Broken.

Chapter Two.

Matt let out a sigh of relief as the helicopter finally took off from the mountain and they began to fly away from the still burning lodge, the nightmare was over and they were going home. It had been a long night for all of them and it was going to leave scars on all of them, some physical and some emotional.

A soft whimper drew his attention and he turned his head to look down at Jessica, he sighed sadly as he saw the state she was in, there were deep gorges on her chest and face and he was honestly surprised that she was still alive let alone being able to move on her own power. She was stronger that Matt had ever thought though to be honest before this whole nightmare he hadn't though about Jess much, if at all.

She had been clinging to him ever since they got out of the mines, though he was certain that it was as much for comfort as it was for support. He needed some comfort as well, it had been a long night. He'd spent most of it in those damn mines, trying his hardest to find a way out. He had been cold and terrified, constantly worrying that the pyscho who had killed Josh or that monster that had attacked him would be waiting for him just around the next corner.

Worse than even that, he had been terrified that he would never be able to find his way out of the damp passages, that the rest of his life would be wandering around half blind and starving to death down there. He couldn't think of anything worse than that and it had took a lot of strength to just keep walking, to not just give up, curl into a ball and cry.

When he had found Jess there weren't words for how happy he'd been, he was still terrified of course but he could at least pretend that he was brave, for her he could do that.

It hadn't been easy, not when Jess could barely walk and it was pitch black. It had gotten worse when he heard that high pitched shriek from somewhere not very far behind them and he knew that it was chasing them again. It was going to kill them if they didn't get out. There had been a heart stopping moment where he thought that he might have to abandon her down there to save himself but he didn't do that, he couldn't do that. He had saved her.

From then it had been a long, slow struggle down the snowy mountain but all things considered it could've been a lot worse, dawn wasn't far off and the lodge wasn't far from where they had come out. When the lodge went up like a Christmas tree, it wasn't like they could've gotten lost then. When he had seen Sam he had been ecstatic, it didn't last long when he noticed that she was the only one there.

He suppoused it was foolish to expect that everyone else would still be alive, that it would be the typical Hollywood happy ending. Well, he supposed he was in a horror movie now that he thought on it some more and they weren't known for everybody lives endings.

Still, the fact that at least Sam was alive made him happy. He liked Sam a lot, Matt had kind of always been the newest member of the group back in the day as he only hung out with them because Emily did and for the most part the group had always only ever treated as Em's boyfriend.

Sam was the only one whoever treated him as his own person, like he could ever be their friend and not just Emily's boyfriend, someone they had to hang out with because they had too. Of course at the time no one knew that he was Em's boyfriend, she was still officially dating Mike and she was just his best friend.

He still remembered the day when she had told him that she had broken up with Mike and they could properly be together, it had been the happiest he had been for awhile due to Beth and Hannah having gone missing at the lodge last year. He needed as much good news as he could get.

The three of them had sat together on in front of the lodge as the helicopters began to descend on them, it was odd to think that the fire that warmed them was a burning building filled with the bodies of their friends but at that moment they had been too cold to think of it.

Even despite the fire, Sam had given Jess her jacket which Matt had to putt over her considering she barely seemed to be aware of what was happening around her, her head hanging low and her eyes were clearly trying to shut. They did everything they could think of to keep her awake but there had been a few moments where he honestly thought that they were going to lose her.

Thankfully, the two helicopters landed quickly and there were paramedics waiting for them, they quickly did all they could to stabilise her but they decided that she needed to be in the hospital, they also said that Sam and Matt needed to be checked over as well. They tried to take Jess into another helicopter but when they tried to move her from him Jess tightened her hold on his arm and could not be persuaded to let go of him.

So that was how they ended up in the same helicopter together with a thick blanket covering the both of them, Matt honestly didn't mind. He felt more than a little clingy himself if he was going to be honest and Jess was in agony, she needed more comfort than the rest of them.

"Where are we Mike, are we going home?" Jess muttered as she nuzzled into his shoulder, Matt frowned heavily as he reached up and pressed his hand to her forehead, her skin was burning to touch and she sounded like she was delirious. Matt wasn't a doctor but he was sure they needed to get some serious antibiotics into her as soon as possible, maybe even a blood transfusion or two.

"We're heading home right now Jess, we just need to stop by the hospital for the day just to make sure that we're going to be okay." He said gently, he didn't want to tell her the truth about Mike in case it made her panic and made her unstable, she would find out soon enough as it was.

"Okay." Jess whimpered and shut her eyes, her chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm as she fell asleep. Matt sighed heavily and shut his eyes while leaning his head back, he could maybe get at least a few minuets of sleep.

His sleep was fretful, he dreamed about him and Em on the fire tower, she was out of his reach and there was nothing he could do, the metal was creaking and the smell of smoke surrounded him and it was going to fall and Emily was going to fall and it was going to fall and he didn't want to die-

He awoke with a gasp, one of the paramedics looked at him with an expression of concern on his face but he didn't say anything. He hated the pity in his eyes, he didn't need any pity from him, he hadn't done anything wrong and he had survived. He was fine, he was perfectly fine.

The helicopter finally landed and the door slid opened, Jess was carried out and over to a stretcher which was wheeled over to the elevator that dominated the roof of the hospital, it was Blackwood General, Matt realised as he stepped out on to the roof, he could almost see Blackwood itself, half a mile away from the foot of the mountain.

Thinking of Blackwood caused a pit to form in his gut, everyone knew them in Blackwood, it only had a population of thirty-five thousand people, everyone was going to know what happened up on the mountain or they would try and find out what happened. There would be reporters outside their doors all the time for weeks and weeks.

Oh god. What was he supposed to say to Emily's parents, to Mike's and Ashley's and Josh's and Chris's? They would want to know what happened to their kids but what could he say? How could he explain about the monsters without sounding like he was someone who needed to be in a Psych Ward?

What if people thought that he and Sam and Jess had killed them? It was more logical explanation than monsters that had torn them limb from limb, maybe they could blame it all on the Pyscho? That was probably the best option now that he thought about it, god even the thought to retelling that night made his want to just curl up in a corner and die.

The feel of a hand touching his shoulder made him spin around, he would've thrown a punch as well but it was only Sam. He let out a deep breath and rubbed at his eyes, he was so tired. "Sorry Sam, I'm still just kind of a bit jumpy, you know?"

"Hey, I think if anyone's earned the right to be a little jumpy? It's us." Sam said with a warm smile that did not reach her eyes, the paramedics from the helicopter that Sam had been riding in were waiting for them at the elevator. "We should get inside, it's freezing and we need to call our folks."

"God Sam, what are we supposed to even say? I was down in those mines for hours, I don't even know most of what happened." To be honest, he got the feeling that he didn't even want to know what had happened to the rest of them going by the look in Sam's eye.

"Just tell them the truth, or, as much of it as you think you should." The words shocked Mike but Sam didn't even seem to notice, she simply shrugged her shoulders. "Sometimes a lie is better than the truth, I'm sorry about Emily."

"Yeah." It hurt to think about Em, sure, she could be kind of a bitch sometimes and she seemed to be real intent on being a pain in the ass that night but he knew it was only because she was stressed and terrified and being abrasive was her natural defence. It didn't excuse the attitude but it was just a part of her.

Few people ever saw the good in Em, they didn't see how she could be funny and she could be so funny, Matt had laughed more times when he was with her than he had ever done without her. Her wit could be a little sharp and sometimes it was a little mean-spirited but most of the time she focused it on people who deserved it and she never took any hits on someone who was down.

She had been determined as well, she wanted to be the first female president and Matt knew that she was more than smart enough to do it. And more generous than most people realised, she donated money to charities and always bought her friends the most expensive things that she could, but also made sure that they were something that they actually liked.

And well she had never shown it to any of the others, she had been more devastated than any of them over what had happened to Hannah and Beth. She had spent the first week when they were missing blaming herself, it may have been Jess's idea to throw that stupid prank but she was the only reason that her best friend had done it in the first place.

Em had told him that she should've just broken things off with Mike a lot sooner, she should've just let Hannah have him even though in her opinion they would've been a complete train wreck. She had just kept on blaming herself, even a full year later there were days when she just all of a sudden got very quiet.

And now to, think of her broken body just laying down there at the bottom of that endless pit, her eyes just staring at nothing...It made him want to be sick. And it was his fault, he had let her fall. Didn't even try and save her, he'd jumped to safety as soon as he saw that he could.

All of sudden, something struck him like a slap to the face and his eyes widen as he stared at Sam. "Sam...was Em with you guys in the lodge?"

"Yeah?" Sam said hesitantly with a loose shrug. "She told us that the two of you got separated in the mines when the fire tower fell, she thought that you were dead."

"And...and she died in the lodge? The fire?" Matt asked, trying to pretend that his voice didn't break and that tears weren't burning at his eyes and he had to blink rapidly to hold them back. The worst thing was, he wasn't sure if the tears were because he was pained with the fact that Emily was actually drink or because that he was relived that it wasn't due to his decision that Emily had died.

When Sam nodded he let out a chocked off sob which he tried to pretend was a cough, he rubbed at his eyes and cleared his throat. "We...we should probably get inside."

Sam nodded and took Matt's hand, leading him over to the elevator. It descended down to the floor below, it opened up and a small team of nurses were waiting for them beyond. They were quickly hurried into separate exam rooms and Matt was left waiting for what seemed like hours but could have just as easily been ten minutes.

Finally a near sighted, balding doctor with cold hands started to examine him. Compared to Jess it was practically nothing, a few bruises and a sprained shoulder from where he had landed hard against the wooden platform that he had jumped too to get clear of the falling fire tower.

Barely anything at all, from the worst night of his entire life.

The doctor gives him some painkillers and Matt swallows them dry, before long his head began to get fuzzy and he couldn't hold it up, the doctor mummers something about dose and laid him down gently on the exam bench, pulling a thin sheet up to his chin.

As the darkness took him, all Matt found himself hoping for was the darkness would hold no monsters for him.

End of Chapter Two.

Please follow, favourite and review if you enjoyed this, the next chapter should be told from Jess's perspective.

Love,

Doctorwhofan12345