Until Dawn: Embers of Hope

Chapter 7 of my Until Dawn story, again, due to the events involved, it's a truncated version of actually a large chunk of my novelization, with extra details to fit the new issues, but there is a new original scene at the end that should be interesting.

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Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn or its characters.


Chapter 7

As they ran, hearing the sounds of rapid pursuit, Jess screamed.

"Oh my god, what the hell was that!?"

"I don't know!" Mike yelled back.

Spotting a route, Jess cried out. "There's a bridge!" Over here! Over here Mike!"

She leapt over the gap of the fallen bridge, Mike following close behind, also jumping the gap. They ran further, ducking and leaping over branches as they ran.

"It's a bear, it's gotta be a bear!" Mike cried out.

Hardly reassured Jess stopped, looking in dismay at the path splitting, a steep hill to their left offered a short cut, while the other was the actual path.

Mike nodded to her and took off towards the short-cut, she followed at once and they began climbing the slope, Mike helped Jess up several times until they finally reached the top and began to run for the cabin, now right in front of them.

They climbed the small set of steps onto the porch and Mike reached the door, Jess however tripped, dropping the key.

"Jess!" Mike turned sharply.

She struggled to her feet, gesturing to the key. Getting the message Mike grabbed the key and hurried tried to unlock the door, urging Jess on as she got up and joined him. They managed to get inside and close the door behind them, locking it.

It took them some time to recover but when they did so, they were soon ready to get back to the business at hand. Unfortunately the cabin had it's power cut, was freezing cold and certainly not the cozy love shack they had been expecting.

Luckily Mike soon found a way to make things a lot more comfortable. Turning on an electric lantern to provide 'mood lighting' and starting up the fire in the fireplace, although Jess did worry about her missing phone. But in the end, they put all else from their mind as Mike turned to Jess after lighting the fire.

"Alright my lady, what comes next?" He queried.

With a suggestive grin, Jess stood and steered Mike until he was seated on the sofa. Casually humming a disco beat to which Mike grinned and settled back on the sofa to watch.

He did not sit still for long however and soon they were making out, casually undressing each other, before long Mike's upper body was clad in just his white sleeveless undershirt; meanwhile he grinned as he finished pulling off Jess' undershirt, revealing her white floral-patterned bra.

Smirking impishly at him she shrugged off her jeans, revealing matching panties before they soon resumed making out, ending up on the sofa, basking in the heat of the fire.

Just then a loud crashing noise got their attention, causing them to break apart.

"Wha?"

"Huh?" Jess gasped. "Mike, what is that?!"

"I don't know!" He responded at once.

"Okay, well go find out, now, please!" She hissed, sounding scared.

Mike nodded slowly, standing up and pulling on his socks and shoes before making his way through to the bedroom. The window was broken and something was lying on the floor, playing a song. Mike picked it up, it was Jess' phone.

"It's your phone!" He called out, turning.

She was now standing in the bedroom's doorway, still clad in just her underwear.

"What?" How is it my phone?" She replied incredulously.

Mike shrugged. "I don't know it just...came through the window!"

Jess suddenly glared, enraged as she plucked her phone from Mike's hand.

"Oh for fuck's sake- God DAMMIT!"

"What?"

Jess then gestured outside, retorting angrily. "Those goddamned assholes probably followed us out here to fuck with us and just when we were getting down to business!"

With that, despite the cold, despite her attire, Jess stormed through the cabin to the front door, opened it and stepped out onto the porch.

HEY! YEAH! PRICKS! THAT MEANS YOU! I KNOW you're OUT THERE! The FUCK are you trying to do!?" She screamed into the night. "You want to ruin our fun THAT BAD?! Well GUESS WHAT? You can't! You can't ruin our good time! Because Michael and I are gonna FUCK! That's right! We are going to have SEX! And it's gonna be HOT! So ENJOY IT! Because I know WE'RE GOING TO!"

Shaking her head and turned, heading back inside, slamming the door.

"Oh give me a break." She muttered.

Standing by the door, arms crossed she looked over at Mike. He sighed and began to approached her.

Suddenly something broke through the door, grabbing Jess by her head, she screamed in sheer terror as the thing that grabbed her yanked her forcefully through the broken window part of the door and out into the frigid night, her screams still echoing horribly as Mike witnessed the whole thing in utter shock and terror.

Recovering from the sudden attack on Jessica, Mike darted forwards, still holding his lantern.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, what the fuck!" He cried out.

He grabbed the hunting rifle he had spotted next to the door when they entered and darted outside the cabin, leaping down into the snow.

"JESSICA!" He yelled before noting the footprints and drag marks in the snow. "Oh my god, oh my god..."

He took off running, following the trail.

"JESS! Jess..." He cried out, listening, praying he could hear her respond, even if it was only a scream.

His heart was hammering, the blood pounded in his head, the wind rushed past his ears. All Mike could think about was saving Jess from whatever, or whoever, had grabbed her. As such, the cold barely affected him, not even when he stopped to contemplate his choices, for he saw two routes ahead.

One was shorter but more risking, jumping over some fallen metal tubing to cross the river, or following the path around. For Mike, it was a no-brainer and he began to leap from metal tube to metal tube until he finally crossed the river and took off running again.

"JESS! JESSICA! JESSICAAA!" He cried out as he continued to run.

But his frantic searching was still getting no response. He stopped when he reached a ledge and looked around, it was dark, hard to see and the ground was some distance below. Gritting his teeth he set his lantern down and aimed the hunting rifle, trying to use the scope to see the path below.

He searched without any result and began to panic.

"Jesus, fuck...fuck..." He whispered but then stopped. "JESS, NO!"

He spotted her, a little worse for wear, dirt had smeared onto the back of her thighs and panties, she was frantically crawling away from something. But then, whatever it was, as Mike couldn't see it through the scope, grabbed her and began pulling her away.

"Argh, NO!" She screamed, before pleading loudly. "MICHAAEELLLL HELP ME! HELP ME!"

She was yanked away out of sight, still screaming. Mike leapt to his feet, picking up the lantern and shouldering the rifle again. He wasted no time and jumped down, sliding down the cliff.

"Holy SHIIIT! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! URGH!"

The whole way down he cried out, managing to grab a branch on the way down to slow his fall, it broke but allowed him to land on his feet. He quickly retrieved the rifle and lantern and kept running.

"Keep going, keep going." He told himself.

His adrenaline pounded, making him move faster, ducking under low hanging tree branches and leaping over protruding tree roots. He silently cursed, he could no longer hear Jess screaming, his only source of finding her was the unusual footprints and drag marks still fresh in the snow.

Continuing his pursuit and taking any short-cut he could he soon arrived at an abandoned mine building, he sought desperately for Jess, or even whoever had taken her, there was no trail to follow now.

But he could hear Jess screaming, he called out and she cried for him to help. He hurried, following her voice, only to realize, to his horror, that he was too late.

An old elevator was stationed there and lying on it, covered in blood with several gashes to her face and chest, as well as her arms and legs, it was clear she had been attacked, whatever attacked her only sought physical damage however for, although stained with blood and dirt, her underwear was still on and not disturbed in the slightest except by what would be expected from her struggling.

But she wasn't moving, Mike fell to his knees next to her.

"NO! OH GOD! Nooo... Jessica... Oh god!" He cried; he had been too late.

But then she suddenly gasped, his eyes widened. "Jess! Jess! Are you okay!?"

She attempted to move, but clearly did not have the strength, even turning her head seemed a chore.

"Help..." She wheezed.

Mike began to reach for her when suddenly, there was a loud, metallic snap and the elevator dropped into the depths of the mines.

"JESSSICAAAAA!"

Mike started in dismay as her body vanished from sight; he had come so close and now she was gone. Head bowed he nearly collapsed into tears, when he noticed a strange shape forming a shadow above him.

"Huh? What the fuck." He mumbled as he looked upwards.

He could see the shape now, it was clearly a person, a figure, looking down at him. A sudden rage gripped Mike then and a red mist descended, this had to be the person responsible for what happened to Jess. At that point, only one thing registered in Mike's mind. Vengeance.

Reacting at once in blind anger, Mike raised the rifle, taking aim at the figure above and firing. Mike wasn't sure exactly what happened, either he missed or the figure avoided the shot, either way he shoulder the rifle and began to run up stairs.

'Son of a bitch, you're not getting away from me!' He thought furiously.

Running up the stairs he very nearly fell through a hold in the ground but leapt over it at the last second. He stopped only when he reached the elevator shaft and began to climb it.

He quickly climbed to the top and, spotting a figure walking away. He was sure this was the man who killed Jess. He couldn't let him get away, he took aim, but the gun jammed.

"What? Come on, come ON!" He growled throwing the now useless gun aside. "Piece of shit..."

Looking up he saw the man jumping down a hole and a gate beginning to close.

"Christ!" He yelled as he took off running. "Gotta make it!"

He dropped and slid along the ground, only just making it past the gate before it fully closed. Catching his breath Mike struggled upright.

'Dammit, gotta keep after him, can't let what happened to Jess...'

He shook his head, he had to focus on following and finding out who this guy was, then he'd get his revenge. Spotting an older style lantern Mike quickly claimed it, turning it on with his lighter before picking it up and following the path the figure took.

He leapt down the hole and made his way out of the mines and into the snow.

"Oh fuck." He muttered as the cold finally bit at him.

But then he saw it, a strange large building in the distance, he could just make out the man he saw earlier, walking up the path towards it.

"Jesus..." He whispered to himself. "The fuck is that place?"

He slowly, carefully began to follow the path himself.


Down the bottom of the mine shaft, Jess lay, still bleeding from her wounds. Approaching her was the man she had seen by the cabin, the one who had pursued her in the woods. A strange figure, clad in strange almost military style clothing, but with his face covered.

"Such a pity..." He muttered as he knelt next to her, before noticing. "Ah, wait..."

She was still breathing, he grinned, it looked like he was going to have his fun after all and this was just the beginning.

So, preparing for his next step, he picked Jess up off the ground and casually slung her over his shoulder, keeping one arm wrapped securely around her thighs, he casually began to walk away, deeper into the mines.


End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please. Okay, we'll be breaking away from Mike here, poor Jess is in the hands on an unknown individual, but, apart from a brief scene with her, next chapter is going switch to Matt and Emily, what awaits them, we can only wait and see.