After your old friend Michael had been released from the mental hospital, you moved in with him so you could make sure he would take care of himself properly. Michael didn’t eat much, nor did he really make any attempt to maintain his own wellbeing. Instead, he was dead set on trying to convince those around him that he wasn’t insane, and that the accusations of the incident that had him landed in the hospital in the first place were false. He was especially set on trying to convince his brother, who he supposedly attacked in the woods when the two were children.

You knew of the dangers of poor mental health, so you could sympathize with Michael’s plight. Unfortunately, sympathizing with something you didn’t know the full extent of would end up dragging you into deep trouble.

The trouble began when you woke up in the basement, your wrists and ankles bound together by zip ties and your mouth gagged by a tightly tied piece of cloth. As you came to, you heard the door slam shut and the sound of heavy footfalls coming downstairs towards the basement floor. A familiar chuckle pierced the silence as the lights flicked on, revealing Michael dressed sharply in a collared button-up, light jeans, and red suspenders. He wiped a streak of blood from his face, a slight grin spreading across his face. Your blood ran cold as you saw his eyes no longer held a familiar sense of meek paranoia, but instead a darkly confident and eerily calm denotation.

You knew Michael well enough to know that he wasn’t himself right now.

"Heyy.." The dirty blonde hummed, kneeling down to your level and setting the axe on its head. "I was hoping you’d come to. We have a lot to catch up on, don’t we..?"