Dead by Sunset

The hooks of the Entity dig into my flesh, and I grit my teeth into a hard, angry smile.

Whatever Twilight thinks, I really am starting to enjoy my time here. The bite of the Entity means another Trial and another chance to survive—to prove myself in a ring where the only thing that matters is me.

I can’t help but worry about Aria’s reaction, though. That was alarming. I'd thought she was more like me by this point; accepting of the role she’d been given. After all, we aren’t getting out of this place anytime soon. We might as well have a little fun.

Oh well, I’ll find her when I land.

The darkness peels away from me and it leaves me feeling… exposed. I drop to a crouch and survey my surroundings. The fog is thicker here than normal, but one of the others might have poured one of those bottles of tarry blackness into the campfire before we entered. That offering is always a mixed bag. On the one hand, the heartbeat tells us where the crazy murder hobo of the day is, but I still prefer seeing it before I hear it. On the other hand, the thicker mist does mean that it’s easier to hide, even in the open.

There are ruined walls all around me, half-held-together structures of brick and rotting mortar. One large structure, a two-story, crumbling edifice, dominates what I presume is the center of the Trial. Tempest comes around a corner a moment later and gestures for me to follow, so I latch the Medkit I’d chosen to bring in with me to my belt and move.

“Have you been here before?” I ask quietly as we move through the fog towards a nearby light tower. “I don’t recognize this place.”

“It’s Crotus Prenn Asylum,” Tempest answers gravely. “And it’s Aria’s worst nightmare.”

I get on the generator, doing a quick scan around us to make sure we’re not being approached before giving up on the endeavor and hoping the fog covers our operations.

“Why?” I ask as I wrench away a side plate as quietly as I can and reach in to start reconnecting wires. “She seems pretty even-keeled most of the time. What’s the deal with this specific Trial?”

Tempest just shakes her head. “It’s not the Trial… not exactly.”

I’m about to ask what she means when a choked, ear-piercing scream splits the air. I stop working for a moment, looking around and searching for the hard, fast motions of the Killer. There’s nothing.

Another scream splits the air, it sounds… sick.

“What is that thing?” I ask, a little unnerved as I get back to work.

Another round of cylinders fires up as Tempest cranks some internal part into place. “It’s the Nurse. She seems slow, but don’t underestimate her.”

I’m about to answer scathingly when I see a disturbance in the fog. It’s Starlight, she’s fleeing in our direction with a look of terror on her face.

“Scram!” I hiss at Tempest as I back off of the generator and retreat behind some broken stonework. Tempest retreats in the other direction, towards the asylum, and presses flush to the wall.

The heartbeat approaches. She sounds relatively distant, but Starlight is running like the Killer is right on her ass. What the hell is she—

That scream cracks through the air again and there’s a snap of displaced air as a floating figure in an old eighteenth century nurse’s outfit erupts into the space directly behind Starlight and swings a rusty bonesaw down hard at her. Starlight ducks and spins hard on her heel, though, managing to sprint right past the Nurse on her left as the murderous weapon cuts through empty air. I can’t help but grin a little.

That was good.

Ballsy, but good.

The nurse turns but staggers for a moment and claws at her chest like she’s choking. There’s something about her that’s strange… I can’t put my finger on it. Her mask is a burlap cloth bag wrapped tightly around her head which is hanging at a sickening angle, and faded strands of arctic blue and violet hair spill out of the gaps around her neck. The Nurse recovers a moment later and holds out a pale, blue hand. Light spills from the cracks in her flesh and she grips her fingers tight like she’s throttling something and suddenly she’s gone. I see Starlight in the distance and I grimace.

I can guess what’s going to happen.

The bonesaw falls just as a generator goes online on the other side of the Trial. Starlight screams out as the cruel teeth of the saw bite into her back and she bolts away as the nurse raises the saw, staring at it lazily, entranced by the new ruby droplets on it before staggering again to catch her breath.

Still, she’s clearly in no hurry, why should she be? She can blink fair distances as far as I can read, but I’d have to watch her more. I move back the way I came to find Tempest already back on the generator.

“Go to the building,” she says without looking up, but pointing at the asylum's second floor. “There’s always a generator there and it’s best we get it early, otherwise it becomes easy for her to protect.”

I defer to her expertise and make a run for the entrance. The Nurse is already drifting away in search of Starlight, and I trust Tempest to make a run for her if she gets hooked. The asylum is a run down and ugly building with holes in the ceiling and shattered windows. I eye a few of them, fixing their locations in my mind as good escape routes if I get caught out.

Crouching to keep my profile low and hugging against the wall in case the Nurse looks in through the windows, I make my way to the staircase.

It’s in just as bad of a condition as everything else in this place, but I've come to trust that whatever dark magic the Entity works to craft these Trials will hold my weight. He’s a reliable sort, that Entity.

I get up to the second floor and pad around, looking for the generator while trying not to get too close to the windows. I don’t want the Nurse noticing me. As I weave around some debris, though, I almost smack right into Aria’s back.

“Woah, hey Ari’, guess we had the same plan,” I say, as I sidle around her. As she looks over at me, I can't help but notice how pale she is.

She moves past me, towards an entrance leading slightly deeper into the upper floor, holding a finger to her mouth. “Ssh, we’re getting out of here now, Sunny, I’m not staying here any longer than I have to.”

I nod. “I mean, yeah, that’s kinda the deal in general.”

I follow her in and smile, noticing the generator. “Yahtzee, let’s do this.” I get on a side opposite Aria and start working.

We get to work, but every time we hear one of those choked screams, Aria flinches. More than once I hear a part crank out of place but, thankfully, Aria’s practiced hands keeps the generator from popping or sparking, which would have given away our position. We're about halfway through when a scream follows sharply on the heels of the Nurse’s crym and I grimace.

Starlight got caught.

Seconds later a generator goes live, the one Tempest and I were originally working on if I’m not wrong. That’s one more, and that means Aria and I have probably got at least a minute of grace while the Nurse investigates that one and scans around for Tempest who, I hope, is long gone.

“So what’s your deal, Ari’?” I ask quietly. “You’re never this skittish.”

“There are only four Killers in the lineup I don’t wanna fight, Red,” Aria says shakily. “The Shape is one, the Nurse is another.”

“Why though?”

Aria shakes her head. “I’ve been to this Asylum before. In the real world, I mean. Most of the realms are shadows of real places, I think, and this one? It’s… it was bad. I’ve got some real bad memories, from the real world and this shit hole, when it comes to Crotus Prenn.”

“Huh,” I grunt noncommittal.

I guess it makes sense that these places are shadows of reality. It's always easier to conjure from a pre-existing template than it is to make something from scratch. As powerful as the Entity is, it makes sense that it would save power where it could.

With that said though, I have no desire to know what went in this shithole of an asy—

The choked scream and a second of heartbeat is our only warning as the Nurse suddenly rips through the air right beside me, I scream as I roll away from the generator and it sparks and spits at my sudden egress. Scrambling to my feet, I try to sprint away, but I barely get two steps out before the Nurse’s saw bites into my side.

I scream again, spitting blood and staggering from the blow while clenching my hand over the ragged wound as I slam into the wall. The Nurse wheezes and sags again, probably recovering from whatever magic lets her blink, and I try to make a run for it. I’m in a bad place, though, and I have to work around some debris as I run towards the exit.

It's not going to be enough. She’s already on me.

“LET HER GO!” Aria’s voice cuts through the air and I look back and my blood freezes.

The Nurse is hovering bare inches behind me with her saw gripped in a hand that’s white-knuckled, pallid, and poised high over my head for the killing blow. Her choked breathing is filling my ears.

She’s got me dead to rights but… but then she turns.

Her eyeless visage fixes on Aria and there’s something else that sinks into the air around her. A powerful rage. An uncountable fury animates the Nurse’s frail-looking frame as she glares at Aria who, to my shock, is crying. Tears are spilling freely down her cheeks as she stares back at the Nurse. She glances at me and mouths ‘run’ and then turns back to the Nurse.

“I’m sorry…” Aria says in a soft whisper, “I’m so sorry.”

Then Aria turns and sprints away, and the Nurse screams, this time with more vigor and fury than before. I back-peddle and sprint in the opposite direction as Aria cries out. The Nurse caught her, and now all I can do is hope that Aria can lose that thing through some of the blind turns of the Asylum.

I duck behind some debris and pull the Medkit off of my belt, retrieving some of the necessities, including some clean stitching—well, it's really just a needle and some dental floss but it counts. I fix myself up a little shakily before I move back to the generator that Aria and I had been fixing up.

As I get back to work I think about what I just saw.

Aria distracted the Nurse in a way I’d never seen before. The Killers are supposed to be single-minded tools of the Entity; glorified butchers and chefs serving up fresh veal to their hungry master. The Nurse had shown something different though… something almost like recognition. I wondered if the Wraith will start to recognise me that way? I wonder if they'll all start to recognise me.

Was that it?

Was it just that Aria was a familiar enemy?

No, I didn't buy that for a second. There was something else there. Aria had apologised. Not to me, though. No, Aria had been apologising to the Nurse.

But… why?

I crank the last piece into place and the generator coughs, barks, then roars to life.

With that done I move to the widow's walk that skirts around the edge of the asylum and look down, scanning for movement. I see it, or them I should say. Aria is darting through the blind corners of a long section of broken buildings clutching a bleeding wound on her arm. The Nurse is drifting around behind her, barely keeping up, and I can see what Tempest meant when she warned me not to underestimate her.

From a distance, she looks almost ponderous.

Her speed isn’t her movement, though. It’s her ability to simply be there, and Aria is about to get caught. I can read her path, there’s only one way for her to go and it involves cutting through the open in plain view of the Nurse.

I drop down from the second floor, hissing as I hit the ground hard and strain the new stitches at my side. I recover my footing just as Aria makes a break for it, and in that moment the Nurse raises her hand, brandishes her weapon, and closes her rail-thin fingers into a fist as a sickly light spills from her palm. I’ll only have one chance to do this, and that's while she's charging her magic, so I put on a burst of speed and sprint forward, banking on my predictive ability.

The moment the Nurse vanishes, I dive in behind Aria, and a breath later the murderous Killer reappears swinging her bonesaw with backbreaking force.

There's no holding back my scream as the rusty sawteeth rip through my flesh, sending a spray of blood across the ground. The Nurse screeches raspily and shakes the blood from her saw before staggering and gasping arrhythmically while Aria sprints into the building, and I use the burst of adrenaline from the shock and pain of the hit to get myself back to the debris Aria had vacated.

“Hey! Chokey!” I shout back at her. “Come get me!”

I dive into the maze, glancing back to track her movement. She’s not following, though. She’s just staring after me, and I get a tingle up my spine. It almost feels like she knows who I am, but more importantly is that she’s not following.

Instead, the Nurse turns and fixes her faceless burlap features on the asylum, seeming to measure with her gaze where she needs to go. Then she holds out her hand. Ignites the little light in her palm, and she screams.

Then Aria screams.

“Why,” I whisper. “Why won’t she chase me?”

I run around the Asylum, scanning the area, and I see them; Aria had made it almost to the other side before the Nurse caught her, and now she’s struggling feebly, trying to break the grip of the killer. It’s pointless though. There’s a hook right there. Right next to the Asylum. There’s several posted around the circumference of the decrepit building actually, and I brace myself.

I hate this part.

Aria screams again as she’s brutally impaled on the hook. A scream that’s drowned out by the remaining generators exploding into light and life. The Exit doors growl out their electronic screech as they go fully active and the Nurse turns with fury pulsing off of her in waves.

I duck down as she spins in place, floating idly above the decaying grass, searching with her red-stained gaze. Then she screams and vanishes, and in that brief window, I make a run for the hook. It takes the Nurse time to recover from a blink. Even if she thinks to come immediately back I’ll have enough time to pull Aria from the spike, so I get under her and brace her kicking feet against my shoulders.

“Deep breath, Ari’ time to go!” I say, straining as I heave upwards. Aria groans in pain as our dual efforts tear her free of the Entity’s feeding spike. “Let’s go!”

Aria coughs up a gob of phlegm and blood, spits, and nods. Together, we sprint for the nearest exit. I can hear the flanged metallic groaning of the rusty mechanisms desperately powering the doors. I swivel around as we run, keeping an eye out for the Nurse. I come around the corner to see Starlight holding down the lever.

“Come on, hurry!” Starlight shouts, gesturing with one hand while keeping the switch pinned with the other. “Tempest is at the other gate, get your asses over here.”

The old metal door shrieks as it opens, the gears turning to pry the heavy slats of steel to one side. We’re out.

We made it.

Then the Nurse screams.

I spin on my heel as I realise, to my gutwrenching horror, that Aria is behind me.

WHY IS SHE BEHIND ME?!

I screwed up. It’s basic, you always take a hit for the hurt one! Stupid, stupid Sunset! I turn just in time to see the Nurse drive her bonesaw hard into Aria’s collarbone and nail her to the ground. I slip to the side, behind one of the old red-brick pillars. She’ll pick Aria up. I might be able to shadow her and… and…

“What the fuck is she doing?” I whisper, horrified.

The Nurse brutally flips Aria over, and throws her bonesaw down to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Aria sobs, bringing her hands up, flailing weakly to try and fend off the Nurse. “I’m so sorry!”

Knocking Aria's hands away, the Nurse fixes her own hands around Aria’s throat and grips hard. Aria spasms, grabbing at something. Anything. Her thrashing grip finally finds the Nurse’s burlap mask, and with a heave of spasmodic strength, she rips it. More blue and violet hair falls free and as the mask comes off, the burlap falls to the ground, and my jaw drops with it.

I know her face.

I know her name.

Sonata. Dusk.

She’s dead… she looks dead. The ditzy Siren sister’s face is pallid and drawn, and her lips are cracked and parched. Every breath she takes is a wheezing, croaking, guttural heave of air. Her arms are strong though. Her eyes are wide and burning with hate and killing glee. They’re bright with madness.

Sonata—or whatever is left of her—grips Aria’s throat and squeezes. Wheezing over her dying sister, the softest and silliest siren shakes Aria violently by the throat, gripping and squeezing and throttling.

Through it all, Aria wheezes out the same words. “I’m sorry. I l-love you, I’m s-sor-ry…”

A sickening CRACK twists my gut as Aria's head wrenches violently to the left in a way no neck could support, and I let out a cry as I sprint out of the Trial grounds, far away from the wheezing, heaving thing that was once Sonata Dusk, who I leave sitting, crouched over her sister whose head was twisted at an odd angle, and whose last breath was croaking out of her like a stridor.

I stumble out of the Fog and to the ground by the campfire, breathing hard and staring into the dancing flames. What had I just seen? Sonata Dusk was a Killer? One of the monsters that tormented us? That fed the Entity?

Tempest and Starlight were both sitting by the fire looking somber

“Alright, Old Stain!” I scream as I shake free of the shock. “Time’s up! Give her back!”

I glare up at the roiling black clouds in the sky and wait, tapping my foot.

I’m not even sure what I’m waiting for, but after a moment of tension, a thunderclap resounds through the air and the faint, foggy outline of a humanoid figure drifts down from the sky in a translucent cradle of claws and spines. I move under her before any of the others can get up and the moment Aria resolves fully she drops into my arms. I cradle her close, feeling her shudder in familiar nightmares.

“Well?” I glare back at my ‘companions’ by the campfire, still holding Aria close. “What the fuck was that?”

Tempest lets out a weary breath and gestures for me to sit down. I keep up my glower for a moment before sighing and carrying Aria with me over near Tempest to take a seat. Aria is still collapsed against me, shaking and locked in the throes of the Entity’s mind-fuckery. The leftovers of its feeding process, I think.

“What you saw…” Tempest starts, trailing off as she scrapes for the words. “You saw what happens when a Survivor truly loses hope.” Starlight Glimmer and Sour Sweet both nod in response, looking forlorn. “Sonata was not the first to succumb, and will not be the last. It’s why it is so crucial for us to keep our hope alive. If we don’t…”

“We risk becoming the Killer,” I finish, feeling a little hollow at the idea. “That’s… does that mean that Spruce…?”

Tempest just shrugs. “I don’t know, Mi Sol, it doesn’t always happen. Some of us are taken and never come back, others… others do but they come back like poor Sonata... twisted and hungry just like their new master.”

I can’t do anything but nod again.

“So that’s why you thought I might be one of the Entity’s tricks, huh?” I say to Starlight, who flinches but nods back at me. “Because you already knew full well that the Entity was capable of twisting one of us into a murderous Killer.”

“Pretty much,” Starlight responds glumly. “Sorry about that, by the way. I get really stubborn and scared sometimes. When I latch onto something it’s like my fear just spins out of control. I… I don’t think you are anymore, I just didn’t know how to say it. I’m not good at apologies and I’m even worse at admitting I was wrong.”

“Yeah—” I open my mouth to accept the apology, to do what I’m supposed to do but “—well, keep thinking that then, I don’t give a damn either way.”

All three of them look pained at my response, but it’s Tempest who speaks up. “Mi Sol, Sonata wasn’t the only one, before the sisters arrived here, before Sweet and L’strella, I was taken with… someone else.”

“Have I met them?” I ask with a grim smile.

Tempest nods.

“Before this place… and before she met me… she was a quiet, kind girl,” Tempest explains softly, “We became close. Some of mi familia thought we were too close. They were not wrong, either. We didn’t care though, we were happy with each other.”

“What was her name?” I ask, feeling some of my now familiar anger ebbing a little.

Tempest sighs and hangs her head. “Her name was Summer Wind, we were in a gang together in Las Pegasus. We did a lot of bad things to a lot of people, and we knew the risks but, one day, our boss bit off more than he could chew.

“Storm was always a boisterous, loud, and obnoxious man, but he was smart,” Tempest scowls then shakes her head. “No, not smart, clever would be a better way to describe him. He knew who to hit and where and how hard. He knew a good mark from a bad, but he was greedy. He overreached and… and someone died who shouldn’t have.”

Tempest was a gangbanger? I almost laugh. It fit, actually. She has the build and the reflexes, and it definitely explains her weird collection of seemingly unrelated skills and knowledge. So… gangbanger and murderer?

“You killed someone?” I ask slowly.

“I’ve killed many people,” Tempest says darkly. “We had no shortage of rival gangs, so shoot-outs weren’t uncommon. Drive-bys, turf wars... it happens. The Barrios of Las Pegasus aren’t a good place to grow up.”

I’m not sure how I feel about that but I guess it doesn’t really matter, does it? “That’s fair, can’t blame you, I should have more than a couple ‘attempted murder’ charges on my own rap sheet. So what happened?”

Tempest raises an eyebrow but doesn’t pursue the question. Instead, she answers. “Storm marked a hit on a new, upscale bank on the edge of our turf... said he had an inside guy. We’d be rolling in it for weeks if we pulled it off. We were all amped to hit a spot like that. Show the gringos their little oases near our territory weren’t safe. Show them they weren’t welcome.”

“I guess it went wrong?” I say with a dark expression, and Tempest’s expression goes hollow.

“The hit went smoothly, actually,” Tempest says, her voice going low. “We rolled up, opened fire, aiming high to get heads down, and bolted in. Storm’s guy was a scummy, lean, alley-cat of a man who worked there. He passed us the keys and we got the cash. Problem was that, in that first volley, we hit someone.”

Hanging her head between her tucked legs, Tempest lets out a sigh. “It could’ve been any of us, someone aiming a little too low maybe. Or maybe it was just an unlucky ricochet. Doesn’t matter. We killed the son of a prominent politician and suddenly we were public enemy number one. A week later a SWAT brigade stormed our little headquarters and whoever was at the front didn’t have the good sense to give up, and opened fire.”

I grimace. “And it turned into a bloodbath, huh?

“Si, a massacre, blood everywhere…” Tempest’s eyes become distant and haunted. “Summer and I, we ran, firing behind us, and hid, but there was no way out. We were cornered in our room, and I kissed her, and told her not to look, then… then I heard the thunder.”

“The Entity,” I scowl. I get it though, they were probably the last ones alive, and they fulfilled its esoteric requirements. It needed them to be alone, in despair, ready to die. “So… who is she?”

“The Hag,” Tempest says. “Summer grew up in the bayous of New Chevalean, moved to Las Pegasus to make it big and get away from her empty little town with its judgmental persecution. She took a loan from our sharks, defaulted, and when I went to break her legs I fell in love with her accent instead. It was my fault she ended up with the Kings in the first place. Even if the rest of mi familia thought it was odd, she was my jeina, my girl, and no one messed with her. But now she’s worse than dead.”

“So, are all of them… all of the Killers…?” I trail off, not really knowing how to finish that, but Tempest just shrugs.

“I think so, but mostly they aren’t anyone we know,” Tempest says, “but now… we have a new problem.”

“Sonata never hunts alone,” Aria’s voice comes from my arms and I look down. She looks worn out and haggard, but she still has the fire in her eyes that I admire as she pulls herself up. “I didn’t come here with one sister, I came with two, and wherever Sonata goes…”

The peal of thunder rips through the air and Aria clenches her eyes shut. “Here she comes… big sis…”

I hear something… not a scream… no, it's…

What is that?

La-la la-la la-la-la~