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Chapter 3: Fright Night
"I dig that, man," Nicodemus agreed. "We gotta pacify him peacefully, and such. Not just because it's the law, but it's also the right thing to do." He gestured to the direction of the rec hall. "Let's go convene with the others. I gotta get this incense to that poor little lady." He chinned towards the other girl. "You ain't lookin' so good yourself." Nicodemus turned on his heel. "C'mon, let's go!"
***
Dave turned to Sawyer, surprised she had leaned on him so. With some hesitation, he put his hand on her back to reassure her. "Yes. Yes, I think it can." He looked off to the lot of the others, disorganized and dismayed, half their students missing, half their faculty unaccounted for.
And then to Howard, a man so driven by his daughter's pain he'd do anything to heal it.
It was the one thing he understood tonight.
"Something has to," Dave said more to himself than Sawyer, smiling down at her. For the first time since he set foot on this cursed campground, he felt like he helped someone tonight.
-Nicodemus and Dave
Fitz grimaced at the visceral display of sick on the grass, "Enchanting."
In an attempt to seem unthreatening and unsuspicious, he called to the stranger, "Mucha mierda de boca!" smiling chummily.
"Clearly," replied Pedro, shaking his head, "Inútil maldito idiota."
Howard took in air, sharply, "A recording device. It...fell out of her bag. There was...a great deal of confusion about the place, things were out of order. I...I wouldn't have turned it on myself, or I don't think I did..."
He sighed, "But it turned on all the same. And, Audrey..."
A harsh, mechanical screech echoed across the entire campground, cutting him off.
***
Theodora stopped in her tracks at the noise, whirling around on her heel. A horrible sound, like a bunch of rusty cans clanging together into an amp...
"Edward!" she grabbed at his arm, pointing with her other hand, "There."
She indicated the source of the noise: a high white pole just beyond the ring of cabins, with an old-fashioned public address speaker on top. Judging by all the noise, there was more than one, scattered around the place.
Before she could ask any of the many questions on her lips, a voice came out of the PA...
***
Brooke bit back a scream at the noise, one hand over her mouth, the other resting impulsively on Noah's arm, though she hastily rectified this.
"What the hell..." began Zach, as the words boomed through the air, from half a dozen different mouthpieces.
"I'm always scared. I'm always looking in my shadow. I can't sleep, I can't think. Sometimes I see thing that aren't there."
"That's not..."
"It's like living in a nightmare."
Brooke felt the blood drain from her face, "Emma," she breathed.
***
Tina jumped at the voice that came echoing through the trees.
"What kind of gimmick..."
There's a sound like a tape being switched, and a new voice sounded out.
"Do you think you're crazy?"
And the reply...
***
"I'm not normal."
"What..." Eli breathed, slowly turning to the tiny form behind him, "Deanna? That's...that's not..."
"Eli!"
His mother burst out of the trees, leaving Smoke in the dust. Before he could so much as breathe, she'd wrapped both arms around him, heedless of the gun in her hand.
"Oh, baby...I was so worried..."
"Okay, Ma, it's...it's alright. I'm fine. And..."
But Tina saw over his shoulders before he could finish, her eyes widening like saucers.
"I found the family."
***
The tape skipped a third time, heard as clearly on the hilltop as anywhere else.
"What sort of devilry..." Fitz was muttering, though none of the others seem to notice his words.
"Sometimes I still dream about it. Killing them. Getting revenge."
Every one of them there recognizes the voice. As much as they recognize the cool, comforting, motherly voice that speaks next.
"They're dreams, Audrey. A lot is made about them, but mostly they mean nothing."
"These do. Doc, I...I'm afraid I..."
"Maybe there is some of the old you there, Audrey. The one that wanted vengeance, the one that wanted...blood. I could tell you how to get rid of it, how to snip it out, suppress it..."
The woman bent over the body of her son raised her head at the sound of her own voice, tear-streaked and stricken.
"But it will always come back, always. Perhaps stronger than it was before."
Phyllis Hendricks kneeled beside her son, aware of all eyes on her, and stared blankly into the night, seeing nothing.
"We must live with our demons or be destroyed by them."
-Howard, Theodora, Brooke, Zach, Tina, Eli, Fitz and Phyllis