Until Dawn is not mine, nor will it ever be. Alice Turner is mine though, and so I accept full blame for anything...foolish she might do.
A turbulent heart is a heavy burden to bear. It reminds us how selfish we truly are. Whether you were a leader or the one who cowered in the back, one's heart can rot in their chest until there's nothing left to give from the inside out. There was something heavy that weighed down on Alice's heart with a painful ache. It was the fire that blazed about down below, the way the paramedics worked with an urgent panic, their hands continuously moving, wiping blood off of Jessica's pale skin while muttering technical terms Alice was too tired to even try to understand. She swallowed thickly when Jessica gave a pained moan. To the far end of the helicopter, somewhere hidden in the shadows, she heard Matt's strangled gasp.
She hoped the three of them weren't the only ones left, that the only thing that burned with the cabin were those things. She couldn't bear to think what Jess would do if Mike were to have gone down in flames. Even Emily, who Matt had searched desperately for. The helicopter suddenly jolted, displacing her leg from its makeshift crutch. The pain seared through her and she prayed to whoever was up there that Emily truly was safe, if for nothing more than the pain she had to endure for two hours when those things managed to take a bite out of her thigh.
When they landed, Jessica was taken to a separate room for immediate attention. Alice and Matt were escorted to a holding cell where they sat in silence. Alice could just feel the guilt that buzzed through Matt's large frame, his leg bouncing up and down while he twirled his thumbs nervously. She would tense up every time Matt opened his mouth, fearing he was going to apologize. But every time he would look at her she would bend down and readjust the strap that held her cast together, and his eyes would shy away in shame.
About thirty minutes had gone by before the metal door swung open. The light from the hallway flooded in. They both flinched back, eyes straining to readjust to the onslaught of light that assaulted their eyes, so used to the night and the slivers of light that peeked in from the blinds of the windows.
"Come on," said the detective as he motioned for the two to exit, "you're needed for interrogation."
They were led to separate interrogation rooms. The lamp overhead buzzed and flickered momentarily before bathing Alice in a stream of fluorescent light.
Room 3-Chris
"The old man… I, er…" Chris took a momentary pause, "I don't know how to describe him, I mean-"
"You said you thought he was stalking you at first-did anyone else in your group think that?"
"Well yeah-"
"Is it possible they could have killed him?"
"What?" gasped the blonde in offense. He shook his head at the detectives, "No, no you don't understand. Don't you underst-"
"If he attacked you- Alice Turner mentioned she'd seen him twice-"
He leaned forward defensively, "He saved my life," he swallowed, "and I watched him die."
Room 1-Ashley
"I heard Jessica," Ashley began, "I don't how or why she was down there but I know I heard her…"
Room 2-Emily
"He held it right up to my face...right here-" she tapped the center of her forehead with her forefinger, "right in front of my nose, and he could have shot me, he almost shot me, the prick!" Emily shook her head back and forth, hoping to express her disbelief. "I mean you go out with a guy for however long and you think you know him, but man this one really takes the cake."
Room 2-Matt
"I was right there and I could have done something-I tried to do something...I wasn't good enough…"
"What happened in the mines, Matt?" the detective asked, "why did you run?"
"...I wasn't good enough...for any of us."
Room 1-Jess
"How did you end up in the mines?"
"I was…" Jessica began, testing her voice, "carried...and taken...and…"
"What did you see?"
Her breath hitched, "I don't know…" she cried weakly, "...I don't know…"
Room 3-Mike
"He was out of his fucking mind. He wanted to hurt us. Yeah, he...and…I thought he was the one who attacked Jess."
Room 1-Sam
"I thought we were close…" Sam gulped, mustering the courage to continue. They didn't believe her, she could tell. "After his sisters disappeared he'd come to talk to me...he said I was the only one who understood him. I thought...I thought we had a connection."
"If you need someone to talk to…"
"I'm fine."
"After a traumatic experience-"
"I said I'm fine." she snapped at him.
Room 1-Alice
"I, uh," she squeezed her eyes shut, quickly regretting what she'd just said. "I know...he didn't mean it. We were too slow, and she called for him! We heard her call out for him…"
"We?"
Room 2-Emily
"Where's Matt?" she questioned desperately, "is he okay? Are they done looking for him? I'm just a little worried because, you know, I'm his girlfriend. Did he tell you that? I mean, I probably wasn't his favorite person for a couple of minutes but he knows how devoted I am to him. He knows. He said he knows, right?"
"You're his girlfriend?"
"I mean...why? Did he say something different?"
"No… He said he came for you when he heard you call out for him down in the mines."
"Wait, wait," Emily raised an eyebrow, "he heard? How, did he fall all the way too?"
Room 1-Jess
"Your friend Ashley told us she tried to help you…"
Jess shook her head, "No…"
"She said she heard you calling out."
"No...not me…"
"...Mike…"
"What do you remember?"
"He came for me," she smiled "he did…!"
"Came for you?"
"Where is he…? Did he make it…?"
"It'll be a while before any of you can see Mr. Monroe."
Room 1-Sam
"You need to listen to me. I don't care if you believe me or not. Doesn't matter. Because you will. You need to go down to the mines."
"What's in the mines, Sam?"
With a tight smile, she leaned forward and persisted, "I've seen what's down there-and I'd give anything to unsee it."
Interrogations were a tiring and draining affair. The detectives tried to make sense of what was told to them, but there were too many holes. They tried to piece the truth together with questions that made sense, questions that brought the pieces together, but only served to aggravate them further, in particular Chris and Sam.
They lasted hours and hours on end, stopping only to fetch a cup of water and a new pen. Jessica was the first to leave the interrogation rooms. Her parents were adamant about taking Jessica to a hospital despite receiving emergency care in the station. The parking lot was soon crowded with concerned parents and loitering news cars hoping to scope out a story, which only made things worse.
"Jess!" her parents cried out, reaching for their daughter as she limped out from behind the screen door. Her mother wrapped her arms around her, only easing the pressure when she felt Jess flinch in her arms.
The break room soon came alive with anxious whispers and joyful exclamations as their children exited the back rooms one by one. The tension only seemed to build up as they watched child after child, on the edge of their seats as they waited anxiously before their children appeared.
Chris was the first to exit. He hugged his mother fiercely, his father patting his back as he whispered broken apologies. Ashley was second, shoving the door open as her small frame was wracked with sobs. She could feel Chris's eyes follow her around the room before she hid behind her father, chewing her lip worriedly as she watched to see who else was going to come out from behind the door. Emily nearly jumped in Matt's arms before he even had the chance to close the door behind him. Jess refused to leave before she got to talk to Michael. Her parents urged her to get into the car before opting out and setting her down on a chair. She was given a cup of water and a tissue to wipe up any blood. The napkins were set on a nearby window sill, and Chris was just about ready to grab a handful and hand them to Ashley. He didn't want to the see the blood that had dried up on her skin now.
"Sir, please calm down," Dennis Turner heard from the corner of the room. An officer had his hand on a tall man's shoulder, pushing him down into a chair. There was a blonde woman by his side, shaking her head and tapping her foot with impatience.
Dennis looked down at the photo in his hands. His daughter, a young girl of brown hair and blue eyes smiled at him, her hand frozen in an awkward wave. He'd been wrangling the picture since he received the call a few hours after dawn.
"Sam!" he heard the same man from the corner of the room exclaim.
Dennis knew who Sam was. She was one of the reasons why Alice was allowed to return to the mountain a year after that tragic night. She was a serious and calm girl, a responsible friend, and he trusted her more than he trusted any of the other young adults.
The door screeched open, snapping him out of his thoughts. When he looked up, he jumped from his chair and encircled Alice in his arms. He didn't release her, and judging by the way she fisted her hands in his jacket, she didn't want him to let her go. So lost in her father's arms was she that she failed to notice the coiling tension in the room. Mortified gasps and angry whispers were muffled by her father's heartbeat. The atmosphere quickly shifted into something akin to horror. It wasn't until Michael Monroe was cuffed from behind that Alice jerked back from within her father's arms, scanning the room bewildered.
Jessica was the first to react, wobbling out of her chair as she held onto the wall for support. "Where are you taking him? Mike-"
"People," the sergeant tried to take control of the situation, standing at the front of the room. "People!" he barked out amidst the chaos. He waited until everyone quieted down, even if Jessica was now latched onto Mike's arm. "Due to recent developments, both Michael Monroe and Christopher Fleiss are hereby detained until further investigation is conducted."
Almost immediately a wave of protests erupted from parents and friends.
Sam stepped forward. "Wait, what?" she scanned the room. Something in her gut told her that she knew why Mike was being arrested, but what about Chris? "Ashley…?"
Ashley had burrowed herself deeper into her father's embrace. Her nerves had finally overtaken her, anxiety skyrocketing to the point where she couldn't do more than nod her head.
"Why is Mike under arrest?" Jessica muttered.
"This is a mistake! I didn't do anything!"
A pair of officers had managed to pry Jessica off of Mike, restraining her while a stout man cuffed Chris as well. They were being led back to the same door they had just closed behind them, back to a new reality.
Chris began to struggle, craning his head back to get a look at the one person he'd give anything for, "Ashley please!" he plead, tears brimming in his eyes, "don't do this, please!"
Alice found herself watching as the scene unraveled before her eyes. She spent the night secluded from everyone, only reuniting with Matt and Jess just a few hours before dawn They were even rescued separately. She assumed Matt had convinced the pilot to turn back and pluck her and Jess off from the cliff of the mountain. He was the one who took Jess in his arms, wrapping her up in a blanket before doing the same with Alice until she shook him off. She wanted to believe in Mike's innocence, but even the best of them can turn. And Chris? She spent a good deal of the night with him and Ashley. They were inseparable...
Sam, Emily, Matt and Alice were the only ones left in the station by the time sunrise had caught up to them. Jessica was taken to a hospital, nearly screaming and crying. If she weren't as weak as she was, Alice was almost sure that Jessica would have latched onto the walls and door frame until she was allowed to see Mike again. Ashley was swiftly removed from the situation as well. Her parents tried to spare her the embarrassment of having a breakdown in front of her friends and their family. They nearly had to carry her out the door, though.
Alice caught Sam glaring at Emily every so often. Emily, however, didn't notice. She was bent over the front desk, her father hovering over her, explaining the documents and pointing where she had to sign, to which she did, shakily though. After the papers were filed and stamped, she turned to Matt. Alice looked away as he hugged her fiercely, his muscular frame swallowing her out of sight. They whispered to each other, and kissed goodbye. Matt followed soon after.
Alice looked up from the spot on a wall she was staring so intensely at. Her father was discussing the arrests with Sam and her parents. Sam, like her father, had her arms crossed over her chest, shaking her head whenever she disagreed with something. Mr. Turner, meanwhile, was ignorant to his daughter's plight. He continued on, speaking animatedly and gesticulating widely, a coping mechanism of his she had grown accustomed to over the years.
Alice's leg hurt. It had swelled greatly, and every time she would wiggle her toes pins and needles would shoot up and down her leg, a cold burning left in their wake. She couldn't make out what Matt and Emily were whispering about, but he left her once for her, and it's technically Emily's fault that something had dug its claws and teeth deep into her leg and ripped off a chunk of her flesh, and (she was loathed to admit it) but the way her stomach rolled with nausea had nothing to do with the fever she was running or the adrenaline that was finally leaving her body. No, this was something worse and ugly, but for the first time in a year, she refused to fight it.
Taking hold of the back of her chair, she pulled herself up and staggered towards the door. She had mastered the art of moving undetected from place to place years ago when her father wouldn't let her out of the house after eight. Carefully opening the door, Alice slipped through, hissing when she bumped her knee, and made her way towards the sergeant's office.
"And you're sure-"
"Yes," she replied instantly. The guilt was already getting to her, but she wasn't ready to admit to what she had just done. Not yet. "He tried to kill me."
The station had gone silent for the afternoon. Mike and Chris found themselves sitting in a holding cell. While Mike was wound tight, muscles tense and breathing heavy, Chris had doubled over himself. His tears hit his glasses, blurring his vision, rocking himself back and forth.
The officer in charge of watching them had left the TV on. It droned on in the background, just behind the man's upturned head as he snored on contently.
"-is pressing charges against Matthew Fisher, one of the nine survivors from Blackwood Mountain, for attempted murder…"
Whew, so I switched this new (and better, if I may say so myself) chapter for the old one I had originally posted. The same rules apply though: this story will feature both past and present events, and English is not my mother tongue, and any editing is done by me so please feel free to point out any mistakes or give constructive criticism. It's a slow start, but I hope you'll guys will stick along for the ride.
Thank you.