A/N: I'm surprised, I haven't managed to stay interested in writing a story for this long in a while, probably 4-5 years when I wrote a terrible Harry/Hermione fic and then deleted it at 20k because it made no sense and the writing was bad. Thankfully, this is actually pretty good in my opinion, so there won't be a repeat of that.
I really wish more people would write femslash fics for Until Dawn, it's a bit lame to be writing one out of two total femslash fics for the fandom, especially since I'm not a big fan of OCs. Oh well, maybe eventually there will be more. Until then, I'll just have to settle with what we've got.
Also, I'm sorry for the delay, I recently started college and that's eating up a lot of my time for writing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn, and there are going to be femslash erotica written in this story at some point 99%. If you disagree with either of these concepts, then you might consider stopping reading.
Chapter 3
10:30 PM, 8 HOURS 30 MINUTES UNTIL DAWN
Five minutes didn't go by before the retreat already started going roughly, when Emily felt it necessary to provoke Jessica into an argument over her and Mike cuddling up on the couch together.
"stop it!" Josh said firmly. "This isn't what we came up here for, if we can't last ten minutes without fighting, maybe we should take a little break? Mike, how about you and Jess check out the guest cabin, the one I told you about, huh?"
"Sure, you up for it Jess?"
"As long as I don't have to stick around the peanut gallery, sure." Jessica replied and followed Mike outside.
Pretty soon, Josh realized he forgot to give them the key, so he followed them out back, and Emily was complaining about her bag being forgotten at the cable car station, leaving only Ashley, Sam, and Chris in the room.
"Well then, that's a nice fun bit of drama to start off the vacation with," Chris said lightly, shaking his head.
"Oh my god, I really can't stand them sometimes." Ashley responded as she went to sit down on one of the unveiled couches.
"Well guys, I'm gonna go lay down for a bit, I've got a really huge headache right now, so I'll see you in a bit." Chris said as Josh came back inside, and he walked up the stairway towards the guest rooms.
"Okay, see you in a bit." Sam replied, sitting down next to Ashley. Suddenly, the lights flickered, before shutting off.
"Oh come on," Josh said with a groan. "I'm gonna go down to the basement and fix that real quick. Sam, you mind helping me out?" He asked.
"Sure thing, we'll be back before you know it Ash," Sam said, getting up and following Josh down to the basement to see what the problem was with a flashlight in tow.
"Great.." Ashley muttered at being left alone in the dark, expansive structure. "Just everyone take off and leave me alone in a dark ski-lodge, nice." She said, before smirking menacingly, knowing exactly what to do.
She got up and went to the other basement door, leading to the storage area rather than the piping of the basement, where she knew there are several decent costumes, thinking that her time for payback for last year's prank had finally come. When she got to the costume room, she looked around for the box she was looking for. She wanted to make sure that she didn't find something too scary, but just enough to spook them a bit while being obviously fake once they get a closer look.
X
Sam followed Josh down the steps to the basement. "Wonder why the wires cut out?" She inquired.
"Who knows, all that stuff is pretty old though, we might have to get the fuses looked at before too long." Josh replied evenly. "So, you and Ashley have anything specific in mind for this winter break?" He asked conversationally, causing her to give him a bemused look.
"Yeah, it's called staying safe and inside the whole time. I'm surprised Matt and Emily, and Jessica and Mike for that matter wanted to walk off this late at night after what happened last year." She said.
"What happened last year won't happen again." Josh said quietly. "The police combed every last bit of this mountain, and we've cracked down on security, plus we've been fine every other time we've come here throughout the year." He added. "You don't have to worry about a repeat of what happened,"
"I hope you're right, but still, I'd rather be safe than sorry." She responded. "I need to look out for me and Ash's safety first."
"You're looking out for Ashley's safety too, huh? What's going on between you guys, anyways?" Josh asked as if he already knew the answer.
Sam blushed slightly. "What do you mean by that? Of course I'm looking out for my best friend, I'm not losing her like I lost Hannah." Sam said.
"You know, eventually it'll be too late." Josh said mysteriously and kept walking.
"What does that even mean?"
"I'm pretty sure you know exactly what I'm talking about, but you just don't want to see it because you're worried, you've never been good at confronting your feelings." He said.
"I.." She trailed off. "I just don't know what to do about it, I can't even remember where it started, or why," Sam said looking down. "What if she isn't open to that sort of thing? I don't want to risk losing her Josh, I can't risk losing her, and I'm completely fine with just being her best friend," She said, her voice dropping at the end.
"Are you actually fine with it though?" Josh asked as the came up to the fuse box. "Hold this please," He said, handing her the flashlight, and she nodded.
"I think so." Sam replied.
"How would you feel if suddenly she got in a relationship because you didn't make a move? You know Ashley is too shy to instigate things if she did like you, which, by the way, she does, but she's not going to spend her whole life sitting on feelings for you." Josh said as he tinkered around.
"You're probably right, it's just so weird to think about, we've been best friends for 5 years now!" She sighed. "But you're still right. I should probably use this trip to find a way to get her alone and lay it out." Sam said. "How did you know, anyways?"
"Trust me, I can see these things from a mile away. Just make sure you do something, you never know when it could be your..." He paused, hooking something up inside the box. "Last chance," He grunted as the lights came back on.
"Sure, sure." Sam said. Truthfully, she wasn't sure how or when she began to feel something more than friendship for Ashley, but it had been a while now, she just didn't want to address it, especially after Hannah and Beth got killed- after they possibly heard them get killed that night. Life is too short to put these things off though, so she'd find a way sometime on the trip to let Ashley know how she felt, and she hoped to God that Josh was right about Ashley's feelings towards her, because her stomach was a flurry of excitement at imagining finally being able to express her feelings that she'd kept down for the longest time. "Thanks." Sam said and they started walking back to the staircase, only to freeze when they heard a loud, rhythmic beating from somewhere in the basement.
"What was that?" Sam asked. "You hear that too, right?" She asked, getting freaked out. "The rhythm's like… weirdly regular," She said.
"Nothing regular about it," Josh remarked.
"We should check it out, it could be a pipe messing up or something, or a pressure valve." Sam said worriedly. "I wouldn't want this weekend to end with the house flooding or burning down or what not."
"I doubt it's that," Josh said. "But we probably should check it out," And they walked down the somewhat lit hall towards the sound. It started growing louder as they approached, when a menacing figure in a cloak and a ski mask jumped out of them, grunting "Boo!".
Sam and Josh both screamed as they ran away from the figure. "What the hell!" Sam cried out as they stormed up the staircase as the low grunting of the figure behind them continued. They got to the top and tried to open the door. "Why is this locked!" Sam screamed.
"T-To keep strangers out!" He said, positioning himself in front of Sam towards the stairs.
Within a few seconds, the cloaked figure stumbled up the stairs, panting heavily. "Uh, woooaaahhhhh" It said with a labored breath, flailing it's arms around a bit. "Oh screw it," A familiar voice said as Ashley ripped off the mask, breathing hard with a flushed face.
"Ashley? What the hell!" Sam said with an annoyed face.
"Oh come on, that was totally justified," Ashley smirked, and Josh laughed.
"Oh don't tell me you were in on this?" Sam lightly shoved Josh.
"Nah, but I wish I was, that was a pretty good one," Josh grinned and high fived Ashley. "You might want to consider working out a bit more though, not very scary to get chased by someone who tires out after ten seconds of running." He teased the auburn haired girl.
"Oh shut up!" Ashley groaned, still exhausted from the chase. She didn't go running very often- she'd have to talk to Sam about joining her on her morning jogs in the future.
"I guess fair is fair," Sam huffed, smiling at Ashley. She wasn't too upset since Ashley didn't really take it too far at all, it was a pretty funny prank looking back on it.
"Damn straight," Ashley smirked. "Let's get back up to the lodge?" She asked, pointing at the door, and Josh fumbled around for his key set, unlocking the door and exiting the basement.
"So, guess what I found when I was down there?" Ashley said as they walked up.
"What is it?" Sam inquired.
"Just sitting on one of the tables was this totally cool looking Ouija board! I've heard that they're pretty mysterious, and I was just wondering if you guys… Well, wanted to try it?" Ashley said, pulling a small board and triangular piece out of her cape.
Josh grinned. "Sounds like fun, let's try it out," he led the two girls upstairs to a small round table with comfortable chairs surrounding it, and beckoned them to take a seat.
"Well, let's give it a shot I guess," Sam said nervously. "How do we do this?"
"Give me a second, it came with a manual," Ashley replied, pulling out a small book and opening it up. "It says here, to communicate with the spirit world, you must free your mind of all preconceptions, drop all inhibitions, and generally give yourself over entirely to the will of others, sublimating your every desire to the spirit master," Ashley smirked devilishly. "Which in this case, is me."
Sam gave a humored smirk. "It doesn't say that."
Ashley shot her a look, "And all present must obey every command I give them, and treat me as a spiritual goddess."
Josh sighed. "Come on Ash, let's take this seriously."
"Oh, I'm perfectly serious," Ashley chuckled in a low tone, clearly fishing for laughs, which she earned as Sam let out a small giggle.
"Okay guys, for real though, let's try this out." Sam said, looking pointedly at Ashley.
"Yes, please." Josh said.
Ashley sighed exaggeratedly. "Okay fine, let's see what happens. Sam, you're better at the whole questioning thing than I am, do you mind being our medium for tonight?" She looked inquisitively at the blonde girl.
Sam shifted in her seat with an unsure look on her face. "I guess I can give it a shot," She said, and then cleared her throat, putting her hand on the center-piece along with the others. "Um, is anyone there? Hello? Any spirits out there? Can you hear me?" Sam asked, and paused for a few moments. She was about to speak again when the centerpiece began to slowly move upwards, to the "YES" sign.
"What? Who's doing that guys?" Ashley nervously laughed and shifted her eyes from Josh to Sam repeatedly.
"This isn't me," Sam said, and Josh nodded with a wide-eyed look.
"W-Who is there?" Sam asked with a slight quiver, unsure what to think. The centerpiece moved in sequence, spelling out "SISTER"
"Sister?" Josh trembled in anxiety. "Ask them whose sister!"
"Josh, it has to be… Hannah or Beth," Ashley whispered.
"Fine, ask them which sister then!" He said quickly.
Sam continued, "Who are you specifically?" the board responded HANNAH
"What happened to you, Hannah? Please, tell us, where are you?" Josh said, ignoring the tradition of the medium. The board spelled out DEAD.
"I… How? How'd you die?" He slowly got out. KILLED was the response.
"Look, you guys, this isn't funny, okay? I don't know if you thought this was supposed to be funny, or help me, but it didn't." Josh said, looking upset.
"I swear to God Josh, I didn't do that, and I know Sam wouldn't either! Something freaky is happening!" Ashley got out, looking to Sam with a desperate look in her eyes, who nodded in agreeance.
"Whatever, I can't handle this right now."
"Josh, please!" Ashley begged him, her eyes glistening and her hands clasped together.
"Just… Just don't, Ash." Josh sighed and walked away from the two girls.
"Should we do something? Go after him? Anything?" Ashley said, staring down at her hands and quivering slightly.
Sam gripped Ashley's hands in her own tightly in reassurance. "Just give him time, he'll be okay," She said, releasing Ashley's hands and enveloping her in a tight hug that she felt they both needed after that experience.
"I trust you and all, but you didn't actually do that stuff, right?" Sam asked from their embrace.
"I swear, no! I didn't, I would never!" Ashley looked Sam directly in the eyes.
"Okay, I believe you, that's just… That's really scary," Sam shivered.
"Yeah.." Ashley said.
"Well, what should we do now?"
"Let's just make some hot chocolate and wait for the others to get back in a bit, we could use some relaxing after that ordeal." Sam paused and reluctantly broke the hug. "Besides, if that was Hannah, it's not like she's going to haunt us." She looked around the room, "At least, she better not choose to haunt one of her best friends," Sam smiled softly.
"I hope so," Ashley said, her body finally starting to un-stiffen. "It would be pretty lame to haunt us instead of the people who pranked her last year. Still, that really sucks that she really died," Ashley said sadly. There might've been almost virtually no chance that Hannah could've survived, especially after a year of no contact, but stranger things had happened in the past.
"Anyways, let's get to that hot chocolate, shall we?" Sam said, back to her normal self, and confidently led Ashley down the stairs towards the kitchen door.
Before they got to the door, it rattled, and the heard a male voice call out in distress, but sounded muffled.
"That sounds like Josh!" Ashley said, running for the door slightly ahead of Sam. She opened the door, peering inside. "Josh?" She asked, but suddenly was grabbed and pulled inside the door, which slammed shut behind her.
"Ashley!?" Sam shouted, pounding on the door.
"Help!" Ashley cried out, but soon had her mouth covered with a wet rag, and slowly her consciousness slipped away.
"Hang on Ashley, I'm coming!" Sam kept trying to get the door open, throwing herself against it repeatedly until finally it burst open. "Ash!" She shouted at seeing the auburn girl's body on the ground, unconscious but thankfully still breathing. Moments later, she looked around, but it was too late to stop the hands that shoved a rag to her mouth and nose as well, and like Ashley, she quickly lost consciousness after a small struggle.
X
Josh sighed behind the mask. He really wished that he didn't have to do this to these two, but he couldn't let his plan for the weekend go to waste, and their roles were essential to his plans for the others. He refused to actually hurt them, though, and resided to only scaring the hell out of them- hopefully they'd understand why later.
He dragged off Ashley's body to the shed where he had set up the saw and lever, knowing that Sam was the brave one who would be more likely to venture out in search of Ashley if she thought Ashley was in danger, and then lied in wait.
X
Sam woke up slowly, getting to her feet. "Wha- Ashley!" Sam shouted as she recalled what happened. "Ash, where are you? Please answer me!" Sam called desperately, panic rising up deep in her chest. She couldn't let Ashley be taken away from her too, she refused to let it happen. If some sick freak killed Ashley too… "No, that won't happen." Sam said firmly, "I-It won't." She tried to reassure herself, and decided to jump into action.
She searched around the house until she found a large mass of red liquid on the wall that looked a lot like blood. "God damn it," She cursed, but quickly told herself that it didn't look quite like blood, and that there was no reason for it to be Ashley's blood regardless, why would it be on the wall but not the floor?
She noticed nearby a swinging, open door, leading out into the forest, and she quickly left. "This is so ridiculous, I'm never coming here or letting Ashley come here again," She muttered, rushing out the door. Most likely, the person who kidnapped Ashley didn't actually kill her if he felt the need to make a fake blood-spatter instead of a real one on the wall.
She spotted more red substance on a trail nearby, and ran down it until she came across a large wooden structure with the door wide open and the light on, in front of what looked like a warehouse.
"Sam," She heard a distressed moan from inside.
"Ashley?!" Sam called. "Ashley, where are you?"
"I don't know, I can't move! Please, get me out of this!" Ashley cried out more clearly now as Sam entered the building, keeping an eye on her surroundings so she wouldn't get caught off guard. She doubted she could beat the kidnapper in a fight, but she'd be damned if she didn't try in order to save Ashley.
"I'm coming Ashley, hang on!" Sam called, and went towards Ashley's voice. Suddenly, a light flickered on, and Ashley and Josh appeared before her strung up, with a giant saw blade in front of them. "What the fuck is this!" Sam growled out, her eyes fixated on Ashley, and noticing Josh. She felt slightly guilty for forgetting about him, he was in danger too, but her main priority was Ashley.
"Sam? Are you there?" Ashley called out.
"Yes, I'm here-" Sam spoke, but a voice cut her off.
"Hello, and thank you all for joining me. Tonight, we're going to conduct a little experiment, a sort of test. But for this experiment, we'll need the participation of our two test subjects, Ashley, And Joshua. But for this experiment, we'll need another brave volunteer to choose, which subject will live, and which will die." A robotic voice said.
"Oh God no, please get me out of here! Don't do this," Ashley screamed as the saw blade started whirling. "Sam please, you can't let me die!" She called out.
Josh sighed next to her. "I- I obviously don't want to die, but I know you're going to save Ashley, and I just want you to know, I don't blame you for it- it's not your fault this happened, Sam, don't feel guilty." He said.
The robotic voice started again. "In front of you, you'll find a lever that you may use to save one of your friends. Choose wisely, and thank you for playing this little game, I hope you found it… Satisfactory." It cut off.
"I'm sorry Josh," Sam cried out, tears cascading down to the ground. "I'm so sorry." She said as she turned the lever towards Josh.
"This is so fucked up, please, don't do this!" Ashley cried out, but the voice didn't answer her, and the saw kept going towards Josh, who gulped. He tried to stay silent as the blades cut into his flesh, but let out loud, bellowing cries of pain as the saw-blade sliced through his flesh, cutting him cleanly in two. "Oh God, Sam, please tell me he's okay, please!" Ashley said, looking away, knowing that he actually wasn't.
"Ash, don't look, I'm gonna get you down," Sam got out as she rushed to Ashley's side, untying her from the bindings and letting her down.
"Oh god, Josh, no!" Ashley whimpered as she saw with her own eyes the dangling, cut in half body of Josh.
"Ash, we need to get out of here," Sam said, knowing they couldn't afford to stay and deal with their shock at their friend dying. Her mind entered survival mode, and she intended to protect Ashley and herself from further harm, and anything else could be dealt with later.
"O-Okay..." Ashley said and let Sam lead her out of the building, back towards the lodge.
A few steps outside later, they heard a familiar voice, "Sam!" they heard Matt call, and saw Emily and him walking up to them. "Jesus, is that blood?" He asked.
"Yes, there's a crazy person up on the mountain with us, and he killed Josh!" Sam called to them with panic. "We need to get everyone together and get out of here!" She said.
"Holy shit, we need to get some help!" Emily said incredulously. "I bet Mike and Jess are still off sixty-nineing each other at the cabin, and who knows where Chris is. You guys need to gather everyone together, me and Matt will get the police or someone up here, okay?" Emily said.
"You're right," Sam muttered, not liking the fact that they weren't just leaving, but knowing she wasn't willing to cause three more of her friends to die to some maniac.
"Okay, make sure to lock the doors and try holing up in the basement with the others, we'll be back as soon as we can, okay?" Emily ordered, and Sam nodded.
"I… Man, this is fucked up." Matt shook his head. "Make sure you guys stay safe, and you should take this." He reached into his pocket and grabbed his switchblade, handing it to Sam. "You'll need it more than we will I bet, the ski-lift isn't far from here."
"Thanks," Sam said gratefully, knowing that with a weapon she had a better chance at fighting off the kidnapper if he returned. "Good luck," Sam said, and started leading Ashley back to the lodge, where she hoped that they would find Chris, and maybe even Mike and Jessica if they were lucky, but probably not since they went to the cabin.
They finished the short walk to the lodge at a quicker pace than usual, shutting and locking the door behind them.
"Thank you," Ashley whispered and wrapped Sam in a death grip. "Thank you so much," Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she sobbed into Sam's chest.
"There's nothing to thank, I'm always going to be here to save you Ash," Sam said gently, returning the embrace and bringing one hand up to stroke Ashley's hair softly. She felt a wave of love and protection surge over her, and she vowed that she would get Ashley off this mountain and away from whoever was out there no matter what she had to do to accomplish it.
"Let's go wake up Chris." Sam said after a few moments, and Ashley nodded, remembering they were gathering everyone up that they could. "Though, I think Mike and Jess are on their own until help comes, we can't risk going out to the cabin, it's not safe."
"Maybe they're out of the way enough that he won't touch them?" Ashley murmured softly.
"I hope so," Sam replied as they walked up the stairs towards the bedrooms.
AN: I don't usually like doing ending AN's, and this will likely be the only one in this story: I just wanted to note that I'm changing a few details from canon intentionally because of the fact that Sam and Ashley didn't participate in the prank, either one in this story, and Josh 100% knows that. He doesn't want to involve them too much in his game, and he doesn't want to hurt them, which is why he didn't punch Sam to knock her out like he did Chris in the game, and why the spirit board scene was a bit less hostile/urgent.
He intends to still scare them, obviously, but he wants to make sure they don't actually get hurt or injured in any way.