"Say it."

She couldn't bring herself to speak. She wasn't even sure if she had heard him properly because the ringing in her ears was so loud.

Leaves crunched beneath Nick's shoes as he walked closer to Elizabeth. He crouched down right in front of her and forced her to look at him.

"Say it," he repeated.

"I... I d-d-d-d -,"

"D-d-d-d-dumbass," his friend mocked. "Spit it out!"

"I d-deserve this..."

"Yeah, you do deserve this."

A loud groan cut through the air.

"How much longer are you guys gonna drag this out? It's fucking cold out here and she can barely move anymore. Give it rest before you end up killing her."

"So? It's not like anybody would give a shit if we did."

After receiving nothing but a long, hard stare in response, Nick finally listened to his girlfriend. He rolled his eyes and stood up, looking to his friend. "C'mon, Gar. Let's get out of here."

"Fine," he replied before turning back to Elizabeth. "If you tell anybody what happened, we will beat you until you're fucking dead."

"And remember, Lizzy, nobody will miss you if we do."

Elizabeth didn't doubt any of that.

Gar delivered one last, particularly hard blow to her ribs before tossing the large, blood-stained stick in his hands aside.

All three of them walked away, leaving Elizabeth all alone.

She wasn't sure how long she remained on the ground, utterly unable to force herself up past her knees.

Moving hurt.

Breathing hurt.

Everything hurt.

Her body was screaming in protest, telling her to just stay still. Despite that, she didn't stop until she was finally back up on her feet.

Elizabeth wiped the blood and tears on her face off onto her sleeve and slowly started making her way out of the woods.

It was a bit difficult. On top of her knees feeling like they were about to give out beneath her, she also felt rather uncoordinated.

She trudged her way up the hill that led to the street, pausing once she was finally on the concrete again.

The sky was rather cloudy, but Elizabeth still felt like everything was too bright.

It felt like an eternity since she was attempting to pass by the spot she currently stood in, only to get interrupted by Nick and Gar roughly shoving her down the hill and into the woods.

She hated them. She hated Nick, Gar, and Nick's stupid girlfriend, who liked to just stand there and watch as they hurt her.

She hated them...

But she deserved what she got.

The next stop was undoubtedly Elizabeth's least favorite. It was the rundown town that she had grown up in.

She watched as it slowly came into view from the train window in one of the small kitchens. The outline of the relatively short buildings against the cold, gray dawn was almost pathetic in a way.

Jesse and Arlen were still sleeping, so she was the only one awake in the train car.

Elizabeth couldn't sleep.

She never could. Not anymore.

So instead of sleeping, Elizabeth was just sitting there, impatiently and somewhat obnoxiously drumming her fingers against the small tabletop.

She silently wondered to herself how long it would be before she saw that demon again, or before it managed to do something else terrible.

She wondered how Freddy was doing, if he had even woken up yet... if he was really upset that they had left him.

How long would it be before the train actually came to a stop?