~•Hey person who is reading this! I love Outlast (Which I don't own, Red Barrels does, this fanfic is purely for fun) This idea has been in my head for a while. This first chapter is mainly an introduction to my character, Karsyn. The good stuff will come soon. So I hope you all enjoy. Constructive criticism is welcomed, and I suck at titles Just bear with me we'll see where this goes. •~

Karsyn Graves sat at the wooden desk in her bedroom, scrolling through Google's pages on her laptop. Her small, tired hands gripped a hot mug of black coffee as she was hoping she could find something-Something that could help her get a little further ahead than working at the small cafe in town.

Having a Bachelor's degree in Journalism, she had taken on small cases that had other reporters in the area working on them as well, others usually getting ahead of her. Working at the small journaling company was great, but as a small time investigative reporter, she was hoping to become more well-known in her state and county: Lake County, Colorado, thus, making more money. And working at the cafe two days a week wasn't quite cutting it, either. Her small apartment wasn't much, but she was still in need of extra money. Badly. Being twenty-five, and a single mother, she had a four-year-old to think about.

Karsyn's small lips curved into a smile at the the though of her son, Noah. He was such a sweet, happy child, and she had a hard time understanding why his so-called father, or rather, sperm donor, never wanted anything to do with him in the first place. Johnathan had wanted to bail the day Karsyn told him she was pregnant.

Karsyn remembered that moment clearly.

They had been twenty-one, in college, and they had been a couple for the last eight months. Fast forward to that party, them each having one too many beers, and a month later, Karsyn had burst into Johnathan's dorm room, in tears, slapping the positive pregnancy test down in front of Johnathan.

Karsyn had one arm wrapped around her slim waist, the other was up, her left hand covered her mouth as she tried to stifle the sobs coming up from deep within her heart. She knew she wanted to keep her baby, but she was so scared.

Karsyn watched as Johnathan snatched the test up, studying it carefully for a moment. And then, the man that she had believed loved her so much, changed into a completely different person.

"Johnathan?" She choked out weakly, wanting to believe that everything was okay, that they were okay. He loved her, didn't he? He'd stand by her no matter what, right? He'd help her raise this baby, the baby he'd helped create.

But no. Johnathan showed no signs of remorse or sympathy as he tossed the test back at Karsyn, glaring at her.

"I don't know what you expect me to do. It's not mine!" He shouted, stepping closer to her.

Standing at five-three, Karsyn stood on her tiptoes, and began shouting in his face, tears streaming down her own, smearing her mascara.

"THIS BABY IS YOURS! HE IS YOURS JUST AS WELL AS HE IS MINE! IN THE EIGHT MONTHS WE'VE DATED I'VE BEEN FAITHFUL TO YOU! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!? HOW CAN YOU JUST NOT CARE!?"

Johnathan took a step back, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Karsyn Jade-" He began sternly, but she shrugged him off.

"Don't 'Karsyn Jade' me. What do you expect me to do!? I can't raise this baby by myself!" She said, exasperated, as she flung her arms out to the side, saying more quietly, "You said you'd be here for me. No matter what."

Johnathan sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair, refusing to meet Karsyn's dark green eyes with his blue ones.

"Karsyn, I have a future to think about. You know how important being a doctor is to me. No where in my plans does a baby fit. You either get an abortion or we're done. I'm leaving. Do you understand me?" He met Karsyn's eyes this time, staring at her coldly.

Wiping her eyes on her gray sweater sleeves, she looked back up at Johanthan. Then she smoothed her long, straight, dark red hair out of her face, which had stuck to it from all of her crying.

"Perfectly," She replied, turning away from him as she headed to his dorm door, tossing her pregnancy test into the trash on her way out.

"So you're not even going to consider an abortion? My family would pay for it. Nobody would ever have to know." Johnathan shouted at her.

Karsyn slammed the door back open, standing just outside of it, her eyes piercing his.

"I'm. Not. Killing. My. Baby." She replied through clenched teeth, wrapping her arms protectively around her abdomen.

Johnathan laughed in disbelief, shaking his head.

"So you're just going to walk away? Just like that?" He demanded, in denial.

"Why shouldn't I? You were going to," She snapped, and with that, she slammed the door.

And didn't think once about looking back.

Looking back on it now, she really had no idea at the time how she would raise Noah on her own. But she did it. She moved back in with her parents, got her second job at the cafe (she'd worked at McDonald's in high school and while on campus), and proceeded to finish her Bachelor's online. Next came her apartment, bringing her to where she is now, at her desk, brushing pieces of her hair that escaped her sloppy bun out of her face.

She continued to look online, until she got a notification in her Gmail inbox. Frowning, Karsyn clicked on it, opening up the email. It had been intended for Miles Upshur. She knew who he was, she'd met him a few times. Karsyn knew him as a cynical man, with a dark sense of humor. She found him attractive, though she thought he was very sarcastic. That didn't really bother her, but she found him a bit rude. She'd heard stories from other reporters, and she heard he'd been fired from the company they worked for for relasing unacceptable material regarding a certain

situation in Afghanistan. Karsyn still had no idea of the full story.

However, she wasn't worried about any of that now. As she got a closer look at her email, she realized it had been forwarded to her by Miles himself. The original email itself had been sent to Miles by a Waylon Park, who did software engineering at Mount Massive Asylum.

Karsyn had known of the place, but didn't know too much about it. She began to study Waylon's email, which read:

""September 17, 2013

From:

To:

Subject: TIP / Illegal Activity at Murkoff Psychiatric Systems

You don't know me. Have to make this quick.They might be monitoring.

I did 2 weeks of software consult at MURKOFF Psychiatric Systems' facilities inMount Massive.All sorts of NDA's I am very much breaking right now but seriously, fuck those guys.

Terrible things happening there.Don't understand it.Don't believe half the things I saw. Doctors talking about dream therapy going too deep, finding something that had been waiting for them in the mountain. People are being hurt and Murkoff is making money.

It needs to be exposed."

Karsyn frowned, her eyebrows drawing together. 'What in the world', she thought, and then, she received another email.

September 17th, 2013

From:

To:

Subject: Another job opportunity

"Heard you needed extra money. Meet me tonight at the Wendy's in town. Eight. And Karsyn, don't he late. We will discuss this later, that is, if you show up."

Karsyn sat still for a moment, pondering over Mile's email. She read it again, rolling her eyes. She'd only been late to work at the company four times, and with good reason. Besides, Miles had been fired, what did he know about her or her financial status? Then again, stuff like that tended to get around in a small workspace. It was quite possible he'd heard something before he was terminated.

And Mount Massive? Well, Karsyn had known of it. And she'd heard of the Murkoff Corporation and the dirty money they'd made. This could be the big break she was looking for. She was hesitant for a moment, knowing that investigating something like this could be risky. Then she thought of Noah.

She had to do something.

September 17th, 2013

To:

From:

Subject: Another job opportunity

I'll be there. See you then.

And with that, Karsyn closed her laptop, and went into Noah's room to wake him from his afternoon nap.