Chapter Text
Dwight would be the first to admit that the trials had been going extremely well lately. It seemed that no matter what, the killers had been failing to sacrifice many of Dwight or his fellow survivors lately.
They were constantly falling for the whole pallet and locker tricks, easily swayed by the distraction of a survivor running away. It seemed they were more interested in the chase now than trying to stop the survivors from repairing the generators. As long as they got to chase someone and slash at them, they seemed content.
This led to a lot more escapes from the survivors than sacrifices from the killers. Dwight didn’t know whether the Entity chose the killers randomly or purposefully, but he wondered how the being felt about its killers failing to sacrifice him and his friends so much.
Walking back from a trial with Meg and Nea in tow, Dwight felt confused. He and his friends had just had a trial with the Trapper (as they had named the killer), but it had been, once again, an unusual one. The killer had barely tried. He hadn’t put a single bear trap down and had only chased them, what felt, half-heartedly.
It was weird and not like the killer at all. Usually, the killer would put bear traps by generators and lockers, and even by untouched pallets. And he would chase them viciously, unrelenting in his chase.
But not this time.
Dwight pursed his lips in consideration.
”Have the killers seemed off to you guys at all?” He asked his companions.
The girls shared a look.
”As in, ‘I can’t be bothered anymore’, type weird or...” Meg trailed off.
”Yeah, exactly,” Dwight nodded.
“It’s definitely weird but if it means I don’t have to get hooked nearly every match and I get to escape, I don’t care,” Nea said resolutely.
”Same here,” Meg agreed.
Dwight thoroughly shared their sentiments, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that came with thinking of how weird they’d been acting lately.
But knowing he couldn’t convince his friends to consider their strangeness, he let the subject drop and instead congratulated them on repairing three generators in their last trial.
The girls thanked him and joked about how the Trapper had managed to lose them both so quickly during a chase at the start of the match.
Dwight sighed, suddenly thinking about the killers again.
When they made it back to the campfire, Dwight threw himself down on the floor near the fire and relished in the warmth it brought. He hadn’t realised how cold he was until he was faced with such generous heat.
”God, I’m exhausted,” he said.
“So am I,” Nea groaned, settling down beside Feng Min on a log.
”How did the trial go?” Claudette asked with concern.
”Really well,” Dwight told her.
”The Trapper barely even tried,” Nea smirked.
”Yeah. He only managed to sacrifice David, but that was because he stepped on a bear trap at the end and the Trapper camped on the hook,” Meg said.
”Doesn’t surprise me,” Feng Min shook her head, “I guess we won’t see David for a few hours then.”
“No,” Dwight sighed.
He still felt guilty about leaving David hooked and escaping through the Gate, but he also knew there was nothing he could have done to help his fellow survivor. Any closer and the Trapper would have gotten him, Meg, and Nea too and opening the Gate would have been for nothing. They might as well have just forfeited the trial.
But also, it wasn’t like David wasn’t going to come back.
When Dwight tuned back into the conversation between his fellow survivors a few minutes late, Nea had decided she was going to sleep.
Following her lead, the others began to shuffle into their sleeping bags to gain as much rest as they could before the next trial.
Feeling exhausted himself, Dwight rose from the floor and relocated to his own sleeping bag. It wasn’t the most comfortable accommodation and he would have preferred to sleep in a building rather than out in the open, but he and the others learned quickly that it never rained or snowed, or got windy at the campfire, and said campfire never went out. It burned unendingly.
Besides, even out in the open, vulnerable as they were, the killers couldn’t approach the campfire so they were as safe as they were going to get aside from the trials.
With a yawn, Dwight stretched and closed his eyes, praying to whatever Gods would listen that he and the others would wake back up in their old lives, safe and sound.
When Dwight woke up, the unease he’d felt after his last trial had returned with a vengeance. He felt like something was wrong, like an evil presence was looming over him ominously.
He tried desperately to ignore it, keeping his eyes closed. It wasn’t unusual in the Entity’s realms to feel a sense of anxiety and sickness. It came with being killed almost every day, he supposed.
This time, however, he found he couldn’t ignore the feeling. It was just so strong that ignoring it was near impossible. He felt the wrongness around him like a thick blanket or fog.
Almost hesitantly, Dwight carefully opened his eyes, blinking them a few times to clear his vision. He was still tired, like he hadn’t slept, but that was a given in the Entity’s realms.
Immediately, Dwight noticed that his surroundings weren’t the same as what he’d gone to sleep to. Instead of the forest and the campfire, he now found himself in what looked like the inside of a log cabin.
Confusion brewed within him as he sat up in his sleeping bag. He spotted some of the other survivors were also there, but not all of them.
The cabin was fairly nice (given the circumstances) from what he could see. There was even a faded, beaten, red sofa pushed up against the wall in the corner.
But Dwight was still bemused. Was he in a trial? But he couldn’t be because there was more than four of them there. Besides, it didn’t look like there was any exits from the cabin nor any hooks. It wouldn’t be much of a fight if neither he or his fellow survivors could escape.
Plus, where was the killer?
Shuffling out of his sleeping back, Dwight rose to his feet and carefully manoeuvred his was over to one of the windows. It was boarded up and there were gaps in the wood meaning he couldn’t see out of it at all.
Pursing his lips in consideration, Dwight turned around to wake his friends and maybe go through the predicament with them.
But he froze almost immediately at the sight that befell him. It wasn’t just survivors in the cabin.
”Shit!” Dwight swore with terror.