Chris

I held the gun up so that it was pointing towards her. I saw her face go white and her eyes widen in shock, maybe she didn't think I would do it or maybe she was just preparing herself for what would come next. At the same time we both closed our eyes, not wanting to see the next scene play out, not wanting to see what the result is. But I felt her tense up, her fists clenching and her knuckles going white. I didn't want to but she said, she said she would do this. A whisper slid out of her half open mouth forming a word. No. But it was too late and I pulled the trigger, instantly regretting it.

I had shot her. I had shot Ashley…

I woke up panting, sweat dripping down my face and my fists clenched. I hated myself for what happened that night, there was no excuse. I had lost my mind but I also had lost something much more important, Ashley. I couldn't say her name now without feeling a sense of guilt and I knew she would never say my name again. She tried to kill me later in the night and I almost hope she had done because I can't live with myself, the pain is too much.

And now they wanted us to meet up, to iron out any creases in our relationships, to start over. But none of us wanted to, none of us felt the need to see each other ever again. Some of us had remained in touch, their relationships higher than ever before. Most of us now stand alone, hiding in the shadows until death takes us for what we have become. Isolated. That word penetrates my thoughts and pierced my senses, making me a monster.

I was once full of life, so happy, so full of laughter. I wish I could go back to then, back to before any of this happened. Maybe life would be different but now they stalk my every move. The Wendigo. The name of this creature gives me shivers, sends darkness through my skin and freezes my mind. I wish I had never heard of this creatures, I wish they were never there.

I can't change what happened, the past is beyond our control but I can alter the future, make it better for myself. The Butterfly Effect- one small flutter of a butterflies wings can cause a storm in a week's time. Maybe that's why I was there, alone, by myself. Maybe that's why people deserted me like they had done to everyone else. I didn't have a life beyond this room, I didn't have anyone beyond the door that leads to the outside. Maybe that's meant to be, maybe it was destiny.

But I didn't believe in destiny. No one's life is completed for them but they do have a path that they can choose to follow or stray from. Maybe I'd gone too far from the path to find my way back on to it and maybe I could never go back. Maybe I'd gone so far into the forest that the path had disappeared and vanished from existence.

Wherever I was, there was one thing I did know. The events that unfolded last year, changed my life forever, it changed everyone's life if they were there at the time. The press think we lied and made it up but however hard they try, they cannot find a wrong move in the story. Maybe it is better they don't believe us, now they just label us as mad and leave us alone.

There are too many maybes, too many regrets for me to leave this version of reality and join the next. I would love to just fix everything and move on but it's not that easy, you can't fix everything in a day. You need time and I don't have that. My family said I was crazy, my old friends said I was crazy, everyone that hadn't been on Mt. Washington that night said I was crazy.

Maybe I am crazy but I know didn't imagine what happened that night.

Sam

My eyes slowly opened, letting light flow into them letting me see what was around me. I expected something to pop up at me, attack me but nothing came. All I saw was the end of my bed and a door leading to my sitting room, leading me to the outer world. The world outside my window.

I lived alone, I thought it was better that way. No-one to see me at my worst, to see me when my mood went so low I didn't know who I was anymore. But then there was no-one to see me at the best of times, when I was happy and care-free. That didn't happen much so it didn't really matter, usually I kept myself to myself and just waited the day out in my room.

Apart from my weekly visit to my psychologist, Dr A.J Hill. He helped me get through the week and helped me think of the positives in life, though there were so few. He was Josh's psychologist as well, and I could see why he liked him so much, he had really helped me. Although some of his ideas were very strange and required me to revisit the past. His latest idea was to get all the old group together at his house and try and iron out the creases that were caused last year.

I missed them, a lot, maybe too much but that didn't mean meeting them would help it. Since last year I had only kept in contact with Ashley, mainly to stop her falling into darkness she would never return from. She was possibly one of the worst affected last year, she faced most of Josh's evil pranks and came nearly face to face with the Wendigo. I fear for her, I really do.

Maybe Chris is the main source of her problems. Before the horrible prank they spent every day together and you could see they wanted to be more than friends. But Chris made a wrong choice that day and although I didn't know exactly what happened I knew it resulted in him almost dying. If it wasn't for Mike, Chris would've died that day and with him Ashley's heart would have perished as well. Despite the fact that she insisted she hated him, I knew that if he had been taken she wouldn't have survived a year after the tragedy.

Emily also was affected by the actions of others that night on the mountain. She also had a loved one point a gun at her and had come face to face with a Wendigo. She still had a scar where the monster bit her and it was that that nearly caused her death last year. She had drifted further and further away from the group allowing her fears to swallow her whole and bring her to a world of hatred. Maybe this day could help her and make her feel loved like she once felt.

Mike had also drifted away but had almost made this better himself. He had joined the army and let his past experiences motivate him to help save so many lives. I was proud of him however I didn't know whether he still considered himself a friend but if he needed one I would be there. Over the night on the mountain we became closer than we ever had done before and I still really cared for him. He was lucky he was able to get leave from the army as they were very tight about this but they knew what happened to Mike so they made a special case.

His old girlfriend, Jessica, might have seen the least in those hours but her scars show her to hold the worst injuries in the group. Once a pretty face, had become something engulfed in shadows like all the light was drained from her. Despite this, she still carried on with life and had recently got together with Matt, a guy who helped her through the bad times. Once opposite ends of the Jessica Emily spectrum, they now cherished each other and you could see they loved each other so much.

Matt had seen death a couple of times during his time on Mt. Washington. He had done things he may never forgive himself for but had saved himself. Matt wasn't a selfish person but what he had to do to his ex-girlfriend Emily made him think of himself bitter and twisted. Although he stared death in the face, he may have been the least affected during the night and left with the least amount of injuries.

Chris, lost two of his best friends that night. First Ashley, then Josh. Maybe there was no hope for Josh as he was going mad before, but he lost someone that he considered more than a friend. He was a big believer of the Butterfly Effect and that did come to bite him back on that terrible night. He had cut himself off from the rest of us and was slowly sinking into a hole of darkness. He knew what he did was so wrong and he knew that he deserved what he got but I knew that somewhere in his mind there was still hope that he and Ashley would solve this. But I didn't know, Ashley had persuaded herself that she hated him with passion.

Finally there was Josh. I still find it hard to say his name. Maybe I loved him, maybe I didn't but I knew that even if he survived the night he wouldn't be the same Josh I knew. After his sisters died I thought we had a connection but I guess not, I guess I was just a friend nothing more nothing less. Just someone he might have been able to rely on at times but at others not. Maybe he was just so mad he forgot that I was there for him and that I was there when he had all those sessions. But now I can't do anything about it. I hope he's in peace, it would be better if he was. I just hope he's not one of them.

Matt

I groaned. One whole year, one whole year after what happened and she now wants to meet up. Don't get me wrong, I did want to meet up but she could have done it before now, before everyone slid apart. I could have described us as tectonic plates, by ourselves and when we meet up it causes disasters.

Jessica and I were good though. After we met up in the mines just before dawn we started hanging out and more and I feelings kept on growing. Before the night we had to hate each other because we were dating different people. Mike and Emily. Although I loved Em' she didn't really love me back, she loved Mike, and soon after that night we split up and went our separate ways. Sometimes I wonder if we never went there, would we still be together.

"Jess." I shouted "Did you get Sam's text?"

"Yeah. I can't believe it. Do we have to go? I know you're always up for these types of things." She said to me walking back into the kitchen.

"I think we should. It's only a meet up, it's not like we're going back to the mountain or staying the night." I said, smiling at her because I knew she would give in.

"Fine Matt. But if anything happens to me I'm blaming you. We've already been through enough for a lifetime, one more and I'll snap." Jess said, earnestly and I knew she meant it.

"Look I promise I'll keep you safe and make sure that you're not in danger. I promise Jessica Martin, I promise."

Ashley

I looked at the picture in my hand, wishing life was that easy again. Me, Chris, Sam, Matt all laughing, having fun, I could never feel like that anymore. It was like all the good moments and the good memories have been flooded out of me and I now live off pictures and words to remember the good times. It was like my memory had gone blank and I couldn't think for myself, I couldn't go back to how it was, I couldn't go back to life was before last year.

My life changed that night, changed so much I could never go back. I lost everything, my friends, my family, my future, now I couldn't do one thing without thinking back to it. That night things happened that you wouldn't believe, you wouldn't dare to believe in case it was true. The police came and saw what a wreck I was, said I was mad and something weird had happened on that mountain. But they never believed us, even after all those cries of helps and all the investigation. It was like it never even happened.

Out of the eight of us that went there, only one person came back that I still kept in contact with, Sam. She looked out for me when I was at the worst stages of my depression and helped me do all the things I couldn't do by myself. I was so grateful to her, she really did become the one person I could rely on to help me overcome the hard times. Unlike some people.

Sometimes I thought it was my fault but then I remember what really happened that night. He shot me, he went and bloody shot me. I begged him to not but he pointed the gun straight at me and pulled the trigger. Although there was no pain involved I still feel my heart burst at the sound of the blank. Sometimes I wish I had died then, at least I wouldn't have had to go through what I was going through.

I got my revenge though. I couldn't move and he was standing outside the door banging on it and calling for help. I would have opened it but I had visions of what happened before and I couldn't move. It was probably for the best Mike reached out and turned the handle or I would have been a murderer. I don't think I could have lived with myself if I had done it.

I sometimes missed him. When I was in my room alone, I thought of the times when he was there helping me with my homework or expressing his love for the latest gadget. We could have had a chance, maybe, but we always talked around it, we both didn't have the courage to say how we felt. Maybe if we had told one another we wouldn't have been in this situation, we would have been talking, maybe even a couple. But Sam said I shouldn't think like that and just move on and if I ever wanted to talk to him I should. I doubted that would happen. I hated him, I hated him so much.