Broken.

Chapter One

Samantha Taylor's lungs burned with effort as she tried to keep holding her breath, her muscles were aching to tremble after she had been summerged so long in the icy cold water, her teeth were begging to chatter but she did not let any of that happen. She wouldn't allow it or she was dead. If any of them moved then they were all dead.

It was like something out of a nightmare, pale skin and milky, bulbous eyes. Long gangly limes and pointed teeth and sharp claws where it's nails should've been. It was human once, that was clear by it's sharp even when it was so distorted.

The butterfly tattoo on it's arm told her who the creature used to be even though her mind tried desperately to deny it. Hannah. Her best friend, her poor misguided friend who had been put into a terrible situation by their friends and spent weeks down in the dark mines of the mountains, cold and starving with only her twin's corpse as any company.

And then a source of nourishment.

It didn't seem fair, it wasn't fair. That simple act of survival had condemned her to this, she was starving and now she was transformed into a monster simply because she didn't want to die and Beth had already been dead, she might want to think that she would never do that, that she would hold to her principals above all else but it was so easy for her, she had access to food her entire life.

She had never once been truly hungry in her entire life.

And Hannah was only forced to make such a terrible choice because of the situation that Mike and the others had put her in, she may have run into the snowstorm but she would never have done that if it weren't for that utterly stupid prank that she didn't have anything to do with.

Mike was standing on the other side of the lodge his hand reaching out and curling around the light bulb and increased the pressure on the bulb and his face scrunched up as the glass bite into his hand and he pulled his hand away as the glass that wasn't currently embedded in his hand tinkled to the floor and he let his hand fall to his side.

This could work, the gas pipe was still hissing and Sam was starting to feel a little lightheaded from the gas, they needed to pull this off quick or they would all die from gas inhalation before they had a chance to blow the lodge up.

The tinkling of the glass hitting the floor seemed to draw Hannah's attention back to Michael and she began to stalk over to him, Mike's eyes locked on to Sam and he could see the desperate plea in his eyes. Begging her to save him.

She opened her mouth slightly but she didn't speak, her mind racing as she tried to process the thought that came into her mind at that exact moment.

Did he really deserve her saving him? Wasn't all this his fault? And Emily's and Jessica's, it was their actions that had lead them all to this, Josh had only played this stupid, cruel prank because of what happened to his sisters the year before and they were the ones responsible for them running away.

Emily was here as well, so was Ashley, both of them were inching towards the door so they could make their escape and leave the hard work to her and Mike. It didn't surprise her all that much, Ashley was a sheep and a coward, she would always take the safest option and she was choosing escape.

Emily was someone who put herself first so her trying to save herself didn't surprise her at all, she had always hated her. She hated all of them.

She didn't always, they had been friends before that stupid prank but after the prank she had stayed away from everyone aside from Chris and Josh, they had gotten her best friend and her best friend's sister killed.

Chris and Josh were both dead, Chris had never come back with that stranger and Mike said that he couldn't save Josh, bastard probably didn't even try to help him. Poor Josh, her Josh was laying dead somewhere in those cold dark mines.

Jessica and Matt were probably dead as well, Mike was sure that Jess was dead even though she hadn't seen a body and there had been no sign of Matt all night and given how Emily had reacted when they asked what had happened to him she probably had something to do with it, probably left him to die as well.

It was just her, Mike, Ash and Emily. If she distracted Hannah long enough then she could help them to escape, but why should she? Why did they deserve her risking her life for them?

She could barely comprehend when her legs started to carry her away, she briefly caught the look of shock and despair on Mike's face as she ran off, she rushed past Emily and Ash and she could feel Hannah on her tail, she ran through the door and flicked the switch as she ran out, desperate screams and shrieks following her..

A massive gust of hot wind picked her up and sent her flying and she collided hard with the snowy ground outside of the lodge, after a few shaky breaths of disbelief at the fact she was still alive she pushed herself up to her feet and turned to look back at the lodge.

The massive structure was completely on fire, every single window was shattered by the blast and flames were billowing out every single window and black smoke was reaching up to turn the early morning sky black.

She had done it, she realised numbly as the first rays of the sun warmed her skin. It was morning, it was over. In the distance she could hear the low thrum of helicopter blades approaching, the smoke and the burning lodge attracting them, she had heard of a signal fire but she didn't think they would need one.

Oh god what had she done? She'd just killed Mike and Emily and Ash, she had killed them when she had flipped that light switch. She was a monster. She was a murder.

And yet...as the helicopters grew closer she found that the guilt was slowly starting to fade away, there was nothing but apprehension of being punishing for what she had done left. She had to save herself, there was no choice. If she had stayed and distracted Hannah while the others made their escape then she would most defiantly been killed.

They would not doubt be some pretty words said at her funeral, how brave she was at the end, how she was a true hero but they would simply be that. Pretty words that she wouldn't be able to hear from her coffin.

She choose herself, she choose to keep living, she choose to survive.

She and Hannah had always gotten along the best out of the entire group, she thought with a weary grin.

Sam sat down in front of the burning lodge and waited, the sound of helicopter blades was louder now and she realised with a sigh, that it was finally over. She was going to go home.

As soon as she thought that there was the sound of a loud snap, like someone stepping on a twig and Sam held her breath as she cursed inwardly, this whole night had been like a bad horror movie so of course it wasn't over yet, she was the blond at the end who thought all the monsters were dead and the nightmare was over while the monster who survived reared up behind her.

She slowly got to her feet, if she was going to die then she was at least going to die on her feet, and turned around to face the forest but as she did so her eyes widen at disbelief at what she saw was coming out of the woods.

They both looked like shit, to be utterly frank about it but they were both alive and that was important thing, the smaller one was clinging to the taller one like she would collapse if he wasn't there to hold her up and given the state that she was in then she probably would.

Matt and Jess, they were both still alive and making there way over to the lodge. Matt's brown eyes widened as he took in the sight of the burning lodge but Jessica barely reacted at all, she looked she was half asleep and it looked she was half mumbling something herself.

Matt's eyes drifted to her and Sam locked her eyes with his and for a moment there was silent understanding between them.

Questions could come later, they were alive and that was all that mattered.

End of Chapter One

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