Disclaimer: I do not own Until Dawn, just the OC and the change to the plot.

Warning: This fanfic is centered around an OC instead of the main characters (Who are, of course, the main part of the story). If you do not like OC's as the main protagonist of Until Dawn, turn back now! Otherwise, enjoy, like and comment.

Chapter 1: Prologue

The very memory was a nightmare all on its own.

The fog was cold and damp and an icy gale blew through the dark forest, but James barely noticed the chill. The bare, autumn trees clawed at him with skeletal branches as he ran frantically through the wood with his heart pounding so loudly, he thought it might burst free from his chest. Dark brown hair blew wildly in the cold wind and panic filled his wide, grey-green eyes. A white t-shirt and thin blue jeans provided a small amount of protection from the temperature. Fresh blood streaked his shirt, glistening in the moonlight. The red sticky fluid had soaked through the fabric and made it to cling to his skin. Old, worn sneakers raced over a carpet of fallen leaves.

Gut wrenching screams tore through the night air, sending jolts of fear and anguish through the young man's heart. A small voice in the back of his head urged him to turn back, to go back and help his friends. His instincts, on the other hand, commanded him to flee.

And flee he did; abandoning the few only people he truly cared for in his life.

Another scream penetrated the darkness. The blood chilling cry made him cringe. He could only fight back the tears and keep running. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" He whimpered inside. It sounded like Gabe was being ripped to pieces. A choking gasp echoed through the dark before a loud squash to its place, then silence. And then the sound of rapid footfalls and heavy panting followed the quiet. Glancing over his shoulder, he glimpsed a vague, indistinct figure moving through the mist behind him.

It was chasing him…whatever it was.

The blood on his shirt, it...it wasn't his. It belonged to that of his friends when it gushed from their mutilated corpses. Kelsey, Max, Gabe, Brock, Jonathan…they were gone. He'd left the butchered bodies of Kelsey and Max behind back at the campsite as that thing tore through the wall and then into them like wet paper. They didn't even have time to scream. Brock tried to fight back, using a revolver his father gave them, but he didn't live long enough to fire a single shot.

It was Jonathan who pulled James out of the blood-soaked cabin and out of his fear-stricken stupor. He was the one who shoved him out of the path of death's jaws. He also was the one who took his place in those jaws. It was his blood that stained his clothes the most.

James could not get the image of Jonathan's death out of his mind. The look of utter fear and ungodly pain his best friend must have felt as the monsterripped into his abdomen. A fountain of blood spewed from the massive wound and onto James while he stood rooted to the spot, paralyzed with fear. "Run" Was all Jonathan managed to rasp before the beast's fangs closed around his throat and parted his head from his shoulders.

Gabe had been in his tent when it all happened. He had crawled out just in time to see Jonathan's gruesome demise. James urged him to run; shoving him towards the woods and sprinting into the darkness, only to find out moments later that he hadn't kept up.

Thunder groaned overhead. A jagged bolt of lightning streaked through the dark sky. Rain poured down in sheets, drenching him in seconds. The forest floor turned to mud beneath his feet and made it harder to keep his footing on the slippery leaves. Bursting from the tree line, James found himself in the middle of a dirt road. Exhaustion was quickly taking over his body. The adrenaline rush was beginning to fade and his muscles were heavy with fatigue and screamed to rest.

"Damn it! Goddamn it!" James sobbed. He fell to his knees, the panic and the shock having finally gotten to him. Why them? What did he and his friends do to deserve this? To die at the hands of some...some monster? He watched his friends die right in front of him and he had done nothing. He hated himself. He hated his cowardice! He should have done something! Shouldn't have let them die! A violent sob rocked his body. Tears mixed with the rain fell upon the muddy road.

He shouldn't have let them die!

A deafening crash jolted him from his grief. He spun around just as something exploded from the trees and slam into him with the force of a freight train. His body flew from the force of the collision and he landed hard on his back. A mass of dark fur slammed down on top of him, and didn't have enough time for fear to register as it smothered him.

A searing, white hot pain in his left shoulder brought him back to reality. James screamed in utter agony as the creature embedded its fangs deep into his shoulder with teeth going straight to the bone. It began to whip its head back and forth, snarling and clawing, tearing his shirt to rags and slicing open his chest to get at his stomach and spilling blood onto the slick, muddy ground.

Just as James felt his consciousness begin to slip, the roar of a shotgun exploded in his ears followed by a pained yelp. The teeth removed themselves from his shoulder and the heavy padding of the beast's footfalls faded into the dark until he could hear nothing but the rain falling from the sky and the pounding of his own heart.

James just laid there, staring up at the stormy sky as the edges of his vision were laced in ever growing blackness. Then the lights of a vehicle fell upon him, blinding him. "Holy shit!" a voice echoed faintly. He tilted his head towards the lights, watching through the glare as the driver side opened and a figure came running. His vision blurred as they ran to his side. They were saying something, but he couldn't focus on the words. Letting his gaze trail up to the night sky, he watched as the storm clouds slowly dispersed, revealing the full autumn moon shinning down upon him.

Then, everything went black and he fell into a still, dreamless sleep as a ghostly howl echoed through the night.

XXXXX

The images raced through James's mind again. Each their barbaric ends flashed before his eyes like a slide-show. Their dying screams echoed in his ears and their blood clung to his sking. It was as if he were back at the campsite reliving the horror all over again.

He whimpered. The images didn't stop; they just kept coming, each clearer and more powerful than the last.

He was back in the center of the road and had just fallen to his knees, the grief and loss of his friends washing over him like a tidal wave. A loud crash made him turn and he screamed as a giant, shadowy thing lunged at him. It's blazing eyes glared into the depths of his soul as it pinned him to the ground, leaving him stunned and breathless."No!" James shouted, coming out of his daze. He watched horror as the creature slowly opened jaws. Fresh blood and saliva dripped from the creatures jagged fangs, landing on James's petrified face. Its mouth opened impossibly wide and it thrust its head downward.

The last thing James saw was the creatures veracious, jagged toothed maw overtake his vision.

XXX

James gasped awake from the nightmare. He lurched forward, sitting up ramrod in bed. His fear was etched within his tensed muscles as he panted ragged breaths, drenched in cold sweat. His wide, bloodshot eyes darted around the unfamiliar room wildly, still ridden with fear.

'What...what happened?' He mused, wincing as a sharp pain coursed through his left shoulder and across his chest.

'What the hell? Why do I hurt so...?'

James paused, eyes widening in sickening realization. Looking down, he saw he was wearing white hospital gown. Slowly, he peeled the white fabric off his shoulder to find a mess of bloody gauze underneath. Biting through the pain he felt as he moved his good arm, he peeled back some of the gauze. From below his collarbone and wrapping around to his shoulder blade were a series of red puncture wounds sealed tight with stitches. More flowed below his collar and across his chest. Understanding soon crept over him.

His questioning gaze turned into one of grim realization. His nightmare-no, the memories of last night…had actually happened…

His friends were dead…

He fell back into the mattress, numb to the pain of jostling his injury, and stared up at the creamy white tile ceiling blankly. Then, his face contorted in pain and sorrow and grief. Tears gushed from his eyes, splashing onto the pillow beneath his head. Last night's terror and loss welled up within his chest and burst through the seams. Raw anguish emotion filled his voice as a violent sob racked his body.

"Fuck!" He hissed, bringing the heels of his palms to his eyes and tried to rub the memories away. It didn't wor.

"God damn it!" He spat "God fucking damn it!"

James didn't stop crying until exhaustion took over and he drifted back into unconsciousness.

XXXXX

The interior of his uncle's old pick-up was a familiar comfort James desperately welcomed at the moment. The musty smell of old leather and tobacco coupled with the sound of gravel rolling under aged tires brought back fond memories that helped kept the more daunting ones at bay.

XXX

Nurses in blue scrubs mingled around him; checking the IV drip funneling into his arm and fiddling with the dials of his heart monitor while a doctor talked to him from his bedside.

"How are you feeling, James?"

The question ate at him, fighting through the all-encompassing numbness he felt at the moment. "Where am I?" He said lowly.

"You're in the hospital, James." The doctor replied "You were attacked by some kind of animal…"

The heart monitor began to beep loudly as his heartbeat spiked…

XXX

James had just been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health and an extremely fast recovery after a few weeks of treatment. His uncle Bert picked him up on the day he was as the sun came up, and now they were headed home.

XXX

"It's honestly a miracle you survived, kid." One of the nurses said to him later that day "You lost a lot of blood when you got here. We weren't sure you were gonna make it."

James didn't say anything except stare at the wall as the nurse checked his stitches.

He didn't deserve to be alive right now.

He shouldn't have been the one to survive that night.

The nurse hummed to herself "Your recovering pretty fast too."

XXX

"James?" James turned to look at his uncle whose weathered face was creased in worry "You alright?" Bert asked him.

Uncle Bert had become James's legal guardian after his parents died in a car crash when he was three. There were no other family members that wanted or could take him in, and between Bert and the state, Bert chose to raise James as his own. He was eighteen, now.

XXX

The police arrived the next day after James woke up, five hours after Uncle Bert was admitted to see him, to be exact. James had counted the time. They asked him a lot of questions about what happened. James couldn't help but cry every time he opened his mouth. Eventually they left, and for a while, James was allowed to be alone with his grief.

But then his friend's parents came in, and he went right back to crying.

XXX

"Yeah, I'm fine, Uncle Bert." James responded and internally cringed.

The words sounded fake, even to him. He wasn't fine; he was the complete opposite of fine! His friends were dead. Dead! And he didn't try to do a damn thing to stop it. They'd had their whole lives ahead of them! Their futures and potential were gone and crushed into the forest floor because of some…some monster!

XXX

They'd written it off as a bear attack.

That was complete bullshit in James's opinion because bears didn't live in the area in the first place! They told James a hunting party had been sent out to search for the beast, but James had a feeling they wouldn't find it.

Whatever attacked them…James had never seen a bear in real life before, but something told him that whatever was out there was no bear.

Or maybe they would find it. They'd shoot it dead and then maybe James and the families of his friends could find a sense of closure…

…He just wished he could believe that.

XXX

Bert lived in a small cabin out in the woods that was separated from the rest of town. The small, one story cabin had served as James home for over fifteen years. The property was surrounded by a circle of grass that led out into the forest. Small bushes grew up under the front porch windows and a gravel road led straight into the garage where Bert parked his pickup.

The sun was halfway across the sky and setting fast. Bert backed the old truck into the garage with practiced ease and turned off the ignition. They sat there in silence before Bert turned and made eye contact with his nephew.

"James."

"Yeah?"

Bert pursed his lips together into a thin line before saying "I'm not going to play dumb here and pretend you're okay; you're not. Hell, I sure wouldn't be after something like that. I just want to let you know," He reached across the seat to lay a weathered hand on James's shoulder "Whatever you need; if you want to talk, if you want to be left alone, if you want to just go somewhere…you let me know, alright? Your parents…" He faltered, eyes crinkling at the memory of them "It wasn't easy for me when they died. I'm here to help you, James, in any way you need, got me?"

James swallowed through the growing lump in his throat and squeezed his uncle's hand "Yeah." He managed to get out.

Bert nodded "Good." His eyes searched his nephews face "You need a minute?" He asked him. James nodded. Bert nodded right back "Alright. I'll be inside." And he slid out of the truck, closing it softly behind him.

James sat there in the quiet of the empty truck, mind racing back to the hospital.

XXX

The stitches came out sooner than James expected.

"You're recovering very well." The doctor said absently as he removed the black threads from his flesh.

"How much longer am I going to stay here?" James had asked.

That brought the doctor up short. He said "Well, we'd like to keep you a few more days ahead of schedule to check for any diseases or viruses that might be in your bloodstream." Seeing James's frown, he gave a reassuring smile "Not that you have anything to worry about so far. You're healing very fast."

James's frown grew more pronounced "Everyone keeps saying that." He stated "What does mean?"

The doctor pursed his lips together and his eyes narrowed in thought. After a moment he answered "When you were first brought in, you were in a very critical state. Your wounds were fatal and we thought you weren't going to survive the night, but your blood began clotting fairly quickly and the bleeding stopped at an extraordinary rate." He paused before looking at James and asking "Are you on any experimental drugs or pills? Any medications of any kind?" James shook his head to every question. The doctor frowned again "Well... there was a lot of blood that wasn't yours...the wounds could have been shallower than we thought..." He shrugged, seemingly at a loss for words "All in all, you are very lucky to be alive."

XXX

James opened the door and stepped out into the cool interior of the garage as anger flooding his system.

Lucky to be alive?

Lucky to be alive?!

His friends had been slaughtered and he was lucky?

The next thing James knew, he was hunched over his uncle's workbench, gripping the edges with all his might in an effort to try to control his rage and not lash out and break something. James had a temper; he was always a little easier to set off than most and didn't respond well to threats and insults. But this was something that went beyond that; something that struck him right in the center of his core.

People he cared about had died, and he had been powerless to stop it.

*CREAK*

James lurched away from the workbench at the sudden sound of creaking metal and his eyes widened at what he saw. The corners of the solid metal structure were crumpled. James could see the outlines of fingers if he looked closely. He looked down at his own hands, which looked completely normal. No bruising or cuts or anything; they looked and felt completely fine.

What the hell-

"James?"

James jumped and looked up at his uncle's worried face in the doorway to the house. "You alright?" He asked.

"I-" James looked back and forth from his uncle to the workbench "I-I'm fine." He stuttered. At his uncle's frown deepening he added "I am, really."

There was a pause where James and Bert just stared at each other for a moment before Bert just sighed "C'mon in James." He said, motioning for him to do so.

James nodded "Y-yeah." He agreed. Stealing one last look at the dented workbench, James followed his uncle back into the cabin with thoughts awhirl and naïve hopes of things returning to normal drifting through his heart.

XXXXX

I'd just like to say something here. Fist off, this is not Ultimate Survivor writing what you're reading at this moment. I'm his beta-reader and co-author of this fanfiction, bob the kraken. Now, I've been around this website for a while, and I know what most of you are probably saying at the thought of an OC centric story in a universe such as Until Dawn.

"Oh no, another mary-sue instert getting with the cast and changing the whole plot! Oh mah gerhd nooooo!"

If not, I apologize. I am just used to seeing so many flames. You get what I mean.

I'm writing this because I am asking you all to give this story a chance. Because, guys? This is going to be good story. And I'm not saying that to toot our horn or promote it to sucker you in or whatever. I've wanted to write this A/N since Ultimate Survivor pitched this idea to me. This is the perspective of an outsider looking in, so to speak.

This is going to be MUCH more than a basic Until Dawn story. We've explored a lot of the game's lore, charachters, setting, and have worked LONG and HARD on this. There are going to be aspects rarely explored like Before Dawn, world-building. We this planned this WHOLE out from start to finish. Now, I'm sorry if I come on strong here, but all i'm trying to say is don't discredit it right off the bat. I also know there are some out there who probably won't like this story anyway, and that's fine. Don't like, Don'y read. But to those who want to stick around, listen guys, this is going to be a heck of a read if you give it a chance. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. And as for the flamers and haters, we DO NOT CARE and we WILL continue to post chapters until this is finished!-Yours truly, bob the kraken.