A Different Story: Until Dawn Role Reversal

Vengeance (part 3)

     Upon waking up, the first thing Ashley noticed was that her head was pounding. The second thing was that one of her hands was free while the other was not. The third thing was that Chris was sitting across from her, his glasses cracked and one of his eyes black and purple with bruising.
     "Oh god, oh no... Chris? Chris!" She tried to wake him up. He slowly sat up, clearly in as much pain if not more than she was. "Jesus, Chris, what did he do to you...?"
     "That piece of shit hit me..." he mumbled.
     "I'm gonna kill him." Ash said angrily.
     "What is this...?" Chris asked hopelessly. It nearly broke her heart hearing his voice sound so broken.
     "It's gotta be him... the guy who killed Sam-"
     "Shit, no!"
     "You MONSTER!" Ashley yelled at the camera she noticed sitting to the side of them. What was this guy's problem? It was like he got off on their suffering. It made her skin crawl.
     "Look around, Ash... w-we're gonna die here..." Chris said.
     "No. I won't let it happen-"
     "I wish I had just told you... I'm too damn pathetic-"
     "What...?" Ash asked. "Tell me what?"
     "It's to late! Ash, what's the point?!" He cried.
     "Stop it! Just say it..."
    "We've always talked around it, but now? Now we've wasted everything!" She could see tears streaming down his face. She had no doubt that she looked the same way.
     "Chris..." her voice softened. "None of it was wasted..."
     "What do you mean?"
     "E-every second that I spent with you, was the only thing I ever wanted to do with my time." She admitted. She meant every word of what she was saying. All those study sessions turned movie marathons, all those times they debated about books or video games or movies, all those times they had gotten so close to closing the space between them before another friend showed up with bad timing. She loved every second of it. She wouldn't trade that time for the world.
     "What are you saying, Ash...?" He asked as if to make sure he was hearing what he thought he was.
     "I'm so sorry... I should've told you the truth..." she said.
     "Ashley..."
     She finally met his eyes. "Chris, I promise you, when we get out of this-"
     She didn't get to finish as the buzzsaws above them whirred to life. They both looked up and Ashley could barely hear Chris's cries for help over the loud machine.
     "Chris, I'll get you out of this, I won't let you die!" She said for the second time that night.
"Hello again, my special little subjects."
"I'm so scared, Ash..." she barely heard Chris say. Her head was spinning.
"Don't be scared..." she tried to comfort him.
"Oh, you should be Chris, because here's the twist. Ashley has made one fatal choice already today, and now she must make another. Ashley, you can take that gun in front of you and shoot Christopher, or you can shoot yourself. Whoever is left gets to live. The choice is yours, dear."
Oh, so THAT'S why her hand was free. She picked the gun up off the table and started to aim it up at the buzzsaws, but the voice of the psycho stopped her.
"Aww, look at my little bookworm trying to think outside the box. Don't be so silly. It won't be that easy."
   Ashley physically cringed at the nickname. Sam was the last person to call her 'bookworm'. "Don't you dare call me that!" She snapped.
"Tick-tock, bookworm. If you don't decide, I will. And I don't think you'll like what I choose..."
     At that, Ashley pressed the gun against her temple without a second thought. She saw Chris's eyes nearly pop out of his head.
     "A-Ash no, you can't! It should be me! You already chose to save me, let me do the same for you! Ash, please..." he begged.
     She smiled at him endearingly. Even now, he wanted to help her. That's all he ever wanted, to help her. He didn't deserve to die here. Not like this.
     'I love you' she mouthed to him as she pulled the trigger.