5. Dread

Brendon walked up to the stone wall that surrounded the old run-down sanatorium. Where he saw a man with two wolves walk into the building.

"That's not good," he mumbled. "That's really not good. Really not good."

He jumped over the wall, landing with a small thud in the snow. Brendon walked up the steps to a sign that said the building was condemned.

"Awesome, why wouldn't I end up in the creepiest place on planet Earth?" He muttered.

He went to the side and uncovered a small entrance into the building. He climbed in and jumped down, looking around the dark room. Brendon pushed a barrel over below an overhang. He climbed up, going down a path where he found a hole in the ceiling that he climbed through. He was on the first floor of the building now.

"That's different," he muttered.

He walked across the floor full of rubble to the next room. There was a door to the chapel and a hole in it, Brendon could see the stranger feeding treats to his wolves. The stranger walked through a door, locking it behind him.

Brendon tried to open the chapel door too but it was locked. It seems you needed some administrative card to unlock the door. He turned back and went through a door labeled 'Administration Area.' On the way, he found a paper that was a letter addressed to the staff of the sanatorium. It mentioned that the survivors of the collapsed mine were being brought to the sanatorium. He just set the note down and continued on his way.

Brendon looked around the room and found a safe with a wooden stake on the ground next to it. He pried the safe open and found a bunch of clocking-in cards. Most likely from the miners. On top of a filing cabinet was an old, broken camera. He was a little curious as he wondered what the film inside of it would reveal.

He walked down the hall and found a newspaper newspaper with the headline 'Reporter Assaulted On Blackwood Mountain.' Along with the newspaper, he also discovered a paper with 'Miner Medical Report' along the top. The twelve miners were expected to be malnourished and confused but instead they were cogent and healthy. They were closing off the miners in A Wing for psychological evaluations. The weirdest part was on the back of some handwritten note that one of the miners tried to bite a staff member.

He left the note and continued on down the hall. Down a flight of stairs, he found a machete stabbed into a table. He took the blade, looking around the room with his lantern. Brendon found a chair with restraints on it, his skin crawling.

"Oh, what happened here?" He wondered.

He could only imagine the sort of tortures these people went through.

His footsteps echoed through the halls as he heard the snarl of the wolf in the distance. Down the hall he could hear something creaking and found a strange object. It was a box with a human hand sticking out of a hole on the top. It rocked back and forth like a metronome. There was a card tied to the hand's wrist.

Brendon walked up to it and grabbed the card when a bear trap closed on his pinky and ring finger. He screamed and cursed, tears welling up in his eyes. He tried pulling his hand out but it didn't work before he finally pulled out his machete and tried to open the bear trap. That didn't work, only breaking the end of the machete off.

He knew he didn't have any other choice.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," he muttered. "Oh holy shit."

Brendon screamed as he used his machete to amputate his own fingers. He hugged his hand, tears rolling down his cheeks. Pain ran all the way up his arm as he looked at the bloody stubs where his fingers once were. But he knew he couldn't dwell on this problem. He had to save Ryan.

He wrapped his hand in bandages he found before going into the next room, which seemed to be a morgue. On the shelf was a strange skull inside a jar. He opened a body drawer and found a name card, it talked about how the death was caused by an attack from an inmate. The next drawer had a paper of a death certificate.

The third he opened had the decomposed body of a nurse, a rat crawling out of its mouth. Brendon gagged as he reached forward and grabbed the administrative card off of the body.

He used the card to go through a locked door and went up a flight of stairs. A wolf jumped out and barked at him. Brendon bolted up the stairs towards the chapel while the wolf chased after him.

"Oh shit!" He exclaimed. "Okay, okay, fuck, fuck, fuck."

Brendon slammed the chapel door on the wolf. He caught his breath and looked around down to the chapel from the upper floor.

"Wow, this is a bit psycho-criby," he muttered.

He jumped down to the first floor and found himself near the front entrance. He went to the chapel door and unlocked it with his card when a wolf jumped out at him. Brendon gasped, kicking the wolf. The wolf whimpered, sitting in the corner and snarling at him. Brendon tried to approach him again but the wolf tried to bite at him.

The wolf left him alone as he looked around and put on a jacket he found. As well as that, he also grabbed a revolver that was hidden behind the jacket. There was a little seating area in the center, a box with a cigar on it.

"Ah, stogie stash exposed," he said.

There was a chest filled with bones and he took one before going to where he saw the stranger leave. He shot the lock open before going back to give the wolf the bone, hoping he wouldn't follow him. This time, the wolf allowed him to pet him.

"That's right, everyone loves a little lovin'," he said.

Brendon walked through the door and went down the hall where there was a staircase going down. Down the staircase he found a picture frame on the ground of the miners who were rescued. Apparently they were called the Miracle Men.

He went down the hall and found a locked door. He pushed the barrel blocking it out of the way, not knowing that the barrel spilled oil on the ground. He shot the metal lock, the sparks igniting the oil. The flames spread quickly to the other barrels and Brendon cursed, the barrels in front of him exploding.

Dallon walked through the front gate when he heard a buzz behind him. He looked back and found that the gate was now locked.

"Hey, it's locked!" He called to Sarah. "Who the hell did that? There's some seriously uncool shit going on up here."

They went down to the cable car station, trudging through the snow.

"I can't believe Pete is dead," Sarah muttered.

"I can't believe how he died," he said.

"No, I mean, what if they were wrong?" She asked. "Maybe we should've checked the shed to see if it was really true."

"I don't know, there are some things that once you see them, you can never un-see them," Dallon said.

"Yeah, I guess," she muttered. "But some things you have to see for yourself."

"I'll take their word for it," Dallon stated.

He searched around and found a bucket of spilled wet paint in the snow, it was wet and still fresh. He went back to the building where there was an axe stabbed into the wall. Sarah tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.

"Oh what now? It's locked, Dallon!" She exclaimed. "Well, break the door down, will ya?"

"Wait a second, we start smashing shit down and he's gonna hear us," he said.

"You got any better suggestions?" Sarah asked as she crossed her arms.

"What about the window?" He asked, which was cracked open.

"That's great, Dallon, I can just about fit my lip balm through that little slot," she said. "You will never fit through there, bit guy."

"I won't fit but you will," he said.

"Are you nuts?" Sarah asked. "You're gonna shove my ass through that little hole?"

"I've seen you slip into some pretty tight jeans, Sarah," he said.

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"It's a talent!" Dallon defended.

"Think again, lug head," Sarah denied. "No can do. For one thing that maniac is probably just sitting there under that window waiting to blend us into pina coladas."

"Okay fine, here goes," he said, walking to the door. "I'm gonna huff, and I'm gonna--"

"Shut up and just do it," Sarah interrupted.

It took a couple tries but Dallon managed to swing the axe down and break off the handle of the door. Sarah stepped in and turned on the light as she gasped.

"Oh, god damn," Dallon muttered.

"What happened?" Sarah asked.

Things were thrown from the shelves, words painted on the wall with red letters.

"We were just here, like, a few hours ago, this must've just happened!" Sarah exclaimed.

"What the fuck is going on?" he muttered.

"It's gotta be the guy, the one who got Gerard and Frank and Pete," Sarah said.

"He's gotta know this is the only way out," he said. "Look, the cable car's all the way up there."

The car was stopped a few meters out on the track, impossible for anyone to reach.

"Well, that's not far, right?" Sarah asked. "You can jump it?"

"I'm good, Sar, but not that good," he said. "Flattered, though."

"Well, Dallon, if you can't jump that then what are we going to do?" Sarah asked. "God, everything is, like, so busted up."

"I think they knew exactly what they were doing," he said.

Dallon picked up a map of the mountain, noticing a radio tower on the top right corner.

"Look, a fire tower," he said.

"Hey, Magellan, maybe we should get the cable car working and get this show on the road, huh?" Sarah asked a little impatiently.

Dallon looked at the control panel and found that the key to start and stop the machine was missing.

"Great, no key, no cable car," he muttered.

"What about the fire tower? On the map you found?" She asked.

"Well, I guess that's an option," Dallon said.

"Maybe it has a radio or something," She said. "I mean, it would, wouldn't it?"

"Probably, yeah," he said.

"Dallon, we gotta get to that radio," she insisted.

"We can use the radio to call for help, somebody's gotta pick up the signal," he agreed.

"Oh, well, someone's learning to play by the rules," she said.

"What? What rules?" Dallon asked.

"Rule number one, 'Sarah is always right,'" she said. "Rule number two, 'nothing else matters because Sarah is always right.'"

They walked down to the platform of the cable car station and found a ladder. Dallon helped to pull it down and they climbed down to a small ledge. Sarah found a flashlight, smiling as she pocketed it.

"Look at this bad boy, you're coming with me, buddy," she said. "And just like magic. Come on down, we can totally get out of here this way!"

Dallon followed her down, trying not to look down at the drop which was hundreds of feet. The wind seemed stronger, making him more nervous as they shimmied down the ledge, their backs pressed against the wall. Sarah got to the end of the ledge when she slipped but Dallon managed to catch her, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"You alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, maybe you should go first, to protect me," she said.

Dallon shimmied past her to go first. He silently prayed that nothing bad would happen. And he was nearly crying when they made it around the ledge and was back on the ground safely. They immediately started up the mountain. They knew they didn't have any time to waste.

"What if it doesn't work?" Sarah asked. "The radio."

"It'll work," he reassured.

"But, okay, if it doesn't, we need a plan," she said.

"Maybe we can just climb down," he said.

"Climb down what?" Sarah asked.

"The mountain," he stated.

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"What's the big deal?" He asked. "It's not like it's floating in the sky."

"It might as well be, it's pitch black out," she said.

"Hopefully we don't have to," he said.

"You think the psychopath is just going to give up and run away?" Sarah asked.

"No," Dallon denied. "But maybe we should find a safe spot, hole up, wait it out. It'll be a lot easier to figure this all out in the morning."

"As long as we don't hide in the lodge, that's where he expects us to go," she said. Underneath a floorboard of a bridge, they found Andrew's cell phone.

"Whoa, this is Andy's phone," Sarah said.

"I thought the police swept the whole area," Dallon wondered.

"Well, looks like they missed this," she said.

They reached a cliff and Dallon looked at the broken sign.

"Watch where you step around here, Sar," he said.

"Yes, Dallon, given the choice I'd prefer not to spend my evening plummeting to my death off a snow cliff top," she said.

Dallon opened his mouth for some retort when they heard a scream off in the distance.

"Dallon, what is that?" Sarah asked.

"I don't know," he mumbled.

A hoard of deer approached them, more than a dozen cornering them against the cliff.

Jamia relaxed in the bathtub, listening to classical music through her headphones. She didn't even notice the psycho behind her, watching her before he took her clothes and left, slamming the door that blew out a candle. Jamia frowned in confusion, taking out her earbuds as she looked around.

"Hello? Guys?" She asked. "What are you doing out there? Being creepy?"

She got out, wrapping a fluffy white towel around herself. She went to get dressed but found only a sock in place of her clothes.

"Oh for Christ's sake, my clothes? Really?" She asked. "Whichever one of you did this is off my Christmas list. Seriously, not cool guys, not cool at all."

Jamia left the bathroom and looked around.

"Frank? Pete?" She called as she walked down the hall. "What the hell?"

A large grandfather clock chimed, making Jamia jump in fright.

"Frank? Dallon? Sarah? This is really getting out of hand, okay?" She asked. "It was all very funny, ha ha, look at Mia walking around in a towel, but now I just really want this to be over, alright? You had enough?"

It was dark but there were candles lit everywhere and red balloons with white arrows on them, seeming to direct her where to go.

"Can I have my clothes back now or am I supposed to hang out in a towel for the rest of the weekend?" She asked. "Towel it is, then."

She walked down the stairs, following the direction of the balloons. She went to the front room but found both doors locked. But there was a business card on the table. On the back was written notes of orders for a circular saw and replacement blades. The front door was also locked, she couldn't get out.

She went back out and the tv suddenly turned on, static on the screen. She turned off the tv, looking around. It was completely empty, she couldn't find anyone. In the dining room she heard a message about a man being freed from prison.

Even the backdoor was locked, she didn't have any choice but to follow the balloons and head down to the basement. She picked up a flashlight and headed into the theater room.

"Hey, guys, come on!" Jamia exclaimed, close to tears from how frightened she was. "I am done with this! I really don't appreciate the silent treatment here!

The cinema doors slammed shut and Jamia turned around.

"Hello, Jamia," a voice said over the speaker. "Looking for me? I don't think you'll have much luck by looking, Jamia."

"What the hell?" Jamia asked.

"You're going to see what I want you to see, and I have quite a lot to show you," he said as the screen turned on. "Open your eyes."

The screen showed Jamia in the bathtub, unaware that someone was even filming her.

"Oh my god," Jamia whimpered.

"She's quite beautiful, isn't she?" The psycho asked. "A beautiful bathing bird."

"How--why--why did you--"

"Do you think she has any idea what lies ahead," he interrupted. "Do you think these were the last happy moments of this creatures life?"

Why are you showing this to me?" She asked.

"Why are you watching?" he replied.

The screen changed and showed Pete getting sawed in half. Jamia screamed, tears running down her cheeks.

"Oh my god! What did you do?!" She shrieked.

"I'm going to give you ten seconds," he said. "Nine."

"No, no, no, no," Jamia sobbed.

"Eight, seven," he counted.

"Please, no," she begged.

The psycho burst into the room with a syringe and Jamia screamed.

"Mia," he said.

"No!" She screamed.

"Mia," he sang.

Jamia took off running through a door and down the hall into the guest room. She jumped over the bed and went out through the other door to the sub-basement, nearly tripping over the broken step. She didn't stop, just kept running as fast as she could. She found a door but the handle seemed to be missing. She pulled down a wine casing shelf and the handle fell from the top of it. She managed to get the door open just in time, slamming the door on the psycho's face.

She caught her breath and broke through a door, which seemed to be some kind of underground tunnel. She decided to hide in an old dumbwaiter shaft. She could hear the footsteps of the psycho as he looked around.

"Here, pussy, pussy, pussy," he cooed.

Jamia covered her mouth, trying not to make a sound.

"Fuck," the psycho muttered.

Jamia sobbed silently as she heard the psycho's footsteps finally retreat.

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