Mae couldn't sleep well that night. She tossed and turned with the images of the dead in her mind. She had ended lives. Literally killed people. Mae felt a guilt fester inside of her, almost physically keeping her eyes open. She'd taken that one kid's job. She'd killed Bea's dad. She'd killed all of those cultists. She had. And it terrified her.
Mae could feel some sort of presence, exactly like she had in the mine. She hoped it wasn't Him, but she knew deep down it was. Or perhaps, worse, it was a cultist. But it couldn't be, could it? No, they all died when the mine collapsed. But they lived last time, didn't they? There was no telling what had happened to them, really; she wasn't even conscious when the mine collapsed, so she really had to rely on what Aunt Mallcop said. She could've lied, right? The whole thing could be made up, specifically to trick her.
Mae felt too warm under the covers, and clearly wasn't going to going to sleep anytime soon, so she sat up and grabbed her computer. Mae opened it to see no new messages. Duh. She opened Demontower, thinking that playing it might be enough to tire her to sleep. Halfway through playing, however, she paused and got up to go to the bathroom.
Going up the stairs and not tripping was difficult, but she managed to do it this time. But, as she made her way back to her bed, she noticed something. There was something outside the window. Not right outside the window, but there was definitely someone by a tree outside. But of course, that was just her paranoid imagination, coming up with things to justify her thoughts about the mine. But, it could also be something worse, so Mae pressed her face up against the cool glass to see the figure better.
She squinted her eyes, and, yes, there was certainly something by that tree. But it also definitely ran away before she could see who it was. Well, that settled it, didn't it? This fucking nightmare wasn't even close to over yet. Damn it. Why couldn't all of this just stop? She'd learned her lesson and her morals. Right? Mae had learned her lesson and had made amends. She wanted her and her friends to be left alone. Especially her friends. They hadn't done shit.
She could… she could try to catch up with the guy outside. She could put on her shoes and grab her phone and chase down the guy, end this whole ordeal prematurely. Or, she could put something over the window and lie back down and try to go to sleep. Pretend that this didn't happen. That wouldn't work, of course, but she could try.
She had to, at the very least, try and stop the guy, right? She gathered up as much energy as she could at whatever time it was, and she rushed to don her shoes and grab her phone. Being careful to be quick as well as quiet, she made her way down the stairs and to the door. But, she briefly looked over towards the living room, catching a glimpse of her unconscious father in his chair, the television still playing Garbo and Malloy. But that didn't matter, catching this guy did. So, Mae opened the door, stepped outside, and closed it behind her.
It was pretty humid outside, yet surprisingly cold for spring or summer. She shivered and half-wished she had brought a jacket or a hat. But that wasn't her biggest concern at the moment. She turned and hurried in the direction of the tree the figure had been standing by and the direction the figure had ran. The figure was, of course, not by the tree anymore. Mae was sure they had run in the same direction as the woods and the mine. So, she gave chase.
It didn't take long for Mae to get tired of running. She was tired and out of shape, and that was without mentioning the rocks and bumps in the ground she was consistently almost tripping over. Her phone's flashlight could only illuminate the ground so well. Mae stopped and held her phone up to show what was up ahead. She saw the figure out in the distance.
Mae began to run again, once again filled with adrenaline fueled energy. She might be able to catch the guy if she really exerted herself. So, she pushed herself and tried her hardest to catch the figure somewhere ahead of her. Every stride had Mae almost falling over a rock or hole in the ground, and it didn't help that she was just about in the woods. And despite her best efforts the figure seemed to be getting away.
"Hey!" Mae shouted, panting, "Come back here!"
The figure stopped for a moment and then began to, instead of running, walk away from Mae. Mae, sweating and wheezing, continued her chase of the figure. How had she actually gotten the guy to stop running? Maybe this was a big misunderstanding and Mae was just chasing some random innocent guy.
The figure, however, was undoubtedly leading Mae to the mine. It was always several meters away, despite the fact that Mae was running and the figure was simply walking. Mae was, on the bright side, certainly able to go to sleep now. She was terribly tired and had fur matted down to her body with sweat. She had easily run all the way to the mine, and that was way too far to run that late when that tired. She hoped that the guy would let up at some point soon. And the monkey's paw curled a finger.
The trees let through to a clearing, and before Mae was the mine. It had left a large divot in the ground where it had once taken up space. The entrance was barely recognizable, completely destroyed and covered. And the figure was nowhere to be seen.
Mae stopped and leaned against a tree as she tried to catch her breath. She was exhausted and would wait before trying to find the figure again. That wasn't destined to happen, however. Before she could even react she noticed the shadow approaching from her peripheral vision. The, as she now noticed more details, horned figure raised a club or bat of some sort. The moon light, as well as it lit up the clearing, didn't shine upon the figure who cleverly stood under the trees as he approached, clearly apprehensive about revealing his identity. The figure had raised the bat to the peak of its ascent, and quickly lowered it upon Mae's head, and she went out, unconscious. Once again she had hurt herself and gone unconscious while in the woods, and now she would know what her friends experienced in the mine's elevator. And this time she didn't even have time to think about whether she would live or not.