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all-for-geek · 1 year

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Drawn to the Dark: A Nightmare to Remember Chapter 3: Buried Alive

Chapter 2

Chapter 4

Fandom: Escape the Night

Summary: With the revelation that someone is working for the evil, everyone is one edge. Who can Selena trust? Can she even trust herself?

Warning: Mentions of dark, enclosed spaces/Character Death

Word Count: 2,971

In a second, there was silence. In the next; pandemonium. Everyone started accusing everyone else of being in league with evil. LeLe most of all. She was the first to accuse Oli of seeing the note when no one else did.

“I have good vision,” he explained weakly.

“Besides, if he was in league with the Evil, he wouldn’t have wanted us to find the paper in the first place,” Selena added. Oli nodded at her with gratitude.

“Maybe it’s Justine,” Matt exclaimed. “She wasn’t too torn up about Andrea’s death.” Much of the group, Selena included, nodded in agreement.

Justine raised her hands defensively. “Okay I told her to not pick me because I’m stupid!”

“Or maybe it’s none of us and it’s one of them,” LeLe threw out, gesturing wildly to Arthur and Sarah.

“The note didn’t say the help,” Arthur muttered as the shouting continued. Frankly, if Selena had not been sitting right in front of him, she wouldn’t have heard it.

“ENOUGH!” Joey shouted. The room went dead silent. “This is getting us nowhere. If we want to get out of here, we have to keep moving. Eva brought up the next clue.”

Joey picked a wooden box up off the side table. Inside was the picture of a blonde woman wearing a bright red scarf and dazzling emerald earrings posing like she was on the cover of a modern magazine. Evidently, she knew where the next artifact was. Unfortunately, the woman was dead, so they would have to conduct a seance to talk to her. The group began to break down again at the mention of a seance, but Joey quickly silenced them.

In order to complete the seance, the group would need to find things that belonged to the woman: her scarf, earrings, and hair. They wouldn’t be able to find them until they had ripped up the photo. Selena had never done a seance before, but that part seemed a little extraneous. After Eva ripped up the photo, a drawer opened to reveal three keys to the upstairs rooms.

“Great! Going deeper into the spooky house,” Oli complained. While Selena thought the more spooky part of this was communing with the dead, she kept that to herself.

Selena went into one of the bedrooms with Oli, Joey, and Justine. She would have loved to have gone in any group that didn’t have Justine, but she needed to stay with Joey. He hadn’t told anyone about her nightmare yet, but she didn’t want to risk him waiting until she was out of earshot. Joey seemed to be glued to Justine’s hip at the moment, so there they were.

The four scrambled around the room, searching for any of the objects. They threw open the closet doors and flung the bedsheets off the bed, but no hair, scarf, or earrings in sight. Selena felt her eyes being drawn under the bed. Tucked away in a dark corner was an unopened box. Sure enough, there was a bright red scarf inside. Joey called out to the others that they had found it, and the four made their way back downstairs.

Something cold and smoothed tugged on Selena's arm at the bottom of the downstairs. She turned around to see Justine’s gloved hand clasping onto her. A cold spike of fear sunk into Selena’s chest as Oli and Joey rounded the corner. What did Justine want? Had Joey found a way to tell Justine her secret without Selena knowing? Was Justine working for the evil and singling her out? Was-

“Look,” Justine started, avoiding eye contact. “I’m sorry about what I said about Andrea. It was out of line. Everyone was accusing me and…the stress got to me, y’know?” The last part was said almost playfully, alluding to Selena’s fainting spell earlier in the night.

“Yeah. I do.” Selena tried to not to grimace at yet another reminder of that moment.

“Yeah and I know that I’m not with the evil, and Joey seems to trust you, so you’re probably not either, so I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” Justine waited with baited breath for Selena’s response.

Instead, Selena simply nodded and met back up with the boys. She wanted to believe Justine. She had apologized out of survival rather than actual remorse, but an attempt was still made. Selena wanted to believe that Justine was not working with the evil, but at this point she didn’t know who to trust. Thinking back on her prophetic nightmare, she wasn’t sure that she could even trust herself.

She rounded the corner to find Oli and Joey sitting and waiting for them. Joey made eye contact with her, but before he could say anything, LeLe shouted that her group was coming down with the emeralds. Not long after, the final group came down with a lock of hair. Selena hoped that it had come from a wig and not a scalp.

As Eva walked in with the hair, a second drawer opened revealing the instructions for the seance. They had to create a circle on the ground made of sand with someone to “voice” the spirit in a triangle in the middle with the objects. As if it wasn’t creepy enough already, everyone was given a candle for their spot in the circle.

The man who had helped carry Selena back into the house an hour ago wheeled in crates of sand and was formally introduced as Marvin. He didn’t say a word as he helped the group empty the wheelbarrow. The closest he got was tipping his hat to Selena on his way back out the main door.

Sarah, naturally, had offered to be the voice for the seance. Everyone formed a circle of sand with Sarah in the middle large enough to also house the triangle. Selena squinted at the formation. While Sarah was in the middle of the circle, the triangle was not. Something about the configuration did not sit right with Selena.

“Something’s not right?” she piped up. “Isn’t the triangle supposed to be around Sarah?”

The group quickly consulted the instructions to discover that Selena was right. Grumbling, they shifted the triangle to be around Sarah in the middle. It probably would have gone smoother if Sarah had gotten out of the way during that part, but, again, Selena had never done a seance before, so how would she know?

The group took their places around the circle as Tim read the incantation. Thunder and wind began to roll into the room as he spoke. Selena could feel a force pulsing with power rippling through the circle, slowly creeping up towards Sarah. As thunder and wind reached a crescendo, the force zoomed into the circle and Sarah gasped for breath. Or Sarah’s body did at least.

“My name is Caroline Eastwick,” the spirit explained. “I was sacrificed. Buried alive so that an artifact may be buried forever. Find my coffin, release me, and it will show itself to you. My coffin was buried in the front of the house. I remember being dragged past…a red stone. I can sense the key somewhere in the back. Hurry! Release me from this hell!” The spirit's voice had been calm and monotone, but as it screamed, her pain and torment was on full display. Selena could almost see a young, frightened woman, being dragged by her lover to an early grave. She could see him trapping the woman inside her tomb, leaving her to scream as the last of her oxygen drained from the coffin. Selena shivered as the spirit left, and she was snapped back to reality.

The group split up once more. This time, Selena found herself with LeLe, Matt, Sierra, and Justine. Joey had seemed reluctant to separate from Justine, but he wanted to find the coffin, and Justine was adamant about not going near it. After the horrible vision Selena had, she couldn’t blame her.

The five went to the yard outside the house and began to wander around, searching for anything that could be a clue to the key’s whereabouts. Matt pulled Selena towards him, leaving the two of them pulling up the rear.

“Hey, are you working with evil?” he asked bluntly.

“No,” Selena answered as confidently as she could.

“I think it’s either Justine and LeLe.”

“What is it with you and LeLe?”

Matt shrugged. “She’s been acting crazy all night. I just got a weird feeling about her.”

“That’s just the way LeLe is,” Selena brushed off.

“And Justine?”

Selena paused. “I don’t know. She did apologize for what she said about Andrea, but for all I know that could just be to cover her tracks. I don’t think she is, but I can’t know for sure. It could be anyone.” She turned to Matt. “What about you? Are you working for the evil?”

Before he could respond, Sierra called for the two of them to hurry up. Matt began to speed walk to catch up with others, causing Selena to chase after them. The last thing she wanted was to be the last one in line, outside, during the horror movie that the night had become.

They continued on the path through the forest near the house, searching high and low for a key. Eventually, they entered a clearing with a piano in the middle of it. Normally, this would have been weird, but the group had just conducted a seance, so by comparison, it was not.

LeLe opened the lid of the piano to find another wooden box. As she opened it, the gears inside turned to play a clunky melody. Most of the group looked on in confusion, but Justine and Selena were beginning to understand the puzzle.

“It played a song!” Justine proclaimed excitedly.

“No it didn’t,” Sierra responded mockingly.

“Yes it did.” Selena’s words had a bitter undertone to them. While Selena could agree that calling it a song was generous, Justine seemed to be understanding the puzzle, fingering the piano to find the melody again. Besides, Selena had not forgotten that Sierra suggested voting her into the last challenge. “Play it again.”

LeLe opened the box once more and the notes poured out. Selena hummed the melody on repeat until Justine figured out what notes to play. The piano opened to reveal a key, and the group scrambled to grab it and find the others.

They found them surrounding a pile of grass, digging at the dirt underneath. Everyone was passed a shovel and began digging as well. Well, everyone except for Justine. She stood back from the grave, visibly shaking from the sight. The others shouted at her to join them, but she just shook her head meekly.

Selena felt a pang of sympathy for her. She could see Justine shutting down from the fear. It wasn’t that long ago that Selena had been in a similar scenario. If it weren’t for Andrea, she probably never would have gotten past it. Selena sighed, put down her shovel, and walked over to Justine.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I just…I don’t like tight spaces. I hate the idea of being trapped, alone, confined in the dark. This…” She gestured to the hole where bits of the coffin could now be seen. “This is, like, my worst nightmare actually.”

Selena gently squeezed Justine’s arm. “Yeah, yeah I can imagine that could be rough. But look…the others already don’t like you. If you stand over here not helping, it’s only going to make it worse.”

“I’m not working for the evil.”

“I know. But it doesn’t matter whether you actually are or not. It matters if the others believe that.”

Before Justine could respond, the grunting of the others and the creaking of wood drew their attention to the coffin being pulled out of the ground. Justine instinctively took a couple steps back. Selena gently grabbed her wrist and guided her closer. The two braced themselves for the ghastly sight that awaited them inside. The coffin lid opened to reveal…

Nothing. Nothing save for a piece of paper. The entire group, although relieved to not be face-to-face with a decaying corpse, tensed at the odd site. Matt slowly reached for the paper, as if at any moment the woman would appear to drag him underground with her.

What happened instead was perhaps worse. In order to free Caroline’s spirit and reveal the artifact, someone else had to be sacrificed. They had to do yet another vote to see who would be put in the coffin. Justine frantically yanked on Selena’s arm as everyone turned to face her.

“Wait, no, we can’t bury one of our friends alive!” Joey shouted, rushing to Justine’s side.

“Somebody has to be put in Joey,” Tim shouted back, “and she’s not exactly been very helpful.”

Joey turned to Selena, silently pleading for her to speak out for his friend. Selena sighed as she stepped forward.

“She did help us figure out the puzzle for the key,” she reminded the group.

Shakily, it was Justine’s turn to speak. “Please…please do not put me in that coffin. I know that I haven’t….please please don’t.” As she rambled, she began to lean on Joey more and more for support.

“It is almost time to vote,” Arthur interjected. “Please discuss amongst yourselves.” Joey and Selena stayed with Justine as Matt walked over to the two of them.

“Please, please don’t let them vote for me,” Justine whimpered.

“I’m not going to let that happen,” Joey said, holding Justine at eye level by her shoulders. Selena nodded in agreement.

“Who else can we vote for?” Matt asked.

“Sierra?” Selena suggested. “She also hasn’t exactly been helpful.”

Selena waited for any objections. When none came, the group nodded in agreement. As the voting commenced, a pit began to form in Selena’s stomach. Even if they all voted for Justine, the odds were not in the girl’s favor. Most likely, everyone else was voting for her. 6 out of 10. And even if she weren’t to get picked, they would still have to bury someone alive. Blatant, cold-blooded murder. If Selena hadn’t already used her Get Out Faint Free card, she might have used it right then.

The walk up to Arthur felt like dragging her feet through quicksand. The entire night played before Selena. Her talk with Arthur when she first arrived. Her nightmare when she fainted. Justine’s declaration after Andrea’s death seemed to play on repeat. Her shouting callously towards the only person that night that had shown Selena true kindness. Her hand shook as she picked up the pen.

She deserves to pay.

No…no Justine apologized for what she said. Selena pushed down on the clicker of the pen with the force of a punch.

She didn’t mean it. She just wanted to save herself.

Selena couldn’t blame her. Not an hour ago, she had been the one everyone was staring at. Didn’t she do the same thing? Telling Joey about her vision to ensure she had an ally? Selena struggled to pull the pen down through the still air.

Someone must die. What is one more vote? You know she will get chosen anyway.

She had promised to not vote for Justine. After all the terrible things that have happened, and will happen, she can at least rest easy knowing she did this one thing right. The tension eased as she wrote down Sierra’s name.

Selena sat back down next to Justine and waited for the rest of the votes to come in. Her leg bounced uncontrollably as Arthur mixed the votes around. It was no surprise whose name was spoken.

“Justine.”

Justine screamed and ran farther into the grounds, most of the group following after her. Marvin appeared out from behind a tree and tackled her to the ground. Joey’s screams mixed with Justine’s as he tried to run to help her. He was stopped as Selena, the only other person to stay behind with him, grabbed his arm.

“We have to do something! We gotta-”

“Joey,” large tears fell down Selena’s cheeks, “We can’t.”

Justine was placed into the coffin and the lid closed onto her, trapping her forever in the cold and dark. The rest picked back up the shovels and began to pile the dirt on top of their friend. Selena reluctantly picked up a shovel and joined them, half-heartedly shoveling through her blurry vision. Joey kicked a small amount of dirt onto the coffin when Tim berated him for not helping. Justine’s screams prevailed through all of it.

The group grew so accustomed to her cries that it took a moment to register that they had stopped. They turned to find a box rising from the earth beside Justine’s tomb. Joey opened it to find the artifact and their next clue.

The walk back up to the house was silent and somber. Selena met up with Joey at the front but knew that nothing she could do or say could help. She tentatively held his free hand to give what little comfort she could. Although he said nothing, he did not recoil from the touch either.

Joey placed the artifact by the first one and turned to face the others. A sea of emotions looked back at him. Some held pity for what had just happened. Some were broken, lost in their sorrows. Most held some form of contempt for him dragging them to the house in the first place. It was Oli who stepped forward to speak for them.

“Joey…I'm sorry, but one of us had to go.”

Joey nodded. He was sure that if he made it out the full weight would come crashing down on him, but he pushed that deep down for the time being. There were still two more artifacts to find.

#escape the night #etn #etn season 1 #joey graceffa #drawn to the dark #a night to remember #oc insert #my works

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dubinadawkinss · 7 months

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It's so funny that I've never seen fan art of s1 Joey in my entire life

#escape the night #escape the night season 1 #etn s1 #I honestly hate him #joey graceffa #Does anyone even still remember season 1?

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boxbound · 6 months

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Escape the night season 1 stimboard bc if I don't do it no one will!!!

Feel free to make more of these I love this fandom and I wanna see us thrive!!

#dark academia stimboard #escape the night #etn #📜 unrelated #joey graceffa #escape the night season 1

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slasherbat · 9 months

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Escape the Night Villains as Song Lyrics

Arthur

The Sorceress

The Carnival Master

The Collector

#escape the night #escape the night season 1 #escape the night season 2 #escape the night season 3 #escape the night season 4 #etn #etn s1 #etn s2 #etn s3 #etn s4

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incorrectetncanonandfanonquotes · 10 months

Conversation

During the seance in season 1

Justine: This looks like something out of a satanic cult.

Tim, nodding and smirking: Wicked.

#source: discord #justine ezarik #Timothy DeLaGhetto #incorrect escape the night quotes #incorrect Etn quotes #incorrect etn #incorrect escape the night #incorrect quotes #escape the night season 1 #escape the night #escape the night youtube #youtube #Joey graceffa

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iceslushii · 10 months

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escape the night's third season is my absolute favourite

#tbh i skimmed through a lot of season 4 because its not that interesting to me. seasons 1 and 2 are great tho #for today's etn binge watch i intentionally left season 3 for last #slushii rambles

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sammygems · 10 months

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I decided to do an ETN tier list by the deaths.

I feel like we as a fandom (aka the ETN fandom) moved on too quickly from Alex's season 4 death, it's fucking iconic.

Sidenote: fuck Shane Dawson irl

#escape the night #etn #escape the night deaths #etn deaths #tier list #escape the night season 4 #escape the night season 1 #escape the night season 2 #escape the night season 3

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galacticgarlic · 2 years

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Aftermath

A Survivor-Centric Escape the Night drabble

CW: descriptions of scars (specifically burn scars), mentions of death and torture, PTSD and flashbacks, poison mention, blood mention

Oli’s scars still haven’t healed. Burns run up and down his body like lightning bolts in the sky or rivers carved into mountainous valleys. The discolored skin across his chest, arms, and legs creates hairless patches on his body.

He doesn’t get much sleep for the first few months. Therapy can only do so much to get the sounds of Lele’s screams to leave his mind. Any sound reminiscent of electricity crackling sends him right back to that dusty basement; bracelets remind him of leather cuffs around his flesh, certain metal sounds too much like rings clinking together.

Oli awakes some terrible nights to visions of corpses. He sits up in bed for hours, breaths coming too quick, tears too heavy. He tries to screw his eyes shut but, the images live on inside his eyelids. Against his better judgement, his hand always travels to hover over his phone. He always wishes to call them- they’re the only ones who can truly understand what he went through- but he’s been missing from the public eye for months and she swore she was better off cutting ties with what reminded her of things she wished to forget.

So, in this lifetime, he’s alone. He rocks back and forth atop the sheets of his bed, fingers digging into the meat of his shoulder blades as he hugs himself. And, once he finally soothes himself to sleep again, he dreams of a man writhing and coughing blood onto the floor.

On mornings after, Oli wonders if he’ll ever be normal again. He goes for walks to try distracting himself, and drinks coffee that’s never sweet enough. He wonders if Joey is safe, and briefly considers shooting him a text, before reminding himself of all the reasons that’s a bad idea.

Oli takes a shower, spraying himself tediously with the removable shower head he had installed. He can’t handle the feeling of submergence anymore, and wetness alone gives him chills. He realizes, after two or so weeks of cautious bathing, that he’ll probably never go swimming again. The thought makes his stomach hurt. He just wants to be normal again.

He turns off comments and blocks a million key words on every social media platform. He sometimes thinks that he’s doing too much- living life in fear of what happened a century ago in that mansion. 'I need to live,’ he rationalizes, ‘if I don’t live then what did they all die for?’

So, he tries to force himself into normalcy. He starts posting videos again, and goes on a date, and hangs out with friends and family. He starts to feel okay. He starts to believe that, maybe, if he can’t swim or go to circuses or go through life without people staring at his scars, at least he can get something out of life. Oli starts to heal.

And then a letter arrives in his mailbox. It’s signed in shimmering gold ink: “Joey Graceffa”. He chokes back a sob as fear scampers below his scarred skin.

“Fuck, not again,” he pleads to no one.

Oli runs inside his house and throws the letter onto the counter. He contemplates burning it now and never seeing what’s inside but, that thought loses out and he ends up tearing the paper open.

An invite.

Oli shudders.

Another game.

Oli’s stomach twists.

Another mansion.

He’s done. He tears the letter to pieces and drops it into the burner of his stove. The smoke rises in gray puffs that make his lungs seize. For the first time in months, Oli feels truly alive.

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poeticpains · 1 year

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"Can I be a part of that since I'm like, gay?"

Escape the Night Miscellaneous Series - 4/?

#escape the night #escape the night season 1 #etn season 1 #escape the night s1 #etn s1 #etn #season 1 #▶ gifs #the savant #the heiress #❝ freak show ❞

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speedystarshine · 2 years

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MASTERLIST

Yandere Sasha x Reader (General HC's)

Yandere Darius with a parental!witch!reader (HC's)

Yandere Amity Blight x Reader (General HC's)

Yandere Darius comforting insecure m!Reader (Fic)

Yandere Lele Pons x Yandere Matt Haag x Reader (Escape The Night HC's)

Yandere Manny Mua/Yandere Matpat x m!Reader (Separate Escape The Night HC's)

Yandere Madpat x Reader (Yandere Alphabet)

Yandere Bretman/Yandere Oli/Yandere Tana x Reader (Seperate HC’s)

Yandere Flower Asks (The Detective)

Yandere ETN Season 3 Harem x Reader (HC’s)

Yandere Oli White x M!Reader (HC’s)

Yandere ETN Season 1 Harem x Reader (HC’s)

Matpat Ego’s with a Winged!Reader (HC’s)

Alt!Gabriel x Reader (HC’s) (Platonic)

Matpat Ego’s vs Winged!Reader shenanigans (HC’s)

Yandere Mack x Chill(Oblivious?)!Reader (HC’s)

Puppy!Mark x (Overwhelmed) Winged!Reader x Catboy!Mack

How various Ego’s show affection (Multiple)

Google + Bing with an AI S/O (HC’s)

Reader taking Hermit in public (HC’s)

Google + Bing with an AI S/O that has a virus (HC’s)

Yandere Michael x Reader x Yandere Jeremy (HC’s, BLUEYCAPSULES)

Yandere Dave Miller x Texan!Reader (HC’s, BLUEYCAPSULES)

Yandere Flower Asks (Mike + Ego’s, Total Drama)

Yandere Mack on Reader’s Birthday (HC’s, ISWM)

Jealous William Afton x Reader (HC’s, Blueycapsules)

-ant

#ant???#escape the night x reader #xreader #the owl house x reader #fnaf the musical x reader #yandere x reader #masterlist #navigation #iswm x reader

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all-for-geek · 1 year

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Drawn to the Dark: A Nightmare to Remember Chapter 2: The Ungodly Machine

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Fandom: Escape the Night

Summary: Tensions heighten and accusations are thrown as the group faces certain death. Selena struggles to find her footing after passing out. Can she survive the ungodly machine?

Warning: Character Death

Word Count: 2,906

Selena walked down steps that she didn’t recognize like she had walked them a hundred times before. At the bottom of the steps was a doctor messing with switches and wires on a machine that took up half the room. The machine was connected to a young man and woman that limply banged on the glass tube. Selena wanted nothing more than to run over and release them, but she remained firmly glued in place.

The doctor came to attention when he noticed her come in. He quickly flipped a few more switches before turning on the machine. Plumes of black smoke entered the tubes. The man silently banged on the glass as his body shrunk in on itself and became more hollow. The woman simply sobbed as she met the same fate. When the two were finally silenced, a light blue substance, their souls, Selena’s dreamself knew, was consumed by the smoke as it rose back into the machine. Behind the mask she was wearing, Selena’s face contorted into a smile as she looked on in horror.

The smoke traveled through the machine into a bathtub. The creature inside sprung to life, splashing Selena in the process. While feminine in appearance, the light blue tint to her skin along with the fins and gills along her body revealed her monstrous, aquatic nature. The monster rose from the tub and awaited orders.

“Bring me more.” The voice Selena spoke in was not her own. It was deeper and soft in the same way that trees whistling in the night are soft.

The doctor squabbled some excuse about not having enough power. Selena rolled her eyes and pulled a triangular artifact out of her robe. The eyes of the Evil that adorned all three sides glowed red. The doctor once again whimpered about the potential loss of the artifact to the machine, but before Selena (Was it even Selena anymore?) could respond, a familiar spark jolted her back to consciousness.

Familiar screams greeted Selena as she regained consciousness. The others were still shouting about the car exploding. Her stomach flipped from side to side from whoever was carrying her up the steps. Slowly, her eyes opened as she returned to reality. Although, given the circumstances, reality might not have been the right word.

Selena was set down in the atrium by Oli and a large, buff man that she didn’t recognize. She leaned on the banister of the main staircase as she tested the strength of her legs. Oli thanked Marvin for helping him. Marvin…that was the name of Joey’s groundskeeper. Marvin nodded and went back outside without saying a word.

“Are you alright?” Oli asked. He offered his hand as Selena slowly wobbled to the table the others were talking, or rather, shouting at.

“I think so.”

“Does that…um…does that happen often?”

“Only when cars explode in my face.” Oli chuckled. At least Selena still had a sense of humor.

“I don’t…I don’t do well around loud noises, and tonight’s just…it’s been a lot,” Selena explained.

“Do you think it could happen again?”

“I hope not.”

The two grew silent as they approached the table. The group seemed to be trying to decide what to do next. The shouting slowly calmed as everyone noticed Oli and Selena walk in. The group stared at Selena, waiting for a response. Some, like Andrea and LeLe, appeared sympathetic, but others, like Matt and Sierra, looked suspicious of her.

“I’m okay. The stress of the situation and…the explosion got to me. It won't happen again.”

The others appeared to be satisfied for now and continued with the conversation. Someone suggested splitting up to find the supposed artifacts we needed to find, but Sierra shot it down because she had actually seen a horror movie before. Matt, of all people, was attempting to keep a cool head and steer the group towards a plan. Tim was in a corner mourning the loss of his wallet which had been in the car. Before anyone could come to an agreement, Sarah walked in with another cloche.

Everyone tensed as she walked in. The last time she had brought them something, it had been a severed head. She mentioned that it was supposed to help them, but the head was also supposed to “help” in finding the antidote for Shane.

Sure enough, Sarah lifted the cloche to reveal a severed hand. It was adorned with tattoos of ritualistic symbols and abstract shapes and protected by a glass dome. Around it was an assortment of occultic devices and a ouija board. While the others screamed, Selena remained grounded. Of course it was a severed body part, but at least it wasn’t a head.

Arthur explained that the spirit in the hand had enough energy to guide them once per hour: effectively giving the group a life line. Justine was handed an innovation that could summon the spirit.

“Give it to me,” Selena demanded, her hand outstretched.

“You sure, girl?” LeLe asked. The others held similar feelings, but Selena merely nodded. She remembered vividly that death challenges awaited them to escape. She had done little at this point to truly help the group, and if she didn’t want her head on the (possibly literal) chopping block, she needed to prove that she was in this.

As Selena read the invocation she felt a wave of energy surge from her body to her fingertips. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the hand twitching and the lights flickering, but she forced herself to complete the invocation. As it came to an end, a green light passed through Selena’s fingertips and onto the parchment.

Letters on the ouija board began to glow and spelled “books”. Like chickens in a henhouse, the group scrambled around the room searching for the right books. Given that they were currently in a library, the task was easier said than done.

As Matt hollered that he found some strange box, Andrea and Selena began searching in the hallway. Selena could feel Andrea eyeing her occasionally, but refused to look at her. Eventually, Andrea couldn’t take the silence anymore and spoke.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Selena replied without looking away from the couch cushions she was searching through.

“Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.” Selena winced at the sharpness of her tone. She hoped that it didn’t sound that way out loud.

Andrea sighed. “Okay. It’s just that most people who are fine don’t usually faint.”

“Yeah, well, most people don’t have a car explode in their face after watching someone get poisoned.” Selena was careful to ensure that her words came out as soft as possible. She turned to face Andrea whose haunted eyes betrayed the strong facade she had up. “I think if we were honest, nobody here is fine.”

“Fair enough.” Andrea felt on top of a clock and grabbed one of the books. “Let’s get this over with then.” She walked past Selena and briefly squeezed her shoulder as the two walked back to the library with the last book.

The books spelled out a code that unlocked the chest that Matt found. Inside was a riddle involving a chess game. The group scrambled to the chess board by the fireplace and Justine and Sierra began to play the way the riddle instructed. Everyone tried to help them, or, more accurately, shouted directions at them. Selena, knowing nothing about chest, let everyone else figure this one out.

When the pieces were in the right place, a message popped out from underneath the chessboard. While Oli read the note aloud, a familiar shiver went up Selena’s spine. The note was written by a scientist working on some sort of machine that could create monsters. His employer had given him an artifact to power the machine, but he forgot the code to reach it save that it was connected to the four elements. Selena’s mind traveled back to the scene in the dank, dingy basement from her nightmare. The insignificant scared man and the young couple he had sacrificed to create the hellish creature she had seen. She prayed that she was wrong, but her heart began to sink at the thought that it had been more than a nightmare.

Andrea grabbed her wrist and dragged her back into the hall with Oli and Joey. The four quickly found the water symbol on a metal box segmented in half. Selena tried to look inside the box, but it was pitch black save for a faint glimmer inside. She was squinting to see if she could make it out when Joey tapped her shoulder. She looked up to see Oli standing with a pitcher of water waiting to pour it in.

“Thanks,” she muttered as she backed up. The group poured water into the box, but no matter how much they poured, it never seemed to fill up. It must have been a solid five minutes before they realized that they were pouring it on the wrong side of the box. After having to get the water out of the box, a couple soaked garments, and a surprising amount of laughter later the four managed to get the water into the right section of the box to reveal the number they needed. They met back up with the others to decipher (hopefully) the final clue.

The good news was that it was in fact the last clue they needed to find the artifact. The bad news was that in order to get it, they would have to sacrifice someone to the machine in order to get it. Everyone began to argue and frantically throw out each other’s names. LeLe randomly nominated Tim. Before the group could go full “Lord of the Flies”, Arthur intervened and guided them back to the lounge.

He announced that there was a voting system in place to keep it fair. Everyone would write down the name of who they wanted to go into the challenge. The two names selected would be the ones in danger and they would choose two people to fight on their behalf. Selena couldn’t help but feel suspicious as Arthur explained it all. He had done almost nothing to help them since Shane died, and suddenly he had this perfect voting system to decide who would be next? Selena debated calling this out, but before she could, Joey beckoned her to follow him. Hesitantly, she did so. As the two rounded the corner, Joey’s expression switched one similar to Andrea’s a while before.

“Selena,” he started, “are you-”

“I’m fine.” Selena tried to keep the bitterness in her voice to a minimum. Now was not the time to be making enemies. “I got overwhelmed, but I’m fine now.”

“Look,” Joey crossed his arms defensively, “I’ll be honest. Right now, I could really see you getting voted in.”

Selena wanted to get mad. She wanted to scream in rage that was not fair. But she knew better. In a house full of strangers, with your life on the line, you cut out the weakest link. And the one who faints at the first sign of trouble seems pretty weak.

“But,” Joey continued, “I’ll vouch for you. If you can plead your case, I can help.”

Selena looked him in the eyes. They were soft and caring, but there was a fear behind them that Selena knew all too well. She thought back to what could possibly keep Joey from throwing her the wolves. She recalled the nightmare and the note that had brought it to reality. She sighed.

“Promise you won’t tell the others.”

Joey nodded silently.

“While I was unconscious, I had a nightmare. I was in a dark basement with an ungodly machine inside. There was a doctor there who sacrificed two people to create a monster. The machine was powered by some sort of weird artifact.”

Joey stared in confusion until the gears all clicked into place.

“You don’t think it was-”

“I don’t know, but it was too similar to be a coincidence.”

“What could this mean?”

Selena shrugged. “I wish I knew. Joey-” She grabbed his arm as he made for the main room. “Please don’t tell the others. I don’t want them to freak out if it's nothing.”

Joey nodded, but deep down, they both knew that it was something.

The two reentered the main room where everyone had split into factions. They joined Justine, Eva, and Sierra.

“Where were you two?” Eva asked, her inquisitive face embodying her role as the Journalist perfectly.

“I was checking on Selena.”

Selena was silently impressed. If she had not been privy to the conversation, she would have fallen for Joey’s lie hook, line, and sinker.

“Well we’ve been talking,” Justine interjected. “We all kind of agree that whoever is the most useless should be voted out. Andrea.”

The group was not in agreement. At the same time Justine said Andrea’s name, Sierra said Selena’s.

“Really.” Selena drew out the word while looking Sierra dead in the eye. Eva and Justine at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

“Look, it’s not personal.” Sierra chuckled awkwardly.

“I know,” Selena deadpanned. She walked away from the group, shoving Sierra out the way with her shoulder. She wasn’t lying. She had already known that she would probably be voted in. It didn��t make it any easier to hear someone say it. And the fact that Andrea, one of the few genuine people she had met there tonight, was also up didn’t help. Selena sat down on the couch and waited for Arthur to call that it was time to vote.

They went up one-by-one and wrote down someone’s name. When it was Selena’s turn, she didn’t hesitate to write down Sierra’s. Arthur swirled the hat the names were and pulled out the first piece of paper. To no one’s surprise, Andrea’s name was pulled out. Selena closed her eyes and braced herself to be called up next.

“LeLe.”

Selena’s eyes shot open. She fought to suppress the smile that was forcing its way onto her face. Her joy at not being picked was almost as strong as her sorrow that her friend was. Then the confusion crept in. Who would have voted LeLe?

The two victims were told to pick someone who would fight on their behalf. LeLe picked Eva. Everyone nodded at her wise choice. Then Andrea chose Justine.

“Wait no why me?” Justine exclaimed. “I’m dumb. You don’t wanna pick me.”

“Yeah Andrea are you sure?” Selena added. She debated adding that it was likely that Justine was one of the people that had voted her in.

“The decision has been made,” Arthur interrupted. “You four, please follow me.”

Andrea, Eva, Justine, and LeLe followed Arthur outside to the entrance to the basement. The others sat in relative silence; no one was sure what to do while their friends fought for their lives. It was Selena who eventually spoke up, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“Who voted for LeLe?”

Matt shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I did.”

Selena was willing to leave it at that, but Matt continued. “She’s been shady ever since we got here; she’s done nothing but accuse Tim. I just don’t think we can trust her.”.

“You just don’t like her,” GloZell interjected, “I’d be shocked if she doesn’t come back. I really would.”

“Only one way to find out now,” Oli muttered.

As if on cue, they heard footsteps in the hallway. Arthur came back in with Eva, Justine, and LeLe close behind. Selena’s heart sank. Both at the knowledge that Andrea must be dead and the black pyramid in Eva’s hands. The metallic surface and tentacles encompassing the base were all too familiar to her. It was the artifact from her nightmare.

As the three reached the others, they were bombarded with questions about the challenge. Eva did her best to explain, but when she mentioned that Justine seemed to not be eager to help Andrea, Justine began to rant defensively.

“You know what?! This entire time Andrea has done nothing! When we were trying to find the clue to save Shane, I was like ‘Hey, Fixer, can you fix this?’ Well you know what?! Who's the Fixer now?!”

Most of the group was taken aback by Justine’s outburst. A few began to berate her for it. Selena clenched her fists together in white-hot rage.

“How dare you?” It had come out so quietly that Selena was surprised when the room went silent. “How dare you?! Andrea was our friend! This situation sucks, but that gives you NO RIGHT to say that! She was a fucking human! Act like it!”

A fire was growing inside Selena’s stomach. It spread and sparked through her whole body. She was only calmed when she felt a hand gently grab her arm. She turned to find Joey staring at her. Although the two shared no words, Selena understood his warning. She sat back down before things got even more out of hand.

As Eva sat the artifact on a nearby table, Oli spotted a piece of paper on the bookcase. When he read it, the group collectively tensed. A new sense of dread forming amongst them.

“One of you is working for the evil.”

Selena saw Joey staring at her out of the corner of her eye.

#escape the night #Joey graceffa #etn season 1 #etn #oc insert #my works #drawn to the dark #a nightmare to remember

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