I woke the next day shivering with the cold freezing the barely living flesh that clung desperately to my bones. A pale and mellow light was just beginning to flood in the room through the torn plastic and I remembered that I'd managed to get back to safety and just fell asleep like a log as soon as my head hit the non-existent pillow. Sleep plagued my eyes and I rubbed them as I forced myself to sit, performing a strange early morning stretch before throwing the covers back onto my head and sighing loudly.

"Mikes..." A voice laughed quietly. It was JJ, wasn't it?

But it didn't sound like him.

It sounded....strange.

I ripped the covers from my head and stared across the room from where the voice had come from. A man stood leaning against the wall, a toothpick moving in time as he spoke and his pale hands gripped a glistening knife. His bleach blonde hair was swept under his hat and he wore a charcoal-black suit with sunglasses. His blue staring eyes grew wide as he paced towards me.

"Hello Mikey." He tilted his head to the side and allowed an evil grin to grow on his face.
"Fancy seeing you again. I'm Vince by the way, just in case you'd forgotten. You got away last time Mikes, you got away, you survived being stabbed seven times and left in the middle of nowhere. Pretty impressive if you ask me..."
He grinned again and he twiddled the knife in between his fingers. I shook as the pristine blade of the knife reflected the light onto me as if I was simply a target to practise on.

"Please! Just leave me alone!" I yelled with sweat dripping down my forehead and my core trembling frantically. My heart seemed to rip through my chest and repeatedly punch my ribs. This guy was going to kill me! Where was JJ to protect me? This was it! Darkness started to flutter in and out of the corners of my eyes and I almost seemed to flick in and out of consciousness.
"Afraid I can't do that!" He smiled as he crouched down to my level and pointed the knife to my throat. "Nobody escapes death! You survived and then you tried to kill m-"
The knife punctured my skin.
Pain.
Screams.

---

"Mikey! Jesus fucking Christ Mikey! Are you okay? Fuck! That's a stupid question! Mikes just wake up please!"
My eyes fluttered open and arms immediately wrapped around me and gripped me so tight that I almost couldn't breathe. The owner of the arms buried their head into my chest and shook violently.

"Mikey! Are you okay?!" The broken voice asked again. I peeled the figure from my chest to see a messy-haired, tear stricken and quivering JJ sat in front of me. His eyes were bloodshot and his curly black hair was a knotted mess that stuck to his forehead with his beanie strewn across the floor behind him.

"Mikey! Please!" He grabbed my shoulders in desperation again trying to snap me from my trance.
"W-what happened?" I asked, "where is Vincent?! How did he find me?!"
"It's okay Mikes! It was a dream, I came in and you were asleep but you were screaming and crying and shaking and I woke you up and I'm scared Mikes! What did you see?"
"Vincent, one of the men that stabbed me. He had a knife at my throat and was going to-" I broke down and fell into JJ who sat me back up and hugged me tightly.
"It's okay. It's okay mikes..." He whispered, "it was just a dream. You're safe now. I promise."

"I need to complete the tasks quicker!" I yelled as I shrugged him from me and stood up, "the quicker I complete the tasks the better! Then Me and my family will be safer sooner!"
"Okay okay, if you really want to..." JJ smiled sadly as he picked up his beanie and threw it over his ears.

He wiped the last panicked tears from his eyes and stood next to me.

"Okay, so what do I need to do?" I asked quickly, wanting to get these weird ass godforsaken tasks over and done with as quick as possible.
"You um, you need to pretend to be Curtis again Mikes. Don't tell anyone your real name. I have a fake ID badge for you."
"Okay...wait....one question JJ..." I paused as I tried to arrange the words in my mouth, "how did Frank recognise me as Curtis?"
"You look very similar to how Curtis looked..." JJ said calmly.
"Looked....what do you mean: how he looked?"
"Curtis died Mikes. He was Franks friend, they were as close as you could get."
"But if Curtis was dead then why didn't Frank freak out when he saw me?"
"After Curtis' death Frank turned to alcohol as he new best friend. That's why he was in the state he was in when you found him. The alcohol makes him numb and he often forgets that Curtis died..."
"Geez! JJ, I'm not sure if I feel comfortable posing as a dead man. And won't these next people also know of Curtis' death and me turning up like: hey I'm Curtis, might just freak the fuck out of them?"
"Do you really think that Frank could face up and talk about Curtis' death to others."
I shook my head.
"Precisely, come on let's go!"

He turned on his heels and headed towards the door with me following after him.

"Here you'll need this!" He threw a wetsuit in my general direction.
"What the ever loving fucking mongoose is task four?"
"And five!" JJ shouted as he walked down the mudded path outside leaving me trailing behind.

Notes

Hello again! I'm sorry it's been so long since I last updated, I've had a load of exams and revision but almost finished now, so it should hopefully be less than a week before I update again. Task 4 & 5 next.
Thank you for reading though and I hope you are doing well. :)
-Lou