gun at the ready, she exited the building and walked to the side of it. There was a dumpster in sight but not what she was looking for. She continued walking and just before she turned around the corner, she heard two familiar voices. She smiled excitedly, happy to not be alone and all caution left her as she ran to them.

"No, this switch is not supposed to- OH my freaking God, Lia don't do that!", the young boy shrieked, terrified about the quick steps headed to them but then relaxed a little when he saw who it was. Riley looked like she was about to pass out.

"Oops. My bad...", Sabrina lowered her head with an awkward chuckle.

"Sorry."

"It's fine, just don't do that again. We can't afford to be spotted," he smiled, while Riley was still recovering.

"Jeez, you okay there Riles?", Sabrina asked slightly concerned. She didn't mean to spook them so much.

Riley instantly forgot her mini panic attack and raised an eyebrow at the nickname.

"Riles?"

"It's a nickname."

"Yeah, I know that. But-"

She was cut off by Cody, "Looks like you really Riled her up there, Lia."

He was trying so hard not to laugh and Sabrina just stared at him in disbelief before snorting and doubling over laughing. Cody joined in while Riley looked at them unamused.

"I hate you. That was so stupid."

"Love you too, Riles."

Riley scoffed and they both continued working on the power box while Sabrina was in the process of calming down after the terrible pun, wiping away tears from laughing so hard.

Why did she find that so funny? Again, she didn't know.

Her lack of knowledge was starting to frustrate her.

She joined the two and looked at the circuit. There wasn't any problems with electricity in their hideout so she figured that they were just making sure everything was in good condition.

Slowly, Sabrina drifted away from their conversation, tuning their voices out unintentionally while she focused on the series of switches and cables.

One

Two

Three

Four

Four... Four. Four?

Why are there only four?

"Guys," she interrupted.

"Yeah?"

"There's only four switches."

"Yeah, for the main shop, manager's office, bathroom and the storage room."

"But what about the bunker?"

Then it hit her.

"Nevermind. I get it now. I'm stupid."

They looked at her amused.

Riley smirked at her. "Okay, so what did you get?", she asked while putting her hands on her hips

"The bunker is a secret so that's the reason it's not out here. It probably has a separate junction box concealed from everyone else."

"Well done," Riley commented while clapping slowly.

They resumed their work and Sabrina took out a stick of gum and popped it in her mouth. "Want some?", she offered and stuck her hand out with the strawberry-flavoured chewable.

Riley plucked one put mumbling a thanks and something along the lines of, "So good" and "Favourite" while Cody shook his head as a 'No.'

Sabrina shrugged and put it in her pocket.

"So, I've been meaning to ask-", she began while Riley hummed in acknowledgment and Cody nodded as he was finishing up, "what's with the restroom?"

Cody closed the junction box and secured it with a slightly rusted latch. "Nothing. Why?" "What do you mean, 'Nothing'? When I tried going in there, the door wouldn't budge and there was blood on the walls! And the smell! It was like a rotting corpse!", Sabrina whisper-yelled while raising her arms frantically.

Riley snickered at her confusion, "No one died there. We were just stupid, made a mess and didn't bother to clean it up."

Cody rubbed the back of his head amused and embarrassed, "Yeah, we were trying to prank Archer and Mr Wilson didn't mind us using the restroom for it, due to the fact that no one else used 'em."

"Okay so what happened?"

"It's a long story. Kind of"

"We've got time."

"Okay, but let's go down first before we... y'know... die or whatever."

Agreeing, they all went down to the bunker and sat on the couch. Archer wasn't in view so they assumed he was still training and left him alone.

"So," Cody said smugly, then proceeded to take an over dramatic breathe before continuing, "Archer was being more of a jerk than normal."

Sabrina scoffed, "How could he be more of a jerk than he already is?" She felt a pang of guilt after saying those words and after she recalled the conversation she had with Riley the previous night and the concern in Archer's eyes that morning after she had her nightmare.

Cody laughed at her remark though, not phased by it and went on with the story. "Riley and I wanted to get payback. We'd known for a while that Archer was scared of clowns so we decided to make one," he chuckled darkly and the other girls laughed.

"So we got everything ready while he was being moody in a corner and writing something in his diary-"

"Wait, Archer has a diary?," Sabrina interupted.

"Well, we don't know what it is. All we know is that he loves that book and he doesn't let anyone touch it or even look at it," Riley explained.

"Anyways, we got everything ready and placed it in the bathroom. Now that clown was terrifying and terrifyingly heavy. We made him in separate parts and attached them in the restroom. I know what you're thinking. 'Why was the clown so heavy?' And to that I reply, that it was made out of boxes, painted with various colours and it included some other gory details which were perfectly designed by our own Michael Angelo, Riley," he spoke with a fake accent on that last part and gestured to Riley while bowing.

"Why, thank you good sir," she replied mimicking his pathetic excuse of a Italian accent. "Did I really sound that bad?", he asked sounding genuinely sad. "Yes. Yes, you did buddy," she admitted, patting his back.

They were silent for a bit before they burst out laughing. Riley continued the story once they calmed down.

"Yeah, so the reason why it was heavy was because Cody did this techy-mumbo-jumbo thing that made the freakshow's eyes light up and the hands move slightly. It also had this creepy laugh, that was amazing. I always knew that Cody was good at computers and stuff but this was next level," she rambled proudly about her tech-wizard as he smiled shyly and Sabrina smiled excitedly.

"Also Cody, you're really smart but the idea of the paint was dumb."

"No, it wasn't!"

"Yes, it was!"

He huffed and crossed his arms. He didn't want to argue with her.

"He wanted to paint the ceiling red. I mean, I know Archer is tall and stuff but that would have taken too long. So we ended up fighting over the paint can and trying to pull it away fron each other and it slipped out and spilled everywhere! But that added to the effect so we left it and threw a stink bomb in, to hide the paint smell. I think it was expired too."

Cody jumped excitedly and took control of the narration once more, "We were really proud of our work so we closed the door and went into the manager's office to laugh about it for 5 minutes. Once we got that out of our system, we put on our best terrified faces and ran to Archer screaming, 'Oh my God there's something in the bathroom. You have to go seeeeee!'", Riley and Cody were basically dying of laughter at this point and Cody was struggling to tell the rest of the story to an amused Sabrina. "And Archer, trying to keep up his hero persona ran in and let out the girliest scream known to mankind. And what made it better was that when he calmed down, I pressed the button to make the eyes light up and the laugh to play! He basically woke the dead and practically jumped into Riley's arms!"

Cody was now on the floor. His body was spasming as he wracked with laughter and soon Sabrina and Riley were in the same condition on the couch. Their eyes were tearing and they laughed until the point where no sound came out and they just looked stupid.

After a long while, they managed to calm down, wiping their tears and grinning like idiots.

I haven't laughed like that in ages. And I'm sure they haven't as well.

It didn't help that Archer just walked through the bedroom door and entered the main area of their hideout.

"What's with all the noise?", he asked clearly confused and slightly annoyed.

Sabrina turned around with her arms draped over the back of the couch.

" 'Sup Penny wise?", she mocked with a grin.

Cody started cackling and Riley was slowly trying to slip away.

He turned red.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU GUYS!"