Pyramid Head's Pet

The Reunion (9)

The wet noises you make with every footstep in the swamp keep you on high alert. There is no being sneaky around these parts. You have been summoned to this place together with Claudette, Leon and Élodie. Claudette has finished another serum to test on killers and everyone is armed with them. So far, you haven't caught sight of the killer, which makes you nervous that it could be Ghostface. He wanted to kill you without the entity's influence so it makes sense he would want to after getting injected with a serum that frees him of the entity's wishes but leaves him in extreme agony. Eventually the sound of metal snapping together in the distance lets you know that you are facing the Trapper in this trial. The Trapper has shown mercy to survivors in rare instances before. It's Claudette's theory that he was the killer that first tried to save survivors from the trials by bringing them to the other campfire, because the wounds he had all over him looked like they would have been inflicted by the entity rather than part of his former living form. He was a tall man who always seemed so focused on laying his traps at the beginning and then perform a duty rather than to enjoy the sacrification process. For this experiment, he was the perfect candidate. The only issue was to find a moment to inject him with the serum successfully, while trying to survive. No sane person would run into the arms of the killer simply to complete the mission, not even Claudette.

You have a rather calm time working on the first generator you found, despite slipping away from it in the mud ever so slightly. Your jeans are already soaked and the hot moist air makes you sweat through your shirt as well. You have a bad feeling about this, but you keep going anyway. Eventually Leon finds you and helps you power up this generator. He asks, if you're doing any better than you were at the campfire, the last time he saw you. You nod, lost in your thoughts.

During a stroll to find another generator, you remember how you felt a heartbeat right after your time with Yui and Jake. You can't shake the idea that it was Pyramid Head's, but you can't tell if this was a result of your connection or a sick joke the entity is playing on you. If it feeds on hope, it surely feeds on your inability to accept that he is long gone. Nothing left in there but a monster, surely- A loud snap, pulls you back into reality. You fall over, as something is tugging on your leg. Now, you can feel the pain, too. You scream in agony as you realise you are caught in a bear trap. "Fuck, fuck, fuck-" you curse, but it's too late. You are already being picked up with one hand reaching under your stomach and the other, releasing the bear trap. Blood gushes from your leg, as you are too busy crying to do anything, before the hook pierces right through your shoulder and your scream surely lets your teammates know you have failed to even consider the serum. The Trapper looks at you for a moment, before he goes back to placing Traps around you and the path you took to get here. All you can see is a corner of the shack and then mud, lots of mud. Behind you is a giant rock. It will be hard for anyone to come get you in this tight corner, when everything is littered with traps and the killer hasn't quite left the scene. Breathing gets harder and harder on this hook, as the entity's legs creep around you, ready to take you back to the campfire. Two dainty hands grab you by the arms and lift you away from certain death, leaving you injured and still crying. "I hate the traps, too. When they catch you off guard like that, there isn't much you can do." Claudette reassures you, trying to patch up your wounds behind some crates in the middle of the swamp. Shortly after you are all good to go, the Trapper is on his way to you. As you hide behind a pallet, Claudette makes a run for the big run down building next to you. He follows her.

Scream after scream, you soon find that she has been caught and what you hear next terrifies you. The Basement. Her screams are so distant, that you can tell, that's where she was taken. The killer basement is a scary place for many reasons. The hooks cannot be tempered with, there is only one way in and one way out. The stench of blood and old air is like a curse that you will not make it out alive, but it is even worse when you are up against the Trapper. Your path into his lair will be littered, if not fully blocked, with traps. If you disarm them, he knows you're on the way. His traps aren't just regular traps you can step over. If you try to jump or step over them, it's like they force your leg inside. You shudder at the thought of rescuing Claudette. She clearly didn't manage to stab him with her syringe either. Knowing that everyone will dread the rescue, you feel the need to go for it. You can't just leave her there. You sneak your way into the building. Though the mud makes your footsteps much louder, the wooden planks upstairs would creak even worse. You slowly step your way around some skeletons in cages and a labyrinth of wooden poles, finding your way to the entrance of the basement. There is a blight syringe in the mud. She must have dropped it when he caught her. You pick it up and go on. Right at the foot of the stairs, you already see a trap. You know he can't be too far gone. You dodge the trap to the right and continue your way down slowly. The walls are wet with blood and stains you wish not know the origin of. Just before you turn the corner, you hear Elodie screaming, as she steps into a trap right in front of you. You panic and try to decide whether to help her or hide in a locker and pick her up later. That's when you hear Leon scream from the top of the stairs as well and you know you need to get into action. Elodie struggles against the trap as you do your best to pull the metal bits away from her legs. She finally makes it out when the Trapper, carrying Leon on his shoulder, slashes her back wide open, making her collapse on the floor in front of you. Fuck. He shoves Leon on a hook, as you try to pick up Claudette. "Run!" you yell at her, jumping in front of the Trapper as he tries to hit her with his machete. The blade rips a big cut into your side and you cry out, stumbling back against the basement's walls. His eyes are dead under that mask, you think. You try to make a jump to the side and maybe help Leon before he catches you but in a big lunge, his blade hits you on the dull side, knocking you against the wall and taking your breath out at once. You are downed, staring up at him, as he calmly bows down to pick you up. The strength in your hands has faded and you can't grasp at the syringe strongly enough to shove it into his back. That's when the Trapper is suddenly tackled from behind. You hear Claudette screaming and watch as Elodie pulls herself back upright, rescuing Leon from the hook and running off. Claudette has shoved a syringe into the killers back and was then thrown against the wall opposite to you. A loud, deep scream fills the basement. It barely sounds human. The Trapper is shuffling back and forth, hunched over, with his weapon and traps dropped and trying to scratch his mask off. Orange blight drips from his shoulders, his eyes and his arms behind to swell and rip open, with more blight escaping his wounds like blood. His mask transforms and grows in size, leaving more space to see his face under the blighted mess dripping from his eyes. He is slowly starting to be covered in it. "What are you still doing here? GO!" the Trapper groans from under his mask. You and Claudette stare at each other in shock. He has never spoken before. His voice was deep and raspy, almost gargling. Like a person who hadn't spoken in ages, a person whose voice was reverted to the use of it like an animal. "The entity, it will take over-" he spits and clenches his teeth while speaking. Slowly stumbling over to you and reaching out with his hand. "We can never be free-" as he says those words, his breath is taken by a metal spike thrusting out of his back. The pain makes him jerk back when another 10 spikes pierce through his skin one after the other, forming a row around his shoulders and sticking out of his arms, all while bleeding nothing but blight. "It's the key!" he says before the pain gets too strong for him to speak. Each scream seems to be filled with more agony than the last. When the metal keeps sprouting out of his right arm, he reaches for the machete, only to throw it across the room. More wounds sprout all over his body, as if he was being tortured by an unseen creature. Metal spikes close up the wounds and the Trapper is squirming on his back, screaming and screaming. Leon has come back into the basement, grabbing both you and Claudette and somehow carrying you out of the basement. "EVAN" you yell, as you are taken out of the basement. The last you see of him is that he turns his head. You remembered his name from a journal in the MacMillan estate mines. You aren't sure why, but you thought maybe hearing his name would make the agony bearable. Remind him that he was a person once, too. Once again you manage to escape without witnessing the full aftermath of the syringe taking effect.