Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn. Until Dawn and its characters are the property of SuperMassive Games and Sony Computer Entertainment, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this work nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Chapter 1

"You Jerks!"

Shaking her head, Beth Washington turned and started trudging through the woods in a desperate attempt to find her twin sister. As she followed her sister's footsteps through the crunchy Alberta snow, she was relieved that she had switched from lager to coffee a couple of hours earlier. Unlike her brother, who had really done it this time. Downing an entire bottle of whiskey in trying to win a drinking contest with his oldest friend. A contest in which the true winner was the distillery whose product had rendered both friends unconscious. Five minutes ago, she found his antics endearing, but now she was just irritated that she was, yet again, the 'responsible one'.

Not that her brother was to blame, after all he wasn't the one who came up with the idea of embarrassing Hannah with such a mean-spirited prank. Instead, it was her so-called friends, who had tricked her naïve sister into exposing herself to Mike, both emotionally and, judging by Hannah's state of undress as she ran from the lodge, almost literally. Well, not Chris, who was just as drunk, if not more so, than her brother. And judging by the angry look on her face as Beth stormed out, Sam wasn't involved either.

Still, she wished that the blonde haired girl had come with her. Partially because her rock climbing skills might come in handy, but mostly because she was the only non-Washington in their group that really understood Beth or Hannah. And Josh for that matter, although she suspected that no one truly understood the eldest Washington sibling, not even Hannah or herself.

"Shit, dead end" Beth muttered to herself as the steadily increasing snow obscured her sister's footsteps. "Which way should I go? Left or right?" Quickly noticing a shadow to the right side, she turned that way, hoping it was her sister.

"Hannah! Hannah, it's me. Where are you!?" Beth felt the cold air sting her bronchial tubes as she cried out. Judging by what Hannah was wearing when she ran outside, Beth feared that she would be freezing, if not worse. Beth shivered both due to the cold wind piercing her own fuchsia ski jacket and black yoga pants as well as the thought of her sister being outside in just a low-cut blouse and jeans.

A loud inhuman groan broke Beth's train of thought.

"Hannah, is that you?" Beth instinctively questioned. Speeding her pace, she proceeded down the path hoping the sound was just the wind, or maybe a scared caribou, and not a wolf or her sister freezing to death. Shining the flashlight of her smart phone over the path while trying to detect any sign of her sister, Beth suddenly felt woozy as her vision blurred. Her view of the obscured trail was replaced as a third person perspective entered her mind. Showing both her and Hannah holding hands while falling off a cliff. She winced as the vision showed her smashing her spine against a jagged stone, while Hannah fell straight to the ground with her body battered and broken.

"Great. Already starting to get weird hypothermia visions." Beth muttered as her eyes cleared "Hannah, please answer me!" she called out with a weary dullness entering into her voice. Looking over her right shoulder, she hoped to see either Sam or Josh following to help her. At this point, she would have settled for Mike or Emily. Realizing that no one was behind her, she continued forward until she heard an angry, indeterminable, scream followed by a bright blast of fire. She had felt uneasy earlier in the lodge when she heard unusual rustling noises and thought she had seen someone outside. But there was a vast difference between unsettling sounds and vague shadows, and some maniac wielding a flamethrower. She needed to find her sister immediately, for both their sakes. "HANNAH!"

"Hello? Beth?" a frail voice came from the clearing to Beth's right. As she turned and looked, she saw Hannah sitting in the snow with her face blotched with tears of embarrassment. While she had buttoned her blouse back up, the garment's exposed cleavage and short sleeves had provided little protection from the elements. Her dark long hair and the black silky blouse contrasted eerily with how her normally olive complexion had started to turn white from frostbite.

"Hannah! You look like a ghost. Oh God, you must be freezing." With that understatement, Beth quickly unzipped her ski jacket, revealing her wool gray sweater, and passed it to her twin.

Too cold to offer polite refusals, Hannah quickly pulled on the jacket and zipped it up to her neck. "Still taking care of me after all of these years, huh, Beth." Hannah's eyes started to water as she admonished herself. "I'm such an idiot, such a fool, such a..."

"Hannah. Stop it. You're not the first girl to have fallen for the charms of Michael Munroe."

"But how could he pull a prank like that? Unless he's hated me all this time." Hannah shook her head as the combination of anxiety and self-loathing washed over her.

Beth sighed and hugged her sister, pushing Hannah's cold face into the warmth of her sweater. "Look, they've all been drinking and I'm sure that they'll regret doing this in the morning. Actually, judging by the look Sam was giving them, they're probably regretting it now". Beth chuckled slightly at the thought of Sam reaming into the others with justified indignation. "And I know that Mike does actually care about you... Just not the way you want him to care about you. I'm sorry, so sorry, that you found out this way." Beth loosened her hug and looked over the snow obscured lenses of Hannah's glasses directly into her sister's teary eyes. "Let's go home, Han, before we get frozen together".

Hannah broke a slight smile and was about to agree with her sister when she noticed a figure moving behind Beth. A hunched figure, with a vaguely human face, but with sharpened teeth, grotesquely tightened skin and unnaturally elongated limbs, was starting to move towards them, It's gait was a halting scurry, akin to a particularly awkward spider. Noticing her sister's change in expression, Beth looked back and saw the creature as it unleashed a blood curdling screech. Looking back at her sister, Beth released the hug and grabbed her sister's left hand in her right. "Hannah, can you run?"

Hannah nodded slightly and with that gesture, both sisters went in stride just as the creature hastened its pace. While Hannah was normally the faster of the two, Beth took the lead in what was becoming a sadistic race, with the creature gaining despite the apparent physical impossibility. While running, Beth dug for her cell phone, hoping for some way to call for help only for the phone to slip from her grasp and fall away. Looking ahead, the snow began to clear, revealing that two girls had reached the end of the trail, a high cliff cutting off their escape.

"Fuck!" Beth exclaimed as she looked at the advancing creature while Hannah stood slightly behind her, Hannah's face indicating that she hoped this was a final dream while dying of hypothermia, as it would be better than this fate. At this point, Beth let go of her sister's hand and resolved that if she was going to serve as some creature's meal, she was going to give it indigestion on the way down. Maybe some way, this suicidal act would allow Hannah to escape. As she reached for a rock, she alerted her sister "Get ready to run."

Realizing what her sister was suggesting, Hannah began to plead. "BETH, NO. Please don't." As Beth was about to rush the monstrosity, another plume of fire streamed out from the woods, stunning it. Unfortunately, the plume also startled Hannah and she lost her balance. Desperately, she tore at her sister, first, trying to grab her right arm and then getting a good grip on her right leg, as her momentum carried both girls over the cliff. Before reaching the point of no return, Beth grabbed a dangling tree root, with both hands, while Hannah maintained a death grip on her leg.

Beth silently thanked God for all the times she had gone rock climbing with Sam and looked downward at her sister. "Are you all right?"

"Outside of clinging to my sister's leg, while dangling off a cliff? I'm doing just great." Hannah sarcastically intoned while unconsciously tightening her hold.

"Now you're going to start being a smart-ass?" If she wasn't terrified, Beth would have started laughing. At this point, she felt the root beginning to loosen from its' mooring on the cliff. "Oh Shit." Scanning the cliff, she was unable to find a better hand hold nor could she reach the top. As her breathing accelerated, she felt her sister's weight shifting. "Hannah, what are you doing?"

"The branch can't hold both of us? Can it?"

"We'll be fine, just hang on". As she uneasily reassured her sister, Beth noticed a moving figure in the edge of her vision. One who appeared to be a man, or at least a human, clad in denim with goggles and a bandana protecting his face from the flames of his improvised weapon. She thought he looked vaguely familiar, like the ominous vagrant who insisted that her family should leave the mountain. At this point all that mattered was that he wasn't the creature "Just a minute more, Hannah." At this moment the branch decided that she didn't have a minute and loosened even further.

"You know." Beth heard her sister state in a resigned manner. "You have always been a bad liar."

Beth looked down at her sister and noticed that her face had changed from one of fear to steely determination, one she could never remember her sweet, docile, sister giving before. Beth's eyes widened as she recognized what her sister was going to do.

"HANNAH, DON'T YOU DO THIS TO ME! DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!"

Hannah's gaze locked with her sister's as she responded in a sad whisper. "I'm so sorry. I love you." And then she let go.

"NO! HANNAH!" Beth screamed as she watched her sister plummet into the mines below. Before she could react further, the branch finally gave way. But her descent was sharply halted as a tearing sensation filled her left arm when the man roughly grabbed her and yanked upward. While not the most graceful rescue, he had succeeded in, at least momentarily, saving her.

Traumatized, Beth laid in the snow, her sweater growing soaked with both the sweat of her terror and the cold dampness of the snow melting from her body heat. Slowly absorbing what had occurred, she blankly stared at the starlit sky, only to hear the same blood curdling screech as before.

"Can you stand?" the mysterious man gruffly inquired.

"I think so." Beth groaned as she numbly rose to her feet, gingerly holding her useless left arm. The creature continued to advance towards her and the stranger, the reduction in its prey not having reduced its appetite.

"Unless you want to have tell your friend that her sacrifice was in vain, you best do exactly what I say. Stand completely still until I tell you. Then run as fast and as far as you can." Despite the assertive tone, Beth understood the man's words as a well-intended warning, holding still as the creature came nearer to her. Near enough that she could smell its breath, reeking of human decay and misery while the moonlight glistened off the creature's mouth full of bone daggers as well as its hands festooned with razor sharp fingernails.

As the creature came within an arm's reach of her, the stranger angrily taunted it. "Makkapietw, you old bastard." As Makkapietw turned towards the man, he unleashed another burst of flame at the creature while shouting at Beth "RUN!"

Beth turned and ran with as much energy as she could muster in a direction which she hoped was towards the lodge. Maybe Hannah was still alive, maybe if she brought help in time she could still save her sister. However, the strain was too much for her traumatized body, and as she left the creature and the man in the distance, she felt herself begin to lose control of her legs. Gradually, she fell into shock and collapsed into the snow. Before she passed out, a slight sardonic smile formed, and a single morbid thought passed her lips. "Hannah. You're going to be so pissed at me."

"So is that the last thing you remember?" a man's voice pulled Beth out of the Alberta snow and back onto a leather couch in Malibu.

"Until I woke up in a hospital bed, four days later." Beth lifted her head off of the couch and looked at the balding man who with his white dress shirt and gray sweater vest, covering his conservative striped tie, provided a stereotypical image of a psychiatrist. "I hope that information helps, Doctor Hill, even if this is probably the point where you'll tell me that I'm nuts."

Writing on his legal pad, Doctor Alan J. Hill, responded in an off-hand manner without even looking up "And why would I say that?"

"Because I claimed that my sister and I were attacked by some grotesque creature and I was saved by a pissed off dude with a flamethrower? Just for starters."

This remark prompted the psychiatrist to finally look up from his notepad. "Beth, you strike me as an extremely earnest young woman. One who believes every single thing that she just recalled. Now that doesn't mean that the trauma hasn't warped your memory, but that doesn't make you unbalanced." He then looked at his wrist watch. "However, that will be a discussion for our next session."

Beth sat up on the couch and looked over at Dr. Hill in a quizzical manner "Really? That's it?"

"You know what they say. Time flies." The doctor inappropriately chuckled at his comment before clearing his throat upon noticing his patient's expression. "There is one thing that I want to tell you before you go. No one can change what happened last year. The past is forever beyond our control. You have to accept this fact in order to move forward. But there is freedom in this revelation. Everything you do, every decision that you make, will open doors to the future. I want you to remember this truth as we work together."

Beth nodded as she raised herself off of the couch. "Thanks, Doctor. Should we schedule my next appointment now or wait until the next time I'm in LA?"

"It's up to you. Although I want you to know that I'm available any time via text if you need help or simply someone to vent to." The doctor slightly furrowed his brow as a thought crossed his mind. "By the way, have you heard from Josh recently?"

"Not since Christmas to be honest." Beth paused as she thought of the horrible awkwardness of that occasion. "Why?"

A disconcerted frown pursed Doctor Hill's lips before he concealed it with a cloying smile. "No particular reason. Just curious if you were still in touch with each other." At this point, the doctor glanced at his notepad and jotted a quick note before looking back at Beth. "Anyway, have a safe trip back to Palo Alto."

After exiting the office, Beth settled into the leather driver's seat of her little Acura, a graduation present from her parents. At least, it was officially a graduation present. Realistically, it was half a retroactive bribe to stay west of the Rockies for college and half her parents disregarding her desire for being, at least semi, self sufficient while at Stanford. Still, it was a nice car and she could think of worse ways to have her wishes ignored. Responsible as always, she snugly buckled her seat belt before pushing the ignition button. At that moment, the radio blared a reminder of something she desperately wished to forget.

"Tonight, on Rock Bottom. The mysterious disappearance of Hollywood mogul Bob Washington's daughter Hannah in the Canadian wilderness. Nearly one year later, what do we know now? How are her beautiful twin sister, Beth, and troubled big brother, Josh, managing their grief? Are they both trying to find comfort in the arms of the same woman? Does this physic know where Hannah is now? Does it involve Bigfoot? You won't believe the answers. Tonight, on Rock Bottom."

Not certain whether to cry, laugh, or shout a number of vulgarities, Beth skipped all of those choices, instead resting her forehead on the Acura's steering wheel while trying to remain calm. Before she had fully recovered her composure, her smart phone vibrated.

"Hey Sam, I'm just about to..."

Uncharacteristically, Sam cut off Beth in a hurried tone. "Did you watch it yet?"

"What? About how Bigfoot and Hannah ran off to Atlantis and were married in a private ceremony by Bat Boy? I'm sorry to say that it's all true and I'm now the proud aunt of a Sasquatch." Beth drolly commented on the previous tabloid advertisement, which she assumed what the reason behind Sam's call.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"That stupid tabloid show, which I thought was the 'it' you were referring to"

"No, I mean the video from Josh."

At the mention of her brother, Beth felt a jolt of adrenaline and lifted her head off the steering wheel "What?"

Sam's voice slowed down as though she was relaxing after an unpleasant surprise. "Sorry, I forgot about your appointment. I'm guessing you haven't checked your email. Probably better if you watch the video before we talk."

Beth accessed her email client and discovered two new messages, one a group email with a link to Josh's private YouTube account and a second one from a travel website. Clicking the link to the video, revealed her brother sitting in a place she hadn't seen in almost a year.

"I just want to invite everyone to the annual Blackwood winter getaway" Josh gave a mock cheer at this point before taking a more serious tone "So, let's take a moment to address the elephant in the room for a second. I know you're all worried about me and I know that it will be tough for everyone one going back after what happened last year." Josh sighed and took a moment to reassert his self command "But I want you all to know that you all mean so much to me and I know it would mean so much to Hannah if we were all together to remember her on that day. And to remember how while I thought I lost both my sisters that day, by some miracle, Beth came back. And of course, proceeded to make me look like the dropout slacker that I am. Way to raise the bar over my head, sis." After giving a self-deprecating laugh, Josh continued. "I really want to spend some quality time with each and every one of you and to share some moments that we'll never forget. For my sisters' sake, you know?" Josh's moment of official seriousness over, he attempted to revert back to the stereotypical frat boy mode of old "So, let's party like we're fucking porn stars, okay. And make this one trip that we will never forget, all right? WHOOO!"

Both Beth and Sam stayed quiet for a moment while the brunette allowed the video's contents to sink in. However, it was Sam who broke the silence. "Did you have any idea that he was planning this?"

"No, the last time we talked was at Christmas. After that competition in self-loathing, he's been off the grid. Apparently, because he was up at the lodge where there essentially isn't any grid." Beth sighed and rocked her head. "At least Mom and Dad will be happy to know that he's okay." While talking Beth had checked the second email. "And has enough money to spring for a business class round trip ticket from San Francisco to Calgary?"

"He has at least enough to spring for two business class round trip tickets from San Francisco to Calgary. And Chris just texted me that Josh sent him one for a round trip from Los Angeles to Calgary as well.

"Hmm, I thought Mom and Dad cut him off again." Beth mused, furrowing her brow over the situation. "I mean, it's good that he wants to be sociable and see everyone, but it seems so out of the blue compared to the way he's been since... Still, it would be nice to see everyone again... Well, nice to see Chris again, at least."

Sam giggled at this quick narrowing of people Beth would be happy to see. "So what am I, chopped liver?"

"Of course not, although you are apparently a 75 year old man. You know what I mean, though. We see each other all the time, so it's not like we really count."

"So, you're actually going to go then?"

Beth exhaled deeply at this query "Yeah. I mean it sounds like it would mean a lot to Josh and it would be nice to have the old Josh back even if it's only for a weekend. Who knows, maybe even the old Beth could make an appearance."

"Well, in that case, I think I'll have to go as well" Beth could practically hear Sam smiling through the phone.

"Good, and maybe we can spend that Saturday afternoon looking for..." Beth cut herself off as she realized what she was articulating.

"...Hannah. That's the real reason why you want to go isn't it?"

Beth's face dropped "I know that it seems crazy, and I don't know if it's twin intuition or what, but deep down, I know that she's still alive. And I know what you're thinking, even if she survived the fall, it's been nearly a year and rescue teams were never able to find anything, but maybe the flamethrower guy rescued her or she found somewhere to shelter in the mines or..."

"Beth. Stop." Sam interjected before Beth could ramble any further "It's okay, you don't need to explain yourself. I'm glad to help you look for her. After all, I want to find Hannah as much as you do. I'm sure you can get Josh and Chris to help as well." Sam quickly changed the subject. "Anyways, are we still on for lunch on Tuesday after your history colloquium?"

"I'm driving back on MLK Day so we're good for lunch, and then we'll have a couple of weeks to prepare for the Great Northern Excursion."

"Sounds like a plan. Just be careful heading back up on the 101, okay?" Sam tenderly cautioned.

"You know me. I'm Ms. Drive the Speed Limit and have both hands on the wheel in the 10 and 2 position at all times."

"It's not your driving that I'm worried about."

Beth laughed at the thought that popped into her head. "Now you're beginning to sound like Hannah." Beth changed her tone into an imitation of her sister's softer voice. "That guy is going to cut off us, Beth. This lady has been in your blind spot for five minutes, Beth. How many airbags does your car have again, Beth? If you get both of us killed..." Beth's voice trailed away. After pausing for a moment she resumed, using her regular speaking voice. "I'm sorry Sam, I should get going."

Before Beth could disconnect the call, Sam suddenly blurted out. "You know that I love you, right?"

Beth chuckled. "Well, you also love rock climbing, vegan meatloaf, and squirrels, so..."

"Beth, I'm serious. I want you to know that I'm willing to wait however long you need me to. And if you decide that you would rather never move forward, that's perfectly fine as well, but I'll be here for you no matter what. Whether it's just as a friend or what we were becoming before what happened to Hannah." Waiting for Beth to respond, Sam instead noticed that she could hear soft sobs on the other end of the line. "I'm sorry Beth, I didn't intend to..."

"I know, I know, Sam." Beth sniffled and tried to speak more clearly "And I'm still hoping that some day we can try again. Although not if I wreck my car because I'm busy crying and am distracted by the pound of snot in my right nostril."

At this comment, Sam rolled her eyes. "You know, Beth, you're one classy lady."

"The classiest one you know." Beth smirked, "By the way, I love you too. The vegan meat loaf not so much." And with that, Beth disconnected the call and started to back the Acura out of her parking spot.