"What was that noise?" Taurus whimpered.
"Something is wrong. Let's go back up." Scorpio ushered.
Everyone nodded in unison and began walking back up the stairs.
"Um guys, was the door closed before?" Taurus gulped.
"I don't remember shutting it behind me." Sagittarius answered because he was at the end when they came down.
"Oh no..." Scorpio pushed past them and jiggled the knob.
"Oh my god." Gemini breathed out.
"Are we stuck in here?!" Taurus began to hyperventilate.
"Calm down. Panicking won't help." Scorpio put a hand on his shoulder.
"Well I'm panicking right now!" Taurus yelled.
Scorpio himself was terrified about what would happen next but he needed to remain calm if he wanted to think clearly. Suddenly a loud banging came on the door, making him stagger backwards and almost fall down the stairs.
"Guys?! Guys?!" A familiar voice was shouting through the door.
"Virgo?!" Sagittarius called out.
"Something terrible happened!" She sounded like she was breathless.
"What happened?" Scorpio asked.
"Cancer...Capricorn...Libra...THEY'RE ALL DEAD!!" She screamed and continued pounding on the door out of desperation.
"What?..." Scorpio took a sharp inhale.
"Something was wrong with Cancer and then she killed them both. Then we found her dead too!" Virgo explained.
"Fucking hell..." Taurus hissed.
"I thought we could only die during the dares?!" Gemini spoke.
"I don't know what's happening anymore..." Virgo sobbed and ceased her pounding. You could only hear her soft cries through the door.
"Virgo, listen. The door isn't opening right now. I need you to see if you can find anything to open it." Scorpio said in a stable voice.
"I-I can't..." She sniffled.
"Yes you can. Otherwise, we won't be able to help you." Scorpio said.
"O-ok I'll try. Leo and Aquarius are with me too." She mentioned.
"Good. Get them to help you too." Scorpio said calmly.
You could hear Virgo's footsteps fade away and they were left alone again.
"Why don't we just kick the fucking door down?" Sagittarius suggested.
"We can try." Scorpio nodded.
Sagittarius tried taking a step back and kicked the door with full force. The door held its ground and seemed to dare him to try again.
"It's hard since we're on the stairs. I can't hold onto anything either." Sagittarius grunted.
"We should make use of the time and continue searching." Gemini said softly.
"Alright..." Scorpio sighed and they moved back down.
"Virgo found two numbers but they don't seem to have a correlation with anything." Scorpio said out loud.
"I say we ditch it." Taurus crosses his arms. He was clearly at his wits end and was ready to accept his fate.
"We can't get out of this fucking house and we never will." He sniffled.
"C'mere man." Sagittarius gave him a comforting hug and rubbed his back therapeutically.
"There still might be something." Gemini didn't want to give up, not yet.
A piece of paper drifted down the stairs and landed right at Sagittarius's feet. He picked it up and read the messy handwriting.
"Guys, this isn't truth or dare anymore. He's literally planning to pick us off." Sagittarius controlled his temper and handed the paper to Scorpio.
Dear contestants,
Time is of the essence and I'm growing bored of your petty attempts to escape. I have decided to put you through a series of trials and see who survives. It will be at random and will be merciless. I do hope you put your best effort in and it would be greatly appreciated if you don't go snooping through my things. There is no way for you to escape and only one shall live.
Ophiuchus
"That's bullshit." Taurus snatched the paper and crumpled it up.
"He just want to kill us at this point." Gemini whimpered.
"And there's no way to escape..." Sagittarius grew unmotivated.
"No, there has to be. Something is not adding up but I can't put my finger on it." Scorpio groaned and kicked a cardboard box out of anger.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Did you guys find anything?!" Virgo called out.
"No, nothing." Leo answered.
Aquarius shuffled through the drawers with shaky hands. Cold sweat dripped down the back of her neck and stuck to her hair.
"Aquarius?" Leo approached her, making her jump.
"Sorry, but can you remove the sling from my arm?" He said.
"Why? It shouldn't be healed." She stared.
"I..think it's fine now. I don't feel any pain or anything." Leo said.
"Ok.." Aquarius took the sling off and gently dropped his arm to the side.
Leo lifted his arm and stretched it. It didn't seem to hurt him at all.
"How is it?" Aquarius asked.
"Feels like I never hurt it." He said honestly.
"That's impossible!" Aquarius yanked on his arm and he was pulled forward.
"Did it hurt?" She blinked.
"Not at all!" He shrugged.
"Something...somethings are unfathomable in this house. It can never happen in real life." Aquarius frowned.
"Maybe it was just my brain saying I was hurt but I'm really not. The stress probably amplified it." Leo said.
"I guess..." Aquarius shoved the thought to the back of her head and continued searching.
A slight moaning sound turned their heads toward the doorway.
"Please...no more." Virgo begged.
The sound stopped abruptly and then the air was quiet.
"We need to get the others out of the basement." Virgo began to open the cabinets frantically.
The moaning sound arose again.
"What the hell is that?" Leo gulped.
"I don't want to find out." Aquarius lives farther away from the door.
A soft thumping sound came at the door as if someone kept walking into it.
"Should we open it?" Leo whispered.
"Are you fucking crazy? Especially after all that's happened you're just going to open the door?" Aquarius hissed.
Leo's gaze fell and he moved away.
Suddenly the thumping turned into angry banging, startling everyone.
"Shit!" Virgo screamed and then clamped a hand around her mouth.
They could hear the aggressive banging along with scratching. It was a painful sounding scratching, like nails being ripped off painful.
The sounds stopped and the doorknob began to turn slowly.
Aquarius whimpered and caught eye of the hanging kitchen knives. With shaking legs she managed to snatch enough for everyone.
"Take it." Aquarius handed a knife to Leo and Virgo.
She was left with the butcher's knife. It was solid and heavy in her hands. The door creeped open and a hunched figure was standing in the doorway. It had short shoulder length hair and wore a fancy looking black dress. It was moaning in pain as it seemed to reach for help.
Its head looked up at their terrified faces, a large bullet hole was visible from the side. You could see the bits of brain dangling out of the exposed hole and glance through the other side, completely.
"Pisces?" Virgo's voice came out in a whisper.
"That's impossible." Aquarius almost let out a scared laugh.
She was holding a gun in her limp hand.
"Pisces is that you?" Virgo placed the knife on the counter.
Pisces responded with a low moan.
Leo was paralyzed with fear. This was his worst nightmare, the dead. He had always had a fear of dead people, worrying about what they would do to him if he did something wrong to them before they died. He had always avoided zombie movies and if he managed to watch one, he would always end up in tears.
"Virgo stop!" Aquarius voice cut through his anxious thoughts.
Leo saw Virgo carefully approaching Pisces.
"Pisces? What did he do to you?" Virgo sobbed.
Pisces put the gun to her head, in the already made hole and fired the gun. Aquarius screamed and began crying at the loud sound.
"He shot you?" Virgo gulped.
Pisces shook her head furiously, bits of her brain escaped from her head and splattered against the wall around them. She pointed the gun to her chest and then her head.
"YOU did it?" Virgo pointed.
Pisces nodded slowly.
"How are you even- how are you alive?!" Virgo asked with astonishment.
"Virgo, you need to get away from her. Now!" Aquarius yelled.
"What do you mean? It's Pisces!" Virgo gestured.
"Nowhere in hell that's Pisces." Aquarius pointed at her with her knife.
"Pisces, I'm going to take the gun away from you." Virgo reached for her hand.
Pisces stood still as Virgo quickly snatched the gun out of her hand and placed it on the counter, away from her.
"Can you tell me how you got here?" Virgo looked into her dull eyes.
Pisces shook her head 'no' and raised a hand, placing it on Virgo's shoulder. She squeezed tightly.
"Pisces, that hurts." Virgo winced.
Pisces only squeezed harder. Virgo began to whimper in pain as she felt her skin being rubbed against each other. Virgo grabbed her frail arm and tried to get her to let go but her grip was firm and it was going nowhere. Her nails dug into her shoulder sharply, drawing blood quickly.
Virgo screamed and tried clawing her hand off.
"Virgo!" Aquarius yelled and ran towards them.
Virgo dropped to her knees, blood dripping off her bare shoulder.
"Stop it!" Aquarius put the knife between them.
Pisces looked up, amused at her action.
"You have to die." Pisces wheezed, speaking for the first time.
"What?" Aquarius breathed.
"You....have to die....to leave." She said with heavy breaths.
"Stop spewing bullshit and let her go!" Aquarius ignored her words.
"You need to die." Pisces repeated. She took her other hand and wrapped it around Virgo's neck.
Virgo gasped for air and clutched onto her arm, trying to get her to release.
"LET HER GO!" Aquarius's hand trembled.
Pisces showed no sign of stopping, squeezing even harder. Virgo's face was growing dull as the life seemed out of her quickly.
"I am not letting another person die in this shithole." Aquarius raised the knife and brought it down on Pisces hand, cleanly severing it. Exactly the job of a butcher's knife. Virgo gasped and fell on her back, coughing violently.
Pisces didn't make a single sound at her lost hand. She stared at the gushing blood coming out of her arm and then looked up at Aquarius with pure malice.
Pisces used her good hand and grabbed Aquarius's collar, pulling her close. Aquarius could smell the metallic scent of blood in Pisces's breath.
"I'm already dead, bitch." Pisces gave a crooked smile.
She took her bleeding arm and slid it across Aquarius's body, slathering her in blood. Aquarius screamed and tried to flail about but nothing was working.
Leo's eyes darted around and landed on the knife. She's just a zombie. How do you kill zombies? You cut their head off. Leo held up the knife and watched as Pisces grabbed Aquarius's hair and threw her around. Leo took a shaking breath and ran towards them.
Pisces saw the knife approaching her and smiled eerily. With a big swing Leo wedged the knife in between her neck. A sharp crack of bone snapping could be heard. Leo used all he strength and cut it straight through.
"You have to die..." Pisces got put before her head dropped on the hardwood floor with a sickening thud.
Aquarius was breathing heavily and watched the head roll around a bit before stopping and staring at her with dead eyes.
"Are you ok?" She shook Virgo.
"Y-ya." Virgo took deep breaths and looked around.
Aquarius was soaked with blood and it was already drying on her skin.
"Thank you." Aquarius wiped the tears away.
Leo stayed quiet and looked at Pisces's fallen body. He then turned to Aquarius.
"This house isn't real." Leo said.
"What?" Aquarius blinked in confusion.
"It's like what you said. Things that happen in this house is unfathomable. That can't possibly be real." Leo pointed at Pisces.
"So what are you saying?" Aquarius asked.
"She kept saying you have to die." Leo paused.
"What the fuck? Are you crazy?" Aquarius scoffed.
"Maybe I am but I think she meant something by it. It was a clue, it had to be." Leo clasped her hand.
"So you want us to all die?" Aquarius found it hard to look into his eyes.
"What about the numbers I found." Virgo asked.
"That, I don't know yet." Leo admitted.
"Don't give me bullshit, not now, not here." Aquarius sniffled.
"I promise. It'll be ok." Leo gripped her hand tighter.
"Dying doesn't seem like a bad option right now..." Virgo held a towel to her injured shoulder.
Aquarius closed her eyes and then opened them. She found Leo staring at her intently, waiting for her answer.
"We need to tell the others then we'll decide." Aquarius had a tremble in her voice.