The Monster fell for the Rebel

chapter 7

Nea let her head drop to stare straight up to the sky and rubbed her face with a gentle groan as the surroundings melded from fog into the bright, dead fields of Coldwind Farm. The Thompson house stood creaking in the wind a few meters away with the balcony supporting a generator like a gargoyle.

Nea sighed and let her hands fall to her sides as she blinked a few times and looked around. A generator was slowly chugging in the distance from minor repairs having been accomplished, only the first piston was going, but it was enough. Nea slowly made her way over to it, forcing her feet to move against every ounce of her willpower screaming to just give up, already. But no matter how badly she wanted to, the spark of hope still burned in her heart, it was who she was. She hastened her steps the few feet left to the machine, where Feng Min sat on one side, looking at Nea in concern and confusion.

"Are you okay? You've been....weird..since Pyramidhead opened the wall." She asked as Nea crouched to her knees and plunged her hand elbow deep into the wiring of the generator.

"Yeah, I'll be fine...David reamed me for something he just doesnt understand." She shook her head, eyebrows knitting together as she reached for a green wire. Feng Min shook her head.

"Look, I'm in no position to judge, if whatever you two are doing brings you some joy in this world then i say go for it. Fuck whatever David has to say." Feng smiled at Nea out of the corner of her eye, but her gaze shifted to the stalking figure behind Nea, and her face dropped.

"Ghostface." She gasped and darted off the machinery, before Nea could react a gloved hand reached around her shoulder and yanked her off the generator. She shrieked a true, fearful scream for the first time in a while as her heart raced at the reminder of the feeling if his knife on her skin in the killer's camp. He threw her effortlessly on his shoulder, hauling her off into the corn-maze.

"Well, well, well." He said darkly, laughing. "What are the odds of this? I was just thinking about you, and our interaction back home." He chuckled, his stride picking up as he neared a hook.

"I was too." Nea growled, angry at the Entity and this cursed realm. The surrender she had felt earlier slowly steeling itself back into a sharp hate as she kneed Ghostface in the ribs. He grunted but his grip only tightened as he stood at the base of the hook.

"Oh, is that you flirting with me? Pyramidhead wouldn't be too happy about that." He snarled, and tossed her up off his shoulder and onto the hook. The dull, old, rusted metal piercing through the soft spot under Nea's collarbone, she let out a high-octave scream, angry and in pain and just sick of being hooked. She kicked one last time, trying to connect with Ghostface's mask. He ducked backwards, but stayed right by the hook. He waited patiently till Nea's scream echoed off into the distance, and silence and Nea were the only things hanging in the air.

"So, our conversation was very rudely cut off earlier." He said, after a moment.

"Fuck off dude." Nea groaned, tired already of this "conversation".

"I'm curious, our big shots have been restless lately, now suddenly Pyramidhead goes off the handle? I'd like to know what's going on between you two." Ghostface peered up at Nea, fingering the edge of his knife playfully.

"Look, im not even sure what's going on really, we just hang out. That satisfy you?" She almost snorted at her own unintentional pun, but the throb in her shoulder quickly diminished any amusement.

"Hmm.." Ghostface stood there, pondering.

"You need to die." He concluded.

"I die all the time anyways." Nea sighed, grabbing the hook in her shoulder to stabilize herself, and hopefully relief some pressure off her collarbone.

"No. I mean you need to die. The Entity needs to eat you whole already." Ghostface scoffed, and turned to walk away finally, his conversation with Nea being an even bigger letdown than he'd feared. He was hoping for a story. Unless Nea was just keeping it to herself. She watched as he strutted off into the distance, the darkness of the treeline swallowing his small frame. Her lip curled into an angry snarl and she let out a furious shriek, kicking her legs in a tantrum. She huffed and settled as the spidery legs of the Entity began to creep above her head, and Feng Min came rushing from around the corner.

"You want some help or do you want to continue your meltdown?" She asked, looking up at Nea.

"I'd like some help please, then I'll continue my tantrum." Nea grumbled, reaching for Feng, who giggled.

"Ahh, i dont envy your position." She said, and pulled Nea off the rusty hook and began mending her shoulder.

"Why's that?"

"...i still havent really told anyone else about my relationship with Joey." Feng Min looked away for a moment as Nea squinted at the ground, then sighed.

"We're quite a pair, aren't we?" She said, and Feng chuckled to herself.

"Yeah.." She muttered as she finished the last of the patching of Nea's wounds.

"Let's go. The generator we were working on should be almost done by now-" Feng gestured for Nea to follow her as the loud chime of a generator being completed went off in the distance, followed very shortly after by a scream from Dwight as he was hit.

"Shit." Nea and Feng cursed. They rushed into the direction of their generator, and suctioned themselves onto it, all but the last piston was chugging until they two finessed thier hands through the gears and wires and put the remaining repairs together. The two ran off as the light above them came on, and they stuck together to find a new generator, till they ran into David, working on his own machine. He glared daggers at Nea and got up to leave to rescue Dwight.

"So that's how it's gonna be?" Feng scoffed, attitude heavy in her throat like syrup.

"I dont care. Fuck him." Nea rolled her eyes and approached David's generator to finish the repairs. It didn't take long, and Ghostface showed up again as the lights went on and resumed chasing Nea around the shack.

The chase lasted too long, but Dwight, David and Feng Min got the last of the generators done, and it wasn't long until the ground lit up beneath Nea's feet. She chased Ghostface under a pallet and slammed it over his head as the open gate came into view.

"Give it up, Ghost. You lost this one!" Nea called as the killer circled around the pallet and sprinted after her.

"Its not over until you're dead!" He lunged for Nea, but missed by inches as Dwight and Feng grabbed her and yanked her forward. David just ran off into the safety of the camp without looking back. Ghostface watched angrily as the four slipped through his fingers.

He ground his teeth and swore he'd get her next time.