[October 31st, 1990]

"Jae," Jack let out in a short, quick manner as he lightly slapped her cheek. "Jasey. Jasey Rae." She coughed, her lips more cracked and dry than before.

"J-Jack, I am f-f-fine." She reached up and grabbed at Alex's hands for help up. He was squatting beside her and Jack now, drenched in sweat and scared out of his mind. Despite Jasey's attempt to get his help up, Alex gently pushed her shoulders back down.

"Sit down, Jase. I think we should look at your leg for real first." He cocked his head at her and pouted. Seriously pouted. He felt terrible. Looking at this poor girl lying in a pool of her own blood at the foot of a staircase in a house she didn't even agree to break into.

"N-No, I-I, it's fine. W-Where is Ri?" She asked as Jack shoved a water bottle into her hands and insisted that she drank. Knowing Rian would be less interested in helping her out with the gory parts, but helping her physically out of the house, she placed extra emphasis on his name. Unbeknownst to her though, this would feel like a stab in the chest for Alex.

"Can I have your flashlight?" Jack asked him without even looking up at Alex at all. He kept his eyes focused on Jasey's making sure she wouldn't pass out again as she had there a few minutes ago.

"Why? Where's yours? Don't tell me you're not using it to walk around? It's one thing to be drunk, bu-"

"Tipsy." Jack corrected. "And... I did have it, I just dropped it when I heard Jasey screaming." Jack still hadn't mustered up the courage to tell the rest of the group that he had no clue where the screams he had heard came from and where the hell Rian and Zack were.

Or what the hell grabbed his arm.

Jack shook it off and took Jasey's flashlight from her backpack as she stuttered in protest. It was lucky for him that she was too injured to actually put up a fight.

As they shined the light on her leg, both boys felt nauseous. Alex didn't like blood to begin with, but this was another thing. The scarce amount of flesh that was actually left on Jasey's leg was almost all turned purple and greenish already and clearly starting to bruise. Glass was scattered in and out of each largess cut. It was so swollen that her leg looked like it was quite literally about to pop. Blood gushed out of every single spot you could think of. Alex mentioned something of a tourniquet, but Jack shook his head, insisting that that might make her lose her leg. To which Jasey nearly passed out again.

She was very fortunate for her high pain tolerance now.

Jack shook his head yet again. He stood up.

"Pick her up." Jack demand.

Alex looked up at the other boy.

"Wha-"

"Alex, pick her up. We're leaving."

"W-W-what, n-no!" Jasey cried. She grabbed her backpack up off the floor where Jack left it and squeezed it to her chest. Of course, she wanted out, but not without Zack and Rian.

"Jasey, I don't wanna hear it. We need to go, right now." Jack started walking away, though he wasn't really sure where he was going. If he wanted to leave, he would need to find the other boys because he knew, more than anything else, that Jasey wasn't leaving without Rian. Where they were, he had no clue, but he would have to know exactly where fast. Jack hadn't even seen the whole house yet, so God also only knew how long it would take to find them. "Alex," Jack sneered impatiently. His anxiety was getting him to him.

Alex dug his knees into the ground, finally giving his heels a break from the squatting. He placed a kind hand on Jasey's cheek. "Next year," he promised. "Next Halloween, I'll make it up to you."  Alex stood up, his feet aching from the previous position he was in, and suddenly Jasey felt her body leave the ground. Bridal style. How fitting.  

Thunder crashed outside.

"N-no, p-p-put me on your back." Jasey figured it would be less of a hassle for him that way. Alex looked down at the girl resting in his arms.

"Why?" The boy laughed a snorty sort of laugh. "I like this better." He began walking over to where Jack was standing, staring out onto the first floor below them.

"Okay, lovebirds, I get it," Jack rubbed his temples in anguish. "We need to find Rian a-"

"F-F-Find?" Jasey pushed against Alex's chest with the hand closest to him and kicked her good leg out. Alex's grip on her thigh and arm tightened. She was so strong, but no match.

"Yeah, find," he mocked. "Just like I had to find you when you were fucking screaming at the top of your lungs."

Jasey launched the water bottle Jack had previously forced her to drink from, nearly hitting him square in the face.

"Yo, what the fuck?" Jack clenched his fist around the bottle, thankful to know that Jasey's cannon of an arm was still working, and walked over to the pair. "Listen, I want to get the hell out of here right now, and you acting like this isn't gonna do jack shit." Jack's whole face went red as he walked away again, "Now follow me Lex, so we can just find Rian and Zack and go back to my house already. Jesus."

Jasey squeezed her eyes shut. Alex pursed his lips together as he watched her do so. She felt bad for throwing the bottle at him, but she was so upset with him for losing her Rian. How could he just not know where they were? Find.

The trio marched through the house. Over suspicious-looking items, blood, glass, dust, cups, cans, literal shit, dead animals, you name it. The further they walked into the house searching, the more scared they were all beginning to feel. Could Rian and Zack really have gone this far? Could they really not be making this much noise? It wasn't like them to stay quiet, after all. Could they really not have heard Jasey or Jack's screams?

Jasey shook with fear against Alex's chest, but he was too worried about upsetting Jack more to help calm her down in any real way, all he could do was hold her tighter. But the shaking didn't stop, which only served to fuel his own fear.

Jack could physically feel the sickness creeping along inside him. The pressure of finding the other two, making sure Jasey's leg was okay, getting everyone home safely; literally, everything, on top of the guilt he felt for bringing them here in the first place, was all just sitting right on his shoulders. Not to mention the nausea he was still feeling for finding the blood in the bathroom. 

And that horrid smell. Why wouldn't it go away? It seemed as if the further they went into the house, the worse it got. Nobody could remember a time they'd ever smelt something as bad as this.

Well, Jasey could. That time she found her mother's body just hanging there, lifeless in the master bathroom.