[AU] Cabin in the Woods (Tag: Argos, Cassidy Carstyn, Akeem)

[Ashley Benson]

Ashley slowly began to regain consciousness.  Her mind was still heavy with a haze as she let out a low groan and brought a hand up to press against her forehead.  The sides of her head thumped, a sharp ache pounding with every beat of her heart.  The memories began to filter back through the fog.  She remembered getting the invitation to a party and being urged by her small handful of friends to attend.  She hadn't wanted to go but she finally relented.  She remembered the cabin itself, a large, two story building tucked away deep into the Montana wilderness, far out of range of any cell phone service and miles of dense forest away from the nearest civilization.

The party had gone as expected, at least as far as Ashley's muddled mind could recall.  Large pieces of the night were missing from her memory.  Was alcohol involved?  She thought so.  That wasn't good to combine with her medication.  Had she even taken her medication since they'd arrived the day before?  There was so many things that were simply blank.

It was then she heard the scream.

Ashley's eyes fluttered open and the view of the room around her slowly came into focus.  A metallic smell invaded her senses and she felt a warm, sticky substance on her hands now smeared across her forehead.  "W-what?"  Carefully she tried to push herself up off the basement floor to a sitting position but her hands slipped on the wet concrete beneath her.    Shock and horror touched her features as she discovered the culprit.  She ways laying in a puddle of blood.  Blood that had came from the near mutilated body of the party's host which was resting beside her.  The knife that had been used to cause the carnage was still jutting out of the bloodied corpse's chest.

With eyes wide and jaw slack Ashley turned her attention to the three people standing over her.  Her head shook.  "W-what happened?"  She stammered.

(tag Argos Wren , Akeem Ten-Amen , Cassidy Carstyn )

[Cassidy Carstyn]

Standing over the two girls on the floor, seeing the blood practically cover the entire kitchen floor, it didn't take Cassidy long to let out a shrill shriek, which caused a few other people to check in, chief among them was the Egyptian known around BA as the exotic player.

Cassidy didn't know him, obviously but she knew of him. Hell, she didn't know anyone at the party. Just their indicators. Like the girl with the knife sticking out of her chest was the party's host. Also known as the sloot of BA. How they even managed to make the Blue Mountain State reference actually work in real life, Cassidy still didn't know.

The girl beside the corpse was Ashley Benson. Her indicator was slightly odd because nobody could really pin her down to just one thing. Cassidy just called her a mystery.

Her question brought an incredulous laugh from the small vet's assistant. "W...we should be asking you that!" She squeaked, her hands clutched to her chest. The scene was a lot more horrifying than they had depicted in the movies. Who even knew such a thin person could produce that much blood?

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

A cabin in the woods seemed perfect. Oh, Akeem wouldn’t go near one in any other situation but what better place to make one hell of a party? After all, you could play your music as loud as you wanted, drink as much as you desired, the animals wouldn’t call the police for the noise they made. That would be the kind of party he loved. He just hoped the amount of pretty girls would match the awesomeness such a situation could bring.

There were indeed some pretty things invited but not nearly as many people as he had hoped. Ashley was a nice surprise. Ever since Ellen threatened him in not so subtle terms to steer clear of her, and the fact the girl herself preferred to do so, he didn’t have much of a chance to try anything on her. But he didn’t see Ellen around, and a lot of alcohol was involved during the night. There was also another pretty thing, some girl he didn't really know much and had a baby look on her face while the rest of her had nothing baby-like. And the host.

Akeem didn’t remember much what happened. He knew he partied. He knew he drank. He knew he flirted. And he must have slept with someone or at least be pretty close to it for he was in his boxers on a bed, head and arms dropping from the edges of it. It was the position he was in at least when he heard a scream that made him lift his head real fast. He regretted immediately when the headache took him and he groaned, taking more time to sit on the bed and then get up.

“You better have a good explanation-“ Akeem did not finish. He had joined the ladies and found out the cause of the screams. He blinked. He knew what he was seeing but he could not really believe it. The fog had yet lifted in his brain. All he could think was that he never thought there could be so much blood. And then he saw Ashley. “What happened? Who did this?”

[Ashley Benson]

Ashley's eyes remained wide as they moved from the two standing over her, to the corpse beside her and then back. She couldn't speak at first as the shock from waking up next to a bloody, mutilated body still hadn't subsided. Shaking hands came up to brush a stray strand of dark hair from the side of her face, leaving behind a thick, dark crimson smear across her cheek. She hadn't just been laying next to the body, it looked as though she'd been rolling around on it. The blood had soaked into her clothes and stained her hands. It was still wet and she felt its stickiness on her fingers.

"I don't know." She finally managed to speak again, swallowing hard in an attempt to get the lump out of her throat. "I just remember bits and pieces." Her head pounded from the hangover that was settling in as the shock was wearing off. "Some of the party... Then I went to the bathroom..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "I think I passed out in one of the bedroom then I..." She winced again, daring to cast a short glance to her side. She finally saw the body with as clear a head as she was going to have and it instantly caused her stomach to churn. She rolled to the side, holding herself up with her hands as her stomach violently expelled its contents onto the cold, stone floor of the basement.

[Cassidy Carstyn]

Cassidy blanched at the sight of the blood running across Ashley's cheek as she wiped her hand on it. "Oh God." She held her hand up to her mouth and turned around to dry heave.

As Ashley spoke, Cassidy half listened, wondering if she should just say what everyone in the room was thinking. She turned around and looked at Ashley, her blue eyes a stark contrast to all the red.

"Really? That's convenient." She said, a hint of disbelief clear in her tone. And just when she was about to continue her scoffing, the dark haired girl vomitted all over the floor. Cassidy squeaked and backed away, bumping into Akeem in the process.

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

Akeem was still in denial as to what he had before his eyes. It couldn’t be real. It had to be fake blood, the whole corn syrup thing with the girl only pretending to be dead to have a good laugh at their face. Ashley must be in on it too, with all the blood covering her. She was even going about with the whole ‘I blacked out and woke up here not remembering a thing’. That was so cliché that it had to have been taken from a horror movie to laugh at the guests who remained, which seems to be only the other girl and him.

Only the blood left a steely stench in the air. Much like real blood. Still, he couldn’t pretend it was real. That was just too... impossible. Cassidy did not believe Ashley but she seemed to think it was real. And Ashley... Akeem groaned in disgust and turned his head as she threw up. He received Cassidy in his arms which was enough to make him lose his temper out of this situation. “Come on now, the joke’s not funny. Stop this already,” he let out. No, he was not asking Ashley to confess. And to prove that their host was just acting, he came towards her body and kicked her leg. “Wake up already,” he said to her. She had no reaction of course. Akeem was not wearing any shoes so he tried to walk around the blood, not wanting to walk in it, fake or not. He was perhaps even more pissed when she did not react. He sighed out of frustration and kneeled next to her to shake her. He knew that would give her the perfect opportunity to jump at him and make everyone scream but if that was what was needed to be done with this, he’d go for it. Except she didn’t wake up, no matter how hard he shook her shoulder. She was cold too.

The reality of it finally hit him. He gasped and fell down on his butt before backing away as much as he could before standing up again. Now, he was staring at Ashley like she really did something atrocious. She was covered in the woman’s blood yet seemed untouched. How come?

[Ashley Benson]

Ashley barely registered Akeem's disbelief. She had been far too busy contending with the way her stomach twisted and churned. She spit onto the floor, her breathing heavy as she waited tentatively to see if anything else would come up. She issued a sputtering cough followed by a dry heave and spit again before letting out a groan and pushing back to her a sitting position. She kept her eyes squeezed shut in hopes the room would stop spinning around her.

"C-convenient?" She stammered weakly, a hand coming up to press against her forehead, leaving a fresh streak of red that stained her alabaster skin and matted her hair. She didn't have enough of her faculties yet to decipher what it was the other girl was talking about before the crash of Akeem tumbling to the floor made her jump and let out a yelp of surprise.

"I have to get out of here." Ashley suddenly felt the stab of panic in her chest. She pushed herself up to her feet, her hands slipping in the slick blood on the pavement beneath her in the process. With one arm wrapped tightly around her still churning stomach Ashley stumbled forward with the intent to push her way weakly toward the stairs that led up to the cabin's ground floor.

[Cassidy Carstyn]

The more Cassidy looked at Ashley, the less likely it seemed that she had anything to do with the body. It briefly crossed her mind that this innocent act of hers would actually last. The girl seemed very unstable.

When Akeem fell back and Ashley started to move out of the basement, Cassidy panicked. "We can't just leave the body here!" She exclaimed, not even registering the fact that the one capable of doing anything was already in the midst of a breakdown and the one who was the suspected murderer was trying to leave the room. The vet's assistant was now grasping at straws at what to do with the scene in front of her eyes.

She then realised she had asked the murderer to more or less stay. Why would she do that?

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

Akeem could barely believe this. She was really dead. Her blood was covering the floor. The knife was still in her. It was not fake. No one could fake those dead eyes so well. No one could be this cold and rigid, at least not in the literal sense of the term. While his brain slowly registered the fact that he had a dead body in front of him, he kept fighting over what to do. He didn’t want to be involved in any murder, not even as a suspect. It could not look well for him, for his career. Besides, three girls and one boy? The suspect was all found. Who cared if the knife was sharp enough for a girl to have the strength to stab someone or that he was collapsed on a bed, half-naked when they found the body. In fact, that too might not be something that should be mentioned. If he was cleared as the killer, there were other things he could be labelled as, titles, if they do not come with prison sentences, came with a reputation he might not wish for.

Somehow, they needed to do something about this. And Akeem was currently weighing the consequences between calling the cops and burying the whole thing. He went back to reality when Cassidy argued they could not leave the body here. Only then did he realise Ashley was trying to get up. He did not bother to help her out. The blood, the chance she may just be in some sort of killing spree, the vomit that came out of her lips mere seconds ago, all things that did not make him want to rush to her side and help her. Better focus on the other girl and her comment.

“And what do you suggest exactly? That we bury it?” He said it with sarcasm but he wouldn’t be the first to object if they all agreed on that. Wouldn’t that just be convenient? Pretend they all left together. Only, if horror movies taught him anything, it was that there was always a weak link that could not hold their tongue forever. And looking around, he saw two weak links.

[Ashley Benson]

Ashley could scarcely believe the words that she was hearing. The two others stood there dumbfounded, doing largely nothing except stating the obvious and asking the most redundant questions she could imagine. There was someone dead in the basement of the cabin retreat they'd spent the day partying in which meant there was a murderer on the loose. She wasn't sure about anyone else hanging around but she certainly wasn't going to sit here and wait to be the next victim. Nothing on God's green Earth was going to stop her from leaving. Not the fact that it was the dead of night and they were in the middle of an unfamiliar, unforgiving forest so far off the grid cell phones didn't even work. Not the fact that the rain had started to come down in frigid, heavy sheets.

Nothing

Martin, one of the more eccentric party-goers with his penchant for wearing a fedora and carrying an umbrella everywhere he went tried to stop Ashley's progress she'd marched up the stairs to the ground floor and went barreling toward the front door. She pushed him away, which was easy once he'd caught sight of her blood soaked clothes and crimson streaked face. With shaking hands she reached the door and flung it open and charged headlong into the maelstrom that had been raging along outside.

[Cassidy Carstyn]

Cassidy was stuck. When Ashley walked off, pushing away from her, the smaller brunette squeaked and fell on her butt. She started hyperventilating when she saw the body again. Akeem's question made her glare at him.

"Well what else do you think we should do? Leave it here for the raccoons to feast on?" She asked before shaking her head and running up the stairs to follow Ashley.

When she caught up with the blue eyed girl, the vet's assistant reached out to grab her arm. "Where are you going? Have you never seen a horror movie? The first one to go into the woods is going to get killed!"

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

Akeem watched Ashley running away. It might could mean she no longer was able to stand the sight of the body, that she felt the urge to clean herself of the blood, or just that she was running away because she was guilty or afraid she’d be framed. Akeem preferred not to care about her for now though. Hey, they were in the middle of the woods, where could she go? Besides, there was another girl here with him, glaring at him. “She’s inside, it’s not like they can get to her. We just...” But Cassidy saved Akeem the burden of finding a solution as she ran away after Ashley. He sighed, as though disappointed to be dismissed like that when in reality he was relieved. That meant he wouldn’t have to say they found a way to call the cops or something. He knew they should. That didn’t make him want to though.

He went after Cassidy in the pursuit of Ashley. It was then that he realised that, maybe, they were not the only ones in the place. He didn’t even bother to look around, probably because the one there with them was a guy. Who cared about a guy? “I don’t know. If whoever did that is in the house, I’d take the woods too. Unless she’s running away so she won’t get caught,” he said once he arrived behind Cassidy, not caring at all if he startled anyone. Perhaps he should put on pants though. That would be nice.