fear

/fɪər/

noun

an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful, or bad that is happening or might happen

----

You heard a whimper across from you, coming from the blonde clinging to her boyfriend at the moment. She looked unnaturally pale, eyes wide open and was in a state of shock. Her boyfriend wasn't in the best shape either at first, but began to comfort her only a second later.

However, it was once again silent, no words spoken and no sound heard from downstairs. You swore you have heard footsteps before that though, they have happened at the same time as the other strange sounds emerged.

''Should we go check it out?'' You dared to ask the other people in the room, voice shaking slightly and only coming out in a quiet, unsure whisper. Some jolted a little at the sudden noise, others looked as unsure as you and one nodded. It was Valerie, of course. She looked as uncertain about the situation as the rest, but determination and curiosity shone in her hazel eyes.

''A-Are you people crazy?!'' was Judy's only panicked answer as she held onto Andrew's hand like her life depended on it. Paranoia and fear was written all over her face as she shook. ''We are not going!''

''Maybe it was just an animal.'' Dan suggested, shrugging a little as he glanced at the door and then the window. It was really dark by now, the small lamp in the room one of the only light sources beside the moon. He seemed to have calmed down a little, staying quiet for our sake.

''That was never just an animal!'' Judy argued back, her voice going up a few octaves and becoming squeaky. ''Oh my god, what if it's a burglar, or worse, a murderer?!'' She was hyperventilating a little; you swore she was at the brink of fainting from fear.

''Calm down everybody, please, we should go check it out. But arguing about it won't help.'' Faye said softly, her eyes going over every individual and ending at the blonde. She looked like she wanted to help her calm down and was clearly sympathizing with her, but they weren't close enough.

''You don't have to come along Judy, you know?'' Valerie interrupted suddenly, her eyes fixated on the door. She suddenly seemed stressed and eager to just run downstairs, her expression showing her nervousness. Everybody else stayed quiet, only soft and partially frantic breathing being heard.

Once again Valerie's voice pierced through the silence as she stood up, catching the attention of everybody in the bedroom, including yourself. ''I'm going down there; my brother is still down there, isn't he?'' The seriousness was real this time around as she clenched her fists.

''Didn't he come with us? I thought he went to his room.'' Was Andrew's response as he tried to remember what exactly has happened before they went upstairs.

''He was sleeping on the couch last I saw him.'' You answered honestly; he fell asleep as you all explored the house further. But if he stayed on the couch after you came back from the hidden library or not was unknown, a blur even.

Valerie narrowed her eyes as she shook her head and ran a hand through her reddish-brown locks, trying to clear her head and calm down slightly.

''If somebody wants to join me, go ahead.''

She turned around and slowly opened the door without making any creaking sound. You were quick to jump into action as you followed her, she couldn't just go alone! If there was something or somebody down there, she wouldn't be able to handle it on her own. To your surprise, everybody stood up after you two, even Judy herself, who did so shakily. They were going to come along after all.

Nobody said a word as everybody tried their best at making no sound by tip toeing, but failing sometimes as the wooden floor creaked sometimes at the simplest movements. You reached the stair case after Valerie, who was already making her way downstairs by herself, nothing stopping her.

You gulped as you stared down the stairs, only seeing pure darkness, no light source whatsoever. Only the moon, which was covered by a few clouds, could keep you from tripping over your own feet. However, the strange feeling in your gut started to become stronger as you looked in the direction of the living room. You were convinced that the sounds came from there.

As you dared to finally descend down the stairs with a slow pace, goosebumps started to adorn your (s/c) skin and shivers ran down your spine.

It felt like hours have passed, you didn't even reach the end yet.

Valerie was long gone from your vision, even after you stepped on the wooden floor below and looked around. But on closer inspection, you could indeed make out the back of her head, her ponytail standing out in the slight moon light. She was standing still in place, staring at something unknown to you.

You decided to wait for the others, who slowly followed and gathered up behind you. The only sound was breathing coming from everybody around you.

You all then slowly made your way over to Valerie, who strangely still stood in place, shaking slightly. You were the first one to have the courage to put a hand on her shoulder as you arrived by her side. To your surprise she jumped and slapped your hand away, sobs tearing through the silence as she continued to stare forward at the place before you: The couch.

You dared to take a look as well and your eyes widened, gasping at the scene before you and taking a few steps back, accidently bumping into somebody. In the faint moon light, a substance was spread on the floor and the couch itself. It glistened slightly, dark red was the color; it would have looked beautiful, if not for the fact that the metallic, musky smell that suddenly hit you full on confirmed what it was: Blood. It was partially smeared on the table as well, as if somebody tried to take hold of it, but failed since it fell over. Unfortunately, Michael lay in the middle; his eyes and mouth wide open as if he tried to scream as his last defense, but in the end wasn't able to. His body lay motionless as his skin began to lose all color; he was covered in his own blood as well, his locks now fully dyed in red and messy. You could make out multiple stab wounds and bruises on his arms and legs; he probably tried to fight back against his intruder, but they held him back successfully. The wound that stood out the most was on his neck, which was sliced open with skill. It looked disgusting as blood was still rushing out of his blood vessels; it was still fresh and newly made. He has died not too long ago, probably just minutes ago.

You couldn't look away, still staring at his unmoving form lying on the floor before you all. Your mind was still trying to process everything as the air around you began to grow thicker and filled with tension. After a few seconds, you were finally able to look away, surprisingly making out a piece of paper lying a few meters away from Michael; you didn't dare to move though.

That's when all hell broke loose.

Judy let out a loud, fearful scream, retreating as soon as she did. She was shaking uncontrollably, realizing her dumb mistake as soon as the others did too. She basically just alerted the possible still present murderer of their discovery. She sunk to the floor near a wall, holding onto her knees and rocking back and forth. You could make out sobs and shaky muttering.

Andrew looked like he was about to puke right on the spot, but held back and made his way over to Judy shakily. He clearly wasn't in the state to do anything else, his strong façade melting away completely.

Faye was still frozen on the spot, not moving an inch as tears freely ran down her now-pale cheeks. She was holding onto her shirt tightly, her fingers turning white from the pressure. But she didn't seem to notice.

Dan wasn't looking at the scene anymore, moving away a couple steps and trying to give everybody their space. He looked fearfully around the room however, trying to make out any signs of other people around. He kept glancing at every possible entrance.

Valerie broke completely, she sunk to her knees, sobbing the loudest as she crawled over to her now deceased young brother and held onto him. She put his blood soaked head on her lap and gently ran her fingers through his matt, sticky hair, also rocking him a little. It looked like she wanted to lull him to sleep. Her tears fell onto him and the floor, but she didn't seem to notice. You heard her muttering things like 'You'll be okay!', 'We're going to get help!' or 'Please hold on!' over and over again, like a broken record.

And you were simply standing there, staring at your friends around you and hearing your heart beat loudly in your ears; you swore it would explode from fear right now. You felt faint after what you just experienced; it was burnt into your memory for sure.

Suddenly you felt a cold breeze hit your skin. The backdoor that leads towards the lake and woods outside was wide open, the curtains dancing around in the wind. But there wasn't any other soul around, at least not from what you could see from your position.

You gulped as you glanced at the others around you; they weren't paying attention. They were all still in a state of shock. Then you focused back on the note on the floor.

Shakily, you took a step forward, trying your best to avoid the crimson blood on the floor as you made your way towards the note in a sluggish pace; your curiosity taking hold of you for once. You had problems keeping your balance, but eventually stood right in front of it. You grabbed hold of it, noticing the bloody edges.

It was a simple note otherwise. The handwriting was messy and changed a few times as if somebody else decided to finish the message. You could make out a total of three or four different handwritings, which made you feel even more uneasy. Was there more than one or was it just a coincidence? At the end of the note, instead of a signature there was a clean circle with an "X" drawn through it. It was made out of blood.

----

c on grat s !

chosen for the trials,

Let the games begin, you have a few minutes to get ready.

We are waiting, always watching. Cant run

have fun - ⨂

----

You scanned the page over and over again, not understanding what was meant by all of this. Some words were hard to read, so you weren't sure, if you read them correctly. 'Trials', for example, simply didn't make sense to you. The last part was the scariest however and confirmed your suspicion: There were at least two murderers out there, currently even watching you all. At least that's what the message stated.

Jumping as a hand was put on your shoulder; you whipped your head back and noticed Dan standing there. He must have seen you reading the note. Without a word exchanged, you handed him the paper with a shaky hand and he simple read it through himself before giving it back to you.

His expression turned even more serious than before, his expression as cold as ice.

''We have to get out of here.'' He whispered to you, his voice trembling as well. ''I'll try to get the others to cooperate. Could you try to call the cops? Scream if you see anything though. Don't take too long.'' His eyes shone with concern, he didn't like to give you that task. But you simply nodded at his request. Your plan was to go to your room anyway.

As he tried to talk to Faye, who clung to him a little bit, you rushed up the stairs, taking two to three steps at a time. On the way, you squeezed in the note into your jeans back pocket, not bothering with the way it crunched a bit. You then rushed to your bedroom, opening your suitcase with a few complications and searched for the item you packed for emergencies. You never thought you'd actually have to use it. After throwing your clothes around a bit, you found it; your trusty Swiss pocket knife. You hid it away in the pocket where your house keys were. Both could be used as weapons if they had to be.

Afterwards you grabbed your phone on the nightstand and dialed 911 as quickly as you could. But only silence greeted you, there was no reception! Like none at all. You gritted your teeth as you tried again, but it wasn't working.

''God damn it!'' You cursed under your breath, running out of the room and trying to find any spot, where there was at least a chance to connect. No luck.

Your only chance was the phone downstairs in the kitchen now, so you ran down the stairs towards the kitchen, seeing Dan successfully calming down some of them, like Andrew and Faye. Judy and Valerie, however, were in a deep state of shock and still shaking on the floor.

You saw the phone on the wall soon after, grabbing it and once again trying to call the police. As you waited, your eyes widened and you stared out the only window in the kitchen that showed off the woods. There you saw shadowy figures standing at the edge, tall, dark trees surrounding them as they stared right back at you; you weren't able to make out how they looked. That's when one of them slowly raised an axe or similar in the air, waving it around easily and without any sign of regret. The phone was dead, only static heard from it; they have killed the power.

The device slipped from your hand and fell loudly on the floor as you ran back into the living room, nearly tripping over your own feet.

By now Judy was able to stand up, she calmed down slightly. Andrew held her closely, whispering encouraging words to her. Valerie on the other hand was still in the same position as before, but stared aimlessly at the floor and staying silent. Faye and Dan were looked at her with concern and turned their attention to you as soon as you entered.

''We have to get to the car, now! There's no reception and the phone in the kitchen is dead. They killed the power!'' You said in one go, breathing heavily.

You saw everybody tense even more, Judy starting to whimper once again.

''T-They?'' Faye dared to ask, but shut her mouth right after as she heard Judy starting to hyperventilate at the realization of multiple murderers.

''I'll explain later! Come on, get to the car and, just in case, grab a weapon or similar on the way! I'll get Val.''

You saw most of them nod as they rushed to get ready, some running to the kitchen to get knifes. Some going upstairs to get whatever they have packed. You instead ran over to your best friend, grabbing her by the shoulder and shaking her.

''Val! Snap out of it, we have to get out of here!'' You told her, trying to sound strict and bold, but your voice betrayed you. When she didn't move a muscle and didn't even look at you, you slapped her, hard.

She let out a gasp as she stared wide eyed at you, before her lip began to tremble again and tears cascaded down her cheeks. ''(Y-Y/n)?'' She whimpered out your name, still holding onto her brother like her life depended on it.

''Please, stand up. Come, we have to go!'' You tried once again and saw her glance down at her brother once again. She shakily lay down his head next to her, back on the bloody floor. Before she even tried to stand up, she grabbed a pillow from the couch and put it beneath his head. Afterwards she closed his eyes; it looked like he was sleeping now. She shakily brushed away the few strands of his hair and placed a kiss on his forehead.

''Go-Good night, dear.'' She whispered softly, her voice breaking a few times before she could force the words out. You quickly, but carefully helped her up as she needed support to stand, her legs shaking badly. She was covered in blood as well now, getting some on you even, but you didn't say a word about that.

The others gathered back in the living room, all of them holding some sort of weapon. Faye shakily held onto a knife, Dan found an axe, Andrew had a baseball bat and even Judy held onto a metal fire poker. You nodded towards them as all of you made your way towards the front door that led to the path towards the car outside.

As you all reached the front door, Valerie was able to stand normally again and Dan gave her a screwdriver to defend herself with, before he carefully opened the door afterwards. Thankfully it didn't make any sound. You gulped as you stepped onto the stony path; just a few hours ago it looked so classy and comfortable. But right now, you could only describe it as lifeless and inconvenient. With the shakiness of your steps, the danger of tripping was quite high.

Surprisingly, you reached the car without any interruptions. You couldn't even see the figures anywhere around, they weren't in the woods anymore. Or were they? You gulped as you shook your head.

Andrew motioned for everybody to get in quickly as he made his was to the other side to the driver's seat. Everyone successfully got into the car, even the driver himself as he fished out his keys nervously and tried turning on the engine. You could see most calming down a little as they sat down, knowing they were going to get out of this nightmare.

It was so close.

The motor did turn on, for a second, before it turned off again in a roar. You heard Andrew curse as he tried again, but this time it didn't even turn on. The car simply just shook a little each time.

''Come on!'' He whispered to himself, glaring at the steering wheel and shaking out of anger and fear. ''Why isn't it turning on, come on, come on!''

Unfortunately, the car stopped working all together after a few tries. Andrew ran a hand through his already messy hair as everybody stayed silent, the tension growing once again.

Before anybody could say another word, a knife was thrown at the frontal glass of the car, actually having enough power to pierce through it and getting stuck on the spot. Cracks quickly formed around it, but luckily the glass altogether didn't break. A small piece of paper could be seen at the other side of the glass, it was attached to the knife. It simply said ''DON'T'' in red, messy letters and could be interpreted as a warning.

Judy nearly fainted at the other side from you; she was sitting next to Faye. She was not even able to scream at this point. You saw Faye quickly grab her hand and squeeze, trying to calm her down as best as she could. Valerie in the meantime stared through the window beside you; she was frozen to the spot.

You dared to look in the direction she was staring at and could make out the same figures you saw through the kitchen window before, they were barely visible as the darkness of the woods hid them well. They were quite far away as well. As soon as you blinked, they were gone.

Valerie let out the breath she was holding and quickly looked away, she was holding onto her wrist.

''I'm going to try to find the problem with the car.'' Andrew said through the silence, undoing his seat belt and opening the door. ''If I fail, we'd have to try to go by foot. It's our only option.''

Dan decided to go with him, to protect him as he works and the rest stayed inside of the car. It felt like hours have passed, but in reality it were just minutes. It was clear everybody decided to ignore the note, but you couldn't help but stare at it.

After a few more minutes, Andrew opened the door and tried to start the car once again, but was greeted with grey smoke coming from under the hood instead. He clenched his fists and turned back.

''Somebody destroyed a few car parts with a sharp, but big weapon. Even the tires have holes in them. It's impossible to repair.''

You nodded as all of you made your way out of the car again and at the same time trying to calm down. Everybody stood beside the car now, looking at the small pathway leading towards some civilization. It took a while by car already; it would take at least a day to reach it by foot.
'But do we have a choice?' You asked in your mind as you gulped. The least all of you could do is try, right?

''Let's go.'' Was Dan's only words as he started walking, being followed by the others, including you. All of the teens held onto their weapons, you, however, kept your pocket knife hidden from any unknown, but probably deadly observers' eyes.

It was rather silent as you walked, nothing really happening currently. Somebody even mentioned that twenty minutes have already passed and no attacks or weird sightings yet. If it weren't for the eerie woods surrounding you, you would have even seen this as slightly calming. But not even animals made any sounds, no owls, no insects, nothing. Just silence. Something dark must lurk around here, there was no use denying it at this point.

That's when you heard a low snarl, followed by a growl coming from in front of you. You stopped dead in your tracks as did the rest.

A person, or perhaps even monster, stood right in front of the group, bending over a little as they stared straight at you. It seemed to stay out of the moon light, but you could still faintly make out a white mask that has a black substance dripping down around its eyes and mouth. From what you could tell, it had very pale skin and was wearing a previously white hoodie that was heavily stained with something; it looked like mud or blood, perhaps even both, and dark blue or black pants. It had its hoodie up, but you could still make out the black, unkempt locks underneath it.

It kept making strange growling noises, but stayed in place at first. Until it took one step forward, making everybody else move back as well.

''Back!'' It growled in a deep, but still slightly feminine voice, moving even closer towards the group. Apparently the figure in front of you was a female, which you could see now as well. There were hints of a female body shape. ''Trials!'' She screeched out, before running at the first person in her vision, which happened to be Dan as he was leading the group.

He let out a gasp as he tried to fight her off of him, using his axe to keep her bloody claws out of his face. He successfully threw her off with all his strength and straightened up, getting into a fighting pose. Everybody followed his move, Andrew positioning himself next to him.

''Come at me, you hag!'' Andrew dared to taunt the female before him, who simply snarled at him and slowly stood up again. Your eyes widened, what was he trying to do?!

''Don't worry guys, I can handle this.'' He grinned at the group, holding his bat close to him. It was clear he was as scared as the rest of the teens.

''Are you crazy?! We're not leaving you, if that's what you're trying to get at!'' Judy screamed at him, finally finding her voice as she understood her boyfriend's hidden meaning behind his words. He simply smiled at her.

''Are you all underestimating my strength?'' He joked, trying to chuckle a little as he readied his weapon to strike at the monster. ''Go! I'll come after you all as soon as I'm done here. Shouldn't take too long.''

That's when the creature ran at him, basically screeching her lungs out. She was ready to slash at him, but instead was hit with a bat to the face. She stumbled a little to the side, letting out another growl and got ready to attack again, like a wild animal.

He got struck this time however, her claws running down his left arm and leaving three nasty trails on the way, which started to bleed as soon as they were created. He let out a silent scream as he held onto his weapon in the other arm, being lucky she hadn't hit his fighting arm.

Judy screamed loudly at the sight of it, stumbling back and tears running down her cheeks.

He simply growled back at the creature, getting ready to attack again. Seconds passed and he was once again lucky enough to hit her in the stomach, stunning her for a bit.

''QUICK, GO!'' Was Andrew's only response as he took a step back, glancing at everybody, especially at Judy, with pleading eyes.

Some refused to go, but the ones who kept a clear head and believed in their friend dragged those along with them, leaving Andrew behind.

They were running, hearing growls, screeches and grunts of pain behind them.