AHS // 1984// Xavier Plympton

Slashdance

"Hello? Is somebody up there?"

A voice leads the three of us to a large drop off in the woods and we slowly inch towards the pit.

"Just leave me alone," he cries, staring down at his lap.

"Chet?" I call down as Xavier flashes his light down in the pit.

"Saylor? Oh, thank God."

"What the hell are you doing down there, man?" Xavier asks in full seriousness.

"I'm dying! What does it look like I'm doing? There's a stake through my shoulder, I can't move. You got to get me out of here," Chet cries up at us.

Trevor sighs, straightening his body before looking over at Xavier and I.

"All right. I'm coming down," Xavier calls down the Chet, looking me in the eyes as he hands me his flashlight.

Chet sobs loudly as Trevor and I help Xavier down into the pit of stakes slowly. Xavier drops down the rest of the way and I wait for the sound of either his crying or letting Trevor and I know he's alright. I let out a breath of relief as Xavier started moving towards Chet.

"I thought I was done. I thought that was it," Chet cries.

"It's okay. Everything's gonna be okay," Xavier comforts our friend as he snakes through the maze of stakes sticking out of the ground.

I watch as Xavier squats down to Chet and sees the severity of his wound.

"Damn, that looks gnarly."

"It was him. It was Jingles. Ray... he fell in here, too, but... he left me."

"Ray told us you got separated," Xavier explains in confusion.

"He's got issues, man. He's got serious fucking issues," Chet cries to Xavier.

Xavier reaches over to feel the wound and Chet hisses in pain.

"I feel like we're gonna need a real doctor down here to get you off this."

All of a sudden, Trevor and I hear twigs snapping next to us, tearing our attention away from Xavier and Chet in the pit below us. I look over at Trevor and he grabs my lower back, pushing us as close as we can to the edge of the pit.

"Shh, someone's coming," Trevor whispers down at the two boys below us.

We look around and the sound grows closer.

"Hurry up, hurry up," I whisper loudly.

"It's him. It's Jingles. You got to get me out of here. You got to get..."

"I've never done this before. I don't want to kill him," Xavier whisper shouts at Chet.

"Better you than Jingles," Trevor jokes in fear.

"Here. Let me do it," I whisper down at Xavier.

Trevor nods to me and Xavier comes below me and reaches his hands up to catch me. I turn and stick my legs down over the edge and the two boys help me down into the pit.

I hurry over to Chet and he hisses in pain.

"I got you, Chet."

"If she kills you, I'm so sorry," Xavier says nervously.

"Just get me off of it, Saylor," Chet whines.

"On three. Okay?" I look up down at Chet as I hover above him, gripping his shoulder where the end of the stake was and his back where the stake went in.

"Ready?" Xavier asks, helping me.

"No, no, no, wait, wait, wait. Just gimme a second--"

"Three," I huff and pull Chet up with Xavier off of the stake.

Chet screams in pain as Xavier holds his shoulder so he wouldn't bleed out.

"He's coming. Let's go, let's go," Trevor whispers.

Xavier and I push Chet up to Trevor so he can pull him out of the pit. Chet screams in pain but we push him up anyway. Next, was me. Xavier lifted me up by my waist and Trevor pulled me up by my hands onto the forest floor. Then, Trevor and I helped pull Xavier out of the pit.

The two boys picked up Chet and carried him away as his cries became muffled due to Trevor sticking his hand over his mouth. I cautiously followed behind the three, being careful of what may be following us.

They place Chet up against a tree and begin shushing him as he continues to cry in pain. Xavier takes off his jacket and places it over his injured shoulder.

"Hey, hey, hey, Chet," I whisper, shushing Chet as I crouched down in between Trevor and Xavier.

We all squished behind the tree with Chet as Mr. Jingles' keys jingled closely to us.

"We could take him. There's four of us," Trevor whispers, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Chet can barely move and Jingles has a knife," Xavier whispers angrily as Trevor looks ahead at Jingles.

"His knife... versus my guns," Trevor slaps his biceps and hops up, advancing towards Jingles.

All of a sudden, Trevor barrels into Jingles, pushing the large man down into the pit full of stakes. The man cries out as he falls into the stakes and they pierce straight through his body.

"Welcome to your own petard, asshole!" Trevor whoops as he looks down at Jingles in the pit.

Xavier and I gasp, running over to look over the edge of the pit with Trevor celebrating his success.

"Holy shit!" Xavier yells, high-fiving Trevor.

"That was awesome!" I shout with a smile, high-fiving Trevor after Xavier.

"Whoo! Oh, man," Trevor slaps me and Xavier's shoulders, causing us to laugh while Jingles cries in pain below us.

Chet slowly limps over to us with Xavier's jacket draped over his shoulder.

"Hey. You shouldn't be moving around, man," Xavier slowly places an arm on Chet's uninjured shoulder.

I look over to my left and notice one of the masks that the townies were wearing next to the pit. I pick it up and slowly turn towards the guys.

"Just so we're all clear: that... wasn't Jingles," I say slowly, raising the mask up for them to see.

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