Meg walked back through the woods with a slight limp. She grunted as she took one small step at a time, making sure to keep as much weight off her right foot as she could. It had been a particularly rough day for trials. From The Trappers traps almost snapping her ankle in half to the blood that seeped down her back from The Huntress' hatchets, she had certainly seen better days.
Luckily, every wound on her body would be gone when she woke up. One half decent night sleep and just like that it's like she never even stepped foot in a trial. It had to have something to do with The Entity she always assumed, some kind of regeneration process when the survivors slept, maybe. Trials are no fun if there's an unfair advantage in the chases. After all, it's not very entertaining to send a survivor crawling into a trial just to be ripped to shreds without a fight. Where's the fun in that? Make sure your survivors are fit and strong to give the killers a run for their money.

The Entity was one sick monster. Stupid spider. Stupid trials. Everything hurt.

Meg finally reached the pile of leaves along the path and plopped down against a tree a few feet away from it, her hands falling to the ground with a soft crunch as her body went limp. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the bark, taking a moment to catch her breath and enjoy the feeling of the breeze against her sweaty face. She wanted just a few minutes to rest before she drifted off to sleep just like always.

Ding!

Oh, right. This wasn't always.

She lazily fished the phone from her pocket and glared at the bright screen. She must have accidentally turned it on during a trial. Maybe when the hillbilly shredded her shoulder with a fucking chainsaw he accidentally kicked the power button or something. Who knows.

God she was in a really crappy mood. NightDream would just have to deal with her right now if they really wanted to talk that badly.

"One new message from NightDream!"

She tapped on the notification and their chat logs popped up.

ND: Any chance you're free now?

The message came through the moment she sat down, not even five minutes after the trails for the survivors ended. Interesting. She'd have to think about that one a little bit later when she felt like it. She moved her other hand to the phone and began to answer.

HW: Are any of us really free? Aren't we all trapped some way? Be it a dead end job or in an endless hell-ish loop?

ND: That's pretty dramatic. Something happen?

HW: Nothing you need to know about.

ND: Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to overstep. Do you want to talk about it?

God, this person and their talking. Talk, talk, talk, that's all they ever wanted to do.

HW: Do I wanna TALK about it? Why do you care? You don't know me.

ND: I want to.

HW: Sure you do. I'm just some person over the phone. Once again, why do you CARE?

ND: Because I care about how you feel. I don't know you, but that can change. I don't like seeing anyone upset, I see enough of that at my job. Please, just give me a chance and talk to me about what is bothering you, okay?

…huh. Meg started to feel a little bad about how she'd been talking to them. She knew she was being a bitch but being killed every single day for hours on end does that to a person, doesn't it? She let out a sigh.

HW: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off as an asshole, I'm just frustrated.

ND: About what?

She'd have to make something up she realized as she twirled her thumbs over the keypad, wondering how to respond. She could create a persona. Someone she can hide behind while still being able to be vulnerable when she needed to be. She couldn't do that around the other survivors because she needed to be strong around them. This was an opportunity to be weak sometimes. Meg smiled a little at the though as she crafted a web of lies inside of her head. A web of lies that can tell her story through the eyes of someone else with the same mind. She began typing as a small wave of clarity came over her.

HW: Just some people from my class. I'm going to college and I have to work on this group project with some people I don't know and the teacher is being a real pain about it. He keeps distracting us from what we're supposed to be doing. It's just frustrating is all. It's every day. It seems like this project is never going to be finished.

ND: Oh, it's just a school project? I'm sure you and your partners can come up with a solution to getting it done faster.

God, if only they knew.

HW: It's not that simple. We go to the library for some quiet and the teacher finds us there and starts bugging us, then we go to the cafeteria and the same thing happens. It seems like there's no escape from them.

ND: That teacher sounds like a creep.

HW: Tell me about it.

ND: It's kind of similar where I work. I don't talk to my coworkers much but when I'm heading home I bump into them sometimes and they try to make conversation. I'm not interested in being friends with the people I work with, but they always try and talk to me and they just wont get the message. There's this one guy named Randy who just wont stop bugging me. We even get in fights sometimes… so I guess I kind of get where you're coming from.

HW: Annoying people, am I right?

ND: Very.

HW: Where do you work?

ND: Office job. I make sure the company is spending the right amount of money every day.

HW: My god, an ACCOUNTANT? I'm so sorry to hear about that. You poor thing.

ND: Spare me. It's the same thing every single day. It was a blessing I got this phone, I've never had one before. I just wanted to mix things up a little, you know?

HW: I get that. How did you get this account anyway? Why did you message me?

ND: There was this program on my phone and your contact was the only one listed. I figured I might as well send you a message. It seemed easier to message a stranger than to go and talk to real people.

HW: PFFFF I feel that on a spiritual level. Real people suck.

ND: There's some good ones, but not many.

HW: Not many at all. One of the guys in my group, his name is Peter, he's so useless. All he ever does is sit there and tell everyone what to do and disappears when we actually need him for once. Such an ass.

ND: Sounds like one. I bet him and Randy would get along pretty well.

HW: Two assholes in one room together? That's a recipe for disaster. I don't know if you'd want to unleash that duo on the world.

ND: I can't argue with you there. I think the world could use a few less assholes, let alone them getting together and being an unstoppable force. What a combination.

HW: YES! God just image all the shit they would get into-

This carried on for some period of time. Meg hadn't even slept yet but she had completely forgotten all about her pain. After who knows how long of talking to this person Meg slowly drifted off to sleep, her phone sliding down her lap and landing softly in the grass. The person she'd been speaking to however, stayed very awake.

ND: Hello?
ND: HiddenWhisper?
ND: I'm guessing you fell asleep.
ND: Thank you for messaging me for a while. It means a lot to me. I don't get to talk to people like this and it was really nice. Let's do it again some time.
ND: Sweet dreams.

Strangely that last message would be nowhere to be found the next time Meg checked her phone.