I drift out of the blood-web and back into waking reality, for certain definitions of reality. As always I’m greeted by the warmth of the campfire as the half-sleep I’d been getting used to fades into full consciousness. Lately, it was starting to feel more refreshing than the real sleep I remembered getting back in the ‘real’ world. Although that may just be because I’m not having to deal with endless streams of abuse from everybody and their goddamn dog.

Despite what I said to Sparkle, I don’t really know how long it’s been. I’ve been through a dozen trials so far. I’ve seen the Wraith twice more, but both of those times we got out scot-free. He’s easy to deal with if you’re good, and I’m a lot better than when he caught me the first time. I’ve seen the hag twice more as well and quickly learned she likes to plant little burning totems around the realm she haunts, layering deleterious effects on us. Fortunately, they’re fragile. So long as I can find them I can quickly render her ineffectual. She’s only managed to sacrifice me once, and only because she got sneaky; laying a delayed totem to activate after the gates opened that allowed her to call on far more power, laying us out in one blow.

She got three of us that time.

One of the worst ones was the freak that Tempest calls ‘The Doctor’ though. That was… rough. Halfway through the Trial, I couldn’t even tell what was real. I was seeing him everywhere, laughing at me, cackling in my ears. The heartbeat thundered from all directions. It was a miracle any of us made it out of that. I didn’t, but only because I managed to snap out of it long enough to rescue Aria from her hook and ended up taking her place. Oh well, I did tell them that was the deal, right?

Ol’ Doc isn’t the absolute worst though. I mean, believe me, I hate not being able to trust my eyes and the brutal headache-inducing electrocutions are no joke, but it’s at least… understandable. Like, I get it, it’s your thing. The worst one though? He actually scares me. Even now he scares me. The thought of showing up on his street again makes me shake a little even now. He isn’t horrifying to look at like Hag, or a grotesque like Billy, or even sadistic like Wraith.

No, the worst one is so… quiet.

We land in the middle of an open street and I’m immediately confused. I’d never seen anything like this before in the realms. They were normally fog-filled hellscapes of rot and madness. This is almost… suburban. I remember seeing neighborhoods just like this in the manicured streets on the outskirts of Canterlot. Upper-middle-class dream homes side by side in neat rows. It would look almost normal if it weren’t for the butcher hooks hanging from street lights and the police cars silently sitting by the roadsides with their lights spinning. In fact, there’s hardly any fog at all.

“No…” I hear Sour Sweet say softly from my side. “N-not… Not that thing again.”

I had tossed one of the shrouds I’d claimed from my blood-web into the campfire as the darkness fell, it usually ensured I ended up next to one of my allies. Or at least close.

“What’s up, Sour?” I crouch low next to her near an abandoned car and scan the area.

“It’s the…” she replies shakily, “the watcher. It’ll just… watch you. Watch you right up until he kills you. He’s so fast… and you can barely tell he’s there.”

“Like the Wraith?” I begin swiveling my head, checking windows and hedges.

Sour Sweet shakes her head. “No, no, there’s no warning. Nothing, just… just a knife and cold, empty eyes.”

Well, he certainly didn’t sound any worse than the other guys we went up against. Billy and his psycho chainsaw. Wraith and his horror-scythe. The Hag and her freakish twisted claw hand. This guy has… a knife? That’s almost quaint.

“Okay well, the longer we wait here the long he has to watch us, right?” I say, a little irritably. “Let’s go run up a generator.”

Sour nods and follows my lead. I’ve never been here before but I’ve gotten sharp at spotting the tower. I see one in the backyard of a house and we move towards it, slowly, keeping low and our profiles small. Sidling around the hedges that divide the houses, Sour and I move around and sure enough, there’s a generator right near the back porch of one of the empty houses. As an added bonus, there are only a few places to approach from, and there’s a pallet nearby. It’s pretty much as ideal as it can get in a ‘getting hunted by a murderer’ scenario.

“Get on the other side and keep an eye on my six,” I say quietly as I position myself front. Sour moves around to the opposite end and we get working. I roll my shoulders as I feel a weird chill run up my spine when I get into the generator.

It goes well for a minute or so before, out of nowhere, the generator sparks with a thundering bang! I pull my slightly toasty arms out, cursing. “Dammit Sour wha-!?” I look over the generator and Sour is staring over my shoulder and shaking like a leaf, back away slowly.

I swallow hard and turn my head to look behind me and… and there’s nothing. Just a hedge. “Sour, what the fuck?” I ask, turning back to her.

She points up. I follow her finger and see it. In the second floor of the house across from us, looking down is a pale and expressionless face. It moves slowly away a second later. Okay yeah, that was… weird. That was genuinely creepy.

“The fuck?” I say, unnerved. “O-okay, whatever.” I turn back to try and make up some of the progress that Sour had undone occasionally glancing up to check behind her.

There was no hedge, just an honest-to-Celestia white picket fence. I feel around inside the genny for one of the loose parts, glancing down for a moment to situate myself then look back up and nearly shit myself. It’s there. A little distant and outside of the range I might have heard the heartbeat. Watching her and us both from one of the back corners of the adjacent house. Then he leaves. Turning away and vanishing around the corner. My heart is beating like a drum. Something about that face just gives me cold sweats.

I hear the heartbeat then. Just for a moment, it sounds like it’s getting closer. I see Sour Sweet tense up and I do the same. We’re getting ready to run the moment either of us sees the Killer.

Then it’s gone. Nothing. Just… silence.

“What the fuck is up with this guy?” I mutter, but I can’t help grinning as I hear two generators explode into life across the realm. This one is wasting a lot of time. Our own generator bursts online a moment later and we’re up. “Let’s go, Sour, we’re almost there.”

Sour turns on her heel and heads for the alley behind her but as she turns the corner she stumbles back. I catch up a second later and see why.

He’s already there. Staring down at both us like caught mice in a trap. I have just enough time to think ‘Where the fuck is the heartbeat?!’ before the Killer suddenly animates like one of the protector golems of the Canterlot Armory but infinitely more terrifying. It goes from inert to a hurricane of torturous motion and ragged breath in a split second as it bursts forward with impossible speed, the heartbeat thundering into existence as he drives a thick-handled kitchen knife into Sour Sweet. There was no playing. No glancing wound. She was driven straight to the ground. He’s on me a second later as I turn tail and I feel his knife pound into my back. It’s like getting a two hundred ton stone dropped onto me with no warning. I slam into the ground, his knife nailing me to the earth as he breathes raggedly above me. I gasp soundlessly, trying to make a noise, but I can’t. All of the breath is driven from my lungs and the shock is paralysing.

The thing, the silent Shape stands mechanically, ripping the cold, smooth blade out with a wet, ‘schlick’ and then walks over to Sour and hefts her up by her neck and drapes her over its shoulder. He walks out of sight as I try and crawl away towards the street. I hear Sour Sweet shriek in pain as she’s hooked and then the heartbeat grows louder as he comes for me.

Then it dies again.

I’m surrounded by silence. I don’t know how he’s doing it but I can’t detect him. A couple of moments later I see Starlight round the corner. She looks down at me and I can see the emotions warring on her face. Does she help? Does she leave me? I try to gasp out a warning. He’s close. He has to be. I can’t make a sound though.

Then I see her eyes glance towards Sour’s hook, and her features harden. She turns on her heel and leaves me on the ground. It was what I wanted right?

Right?

A few tears track down my face anyway as the heartbeat returns and I feel the cold, powerful hands of the Shape that was lurking nearby go around my middle and lever me up on to its shoulder. It walks towards the same hook it left Sour Sweet on and I realise what happened. It’s setting a trap. Either me or Sweet. It knew someone would come for us.

But… oh shit.

We turn the corner just as Starlight is lifting Sour off of the hook, I see the terror on Star’s face as she hears the heartbeat get louder but she’s already bearing the majority of Sour’s weight. If she let go and tried to run they’d fall in a heap.

I feel the thing’s face cock slightly as it slows down, almost purposefully, and then lunges forward just as Sour’s feet touch the ground. Slamming her ruthlessly back to the earth as Starlight staggers away with a cry of panic. He slams me onto the hook and I shriek as the stained metal pierces my flesh and I see him pursue her.

Just like before he accelerates. It’s like whatever unholy will is animating his body suddenly gets a jolt of juice; he tears forward and drives the knife into her, slamming Starlight brutally into the asphalt and spiking her there. Hefting her up, he walks a little ways down the street and towards another hook. Another Survivor to feed the Entity is slammed on the unforgiving metal.

Then he walks… away. He vanishes behind a hedge and into the house. I want to cry out a warning but I can barely move. Sour is beneath me, weeping as she crawls towards the back yard. The heartbeat is gone. I can still see him. Standing so painfully still in the window. Almost invisible to the street. He’s watching us.

No… not again. Please, Tempest just finish the last two generators. Let at least one of us get out. Please.

But, of course, she doesn’t. I see her edge around one of the cop cars towards me. From where she is on the other side of the street I know she can’t see him standing in the window. He can’t see her yet either but that doesn’t matter.

He will.

As Tempest closes in on me I groan. “D-don’t,” my voice is a ghost of a whisper. “T-Tempest don’t…”

“It’s okay, mi sol,” Tempest says quietly, “I’ll get you down, just hold still.”

He stares at her back. His eyes are cold and black.

“N-no,” my voice is still so painfully quiet. “You don’t…” Tempest gets under me and starts to heave. “You don’t get it. He’s here.”

Then he moves. Just like every other time he explodes into motion. Tearing out of the house he lunges for Tempest who cries out, staggering back to try and run but to no avail. His knife digs deep and drives her down.

No one got out that time.

I shudder as I remember the feel of his knife. Now I know why Sour Sweet was so scared. There was something about that… that thing that was different from the other Killers. They were almost… manic. They were physical, visceral even. But not that one. He was just a shape in the darkness. Watching and waiting. Patient and uncaring of whatever purpose the Entity commanded.

Every other Killer gave the impression that, while they enjoyed their grisly work, that they still acted under the yoke of the Entity. Small-minded and brutal they might’ve been, but ultimately they were tools of a greater malevolence.

That thing? That… Shape? No. He doesn’t kill for the Entity. I don’t think he even kills because he likes it. I think he kills because it’s just… what he does. It’s an action without purpose. A means without end.

A rote movement.

An obsession.

I think that’s the part that really scares me.

“You okay, Sunset?” Aria’s voice broke through my musing. I look up and see her staring at me through the fire. She looks a little more worn than when I first got here. We all do, though, I guess.

I nod. “Fine, just had an annoying experience in the blood-web.”

“Useless stuff?” Aria asks with her usual bitter grin.

“Pretty much,” I respond dryly. “No worries though, there’s always the next time.”

“Yeah, the next time…” Aria looks pensive as she stares at the flames. “Hey, Sunset… did I ever tell you how I got here?”

I shake my head. I didn’t really care, to be honest, maybe before all this, I would’ve but now it just seemed… unimportant.

“Back a couple… or several, I guess, trials ago, you said you jumped off a roof, right?” Aria continues, and I scowl. I don’t like being reminded of that place. “Sorry,” she says, probably seeing the look on my face. “Just… I figured you deserve to know how I and my sisters got here.”

“I don’t think you ever told any of us,”Tempest's voice breaks in as she sits up, waking from her own blood-web. “Why the sudden urge to share?”

Aria shrugs. “Dunno, maybe I just want someone to know. Figure it might as well be all of you losers, y’know?”

“Sure, why not,” I answer, getting comfortable as Starlight and Sour Sweet join us as well. “At least it’ll pass the time til the next trial.”

“Right,” Aria agrees uneasily, “so… it was actually just a month after the Battle of the Bands, right? We were in a… pretty bad place…”

As always, Adagio was leading us, but Sonata and I could both see the loss of our magic and the resulting loss of all of our power and influence had hit her pretty hard. We’d been living in a small apartment that we’d acquired more out of convenience for its nearness to Canterlot High than anything else and we knew our last enchantment that was keeping the landlord thinking we were paid up would fall off soon. Then he’d realise we had no lease and no ID’s, no anything.

The moment that happened we knew we were screwed so we’d been looking for another place to live. Sonata made sure we had money, the problem was papers. Our identities had never mattered before but that’s because we had our magic to slide past that little obstacle. Now though? Now we were literally illegal aliens who, basically, didn’t exist as far as the government was concerned.

That meant we had to squat but at least we could do it in style, right?

“What is this place?” I asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. Adagio was grumpy enough as it was.

We were walking through a field, in the middle of the night I might add, towards this massive, groaning structure that looked like it was barely standing. It had an almost classically haunted look to it, y’know? Boarded up windows, ‘condemned’ signs and all the marks of urban decay.

Our fearless leader scowled back at me. “It’s called the Chateau D’if, a failed hotel venture that could prove quite useful to us.”

“Ooh, ooh, is it fancy?” Sonata, ever bubbling with optimism in the face of logic and reality, smiled as she pranced beside us. Even I could see some of it was forced, though. She was trying to put on a brave face.

“It was,” Adagio answered softly as we ducked under some chicken wire and onto the prohibited property. “Now it’s just a ruin, fortunately I have a feeling it could be made… more.”

I rubbed my chin as we approached, analysing it as much as I could from the outside. Adagio wasn’t wrong, the place looked a lot worse than it actually was. I’d have to do a real walkthrough but it looked like most of the load bearing supports were still intact. Assuming the foundations were solid I could probably manually collapses some of the weaker areas with a sledgehammer to take some strain off the main struts so long as the collapse wasn’t too extreme. I’d have to be careful.

“Is there a basement?” I ask, starting to feel a little hopeful.

Adagio shoots me a grin that’s almost normal. “There is, I checked the plans. It’s a spacious one too. There was supposed to be a bank of generators inside to provide emergency power in case there was ever a major outage.”

I actually smile for the first time in weeks. “Perfect, if even a couple of them are in good condition we could retrofit any of the bad parts using the scrapped ones and have all the electricity we need.” Getting fuel is the easy part, no papers required there. Just a big plastic tank and a bored gas station attendant.

We approached from the side and went around the edge to the back entrance loading dock. It was closed but the metal shutter sealing it off had partially collapsed some time ago. Thanks to that, we got in easily enough and started exploring the place. I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty much a shit hole.

Seriously, it was bad.

Mold everywhere. Creaking timbers. There were whole sections I had to steer my sisters around because everything about it screamed: breathe wrong and you’re dead. I’ll admit, I didn’t like the place one bit the moment we stepped in and, honestly, I’m pretty sure my sisters felt the same. The second we got in there it was like everything was darker, more… empty. It was terrible. Still, we were desperate. None of us wanted to say anything but we knew we were walking a thin line in terms of places to live. No legitimate place would accept someone on a lease without some kind of paperwork proving their existence.

Even we know that’s shady as fuck.

So we kept going, against our better judgment. No one wanted to be the one to voice a concern; Adagio because it meant she’d screwed up and her pride wouldn’t let her, Sonata because she was trying her damnedest to be optimistic, and me because I really thought I could make that place liveable. I was an idiot. I knew better than either of them and I should’ve said something.

It’s my fault they were…

Fuck, sorry, anyways.

It all pretty much went to shit when we got to the basement. We went down and it was… bad, not like environmentally, I mean… ugh, this is gonna sound stupid but spiritually. Like, we’re Sirens, with or without our gems. We used to eat up bad juju for breakfast literally. That place though? It was… sick. Of course, it wasn’t til we got down to the first sub-basement before we realised something was down there with us.

Even then, it wasn’t until we saw the generator room.

“What… what the fuck?” I knelt down in the middle of the hallway. “This is a bear trap, and an ugly one too, what kind of exterminator leaves bear traps?”

“A bear exterminator?” Sonata asked with false cheer.

Adagio and I practiced our synchronized facepalming technique. It was flawless after that many years listening to Sonata ramble.

“No, dear ‘Nata,” Adagio remarked with an uneasy laugh. “It’s probably… just… uhm…”

“Adagio, I’m gonna level with you,” I said, standing up. “There is literally no reason for that thing to be down here. This could legit kill someone. Painfully.”

“But it’s… old right?” Adagio ventured, trying her hardest to remain in control. “We can just disarm it, put it away, and keep going, right?”

I let out a slow breath. “Uh, yeah, I guess? Gimme a sec and I’ll have it.”

It took longer than I thought. It was rusty as fuck and old as balls. That thing probably hadn’t seen real work since the friggin’ eighteen hundreds. Which lead me back around to my original question of ‘what the fuck?’.

So we went deeper.

We found a set of directions that pointed us towards the generator bank which was cheering. What wasn’t were the other four traps we found along the way. None of them looked any better taken care of or newer than the first.

Then we got to the generators. Or at least. Where they were supposed to be. Instead of generators, though, there was line upon line of those bloody, fucking hooks. Each one made with a weird kind of ritual care. They didn’t look… good, I mean they looked like they were made purposefully. Even the junk that made up the main structure seemed almost religiously polished. They stank of blood too.

I hate to think about it now but back then even we weren’t that jaded. We stood there and gaped at them like stunned sheep. None of us, not even Sonata could find the words for it. We were so shocked… we never saw Him coming.

The meager lights went out immediately and I heard my sisters scream out in pain. I went down an instant later. I remember… a glimpse of something. A face. A smiling face. And then nothing. Then it was just the sinking darkness and the grip of the Entity.

“Wow,” I say, leaning back. “That’s a pretty shit deal, I wish I’d known things were gonna get that bad for you.”

Aria just shakes her head. “Nah, contrary to popular belief we never held any ill will towards you and your, uh, bandmates. Not even Adagio. She was just sore she got beaten. Sirens culture demands ‘survival of the fittest’ if you get beaten you get beaten. Griping only makes you weaker.”

I just nod, I still felt a little bad. “Huh, fair enough I guess.”

“That’s way more dramatic than me, though,” Sour Sweet pipes in with a small smile. “I was cutting through a section of the Everfree forest one day during a country retreat. I like getting around by myself, but… I got lost. I wandered for hours and eventually it got dark. I found this… place. Like a campground but old and abandoned. Thing is… Aria, what you said about the traps? Yeah, I found one. With my foot.”

We all flinch at that. “Wow, that is some hot shit, Sour, sorry to hear that,” Aria said with a groan.

“I screamed for hours but no one came,” Sour frowns, absent-mindedly rubbing her left ankle. “I thought I was gonna die there. And then I… I heard a heartbeat and I felt something grab me from behind. It was a huge arm, stained red and covered in cuts. Then the Entity took me and dropped me here.”

“I…” Starlight starts in after Sour goes quiet. She looks terrified. “I wasn’t even sure anything I was seeing here was real for the longest time.”

“Huh?” I stare at Starlight for a few minutes in confusion. “I mean I get that it’s pretty fucked up here but that aside it’s pretty, uh, visceral, y’know?”

“I woke up here one day and… and I thought it was just another nightmare,” Starlight continues. “Sometimes they were really real, especially if I missed my meds.”

“What kind of medication did that, l’strella?” Tempest finally joins in, voicing the question that’s in my own head.

Starlight just chuckles bitterly. “Anti-psychotics. I was in a psych ward. My rich parents kept me penned up there. ‘For my own good health’ my mother would say on the rare occasion she’d visit. Right, more like so you don’t have a crazy bitch daughter ruining your gala’s and social ladder-climbing.”

Tempest leans over and drew Starlight into a hug. “Lo siento, l’strella, no one deserves that.”

Tears start dropping from Starlight’s eyes as she keeps speaking. “I-I had a dream about something dark and hungry and when I woke up my room was cold and there was this… taste in the air. Like blood and rot. I thought I was hallucinating again.”

“That’s right,” Aria broke in, “we found you in Lery’s, the Doctor’s realm.”

I shudder at the thought it. I hated that flash-fried bastard, Trial’s against him were like playing a rigged game. “That’s a shitty first Trial.”

“Not as bad as it could’ve been,” Tempest remarks. “We were almost done and the Doctor was on the other side of the realm chasing Sonata at the time. She was always curiously… inured to his effects.”

Aria rolls her eyes. “That’s a polite way of saying she was already bonkers.”

“Anyway,” Starlight took a breath, wiping her eyes. “I thought I was hallucinating at first and then we made it to the campfire… It took me to the start of the next Trial to realise I had actually gone somewhere real, though.”

“How about you, Shadow?” Aria asks with a grin. That question actually does perk me up a little. I can’t deny I wondered where she came from. “Since we’re all sharing and caring.”

Tempest stares into the fire for a few moments before she responds. “I… It’s a difficult question. It happened after my family died… and-”

The thunder comes and cuts off any other words. I grimace and spit into the flame, grabbing another shroud from my collection and throwing it into the campfire to make sure I was with someone when we entered the Trial.

“Later,” I say, looking at Tempest evenly. She looks a little happy I’m even talking to her. “I’m still curious.”

Then the darkness starts to consume us, I look around, wondering who’s going to be left behind this time. Then I hear it. We all hear it.

A wail of despair and pain that cuts to the bone. I’ve never heard that one before. A new Killer?

“No… please no.”

I spin around at the sound of Aria’s voice. I’ve never heard her so terrified. So distraught. Tears are streaming down her face as she looks around the darkness, swinging her arms to try and ward it off.

“Please! Not Her! NOT HER!”

The wail comes again, and then the darkness drags us away.