The rain had become worse. It wasn’t sprinkling anymore, it was pouring. The utter darkness of the night didn’t help. This wasn’t a beautiful kind of rain that brought life and regeneration. It was ominous. It was dreadful. It didn’t make you wanna run outside, and feel the freshness of the pure, clear water wash over your face. It made you want to cower in a corner, praying for it to end, and wondering what that strange creaking noise was, coming from down the hall.

River blankly stared out the window, watching the water drip down the glass. Outside was nothing but pitch blackness. Occasionally, he could make out the branch of a tree or the bright moon in the sky, but that was just for an instant.

Billard was somewhat tense. He could barely see ahead of himself. He had driven in bad weather before, but this… this was special. The road was rural, hardly ever used, except by drunk teens speeding at 80 miles an hour. Billard could just imagine the bright lights suddenly appearing ahead of him, and then the crunch of metal on metal. 

“Billard, B—- you there?” A crackly voice came out from the radio. Billard lifted it to his mouth to respond.

“We’re heading back now, the weather’s just slowing us down.”

“No it’s not th— -e got a call. I need you —---------- —-stand?”

“Dusty, you’re breaking up.”

“We got a –ll. Someone being held hostage near the w—-mill. They couldn’t give us an exact location but it’s som----- near there. Check it o—-- alert us if you find any—---.”

“Copy.”

Billard set the radio down.

“What’s going on?” River asked.

“Hostage. He said it was somewhere near the old wildmill.”

“A hostage?”

“I’m as surprised as you are. Probably not going to find anything, especially in this weather.”

“It sounds like you don’t want to find anything.”

Billard hesitated to respond, “You’ll understand.”

—--------------

By the time Billard had grabbed the umbrellas from the trunk, he was already soaked. The rain was relentless, and cold. It dripped down Billard’s back, causing him to shiver. He and River walked up to the windmill. Supposedly it was built when the town was founded. However, if you looked on the right side of it, you could see a small logo reading “Brook and Son’s Construction Co. Since 1987”. The town was founded in 68’. 

Still, the windmill was falling apart. Its once shining paint had all chipped away, and holes and cracks were abound. Not to mention the graffiti on nearly every inch of its moldy, decaying wood. The city simply stopped caring. No one visited it anymore, at least no one with good intentions. So it was left to rot. Billard wasn’t surprised someone was taken hostage near it. The windmill was located in the middle of the thick forest. Just far enough that it made you uneasy. Just far enough, that people wouldn’t be able to hear your screams.

A flash of lightning lit up the sky, illuminating the woods. In that split second, River could see the dark, twisted trees that surrounded him, and how they went endlessly onwards. Then, he was plunged back into darkness. His stomach churned. He was afraid. A true feeling of isolation began to overwhelm him. In this weather, and in this forest, it was very well possible that if they went missing, they might never be found.

“River?” Billard’s flashlight shined on River’s face. “You alright?”

River nodded, putting his hand up to block the bright light.

“Well come on, I don’t want to stay here any longer than you. Start scanning north, I’ll take south.”

The two parted ways and began scanning the area.

“Anything?” Billard’s voice from the radio asked.

“No, it’s too dark to see anything useful.”

It was true. The heavy rainfall and dim flashlights made it almost impossible to see. Other than the thick trees, River could see almost nothing. That’s why he almost had his lower leg chopped off.

He froze and stumbled back. Lying before him was a bear trap. It was old, rusty, and probably didn’t work, but River wouldn’t take his chances. A few steps away he found another trap, then another. 

“Billard I found something.” River said into the radio. He waited for Billard to respond. But he didn’t.

“Billard? You there? I found something.”

Still, only static came through.

“Billard can you hear me?”

Suddenly a cold dead voice responded. A voice that sent shivers down River’s spine.

“Leave.”

_____________

Warm. Something warm was dripping down his neck. Something thick and wet. He slowly opened his eyes, but was still in darkness. He was sitting in the corner of the room handcuffed to a pipe. He felt the back of his head, his hand coming back bloody.

Suddenly the light from the ceiling flashed on, blinding Billard. Gradually his eyes adjusted, and the room began to stop spinning.

 A large figure stood in front of him. He had bushy, brown, stiff hair and black eyes. Billard couldn’t clearly see its face due to the dim light, but something was off. The man tightly gripped a bat in its right hand.

“You were trespassing.” The man said. His voice was harsh and deep. Billard tried to hide the pain, and fear in his face.

“Let me go.”

The man grinned and laughed, “No.”

“I’m an officer-”

The man rushed towards Billard and slammed the wooden bat into his side. Billard shouted in pain. The man swung the bat again, it crashed into his face. The man bent down and pulled Billard up by his hair. He lifted the bat.

“Why are you doing this?” Billard asked, spitting out blood.

The man grinned and smashed the bat into Billard’s side again and dropped him into the floor. 

“Submission.” The man walked over to the other side of the room.

“She wants to talk with you.”

The man walked out a door in the room, shutting off the light behind him. After blinking a few times, he could see the outline of a woman across the room. She was chained to a corner. Slowly Billard sat up, clutching his throbbing side.

“Hello?”

“Who are you?” The woman asked.

“I’m officer Billard. You're the caller?”

The woman nodded.

“What’s your name?”

“Emily.”

“Who’s the man, the man with the bat?”

“It calls him Brother.”

“It?”

The woman began to cry.

“That man said she wanted to talk to you, who is it?” Billard asked.

“I don’t know. It acts and looks like my sister… it even sounds like her. But it’s not. It’s not Ava.”

“Where’s your sister?”

“She was where you were. Then Brother took her, and she never came back.”

Emily slowly looked up at Billard, “Then that imposter began visiting me.”

______________________

River made his way back to the police car, hoping to find Billard there. Nothing. He began scanning the area. Water dripped down his neck, chilling him to the core. He could still hear the dark voice in his head. Something bad was happening, he could feel it.

River scanned the area, however it seemed his flashlight was becoming dimmer and dimmer as time went on. He walked a few ways past the windmill, but found nothing. He walked back towards the car, walking right past Billard’s Umbrella, and the grass dripping with his blood beside it, hidden by the darkness and rain.

River grabbed his radio.

“Is anyone there?”

No response came.

“I know you’re there, who are you?”

After a moment, the voice came back.

“Leave.”

“Who are you?”

The voice didn’t respond.

“Where’s Billard?”

“I’ll kill them!” The voice shouted, River’s blood to run cold, “I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them both! I’ll cut them open like pigs! Get out! Get out!!!”

_______________________

Billard continued to yank at the pole. It was old, rusty, loose from the bricks it was lodged in. Just a few more good tugs, and it would come free, at least, that's what Billard hoped.

“Do you know what they want?” Billard asked. The woman shook her head.

“No.”

“Are there more hostages?”

“I don’t know.”

“How many of them are there? Is it just the two of them?”

“I think so, But I don’t know.”

Suddenly the door opened. A figure walked in with long, matted, dead hair. Emily began to cry and curl up in the corner.

The “imposter”, Ava, seemed to be female, but something was off. Her face was tight, and almost seemed unnatural. Her gaze was cold, and though it seemed to be friendly, there was something deadly about it. Something being hidden, buried inside.

“Emily, please, please stop.” Ava’s voice seemed feminine, but it wasn’t genuine.

“Get away, get away!” Emily cried, she kicked at Ava.

“Emily I tried to help you, I even brought this friend for you.” Ava gestured to Billard. “I just want you to be happy again.”

“Why do you care?”

Ava reached out to hug Emily, who began screaming.

“What do you want!” Billard shouted, grabbing Ava’s attention. She backed away from Emily and walked towards Billard. She bent down and stared at Billard.

“I don’t want to hurt you Officer, I just want to help my sister. I just want her to love me again.”

“I don’t think keeping her hostage is going to help.”

Ava laughed a cold chilling laugh, though her motions suggested she was trying to be warm, “But then she’d run away.”

“Keeping her locked up isn’t going to help anything.”

“If she wanted to leave she could. She’s doing it to herself.”

Ava stood up and faced Emily, “If you’d just get better then everything could be fixed! I need you Em, I need you!” Ava’s tone changed to anger and torment.

“I don’t want to do this, but maybe it will make you happy again.” Ava pulled out a needle from her pocket, along with a vial filled with a clear liquid. Emily began to frantically scream and tug at her chains. 

“No, please no!” Emily cried.

Quickly Billard began yanking on his cuffs, shaking the pipe and causing dust to fall from the wall.

“Stop it!” Ava screamed and kicked Billard in the gut. Billard coughed, and slumped on the floor. Ava then quickly approached Emily, filling the needle with the drug.

“It’ll all be over soon Emily, and then we can become friends again, you’ll see, we’ll be so very happy..”

Billard slowly got up, spitting on the floor. He looked up to see Emily screaming and squirming as Ava knelt down ready to shove the needle into Emily’s flesh.

“It’s ok, it’ll only hurt for a second. I’m right here with you Emily.”

“Stop, stop please! Billard!”

“We’ll go on three.”

“No please no!”

Billard lifted his foot and pressed it against the wall.

“One.”

Billard tightly wrapped the chain around his hand, tightly gripping it.

“Two.”

Billard took a deep breath, mustering up all his strength, glaring at Ava.

“Three.”

Billard bursted forward, shooting himself off the wall. The cuffs tore the skin off his wrists. Loose rubble flew as the pipe came bursting out of the wall.

Ava sharply turned towards Billard, dropping the needle. Billard quickly recovered, and grabbed the pipe. Ava pulled out a knife from her belt.

Suddenly Ava madly charged at Billard, screaming, knife raised in the air. The knife came slashing downwards. Billard dodged, narrowly avoiding a blade to the chest. Immediately Ava shot the knife upwards, slicing Billard’s cheek, his blood spurting into the air.

Billard raised the pipe up and slammed it into Ava’s arm, making her drop the knife. She stumbled back. With one swift stroke, he smashed it into her head, knocking her out cold. Blood dripped down her head.

Billard caught his breath, dropping the pipe. He quickly searched Ava’s body and found a set of keys. Unlocking his handcuffs, he rushed over to Emily and freed her. She struggled to her feet, and tightly hugged Billard.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

“Follow me”

Billard quickly handcuffed Ava and the two rushed out of the room. Hurrying down a hallway, they came into what seemed to be a living room, on a table Billard found the radio and his gun.“River, River are you there?”

“Billard? Billard, where are you?”

“Listen, I need you to turn on your sirens.”

“What?”

“Turn on the sirens!”

After a moment, they could hear police sirens in the distance.

“River, we’re coming.” He put the radio in his belt. Suddenly they heard a loud snap, and then silence.

“We need to go.” Billard and Emily rushed down a hall and up a flight of stairs which led to an open area. Emily found the front door and they rushed towards it when a loud, angry voice shouted from behind them.

Billard turned to see Brother facing them, gripping his bat. Quickly Billard pulled out his gun and pointed it at Brother.

“Don’t move, or I’ll shoot.”

Brother laughed and suddenly charged at Billard. Billard fired his gun, the bullet flying into Brother’s shoulder. He hardly flinched, quickly smashing Billard in the side of the head with his bat, knocking him to the floor.

“Run!” Billard shouted. Emily rushed out the front door of the house, slamming the door behind her. Brother walked towards the front door. Speedily Billard got to his feet and bashed Brother against a wall. Brother swung his bat again at Billard, who dodged and punched Brother in the face. Brother stumbled back, and Billard quickly began relentlessly pummulting Brother in the face.

With one final strong punch Billard knocked Brother onto the ground. Brother began laughing hysterically, while slowly rising to his feet. He dropped the bat and curled his fingers into a fist.

“So it’s gonna be that way, huh?” Brother spit his blood at Billard, “You can’t save her. I’ll find her, and I’ll beat her till her skin’s brown, and her bones shattered!”

Billard flung his fist at Brother who dodged, and punched Billard hard in the ribs. Billard struck him in the face, but he quickly recovered. Brother lunged forwards, knocking Billard into a wall. Brother punched Billard hard in the face twice, blood spewing from his nose. Brother grabbed Billard’s head and dragged him to a table, where he viciously began smashing his head into the wood.

The table turned red and after four hits, Brother dropped Billard onto the floor, his face bloodied. Billard rolled to his side, spitting up blood and vomit. Brother grabbed Billard by the collar and dragged him to the staircase.

Brother flung him down the staircase. Billard helplessly spun and rolled, each stair shooting pain through his body. He crashed onto the hard cement floor below, his wrist letting out a loud snap. Brother sighed and walked over to his bat. His fingers tightly wrapped around the handle, and he lifted the bat into the air. He opened the door and stared into the forest ahead listening to the police siren in the distance. He grinned. She was next.

_____________

Emily rushed through the forest at full speed, blindly heading towards the distant sound of sirens. The rain washed over her, and chilled her pale skin, but she didn’t care. She was so close to being rescued, so close to coming home, so close to freedom.

The sirens began to become louder, and louder. She was getting closer, she picked up her pace. Breaking through the branches, she could feel the sting as the twigs cut open her skin. Hot adrenaline pumped through her veins as her heart began to beat faster and faster.

She was halfway there when she heard it, the terrible roar of the villain who had terrorized her. In that small instant everything seemed to stop. Every muscle in Emily’s body froze with fear.

“Emily!” Brother shouted into the forest. He was coming.

Once he found her, he would kill her. He would paint his bat red with her blood. This time, she would not be taken hostage again. This time, there would be no mercy.

_______________

River anxiously waited by the car, hand resting on his pistol. Billard was alive, but something had happened. He just didn’t know what. So he waited, in the rain, hoping they would burst out of the darkness soon, alive. River anxiously grabbed his radio.

“Billard, Billard are you there? Is everything alright?”

No response came.

“Billard?”

Silence.

River set down the radio and looked off in the distance. He gripped his pistol tighter. He could hear it, barely. Footsteps, piercing the rain. He could barely make out the outline of a figure charging towards him, the bright blue and red lights slightly illuminating them. River’s face went pale. It was a woman. And she was heading right towards it.

_________________

There it was. She could see the bright red and blue lights ahead of her. She was almost there, almost to safety. She could see the other officer next to the car, holding out his hand.

“Stop!” He shouted.

It was too late. She was going too fast, and it was too dark to see it. There was a loud snap, and before she knew it she was lying on the ground. A terrible pain swelled in her leg, as something warm dripped down her ankle.

She looked back, to see the large teeth of a bear trap sunk into her bleeding leg. The pain rose to excruciating levels, and she began to scream.

River rushed over to her, and quickly knelt down by the bear trap. He grabbed the springs and tried to compress them. The jaws wouldn’t loosen.

“Sh*t.”

“Emily, I hear you!” Brother shouted towards them.

“Get it off! Get it off!” She cried, her nails digging into her palm. In the distance, footsteps could be heard, piercing through the darkness and loud rainfall.

“Damn thing won’t loosen!”

River frustratedly squeezed the rusty springs together with all his might. The trap cracked and groaned, as if the metal would snap at any moment. Slowly the jaws began to loosen off of her leg. Emily painfully pulled her bloody leg out of the bear trap, and as soon as it was out, River let go, and the trap snapped shut once more. Quickly River helped Emily to the car. He opened the trunk to reveal a first aid kit, cones, and a shotgun.

“He’s coming, he’s coming, you have to kill him.”

River rushed over to her with the first aid kit.

“Who?”

Emily screamed and pointed forwards. There he was, staring at them, his face bloodied, and his skin saggy.

River pulled out his gun as Brother charged at him, bat in the air. River fired the gun, the bullet digging into Brother’s chest. Brother, seemingly unfazed, smashed the bat into River’s side, and then into his head. River stumbled into the police car, dropping his gun. Laughing like a madman, Brother aggressively swung the bat at River, who ducked. The bat smashed into the window of the police car, shattering it, glass flying through the air.

Brother flung the bat downwards. River barely escaped it and the bat crashed into the ground. Quickly, River sprung upwards, flinging his fist into Brother’s jaw. He followed with two more hits to the face, a loud snap ringing out. Brother stumbled backwards, his jaw handing down. He shoved his Jaw back into place, and grinned, bloodlust in his eyes.

“Grab the gun, grab the gun!” River shouted at Emily, pointing at the trunk.

Spitting blood into River’s face, Brother charged forwards. Brother shoved River backwards into a tree. His back smashing against the hard wood, his lungs compressing, causing all air to escape his body.

Emily grabbed the shotgun, and quickly attempted to load it, shells falling to the found because of her trembling fingers. Brother dropped the bat and began relentlessly punching River in the face. With one last hard hit, Brother dropped River to the ground, his nose and jaw broken. Blood coated his swollen face.

Brother slammed his foot into River’s gut, blood spewed out of his mouth. Brother lifted up his foot above River’s skull. River closed his eyes, ready for his head to cave in. Then, a gunshot rang through the air, echoing through the forest. 

Brother stumbled forwards, pellets digging deep into his back. Blood began seeping through his clothes as he turned around. Emily stared, shocked, arms trembling. Brother roared, the veins in his neck bulging out. Quickly she began to cock the gun. He charged.

The empty shell burst out of the chamber flying through the air. The gun made a click sound as a new shell was put into place. Emily lowered the barrel, her finger resting on the trigger. She took a deep breath, keeping her arms as steady as she could, and pulled her finger back.

The explosion went off, sending pellets shooting down the barrel as a small flash of light burst out from the end of the muzzle, lighting up the area around them. The stock dug into her shoulder as the gun lunged backwards, sure to leave a bruise. She stared at Brother’s cold, black, dead eyes as they angrily stared at her. 

The pellets escaped the barrel, cutting through the cold air, soaring through the dense rain. The metal dug into Brother’s face, tearing through his flesh. His blood spouted outwards, flying into the air as his body helplessly fell backwards. The flash from the muzzle faded into the air, as darkness enveloped them again. The body crashed onto the floor, causing mud to fly upwards into the air, as his blood rained downwards. Brother was dead.

________________

“Billard? Billard, are you there?”

Slowly his eyes opened to the voice of Emily. He coughed up some blood and spat it out on the cement beside him. His whole body ached with pain. His left wrist was throbbing. He looked over to see his radio lying beside him.

“Billard please pick up, are you there?”

Billard slowly rose to his feet, and picked up his radio.

“Yes.”

“Billard! Are you ok?”

“No.” Billard took short breaths, looking at his bloody self.

“We killed — we killed Brother. Ri-------- badly injured”

“You’re breaking up.”

“Billard can —---lk. Bi—--” Suddenly the radio went static. Billiard set it back in his belt, and looked around himself. He was back in the basement. He limped over to the hallway leading to the room he was contained in. The door was wide open, the room empty. 

Further down the hallway, something caught Billard’s eye. A faint light. Down the hall was another room, its door cracked open. He curiously limped towards it. Reaching the door, he slowly pushed open the door and walked in.

At first he didn’t know what he saw, he was confused. Candles encircled the room, illuminating the walls in an eerie sense. The smell was rotten, and the air stiff. As he stared, his mind began to click. He began to understand the purpose of the room. And when he did, the air left his lungs. His blood turned cold. His heart immediately stopped.

Faces. Human faces decorated the walls. The eyes and mouth removed. Masks. Human faces carved off their corpses, to become masks. He slowly walked over to a table to see a singular mask lying on the table, blood on the top of it. He had seen the face before, worn by Emily’s captor. A face that once belonged to her sister. It was Ava’s