This chapter contains vulgar language.

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Cold sweat was dripping over your body. Your hands felt clammy, unable to get a good, tight grip on the metal bar in your hand. You licked your lips, tasting the salt and fear as your eyes frantically searched from left to right.

You were at some sort of crossroad... No... You were at some sort of dungeon. Four hallways, all coming together at one spot. The point you were standing at right now. Darkness was surrounding each and every corridor, making it impossible for you to look through.

You heard them...

You heard her...

But you had no idea where she was coming from.

The laughter came closer and closer yet seemed so far away. It sounded as if she was right next to your ear... And then it sounded like she was miles away. You were preparing for the hit, preparing to use your strength to knock the little fucker down.

When is the time to strike?

Another laughter was heard close to you and before then-

Out of the darkness sprung a figure, the only thing you saw were a few razor sharp teeth and a flash of pink-

A loud gasp awakened you from your terrifying dream, the world slowly reforming into the small bedroom which was now your home. The sweat was dripping off of your forehead and your heart felt like it was hammering in your ribcage.

You continued to pant, as your hand slid over your face to feel if everything was still in place. You were unsure whether it was a nightmare but a grunt next to you made you realize that it all happened in the dream sequence.

"What's wrong?" The adrenaline slowly seeped out of your body as your blood pressure lowered, you were still crawling up from that terrible experience.

"I... I had a nightmare. I'm... Fine now." You noticed how dry your throat was, as swallowing became increasingly hard. A cold, dark chill crept up your spine for no good reason at all, but you suddenly felt very unsafe.

"Yeah... You look like shit." You almost didn't hear Jeff's words as you kept staring at the wall in front of you. This... Terror you were feeling didn't die out soon enough and it made you extremely uneasy. As if it was a harbinger of something atrocious.

"Just lie down." His words flew right past you, unable to catch on. There was only one thing that caught your attention and that was-

"For fuck's sake, here." A hand was felt on your shoulder and you were roughly pulled back into the mattress. Your mind was completely resetting again, now wondering what the hell Jeff was trying to do.

Something was felt underneath your neck. Your body was extremely close to Jeff's, making lying down like this somewhat uncomfortable.

He was... Wrapping his arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him as if you were... 'just chilling' together. If stars would suddenly appear on the ceiling, glimmering brightly as his warmth protected you from the cold then the whole 'teenage romance' would be complete.

This all would be somewhat sweet if it wasn't as equally awkward.

Being in Jeff's arms like this made you forget the uneasy feeling for a few minutes. His dark aura had become more and more familiar over time, one that you recognized and almost cherished. It was the only one which was somehow stable and as long as that one was engulfing you, the other obscurity looming in the distance was kept at bay.

This false sense of security comforted you and while you tried to fight it, your eyes began to close more and more. You felt his warmth, his body against yours. His smell that consisted of blood, sweat and some grassy dirt filled your nostrils and while you normally despised it... It reminded you of him.

Of how he saved you, of how he protected you... Of how he tortured and humiliated you, only to scoot up to you again. Of how he made sure you had nothing, of how he made sure you WERE nothing anymore. How he took away your life and self-worth, only to create a new one with him in it.

Of how he was your demise and your savior all at the same time.

Listening to his soft breaths caressing your earlobe you let yourself be dragged into the darkness. Somehow knowing that this safety wouldn't last long and that this time... You wouldn't get away as easily as before.

~~

Your eyes shot wide open when you felt tremors in the floor. Your body reacted heavily to it, your alarm bells going off like crazy. You were completely awake and ready to react.

Without hesitation, you turned your head back, the adrenaline giving you new found energy. Your eyes widened in terror a you saw that the door was wide open, black tentacles creeping inside the room and closing in on you.

Before you even had the time to react one of them wrapped itself around your ankle, giving a harsh tug and shoving you roughly over the floor. You reacted by screaming loudly, trying to dig your nails into the floorboards until your fingers bled.

A white flash suddenly engulfed your sight as you heard someone scream in the distance. Your vision returned slowly and as the moon shed light onto your pale fingers you noticed what was going on.

You were lying onto the cold floor, your fingers dug painfully deep into the wood. A cold, imaginary blanket was spreading over your body and whilst panting loudly, you dared to take a quick look over your shoulders towards the door.

It was closed tightly.

You turned your head back, looking at your hands as if you had seen water burning. Still dazed from whatever had happened just a few seconds ago. You blinked a few times, hoping that what you saw in front of you was genuine.

Were you going crazy? Was it just a memory, or a trick of the mind? Impossible... Then how could you be lying on the floor in the exact same position you had imagined? Were you sleepwalking that bad that you reenacted the scene in real life too?

You quickly tried to scrabble up, almost stumbling over your own feet to take one quick look at the door again. It was shut tight. It was closed. No other sign of a struggle was present, only you lying there and desperately hanging on.

Your gaze shifted to the bed, which was surprisingly empty.

Where was Jeff?

Did you fall asleep? Did he left while you were still dreaming? That must be it...

Your hand went towards your head, feeling If there was any trauma that might have caused you to hallucinate this... Memory? You felt nothing out of the ordinary, but this only caused you to be more erratic.

You wanted to hide it, you wanted to be indifferent towards it... But it was now impossible. You had noticed how you were struggling with separating reality from fiction and the other way around, you didn't know what was real anymore.

The nightmares, the hallucinations and the flashbacks of everything that had happened before were chaotically drifting through your mind and you felt like they were taking over more and more.

What the fuck is going on!

Are you going crazy? Are you so bend in the mind that you are imagining things now? Why was this happening to you? Was it just a dream? Just a fucking realistic dream based on something you had gone through?

Was this some sort of PTSD?

You plopped down onto the bed, hands covering your face as you couldn't help but to let out a few tears. You thought you had shed them all, you thought that you were completely empty, a void with no emotions once you had sealed that deal with Jeff.

But this... This had hit home hard.

You were slowly losing yourself to the demons plaguing your mind. You were slowly falling deeper and deeper into the endlessness this life had brought you. There was no light anymore, nothing to fight or live for. Only your sad, pathetic self.

You aren't going crazy. You aren't going crazy. You aren't going crazy. You aren't going crazy. You aren't going crazy. You aren't going crazy. You aren't going crazy. You aren't going crazy. You are going crazy.

"I'm NOT crazy!"

The sound of your own voice startled you and you shook your head to get rid of those nasty thoughts. You wiped away a few tears, but they kept coming, sniffing loudly as your gaze was focused on the door at the end of the room.

You slowly stood up, wobbled over to the bathroom door and clipped on the lights. The mirror in front of you was broken, shattered if not for only one piece in the corner. It was that time when Jeff was enraged, that time he did not know how to translate his feelings and just went hulk on everything.

Your hand went over to the small glass, wiping away the dust and dirt for as far as that could. You were staring at yourself, at your reflection. The girl in front of you was somehow a stranger, totally unrelated to the happy, bubbly girl you used to be.

You were a mere shell of your old self, a mere husk of once a human being.

You kept staring at yourself, kept staring at the girl in front of you. The more time you were spending in this hellhole the more you began to lose yourself. You had given up everything for your friends and family and didn't doubt for a second that you would do it again if given the chance.

But living like this... You had accepted it without even thinking of the consequences, but you had no idea they were weighing that hard on your shoulders. What good is living like this if you aren't really alive?

Maybe... It would be better... To just... End your suffering? Your eyes traveled down to one of the broken pieces of glass lying in the sink. With just one swift cut it would all be over... But do you have the guts to do it?

Do you have the guts to cut the ties with Jeff, to completely give up on ever seeing your parents and friends again? You had given up already but... As long as you were still breathing, there always would be a small if not miniscule chance you would see your family again.

You slowly grabbed the piece of mirror, looking at it in your hands. This would've once been used as a powerful weapon, but there were no more fights to fight. Holding the piece vertically in front of your face you saw your reflection staring back at you.

Alongside with a young girl in a pink dress.

Your breath was stuck in your throat, your reflection looking as shocked as you were feeling right now. The girl behind you wasn't exactly looking at you, her long, brown hair falling over her face as she seemed to be staring at the ground.

You instantly remembered who she was, you instantly knew why this girl was here. The hell bred infant of the house, wanting to 'play' with you and tricking you into helping her. All this only so she could rip you apart later.

Being accompanied by that tentacle man.

Sally.

Without even wasting a second, you turned around, facing the little girl as if to make sure she was real. As if to make sure your brain wasn't playing tricks on you again. Your heart was pumping fast inside of your ribcage and you wanted to squeeze yourself in order to see if you were dreaming.

She can't be here. It is impossible. That was not part of your agreement... They would leave you alone.

You only stared at the girl with fright, the cold sweat engulfing your small frame. She wasn't real, she was just a fragment of your imagination. Something you so deeply feared that your memory had recreated her in front of you.

In a moment you would wake up and stand in front of the mirror with the shard placed in your hand. You would doubt your mind again, you might even cry again for reliving such a terrible experience. She was not real. She is not real. She is just...

Your...

Imagination...

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Again my apologies for the long wait, I've discussed it in my activity.

What do you guys think? Is Sally really a fragment of our imagination?

Like I said before, this is the second-last chapter before the ending, so what do you guys think is going to happen? The last chapter will take a lot of time, considering it will be published together with all the endings. What I want to to for the endings is: I'm going to make a small quiz, based on the decisions you have made throughout this story.

These decisions combined, whether you died or not, show you the ending! To repeat: there are 4 different endings:

1. Good ending.

2. Bad ending.

3. Canon ending.

4. Heroic ending.

It will take some time before I have written it all en made the quiz but I sure do not hope to take months again. Anyway this will be the last update ever before the ending...

Prepare your anus.

Have a terrific day, darlings.