AHS // 1984// Xavier Plympton

True Killers

I awake to Xavier crying and holding me tightly in his arms. The room is hot and I can't seem to focus my eyes. Finally, they focus on Xavier's red hot skin. I look at him and then look at me before screaming out in pain as I realize I'm in an oven.

"Saylor. Saylor, you gotta help me, babe," Xavier cries as he pounds his red peeling hands on the oven door.

All of a sudden, a deathly looking Bertie slams against the oven door. She falls to the ground and I sit up as best I can, pounding on the door with Xavier.

"Bertie! Bertie," I call tiredly.

The ladle that was holding the door closed, comes up and clinks to the ground. Xavier pushes the door open and falls out, landing on the ground near Bertie. I slowly fall out, landing on Xavier but in so much pain I don't dare move. My breathing matches Xavier's, wheezy and long.

"Bertie, we're gonna go get help," Xavier wheezes as he pulls me up slowly to lean on him.

Bertie groans and shakes her head no, causing me to shake my head too.

"What is it?" Xavier asks tiredly, holding up his head by leaning on mine.

He and I watch tiredly as Bertie slowly reaches her hand up and brings a large knife down from the wooden kitchen island she was leaning on.

The tears sting as they fall down my red peeling face and Xavier wheezes as his jaw hangs open. He and I both grab the knife and Bertie nods her head, confirming our worst fear.

Xavier and I both shake our head, "No."

Bertie grabs the knife with us and slowly points the sharp end to her chest. Me and Xavier's tears mix as our faces squish together.

"I can't. Please," Bertie says shakily, pulling the knife more and more into her chest.

I look at Xavier and his tears run down his face as he nods his head for him and I to respect Bertie's pleas. I sniffle as I turn back to Bertie, gripping the knife with all of my energy.

"Ready?" I ask, tears flowing down my peeling face.

Xavier and I shift our bodies so we are both putting all of our weight onto the knife before slowly pushing it into Bertie's chest. We begin pushing the knife into her chest and a grunt escapes Xavier's lips as Bertie groans in pain.

The three of us yell as the blade slides through the cook's body, killing her almost instantly.

Xavier and I fall into each other, crying loudly into each other's arms as Bertie's now lifeless body lays beside us.

We both calm down a bit and help each other up. Before we leave, Xavier grabs the knife from Bertie's chest and we turn towards the oven we were once burning alive in.

I stare at my reflection and my jaw drops. I scream in fear of myself and touch my face lightly. Xavier does the same minus the scream and I grab onto him, pulling the two of us to the exit.

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Xavier and I stumble through the woods together, leaning on each other for support. Our breathing sounds more like wheezing as our lungs still feel like there's fire filling them.

The sound of keys rings nearby and we ignore it, still stumbling through the weeds. We stop walking as we come upon a bridge. Xavier starts stumbling more and I hold onto him tighter, pulling him along the bridge silently.

All of a sudden, we look up to see Jingles standing in front of us on the bridge. My lungs start to burn and my heart starts racing, causing me to get dizzy and Xavier and I both fall into him tiredly. Xavier slides down and sits on the bridge and Jingles grabs around my waist, placing me onto Xavier's lap. We both look up at him confused as to why he hasn't killed us yet and he just looks back at us, listening to our wheezing breaths leave our mouths.

"Please. Please," Xavier whispers as the tears run down both of our burned faces.

"It was never me."

Out of nowhere, someone pushes Xavier and I from behind, causing me to fly off his lap roughly and him landing on top of me. He quickly flings himself off of me and we both turn as Brooke screams at the sight of our red peeling faces.

"What happened to you two?" She asks worriedly.

Xavier helps me up by grabbing ahold of my waist and we lean onto each other tiredly.

"It was Jingles. He was just here," I wheeze as I point to the spot where he just stood seconds ago.

"Where?" She asks confused.

The three of us all look around, confused as to where Jingles went.

"Right here," Xavier croaks.

"Okay, never mind. We have to go," Brooke says grabbing our arms lightly.

An explosion closeby causes Brooke to gasps and Xavier and I grip each other tighter, suddenly gaining some energy.

"Come on. Come on," Brooke says getting in the middle of Xavier and I, putting one of our arms around her neck. She wraps each of her arms around me and Xavier's waists and leads us towards where the explosion just occurred.

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My eyes widen slightly as Brooke, Xavier and I join the others at the explosion spot. The car explodes again and the flames glow brighter causing me to dig my head into Xavier's arm.

He and I had separated from Brooke as we came upon the car, and had grabbed each other again.

As we all watched our last way out burning in front of us, the tears began to flood down my face again, causing the stinging to return.

"That was our way out," Xavier points with his peeling finger to the car.

My whole body goes numb as Xavier's words process through my head. My eyes start to ring and everything goes fuzzy as the tears fill up in my eyes before I blink and they fall onto Xavier's chest.

"It was on fire when we got here," Chet's voice pulls me from my staring contest with the flames and I sniffle quietly to myself.

Margaret moves in front of us and looks to the ground, "It was so awful. Jingles was attacking me. I thought I was dead. And Trevor... He was so brave. Jingles killed him."

I looked up at Xavier and he looked back at me with tears growing in his eyes. He gave me a kiss before pulling me closer to him and we looked back at the flames silently with everyone else.

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