24 hours||5SOS horror/paranormal

Chapter Thirty Nine

"I can't do it. I can't force myself to watch my friend die I can't. I know it's coming, and I can't do anything to prevent it!" Calum cries.
I slowly approach him, gently sitting next to him as he bawls. You can see the exhaustion in his red, droopy, eyes and how they can barely stay open. But he can't close his eyes. We all know we can't close are eyes because if we do it there will be only an instant death cast upon us.  So he sits there suffering, drowning in his tiredness and fear.
"Calum, I....I can't help you unless you tell me what happened," I whisper, making sure not to touch him or startle him in any way.
"THEY TOLD ME! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY?!" Calum yells, making my heart race.
"Okay but why?! Why is Michael gonna die?! Why did they tell you? When did they tell you!?" I snap back, trying to be as calm as possible.
Calum runs his hand through his hair intensely as he lets our another sob. He then after tries to wipe the tears off his face and take a breath.
"It's so hot in here," he mumbles as he runs his hand through his hair once more, making me notice that his hair is sticky with sweat.
"Just, try to calm down...it will help," I say soothingly as he takes one more deep breath and closes his eyes.
"When I was dared to go in the mirror room they...came. Except, they looked different this time. They looked like two normal people. Annabelle was wearing this warm looking purple dress. She had brown hair that was pinned up, bright blue eyes, she was, well, beautiful. Young looking. And Mercy...She looked younger than Annabelle, about are age I'd say? She had long blonde hair, and was wearing almost the same dress as Annabelle except it was a dark, swampy green," Calum explains as I stare at him in awe. "At first I didn't realize it was them, and I was confused. They kept circling around me, touching my shoulders, breathing on my neck. When I asked who they were, Mercy finally explained. They then kept saying the phrase you don't know the truth. After a while I asked what they meant and after some trail and error they explained." Calum's eyes then start to water again, but he stops it as quickly as it started to continue telling the story. "Michael made a sacrifice for Ashton. And, that sacrifice was that he has to stay here. Forever. Even if we win."
"What?" I exclaim.
"Yeah."
I glare at Calum, "You're bullshitting me, right?"
"Are you kidding me? No! IM TELLING THE TRUTH!" He yells, tears bursting out of his eyes yet again.
"Sorry," I say quickly. "I'm sorry."
Calum's a complete wreck. I can tell he's at the point of breaking and that he can't handle this anymore. He's fragile, and weak. But, I mean, so is everyone else.
I know for a fact everyone else's is done.
Ashton's a complete mess, I think he's gone mad.
And Michael? Well, if this is true, he's in some deep shit.
"Calum....what if-what if they were just trying to scare you?" I suggest.
"No," he says aggressively. "They were serious. They were telling the truth. It-It was real. Adele, it was the realist experience I've had this whole day," He stutters, sniffling in between most his words.
I look away from Calum, trying to process all this new information. It's starts to make me angry because, if this is true, all are suffering will be worth almost absolutely nothing. It's not fair if we don't all make it out alive. We all deserve to leave this place together. We've been put through too much shit for us to be separated because of Ashton's stupid mistake.
"No," I simply say.
Calum looks at me and furrows his eyebrows, "What?"
"I said, no."
He rolls his eyes, "Yeah I heard you, but nowhat?"
"Michaels leaving this house with us. We're not letting Annabelle and Mercy do this. We're not letting them take him away," I say.
Calum sighs, "Adele, we don't have a choice here. They can obviously do whatever they want with us. I mean, honestly, I'd be surprised if we made it out of here alive."
"Don't say that. We're so close. We have to be. We're probably only hours away from getting out of this hell house," I mumble.
"Yeah which makes everything worse! They've had there fun with us, now it's time to kill us in the most painful way possible!" Calum argues, his voice raspy from crying.
"Or it means that we only have a few hours left! A few hours of fighting! A few hours until we're safe again!" I argue, bringing out my inner optimist.
"I don't have a few hours left in me. I'm tired! I'm hungry, I'm thirsty. Fucking hell, I have to pee but I'm not using the bathroom because I have a fear that I'm gonna get sucked into the toilet or something! I can't do this anymore!" Calum cries.
Calum buries his head into his knees while I stare at him with a convincing sympathetic smile.
"Cal?" I say.
He looks up, sniffling loudly, "What?"
I lean in closer to him, putting my hands on the sides of his face, leaving me to notice that his cheeks are incredibly warm, almost has if he was sick.
"Toughen. The fuck. Up," I say.
His face then suddenly fills with anger, "Are you-"
"Get over the fact that you're tired, and hungry, and the fact that you've been holding in your piss too long because, guess what? Everyone else is feeling those same feelings. You're not the only one who's been through absolute hell today. Calum, this has been the worst day of my fucking life! I've never been so scared, so tired, so emotionally drained ever! But guess what? I'm gonna deal with it. I'm gonnanot give up, and I'mgonna fight. Because, I don't wanna die. We're young. We haven't even reached twenty yet. I wanna live to be twenty. I wanna live to be older than twenty! I wanna-" I then stop, and suddenly start sobbing as all theses sudden realization tower over me. I let go of Calum's face and back away from him, "Fuck. I-I wanna live to celebrate my twentieth birthday...I-I wanna have kids, a-and a h-husband a-nd my own house and-" my hands the go over my mouth in shock as I think about this more and more. I then look Calum directly in the eyes, I notice he has a fearful expression on his face now, "I can't die."
And right after I say that Calum instantaneously scoots in closer to me and wraps his arms around me. I do the same, laying my head on his chest as I cry. He starts crying again too, but it's a soft cry. Though, I can feel his teas dripping down onto the top of my head at certain points.
"If Michael doesn't make it out of here alive and we all do, how are we even gonna explain ourselves?" He asks.
I try to catch my breath as my chest moves up and down quickly, "We tell people the truth."
"But, the truth is-"
"I know. But, it's the truth," I say, stopping Calum before he can even get the words out.
There's a sudden silence between the two of us, which actually started to calm me down. Not hearing anything but the sound of both of are crying was actually quite relaxing. Not hearing the sound of glass shattering, or screaming, was such a relief.
"I'm sorry I like, got all mad at you for kissing Luke. It was stupid of me so...sorry," he says.
"It's okay...Im sorry I did it I wasn't really thinking right and- yeah I don't know..." I say.
"No, I get it. I mean, he's Luke, how can you not like him? Every girl does," Calum sighs.
"I don't like Luke like that though, we both sorta realized that were just young and confused I guess. I know that doesn't change anything between us because things still happened. But I just thought you should know. And listen, Luke cares about you. Like, a lot. I know today you probably felt completely betrayed by him, but I promise you, he really does care," I say.
Calum smiles, and then kisses the top of my head lightly. I feel as if this huge weight on my shoulders was just dumped off. Not having to worry about Calum being an enemy anymore is a huge relief. Just having him back and not mad at me makes me so happy.
When he was mad at me I was terrified.
I then sit up again, resting my back on the counter and taking a deep breath.
Everything's gonna be okay.
Everything's gonna be fine.
Just be calm, Adele.
"Do you know how much time we have left?" Calum asks.
"No, but I'm guessing only a few more hours...I mean, it has to be morning by now. Even though it's hard to tell," I say.
"I know right. It's always just so dark in here no matter what. Even with the lights on I feel like it's still...dark, and unwelcoming," Calum says.
I sigh, "Agreed."
I then look to Calum and smile, he smiles back, even though I can tell he doesn't want to. He doesn't have it in him to fake anymore smiles or look on the bright side of things.
Suddenly, I hear some loud thudding in the distance.
"ADELE!" I hear someone call.
My heart starts to race as I stand up quickly, "Luke?" I mumble.
"ADELE! CALUM! HELP!"
Then, running down the hallway is Luke. He's insanely out of breath with a intense look of fear on his face, and as he approaches me and Calum his shoulders seem to drop in relief. Calum then stands up, seeing his friend in such a state seems to scare him.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
Luke nods his head, gasping for air, "Thank god, you guys were easy to find. And, CALUM! You're alive!"
"Yeah, is that a shock? Did they tell you I was dead or something?" Calum questions.
"No! I just- you were missing- and Ashton was throwing up paper-so- I'm sorry! I should've went with Adele but Ashton was freaking out and now- and now Michael is- he's- he's like- agh, I need your guys help," Luke stutters distraughtly.
"Luke, what happened...?" I ask confused.
Luke then starts to tear up as he musters up a clump of words to try and explain what's going on, "Michael is- he's not - and Ashton is just - Michael is like - and- he's not okay! And Ashton's yelling and I- I need HELP! HELP ME PLEASE!"
"Luke what's happening?!" I yell confused.
"PLEASE JUST COME DOWNSTAIRS WITH ME!" He snaps.
"OKAY! Okay, let's go!" I respond.
Luke, Calum and I all then race down the hallway with no hesitation. Then without a second thought we basically throw ourselves down into the basement in fear. Almost tripping over the cold basement steps we finally make it down, and swiftly run over to Ashton and Michael.
"Oh....my...god," Calum says in shock.
"IM SORRY MICHAEL! THIS IS ALL MY FAULT IM SORRY! STOP HURTING! STOP! PLEASE STOP HURTING YOU CANT BE IN PAIN!" Ashton yells at the top of his lungs as he stands and points at Michael.
I look down right by my feet to see Michael curled up in a ball like Ashton was earlier. But instead of  just crying his eyes out, hes also surrounded by blood and paper, he shakes extremely hard, almost as if he was having a seizure or something. His teeth chatter as well and every five seconds he seams to whimper in pain, sounding almost like a puppy that just got his tail stepped on.
I freeze, unaware of what exactly is going on with him or what to do. Instead of being any help at all I just let my jaw drop and watch him ask for help in pain while on the cold, dirty basement floor.
Come on, Adele. Do something. Don't just stand there.
I try to move but I can't. I try to say something but no words come out. I'm stuck. I'm stuck staring at him in awe.
"MICHAEL STOP! FUCKING STOP SHAKING! STOP IT!" Ashton screams, bawling his eyes out and digging his nails into his skin deeply.
"I-I-agh!" Michael mumbles, trying to spew out words.
"I don't know what to do I can't do this I don't know how to do what-what are we supposed to do? Luke WHAT DO YOU WANT US TO DO?!" Calum yells, bitting his already short nails.
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO THATS WHY I BROUGHT YOU GUYS DOWN HERE!" Luke snaps back.
"LUKE! YOU'RE THE SMART ONE! YOU'VE CLEARY ESTABLISHED THAT TODAY! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO?!" Calum yells annoyed.
"CALUM STOP BEING MAD AT ME FOR ONE SECOND PLEASE! I NEED YOUR HELP! I NEED BOTH OF YOU TO HELP ME!"
"O-Okay guys calm down....take a breath. We're gonna fix this," I say, my hands shaking due to the nerves.
"MICHAEL! LISTEN TO ME GOD DAMNIT!" Ashton shrieks, hiccuping because he cries so hard.
"Alright, that needs to stop. One of you needs to tell Ashton to calm down he's making everything way worse and way more chaotic than it needs to be," I say, then looking over to Ashton who is squeezing himself tightly and spitting onto the ground in the mist of his nervous breakdown.
"I got it," Luke says. "Ashton, stop. What are you doing?"
"I'm gonna throw up. It's too hot and I'm gonna throw up and I-I-" Ashton stutters.
"Ashton, look at me. You have to calm down," Luke says in a soothing voice.
"But I did this! I need to die because I did this to Michael!" Ashton cries.
"Ashton, you didn't do this to him-"
"YES I DID!" Ashton shrieks.
Luke then does something that shocks me, which is firmly slapping Ashton in the face. Ashton whimpers in pain and grabs his cheek, but he seems to the shut up.
"you have to stop putting the blame on yourself," Luke says. He then looks over to me and Calum and widens his eyes, "What are you guys staring at? Help Michael! Go!" He yells.
Me and Calum look to each other overwhelmed and then look down to Michael. I then take a deep breath and sit down right next to his shaking body.
"Okay, Michael? Can you hear me?" I ask calmly.
"Y-Y-Yes," he stutters.
"Good. That's good. Alright...I need you to tell me what's hurting you," I say.
Michael lets out a yelp of pain as he continues to shake, "E-Every-Everything hurts. Everything's B-Blurry and h-hurts," he says, seeming to have a hard time speaking.
I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix this.
Is there even a way to fix this?
Just...keep asking him questions... It's the only thing you can really do right now.
"How did this happen?" I ask.
"It just-just d-did," he replies shortly, gasping for air it seems.
I then look to Calum and he gulps loudly, "Michael are you-"
Michael then screams out in pain, grabbing his stomach hard.
"MICHAEL!" I hear Ashton scream.
And that's when things start to get bad.
Michael then sits up, and starts hurling blood. He keeps coughing and coughing it out, it drips down his chin and onto his shirt. It stains his teeth with a red tint as he grabs his stomach harder than before and let's the blood flow out of him. He seems to have trouble breathing now because of it.
I don't know what to do.
"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! LET ME GO! LET GO OF ME RIGHT NOW!" Ashton shrieks as Luke grabs his waist and holds him back.
"Luke hold onto him!" Calum cries out.
"Michael, h-how do I help you?! MICHAEl?!" I screech.
Michael then grabs my wrist, squeezing it tight as blood continues to fall out of his mouth.
"LUKE LET GO!" Ashton screams.
He then pulls Luke's arms off him and starts to charge towards me, Calum, and Michael. But before he can make it very far, Luke grabs his arm, tugging him back in response. Ashton takes his free arm though and swings it at Luke, punching him in the face so hard Luke lets go and falls to the ground.
"YOU CANT STOP ME FROM HELPING HIM! FUCK OFF! YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING!" Ashton screams at Luke, making no sense at all it seems.
My heart starts to beat even faster in fear as Ashton approaches me and Calum. I quickly tug my arm out of Michaels grip as Ashton approaches us. But, before he can get to me or Michael, Calum quickly stands up and pushes him back.
"What is wrong with you?!" Calum snaps.
"Me? What's wrong with me?! WHATS WRONG WITH ASHTON? NOTHINGS WRONG WITH ASHTON! ASHTON JUST DOESN'T WANT HIS FRIEND TO DIE! SO MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!" He screeches.
Ashton then goes to lunge on Calum but he continues to just shove him back, and because of this Ashton seems to grow frustrated, growling in fear.
"STOP!" Ashton yells.
And right when he says that, Michael stops. Michael slowly looks up at me as he begins to breath again. Fear fills his eyes as he whips the blood dripping down his chin off on his arm. Ashton stops screaming and Luke sits up as we all stare at him cautiously.
"Michael...?" I call.
And right as I say that he seems to loose focus. His eyes start fluttering and his whole body seems to rock back and fourth as he then passes out and hits the ground.
"NO! MICHAEL!" Ashton screams.
Calum finally gives up and I scoot away from Michaels body as Ashton rushed toward it. He grabs under his arms and lifts him into his lap so his head isnt on the cold concrete anymore.
"No! No! NO!" Ashton cries. "Wake up. WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP! MICHAEL PLEASE....You're my-you're my best friend. W-wake up. come on...GET UP!" Ashton screams.
I slowly get up and walk away from Ashton and Michael. I approach Luke and Calum. They seem close to tears.
"What?" I whisper, confused.
"I-Is he dead?" Calum asks.
I shake my head, furrowing my eyebrows, "No, what? He can't be dead. Why would you think he's....I...He might be but I don't...then we'd be stuck here forever. Right? And the game isn't over this isn't-"
"Adele stop," Luke sighs.
I slowly look down and then around towards Ashton and Michael. Ashton has stopped yelling and is now just looking at Michael confused. I then look back to Luke and Calum who are staring at there two friends concerned.
"What is it, Ashton?" Luke asks.
Ashton looks up to the three of us, "His eyes," he starts, "he's opened his eyes."
"What?" Luke says shocked.
"He opened his god dammned eyes," Ashton says through gritted teeth.
"Are they...his eyes?" Luke questions.
"Yes. It's his eyes. His pretty, calming eyes," Ashton mummbles.
Luke then walks up to Michael, examining him intensely.
"Michael? Michael can you hear me?" Luke asks, kneeling down next to Ashton to get a better look.
Suddenly, I hear a creaking sound.
Me and Calum both turn around to see the secrectpassage way in the basement to that strange room has in fact opened, all by itself.
We then snap are heads back towards Michael when we hear a gurgling sound.
"Shh! Shh! He's trying to say something," Ashton says.
Michael mummbles something that none of us can here. Me and Calum move a tad closer to him as Ashton asks him to repeat what he just said.
"You...guys...n-need to run," he mutters. "D-Don't argue with me a-about it. R-Run."
Luke in a heartbeat gets up, and races towards the stairs.
"LUKE!" Ashton screams, "No, Michael I can't leave you all alone down here. We can't have you dying-"
"R-Run," he croaks out one more time.
And with that, something in my gut tells me it's a very good idea to leave.
"Calum, we have to go," I say.
"What about Ashton and Michael?"
"I said we need to go. Now."
I then grab Calums hand and we run towards the stairs. I don't even bother to look back to see if Ashton's coming or not.
I then reach for the doorknob to exit the basement, and right when I pull the door open I'm completely shocked.
There are mirrors everywhere.
But, the mirror room isn't supposed to be here. And, even if it was here this isn't the same mirror room I've been trapped in before.
This is a literal mirror maze.
A bright, white, crazy funnel of thousands and thousands of mirrors.
"Holy shit," Calum mutters from behind me. "We have to go back down this isn't safe."
I then turn around to face Calum, only to see that behind him isn't the steps leading down to the basement, but more mirrors.
"Oh my god," I whisper.
Calum then turns around and gasps as he stares at his own reflection, "No. Oh no," he mummbles.
I then take a step back, only to have my ears filled with the sound of glass crunching beneath my feet. I then look down and see the the whole floor is covered with millions of bits and pieces of shattered glass.
"Calum," I say, my voice extremely shaky, "Are you seeing this?"
"You're seeing mirrors, right? Tons and tons or mirrors?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck," Calum says.
"So this is real?" I ask, my voice trembles even more.
"To us at least."
"Fuck," I now snap.
And the next sound that enters my ears is exactly what I do not want to hear.
"Was that..." Calum trails off.
"That was Luke," I say, scared.
Me and Calum then start sprinting, glass being crushed by are heavy feet as we ever so often run into a mirror that we didn't think was in are way.
"LUKE!" I call.
"LUKE!" Calum repeats.
Then something bright red catches my eye. I stop running, causing Calum to bump into me as I look at the mirror that lays in front of us.
"Holy shit..." I gasp.
Written in blood, in big, bold, letters are the words: FINAL ROUND.

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hey long time no see!!

Imgonna be very honest with you guys

my only excuse for my really long absence is that, life has been super rude to me these past six months.

I haven't had motivation to do anything.

But I'm back! And my goal this year is to finish this book, and hopefully start a new one!

Coming back on wattpad and seeing all your nice comments and messages really made me feel better so thank you.

Now, get ready for an awesome last few chapters.

VOTE, COMMENT, READ, SHARE AND ENJOY!!

Love ya