Don't Keep the Lights On

Chapter 8

"You know, you're not the only one who can play soccer!" Tanner yelled. I smiled. "Alright, match off accepted." Tanner took a few steps toward me. "Madison, you are sportier than the twenty girls I know." I stepped back. "One of them is Rebecca. And yes, I grew up like this." He raised his eyebrows. "Am I supposed to be intimidated?" I asked. Tanner gave a laugh. "No. Come on, let's play."

I stared at him. He gave me a sad smile. "When you died in that house fire..." The realisation dawned on me. "There were things I wasn't telling you, Madison. My life was a wreck. My girlfriend, Taylor, was always gone from the state. I found out my dad was cheating, and my mom had killed herself after finding out. My act of revenge, was purely because I wanted an escape. I set the house on fire. I died. I knew I would. But all of that was for nothing. They escaped." Tanner, my best friend, who tried to murder what was left of his family, had a faraway look on his face.

"I deserve this hell, Madison." He whispered. Hannah puts her arm around me as I sob. "Enough of this!" The red man yelled. His fist connected with the floor, and we jumped, alarmed. "You have nothing, Tanner Oswald. And now, you will suffer in the dark realm!" There was a flash, and Tanner disappeared. "Tanner." I choked.

"Stop. Stop this." The red man said. He turned to all of us, just to see our eyes filled with undeterminable sorrow. "No. I won't have it. I won't...I won't!!!" He screamed as he melted. "We're free." Dolly said quietly. And I understood. When Tanner confessed, he renounced his sins. God took him, took him to be happy. The red man's job was incomplete. He couldn't kill everyone. So he paid. Dolly grabbed her brother and James, and we walked into the open air once again.

Or, if hell could be considered open air. "Hey, take your mask off already." Dolly smiled, ripping the masks clear off James and Connor's (That was her brother's name) faces. I gave a small gag. Where there were once eyes were now empty, black chasms. "Eww..." Andrea couldn't suppress a groan. Dolly glared at her. James sighed. "Oh, well. When I become human again, I'll have my vision back." "Is that how it works?" Hannah looked more curious than disgusted. This was always something I had admired of her. In the most gory situations, she thought calmly and irrationally.

James nodded in her direction as we walked towards the tower. "Yeah. You just look the same as you had before you died." He looked at the floor. "That is, if you cheat death." He added quickly. "That doesn't happen often, does it?" I said comfortingly. "No." This time it was Connor who spoke. "But we have. Several times over. Madison, if we don't die after this, we can stop the Puppeteer." Connor said hopefully. I couldn't help smiling.

"That's a big thing to hope. But maybe we will be able to do it." I said. As we got nearer to the tower, though, my hope disappeared. Who was I kidding? It seemed so unlikely I had survived so far, and even more unlikely I would survive this whole situation. I squeezed Hannah and Andrea's hands as we pushed open the gate that signalled the end of this village.