Gift of Hope

Chapter 13 of my crossover story, now things take a sudden...turn.

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Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Life is Strange, Until Dawn or their characters.

Chapter 13

Standing before the mirror in just her red panties and matching bra, which she had changed into after returning to her dorm after a shower, Sam bit her lip, still thinking.

'I promised Ash I'd find answers, I...There it is again, that strange feeling.' She noticed, before focusing again. 'I need to stay focused, something wasn't right about that barn, especially when we didn't find anything. I don't think we've hit a dead end, I don't think whoever is behind this, moved somewhere else.'

She wasn't sure how, but she just felt that something was still waiting to be found in the barn; something that was always there, they had just missed it.

Sighing she made up her mind. 'I have to go back there, find out what's going on...Now, to get dressed, I'll need some sort of cover, in case I end up running into someone who wonders what I'm doing out there.'

Thinking for a moment she made up her mind and finally found suitable clothes. She quickly pulled on a pair of red athletic shorts, a black tank-top, white ankle socks and a pair of black sneakers.

She smiled and nodded. 'Just looks like I'm out for an afternoon jog now...Just have to be careful getting there. I need to hurry, before it's too late.'

So, taking a deep breath, she left her dorm, preparing to head towards the barn; knowing she had a long trip to make, especially as, to maintain her cover, she couldn't take a car or any sort of vehicle.

Finally reaching the barn, Sam carefully made her way inside.

'Alright nearly there.' She thought. 'Let's see...'

Looking around she began searching the area carefully. As she walked around, taking in everything and searching for clues, she began to notice something odd. The sound of her footsteps. There were parts of the floor where they sounded different, compared to the rest.

Intrigued she began to walk around and, when the sound of her footsteps changed, Sam immediately brushed that spot clean. Nothing happened, nothing was found, until she reached the corner directly opposite the one they had entered by before. When she brushed the hay away from this part of the floor Sam stepped back, surprised uncovered a trap door, securely locked with another heavy duty padlock.

'Man, this is crazy, there's definitely something here. I just need to, find a way to open it.' She thought to herself. 'No way can I break that lock myself, doubt the key is here, hmmm...'

Looking around she saw something that could work. One of the ropes for the pulleys was loose. Grinning Sam hurried over and pulled on it, it moved easily. She quickly pulled it over and tied it securely to the padlock. Now she just needed to get to the upper level.

No easy task as there was no ladder or anything to get her up to that ledge, just out of reach. Luckily Sam had her usual skills.

"Alright, you can do this, girl." Sam remarked, giving herself a small pep talk.

With a measured breath, Sam used as much strength as she could, and leapt up, catching the edge.

"Got it."
She used the strength in her arms to pull herself up and got up onto the ledge. She took a small run to give herself the lift she needed to reach the next ledge and again pulled herself up. Dusting off her shorts and legs she looked around.

'Ah, perfect.' She noted.

Heading to the other end of the pulley rope she attached it to the generator next to the ledge. Then, with a quick prayer this would work, she pushed the generator off the ledge with her foot. It fell and Sam tensed as she heard the loud clanging, she carefully glanced over the ledge and saw that the padlock had indeed been shorn clean off.

Still grinning she jumped down carefully to the lower ledge, then again to the floor.

'Okay, this has gotta be it, what's under here...' Sam wondered to herself.

She nodded and approaching the trap door she took a deep breath and opened the it; immediately struck by the smell. The barn was musty and old smelling, but this area, which actually looked more modern, with plain white walls and steps leading down to a corridor of sorts, smelled clean, almost sterile. Sam shuddered as she felt as if she had just opened the jaws of the abyss, there was no going back now.

Grimacing Sam slowly, carefully made her way down the stairs towards another large door, this one secured with a number pad lock.

'You've gotta be fucking kidding me...' Sam thought incredulous. 'Somebody has really got something to hide.'

She sighed as she examined the code pad and noticed three of the numbers were heavily worn.

'Two, four and five...so the code is some sort of number...made up with those three…' Sam reflected.

Pondering for a moment she tried to input one code and, when that didn't work, tried another.

She groaned. 'Urgh, c'mon...this is, ridiculous...'

Reaching into the pockets of her shorts she felt something and pulled it out.

"Huh?" She muttered.

Then her eyes widened, it was a slip of paper. The numbers on it that was part of their clues on Nathan. One of them was highlighted.

"Could it be..."

So she hit the code 542 and sure enough, the door unlocked.

Opening it Sam was incredulous. 'You gotta be kidding me.'

Stepping over the threshold Sam couldn't shake the ominous feeling within in that made her shudder.

What she found was even more disturbing than the exterior area. It was a large room, everything in it was almost sterile, white roof, white walls, white floor, the only bits of colour were the furniture, chairs, tables, cabinets and such, all in either black or grey. The only other things in the room that stood out were a computer attached to a large expensive printer on a desk in one corner, also, one large area seemed to be set up for a photo shoot. It suddenly dawned on her that this was some sort of photography Dark Room. Immediately she remembered something they had found in the Principal's office, on Nathan's file. 'Rachel in the Dark Room'.

'Seems, pretty relevant now, need to look through this place carefully.' I thought.

She began searching, finding many disturbing and strange things, mostly duct tape, syringes and drugs, she was reminded of Kate and Ashley's stories of how they ended up drugged and she cringed. Ashley had been brought here, so had Kate and Sam was sure Rachel had been brought here too. But why and what was going on, what was the purpose of this room. Sam soon found out, when she opened one of the closets; it opened to show a huge collection of red binders, all with names on them.

'Holy shit, Rachel...Kate, that's...fuck, that's Ashley's name.' Sam noticed in horror.

Said horror only grew worse when she moved to the desk, standing facing the cabinet the binders came from, she set them down.

Opening them she gasped in horror; for inside were several photos of the three girls in question; all of them tied up, drugged.

She gasped in horror. 'Who would even do this, oh this is so sick...'

She was still observing the photos, trying to figure out anything when suddenly something happened.

"No!" She cried out, staggering.

For, just as Ashley and Kate said, she felt a sharp sting in her neck and almost at once, she felt her body growing sluggish, her vision beginning to fade. But as she hit the ground, before blacking out, she saw something.

'No it, it can't be...'

But she finally saw the person behind it all, for standing over her, was Mark Jefferson.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.