Everything his co-workers knew about Agent Grant Ward was a lie. Starting with his name, Grant Ward had never been a real person but simply an identity given to him. His real name was Michael Munroe or Mike as his friends called him and he had seen hell.
It had started when he was 18. At the time, it was just meant to be a harmless prank. Nothing bad was supposed to come from him. They'd all been invited down to the Washington's lodge up in the mountains for Hannah's party. Mike and most of the others all knew how Hannah had a crush on him despite him clearly being with Emily. So they'd played a prank on her, made her believe Mike liked her back. Not a day went by where he didn't regret it. Hannah was upset and of course had run off with her sister, Beth not far behind. Now Beth was dead and Hannah...Hannah wasn't even human anymore.
It hadn't stopped there. Josh had invited them all back onto the mountain to mark the year anniversary of the disappearances of his sisters. Of course at the time, no one knew what had happened. From that point on, everything went to hell. Josh had lost his mind. At first things were fine, a few arguments here and there but nothing that couldn't be handled. Josh had tried to kill them all! Because of him, Matt was dead.
Then those...those things appeared. The Wendingos. Cannibals that looked like they had crawled out of your worst nightmare. Hannah...Holy shit, Hannah was one of them. She'd had to eat Beth to survive but she'd become a monster because of it. It was his fault. It was all his fault. If he hadn't agreed to the prank, Hannah and Beth would be fine. Everything would be okay.
Those monsters wouldn't stop following them. They wouldn't stop killing them. In the end, only him, Sam, Chris and Jess got out alive. All their other friends perished. There wasn't a soul they could tell about what happened but each other. Then there was Jess. Poor, poor Jess. She'd been his girlfriend. His sweet, funny and beautiful but the ordeal had corrupted her. Everything Jess had seen drove the blonde insane.
That was where he was returning from. Visiting Jess in the asylum with Sam and Chris. They went every year on the anniversary of that hellish day.
As he walked back to his room on the Bus, he passed Skye. Clever, sassy, wonderful Skye. She was his saving grace. Even if he was HYDRA. The beautiful girl asked him if he was okay. Grant Ward answered with a "I'm fine, Skye. Don't work about me" Because Grant Ward was fine. Michael Munroe? Not so much
Because he could never forget what they had to to Hannah and Beth. He could never forget the loss of his friends. He could never forget what he'd seen on the mountain.
Michael Munroe would always remember