I felt the grass almost swallow my hand as I crawled forward. Taking advantage at the state of shock the other survivors were in after seeing me. The Wraith quickly picked us off one by one, until there was no one left. Zarina had fucked up by letting the Wraith see her after he struck me down, which resulted in me being left on the ground for quite some time. This time one the ground had granted me an opportunity to think about what excuse I was going to use to explain why I had been absent from the campfire.
Eventually, I heard the animalistic growing of The Wraith behind me. Followed by the ringing of the ghostly bell. He threw me over his shoulder and began to carry me. The Wraith was typically one of the more sympathetic killers among the roster. He didn't seem to enjoy the blood he spilled, but rather he understood that it was a duty he most perform. Whether he would show mercy and allow one of us to escape, often proved impossible to predict. Currently, I was guessing that I would sacrificed. I was proven right when I was thrown on the hook. However, The Wraith still provided an act of what seemed to be sympathy, at least initially. He temporarily stopped the arachnid like claws from the entity from impaling me. I could see them twitch and almost screech in some kind of feral rage. The Wraith leaned in close to me, the scent of something burning permeated from him. The sound of his animalistic breathing softened. He began to speak in a voice that was just as ghostly and otherworldly as the bell he rung. "When a goddess takes her lover, the walls of the omnipotent will begin to fall." Before I could even begin to conjure up a response The Wraith released his grip. on the claws. Allowing the entity to consume another soul for its everlasting grand feast.
I woke up just outside the campfire. The feeling impalement still lingered in my abdomen. I gazed upon the others at fire, just out of their sight. They seemed more distraught then usual, for fairly obvious reasons of course. I was debating how to make a proper reappearance at the campfire when Zarina spotted me out of the corner of her eye and began shouting that I had returned. Soon enough, I found myself in front of almost all of the other survivors, all of them were understandably demanding an explanation.
"Settle down everyone." Said Adam, carrying that teacher like authority in his voice. "He's probably overwhelmed right now, let him talk when he wants to talk." I nodded and bit the inside of me cheek. How the hell was I supposed to explain where I've been? Do I just tell them the truth outright? Or play dumb? I dragged my hands across my face before finally settling on an answer.
"I.....I'm not entirely sure." Grunts of disbelief and outright rejection of my answer floated around the crowd. I decided to rephrase my response a bit better. "I was sacrificed like normal, but I was in this black abyss afterwards. I was conscious that I was there, however I couldn't really do anything about it. So I wound up back here." I could tell right away that good portion of the survivors wanted to call bullshit on my story. The problem with doing that is simply that unexplained occurrences happen on common occasion here. So say that I was lying simply wasn't worth it.
Soon after my explanation, the survivors dispersed. Retreating back to their section of the camp, no doubt to ponder the consequences of what I had just told them. I replayed that meeting in my head over and over. Something seemed off about it, like something or someone was missing. My thoughts continued until I heard a loud "Y/n!" Come from the other side of camp. It was Kate. Of course! She was probably in a trial and wasn't around to hear my story. I didn't even have time to acknowledge her before she quite literally tackled me to the ground. "I've missed you so damn much!" She said as she pulled me into a very tight embrace. I could only muster a "hi Kate" in response. We lied there for a few moments. Kate still hugging me, before she finally sat me up and began to speak once more.
"Where were you Y/n? I was-we all were worried sick!" Kate asked. Emotion still tainting her voice. I debated telling her the truth. Kate had a divine and wonderful soul. She probably wouldn't even judge me if I told her. Or would she? She had this sort of adoring look in her eyes, one that promised security and support, and for the most part her actions reflected that look. But she's never heard something like this before. None of the survivors have. I looked back once more at Kate, my lip starting to quiver slightly.
"I.....I don't know where I was." I reluctantly spoke. Wondering if I made the correct choice.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Replied Kate. Clearly confused.
"I don't know how to explain it. I was sacrificed, but I didn't immediately return to the campfire. I was just in a black void for a while, before I came back." Kate's face dropped into an expression of both confusion and horror.
"Will this happen again?" Kate asked, distress oozing out of her voice.
"I'm not sure." I replied. Clearly lacking any confidence in my reply. I knew damn well I would be sent back. "Can I spend some time by myself?" I want to try and make sense of what happened. Kate nodded and said
"I don't mind at all!" Kate said, once more adorning that radiating smile that she always tried to wear. "I'll leave a seat open in case you want to join us again." She winked as she finished the sentence.
"I'll make sure to choose a good seat if I do join you guys." I tried to wink at the end of that sentence, but my eye just kind of twitched. Kate giggled at my attempt to wink and made her way back to the campfire.
I looked at the instructions once more. Mesmerized by the glowing gold of the paper. I questioned how exactly I was going to get all of these ingredients. Not only that, but how was I going to pull it all together? I got so caught up in my thoughts, that I failed to notice the sounds of approaching footsteps behind me. I felt a hand be placed on my shoulder. I quickly whipped around to Ash Williams towering behind me.
"Whoa, easy their kid. Didn't mean to scare you. Just wanted to check up on ya.
"Thanks Ash, I appreciate the sentiment."
"No problem kid! After all, I was the first guy to find you here."
"Second actually." I corrected. "Kate was actually the first one to find me."
"God, what I would do to have that angel be looking down on me when I came here." Ash had a way with women. He tried to hit on almost every female survivor. It never went well. Some thought his cockiness boiled down to allegedly being the 'savior of humanity'. Some of us believe that he was indeed the savior in his world, others don't. It really didn't seem far fetched. At least compared to the world we're in now.
"Your thoughts are less than holy I must say." A small laugh accompanied my comment. I shook my head before asking Ash what he was doing here.
"Well like I said earlier, I just wanted to check up on ya pal." Ash replied, clearly slightly nervous now.
"You don't believe me do you?" I asked my suspicions were already raised with him being here but now is seemed very obvious. Ash sighed before speaking once more.
"Ok yeah you got me, I think that was a bullshit story."
"I swear it's not!"
"Oh come on! If it wasn't you wouldn't be brooding in the corner, you would be talking to everyone back at the campfire with maybe Kate sloppy kissing your neck the whole time!"
"Gross!" I cringed at Ash's statement. I like Ash, I really do. But he can be a bit too much sometimes.
"So what did you do? Did you run the killer around for hours? Did you fight back?......Did you fuck one of 'em?" I looked down in shame after the final comment, Ash's face lit up after he realized what just happened. "You dawg you did not! Was it that drone flying woman?"
"No, The Plague." Ash's face dropped due to the reply. "Also, I didn't do that with her. She just kinda took care of me I suppose." Ash sat in contemplation for a moment before asking "what do you mean 'took care of you'"?
"I don't know, she just let me rest a bit then took me a couple places."
"Well, I guess I understand." Ash reluctantly replied. I cocked my head before he added to the statement. "She's got a nice rack so I guess you could ignore all her other bits...." I shook my head in response.
"No! We didn't do anything like that I swear!". I responded a bit too insistent.
"Look kid, I wouldn't really judge you if you did. There's only so many times that a person can get hunted down and killed before they do things that they thought they could or would never do, trust me I would know." I pinched the bridge of my nose before speaking once more.
"Thanks Ash." I said with a slight sigh at the end. I then gave him a small side eye. "You're not gonna tell anyone are you?"
"Me? No way! I've kept way worse secrets than this. Like one time, my old buddy Chet was bangin some chick with this massive-". Ash stopped and cleared his throat. "Anyway, you get the point, I won't say a word." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Thanks again, Ash." He nodded his head and began to walk away.
Before he got too far, an idea popped into my head. A pretty stupid one, but one that may prove invaluable if all goes right. "Hey Ash." I paused to think if I really wanted to ask this as he turned around. "Since you do know about all of this, do you mind helping me with something?" Ash cocked his eyebrow as he asked:
"What for?" Ash seemed a bit intrigued. He was probably debating any implications that were implied with such a request.
"Can you help me gather materials for something? I wanna make a gift for Adiris as a way of saying thank you for what she's done."
Ash looked shocked. "You wanna make a gift for her? Ash rubbed his temples for a moment before asking: "sure kid, I got nothing better to do. What do you need?"
