Sshh, Be Quiet.

Brian read messages one after another. There were only four of them. It was like he was trying to be contacted. Like they were trying to tell him he was soon going to be defeated.

“I was going by what Lisa told me…” Matt started. “To keep my mind strong so they couldn’t get in.”

“It’s like they’re trying to contact you. Just listen to these messages. ‘Life’s so reckless, tragedy endless, welcome to the family.’” Brian read.

“Brian, don’t,” Lisa interrupted. “Just ignore them.”

“Keep listening though, these next two are kind of long,” Brian said. “’Not long ago you’d find the answers were so crystal clear. Within a day you found yourself living in constant fear. Can you look at yourself? You can’t win this fight.’”

“Brian, you really shouldn’t…” Stephanie was now trying to interrupt him.

“No, let him. I want to see where this is going,” Matt said.

“’We all have emptiness inside. We all have answers to find. But you can’t win this fight.’ Matt you better not be hiding anything else from us.”

“I’m not,” Matt said defensively. “Whatever ‘answers’ I’m trying to find, they have to do with this place. Are there anymore?”

“Yeah, this last one is why I wanted you all to hear me out. ‘Hey! Why won’t you listen?’ It’s short, but if he ignores them…”

“His mind is closed to whatever wants to possess him…” Lisa interrupted Brian.

“I only got four messages, but I was checking my phone to see if I could get a signal or something,” Matt said, looking to Lisa for an apology.

“Alright, sorry. I just don’t want anything hidden because the smallest thing could be the difference between us living or dying.”

Matt didn’t say anything else. He simply didn’t want to talk about it anymore. As they all tried to relax, they slowly began falling asleep. It wasn’t intentional, but exhaustion was starting to settle in, and as their minds slowly went at ease for the possible looming freedom, they began to relax. Nobody slept for more than an hour though. Lisa was woken up quite violently by Brian.

“What the fuck!?” she shouted, annoyed.

“Matt’s not in here,” he said in a hushed tone.

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know,“ he said as he went and woke up the others. “Jenna, I need you to come with me. Zacky, you stay with them two. We need to find Matt, he went missing.”

“Shouldn’t we all look for him?” Lisa asked. “I may be injured, but I can still walk.”

“No, you stay there. We don’t need to make you start bleeding again.”

Lisa grunted in defeat. She wanted to help, and she wanted to prove that she wasn’t helpless just because she was injured. “Hey, what about that gun?” she asked.

Brian stopped dead then turned to Lisa. “You’re right.” He began patting his pockets, getting a few odd looks. “Remember in the basement. He had the gun, and when I got it, I put the magazine in my pocket. The gun is downstairs.” He continued patting pockets. “Fuck, the magazine is gone. I swear it was in my fucking pocket.”

“Just be careful,” Zack said as he sat next to Lisa and Stephanie.

Jenna was reluctant to go with Brian, but was able to feel slightly protected by him. The two slowly went for the basement stairs, and descended slowly, silently. In the living room, Lisa sat up on the couch between Zack and Steph. She was still annoyed at being treated like she was helpless.

“I wonder what Matt’s up to anyways,” Steph said.

“Just thinking about it freaks me the fuck out,” Zack said.

“I’m not fucking helpless,” Lisa interrupted, causing the other two to look at her oddly. “I’m not. I can walk around. Maybe not as fast, but I still can walk around! And I say that we go look upstairs to find Matt.”

There was a few minutes of silence before Zack spoke. “Lisa, we know you’re not helpless. We saw that even before you got injured. But think of it this way, what if we do find Matt, and what if he does have a weapon with intentions to kill us? Would you be able to run away from him? Most likely not.”

“Adrenaline rush,” she interrupted.

“Probably, but what if he grabbed you? Look at how big he is, you wouldn’t get away.”

“I could fight,” she interrupted again.

“Lisa, listen to him,” Steph said. “He has a point.”

“I’m sure we can get out of here tomorrow. We don’t want anyone else dying here. So we’re going to play it safe, and stay right here for now. I’m sure your best friend here wouldn’t want to lose you.”

Lisa sighed. “Fine. I just hate looking like I’m not helping. I feel lazy, and don’t want to be this way.”

“You’ve done enough,” Zack said. “Coming up with the theory of what’s going on? Not to mention, we haven’t met anyone that’s not afraid to stand up to Matt when he’s pissed off.”

“You’re right, I guess,” she hung her head. “Everyone has done more-”

Lisa was cut off by Zack shushing her. Only then in the complete silence they were able to hear the heavy footsteps upstairs. They exchanged glances.

“Brian and Jenna went downstairs, didn’t they?” Steph asked.

“Yeah. They went to get the gun, unless they snuck around the other way to go upstairs.” Zack said, still looking at the ceiling.

The footsteps, heavy and solid stomped around upstairs, sounding aimless for a bit before heading for the stairs. Slowly they came down the stairs, and towards the living room. Through the darkness of the room, a shadowy figure could be made out. Zack reached to turn on a light, and the moment light flooded the room, the three of them gasped.