AHS // 1984// Xavier Plympton

Camp Redwood

All of us follow Rita into the dark infirmary, searching for the hiker's dead body. Xavier grips my hand tightly as he holds me close to him.

"He's right behind that door," Brooke points shakily to the door.

We slowly grow closer to the door where we were to find the dead hiker.

"I'm not going back in there," she adds.

Rita points her flashlight to the door and slowly opens it, revealing an empty room with no hiker.

"Girl... you trippin'," Rita says sassily, pulling back the door.

Brooke rushes in and the gang of us follow behind her to inspect the clean, empty room.

"Wha... I... I don't understand. He was... he was right here!" Brooke shouts, slamming the door where she claimed the hiker once was.

"Well, he's not there anymore," Xavier says smoothly, wrapping his purple jacket around my shoulders, "Must have wandered back to wherever he came from. Not our problem."

"I think I might've found your raincoat killer," Montana teases, shining her flashlight on the coat stand.

"No, no, no. No, no, no. I am not imagining all of this!" She shouts, exiting the room.

"Well, yeah, but... you did indulge in the righteous bush," Chet tells her, taking a hit of the joint.

"How many hits did you take?" I tease.

"Zero," Brooke shouts back.

"Then you probably just got the mother of all contact highs," Ray points out.

"We toked on a crossbreed of Northern Lights and Neville's Haze," Xavier explains as we follow Brooke to the hallway.

The thunder crackles outside along with a large strike of lightning, outlining a dark reflection of someone in a raincoat outside the door.

I scream loudly along with everyone else as Xavier pulls me into him from behind.

"What in heaven's name is going on here?" Margaret questions as we quiet down at the sight of her.

"It's my fault. I thought..."

"We came to check on that guy they picked up on the road," Trevor covers up for Brooke.

"How is he?" Margaret asks.

"I guess he was well enough to leave," Rita informs, walking past Margaret to leave.

"Okay, good. That's one less person for us to look after. Now, let's go get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow."

We all cover our heads as we prepare to enter the rain again. Xavier pulls us under his purple jacket again and we head back to the cabin.
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