Yeah, this story is based strongly on a Charmed story I read, so I don't own Charmed, that belongs to Constance M. Burge, or so I think. Alfa Mas Daah isn't a real society, but there are places like that. I don't own The New York Times either.
I own Bryn, Jonty, Danny and Caitlin though, and I don't think Caitlin is a Mary-Sue. C'mon, people, you know me! Would I write a Mary-Sue on purpose?
Summer sighed as she absently pushed her hair out of her face with two hands, forgetting about the dust smeared on her hands, and leaving a dirty streak of gray across the otherwise dark brown of her hair which was, at this minute, tied up in a pink bandanna. The bandanna had at first been holding her hair back neatly, but now there were there were wisps in her eyes and around her face.
She was wearing what Freddy and Zack called her "cleaning outfit", which was an old tattered Nirvana hoodie (which had been a Christmas present from Freddy. She'd worn it once to please him, and then it had lain forgotten in the back of her wardrobe, not really being her style), and black jeans, which were about five inches too small, with faded marks over the knee and electric-blue splatters from when she'd helped Freddy to paint his room.
She smiled faintly at the memory...
Flashback
"Freddy," Summer said tiredly, "are you sure that this is the color you want your room?" Freddy nodded stubbornly. "Sure you're sure?" He nodded again. "Only you were sure when we painted it "Magnificent Magenta", and when we painted it "Violent Violet", and when we painted it "Sickly Salmon"..."
"Hey!" protested Freddy. "It wasn't called Sickly Salmon!"
"No, but it might as well have been..." teased Summer.
"I'm sure."
"Sure?"
"I'm sure," Freddy repeated. "Electric Blue, what could be a better color?" Summer had her own opinions, but she chose to keep them to herself.
"We-ell... if you're sure..."
"I told you," Freddy said grinning, "I'm sure, Tink." He levered the lid off the tin of paint, and dipped a drumstick in, before drawing it out and laying it next to three others, colored magenta, violet and salmon. "There – perfect color, see?" He let the color fill his brush, and experimentally brushed a stroke on the wall. Summer sighed, before following his example. "Wait!" yelped Freddy. Summer turned, hands on hips.
"What is it this time?"
"You're doing it wrong," he whined, and Summer smiled despite herself.
"Well how about you show me the right way then, huh, Jones?" He came over and stood behind her, encircling her waist with his arms. She closed her eyes briefly, just enjoying the feeling of being close to him.
"This is how you do it," he whispered, and she shivered as his breath stirred her hair. All of a sudden he backed away, and she bit her lip, knowing why.
Too close...
End Flashback
After that day Katie had been on at Freddy all day, demanding that he move out, but he'd refused. The first time he'd ever stood up to her, but the last. It was the only thing he didn't budge on, the rest of things he let her walk all over him, strongly reminding Summer of Patty and Ned a few years before. Everyone had thought Summer would be the type, but no, Katie had been the one to go out with Freddy, severing all ties with her "friend"ship with Summer.
She'd known Summer liked him, but... no use thinking over that. She was perfectly happy being single. She was a successful free-lance journalist, not rich or famous but making enough to live on. She wrote stories about issues she thought needed addressing, and a few newspapers fell all over themselves to publish them. Only a few, but more than enough.
Anyway, back to making herself sound good. She was a successful free-lance journalist, 18 – wait a minute – this sounded too much like a Lonely Hearts column! Well, if you're going to do something, do it right! She dragged herself over to a table, and pulled a piece of scrap paper towards her, and grabbed a pen from where she'd stuck it behind her ear.
Girl, no. No, no, no. She wasn't a "girl". Darn it, how do people write these things? She flipped through her local paper, reading through the ads. She would never be desperate enough to actually write one of these things, but still... for a laugh...
Petite attractive dark-haired female (me – Summer Hathaway!), 18, WLTM cute 19 year old with blonde spiky hair and chocolate brown doe eyes (namely Freddy Jones!). Will rescue said male from his cow of a girlfriend, who once even physically attacked his best friend (me!) and always verbally abuses her when she thinks he's not looking... sorry, and will provide horse for the perfect ride off into the sunset.
She sighed, and threw her pen down. She didn't have any of the important things in there, like... well, how come she lived with two guys? She lived with Zack and Freddy, her two best friends, and only remembered the good times. There were bad times, of course, like now. Zack was out with Marta, and Freddy was out with Katie... and she was stuck at home, cleaning.
There was a knock at the door, and she got up to answer it. Opening the door, her eyes widened – there was a god, and he seemed to be standing at her door! Messy black hair, sapphire-blue eyes, tan skin... and a weird expression.
"Hi, uh, I'm looking for... Summer Hathaway?" She blushed, and nodded.
"That's me." He paused. "Is something wrong?"
"No, I, ah... I thought you were the maid." She frowned. Even if he was hot, he still couldn't be that rude. She glanced in the mirror, and admitted that he might have a point... But still! She turned back to him.
"Yes? What do you want?"
"My name's Bryn," he said, as though that meant something to her.
"Yes?"
"Well, I read your work on exposing the secret society Alfa Mas Daah..."
"Yes... oh yeah, I remember that one." It was all about how societies were still active today, and how powerful some of them were. This one, for example, controlled most of this state of America. All the powerful leaders, eg, big company owners, council members, wealthy business men, etc., were all involved. Then, if they wanted to buy out a company that refused to sell, all the men had to do was to get together and use a little... scare tactics. Everyone wanted in on this, but there were hard, painful initiation ceremonies.
"What about it?" she snapped.
"I was just wondering, do you still have the research you used for that? Only I'm from The New York Times, and I want to blow this case wide open!" He grinned impishly at her, and she smiled.
"Ok. I'll be right back." She ran into the living room and started riffling through her drawers. A door slammed behind her and she whirled around to see Bryn stood beside her. She knew what was coming, and sighed. As though her day wasn't already bad enough.
"You're from Alfa Mas Daah, right?" He nodded. "Just when I thought they'd all gone away," she grumbled to herself. He whipped a dagger out from behind his back, embossed with the typical Alfa Mas Daah symbol – an A, M & D intertwined with serpents. "Full marks for originality," she muttered, "not like every single 'evil' society has snakes-" She broke off to dodge a thrust from his dagger, quickly putting Zack's guitar in between her and Bryn, if that even was his real name. He came at her, really frightening her this time, and she lifted the guitar in self-defense. He ran straight into it, breaking it clean in half, and fell backwards onto... she winced. Freddy's drum kit.
He was the frightened one now, and he ran straight out of the house. Summer wiped her brow, feeling relieved. All in a day's work. Just then the door slammed, and she turned frightened eyes towards the entrance to the room.
Darn it, she thought, Zack and Freddy. They always have bad timing. Freddy was in first, and immediately saw the fear in her eyes. My best friend, Freddy. I only wish he was something more... No, bad Summer! She shook her head violently to rid herself of those thoughts.
"Tink?" he asked with concern. "What's wrong?" She shook her head mutely, still unable to speak, as the realization of what had happened hit her fully. "Oh no, Tink, it's not -" She nodded. "Are you ok?" Another nod.
"But-" she started to say, but her voice cracked and she licked her dry lips. "You- your drum kit, you, Zack -" as he entered the room, "your guitar, he-he got it, and the dagger, it-and he... I'm so sorry!" she cried, and her tears came flooding out. She hated being like this, this crying sob-story. It was the kind of thing Katie would do, to make things go her own way. The only difference was that Summer was genuine, and Katie never was.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down," said Freddy soothingly. "It's ok, really. You know how much those instruments mean to us – we have them insured! It's not my first set, and it's not my most expensive one."
"Yeah," chipped in Zack, "if I had to choose between my guitar that I've had for a month, and you that I've known for years, I think I'd choose the guitar – sorry, I mean you." Summer gave a small laugh that turned into a sob.
Freddy smiled at her, and it would've all been ok if Katie hadn't chosen this moment to come in and drape her arms around Freddy.
"Oh, Fweddy," she said, using her baby voice, "isn't that your favowite dwum kit?" Freddy shrugged her off roughly.
"No," he snapped, "it isn't."
"But weren't you telling me just the other day how much you absolutely LOVED that dwum set?"
"Look, Katie, just give it up, ok?" Marta had come in at this time, and was stood anxiously next to Zack.
"Are you mad at me?" Here we go, so listen up. This is a perfect example of how it can go from Freddy being mad at Katie to... well, just watch.
"Well, I-"
"You're mad at me, aren't you?"
"No-o, but I-"
"It's always like this with you, isn't it, Freddy?" Ooh, she's dropped the baby voice – must be getting serious, thought Summer. Katie's harsh voice grated Summer's ears and she flinched. It was all she could do not to cower in a corner with her hands over her eyes, but she liked to think she had a bit more self-esteem than that. "It's always me, isn't it? Your precious Summer can do no wrong, but me! Oh, I can do no right!"
"Hey, Katie, come on, babe," said Freddy, and Summer noticed with a sick turn of her stomach that it was the same tone of voice that he'd tried to calm her down with earlier. "Look, you want me to take you out for dinner, huh?" Katie sniffed, and looked up.
"You mean it? No – wait – you can't buy me."
"Come on, Kitty-Kat, I swear I can make it up to you..." Make what up to her? thought Summer, feeling calm and somehow detached from the whole thing, as thought it were someone else watching it, but not her.
"We-ell... do you mean it, Fweddy? My ickle Fweddy-bear..." Smiling, she cosied up to him and began whispering things in his ear. Freddy smirked, and took her hand.
"Hey, guys, we're going back to Katie's, ok? Don't wait up..." The two walked out the door, arms around each other's shoulders, looking like they were two peas in a pod
"Hey, we're going back to M's," said Zack, looking over at Summer. She had no idea how she'd been able to hide her feelings for Freddy from everyone for so long, but none of them seemed to have a clue. "You going to be ok, after this...?" Summer nodded. "But-"
"I'll be fine, Zack," Summer said with a wry smile, "go and have fun." He gave her a grateful smile, and she saw him and Marta leave. Here she was, back where she started. Her Lonely Hearts ad lay forgotten on the table, and just then the phone beeped with a ring. She let the machine pick it up.
"Hi, this is Summer-"
"And Zack!"
"And Freddy!"
"Anyway, here we all are, well, we obviously aren't if you're getting this message, but-"
"Tink, you suck at machine messages!"
"Yeah, well, so do you Freddy!" They could be heard faintly bickering in the background while Zack added, "They could be a while, so leave a message and we'll get back to you!"
"Hey, this is Caitlin, remember me, Sum? Only it's been a while... I'm your typical old friend from high-school, who you sadly drifted away from after you left, despite my numerous attempts to catch up with you, hint hint...Anyway, do you wanna go out tonight? New club – JayZee's... so, yeah, I doubt you will, 'cause you never do, but-"
"Cate! Hi!"
"Sum, you're in!"
"Yeah, well, you know what? I think I will come out tonight after all."
"Are you sure! Man, Sum, I can't remember the last time you came out!"
"You know what? I can't remember the last time I did anything fun, even sang into my hairbrush!"
"Whoa – no kidding? You used to do that all the time! What was it, memory-y-y-y, all alo-o-o-one in the mooooonlight, not a SOUND in the OPEN-"
"Yeah, yeah," Summer cut her off quickly, "it was bad enough when I did it! Look, living with two guys doesn't make having fun the easiest thing in the world."
"I know but, jeez, Sum! You sound like you've been locked up!"
"Well, you know Katie? That total cow of a girlfriend that Freddy's got?"
Silence.
"Come on, Cate, I must have told you about her!"
"Nope, you haven't spoken to me in ages."
"Omigosh, no way! Well, she's-"
"Save it for tonight, Sum. So I'll come by around... seven?"
"Seeya then, Cate."
Click.
Summer ran upstairs. Have a shower, wash her hair... Argh! Too much to do, not enough time! What am I going to wear? she thought frantically. The age-old question... She had a gorgeous steaming hot shower, and rubbed shampoo into her hair, getting a massive lather up. She rinsed it out, and stood there for a while, letting the water beat down on her back. It was so long since she'd had a night out, or some fun, so long. Too long. She conditioned her hair, rinsed it and, wrapping a big fluffy towel around her, shivered her way over to her bedroom.
Summer blow-dried her hair, which made her faint streaks of gold shine brightly, like stars in the black night of her hair. She riffled through her closet, in an attempt to find something to wear. She'd just about given up when something fell onto the floor in a soft heap. She picked it up, and looked at it for a few minutes. She'd forgotten she had this.
It was a red dress, just above knee-length. It had small slits in it at intervals, showing the paler red color of the under-dress. Summer had thought it was too small for her, but something made her pull it on. It was soft and clingy, and fitted perfectly, showing her curves. She smiled at her reflection, and pulled her hair up into a messy Chinese bun, complete with chopsticks, with two shiny gold streaks hanging down, framing her face.
She laced up her shoes, choosing to wear her red sandals, with laces that criss-crossed all the way up her legs, stopping just below her knees. She carefully outlined her eyes in bold strokes of eyeliner, flicking it up at the sides to give her a slightly Chinese look. A slash of red lipstick, and she was ready. Summer checked the clock (7:02 pm) and ran downstairs, grabbing her red embroidered purse on the way. Just as she opened the door, so did someone else, causing her to stumble slightly, before regaining her balance.
Katie.
Who else? She sauntered in as though she owned the place, pausing to give Summer a condescending look.
"Why, if it isn't little Tinkerbell. What are you doing here, Tink?"
"Um, I live here," said Summer, wondering if she was for real.
"No kidding! Well, you're obviously going out, so don't let us keep you." Freddy walked in after her, head down, hands shoved deep in pockets.
"Katie wants a baby," he muttered, as though this was some explanation. Katie hit him.
"Fred-dy! That's private business, silly!" Summer raised an eyebrow at this.
"I'm sure I'd rather not know. I'm going to JayZee's. Anyway, see you!" Freddy looked up.
"Where are you-" He caught sight of her, and stopped. "I mean... wow, Tink. Wow." Summer looked at him coolly. Traitor. A hot traitor, though – no, bad Summer, bad! You need to stop thinking these thoughts!
"Whatever, Freddy. Besides, don't you have some, ah... private business to tend to?" And with that she stalked off, stumbling once in her high heels, but it luckily went unnoticed. She could faintly hear Katie whining some more, but she decided to put it out of her mind.
Lucky for her, Caitlin was waiting outside. "Hey, I thought you were never going to come out!"
"Why didn't you come in?"
"Are you kidding? I didn't want to run into Freddy's, what was it? 'Complete cow of a girlfriend', I think you said." Summer gave an embarrassed laugh.
"Oh yeah, I might have, um, said something along those lines..." Caitlin laughed, and tucked her arm through Summer's. Summer hated it when people did that, but with Caitlin it was different. She was such a touchy-feely person that it was almost impossible to stop her.
"Shall we go, then? I brought my car." Summer saw it for the first time, a cherry-red convertible.
"Ooh, nice," she said appreciatively.
"Yeah, I got it to help me pull da boyz," joked Caitlin, and Summer laughed.
"When you look like that I don't think you need any help," Summer said, slightly jealous. She shook it off in a moment, and laughed. "Am I too dressed up? You look casual." Caitlin was in fact wearing a blue bikini top under a lighter blue netted t-shirt. She had on plain black combat pants, and navy-blue fake Converse.
"Of course not! You know what I'm like," she said, before adding, "Remember high-school prom night?" Of course Summer remembered the high-school prom, everyone had been wearing their poshest dresses and Caitlin had turned up in a scruffy old Metallica tee and tattered, torn jeans. Summer had refused to speak to her for the whole night.
"Anyway," said Summer, quickly changing the subject, "shall we get going?" Caitlin nodded, and the two were soon on their way to JayZee's.
They got there at about half-seven, and the queue was still relatively small. They tagged onto the back of it, not finding anyone they knew to stand with. They made it to the door, and the bouncer stopped them. Caitlin rolled her eyes.
"What seems to be the problem?" she asked sweetly. "Not eighteen?"
"You go through," said the bouncer, motioning with his head, and Caitlin did, mouthing "I'll meet you inside," to Summer, who nodded dismally. That was a bad thing about Caitlin, she'd always do what was best for herself. She made it in, at last, and saw Caitlin sat at the bar, drinking something from a bottle. Summer winced – she didn't even know why she'd agreed to go out with her.
Caitlin, to put it nicely, was a party animal.
She was already surrounded by guys, who were hanging on her every word. Probably undressing her with their eyes as well. Summer shook her head, trying to get rid of these mean thoughts. Just because she was a bitter old hag didn't mean she had to make Caitlin some kind of slut.
She took a seat on one of the weird, twisted red couches, sipping an Apple & Mango J20. She never touched alcohol, made her slightly crazy and she always ended up doing something she regretted later. That was, if she remembered it, or saw it on video. One or the other.
There were two guys sat opposite her, one with black, stubbly hair and BIG brown eyes, and one that was – ooh! – kinda cute, actually! Flicky brown hair... cute, innocent looking blue eyes... very cute! But not as cute as Freddy, said her inner self, and she mentally slapped her inner self. Did it want her to be some crazy lady that all the kids were scared of, living alone with 67 cats? She decided to distract herself by listening in on their conversation.
"-can't believe it! Such an awesome idea!"
"I know... see that chick over there?"
"Don't call them 'chicks', you know I don't like that... Stop drooling, Danny – which one?" Danny! That was the name of the one with the BIG eyes.
"That one there, with the red dress... Stop drooling, Jonty!" he added, mimicking the other's words... Jonty must be the cute one.
"Shut up."
"Nah, I don't wanna. Hey, where you going, dude? You gonna talk to her?"
"Um, yeah. Why?"
"I don't think so! Not if I get there first, anyroad." With a start, Summer realized that the 'chick' they were talking about was her, and she smoothed down her dress, and took another sip of her drink.
They came over and sat on either side of her, leaving Summer a bit annoyed, because she couldn't subtly slide away from them if they creeped her out, or whatever.
"Hey," said Danny quickly, looking as though he could tell that she was thinking about discreetly leaving, "my name's Danny and this is my mate Jonty."
"Um, pleased to meet you, Danny," she said smiling, and he grinned.
"So, looking forward to the lock-in?" Summer frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't tell me you don't know!" said Dannt, clearly enjoying this. "It's the longest night of the year tonight, and to celebrate it we're all getting locked in here until morning." Caitlin chose that time to glance over and give Summer a cheery wave. Summer glared, and mouthed a, "Why the heck didn't you tell me about the lock-in?"
But either Caitlin couldn't read, or she was deliberately ignoring Summer, because she glanced at the guys sat on either side of her and gave Summer a thumbs-up, before turning back to her own little set of admirers. A few minutes later, however, she came over and sat next to Danny, flicking back her gorgeous auburn hair as she did so. He turned to say hi to her, and she gave him a little flirty look.
Sure enough, when she got up to go back to her other group he stood up to go with her. Jonty, however, remained sat down.
"Jonty, dude, aren't you coming with us?" asked Danny.
"Oh please come, Jonty, it's so much fun!" said Caitlin, giving him her seductress look. Typical. I have two guys to your twenty, and you just can't leave me alone.
"Nah, I'll stay here and talk to Summer," said Jonty, smiling at her, and she couldn't help but smile back. Once the two had gone, he turned to talk to her. "Did you know I own this club?" he said, not bragging, but conversationally, and she couldn't help but gasp.
"No!"
"Yeah," he said, with a smile. "See, my name's Jonty Zabraan-"
"Unusual," commented Summer, and he nodded in agreement.
"I think my parents were stoned at that time, or something," he said laughing, and Summer giggled. She liked it when guys could make fun of themselves. "Anyway, my initials – JZ – JayZee, see?"
"Ohhh!" said Summer, suddenly understanding. "Oh, clever." Just then the clock struck midnight, and Jonty looked up.
"I've got to go sort something out, I'll be back in a minute." He got up to go, and went into a little office. Just then, what looked like a giant dancing cage was lowered from the ceiling, and all the lights went out. When the lights came back on, two people were dead, and two people were stood over them with daggers in their hands. They grinned, allowing everyone to fully see the blood staining their teeth, and Summer covered her mouth with her hands.
"Oh hell," she said, instinctively recoiling. "Oh, that is sick." All around her people were screaming, and the two murderers started forward, obviously intending to take more victims. Jonty appeared just then, eyes searching the room for Summer. "Jonty," she screamed, "over here! Jonty! JONTY!" At last he found her, and quickly came over, but
Freddy stood up as Katie made her move. "I need a drink of water," he announced, and ran downstairs, ignoring her protests. He knew why she wanted a baby – to keep him, so there was no way he could break up with her. Well, it wasn't going to work. He just didn't find her attractive anymore – in fact, he hated the sight of her. He knew who he wanted – Summer. Pity she didn't see him the same way, pity she just saw him as a friend.
Luckily he'd managed to make excuses, so that he and Katie hadn't actually done anything, least of all It. You know – It. The thing you need to do to make babies. Yes, It.
He sighed, and got himself a drink of water. As he sat down at the table a piece of paper fluttered to the floor, and he picked it up.
Petite attractive dark-haired female... (Summer Hathaway)... WLTM... Freddy Jones... cow for a girlfriend who once... physically attacked his best friend... always verbally abuses her...
What? Summer... likes... him? And Katie once attacked her? It was too much to take in, and he absently turned over the paper, and read the newspaper article on the other side.
KILLER CLUB'S SATANIC RITUAL
New club that just opened last week has only just been shut down. The aptly named ''JayZee's'' has traveled clean across the globe, leaving a trail behind it. It's journey started in London, England, where the first killing happened. The club's ''tradition'' had been going for years, to apparently worship Loki, Viking God of Mischief. All of the visitors to the club were murdered, excepting one, who was raised up to the God and was then ''possessed''. This One is always a female, and then tells the others what the God now wishes them to do. After that she, too, is killed.
They continued through Paris (France), Barcelona (Spain), Moscow (Russia), and many other countries, simply killing all the people in the club. Their last destination to complete their circle was New York (America), but the police shut them down. Rumors have now started that the club has gone underground, in an effort to finish the ritual. It's known that nothing will happen when this is done, but we are trying to avoid more innocent victims.
Also, while in the last place, another female is chosen, and then burned alive on a pyre. They believe that she will rise from the dead, but we know that this will not happen. Please, if you know anyone going to this club, stop them! They will almost certainly be murdered, and if you can stop this then do. Please. We know that they are part of some ''secret society'', and we think they may be named ''Alfa Mas Daah''. If you know any more, then please inform the police, and tell them everything you know.
These are madmen, and they must be avoided at all costs.
Freddy dropped the newspaper to the floor, struggling to get his head around this new piece of news.
Summer liked him.
But Summer was about to be killed.
He had to do something.
But what?
"Jonty," she screamed, "over here! Jonty! JONTY!" At last he found her, and quickly came over, but one of the murderers stopped him, and was talking to him, and he knew them, and it was all happening too quickly, and she retched, and it all came up, and before she knew it she was kneeling on the floor throwing up.
Jonty came over when he said that, concern showing clearly in his face. "Summer, what's up? Are you all right?" She pulled herself together in an instant, and slapped him hard across the face.
"Don't – you – ever – touch – me – again!" she hissed through her teeth, pushing him back with each word.
"What is wrong with you?" he snarled, and all of a sudden he changed. He wasn't the cute, sweet, innocent-looking Jonty she'd known – and trusted – before, he was... scary. He even looked different. His eyes were hard, with a mean glint in them, and his voice was low, harsh and menacing. He attempted to twist his mouth into the same smile he'd had before, but it just looked malicious and chilling.
"Just... go away," she whispered, "leave me alone."
"Oh, I can't do that," he replied, and his voice sent a shiver through her. "Don't you want to dance, Summer?" And as he said the word 'dance', he pushed her into the cage, and slammed the door shut, so she was trapped.
The cage was raised high above the dance floor, and Summer knelt down and gripped the bars of her cage. She could only look on and watch helplessly as everyone below her was murdered, randomly. She caught sight of Caitlin, who had somehow got hold of a dagger and was fighting for her life. She was backed into a corner, and there were three of them on her, and all of a sudden she crumpled into a heap, and they backed away; their work done.
Summer let out a great gasp, that turned into a sob, and she was suddenly curled up crying in a corner of the cage, seeing everywhere the senseless killing. She hated herself for being so pathetic, so weak, but faced with a scene like this, there was nothing else she could do.
All of a sudden, the screams stopped, and she dared to peer over the side, and she saw the four murderers and Jonty. Jonty was stood on the bar, directing the others. One of the murderers was Bryn, she noticed suddenly, which meant that Alfa Mas Daah was involved. And another one was Danny. She heard them calling to each other, and managed to work out that the other two were called Harry and Karl.
The bodies were pushed into a rough pile in the middle of the room, and were covered with gasoline. Jonty pulled out a big box of matches, and with a sick feeling Summer realized what they were planning to do. He lit a match and dropped it, and Summer could feel the heat below her.
Bryn, Danny, Harry, Karl and Jonty all joined hands around the fire, and started chanting some words. The cage was slowly lowered down, and Summer knew that these were her last moments alive.
Suddenly the doors burst open, and Summer jumped. So did the killers, they must have forgotten to lock the doors. Freddy. It was Freddy! He went straight up to Danny, and punched him full in the face. Danny fell backwards, and was knocked out. Harry and Karl ran away, frightened, and Bryn frowned. He ran up to Freddy, but suffered the same fate as Danny had. Now it was just Jonty and Freddy, circling around and around.
Summer knew what she had to do, and knew she was going to hate herself for this. She stood up, grabbed the bars of her cage and screamed.
"Freddy!" she called. "Freddy – the cage!" He glanced up, only for a second, but that second was long enough for him to take in the situation. He punched Jonty on the chin, and Jonty fell back, holding his chin. Freddy ran over to the wire, and managed to stop the cage from falling. He turned around to be stabbed in the stomach by Jonty, who'd picked up one of the AMD daggers.
Jonty laughed, and Freddy pushed him, and Jonty fell – in slow motion – back onto the fire. His scream of terror was one that Summer knew she'd hear in her nightmares for the rest of his life. She managed to scramble out of the cage, and drop to the side of the fire, which was slowly dying.
Freddy came over to her, and she gave him a faint smile.
"Shouldn't you be getting back to Katie?" she asked, and his reply was one she thought she'd hear only in her fondest dreams.
"Katie who?"