The Analyst - Caution For The Wise:

Handsome rounded plaque the first thing that the patient's eyes wandered to upon entering the neat office, the sleek snarling feline figurine and personal photographs facing inwards to discourage prying peepers, Dr. Hill stood at the window, admiring the sunny view. In part the sun-kissed landscapes reminded him of happier summertimes with his ex-wife, a honeymoon in Italian countrysides and vacations through various parts of Europe before she fell sick; yet even then there had been moments while making important family sojourns to Sweden and Germany. To be sure there was also a certain professional advantage of having the patients see him away from his desk that seemed to lessen the edge they felt when entering the office. More common sense than proven scientific theory, less of an edge meant that they would be more comfortable opening up, and the more at ease speaking one was, the quicker they could get to the root of the problem.

Tea cooling at his desk with the inviting aroma of oranges, the doctor pivoted at an alarmingly fast pace once his current appointment sat down opposite the lecturn. "Before we begin this session," putting forth a brief smile of forced sincerity, the therapist took his seat and clasped his hands together, "I would like to address a certain rumor that has come to my attention." Allowing a brief moment for the patient to either come clean or deny it, when the young man across from him only blinked in response, he repressed a sigh and resumed, "...Joshua, you and I have been acquainted for some time now. I would hate for something to come between the trust we have come to build between each other, so I implore you to tell me now if it's true that you have knowingly entered into a relationship with another one of the patients here."

Apprehension flickering momentarily across his face, the patient looked away from the professional, gaze wandering towards the window, to the freedom he was so close to achieving. Appearing to be deep in thought, even as a psychologist Dr. Hill couldn't tell if he was actually seeing the golden-orange outside or if he was trapped inside his own head. "I would hardly call 'porkin' and sporkin'' dating." Fingertips curling into the padded carmine leather, Dr. Hill could tell that his patient felt he had said the wrong thing, so he tried again as if he weren't talking to one of his peers, "W-we never put a label on it." Moment of sputtering aside, the fact that the patient wanted to correct himself was a very good sign towards his rehabilitation.

Good, he nodded his head at the boy. "You've made outstanding progress Joshua, and with a few more sessions I think we could be ready to release you back into the world. To your family and friends. That poor creature," tone sharpening in the back of his throat, there was something underlying the way that he said 'creature' that even his patient was sure to catch, "she has had to endure so much in her young life. Then again," the smile came again, but this time there was more truthfulness behind it, "you already knew that, didn't you? The both of you are in the same support group, if I recall correctly. I hold on to the hope that it's true that with time anyone can be healed with the proper care, but that girl... that girl may never fully be right. For you to encourage her when you're so close to leaving her would be cruel."

"..." Slow from the heavy doses of medication, the patient peered at his doctor in confusion, almost as if he couldn't quite believe what he heard, "A-are you saying that I should break up with Fawn?"

Regarding the patient before him pensively, Dr. Hill sat back in his seat, mouth popping and clicking as he made his stance on the situation more... understandable, "As I'm sure you're aware, the girl you know as Fawn is very unwell," the doctor clarified with a slight head tilt, "with her anxieties and tribulations come a family history of deep depression and psychotic breaks. No doubt traumatized, I'm saying that her condition requires understanding, and not only because her background makes her a prime candidate for some very serious diagnoses. As your friend Joshua, I would strongly recommend considering what involvement with her would entail. For both of your sakes."

Matt - Sportsman's Sacrifice:

Practice went well. All of his moves were on point, the coach shouted at the team a little less than usual, and a bevy of babes were lining the greens to cheer and watch the boys work up a sweat. Most importantly, she was watching him with a smirk on her glossy lips and that seductive sheen in gray eyes rayed by wings of thick lashes. Looking impossibly sexy and cool at the same time, bottle blonde Jessica was sprawled across the top of the bleachers effortlessly, pretending to be reading some glamor magazine for women. Not girls, women. At least he was pretty sure that Cosmopolitan was for women; if his father were to be believed (and so far in life he had been a reliable source), Matt's mother had been a loyal subscriber since before either he or his brother had been born.

"Yo, Matty!" Calling his attention away from the girl he had known since fifth grade, one of the linebacker's teammates clapped his shoulders with a nod towards the line-up closer to the field, "Savannah totally is eying you! If we play our cards right, I might even be able to get us a double-date with her friend Janelle!" Totally high school, there was a certain hesitation in him that screamed he wanted Matt to approve of the crush. "She got a little something-something, right?"

Whopping gleefully at his friend's nod, the sandy brunette waved chipperly toward a cute redhead standing nearer to the back, a good two inches shorter than the rest of the girls. Much like chunky Jett, shapely (in the wrong way) Janelle was the kind of girl that was only in the group for one of two reasons, neither of which seemed very nice. Option one, Janelle had come up with them (or had parents with influence), so the girls tolerated her presence, or else she was the duff, only there to make the others seem that much more desirable. To be polite Matt waved at Janelle, who in turn blushed and returned the gesture underneath sizzling glares. Poor thing, Janelle seemed like a really nice girl, one that his mom would have liked to have set him up with.

More forward than most, Savannah and her click buzzed excitedly about while Jess stood up and stretched, the motion revealing the most taunting amount of midriff. More than anything Matt would have loved for Jess to wait up for him so they could go cruising in his new car, however Jett was really into Janelle, and even though they were more than compatible on a social scale, it probably was never going to happen without him. Bitting the bullet for his friend's happiness, the all-around-good-guy joined Savannah's lot and pretty much just nodded as the appropriate details were arranged. Chocolate gaze watching as Jess shrugged him off and collected her things, he knew in the pit of his gut that he had blown it for the zillionth time. Jess gave off so many of the signs that she would have been into it, and here he was twiddling his thumbs and sitting on his ass while everyone else got to take the field.

Better get used to this feeling. Nasty in nature (mean nasty, not the fun kind), the voice in the back of his head tore him down another peg, laughing in the face of his fear of failing to make the scholarship next year. You need to learn what failure tastes like. Matt hated it when his doubts struck in full force, especially when they came on the heels of happiness.

"-right Matthew?" Cocky to the extreme for securing a date - even if it was only because he was doing a solid for a friend - Savannah tossed her long raven tressed over her shoulder, acting suddenly as if they had been an item for ages. Having no idea what it was the sharp-featured girl was talking about, he nodded meekly, just wanting to get away and head back to the showers so he could clear his head and think. "See? Matthew totally agrees with me that it was only a matter of time before destiny intervened and put us together!" No one there seemed to buy his interest, however not a word was said.

Emily - Cooperative Effort:

Emily simply adored the scent of old paper - especially the kind found in text books - so it was not uncommon to locate her personage in the lackluster declining tool shed that dared to call itself the school library. Which was her exact whereabouts at that precise moment, leading the study group in the proper, sure to receive an A direction of their history project. Teacher wise enough to know that the outcome would be best (and the effort most cooperative) if the trio was paired up together, Emily had been put in charge of Sam and Beth. Beth would always pull her weight and go the extra mile to polish the extra nuggets of information that Emily would be exhuming from the depths of forgotten tomes while Sam would jazz up the presentation (naturally in a tasteful light pre-approved by the group leader). Today was day three into the two week limit, however she wanted to have all of the facts in place by Friday.

"Em," Beth braved her friend's ire and glanced up from her third or fourth combing of the wikipedia page, "Sam and I were talking," the blonde's dislike of confrontation caused her to cringe at being dragged into it, but she didn't otherwise react, "and we were thinking of cutting early on Friday to help set up... Hannah's gonna be out with one of her other friends, and Josh is still..." giving out and returning an octave higher, Beth's tone suggested to Emily that there was more to the story than the Washington family were letting on, "...out, so the house will be empty."

Protectively guarding her newfound information for an advantage, miss GPA 4.0 failed to see what Hannah and Josh being MIA had to do with bailing prematurely on the assignment. "So?" Words unable to sound any more snotty than what they did, Em arched her onyx sculpted brow. "I didn't realize your brother and sister dropped everything to join our cause."

Able to hit just the right amount of soothing necessary to appease the diva, Sam shook her head, "That's not what Beth was getting at." Exchanging an amused grin with the other dark-haired girl, the hazel-eyed vegan went on to imply that a certain someone was sure to be at the party, "I think what she was trying to say is that we wanted to take the time to get all dolled up, just in case anyone interesting were to show up." Michael Munroe was currently on the hunt, and Emily was the pussy cat that would take down the mighty man. Beth and Sam might have scoffed at the notion, but she knew it was going to happen. "Don't you agree that her house would be the perfect place to do it?"

Clearly Beth and Sam didn't give two fucks about romance or her love life (sometimes Emily still questioned if the pair of besties weren't a little bit more than "just friends"), this was just their way of getting out of work early. Fine, two could play at their game. "You know what, that's a fantastic idea!" Sure to let them see just how much the notion appealed to her, Em straightened up in the unforgiving plastic chairs the faculty forced the students into using, scowling internally that the cheap mold was even touching her designer jacket. "You two bitches can stay here overtime with me, and then tomorrow if we make enough progress, I can take you two tomboys shopping for a decent skirt and not that crappy hemp shit Sam wears. Seriously, I don't understand how you can stomach letting anyone see you in that atrocity."

Frowning back at the insult on her fashion sense, Sam only grudgingly took the kiss Emily blew her. "Love you too."

Mike - Temptation Victorious:

Words blurring together in the increasing gloom of his bedroom, Mike was getting ready to throw in the towel and just stare at the half-written essay until it magically finished itself. Obviously at this point in his school career he knew better than to just leave it be (even if there was still a week to go before the first draft was due), yet he was at an honest-to-god standstill. The hell did he know about abstinence and teen pregnancy? Yeah, yeah, with his reputation everyone from Mexico to Alaska probably assumed that he was the cause of many a three hundred + bill, however contrary to popular belief he wasn't that kind of guy. First and foremost, he had been raised better than that and with more integrity, and secondly, Mike was more intelligent to just go in blind. He wanted to be President, but last he heard his forebears had only become fathers after collage and the plunge down the aisle.

And on that note...

Phone buzzing to life next to the cherry red wireless mouse, he could tell out of the corner of his eye that it was a girl calling him. Admittedly one of his more clever ideas, any and all girls ripe for the plucking were assigned a heart emoji next to their names, whereas the untouchables (such as family and no-shit-takers like Sam) were identified by simple faces parallel to the strength of the relationship. Odds were good that it was Hannah Washington, but of late there had been an increase in attention correlating with his most recent break-up, so there was a considerable list of possibilities...

Battling between curiosity and obligation, on the second ring Mike resolved to ignore the call and do his work like a good little boy. His friends would have been so proud! Icon blinking blankly as no further inspiration presented itself, the third ring earned a sideways glance. Nerves wearing thin as the prospect of excitement grew, on the penultimate ring before the automatic disconnect the teen switched his thoughts from actually attempting to be productive to appearing that way to further entice the opposite sex. On the final toll, Mike was so done with his paper for the time being that he answered the phone, taking half a second to read that it was Beth calling him.

Ashley - Takeout For Life:

The worst thing in the world? Home economics, hands down.

Bisque on top with only the slightest hint of singeing on the sides closest to the edge of the metal sheet, Chris' biscuits were more than worthy of a passing grade, plus the pinch of cinnamon he added for her made them smell pretty great too. Once class was over, Ash would be totally all over the confections and happy, but while they were in a competition for grades, each and every one of his delectables was the enemy. Especially while her sorry ass under-cooked blobs were within eyesight. I swear, if I ever get married - unconsciously her green eyes flickered over to a certain cute yet more than likely uninterested face - I'm either making him cook for me, or it'll be cheap Chinese while we huddle close and bemoan our fate in Greenwich.

Heaving a dramatically heavy sigh as visions of her and her faceless (yet also somehow familiar) mate flickered across her mind, Ashley spread a bit too much honey over the lumpy dough monsters she built. Typing another page for her next novel, hair tied back with reading glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose (thank you decades of reading!), a hand encouragingly patted the top of her head before stealing the cup of Joe that had cooled from neglect. Whoever he was, the spouse in her head hummed a happy tune under his breath as he collected a handful of her pages to read, no doubt skimming for mistakes or just to give his input because he cared that much about her profession. In the background, a car backfired...

"Ash...?" Waving a hand in front of her eyes, Chris was gazing at her with a funny look bordering on concern. "You still with us? Blink once for no, twice for yes, and three times for finally ending your charade and your alien race is finally making its move on our miserable kind."

Snapping out of it, she blinked at her study-partner four times, each carefully measured. Sadly his grade point average would suffer for her inability to cook anything remotely edible, but on the bright side she wouldn't fail the class completely. At least that had been her first thought when getting paired up with him, but now they were pretty tight. Not tight enough, alas this unfulfilled heart.

Playacting like he was shocked, Chris gasped, "No! Not four blinks, anything but that! Oh, almighty alien overlord, I beg that you find it in one of your six hearts to spare me!" Far from a great actor, he hammed it up and acted as if she were about to overpower him in the middle of the kitchen or something.

Although that wasn't a bad idea... "Six hearts?! That's brilliant!" Most interested in science fiction, she absolutely adored that idea for this one species she had been carefully crafting the last two years. "Chris, I could totally kiss you!" Half hoping against hope that he might just surprise her and take her in his arms, the other half of her brain was already whirring at high speeds, configuring what having six hearts would mean to the imaginary race, and more to the plot.

Crestfallen, he shrugged and put on a bright smile broken only by the wound he hid behind his armor, "No worries, so long as you credit me for the game-changing idea." Deflated somehow by this turn in events, Ashley only realized how close she and Chris had been once he fell away from her. Always so close, yet so far away... "Keep up the stellar work, Ashley. Eh, eh, get it? Stellar work?" Yeah, she got it, but his joke wasn't the part she wanted.

Hannah - Return to Sender:

Far from a friendship anyone in the situation would expect by any means, after the mix-up that put the dark-haired teen in contact with a different inhabitant of the apparently co-ed facility her brother was staying at, the two girls had opted to remain in contact. The patient from room 32b had penned a fairly lengthy reply to the letter meant for Josh; initially addressing the unorthodox decision to contact Hannah after the snafu to apologize for just opening the mail without bothering to read it first, 32b extended an olive branch with the confession that she recognized Hannah's name.

Claiming to 'click as a person on paper', according to the other girl Josh spoke about his sisters often (which definitely seemed like a Josh thing to do), and during the stories he told in group she had really come to like the way Hannah sounded as a person. In an attempt to assure the bespectacled girl that there were no ulterior motives other than making a friend, 32b elaborated on her side of the circumstances, words inadvertently causing Hannah to suspect that there was more than a friendly interest towards her brother. Beth (and anyone else probably) would have been creeped out and assumed that this was just a ruse in a grander scheme, but the elder twin wanted to see only the best in people, so she had humored 32b, writing a follow-up.

Sparked in part by a mutual understanding (and possible undercurrents of fear relating to) of what it felt like to be seen as an extraneous piece in a set, the most their bond had to do with the other two siblings was the odd polite inquiry of Beth (asked by Fawn), and the occasional prying into Josh's wellbeing (Hannah felt she had no other choice, as he hadn't always been the most forthcoming). Perhaps for her part Hannah had come to miss her big brother so much - despite Josh having only been gone for a relatively short while at that point - that she had been willing to jump on even the most insignificant scrap of information, and here was an inside window to him. Or maybe it was that she was honestly lonesome, feeling inside that her circle of friends only came around because she was a part of the package... Whatever it was, Hannah was truly glad for the way things had played out.

Chronicling her day in a separate notebook to remember interesting things to tell Fawn about in her next letter, Hannah had set aside her issue of Seventeen to think, the end of her cheap colored gel pen getting chewed as she sorted the details out. Ok, ok, so maybe it had occurred to Hannah once or twice the other girl was living vicariously through her, but considering in a way she was using Fawn as a proxy to be close to Josh, fair was fair.

"Hmm, what happened today...?" Hannah quizzed herself to try and recapture anything that stood out, but the week had been pretty boring. "Jeanne went home early during gym... Stacy and Gregory were fighting. Again. Tommy Di'Angelo had hit on our Jess, but she turned him down..." That was something to consider putting in at the least.

Today this guy from my English class hit on my friend Jessica. I haven't mentioned Jess much, but honestly that's because I just don't like her very much. Josh would probably say it's because I'm either threatened by her or because her blatant sex appeal was just a cover for some mad insecurity, but something about her just strikes me as a little two-faced. Beth's cool with her, but ehh. Seriously though, if you ever come my way I'd advise you to watch your back around her. Em too, but that's only coz she'll rip you a new one, and I don't like to see my friends suffer. The frowny face was almost palpable. As for the guy that asked her out, he's ok. Not too bright tbh, but he's not too bad looking. Not really my type, but I'm not sure why she turned him down... maybe she's waiting for someone else to come around?

Speaking of coming around, Mike's totally single! I know I've said that before, and I'm sure you're probably getting sick me going on about him, but you're a girl, you know what it's like to like a guy! I dunno, maybe my situation wouldn't seem so pathetic if I could vent more to my friends, but it's hard to do when I'm not sure who will take me seriously... Sam's great and would probably be the best person to talk to, but she's off in her own little corner, trying to save the world one indigenous threatened animal at a time, so she doesn't have time for boys. Or girls. Love that girl to pieces, but at times I honestly wonder how her head doesn't explode! Even I-

Hannah cut off abruptly, realizing that she was about to out herself. Much as she liked Fawn and fancied her to be a great pal, the bespectacled beauty wasn't prepared to delve into that can of worms just yet. Scratching the line out in a flurry of blue sparkle, this was the reason she was glad she kept spare notebooks and wrote out separate accounts before even the first draft. As her mother said, fate favors the prepared.

Music:

Caution For The Wise - Hotel California, by the Eagles

Sportsman's Sacrifice - Lucky Man, by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Cooperative Effort - Gold, by Imagine Dragons

Temptation Victorious - Simple Man, by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Takeout For Life - Steady, As She Goes, by The Raconteurs

Return to Sender - Bad Things, by Jace Everett

Music plays a rather large part in my writing process, thusly I am in the midst of crafting a playlist for this story. The rule of thumb (so far) being a song per chapter segment.

Author's Corner:

Hi all, and welcome! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my first Until Dawn fic! Like it or hate it, please review and leave me your thoughts! You'll have my thanks in the following chapter :) Favorites and follows are also appreciated! As are requests and suggestions, but I can't promise I'll know a way to make it work in my vision. Naturally any and all ideas shall be credited.

Ok, cheerful greeting out of the way, I have to admit that I've never played the game myself, but I intend to rectify that when I finally get my hands on a PS4, le sigh. Having said that, I've repeatedly watched gameplay and regularly comb through the wikia for information as needed. That matters, because my intent with this is to play with a certain theory I developed while watching the game: what if the Wendigo curse was targeted specifically and/or with prejudice towards the Washington family? I admit that I had a few other ideas as well, but the plot kinda ripped most of them to shreds and I have since forgotten most of them. Although that doesn't mean I won't toy with events a little :3 The game is hands-down one of my favorites, however there were one or two things I had issue with...

And that takes me to Fawn, my OC. If you are in any way familiar with my name, then you are aware that 99% of my stories have OC characters. I can't really say each and every one of them are great and ought to be given a chance (hell, I'm not even gonna self-promote), but I can say that this one really does factor largely into my idea. Had the game developers even hinted at a possible girlfriend for Josh, I honestly would have gone with that, however, as I have no knowledge of such a past or person, as a writer I came up with an idea I hope isn't over-used within the fandom.

Last but not least, I have no rights to any of the trademarked characters and with the exception of Fawn, they are the intellectual property of their rightful owners. Ditto for the music. You know that old song and dance.

~ Farewell, and I hope to see you again!