I wake up to the sound of cars and the smell of gasoline. Attempting to stand up, I bang my head. It only takes 5 seconds for me to realize what’s going on. I survived.

I slowly touch the wound on my head which has managed to stop bleeding excessively, but it still hurts.

I can’t believe I survived. I was sure that I would have died from blood loss but I haven’t. They must think that I’m dead and are going to bury my body. I can escape then and f—

“Louis.” I whisper to myself, remembering that my best friend Louis was with me that night.

I slowly turn my head, hoping to see that Louis survived as well. But, what I see instead is Louis’ body covered in blood. He’s not even breathing, although, I guess that is impossible when your throat has been slit.

Tears start burning at my eyes as I wipe some of the blood off his face. “Louis.” I whisper. He doesn’t wake up. “Louis, come on.” Tears finally make their way out my eyes.

I find his hand and hold onto it tightly. We’ve been friends for 20 years and the running joke we had was that he was always going to die first. He did it, he died.

I find myself laying on his chest and quietly sobbing. How come I survived but he didn’t? I’m still crying when the car finally stops and I hear the door open. I immediately play dead, hoping they won’t notice. When the trunk opens I can hear the two men talking.

“You grab his legs.” One of them says.

“I grabbed his legs when we put him in here, you grab them.”

“Why does it matter? Just hurry up so we can go!”

It takes everything for me to not try and kill them now, but I know they have the greater advantage and it’d be easier to just escape when they don’t see it coming.

“Make sure to bring the shovel too.”

When I hear these words, I start to internally panic. I might have survived being hit in the head, but I won’t survive being buried alive. I realize that I’ll have to escape much sooner than I planned to.

I stay as stiff as possible as they carry my body somewhere unknown. Eventually, I’m set down and I wait until they’re gone to make my move.

“Let’s go get the other one.” One says and then their footsteps trail away.

I finally open my eyes, noticing I’m in the woods. I stand up as fast as I can, I have to leave now or else I won’t have a chance. I don’t want to leave Louis but I know I’ll come back for him.

I try to run but I immediately fall down and get a sharp pain in my left leg. Something must have happened to it before I was hit in the head.

“What was that noise?” I hear them walking back.

I attempt to stand up again but the pain is too much. When I hear the footsteps getting closer I start crawling through the dirt as quick as I can.

“Hey!” I hear a yell from behind me, making me force myself to stand up and run on my leg no matter how painful it is.

“He escaped, Ronnie!”

I run as far as I can until I have to stop behind a tree. I bite my lip in order to stop myself from screaming and crying in pain. I think of just giving up now and letting them kill me because this pain is worse than death. Plus, I can’t do this without Louis.

But, something in me tells me that I have to keep going so I continue running throughout the woods despite everything. I have never been so close to giving up but I manage to keep fighting, running and running until I finally stop.

I almost think that I might have lost them, but then I hear a loud bang, then something strikes me in my arm. I fall to the floor and scream out in pain. A hole is straight through my arm and blood is flowing out.

“Got you!” He laughs.

I stay on the floor. This is it, I can’t go on anymore. I just sit and close my eyes, defenseless. And once I hear another loud bang, I assume I’m dead. But.. I’m not.

I open my eyes to instead see my captor on the floor with a bullet hole through his head, my heart beats out of my chest. I slowly look to see the unknown killer, Louis.

“Louis!” I exclaim, jumping off the floor, forgetting about all the pain I’m in and that I almost just died.

I run to Louis and throw my arms around him. “I thought you were gone.” I cry.

“I.. I guess.. they aren’t.. very good at.. killing.. people, huh?” Louis gets words out of his mouth despite the fact that his throat is slit.

“Wait.. how’d you survive?” I finally pull away from the hug and look and my best friend.

Louis laughs a little, blood coming out of his mouth when he does so. “I didn’t.” He says.

I laugh at his joke. “What do you mean?”

Suddenly, Louis stops laughing and holds a serious expression. “I’m not alive, Jack, wake up.”

“Stop, Louis. It isn’t funny anymore.” I stare at him.

“Wake up, Jack! I’m dead!” Louis yells.

I slowly shake my head. “No. No.” I mutter. I close my eyes and try to calm down.

“Jack?”

I open my eyes again. I’m no longer in the woods and Louis is gone. My breathing intensifies.

“What happened? What did you remember?”

I swallow the lump in my throat and look up to see a man in a white coat. “Who are you?”

“I’m your psychiatrist, Jack. Dr. Morgan.”

“Where’s Louis?” I ask. “Where is he?!” Tears fill my eyes.

“Louis is dead, Jack. He’s been dead for 2 years now. You killed him.”

I shake my head. “No!” I exclaim, jumping out of my seat. “I did not kill him! He is not dead!” I cry.

“I understand your frustration, Jack, but you killed him 2 years ago today. You’ve been here for 2 years and you’ve claimed to remember nothing. You think Louis is still alive, but he’s dead.”

Tears stream down my face and I fall to the floor. “No.” I sob. “No!”