AN : for the first half of this chapter listen to Tag, you're it by Melanie Martinez :)
Enjoy!

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HOW DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A NIGHTMARE AND REALITY?
Ilaria felt she had no clue how to differentiate between the two, her life felt like a nightmare within a nightmare within a nightmare and on and on and on. Everytime she tried waking up, she'd just wake up to an even worse nightmare.

An even more cruel one. An even more hurtful one. The sun was just beginning to set, the shadows of the trees surrounding her were claw shaped and reaching for her.

She wasn't sure how far out she'd been, infact, she had been walking for nearly two hours. Trying to find that cabin in her dream but she was deep in the woods and it was getting dark, so she turned back with a defeated sigh.

Ilaria shoved her hands in her jersey, all was perfectly still, perfectly quiet, except for the sound of the trees swaying from the wind and insects, the silence didn't last long.

A ear shattering scream filled the air, a scream that sounded exactly like Kenna.

Ilaria froze in shock and looked around, she couldn't see anyone but she was certain it was a recording. Her blood froze, if it were a recording, then someone had been following her this whole time, one of the killers - or both.

She was frozen in fear but when she heard the crack of a branch she broke out in a sprint. Over the sound of her heartbeat she could hear the footsteps running after her. Could hear him breathing.

She didn't turn around to look, she just ran. Her fear was a living breathing thing running with her, pushing her on.

Tears were starting to run down her cheeks, she didn't know how far out she was but she screamed for help until she felt like her vocal cords were about to give out.

The person behind her was laughing, actually laughing.

He's enjoying this. Ilaria felt sick with the thought, she just had to get close enough to her house. She pushed herself faster but the person grabbed her hood from behind, pulling her back causing her hood to choke her.

She let out a strangled scream and scratched against his hands, tried pulling him off her. When he wouldn't budge she did the next thing that came to mind, kicked him.

He dropped her and she used that moment to push herself up and ran faster, heaving, unable to breathe, the world was spinning, she couldn't see a thing past the spots covering her eyesight.

She tripped and tried pushing herself back up but he kicked her in her ribs, forcing her on her back.

This time there weren't stars, this time there was black, she rolled herself over, tried gripping anything but there was only sand and leaves, she clawed at it and tried pulling herself away but he pulled her legs, pulling her closer to him. She tried fighting, she kicked and kicked but he wouldn't give out.

Her eyes moved frantically around the floor, trying to find a rock, anything to hit him with.

She could feel him lifting the bottom of her jeans and cold terror gripped her, what was he doing? Her question was answered as she heard a lighter click and the smell of cigarette smoke filled her senses.

"someone help me!" she choked out, she could taste her tears. He gripped her right leg tighter and brought the cigarette down on the side of her bare calf.

A pain shot up her leg, he didn't lift it until she started screaming "someone, please" she was begging, at that point she wasn't sure if she were calling for a human, a god, an animal, all she knew was that she needed help.

He lifted it and brought another one down in a different place, making Ilaria see black, then white and black again, her lungs were closed, her eyes were blurry, her heart was beating painfully against her chest.

Ilaria thought he was going to stop when he loosened his grip on her right leg, but he only moved on to the left one.

All while the sound of Kenna screaming still filled the air from his phone, Ilarias screaming eventually started mixing with Kenna's and bile rose up Ilaria's throat. He repeated the burning for what felt like forever, she wasn't sure how many times he brought the cigarette back down on her legs, the pain was consuming her.

Then he let go of her legs and pulled her jeans back over, only this time it made the pain worse.

He never said a single word as he let go of her legs completely. Ilaria couldn't tell if she was numb with pain or fear but she couldn't move. Couldn't get up to do something, anything, to atleast try and see his face.

Her vision was swimming in and out, her ears were blocked but she could hear him walking away, whistling a happy tune.

With a groan and much effort she pulled herself to the nearest tree and sat against it with her legs up, anywhere they touched it burned.

She fumbled for her phone and with shaky hands dialed Kais number, she shouldn't have been out in the woods alone in the first place.

He answered within the first three rings, Ilaria was still trying to breathe properly and Kai must've heard her heaving because he worriedly asked "what's going on?"

"can you come get me?" she shut her eyes against a headache forming "I'm in the woods oustide my house, I dont know where exactly."

"what happened? Are you okay" Kai sounded beyond stressed out "hold on I'm going to track your phone"

"hurry up please"

Her phone slipped out of her hands so she never heard his response, between the running, the pain shooting up both her legs and the adrenaline slowly leaving her body, she felt like she could sleep forever.

She fought to remain awake for what felt like hours but was infact only one hour when she heard footsteps approaching she coward back up to the tree, it could be anyone, it could be him again. Who knew what he would do come the second time he got her.

It wasn't him, it was just Kai, rushing towards her with a worried look. He kneeled down and pushed her hair out of her face "what happened?"

She could hear the panic in his voice but she was too weak to answer him, she only mumbled "you're here"

"I'm here" Kai reassured her "you're okay now, can you stand up?"

Ilaria shook her head "my legs" she said "they hurt"

"I'm going to pick you up but I need you to tell me where it hurts so I don't hurt you"

Ilaria nodded "just the side of my calves" she mumbled "and my ribs"

"what did he do?" Kai questioned again, Ilaria shook her head "can we just go?"

Kai nodded and picked her up "put your arms around my neck"

She did and he hoisted her up from under her knees, carefully avoiding the part of her leg where her burns were. She could feel how fast his heart was beating, he must've ran while looking for her. That explained how he got to her so fast.

"you're going to carry me all the way back?" she rested her head against his shoulder.

"Id probably carry you across the country if I had to"

Ilaria never heard him, she was just starting to fall asleep, her mind already telling her that it's safe. She would've loved to stay like that for the rest of her life, in Kai's arms, where it was safe, where she felt nothing and no one would hurt her because that meant they'd have to go through him first.

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Kai drove her back to his house and woke her up "I need to know what he did" he said and put her carefully down on his bed.

Ilaria never answered him, instead she bent down with a wince, her ribs were throbbing. Kai stopped her "don't do that, you're hurting yourself more."

"okay" Ilaria swallowed "lift up the bottom of my jeans"

So he kneeled infront of her and did just that, carefully, afraid of hurting her. Ilaria tried ignoring the way his fingers brushed slightly against her skin and cursed herself, head out of the gutter she told herself repeatedly. She turned her leg slightly since the burns were on the sides of her calves, she wasn't sure how many there were or how they looked. Kai sucked in his breath "he burnt you"

Ilaria nodded "we're lucky he didn't do worse."

"lucky?" Kai mumbled "he hurt you."

"it's not all that bad" Ilaria cracked a smile and Kai shook his head seriously, his eyes searched her face "what were you doing all the way out there? Alone."

Ilaria shrugged and turned her head to  avoided his eyes "I was looking for the cabin"

"and you thought it was a good idea to go alone?" Kai turned her head by her jaw, he didn't drop his hand.

"I don't want to argue about this"

"we aren't arguing" Kai sighed and thumbed her cheek "I just hate the thought of someone hurting you." his eyes were piercing through hers "and now someone has and I wasn't there"

She took his wrist and held his hand in her lap "you're there enough"

"clearly not" he muttered "what if he took you? What if I lost you"

"I'm here aren't I?" Ilaria answered, his grip on her hand was tight, as though reassuring himself that she was there.

"wait here" Kai pushed himself up and left the room, Leaving Ilaria alone with her thoughts.

She shut her eyes but opened them again, when she closed them all she saw was herself running through the woods, her hair whipping in her face, a killer running close behind her.

Ilaria rubbed away the sting in her eyes, she didn't even turn around to look at him. She was so close, she would've known who he was but she was weak.

She'd failed Kenna. Again. The sound of her bestfriends screams mixed with her own was still playing on repeat in her head, she felt like she was going to go mad if it didn't stop soon.

She didn't try looking at her burns, she didn't want to see it. Didn't want to face the fact that he overpowered her.

Kai came back a moment later, an emergency kit in hand, he dropped to his knees infront of her again and began opening it up. He looked up at her through his hair "I have to clean if or it'll get infected" he said "it might burn alot though"

Ilaria nodded, much as she hated the thought she didn't want the burns to get infected.

When Kai began cleaning her burns the sting wasn't as bad as Ilaria thought it would be but it was bad enough for her to bite down on her tongue.

Once he was done he rolled her jeans back down.

"thank you" Ilaria said and Kai nodded, still on his knees infront of her, his arms were rested on her thighs - much like the night before.

He was staring at her so intently Ilaria felt her cheeks burning up "what is it?"

Kai shrugged "just thinking"

"about?"

"I was so terrified" he told her "that something worse than this happened. That I'd get there and find you lifeless. I swear I've never felt fear like that in my life, well aside from that one time I was actually being held captive by a serial killer" he chuckled and Ilaria glared at him, leave it to Kai to make a joke out of his trauma.

"I just don't want to lose you." he whispered "lord knows what id do if I did"

"you won't lose me" she said sternly while pushing his hair out of his face.

"how can u be so sure?"

"I'm too stubborn to die" she grinned and Kai shook his head with a smile of his own.

When it went quiet again Ilaria spoke up "so what do we do now?"

"we do nothing. We're going to the police first thing tomorrow."

Ilaria opened her mouth to protest and Kai shook his head "I'm not going to risk drawing more attention to you, we're taking what we have to the police and that's it. I can put my life on the line but I can't and I won't do it to you knowingly. I didn't think they'd actually try anything but now that they have... I just can't risk it"

"okay" Ilaria slumped and Kai pushed himself up "is your mom working a night shift?"

Ilarias ears were still ringing with Kennas screaming, in the back of her mind she was still running through the woods, she didn't want to go home and be alone.

"she'll only be home by 9 tomorrow morning"

Kai nodded "I'm going to get you pain killers then drop you home"

"can I stay?" she blurted "I really don't want to be alone"

Kai nodded "okay" he left her again and came back a second later with a tablet in hand and water in the other.

He handed her the tablet first and then the water and she swallowed it quickly before pulling her legs up and laying on her side.

"there is no way you're sleeping in jeans, that's suffocating as hell" Kai rolled his eyes and searched through his draws, he tossed her a pair of sweatpants.

She thanked him and went to change in the bathroom, she had to roll it up by the waist a couple times and it still covered half of her feet.

"tall ass boy" Ilaria mumbled and walked out, Kai grinned "you're drowning in them"

"you're literally 6 foot" she rolled her eyes "what did you expect"

Kai shrugged "I think it's cute"

"you think everything's cute"

He went in the bathroom without a reply to change too and came back in a red plaid pants and a white top.

"you have the man whore pants"

"what?" Kai laughed.

Ilaria gestured at him "man whore pants"

Kai chuckled and got a blanket out for himself, Ilaria tried protesting to take the couch instead but he refused so eventually she huffed and got in bed.

Kai switched the light off "goodnight, agent"

"goodnight" she mumbled and rolled onto her back, she stared at the ceiling and closed her eyes, tried falling asleep but failed miserably. She sat up "Kai?"

"hmm?" he sounded half asleep already.

"Can you come here?" Ilaria asked quietly "please?"

She heard more than saw him sleepily cross the room, when she felt the bed dip she turned to him. He didn't ask questions, only laid on his back and stared at the ceiling the same way she had moments before.

"I should have tried getting a look at his face" Ilaria voiced the thought that had been bugging her all day, she was still sitting up.

"he would have been wearing a mask anyway."

"still." she wrapped her arms around herself "if I wasn't so weak."

"don't do that" Kai warned "don't"

Ilaria went silent and shifted closer to him, she lowered herself down and laid her head on his chest, Kai tensed but eventually relaxed and began playing with her hair.

"the curls dude, the curls"

Kai let out a breathy laugh and continued anyway, Ilaria moved closer and shut her eyes, in that moment everything else fell away. It was just her and Kai and the feeling of his hands in her hair.

It was the best feeling in the world. The world would have been ending and Ilaria would be okay so long as she was there, in his arms.

And that realization scared her because that meant something much more than crushing. That meant something else. Something she was too afraid to think of

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Hey heyyy :)

How are you guys?

I'm so sorry (not really), I do feel bad though. Poor Ilaria :/ my girl has had enough trauma already.

What do you guys think of this chapter?

Also please point out any mistakes I've made :)

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Thanks for reading <3

Until next time.