'BOOM' you shove the bomb in the phantoms throat and it explodes a few seconds later which ended up with its insides exploding all over your face as you rub the blood off and look at tyler.

"tyler! are you-" you choke on your spit when you see the sight before you. the tree was entirely through his body and you could see his organs on the outside.

you gag and turn away. "ash!" you let out a choked cry and she comes running from behind the corner. "n/n! are you okay? what happened-" "where's the syringe?" "what's wrong?!"

she grabs your shoulder with worry and looks at tyler, only to get out a choked gag. you continue digging in her bag to look for the syringe as the others come shortly after and see the sight.

you get the syringe and gesture for aiden to place the stairs by the tree so you could get tyler down. he trembles and walks over to the tree with you and places it down.

"n/n you steady?" aiden asks with a worried look as he holds the stairs steady. you climb up the stairs with the syringe and gently grab tyler's arm, "we're gonna get you down ty, don't worry." "...okay."

you swallowed down the sting of tears, focused on keeping your hands steady as you wrapped an arm around him, feeling the unnatural twist in his torso, the dampness of his blood pooling over your fingers. 

you tried not to look, but there it was — torn skin, severed muscle, the hollow of what used to be his stomach. your mind screamed, but you forced herself to breathe.

"it's okay." you whisper, half to him, half to yourself. "i've got you." not really. because as you pulled him upward, carefully working to lift him off the branch, he gasped, his body jolting, and you fingers slipped, nearly losing him. 

the hot, slick sensation of his blood was everywhere now, smearing over your hands, your clothes. your eyes blurred. you blink hard, refusing to let the tears come. 

tyler was looking at you, still holding on with what little strength he had, and you owed it to him to stay strong.

with one last desperate pull, you lift him off, feeling the horrifying shift as his torso slid free from the branch with a sickening squelch. 

a strangled groan escaped his lips, and you had to force yourself not to shudder, keeping your arms steady, carrying his weight as you carefully climbed down the stairs.

as you reached the bottom, your legs gave out and aiden was there, grabbing tyler from you and easing him down onto the ground, all while keeping a knowing eye on you.

you sank to the ground, your hands bloody and shaking. tyler was alive, yes, but barely. and you could still feel the ghostly pressure of him in your arms, the horror of his lifeless weight mixed with the faint beat of his heart. 

aiden knelt down beside you, his hand on your shoulder, grounding you, his presence a quiet reassurance. "you did good, n/n. you did... all you could." he says, his voice steady though his own eyes were dark with grief and fear.

that was all it took. the sob tore through you, fierce and ugly as you buried your face in your hands, not caring about the blood or the grit or the shame of breaking down. 

aiden's arms were around you in an instant and he held you, his touch steady and firm, letting you sob until the grief and horror were drained dry.

you put your face in his chest and after a while of gasping you stand back up with aiden and look at ben who had tyler on his back. "yOu-.... you got him?" you cringe at your voice crack. he nods in response.

"..another phantom." logan says while aiming his gun at the phantom nearing. he narrows his eyes and then shoots it down. ashlyn looks around, "alright let's hurry. more phantoms are showing up."

"we need to get to the school." you had spent at least ten minutes in finding a car that could take you to the school since the jeep was no longer working.

"ah! i see one!" "does it have the keys?" "yeah!" you all see a red car that only had like six seats which meant that two people were going to have to sit in the back of the pick up truck (the car model).

probably you and logan.

you jump into the back of the pickup truck and excitedly cheer, "field trip!!" your voice was choked and you had a voice crack, almost as if you were going through puberty all over again.

logan lets out a disappointed sigh (you just saw tyler's organs, how are you so excited?) but he was smiling as he jumps into the back as well. 

you hear ashlyn and aiden talking about something about how she was nervous to drive again so instead aiden drove....

"LOGAN IF I DIE PLEASE KISS ME! IT'S MY DYING WISH!" "WHAT?!?" 

you and logan were holding onto each other for dear life as aiden drives like 300 miles per hour or something (melodramatic).

a few minutes had gone by already and when you and logan sat down in the back you were leaning against the wall (?) behind you but after aiden stepped on it you were both thrown forwards.

which leaves to now. you and logan were hugging each other as aiden picked up the speed and swerved into the school's parking lot which made you and logan slide to the left side.

until the car came to a stop and you were both sent forwards again. "oww..." you groan and hold your head that got sent face first into the floor (idk man). logan groans in pain and adjusts his glasses.

"we're here!" aiden cheers. you can hear them mumbling from inside the car but all of a sudden the smell of rotting and burning flesh entered your nostrils. you look at logan and put a finger in front of your lips.

"shh..." you shush him. he tilts his head confused so you use the same hand to tap on your nose while looking around. when he finally gets it he nods and stands up, jumping out of the pick up truck while making no noise.

he holds out his hand to you and you take it, he helps you get down from the back while putting a hand on your waist before letting go.

ben's dad had an idea to use the school's football field lights to ward off the centipede creature. since the generator for the school bus graveyard worked, the theory is that the generator for the school lights will work too.

time has stopped so the power supply isn't running, but i guess due to the paradox, the generator still thinks that power is being fed to the lights.

the plan is to manually shut down the power supply so the generator will recognize that there's no power and the alternator will kick on automatically.

to do that though, we need the keys to the control room. taylor knows where coach usually keeps them, since she hangs around tyler and the team so often.

currently you and the others were wandering around in the school while following taylor who was guiding you all. "how much further?" ashlyn asks her. "down this hallway and a couple more classrooms down." taylor replies.

you, of course, were walking beside logan since the author is starting to like logan more than tyler ("author improvement"? i think not).

all of a sudden it gets darker on your right side so you look out the window and see the centipede looking phantom creature staring at you all through the window.

"RUN!" ashlyn yells so you start full on sprinting ahead of them all while holding logan's hand, feeling deja vu since this already happened once. 

"this shit stinks!" you scream at the phantom while holding your nose. and for a split second the phantom stopped to look at you shocked but then continued chasing you all.

but all of a sudden logan lets go off you and whips out his gun. he shoots at it and it hits the phantom right in its left eye so you stop running to look at it baffled as he turns to you, "y/n!"

you snap out of your throught and grab one of your grenades, using your teeth to pull out the pin before throwing it at the phantom's right eye. a loud explosion erupts and its right eye explodes.

"logan-" your words got stuck in your throat when the phantoms goey phantom blood got sent at the two of you so you both were now drenched in phantom blood. 

you sweat drop, "... sorry." "not your fault..."

you and logan run back to the others but got stopped when taylor snatched logan's sniper and aimed it at the phantom. "keep shooting. we need to injure it as much as we can." she instructs.

logan nods and whips out his gun, "... if the brain is located behind the eyes, then we might be able to at least paralyze it if we aim there." he informs so you let out a whistle and check your pockets for any other bombs that grenades.

while taylor and logan were shooting at it you found some fireworks in your left pocket by your thigh so you take them out and look at aiden. "yo aiden you got a lighter?" "y-yeah." he throws it to you.

you light the firework up and walk over to the phantom which made the two stop shooting since they could hit you. "let's see here..." you look at the phantoms eye and throw the fireworks into its eye socket.

you then cover your ears and jog away from it while taylor looks at you confused, "wha- AH!" she shrieks and covers her ears. 'BAM BOOM BAAMM BOOM BOOM' the phantom lets out a cry.

you look at the several colors that were escaping its eye socket, its brain was probably being exploded right now because of the fireworks.

after a while the explosions stopped and aiden shot you a thumbs up, "... yeah, uh. n/n it stopped moving, good job!" you jokingly bow as if you were a stage performer and walk back to the others.

he giggles, "you're actually a lot calmer nowadays, but i kinda miss my good 'ol tactical nuke.." "say that to my face and see what happens." "ah! there she is- GAH WHAT THE FUCK"

ashlyn shrugs, "to be fair she said see what happens." "I DIDN'T THINK SHE'D HIT ME IN THE FACE???"

⋆.˚✧────────✧˚.⋆

"where are they?!" taylor screeches as she flips things over trying to find out where the keys were. "coach must've moved them again!" she groans as ashlyn looks at her, "does he move them often?"

"yeah because idiots like jay and conner keeps messing with them!" she tugs at her hair. you open a cabinet and look inside, not seeing anything special other than the documents on barron.

documents on barron? you evilly giggle and check his documents.

you then close your eyes and smell the air, "aiden there's a phantom coming." "wha- oh." he stabs the phantom in its face and lets it fall down to the ground. "got it! thanks pooks." "don't call me that."

then all of a sudden the ground starts rumbling so taylor falls down on top of you which made you fall down on ashlyn who face planted on the floor.

"What the fuck???" you screech when you see the ceiling cracking, you were so scared that you even pulled out the capital letters.

"everyone get under something!" ashlyn yells while scrambling to get out from under you so you sit up to make it easier for her and then hide under a table with taylor and logan. 

your relief was short lived though. "aiden!!" you yell and run towards him while the ceiling was still cracking and falling down. you tackle him and hold his head as you feel chunks of the ceiling hitting your body. 

'i'm not letting him die, not like tyler-!' you think. the last thing you heard was heard aiden calling out to you before you lost consciousness.

⋆.˚✧────────✧˚.⋆

a/n: HAPPY NEW YEARS CHATT RAHHH🔥

chapter published. january 1, 2025