Chapter Text
Fiore woke up with a pounding headache.
“Holy crap,” she muttered under her breath.
She put her hand on her forehead, but she felt nothing. It was like it went right through her head.
Will stepped in front of her, and Fiore gasped.
“Aren’t you dead?!” She asked.
“Uh, yeah. I am,” he replied, “Where did your head go?”
“‘My head’?” Fiore asked, “What do you mean, by where’d it go?”
“See for yourself,” Will said, taking Fiore to a river, where she saw her reflection.
Fiore gasped, “What did you do to me?!”
“I didn’t do anything!” He defended. He heard some leaves rustle near them, “We gotta hide.”
“What, why?” Fiore asked, while Will dragged her into a bush.
~~
The berries are here! Look! Drew showed his group the notebook.
Juliana squealed, “Thank you, Drew! Thank you! Thank you!”
“Well I’ll be darned! I didn’t think there was any berries with the conditions Trevor and Derek left this mess in,” Ashley exclaimed, taking a berry and inspecting it. After inspecting it, she put it in her mouth, “Safe and delightful!”
Gabby took some and put them in a basket she made. Ellie frowned.
“We’ve gotta be more careful. Imagine if we all get caught,” Ellie said.
Gabby frowned, “No!”
“That’s why we have to be careful, more quiet.”
“We’ve got enough, let’s head back,” Juliana said.
“I hate the vibe here.”
“Drew?!” Juliana asked. Drew nodded no.
~~
“Thanks to your stupid comment, they almost saw us!” Fiore yelled once the group was gone.
“It slipped,” Will said, looking embarrassed.
“Geez, you need to be able to get some self control,” Fiore sounded annoyed.
“Still as mean as ever,” Will mumbled. Damn, he was starting to miss Ashley. He wondered if she missed him too.
~~
Dan ran back to his group.
Alec saw and said, “What’s got you running? Where is Fiore?”
“I-I… oh god how do I start,” Dan started, “I was with Fiore, trying to find the berries.”
He started to hyperventilate, so Alec gave a comforting pat on his back.
“I went to go pee, it shouldn’t have taken too long, it didn’t,” he continued, “And when I returned, her head was cracked wide open.”
“Of course he takes the piss,” Nick mumbled.
“What’s more important is that someone died, Nick!” Jake yelled.
“Namely Fiore,” Alec said.
“Are you guys mad at me?” Dan asked.
“Sort of, you shouldn’t have left her alone, she’s six,” Alec said.
“We all hated her, but I have to admit that really wasn’t cool,” Jake added.
“Oh god,” Dan mumbled.
~~
Danielle was shaking once again. She didn’t feel safe anymore. Not even in Lill’s arms, something felt wrong.
“Are you sure we’ll be okay?” She asked.
“…” Lill’s silence didn’t reassure Danielle.
Even Grett was quiet for once, as Tom began to set the fire and bring water.
“Will someone help me get water?” Tom asked.
“Yeah, guess I’ll go,” Danielle said.
As they both left, Lill saw the fire die slowly.
“Let’s go collect some more firewood,” Lill said.
“Ugh, why don’t you go?” Grett asked.
“We can’t risk being alone,” Lill said, “We have to try to make sure the most amount of us live.”
“Fine,” Grett huffed.
The two stood up and went inside the forest.
~~
Not too long later, Miriam woke up from the nap she was taking inside the tent. She peered her head outside, and saw the fire, which was so close to becoming a pile of burnt wood.
“Where’d everyone go?” She asked, “they didn’t even bother telling me.”
Miriam climbed out of the tent, stretching her limbs out so they didn’t cramp. Her eyes then widened in realization. She instantly felt a sense of fear, knowing what that meant. She panicked internally, carefully taking a stick out of the campfire to use as self defense, just in case.
~~
“Do you have a feeling, a slight feeling, that we forgot something?” Danielle asked, taking a bucket of water from Tom.
“Uh, maybe?” He replied, “Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a lingering-” Danielle got interrupted by Tom yelling, “Miriam!”
“Fuck!”
Both dropped the buckets and sprinted back to camp.
~~
Lill inspected a piece of wood she had collected, “This is good.”
Grett rolled her eyes and sarcastically mumbled, “For killing you.”
“I really hope you didn’t mean that,” Lill said, staring at Grett with a concerned expression.
“Of course not, dipshit. Or else why would I have come?”
Lill turned around and continued walking, rolling her eyes.
“Did the old hag come with us or with Tom and Dani?” Grett suddenly asked.
“I think she-” her words were cut short when she realized she was with neither groups.
G-g… wondered wh-where t-t-t-the wood w-w-went a-as they threw I-it and ran b-back-
~~
Before Miriam knew anything, her dress caught fire. No, but it wasn’t just the dress.
She screams in agony as the once almost dead flames grew up to a massive size, engulfing her entirely, burning, charring, and destroying her being.
Tom knew the screams. Distinctive, and almost deceased. They were fading, and not just Tom but everyone knew they had to do something before it was too late. But they had run out of time a long time ago.
By the time Tom and Danielle actually made it, Miriam was already dead. Danielle began hyperventilating again. Comfort doesn’t last long when people drop like flies around you. Tom didn’t know what to do, but as the flames died down on her too, he realized this was no accident. The tent was too far from the campfire for Miriam to have just simply tripped and burned to her demise.
Lill and Grett finally arrived to the scene.
“I heard- oh god!” Grett exclaimed in surprise, seeing the charred old woman beneath her feet.
“Another one?” Lill asked.
“O-oh god we shouldn’t have l-l-left her a-alone, Lill! W-we really shouldn’t have! W-we’re I-i-idiots!” Danielle was panicking. The tension rose once more, just as when they found Will’s body for the first time. Survival wasn’t gonna be easy, they knew, if anything they had in their hands could be used against them.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I think they died, what do we do?