Planned Revenge

We arrive at Dead Man's Woods. It is dark, silent. Donnie only lives 5 minutes away from here via a shortcut path.

"Ready for some real scary stuff?" he laughs.

"I don't mind scary." I say with a slight smile.

"Good Saunders. No pain, no gain." Xane chuckles.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.

"Ignore him he's being a jackass." Donnie explains.

I can't help but go quiet. I'm in the middle of haunted woods where people get murdered or commit suicide and these fools have lured me here. Something is making my skin crawl about this.

Donnie heads towards the woods, Xane and Alex follow. I stay back and follow behind them. My anxiety kicks in, I feel this isn't going to be what Donnie is making it out to be. 

"Don't worry Saunders, we have a white mask each." Alex smirks.

"Cool." I reply bluntly.

"You guys head on I need to speak to Kil." Donnie shouts.

Xane and Alex continue on the trail in front.

"Are you feeling ok?" He asks nicely.

"Just a bit drained due to my meds that's all man." I answer.

"Ah, I can imagine with the meds and being sedated. Must be horrible." He says.

"I'm used to being sedated now. If you said that to me a few months ago I would tell you how much force and how many people it took to get it into my neck." I grumble.

"Geez man, I am really sorry. The other guys don't understand but my Dad works at an asylum so he spoke to me about what you could be going through." He explains. 

"It's nothing really. Let's forget about me and my messed up head and get on with the night." I smile.

Donnie smiles and nods. We then continue to catch up with Xane and Alex. 

We get to a clearance, Xane and Alex stop and begin getting out the beer from their bags.

"Let's have a few drinks before we start." Xane insists.

Donnie goes into his bag and passes me a bottle and grabs one for himself.

"Let's sit down and tell some stories." Donnie says.

We sit down in a small group with torches in the middle.

"So Saunders what's the outcome? Not seen you at school recently." Xane quizzes.

"Just feel I shouldn't be at school with the way I am. Look what happened with Donnie, I couldn't control myself." I explain.

"Kil, you don't have to explain yourself." Donnie frets. 

"Donnie, don't be a conversation killer. You said we need to get to know him." Alex buts in.

"What about you? Heard you've been kicked off your scholarship." I smirk. 

"You little…" Xane hisses.

"Guys! Keep the conversation civil." Donnie says calmly.

I stand up and walk away from the group. I can't be bothered with the blows about not being in school.

"Kil!" Donnie shouts as he runs after me.

"I understand yeah? You want us to be civil but it's not working." I explain.

"They're jackasses you know that." He chuckles.

"Can we not just get on with the game? Rather than them keep digging at me." I continue.

Donnie smiles.

"Sure let's get our masks on ready then and have a laugh." He says as he leads the way back to the group.

We get to the clearance where Xane and Alex are waiting for us. Donnie grabs his bag and opens it up. He pulls out 4 plain white masks and begins to hand them out. One to me, one to Xane, one to Alex and one for him.

"Well boys, straw picking time. Whoever picks the shortest goes first." Donnie smiles.

I get the medium, Donnie grabs the longest, Alex get a long one and Xane gets the shortest.

"I knew it!" Xane yells.

We put our masks on. Xane turns to the tree and begins to count. We all scatter in different directions. I head to the trail as I knew there's a tree there that I can climb. I get to the tree and climb up to the second log. Hopefully he won't be able to find me here.

"Time to hunt!" Xane shouts in the distance.

I sit and wait quietly in the tree. I listen out to see if he finds Alex or Donnie before me. 

"Donnie… where are you?" he chants.

I take my mask off whilst I hide. I begin to smirk. I know for a fact he won't find me here.

"Killian, I know your tricks." He shouts.

"I'm coming for you first!" He continues.

Before I know it he's beneath me. How is this even possible? Surely where I'm hiding is better than the others. 

"Boo!" Xane shouts as he looks up at me.

I quickly climb down the other side and run to where I see Donnie and Alex run. I turn to look and Xane has disappears. 

I pause.

"Wait a minute… this isn't a game… it's a manhunt for me…" I say to myself.

I quickly find another tree and climb up again. I put my mask on as I remember I forget to put it on before I run. Again I sit quietly and wait. I look below and I see Xane and Alex looking around. 

'This isn't how the game goes!' I think to myself.

My anxiety kicks in and I start to panic. I need to somehow get out of this and get back to the party.

I look down and they're gone. I slowly begin to climb down. I get to the floor and look around. It's black. It begins to sink in that I'm screwed.

Suddenly my hood gets pulled over my face and mask and I get dragged through the woods. I can't help but to scream.

"Get off me!" I yell.

I heard Xane and Alex laughing. I didn't like the sound of this.

"Just let me go!" I scream.

They drop me. I quickly climb to my feet, throw my hood back and throw the mask off.

"If this is some joke it's not even funny!" I hiss.

They just stand there looking at me with their masks on. Donnie was nowhere to be seen.

"Come on. Jokes over." I bark.

Xane looks at Alex and Alex looks at Xane. Alex walks behind me whilst Xane walks in front of me.

"Yes Saunders, joke is over." Xane laughs.

Alex grabs both my arms behind my back and ties them with rope.

"Funny." I say sarcastically.

"Are you not scared?" Alex asks.

"Why should I be? I've had worse from Donnie than from you two." I laugh.

Xane then knee me in the stomach. I fell to the floor. The pain is excruciating.

"Flip the idiot over!" Xane shrieks.

Alex puts his foot to my left side and push me over to my back. I'm too busy concentrating on the pain in my stomach to even try to get up.

Xane stand over me. He pours vodka all over the mask on my face.

"My eyes!!" I scream.

Xane laughs so does Alex. 

"It will be more than just your eyes Saunders." He murmurs.

Xane lit a match and throw it onto my face. I can feel the mask instantly melting onto my skin and smell my skin, hair and hoodie burning. I scream harder than I have ever screamed before. I kick and thrash my body around as much as I can. I can't stand up or use my hands to try and put it out. I couldn't cope with the pain! All I can do is scream a blood curdling scream.

Suddenly I hear a snap inside my head. The sound is like the snapping of an elastic band. The pain is so intense I pass out.