"Oh my God," Madison shrieked in fear as she covered her face in fright at the ugly sight of a wounded Emma. "She looks so... dead," she stammered.
Matthew placed two fingers on Emma's cold wrist. He quivered nervously as he struggled to find any signs of life in her. "There's no pulse..." he trailed off anxiously.
After a few moments, Megan and Daniel, who were much further from the watchtower than Matthew and Madison were, came running towards the others.
"What happened?" Daniel gulped, staring down at Emma, who remained unconscious despite Matthew's desperate attempts to resuscitate her.
Tears began to flow down Megan's face as she got a glimpse of Emma. "Emma... Emma! What happened to you?" she sobbed as she ran over to Emma, touching her face. "She's... ice cold..."
"I know. And... she still doesn't have a pulse..." Matthew sighed, breaking the news to the others.
"I think we all know that she's now... she's now gone..." Daniel trailed off, wiping a tear from his reddening eyes.
"No!" Megan screamed in retaliation, standing up and turning to face the detectives. "Emma is not dead! She can't leave just like that!" she protested, her nose turning red from the crying.
Matthew nodded rapidly upon hearing Megan's statement, too attached to let go of his dear friend. "We can't give up hope on her yet. Madison, do you have an AED?" he queried, turning towards her for assistance as he fought the tears that were about to spill out of his eyes.
"Yes, there's one in my cabin," she replied quickly. "Are you... going to try it on her?"
Matthew heaved a sigh. "We don't have any other choice," he lamented. "It's either this or her death. We can't afford not to try."
Madison nodded and rushed towards her cabin hastily to retrieve the defibrillator.
"H-how did she even fall?" Megan quivered.
Matthew inspected Emma's body more carefully. There didn't seem to be any scratches or punctures on her body. Only her head was bleeding profusely.
"I think she had an accident similar to Mason's," he spoke. "She has no wounds except on her skull, which was probably caused by the fall. I think... I think she was dragged off by the creature."
Meanwhile, Madison returned with the defibrillator and an additional first aid kid to treat and bandage Emma's head.
"We must hurry. Even if we revive her, she may die from blood loss," Madison said as she wrapped a bandage around Emma's skull. "Daniel, I'm sure you know how to operate an AED. Open it up."
Daniel nodded before removing the defibrillator from its packaging. "Well, here goes nothing," he said before preparing Emma for the revival process.
He began to operate the defibrillator on her, despairingly attempting to save his close friend. Madison continued to bandage Emma's head while Matthew watched anxiously. Megan chewed on her fingers, which was a practice she would usually consider "uncultured", while tears continued to leak from her swollen eyes.
Unfortunately for them, nothing went as they had desired. The defibrillator worked everything but miracles for them. With every charge that Daniel worked on Emma, she didn't wake up.
"I-I'm sorry guys.... She's gone," Daniel tried to keep a straight face while announcing the bad news before breaking into a miserable sob as soon as he finished the sentence.
"You didn't try enough!" Megan screamed. "I'll do it instead!"
Megan brought up the defibrillator and began utilising it as Daniel had done. The others watched nervously as she worked the machine on the unconscious Emma. Even Daniel, who had given up earlier, prayed for something good to turn out of it. Sadly, the results were still the same. Emma didn't wake up.
"No..." Megan sobbed. She grasped Emma's sleeves, shaking her violently. "Wake up!" she cried. "Why won't you wake up? Are you that tired? Get up!"
Daniel tried consoling her by patting her shoulder, but she pushed his hand away and continued to shake Emma's body. Matthew wanted to step in and move Megan away from the unconscious Emma, but Daniel held up his hand to stop Matthew from doing so.
"Emma..." Megan continued to sob, looking down at the grass. "R-remember... remember that day that you refused to get out of bed? I couldn't convince you to get up, so I just left the apartment first. You were late, and you got a mouthful from the captain. You do remember... don't you?"
Of course, Emma didn't respond. "And... and remember when you fell asleep at your desk, on your keyboard? You and your irritating snoring and your face lying on plastic," Megan chuckled for a moment as she reminisced about the good times.
"And just a few weeks ago, you almost missed the flight to Lehigh Valley because you were snoring away. I still wonder how you could be late for an hour," she continued grinning as she recalled.
"But you always get up in the end. So..." Megan paused before she began wailing again. "So why won't you wake up now? Why?"
Emma continued to stare up at Megan, unresponsive. "Please, Em. I never thought about the day that you wouldn't wake up from your sleep," she sobbed, finally accepting the situation.
"Why did it have to be today?"
* * *
Matthew sat on the bed, pondering deeply about his situation, his gaze transfixed on the desk blankly. He tapped on the bedsheet rhythmically, although he wasn't thinking about a song or anything like that. His mind was simply fixed on their escape plan out of the manor.
Time was running short, but the detectives had barely made progress. Meanwhile, two had already been slain by the vicious creature. They definitely had to do something if they wanted to avoid ending up meeting their demise, just as Mason and Emma did.
After realising it was time to rest, Matthew got under his blanket, fully covered, and squeezed his eyes shut. Prior to that, he had made sure to close the window blinds and lock his cabin door with the door lock itself and an extra padlock that he had in his possession. Only then could he finally experience peace. Well, peace in his surroundings.
Inside, he felt extremely fearful as images of the brown, fur-covered creature kept appearing in his mind. Sequences of its claws being raised to murder him repeated in his brain. And most of all, he couldn't stand the fact that he was just within a thousand feet from it. He was trying to get undisrupted rest, while the monster could simply appear suddenly and kill him.
Forgetting about even attempting to rest, Matthew slipped out of his bed and sat on his desk, leaning his elbow against the wooden desk once again. Instead of beginning a new session of reflection, however, he pulled open the drawer and grabbed out a novel.
He flipped the pages open and began reading. He rubbed his fingers against the coarse texture of the sand-yellow paper and began inhaling the woody scent of it. He shut his eyes briefly, breathing deeply and calming himself, taking in the pleasant fragrance the pages emitted.
Matthew then opened his eyes slowly and began focusing on the words. He was reading It this time. It would have been pretty obvious to his friends that he loved Stephen King books if not for the fact that he never once pulled out a book in front of them. Of course, it just wouldn't be appropriate for that to happen at work.
Then again, he loved horror. He loved thriller. He loved mystery.
But, as he read more, the text seemed to get more suffocating, and his eyes began to strain even more. Tears began to flow from his eyes, not because the scene he was reading was depressing but because it seemed to mirror his situation.
He slapped the thick book shut before slamming it on the hollow table, creating a louder noise than he had anticipated. He laid his head on the table, tilting it towards the right.
Matthew thought about his family, who he hadn't seen for quite a while. His mother was suffering in hospital, but he wasn't around to look after her. He thought about how he was always the "useless" child.
Jean gave his mother a granddaughter. Jean visited her often. Jean was the first to supply her with funds the moment she retired.
But Matthew? Matthew himself reflected on how he was the "worse" son. He never seemed to care for his mother as much as his older brother did. And all he longed for was to sit beside his mother, watching over her, instead of being trapped in the manor.
He pulled the drawer open and drew out a Polaroid hidden beneath a notebook. He stared at it for a while before he began to sob even more. August 17, 2001, the photo was dated. It was the last family photo he had with the complete family.
"I... I miss you, Dad. I haven't forgotten... that day. Please... please forgive me for not being able to be beside Mum right now," he wailed, looking down.
Hearing something brushing against the bushes outside, he looked up and opened the blinds to get a view of everything in the surroundings. At first, he thought that he had spotted the creature once again. Instead, he began to see a figure.
The figure of his father.
He stopped crying. He could see his father grinning, and his lips began to move. It was almost as if he was mouthing, "Don't cry, son." Matthew touched the glass, nodding his head as he fought the tears.
He closed his eyes, eradicating the sadness and misery from his mind. Clearing the clouds of depression that flooded his mind, he opened his eyes again, seeing everything in a different light this time.
He looked out the window again, seeing if his father was still around. However, there was no longer anyone standing in the distance. The grass patch was now empty, and his father was gone.
He felt like crying again, but he stopped himself and opened the desk drawer to return the photograph to its spot. As he shoved the picture into the jammed drawer through the tiny slit that was just wide enough for it to fit, he heard the picture clashing with something else residing in the drawer.
Curious to know what was inside, he forcefully pulled the drawer harder. He wondered what had caused it to jam suddenly, but he continued prying the wooden container out of the desk. Finally, he pulled the entire container out, which broke the latch that held the drawer in the desk.
Matthew placed the container on the desk before standing up to inspect what was inside. And right at the very back of the container lay a metal object. The moonlight from outside shone onto the object, reflecting the light into Matthew's eyes as he identified what it was.
"A crowbar?"
* * *
To cease the incessant knocking, Daniel pulled his cabin door open. "Having a sleepless night too—whoa!" he rubbed his eyes before widening them in fright. "What are you holding?" he shrieked.
"I found this in a jammed drawer in my cabin," Matthew replied. "I thought we could use this to pry the wooden boards off the fence gate."
"That's a good idea, but..." Daniel agreed but then trailed off, thinking for a bit.
"What?" Matthew questioned.
"Can we do this tomorrow morning?" Daniel sighed as he continued to rub his eyes. "I mean, it's really dark right now, and it's dangerous to roam around long distances here. We don't even know where the creature is hiding, prepared to ambush us."
"Come on. You yourself claimed that you can't sleep. What's the point of lying in bed awake if you have nothing to do?" Matthew argued.
"Well, I—," Daniel hesitated before being interrupted.
"Please, Daniel. We have to flee far from this place as soon as possible," Matthew pleaded.
"Okay, okay, fine. I'll get the others up then," Daniel gave in, shaking his head, before bringing Matthew along to wake the others up.
Matthew tapped on Megan's door lightly while Daniel went to call Madison over to join the late-night discussion.
Megan's cabin door flung open quickly, which caused Matthew to flinch a little. He became more irritable due to the absence of sleep in the past few nights. Just as expected, a tired Megan appeared. "What is it? It's eleven right now, Julian," she sighed.
Meanwhile, Madison arrived outside Megan's cabin, with Daniel accompanying her. Her eye bags were seemingly heavy, hinting that, like the others, she didn't sleep either. However, she did manage to get up more quickly than Megan.
"Drop the false names. We're getting out of Witness Protection tonight," Matthew said just as the other two had stopped behind him.
"What? T-tonight? It's so late right now. Can I just take a nap, at least?" Megan protested.
"D-did you just say... get out of WITSEC tonight? No, Matthew. If you really want out, I can let you, but not now. Please spare a thought for our tired souls and let us get some rest," Madison refused, still hopeful of getting some shut-eye.
"Look at you guys," Matthew started. "You all obviously couldn't sleep either. Neither could Daniel and I," he said. "And... after witnessing their... deaths, how could you sleep anyway?" he stammered.
Megan looked up, covering her face with her open palm. "Can we not... mention them? I... I don't know what you want me to say about it," she pleaded, sick of hearing them talk about the sudden deaths of Mason and Emma.
"That wasn't my point," Matthew corrected. "Anyway," he began to explain. "I found this crowbar in a drawer in my cabin. I thought we could use this to break the wooden planks off the fence gate."
"But... but what if the creature finds us and kills us? We can't see properly at night, and my eyesight is so hindered because I'm utterly tired. This doesn't seem like a safe or reasonable plan at all," Madison argued, panicking at the thought of her death.
"Calm down. We will be armed. Remember, don't hesitate to shoot at it if it charges at you," Matthew elaborated.
"Are... are you sure this plan will be effective, though? I don't want anyone else to... die..." Megan stuttered as she recalled Mason's and, more despairingly, Emma's sudden departure.
"If you guys cooperate, this will all work out well," Matthew responded. "So, let's all stay focused. Grab your guns, and we'll head for the entrance immediately."
As such, everyone ran back to their cabins to get their weapons. Matthew, who was already prepared before he had even left his cabin, was the only one left waiting outside Megan's cabin.
He cocked his pistol in preparation for the event that the creature appeared before the detectives could even begin their journey. Fortunately for him, that didn't happen, allowing a smooth beginning for their escape plan.
Not long after, the other detectives and Madison returned with their weapons. "I brought an additional penknife, well, just to be safe," Daniel added, extending it and holding it up to the others.
The detectives then headed towards the exit, about five hundred feet from the main group of cottages. They made sure to move quietly and slowly so as to avoid attracting attention from the creature, which could have been anywhere near them.
"We're almost there," Matthew whispered. "I can already see the gate from here."
Daniel and Megan looked to the sides, holding their pistols up and keeping on a lookout for the beast. Meanwhile, Madison held her PDW up while walking backwards to ensure that the creature couldn't ambush and attack them from the back, where they usually would not be looking at.
"We're here," Matthew whispered to his colleagues as he stopped right at the fence gate.
"Are you sure you can pull the wood off without making a sound?" Madison hesitated.
"Sure I can. I just need to do it steadily and carefully," Matthew reassured her.
Matthew held the crowbar up and got closer to the boards. He brought the claw of the crowbar and rested it on the nails that impaled the boards onto the fence bars. He then pushed the nail downwards, forcing them outwards.
After a lot of quiet groaning and perspiring, Matthew popped the first nail off the wooden boards. Thus, the wood tilted downwards, the unpinned left side hitting the grass silently. Matthew wiped a droplet of sweat that was flowing down from his hair.
"Great job, but you seem tired already," Madison commented.
"I'm fine. I'll move on to the other side now," Matthew replied, reducing the length of his speech to conserve his energy for the intense removal of the wooden boards.
Matthew brought the crowbar over to the other nail and began repeating the process of pressuring it outwards. After about a minute, the nail fell off, and the whole wooden plank fell, crashing onto the nails, which created a sound.
"Uh oh. That wasn't good," Daniel gasped.
"Keep on the lookout for the creature. That probably wasn't loud enough to hear from a distance, but we never know when it might notice us," Megan warned.
"You seem exhausted. Let me help," Madison offered.
Matthew nodded, panting and gasping for air as he handed the crowbar to Madison.
"What a good workout this must be," Madison joked before squatting down and working on the last two nails for the other wooden board.
"Damn, this is harder than I thought," she exclaimed silently, groaning in exhaustion, as she began somewhat to regret volunteering to take over. Nevertheless, she continued to pry on the nail as hard as she could before it finally gave way and popped the nail off.
Just as the wood was about to tilt to one side and hit the items on the floor, which could have potentially made more unnecessary noise, Daniel dashed forward and supported the wooden board.
"Megan, can you move the boards and nails on the floor away? We don't want any more noise," he requested.
Megan nodded before rushing forward to move the messy group of objects on the ground away from the fence gate.
Meanwhile, Matthew continued to look to the left, looking out for any sight of the creature. He thought he had heard something coming from there, but it seemed there wasn't any after all. Nonetheless, he continued to keep an eye on their surroundings.
"Ugh...!" Madison groaned once more before the wooden board fell to the ground, and the fence gate was free from the boards. "Done!" she said, sweeping some dust off her hands.
"That's great. Thank you, Madison," Matthew said. Then, he turned to the other detectives. "Now, all that is left is the padlock on—."
He didn't finish his sentence. "Madison! Look behind you!" Megan screamed in terror.
Madison turned quickly to see the beast standing before her, holding out its claws and ready to give her a tight and deadly embrace...