Until Dawn: Seeking Hope

Chapter 25 of my Until Dawn story, enjoy.

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Now onto the story.

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

Chapter 25

Lost in the dark of the mines, having been dragged there by something, Josh cringed as he cowered on the floor. His mind felt like it was breaking. Josh struggled desperately, trying to rise from the ground. His mind kept tormenting him. He was all alone and deeply afraid. He could hear the skittering and strange screeching that echoed nearby, then he heard something else, also echoing.

It was Sam's voice, singing, "Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques. Dormez vous?"

He whimpered. His girlfriend was haunting him again. "No, no, no, no..."

Then Beth's voice joined Sam's, starting the song as Sam continued. "Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques. Dormez vous?"

"Dormez vous? Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines! Ding dang dong."

"No, no, no... Not again!" he moaned.

"Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines! Ding dang dong." Beth's singing continued as Sam finished.

"Ding dang dong."

Josh was on his feet by now, gripping his skull, which felt like it was about to burst. He staggered back and forth, pleading.

"Not again! Get away, get away!" he cried in desperation and terror. "Get away from me!"

Finally, Beth finished. "Ding dang dong."

His sister's voice then dissolved into laughter as he covered his ears, tears streaming down his face.

Trying hard to compose himself, he cried out desperately. "No, you're dead!"

He soon became overwhelmed, hearing more voices.

"Sorry." Dr. Hill's tone was almost disparaging.

"You're dead!" Josh screamed in fear at his sister still haunting him.

Dr. Hill's voice continued, "You can't change what happened last year."

"Josh." Sam called out.

"Shut up!"

"We miss you, Josh." Sam's voice continued, undeterred.

Josh shook his head vehemently. "No! You're dead!"

Sam's voice suddenly became menacing. "Come with us."

Josh shuddered and tried to get a sense of his surroundings, to find a way out of this nightmare.

Suddenly, Mike's voice echoed in his head too, followed by his own, and then Chris'.

"A goddamn murderer is what you are!"

"...It's not ready..."

"You manipulated us!"

He shook his head in denial. "No, they're gonna love it..."

"You're a coward!" Chris' voice snapped. "Are you insane?!"

He heard his own voice again. "I just want us to have a good time. They're gonna love it when it's ready."

But it hadn't turned out that way. They had overreacted and now he was stuck in this living nightmare.

He heard Ashley's voice screaming in his head, her cry of terror, then suddenly, his own voice, distorted as the Psycho.

"Hello there!"

Josh shuddered and hissed, "I don't take orders from you... You can't tell me what to do..."

He heard Ashley again, from the time that they had done the seance. "Josh! I don't know what's going on!"

Josh grit his teeth, hearing the Psycho again. "How does it make you feel?"

"You can't tell me what to do anymore..."

The Psycho just laughed. "Time has run out for Josh."

But soon, the voices began to fade and he felt something else. This new feeling, whatever it was, felt as it if was guiding him.

Even as Sam's voice once again echoed, "Come with us."

"I trust you." he said at last.

Composing himself, he soon found himself standing, ready to try and find his way out of this nightmare. He stumbled along a nearby path towards the edge of the cavern, seeking a way out. Suddenly, Beth appeared, blocking the path. Her skin was heavily decayed, as expected of a corpse.

"Josh!"

He stumbled back, panicking again. "No!, No, no, no! You're not real!"

Beth spoke again, her voice hoarse and impossible. "We were all alone down there..."

"No, no... No, no, not again."

He stumbled away, attempting to head the other way. Unfortunately, this time, when Beth appeared, an equally decayed Sam appeared alongside her.

"All alone." Sam exclaimed. "But you're with us now."

"No!" he cried out. "Get away!"

"Family."

He tried to run away, down another path. "Get away from me! Get away!"

"Why didn't you save us, Josh?" Beth demanded in an accusatory tone. "Why did you want us to die?"

Josh shook his head desperately. "I didn't...I didn't want you to die, I swear!"

He stumbled away, trying to drown out the sounds of his sister's voice. But when he stopped and opened his eyes again, he saw that the wall in front of him had taken on the appearance of pig skin and a knife cut through it and the head of a squealing pig emerged.

Josh screamed and cried before lashing out, punching the thing in the face. As it hit the ground, he let out a sound of disgust before panicking again as it began to writhe and turn into a gigantic pile of pig entrails, which suddenly morphed into Sam and Beth again, now bloodstained and towering over him.

"Josh!"

"No, no, n-n-n-no... I don't... I don't take orders from you! No..." he pleaded.

Sam suddenly reached up and ripped at her face, revealing her skull. "Is this what you wanted?"

"NO, NO!" he screamed. "Why are you doing this?! Leave me alone! Why are you doing this?!"

Sam suddenly began accusing him again. "Why didn't you save us, Josh? Why did you want us to die?"

"You're dead!" he screamed. "You're dead!"

Suddenly, he heard an unearthly screech and from within the walls, another face appeared, gaunt and stark white. Sightless eyes glared at him as its razor sharp teeth parted. Josh started at it in utter panic and disbelief.

Hannah shook her head as she walked alongside Mike, searching for Josh. She did her best to ignore the sticky feeling against her shins, how her yoga pants now stuck to her shins. She had reopened or gained fresh wounds to her legs, as well as scratches on her right collarbone and up her neck a little. She also now felt the two large scrapes on her right cheekbone and above her left eyebrow. Mike now sported a black eye, several scratches and scrapes, and was covered in grime.

Neither of them said much at first, they were both still reeling from their close encounter with the Wendigo.

"I was not prepared for how ugly that thing would be up close." she said at last.

"Yeah." Mike replied, hesitating briefly before continuing. "So, I noticed something kind of weird about it..."

Hannah turned her head towards him, biting her lip, worried. "Uh...what?"

"The Wendigo. It had a scar."

"So?" she queried.

Mike sighed. "I've seen it before."

Hannah stopped. "What are you talking about?"

"I saw these old pictures of some guy with that same scar, and he was transforming into a Wendigo." Mike explained.

Hannah gasped. "You're kidding."

Mike nodded. "It was one of those miners who'd been trapped back in the fifties in the cave-in. Which means that thing is eighty years old, at least."

Hannah shook her head and resumed walking. "Spunky for an old timer."

She just prayed that they'd find Josh soon. This was starting to fray even her nerves.

She swore to herself. This was all crazy. It had been the scariest and most nerve-jarring night of her life. The things she'd seen, the things she'd felt and endured, the feelings of violation that she had felt were still lingering. She was certain that the others felt the same. She couldn't help but worry for Matt and Jess, however.

'Despite what Mike and Emily said...I still kinda wanna believe that they're still alive.' she thought. 'Ugh, but after all this, if I get outta here alive, I just wanna crawl into a bed and not move for a week.'

She was drained, physically and mentally, but until she was able to help the others and get everybody out, she couldn't afford to rest. She relied on her adrenaline to keep her going, at least for now.

"They cleaned the place out..." Mike said at last, continuing their earlier conversation "Killed a lot of people."

"They?" she asked, suddenly realizing just what he had said. "You mean there are more of them?"

"Oh yeah."

"How many?" she asked worriedly.

Mike's answer didn't help, either. "Too many."

Suppressing a shudder, Hannah thought for a moment. "I think we're close to the lair."

"How can you tell?" he asked, incredulous.

"I don't know, I just..." she replied hesitantly, "Feel really terrible all of a sudden."

Mike sighed and replied honestly. "Ditto."

She shuddered and tried to focus on moving forwards.

Their path continued onwards until they found themselves at the edge of an underground lake, which was certainly going to be frigid cold.

"I really don't want to go in there." Hannah muttered.

Mike shrugged. "There's no other way through."

Hannah, however, wasn't convinced. She decided to see if the path to the right could get them around. As they walked, however, her hopes soon died, but then she saw something else.

"Mike, is that what I think it is?" she asked warily.

"Shit..." he muttered. "Looks like a grave."

Getting closer, they saw that it was indeed a grave, a grave that had been dug up. Something glinted in the center of it. Hannah carefully stepped in and picked it up. Stepping back out of the grave, she and Mike examined the object. It was a bracelet, a very familiar bracelet.

Hannah gasped, recognizing it. "Oh God... Mike, this is Sam's! This is her bracelet!"

"What? Let me see..." he replied, shocked.

Hannah then noticed and pointed out, "Look, there was a cross here."

"So this is where she was buried."

Hannah looked at the desecrated grave. "But...who dug her up?"

Mike shuddered, disturbed. "Let's keep moving."

Hannah quietly agreed and they returned to the ledge that they had approached earlier, by the waterside. Hannah cringed as she looked over the murky water before sitting down, Mike sitting next to her.

"Fine...I'm going in." she said at last.

But she hesitated. Mike just shook his head and slid into the water. He waded forwards a few steps.

"Come on, it's okay." he told her as reassuringly as he could.

Hannah shook her head. "You sure?"

"I'm not dead yet."

"Famous last words." she replied casually.

Still, she slid into the water and gasped audibly.

"It's freezing! I can't feel my fingers." she exclaimed.

Mike just nodded and they continued to wade through the water. Suddenly, Hannah felt herself panic as the floor sloped down sharply, causing the water to get higher. Hannah was soon in water nearly up to her neck.

"Holy shit." Mike muttered. He wasn't quite as submerged.

Looking around worriedly, Hannah spotted a ledge to her left and began making her way towards it in desperation.

"Wait a minute, I thought you'd reached the deepest part."

Mike shook his head, turning to follow her. "I didn't say that. I said it was okay, meaning, like, there weren't any sharks or anything in here."

"Sharks." Hannah groaned. "Great. Thank you!"

Rolling her eyes, she was relieved to find that the path to the ledge was sloping upwards.

Reaching the ledge, she pulled herself out. Mike followed her and they looked around. Sadly, there was no way to go forwards from there. Hannah shuddered and groaned, but then spotted something on the ground. It was a journal. She picked it up and began to read through it.

'This is Beth's handwriting. Huh, what's this?' she thought to herself, before reading the entry aloud.

"I'm sorry, Sam... I have no choice. It's the only way I can survive anymore. If someone finds this, I'm sorry. I had to... I had no choice."

"What does it mean?" Mike whispered.

Flipping through the journal, she reached the last page, which was a mess of scrawls and suddenly, a disturbing thought reached Hannah.

"Oh God... It all makes sense..." She turned to Mike. "I think...Beth dug up Sam. It was Beth!"

Mike froze, catching the double meaning of her words. "No, that's...that's ridiculous."

He was thinking about what had been revealed by Emily, how she had found Sam's head, but nothing else.

"Michael... Michael, it has to be. It's the only thing that makes sense. Sam died in the fall."

"So what, what does that mean?" he demanded.

"So Beth must have buried her." Hannah replied. "Beth was down here...for..."

"I don't believe any of this!"

Hannah shook her head. "She would have been starving, she would have been desperate. My sister is...the Wendigo. We need to find Josh right now!"

Mike sighed, but nodded, both of them now thoroughly freaked by their shared realization. They now knew just what had happened to Beth and Sam on that fateful night a year ago.

They hurried back and slid back into the water, making their way across to the other side. But Mike noticed something that worried him.

"It's getting deeper."

Hannah cringed. "Yeah, um..."

She was now up to her chin, but pushed on. A little further ahead, Mike spoke again, his words a relief to her in the frigid water.

"Okay, okay. Hey, it's sloping up again. We're gonna make it."

Relief flooded her, but she replied in desperation, "Oh my god, don't jinx it!"

However, they made it to the other side and climbed out, much to their relief. Quickly gathering themselves, they approached the metal door at the other end of the ledge. They attempted to open the door when it suddenly burst open.

They reacted in surprise as water gushed from the door. Amongst the water, however, shocking them both and making Hannah scream, was a decomposing head.

"Jesus, she...Jee..." Mike stammered.

They slid through the door, suddenly dreading what they were going to find.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.