Until Dawn: A New Path

Chapter 17 of my Until Dawn story, enjoy.

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Boris Yeltsin: Yeah, sadly so :(
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Now onto the story.

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

Chapter 17

Chris sighed as he walked along with Matt. They were escorting a bound Josh to the shed. It had taken them quite a while to secure him and then find their way back out of the underground hotel to reach the main lodge. Sam and Ashley remained in the main room of the lodge, Sam doing her best to comfort Ashley, who was still recovering from her and Chris's near death experience, even if it hadn't been designed to kill. Josh had woken up midway through their attempt to leave the hotel and just made things harder.

"Guys!" he yelled as Matt shoved himself forwards. "Guys, come on... Seriously, this is crazy, you know?"

"Shut up." Matt replied, clearly fed up.

Chris glowered, however. His mind was flashing back to seeing Ashley's face in that room and the horrible bruising around her left eye. The Psycho had done it, and now he knew that the Psycho was Josh. That was what infuriated him the most. Josh, his best friend, had hit Ashley, the girl he loved.

"Why did ya hit her, man?!" he burst out, unable to contain his rage anymore. "Why'd you have to fucking hit her?!"

With that, he lost it and slugged Josh straight in the face. Josh crumpled to the ground and for once, Matt had to hold Chris back from inflicting further violence.

"What are you talking about?" Josh groaned as he managed to get into a sitting position, despite his bound hands.

Chris snarled. "You punched Ashley, you piece of shit!"

Josh looked down at his shoulder, where Ashley had stabbed him with the scissors. "She stabbed me! I got so mad..."

"You don't hit a girl! You just...don't." Chris snapped.

Josh looked up at him, clearly shocked by Chris' rage. He shook his head. "Dude...dude, Chris, bro...I-"

Chris cut him off sharply as Matt stepped forwards. "I'm not your bro!"

Matt forced Josh to his feet and forced him along the path again.

"Where are we going? Where are you guys taking me?" Josh demanded, still startled.

Matt glared at him and spoke darkly. "Locking you up, bro."

"What?!"

"So you can't say or do anything stupid before we call the police in the morning." Matt explained.

"Come ON!" Josh complained bitterly. "I didn't DO ANYTHING."

Chris shook his head; seriously getting tired of this. "Are you serious, bro?"

Matt didn't want to hear it, either. "You're a goddamned murderer, is what you are."

"I didn't do it!" Josh snapped, before pleading, "Matt, please just listen to me, man! I did not hurt Emily-"

Chris rolled his eyes. "Are you insane? Like, really? Do you not understand what you've done?"

"I'm a healer, man. I bring people together. Not like you assholes." Josh growled in response.

Rolling his eyes, Matt forced Josh onwards. "That's enough."

They began to approach the shed, the same shed where Josh had set up his first saw trap. Josh continued to struggle and yell at them, while also protesting.

"You only see what you wanna see!" he burst out suddenly. "You're blind!"

"Stop talking." Matt replied blandly, getting seriously tired.

"You are- Argh!" Josh's words were cut short by Matt forcing him to the ground, hurting his injured shoulder.

Chris stopped, a little startled by Matt's sudden action.

"It's not my fault you suckers can't take a joke!" Josh exclaimed.

Matt glared at him. "Oh! Oh wait, did I hurt you? Did you just feel a little...a little bit of pain? Right now I am so...SO...SORRY."

As he raised his voice, he put more pressure on Josh's shoulder, making him scream.

"Jesus, dude." Chris gasped.

He had punched Josh, but he never intended to go this far.

"Stop... Matt, I'm sorry, man... I can't tell you how sorry I am that something happened to Emily!" Josh yelled through the pain. "But I swear, I swear to you that I have no idea what happened to her."

Chris noted that Josh seemed to be relapsing between his usual self and a crazed version of himself, which was the result of not taking his meds. However, his anger overrode his pity.

"Josh, be honest with me. Do you really expect us to trust you for a single goddamned second, after all the shit you put us through?"

There was a pause, while Josh grimaced as Matt forced him back to his feet.

Josh grinned, slipping into crazy mode again. "Can't we all just get along?" he joked, before Matt shoved him hard. "OW! DAMMIT!"

Matt made him walk, holding him at gunpoint. "We're not dicking around." With that, he forced Josh into the shed. All the while, he was ranting.

"It's not right... Nope... This is not how it's supposed to go down... You're just a bunch of bullies... You can't hang a guy out just to dry like this, guys. Not like...not like you got the guts to really do anything about it, anyways!"

"You really, really, really need to shut up, man." Chris shot back.

He was still startled by Josh's behavior. He had seen some of Josh's mental breaks at times, but never anything this bad. How long had it been since Josh stopped taking his medication?

Josh glared as Matt forced him deeper into the shed. "Oh...that's...that's... I mean, I don't even know what you mean because I don't have anything to regret."

Chris rolled his eyes while Matt forced Josh onto a stool near a pole and they began trying to untie his hands then retie them to the pole.

"Okay, tying me up now. Okay." Josh remarked sarcastically.

"Stay still, man." Matt growled.

"Right, right, right, right. Still..." Josh replied, before slipping into a mocking tone while wriggling. "Can't tie 'em up if they just wiggle around."

Chris let out an exasperated sigh. "Josh, dude-"

"Leave me a little wiggle room, huh?"

Matt glowered and pulled hard on the ties. As he did so, he snarled directly in Josh's face, "What does it take to shut you up?"

"Ow!" Josh glared at him as they both stood and stepped back. "Not so tight, okay? I can't wiggle around. Plastic ties. That's where it's at. Yeah."

"What in God's name is he talking about?" Matt wondered aloud.

It became clear that Josh had slipped even further and was now talking to himself.

"Plastic ties, plastic ties. Way more effective for hostage-type scenarios."

"This is hard to watch..." Chris admitted.

Matt nodded. "He ever say this kind of shit before?"

Josh, meanwhile, was still rambling. "Guaranteed for at least three hostages, or your money back!"

Chris sighed and again, admitted the truth. "No, I've never seen him like this..."

"Everybody is stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid..." Josh mumbled, before becoming coherent again and grinning wickedly. "Chris and Ash, Chris is an ass, Ashley's a dumb dumb..."

Hearing that, Chris rounded on him. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Josh giggled and replied, "I said you're a dummy, dummy."

Exasperated again, Chris shook his head. "What's wrong with you?"

Josh then began mocking Chris. "Oh, Ashley...I never imagined in my wildest dreams that you'd like me…!"

Chris shook his head, he wasn't about to let Josh play this game. "Stop..."

"You know what that sound is?" Josh asked in a high pitched tone, before becoming aggressive, "It's the sound of never kissing Ashley, you pussy!"

"Stop!" Chris demanded. This was going too far.

But Josh simply kept on pushing buttons, his thoughts obvious as he spoke.

"Yeah, you know? You might as well let Ashley sleep with Mike, wherever he's gone right now. I mean, at least he's got some notches on his belt, you know?" He emphasized the next four words with vulgar pelvic thrusts. "He'll! Treat! Her! Right! YOU'RE FUCKING PATHETIC, CHRISTOPHER!"

That was the breaking point for Chris. He grabbed a nearby wooden board, raising it. "I'm gonna beat his head off!" he growled.

Matt held him back, however. "Don't listen to him. Not worth it."

It was then that Josh decided that it would be a good idea to antagonize Matt instead.

"Hey, Matt?" He began sniggering as he repeated Matt's name several times.

"What?" Matt replied at last, clearly angry.

Josh looked somewhere between crazed and serious. "What happened with Emily, Matt?"

Matt narrowed his eyes at that. "You know what happened."

No... No...I don't... I got a problem, Matt..." Josh replied. "I don't remember killing Emily..."

Matt rolled his eyes, muttering as he turned away.

"I mean, like, I feel like I would remember killing her, you know?" he explained before leering again and adopting a suggestive tone. "She's so soft...and she's probably got, like, a really tight bod…"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" Matt snapped, aiming at Josh with the gun.

Chris was startled, but didn't do anything. He trusted Matt. Matt wouldn't shoot Josh. He was proven right when Matt did not actually fire.

"Ugh..." Josh groaned, before yelling, "You guys are the worst!"

"What?"

He shook his head. "Oh, come ON! You expect me to believe you're gonna shoot me? Just little old me? Just little old me tied up here and helpless?"

Matt sighed and shook his head, turning back to Chris. "Why don't you go back to the lodge and make sure everyone's alright? I'll stay here with this lunatic until morning."

Josh grinned and replied jokingly again, sounding childish, "Oooh! Sleepover! C-can we order pizza?"

"You sure you're okay?" Chris asked.

Matt nodded. "Yeah, just... They'll want to everything's fine back there."

"You're right." Chris replied. "See you in the morning."

With that, Matt made himself comfortable, sitting down nearby. Chris dropped the wooden board and left, heading back to the lodge to tell Ashley and Sam that Josh was now secured. He just hoped that this was the end of it. It had been a hell of a night and he just wanted them all to be safe now. When morning came, it would all be over.

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