In the last instant, you close your eyes...and you pull the trigger.

The gunshot echoes. For a moment, that's the only sound. Then comes a sound out of your darkest nightmares: Wes's laugh.

You can hardly dare to open your eyes, but neither can you keep them closed when you hear that evil sound.

When you open your eyes, you see Ivy's face first. She's lying on the ground, her wide eyes fixed on your face, and she's clutching with trembling fingers at the bullet wound in her side. She opens her mouth to speak, but no words come out: only a choked sound and a gurgle of blood.

You drop the gun, horrified, and stare at what you've done.

"Well," Wes says, pulling himself to his feet. He brushes off his jeans. "This night is full of surprises."

Your breath is caught somewhere in your throat. You let it out in a gasp of shock.

Ivy isn't moving any more. In death, the expression frozen on her face is one of fear and confusion.

Wes closes the distance between you in two steps. He looms over you, wearing a monstrous grin. Too late, you lunge for the gun, but he kicks it out of your reach with one swing of his booted foot.

"Let me put you out of your misery, darlin'," he murmurs, kneeling down at your side. He lifts the leg of his jeans and from his boot, he produces a hunting knife.

"No—" You scramble backward, your wounded thigh screaming at you, but Wes raises the knife and brings it down in a glittering arc, plunging it deep into your leg, right next to the gunshot wound.

You scream in pain, the unearthly cry stripping your throat as it boils out of some deep, animal part of you. Wes smiles at you, twisting the knife, and you slump to the ground, reaching out in desperation to close your hands around his, begging him to stop.

"A little pain does have a way of makin' someone more agreeable," he muses, twisting the knife again. "But I'm afraid I've grown tired of this game, Kendall."

He pulls the knife out of your leg and in the same instant, plunges it into your neck. Darkness rises to swallow you in moments...and there is no more pain.

ENDING ACHIEVED: Friendly Fire

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If you want to achieve all 24 endings and need a little help, check out the END NOTES chapter (mild spoilers) for a story map!