Chapter Two: Claudette

Claudette died four times. The first was to The Nightmare. The next two were because of The Shape. Finally, The Wraith killed her.

There was a recurring trend amidst all of these: nobody ever helped her. She could see them when she swung from the hook but her fellows never came to her rescue.

Claudette knew enough to struggle the fifth time she got on the hook. She did so twice and was about to try for the third time when she noticed a shape beneath her in the grass. Claudette wondered if this was a hallucination brought on by the pain, but she was actually getting kind of used to that by now so it shouldn't be-

The shape moved, revealing itself to indeed be a person. Warm hands lifted her and she was free for the first time.

"Come on. Follow me." The woman was much older than her, with dishwater blonde hair and pale blue eyes. She was dressed in a pair of dark green scrubs that were covered in blood and dirt and generally looked like they had seen better days.

Claudette bit her lip and nodded. She clutched her shoulder and limped after the stranger. The woman led her behind some sycamore trees and began to work on her shoulder.

Claudette shouldn't have been surprised by the gentle treatment or the fact that it completely healed her. Not after the impossible feat of dying more than once.

"Why did you help me?" she asked, once she gathered her courage. Her voice was still hoarse from screaming and she swallowed, looked down at the Kentucky bluegrass under their feet. The woman's shoes matched her outfit, she noticed.

That was how the stranger was able to take Claudette's hand-she would have shied away if she saw it coming. "I know it's scary, but we need to be there for one another." She gave Claudette's hand a pat. "I've seen a lot here and...before…" Her voice sounded far away for a moment. "Even if it wasn't in my nature to want to help people I would still do it. Otherwise, we'll all lose and nobody...nobody will ever get out of this mess."

Claudette glanced up in time to see the kind smile on the woman's face. She nodded, once, in understanding, but the woman didn't take her hand away and Claudette couldn't find it in her to protest.

It felt...nice, somehow.

They made it out of there and for the first time Claudette lived. She got to run to safety and learn the woman's name.

Sally told her all about the different killers and explained that they were victims in this whole thing too. "They used to be just like us. I knew-I mean, Herman, even he...changed." She didn't say much after that but Claudette could guess what she meant.

From then on, Claudette looked at things differently. She no longer abhorred the monsters that killed them now that she knew they had once been all too human. Of course, she was still afraid of them and what they could do to her but she didn't let the fear stop her anymore.

Claudette's educational background and shy nature helped her now more than ever. Despite the accolades she received for her genius at work, Claudette never liked being the center of attention. She would much rather be out in the field among the plants she so adored. Of course, she enjoyed sharing the joy of botany with others-but only online. Never in person. The consummate wallflower, she would rather melt away into the shadows and observe.

When Claudette thought about it now, she felt privileged. It was as if she had been preparing for this challenge her whole life. Because that's what The Entity was: just another enigma to be unravelled. And if she had to work with other people to do it, then so be it. No, in fact, it was because of them that she was going to try so hard to foil The Entity. Nobody she'd met had the same kind of training. It was up to her to save them all.

The weight on Claudette's shoulders was heavy, but she could bear it. She just hoped she could meet her goal before her time ran out, if it ran out. She still had hope and had to remind herself of that sometimes. If some part of her slipped away every time she died, then she would have to ensure she lived every time until the mystery was solved.

However, Claudette vowed she wouldn't survive at the expense of other people's lives. If Sally was right and The Entity fed on their hope, the very thing that made them human, then it was especially important to keep her humanity The surest way to lose it, the way that most people were whittling it away, was to leave another human being to die. Claudette would not do that, even if it ended up costing her own life.

With her priorities straight, Claudette ventured to learn all she could about The Entity and its killers in subsequent bouts. She told Sally of her discoveries whenever they ended up together. The older woman would always smile kindly and thank her, offer Claudette her medical services. Sally made a passable enough assistant despite her lack of education. More importantly, Sally could put up with Claudette and her long silences and inability to meet Sally's gaze. Not many people understood Claudette and her almost crippling social anxieties, and to find one here, of all places, felt a little too serendipitous. If one believed in such things, that was. It made Claudette nervous, like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Claudette and Sally numbered their murderers and began to put together a dossier on each one and their abilities and characteristics. The Entity didn't seem to mind them pilfering corn husks and fluff and turning it into paper. Nor did it miss a few charcoal burned sticks. Claudette reasoned that it either didn't understand what they were doing or did not view them as a threat. She would take it. Claudette was used to being underestimated.

They were starting to make a name for themselves, though. Escaping dozens and dozens of times in a row did that. Claudette shied away from all the attention and let Sally take the brunt of it. Sally was good with people. It was part of her job in another life and it seemed the trials she'd been through only honed it. The good part of all this was that they were finally getting through to their compatriots.

Sally didn't mind using a cliche. "One for all, and all for one," she would say at campfire gatherings.

Things were going really well.

Until they weren't.

Claudette tried many times to pinpoint when it all started to go wrong. In the end, she decided that The Entity simply wasn't happy with its returns. She imagined it took a lot of energy to put on these elaborate events and with most people living The Entity wasn't really getting anything out of it.

It started small: one round where no chests appeared. Then that became a regular thing. They ran out of healing supplies before they knew it, but they developed new tactics and made do. Claudette told herself that this would pass.

Then Sally disappeared.

It wasn't unusual not to see her for a round or three, but they always ended up together again. Not so, anymore.

Claudette tried her best, tried to rally people like Sally would but she wasn't and would never be Sally. And there were so many new people.

It seemed she and Sally were all but forgotten almost immediately and people started dying in droves again. The chests returned, though, and confirmed Claudette's hypothesis. A small victory but a victory nonetheless.

Claudette had always been a strong person in her own way. Now, her mission kept her occupied, gave her hope. Until, one-hundred and seventy two matches later, she finally saw Sally again.

Claudette could never be sure what gave it away. She didn't have a face, after all. But there was something familiar in the way The Nurse breathed and the way she moved, the way she lovingly put Claudette back up on the hook she'd first taken her down from so long ago.

Claudette died and their notebook vanished into The Entity's maw. Because it knew now. It had gotten to Sally and it knew their plans.