#wrong turn au

one-eye was the most bumbling and juvenile out of the three hilliker brothers. throughout childhood and into adulthood he always followed in his brothers' footsteps but ironically became the sole survivor of the cabin explosion. he was rehabilitated by his estranged family (maynard, ma and pa). embarrassed by his pathetic state, he decided to hide away and live in his own remote cabin rather than alongside the rest of the family who visited him occasionally.

feeling vulnerable without his brothers, one-eye set up hundreds of traps around his domain to keep intruders away. he only interacted with victims that were brought to him by his family or ones already ensnared by his various traps. this is why ma surrendered baby three-toe to him, as his cabin was the safest area of the woods to raise a child while they focused on training their other two children, brother and sister.

after the rest of his family died during their fight in the paper mill, leaving baby three-toe alone with one-eye, there was no more room for cowardice. through his efforts over the years, one-eye gained the calculated brawn of saw-tooth, the sneaky and ever-confident nature of three-finger, and a very refined knowledge in traps... perhaps even enough to fend off a whole group of gritty criminals.

... and then he died 🥀💔

because he's pretty big i gave him a more concealed outfit to explain how he could still sneak around like three-finger despite not having his agility, like an assortment of hunting camo taken from victims. the hood is detachable (he's stealing brother's swag i know). i also gave him more scars/burn marks. during his death i thought it would be "cool" if the hook went through his missing eye socket instead of his forehead but i'm sorry for drawing dead one-eye...

P.S isn't it cute that one-eye and three-toe only have one functioning eye but on opposite sides?

She was but a young woman of 18 when the 1974 Glenville Sanatorium riot, though she was not a staff member there, oh no Mildred was one of the many inmates and patients that were kept in cells, away from the outside world.

Though unlike many, she was more passive and considered a ‘well-behaved’ inmate, brought in for a mental breakdown after the horrors bestowed upon her from her family, she was called a problem child but in reality she was simply gentle and kind, didn’t stick her nose up at those considered ‘lesser’ and with the high expectations from her wealthy family, attempted forced marriage and horrid relationship with her parents and forced fiancé, she finally snapped and stabbed her father in the neck, sadly not killing him.

Now, she sits silently knitting away her time at the sanitorium. It had taken many months for them to see that she was no threat to herself or others so she was given permissions to have certain items such as blunt ended knitting needles, but with her parents wanting nothing to do with her and funneling money to the facility, she was now nothing more than a permanent resident, a prisoner.

She never really spoke, other than in response to nurses, guards or doctors when needed, but to other inmates? Never.

She simply minded her own business, ignoring the others' cries and wails throughout the days and nights, being allowed to wander with the other ‘well behaved’ inmates through certain halls and areas.

But on one specific day, during her usual afternoon walks, she noticed that the guards were dragging a very small person from the ‘dangerous inmates’ zone, where the worst of the worst were held. So when she saw that the small person was in fact a child she trailed after them to see exactly where they were taking this kid.

The poor child had such silvery white hair, wriggling and screeching as he had three guards holding onto him, one holding the child in a headlock as a way to stop those gnashing teeth from biting. She kept a bit of distance so as to not have the guards turn on her angrily, but she could see that they were taking the boy to the electroshock therapy room and her heart started to ache.

This was just a little boy, a small child that was barely half the size of these men! She felt a rage in her body as she fastened her pace towards them as they headed towards the door with the kicking and screaming boy “Hey. Hey wait! What are you doing!?” She snapped, but as she got closer one of the guards pushed her quite hard away from them, while the other two dragged the boy, who was now staring at her with such wide, terrified eyes, through the door and closing it behind them.

The guard that had pushed her pointed his disgustingly sweaty, sausage fingers at her and hissed for her to stay in her place and not come up to them again. With a deep frown she got up from where she fell and wiped down her dress, walking away and around the corner so she was just out of sight. There was nothing she could do, that was for sure, that guard would be by that door until the session was over, it did nothing but cause ache in her heart that such a sweet child was being put through such torture and for what? Surely that little boy couldn’t be that dangerous, he was so tiny with such big eyes.

For now she had to gather information on who this child was, the only child she had ever seen in the sanitorium as most if not all were adults like herself. But as she listened in to the gossiping of the doctors and nurses, even going through some reports and documents when left alone in the doctor's room while he went off to answer a nurses question or get coffee, she would come to find there were actually three little boys all up and that they were brothers that had the name Hillikers on their files.

Their information was disturbing for sure, marked down as dangerous, violent and cannibals! That they were found eating what they believed to be their parents and to handle them with care. But with how those guards were handling that little boy, who turned out to be the youngest of the three, they definitely were not following the rule of care. It hurt her heart that these people, so called professionals, were treating little children like animals.

It made it worse when she heard their cries when being dragged to the electroshock room, though only two of the three would make noise, one of the boys who was the eldest gave the guards a run for their money with his strength but he was the most quiet of the three, as though not wanting to give these people the satisfaction of hearing his suffering.

She couldn’t take it anymore, she wanted to save these boys, give these little children someone who could show them love and care but there was no way to them, their section was always locked off for the “safety” of staff and inmates and no matter how many times she hovered around she would be ushered off. The only way to get to them was to get into that section zone and so she did the only thing she could do and attacked one of the nurses out of nowhere and bit a guard's finger off.

It was disgusting, this man's chunky sweaty finger now filling her mouth with blood, she spat the severed finger at his face as she was tackled to the floor, strapping her up in a straightjacket to prevent her from harming anyone else. It was a shock to the head doctor and nurse, why was Mildred suddenly acting out so violently! Such a well-behaved woman who did nothing but keep to herself was now lashing out, attempting to bite and beat others, especially staff members.

At first she was not placed in the more dangerous inmate zone, but she was definitely moved to a more solitary area, to be observed in seeing why she was acting out. This definitely was not what she wanted, pacing around her now smaller room, feeling stressed and trapped, thinking over what she was even doing, risking her safety for some feral cannibal children.

But they were children, the youngest inmates here being treated so horribly, it just fueled her need even more to get to them. Any chance she got she lashed out at the staff, the nurses were now terrified of her and the guards had to get involved when it came to transferring her.

Eventually the head doctor deemed her unreasonably violent and dangerous and now she was being transferred to the zone those three boys were at, but that also meant she was to endure the electroshock therapy along with them and it was horrific.

The first time was the worst pain she had ever experienced, her body convulsing, teeth clamping down on the rubber biter while the shocks ran through her like thousands of knives, her teeth feeling like they were bleeding and buzzing at the same time.

After the short session that felt like hours, she was finally dragged to her new cell and dropped on her new cot. She was exhausted, her body twitching and sore from being grabbed and abused. Mildred just laid there for a good long while until she heard the soft chittering and murmurs from across her cell, feeling eyes on her she turned over to see three young faces staring at her.

Seeing the three little brothers up close she could see that two of them were not little at all and in fact more taller than she expected, she was able to see what they actually looked liked. The tallest was quite scrawny, she couldn’t see much of his features with that large muzzle that was hiding his mouth, his eyes piercing yet curious, wonder why there was a strange woman across from them, this one was the eldest that she remembered, with how he stood more in front of his brothers in a protective way and was much more quieter and calm compared to the other two that were either giggling and muttering random noises, as though whispering to each other.

The second largest boy, which Mildred assumed must’ve been the middle brother, had only one eye! To her horror she completely thought that it must’ve been one of the guards or even a doctor must’ve removed this boys eye, with how fresh it looked and still leaking in the cracks of the scar showed it had been recently inflicted but the young boy didn’t seem entirely fazed by it as he was all smiles and peering over the bars to get a better look at her.

With the youngest though, oh he remembered Mildred, remembered how she yelled out and got pushed down by the guards those many weeks ago when he was being dragged off to be tortured once again, he’d always been curious on why she even bothered. He wrapped his little fingers around the bar and pointed his deformed little hand at her, looking back at the eldest while letting out hisses and snickering. She could see now he only had three fingers on that hand, these poor boys being abused and harmed so much that they were falling apart, completely believing the staff of this place were the ones chopping up these boys as some sort of sick punishment and it hurt her heart.

The young woman tried to stand, only to fall from how legs were so sore and weak, letting out a pained grunt when she collapsed, making two of the three boys laugh while the eldest just continued to stare on, tilting his head slightly, it was funny hearing how she splattered on the cold floors.

She scooted across the floor and leaned up against the bars to smile at the boys and whisper at them “You’re good boys, I can get you out of here. I’ll get you out, you shouldn’t be here.” The three boys only looked at her in response, though she wasn’t exactly expecting them to say anything and gathering how they were interacting with each other they couldn’t talk at all, so began their neighbourly interactions.

She eventually learned that these Hilliker boys were indeed given names, cruel names in her mind but names nonetheless. The eldest being called Saw-Tooth from the giant cleft lip that was formed on his face, the one-eye boy having been called such a creative name: One-Eye and the same going to the younger, Three-Fingers due to his, well, three fingers. Absolutely ridiculous but they responded to the names when she whispered them to the boys whenever talking to them, mostly about anything, she didn’t even know if they understood but they were very responsive to children's stories where people died or got eaten.

This little relationship that was going on, as though she was like a mother to them despite being kept in separate cells, was going quite well. She would get irritated whenever a guard took one of the boys away, lashing out and being hit in the process. At one point she was able to grasp hold of Saw-Tooth's lanky long arms, him digging his nails into her and his eyes wide and scared until they were torn apart.

It was always heart wrenching and she would try her best to distract the other boys while they stressed and reacted negatively to being separated. When they were all together she’d tell them stories again as they hugged and tried to comfort each other, trying to show them hand shadows to entertain them and make them forget which at times worked but other times there was nothing she could do, always reaching outside her bars to see if she could just hold their hands but none of the boys had long enough arms for their fingertips to even meet.

One day though, during the breakfast rush the boys impatiently sat by the bars as the shitty, horrid male guard that did nothing but bother these three boys came down to feed the inmates, when he got to Mildred and boys cells, he would push the woman’s bowl of mush and piece of hard bread under the feed bar and turn to the boys to start mocking them. “Oh you’re hungry? You hungry? Here you go” His tone sickly sweet and dripping with such toxicity when he began pushing the bowl under for the eldest to grab only to flip it and made the hot mush splatter over the Saw-Tooth's hands and forearms, making him hiss and scowl as he lurched back, grasping his burning arms while the older man laughed at them.

In a fit of rage at seeing such an act, Mildred threw her bowl at the man’s head screaming “Leave them alone!” The plastic bowl hitting square in the back of the man’s head and spilling the hot mush over his scalp and down his neck, causing him to scream and fall forward, grasping onto the edges of the three boys bars, which was a big mistake as what followed was a massacre towards this man’s fingers.

These three little boys took this opportunity faced in front of them and ran with it, with One-Eye wrapping his arms around one of the man’s leg and Saw-Tooth grabbing both arms and yanking them through the bars so the younger Three-Fingers could grab hold of those chubby sausage fingers and bite them off.

The piggy squeals that left that man’s mouth as he writhed in pain, screaming out for help as those two boys held tight and Three-Fingers went to town chewing off seven of his fingers and a thumb. The other inmates howled and hooted from the loud noises while Mildred could only watch in silence, she felt like she should be horrified, scared even but she didn’t care. She couldn’t believe she didn’t care, how could she not care that a person was being bitten at but with how these adults in this sanitorium treated all the inmates and patients, she couldn’t help but giggle a little and smile at seeing the blood run down this large man’s forearms as his fingers were being eaten off by little children.

But the fun time couldn’t last forever as the cavalry of guards came to this man’s saviour, beating and pushing the hissing cannibal boys away from him as he cried and squealed at having only almost all his fingers gnawed off, being left with just a single thumb and pinky. The three boys were laughing, giggling at the man’s suffering and licking the blood of their own fingers reaching out of the bars to wiggle them in a mocking way as though to say “look we have fingers and you don’t!”

The boys would evidently be punished with missing out on meals and longer electroshock sessions, Mildred being more luckier, only because the staff were so confused on what happened they didn’t realise she had a hand in this attack. Whenever a guard wasn’t looking though, she would throw some bread over for the boys to eat, which they hungrily took and shared with each other, giving her happy smiles. It was a sign they were liking her, she was fun and kind, better than these other adults and useless inmates around them, a caregiver they definitely needed.

Only a few days had passed after the finger incident when whispers from some guards indicated a new staff member was coming today, a psychologist of some type being shown around the sanitorium. Wonderful, more staff to be abused by was all Mildred could think about as she heard the news. When this woman with the head doctor came through their section, she leaned against the bars to have a good look at her, rolling her eyes at seeing the pretty woman and going back to lay down on her crib. The sudden yelp from this lady made Mildred jump a little and scramble back to the bars to see the woman holding her hair and looking shocked, one of the cell inmates had grabbed at her and yanked her hair, the head doctor telling her to be more careful in getting too close.

Finally they reached her and the boys cells, she looked at Mildred who just turned her back to the strange woman and the doctor, ignoring their comments about her once being such a wonderful, behaved patient to suddenly turning violent, she didn’t care for what soft words this lady had to say, ignoring them completely.

But when they spoke of the three boys, Mildred watched like a hawk, eyes narrowing when the woman spoke nicely to them and wanting to see them more often, a type of motherly jealousy went through her chest as she glared at this woman. Which didn’t go unnoticed to the boys, them watching how Mildred was practically shooting daggers out of her eyes at this lady.

Once alone, the boys noticed the other inmate that had grabbed at the woman’s hair had a hair pin. They made noises and gestured at the person to throw them the pin, sounding impatient and annoyed that they weren't being fast enough. Mildred watched as the hairpin was tossed to the boys, fumbling for it before Three-Fingers grabbed it and began lockpicking the cell.

What happened next seemed like a blur to Mildred, the boys escaping and killing the guard, biting off his nose. Everyone’s cells being opened and every inmate going completely wild, running around, fires started, people screaming and wailing. All she could do was stumble around, being pushed and shoved when others ran past her, she nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand grabbed her wrist, eyes wide and staring down at the smiling face of Three-Fingers who began to lead her down the hall, giggling away as the wailing screams of a woman echoed.

It was the lady psychologist from before, whose hairpin had been the cause of all this chaos, she was being strapped up in a straight jacket and pushed in a wheelchair down the hall by a cackling One-Eye and into the electroshock room. Three-Fingers pulled Mildred into the room as well, where the woman was wriggling and kicking to be free while Saw-Tooth and One-Eye strapped her down, the woman begging to be let go as Three-Fingers handed the machine to Mildred and guided her to put both ends over the woman’s temple.

All three staring, waiting for her to shock this woman, Saw-Tooth's hand hovering over the dial as he waited for Mildred. Her heart beating, mind thinking of so many things and so quickly, was she really going to kill this woman? For her boys? Seeing their gleeful faces, how happy they were, like it was some fun game!?

It only made her smile in return and pressed the ends of the machine to the woman’s temple and watched as she shook violently. Finally being the one on the other end of this horrendous thing felt thrilling, she didn’t care that this woman was new, that she hadn’t done anything to anyone at this facility yet but the fact she was here anyways, that she joined this place only set in Mildred’s mind that eventually, soon enough this lady would have fallen into line and tortured them just as much as the other staff tortured the patients at this sanitorium.

Mildred didn’t know how long she stood by the woman, long enough that she had died, long enough that the three boys had run off and the yells and screams from outside were dying down. She felt numb, her mind foggy, it was just surreal as she left the room and began to walk along the halls like she did so long ago when she saw that little white haired boy that caused this strange series of events.

There were still a few stragglers around, dead bodies on the floor, whoever survived had run off hours ago as Mildred looked around to see where the three boys had gone. Eventually she found them, terrorizing some random doctor by stabbing him repeatedly with needles.

Saw-Tooth turned around when he heard the steps, standing up straight to stare at Mildred as she kept her distance. Them being in front of her now, instead of kept at a distance with bars between them felt odd, but she just smiled and raised up her hands, hoping, praying that he would come over and allow her to hold him. The older boy tilted his head and shuffled a bit closer, still holding one of the bloody needles as he eyed those raised hands and then at Mildred’s face, like he wasn’t quite sure if he should.

As he got closer, Mildred noticed the boy was practically the same height as her, arms shaking a little as a little voice in her brain screamed at her to run away from this dangerous, cleft-lipped child but all she did was smile and whisper “My precious boy” and wrapped her arms around his head to pull him into a gentle hug. Saw-Tooth stiffened at first, his grasp on the needle tightening as he lifted both arms, but after a few short seconds he leaned more into the woman’s hug, dropping his head to be held closer and letting the needle fall to the ground so he could grasp her back.

The sound of the needle dropping had caught his two brothers' attention, stopping their stabbings on the now dead body and seeing Saw-Tooth hug the lady that had helped them for so long, made sure they ate and had stories. They didn’t hesitate to jump up and join in on this hug, Mildred feeling her eyes sting with hot tears as she reached out and pulled them in close, her hands on their heads and whispering that they were her sons and that she was never going to leave them.