CHAPTER 4: THE HURRICANE APPROACHES

Welcome back to chapter 4 of this fanfiction. Thanks for everyone reading thus far. So, I've decided to condense the hour into one chapter. I wanted to get into the meat of the game much faster considering I have less and less time to write as the weeks go on. There will be character moments, just not as many as the base game had during its run. Hopefully, this will not ruin your experience. Without further ado, on with the show…

Path to Cabin/Cabin

11:02 PM

JESSICA

If there was a bank that dealt in laughs, Jessica would be the richest person on the planet in this very moment. After fake-screaming about halfway on their journey to the cabin, Jessica watched as a concerned Mike slowly ambled up the trail to her hiding spot. As soon as she had him in her sights, she leaped out with a hollowed out deer head she had found earlier, making her boyfriend jump back in hilarious fright, all captured of course for the masses to see and for Jess to become insta-famous, in her words at least. Needless to say, Mike was far from pleased with that little development.

"Aww, don't pout, grumpyface. You look so cute scared." Jessica continued to laugh,

"I wasn't scared. You're gonna have to try harder than that, Jess." Mike did his best not to look too afraid, despite all evidence to contrary, typical fashion for macho men who liked to show off.

"A challenge, eh? Well I hope you're strapped in, cause I'm going to take on a non-stop thrill ride!" Jessica boasted, leading the charge down the wintery path to the cabin. Passing by on a bridge overlooking a vast waterfall sliding down the edges of the mountain, Jessica and Mike had a relatively uneventful walk, with only a stop by a dilapidated shack that Jessica coyly made fun of to break up the monotony of the walking. Mike had found some sort of mask inside, a sort of gas mask that looked really, really old by the look of it. Just as they were about to get a glimpse of the cabin from up high, a loud snort of air broke the otherwise silent atmosphere, drawing both of their attentions.

"Did you hear that?" Jessica asked curiously. Mike shrugged. Suddenly, a shadowy figure leapt out of the trees, parting the couple apart like the Red Sea as they stumbled back in sheer fright. Upon further inspection, both of them could make out the distinct shape of a fully grown deer, dashing away in sheer panic from something else.

"Holy shit!" Mike fell backwards into the snow, landing on his back as the deer jumped right over the fence blocking off the path and disappearing into the night itself.

"It was just a deer!" Jessica clasped her hand to her chest, breathing in and out as calmly as she could. After that little incident, the young couple soon continued on their way, coming across a small little dilapidated shack, overgrown with weeds and vines plus a thin draping of snow to frame the little slice of civilization past. Mike had taken a stroll into the shed, while Jessica decided to wash herself off in the river stream nearby. Hearing Mike traipse up behind her, Jessica was regaled with Mike's antics as he waved around an old mining gas mask he had unearthed. Despite the good humored nature of the joke and Mike's attempt at calming their nerves, Jessica could not help but feel a tad bit annoyed with his apparent childishness.

As the cabin slowly came into view in the corner of their eyes, a strange hissing noise could be heard echoing in the forest. The strangled cries of a deer soon followed, with Jessica instantly noticing a think trail of blood ending at a particularly mangled beast resting its wounded head upon a tree log.

"Oh no, look at the poor thing…" Jessica gasped, an unusually sweet response echoing from the platinum blonde girl as her eyes gazed upon the injured creature. Its breath was raspy, braying as much as it possibly could. Along its neck and part of its body, several gash marks cut an imposing swath on the creature, its blood slowly draining onto the snow, staining it crimson red.

"Jesus, I don't think it's gonna make it." Mike muttered out of frame, shining his torch upon it, clearly a little taken aback by the scene. Seeing Jessica react so emotionally to the deer's predicament, he moved to pat the deer and hopefully bring it some comfort in its last moments.

"There, there. It's okay. It will be over soon."

"Oh, god… I can't watch…" Jessica averted her eyes, unable to bear the poor deer's suffering.

"It'll be over soon." Mike continued to pat the wounded creature. On the third pat, a loud howl echoed in the woods and all of a sudden, the deer, eyes still looking pleadingly at Mike was snatched away with brute force, disappearing from view. Mike stumbled back into the snow, Jessica dashing ahead in fear.

"Woahhh!" he yelled, scurrying to his feet and giving chase after Jessica, eager not to be left behind at the mercy at whatever was chasing them.

"What the hell was that?!" Jessica called out from in front, Mike bringing up the rear. Behind them, the creature saw two shimmering blue figures cast a wide target amidst the orange currently clouding its eyes, giving chase with lightning precision, all done unbeknownst to the young couple.

"I don't know!" Mike answered in kind, continuing to sprint to safety. They never looked back at their pursuer, never stopped to see if anything really was chasing them. They just ran and ran till they saw the cabin, at which point they continued to run even faster than ever. Tumbling up the stairs, Jessica felt her foot catch on one of the loose boards, falling forward face first. She could hear the thing chasing them howl with a ferocious scream. 'Oh, god… Oh, god…' Her eyes turned even as her head could not, bulging at the high-pitched of the scream. Eventually she felt Mike's strong grip grab hold of her arm and pull her up to her feet.

"Come on, we gotta go!" he said in a panic.

"I am!" Jessica shoved it away forcefully, her tone strained from the stress. Mike didn't even argue, only swiftly grabbing the key and hurriedly sticking it into the door, twisting it with fervor.

"Mike, get the key! Get it open!" Jessica brought up the rear, dashing straight into the cabin after Mike, her boyfriend quickly slamming the door shut behind her and locking it again. Jessica took hold of her chest and breathed rapidly, as did Mike, considering the circumstances. 'Crap, that was… very harrowing…' she paused to think as her hands felt for her strained legs, a little weak from the mad-cap sprint they made to get there.

"Oh my God! That was close…" Mike echoed her exact sentiments, doubling over as he sought to catch his breath.

"Holy shit, I feel like I ran a marathon. What was it? A bear?" Jessica panted, sentences interrupted with short raspy intakes of air.

"Yeah, gotta be." Mike said.

"I didn't even see it." She looked outside through the windows, seeing naught but a soft shower of snow pelting the mountainside and the forests that surrounded them.

"Those things are fast. Hey, don't worry. They can't get in here." He said in his best attempt to reassure her. Normally, Jessica would feel the need to argue, maybe even point out how bears could theoretically get inside if they wanted to. Yet, she felt far too tired to broach the subject, merely content to pull away from the window and move towards the couch, resting her rear on the soft material with a sigh.

"Yeah… Okay…"

"So, wanna cut right to the chase?" Mike approached from behind, hands folded behind Jessica's back.

"Slow your roll, buster. I prefer to be romantic with mood lighting and a fire to keep me warm." She spun her head around to face him.

"I could just cuddle up next to you if you need some heat." Mike retorted back. Jessica merely rolled her eyes, making a gesture towards the unlit fireplace and then to the dimly lit cabin that may as well have enveloped them in darkness.

"Mike… Fire... And mood lighting…."

"Okay, milady."

"Lookie, lookie at who's gonna fire some nookie." Mike exclaimed, waving around the box of matches around with a jump in his step. Jessica simply looked slightly amused, biting back with a sarcastic tone as she continued to look at the fireplace, as if waiting for flames to magically appear out of nowhere.

"You've been waiting to use that, haven't you?"

"Look at this beauty, Jess." Mike spoke with awe. As her head turned to find him, Jessica saw what he was talking about. Wrapped like a gentle baby in his hands was a relatively unused bolt action hunting rifle, fingers clutched around the stock and barrel. His eyes looked positively wide, to the point of being oversized melons.

"What is with guns that make men go completely bonkers?" she groaned, shaking her head at her inability to understand man's obsession with the epitome of overcompensation. 'I hope not. Be a shame if he actually was overcompensating…'

"She'll never understand what we have together…" Jessica heard Mike softly whisper sweet nothings to it, further drawing her annoyance out to the surface. Soon enough, Mike finally got his ass in gear. Despite some hilarious fails involving breakers and shower curtains, Mike soon had both of Jessica's demands met. A nice warm fire to keep them comfy for the night and some basic mood lighting to set the scene for said night.

"So, what comes next?"

"I… kinda wish we had some booze." Jessica blurted out.

"If I'd known I'd brought some sooner." Mike scratched his head, Jessica noting his confusion at her abrupt turn around. Having given him very strong signals throughout the night, her behavior in the last 10 minutes seemed to speak otherwise. 'Probably just a little stressed out from the chase…' Mike quietly said to himself.

"I don't know… I'm just… not feeling it yet."

"Am I doing something wrong?" Mike queried.

"No, no. I thought you were one way, but you're kinda another. Does that make sense? It's not your fault." She did her best to explain.

"Jess, I really like you. Whoever you think I am, well… Just give me a chance and I'll show you what you need."

"Well, I like your confidence."

"Now where were we?"

"I'm sorry. I'm still kinda freaked out and it's hard for me to keep this up…" she pushed away very gently, nerves still a little frayed.

"What? Keep what up?" Mike responded, confused.

"Look, I act all confident and like a totally sexy babe but underneath… I gotta be obvious, I'm really kinda insecure." Her eyes looked downcast, as if the weight of the confession had finally crushed her spirit. 'Great, now he'll think I'm some fragile thing to be taken advantage of.' She intoned rather cynically. Yet, she was surprised at Mike's next words.

"Jess, you have got to be kidding me." Mike looked askance, then determined as he quickly readied reassuring words for his lover.

"You have no idea…" Jessica said, disbelieving.

"Sure, I do. We're all insecure. But that front you think you put on, that's the real you." Mike said in an honest tone.

"Maybe… Maybe I know how to handle you too." Jessica teasingly replied, tapping her fingers playfully against Mike's clothes as they made a beeline up his body. From there, Jessica felt her memories blur in a haze of passion and love. First, she was wearing a heavy amount of clothing, the next draped only in a simple white t-shirt and thin blue pants while Mike was in a similar state of undress. The young couple continued to explore each other, laying chaste kisses on each other, unaware of the being watching them with a rather voyeuristic sense from afar. In its haste to seek prey, it trashed through one of the windows and made a loud enough sound to shake both lovers from their sex-crazed trance and draw their attention.

"What was that?" Jessica curled up back against the couch, Mike looking back at the main entrance with a raised eyebrow. 'Probably just the damn bear again…'

"Stay here." Mike, still clad in his white sweater and blue jeans sauntered off towards the source of the noise, opening the front door as he did so. Gazing into the snowy grounds and the trees beyond them, he saw nothing pop out to greet him. Had he looked a little further, he would have seen a twitchy shadow staring them down, their vision a swirling mist of red and blue as Mike moved back inside the cabin, closing the door behind him.

"You see? Nothing here… Just you and m…" Mike was just about to move back to Jessica, in the hopes of continuing their little makeout sesh. Unfortunately, the stars were not aligned in his favor at that time. With a loud crash, the window behind Mike shattered and a long spindly hand reached out, grabbing Mike by the top of his head. The class president let out a guttural scream of terror, Jessica in turn leaping up from the couch with an equally terrified expression on her face, her hands flying to her mouth in horror.

"MIKE!" she bellowed, droning Mike's screams as the figure retracted its hand back into the night, taking poor dear Mike along with it. For a moment, Jessica was frozen with fear, broken only by the sound of stray glass hitting the bottom of the wooden floor. The girl slowly snapped out of her stupor, moving to swiftly retrieve the lantern near the fire as well as the hunting rifle still left within its case before she headed out into the night, intent on rescuing her boyfriend. 'Come on, Jess. You can do this. Hold on, Mike. I'm coming…' Jessica told herself very reluctantly, dashing off to chase after him and in extension the creature of night as well, Mike's screams carrying its way throughout the forest.

Washington Lodge Library

11:36 PM

ASHLEY

"So it says here that to communicate with the spirit world, you must free your mind of all preconceptions, drop all inhibitions and generally give over will to the spirit master. Which is me, of course."

"It does not say that, Chris." Ashley chuckled as she took her seat at the table, Beth following soon after finishing lighting up the candles to illuminate their general surroudings.

"And all present will remove their garments at my sole discretion."

"Come on, Chris. I know you're a skeptic, but could you please take a little bit seriously?"

"Ohh, I'm deadly serious." Chris put on a fake British accent, brooking a wide smile from Ashley and a gentle shake of Beth's head before they all returned their focus towards the spirit board.

"Thanks, Alfred… Ashley, do you want to be our medium for the day?" Beth chuckled,

"Okay… Is anyone there? Can you hear us?" Ashley took her role as 'medium' seriously, her eyes remained at rapt attention on the board in front of them. A few moments passed, with nothing but silence between the trio of friends. The cold wind howled outside the window beyond, a slight gust escaping into the room from time to time. Suddenly, Ashley felt her finger shift and to her amazement, the pointer started to move of its own accord. Looking around, she could see that both Beth and Chris were as equally surprised with this turn of events.

"Holy shit…" Beth exclaimed, trailing away.

"Are you moving it?" Chris asked, chuckling with a hint of nervousness.

"No… Wait… H. E. L. P."

"Help? Help who?"

"Who are we speaking to?" Ashley inquired further.

"It's moving again."

"B. R. O. T. H. E. R." As the last letter left her lips, Beth froze. Her face turned rather pale, color starting to leave her otherwise rosy cheeks. Ashley shifted her head towards Beth, look askance with guilt.

"Brother?"

"Whose brother?" Beth asked, voice shaky as she stared blankly at the pointer.

"Beth, it has to be…" Ashley said, unable to think of anyone who fit the bill except Josh. Turning to Chris, she could see how the implication was affecting him. While not as distraught as Beth was, Chris was showing some strain at hearing of his best friend. 'If I had just been awake, I could have helped him find Hannah and maybe…' he thought, shuffling such thoughts for the time being. Right now, Beth needed them more and for Josh's sake, he'd do his best to keep her on the straight and narrow.

"Okay… Ask him." Beth finally croaked out a response, the sound barely above a whisper.

"Beth, we can stop…" Chris replied, only to be shushed by Beth.

"No, I want to hear this." Beth insisted, the finger placed on the pointer trembling ironically.

"What happened to you? How did you die?" Ashley relented, shutting her eyes as she spoke the words.

"B. E. T. R. A. Y. E. D. Betrayed…. No, we didn't! It was just a prank!" Ashley sobbingly replied, clearly distressed by the message being conveyed. 'I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!' she screamed in her head, barely holding back the pain.

"It's moving again…" Chris said. Sure enough, the pointer was on the move

"L. I. B…. Library. P. R. O…. Proof in the library?" Chris made an educated guess, just as the entire table shook and rattled violently, causing the pointer to fly right off the board and against the wall behind them and the spirit board to clatter noisily down onto the wooden floor below them.

"Holy shit…" Ashley stood up, holding her head with her hands and pacing around her chair. Beth and Chris were also standing upright, Chris looking visibly confused and Beth sporting a deep shade of red fury, fists starting to crack under the pressure she was exerting on it, in the figurative sense.

"This is just a sick joke, right? Has to be…" Beth muttered, starting to move towards the stairs without so much of a look at Chris and Ashley.

"Beth, no… We wouldn't…" Chris spoke up, looking aghast at Beth for her accusation. Beth, for her part was having absolutely none of it.

"I need some air. I hope you're happy, Chris!" Beth yelled, waving an accusatory finger at Chris before she stormed off down the stairs, angrily cursing at every three steps or so.

"Beth…" Ashley called out, her shoulders slumping when she received no reply. Chris slumped back in his chair, looking a little downcast. He stared at the board, unwavering as his mind continued to process what had just happened and what the 'ghost' was trying to tell them. Truth be told, Chris didn't fully buy into it but something had to doing this. Just what exactly, he wanted to know…

"Damn it." He cursed in a rare moment for him.

"Chris, did you…?" Ashley started to say as Beth's words echoed in her ears, Chris already moving to counter her statement.

"No, I didn't. Did you?" Chris defended, arms raised in kind, looking back at Ashley with wide eyes. 'Can't blame her, considering my reputation…' he conceded to Ashley's point of view.

"No, that thing just flew off. Should we go after her?" Ashley earnestly replied, moving toward the stairs. Her curiosity was what continued to keep her going, but even she had to cope to a little bit of fear lodged in her stomach starting to grow like cancer with each passing second in this admittedly spooky lodge. 'I wish the lights were still working…' she found herself wishing.

"I'm more interested in what proof the library is supposed to hold." Chris said, looking over the railing towards the stairs where Beth had just left as he stood up from his chair, following Ashley towards the library.

The library was a lot like the rest of the lodge, rather opulent and majestic for a property so far away from civilization. At the edge closest to the window sat a simple study, replete with writing implements and paper, most of which had a thin layer of dust over it. The walls surrounding that desk were lined with books, some dating back decades and all of them mostly academic in nature in regards to the process of filmmaking. Eyes taking stock of the shelves, Chris happened to notice several colored sticky note tags stuck in between some of the books, as if someone had used them as reference for studying. 'Wonder if this was Beth…? Or Josh, even?' he pondered, the thought of his dearly departed friend starting to seep back into his brain.

Ashley meanwhile was taking out one of the more intriguing books, a short one that spoke of the horror movie tropes and their significance in the late 20th century. The Washington patriarch was a noted director of horror himself and it was not unusual to see such a book. As she remained engrossed in the book, Chris had found a medium-sized photo of Hannah and Beth sitting innocently enough on the desk.

"What's this?" Chris said, picking up the photo. Spinning it over, blood red letters splashed with anger and rage popped into his eyes. The message read, 'I WILL HAVE MY ANSWER! 16 YEARS, I'VE WAITED FOR YOUR PRETTY BIRDS! IF I CAN'T HAVE TWO, I'LL SETTLE FOR ONE!'

"Whoa…Creepy…" Chris replied, drawing Ashley's attention from the stack of books she was looking over.

"What is it?"

"Now, Ash… Don't freak out, but I found this. It's some death threat." Chris handed Ashley the message, looking rather pensive. Ashley went through the same motions he did, first confusion then fear and followed soon after with determination.

"Chris, this is serious. We need to find Beth and warn her." Ashley said.

"Ahhh! Get away from me!" Beth had to scream at that exact moment, her voice echoing all the way into the main hall. Ashley, with a look of concern raced for the rattling door, clutching the once shaky doorknob and twisting it open to peek inside.

"That was Beth! Beth!" Ashley cried out, peeking out through the door. As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat or in this case, curiosity dragged Ashley by the hand and dragged her inside into the kitchen, locking the door behind her.

"Nggghhh…." Chris heard Ashley groan, followed soon after by silence. Panicking and fearing for Ashley and Beth's safety, Chris leaned his shoulder forward and rammed against the locked door three times, finally breaking through on the third attempt. The brute force sent him sprawling to the floor and it took a few seconds to catch himself back on his feet.

"Ash! Hey, what the…?!" Chris' eyes went wide at the sight of Ashley resting headfirst on the carpet, unmoving and almost unearthly still to his eyes. A sudden shift of shadow in his peripheral vision caused him to shift his eyesight, startling him with the sight of a burly figure wearing a clown mask and draped in dreary overalls to better fit his psycho look.

"He…!" Was all that Chris managed to get out before the clown-wearing psychopath swung its elbow into his face, knocking his glasses right off him and watching it slide along the wooden floor of the lodge. Chris crumpled into a heap from the blow, knocked out completely. Satisfied, the psycho moved towards the unconscious Ashley and started to drag the teenager away by her leg, straining somewhat at her weight, despite Ashley's relative weight compared to the others. And as the psycho started to carry her out of the lodge itself, the crows that signaled a disturbance started to crow out at the sound of both incidents, as if to signify the true start of this horrific nightmare.

And right above Chris and Ashley, a bathing Sam heard the crows cry out and looked out the window near her Jacuzzi, readying to put on her clothes and move to investigate further…

Sorry if this chapter seems a little shorter. The plot for the next two chapters tend to focus only on two parties and that dries up a little. The next chapter will build on altering the story from its set baseline. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you all soon with the next one.