-I guess at this point I can have this chapter delivered to you at the very point to be an official Christmas present. If that turns out to be the case: Merry Christmas to everybody!
I had to make rather 'artistic changes' to parts of the story, including found in this chapter. Hopefully it won't detract terribly much from the story that you've all come to be so familiar with. But anyway, enjoy!-
One year.
For some people one year can feel like a long time, an eternity even. For other people it can go by rather quickly. But no matter who feels time does what, it's usually the events of the world itself that influence how it feels for them.
And some people have a lot happen to them, making a whole year feel like forever.
Samantha 'Sam' Giddings, often thought of as a mediator by her friends, felt herself not knowing what to think most days. Ever since that... that terrible accident that happened back in 2014 at the Washington Lodge, it just seemed like everything spiraled out of control. Not surprisingly, the remaining Washington child had practically shut himself up and cut all contact from his friends. Everyone else who had been present at the lodge sort of drifted apart. Or maybe, they had just drifted apart from her? Sam did note how none of them remained in contact with her. It was sad, but understandably sad. Perhaps it had been better if everybody try and move past it. And if that meant everyone got alone time to themselves, well... Sam did tend to know how that was like at least.
Granted she hadn't had that many friends in the past, but it was when she had met Hannah that things started to change. The girl actually listened to her, and she listened to her back. They grew close, eventually meeting and befriending Hannah's other two siblings. After that Sam started to meet new people from those that Josh had befriended, like Chris. For the first time, Sam felt herself lucky to be part of a larger circle of people she could actually call friends.
Then to have it all change so abruptly from one night. Sam would never openly admit to anyone out loud, but the moment she'd heard the worst of news regarding the twins, she cried. She cried her eyes out for nearly three days straight. There was that brave face she put on in front of her friends for a time, but behind closed doors, the tears fell. After all, Hannah was her best friend, as was Beth. To find out suddenly that they were gone, missing, dead, or whatever, it was crushing. It nearly broke her. Not even anything her parents would do could cheer her up. And her parents were experts on making her feel happy!
Eventually, the sorrows began to wear off after a month or two. But by that point, they might as well have returned in force. All her friends had drifted apart, leaving her alone. What's worse, the students at school had caught wind of the tragedy and assumed they had a hand in the girls' fates. This in turn caused most of the other students to avoid her in general. Whether in the hallways, classrooms, lunch room, locker rooms, after-school curricular activities, no one seemed to want to have anything to do with her. She couldn't tell exactly what had been going on with the other seven friends, but she could only imagine it was just as bad for them too. After all, they weren't exactly keeping her up to speed on their social lives. For a long while the most interaction she'd gotten was a passing greeting in the hallway from people like Chris and Ash.
Worst of all was Josh. Oh man, he must have had it worse out of all of them! Hannah and Beth were his sisters after all! Sam was an only child, but she could only imagine what losing a brother or sister could be like. Well, the two girls felt practically as sisters to her, so maybe she did have some idea, more than she'd care to admit. But still, Josh had been just as down-trodden, barely made appearances before most of them anymore, sometimes he hardly showed up to school at all! Sam knew he had plenty of reason to feel this way, but after the fifth or so time this occurred with him, even she started to get a little concerned. She had sent him many calls and texts to inquire about him, but they were all rejected. Many times she wanted to make the time to actually visit him in person at his lodge to see if he was alright, but that ultimately never came to be. To say nothing of the lengthy trip back and forth would be required just to get to the Washington Estate, Sam had real world responsibilities of her own that kept her occupied, both at school and at home. She had her future in college to consider, and her landing her degree in Environmental Lawyering meant she could scarce afford any sort of distractions, no matter how dire.
After six months however, Josh entered the picture again.
The first time was almost completely sudden for Sam, to just see him reappear in school again. He still had that look on his face, along with faint bags under his eyes, like he hadn't been getting enough sleep. On the plus side however, he was actually open to conversing again. She casually attempted to speak with him, and he ended up returning with small talk of his own. It was small sure, but it was something. He had informed her that she was the second he was talking to again, with Chris being the first. Sam felt her heart lift a little, and only then was she actually aware of how heavy it had been weighed down all this time. It gave her a small amount of joy to see that Josh was talking again. However little he was talking, at least he was at all. And he was talking with his friends again, which had to be a good thing as well. Once or twice however the subject of his sisters came up, to which the Washington boy would have that look on his face again. Every time Sam saw it, the more uneasy she grew. Eventually, she learned to let the subject go and just try and focus on rekindling her friendship with Josh.
As the weeks slowly rolled by, Sam learned that Josh had been slowly but surely reaching out to talk to the other members of their once friend circle. He tried reaching out to Ashley, with Chris serving as the facilitator. Surprisingly, Ash wasn't that hard to reconnect with, shy bookworm as she was. Josh, and by extension Sam, had found little difficulty in speaking with her as they once had before. The redhead was even eager to be talking with them again, as shy-induced fear had prevented her before.
The real challenge came however with everyone else. Josh did not immediately seek out the other four to speak with, as he had done so with the three of them so far. There would be a much lengthier time in between that happening for the moment. Sam was initially resistant to that plan, but she eventually relented to his process. Things just hadn't been quite the same as they had been without those other four with them. Now that she had people like Josh, Chris and Ash to speak with again, her self-confidence grew a little that she tried finding new people to interact with. However, the events of last year will still 'relative news', so most people were still hesitant to lend her their ears. The few who she did manage to converse with were too short-spoken, not all that willing to hold a conversation with her. It was like her freshman years all over again...
Finally, after two months past that had gone by, Josh had finally informed her that he had spoken to Mike and Matt again. This news made Sam very happy to hear, as she knew that Emily and Jessica would possibly be following soon after. And for the most part she was right, though not in the way that she'd imagined. Reuniting with Mike essentially told her that he and Emily had apparently broken up in all their time apart. As Josh had described it to her, 'two plus magnets'. She gave up trying to figure the logic behind what that even meant. In the process however, it turns out that Emily had gotten together with Matt of all people. Sam thought that was really nice; Matt was a really sweet guy, and he'd totally be a good fit for her.
With all that happening, nearly everyone was surprised to find that Jessica herself had reached back out to their group again, rather than the other way around. There was a bit of friction between her talking with Emily however. Such a strange thing in Sam's mind, as those two always seemed buddy-buddy with each other before. Now it seemed like all that they do was catfight with each other. Mostly just verbal arguments, nothing terribly major occurred between them yet, but Sam had her eye on them.
For the first time, for a long time actually, things actually seemed to be going back to normal. Well, as normal as things ever could be. Josh of course tended to be more or less soft-spoken at the best of times, though it was always nice when he and Chris cracked jokes with the group, just like old times. But Hannah and Beth were still gone, or 'missing' still as the police had made clear. Without Beth as the resident 'peace-keeper', it sometimes felt like the arguments and disagreements went on for a bit longer than was needed. And without Hannah for 'public relations' as it were, well, the air at least didn't feel so sickeningly sweet with emotions all the time. Refreshing as it was, Sam still missed her friend dearly. They were all one big group of friends; one big family. Without them, they just weren't all that complete anymore.
A few more months had passed. During this time was the school Homecoming and dance. Not surprisingly, Jessica was crowned its Queen. What was surprising however was that Mike was not crowned King. Yes, same Michael Monroe that had managed to land Student Council President had not earned such a prestigious, if vain title in addition. No that honor went to Owen Peterson of the football team. It was nice enough, for the Homecoming photo that is, but little else ever came of that.
No, the real excitement came from what would happen after...
Sam still remembered. A day or two after Homecoming, Josh had actually approached her with something. She almost hadn't had time to regard what he was saying; she was so taken by this sudden, absolutely beaming smile on his face. But what she did manage to hear nearly blew her away as well. Josh was actually proposing that... that they all meet back at the lodge again, like for another hangout! At first Sam was in disbelief over what she was told. Until she realized that what she heard was no joke; the same guy who had lost his sisters at that very same lodge was proposing they all go back there? Conveniently after a whole year had nearly passed since everything had happened? Sam thus made it very clear how she thought that was not a good idea. After all, she had gone this whole time trying to come to terms with losing her own best friends at that place; returning there likely wouldn't bring about any good feelings about it at all.
However, Josh was actually persistent. Almost uncharacteristically so. Sam did have to give him credit when he presented his case to her. He claimed 'it would be good for them', 'it's what his sisters would've wanted' and a whole lot of other lines. Sam had to admit, this whole 'endearing Josh' side to him, it was rather nice to see. And she'd been talking with him more, as well as their other friends a lot more these days...
Eventually, a very reluctant Sam finally relented and agreed to Josh's request. Sam could swear, the way Josh's face lit up in that moment, she distinctly remembered it being completely cloudy and overcast that day. That look on his face could've easily broken through the clouds and brought light back to the world! But ok, that was just being dramatic. Nonetheless, Josh had her blessing for this 'night of fun festivities' planned, and now just had to get everyone else on board. For all her reservations about how uneasy this whole thing would be, Sam had to admit seeing the look of pure joy on Josh's face just about made it all better somehow. Maybe... she wouldn't mind seeing it more often...
A week or two passed and Sam had learned that Josh had reached out to everyone else as well. Just like her, there was some resistance to this plan from them as well. But when all was said and done, everyone had agreed to meet at the lodge again. They had mostly cleared schedules and a quick break in between studying. Even Emily it seems had made time in between her own feverish studying. All in all, everyone ended up being on board for Josh's little planned night of fun back at his lodge.
It would be scheduled for February 2nd of the upcoming year. Exactly one year from the last time they had been there...
One year had passed since that day, and here Sam found herself on a bus, by herself, on that long and winding road back up the mountain. The same mountain where a tragedy that had nearly gripped her for the better part of a year had taken place.
Even through the windows of the bus, gazing out into the white-veiled world of the forests, Sam suddenly felt the bad memories threaten to flood back. A moment even came when she almost felt the urge to call out to the bus driver to turn around. Was it really right to come back up here? Knowing that two people whom she called dear friends would not be there anymore...
Sam shook her head, and swallowed her sorrows again. She made the choice to come back here. For Josh. He had invited her, as he did everyone else. Their reasons for coming likely differed from everyone else's, but they were their own. And they were coming, just as she was coming. Now if only they were arriving all at once rather than getting there at separate times, that would be just super...
Oh well, nothing to do for now except wait on this dreary bus. Well, wait and maybe listen to the radio app on her phone...
"Today is the one year anniversary of the dreadful tragedy that took place on Mount Washington- KKKZZZTTT -Annie Klein, who's in charge of the investigation."
"Thanks for having me, Marty."
Oh great, more constant reminders of what happened, and from the Police Chief that was in charge no less. Sam would never forget the constant volley of inane questions that were leveled at her by this woman a few days after she'd left the lodge back then. The way she always came off as unnecessarily forceful in her questioning, despite Sam making it clear that she had nothing to do with 'anything bad' that happened to them. Well, it got grating to say the least.
She could take comfort in the fact that this static was cutting her voice out from being heard in clarity.
"ZZZZTTT- 's an update on Hannah and Beth Washington, the twins who are still missing?" the interviewer asked.
"One year ago tonight, the Washington girls left the safety of their parents' lodge and headed out into a snowstorm- ZZZZTTTT"
"KKKKZZZTT -foul play?" the interviewer continued.
"Not officially, no," Klein responded, "There is one individual we're considering as a person of interest, but his whereabouts are currently unknown -KKKZZZZTT"
Well, wasn't that just great? Now she was bringing up talks of someone else being on this mountain? Honestly, the lodge itself was already one of the few hospitable places to live on Blackwood Mountain, why and how could anyone else reside on it?
"ZZZTT -He has an interesting history with the Washington family- KKKZZTTT" Klein continued, "ZZZTT -He had warned them against pursuing their construction project- ZZZTT -and claimed the land was sacred to his forefathers."
"You know there is still the old Sanatorium on the mountain, could he be hiding there?"
"My officers did search the grounds, but- ZZZTTTT -the girls themselves couldn't have made it that far."
"Something about that mountain seems to breed tragic events," the interviewer said.
"More than you know, Marty." Klein said as well.
"Well thank you for joining us Ann- ZZZTTT" The man appeared to wrap up. Sam could feel the frustration building up in her head. Not simply from what she was hearing, but from this damn static! "- th all the Washingtons tonight- ZZZT -their son Josh, on this- ZZZTTT -the anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of Hannah and Beth Washington."
Was it finally wrapping up? Good, Sam felt like she was at her wit's end, having to listen to all of that. All other stations had to be down in signal strength too. Now what was she to do? Just stare out and watch snow-covered trees pass her by? No other stations could come through on her phone to listen to music to, and the bus driver was out of the question for conversation...
It was then that she figured it out. Something that could pass the time at the very least. She could watch that vid that Josh had made recently and sent to everyone. His 'greetings' vid for all of them meeting back up at the lodge this very evening. It wasn't much, but it was something at least. A few quick taps of her thumb to the screen, and instantly Josh's face took front and center.
"Well hello, friends and fans- alright no, let's do that again..." he started but stopped. He then took that moment to step forward and closer to the camera that was in front of him. In the process, his face had leaned in closer, letting Sam see him in clearer detail. Those ever-present bags were still there, underneath his eyes, but also his lips were curled into that sly smile. An odd combination to be sure, but Sam was still relieved to see the guy was up and about again, while giving smiles all around as well.
"I sounded like a robot..." the boy could be heard speaking to himself while adjusting the camera a little bit. Finally, he finished and stepped back, his smiling face taking front and center of the screen again, "Ahem, alright... well, hello, friends and fans! It's beyond awesome to have you guys all back this year. Uh- first off, I gotta say I'm SUPER excited to welcome all my pals back to the Annual Blackwood Winter Getaway!" Josh finished off his little introduction with a mock cheer sound from his lips, along with his hands held in the air for flair. That smile, there on his face, even after doing something as silly as that. Sam didn't even try to hold back a smile from creeping up on her own face every time she saw his.
"So um, let me just let you all know- let's take a moment to... address the 'Elephant in the Room', for a second..." And just like that, his smile slowly faded from his face. Sam's smile faded as well along with it. It was unfortunate, but she knew both this issue would be coming up sooner or later. In fact, the first he'd ever brought it up at all since he reconnected himself with their group. A part of Sam thought that he'd be a little angrier, that his voice would be a little more raised at talking about this. She knew she'd be, if something bad had happened to a sibling of her own and she was talking again to the people who might've had something to do with it...
Well thankfully, Josh didn't appear to be angry, like she thought he would. Instead, he just seemed to hold that same, down-trodden look she'd sadly come to expect to see on his face from all this time.
"I know... you're all probably worried about me," Josh said, "and, I know it's gonna be tough on all of us going back, after... what happened last year. But..." He paused for a handful of moments, and his head twitched in place, as if trying to figure out what to say next. All the while, his eyes were kept glued to the camera directly in front of him, and by extension, Sam herself. The girl watched him, or rather, the mere image of him she knew he had recorded well a few days prior to her trip she was making now. All that in mind, Sam couldn't deny the air feeling strangely 'palpable' all around her all of a sudden.
"I just want to let you all know, um, it means..." Josh's head twitched a little more before finally managing the words, "... It means so much to me, that we're doing this. And uh..." He paused yet again, this time actually breaking eye contact to briefly look down before him, almost to compose himself. He finally looked back up again, "I know it would mean... so much to Hannah and Beth that we-we're all still here together. And, thinking of them."
Sam could feel her own heart become a little heavier at those words as well. Hardly a minute of the day seemed to go by without them entering her thoughts. Perhaps it would be nice to give the issue of them some kind of closure. If that meant going back to the lodge however... well she didn't like it, but if it was necessary, she'd do it.
"I really wanna spend some quality time with ea- each and every one of you, and um, just share some moments that... we'll never forget. For... for the sake of my sisters, you know?" And a nice enough sentiment on Josh's part as well. As the guy who likely was also suffering from all this, probably more than her, to hear that he wanted to do something to bring closure to this as well. Perhaps she did owe it to the brother of her two friends to do the right thing. This good thing, to help set her mind at east.
"So... okay, so... Let's party, like we're fucking porn stars! Okay and make this one trip we will never forget, alright?! YES! Heh-heh-" And with that, the video concluded. That last part may not have been needed, but hey it was Josh; if his way of coping included making dumb jokes like that, then he'd be entitled to it.
Sam then removed her earbuds from her ears and put her phone away. That was a well enough distraction from how she'd been feeling a few minutes earlier. It was in essence somewhat the same topic being redone in her head- Hannah and Beth disappearing. Sam supposed that given the choice between who she'd rather hear it be spoken of by: some emotionally detached and slightly sadistic police investigator, or the more sympathetic voice of her troubled friend who was their brother? The choice should be all the more clear.
Speaking of Josh, how long would it take before she'd see him again? How much further did this bus have to drive there?
Not long it would seem; Sam glanced out and forward through the window to see that the bus stop for the old ski lodge was quickly approaching. She had just about arrived. Finally, took long enough to finally get here...
"Last stop, Blackwood Pines..." the bus driver droned out after the bus came to a complete stop. Sam pulled her backpack out and around her as she slid herself across her seat to her feet. As she began to walk to the front, she saw the driver's eyes looking back towards her, "Pretty late to be goin' out the middle 'a nowhere, eh Miss?"
"Ah, thank you for your concern, Mr..." Sam squinted to read the name tag the man held on his shirt, "Rez... nick? But I think I'll be just fine."
"Eh, suit yerself," the man shrugged, "None 'a my business really. Bus comes back 'round 7 and 9 in the morning."
"Right, I'll... keep that in mind, thanks..." Sam said, then proceeded to step her way down and off the bus. She heard the doors close behind her, and with a deep rumble the large transport slowly began to drive onward, leaving her alone before her destination.
A large wooden archway stood before her, with the words 'Blackwood Pines' etched into the very summit in black. On its left side was a small wooden shack with a single glowing light on its outer wall. Quite the dramatic entryway indeed. She made her way across the snow-covered ground towards the small wooden fence beneath the arch and pushed her way through. From here one the path forward appeared much more narrow, with small rises of snow-topped earth that served as natural barriers. Trees also lined these sides and made the whole place seem all the more darker. Combined with this time of night, Sam couldn't deny a different feeling of unease within these woods...
A sound of something snapping drew her attention.
"Hello...?" she called out. Was there someone else here as well? Maybe one of the others that had gotten here already? "Someone there?" Still no response. Whatever had made that sound, maybe it was gone now. The chill in her spine receding for the moment, Sam resumed her walk down the path.
At nine in the evening, the sun had set well past the horizon by now. Only the most bare minimum of light illuminated the sky by this point. As such the surrounding forest appeared all the more darker for Sam. And yet somehow, thanks to the low mist above the ground of snow, light managed to just barely light the way for her to see where to walk. The entire place felt cold and chilly, despite there being no wind, and for once Sam was glad that she decided to wear leggings.
Snow crunch following snow crunch, she made her way along the path the stretched straight in front of her. Before long she quickly approached the secondary gate. Because a place like this wasn't dramatic with its openings at all. A large, massive metal gate, situated between two stone brick walls.
As she drew closer, Sam took notice of something planted upon the gate itself. Coming to a stop directly in front of the gate, Sam reached up and pulled the note closer to her.
"Oh, what...?" she said to herself, "'Gate's busted, climb over, Chris...'" This gate wasn't opening? Was this some kind of joke? Momentarily dropping the note from her fingers, Sam reached up and gripped the gate with both hands. The steel sent sharp coolness through her palms and fingers as she gripped it. A quick tug and push, but the gate did not budge from its current position. It felt like both sides were caught on something, somewhere...
"Oh, Jesus, nevermind..." Sam resigned, letting go of the gates. She then took a step backwards and away. So Chris was here already, and he was telling her to climb over? That had to mean there was a way to do just that. But where exactly?
Sam glanced to her left side, towards the left-most rock wall that supported the gates. It was one of those stone walls with mortar and pastel in between the stones, but it didn't appear to be 'smooth'. She walked over towards it for a better look. Sure enough, the wall held large snow-tipped rocks that actually jutted out. This didn't look to be that hard. Time to put those rock-climbing lessons to good use finally.
She reached up with her right hand to grab one of the rocks, then holding herself in place, lifted both feet one after the other onto respective footholds. Once she was off the ground, she pulled her weight towards the wall for her left hand to reach further up. All of the rocks she held a grip on felt solid, none of them were shifting from their spots in the wall; this was good. The icy snow felt stingy and cold beneath her finger tips, but that was about the worst of it so far.
'Ok Sam, just keep as close to the wall as you can,' she thought to herself, 'You can do this...' As part of her 'streak of adventure', Sam had opted to take rock-climbing lessons back in middle school. She'd already loved to climb trees when she was a kid, and that feeling of excitement never left her, so this was likely the next step up for her. Quite literally in this case!
Her right foot slowly lifted up and onto the next rock above it, her left hand reaching up soon after. For once Sam was actually thankful to be in a really snowy place; any warmer out here and she'd probably have worked up a sweat! Gross...
A few more steps and grabs later, and she had finally reached the very top of the wall. Both of her arms lay out across the top of the wall for better support. Peaking over, she could see the path continuing on towards the cable car station. This was good, now she just needed to get herself over there. Sam pulled her legs up to join her at the top of the wall. Once all appendages were accounted for, she held herself steady and in place. She failed to catch herself from looking down, on both sides. It's not like she was scared of heights, but the accidental shifting of weight to either side scared her. Once she was steady, she brought her feet closer and directly beneath her, allowing for more central gravity of her person.
Wouldn't be any need to climb back down now, not when she could just save time and jump. She situated herself so her rear was on the top of the wall and her feet hanging over the stone wall. She looked straight down, making sure she had a good place to land when she did jump...
Air and the world around her rushed past, finally coming to a stop once she literally hit the ground. Sam grunted from the impact in her feet, but she pulled herself standing straight nonetheless. That was a decent workout if nothing else. She glanced back towards the gate, from the opposite side of it this time. They'd really have to figure out how to get this thing 'unstuck' in the morning, or whenever.
On the path before her, something actually did catch her eye. Two sources of light in the form of lit light posts, standing on both sides of small wooden steps. Perfect, some actual light to brighten things up around here. Walking through a really dark forest wasn't the part that she wanted to spend a lot of time doing.
Before she reached the steps however, movement drew her attention. Her eyes gazed upon the source: a small brown squirrel!
"Aw! Hey there little fella!" Sam said. She glanced down at her feet to find something buried in the snow: small acorns! Slowly but swiftly she brought herself lower to the ground, pulled forth a single one, and held it out in her hand outwards. "Here, you hungry...?" The small creature twitched its tail for a moment before turning its head in her direction. Sam held her stance as still as she could, not wanting to spook the little guy. The brown squirrel ended up slowly inching its way closer and closer to Sam's outstretched hand, leaving a trail of tiny little claw-prints behind it.
Finally, it reached her hand, where Sam made sure to hold extra still. In a swift twitching motion, the cute furry creature reached up and snatched the acorn from her hand, nibbling on it in its claws. The sight alone brought a smile to Sam's face; so adorable!
"Heh, cutie!" she said as the squirrel scampered off into the woods. Sam brought herself standing straight again. That was fun, getting face to face with nature, being its friend and all that good stuff. Heck, maybe this trip in nature's backyard wouldn't be entirely bad, not if there were more cute little critters Sam could find! A rush of positivity ran through her being again, and Sam resumed her walk along the path.
She made her way up two separate sets of wooden steps, before the trail would make a sharp left turn. Directly before it however would be a small sign, which told about Native American tribes and how they seemed to revere butterflies. Were there even Native Americans up here on this mountain? If there were, seemed like a strange thing to post, relations to butterflies since the latter don't really like cold, snowy places.
The path came to an end with Sam finally reaching her destination. A wide open circular expanse of snow-covered land, with a metallic building on the right side. The cable car station must have been powered on, due to these outdoor lights that lit it up in the dark of the night. Directly in front of her however was a small sign that even from her distance away from it, Sam could vaguely identify the crude, red writing that had been scrawled all over its front.
"Tch, graffiti, all the way up here..." she said with a small scoff. The things people would do to get attention. She made her way towards the building, towards the lit section that held light above a waiting bench, and a backpack resting upon it. "Chris? You here?" Sam called out, coming to a pause in front of the pack, "Your bag's here but where are you... You're not 'in' the bag, are you?"
A small vibration sound drew her attention before her, and the soft glow of light drew her eyes to a specific point. There, sticking out of the front pocket of the pack was a phone, no doubt belonging to Chris. From the angle it was dipped at, Sam's craned head could still see something written upon it. A missed call, from 'Ashl-' ?
"Hello, what do we have here...?" she said softly to herself. She reached towards the backpack, and in that split moment, she almost considered reaching in and getting a closer look at the phone.
"Hm... nah," she said as she zipped up the pocket, and sealing the phone into it all at once, "I'll just let him see it himself..." Now seriously, where was that guy? Maybe he was inside the station, doing something or other. "Chris-?" As she began to call for him again, a voice from behind her could be heard.
"Sam! Hey, you made it!" the girl spun around to see the man in question walking up to her, gentle smile on his face. Chris had approached her from the opposite corner of the cable station door. He was wearing that same tacky blue and yellow colored jacket he'd gotten that one year, and his hair was still styled in that weird 'spiked mohawk' look as he called it. Ordinarily she'd call the look he had on him completely crazy, but hey, Chris was a crazy guy himself.
"Heya you," Sam said with a small wave of her hand.
"Guess you got over that fence back there no problem?" Chris said.
"Yeah it was nothing," Sam said.
"Oh! So... I found something, kinda amazing," he wasted no time in embellishing as he walked towards his backpack.
"What?" Sam said as he lifted it back onto his shoulder.
"I'm not gonna tell ya, cause you gotta see for yourself," Chris simply replied, directing her to follow, "Come on, it's this way." He began walking back out and around towards the corner that he had come from, with Sam trailing right behind him.
"It's that way?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, right around here," Chris said, before briefly facing her and adding, "Gonna blow your mind...!" Yep, good ol' Chris, acting like something is the 'most amazing thing you ever saw'. Well in that case, Sam was expecting to be wowed by... whatever it was he wanted to show her. The fact that he wasn't telling her anything about it right now was strange in itself, but she supposed she could live with that for now.
The two made their way around the opposite side of the cable station wall. Two sets of footsteps softly echoed their crunch on the snow beneath them. As they drew close to rounding the opposing corner, Sam took notice of something on the wall. It was a piece of paper, with the words 'wanted' posted on it?
"Oh wow, look at this," she said, stopping to look closer. From the sounds of it Chris had also stopped and was looking at the paper as well. What she saw was in fact a wanted poster, for a one 'Victor Milgram'. Unfortunately the entire top half of this wanted poster was ripped off, leaving the man in question as completely anonymous, "So, was this what was gonna 'blow my mind'"?
"No no, I passed that earlier; that's not it," Chris said, "Still, think we'll get a visit from 'Canada's Most Wanted'?"
"Hm, looks like someone thought so..." Sam said. She stepped back to see Chris wave his arm dismissively out of the corner of her eye.
"Ah come on, this place is abandoned most of the year. No one comes up here." With that he continued to walk along the wall's length, with Sam following close behind. This is really weird now; what totally awesome thing could be back here, out of the public eye?
Having rounded the corner completely, Chris eventually came to a stop and spun in place to face her again. This left Sam to gaze upon what it was he was standing in front of. It was... a wooden board area, with a couple of guns laying upon them? And past that were a set of sacks hanging from the nearby trees? Seriously? This was it?
"Ta-da!" Chris confirmed with a little flair of waving hands, "Pretty rad, right?" From the way he was trying to sell this... this outdoor sport that never interested her in the slightest, Sam could only assume this was it. Guns never interested her, like ever. How exactly was she to react to this?
"... Yeah!" she tried to put on her best façade of enthusiasm. It was thinly veiled sure, but at least she was honest.
"Come on! Look at these beauties!" Chris pointed a finger to a couple of the sacks that hung from the tree branches.
"Uh, beauties is not the word that comes to mind- Why is this even here?" Sam asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, what the hell is a shooting range doing at the base of a ski lodge?" As she asked her question, she noted Chris was lifting up one of the rifles that lay upon the wooden base top before him. He then began fiddling with the top of the gun's barrel briefly.
"Uh dude, have you ever met Josh's dad?" he asked, to which Sam nodded, "He thinks he's like, Grizzly Adams or something..." Chris glanced over his shoulder towards the targets, then back at Sam, "Hey, you wanna try it?"
"Ah no, you go ahead Grizzly..." That'd work out all the same for Chris; this rifle had been calling his name since he'd first laid eyes on it. Even better, it still fired pellets at a decent rate the first time he'd tried it out. But that was before, when was alone. Now that Sam was here, it's like he had someone to watch and cheer him on!
"Alright, here goes..." Chris brought the gun up before his head, his eye traveling down the sights. This'll be easy, like those shooting galleries at the travelling carnival that came by his town when he was a kid. A 'crack-shot' he remembered his parents calling him; time to impress.
Before him lay the layout of his range. A small body of open land with a thick blanket of snow covering the top of every flat surface. The entire land was illuminated by the gentle glow of a single lamp post from directly above it. A couple of wooden crates lay out as well, with objects on top of them: tin cans and glass bottles. While hanging from nearby tree branches were thick bags of sand hanging securely from thick ropes above them. Yeah, this'll be easy.
He took aim and pointed the barrel at his first target: the thick sack that hung on the left most branch of the tree furthest away. The sack had a thick black 'X' drawn across it, probably spray-painted. A squeeze of the trigger, and a not-so-loud gunshot filled the air. The gun gave hardly any kick and the sack shifted a little in place, with snow atop it falling off as well.
"Yes!" he said softly to himself, "No I'll get that can right there...!" He turned the gun sharply to the right side and took aim at a small tin can. The black body of the can contrasted nicely against the blanket of snow that lay on the wooden crate. A gunshot later and the can practically flipped backwards and onto the ground behind the crate. Man, that was a cool shot, let's do it again! He pulled the gun back to the left for his next target: another black can this time sitting on the ground at the base of a tree root. Another gunshot at the can actually flipped longer in the air from the angle it was it at. Nice, two shots in a row! Let's keep it going!
He pulled the gun again back to the right to aim for a more distant target: that one dirt sack than hung a little higher in the air, yet looked greatly further away than any of the other targets. As he was about to squeeze the trigger again, he suddenly stopped and squinted his eyes. Something had reappeared close to his face, until he realized that a stray piece of snowflake had fallen directly on his glasses lens. He quickly wiped it away with the sleeve of his left arm and took aim again. Another gunshot filled the air, and the sack twitched and dripped a little snow and dirt.
"Wow, nice shootin' Tex!" Sam said in a southern accent next to him.
"Oh yeah, I'm bad!" Chris said with a quick fist thrust of victory, "Call me... 'Crack-shot Chris!' Yeah, that's a good one..."
"I'm gonna go ahead and say that was a wild case of Beginner's Luck!" Sam said, almost completely ignoring Chris' killer title.
"No no, I don't think so girl," Chris quickly refuted, "Just watch this shot..." This time he took aim at one of the bottles that had been close to the first can he shot. Another gunshot rang out, followed by the ringing sound of glass shattering. Pieces of dark glass then littered the white of the snow behind it, leaving the base of bottle as the only thing left in place. Chris didn't even try to keep a smirk from forming on his face as he looked back at Sam, "Eh? How about that?"
"Well, anybody and their brother can shoot a bottle that big, that close," she said.
"Oh-ho ho! Tough crowd, huh?" Chris said, "Alright alright, I'll do you one better! Watch this...!" He aimed the gun towards his new target. It was one of the bags from before, except instead of aiming at the bag, he aimed just a little higher. At the sturdy rope itself that supported it! This would require like pin-point accuracy! Time for 'Four-Eyed Chris' to really shine!
The gunshot rang out again. This time the pellet had traveled out and grazed one side of the rope that held the sack in place. With reduced support, the rope quickly snapped and sent the dirt sack falling straight to the wood crate beneath it.
"Boom! Dropped ya!" Chris said, while keeping his eyes trained on the range itself.
"Whoa Chris! Be careful!" Sam suddenly declared.
"Huh? What?" the strange surprise in her voice caused him to turn his head away and look at her, "What are you talking about? Didn't you see that wicked shot?"
"Yeah I saw it, and that sack almost crushed that squirrel beneath it!" the girl said, gesturing back towards the range.
"Wait what?" Chris said, looking back out at range himself, legit confusion filling his head. He looked back at where the sack lay on the ground, but no squirrel could be seen, "There was a squirrel? Where? I didn't see any..."
"It scampered off already," Sam said, "Just... be careful next time, ok?"
"Yeah yeah, alright," Chris shrugged, before holding the gun in both hands again, preparing to shoot again.
"Hey 'Crack-shot', our ride's here!" she suddenly declared again. Chris in turn took notice of the faint vibrating hum of the cables and something running along them as well.
"Aw, what? But I'm just getting the hang of this!" Chris found himself complaining. It was almost exactly like his own mother pulling him away from the carnival shooting gallery after too many shots.
"Come on, Chris! The cable car...!" Sam urged. Chris gave a groan, but he still complied. He placed the gun back on the wooden board with the other one and moved to walk with Sam. His arms still felt that tingling feeling after holding that gun and shooting it in his hands. He also rubbed them together and blew into them to ward off the cold more.
"Man it's.." he spoke softly, "It's definitely weird coming back up here after a whole year."
"Yeah I know," Sam agreed, "I swear the minute I came up this mountain it all just came... flooding back..." By now the two had rounded the corner again and stood back within the large expanse of land outside of the cable car station. It was here that Chris was granted a large, uninhibited view of the mountain ranges in the distance. The way the dark colors of the sky contrasted against the even darker colors of the natural earth... Chris was no artist, but he had to give credit: that looked like something straight out of a painting!
"Hm... a year goes fast," he admitted.
"Yeah it does... must be really hard on Josh though," Sam added.
"I... I honestly don't know how he keeps it all together, I mean I'd probably be a wreck," Chris admitted. Images of Josh acting all sad a few months back filled his head again; the very memories he'd been trying to forget about, yet were coming back stronger and fresher than ever. He looked up however to find Sam glancing over her shoulder and back at him.
"Well we'll just have to keep an eye on him, right?" she said, "He's gone through so much and he seems like the kind of guy who's not just gonna... ask for help, you know?"
"Yeah... yeah, will do," Chris said with a nod. Sam then looked forward again, in time to reach the cable car station door. She reached to grip it and turn it, only to be denied as the door did not open.
"Huh, that's weird... the door's locked."
"Y-yeah, um..." Chris spoke up, "Josh wanted us to keep it locked. Keep people out." He then reached into his side pocket for the key that he'd been given earlier.
"He said that? What people?" Sam asked him with a titled head. By now Chris had pulled forth the key and held it in his hand, letting Sam get a good look at it.
"I don't know, he said they found people sleeping in the station one time," he said. Sam's nose wrinkled in disgust.
"Ugh, creepy... This won't stop the others though, will it?"
"Ah no, Matt and Emily passed by earlier; they were the last ones, before you I mean," Chris explained, "Here, let me get that..." the boy stepped forward and up to the door. He inserted the key, and a few seconds later opened the door inward, though not without allowing space for Sam to go through first, "After you."
"Aw, a real gentleman," Sam gave a sarcastic smile and nod of the head as she passed by. Chris entered in himself, then turned around to close the door and lock it behind him.
"Oh..." Sam said as she leaned forward against the safety bar that overlooked the forest below, "I thought the car was closer..." The cables of the station in question stretched out before them, traveling up and along the length of the mountain range. Chris could see from this distance the small image of the cable car, slowly travelling downwards towards them. From the speed it was moving, it would probably be about another minute or so before it reached the two teens.
"Guess we gotta wait," Chris said with shrug before turning away towards the upper room behind them.
"I'm almost regretting not taking shots at that range..." Sam could be heard saying. Chris on the other hand had made his way up the small set of steps and into the separate control room. This was the room that Josh told him the 'haggard homeless hobos' were found sleeping in, and the reason he'd asked for the door to be locked. Chris of course had promised him he'd follow those instructions, but he still remembered seeing that look on his friend's face. Reassured, but seemingly slipping back into his old sad self. And here he was, along with everyone else, meeting back at his lodge for the first time in a whole year.
The thought of the lodge was still on his mind when he glanced to the right and viewed a poster. A showcase for Blackwood Mountain, but instead was an older advertisement for a 'Sanatorium' or something. Probably some old building buried by an avalanche years ago.
"What a crazy place to set up house..." he found himself speaking aloud, "No matter how rich you are."
"They're not so rich. They only bought a mountain!" Sam could be heard replying. It was also a crazy thing: Josh's dad and family being rich enough to buy all this all from him being a horror movie director. To his credit, some of the films Chris had seen weren't that bad; actually scary even, especially in their effects department. So maybe there was some merit to those earnings from the film: everything is valuable to someone.
Movement could be seen out of the corner of his left eye, and Chris turned to see a little monitor. The image was completely riddled with static and blue in color, but he was almost certain he saw what looked like a... a tub on the screen. He blinked his eyes from the lingering cold in the air to look back at the... cable car station?
"Huh...?" he said to himself. Wait, just now, wasn't there a...
The sound of machinery winding down brought his mind back to reality. He glanced to the side again to see that the car had finally arrived, with the door opening up as well. He glanced back at the monitor and with a dismissive shrug, walked away from it.
"Finally... you coming?" Sam said as she walked into the car.
"Yeah well, I was gonna stay here and catch 'Zzz's but, okay..." Chris jokingly said as he followed after her. He stepped through the doors of the car himself, pausing for a moment to look around this rather spacious area he stood within, "Hm, almost like going to the prom..." He lifted his backpack off of him and set it down on the ground as he took a seat next to Sam.
A few seconds later, the car's door slowly slid shut, followed by the car itself beginning its ascent back up from where it came from. Both teens could feel various rushes of excitement within themselves.
"Here we go!" Sam said.
"Right, adventure begins!" Chris said. Off to the side, the metal building of the cable car station had drifted away, leaving the pure, unhindered view of Blackwood Pines forest beneath them.
"Ah, I hope this was the right thing to do," Sam said.
"What?"
"You know, getting everyone together on the anniversary?" Sam clarified. Chris nodded in morbid understanding, "I mean Josh seemed really pumped about us all doing something... didn't he?" Chris still remembered that day, when Josh had approached him with his desire to do... something. Something with all eight of them again, just like old times, back at his lodge. 'We could totally blow away the past with a wicked party in the present, man' were his exact words. For Chris, seeing his long-time best friend active and happy about something after so long of being sad, he couldn't help but feel the excitement himself.
"Yeah no, he definitely did," Chris agreed, "I haven't seen him this excited about something in... forever!"
"Good, good," Sam said, her voice dipping a little, "It's hard to tell with him and I... I've been kinda worried."
"No no, don't worry; it was the right thing to do," Chris gave a quick pat on the girl's shoulder. Sam smiled at his gesture.
"I hope everyone else feels the same way..." Chris gave a quick glance upwards in the direction their car travelled. The same destination that he'd seen everyone else travel towards. First was Mike, then Jessica, then Matt and Emily... and of course, the lovely Ashley. All of them had already arrived, ready to 'party like porn stars' as Josh had called it.
"We're all here, aren't we?" Chris said.
"Thanks bro, good talk," Sam said in a silly voice and playfully punched his shoulder. Chris smiled in turn along with Sam's smile as they both sat in silence for a moment. Off to their sides, snow-covered treetops drifted by them slowly as the car ascended. Taking out the dire implications of this situation, this was actually not that bad a place to be. The view they were in right now was especially scenic.
"You know what?" Chris said with his eyes fixed on this beautiful scenery, "Let's just stop talking about what happened, and enjoy the trip!"
"Yeah... yeah, you're right," Sam said with a sigh. Chris smiled to himself at her response. The air didn't need to feel so heavy anymore with that topic. But still, was it any better to sit in silence, nothing to talk about? What would be better to talk about now? Try as he might, Chris' thoughts kept returning back to Josh of all people. Specifically, what had happened in the past. Maybe... Chris thought back a little further...
"So, have I ever told you how Josh and I first met?" he said, looking back to Sam.
"I.. don't think so...?" the girl said with a shake of her head.
"Okay, way back in like third grade I think," Chris recounted, "Dad finally got me tickets to see my favorite comedian Spencer Howard. He was performing that one Saturday, and he and I were gonna go see him. Only get this, we drive out to the local comedy theater and we learn last minute that he had dropped out, some kind of sickness or something..." Chris shrugged his shoulders. Meanwhile Sam listened, up until he paused for a moment, which caused her brow to furrow.
"Okay so... I don't get it..." she said.
"Well you see there was a huge line stretching out along the sidewalk to get in, right?" Chris continued, "And as it turns out, Josh and his mom were there in that line at the same time! Directly in front of us, if you can believe it! I actually heard him quoting one of Howard's jokes, and I quickly came in with the punchline, the two of us got to talking, and as they say the rest is history!"
"Heh, I guess jokers attract jokers..." Sam said with a quick chuckle.
"I mean neither of us got to see Spencer Howard that day, yet we still got plenty of laughs between us!" Chris continued, "And to think, all it took was someone actually 'missing' their deadline!" The boy shook his head with a smile as he let out a sigh, "Man... who'd have thought screwing up would lead to something actually good, huh...?"
Jessica 'Jess' Riley was known by her peers as many things. She was prideful, confident, sassy, outspoken, and of course, gorgeous. She was the resident 'party girl' who tended to add much-needed life to an otherwise drab experience. However, there was one other thing that Jessica herself would describe herself as: patient.
From the life she led, she needed to have patience to have a lot of things happen for her. It took time for her to bring herself up from the shy, awkward-looking mess that was her middle-school self into the beautiful model that she was today. It took time for her to refine her speaking skills with other people to get what she wanted. And of course, it took time for her to develop her fashion tastes to that which turned every single head at the Homecoming Coronation. It was a slow process for her growing up, but Jess knew that she needed to be patient to get what she wanted.
And being patient was totally what she was doing right now.
She sat herself on the bench of the cable car station of the upper level of the mountain. It was really weird being back here, after a whole year had passed since... well, since a whole year had passed. While she had seen her other friends from the mountain, she couldn't deny the strange feeling in her gut. This was the first time they'd all been back here... but it wasn't quite all of them.
Jess quickly swallowed instinctively. No more of those thoughts! She promised herself that she was done with the crying! It was time to put back on her 'party-girl' face that everyone was used to seeing from her. After all, Josh had invited them here to have a party, so dammit she was gonna party! Her fingers still drummed the letter she held in her other hand anxiously. Only 'her man' would ever get to see what she had written for him!
Behind her she could hear the vibrating hum of the station's cables through the wall. As it steadily grew louder, that was enough indication that the car was pulling in, possibly with new arrivals.
"Boy oh boy oh boy..." she said, trying to shake the nervous smile from her face, "New people; time to meet and greet!" Who would it be that she'd find here? Sam? Chris? Ashley? Maybe even Michael himself...? As long as it wasn't that bitch Emily, she'd be perfectly fine with whomever it might be.
Jess slowly walked along wooden walkway of the waiting area towards the door. Before she reached it however, a heavy thud suddenly could be heard. The sound nearly made Jessica jump in place in surprise, along with a yelp from her mouth.
"What the hell...?" she said while trying to calm down.
"Jess, hey!"
"Jessica! Over here!" Two voices could be heard inside the station room. Relieved that it was familiar voices, Jessica focused in on who they were by looking into the door's window. It looks like it was Sam and Chris, standing on the other side rather weirdly
"Um, are you guys having a really weird stroke?" she asked.
"No just, we're stuck in this stupid thing," Chris explained, gesturing with his head to the doorknob.
"Can you please let us out? Pretty please?" Sam added.
"Okay, how do I..." Jess said to herself as she looked around the door frame. She caught sight of a small gray button on the side, with a long pipe leading up and over to the top. Must be one of those electronic doors. Jessica pressed the button firmly, then walked back to allow space.
The door opened to allow the two others to emerge outside, Chris followed by Sam. Jess was allowed to study the two in clearer detail as they walked out. Chris had that weird looking hairstyle and a number of thick looking coats on, while Sam was wearing a frankly ugly looking Russian winter hat for some reason. Her skirt was pretty though, Jess was willing to admit.
"Oh my god, I thought we were goners! Another ten minutes in there, and I probably might've chewed off my own leg!" Chris openly and dramatically declared. That's right, Chris was supposed to be the 'jokester' or something? Well his jokes certainly weren't hitting in Jessica's mind.
"Ugh, sick Chris..." Sam said. Well, looks like she wasn't the only one who thought that. Chris in turn simply gestured a hand towards his leg.
"Look, got a lot of meat on my bones! It's all muscle down there..."
"Yeah, right, uh-huh..." Sam said. These two definitely acted like they were brother and sister to themselves in Jessica's head. Jess herself never really spoke all that much to them to know them better, having only ever tried to do so after she and Mike had gotten together. She just didn't find that much in common with them, or that many things to talk about.
"Yoink!" Chris suddenly called out. A quick flash of movement seen and something being swiped from her hand, and Jess was brought back to reality from what just happened: Chris had reached in and swiped her envelope she'd been holding!
"Chris!" Sam said.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" the boy laughed as he looked at the front of the letter in both hands, his facial expression turning to one of mock surprise suddenly, "My goodness! Seems like someone has a crush on our good friend and dear class president, Michael Munroe!"
"Chris-"
"And, what kind of sizzling erotica might our Jessica here be capable of imagining?" Chris ignored her as he continued, "I wonder..." Dammit, he wasn't... exactly wrong about that. At least with what she'd written in her note to him. And she 'was' technically with Mike these days, even though it was her 'hope' that she could reveal that officially at a later point.
Jessica practically let out a groan in her head. Stupid Chris, throwing this stupid monkey wrench in her plans! Oh well... what exactly was the harm in revealing this now...?
"Mike and Em split," she quickly explained, "Now, 'we're' together."
"Whoa, drama," Chris said, completely abandoning his mock tone from earlier.
"Not really," Jess countered, "Pretty clear cut actually: Em's out, I'm in." She recalled back when she'd gotten with him herself. They had already split, and Jessica remembered at the time starting to like how Mike was looking those days. There was just something so... so... 'different' about him, from the other guys she'd dated. There was a certain charm about him that she felt attracted to, even if Em had probably known about as well. Well, that was whatever, she didn't wanna stay with him, her loss and Jess' gain.
"Oh, um..." Chris said, apparently struggling for words from the confusion on his face. Eventually he simply relented in trying to follow up with anything else. He held up her envelope in front of them, inviting Jess to take it back. She approached him, and took her envelope from his hand. She also made sure to put on her best 'sass' face when taking back what was her's; she had an image to keep after all!
"Alright alright, let's just get to the lodge already, and inside where's not so freezing!" Chris said, turning to proceed up the trail towards the Washington's Lodge.
"Um, you guys go on ahead," Jess said, "I'm just gonna wait here for a bit. Maybe, see who else is coming..."
"Like Mike...?" Chris coyly smiled over his shoulder.
"What?" Jess remarked with a playful scoff, "I mean, you know... whoever..." With that, Jess made her way back over to the car station's bench to sit down. As she did however, she could still hear the voices of the other two behind her.
"Uh-huh, Sam...?"
"Oh... Did you see this view? I mean holy cow!" This actually caused the twin-tailed girl to turn her head around to glance at whatever Sam was. Sam could be seen there, her arms outstretched, clearly indicating to the rather large view of the mountain range seen in the distance, "Sometimes I forget to... just stop, and take it all in...!" Jess took her seat again, but held a smile on her face as she did so. For the first time since she'd gotten here, she actually took a moment to study this view before her. And she found herself admitting, it was one of the more nicer, beautiful things she had seen since coming here. Was it 'the' best thing however? Hm, probably not. After all, a 'certain someone' had yet to show up before her...
"Seriously, couldn't they have built the lodge like right at where the cable car ends?" the black-haired Emily mildly complained as she walked. The iron gate door was held open for her before being closed shut with a small clang.
"I dunno, maybe they preferred a... more 'scenic route' for visitors, you know?" Matt said as he leaned down to pick her suitcases back up. Emily shot a quick look before quickly spinning around to proceed along the path before them.
"And where's a bell-boy when you need one...?" she could be heard saying. Matt instinctively hefted the suitcases he held in his hands up a little in response. Both of these heavy things belonged to his girlfriend after all, while his possessions he kept in his backpack. Somebody to carry this stuff would be nice. He would never tell it to Emily's face directly but she packed WAY too much inside these things! Good thing his arms were strong enough from linebacking.
And besides, carrying her bags was the least thing he could do for her, Emily. His girlfriend. God, that still felt so weird. They had already gotten together for the better part of a couple months and somehow it still felt like they had 'just' gotten together. And to think, a whole year had passed, when in that time she had been with Mike. Well, Matt wasn't worried about that; she and him were together, and he was happy in that fact being known. Plus the fact that Emily was probably the first girlfriend he'd ever had? Well, he was sure going to do his damnedest to be the best boyfriend he could be for her!
Starting with carrying her suitcases up to the lodge it seemed like.
Two separate footsteps trekked through the snow, towards a rustic wooden bridge with a wooden roof over it.
"Ugh, getting chills," Emily said.
"We're almost there," Matt tried to reassure her.
"No I mean getting a little creeped out," Emily clarified.
"Oh," he realized. She was talking about the lodge, and... the reason they were coming here in the first place. He'd had a whole year to think about what had happened. In hindsight, maybe they could've toned back their prank just a little bit? Poor Hannah, and then poor Beth...
"Gonna be weird seeing everyone up here again," Emily said as they both entered the bridge and walked across it. She did have a point; they'd all seen each other plenty of times this year, 'after' the shock of what happened had died down. But it was true, to be coming back to the place it all happened, all of them that were involved, all at once...
"Definitely not gonna feel like a regular party," he admitted, "I mean... what do you-"
"RRRAAAAAAAAHHH!"
In a flash of a single second, something had jumped down in front of them, screaming loudly! Emily jumped back with a yelp of surprise, while Matt felt the blood in his body spike in shock. He instinctively held his fists up in front of him to just deck whatever that-
Oh, it wasn't some scary monster, it was just... Mike?
"JESUS!" Emily exclaimed. Having calmed down just a little bit, Matt could see clearly that this was in fact Michael, laughing and clapping his hands a couple times. He was dressed in jeans and a sleeveless padded jacket over a long-sleeve plaid shirt. With that same, stupid smirk on his face... Well, let's just say there was all the more reason to introduce his fist to it...
"You guys...!" he started.
"MICHAEL!" Emily exclaimed again.
"You really, really should've seen your faces just now!" Mike said.
"Dude, I almost clocked you just now," Matt said with a groan. He shook his hands in front of them to get the blood flowing again. Just how hard had he been gripping his fists just now...?
"Nice one!"
"Michael you're a jerk!" Emily said with a calmer voice.
"Oh come- guys, we're all friends here, right?" Michael tried to say with an attempt at a change of tone. But that damn face he was making just made it so hard to take him seriously, "No need for violence, just a little harmless fun! We're out in the woods, it's spooky... Come on, let's get into the spirit of things!"
"The 'spirit of things'? Seriously, what's wrong with you?" Emily asked with equally vocal disdain, which caused Mike to scoff.
"I'm just trying to lighten the mood, Em!" he said, "Don't be like that."
"Like what?" Emily tilted her head.
"The way you're being; you always get like this," Mike clarified, though somehow remaining suspiciously vague about what he meant. Perhaps it was a good thing in this case; her new boyfriend Matt was standing present before him as well.
On that note, Mike and Emily used to be together, once upon a time. Seeing him here now, and seeing that really obnoxious way he was trying to act, with Emily no less.. Matthew couldn't help but feel himself somewhat inferior. This needed to change. Michael needed to get the message of how things were now. But what exactly to say...?
"Michael..." Matt started, then hesitated. While he didn't necessarily like Mike himself, there wasn't any real reason to breed any further hostilities between the two of them. He struggled to figure out how to vocalize his thoughts in just the right way, "I'm just gonna... lay it out, otherwise this whole weekend is gonna suck ass for everyone. Um... This is super awkward, and we all know it. So let's just acknowledge it now, and move on. Okay?"
"Matt-" Emily started.
"I hear you man. I get it; I don't wanna make this weird," Mike replied, much to Matt's surprise. He understood? Even though he was acting like a huge dick before? Maybe he did understand things as well.
"So then... we're good?" Matt asked.
"All good."
"You guys gonna, what, make out now?" Emily joking asked the two of them. Before Matt could say anything, Mike had beaten him to the punch.
"Oh my god, totally! We're SO gonna make out!" He made an exaggerated movement of how Emily used to move her body in the past, as well as doing an impression of her voice as well. Matt and Emily watched him do this, almost dumbfounded by this random action of his. Before they could voice anything, he was talking again, "Uh, no. Seriously I'm just gonna check back down the trail over here, and be back in a bit!" He flourished his hands as he walked past the two and towards where they had came from.
"Er, see ya," Matt said.
"SEE ya!" Mike called out without turning his head around and his hands outstretched. Matt watched him walk for about a second or two before turning away. That was enough of him he supposed, now should probably get the bags back up and in hand. As he bent his legs to reach down for them, Emily could be heard saying something.
"Oh crap..." Matt had the bags' handles in hand and was pulling them up when he lifted his head up to her again.
"What?" he asked. Emily looked back to look him in the eye again.
"Hey could you... take these, the rest of the way?"
"The bags?"
"Yeah, just... all the bags," Emily replied, while also casting a couple looks back down the trail's direction from where they had come from. The look on her face was also rather strange. There was a weird sense of 'urgency' written plainly on her face.
"Um, why?" Matt asked. Emily cast another look back down the trail before looking at him again, albeit strangely reluctantly.
"I need to go find Sam..." she replied. Matt's eyes narrowed in response. She needed to find Sam?
"Um... okay?" he said, wordlessly requesting she explain herself.
"Sorry! It's just I really need to go find her. I totally forgot I needed to talk to her before we get all the way out here-" Emily spoke rather frantically.
"This really can't wait?" Matt said incredulously, then gestured towards the direction of the lodge they were heading towards, "We're almost there."
"It's important!" Emily urged, "Matt please..." The young man stared at her, into his girlfriend's practically begging eyes. The urgency was written clearly upon her face, but... No, he was her boyfriend, so he had to look out for her as a boyfriend should. And that meant her safety would need to come first. There was no way it would be safe to just leave her alone, in a dark forest like this.
"Em, I really don't think you should head back down the trail by yourself," he spoke with earnest in his voice. He knew in his mind he meant well, but the look that graced her face didn't make him feel better.
"Seriously?" she said.
"It's cold out, and it's getting dark, and-"
"You're gonna protect me from it 'being dark out'?" she cut in. This wasn't any good, she wasn't seeing reason here.
"I'll just leave your stuff here, and come with you," Matt said, placing one of the bags he held down on the ground, "Nobody's gonna steal it."
"Matt are you kidding me? You can't leave me alone for five minutes? You really think that little of me?" Emily practically railed on him. Here she went again with accusations like these. It wasn't like that, she had to know that!
"That's not what I-"
"Why can't you listen to me? Why do you have to question everything I say?" the girl continued her rant on him.
"Oh my God, Em!" Matt desperately attempted to cut in before she could let loose on him further, "I'm just... trying to be helpful!"
"If you wanna be helpful, you can help get everything up to the lodge as quickly as you can, okay?" Her tone was softer, but no less commanding as it was before. Matt hated when this happened; a clear sign that he was losing this debate between the two of them. She clearly was not going to let up in wanting to go talk to Sam, so... He practically groaned in his mind, but his face still twisted in frustration.
"Um..." Matt struggled for words, but between his inability to do so, and her unrelenting stare she was leveling at him, he came to accept he was fighting a losing battle, "Okay... Fine, whatever you want." He reached back down to lift both bags up in both of his hands again.
"Thank you. I'll see you up there after I find Sam," Emily said as she began to turn to walk down the trail towards where Mike had gone.
"See you in a bit," Matt also said while walking the other way. As he proceeded to walk, he couldn't help but notice that everything seemed to be that much... 'quieter' around him. Sure there was the sound of snow-filled wind blowing all around him, trees swishing in the wind, and even the sound of snow crunching underneath his feet, but it still sounded quieter to him nonetheless. This did tend to happen whenever he and Emily were apart he noted, though he wasn't entirely certain if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
'Oh well, I'll see her soon enough I guess,' he thought to himself as he pressed on, 'I wonder if anyone else is already up there by now...?'
'Shrouded in dark, snow reflected black, the secrets of a mountain, hidden from the world. Awaiting the-... no wait, that won't work...'
Ashley brought her head away from the telescope she had been looking through. That was a good line she was thinking so far, until it started to fall short. As an aspiring author, she was looking for ways to 'reach out for creativity'. This particular telescope had actually been giving her a good boost of creative inspiration for a poem. The things she'd seen through it and the way she thought of to describe it all, it had been going good so far; great even.
'Until that last part, it didn't sound quite right,' she thought to herself. This was just a poem she was putting together off the top of her head, not important nor required for anything. It was just a fun pass time for her to do. She'd always loved reading, such as Reading courses and the Poetry extra classes. There was just something about the way words could be woven by the author to invoke different reactions for the reader. It was indescribable, yet still delightful in her mind.
With a small shrug, Ash brought her head back up to look into the telescope. She squinted her eyes to gaze back upon the black of night landscape she was looking at before. It was around nine o'clock at night or something right about now, and there were plenty of thick clouds to keep the full moon concealed. Maybe it would've been just as good to see this place in better lighting, or even during the day time. This mountain sure had a lot of stuff to see on it, not just the Washington's' place.
Washington Lodge, the very place that she once swore she would never go back to. Man, if only her past self could see her now; she'd probably slap herself. After all, to be back here, at the place where a really stupid thing happened that could very well have... Sometimes Ash was still at a loss for how she managed to get through it all back then.
And someone like Chris was willing to take an interest in her still? Despite what she had done? God bless him, and his endless cheery attitude. Granted his jokes were still corny, but it's just one of the things that made him all the more charming for her. She was always happy when he was around with her, so, she tried to put in the effort to make him happy. She laughed as best as she could at his jokes, joined him for lunch in the cafeteria, even walked with him to the school bus stops. What's more, her mind was taken off of the more... unpleasant memories of the past, which was also a plus for her.
And now here she was, not only back at Blackwood Pines at Josh's place, for the first time in a year, but also with everyone else it turns out. They had all agreed to come here for Josh's night of a party. Seemed kind of a sick way to have a one year reunion between them, seeing as they were two short, but hey, it was Josh setting this up, not her.
Ash brought the telescope view down a little, traveling the length of one of the snow-covered trees that stood tall in the forest, when something directly to the side caught her eye. As she focused in on it now, her own eyes widened a little at what she saw. Two of these aforementioned friends, Michael Munroe and... Emily Davis?
"Whoa, hello..." she found herself saying. Even from the viewing distance the telescope afforded her, what was happening was clear enough. Mike was standing rather close in front of Emily, about within arm's distance. His facial expressions were difficult to read from being this far away, but occasionally his hands would lift to almost cup Em's face, almost affectionately, "Somebody's getting a little friendly... and not in the 'friend-zone' kind of way..."
Emily and Mike had made it rather exceedingly clear that the two of them were no longer an item together. Only to further prove that point were the facts that Emily was now with Matt and Mike was now with Jessica, two things Ashley would also have never imagined happening in the past. And yet here Mike was, getting rather 'touchy-feely' with his ex-girlfriend. At least, that's how it appeared to be from first glance.
"They might need to check the expiration date on that big break-up..." A thought suddenly entered Ash's mind: what could potentially happen if Jessica or Matt saw these two and what they were doing? Things probably wouldn't bode well for anyone involved, which would only lead to more fighting and bad feelings being thrown around. There's been enough of that already, hasn't there?
And besides, neither of those two were here right now. As long as it stays like that, this little affair would-
"GGGAAAAHHHH!"
Through the telescope, Ashley's world suddenly transformed into a set of eyes, staring straight at her! This combined with the sudden shout she heard directly in front of her, and she very nearly jumped five feet in the air! She quickly suppressed her urge to yelp out loud with a huge groan as she quickly realized what had happened. Someone had just stuck their head in front of the telescope as she was looking through it and scared the living daylights out of her! In between her groan, she quickly realized laughter had followed, as well as whom the laughter belonged to.
As Ash pinched her nose, she caught sight of Matt walking up into the miniaturized wooden pavilion where she stood. She could see he was sporting an absolutely huge grin on his face as he laughed.
"Whoa! Sorry there- sorry about that Ash, didn't mean to scare-"
"Jeez Louise, Matt!" Ash exclaimed as she tried to control her heart beat. Did he have to just randomly spook her like that out of nowhere?!
"Well, I did mean to, scare you 'sort of' scare you, but not like 'for real' scare you-" he tried to add justification. Ash looked at his face again; the grin was still there, but he had stopped laughing by now.
"Oh my gosh..." she said, before proceeding to give him a little push against his chest with one hand, "Oh my GOSH!"
"Hey hey, whoa!" Matt put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Man I'm, I'm really sorry Ash, damn-" The gesture was assuring enough, and from the few times they did speak before, Matt seemed like a nice guy to Ash.
"It's okay, it's fine, it's fine..." she finally relented. By now her breathing had gotten a little bit back under control, even though her heart was pounding hard. She had calmed down considerably by now. Now she could get on with her life without being scared like she was.
"So... what're you looking at?" Matt suddenly spoke up. Ash could see genuine curiosity in his eyes. She could also see his eyes were directed towards the telescope, that she was standing directly in front of, "See anything 'juicy' with that thing?"
"Um, er..." she found herself stammering. Wait a minute, Matt was here, just like she'd feared earlier! He couldn't possibly wanna-
"Let me look through it!"
"No, er-..." Ash was pulled into alarm yet again. This was not good. There was likely a very big chance if he looked through that telescope, he'd probably see Emily and Mike and what they were doing. Then there'd be no telling what his reaction to that might be! What if he ended up throwing hands? Then this would've been on her because she'd let him see it in the first place! She had to do something! But, what could she say?
'I'm already looking at it?' she thought, 'No, he'd then just wait for his turn...' Maybe, she could say...
"Nah, it's kinda busted. It's not- it's not like it's really interesting, just..." She waved her hands as she practically stumbled over her words to get them out. Her mind berated herself for how clumsily she was talking. She could only hope he would get the message clear enough to be dissuaded.
"What? For real?" Matt said with a raised eyebrow, "I bet I could find like a cool bear, chowing down on a fox, or something..."
This wasn't working! He was still showing interest in looking through it! What else could she say to get her point across?
It was just then, in the back of Ash's mind... she considered letting him look through it in the end. Maybe he wouldn't see them? Maybe he'd actually find something else interesting to look at? Something to keep his attention occupied and not on 'them'?
No. No, that was too big of a risk. If she herself managed to see them in the telescope, there was no doubt Matt would find them as well. It'd be much safer if he not be allowed onto the telescope at all. But what could she say? He had insisted he wanted to look through it despite her claim of it being 'busted'. But... She recalled her earlier reasoning didn't feel very strong, and how she kept stammering. Perhaps that was the reason why? It would be costly if this didn't work, but Ashley still felt the need to try.
"No really, Matt; it's not worth straining your eyes," Ashley held her hands in front of her, also to block off access to the telescope with her body as well, "I'm really getting kind of a headache just through looking through it? So just... no... no." The boy's eyes narrowed and for a brief moment, Ashley almost felt her attempt had fell short again. Despite the way she tried to sound more convincing that time.
However, Matt also titled his head a little, and his face actually seemed to show the faintest sign of resignation.
"Um... alright... whatever you say," he said. Ashley's inner spirit began to soar a little; her dissuasion worked! Matt was turning around to walk off of the wooden pavilion! She let out a very silent sigh of relief. Crisis averted.
Once he had cleared off completely, Ash spared one small glance back into the telescope herself. In that brief moment she saw, she caught a glimpse of Mike and Emily breaking apart, literally in this case, with the obvious intent on leaving that location. Beyond that and where they were headed, she didn't see. What was important is that she'd spared Matt of seeing something that might've potentially ruined his time here.
"So Ash," Matt called up from below. Ashley looked down to see Matt was now holding two big suitcases in each hand of his, "I was just on my way up to the lodge. Wanna walk with me?"
"Um... sure... yeah I'll come," she replied. With a nod, Matt proceeded up the trail, with Ash walking off the pavilion and following after him.
Before she had walked well and away, she spared one last glance towards the telescope. She could feel it; a gnawing feeling of doubt at the back of her mind. She had just averted a crisis, but... was it really the right thing to do? Was it really best that she fail to have Matt find such a thing out for himself?
She mentally shook her head. There was nothing she could do about it now; what's done is done. And maybe it wasn't her place to get involved with relationships like that. Where Chris and herself stood right now was confusing to her enough already. The last thing she'd wanna do was cause more unnecessary relationship drama.
Ashley turned her head forward again, following Matt and his two suitcases he held in hand closely. She hoped it wouldn't be too far of a walk now, these dark woods were not somewhere she'd wanna stick around in for long...
Jessica continued to sit at the cable car station bench, drumming her fingers against her knees. She may be a patient girl, but that was usually when there was something there to make the wait all the more worthwhile. And right now, that 'certain something' was sure taking his sweet time! Where was he...?
She instinctively reached to her side to check her phone then lift it before her eyes. Maybe he had messaged her earlier and she just hadn't seen the message yet...
Something thudded against the wall next to her, making her jump in surprise and drop her phone. She looked up to find actual snow had hit the wall, close to where she sat! The bulk of snow had fallen to the ground, leaving small flakes of snow to remain sticking to the wall in its place. Upon realizing it was in fact a snowball, Jessica's surprised face turned to one of open amusement.
She spun her head to the opposing side, where the man of her affections stood with an openly goofy grin on his face.
"Oh-ho-ho! You did not just do that...!" she said, pulling herself to her feet.
"Put yer hands where I can see 'em, Madam Riley! We gotcha surrounded!" Mike openly declared in a southern person's voice. So that's what he wanted to play, huh? Alright, Jess was game for a little... well, game! She raised her hands in the air as she stepped forward towards the snow-covered wood railing. All the while the smile she held on her own face presented equal challenge.
"But who am I to retaliate?" she fired back with her own attempt at a 'southern belle' voice, "I what choice do I, a supple young rebel girl, have but to surrender to the strapping military guard come to take me into custody?" Jessica mentally applauded herself; she'd managed to completely improv that entire line right on the spot! She could really try out for an actress if she tried, the way the words just rolled off the tongue! In fact, while she had impressed herself, the look that Mike had on his face was one of almost complete bewilderment! He was just standing there, shifting feet, almost as if trying to make sense of what he'd just heard. Perfect...
Jessica deftly reached over and grabbed a handful of snow off of the wood railing as she stepped outside. She quickly brought her hands behind her and formed a snowball behind her back. All the while she maintained that smiling look on her face as she stared at him.
"I- well, I dunno, when you put it like that-" He had even broke character to try and recompose himself! Jess really was just too good for him! Taking advantage of his confusion, she quickly dashed out into the open area of land, towards the nearby lunch bench, "HEY!"
Here we go! Time for Mike to eat snow! As she ran, Jess cocked her left hand back and threw the ball she held in it. Might be a little harder to nail him when she was running, but here goes nothing...!
"Oh-!" The snowball had scored a direct hit in Mike's face! Awesome! Jess laughed as she reached behind the lunch table, "Oh ho, you're gonna pay, yes you are!"
"Catch me first!" Jess called out. While remining crouching she formed another snowball in her hands, trying to keep herself from giggling too much.
"Come out, come out, where ever you are...!" Mike's voice could be heard from across the way. Jess peaked over the snow of the top of the lunch table and saw him 'stealthily' sneaking out, trying to find her. Funny guy, let's give him a snowball!
Jess popped up from behind cover and let fly her snowball before she'd let Mike have time to react. The ball flew out and smacked him in the head again!
"Oh! Ah!" he cried out as he recoiled from the hit.
"Bullseye!" Jess didn't waste any time in running to her next spot for cover. As she ran however, she felt a sharp feeling of freezing cold against her head. A snowball had travelled out and smacked her in the head as well!
"Yeah, gotcha!" she heard him call out.
"Alright alright, nice hit...!" Jess admitted as she reached a new place to duck down behind herself. Once covered again, she shook her head real quick to shake loose any bits of snow that lay stuck in her hair. She then brought her hands down to form another snowball. Time to pay him back in kind!
"Hello...? Michael...?" she called out in a sing-song voice. Almost immediately, her man could be seen dashing across the snow-covered ground to the side. She threw her ball as she called out to him, "Heads up!"
The snowball yet again exploded into flaky bits, squarely upon his head! Damn, she was on point with all these snowballs! Mike's head recoiled from the snowball to the head, but he maintained his running speed.
"Boom shaka-laka!" Jess exclaimed.
"Okay okay, that was good-" Mike could be heard saying as he ducked for cover again. Jess by now was riding a high of absolute winning! She didn't even try to stop her laughter either. She instead just rushed towards her next section of cover: a large stack of chopped fire logs, covered entirely on top by a layer of snow. she ducked down again to form another snowball in her hands. The laughter in her throat was reduced by just a little bit by now. Jess could swear she almost felt like a kid again. Playing outside in the snow on winter mornings, having snowball fights with her parents. Just another reason she loved Mike; a man who could make her recall such wonderful memories like this was an ace in her book!
Armed with a new snowball in hand, Jessica this time slowly raised herself up from her cover to peak over. She couldn't see him straight away, so she would need to carefully look around to find him.
"You can't hide from me, Michael!" she called out, "I know all your tricks..." Before her lay an opposing wooden lunch table on the left side and a large pole on the right. From the white of snow that blanketed the top of the table, a speck of yellow could be seen contrasting the white. A tiny bird stood perched atop the snow, hopping in place a couple of steps. Other than that, no sign of that loveable hunk...
The bird then took off in flight, and further movement caught her eye in front of her. She could see it clearly: Mike was there behind the tall pole, with him trying to stand up having spooked the bird. He had given away his position to her! Now he would pay his mistake with another snowball!
She kept herself quiet this time as she launched the snowball out and towards his ascending form.
"Whoa-!" Mike exclaimed as he found himself actually diving to the side! Her snowball may not have hit him squarely, but he still fell to the side into a flatter ground of snow!
"Yeah! That's right!" Jess cheered herself on. In clear view, Jess could see that Mike was still struggling to pull himself to his feet again. She took this as her cue to run to a new cover spot.
"Oh... I'm gonna get you Jess!" she heard him call out.
"Oh you think so?!" she fired back with a laugh. Having reached a new location she quickly dipped down to form another snowball in her hands, "You getting tired yet Mike...?"
"You're goin' down Jess...!" the girl spun around with her snowball in hand, prepared to throw it at his head again. However, he was not in her immediate sights upon turning around. Her eyes narrowed in response, and she cautiously looked side to side to find him. He must have gotten up and darted away from-
"Yeah-!" She suddenly felt a rush behind her. Mike snuck up behind her, spun her to face him. However in the process his forward momentum had him still moving forward, with Jess in turn starting to fall backwards. Rather than be filled with alarm, Jess was still on a high of excitement, and she and Mike fell to the snow-covered ground a laughing mess.
Everything came to a slow down finally with Mike now hovering over her, and her laying flat on her back against the snow. She couldn't feel the icy beneath her; this jacket must really be that cold resistant! Not that she could've felt the cold anyway, her heart was warming her whole body with excitement.
"Gotcha! Done! Done City!" Mike exclaimed, looking down at her. Her hands now laying out above her head, Jess had lost grip of the snowball she'd been holding. The only thing that mattered in this moment was her man was directly above her, staring down at her with a huge goofy grin on his face.
"So did I go down?" she asked.
"I... don't think so," Mike said.
"Mmmm, I think you'd know so if I did..." Jess said with a giggle as she reached up to stroke his chin. He had a slight stubble around his jaw, which felt oh so nice to the touch. The roughness, rugged feel underneath her palm... She swore she could touch him all day and never get tired of it! And from the look on his face he'd likely never get tired of her touches either. And it seemed her little teasing comment added a little blush to his cheeks as well!
"Alright, alright..." he said, trying to compose himself. She finally, if reluctantly, brought her hand back down.
"My my, so are we calling this 'my' favor then?" she asked with a tilted head and raised eyebrow. The way she absolutely dominated him in their little snowball fight? He totally had to admit she was the queen here!
"You're a worthy opponent," he admitted to her, "Miss Jessica the Snowball Queen."
"Ok, that sounds vaguely dirty..." she said coquettishly. She knew that wasn't what he meant, but it was fun to tease him like that all the same. He in turn looked back down at her with a rather sheepish look on his face.
"My lady..." he said. There it was, treating her as if she were his queen. The best person he could ever know in his life. He was just so... so... hot, when he did that! Even when lying down on the snow-covered ground with frozen ice all around her, a warm feeling only burned ever hotter within her being! How she wanted nothing more than to be with him even closer! She and him had playfully flirted with each other, before and after they had become an item officially. They'd even 'lightly' made out a couple of times, but hardly anything further that... yet. In fact, that was partly the reason she and him had come up here in the first place; for a fun, sex-filled night at an exotic place such as in the mountains! The feeling of future possibilities filled her with even more excitement...! She almost didn't register Michael suddenly bring his head in closer to hers...
And capture her lips to his in a kiss.
Yes. Hardly anything could ruin this night now. Not with this finally happening! His lips felt so strong and powerful against her own, yet still retained a feeling of gentle love. Her eyes closed as she practically drowned in the feeling of him upon her. Strictly in a 'clothes on' situation of course! There'd be... plenty of time for other creative opportunities later on.
For now though, Jessica was unfortunately reminded that she needed to breathe. Finally, and reluctantly, she pulled her head back slightly, which signaled Mike to pull back as well. She let in a soft inhale of breath as she looked back up into his eyes. Those same eyes belonging to the very man she just kissed a moment ago. How she could get lost in those eyes...
"Wow... save some for later, buddy," she said.
"Babe, SO much more where that came from...!" he said with a smirk, "But, maybe we should get up to the lodge?"
"Sure," Jess agreed, "But, it is rather nice out here though? Pretty breath-taking..." Even as he pulled himself off of her and to his feet, Jess could see that smirk on his face had not left, even after her comment.
"I mean, I could stay out here for pretty much... ever," he reached down to pull Jess to her feet as well, "Provided I was... making out with you the whole time." Oh, it was like that now was it?
"Just making out...?" Jess playfully teased. With his back turned to her in that moment, she couldn't see his face and the expression he was making. But she could still only guess he was blushing. What he did do was raise his fingers in the air for air-quotes.
"Quote unquote," he simply said. She smiled at the way he so 'charmingly' put that. While at the same time, she became faintly aware of the chill that pressed upon her body from the wind. It was almost immediately after he had gotten off of her.
"Well, I think we might freeze to death somewhere in between those 'quotes', she admitted.
"Yeah..." he replied softly. With that, and with him leading the way, the love birds began their trek up to the lodge in earnest. Sooner or later it would be time to meet everyone else that had agreed to meet back up here. Some of them they were looking forward to seeing a little 'less' than others, but... that would come in due time.
As they left however, both Mike and Jessica had failed to even notice the whirring of the car station's cables behind them. The cable car itself was on a slow ascent to dock into place, with the possibility of it being occupied...
-So yeah, major thing you might've noticed here is that I've changed Chris' Butterfly Effect story into something completely different. There is an actual reason for doing this; that entire story and it's underlying message was the central thesis statement for the game itself, and all it presents you with. That's all well and good, but it's just not the same message that this story of my own creation will be having. That being said, I hope it's not too jarring in how I made such a 'creative change' here.
And again, Merry Christmas!-
