10. Splinter
"Come on Matt! We're late late late!" The chirp of Emily sounded in Matt's ears, far from melodic, but not dissonant either; a shrill command combined with a cheeky laugh. "You don't want us to turn into popsicles, do you?" She teased, the light of her phone glinting off her shining eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, Em." Matt rolled his eyes at the other's incessant nature, already having dealt with it for the journey up here. "Besides, the sooner we get up to the lodge, the sooner I can get away from you!" He added with a chuckle, earning an offended glare from Emily. He was half sure she was going to launch a snowball at him, but luckily, Emily's main priority was getting into the lodge.
As they trekked up the worn path which glistened in the moon's light, Matt reflected on the events leading up to the journey up here, attempting to soothe the butterflies that began to flit around in his stomach.
The conversation had been lasting hours now, the length of the call being registered as three and a half hours long. Matt stared at the phone screen which glared light against the contrasting dark room, stinging his eyes. He and Emily had been attempting to calm and console a rather nervous Jess…well, 'rather nervous' was the understatement of the month. Jess had been crying down the phone in garbled hysterics for the first hour of the conversation, chuckling through the second before worry began to take over again in the third.
"Jess! It's gonna be okay!" Emily's voice rang down the line, so blatantly tired, but she put on a preppy voice in the hopes of lifting her friend's spirits – something the 'old' Emily would never have done.
"We're both going to be there too! You're not going to be alone! We'll have a fantastic time, the three of us!" Matt found himself repeating phrases he had told Jessica thousands of times over in many similar situations, but he knew that he would tell her them a thousand times more if he had to.
His legs were aching like hell as the pair reached the pinnacle of the hill, thankful that he had chosen to wear his extra thick scarf despite Emily's claims that he looked like a girl in it. By the look of the trodden snow underfoot, they were some of the last to come here. He could count at least four or five different sets of footprints. Emily had been right when she said they were 'late late late'.
"Ohhhhh, crap." A groan from Emily brought Matt out of his thought process, causing him to quirk an eyebrow in query.
"What, Em?"
The dark haired girl turned to look at him, a scrunched up frown on her face, annoyance glittering across her eyes. "The cable car, genius." She snapped, gesturing wildly with her hand at the car which was already slowly ascending the mountain.
"Ah." Matt breathed with a sheepish look on his face, reaching up with one hand to scratch the back of his head. He squinted up at the dim light that the car emitted, his mouth pulling down in a grimace. "Ah, shit. Jess is in there." When Emily gave him a bewildered look in response, he clarified, "With Mike."
Fear flashed in Emily's eyes for a moment, and Matt cringed. Over the year, she had developed a fear of Michael, based on the near-death experience she had had at his hands. After a while, it wasn't even just Mike that Emily feared, but every stranger that they might run in to. Fortunately, Matt and Jessica helped her to build up her trust again…but there were some things she just couldn't get over. There had always been a chance that Mike wouldn't show, given his isolation from the rest of the group. Emily had been praying for that to become reality.
"…Rather her than me." Emily muttered, drawing her designer jacket further around herself, nuzzling her head into the fur-lined neck. Matt chuckled at that, letting his baited breath go as they watched the cable car climb further up the mountain. The faster it got there, the faster it got back, and the faster the pair could get up to the lodge. Although, now they knew that Mike was here, he wasn't so sure that this trip would go as well as he'd hoped.
"Come on, we're gonna freeze if we stay here." Matt smiled, gently taking Emily's elbow and leading her over to the door of the cable car station. As Matt reached out for the frosted door handle of the station, his foot was sent flying out from under him on the iced ground, sending him, and Emily, who he was still holding on to, plummeting into the snow.
"MATT!" Emily shrieked, spitting snow out of her mouth, "What the hell did you do?" She didn't give him a chance to reply before she was sitting up and pelting him with roughly-formed handfuls of loose twigs and snow.
"H-Hey! Em!" Matt chortled, forcing himself up on frozen arms and rolling out of her reach. "It's not my fault! The ground is iced!"
"Oh sure, Romeo. I think you were just trying to score with me." Emily teased, throwing Matt a sly look, before throwing a snowball square between his eyes as he tried to stand up again, sending him skidding to the floor again.
"Come on, I'm freezing, Em!" He giggled, finally finding his feet like a new-born deer, and offering a hand to his still-downed friend. With a small smile, she took Matt's hand, hoisting herself up, and for a second, Matt thought they would both fall again.
With both of them finally up without calamity ensuing, Matt forced the door open, letting both of them inside the cable car station and away from the constant cold of the mountain. Once inside, they both settled down on the small seats that were stored inside, huddling close together to warm up again after their frozen misfortune.
Matt found himself smiling; a small, genuine smile, a rare occurrence in his life these days. He and Emily had broken up a while ago, it was true, but their friendship had blossomed again quickly, stronger than their relationship had ever been. They were better like this. Happier. He had expected Emily to be angry with him when he and Jessica had started dating, but much to both his and Jessica's surprise, Emily only had support to show. After the way she had used to treat him, she was just happy that he had found someone to make him happy.
"It's…weird being back again, isn't it?" Emily murmured, leaning against Matt's shoulder, still huddled in her jacket. "So much happened last year, I can't believe we're actually back again."
Matt hummed an agreement, "It'll be different this year, though. No problems, just a good view and some peace." He stared wistfully out of the window, looking out at the towering pine trees, and remembering what had once lurked deep in the shadows. All he wanted from this trip was to see the others again, and to watch Emily and Jessica become stronger because of it. He wondered if anyone here had any concern for the trio, or if they all were just looking out solely for themselves.
"It…it was…" Emily's quiet murmur came from his shoulder, causing him to glance down with a concerned gaze. "It was our fault, wasn't it?" Matt breathed in deeply; Emily had struggled a lot with the guilt of her actions from two years ago, even after all of this time. "Josh would still be here if it weren't for that stupid prank we pulled." There was a lot of merit in her argument, and over time, Matt had learned that telling someone 'of course not' or 'it wasn't your fault' soon became ineffective.
"Yeah, it was our fault." Matt conceded, gently rubbing Emily's shoulder in a comforting manner, "But we didn't know what would happen. All I know is that we all got our comeuppance." He couldn't believe what a fool he had been two years ago. Such an asshole. Following the mannerisms of the stereotypical jock to be as obnoxious and arrogant as possible. He'd learnt since then, oh how much he had learnt. He wished he could entirely forget what had happened on the mountain last year, and have a chance to repeat it.
Well…this was his chance. A chance to finally forget, to have a good time, to get closure, to end the guilt that had all been breaking their backs for years.
A sharp beep followed by a large clang made Matt's head shoot up like a bullet, looking round for the source of the commotion.
"Hey genius, the car is here." Emily laughed at his startled nature, pushing herself up from her sitting position and stretching her arms high above her head. "How long were we waiting? Seems like only a few minutes."
"Yeah, totally." Matt had been completely lost in his thoughts, his back popping as he stood up, suggesting that he'd been sat in the same place for a while.
With a smile, he followed Emily out of the other side of the station and up to the docked cable car, waiting for her to get the door open so that they could set off.
The pair sat down opposite each other, although both seemed more content with staring off into the evening's horizon than finding something to talk about as the cable car set off.
They were about half way up the ascent when Emily broke the silence, although her continued gaze out of the window suggested that she wasn't even talking to Matt in the first place. "I can't believe that the Washington's even rebuilt the lodge I mean, why would they?"
He grunted in agreement, "Of all the things they could spend their money on, they decided to rebuild a lodge on top of a mountain where their kids all vanished." His voice was lined with scepticism, as well as an edge of bitterness. "They should've left it. It'd be more respectful like that. With this, I'd recon they're just trying to get some publicity."
Of course, the remaining Washington's had been devastated, as any parents would be. But within months of the tragedy, after the police searches and failed rescue missions, the journalists had swarmed like vultures over a rotting carcass. No respect for the dead siblings was shown, only the hunger for the story was shown. Matt had half hoped for one of the wendigoes to have lived so it could tear the smirks off of the reporters' faces – quite literally.
The cable car jerked to a halt suddenly, and Matt glanced up to discover that they had docked at the upper station. Once again, time had flown by. The butterflies that he had been suppressing seemed to flap about in his stomach again, threatening to fly up into his throat.
A half-hearted smile crept onto Emily's face, her eyes quickly becoming full of grief as she surveyed their destination.
"Let's get this over with."