Work Text:
My rock, my friend, we always said
We'd live this life, until we made it to the end
So why aren't you right here, right next to me?
You took your life, like fuck, you left me bleeding
Ashlyn’s feet pounded on the ground, sprinting through the dark hall. She looked behind her quickly seeing nothing but darkness lurking behind her. She can hear the echoes of the phantoms chasing her, the sounds piercing through her head.
Shots ring out from beside her causing her to clamp her hands around her head quickly. Logan reloads his gun quickly, stumbling through his concentration. “A little fucking warning next time there Logan!” Tyler yells, sounding out of breath.
Ashlyn had no idea how they were going to get out of this. All of them had to run down the middle of the hallways in the darkness. They’d been running for so long that they’d need to stop soon to rest.
More shots fire off and all Ashlyn hears is the pounding of her heart. This was not good. Ben was currently wheezing ahead of her, taking the burden of carrying Tyler as they ran. Aiden, thankfully, was well enough to run by himself but he was clearly starting to stumble as they all ran for their lives.
“The door that Alex was talking about is up to the left,” Taylor yells, “Maybe five doors down. The card should open it!”
Ashlyn clutches the card tighter, determination overcoming her. She speeds up just slightly to get in front of Ben and Tyler. “Got it!” Ashlyn yells over the gunshots.
She reaches the door first and scans the card nearly grinning ear to ear when there is a beep and a green light. She tugged the door open holding it so everyone could run inside. Logan darts through last and she quickly pulls it shut. She leans against the door, gasping for breath as the phantoms pound on the door. She cringes away from the sound and steps away, further into the room. Aiden is sitting on one of the lab desks inside with a grin, “Well that went well.”
Tyler glares at him from when Ben had let him down, “Says you, you freak. We’re pretty much stuck in here until we shift again.”
“Which is still another ten minutes.” Logan says, glancing at his watch. “We just have to hold out until then. It should be fine, there weren't that many, and this room is sealed pretty tightly.”
Tyler scoffs as Ben points across the room to a window that leads out into a currently empty hallway. Ashlyn sighs deeply, exhaustion taking over from the dead sprint, “It sure sounds like a lot of them. They’re all sitting outside the door waiting for us.”
Taylor nods from where she’s crouched, digging through cabinets, “It certainly is going to be an issue if we need to get out again, but I think it’ll be fine. Logan, how’s the ammo doing?”
Logan shrugs, “We’re getting low, but it’ll hold up for a while.”
Ashlyn frowns. They’d been running on low for a while, but they had been prioritizing medical supplies and escape routes. Tyler was still in rough shape. The hole in his stomach wasn’t healing whatsoever and caused some major issues while trying to move distances like tonight. Aiden was fine besides some minor nausea and more severe headaches. He kept claiming he was fine, but the lack of smiling spoke greatly. He was currently lightly smacking his head against the wall that his desk sat against. Almost like he felt her staring, he freezes and meets her eyes. He smiles and pats the desktop beside him. Ashlyn rolls her eyes but walks over to sit next to him, “How are you feeling?”
“Absolutely peachy now that you’re here, Ashy.” His smile grows, engulfing his face with glee.
Ashlyn hums, “Sure. Your head isn’t absolutely pounding right now?”
He waves his hand in denial, “Nah.”
Ashlyn gives him a look and he just shrugs. Idiot . “You’re a horrible liar you know-”
The pounding on the door doubles and the walls seem to shake with how loud it’s gotten. Everyone's on their feet instantly. “I swear if it’s another one of those centipedes.” Tyler grumbles.
Ashlyn furrows her eyebrows, stepping towards the door, “It’s not. It’s the same phantoms that chased us. They just got… louder.”
“There’s no new ones?” Taylor asks softly, holding her brother’s weight up.
Ashlyn shakes her head as an echoing pound shakes the room. Almost a second later there’s a hoard of phantom noises from behind them. “Get the hell away from the window!” She screams as she whips around, flashlight shining at the window.
There are phantoms grinning from just outside of it, now dripping onto the floor. A few stay normal, just staring into the room with their horrid smiles. Everyone backs away slowly, fear encasing the room. “Why the fuck aren’t the melting?” Aiden asks cautiously.
His words acting like a trigger, the phantoms outside of the window start banging on the glass. The glass spiderwebs and finally falls through when Logan shoots through it at them. It’s like a dam breaking with how fast they flood into the room. Ashlyn whips around, scanning the key card quickly, nodding to Taylor who has a gun up and waiting. The door is pulled open, and she holds it open as gun fire rips through the doorway. Taylor stumbles back as she fires rapidly.
“Five minutes!” Tyler yells from his spot back on Ben’s back.
Ashlyn kicks the knife out of its spot in her shoe and swings it into the doorway, impaling one of the phantoms. She keeps kicking, black blood splattering on her and the walls next to her. She feels a sharp tug of the back of her shirt before she’s getting dragged up the wall. She yells in panic as she looks up to see a phantom dragging her further up the tall wall. Ashlyn falls just as suddenly when Taylor shoots it. Before she can even get up another phantom is reaching for her. She kicks out sharply, flinching when her leg is tugged forward, her hip groaning under the sudden jolt.
“Ash!” Taylor yells desperately, her own attention drawn back to the mob trying to come into the room.
“I’m,” Ashlyn kicks with her leg, satisfied when the blade slams into the phantom, “fine!”
Aiden is slashing his own knife through the crowd of phantoms, hitting unlucky shots that don’t seem to be doing any real damage. Ben is holding his own, far away from both doors, trying to keep Tyler away from it all. Logan and Taylor are both firing blinding at both groups of phantoms.
Ashlyn gets up quickly and tries to rush over to Aiden to try and help lessen the crowd around him before claws swipe her side, “God damnit!” She screeches as she clutches her side and jumps away.
Aiden looks over quickly only to be tackled by a phantom. “Three minutes guys! Hold on!” Tyler yells again, uncharacteristic desperation leaking into his voice.
Ashlyn dodges another swipe only to run into a different phantom that pushes her to the ground and climbs on top of her. Ashlyn screams when claws dig into her shoulder. She pushes against the phantom and manages to get the claws out and for the phantom to get partially off of her. “Someone help Ashlyn!” Aiden yells, his own phantom getting a knife in the eye.
Shots light up the room, illuminating the phantoms that keep searching the kids out. Ashlyn hisses as she sits up to scoot away from the phantom in front of her. She kicks her foot again, the knife pounding into the phantom. That phantom melts but another one attacks from behind her, tackling her back so she folds over forward. She’s never been so thankful in her ability to bend in weird ways. She spins around the best she can, so she has a better angle to try and get the phantom off of her. The claws wrap around her neck as the phantom squeezes, staring down at her curiously. Ashlyn kicks her legs up, trying to buck the thing off of her.
“Ash!”
“Shit! Someone help her!”
“Oh god .”
Ashlyn punches straight up, hitting the phantom in the jaw. Its hands loosen enough for Ashlyn to pry them off and pull them above her head. The phantom falls forward enough for Ashlyn to flip it above her. She scrambles to her knees, gasping for breath as she stares at the phantom. Just as Tyler yells, “Two minutes”, Ashlyn gets tackled once more. This time two are on top of her. She screams in pain when her shoulder gets stabbed through again, this time closer to her neck. She pushes and pushes against the phantoms trying desperately to get the hand out of her shoulder. The other phantom reaches forward and grabs her, claws sinking deep into her chest. She stops moving with a gasp, staring at the phantoms in shock. The pain in her body increased until all she could do was scream in pain.
Suddenly one of the phantoms fell backwards, shot. The other went flying a few seconds later as Ben tackled it. A hand presses into her shoulder causing her to groan. “Shit Ash. You’re okay. Stay awake, ‘kay? Ash?”
Ashlyn looks at Tyler with tears in her eyes, “God it hurts.”
“I know, I know.” Tyler whispers before looking up and yelling, “I need help!” He looks back down at her, “One minute, hold on for one more fucking minute.”
Something splutters in her chest as it spasms before she's coughing. Blood leaks out of the corner of her mouth, staining her teeth red. “I can’t breathe. I can’t fucking breathe-”
“You can, it’s okay. Deep breaths.” Tyler pulls back her shirt, flinching at the blood bubbling as it leaves her chest.
“I’m sorry.” She mutters, her visions growing darker.
“Ash? Fuck, Ash wake up. Wake up!” Tyler smacks her cheek lightly as her eyes flutter shut.
He watches with wet eyes as her chest stops heaving and settles into stillness.
He leans away, taking his hands away, staring at the red coating them. He closes his eyes and lets the tears drip down his own cheeks.
When he opens them, he’s staring at the ceiling and the room has gone quiet. He sits up quickly, clutching his stomach as pain shoots through his body. “Alex!” He stands up and rushes to his door, “Fuck! Alex, you need to help Ashlyn!”
Tyler bangs on the door of his room, hoping to draw any attention either his room or his camera. Ashlyn needs help.
—
It was almost instantaneous watching five of the six kids bolt up and start yelling for someone to help Ashlyn. Alex frowns at the screen before letting his gaze drift to Ashlyn’s camera. To where the girl was convulsing on her bed. “Shit!” He curses, racing off down the hall.
He opens her door quickly and rushes to her side. He hesitates when he sees her eyes are all black and staring wide open at the ceiling. It doesn’t take long for her to settle and lay panting on her bed. Alex watches as Ashlyn comes to and realize what has happened. He can’t grab her with how fast she lunges for the bathroom. He holds her hair back as she vomits blood into the toilet. “Ashlyn? What happened?”
She stares blankly at the ground, “I don’t know. I think I died.”
Alex sits fully on the ground, flushing the toilet, “You aren’t dead, it was probably a nightmare-”
“Not here.” Ashlyn mutters, “I died there.”
“There-? What do you mean?”
Ashlyn licks her lips, running a hand over her shoulder flinching at the sharp pains. They’d agreed to start telling Alex more about what was going on, “Like Tyler. He was impaled on a tree there and he died. Aiden got crushed in a building.”
“Is that why they’re hurt like they are?” Alex asks softly.
Ashlyn nods. Alex speaks again once the girl doesn’t, “What happened to you?”
“A phantom killed me.” Ashlyn pulls up her shirt, revealing the much smaller holes in her shoulder and chest.
Alex quickly lowers her shirt and helps her to her feet, “Let’s go get you checked out.”
After leaving her in the hands of the nursing staff, Alex wanders back to his station and glances at the cameras. Ben’s room has been trashed even more, though he thought that to be impossible. Aiden was pacing the room, glancing between the door and the camera. Taylor and Logan were both sitting on their beds, staring at the door. And Tyler was still yelling his head off. Alex sighs but grabs his phone on his desk and walks back down the hall to talk with all the kids. He starts with Ben’s room, tucking his glasses into his pocket before walking in. Ben looks over quickly and reaches a hand out for the phone that he’d now come to expect. Alex hands it over easily, “Ms. Banner is okay. She has a few injuries but she’s being taken care of.”
What happened when you found her?, Ben wrote before flipping it around for Alex to read.
“She had a seizure and then had an episode of nausea. She told me a little bit of what happened, did you see any of it?”
Ben’s eyes darken before he began frantically writing, Not well. There was a phantom on her and they just kept attacking. It wasn’t an ideal situation. Tyler and Aiden would know best. Maybe Taylor.
Alex nods, “I’m stopping by to talk with everyone. Thank you for telling me what you do know. I’m glad you’re okay. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Ben shakes his head and hands the phone back over. Alex walks out of the room and just a few doors down before scanning his card. He puts his glasses back on as he motions for Aiden to sit at the table with him.
“Is Ash okay?” Aiden asks first, sitting down easily.
Alex nods, “A few injuries but she’s being taken care of. Ms. Banner told me a little bit about what happened, but I would like for you to fill me in.”
Aiden shrugs, bringing his knees to his chest. His smile is still absent, setting Alex on edge. “A few phantoms got the best of her. They got their claws in her and she died. There’s nothing else to it.”
Alex nods slowly, he’d guessed this. “Thank you. I need to let the others know that she’s alright but let me know if you need anything else from me.”
Aiden said nothing else, so Alex left and went to Tyler’s room. The boy was on him in a second, “Where’s Ashlyn? Is she alright?”
Alex nods stiffly, “She has a few injuries but she’s being taken care of. You should sit down so you don't aggravate your own wounds.”
Tyler huffs but sits on the edge of his bed. Alex stands in front of him, “Can you tell me what happened?”
“We were stuck in a room and a bunch of phantoms came in. Too many of them for us to handle properly. Ashlyn kept getting attacked. She was clawed on her side, stabbed in the shoulder and stabbed in her chest. We had a minute left before we left, and I tried to stop her from bleeding out. It didn’t work.”
“Well, she’s alright now. You tried your best. Thank you for telling me.” Tyler shrugs as a response and Alex takes a step back, “I need to go tell the others that she’s alright but if you need anything from me, let me know.”
“Will do.” Tyler says as he falls back onto his bed.
The next room was Logan’s. Alex walked into the room to Logan instantly asking, “Is Ashlyn okay?”
Alex nods again, repeating the same thing he’s told everyone else, “She has some injuries but is being taken care of. Can you tell me what happened?”
Logan holds his head in his hands, “I didn’t see any of it. There was a hoard of phantoms that came, and I was just trying to keep them by the window. I only got glimpses of what was happening. I know she died.”
“I’ve heard that. How does that work?”
“Dying?” Logan looks up and then shrugs helplessly, “We have no idea. We die there, wake up to a seizure here and have a minor version of the injury. We wake up there with the same injury that killed up but it doesn’t kill us as quickly. It’s weird.”
“Has it just been Tyler, Aiden, and Ashlyn?”
Alex receives a nod, and he thanks Logan for his help. “I need to go talk to Taylor still. Let me know if you need anything from me.”
Taylor looked up at Alex when he opened the door, “Is she okay?”
“She’s okay. Ms. Banner has a few injuries but is being taken care of. Can you tell me what happened?”
Just like Aiden, Taylor brings her knees to her chest and rocks herself gently, “The phantoms wouldn’t leave her alone. Two of them stabbed her and she died. I shot one of them, but I was too late.”
“It’s okay. She’s alright.”
Taylor shakes her head, “You don’t understand. Now we have to figure out how to stop her from bleeding out again. She could die again, and we don’t know what will happen if she does.”
“I’m sure everything will end up fine.” Alex replies unsurely, trying to boost morale at least a little bit. “You guys are tough; you’ll figure it out.”
—
Ashlyn wakes up in her bed gasping. Her hand flies to her chest where her blood bubbles out and drips down her skin. The taste of iron fills her mouth, and she carefully pushes herself to sit up. She looks around, making sure she’s in her room and not in the lab room they were in last night. Distantly she can hear the phantoms so they must still be over there.
Ashlyn grabs her sheets, wrapping them tightly around her upper body, trying to staunch a little bit of the bleeding before the others get here. She sat there, staring blankly at the wall in front of her. She doesn’t remember anything from during the day. The nurses knocked her out almost immediately, leaving her unconscious all day.
She sighs with relief when she hears the beep of her door and is met with Logan and Ben’s faces. Ben rushes forward with the hallway's small med kit in hand while Logan smiles softly, “I’m glad to see you’re still alive. I’ll go get the others.”
Logan leaves again and Ben sits on the bed next to Ashlyn, carefully unwrapping the sheets and looking at the tear marks in her outfit. Ashlyn leans off the wall and with Ben’s help, takes off the jacket leaving her in the tank top underneath it. Ben begins cleaning the wounds before plastering her entire chest with bandages. The door beeps again as he finishes tying it off, “Thanks Ben.”
He nods with a small, sad smile. “Ashlyn! Oh honey, I’m so happy you’re okay!” Taylor sobs, rushing forwards.
Ashlyn grimaces at the hug that she gets attacked with, “I’d say ‘okay’ is a rough term to use. Alive, sure. Okay, maybe not.”
Aiden sits on the other side of her, “I’m sorry we couldn't help anymore last night.”
His smile is gone as he stares at her with a look that she can’t describe. She grabs his hand, “It’s fine. That was a shitty situation.”
“You died Ash.” Taylor mutters.
Ashlyn shrugs, “So did Tyler and Aiden.”
Aiden half raises his hand, “Might I add that mine was the least painless and I’m recovering fairly well.”
Tyler levels him a look, “Are you seriously bragging about that right now?”
Aiden finally smiles and Ashlyn rolls her eyes before shoving him off the bed.
She’d be alright if she stuck with them. They’d take care of her.
I will meet you at the graveyard
Where you lay down, where you stay now
Faced up, cold heart, no longer by my side now
Wish we were together, now I don't know when I will see you