Will's P.O.V

"Eep!" Izzy shrieked, tripping over a tree root.

Me and Anthony quietly hid in a bush and saw Izzy fall directly in front of us.

She started crawling away. 

A moment later we saw Dan run right past us into the forest to chase Izzy.

We slowly got out of the bushes and saw Dan's heels fade into the darkness.

"Come on." I whispered motioning Anthony to follow me.

Slowly and quietly me and Anthony crawled out of the bushes. We stood up straight and dusted ourselves off. We tiptoed over to the ladder and started to climb. The higher we got, the less safe we felt.

"Hurry." Anthony whispered punching the bottom of my shoe.

"Dude! If I fall, you're coming with me!" I quickly scampered up the ladder. Finally reaching the top and pulling myself up, I looked around the room to see that it had been trashed.

Anthony had just yanked himself up.

"WOAH!" He shouted, "what the hell happened here!"

We started searching around the room to get some kind of idea of what had happened here. It honestly looked like Dan had started some what rummaging through everything, then just destroying stuff. 

Looking in the back room we had saw that the baseball bat had been put back were it should go. The shovel was gone though. It was on the ground next to Mikey's body.

The chart with Xed out faces was pulled down. Only thing that was different, was that the red maker had been used to X out all of the faces and at the bottom in big red writing it read:

'NOW THEY'LL PLAY WITH ME'

"Oh my..god." I mumbled.

"He did this so we could hang with us!? Is he crazy!?" Anthony screamed.

I rolled up the board. "Now that I think about it. We really have been leaving Dan behind." I said walking towards the ladder.

"But this is not the time. What is he going to do to Izzy!" I started raising my voice.

"Come Anthony we must go!" 

"Why did you say it like that?" He started shaking his head.

"Just come on!" I yelled jetting down the ladder.

Me and Anthony got down from the ladder and started following Dan's footprints and Izzy knee and hand prints.

As we followed them the trees started covering up the sky more and more, and we saw less and less by the second.

When we were in almost complete darkness I grabbed the sleeve of Anthony's sweater. 

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Don't want to lose you." Will chuckled.

We continued walking fast, barley seeing where we were going.

"NOO!" Izzy screamed.

"Noooo!" She continued.

We rushed to the left where we had heard the sound. Trees and branches swinging through our faces. All we heard was yelling from that direction.

"LET GO!" Izzy yelled.

"NO!" Dan yelled back.

By the time we got to the bush, it was almost pitch black and Dan and Izzy were nowhere to be found. 

"What?" Anthony questioned, "where'd they go?"

We squinted our our eyes trying to make sure we didn't miss anything, I heard thumping straight ahead. I started dragging Anthony by his sleeve but he understood where we were going and started running with me. 

We slowed down and started to walk and we heard loud wailing. Someone was crying. It started getting a bit lighter, I guess we were near the exit. When we saw almost full light. We noticed exactly where we were, the same path we used to come in. 

We froze in our tracks when we saw Dan in the middle of the path, on his knees with his hands on his face, balling his eyes out. We didn't want him to come after us so we slowly approached him.

"Dan," I started, "are you okay?"

He looked up at me with watery eyes.

"I just wanted to play!" He cried.

"You mean hang." Anthony corrected. 

"Whatever!" He wailed.

The tears continued streaming down his face, he tried his best to wipe them away. 

"We don't have time for this," Anthony spoke, "where's Izzy?"

"She ran! She ran away from me!" He pointed towards the exit.

Anthony started walking. "Dude!" I shouted.

I pointed towards Dan. 'We can't just leave him like this.' I mouthed. 

'Yes we can.' He mouthed back.

He turned his back and continued his walk. 

I looked at Dan, then back at Anthony. 

I sighed, pretended like I didn't see him and walked around him.

*Izzy's P.O.V*

I just left Will and Anthony in there. Alone, in the dark forest, with Dan.

Should I go back? I thought, staring back at the entrance. 

"I should! They would do the same for me!" I yelled. 

I slowly started walking towards the entrance. When I saw them walk out. 

"WHERE WERE YOU!" We shouted simultaneously. 

"Hm? Where was I where were you!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

"We were in the fort seeing what the hell happened in there!" Anthony yelled back.

"Oh, so you didn't hear my screams for help." 

"Well, we thought you could handle it, considering you've killed someone before?" Will said. 

"Guess what?! I fear death to you know!" I started huffing a bit.

Silence...

"So what did you guys do with Dan anyway? Is he...dead?"

"No," Will started, "he was crying, like, really hard. When we went up to the fort we saw writing. And Dan did all this so we could hang out with him more."

"He's lonely." Anthony added.

"So before...he wasn't going to kill me?" I said looking back at the entrance. 

"I guess not." Will tilted his head.

"Well, it's late. We gotta go." Anthony stretched and yawned.

"I guess you're right." I mumbled starting to walk home.

Tonight was so much to process at once. I felt sick and I had a headache from all the yelling. My clothes had been torn through the branches, my hair had been dragged through mud and dirt and clothes were covered in Mikey's blood, dirt and mud. And my ankle was killing me. It looked like I had been through my own personal horror movie. 

I started limping faster and faster with the guys right by my side. 

"Here." Will offered, throwing my arm over his shoulder helping me walk.

I don't think I'll be allowed to go to Anthony's house ever again. 

"Do you guys hear that?" Anthony asked.

 "Hear what?" Will replied, stopping to listen.

We started hearing a scratching sound off the pavement.

"What is that?" I turned me and Will around. 

All three of us peered towards one of the dim street lights right next to entrance of the forest. A dark shadowy figure loomed out of the darkness. It was Dan, he was dragging a bloody ax against the pavement. 

"Dan? Whatcha doing buddy?" Anthony asked. 

There was no reply, but when we saw Dan's face, he didn't look to happy. His face was red and damp from all the tears that ran down his face. 

"Dan?!" I shouted.

Dan started taking bigger steps and walking much faster towards us. 

I turned pale as a ghost.

"Run." I whispered. 

"RUN!" I yelled.

"Wait. Remember how scary he looked last time guys? He wasn't even coming after us." Will stood his ground as Dan came closer.

I whipped my arm off of Will's shoulder and transferred over to Anthony.

Slowly we started backing up as Dan got closer, Will still standing his ground.

"What's the plan?" Anthony whispered.

"I don't know. Let's just see how this plays out."

Will started walking towards Dan, when they finally met in front of each other they stopped. For a moment or two, there seemed to be some talking. 

"Seems to be going well." Anthony narrated. 

 Just as Anthony jinxed the situation, Dan raised his axe.