Thump thump…Thump thump…Thump thump

My heart was pounding in my chest as I ran down the hallway of the hospital.

“Mama?!” I cried out, “Sal?!”

Pain was surging through my head as shadows started to build in the corners of my vision, which was rapidly blurring. 

I felt so alone, hurt, and scared as tears formed in my eyes. I ran through more and more doors until I eventually made it into a dark room…then I saw her.

“...Mama?” she was covered in blood, half her body mangled. The walls were a darker shade then the rest of the hospital, and covered in blood. Looking closer at them I noticed some of the blood spelled out words like ‘Murderer’, ‘They’re all going to die’, and ‘He’s coming’.

A loud crash came from the hallway. I jumped in surprise, and didn’t bother to turn around, I just sprinted to the bed and hid underneath.

“Here Cassy Cassy” A male voice said as it entered the room. I turned my head to see his blue sneakers, and red ripped jeans. “Come out, come out wherever you are”

I held my breath as he stopped and stood directly in front of me. I held my hands to my mouth to stop me from making any noise, but found that my face was covered in bandages.

I then heard the male chuckle lowly, then he walked to the side of the bed. I sighed quietly as he moved farther away from me, but then I felt a strong hand grab me by the leg. I screamed as he dragged me out from under the bed, and held a knife up to stab me.

I only had a quick glimpse of him. But a glimpse was enough. Enough to recognize familiar, messy, blue hair. Enough to recognize the discolored piece of his mask. Enough to recognize that it was an older version of my twin brother…Sal Fisher.

I felt a sharp pain as his knife went through my chest..and then…

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Chapter 1

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I jolted awake to see Sal was already up, and fully dressed.

“Nightmares again?” He asked me, “I saw that you were crying in your sleep”

“Nightmare” I corrected him, “It’s always the same one…” I paused for a moment, then added, “You had a nightmare too, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” He answered, “What exactly is your nightmare about?”

It took me a while to find the right words…but then one word came to mind… “Mom” 

We stayed quiet for a few seconds, but then, out of nowhere, he hugged me, and said, “..Me too…”

I uncomfortably hugged him back. We both had had issues with nightmares because of…the day mom died… but for the most part we kept it to ourselves. But, I never really told him about the part that involves him. I had always replaced that part with a dog attack instead of him attacking.

After all, a dog attack isn’t that hard to believe, and I heard from Sal that he had a dog in his nightmares too. Though, he said that the dog talks to him inside of his nightmares.

“...Sis?” I snapped out of my thought as he backed away from me a bit, then added “Are you ok?”

“I-...I’m fine, Sal” I said, truth be told, it was a lie…I just didn’t want to worry him. I tried to change the subject, “Why don’t we go see what dad is doing?”

“Ok, sure I guess.” Sal said. So off we went. We left our shared bedroom, and walked over to our father’s room. 

After knocking on the door, we entered, and Sal asked “Hey Dad, any idea on what me and Cass can do?”

“Why don’t you two introduce yourselves to the neighbors?” Our Dad suggested. “Maybe you two could make friends?”

“Ok” Sal agreed, then looked over at me as I stayed quiet.

“Ok, let’s just be honest,” I said suddenly, “Sal’s gonna make friends, not me”

“Well, I won’t just let you stay antisocial your entire life.” Dad said.

“I’m not antisocial! All I need in my social life is my family, and I’ll be fine!” I snapped back at him.

Then Sal sighed, and said, “Come on, Sis. If you’re not planning to make friends, then at least come with me so you won’t be alone.” 

“Fiiiine” I finally gave in, “But can I grab something from our room real quick?”

“Ok, I’ll be waiting at the door for you” He agreed, “Don’t take to long”

I nodded my head, then walked into our room,and got dressed. To be honest, I didn’t try that hard to look good…all I did was put on an oversized, black t-shirt with a Sanity’s Fall logo on the back that slightly revealed my left shoulder, a pair of black, ripped jeans, and black sneakers.

I was about to leave our room, but then I looked back at the small table beside my bed. I walked over, seeing my alarm clock which wasn’t ever set, and a pair of spiked headbands. I picked the headband, and placed it on top in my dark purple, wavy hair which was currently in two buns.

I then opened the drawer beneath the table, revealing a pocket knife which was neatly cleaned, and seemed to sparkle in the light of the room.

It wasn’t like I was planning to kill… It’s just that things don’t seem right here… so I grabbed the knife, and quickly shoved it into the back pocket of my jeans. It was only for protection, not for anything else…

I looked over the room one more time, talked to Gizmo, gave him a few pets, then left.

Gizmo was technically Sal’s cat, but to be honest Gizmo was a best friend to both of us. I still remember the day we got Gizmo…

Mom had died a few years before. Me, and Sal were both seeing a therapist…They said there was no hope for me…but they brought Gizmo in, and Sal seemed to be improving. After a while, they allowed Sal to take Gizmo home, and put me on several different types of pills, most of them were experimental, and did more harm than help.

There were a few pills for helping me sleep, for taking away painful headaches, for anxiety, and a few for making me “happier”, for example. But like I said, most of them didn’t work…

I walked out of our bedroom door, and saw our Dad sitting on the couch…but no Sal in sight.

“Hey Dad…Where’s Sal?” I asked him.

“Oh, I sent him out.” He answered, “He said that he’d be down on the first floor, waiting for you”

I nodded, “Ok then, see ya, Dad”

He waved goodbye as I walked out the front door of the apartment, but as I was making my way to the elevator I saw a police officer guarding apartment 403.

“Hey, what happened?” I asked him,curiously.

“None of your business” He snapped at me, then added, “Are you in some sort of gang? What’s with the stupid mask?”

I glared at him, “Gang activity thing.”

He scoffed at me, “Great, another f*cking delinquent”

“It’s a prosthetic face, Dumb*ss” I said to him, “Maybe if you actually considered things, you would actually be considered a good cop instead of guarding the scene of the crime, which by the looks like a murder scene, let’s face it”

“And how would you know what a murder scene looks like, Little girl?” He said, looking me up and down…silently judging me.

“Witnessed one…” I said, then pointed to my mask, “August 16th 1984. New Jersey”

“Who was killed?” He asked.

“None of your business” I snapped.

He just scoffed again, then grumbled to himself so I decided to leave, and go to the first floor. After a short time in the elevator, I walked out to see Sal waiting in front of Ms. Rosenberg’s apartment.

“Hey Sal” I greeted him, “I see you started without me.”

“Yeah, I spoke with Ms. Rosenberg” He said, “...she called me a girl multiple times…and she talks a lot, but she’s nice”