CHAPTER SIX
Josh couldn't believe what was happening. This wasn't how it was supposed to go! His friends were going to be angry for the rest of the night, laugh it off, and then bathe in the fame of being an internet sensation!
Couldn't they take a fuckin' joke? It was all fun and haha. Why did they have to be so serious? Did he go off and exile those fuckers who got Hannah and Beth killed? Because fuck them. He deserved to see them suffer, scared, and humiliated. He deserved it! Hannah and Beth deserved to see them quivering and piss their pants, but they couldn't, could they? No! Because they were fucking dead!
What the fuck was Mike even talking about? Jess dead? He hadn't even gone off to see them, yet! He was going to reveal himself and have Chris, Sam, and Ashley help him with the pranks. Fuck, his face hurt… Why did Mike have to hit him so hard?
He looked over to the redhead who was trailing behind Mike and his supposedly best friend, Chris. He couldn't read her. It was as if she had become a completely different person. He thought she was going to help him, but now she was helping them exile him.
The pain in his chest confused him. Mike didn't catch him there, did he? Why did it ache?
He glanced at her, again. It only hurt more. He missed the way she used to look at him before he… Before he stupidly decided to scare her off. This just wasn't his day, was it? He couldn't do anything right.
"You never could, Josh." He clenched his eyes shut. Hannah was dead. Hannah was dead. She wasn't standing in front of him. "Did you think playing around with your friends was going to make me happy? It's better that the bitch, Jess, is dead." He shook his head. She's not real. She's not real.
Mike gave him a rough push to the back, snapping him from his delusions.
"Come on, man!" Josh protested, walking backwards with a gun trained on him. "It was just a joke!" Where did they even find the gun?
"No!" Mike growled. "Move! Jess is fucking dead because of you!" In anger, Mike backhanded him with the handgun. Josh immediately fell to his knees in pain.
"Mike, he's not well. He's sick," Chris tried to reason. It was true that Josh's prank had gotten out of hand, but neither he nor Ashley were hurt. He wanted to be hopeful that Josh would never kill Jess, even if he blamed her for Hannah and Beth's deaths.
"No, man." Mike pushed Josh down to his stomach and pressed the gun against the back of his head. Josh groaned in pain as a sharp knee dug into his spine. "Oh, does that hurt?"
"Mike, stop." Clara put a hand on his shoulder, which he instantly brushed off. "This isn't helping anything." She felt startlingly calm. "Josh said he didn't kill Jess and I think he really believes that. Let's quickly get out of the cold and then we'll discuss more, alright?"
He ground his teeth together before getting off the whining man. He pulled Josh to his feet and pushed him into the shed.
"Come on, man. You can't leave a guy hanging like this!"
Clara watched him protest and fight for leniency. It was tragic. If only he had just listened to her. None of this would be happening.
"You can't tie tightly if I just… wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!" Josh fidgeted around while Mike and Chris were tying his hands behind him around the wooden support beam. "Ow! Not so tight! Leave a guy some wiggle room, will ya?"
It was a pitiful sight. Josh in the office wasn't quite right in the head, but this was something else entirely. What would Dr. Hill say? "Mike, he's not well."
"I don't care if he's about to fucking die! I think it'd be poetic justice. He killed Jess. I blow his fucking head off!"
"You know, I think I have a problem," Josh interrupted. "I mean, if I killed Jess, don't ya think I'd… remember that?"
Clara could almost map out where Josh had been since they arrived. They only times they were apart were when she locked himself in the room, when she went to the bathroom, and when she dozed for a short moment. None seemed to give him enough time to kill Jess or even make it all the way to the guest cabin and back. In fact, neither Mike nor Jess were victims of the prank, thus far. The only people involved were Chris, Ashley, and Sam. It was odd that Josh was exacting revenge to the three people that Clara could only assume had the least to do with the year-old incident. What Josh had been thinking, she didn't know. If it was her, she'd start with the two who were the root of the problem.
"Come on, man." Chris pulled Mike away from Josh. "Let's get back to the girls."
Mike let out a string of courses before finally backing down. There wasn't much more he could do short of murder at the moment, but immediately after they leave the mountain, Mike was going to make sure that he'd have the psychopath behind bars.
"May I have a private word with him first?" Clara finally spoke up.
She had been oddly quiet the entire time. Mike wondered if she was going to take the opportunity to free Josh, but Chris managed to convince him otherwise. He gave her a warning look, which she ignored, before walking out of the shed.
"Clara. Clara. Clara," Josh repeated over and over, again. "I didn't kill Jess. I swear."
She didn't reply, merely looked down at him. It was strange. He had always been the taller one. Now, he looked so small.
"Clara, please," he begged. He needed her to believe him. If no one else, he couldn't have her give up on him.
She crouched down in front of him. "I know, Josh. I know you didn't kill Jess."
"Then get me out of here!" He tried to bounce in his seat.
"I told you this was a bad idea, Josh." She looked around. "Did you tell Dr. Hill about it? I'm sure he would've told you that it was a bad idea, too."
"He did…" he mumbled, recalling the countless texts he had received since arriving here.
She shook her head and headed to a first aid kit at the back of the shed. Josh's fake body was peeking out from behind a wooden shelf. It was odd walking past the thing. The scent of old pig's blood was putrid.
When she returned, she had a roll of bandages in one hand and a bottle of peroxide in another. She unhooked the overalls trap on his left shoulder and tugged the collar down.
"Ow!" He tried to squirm away from her hands.
The wound was deep, but the opening was small. It had become a deep, reddish purple. The blood must've bruised in the cold. At least it didn't look as if any infections were going to settle in, but that didn't mean it wouldn't happen later on.
She uncapped the peroxide bottle and poured it into the wound. His shout of pain hurt her ears.
"It hurts!" he whined. "Clara, stooop!"
"Stay still," she scolded him. It was hard enough without him fighting her.
He stopped moving, but continued to whine and make faces at her.
Once she was satisfied with the cleaning, she unravelled the bandages and tediously began to wrap his shoulder. It was difficult with his hands tied behind the pole.
The shed was silent until a thought came to her. "What did you use to make those sounds?"
Josh frowned. "What sounds?" His screams of pain?
"The ones that chased me down the hall. It couldn't be human. What made it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't do it," he said, shaking his head. "It wasn't me."
Clara looked at him in the eyes before nodding. He was telling the truth, but then, what had been following her?
Once she was done, she shifted his clothes back into place and stepped away.
"Clara…?" He looked at her like a lost child. "Where are you going? Don't leave. Stay with me." He tried to bounce his chair towards her, but it was impossible. "Come on, we can stay here and make out! We'll have our privacy here. No one would be able to hear any strange noises. Yeah?" He waggled his eyebrows at her, but at the stoic expression, his face fell. "Clara! Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" Why was she doing this to him?
"Goodbye, Josh."
"Shut up, you stupid bitch!"
Plates crashed on to the floor – plates that they couldn't afford to replace. The cries of her mother spiked when one of the shards sliced her leg.
When had her family started falling apart?
"You want to know what I do on my trips? I find a hot Canadian woman – a real woman – and I fuck her," he spat. "I fuck her and I enjoy it. Melinda's not a fuckin' coldfish like you."
"I'm sorry…" her mother sobbed. "I'm sorry…" She always apologised even though it wasn't her fault.
"Sorry? You're sorry?"
Clara huddled in her room, trying to shut out all the noise.
The walk back to the lodge was solemn. Mike continued to brood and cuss out Josh, while Chris seemed heartbroken that his best friend had betrayed him. Clara hadn't spoken a single word to either of them since they left Josh alone. She wasn't happy with the ways things had turned out. Josh being tied up was highly unfortunate. She didn't expect his friends to exile him. She preferred to have him closer. Who knows what could happen?
The longer she spent here, the worse this day became. She'd have to go see Dr. Hill and hear him chastise her about her decisions. Yes, she was wrong. Yes, she regret coming here. Yes, she should've listened to him, but now that she was here, there was something she wanted to do first. The temptation had been nagging at the back of her mind since she fell asleep on Josh in the security room.
"Hey, guys." When she returned to the lodge, she could see the look of pity that the girls were giving her. They had no idea what she was feeling. Aside from their initial acts of sympathy, however, they were quick to express their relief once everyone had settled on the couches.
"I still can't believe that Josh would do something like this," Sam was the first to speak up about the situation.
Ashley looked down. "I really thought he had forgiven us for what happened. I never thought he would do something like this."
"The bastard actually thought that he could get away with killing Jess." Mike angrily kicked the coffee table.
Chris sighed. The indecision was clear on his face. "I still think that something else is up. I mean, yeah, Josh played this messed up prank on us, but do any of you really think that he would kill Jess?"
"He's out of his fucking mind!" Mike huffed. "Who knows what the fuck he really would do? Who knows what else he would've done if we didn't stop him?"
Sam frowned. It was difficult to get over the betrayal, but she really wanted to believe that he hadn't done anything to Jess. Sure, he had called her a couple of times during the summer, complaining about what the other blonde had done to his family, but this was Josh. They leaned on each other when Hannah and Beth disappeared. He was their friend.
The blonde looked over to Clara who had remained silent the entire time. She knew for a fact that Josh really liked her. It must've been so hard for her, now, especially when Mike still thought that she had something to do with Jess, as well. "Hey, how are you feeling?" she whispered to Clara, while the others continued to discuss about what they should do next.
"I'm alright, Sam." There was a robotic quality to her voice.
"If you need to talk, I'm here," Sam offered. It must've been difficult being the new girl. They never had a chance to really become acquainted with her and now she was in a room full of strangers, while her only friend was tied up somewhere.
Clara nodded. "I kn – "
Bang! Bang!
The sound of someone or something knocking frantically echoed inside the lodge. Everyone turned to see that the door was shuddering from the force and urgency.
"Help! Please‼"
The familiar voice immediately had everyone on their feet.
"Emily!" Sam exclaimed, moving towards the door, but Chris was already pulling the door open and Asian woman stumbled in.
Emily shouted for Chris to close the door before collapsing on the couch between Sam and Ashley. "There's a monster out there. Oh, my God!" She was a babbling mess of nonsense.
"It's okay," Sam reassured her. "It was Josh. It was all Josh."
"No!" Emily shouted in protest. "That thing out there, it's not human. Oh, my God. Oh, my God…"
"Em, where's Matt?" Chris asked her. They had gone out together, after Josh had supposedly died, and went to look for help. Why did she return alone?
Emily shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know. Matt… What if it got him? Oh, God, Matt!
"What happened?" Sam probed her, hoping to understand why the brunette was hysterical. If it was dangerous, they all needed to know.
"Matt and I went to the Fire Tower for help and I was able to get through to someone, but then the tower collapsed and I into the mines. I don't' know where Matt is, but… but I found Beth's head." Her words brought shocked gasps from her friends before they all waited with bated breath for her to continue. "And… I don't think Hannah died there. At least, not at first. She must've been alone, cold, and starving." She sobbed as the gravity of what their prank had done to the two girls. It was horrible. It was something she wish she never knew.
Mike stepped forward to embrace her. "Em, it's okay. It was Josh. You're just still confused, okay?"
Not knowing how else to convince them otherwise, Emily merely nodded, but she knew it wasn't Josh. She saw the creature with her very own eyes.
Clara bit her lips. A monster… She thought back to the thing chasing her in the basement. Josh said he hadn't done it and she believed him, but she hadn't caught a glimpse of what it could be. All she remembered was how terrified just the sound had made her. She didn't want to see it.
Suddenly, another succession of rapping caught their attention. They all looked at each other. Unless Josh had miraculously untied himself, it could be anyone or anything.
Chris positioned himself in front of the door with a gun in his hand, while Mike was ready to open it, poised with a bat. They looked at each other. Mike flung it open to reveal a stranger, oddly dressed. The face was completely covered up by a cloth and thick goggles shielded the eyes. From the body structure, however, suggested that this was a man.
Clara frowned. Who was he? She thought that they were the only ones up here, but perhaps that was only mere ignorance. There was bound to be more on such a large piece of land.
"Close the door and stand back," the Stranger demanded.
Not knowing what else to do, they all complied.
"Now, all of you are in great danger. There is a curse on these ancient burial grounds that the last mining expedition unleashed." He didn't wait for anyone to understand what he was talking about. "Anyone who resorted to cannibalism would turn into these terrible creatures called the Wendigo. That night – one year ago – I had been chasing one of such creatures, but it was chasing two others. I tried to help them, but I wasn't fast enough before they fell down the cliff." The Stranger's story shocked everyone. Wendigo? They couldn't possibly be real. They were just stories to scare young children, weren't they? "Is there somewhere safe you kids can hide in until dawn arrives?"
"The basement," Sam suggested. There was a murmur of agreements.
Clara hesitated. The basement was where she had heard the creature, but the security room seemed safe enough with its metal fencing. They could probably stay there.
Before they all field down, Clara spoke up. "What about Josh?"
"Oh, shit!" Mike cursed. "We left him in the shed."
"It's too late, now. Your friend is probably gone," the Stranger told them. "A lot can happen in a few minutes when you're on these mountains."
No, Clara wasn't willing to accept that and it seemed that neither was Chris.
"I'm going to find him," Chris protested. "He's my best friend and I've failed him. I'm not going to leave him to die, now."
Emily bit her lips. "The mines," she suggested. "That's where I saw all the bodies. If it took him, then he'd be at the mines."
That made sense. No one had ever seen many bodies casually splayed around the mountains, so the Wendigo must've brought them elsewhere. Not only that, it seemed that the police never searched down there for the two sisters' bodies. That was probably why no one ever knew about the Wendigo.
The Stranger looked annoyed and the frown only grew as Clara demanded to follow Chris. Having one person along was already dangerous enough, but two youngsters?
Clara was adamant. There was also regret settling in her stomach. She should never have left him out of her sight. She was going to have the satisfaction of finding him and nothing was going to get in her way. Nothing.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This chapter was pretty difficult to write. I wanted to say so much, but I didn't want to rush through everything. I really want this story to last as long as I can without making it too boring. I'll have more Clara in the next one, I promise. A lot more. The next chapter is going to be mental! I hope it wouldn't detour anyone from reading it.
Are there any guesses what's happening – other than the canon plot, of course? Hint: It's mainly revolving around Clara and Josh.
Thank you everyone who has reviewed the previous chapter: Dusk-deerfluff, Atsirk Enoh, Solleo93, gabicpa, and Guest(OptimisticTheory).
And thank you as well to all of you who has favourited and followed this story.
You guys have been so wonderful. Sometimes, I just get really insecure whether what I'm writing is any good and it's people like you who pushes me through to keep writing.
Oh! And I finally have a story cover for this. It's not very original, all I did was replace the skull with Josh's mask and put in a silhouette of Clara. I hope it's sufficient enough.
Please, leave a review. Thanks!
Echo
