Three weeks. It had been three weeks since the day The Entity had slammed Evan against a tree and sent Meg back to the campfire with nothing left but despair and tears. She hadn't said one word to anyone, not even Claudette, her closest friend. She wanted to, but what could she possibly say? There were no words in the English language that she could string together to describe to gut wrenching loneliness and sense of loss that plagued Meg's every waking moment.

Meg rolled over onto her side and tucked her hands under her head. She hadn't had a decent night's sleep in weeks, so she didn't even know why she bothered. She sighed and sat up, shakily rising to her feet and walking over to a tree on the edge of the clearing where the campfire and the motionless forms of her fellow survivors resided. She leaned against it and lowered her head in thought, her mind skimming over the past several weeks in her mind on a constant loop.

"Oi, what'cha doin' up at this hour, Meg?"

The red head lifted her eyes to see David walking towards her, his hands in his jacket pockets. Meg brushed a few strands of hair behind her ears and crossed her arms, avoiding his questioning gaze, "Just thinking."

He leaned against a tree next to hers, turning his attention to the ground, "You know, if you need to talk about whatever the hell happened to you while you were gone, you're among friends here, you know that right?" He let out a breath that could have been a chuckle, "Us survivor gotta stick together, don't we? We're all we got."

"I just don't even know what to say. It's not like I don't want to talk about it, it's just that I don't think any of you would understand. This is something I just have to deal with on my own."

She saw David look up at her from the corner of her eye, "I've been where you are, Meg. The loneliness is suffocatin' and it feels like you can't breathe, right? Well believe me when I tell you," his gaze drifted over the sleeping form of the most recent addition to their team, her curly blonde hair puffed around her face as she slept, "You have to let others share your pain if they're willing. Whatever happened, it was quite obviously a lot, and it's not somethin' you can carry on your own, bruv. Trust me, I've been where you are."

Meg let out a disbelieving chuckle that held no humor, "I really doubt that."

"Regardless," He stood up straight and took a few steps away, stopping to throw over his shoulder before leaving, "My words still hold true. I'll give you space now, but consider what I said. Cheers."

When he returned to Kate's side, Meg felt his presence leave her side like it had been sucked out of the air with a vacuum and the emptiness settled back into it's place in her heart. She hadn't even realized that it had gone when David had come over. She clenched her fists in frustration and kicked the tree she was against with her heel. David wad right, of course he was right. She knew she was being ridiculous just stewing in her own pain alone, but it was all she had to remember that everything was real. That Evan had existed, and that their love was real, but she didn't need pain to remember that, did she? She felt the pressure in her stomach lessen slightly as she came to a decision. She was going to tell the others. They had a right to know, after all. They had been to hell and back together, died together, saved each other's lives, and while Meg hadn't felt any connection to then prior to meeting The Trapper, she knew now what she truly had in this hell hole. Just maybe, together, they could set this right. Maybe. Meg lowered herself to the ground and brought her knees to her chest, content to wait for the others to rise so she could finally tell them what they deserved to know, and what she desperately needed to talk about. The sound of the slight breeze rustling the leaves above her relaxed her just enough for her to get lost in her mind once again.

The trials would be starting soon, and Meg had sat against that same tree for hours wondering to herself how she was going to tell these people what she'd been doing for the past several months. Why she'd come back closed off and shutting everyone out violently from her every waking moment, including her best friend, Claudette who was the first person she needed to tell, just to test the waters. She raised her head to see the dark haired girl speaking to Nea, a smile on her face. They were laughing and whispering to themselves and seemed like they were genuinely having a nice conversation. A good time. Meg missed that more than she realized.

While laughing, Claudette sent Meg a passing glance and did a double take when she caught the red-head looking in her direction sadly. Meg's eyes went wide for a second before she looked away, slightly embarrassed. Claudette excused herself from the conversation with Nea who just shrugged and turned away. Claudette began making her way towards Meg who drew her knees closer to herself, her heart racing at one-hundred miles an hour. How would she even start? She wasn't ready. She needed more-

"Hey, Meg."

Claudette lowered herself next to Meg and crossed her legs, fiddling with the bottom of her pants as she looked over to the grieving girl next to her, "What's on your mind?"

Meg sighed and straightened her legs out, her hands plopping on the ground next to her, "God, where do I even begin?"

"Talk to me."

And so she did.

Meg started from the beginning, filling in all the blanks that the smaller girl didn't know about. She told her about NightDream blocking her, she told her about their arguments, and finally, about their meeting.

"You met him?" Claudette let out a breath in disbelief, "Wh- how...?"

Meg gave an empty smile and trained her gaze to the ground, "NightDream was in The Nightmare all along. It seems like a few people here got cell phones, it wasn't just us."

Claudette's jaw dropped in shock. She stared at Meg, unable to breathe until she looked away and adjusted the glasses on her nose, "NightDream is a survivor? How is that even possible? None of the others have been disappearing like we-"

"He's not a survivor."

Brown eyes snapped to blue, a shine of fear and worry flashing in them for a brief moment, "He's... You're not saying what I think you are."

Meg matched her gaze and gave another heartless smile, "I am. He's a killer. He's killed you, he's killed me, he's killed all of us hundreds of times."

Claudette looked like she didn't know if she wanted to be mad or shocked, and she seemed to settle for an unstable mix of both, "i don't... I can't even... Process this! A killer! You fell in love with-" She stood to her feet and began pacing in front of the red-head with her hand on her forehead in disbelief, "A killer!"

Meg scrambled up next to her and put a hand on her arm, "Shhh! The others don't know about any of this!"

Claudette snatched her arm away and stared at her, seeming to finally settle on anger, "Well they should! This is wrong, Meg!" She wanted to scream but forced herself to whisper-yell instead, "How the fuck could you fall in love with a killer of all the people! A fucking murderer Meg!"

"I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, Claudette! But he's... he's not a killer, well, I mean he is, but... it's not like that. He's different!"

"Different?! He murders people, Meg!"

"He doesn't want to!" Meg spat. Claudette crossed her arms and glared at the taller girl, waiting for an explanation. Meg sighed again and lowered her head, "Claudette, some of the killers are just like us. Just like how we don't have a choice to be in the trials, the killers don't either!"

Claudette seemed to hesitate at that, the anger fading from her features slightly, "...Really? I guess I never even thought of that. I just figured they all wanted to be here." Claudette lowered her hands and gave Meg a sad look, "Which... Which one is he?"

"The Trapper."

She looked surprised, "The Trapper? He could throw all four survivors across the map at once if he wanted to! I never even considered the killers people- I mean, he's such a huge scary looking guy, I just thought..." She trailed off in thought. Meg had to guess she was recalling all the conversations she's had with Evan herself, all the good times and chats they'd had.

"His name is Evan."

"Evan. Ha, that's so fitting. God damn it." Claudette began pacing again and thinking to herself, then remembered that Meg had been sulking for weeks for a reason, "What happened when you two met? Did he hurt you?"

Meg flinched, "No! No, he would never do that. It was The Entity. He took the form of a man and said that we weren't allowed to see each other, and he was going to take Evan away from me and he got mad and-" Meg's breath hitched in her throat and she choked back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes any second, "We haven't seen him in trials since then, Claudette. What if The Entity killed him? What if he's dead and ill never see him again?"

Claudette pulled Meg into a hug and held her tight, patting her on the back and offering what little comfort that she could, "I'm sure he's okay, Meg. Maybe he's just in trouble? Maybe The Clown has just been taking his place as punishment? he is new after all, maybe he has to, i don't know, prove himself?"

"I hope you're right." She sniffled and pulled away from the shorter girl after a few more moments, wiping her eyes.

Claudette decided to address the elephant in the room, "Are you going to tell the others?"

"Yes, I'm going to. I just needed to tell you first." Meg frowned and looked into Claudette's eyes, "They're not going to take it well, are they?"

She shook her head, "I don't think so, but it's the right thing to do. They deserve to know."

Meg nodded and stood up straight, finally feeling a little bit of courage flow back through her after all this time, "You're right. I'm going to tell them now." She smiled and gave the smaller girl another quick hug, "Thank you for understanding, Claudette. You're a true friend."

She smiled and gave Meg a playful punch, "Of course, dummy. I won't even pretend to understand what this all means, and I'm not sure how i'm going to completely re-evaluate everything I know about killers, but maybe that's what we all need to do. It's time that we begin to figure things out. Maybe we can even go a little nuts and hope that we just might be able to get out of here one day?"

Meg laughed and gave her a genuine smile, "That's what I like to hear!" she turned away and let her eyes trail over the other survivors as they went about their business, finding small moments of happiness among each other before the trials began. She took a deep breath and started walking towards the campfire, "Time to put everything on the line."