Meg had long since awoken, her skull throbbing from the impact of the ground as she sat propped up against a tree at the edge of the survivors clearing.

She idly wondered if that's what some killers felt when survivors dropped pallets on their heads.

But she had been watching the campfire for a long time. No one had noticed she was awake, and it gave her time to ponder over the Trapper's outrageous behavior and everything else she'd seen.

The rules of the game were less strict than she'd ever seen them, letting the Trapper, or Evan, as he'd said, hit two survivors at once with his cleaver. It also let him grab survivors if they weren't downed, in a locker, or working on something.

That all was certainly concerning, having wider range of movement permitted them to get creative and have a major advantage.

Although...

Survivors could probably do the same then! She hadn't even realized it at the time but she hadn't just ran when she first dodged the Trapper. She had actually side stepped him, all she had to do was use her creativity and there was no telling all the unusual spots she could get into.

She could not wait to outsmart the killers by clinging onto ledges or climbing walls. As long as she could stay stealthy and avoid them seeing her, she'd be fine.

Of course the Trapper knew and would abuse said leeway but he was to confusing to think he'd relentlessly hunt her like every other killer. That and he didn't even need the advantage to win a game easily.

Speaking of the Trapper, she had his threat to ponder over. Threat? Was that the right word for what he'd promised her. He'd said he'd find her again, that he needed to understand just as much as she did. So he was as confused as she was?

The next time she'd be in a trial with him he'd probably slaughter the other three survivors to talk to her like he just did. But there was always the possibility he'd kill her if he thought she'd dropped her guard and she'd lose this new opportunity to learn about the Entity.

Although there wasn't anything stopping him from killing her even when her guard was up.

So what did she do? Tell the others? That was a small riot waiting to happen if they figured out the killers had more freedom and that they could talk.

What if more of the killers started playing favorites like the Trapper had done with her.

But didn't they deserve to know the truth? It wasn't like she'd started helping him, she'd given everything she had to try and save Jeff and Adam. But she'd been locked up for most of the trial after entering some starstruck staring contest with the killer.

It didn't really matter if she helped him or not did it? Not with people like Yun Jin who would accuse Meg of helping him for the sake of her streak.

Oh right, everyone's streaks. The survivors in their boredom and ever decreasing sanity, had made it a competition among themselves as to who had the most streaks. The person with the standing record was considered the best survivor, even if their streak wasn't ongoing.

As expected, Meg, Claudette, Jake, and Dwight were the top four, although Nea was a close fifth along with Bill, David, Laurie, Kate, and a few others.

But Meg was the highest among her three first friends.

An escape streak of over five hundred, saved by The Trapper last round.

Meg hadn't been killed in what felt like years.

She wondered if the killers had picked up on that, maybe why that's they were so aggressive whenever she was around.

But she was getting distracted, her year long streak aside she had to find out what to do. She couldn't tell anyone, she'd lose credibility with those she was not friends with, and her friends would think she was finally loosing it. So lost credibility all around, but either way the Trapper would eventually find her. Probably the only way she'd be able to avoid him next time was if she let everyone die and took the hatch or was with the rest of her little quartet.

But that was highly unlikely, she almost never got paired with her trio of friends and if she did it was against the new cocky killers or they were against one of the original three.

The Entity had them as prey but loved to use them as superior adversaries to the new arrogant killers, and it loved an even game where it was truly even and whoever was the winner rested on a knifes edge.

Although, maybe she could just omit who she was talking about when she told everyone. Or just say she had a difficult decision and didn't know what to do.

Bill and Kate came to mind, Kate wasn't quite as harsh to the killers than Bill but the old soldier had more experience.

Both it seemed would need to be visited.

So she sat up with a groan from her headache, drawing the attention of nearly everyone else at the campfire. Some of them were missing, most likely in a trial, but all of her friends were there, including Bill and Kate.

Good, this wouldn't drag out over the rest of the day.

All of her friends came over to her once they saw she was awake, some rushing over like Claudette while others were calmer about it like Bill or David.

But Meg had known them for years now, she could see through their tough guy acts. Yes both of them were tough for their size and age but they had their soft sides. She could see the worry in the way they subtly searched her form for injuries like Claudette was.

"Are you alright?"

Claudette once more sounded worried, it was entirely deserved, sure survivors had passed out from exhaustion after trials but none of them had been thrown like a rag doll into a tree.

Something was up, and everybody knew it.

Hopefully they all just took it as the Entity getting mad at Meg for surviving for so long.

Pointless thoughts aside Meg had her friends to address and reassure.

"I'm fine guys, a little headache but we've all felt worse." Meg spoke with a small smile, her lips curling just enough to hide most of her teeth, not too much to come of as overcompensation, just enough to not come off as miserable.

"What happened in the trial Meg?"

It was Nea that spoke next, bending down to rest on the balls of her feet, staring at Meg impatiently.

What is she supposed to say! 'Oh sorry, Just one of the most feared and skilled killers in the Entities realm slaughtered everyone just to privately tell me he was going to find me again and then let me go. He was a real gentleman!'

It was completely out of the question.

Her silence unfortunately stretched out just a little too long for her friends comfort, now left with their own imaginations as to what had happened to their poor red headed friend.

"Meg i-it can't be that bad right? I mean we've all been killed so many times...What did the Trapper do to you?"

Feeling her heartbeat pick up, the invisible pressure of her friends concern on top of her fear that they'd turn on her made her panic.

"He... He let me go" Meg said quietly. She refused to day anything afterwards, pulling her legs up to her chest and hugging them. Staring forward blankly while waiting for the inevitable onslaught that would followed her slip up.

"Really? Again? Well that's nothing to completely freak out about. Isn't this the third time he's let you go when he had you dead to rights?" Nea questioned, one eye brow raised.

Meg couldn't help the quiet sigh of relief at her words, maybe there was a saving grace in this situation. Then again, it would just look like the killers were letting her go so that she'd sabotage the other survivors.

Yun Jin had accused too many people of helping the killers, it was beyond disheartening that Felix, and Elodie had started defending her about it a while back.

The only silver lining was that most of the other survivors weren't super positive about the Asian producer either, they didn't love her, but they didn't hate her.

Unfortunately they didn't seem to have a super positive opinion about Meg and her friends either, more of a respect as the most experienced and as the self appointed leaders. There was a dislike there as well. Why? Meg had no idea, whether it was age, maturity, or immaturity on their part she was not the most liked survivor by far.

Sometimes Meg wondered if they would actually listen to the Asian girl go on a tirade about someone just to spite her as the "leader". But if they didn't, it could be a problem. Yun Jin was self centered and harsh, and while it wouldn't be some catastrophic totalitarian rule of everyone started listening to her, it wouldn't be pretty either.

Meg would only have to worry about that if something serious actually happened thankfully, but considering how rarely serious things happened she felt it was of no concern.

"Yes...It is, I don't know why he's doing it. He carried me over to the hatch twice. The first time I I think he meant to kill me but changed his mind, and the second time I didn't realize what he was doing and he actually downed me just so he'd be able to carry me."

Meg let out an empty chuckle to finish off her sentence, showing a slight amusement at the situation, but it was mostly dead before it even left her lips.

"Did anything happen this time that was different? Last time he did that the Entity didn't throw you into a tree and you didn't seem so shaken up about it." Feng asked.

Crap, she'd sold herself out by trying to act overly natural. Feng was too observant for her own good.

Meg remained silent, refusing to meet anyone's eyes as she tried to drag it out as long as possible as if she was trying to remember. Just trying to find a way to finesse her way out of the situation she's trapped herself in through words.

But with the stares growing ever impatient Meg caved.

"I don't know. Maybe it's just mad at me for not dying again when the Trapper could have sacrificed me?"

Claudette only seemed to get more concerned, Nea's expression didn't change, and David and Bill both seemed to be contemplating what could have happened.

All of them knew they were being watched by the others. Thankfully the longer the conversation wore on the less patience each survivor had for listening until they were talking amongst themselves one by one.

Steve and Nancy were reminiscing of their lives before the fog, which only led to them getting emotional and even a few tears shed on Nancy's part.

Yun Jin was talking to Felix and Elodie separate from all the others, and the rest were roughly scattered about.

Adam and Yui were talking, Jane and Jeff were as well. It seemed Quentin, Laurie, Tapp, and Cheryl were the ones in the current trial. Leon and Jill were reminiscing in a similar manner to Nancy and Steve.

So Meg capitalized on the situation and stood up. Bill and Ace immediately grabbed her arms to stabilize her, to which she smiled at them gratefully. Once Meg had taken a few steps to test her legs the boys let go of her, but they kept their arms up in case they needed to catch her.

"Careful there carrot top." Ace said popping the P. "Wouldn't want you to pass out on us again." He chuckled, flashing his white teeth.

Meg lightly nudged his arm in jest. It hid the fight inside her that was raging. She could physically feel the anxiety in her gut at the desire to tell them, and at the fear that made her want to hide it all away.

She walked over towards her dedicated spot of the campfire. Around a third of the entire circle was hers and her friends place. Everyone else shared the other two thirds among themselves.

She was jittery, shaking with nerves. She just needed something to relax or distract herself with.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Feng soon came over and sat next to the red head, crossing her legs and resting against a stone pillar.

"Meg, you seemed really nervous. Like really, really nervous. Are you ok?" Feng said. Her face softening, letting go of her tough and comedic mood.

Meg felt touched that Feng was able to read her so well, but she also simultaneously wanted to strangle the gamer for putting her on the spot like that, even thought they were largely in private.

"I-I don't know Feng, I should be used to all of it by now. Ever since that very first game where I woke up in the Macmillan estate I had a feeling it would scar me. But with all of you here, and all the new killers, it's just so repetitive. And then the Trapper suddenly started playing nice with me!" Meg cut herself short, stopping to squeeze the back of her hands tightly.

"It's just... it's been so long and nothing ever changed before now, and now suddenly because of the tiniest little bit of mercy I feel like I'm loosing it." Meg's voice had been shaking, but at the now it cracked, dropping her head onto her now bent knees.

Feng didn't say anything in reply, and unseen to Meg she turned her head to look at David. He was taking with Bill, who surprisingly didn't have a cigarette in sight on his body.

David was gesticulating for emphasis on whatever they were talking about. Something that Feng had come to learn, was simply what he did when he got excited or invested in a conversation. The gamer was beginning to loose track of the amount of times he'd done it with her.

She turned her head back to Meg, her face softening at the sight of the devastated girl. Feng hadn't been here quite as long as Meg, in fact she had been the last survivors to arrive before their group became closed off, but she'd never seen Meg quite this distraught.

"I haven't been here for quite as long as you, and unfortunately I can't fully say if I know exactly what you're feeling since we don't know how much longer you've been here than me." Feng paused, trying to cool her own nerves, and to give her a few extra second to think.

"And while you may be a good leader for the others I know that your still a very young woman like me, and being here, as well as being forced with the responsibility of managing these clowns, has taken its toll on both of us. But you're strong Meg, and I know that eventually this nightmare will end." Feng finished sagely, reaching out to the other girl on her knees and giving Meg a hug.

"I think one thing that's made it easier is that I constantly had you guys around. I know you had the others in your quartet Meg but from what you've all mentioned it seemed pretty rough at first." The gamer said with a smile, leaning back out of the hug and sitting back with her legs crossed again.

Meg grimaced. It had been harsh.

Dwight was a stuttering mess who had control issues as well as being to cowardly to make bold plays that were necessary to win the game. Jake had mainly sabotaged hooks only for himself and never helped anyone else. Claudette had been on the better side, but wasn't as smart regarding when to heal and when not to.

And herself? She'd been terrified initially, but had been harsh towards the boys for their selfishness and terribly stupid in challenging the killers.

"I-it was, and you're right. By the time you showed up we'd organized and fully befriended each other. Although I don't think I ever knew I'd come to see you guys as family." She finished quietly.

It was true, Meg had come to see them as siblings or another familial role throughout her time here. Most were siblings, like Feng herself or David. Older brother and sister who was basically the same age, figuratively of course. Meg was older than Feng, and David was only a few years older than her.

"You're giving her the 'you guys are my family speech' I see. Well at least tell me you made it more interesting than when you told it to me." Nea interjected as she sat down next to Meg, close enough to lean on each other's shoulders if one of them desired.

"Oh it's always been interesting Nea, I just wanted to piss you off that one time." Meg shot back instantly. As the only one truly sarcastic and witty enough to hold a candle to Nea, Meg felt an obligation to challenge and defeat the Swede.

"You know that makes a whole lot more sense considering you were talking like a chunk of your brain was missing." Nea said while looking over at the newbie conversing with Mikaela, Jill, Leon, and Yun Jin with her crew.

"Well if it helps at all know that it hurt me to go that slow as well." Meg offered up with a fake tone of sincerity and guilt.

"A runner doing anything not as fast as physically possible? Blasphemy!" Nea shouted with a small smile, shifting so her back was to Meg, and then leaning back on her like soldiers in Vietnam.

"However on a more serious note, I wasn't lying. You two are my annoying and stupid sisters and I wouldn't trade you two for the world." Meg said, looking up slightly in embarrassment.

Nea sucked in a breath immediately, probably about to fire off a comeback before realizing that Meg hadn't even insulted her.

"I...That means a lot. And I did not expect you to say that but I really, really appreciate it. And I know the others appreciate the sentiment as well. Especially your dad over there." Nea teases, pointing over to Bill and David.

Meg rolled her eyes.

"How many times have I told you, Bill is old enough to be my grandfather, and it's a bit late to get a father figure considering I'm in my twenties." Meg retorted, crossing her arms in mock annoyance.

"That's where ya wrong suga, most people lean on their parents for advice long after they're all grown up." Kate said, eerily similar to Nea's insertion into the conversation, sitting down next to Feng and facing Meg and Nea. The latter, finally stopped leaning on Meg's back and went shoulder to shoulder again.

Meg sighed. "Maybe you're right Kate, I guess I'm just adverse to the idea because of the last time I met my biological father." Meg uttered, flashing back to unpleasant memories.

"What happened suga? You know you can tell us anything right?" Kate said as she reached out and placed a hand on Meg's shoulder, bringing her into a tight hug.

Meg squeezed Kate tightly, and Feng and Nea both put their hands on her shoulders.

Finally the red head sighed.

"My mother had always told me that my father couldn't be there because he was busy, and one day when I was 11, he came back. He had a bouquet of flowers and begged my mom to let him have a second chance. She gave it to him, and for a year he stayed with us. But one day, he left to go to the store and just...never came back. My mom said that he'd died in an accident. Then when I was 17, I was running to the store as well to get stuff for my mom. When I was left I saw a little girl and her mother get out of a parked car, and there he was in the drivers seat waving to them...the little girl had called him daddy." Meg let her retelling end, the silence hanging as her friends stared at her in obvious surprise, even if their faces didn't show it.

And unknown to all of them Bills and David had stopped their conversation, having ease dropped. David's jaw was clenching and his fists balled tightly. Bill remained calmer than the scrapper, but his jaw was firmly set and his lips pushed together.

"That's...terrible, I'm so sorry for ya suga, come here." Kate beckoned with her arms.

A large bell could be heard in the distance, signaling a trial was to begin as fog creeped in from the trees, it circled around the feet of Meg, Nea, Steve, and Nancy.

"Sorry Kate. We'll just have to finish this later." Meg said, joining Nea, Nancy, and Steve as they all dropped what they were doing and scrambled for the items and offerings they'd left pre planned for their next trial.

Meg grabbed a Med kit, Claudette wasn't joining them and since the botanist was their only true healer they'd need everything to make healing faster.

Nea grabbed a flashlight like always, and Nancy and Steve grabbed a toolbox each. So it looked like the game was gonna be two runners with two engineers, this could either go really well or really terribly.

Eventually the dark mist swirled high enough to cover them entirely and they were transported away to the trial.

They awoke in auto haven wreckers, Gas heaven to be exact.

Meg was inside the garage of the convenience store, right next to the generator and parked car. She immediately bent down to get to work.

After about fifteen seconds and just getting the first piston to start going faster, she realized no one else was here in the store with her, sometimes survivors would stand there dazed after the beginning of a trial but they would've become fully lucid by now.

After another minute the generator roared to life opening the large garage door and exposing her to the rest of the realm and whoever the killer was.

However the field leading to the killer shack and small hill was empty, nothing moving in sight.

More on guard than ever now for fear of The Shape or Ghost face, she crouch walked through the grass until she was hugging the side of a broken down car halfway to the killer shack.

She heard another generator flare to life in-front of her, and then spotted Steve and Nancy running out of the door of said shack behind one of the biggest clusters of compacted cars on the map to her right.

Still nothing could be heard, Meg had been scanning the entire scenery repeatedly since the garage door had opened and nothing was there. She couldn't see the pigs head creeping just above the grass or any white masks leaning out from behind a tree or poking above a stack of crushed cars.

But there had been no heartbeat. Sometimes the stealth killers would stand there outside of their hidden state like they were stuck in a dream, but only Michael and the Wraith could do that and still hide the heartbeat.

But the Wraith was the only one that went actually invisible, If he was still woozy from being brought here than no one would know until they were about to slam right into him.

Nea had, unknown to Meg, been working on a generator in the trees on the opposite corner of the map, coincidentally by one of the exit gates. The beanie lover had speedily crouch walked across the grass and through the fog to the back door of the station.

Curiosity got the best of the Swede and she stood up to begin searching the shelves to see if there was anything edible to take back with her and just for the sake of looking.

As Nea searched the shelves she couldn't help but reflect over what Meg had told her about her father. Nea had known her dad, although her relationship with him was strained she'd always gotten along better with him than she had her mother.

They both still were far to uptight and strict, regarding almost everything she did as rebellious unless it was almost perfect, but knowing your father had led you on and was living a double life with another family that he actually cared about sounded so much worse.

Meg was her honorary sister, it had been that way for years, and they'd seen each other and everyone else in their little family at their worst, bleeding out on the ground, struggling on a hook, or having a breakdown at the fire after so many trials.

She'd even seen Meg nearly killed outside of a trial when the Nemesis had first arrived. It had caught all of them completely off guard with its ability to shatter the walls like it was nothing.

So it was only natural that it surprised the runner and grabbed her by the throat, slamming her into a cop car and nearly breaking her spine, her heart had even seemed to stop for a second based on how Leon had shook his head when he checked her pulse.

They'd abandoned her body and ran towards the police station that became the new map. Zombies hoarding the area and the Nemesis approaching quickly.

The zombies had left Meg's body, and Nea had been able to sneak over to her friend and pull her away and eventually held the runner's still body in her arms.

Nea initially had panicked, thinking Meg might have died permanently since it was outside of a trial, but when the runner's eyes opened and she gasped in agony Nea almost cried in relief. But when the Entity began to fix Meg's spine right then and there Nea couldn't remember a time she had hugged someone so tenderly, doing her best to ease the pain.

The sound of it all had been disgusting.

Now that she thought of it, Jill and Leon's relationship with the other survivors was certainly a unique one. Only being 23 and 21 they were on the younger side out of all of them, and Meg was a year older than Jill.

But despite Meg being the one nearly everyone looked to for advice, considering the red head got real theatrical during a chase, the two cops alongside Tapp, still seemed to feel some sort of responsibility for her and the others safety.

It was understandable considering their line of work and the two killers they saved people from before the Entity, but Meg was the one saving everyone else most of the time. Including the times she'd run into a dead zone just so she wouldn't lead the killer to the others.

Jill seemed like a good person, and so did Leon. They obviously wanted to help people with the line of work they'd chosen and they weren't afraid of the personal risks either, in this world or the past one.

Perhaps she'd have to get to know them better, Meg too.

A loud caw and the sounds of wings flapping shocked Nea into a crouch, creeping towards the pallet without even thinking too. She'd taken too long.

Hopefully the killer wouldn't check here, after all what survivor would be stupid enough to hide in a place where the only way out would be right through them.

But unfortunately for Nea, she'd been watched the entire time, not realizing because the Wraith had kept just far enough away to hide his ragged breathing and ducked behind shelves and walls to avoid getting spotted.

Didn't matter how still he was, if he was close enough for the shimmer of his form to be seen the Swedish girl would spot him.

And he just couldn't allow this moment to be interrupted.

So after a few seconds, he peeked out around the doorway from the outside, seeing a shoe slide behind the front desk he smiled to himself. Creeping forward to the nearest shelf and then ducking behind each one until he was on the opposite side of the store by the front.

He eyed the door to the garage, no one was close enough to see him from the outside but Nea would most certainly see him as he tried to zip past.

Mere seconds later a third generator purred to life in the distance, drawing Nea's attention to it and right in the direction the Wraith was standing.

Correction, where he'd been standing.

He ran around the counter to the small garage door, hoping to get past before Nea turned around. But of course not all things go the way people plan them, and a quiet gasp stopped him cold.

He snapped his head sideways to the sight of Nea squatting low, her knees almost against her chest, staring right at him.

Of course then she tried to make a run for it, but she only had one way out.

She'd probably expected him to uncloak immediately and take his free hit on her.

No instead he leaped at her still invisible, his left hand covered her mouth while his right arm pinned her left arm to the counter top, he pushed her back so she was flat on the counter and her hips and legs were awkwardly dangling in way that couldn't have been comfortable for her spine.

Now he had her trapped, but what did he do with her?

Yes he had just wanted to observe her, he'd heard Evan talk about how he had this illogical fascination with the red headed survivor, who he'd actually seen earlier on his way to see if Nea was here. And after listening to Evan describe what it was like he realized that it mimicked his own strange interest in this stealthy runner as well.

But he was hoping to not be spotted, that was a very large risk all things considering since the girl was the best at spotting him of all survivors, but he was allowed to hope every now and then.

So he had her pinned beneath him, unable to scream or fight back, he should hook her and use the advantage to try and win back the game.

But as he looked down into her eyes, even if she couldn't exactly look at him back, he didn't want to kill her, he'd never liked killing.

It just wouldn't stop following him, autohaven wreckers was supposed to be an honest job in a new country where he didn't have to fear death squads like in Nigeria. He would get a new chance at life...and Azarov took that from him.

Made him an accessory in murder, manslaughter, and defiling corpses.

This fake recreation of the junkyard had seen the blood of the twenty plus survivors too many times, it was ungodly. Did he really want to add to that more than he already had? And did he want to make this poor, innocent girl suffer even more?

No...no he didn't, but he couldn't help the small shiver at the memories of torture from the Entity when he failed. He and the Evan got it the worst, even more so than Max since the southerner was more ok with the killing. But him and Evan were the few who didn't like killing, and because they were supposed to be the best.

Failure was inexcusable.

But, for this girl? Was he willing to suffer torture? Or perhaps he could do what the Trapper had done, slaughter the other three so the Entity would be satisfied enough to let the girl escape.

He could kill the two that came with the Demogorgon without too much guilt, he had become accustomed to the shame in his entire body at their cries, but if it meant he got to watch the Swedish girl more he could muscle through the pain.

However he'd have to kill the red headed girl, and not only would that be difficult, but Evan certainly wouldn't be happy, and he felt that it was rather hypocritical to ask Evan to not kill this girl if he was going to kill the one Evan was so fascinated with.

The other two were just children too, only what seemed to be their late teens yet chased by an alien like monster and then forced in hell.

It was like he'd never left Nigeria.

He could hear the girl begin to breathe heavily, and he realized that he'd begun to growl much louder than normal in his thoughts. She was using her free arm to reach for a loose part of the once shiny cash register, her fingers just out of reach.

So he let go of her left arm and kept his other one over her mouth, and slid her away from the register farther down the counter. Now the girl was looking up and glaring at him, but he still had no way to talk unless he could uncloak, and she would just run for it.

But he was much larger than her and his bell was still clipped to his side on a well disguised belt.

So keeping one hand on the girls mouth and leaning on her to keep her pinned, he reached down to the bell, placed it on the counter and hit it twice with his weapon.

He uncloaked silently, very grateful for bringing a coxcombed clapper on the bell.

And now his beady white eyes stared down at the girls now much more scared blue ones.

He would have loved to continue to stare at her but now the other survivors would feel his terror radius, so he had to go somewhere they wouldn't expect it. The exit gate with a completed generator would do nicely.

Doing his best to be quick and quite he clipped his belt and weapon again, flipped the girl over and lifted her back to his chest, keeping his hand over her mouth as she kicked her legs out violently, doing her best to hit him in the knees with the back of her heel.

He decided walking backwards was a smarter option, it would be harder for the girl to catch her leg on something and slow him down, and as suspected her feet slid off the door frame when she tried to hook her ankle around it.

He carried her away to the exit gate, going around the corner of it so now he was in the other corner of the wall.

Finally he spoke.

"I am not going to hurt you."

The girl stilled in his arms at his words, he couldn't tell what she was thinking but he could imagine there was disbelief and shock. Killers didn't exactly speak to survivors, they didn't speak to much to each other either. At least if they didn't have to.

He gently set her down on her feet, still with one hand on her mouth and the other uncomfortably wrapped around her waist since he had to bend down so far. The girl was looking at him suspiciously from the corner of her eye, her whole body tensed up like a spring ready to snap from the pressure.

"I'm going to let go of your mouth, please don't scream. I just want to ask you a few questions, and I'm going to let you and your friends go."

He waited for her confirmation, and after nearly a minute of tense silence, dragged out by the thundering heartbeat making it harder for Nea to think, she nodded slowly.

His fingers ghosted over her lips and cheek as he pulled his hand away, both her face and his hand tingling from the lack of contact and how naturally sensitive Nea's lips were.

His hand remained hovering next to the side of her skull just in case she tried to scream anyway.

But she didn't.

Instead she slowly turned around to look at him, his back almost touching the brick wall with his head tilted and his eyes locked on her face.

"Why?"

She did not hesitate to speak and she did not sound afraid, but he could hear the tiniest of squeaks when she opened her mouth.

The Wraith smiled at the noise, deciding he liked the sound and wanted to hear it more. As well as hoping to put the girl at ease so she wouldn't try and freak out the moment he moved.

That squeak had been adorable, as well as the girls bravado.

"I don't entirely know." He offered.

The girl just seemed to get angrier at his response, her sharp eyes narrowing and making Phillip feel truly judged for the first time in decades. Her jaw clenched and she went to shout at him before his palm clamped down over her lips again.

Phillips eyes were wide, panicky, and his heart was the one racing for once, his enamored smile long gone.

"I understand you hate me, you are entirely justified in it and I know you have no reason to listen to me and I have no right to ask this but please don't shout. Just...chew me out without getting too loud."

Again the girl looked surprised at his politeness, as well as his seeming empathy. But things don't work that quickly.

"Please." His voice finally broke, there was a noticeable shudder in his voice and entire frame with the single, powerful word. His eyes clenched tight in fear and his grip on the back of the girls head tightened to the point of pulling her hair.

Her groan of pain snapped his eyes open and on reflex he let go of her, pulling his hands back and away before realizing what he'd done.

Why had he even done this! He didn't think ahead like the Trapper did. He'd just gone in hoping to observe the girl and forgot he would be tortured for failing the entity.

What had he done? Maybe he could still recover the match?

Another sharp ping in the distance crushed that hope, there was only one generator left and he had yet to hook or even injure a single one of them.

His thoughts spiraled further, he'd experienced punishment from the entity thousands of times but that didn't mean he was used to it, none of them were. Some had slightly higher tolerances to it, Herman most of all, since he couldn't feel pain. But Phillip was sure the Entity had something else to torture him with for failure.

But he had become so engrossed in his fear of failing the Entity that he didn't even notice that the girl hadn't screamed or ran away, she was staring at him. Watching him shiver and listening to his breathing grow more ragged by the second.

However neither of them had noticed Meg watching them from a distance. She was on the hill in the middle of the map and could see them over the fog, The Wraith's tall form was hard to miss.

"Hey!"

Nea's voice was sharp, but not overly loud, and it was enough to stop Phillip from spiraling into a full blown panic attack.

His eyes snapped to hers, she was standing there with her back perfectly straight, her fists clenched and her jaw locked.

"Why? And don't even try and say you don't know, why'd you grab me and why haven't you tried killing me?"

Her voice was steady and teeming with anger.

The Wraith remained silent for a decent amount of time, enough time for Nancy and Steve to get halfway done on the last generator.

"I-I...I...I find you fascinating. Most of you survivors are... but you stand out to me, and I can't figure out why."

It was true, the survivors were fascinating to him, he'd often observe them fighting against the Entity when hooked, always so blown away by their never ending determination to survive, hold on to hope, and never give up on living just because they were trapped here with him and all the other killers. It was something he wished he'd had.

"I don't know what it is about you that seems to interest me more but I need to know why. I had hoped that if I watched you this trial that I'd be able to make sense of it." Phillip finished.

Nea's glare did not falter, although one of her eyebrows did rise in an amused manner. However It just looked like she was even more impatient to Phillip.

Instead of continuing she just turned around and walked to the exit gate doors, coincidentally just as the last generator was finished.

She yanked the large lever down with a slight grunt of effort, her eyes darting over to the Wraith now watching from the corner of the brick gate frame, and the three red lights on top of the lever.

When the third alarm finally sounded and then the groan as the world collapse started Nea looked back at the Wraith while slowly backing towards freedom.

"Thanks"

And then she was gone.