"Help!"
Ellie Williams couldn't immediately discern where the cry had come from, but she could feel the horrid sense of panic and fear boiling in her stomach.
"—Mom?"
Infinite darkness swallowed Ellie, and the voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Her mind acted on its own accord and Ellie attempted to move in a direction, any direction to get closer to the voice. But she just found that he was floating in a sea of black, and though she shifted and writhed around, she couldn't find a solid anything to push off of.
Ellie opened her mouth to call out, but her voice came out as nothing more than a muted, strained breath. Her tongue tasted the profound taste of blood. She flailed desperately, wanting to move toward the voice, but she was stuck in the middle of nowhere. And she was out there somewhere, far out of reach.
"Mom, we can't run away forever…they'll find me…they'll find us both...and they'll kill me."
The voice became more ethereal and distant, but the words struck Ellie hard. All this time, she thought everything was fine—that the horror she barely lived through had been vanquished for good. That all of her sins were leagues away from her, unreachable and forgotten. But now, all those grim memories that Ellie had pushed away flooded back to her, and she clutched her head in denial.
"Mom!"
The voice was now clear and high-pitched with worry.
"Are you there?"
With a start, Ellie's eyes shot open, and it took a few more moments for the intensity of the dream to fade. She exhaled loudly, thankful it was just a nightmare. Instead of floating in darkness, she was sitting in her favorite recliner facing the open window of the living room, feeling the unadulterated morning sunlight dappling down on the verdant village teeming with lush trees and wooden houses. Iris wasn't taken—she had simply left to go into the vast corn fields outside the village. There was nothing dangerous about that unless she considered her thirteen-year-old daughter harvesting crops in the fields of the village a precarious circumstance.
I was just dreaming again. Ellie sighed tiredly, the icy remnants of the dream quickly melting away. The sharp crackling of something on her side set her senses back on full alert instantly thinking of the bloodcurdling screaming that threatened to rupture her eardrums back then.
Calm down, Ellie, she told herself though her heart was still thundering in her chest.
She snapped back completely into reality to the third crackle and her attention finally honed on the crackling walkie-talkie emitting her voice.
"Mom, you alright? It's me."
Iris.
Already feeling more at ease, Ellie picked up the walkie-talkie from her lap, and replied, "Sorry, Iris, I was just thinking about you. I was starting to get worried."
"Yeah. Sorry, I didn't call sooner," Iris said. She made a strange noise and went quiet as if distracted by something. In the background, Ellie could hear the distinct commotions of faint rustling sounds. Fast footsteps. A rushed growl and a pained scream.
"Ahhh!"
Ellie's blood ran cold upon hearing this. "Iris! What happened? What happened? Are you okay?"
The distant sound of the childish laughter of children responded to her questions.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Iris's bristling voice pierced through the walkie-talkie. "I told you to knock it off, you're not funny!"
A boy said something back to her that the walkie-talkie could not pick up well enough, but whatever he said led to Iris scoffing derisively into the mic.
"Next time when you sneak up on me, I'll be using my knife instead," Iris shouted out. Her tone lightened when she regarded her mother. "Sorry about that, a couple of boys just jumped out and tried to scare me,"
"You okay?" Ellie couldn't shake the palpable concern out of her voice. "Do you want me to come down there and—"
"No, Mom. I'm fine," Iris said with an air of nonchalance. "It's no big deal. Everyone keeps saying that this is just an initiation here. Scare the crap of the new kid to see how brave they are. It's pretty stupid if you ask me."
"Did they scare you?"
A satisfied giggle came out of the mic. "No, I punched one of them."
Ellie couldn't help but smile at that. She was glad that her daughter was still tough as nails, capable to handle herself in her new settings. "Good."
"You were in such a rush this morning before you left. You seemed very distracted by something." Ellie added. Usually upbeat and chatty in the morning hours, Iris was hurrying and quiet through breakfast. Hardly even making eye contact with her mother, she just threw on some clothes and hastened out of the house soon thereafter. And never once did she utter a single mention of herself heading out into the fields.
Initially, Ellie presumed her distant behavior was just Iris having an off day, but after her dream, she wondered if her odd demeanor and the dream were somehow connected.
"I guess I was. I kinda forgot to tell you that I'll be out in the fields. Sorry."
Ellie smiled abashedly at that. "It's fine, be careful on the way back, and don't forget about that taser and knife you got." She responded, trying to sound as calm and collected as possible.
"I won't, don't worry." Iris chuckled slightly. It was just like her mom to worry about her as if she were a dumb little kid. Hopefully, this will be the last time they'll suddenly uproot again. She wondered if Mom would continue to give her the same advice even when she started living on her own one day. The mental picture amused Iris, and she found that she actually felt better after talking to her mother.
"Iris, I love you." It even surprised Ellie that she said it so emotionally as if she wouldn't get another chance to say so.
"I love you too, Mom," Iris sincerely replied. "I'll bring you back some sweet corn, I promise." Then she hung up.
Ellie sat in her chair for only a few more moments, holding on to the silence on the other end then set the receiver down. She took a deep breath and stood, stretching her legs then crossed the room to the small window. Looking out, Ellie frowned at the morning sky, which was being to be filled up with wispy, dark clouds. What a dreary day, Ellie thought, hoping that tomorrow would be a brighter day. Then her gaze shifted toward the framed portraits that hung next to the window. She leaned back in her chair, the dreams temporarily forgotten as she studied the little girl in the picture.
It was of her and a beaming eight-year-old Iris when they resided in Nebraska. Her, willowy and faintly smiling at the camera, her emerald green eyes and bright auburn hair shining in the Nebraska summer sunlight. Iris intertwined in her arms, her long dark blonde hair gleaming a faint yellow glow, her striking hazel eyes looked out brightly from a delicately beautiful face.
Ellie shook her head and turned from the window. She was letting her imagination get to her again. There was nothing to be afraid of—nothing to worry about. It has been thirteen long years since she fled that abandoned auditorium. She ran through enough states to be far away from Abby and her wrath. And most importantly she had taken Iris with her. There was no way anything could happen again.
She crossed the room to the kitchen, grabbed a glass from the cabinet, and pulled out a pitcher of leftover goat milk that the kind neighbors have been supplying them ever since they moved here. As she began to pour, a stench, smelling somewhere between rancid milk and rotten meat, hit her nose. Ellie almost gagged as she realized the odor was coming from the thick, crimson liquid oozing out of the pitcher into her glass.
Ellie dropped the glass and the pitcher, and the blood completely drained from her face. She blinked hard, and looked back down at the mess on the floor and was surprised to see nothing but the broken glass, filled pitcher, and a copious amount of sweet-smelling goat milk at her feet. No disgusting crimson liquid anywhere in sight.
"What's wrong with me? Pull it together," Ellie scolded herself as she grabbed a handful of paper towels and began to wipe up the mess, taking special precautions with the sharp shards of glass. Setting the pile of wet paper towels on the counter, Ellie picked up the remaining, smaller pieces of glass, then threw them in the trash. Then she reached for the paper towels but stopped short.
Ellie suddenly found it difficult to breathe, as if the air had become thick and solid. The world swirled around her in all kinds of clashing colors that threatened to blind her. She staggered around, trying to remain upright in a fight against the earth's magnetic pull. As she struggled to compose herself, the pile of wet paper towels began to pulsate like a heart, connected to some unseen biological entity. The crimson hue seeped through the paper towels as they began to beat faster and faster. Tributaries of blood began to creep outward, and the same odor from earlier filled the air.
Sheets of red showered down on the pale tiled flooring. It possessed this powerful sense that filled Ellie's entire body with unbearable dread. It smelt something sickening, something horrifying, something too familiar—
Joel. His blood, his scarlet brain matter exploding out.
The smell of blood is all over the place.
His bloodied body sprawled in the center of the wooden floor as the blood-soaked golf club struck him one more time with a resounding blow.
"Help me!" Two distinct voices screamed out to her, one of Joel and one of a young girl.
"Help me!"
Iris's pleading voice shrieked louder than Joel's sickening cries.
"No—!" Ellie managed to croak out as she took an unsteady step forward. All of her strength had completely vanished, leaving her limbs heavy and unresponsive. Cold sweat trickled down the side of her face as she watched the crimson veins continue to spread down the cabinets and across the kitchen floor.
Then came the loud sound of what sounded like pounding on the front door. It echoed throughout the house like a clap of thunder.
They're here. They found us—
No. No.
Ellie froze, the sudden rush of memories hitting her directly in the chest, sending her staggering almost as if it had been a physical blow. She dropped down to her knees, feeling the pinching sensation of the punitive pain that greeted her on the ground. She wanted to pull herself up, but her thoughts were far off, back at that lodge.
Joel's crumpled form, wide brown eyes, and terrified, pallid face filled her mind. She could remember his scream, the panic, and the desperation that had filled her chest, almost bursting.
"Mom! Help me, she's killing me!"
Ellie gasped audibly at the horrid sight of Iris in the same position; her tiny form sprawled on the floor. Bloodied and limp, her hair dyed with burgundy, her pale skin drained to stark white, and her wide pools of hazel pleading for help.
Ellie couldn't move. She was frozen stiff, trapped in memory and fantasy, frantically trying again to figure out some way to save them both.
The words of the dream came back to Ellie instantly, and her stomach dropped at the thought of the horrors of the past inexplicably returning. She mustered enough strength to stumble from the living room, avoiding the continuing invasion of the twisted world in her kitchen. Falling against the couch, Ellie began to regain some semblance of strength, though her legs still felt like they would give way at any moment.
"I've got to get out of here! I've got to get to Iris!" Ellie frantically thought. Lunging forward with nothing else on her mind except her daughter, she staggered across the room to the window, bracing herself to jump out. With each passing second, Ellie's mind spurred into a jumble of disorderly thoughts, each one growing louder than the last in an effort to be heard.
Abby is finally here…her people finally tracked me down… They're gonna kill me, they're gonna take Iris…I have to find her before it's too late. I knew this fucking village was not safe. We need to move again, uproot our lives again and never look back.
But no sooner did she reach a foot towards the window; everything worsened within a matter of a second. The front door burst open and Ellie spun around to face a muscular, blonde-haired woman moving towards her. Her sharp blue eyes burned intensely into hers, every layer of her skin caked in fresh blood. A bloodied machete gripped in her red hand.
Abby.
"Did you think you got away? Did you really think I wouldn't hunt you down to the ends of the Earth? After all, you've done to me? After you robbed my friends of their lives?"
Ellie stepped back, wishing that she had some type of weapon. But her gun was upstairs in the master bedroom, too far to get to at this point. Her prized knife was also in her bedroom, hidden underneath some clothes.
Ellie scanned the room, hoping to spot something—anything—that she could use as a melee weapon. But nothing. The hulking creature that was Abby stalked toward her, she knew that she was in mortal danger.
Despite all the horrors she faced in the past, she never felt as vulnerable and weak as she did now. Abby swung and Ellie couldn't seem to move fast enough, wasn't strong enough, and didn't dodge at the right time.
In a heartbeat, Ellie felt the result of her misstep as a sharp pain ravaged her chest, courtesy of her attacker.
"You know you deserve this, you deserve to lose everything." Abby's voice seemed much farther away now as Ellie fell backward onto her recliner.
Not like this, Ellie regretfully thought. She could feel her life slipping away as her breathing became more laborious and her body temperature dropped sharply. Weakened from the loss of blood, Ellie collapsed onto the floor in a pathetic heap. She kept her eyes on Abby, who simply looked down on her with a wild expression of triumph. The very madwoman she hunted down for ruthlessly murdered Joel before her eyes were now going to snuff out her own life.
"Don't be scared, the world will be set right through your death, Ellie. I'm taking back everything you took from me. I'm taking back someone that doesn't even belong to you and showing her who you really are."
Ellie's mind wandered to Iris—how she would feel finding her body in their house, what horrors Abby was putting her through at this very moment, what Iris would have to face without her. She had avoided telling her the complete story about her birth, which Ellie thought was for the best. But it had come back to consume them. And Iris would find out the truth. But what would she think of her then? Would she hate her?
As Ellie's breaths became more shallow, she prayed that Iris was strong enough to not succumb to Abby's ploy. That she would run as far away from her as soon as she see her. And that she would find allies that would help her defeat the darkness of this cruel world. Sadly, she would have to do it without her.
Taking her one last breath, Ellie's eyes dilated and everything disappeared in a harsh black flash.