little ones.

The Huntress took a step forward, exhaling as the stale air from the Lerys Memorial Institute hit her face. Taking a deep breath, she felt the feral, violent instinct hit her, looking at her unfamiliar surroundings and starting up a hum in her throat. She glanced down at her throwing hatchets, then weighed the heft of her main one in her palm, the texture of the lichen that adorned the haft familiar and setting the muscle memory she had built up at ease. She shifted, a laugh escaping her lips, and she kept up the familiar lullaby to draw whoever she could near.
The Huntress was familiar with what was happening. She knew what she had to do; sacrifice as many as she could or pay the price of failure. Surely, hopefully, this time she would not fail, and she would satiate the bloodlust so she can rest. Each syllable, each sound of the lullaby against her teeth, only drove her forward, and she strode across the lighted center.
Truly, the hunt was on.

Ash rolled his shoulders back, up and around, waking himself up from the half-sleep the Entity transports him through. Two things, right off the bat. First up, he could hear a certain Mother He Loves humming her favorite “Tunes to Slaughter To.”

(He tucked away the thought of how great of a mixtape that’d make. Something to tell Susie, maybe.)

And, for two...

“Shit, it’s cold.” He muttered, making a mental note not to touch his glove, and especially not to get his tongue stuck to it for a joke. He crunched snow under his old work boots, glancing over his shoulder to confirm — yep, the exit gate was at his back, the ever infuriating peek over it’s cold metal frame showing the same endless fog he’d been plucked from.

So that answers a few routine questions, quicker than usual, too. Ms. Huntress, in the Institute, with the hatchet. Got it.

Ashley squared his jaw, cracking his neck. This shouldn’t be too bad a time, Anna always seemed polite enough. Strange standards he’d gained for polite, but that was neither here nor there.

“Well,” He marched up to the thick double doors of the hospital-ish realm, settling his hands on the cold metal handles. “let’s rock and roll.” He grinned, throwing the doors open with learned bravado.

He bobbed his head in time to the distant humming, muttered words a pleasant sound. Ashley cleared his throat, cupped his hands around his mouth, and called out to the barely human killing machine intent on ending his eternal tomfoolery for a few blissful minutes:

“Sing it, Sister!”

---

Ashley.
That was one way to figure out your companions, for it to be none other than Ashley Williams.

Laurie liked him, he's good company in a time like this. Someone similar to herself that had seen too much at a young age.

Yui hadn’t heard even the most distant of noises yet, save for the occasional call of a crow. No grunting of anyone else, nothing. Dead silence.
She took light steps before she bolted into the doorway of what seemed like a long infirmary, one that lead to the hallway right near the treatment theatre, looking something, anything.

The air always seemed so heavy, no matter where Yui stepped, it weighed her down, as if she’d swallowed a dozen magnets and the floor was pulling them down. 

And there it was, a sliver of hope.

A gleam of metal caught her eyes, a generator. Without a second thought, Yui was on the ground, hands delved into the mechanisms of it. Her hands fumbled with the delicate components, trying to work as quick as she could.

Yui’s hand slipped off a wire.
Boom
Sparks flew off the machine as it sounded, the racer holding her hands in front of her face to block them.

Anna stood for a moment, her mind racing as she heard the distant sound that meant a survivor was on a generator, and the closer sound of Ash, taunting her. Unfortunately, she knew the man's voice-- this was one of the ones that could talk to her-

нести turned her head with a growl, shaking her head with indecision and taking a few steps in Ash's direction, where he was kicking things and making what seemed to be as much noise as possible. She had to take out the source of the noise first; she couldn't hear shit nor fuck around all that needless banging. She glanced at a generator near her, hitting it with her hatchet and kicking it for good measure. Clearly, this would get across the message: she was coming. 

"[Ashley, I'm coming for you!]" she called out to him, laughing. Tossing her head to the side again, almost like she was shaking something off of an ear. Her feet fell in a steady, solid pace as she tried to navigate her way around the walls that seemed to endlessly echo. Each door she passed, she stuck her head in, and by this method alone she managed to get closer and closer to the taunting voice. If she heard the clink of a generator kicking into full motion, Anna decided, she would abandon the path she sought and find the others instead, her wish to end all that infuriating noise he was making coming only second to trying to win this trial. 

There was a clinical (ha, funny) coldness to the office as he found his way in there, somehow, dodging into rooms and behind old beds as the humming persisted, and the prodding of the big scary rabbit lady continued. Probably wasn’t the wisest move, but that was what someone that didn’t like to have fun would say. And though Ace did have faith that luck would be in their favour this time, despite his initial mishap, there was a growing pit in his stomach that told him that Miss Fortune, as he called her, had poked her head in to say her piece. He stared down into the basement, fixed the collar of his light jacket, and made his way down at a brisk pace, head held high.

The chest was in the corner just behind the pair of lockers facing head-on - funny, that - at the base of the stairs. He rubbed his hands together as he got on one knee, trying his best not to wince at the dull pain that shot through his joints as he did so, fiddling with the lock as best he could, humming a tune he couldn’t quite remember the name of. So jovial, a disposition he’d prided himself on, no matter how dire the circumstances were. And they wouldn’t be! Especially not at the lock came off, and he tossed it away from him, pulling the lid off of the chest. In here would be the key to escape, perhaps even a literal key, maybe a flashlight to toss to someone with a keener eye, or some secret offering meant only for his eyes-

-or a barely functional, half-used medkit. Ace visibly deflated. If he needed any more confirmation they were fucked, this was it. God dammit.

But still, he snatched it up, and tried his best not to stomp up the stairs, like a child throwing a tantrum. Now, to actually do something… hopefully. If he could find someone else to keep him safe to keep him company, that would be a plus. But it was always the generators they were looking for, wasn’t it? So… back to the middle it was for him, since that was the only place he remembered seeing one. In the most open, dangerous place of all, with a killer wielding throwing hatchets.

Fantastic.

Ash laughed, full and loud. “[Then act like it, Sis! I’m not gonna wait around forever!]” He crouched down, skulking towards the sound of Anna’s approaching humming. And oh, lookie there, an unopened chest! The perfect spot to make some noise, attract some listeners, the youzhe.

He lowered himself, shimmying his ass to the ground as he gripped the poorly painted wood. “Annie, can I call ya Annie?” One hand, mechanical, on the busted lock to pry it off, he continued to posture. “Actually, don’t really want to, already know one of those, it’d be a whole thing.” He grinned when he finally slung the cover off, jamming his hand into the chest’s contents. “Wouldn’t it be real funny if I found a flashlight in here? To just make your night even worse? I think it’d be funny, but maybe that’s just me,”

He took out the broken key with a roll of his eyes. Useless. Great.

“I’m sure someone else would find it funny, though!” He shouted again, kicking the chest once, for good measure. “I ‘unno, though. I mean, I’m really hittin’ these bits out of the park tonight, and no one beside you is appreciatin’ ‘em, it’s starting to hurt my feelings!”

Ash’s self-congratulatory chuckle was cut off as he registered the fact that he did, in fact, have a listener.

Laurie was not exactly who he intended to bother today, but there she stood in the doorway, eyes wide as a deer in headlights at the realization of where she’d ended up and when.

Humming was close now, and his heartbeat thrummed in his ears.

Well. “Shit.”

When Laurie saw Ash, she could guess the next series of events. Killers were always faster than she expected, really. 
Especially the Huntress', the time from seeing Laurie to throwing the hatchet. How could she have calculated that so fast?

Time caught back up, and Laurie hissed in pain. "Shit." She held herself, there was no point to stopping the bleeding - it wasn't something she could 'cure' herself. 
That was realistic, she guessed. If an axe murderer tried to hit her, and she could just will it away... Why wouldn't she? 

She tried to keep her laboured breathing quiet as she rushed off, keeping a steady pace to make distance. She needed this distance, for whatever reason the Huntress had a grudge. 
Laurie could never figure it out, the pair never interacted in trials and Anna, well... She didn't seem to communicate so clearly. Especially in trials. Then again, no killer really did. If they spoke, then it was a taunt. Rarely was it a sign of good-faith. 
Not that even if the Huntress did stop right now, Laurie would believe her. She's learned better, even before the fog. 

God, her chest hurt. It never got any less painful as trials went out. She needed to find someone, and now. 

Yui sprang up onto her feet the moment lights struck up, darting off. She wanted to, had to, get out of this place as soon as she could. Fuck, even out of this damned hell.

Slowing down for a moment, just a moment, to listen. To get her head back on right. She couldn’t rush head first into these anymore, she’d learned that the hard way. She needed time to think. Think of something, some kind of plan. 

That was when she heard it.

A quiet call of ‘hey, hey.’ The voice was familiar. Ace.

Cupping her hands around her mouth, hopefully to suppress most of the noise it would let out, futile as it may prove to be. “Over here!” The racer called out to the gambler. She beckoned him over with a wave of her hand, back over to an adjacent room. They all needed numbers here, it was their best chance at escaping these things. 

Taking a step back, a crow’s caw sounded. Yui tensed, moving back into the room, she wouldn’t lie, she was scared, every definition of the word fit it. 

Anna let out a chuckle, her head cocking right back to the angle she heard the noise coming from. It was getting serious now, the urge to kill humming in the back of her mind, a scarlet smoke that came and went. Finally, something to override the uncomfortable feeling still sitting in the base of her skull. 

“[Bugs?!]” she shouted, pushing herself forward. “[You think Mother dirty? You think Mother have bugs? You should be so lucky.]” Anna poked her head around into a room, throwing a hatchet at the darkness. Often, she found, the sound of the hatchet itself would make the survivors scuttle out like insects when the torch comes around.

Anna let out a laugh again, despite her rage, hoping it would unsettle all those within earshot and shake them from their hiding places. 

Anna hated indoor trials. 

She wanted now. She wanted the release of this feeling, she wanted to stay home as the screams ring in her ears. She wanted time for the ringing to finally stop. 

“[Little one, little one,]” she hummed, fluttering her voice from a hum to an actual lullaby. Maybe it would brings Ash closer, and get him to rest. To stop making all that noise. “[Rock a bye, on the edge you mustn’t lie.]”

Another voice. Fuck, that scared him. Hasty eyes looked up over his glasses - Yui. Christ, what luck was that? She could hold her own, right? She'd get them out of this shithole faster than he could. Someone else to rely on, or to shell the blame onto, maybe... no, he wasn't gonna do that. Probably. He followed her hand with a small nod, leaning against the doorway nearby. "Fancy seein' you here, eh? Come here often?" Ace chuckled a little, running his hands against his watch to fix it back into place, to check the time. The surface was cracked, the time still the same as when he'd first arrived - hands unmoving, an omen of his newfound livelihood, perhaps. Sheesh, no upside to this shit, huh? He paused briefly, going to crack another joke-

It took everything in him not to flinch at the loud laughter some distance away, closing his eyes and swallowing. Not now, Visconti. He could shit his pants about this later. Right now, there were more important things to take care of - more important people to be concerned with. And concerned he was, as he turned to look at the second voice. The source of the blood. Laurie.
"And you're a sore sight for mine, geez," He tried to laugh again, but he couldn't quite find the words. He gave a hard swallow. "Come on, we don't want pissed off Roger Rabbit to catch us out again. We'll find a little nook, and get you fixed up, yeah? Don't wanna be bleedin' all over your nice clothes, now."

Maybe it was luck he'd found that medkit after all. Better to use it on someone who'd be worth the help rather than himself, anyway.

"What?" Ash laughed, a shaky and adrenaline filled sound. "[Oh, my God, alright, you don't know who Buggs Bunny is. That's a culture lesson for a later date, sis.]"
​
Oop, ok, yeah, that was a hatchet launched directly across from him. That's fun. Means she's right behind him. Great, cool, good, wonderful. Time to do what he knew best.
​
He flipped around, launching himself towards Anna and, ideally directly past her. "Howdy, partner!" He smiled wide, all teeth. No flashlight, but hopefully his grin could blind her similarly.
​
Or, it wouldn't, he very quickly realized as axe head slammed into his stomach.
​
"[Ooohkay, that smarts,]" was all the loud mouth could muster, laughing a bit despite the circumstances. "[Can I go now, you satisfied with beating a man in his sensitive tummy?]" Barked as he sprinted away, an action he was barely cognizant of taking as his body tried, desperately, to get away.

Damn, he thought, holding his own blood in his hands. Never gets any less gross.

Laurie laughed softly through her laboured breathing; it got so hard to breathe with the rushing pain in her body. "Thank you, I think." She offered a bit of snark back, though there was no bite to it. It was good to see the pair in front of her.

"It's okay, Ashley has her attention. We have a moment of peace, I think." She spoke softly still, matching Yui's noise level. Er, without the crow noise anyway.
"That sounds good to me." Her clothes didn't matter much to her anymore, they'd been through so much. Soaked in vomit, whatever was in the Blight's syringes, and more often than either of those things, blood-soaked.

It didn't feel any different anymore; it was all just a new normal, but someday it wouldn't be anymore. Someday the three of them would be back where they belong. Laurie could be back in Haddonfield, Yui and Ace could be back where they called home, too. 
Laurie slowly stood up, holding her stomach. "We should find that place, now. Please." Laurie spoke softly. God alive, the pain never got better. The Entity had a cruel way of reminding them that she didn't understand how humans worked, the way everything seared so much. 

Then again, she'd never been hit with a hatchet before. That was an experience she never imagined she would have while she dozed off in English class.