6-2

6-2

JUNE 11, 20XX

It's afternoon nearing evening. Everyone finally got a little bit of sanity back and called each other for a meeting.

Everyone is gathered in the living room in the estate lifeless. Luckily, Greg's group came out unharmed but close to death apparently.

To summarize it all, they have been wandering around a scorching desert for hours long and thirst crept to them and barely got out with all the remaining strength that they could muster. After they got out, they fell asleep. Everyone was so tired that everyone had to rest for a full day and now we're here.

The silence is so heavy and no one wants to break it.

On the table are all the papers found in all of the basements. The symbol that compromises by all 6 papers is complete. 3 new papers that is giving us clues and hint as to the next step of exiting this place is only a step away.

First paper that Jane and Jefferson found states that 'FIND THE X TO THE EXIT', this just confirms that the X; the door, is the exit.

The paper me and Steph found states that 'ALL LIVES IN THE LIGHT!, we aren't too sure what this means.

Lastly, the paper that Gregory, Johnny and Troy found states that '1ST DARKNESS IS A TEST, 2ND WILL BE YOUR DOOM'. We are too focused on what this could mean.

"Haa. We need to get out. This paper… What do you guys think it means?" Gregory asked as he held the paper they found,

"I-I don't know." Steph shook her head,

"Jeff?" Gregory looked at Jefferson, he is usually good at these things but right now he is so spaced out,

"Huh? I-I…" Jefferson was about reply but his shaking hands are bothering him,

"Don't force yourself, Jeff." Sheila tapped Jefferson's shoulder to relax,

"All lives in the light? Since we are alive, does that mean that we have to be in the light in the circle, all of us?" Jane asked,

"It could be, we will still have to test it out…" Nadia said,

"Haaa… It's nearing night time." Johnny sighed, looked at the horrific visage of Steph then ending to look at Sheila,

"Shei. Let's light up the torches outside." Johnny said,

"Okay…" She stood as she tapped Jefferson's shoulder one last time,

Johnny must have been considerate of Steph's mental well-being since we are mentally vexed while they were just dehydrated. Everyone is in deep thought.

"Wait…" Gregory called Johnny and Sheila to a hault,

"What?" Johnny asked,

"Night time? But isn't it still be 9:00 AM in the morning?" He answered.

Everyone's eye widen and finally understood the meaning of the paper as Johnny and Sheila was nearing the front door when all the lights turned off.

Everyone shouted in unison when Jasmine pulled her phone out and turned its flashlight feature. Johnny and Sheila stopped on its tracks.

The view from the window is just absolute darkness; no light not a speck of light is coming from any source, not even the scorching sun that is supposed to be beaming in the sky, when a rumbling and vicious noise was heard from afar.

Everyone's hair stood up as all of us panicked. From all these times to face certain doom, why now? Was there supposed to be no warning signals or something?

"THE FACELESS!!!!" Johnny shouted,

Everyone scattered around running, every man for themselves. I look back and saw Nadia sitting stiff, too afraid to shout, too afraid to run, too afraid to do anything at all. The trauma that she had must have completely let all of her motor skills to shut down that moving is all too difficult all of a sudden. I wanted to grab her but I kept getting pushed along the crowd.

'NADIA!' I screamed internally

I ran upstairs along side with Jefferson, Sheila and Jasmine.

All four of us entered our room as we panicked so hard.

"WHAT DO WE DOO?!!" Sheila screamed,

"QUICK! GET ALL THE BED!" Jefferson exclaimed,

All of us, in a rush of adrenaline, covered the door with everything inside the room. We slide the cabinets, shelves, bed, anything that our hands can grab and able to carry. Just when Jefferson was about to place the last remaining cabinet on the stacked door, a hand crashed in the opening of the door and tried to grab Jefferson's head when he noticed it and immediately fell to the floor in panic. The three of us in the back screamed from the bottom of our lungs.

Jefferson crawled back to our side and I had to scurry around my bag looking for that damn flashlight. The flashlight that Jasmine is pointing on the faceless' hand is too weak, it is still burning but it is not inflicting too much damage.

"FUCK! FUCK!" Jefferson, in a panicked, turned the flashlight of his phone on,

"DAR! HELP!" Jasmine shouted,

"WHERE IS YOUR FLASHLIGHT DAR?!" Sheila also shouted,

"I'M LOOKING! I'M LOOKING!" I exclaimed.

How convenient for the flashlight to not be wanted to be seen? The door's defenses are slowly wavering when I finally caught that stupid flashlight and flash it on the door. The hand of the faceless burn intensely as it hurriedly pulled its hand out.

The door is being slashed and scratched by their very long nails.

"HURRY! TO THE TOILET!" Jefferson shouted.

All of us ran inside the toilet and holed in the bathtub.

"With so much reflection here, our light will be more effective and the area to point our flashlight is precise, this will be our last defense." I said as everyone agreed,

With no other way to defend ourselves other than this flashlight of mine, we are helpless.

The door in our room burst open as horde of faceless barrage their way in our room. As we heard this, we pointed our phones and my flashlight to the door without any care in the world as the faceless knock down the door and the first faceless to make contact of the light burned intensely. None of us waiver our hands as we scream as strong as we can as if it's giving us power, anime style. One after another faceless after faceless burned and retreated, other faceless would try to advance our way but would retreat in defeat as smoke gushed out off their skin.

Because of the tiles, the mirror, the bathtub and mostly all the metal fixture in the bathroom reflect so much of the light that there was no opening. Then the faceless started retreating as we started to smell a burnt stench.

The sound of a thrown bottle was heard and fire rose from the floor of the hallway. The fire slowly spread throughout the house.

"WHAT THE?!" Jasmine shouted,

"QUICK! TURN THE FAUCET ON!" Jefferson exclaimed as Sheila turned the faucet, ripped my shirt into 4 pieces and soaked it. We quickly got off the bathtub as I covered the sinkhole of the bathtub and accumulate the gushing water.

"DIE! DIE!" We heard Troy's menacing shout as he keeps throwing what is left of our home made molotovs, he is burning the estate along with us. He must have gone nuts.

We immediately covered our faces with wet cloth and with our flashlight run downstairs.

Gregory's group also went downstairs as the fire accumulated intensely. As we were about to exit the living room, I found the bloodied pieces of what was supposed to be Nadia, only her hand was left recognizable, the other part of her are chunks and entrails scattered around the living room, I hurled a mouthful at such sight. Jasmine had to go back and grab me as the estate burned down to the ground.

I knelt to the ground and continue hurling, covered from the back of the scorching flames, ravaging what is still standing of the estate.

"WHERE YOU AT?! HUH!? WHERE YOU AT?!" Troy exclaimed as he pointed his Molotov to the direction of the retreating faceless,

We watched the estate burn down.

"HUH?! WHERE'S KRISTEN?! JOHNNY?!" Jane exclaimed,

Our eyes widen even more.

"No… Just the 8 of us left?" Steph uttered,

"WE NEED TO GET OUT NOW!" Gregory shouted with a molotov on hand,

"IT'S TOO DARK! WE CAN'T GO ANYWHERE WITH THIS!" Steph shouted,

"What if the sun never shines again?! HUH?!" Gregory said but as he said that the cloud dispersed and the sun slowly beamed its sunlight.

"FUCK! IS THIS PLACE KEEPS MOCKING US?!" Gregory shouted,

"THIS IS OUR CHANCE! IT'S OUR CHANCE!" Jefferson ran towards where the circle in the map.

"JEFF!" Sheila called the running Jefferson.

Troy also left with a few remaining Molotov and a lighter.

"TROY! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GOING?!" Jasmine questioned,

"I'M GONNA KILL ALL OF THEM!" Troy shouted and walked towards the cave,

"He gone insane." Jane uttered,

"What are we gonna do?" I asked in the open,

"We leave this place! Let's follow Jefferson." Gregory said,

"Where are the papers?" I asked,

"I have it." Jane said.

6-3

We reached the golden light and we saw Jefferson waiting for us.

"WHY ARE YOU GUYS SO SLOW?! QUICK! LET'S GET IN AND LET'S SPREAD THE LIGHT AND GET THE HELL OUT!" Jefferson feeling anxious,

"WHOA! WHOA! You need to slow down, Jeff." Gregory said,

"SLOW DOWN?! ARE YOU STUPID?! I WANT TO GET OUT NOW!" Jefferson shouted,

"Calm down first, Jeff." Sheila pat Jefferson's back,

"I… I just want to get out. Sorry." Jefferson apologize.

We console Jefferson before proceeding to enter the golden light.

"Now." Jane held the stacked papers and pointed it upwards,

"What was the words again?" Jane smiled wryly as she looked at us.

Gregory took the other papers from Jane's pockets and skim through it, looking for the one paper with the magic words unto it.

"Ahh. Here it is. Nur bükil boyina taralsin!" Gregory shouted from the bottom of his lungs the desperation that has been building since the past days.

The stacked papers that Jane held up glowed upwards.

This is it. The door will finally be opened and we will get to leave this place. Finally, we can leave this hellish place, never to return and we will hug our families and never going to a waterfall ever again.

All of us held our hands together as if in prayer and closed our eyes in relief.

After the light from the stacked paper dimmed out, everyone looked at each other.

"Did it work?" Jane asked,

"I think so." Gregory doubtfully said.

The beaming golden light is still beaming alright and no spreading of the light happened. Is that it? Is that how it should happen?

"Well let's go to the 'X' then?" Steph suggested.

Everyone agreed as all of us started walking towards the door and talking and laughing about what happened. Relieved, that is what we are feeling right now. Though, I think that but why does it feels like something is missing?

As we are nearing the door, Steph suddenly talked her mind.

"Shouldn't everyone be in the light?" She said in the opened.

Everyone looked at her and starts to realize something.

"TROY!" Everyone shouted in unison.

Jefferson ran towards the gate and towards the door as he tried opening it.

"FUCK!" Jefferson exclaimed,

"FROM ALL THE TIME TO BE STUPID, THAT GOOD FOR NOTHING HAD TO DO IT NOW!" Jasmine exclaimed,

"Well, we have to get him now and return to the golden light." Jane said,

"Ummm… Who is going to do it?" I asked.

Everyone is hesitant again. No one wants to do it. Why would we? Troy went to the faceless territory, going there is equivalent to suicide.

"Ho-how about we leave him until he dies? We just need everyone who is alive, right?" Jefferson suggested.

Everyone looked at Jefferson in disbelief.

"JEFF!" Sheila reacted,

"We shouldn't leave him to die. That's the same as killing him entirely."Jane reason,

"WELL! I ALREADY DID THAT SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?" Jefferson rebuttal,

"AND ADD HIM TO YOUR CONSCIENCE?" Sheila rebuke,

"And what about him, Shei?" Jasmine asked,

"He has been thinking about himself since the very beginning. Now, he is also putting our lives in danger because of his selfish reasons. How is he any different? He is inconsiderate of us." Jasmine added,

"But… But… He is alive, a human being." Sheila about to tear up,

"In face of death, it is every man for himself, Shei." Jefferson added,

"Earlier, didn't we left Nadia stiff to death? We ran for our lives thinking only of ourselves." Jefferson added another salt,

"Didn't Troy burn down the estate with all of us inside it? For sure, wherever Johnny and Kristen hid themselves, they were burned alive. He is a selfish killer." Jasmine also added,

As if realizing something, Sheila droop her shoulder in defeat.

"If he doesn't want to live then we can't force him. We already lost so much. We've seen others die, we've heard others die. We mourn for every single one of them but he was only thinking of Venus and nothing more. He never helped us for anything at all." Jasmine said,

"It still feel wrong to leave him to die knowing that we could have done something and we have the strength to do it." Jane said,

"But heroics do not save us in here." Jefferson said,

"And none of us wanted to go near that stupid cave." Jasmine also added,

"So let's put it in a vote then." Gregory said,

"Who will vote to get Troy from the cave? Raise your hands." Gregory asked as he scan the place.

Not a single hand was raised and even Sheila was hesitating until she firmly put her hand down.

I also hate this feeling, this feeling of helplessness but all the things they said was real that it pains me to leave him to be eaten by the faceless but he just endangered our lives for his selfish anger and selfish desire, we are not masochistic enough to just forget about what he has done while he continues to be selfish.

"Urgh. How do we know that he is 'you know'?" Steph asked,

"Yeah… How do we know it?" Jan also questioned,

"We wait." Gregory said.