Chapter 5
Adam's POV:
"Adam....Adam!....Adam wake up!!" I immediately recognized Amy's voice and groaned as I tried to blink the sleepiness from my eyes, so I could answer her. I had the worst headache of all headaches. It really was the mother of all headaches. "Adam come on, now not the time to be sleeping!" She pestered, her foot kicking mine. I opened my eyes finally and hiss as my neck cramped, and my right arm throbbed in pain. Why was I sleeping sitting up? "Adam ngh! Come on we're in trouble." She groaned, like she was in pain. I blinked my eyes open a final time and looked around. I didn't recognize where we were. 'Some kind of shed....?' Everything was still a little blurry, and my headache was not helping. I really just wanted to close my eyes again and not deal with whatever was causing Amy to be hysterical. "I can't believe that your sleeping when we have been kidnapped by psychos!"
Oh yeah, now I remembered, I became a bit more aware at the realization I should probably be freaking out with her. I tugged at my arms and found that the reason my right arm was in pain was because instead of in its sling, my arms were pulled back and tied to the chair we were both sitting in. "You're the one who hit me with a tree branch." I mumbled, starting to struggle in my bonds, like she was doing.
"Really!? That's what you focus on!?" She snapped. She was struggling a lot harder than I was. She practically had her chair moving and scrapping on the floor. Moving her chair backwards with each movement. She was putting more effort in escaping than I was.
"No! Yes! Its the first thing that came into my head okay!" I snapped tiredly.
"Well you better wake up and start trying to slip out of those ropes. They could be back soon!" She said, the back of her chair hitting the wall behind her. The muscles in her shoulder muscles were working and it didn't take a genius to know that she had noticed something in the wall that was sharp and able to help her cut through the ropes.
I start moving my chair toward her, intent on using what she was using to saw through her ropes. I had to stop a few times as my hearing started ringing then slowly switched to a white noise sound, it caused my headache to spike even worse. I noticed Amy was taking breaks almost as much as was and grunting in pain every now and then. "Amy are you okay?" I asked when I was close enough.
"I'm fine....Almost...Got it!" She grunted, the sound the rope snapping and her arms falling to her side. She immediately brought both of her hands up to her head and cradled it for a second as she stood. "Okay, your turn." She said coming to stand behind me.
"Okay." I said nodding. I was not at the top of my game for some reason. Getting hit in the face with a branch couldn't cause that much damage could it. I groaned when the white noise started back up. Amy stopped tugging on my ropes to cradle her head again and groaned as well.
"Adam....Ar-Are you hearing what I'm hearing?" She asked when the moment passed.
"Yeah. Are you too?" I asked her. My arms falling to my side when she pulled away the final knot. I couldn't let my arms hang though. The pin pricks that were starting to set in they made my right arm ache even worse that I started to cradle it. Where was my sling anyway? I looked around the shed we had been left in. It honestly looked like a junk shed.
"Yeah. You don't think....that, well, you know....?" She gave me a look.
I honestly wasn't sure what she was talking about, so I just let me head tilt to one side. It really was just too much work to hold it up. It was so inviting to just sit back down in the chair that I had been tied to, but it was also a little disturbing to even think about sitting back down in a chair that had kept me prisoner a few moments ago.
"Never mind, let's just go." She said, opening the door. Which surprisingly was unlocked. I was about to follow her out when she immediately jumped back and slammed the door. "Shit! Quick hand me those chairs!" She ordered. I didn't ask questions, I quickly handed her one of the chairs, which she wedged under the door handle. Loud thumping started sounding on the other side of the door. We both stood frozen for a couple of seconds watching as the chair and door both rattle against the force trying to come through the door.
"Out the window.....?" I asked, as it became apparent our makeshift blockage was not going to last long.
"Yeah!" Amy said quickly, pushing me as we both scrambled for the window.
We simultaneously reached the window at the same time and threw it open and began pushing and shoving to be the first one out. Somehow even though we were both trying to squeeze in the window at the same time, we both manage to get through and remarkably landed on our feet. There was no thought as we ran. We just ran, both trying to outrun the other, and neither of us looked back. We just need to get far away from our kidnappers. White noise sounded in my head again almost making me stumble, but I didn't stop. There was a rule that me and Amy firmly believed in when it came to running away.; I don't have to be fast, I just got to be faster than you. And we were definitely trying to out run each other. There wasn't any trail for us to follow. No signs that could tell us where we were. There was just trees as far as the eye could see. The only thing that hindered us from continuing our mad dash for freedom was running right off a very steep slope, like the ground just decided to drop suddenly. I tried staying upright as tried to find our balance during the sudden dip in the ground.
"Ow!" Amy dropped to her knees suddenly.
"What?!" I asked, picking up a rock and turning this way and that; looking out for any signs of danger.
"I think I hurt my ankle." She moan and stumbled as she tried to walk, but couldn't.
"Please tell me your joking." I pleaded, as I let her grab onto me and started on our way. The flight instinct we had a few moments ago vanishing at the sight of my long time friend hurt. This was not the time to have a sprained ankle.
She looked at my worriedly and tried taking a few steps again, only to stop and hiss in pain. "Its sprained." She said, trying a few more times to walk on it without limping and falling.
"Which way should we go?" I asked, as we both looked at our surroundings. There really was nothing but trees around us. There wasn't anyone chasing us either it seemed. Maybe whoever was trying to break down the door at the shed was still trying to break it down and didn't hear us running away. Things were calm at the moment, and so we just picked a direction and started walking. Amy probably could walk on her own if it was just sprained, but I think we both just found comfort and holding onto each other. She was my anchor and I was hers at the moment. We both jumped and grabbed tighter to each other at the sudden sound of a shriek that broke the silence of the woods around us. "W-wh-what.....?" I asked looking around.
"I-i think it w-was a shriek owl. They live in the woods right?" Amy said, trying to explain away the sound.
"I don't know!" I said, not stopping and looking around. Why did the trees all look the same. And what was with the sky? The weatherman had called for sunny weather the last time I watched television. But the sky was so cloudy and gloomy I couldn't even see the sun. 'And now I'm just trying to focus on something that is less scary, Great Adam. Just great. Way to man up.' My thoughts were interrupted by the white noise sound again and I was vaguely aware of Amy grabbing at her head and groaning.
"Something is wrong...." She groan.
"Yeah." I agreed shaking my head trying to quiet the white noise. It was starting to die down now. Another shriek and a snap of a twig had us moving faster, and after a few random turns later we broke through the treeline. The ground was littered with rocks and the mouth of a large tunnel greeted us. We stared dumbly for a moment at the sight of the darkness in its mouth. I looked around but couldn't see a way around it. "We're going to have to go in, aren't we?." I said, voicing our option. Goosebumps crawled up my spine as I continued to look to at the opening of the tunnel. The total darkness signified that there was no opening at the end of the tunnel.
"Its our only choice at the moment. We could turn around?" Amy said, rubbing a hand across her nose. The back of her hand came back with blood on it.
"You're bleeding." I said, sounding dumb.
"Let's go." She ushered, moving forward, pulling me with her, she limped badly at my side.
Maybe we would just stay here until the shrieking stopped and until we were sure that whoever had kidnapped us wasn't following us. If we rested here then that would give Amy's hurt ankle time to rest. We slowly inched our way into the darkness of the tunnel. This probably wouldn't be so bad if we had flashlights. I felt like we were being watched. Footsteps outside the tunnel though pressed us forward, until we couldn't see the light at the entrance anymore, however when the footsteps moved closer to the tunnel, we both froze. The footsteps paused for a few moments, and I felt myself stop breathing like whoever was out there wouldn't hear us if we didn't breathe. When those few moments were up the footstep started moving away from the tunnel.
"Oh my God! I thought we were goners." Amy whispered, panting slightly, apparently she had been holding her breath too.
"Yeah." I nodded, even though she couldn't see my nod. "I didn't ask before, because we were busy running, but who was at the shed door. Your date who was in blue or the guy that chase me who was wearing yellow?"
"Yellow." She answered. "I don't where my psycho date is." She said.
"Okay." I said, looking around the darkness. I literally couldn't see anything and for some reason we continued to walk deeper into it. I think we were both relying on the presence of each other to keep ourselves from turning back.
Something clattered in front of us and for like the hundredth time today, it was like we turned into statues. "M-maybe it was just rock or something." Amy said, gripping my arm. Another clatter and a snarling sound followed it.
Eyes wide and in almost a robotic motion I started backing up without much thought and was taking Amy with me. When the snarling sound started moving closer, something snapped within me and without thinking I turned and plowed through Amy, grabbing her around the waist and tossing her over my shoulder, ignoring the pain the throbbed in my right arm as I did it. She did not complain, if she did I was too panicked to hear it. I couldn't breath, I couldn't think of anything else beside 'RUN' and 'DANGER'. It felt like an eternity before the opening of the tunnel appeared. But I didn't stop. I could hear the scrapping of on the ground behind me as something chasing us and I was not about to be some creatures lunch right after me and Amy just escaped our kidnappers.
Hoodies POV:
I watched as Adam and his female friend ran in to the tunnel that Rake liked to stay in. I had came back to the shed after breakfast and had arrived just in time for the girl to open the door and slam it in my face once she saw me standing there. Of course I knew they could get loose if they actually put their minds to it, so it wasn't a surprise to me. But I still had to put on a show and slammed my shoulder against the wood of the door in an attempt to get in and grin when I found the door jammed shut. Good. They weren't going to make this easy. Their only escape now would be the window and I wait for the sound of running feet before I stopped slamming against the door, and casually followed their trail. Using the short cuts that were in the woods to follow then without being seen. I very pleased seeing Adam moving well after last night. I was also pleased that the Slender Sickness wasn't so bad yet.
The girl however, Bloody Painter had activated the Slender Sickness in her on their first meeting which was a couple of hours before Adam's Slender Sickness was reactivated by me. Her sickness would take her out first. When I saw them tumble down the steep slope, and the girl stood up and started limping, that was more than what I could hope for, but I needed them to turn around to get them in the right area that I had prepared for them. I watch distastefully when the girl and Adam clung to each other, because of her injury. I have seen prey hurt worse than that continue to run out of shear determination to live. But oh, when they waltzed up to the tunnel that was the home of the Rake. That was just what I needed to get them where I wanted them. When the darkness of the tunnel swallowed them, I had walked up to the tunnel as loudly as I could, so as to drive them deeper, where I knew the Rake resided.
I waited just outside the tunnel standing slightly to the side and behind a tree and watched silently when Adam came running out the Rake following a few feet away, snarling and growling as it chased them. My eyes narrowed at the sight of the girl he was carrying over his shoulder, his right injured arm baring the brunt of the strain. I had kind of hope Adam would leave her to slow down the Rake. That would have been the ideal move. Especially, if he wished to outrun the Rake, or even myself when the time came. That girl was a nuisance and an obstacle for what I wished to achieve.
I followed, watching as the Rake chased Adam and the burden on his shoulder toward the area I wanted them in. I enjoyed watching my prey run. He stumbled every now and then when the Slender Sickness would act up. Rake had been warned about my prey that I had brought. So, when the abandoned house came into view, it was no surprise that the Rake stopped in his tracks and let my prey run into the condemned structured. They didn't even notice, being too blinded by their fear.
Rake huffed, watching them disappear into the building, as I walked up beside him.
"Good job." I praised.
"Reward." Rake demanded.
"I will give you the girl, for your trouble." I promised. "I will have no need for her soon enough."
Rake made a pleased noise and turned to go back to his tunnel.
I casually made my way to the abandoned house and listened to the sounds inside, to pinpoint where they were. I could hear their frantic breathing as they tried to calm down after such a run. I could hear the girl as she limped around, signaling that Adam had finally put her down. I went into the house via the backdoor, which was hanging off its hinges and looked up when the ceiling above creaked due to their movements. So they were upstairs.
"I think it gave up." Adam's voice traveled through the rotting wood, as I silently made my way up the stairs. I knew this place like the back on my hand and was able to avoid the boards that would creak, or make any type of noise.
"Don't you think it gave up a bit too easy? This house isn't entirely fool proof you know." The girl said, before groaning in pain. She was doing that more often now. Which was good. Her sickness was getting worse faster. "What even was that thing anyway?!" She asked, voice shaking slightly from the fear and pain that was still consuming her.
"I don't know! I don't know, I just know that none of this is normal! That thing was something from stories!" Adam said, panic still in his voice.
I crept up to the closed door of the room they were hiding in and peek inside. The girl had her head in her hands and was sitting on the old bed that occupied the room. Soon, Very soon. The sickness would hits its peek and she would start hallucinating. I would make the pain of the sickness unbearable and turn her against Adam. I needed to drive him toward me. Make him watch the girl self destruct and the watch me as I took her away. Then there would be just me and him and I was going to make our chase so much more intense than what he has experienced so far. Satisfied with the process of their sickness I went back downstairs. And waited.
Adam's POV:
Amy wasn't looking so good. She was paler than normal and I didn't want to alarm her, but when we locked ourselves in this room I noticed blood was leaking from her ears when I set her on the bed. It wasn't a lot so I maybe it wasn't nothing important she could have gotten hit or scratched by a branch when I was running with her over my shoulder. That thing in the woods, it reminded me of something, but that something was in stories. I started pacing the floor in thought, now we had a breather. Why in the world were we kidnapped and brought here anyway. I mean we were nobodies. I rubbed my poor right arm. Carrying Amy on it had really hurt, and I was starting to understand why the doctors had warned me about doing certain activities with it, but this situation was an emergency and I wasn't going to leave my best friend to be eaten by a monster. I cradled it trying to relieve some of the pain that was pulsing through it.
I stopped pacing and groaned as white noise sounded in my head. It was becoming more frequent now. Monster. Was that really what had chased us? Amy was right it had been too easy to get away. I jogged the short distance toward the window and looked out. But there was no signs of the creature. No signs of our kidnappers. What the hell was going on? My thoughts were interrupted by Amy as she started hacking and coughing, blood came out of her mouth and coated her hands.
"That's not good." She said, tears streaking her face.
"Amy whats going on? Are you hearing things too?" I asked.
"Yeah, a horrible static sound. Its been constantly ringing and the monsters and the darkness that comes with it." She sobbed. "Adam please make it stop!" The white noise that had been frequently sounding in my head picked up again, and if Amy's crying was anything to go by, the white noise in her head had started up as well. "I can't take it any more! There's no break!" She whined.
When the white noise in my head started vanishing, I took a deep breath, getting air back in my lungs that seemed to have been stolen from me. I turned my head and rubbed my nose at the feeling of something running from it. My hand came back with blood on it. 'Just like Amy's had at the tunnel.' I had to force myself not to show my panic at the sight of blood and wiped my hand on my pants before Amy could see. Although it seemed that she was still suffering from the white noise in her head. "Amy?" I said, worriedly, starting to move towards her.
"Get away from me!" She screeched, shoving me away from her. I stumbled backwards, away from her and stared at her wide eyed, she has never spoken like that to me before. "You cause this!" She shouted pointing at me. I looked over my should to be sure there wasn't someone standing behind me that she was pointing at instead; There wasn't. "The darkness, it calls your name! It wants you!" She jumped up from the bed and limped toward me. She had blood running from her nose and ears and she didn't bother wiping it away. Giving her a wild and crazed look.
"Shh, Amy, quiet. You'll give us away." I tried to shush her. She wasn't sounding like the friend I grew up with. This wasn't like her.
"If I give it you, it will leave me alone. The torture...." She gripped her head and groaned. "It will stop." She lunged and I jumped backwards avoiding her grabbing hand, my back hit the door to the room.
"Amy, stop and think. This isn't you. Your more leveled headed." I tried to reason.
"It won't stop!" She insisted jumping for me again.
I whirled around and threw the door open, and winced when the door hit Amy in the face. "Amy are you okay?!" I asked holding the door between us, like shield, watching as she rubbed were the door had hit her. She glared at me and if looks could kill, I would be dead already. She growled at me and that was my only warning to run from her.
I didn't get far. I don't know how she did it with a hurt ankle but just as I was about to run down the stairs she grabbed me from behind. "Where do you think your going?" She sneer, when I looked back at her.
"N-no where.....?" I answered, not use to being scared of my friend. The look in her eyes were not normal.
"That's right!" She said, puling me close to her. "Because you can't run from the darkness, Adam. Don't run embrace it!" She said, fingernails digging through my shirt. "It hurts less."
"Amy snap out of it." I said, panicky over her strange behavior. I didn't think about it, nor did I plan it, but my left hand came up and slapped her, knocking her off balance and dislodging her grip. Her hands reached up and cradle her head again where my hand had hit her. "Oh my God! Amy!" I reached to touch her, but stopped when she just started giggling.
I was freaking out, but I was trying not to show it. Distracted by her giggling fit, I jumped when something wrapped around my neck and yanked slightly bending my back signaling that I was stand higher than who had grabbed me, Another arm grabbed at my right arm and I hissed in pain as it was pulled behind me. I could see enough of the arm to see yellow, which meant our kidnapper had caught up with us. Amy suddenly stopped giggling and gasped. "Adam....the darkness, he has you." She said, wide eye. I looked her in the eyes pleading her to come back to her senses, but was instead greeted with blood running from her eyes. "He can make this all stop, Adam!" She rejoiced.
Before I started hyperventilating I pushed back trying to push myself and our kidnapper down the stairs, but he didn't budge. And I was trying hard. It was like he was made of iron. The white noise started back up and this time the pain was more pronounce than ever, I felt my nose start bleeding again and my suspicion was confirmed when the yellow sleeve that was around my neck speckled with the drops of blood. The white noise lasted longer this time and my vision blanked out. When it stopped as quickly as it had start and my vision came back, I found myself being thrown down the stair. Before I landed at the bottom, my head hit the last step, but thankfully not too hard, but it still hurt. I landed on my side and groaned, I couldn't decided what hurt the worst my head or my right arm that had been abused throughout this whole horror movie adventure. Getting to my knees I pulled myself to my feet with the help of my left hand and stood wobbly on my legs, that fall had really jarred me. Taking a steadying breath I looked up the stairs.
"Amy run!" I shouted, wide eyed at what I was seeing.
She was smiling and kneeling before our kidnapper. He wore a yellow hoodie with a black ski-mask on that had a red stitched frownie face on it, the same guy that had chased me through the park. "He can make it stop." She chanted, staring at him like he was a God or something. He didn't say anything. My eyes immediately went to his gloved hand that was pulling a gun from his pocket and aimed it at Amy who was still chanting about him making the white noise go away.
"No don't! Please!" I begged running back up the stairs toward them.
The guy turned his masked face toward me as he pulled the trigger. I had gotten close enough that when the shot went off, the sound was loud and took my hearing, and I stumbled back not use to such a loud and horrifying noise. Everything seemed to go in slow mode then, Amy's body slumped forward and more blood began to spill from her. The hooded man used my distraction to kick me back down the stairs and this time I landed on my back. The landing took my breath away and caused me to wheeze, trying to get it back, it also caused pain to flare again from my back and it traveled all over my body making my head and arm to hurt even worse. The guy then kicked Amy's slumped form down the stairs. Her lifeless body landed next to mine. My eyes stayed on her, waiting for her to reopen her eyes because this could not be happening. But she did not move. She could not be dead! I could not tear my eyes away from my friend. Her face was covered in blood that had been running down her nose, ears, and eyes, and now more blood was leaking out of the hole in her head.
I flinched when a black sneaker came in front of my face and kicked at her body, making her roll away from me. My eyes moved up and stared at my soon to be murderer. He was looking down at me, the red stitching on the dark fabric that was shrouded by the yellow hood, casting even more shadow, making the red stitching look like it was glowing. I was definitely hyperventilating now, it was becoming harder to breath. And as much as I wanted to move away and run right this moment, my body was frozen. My first good look at my soon to be killer and I finally could pinpoint who he was dressed as. The Marble Hornets character Hoodie, or the Hooded Man. "H-H-hoodie.....?!" I gasped out barely getting the words from my mouth. As soon as the fictional characters name left my lips, a white noise bomb went off in my head, pulling a scream out of me like never before. It hurt. It hurt so bad. I didn't even know I had squeezed my eyes closed, until I opened them again and saw nothing but blackness. In that darkness something called my name beckoning me forward. Amy had been right something was after me. Everything started going numb as the surrounding darkness swallowed me whole, causing the white noise to abrupt stop and everything else vanished, and I didn't fight it. I wanted to be anywhere besides in the reality where I had just watched my best friend get shot in the head, and couldn't save her.
TBC
A/N: Well I hope you all like the new chapter. I hope there are still readers our there interested in it. Anyway let me know what you all think by Votinging, Following, and Reviewing. I like reading what you all have to say.
Until Next Time
HAPPY READING!!