Nea had almost begun to get used to the extreme vertigo from being invisible. Maybe, just maybe she could handle this if it kept happening.
Did she want it to keep happening?
Well her stomach would have said no. It felt like it was two seconds away from contracting just like it wanted to and making her throw up. Yet her heart and mind were in agreement.
She liked hanging out with Phillip, the fun, flirty, invisible killer who had obliterated her preconceived perceptions and shown her that not all the other killers were bad.
She was even starting to believe that Meg really would be safe around The Trapper. Philip and Sally had vouched for him, and they had both saved and taken care of her when she was helpless and bleeding.
But as Phillip carried her to the Macmillan estate, Nea couldn't help but feel that something was going to go horribly wrong. She couldn't place why however. She didn't think it was anxiousness at how long it was taking. Sure there was a decent distance between each of the killers domains, and that even with Phillip's speed while invisible it was longer than a short walk. But Nea still couldn't shake the queasiness from her stomach as Phillip walked.
It didn't make sense and it was starting to make her paranoid. Her eyes were constantly sweeping the tree line for any of the aggressive killers or Meg, but all she came up with was nothing. The lack of life however was only unnerving, not comforting, so she clung to Phillip just a little bit tighter, hoping he wouldn't mind.
"Is something bothering you." Phillip said quietly, continuing his walk without turning to her.
She didn't say anything, partly because she didn't know what to say and partly because she didn't want to. But eventually the nagging fear grew to much and she pushed her face back down into his shoulder blades. "I just keep thinking somethings going to go horribly wrong and that someone's gonna get hurt." She confessed, her voice muffled. She still hoped the desperation and fear in her voice was obvious so he didn't think she was just messing with him. "I feel like I'm just being paranoid but it won't go away and I don't know why." She said, her voice laced with irritation.
Phillip hummed in thought, and Nea imagined that if he wasn't holding her feet he would've brought a hand up to stroke his chin. The thought was somewhat calming to her hyper active mind. Finally Phillip spoke.
"Is it alright if I ramble for a moment?" He asked her, still diligently watching where he was going. Yet, Nea could hear something in voice, a hesitance as well as more intelligence than she already thought he had.
"Yeah of course." She said.
Phillip waited a moment before speaking, looking like he was summoning the necessary courage to speak. "I lost everyone I cared about in my home. They were killed by paid mercenaries, I was only around 13 when it happened, but I was old enough to know what they were, for the most part." Phillip prefaced, letting the words sink in before he continued. Nea didn't say anything in response, her own live experience rendered her completely unable to relate to his experience and she doubted she had the tact to say the right thing if she tried. So she just raised a hand to stroke the scar tissue on his cheek, her own way of showing her sympathy for him, and she hoped he got the message.
"Eventually they found my family. My grandmother took me to an underground bunker for safety, she had me recite math equations so I wouldn't loose myself." Phillip murmured, coughing several time. Nea knew that tactic. Coughing in place of crying to make it seem like there was just something in his throat instead of showing just how emotional he felt.
"It's okay Phillip." She said softly, continuing to stroke his cheek when he suddenly stopped. He bent down on one knee so she could get off, and when she did he turned to face her, placing both hands on her shoulders as he looked down at her. There was a single tear track under his left eye.
"While I was down there I could hear everyone screaming. I felt sick from the worry that my family would die. Then my grandmother left the bunker, she had heard a child crying and went out to try and save them, but she never came back. My worry for her or my family didn't save them, nothing I could have done would." Phillip paused to take a shuddering breath, coughing one last time as he brought his fist to his mouth. She stepped closer and hugged him, resting her head on his chest as he continued.
"Worrying for others is a natural thing, and you shouldn't try to stamp it out, but if you let it chew you up you'll hurt yourself too. Like what I did. In times like this, the only way to avoid it is to find something to focus on. Find an inner determination to protect your friend, it'll keep you from loosing yourself in despair." He finished, his voice falling at the end and vibrating in his chest. Nea squeezed her eyes shut as she squeezed him for all she was worth. Thankfully he didn't try to crush her in response, instead just holding her tightly to him while breathing shakily.
"Thank you." She said. Appreciative of the advice but too high on emotion to let go of him, and it seemed he was the same way. He held onto her like she'd make a run for it the second he let go. One of his hands did eventually loosen its grip, coming out to tangle his fingers through the long side of her hair, running through it in way that she could easily fall asleep to.
"However." Phillip said, humor creeping back into his voice. "That does not mean that you cannot attempt to prevent what you fear. We are close to the estate, I'm quite confident that your friend is there, so let us keep moving." He advised, bending back down so she could climb on his back.
Nea smiled at their already established bond, and how he just defaulted to letting her ride on his back now after a one time request. But she didn't just ask for a piggy back ride as a joke, well it had party been a joke but she legitimately enjoyed being carried like that. That and laziness.
"Alright noble steed. Onward." She said as she settled herself on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a playful squeeze. To which he faked dropping her. Nea was rather ashamed of how violently she flinched and how she had opened her mouth to scream before cutting herself off, just making it sound like and even more embarrassing squeal. So to make up for it she glared daggers into the back of his skull and put him in a choke hold that barely seemed to phase him.
"You drop me like that again and I'll show you what it feels like to be the survivor." She growled in his ear. Tightening her arm around his throat threateningly.
"Oh yes I'm quite intimidated by the petite and tiny woman who can barely reach my chest." He drawled mockingly, turning his head back to look her in the eyes with a deadpan stare, their noses almost touching. "Please, go ahead and blush now." He said with a smirk.
Nea was about a second away from seriously hitting him as she felt her face heat up from their proximity and how irritating he was being.
"And that's how we learn that you can't beat Phillip." He said smugly, looking back at the road and continuing his walk while she huffed in anger and let her head fall against his shoulder.
"You suck sometimes." She muttered from his back, flicking his collarbone while she did.
"I would make an insinuating response to that, however that would be rather inappropriate for my taste, and I don't consider such innuendos flirting anyway." Phillip said with a good natured smirk, not trying to be irritating, at least that's what Nea hoped. She was still convinced there was no way he didn't know what he was doing, because she was still blushing at the non innuendo that still felt like an innuendo.
How flustered she was went out the window when they both heard movement in the distance. Phillip froze, moving over towards the tree line to better hide his shimmering form and watching carefully. Nea peered over his shoulder, just as nervous and intrigued as he was.
What she saw however, made her heart stop, her stomach plummet, and then everything pull a one eighty until she felt ready to jump for joy. She shook Phillip's shoulders eagerly, trying to tell him to walk forward as Bill, Dwight, Jake and the others emerged from the woods ahead of them. They looked as lost, confused, and at each other's throats just as much as Nea expected, which was to say only in jest.
Ok maybe a little bit of serious threats of bodily harm from Bill or David.
But she knew they were looking for her and Meg, and unfortunately she couldn't see anybody with red hair among them.
"Are they your friends my dear?" Phillip asked her, not looking anywhere else but at the group of survivors about seventy yards ahead of him.
"We'll talk about your choice in nick names later but yes. Those are my best friends so get over there now!" She hissed at him, shaking him as violently as she could. Her shaking did little to move him as she expected, but he got the message as he began to take long, quiet strides towards the group.
He stopped when he stood merely 15 meters away. Nea watched as the other survivors continued to try and find their sense of direction, suppressing her laughter to the best of her ability and whispering in Phillip's ear. "Don't say anything. I wanna scare them. Do your little growl thingy and uncloak." She said with a barely held back snort.
Phillip shivered and nodded, slowly inching his way closer to them and being so loud with his breathing it would have been obnoxious in any other situation.
The group froze, whipping around at the speed of sound to face them. They obviously recognized the shimmering form in front of them because their faces became struck with fear and Nea saw them ready themselves to sprint for it. Phillip uncloaked before they could, hitting his wailing with his grotesque axe twice as always and staying where he was.
Jake had been the closest to her and Phillip when he began to uncloak. Of course he had already made it several yards by the time they were both fully visible, but it didn't matter. Because the look on all their faces when they looked back to see her laughing her head off while on The Wraith's shoulders was worth more than any amount of money she could ever be offered.
"Nea!" Almost all of them shouted in unison, the only exceptions being Bill, Ace, and Jill. They stopped running, but they didn't get any closer whatsoever, maintaining a good 20 yards of distance between themselves and Phillip.
"Hey guys!" She shouted back, carefully climbing off of Phillip's back with a graceful landing. Said killer stayed where he was as she went around him to hug her family and recap them on everything she'd been through.
"I know it's all really hard to believe but I'm not lying. He's on our side and he was just taking me to where he thinks Meg is." She explained eagerly, her hands gesticulating wildly between the killer and her friends. Nea was still slightly nervous about how they'd react to Phillip. She'd relaxed rather easily around him and Sally, her nervousness that should have been crippling had faded like mist between her fingers. But she supposed Phillip had saved her life after all, Sally too had been nothing but kind as well. The fact that they didn't have to do what they did at all is what convinced her that they were genuine.
Bill's face grew determined when she mentioned that Phillip knew where Meg was, and he looked up at the spindly killer unflinchingly. "Take us to her." He demanded immediately, his instinct to protect Meg shining through his apprehension and fear of the killer in front of him. Nea could tell the others heard it in his voice as well, most of them showing it in small ways like a barely visible smirk, or a confident crossing of their arms.
"If I am correct than she is with Evan in the Macmillan estate. It is not ver far from here now. You will need a key to get through the front gate, but I already have one." Phillip stared blankly. Not betraying a single shred of emotion behind his illusionary mask, and as irritating as it was. Nea couldn't read him.
Maybe she'd be able to after getting to know him better, she'd get to associate which of his ticks meant how he was feeling. There was no time like the present, so while she had the chance she squinted and observed his face carefully, looking for any twitching in his eyes or cheeks. She spotted the muscle over his cheekbones pulling slightly, but of course she had no idea what it meant. It just looked funny, so she resolved herself to just use it as ammo against him later.
She didn't have any more time to look at him anyway because he turned to her expectantly.
"Nea? Will you be walking with your friends until we reach the estate?" He asked politely, and she was ready to ask why he was suddenly sounding so robotic all of the sudden, when she remembered the circumstances. He didn't want to anger her friends in front of her, he was also trying not to scare them as well.
"Oh, uh, I guess I'll just walk, don't want to make you a cripple early." Nea said with a forced smile, trying to cut through some of the new found awkwardness in the situation.
God bless Phillip because he seemed to be a social genius and understood what she was trying to do, as he gave her a genuine smile at her joke and began to walk forward. Leading her towards the Macmillan estate, towards Meg.
The trek is short, quiet, uncomfortably quiet. But Nea doesn't blame anyone, Phillip definitely had a sense of shame and dignity to not engage with any of the others unless they started the conversation. But of course none of them were going to start a conversation with him. He had that same sense of shame when she'd first spoken to him, his eyes had been an eerie white from the Entity during that trial. Even thought she felt comparing those two fake white dots to the beautiful amber orbs Phillip held in his skull was an insult, she could still sense the guilt in them, she just hadn't cared at the time.
When they reached the wall of the Macmillan estate, everyone seemed to know something is off. There were two sets of foot prints in the dirt road, distinct from the others that formed the path in the first place. They both were ashen black, as if the two peoples shoes had been on fire while the ran after each other. Then the marks ran up a large tree, over a specifically long branch that led over the brick wall, and then disappeared.
"That must have been how Meg got in." Bill said, bending down to inspect the second pair of foot prints, they were identical to the first in width, length, and shape. The only variation being the pattern of the shoes soles.
All of them turned to look at Phillip expectantly. The killer looked confused at first, his head tilted and his facial features contorted in the perfect "you're totally high aren't you?" face.
Then realization struck him faster than Usain Bolt and he quickly shuffled over to the wrought gate and selected a dark key from his ring. It was a mix of colors, a large amount of black was on it, but there was also dark green and white blending with the black to make quite the interesting shade of color, minus the parts where it was just one of the three.
The gate opened loudly, to which they all cringed at how squeaky it was, but they all stepped in before Phillip closed and locked the gate behind them.
"Why'd you lock it?" Jake asked, his fists clenching and his left leg tapping anxiously.
They were nervous Phillip was trying to trap them, Nea realized.
"All killers lock their domains so unwanted guests do not invade the property, each of us have items for the trials that the newer killers desire. Killers like myself and Evan have the largest stashes, and we must be sure of our security." Phillip answered calmly, looking Jake in the eye to most likely convey his sincerity. It was pretty convincing to Nea, so she just mentally shrugged and let it slide. "Come on guys, Meg's just through these woods." She said trying to distract them from any tension with Phillip.
"She is correct. The Macmillan mansion is not far away. However, you must watch out for Evan's bear traps. These traps are much more dangerous than the ones in the trials." Phillip warmed ominously, not bothering to explain just what exactly about the traps made them so much more dangerous than what they were used to stepping into.
With her desire to know growing, Nea began walking right next to Phillip. Slowly inching closer to ask him what made the traps so special when she stopped abruptly, making all the other survivors stop walking as well.
Phillip had seen it too.
Blood, too much to sneeze at, but not enough to look like a cheap horror movie.
The bear trap presumably responsible for the mess was still closed, wood chips lodged in its teeth while what remained of the branch sat next to it. Two pieces of rebar laid in the grass next to it as well. It looked like the trap had snapped the two apart from each other.
The blood formed a long since dried pool around the trap, coating its teeth as well as the many spring mechanisms. There was also a trail of it leading away through the trees, also in the same direction they were headed to.
"Do you think?" Nea asked warily, for once her voice was quiet and scared. She sounded like what she used to be like in some of her first trials, and she hated it.
"Yes." Phillip said, and without a word he began walking directly on the line of blood, following it like a hound while Nea and the others hesitantly followed.
"What are you two talking about?" Claudette asked from the middle of the group.
"Walk in a line directly behind me, we don't know where anymore of Evan's traps are but this blood is a safe zone, and we're talking about Meg. It's rather obvious she climbed the wall but stepped in that trap, she must have crawled to the mansion." Phillip observed, looking down at the pattern in the blood and where it lead as a massive four story behemoth of a building became visible through the fog.
"Hopefully Evan found her before the poison could take much effect." He said absently, stroking his chin as he approached the front door slowly. His head never looked up, and Nea understood why, as she too was drawn to the large blood pool at the end of the trail.
It was similar to the one they'd found at the bear trap. Except this one just ended where it was without any evidence whatsoever as to where the person, or Meg, had gone.
"Wait, poison?" Bill demanded harshly, his face twisting in anger as he brashly stepped towards Phillip. His fists were clenched and his jaw was set while he tried to stare the killer down.
"Evan designed these traps for other killers, not survivors. But it is obvious Evan found her and that she is inside, she'll be fine. He has an antidote for everything he puts on those jaws." He explained, doing his best to calm the enraged veteran, even going as far as to hold his hands up placatingly.
Bill just stared at him, refusing to answer as the gears whirred in his mind.
Jill broke the silence. "You're friends with the Trapper right? Won't he let you in?" She asked like it was obvious. Which it was if Nea was being fair, but Phillip was also the only one The Trapper would consider a friend, so they'd potentially be chopped to bits if they handled this wrong.
"Yes I am."
Just as he said that and turned to knock on the door dark fog made itself known. The dark mist taking the form of two tendrils as they reached from beyond the Macmillan estate. One began surrounding Jill, while the other phased through the front door of the Macmillan mansion and inside of it.
"Meg's being chosen for a trial." Nea concluded, turning back to look at the others for their reactions.
Bill looked irritated still, Jake starting to follow suit. Dwight was calm and rather impassive, Claudette looked relieved, if not slightly worried, and Laurie remained stoic. Ace was the same as Jill just focused on the fog surrounding her feet and growing higher.
"Evan is also being chosen for one." Phillip said. "I can sense it. The Fog is not just choosing your friend." He informed them, tilting his head and bringing a hand to his ear as if listening for a quiet whisper in a raging storm.
Bill stared Jill down. "Make sure she's alright." He demanded, his voice hoarse but not outright hostile either. The police officer nodded, her face hardening in determination.
"You got it." She said.
And then she disappeared.
Evan awoke in his home territory. The ironworks to be exact. And while he certainly hated the memories attached to this place, he wouldn't deny it was one of the best hunting grounds to place his traps in. Most other killers would even agree his estate worked with their powers and didn't restrict them like others would.
It was certainly preferable to Herman's accursed hospital, or Max's bright farms devoid of grass.
He took in his surroundings. He was behind the ironworks, a hill to his right and a jungle gym without a generator to his left. The shack would be across the map with another potential hill, piles of junk would be everywhere with more jungle gyms near the walls.
He set traps at the potential chase spots, avoiding the vaults and pallets entirely, instead placing them in the paths of the survivors when they would attempt to loop him. In large bushes against the walls and in grass between an open gap in the walls and the next opening with a pallet.
He even set one next to the hill against the rocks, hidden in the tiny strip of grass where a survivor might walk in an attempt to hide from him. He broke the wooden doors of the iron works, intending to avoid chasing anyone up there but making it easier ahead of time if he had to.
Two generators activated in the distance, one in the shack and another close to it. Good, they were corralling themselves for him.
Meg was growing nearer.
With several traps set up Evan began to march to the completed machinery, intending to pick up the two farthest traps while he still had time and hopefully harass the survivors there as an added bonus.
He was slightly disappointed at who he found. Meg was indeed there, but the other three survivors were the new Asian producer who arrived with that irritating Korean performer, the man with the robotic hand and shotgun holster on his back, and the female police officer who arrived with the Nemesis. They were of little concern, and he would dispose of them easily. The real challenge would be catching Meg, as she seemed in quite a playfully competitive mood before she'd left.
He could see her in the distance, and she was in different attire than when she was in his mansion. This time she was dressed in her original outfit. A red sleeveless jacket with blue on the collar and shoulders, and leggings that looked like jeans from the denim blue color that ended just below the knees. A thick belt with numerous large pouches rested on her hips. The only part of her outfit that wasn't with those clothes, was her hair. It was in the same style as her fortune teller outfit.
He wouldn't admit it to anyone but himself, but he stared at her a little too long for it to be innocent or appropriate for a man such as himself. However, he also wasn't too mad at himself because the clothes did emphasize her figure. That, and she was even prettier when she was determined to finish a task such as the generators. Especially when her hair was freer like that style allowed.
He did not make his presence known to her yet, and he took extra precautions in his movement so if she did see him she wouldn't have any indication of where his traps were or anything he wanted the survivors away from. She was far too smart for his success in these trials, so he'd prefer if she was on the other side of the map if he placed any traps down.
He hadn't brought any of his iridescent add ons, only the Entity's new bear oil and the setting tools. So placing traps mid chase where there were high walls certainly could work, even against Meg, she hasn't had much experience going against these new items.
As the trial progressed and he hooked both the man with the robotic hand and the Asian twice, he noticed that the female police officer seemed to be shadowing Meg, copying everything his little rabbit did. The police officer was obviously a fast learner, as he'd already noticed her increased competence and skill.
However, she lacked actual time to practically apply it against a weaker killer, so she still only took a matter of seconds to strike down.
Yet, as Evan hooked her for the second time, he felt something akin to when he watched Susie break down into tears in his arms, or when he found Megan blacking out in a pool of blood at the steps of his front door. He wasn't a stranger to this feeling, he'd felt it before he'd chosen to help the workers in their attempt at unionizing against his father. He'd felt it when he stayed silent as his father beat a worker half to death.
Guilt.
Megan was the only survivor in the trials he'd ever felt guilt towards before now. All the other survivors were irritating in trials, whether they hid like cowards and only did generators and healed their friends, or wouldn't cease that incessant and useless clicking of their flashlights.
Even if they didn't have the running skills to back it up.
That made the guilt go away entirely, it even gave a sense of satisfaction knowing they were in pain like they deserved. They weren't like Megan, they couldn't run him around loops for as long as their friends needed, they didn't need to hide and only stay on generators to have a chance at success. They were spineless cowards who only dared to act tough when there was something separating them from his blade.
His blood bird didn't need walls to stop him from scoring a hit. She could dodge around him with the grace of a professional dancer, and then she'd change her pattern so he wouldn't be able to keep up.
Well, sometimes he could keep up with her spins.
Focusing on his original train of thought Evan compared the police officer he'd just hooked for the second time to the irritating survivors. Like the Asian Kazan arrived with, the blonde German The Blight arrived with, the man with the robotic hand.
The only thing she had in common with them was a lack of practical skill. She wasn't bold in a stupid arrogant manner, she was altruistic, sometimes suicidally and moronically so, but the attempts were still commendable. She never used flashlights unless she was attempting to save someone from his grasp, she often gave med kits to other survivors who wouldn't have returned the favor.
She actually reminded him somewhat of the dark girl Max was fond of, as well as Megan.
Just as he finished his thought he saw none other than this little rabbit dash through the piles of junk far off in the distance. She stopped and looked around. When she spotted him, he was unsurprised, but no less pleased at her behavior.
She looked directly at him, wiggled her fingers as she waved at him, blew him a kiss, and then disarmed a trap he'd placed in the dark grass next to a pallet. Then she went to another, and another... and another.
At this point Evan was starting to think she'd cheated and somehow found a way to see every trap's location. Just like how the Entity allowed him to see their white auras through any terrain.
He didn't move to go after her at first, he wasn't too mad about the traps after all. The Asian and one armed man wouldn't be hard to catch even without them. Instead he watched her carefully as she came closer to him, staying at the edges of where she could probably hear the heartbeat the Entity whispered of. Once she was where she wanted to be, she cupped both hands around her mouth and shouted.
"Betcha can't catch me without your traps bear boy!" Her voice rang out across the map, disturbing all nearby crows and probably drawing the attention of the other survivors.
Evan's head twitched at the new nick name, unable to decide whether he liked it or never wanted to hear it again.
He'd figure it out later.
He scanned his traps, seeing that she'd disarmed four of them. All of them more towards the side of the map where the generators were repaired. Meg was his obsession as usual, and if he hit her he'd get slower each time he wiped his cleaver off. But he didn't want to hit her, he already knew how bad he'd feel if he had to watch her scream in pain from something he'd done to her again.
Then Evan found his silver bullet. Who said he had to hit her?
"Challenge accepted!" He said just below a shout. His deep voice boomed across the field, but Meg wasn't intimidated. She just smiled, and turned to run.
He chased after her, dodging and weaving through piles of scrap metal and wood boxes as she took him to a jungle gym in a corner of the map. It was exactly where he'd hoped she'd go.
She proved her mettle as she ran around the loops perfectly, always managing to vault quickly and run around to the pallet without making a single mistimed stride. Each time she looked back to spot him he saw her cheeky grin taunting him from just outside his range.
Finally the dominos began to fall as he'd managed to gain enough distance through several fake outs to force her into dropping the pallet. He smashed the annoying piece of wood in one kick, which was to her surprise if the way her eyes widened were anything to go by. Meg ran ran for the vault and Evan hoped the rules were as slack as they were last time he'd shown her mercy.
His little rabbit did get her fast vault, swinging her legs up without them touching the stone as her hands held her weight. But he grabbed her arm and pulled.
She was yanked back with a short shout, her back slamming into his chest before he spun her around and forced her back against the vault. She awkwardly was bent over the it, her back resting on it while her legs barely stayed on the ground and her head hung over the other side.
He wrapped his left arm around her mid back and pulled her up, placing his other arm on her hip as she looked up at him wide eyed.
"Hello my dear." He rumbled, smiling widely behind his mask in victory.
Megan was breathing heavily from exertion. Her chest heaving while she placed both her hands on his upper biceps for personal space and out of reflex.
He took a second to observe her features carefully. Her eyes were wide, showing her full icy blue iris as well as how shocked she was at the manner in which he'd caught her. Her lips were parted to suck in air and the single band of hair that wrapped around the back of her head had come undone. All of her hair tumbled down her back and fell behind her like a bloody curtain.
It was beautiful. She was beautiful.
"Too shocked that I won?" He bragged, his tone goading and cocky. It got his desired reaction as her eyes narrowed into a glare and her hands tightened on his biceps, trying to get a grip on his skin to squeeze and pinch him.
She looked like she wanted to say something sassy to him, a rebuttal or accusation that he'd cheated, but she stayed silent. The gears in her head were turning, he could practically see it. Then she spoke.
"After everything I've seen you do, all the things you've said, all the kindness you didn't have to show. How could you have been chosen as a killer, and not as a survivor with me?" She asked, staring up at him with a determined gaze.
Evan faltered, not knowing what to say. He thought back to his father, to the abuse. How Archie had broken his jaw, ribs, and other bones since he was a child for disobedience. He remembered the time his father had told him the miners who tried to unionize had sold him out for just a few extra dollars. The betrayal he'd felt, knowing that after how he'd stuck his neck out for them asking nothing in return, knowing he'd gain nothing from the agreement, they'd turned on him.
That was what separated him from Megan and her friends. His rage. Despite how much it had slowed, how much it took to truly anger him now compared to when he was younger, he knew that if someone betrayed him like the miners that he would let his instinct to make them wish they'd never been born take over.
Evan finally answered her. "I am... not a good man. The workers, they betrayed me. I tried to assist them, tried to aid them in their attempts to unionize. So that my father could not beat them anymore. They sold me out... threw me to the wolves for a few dollars." Evan hesitantly explained. Digging up his past was painful, and he didn't want her to hate him again.
"They broke my trust, so I broke their bodies in return. I wanted to kill them. But I knew it was just what my father wanted me to do." Evan whispered, letting Megan go and straightening his posture. Looking anywhere but at her face in shame.
He felt a small hand run against his mask, and he looked down at her as she gripped his mask by the jaw and lifted it before he could react. He recoiled violently, but the mask was off before he could stop her. He brought a hand up to shield his face, he couldn't let the other survivors see him, and he couldn't let her see his weakness.
"Evan." She spoke softly. Her hands reached up to pull his hand away, and she looked into his eyes with her own full of sympathy and pride. Her thumb rubbed his upper cheek, and it came away moist.
He squinted in confusion, bringing one of his own fingers up to indeed feel a tear leaking from his eyes. So he wiped them harshly, trying to regain his composure before looking at her again. She was still looking at him like before, and soon her small arms were wrapped around his neck as she reached up to his height in a way that couldn't have been comfortable.
He bent down on one knee so she wouldn't hurt herself. Hugging her back and accepting the invitation to let his head fall against her shoulder.
He remained that way for a few minutes, long enough for the last three generators to be repaired and the gates to howl. That was when he began to break free from her hold, and it was exactly when he saw the Asian producer spying on them from a distance. The one armed man was watching too, his face contorted in anger just like the Asian's.
In the blink of an eye he snatched his mask back, slipped it on his head, and ushered Meg out of view. Hiding her behind the wall amidst her protests.
"What the heck has gotten into you?" She hissed at him, slapping his hands away when he went to reach for her again.
Such a spit fire.
"The Asian one and the one armed one were watching us." He said. "I must sacrifice them or the Entity will punish me severely. Go, find a door and escape." He said, corralling her towards one of the golden auras in the distance. Megan, however, didn't seem to want to make his life easy for him.
"Evan no, I am not going to let you kill again. Both of us know that the Entity's been lenient about the rules and I bet it's because you spared me. Stop the sacrificing, if not for me than for our chances to get out of here. Sacrificing us obviously makes this thing stronger." Meg said, grabbing onto his forearms and digging her heels into the ground so he couldn't push her any further.
As infuriating as it was, what she said expanded on his previous theories and made a lot of sense.
"Evan look at me." She said, shocking him by grabbing the sides of his head and forcing his gaze towards her. "Stop the killing, please, promise me." She begged, her voice turning desperate at the end as her resolve wavered.
But seeing how distraught she was made the choice easier.
"Fine." He grumbled stubbornly. "For you, and for our freedom. I hope your theory is correct, now go. The others will follow you." He commanded, pointing her directly to a gate and watching as she walked away, glancing back at him before turning and starting to run.
Evan looked around, trying to see if the two survivors from earlier were still around. He'd promised Megan he wouldn't sacrifice them, but he would hesitate to strike them if they wouldn't stop eavesdropping, or if they dragged the game out longer than it needed to go. Fortunately for them and potentially for him as well, he hadn't decided yet, they were not behind any of the piles of wood he checked or on the hill.
By now Meg or her police officer friend could have easily opened the gates, they probably were missing someone if they had not been opened yet. So Evan went to go check on where they were, and what he found made him see red.
Meg was flat on her back in the dirt. The one handed man stood on her arm with both feet in a way that undoubtedly hurt with the way Meg's face was contorted in pain while the Asian producer yelled at her.
"Just wait until the other find out you've been sleeping with a killer behind our backs so you could escape for free! Just how long ago did your streak really end you b-" Yun Jin wasn't allowed to finish before Evan slashed the one handed man with all his strength, sending him running for his worthless life, and grabbed the producer by the throat.
Without missing a beat he squeezed, slowly crushing her neck between his fingers like it was a rotten and brittle piece of wood. The Asian gasped and squirmed, thrashing around like a dying bird. Her legs kicked out fruitlessly and her hands made a pathetic attempt to pry his fingers apart.
A small hand desperately grabbed his other wrist, and Evan's head snapped down to see Meg starting up at him desperately. Her icy blue eyes sad and hurt, and Evan froze, loosening his grip on the other girl's throat.
How his blood bird found the strength to stop Evan from killing her, he didn't think he'd ever know, but it was undeniably Megan. So he let her go, most of his anger fading, and let her scramble to her feet and run away. His attention was entirely on Megan anyway.
"I'm sorry." He murmured. Bowing his head in shame at almost breaking his promise that quickly. He felt her hands come and take his mask off for the second time that match, and he looked at her pleadingly, silently asking for forgiveness.
She took him by the paw and made him follow her all the way to an unoccupied gate. He could sense the police officer was still here in the trial, but the Asian and one handed man were gone.
Spineless cowards.
"I am so proud of you." She whispered, a small smile gracing her lips. "Keep it up, because I believe in you. And consider this my way of saying thank you to someone very special to me." And with that, she stood on her toes and Evan felt her lips press against his cheek.
Too stunned to reach he just stood there, probably looking like an idiot with the way she giggled at him.
"I'll see you soon Evan. Don't dance with anyone else." She teased, waving to him like she had earlier and walking through the gate.
Evan watched as she grew farther away, wanting to say something in response he shouted.
"Thank you! For everything!" He yelled, hoping his voice would carry far enough.
Meg arrived at the campfire normally. Very glad she wasn't thrown into a tree and almost landing in the campfire again.
The campfire, speaking of, had returned to its normal esthetic. Looking like the beautiful woods of the Macmillan estate that now reminded her of her favorite killer, and brought a sense of comfort to her hectic mind.
The people within the campfire however, were anything but comforting to look at.
Yun Jin-Lee was standing in front of all the other survivors, shouting loudly to them about the events of the most recent trial. Not all of the survivors were there Meg noticed. Bill, Jake, Dwight, Claudette, Nea, David, Feng, Laurie, Kate, and Ace were all gone. As well as Quintin, Cheryl, Tapp, and Adam.
The forest did seem darker than usual. Meg wasn't able to make out distant trees and bushes as well as she normally could, in fact it all just felt colder than usual, unnatural. It was off putting and creepy, but she had bigger things to deal with.
Meg didn't hesitate to interrupt Yun Jin's very biased and distorted retelling of he situation. She didn't even need to hear it to know that's what the Asian was doing.
"Where's everyone else?" Meg demanded loudly, looking as everyone turned to look at her, most of them angry, others confused or disbelieving.
Ash was the one to speak up. "Nea tried to follow you into the woods. Then the rest of your friends went looking for you two. Quentin and the others are in a trial." He spat at her, his jaw clenched as he stood looking ready to brawl with her.
Yui interrupted. "So you're really sleeping with The Trapper just to get out of being sacrificed!" She shouted at her, more of a statement than a question, one that Meg sneered at.
"That's not true! I'm not sleeping with anyone! And I certainly don't need to if I wanna escape!" She snarled at them, sensing the growing escalation and her inability to control it. She didn't like where this was going, and though she was doubtful that there was much they could do to hurt her, she didn't feel like having her respite from the trials be just as bad if not worse than the actual trials.
"Liar!" Yun Jin shouted. "I've heard you and your friends, you're even on a freaking first name basis with that animal!" She accused, pointing a finger right at her. Meg wanted to wring her neck for the insult at Evan's humanity.
"Meg is that true?" Nancy asked, looking at Meg and pleading that it wasn't true.
Meg clenched her fists so much her nails dug into her palms, clenched her jaw so tight it hurt, and was one step away from screaming in rage.
"You want the truth!" She yelled. Trying to summon the same strength in her voice that Evan could. "The Trapper spared my life three times when he had me dead to rights. I didn't know why, but the third time he spoke to me he said that something about me was interesting to him. I took a chance because I thought that maybe! Just maybe I could figure out something useful about the Entity. Instead I found out that the Trapper is more than just the mask and the cleaver, he's human and he isn't a monster." Meg said angrily, giving a slight wheeze from breathlessness.
"Am I on a first name basis with him? Yes, because I firmly believe in the end. That the only reason he isn't a survivor like us is because of how horrible his upbringing was." Meg stated, leaving no room for argument as she crossed her arms and stood her ground.
The other survivors stared at her even after she finished speaking. But unfortunately their expressions didn't change. Anger, confusion, disbelief, and horror.
"Do any of you even hear her!" Felix yelled. His face twisted in anger. "Listen to her! She's defending The Trapper, the killer who's never shown us mercy before!" He finished. There were murmurs amongst the survivors.
Jill and Leon stood aside from the main group, not too far as to isolate themselves, but enough to be distinguished as not part of the mob. Jonah and Mikaela were with the two as well, their own lack of time in the realm obviously made them much more open to Meg's actions and the idea of interacting with the killers. Nancy and Steve were in a similar position to them as well. The two talking to each other rapidly in hushed tones as they debated over the obvious hot topic.
Yui broke through the noise of the mob. "I don't buy it for a second! She's sleeping with him and now she's lying to our face to save her own skin!" She shouted, joining Yun Jin in pointing at her like some criminal.
The mob grew louder.
Ash piped in again. "What's to stop you from helping them sacrifice us so you don't die!" His voice was raging and loud. His mechanical hand groaning from the strain he was putting it under, and Meg idly wondered how much it would hurt if he decided to hit her with it.
More noise from the survivors.
Jill and the other three backed further away from the mob, talking amongst themselves and switching their gazes from Meg and everyone else. Steve and Nancy remained where they were. Both of them, particularly Nancy, were looking at her with hurt in their gazes. As if Meg had just kicked their puppy.
Elodie was the next to break through the mob and shout an angry line. "I say we sacrifice her before she does it to us in our sleep!" She yelled. Reminding Meg of those stories of medieval crowds calling for someone's head.
Someone spoke up from the crowd. Meg thought it sounded like Zarina. "Well how are we even supposed to do that! We can't hurt each other!" She shouted as if it was obvious.
Meg however had taken a few steps back at their growing cries for blood or penance. Her foot bumped into the campfire and she almost fell, catching her balance with a squawk.
The mob went quiet when they heard her, all of them turning to look at her, and then the campfire.
Dark fog rolled in like a giant wave from all sides. The whispers of the entity roaring loudly, sounding just like the ones from the trials she'd seen the flaming killer in. They were unintelligible to her, but someone seemed to know how to translate, because Elodie soon shouted.
"It says if we throw her into the fire we'll be free!" Elodie screamed, sounding close to hysterics, and the rest of the mob seemed just a single step behind her.
Jill, Meg, and the other still sane survivors eyes went wide. Meg's from fear, theirs from shock and disbelief.
"Stop!" Jill commanded, yelling out loudly. But it didn't change anything. The mob rushed towards Meg and grabbed her as the whispers of the entity grew ever louder. Meg did her best to fight back, throwing several punches into peoples noses and not even slightly hesitating to kick them in between the legs regardless of who it was, but when Ash's metal fist collided with her stomach she felt something crack, and all the breathe left her lungs. At that point it was over, and by the time Meg had regained her senses she had been lifted up despite all her kicking and screaming and was carried to the campfire.
She looked around frantically, Nancy and Steve were just standing there watching like headless chickens!
Jill and Leon were wrestling with two other survivors on the edges of the mob, but they couldn't make it through. Even though the both of them sent Jeff and Jane sprawling to the floor in a groaning heap.
Just when Meg thought she was done for she heard Bill's voice from the distance. The mob froze, Ash, Zarina, and Yui stopped moving, but she was still up in the air. Then all of her friends rushed out of the fog, David and Bill never stopping and barreling head first into the people carrying her. All the rest except Kate and Claudette jumped into the fray. Meg was dropped without warning, hitting the dirt with a harsh thump and having the wind knocked out of her again. She rolled over to see Bill pulling her up before letting her go to dodge a punch from Jeff, and responding with his own to the metal head's throat.
Everyone had completely dissolved into hysterics.
Meg caught herself from completely falling, Feng catching her and hauling her to her feet. Meg swiveled out of Feng's arms as the Asian turned to face a furious looking Yui. Meg saw Nea and Laurie on either side of Elodie, Laurie using a rock to hit the cultist with in the head whenever Nea finished punching the third girl first.
In all the chaos, Meg ended up right back where she started, the back of her heels pressed against the rocks surrounding the campfire. Her friends were scattered and brawling with the other survivors, Bill was right next to her as he beat Felix bloody. For a brief moment, Meg thought that this might just turn around in her favor, and that she wasn't about to be sacrificed.
Then she turned to see Yun Jin Lee charging right at her.
The producer wasn't sprinting, her heels would never allow it, but she'd managed to slip through the gaps of her friends and foes alike to get close. When she was close enough, too close for Meg to react. Yun Jin's hands lashed out and hit her hard in the chest, too hard for her to stay upright.
Meg fell backwards into the campfire. The fire didn't hurt at first, but it only lasted a second before all she felt was agony. Her clothes burnt off of her back, the skin scorched and bubbling from the heat as she screamed in pain. But the fire was merciless. It covered her entire back, creeping up her neck and the back of her arms. Meg's head had missed the fire, falling over the other end of the circle of rocks. But all it meant was she got an unrestricted view as a familiar black appendage of the Entity emerged from the fire and through her stomach like the end of a world collapse.
More appendages wrapped around her body, pulling her down against the orange and red hot embers. Meg could only watch as her hands were engulfed in flames, the skin peeling away and blistering, which was then ignored as the appendage that pierced her stomach turned and stabbed downwards at her face.
Then, Darkness.