Chapter 2

Daniel squinted a bit at the television as it shut off and pulled a rag from the back of his belt wrapping his face with it calmly. Tyler took a sharp inhale and then held it, going over to the door. He couldn't help but think the obvious thing would be to get to another part of the house, or at least to open the room so the gas would disperse slightly.

The older male started, slowly to conserve his oxygen, collect a few things he noticed around the room. Duct tape off a table, some rags on another, and to his relief, there were the remains of a fire in the fireplace. He quickly smashed up some of the charcoal with the handle of his knife and dusted the rags heavily with it. He quickly handed them to the others before repeating the process with his cloth as well. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it would give them a little extra grace with this struggle.

Each of them took the rag with grateful looks in their teary eyes. Faith got to the door to open it and made a small groan in the back of her throat when it wouldn't open. She looked at the nails holding the door knob in place and then looked at Daniel's knife. Layla looked to her gaze and then smiled a bit at the easy connection.

Daniel indicated with his hands roughly that the cloths weren't a perfect solution, that they should inhale very little at a time. After that he started to wedged his knife into the door bolts, working to pop them out of place.

Tyler stood there nervously watching. He felt a little helpless, not knowing how to deal with all of this. Once he and popped the bolts, Daniel grabbed his pike and kicked the door out. He guessed he was pretty glad for all the survival training he'd done since he was a kid.

They all were relieved to file out of the door. Suddenly all the lights flicked on and the whole house was lit up again. Layla looked to her boyfriend wondering if it was safe to breath when they heard a low hum sound. There were vents sucking in the gas. "For once the house seems to be a little nice. I hope it lasts a really, really long time." Faith commented putting her rag in her back pocket in case.

"Is it sad when it's possible some kind of demon has more decency than people?" Daniel asked with a semi-sarcastic tone. "I think it would prefer to do things on it's own terms..." He added, holding the knife and pike ready as he stepped into the hallway.

Tyler sheepishly looked around and then pulled his sister closer to him. He was uncharacteristically quiet. One could assume this all was a bit much for the kid. "I fucking hate this..." He said with a defeated tone. Admittedly he didn't think their chances were that great. Not after what happened to Kya and Cameron.

Layla looked down at her feet. "Guys I've been thinking since the video. You heard Hailey.. No one is getting out of here unless we do what Faith suggested and save one person." She looked back up and smiled. "I'm willing to be a sacrifice."

Faith stopped and stared at the girl her mouth slightly open in shock. She wasn't quite sure what to say and it showed. "Well.. Uhm.. I think its more so up to all of us to decide who needs out the most.."

"No way in hell..." Daniel said sternly, turning around and looking at her. "You think I wanna make it out of here without you? Even then you think I want to play by the rules of those petty fucking assholes?"

Tyler looked between the two and held up his hands. "Hey, Danny, calm down man..." He tried shakily. "I agree on not wanting to follow their rules, but getting mad isn't gonna help..." To the boy's credit, at least he was trying to pull it together.

Layla sighed and put her hands on her boyfriends shoulders. "I can't watch you die... I can't because in that moment I know that I would give up." She stood on her tip toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. "So how do we decide who is most needed alive?"

Faith looked down. "There isn't a sure way.. But I say we should probably wait till one of us dies again.. That way we know its hopeless for certain. Maybe there's a loophole." Her eyes held hope even though she feared that there was none.

Daniel growled and wrapped an arm around Layla looking at the others. "Screw all this dying talk, I say we all try to survive to the best of our ability." He said sharply. "Maybe this thing will kill them instead if we get outta here." He added and Tyler couldn't find a reason to argue with him.

Layla leaned against him and sighed. "Yeah.." She began to let the hopelessness of the situation weigh on her mind. No matter what she knew she didn't necessarily need to make it out. If she had to go without Daniel she wasn't going. The way they had found each other two years ago had saved her.

Faith looked to the couple then away. As she looked around the rest of the house she saw a light that would flicker on and off down in one of the room. It was almost like a camera was flashing. She shook her head ignoring the strange urge to enter the room.

Daniel kisses Layla's cheek and looked at her. "Trust me, we can get out of here without succumbing to their bullshit."

Tyler looked at his sister, then noticed the flicker where his sister had looked. "What is that...?" He asked curiously, cautiously taking a few steps in that direction.

Faith immediately put her hand on her brother's chest stopping him. "Don't you dare. I forbid you to walk into there." She looked at him nervous and slightly panicked. Her light brown eyes searched his hoping he understood her urgency for him to listen to her.

The sudden fearful tone caught Layla's attention which then made her focus on the door in question. 'Your sister is probably right. It's safer for you to most likely avoid that door." However she herself wasn't immune to the allure the door had. In fact if it hadn't been for Daniel's arm around her, she probably would have wanted to explore the room too.

Daniel sighed and pushed himself up. "That things probably going to try and catch our attention... or its them watching this..." As he said the last part, he felt himself get a bit irritated. Suddenly he flicked his hand out, throwing the make-shift pike at the flashing doorway.

Tyler had just begun to agree with his sister and quicky pushed her out of the way. "The hell man?"

Faith bit her lip and looked at Daniel with a slight annoyance and worry. Suddenly the flashing stopped and something's nails clicked against the hardwood floor as it walked. They realized when a hand reached out of the door way what they heard clicking was actually porcupine like spikes covering the creatures arm. The spikes likely covered the rest of the body however Faith grabbed her brothers arm and ran down the stairs not wasting time to find out.

"Oh fantastic..." Daniel said in annoyance and grabbed Layla's hand, pulling her with him as he ran after Faith.

Tyler stumbling a bit but managing to start running too. "What the hell is that?" He asked in a panic. There was of course no answer but that it was something they needed to get away from.

The clicking of its needle skin could be heard as it walked down the stairs. Faith saw an open bathroom door. She pulled her brother in and after the other two were in as well she shut the door and turned the light on. Immediately she faced Daniel. "You couldn't have just left the door alone? Every thing was calm till then. It would have been nice to come up with a plan before messing with things."

With a sigh, Daniel held up a hand. "Ok, my bad.... got a little angry when I thought of them watching this nightmare..." He said and looked at Layla, then at the others. "We're all ok, right?" He asked responsibly. Tyler waved his hand dismissively as he leaned against the wall in a shocked silence.

The creature continued walking back and forth in front of the bathroom door after its decend down the stairs. It was almost like the creature was taunting them with its knowledge of knowing where they were. Layla buried her face in Daniel's chest to keep from crying. Faith managed to lean against the door a bit fearful. Her pike was gripped tight in her hands.

"Ok... well..." Daniel started and then kind of lost any idea of what to say. He'd been trained to fight and survive. But not against some supernatural spikey ghoul.

Tyler pulled out his phone and looked at the time. "No way... that video was easily three minutes long... not to mention us talking..." Somehow, it hadn't even been a full minute from the time of their other companions' deaths. He held up his phone with the clock on it to show everyone.

Layla felt her stomach drop as it had earlier when she swore the death of Cameron and Kya took thirty minutes and only a minute had passed. She was beginning to wonder what was reality and where were they. Faith felt surprised but hid it behind a mask of calm. She heard the spiky creature tap its spiked hand against the door and then it rumbled quietly. Almost a hollow ground. Like if a wild animal growled into a cave and what they heard was the echo.

"I think our new friend's getting a little impatient..." Daniel remarked, bracing up with his knife. He made sure he was between Layla and the door and glanced at the others. Tyler looked worried and grabbed his sister pulling her a little closer hand holding his pike tightly.

The creature began to scratch at the door at some points it got its spikes stuck and had to yank them out. Which would have been considered funny if the creature wasn't aiming to kill them. It continued its hollow growl as the others looked at each other wondering if this was it.

Daniel grimaced a bit, watching the door in the spots where the spikes punched through. The door wasn't going to last long. He grabbed a can of old hair spray and shook it. Then sprayed down his knife with it and started to reach for his lighter. Tyler, despite his fear, was trying to stand in defense of his sister with his pike aimed towards the door. Both of them kind of understood there was only one way for them to get through this.

The creature finally ripped the door off when it tried to get its spikes out of the wood. As it shook the door off it started crawling towards them. What no one expected was for it to lunge, Faith having done gymnastics lunge at the same time it did. As it went towards her brother it instead ran into her. She cried out in pain as its spikes penetrated her skin.

Tyler winced in fear from the creature's sudden lunge and then in shock as his sister screamed in pain. She had kept it from hitting him and he froze. Daniel cursed angrily and light his knife on fire, making his own lunge. He quickly stabbed the burning blade into the back of the skull. The young man grimaced a bit as some spikes nicked his hand, enough to actually hurt but not with much damage.

The creature let out a hoarse cry and exploded into a black liquid that splattered the room. The liquid wasn't dangerous just gross as it got everyone. Faith laid on the ground with puncture wounds in her arms and some on her legs. Blood streamed out of the wounds quickly. She managed to look up at her brother and smile through the pain. "This time I saved you. Thanks for always being there for me.. I love you Tyler."