Chapter Text
It was nice of Hilary and Kevin to help them out, really it was, but Sophie couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right about them or the forest or something. It left an uneasy feeling deep within her stomach, one nearly just as bad as the feeling from the night she finished Bunny Farm.
Something wasn't right here. Something was off and she couldn't quite place what.
"We're lost aren't we?" Jenny's voice cuts through her thoughts, "Face it, you two haven't been here in years and now we're just in the middle of nowhere in a forest."
"Thats exactly where we need to be." Hilary replies, "The K9 facility is genuinely in the middle of nowhere here. Didn't even give us clear directions the first time, we're lucky we found it at all!"
"It should be around this area." Kevin continues, "Maybe if we get out we can properly figure out where- wait did you see that?"
"Kevin if you start saying theres things in the forest-"
"No no I noticed it too. The weird purple that we just passed?" Jenny turns her head, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it was through the car's back window. "Theres no native purple flowers around here, right?"
"Not that I or Kevin are aware of, no? We can stop and check it out if you're all up for it."
They all glanced at Sophie, and Sophie glanced out her window, giving Jenny's hand a soft squeeze of approval. Soon enough the car was pulled over.
Kevin scrunched his nose as soon as he stepped out of the car, heavily debating if going back in would be better than having to deal with the scent outside. "Shit, it smells like something died out here."
"Thanks Kevin, we hadn't noticed." Hilary snipped back, but he was right, it did smell awful. "Its a forest. Probably a bear's last meal or something."
"Yeah great, parked us next to a bear's food! Very thoughtful of you Hilary."
Sophie rolled her eyes. She did like these two, they were very friendly and the information they had on BSI and Cyberfun was super useful when they met, but the amount of arguing they got into was on the brink of driving her mad. She wished they'd just be quiet for at least a handful of seconds. She needed time to think and she couldn't ever do that when-
"Hey uh- Hilary? Hilary stop wait-"
" What Kevin?"
"Is….is that a dead body?"
They all stopped, Sophie accidentally nudging into Jenny.
"No that...that can't be right…"
"Hey, how close are we to K9 again?" Jenny pipes up, "If...look at its outfit. Purple. You know who else has purple outfits?"
"You aren't saying that this…"
"Guys...I think thats Brian Stells. The guy who went missing seven days ago?"
Everyone was eerily silent. Sophie couldn't stop staring at the body, a whole body, it looked so familiar. Why was it familiar? Its not like she'd ever met Brian herself…
"I told you it was like-"
" Yes , Kevin, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I get it!" Hilary threw her arms up, "But do you really think nows the time? Theres a literal body right in front of us!"
"Guys…"
"I know I'm just saying, we should have left the first time we came here as soon as I realized it!"
"Guys."
"Yeah well how about you tell that to Ashley next time we see her, huh? You wanna tell her you were right about the-"
" Guys! " Sophie snapped, "I think the 'dead body' isn't actually as dead as we assumed! Look." She pointed to his stomach, as torn and possibly crushed as it looked, it was moving. Not fast, his breathing was obviously weak, but it was still moving. She went to step closer, Jenny grabbing her hand.
"Careful, you don't know if it might be something else." Sophie nodded, squeezing her partner's hand ever tighter before letting go and stepping closer to what they all assumed was Brian Stells.
He looked awful, to put it bluntly, not nearly as bad as those Sophie saw in Bunny Farm, but all of the injuries looked extremely similar.
"Is he...is he alive?" Jenny asked. The silence was probably getting uncomfortable.
"Barely." Sophie kneels down next to him, "His breathing sounds really weak. His uh- his left arm is kinda torn off, got a lot of cuts on his chest and uhm...I...his eyes are gone." The sight was horrific, if she wasn't used to seeing things like this, Sophie would be just as unsettled with it as the rest of them.
"Shit, look if you guys want to wait here, I can try and get back to Entfernt and ask if we can get help from there. I don't know if hes got much left in him, but its worth a shot, better than leaving him here."
"Take Kevin with you." Jenny pulls the camera from the other's hands, "And stay safe you two, we'll...we'll try to slow the bleeding. Don't got a lot, but its better safe than sorry."
Hilary nodded and the two were off. Sophie and Jenny in the meantime, tried to properly access the damage and tried to figure out just what they could do to help. There was blood practically everywhere and only so much gauze Jenny carried in her bag in case of emergency.
"I think right now the most important spots to cover would be the eyes and the arm. We can use whats left on his chest."
"Jenny I- can he even hear us? I don't want to accidentally startle him if hes conscious."
"Have you tried touching his arm or something? Not the injured one but-"
"No. Not yet. Again, I didn't want to scare him."
"Soph I think whatever he went through is possibly the scariest thing he could have experienced, I'm sure cleaning him up a little isn't any worse than that."
Jenny was wrong. The second Sophie placed her hand on his arm he flinched and tried his damndest to move away. He wouldn't talk at all, but Brian could certainly yell despite his weakness.
"Its okay look I- I mean well you can't look you don't have eyes but we- would you stop trying to wiggle away for five seconds?"
"Jenny, you're awful at comforting people, you know that?"
"Well what do you suggest we do then?"
Sophie thought about the question. What could they do? He clearly wasn't going to relax, not like this, scared and in pain and without sight. She didn't want him to strain himself though and make it all worse. Think, Sophie, think. How could they convince him it was okay, he was safe.
"Hey, Brian?" She began, her voice hush in case he startled again, "I-I know you're scared, I'm scared too, but I need you to stop moving so I and my...friend...can help, okay? We aren't going to hurt you, not like whatever did this. We just want to...uh...to help, okay?"
Brian doesn't stop trying to move. Doesn't stop trying to get away.
"Brian please ." Sophie tries again, shes careful in her attempts to at least get a hold of his good hand. Jenny would always hold her hand to help ground her when she was scared, maybe it would help Brian too. "You have to calm down, okay? Let us help." Carefully, Sophie lifted his head, removing her letterman jacket and placing it under him. "It...its going to be really rough on you, everything after this, when help comes, but you'll be alright."
"When did you become an expert on comforting people?" Jenny handed a roll of gauze over to Sophie, "I thought that was my job."
"It just comes naturally sometimes, I think I got it from my mom." Sophie responds, trying to figure out the best way to wrap Brian's head, "His eyes are just...they're gone Jenny. Whatever did this wasn't some animal looking for a meal."
"Well what do you suppose it was? I don't think a bear would have made cuts like this. They look more like- I don't know- like they came from something unnatural?"
"I don't want to think about it, not right now. Exploring K9 is going to have to wait until-"
"Rabbit…"
"Wh-" Brian feels for Sophie's arm, grabbing hold as tightly as he can.
" Rabbit ." He rasps again. Not only did he look awful, he sounded it too.
"Oh wonderful! Hes insane!"
" Jenny! "
"Sorry, I just…a rabbit? Thats- its not like its a big clue to anything! Rabbits can't do this, at least not any rabbit I've ever seen!" She was right. Rabbits couldn't do this. Yet here Brian was repeating that word over and over again, like his life depended on this word.
Rabbit...rabbit….rabb….it?
"Hey two of the characters in Bunny Farm were rabbits, weren't they?" Sophie asks, "Thats means the animatronics they're based on were rabbits."
" Rabbit ."
"Yeah? Why do you ask?"
" Rabbit ."
"We're near K9 aren't we? Do you think...I don't know Jenny, I might sound crazy."
"Sophie, you told me you saw your family in that game, this can't be any different."
" Rabbit ."
"What if he was attacked by one?"
Brian's voice goes silent. If it wasn't for his continued breathing, Sophie would assume he died right then and there while they were slowing the bleeding.
"I take it back, that sounds like a bit of a stretch."
"Oh an animatronic rabbit on the loose is hard to believe, but ghosts aren't?"
"Plenty of people have proven ghosts to be real, its completely possible your family is haunting you and maybe your uncle."
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Sophie sighs, "I just...I can't think of why else he'd be saying rabbit."
"We'll figure that out later. For now, I need you to do me a favor and try to sit him up. If we wanna wrap the cuts on his chest then we best do it now with what we got left."
Sit him up. Right. Sophie could do that. She could totally do that. Just carefully hook her arm under his good arm and-
" No. No stop… " she stopped immediately.
"Did that hurt too much?" Jenny asked. Brian shook his head ever so slightly, the two completely confused on if this was an answer or a request not to be moved again.
"Okay. Would it be alright if we lifted you just enough to slide my own coat under your back?"
Another shake of the head. They weren't going to make any progress like this.
Sophie sighed.
"I know you're in a lot of pain and I understand you've been out here for some time, but we gotta place at least Jenny's coat under you so any injuries to your back don't end up worse, alright?"
And another shake. Okay. Moving Brian until help got here was entirely out of the question.
"O-kay well...how about we all get to know each other then."
"Jenny he can hardly talk, I don't think nows the time."
"It is if we want to keep him relaxed and make sure he doesn't think we're leaving." And once again, Sophie's wonderful partner had a fair point. "I'll start! My names Jenny Letterson, I'm currently a student at Cleary University, and I've recently found out that my good, good friend Sophie is haunted. Crazy stuff!"
"Again, thanks." Sophie rolled her eyes, but the ever joking personality of Jenny never failed to make her happy even in the toughest situations.
"My names Sophie Walten, I'm also currently a student in Cleary University, I uh- I'm majoring in electrical engineering and my current temporary job is a BSI Caretaker, like Jenny, Hilary and Kevin."
Brian didn't seem to like the last bit, shifting ever so slightly in an attempt to move away.
" Caretaker? "
"Yep! BSI Caretakers, us and the others." Jenny pipes up. Brian shifts again.
" Bad. .. dangerous ."
"We know that, but I-...I need this job right now. Its for my own sake, I can't really explain why but…"
" Dangerous. " Brian repeats, " Rabbit… "
"Rabbit…" Sophie repeats, "Did it do this to-" Sirens sounded in the distance, loud and distracting and bright as they drew ever closer. Sophie couldn't quite bring herself to move, something about the noise startling her, like they'd caught her in the act of something awful.
They didn't of course, but she couldn't shake the feeling that they did. It took Jenny coming over and taking her hand to get her to snap out of it and move for the paramedics.
"Glad to see you two still in one piece!" Hilary hopped out of the car, Kevin quickly following behind her, "They didn't believe us at first when we called them, sorry it took a hot second."
"Its alright, Sophie did an amazing job keeping him pretty calm while we waited for you two, isn't that right Soph….Soph?"
"Huh? Oh...yeah he- he seemed pretty shaken up."
"I could only imagine why." Kevin snorted, "He was out here for...what...seven days, Jenny said? Thats a long time for someone in uh- in that condition."
"Yeah. Did you two find out what happened to him at all?"
Yes
. Sophie thought.
Yes we did.
"No. He didn't really say much if anything. Didn't want to be moved either."
"Damn, well! I imagine this areas going to be blocked off for a couple o' weeks until they figure out what happened out here, probably a bear attack or something like Kevin said earlier. In the meantime uh- if you guys want, you can hang out at our place."
They continued to talk, Jenny, Kevin and Hilary. Something about some old BSI information on the ride home, but Sophie's mind was off somewhere else. She couldn't stop thinking about Brian. Couldn't stop thinking about what he said. ' Rabbit. ' the word rang in her ears.
' Rabbit .'
Maybe she'd ask him during their visit.
She simply needed answers.