Chapter Text
It was impossible to accurately tell time in the Entity's realm. Watches spun endlessly with no sign of stopping, phones showed a different time each time they were opened. Time never changed in trials either. Even during the longest trials the sun would be unmoving, shining harshly on Coldwind Farm, and the cold moon would forever hover just over the survivor’s campfire, always working as a beacon to find their way back home. To keep their sanity, they’d made up their own way to tell time. One day equaled ten trials. Trials were unpredictable. Sometimes the Entity would show mercy to the poor souls and let them rest, but if the survivors dared disobey her, either by refusing to participate in trials or fighting against her prized killers, she’d punish them by rapidly sending them into trials. All 32 survivors were sent off to eight different trials, destined to die just to wake up and do it all over again.
Today, they agreed it was December 18th, and the way they decided that was because of the mystery suitcase appearing at their campfire. 260 trials ago, the 18th of November, the Entity has summoned a suitcase at their fireplace. 310 trials before that, on October 18th, another suitcase was granted to them. During the holidays- or whenever the Entity felt particularly cruel- the Entity would grant its survivors with a suitcase. It was small, yet fitted with brand new outfits and supplies for everyone. Usually, the outfits would be identical to ones they’d worn in the past. In April, Claudette’s birth month, the Entity brought down a special gift for her. A bright green and red outfit fitted with a white coat and big goofy goggles. “My Science Girl costume.” She called it. Her fingers traced the hand-stitched marks on the chest. “This is my mom’s stitching..” She mumbled quietly as her eyes welled up with tears. The Entity brought gifts from their past. Old work outfits for Dwight, Yui’s favorite biking gear, Jane’s iconic fashion designs. Sometimes the gifts would bring joy, like when Ace got his fitted (and very ugly) tiger suit that was apparently “an instant breadwinner back in the 70s” back. But more often than not they’d bring back memories of life before. Petting dogs, morning coffee, fresh clothes out of the dryer, a hug goodbye- simple things they’d never feel again.
“It’s always the newest survivor that opens the case! It’s tradition!”
Vittorio shook his head. “I’m not falling for that Thing’s manipulative tricks.” He protested.
“It’s usually better on Christmas.” Claudette protested back as she held up the case to Vittorio. He kept his arms crossed, his eyes shooting daggers back at hers. She sighed and looked around the fire. “Who else is new?” It was getting more and more difficult to keep track of everyone appearing and disappearing. There once was Nancy and Steve, who disappeared along with The Demogorgon not long after showing up. There were definitely more survivors out there too. They’d all seen them during trials, but trials were never a good time to sit down and chat. For a long time Vittorio used to be one of those “phantom survivors” ; it was only until recently they could convince him to come to their campfire.
“We’ll do it!” Rebecca shot her hand into the air, and gently lifted up Ada’s hand, who was sitting next to her. Her leg bounced with excitement. Rebecca was one of the few survivors that put a small smile on the other’s face, something they all desperately needed. She also was an actual nurse, which was a huge relief to Claudette, who was once the team’s “resident healer” despite having little to no medical knowledge. Ada didn’t even look over, she was busy chatting quietly with Leon right by her side. Rebecca, Ada, Leon, and Jill were the lucky group of survivors that actually knew each other- or at least worked together- in their past lives, even if they all showed up at different times.
With a big smile, Claudette walked over and gently put the case on her lap, before running behind her to watch her open it, followed by a few others.
"How much do you wanna bet he'll get another one of those stupid costumes?" Ace asked with his usual shit-eating grin as he nudged Ash's shoulder with his elbow. His thumb was pointed at Dwight, who was trying to ignore them as Rebecca opened the case and began going through it, calling out the name tags on the little garment bags inside.
Poor Dwight seemed to be the Entity's comedy punching bag. While most outfits gifted to survivors were meant to make them sad, all his outfits were to piss him off. He'd been gifted hundreds of different unflattering work uniforms and embarrassing outfits from highschool. Everyone’s personal favorite was the “Dwelf.” A very cartoony elf costume he wore while working as a Santa Elf in the mall. It even jingled whenever he moved, which was funny at first but extremely inconvenient when trying to hide from killers. He’d thrown about 90% of his wardrobe into the fire by now. There really was no use for clothes in the realm. Cloth, along with their open wounds and broken bones, rapidly regenerated in between trials, and there was no weather. Trees would rustle and they could feel snow hitting their face on Mount Ormond, but never did it make them feel cold.
Ash thought for a moment. "Your medkit if he doesn’t, and I’ll give you my flashlight if he does.”
Ace held his hand out and Ash went in to shake it firmly. “Deal.”
Dwight rolled his eyes. “Unless the Entity brings up something my mom dressed me in as a baby or something, I’m fresh out of Christmas gear.”
“Dwight!” On cue, Ada held up a long black garment bag, much bigger than the smaller Christmas-sweater sized bags most people had been getting. “This ones for you, dear.” She handed the bag to him, a small grin on her face.
Dwight shot her a glare before snatching the garment bag from her. “This is bullshit.” He muttered as he put the bag in between his legs, he didn’t even need to open it, the jingling bells inside had already given it away.
Ace let out a laugh and held his hand out. “Hand it over.”
Ash begrudgingly handed over his medkit. “I better not hear you complaining when you’re the one healing me during our next trial.”
The other man raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you supposed to be mankind’s last hope? You’ll survive.” He teased
“Hey, in the end I’m still just a man.” Ash finished with a shrug.
“Look how cute we are!!” Kate cheered from across the fire. Her, Mikaela, and Meg had gotten matching dresses and a makeup kit in their bags. Kate was purple all over. Her hair fell into a gradient of light lavender into a vibrant violet color. Mikaela kept her natural red hair that she adored so much, putting it into a ponytail so she could properly show off her blue makeup that perfectly complemented the white gown. Meg was given a simple pink dress with running shorts underneath. Kate had hung the girl’s dress on a nearby branch while they waited for her to get back from a trial.
“I can NOT imagine Meg wearing this.” Mikaela stated as she brushed off the dirt that had already gotten on her dress.
“I can’t imagine YOU wearing this.” Kate gestured to the other girl’s outfit, Mikaela pretended to be offended. Mikaela laughed. “It was my winter ball outfit, in- I think- highschool?” She looked down at her legs. “What was I THINKING with these tights..”
“You look gorgeous either way.” Kate looked around at the other survivors opening their “gifts.” David and Yun-Jin were the last two to get a full outfit. David struggled to put on his “homemade nutcracker” costume that looked more like a racecar driver than anything, and Yun-Jin’s garment bag hung on a branch besides Meg’s, she was in a trail too. Last, were the signature ugly sweaters that every survivor got throughout their surviving career. Each year, the Entity would gift each new survivor with a custom ugly sweater for the Christmas season. The sweaters were hand knit, and always told a story of the wearer’s past or hobbies. Yoichi’s had a video tape, Haddie’s had multiple monsters and designs, Ada and Rebecca had sweaters relating to their work, and Vittorio had some sort of old-timey knight’s garment.
Yoichi was one of the few survivors who couldn’t speak English. The rest of the survivors had attempted to teach him and Yui English, and even tried to learn Japanese themselves, but without a proper learning environment or even paper it was near impossible. Luckily Yun-Jin was a good translator that was able to have small conversations in Japanese, Chinese, English and even Indian. Unfortunately since she wasn’t here, he simply followed what everyone else was doing, taking off his jacket- that he was well aware the rest of the group thought was ugly- and putting the sweater over his undershirt.
“Aw, we’re all dressing up?” Claudette shot up from the log she was sitting on. “Wait here, I need to go find my sweater.” She held a finger up before running off into the woods. “Dwight you better be Dwelfed up by the time I get back!” She called out before disappearing in the woods. Dwight huffed and mumbled to himself as he opened up the garment that was still in between his legs. He’d always had a soft spot for Claudette. Well, everyone did, she was always ready to help others and put her friends first, also she was a science genius, even if she constantly denied it. But Dwight had an EXTRA soft spot for her. Whenever they were face to face he’d gradually become a mumbling, blushing mess, and Claudette would respond in the same way. It was obvious they were obsessed with each other, the only ones who didn’t know it though were them.
“The Entity isn’t going to be happy you didn’t wanna wear ‘er hard work.” David nudged Vittorio’s shoulder, a playful grin on his face.
“I do not fear it.” Vittorio replied simply. “And I do not wish to do what it wants.” Vittorio was their newest member of the campfire, only joining just a few weeks ago, although he was older than all survivors, and probably most of the killers, combined. At first, the campfire only occupied four survivors, Jake, Meg, Claudette, and Dwight. All of them were taken in June of 2016. A couple months later, they found Nea, who claimed to be taken sometime in August of 2016. Naturally, they assumed they could tell time by determining when they were taken. When a new survivor appeared, they’d know what time it was in the real world.
Their theory was disproved quickly with the appearance of Laurie, who claimed it was the year 1981, and she’d just recently been taken a few days ago. Then there was Bill from 2008, Quinten from 2010, Tapp from 2009, and so on.
In summary, there was absolutely no way to tell time in the Fog- hence why they'd created their own calendar. Poor Vittorio, born in 1343, had been an endless wanderer of the fog since his late 30s. Yet, on his first trial, he was saved by a young girl with shaggy blonde hair. A girl he'd learn the name of shortly after coming to the campfire. Cheryl Manson, someone who had been taken in the 2000s.
How could someone from 2000 save him in the 1300s? It baffled survivors who had similar experiences. Was there even a time here? Did the Entity skip through time and pluck out those she seemed fit?
But if there was no time, did that mean there was no escape? If the realm was simply more than just purgatory and instead was another world they'd never escape from?
No. They couldn't think like that. They were survivors. Survivors that hoped to see their old lives again. The Entity fed on their despair, and if they were to lose that hope, they'd only be giving that thing what it wanted.
Plus it was the holidays, there was no time to think like that.
David shrugged. “Come’n lad, it’s pretty fly.”
Vittorio shook his head. “I do not know what that means.” He mumbled. "And I know you just want me to see my bare chest."
"PSHHH-" David waved his hand in the air a few times, laughing awkwardly. "What? Noooo, me? Never."
Jane roughly nudged David in the side, making him wince in pain. "Jigs' up loverboy. We'll get him next time."
"I'm back!" Claudette cheered as she joined the group again. While most survivors were simply given a simple sweater, Claudette was given an entire get up. A red Santa sweater with white balls of cotton hand-sewn into the sleeves, a green skirt with snowflake patterns stitched across it, red and green striped elf shoes and socks and a green hat with a little pom-pom to top it off. The Entity had even been kind enough to give her red rimmed glasses to match. It was an outfit from a long time ago, back when she was the heart and soul of the Morel family’s Christmas.
Dwight, who was currently sitting with a pout as Ace and Ash cried with laughter besides him, smiled once he saw his friend. He dusted off a spot on the log and motioned her to sit down, which she gladly did.
“I like your makeup.” He complimented.
“Thank you..” She gently brushed her hair out of her face. “I like yours too.”
“What?”
“Your blush.” Claudette clarified, although it sounded like a question. Dwight pressed his cold hand against his cheek, which burned against him. He was blushing, shit- had he been blushing this whole time? He nervously laughed. “Yeah thanks..” Luckily Claudette seemed to be blushing just as much as him. Unlike Dwight’s pasty white skin that gave away his every emotion, it was harder to see Claudette’s blush against her dark complexion. But it was her actions that gave away what she was feeling. When she was tense at the beginning of a trial, her eyes would blink rapidly, her voice went high pitched, and her fingers moved in jolting motions while handling a generator's wires. It was the same routine when she began to get flustered or embarrassed. It was apparent when she’d mess up a gen, or fail to unhook herself even after burning about a thousand salt packages. Sometimes the team- well, mostly Meg and Kate- would shower her with compliments that always caught her off guard, like clock-work she’d clench her teeth and laugh nervously her nails dug into her arms while she resisted the urge to fidget them. It was cute, honestly. It made him smile when she smiled, and he’d hoped she felt the same way about him.
“You said that outfit’s from work right?” Claudette asked, quickly breaking the slowly approaching awkward silence. Dwight tugged at his collar. “You think I’d just wear this on the usu?” He asked with a lighthearted grin. Claudette let out a small snicker. “No no.. It’s just crazy JUST how many jobs you’ve had. What is this, like the fifth one?”
“Seventh.” He corrected. “No- eighth- ninth- tenth?” He began counting on his fingers before just giving up. Somehow the Entity was better at keeping track than he was. He owned a couple outfits that went as far back as middle school, when he was walking dogs for his neighbors with the sole intent of buying guitar hero- a game that he never ended up playing much. Then there were the few work outfits he only had vague memories of. Him and Claudette shared matched vacation get ups. Claudette claimed it was from a beach trip, but Dwight swore it was a vacation manager’s uniform. Although in the end, neither of them could pinpoint WHEN this beach excursion was.
“You’re a man of many talents, I guess.” The other complimented. “I’ve only ever had one job- well it was more of a mentorship- but I still got paid for it.”
Without thinking, he nodded in acknowledgement. “I know.”
Claudette bit her lip and awkwardly messed with her hair. “Right, yeah.”
They’d all been here for years now, which meant they were gradually running out of basic “real world” things to talk about. Luckily they had people like Ace to supply them fifty years worth of non-stop casino tales, or Adam to tell them about the craziest teacher scandals at his work. Then there were the survivors who’d dealt with killers in a past life. Although Ada swore she was “under oath.” Jill, Leon, and Rebecca had no problem telling the team about their experiences with genetically modified zombie dogs. Laurie and Quentin were able to give insight on The Shape and The Nightmare- or “Michael and Kruger” as they’d call them- but they’d never say why or HOW they knew this. Don’t stay out in the open, and don’t sleep was all the team needed to know apparently. In summary, average people like Dwight and Claudette didn’t have much of a past life to talk about. But desperate to spend time together- they made do.
“No, you can continue.” Dwight said quickly upon noticing her slight look of disappointment. Claudette just shook her head and waved her hand dismissively. “No.. that’s all I had to say anyways.. It was only for a few months.” Her voice trailed off, and soon they were sitting in silence again. Curse their lack of social skills.
Thankfully, The Entity must have felt kind that day. A soft gust of wind blew in a patch of glowing ash that swayed in place as a body began to manifest at their feet. In about fifteen seconds, Yui had materialized at their feet. She jolted awake, sitting up with her hand firmly on stomach. Whenever they died in trials, they’d manifest laying down by the campfire. Although they’d died thousands of times in thousands of different ways, the first thing they’d do when waking up is check their wounds. If someone woke up and checked their stomach, it almost always meant it was a simple, yet traumatic sacrifice.
Claudette slipped off her log to sit by Yui, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder as she adjusted back to reality. Luckily, Yoichi ran over and slid by her side to start a chat. The two were close, but that was probably because they were the only two that could ONLY speak Japanese. To everyone’s surprise, she had a big smile on her face as the two went back and forth.
“What’s going on?” Dwight asked as he mirrored Claudette’s movements. The jingle of the bells on his collar reminded him and everyone in a 30 meter radius that he was still in this dumb costume.
Yui turned to them and pursed her lips, hesitating before speaking slowly. “Snowmen.”
Claudette raised an eyebrow. “Snowmen?”
“It’s Christmas time, baby!” A new voice shouted directly behind the duo, which made them practically launch out of their skin. A pair of arms wrapped around their shoulders and pulled them close into a trio-hug. Who else but Meg. She was taken aback by Dwight’s loud costume. “Guess I’m late to the punch.” She snickered.
“Very.” Dwight grumbled as he brushed Meg’s arm off of him. “Do you know what Yui’s talking about?”
“Oh right, yeah.” She took his arms away from the two and glanced at Yui with a sincere frown. “Sorry for leaving you behind, girl. He pushed me out the gate before I could run out.”
They all knew exactly what it was like to die. They’d experienced it thousands- if not- millions of times before. Yet they were still afraid. Vittorio, who was the textbook tough manly-man still let out a cry when those talions would bust through his torso, and Ash, who in a past life chopped off his own limbs without issue and went face-to-face with demons, still went quiet after a particularly bad mori. It was best to put yourself first. Even if that meant running through those gates while a teammate hung limp just a few feet away.
Yui shook her head and smiled. Although in the moment, it’s really easy to get upset with a cowardly teammate that left you hanging after all your hard work- at some point they’d have to understand. Let’s be honest, she would have done the same thing.
“Anyway.” Meg continued. “There’s like- these giant inflatable snowmen in the trials that pretty much work as portable lockers. Apparently the killers don’t know about them yet because we were pretty much hiding in them the whole match.”
“Ya’ think we could use ‘em as shields?” David asked, suddenly joining the conversation.
Meg shook her head. “It’ll break on impact.” She grinded her teeth. “Yui found that out the hard way… but it’s still fun to fuck with them.”
Behind them, Yun-Jin shouted something in Korean, making everyone within her radius flinch. Her head and shoulders hadn’t manifested yet, but it was easy to identify her due to her flashy suit-dress and feather jacket. Her arms and back were covered in tiny knives that cut through her clothes and stained her beautiful white coat with blood. She gripped tightly onto one of the knives and yanked it out, a small grunt coming from her throat as the knife began to fizzle into the air. Gradually, the knives began to fall out on their own, until there was one left, directly in her left eye. With another harsh grunt, she ripped out the knife and let out a scream of pain. Thankfully, they healed much quicker near the campfire. Within seconds her eye was healed, the pain had subsided, and her clothes had regenerated back into their clean, untouched state. Back to normal, as if nothing had happened.
Next to her, Jake laid lifeless on the ground. Tiny knives covered his body like a push pin. A polaroid rested on his chest, a knife slashed through it like a toothpick holding a sandwich together. A Trickster match, even worse, a Trickster with mori. It should have been expected though. If Yun-Jin is in a trial, it’s a 8/10 chance it’s with Trickster.
Victims of moris also spawned slower than others. It gave time for the other survivors to watch, to see what could happen to them, and even worse the victim never stopped feeling the pain until they’d finished manifesting. Everyone had been moried, everyone had felt the agonizing pain of lying frozen while their limbs barely hung onto their tendons.
Claudette looked away. She hated blood, she hated gore, she hated seeing such a close friend like this. Dwight put a comforting hand on her shoulder, which made her crack a very light smile.
Jake’s face gradually started to appear, his jaw was locked in a constant cry, his eyes were rolled into his head, leaving only the whites visible, tears mixed with blood streamed down his cheeks. Yun-Jin frowned as she watched her friend. She bent down and began taking some of the knives out of his chest, quickly followed by Ace and Adam helping her out.
After another minute, Jake suddenly shot up, making the trio helping him jump back. He flinched as the knives they hadn’t removed began to dig deeper into him. “C-cowardly prick.” He was able to stutter out as he ripped the photo off his chest. “Knew I was going to wiggle out so he just killed me right there.” He threw the polaroid into the fire.
“I’m so sorry.” Yun-Jin said quickly. “I didn’t expect him to drop you so I just- ran.”
Jake shook his head, he was gradually beginning to heal. “It’s fine.” His tone was soft. “He was just mad I sabotaged his stupid hooks.” He snickered.
Jake’s return had really ruined the atmosphere. Yun-Jin and Meg had received their new outfits but they were far too bummed to try them on. Everyone sat idly by the fire, with occasional small talk here and there. Claudette and Dwight sat shoulder-to-shoulder, keeping their mouth’s shut as they watched the forever roaring fire.
Claudette felt helpless. She should have been there, she should have been there to patch her friends up before their reaper could snatch them away. Jake had gone off to the woods alone, something he did often, but Claudette could still tell he was hurt.
Back in the day, when it was just the four at the campfire, they’d cemented roles for themselves in the group. Meg was their distraction, Jake was their technician, Dwight was their hype man, and Claudette was their nurse. As the team went through more and more trials, their personal abilities began to somewhat develop into super powers. Even with just a bandage on hand, she could heal anyone within a few seconds, including herself. She could sense pain, even from across a trial. All it took was one cut and she could see her friend through the brush, no matter where they were hiding. Even if she looked away she could feel it, feel the sledgehammer slamming across their head, feel the hook drive through their shoulder, feel their spine snap in half under the force of a metal boot.
Those powers followed them outside of trials. Despite how tightly she closed her eyes and tried to focus on the crackling fire, she could sense Jake’s pain, emotional pain.
Although she had a knack for healing, she never was good at cheering people up. She was never quite good at anything that involved direct communication. Even as a toddler, she’d watch other kids laugh and play with each other, but no matter how many times she’d attempted to mimic them they always shunned her away. According to her father, that didn’t matter. “The right person will come along one day.” He always said, and he was partially right. Claudette was easily able to make friends through online chat rooms. But once those faceless beings went offline for the night, she was alone again.
Things didn’t change in the realm. For her first few months here, she avoided her teammates as much as possible. She knew their names, and they knew hers, but that was all they knew about each other.
In the beginning, everyone coped with their new surroundings in different ways. Rarely did they stay by the campfire. Jake- who in hindsight really hasn’t changed- spent all his time deep in the woods. He always left with the intention of finding an escape, but every time he’d appear right back at the campfire. Meg went on frequent runs, but never strayed too far from the campfire. Her dark figure was always visible in between the trees and brush. At first, Claudette spent all her time curled up by the fire, staring deeply into its warm aroma hoping she’d somehow wake up from this nightmare. During a particularly bad trial with The Hillbilly, she’d recognized a particular green herb. Hurt, and aware she was going to die either way, she plucked it from the ground and took a bite at its leaves. It wasn’t much, but it brought a new found ounce of determination. She didn’t escape that trial, but the experience taught her that she could use the realm to her advantage. Since then, she spent most of her time inspecting the plants in the forest, and collecting a few during downtime in trials.
Dwight, like Claudette, kept to himself by the fire. Even now he spent his time resting against a log, staring deeply into the flames as he fiddled with his watch. It was Dwight who finally got her out of their shell though. It was one of their first matches with Doctor. Their ears were ringing, their nerves jolted from the electricity flowing through them. The two were hiding behind a thick tree, they struggled to control their breath. Claudette’s hand was firmly over her mouth, her nails dug tightly into her skin as she resisted the urge to scream away the pain.
Dwight, right by her side, gently put his hand on her shoulder, alerting her immediately. His finger pointed at the sky, towards a shiny red apple dangling off a tree branch. They didn’t need to eat in the realm, but the fruit just looked so tempting. It’s red, juicy exterior contrasted against the dull swamp they were in. They were gonna die anyways, why not die with a good taste in their mouth. Carefully, Dwight checked behind the tree, his eyes scanning the horizon for the big electric man and his metal punji stick.
The Doctor let out a horrible, guttural laugh that made their ears ring. She could feel her breath being forcefully sucked out of her. “Don’t scream. Don’t scream. Don’t scream.” She told herself as she watched Dwight discreetly begin to climb the thick tree. One branch at a time, he lifted himself closer and closer to the precious apple. Claudette could sense the cuts on his legs from the thick bark. She was going to scream. “If you dare speak you’re both dead.” She repeated in her head.
Dwight’s with his legs firmly around the tree, his grip tightened onto a sturdy branch as he struggled to grab the fruit. No matter how far he pushed himself forward his fingers barely grazed the seemingly forbidden fruit. So close, yet so far.
“Alright Dwight..” He said under his breath. At this point it wasn’t even about the damn apple, it was about not looking like an idiot in front of this girl. He took a deep breath before launching forward, intending on grabbing the slim branch the apple was hanging from.
His fingers grazed through the wood. Another fit of deep laughter rang in the two’s ears again as the branch began to fade out of existence. A hallucination- how could he fall for something like that. With nothing to grab on, he fell backwards, straining his vocal cords as he let out a high-pitched cry and grasped at the air. As a last resort, his legs tightened around the tree bark.
It stopped him from falling, but now he was bent over, his torso dangled while his thighs struggled to hold him against the tree. The force had caused his glasses to slip over his head and tumbled onto the soft ground. His tie swung back and forth in front of him, eventually resting right in front of his eyes, blocking his vision even further. He pulled himself up just to lose steam and go right back to dangling. He should’ve taken that free gym membership while he had the chance.
“Claudette.” He could just barely see her blurry form looking up at him, her hand still over her mouth. The killer HAD to have heard that scream, even from across the map, but with his blurred vision there was no way he was getting down without injuring himself. Luckily he was with Claudette, who would have healed him in a heartbeat, but with their dazed state, would she be able to help him in time?
Another fit of laughter was heard, much closer this time. “Shit shit shit” He felt his heart beat out of his chest, threatening to go through his throat and launch right out of his throat. The laughter continued, much longer than usual. He stopped, listening close to the hollering. It was high pitched, girly, right under him. He lifted his head up to the point where he could just barely see Claudette below him, rolling around in a fit of laughter.
“Claudette!” He snapped, but she was far gone in her own world.
The killer definitely heard them now. He could feel the killer’s heartbeat grow stronger by the second. Desperately, he pulled himself up, reaching out for a nearby tree branch he hadn’t noticed before. With his last bit of strength, he made a fist around the branch, gripping on it for dear life.
The Doctor’s laughter overshadowed Claudette’s as the branch vanished.
Dwight fell back again, the back of his head smashed against the tree’s bark with a loud crack. FInally his legs gave out and he fell like a bowling ball. He landed on his back, a bone chilling pop echoed through the swamp. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much pain- actually- there was no pain at all. His chest rose and fell as he attempted to catch his lost breath. Right by his side was Claudette, who was still kicking with laughter. By his other side was The Doctor, his head tilted to the side as he stared at the two.
His body laid completely still, even if he wanted to move it was no use. This was it. He was about to give this reaper the easiest kill of his life. In any other situation he’d be terrified- pissing his pants with fear kind of terrified- but it was difficult to feel fear while in between the two happiest people in the realm. A weak grin cracked on his face as the idiocy of the situation began to hit him. Before he knew it, a giggle escaped his lips, soon followed by a fit of laughter like Claudette’s. In their half-insane state, the two went back and forth laughing, catching their breath, then going right back to laughing. He could have sworn the Doctor had joined them too- that was until he felt a sudden jolt of burning electricity zip through him. His lungs began to burn, not from the laughter but from an actual fire igniting in them. He began to heavily cough as spoke filled up his lungs. Claudette had finally snapped out of her fit and was sitting up, coughing the flames up desperately. Dwight couldn’t mimic her though, he was still stuck laying down. Within seconds he was dead, and right back at the campfire with a working spine, and working brain.
Embarrassing…
He’d half expected her to still be laughing when she got back to the fire, but in classic Claudette fashion, she was choking back her tears, apologizing profusely to the other.
“I’m so so sorry!” She cried out. “I-I-I don’t know wh-what came over me! It was just- just!”
It was funny. Even he found it a tad humorous. But despite his reassurance she continued apologizing. It was the most he’d ever heard her speak in.. ever.
The commotion had alerted Meg and Jake, who’d died early in the trial. Soon they were asking for the gritty details, and after Dwight’s explanation, they were rolling with laughter too.
“You actually fell for that! I get a pallet but an APPLE?” Meg exclaimed through her laughter.
“How could you even fall for those? The fake ones always have rubble under them.” Jake asked.
“Since when?! I never noticed!”
Soon there four of them were sitting around the campfire for the first time. Chatting and sharing tips and tricks. Jake had finally taught them how to sabotage hooks. Claudette finally showed everyone how to heal themselves, and Meg agreed to help everyone work on stamina. They finally were a team, and it was all because some greedy asshole couldn’t do a pull up.
Lots of time had passed since then. New survivors appear, new tricks, tips, and stories were shared. Claudette had made a name for herself within her group of friends. When she wasn’t being sacrificed or hunted for sport, she was.. happy in a way. If only her mother could see her now.
“Claudette.” Dwight’s soft voice snapped her out of the fire’s trance. Her legs tingled, as if thousands of tiny ants were climbing up them. She looked down at her quickly vanishing legs as the sensation moved further up her body. Trial time.
She glanced at Dwight, who was frantically struggling to take his collar off with his mouth. She glanced down, wondering why he wasn’t just using his hands until she realized he had none- in fact he didn’t even have arms. She reached up and removed the collar for him before his torso disappeared.
“Visconti, if I die this round I’m taking that med-kit and smacking you over the head with it.” Ash joked light-heartedly as he watched his legs begin to disappear.
“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Ace responded with a shrug, a stupid grin spread across his face.
“Oh, fuck off.” Mikaela mumbled to herself as she began to vanish from the head down. “How am I supposed to hide in this??”
Claudette took a deep breath and reached into her pocket. She took out a bag of salt and threw it into the fire. “Good luck.” She thought to herself, praying the Entity would accept her simple offering.