Until Dawn: Seeking Hope
Chapter 20 of my Until Dawn story, enjoy.
Reviews
Marina Ka-Fai: Thanks.
Boris Yeltsin: Thanks
Wolfgirl2013: Thanks :)
TheSparklyKitten: Yeah, indeed, well, this is where things take another...turn.
thedarkpokemaster: Yeah, she has, and too true.
A13x: True.
Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn or its characters.
Chapter 20
Sheer terror pumping adrenaline through her veins, Emily ran through the snow in a blind panic, heading for the lodge, which she could see getting closer with every step. She was sure that monster was still right behind her. She screamed louder than she'd ever screamed in her life.
Seated in the shed, watching over Josh, Mike heard the scream and leapt to his feet. "Oh crap, what now…?" he muttered.
He immediately hurried out of the shed, running towards the lodge, too. Emily, meanwhile, having reached the front door, began frantically knocking and screaming.
"Let me in! Let me IN!"
From inside, Chris, Ashley, and Hannah all leapt to their feet, hearing the noise.
"Is that-" Ashley began.
Hannah immediately cried out, "It's Em!"
Chris nodded. "Let her in, quick!"
They rushed to the front door and opened it. Emily practically fell inside, still screaming.
"Shut the door! Oh my God, shut the door!"
Ashley and Hannah dragged her further inside, while helping her to her feet. Meanwhile, Chris closed the door.
The four made their way back to the main room, guiding Emily to the sofa so that she could sit down.
"Em, are you alright?" Chris asked worriedly.
Emily fought desperately for breath. "I didn't think I'd make it..."
Chris shook his head. "You were screaming bloody murder."
"Yeah..." Hannah replied. "Are you okay?"
"You look totally wiped..." Ashley noticed.
Emily just groaned at Ashley's comment and tried to speak. Now that she was no longer running, the pain in her leg and from her other injuries were all catching up with her.
"There was something..."
But Ashley cut her off, asking, "Where's Matt?"
"Come, sit down, sit down." Hannah said softly, helping her sit.
Emily nodded, finally able to relax, now that she was seated and amongst familiar faces.
"Something's out there." she said at last.
Ashley was still on her question about Matt, however. "Did you guys split up?"
"A monster..." Emily blurted. "It's a monster!"
"Wait..."
With that single word, Chris managed to stop everyone from talking over each other. He now felt that they had a better chance of getting answers. Concern for Emily's well-being was his first priority, though.
"Are you okay?" he asked, gesturing to her injuries.
"I'm fine, I don't feel anything. I just need to calm down." She paused for a moment before whispering, "It was moving so damn fast..."
"What?"
"I just had to get away." she added.
"Away from what?" Hannah asked, perplexed.
Emily shuddered and tried to explain. "Th-there was this thing, whatever it was..."
Misinterpreting her fears, Hannah tried to reassure her. "Em, Em, you can relax. Josh was messing with us, but we-"
She shook her head vehemently. "You're not listening to me!"
Chris bit his lip and then remembered what Ashley had been saying. It was true, Emily was alone.
"Wait, Em..." he burst out. "Where's Matt? Is he okay?"
"Matt? Oh God..." Emily cried out. "We couldn't use the cable car, so we climbed the tower and then it fell and we were down in the mine, like, way down. Down in this terrifying freaking mine shaft..."
"Hold on, hold on-"
Emily continued, however. "And then it was Matt and me down there and... Oh God, I think Matt might be dead."
"Wait, what?" Chris burst out as the others all gasped.
Hannah choked out a single word. "How?"
Emily suddenly remembered, with revulsion, something important. Instead of answering Hannah, she brought it up.
"I…I was walking down there in the mines and it was dark and I found this pile and there was Sam's head!"
They all gasped in horror and she repeated the fact that she had found it, more firmly seeing the disbelief on their faces.
"Oh my God..." Ashley choked out, shock and dismay overcoming her.
Chris shook his head. "What the fuck?"
"Are you serious?" Hannah asked in dismay.
"YES, I'm serious!" Emily snapped before calming down. "I think that she and Beth fell down there. But the worst part is, I don't think that Beth died, like, from the fall. Not right away…"
"What do you mean?" Ashley burst out in horror.
Emily swallowed nervously before replying, "I don't know... I feel like she was down there...like, starving to death...for weeks...while we were all up here looking for her... We had no idea!"
Chris shook his head. "Jesus, that's horrible..."
They felt into silence for a moment before Emily remembered, "Listen, in the tower, there was a radio and I...I got through to someone, but that was right when the tower collapsed!"
She trailed off. She was trying to tell them that help was coming, but even she wasn't sure if it was.
It was then that Mike burst into the room, his eyes widening when he saw Emily.
"Em, you made it!" he cried out.
She stood up and they hugged, both relieved. "Oh God, Mike..."
Chris sighed. "Yeah, yeah, barely!"
Mike looked around, worried again. "What about Matt?"
"We're trying to figure that out." Ashley explained.
"And there was this 'monster' that was chasing her..." Chris began.
Mike smiled softly, noting Emily's condition. "She's all messed up, guys. Emily? Hey, Em?"
Before she could respond, to insist on what she saw, a loud bang was heard, the sound of someone knocking on the door.
"Whoa?"
"Who the fuck can that be?" Mike muttered.
"Josh?" Ashley suggested.
Chris looked over at Mike uneasily. "Jess?"
He shook his head. "It's not Jess."
"Sorry, man..." Chris replied, but then queried, "But who is it?"
"I don't know... We should check it out." Mike answered.
So with Chris agreeing, the duo made their way to the door and Mike pointed his gun at the door, cautious.
Chris took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm gonna open the door. You ready?"
Mike rolled his eyes. "Uh huh, just do it already. Whoever it is has probably gone by now."
Chris still stalled. "Unless you want me to take the gun?"
"No, no, no. I think that's less good. You do the door, I got the gun." Mike replied.
Chris nodded and approached the door. He had barely turned the handle when it was suddenly kicked open. Chris and Mike both cried out and tried to urge the sudden visitor to stop. It was an elderly man, grizzled with many scars, gray eyes and hair, and carrying a flamethrower.
"Freeze... Ah!" Mike cried out as the stranger effortlessly disarmed him. "What the? Alright. Alright, just take it easy, grandpa..."
"Okay," the stranger spat in a thick accent. "Everybody just calm down. Now just move over there. Go on, move! Let me say what I came to say."
By this point, the boys had backed up and now they were all back in the main room, with the girls all staring in shock at the sudden new arrival, especially Emily. She recognized him as the man that she had met down the mines.
Glaring at all of them, the man shook his head. "I'm here to tell you what you're up against being back on this mountain. You should never have returned." he told them darkly, dropping his bag near the fireplace. "I don't know why you did, after what happened last year."
They all shared a look and Ashley nervously asked, "You mean Sam and Beth?"
"Yeah, how could you know that without being involved?" Chris queried.
Hannah, however, jumped in, glaring. "Or responsible?!"
"You hold on to your horses." the stranger spat. "I don't take kindly to you kids coming up here to my mountain."
Mike scoffed at that. "Your mountain? I'm sure the Washingtons would be very surprised to hear that."
The stranger laughed at Mike's comment. "Well, this mountain don't belong to me, it's true." he admitted, but then added in a growl, "But it don't belong to the Washingtons. This mountain...belongs to the Wendigo."
There was a stunned silence after that. They all shared a look, all voicing their confusion, pretty much asking what a Wendigo was. In the end, they had no choice, so they decided to hear the old man out.
The stranger glared at them all, giving them enough time to notice that the flamethrower wasn't his only weapon. He was carrying a machete and a shotgun, too.
"Now, I'm only going to tell you this once. It doesn't matter to me if you believe it or not. I got reasons why I want to...get it off my chest..."
Mike jumped on that, however. "See? I told you! He's guilty as shit! Guilty of something!"
Hannah quickly cut in. "Shh. Shut up, Mike!"
The stranger had a faraway look in his eye as he began to tell his story.
"There is a curse...that dwells in these mountains. Should any man or woman resort to cannibalism in these woods, the spirit of the Wendigo shall be unleashed."
There was a moment of horrible clarity for Mike as he realized now, at last, that Josh was telling the truth. The strength of what had dragged Jess off, what he had seen, it was a Wendigo all along.
Emily was now sure that was exactly what chased her in the mines, too.
Looking at them all, the stranger warned them, "You're going to need to find somewhere safe."
"The basement might be okay." Hannah suggested.
The stranger instructed them to go down and wait there. Emily reasoned that they would have to wait until dawn. That was when rescue was hopefully coming, after all.
It was while they were discussing this that Mike realized to his horror what he had just done.
"Guys..." he gasped, "I ran off and left Josh when I heard screaming."
The stranger turned to him at once. "Where did you leave him?"
Mike shuffled his feet and admitted, "In the shed."
The stranger gave a short snort. "Then your friend will already be dead."
"No, no, he can't be." Chris burst out. "We were just with him!"
"A lot can happen quickly on this mountain."
Chris wouldn't accept that, however. "No, I'm gonna go get him."
The others protested, Ashley most vehemently.
"I'm supposed to be his best friend and I let him down." Chris replied.
Ashley shook her head. "No, he let YOU down, Chris. He let all of us down."
Chris didn't care, however. He still intended to go and, despite his initial unwillingness, he agreed to accompany the stranger with everybody else being sent to the basement. They began to make their way to the back door while everybody else heading down to the basement...except Ashley, who followed them.
After giving Chris his shotgun and a few warnings, the stranger stepped out into the snow. Chris was about to follow when he heard Ashley's voice.
"Hey... Come back safely." she said softly.
With that, she suddenly kissed him and, before he could say anything, she nodded and he followed the stranger while Ashley closed the door and watched them go.
On the walk to the shed, the stranger, at Chris' insistence, began to fill him in on Wendigos and their weaknesses. He was shocked to realize that the shotgun wouldn't kill them, only slow them down. Apparently, fire was their only weakness. They also had some patterns that they adhered to, like only hunting at night. Much of what Chris heard made him even more uneasy and not too happy about his chances.
"Any, uh, pro Wendigo tips?" he asked. "Like, if I rub garlic all over me, they won't be able to smell me or something?"
"No, they'll still smell you." the stranger replied disdainfully.
"Anything like that?"
The stranger grunted, but conceded that apparently their vision was based on movement and, although he didn't recommend testing it out, standing perfectly still might make a person invisible to them.
It was then that they arrived at the shed, only to find the stool that Josh had been tied to, empty and broken. Chris rushed to it and realized that they were too late. Chris was desperate to find Josh but the stranger insisted that they leave, revealing to Chris that the Wendigo was fond of rendering its victim immobile and then stripping the skin from the body piece by piece and keeping them alive and aware while it feasted on their organs. Chris was freaked out enough to finally agree to give up and they began to leave.
They had barely gone ten paces from the shed when the stranger hissed, "Wait, don't move."
Chris froze a second too late as his foot came down on a twig that snapped.
The stranger reacted at once. "RUN! GO NOW! NOW!"
Chris darted forwards, just as a monstrous creature leapt in front of him.
He leapt back in shock, crying out, "HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK?!"
The stranger blasted the Wendigo with his flamethrower, yelling out, "BACK! BACK!"
After warning Chris to get out of there, get back to the lodge, the stranger stepped back, raising his flamethrower again, when suddenly, he let out a choked gurgle. Chris watched in horror as his body hit the ground, his head hitting it separately a second or so later.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Chris gasped, shock almost setting in.
It was then, however, that he was forced to act, for the Wendigo then turned and lunged right at him.
He did the only thing that he could. He raised the shotgun and fired point-blank right in its deformed face. It fell back with a shriek and Chris immediately took off running, desperate to reach the lodge before it was too late.
He hadn't gone far when the Wendigo returned, or maybe it was another one. He wasn't sure, but it leapt out in front of him. He fired and hit it. As it fell back, he ran until he reached a ledge and leapt off. He landed and cried out as pain flared up in his ankle. Looking up, he saw the Wendigo coming back for more. He shot again and ran as fast as he could, limping on his injured leg.
'Sprained ankle. It's gotta be a sprained ankle.' his thoughts raced, but then he saw what was ahead. 'Oh shit!'
The Wendigo was back for more. But before he could react, the beast was on him. He cried out, but was cut short as it lashed out with its claws, decapitating the poor young man as easy as tearing paper. Throwing his head towards the lodge, it landed on the front porch.
"CHRIS!" Ashley screamed in horror and dismay. "No... NO, CHRIS…!"
She dropped to her knees, breaking down completely at the sight of Chris' head, his eyes were lifeless.
"Ashley, what…?" Mike began as he approached, then saw the carnage. "Oh my god, Chris... Shit! Oh..."
Despite his own horror and revulsion, Mike fought to keep it together. He knew that they weren't safe, that thing was still coming for them.
"Ash, c'mon." he said, trying to get her to stand up. "We have to go, c'mon."
Ashley continued to sob, unable to move, and had to be guided away by Mike, down the stairs into the basement, leaving the horrible scene behind them, but the memory still seared into their minds.
Meanwhile, out in the forest, a Wendigo made its way through the snow, dragging the unconscious body of Josh Washington behind it.
End of chapter, things have, as I said, taken a considerable turn, read and review please.