Until Dawn: Seeking Hope
Prologue of a new Until Dawn story suggested to me by PokemonFreak90 and worked on between us, this one follows the storyline of the game but with some notable differences, in particular, in this one, Beth is the one who is tricked by the prank and Sam goes after her, they fall of the cliff, Sam dies, Beth becomes the Wendigo and Hannah takes Sam's place, anyway, should be interesting, hope you enjoy it.
Also a side note, this is just a taster of this story, I won't actually be starting it in any real detail until next year at some point.
Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn or its characters.
Prologue
The snow billowed around the mountain, the moon was high, and the night was dark. Standing defiant against the elements was the large building known locally as the Washington Lodge, property of the Washington family. Its lights shone bright. Outside the lodge, a mysterious stranger, clad in dark clothing stood. He clutched a machete tightly in his hand. Inside the lodge were ten teenagers, all within the age range of seventeen to nineteen.
The majority of said teens were in the dining room, two of them passed out drunk. The others were all talking quietly amongst themselves, except for one of the girls, who was standing separate from the others.
Three of the occupants of the lodge were the children of the Washington family. The eldest of those was nineteen-year-old Joshua Washington, known as Josh to his friends. He and his two sisters all had dark chocolate-brown hair and caramel complexions. Unlike his eighteen-year-old sisters, who were twins, Josh had green eyes. The Washington sisters, meanwhile, had dark brown eyes.
The girl standing separate from the others was looking out the window into the snowy night. This girl was eighteen, had fair skin, and medium-long blonde hair, which she tied in a classic bun style at the back, leaving a few locks framing her face. She also had hazel eyes. This girl was called Samantha Giddings, also known as Sam, and she was in a relationship with Josh Washington. The two had begun dating not long ago, but had grown very close very quickly. Other than his sisters, Sam seemed to be the only girl that truly understood him.
The remainder of the friends were all gathering together, further along the room, talking amongst themselves. One of the Washington sisters, Hannah, was with them. Her long hair came down past her shoulders and she wore onyx-black rectangular glasses. She also wore a heart-shaped locket, which was known to contain a picture of her and her twin sister, Beth. Apart from her longer hair and glasses, Hannah was the perfect image of Beth.
However, Beth was nowhere around right now, while Josh was one of the two boys passed out drunk, the other being his best friend; eighteen-year-old Christopher 'Chris' Hartley, a man with fair skin, short, dirty blonde hair worn in a faux-hawk style, and also wore a pair of grey rectangular glasses.
One person in the group of friends, a girl of seventeen with green eyes, beige blonde hair in small pigtails, and a bisque complexion, who was named Jessica 'Jess' Riley, was placing a note on the table where it could be found by its intended recipient. It was two in the morning and the group of teens had been partying and enjoying themselves and some of them, quite giddy from the drinking, had decided to play a prank on Beth Washington.
The basis of the prank was Beth's crush on another member of the group; eighteen-year-old Michael 'Mike' Munroe, a muscular young man with short, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and fair skin. This raised some issues and especially angered Mike's girlfriend; Emily Davis, an eighteen-year-old Asian-American woman with above-shoulder length black hair and light brown eyes, an olive complexion, and a small birthmark above her right eyebrow. It had been Jessica who had come up with the prank, as a means to get revenge, which involved having Beth find the note, apparently from Mike, luring her to one of the bedrooms where they would trick her into an embarrassing situation that they would get on camera.
"Oh my God, I can't believe you actually did this." Emily remarked to Jessica, her voice shaking with laughter.
Jessica waved a hand, pointing out Sam across the room and saying, "Shh...Shh...Shh." Sam wasn't in on the prank. If she knew what they were going to do to her friend, she'd ruin everything.
Emily just smirked and Hannah shook her head.
"Don't you guys think this is a bit cruel?" she said, nervously. "W-what if she flips out and does something crazy when she learns the truth?"
The others turned to her, joined by two others; a boy and a girl, both seventeen. The first was a boy named Matthew Taylor, known as Matt to his friends. He was an African-American male with short black hair and brown eyes. The girl was Ashley Brown, a young Caucasian woman with medium length auburn hair and green eyes.
Jessica shook her head. "Oh come on, she deserves it."
Hannah shook her head, pleading with them and looking panicked. "Please, put yourself in her position and think about how you'd feel. It's not her fault that she has a huge crush on Mike-"
"Beth's been making moves on him." Jess shot back, shaking her head. "I'm just looking out for my girl Em."
"W-well...I guess that's...okay..." Hannah trailed off, but agreed with them against her will.
Hannah was the shy one in the group. She had trouble coming out of her shell and speaking up for herself and her friends, especially when her opinions were outnumbered and overshadowed by others' like they were now. She would usually look nervous and panic inside and stammer, stumbling over her words in these situations. But it was even worse than usual now, since it was her sister that was going to get pranked and Hannah cared about her family above all else.
Hannah looked over at Josh and considered waking her brother up in order to help her, but when she saw the empty bottles of alcohol next to him, she knew that he was down for the count. She was on her own for this situation.
Jess grinned to Emily before they all began leaving the room. As they walked, Emily spoke up again.
"Just because he's Class Prez doesn't mean he belongs to everyone. Mike is my man!" she exclaimed.
Mike sighed and shook his head. "Hey Em, I'm not anybody's man."
"Whatever you say, darling."
It was then that they all hurried out, heading up to the guest room where their little prank was to take place. Shaking her head, Hannah went in a different direction, hoping to find and warn her sister.
"Beth!" she called out, desperate to find her before it was too late.
Back in the dining room, Sam was looking out the window at the snow. She bit her lip and thought, 'Wow, it's really coming down out there... Huh? What the…?'
Her thoughts were cut off as she spotted something outside. It looked like a person, standing out in the snow. The figure turned and left immediately but Sam saw them and turned quickly, calling out to her boyfriend.
"Hey...did you see that?" she queried. "Your dad said it would just be us this weekend...Josh?"
No response. She approached her boyfriend and tried to shake him awake, but to no avail. She then spotted the beer bottle next to him, amongst others. She picked it up and raised an eyebrow.
"Jeez, Josh." she laughed. "Once again, you've outdone us all. Too bad, since I was hoping that we could have some 'alone time' tonight."
Shaking her head, she looked around, trying to find the others. It was then that she saw the note on the table and checked it. It was signed by Mike and seemed to be inviting Beth up to the guest room. The note's content was somewhat sexual and Sam sighed.
"Oh my God, what did Beth get herself into now?" She shook her head, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.
Meanwhile, up in the guest room, everyone was getting into their hiding places. Ashley hid behind a partition. Matt was in the closet, keeping the door opened enough to film the incident. Ashley was trying to stifle her giggles, as were Jess and Emily as they hid under the bed. Mike stood by the bed, waiting for Beth. Emily and Jessica were still giggling when Emily heard the movement and nudged Jess.
"Oop!...She's here! Shh!" she whispered.
The door opened and Beth entered. Immediately noticeable in terms of difference of appearance between her and her twin sister was the fact that her hair came to just below her chin with bangs framing her face and she didn't wear any glasses.
"Mike?" she said, curiously. "It's Beth."
Mike smiled as he replied, "Hey, Beth."
Beth stepped fully into the room, closing the door and smiling.
"So...I got your note..."
"Glad you could make it." he said, suave and charming. "Maybe we should start with a little, you know, making out, and see where it goes from there."
Beth bit her lip. She felt a little suspicious. This seemed almost too perfect of an opportunity for her. But feeling like this was her chance, that she might finally get Mike's attention, she pushed her worries aside. As a result, she reacted eagerly, pulling off her sweater, revealing her recent black butterfly tattoo, located on her upper right arm.
Mike's eyes widened and he grinned. "Ohhhhh hell, yeah."
Jess couldn't help but burst into giggles as she let out a strangled whisper. "Oh my God! She's taking her shirt off!"
"What?" Beth gasped, hearing her and then seeing Jess and Emily. "Oh my God!"
The others burst out of their hiding places at that time, including Matt with his camera.
"Matt?! What are you guys doing here?!" Beth gasped in horror and anger.
She was stuck, her shame caught for all her friends to see. And even worse, it was being filmed. She pulled her sweater back on, her face burning with shame and anger. She couldn't believe that her friends would stoop this low for a prank.
Mike began trying to save face. "Uh, I'm sorry, Beth. This all got out of hand, but..."
At that moment, Hannah burst into the room, realizing in dismay that she had been too late.
She turned quickly to Beth and spoke in a worried voice. "Oh my God. Beth, are you alright? I tried to get here before you did to warn you, but-"
But Beth was too angry to even listen to her sister. "No, I'm not alright! I can't believe that they would pull something like this. This is going too far!" She turned and ran from the room, not stopping.
"I...I can't believe that you'd do this to my sister." Hannah sadly told the others.
"Uh...damn." Mike muttered, shamefully. The others all shared a look.
Hannah then turned to the others and glared. "You guys are jerks, you know that?" Seeing her sister hurt like that, she had lost her usual shyness for a moment and had firmly spoken out against them.
She then turned and ran after her sister, yelling, "BETH!"
She only arrived in time to see and hear Beth exit by the front door.
Sam was still down in the dining room and looked up at that point and spotted movement outside. She was startled, wondering if it was the same figure as before. She reacted at once, rushing out the door and calling out to the others.
"Guys, there's someone outside!" she called out, before noticing them all heading outside, too. "What the hell…?"
She hurried to pull on her winter coat, hearing the others calling Beth's name. Hannah was calling her sister's name out in desperation. Sam burst out after them, shoving Matt out of the way as she did so.
"What's going on?" she demanded, looking around at the others. "Where's she going?"
Jess shook her head dismissively. "Ugh, it's fine. She just can't take a joke."
Sam was very confused, so Hannah quickly explained what had happened. Sam was not happy with what she heard.
In a similar tone as Jess, Emily called out into the woods, "It was just a prank, Beth!"
Sam glared, looking carefully at them. She wanted to hear what they had to say for themselves. "What did you do?!"
"We were just messing around, Sam... It wasn't serious." Mike tried to explain.
"You JERKS!" Sam yelled. She rarely got this angry, but she was closer to Beth and Hannah than anyone else there, due to her connection with Josh, and she took it personally whenever they had been wronged.
"I'm going after my sister." Hannah decided out loud.
But Sam knew how sensitive Hannah could be and didn't trust her alone in the dark. "No, Hannah. I'll go after her and bring her back. She just needed to blow off some steam. You stay here."
Being Hannah's closest friend, she trusted Sam and let her go.
With that, Sam turned and ran off into the woods after Beth, calling out to her.
"So..." Mike began, awkwardly. "Should we go after her?"
Hannah shook her head, standing up for her sister. "You know, I think you're the LAST person that she wants to see right now, Mike."
Hannah and the others turned and made their way back inside. Hannah just prayed that Sam would be able to find Beth and bring her back.
Stumbling through the snow, Sam grit her teeth, looking around for her friend.
"Oh, shit!" she muttered. "Dammit, Beth! Where are you?"
She stumbled onward, stopping when she found a fork in the path. Looking around, there were footprints on one path and a shadow on the other. Acting on instinct, she followed the footprints, nearly running into a herd of dear, crying out. Still, she stumbled on, frantic, and trying to find her friend. It was getting darker and she soon had to pull out her phone and use its light feature to find her way.
'Shit...shit, this is messed up. What is...?' she thought, frantically.
She stopped when she spotted a strange object on the ground. It looked like an old Native American totem. Picking it up, she looked at it, turning it over to find a strange butterfly design, black in color. Suddenly, her vision was overwhelmed with a strange sight, a sight of her falling down a cliff and landing badly, looking disturbingly dead. And next to her was Beth, in the same state. She dropped the totem at once.
'What the fuck was that...?'
Shaking her head and trying to purge the disturbing sight from her mind, she hurried onward. She hadn't gone more than a few paces when a burst of flames above and to her left startled her. But then she could hear someone groaning.
She reacted at once. Rushing forwards, she found Beth pacing in the snow, looking mad.
"Hello?" Beth replied, looking up in shock.
"Beth!" Sam cried out, seeing that her friend wasn't wearing a coat. "Oh my God, you must be freezing. Here, take my coat."
Beth pulled it on as she remained angry as she shook her head.
"I can't believe them. They took advantage of me! I'm such an idiot for falling for this." she vented.
"I understand how you feel. I agree that they went too far." Sam sympathized. "Come on, let's head back and set things straight."
They were about to move when suddenly, they heard a terrifying screech.
"Sam…?"
The girl just shook her head. "Beth…?"
Beth bit her lip, terrified. The screech sounded again and they turned and ran as fast as they could, which was no easy task, due to the snow. Running in a blind panic, they made it to an old bridge. Crossing the bridge, Beth fell. Crying out, Sam turned to help her up, unaware that, at that moment, her phone fell from her pocket, falling under the floorboards of the bridge. They continued onward, both wanting to find safety, but ended up trapped as they reached a dead end: a cliff.
"Oh Jesus Christ!" Beth gasped.
Sam let out choked gasps as she and Beth clung to each other, moving backwards until they couldn't go any further, due to the edge of the cliff. They could hear the screeching getting closer.
"No... Shit, no, get back!" Sam cried out. "Fuck, no... ARGH!"
She cried out as they suddenly lost their footing and fell. They now were stuck, Sam hanging onto a branch protruding from the ledge, holding Beth's hand with her other hand.
A burst of flame suddenly lit up the night above them. Sam looked up in horror as a strange masked figure appeared above them and, after a brief pause, reached out towards them.
Sam grit her teeth. She could feel Beth's hand slipping through her own, but she couldn't abandon her friend and seeing this figure wasn't helping her feel any better. It only terrorized her more and, unable to hold on anymore, she let go. The last thing she knew was the pain of slamming against the ground several times. She struck a particular rock and life was wiped from Sam's body.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.