Chapter three ~ Mike, Ashley, Josh

MIKE

Mike quietly hummed a tune from some old Disney movie as he drove the car. Jess was sitting beside him in the passenger seat. She was looking out the window at the beautiful sunset outside.

They were on their way home from Jess's monthly visit to the doctor. It was because of her legs as they needed extra care to be sure that they healed properly.

It was a warm nice evening. Jessica was smiling to herself. The doctor had told them that this was one of the last visits they needed to make. Apparently she made a full recovery.

Suddenly she giggled. He reached over and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey are you okay?". She turned around to face him "Yeah. I'm just... I don't know I just really feel giddy all of a sudden." She laughed again.

He smiled too. It was good to see her happy again. After the night on mount Washington she was for a long time really depressed and unhappy. After learning about the wendigos and that Hannah was one of them she started blaming herself.

The prank was her idea after all. But they went through their nightmares together and now Jess was starting to act more like that girl she was before this all happened.

Soon their small one story house came into view and Mike pulled over. Jess exited first and waited for him at the door. "So what are we going to do tonight?".

Mike smiled "Well i was thinking maybe movie night? We could play some cheesy movie on Netflix."

"Well I was hoping we could play a game together. You know cause I will beat you every time." He smirked "Oh you just wait. Tonight I will be the one to kick your ass!"

He then fished out the keys from his pocket and threw them to her. Jess opened the door and flicked on the lights.

"Uh it's good to be inside finally." She plopped down on the couch and stretched her arms over her head.

Mike chuckled and sat down next to her. He grabbed the two controllers and threw one over to her. She squirmed as it hit her stomach. He stood from the couch and walked over to the TV urning their PS4 on.

"So what are we going to play? I mean not like it matters anyway." Mike sat back down "Oh and why is that? Think you can beat Michael the video game king?" Jess giggled "Oh don't worry I can do that just fine."

The next hour and half was spent playing video games. Mike constantly loosing to Jess and then complaining like a baby. After yet another embarrassing defeat for Mike Jessica checked her phone and suddenly jumped up from the couch.

"Fuck!" She cursed and started looking around the room. "What is it babe?" She dashed to their room. He could hear her opening drawers. "I totally forgot today I was supposed to go running" Jess shouted from the other room.

"Well can't you just skip that for today? It's not like it matters that much if you skip it once" complained Mike. "Nope I won't skip it. Health comes first after all."

Mike groaned and stood up from the couch. Jess exited their bedroom already with her workout clothes on. "Well you could always go running with me" she offered him.

"Nope. I was at the gym already two times this week." Jess shrugged reaching for her keys and sports jacket. "Well anyway see you in an hour." Mike was left standing in the hall and watched as the door shut after her.

He wandered back to the couch and turned all the devices off again. After a few minutes of nothing he decided to get something to eat and went to open the fridge. However he quickly found out that that's unlikely to happen. He closed the empty fridge again and headed for the door.

"Well shopping it is then" he thought as he grabbed his keys and wallet. He closed the front door and headed out to the dark streets.

ASHLEY

Ashley thoughtlessly flipped through the channels. Some boring cooking show and a advertisement for cat food. The kitties were cute but otherwise nothing interesting was on tonight.

She looked over at the clock on the library shelf and saw that it was 7:30 pm. She had gotten home about an hour and a half and was tired as well as bored. And with a friendly reminder of a growl from her stomach hungry too. But as expected when she checked the fridge there was no food left thanks to Chris. He was working all day on his computer and apparently that meant he had to eat all the time. She threw a look over her shoulder at him. He was so concentrated on his work that he didn't even hear her as she walked right behind him.

"Chris?" He jumped from his seat and almost knocked his glasses off. She giggled and helped him get up. "We have no food left so I'm going to the store. I don't have much money left though so I was wondering if you could lend me some?" He rubbed his eyes and yawned "Yeah sure. My wallet is on the dining table" She smiled at him and went to grab the money.

"The nearest store is already closed though so you will probably have to take the bus to the supermarket." She closed her own wallet after stuffing the money in and walked over to the door "It's fine the bus comes every five minutes anyway. Is there anything special that you want or?"

"Buy us some popcorn please?" She giggled "Sure. Butter?" He smirked at her "You know me Ash." She nodded "OK I'll be back in a bit" Ashley sighed and left the apartment. The chilly air greeted her as soon as she opened the door to the apartment building. She saw the bus station dimly lighted by the lamp next to it.

She sat down on the bench and pulled out her phone. She now mostly used it for work stuff. No more texting with friends. Could she even call them friends anymore? They have all been apart for such a long time. She probably still had their numbers saved somewhere in her phone.

The bus stopping in front of her broke her train of thoughts. Only one old lady got off and everyone else stayed squashed together inside. "Great" she thought "now I'm gonna be stuck in a bus full of old smelly people for the next 15 minutes." Ashley slowly pushed through the crowd until she found a place to hold the pole. It was close to the window so at least she could look out of it to pass the time.

She mindlessly watched the world zoom past her. Or rather she was zooming past the world. Whatever. She noticed a girl about her age in a light green jacket jogging, her blonde ponytail swishing from side to side. There was something familiar about her but Ashley couldn't quite place her finger on it.

She didn't have much time to think about it however as the bus came to an abrupt halt. She lost her grip and smashed right into a guy that looked like he just got out of the gym. Needless to say she didn't exactly enjoy having her head right next to his armpit.

Finally the next stop was where she was getting off. A lot of people left too to do some late shopping. Once she was out on the fresh air (if you could call the air in the city fresh) she stretched her arms over her head and went to the supermarket. She grabbed the nearest trolley and went inside the giant maze of products.

The shopping was easy as she only needed to buy the basic things. Milk, eggs, some white bread, vegetables and some fruit too. Then she went over to the more unhealthy section and picked the butter popcorn along with some milk chocolate for herself.

She exited the aisle and saw that the line wasn't that long. She quickened her pace to get a good spot but that was right when a man came around the corner and crashed his cart right into hers. Ashley lost her grip on the handle and fell backwards right onto her butt. "Shit!" She cursed as she slowly started picking herself off the ground. "Oh no" she heard the man say "I'm so sorry. I should have looked where I was going." "Yeah you should have" thought Ashley angrily but kept her mouth shut.

"Here" she saw a hand being offered to her. She took it and was lifted off the ground. "No it's okay. It was probably my fault" started Ashley as she looked at the stranger only to stop in her tracks. "Mike?" she whispered not believing that it was really him. "Holy shit Ash!"" He replied with the same bewildered expression.

After almost a full minute of just staring at each other Ashley's only good question that came up in her mind was "So how have you been?" He stared at her for a few seconds before realising she was talking to him. "Oh you know. Getting by. Me and Jess have a house now together." Ashley smiled at him " You guys are still together? That is so sweet!"

Mike chuckled "Yeah. And what about you and Chris. Are you two together?" "Well yeah. We have an apartment not very far from here" Ashley explained. Mike raised his eyebrows "Well I'm surprised that we haven't bumped into each other sooner. Our house is just a few blocks from here."

"Really. We should meet up then sometimes then. The four of us" replied Ashley as they slowly made their way to the line to pay. "Yeah that would be perfect. I know a great cafe. I will ask Jess for a date when we are both free and I will text you. Do you have my number? Because I still have your old one."

She nodded "I still have the same number. And I have yours too." He flashed her a smile "Great then." He then walked with her to the bus station. They said their goodbyes as Mike went the other way to walk home.

The ride back home was uneventful. There weren't many people on the bus at this hour. She found a free seat and looked out the window. Ashley was honestly happy that she met Mike. She thought that she would probably never see anyone from their group again but she was proved wrong.

She got home and entered her apartment. Chris was still working on his computer. Ashley explained to him about how she met Mike in the supermarket and how she offered that they could all meet up.

After listening to her talk Chris smiled at her "Yeah that's a great idea. We are both free on weekends so you can text him that." Just as he said it her phone dinged. "Well speak of the devil" Ashley said as she looked at the screen.

Mike 9:10 ~ Jess said we are free on weekends and on Thursday

Ashley grinned as she started to type a response.

JOSH

An intense pain in his head woke him up. He slowly started to open his eyes but he soon realised that that task was extremely difficult. After a lot of struggling his eyelids slowly started to rise. He was soon met with a blinding light that caused him to close his eyes again.

He waited a few seconds before opening them again. Everything was so blurry and muted. Where was he? What happened? The last thing he can remember is being somewhere extremely cold and hearing someone screaming.

He saw shapes moving to his side but he couldn't get out any words. Just gasps that didn't make any sense. He registered that he was lying in a bed. He closed and opened his eyes again a few times and slowly started recognizing shapes as furniture.

A female voice was speaking to him. He only caught something about awake, get and doctor. The lady soon left him alone with only a beeping sound from the machine next to him keeping him company.

He must have been there for a good few minutes because he started to hear almost completely normal. The door to the room opened again and this time a man dressed in a white suit walked in.

He smiled at him warmly. "Hello" he greeted him slowly and carefully as to not startle him. "My name is doctor Davis. Can you tell me your name?"

"Joshu..." he wheezed "Joshua... Washington." The man smiled again. "Very good. And can you remember anything clearly before you woke up here?" Josh shook his head slowly. "Well that was expected. Don't worry Joshua we have already called your parent's and they will be here soon. Now you should rest."

He stood up from the chair and went to exit the room as two nurses started walked in probably to help him. "Wait" he called weakly. Doctor Davis turned around to look at him. "Why am I here?"he asked.

Doctor Davis looked unsure before he answered slowly "Well Joshua you have been... you have been in a coma. For three years."

Phew. Here is chapter three. I'm really sorry for such a late update but I was really busy with school. There will probably be a lot of typos in this chapter so I will try to fix them as soon as I can. And for this last hospital scene I really have no idea what happens when you wake up from a coma so if this is totally wrong then I'm genuinely sorry. Well anyway thanks if you take your time to read this!