Counterattack

You look at Roxy. She’s bleeding badly. And Karen looks like she’s on ****’s door. You can’t just wait.

It bothers you that you understand Mavis so well. It bothers you that you didn’t pick up on this and see this coming. But the two of you are similar. You can use that.

“Stay in the dark,” you warn Lisey and Kris. “Stay still and be quiet.” The windows are dirty and it’s nighttime. Trying to shoot at people in this house if they aren’t moving or making noise will be next to impossible.

Staying low, you take the shotgun and hurry down the hallway to the rear of the cabin. With as little noise as possible, you let yourself out the back. The frigid wind hits you, and you hold the shotgun at the ready as you creep around the side of the cabin. You know what you’re going to find in the front: Mavis at the window, peering in, searching for a target.

As you near the corner, you step on a twig. It’s just a twig, but it might as well be a foghorn.

You rush around the corner, hoping to catch her before she can react, but she’s right there. She must have been just a few feet away. She knocks the barrel of the shotgun aside and tries to point the revolver at you. You try to dodge, and the gun goes off near your head, deafening you. You’ve lost the shotgun, but you grab Mavis’ arm and knock her hand against the side of the cabin. She drops the revolver. She grabs your hair, and you haul back and hit her, but you aren’t very strong. She still feels it and stumbles back. You rush at her and tackle her to the ground, but she wiggles away and lashes out with her foot, kicking you in the head.

You see stars and roll onto your back with a cry. It’s painful and you can’t see straight, but you know that if you stop, you’re dead. You roll over and get to all fours, shaking your head and trying to focus. Your eyes fall on the stump.

The axe isn’t there anymore.

You look up to see Mavis standing over you, raising it in both hands. She swings and you try to get up, but you can’t protect yourself.

Kris hits you from your left, knocking you out of the way. She screams as the axe strikes her instead, falling to the ground. Mavis looks startled by the intervention, but only for a second.

She sees you, then she looks to her left. The revolver lies in the grass a few feet away. She’s closer to it than you are.

You turn and dive back toward the house. Mavis gets to the gun and snatches it up, aiming at you just as you reach the fallen shotgun.

Whimpering, Kris weakly grabs Mavis’ ankle, causing her to look down in surprise. You grab the shotgun and roll onto your back, aiming and pulling the trigger. The revolver goes off with a bang as Mavis collapses into the weeds.

The smoking shotgun shakes in your hands as the blast echoes through the . You lie there on your back, frozen until Kris’ pitiful moan brings you out of it. You throw the gun aside and hurry to her, reaching over to grab the revolver out of Mavis’ hand… but she’s no danger anymore. You blew a hole in her chest. Her eyes are open, staring at the stars, but she’s gone.

You got her.