Chapter
2 – Die with Me if You Love Me
Their recent experience with a past
memory has dropped them into the living room of the house. With seemingly
everything working against him, Peter goes through different plans in his head.
Rebecca patiently waits for her next tool to attempt to kill him with while
keeping them in place. She then uses the string connecting them to pull him
closer and hold him. Because she isn’t doing bad, Peter reluctantly holds her
as he just assumes that she isn’t planning anything, an assumption based solely
on his feelings.
“Did you know about this, Rebecca?”
Peter whispers in Rebecca’s ear, “Did you know that if we died together then we
would be reliving our memories together forever?”
“I knew about it, but I didn’t know
that the house was alive.”
“Why do you want to do this?”
“Because I love you and I hate you.
I want to spend the rest of eternity with you and I want to kill you for taking
up so much of my mind that I can’t think of anything else.”
“I can hear you two you know?” the voice
in the house says, “Fulfill your dream. You can do it without my help.”
“Okay.”
“Rebecca…urck!”
Rebecca initiates a memory where
she and Peter where hugging each other at the front door of Peter’s mom’s house,
except this time, she’s imagined that she’s stabbing Peter in the chest with a
knife. There isn’t any blood, or a stab wound as Rebecca imagines the knife stuck
in his chest. Peter tries to imagine the knife out of the existence of the memory,
but it’s in conflict with Rebecca’s will to kill him.
“Please, this is for the best. Don’t
make it any harder than it has to be,” Rebecca says.
“No…it doesn’t have to be this way,”
Peter says while in excruciating pain.
Using her own force against her,
Peter uses Rebecca’s want for the knife to be in Peter’s chest to make it go in
him then he spits it out of his mouth.
“Why don’t you want to die for me?
Don’t you want to be happy with me?”
“Not like this.”
Peter tries to imagine restraints
on Rebecca, but she counters it by imagining them together. She then imagines them
in one of the fighting video games they used to play together. Rebecca is her
favorite character while Peter is his.
“I like it, Rebecca,” the voice in
the house says, “I’ll make it so that if your health bar runs out then you die.
It’s a win-win scenario.”
The game begins the fight to the
death. Peter tries to imagine something different, but Rebecca’s constant
attacks keep breaking his concentration. He fights against her while also
fighting against her imagination and manages to get the upper hand. They’re
almost out of the game and somewhere different until Rebecca uses a special
move that takes out a good chunk of Peter’s health. Both he and Rebecca are
close to death, so plays both offensively and defensively, making sure to take
only small bits of her health while taking as few hits as possible until he
successfully manages to break them out of the game and back into the house. He
imagines that they’re kids playing video games at night.
“Peter, Rebecca! We’re going out now!
Don’t stay up too late!” Peter’s mom says.
“We won’t,” they both say.
Rebecca’s and Peter’s parents leave
the house and they continue playing for a bit.
“Do you want to get something to
eat and drink?” Peter asks.
“Are we allowed to bring food into
your room?” Rebecca asks.
“Mom never told me not to so we
can.”
“Let’s go then!”
When they head downstairs, they
hear creaking and noises that aren’t made by them.
“Is that you Peter?”
“No.”
Rebecca clings to Peter.
“Who is it then?”
“It’s probably just the house.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Kill him, Rebecca,” a voice in the
house says.
“I know I heard something!”
“It’s nothing.”
Peter struggles to keep the memory
going as Rebecca and whatever is in control of the house fight him. The two
then find something in the kitchen. They then hear something going on outside.
Going out to investigate, they find that the neighbors are having a party. The
entire backyard is lit up with a variety of lights with music playing to add to
the mood.
“Wow, they have stars! I have to
ask them where they got them!” Rebecca says.
“We can ask them later. It looks
like they’re having their own party,” Peter says as he tries to go back inside.
Rebecca runs outside and dances underneath
the light to the music. Seeing all the fun she’s having with it, Peter runs out,
dances, and sings with her.
Wonderful
beauty
Living
star, shining sun
Let
me dance with you in the sky
Let
me keep you happy
Keep
smiling
Keep
shining on
Let
your grace be known to the universe
Don’t
grow cold and go dark
You are the light of my life
My guidance when the sky is dark
The one my life is tied to
The one I will love forever
Illustrious
light
Living
star, shining sun
Will
you always rise in the morning?
Will
you always be there when the night comes?
Never
stop shining when you’re surrounded by darkness
Stay
strong even when you start feeling weak
Lean
on me when you need help
Let
our lights cast out our enemies
They
cannot break us apart
They
cannot defeat us when we’re together
Living
Star, Shining Sun
You
are the light of my life
My
guidance when the sky is dark
The
one my life is tied to
The
one I will love forever
Living
Star, Shining Sun
May
you shine on eternally
Let
your love be known to all
Let
us give warmth to those we love
Let
us be the light of hope for others
Let
us dance in the sky and love each other from now until forever
After they tire of dancing, Rebecca
notes that, “We didn’t dance to this song then. We danced to it not too long
ago.”
The scene changes to what Rebecca
remembers. The two were teenagers when they drove out to a clearing in the
forest where no one would bother them.
“Yeah, but it was also at that time
as well. That’s why I chose that song to dance to.”
“Oh…”
“Rebecca. You don’t need to listen
to the voice in the house. We can get out of this.”
“How come you never asked me to be
your girlfriend?”
“I always saw you like family. It would
feel weird to me if we got married.”
“But you always talked to me about
being together forever. I thought you loved me.”
“I do! But…”
“But what? This is why I hate you and
love you. You never did take it another step. We were just family who saw each
other every now and then and it was killing me. We wouldn’t see each other for
months and when we did, it was the best, but then we had to be separated again.
I wish our parents would’ve just sent us to the same school and lived in the
same area. They just had to put a lot of distance between us.”
“Hey, I feel the same way.”
“Then let’s die together.”
“No, not like this.”
“I only have eyes for you, Peter.
Even though my parents kept me away from other boys, they didn’t need to worry.”
“My parents did the same for me,
but with girls. I was never interested in any of the girls at school or in the
neighborhood, so they had nothing to worry about.”
“So if we feel the same way, then
what’s stopping you?”
“It’s like I said, we were basically
family. Plus, our relationship felt forced.”
“She’s trying so hard to convince
you to be her husband and you’re giving her the runaround. Let me help make
this easier on you two,” the voice in the house says.
Back in the house, the two find
themselves in a hallway. The hallways enclose them with spikes on the walls.
“Now, there is no possible escape. Simply
push him into the spikes or just push yourself in. Your death will be quick
like receiving a needle from the doctors,” the voice instructs.
Peter tries to feel the walls for a
possible exit while Rebecca’s thoughts about the past have her thinking about
what she should be doing. She then tries pushing Peter into the spikes, but he
grabs onto the table next to him to catch himself.
“Rebecca!”
“Just die already!”
A painting next to her gives her the
knife it was holding. She takes it and pulls him toward her with the string
between them and tries to stab him. He blocks her with one hand, but his other
hand is restrained by a shadow in a painting behind him that’s come down from
the wall. The other paintings and pictures on the wall watch the struggle and
cheer for Rebecca.
“You can do it!” they say.
“Finish him.”
“You can be with him forever now!”
“You’ll never know pain or
suffering!”
“You can be free from the world!”
“You’ll never have to worry
anymore.”
“Just imagine how happy you’ll be.”
Peter tries to make Rebecca
remember their time together to stop her. Though they may be few, he knows that
she values them the most. Memories of laughter, dancing, friendship, and play.
They may have fought a couple of times, but no friendship is free from that.
These memories that flood into her mind get her to drop her knife and throw
herself into the spikes, but Peter stops her by pulling on the string between
them.
“Why? Why are you still trying to
save my life?” she asks.
“Because I can’t do this without
you.”
“Right, because if I die, you have
to die with me.”
“That’s not all it is.”
“Shut up!”
As Rebecca tries to kill herself,
Peter continues searching for an exit. He finds a lightly colored pink wall that’s
almost invisible on the white wall. Seeing as this may be something, he slams
his shoulder against it a few times until the light pink part of the wall
breaks down. He then pulls himself and Rebecca into the room as the spiked
walls close in on them. Now in between the cracks of the house, Peter catches
his breath.
“There’s no escaping this house,” Rebecca
says.
“I’ll find one or make one myself,”
Peter says with as much confidence as he can muster.
“What are you talking about? Do you
see how this house is? There’s no hope of leaving.”
“There’s always hope. I found this
way, didn’t I? There has to be other holes in the house we can use to escape.”
“I doubt it.”
“What about that fleshy thing that you
stabbed in the bedroom? It relinquished some of the house’s control. Since we’re
in the cracks of the house, we can maybe find something here that can do the
same.”
“I don’t know. Maybe I should’ve
killed you when I had the chance.”
“No, don’t listen to anything the house
tells you or makes you feel. It’s working against both of us. Come on, let’s
see what we can find here.”
Rebecca reluctantly follows Peter’s
lead.
“Where did you hear about that idea
from first anyway? Did the voice in the house tell you before I arrived at your
house?”
“No, my parents told me before
going out to it and not long before you arrived.”
“Really, your parents told you? They
must have something to do with it then. Wait, if they told you not long before I
arrived, then they knew I was coming somehow. I wonder if my mom has something
to do with it now. I wonder if dad knew as well.”
“It sure sounds like it. Everything
in my life sounds like a setup for this moment.”
“You’re right. Hopefully, we’ll
find some answers soon.”
After going deeper into the house,
they find what look to be human bodies embedded in the house with what look to
be veins that go all through the house like electrical wiring.
“These must be what’s controlling
the house,” Peter says.
The bodies appear to be moving ever
so slightly before one forms a face and says, “There you are!”
The small space to close on the
two. Peter starts pulling at the wires and ripping them out until the small
space expands back to normal. Seeing this result, Peter keeps ripping at the
wires.
“We have to rip all of these out!”
“…”
“Come on, Rebecca! These wires give
the house its power. If we can rip all of them out, we might have a chance of
escaping.”
“…”
Peter holds Rebecca’s hand while
getting her to look him in the eyes.
“Please, trusts me.”
“…okay.”
Rebecca and Peter keep tearing the
wires out while the house screams and shakes as if it’s in pain. Once all the
wires are out, the house calms down. The two carefully walk out of the space in
the walls to see that the house nearly appears normal now except for the
windows and exits that lead to solid walls.
“Peter…”
“Rebecca…”
“Why?”
The two begin hearing voices in the
house calling to them from the basement.
“Don’t you want to be happy?”
“Don’t you want to eternally be
with each other?”
“Don’t you want to fulfill your
parents’ wishes?”
“Don’t you love one another?”
Peter goes near the basement and says
to the voices, “Who are you?”
“Come down here and find out. We
won’t harm you. We can’t do anything other than keep you here because of what
you’ve done. We wouldn’t think of even hurting you.”
“What do you think, Rebecca?”
“We may as well since we don’t have
any other choice.”
“You’re right. Let’s go find out
who’s behind this.”
Peter holds out his hand for
Rebecca and she takes it as they descend the stairs into the basement.
