Chapter Two

"Claire!"

As the door burst open, in rushed Leo and Sean, both with worried looks on their faces. They found her huddled in a corner, dressed only in her towel, her hair still soaking wet. The horrified expression was still in her eyes, as she stared at the bathtub, unmoving. It was as though she didn't even see Leo and Sean come in. She just stared.

As Leo helped her up, that was when she found her voice again. "Keith," she said. "Where's Keith?"

Leo shook his head. "I tried calling his cell again but he didn't pick up," he replied. "He hasn't come back yet, or tried to contact us. Claire, what happened in here? We heard screaming."

Claire's eyes lost focus again, and she seemed to take time to think of what to say. Finally, she shrugged and said, "Nothing. I just fell asleep in the tub and had a nightmare, that's all."

Leo put on a look of disbelief. In response, Sean sighed and shrugged. "Well, it happens," he said. "Important thing is she's okay."

As Claire made her way past the men out of the bathroom, she said in a firmer voice, "We need to look for Keith." And at that, she put on a bathrobe and walked out. Before Leo and Sean could ask 'why', she had answered that question as she started dressing hurriedly.

"He's in trouble."

Now it was Sean's turn to put on a look of disbelief. Leo kept his where it was as they both stared at her.

"How…how do you know?" Sean asked.

Claire shook her head and just walked for the door, grabbing her wallet, phone and denim jacket as she passed the dinner table. "I just do," she just said simply. "God damn it, we should never have left him alone, that idiot!" As she opened the front door, she stopped, whipped around and gave the two men a look of annoyance.

"Hurry up!" she urged.

"But where are we going?" Sean asked. Leo was already grabbing his jacket and his car keys.

Claire shrugged. "Where we left him is as good as any place to start."

As she led them down the stairs, the door to room 302 closing behind them, she could almost hear Keith's voice in her ears.

'Am I thing worth saving?'

-

Ignoring the pain in his left shoulder, Keith kept on running. Direction didn't matter anymore as a mindless sort of panic seized him. He couldn't fucking see clearly what it was, but from what he could tell, it wasn't human. Its shape was humanoid, it walked on two feet and had two hands but it wasn't human. He hadn't seen its face- hadn't bothered to. Did it have a face?

'Can'tberealnononofuckbleedingrunmustbreathewheremustrunWHEREhelpwhereWHEREWHEREWHERE!'

Running didn't feel like it was making a difference. It like he was trying to run away from his shadow- like the thing was attached to him in a grotesque sort of way. The scent of it, its putrid stench only seemed to wrap tighter around him the further he ran.

And all the time he ran, the only sound he could hear was the laughter of child. It was a laughter he recognized well- and it only made him run faster.

And then-

The next thing he knew, he was lying on his chest in the middle of the road. He had tripped- and now it was over.

'KylekylekyleisthatyouleavemealonedidntmeanitpleasepleaseNO!'

And just as he had felt it stand over him, ready to finish him off, the feeling disappeared- just as suddenly as the thing had announced its presence earlier by driving something sharp into Keith's shoulder. The sound of laughter stopped, and Keith realized that he was alone again.

Then he heard the sound of his own laughter.

'You're so silly. You always were the slow one, Keith. That thing you were running from sure as hell wasn't me, and the funnier thing is that it wasn't going to kill you. Heck, you're not even bleeding!'

Keith sat up, immediately looking towards the place where he had been wounded. True enough, there was nothing there. His clothes were still intact, and the pain was gone. Nothing had happened.

"I'm going crazy," he murmured, his eyes suddenly looking lost.

And he heard his own voice laughing louder. Except he knew now that it belonged to Kyle, his brother.

'You're not, you idiot. It's all a game, don't you see? Like the ones we had when we were children, remember? Your friends are playing too this time. We're going to have such fun…'

"What are you talking about?" Keith shouted at the darkness, his voice faltering as he shivered in the cold that embraced him.

Then he felt someone breathing up his ear, someone he couldn't see. The air seemed to grow ice cold as he heard Kyle's voice whispering directly in his ear this time:

'They're waiting for you. It's your party, Keith. It's not polite to keep the guests waiting.'

Keith stood up weakly, clenching his fists. "Wasn't once enough, Keith? Why me? I never did anything to you and you know that. And my friends haven't done anything to you either-

'No Keith,' Kyle interrupted. 'Once isn't nearly enough.'

And Kyle's laughter seemed to fade into the darkness. Finally alone, Keith sank back onto his knees. And that was when he saw the thing that had made him trip.

It was a severed human leg. At first he'd hoped for it to be the piece of a store mannequin- but then some people could only be so lucky. The bloodstains and the stench of rotting meat were enough to tell him that it was real. He touched it, felt it. Then, looking all the more lost, he touched his face, as though trying to make sure he wasn't dreaming, and if he was, he wanted to fucking wake up now.

Then he noticed that there was something else beside the severed leg. It was a cylindrical object, glinting slightly in the dark at one end. Picking it up, he found that it was a flashlight.

Not questioning where it had come from, he tested it and found that it still worked- a steady beam of light shone out in front of him onto the pavement in front of him. It wasn't really much, but it was better than nothing.

Then he noticed something else.

There was a trail of blood leading from where the severed leg lay on the road. It led all the way up the street before it turned at the first and closest junction Keith could see. Written in blood on the ground, right beside the leg were the words:

'Yellow brick road.'

The more he thought about it the more he felt convinced that he was insane, that none of this was real. It wasn't impossible- everyone in school had thought him insane during the one or two incidents he'd had.

Or maybe the town really was fucked. And it was trying to screw with him. If so, then maybe all he needed to do was retrace his steps, through the cemetery then out of town- and it would end. From there-

'Claire.'

'Fuck.'

Claire, Leo and Sean were still in town, or at least, Kyle had implied that. What if they were? How could he just turn around and leave when-

'Listen, Keith,' he heard Leo's voice- and echo from a year ago, or was it two? He was it two? He couldn't remember anymore. 'Shit happens but this is not how you deal with it, okay? We're here for you. All the way.'

There were tears running down his face as he followed after the trail, staggering slightly.