October 15, 2023

When Nathan snaps awake, he first struggles to remember where he is. He isn't in his own bed, isn't in the Venetian hotel room he woke up in this morning. He isn't even in a bed at all. He's sitting with his back against the wall of a dead-end corridor in an asylum in ruins, wrapped in a fleece blanket to keep warm. He hadn't intended to fall asleep, had still been partially uncomfortable letting his guard down like that even when it had been dark outside for hours, but he must have dozed off regardless.

Now, he blinks rapidly, clenching his teeth. Something isn't right.

Something isn't right at all.

In addition to feeling that supernatural undercurrent, his scar stings. It's a slowly intensifying stinging.

Nathan remembers the not-deer and how he felt then, and all he can think of is that this stinging feels much worse.

"What... Is it three already?" Jamie mumbles. With how fast she woke up after he did, sleeping can't have been much more than a light doze for her, either. Nathan can't see her very well in the darkness, but he feels her warm presence next to him and realises she fell asleep on him.

He'd probably spend a long time overthinking that if there weren't much more urgent matters to deal with now. Though this Italian autumn night has been a soft one in terms of temperature, Nathan shivers as goosebumps appear on his skin, which feels colder and colder by the second. He gets to his feet, fumbling to draw his phone from his pocket and turn the flashlight on. "It's a quarter to three," he observes as he bathes their corridor in artificial white light.

"Oh." Jamie still looks a little out of it, checking her watch to confirm. Then, she takes out her own phone and switches off the alarm she set. "Guess we might as well–" She yawns. "–get started on the last filming now? And then we can get out of here–"

"Forget filming," Nathan interrupts a little too harshly, but both his pain and stress levels are rising far too fast for comfort. "We need to get the hell out of here as soon as possible."

This statement renders Jamie understandably confused. "Wait... Wait a second, did I miss anything? Because–"

"Jamie, listen. Remember that thing in the woods I thought was a deer, but then when we got closer, it turned out it wasn't a deer at all?"

"Well, yeah–"

"Don't answer, it's rhetorical. I could sense that deer was paranormal bad news because of the magic residue in my body. Now I'm feeling similarly, but it's way worse, and I think something evil is coming for the asylum. For us. So please, please save the questions for later and just call Giovanni so he can come pick us up."

Though it effectively throws a wrench into her final filming plans, Jamie seems to understand that this really isn't the time for recalcitrance. She nods and obliges without protest, scrolling through her contact list to find Giovanni's number and reach out. While she makes the call, Nathan puts himself to good use by shoving what little items they removed from their bags back inside. It should take Giovanni half an hour to get to Poveglia, he remembers, but they might not have the luxury of waiting that out in this spot right here. The asylum is huge, has plenty of dark hiding places, and they may be better off not staying in any one spot for too long.

Because something terrible is coming in their direction for sure.

Nathan's fingers tremble as he packs, his heart racing. There's a stiffness in his muscles and his head is slowly starting to spin. The supernatural undercurrent he felt is more like a rip current now, one that may sweep him away entirely if he makes but one wrong move. Ice water, everything is ice water. When did it become so fucking cold?

"Nate? Are you okay?" Jamie's worried voice is distant, so terribly far away. Nathan can barely hear it over the sound of his own heavy breathing. He tries to rise from where he sat on his knees by their bags, but fails to get up. He stares at his hands placed in front of him, still trembling and shaking. His vision falters, as if someone keeps flicking a light switch on and off. The pain in his scar intensifies, its magical heat in his body battling with the cold, glaciers and frostbite meeting a blazing, all-consuming fire.

I'm going crazy, he wants to tell Jamie. I can't handle this. My whole goddamn body is breaking down. He tries to open his mouth to voice these thoughts before the currents rip it to shreds, but no sound comes out. His vision cuts out entirely. The last thing he feels is his own collision with a hard, uncaring floor.

~~

Jamie Carrera has a lot of problems, but keeping up with what's going on around her isn't often one of them. Usually, the world and its people always seem to be moving ahead at a leisurely pace, all while Jamie's natural state of being feels more like a never-ending videogame speedrun where she's constantly flailing about in Mach 5 mode.

But whatever the fuck is going on now, it's progressing way too fast for her to comprehend.

"Nate!" She's only just gotten off the phone with Giovanni when Nathan crumples to the ground without answering her question, losing consciousness for no reason she can discern. She rushes over to him immediately, almost discarding her phone on the floor in her haste to check if he's still alive. "Shit, shit, wake up! This isn't– what the hell. What the hell?"

Damn it, damn it, Jamie should've spent more time of her life learning actual useful skills, preferably medical ones she could have fallen back on in this dire moment, but her talents have never stretched much beyond making videos the Internet enjoys. She drops down next to Nathan, working her hardest not to panic, trying to ignore how much she doesn't have a single clue what she's doing. She shakes Nathan's shoulder—more roughly than the previous night—in hopes it might wake him up, but nothing happens.

Pulse, check for a pulse. Jamie does and, much to her relief, it's there. It even feels as normal as her own.

She proceeds to check, just in case—Nathan's chest still rises and falls, his breathing steadier than it was before. Aside from his skin being incredibly cold to touch, this peculiar state he's in seems stable. Jamie keeps repeating this in her head while she shakes him a little more, but he just won't wake up and she's all out of ideas to get him to snap out of it. Magic may be real, but this still isn't a fairy tale where you can kiss the goddamned prince awake and live happily ever after.

Jamie just has to hope to god he'll wake up of his own accord. Preferably within two seconds at most, or she might start losing what little semblance of a mind she has. It will have to be a matter of waiting.

Except there isn't any time. No time to wait. There isn't even time to panic properly.

Giovanni will show up in half an hour, but Nathan said something evil was coming for them, and Jamie doesn't have a single reason to doubt him. Their lives may be on the line here and, right now, she's the only one capable of protecting them both. Nathan may not be dead, but it's up to her to make sure it stays that way.

Time to step the fuck up and survive.

Jamie only starts working out the specifics of her battle strategy when her tentative plan is already halfway in progress, once she's snatched her camcorder off the ground and she's speedwalking through windowless corridors so dark even her phone's flashlight barely makes a dent in the blackness. She hates this, hates leaving Nathan defenseless and alone with no way to keep tabs on how he's doing, but keeping him safe currently translates to getting away from him. It's a gamble, a huge risk, but it may just work out if she plays her cards right.

Jamie is pretty good at risks and gambles. Pretty good at card games, too.

She keeps moving at a brisk pace, navigating the asylum's halls on memory and instinct. She's heading for the massive woodland, the exit where she and Nathan spotted that creepy chair earlier. If something is coming, it'll most likely be closing in from amongst the trees and the burial grounds, not from the water side. There's fear in Jamie's heart, way more than she felt when Nathan's creepy boss kept her hostage on a yacht, but she'll meet whichever adversary is out there head-on, anyway.

Because hiding isn't an option. She could hide, but Nathan can't, and Jamie isn't capable of lugging a whole-ass well-built adult man through the asylum's rubble to some spot where neither of them can be found. She may be able to talk her way out of most pickles, but physically, she's really just a scrappy little thing with far from enough upper arm strength to pull off such a feat.

Still, being a scrappy little thing has its own benefits. Scrappy little things make for excellent targets.

Jamie might not be the strongest person in the asylum, but she can be the smartest.

And the fastest.

When the asylum's exit is within reach, the shadowy woods outside bathing in pitch-black darkness, Jamie takes a deep breath and forces herself to slow down. Act natural. She gets rid of her phone's flashlight, relying on her camcorder's night vision from here on out. She's going to do exactly what she was supposed to do. Film at the witching hour like nothing's wrong, like she doesn't suspect anything strange is going on here tonight at all.

If she looks naive and unprepared enough, whatever is out there may strike. She just has to get away before it can do her actual harm.

Jamie has never done anything like this before, so she should totally be able to pull it off.

Right?

"So it's around three A.M. on Poveglia right now, but there doesn't seem to be any paranormal activity in the asylum itself so far. We'll check that again later. Figured we might as well go for a little walk outside first." Does whatever is out here even understand English? Jamie inadvertently wonders about that while she speaks to the camera in hushed tones, even though it doesn't really matter. It's not like some malicious entity is going to leave an insightful comment on the video she'll upload should she make it out of here alive. Would be pretty interesting if it did, but...

"There's not much going on here, either. I think." Jamie slowly wanders in the lone chair's direction, fighting to pan the camcorder as usual rather than utilizing it to frantically check her surroundings. She may be on high alert, far too aware of every little sound and movement around her, but it shouldn't be noticeable. Act natural. Act natural.

"It's almost a shame, really." More walking. More filming. Darkness, chair, crunching autumn leaves. Are her own footsteps the only ones crushing those? Look alive, if this fails you're done for. "I did think there could be something supernatural haunting this place, considering its history. But maybe it's a good thing if there isn't. Maybe this place is just way more peaceful than the past and the atmosphere suggest. It could be like that inscription we saw said. That the people who died here really do have rest."

She stands still, gets a couple more nice shots of her surroundings. Most Youtubers don't actually use camcorders—act natural—and settle for regular cameras instead. Jamie simply likes the aesthetic of camcorders. Outlast has a camcorder. Blair Witch Project has one, too. They're simply iconic—act natural—in found footage horror, so why not rely on ye olde camcorder for Witchcraft Wednesday?

It occurs to Jamie that maybe she's about to become the primary subject of a real found footage horror movie. The thought sends chills down her spine.

She hasn't caught anything on film just yet, but...

The fearsome monster always shows up behind you, doesn't it?

Jamie spins around in a vaguely desperate 'gotcha!' move, but is once more met with nothing. She isn't certain if that's a relief or not. She releases a nervous laugh. "We can't even get a proper jumpscare up in here, can we now?"

Maybe this is all futile, a worthless idea. Maybe she's thinking about this all wrong. Maybe she's just being a fool, deluding herself into believing her flimsy excuse for a plan would get her anywhere, and–

What if she's being tricked?

Jamie blinks rapidly, her recording growing shaky before her eyes as she forgets all about acting natural for a moment. What if what's out there has caught on to what she's trying to do and has already quietly slipped past her in the dark, heading for a defenseless Nathan first before returning for her? Inside. Jamie has to get back to Nathan inside, has to see if he's okay, because if not, if not...

She isn't going to waste a single second longer pondering increasingly horrific if-nots. She turns to film the woodland one last time, just to be sure, but she'll be out of there right after. She'll check up on Nathan and hope Giovanni shows up soon so they can drag him to the boat together.

She freezes.

There's a person standing amongst the trees, watching her. Or something that merely looks like a person, just like how that deer resembled a deer in glances from a distance alone.

If this is what Nathan warned her about, it likely isn't human at all.

The figure must have been approaching gradually, treading closer and closer with footfalls so light Jamie never heard them over her own. Now that it stands beautifully lined up with her camcorder, it remains as still as Jamie does, slowly cocking its head to the side as if awaiting her next move with curiosity. A curiosity Jamie deems alarming rather than innocent.

If they hadn't been on gruesome Poveglia in dire circumstances, Jamie might've hit the creature with some benevolent laughter. Because, in a way, it looks funny. It's wearing a carnival costume. A long black robe that hasn't been washed in a long time. A discoloured mask that must once have been white, a long, pointy beak protruding from it.

Gino once took her and Stella through the different types of carnival masks, Jamie recalls. This type is called Medico della Peste. The Plague Doctor.

Jamie, much to the creature's confusion, does actually laugh at how fitting this seems. And though she's still panicking like crazy in her heart of hearts, she knows this confusion is what she needed all along. She has to keep this up.

Any sensible person would turn and run right about now, try to vanish in the darkest corners of the asylum's ruins, hoping that will be enough to shake off this eerie could-be attacker. Jamie intends to subvert expectations. Do sensible a little differently.

Or a whole lot differently.

"Holy shit, dude." Jamie's still laughing like a madwoman as she approaches the creature with her camcorder at that same brisk pace from before. "In what world is Carnival still ongoing in October?"

She can't see the creature's face behind its mask, but it emits a low noise that could be either a hiss or a growl, growing louder in its intensity the closer she gets; it reminds her of an aggressive cat arching its back and showing its teeth, warning an enemy to back the fuck away. But though Jamie would love to rush off in the opposite direction, she's in too deep to seriously consider doing so. She reminds herself she's doing this for a good cause while the creature stays rooted in place, perhaps hoping it can rip her head clean off the moment she's within reach.

She doesn't let it get that far. When the distance between her and that freaky masked thing has grown uncomfortably close, Jamie doesn't waste a second. She breaks out into the fastest sprint she can get out of her body, dashing right past it and into the dense woodland with only her camcorder to see by. She forcefully shoves her way through bushes and ducks underneath low-hanging branches, determined to create as much distance between her and the beast as possible.

The confusion she caused gives her a headstart. It takes the masked creature a moment to gather whatever wits it has and realise its prey has thrown herself into the darkness at gung-ho breakneck speed. Then, it lets out an inhuman shriek and gives chase; Jamie still can't hear it moving through the night, but a quick glance behind her teaches her a black shape is in pursuit.

She allows herself a smile. The farther she can lead this thing away from Nathan in the main building, the better.

Her smile fades when it occurs to her that she forgot to consider how to return to the asylum safely herself.

Oh, fucksticks.

This may become a bit of a problem.

Jamie forces herself not to think about it. Outrun the thing first, that's all. Just outrun it. She maintains the fastest speed possible, not caring about the scratches her speedy stumbling through the woods leaves on her hands and face, not caring about the leaves getting stuck in her hair and clothes. All she cares about is getting the hell away. She holds on to the camcorder for dear life lest she drop it, watching the ground in front of her carefully to minimize the chance she'll misstep and fall or sprain an ankle.

She doesn't look behind her. The creature does keep shrieking at intervals, as if hoping it might startle her and trip her up, but Jamie merely shudders and ignores it each time. She only notes that the creepy thing sound a little farther away each time.

Perfect.

The creature might know this island better, might be able to see well in the dark without a camcorder's aid, but—thank god—it doesn't seem to possess superhuman speed. And Jamie doesn't have much going for her, but she's fast. There wasn't a single high school teacher who'd have called her a joy to have in class, but she did run track and set a school record that hasn't been broken yet. She could've used that bit of athletic aptitude to successfully apply for a scholarship if she'd bothered, if the thought of more school hadn't made her want to get personally acquaintanced with the nearest train track and hey is that that old church ruin up ahead?

It is! It is the church ruin!

Jamie diverts from her own path, pivoting to the left and launching herself at the building. With some luck, the creature is already lagging too far behind to notice her straying in this direction, but she doesn't dare count on it, still refusing to look back. Through her camcorder, Jamie can make out a narrow, doorless entrance in a grey stone church wall, covered in ivy and the leaves of overhanging branches leaning on the roof. She and Nathan filmed inside that building earlier when they were out exploring Poveglia. She remembers exactly what the inside looks like.

Without a moment's hesitation, Jamie rushes into the ruin's darkness. There used to be a stained glass window at the back of the church, but the glass is long gone, leaving a hole in its place that she should be able to get through. It's a little high off the ground, but Jamie doesn't have too much trouble scrambling up in true adrenaline-fuelled speed demon fashion. She does almost drop her camcorder in the process. She barely bites back a yelp at coming so close to losing her primary means of night vision, but succeeds in snatching the camcorder from the air quietly before it's out of reach.

It messes up her balance. Her jump out of the window is much less jump than it is fall. She plummets right into a sizable patch of bushes in a mess of rustling leaves. The pain is manageable and she isn't hurt badly, but she hisses when she hits the damp forest floor, anyway.

Still, she can't keep running like this. She's getting out of breath, already panting a little too much and too loudly for comfort.

So here goes nothing.

The bushes are something of a blessing. Jamie stays flat on the ground, making herself as small and invisible as possible. She crawls farther away from the window, but then remains still, placing her camcorder in front of her and pressing her hands to her mouth.

If the creature lost sight of her and doesn't hear her now, she might be able to lose it for good.

If not, she's pretty fucked. Goodbye, cruel world!

But Jamie would rather be an optimist than think that way. Even though it's hard.

Her senses are in overdrive, making her hyper-aware of everything around her—the forest's earthy smell, the beetle scurrying too close to her elbow, the small rocks digging into her skin. Even her eyes are getting used to the dark. Her muscles ache from running and maintaining an unmoving and uncomfortable position, but she doesn't make a sound. She almost jumps up out of habit when the next frustrated shriek cuts through the silence, yet forces herself to stay still.

That shriek sounded close. Too close. The masked freak certainly realised Jamie ran for the church. But if it knew she was hiding here, it wouldn't announce its presence to her, would it? It would be much easier for it to make use of its unnaturally quiet way of moving, that excellent predator's quality, and take her by surprise. It must not have realised she didn't move on from here. It must think she's still running.

She just has to stay hidden a little longer. Go unnoticed until it's gone.

She can't hear it move, though—that makes it all so difficult. For all she knows, the creature could be combing through the ruin itself, could be strolling around the building, but if it has already walked away, Jamie wouldn't be able to hear it well. And who's to say its own senses aren't superhuman, so much so she's only allowing herself to feel a false sense of security while hiding here? It can see well in the dark. Maybe it can also smell the cold sweat on her skin, hear her heart hammering against her ribcage. Maybe she's already signed her own death sentence.

The thought is nerve-wracking enough to make Jamie want to bite her nails. It's just that that would be hell on the painstaking paint job, and the one thing worse than dying would be dying with ruined fingernails, and–

Jamie's mind blanks when she can make out a pair of robe-clad legs in the distance. Not too close to her, but close enough to see. It's here. It's searching. She watches the plague creature circle the area, presumably looking around, trying to uncover if she ran on ahead or found a hiding spot. Jamie frantically glares daggers at its feet in their worn shoes, willing it to just get the fuck away from here. The longer it lingers, the higher the chance she'll make a mistake, slip up, give herself away somehow.

Something as simple as one sneeze could make the difference between life and death. And Jamie doesn't want to die here tonight. She's too young and there are so many things she still needs to do. Like restore her reputation, properly memorize all the lyrics to Bohemian rhapsody, make the necessary amends with her family yet again, tell Nathan that–

The masked creature sprints off into the woodland. Off and away.

It didn't find her.

Jamie sighs in relief. Night vision, maybe, but whatever that thing is, it isn't as well equipped a predator as she'd feared. It might not have wanted to search for her for too long, might have been fearing she'd use all the time it spent idling here to further increase the distance between them. Either way, no matter its motives, Jamie is rid of it for now, and it's also no longer close enough to Nathan to do him any harm for the time being.

Patience has never been Jamie's greatest strength. Every molecule in her body itches to get up and sneak her way back to the asylum already. Still, she pushes herself to stay put for two more minutes, just in case it's all a trap and the creature jumps out at her the moment she emerges from the bushes.

But when she finally stands upright again with her camcorder in her hands, she's alone.

Mission accomplished. Jamie sets out for the direction she came from. She'd better find her way back to the asylum quickly.

Before the masked creep can do the same.