Mike had never been more miserable.

Day after day more stories would come in about his love life, more girls would step forward for a sum of cash while describing to reporters everything they wanted to hear.

If the news' narrative wasn't clear enough already, he'd come out of this as the worst offender. It should have been the media who had traumatized Jess further and were made out to be the villains. But they were smart... the second they got whiff of Mike's wrongdoing's, it was him who was to blame. Poor Jessica Riley had a scumbag boyfriend all along, who cheated, lied and slept with other girls and was also a pivotal part in the prank itself, he tried to seduce Hannah and was happy to go along with it if she did make her clothes off... every sordid detail was coming to light.

and it was making Mike more and more depressed.

His mother had managed to bring over some more clothes during a quieter day, but during the past week he hadn't changed much, he hadn't washed much either, or shaven. He was starting to stink and he spent most days lounging on the bed next to Jess, blindly going through his phone. Her parents' frosty silence was growing by the day, how much longer they wanted to put up with him was anyone's guess. But Mike knew he was treading on very thin ice.

They had resorted to give him the silent treatment as more allegations surfaced about him. Jess' mother hadn't even looked in his direction and never addressed him. Whereas her father... he would look at Mike when he thought his daughter's boyfriend wasn't looking, there was a ferocity in his eyes and a strange twitching to his movements, he had managed to hold his tongue and hadn't said as much as a word to Mike since the incident on the night he arrived.

But he was waiting for the moment to strike.

and Mike knew he was going to enjoy the moment everything collapsed.

As for his girlfriend herself... Mike had to accept the sad truth.

At this point, he was staying with her out of obligation.

The happy go lucky, flirty and funny Jess of old was gone completely,every day she was becoming more distant. No matter how hard Mike tried to make her laugh, or remind her of old times, the incident with the press breaking in, the nightmares she would endure because of the Wendigo's... she wasn't functioning anymore. Mike had to care for her, stuck inside all day while he'd feed, water and bathe her, neglecting his own needs, it was as if he was looking after an old age pensioner.

Like her parents Jess didn't say much anymore, sometimes she'd recognise him and squeal in delight, but those moments were sparse and growing rarer, most days she'd lie in bed or lounge around the house. Staring at nothing and mumbling under her breath, she'd mumble things Mike couldn't decipher and his attempts to reignite the passion between them were lost completely as Jess would mistake him for a Wendigo trying to grab her and that's when she'd scream... after this occurred three times (with Mike just about managing to calm her down, before her parents could investigate) he decided it was a lost cause.

He felt depressed, the press grew more intense outside (or so it seemed) he was ignoring his friends (he heard a voicemail by Sam, but had no motivation to answer to her) he was ashamed of himself and in a way he felt like this is what he deserved for his cruel actions.

"I can be a better person, I'll prove her dad wrong!" he told himself repeatedly, if that meant he had to constantly care for Jess, neglect his own needs, stay stuck inside with two parents who hated his guts and go without a sex life, he vowed he'd do it, if that made him a better person, he'd be willing to accept his punishment.

But there was one obstacle he had yet to overcome.

Because of her state, Jess didn't know about Mike's unfaithfulness yet. But Mike knew he couldn't delay the moment forever, she was already out of it, what damage could telling her such a minor thing like that do?

"You're the last person she has, the last person to get through to her!" he snarled to himself "You can't tell her, it will destroy her for good and then she'll need therapy for sure and if not therapy then... then something even worse..."

Mike didn't want to think about it, the once beautiful Jess, wide eyed and locked in a padded cell, his former girlfriend reduced to...that, all because of him.

Maybe the press were right, it was him who had destroyed her and not them.

"But you can't hide this forever" he snapped to himself "What if she finds out first, or her parents tell her!? You can't delay this moment, it has to be today and if she leaves your lousy ass then you deserve it, remember that and accept it".

"I'm a coward" he had wept to himself one night while Jess was asleep next to him, he could face down Wendigo's and be the hero on Blackwood estate, but down here... he was nothing and nobody. He was pathetic and for as long as he lived, he'd be reminded of his failures...

Eventually the day came, where everything did indeed collapse for him.

He was on the sofa, Jess' parents had gone out for shopping and his girlfriend had fallen asleep on his legs.

"When she wakes up, I'll tell her" Mike vowed to himself, as he stroked her hairs "Whatever happens Mike... just be ready for it..."

He was flicking through the channels on the TV, he had been trying to avoid the news for as long as he had been here, however he caught a sight of Emily's face on one channel. Startled he scrolled back to it, to check that he wasn't seeing things.

No, he really wasn't, his ex was ready for an interview on the main news channel in five minutes.

Mike was glued to the screen, he gulped openly to himself.

This wasn't going to be good.

"Emily Davis joining us now, a college student and one of the 7 survivors of the Blackwood mountain tragedy, Emily it's a pleasure to have you here in the studio..."

"I'm sure it is" Emily replied coldly, the icy bite in her voice was more than enough to make the newswoman shut her mouth and smile awkwardly at her, from where she was watching on the sofa, Sam couldn't help but laugh at this. Despite everything, Emily was still being Emily and as annoying as that could beforehand, now it was a welcome relief.

"So, I'm sure it must be hard for you after..." the newswoman began again.

"Let's cut to the chase" Emily replied cutting through her (Sam was laughing openly now and her mother joined her) "It is hard for me, but I want this to be the interview that ends all interviews, I'll tell you everything you need to know. Everything that happened on the mountain that night and if when I do, I'll put this story too rest and you can stop harassing me and... the others".

"She would have called us our friends, if it wasn't for me..." Ashley moaned to herself, observing the scene.

"So that's what she doing, but why didn't she tell us!?" Chris exclaimed, nearly waking his grandmother who slept on the sofa next to him.

"I see" the newswoman muttered "Firstly, the night of the prank..."

"Yes it was mine and Jess' idea" Emily said "You can say it was cruel and we acted like jerks, and it was. I don't deny that, but we thought it was harmless, we didn't think anything would come out of it. Hannah was crushing on my man Mike at the time and Jess was looking out for me, we thought a nasty shock to Hannah would make her back off..."

"By filming it? After her family invited you to their lodge!?" the newswoman spat out accusingly "Don't you think that could...?"

"No we didn't think it would lead to anything like her own death!" Emily exclaimed "and if you keep up that tone with me, I'll cancel this interview..."

"Always the diva" Mike muttered to a sleeping Jess.

"Okay, okay, okay..." the newswoman exclaimed quickly "So the prank went awry and it lead to Hannah and Beth's demises, how were those first few days after their disappearance?"

"Well, we all felt awful" Emily said "As you can imagine, I mean... what the chances of our simple prank leading to their disappearance and death of Beth and Hannah!? We apologised to Josh and... he said he forgave us, their parents forgave us. We didn't mean for it too happen and they all knew it, it was as you described it... a tragedy".

"So moving onto this year..."

"Yes, we all returned to the lodge, we owed it too Josh, we had no idea or no indicator of what he was planning for us" Emily explained "But during that time my lousy ex dumped me and went after Jess herself. I mean, makes the whole concept behind the prank that lead to Hannah and Beth's deaths even worse when you think about it..."

"But was it true you slept with Mike, when you were with your new boyfriend Matt? So how can you say that?"

Mike held his breath as Emily went silent, this newswoman was young and seemed completely out of her depth, to ask a question like that on national TV... Mike could see his ex turning the colour of ripe tomato and wouldn't be surprised if she got up and walked out, right there and then. In fact, Mike wanted her too, to stop her from saying it, from admitting it all on live TV, in front of the nation...

"So that makes me a poor girlfriend, what of it!?" Emily finally answered, it seemed to be taking all her restraint to stay planted to the chair and keep her voice in control "I treated Matt... terribly. I realise that and how dare you ask such a question, you know, Matt's parents could be watching this..."

"and they have a right too..." the newswoman said, but once again she was cut off.

"We all did... crappy things" Emily said (clearly this station prevented swearing live on air) "But turning this into a sleazy story isn't what I'm here for, I'm here too give you the facts, something your station seems to be struggling with as of late".

Sam couldn't suppress her grin, the subject matter was serious. But seeing Emily get the upper hand on this arrogant newswoman was satisfying in it's own right and if she answered all these questions honestly then maybe (just maybe) it would put all the wild rumours to rest and the media hysteria plaughing them all would die down at last.

"Very well, please tell us what did happen that night" the newswoman (her face as crimson as Emily's was earlier) said stiffly.

"We got to the lodge, as planned me and Jess had an argument as we couldn't stand the sight of each other" Emily informed her "After that, I realised I'd forgotten one of my bags, looking back it's pretty obvious Josh planted it back there to draw me and Matt away, he sent Mike and Jess away to a cabin as well. Which left Sam, Ashley and Chris with him..."

"But why those three!?"

"I don't know myself, we all know at this point Josh performed that prank as revenge for his sister's deaths and then planned to use the footage for his youtube channel, he thought it would go viral, but Sam told us correctly he was delusional and had gone off his meds".

"What sorts of pranks did he actually commit?"

"I'm sure you've heard the rumours, but this the truth of it" Emily said "From what the others told me, he filled the lodge with traps to spook Chris, Ashley and Sam. While Sam took a bath, he put on his weird suit and began stalking them. Eventually he took Ashley and tied her up to a machine and then used a fake body and propped his head above this fake body of his, to make it seem like he was tied up as well... it's complicated to explain".

"I see" the newswoman said "and are the rumours true that he made Chris chose between them?"

"I can confirm that, Chris knows more than I do, you'll have to ask him but he'll probably just confirm it and leave it at that" Emily muttered "The machine had to have been rigged to kill Josh regardless of the choice Chris made, as he set up another prank for them later. Regardless he told me he picked to save Ashley anyway, so he and Ashley left that building, believing he killed his friend and that's when they found us..."

She sighed there.

"...they were covered in blood. Babbling about a madman who'd just murdered Josh, I had to keep calm in that scenario. I told them to go back to the lodge and sit tight, while me and Matt went to the radio tower to go and get help".

"So you went to the tower?"

"Obviously" Emily replied "We climbed up and I'd just finished getting through to a park ranger to send help, when something tried to get in, we thought it was the murderer, but then they cut down the tower itself and me and Matt..." she seemed to be growing emotional there, and the other 4 watching. Mike, Chris, Ashley and Sam all knew why, these were the last moments she'd seen her boyfriend alive and been with him before the Wendigo had dragged him off and stuffed him on a hook.

"It can't have been Josh that cut down the tower, because he was at the lodge with his second prank at the ready" Emily eventually said "If you want to know what that was, he knocked out Chris and Ashley again and tied them to chairs and placed two rotating saw blades above them and lowered them and told Chris to either kill himself with a gun in front of him or use it too kill Ashley. Only one of them could be saved and Chris chose to save Ashley once again".

"I see" the newswoman said, nodding at these facts.

"Sam had escaped from Josh earlier, after he'd chased her around and tried to catch her as well, while showing her footage of his own death" Emily muttered "Mike had also returned to the lodge after Jess was dragged to the mines and they were separated, he thought they were dead. Sam and Mike got to Ashley and Chris just after the prank had been filmed, it was then Josh revealed himself and yeah... it was a shitstorm from there on out".

"But what about you and Matt!?" the newswoman inquired "I think what we all want to know is what attacked Jess? What cut down the radio tower? What killed Matt? What did you see down in the mines?"

Emily looked apprehensive and through the tv screens her four friends watched her closely, Mike hoped she'd think like Sam and tell everyone that she simply didn't know what the hell she had seen that night. Sam was thinking similarly to Mike himself, by saying they didn't know what the hell it was that had tried to kill them, it killed two birds with one stone. They wouldn't be seen as crazy and it would keep people away from the mountain itself.

Ashley was torn herself, admitting Wendigo's were the real deal on national TV would be a game changing event and no one could be more assertive than Emily. However she doubted the media frenzy would stop if one of their group admitted Wendigo were real, but Jess already had and it was the right thing to do, to tell the truth, but it could lead to so many problems... whereas her boyfriend was muttering under his breath "Come on Em, you know what we saw, you know what you have to say... do it for your boyfriend, for Beth, Hannah and Jack..."

As Emily hesitated and the seconds grew longer and longer, Mike couldn't hold back his voice any longer.

"Come on Em, just say it never happened, there weren't Wendigo's!"

"Like you and Emily never happened?"

Mike felt his heart freeze in his chest.

Jess had spoken, her eyes were wide open, Mike had no idea when she had woken up, but she had done and heard of his infiedities through his ex girlfriend, on national television of all places.

She didn't even sound angry, merely distant and upset.

Mike looked down at her and felt all the air leave his lungs at the tears that began to pour from her eyes.

"I really am a shitty person" he thought to himself.