Something's Not Right

The bus drops Sam off at some lonely station at the base of the mountain, she'd have to walk the rest of the way to the cable cars. She feels so strange, coming back here after all this time. So much has happened, and even when Beth turned up alive, it was weeks before she said anything to any of them. After all that misery, Sam had never wanted to see this place again, yet here she was. The party's in honor of Hannah, she couldn't say no to that, what kind of friend would she be?

As she's walking she swears she hears another pair of footsteps behind her, but turns to see nothing. She stands there staring for a moment.

"Hello? Is someone there?" she calls out. No answer. "I swear to God if this is some stupid prank. . ." she warns, backing up.

Still no response. Sam turns to start walking forward again, hoping none of her friends will try to scare her, but given her friends' past pranks, she doesn't rate her chances particularly high. Maybe it's just a wild animal, but as she thinks about it, she realizes a bear or wolf is much more troubling than her friends playing a stupid joke on her. She decides to speed up, not wanting to stay and find out which one it is. An old gate comes into her view now, rusted and worn. Coming up to it, she finds a note attached to the bars.

Gate's broken, climb over.

"Are you freakin' kidding me?" she sighs, looking at how high it is. She grabs onto the stone wall, making her way over. "I can't believe I have to climb over a fucking wall. Doesn't anyone look after this place?" She mumbles to herself, irritated. She jumps down from the top, planting her feet firmly in the snow as she lands on the other side. Then she hears rustling again. She rises up, looking all around her. Still nothing. This is starting to make her nervous, but luckily the cable car station isn't far ahead. Hopefully someone else would be there so she could talk to someone besides herself and the trees. She comes over the hill, laying eyes upon the even lonelier looking cable car station. There's no one in sight.

"Great. . ."

She can see the mountain in its entirety now. She looks up at the snowy white top, so high it towers above the circling clouds. A fog surrounds the mountain, rising up to shroud the view in a thick, concealing gray. Somewhere up on this massive mountaintop, in some godforsaken cave or at the bottom of a creek, or maybe just lost in the endless woods, is Hannah. It would be beautiful if it wasn't so creepy.

"Why the hell did we come back here?" Something feels wrong, in fact, everything feels wrong. She wants to just turn around and walk away, get on that bus and never look back, but she knew she couldn't do that. She notices a backpack lying on the bench inside the station. Maybe someone is here. That's not all she notices. She passes a sign, it's been vandalized, written over.

"Wow, graffiti all the way up here?" she reads the message that had been left for her, painted in red, all capital letters.

THE PAST IS BEYOND OUR CONTROL

"Yeah that's. . . weird," she admits, more nervous than before. "Just some dick trying to creep people out after Hannah disappeared. Still, it's weird."

She turns away, heading towards the backpack. She really hopes someone's there, she doesn't want to be alone in this haunted place anymore. She didn't recognize the backpack, but no one else is up here. It has to belong to one of her friends. She spots a cellphone leaning out.

"What do we have here?" she takes the phone. "Shouldn't leave these things lying around," she chuckles, turning it on. There's one new message, from Josh. That at least proves the bag belongs to one of them, but she still doesn't know who. Then she feels a hand touch her shoulder. She whips around, startled, to see the smiling face of Beth.

"Hey nosey," she looks pleased with herself.

"Beth!" she smiles, relieved. "You shouldn't scare people like that."

"And you shouldn't be snooping through people's stuff."

"I was just uh, wondering whose bag this was," Sam starts, trying to explain herself. "And I saw your phone and I thought, maybe I could figure it out."

"Interesting. Can I have my phone back now?"

Sam makes a face. "When'd you get so sarcastic?" she asks, letting Beth take the phone.

"The doctor said I needed a sense of humor," she grins. She walks over to her bag, putting her phone back in its place.

"It's good to see you Beth, really," Sam says honestly. As much as she hates getting scared, it's nice to see Beth joking around.

"You too Sam, I'm glad you could make it."

"Yeah, well I gotta say, it's kinda weird being back here," Sam admits.

"Yeah, I know. It's weird for me too."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to remind you," Sam apologizes, wishing she hadn't said anything.

"It's okay, I get it. It's hard not to think about." Beth sits down on the bench. "I know you were her best friend, and I really wish I could tell you what happened to her."

"We don't have to talk about this." Bringing this up was a bad move.

"It's all just a blank," Beth goes on. "Everything until almost getting hit by that ranger jeep, and then waking up at the hospital with Josh."

"He was really messed up until you showed up, you helped him a lot. You probably saved his life," Sam comforts her, sitting down next to Beth.

"I didn't do anything, except run out into a snowstorm like a moron, disappear for a month, and put my family through Hell."

"Beth, you can't do this to yourself. Hannah's gone, and there's nothing we can do about that. We don't know what happened to her, but I know she wouldn't want to see you like this. You didn't go through a year of Hell to sit on a bench and feel sorry for yourself!" Sam gets up, holding out her hand. "We came up here to get on with our lives, so that's what we're gonna do, not cry and. . . and wish things could've been different!" Now Sam's gotten herself motivated, she didn't even want to do this a minute ago.

Beth looks up to Sam, managing a smile. "You didn't have to say all that. . . but thanks. Really."

"Just take my hand, I'm starting to feel really stupid here."

Beth chuckles, taking Sam's hand, rising from the bench. They stand there in silence for a moment. Sam really didn't have anything to follow up on that speech. That was pretty much all she had. Luckily, the silence doesn't last, and the cable car comes into view.

Sam breathes in, relieved. "Looks like our ride's here."

"Yeah, let's get going," Beth grabs her bag and they head towards the arriving cable car. "Uh, Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm, uh, . . .I'm really glad you're my friend."

"Let's just try to have some fun," Sam smiles back.

They get on the cable car, and soon they're on their way up to the lodge.

"Hey, by the way, was that you following me earlier?" Sam asks as they sit down.

"What? No, I've been here," Beth replies, making a confused face.

"Huh, I guess I'm just being paranoid," Sam laughs it off. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

As they ascend, their eyes are ahead on the mountaintop before them, not on the figure that steps out from behind the cable car station, watching them the whole way.