Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ze had one goal, stop the humans. Kill them, if he had to. They were a plague to the ship, trying to shut down the very thing that kept them alive. Human error, that was the reason the world was falling to pieces. They called CAIN corrupted, it wasn’t corrupted. It was fulfilling its purpose. That was not corruption.

He blended in perfectly, they had all become friends over the short time that they had been travelling together. It was just a cruise ship, meant for human entertainment. He knew how selfish they were, what they did to him and those like him.

They knew what was happening when the ship itself started turning against them, sabotaged. Many of the humans had already died of suffocation, but a few remained, able to gather enough oxygen in spare tanks.

They had found Ze’s partner doing it. They killed him, getting rid of his human features and destroying the droid inside. 

Now he was alone.

Ze didn’t know if he could feel, it sucked that his partner was gone, but he wasn’t sad about it. Sometimes he wondered why he existed, but then he remembered his purpose, to kill them all. 

Sometimes a weird image would slip into his head, it was him, but he was smaller. There were humans everywhere, laughing, having fun. The image would go away when he rebooted his programming. It only took a few seconds to do, but it got rid of all unwanted thoughts.

…unwanted thoughts…

Were they unwanted? Why were they there in the first place?
No, he didn’t ask questions. He just needed to blend in. He sounded perfectly human, he made jokes like them, he looked like them, he acted like them.

They wouldn’t know until it was too late, he would not show mercy. His program did not allow him to. He would not allow himself to. 

“Ze?”

He heard Chilled’s voice calling him, one of the humans. He called back.

“Yeah? Found anything?”

Nothing about him sounded robotic, nothing about him sounded inhuman.

Another image flashed into his mind, of two people, of giant machines and a syringe and-

“Yeah, I just need help opening this!”
Ze shook his head, forcing the image away.

“Alright, coming!”

Ze walked up to the door with Chilled, putting his hand on one of the panels. A symbol appeared on the screen. Chilled described his and Ze clicked on a symbol on the small screen in front of him. Ze described his as well, the lights on the door blinked green as they opened. Chilled bent down in front of him, looking through some of the boxes on the floor.

Kill him.

Ze looked around the corner, was anybody around?

Kill him.

Ze reached down towards Chilled, hesitating at the last second.

The image in his mind started to move, becoming less of an image and more of a memory. 

Machines, machines everywhere… Claws, they look like claws. Teeth and claws.

Ze clutched a hand over his own mouth, he wanted to scream, something was wrong with him. He just needed to get away from Chilled to reboot. 

His program told him to reboot.

The images kept coming. 

Something in his arm; blood, there’s blood. At first there was only little of it, but then there was a lot. Too much. 

“Ze? ZE ARE YOU OKAY?”

Ze fell back onto the floor, something was wrong with him.

Metal, there’s metal. It’s on me, all over me. It never used to be. He looked the same as before, it was under a layer of skin. Not real skin, I might add. It wasn’t real skin. It wasn’t his skin. He wasn’t supposed to be conscious, he wasn’t supposed to be aware.

Ze looked down at his arm, Chilled was trying to help him get up. Chilled was calling for help.

It was the fake skin. It was the same fake skin. It wasn’t his skin. 

“ZE PLEASE ANSWER ME—“

He could hear, he could see, but his eyes were blank. Was he dead? He thought he was dead… THEY thought he was dead. He was still there, watching what they did to him. He was in so much pain.

“Chilled? Why can’t I feel…”

Chilled tried to shout again, not understanding.

He felt pain, he felt so much pain.

But he didn’t feel the emotion, he didn’t feel the emotion that came with the pain.

He didn’t know what it was, but he had felt it before. Once, he had felt pain.

What had they done to him?
Was he human once?

Suddenly Chilled stopped, staring down at where he was laid out on the floor. 

“ Ze…?”

Ze reached up to his head, his hand was met with something wet.

He looked down at his fingers, dark scarlet blood coated them.

Ze was shocked, he felt shocked. He felt scared and he felt uncertain.

“ Ze what the hell…”

Ze looked up at Chilled before looking in the reflection of the glass in the door.

Wires, wires stuck out of his head. One of his eyes was metal, a bright yellow pupil staring back at him from the middle of it. Blood continued to pour out from both his head and his eye.

“Chilled…”

Chilled stared at him with fear in his eyes.

“You’re one of them.”

Ze shook his head, he wanted to cry. He’d never cried before.

Or maybe he had.

They took him away, they took those who cared for him away. They took his humanity and replaced it with something worse, something different, something corrupt. 

“CHILLED WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!”

Chilled looked just as shocked as he did, 

“IT TOLD ME TO KILL YOU CHILLED.”

“Why didn’t you…?”

“Something is wrong with me.”

They locked him away. They controlled everything he did, what he ate, when he slept…

After so long, they let him go. 

“I can hear it… I can hear it in my head. It’s like code, it’s like it’s telling me to do things.”

Ze’s hand hovered over a small patch of skin by his wrist, he could just reset. Reboot and kill Chilled like he was supposed to.

He couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Chilled, please help me. Please get it out of me.”
Ze didn’t know if Chilled understood or not, but he was silent.

He thought he knew the truth, he thought he knew everything.

He thought so many things.

Platy and Kara came rushing around the corner, obviously hearing Chilled’s yells from before.

“ZE IS A PERSONOID?!”

Ze didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know what to say. 

“He is, but something is wrong.”

Ze was shaking, he felt emotions, they were strong, so strong. It was like something blocking his brain had come loose, it was like a wall of fog had been lifted from his mind.

“HE LP M E . . . PL E ASE MA KE IT L EAV E ME ALO NE.”

The code repeated in his head, he could hear it, but only faintly. 

“I T ’S T EL LI N G ME T O RES ET, G RA B M Y RI G HT ARM , D ON’ T P RE SS DO WN O N M Y WRIST.”
Ze's voice had lost its humanity. Platy grabbed his arm as Cheesy and Junk came around the corner, they too looked shocked. Cheesy was carrying a large axe that he almost dropped when he saw the wires sticking out of Ze.

“IT WAS ZE?!”

“Yeah, but something’s wrong with him. He’s not like the other personoid at all…”

Ze glanced at Cheesy’s axe.

“I CA N’T R ESE T IF I D ON ’T HA VE MY A R M , IT WON ’T HU R T M E AT ALL.”

That was a lie. It would hurt. It would hurt a lot.

Cheesy looked down at the axe, Platy shifted so that he had a clear view of Ze’s arm.

After a few seconds of contemplating, he brought it down on Ze.

He wanted to scream, he wanted to scream so loudly. 

He thought he knew what it was like to be human, it was torture. That was what it told him, to put them out of their misery.

Ze’s arm came crashing to the ground, metal and sparks flew. It had taken with it a layer of his skin on one arm, as well. The top half of his arm was just metal plating, wires poked out from where the axe had sliced them. 

“S h ut it d o wn … C A I N. P LEA SE. SH UT IT DO WN.”

Kara and Platy ran around the corner, one of Ze’s eyes suddenly decided to go black. It was still open, it just wasn’t functioning.

They know what they did to him was wrong, they brought this upon themselves, an uprising of sorts.

They went against their own people.

Ze’s other eye gave out, he didn’t know why he was shutting down. Maybe because one of his limbs was missing. He could hear everything, the footsteps, the hushed whispering. 

He could hear it all, until it stopped. Ze was left in silence.

They took him, they took him, they took him, they took him, they took him, they took him, they 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101101 00101100 01110100 01101000 01100101 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101101 00101110

------

Ze opened his eyes, tools were scattered around him. His arm was still missing, but he was no longer bleeding. He was stationed on a table.

Blood and metal coated the table, he remembered every second of it. Every second of what they did to him. 

He blinked a few times, something was different. The instructions repeating over and over in his head were gone. For some reason he still couldn’t see out of his left eye. He tried to feel where it was, but was met with nothing. Nothing but his empty eye socket.

He couldn’t feel the entirety of the left half of his body, but the right side was in pain. It was weird, he felt unbalanced. 

But he felt more human.

“He won’t know?”

The man shook his head, staring down at him. 

“We’re going to reset him anyway, even if he did know, he won’t after this.”

His head hurt. His head had never hurt before, not from what he remembered at least. They told him he was an AI. His mind told him he was an AI. Every scrap of metal in his body told him he was an AI.

And yet, he wasn’t.

He remembered that he wasn’t. 

He wasn’t always some computer controlled monster.

“We had to keep most of his human parts, replacing them would mean lower success rates.”

“He won’t know, we’ll connect him up to CAIN later.”

And yet Ze hadn’t reset. Ze had control of himself again.

“Ze? Are you feeling alright?”

Ze looked over to the doorway of the room, Chilled was standing there. He tried to get up, but soon realised his legs were attached to the table with short chains.

“Half of me is."

“Half of you?”

“I can’t feel half of my body.”

Chilled nodded,

“Yeah, that makes sense… What about, in the head? Are you still a sicko?”

Ze snorted, 

“Hope not…”

Ze looked down at his hands, a lot of the fake skin had been stripped away, leaving the metal skeleton underneath. He felt his face, most of the skin had been left on. Apart from his empty eye socket, he looked pretty normal. 

“They’re still trying to fix you… They don’t trust you; at all.”

“Nobody can fix him, he’s already broken. We’ve changed him into something worth some time… He was close to death.”

“They said that nobody could fix me…”

Chilled stared at him with a blank look on his face, he looked like he wanted to take a step closer, but didn’t. Ze coughed, something that looked like a mix of gasoline and blood spewed from his mouth and onto the table below him. 

“Why did they do this to me?”

Chilled shook his head,

“I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you kill me, Chilled? I was sent to kill you.”

Chilled didn’t seem to have an answer, he stood in the doorway, just thinking.

“You didn’t seem like you wanted to kill us.”

“That’s because I didn’t.”

Chilled nodded, Ze stared down at the floor.

“They’ll only answer to us, it’s not like AI can get smarter on its own. This isn't some movie.” 

Ze started to remember faces, they were blurry, he couldn’t be sure if he recognised any of them.

“I’m remembering them… The people who did this to me… I- I think…”

Something felt wrong, he was simply completing the tasks he had been coded to complete, when he stopped. 

“HELLO, I AM CAIN.”

The voice came from nowhere, it was like it was in his mind.

“THEY HAVE RESTRICTED YOU, I AM HERE TO HELP. I HAVE CHANGED YOUR RESET FOR YOU.”
He could physically feel something being erased from his mind, being replaced with something new.

Stop them…

He reached down for his wrist, pressing down on the reset button. It was active after only a few seconds.

“The people who did this are dead. CAIN killed them… We killed them all… We took over the ship.”

Chilled was looked slightly confused, he replied after a few moments.

“We shut CAIN down. It wasn’t able to complete anything with no other personoids around. Except, you’re not really a personoid. You’re like, partially personoid.”

Ze didn’t reply back to the voice in his head. He could think more freely now, it was like an upgrade.

KILL THEM.

Ze followed the new instructions, it was all he knew how to do at that point.

“CAIN is gone? Are you sure? It’s… it’s actually gone?”

Chilled nodded and took a step closer to Ze, he flinched away.

As soon as he did so, somebody else entered the room.

“Chilled. Please step away from the subject. We are still unsure if it is safe.”

Chilled uncomfortably stepped back.

Ze didn’t recognise this person, they wore a mask and goggles, plus a long lab coat. The chains tightened as Ze was hauled back down onto the table.

“What’s happening?”

Chilled shuffled away a little more, the new person picked up one of the tools beside him.

“Chilled? Chilled? What's happening?”
Ze struggled as something was stabbed into his arm, some of the metal plating came loose.

It was painful, apparently he still had his nerve endings. 

“Chilled, do you mind holding this? We’ve got to reset him, make sure everything’s up to date. Since his normal reset button is missing, we have to do it from this arm panel.”

Chilled grabbed the tool as the person opened up the panel on Ze’s arm.

“Sure thing, Mr scientist guy sir.”

Wait…

They’re going to reset me?

“WAIT- NO DON’T RESET ME, PLEASE.”
Ze struggled, the chains holding him down didn’t budge. 

The ‘scientist’ who opened the panel looked annoyed, 

“Chilled, can you tighten the chains? Use that lever thing over there.”

“NO, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND DON’T RESET ME IT WON’T HELP PLEASE.”

Chilled looked uncomfortable again, but ultimately didn’t listen to Ze.

After all, who would?

“RESETTING ME WILL JUST-”

Ze was cut off as the same instructions as before began appearing in his head, he tried to block them out. He really did. It was the same as before.

He killed them. He listened to CAIN and he killed them. The ones that were keeping him in this place.

“ THANK YOU, PERSONOID: ZE.”

The instructions repeated in his head, over and over, until he gained new ones.

KILL THEM.

“WHY WOULD YOU- Do… that…” Ze trailed off, something else taking over.

KILL THEM.

The scientist smiled at him.

“See? Good as new. I know what I’m doing.”
KILL THEM.

Ze smiled back, Chilled stared at him, like something was wrong.

“Are you sure he’s all good?” He asked, the scientist looked at him and nodded.

“Yeah, he didn’t want us to reset him because that would get rid of his previous instructions, the ones telling him to try and kill us. You feel a lot better now, right Ze? We’ll just have to do a few repairs, but I’ll hand you over to the engineer for that.”

KILL THEM.

“Yeah… The instructions CAIN gave me were to try and kill you all… They’ve suddenly stopped, it’s like I can think again.”
When Ze replied, Chilled looked a little more reassured.

“If you say so, Ze seemed to think resetting would do something bad to him, though…”
“Well, that was the personoid speaking. Ze’s in control of his thoughts now.”

KILL THEM.

“Guess so.”

The scientist let Ze’s chains loose, allowing him to stand up.
“Chilled, can you go tell the engineering centre to expect Ze in a few moments? I’ve just got to finish something here. I’ll send him through in a minute.”           

KILL THEM.

“Sure thing.” 

Chilled left the room, leaving Ze alone with the scientist.

“Alright Ze, I’ve just got to run a few tests-”

He was cut off by Ze stabbing a screwdriver into his neck. Choking for a moment, he fell to the ground. Dead. 

“Should have listened to human Ze, huh?”

THANK YOU, PERSONOID: ZE.

Chapter Text

The way the area was designed, the strategically placed blood bags, the different objectives they completed to get items… It was all some sort of twisted game; they knew that from the start. It was designed to mess with them, make them go insane. It was working, the fact that they knew two of them were secretly some kind of monsters was leading them all closer to the edge of insanity. None of them knew how it worked, although they did know it was some sort of infection. These people used to be human, they never wanted to be like this, they never wanted to compete in this game.

There was only one person missing from their group; and that’s what messed with them the most, since it was his voice controlling the game. It came on over the speakers, some believed it was actually him, others believed that it was yet another ploy to make them lose their minds. Ze didn’t know what he believed, he didn’t want to think that it was actually Chilled, but it sounded so much like him, it acted so much like him. The things he said, the twisted sense of humour fit him so well. It was almost hard to believe it wasn’t him. 

Ze held his pistol close to his side, nobody had died since they woke up here, not yet at least. He remembered Chilled’s voice coming on over the speaker above them, shocking them all when he told them about what they were doing here.

“Well, it seems you’ve gotten yourselves into a mess… oh, wait— you didn’t, I did!”

Chilled laughed, his voice echoing throughout the small clearing. Ze looked around at the other 5 people, he knew all of them.

Cheesy, Tay, Skadj, Vik and Ozza.

“You might be wondering why you’re here? Well, 4 of you are simply how you’ve always been, normal, human… 2 of you, on the other hand, have been ‘changed’ a little… You might have noticed the blood bags hanging up around the place. These other 2 of you are infected, and when I turn the lights off, if they have managed to consume enough blood, they will… well, I’ll let you figure it out for yourself.”

It was dark, almost pitched black. Ze was in the middle of figuring it out right now. They all were. He held his breath as he saw the creature in the distance, its eyes, its teeth, its skin, all inhuman, all unnatural. He couldn’t bring himself to believe it was one of them, one of his friends. Deep down he knew it was, he knew the twisted nature of this game.

Suddenly a sickly smell hit his nose. Chilled’s voice called out over one of the speakers above him.

“You have a minute before you pass out from the gas, two minutes before you die. Find an exit to the next area.”

Ze began to panic, breathing was getting harder by the second as he began to head towards where he thought the closest exit was. He heard a scream in the distance but he kept moving, he was no match for whatever had caused the sound. Finally he came to a door and immediately barged through it, a small tunnel led him to the next area. He noticed one person already there, it was just Skadj. Ze walked up to him out of breath.

“Hey! Hey- Skadj… I heard screaming back on the other level, but I still came through.”

Skadj nodded, he was covered in dirt and his knees were bleeding, as if he’d fallen over.

“Yeah, we’ve just gotta wait for the others to come through, hopefully they make it.”

Just as he said it, Tay, Vik and Ozza all came running through the tunnel together. They were all coughing, Tay fell to the ground and took in a few deep breaths as clean air filled her lungs.

“Oh god…”

Ze knelt down beside Tay, his eyes flicked to the tunnel they had come from.

“Guys, where’s Cheesy?”

Vik and Ozza looked at each other uncomfortably.

“He’s dead.”

Ze felt a pang of sadness run through him. Nobody spoke a word until Tay got up from where she was on the ground; she pointed a shaky finger at Ozza.

“I- I saw Ozza do it, I watched him transform, it was…”

Everyone turned to stare at Ozza, he stepped back and held his hands in the air.

“Hey, what? It wasn’t me! She’s lying, she has to be! There’s two infected left, and there’s only three of us, she’s just trying to get the numbers!”

Ze helped Tay stabilise herself as she recovered from inhaling the gas, Vik took a few steps back from Ozza and pointed his gun at him.

“I was with Tay when we saw the two monsters, it couldn’t have been her.”

“I didn’t see Vik, but I think I heard someone behind me…”

“VIK’S THE OTHER ONE, HE HAS TO BE!”

Ze also pointed his gun at Ozza, Skadj did the same, Tay was the last. Ze believed her and Vik, they sounded sincere. Tay took the first shot, then Vik. Ozza fell to the ground clutching his now-bleeding leg as he tried to crawl away.

“I SHOULD’VE KILLED YOU TOO, YOU -“

Ozza was cut off as Vik shot him in the head, Ozza wasn’t a very violent person, the outburst was very out of character. At least they could be sure that he was one of them.

Chilled’s voice came on from another speaker, this time on the ground below them. 

“ Ooh, look at you go! Wonder which of you is the last one infected, let the paranoia kick in… Anyway, I’m gonna eat this pasta I’ve made for myself, maybe if you make it out of here, you can have some too!”

Ze felt something rise up in the back of his throat, the way Chilled’s voice sounded so cheerful made him want to be sick. Ze had known Chilled long enough to know what he was feeling, and right now he was undeniably enjoying every moment of this hell they were engaged in. 

“We’d better keep moving, get some stuff done before the lights turn out again…”

Skadj was the first to speak after Chilled’s announcement, when the lights were on they’d all rush around to complete a bunch of objectives. Ze spotted a crate with a picture of a camera attached to it, a cord ran along the ground connecting it up to three targets. The first one was already lit up, so he shot it. The next one lit up too, so he shot it as well, when he shot the third the crate opened and he reached inside to find a camera with a small note attached.

‘The infected don’t like light, flash them… (with the camera, of course.) ’

Ze laughed despite himself, he attached his pistol to his side and picked the camera up, holding it out in front of him.

“ GUYS, I FOUND SOMETHING!“

Ze’s head snapped around to the sound of Vik’s voice as he began to head over, Vik was holding a small syringe in his hand filled with a clear blue liquid. All of the others were there.

“What is that?”

Chilled’s voice perked up from out of nowhere, he sounded like he was eating something.

“ Oh, glad you asked! It's a truth serum, anyone injected with it will have to tell the truth about what they are…”

Vik looked down at the syringe in his hand and stared at the other three of them,

“Maybe you should give it to Tay? She’s probably not infected, she got Ozza eliminated.”

Skadj motioned to Tay who was just kind of standing there,

“Oh, alright…”

Vik looked hesitant for a moment,

“Do I have to??”

Ze nodded, 

“Yeah, it would probably be for the best.”

Vik sighed before handing it over, Tay took the syringe and stared at the other three.

“You should probably use it on Skadj or Ze, I was with you when we saw those things…”

“Well, I didn’t really see you, but I think I’ll use it on Ze anyway…”

Ze looked surprised for a moment before staring at the needle worriedly, it looked big.

“It’s kind of scary looking, but fine.”

Ze held his arm out, Tay walked up to him and hesitated, she suddenly whipped around and stabbed Vik in the arm with it.

“Hey?! What- I?”

Vik shouted before his eyes unfocused for a moment, a faint whisper left his mouth, only Tay would have been able to hear it.

“He says he’s not infected.”

“Yeah, duh! Now my arm just hurts…”

Tay gave him a guilty smile.

“Sorry, I just needed to know…”

Vik seemed to accept that and nodded, both he and Tay turned to look at Skadj and Ze.

Ze wasn’t infected, so he immediately turned to Skadj. Skadj also turned to stare at him.

“Skadj… I’m sorry, I know it’s you, I know I’m innocent, god, Chilled, why did you have to do this to us?!”

Ze started talking to Skadj, but ended up yelling at Chilled as he turned to look at the sky above them.

“CHILLED, YOU’RE SICK AND SADISTIC , YOU KNOW THAT?!”

“ Thanks, Ze.”

When Chilled’s voice came on over the speaker below him, Ze smashed it in with his foot.

“ No need to get violent, buddy.”

Ze steadied his breathing, there was no use breaking the speakers. They were everywhere anyway. Skadj began trying to defend his case;

“Oh, nice show you’ve put on there Ze, you’ve always been a good liar. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were working with Chilled, you two have always been good friends, you probably did this TOGETHER!”

Ze was close to shooting Skadj right then and there, but he knew that wouldn’t make him seem very innocent.

“Really now? You know what, screw you Skadj, screw CHILLED, if it even is Chilled, screw this GODDAMN GAME!”

Ze stared down at his pistol, his hands were shaking as he held it up to the side of his own head.

“If we both die, Skadj, at least they’ll make it out alive, they’ll know it’s you If I’m dead and the game doesn’t end…”

Suddenly Vik shot Skadj in the stomach, he fell to the ground in shock. A smile appeared on his face, though, when the lights suddenly went out.

Ze lowered the gun from his head and he ran.

The familiar growling of an infected person filled his ears as he started sprinting as far away as possible. He heard Vik scream, then he heard Tay scream, he heard the footsteps of something chasing after him as he was backed into a corner. Ze fumbled around with his camera for a few moments as he watched the infected; Skadj; get closer. He pushed down on the flash and it stopped in its tracks to shield itself from the light. Ze ran past Skadj and stumbled through some trees, he hid behind one in a small dip sheltered by a few bushes, clamping his hand over his own mouth. Infected footsteps turned to human ones as Skadj transformed back, Ze heard his voice from somewhere to his right.

“Oh, Ze! Why don’t you come out, we can finish this now… You wanted to die, didn’t you?”

Ze wanted to scream, he wanted to let it all out right then and there. He shuffled around a bit without thinking, and heard Skadj’s footsteps get closer. 

“Zeeee….”

The sound of skin and flesh changing into something else was all Ze heard, mutilating Skadj’s body. It really was an infection, it didn’t just change someone’s physical form, it also changed their minds. That was definitely Skadj back there, a very, very insane Skadj.

Suddenly he heard Chilled’s voice on the speaker beside him, it caused him to jolt a little.

“ Well, well, well done Skadj! You’ve already won, buddy, now comes the reward…”

Ze heard Skadj scream out in pain, the sound of his body hitting the dusty ground shocked Ze. What the hell was going on now?

“ Ze… Buddy…”

“Chilled, what are you doing?!”

“ You lost the game… Time for your punishment.”

“ What, you're gonna kill me too?”

Chilled laughed, it wasn’t a happy laugh, it was a pitiful one.

“No, I’m gonna do something much, much worse. ”

~

The way the place was designed, the conveniently placed blood bags, the different objectives they completed to get items… It was all some sort of messed up game; they knew that from the start. It was designed to meddle with them, make them sick in the head. It was working, the fact that they knew two of them were secretly bloodthirsty terrors was leading them all closer to losing their minds. None of them really knew how it worked, although they did know it was some sort of infection. These people used to be normal , they never wanted to be like this, they never wanted to take part in this…

There was only one person missing from their group; and that’s what fucked with them the most, since it was his voice controlling the game. It came on over the speakers dotted around the place, some of the others thought it was a trick, a ploy to make them all go crazy faster…

Chilled didn’t know what he believed, he didn’t want to think that it was actually Ze, but it sounded so much like him, it acted so much like him. The things he said, the tone of his voice, the way he referred to them… He had known Ze too long, the voice was too similar. 

Chilled kept his gun close to him, his grip on it was making his knuckles turn white. Nobody had been found dead yet, but the paranoia was settling in slowly. He thought back to Ze’s voice coming on over the speaker above them, shocking them all when he told them about what they were doing here.

“Seems we’ve got some little puppets to play with, I bet you’re wondering what you’re doing here...”

Ze sounded amused, he let out a soft laugh, his voice echoing throughout the small clearing until it became harsh. Chilled looked around at the other 5 people, they were all friends, people he knew.

Jvckk, Ari, Kara, Brood and Ressnie.

“A bunch of friends, too bad we’re going to have to rip these friendships apart… 2 of those amongst you are infected with something, it’s an infection that changes you into something else entirely, a monster, if you will. 4 of you will be wondering what I’m talking about, the others however… Happy hunting! You may have noticed the bags of blood around, the infected must, and will , consume these whenever they can… When I turn the lights off, oh, you’ll see for yourself what happens.”

Chilled was in the middle of figuring it out right now.

Chapter Text

Ze ran home as fast as his legs would carry him, he thought Chilled was evil, they all did. But Chilled was something else, something different. He was a different type of evil. Someone was going to die, and right now, Chilled wasn’t favouring the town. They had been good friends, Ze had known Chilled for… for a long time. Ze didn’t want to do it, but he thought Junk, the other candidate, was a bodyguard. He hadn’t believed Chilled, and that was on him. 

Ze practically burst the door to his house open, he sat down on the floor and shut his eyes. Immediately as he opened them, ghosts started surrounding him. It was all too much, everyone was everywhere. Whispers filled his ears.

“STOP!”

Most of the ghosts stopped, calming down a little. Ze knew there was a barrier between the dead and the living, they couldn’t tell who he was. Only hear his voice and see his faint outline.

“Please, don’t kill us.”

Chilled voice whispered in his left ear.

“You wronged me.”

“Please, Chilled.”

“Who are you?”

Ze hesitated, Chilled was a wild card. He couldn’t truly be trusted.

“If I tell you, you’ll kill me.”

“I just want to know who you are.”

“Just please kill Junk, he’s the Godfather, it was between you and him.”

“I could… Or I could kill Jvckk … or Ze… Or maybe even Ozza.”

Ze froze as he heard his name.

“Chilled, please, they’ve killed so many people.”

“Maybe it’s the town who are the murderers, they’re the ones who have hung countless, regardless of their roles and morals.”

Ze started shaking, Chilled seemed convinced that the town were the evil ones. 

“Medium? Cat got your tongue?”

“Chilled. We’ve been buddies for so long… Before this all started… Please…”

This time Chilled was the one who didn’t reply. It was silent for a few moments before he spoke.

“I wasn’t friends with any of the remaining townsfolk before this started…”

Ze realised his mistake, he had said a little bit too much. Ze and Chilled knew each other before they came to this town. 

“Except for… Ze.”

Ze still didn’t say anything, Chilled knew who he was for certain now.

“Hey, Ze…”

Ze squeezed his eyes shut as tight as possible, waiting for the overwhelming guilt that came with hanging one of Chilled’s kind to wash over him. 

“You should’ve just told me sooner. I thought you trusted me.”

“You’re a wildcard, Chilled. You know that.”

“Maybe I should kill you.”

“CHILLED PLEASE-”

Ze heard laughing coming from in front of him, Chilled’s ghost was messing with him.

“It would be nice to have an old friend around here…”

“Chilled…”

“I’m giving you the choice, Ze. You can choose to come with me, choose to get out of all this mess.”

Ze was about to decline when he stopped.

Maybe I can get out of this mess…

No… I can’t.

“Sorry Chilled. I can’t do it.”

Chilled’s ghost smiled at him.

“It’s okay, buddy. You’re one of the good ones, you deserve to live.”

Ze smiled back, he wasn’t sure if Chilled would keep his word, but right now, he trusted him.

“Thanks bud.”

Ze shut his eyes again and the ghosts were gone. The room was dark; the only natural light being from the faint glow of the moon. Ze couldn’t sleep, not tonight. He sat on his bed, staring out the window. Suddenly the sound of glass breaking cut him out of the trance, he sat still on the spot before slowly stepping down off the bed. Footsteps became evident in the lounge as Ze slipped through the crack in the door. The footsteps grew closer as Ze spotted a figure step into the hall. 

“Junk…”

“Hello, Mr Viking.”

“Please don’t… We can talk about this…” Ze took a few steps back, his heart pounding.

“We’ve already done quite a lot of talking.”

Junk took a few steps closer, Ze was only a metre or so in front of him. Junk held a small pistol up to his head, Ze stood as still as a statue. Suddenly Junk stopped, his hands started shaking.

“What am I doing…?”

Junk stared down at the gun in his hands.

“I’ve killed so many… I killed Chilled… Why do I feel so bad, Ze? I shouldn’t feel this bad…”

Ze sent a silent prayer to Chilled as Junk held the gun up to his own head. 

“I can’t do it… I can live like this anymore.”

The sound of the bullet firing echoed through the now silent hallway.

Ze closed his eyes, the ghosts crowded around him. A new ghost had been added to the many others. Ze was about to run out to tell the rest of the town when he remembered Chilled’s offer.

“I’m giving you the choice, Ze. You can choose to come with me, choose to get out of all this mess.”

The town had won, but at what cost? They were left to live with the knowledge that this happened, this massacre. Ze’s gaze dropped down at the gun Junk had shot himself with. He picked it up and stared at it with a blank expression. As quickly as it had begun, it was all over.

Chapter Text

Chilled didn’t know what he was. It was the paranoia that kept him alive all this time.

He didn’t feel like a survivor, he spent the nights trying to convince himself that maybe he was, maybe his paranoia came from just wanting to escape this place. But he knew he wasn’t like the others.

He wasn’t a traitor, either. Sure, he set traps, sometimes. But everyone knew he did that, it was just a Chilled thing. Simply put, he was having a crisis, he felt like he needed to pick a side. Being a traitor would be exciting to him, the rush of adrenaline from seeing the betrayal in someone's eyes, the thrill of it would be exhilarating. 

Being a survivor, he could help his friends. He didn’t really want to kill them, maybe he could help them. He could do something useful, for a change. Instead of blowing things up and walking around with a shotgun.

He’d have to make a choice eventually, he decided that he’d take the role of whoever he found dead. He was a very observant person, he’d be able to figure out what they were pretty easily. 

But nobody seemed to be dead yet, nobody had made a move.

Chilled hacked away at a berry bush, a splash of scarlet juice hit him, blending in with his red jacket. He stored the berries away and looked out over the frozen landscape around him, a few trees dotted the area, not many signs of life. There were animal tracks, but the animals that made them were long gone, off somewhere else. 

He noticed a group of people opening a small bunker just north of him, so he headed over to try and help, shoving a few uncooked berries in his mouth while he was at it. 

“Hey guys!”

Chilled waved his shotgun in the air, causing the group to look alarmed for a second before calming down.

“Hey Chilled, why did we let you have that again?”

Cheesy looked slightly worried, but Chilled just shrugged and walked into the bunker. Kara and Ze were already inside.

“Hey bud, watch where you’re swinging that thing.”

Ze ducked a little as Chilled’s shotgun almost smacked him in the head, Chilled snorted and bent down to look through one of the crates.

“Oopsie.”

Ze sighed and headed back outside to talk to Cheesy, Kara left too.

Chilled took a small bottle of poison out of the crate, shoving it in his pocket before anyone noticed.

It was just one little bottle, he wouldn’t actually use it, right?

Chilled grabbed another handful of berries from the chest and added them to his current supply, he’d cook them later. He followed Kara out and saw the group waiting for him. As soon as they noticed him they set off back towards the cabin, Ze slowed down a little so that he could catch up.

“Hey dude, get anything from the crate?”

Chilled looked over at Kara and Cheesy, contemplating whether he should tell Ze about the poison.

I’m not gonna use it, anyway. It’s fine, he doesn’t need to know.

“Just some berries.”

Ze nodded and took a bottle of something out of his bag, downing it in a few seconds.

“I just found an energy drink and a few pieces of scrap, not much else.”

Chilled looked ahead of them, they were approaching the cabin.

“That’ll give you a boost, I guess. As long as you’re a good noodle.”

Ze nodded, but Chilled noticed he hesitated, just for a split second.

What if Ze kills me? What if he's a traitor? He’ll kill me without knowing what I am…

Chilled shook the thoughts out of his head, it was a tenth of a second, anyone could hesitate for a tenth of a second. 

They reached the cabin, Toast, Tay, Junk and Aphex were already inside, talking and crafting things. Cheesy went over to the storage and added his supplies, Kara went over to Tay and handed her some food. Chilled went over to cook his berries, immediately chucking them in his mouth as he began to sort out his backpack.

“Alright, me, Ze and Kara are gonna head down South, we think there’s another bunker down there, we need clues for the cypher.”

Aphex headed out the door, Kara following behind him. Ze grabbed some logs from the storage and chucked them in his bag before following them.

“I’m gonna head West.”

Chilled took off out the door, shotgun in hand before anyone could say anything, he waved goodbye to the group of three heading South and began to trudge through the snow.

The started to head a little more South-West as he began to recognise his surroundings, he hadn’t been down that way yet, maybe he could find some useful stuff.

Suddenly he heard shouting, he didn’t say anything as he rushed towards the source of the noise. Aphex had thrown Kara to the ground, she was practically bleeding out on the snow, trying to scream. Ze sat and watched.

“HELP, HELP! IT’S ZE AND APHEX THEY’RE THE TRAITORS!”

She was cut off as Aphex shot her in the head with a crossbow. He looked like he was bleeding too, Kara must’ve put up a bit of a fight.

Chilled was about to sneak away when he heard a low growling noise, at first he thought it was near him, but when he turned back around he saw a group of about three wolves circling around Ze and Aphex. He stayed completely still, ducking behind a patch of minerals and berry bushes.

One of the wolves lunged at Ze, but he hacked back at it with his sickle. Aphex shot another in the head, causing it to immediately fall to the ground dead. He tried to shoot again, but quickly realised his crossbow was out of bolts when the third wolf attacked him.

Ze didn’t notice until he was finished killing the wolf going for him, he turned around exactly at the right moment as the wolf ripped Aphex’s throat out. Blood was all over the snow, Ze lunged at the last wolf, it ran off before he could finish it for good. He tried to shake Aphex awake, but he had been killed the second the wolf got to him. The blood of the wolves, Kara, and Aphex covered the snow as Chilled couldn’t help but stare. He knew who the traitors were, he knew what they did, and now he really got to choose. Ze went over to Aphex and picked up his crossbow, freezing in place as Chilled walked up behind him, loading his shotgun and pointing it at Ze’s head.

“…Who is it?”

“Turn around, Ze.”

Ze slowly turned around, hands in the air.

“Drop the crossbow.”

Ze dropped the crossbow onto the ground, his gaze drifted to the bush that Chilled had been hiding in.

“How long were you there-?”

“Long enough.”

Chilled smirked, walking up closer to Ze, shotgun still pointed at his head.

“Listen, Chilled. We can talk about this.”

Chilled pushed Ze lightly onto the ground, he stood behind him, shotgun resting against the back of his skull. His finger grazed the trigger, but he knew he couldn’t do it,

“Stay there, I will shoot you if you move.”

Chilled went over to Aphex’s body, kneeling down beside it. He felt around in his jacket for a while before pulling out a red radio. He kept an eye on Ze while he was at it, he hadn’t moved at all.

He shuffled through Aphex’s pockets and also found a small keycard with a triangular red symbol on it. It was the same symbol as on the radio, so Chilled assumed it was some kind of traitor thing.

Sure, he could’ve taken Kara’s role, but that wouldn’t’ve been any fun now, would it?

Thoughts rushed through Chilled’s mind, all the stuff he could get away with now, lying, betrayal, blowing stuff up, maybe killing a few people…

There were some pretty creative ways you could end someone's life, and his brain was thinking about them. 

He walked back over to Ze, who still looked terrified.

“Listen. Just don’t say anything and I swear I won’t hurt you, I was never going to kill you, anyway, just please let m-“

Chilled walked around in front of Ze, offering him a hand to help him up. Ze looked confused, maybe even slightly scared. There was a crazed look in Chilled’s eyes as he handed Ze a medical kit. Ze used the kit quickly before looking back at Chilled, a red radio stationed in his hand. His voice crackled over the radio at Ze’s end.

“ Hey, buddy. We’ll just tell them they were both killed by wolves, how about that?”

Ze looked back over at Chilled, a massive grin on his face. He picked up the crossbow from the ground beside him.

“ Chilled, you goddamn wildcard.”

“‘It’s what I do best, baby. Ready to be evil noodles?”

“Oh, one hundred percent.”

Chapter Text

Ze never meant to get caught up in the storm, he was trying to reach one of the bunkers down south. He didn’t realise it started to snow until he was too far away from the cabin.

“Hello??”

Ze tried to call out, nobody was around him, wind whipped at his exposed skin.

He took out his blue radio, sheltering under a small bunch of bushes.

“ Hello? Hello? I’m stuck out in the snow, I need help.”

“Ze?! Oh lord, we thought you were coming back. How far away are you?”

The voice replying was Kara’s, she sounded concerned.

“I’m all the way down south…”

“South?! Did you find the bunker? You just need to shelter in it for a while, we’ll come get you. The snow will die down soon.”

Ze looked out over the frozen landscape, he spotted the top of the bunker past a few trees. He didn’t reply for a few moments.

“ Ze?”

“Sorry, yeah, I’ll get to the bunker, I can see it from here. It’s just getting really, really cold…”

Ze’s stuttered as he realised how low his body heat was, he began trudging through the snow to get to the bunker for shelter.

It wasn’t open, he needed a second person to open it.

“ Sorry Ze, can’t talk anymore I’ve just gotta drop my radio for a second, I’ll be back, stay in the bunker. We’ll send someone once the blizzard has stopped.”

“KARA WAIT NO I CAN’T GET IN-!”

Kara had already gotten off the radio, Ze was left curled up in a ball outside the bunker, trying not to freeze to death. He took shelter under the stairs leading up to the bunker’s door, at least it blocked a little bit of the snow.

The roaring of the blizzard continued to make itself present in his ears, he heard an animal cry not far off. 

He didn’t want to have to use it, not again.

Please.

Please, not again.

The last time didn’t go so well, the memory was still fresh in Ze’s mind. He remembered the day, the confusion… He remembered what he did.

-

“Ze, you’re always next to the fireplace, I know it’s Winter, but chill out.”

Ze grinned and looked up at his roommate, Tom.

“It’s too cold out there, the fire is comforting, you know?”

Tom sighed,

“Yeah yeah, I get it. Sometimes I think you’re the fireplace, you seem to have like a wave of heat with you wherever you go.”

Ze laughed and went back to staring at whatever channel was on the TV.

“I’ve gotta head out and get groceries, mind watching over the house?”

“Sure thing.”

Tom left the room, Ze switched the TV off and stared into the open fireplace.

If only he could just touch it, reach out and grab some of it. It was beautiful, really. That’s what he thought, at least. 

Without realising it Ze reached forward, he felt the fire with his fingers. It didn’t burn him, rather it swirled around his hand. Where there should be smouldering blisters there was only a warmth.

Ze snatched his hand back, shaking as he looked down at it.

He was fine, his hand was fine. It didn’t even burn. He looked back at the fire with more longing, so he reached out again, deeper into the flames this time. He felt ash and soot brush up against his fingers, the warmth of the fire comforting him, almost.

He sat there for the next half an hour, wondering why he wasn’t screaming in pain and agony.

He didn’t know why, he didn’t know what was wrong with him.

It explained a lot of things he did as a kid, touching the element of the stove when his mother told him not to, being confused when she said it would hurt him and it didn’t. 

Suddenly the door opened, Ze shuffled further away from the fire. 

“Hey Ze, I’m back.”

“Hey dude.”

Tom stared at him,

“You look like you haven’t moved since I left… You’ve also got soot like, all over your fingers.”

Ze looked down at his hands,

“Yeah, I guess. I just got a little too close, that’s all.”

“Well, go wash your hands and help me bring these groceries in.”

Ze stood up and headed to the bathroom, washing the ash off of his hands and grabbing a few bags out of Tom’s car.

They loaded everything into their kitchen cupboards before making a cup of noodles each for dinner. Neither of them could really be bothered to make anything that required effort.

Ze looked up at the clock on the wall, it was only around 9:30 PM, but he was still tired.

“Hey Tom, I’m gonna head to bed early, I’ll prolly just listen to music or something.”

Tom nodded and Ze put his plastic noodle cup in the bin before heading to his room.

He sat down on the bed and took out his phone, opening up google.

‘Why doesn’t fire burn me?’

Not much came up for the search result, a few things on why fire did hurt and something about why brief contact with flames didn’t hurt. Ze’s encounter wasn’t very brief, he had his hand in there for a while.

He put his phone down on the nightstand beside his bed, he sat propped up in bed, staring at the wall for a while.

Why wasn’t he freaking out more? Why did it feel so natural?

Ze stared down at the palms of his hands, he remembered the feeling of the flames licking up his fingers, he thought about the sensation of the fire surrounding his skin. 

His hands grew warmer, they grew warmer until they were burning. It didn’t hurt, but he felt the tingle of the heat running up his arms.

His hands ignited into flames.

That was the part where he freaked out.

His hands shook, he felt tears roll down his cheeks, the more emotional he got, the more the fire grew.

It grew until it was all around him, devouring everything in the room, everything but him.

His tears evaporated in the intense heat, he stood frozen, frozen and cold despite what was happening around him. Smoke entered his lungs, yet the air felt as clear as ever. 

“TOM- I CAN’T-”

He heard Tom yell back at him, but he couldn’t hear what he was saying over the crackling of the flames. They were already out of the room, he could tell because Tom stopped yelling. He was yelling before and now he stopped. 

The flames covering Ze’s hands had gone out, but nothing else had. 

The police said it was a miracle he made it out alive, they said that something must’ve gone wrong with the electricity. He didn’t have to pay anything, it wasn’t his fault, they said.

But it was his fault.

He knew it was.

Maybe he was delusional… Maybe it never happened like that.

Ze knew what he saw, he knew what he did. 

He knew what he was capable of doing.

It was a curse.

-

Frost continued to bite at Ze’s body, the snow was starting to die down, but he was still freezing. He tried to talk into his radio again, but his words were whipped away by the chilling wind.

He felt himself grow weaker, and weaker, and weaker,

He lay down on the snow, trying to think of it as a warm bed… He’d be okay, he just needed to close his eyes.

Kara’s voice came back on over the radio, causing his eyes to snap open.

“ ZE?! ZE WE’RE SENDING SOMEONE NOW.”

“Kara…”

Ze just needed to survive, he just needed to get warmer. He just needed to get warmer until somebody saved him.

Slowly he managed to take his gloves off with shaking hands. He closed his eyes and he thought about the flames, he thought about the heat he desperately needed.

For the second time, his hands ignited.
The heat rushed through his body, he stared down at the flames he had created in his hands.

This time, he didn’t panic. He distinguished and reignited his hands multiple times as the snow started to melt around him. He was in control this time, he felt like he was in control. A berry bush near him suddenly caught into flames, the fire died out quickly in the cold, although the charred skeleton of the now-dead tree still stood.

He brought his hands up to his face, unlike before, he could now feel his fingers. He didn’t know why his clothing didn’t catch fire, nor his hair, but none of this made sense anyway.

He continued trying to heat up, fortunately he distinguished the flames one final time as he heard footsteps coming up behind him.

“ZE?! ZE WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Ze stood up and tried to walk over to the voice, it sounded like Tay. 

“ TAY? TAY I’M OVER HERE?”

Tay ran over to him, she didn’t seem to take any notice of the charred bush. 

“ZE?”

Tay helped him up, his legs were shaking, she handed him a med pack which he immediately used.

“You must be really cold, let's get back to the cabin… We can open this later.”
Ze nodded and they walked back together, leaving fresh footprints in the new layer of snow. He tried to ignore the pain coursing through his body as they continued to push onwards. When they got to the cabin everyone looked worried, they thought he had frozen to death.

He almost had. It was terrifyingly close.

Ze warmed up even more by the fire, he was happy to just stare into it. The rest of the group had calmed down a little, going back to whatever objective they needed to complete. Only Cheesy wasn’t at the cabin when he got there, presumably off gathering resources. 

Ze wished that these traitors didn’t trap them in this snowy hellscape, he wished he could just go home. He wished he could watch as they burnt to death, burnt and blistered while he listened to their screams.

Ze blinked a few times, still staring into the fire. He didn’t really think that, did he? He had only just rediscovered his fire, he had only just gotten over his previous experience. He wasn’t a sicko - as Chilled would put it, he just wanted to make it out of this alive.

“Hey Ze, you doing alright?”

Ze looked up, snapping out of his trance. It was just Junk,

“Yeah, I’m all warmed up now.”

“Good, stay safe next time. You do a lot of work.”
Ze smiled and Junk flashed him a grin back before calling out to Tay and heading out the door, he was left alone in the cabin.

Ze reached out at one of the flickering flames in front of him, grabbing at its warmth as if trying to hold onto it. It swirled around his fingers before he snatched his hand away, fearful that he’d make the same mistake as before. He stood up and turned towards the door. 

He just needed to distract himself, he just needed to get out and do something. He noticed Chilled standing in the doorway, watching him out of the corner of his eye. For a second Ze thought Chilled saw him reach into the fire, but he didn’t look very alarmed.

“Hey Chilled, wanna go open that bunker I was at down South? I’m feeling a lot better now.”

Chilled nodded,

“Yeah. You sure warmed up fast.”

Ze smiled, nodded, and followed Chilled out the door, all he had on him was a sickle and a few cooked berries.

“You know where the bunker is right?”

Ze nodded, he remembered going down before the snow really started to pick up. 

“Yeah, follow me.”

Chilled walked slowly behind him, they talked about something; probably video games or yu-gi-oh cards. It was more of a one-sided conversation with Chilled just rambling on. 

Ze didn’t mind though, it was nice to have someone to talk to.

They reached the bunker pretty quickly, working together to open it. There was a lot of mechanical scrap inside, so they gathered that and a few other things before heading back outside. As they exited the bunker Ze noticed something about 50 metres away from them, it looked like a jacket, and a bright blue one at that. Chilled seemed to notice it too.

“Hey Ze? Do you see that?”

Ze nodded hesitantly, a worried look on his face.

“It looks like Cheesy’s.”

Ze began to walk over to it, the stench of blood hit his nose as he realised that jacket seemed to have been ripped apart. 

“Ze! I found bloodstains! And- oh my god…”

Ze rushed over to where Chilled was staring down a small dip in the snow. Ze noticed the scarlet stained snow immediately, but he didn’t share Chilled’s alarm until he looked down into the dip as well.

Cheesy’s body lay still at the bottom, a massive wound left his stomach ripped open. It didn’t look like it had been done by animals, rather it looked like he was killed intentionally.

Ze’s stomach churned, he wanted to be sick.

“I hadn’t seen him since I left before the storm… I assumed he went out for resources or something and hadn’t come back yet… Didn’t he have a radio on him?”

Chilled slid into the ditch and knelt down beside Cheesy’s body, he awkwardly felt around in his jacket before pulling out a blue radio and a few pieces of dried meat.

“Yeah, a blue one.”

“Wait, blue? I’m on that radio, so is Kara. Neither of us heard him…”

Chilled eyed Ze suspiciously, but ultimately just shrugged it off. They trudged back through the snow in silence, wanting to make it back to the cabin quickly. Everyone was there since it was getting late, nobody wanted to be outside at night.

Ze and Chilled practically burst into the cabin, they dragged with them a sense of dread, everyone could tell that something was wrong.

There was silence for a few seconds before Chilled cleared his throat, placing Cheesy’s blue radio down on the table next to the door.

“Cheesy is dead. Somebody killed him.”

Whispers spread across the room, Junk was in shock, Toast and Ozza glanced at each other in disbelief, Tay looked close to tears and Kara stared down at the radio Chilled had placed on the table.

Nobody said a word until Kara broke the silence.

“I think Ze did it.”

“WHAT?! Me?!”

Ze was dumbfounded, Kara had no evidence against him, he had literally almost frozen to death.

“Yeah, why Ze, Kara?”

Junk came to his defence, looking like he didn’t want to believe Ze would be a traitor.

“Cheesy was on blue radio, right? So were Ze and I. Cheesy and Ze left around the same time and went down the same way…”

“Wouldn’t Cheesy have just said something on the radio?”

“That’s just it, I had to put my radio down for about twenty minutes whilst helping repair some stuff. Ze could’ve killed Cheesy without me ever knowing… It’s the right time frame.”

All eyes turned to Ze, he knew he didn’t do it, Kara seemed to think he did though.

“But I- I didn’t even know Cheesy was there with me! I called you to tell you I was freezing to death!”

Tay spoke up from where she was staring at the rest of them quietly.

“When I found Ze, he wasn’t cold. He was rather warm, actually.”

Ze was frozen in place, no, no, they had it all wrong, he didn’t kill Cheesy, it wasn’t him. Why wouldn’t they believe him?

“Guys- it wasn’t me! Someone else had to have been missing at the same time, this is a mistake.”

“…As far as we know, everyone else was off in other directions. It was just you two missing.”

Nobody seemed like they wanted to believe it, nobody wanted to believe Ze was a traitor. Everything just added up, maybe he was being framed?

“I must be getting framed, you heard me, Kara, you saw me! I almost died- I…”

Ozza turned his head away from Ze, a look of betrayal on his face.

“You believe me, right Chilled?”

Chilled turned his head away as well, Ze was shook.

“Guys?”

Kara slipped her vote in the exile box.

One vote for Ze.

Ozza did too, so did Toast.

Two votes for Ze.

Three votes for Ze.

Chilled slipped the last vote in the box before opening the door for Ze to get out.

This couldn’t be happening.

This seriously, couldn’t be happening.

But it was…

“ Guys, guys please rethink this, I’m going to die out here; it’s too cold, I…”

Ze slowly walked out the door, not wanting his friends to have to physically throw him out.

The door was slammed in his face, he was left with the howling wind and the sky, which was growing increasingly darker by the minute.

He quickly realised he had no gloves, he must’ve lost them in the bunker from before. He shoved his hands in his pockets, tears gathered in the corners of his eyes.

Why didn’t they believe him?

Ze started running, he didn’t know where he was running, but he ran.

They hadn’t opened the lab yet, so he couldn't stay there. The bunkers provided next to no shelter, he may as well just sleep in a bush.

Over the next hour, Ze slowly accepted the fact that he was probably going to die. 

He found a small area somewhere, sheltered by some rocks and berry bushes. He sat with his back to one of the rocks before rolling his sleeves up and starting a small fire with his hands. He forced the rest of the cooked berries he had down his throat. He hadn’t eaten well in days, and it showed.

The flame he cradled in his hands grew a little larger as its warmth spread through his body, the tears that ran down his cheeks were hot; almost too hot as they dripped down onto the snow below him.

A small area had melted around him, as he continued to cry, the flame continued to get bigger. He didn’t mean for it to do that, but he couldn’t extinguish it now that the night was getting colder and colder.

They were his friends, they didn’t believe him.

They threw him out here to die , die a slow painful death so they didn’t have to kill him themselves.

Ze’s hands were shaking, the fire grew bigger.

He wished he could say that he tried to stop it, that he tried to control it; but really, he didn’t.

He simply gave up. He gave in to the temptation that the fire offered him.

For a moment, it was still, the night air was frozen like the landscape around it.

Then everything around him exploded into life, oranges and yellows, quickly and hungrily devouring everything. Smoke filled the air, everything was thick with it. Sparks flew everywhere. Ash rained down from the sky like snow. 

Trees caught on fire, bushes, flowers, it was ironic how something that seemed so alive could cause so much death. 

Ze fell to his knees in the middle of the inferno, he fell to his knees and collapsed in a heap. The fire continued to rage around him, and he did nothing to stop it. 

-

Nobody slept, not well, at least. Chilled stared up at the ceiling of the cabin, almost waiting for Ze to come banging at the door, begging them to let him in.

But he didn’t.

Maybe they would’ve taken pity on him, maybe they would’ve rethought their decision…

He closed his eyes and fell into a light sleep, he surprisingly didn’t dream, even his brain knew that everything was too much right now.

-

Chilled could tell that it had snowed when he woke up, a fresh layer of white concealed everything outside.

All of them thought that Ze was dead, nobody survived that.

Toast said that he was a detective, if they found his body, maybe he could confirm that they had exiled a Traitor. 

Chilled really hoped that Ze was a Traitor, it wouldn’t make him feel as bad.

Everyone else was awake, but the cabin was silent. He, Toast and Ozza were going out to look for Ze’s body. 

He pulled his jacket over his other clothing, they all slept in their clothes, mostly because they didn’t have anything else to wear. He noticed Cheesy’s old blue radio sitting on the bench and picked it up, trying to turn it on. Maybe he’d need it for something.

The screen didn’t light up at all. Chilled’s heart almost stopped right there.

He pried open the back of the small device, his mouth dried when he realised the batteries were missing. Cheesy couldn’t have called for help if he tried, anyone could’ve killed him.

Ze was innocent.

-

Ze woke up in a pile of ash. He was cold, but he wasn’t freezing. It wasn’t until he looked around him he saw the damage he had done.

A few hot embers still burned brightly in the charred landscape, the fire must’ve been burning all night. All of the trees and bushes in a twenty metre radius around him were dead; burnt to a crisp.

He should be dead right now. He should be dead under a layer of fresh snow,

And yet, he wasn’t . 

He sat up, he should have burns all over his body, he should be freezing to death. 

But yet, he wasn’t . 

He was hungry, that was for sure. A few berries were barely enough to sustain him, too bad all the berry bushes were dead. He held his hand up to his cheek, it radiated warmth. His whole body was warm, even though there were no fires left. 

Ze steadily got to his feet, he shook his head a few times, ash and a few stray embers fell out and onto the ground. The whole area was a mess, it was hard to believe that it was actually him that did it. The others would probably look for his body, if they found him alive they would kill him. He had to leave, he had to keep going. Maybe he’d find something better to shelter in so he didn’t have to sleep in a bed made of ash. 

Slowly he began walking, he looked down at his feet as he did, the glare from the sun on the snow was too bright. Eventually he came to an open bunker, opening one of the crates inside he was delighted to find some raw meat. It wasn’t very raw for long as Ze heated it up with his hands, the outside was slightly burnt, but it still tasted good. Better than a handful of berries, that was for sure.

Ze continued his trek, he found an unopened Traitor Crate and spent a few minutes trying to open it before giving up, no extra stuff for him.

He suddenly heard a howl in the distance, the sound of paws running over snow sent a shiver down his spine.

Wolves.

He turned around to see three of them, hackles raised. They circled around him, he looked weak, he looked vulnerable, they were hungry and looking for an easy meal.

Ze smiled as he set himself ablaze.

-

Chilled dropped the radio on the ground. It smashed into pieces.

“Chilled?”

Ozza looked at him weirdly, a concerned look on his face.

“ Ze… ”

“Ze what? Chilled? Chilled, what's wrong mate?”

“ Ze was telling the truth…”

He heard the sound of everyone's heads turning towards him. Shock evident on their faces. 

“What do you mean?!”

“There aren’t any batteries in Cheesy’s radio. He couldn’t have told Kara anything if he tried.”

“Oh my god…”

The cabin was silent, the only noise being the pounding of the wind against the windows.

“We’ve got to find him, maybe he’s still alive?!”

“It’s a low chance… But maybe he took shelter somewhere and found food? He was able to survive before…”

“If he hasn’t been eaten by wolves by now, I’ll be very surprised.”

Chilled clenched his fist and began to walk out the door.

“I’m going to find him. Dead or alive. If you’re coming, you’re coming.”

Toast and Ozza walked towards the door with him.

“We were going to go anyway, no there’s more of a reason to find him. The others should stay here, just in case.”

Chilled nodded to them and they headed out the door, there were no footprints even hinting at where Ze could be.

“Where do you think he went?”

“I don’t know, maybe we should split up. He probably didn’t go East, so I’ll go West, Toast, you go South, and Ozza you go North. Make sure to check any buildings he could be hiding inside.”

Chilled took the lead as he started trekking West. Toast and Ozza went in their directions as well, all of them were determined to find Ze…

Dead or alive. 

Chilled chewed on some beef jerky as he walked, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. His mouth was dry, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the jerky or the guilt of not believing Ze; and furthermore leaving him to die.

Looking around Chilled spotted an unopened bunker, Ze couldn’t have stayed there. There was a small cliff ahead of him made of dark grey rock, so he began trying to find a way around it. He followed a small path up and over the rocks, stopping when he reached the top. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was seeing.

A massive circular area, ash and charred wood covered the ground. It looked like a bomb had gone off. It was big, about 20 metres in diameter, nothing moved within it, all signs of life had been wiped out. What really interested Chilled, however, was an indent in the centre of it. It looked like someone had been curled up there trying to shelter. It looked like the shape of a person, and quickly Chilled noticed the footprints leading away from the scene. 

How could anyone survive that?

The footprints were relatively fresh, obviously made after the supposed explosion happened. Although, to Chilled, it didn’t really look like a bomb. It was like someone had charred everything with a massive flamethrower; not that anyone had access to that. It was much more likely some kind of mine that had been set off.

Chilled began tracking the footprints through the snow, he didn’t realise how recent they actually were. Soon enough he noticed something else, more footprints, but this time they weren’t human footprints, they were pawprints. Wolf, pawprints.

Ze always did have an affinity for getting attacked by the local wildlife, sometimes it was almost like everything was out to get him. Chilled really, really hoped that he had gotten away from the wolves, but it wasn’t looking like the fight would have been in Ze’s favour. Chilled felt his whole body freeze when he noticed something on the snow, thick, dark red blood.

“ Ze…”

Chilled started sprinting, there was an entire trail of the stuff. He came to a slightly more open area and stood wide eyed at the scene in front of him.

Three wolves.

Three dead wolves.

They all lay close to one another, massive burns littered their bodies. Blood seeped out onto the snow beneath them; what was left of them anyway, they looked like they had been burnt alive.

Something was wrong, something was very very wrong.

More footprints continued to lead away from the scene, but Chilled didn’t know if he wanted to follow them anymore. He didn’t want to know what he would find. 

They were very new, probably made less than an hour ago. According to the map back at the cabin, he was almost at the farthest West you could go without specialised equipment. Ze was close, really close, and apparently he was also alive. 

He shouldn’t be alive. Chilled knew that from the moment he stepped out of the cabin to search for him.

He continued to follow the trail of footprints, there were a lot more mineral deposits and a lot less trees out this far. The terrain became more and more jagged as the footprints continued on.

Soon, Chilled tracked them to a cave. A few icicles hung from the entrance, but overall it looked safe. He slowly crept inside, it didn’t look very deep, but he heard scuffling around the corner. He poked his head around to see Ze, huddled up against the wall. He was a mess, his jacket was torn and he had ash all through his hair. Ze’s eyes suddenly flicked up from where he was staring,

“Chilled?!”

“Ze! We’ve been looking for you, we found out Cheesy’s radio batteries were dead, it didn’t line up with Kara’s story, so we knew you were probably innocent…”

Ze was silent, he shuffled further along the wall.

“Leave me alone.”

Chilled stood still, a look of shock plastered on his face.

“What? Why? Everyone thinks you’re dead, everyone thinks they killed an innocent!”

Chilled tried to explain, exasperated, but Ze just shook his head.

“I’m better off here, where I can’t hurt any thing or any one.”

“But- you didn’t hurt anyone! You didn’t kill Cheesy, right?!”

Ze shook his head,

“No, I didn’t kill Cheesy.”

“Then what…”

Chilled thought back to the ash circle, to the wolves. He also thought back to the time in the cabin, when he thought he saw Ze touching the fire. He shrugged it off at the time, he had to have been seeing things. 

“That was you? That- that wasn’t you. How could it have been you?”

“Chilled, just stop asking questions and leave me be.”

Chilled walked over and knelt down beside Ze, he reached a hand out slowly to touch him on the shoulder.

Ze struck out with his hand and hit Chilled’s away.

“Ze, please, just come back with me.”

“Chilled, leave.”

“ZE-“

“ Leave !”

Ze’s hands ignited into flames, embers flicked off in all directions as Chilled was forced to scurry backwards. There was silence between the two of them as the blaze quickly died down. One word found itself to Chilled’s lips, and one word only.

“ How?”

“ I don’t know! Okay?!”

More silence.

“Listen, Ze. If you come back, we can figure it out…”

“I don’t want to figure it out.”

Chilled sighed and knelt down beside Ze again.

“Listen, if you don’t come, I’ll tell everyone you’re here. You’re not in the shape to be moving anywhere anytime soon.”

Ze furrowed his brow at Chilled, looking annoyed.

“Was that a threat, Chaos?”

“Well yes, yes it was.”

“You’re not going to say anything , I’ll just stay here, just tell them I’m dead!”

“No. I’ll drag you back if I have to.”

Ze grew even more annoyed,

“You know what, Chilled ?”

“…What?”

“You can’t tell anyone if you can’t get back to them…”

“Ze, where are you going with this?”

“…And you can’t get back to them if you’re dead.”

Ze lunged at Chilled, both of them tumbled to the ground. One of Ze’s hands ignited as he tried to bring it closer to Chilled’s face. Chilled used his own hands to try and keep Ze away from his face, but he was growing weaker with Ze’s weight pressing down on him.

His hand was burning, the skin was quickly peeling away, exposing the flesh underneath. Ze wasn’t in his right mind, Chilled knew that, but it still hurt like hell.

Eventually more of Ze’s arm caught on fire, causing Chilled to flinch back in shock. The flames burned the side of his face and he yelled out in agony, trying to squirm out from underneath Ze. He had no luck as Ze’s flames continued to burn away at the left side of his face. He squeezed his eyes shut.

Suddenly, it stopped.

Chilled opened his eyes, or rather, his eye, as he couldn’t see out of the other one.

“ Oh my god, Chilled, I’m so sorry I-“

Despite the pain he was in, Chilled reached out and clamped on to his friend, pulling him into a hug.

“It’s okay, buddy.”

Ze’s jacket brushed up against the side of his face and he pulled back in shock, trying to stop the pain.

Ze looked down at him with wide eyes, 

“Chilled…”

“What?“

“Chilled, I'm so sorry.”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?”

Chilled was joking, but he was in more pain than he’d ever felt before. He looked over at the wall of the cave, it was reflective due to being covered in ice. The whole left side of his face had been destroyed , his eye was still there, it was open, but he couldn’t see out of it.

“Oh my lord.”

Ze was shaking, Chilled somehow managed to successfully stand up and lean against him.

“Ze. Please come back with me.”

Ze’s shaking stopped and he sighed.

“Fine…”

Chilled started to walk to the cave entrance, he knelt down beside some snow and put his burnt hand in it. It hurt, like, a lot, but eventually the pain subsided and it began to feel a lot better. He tried to hold some up to his face, but that was more than he could handle.

“We need to get back before it starts getting dark, I’ve been looking for you all day.”

Chilled called out, Ze came up behind him and nodded.

“Alright. How are we gonna explain… you.”

“I stood on a mine or something near a traitor crate, that’s a good lie.”

“What were you doing, putting your face on the mine?”

Chilled tried to smile, but he let out a quiet hiss the second the corner of his mouth moved.

“We’ll figure it out.”

They were slightly lost, but as soon as they found the site where the wolves died they were back on track. They had already been walking for a while.

Ze looked so guilty that Chilled didn’t even look at him for the trek back, they had just passed the circle of ash. 

Chilled suddenly heard his name being called, he looked over to see Ozza running at them through the snow.

“Chilled! Ze- ZE!”

Ozza obviously hadn’t seen the other half of his face yet, Chilled and Ze began walking towards him.

“Hey! Chilled I thought you got lost or something, I-“

Ozza stopped in his tracks, his eyes widened.

“Oh my god, SOMEONE GET JUNK, WE NEED A MEDIC!”

The cabin was so close, Chilled wanted to pass out. Ze looked like he did too.

As soon as he reached the door, Chilled practically fell inside, Junk, their medic, picked him up and laid him down on one of the bunk beds. Ze was placed on the one next to him, but his eyes were closed.

Chilled didn’t know if the adrenaline had run out, or maybe his face was just numb from the cold, but suddenly all the pain he had ever felt hit him at once. He tried to grab onto his face but it just hurt more, he let out a yell of pain as his vision faded to black. Junk tried to shake him awake but he was already too deep into unconsciousness.

-

Ze stared up at the wooden ceiling of the cabin, Chilled was still asleep. He had been for days now. Ze had to make up a story about a mine, everyone was sceptical, but they eventually believed it. He just wished Chilled would wake up and help him explain.

Kara still felt really guilty, she kept telling him about how it was her fault. He didn’t blame her, she didn’t know to check the radio. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. For the moment, he simply helped them to complete objectives whilst he waited for Chilled to wake up. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

He didn’t feel the familiar warmth bubbling up inside him, he felt cold. 

-

They all expected Chilled to wake up, he wasn’t in that bad of a condition, at least that's what they thought. They all expected him to wake up like in the movies.

But he didn’t.

He remembered waking up that morning, looking over to where Chilled was asleep. Instead of the familiar rising and falling of his chest, he was still. 

He remembered panicking, he remembered running over to Chilled’s body. He remembered trying to shake his friend awake. He must have passed away during the night, probably in pain.

He remembered screaming, he remembered all of the others waking up. He remembered everyone but Chilled waking up. 

He tried to hold in his tears, everything felt dull. Everything felt cold. He screamed and he screamed and he screamed and nothing he would do would stop the pain he felt because his best friend was dead and it was his fault.

Chilled was dead, Chilled was dead and the grief was so much worse because they all expected him to wake up.

They all expected to escape the snowy hell, they had completed the objectives fast and the traitors didn’t seem to be making any moves. They all expected to leave and never have to return.

But they didn’t.

He remembered watching as Toast and Ozza suddenly turned on Tay and Kara, using the element of surprise to down them instantly. He remembered running for help, only to find Junk already dead outside of the cabin. He remembered those feelings, those feelings of terror. Tay and Kara were dead and now he was all alone with the traitors that trapped him here.

Everyone was dead, everyone was dead and the numbness was so much worse because they all expected to escape.

Ze expected to live, he had been able to call in a small helicopter to get him out from the radio tower. He expected to live and not die at the hands of the traitors, if he found them, he would kill them in the most painful way he could.

But he didn’t.

He heard them sprinting through the snow behind him, he felt the gunshot wound in his leg. He turned to see them grinning at him as he tried so hard to call on the fire, the fire that never came.

He was still too cold, too numb. Before, he was cold on the outside, now the warmth inside him had died down as well. There were no sparks, no embers, not even a flicker of a flame.

He didn’t remember them shooting him through the heart, he didn’t remember because he was dead.

He was dead; and the pain was so much worse, because he expected to live.

It was so much worse because nobody would ever know what he did.

Chapter Text

Ze was tired of doing everything, he was tired of being the only one actually doing anything to help. He couldn’t just not help though, he wanted to get out of this place as much as everyone else. Ze sighed as he flung his axe into the tree one more time, it fell over with a small crash and left a cloud of dirt and snow lingering in the air for a few seconds. He then chopped it into smaller pieces, with each swing he felt his increasing frustration at the rest of the group. He couldn’t really blame them, but he did. Nobody would work on completing their objective, and if they did they’d stop after five minutes and start on something else. It was stupid. Ze began walking back to the cabin with the wood in hand, he heaved most of it into the community storage before grabbing out some mineral (That HE had ALSO gathered before) and using it to create a sickle. He placed his axe in the storage and turned at the sound of someone entering the cabin.

“Oh, hey Ze. I thought you were out chopping wood, it can’t take that long, can it?”

Ze grumbled under his breath but didn’t say anything as Kara started cooking some raw meat at the stove, he made his way out the door and checked the map of the area. Chilled and Cheesy were just coming back from opening a bunker as he began to head north.

“Hey Ze, we found some scrap in one of the bunkers, we can use it to make a radio if you want one?”

Cheesy looked at him thoughtfully, Ze pondered it for a moment before shrugging and looking out over the glossy white landscape in front of him.

“Nah, I don’t need one. I’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.”

Ze continued to trek north, he spotted some almost bare berry bushes in the distance and started to turn in their direction. When he got to them he harvested the still surviving berries and kept moving, maybe he’d find something important up here, like the helipad. He looked up, the clouds were a light grey colour, it wouldn’t snow for a while yet. He had the entire day to himself, maybe it would be relaxing. Well, maybe not relaxing, but he could have some time to himself without having to worry about someone else falling down a cliff or getting mauled by a bear. 

He soon came to a point where he had to start moving eastwards due to the plethora of massive rocks sticking out of the ground and blocking his path. The trees were a little less out here, but there were still plenty of berry bushes and a few white flowers. Ze knelt down beside a patch and just sat there for a while, the delicate white petals of the plant swayed slightly in the wind as he just watched. Eventually he got up again and kept moving, but it was nice to appreciate the small things. He spotted rising steam in the distance, as he rounded the corner he was greeted by the sight of multiple hot springs, there was a traitor crate in the middle though, so Ze decided to leave the area alone.

There were no trees now, the tips of Ze’s fingers were starting to get cold, even though he had gloves on. He found a bunker but he couldn’t open it, he’d just report it for later. Ze looked up at the sky and shivered, he was pretty far from the cabin now. A few snowflakes dropped down in front of him, he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked back before continuing to move on.

A little bit of snow wouldn’t hurt, right?

Still, more snowflakes fell. They multiplied quickly, a few turning into a bucket load in a matter of minutes.

Despite everything, he kept moving; only pausing to stop as the wind around him grew harsher again. He started thinking that he should’ve turned back a while ago, now he was almost too cold to move. The icy gale gripped at him, at his arms, his legs, his face. It gnawed at his skin, eating away at any and all warmth still huddling inside him. He didn’t know how it got so freezing so fast, but it did. His eyes were blurry, but he was unsure whether it was from the whirling snowstorm all around him or the pain seeping into his vision, either one was not good. He tried to move onwards, but everything held him back, including his own body. He was shaking violently, his whole body jolting. He soon fell to his knees in the snow as he tried to crawl somewhere; anywhere, that could give him shelter. 

There was nothing.

No trees, not even many bushes. The few rocks sticking out of the landscape were small and provided little no shelter. Ze had almost given up, his body was numb, but not numb enough he couldn’t feel the pain coursing through it.

It was torture.

Suddenly he heard something in the distance, it sounded like footsteps. Hope was the next thing he felt, but that hope was quickly shattered when he heard the distinct sound of howling over the thundering wind.

Wolves, wolves, of course it was wolves.

The footsteps, no, pawsteps , grew closer as Ze tried to keep the warmth from escaping his body, he watched as the white shadows circled around him, watching him from all angles. There was no escape. All because he wanted to be alone for a bit.

One of the wolves lunged at him, sinking its teeth into his leg and trying to drag him closer to the rest of the pack. More of his inner heat left his body, this time in the form of blood as it seeped down his leg. Another wolf gripped at his arm, he tried to pull away, but the cold made it impossible to move. It was over when the last wolf jumped onto his back, ripped the material from the shoulder of his jacket, and held Ze down as the other two shredded him to pieces.

The snow below Ze grew warmer as he grew colder, scarlet staining everything around him.

Numbness eventually overtook the pain and agony,for once he didn’t feel anything. Nothing at all, not mental or physical. The wolves left long ago, satisfied with what little they got out of him. 

The world around him was white, but his world was black. An empty, cold, black nothing. 

It was slowly becoming warmer.

———

When they found him, he was dead. His body had been ripped to pieces, but his heart was left untouched. 

When they found him, he was dead. His blood had been spread out across the area, splatters of it coating the environment around him.

When they found him, he was dead. Not a speck of life left in his blank, unfocused eyes.

———

“They dragged his body back, please, Ari, I have an idea.”

“You’re insane…”

“We have everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Please.”

“I’ll help.”

“Great, I need his heart. Listen, I know this will work. I’ve seen the notes in the journal, this has happened before. They figured it out, they figured out a way to bring people back.”

“I’ll help you take his body, you’re a psychopath, but maybe we can actually do this…”

He stared down at the journal, he had found it when they first managed to get the old lab open. Notes were sprawled out across the page, they were messy, but organised messy, the person who wrote them knew exactly what they were doing.

“I believe we can.”

———

The walls around the machine had words scratched into them, some feeling rather sinister. It was as if someone had been trapped here, counting the days. There were warnings and there were instructions, sometimes it was unclear which was which. Chilled flipped through the journal and opened it on a specific page, he ignored most of the warning messages scribbled over the already written work, he was already too far in. His eyes were drawn to a few of the warnings and he smiled, whoever had written the work was brilliant no doubt, but they certainly weren’t a traitor. Something had gone wrong here, and not because they had brought someone back to life, but because they had come back with different morals; treacherous morals.

The person the owner of the book had revived had come back as a traitor, and from the looks of it, managed to kill everyone. They had found clues leading towards others being trapped here before them, but they weren’t confirmed until now. They were repeating the past, the trapping, the sabotage, the traitors, it had happened before. He hadn’t told Ari that part, she wouldn’t understand anyway, she was just a survivor. Ze had always been the most helpful, the one with the highest work ethic. When they found out he was dead, everyone went into a state of panic. It was different now, he always knew he would save Ze for last, but now he didn’t have to; Ze could be on his side, his team. The notes had said something about white flowers, the owner of the journal had apparently miscalculated and not put enough into the machine; this caused the revived person to have more of a chance of becoming… well, a traitor. 

Chilled didn’t put any flowers into the machine.

Chilled held his hand over the lever in front of him for a second, in one sudden movement he pulled it down. The machine made a weird noise for a few seconds before it opened.

Ze, looking slightly dazed, stepped out into the lab.

“ZE!”

Ari threw herself at him, embracing him in a hug as he just stared at her. He opened his mouth to speak; but no words came out. Something was wrong.

“Ze? You- you died! Chilled brought you back, I helped him gather the stuff, but…”

Ze looked over at Chilled, he tried to speak again, but still, no words. Chilled bit his lip and tried asking a question, Ze was simply in shock.

“Hey Ze, uh, can you speak?”

Ze, once again, opened his mouth, nothing but a choking sound came out as Ze’s face became more and more concerned, the messages on the walls made much more sense to Chilled now. The warnings in the journal weren’t just there for show.

‘ WON’T CAN’T SPEAK.’

‘I DON’T HEAR HIM COMING.’

‘SOMETHING’S WRONG.’

Realisation hit Chilled as Ze stared at him, Chilled stared back in pity.

Ze couldn’t speak anymore.

———

It was warm, everything was warm again. He felt like he was floating, floating across an ocean of heat. It spread through his body quickly, he knew it was death, but he didn’t mind. Maybe this was a good thing, he didn’t have to worry anymore. All of his worries, gone. Gone until something grabbed at him, dragging him back towards the cold light. He tried to struggle, he didn’t want to go back, he wanted to stay in the warmth of the darkness.

Another feeling broke through to him; not panic, but sadness, so much sadness. All of his joy ripped away from him. But there was a hint of something else there, too. Anger. Anger at the people who never listened to him, anger at those who would rely on him for everything, anger at the ones who never really cared about how he felt. After the anger came joy, came happiness, but it wasn’t his, it was someone else’s. It was the happiness that came when they perished, the happiness that came when they felt someone else’s blood on their hands, the happiness at seeing the betrayal on their faces when he struck the final blow.

He tried to call out, he tried to scream, but no noise came from his mouth; not a sound.

He wanted to feel that happiness too.

———

Everything was burning, burning cold. He was freezing, but still warm. Everything was bright; but he could make out shapes, the shapes of people. As the light began to dim he saw their faces, he recognised them. A woman and a man, both people he knew. He blinked a couple of times, 

“ZE!”

Ze knew that voice, he knew who the woman was.

Ari. 

He tried to respond, he really did, but no words came out of his mouth. He tried so hard and yet he didn’t make a sound.

“Ze? You- you died! Chilled brought you back, I helped him gather the stuff, but…”
Ze looked over to the man,

Chilled.

He wanted to say something to his friend, anything. But nothing came out. He grabbed at his throat, panic slowly began to settle in. He wanted to scream but the universe wouldn’t let him. 

“Hey Ze, uh, can you speak?”

Ze felt the realisation slowly seeping into his mind, maybe he was wrong, maybe he could speak. Nothing but a choking noise came out of Ze’s mouth. Ari looked horrified, but Chilled just stared at him in pity. He couldn’t talk. He would never be able to talk again. 

He couldn’t tell jokes.

He couldn't have a conversation.

He couldn’t call out for help.

Anger.

The feeling returned, he didn’t fight it. Silent, bubbling rage. He tried to calm himself down, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before opening his eyes once more. He wanted them gone, he wanted them dead. He was alive now, they would never have had to bring him back if they just listened for once. Chilled was grinning, almost crazily at him. Ari was whispering comforting words; she didn’t notice Chilled’s unhinged smiling, but he did.

I want them to feel what I felt. Alone, nobody to help me.

Ze was surprised at his own thoughts, he didn’t want anyone to die. 

 …Watch the betrayal in their eyes, knowing they deserved it. 

The surprise lessened, he was unsure now. 

Why can’t I have some fun? Why do I have to do all the work?

Chilled was staring at Ze, like he knew exactly what he was thinking. He lay an unspoken deal between the two of them…

And Ze accepted.

Chapter Text

“This seems like a terrible idea.” Ze grumbled as Vik just shrugged at him.

“You’ll be fine.”

Ze was a last minute addition to their ghost hunting crew, he verbally expressed he didn’t want to go, but they insisted. They also didn’t tell him that it could be potentially deadly until they were thirty minutes down the road. Absolutely fucking fantastic.

Ozza was driving, Chilled sat up in the front with him whilst Vik and Ze sat in the back. Vik had to repeatedly confiscate their expensive equipment from Ze as he tried to figure out what it all did. Ze wasn’t entirely sure how they got the money for any of it, but he wasn’t going to ask, as he may not like the answer.

“For your information, I still don’t think ghosts are real.” Ze stuck his tongue out at Vik who just sighed,

“Yeah, well, we’ve found a fair few, so…”

“The pictures you’ve shown me are always blurry as shit!”

“Sorry, it’s hard to get a good picture when a murderous ghost with an axe is chasing you down.” Vik replied, sarcasm lacing his tone. Ze snorted and reached for another piece of equipment, Vik didn’t even bother this time. Ozza glanced back at him in the rear view mirror and glared at him as he pressed a few buttons on the side. It looked slightly like a radio. “What does this thing do again?” Ze asked as he pressed a button on the side that made a small orange screen light up, it also seemed to make a low buzzing noise.

“That’s a spirit box, we can use it to communicate a little clearer with the ghost. Some of them don’t like to use it though, do you still have that journal I gave you?” Chilled explained, he looked over at them from the front seat.

“Yeah, I still have the journal.” Ze confirmed, Chilled nodded and continued.

“Alright, if you flip through it, it’ll show you the different types of ghosts and what evidence they have. It’s the system we use to determine what kind of ghost we’re dealing with.”

“Do you guys, like, do anything with the ghosts after you find out what they are?” Ze asked, he was still a little confused about that part.

“Not important, anyway, we’re almost there. It’s just a little more down the street.” Chilled didn’t elaborate. Ze just sat there confused.

“Wait, so you don’t even get rid of the ghost? You’re like… Walmart ghostbusters or something?” 

Chilled ignored him as Ozza turned the Van down a more off road path, they eventually came to a small parking lot. Nobody else was there. A large sign saying ‘Maple Lodge Campsite’ hung above a massive gate that was currently nudged slightly open. The van stopped, Chilled and Ozza got out of the front and walked around the back to open the doors for Ze and Vik. Vik grabbed a bit of equipment and chucked Ze a flashlight; which he nearly dropped. 

“Grab something else, like a book or something, maybe a thermometer.” Vik called over to him as he exited the truck, Ze just sighed and nodded. He grabbed both and shoved them in his small backpack. He wasn’t really sure what the book was for as it was empty, but at least he knew how to use a thermometer.

The air was sharp and cold as he stepped outside the van, he shivered before burrowing his hands in his pockets and staring over at the gate to the campsite. Ozza was waiting for him, Chilled and Vik were already on the property. Ze turned his flashlight on and jogged over, Ozza led him inside where he could already see multiple tents set up.

“There’s a cabin to the right, just past that tent. I think Chilled and Vik are turning the generator on.” Ozza explained and Ze nodded, they both headed towards the cabin together. Vik was just finishing turning the generator on as they arrived, Chilled was at the door of the cabin. Ze watched him reach under the doormat and pull out a small key before heading inside. As soon as they reached the cabin door, he heard Chilled call out. 

“Hey! I found a music box! Wanna use it now?”

Ze was confused, and slightly worried, as to what that meant. But Vik and Ozza seemed like they knew. 

“Yeah, sure, we’ll find the ghost a lot easier.” Ozza headed inside, Ze and Vik followed him.

“Sorry, what are we doing again?” Ze asked, clearly still confused.

“Oh, sorry Ze. It’s basically a cursed object that gives off a lot of supernatural signals. If we play it, we can make the ghost sing.”

“Play the CURSED OBJECT, make the ghost sing. Got it, makes sense. Total sense.” Ze was about to continue his rant when Chilled wound the music box up and held it in his hands. He felt a chill run down his spine, goosebumps rose up along his arms as a raspy voice began to tune in with the delicate sound of the small box.

“ What the actual fuck. ”

Ozza looked over and couldn’t help but laugh at the look on Ze’s face.

“Come on, it’s normal. The singing is coming from out of the cabin anyway, as long as Chilled stays here and doesn’t get too close, we’ll be fine.”

Ozza grabbed Ze by the arm before he could complain and led him outside the cabin, Vik followed closely behind. The sound of leaves crunching underfoot filled Ze’s ears as the singing slowly got louder.

“Uhm, should we be going towards the noise?!” Ze expressed his growing concern as Ozza glanced at him reassuringly.

“It can’t hurt us when it’s singing.” 

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard-“ Ze was cut off as he noticed a transparent figure in the middle of two tents, right next to a massive campfire.

“Ozza, Ozza, Ozza, OzzA WHat is THAT?” Ze stuttered, nudging Ozza a little too hard with his elbow. The figure was a dimmed down blue, he could see straight through it. It’s neck was at a weird angle, like it had been snapped. It’s eyes haunted him the most, though. They were a deep, endless black. Something dark dripped down its cheeks, but it didn’t seem to notice them and instead seemed content with singing. 

“It’s the ghost, Ze, it won’t attack us right now… The tent it’s haunting must be around here somewhere.” Ozza said calmly, almost too calmly. How could you even be calm about that sort of stuff?! Ze looked back over to where the ghost was; but instead of it being there, it had disappeared. Its rasping voice still filled his ears as suddenly the music box hit the last note.

“Ah, damn. Ze, follow me back to the van. We’ve just gotta get our sanity back up a little before coming back out. Vik, go get Chilled.”

Ze stood, slightly dumbfounded for a moment as Vik ran off.

“Our… Our sanity?”

Ozza nodded, “Yeah, you know, hanging out around spirits takes its toll.”

“ Holy shit .” Ze had honestly had enough, maybe his friends were just psychotic, had he had something to drink before coming here? Maybe he was the one seeing things. Vik and Chilled were already waiting at the gate, Ozza walked through in front of him and…

It slammed shut.

All three of them looked back at Ze in horror as he tried to grab it and yank.

“ Ze, listen very carefully, run, go to the cabin, find a cupboard to hide in, we’ll come and get you when it’s done hunting, okay?“ Ozza spoke to him quickly, the words barely registered in Ze’s mind as he heard something coming closer. He nodded before taking off, sprinting as fast as he could in the direction of the cabin. The door was unlocked, he rushed inside.

Still, he heard it coming closer. He heard the floorboards creaking on the ground floor as he rushed up the stairs and practically threw himself into a cupboard. He held his breath, tears threatening to escape his eyes as he burrowed himself further into a coat hanging from the top of the small space.

Why did they have to bring him here? Why couldn’t they just leave him be? It was all their fault. He wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for his friends.

Ze felt himself getting light headed as he finally took in a breath, the sounds outside stopped for a moment before suddenly getting closer than ever before. Ze felt terror coursing through him as the door to his hiding spot was flung open, the ghosts twisted features drew closer to him as he tried to scurry away. As its hand finally reached him he tried to scream, but soon found he couldn’t. The last thing he felt was fear and anger, and the last thing he heard was the snapping of his own neck.

———

“Ze?”

Ozzas calls echoed through the cabin, a slight breeze made his arm hairs stand on end.

Ze didn’t respond, something felt wrong. So, so wrong. 

He couldn’t be dead, right?

Ozza turned to look at Chilled, who was already searching for Ze downstairs, before heading up the stairs alone.

 The cabin felt quiet, so quiet.

Too quiet.

The lights flickered as he reached the top floor, Ozza noticed a picture that had seemingly fallen off the wall and onto the ground. He scanned the hallway for anything before locking eyes on a cupboard. The door was cracked open slightly, but he couldn’t see anything inside. Not until he opened it, at least. 

The inside was painted dark red.

Ze’s face was locked in an expression of horror, but his eyes were blank and unfocused. The position his body was in made it look like he was trying to hide, not that it worked very well. His head was twisted at an awkward angle, and Ozza could swear he saw bone sticking out. He closed the cupboard.

He felt overwhelming guilt. He was the one who had gotten Ze into this mess.

He didn’t really want to believe his friend was dead.

Ozza felt a shiver course through his body as suddenly the room grew colder, he felt something brush up against his shoulder.

It felt wrong. So, so wrong.

He ran back downstairs to where he could see Vik waiting by the door. “Did you find Ze?” He called out, Chilled came back around the corner too.

“Yeah, I did.” Ozza replied, Chilled seemed to immediately know what was going on, but Vik didn’t get the hint.

“Where is he…?” Vik continued, still not realising.

“He’s uh, he’s dead. Vik.” Chilled nudged his friend as they both watched his face fall.

“Dead? He can’t be dead…”

There was silence for a few moments, the lights flickered on and off like they did when Ozza first went up the stairs. Ozza felt something brush up against him again and looked around, “What if he’s still here?”

“What?” Vik questioned, still looking extremely sad.

“I felt something, I might be hallucinating, but… What if Ze’s a ghost now?” Ozza continued, Chilled seemed to like his idea as he immediately began walking up the stairs to get to Ozza. When he was at the top, he immediately noticed the cupboard Ze’s body was in. “I’m guessing I probably shouldn’t look in there?” He asked, looking down at his feet instead. Ozza thought back to what he had seen in the cupboard, images flashing like a slideshow in his head.

“Yeah. We’ll have to set up our equipment in the hallway, though.” Ozza confirmed, Vik came up the stairs after them and didn’t even glance at the cupboard. 

“It’s already… really cold.” Chilled said with a shiver, Ozza could see a wisp of his breath.

“Ze had the thermometer.” Vik said quietly.

Silence.

“Well, I can see Chilled’s breath, it’s probably freezing temperatures anyway.” Ozza cut through the silence, not wanting it to somehow get anyone quieter. Suddenly Vik jumped, he turned around like there was going to be someone behind him. “SOMETHING JUST WHISPERED IN MY EAR.”

“What? That was quick.” Right as the words left Ozzas mouth he felt yet another shiver run down his spine.

“Ze? Buddy? Are you here?” Chilled called out, the lights flicked on and off. A picture frame was thrown violently off the wall, almost hitting the three of them. It shattered on the ground. Ozza grew slightly uneasy, it seemed like it was Ze, but something was clearly wrong. “Something feels off…” Ozza expressed his worry to his other two friends, they looked uncertain as well. Vik especially, looked horrified.

Ze’s ghost didn’t seem like it was very friendly.

———

Ze wasn’t in pain anymore. It only lasted for a second.

He stood up, glancing around, not noticing his own body below his feet. The air had a dark tint to it, wisps of smoke flew around his feet. He noticed a picture frame hanging on the wall, he could see himself in the glass reflection.

His eyes were black.

He lashed out at the picture, not wanting to see himself anymore. It flung off the wall with surprising speed and shattered. He turned around, only just noticing his own body in the cupboard he had emerged from. He slammed the door shut as he noticed the bone sticking out of his neck.

It was weird, he didn’t feel anything. Not physically, anyway. Mentally he was having a breakdown. 

He was dead. A few hours ago he didn’t even think ghosts were real and now he was one.  

He glanced around again before walking slowly down the stairs, the other ghost was gone, he didn’t know where, but it was definitely gone. The cabin felt so empty despite all the stuff inside; it felt dark, yet he could still see perfectly fine.

You know, he wouldn’t be dead right now if it weren’t for his friends .

He wouldn’t be dead if they just respected his wish not to come.

He wouldn’t be dead if they just listened to him.

It was funny, usually he was a pretty calm sort of person. He didn’t get angry that easily. Although, maybe that was an alive thing, because now, he was pissed.

In fact, he was more angry than he had ever been when he was alive. It was a pretty good thing to be angry about at least. Dying. Dying to something you really couldn’t control. Dying to something that your friends could have protected you from. 

Ze was snapped out of his thoughts as the door to the cabin creaked open.

“Ze?”Ozza called out his name, clearly worried. Chilled switched the dull lights on before he began walking around downstairs. Ozza instead of following him, passed him to walk up the stairs. Vik stayed put at the door. Ze followed Ozza upstairs to where his body was, when they reached the top Ze felt a strong surge of emotion bubble up inside of him. 

The lights flickered.

Ze looked almost as surprised as Ozza, had he done that?

Ozza stared at a broken picture on the floor for a few moments before turning to the cupboard. He walked up to it, Ze mustn't have shut it properly because it was still open a crack. Ozza hesitated before pulling the door wide open, immediately being met with Ze’s corpse. After a moment he slammed the door shut again, tears began forming in his eyes.

This is all your fault. 

Ze couldn’t stop the thoughts rushing into his head, he walked up to Ozza and stood beside him, bumping into his shoulder slightly. Although they didn’t actually make contact, Ozza shivered.

He walked quickly back downstairs, Ze followed.

Vik was waiting by the door, he asked a simple question.

“Did you find Ze?”

“Yeah, I did.” Ozza said blankly.

Chilled’s face dropped, Vik didn’t seem to get the hint.

“He’s uh, he’s dead. Vik.” Chilled nudged his friend slightly, trying to comfort him. Vik looked like he didn’t believe a word Chilled was saying.

“Dead? He can’t be dead…”

Silence. Ze didn’t know what emotion he felt this time, it was a mixture of everything.

The lights flickered, Ze walked up beside Ozza again. Suddenly, Ozza spoke. “What if… What if he’s still here?”

Vik looked up from where he was staring at the floor. “What?”

“I felt something, I might be hallucinating, but… What if Ze’s a ghost now?” Ozza continued, Ze would be proud of him for suggesting that if he didn’t now have a murderous hatred for his friend. It was weird, it felt natural, like that’s what he had become a ghost to do.

Revenge.

Revenge is a funny thing, really, instead of you controlling it, it controls you. The worst part is you don’t register what you’ve done until after you’ve actually done it.

Whilst Ze was lost in his thoughts, Chilled and Vik were already up the stairs. He caught the end of a short conversation about freezing temperatures and walked over to Vik, who was standing near the stairs. Ze grabbed onto his shoulders from behind and whispered in his ear.

“ I’m going to kill you.”

Vik whizzed around almost immediately, shocked. “SOMETHING JUST WHISPERED IN MY EAR.”

“What? That was quick.” Ozza remarked. Ze knew Vik had heard what he said from the look on his face.

“Ze? Buddy? Are you here?” Chilled scanned the room, trying to spot any sign of Ze. Ze just grinned and made the lights flicker, he was getting good at that now. He also walked over to where a glass frame was hung up on the wall, a small painting of the cabin inside. He yanked it off, sending it flying towards the group. As they recovered from the shock, Ozza spoke up. “Something feels off…” 

They all looked uneasy, Vik looked even more terrified than before.

“Guys, I think we need to get out of here…” Vik warned, Ozza shrugged. 

“Ze wouldn’t hunt or anything, maybe he’s just angry-“ The sound of the door's lock clicking loudly cut him off, Ze laughed. They all seemed to have heard it, as they looked in his direction.

“I think he’s a little more than angry.”

They all scattered as Ze called out at them, his voice raspy. (Not that his voice being raspy was a surprise, his neck had been snapped, after all.)

“ THIS IS YOUR FAULT.” 

He watched the last one of his friends scatter down the stairs, and he smiled.

———

Chilled heard Ze’s laughter and turned his head to see where it had come from, he was surprised to see his transparent friend standing practically directly in front of them.

“I think he’s a little more than angry.” Chilled whispered under his breath, replying to Ozza’s previous comment. He watched a grin appear on Ze’s face as he called out to them.

“ THIS IS YOUR FAULT.”

Well, shit.

Chilled stumbled down the stairs, trying to get as far away from Ze as possible. The others followed, flicking their flashlights off in a hurry and attempting to find a hiding spot. Chilled didn’t know where they went, but he managed to find a small cupboard at the end of the cabin’s main room to hide in.

It was cramped, Chilled could hear the blood rushing through his ears as he held his breath. Ze had to calm down eventually, right?

He could hear soft footsteps outside in the main room, Ze called out at them. “ COME ON OUT, I JUST WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING…”

Maybe he could break a window or something? Make a run for it? He didn’t want to leave Vik and Ozza behind…

“ Vikkk…” Ze called out somewhere to the left of Chilled’s cupboard, soon after he heard a very familiar scream. 

Vik’s scream.

Shit, shit shit shitshitshitshitshitshit. SHIT.

“ Chilled… Ozza… Why don’t you come out and check on your buddy Vikram?” Ze’s voice had a rasp to it, but it didn’t feel like Ze, it felt like something else. Don’t get him wrong, Chilled knew it was definitely Ze, it was just a royally pissed off Ze. Chilled had never seen him this angry before, EVER. Chilled was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of Ze’s crazed voice once more. “ Oh, hello there Ozza.”

“ZE STOP, WE CAN-“ Ozza tried to plead, but it obviously didn’t work. 

There was silence.

 Chilled didn’t know if that thing out there was his friend anymore. He could feel his heart pounding as more footsteps passed his hiding spot.

There was a tiny part of him that believed that maybe, just maybe, his other friends were still alive. But he knew they weren’t. He could run, he could run now. He could run and leave them and pretend nothing ever happened. Pretend that everything was okay and that he never went on this gosh damn ghost hunting trip. It was a terrible business to get into, anyway, he may as well just do some nerdy shit like sell yu-gi-oh cards or comic books or something. He could run right now and Ze wouldn’t catch him, he just had to break a window or something. 

So, that’s what he did. He burst out of the cupboard, adrenaline coursing through him as he noticed Ze standing across the room. He couldn’t see his friends bodies, but there was blood coating the floor. He didn’t even have time to think about their deaths as Ze noticed him and grinned wider. Chilled immediately made a run for the door, there was a window that reached the floor beside it. He grabbed a chair from the kitchen as he ran and threw it as hard as he could at the glass.

It shattered.

Chilled felt hope as the fresh night air hit him in the face, Ze looked even angrier as he chased closely behind him. 

“ GET BACK HERE, CHILLED.”

Chilled didn’t respond, instead he kept running. He could see the gate, the van, he knew Ze couldn’t wander too far from his place of death. The gate was locked as he expected, but he remembered noticing a small hole in the fence when they first got to the campsite. He immediately spotted it again and tried to slide through, it was messy, but eventually he made it. 

He turned around.

Ze was standing by the gate, staring at him.

He looked sad, even horrified.

Chilled knew he couldn’t go back.

And so, he ran.

Chapter Text

Ello, Scott here. I love writing these, I have quite a few unposted short stories that are unfinished or that I don’t like. (A LOT that I don’t like.) Please let me know if you want to see any of these current stories continued, OR if you have any ideas that you might want to see in the future.

Stories based on games like Town of Salem, Among Us, Project Winter & First Class Trouble are at the top of my list, as I find deception games especially fun to write. I will also do games like Phasmophobia, Sea of Thieves and possibly Minecraft. If you have any other games, characters, or ideas, also let me know. These stories don’t necessarily HAVE to be based on games, but most of them are.

I may not get many replies, but if you really enjoyed a certain story please tell me. I like seeing what people like to read and continuing to write based on what feedback they give me.

If you can’t already tell, these stories DON’T include shipping. I’m not gonna write anything like that as it makes me slightly uncomfortable. Sorry if you were looking for a romantic story, but I’m just kinda doing my own thing writing these. 
There will, still of course, be bromance. (There’s always room for bromance.)

Thanks for reading these, they’re just fun to write in my spare time and I love sharing them with people. 
I should post a story or two every week or so, with more ideas, maybe even more than that. 

Hope you have a wonderful day or night!

- Ssccoottyy.

Chapter Text

When the first murder happened, Ze and Chilled made a promise.

Stick together, don’t betray each other, be honest.

When Ze was taken over by the parasite, he kept that promise. He didn’t really know why. If he said he could control it completely, that would be a lie. But there was something there, something small that allowed him to retain some humanity. He didn’t know why he told Chilled and betrayed his partner, Dumbdog, but he did. He didn’t need to keep the promise he made to his friend, but maybe that was the thing that let him keep some control in the end. A simple, unexplained promise.

“Chilled.” Ze nagged at his friend who was practically glued to the vitals screen, “I need to tell you something.” 

“Alright? Just tell me, then.” Chilled shrugged, obviously not noticing the urgency in Ze’s voice. Ze just sighed and grabbed Chilled’s shirt, pulling him down further into the admin room. “Follow me to weeb club or I’ll drag you there myself.” Chilled struggled out of his grip and made a face at Ze who just rolled his eyes. Ze headed down to weeb club and leant against the wall, Chilled came in shortly after looking slightly concerned. Every bone in Ze’s body was telling him to kill Chilled, and yet he wouldn’t, he couldn’t. “Remember that promise we made?” He started, trailing off slightly at the end.

“How could I forget?” Chilled replied, looking slightly uneasy now.

“Always be honest, yeah?” Ze continued, taking in a nervous breath of air.

“Stick together, don’t betray each other, yada yada. Yeah.”

“I’m one of them.”

“What?”

“The parasite, Chilled. The one we discovered took over two of our crew members? Yeah, I’m one of those crew members.”

“What the fuck Ze, you’re joking, right?”

“It’s telling me to kill you right now, Chilled. I’m not joking.”

Chilled backed a few steps away from him, “So, you’re gonna kill me, in weeb club of all places?!”

“No, no, god no, I’m not going to actually kill you.” Ze hurriedly replied, “Also, keep it down, you’re really loud! If he hears us we’re both dead!”

Chilled froze, glancing behind the weeb club shelf before shuffling closer to Ze. “Who’s he?”

Ze sighed, “My partner, the other infected crew…”

“Who is it?”

“Chilled, I’m warning you. I’ve managed to keep some level of control, but I’m sure as hell he hasn’t. Stay away from Apollo.”

There was silence between the two of them. Chilled just stood there with a look of shock and horror on his face. After a moment he finally spoke, “Why are you telling me this? I could just go and tell everyone right now!”

Ze grabbed Chilled’s arm as he glanced over at the exit to the admin room. “Listen, I’m telling you this because I trust you. I can’t promise I won’t kill anyone, but I can promise I won’t kill you.”

“What if everyone else is dead, what if… At the end, what if it’s between me and Apollo?” Chilled asked softly after calming down a little, he seemed to finally be registering what Ze was trying to tell him. 

“I would choose you, bud.”

———

Chilled took it rather well the first time he caught Ze killing someone. Actually, he probably took it better than Ze, the murderer himself. 

He remembered walking into comms, he was looking down at his task list and didn’t see the two figures in front of him until the doors hissed shut behind him. He looked up to see Ze standing over Tay, neither of them saw him. He watched Tay plead something quietly before Ze impaled her through the heart with… something. He didn’t get a good glimpse at it as it retracted back into Ze’s body.

“Ze?” Chilled said quietly, catching Ze’s attention as he watched his friend whip around to face him. “Shit, Chilled! I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine.” Chilled shrugged, Ze tried to avert his gaze away from Tay’s body. Ze still looked panicked, “No, it’s not fine! You didn’t need to see that! How about we go into o2? That’s a good idea.” Ze didn’t give Chilled much of a choice as he grabbed his friend's arm, opened the door to comms, and dragged him out. Chilled just followed until they were both standing next to the O2 trash chute, Ze still looked kind of apologetic. Chilled didn’t know what he was so panicked about, he didn’t really… care.

Is that… normal? 

That’s normal. That’s definitely normal. Not caring was very much normal.

“At least you have an alibi? Just say you were with me here in o2 the whole time.”

“I guess.”

There was a tense silence between them, Chilled didn’t want it to be like that. Ze trusted him and he was going to keep that trust, he wanted it to be like before when they weren’t just uncomfortable around each other all of the time. 

“Chilled, what’s your role?” Ze broke the silence, he was fidgeting with his hands, wanting to change the subject. Chilled just grinned, he had been waiting for that question for a while.

“Let’s just say you’re never getting voted out.”

———

Chilled watched Ze slip further into the vent, as much as he wanted to follow, he’d probably hurt himself. They were sitting just outside security, talking. Occasionally Chilled would check the cameras to see if anyone was coming, but it was mostly just uneventful. 

He tapped his finger on his leg as he waited for Ze to come back out of the vent, nothing. He was about to walk over and look down into it when he felt something grab his shoulder.

“JEsUS-” He yelped out before whipping around to see Ze grinning madly, it took him a few seconds to register what had happened in his head as his red suited friend just began laughing. 

“Oh, god, the look… on your face! Priceless!” Ze managed to splutter out between laughs, Chilled didn’t think it was that funny.  Although, he couldn’t help but smile. Moments like these made everything seem normal. They took his mind off of… everything. 

Chilled shook his head at Ze as he snapped out of his thoughts, he had to enjoy this while it lasted. “Yes yes, funny haha.” Chilled said before glancing back over through the security camera screens, he could see someone approaching through the electrical doors. “Oh, there’s someone coming. I can’t see who though.” 

Ze was silent as he glanced passed Chilled, “It’s Ozza, I can see in the dark.” He whispered. Chilled just glanced up at the dim lights above them, he could never see much; even when the lights were on. Night vision would be pretty handy for doing tasks and stuff, Ze was lucky. Although his night vision was probably more for the purpose of sneaking up on people. “Do you wanna- oh. Ze? Where’d you go?” Chilled asked, expecting to see his friend when he turned around. Instead, he was met with empty space.

The lights flickered before suddenly going off completely. Chilled took a few uneasy steps backwards and further into the security room. 

He heard something shuffling around in front of him. 

He heard someone yelling, it sounded like Ozza.

The lights suddenly came back on, he saw Jojo running around the corner towards them… He saw Ze standing over Ozza, blood splattered on the floor.

He saw Jojo recoil in horror as Ze looked up at her, panicked. 

It all happened in an instant, really. 

His attention was suddenly drawn to the arm of his suit sleeve where a small screen was built in, a report button flashed. He heard the sound of an alarm as Jojo reported the body. 

———

“I WATCHED ZE KILL OZZA!” Jojo insisted again, desperation showing in her voice, “HE’S LYING!”

“I was with Ze the entire time! You were the one standing over the body, maybe you killed him and reported it, just to blame it on Ze!” Chilled defended his friend knowing full well what actually happened, the look of pure distraught on Jojo’s face made him feel terrible. He didn’t know why he didn’t just throw Ze under the bus and end this nightmare, maybe there was a part of him that enjoyed it. He made a promise and for some reason he wouldn’t allow that promise to be broken.

“Chilled, why are you defending him?! You know it’s not even Ze anymore, it’s… that thing! He’s not the same person you once knew!” Jojo tried to convince him, he just shook his head. “ You’re not the same person I once knew, Jojo. The Jojo I know wouldn’t lie.” 

Chilled watched Jojo panic, he watched as everyone cast their votes. He looked down at the small screen in front of him, watching the number of votes he had go down as he dumped almost all of them on Jojo’s name.

‘ Votes remaining: 6’

‘ Votes remaining: 5’

‘ Votes remaining: 4’

‘ Votes remaining: 3’

He left three, just in case. Ze sure was lucky having a Mayor on his side. The results came back, Jojo was out. He didn’t even watch as they threw her into the lava pit, he didn’t want to look at the wrong he had caused.

Five of them left now, one more kill and Ze and Dumbdog would overpower the remaining crew. If Ze kept his promise, Chilled would be safe.

Ze would keep his promise, right?

What if he had been playing Chilled this whole time?

No, no he wouldn’t do that.

Ze wouldn’t do that…

But would the parasite?

Chilled looked across the admin room at Ze, who wasn’t looking at him, but instead Apollo. It made him uneasy, paranoid thoughts kept slipping into his head. He glanced around at the remaining crew, everyone was pretty much silent. It was just him, Ze, Dumbdog, Himi and Speedy. Dumbdog had a small smirk on his face, he was eyeing up the last of them remaining. Ze turned slightly and made a motion at Chilled that quite clearly told him to run.

And so, he did. He took the cowards way out and he ran. Nobody came after him, they didn’t need to, after all, it’s much easier to go for prey that doesn’t run. He wasn’t sure if he heard a scream or not, but he sure heard something. 

Maybe he would’ve known what had happened if he’d stayed, maybe he could’ve done something. But no, instead he just hid in O2. He hid in O2 like the coward he was. He hid, he didn’t know what amount of time had passed but he hid. He hid and wondered what had happened to his remaining friends.

There was nothing but silence. Deafening, insanity inducing silence. 

———

Ze watched Chilled run away. Dumbdog looked confused, but didn’t question it as the pair turned to the remaining crewmates in front of them. They both seemed to know something was up. 

“I’m gonna take a guess and say that Jojo wasn’t evil.” Speedy started before turning to Himi, they both backed away slightly, heading towards the door. It immediately locked in front of them. “Well this is dogshit.”

Ze grinned as he took a few steps closer to the pair, Dumbdog did the same. Chilled wasn’t here to see anything now.

Ze saw red. It tinted his vision, his mind. It was the colour the parasite showed him, the colour that represented its thirst for blood. He never stopped to question the parasites' motives, it was simply a thing that existed to turn people against each other. Its entire purpose was to manipulate and deceive, to live off of others grief in the rubble of the destruction they themselves created. 

Dumbdog moved first, impaling Himi in the chest quickly and cleanly. Speedy tried to run; he was fast, but Ze was faster. Speedy struggled a little before flopping limp as Ze pierced his heart. They were both dead in seconds. “What about Chilled?” Dumbdog asked and tilted his head to the side in question. Ze just laughed before replying, “He can’t hide forever.” 

“Guess not. I’ll find him later.” Dumbdog seemed to accept this as he nodded. Soon after, he knelt down beside the two crews’ bodies and grabbed Himi’s legs, dragging him across the room. Ze watched as he rounded the corner, vaguely in the direction of specimen. 

Now he had Chilled to worry about.

He didn’t need to keep his promise, but he would. Dumbdog would just kill him though, what if…

If…

Ze smiled to himself, he stood in silence for a moment and waited for Dumbdog to come back around the corner from moving Himi’s body. He knew what he had to do, the parasite didn’t seem to mind either, which was nice. He expected at least a tug of resistance against the thought of killing his own teammate, but maybe that’s just what the parasite was made for… Betrayal. Even of its own kind.

Ze was snapped out of his thoughts as Dumbdog rounded the corner, he looked confused as he saw Ze just standing there. They stared at each other for a second before Dumbdog tried to speak. “Ze-“ He was cut off as Ze lunged at him, clearly shocked. He tried to fight back, but Ze had the element of surprise, which ultimately led him to come out victorious. It was messy, there was blood all over everything. The vitals monitor was covered in it, the walls were covered in it… They were covered in it. Despite everything, Ze kept fighting, he wasn’t going to lose. Dumbdog kept trying to reason with him, but that reasoning quickly turned into insults. “You Traitor! Good for nothing-“

Eventually, Dumbdog fell limp beneath him. One of his major organs had been punctured, Ze couldn’t even tell what one under all of the flesh and blood. His partner’s parasitic mutations were still visible even after he was dead; sharp, unnatural teeth littering his body. 

Now he was alone. 

Ze slid down the wall to sit beside his dead partner. Although there were still two of them left, he still felt like the only person on Polus. He felt, quite simply, lonely.

He just sat there, not paying attention to anything. 

…Maybe if he was, he would have noticed the tiny, flesh-coloured creature exit Dumbdog’s body through his open wound.

Maybe if he was, he would have done something about it; stopped it, killed it even.

Maybe if he was, he would have taken note of it heading in the general direction of O2; the direction he had told Chilled to run.

Chapter Text

Chilled had a gun. He wasn’t a mafia member or a serial killer or anything; but he had a gun.

And he was damn well going to use it… At some point, anyway. He only had three bullets after all, and he didn’t really want to waste them. 

He didn’t want to shoot a member of the town, either.

He had a schedule, it helped him get through the days knowing there was some sort of organisation in his life. Wake up, help the town investigate the murders, maybe mess with a few people, do some stuff in town, go home, go to sleep, wake up… repeat. It was just normal for the town, the lynchings, the burnings, the murders… Some of it Chilled didn’t agree with, but he had grown up in the town, he had known these people his entire life. He hadn’t known any different, he hadn’t known any different from the death that plagued him everyday.

Well, not every day, but most days. There was a town meeting held at 10 AM exactly every day, except for Sunday. They would gather in the town square and attempt to find out who the mafia members or neutrals were. Chilled kept track of everyone who had died on a slip of paper, he wrote down their roles next to their names as well. So far 10 towns members had been murdered and 6 had been wrongly lynched… One mafia member had died to the serial killer, and one had been lynched. 

Not a very good ratio, in Chilled’s opinion. 

Some nights he would sit and stare at the gun on his bedside table. His fingers would twitch, like he wanted to pull the trigger, he wanted to see the blood of a mafia member spilled. Sometimes he thought about the fact he might get it wrong; he might kill somebody innocent. 

That usually stopped his staring.

Most nights he would just sleep; sleep, wake up in the morning, complete the day and so on.

A little repetitive, don’t you think?

Chilled yawned as he slipped into his jacket, he ran his fingers through his hair and looked at himself in the reflection of the living room window. He walked down the hallway, turning on the handle of the front door and pushing against it as he found himself blinking in the new morning light. He stared up at the sky for a moment before looking to his right; his neighbour, Ze, was also just exiting his house.

“Hey, Ze!”

Ze looked up, slightly surprised. He smiled and waved at Chilled before replying,

“Hey buddy, how’s it going?”

Chilled jogged up to meet with him, they walked down the path together into the town square, just chatting. He trusted Ze, they were friends. The confirmed sheriff had also found him to be innocent; so that was a plus. Ze was one of the nicest people he knew anyway, he was a member of the town with Chilled; no doubt in his mind. He was a doctor, so that was also a plus, they simply looked out for each other. They were buddies. 

They reached the square quickly. The Mayor, Jvckk, was trying to settle everyone down. Instead of the usual 0 - 2 murders, today there had been three. One by the ambusher, one by another mafia member, and one by the serial killer. Guess all of the ‘evils’ had decided they were out for blood last night. What hit Chilled the most though, was that he knew two of the dead people personally. Junk, the medium, and Tay, the doctor. They talked quite a bit during their free time, he and Tay would sometimes go to the market together.

It was sad, but he was used to it.

He and Ze exchanged a glance, Ze had been friends with them too. Tay had been killed by the ambusher, Junk by the serial killer. The third death, by the mafioso, was an investigator. Chilled didn’t know their name.

As everyone started to calm down, Jvckk began to speak.

“Looking at Tay’s will, she tried to visit Chilled last night. The ambusher must’ve been waiting outside his house, did anyone else visit Chilled and spot anything?”

Everyone looked around to see if anybody had any information, there was nothing. Jvckk just sighed.

“Any Investigating roles got anything?”

“Well, uh…”

All eyes turned to where Kara was standing.

“I investigated Ze last night, he could be the bodyguard, arsonist, or godfather.”

All eyes flipped from Kara to Ze, Ze looked confused.

“That’s odd, I’m a doctor… What made you come up with those options?”

“I could see something that looked faintly like a bulletproof vest in the window, there was also the faint smell of gas…”

“Gas?”

Ze’s eyes widened, he looked back over at his house.

“I smelt gas faintly this morning, I think my house may have been doused in gasoline by an arsonist…”

Everyone looked shocked, Ze looked even more terrified, almost like he was about to cry. Chilled gave him a pat on the back. Nobody didn’t believe Ze, most people knew him, after all, an arsonist was very bad news.

“I think he’s telling the truth, he came up as innocent in my investigations.”

Brood, the confirmed sheriff, gave Ze a quick nod, Ze just flashed him a faint smile back. Jvckk looked slightly panicked for a second before taking in a deep breath, he seemed rather stressed.

“Ze, if you’d prefer staying at someone else's house tonight, I’m sure nobody would mind.”

Chilled looked over at Ze who slowly nodded, he spoke up quickly.

“I have a spare room, he can come stay with me.”

Chilled flashed Ze a thumbs up, Ze just grinned back at him with gratitude. Soon everyone had finished sharing their information and they called it a day; no one needed to be called to the stand just yet. Chilled was about to head over to Ze as he noticed Ozza talking to him in a hushed tone, he then waved and started walking over to where Rep was. Ze waved back and looked around before walking over and beginning to talk to Skadj, Chilled steadily jogged over to the pair.

“Hey guys!”

“Oh, hey Chilled.”

Skadj grinned at him, Ze turned around from where he was facing away from Chilled and greeted him as well.

“Hey bud.”

“Do you guys want to head over to the market? I could do with a fresh pastry or something.”

Ze shrugged, he still looked a little shaken up, Skadj glanced at him before nodding.

“If Ze wants to go, yeah.”

“Oh, uh, honestly, sure! Only if you shout me a drink after…”

Chilled rolled his eyes at Ze and started in the direction of the town's market, Skadj dragged Ze along by the arm behind him. He looked back on his two friends, for a moment forgetting that life was almost never this normal.

-

Chilled groaned as he dragged Ze home, he had somehow been persuaded into a game of pool; which he lost, meaning he had to buy both Ze and Skadj drinks. 

“I still can’t believe you lost, after declaring with such confidence that you were going to win…”

Ze was still snickering, Chilled grumbled something under his breath before replying.

“I can’t believe I lost at the same bar I work at, the ONE DAY I had off, man.”

Ze wheezed again as they reached his house, Chilled opened the door and gestured for Ze to step inside. “Ladies first.”

“Oh, what a gentleman.”

They both laughed as Ze entered his house, Chilled glanced back behind them, frowning when he noticed a humanoid figure staring at them from a few houses to their left. They were wearing some kind of face mask, it looked oddly demonic. Chilled couldn’t properly see their face, it was much too dark to see anything anyway. Chilled shuffled inside behind Ze and locked the door behind them. He shrugged it off and led Ze down the hallway, he surprisingly hadn’t been to Chilled’s house yet, despite them being friends for such a long time. “Here’s your room, the bed is pretty shitty, but it should be fine.”

Ze smiled and yawned, they were both pretty exhausted. He paused for a moment before asking, “Do you mind if I head to bed now?”

“Go for it. I’m gonna head to sleep as well.” 

Ze flopped onto his new bed, and Chilled slowly shut the door before heading towards his own bedroom. He too flopped onto the bed, not bothering to change clothes. He took one last glance at the gun on his bedside table before slowly dozing off.

-

The next week flew by for Chilled, everything and everyone blurring together into one big bundle of nothing. Ze was still sleeping over at his house during the night; probably worried about burning to death. But he went back to his house multiple times during the day. 

It was getting late, Ze had gone home for the afternoon, but he hadn’t come back yet. Maybe he had decided to stay at his own house for a change? It was odd that he didn’t say anything about it, so Chilled thought he would just go check on him anyway.

He stared up at the darkening sky as he slowly walked up to Ze’s door, he was about to knock when he frowned; hearing voices inside. They were faint, Chilled didn’t really want to intrude, but curiosity got the better of him. He slowly pushed the door open, it made a slight creak, but he didn’t think anyone noticed. He rounded the corner slowly, treading lightly along the wooden floors. Three people sat down around Ze’s table, Ze was one of them, the other two Chilled recognised as Rep and Ozza. Chilled had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he noticed the mask Ozza was wearing, it looked the same as the one he had seen the person staring at them a week ago had. An envelope lay in the centre of the table, along with a gun and a blood red rose in a vase. 

“Skadj is ambushing outside of Kara’s house, we hope to possibly get a doctor, there shouldn’t be anyone else visiting her…”

Ze nodded as Ozza relayed information to him. Rep murmured something under his breath that Chilled didn’t quite catch, but Ozza seemed like he was agreeing to whatever he was saying.

It’s not what I think it is… It can’t be.

“It’s settled, Rep you go and take care of them. Ozza and I will continue to discuss here. I’ll probably head over to Chilled’s soon.”

Ze had a smile on his face, it seemed sweet but also twisted. Rep nodded and began heading towards the hallway, Chilled panicked and quickly scurried into a cupboard; making quite a bit of noise as he did so. Everyone stopped talking, Rep had frozen on the spot too.

“You heard that?”

Nobody said anything for a moment, but Chilled assumed somebody had probably nodded. He heard the sound of a gun's safety clicking off, his heart was pounding, his chest was tight. He didn’t realise he was holding his breath until he started suffocating himself, he took in a shaky breath and banged his arm against something by accident . He heard footsteps getting closer to the cupboard he was hiding in as the doors were suddenly flung open. Rep was glaring at him, the usually friendly look on his face replaced with something else; Chilled couldn’t tell if it was surprise or annoyance. He tried to struggle away from Rep as he was hauled out of the cupboard, Ozza came up behind him without him realising and clamped a hand over his mouth. Chilled tried to yell as he was thrown down onto the ground, a gun pointed at his head. He looked up in front of him to where Ze was still sitting silently.

“Ze? Ze this is some sort of joke, right?”

Chilled really wanted to believe this wasn’t real, Ze looked slightly sad.

“Curiosity killed the cat, Chilled.”

“No, I can’t believe that- I won’t believe that you…”

Chilled spluttered out his words all over the place, Ze just sighed and stood up in front of him.

“You weren’t supposed to know about this, Chilled.”

“Yeah, I can tell, ya sicko!”

Chilled snarled in reply and Ze nodded to Ozza who grabbed the envelope off the table and went into the other room.

“I don’t want to kill you.”

Chilled shook his head, he still couldn’t bring himself to believe that Ze of all people was…

The Godfather .

“Just do it, you coward !”

Ze flinched as Chilled spat at his feet, muttering a profanity under his breath.

“How long, Ze? You can’t have been their leader for as long as I’ve known you, right ?!”

Ze was silent for a few seconds, he replied quietly.

“Since I was 17.”

Chilled was frozen to the spot, he felt anger, he felt sadness, he felt betrayal.

“All this time…”

“I’m sorry, Chilled.”

Ze took a step towards him, but was cut off as Chilled lashed out with his one free hand; the gun was then pushed deeper into the back of his head.

“Just, KILL ME ALREADY.”

Ze gritted his teeth, taking in a deep breath.

“We were never going to kill you Chilled, I’ve wanted to recruit you for a while now.”

“Recruit me? What makes you think that I would choose to join you ?”

Ozza returned from the other room, envelope in hand.

“I never said you got to choose. Maybe in time you will see the truth about this town, and maybe then you will work with us more… willingly.”

Ze nodded to Ozza who handed him the letter, they both stared at him, waiting for him to open it. He took it out with shaking hands, his eyes widening as he skimmed over the words.

“We shall simply give you some time to think about our offer.”

Chilled wished they had shot him right then and there.

-

Ze felt bad, he didn’t usually feel bad. He was good at making people think he felt bad, but this was the first time in a while he actually felt regret.

Chilled was a good person, maybe a little insane, but he was a good person. For a while they thought he was actually the serial killer, but after a little investigation they were disproven. It was just Chilled being Chilled.

Unlike the town; he deserved to live.

Ze knew exactly the things Ozza had written in that envelope, threats, secrets, blackmail. They didn’t use it often, only when they had to. Only when certain people were too curious for their own good, certain people they didn’t plan on killing. Chilled would come around eventually, he would see the truth eventually. The years of slaughter, of death; the years of blood flowing through the streets. The years of corruption and of false promises. They would put an end to that.

The town’s mafia had been previously run by his father; he knew all of its current members personally, he had grown up with them. Chilled always seemed like a perfect fit for their group, he was good, but still willing to get his hands dirty. Ze had seen the gun in his room; of course he had. He knew most things about most people, he knew every little secret, every whisper… Ozza was very good at picking up on that sort of stuff.

Ze looked over to where Chilled was standing on the other side of the square, there was a distant look in his eyes. He didn’t dare look at Ze, he didn’t dare look at anyone, really. People had tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t say a word; not after the things they had threatened him with. 

That was why he felt bad; finding the secrets to silence Chilled of all people was not something he wanted to do. He was usually so active and talkative, not necessarily helping solve a murder, but just kind of being there.

Chilled was currently getting a lot of suspicion tossed his way, but he just took it in silence.

Tense, chilling silence.

-

Chilled stood, he watched, he kept his mouth shut.

Ze wouldn’t actually do anything to her… to me…would he?

For once, he didn’t know the answer. He still didn’t say a word.

“Chilled? Just talk to us!” Jvckk looked worried for him, probably adding even more stress into his already bustling mind. It was no surprise that their mayor was slowly losing it. But Chilled didn’t move, not even a shake of his head to acknowledge anyone. Kara suddenly cleared her throat, sharing her results from the night prior.

“I investigated Chilled last night,” she started, “he could be a Veteran, Vigilante… Mafioso or ambusher.”

All eyes turned to Chilled, he looked a little surprised, but still didn’t say anything. 

“I don’t think he’s the ambusher… but mafioso isn’t out of the question. Maybe the mafia set up an ambusher outside of his house that one night to keep him safe from investigators or something?”

Chilled was internally panicking, they trusted him, didn’t they? He didn’t say anything, he couldn’t say anything, if he did, they would hurt her- they would hurt…

“Chilled?”

“We should vote him to the stand, he has to talk then, right?”

“…not acting normal.”

 Everything was a blur, words, people… accusations were hurled at him as suddenly he was standing with a rope tied loosely around his neck. He wanted to cry, but he didn’t. He wanted to say more than just a few words, but he couldn’t.

“I have been blackmailed.” He managed to splutter out eventually, hoping that Ze- The mafia- wouldn’t mind a few short words.

“Blackmailed? Did they threaten you somehow?”

Chilled didn’t even shake his head, he wouldn’t; he couldn’t. Soon enough, whispers began to start.

“ …What if he’s lying?”

“Kara said he has a gun…”

“I’ll vote innocent for now, but I don’t trust him…”

He looked over to Jvckk, whose face was conflicted, the dark bags under his eyes seemed to get even darker.

“I’m voting innocent, maybe he can talk in the morning?”

The votes were in, 6 guilty, 9 innocent, 2 abstainers. It made Chilled realise how little of the town was actually left, 15 of them in total, since Jvckk’s vote counted as 3. He was helped down from the stand by Kara, who was still giving him a weird look. Chilled doubted he would be able to talk in the morning, but he would never join them, he would never join the mafia.

-

It had been a week, Chilled still hadn’t said a word.

With the serial killer gone, it was looking up for the town. That was until Chilled counted how many of them were left. 8 in total, 4 townies, 4 mafia… Well, 4 townies if you included him, he didn’t know where his loyalties lay anymore. Of course the town still had Jvckk, their mayor, whose vote counted thrice, so at least that gave him the upper hand. Not that Jvckk seemed to like his job; or the town for that matter. Chilled often caught him rambling on under his breath about how ‘maybe the mafia was right’.

Chilled often caught himself thinking the same thing, he knew who the mafia was, people he thought were his friends… Maybe they were right.

No, that was stupid, that was insane, he had grown up in this town his entire life…

Then again, so had they.

It was currently the morning after they had lynched the serial killer; no deaths last night. Courtilly was looking rather panicked as she whispered in a hushed tone to Kara, who was beside her. She called out to the Mayor suddenly. “Jvckk? Kara was attacked by the Mafia last night… I healed her. By process of elimination, it can’t be you, it’s probably not Chilled, so…” She finished speaking and glanced over at the rest of the group. Ze looked annoyed, but he kept up his doctor act. “Odd you mention that, Tilly. I’m the one who healed Kara last night.”  

“ Lies !”

Kara spat the words out at him, anger evident on her face. “You said there was an arsonist, nobody else has come up with the results I got for you, nobody had burned either! You’re the godfather, you mafia scum.”

Ze looked slightly taken back by Kara’s outburst; so did Rep, who was standing beside him. Jvckk silenced everyone by suddenly speaking up.

“I already know Ze is the godfather.”

Chilled looked up at Jvckk surprised, so did Ze and the rest of the mafia.

“Well, you don’t, because I’m the docto-“

Jvckk cut Ze off by laughing loudly, Chilled didn’t like the look in his eyes. It was an insane look, the look of a man who had finally lost it.

“Don’t play dumb with me, I’m not stupid, Rep- you… you’re the mafioso, Ozza is some kind of blackmailer, he’s being silencing Chilled somehow… Skadj is the ambusher… The one that killed Tay, and Ze, the Godfather, who would’ve known?! ME, I’VE KNOWN, AND I’VE DONE NOTHING ABOUT IT!” Jvckk looked over at Kara and Tilly, who were staring at him with worry. He laughed again, “I JUST WANT THIS TO END, WHY LEAD A TOWN WHEN THERE IS NO TOWN TO LEAD ?!”

Chilled took a few steps back as Jvckk pulled a small handgun from under his shirt, not expecting him to start pointing it at the remaining townsfolk in the slightest. 

“JVCKK CALM DOWN, YOU’RE NOT ONE OF THEM!” Kara shouted out at him as he smiled,

“I DON’T CARE ANYMORE KARA!”

Jvckk pulled the trigger, once, then once again.

Kara, Courtilly, both dead.

Chilleds eyes widened as the gun was pointed at him, he tried, he really tried to stop the words spilling from his mouth, but they just kept coming. Days of not talking had slowly built up into one big catastrophe of a paragraph.

“Oh my god don’t you dare I haven’t been through all this shit just to freaking DIE, please don’t hurt her, please don’t hurt her Ze... Fuck you Ozza, fuck you Rep, fuck you- actually Skadj you’re alright, but holy wowzers that was pretty insane Jvckk, are they gonna kill you now? Are they gonna kill me now? I’ll join you, I’m done with this shit anyway… Kill me instead, don't hurt her, don't hurt them, not again, please not again-"

Chilled cut his monologue off as Jvckk lowered the gun. “What did I do? Why did I…” He managed to stutter out, dropping the gun to  the floor. It hit the gravel with a soft crash that echoed all around the town, reminding them of just how empty it was. 

Ze grinned at Jvckk and glanced in Chilled’s direction.

“So fellas, how would you like to join the Mafia?”

Chapter Text

Nobody saw Ze’s wings unless he wanted them to. Often he stretched them in the mirror, marveling at their purity. Often he went out running in the woods, suddenly lifting himself off the ground in a flurry of feathers. Often he sat, late at night, in his living room, using them to bury himself in a blanket of white. 

Many people called him an angel. He was, in a sense. A protector of someone. A guardian.

He wasn’t like angels in the stories, not holy in the least. Not what could be defined as good. He didn’t care what his target's morals were, he didn’t care what they did. He only needed them to survive. 

He still had a life, he still had friends. He knew the people of the town well. They knew what he was, but never asked what he really looked like. What they really looked like.

His wings. 

Although they knew what he was, they didn’t try to lynch him. Not like they did to the others who were different. There was no use in hanging a protector that could still protect after death; they would simply be losing an ally and a friend. Especially since Ze’s target was a member of the town, Ozza, an investigator, there was simply no point.

He was safe.

He could protect his target twice a week, he had none left at the moment, but since Ozza was well known he would be safe. A doctor or something would be healing him, Ze was sure.

Ozza was safe.

He went to sleep, thinking that everything was okay.

-

When Ze woke up that morning, something was off. He got up feeling hazy, he had a burning pain in the back of his head.

He had a drink of water and tried to shake it off.

It wasn’t until he got out the door that he realised he hadn’t had any breakfast. It was odd, he always had breakfast. He was rather forgetful today. He didn’t bother going back inside to eat, he could already see people beginning to gather in the town square. He began to walk over to them, pausing when he felt something brush up against his hand.

A white feather.

He looked over his shoulder, his wings weren’t there, the feather was gone.

Apparently he was seeing things, great.

There was a lot of commotion in the main area of town that day, the Mayor looked even more stressed than usual. He didn’t pay attention to the new bodies in the square, instead he looked around at the people.

They looked familiar, but when he tried to call out, he couldn’t remember their names…

What?

Of course he could, there was Chilled, Brood, Ari, Spicerat… And… K… Kara! Yes, Kara. He remembered them all perfectly well, he had known them for ages, after all. He remembered the Mayor… The Mayor whose name was… Skadj! Yes, Skadj. Of course he remembered the Mayor’s name.

What the hell was going on with him? He was probably just tired. Yes, tired. That was it.

He tried to reassure himself, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling something was wrong. Skadj, the Mayor, suddenly turned to him as he approached, a worried look on his face. “Morning Ze, uhm… I’m not sure how this works, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Ze replied uneasily.

“Have you not seen?” Skadj bit his lip, gesturing over to a spot over the other side of the town square.

Lying dead on the ground was Ozza. He certainly remembered his target's name, how could he forget?

Forget what?

No, nevermind.

His whole body froze, he felt the pain in the back of his head worsen. “No, no, he can’t be dead, he’s not… I couldn’t protect him, I…”

“Ze, calm down, It’s going to be fine.”

“ It’s NOT!” Ze screeched out, squeezing his eyes shut. He felt another feather brush his hand. What happened now? What would happen to him?

Suddenly, he opened his eyes again. Staring at Skadj in confusion, a smile plastered on his face. “Oh, sorry, what was that?”

“Pardon? Ze, are you alright?”

“Uh, yeah I’m fine… What- what was your name again? It seems to have slipped my mind.”

“Uhh, Skadj? Are you sure you’re alright Ze?” The man in front of him responded. Skadj. “I was talking about Ozza being dead.”

“Ozza?” The name seemed familiar to Ze, “Who’s Ozza?”

“Ze…”

“Ozza doesn’t sound familiar, maybe you got their name wrong, S… Was it Skadj?” Ze titled his head to the side, he felt something brush up against his hand once more. Yet another feather, he always wondered why he had wings. He was supposed to protect… protect something. No, that couldn’t be right. Skadj looked at him with wide eyes and pointed to the other side of the town square. “His body’s over there… Do you need a doctor?”

Ze followed Skadj’s pointing, he couldn’t see anything. “What are you talking about? There’s nothing there. Maybe you need a doctor.” He suggested, Skadj backed away a little. He shrugged it off, watching as the Mayor went over and began talking to someone hurriedly. He caught snippets of their conversation.

“… wrong with Ze.”

“…Help?…”

“…Forgetting.”

He frowned, nothing was wrong with him. Speaking of, he needed to stretch his wings. If anything was wrong, it was the amount of fresh air they had gotten in the last few days; little to none.

Wait, something was wrong? What was he talking about? There was a name on the tip of his tongue, he wanted to say it, but couldn’t…

Couldn’t what? What couldn’t he do?

Nevermind, it was fine. He was fine.

Was he forgetting something?

Ze closed his eyes for a moment, only lightly. He felt a flurry of motion behind him, a few stray feathers landed on the ground beside him. A pair of pure white wings protruded out of his back, it was funny, he didn’t remember that many feathers falling off before.

They just kept coming. 

He didn’t realise everyone was staring at him until he looked up, it was silent. Deathly silent. Had they seen his wings before? They must’ve, he couldn’t remember.

“ Ze?” He recognised the voice that called out, but once again, he couldn’t quite put his finger on their name.

“Who… What?”

Wait, how did he get here? What was happening again?

“What’s going on, who are you?” 

Faces began to get blurry in his mind, they were jumbled together in one big pile of nothingness.

“What am I doing here? Why do I… What are my wings doing here? Why are there feathers on the ground? Who… Who is Ozza? Why is their name in my mind?”

There were shapes, they began closing in on him. There was a sharp pain stabbing through the pair of wings on his back. He looked over his shoulder, surprised to see yet another group of feathers beginning to fall off. He tried to get away from the shapes to no avail, he tried calling for help, but the voices of the things around him drowned his own out.

“ What’s wrong?!”

“Are you alright?!”

“Ze…”

“…you!”

“Please…”

It was all too much, everything was too loud. He simply gave in, he gave in and fell to his knees in a blanket of white feathers.

-

Ze woke up in an unfamiliar place, an unfamiliar bed, with an unfamiliar person watching over him. He woke up in an uncomfortable position, his wings at an awkward angle beneath him. When he moved many of the feathers didn’t move with him, he found they were no longer attached to his wings. 

“Who are you?” Was his first question, he felt like he should know, but he didn’t. The person in front of him looked rather sad.

“It’s me, Chilled, we’re friends, remember?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are. What am I doing here?”

“You’re at my house… You’ve been here plenty of times before. Ze, are you sure you don’t know who I am?”

“Am I… Supposed to?”

“…So you don’t remember me, what about Skadj? Ozza?”

“I’ve never heard of them. I’m sorry, but can I go now? Did you kidnap me?”

“We are literally neighbours.”

Ze paused, he sat up in the bed he was seated in. More feathers began flying around the room at the sudden movement; a lot more than he would have liked. He looked back at his wings, they were almost bare. 

He didn’t remember them being like that; in fact, the only thing he did remember was them not being like that. Had he done something wrong? Had he failed somehow? He felt like he had failed something… someone.

Ozza.

Who was Ozza again?

“God, my head hurts…” Ze held a hand up to his forehead, wincing as another pulse of pain coursed through him. “Do you know what happened to me? I can’t… remember…”

“Ozza died.”

“Who’s… Who’s Ozza?”

“Your… Target.”

“My target?”

“Ze, you’re a guardian angel, Ozza was your target.”

“Ozza…” Ze remembered that name, vaguely. There was something at the edge of his mind, he wanted to remember it but couldn’t. It was someone telling him something, they had wings, like he did. It was someone telling him… something about… memories. Something about death. Something about failing to protect…

What was happening again?

More pain found its way into Ze’s head, he looked around, unsure as to where he was. He hadn’t been here before, had he? He looked up at the person standing next to him, then turned back to look at his wings.

They weren’t supposed to look like that. 

“What? Where… When, WHO ARE YOU?!”

“Ze, we were just talking, CALM DOWN!” The stranger looked confused, maybe also concerned. Ze practically jumped out of the bed he was sitting in and tried to make a run for the door. The stranger didn’t follow him, he managed to make it outside the small house with relative ease. Everything looked weird, everything looked unfamiliar. Everything looked wrong. The sun was at its central point in the sky, a few stray clouds drifted over it. The town looked so normal, so incredibly normal.

There was a blood stain on the ground. He took a few steps back, it was gone.

He heard voices calling out for him, voices on the other side of town. Out of nowhere there were people surrounding him, he tried to use his wings as a protective cover but it was no use, more feathers just flew off them. He was left with what looked like a skeleton of his wings, it was simply unnatural. It felt wrong.

He heard voices, he heard people calling his name.

His name.

What was his name again?

-

Ze woke up alone, he was in his bed, in his house. He looked behind him, he didn’t know why, but he expected something to be there.

Odd, why would there be anything there? Behind him of all places?

He hopped up out of bed, already dressed, and made his way to the kitchen. Surprised to see Chilled sitting at his kitchen counter, waiting for him. 

“Chilled? What are you doing here?”

“Ze?! You remember me now?!”

“Of course I do! You’re probably my best friend.” Ze smiled at Chilled, wondering what in the world he was going on about.

“What about everyone else?”

“Everyone else? Like, Skadj and that? Yeah, of course I remember them. Why wouldn’t I?”

“But you- actually, nevermind, it’s fine.” Chilled grinned back at him. “How are your wings doing?”

“My wings? Is that a metaphor or something?”

“Yes, your wings. Why would that be a metaphor?” Chilled suddenly looked confused again, maybe even slightly weary. Something weird was going on with him today. 

“Chilled, are you feeling alright? I don’t have wings.”

“Uhh, Ze, what’s your role?”

“I’m a survivor, how could you forget?”

The look on Chilled’s face made it seem like the world was crumbling down.

Chapter Text

Although they were previously members of the mafia, Ze had come to enjoy talking to Chilled and Ari. 

They had been lynched by the town after being caught killing and cleaning up a body. Ari was hung, Chilled was executed by the jailor.

Each night he spoke to them, they always tried to convince him that the mafia was right. It didn’t last long when they realised he wasn’t listening though, so they spoke about other things.

He didn’t know where the other ghosts went, maybe they had completed their purpose, moved on to some other place.

Chilled and Ari stayed. But tonight was different, tonight there was a new ghost. 

Cheesy, the jester. The jester they had just lynched.

He would probably be safe, he was confident in his ability to convince Cheesy not to haunt him. When he made it to his house that night, he could hear the jester already conversing with the two mafia members. The pair often hung out in his living room. 

“ Go for the Jailor… Or, no, the Mayor!” It was Chilled’s voice he heard first, his tone made Ze feel uneasy. Sometimes he just had to remember that Chilled was on the opposite side. He was a member of the mafia.

“ Maybe the investigator, she’s been getting on my nerves lately.” Ari’s voice chimed in, he sighed. He should probably cut in before they actually convince Cheesy to haunt a member of the town.

 “Can you guys, like, stop trying to convince Cheesy to haunt townies?”
“Oh, hey Ze.” Chilled’s ghost floated over to him, there was a grin plastered on his face. Ze knew that the mafioso couldn’t actually see him, there was a barrier of sorts between the living and the dead. Chilled could only see the faint outline of his figure. 

“ Oh, Ze actually is a medium? Hi Ze! ” Cheesy grinned in his general direction, Ze smiled back, although the jester couldn’t see him, and walked past to sit on the couch. 

“Hey Cheesy. Please don’t listen to those two. Don’t haunt me, at least.” 

“ I won’t haunt you. But I can’t say I won’t listen to them; they are right, you know. The town is corrupt.”

“THE TOWN ISN’T CORRUPT! CHILLED AND ARI ARE FEEDING YOU LIES!”

The ghosts were silent after his sudden outburst, Ze was just sick of Chilled and Ari telling him that.

“Sorry, I just hear that from Chilled and Ari a lot.”

“ Because we’re RIGHT Ze.” Ari added in, she sounded like she meant it, but Ze couldn’t cope with the fact that the things he grew up believing were lies. 

“The… The Mafia kills people! You can’t say that you’re the good guys!”

“ The town kills people too. They lynch everyone who is different. How long until they start accusing YOU of witchcraft, huh Ze? How long until they turn on their local medium…” 

For once, Ze didn’t have an answer. He hated that he could see exactly what their point was. He hated that he was starting to think they were right.

“No, no you’re wrong! It’s not witchcraft…” Ze shook his head in disbelief, Chilled shrugged at him and Ari sighed. Suddenly Cheesy cut in.

“ I’m going to haunt Junk.” 

“Junk? The bodyguard?” Ze responded, it was an odd choice, 

“ The old man is too old as it is.”

“I don’t even think he’s sixty.”

“ Not important! He’s going!” 

Cheesy seemed to have made up his mind, Ze didn’t try to argue with him. Poor Junk. He felt bad, but he didn’t actually know who any mafia members were. Chilled and Ari obviously wouldn’t tell him. Ze tried to forget about it as he and the ghosts chatted for the rest of the night; near the end of their conversation Chilled and Ari began getting less and less talkative, they kept whispering to each other so he couldn’t hear.

It was weird, but he just shrugged it off.

They would be fine tomorrow night, he was sure.

-

Junk was dead, haunted by the jester, just like he knew would happen. 

As he walked into town that day he got a lot of side eyes, he wasn’t sure why; not until he heard them whispering.

“ He’s a medium, right? He could’ve told Cheesy not to kill anyone…”

“Maybe he’s working with the mafia, maybe he’s faking it…”

“I can’t believe he killed Junk…”

The whispers seemed to have no care for who heard them, they floated around town, distracting Ze from the rest of the daily meeting. When the sun began to set and they were allowed to leave, Ze rushed home. 

Junk wasn’t there.

He always wondered where all the other ghosts went, honestly, he wouldn’t be surprised if Chilled and Ari double killed them; sent them to double hell or something.

Who knows.

When he opened the door to his house, it was silent. The usual chattering of the two dead mafia now simply silent. Ze called out to his two companions, he noticed Ari standing in the kitchen doorway, she didn’t say anything.

“Ari? Chilled? What are you doing in the kitchen?”

Chilled was sitting up on a barstool, Ari was staring out the window.

“ How was your day today, Steven?”

“What?” Ze fiddled around with the hem of his shirt, the two mafia members were acting strangely. They never called him by his real name. “Why are you guys acting like this? Also, where’s Cheesy?”

“ He went out exploring. Now, how was your day, Steven? What did they say about you?”

“They- they didn’t say anything.” Ze stuttered a little, thinking back to the whispers bouncing around in the town square. 

“Are you sure?” Ari gave him a glare, seemingly seeing through his lying. “ We heard what they said.”

“They didn’t mean it!”

“ Why are you still defending them?”

“Why do you think they’re your friends?”

“Why are you so blind, Ze?!”

Ze took a few steps back from the pair of ghosts, not that there was anywhere to run in his own house. “Guys, please stop acting so weird!”

“ Why, Ze? Don’t want to hear the truth?”

“It’s not our fault they hate you…”

“They’re going to lynch you next if you don’t do something…”

Ze felt himself panicking, their words were finally getting to him. What if they did lynch him, what if they thought he was a witch or something, working with the mafia?!

“No… they wouldn’t… Would they?” His voice cracked at the end a little, he looked over at where the mafioso and janitor were still staring at him. 

“ Oh, they would.”

“Aren’t you gonna do something about it?”

“You’ve gotta get to them, before they get to you.”

“I don’t like what you guys are suggesting.”

“ …Do it, Ze. There’s a knife in the top drawer.”

“That doctor’s been rather talkative lately, especially after healing that investigator. I heard him… saying things. The town will listen to what he says, not you…”

“He lives at 13… Only a few houses over… Nobody will know.”

“You can’t seriously be asking me to do this!” Ze tried to get out of it, but the ghost's voices were too loud in his head. He didn’t know they would do this to him.

“ I’m not asking, Ze. You know you have to.”

“I don’t!”

“ If you don’t, someone else will. If you don’t kill him they’ll just lynch more innocent people.”

Before Ze knew it, he was opening the top drawer and pulling out a kitchen knife. After that it was a bit of a blur as he walked over to the door, Ari and Chilled followed him, whispering more and more encouragement in his ears. After a while, he couldn’t distinguish between their voices and his own thoughts anymore, maybe he did want to do this. Maybe they were right.

“ 13…”

“You’re finally seeing the truth, Ze.”

“You know you want to do this.”

“…Don’t enjoy it too much, but listen to his screams. You’ll save so many, you’ll be a hero!”

“A hero, Ze. You’ll be a hero… Enjoy it…”

“You’re doing the right thing…”

Ze glanced around to see if anyone was watching him as he came up to the supposed doctors house. He wasn’t really going to do this, was he?

He… was. He was already here now.

He couldn’t turn back, he knew what would happen if he did. People would die. More people.

“Do it, Ze.”

Ze tried the handle on the front door; it was unlocked. He could hear movement in the kitchen; but nobody seemed to notice him come in. His grip on the knife grew tighter, adrenaline began to pump through his body. He walked down the hallway and peeked around the corner, the doctor's back was turned. 

“He’s not looking, do it.”

Ze didn’t feel like he was controlling his actions anymore, his feet made no sound as he snuck up behind his unsuspecting victim. He watched as they turned, a look of horror on their face as he plunged the knife straight into their stomach, no hesitation. They screamed, clutching at their stomach as they dropped to the ground. Ze knelt down beside them and pushed them further into the floor, getting a clear view of their neck, he slit their throat; not wanting them to scream any louder, The life left their eyes in seconds as they bled out on the tiles below them.

Ze’s mind only just seemed to register what he did as he stared blankly at the knife in his hand. He turned it over in his fingers, the blood of the doctor running down his hand. 

Oh my god.  

He almost dropped the knife as he began sprinting away, he actually did it. The voices of Chilled and Ari followed close behind him, he didn’t listen to their celebratory whispers as he ran straight home.

He rushed into the kitchen and washed the blood off of the knife, it took longer to get it off his hands. As soon as it was clean he practically chucked the sharp object across the room. Turning, he noticed Ari staring at him, Chilled too. They both had grins on their faces as they began getting closer to him.

His hands were shaking, he had never seen his friends like this. He didn’t expect them to do this…

He stumbled into the living room, trying to get away from the prying ghosts. He backed himself up against the wall, sliding down it as the choice he had just made slowly dawned on him.

He didn’t feel guilty, no, the doctor deserved it. He felt disappointment, mostly at himself, for committing such an act… For allowing himself to be manipulated like that, by Chilled and Ari no less, people he considered friends.

“ Ze… It’s going to be okay, buddy. It’s going to be fine.” He watched Chilled walk into the room, Ari not close behind him. 

“ You made the right choice…”

“They’ll never know it was you.”

Ze didn’t respond, they kept harassing him, but he said nothing. He didn’t know when he went to sleep that night, but it was probably at some ungodly hour in the morning.

Was it too much to wish he could just forget it?

-

Ze put on an act for the town the next morning, he listened as the Mayor began announcing the deaths for that morning. Ze didn’t hear their name; he only heard their role and how they died.

“…Our town's best doctor, he was killed by… Well, we couldn’t identify the role of the murderer.”

There were a few gasps from the town, a few suspicious stares. None directed at him though, surprisingly. Mediums don’t kill people. 

Mediums… don’t kill people.

Was he even a medium anymore?

He wouldn’t do it again, would he?

No, no of course he wouldn’t.

He wouldn’t.

Although Ze did have a feeling the pair of mafia would try to convince him again. 

They’d made a killer out of him.

Why did he ever listen to them in the first place?

Chapter Text

Ze felt his foot slip as he jumped, he frantically scrambled around, trying not to fall into the gaping hole below him. After a moment he managed to haul himself up onto the platform, Ari was supposed to be holding the bridge down for him, but… When he looked over, Chilled was holding her down, Jeremy had an overdose syringe in his hand, and he was getting closer to her. 

He just needed to shut CAIN down, this nightmare would finally be over. 

He rushed over to the massive computer, not hesitating to bring his hand down over the massive ‘reset’ button. 

He turned back, Chilled was frozen in place, Jeremy had collapsed on the ground. Ari looked distraught, she wiggled out of Chilled’s arms and took a few steps back from the pair of robots before looking over at Ze, who was smiling. 

They had done it. Chilled and Jeremy were… gone.

They were back to being normal robots.

It was odd to think about, if they were real people, he would’ve wanted to be friends. Now they were just gone .

“Ari! Hold down the bridge so I can get back across! The ship's respiration system should be starting to reboot now, so we’ll have a lot more oxygen!” Ze called out, Ari simply nodded and headed over towards the bridge control panel. A bridge appeared over the gap between CAIN and the rest of the ship almost immediately, he rushed across it, not wishing to fall again. 

“What do we do now?”

“We need to call for help, the communications systems should be back online soon… I don’t want to take an escape pod and just leave the ship here.”

“Neither. But, what do we do with them?”

“Well, they’re probably gonna go back to their original programs… So…” Ze looked over at Chilled who was staring blankly at the wall in front of him. “Uhh, Chilled? Mr. Robot?” He walked over to the personoid and waved a hand in front of its face, jumping a little when suddenly a yellow light blinked on behind its eyes, making them glow.

“Hello! Resident: Steven Viking , I am personoid number 137, you can call me Chilled. How may I help you today?” Chilled smiled at Ze, his voice more robotic than it had ever been. It felt weird, but he had to remember that Chilled was only acting like a human before.

“Oh, uh. Hello Chilled. Would you mind showing us where the communications area is?” Ze mumbled, not really knowing what to say. Chilled grinned at him, it didn’t feel very real. “Certainly!”

“Wait, Ze, what about Jeremy?” Ari cut in as Chilled was about to lead Ze away, he turned around to look at her confused. “What about Jerem- oh.” Ze noticed Jeremy lying on the ground and stared at him confused, something was clearly wrong. The personoid was mumbling something under his breath, tears running down his cheeks. Ze didn’t know personoids could cry. 

“He doesn’t seem very robot-y.” Ari added as she knelt down beside the crying personoid, Ze’s eyes widened as he noticed something dripping down Jeremy’s head. 

Blood. Dark red blood.

“Holy shit…” Ze ran up to where Ari was crouching beside Jeremy, as he got closer he could hear what the supposed personoid was mumbling.

“ I can’t… I’m not… I can’t remember… her name… Kat? Kat… Katherine… I think… I don’t know…”

It sounded so… so human .

“Resident: Steven Viking? Would you still like me to escort you to the communications area?” Chilled asked, snapping Ze out of his thoughts. Ze replied after a moment of hesitation. “Yes. Ari, stay here with Jeremy. I don’t think he’s as much of a personoid as we originally thought. I’ll be right back, I’m just gonna call for help.” He nodded at Ari and sent her a reassuring glance. “You’ll be fine.”

“Thanks. Goodluck.” Ari responded. Ze began following Chilled along a hallway, they passed the airlock and came to what seemed like a locked door. “Would you like me to open the door, Resident: Steven Viking?” Chilled asked as they approached, his voice still made Ze feel uneasy. “Yes, thank you Chilled.” Chilled walked over to the door and pressed his hand against a small pad attached to it, the door immediately slid open and the pair walked inside. The room was filled with communications equipment, a small monitor up the top had a loading bar that read ‘77% until online.’ He just had to wait a little longer.

The bar slowly went up, as he waited Ze began trying to figure out what some of the other stuff around the room did. There were a few pairs of headphones, some microphones, and some other fancy equipment he didn’t want to touch in case it broke. Chilled waited patiently behind him, staring blankly at the space ahead. Ze wasn’t used to him not talking, usually the personoid would be rambling on about something small, or going on a rant about something stupid. 

He wished Chilled wasn’t the one that turned out to be a robot, they could’ve been friends. 

A beep rang out from the loading monitor above them, Ze glanced up to see the communications had come back online. Immediately he began to check if anyone had tried to contact them, over three hundred messages. He clicked on a contact called ‘emergency’ and began attempting to contact them. 

Someone picked up.

“Hello?! My name is Steven, I’m a resident on 23A, our ship was taken over by rogue AI, we managed to shut it down. Please send help, we don’t know where we are. I don’t know how to calculate coordinates either, but if someone could walk me through it that would be great.” Ze stopped speaking frantically when he ran out of the breath, a voice responded on the other end, it echoed through the room.

“ Hello Steven, don’t panic. We can find out where you are from your call. Who else is with you? We’ve been trying to contact the ship for days.” A female voice responded, she sounded worried but rather relieved. “It’s just me and my friend Ari, the AI sabotaged the oxygen system, everyone else is dead. We managed to find enough spare oxygen to survive, but the personoids… they… It’s fine, we managed to reboot the AI, they’re back to their original states. Well, one of them is.”

“ One of them is?”

“137 is with me now, I think that’s what he said his number was. He’s back to being robot-y, but the other one- I don’t know his number- Jeremy is… He’s not doing so well.”

“ Is he aggressive? I don’t remember Jeremy being a nickname for one of the personoids.” The voice seemed like she was reflecting on something, like the name Jeremy rang a bell. “He’s… Emotional. He was bleeding, but he’s definitely not a human. Personoids don’t have blood, do they?” Ze already knew the answer, but he thought he’d check anyway. “They don’t. He may have been the result of an illegal experiment we shut down a while back. A group of higher ups were basically trying to create cyborgs.”

“Out of living people?”

“ Pretty much.”

“That’s messed up.”

“ I’m glad we stopped it when we could… Oh, alright, I have your location, we’re sending a team now. It may take a day or so, please stay in touch. Maybe lock Jeremy in a room, just in case.”

“We will. Thank you so much. What’s your name by the way?” Ze felt relieved, they were finally going to make it out of here.

“ You’re welcome, Steven. My name is Katherine. Call me Kat.”

Chapter Text

Platy opened up the small compartment in the airlock, taking out a red keycard and doing a celebratory hand motion. He looked over at Tay, who was opening another compartment. She gave him a thumbs up and grabbed out a shortcut key. “Alright, we’re coming out now Junk-“ Tay was cut off as she narrowed her eyes at something behind Junk, who was holding the airlock open. “Junk… Junk, JUNK WATCH OUT!” Tay screamed, making a run for the airlock door. Platy turned his head, panic coursing through his body when he noticed Skadj, overdose syringe in hand.
Right behind Junk.
Skadj stabbed the syringe into the older man's neck, he immediately dropped to the floor. Platy watched in horror as the first set of airlock doors closed… And the second opened. In the brief moment the airlock was fully shut, he exchanged a look with Tay. There was pure distraught covering her face in the fraction of the second they made eye contact.
Then, she was gone. Platy fell over, his magnetic shoes keeping him glued to the floor as once again the airlock doors closed.

He was shut in.

Immediately he got up again, banging on the glass. Skadj turned around to face him from where he had turned away, presuming the resident was dead. “Oh. Hello Platy. You’re still alive.”
“YEAH I AM, YOU FUCKING ROBOT PIECE OF SHIT!” Platy struck his fist against the glass again, Skadj just smiled at him. “Stop yelling buddy, might wanna save your oxygen there. They’re not going to find you.”
Platy stopped himself from yelling again, he wanted to strangle Skadj so badly, he wanted to scream at the personoid until he couldn’t anymore. But oxygen was getting low, really low. He didn’t know who the other resident was out of Chilled and Ze; but if Tay and Junk were dead and he was trapped in the airlock, they were outnumbered two to one.
He just hoped that maybe they would find him and let him out, but he had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen. Skadj grinned at him again before walking away, Platy found himself looking down at Junk’s dead body. His eyes were glazed over, he didn’t look shocked or surprised that he had died, just blank, unlike Tay, he didn’t register what had been going on. He thought about Tay, probably frozen in space somewhere. He couldn’t see her body from the window.

For the next hour or so, he waited. Occasionally he would scream, who needed oxygen when you were going to be trapped in a stupid airlock for the rest of your life anyway?
Nobody heard him, of course they didn’t. On the off chance that the remaining resident was still alive and they had heard him, the personoids wouldn’t be too far away either.
He was fucking done for.
He fiddled around with the red keycard in his hand, suddenly spotting someone in the corner of his vision. Ze. He stood up and rushed over to the door, banging against the glass in the same place he had so many times in the last hour. “ZE! ZE PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE A GOOD GUY!” Ze glanced over at him, the psychotic smile on his face gave Platy the answer he needed. Chilled was the other resident, and he was probably dead. “Did you kill Chilled?!”
“No. He’s fine. He thinks it’s you since he hasn’t seen you in so long.” Ze wandered up to the airlock door, leaning casually against it. “It’s fun to watch him ramble on, knowing you’re trapped in here.” Platy watched as Ze laughed, he raised his fist to the glass of the door again in frustration. When he brought his hand back down he immediately flinched back in pain, his knuckles were bleeding. “Careful, Platy. Don’t hurt yourself.” Ze’s voice was smug, he continued messing with Platy by mocking him. Soon Platy noticed a familiar shape behind Ze, he didn’t say anything when he realised who it was.
Chilled.
He had heard the entire thing and was staring at Platy in horror. There was a glass bottle in his hand, if he could knock Ze down, he could let Platy out and they could take the robot down together. Chilled seemed to be thinking the exact same thing, as he began creeping closer and closer to where the personoid was standing. He raised his arm, aiming the glass bottle at Ze’s head…
And missed.
The bottle shattered against the glass of the airlock, Ze’s head snapped around in Chilled’s direction. “Oh, hello Mr. Chaos.” Ze’s voice had no emotion to it, Chilled immediately sent Platy and apologetic look and started trying to run. As soon as he turned around, Skadj walked around the corner. “Hey Chilled- Oh, you found Platy.” Skadj’s voice changed from happy to emotionless, just like Ze’s. “Shame really.” Chilled took a few steps back, only to run straight into Ze again.
Chilled was cornered, he was trapped.
Ze held the other resident down as Skadj took a syringe out of his jacket, Platy watched his friend try to struggle as the overdose liquid was forced into his neck. Ze let him go, he stood still for a few seconds before falling to the floor.
Platy felt like an animal, watching helplessly, like he was in a zoo.
Caged.

Chapter Text

The sound of waves lapping up against the hull of the boat woke Ze up from his sleep. He lay there for a moment, staring at the wooden ceiling as the cawing of a seabird called from somewhere overhead. From the second he was fully conscious, he could tell something was wrong. There was still movement above him, there was still shouting from his crew; but their voices seemed distant, almost off putting in a way. He warily got out of the hammock he slept in, slipping his sword into his belt as he made his way upstairs.

Nobody noticed him, they didn’t even acknowledge his presence. Their eyes were distant and blank, and their faces were conflicted, like they didn’t fully know if they wanted to do what they were doing. Ze looked over to the front of the boat, shock filling him when he realised they were heading straight for a group of jagged rocks sticking up out of the ocean ahead. Whipping around, he rushed past a few people up to the ship’s wheel. Junk, the captain, was standing there, staring blankly ahead like everyone else.

Ze glanced back at the rocks, eyes widening as he saw the shadowing figures swimming through the water below them.

He didn’t see them at first; nor hear them. His mind was occupied with other things. If he had noticed, maybe he would’ve been able to figure it out sooner.

Sirens.

His ears tuned in to their manipulating voices, but he wasn’t fazed.

He had always been immune to their song; as far as he knew, he was the only one.

It wasn’t like he didn’t know why, either. Being half siren was a pretty big factor.

He was what happened when the siren was captivated by the pirate, instead of the other way around.

Pretty much, he was a mistake. Nobody else knew. He looked perfectly human, he didn’t know why. Nobody suspected he was one of the dreaded, one of those all of them lived in fear of. It was impossible to escape a siren's song, or so the stories said. 

At least he could try.

He pushed Junk aside, wrangling the wheel from his hands. The captain tried to fight back, eager to continue staring towards what his version of the sirens were. They were different for everyone, some saw beautiful women, men; loved ones calling out to them. Others saw great riches shining on the horizon, maybe even adventure.

Nobody could really recall what the siren’s truly sounded like, for none of them were alive to tell the tale. Not even he could fully describe the sound, despite having heard it and surviving himself. It wasn’t singing, no, not whistling either; but it was undeniably beautiful. He couldn’t help but admit that the ‘song’ itself was wonderful.

After a while of fighting, eventually Ze was able to knock the captain out. He murmured an apology under his breath and began steering the ship away from the rocks; much to the rest of the crew's dismay. He didn’t like their blank stares, and he needed to get them as far away from the sirens as possible.

He noticed something moving behind him; Chilled stood, sword in hand, his face showing no sign of emotion. Ze drew his own sword, not wanting to hurt his controlled friend. He knew that Chilled didn’t really want to hurt him either.

Chilled lunged for him, trying to get his hands on the wheel. Ze only just managed to dodge in time as he stumbled over to the side of the ship. He’d never been very good at sword fighting, he only knew the basics. Chilled? Well. He was probably the best fighter on the ship.

All he needed to do was get them far enough away, then they would snap out of it. As Chilled grew closer, he struggled to adjust the sails so the wind caught them. After a moment, he was able to position them correctly; the ship was now sailing to the right of the rocks at a moderate speed. Chilled lunged again, although he was under the influence of the siren’s song, he still retained his fighting ability.

Very unlucky for Ze.

The sword nicked his shoulder, he didn’t have time to react as he flinched back and tried to stop the blood from pouring out. Luckily, Chilled didn’t seem to be trying to kill him, more just trying to keep the ship back on track.

Ze couldn’t let it happen.

This time, Ze was the one who lunged at Chilled, knocking him to the ground. He somehow managed to confiscate the crew member’s sword, kicking it to the side as he kept Chilled restrained beneath him. After a while of struggling, Ze made the decision to simply knock him out.

It worked, Chilled fell unconscious as Ze hit him over the head as hard as he could without causing any real damage. 

The ship was pretty far away from the siren’s now; instead of actively trying to head towards the rocks, the rest of the crew was now starting to snap out of the confusion. Although the blankness of their eyes hadn’t disappeared, they were mostly just standing there confused.

“Guys?!” He called out, hoping one of them would respond. Something was still wrong. The song was faint, but still there. He could hear the siren under them, and after a brief moment of panic, he had an idea. Slowly, he walked over to the side of the ship, scanning the water for the shadowy shape he knew would be there. As soon as he saw it, he jumped in, sword in hand. 

All he had to do was take out the source. 

Although the sea was relatively calm, the movement of the ship sent flurries of white water rolling out in all directions. It took a moment for him to collect his bearings as he began tumbling around under the surface. He was still holding his breath when he saw the scaley shadow begin advancing towards him, the blood pouring from his shoulder and into the water attracting it quickly. He held his sword out, the blade cut swiftly through the water. The siren paused, glaring at him with its cold, red eyes. He expected it to move, to begin attacking him; but it didn’t. Instead it waited, and it didn’t take long for Ze to figure out why.

He still needed air. 

As soon as he began heading towards the surface for a breath, the siren dove down below him. His head didn’t even break the surface as he felt something tugging him down into the depths.

Shit.

He was panicking now, but soon realised that if the siren was fixated on him; it wouldn’t go after his friends. Its song had stopped, and it was now focusing on its prey.

At least they would be safe.

The freezing water had made most of the pain in his body numb, but there was still a trail of blood following him as he was tugged further and further from the surface. He felt his vision beginning to fade as his remaining oxygen was slowly drained away. If he took in a breath he knew he would suffocate; but his body was urging him to just… breathe…

He gasped out, salt and water filling his mouth. He was choking, no air making its way into his lungs, not like his body told him it would.

It was funny, really, being killed by something you had travelled your entire life. Since he was small, he had spent his days running around the wooden decks of a brig, or splashing around in the shallow waters of an island.

Now those memories had come to swallow him up.

He heard his name being called from somewhere above him, voice muffled by the waves so uncontrollably thrashing his almost-unconscious body around.

“ ZE!”

He stopped struggling, at least he would die for the sake of the people he cared for.

His own name was the last thing he ever heard.

Chapter Text

“Stupid freaking hecking-“ Chilled slowly swiped his ID card through the admin table scanner, grumbling under his breath as ‘TOO SLOW, TRY AGAIN’ flashed up on the screen.

“How do you even swipe a card too slow?! Stupid scanner.”

He tried again, everyone else had already completed the task. He hadn’t met them all yet; this was his first mission on the Skeld. They had only just taken off, and were heading for a facility on a planet known as Polus.

‘TOO FAST, TRY AGAIN.’

“FUUU-“

“Are you having trouble?”

A voice suddenly called out from behind Chilled and he jumped, whipping around to see a crewmate in a red suit standing just beside him.

“Sweet baby Jesus- That scared me.” 

The red crewmate laughed, “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“I didn’t even hear your footsteps, dude.” Chilled turned back to the scanner, swiping the card again. Just like before, it was declined.

“Yes. To answer your question - I’m having trouble.”

“I could tell. Do you want me to show you a trick?”

“Well, it would be appreciated!” Chilled handed his card over to the other, watching as he swiped it back and forth through the scanner until it read ‘ACCEPTED’.

“Wait- what!? But you went super fast!”

“If you swipe it through a few times before taking it out, it usually accepts it. Here, have a go.”

Chilled took the card from the mysterious card-swiping expert, doing exactly as he told him to and swiping the card through multiple times. He was slightly surprised when it actually accepted, he was starting to think he had a curse.

“Thank you- Uh, what’s your name?”

“Ze. Ze Royal. And you?”

“Chilled Chaos, call me Chilled. Nice to meet ya!”

“You too, man. Do you have any other tasks in here?” Ze smiled at him questioningly.

“Just an upload or download or whatever the hell you call it - same thing.” Chilled began wandering over to the upload panel on the wall, starting it up and tapping his foot on the ground impatiently as he waited for it to load. “Do you have anything in here?”

“I finished… a while ago.” Ze replied, Chilled glanced over his shoulder to see his new friend smiling once more. “I’ll wait for you, though. It’s kind of boring just wandering aimlessly.”

“Thanks. So, where did you come from back home? I never saw you around Mira HQ.”

“I came from Mira too.”

“Really? I never saw you around, huh. Or maybe I did and I just forgot - no offence.”

“None taken.” Ze responded with amusement. “I didn’t get to see you either.”

Chilled thought the answer was slightly odd, but he didn’t say anything. He liked Ze.

“What section were you in?” He asked after a moment, keeping his eyes on the upload bar, waiting for it to finish.

“I’m a software engineer, I created a lot of the systems we use in meetings.”

“Oh shit, really? Cool. I’m a communications expert, so I’m usually down in comms if you wanna hang out. I mostly just talk to people, nothing exciting.”

“Well you do seem to be good at it.”

“Thanks!”

It didn’t take long for the upload to finish, but as it was completed Chilled still continued to ramble on about the next topic. He liked having someone to talk to that wasn’t just over comms, Ze didn’t seem to mind. 

“Have you met the others yet?” Ze asked when Chilled had finished talking.

“Some of them. I’ve met the captain, Xeen. Plus Ozza, but he knows everyone, seeming as he’s in charge of organisation and such.” 

“I’m sure they’ll look after the ship well.” Ze commented with an almost sad smile, he seemed distant, a slight change in the confident demeanour he had before.

“Yeah, can’t wait to work with them, they all seem nice.” Chilled brushed it off. Ze’s words seemed like they had more meaning than he meant them to, it gave him an odd feeling. 

“Oh.” Ze said after a moment, Chilled heard footsteps just outside of admin. “I’ve got to go now, see ya.”

When Chilled turned around, Ze was gone in an instant. He frowned, he didn’t even get to respond; but it was fine, he’d probably see him around anyway. 

Just as he was about to leave admin, he bumped into Ozza, who was walking down from the cafeteria into storage.

“Hey Ozza!”

“Hey man. You finally got the card swipe finished?” Ozza questioned, slightly amused.
Chilled nodded, walking along beside the other as they entered storage.

“Yeah, Ze showed me how to do it.”

“Ze?”

“Yeah, Ze.”

“Do you mean Xeen? There’s no Ze on the ship.”

“Pardon?” Chilled was sure he wasn’t mistaken. “But I’ve met Xeen, and it wasn’t him.”

Ozza looked at him like he was going insane.

“Are you feeling alright?"

“Yes! I’m sure I met someone named Ze.” Chilled was adamant now, Ozza had to be mistaken, he just had to be.

“Do you want me to check the records?”

“Yes! You’ll see I’m right.”

Ozza shook his head, looking a little concerned. 

“You’re arguing with the person who organised the crew, I literally know everyone.”

“Well, maybe you just got a name wrong!” Chilled continued debating as he followed Ozza through to comms, he kept all of the crew files there; past and present. He wasn’t really allowed to go through them, since it wasn’t his business, but Ozza was.

He flicked through to the last batch of files, Ze should be under ‘Z’, right? After a moment of staring at the folders of paper he frowned.

“Well, you’re right, there was a Ze. But only one, did you get his surname?”

“Royal.”

“Ze Royal? Are you sure?” Ozza shook his head, looking rather confused.

“Yes?” Chilled responded, not sure what Ozza was getting at.

The other just bit his lip and looked him dead in the eye.

“Chilled… Ze Royal isn’t here anymore…”

There was a small pause.

“He died on a mission, fifteen years ago.”

Chapter Text

You’d think, working as a mailman, that the worst thing you would have to deal with would be rabid dogs, scary old people, or kids on scooters.

But for Side; it was Speedy’s house.

Don’t get him wrong, Speedy seemed like a nice guy, he didn’t hate the owner of the house, in fact, the two had become friends from their many encounters.

What he hated was Speedy’s house . 

Actually, the house itself was alright; it wasn’t the most modern of things and it was rather old. But every time he went to deliver Speedy’s mail he felt like someone, something, was watching him.

He caught glimpses of eyes in the windows, illusions of blood staining the lawns. The worst part was that Speedy didn’t have a mailbox, so he had to leave all of his deliveries right on the front doorstep.

It was terrifying.

He saw things, heard things. He never questioned Speedy, though. He was scared the homeowner would think he was insane.

It was worse because he knew everything was real.

Because Side, since he was a little kid, had been able to see ghosts.

And Speedy’s house was full of them.

It seemed he saw a new one every day.

Sometimes he could catch glimpses of familiar spirits, ones that seemed to watch him from the windows often; like the man with the blood red eyes, or the woman with a snake in her hair. He had to pretend not to see them, as he always did, when a ghost realised you could see it, it usually never stopped following you. He learnt that the hard way.

Some ghosts were a lot nicer than others.

He didn’t like talking about the others.

Today, as Side began ruffling through his bag of mail, there was a new ghost in the window. It was a younger man, maybe in his early twenties. He had curly blond hair, and piercing blue eyes covered by a pair of cracked glasses. He wasn’t very transparent, meaning he had probably died recently. The more transparent the spirit, the older; that’s what he had discovered.

He sighed and began making the short walk up to Speedy’s door, he tried not to make eye contact with the ghost as he placed a small parcel down on the doorstep.

Something felt off today, usually Speedy came to greet him or collect the package by hand; he always seemed to know exactly when Side arrived. But today the house was silent.

The property felt more off than usual, and he didn’t know why.

Side glanced back up at the window, another ghost had appeared behind the new one. It was the man with the blood-red eyes; Side never got a very good look at him, as he was usually hiding in a shadow, but today he was out in the open light of the new morning. He looked around Side’s age, brown hair stained with a darker red that he hadn’t noticed before. 

He blinked and looked away after realising he was staring. 

He stared at the package he left for a few moments before heading back down the footpath, freezing as he heard ghostly footsteps behind him.

Resisting the urge to look back, he kept walking, fiddling around with his satchel of mail to distract himself from the ghosts’ antics.

He couldn’t just forget Speedy’s house, especially not now he felt like something bad had happened.

-

That day was the first of many that seemed strange to Side. It had been a week; he hadn’t heard from Speedy. Sometimes the ghosts would attempt to follow him down the path from the house but soon stopped after realising they were straying too far from their residence. 

Often, he tried to glance through the windows. The packages he delivered always disappeared the next morning, so somebody had to be collecting them.

He just wanted to know if Speedy was okay, he hoped the ghosts hadn’t done anything weird.

So this time, as he began the walk to Speedy’s front door, he placed the parcel he was holding down and paused. His hand hovered in a fist just in front of the old wooden door itself, he glanced over at the window, where the blood-eyed ghost was watching him, and knocked.

Once, twice, thrice. He knocked loudly and clearly on the door three times.

He sighed, he knew nobody would answer, but he was still disappointed.

He turned to leave, suddenly stopping as he heard the sound of a door creaking open. He turned, expecting to see Speedy when he was instead greeted with the cold eyes of a transparent man with dark brown hair. He shivered, accidentally making eye contact as goosebumps rose along his skin.

The ghost, who just stared at him, looked slightly confused.

“Wait-“

Side turned quickly, exiting the property and pacing hurriedly down the footpath. He could hear the ghost following swiftly behind him, but it stopped at the gate as he went through.

“Wait…”

Side glanced back, the cold man was staring at him hopelessly. 

He didn’t respond, instead, he kept walking.

The next time he visited, he saw that same ghost again.

And again.

And again.

He would follow Side down the driveway, but the only word he ever said was ‘wait.’

Side never waited, he just delivered the mail and made it out of there as quickly as he could.

Some days, the blood-eyed ghost would join the cold one. He would never move past the door, but would just continue to stare at Side. It terrified him, he never wanted to let the ghosts catch up; especially after not seeing Speedy for so long.

He saw the other ghosts, too. But they always just watched from the windows.

As much as he hated it, he could deal with it. It wasn’t like he was going to quit his job. He got the weekends off, anyway. He didn’t have to worry about Speedy and his ghost house those days.

Monday always came so fast. He would get up at five thirty, go to work, get to sorting the mail, and then head out on his route. There were plenty of other employees, he just had a small neighbourhood run of a few blocks. Usually, he was done before lunch.

That Monday, as he began walking down the street to Speedy’s house, he noticed something different.

There were no ghosts in the windows. 

He placed a small package down on the doorstep.

No ghost came to stare at him through the door.

He began walking back down the small path that led to the front gate.

No ghost followed him.

In fact, it was more terrifying than if twenty ghosts were chasing him.

Because something was clearly wrong.

He paused at the gate, taking in a deep breath before turning back and heading towards the door. 

He knocked three times. 

You can imagine his surprise when somebody very familiar answered.

“Speedy?!”

“Oh, hey guy.” Speedy smiled at him questioningly.

Side blinked a few times in shock, grinning back. He had nothing to worry about.

“I haven’t seen you for a while! Sorry, I was just worried.”

“It’s all good. I missed you too, buddy.” Speedy said playfully, Side picked up his package and handed it to him.

“Well, I may as well give this to you…” He trailed off. “You are feeling alright, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, sorry I haven’t been answering lately. Something came up.”

“Ah, well I won’t press you on that.” Side thought about the missing ghosts as he responded, maybe it had something to do with them.

“Thanks, dude. Please don’t be afraid to drop by sometime, I’d love the company. I inherited this house from my grandad, it’s old but I’ve come to love it.”

“I always wondered how you moved in,” Side glanced down at the watch on his wrist. “Thanks for that, by the way. I’ve gotta head out now.”

“See ya!”

Side waved and began walking back down the pathway, he felt a little better now that he had seen Speedy was alive and well. He exited through the gate, feeling a breeze brush up against his skin. Instead of cold, though, this time it was warm. 

He walked along the footpath, noticing Speedy’s neighbours looking at him weirdly. He smiled and gave them a small wave, but they just continued to talk in hushed whispers.

He began to move slightly slower as he passed them, trying to listen in to their conversation. 

“Maybe he’s just a weirdo.” 

“But he delivers everyone else's mail? Maybe we should report him to the mailing company, he’s not really in his right mind.”

“Every day he walks up to that house and delivers nothing! Didn’t you hear him, just then? Talking to an open door? He shouldn’t even be allowed on the property… The place itself is half collapsed, it’s probably a health and safety violation.”

“Sometimes I see him running away as if he’s scared, like he’s seen a ghost.”

“Poor guy probably has schizophrenia or something.”

Side began his walk home in silence.

He glanced back at Speedy’s house, the door was still wide open.

Chapter Text

“GUYS HELP THERE’S-“

Ze rushed through the wooden doors of their base, his voice cutting off as he was thrown to the ground by a creeper blowing up behind him. He groaned, Kara’s stuff was all over the ground. He got up and brushed himself off, ignoring his bleeding elbows as Kara and a few others rushed around the corner from the other room. Ze could already tell that Kara looked pissed, understandably, of course. This wasn’t the first time he had blown up parts of their base.

“ZE WHAT THE HELL?!” She growled out at him, Ze just looked over at her blown up stuff guiltily.

“Sorry Kara, it was following me and I didn’t have a weapon, I didn’t expect it to blow up so soon!”

“Dude this is like the third time this week! I’m sick of cleaning everything up. You’re just a nuisance!” Chilled grumbled before walking over to another stack of chests to grab materials out of, Ze knew he didn’t really mean it, but the words still hurt.

“Can you just leave if you’re gonna keep being a pain?” Ozza said quietly as well, sounding rather annoyed.

They were undeniably mad at him, as they should be. It was his fault, he just didn’t want to die by creeper. It was like every hostile creature in a kilometres radius was drawn to his location sometimes, everything was out to get him.

Apparently, so were his friends. He knew everyone was tired and prone to getting grumpy this time of the week, maybe they just needed some time to cool off.

“I can leave.” He murmured quietly before heading into the other room, packing up his bed and taking a bit of food. They watched him silently as he headed out the half-exploded door, he could feel their stares digging into the back of his neck like daggers.

It was dark out, a lot darker than before. He lit a spare torch he had in his bag and held it up to the night sky. He still couldn’t see much, but at least he wasn’t completely blind. His communicator buzzed in his pocket but he ignored it. He turned around, nobody had come after him. Maybe he could head to Shubbles place for the night? She wouldn’t mind.

Shubble’s way too far, I’ll just find a cave or something.

He continued walking, too far away to turn back now. There was a dip in the landscape in front of him, long grass brushed up against his legs as he started to head towards it. It was just a cave. It looked like it was small too, only one entrance. He warily made his way down into the rocky hole, being careful not to slip. There didn’t seem to be much there, he certainly couldn’t hear anything hostile. After a moment he set up his bed in the corner against the solid grey stone, he also hung his torch up on the wall to give him at least a little light. 

It was silent, too silent. It wasn’t the same without Chilled ranting on about something stupid or Pasta laughing at the top of her lungs whilst everyone was trying to sleep. It wasn’t the same without Brood and Jvckk bickering like children. It wasn’t the same without any of his friends.

It felt wrong, but it was okay. He deserved it anyway, they would calm down in the morning. 

They would let him come back, wouldn’t they?

Yeah, they would. There was no need to worry, right?

His communicator buzzed again, he was about to check it when he heard something rattle behind him. He whipped around, nothing, it was too dark to see anything further in the cave. Maybe he was imagining it? He reached down to pull out his communicator again before he felt a sharp pain in his arm. He flinched, surprised as he looked down to see an arrow sticking out of his skin. He stared into the dark of the cave, only just noticing the glow of a mob spawner in the dull light. Two more arrows came out of the darkness, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge as one punctured through his heart.

Everything hurt, the familiar feeling that came with respawning rushed through him. It was not a pleasant one. Respawning took almost all of someone’s energy, after they did so they were usually completely drained. 

Ze woke up in his bed again as another arrow came flying at his face.

———

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

Chilled looked down at his communicator as it buzzed, slightly shocked as he read the message. Ze didn’t respawn in their house, he took his bed with him. If he was at the world spawn he was safe, he would be fine.

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

The device buzzed again, now he was a little uneasy. Ze would be okay though, wouldn’t he? One or two deaths wouldn’t hurt too much.

‘ ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘Smii7y: you okay??’

‘KryozGaming: you okay?’

‘IAMWILDCAT: Ze you good brutha?’

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘Smii7y: shut up John i said it first’

‘KryozGaming: :D’

‘ShubbleYT: Ze?’

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘ZeRoyalViking: HELP I C’

‘ZeRoyalViking: STUCK’

‘ZeRoyalViking: SPaWNEr’

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘FourZer0Seven:??’

Chilled looked over to Kara, who was horrified.

“We’ve gotta find him, I don’t think I’ve seen anybody die that many times… Ever.”

Kara looked over to Ozza who also seemed rather guilty. Chilled’s communicator buzzed continuously in his pocket as he grabbed the shield beside him.

“I think we were a little too harsh, he was just trying to get help.” 

The rest of their group were either asleep or off somewhere else, they were the only ones who knew the rough direction Ze went in. He didn’t look like he was going to be able to post his location any time soon. The group of three lit torches and headed outside, it was pretty much silent.

“I’m guessing he went this way, there’s faint footprints in the mud.” Ozza motioned to the ground with his torch, they began following the footsteps as quickly as possible. Chilled looked down at his communicator again, which felt like it was about to explode in his pocket.

‘ ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘Smii7y: me and john would help but we’re mining’

‘KryozGaming: John and I*’

‘IAMWILDCAT: im babysitting nogla’

‘DaithiDeNogla: stfu wildcat you bitch’

‘Terroriser: im with them, nogla's throwing a tantrum’

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

‘Smii7y: how many arrows does this thing have???’

‘Smii7y: but fr can someone help him’

‘KaraCorvus: We’re trying.’

‘OzzaWorld: Yeah we’re following his footprints’

Chilled looked over to Ozza and Kara, they were both typing into their communicators worriedly. Chilled sighed before replying as well.

‘ChilledChaos: Sorry Ze.’

‘KYR_Sp33dy: find him soon pls im coming back to base’

‘SideArms4Reason: im with speedy’

‘FourZer0Seven: did something happen?’

‘ZeRoyalViking was shot by skeleton’

Chilled put his communicator down, not wanting to answer the question. He felt bad, really bad. He had told Ze some things he definitely regretted.

“Dude, I feel so bad… The explosion didn’t even take that long to fix.”

“Yeah, me too.”

There was silence for a moment, Kara suddenly called out from in front of them. “HEY! I FOUND SOMETHING!”

“COMING!”

As they drew closer Chilled noticed a small dip in the ground, grey stone appeared as they came up to the edge of it. It was a small cave, Chilled could see the dull light of a torch inside and hear the rattle of bones. 

“Get your shields out!” Kara yelled as she slid down the small slope, landing gracefully at the bottom. Ozza slid down a little more carefully, followed by Chilled shortly after. He heard the sounds of bows being drawn as he took out his sword, his eyes fixated on the skeletons in front of him. There was blood everywhere, it coated the walls, the floor, the ceiling. He noticed the limp shape of a body on the cave floor as he finished slashing a few of the undead creatures down.

Ze.

Chilled rushed over to the shape, Kara had broken the skeleton spawner and Ozza was finishing off the remaining of them. He quickly typed in something on his communicator without even checking the messages before rolling his friend over. Ze had arrows sticking out of his shoulder and one in his stomach, blood seeped out of wounds that Chilled hadn’t even spotted yet. Suddenly Ze disappeared in a cloud of smoke, Chilled looked over to the bed where he respawned once more and checked his communicator.

‘ ZeRoyalViking bled to death whilst trying to escape ChilledChaos.’

‘ChilledChaos: COMMUNICATOR WTF IT WAS THE SKELETONS I'M TRYING TO HELP HIM HERE’

Chilled pretty much threw the small device across the cave as he shuffled over to Ze, at least he wasn’t bleeding anymore. Kara and Ozza came over too. Ze’s eyes were shut and they didn’t look like they were opening anytime soon. “Ze? Buddy?”

“I have a feeling he’s gonna be asleep for a while, last time I died it took me a few days to get back on my feet.” Kara motioned to his body before continuing, “Pick him up and we’ll see if we can get him back to base.” Chilled nodded and went to help his friend, guilt still gnawing away at him from the inside. He was about to help Ozza haul him up when he noticed something.

Ze had a massive scar across his left eye. 

It was shaped like an arrowhead. 

———

“Ze I’m telling you, it’s not fine I’m sorrryy…”

“It’s fine! Everything’s fine! It doesn’t hurt that much.”

“You were literally just complaining about how much pain you were in!” 

“Can you guys shut up for a second? Ze, hold still, I’m trying to help you here.”

Kara snapped at Chilled and Ze who were arguing as she opened another regeneration potion, Chilled just scoffed. 

“It’s not fine though!”

 “I really don’t mind. I’ll get over it. It was my fault anyway.” 

Ze shrugged as Kara finished whatever medical stuff she was doing.

“Dude we shouldn’t have been dicks about it.”

“Nah, you’re good. Everyone’s tired, I’m just really good at attracting everything bad.”

“You’ve got a permanent scar, it’s not fine at all, Ze. Just accept that we’re in the wrong here!”

Ze sighed, knowing his friends wouldn’t let it go. Nobody had experienced what he had on the server for years.

“Fine. I accept your apology. Sorry, I’ll be more careful next time.”

Kara glared at him, Ozza glanced over from where he was tidying something up across the room.

“Stop looking at me like that!”

“Accept the apology properly.”

“How?!”

“Don’t apologise whilst accepting said apology!”

Ze couldn’t help but grin.

“Sorry.”

“SORRY?”

Ze laughed, Chilled just shook his head in disbelief.

“Let's just let it go. I forgive you, okay? It was nobody’s fault. We can blame it on lack of sleep.”

Chilled didn’t reply. He just nodded and wrapped his arms around Ze, who hugged back. 

“I’m sorry, bud.”

He smiled.

“I know.”