Recap: Y/n and the others break into the school to find out the reason for Serene's disappearance, but when they attempt to leave, they bump into someone.
[THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF GORE]
The stranger watched them from the distance of the hall, the metal baseball bat in their hand swirled around in an axis in preparation for what was to come.
Y/n's composure froze. His brain tried to paramount his safety, yet his body merely fell immobilized to the spot he had stopped in. The other teens collected their shock and made progress to escape in the opposite direction. "Y/n, come on!" Alex attempted to ground the h/c-haired male into the situation by tugging on his arm; however, Y/n's movements did not budge. The individual tilted their head in slight wonder aimed at the stricken boy.
The h/c-haired male only remained an observer, his eyes glued to the nearing threat, not differing from a deer in headlights. He was stuck in a state of heightened alert. His lungs accelerated overwrought exhales, and his heart transported flows of adrenaline through his veins drumming out all noises that reached his ears for a response that never came.
Amid the pursuits of Alex to drag Y/n away, Clark snapped him out of the defense. "Y/n! Move!" The shout fractured Y/n's bearing and his e/c eyes shifted to the brunet, then forth to the individual, who with calculative perception, advanced with careful steps toward the male.
The motions stabilized his fear stimulant. Y/n expelled a shuddering inhale and spun around to keep pace behind Alex and the other teenagers.
On cue, the killer chased after them, the footsteps sounded behind them as a dreadful memorandum of the viable consequences if they didn't manage to shake off the maniac. The heavy set of circumstances stirred a bilious apprehension within the group, curving corners and maintaining a fast tempo didn't appear to dissuade the stranger. Y/n's lungs burned as his respiratory system had to extort gulps of the lukewarm air to sustain his endurance. Scolding himself for not having more stamina.
The dim hallways didn't aid his sight for coordination, and he was half convinced he was going to crash collapse against a locker, his instincts urged him to push on with the guise of imminent danger.
The chase could not be upheld forever, the pursuer came nearer and conjoined with interchangeable anxiety, Y/n sensed their presence closing in with every rhythm of encroaching steps.
The corridor shrunk in size, each perimeter appeared to reach out to them, the more they ran in the absence of other noise, the more the conviction shaped. Evident that they had to act to ensure their survival, Kiara and Y/n swapped a quick look and made a silent acquiescence.
The black-haired girl increased her sprinting to near the proximity of Morgan and Clark, ushering a command under an inaudible level. The two listened to the words and glimpsed at her with dumbfound, however, no objection could be made as they ushered toward the ascension of stairs and the trio dashed up, splitting the group into two sets.
After the departure, Y/n seized hold of Alex's wrist and pulled him along to match up the Blond's required running speed needed to pull off the activity he wanted, the surroundings darted past them as a blur becoming a faint sighting to his navigation.
Every meter, every corner, every rigid breath from his lungs struggling to upkeep the forced sprint, every pulsating rush of adrenaline overriding the pain in his legs, it was all a tunnel-visioned anchor to escape.
As he had anticipated, the individual continued the pursuit after the two teens and Alex disoriented his gaze to the stairs the remainder students had fled in confusion.
In his peripheral vision the h/c haired halted his running and yanked at two lockers, the compartments knocked down with a clanging commotion, hindering the path of the stranger and stalling time for the two to construct a minor discussion. "I know an exit we could use; Let's go." Y/n explained in haste, signaling the blond the resume down the hallway. "Wait, why did the others? -" The boy wavered away the question. "Not now!" Y/n angled his head to note the obstacle.
Alex's lips incised into a trivial scowl, but the urgency of the jeopardy forced him to swallow his minor displeasure and lift his feet for another run.
.
.
.
Sprinting into the emptied cafeteria felt desolate and empty.
Nevertheless, Y/n didn't have the opportunity to dwell on the mundane atmosphere as he and Alex ran through the double-acting doors of the cafeteria kitchen. Cooking apparatus of multiple purposes all furnished the spotless stone counters, inklings of peeping lights from the devices as minuscule light shows.
Y/n hunched over and coughed out his ragged throat. "What was that about?" Alex interrogated. Wiping away the sweat from his face, that had accumulated Irritation spilling from the words at the stunt pulled by the group.
"Have you ever seen a horror movie? Splitting up is the dumbest thing to do." He scolded, regaining his strength after the mad dash he performed.
"I know...but it was the only thing I could think of. The killer, I don't think they will kill me." The blond male stared at Y/n, questioning his state of mind. "What?" The h/c haired secured his stamina to accurately describe his point of view. "Long story, you have to trust me on this. I have my reasons to believe that lunatic won't psychically harm me, for now, at least. Splitting up automatically brought their attention to me, I can use that to keep you out of harm's way until we've escaped, if I keep the killer occupied the others will take the main entrance to leave." Alex took in the rationale in amaze whereas vexation was expanding up in his temper.
"What?! What are you even talking about? Have you lost your mind?!" Y/n cringed away from the noisy berate, conscious of how farcical the expression of his hunch sounded but couldn't articulate an explanatory debate ahead of the muffled tapping of footsteps provoking his instincts at the indicator.
Alex peered in the line of the noise, perturbation etching on his visage. The h/c haired hushed for the male to quietly wander over to the swinging doors of the walk-in fridge.
"there's an emergency exit in there." He verified lowly to match the reserved sonance.
Declining temperatures instantly rushed past them as they entered the refrigerated room, the compressed sounds of running machinery tuned out the pounding of footfalls nearing the cafeteria, the false peace wasn't taken, they had to leave.
Y/n estimated where the emergency exit resided, glowing the radar of the flashlight onto the several shelves and myriads of perishable foods stored in neat sections. His irises adapted to the lightless location, and he started calculating the path to the egress. "The exit is somewhere across the room." He informed the other male. Alex's breath dewed into condensed air from the freezing ventilation, the deed of sprinting still exerting energy from his inhalation. "How do you know that?"
"I don't." The honesty erupted with an adamant deadpan. "I just know that each kitchen in a facility must have an emergency exit, it's the law, and since I didn't see any back there, therefore I assume there's one in here." The h/c haired finished off his analogy with the final meters of the passage and came faced with a closed-off door.
Relief engrossed out of Y/n's throat as a hefty sigh at the image of the rectangular sign, pointing out the letters inscribed around neon green colour. The two boys stepped within arm's reach of the hardware, and one of them tugged at the handle, However, the bar only pushed down to a degree. The h/c haired boy knitted his brows into dissatisfaction. "Are you--" shoving down the shaft forcibly, nonetheless the non-cooperating clicks kept the door shut.
Finally, he released the part with blunt irritation. "It's locked..." he whispered. Alex opened his mouth to interject his thoughts. "We need to--" his speech got cut off by a presence walking within the hearing span of the freezer.
Their attention drifted to warily stare into the engulfing dark beyond the other side of the room. Y/n hitched his breath, a shiver conversing through his bones that the frozen cold couldn't quite produce. The duo fondled to downgrade their flashlights, then skid over the layered ground to hunker down behind the last row of storable shelves.
The doors of the freezer creaked open. The h/c haired inwardly cursed the predicament. The two crept between the narrow stocks; footsteps passed down the passage a distance away.
Y/n sensed the frigidity taking a toll on his functions, gradually changing his heart rate to accommodate the needed heat surging his system and he tried to even his breathing to refocus on his survival instincts rather than the bitter cold inhibiting his movements.
Metal hit the posts of the passing shelves, resonating a recurrent clanging, piercing the boys' ears with the fraught sound.
"What do we do?" The blond mouthed toward the h/c haired, the intensity of his voice almost imperceptible. Y/n glimpsed in the path of Alex's question. "I don't kn--" The boy slipped as his hand lowered into a wet liquid, losing his balance from the unforeseen hindrance. Alex managed to clutch his forearms before he could plummet to the floor.
The features of the e/c-eyed male creased to unclear confusion. 'The hell? Did something fall off the shelf?' Whilst the male tried to understand what had flawed his path, an icy puff of air breezed against his face. "Are you okay?" Alex asked, the concern once again uttered faintly. Y/n wet his lips to dispose of the dryness that peeled off. "Yes..." He murmured back. Noticing the thumping footsteps had diminished to nothingness. The lights flickered on; a soft blue colour blinded the boy's vision for a brief second. A gasp erupted from Alex and Y/n glanced at the scene the blond had witnessed.
Blood.
Deep-coated blood was dripping into a pool, staining the nearby shelves and products with splatters. It covered Y/n's hands, soaking his sleeves to a sticky mess clinging to his skin. The reeking smell of iron pervaded his nose, and his e/c irises dilated with his muscles growing taut.
'Oh god...'
The cause of the gore was a body close to the teens, the ribcage reduced to cracked mush, ensnarling with a pile of fleshy heap, a few ribs penetrating through the layer of muscle tissue still intact, oozing out dark red liquid to spill over the surface. The corpse was of a man, his face had patches of dried skin, and his skin had adapted a purple tint together with blisters of frost etching his eyes and mouth.
Dragging prints were close to his remains, suggesting the man had attempted to escape his attacker. The man's flashlight laid discarded in the puddle. 'The security guard...' An acidic taste collected in Y/n's stomach, forcing a gagging reaction to stream up his throat.
His brain couldn't grasp what his eyes were perceiving, shutting off every capacity function, the objective of survival got clouded under a mist of muddle. The surroundings trembled, discerning the distinction between what was reality and what was not.
The male drifted his regard to Alex, the boy's expression was horrified, his inner reasoning going through the same declining dilemma of judgment. The occurrence paused time in the dimension of the boys' fright.
Unfortunately, the casualty didn't remove their circumstances, nor the other person in the area.
They both spared a look to the end of the outstretched passageway. The person they had wanted to elude was looming motionless from afar.
Y/n assembled parts of his awareness, carrying his eyesight to the bat in their hand, the fluorescent lighting unveiled a more apparent view of the object. Y/n squinted his vision to process his visual clarity, the freezing air constricting an aching numbness to start stirring in his nerves, even so, it couldn't retaliate the terror that overlapped.
The weapon was tainted with smears of blood, the exact same doused colour that drenched the h/c-haired's sleeves and hands. Y/n's head brimmed with incredibility. How could he not have seen it earlier? Was it the fear that had prevented him from noticing it, or the poor light hallway?
Though, knowing this individual was capable of violent intentions was one thing, seeing the slaughter after the crime head-on, was another. It engendered a menacing situation that couldn't be captured by just reading a case folder.
However, in this plight, none of the two could apprehend why the maniac was simply... standing there, the unresponsive actions kept the students on alert to catch any movements. Y/n glimpsed to the position Alex and himself were in. The blond had gripped hold of his arms to stop him from falling to the cement floor, simultaneously bringing them in inching propinquity, the pose could be interpreted as intimate, based on how someone wanted to see it. Y/n's facial expression substituted to vacancy, an implausible idea forged from the stranger's impassiveness and what the reaction could be rooted in. The thought was not granted further consideration as Alex let go of the male when the individual suddenly lunged toward the teens.
The h/c haired didn't conduct himself quickly enough and faltered behind when Alex tried to pull his arm up to get away. "Y/n, snap out of it! -" The blond couldn't get the call to the h/c haired out as he had to spring back to narrowly miss the bat that swung toward him, and he went reeling against the shelf of products.
Y/n didn't process the commotion, his heaves for air registered shallower when he hit the ground from the minor height. He met eyes with the dead worker. His irises were dull, as though a fog cast over his vision, and his eyelids slackened into a permanent hollow stare. The h/c-haired male sustained eye contact with a disconnected glint.
The boy shut and reopened his eyes in sluggish milliseconds, once, twice, until it burned cinders into his memory, replaying it as a reminisce to years back.
His fingers grazed a warm substance, and he got settled back into reality when he saw the blood that had dripped onto his numbed palms from the pool flowing from the security guard. Y/n lifted his limb to avoid the drain and parts of intestines mashed along the mess.
E/c eyes perked up at the ruckus he had repressed for multiple seconds, his pupils dilated, and the stressor of the spatial area heightened. The bat was nearing Alex's skull, threatening to inflict detrimental damage. Y/n boosted his legs up, not giving his discouraging voice any chance for objection when his footing practically stumbled on the wet gore.
Alex scrunched up his body in suspense for the injury his pain receptors tensed to be able to withstand the hit with adrenaline, yet nothing happened.
The male opened his eyes but only saw the shadow of Y/n eclipsing his form. His green eyes expanded in stupefy at the outcome from the h/c haired.
Y/n sealed his lids, entirely braced to feel the bashing of metal against his skull when interfering between the blond and his fate, however as he skidded in front of Alex with his arms stretched to protect every angle of the boy, the impact never occurred. Lethargically unblurring his sights, oxygen solidified into minuscule drops before his lips, manufacturing more inhalation through his respiratory.
Operative hums of machines, the dribble of blood accumulating at Y/n's fingers down casting on the ground, and unstable exhales of the two students were everything left to fill the eerie silence. The h/c haired dared to relax his features and his countenance sunk in incredulous expectancy
The bat had ceased its swing mere inches away from Y/n's head.
The killer rooted to a standstill, holding the weapon a singular oscillates move away from bashing against the male's skull. Y/n's teeth gritted together to suppress a gasp at the disturbing amount of self-restraint displayed in the matter of a different vantage point.
'What is happening? ...'
Time ticked away in the stale position, and Y/n warily met the anonymous gaze of the individual, increasingly hyper-vigilant of the proximity between Y/n and the aggressor, their mask portraying no outer feelings toward the heroic performance other than the halted strike. Then, the bat moves, the metal contacting delicately with the male's skin, forcing a tingly sensation to disperse following the touch, then the object twists, lightly skimming past strands of h/c hair.
A nauseating tremble revolted along Y/n's nerves at the cool material, His mouth arched to a frown, and he craned his neck aside to shun the gesture. No matter how abiding the context seemed, they were still constricted to the place, this person was hovering before them, cornering Alex and him to an almost unescapable post.
The ventilation vibrated in the whole auditory range, triggering Y/n to roam his line of sight and devise an escape for the two, yet nothing was evoked, causing panic to scratch against his mental walls.
Suddenly, flaring sounds omitting from Y/n's pocket distracted the stranger, resulting in their scrutiny to transfer to the source of the noise.
The gap in distraction gave Y/n time to properly employ his senses for a way out, his hand clasped around a breakable article from the shelf and muster strength to smash the object across the stranger's head, the hit wavering the individual's footing in the process.
Y/n utilized his energy to pivot on heels, tugging Alex out of his petrifaction, and sprinting from the crime.
Once out of the freezer, the immediate humidity began mending their constricted nerves. From the cafeteria to the open hallway, it was bigger in the exterior than the freezer, but somehow, the space illuded much more cramped, and without the source of flashlights, their vision suffered. Yet soon they caught a glint of the main entrance. The boys accelerated their tempo to the end of the passage. The brisk wind soared against them as they staggered out of the doorway, hunching to pacify their semblance. Y/n coughed up the raspy ball prickling his throat, his legs retaining an uncomfortable pain when his adrenaline began shredding away.
"What could go wrong huh?" He cited the blond among unstable huffs; smudging his dirty hands on his attire to rid of the dark fluids. Alex didn't answer the sarcasm, and instead wiped perspiration off his forehead, chiming in a frenzied question. "What happened in there?"
The h/c haired knew he couldn't surmise an explanation that would suffice or captivate all the events that took place in the facility or the course of all the weeks he's lived in Runswick up till now.
"I... don't know, I really don't." Y/n bit the inside of his cheek to map out a sentence that could clarify his incertitude. Eventually, is contemplation ended with the conclusion that telling Morgan and Alex about the narrative would be best. "Let's get to the others first." He murmured, delaying Alex's interrogation. The other male skeptically eyed the dismissal, saving his reservations for when they were reunited with the group.
"Okay." The blond relented his attitude and strolled to the metal gate to once again climb over the railing.
.
.
.
The short walk to Alex's car was untalkative, the experience they underwent hung over them like a dragging chain. The outline of their other companions materialized by the vehicle. Their outlook notably anxious. Kiara was the first to spot the two and it secured a jolt in her demeanour.
"Oh, thank goodness!" She wailed. Her legs rushed forward, in the proximity of the boys, the black-haired extended her hands to touch Y/n's shoulders. "What happened? Are you guys okay?!" The words were clipped and pitched as the girl shook the boy to gauge a reply from him.
"Kiara." Morgan lulled to pacify the girl. "Let them breathe."
Y/n rubbed his shoulder to relieve the mild throb. "We're alive." He remarked with applied dispassion. He couldn't elaborate further as a notion assailed his senses; his e/c eyes scattered to the building the group had fled. Narrowing down every window for a definitive source.
He gazed atop the second storage of the compound. The stranger who had attacked them was watching the teens from a window on the higher floor.
The wind drifted strand of his h/c hair to disarrange, and Y/n glowered in apathy; tranquillity inhabited the instance as he partook unwaveringly eye contact with the stranger. After a never-ending juncture, the maniac turned away from the window and walked off.