EDEN
Things were peaceful. Too peaceful. None of us had heard from the new killers, and that was more concerning to me than I wanted to admit. My kids liked to try and say that maybe the whole nightmare was over. Kael was keeping something from me—mother's intuition told me so—but I didn't bother pushing to try and figure out what that was, exactly. As long as my kids were safe, that was what mattered. While everyone seemed to be safe these days, there was a unnerving feeling I had that something big was coming...that we all needed to brace ourselves for the inevitable attack.
I had finally reached a point where I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to figure out what was going on, and I wasn't going to just sit around and wait for something terrible to happen. The police were completely useless, so it was time for me to take efforts into my own hands. That Friday afternoon, when school was over, I dropped my kids off at home, told them I was going to Rachel's, and left.
When I arrived at Rachel's house, I saw her car was in the driveway, as was Emerald's. I parked on the street, got out of my car, and walked up to the house. Rachel's son answered the door before I could even knock. Seeing him standing in front of me immediately reminded me that he had been sleeping with Jax, which was still an issue that Rachel and I needed to figure out a resolution to. As far as I knew, she hadn't said anything to him yet. I felt awkward even standing in front of him knowing what he was doing with my dead husband's son.
Calix smiled at me though, and said, "Hi, Eden. Are you here to see my mother?"
I returned the smile, hoping he couldn't see how uncomfortable I felt. "Yes, I sure am. Is she around?"
He nodded. "She's just in her room lying down right now. She's improved a lot, recovering from the gunshot wound and all. She can actually get out of bed without hurting herself now."
"Perfect," I said. "May I come in?"
Calix let me inside, and he called up the stairs, "Mom, Eden's here to see you!"
Rachel's voice came down the stairs, "Send her up!"
I walked up the stairs and found Rachel's room, and her door was wide open. She was lying in bed, remote in hand, watching something on her television. She greeted me with a grin and said, "Hey, E. What's up? What brings you all the way over here?"
I said, "Do you mind if I close the door?"
"Not at all."
So I shut the door, walked across the room, and took a seat on an empty chair in the corner. "Listen, Rachel, we need to talk about something. I need your help."
"Is everything okay?" Rachel asked. "You haven't heard from the killer again, have you?"
"No, but that's exactly what's concerning me," I said. "There's no reason things should be this peaceful. Our kids were kidnapped and thrown into a bunker, for God's sake. And then everything just...stops? For what purpose?"
"I've found it pretty suspicious myself," Rachel said. "It's like we're just waiting for the new killers to do something."
"My point exactly. I think it's time that we take matters into our own hands. Because I refuse to sit back and wait for something terrible to happen."
Rachel raised an eyebrow. "And what do you propose that we do?"
"I think we should go to the bunker," I said. "It's been a crime scene for a while now, so the killers obviously aren't there anymore. But maybe we can find something that the police haven't told us about, or something that they've missed."
"Eden, are you sure about this?" Rachel asked. "The last time you and I went to St. Paul's, I got shot and ended up in the ICU."
"That's because we didn't go prepared. This time we'll go with weapons, with guns."
"And where do you expect to get guns?" Rachel asked. "Aren't they super regulated these days?"
I said, "Jacob has a couple locked in a safe. He always wanted to make sure our family was safe from anyone who wanted to hurt us. I'd say this falls under that category, don't you think?"
Rachel sighed. "If I say no, are you going to go alone?"
"Maybe."
"Fine," Rachel said. "I'll come with you. But we're going tonight, after my kids are in bed. Are you sure you'll feel comfortable leaving your kids at home alone with Jax while we do this?"
"I have cameras, remember? And besides, I doubt he'd be that bold, if he is one of the killers. I'll tell my kids where we're going just so they can be safe."
"I'll tell mine, too," Rachel said. "I have an awful feeling that we might not like what we find."
"Me either, but we need answers," I said. That was the most important thing. Even if we uncovered something horrible, at least we would be one step closer to stopping this mess once and for all.
RACHEL
The drive to St. Paul's was mostly silent, Eden and I both lost in thought. I wondered if she was thinking the same things that I was—that we were doomed, that our kids would never be safe, that a dark entity was coming our way, that we were shitty parents. Some would say that we were awful parents because we were putting ourselves at risk of death when our children needed us, but in my opinion, that was what made us brave. We were doing everything that needed to be done to protect our kids at all costs. That had to mean something in the end.
When we arrived at the old, blown-up hospital, Eden and I got out of her car and made our way over to where we were told the entrance to the bunker was, which was somewhere through all the rubble. Once we found it, we saw that the door was large, steel, and quite possibly locked, in the ground like a basement cellar. Eden exchanged a quick glance with me and I said, "So, are we going to open it?"
Eden stared at the door for a moment longer, then asked, "What if we find something horrible down there?"
"Eden, we've seen some of the worst shit in our lives. I don't think anything can shock us anymore." I reached down to grab the handle to the door, gave my friend one last look, and said, "Here goes nothing."
When I pulled open the door, I didn't realize how heavy it would be, but I somehow managed on my own. Looking inside, my best friend and I stared down into the darkness of the tunnels, and for a moment I found myself hesitant as well. But I knew we had to do this. Not only for our kids, but for poor Freddy who lost his life because of these new killers. Justice needed to be served.
"Pull out your flashlight on your phone," I said. "We're going to need it."
The two of us descended down the steps into the tunnels and followed the path around for quite a few minutes. Along the way there were two doors, but both of them were locked, so no luck there. The walls around us were made of steel and there was no heat down here, so I found myself shivering from the cold, and it looked like Eden was freezing as well. As we walked, I kept my arms crossed, holding my phone in my right hand and using the flashlight to guide our way.
After another couple minutes of walking, we came across another door, and I said, "Hey, check it out." Instead of being closed and locked like the others, this door was cracked open a little bit, almost as if someone wanted us to find it. We both walked over to the door, opened it up, and stepped inside.
The first thing I noticed was that in the corner of the room, there were chains attached to the wall, but only one set. Immediately I thought that this might have been the room that Emerald was held in when she met Josh. I walked over to the chains, saw little blood splatters, and closed my eyes, imagining Emerald with the bullet in her foot. She thankfully recovered quickly once they took the bullet out, but that didn't mean she wasn't still traumatized.
Eden's voice broke through my thoughts, pulling me back into the present. "Rachel, come look at this."
I turned around and walked over to meet Eden on the other side of the room, where she was staring at what appeared to be...a murder board. In the center of the board was a picture of me and one of Eden. There were pieces of string that connected to pictures of our children. From our children were their friends. Also connecting from Eden and me were killers from the past—Ryan, Daisy, Brandon, Damien. There was so much going on on the board that I could barely keep track of it all.
Eden pulled out her camera app on her phone and snapped a few photos of the board. "I think this is the same room that Emerald said she met Josh in."
I nodded slowly. "I think so, too. So, what exactly does that mean? What does...this mean?" I asked as I waved my hands at the board.
"Well, let me ask you this question," Eden said softly. "The kids never saw anyone else in here except for a masked figure. And Emerald saw Josh in this room. What does that lead you to believe?"
"You don't think...?" My voice trailed off because I couldn't even say the suggestion out loud. There was no way that was even close to true. It couldn't be.
Eden, clearly distraught, said, "What other options do we have to believe in, Rachel? Think about it. Who was the person who called you before the Fear Games began again? Who is the person that Emerald saw down here in the bunker? Who is the person that keeps showing up time and time again? It's Josh. It has to be."
When I thought back to the last time that we had seen him, it was right before Damien had given him a choice on whether or not to continue the Fear Games. That was twenty years ago. We always figured Josh said no because the Fear Games didn't continue, but now that they were...I wasn't so sure anymore that Josh was innocent. But the thought of him being a killer didn't sit well with me, either. That wasn't the Josh that we knew.
"He was your best friend," I said. "You can't really believe this theory, can you?"
"Key word being was," Eden said. "It's been twenty years. You'd be surprised what time can do to people."
EDEN
We took a few more photos of the room, then decided that we had all that we needed and went back out the way we came. It didn't take long to find ourselves out of the bunker, back on higher ground, and we started to make our way to the car.
"So, you think this will help us figure out who the killer is?" Rachel asked me as we approached the vehicle.
"I already told you," I said. "I am almost a hundred percent positive that the killer is Josh. It makes the most sense to me, don't you think?"
"Maybe on the surface it looks simple," Rachel said. "But since when have the Fear Games ever been easy?"
She had a point, but that wasn't going to change my perspective on the whole situation. Josh made the most sense to me as the killer, and I wasn't going to sit around and wait any longer for the him to reveal himself. It was time to hunt him down and get the answers we deserved. My family deserved it. Rachel's family deserved it. That was just fact.
As we both climbed inside my car, I turned on the ignition and said, "Listen, I know you don't want to believe that Josh is the killer. But we have to look at the facts that are presenting themselves to us."
"It just seems too easy," Rachel said. "Like we're supposed to be looking elsewhere. Like—"
Just then, the ground beneath us started to rumble. A big explosion came from where we had just come from, the underground bunker, and a gasp escaped Rachel and me as fire started to come out of the door that we had just come through. Pieces of debris started flying all over the place, but thankfully none hit my car.
"Holy shit," Rachel said. "What the hell just happened?"
"I don't know," I said. "I think someone just made the underground bunker explode."
"But who would do that?" Rachel asked. "Josh, maybe?"
"I don't think that's the most important question," I said. "I think what we should be asking ourselves is if he wanted us to be down there when it happened."
All I got in returned from Rachel was silence.
RACHEL
Eden and I drove away from the crime scene, and chills ran up and down my spine thinking about the fact that we could have been down in the bunker when it exploded. We could have been dead. Thankfully, we weren't, but that didn't ease my anxiety at all.
A call on my phone broke through the awkward silence that had been filling the car the whole ride home. When I looked at the number, I saw that it came up as Unknown. Part of me didn't want to answer, because I had a feeling as to who it was. But I knew that it was time to settle this once and for all.
Eden said, "Is it him?"
I nodded. "Yes. I'm answering it." I pressed the Accept button, then said, "This is Rachel."
There was static on the other end of the phone for a few seconds, but then a familiar male voice finally broke through. "Rachel? It's me, Josh Mitchell."
"I figured," I said and put the call on speakerphone. "I'm here with Eden. We're in the car together. We just left the underground bunker. But somehow I'm sure you already know that."
"There's so much I have to tell you both," Josh said. "I'm not who you think I am."
"No shit," Eden said as she gripped the steering wheel. "Josh, you were supposed to be my friend. My best friend. And not only did you disappear for twenty years, but now you come back in the middle of all this? And what, you want us to not suspect you of being the killer? That's rich."
"I understand why you don't trust me," Josh said. "There's so much that you don't know, so much that you can't even comprehend on your own. I need to see you."
"Why, so you can kill us?" Eden asked.
"Of course not," Josh said. "I want to tell you everything I know. No more lies. No more secrets. But it has to be in person. I can't do it over the phone. They're everywhere."
They're everywhere. That wasn't a comforting thought. "Where do you want us to meet you?"
My question was met with static for a few seconds, and I briefly thought that he hung up. Finally, his voice broke through as he said, "The old Fear Games house."
"So you are trying to kill us," Eden said.
"No, not at all," Josh said. "Can you both just trust me? There was a time when we were best friends, Eden."
"Yeah, twenty years ago," Eden said. "Why should we trust you at all?"
"Because I'm one of the only people that is actually on your team right now," Josh said. "Enemies are everywhere. Meet me at the Fear Games house in an hour. Don't be late."
He hung up and left Eden and I in the quiet space of the vehicle, the tension ringing in my ears. I said to Eden, "Are we actually going to do what he says?"
"I guess we probably should," Eden said. "But what if he actually is the killer? What do we do then?"
"Well, we have your guns," I said.
Eden stared out the front windshield as she drove, thoughts clearly swirling around in her head. Finally, she replied, "We have to find a way to outsmart him. We have to do something bold. Something that would throw him off, something he wouldn't expect in the slightest."
"Like what?" I asked. There was something in her eyes...a spark, something that I'd only ever seen a couple times during our time as being friends.
"I have an idea," Eden said. "And it's going to sound absolutely insane, but I need you to trust me. Are you in?"
I wasn't sure what exactly I was agreeing to, so I asked, "Am I seriously going to regret this?"
Eden shrugged. "Maybe. It's pretty crazy. But if it means that we can find a way to save our families, then so be it."
And that's when she told me about her plan to save us all.
***
The next two episodes are the two-part season finale, so both episodes will be uploaded at the same time! In the season finale, the BIGGEST REVEAL YET will be uncovered. Are you ready for it? What do you think it is? And what do you think Eden's plan is? Find out in the next two episodes!