Mike sat, puzzled.
His brows furrowed, looking for a question to ask, but finding nothing. Her had tangled himself up in this story that dodging around it would be impossible at this point.
"You've got me confused" he reluctantly admitted.
Ke$ha smirked, her lips lighting up in a devilish smile.
"Don't blame me, blame the killers."
"And one of them is Michelle, correct?"
She looked up at Mike, and continued her story.
"It wasn't me, I swear" Michelle said, holding her hands up in a gesture of innocence.
"Then explain why your lipstick is on Alex's face" Jan retorted, looking down at the dead body, it's cheek bearing the mark the killer had falsely planted on it's face.
"You believe me, right?" she said, looking at Steven, her face flushed red.
"I don't know, Michelle" Steven said, pushing his hands through his hair, looking tired and confused.
"You honestly think I have the capacity to kill someone?" she exclaimed, watery tears blurring her vision.
"I don't" Steven murmured from the side.
"And you're her boyfriend" Vivian sniped.
"It's obvious she did it. I mean, who else would leave her lipstick on Alex's face? It's not like the killer is smart."
"That's a total pile of bullshit," Claire said, glaring at Vivian.
"I thought you were with me on this!" Vivian shot back.
"Yeah, but the stupid notion that the killer isn't anything short of a genius really makes me wonder if it really is Michelle" Claire retorted.
"She couldn't have done it" Lauri chimed in.
"Why not?" Jane sliced.
"Because she was with me when we heard the car"
"I was there too" Mark added.
"Why would it pick Michelle of all people though? Because she seems the least likely?" Jane questioned.
"Whatever the case, I'm keeping my eye on you" Vivian said, glaring in Michelle's direction.
"God, I am so done with you" Michelle shot before storming into the woods, the thick woods enveloping her.
"Michelle, wait!" Steven shouted before she vanished into the trees.
"Shit" Jan said, looking out.
"She's a sitting duck now, and she brought it upon herself. Sucks to suck. We need to keep moving" Vivian said, beginning the walk back to the house.
During Vivian's hasty move, one of her bracelets had fallen off, landing on the ground near Alex's body.
A figure swept by, grabbing the trinket off of the sod, a malicious cackle ringing through the woods.
"I don't know why we keep coming back here" Mark stated, the dark walls of the cabin making him feel more uncomfortable by the second.
"Because it's the only place that we can see everything. Since none of you can be bothered to lock the doors, the killer already breached the security system and found it's way in" Jane replied, closing the curtains of one of the porch windows.
"I just want to go home" Claire moaned from the couch.
"Me too" Jan said, patting Claire on the back.
"Well, you aren't getting home at this point" Steven shouted from the stairwell.
Before Claire could continue her sentiment, Lauri rushed into the living room, her face red with confusion and anger.
"They stole all of it!" she screamed, her eyes bulging with disbelief.
"Stole what, you crazy bitch?" Jane retorted.
"The food!"
The group gasped, sharing looks of worry with each other. The police weren't set to arrive for another thirty hours at the earliest, which meant more than a day without food, which is essentially a day without energy.
"So it doesn't even want to let us try to fight back" Jan said with disbelief.
"It's doing this on purpose. It's cutting off our resources one by one in the hope that we'll be baited to come looking for them, and one by one it can kill us" Mark commented, looking out towards the lake.
"This is just a big game of cat and mouse" Claire said, her face vacant of emotion.
The room went silent.
Marks ears picked up a small whirring sound coming from the ceiling.
"Do you hear tha-"
A collection of small, large, colored balls fell from the ceiling window.
Upon closer inspection, the group realized they weren't just balls.
Sparks flew from short fuses attacked to the base of these objects.
"You're fucking KIDDING me!" Claire exclaimed before being grabbed by Jan, pushing her outside of the house.
Everyone ran in separate directions before the balls erupted with a loud BANG. The sound of furniture smashing could be heard, and most of them sprinted towards the woods.
Lauri had a different idea.
She ran to the side of the house and began to scale the walls.
"What are you doing?" Jane screeched, her voice full of panic.
"I'm putting an end to this once and for all."
Lauri arrived on the roof to be greeted by a figure in a black hoodie.
"Why are you doing this?" Lauri questioned, inching closer and closer to the figure.
Lauri lunged at the killer, running across the roof tiles towards her enemy.
This did not last long.
Her foot caught on one of the rough edges of the polyhedral roof, and she stumbled, her body rolling towards the edge.
As she clung on, the figure walked towards her.
It took out a lighter, placing three of the explosives on either side of Lauri, holding her fingers down with its boots.
It lifted up one finger, placing it over it's face, an ominous 'Shh' emitting from its mouth.
"Its you!" Lauri screamed.
The figure stepped back, and the firecrackers lit off.
Twilight came to the young woman's eyes.
Figures surrounded her, looking at her with worry.
"She fell hard" she heard one of them say.
Fell hard where?
She touched her head.
Blood.
"My head hurts" she said aloud.
"Hey, she can talk!" one of them exclaimed.
Reality began coming back to her.
She saw the faces above her.
Vivian.
Jane.
Steven.
Jan.
Claire.
Mark.
"Where's Michelle?"
"She ran into the woods, remember?" a blonde figure replied. Vivian.
"Why?"
Time froze.
Why did Michelle run into the woods?
She searched her brain, her heart beating, pulsing through her veins.
She remembered the clearing; she remembered Alex's body.
"What time is it?"
"It's around six" a delicate girl in the back replied. Claire.
She nodded her head, worry, etching her face.
"Lauri" Jane said, lifting her off of the ground.
"Do you remember the roof? Do you remember fighting with the killer?"
"I fought the killer?"
"Yes."
"Did I win?"
"No."
"What happened?"
"Shit" Jan said from the side.
"She has no clue" Claire muttered.
"What are you talking about?" Lauri asked, looking up at them.
"Lauri, the killer shot you off the roof."
Lauri's face paled, her heart sinking to her stomach.
"We thought you were dead."
Michelle twirled in the woods, the sunlight dampened by the tall trees.
The birds flew, hurriedly searching for food, attempting to feed their young.
Squirrels dashed about, jumping from limb to limb, constantly on the lookout for predators.
Michelle saw a raccoon darting through the tree trunks, but once it saw her, it made haste in the other direction.
She danced through the trees, humming 'Video Games', by Lana del Rey, or as Michelle fondly called her, 'Jesus.'
She arrived in a different clearing than the last. This one was denser, and less light let through. Moss clung to the dark green trees, and the air was moist and humid, but calming at the same time.
A bench sat near a tree, covered in moss and vines. Michelle sat on it, collecting her thoughts.
A twig snapped nearby.
"Hello?" Michelle called out, jolting up from her seat.
A figure in a white gown appeared out of the forest, coming towards Michelle.
"Don't be scared, my little Angel" the figure cooed.
Lana Del Rey stood before Michelle, her long red fingernails tracing the contours of Michelle's face as she shook with happiness.
"Is it really you?" Michelle whispered, her eyes watering.
"Yes, my dear. Come sit," she said, gesturing Michelle towards the bench.
"I must tell you about your future"
"You know about… my future?" Michelle questioned. She never realized Lana was actually Jesus reincarnated, but, anything is possible.
"Yes, Michelle."
"Am I going to live?" Michelle asked, fear etching her eyes.
"That is up to you" Lana replied, smiling.
"But you said…"
"Those are events I cannot predict. They are based entirely off of variables I have no way of predicting."
"Oh…" Michelle said, looking down.
"But I do know this."
"Yeah?"
"You are going to fight. You are going to fight, and no matter if you live or die, you will go down as a hero."
"Do you know who the killer is?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me?"
"Absolutely not."
"Why?"
"Because that would ruin the point of destiny. I did not choose to put your friends in danger, fate and destiny did."
While Michelle pondered this, Lana's pocket bleeped.
"Oh!" she said with surprise. "Hold on."
She pulled out her bedazzled iPhone, the word "BITCH" emblazoned on the back.
"I just got a snapchat from God, I need to reply."
She held her iPhone up and puckered her lips. She made a peace sign with her hands and clicked the shutter button.
"There we go" she said as the put the phone back into her pocket.
"Anyways, what was I saying?"
"Fate, destiny, the killer…" Michelle replied, looking confused.
"Ahh yes, the killer, or should I say, killers! It is someone much closer to you than you think!"
"So it's one of the people on the island?"
"Why do you assume it's one of your friends? Most of them are under the impression that it's you."
"But it's not me!"
"I know that. You were set up, and that's entirely not your fault."
"What should I do?"
"Regain trust."
"How?"
"Christ, you ask a lot of questions."
Michelle retreated, shrugging against the tree.
"You have to prove to them it wasn't you. One of them was almost just killed, and you're the only person in the group missing."
"Wait, WHAT?!"
"Your friend Lauri was just fired off of the roof, and she's lost all memory of the past few hours."
"I need to go help her…"
"Yes, you do."
Michelle got up from the bench and began heading out of the clearing.
She turned to ask Lana one final question.
"Is this real?"
"Only if you believe it is" she replied, before fading into the depths of the forest.
Darkness had begun to sink in. The group gathered in the front yard, the light from the lamps illuminating their shadowy figures.
Michelle ran up, pushing past Vivian and hugging Lauri.
"What happened?" she asked, Vivian shooting her an ugly glare.
"She nearly got killed – ironic you should ask, considering you're the only person that wasn't there with us" Vivian sniped, a nasty smile darkening her face.
"I didn't do it" she replied, looking towards the group for approval.
"We saw the figure" Jane said.
"And?"
"It was too tall to be you."
"So how did you not see who it was?"
"All of us had split up in different directions. There's no possible way we could know who it was" Jan interjected.
"It's one of us" Michelle said, the group turning to face her with disbelief.
"And how do you know this?" Mark questioned, looking at Michelle with surprise.
"Lana told me."
"Oh for CHIRST'S sake!" Vivian shouted.
"Look, I know it sounds harebrained, but wouldn't it make sense?"
"Why would any one of us want to kill each other?" Mark asked.
"Revenge?" Claire suggested.
"Payback?" Lauri mused.
"Woo Hoo leaking?" Steven contributed.
"Either way, it's plausible."
"Well obviously, considering you're the obvious killer" Vivian spat at Michelle.
"If I was the killer you would have been dead days ago" Michelle shot back.
Vivian retreated near Claire, and the group dispersed amongst themselves, picking out different spots along the front yard.
Nighttime had fallen.
Jan, Lauri, and Mark had dozed off into a deep sleep, but Claire was wide-awake.
The forest was quiet. The birds had stopped chirping, and the squirrels had retreated into their nightly quarters.
Everything was calm.
Too calm.
A loud bang, followed by a splash of bright lights, came rushing through the woods.
Everyone shot up, and the sleepers awoke from their daze, startled by the loud noise.
"What was that?" Vivian shouted to Claire
"Fireworks!" she screamed as another bang set off, a spark narrowly missing Claire's face.
"We have to move!" Mark screamed as him and Michelle ran into the woods.
Lauri stumbled towards the house in fear.
A smashing sound echoed from behind her as one of the lamps exploded into pieces.
"Get away!" Steven yelled, trying to push Claire out the way.
"Claire" he huffed. "We need to leave."
She stood still, fear etching her eyes as they grew wider with every burst.
"Claire" Jan said, running up to the group, giving Steven a look.
"She won't move. She won't even talk to me."
Jan grabbed Claire, and picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder as they ran towards the fountain.
"Hide in here" he said to Steven, pushing him and Claire behind a large shrub, concealed from view.
"I'll be back, I promise."
The sky danced and dazzled with bright colors of neon and gold, pink and white.
The figure became illuminated with each and every burst of color, coming closer with every explosion.
Jane knew what she had to do.
"Where are you going?" Jan yelled at her.
"To finish what I started" she replied, cocking her shotgun.
Jane approached the figure, aiming her shotgun at her target thirty feet away.
"Any last words?" she shouted, ready to fire.
A fuse sparked.
Jane froze up before coming back to reality.
She pointed and aimed, the shotgun letting out a loud blast.
The bullet narrowly missed the figure.
She heard a 'thud' next to her feet.
It was too late.
The firecracker erupted with a loud 'boom', sending Jane flying into the air.
"NO!" Jan screamed as her blouse lit on fire.
She landed with a deafening snap, her spine twisted in a gruesome angle, and Jan ran forward, grabbing the shotgun from the ground.
He saw the figure running into the distance, and fired.
"Fuck you!" he screamed as he watched the figure disappear into the darkness.
"Get some water!" he screamed to Steven.
Steven came back with a bucket from the fountain, pouring it on to Jane's blouse.
"Jane?"
"Y-y-yeah?" she managed to murmur.
"You're going to be all right. We're going to make it through this" he said, tears pouring out of his eyes.
"I'm ready," she whispered.
"Jane. Jane, stay with us. Jane! JANE!"
Her grip on his hands loosened, and her body relaxed. Her eyes went vacant, looking out into the starry sky.
"She's dead."
"What the hell were you thinking?" the Figure snapped to its accomplice.
"I didn't mean to get that close" the other replied.
"It doesn't matter if you meant to or not. You still did it, and almost died in the process."
"Well, you cut it pretty close with Lauri earlier, so I wouldn't be talking" the accomplice sniped.
"We don't have time for this. We have less than twenty four hours until the police are supposed to get here."
"Don't worry. They won't make it."
The figure pulled out Vivian's bracelets, the shining silver sheen glimmering in the moonlight.
"Perfect" the other muttered, a wicked smile lighting up it's face.