*Abby's Point Of View*
My vision was blurry, the piece on cloth on my forehead was soaked in blood, and my ankle almost cried in pain with every step I took. Mike wasn't much better off, his hand was missing two fingers, he looked as if he was done with the world, and could barely stand and move forward. We were both bruised all over and, after the shock we experienced with the flammable barrels, exhausted beyond belief. Even so, Mike held on to my hand as we walked down the dark corridor to what we assume was the lodge.
When we saw the fire igniting, Mike immediately pushed me to safety, causing me to twist and hurt my weak ankle in the process. He jumped away at the last second and landed on top of me, shielding me from the explosion. There was a flash of light followed by an extremely loud noise that left my ears ringing, then nothing but silence. Mike's steady breathing comforted me and we lay there for a couple of seconds after the explosion, each taking comfort in the warmth of the other.
Mike stood up first and groaned in disbelief. I sat up and saw why, the gas lamp was nothing more than pieces of broken glass and shredded metal. I rummaged in my backpack for anything that could help light our way but came back empty handed. Mike looked around and sighed, offering me his good hand so I could stand up. I took it and pushed myself up, only to be stopped by a searing pain in my left ankle. It took everything I had not to scream and my grip on Mike's hand tightened, making him look at me worriedly.
"Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere? Can you walk?" He frantically started asking questions and wouldn't let me respond.
"First of all, not too many questions, my brain can't take it," Mike's gaze instantly turned apologetic, making me regret ever opening my mouth, "I'm okay, my entire body hurts and I got a little dizzy just now, but I can walk just fine. It's just the blood loss." His body visibly relaxed at that and he gave me a small smile.
Mike has never been this protective over someone, or this gentle. Then again, we've never been in this kind of situation before. I knew that if I told him about my ankle he would want to carry me, and with his hand in that state and his exhaustion, that was the last thing I wanted him to do. I took a deep breath and stood on my own two feet, holding back the tears and screams of pain as my ankle protested. Mike didn't let go of my hand and started walking through the, now exploded, door and down the narrow, dark corridor. I followed as best as I could and clung to his arm a little for support.
"I saw a map back there earlier. It showed like a set of tunnels that ran underground, and there was one that led directly to the lodge from the sanatorium. This one must be it, if we just keep walking straight we'll get there eventually." I just mumbled an okay and followed him blindly.
We had been walking for what felt like an eternity, and the darkness was giving us no hints of the corridor ever ending. Sometimes it seemed as if the walls were closing in on me, as if the darkness had somehow become a physical form that was trying to suffocate me, and breathing became an impossible task. Mike would then squeeze my hand lightly, bringing me back to reality and allowing me to take deep, calming breaths.
The dizziness progressively got worse, and I really tried to ignore it, but it soon became impossible. My vision was extremely blurred and any attempts at faking normal died when I collapsed to the floor and I heard Mike frantically call my name. I felt myself being dragged somewhere, heard a far off voice reassuring me, and felt Mike's presence right there, but it wasn't enough anymore. The shadows had grown too strong, too menacing, and they were closing in on me. I tried to tell Mike to run, to go find the others, but I just couldn't speak. The walls were too close for comfort, and Mike's presence started to disappear, leaving me alone with my insanity.
Then everything cleared up and slowly came to focus. I was lying on my back in a dark room, Mike on top of me, saying something and resting my head on his lap. The walls were further away now, and there was a dim light on the ceiling. The blackness around my vision faded and my hearing slowly came back, I had fainted. I looked up at Mike and slowly sat up, his hand helping me keep steady.
"Fuck Abby... fuck... I thought you were dying... I thought I was about to lose you. Fuck I already told you I can't lose you too! Not after Jessica." Mike was angry, and even though I had done nothing to cause this, I felt horrible. Tears threatened to come out, but I bit my cheek and held them back. Mike then hugged me and kept murmuring things to himself. I hugged him back tightly and tried to distract myself, whatever he was saying wasn't for my ears to hear.
I let go first and waited until he did too. Mike stood up and started looking around the room, searching for a way to move forward. I sat there for a bit, waiting for him to find an open door or something so I wouldn't have to unnecessarily stand up and hurt my ankle any further. I leaned against the wall and looked at the ceiling, trying not to think about how much of a burden I was to Mike. After a bit I heard him come and sit next to me, sighing in defeat.
"The only door I could go trough is locked from the other side, making it impossible to go through." I leaned on his shoulder and tried to think.
"Maybe we could go back to the sanatorium and make our way back through the forest?" Bad idea, I know, but at this point my brain was fried.
"Shh, you hit your head too hard, stop trying to think." I chuckled and it hurt my ribs, but it was a good pain.
A noise coming from a little window above our heads shut us up instantly. Mike, being the brave guy that he is, stood up to carefully check it out. He then smiled and signaled for me to come check it out too. I stood up slowly and quickly realized I was way too short to be able to see what he was seeing. I think he noticed too because he just smiled and rolled his eyes at me.
"Sam... Sam, wake up." Mike whispered, causing me to almost have a stroke. Sam was there, she was alive?!
"Mike! Is that you?" That was definitely Sam! Mike started making signs at her to move over to us.
"What?"
"Get over here!" Mike grabbed the machete and I looked at him, confused. I then heard grunts coming from the other room, along with the squeak of small wheels turning. Mike slid the machete between the little bars on the window and started cutting rope I think. Sam grabbed the machete and continued cutting some more rope.
"Damn those things were tight." Sam bent down to look at Mike, and was startled when she saw me
"Abby! Mike, thank god you both are okay. How did you find me?"
"There's a maniac up here on the mountain." Mike was better at explaining, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Yeah, I've noticed." I mentally rolled my eyes at Sam's sarcasm.
"He lives in this like, web of tunnels... we were down there trying to get out and then Abby fainted forcing me into this room and we found you." At least my fainting was good for something.
"Listen, this guy you're talking about... he attacked me. He showed me this videos, too, and one of them showed Josh being killed... just... ripped apart by this huge fucking saw blade..."
I blanked out then. I knew something had happened, all that blood on the killer meant he had done something to Josh, but I had been repressing it. Now it was there, Josh was dead and Sam had seen video evidence of what had happened. I leaned my head against the wall and tried to breathe. Now was no the time to have a breakdown, we needed to help Sam and find the others. Mike then started rubbing my back soothingly, trying his best to comfort me. When I looked back up I noticed that Sam wasn't there anymore and got startled when the door suddenly opened and she came in, wearing nothing but a towel.
"Hey..." Sam ran and hugged me tightly, causing my torso to scream in pain. She let go when I flinched and stepped back to take a good look at us.
"Jeez, you both look like hell." Mike smirked and rolled his eyes, I could tell he was back to the sarcastic and charming Mike everyone knew.
"Nice to see you too." Sam rolled her eyes and looked at both of us.
"If you will excuse me for a minute..." She walked behind some boxes and put the little backpack she was carrying down.
"What are you doing?" Mike questioned.
"Well actually, the towel didn't turn out to be the best outfit for fighting off killer maniacs, you know?" Mike swiftly turned around to face me then, we waited for Sam.
I avoided his gaze at all cost, not wanting to see the mask he had on. Mike noticed this, because he sighed and turned to look at the ground, giving me the chance to turn away. Maybe this was really him, and the Mike I had seen back in the sanatorium was the fake one. When I arrived here he had looked at me with nothing but disdain in his eyes, and if I looked now, I was afraid I would see that again. I had been afraid and paranoid back there, Mike might have just pretended to care so I wouldn't be much of a burden to him. Now that Sam was here, Mike's finally able to get rid of me.
A light tap on the shoulder broke me away from my thoughts and back to reality. Sam was there, smiling kindly and fully dressed. she hugged me again, more gentle this time, and kept telling me how glad she was that I was okay. I looked over to Mike and saw that he was looking at me with cold, distant eyes. So what happened in the sanatorium really had been nothing but pitiful. I held back the tears and forced myself to keep calm. A fourth voice broke the moment, and all of us immediately turned towards the door Sam had just entered from.
"I can't decide! I can't decide!" It was a familiar voice, and Mike carefully approached it.
"What was that?" Sam let go of me and followed Mike, I tried to figure out why the voice was so familiar.
"Is that crying?" I sounded like one of the guys, like...
"Chris!!" Sam and Mike both turned to look at me in shock, but I had no time for explanations and just ran. Out the door was a little corridor, and, right in front of me, a rusted metal door where the crying came from. There was no way to open the door other than pushing it open and I didn't hesitate. A shot of adrenaline rushed through my body and without thinking I collided against it again and again in order to get it open. Mike was beside me almost immediately and instead of trying to stop me did the same thing. After four or five tries we finally got the door to burst open and stumbled into the room, with me actually falling to my knees.
Sam helped me get up when a light came on in the middle of the room. Ashley and Chris sat facing each other across a small table with a camera to the side facing both of them in a perfect angle that would catch every reaction. I took a step forward to them, but the killer then came out of the shadows, causing me and Sam to freeze in our spot. Ashley started crying hysterically upon seeing him and screamed.
"Noo! No no no!! Get away!!" I wanted to run to her and help, but Sam kept me still. Mike was creeping in the corners, getting closer.
Chris turned a gun he was holding toward the killer and shot him a couple of times. The psycho kept moving towards them, not even flinching.
"Oh Chris... Oh Chris, Chris, Chris."
"What the fuck?" Chris looked at the gun and then at the psycho in confusion.
"Oh, you've heard of blanks before. I mean really?" there was something about the way he spoke that sounded eerily familiar, and it disturbed me. I couldn't take it anymore and ran to Chris and Ashley when Sam loosened her grip. I heard them as they followed closely behind and only stopped dead in my tracks when I saw that the psycho was taking his mask off.
I couldn't breathe, couldn't move. the rush of adrenaline I had felt earlier vanished and was replaced by pain. I dropped to my knees and let the pain engulf me, both the physical and mental. I heard Chris, Mike, and Sam say his name in horror, but couldn't bring myself to register it. My ankle was beyond killing me in pain right now, and my the right side of my body was now aching from forcing that door open. The wound on my forehead had started bleeding again and my exhaustion had reached new levels of horrendous, but nothing compared to the pain I felt coursing through my heart and soul. The one that had been behind the mask, behind all the torment, and behind all the tears was none other than Josh.
"Oh, very good. Every one of you. You got my name!" His laughter made me flinch, it made all of us flinch in pain.
"And after all you've been through! Good, good-good-good. I mean how does that feel?" Had Sam been lying? No, she was as shocked as all of us. Why was Ash covered in blood? What about Em and Matt? Were they locked up somewhere too? Did Josh kill Jess?
"Do you enjoy feeling terrorized? Humiliated? I mean, panicked?" Mike and Sam were untying Chris and Ash, I just sat there, my mind a complete blank, looking directly at Josh. Just a couple of minutes ago, I was sure he was dead, we all were. I hated myself for not doing anything to try to help him when I saw the psycho leaving the shed. Now I know he was the one leaving, he was the one that made me run so long and get injured. He was the reason Jessica was dead.
"All those emotions that my sisters got to feel once one year ago! Only guess what? They didn't get to laugh it off! No! Nope! No no no! They're gone!" That one stabbed right through me and I gasped, tears falling down my face freely. Mike looked at me and turned to Josh, enraged.
"I don't know if you noticed this Josh, but none of us are laughing." Mike gestured at his and my injuries, signaling just how fucked up this all was.
Oh, come. Why the long faces? Come on. It's good to get the heart racing every now and then, right?" He looked at all of us and avoided me.
"And race they did. I mean, every one of you, just pitter-pat. I hope you appreciated my little phantasmagorical spectacle! I mean, no detail too small! No opportunity missed! It was such a delight to play the puppet master to all of your Pavlovian panic! And all that gore? I mean gore, there was gore galore!!! Fake bodies... I mean... God that shit was expensive! And no retakes. Nope, only double takes! You should have seen your faces. Hook line and sinker. For every little stinker!" There was an unnatural glow to his eyes, something was off and wrong about him.
"Why?" was the only thing I could come up with, but it was enough to make him turn and look straight into my eyes. His facade faltered before he could answer.
"Don't even ask this squirrelly little runt. He's got no clue. He's out of his fucking tree!" Mike was furious as he answered me instead, but I didn't look away from Josh, I wanted an answer.
"Well he's definitely off his meds." Chris simply stated. I wanted them both to shut up, I asked Josh for his reasons, not them for crying out loud!
"Oh, come on you guys! Revenge is the best medicine!" Josh looked away from me and answered them instead.
"You're done." I felt the anger, the resentment in Mike's voice, but did absolutely nothing to stop it. I was done too.
"Mike, he's sick..." Chris was still trying to find a logical reason behind this, but there was none. Josh had committed murder in the name of his "prank".
"You guys are all gonna thank me when you become internet sensations." My insides twisted and I wanted to vomit at that.
"wait what..?" Chris looked at Josh in utter shock.
"Oh you better believe this little puppy is going viral ladies and germs! I mean we got unrequited love. We got... we got blood." He glanced my way and Mike's when he said that, and I felt disgusted. The conversation we had by the fireplace came to mind, had he been recording that too?
"What are you talking about you ass hat? Jessica's FUCKING DEAD!" I didn't want to be witnessing this anymore, I was done with everything.
"What?" He was pretending not to know?!
"Did you hear me? Jessica is dead, and YOU ARE GONNA FUCKING PAY FOR IT YOU DICK!" I heard Mike's steps as he said that and looked up to see him hit josh in the face with the gun, knocking him out. I felt nothing.