-Four months. It's taken me FOUR freaking months to write one single chapter that frankly I should've had done way sooner already! Ah well, petty complaints aside, you'll quickly notice some small 'radical' changes to the story beats than what you're used to, which I hope don't detract too much from the overall narrative. I hope you'll enjoy it all the same!-


"Hey there Josh!"

"Hey yourself, Sam! Glad you could make it."

Sam and Chris' walk finally brought them before the 'host of honor'. Josh Washington wore a thick beige colored jacket over a plaid striped shirt, and a thick, gray wool cap atop his head. He also wore a facial expression of rather gentle warmth, a small but welcome contrast to the cold that could be felt all around them. He stood before them with this arms crossed in front of him to keep them warm.

He stepped forward to clap Chris' hand in their 'secret handshake' that everyone else had seen them do before.

"You too Cochise," he said, "Didn't let any homeless hobos follow you did you?"

"Naw man, we didn't see anybody," Chris said with a smile, "Oh yeah-" He fished into his pocket to retrieve the key he had been lent and handed it back to Josh, "And don't worry, I locked it behind us."

"Cool, right on dude," Josh said as he pocketed the key himself.

"So, are we really the first ones up here?" Sam asked.

"No, Matt got here already," Josh replied, before casting a quick glance towards Chris before adding, "And Ash did too."

"Really?" Sam said, smiling as she cast her own glance towards Chris as well. Oh boy, both his friends were giving him those looks; those 'knowing' looks. Chris could feel the faint sensation of a blush creeping up on his cheeks. He quickly raised his hand to rub them instinctively.

"Um, well I mean..." he stammered, "S-So Josh! This mountain, huh? Feels like gets... bigger, every time I climb it, you know?"

"Oh yeah? It feels the same to me," his friend replied. He crossed his arms back over his chest and shrugged, all the while his knowing smirk returned to his face.

"Aw come on, you grew up here; it... probably feels like it's shrinking!"

"Yeah, I guess that's true," he replied. To Chris' credit, a smiling Sam was no longer aiming her 'knowing smile' back at him again. Finally, a reprieve from the 'romantic interrogations' he'd been at risk of. What he and Ash had between each other, or at least he hoped they had, he felt it better that things were taken slow. She was the first one who had seemed to take an interest in a dork like him after all. As well as the first girlfriend he'd had, or, at least he thought he had right now.

Sam then gave a playful shrug of her shoulders and prepared to walk on up the path again. She likely already knew the way to get there; Josh had simply shown up here at this spot to greet them before they'd made it to the lodge officially. On a whim Chris decided to really quick check his phone for any updates now that Ash was one his mind. His feeling was quickly dashed however upon seeing the dreaded 'no bars' image on his phone screen.

"When are you gonna install some cell towers up here?" he said in mild frustration before raising his phone into the air, "I'm... getting withdrawals already..."

"You got a spare million bucks lying around, I'll fix you right up!" Josh simply replied with a shrug.

"Funny you should say that- think I left it in my other jacket..." Chris off-handedly played off his 'poor financial state'. The two finally turned to follow behind Sam back up the trail. She hadn't gotten too far ahead of them and had caught up with her relatively quickly. They also would not have that far to walk as well, as their destination already lay before them.

The Washington Lodge stood before them, it all its massive wooden glory. Well, its wooden, rustic, snow-covered glory. Sure there was a lot of bad history involving this place, but if all that were taken away, this place really isn't that bad. It was big, remote, plenty spacious, and a dream home for anyone that loved snow. There was plenty of stuff that Chris was turned off to with it, but Josh had lived here his whole life and look how he turned out? Maybe it wasn't all that bad.

The snow-trodden path slowly merged into a decorative stone walkway that led up to the Lodge's entry steps. As they approached closer, true to Josh's claim, they could see that they were no longer alone. There grouped at the base of the walkway steps were Matt and Ash. The latter sat crouched at the base of the steps trying to warm her fingers in her hands.

"Hey there gang!" Sam openly called out to them, "Nice to see you! You guys get up here okay?"

"Oh yeah!" Matt stood to attention and gave a friendly wave of his hand to them, "I mean, could've done with some bell-boys, but guess you can't have everything, right?"

"Yeah it was easy getting here, aside from the chills," Ashley added.

"So the others get here yet?" Sam asked.

"Eh, I haven't seen the others," Matt replied, "And I guess Em's already talked with you?"

"Huh? Talked with me?" Sam said, "About what?"

"Er, I dunno; she said she had something to talk with you about." Matt said with a shrug, "I'm guessing she hasn't yet?"

"Nope, you two are the first I've seen today," Sam said with a shake of her head. She then turned her head to the two boys she'd walked with, "Well, aside from these two I mean."

"Alrighty then, I'll let you guys in...!" Josh said. He stepped forward and up the wooden steps towards the Lodge's front door, with Chris directly behind him. Two separate sets of creaking against the wood followed their steps they took. The wind that whipped against their faces diminished as they took cover underneath the front patio.

"Yo yo yo! We ready to do this thing?!" Chris said to Josh once the two were alone.

"Heck yeah, man! Just let me get the door here..." Josh turned to the door and fished into his pocket again. As he worked the key into the keyhole Chris spoke up again.

"Hey so, Matt and Emily; are they a thing now?" he gossiped, but attempted to keep his voice low and out of earshot.

"Yeah, so it would seem," Josh absent-mindedly replied.

"I mean, what's Mike got to say about that...?" Chris added.

"I can only image that guy's already got his hands full if you know what I mean..." Josh replied. Memories of past 'drama' involving Mike entered their minds again. For the most part it had been amusing for them to view off the sidelines. Plus that he was kind of a jerk made it even more enjoyable.

In the midst of his musing, Josh was brought back to reality with his key not turning in the hole properly. This only brought a frown to his face as he pushed harder, to no avail.

"Dammit, this freaking thing..." he said.

"It's iced?" Chris asked.

"What else?"

"Well maybe there's another way in?" Chris said. Josh finally pulled the key loose and out of the keyhole in frustration.

"There are a million ways in, they're just all locked." Chris glanced to the general sides of the house.

"Gotta be like a window around the corner we could like... 'get open', or something..."

"Wait a second," Josh said, turning to look at Chris, "Are you saying we should break in?" Chris held a nervous look on his face for a brief second before trying to shake it off.

"Well I... don't think it's technically 'breaking in' if you own the place, right?"

"Hey- not if I don't report you..." Josh spoke in a strangely low tone. And just like that, Chris' nervous look returned again. Was he serious? He wasn't really serious, was he?

"I um..." Josh's serious face broke into a smile yet again.

"Follow me cochise!" he held his arm out back towards the wooden steps. He then made his way back down with Chris following right behind him. Before they would reach the very base however, Ash could be seen sitting on the lowermost step still. She sat at the very far left side to allow the two of them to pass. As Chris passed her however, he slowed down upon seeing that she was looking at him.

"Hey Ash," he found himself saying as he came to a stop. The girl gave a friendly smile and wave of her hand to him.

"Hi Chris," she replied. Okay, this was good. Really good. She must be happy to see him. Now what could he say to her? Nothing too complicated, right? Probably something simple.

"So... how're you doing?" he said, struggling to keep the nervousness out of his voice.

"Hm, good, but a little cold," she said with a light shrug, "Think I could use some time curled up by the fire." Immediately the image of a fireplace filled Chris' mind. The bright, warm glow of orange illuminating the dark of the room. This was followed by the image of Ashley herself sitting before it, with her possibly not being alone...

"Yeah, that does sound nice," Chris replied before he could overwhelm himself with further thought, "Well, just gotta get the door open here first. We got it, don't worry." With that he began to walk away.

"Alright Chris, we'll be waiting...!" he heard her call after him. Chris looked back up before him to see Josh had been standing in place, waiting for him. Not only that, but that same smirk from before was on his face. He was already turning himself and walking down the path leading around the side of the house before Chris could make anything of it. Two of them trekked through the unwalked snow path, with two separate sets of snow-crunching filling the air.

"Alright so, where are we going?" Chris spoke up.

"Well like you said, with there being a window around the corner?" Josh said, "There's definitely something over here we could use. Just gotta find it." Chris glanced to the left side. The lodge's mix of wood and stone wall could be seen, standing tall amidst the thick layer of snow at its base. Looking closer, it was almost as if the house itself seemed to 'sink' into the snow. No wonder something as simple as the door lock must have frozen. How would they even plan to get the door open once they got inside? Oh well, one step at a time.

"Heh, Ashley was looking pretty 'hot' tonight, right?" Josh suddenly spoke up. In fact, he brought his walk to a halt and turned to face Chris, "She just seems like a 'sleeper hit' kinda gal, you know? I'd just wanna rip that parka right off of her and make some snow angels, eh?!" Chris had to admit, the idea did feel a little enticing in his mind... However, that was offset by the fact that his best friend was proposing this very thing, in regards to a girl whom he knew he had his eyes on for a while now. It just... it didn't feel right.

"Hey... cut it out man," he said with a wave of his hand.

"I mean, if you're not gonna bang her maybe Mike will take up the case-?" Josh only continued.

"Will-will you back off already?!" Chris found himself exclaiming. Seriously, there wasn't any need to go that far with that.

"Hey hey, relax!" Josh held up his hands defensively, "Was just checking to make sure the blood's flowing everywhere, you know?" Chris understood the innuendo, 'blood flowing', especially in this cold. Maybe if was in regards to any other girl other than Ash...

"Well, yeah I mean..." he said. His response, or rather his 'attempt' at a response only earned him a light head-shake from Josh. The other boy finally held a finger up before him.

"Listen dude: look around you! Look at these beautiful mountains! Do you see any parents? I mean can you imagine a more perfect, ripe scenario, just 'dripping' with erotic possibilities?" Chris instinctively glanced all around him at where he was exactly. This place was a rather 'outdoors-y' place to be, which some people did find appeal in. But for opportunies outside of those strictly 'platonic'? Chris supposed he hadn't considered that far ahead yet. Leave it to Josh to put that kind of thinking in his head.

"You, and Ashley, alone at last!" Josh continued, "You've laid all the groundwork. You've been a perfect gentleman. Now, you come in for the KILL!" He finished his little motivation speech with a bit of dramatic on the end of it. And in spite of himself, Chris found himself smiling a little. Even if he wasn't entirely certain about what he proposed, he definitely could not deny Josh's enthusiasm he was demonstrating. He was like this a couple times before in the past, like when he first invited him to come back up to the lodge with the others. It was different those times too: he was... happier. Excited even. It was infectious really, and Chris ended up nodding his head a little.

"Maybe you're right..."

"Ah! You're a hunter bro! No fear, no mercy!" Josh continued, "I mean, she won't even know what hit her!" Chris' smile returned in full now, and he stifled a laugh that threatened to escape his lips.

"Alright alright, I got it! Jeez..." he said with a wave of his hand. With that, Josh finally resumed his walk along the trail, with Chris following close behind him. As far as pep talks for 'romantic sex-nights' went, eh, there was worse.

"So um... you were serious about there being a window around here...?" he said, a little desperate to change the subject.

"Oh sure! I mean, there's gotta be something here, right?" Josh replied, "We should probably hurry though, lest we let the four lovely ladies back there freeze their buns off?"

"Eh good idea; nobody likes cold buns..." Chris agreed. The two had rounded the corner completely and were now walking along the straight of a path that led forward. As far as they could see however, it did not end up leading in any further directions, but rather came to a stop from a snowdrift piled up at the opposing corner of the lodge. It was flanked on the right side by the dark tree-line of the forest, and by the walls of the lodge itself on the left. The walls in question also appeared more of stone and brick instead of just wood. The sound of their footsteps crunching the snow beneath them also sounded different, especially in the way it reverberated off of the stone wall next to them.

"Huh, you were right: windows," Chris said as he pointed out. A couple of windows were seen along the wall directly above the stone section of the wall.

"There, you see? Told ya there'd be something!" Josh said as they approached the wall closer, "Now, we just gotta..." It was then that Chris took notice of something else; something lower and on the stone section itself. Resting upon the stone was a glass casing, most likely for an emergency axe. However, the glass itself had been shattered, and there was no axe to be found within at all. This was punctuated by the fact that a shaded imprint of an axe lay in place of where the tool was obviously meant to rest.

"What the..." Chris said, as he came to a stop to study it. Was this... smashed?

"Hey um, Josh? Did you-"

"Hey Chris!" he was cut off as he heard Josh calling for him, "Come here and give me a hand with this! I got an idea...!" Looking up Josh could be seen having made his way to the far end of the trail. He now stood behind a green, snow-covered box thing. One hand lay planted atop it, while the other one he used to wave him over to where he was. Chris spared one last look at the broken axe case before moving to rejoin his friend.

"Okay, what's going on?" he said, taking hold of the box.

"Well, these windows are too high to climb to," Josh explained, "So, we'll just move this thing so we can get up there better!"

"Ah, ok ok...!" Chris said. He took hold of the metal box with both hands, while Josh himself pressed a shoulder against the other end, "Ok, 1-2-3!" With two sets of grunts, the two boys pushed and pulled as hard as they could. Sure enough, the box itself actually budged to the side as they moved it. The sound of metal scraping on both dirt and snow ground could be heard beneath them as well. They moved the box for about a foot to the left before stopping completely.

"Alright, that should do it..." Josh said. He then made his way to the front of the box so that he stood before it, the stone wall, and the window now directly above it. He slowly and carefully clambered his way onto its top and straightened himself up on straightened legs. Immediately he felt the shift in gravity behind him, forcing him to wave his arms a little to regain his balance. Once he was reoriented, he reached forward to grip the under-edge of the window and pulled hard. With a resounding snap, the window opened fully.

"Nice one!" Chris said.

"Right, now just gotta..." Carefully, Josh first slipped his head through the window space, along with his shoulders and arms. The sting of the snow wind around him faded almost instantly, replaced instead by an 'emptier' chill in the air. It was just as dark within, a little more so than it had been outside. He'd have to get the lights once he was fully inside.

His body slowly slid inward, and he quickly reached down upon the first thing he felt to stabilize himself from falling forward. He could feel his hand pressed down upon something cold and wooden; the workbench most likely. He put his other hand down as well, before pulling the rest of his body through the window hole finally. His right leg pulled through, and finally his left leg pulled through as well.

Josh let out an exhale of breath as all of his body parts were finally touching down on solid ground. Or, maybe on solid 'table' in this case. Looking all around him, the only suitable light to this room came from the light that the windows themselves let in. There wasn't much else to be seen, not without inside light at least.

"Alright Chris, I'm in!" Josh called out. He quickly made his way off of the table and planting his feet on actual solid ground. The sound of shuffling could be heard outside, followed by a shadow of a head appearing through the window light. Josh looked back up to see Chris looking down at him where he stood.

"Nice work man!" he said, "Just like in Climbing Class, huh?"

"Climbing- what?" Josh said, thoroughly confused, "Y-you mean 'Gym'?"

"Yeah you, like when you climb up the rope or on a rock wall?" Chris said, "Well anyway, see anything in there?"

"Not yet, I gotta hit the-"

POP!

Both boys nearly jumped in surprise by the sudden sound that filled the room. They quickly calmed down, then took a moment to assess what had happened. The sound was that of glass shattering. Popping even. Josh looked behind him and up towards the ceiling. There, hanging from above, was a light fixture, with a now broken lightbulb and its glass shards littering the ground beneath it.

"Whoa," Chris said.

"-Or not..." Josh also said, with a shrug of his shoulders. There went the only other source of light he could've used. Now what could he use?

"Oh wait! I've got this...!" he suddenly said, fishing into his pockets again. This time he pulled forth his metallic lighter, holding in front of himself and Chris so they could both see it. He opened the top, flicked it a couple of times, until finally the small flame was produced. The light itself was tiny and miniscule, but compared to the permating darkness, it might as well have stuck out like a sore thumb.

Josh brought the light slowly around him to get a feel for his now visible surroundings. A couple of metal shelves stood at the other end of the room, with filled and empty boxes lining them. Beyond that, there was little else that could be seen, not without moving around of course. Josh became faintly aware of the warm sensation that was close to his hand from the lighter. A warm feeling... a hot feeling... hold on!

"Whoa, wait a minute; Chris!" he turned to look back up at his friend still in the window, "I think I just got an awesome idea!"

"You did?"

"Yeah, totally!"

"Well, what is it?"

"Alright so, I know that we've got some deodorant, in one of the bathrooms," he explained, "I could go get it, and then use it, with this!" He held up his lighter hand for an emphasized point. Chris only scratched the side of his head, confusion clear on his face.

"I-I don't follow, how's a stick of deodorant gonna help-?"

"No, 'spray-on'! It's a can!" Josh clarified. Even behind his glasses and from the flare the lighter created on the lens, Chris' eyes could practically be seen lighting up themselves.

"Oh...! Yeah, now I gotcha!" he said.

"A flamethrower!"

"Hey, just like we did with those little army dudes?" Chris added. Josh had a quick memory flash back to when he and Chris did that very thing to a set of green plastic men, back when they were way, way younger.

"Yep, just like the ones we melted: just point that spray can at the lighter, and fwoosh!" The light shifted as he moved both of his hands for added effect.

"Bye bye, frozen lock!" Chris said.

"Exactly..." Josh looked to his side in towards the darkness of the room before looking back up at his friend, "Okay so I got this here... Maybe you can head back and let the others know what's going on?" Chris turned to look back to general direction the two of them had come from before looking back in.

"I mean, sure, why not?" he said.

"Alright, 'mission control'! I'm off!" Josh gave a dramatic salute to Chris as he referenced the movie line of the past. Chris in turn pulled himself up and away from the window and walked out of view of the window. The sounds of foot-steps crunching in the snow grew more and more faint. Now all alone, Josh was free to turn his attention back to where he stood.

Yep, this was definitely their little storage shed, despite there being little to no light in here. The shelves would be easy to navigate around. Holding the light before him, Josh made his way towards the other side of the room. The small light lit the way to show the door on the right side, open and awaiting him to step through.

As he stepped through it and into the hallway, Josh became aware of a sudden chill running through his body. It was chilly in this house sure, as the heater hadn't been turned on. But there was a different kind of chill; one that seemed to run down his body from 'inside'. He had been inside this house many times before, walking through its much lonelier hallways. But this time, this time felt... different. Even in spite of the fact that these hallways were about to become a little more 'full', the feeling would not fade.

Josh's small light lighting the way, he made his way through the dark hallway until it turned sharply to the right. Before he himself turned however, he paused to view something directly in front of him.

Hanging upon the wall above one of the decorative shelves, was the family portrait. There they were, the entire Washington family. Josh gazed upon this all-too familiar image of his family, wearing those 'picture clothes' they were told to wear specifically for family portraits. He himself stood on the right side of the frame, his mom seated in the chair in the center, his dad standing directly behind her, and Beth and Hannah standing side by side each other on the left side of the frame. Everyone one of them had gentle smiles on their faces, even he himself. Josh distinctly remembered being upset about something earlier that day, so at the time the smile he had on was more forced than anything. And yet, he found he could scarcely remember what it was that he had been upset about anymore. Thus, he was left to stare at the smiles of his family, the positivity that radiated from every one of them, especially his sisters.

His sisters that were no longer here...

"Hey Beth, Hannah... It's me again, Big Brother Josh..." he spoke softly, staring intently at their unmoving images as if they were sentient, "Well, the gang's all here! Everyone! And we're gonna have a fun time tonight... Like you two would've wanted..." He slowly reached his empty hand up towards their faces, until he stopped. Rationale reminded him that what he was about to touch was not their faces, but instead just a flat image of a portrait. With a sigh, he lowered his arm back to his side, "Well, gotta get this party started, so... Wish me luck!"

With reluctance, he pulled the light of his match away from the picture and back in front of him as he walked on down the hallway to the right. The walk took him past many other individual pictures of the family before turning to the left again, through an open door.

He now stood within the entry-hall, illuminated in the soft glow of blue thanks to the light shining through the stain glass window. Josh made his way to the front door and attempted to turn the knob. Unfortunately the door still would not budge, even from this end. The ice must have really worked its way deep into the mechanisms within. This only reaffirmed that he'd be needing his flamethrower plan to fix this.

Before he pulled his hand away from the knob however, Josh's eye caught sight through the window of the door. He could see the familiar heads of Sam and Ash, standing close to the door and conversing about something. A smile crept up on his face as an idea entered his head. An opportunity like this might not come again...

He pulled his head out of any possible view of the frame before letting out his 'spooky' voice,

"WoooooOOOOOOOOooooooo!"

From the other side of the door a small gasp could be heard, but that was it. Still, it was enough to keep the smile on Josh's face.

"Really funny, Josh...!" Sam's voice could be heard.

"Oh what? It's not me, it's a ghost!" he mockingly protested.

"Maybe you could get this door open first before scaring us?" Sam pressed. Josh brought his face up and closer to the door's window frame, in clear view of both her and Ash.

"You got it, madams!" he said with a thumbs up before stepping away. One last chuckle escaped his lips as he stepped away from the door completely. Yeah, they were totally scared, even if they didn't want to admit it. As he was about to make his way through the entry-room and through the doorway on the left side, his eye caught sight of a small white card on the small table beside him. He reached over and crumpled this now piece of trash in his hand before stuffing it into his pocket and walking towards the living room.

The room in question was bathed in darkness, as well as the smallest of glow from the moon giving it a tiny bit of illumination. The result was everything within taking on a dark bluish hue in some shade or another. As per his instructions for tending to the house by his dad, all the furniture on the ground floor had a light-colored sheet draped over it to preserve them. Once he got that door unlocked and got some lights up inside, he knew he'd have to spend time taking these sheets off of them as well. Maybe he could rope Chris into helping him with all that work, somehow.

As Josh took a single step down off the step that led into the living room, he suddenly came to a stop. A very faint sound somehow filled the air; the sound of something shattering.

"Huh...?" He slowly waved his match from side to side, as if trying to discern where the sound had come from, or what it even was. Dismissing it as nothing, he stopped moving his arm. Whatever that was he would probably find out later. A cold shiver ran down his spine and the backs of his arms, but he pressed himself on.

His goal awaiting up on the second floor, Josh made his way up the wooden steps that were positioned central to the living room. He then turned to make his way up the left side branching steps to finally reach the second story. Movement immediately drew his eyes to the nearby wall, where the window was located. Josh's eyes narrowed as he could see the window in question was moving? It had been opened? When had that happened? With a shake of his head he made his way towards it, reached through the threshold, and pulled the window closed completely. The howling wind from outside was once again muted, as well as the sharp chill that had been felt before reduced.

The bathroom that he was looking for was not much further now. It would be through the door on this side of the wall that led through another hallway. The hallway that led to both the bathroom, and Hannah's room... Josh felt his heart skip a beat in his chest, but he took a sharp breath of air and pressed on.

The slow ticking sound of the grandfather clock was heard behind him as he made his way through the first hallway. He had some rather scary, yet funny memories of himself and his sisters being spooked by that thing turning every hour when they were way younger. How its chimes seemed to absolutely boom all throughout the house itself! And the way Hannah herself would make that little squeak sound whenever she got scared... Those were the days.

The next hallway that Josh walked along was noticeably more illuminated than the ones below. The moon itself probably was able to shine much clearer compared to the others at this time of night. He noted the image of shadowed blinds against a blue backdrop of light set upon the ground, along with his darkened shadow crossing along it.

Upon reaching the end of the lighted space, two doors now stretched out before him. One side was where he needed to go. The other side... that door he would never pass through, as he yet again assured himself. Every little thing belonging to his sister would remain exactly as it had been. They weren't coming back, but... it was better that none of it be disturbed at all.

He reached out to the doorknob closest to him and made his way inside. The large bathroom stretched out before him, in all its large, and at the moment dry, glory. What he came for definitely had to be here somewhere...

"Ah, here we go...!" Josh had reached down to open the cabinet door under the sink. Almost immediately, even with the light of the lighter casting down upon it, the familiar image of the spray-on deodorant managed to stand out in the dark. As he reached down towards it, he couldn't help a smile began to creep up on his face at the memory of him and Chris flaming those plastic soldiers into small puddles of-

"GAAHHH!" he suddenly exclaimed. Something burst out in front of him, and his whole world was immediately an image of something brown, furry, and teeth-filled. In his panicked state, he found himself stumbling back and onto his rear, preparing to scramble away from whatever had just appeared before him. His eyes drew back to the opened door of the cabinet to see...

Nothing.

"What the fuck...?" His heart still pounded in his chest from that sudden scare, but he shook his head and rubbed his eyes to refocus. Something had just popped out in front of him? Making a strange growling noise? What the heck was that, and where did it go?

Josh gingerly pulled himself to his feet after reaching in again to pull forth the spray-on can. Thankfully there were no surprises this time as he pulled it out and into the open. He took another breath as he looked back onto the bathroom tile, then deep into the depths of the cabinet. Really, what was that thing? Where was it now?

Josh finally shook his head, then looked back down at the spray-can he held in his hand.

"Ah, alright..." With that he made his way out of the bathroom and back through the hallway. As he retraced his steps, he kept his eyes peeled and trained carefully upon the floor he walked before him. Strangely enough, he didn't see anything. No strange claw marks nor scratches on the wood of the floor, left by this... this strange furry creature. Seriously, did it really move so fast and out of here that it left no trail of any kind...?

Not even the rugs of the next hallway seemed to be disturbed at all. He walked forward and held the light in his hand close to the ground to inspect. Aside from his own steps imprinted on them he had taken before, there was little else to indicate anything other than him had come through this way.

He finally emerged from the hallway out into the central living room's upper floor again, where he made his way down the steps and back to the ground floor. Upon crossing into the greeting room, the faint sound of voices could be heard through the door, though Josh wasn't able to discern what was being said nor who was speaking.

"Okay, here we go..." He held the lighter up close, but not too close, to the metal deadbolt. He then carefully aimed the spray-can's nozzle straight at the open flame. This would require the greatest precision, only the metal of the door needed to be cooked here...

The world before him was greatly lit up by a brilliant flash of light, which caused his eyes to wince at first glance. It was working though; his makeshift flamethrower was burning, and pointing straight at the metal of the door! How long did this need to go for? Maybe just a little longer.

A few more seconds of heating, and Josh stopped heating completely. That had to be enough, now it was time to test out and see if his plan had worked. He reached his gloved hand up to release the deadbolt lock on the door. He could faintly feel the heat of the metal through the material of his glove finger, but that didn't matter. The locking mechanism slipped and unlocked completely! It wasn't jammed anymore by the ice!

"Oh- ow! Ow!" he quickly pulled the door open as quickly as he could, taking a moment after to shake off the heat from his hand. He then looked up to see the familiar faces of both Ash and Sam, still standing in place expectedly. Whatever expressions they had on before changed when they caught sight of him, and he himself smiled upon seeing them again, "Why, hello there, friends and fans! Won't you please come- DARGH!" In the middle of his attempt at a humorous line, Josh caught movement out of the corner of his eye, near his own leg. There it was again! It was running away, but he tried his best to get a good look at whatever that thing was. Unfortunately, it had already long run off out of the house and into the depths of the forest. This left his heart to pound hard in his chest again, coupled with frantic yet silent breaths of air.

"W-what is it Josh? Are you ok?" Ash said with concern. He looked back up at hers and Sam's faces, yet what he saw in them suggested confusion rather than concern.

"Did... didn't you see it?" Josh said, pointed towards the ground where that thing had run, "It was like a... bear, a tiger? Or something-"

"Really Josh? A tiger?" Sam asked with rather playful skepticism, "Maybe a 'snow tiger', but I doubt you find any in North American mountains." It was a this point that Chris was making his way up the steps to rejoin the three at the doorway. The expression on his face seemed to match those of the girls'; he didn't seem to see anything either.

"You okay Josh?" he said, "Hey come on, let's get inside, huh?" Josh started to open his mouth to say something, but soon closed it again. He instead to turned to lead the group into his home. One single set of footsteps was replaced by multiple as the kids entered the entryway.

"Welcome to my humble abode!" Josh dramatically announced as he entered the living room first.

"Humble, yeah that's... a word," Matt said to himself. He quickly scanned the floor of the living room for a place to set Emily's suitcases down. It was about time his hands be given a rest from the heavy load he'd been carrying around.

"Oh my gosh, it's soo good to be inside!" Ashley could be heard saying, "Even if it's still kinda chilly in here..."

"I'll get a fire going...!" Josh offered, followed by a few soft steps across the wooden floor. Finally finding a suitable spot next to the covered couches, Matt placed the suitcases at their end. He took a moment to rub the feeling back into his hands before looking up and around at the familiar room they all stood in.

"Hm, this place barely looks any different," he said. How long had it been since he'd seen this place? A year? At least? This room alone still looked like it could contain his entire history classroom at school.

"Yeah, nobody's been up here," Josh spoke off-handedly.

"Even with all those police coming in and out?" Ashley asked.

"Uh, not a lot of action up here lately..." Chris replied.

"Nope..." The room grew noticeably more silent and heavy, more so than before. The implication was enough to remind everyone of why they were here in the first place. This was as much a party as it was a sort of 'memorial'. After all, their little friend circle just didn't feel the same without Hannah and Beth...

"What's up party people?!"

"Hey!"

And there went that bit of silent reflection.

Matt as well as the others glanced up to see the resident 'party couple', Michael and Jessica enter the room. Well, they more like strutted their way in, as if they were looking to liven things up a little.

"Heh-hey there!" Josh said, having looked up from the fireplace, "Make yourself at home, bro!"

"Will do!" Michael said with a wave of his hand. The two made their way over to the nearby couch, where Matt decided to allow them space to themselves. They both took a seat, where Mike wasted little time in draping his arm around and over the shoulders of his girlfriend. At times it felt like he did this sort of thing deliberately; showing off his 'status' so that other people wouldn't forget it.

As Matt casually leaned back down to inspect the suitcases at his feet, the sound of more footsteps could be heard. This was followed by a snide, yet very familiar tone.

"Oh my God, that is so gross...!" He looked up to see Emily had apparently just walked into the lodge herself. Her gaze wasn't fixed upon him however, but rather upon the display on the couch. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she viewed the couple with open disdain. A feeling began to well up in Matt's chest; he could already tell where this was going. Emily was Mike's ex after all, and it seemed like ever since he and Jess had gotten together, the two girls always seemed to be butting heads, even after all was said and done by now, "Are you trying to swallow his face whole?"

"Em-" Matt tried to speak, until Emily continued while completely disregarding him.

"Seriously, could she be any more obvious? No one wants in on your territory, honey." Her sneering look was focused solely towards Jessica now. Meanwhile the twin-tailed girl in question was returning her look with a look of her own.

"Excuse me? Did you say something?" she mockingly asked while standing up from the couch.

"Oh did you not hear me? Was your 'sluttiness' too loud?" Emily challenged.

"Hmph, sounds like someone's just bitter she didn't make the cut...!" Jess said, her hand indicating towards Mike, still there on the couch. He himself was just sitting there, that same stupid grin on his face.

"Oh yeah, it's all a big cattle call with 'that' dreamboat; congrats, you're top cow!" Emily jabbed. Seriously, how were these two still not over this by now? A quick glance towards everyone else at the wooden steps, Matt could see the others seemed to be hanging back. Almost as if they were deliberately steering clear. He almost couldn't blame them, but at the same time, someone needed to cool things down here.

Where was Beth when they needed her...?

"Cuts real deep calling Miss Homecoming a cow!" Jess retorted.

"Hey hey, come on," Matt tried to cut in as quick as he could, "Don't you think you're making everyone a little uncomfortable here, Jess?" The blonde haired girl turned her gaze to him this time. Her prideful look somehow managing to shine even in the almost pitch black of the room they stood in.

"Jealous much? What, Emily too frigid for you too?" Matt's eyes widened at this really brazen assumption.

"H-hey! That's not-!" he tried to protest, but the blonde had already turned her back to him in a little strut for a few steps.

"Whatever, I don't give a crap what you think...!"

"Well at least I 'can' think," Emily quickly cut in, "4.0, bitch! Honor Roll! Suck on that while you're trying to sleep your way into a job!"

"Who needs grades when you've got all the natural advantages you can handle?" Jess directly addressed Emily this time, while her own hands gestured to her own physique. Even with the rather thick winter clothing she wore, everyone knew she had the body that most girls probably would've killed to have, and she rarely was afraid to show it off. But, to the credit of Matt's girlfriend, Emily simply rolled her eyes at the sight.

"Oh please-"

"You couldn't buy a loaf of bread with your skanky ass!"

"Are you serious? Do you think that's insulting?" Emily spoke incredulously, but Matt's own eyes were narrowing at what he was hearing. Friend or not, it sounded like she was directly picking on his girlfriend! A quick glance to the side told him yet again that none of the other people seemed to be willing to do anything to stop this! Meanwhile he was starting to get riled up from before, yet was willing to keep some semblance of control-

"That bitch is on crack or something!"

And just like that, Matt could feel his self-control slowly yet surely begin to crumble away completely. He could handle the insults dished out at him, but he would not tolerate any thrown at his girlfriend! Not even those made by friends of theirs!

"Jessica! You need to shut your mouth, alright?!" he simultaneously exclaimed while also taking a quick step forward slightly in front and to Emily's side. He couldn't see the face she was making in response to his sudden action, but he could only hope she was approving. All he could see though were the two right before him. Jessica's face very briefly betrayed a look of surprise in her eyes, yet she seemed to quickly snuff it away just as quickly. Mike on the other hand actually seemed to have broken out of his dumbed state and was rising to his feet just as quickly.

"Hey! Watch your words, man...!" he challenged.

"No. 'You're' the one who needs to keep your nose out of other people's business!" Jess chimed alongside Mike and pointed an accusing finger in Matt's direction.

"I'm about to get right up in your business, you bitch!" Emily stepped up and forward with the obvious intent on challenging the other girl.

"Are we about to get real? Cause I am DOWN to get real!"

"STOP IT!" Everyone involved ceased their aggressions momentarily to turn their heads to the side. Josh had stood up from the base of the fireplace, with frustration clearly plastered upon his face, "This is NOT why we came up here! It's not helping, not what I wanted..." Matt couldn't speak for the other three, but he could feel his own aggression begin to diminish at the Washington boy's words, in addition to a little bit of guilt. He was right after all, with it being pointless to fight and argue like this. He just wished everyone else could get that through their heads already...

On that note, hearing these words of mediation, or rather attempted words of mediation coming from Josh of all people... Matt couldn't help but be reminded of Beth yet again. She also always had a way of stopping arguments from getting too heated. Josh even held the same stance right now that she had, with his hands held flat and in front of him. Must run in the family he guessed.

"If... if we can't get along for like 'ten' minutes, maybe we all need... a bit of a break?" Josh continued before shaking his head, "Say Mike, why don't you check out the guest cabin? The one I told you about?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah sure," Mike said. He then held his hand out to Jess, "Wanna go do that...?" The blonde haired girl spared one last sneer in Emily's direction before relenting.

"Any place without this whore..." She then took his hand in hers, and the two made their way around the couch and towards the kitchen door.

"I-It's just up the trail...!" Josh called after them. With that Mike and Jess had exited the larger living room, the faint sounds of their footsteps still being heard through the walls. Almost just as quickly the air itself seemed to lift from its previous sense of choking tension. That was quite the fight that had just went down, and while it could've gotten a whole lot worse, Matt was just happy all was fine now. He could scarcely even resist performing a mock motion of his head exploding as well.

"Glad that's over..." he said to himself. With little else to do, he turned back to Josh to see what he was doing. The boy had crouched back down before the fireplace, apparently resuming his work, "So Josh, um... can we get this fire going?"

"Where's my bag?" Emily's random question caused him to turn around towards her. The girl was standing before the suitcases he brought in, her hands resting upon her hips as she stared down upon them.

"Huh?" She turned around to look at him as well.

"My bag! You know, that little bag, with the pink pattern? The one I got on Rodeo...?" Rodeo? Matt struggled to recall in his mind. He could in fact remember the two of them going there, except he wasn't sure at what point they had. It was during last year's Spring Break, wasn't it...? "Matt, are you listening?! Oh my God, next to the Italian shoe place where I got those stilettos, and you knocked over the rack while you were drooling all over that girl at the counter?"

"Well I mean..." Matt quickly cut in. Now it was all coming back to him! And yeah, he definitely remembered that girl, that nice red-headed clerk who was giving him kind looks that whole time. Especially in comparison to how Em herself had been that day, "She was asking about my letter-jacket-"

"Right, because she gave a shit about your 'designer letter-jacket'," Emily sarcastically remarked with air-quotes of her hands for added punctuation.

"Why do you hate my jacket?"

"Matt! I need my bag!" Emily quickly reverted back to the original subject.

"Oh my God, Em, maybe you just... forgot it?" Matt tried to reason with her.

"Do you seriously think I'd forget my bag?" Emily crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, um-"

"Do you?" Her stern look held upon him as she pressed her question. As much as Matt wanted to retort himself, he was never able to win such arguments against her. Especially when he knew in his mind that she was right at times. He let out a relenting sigh of defeat.

"I guess not..." The girl relaxed her stance and glanced once more down at her suitcases.

"We must have left it down by the cable car station..." she said with a shrug. Matt let out a groan of exasperation. They'd spent all this time trying to get up here, through the freezing cold of this mountain, only to find they'd have to go back out there? Emily seemed to sense the irritation on his face as she continued, "Come on, hun! We'll be back soon."

"And... then we can get warm...?" It wasn't until after he'd spoken that sentence that Matt began to mentally kick himself. What kind of rookie pick up line was that? He hoped Emily wouldn't think less of him having heard those words come out of his mouth. To his relief however, Emily looked back at him. And the look she gave him was actually a gentle smile. These unfortunately rare moments of tenderness didn't come by often with her, and were sights to see.

"We can get very warm..." she added as well, in place of a snide remark she was sometimes known to give after one of Matt's moments of idiocy. The boy gave another quick breath and shrugged his own shoulders.

"Ok... ok," he said, leading the way for the two of them to leave the house, "Hey Josh? So um... yeah, we'll just be back in... I dunno, a bit."

"Okay, be safe you two...!" Josh's voice could be heard calling after them. By now Matt held the front door open for Emily, then closed it shut behind him.


"Ah... Exiled," Mike said as he closed the door behind him.

"'Sexiled'," Jess commented with a smirk.

"Heh, works for me," he smiled. The wind began to whip at his face again, even though he and Jess were standing on the porch of this house with a big roof over their heads still. It wasn't so dark out here anymore; the moon must have come out to light up the night by now.

"Brrr..." Jess stepped up to the put her hands on the wooden, snow-covered railing and look out into the forest, "How far is this cabin, anyway?"

"This cabin..." Mike stepped up to wrap an arm around her waist, "It's the coziest, most romantic love den you will ever lay your eyes upon." From his descriptions alone he was willing to bet, Jess looked back into his eyes with those loving eyes of her own.

"Heh, if we ever make it...!"

"I have a feeling luck is on our side!" Mike said confidently.

"Play your cards right and maybe 'you' will get lucky-!" Just as Mike was beginning to like where this was going, the sound of the door opening drew their attention. Josh stuck his head back, holding something in his hand as well as a smile of his own on his face.

"Hey, porn stars! You're gonna need these!" He tossed what was in his hand out for Mike to catch into his. It was a single key on a key-ring. That's right, Josh had mentioned the cabin itself was kept locked most days. Guess they would be needing this if they wanted to get to their 'place of sexile'!

"Porn star?" he heard Jess say.

"I'd pay to see it!"

"Uh, gross?" Josh by now had stepped completely through the door and into clearer view of the other two.

"Hey um, sorry to just kick you out like that," he said to Mike in a softer tone.

"No worries man," Mike held his hands up in dismissal. Even though Matt and Emily had started that whole thing themselves back there, he wouldn't be holding any grudges.

"Oh well, I'm sure you'll find a way to entertain yourselves...!" Josh gave a sly smirk at both of them.

"Mm-hmm," Jess said, "You have fun with the peanut gallery!" Josh's response to that comment was to simply make a 'shooting himself in the head' gesture. Must have taken that in strides though, as he seemed to have a smile on his face the whole time, even as he moved back to enter the house.

"Oh! Almost forgot!" he suddenly stopped himself to look back at them, "You gotta fire up that generator so you can see where you're going. It can get dark out there..."

"Ah, right. Roger that!" Mike said. With that Josh departed them completely by re-entering the house.

"You know, I think Josh was flirting with me," Jess suddenly said when the door had closed. Mike in turn gave her a confused look at that seemingly random statement.

"Okay...? You wanna invite him up with us...?" Jess' coy smile held for a moment, before slowly turning into one of equal confusion to his own. She glanced towards the door and back to him again.

"Wait, really?"

"What? No!" Mike shook his head. He simply held his hand out to lead the way for his girl to make her way down the stairs. He himself followed close behind her, the flashlight he held in his hand illuminating the way.

Once the two of them had cleared the wood of the steps and far enough out from the house, it was here that the wind could be felt even colder. A sharp, chipper chill of air nipping at their faces. It was times like these Mike was thankful he decided to wear like two sets of jackets on, despite how he was still kicking himself for forgetting to bring gloves.

Nearby was a small wooden fence that blocked off an almost sheer drop with a small bench right in front of it. As Jess quickly made her way closer to the fence, Mike couldn't help but notice that space right behind her. The trees looked like they'd been cleared away, which opened up more space for the sky and the moon to be seen. In fact, the way the moon was shining down on his woman right now, it was really nice; romantic even.

Speaking of Jess, she turned around suddenly to face him, a smile on her face and her phone in hand.

"Hey hot-lips! Photobooth?" she held her phone out towards him.

"Alright! Read my mind...!" he hastily agreed. He took the phone in his hand and then positioned himself behind her. He always loved being in this position; the 'standing spooning' Jess had once called it. He wrapped his left arm around her waist and held the phone out and in front of them with his other hand. Though that hand fumbled a little as he tried to aim it just right. Jess' phone had that button on the side that took the picture, which would make it a little easier. Finally, after a moment's hesitation, his finger held the button to take the picture. The camera's light glowed for a second and then flashed instantly. The two then relaxed their poses and Mike handed the phone back to Jess.

"Oh my god!" she beamed as she looked at the pic her boyfriend had taken, "This is perfect! We're like the cutest couple!"

"Damn!" Mike agreed, "You should be a model!" His coy remark earned him a coy smile from his girl.

"You keep this camera handy and maybe I'll let you start my portfolio...!" she said before putting her hand lovingly on his shoulder, "At the cabin...!"

"Wink! Noted...!" One more smile exchanged between the two, and they were back to walking along the snow-covered trail.

The path took them into the thick of the forest. Trees stretched up and overhead in an almost natural tunnel, shielding them from most of the light of the moon by now. The absence of light was light was a little unnerving, but at least the snow and the snowflakes seemed to be letting up a bit. Besides, Mike wasn't scared of the dark; especially when he had this handy flashlight in his hand. And his girlfriend was right here in front of him, practically like he could reach out and hold her in his arm.

They'd be doing more than embracing though, once they got to the cabin.

"Brrr, it is freezing out here!" he heard Jess say in front of him.

"That's something I can help you with," Mike's thoughts were brought back to those of embracing her yet again.

"And how are you gonna do that...?"

"I got a few things in mind..." he remarked. He couldn't see it from her head still facing forward, but he could somehow tell that she liked that. She liked these 'smooth' lines he was giving her just as much as he was coming up with them. That in itself was half the fun he had with her these days. The other half of course involved more... physical activities.

The path began to curve a little to the left, and Mike made sure to adjust the light beam accordingly so Jess wouldn't be thrown off where to go. She proceeded safely, but not before Mike happened to notice something. There was something on the opposite side of the trail, something stuck to one of the trees that seemed to have been hammered into it. A 'no trespassing' sign that was drooping a little from one of the nails having been removed.

'Not a lot of TLC for this place anymore...' he thought in his mind as he walked, 'Kind of a bummer.' Josh always knew how to throw the best parties at this big lodge house of his, compared to nowadays when hardly any of them came up here. The guy always seemed a bit on the 'weird' side to him, but Mike liked him well enough.

"Emily..." he heard Jess suddenly speak up in front of him before slowing down to look back at him, "That bitch is as dumb as she looks if she thinks she can cut in on what 'we' got going on!" It wasn't hard to figure out what Jess was referring to; that whole 'cat-fight' that she and Em had when the latter came into the lodge.

"Maybe if we're lucky, she'll try and follow us out here and get... eaten by a bear!"

Instead of smiling at her barb, Mike found himself frowning just a little. He tried not to make it look so obvious in front of his girlfriend, and he hoped she wouldn't see too much. It just wasn't feeling right for him to trash on Emily, after they'd had their 'talk' before they got to the lodge. She had told him of how she missed those days before, from last year, like she was still carrying the torch for him. But it was over; he had made the choice himself to move on from her. Why and how could he still be having these nagging thoughts about her after all this time, and after he was the one that broke things off in the first place?

"Ah, yeah... she's a handful. But... maybe ease up on her...?" he carefully suggested, "She's still kinda being torn up about being dumped-"

"Um hello?" Jess cut in while putting her hands on her hips, "Not my problem, Mike, and not yours either!" This time a frown could easily be seen on Jess' face. His girlfriend, that was standing directly in front of him, and from something he said. This was definitely not a good sign, especially if he still wanted to get to the 'fun stuff' at the cabin like they wanted...

"Well, yeah. I mean how's it my fault she doesn't understand what 'beat it, ya skank' means?" he tried to feed a line to her that he was certain she'd like to hear. To his credit, the frown on her face began to fade slowly back into her coy smile she held before.

"Yeah! Like crack a dictionary much, beyotch?" she said with a wave of her hand before moving on down the trail. Once her back was completely turned to him, Mike gave a small shake of his head before following after her. He silently hoped they wouldn't be talking much more about Em in the future. Not when there would be more important things going on.

The two very soon made their way towards a snow-covered fence. Upon the metal of the gate itself, the small button above the handle could be seen. Mike stepped forward and pressed his finger against the button, only to be met with nothing happening at all.

"Huh, guess this thing needs juice or something..." he said.

"Didn't Josh say there was a generator?" Jess asked. Her question caused him to instinctively step back and look along the fence itself to the right. The answer came in the form of a small shed, barely taller than the two of them, which practically welcomed anyone with a door that looked like it had been frozen open.

"Oh yeah, there we go..." he said, "Why don't you wait here? I'll take care of this..."

"Ok hun, good luck!" Jess called out to him.

Mike made his way crunching through the snow closer to the opened shed. From behind it the trees stretched up and above it, which seemed to cover the shed in even more shadow. It must have been the really dark feeling of this shade, because Mike was beginning to feel a bit of a chill going down his spine. Not from the outward snow, but somehow within his very being. It was almost as if he was being watched. Not from Jess whom he knew was behind him, but someone or some 'thing' else...

"Mike! Generator!"

Mike was broken from his momentary state of unease at the sound of her voice. He shook his head a little and was reminded of where he was: standing a mere few feet in front of the shed's door having paused there for a second or two.

"R-Right! Got it...!" Mike said with a shake of his head. A couple more steps and he entered the shed itself.

The room itself was wooden and rustic, with a single red light glowing in the corner that broke the darkness. A wooden shelf could be seen on the right side with a couple of empty jars laying on each one. And sure enough, the generator itself was there against the wall, underneath a window behind it.

"Alright! Let's see..." Mike said to himself. He recalled in his mind the instructions Josh had given him for how to get this thing to work. 'Flip the switch then pull the crank', sounds easy enough. But, where was the switch...?

He pulled open a small lid-flap and was greeted by the sight of another small, red glowing light. The illumination it provided showed him his target: a small switch directly beneath it. Upon flipping the switch, the light instantly changed from red to yellow. Looks like that did something right; maybe red meant like 'off' or 'not working' while yellow itself meant 'good to get started'.

"Boom! Nice one Mikey...!" he congratulated himself.

Once that was done he reached his hand back down to take hold of the crank handle. From the way it was meant to be pulled straight out, this was probably one of those pull-cords on those old push-lawnmowers he'd seen his dad do once. This should be simple enough too. He pulled the cord once, but nothing happened, then upon pulling firmly again, a small puff of black smoke burst out from the front. This was quickly followed up by the sound of the generator surely cranking to life.

He then stepped back and looked back around towards Jess' direction, just in time to see two sets of lights turn on.

"Woo! You are a wizard!" he heard Jess call out to him from outside. Mike didn't even try to hid a smile on his face. Score one more for impressing his girl!

"Heh, just call me Magic Mike!" he said as he stepped out of the shed.

"Ooh! Me likey, Mikey!" she smirked back at him. He could hear her following close behind her as the two of them returned to the gate. The unlock button itself this time had a small glowing red light upon it, signifying its power it now had. His finger pressed the button again, and this time was met with both the red light turning green and a small buzzer and unlocking sound within the gate itself.

"Shazaam!" Mike took hold of the large handle and pulled it up, allowing the gate to swing outward, "The gates shall open...!" He deliberately held the gate outward and provided room to allow Jess to walk on through first. His girl gave him a quick approving nod and he soon followed close behind, taking a moment first to pull the gate shut behind him.

"Pretty good, right...?" She could be heard saying. It was then clear that Jess had pulled out her phone and had a song playing on it. Sounded like one of those songs from that girl band she was crazy about, though Mike for the life of him could never remember what it was called.

"Oh, yeah! Totally, that's... awesome..." He could hear his own voice drifting off along with his visual gaze as it fell down towards Jess'... pants. He was totally looking at her jeans just now, of course! Definitely not looking at anything else belonging to his girl...!

"Aw yeah! I bring the hits!" Jess on the other hand didn't seem to notice his eyes drifting to all parts of her in that moment, being so fixated on the song she was playing. So with her leading the way slightly in front of him, Mike followed after her with his flashlight lighting the way for the both of them.

Their walk took them over what they could see as a stone bridge, with snow-tipped wood railings on each side. The sound of rushing water could be heard in the dark beneath the bridge. Upon reaching the end of the bridge, Jess and Mike made their way up a set of wooden steps, the path slowly leaning to the left and around a natural rise of land.

"You psyched yet?" Jess asked, looking back over her shoulder towards him, "You don't look psyched yet."

"Oh I am SO psyched right now...!" Mike reassured her with a smile.

"It's like a little adventure...! A 'sex-capade'!" The boy chuckled a little at her corny joke. By now the two had finished their walk up the steps and were completely wrapping around the curve of the path. Mike knew that the path up to the guest cabin itself was going to be filled with a lot more of these twists and turns from when Josh showed it to him last time. If only it didn't have to be so freezing cold this particular night, it wasn't doing good things for 'certain' parts of his physique right now. Still, if there was any consolation in this trek, it was that his girlfriend was with him, looking as 'hot' as ever, and heading out to the same place he was. He was confident he and her could soldier on for a few more miles or so.

That is until Jess came to a stop to look at something.

"Police tape...?" The faded yellow of the tape stood out against the drab gray of the forest trees, even in the shadow of the night. The ends of the pieces of tape flapped about with the breeze of the wind while staying wrapped into the branches themselves. As if they were permanently held in place with nothing at all able to remove them.

"From Hannah and Beth..." Mike said.

"You'd think they'd clean this up...?" Jess said, giving him a rather serious side-ways look. Even a year later Mike could remember the 'aftermath' from that day. In addition to the constant questioning he'd gotten the following days, he was also unfortunate to catch news footage of the Washington lodge on TV, with this very police tape being set up in various locations on the property. It was like this for the next few months, at least as Mike knew or care to know. After that, either he himself was able to tune out to the updates, or the police themselves must have lost interest in this case. But whichever way, the painful fact remained that Hannah and Beth were no longer with them to this day.

"Well... they never closed the investigation," Mike reminded her.

"Ok I'm... getting the creeps now," Jess said, with a little bit of waver in her voice. Mike could very well understand how she was feeling. However, as much as he understood that, he himself didn't feel the sting of guilt on the same level as her. Beth he saw as the resident 'mom-friend' of theirs, always making sure they didn't get into too much trouble, yet somehow not being a complete party pooper at the same time. And Hannah... well, girls like her just didn't appeal to him much. She was always so quiet and shy. He missed the two girls, sure, but neither of them did anything for him beyond being just friends. In fact, that night's chaos was a little fuzzy on some details for him, even to this day.

"Was all such a blur..." he said, then gave a shrug, "I can barely even remember what happened."

"Well, what I remember is that we played... a stupid, half-baked prank, that probably got Hannah and Beth killed-!" Jess wasted little time in speaking in for him. From the way she described this so frantically, it felt like she'd been wanting to say it for a while. She was sounding really bad about this to Mike, which was strange considering he remembered the prank being her idea to start with. And the look on her face was showing that she wasn't feeling good about this either.

"Hey," he cut in to try and console her, "I mean... I-It's not 'our' fault that... that they ran into the woods, right?" It was true, wasn't it? They were just playing a prank, but not for something that could really 'hurt' them. And yet what happened was that they ended up dead or missing... But still, was that really their fault?

"Yeah well..." Jess said with a shake of her head, "How could anybody have expected them to do a dumb thing like that...?" With that Jess moved to walk back along the trail. Mike silently followed after her, but his mind held some lingering thoughts. Was it necessary for Hannah to just run out like she did? He'd be the first to admit he didn't know her that well to know if she would.

For all these thoughts in his head, the main thing on his mind right now was the look on Jess' face. She seemed to be really hurt by this, and sounded like it too. Just how bad was this affecting her? And why hadn't she brought this up before? Maybe he could put on his special 'Mike Charms' for her at the cabin, to make her feel better.

Mike came to a sudden stop, upon hearing something. Some kind of noise could be heard, distant, and on the wind. It somehow sounded like a screech, but Mike couldn't not listen in any closer as it was gone as instantly as it had happened. It still caused him to look all around the dark of the woods, trying to hear where it came from. From out of the corner of his eye, the sound must have gotten Jess' attention as well.

"Did... you hear that?" she asked.

"I heard... something...?" Mike said, tracing the light of the flashlight at different spots of the trees. A few seconds of scanning, neither of them could see anything, nor heard the sound again. A shrug of his shoulders yet a fresh chill through his spine, Mike led Jess back along the trail. At the risk of calling himself crazy, Mike was almost certain what he heard was like a scream. But it wasn't like any scream he'd heard before...

After one more set of ascending wooden steps however, the two were forced to stop again. The path before them clearly curved a little to the left. Or rather it would have taken them to the left, if not for it being blocked off by what seemed to be a bit of a snowslide blocking the path. A huge snowdrift, choked with dirt and massive tree roots. The entire mess lay completely across the trail, with no clear signs of an opening around it.

"Damn..." Mike traced the light of the flashlight along the obstruction, "I don't think we can get up to the cabin with the path blocked like this..."

"Oh well no WAY am I going back to the lodge, a.k.a 'Wax Museum', to drink hot chocolate with Emily!" Jess said with a wave of her hand. After a few seconds of surveying, Mike gave up on the left-most path they would've gone. Instead he inspected the opposing side. A small rise of snow-covered rocks, with a hollowed out section concealing a separate trail that led to the right, as opposed the left-most trail they would've gone.

"You know what? Fuck it!" Jess declared, walking along the right side trail, "We're adventurous! We will find another way around!" With Mike following directly behind her, the two of them walked along the new trail that gradually drew them into the entrance of a small cavern. Before them lay some wooden boards that were lined up vertically against the 'walls' of the rock, probably to act as braces or something.

The path had come to an abrupt halt as indicated by a board set up like a roadblock in front of them. Jess stepped forward to place her hands on them, only to let out a yelp as she must have leaned forward against them. The board itself echoed its snap throughout the empty cave, along with Jess' yelp as she fell forward.

"JESS!" Mike cried out in alarm. He rushed forward, at least as close as he could get to the edge without falling in himself. He could feel his heart racing in his chest as he looked into the dark, trying to see his girlfriend. He couldn't see anything, causing his worry to increase along with his heartbeat.

"Fuck...!" he cursed, "Hey, Jessica-?!"

"Yep, kay! I'm okay!" Jess' voice could be heard. Mike also saw the image of Jess standing up from the ground, about ten feet below where he was right now. The dark itself obscured most of what he could see, but from the looks of it Jess didn't look like she was hurt.

"Holy crap, you scared the heck out of me!" he said in relief.

"Well how do you think I felt?!" Jess spun around and looked back up at him from below. She must not be hurt that badly if she was still able to talk like normal to him.

"Er, you didn't hit your head, or anything...?" he asked her.

"As far as I can tell, I still have all seven of my limbs!" Jess could be seen holding out her arms, and showing off her still-magnificent body, even in the dark. Even in this intense moment Mike couldn't help but smile at his girlfriend 'keeping things in perspective'.

"Ah yeah, um..." he said, this time looking all around at what he could see she was standing in. There seemed to be more wooden boards down there, along with some pieces of metal, and even metal drums of some kind, "Can you get out?"

"I... I don't know!" Jess took a few steps around, looking at where she landed as well. She would look back up at Mike, where a worried expression could be seen on her face by now, "I can hardly see anything down here...!"

"Alright well... Here I'm coming after you! Stay put!" Mike declared without hesitation. It didn't look to be that far of a drop, and he'd be ready to land on his feet, however far down it was.

"Ok hold on, let me step back..." Jess took a couple steps backward to allow him space. Mike had soon dropped down to one foot, then with a heave, dropped down below. He hit the ground on his feet with a thud, but quickly regained his stance before Jess. The girl's face still held worry, but a smile could be seen on it again as she rejoined him close.

"Well, nice of you to 'drop in'!" she said with a nervous laugh, to which Mike laughed a little as well. Now that the two of them were literally on the same level, Mike turned his light around to get a better view of where they were. What they had in fact landed on was a kind of wooden floor, with two sets of metal rails running along their length. Unfortunately little more could be seen further than five feet, as what looked to be a massive metal mining cart stood before them. The tunnel itself narrowed inwards on both sides of the cart as well, with barely an inch of space between.

"Hey handsome! Wanna help me move this cart thing?" Jess had already advanced towards the back of the metal cart and was gesturing to it. Mike pressed both of his hands against it and pushed. He wasn't expecting however the thing to be quite so heavy, and the cart barely budged a few centimeters forward on its squeaky wheels.

"Here help me move it, help me move it..." he motioned to Jess to help him.

"Ok-!" Jess quickly placed her hands on the cart alongside his own and began to push too. The combined effort of the two of them was a definite improvement with the cart rolling forward much faster this time. In no time the cart had rolled forward and had opened up the pathway for the two of them to step through. Once their pushing was enough, the two of them stepped back to relax their muscles.

"When I imagined us grunting together... 'this' is not what I pictured!" Mike jokingly remarked. Beside him Jess gave a little laugh at his quip. This was good he thought, helping Jess relax and not scared. Maybe now the two of them could press on and find some way out of this... cave.

The first thing Mike noticed was the ceiling up above. Not only was it really rocky, but it was also really low, like nearly touching his own head. He could feel an unconscious need to duck a little bit as he began to walk forward and behind Jessica. On each side of them was also wood, whether used in wooden planks for bracing in the walls, or wooden carts that were knocked off the tracks and lay on their sides. This was one creepy cave alright, but thankfully this tunnel didn't seem to go on forever. Shining the light directly in front of them, the path before them seemed to break off into two different directions, one left and one right.

Mike frowned to himself as he considered something. Which direction was best that they go? Guess they'd have to move on up to get a better-

Movement caught his eye from the right side path, and Mike felt his nerves flare up into action. Beside him Jess also let out a yelp as something was quickly upon them, accompanied by the sound of rolling wheels. Another mine cart was barrelling down the tracks from the right side path and rolling towards them!

Thinking quickly, Mike braced his feet in back of him and reached his hands out to catch the cart in front of him. The sheer size and mass of the cart could instantly be felt against his smaller frame, but nonetheless slowed to a crawl before him.

"Whoa whoa WHOA!" he grunted as the cart finally came to a complete stop.

"Oh, holy CRAP!" Jess said as well. Mike rolled himself away and out of the path of the cart completely, stepping around and in front of it, "Oh my gosh, are you okay?!"

"Argh..." Mike rubbed his hands from the sudden action of pushing another cart away from him, "Yep... Yeah, I'm fine." Jess' face couldn't be seen as clearly in the dark of the cave, but what Mike could see of her was her look of concern. As best he could he returned her look with a reassuring one of his own, before urging the two to press onward.

The two made their way up to the 'break' in the path, taking the time to look down the right side path that the cart had come from. However, the path down that way didn't lead very far with the small cave-in of wood boards and rocks in the way.

"Huh, cart must have slipped on something over there..." Mike said with a shrug. This meant their only remaining path was the left side path, which was in fact a set of wooden steps that would take them up to... somewhere.

"Whoa nellie..." Jess said from behind him, "This place is giving me the willies. And not the good kind of willies."

"Can I offer you a little... 'comfort and reassurance'?" Mike tried to playfully ask her. To his credit, he did hear a small, nervous laugh from her in response.

"Save it for the cabin, buster," she said. With Mike leading the way, the two carefully made their way up these old wooden steps. Who knew just how old these steps were, if they could ever hold one's weight anymore. Here's also hoping that nothing else was gonna pop out at them while they were climbing up them neither. At least he was in front of Jess this time, ready for whatever, if anything, might happen.

To his relief, nothing could be seen in the dark near the top of the steps. The wooden steps ended with a more widened room opening up before them, tho still blanketed in darkness and a light chill in the air. Yet another forked pathway lay before them, with again the left side path seemingly extending out further than the rightmost path. In fact, yet again the right side didn't seem to lead anywhere with only a wooden wall in the way. Out of impulse the pair would've proceeded down the left side path, had it not been for something that caught Mike's eye.

Resting on top of an old metal drum directly in front of them was something small and brown, with a small bit of what smelt like smoke emanating from it. Mike stepped up closer to investigate, taking the small object in between his fingers.

"Huh... a stogie..." He turned the burnt butt in his fingers to inspect the snuffed out ashes within the base.

"Weird place to hang out and smoke cigars..." Jess commented beside him.

"It's recent..." Mike noted, having seen the small bits of smoke the cigar butt still produced, "Was someone else up here...?" Aside from a strange red sticker on the butt from some brand that Mike didn't recognize, there was little else special about it at all, so he placed it back down where he found it. He then turned the flashlight to the right side wall to find that it was not completely barren.

Upon the wall was a strange assortment of feathers held alongside each other on a single piece of string, as well as a couple of animal-looking skulls probably nailed up in place. There were even a couple of those 'dream-catcher' things that he remembered seeing in his hometown gift shop a couple years back; the kind he'd seen Native American people use.

"Whoa..." he said aloud as he traced the light along the wall to showcase everything, "This place is like... historical."

"Holy Batcave," Jess said behind him. As his light slowly dragged along the wall, his attention was brought to a strange drawing of some kind of 'horned skull' shape. It was drawn with what might have been permanent marker from how black it appeared to be. It was a freaking looking image, with its antler-like horns and its gnashing teeth.

"This has gotta be Native American, right?" he said.

"I don't think it was miners that were getting their 'arts n' crafts' on, no," Jess replied nervously.

"Nah it's like a... shrine, or something," Mike said before stepping back with a shrug away from this strange wall.

"But a shrine to what...?" Jess asked, albeit rhetorically. She followed his example and directly behind him as the two of them set out back along the other ended pathway-

A massive snapping of wood burst out through the cave. The two teens' eyes were surprised by a sudden piece of supporting plank falling down from the ceiling directly in front of them. Mike and Jess let out yelps of their own as they jumped back. A mere few more feet forward and that wood might've fallen right on top of them!

"Whoa..." Mike put his hand on Jess' shoulder, "You alright?"

"Y-yeah," she said, "That was a close one."

"This place is really not up to code..." Mike carefully leaned in to shine the light up towards where the beam had just fallen from.

"Yeah I'm thinking it's... time to go," Jess urged him a little impatiently. Mike complied with a nod and led the way along where this left-most path would take them.

With the light shining in front of them, the pair could see more of this strange, old-timey looking machinery that was left over in this mine. The left side of this tunnel was only a jagged, irregular shaped wall of natural rock, while the right side held more wooden man-made things on it. Massive gears hooked up to mechanisms that even were definitely rusted over without light needing to indicate to them.

The two walked past a wooden table when Mike took a moment to slow down. He glanced down and to the side at the table top and what lay upon it. His light wasn't shining directly upon it, but residual light still indicated some kind of blueprint. Or maybe this was some kind of map, probably to this very cavern the two of them were walking in, with several sections being scratched over with red writing to indicate various warnings.

"Jesus..." he said to himself, "This place is a real fixer upper." If this was being read right, it seemed like no part of this cavern place was the least bit safe. Not that it ever seemed safe to begin with. He shook his head and resumed leading the two on. Through this room led to another cavern-like hallway, just as narrow and confining as that first one he'd gone through. The walls and ceiling here felt so cramped and confining, almost as if they were pushing in and down towards him and Jess.

The light shone forward and would occasionally fall upon Jess as she walked forward. The light would illuminate curves in the tunnel that indicated where they were to walk. He could only imagine what she must be feeling right now; what if this tunnel led to a dead end? Where would they end up? Trapped inside this place for... who knows how long?

"Ah, finally! A little ray of hope...!" Jess suddenly declared. After walking a number of curves through this tunnel, some actual outdoor light could be seen! The light gave better view to the wooden plank braces seen lining the walls the closer they drew to it.

After a couple more tentative steps, the pair were greeted once again to the feeling of actual fresh air, in all its cold, frozen wonder. The ground slowly turned from solid rock to snow-covered ground and the light misty air was quickly replaced by the harsh chill of snowflake filled wind. Light had largely come from moonlight reflected off the snow before them, but another source of light could be seen as a yellow light-post through the trees off to their right side. Upon exiting the cave, Mike couldn't help but allow one more glance back towards it as they walked further from it, before turning around to walk along the 'proper' trail.

This proper trail they now snow-crunched through took them to yet another dual-path before them. This time however a quick inspection of the left side path showed them the other end of the snow-filled landfall that had blocked them off in the first place. The same one that had forced them to take that really wild detour through an abandoned mine.

"I guess that's where we would've come from..." Jess noted.

The two of them trudged their way across the snow-covered trail until another set of wooden steps lay out before them. To avoid any uncertainty as to where they might be, a wooden sign with the word 'cabin' scratched on an arrow pointing up the steps was there to guide them.

"Well well, when Josh said cabin I thought like... 'Abe Lincoln'," Jess said aloud as she started up the steps first, with Mike following closely behind her.

"Heh, wait til you see the Lincoln Bedroom!" he cleverly remarked.

"Oh-ho! You planning on getting 'presidential' on me...?" Jess glanced back behind her to throw him a saucy look. What would be a good way to follow that up with?

"Eh..." Mike started, then took a moment to wrack his brain before speaking again, "Wanna take a ride on 'Air Force One'?" He threw back an attempt at a saucy look of his own back to her as he said that. His effort earned him a look bigger smile from Jess before she looked back up towards where she walked.

"Heh alright alright, save it for the stump speech, buddy...!" Mike couldn't resist a chuckle of his own along with her. How he couldn't get enough of their 'sexy talk' they had with each other. Definitely something that Emily was lacking in that department that's for sure...

The steps they walked finally ended, and a wooden platform lay before them. This looked like a place for tourists to stop and rest on the nature hike, complete with a bench, a poster with various creatures on it, and a small stone wall erected up in front of an overlook. A single silver-colored telescope would be seen against the metal railing of the wall as well.

"Oh, a telescope!" Jess hastily made her way up to it and proceeded to look through it, she aimed the scope up higher in various directions, "Gonna look at the trees... Gonna look at the clouds..." She then turned the scope lower and more towards the ground, "Gonna look at the cabi-" She abruptly cut herself off as she pulled her head up from the viewing lens, before pulling herself back again to look through again, "Uh... whoa."

"You alright?" Mike said, slightly concerned from the sudden shift in her tone from earlier. She stepped away from the telescope completely, the look of concern on her face mirroring her tone she had suddenly spoken with.

"I... thought I saw someone at the cabin just now..." she said. Mike found himself raising an eyebrow at that statement. Someone at the cabin? That's crazy! Who could possibly be up here on this freezing cold mountain and at this time of night? Still, the slightly worried look on Jess' face remained in place.

"Okaaay? Let me see then..." he offered and leaned himself in to peer through the telescope lens. Immediately the side of the wooden cabin could be seen, a good healthy distance away. Almost like the Washington's lodge, the lower half of the wall was in fact a set of stones built up to shield against the snow, with brown wood comprising the upper half. The front porch itself could almost be seen as well, if not for that rock obstruction blocking the way. The cabin's light shone through the dark of the night with its dull yellow glow through its upper window. A couple of trees also were spotted directly in front of the cabin's structure, their shadow instead creating a silhouetted image of-

"Ow!" Mike suddenly pulled his face away from the telescope, a result of something stinging his eye.

"W-what?! Are you alright?" Jess quickly asked as Mike rubbed his eye.

"Ah yeah..." the boy said, "Just a... snowflake got in my eye, or something..." With that he pulled his face back up to the telescope to look through it once again. The familiar image of the cabin greeted his vision yet again. And just like before, he couldn't see any signs of any 'someone' also there at the cabin, no matter where he turned his gaze and the scope.

After a few more seconds of scanning, he gave up and pulled himself away from the telescope completely. Jess' look still held concern as he he returned hers with his own of resignation.

"Been sampling the ol' eggnog again, babe? It's just us up here!" he told her simply. Jess' look slowly but surely faded away, with her nervous smile returning in its place.

"Um... maybe," she resigned as well. With that Mike turned to walk away from the telescope itself. Really, someone being out here in the woods? That was some crazy thought if he'd ever heard one.

The nearby fence held a gate that would set them back on the trail. It was a sharp contrast from the previous gate, as it was so old fashioned that Mike could simply lift up the handle on its top and push it outward. Nothing at all like that high-tech gate that was connected to shed's generator way back there.

Before Mike made his way towards that however, something else caught his attention. A tourist post with various pictures on it. Up close he could see images of a wolf, a deer, and a bear, along with some words describing them or something.

"Hey Jess?" he called out.

"Mm-hm?" she answered back to him.

"Stay close by, ok?"

"What's up?" Mike dragged the light slowly across the image of the middle-most carnivore, illuminating its threatening image.

"Um... this posting says there's some brown bears up here sometimes..." Mike finally stepped back from the posting. He hadn't seen any bears up here on this mountain before, but it was probably best not to tempt fate or something. He snow-crunched his way towards the gate and lifted the gate handle to open it up completely.

"Oh, Michael! I have the BEST idea!" Jess suddenly declared from behind him. As he pushed the gate inward to allow her to go first, he looked back over to her to acknowledge her.

"What?"

"Let's go hug a bear!"

Wait, what? Did he hear her right? 'Hug a bear'? What the heck?

"Come on please? Come on...!" Mike's face twisted in absolute confusion as he could muster. The look on her face only fueled that feeling as well; she was suggesting this with her usual 'happy-go-lucky' self. Almost as if she were serious about this. Granted it was nice that she wasn't as 'concerned-worried' as she was before, this was still a strange thing to just randomly bring up.

"Um..." Mike found himself so dumbstruck he almost struggled to find the correct words to respond, before finally managing with, "Let's... 'not', hug a bear!" He simply motioned for her to pass on through the gate first. Jess proceeded through with a slight bound in her step, with Mike following right behind her and closing the gate back. Really, Jess could be so crazy sometimes...

The path led in a downward slope of more snow-covered wooden steps, which Mike and Jess took care in stepping down them this time. In addition the surrounding trees on both sides of the path seemed to be a little more thicker, which wasn't allowing much in the way of moonlight to shine through. Mike held his trusty flashlight out before him and Jess, guiding the both of their steps to make sure they were going the right way.

After the path gently curved to the right on its downward slope, it slowly began to even out onto flatter ground again. Mike could see before him that Jess had made her way closer to another wooden fence, with a deeper set of woods laying out beyond it. The faintest light of moonlight revealed a river reflecting its light on the water. The way the path was about to curve again was indication that they'd be crossing over the river, in addition to the wooden bridge before them. However, that wasn't the only thing Mike could see.

The light of his flashlight was not directly pointed at it, but Mike could see the faint outline of a deer! An actual deer, standing there at the edge of the river! Maybe it was drinking from it right now. He glanced forward towards Jess to see if she had seen it. So far though she hadn't said anything, which only led Mike to believe she hadn't seen it yet. Maybe he could point it out to her quietly without scaring it. The deer certainly hadn't seen them yet, as it remained stationary and drinking from the river's edge.

Mike tried to take more lighter steps forward towards Jess, an attempt to limit the sound of his feet crunching the snow beneath him-

Mike's world suddenly exploded in a world of screeching and feathers. He was faintly aware that he had let out a yelp of surprise as well. In his sudden haste he flailed his arms in front of him, desperate to shake off what ever was attacking him. Or, was something attacking him?

Just as quickly as whatever that was had happened, it was gone. In its place was the sound of Jess' laughter. His vision cleared and his nerves calmed down slightly, he was allowed to take stock over what had just happened. Something had just jumped out so directly in front of him and scared him!

"Watch out, Bird Brain!" Jess remarked. What? That was a bird that had scared him? Mike's nerves were still a little on fire from the surprise, but he was kicking himself inside as well. To let something as small as a bird scare him like that? What was wrong with him?

He looked over at Jess' general direction of both her and that deer he meant to tell her about. Unfortunately, the latter could no longer be seen anymore. Likely it had been scared off? Mike suddenly felt worry within himself; had Jess heard him scream like that as well just now? He hoped not, he had an image to keep after all!

"I was just..." Mike thought a little on a clever comeback for what had just happened, "Just answering the mating call!"

"Wow! You're easy!" Jess said. The face she made suggested she was amused, but Mike couldn't exactly tell if she was being sarcastic or not. What did matter though is that she wasn't making fun of him for screaming like that, which was good.

"Yeah, got a lotta love to give!" Mike added, followed up with a quick wink of his eye towards her. Another smile with a head tilt from her, and Mike knew he had succeeded. He had completely averted that little crisis! He had managed to turn something embarrassing for him into something he could work with! Even the little strut Jess was doing as she continued to walk back down the trail suggested he had really impressed her. Still, while he was feeling pleased with himself just now, he could still feel his nerves still shaken from that whole thing.

"That was scary..." he said to himself out earshot as he followed after her. The two then proceeded to cross over the wooden bridge, a contrast from the stone bridge they had crossed over earlier. Before they completely reached the other side, Mike glanced off to the opposing side's river's edge to see if any more deer could be seen there. There were none to be seen though, which led Mike to believe that deer sighting was probably a one-time thing at this point. Wouldn't that be something though, to be surrounded by nature's creatures during which he and Jess were up at the cabin doing... fun things, with each other? So long as there weren't any bears to hug or be hugged, Mike was happy.

The two finally reached the other end of the bridge, leaving it and the sound of flowing river water behind them. The path stretched out before them was wider across, with a nearby sign and the word 'cabin' etched into its face nearby. They were definitely on the right trail, literally, or so Mike thought.

Blocking their path yet again, was another snowfall. This time looked to be a massive tree had fallen over in front of them, with piles of snow encasing it in addition. Mike came to a slow stop before the obstruction.

"Goddammit Josh," he said with a sigh, "Could you have at least cleared out the path 'before' sending us up here...?"

"Really?" Jess looked at him with a somewhat skeptical look.

"What?"

"I didn't figure you for the 'glass half empty' type," she clarified. What the heck was she talking about? With this massive pile of snow and trees blocking their way, what was one to think?

"You got a better idea?" he motioned towards the pile. Her reply was to flash him a quick smirk before spinning in place and facing the obstruction again.

"Stand back, Debbie Downer!" she announced. Before Mike could register who she just referred to him as, she was already off. She quickly rushed up to the edge of the tree itself and was climbing up it! In no time at all she was standing well atop the entire thing, like she was queen of the world! Not that she wasn't already a queen to him...

"Oh, booo! Show off!" Mike playfully called out behind her. Jess slowly spun around in place atop where she stood to look down at him.

"Hey Mike! You got something on your face!" she pointed out to him. Mike found himself reaching his free hand up to feel his face. What was on his-

A splash of cold instantly struck his face. Oh, that's what that was; she was planning to pick back up on their earlier snow-ball fight?

"Ok, ok...!" He could feel the blood running hot in that moment, despite there literally being ice on his face. This was only gonna add to this excitement! He reached down to clump up snow into a snowball and quickly brought himself standing straight up again.

"If that's how it's gonna be-!" Mike cocked his hand back to throw his snowball, but stopped abruptly. His smile of excitement faded from his face upon seeing that Jess was no longer standing where she was. In fact, she was gone completely from atop the snowslide pile entirely.

Mike let the snowball drop from his hand as he looked on in confusion.

"Jess...?" he gently called out. Almost immediately, the a sound ripped through the air and reached his ears. The sound of an ear-splitting scream! Was that from Jess?!

"Jess-!?"


The water had completely drained by now, leaving the bathtub empty again. Sam stood at the edge of the porcelain tub with a hand dipped in to feel the water that built up within. Her plan to 'immediately' take a bath upon getting to Josh's lodge apparently needed to be pushed back a bit, once she was able to get the water hot enough first. She knew that this was upon on a snowy mountain, but this was ridiculous.

"Sammy...!" she suddenly heard Josh's voice call out from a few rooms away.

"What?" she called back.

"I got the fire going, sure you don't wanna experience it first?" Sam had to admit, from her luck with trying to get warmth to the tub here, warmth from a fire was sounding appealing right about now. She shook her head however, reminding herself that she likely wouldn't get cleaned from a fire in this case.

"Um, well, I thought I'd get into the bath first...!" she answered.

"Oh..." As Sam turned herself back to focus on the tub's water, Josh could be heard again, "Oh well do you need... any help, with that?"

"Hardy-har!" Sam mockingly replied. She looked back at the tub's faucets, deciding that she'd try this one more time. This time she turned the hot water faucet all the way open, leaving the cold water faucet alone completely. Water began to pour back down into the tub and quickly flowing down the drain. Sam reached her fingers into the edge of the built up water, with only the sensation of cold greeting them yet again.

"Come on..." she said as she tried waiting for the temperature to heat up slowly instead of immediately. A whole minute must have passed by before she completely gave up, "Alright Josh, let's see if you know how to hook up the hot water in your 'big fancy lodge'...!" Sam then turned the faucet off completely to cease the flow of water entirely, before stepping away from the edge of the tub. She rubbed her hands dry on the sides of her skirt. This was going nowhere and fast, which would only mean she'd have to do something or other if she was ever going to get her bath. Looks like it's time to find Josh.

She walked forward to the bathroom's door and stepped out into the hallway, before coming to a stop. Either she was hearing things, or maybe she actually did hear something just now. Something faint and sounded like a... a screech?

"What... was that...?" she looked all around the darkened hallway she stood in, completely uncertain as to where that sound could've come from, much less what it was. Eventually her drifting gaze came to a full stop as it rested upon something. There was a door there, but not just any door. That door was the one that led to Hannah's room. Upon seeing it, Sam could then almost hear Josh's voice from earlier in her head.

'Hey Sam, I know we all came to party real hard and all that, but... could you maybe not go in Hannah's or Beth's rooms? I kinda wanna keep everything as it was in there, you know...'

His words lingered in her mind, as well as his increasingly somber tone. Such a simple request, yet obviously held so much weight for him. Sam would've wanted nothing more than to abide by his wishes. And yet...

She also found she could scarcely deny the... the urge. This lingering feeling in the back of her head to satisfy a sudden burst of curiosity. Hannah was her best friend too, and she very much missed her. So... what all harm would there be in just... having a peek? Well, aside from this being the very thing Josh had told her NOT to do.

She quickly glanced over her shoulder towards the opposing door of the hallway. A quick clarification to remind her that Josh was not in fact suddenly standing there. This was only further confirmed from her remembering she had heard his voice not too long ago from probably the other side of the lodge, and from downstairs. He was probably with Chris and Ash right now, more or less focused on them...

Sam took a sharp breath; she was really doing this, so let's do it now.

She deftly made her way towards Hannah's door, taking care not to make too loud of footsteps as she walked. Once she got to the door she placed a tentative hand upon the doorknob and... felt a burst of surprise within herself as it had turned and opened to her! For someone who didn't want people to come in here maybe Josh should've locked it or something? She shook her head as she very carefully pushed the door inwards. Thankfully the door wasn't known to creak or anything when it moved so she didn't have to worry that hard about causing noise.

The room that beheld her was dark, almost unnaturally so. Even with the exception of the nearby windows on the right barely letting in moonlight through the blinded windows, it was almost unnerving how dark this room was. Almost immediately, Sam felt the urge to immediately turn back around and leave here, and not just because of residual fear Josh might suddenly discover her. But because of what exactly this room represented. A very dear friend of hers was no longer here in this room, or would ever be for that matter. She could feel the memories of years past when she and Hannah would hang out in this room, just talking about random stuff and having all kinds of fun. Past fun times in her head were sounding defeaning compared to the deathly silence of what lay before her in the present.

Still, despite the near complete darkness this room was wrapped in, Sam was able to identify plenty of things without any aid of light. Immediately to her left and dominating nearly the full size of the room was Hannah's bed. It was still perfectly made with a thick pink comforter lining the top of it, with a set of equally pink pillows presented at the head. She could recall last year having seen the inside of her room again and seeing the bed itself was messy and unmade, yet here it was now as if ready to be used again. Sam could feel her eyes start to sting from tears that threatened to fall yet again and she wiped her eyes. It was just so sad, seeing a bed that would no longer be used again...

As she turned her gaze rather hard away from the bed's general direction, her eyes came to rest upon something else to her right. Hannah's dresser lay directly beside her, also neatly organized with her various cosmetics. But something else rest on top of the vanity shelf that stood out from the rest; a small card-shaped piece of paper.

Sam reached down to pick the small card up in her hand. Inspecting closer, she could see the card was for a local tattoo parlor, with an artist's name and an extravagantly drawn logo of the establishment upon the front. What was this doing here-?

Sam's mental question was immediately answered upon turning the card over. There was another image on the back of a butterfly. Also just as immediately, memories flooded back into her mind of this very butterfly being on Hannah's shoulder! She remembered the first time she saw Hannah with that tattoo there, rather suddenly and out of the blue. Not that she was questioning her best friend's choices, after all it was her body, but she was nonetheless so curious as to why she had done so at all. But Hannah being as shy as she was back then always brushed her inquiries off with 'Oh, you know' or 'I just felt like it'. Worst part was now Sam may never get a clear answer as to why she did that. After all, asking Josh was absolutely out of the question...

Figuratively speaking of Josh, her head glanced back towards the door she had come in. Thank goodness there was no one there still, and no sounds to be heard from the hallway outside either. Might be best if she wrapped up her little impromptu snooping/ trip down memory lane.

Placing the card back down exactly where she found it she walked a little further into Hannah's room. Next to the window her desk could be seen with a large picture frame of what looked like New York City upon it. Just like with everything else, the various office supplies were neatly organized on the desktop, almost with the deadliest of care.

"Wow, all Hannah's stuff..." Sam softly spoke as she looked all around the far side of the wall. There were more pictures of herself and her family members lined up in more picture frames. Every one of their faces seemed to stare back at her, smiles of the past that were frozen in time it seemed like.

She then walked over to Hannah's thumbtack board, where she would hang up her calendar and other various trinkets and momentos. It was there that she saw another piece of paper just calling out to be viewed. It was recognizable too because Sam herself had received something exactly like this back then. The words 'Party' and 'Invite' were capitalized in massive stylized font on an already light-green colored paper. The invite to the party Mike was throwing back in July of 2013. She knew it was from Mike because where it was being held at was listed as 'Casa de Mike (my house!)' Overblown invitations and poor handwriting aside, she herself did show up there and had fun, as did Hannah. She did find it a little weird though that Hannah would choose to hold on to invitations like this, when normally people just throw them away after a bit.

Sam's eyes narrowed as her eyes caught sight of something. Underneath the invitation, something else could be seen behind it. She lifted up the bottom of the front paper to view what lay behind it.

Speak of the 'handsome devil' himself, there was Mike, in all his rugged, tuxedo-wearing glory! This had to have been when all of them were at the prom. She remembered him wearing this very same getup that night as well.

"Jeez Hannah, crush much...?" she asked. Again, guys like Mike didn't really do anything for Sam, but to each her own she supposed. Would've been nice if something good had actually come of this, instead of the stupid prank...

She let the paper fall back down to once again conceal Mike's picture. One more glance around the room, and Sam was feeling her somber trip down memory lane was just about done. Perhaps it was better she leave before her intrusion was actually recognized as that by Josh.

She took a single step towards the door when a single light crunch was heard. She almost didn't even hear it from how faint it sounded. But she did hear it; the sound of paper being crunched, as subtle as a small bird's wing flap, and very close by. She looked down to see that she was in fact standing upon a piece of paper, one of its edges jagged to show that it had been ripped. She lifted her foot and reached down to pick it up and bring it closer in view. The side she could see before her was that of a tropical beach, but with the added addition of a heart, and the letters 'MM' and 'HW' written inside of it in pink ink.

"Hello, could this be anymore about Mike...?" Sam said to herself. For some reason the strange image of those two on this very beach appeared in her mind. Hannah most likely would've had the biggest smile on her face if that would've actually happened.

Upon flipping the piece of paper over however, Sam's smile slowly turned into a frown. What she was now presented with was a clip of a magazine's 'compatibility surveys'. The Love Test this thing was called apparently. She mentally scoffed at the memory of these things, tricking young impressionable girls with opinions that no one in their right mind would ever think to tell them. This was only made more evident by the lower results option, 'Mostly Cs' circled in the same pink ink as was seen on the front side.

"'Uh-oh, this is not going to work...'," Sam silently read, "'...crazy, hunk of a man...' Wait, 'run away from home, or get a tattoo'?" Sam's eyes quickly darted back over to the dresser with the tattoo card laying atop it still. No way... could THAT have been the reason?! Hannah did something so crazy out-there like get a tattoo to impress a guy like Mike, all from what a phony relationship test told her?! Unbelievable! Sam shook her head with a small smile creeping up on her lips.

"Hannah..." she said, "Why hadn't you come to me about this? I'd have told you... something. Anything else you could've done, besides that..." If it weren't for this reasoning behind the tattoo, Sam might've been able to find absolute amusement from this whole thing. As it was though, she found herself with even more heavy thoughts, slowly leaning towards the more sadder side of things.

She finally dropped the piece of paper back to the floor. For real this time, it was about time she wrapped up her little round of snooping, before she was discovered. Getting caught for snooping around a late friend's room at the hands of their brother was not on her list of things to do this evening. She swiftly made her way back towards the door, slightly relieved to find that there was still no one there that might suddenly catch her. Before she exited completely, she glanced back to view the dark room one more time. After a moment, she stepped through the door, and took careful care to slowly and quietly close the door so that no one would be the wiser.

"Alright, that's done..." she said to herself, "Now then..." To her continued relief, Josh was nowhere to be seen in the immediate area. But now the question did remain of where exactly he was at this time. She remembered hearing his voice from a distance when he had called out to her earlier. He likely would be some other part of the lodge, like the living room or the kitchen.

The nearby windows on the sides of the wall shone their moonlight through the blinds, just like in Hannah's room, lighting up the hallway a little for Sam to see where she tread. As she entered the adjacent hallway though, she was almost immediately met with two creepy looking tribal masks mounted on the wall. In the light or at daytime they looked really cool, but now with minimal light, they just looked downright scary. They way they seemed to gaze their eyeless faces down upon her even though they clearly were aimed straight forward. Sam hastily made her way past them and along the hallway, taking a right past the slow-ticking grandfather clock.

Upon exiting into the grander living room's upper floor, the sound of muffled voices could be heard.

"How long do you think it'll take him?"

"My money's on blankets for everyone."

That last voice definitely sounded like Ashley's, but Sam had no clue what they were talking about. Walking out a little further, she could see the sight of her friends down below on the lower floor, doing something as well. Ashley and Chris were standing around looking at something, but Josh could not be seen. Or perhaps he was there, and Sam just couldn't see him from this angle.

Sam made her way along the upper balcony's walkway towards the stairs. As she walked, she passed by one of the many bookcases put on display up here. There were numerous books, trinkets, even small plants on display to be seen. One of them was even a small trophy thing of what looked like an old-school cinema camera. At the base of this little trophy read the words 'Best Horror Movie Director 2009: Bob Washington for Blood Monastery'. Just how successful were such films like that for the guy to be able to afford this fancy a house anyway?

"You can do it man, we believe in you."

"Yeah, totally. Woo-hoo! Let's go Jo-osh, let's go!" Ash was suddenly cheering. Seriously, what were those three up to down there?

"Alright, peanut gallery," Josh's voice could suddenly be heard," You know what, I've got a idea for you two." He was talking to them directly, and from the sound of it he didn't even know Sam was there, making her way down the stairs right now. In the girl's mind this was a good thing; there was even less chance that Josh might suspect what she had been doing earlier if he was so occupied with Chris and Ash.

In fact, as Sam rounded around the upper railing of the stairs to begin her descent, Josh could be seen there, standing before Chris and Ash talking to them. He as well as Chris and Ash had also shed a bit of the excess cold weather clothing they had been wearing. As such Sam took notice of his hair, probably for the first time this evening. He really did have nice hair, which was illuminated nicely from light of the fireplace. Behind him was in fact a small fire, just like he said he had gotten started. A fire was definitely starting to sound more and more appealing the more Sam looked at it while she walked. The way its orange glow seemed to hypnotize her. Why did taking a bath have to take such high priority for her? She'd just get that over with and then would be bound straight for a spot in front of the fireplace!

"What?"

"Well I'm pretty sure somewhere in this crazy place we used to have... a spirit board," Josh explained to them.

"A what?" Ash asked. Spirit board? Those hokey pieces of wood that trick people into thinking 'ghosts' are talking to them? There was no way Josh could really believe in that kinda stuff, right?

"Wow, you have a 'spirit board'?" Chris spoke with skepticism that seemed to mirror Sam's own.

"Yeah, they're fun right?" Josh said. By now Sam had finished descending the wooden stairs, her steps somehow still not alerting the trio to her arrival.

"Those things are a joke, man. They don't do shit," Chris dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"No way bro, we used to do them all the time! Me and... well-"

"Josh!" Sam quickly cut in having reached the three herself, "No hot water's kind of a major oversight, don't you think?"

"Well yeah, you just gotta... fire up the boiler, it's in the basement," Josh said with a familiar smile. After a momentary thought, he looked back over to Ash and Chris, "Alright, how about you guys see if you can find the spirit board?"

"Yeah- Chris, let's go find it!" Ash eagerly said as she already proceeded to walk towards the living room exit while motioning for him to follow, "It'll be like a scavenger hunt!"

"Um..." Chris himself hesitated while at the same time bringing himself to his feet, "Okay, I guess so."

"Rad. You're not gonna regret it...!" Josh called out after him as he left to follow after Ash. He then glanced once towards Sam as he set off towards the stairs, "You up for a ride-along?" There it was again, that subtle smile of excitement Josh was known to make. The same one that put Sam in a state of ease everytime she saw it. In spite of herself Sam gave a smile of her own as she followed directly behind him.

He led the two of them along the left side of the room. The staircase that would lead down to the lower level was accessible from both ends after all. It was a nifty design choice, one that Sam was sure she'd love even more once they could turn these lights on at some point. As they walked by the waist-level cabinet lined against the wall, a couple of items could be seen displayed atop it, such as numerous pictures.

"Hm?" she stopped to pick up one of the pictures to examine. It was a photograph of herself, Mike, Emily, and Hannah, when they were all going to the senior prom. The most immediate striking feature in this picture was herself, making that strange pose of her pointing to the camera out of the four of them.

"You like?" she heard Josh say in front of her, "I thought it'd be nice to pull out some old pics of us. You know... for old times sake."

"Yeah, it's... it's really nice," Sam spoke aloud. While she did mean that, she also tried her best to hide her cringe at her decisions back then. She wasn't sure which was worse: her making that pose, or her choice in dresswear she wore for her 'Senior' prom. As in, probably the last one to happen to her for the rest of her life.

Aside from that however, everyone else looked like they were enjoying themselves, or were about to since this was taken before they officially got to the prom. Emily was smiling, Mike was giving that same goofy look of his, and Hannah was looking shy as ever. That was a cute dress she had chosen that day, Sam had to admit. It was sleeveless to show off her arms, and even her ever-present butterfly tattoo. Crazy as the reasoning was for why she got that thing, there was no denying that it was definitely an attention grabber.

Flipping the card over showed her a simple description of what the card was, so she placed it back onto the cabinet-top. Josh then resumed to lead her around the staircase corner where the two descended down.

Upon reaching the lower floor, Josh quickly walked forward towards another cabinet and a drawer held within it.

"Hey," he suddenly spoke low, yet with a hint of cheekiness in his tone. He opened the drawer to pull forth a yellow flashlight before turning around, "You notice how I gave Chris and Ash a mission together?" That wasn't that hard to see, with how suddenly he had sent them on their merry way earlier, "Yeah, I was just thinking they could use some 'alone time', you know?"

"Man, I wish Chris would just go for it!" Sam found herself admitting, especially when she remembered their previous conversations before they had gotten to the lodge completely, "He's so paralyzed thinking she's gonna shoot him down, or something!"

"It's not gonna happen."

"Which thing?" Sam asked with a tilted head.

"Well, neither, if he's not gonna go for it," Josh clarified, "Which, knowing Chris, he won't unless someone's like holding a gun to his head."

"Yeah, guess I can't argue with that..." Sam admitted. With that Josh turned to his right towards the door that would lead to the basement. As Sam prepared to follow right behind him, she noted something else that was on top of the cabinet he retrieved the flashlight from. It was yet another old photo of himself, along with both Hannah and Beth, all posing on what looked like a beach. That was nice too, seeing all three of them smile at one point. It did seem a little bit crazy just how many of these photos Josh seemed to have for 'posterity'.

She pulled her gaze away from memories of the past yet again to follow after Josh, who by now had opened the side door and was stepping through. He turned around to wait for her to catch up to him. Upon reaching him, he suddenly spoke up again.

"You know, Sam..." His tone was noticeably softer from before.

"Yes Josh?" Sam replied slightly cheekily to his sudden questioning. Josh continued to lead her down the next hallway, while at the same time kept throwing strange glances over his shoulder back towards her. Sam almost couldn't tell from the dark of the hallway itself, but she was almost certain she could see him... blushing?

"I just wanted to say... um..." he stammered as well. Good god, that was almost an adorable look for him! Was he still doing it...?

"What...?" Sam tried to pry a little more from him. Seriously, cat got his tongue or something? He came to a stop directly before the basement door itself before turning around to look at her completely. Gone was his smile from before, with a strange look of uncertainty on his face. Or, was that nervousness? It was a little hard to tell with Josh.

"It... it really means a lot to me that everyone came back this year," he spoke this time with pure sincerity in his voice. There was no denying it further from what Sam could see on his face neither, "And you know that... that you came, Sam. I'm really glad you're here too..."

His face alone and earnest voice nearly made Sam melt. This, this right here was the Josh that she liked to see. One that chose a moment to display vulnerability to a friend, as well as gratitude that very friend was here now for him. It was almost the exact same Josh that she had seen in his 'welcome all' video he sent to all of them to invite them to his lodge. While it was true that she held a deep bond with Hannah, it wasn't like it was any less strong a bond with Josh. She liked him, to some degree even before what happened last year.

Not to mention she herself had her fair share of grieving during Hannah and Beth's disappearance as well. While she could only speak for herself and not the others, perhaps it was good that all of them were here now for their brother, honoring their memory.

"Josh," she said as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "We're here for you. Really whatever you need... whenever..." More memories of the girls threatened to break her out into tears again before she quickly regained her composure, "We're all gonna make it through this. Together."

Josh himself was silent during her entire reassurance speech. His head also seemed to bow a little and his eyes almost seemed like they were closing, until he twitched his head back up to attention and focused on her again. Sam gave his shoulder one last pat before withdrawing her hand.

"Um..." he said before smiling just a little, "I want us to have a good time, you know?" His smile remained on his face even as he turned to enter through the basement door. Sam herself couldn't resist smiling herself. Maybe this was what she needed; what they both needed. Assurances from each other that it would be alright. After all, it would be alright, as long as they were there for each other.

Following behind Josh, Sam was led into the purely concrete hallway and steps that descended downward. A couple of small white lights remained powered on to just barely light their way as they walked down.

"Oh hey watch your step," the boy in front of him called out as he rounded the corner. On instinct Sam looked down at the steps that he referred to. She could see then that in fact one of the steps seemed to have a chunk of it broken off, leaving it mis-shapen.

"I think I can handle a little 'ole set of stairs," Sam replied, demonstrating her claim by easily stepping away from the broken part and onto the lower base. She then followed Josh and rounded the corner to make her way down the rest of the stairs, thankfully none of them being broken.

Their walk led them through a much more darkened hallway of concrete. The right side of the wall held a wall of wood this time, where Josh's parents kept their old vintage bottles. As if this family weren't rich enough, they also had plenty of bottles of wine handy.

Finally the hallway ended with a large enclosure that was the basement, in all its dark, creepy glory. With the exception of a single light that was turned on and a nearby window, the entire place was nearly completely blanketed in darkness. It filled Sam with unease yet again, if perhaps a different kind of unease compared to going into Hannah's room. Whereas there was filled with painful memories, here was just a dark and creepy basement.

Josh had already rounded another corner and was standing in front of a large metal contraption. This was probably the boiler, if Sam were to guess. He pulled open a twin set of metal doors to look into what was probably its inner circuitry or something.

"Sorry to drag you down into the 'bowels'..." he said to her.

"Ugh, just get me some hot water, and I'll be SUPER fine...!" Sam assured as she moved closer to join him. With him shining the light in this metal cabinet, Sam could see that Josh was looking at some actual circuitry. None of it made sense to her, but he seemed to stare at it all intently, even as he casually spoke with her.

"I mean, I wouldn't want you to come down here alone, you know?" he said.

"Well it's..." Sam said, slowly glancing around all that she could see within this basement. While she could admit that the dark itself wasn't something she was really 'scared' of, she tended to feel more uneasy in the dark especially when there was no one else with her, "Definitely creepy down here."

"Yep," Josh agreed, before stepping up to move to the other end of the boiler, "Not a place you'd want to be on your own..." He shone the light in front of him at another control panel, staring at it and its buttons just as intently. All of this work just to get some hot water? Why was this feeling like such a lengthy process?

As Sam was about to ask Josh what was taking so long, something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Inside the cabinet that he was just standing in front of, a cylindrical shaped object could be seen laying down in the lower corner. Curiously, Sam reached down to pick up to the object. This thing was quickly identified as a wooden bat, likely for baseball. This was sort of a random thing to find down here, and in something like this of all places.

"What's this doing down here..." she asked off-handedly before turning to Josh, "Is this yours?" The boy looked up towards her. Even with the flashlight not shining up his face, Sam was almost certain she could see his eyes figuratively light up at the sight of the bat.

"Oh you bet that's mine!" he said, taking the bat from her in one hand, "I used to play ball with my Dad all the time. Of course, that was before he got too busy to hang out with me..."

"I'm guessing from being a 'big movie director' and all that?" Sam inquired, thinking back to the little trophy she'd seen earlier.

"Yeah, among other things and..." Josh seemed to trail off, until he shook his head from whatever must have been on his mind, "Well, we'll save it for the couch, alright?" He set the baseball bat down in an open cardboard box at the end of the boiler before returning to the button panel, "Anyway, let me see what I can do about this hot water machine..."

Josh studied the buttons on the panel again, if rather momentarily this time. He then turned to his right and made his way back to the circuitry cabinet, Sam following close behind.

"Hmm, might need two hands," he said to himself before looking at Sam and presenting the flashlight to her, "Here, can you hold this?" Sam took the flashlight from his hands and prepared to aim it inwards. That is, until another sound reached her ears. Something echoed throughout the basement just now. Like something had fallen onto the floor somewhere.

"What was that?" she said, looking around in the basement's depths.

"What was what?" Josh asked. Didn't he hear that just now? "Just, can you shine it here, so I can see what I'm doing?" He drew her attention back to the task he needed accomplished. Meanwhile the sound Sam had heard couldn't be heard anymore, or if there was even a sound at all. With that she slowly aimed the flashlight's beam into the cabinet, pointing at Josh's hands.

Holding the light as steady as she could, Sam watched as Josh fiddled with a couple of the wires deep within. Whatever this process was he was doing, he was sure taking his time with it. Unless it was some actual problem within there, which was causing it to take longer. He wasn't saying anything nor making any kind of noise, so perhaps what he was doing wasn't causing frustration. She could feel her aim of the flashlight start to waver, so she held it firm and pointed at his hands.

"There we go, nice one!" Josh finally spoke up after what felt like an eternity. The boy stood straight up again after hunching in to look into the cabinet. Relieved herself, Sam relaxed her flashlight hand as well. She started to ask Josh if this whole thing was done, until he spoke up again, "Ok first thing's first: we gotta increase the water pressure before we get the boiler fired up."

"Mmmm, sounds kinda complicated," Sam openly admitted.

"No no, it's actually pretty simple," Josh reassured her, then pointed back to the opposing panel, "So, I'll get ready on this end; all you gotta do is flip the primer switch and then hit the boiler ignition when the right pressure is reached. You'll know it when the red light glows. Think you can handle that?"

"I... think I can manage," Sam said with a shrug before stepping up in front of the panel, "Let's see..." Just like Josh said, there was a round-shaped switch at the top left of the panel. She took hold of the switch in her fingers then turned it to the right, as if she were starting a car. Almost immediately the sound of machinery cranking could be heard from the boiler. On instinct Sam searched for the next thing she was supposed to do: press a button. The very button she found at the bottle right portion of the panel after a quick scan, colored white with what looked like a flame symbol upon it.

She pressed her palm into the button quickly. Just then, instead of hearing something like... a boiler being fired up or something, the entire thing went silent in an instant. Sam's eyes widened in confusion, until they narrowed in realization; she'd just messed something up.

"Oh, damn!" she said, "Josh, I-"

"It's ok!" Josh called out to her from the side, "Just try it again!" So nothing was broken? Nothing was about to explode or nothing because she had messed up? Sam took a sigh of relief as she shook her head. Let's give this another go, properly this time.

She turned the primer switch again, the machinery cranking up yet again. This time, she held her hand back and away from the button to refrain from pressing it too soon. She waited and listened as the machinery cranked ever louder and with more intensity. There was something else to wait for, wasn't there?

Sam's answer came in the form of a small red light glowing. That's right, Josh said to press the button when the light glowed! She quickly moved her hand forward to press the button, this time the machinery cranking to life with a different sort of sound. It didn't cease altogether, rather it seemed to roar to life in earnest! Sam stepped back in surprise, until realization hit her yet again. She had done it this time, hadn't she?

"That's more like it!" she heard Josh declare from the side as he approached her. From those words and the smile on his face, there wasn't any denying that she had succeeded that time! Sam felt pride swell within her as a smile grew on her face. She was definitely growing closer to getting her hot bath at this rate!

"Alright, high five!" Josh suddenly raised his hand up. On instinct Sam raised her hand up and returned his high five. Josh then quickly turned around back to the metal cabinet and closed the doors together, locking it all behind him with a key he then pocketed.

As he returned to her however, a sound other than his footsteps reached her ears. Just like before, she heard something, echoing from the depths of the basement. And just like before she couldn't identify what it might've been.

"What the hell was that...?" she spoke aloud. Surely Josh had to have heard it too? To her credit he at least seemed to have acknowledged it instead of not hearing anything.

"It could be a lot of things..." he said with a shrug. Sam turned around to scan the darkness of the basement with her flashlight, when she felt something on her shoulder. The feeling of fingers walking up her arm, "And none of them nice!"

"Drgh- quit it!" she snapped her head around to chastise him. The boy simply gave a small laugh at his antics.

"I'm just... just 'Joshin' you!" he joked.

"Oh har har...!" Sam mockingly laughed at his really bad pun. This only seemed to fuel his amusement further.

"You were really freaked out, weren't you?"

"I was not scared," she simply replied.

"No? No, you just 'jumped' cause you wanted to squeeze in some aerobics?" Josh pried further. Ok that was crazy, there was no way that Sam jumped just now. And she certainly wasn't scared by any of this! If anything... wait a minute.

"Oh my God," she spoke with feigned realization to him, "You were totally freaked out too!"

"What?" Josh said, his face betraying surprise and confusion, "No, I-"

"Yep, as white as a sheet!" Sam pressed further.

"Nah nah, come on!" Josh feebly tried to defend himself, "I've been down here enough, and this place makes all kinds of sounds. I mean, this big old lodge has gotta belch out sometimes, you know?" Uh-huh, sure. Sure Josh was used to hearing the lodge make belching sounds and and all that. Sam was about to call him out on that, until she stopped.

The basement made yet another sound. Another sound echoing in the dark. And just like before it drew her attention. She could feel the blood start to shiver in her body a little. Unlike before however, it didn't stop at just one sound. It was a sounded that repeated itself. Was it the sound of something being hit on something?

"Ok, seriously, you hear that too right?" Sam quietly spoke. Josh did not immediately reply. Instead he slowly took a single step deeper into the basement's darkness, towards the source of the noise, "Josh?"

"What...?" he finally replied. So he was listening to her, which was good. But he didn't know what that was either? Seriously, what could be making a sound like that at consistent intervals?

"The rhythm is like... weirdly regular..." she noted.

"No no... nothing regular about it..." Josh spoke without turning his head. Sam carefully took a few steps forward to stand next to him. The sound persisted, and Sam still had no clue what that was.

"I think... I'm gonna check it out," Sam spoke up, feeling a sudden burst of confidence. Her sudden declaration actually earned her a look from Josh, for the first time since the sound was heard.

"What? Why?" he questioned. Sam was certain she could hear fear in his voice, which only amused her and helped ease her own fear a little.

"What do you care, fraidyface?" she looked back at him with a smile.

"I-It's probably just like... not anything, you know?" he tried to say.

"Well why don't you hold down the fort, while I make sure?" she said as she turned around to face the dark basement again.

"Erm, whatever you say, madam," Josh called out after her. With that she turned her attention to focus on the noise again.

This time she really tried to focus and zero in on where this noise was coming from. She scanned her flashlight all around the dark, dissipating it and revealing all sorts of items in storage to be seen. Everything she saw was stationary however, and not moving at all. It was almost as if this strange noise was being made... within the walls themselves.

Sam turned the light towards the further end of the basement this time, towards the distant basement window. The only other source of light which kept the basement from being in complete darkness. From what she could see it looked like that short and narrow passageway would turn to either the left or the right. It was the only place she had left to check. Slowly and carefully she made her way through the passageway, drawing ever closer to the window, and whatever lay around the corner-

Sam's world suddenly exploded in surprise as something burst out from around the corner! A figure in some ragged old robe and hood up to cover most of its head! No face could be seen either from some weird hockey mask covering it.

"GAAHH!" Sam exclaimed. Instincts took over as she turned to run in the complete opposite direction, "WHAT THE HELL!?"

"WHOA!" In front of her Josh's face was aghast with surprise as well, and was also running away from whatever that thing was, "RUN SAM!" And run she did. She did not even bother to look behind her at all to see what was chasing her. All that mattered was getting out of this basement now!

As she neared the basement's entry hallway again, she quickly caught sight of some flat board thing propped up against the wall. Instinctively she grabbed it and slammed it down behind her. Probably wouldn't stop whatever that was, but should at least buy some time. She didn't look behind her to see if it had slowed down any; she just kept running.

With Josh directly in front of her the two of them quickly dashed up the steps and rounded the curved corner. The sound of their own footsteps, and presumably whatever that thing was as well, filled the air. Just what was that thing?! In her mind a quick flashback to when Chris and her had seen that wanted poster at the cable car station, and it's ripped profile picture. Was this thing what that poster was of?! They had to get out of here, now!

The basement's door lay directly before them now, and Sam reached it first. She grabbed the doorknob, intent to get the both through and- or not. The door, it was locked! How was it locked?! And why now of all times!? She shoved her weight into the door, but to no avail.

"Oh, come ON! Why are these doors locked?!" she protested.

"It's... to keep out strangers...!" she heard Josh speak behind her. She continued to struggle with the door, heart racing and breathing frantically. This was it, wasn't it? They were about to get killed or whatever by some crazy guy wearing a-

"Hey..." Sam slowed down her struggles upon hearing a completely new voice. It wasn't Josh's voice, but at the same time, it was a voice that was strangely familiar.

"Huh... what?" Sam turned back around to find the mysterious figure was standing right there behind them, but... not doing anything? Just making some weird hand motions?

"Heeeeeeeyyy!" the figure suddenly declared again.

"What the hell-?!" Sam declared through ragged breath.

"Boom!" the figure pulled back its hood to reveal... Chris?!

"You just got 'monked'!"

Sam's eyes widened in absolute astonishment. There was no crazy person chasing them? Just Chris acting the part of a crazy person? Or maybe he was actually crazy for having done this!

"WHAT?!" Sam protested. Chris simply made celebratory hand motions to congratulate himself, while beside her Josh could be heard chuckling in amusment.

"Nice. Nice one! That was good..." he also said, earning him a quick look from Sam.

"Wait-wait-" Sam protested while looking squarely back at Chris, "Why... would you DO that?!" Her physical and verbal distress however only seemed to fuel Chris' amusement at the situation.

"There's all this cool old movie crap down here!" he motioned behind him back down into the basement, "Was I... was I 'not' supposed to take advantage of the opportunity?"

"Wait are you... are you serious?!" Sam protested yet again. THAT was seriously his reasoning for scaring the daylights out of her? To try out some dusty old movie props? And wait a minute, Josh didn't seemed all that scared by this whole thing as she was. She spun around to catch a glimpse of his face; his smiling, thoroughly entertained face, "Were YOU in on this, you putz?!" She lightly shoved into his shoulder with her hand, which only furthered his amused laughter.

"No no, but I wish I was!" he said, looking back down to Chris, "That was too good!"

"Yeah!" Chris stepped forward to return a high five that Josh offered him, just like he'd done with her earlier. Unbelievable, these two guys.

"Ok ok, for real let me get this..." Josh moved towards the door and pulled forth a key from his pocket. Within the seconds it took to get the door open, Sam took the time to actually study what it was Chris was wearing. It was a black, really old monk's robe, with a rope sash tied around his waist. Looking down at his feet the ends of the robe looked like they dragged along the ground too. How the heck was he running in this thing, much less keeping up with them?

The door finally opened and Josh opened the way to allow the two of them to walk through.

"I'm ready to admit that your dumb little prank may have had a 'slight' whiff of humor to it," Sam tried to diffuse her lingering anxiety with sardonic comments.

"Jokemaster!" Chris declared as they made their way towards the ascending staircase. The sound of Josh closing the door behind them could be heard.

"Wha- I-I said, NOTHING about jokes!" Sam said, "I said your 'prank', which was dumb!"

"Holy crap, YOU were scared that time, admit it!" Josh could be heard chiming in behind them from below.

"I was not!" Sam protested while looking over her shoulder and back down at him. Josh could be seen now following closely after them.

"Come on, you totally pissed yourself!" he added.

"Josh-!"

The three of them finally ascended the staircase completely, standing within the familiar living room again. They beheld someone else standing there yet again, except this time not being some crazy man trying to kill them. Ashley walked across the carpeted area straight towards Chris, a strange look of evident exasperation displayed across her face as well.

"What in God's name are you wearing?" she wasted little time in asking Chris. His response was to make that strange 'hand-cross' motion in front of her before speaking.

"I... have found my true calling!" he finished by placing his palms together and bowing slightly before her.

"Mm-hmm, please tell me you're gonna take a Vow of Silence?" Ash said, mimicking the pressed palm motion that he made to her. His response was... actually, was no response. Chris proceeded to mouth off words silently, like the 'jokemaster' he claimed to be. Nonetheless his antics earned him a small laugh from Ashley, "Ok ok, did you at least find that... that thingie?" Wasting little time, Chris reached into the folds of his robe for something.

"Boi-oi-oing!" he dramatically called out as he held up what was asked for; a flat piece of wood with letters carved onto one side of it, "Here's our one-way ticket to the Spirit World!" Oh man, on top of the scare Sam had gotten earlier, now they were actually going to go through with 'talking with ghosts'? There was only so much one could take in one night, especially when one felt genuine fear when it came to ghosts and stuff.

"You know what? N-no," Sam said, "I've just been through enough spooking for one night, ok?" She pointed a thumb behind her towards the staircase that would lead her upstairs, "I see a steaming, hot bath in my crystal ball. Alright? So have fun!" One by one the remaining three gave her courtesy send-off waves as she began to ascend the stairs. Before she got too far though, she stopped to throw out one last comment, "Oh, but watch out for that Josh. He's a schemer!"

"Okay okay," she heard the boy in question say as she finally turned around and made her way upwards. Nothing would stop her now from getting that sweet, heavenly hot bath now!


-So yeah right off the bat you'll immediately notice that I had Josh be the one to go into the lodge to unlock the door for everyone. This is actually done in reflection to what I'd been saying since I first played the game: why was HE not the one doing stuff like unlocking doors for his guests? You know, the actual job of the 'host' as he claimed to be? In addition, by that point of the story Josh had his little 'introduction' sequence, which would've been a good time to be able to play as him and get a feel for how he moved and his initial relations with the other people before the social-changing events. That's just how I saw it anyway.

And plus as I was writing that part, I had an epiphany as well as to how to make that random wolverine scene work. How when it happens no one seems to question it like jump around in fear when it ran past Chris? What if it was in fact a figment of imagination from the person who had opened the door? In this case being Josh...? Uh-huh.

Anyway, that's about all I can think of in regards to this chapter. My apologies again for the really lengthy time it took to get it out; I'll really try to maintain momentum for you all. Keep on reading!-