#hell fest 2018

The brunette wasn’t ever quite a fan of the holiday, first reminded of the crushing fact she was constantly single, too busy juggling her scholarship, classes, and a job, then later grimacing in distaste at the obvious marketing ploy and overpriced goods with a heart stamped onto them. 

But, Brooke had always been the more romantic of the two of them and Natalie wasn’t about to rain on her parade. Especially when it was supposed to be a holiday she’d celebrate with Quinn, before- 

She swallowed thickly, gripping her pen tighter and ducking her head, forcing her attention to the scrawled words on her papers. 

It’d be best to leave the thought, nothing that could be done anyway. 

⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡⪢⪡

By the time Natalie was shuffling up the stairs of their apartment, fumbling for her keys in her bag, the darkness had crept in, only a glimpse of the sun’s rays remaining over the tops of the buildings. She hopped up the remaining steps, muttering a few words under her breath as the keys clattered away from her, jingling tauntingly at the bottom of her bag but stubbornly out of reach each time she felt around for them. 

Glancing upwards, Natalie blinked at the realization she hadn’t even needed to bother, the front door slightly ajar. She frowned, hesitantly pressing her palm against it to swing it open, creeping a half step closer to scan the dark interior. 

Brooke had been just as jumpy and paranoid as Natalie after the night, maybe moreso considering she’d been nearly gutted, helplessly splayed out on the floor in front of the killer, unable to do anything but plead for her life. The female crept in, tense, acting more akin to an intruder than the fact she was entering her own home. 

There was no reason for Brooke to leave the door unlocked. 

Natalie stopped, straining her ears for any sound, hardly daring to breathe in the whispering silence. 

Or maybe she was overthinking it. Brooke might’ve left it open intentionally for her, knowing she’d be home soon from her classes. 

Natalie quietly shut the door behind her, shrugging off her backpack in the foyer, still waiting for any sound. 

“Brooke?” She hesitantly called out, wincing at the raw fear bleeding into her voice. She shuffled over to the light switch, blinking abruptly at the sudden brightness before her eyes were drawn to the scattered rose petals on the floor, leading a decorative trail that disappeared into her bedroom doorway. 

Natalie’s shoulders slumped in relief as she snorted in amusement, carefully sidestepping the flowers to pad to her room. Of course Brooke would go the extra mile, Natalie really should’ve expected as much after being her best friend for years. (And, maybe, it was a way to mask the grief for the holiday, for Brooke to expel her attention onto Natalie instead of the boyfriend who she should've been with today). 

Natalie paused at her doorway, squinting into the dark room, tensely waiting for Brooke to jump out at her. When nothing happened for several seconds, she leaned in to flip the switch on, glancing around cautiously. The rose petals were there of course, scattered all across her room (Natalie was definitely going to make Brooke help her clean up the mess she’d made), and a heart shaped box of chocolates nestled on the edge of her bed beckoned her over. 

Natalie shuffled closer, glancing it over. Definitely bigger than she’d been expecting for such a goofy joke. She leaned in, hands extended to pick it up before the smell hit her, nauseatingly sweet and overbearing, assaulting her senses. Natalie swore, straightening abruptly as she clasped her hands over her nose and tried not to gag. She finally noticed the red peeking out from under the box, staining her comforter as she grimaced then rolled her eyes. 

If Brooke covered her bedsheets in strawberry syrup, she was going to be the one scrubbing at it until it came out. Natalie steeled her nerves, mentally sighing as she left one hand clasped on her nose and the other to nudge the top of the box off, the flimsy cardboard falling alongside it to reveal its insides. 

She froze, skin prickling in discomfort, needles stabbing into the back of her neck at the sight of a- a mass of red, the covered scent of iron slamming into her nose. 

She stumbled back a step, breath hitching as she couldn’t tear her eyes off of the innocent, red box, knees trembling hard enough she wasn’t sure how she wasn’t on the ground yet. 

A heart. 

A red, blood bathed, human heart. 

She was a Nursing major, she damn knew what it looked like-

“Br-“ Natalie gasped for air as the iron invaded her mouth, coughing against the tinge coating her tongue. “Brooke!” She called, scrambling out of the room, stumbling into the doorframe as she lunged for the hallway. “BROOKE!”

She slammed into her door, gracelessly coming to a halt in the middle of Brooke’s room, her labored breaths echoing in the stifling silence. She’d missed the light switch in her haste, leaving the room bathed in darkness as her eyes desperately adjusted, scanning the space. 

Nothing- nothing, she wasn’t there. 

Natalie wasn’t sure to feel relieved or horrified, slowly backing out as her brain flipped through every scenario, through every possibility, through each location she knew. 

Where was Brooke? She wouldn’t-

Natalie’s thoughts came to a stuttering halt as a broad chest pressed into her back, wide arms curling around her frame and hugging her close before she could even gasp. She froze, tense, trembling, as the figure nosed at her neck, flinching at the warm breaths blowing across the back of her neck. 

She didn’t want to turn around- didn’t want to acknowledge the only person it could be, the killer she’d left splayed out, wounded and bleeding out on the floor. Actually- she doubted she could, not with how numb her body had gone, trembling uncomfortably against her will, nor with the way the male pressed herself against him, without a gap of space left. 

A flicker in the corner of her vision and Natalie snapped to it in a panic, heart threatening to burst from her chest at the sight of what the killer held. A knife? One from the kitchen, they didn’t leave them locked, there’s been no reason to. An axe like the one he’d slashed at Brooke with, a syringe like the one he’d killed Asher with-

She blinked. 

A card. A small, dainty card held in a large hand, unfitting for his size, slowly coming to rest before her. 

Natalie stared at it with wide eyes. It was a store bought one, covered in eye-gouging pink and red even in the dark, with too many hearts and overbearing cute images, cupids holding bows and blowing kisses. He’d obviously added his own touch, a red liquid splattered in random sections with a message in a messy scrawl, topped with a heart. 

The killer pressed her impossibly closer, inhaling her scent as Natalie traced the words until they blurred in her eyes, trembled in his grasp, and couldn’t feel her own legs.