Outside

Chapter 1: Freedom at Last

In spite of what Scout had said about the only way out being beyond the Sound Stage, Stacy managed to spot a window that was propped open. It was high up, too high for any of the Puppets whether they had Hosts or not. But, after observing it for a while, Stacy was sure she could manage it, even without the use of one hand

"Hey! Where are you going? The exit's that way. " Unfortunately, she couldn't tell Scout about her amazing plan. So she ignored the Puppet and climbed up on a couple of... crates? stacked underneath it.

"You're going to get us killed. Or caught." Scout told her. "Woah, wait. Are going for the window?! Are you fucking insane, Host! We can't reach that!" Stacy made it to the top of the stack, finding she was maybe two inches too short to reach the window without jumping. But if she jumped, the stack would fall over, so she'd have to make it in one, and with only one hand.

Unless...

"There you see? I told you we couldn't reach it. So let's climb back down and woahwoahWOAHWAIT! FUCK!"

Stacy had jumped, and managed to grab onto the sill with her right hand. Her left, the one with Scout attached, had gone through the open window and slammed against the wall outside. Hoping she hadn't just seriously hurt the Puppet, she quickly climbed through the window. A couple feet below was a dumpster, that she unfortunately landed headfirst on top of. It made a bang that echoed around the abandoned parking lot, and Stacy knew it would have alerted the others.

So with a muffled groan she pushed herself off the dumpster. Somehow, she managed to land on her feet and made a desperate sprint for where she'd parked her truck. She didn't feel safe until she'd locked herself and Scout inside. She fumbled the key out of her bag sitting in the passenger seat, slamming it in the ignition and gunning it. Gripping the steering wheel with one hand she sped out of the lot at top speed, leaving skid marks behind as they fled.

Five minutes down the road she pulled over to the side, breathing heavily through the mask? bag? on her head. She let it fall against the wheel, and gave herself a minute to just sit and think.

"Hey." She winced slightly as Scout poked at her cheek. "Hey, are you dead?" A pause, followed by a couple of grunts. "Move your arm. Drive the car. Do something. Ugh, nope. Still can't do it."

Stacy turned her head just enough to give the Puppet a dead stare, debating if it would be worth it to just yank her off and toss her out the window. Deciding that doing such a thing would ultimately be a bad idea, she simply reach over and pulled some scissors out of her bag, then flipped the visor down to look in the mirror.

It took some work, but she eventually able to get the rope around her neck cut off, and pull the bag off her head. Now able to see better, she took a look at the stitches over her mouth, finding them crudely done and encrusted with blood. She traced over them, but flinched back at the flash of pain it caused.

'There's no way I can take these out myself.' Doing it wrong could literally cause her to die. But she couldn't go to a hospital with Scout. 'Screw it. Sammy's a doctor, and he still owes me big time. So he gets to help me with this.'

She pulled her notebook and pencil out of her bag, flipping it over to the next blank page.

We're going to my cousin's house. He's going to help us.

Scout read it as she scribbled it out. "That's your plan? Hope that another Host, like, just decides to help us?"

No. I'm going to blackmail him. And if he tells anybody then the whole family is going to find out exactly how he paid his way through med school.