Four Little Nightmares

Chapter 4: The Girl in the Raincoat

[Raincoat Girl's POV, present time (approximately 2 years since her last POV)]

I stood at the edge of the cliff, staring straight into the face of the Pretender. My legs ached from running and my mind was racing with fear. I could see Six running above me, trying to reach me before the Pretender could launch at me. I looked back at the long drop before me, nausea settling in my stomach; I was never so good with heights. I closed my eyes, knowing this might very well be the last moments of my life. Until I heard a crash. 

At first I thought it was the ground breaking beneath me, but I wasn't falling. I opened my eyes once again to see the Pretender crushed by a large rock, which Six had pushed onto her from above. I looked up at her, a smile on my face, on both of our faces. I don't know if I'd actually ever seen her smile before, but it made my day. Her face however quickly turned into horror. 

"Hey! HEY!" She started yelling like a maniac. I was confused until... I was knocked off the cliff by the Pretender. She had survived... and was about to kill us both. I screamed, and I could hear her yelling for me as well. But as I fell farther and farther down, the screams were still clear. 

"Hey! Rain!" She called my name, at least the one I made up for myself.

 "Come on Rain, wake up!"

I was jolted into reality, away from a terrible dream, a distant memory. "H-huh?" I murmured, still half asleep. Twelve stood beside my bed, looking at me with his stupid smug grin. 

"This is the 4th time I've had to wake you up this week!" His tone seemed annoyed, yet I couldn't tell if it was specifically due to me sleeping in or because he's just like that. Twelve always got irritated easily. 

"I'm sorry, rough night," I explained, rubbing my eyes to get used to the light around me. Twelve sighed, maybe since he hadn't been having many good nights either. 

"It's okay, just come on. You're late for watch and you know how Lei gets." Twelve walked out of my room and shut the door, leaving a knock before fully leaving to do whatever. I groaned, falling back down onto my pillow for 5 last seconds of comfort. I pushed my sheets back and set my bare feet on the ground, the wooden floor feeling cold and clammy. 

I looked in the small mirror Eight had given me, seeing my messy hair and dirty clothes. It almost made me say yikes to myself before remembering that the beauty standard was basically non-existent in the world out there. I finally got up and grabbed my red hair tie off my desk, quickly tying it around my hair. I also grabbed my jacket and slid it on, knowing it'd probably be cold outside. I took a deep breath before opening my room door, leading to a large gathering room, filled with around 6 other kids working on their own task. 

"Hey Rain! Sleep in?" Mia exclaimed. 

"Fourth morning this week. Lei's going to kill you..." Ty said behind me. 

"Haha, shut up Ty," I replied. He gave me a mischievous grin before going back to hammering a piece of wood. I kept walking, occasionally smiling at another kid beside me. The place was getting more and more filled every day as we found more children coming from either the Maw or somewhere in the forest. 

I remembered the time Twelve and Eight found me, when I had just barely survived an attack from a hounddog. It had been a rough couple of months since I first arrived at the island, constantly being attacked and starved. And then they found me and took me to this insane base they had built which used to be some sort of missile silo I guess. At least that's what they told me. 

I barely knew much about the world before all of this, but they seemed to know a bit more. I had no idea what a missile silo was until they explained it was a base the government (whatever that was) used to fire missiles (exploding rocket things). The place was huge however, with wooden structures built all around, but the best part was that it was closed in from the outside world. It was safe.