Meg felt nostalgia well up in her at the sight of her old clothes. She had just been handed the same clothes she'd came to the facility in the day she had entered The Fog, and boy was she glad her fashion taste hadn't been horrendous the day she'd shown up.
She'd been wearing black jeans with white and grey converse sneakers. She put on the same black shirt she'd come in with. It had green words on the chest, which then turned blue as they went farther down the shirt. The font looked like messy paintbrush strokes, and it said "No Bench, No Halftime, No Timeouts, Just Run."
Meg smiled at the shirt, remembering the moment she'd first seen it in the store and how she'd just had to have it. It had perfectly encapsulated her mindset and obsession with running. Now, she still held the love for it, but found some humor in it, and had found more fulfilling things in her life.
Finally, after the pants, shirt, and shoes, she had been wearing a denim jacket as well. It held the same shape as a letterman jacket, and was a bit wider than her shoulders and torso, especially after loosing so much muscle mass. Thankfully, as Meg checked herself out in the bathroom mirror, she felt that she was still able to pull it off. The jacket hid her muscle deficiency quite well.
Meg also had been given a couple of hair ties with the rest of her clothes as well and remembered how she'd habitually tied her hair into three French braids. It had been so consistent with her that she'd done it even at school and other places.
That wasn't to say she'd never let it down before. She'd done it at parties and at certain times she went out when she was trying to look her absolute best. But that had been just purely for attention.
Meg held the ties in her palm, looking at them and considering tying her hair up.
It shouldn't have felt as such, but Meg felt a creeping sensation in her gut looking at them. She wasn't going running anytime within the next few days; she'd be too busy settling back into her house with her mom. She also wasn't the same person anymore.
These braids she held felt almost like a relic of a bygone era. But that was stupid of her, it wasn't like she was never going to run again. Heck, she'd be running like the old days soon enough to get back into shape. But wearing her hair like that, even when she was just going to be leaving a hospital and going home for the first time in months, felt unnecessary and almost obsessive.
Running wasn't the only thing in her life now. It wasn't something she did to avoid the stress of her mom's condition like in high school and even long after. Running also wasn't something she did to cope with the loneliness that came after high school anymore.
Meg had cut her high school friends completely out of her life after graduation. She didn't want them pressuring her into going to stupid frat parties again. She was glad to not have anymore bad influences and people who only pretended to care about her. But it didn't mean she hadn't been lonely.
She wasn't meant to go all alone without much human contact. She'd wanted to have a circle of friends she could've gone to anytime, and not having that and being so isolated had kept her miserable into her early twenties.
Now she had her friends, she had Evan, Bill, and everything she could have wanted. Running wasn't a coping mechanism and a way of life anymore. It was a hobby. So with that in mind, Meg slipped the ties into her pocket and began to mess with her hair.
All she had was a brush, so she smoothed it out and untangled it. Then once she was satisfied, she ran her fingers over her scalp and tossed it around, trying to find where it looked best draped over her skull. Did it look better over the left side of her face or the right side? Should she let it fall over the front of her shoulders or keep it all on her back?
Eventually Meg just gave up and let it fall entirely down her back. She could always throw it over the front of her shoulders if she wanted to.
'Man I've really got to stop worrying about my appearance so much...' Meg paused her train of thought, suddenly feeling like an idiot. 'It's not like I'm going on a date or something!' Meg told herself.
She was trying to shock herself out of her newfound obsession with her looks and get moving, but she couldn't help but give herself one last glance in the mirror. She wanted to look her best because she was going to make sure she saw Evan one last time before he had to leave.
Meg's good mood crashed at the thought of it.
This would be the last time she saw him for who knew how long. Archie Macmillan would arrive and take him back to their estate, and she would go home to her mom without her friends.
What was she going to do? She didn't want her family to split apart just when they'd finally gotten free and safe. Long distance wouldn't do. Meg was not going to be satisfied with phone calls and texts being the most she could do with them. She wanted them all in the same city at the very least.
It was all still such a mess. At least in The Fog they had all been together, mostly. Meg reminded herself of how she'd had to wander the forest to find Evan, and then how Nea had also gone wandering too. They had always been close enough, now they could be several states away from each other.
Evan would be all the way in Washington, and she would be going back to Colorado. Would David go all the way back to England?
No...they couldn't.
Meg blinked rapidly to control her emotions. She couldn't let it end like this. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Meg clenched her jaw and balled her fists. Her sadness and despair slowly began to morph into anger.
Yet she didn't know exactly what she was angry at. Meg knew why she was furious. She didn't want to be separated from her family. But who exactly could she blame?
Archie Macmillan came to mind. After all, he was taking Evan away from her. But what about the others? It wasn't their fault they lived in different states or even countries. Though, it wasn't Evan's fault either than he lived far away. But it was Archie's fault that they couldn't be together right now.
Meg flashed back to her teenage years as a young, lost, misguided, and miserable girl. She'd been angry at the universe for her mom's decaying condition. She had been furious with those in the medical profession for demanding such high prices that forced them to go into debt.
They were supposed to save her mother's life. They weren't trading stock or selling cars, these were human lives at stake and they were charging outrageous prices. Meg knew they got more than enough patients to not need such high prices to manage their hospitals, not to mention government funding. Greed was just universal.
But if there was one personification of greed that Meg hated more than any other company she'd had to deal with, it was the loan companies. Those blood sucking leeches had known full well the financial trouble Meg and her mother had been in. But they just used it as an opportunity to cripple them further into debt and squeeze more money out of them.
Going into The Fog had promised enough money to pay off the loan companies for good and still leave some left over for them to use. Not only had it been a clean slate for herself and her mother, but it had given her all the emotional and social bonds she'd wanted for years since high school. It had given her a father in Bill, a lover in Evan, an aunt and uncle in Kate and Ace, and then seven brothers and sisters.
She'd do it all over again if she had to. But she wouldn't just let it end here at this hospital. Meg was not going to just sit by and watch as everyone left for their home towns and never saw each other again. She'd find a way to keep them all together, both her friends, and Evan.
Meg's chest and belly throbbed again at the thought of him. The future she wanted with him so desperately was being dangled right out of reach. She was out, she and Evan could be together and at peace in the world, but Archie Macmillan stood in the way. He wanted to turn Evan into a monster, back into The Trapper. Meg had suffered through too much with Evan to let Archie undo all the progress Evan had made.
Meg swore it then and there, she would not let Evan become his father.
Meg heard a knock on her door not long after she'd finished her oath and spun around to look. "Come in." She said, already expecting who it was.
As expected, Doctor Forsyth entered, but he was holding a black zip up briefcase. He scanned the room as Meg watched his face carefully. Eventually he looked at her, and she nodded her readiness. This was important, she'd need to write down a whole lot of phone numbers.
What about Evan though? How would she communicate with him? Would his father be watching his every move down to who he communicated with over the phone? Meg wasn't willing to take that risk. She'd have to find some other way, something that couldn't be electronically traced.
When the idea finally came to her, Meg's face went completely deadpan.
'You're an idiot' She told herself.
Meg wanted to smack herself for being so oblivious. Was she really that used to phones and technology that she'd forgotten that letters and writing were a thing? She could just give him her address.
"Ms. Thomas?" Doctor Forsyth asked, probably more than used to her spacing out by this point.
"Oh right, sorry Doctor Forsyth. Is it time already?" Meg asked. Several emotions swirled through her chest. Hope was one, anticipation was another, then there was anxiety, and dread. Meg couldn't even describe the terror she felt at the possibility of this being the end of her and Evan's story.
What would she do if she never saw him again? She couldn't replace him. Nothing any other man could offer her would compare to him, even if they were taller, more attractive, or even richer. Any man who came after him would fall short, because nothing could replace the bond she had with him.
She'd died by his hand, had been mercilessly slaughtered, but then shown mercy, shown that her torturer was human. That alone had created a type of scarring that bound them in a unique way. But then he'd fallen in love with her, had shown her what he was really like behind the mask, how intensely he loved when he let himself.
The bond between her and Evan was one of a kind.
"Not quite Ms. Thomas. The time for your collective meeting is in thirty minutes. However, there is something you need to see before we release you. Are you prepared for your leave?" He asked, checking the room.
Meg quirked an eyebrow. "Yes I'm ready, but what is it you need to show me?" She asked, confused. Doctor Forsyth looked grim, and it made Meg uneasy.
"I'm sorry Ms. Thomas... Your mother passed away from cancer three months ago while you were still undergoing treatment." He said, probably doing his best to sound sympathetic. That didn't matter to Meg at the moment, because any sympathy he showed was lost upon her. She was staring at him blankly, unable to comprehend what she had just been told.
'She's...gone?' It was all Meg had the capacity to think. She felt weakness practically rocket through her limbs, and could already feel the tears forming behind her eyes. Her mother had died while she was still in The Fog. She hadn't been there for her in her last moments.
'Mom...'
Doctor Forysth's voice rang out, but it wasn't enough to distract her from her own thoughts. Even as she looked up at him, she couldn't stop her own subconscious.
"Your mother recorded a video for you not long before she died. She sent it to us, and told us to only show you once you were awake... I'm sorry Ms. Thomas." He said one last time, sounding almost as miserable as Meg felt. Doctor Forsyth leaned the briefcase against the wall and stepped into the hall. After a second he came back in with a small table on wheels. He rolled it over towards her hospital bed and then locked the wheels.
Once he was finished with the table he went back over to the door and grabbed the briefcase. He pulled a computer out of it and placed it on the table. Then he reached into a smaller pocket and pulled out a flash drive, which he then placed into the computer. A few seconds later, a video popped up on the screen.
"I'm sorry Ms. Thomas. I understand how it feels to loose a parent you loved." Doctor Forsyth paused. He looked hesitant, like he was debating what to say or if she should say what was on his mind. He broke his pensive silence. "I've been forced to deliver similar news to dozens of people, but it's never gotten any easier. In fact, it only seems to get harder." He said, and with that, he gave her a parting nod, and left the room.
Meg had already been crying before he'd left. A few stray tears resting on her cheeks, but she didn't loose her full composure just yet. She was still too in shock to fully react.
With slow, melancholic steps, she walked to her bed and sat down facing the computer. A giant pause button waited to be clicked. Behind the button, was her mom, laying in a hospital bed a few feet away from the camera with a small smile on her face.
Meg brought one hand to cover her mouth while the other reached for the touch pad, shaking horribly.
Finally, she pressed play.
The camera rolled, and her mother looked up at something behind and above the camera. Meg realized it was the person holding it. Her mom nodded, and Meg was already about to break down just seeing how different her mom looked. She still had her beautiful red hair, the same hair Meg had inherited from her. But she was so much thinner.
Meg could see her the frame of her mother's skull more than she should've been able to. Her cheek bones were so pronounced underneath her skin, and the rest of her cheeks looked sunken and so hollow. Despite it all, her mother actually looked happy, and that made Meg feel both better, but so much more miserable.
"Hi Meg."
Meg's entire body went rigid at the sound of her mother's voice. It sounded so weak, like a raspy whisper, but deep in her voice Meg could hear the old voice of her mother that she'd hear when she was a child.
"I wish I didn't have to make this video and that I could talk to you in person, but you're still asleep right now." She said, sounding forlorn. Meg's shaking breathing finally broke down into anguished, indistinguishable cries at how sad her mother looked that she hadn't been able to see her one last time.
"There's so much I can think of to say, but not all of it is important. Where do I begin?" She started. Her mother looked at the wall outside of Meg's view before looking back at the camera.
"I suppose this is as good a start as any...I love you Meg, I always have. Not a single day went by without me thinking about you. I know you already know the story of me and your father, but I don't regret having you as my daughter." She said.
"I'd do it again too, because I know that if I had waited, it wouldn't have been you, it would've been someone else." She said.
Meg sobbed, but cut herself off. She couldn't handle this, but she wouldn't forgive herself if she stopped the video.
"I'm so proud of you as well Meg. You became such a mature, intelligent, moral, and beautiful young woman. I know it's redundant but I'm so proud of the choices you made, it took some trial and error-" Meg's mother smiled cheekily. 'But you decided that you weren't going to be like me and that made me so happy." She said.
Meg covered her face with her hands, but then ripped them away when she heard the sound of her mother shifting in her hospital bed. Meg didn't understand why, but all she could feel was terror of impending doom. She knew what was going to happen, she knew her mother was going to die not long after making this video, but Meg still felt like she could stop it if she could just get to her mom in time.
But she couldn't do that, it was too late, three months too late. Her mom had passed away and there was nothing she could do about it anymore. That was the truly crushing part about it.
"But, you should know exactly what I did with your father. The year he came back to us, I let him, and I saw how happy you were. But I was still angry with him, and it's why we always slept in different rooms. When he left, I had thought it would be the last time we ever saw him, but years later he reached out to me, said he wanted to apologize to both of us." Her mother said.
Meg's jaw clenched even as tears clung to the bottom of it. She had given up on trying to wipe them away because they just wouldn't stop pouring out of her eyes. Her lips twisted into a silent snarl. How dare he try and come back a second time! Was not only ruining her mother's future, but taunting her as little girl not enough!? He had to come back and try a second time!?
"He only came back again when you were 19, and for years I had refused to even speak to him. He wouldn't give up though, it got the point where I put a restraining order on him. He wasn't allowed to come near me, and you by extension.' Her mother said. Meg couldn't say she had felt much joy or pleasure hearing that. A restraining order was the least of what her biological father deserved. She wanted to see him pay.
But she didn't want to see him pay with money. No... it was too late for that now. The only debt he still owed her could only be payed through tears... and blood. Meg clenched her fists at the thought. She wanted to see him suffer so badly. She wanted him to know what she'd felt as a teenager, watching her mother slowly rot from the inside out and knowing she wouldn't be enough to stop it.
But despite that, there was a little voice in the back of her head that said it wouldn't make her feel better. A voice which told her that she would be no better than the killers she so despised. It told her that she would be no better than Archie Macmillan.
Meg shoved the voice aside, as well as the thought of her father. She rubbed her eyes for the hundredth time as tears blurred her vision again. She didn't even feel in control of her own body anymore, because no matter what she did she just couldn't make herself stop crying.
Meg had paused the video after what her mother had last said. She couldn't keep going like this, she needed time to compose herself. She took a shaky breath in and exhaled just as weakly. This was too much.
A knock on her door sounded. Meg weakly stood and took a few short steps towards the door, not wanting to shout. "Who is it?" She asked quietly. Her voice cracked as she spoke, and Meg wanted to curse herself.
"Meg? What happened?" A worried tone spoke through the door. Meg immediately snapped her attention to the door. The voice she'd heard had certainly not been Doctor Forsyth.
"Evan?" She asked quietly, almost not believe that it was really him. She took a couple more hesitant steps towards the door before pausing again.
"It's me, Megan I needed to talk to you." He said through the door, his voice still muffled. Meg finally closed the distance and turned the handle. She let him open the door. He pushed it open surprisingly quickly, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him with a final check of the hall. He turned around, but almost froze when he saw her.
She didn't blame him, she probably looked pitiful. Her shoulders had fallen, her feet were angled towards each other rather than away, and even though she looked right at him, she knew her face was still painted in tears. Her hair was probably back to looking like a mess as well.
Yet his reaction still surprised her. She knew he'd be concerned and ask her what was wrong, but he'd always been rather stoic even when showing emotion. He always appeared to be meticulously maintaining his aura, even around her. So when his eyes widened slightly, and worry quickly covered his face, Meg was almost concerned that something else was wrong.
But instead of literally anything else, he came to her. His hands found the sides of her skull, the same way he would hold her head after she'd become The Blaze. "What happened?" He asked quietly, his voice much lower than before.
What Meg felt was hard to articulate. She had felt it before, that was undeniable, but she'd never quite felt it to this degree. Perhaps it was her state of emotional vulnerability, or perhaps it was Evan's facial expression, or maybe some random third thing. But when she saw his concern for her, saw how much he cared, it just made her cry harder.
These tears were not from sadness, but they were not from joy either. Meg realized that It was because she couldn't handle the feeling of love she felt when he treated her like this.
She buried her face into his abdomen without any sort of response. She didn't have the ability to speak quite yet. Instead, once he hugged her, she reciprocated and stopped trying to hold it back.
A visible dark spot began to appear on Evan's shirt. Though, Meg hadn't fully let all her self control go. She kept herself from screaming the pain she felt to the world, but she didn't hold back the tears and shaky gasps. She was panting, trying to get enough air in but feeling her entire body tremble when she tried to hard.
Evan stayed silent, probably confused and still worried about why she was crying. Meg had wanted to tell him when he'd asked the first time, but her emotions had gotten the better of her.
"My mom died while I was still in The Fog." She choked out, her eyes still closed and pressed against the fabric of his shirt. Evan stayed silent after she spoke. There was no change in his breathing, no sudden movements, and his grip didn't change in the slightest.
"I understand what you are feeling right now." He said. He went quiet after that, simply standing there. Eventually Meg was able to calm down enough to get control of her breathing and open her eyes. She'd stopped crying, but her cheeks were still damp. Her gaze landed on the wet spot she'd left on Evan's shirt, it was right underneath his chest.
"I cannot say that my own feelings after I lost my mother were identical to yours. Whether that was because of my father, or because of how young I was, I do not know, but nor do I care anymore." He said. Meg listened to everything he had to say with rapt attention. The distraction from her own pain was quite welcome, but she also wanted to make sure he didn't regret opening up to her.
"However, it still hurt nonetheless." He said, and Meg tried to give him a comforting squeeze, her brain immediately shifting to making sure he was alright.
"I do not know what to say in this situation beyond that I am sorry, and that I wish I could have met her." He said, sounding almost forlorn or longing. A type of joy dared to creep out of the misery Meg felt at Evan's words. There was that inner sweet side to him she'd seen back in the manor.
Meg gave up on trying to speak for the next several minutes. The pain and loss were too raw for her to get enough composure back quickly. When she finally felt able to talk, she tried to change the subject, he'd come here for a reason after all. "What did you come here to talk to me about?" Meg asked, her voice still making her sound like she was about to burst right back into tears.
Evan pulled out of the hug, and Meg felt a rush of cold air where his chest and arms had been. He kept his hands on her shoulders, but now stood at arms length, well, arms length for him. Her arms were too short compared when compared to his to reach.
Evan looked hesitant to speak. Meg already knew he'd come here with a purpose in mind, so what was stopping him? It was only when Evan looked away for a second at nothing and then back to her did Meg realize that it was fear that held him down. He was ashamed of whatever was on his mind.
Meg, realizing she needed to help him out, stepped forward and raised a hand to sit on the side of his jaw. His eyes immediately locked onto hers, not daring to look anywhere else.
Meg smiled ever so slightly. The misery of her mother's death still hung around her shoulders, but she tried anyway. Because Evan never ceased to amuse her with how, underneath his stone cold attitude, he was still a man. Actually, the amusing part was how he showed it. Because Meg found it so endearing when he let down the blank facade and dared to show emotion. That, and he looked cute when he was embarrassed.
"It's okay Evan, you can tell me." She said softly, her voice just a bit stronger than it was a minute ago.
The look on Evan's face that followed could only be described as confusion. He seemed so genuinely shocked at how she reacted, and Meg realized that this was probably a first for him. His father had most likely raised him to believe anything but pure stoicism was blasphemous.
Finally Evan sighed and decided to spill it.
"I am uncertain of how the future will play out." He began. "But, I am not willing to sit by and simply let it take you away from me." He said, much more serious than moments prior. Meg had already felt the weight of their situation, but somehow Evan's voice replicated the effect all over again like it was brand new. Meg clutched her hands into his shirt again, as if that would be enough to keep them together.
Evan checked the door behind him. "We do not have much time, soon everyone will be given a few minutes to talk to one another, but then afterwards they are going to let family members in, and we will have to leave." Evan said, and Meg wondered how he found out exactly what they were doing. Doctor Forsyth hadn't even told her yet.
Then again she had never asked him, and he was always busy. So she supposed it could be excused.
"Alright, okay." Meg said, stabilizing her voice. "What do we do?" She asked.
Evan's lips quirked into a tiny smirk at her words. "Unfortunately there is not much we can do, however, we need to stay in contact. My father is able to monitor any electronic communication, so we need a different way." Evan said, pausing to most likely come up with a solution.
Meg realized that it was her time to shine. "What about letters?" She proposed.
Evan's eyes lit up. "Megan, you are brilliant." He said, smiling at her. Meg couldn't help but fully smile at him in response. It was so rare for him to show such open happiness, and Meg wanted to keep him feeling like that. She wished she could have smiled with all she had and truly beam at him, but she couldn't.
"My father checks any mail we get after the house keepers give it to him. But he will not be able to stop me from sending letters to you. And, I shall find a way to keep any letters you send to me a secret." Evan said, his voice dropping lower as if someone was nearby and could hear them.
Meg lifted her arms up to drape around his neck and pull him down to her. She hugged him gently, wanting another embrace, but with a more intimate and loving nature to it rather than the comforting one prior. Evan leaned into it at her behest, hopefully taking as much pleasure in her touch as she took in his.
Meg gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. It wasn't for any particular reason, but simply because she hadn't gotten to since Evan found her in the control room of the rundown iron works. That had just been in a simulation though, so this was their first "real" kiss.
Meg sighed as she looked over his shoulder, her head being forced at an angle so she had to look at where the wall met the ceiling. This was it. Evan was going to be taken away from her, she'd have to go back to an empty home, and her friends were all going to be scattered.
More tears slipped from her eyes and she hugged Evan with every bit of strength that hadn't been taken away from her. Because what could she do? As much as she wanted to, she knew it was incredibly selfish to ask everyone to move close together. For some, that move would be life altering. Who was she to ask that?
The time soon came when they were to see the other survivors and killers. Doctor Forsyth came in to tell them, professional as ever, and not giving them any trouble for how close they were, or even why Evan was there.
Meg walked side by side with Evan, clinging to his arm, her eyes looking to her feet in misery. The white, bland, and sterile hall ended with another set of silver double doors. It looked so similar to when Doctor Forsyth had taken her to see her friends that she almost thought it was the same room for a moment.
However, when Doctor Forsyth pushed the doors open for the two of them, Meg could tell it was hardly that. This room was even bigger. Though, that wasn't quite as noticeable as the visible divide of people. As in, on one half of the room, Meg saw some of her friends. Bill, Ace, Kate, and Laurie were all there, but the others weren't.
On the right side was some of the killers. An incredibly tall woman that, despite how different she looked, Meg immediately recognized as The Plague, and an almost as tall, bald black man with a eerie grin. The Doctor. Meg's skin crawled just looking at him. It felt even worse when he looked right at her.
The Doctor's face no longer had it's electro shock therapy gear, so his lips were no longer forced into a gum showing grin, and his eyes could finally blink. It frightened Meg that she found one of the most disgusting killers, made that way by his own self mutilation, even creepier when he was human.
She knew exactly how much of a monster he could be first hand. To see someone who didn't even deserve to be called a human look so deceivingly...normal, it felt wrong. This human guise could fool anyone who didn't know what was underneath.
Thankfully The Doctor got bored and looked elsewhere as other killers came in. More survivors came in as well, such as Yui, Ash, Cheryl, and Quinten. But since Meg didn't have much of a bond with Cheryl or Quinten, and how she despised Ash and Yui, Meg hardly cared.
Evan began to walk towards one of the corners of the room, and Meg followed his lead wordlessly. It was also the same corner that the rest of her friends were in, but Meg still didn't leave Evan's side. At this point, only her mom coming back and announcing her return from the dead could have made her want to let go.
Bill immediately recognized something was wrong and came to talk to her. Ace and Kate themselves looked like they had wanted to come with him, but they held back with Laurie. The look on Bill's face reminded Meg of the talks they used to have at the campfire, even the ones in the beginning before they'd become father and daughter.
"Meg? What's wrong?" He asked, looking her in the eye before looking up at Evan. His gaze was accusatory for a second, but seeing as she was clinging to Evan's arm for comfort, he realized that Evan was not the source of her distress.
Meg freed one hand to wave Bill a little closer, slipping away from Evan to hug Bill. "My mom died while we were still asleep." She said just above a whisper, feeling the invisible threat of dissolving into a puddle of tears like she had with Evan.
Bill, Meg realized, was eerily similar to Evan. The old man just didn't know it yet. Both had almost the exact same reaction when they heard about her loss.
"And you only just found out." Bill said, sounding more like a statement than a question. Meg nodded against his shoulder. Bill gave her a quick gentle squeeze, completely different than Evan's. "I'm so sorry Meg. I haven't thought about it in a long time, but I do still miss my own mother... I think she'd be about 79 this year." He said, briefly looking to the ceiling in memory.
Meg stepped out of his embrace and immediately molded back onto Evan's side again. She didn't think she could handle not making physical contact with Evan for longer than a few seconds, much less him being gone outright. Meg wrapped both of her arms around Evan's right one, and after a few seconds, felt Evan's large hand reach for her right one and lock their fingers together.
Minutes passed as everyone filed in. Nea, Dwight, Claudette, etcetera. Then the rest of the killers came in as well, most staying with their respective groups. Of course though, there were some killers who came to them.
Phillip found Nea almost immediately, coming up behind the Swede and caging her in a hug before she could even turn around to face him. Susie quickly zipped over to Jake's side, smushing her cheek against his bicep. Meg smiled lightly at the two sights, but her eyes were truly drawn to another meeting.
Meg watched as Claudette searched all of the killers, trying to find the one who had taken such a liking to her in the trials. Her face began to fall when it looked like he wasn't there, but then a tall, much less scarred figure, tapped her shoulder.
Claudette turned to see Max, looking much more human, standing next to her. The botanist stared at the farmer, her face unreadable as she took him in and looked him from head to toe. Meg saw worry and nervousness begin to form on Max's face. That frown soon morphed into the biggest smile Meg had ever seen on his face when Claudette smiled at him and touched his cheek. Max hugged her like a soldier coming back to his family after years apart. It was sickeningly sweet.
All of Meg's friends came over to her one by one, each of them writing down their phone numbers and addresses with paper supplied by the staff. They were all talking about the future, plans to all meet up. Meg heard all of it, and processed it, but she felt like an observer to someone else's conversation.
She had no control over it in the slightest. Normally that wouldn't bother her, but this was different. All she could see was her friends slipping through her fingers. Each of them was going their own way and most likely doomed to drift apart until they simply...forgot each other.
She's just be that girl that they met in The Fog and never saw again afterwards.
Part of Meg told her she was being ridiculous. Bill wouldn't let her call him dad if their relationship meant nothing. Claudette and Nea wouldn't consider her their sister either if that was the case. She was just being paranoid.
She tightened her hands on Evan's arm, cursing her biological father to Hell and back for giving her abandonment issues. This situation was the worst nightmare imaginable for her.
Once everyone had given her their numbers and addresses, they all gave them to each other as well. It left Meg alone with Evan, and witness to a reunion she had not expected.
She'd been watching all of her friends since the beginning, fear tearing and shredding at her chest. It happened suddenly, Laurie had her back to the rest of the killers as she talked to Kate and Joey, the young man had taken a liking to her.
Because Laurie wasn't facing the rest of the killers, she didn't notice when one of them, who'd been standing alone in the corner, approached her. Meg actually didn't recognize who it was at first, as she'd only seen him out of the corner of her eye. But when he came to a stop, Meg's heart practically stopped. She'd recognize that statue like posture.
It was Michael.
He reached one hand up and tapped Laurie on the shoulder. Kate and Joey had already started to stare before he'd reached Laurie, and the blonde already looked confused at their change in attitude. She turned around when she felt the large finger touch her shoulder, and stared.
Meg held her breath as she watched the towering figure of Michael Myers stare down at Laurie Strode. Not everyone was watching, so there was enough noise for the moment to fly relatively under the radar.
Michael Myers was intimidating even without the mask. He had dirty blonde hair that had grown out to below his ears, blue eyes like Laurie's, and rough facial features similar to Evan's. Though Evan's features were a bit more defined and chiseled.
Meg took all of that in, but the thing most on her mind, was his eyes. They were just like Laurie's, but nothing Meg had never seen before. What really caught her attention were the tears threatening to spill from them as he looked at her blonde friend.
Michael opened his mouth. "Laurie...I..." His voice was, in a word, ordinary. It didn't sound like a super villain's, nor did it sound like that of a deranged murderer. It just sounded like the voice of a young man. Michael was around Evan's age if Meg's memory was correct.
Michael cut himself off, what appeared to be guilt eating away at his soul. Shame radiated off of him, and Meg understood why. Laurie was his little sister, and he'd murdered her without any emotion more times than he could probably remember.
Laurie broke out of her trance. But instead of doing anything towards Michael, she checked around the room to see who was looking. Kate and Joey were of course since their conversation had been interrupted, but Laurie also met Bill's gaze, and finally her's.
Meg nodded at the young blonde, looking up at Evan, and noticing that his gaze was also on Michael. She looked back down at Laurie and gave her a small thumbs up.
Laurie, or Cynthia, nodded, and turned back to face Michael. Meg's earlier assessment of how Laurie seemed free from her paranoia had never been so obvious. She had given her back to Michael without a second thought. But Meg also had a feeling it was because her personal suspicions about Michael from so long ago had been true.
Without a word, Laurie stepped forward and hugged Michael. She wrapped her arms around his torso and leaned into him, a gentle smile on her face as she felt Michael's shaky hands return the embrace. Michael seemed on the verge of a breakdown.
Meg felt joy for Laurie and for Michael. She had been right in assuming that there was more behind the white mask even though Laurie hadn't believed it back in The Fog. Now, brother and sister were reunited and could hopefully repair any left over damage.
Not long after, Doctor Forsyth came back into the room on the right side of another doctor Meg didn't recognize. There was also a third doctor on the second one's left. Whoever the one in the center was must have been an even higher authority figure than Doctor Forsyth because he spoke instead of either of them.
He was blonde, blue eyed, and nothing special. Meg didn't give him too much thought.
"Everyone, we hope that we have given you all ample time to exchange information, but I'm afraid our time is limited." He started, surveying the crowd and glossing over all of them. "In just a second, we are going to let all of your relatives in to see you before you leave with or without them." He informed.
A couple of murmurs could be heard from killers and survivors.
"We will bring them all here over the next couple of minutes." He nodded to them all. "As you were." He said, and with that, he turned around and left. The other doctor and Doctor Forsyth following behind him. Though, Meg did catch the smile and nod Doctor Forsyth gave her in parting before he turned around.
Meg looked up at Evan. This was it, the moment of separation she'd been so dreading. He would have to play the role of a heartless heir, and her, a nobody who didn't know him. Evan seemed to sense how upset she was, and bent down to whisper in her ear.
"This is not the end of us my little rabbit." Evan whispered, bringing fond memories of their first meeting back to Meg's mind. "We will be apart for now, but I will find a way for us." He said.
Meg latched onto his neck. "Promise me you'll come back to me." She said into his shoulder, on the verge of another breakdown.
Evan kissed her cheek. "I swear by it."