Penumbra
[Josh/Wendigo!Josh x Reader]

Prologue

"Don't move..."
"Don't fucking move a muscle..."

Mike's words from two months ago, on that fateful night in the cabin, echoed fresh in your mind. With trembling legs and clammy hands, you remained pressed to the natural stone wall like a magnet on a fridge, refusing to budge until that...

...Thing...

-moved.

There was just one thing which tempted you to leave your hiding spot, and approach the hunched figure. Something half human, half demonic- fully terrifying. What tempted you was a simple fact. No more. No less.

You knew who it was.

This was no ordinary Wendigo.
You knew this Wendigo.
This Wendigo had teased you and taunted you on many an occasion when he had been completely human, but always in good jest. Everything had been in good jest, until that faithful night, that you all decided, like fools, to return to the one place that started it all.

Well, you know what they say. We look back on the past with rose-tinted glasses. We never see clearly, through the fog of what we wish had happened instead.

I wish they'd never tried to prank her.
I wish I'd been able to talk them out of it.
I wish I'd been able to save them...

If only. If only Hannah and Beth had lived. If only they hadn't toppled down that icy cliff, cracked their backs and skulls on the jagged rocks below. If only Hannah hadn't awoken, and been struck with such desperate hunger. If only she hadn't given in, and dug her sister up, feasting on her flesh.

And if only...Josh hadn't tried to get his revenge for it all.

You could understand. You could empathise, or maybe...sympathise? To a degree anyway. After all, you had all known of Josh's problems long before any of this had happened. To have his sisters taken from him, on top of everything else that happened, was no doubt torturous for the poor guy.

It explained why he was willing to go to such elaborate lengths, to punish you all for it. Perhaps he had even intended for Mike to lose two of his fingers. Though it was clear he hadn't intended for Jess to die.

And it was clear, he hadn't considered the fact, that another set of villains were meddling in his little game.

Now he had become one of them. He was around the corner, just beyond the stone wall you cowered behind. Hunched over a dead body, producing sickening sounds- cracking, tearing, squelching – as he bit into limbs and pulled apart organs, all just to satisfy the gnawing, ravenous hunger in his belly. He had held on long enough, too long. When he had found the old man his...rabid instincts had taken over, and before he knew it, he was eating another human.

What did it matter though? He had been down there for so long, stuck in these wretched mines, that he had turned into the very monster he feared in the first place. It was disturbingly perfect. He and Hannah, and the other Wendigos. A perfect little family.

Hannah had managed to survive the fire. Good thing too, since she was his only companion down here since his friends had abandoned him. Her and Beth's disembodied head. Because he was only half-turned, he didn't exactly get along with the other Wendigos that inhabited this stifling place, but Hannah was always there for him.

Josh didn't want to be like the other ones. He didn't want to look like that. All fucked up eyes and teeth. Bald heads, barely skinned bodies. It was as if he was surrounded by a bunch of Gollum clones, and even his dear sister was no different. When he laid his eyes upon her, he saw nothing he recognised, except for the signature tattoo on her arm.

You peeked around the wall. Just for another glimpse, since he was only part way through that body, and judging by how ferociously he was munching down on it, you wondered how long it might take for him to leave. Not that you really wanted that though...you had come down here to find him.

But seeing what he was like now...fear had struck you. You were trapped, and you just wanted to leave.
Even if it meant you couldn't save him. Besides, it seemed he was beyond saving anyhow.

For you saw a flash of his face, as he tugged at a particularly tough piece of muscle, pulling it taut between his teeth. For the most part, Josh still looked like Josh. You had always found him handsome, always had a secret crush on him (which you suspected he knew, since he would deliberately tease you in ways that suggested it). Half of him still was handsome. It was Josh's face, and body. Just a little roughed up, bruised, cut in a few places, dark shadows around his eyes.

One eye. For the other half of his face was where it got horrifying. One eye seemed a lot wider than the other, like it was constantly staring, and had gone a milky shade of white-blue. His jaw was ruined, the skin of his lips peeled back and stretched to accommodate massive, sharp teeth. He could still close his mouth, but when he did, it looked like someone had dragged a knife right along his face from cheek to cheek, like some kind of fucked up, wavering smile.

Keep it together, [Y/N].

-Was what you told yourself when you first saw him. You had bitten back your scream and instead, hid behind this wall like a genuine coward. The only problem was that now, you had to go back the way you came if you wanted to leave. There was nothing but darkness beyond here.

And back the way you came, was where Josh was.
The Wendigo- Josh.

Despair shook you by the shoulders, and you felt your legs weaken, knees buckling as you slowly, silently, slid down against the wall and huddled on the floor, pulling your knees to your chest and burrowing your face behind them.

Fear.
You were afraid of Josh.

Who could blame you though? So much had happened.

Your mind drifted.
He wasn't himself anymore.
You thought about that...

Back, two months ago...