Meg Thomas felt herself blink, becoming aware of the scent of damp grass that was prevalent in her nostrils, she groaned to herself and tried to remember what she had been doing last, but the only thing that came to mind was her daily morning run through the woods at the back of her house. Nothing eventful, nor exciting had happened from what she could recall, so how was she here now?
She felt the blades of grass between her fingers and became aware that she was face down on the ground, she concluded that she must have slipped on a loose tree root and had knocked herself out. She let this fact set in, her mother would be worried if she was gone for too long. So with a determined grunt, she got to her feet and felt herself blink again.
This wasn't the woods she had been running in.
There were trees for sure, but they looked old and dried out, sparsely spread out among patches of yellowing grass, the soil a nauseating black, which matched the starless sky stretched out over her head, the moon looked unusually bright and glaring in this strange place. Meg did a double take and craned her neck to get a three sixty view of where she was located, to see if she could make out a familiar landmark.
Nothing, other than a brick wall behind her which stretched out as far as she could see on either side, a series of gothic spikes adorning it's tops and in front of her a derelict building, with a series of jagged broken windows and crimson bricks, this building screamed ominous at her, from it's basic appearance, to the fact it was seemingly moaning due to the faint sounds of the wind rattling it's foundations and loose contents.
"Where the hell am I?" she inquired of herself.
There was no answer, other than the continued moaning of the building in front of her.
Deciding she must have taken a strange detour in her jogging journey, she avoided the building, as if she was a fly being repelled by insect repellent she found herself steering to the brick wall behind her.
Here, she was avoiding attention somehow, it felt like something was here with her, something ominous that she couldn't explain, something that made goosebumps explode all over her skin and make the back of her neck prickle as if eyes were boring into it.
Without saying a word she proceeded onwards.
As she did, more objects entered her line of vision, solid structures that probably once belonged to the building, but were now mere remnants of it, being loose piles of bricks, some with empty window shaped holes still ingrained into them, random piles of wood would crop up. But despite these features, she couldn't find what she was looking for, that being some sort of hole, or crack in this brick wall. A way to get out of this derelict site and back home.
But it was then she stopped as several horrifying realizations hit her all at once.
She couldn't feel the weight of her phone in her pocket, she knew she was in the same clothes she had been when she set off running, her red jumper and grey running pants, her hair was still pigtailed in two plats that highlighted her orange locks, but her phone was missing, as were her earphones and every other possession she had on her when she began her run. Feeling her heartbeat accelerate in those moments she dug her hands into her pockets, which only confirmed this theory.
Another few things didn't add up, that made this place feel... just feel so wrong.
The starless sky, the bright and larger moon, the fact this brick wall didn't seem to have any way past it, or any cracks or holes, while the rest of the structures around here were rotting, crumbling or derelict, and where was the graffiti on these things? Old buildings like these should have been plastered in the stuff, everything about this place felt wrong... it felt... strange.
A distant scream, a woman's scream made her head snap up and her heart rate accelerate, so much so she felt her heartbeat in her ears.
In fact she felt her heartbeat become loud, far too loud from what was natural, it was consuming everything else, she couldn't hear the moaning building anymore, she couldn't hear the wind, or her own breath or footsteps. Just the heartbeat in her ears that was all consuming, a warning was ringing in her head, something was coming, she didn't know what it was, but it was close and getting closer with every passing second.
Panicking now and putting her athleticism to good use, (despite not being tall enough to jump up to the top of the gated part of the brick wall) she used her lower leg strength to place a foot on the wall and then hoist herself up, so much so, her outstretched hand clamped around the cold metal of the gothic spike. Smiling, she locked her other hand around the metal and crouched her legs to propel herself upwards so she could hurl herself over these spikes (despite the risk of potential cuts).
Yet she managed to get a quick glimpse of a misty, barren field at the other side of the fence, before it appeared.
She couldn't describe what it was, like a massive spider's leg, wrinkled, black, creaking as it floated there, right in front of her, the thing suddenly jabbed it's sharp ends it Meg's hands, before plucking them out.
Meg felt herself fall to the ground before the pain hit her, she had landed on her back, her hands had been impaled and were bleeding everywhere, but Meg couldn't register the pain or anything in those moments, because the heartbeat was now overwhelming and a red stain had appeared over her spread eagled form and looking up, that was when Meg screamed to the high heavens above.
It was like something out of a horror film, a monstority with a mashed up moldy, brown face, two glowing silts of eyes and it was wearing the torn rags that vaguely resembled clothes someone down south would wear. What was more concerning however was the rearing chainsaw the thing was holding which the thing held up to the black sky, before the whirring metal was brought down on Meg's flesh.
It tore through her clothes and skin, as blood and pain exploded from out of her, she was screaming as shrill as she had ever done in her life, but she couldn't even hear herself over the heartbeat in her ears. Her body felt like it was on fire, as the thing suddenly hoisted her up on it's shoulder, the jolting movements causing Meg further agony, as she felt endless torrents of blood pour from her body and onto the thing's yellowish shoulder, she could only taste the coppery blood all around her and nothing else, no smells, no foul rotting flesh like she expected, just the blood and the horrid lumpy texture of this thing's shoulder and loose black hairs.
She clamped her eyes shut.
"God, let it end, let it end, let it..."
The thing stopped moving, Meg only had a second to breathe before she felt the thing throw it off her shoulder and another agonsing blow hit her shoulder, she opened her teary eyes to see a hook was sitting right through it. She came to the realisation she was dangling up off the ground, on a meathook, bleeding all over the place. Her screams were deafening, the pain was unbearable, she wanted to thrash around and twitch on this hook but she knew that would only bring further agony.
The chainsaw wielding monster took one good look at her before it turned on it's heel and limped off into the distance, carrying the now bloodstained chainsaw in one hand and a threatening sledgehammer in the other, as it went Meg felt the heartbeat fade out, the red stain was gone and when the thing was completely gone, Meg was once again left in the creepy night, unable to move and in agony, dangling from this hook.
She didn't know when she stopped screaming, but she had done, the pain was still awful, worse than anything she had felt in her life, a few broken bones from athletics was nothing compared to being stabbed through the hands, sliced up by a chainsaw, then impaled on a meathook, she looked down at her body and almost vomited... how the hell was she still alive? By the amount of blood she had already lost, she should have been dead already.
But despite the shock, the light head and the bile already rising in her throat, she was better off than she thought she'd be, so trying to reign in her pain and reduce it to a painful murmuring, she did the only thing she could do at this moment.
"Help!" she croaked.
Of course, nothing was going to reply.
She was helpless here, she scanned her surroundings to see some sort of generator was in the distance, along with another one of the meathooks, which looked near enough identical to the one she had been placed on earlier, with nothing to see, she bowed her head to the ground and was forced to gaze at her mutilated body, as blood dripped off from her skin and clothes and onto the ground below her.
"I've been mugged, dragged here and murdered" Meg thought to herself "But what the hell is this? Some sort of sick murder show for the dark web or something? What's with the costumes? Were they customers? Am I just dreaming? Is Mum worried? What the hell was that thing earlier...?"
Thinking of that thing, she heard a familiar cracking and looked up again to see, that (once again, right in front of her) black limbs were slowly developing, the same black limbs that had stopped her from climbing over the wall. Yet as she groaned to herself, she heard (and saw) movement in the distance, by the generator she could just about make out two people crouched by the thing.
"HEY!" She exclaimed "HELP!"
They didn't move, nor did they appear to hear her.
"PLEASE, HELP ME DOWN FROM HERE!" She begged.
They had to have heard her now, she even saw one of the men turn in her direction, but he turned back to the generator as if she wasn't a concern.
"WHAT ARE YOU SICK BASTARDS DOING TO ME! WHAT IS THIS!? Meg exclaimed angrily, (in spite of her terror and pain) she felt her old temper resurface in those moments, whether they were in on this or not didn't matter in those moments. Why couldn't they at least help her down? What the hell was wrong with them!?
"HEY JUST TELL ME...!"
Before she could finish the sentence the heartbeat was back, groaning to herself, as the black limbs continued to grow in her line of vision, she soon became aware of another monster looming in front of her. It wore a mask, but seemed to have almost scaly, yellowish skin, with a dozen metal bolts and other bits and bobs protruding from it's shoulders, Meg should have been terrified of this creature, or whatever it was... but the same gut feeling she had earlier was telling her, this thing wasn't a threat. Not while she was already hooked up here, if she was down on the ground it would be another story, but this thing just stood there and watched her for a good ten seconds.
Still angry with those men and chucked into this surreall situation, Meg felt herself get frustrated with the thing as well.
"Just leave me alone!" she snapped at the monster.
In turn, it bent over and Meg heard a metallic chinking, turning her head in it's direction, she saw the thing had placed a deadly looking bear trap in the grass below her.
"They're not coming to get me, you're wasting your time" Meg felt herself moan at the thing.
It didn't seem to acknowledge her at all, but merely continued to watch her as those limbs grew larger in her vision, she wasn't worried about the masked trap laying observer, but whatever these black limbs were forming right by her, they felt more like the real threat and something that could affect her.
BING.
A sudden loud sound punctated through the heartbeat, the generator in the distance had lit up, casting light over herself and the monster, Meg very quickly saw the two men by the generator, flee to the left, the monster abandoned her completely and went to inspect the generator, as Meg watched it form fade slowly away...
"...it's okay... i've got you..." came a sudden hushed voice to her left, "just... ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Meg (like many scenarios in the past 5 minutes) had to process too much all in one go, firstly the fact that she had a saviour and secondly the fact her saviour (with a crushing clamp and splatter of flesh) had walked straight into the bear trap. His roar of pain drew the heartbeat back towards her, the trapper (as Meg was now going to call him) was back before the man could stop screaming, he lifted his sharp weapon and before long Meg (by craning her head to the left) could see the man suffering the same fate she had done minutes beforehand, the screams, the blood... the thing hoisting the man up on his shoulder before dumping him on the hook opposite her own.
She managed to get a look at his struggling form on the hook, as the trapper laid another well concealed trap in the grass below the man, he had to be in his early twenties like herself, wearing a bland white work shirt with a tie and plain black trousers and shoes. With a head of dark, spiky hair and distinctive black rimmed glasses, he had the look of a geek, but one so bland Meg wouldn't bother looking twice at. But seeing as he had tried to save her unlike everyone else here, it made him the number one person in Meg's books right now.
Deciding not to linger for too long, the trapper departed leaving the struggling man dangling there, Meg could now barely see him, because the black limbs were covering his form, they were like the legs of a spider magnified by a thousand. No one was coming to save her now that her one saviour was in peril like herself, these limbs had nearly formed, despite the pain she was in. She had to (if she could manage it) get herself off this hook.
She placed her hands on the hook above her and ignoring the shooting pain that shot through her entire body she pushed her body forwards using all the force she had in her body. The sensation of the hook sliding through her muscles was a pain that nearly made her scream again, but she knew screaming and shouting would draw those things back. So gritting her teeth she swung her leg forwards and pushed harder, willing for her body to move, before these black limbs could completely form and then who knew what would happen...
There was a burst of blood, more agony but a sudden gust through the air and a sharp collision with the floor, she came to realization she had freed herself.
"Yes!" she grunted to herself, despite her aching body she lifted herself to her feet and a made a beeline for the man on the hook opposite of her own, (careful to go around the bear trap) she found herself looking up at him, he was grimacing in pain and looking blankly at the ground, seemingly not noticing anything else around him.
..."it's okay... i've got you..." Meg said, echoing his exact words, these words made the man blink and snap out of his stupor as his eyes connected with his own.
"Oh... you got out... wow..." he gasped, clearly going through a world of pain himself and trying not to scream like Meg was "I... saw you get caught and I..."
"Have you just woken up here too?" Meg had to ask of him.
The man nodded.
"Well then let's you get you down and chat somewhere those things can't find us" Meg muttered, she grabbed the man's waist and used her remaining strength to try and pry him forward. But he gasped in pain and seemed to resist this movement.
"Dude, work with me, I can't drag your heavy ass of this alone!" Meg snapped up at him "Move yourself forward as I do... in three... two... one..."
On cue Meg pulled and the man (despite his open gasps of pain) pushed himself forward, the combined force sent him flying off the hook and bang into Meg herself, who lost her footing and fell to the ground once again, with this man falling directly on top of her, in which they found themselves nose on nose on the ground.
"I'm Dwight by the way" the man said, being in extreme proximity to him, Meg could conclude he was fairly ok-looking and Meg knew by the way he was staring at her, he thought the same of her.
Sudden murder and now sudden romance? This day just got stranger and stranger, what she meant to feel? Anger at the others for leaving her? Fear of those monsters... affection for this nerdy underdog that had attempted to rescue her?
Confused as Dwight must have been, Meg could only say one thing.
"I'm Meg by the way" she said echoing him once again, she had a feeling this would be a hobby of her's from now on.
Dwight offered her a nervous, pained looking smile yet he didn't move from his position on top of her and Meg strangely didn't want him too, corny as it sounded she enjoyed being in the partial embrace of someone who had attempted to do good in this sudden hellhole she had found herself within. Get chainsawed by a monster? That happened, stuck to a hook? That happened. Sudden kissing with a complete stranger in the middle of a derelict building site? at the rate things were going Meg wouldn't be surprised, she was just going to roll with it from now, she had either taken something, was dreaming or God knows what else was going on. Too many questions and too little time to answer them all or get her head around them.
Meg was getting rather comfortable under him, she could feel his body warmth on her, the blood and sweat that dripped from this clothes, each sharp inhale and movement of his eyes or twitch of his lips.
Without saying a word, he clamped his eyes shut and lent down for a kiss and Meg found herself reciprocating, locking lips with a complete stranger... of all the kisses she had in her life she knew this guy was inexperienced in the matter. But that didn't bother her, after being sliced open, and stuck up on a hook and abandoned a comforting kiss with a stranger was a welcome relief, Meg was sure Dwight felt the same way.
They broke apart after what seemed like only a couple of seconds and both nervously cranked open their eyes to look at one another, silently Meg took her bloodied hands and ran them across Dwight's face, as if this was already becoming a thing with them, he echoed her action almost instantly, as their fingers trailed through each other's hairs.
"You going to be copying me from now on?" Meg mused.
"You're one to speak" Dwight replied with a genuine smile, both of their breaths seemed to get deeper and quicker in those moments and Meg could feel her natural heartbeat increasing.
As they smiled at each other like idiots, Meg had to break the ice, she had kissed a random stranger (or been kissed) by him.
"Dwight, you're real aren't you?"
Dwight frowned.
"Yeah, are you?"
"I think so" Meg muttered "I erm... I'm not dreaming am I?"
"I think I am, I've never got to kiss a girl... like you" Dwight added quickly, going red in the face.
"So... we're real then" Meg concluded.
"I...well...somehow you feel more real that just a wet dream" Dwight said, as Meg had to chuckle slightly at this, but she could feel Dwight, she could feel her body aching, this was too crazy to be true, both of them thought that. That's why they had both kissed one another, if they were in a crazy make believe world, why not go all the way? What were the consequences anyway? But now as she came to the slow realisation that Dwight was indeed real, so was everything else...
"Dwight..." Meg began.
"...This... this is real" Dwight finished for her "I erm... listen about that... I... I thought was dreaming too..."
"Yeah I..." Meg began, now this wasn't make believe, it was going to get awkward, but pushing that aside that had to address the first issue here.
"So...how did we get here?" Dwight inquired.
"So...how are we still alive, lying here like bacon strips for those things?" Meg inquired, "Come on, up you get Dwighty boy, no wet dream for you this time I'm afraid".
"No. I got the real deal, somehow" Dwight muttered, he looked strangely lost as he got to his feet and offered Meg a hand so she was able to pull herself up.
"You got it because well..." Meg began "Just thanks for helping me back there Dwight"
"You had to save me!" Dwight exclaimed "I'm a failure as a white knight, aren't I?"
"You were the only white knight there Dwight, I saw some others by that generator over there" Meg explained, pointing at the thing "Rather than help me, they just..."
She stopped there, the heartbeat sprung up again, Dwight had already taken her hand and was leading her behind a nearby brick pillar.
"You can hear it too?" Dwight whispered, as they crouched behind the pillar and held their breaths, going through all that agony again was something the pair of them would rather avoid.
"Yes" Meg whispered, as she dared peer past the bricks, to see that the chainsaw wielding maniac had returned, Meg could hear her heartbeat deafen everything else and felt herself hyperventilating slowly, as her thoughts got stuck on a sick replay, being caught by that thing all over again, the hook, the pain, the blood...
She couldn't hear him, but Dwight made another bold move and locked his own sweaty hand around her own, she looked back over at him and (on impulse) closed the distance between them, she applied the pressure back to his hand and shut her eyes, not daring to move, hardly daring to breathe, praying to whatever God was listening that the chainsaw monster wouldn't come and check behind this pillar, she could feel Dwight stiffen next to her, he hardly seemed to shake, but seemed more like a sweater. His hand was drenched with the stuff, so much so, Meg felt like she was holding onto a melting waxwork, despite the tang of blood still on her tongue she could sniff out the stench of his body odour from here, he stunk. But it was a comforting smell in this mad scenario, she couldn't hear a thing and couldn't taste anything but blood on her tongue, yet his touch and smell were the only thing keeping her grounded at this time, eventually (after what seemed like an eternity) the heartbeat faded and Meg heard Dwight breathe in relief, as she slid her hand away from his own.
"It's gone" she muttered the obvious.
Dwight nodded.
"So... how long have you been here?" he inquired "Where were you...?"
"On my morning run, I... I don't remember much, I was in the woods and then... I woke up here" Meg muttered scrunching up her face to try and recall more details, there had to be something missing from her recollection, but she knew there had to be something. It was prickling at her mind as she looked at Dwight, she knew he was in the exact same position as her.
"Yeah, I was on a work do" Dwight uttered "Some team building exercise, we trekked to this cabin in the woods and my boss pulled out some moonshine and offered me a sip... I don't remember much after that... then I woke up here" the bespectacled man informed the athlete.
"So we're both in this shit together, that's all we know so far" Meg said, as she did a crow landed next to them and began to caw rather loudly.
"Shoo!" Dwight hissed, waving his hands at the thing.
But like everything here, the crow was fundamentally wrong in nature and rather than get frightened and flee like any normal crow would, this thing continued to caw more loudly, like some sort of alarm that would draw those killers back to them.
Meg grasped Dwight's forearm and pulled him to his feet, he spluttered something, but Meg was already dragging him through a tall patch of grass, leaving the crow behind.
"Why didn't it...?" Dwight began.
"Nothing here is right" Meg hissed back at him "Haven't you noticed? The hooks hanging everywhere, the crow just then, what's with those generators simply lying around? and I've got nothing on me, my phone or headphones... and why isn't that building covered in graffiti?"
"I didn't even notice that" Dwight squeaked "and what about us? We should be dead by now, but the blood on your clothes has already dried and cracked".
Meg had (for some reason) completely forgotten her wounds before Dwight had mentioned them, looking down to her shirt, she saw he was right indeed, the blood no longer poured out of her like oil, there was a terrible red slash on her skin and dried blood coated every fibre of fabric on the attire she was currently wearing, but that was it, dry blood. It wasn't wet nor was it fresh, cautiously she poked a finger at her wound to discover it still hurt like hell when pressure was applied and running and moving was painful as well, but it was like a dull ache, not something that should have paralysed her or made her die of blood loss like it naturally would have done.
"We're on drugs" Dwight concluded (after copying Meg and hissing in pain at his own dried wounds) "We've been drugged up and recorded for some... some sick internet show on the dark web or something"
"It explains how we're numb to the pain" Meg mumbled "But Dwight...there's... well... everything..."
"I don't want to hear anything else, not now" Dwight said, his eyes wide and fearful, he was looking at a spot just past Meg's head as another scream rang out from the distance.
"We need to find other people..." Meg began, noting the scream.
"A woman's just been hooked, other side of the building, can't you see her outline?" Dwight suddenly said, pointing in the direction of his gaze.
Meg squinted her gaze and shook her head, she couldn't see anything.
"What?" Dwight inquired, with a sad, little disbelieving smile "Meg, you can hear the heartbeat, can't you see the other person that's been hooked? I can see it clearly, just look that way..."
"I am and I can't see shit!" Meg snapped "Now keep your voice down..."
"But I... I can see it, the killer's over there... or one of them" Dwight shuddered, before he suddenly stopped and lent against a tree, he didn't hyperventilate, but this time he was shaking terribly as well as sweating so badly, Meg could already see the wet patches forming on his back and under his armpits, in fact beads of the stuff actually fell from his forehead as he turned to face the ground, his nose so slippery that his glasses simply slid off them and clanked on the soft earth.
"Dwight" Meg called out, seeing him freeze up like this wasn't a great sign for her, the distant PING of another generator being powered, did little to lift her spirits.
"I'm dreaming" Dwight uttered, sounding lost "I've... I've been drugged up or... or..."
"Dwight"
"I'm hallucinating or..."
"Dwight!"
"...I..." he smiled and laughed hysterically "I don't get stuck in traps, put on meat-hooks, or kiss girls or see people through walls...I... this isn't real..."
"Dwight look at me!" Meg pleaded.
"You're not real" Dwight said, refusing to look at her as more than sweat began to roll down his cheeks.
"Come on... we can't... we can't stay here..." Meg began with a false smile.
"I... I'm going to die... I'm...!" Dwight began to sob.
"No, no you're not!" Meg was now nearly screaming at him, not really caring about the tone of her voice, but his crying made tears well in her own eyes.
"Dwight please stop, you're scaring me!" she wept, as she felt her vision blur and hot tears fall down her cheeks.
"I... don't want to die, God someone... someone... help..." Dwight trailed off, simply falling to the ground on the spot and weeping into his hands, Meg simply watched him, weeping herself. It was too much for the pair of them to take in, too much to think about, too many questions, what were they supposed to do? Why could Dwight see this and she couldn't? She wanted to stop and try and chat things over to try and make sense of everything, but she couldn't because they had stalled in one place for too long and another crow landed at her feet and began to caw again.
"Tell it to STOP!" Dwight wailed into his hands.
"I can't" Meg muttered.
"MAKE IT STOP!" Dwight roared this time, as the heartbeat flared up in their ears again, Dwight heard this and wept harder, while Meg felt herself react automatically, she scooped up Dwight's glasses on the ground and then grabbed the nerdy man by his sweaty arm and hauled him to his feet and together they ran, Dwight half heartily and still weeping, (with a slight limp due to bear trap he found himself within earlier) but he kept on his feet and ran after Meg, quickly ducking behind a large stone and next to a strange coloured hatch (that Meg tried to open but had no success with) so disregarding the hatch, she waited until the heartbeat faded and she turned to face a now dry eyed Dwight.
"I... I'm scared" was all he muttered pathetically.
She wanted to berate him there and then, but found that she couldn't because she was close to collapse as well.
She simply patted his shoulder and said "Me too, Dwight, me too".
"What now?" he muttered, as Meg handed him his glasses back, thrusting them back onto his nose, he sniffed and looked blankly at a blade of tall yellow grass next to him.
"Let's just go with it, not much else we can do until we're somewhere safe" Meg said "Dwight, we can use your... ability. Is that woman still on the hook?"
Dwight quickly turned his head and then shook his head.
"Can't see anything" he mumbled "But that's how I found you, I saw your outline on the hook as well and..." he paused there, he couldn't think of anything else to say in those moments.
"We've got to keep moving" was all Meg said "That crow keeps coming along when we stop in one place for too long and draws those things right too us, let's keep to the brick wall and find a way out of here, okay?"
Dwight nodded.
"Are you okay now?" she asked gently of him.
"No" he admitted honestly "But I'm glad you're here with me at least"
"You said I wasn't real a minute ago" Meg reminded him.
"Please be" was all Dwight replied.
"Same applies to you" Meg retorted, "Now let's move..."
Herself and Dwight remained silent as they clung to the wall and continued to move onwards through the never-ending night, Dwight suggested trying to climb over the walls, but Meg had informed him she had already tried that and showed him the marks on her hand as proof of the story that the other "thing" had appeared and prevented that option of escape. Meg wondered even if they did find a way out the other thing would prevent her escape again, she didn't want to think about that and she could tell by the way Dwight fell silent, he didn't want too either.
Occasionally there would be a distant PING of a generator, or the heartbeat would flare up again and both Meg and Dwight froze in place, stopped their breathing and waited for the killer to pass, steering clear of generators, the building in the middle of this site and even strange totems that were dotted around the place. The crystal white skulls, standing out sharply amidst the dark night and glum setting around them, but despite the urge to go and fiddle with the generators they saw, or the totems, Dwight and Meg steered clear.
"It feels like...we should be helping set up those generators or something" Dwight finally whispered, after they passed their third one.
"Too risky, seems like the killers are drawn to those things" Meg replied.
There were the hooks as well, a much more common sight than the generators, totems or people for the time being, more meat-hooks that Meg would have ever liked to see in a place like this. Only twice during their trek did Dwight see other outlines on the hooks, before they were quickly removed his line of sight, so they must have been saved by someone else, this area seemed vast enough to hide quite a few people and killers. Also dotted around were numerous ruby red lockers, that seemingly served no purpose other than for Meg and Dwight to hide in, when the trapper approached them once again, they had dived inside of one (and trying to ignore the stench of sweat and close proximity to one another) and held their breaths once again, the heartbeat faded and the pair of them untangled themselves from the web of limbs they had managed to get themselves tangled in, the creak of the locker doors opening was a bit too loud for Dwight's liking, as he winced openly at it.
"If they find us in one of those lockers, we're done for" Dwight whimpered "Let's just keep behind trees and rocks for now"
Meg nodded, only half listening, her legs were beginning to ache, her limbs going stiff because it had felt like herself and Dwight had been walking for hours. Out of all the pains she had suffered tonight, she could scarcely imagine herself getting tired and moaning about stiff limbs, but that's what she felt like complaining about. She looked down at the giant slash that tore from her collarbone down to her waist, the red line surrounded by cracked dry blood, she had gigantic wound, caused by the rusty blades of a chainsaw and she (an athlete) was considering moaning about being tired?
She laughed openly to herself, causing Dwight to look at her oddly.
"Are you okay, Meg?" Dwight inquired, casting her a funny look.
"Fine... just..." she didn't know what to say to describe what she was thinking, so she simply settled with "Just thought of something funny".
"What?"
"Doesn't matter"
DING!
A sound louder than anything else before it, Dwight's eyes snapped upwards, stopping to a point just left of Meg's head, something he saw that Meg couldn't caused his face to brighten considerably.
"A door panel! It's not far from here!" he mused "I'm sure of it Meg, I just got this feeling, follow me...!"
His sudden breathless excitement was another thing to take in, as he grabbed Meg's hand and ran forward, she realised that she was tired as an athlete and Dwight's sweating was because (quite frankly) he was very unfit. Several times on their trek he sounded out of breath and the perspiration made his clothes cling to his body as if he had just dove into a pool with all his current work gear on. Yet despite his exhausted state he was in whatever he had just seen, was making him run faster than he probably had done in a while, they seemed to come close to this "door panel" when Dwight stopped as another scream rang out.
"NO!" Came a man's bellow.
They ducked behind a nearby tree, but peered out so they could see everything.
A woman had obtained a freak-ish looking knife, a black, veiny sort of thing that seemed to pulsate with the night, she was covered in blood, yet the knife wasn't, Dwight whispered next to her "the knife absorbed the blood" a strange truth that Meg seemed to know as well, where the blood had come from? The answer was at the woman's feet, a man and a woman lay sliced open at her feet, their heads rolled off their bodies and the limbs lying in separate puddles of the crimson liquid.
Behind her, a large door had been opened, but she didn't seem interested in going through it to what lay beyond, unlike the man who had bellowed, who was clinging to the side of it, a look of disbelief and shock on his face.
"GLORIA! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" He screamed for the night to hear.
"You know what I did Martin" the woman muttered, her voice cold and high "Our group is finished, I don't care anymore"
"NO! YOU'RE BETTER THAN THIS...!" Martin yelled.
"It's too late" was all the woman said "Here comes the entity".
The horrible, spidery black legs that Meg had seen earlier manifested now above the bodies of the slain man and woman, Meg tried to control her racing heart and the chill that ran up her spine seeing that thing (the entity) descend from the black heavens, all talons and sharp claws and above those long, black, creaking legs... a dark mass, something she couldn't identify, all she knew is that the entity scooped up the bodies of the truly dead people here and carried them upwards until both entity and bodies vanished into the black sky.
"Ava... Jasper..." Martin trembled.
"Suffering forever, the entity will feed on their souls for eternity" Gloria muttered.
"Why!?" Martin now wept, "Gloria, why...!?"
"Because I didn't want the same fate, we've spoken about this countless times Martin!" the woman called Gloria screeched "The same conversations, the same people! For years and years we've been doing this, can't you see!? The journal is right! We either join the entity or end up like Ava and Jasper. I made my choice, the entity requires sacrifice, it requires blood and I paid my price".
She smiled there and lay herself on the ground, Martin trembled but didn't move, suddenly the entity had returned and thrust one of it's black legs between the woman's legs, she screamed in... in wasn't pain but pleasure, a smile forming on her face as savila dripped from her lips as she moaned in pleasure, as more of the entity's creaking legs jammed into parts of her body.
"I choose to live" Gloria groaned "No more running, no more hiding,no more pain, no more fake deaths, no more misery... Martin... you can join me"
"and kill innocent people, I'd never do that!" Martin sobbed.
" you'll break eventually, everyone does, this is just my point" Gloria said "I... I tried to be good for so long... but I don't care anymore. I just can't, Goodbye Martin"
and with that she laid her head back and went limp, as she too was lifted to nothingness.
Dwight and Meg didn't say a word, they merely crept up to the door and to the man named Martin who was weeping on the ground, he must have heard one of them, as he suddenly looked up. He was an African american man, large in size and probably in his peak state, wearing clothes that most likely belonged to a biker, yet here, this man wept like a child.
"Who are you? What do you want, did you...?" Martin began.
"Yes, what was all that!?" Meg inquired instantly "and you and that other guy, you were at that generator earlier weren't you? Why'd you leave me? What the hell is...!?"
Martin gasped, he sprung to his feet and wiped away a few of his tears, gazing at Meg and then Dwight in complete disbelief.
"Y-you don't know what's going on here?" he asked open mouthed.
"Well... no" Meg muttered impatiently "Me and Dwight here only woke up a few hours ago..."
"Oh... oh for course" Martin muttered "The entity knew what Gloria was planning, it always does, that's why new people were brought here, easy pickings for her, but she got Ava and Jasper instead... you're lucky, or unlucky depending on how you see it".
"See what!?" Meg thundered, fed up of the half answers "Jesus, we're both petrified, we just saw... God knows what in front of us, just tell us what's going on!"
Martin sighed.
"No. I'm not doing this again" he groaned "I'm done, like Gloria, I'm just done, this is the eighth time I've done this and the eight time everyone other than me has died, but listen to these..."
He chucked a large sack at Meg's feet, curiously she picked it up, it was heavy and seemed like it was full with books, she dropped it to the ground again after assessing it's weight.
"I've been in this hell for 11 years roughly and that's everything I found in all that time" Martin muttered "Read it, especially Baker's journal, it will explain everything you need to know, I can't".
"Why not!?"
A new voice, cool, calm yet there was a hint of aggression in it, as the trio of them turned to see two newcomers slowly creeping up on them, one of them was a plain looking man in a heavy green jacket, with wild black hairs and similar coloured eyes, whereas the second was a woman around Meg's height in a slick red jacket and with glasses similar to Dwight's, with braided hair and dark skin, the woman wore a look of anxiety that was also similar to Dwight's own.
"So you're the other two?" Martin said, surveying them both "That's why there were two killers, there was eight of us in that trial, for every four of us, there's one of them"
"How many of these killers are there?" the man asked.
"More than you want to know, all with their own abilities, but you have them too" Martin said "The entity likes to play games you see, it will feed off your hope, feed off your soul, you... you four have no idea what hell awaits you, none at all and I don't want to tell you, I don't want you to find out... my only bit of advice I can give you is to hope, hang onto hope for as long as you can bear this place, that's all you have to keep yourself from going insane".
"How encouraging" Meg snapped.
Martin turned to her and smiled.
"You're just like me, when I first woke up here" he mused "Sarsatic, confident..." he laughed there "You'll go far girl, don't worry about that, looking at you all, it makes me want to go back, so badly..."
"You said you've been here 11 years?" Dwight picked up on, suddenly speaking up "How? Why haven't you tried to call for help? Or signalled the police or anything? Surely there must be search parties around...?"
Martin laughed.
"You... you're like infants!" he guffawed "None of you... none of you have a clue, do you?"
"If you keep answering us with questions and half answers then no, we don't" Meg snapped, her eyes then flickered through the doorway to see the misty field beyond that "This is the way out, right? You can tell us that much"
"Yeah, that's the way, you'll get yourself to a campfire, but you won't have escaped, no matter what the entity tries to show you" Martin muttered.
He then pulled out a dagger from (seemingly nowhere) it was the same one the woman earlier had been holding, instantly the four newcomers leapt backwards in alarm, it was clear to Meg the other two newcomers had also seen what had occured right by this door, yet the Martin held the dagger to his throat rather than himself.
"The entity gives us this dagger when it knows it's our time" Martin explained "Whether you choose to sacrifice your friends and become a killer like it desires, or whether you chose to turn the knife on yourself and suffer for enertity, or so the journal claims" Martin said "Is the choice you'll eventually have to make, I'd swore I'd never kill an innocent and after all these years, it's the only promise I'm able to keep. If I carry on... I'll start thinking like Gloria... temptation will creep in. I can't allow that".
"I'm sorry for your friends" the man with the wild hair said, approaching him slowly, Meg knew he was going to try and stop him and grab the dagger himself "That Gloria woman... whatever drove her to do that... to murder her friends..."
"Her lovers, we all were" Martin said simply "The fun times we would have..."
The man with the wild hair paused in his tracks, Martin had chosen simple words, but impactful words, Meg had to clear wax out of her ears, had she heard that right?
"I'm sorry but..." the dark-skinned woman squeaked in a quiet voice, speaking up for the first time "Did you...?"
"Yes, when you're with a group for that long you'll either end up killing or fucking each other" Martin said plainly "When there's no hope, nowhere else to go, it's the only pleasure. The little dignified people you think you all are, those values will start to fade. The way the entity wants them too, you'll be savages before long, driven mad, because the entity will sponge out your hope, morales and everything you stand for, until you're just machines. Either looking for any sort of comfort and blindly surviving onwards, until grief and sorrow overwhelm you like it has done to me and you choose to end it. Or the feral hatred and anger will lead you to be a killer, or a killer's victim..."
"If you can say all this, you're aware of what you are" the man muttered, taking more steps forward "You can't be as insane as you think..."
"That's what scares me the most" Martin mumbled "After all this time, after all these years, I still have my mind, but have done... done the most appalling or shameful things, I'm... I'm sorry for you. All four of you, truly I am. But I can't do this again, I must take my leave".
"DON'T!" The man bellowed, suddenly lunging forward.
He was too late, Martin had already sliced his own neck open before the man could reach him, he tumbled backwards, but rather than choke or retch, or grovel with pain, he only smiled at the asthioned pack of four above him, the woman had moaned in pleasure after being impaled and now this? Something was definitely wrong here.
"You'll get used to the pain and the deaths eventually" Martin gasped, through a mouthful of blood "but... just remember..."
"Death, is not an escape"
and with that he choked his last and went still.
The entity came to collect Martin and before long he was gone, leaving four blood flecked strangers facing one another, pondering on his words, as they did Meg looked at Dwight, that innocent kiss the pair of them had shared, now seemed a lot more sinister, Dwight's little breakdown, her fury at Martin and the other man, (Jasper) for leaving her on the hook. Were they the early signs of what Martin had warned them about? If he had lasted 11 years and 8 groups (that's if he was being honest) than how on earth did they expect to last? With no knowledge and being traumatized by just about everything they had seen today, what hope did they have?
Clinging onto hope, how could they take that advice, when Martin's last words still rang inside Meg's head.
Death, is not an escape.
"That heartbeat" the man with the wild hairs suddenly said, to break through the silence that had engulfed them, sure enough the heartbeat was becoming deafening and Meg could see the trapper and the chainsaw wielding killer, coming towards the exit door.
"So, you two woke up here today as well?" Meg quickly asked of the pair of them.
"Yeah" the man said "It's Jake and that's Claudette" he said pointing at the woman, who shyly waved back at Meg "and you two?"
"Meg and Dwight" Meg answered for him "Let's just get to this campfire Martin was on about and out of here, we have a lot to talk about later I'm sure".
Jake nodded, he seemed capable and calm and had a way of soothing Meg's frayed nerves, she could tell by the way a nervous looking Claudette hovered near him, that he had the same effect on her and with her eyes constantly flickering back towards the approaching killers, Meg knew she was probably a nervous wreck similar to Dwight, as they prepared to run into the misty field, Meg noticed her bespectacled companion was missing, she turned around to see he was bent over something.
"Dwight, what are you doing, come on!" Meg exclaimed.
Coated in sweat and shaking, Dwight panted and limped towards Meg, the killers hot on his heel, when he reached her she grasped his hand and pulled him forward, the four of them ran onwards, through the wispy tendrils of the mist and casting a glance back behind her, she could see the trapper and the chainsaw monster had pursued them and suddenly stopped, as if some barrier was preventing them from moving out onto the plains of this field. Despite Martin's words, Meg certainly felt free, doing as she loved... blindly running. The grass was greener and taller here, the moon's bright light cast down upon her, in a better mood now she was away from those things, she looked back at Dwight.
"What on earth were you doing back there?" she asked "They almost got you"
"Getting this" Dwight said, pointing at the bag Martin had once owned "He said it had answers, so I had to grab it"
"Smart cookie, I completely forgot about that" Meg muttered, cursing her own stupidity in those moments "You know, maybe I will keep you around now and not kill you like I was planning".
"Funny I was planning the same thing" Dwight said and in spite of everything, he found it in him to smile back at Meg.
"Copycat" she teased.
"Copy...err" Dwight replied lamely.
"You need to work on your banter" Jake informed the out of breath Dwight.
"I'm sure they'll be plenty of time for that, if what that Martin said was true" Claudette muttered.
Meg looked at the other three people she found herself with... 11 years seemed like an insane amount of time, but she heeded Martin's advice, despite the seemingly impossible odds she was going to hold onto hope.
Because with these three, she had a good feeling she'd be able to do that.