Coextensive

Part 2

The house was completely dark when I awoke again, my head now pounding less. I squinted my eyes to try and shake the feeling off, and only after five minutes of standing completely still, with my hand pressed against the wall for support, could I finally walk without feeling like I had to collapse again.

When I got to the hallway, it wasn't dark anymore. At least, there was light illuminating the hallway and the wooden stairs now. A single beam of light shone brightly in the middle of the hall, Abbie sitting right next to it. She smiled when she saw me.

"You're alright!" She exclaimed excitedly as she got up suddenly to hug me. "John's looking for you. He hasn't come back yet. Grace is with him." She said as she sat down again.

"Where did they go?" I asked while looking around. Everyone else was here except Dennis and Anne. Dennis was still in the room. My mouth went agape, panic started to eat away at me. My heart raced like it was being shocked with a thousand jolts.

"I don't know, he said he-" she started to say but I cut her off immediately, my voice high with panic and anxiety.

"Dennis, where is he?" I asked quickly, cold sweat now falling from my cheeks.

"Dennis? Wasn't he with you?" She asked back with identical tone.

"He went into the room. Tackled the guy who knocked you out." I said.

"Shit." She sighed heavily as she tapped her food anxiously. She shifted her weight to her right foot and looked toward the deadly seven of a corner. "I-" she started to say. "We should see if he's okay. Go to the room."

I nodded. But I was too afraid to go near that room again. Not because of the fear of reliving memories I didn't want to remember but because of what we may find inside. Dennis had to be alright. I refused to believe otherwise.

"I'll go with you." Trevor volunteered, raising his hand. "It's the least I could do."

"You didn't do anything wrong." Abbie said, shaking her head. She was still looking at the corner.

"I could've prevented him from hurting you. And John. If I did, Dennis wouldn't have chased him, and he'd still be here with us now. I owe this to him." He said, folding his arms against his chest. There was no convincing him otherwise. Knowing Trevor, once he made up his mind, nothing can change it.

"It wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. It was *his* fault." Abbie told him, sighing as she did. She felt just as guilty as the rest of us. She cared for all of us. For some reason she did.

"I still want to help. Let me do this." Trevor said adamantly.

"Fine. Let's go." She replied. Sighing yet again, she walked toward the room, rounding the corner. Trevor and I followed soon after.

------

We didn't like what we saw. Abbie was breathing hard, inhaling air like she's never breathed before. Trevor was gripping his chin as though he was trying to pinch it off. There were blood stains on the floor, like streaks flicked from a wet paintbrush. The hair on the back of my neck stood in attention at the sight of it, shivers coursing throughout my body. This didn't look good.

This didn't look good for Dennis.

"We-" Abbie started to say, stuttering uncontrollably at the start of each sentence. She felt it too. She knew it wasn't good. "We should check inside." She nodded finally, closing her eyes and inhaling another breath of air. As her chest expanded with each breath she took, so did her courage.

"Right." Trevor said, playing with his chin again. He started toward the door, twisting the doorknob clockwise which elicited a click from it.

Trevor entered first, his footsteps slow and heavy. He was expecting the worst, just like how Abbie and I felt too. My eyes shut themselves without me having to tell them to. If anything did happen, I didn't want to see it. A sudden feminine inhalation of air, the loudest gasp I have ever heard, escaped Abbie's lips. That was when my eyes opened to the horrifying sight of Dennis laying slump on the wall, blood trailing from where he must've slumped down. There was blood pooled around his abdomen, blood staining his yellow shirt. Dennis was dead.