***ALLISON’S POV***

I stared down at Brooklyn in horror as she stood 8 feet below me in this bottomless pit. I couldn’t see the bottom, and what was in the hole, but I knew that Brooklyn wasn’t safe down there. 

But we weren’t safe up here either. 

Lyle tugged on my arm, and Brooklyn whimpered, “Run!” and we did. 

We ran like hell into the woods, it was dark, and hot and I knew the man was behind us, I just didn’t know where. 

I turned back, seeing him, he was so damn tall… and what was he dragging?

Oh God… was that… Kate?

I gagged, and Lyle pulled me behind a tree, helping me up to a high branch. I climbed, and Lyle was lucky I was strong because if I wasn’t his plan would’ve gone to shit. 

I pulled him up, and we climbed higher into the tree, and I knew why we were doing this. He wanted to rest, we needed to, and we needed to help Brooklyn out as soon as possible. We couldn’t leave her down there, in that hole. 

No telling what was actually down there. 

Lyle sat next to me, putting his head in his hands and crying, and I felt horrible. I felt like shit actually, I was terrified, horrified with the events that had occurred tonight, and I was deeply, gravely hurting. I had known Kate for awhile, but I couldn’t say the same for Nathan and Zeke, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t depressed because they were murdered. 

I was in shock, I think, the actuality of the night hadn’t hit me yet, but I knew when it did hit me it was going to hit me hard. 

I was just praying Brooklyn was going to be ok, and I knew we needed to find a way to get her out of there. Fast. 

I rested my head on Lyle’s shoulder, wrapping my arm around him, and pulling him into me. I didn’t know how to comfort him, much less comfort him from something like this because there was nothing I could do to take the pain away. 

I couldn’t resurrect his friends, even though I wish I could. 

Then I remembered the look on Brooklyn’s face when she saw Kate, and I felt my heart rip wide open. I could only imagine how she felt, her best friend for years was gone, murdered, right in front of her eyes. There was nothing she could do to save her, and the guilt was probably eating her alive. 

It was eating me alive. 

Lyle whimpered, “God… how could this happen to us?”

I shook my head, not understanding why this was happening, and why this was happening to us. We didn’t deserve it, sure, we were kids, but we were normal kids. We weren’t drug heads and blow outs, I mean Lyle and Zeke were into weed but they were smart… well Lyle was anyway. 

I rubbed his back, not having any words for him, because there was nothing I could say. I didn’t have an answer for him, and I wished I could make him feel better, but I couldn’t. I just didn’t know what to do anymore. 

All I could think about was Brooklyn who was stuck inside that dark hole, and how bad I wanted to get her out. I rested my head on Lyle’s, his dampness combining with mine, and I felt tears well up in my eyes, “Hey… it’ll be ok. We’re gonna get out of here.”

He shook his head, “I don’t want to, I can’t go back home… Kate’s parents, Zeke’s parents… Nathan’s family… they’ll all hate us because we survived and their kids didn’t… how could I go on knowing what happened here, Allison?”

I shook my head as his piercing eyes met mine, and I knew exactly how he felt. Two of his best friends had been murdered in front of his face. How could someone go on with their life after something like that?

What if none of us made it out?

I shook the thought out of my head, and I couldn’t keep my mind from the thought of Brooklyn. I needed to get her out of there… if I lost her… there was no way I would survive and get out of here alive. I needed her, and I think I needed her a lot more then she needed me. She was broken, I saw it in her eyes when Kate was killed, and I wondered if I died… what it would do to her. 

Would she break down? Give up? I didn’t think it was possible to give up, even if you were completely broken, because the fear would keep you going no matter what. 

And I think that’s what was happening to all of us. 

Then I heard noise below us, and I saw the man, walking slowly toward us, still dragging that goddamn axe behind him. Why did he drag it? Was it to heavy? Or did he really do it to scare the living shit out of us? Because it was working. 

I pressed myself against Lyle, and I realized we weren’t that high up. 

If he looked up he would see us. 

Lyle put his hand over my mouth, keeping my breathing low and muffled. He was quite, not one sound escaped his lips as the man stood under us, completely still, as if he was a statue. He was listening for us, and I knew if I made any noise we would be done. 

My legs were balancing me, and the aching was killing me, like I had been squatting for thirty minutes straight. They were begging me to let them be relieved, but I couldn’t now. If I moved I would give our hiding place away, and I couldn’t do that.

I couldn’t give up yet. 

I felt Lyle’s heartbeat against my back, and his damp hand was still over my mouth, I could taste the sweat on my lips. I blinked slowly, trying to understand how long we had been sitting up here, completely silent. It felt like hours, but I knew it had only been maybe thirty seconds. 

Then my foot slipped. 

I lost my balance for a second, and it was enough time for the man to reach up and grab my leg. 

I screamed, it must’ve echoed throughout the entire forest, and as I stared down at the mask that was bone chilling, I didn’t even realized he had raised the axe. 

I whimpered, “No!” I yanked my leg but it was no use, I was in his grip, and he was going to chop my leg off if I didn’t move quick. 

Then as if everything was going into slow motion, I watched the axe start to come down, and Lyle was gone. He landed on top of the tall man with a thud, knocking the axe out of his hand and the masked man to the ground. 

I jumped down, feeling a slight pain shoot up my legs as I tried to catch my balance as I stood. I grabbed Lyle’s hand and I pulled him to hid feet, but I knew he was hurt. He ran and partially limped on the side of me, but I felt the adrenaline pumping through my veins which was keeping me going. 

I knew the man wasn’t far behind us, and we couldn’t run straight, or he would kill us the same way he killed Kate, I spoke to Lyle, “Don’t run straight, move around.”

He whimpered, “I can barely run period…”

I nodded, “Try Lyle…”

We were approaching the cabin again, and I knew there had to be something in there to help us get Brooklyn out of the pit. I drug Lyle into the cabin and ran him into the hallway where me and Brooklyn had fell into the basement, and I knew the car keys still had to be there. 

We fell into the room and I looked around, looking for anything, a rope, something, and I found it. I smiled, knowing this was the key to getting Brooklyn out of her misery, and I whispered to Lyle. 

“Stay here, next to this opening. That way if he comes in, you can get out. Don’t worry about me.”

He shook his head, his grip tightening on my arm, “Allison… I’m hurt… don’t.”

I didn’t understand, “Save yourself… don’t give yourself away if he comes down here.”

He looked down at his leg this time, and I knew why he didn’t feel comfortable. He had a huge cut in his leg, the axe must’ve hit him when he was protecting me. He was bleeding, bad, and I knew we needed to get him out of here if we wanted to save him. 

I looked around, finding the jacket that scared Brooklyn and ripping the inside lining of it out. And I tied it tight around his leg, “Here, this should help.”

He shook his head, “Doesn’t help the pain.”

I calmed him, “Stay here… I’ll be back.”

He wanted to protest, but he knew I was right. He knew I was making a very good point, and this was the way it needed to be, so he didn’t. 

I found the room that we had seen the keys in, the red dim light throwing my eyes off for a second. The monitors were still there, the cameras, the creepy, sinister feeling was still there to, and I walked slowly over to the desk. 

The keys weren’t there. 

I slammed my fist, that bastard moved them… or worse, he had them in his possession. 

Then I heard the door slam that I had came through, and the man was standing there, looking at me. 

I almost broke in fear, but I knew there was a trap door above me, so I didn’t think, I just did. I climbed up, and it only took him a couple of seconds to glide across the room and grab my ankle. I screamed, hoping Lyle wasn’t going to come for me, I didn’t want Brooklyn to be left alone. 

I sent my foot down, kicking him in the shoulder, sending him off his balance and giving me enough time to slam the trap door shut. 

I looked frantically around, seeing a mutilated dresser and hauling what was left of it on top of the trap door. The man started banging on the dresser but I knew I didn’t have a lot of time, and I found a broken window, and escaped.

Then I ran as fast as I could towards Brooklyn.