Short Stories By Me

Time ticks forwards... Version 2

This is version 2 of my original story, Time Ticks Forwards.... I revised it and think this ending is more... Satisfactory. Hope y'all enjoy and have a great day!

The trending game over there on Earth at the moment is Among Us, where crewmates have to find the hidden imposters before they kill everyone. This is very similar to that, except it's not a game. This is our life, controlled by someone who doesn't care about us in the slightest. In fact, he's just a glorified serial killer. It's all just a game to him. The crazed leader of our civilization, Gareth.

No one knew of his secret life as a murderer until now. Multitudes of unexplained deaths have been happening and someone is covering it up. My friend Ashley and I were snooping around, trying to figure out the reason behind all this. There were logs of the incidences in his office, which would be normal if it didn't describe the deaths in gruesome detail and included information not found in police reports. We had only just discovered them when he walked in.

"Who- What-" he sputtered in disbelief. We sped out of the room before he could say anything else.

We ran and ran, looking back once to see him chasing us with a psychotic look on his face. "Let's hide somewhere," I said. As we looked around for a place to hide, Ashley pointed to a door up ahead. "In there!" She panted out. We sped into the room and locked the door behind us. Just at that moment, we could hear banging on the door. "Oh you meddling kids. You can't hide for long," Gareth sang on the other side of the door.

"Go hide," Ashley whispered.

"Where though?" I whispered back.

She looked around and spotted a closet. Opening it, we saw there was only enough space to hide one of us.

"You go," she said, pushing me towards it.

"But what about you?"

"I'll be ok."

"No you won't! He's right outside the door! He'll kill you the second he sees you!" I argued.

"So it shall be. I have nothing to live for, unlike you. You have to live on, for Rin's sake." She reasoned.

"But-" I stopped at the sound of the rattling door knob as Gareth picked the lock. Oh no.

"Just stay in there," she said gently, pushing me inside.

"But Ashley, I-"

"Please, don't make this any harder than it has to be. Use everything in your power to survive. Knowledge, skills, people. Anything and everything you can, survive til the very end. Live on for me," she whispered, closing the closet door before I could say any more.

I tried to close my ears to the sounds outside, but couldn't. On the contrary, it was all I could focus on. The sound of the door creaking open, the sound of Gareth's cackle as he stabbed a knife into Ashley, the sound of her body hitting the floor.

"Now where's the other girl?" Gareth growled, rummaging through the stuff in the room. "She has to be around here somewhere." I sat there in the dark, waiting for him to leave so I could escape.

After a few minutes, I heard footsteps leaving the room. I breathed a sigh of relief and cracked open the closet door to see if it was safe. Ashley's body lay crumpled on the floor, blood pooling around her. Gareth had left. Kneeling down beside her, I stared at her in shock, not believing that she was gone.

"A-Ashley? A-are you alive?" I whispered to her, only to be met with silence. The sound of footsteps echoing through the hall snapped me out of my daze. I scrambled back into the closet, closed my eyes, and prayed it wasn't Gareth returning to finish the job.