Episode 19

Capri's remains slowly sizzled in a puddle of red and yellow. The screen doors remained shut. Not only had they lost Capri, but the keycard as well. Ethan couldn't look back at her melted corpse, not ever again. It took the three of them a few minutes to gather what had happened, but now all of them had the same crazy look in their eyes.
They were dead. They were all dead, Ethan thought, it was all a matter of time.
"W-what now..." Genessee sniffled, "Is there n-no way out?"
"Our way out just melted someone," Ethan said.
Something in Matthew finally broke. He looked wildly about the room, occasionally running towards a wall and pressing against it as if it would move.
"He said... he said... there were two ways out... not to pick the wrong one... where's the right one? Where!"
"Does it matter?" Ethan asked, "We don't have the key anymore. It's gone."
"This can't be it," Matthew ignored him, "There has to be... somewhere we can..."
"Hey, man," Ethan said, "We'll..."
"We'll what!" Matthew shouted, "We'll what? We screwed up, we chose wrong..."
Genessee began to cry again. Ethan gave up trying to talk to Matthew and returned his attention to the sleeping man who fell out of the pig corpse. His fingers began to twitch.
"I think he's waking up," Ethan announced.
The man's eyes flickered open, revealing almost clear colored irises. His nose crinkled in disgust, "Ugh... what stinks. W-... Where am I?"
The man bolted to his feet, but began to sway and fell back to his knees. He brought his fists up as if ready to attack someone.
"Woah!" Ethan backed away, "Chill, chill..."
"Where is he?" the man barked.
"Who? Who!" Ethan put his hands up in defense.
The man spotted Genessee, and if it was her innocent face or bright pink haired that cooled him off, whichever, he seemed to wake up from his trance.
"Where are we?" he asked.
Genessee answered, "We don't know. We were brought here... I-I think by a mad man."
"Wait..." Ryan blinked, "Wait... I know you. And you two."
Matthew drew away from the walls. Everyone seemed confused.
"You're the missing students," the man said, "We've been looking for you! I'm Detective Robinson's assistant, Detective or... Jr. Detective I guess, Ryan! Ryan Nelson."
"Detectives?" Genessee's eyes seemed to glow, "They were looking for us?"
"Yeah!" Ryan said, "You're Genessee, I remember your hair from the photo. We were following some leads in the case but... "
"You're trapped in here with us," Matthew said, "Why?"
Ryan scratched his scalp, "I'm not sure myself. Last thing I remember... I think I was jumped. I remember hearing my phone go off a lot... Aw, man." He buried his face in his hands and spoke muffled nonsense.
"Do you know what's going on here?" Ethan asked, "Because if we don't find a way out we're all going to die."
Ryan recovered, "Sort of... it's a lot to explain. This is the bad guy's domain, huh? Doesn't look good... We don't know who it is yet, but we think he's part of a death cult. Like I said, a lot to explain, and I'll gladly do it once we get you kids out of here. What about that door over there, it's blocked off, but I bet we could-"
"NO!" they all said in unison.
"It's a... trap," Ethan explained.
"Ah, ok," Ryan coughed, "Ugh, I don't feel so good. And I smell awful."
"You were inside of a pig..." Matthew muttered. It was unclear if Ryan actually believed him, but he didn't seem too distracted by it. Instead he was inspecting the room with sluggish and drugged calmness.
"No exit, huh," Ryan walked towards the middle of the room, "Well... That's not entirely true."
His feet stopped at a metal grate on the floor. It was large enough for people to fit through, but none of them had thought about it since...
It was a drain.
"Help me," Ryan grunted as he pulled on the bars.
Matthew didn't look convinced, but stood on the other side of the grate and pulled. The bars groaned, and with the conjoined effort they were able to lift it open. Ethan and Genessee tiptoed closer to get a better look, and were both repelled by the sight. And smell.
"Gah! Oh hell..." Ethan's face twisted.
"Nasty..." Ryan agreed, "Are we desperate enough?"
Genessee was on the brink of tears again, but when she glanced back at acid pool with Capri's very few remains, she nodded, "I think we are..."
"I can go first," Ryan offered.
"No, I'll go..." Matthew said.
"You sure?"
Matthew didn't say anything, but sat on the edge of the hole and swung his legs over. It was hard to tell where this drain went. The drop down wasn't too high, but down below looked like a giant slide. The entire drain was at a slant without an end in sight. That could be do to all the blood and gore.
"Careful," Ryan said.
Matthew nodded. Ethan sat at the edge as well, "Right behind you. This looks like Sun Splash for diseases..."
As soon as Matthew dropped himself into the drain he began to slide. His backside dragged through the chunks of red that smelled rancid and rotted. Blood splashed against the walls of the drain the faster he started to fall. He was picking up speed, hitting more slimy contents that Matthew refused to think about. Vomiting could commence any second.
The light at the end of the tunnel was less than pleasant. The drain suddenly ended, letting Matthew fly out of the tube and fall into a gigantic pool of thick maroon goo. There was no stopping becoming completely submerged. He clamped his mouth and eyes shut as tightly as possible.
Everyone fell in soon after Matthew did. It was a good thing the pool was shallow, because navigating in the gelatin gore was near impossible. Ethan scraped the goop from his face and blew through his nose trying to make an airway.
"This... is... freakin' disgusting!" Ryan chocked.
Genessee struggled to shake off the blood pudding and whimpered in distress.
"This is insane..." Ethan rubbed his beard until it was raw, "This is... Are we out? Is it over?"
Ryan's button down shirt had no chance of being white ever again. He ripped off his tie and shoved his sleeves up to his elbows, "Well... we're definitely out of one room, but it looks like we're in another."
It looked like a really old sewage system. The ceiling was a dome. Multiple tunnels led away from the pool into further darkness. Ethan had to pull his legs like he was walking in tar, but made his way to dry land, which was a ring of cement around the pool. He took a few moments to breathe through his mouth, trying to block the smell. That's when he heard the gurgling.
The grizzly breathing echoed off the walls from one of the tunnels. There's no way, Ethan thought, there's no way that same monster made it all the way down here before they did. No way.
But the gurgling sounds were spot on. The others weren't there when the beast tore Macy apart, but he was. He knew.
They were here in the dark and blood with the blind skinless monster.

Episode 18

Alaire sat across from Aaron at the kitchen table. He was still rubbing the spot where Gerald punched him. The swelling was protruding from underneath his left eye.
Things got a little out of hand when Aaron and the detective caught them. Alaire hadn't seen that look in Aaron's eyes in a long time. It was almost like he was the manifestation of rage like his consciousness was gone and replaced with something else. It was spooky.
No one could blame him, though. She was still kidnapped, after all, Alaire thought. But the poor kid was out with one punch, and Aaron wanted to finish the job, so Gerald had to restrain him...
Aaron was fuming, refusing to look up at her. Alaire sighed, "I'm sorry."
"You don't have anything to be sorry for," he said sharply.
"But you're mad at me..."
Aaron placed his hand on the table, maybe a little too harshly, "I wasn't expecting you to be making friends with your kidnappers. I thought you were... well, dead. I thought that when I found you, you would be dead or dying."
"It's not like he and I are pals," Alaire snapped, "I'm sorry I'm not dead!"
"Don't say that!" Aaron's tone made her jump. He finally made eye contact with her but coughed and awkwardly looked away.
Gerald handcuffed the culprit and leaned him up against the wall as they waited for him to gain consciousness. The detective was making several calls to his assistant, Ryan, but from the sound of it, he was having no luck.
"Care to explain it to me again," Gerald addressed Alaire after he received Ryan's voicemail again.
"Um," Alaire turned from Aaron, "I was kidnapped. I was brought here - had no idea where I was. He left me in the basement, but he fed me and didn't do anything except interrogate me once about who killed Taylor. I didn't realize the significance until..."
"You realized he was her brother," Gerald finished.
Alaire nodded, "He came back tonight and let me go, just like that, told me to leave and that he couldn't do this anymore."
Gerald analyzed the sleeping boy with blood drying under his nose. "You really think he meant you no harm?" he asked.
"I don't know. I think he might've at one point, but... I don't think he's a bad person. I don't think he could go through with it."
Aaron grunted in disgust. Alaire glowered, "If he wanted me dead he would've done it already."
"How can you trust anything after what we went through?" Aaron laughed darkly, "I remember being rescued and it didn't turn out so great for any of us,  did it?"
Alaire continued to glare but said nothing. Gerald raised his eyebrows and went back to his business. The kid was starting to stir, groaning from the pain of his potentially broken nose. Aaron tensed.
"Dylan?" Gerald crouched closer to the ground so they were eye level, "Hey."
Dylan's dark eyes rolled until they focused on Gerald's face. He was startled but didn't try to fight against his handcuffs. Instead, he sunk with a deep sigh and lazily looked at all the faces staring at him.
"I'm Detective Gerald Robinson," Gerald said, "You're under arrest for-"
"Detective."
Gerald jerked his head, "Can it wait?"
"No, um... I don't want to press charges," Alaire's voice trailed away.
Both Aaron and Gerald looked at her in disbelief.
"Excuse me?" Gerald looked to Aaron for validation.
"Don't be stupid," Aaron said, "You're kidding right?"
"No," Alaire noticed Dylan looking up at her, totally expressionless.
"Alaire!" Aaron huffed.
"My brother was killed," Alaire said in a hushed tone, "And you know what? I killed the man who killed him. Without hesitating. I still haven't been punished for it."
Everyone fell silent. Aaron's furrowed eyebrows finally relaxed, "That was different..."
"Is it?" Alaire countered, "He just wants to know what happened to his sister. And he let me go."
Gerald turned to Dylan, still watching them, "I'm taking you in for questioning then."
"K," Dylan grumbled.
There was no sign he was going to put up a fight. The fire of life in his dark eyes were tiny embers gasping for air. Alaire knew it would irk them if she defended Dylan too much, but she ignored them. She left her chair and crouched next to the detective, "What made you decide to let me go?"
Dylan lifted his broad set shoulders. Alaire tried again, "How old are you? You can't be in college yet, are you?"
"No. I'm seventeen."
"Wow, young," Alaire used a soothing tone.
"Dylan," Gerald interjected, "There's reason to believe you murdered Tina, the older woman you worked for."
"You shouldn't question him here..." Alaire said.
Dylan didn't seem to mind and responded with a blunt, "I didn't do it."
"Was it because of those artifacts? Did someone want them? Did you want them for something?" Gerald fired.
"No," Dylan finally showed some sign of emotion, "That's stupid. I'm the one who gave her the artifacts, why would I kill her and steal them back?"
Gerald paused, "You were the supplier?"
"Yeah... I found them in my sister's room one day," Dylan's voice cracked, "I didn't want anyone finding them so..."
Gerald's face soothed over, satisfied with the new information. Alaire watched him puzzle something together in his head.
"Did you know what they were?" Gerald asked.
"Not really," Dylan said, "Just that... it had to be something bad. Everyone was saying Taylor did all these terrible things. But she wasn't like that."
"She fooled everyone," Aaron suddenly said.
Dylan's eyes slowly found Aaron's. Alaire felt panic rising in her chest. She'd forgotten what her last conversation with Dylan was about. He had been dead set on finding Aaron.
"Did you kill her?" Dylan asked.
Aaron didn't look angry anymore. His teeth were still clenched, but his face showed pity, "No. I did not."
For some reason, that seemed to break Dylan. Though handcuffed, he pulled his knees up and hid his face in his bound hands. His back shook, "I... They told me it was you. But... then they killed Tina and... I freaked out."
"That's why you came back... you were worried they'd pin the murder on you," Alaire said out loud.
"Who are 'they'?" Gerald demanded. Dylan sniffed and refused to respond. That irritated the detective, so he grabbed the kid by the shoulders, "You want to go to jail? You better tell me who the murderers are."
"Detective..." Alaire whispered disapprovingly.
"They still haven't found Taylor or Matt or anyone related to the murder of those college students," Gerald pressed, "If we don't catch them now, we may not get another chance for a very long time."
"I didn't see their face... They just gave me a recording, that's all," Dylan's voice croaked.
Gerald frowned, "Alright, well. Lets' get out of here. We can continue our little discussion down-"
His phone went off, "Ah, Ryan, finally..."
Alaire put a hand under Dylan's arm and offered to help him off the ground. Dylan didn't look at her but surrendered to the gesture. Aaron placed himself in between the two, keeping a close eye on the boy in handcuffs while they waited for Gerald's phone call.
Gerald hadn't said a word since greeting Ryan. When he turned to face them, they knew right away something was wrong.
Gerald set his phone on the kitchen table and set it to speaker;
"Detective? Don't tell me I've lost you already."
Alaire felt her body jolt in response when she recognized this man's voice. No! Gerald put a finger to his lips before saying, "I'm here."
"Ah, that's good! What are you up to tonight? Seems odd to trespass into empty homes. If you ask me it doesn't sound like you're looking for the missing students very hard."
Alaire was itching to ask Aaron if she recognized this voice too. She stared at him until he looked up at her and gave a slight nod. What does that mean? Is this really him?
"Where's Ryan," Gerald ignored the man's pestering, "You have his phone, so what've you done with him?"
"Oh he's fine!" the voice said jubilantly, "At the moment anyway."
"That's two people you've taken from me," Gerald said.
"Correct! I'll gladly give them back. In fact, I'm feeling charitable, I'll even help you find the students! I'm too busy to chase you around right now, so maybe you can meet me halfway this time."
Gerald breathed harshly out his nose, "What do you want."
"Who I want. They're with you now, aren't they? Hello, Alaire!"
"Shit," Gerald's eyes were burning holes through his phone.
"In fact," the voice continued, "Why don't you, Alaire, Aaron, and Dylan come join me. But no one else... I don't want this party to get out of hand."
After he said that, faint screams were heard, "Gerald! Gerald!" Along with a rather unpleasant sound of metal scratching metal.
"Maren..." Gerald's face was getting red.
"Do we have a deal then?" the voice asked casually, "Oh, I forgot to mention. You need to get here pretty quick... You see, I don't have a lot of time on my hands. If you could get here before oh... dawn?"
"Give me the location," Gerald growled.
"Detective! That would be silly. I have a better idea. Aaron? This clue is for you!"
Aaron didn't respond, but he didn't have to. Somehow, this guy knew they were all listening.
"Get to know each other..." the voice giggled, "That's your only clue. Now hurry, hurry!"
Before he hung up, Maren started screaming, and it sounded like she was in pain. Alaire shivered and felt bile wanting to escape her stomach. Gerald released a ballad of curse words.
"That's the same guy," Dylan said, "The one who gave me the tape."
"Is it just me or..." Alaire turned to Aaron, "Did he sound an awful lot like Professor Kellor?"
"He does," he agreed.
"What does his cryptic clue mean?" Gerald asked.
"I'm confused too... we all got that message," Alaire said.
"What do you mean?" the detective's eyes darted from Aaron to Alaire.
Alaire cleared her throat, "When we were captured, they gave us notes that said 'get to know each other.' But he singled Aaron out... We were in different places. I was at an amusement park and Aaron was..."
"At the cabin," Aaron said.

Episode 17

Matthew's fingers started to stick together due to the remains of the snake blood drying. He was fairing better than Capri, though, still dripping wet with several substances. Her long dark hair stuck to her back and her body shivered uncontrollably. The pink haired chick, Genessee, seemed to be the calmest, or she was good at hiding her panic. Her eyes stayed down at her feet and her pouty lips swooshed from side to side.
Then there was Ethan.
He was wired. His eyes stretched so wide it looked like they could pop out anytime now. Matthew couldn't remember noticing the poor guy blink even once. Ethan's breathing was getting progressively worse the further the four of them walked the long tunnel.
"Looks like another door up ahead..." Matthew said, "It's open."
Between uneven breaths, Ethan muttered, "Great... Can't wait to see what's on the other side. Can't wait!"
Capri whimpered. She shoved herself into the middle of the group, "What is that smell? It's getting worse!" Her nose scrunched in disgust.
Ethan's mouth formed a thin line. Matthew noticed the smell too, and now it was starting to burn his nose hairs, "You're right... egh."
Genessee covered her nose with both of her dainty hands, "It smells like... chemicals."
"Chemicals and something else," Matthew agreed.
As soon as they filed through the open doorway, it closed behind them with a metal clank, and clunk of a lock. A warm light illuminated the room as if activated by their presence. Ethan clutched his stomach, "Oh, come on!"
Inside this room was a small factory. A metal stairway was set before them and on the bottom floor, on either wall, was a line of pigs all hanging from a conveyor belt. The ones on the right side of the room were already sawed in half, exposing their anatomy, bones, and meat.

"Welcome!"

"Of course..." Matthew sighed.
"You heard this guy before?" Ethan asked.
Capri, Genessee, and Matthew all nodded. Ethan tensed, "Yeah, me too..."

"You've made it this far. We'll see how long your luck continues to serve you."
"I don't think this room needs much introduction. But I'll let you in on a little secret."

The creepy voice that echoed through the factory had a mild playfulness to it this time around. When Matthew and Genessee heard it the first time he was mostly threatening. Why this time did he sound so... excited?      

"There's someone here who wants to help you. Isn't that nice? However, he needs your help first."
"You'll find I'm rather fond of old-fashioned procedures... Perhaps I could show you?"

A short alarm sounded along with a ringing noise. The conveyor belt slowly started to move clockwise.  

"The exit to this room is also the... cleansing room. Removing meat from bone was not always an easy task. It could be a bit of an obstacle for you. To shut it down, find the man inside one of the pigs before he's sliced up preferably. He has the key. 
However. There will be two doors. Make sure you don't choose the wrong one..." 

"Someone who wants to help us?" Matthew looked at everyone's face for an idea.
Ethan waved his hands, "I don't know. I don't have a freakin idea..."
"Well, go find this guy!" Capri declared.
Matthew raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, alright. We'll all go."
Capri looked against the idea of leaving the steps but followed everyone begrudgingly. It looked like the same kind of set up, Matthew thought. They were low on time and needed a solution fast. First, finding the stuffed pig.
"Look through all these pigs on the left side. Find one that already has a slit through its stomach," Matthew said, "It'll most likely be stitched up."
The pigs were pressed close together, so everyone had to grab the dead animals to get a better look, even as the belt moved them along. The smell of chemicals was getting stronger, and mixed together with the scent of rust and meat made them all nauseous.
Matthew couldn't stop thinking about what the "cleansing room" was or meant. If the voice parading them through this rooms of torment was behind it, then it had to be something terrible...
"I found one!" Ethan shouted.
Matthew rushed towards his voice and found the suspended big with a thin gash down its torso. It was stapled shut, which Matthew found pretty obvious. A little too obvious. They found the pig well before it reached the large saw blade that was tearing through pig corpses like tissue paper.
Ethan and Matthew took each flap of flesh and pulled them apart. Inside the meat cage was a dark haired man wearing a white button down and black tie. His limbs were shoved tightly next to the pig's ribcage. Good thing he was unconscious, Matthew noted, it looked painful...
Ethan pulled the man out from under his arms while Matthew held the legs. Capri and Genessee rushed over just as Ethan started sorting through the man's pockets.
"Who is he?" Genessee asked.
"Uh..." Ethan pulled out a wallet, "Looks like... a Mr. Nelson...?"
"What kind of identification is that? Is he a cop?"
"Maybe, maybe... here! The keycard!" Ethan whipped out a keycard, similar to the ones they already collected, from the man's wallet. Hastily, Capri took the card from Ethan's outstretched hand. "Let's get out of here!"
She ran towards the right side of the room, where the only apparent door was located. Her arms flailed through the line of pig halves as she squealed in fright. Matthew watched her go, his mind putting together a puzzle in his head... cleansing room, cleansing room... what was the cleansing room?
"Capri... WAIT!" Matthew yelled.
The exit door was in a separate cube-shaped area away from the hanging bodies. The cubed room was tiled quite particularly. It didn't match the rest of the factory at all. Something about it looked like a locker room shower.
Unfortunately, it was a shower.
As soon as Capri slid the keycard another alarm sounded. The door didn't budge, but two clear screens started to slide together, closing Capri inside the cube. She whirled around looking flabbergasted.  Then, the shower started.
Similar to a car wash, blast of liquids came from both sides. Capri screamed and ran in circles trying to dodge the assaults to her body, but there was nowhere to go. She was trapped.
And melting.
It was too late for anyone to stop it. Matthew tried prying the screen doors open, but they were sealed tight. Genessee turned away, covering her ears with her hands, and sobbed.
Capri's skin, facial features, muscle... and just about everything but the bones, were slowly sizzling and dripping from her bones.

R.I.P. 

My darling Capri ;)

Episode 16

"What the hell are we doing here..." Aaron muttered.
"Hey, you were the one who wanted to tag along on all our great adventures," Ryan countered. His finger pressed the scan button on the car radio repeatedly. It would've been annoying, but Aaron was too distracted by what Gerald was doing.
The destination was Taylor's house. Correction, her parent's house. Even so. Aaron felt sick to his stomach and glowered at the seemingly normal family home. You wouldn't guess that a disturbed killer was born and raised in the white picket fence,
"Didn't you guys already talk to Taylor's family during your investigations?" Aaron asked, "What does Gerald want now?"
"Well," Ryan sighed, "I noticed something earlier, that I thought was nothing, but looks like Gerald noticed it too. Remember the truck that followed you the other night?"
"Yeah."
"I think-"
The front door of Taylor's house opened and Gerald came into view. The look on his face confirmed he found what he came for. Ryan started the car before Gerald hopped back in, and the first thing he says is, "The brother hasn't been home since the old woman was murdered."
"Uh... what?" Ryan's eyes narrowed.
"Brother?" Aaron asked.
"My friend who called from the crime scene," Gerald sparked the memory, and all of them shivered, "I asked him who knew Tina, who worked for her... Remember the shop boy, Ryan?"
Ryan nodded, and Aaron just tried his best to follow along.
"Dylan. Dylan Atchley," Gerald stated.
"What?" Aaron felt his blood boil.
"And the truck," Ryan added, a bit too excitedly, "It's the one that followed Aaron right?"
"Maybe," Gerald said, "But he's been gone since that incident, the parents haven't seen him. I have a hunch... And I remembered during our first interview with Taylor's parents that they used to flip homes. Since their daughter's disappearance or death, they've been taking a break. But those homes are still owned by them... empty."
"No one would check..." Ryan joined in his train of thought, "If he was hiding anything..."
"This is just a hunch," Gerald informed, "But it's something."
"What should we do first?" Ryan asked.
"We need another car," Gerald said, "We'll take Aaron home, we'll split up and if you find anything, call the police."
"I'm coming," Aaron argued.
"We don't know what we'll find," Gerald said, "Could be nothing, could be terrible."
"I do well with terrible."


Aaron and Gerald paired up while Ryan went solo. There were three homes the Atchley's were fixing up, all at least an hour or less apart. Aaron was confident at first, but the closer they came to the first house, more dark thoughts filled his mind. After Seattle, he was running off adrenaline, they all were. Seeing Thanatos again was too surreal, familiar, disorienting...
"Will Ryan be okay?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah, I'm not too worried," Gerald didn't sound convincing, "He's competent."
There was something Gerald wanted to ask. Aaron could feel the tension since his friend, Maren, was kidnapped and the artifact was stolen. It wouldn't hurt to tell him now, he had to be a believer at this point.
"Detective," Aaron started, "I...what happened with that thing..."
"What did happen, Aaron," Gerald snapped, "I was prepared to die in the least logical way possible - by some shadow beast. I saw my life coming to an end, and all you had to do was stand there."
Aaron took a deep breath, "When Alaire and I watched Matt and Taylor die by Thanatos, it told us we had enough sacrifices. Apparently, when you do that, he makes a deal with you. Kind of like dealing with the devil... I think that's what the cult was up to... Matt and Taylor I mean. They wanted to gain immortality. But since it was Alaire and I left, we told him to leave us alone, for good."
"So Thanatos can't touch you..." Gerald mused.
"I wasn't sure it would work..."
"You're brave. And an idiot," Gerald said. He grumbled something under his breath.
"What is it?"
"If Thanatos can't touch you or Alaire... Then wouldn't that conflict with her kidnapping?"
Aaron felt like he was hit with a ton of bricks. Was the detective right? No, he told himself, she wouldn't run away.
"Well, here we are," Gerald said.
The house was gorgeous, but inside the windows was black. The layer of snow and the night sky reminded them it was going to be freezing. As they shivered and walked the stone steps of the walkway, Gerald's phone buzzed.
"Yeah?" he whispered, "Okay. Let me know."
He turned to Aaron, "Ryan's heading to the other house, the first one was empty."
That meant it was possible this house held horrors. A 50/50 chance. Aaron pushed back the memories of the last abandoned house he was in. His fists clenched, and despite the chill, he felt his forehead start to sweat.
Gerald approached a security pad placed on the door.
"You know the code?"
"Codes," Gerald corrected, "They were on a piece of paper at the parent's house. Figured it was better than breaking in."
Both of them jumped when they heard something stirring on the other side of the door. Aaron's eyes widened and his heart quickened. No way... It wasn't that he wanted them to find nothing. He wanted to find Alaire. He wanted to catch the killer. They'd already faced Thanatos, so what was he afraid of?
"Stay behind me," Gerald instructed. Through an opening in his jacket, his gun reflected the moonlight. This was it, Aaron psyched himself up, potentially walking into another nightmare.

Gerald was careful to not make a sound when entering the home. Everything was perfectly clean and photo worthy. No signs of a struggle, but there was a light - a faint one. It was coming from a basement, Aaron felt his memories punch him in the face, keep it together... 
But nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next.
He and the detective stayed crouched as they maneuvered around the fancy furniture, a voice spoke quietly from the kitchen. A female voice. Aaron's body was numb but kept moving, pulling him along through the darkness towards the unknown. Gerald's held his gun at the ready before turning the corner leading to the kitchen.
Aaron stopped dead.
Alaire. She was in a gray sweater, hair in a ponytail, and not a scratch on her. Her eyes brightened when she saw Aaron, but Gerald aimed his gun at the person standing next to her. A tall younger fellow with dark hair in a black hoodie. Tall, hoodie, all he was missing was... Aaron spotted a black bundle in the guy's hand... a mask! And that face. It reminded him so much of her, of everything, of Thanatos, of death, of Taylor...
White hot fury took over Aaron. It felt like slow motion. He shoved past Gerald who barked at him, "Aaron!" Alaire's face changed to concern and her arms flew up trying to make Aaron stop. But it was too late. Aaron's fist made contact with the black hoodie's nose.
With a loud thud, the guy landed flat on his back, out cold.