Island of the Slaughtered

Episode 21: Storytime

The next episode begins with Caleb sitting down, recounting his story to the group, the tension in the cabin thick. He takes a deep breath, his eyes tired but alert, and begins.

"I ran after MK," Caleb starts, his voice shaky but steady. "She wasn’t moving fast, not with her leg hurt. I caught up to her pretty quickly, spun her around, and I was like, ‘MK! What are you doing? You’re lucky Bowie warned me! Why the hell are you wandering into the woods? There’s a killer out here!’ I was completely out of breath, and MK... she just looked at me. Weird, like she wasn’t all there. And then she said..." Caleb pauses, glancing around the room at everyone’s expectant faces.

"'She was telling me to go deeper,'" Caleb says, his voice mimicking MK’s ominous tone. "I didn’t know what she was talking about. I was like, ‘What? Who?! You’re not making any sense!’ But before I could get more out of her, I heard this noise, rustling in a big bush behind me. I whipped my head around, thinking it could be the killer."

Caleb swallows hard, the memory clearly fresh in his mind. "I turned back to MK, and she was... gone." His voice breaks slightly, and everyone in the room looks shocked, unsure of what to say.

Confessional - Axel:
"Gone? That's ridiculous, she couldn't have just disappeared."

Bowie’s face goes pale. "Gone?" he mutters, almost to himself, not believing it.

"Yeah, she just... disappeared. I don’t know how. One second she was right there, and then... gone. I couldn’t see her anywhere, man." Caleb rubs his hands over his face. "My heart was pounding like crazy. I thought someone was behind me, but when I looked back again, there was no one. I freaked out, pure adrenaline took over, and I just... I ran."

"You just left her?" Axel asks, her tone accusatory but also shocked.

Confessional - Caleb:
"Well obviously, you wouldn't run if you thought the killer was behind you?" he says, in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I didn’t have a choice!" Caleb snaps back, then takes a deep breath. "I thought I’d be next. And when I realized how far I’d run, MK was nowhere to be found. I tried looking for her, but I couldn’t find her. Then I couldn’t find my way back to the cabin either. I was lost for days, searching for both MK and the cabin... until I finally heard Damien scream. That’s what saved me."

The room falls into silence. Everyone is either shocked, confused, or both. Julia looks devastated, gripping MK’s jacket even tighter, her knuckles white.

"She... disappeared?" Julia asks quietly, her voice trembling. "Just like that?"

Confessional - Julia:
"Crying is a sign of weakness.. ugh, doesn't matter- I've already cried infront of these hoes."

Caleb nods slowly. "I don’t know what’s going on out there. I don’t know if she’s still alive or..." He trails off, not wanting to finish the thought.

Bowie clenches his fists, anger rising. "There has to be more to it. MK wouldn’t just leave like that. Something made her go—something or someone."

Chef, who’s been silent this whole time, speaks up. "Sounds to me like MK wasn’t in her right mind. If she said someone was telling her to go deeper, maybe there’s more at play here than just the killer."

Confessional - Axel:
"Multiple people? I started to think there was only one killer after MK 'died' and Scary Girl disapeared. I mean- they were everyone's main suspect.. suspects.? I dunno."

The thought sends a chill through everyone in the room.

Julia, tears in her eyes, whispers, "We have to find her. I can’t... I can’t just leave her out there."

"We will," Chef says firmly. "But first, we need a plan. We’re not gonna wander out there without knowing what we’re up against."

Everyone nods, though a sense of dread hangs in the air. The mystery of what happened to MK only grows deeper, and the group's unease about the killer lurking nearby intensifies.