As Chris trudged up the path from the cable car station to the lodge, he thought about what he had told Sam in the cable car about the butterfly effect. He thought about how when you thought about all the choices that had to be made for something to happen, how unlikely that something seemed. And yet, despite those odds, Hannah and Beth were still dead. Everyone said missing, since no bodies had been found, but Chris knew that no one could have survived on the mountain for a whole year. He thought about what choices could have different and caused Hannah and Beth to survive. The obvious one was that stupid prank. He hadn't been sure about it at first, but everyone had assured him it would be great. That, combined with the fact that Ashley was participating, was enough to get him in. And yet, as he thought, would not doing the prank have enough to stop their death? If they had decided against the prank, would something else have gotten the sisters outside to their death? Chris found that thought particularly unsettling.

At that point, they arrived at the lodge. Christ was relieved to have a reason to discontinue his current train of thought. Josh was already there, and as he turned around he saw Matt and Ashley coming up the path. Matt seemed seriously grumpy about something, but Chris barely noticed. He was more focused on Ashley. Every time he saw her his heart just started flopping around. He turned away, afraid that Ashley would be able to see that he was thinking about her from his expression. He tried to focus his mind, and just act natural. He studied Ashley out of the corner of his eye and observed from her posture and her tone as she replied to Josh's greeting that she was thinking about something. Considering what had happened the last time she was here, Chris was pretty sure what she was thinking about, and decided to leave her alone. Instead, he walked over to Josh to say hey.

"Man, I feel like this mountain gets bigger every time I climb it," he started. Even though he had been lost in thought on the way up, his legs still burned from the difficult walk.

"Oh yeah?" Josh replied. "It feels the same to me."

"Oh, come on. You grew up here. It probably feels like it's shrinking."

"I guess that's true," Josh acknowledged.

Chris went to check his phone before remembering that there was no cell service on the mountain. "Hey, when are you going to get some cell towers up here? I'm already getting withdrawals."

Josh grinned as he put his hands in his pockets. "If you've got a spare million lying around, then I can fix you right up."

Chris made a big show of searching his pockets, then jokingly replied, "Oh, you know what? I think I left it in my other jacket."

"Sure you did."

As they talked, Chris and Josh had been walking up the stairs to the front door, and their conversation took a different direction as they reached the top.

"We going to get this show on the road?" Chris asked.

"Of course," Josh replied. He took out a key and inserted into the lock. No matter how hard he turned it, however, it refused to move. Josh groaned.

"What is it? Ice in the lock?" Chris inquired.

"What else?" Josh replied.

Chris considered the dilemma. "Is there another way in?"

"Yes, they're all locked, and I only have the key to this one."

"Oh, come on. There's gotta be some way we can in. An open window or something." Chris suggested.

Josh turned around to look at him. "You mean break in?" he asked.

Chris rolled his eyes. "I don't think it counts if you own the place."

"Only if I don't report you," Josh joked.

There was an awkward pause, and Josh asked, "Well, are we breaking in or what, Cochise?"

Josh and Chris walked around to the side of the house, looking for an alternate way in. Chris noticed a glass axe case, but the glass was broken and the axe missing. He briefly wondered where the axe was now, but then he noticed a cracked window, with a handy cabinet nearby. He went behind it and started pushing. "Hey, you going to help?"

Josh grabbed the other side and started pulling. "Looks like we got ourselves a thinker."

Once the cabinet was under the window, Chris climbed up and rolled through the window. Unfortunately, it was a fairly high window, and Chris fell all the way to the floor. He gasped as he felt the air escape from his lungs.

"You okay?" Josh called from outside.

Chris groaned as he got up. "Yeah, I'm fine. I probably should have paid more attention in climbing class."

Josh looked confused for a second. "You mean gym?"

"Yeah." The small lightbulb hanging from the ceiling suddenly shattered, causing Chris to jump. "Um, did I do that?"

Josh looked at the lightbulb. "I don't think so. Here, take this," he said, tossing Chris a lighter. Chris flicked it open. "Oh wait, I got a great idea," Josh told him. "I'm pretty sure I got a thing of deodorant in one of the bathrooms."

Chris was confused. "What does deodorant have anything to do with it?"

"It's a spray can," Josh explained.

Realization dawned on Chris. "Oh, you mean like we used to do to those little plastic army men?"

Josh nodded. "Yep, the ones we melted. Just point it at the lock, spray through the flames, and presto, no more ice."

"Sounds cool."

"Okay, so I got some other stuff I need to check on, you up for exploring the house in the dark?"

Chris shrugged. "Not really, but I guess I will anyway."

Josh saluted him. "Godspeed, pilgrim," he said, then his face disappeared from view.

Chris held his lighter up, trying to get a better view of his surroundings. In doing so, he noticed a small wooden carving lying on the floor. Mr. Washington had some weird interests, but Chris was pretty sure none of them involved wooden carvings. As he bent down to examine it, he noticed it looked like a section of a pole, and that it had traces of brown dye on it. It also seemed to be the back of the carving, so he picked it up and turned it over to see the front. It turned out to be about the same as the back, but it had a strangely shaped hole. As soon as he noticed the hole, he suddenly got a pounding headache. As he closed his eyes from the pain, an onslaught of images burst across his vision. The only one he could make out was of a girl surrounded by fire. As he watched, the girl caught on fire and collapsed dead on the floor. Any clue to the girl's identity was obscured by the fire. At that point the headache disappeared as suddenly as it had come. "What the crap was that?" he muttered to himself. He quickly stood up and decided that he had wasted enough time down here.

Chris quickly found the master bath on the second floor. The bathroom had a surprising number of cabinets, but he finally found the deodorant in the cabinet under the sink. As he reached in to grab it though, a whirlwind of fur and teeth suddenly erupted from the cabinet, bowling Chris over as rushed out the bathroom door. Chris swore as he picked himself up. He did not appreciate being scared like that, but he was glad no one else had been there to see it. He grabbed the deodorant and ran back down to the front door. One quick burst of flame later, and the door was unlocked. Chris opened to find that Mike and Jessica had shown up while he was inside, and that Josh was back from whatever stuff he had been checking out. "Ta da," he proclaimed, stepping aside so they could come in. Suddenly, a familiar streak of fur dashed past Chris and out the door, causing him to jump aside, along with Sam and Ashley, who had been closest to the door. "What was that?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Chris answered, "but it's not the first time I've seen it."

"I think it might be a wolverine," Ashley spoke up.

"Well, whatever it was, hopefully we've seen the last of it," Chris declared.

As the rest of his friends came in, Chris hoped that they could finally start having some fun without any more scares.

A/N: Yeah, good luck on that one, Chris. Anyway, once again, I do not own Until Dawn, Supernatural, or any of the characters found in either.