"Now we all know how this will end
A minute late got you coming back again
There's secrets in these halls
And mysteries that can't be solved
Final bow or final stand?
Another encore is always in demand
This never ending game
You took the bait now you got played"
Count the teeth, NateWantsToBattle
This one is a bit on the implausible side but I wanted something Lighter and funnier after my previous heavy TT.
And Mike is fairly sure it's his last breath when he flicks the lighter and the house goes up in a blaze of gas and glory.
But he keeps breathing and it doesn't even hurt. He opens his eyes to Emily, face free of fear, and looking at him softly.
She doesn't do soft. Last time he talked to her, she was mad at him for almost shooting her. Last time he saw her, she was afraid and frozen in fear. And here she is.
Dying dream of happier hours or not, he doesn't want to do this. He's hurt her enough.
He hugs her instead.
"Maybe we should not. Maybe we've broken ourselves against each other long enough."
"Are you Really backing out!"
"I guess I am"
"It's a good thing we broke up or I would dump you for this."
Emily complains about how unreliable he is as they walk their way up to the lodge. Mike follows along almost fond. She's pissed at him, and it's for normal reasons, and not that he almost shot her.
He interrupts. "Maybe you should race Sam for the bath, and bring your boy-toy in with you."
"Matt's my boyfriend."
"Sure he is, Em. Sure he is."
Emily leaves, and Mike has a moment to breathe. It feels too real. He has his finger again, his arms and body are not in pain.
He wiggles his finger. It feels real. He takes off his glove, and just looks at it. It feels real.
Maybe it's a dying dream, or maybe this fucked up mountain is giving him a second chance. It doesn't matter. He's going to take it.
And if it's real, that means stopping the prank somehow.
The monster problem is mostly his fault. The Wolfman had things fairly well in hand before he had blown up the Sanitarium, and multiplied the problem. And possibly it's Chris's fault for getting him killed, Because he was worried about Josh.
So something needs to be done about Josh. Mike doesn't know the fine details of what he did, but his pranks need to be avoided. For everyone's sanity.
Mike is still in thought as he throws a snowball at Jessica. It means he's not as on the ball as he normally is, but he manages to keep a decent banter up. Though this time, she becomes the snowball queen, and he gets kissed instead of snowballed.
It's a quiet moment but a nice one. Unfortunately it's broken and Mike heads to the lodge still without a plan.
And weirdly when he gets in the door, Matt is ignoring him. Why is Matt ignoring him, last time he had been spoiling for a fight.
It's weird, and Mike doesn't like it. So he starts a fight. He calls Matt a dick, and Matt calls him a hypocrite, and pretty soon they are both calling each other names, and it feels good after all the stress of the night that hasn't happened, and then Josh is running into the room to break it up.
"What the hell is wrong with you two? We didn't come back here just to tear each other's heads off. I mean, we came back here to have a good time, right? Hey, Mike, why don't you and Jess go check out the guest cabin I told you about."
Nonono, Mike is not going to let Josh shoo him out of the lodge that fast. Not before he thinks of a plan.
But he does apologize to Matt. Matt accepts it with bafflement. It remains to be seen if that will be a good tactic for staying with Emily.
"Is the Boiler and Electricity running?"
"What?"
"It's dark out. If we're going to be sexiled, I want the way lit, and the water warm for when I get there."
Josh looks at him weirdly, and Sam looks at him weirder when he insists on going down.
Apparently his big job is holding the flashlight, then he gets pranked by Chris, with Sam laughing in the background.
After the night he (didn't) have, Chris was lucky to live.
Emily and Matt are gone, when they get back upstairs, and Sam is looking very annoyed.
Jess notices his look, and takes him out the door.
"Stop looking so down, you're getting lucky tonight."
Last time he got pranked, scared, a conversation about her feelings of inadequacy, and no sex actually. He lost his dignity, his finger, and his life. Still, none of that is on Jess.
"If I play my cards right."
"Hey Porn stars! Need these?" Josh dangles the keys.
"Porn stars?" Jess asks
"I'd pay to see it."
"Um, gross"
"Sorry to exile you like that, but I'm sure you will find ways to entertain yourself."
"Have fun with the peanut gallery"
Josh pretends to shoot himself, then walks away and Mike is quietly screaming. How can he change this?
"I think Josh was flirting with me."
"You want to invite him?" He asks, jokingly, but Jess looks a little interested.
And hey, that is a way to keep him from pranking the people in the cabin.
"He did say we are here to party like porn stars… and that he would pay to watch."
He smiles at Jess, feeling a lot more like the Mike of two days ago.
"Want to see if we can beat him at his game, by flipping the table on him?"
Jessica was best friends with Emily for years, and cut her teeth on dares like these.
"We are going to flirt with him?"
"We are going to bring him to the cabin."
"Are we ready for a three-way?"
"It's only a three-way if he plays his cards very well. Otherwise, he did say he would pay to watch. And we do want to cheer him up after last year, don't we?"
It's a dare, and a challenge all wrapped in one, and Jess hates to back down from a challenge.
She runs after him. "Hey Josh, wait!"
Jess gets him to come with them to the cabin. They spend the entire time teaming up to prank him, and he almost forgets how badly this ended last time.
It scares him, and brings back unfun memories, but…It's better than them actually being dead, he reminds himself. Even if he screams a lot.
He tries to spend the time outdoing Jessica in flirting. It's hard in winter clothing. Mike takes to holding his hand when Jess jumpscares them, and brushing snow off his clothes as Jess keeps up a conversation that is part flirting, part joking, and sometimes Josh plays along and flirts back, and sometimes he looks at them confused.
Jess plays with her braid, and pokes her tongue out to catch a snowflake. Mike escalates by tucking one of Josh's stray hairs back under his hat.
When they do run to the cabin and away from the monster, Mike has one of Josh's hands and Jess his other.
They collapse into a pile on the floor.
"Well I don't think any of us want to go outside back with whatever that was." Mike announces. "I'll get a fire and some nice lights set up, and you guys get comfortable."
When Mike is finished setting up, he finds Jess has gotten Josh out of his shirt, and is making a show out of taking hers off.
Mike is behind and overdressed.
He takes his own shirt off, and tugs down Josh's zipper and begins pulling down his pants.
"You did say you would pay to watch" he whispers slowly (and hopefully sultry) into Josh's ear. Josh shivers. And then Josh's hands are on his hips, and he's leaning into Mike's space.
"I don't like to be fucked with." Josh Growls.
And then Jess is behind him, body pressed to his back, and her hands are on Josh's, using them to pull down Mike's pants. "How about being fucked, then? Do you like that?"
Mike swallows, he's far more into this then he thought he would be. And from the look of it, so is Josh. Jessica smiles from behind Josh, and blows a bit on his neck.
Mike kisses her, and then she kisses Josh, who looks confused but very into it. Mike also kisses Josh, and Josh gets with the program and kisses him back.
Jessica's smile indicates he's going to make it up to her.
It's going to be a fun night.
I'm going to end it there, as I don't actually want to write sex. I'll just tell you what everyone got up to.
Mike and Jess seduced Josh in the cabin. Later they had a long talk in the cabin and apologies were made
What remained of Hannah was very distracted and upset that Mike was apparently much more into her brother then her. It made an easier capture for Jack Fiddler. That and the fact that there are no goddamn teenagers running around cursed mountain belothed.
Emily took Mike up on the suggestion he made about Bathtub Sex with Matt, partly out of spite.
Sam was very upset about losing out on the bath, and to Matt and Emily whose use of it would make it hard to take a bath in with any peace of mind. Additionally she was spending time with Chris and Ashley who are still frustratingly in the URT Zone. Going upstairs would mean a risk of overhearing Matt and Emily, so Sam attempted matchmaking.
Beth was actually haunting the place and did try to talk through the Ouija board in an attempt to wingman.
Press F in the chat for Sam.