Taken • cth

twelve | the collective

Quick note: I don't own any of the creepypasta characters or the name "the collective." All credit goes to the creator of the online series that used it. Also, I'm aware that the actual collective doesn't consist of these characters at all and originally only one of them(meaning the creepypasta characters used in the plot) is a proxy, but this is a work of fanfiction and I'm weaving it how I want. Just wanted to say that to anybody who might think I'm stealing everything.

•••

Arrow wakes up in a clearing.

At first it's difficult to tell where she is, because all she can see is black starry sky. Then she slowly sits up, and discovers the circle of trees around her.

There's a dripping sound in her ear. She has no idea where it's coming from. Eventually she forces herself to her feet and brushes off her jeans, looking around.

Trees, trees, more trees, and-

"No." Arrow whispers, almost falling back down again. "No, this isn't happening. This is a dream."

Calum's lifeless body is hanging before her, impaled through the chest like her other friends in her dream. The dripping sound is his blood, flowing steadily down his torso, forming a puddle on the sodden ground. The rock necklace is gone. His face is smeared with crimson, the fluid trickling down his chin, but his eyes are completely normal. Dead and blank, but normal, not blind.

Suddenly they move, and jerk straight to her. She flinches so hard her heel slips and she falls straight to the ground. His eyes still follow her, and to her horror, he opens his mouth and let's out a low chuckle.

Arrow screams.

She scrambles to her feet and bolts, sprinting through the woods in the opposite direction. Her shoes make it ten times harder to move through the foliage and damp soil, and before she can reach down and rip them off she finds herself in the clearing again.

There's two Calum's this time, side by side on two separate trees. The operator symbol seems to be burned into the trees that don't contains bodies, she starts to back up again as both of the dead Calum's begin to laugh.

She crashes into the woods once again, taking a hard right this time. She's away from the clearing but she can still hear the laughter, and it becomes clear why when she enters another clearing with three chuckling, dead, bleeding Calum Hoods.

She just keeps running. Clearing after clearing appears, giggle after giggle ringing in her ears, until she finds herself in a circle of trees that all contain bodies. All of Calum. All laughing.

Arrow sinks to her knees on the damp ground, clutching her hands over her ears and breathing raggedly. "No, you're not real." She gasps, a sob ripping its way through her throat. "You're not real you're not real you're not real you're not real-"

Her eyes snap open.

Her body doesn't jerk, and she's not breathing heavy, she's just simply.. laying down. A ceiling made entirely of wooden boards hangs above her, and she just lies there, mesmerized, staring upward until she realizes that the things she just saw weren't real.

Then again, she knew that already.

There's a dull ache in the back of her head, and when she starts to sit up it gets even worse. She feels incredibly dizzy. Upon looking down, she discovers that both her clothes and body are relatively intact, save for the dirt and grass on her wet knees and her muddy heels. She reaches up to scrub a hand down her face, and is alarmed when it comes down red, before she realizes it's her lipstick. She wipes the rest of the stuff off gingerly, and the sound of clattering chains rings through the room.