The Escapists

;Fear;

Her mind wouldn't leave her at peace anymore. Every free second she had her thoughts would wander to the conversation she had with Frank a week ago. It didn't help that now she couldn't sleep the day away and avoid such ideas.

It hurt her to know that people still suffered in the claws of the entity. Especially people who didn't deserve it one bit and it was unfair for her to sit at home with no danger while they had to endure the same nightmare over and over again.

But what else was she supposed to do? Meg managed to somehow escape and (Y/N) was... just pushed away from the entity? At least it seemed like it didn't want her.

Maybe there was a way to find out how to get out of there? If she asked Meg how she did it and included her experience... there had to be a solution for this, right?

With that question in mind, she found herself on her way to another meet up with the brunette. Meg was hesitant at first and their conversation on that case went back and forth for quite a while. However, even if she didn't want to have anything to do with the realm, the younger girl could convince her by pulling on her heartstrings. She told her she wanted to help her friends out and in the end, it even wasn't a lie.

They met in the same café as before, and although (Y/N) didn't know where Meg lived, this small bistro seemed close to both of them.

Today wasn't a beautiful winter day as all the other days. The blanket of snow which covered the streets looked like it had bullet holes everywhere. Small and big footsteps flattened the sidewalk out. The snow piled on the side of the streets with dirty rainwater, coloring it's white into a brown-grayish. Even the sky denied the earth any sunlight, putting up heavy clouds which were ready to burst with pouring rain at any moment now.

The wind was strong today, hitting (Y/N) in the face, making her nose and cheeks a burning red and her eyes tearing up. She was shivering under all the thick layers of clothing, hoping to finally get inside. If mother nature decided to punish their small town with such weather a single day more, the young girl might catch another cold so soon again.

Upon meeting Meg's eyes, (Y/N) recognized the look of concern in her features. And the uneasiness of her situation. The older girl bit on her bottom lip, clearly showing her discomfort.

„Danger attracts you like light a moth, huh?“, she commented as soon as (Y/N) sat down opposite from her. The sudden heat caused her to sweat underneath all the clothes, her face was probably even redder now.

„Depends“, but deep down she knew just how true Meg's words were. Safety was unbearable when you only had your thoughts to entertain yourself. By helping her friends out, she wouldn't be alone anymore. She just needed to hope that she wouldn't regret this decision too.

After ordering a simple coffee for both of them, the brunette urged (Y/N) to tell her what her reason for meeting up was, seeming genuinely curious for once. The younger girl stared at her beverage for a while, searching for the right words this time. She still felt bad for lying the first time. Meg looked like a really nice person, who definitely didn't deserve all the things she had to experience back then. And she didn't deserve being used like this for (Y/N)'s personal petty problems. Every time Meg spoke about the realm it was like (Y/N) scratched open an old wound, making her bleed again. She herself knew how painful old memories could be.

„To make it short: I want to know how you managed to escape the realm. I have friends there and I wanna help them get out of that... hellhole“, putting her scarf on the seat beside her and hanging her jacket on her chair, she waited anxiously for a response.

„Shouldn't you know it better than me? Leaving two times in such a short period of time. Impressive, to say the least“, Meg smirked after taking a sip from her coffee while (Y/N) still didn't touch hers. She never liked the bitter taste of it and a thousand sugar cubes wouldn't change that.

„I didn't leave willingly“, Meg choked on her coffee after hearing that sentence. With a hoarse voice, she asked the (H/C) haired to explain further.

„I didn't do anything to deserve this. Didn't work on any generator or helping out my teammates. I was just... I just kinda tried to keep the killer's attention on me so everybody else could do more useful things.“

„But“, Meg quickly cut her off before she could wallow in self-pity any longer. „Distracting the killer seems to me like the most important and dangerous task, so it's not at all useless. It's incredibly selfless. What if that was the reason it sent you back? Because you didn't play be its rules.“

Although, (Y/N) didn't want to admit it but Meg's conclusion made sense. It was strange to believe that but it was a valid point. „I guess. But that wasn't the same with you, right?”

„No, not at all“, she paused to drink again. A doorbell rang through the café as new customers made their way in. The conversations around them suddenly doubled in volume, giving the younger girl a headache. She felt so... unsafe. Looking to her right and left she tried to distinguish a threat from the people around her. Something wasn't right.

„It took me a while to notice it and even longer to understand“, Meg's calm voice brought her attention back to the topic at hand. She became curious at her words and placed her arms on the table to hold her head with her hands, listening closely for once.

„I'm not sure about it so don't take my word for it, but it seemed like the entity has something against you to hold you in its place. It could be literally anything. And in my case, it could have been my fear. When I first started to look at it more logically, like for example when I realized that it didn't matter how often I got injured or hooked - I was still alive and injuries are not the same in the realm as here.“

(Y/N) came to that conclusion too rather quickly. At least to the part where there are no fatal consequences at all. But the first thing she told her, seemed absurd.

„Can that thing that holds someone back also be physical?“, she thought back to Frank's knife. Only when she had it, were they both allowed to leave. Maybe without it, Frank could stay in the real world forever.

Meg eyed the younger girl behind her cup, before speaking again. „I don't think so. It could, but it seems to be unlikely. Getting rid of an object is way easier than an emotion. Maybe every time that happened to you it was connected to your feelings about something... or someone.“

What did she feel the first time? She was proud because of her accomplishment. Stealing the weapon of a killer wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. The second time she was angry because of Frank's stupid cat and mouse game. And she stole his weapon again. Those two emotions didn't have anything to do with one another.

And what if they didn't need to? Something all survivors experience in the realm is fear; some show it more than others. When Meg faced hers and fought against it, she was able to leave.

In those two moments, (Y/N) wasn't afraid at all. Not even a small scared voice in the back of her head. Her emotions overlapped and erased each other. She could only feel one thing at a time.

Which made this whole conspiracy theory seem like the answer of it all.

Before Meg could ask her if something's wrong, after (Y/N)'s change in behavior, the younger girl stood up abruptly. Putting on her jacket hastily, she bid her goodbyes to the brunette and took some money out for the coffee before walking outside as quick as her legs could carry her.

This could have been the solution she was searching for.