-I'm back rather quickly with this latest chapter, which I hope you'll all enjoy! -
A set of eyes stared back at Emily. Or rather, because they were now so up close to her, Emily could now see that these 'eyes' were actually a set of goggles! The Psycho was sporting a set of black goggles that seemed to reflect the orange glow of the nearby burning drum and causing them to light up like actual hellfire! The man also had a long bandana concealing the entire lower half of his face. Basically, the only bit of skin visible to Emily was his forehead, which held a small number of patches of smudged blood.
If his face weren't enough of a scare, then what the man was holding put her in even greater alarm. Now that he was up closer and before her, Emily could now see that what he was holding was in fact a large flamethrower! Seriously?! This Psycho took killing his victims to 'this' extreme?!
All at once, the man reached out to grab Emily's hand, causing the girl to shriek.
"NO! No- stay away! Let go!" she cried out as she struggled against his grip. Unfortunately, the man's hands felt like iron underneath his gloves. No matter how much she resisted she couldn't free her arm from-
Wait, his grip was loosening? In her disbelieving state Emily cautiously looked up at the man. Her confusion only grew when he saw that his gaze was no longer fixed on her, but was now looking... to his right?
Another shriek filled the air suddenly, the familiar shrieking noise that she'd been hearing this entire time while in this mine. Except, now it sounded so much closer! What the hell was going on?
She almost didn't register the man quickly letting her arm go to unwrap something off of his own person. He now held in his open hand a satchel with a long handle before forcibly shoving them in Emily's direction. The force of the satchel pressing against Emily's chest actually caused the girl to stumble and fall backward onto her rear.
"Use these!"
A voice rang out within the cavern. For a moment Emily was almost genuinely confused as to its source. She quickly realized however that it was in fact the voice of the Psycho, that had just... given her something?
Before she could register anything any further, the man had completely turned his body away from her. He was now facing the other direction where he had been looking earlier. She could tell he was now holding his flamethrower in that direction as well.
"And get the hell out of here! NOW!"
Emily's world suddenly became a flare of light and noise. The man was shooting his flamethrower out at something! The sudden action caused her to jump back in surprise, all the way towards the-
She suddenly shrieked at the sudden change in motion, quickly followed by the world around her tumbling around this way and that. Just like before she found herself falling straight down while scraping against rock around her. She had fallen backward into yet another pitfall; surely this would be the end of her this time!
With a thud Emily came to a halt as she finally hit solid ground and didn't move further. The wind had been temporarily knocked out of her, but she quickly regained her breathing.
With a groan and eyes clenched shut, Emily slowly rolled herself onto her hands and knees to reorient herself. So much was happening all at once she didn't know what to process and how!
"Ow-! Shit...!" she hissed as familiar pain ran up her leg once more. She must have hit it against something during her fall and thus was reminded her of her persistent injury.
Eventually Emily regained her footing and stood upright once more before dusting herself off. She was once more surrounded in complete darkness of this mine, only who knows where she was now! The barest slivers of light from above were barely able to shine down upon where she stood and give her a faint idea of where she stood. Just as before a number of wooden boards lined the walls around her, almost resembling a storage area. Is that where she ended up? An old-timey storage place?
She glanced back up towards the lighted area that she'd fallen from. This marked the however many numbered times that she'd fallen down something and ended up in deeper shit. But this time was different in that the Psycho man had... pushed her? Her mind was still in genuine confusion over that entire exchange! He had her in his grip, almost like he was planning to do something to her right then and there, and then... he shoved her away while looking at something else? She couldn't even hear him up above anymore, not him nor... whatever else up there was making that shrieking noise.
'
Why? Why hadn't he killed me when he had the chance...?' she thought to herself. Instead, all he had done was push her away, as well has hand something towards her-
Her head shot back down at her feet to said item in question. It's true! That man had given her some old bag, telling her to 'use these'.
Emily reached down to pick up the old, rather ugly looking bag into her hands. Ugly it may be it still felt tough in her fingers; easily able to survive falling down ten to twenty feet against hard soil. Kind of like herself, ironically enough.
She opened the top of the bag to peer inside. The light was especially dim, but Emily was just barely able to identify three small, cylindrical items with red tips. They were flares! Actual hand-activated flares! That Psycho had given her flares to... see in the dark? As if he were trying to help her...?
Who the hell was that guy?!
Whatever, this was something to worry about later. If this guy had actually given her a means to actually live a little longer while inside this insane mountain mine, then she was going to take advantage of whatever she could!
She hung the large handle of the bag around her shoulder and reached in to pull out one of the flares in her hand. The tip of the object was easy enough to see in this dim light as well as discern its instructions. A tiny flap could be seen to be pulled, which Emily reached up and pulled hard.
Instantly the world around her became engulfed in bright red light while a heavy sizzling sound filled her ears. She instinctively squinted her eyes and averted her gaze away from the bright light directly. Flares were much brighter than she thought they would be!
"Rgh-! Alright...!" she muttered to herself. In the process of looking everywhere and away from the flare's light she took the chance to view her surroundings. As before she appeared to be standing atop a set of rail tracks that ran a course along a path directly in front of her, with walls on both sides of her. In fact, a rail car bumper could be found directly behind her, albeit slightly caved in from the loose soil that she herself had fallen down along.
"Alright Em... let's get out of here!"
This flare was smaller in her hands compared to her torch, but it still did its job well enough and even better than her torch. From what she could see the flare's light reached a good ten feet away from where she was standing now! It was much easier this time around to see her own steps as she walked forward along this path.
To her credit this pathway she was walking was nowhere near as cramped and confining as the previous narrow pathways she'd been forced to tread earlier. They were reasonably big, big enough at least that flare's light reached up to reach as high as the ceiling above. It did give her some small comfort in that all she could see up above her was the rock of the ceiling itself. For however much that comfort was meant to be anyway.
To her right she noticed another wooden wall with a small cut-in of a wooden room within. The closer Emily moved the more she could see that this 'room' actually contained a number of items inside. The flare's red glare reflected harshly upon what she could identify as old-fashioned photographs held up by thumbtacks on the wood of the wall. Specifically, they appeared to be postcards depicting exotic locations like sunny beaches and mountain ranges.
"Man, I've had enough snow and mountains to last a lifetime now...!" she scoffed to herself.
She then exited the room and proceeded back along the pathway. Or rather, the tracks continued forward into a tunnel directly in front of her, but was completely inaccessible due to a complete cave-in. Aside from that, there was no other way for Emily to proceed other than left, and to what appeared to be a small dip off of a ledge.
Before the ledge however a large red sign could be seen posted up before her on a large wooden support. Or maybe it only appeared red due to the color of her flare, Emily couldn't exactly tell. What she could see though was a large, bolded text containing the words 'STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE' and written by some foreman named 'H. Tanner'.
Emily glanced once over her shoulder to the likely aforementioned collapse directly behind her.
"Yeah, thanks for the 'heads up', Tanner..." she snarked silently to herself.
With that she carefully advanced closer to the ledge before her. The flare's light cast a rather large shadow against the edge itself which further showcased just how much of a deep drop lay before her. Emily angled the light a little more to get a better look for herself. From this distance it appeared to be about... ten or so feet of a drop below her.
'Well, if I'm gonna drop again, at least I'm dropping down my way...' she thought to herself.
She hissed with a little pain as she brought herself down on her sore leg and allowed the other to drape over the ledge. It really wasn't ideal for her to drop down long drops with an injured leg, but there was little other choice for her at this point. One last look down helped her to verify where and how she would be dropping. Maybe she could just barely fall and have her good leg catch most of the impact?
Finally, she pushed herself forward and felt the air rush about her as she fell down. With a thud and a quick exhale of air she hit the ground. Unfortunately, pain erupted through both of her legs in varying degrees from how they both hit the ground. Emily had to bite her lip to keep from crying out, but eventually the pain gradually subsided enough for her to control herself.
Looking back up and at what she could see didn't give her any more relief either. As opposed to the previous passageway's rather large enclosure space, this tunnel that Emily now found herself was reduced in size yet again. Her flare's light illuminated not only the walls and ceiling at much closer proximity but also the nearby wooden support beams running up along the walls. They were large to be sure yet the tunnel itself still felt rather smaller and narrow all around her.
The distant sounds of screeches didn't make her feel better at all either. Even now as she walked that same shrieking sound she'd been hearing this entire time persisted on occasion and broke the dead silence. Emily could tell that even from the size of the tunnel alone that that whatever was making those sounds was distant, but it still caused her heart rate to spike every time they were heard.
Emily steadily made her way forward across the ground of thick soil. Eventually the flare's light picked up a new object on her left. Or rather objects. She could see a couple of large minecarts off to the left side and buried under a large pile of rubble, likely produced from an old-timey conveyor belt poised directly above them. If she were to guess, this entire set up was meant for these carts to receive whatever rocks or minerals ran along that belt, and then the carts were moved forward along this railway before her. Obviously though that couldn't happen due not only to them being buried underneath, but also upon closer inspection Emily could see that the carts were just barely run off their tracks and leaning against the wall to the left.
There wasn't much of interest on her right side in comparison; only more piles of rubble and rocks piled within small compartments that might have been runoff from the left side.
Directly before her however the tracks led the length of this narrow tunnel... towards an even narrower passageway dead ahead. Once more Emily found herself walking through a passageway with wooden walls so close on all sides of her. It was almost as if the further in she walked the tighter and tighter these tunnels became! Her flare's light was illuminating so much detail of the walls from how close they were!
Eventually the tunnel very gradually began to widen itself ever so slightly. Not nearly enough to make Emily feel any better, but just enough so she wasn't feeling so cramped and confined. She could see the railway tracks lead forward with a slight curve to the left- oh, up until that massive cave-in covered it up!
She came to a stop just before the massive pile. Even with her flare held up at different angles, there just wasn't any sort of hole or opening here that she could see! And the rock of the pile itself looked hard and sedimented, not unlike the slick, ice-covered rock she'd encountered further up top.
A sound of skittering suddenly could be heard from directly behind her!
Emily spun around in place to look at... nothing? No movement could be seen within the red of her flare's light, no matter where her gaze fell upon. All she could see was just the wooden support beams, jagged uneven rock walls, and cave-ins of varying sizes. Everything was deathly still as far as she could see.
"Jeez, get a grip Em! Jumping at nothing...!" she reprimanded herself even while placing a hand over her chest. Her heart continued to hammer within her, but she held relative control over herself as she turned back around. The cave-in before her was clearly not an option; there was just no way for her to slip through anywhere.
But this couldn't be a dead-end, it just couldn't! Not after she'd been finding paths to proceed many times before! There had to be somewhere she could-
It was then that Emily casually glanced to her right. Her flare's light cast a glow of bright red light, as well as a thin shadow off of something. Looking closer, Emily's eyes widened at finding a large crack in the rock wall itself next to the caved-in railway tunnel! It looked to be about her size too, if a little larger in fact! There was little doubt that she could definitely fit through here!
That did leave the question of 'where' it would lead her of course...
"Who cares; anywhere's better than here...!" she said to herself. With that she approached the crack in the wall and positioned herself so she entered into it sideways. Her left hand bearing her flare led the way as she slowly inched herself forward. Or, to the left as it were.
"Okay, this has gotta be the way... easy does it..."
Glancing to the left Emily could see from the light that the crawl space stretched out a little bit before sharply curving to her right. While directly in front of her lay a wooden wall that she'd been getting used to seeing over the course of a couple hours by now. The light from her flare shone through the cracks of the horizontal boards and created a sort of 'prison bars' effect from what she could see. It was honestly not too different from how she was feeling right now: extremely confined.
Luckily there wasn't much further to go in this particular section. Just a little more inching to go, and then she would-
Emily's world exploded in an instant. She cried out as shards and pieces of wood suddenly burst out around her, nearly splintering her in the process. However, pieces of wood were the least of her immediate worries. Because the wood before her didn't just explode for no reason!
A large arm had burst through the wood wall in front of her!
The large appendage was aimed directly at her right side. A couple more inches that way and Emily might have been grabbed or even scratched by it! Whatever it was, it was long in length, had long sharp claws on its hand, and unnaturally thin. A cloud of dust had picked up from the broken boards which obscured her direct line of sight with whatever that thing was.
"Shit! SHIT!"
Panic and instinct took over Emily's entire body; with a burst of adrenaline, she slid herself ever faster along the narrow passageway and around the corner. All around her the familiar shrieking returned in full force, crying out with increased intensity and frequency. Whatever that thing was, it was openly on alert and definitely after her!
As she rounded the corner, a part of Emily's cognition wondered as to why it appeared so dark again. Realization struck her and she looked down at her now empty hand; she had dropped her flare, right when that thing had grabbed at her! She mentally berated herself for her carelessness but continued to slide herself through narrow passageway regardless. That thing would be on her if she didn't out of here now!
Finally, much to her relief, the passageway actually widened out considerably to allow more space for her to run. It was still narrow, and Emily could barely see exactly where she was, but the faint, dim light shining through the cracks of the wood walls on her right side provided just illumination to see. The path before her inclined ever so slightly before sharply curving to the left-
Emily's eyes widened in horror as she ran forward. Before her that clawed arm reached itself through the cracks of the wood and directly in front of her! If it weren't for the same glimmers of faint light shining against it as well, she might've actually missed it!
Thinking quickly Emily ducked her head just in time as she ran forward. She felt the whoosh of air above her head as the arm swiped and just barely missed her head. A few inches higher and it might have scratched her, or even taken her head off for all she knew!
"What the hell is that?!" she panted as she ran.
Not once did she dare look back behind her. She heard the screeching behind her persist even as she narrowly avoided its swipe. She didn't even need to look behind her to guess that it probably was right behind her!
Thankfully the narrow passageway finally widened out considerably into a small chasm, with a wooden bridge linking one end to the other side. As fast as both of her legs could carry her, she dashed across the bridge, footsteps pounding almost rhythmically along with her own racing heart.
Just then her heart nearly skipped a beat as she caught a glimpse of what lay directly in front of her: a massive gap in the bridge!
"Oh SHIT-!" she exclaimed.
With the running start she thankfully already had going she jumped up as hard as she could and soared forward. She was vaguely aware of the stinging in her leg from having jumped off with it, but she pushed that menial worry out of her head. She had to keep running!
As she reached the end of the bridge, she became aware of something else creating vibrations across the wooden structure. Whatever was after her likely was right behind her! If she just kept running, she'd get away from it for sure!
She dashed through yet another narrow passageway with a metallic chain-link fence lining the right side. Directly in front of her she could see natural light shining down from some source up above, providing her some much-needed sight to aid in where she was to go. She could hear the screeching noise directly behind her still, like some hellish creature straight out of her nightmares.
The passageway quickly opened up into a small clearing within a small section of cavern, her own footsteps thundering one after the other as she frantically ran. Thanks to the light from above, Emily was able to see a sign upon the rock wall opposite her that read 'ELEVATOR' and pointing to the left. Here's hoping she wouldn't have to waste time finding a power source for 'this' elevator!
The screeches persisted in intensity, but Emily could barely tell that they were growing ever fainter with the amount of distance she was putting between them and herself. This was good; she just needed to keep running and she'd make it for sure...
She didn't even bother to take in the familiar sight of wood structures lining each side of the tunnel she ran through. All she did was continue to run, her chest beginning to hurt from both the exertion and from just how hard she was panting! To say nothing of her own heart rate; if she wasn't given a rest soon something bad might happen!
And if she rested too soon, that creature would do her in anyway!
"There it is...!"
Barely illuminated by the natural light Emily dashed forward into the open shaft of the elevator car. It was a miracle in itself that there was a car here ready to be used, but now let's hope she could use it to get out of here!
She quickly took a firm hold of the car's handle and pulled it towards her. For a whole second nothing happened, and Emily felt her heart and hopes sink along with each other at the-
Then all at once, the car jostled in place before steadily beginning to rise. Emily was momentarily caught off guard by the random movement from the car, especially after initially sensing that it might have stalled. She quickly brought herself low to her knees and huddled her body close and in on itself. The action produced a stinging pain in her injured leg, but through sheer willpower she forced the pain away to focus.
"Okay, breathe out... breathe in..." Emily commanded herself as the car rose and the world in front of her sank from view. By now it was almost positively painful to even breathe, but she forced herself to draw steady, controlled breaths. If she could control her breathing, her heart rate likely would follow along with it.
"Oh God... oh God...!"
Unfortunately, the one thing filling her mind at the moment was that arm. That lanky, monstrous arm that had tried to grab at her, twice! That... couldn't have been an actual person's arm. It had to have been of something else! Some kind of creature that lived in these mines? A monster? Was it still after her even with her rising up and out in this elevator? Would this thing even take her out of these mines this time?!
"Okay, okay- snap out of it, Em!" she ordered herself again as she rose to her feet.
Just then the car came to a loud and sudden halt, causing her to stumble in place again. Directly in front of her was the familiar moonlight she had almost forgotten about, as well as that sharp chill in the air. She made it! She was finally out of that God-forsaken mine and back to the surface! How she had missed this so much, she could just-
The shrieking filled the air again, thought this time without any effect of echoes to absolutely flood her eardrums. While at the same time it still sounded unbelievably close! How had that thing managed to catch up to her so quickly?! Emily's head darted all around, desperate to pinpoint the source of where the sounds had come from.
"Shit...! SHIT!"
Emily abandoned her attempt to find the creature and instead dashed out of the elevator car. Where she found herself now appeared to be some kind of warehouse, complete with large, snow-covered gears meant to spin and operate some kind of machinery. Luckily the room itself that she was in wasn't that cramped at all, and a set of wooden steps at the far end of the room weren't blocked off or caved in either! She just had to make it over to them...!
The shrieks and cries suddenly were heard again; Emily could practically 'feel' whatever that thing was directly behind her! It would get her for sure!
Wait- Emily could see a metal chain dangling directly in front of her. It was linked up to a... trapdoor thing? Whatever it was, it looked like it was holding something! She could at least delay that creature just a little bit!
She quickly ran up to the chain, grabbed with both hands and tugged with all her might. To her relief the chain did in fact yield to her and pull open a trapdoor with something held above her. Emily quickly dashed forward just in time to hear and sense the payload of whatever that thing was holding tumble down and crash to the wooden floor where she'd been standing. Had she managed to drop that load on top of that creature and crush it?! She wouldn't dare turn around to find out, but she could only hope she'd be so lucky.
The shuffling of the rocks behind her began to cease, yet Emily was met with the sounds of screeching again. So she hadn't crushed that thing, but at least maybe she'd bought herself a little distance so that she could get further away!
Her heartbeat so fast and her breathing practically became frantic as she raced up the stairs. For some reason the familiar sting in her injured leg wasn't felt nearly as strong as before. All that could be felt was the burning in both of her calves as she dashed up each step towards the top.
She then ran along the upper floor. Directly in front of her a section of the wall had been broken through completely and exposing the outside world to her again. That was her chance; her chance to both get away from the creature and back out into the world again. And maybe, she could try and make it back to the lodge too...?
That wasn't even a choice! Of course she'd get back to the lodge!
A couple of oil drums could be seen on different sides of her as she ran. Just like before she quickly took hold of one in her hands and pulled it down behind her. Doing this a second time, she was faintly aware that the second drum she pulled down wasn't completely empty. The sound of sloshing around within could be heard, which reminded her of the drums of oil she'd found within the mine. It stood to reason that these would be filled with oil as well.
Right before she made it to the edge of the building she quickly reached into the bag and pulled forth another flare. She hastily ignited it and threw it back towards where she thought the barrel had fallen down. She wasted no more time looking back to see if she succeeded, but she did feel a soothing warmth of heat and a glow of light on her back. It wouldn't be a good idea to stick around in case that thing exploded anyway, so she kept moving.
She quickly brought herself down low and dropped down. She very briefly caught an impression of how far down a drop was she had to fall, but thankfully it wasn't too far at all. In fact, upon hitting the wooden floor below her injured leg didn't flare up with pain as it had been doing before. She wasted no time and proceeded to keep running forward.
She had now found herself on some wooden platform, seemingly suspended out in mid-air from nothing? No wait, it wasn't that it was out in mid-air, it only appeared that way because of the sheer lack of wooden boards meant to comprise the walls around and exposing her to the surrounding area! The forest of Blackwood Mountain stretched out before her, at least all that wasn't completely shrouded in snow flurries and fog. This place was a wreck how was even holding together?!
There was even a massive inclining conveyor belt before her, its entrance marked by a nearby glowing yellow light bulb. Next to it lay a simple control panel with a large switch flipped upwards. Her only way to go was across this belt? And towards... where would it even lead to?
Before she even could process rational questioning she was already flipping the switch. If the glowing light bulb above her was any indication, then this panel next to this industrial conveyor belt just had to be powered on as well!
To her relief the machinery whirred to life as well. A couple of sparks burst near the inner gears of the belt before the entire contraption began to move. With a loud rumble the belt very slowly began to spin and crawl in the direction of the incline.
Emily quickly clambered atop it and felt the moving belt carry her upwards. Almost immediately the forward motion and the incline itself caused her to stumble forward onto all fours. All around her were broken pieces of wooden boards that at one point probably served as a man-made tunnel. Likely even this belt was made for carrying pieces of rock and stone upwards towards... wait a minute, where 'was' this belt carrying her towards?
Her thought process was interrupted as she threw her head back around behind her. The shrieking sounds persisted again and reminded her that the creature was still back there; likely even very close behind her at this point! Thus she proceeded to crawl on all fours up the moving belt, desperate to put as much distance between herself and that thing as she could.
"Come on... come on..."
Looking back up the fogged image of the end of this tunnel lay before her, about ten or twenty more feet rising up along with this belt. Her anxiety of not knowing what lay at the end fought against her terror of remaining in place to allow that thing to catch her! But what else could she do besides just keep climbing up and-
In that moment Emily quickly noticed a break in the wall on her right side. Through this spacing she could see a separate catwalk attached on the end and stretching out towards another tunnel identical to hers.
Instinctively she jumped to the side and onto relatively solid ground. She felt some mild to weak disorientation at not feeling the ground beneath her moving, but she quickly overcame the feeling and rose to her feet again. She quickly rushed along the catwalk and onto the twin conveyor belt tunnel to find that this one was not spinning as the other one was. Emily cared less why that would be, she just kept running upwards.
She reached the top and emerged out of the end to stand upon another catwalk, this one more metallic and sturdier. Directly in front of her was another large wooden building with a large entryway before her. The sound of shrieks filled the snowy night air again, this time sounding alarmingly close by. Emily quickly rushed forward and into the building through the open space to find...
"What?! NO!"
A dead end?!
She came to a halt upon finding this small room inside this building with little else she could turn to. All around her were broken and crumbling boards that provided poor excuses for walls. Yet even through their cracks all Emily could see past them were silhouettes of the forest all around! This couldn't be happening! Was there really no other way she could go?!
Her balled fists clenched close to her head as she nearly cried out in anguish. Coincidentally at the same time another shriek from that creature cried out and drowned her own noises out. She let her arms drop back to her sides, feeling them brush against her pants and her pockets in-
Wait a minute. Emily felt her hand brush against something in her back pocket. Her anguish quickly melted into curiosity as she fished forth the item. She pulled the orange flare gun out of her pocket, held it before her, and her eyes widened with renewed hope. She had forgotten all about this darn thing up until this point! And now... now she was going to make good use of it!
She pulled back the hammer on the gun and pointed it back behind her. For the longest time she kept her eyes trained on the very entrance to the wooden tunnel she had nearly out of herself. Seconds masquerading as minutes ticked by as she watched, keeping careful watch for any sort of movement...
And then she saw it. Emily caught sight of the movement she was preparing herself for. Even from this distance apart she could identify something as... oddly person shaped. Aided only by the dim moonlight providing a vague silhouette, Emily could first see a head. Then a torso. Then long arms; almost unnaturally long arms that seemed to drape down well past the now seen hips. Finally, the tops of its legs. It was only when the legs were identified that Emily realized that even though it seemed to be about her height, that thing was actually crouched! For a moment it almost felt as if the world around her was slowing down to an agonizing crawl. Time seemed to slow down as the reality of what was happening sank in. An actual monster, shrouded in shadow and mystery, steadily rising up to bear down upon her!
Emily took aim with the flare gun and pulled the trigger.
She felt the gun snap and explode with sound as well as a burst of light. Everything happened all at once and forced her to nearly stumble, but she caught sight of the flare projectile itself fly straight forward. Yet another shriek filled the air as well. However, when Emily shook her head and looked back up, she found that the glowing flare laying on the ground lit up the entrance of the conveyor belt's tunnel... and nothing else. Where once a creature straight out of a nightmare once stood now was gone. As if it were never there to begin with...
"Oh shit..."
Emily dropped the flare gun to the ground and placed her hand over her chest. Her breathing and heartbeat were still running unbelievably fast, but a small measure of relief was beginning to wash over her.
"Okay okay, now where...?"
Her head turned to the right, then to the left, and promptly discovered a large wooden door directly beside her! How the hell had she not seen that?! Well, to be fair it looked like it was designed rather similarly to the walls of this room itself; perhaps that was why she hadn't seen it the first time.
She hastily moved herself to push through. The door thankfully was not locked at all and easily yielded to her push. She quickly shut it behind her and reached up to secure the metallic deadbolt found right before her head. The lock slid into place with a satisfying click and Emily leaned her back up against the door in relief.
"Oh my goodness...!" she panted. Her breathing and heartbeat were both still all over the place, but for the first time since in a long time tonight, she could sense some measure of both relief and safety. Being on the secured side of a locked door, as well as having basically just scared off that creature with the flare gun! Holy shit, if she hadn't had that thing on her and used it just then... she shuddered to even think of what might've happened.
With a shake of her head, she finally took stock of where she stood now. She found herself standing within yet another dilapidated room that served whatever function for this creepy warehouse place. In fact, the entire floor was missing directly in front of her! Emily could see well out into the dark of the forest stretching down below her. Snowy winds were able to whip freely around at her thanks to the exposed room itself. And were it not for the two large metallic wires that ran from the top of the wall behind her all the way straight down 'into' that fogged wilderness, there would be absolutely nothing of note or worth in this room at all.
How the hell am I gonna get out of here now...?' she thought to herself.
Looking at the twin wires Emily noted that the one on the right side held some large, horizontal metal bar. It was secured in its center by another smaller metal bar and suspended from some contraption around the wire itself. Was this thing meant to slide down the wire and all the way down? Would people actually hold on and 'free slide' down like that? Did the miners even do this back who knows when?!
Her mental pondering was broken by the familiar sound of the horrific screeches. Emily glanced over her shoulder in fear and realization; that creature was back, and likely about to come for her! There was no choice and no time for pondering anything: she was taking this one-way trip out of this place here and now!
Looking back up at the wire, it was a little far to jump to from where she now stood, but not if she moved just slightly closer. All she'd need to do is carefully balance herself on those nearby supporting I-beams that stretched just barely out towards the-
The wooden gate behind her pounded hard once. Almost as if taking that as a prompt in itself Emily jumped forward and on top of the closest beam to her.
Instantly she heard the sound of wood exploding behind her. This was quickly followed by that creature letting out some massive ear-splitting cry. She didn't even need to look behind her to know that thing was in this room with her right now! She instead jumped to the second I-beam directly beneath the hanging bar. Finally, she reached up and jumped with all her strength towards it.
Her hands clamped down hard on both ends of the bar. Her own weight swinging forward provided just the amount of momentum for the bar to begin its slide along the wire. In no time at all it was sliding ever faster down the wire with Emily being pulled back against the force of the wind around her. She could see actual sparks flying from the metal slider above her grinding hard against the wire as it slid. As long as it went straight down and away from that monster, she was perfectly fine with it!
Or perhaps it would be better if she had some idea of 'where' she was going? The combined wind whipping against her face and stinging her eyes and the general fogginess impeding her vision, Emily could scarce see where exactly this wire was leading down to. All she could see was the faint outline of dark trees on all sides of her, as well as a tower that held both of the wires to a transition point. That was something, wasn't it? She'd pass by the tower and the direction likely would be changed.
As she sped through and met the tower, Emily cried out as her world was suddenly thrown all around her. A part of her brain registered that the holding bar must have broken off completely and had basically thrown her forward in a backwards flip. All the girl could see was the entire world rolling around as she felt herself fall through the cold air.
She hit the snow with a thud and proceed to roll around in some direction. Specks of snow littered her body practically everywhere when she finally came to a halt. At last, everything around her stopped moving, almost as if the world were finally giving her leave to finally move herself.
With a groan she rolled herself over and onto her front. Her entire body felt as ice from the snow, but also a dull pain radiating from who knew where. Everywhere on her body was hurting from that fall, but she managed to power through the pain and raise herself back up onto her feet.
"Jesus, shit...!" she cursed.
Rubbing any part of her body rewarded her with sharp stabs of pain. This was especially true for her shoulder where she distinctly remembered taking the full brunt of the fall impact from. Shockingly, Emily also noted that the bag with the long handle that the man had passed to her was still on her person as well, even after all that.
"Shit... where do I...?"
Her eyes darted all around, desperate to get her bearings. She looked all around for something, anything, that could be used as some kind of landmark, a tracker, just to give her some indication of where she was, and where she could run to...
There! Upon a nearby post of a wooden fence near her, two arrowed signs pointing in the same direction down the path that she now found herself. One saying 'Cable Car Station' and the other reading 'Washington Lodge'. As they were both pointing in the same direction, Emily knew her course was clear. Mustering all remaining strength, she had left she proceeded to run down the path. At the same time that same shrieking sound filled the forest air all around her.
"Oh, goddammit!" Chris exclaimed as he slammed the phone back down. He had been doing this so many times now; picking up the phone, dialing the numbers and waiting for someone to pick up, only to be met with the same results. Ever since he got back to the lodge he had been informed by Sam and Ash that neither Emily nor Matt were found in the building anywhere. As such he had suggested to try and call the two of them on their phones to see if they could reach them. The results were definitely less than he would've preferred.
He pinched the bridge of his nose in absolute frustration.
"Nothing at all?" Sam spoke up. Chris regarded her with a shake of his head.
"Just a dial tone saying to leave a message," he said, "How is nobody picking up after all this time?"
"I'm telling you, it's gotta be something that Josh did," Sam shrugged her shoulders, "Messing with the phone lines, making us feel more cut off. I mean we haven't been able to use our cell phones at all either."
"Yeah but, cell reception has always been bad up here," Chris pointed out as he proceeded to walk out of the dining room with Sam, "Even Josh knew that. And I just don't get how he would think messing with phone lines would be good for his 'plan'. No matter how sick and twisted it was."
The two of them entered the living room again to join the only other person present with them. Ashley sat on the cloth-covered couch ever since she was escorted back up from the lower rooms downstairs. She had been extremely quiet the entire time, almost eerily so. All she was doing was staring forward at nothing and gently rocking herself back and forth with arms wrapped around the sides of each other. Chris supposed he couldn't blame her; tonight was a messed up and traumatic experience for all of them here.
"So, what does that leave us with then?" he asked, "Just stick around here and wait for the two of them to show up again?"
"It's all we can do right now, Chris," Sam pointed out as she indicated towards the windows and the snow flurry outside, "It wouldn't be safe for us to go out there ourselves. And if they're out there themselves they'd probably know enough to try and get back here, right?"
Chris wanted to refute but knew that Sam had a point. Maybe it was likely they would try and make it back to the safety of the lodge themselves, however slim those chances may be. But after everything that had happened tonight the feeling of uselessness was really starting to gnaw at him. He just wanted to do... something, anything! Anything at all to try and make up for the times where it felt like he'd been screwing up so badly.
"Maybe... maybe you have a point," he finally conceded. He looked up to view the two girls in front of him. Sam and Ash looked back at him with varying looks on their faces. Sam was mildly calm and hopeful, while Ash was more scared and desperate. Perhaps it would be better if all of them stick together for now.
He glanced once towards the windows at the storm that raged outside.
"Just hope we hear something from them soon-"
A sound could suddenly be heard. All three teens' heads perked up as they heard it. The sound was muted, as if being heard through walls, but there was no mistaking what it was.
Someone was screaming; potentially a girl from the sounds of it.
"Y-you all heard that right?" Chris said.
"What was that...?" Ashley said.
"Was that Em? Or maybe Jess?" Sam added. The three of them watched the nearby windows anxiously as if trying to sense whom that might've been through the thick walls of the lodge. Deathly silence had filled the living room as they focused in on listening. Aside from the muted howls of the winds outside as well as the sounds of their own shallow breaths, none of the three teens heard any further screams...
They then nearly jumped in their places as something was heard after minutes has passed by. Heavy pounding against the front door with a voice to accompany it,
"Hello!? Hello please, anyone in there?!" a voice called out, "Let me in! Let me in!" In a flash the three kids had jumped to attention and ran straight for the front door.
"Is that-?"
"It's Em!" Sam exclaimed.
"L-Let's let her in, quick!" Chris panted as he rounded the corner of the living room. He quickly bolted towards the front door where the frantic sound of a jiggling doorknob could be heard along with the pounds on the door. He quickly undid the bolt lock and twisted the knob to pull the door open.
Almost instantly Emily practically stumbled straight in and fell to the ground.
"Shut the door! Oh my God- shut the door!"
Chris was almost completely disbelieving as to what he was seeing right now. Emily actually just appeared on the front door? Coincidentally as Sam had spoken the hope that either her or Matt would hopefully find their way here?
As he could only see that Emily had appeared here by herself, he instinctively pushed the door shut again and resecured the lock.
"Em- Emily? Are you alright-?"
As he turned back around towards her, he could see that she was already being picked up and escorted into the living room by Sam and Ash. He could only see the back of her but could still tell that she wasn't looking in the best of shape at the moment.
"I didn't think that I'd make it!" she was saying.
"You were screaming bloody murder!" Chris said as he followed after the trio of girls.
"You look totally wiped! What happened?!" Ashley asked.
"Come on, come with us, Em! In here..."
Emily was led back into the living room and quickly sat down on the couch. Now that everything wasn't moving so fast Chris was allowed a clearer look at the girl. She did look positively messed up as well. In addition to her normally dark jacket and jeans now shaded white with specks of snow, there were various cuts all about her body, including right above her right eye.
"Where's Matt?"
"There was something out there!"
"Did you guys split up?"
"A monster!"
At this point practically a million questions were being rattled off at once. It was getting difficult for Chris to process nearly everything he was hearing. Emily was here, but Matt wasn't here, where the two of them had been, why she was looking as wrecked as she was, why she was panicked out and out breath. One thing at a time!
"Wait!" Chris tried to forcefully cut in, "Are-are you okay, Em? You've got cuts all over you."
"I'm fine, I'm fine, really, I don't feel anything," she said, "I just need to calm down. Was moving so damn fast..."
"Huh? Why?"
"I just had to get away...!"
"Away from what?" Sam asked.
"There was this... 'thing', whatever it was! It was chasing me and-"
"No Em, Em you can relax; it was all Josh, he was messing with us! But we-"
"No NO! You're not listening to me!" And just like that, everything had fallen back into answers rattling off too fast to be processed.
"Em, just-!" Chris cut in yet again, "Can you tell us exactly what all happened? Maybe start from the beginning?"
"I am TRYING to tell you all!" she protested. To his credit while she did protest his inquiry, she did take a moment to breathe and compose herself, "Matt and I were climbing up a fire tower, but it fell! Like, the whole tower just fell! Right down into the mines, and-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa wait, what mines?" Chris cut in.
"Th-there all all these mine shafts all over!" she tried to explain, "Running underneath everything. And when the tower fell, we ended up down there. But Matt must've ended up somewhere else, cause-"
"But I don't understand, Em- the tower 'fell'?" Ashley asked.
"How could it fall-?" Sam added.
"I don't know! Alright?!" Emily exclaimed, "I don't know how the freaking tower just 'fell', it just did! It threw me down like deep into these mines, these really dark and scary mines! I was walking all around trying to find my way out, and then I found this like... pile, and-"
Almost instantly, Emily's eyes widened while her gaze flew back and forth between the three of them. Her eyes contained widened alarm, but also a strange hint of sadness in them?
"Guys..." she spoke much more somberly yet with a hint of urgency in her voice, "I... I found Beth's head down there...!"
"Wait, WHAT?!" Chris exclaimed.
"Beth's head! I found it there!" Em repeated.
"Oh my God..." Ashley put a hand over her own mouth and turned her own head away.
"Beth?! Em, are you serious?!" Sam asked.
"Yes, I'm serious!" Emily pressed, "In fact, that wasn't the only thing I found there; look..." Chris watched as she hastily reached into her pocket. In a moment she pulled forth a couple of items and held them before the three of them. Even with the lack of sufficient light in the room, Chris could still see clearly what the items were. A pair of glasses and a piece of jewelry.
"I found these too..." The girls eyed the items, both with varying expressions on their faces.
"Are those... glasses?" Ashley asked.
"Oh my God...!" Sam reached over to take the small jewelry item in her fingers. She held it up and before her head, the dim, moonlight from the nearby window giving it just barely enough light so as to view it in detail. Sam turned it around a couple times before opening the top with her fingertips. Her eyes only widened upon seeing what lay within, "This IS Hannah's locket! And those! They're definitely her glasses! You found these 'down there'...?"
"Yeah, I found both of them both around the same area. It was... I think they fell down there," Emily said.
"Oh, Jesus Christ..." Chris said to himself. He could feel a weight within him beginning to lift that he didn't even know was there. A burden of not knowing the ultimate fate of a couple of friends, however that feeling was quickly replaced by a heavier feeling of the thought that their deaths might not have been peaceful...
"But you know what- the worst part is that... I don't think that Hannah died. Like from the fall? Like not right away..." Emily continued, which seemingly interrupted Chris' thought process regarding if they were 'dead' or not.
"Not right away? W-what do you mean?" Ashley asked, "Like, she was still alive...?"
"I dunno, I just feel like she was down there, starving to death, for weeks..." Emily spoke sadly, "When we were all up here looking for her; we had no idea!"
"Good God, that's... horrible..." Chris said. So their collective guilt evolved from having possibly killed two of their best friends to having definitely killed one of them and causing the other to suffer for who knows how long. The boy put his fists to his hips and shook his head.
"But-but listen though!" Emily continued, "When we were in the fire tower, there was a radio in there. I managed to get through to someone; right before the tower fell and collapsed-!"
In the midst of Emily's speech, the sound of a door slamming shut could be heard. Chris viewed the familiar form of Mike rushing back into the living room to rejoin their group. He turned towards the couch where Emily sat and his features softened considerably with relief.
"Emily!" he quickly reached forward to embrace her, which she eagerly returned, "You made it!"
"Yeah, barely," Chris remarked.
"Oh God, Mike!" Em also spoke with relief. The two finally broke apart from each other after a moment.
"What about Matt?" he asked.
"We were trying to figure that out!" Ashley said.
"Yeah- and there was this 'monster' that was chasing her, or something..." Chris added with a healthy amount of disbelief on his part.
"Shit, Em, you're bleeding!" Mike looked back at her face to see the cut on her face above her eye. He reached up with a thumb to wipe some of the blood away, "She's all messed up, guys... Emily? You alright-?"
A sound of heavy knocking suddenly filled the air. All five kids found themselves jumping slightly at the out-of-nowhere noise. Chris himself felt his heart spike slightly from the sound nearly startling him. They all turned towards the back door where the sound had likely been heard coming from.
"What the...?" Chris said.
"Who the fuck can 'that' be?" Mike silently asked.
"Matt?" Ashley said.
"Jess, maybe?" Chris asked. Mike flashed him a look before that same look melting away into a more somber look in turn.
"It's not Jess..." His reply was simple and final, with the tone leaving no room for debate or consideration at all. On top of that, possibly referencing Jess in light of what Mike must've experienced might have been a sore topic for all he knew.
"Sorry man, but... who is it?" Chris said. He looked up towards the blind-covered walls and door in the back to see the silhouetted image of someone standing out there. Just from the shape alone it was far too large to be Jess anyway. Could it be Matt though? Or maybe Josh, having somehow gotten loose from his confinement?
"I don't know! We should check it out...!" Mike silently.
"I... got your back," Chris said with an absent point towards the other boy's shoulder.
"Good," Mike replied, "Girls, wait here..."
The three girls gave no argument as they hung back while the boys moved forward. They swiftly yet quietly advanced across the living room floor towards the back. Mike had pulled out that actual loaded gun he'd had with him and held it in his hands. This in turn made Chris feel slightly under-prepared himself for not having a weapon as well, but he shook the immediate anxiety as best he could.
The two of them then took position directly in front of the door. Mike held the gun up with both hands and pointed it towards the door and the vague direction of the figure standing outside.
"Okay, I'm gonna open the door," Chris said, to which Mike nodded lightly.
"Ready?" Mike nodded again.
"Ready?"
Chris reached towards the door handle with one hand, but suddenly hesitated. Could this person standing outside see what he was doing about as he could see him? What exactly was going to happen if he were to open the door for this stranger-
"Just, DO it already!" Mike suddenly spoke forcefully and making Chris jump a little in surprise, "Whoever's there is probably gone by now!"
"U-unless you want me to take the gun?" Chris said.
"No, no, no I think that's less good," Mike denied him with a wave of a finger, "You do the door, I got the gun."
"Alright, alright..." Chris finally conceded. He gave a quick, shake of his head to brush away lingering anxieties that had been building just now. Mike had him covered anyway; better to just... open up and... hope for the best.
The boy reached forward and unfastened the door lock. He then took the doorknob in his hand and gave a gentle twist. Very slowly he pulled the door closer towards him-
"Shit-!"
In a flash, Chris' world suddenly was rocked by the door itself bursting out and smacking his body hard. The sheer force of the impact as well as the sudden surprise were both enough to send him sprawling back and tumbling to the ground.
As he struggled to roll and upright himself again Mike's voice could be heard above him.
"Ah! N-now, ho- hold on there! Hold on there, mister...!"
Scrambling back to pull himself to his own feet Chris finally got himself a good look at the intruder. It was in fact a man, completely unfamiliar to him. This stranger stood with a thick bundle of winter clothing on, consisting of a thick, green outer coat (similar to the one Mike was wearing), a maroon sweater underneath, tan snow pants, a thick wool cap to conceal most of his hair, and a bandana wrapped around his neck.
However, it was the 'non-clothing' items that really drew Chris' attention. This man had an assortment of really heavy-duty armaments on his person! He had what looked like welder's goggles hanging down around his neck on top of the bandana, the stump of what looked like a long gun sticking out from behind his back, some kind of backpack being worn to keep it secured in-
Wait, that wasn't a backpack. It was a fuel tank! And even in his hands Chris identified the long, cylindrical object of a flamethrower! This guy was completely decked out to fight a small army; hell, he WAS a small army!
Thus, it was really no surprise his eyes were leveled at Mike's slightly shivering form, even with the latter pointing his gun straight at him. The look he was giving him made it seem like he was amused, mocking him even! He didn't even give a moment's hesitation to reach forward towards Mike.
"Freeze-"
The stranger took hold of Mike's gun and twisted it as well as his own hands to the side.
"OW-! Jeez! I- alright, alright!" Mike easily relented and moved himself back to where Chris himself stood. He shook his twisted hand a couple of times as well, "Just... take it easy, grandpa."
The stranger on the other hand was reaching towards the door and- wait a minute; he had forced the gun out of Mike's hand, but he... he wasn't using it on them or something? He'd just forced himself into the lodge before them all without any effort whatsoever, but... wasn't he about to kill them? He was completely decked out with a number of tools of the 'killer psycho trade', so why was he taking his time? Who was this guy?!
The stranger instead reached for the door next to him and swung it shut. The door slammed to a close as the man then redirected his attention back to himself and Mike.
"Okay, everybody! Just calm down!"
His voice was heard for the first time. It was a gruff, almost growling voice, and complete with no-nonsense to it. Chris found himself backing away from his threatening tone in addition to the numerous weapons this man carried on him.
"Now, just move over there," man waved his hand forward and directed him and Mike further into the living room. The two of them practically tripped over themselves as the shuffled further away from the man, "Go on, move! Let me say what I came to say..." Wait, this guy wanted to say something? What could he want to say to them? Something to ask maybe? What could he ask of them that the flamethrower he held couldn't answer for him...?
In no time Chris and Mike rejoined the girls in the living room. The stranger soon followed after while maintaining a healthy distance from them all. He finally came to a stop in front of them when Chris heard Emily make a small gasping noise.
"Wait, you again?!" she suddenly said.
"What?" Sam said, "Em, you know this guy or something?"
"He was down there, in the mines with me!" she explained before pointing to the bag she held around her shoulder, "He gave me this thing here, and... he saved me...?" Chris shot his gaze back to the man in question, his confusion only growing stronger.
"Sure..." he spoke low and with a healthy dose of sarcasm to it, "But I ain't here for any 'touching reunions', if that's what you're thinkin'. I'm here to tell you what you're up against, being back on this mountain..." He paused his speech for a moment as he suddenly began to walk closer to the fireplace. Chris and the girls one by one slowly took a seat back on the couch while Mike remained standing in place, all of them keeping their gazes fixed squarely on the man. His back was turned to them as he reached up to rub one of his own shoulders.
"You should never have returned..." he spoke again, much lower and disdain in his tone. "I don't know why you did, after what happened last year."
"You mean with Hannah, and Beth?" Ashley suddenly spoke up. Her comment spurred on previous discussion topics that he had actually shared with her hours before. About how there'd potentially been some 'other' person possibly connected with their disappearance! Granted a majority of these recent discoveries could mostly have been pinned upon Josh and his warped sense of 'therapy', but still! There was an actual person here who was speaking of 'last year'!
"Yeah, how could you know without being involved?" he probed.
"Or responsible even-?" Sam added.
"Now you all hold on to your horses," the stranger spun around to face them all fully. The light from the embers in the fireplace provided just enough glow for his face to be shown in somewhat finer detail. Chris could see that this guy was definitely up in his years, about fifties or so, and a number of scratches across his face that became scarred over with time. He could also see the rather stern face that he was leveling at all of them as well, "I don't kindly to you kids, comin' up here on my mountain."
"Your mountain? Huh..." Mike commented, "Hate to burst your bubble pal, but aren't you forgetting the Washingtons 'bought' this mountain?" He placed his hands on his hips for good measure as well. However, the sound heard next from the stranger was the familiar sound of laughter. A small chuckle that felt a bit mocking as before.
"Well... the mountain don't belong to me, it's true. But it don't belong to the Washingtons," them an took a single step forward towards them, "This mountain... belongs to the Wendigo."
Chris' eyes narrowed upon hearing that word. That rather strange word, or- or was that a name? Was it someone else that owned this mountain?
"The... who?" he asked incredulously.
"What's he talking about?" Sam whispered as well.
"The hell is a 'Wendigo'?" Mike asked.
"Well, let's hear him out...?" Sam suggested.
"Eh, not like we got a choice," Mike replied with a shrug before turning back to face the stranger again.
"Now I'm only gonna tell you this once... It don't matter to me if you believe it or not," the man spoke to them seriously, a clear change from his earlier chastising and even mocking tone from earlier, "See, I got reasons; I wanna... get 'em off my chest..."
"Ha! You see!" Mike suddenly declared, "I told ya! He's guilty as shit! Guilty as something-!"
"Shhh! Shut up, Mike!" Sam forcefully silenced him. The man didn't even seem to regard Mike's interruption much, if at all. He instead lowered his head slightly before speaking again.
"There... is a curse," he turned his head back to look at the kids again, "That dwells in these mountains. Should any man, or woman, resort to cannibalism in these woods... the Spirit of the Wendigo shall be unleashed..."
A silence fell over the group for only a second, yet it was a second that felt like it stretched on for an eternity. The man's words hung heavy in the air.
Chris himself was in absolute disbelief at what he was hearing. The moment he heard the word 'spirit' be uttered, and in combination with this 'wendigo' thing, he nearly had to bite his tongue to resist scoffing out loud. He already had just gone through a night of 'supernatural shit' being disproven by figuratively pulling back the curtain and exposing Josh for the cause of it all. On top of his own disbelief of supernatural stuff like ghosts and spirits, now here came a total stranger spouting similar nonsense? Combined with cannibalism as well? Who the hell did this guy think he was?
"You guys..." Emily spoke in a low tone, "I think... I think that's what it was. That monster-!"
"Wha- oh, come on, are you serious?!" Chris nearly exclaimed.
"It chased after me, dammit!" she pressed, "It was definitely some kind of monster, and..." As she trailed off, she looked back to regard the stranger while still speaking to them, "I think... I believe him..."
"Hmph..." the stranger gave only an audible grunt of a reply, as well as a pursing of his lips before speaking, "You're gonna need to find somewhere safe."
"Well, I mean... the basement might be okay..." Sam suggested with a shrug. She kept her mouth open as if to follow up with something, but the stranger was already speaking and cut her off,
"Okay; get down there, now. All of you and wait."
"W-what? Why? For how long?" Sam asked.
"Probably... until dawn," Emily spoke up. Sam and Ash turned to her as she continued, "That's what the guy on the radio said; they wouldn't come get us until dawn..."
"Wait... guys?"
Chris and the others looked over at Mike, who had spoken up for the first time in a while.
"I ran off and left Josh when I heard screaming...!"
"Where did you leave him?" the stranger asked, his features scrunching a little with inquiry.
"In the shed."
"Ah..." the man nodded his head, "Your friend will already be dead."
"What!?" Chris suddenly found himself standing up from his seat on the couch, "No, h-he can't be! I mean we- we were just with him!"
"A lot can happen quickly on this mountain, at this hour of night..." the stranger replied rather nonchalantly and with a shrug of his own.
Visions of Josh suddenly flooded back into Chris' mind. The image of him still sitting there, tied up to that wooden support beam he had left him and Mike at. As much as it positively shamed him to admit, but in spite of everything he had put all of them through, and from the initial shock of the first discovery having worn off significantly by this point, he was beginning to comprehend just how much of a fucked-up position his best friend had been placed in. They'd already roughed him up plenty, had him tied up, Chris himself even beating him a couple of times (though purely out of instinct)...!
"No!" he said with a shake of his head, "I-I won't let anything else happen to him!"
"Anything else?" Sam voice spoke up, "Chris, what do you mean...?"
It was only 'after' Sam's own inquiry that Chris realized his mistake. He still had his little stunt of 'beating a tied-up prisoner' still on his mind when he had opened his mouth to speak! What was he to do now? Especially now that he had pretty much brought the subject up himself?
"Chris... don't..." he could hear Mike softly saying with a shake of his head. Chris grit his teeth, but he still sucked in air to steel his nerves as he decided to 'confess'.
"I... I hit him," he addressed the girls specifically. He was met with differing looks from each one, all ranging from confusion to being mildly appalled, "I mean- he was spewing out this nonsense when I was angry and getting me riled up...! I hit him in the head, twice."
"Chris!" Sam exclaimed in an admonishing tone.
"Maybe he deserved it..." Ashley added, her own voice enough low to sound almost under her breath.
"But no matter what, any of that, we can't just let him die!" Chris said.
"Then I'll go with you," the stranger took a single step forward.
"I-I don't need help-" Chris started, but the man was quick to cut him off.
"Going alone is suicide."
Chris looked back up at the stranger again, once again taking in the practically 'one-man army' aesthetic from the number of weapons he had on him. Maybe... maybe it wouldn't hurt to have someone watching his back when going out into the dark woods.
"Alright, fine," he relented.
"And the rest of you," the stranger then pointed to the other kids behind Chris, "Get down to the basement; be safe. Don't go outside again, until we're back." No one said a word of either agreement or argument as they picked themselves up from where they sat. Mike then motioned to lead the way as he led them towards the lodge's descending stairs.
Once they had all left the room, as well as he and the stranger alone, Chris watched as the man leaned in slightly closer until he was afforded little else other than a clear view of his face.
"You don't seem to understand the magnitude of this situation..."
He spoke with his now usual admonishing tone that Chris was starting to expect from this guy. What really was the big deal with him speaking like this and taking things as seriously as he was? Things couldn't really be that dangerous for them, could they?
"Well, I'm just going to get Josh, aren't I-"
"No- 'I'm' going to get Josh," the man interrupted and punctuated his point with a finger pointed directly at his chest, "You are going to help me. Do you understand?"
This man's voice he leveled at him was practically a mix of different tones. He was low speaking, he was growly, he was openly threatening, he was no-nonsense, and he left absolutely no room for argument. Even if Chris wanted to protest, what ground did he have to stand on when talking with this guy?
In fact, with this man standing this close to him, Chris was noticing things about his face he hadn't noticed before. For one thing he was missing a tooth or two on his upper jaw. Also, in addition to the scarred cuts on his face, one particular cut ran the length from his right eyebrow and down to his cheek. Most likely that was the reason for his right eye appearing as milky white as it did. If Chris was being honest, this man scared the absolute shit out of him.
Maybe it would be best to do as he says, for now...
"Um... yeah, I... I think so," he stammered as he struggled to maintain some semblance of composure.
"You need to follow me and do everything I tell you."
With that the man waved a hand to motion for him to follow. He led him across the room and through the open doors of the kitchen. As Chris trailed behind him, he gazed upon the entire arsenal that he held upon his back. That flamethrower fuel tank he held on to his back looked really big and massive! Who knew how heavy that thing must have been, and this guy was carrying it around like a kid carrying a backpack at school! And not only that but there was in fact a long gun sticking up and alongside the tank as well. Yeah, it was probably a real good idea not to get on this guy's bad side the more he thought about it...
After walking down the hallway the man came to a slow stop in front of the door. He hesitated for a moment, leaving Chris to wonder if this old guy was up to. His answer came from the man raising his arm up towards the handle of the gun he had holstered. With a single arm, he was able to hoist it clean out of whatever it was sheathed in and hold it in one hand.
He then turned around to Chris, which caused the latter's anxiety to suddenly spike from the implication. Just like that however, the man held the gun forth towards Chris. The teen was almost in legit confusion as to what the man was doing, but eventually snapped himself out of his daze to take the gun into his hands.
Almost immediately, Chris could feel the sheer 'weight' of the actual firearm he now held in his hands. Having played shooter arcade games, shooting booths with more light-weight pellet guns, and even the shooting range down at the cable car station earlier this evening, he'd thought he'd have a good idea that all guns felt about the same. However, the very real shotgun he held in his hands demonstrated just how inaccurate his earlier belief was.
"This is the end you point towards the thing you wanna kill," the stranger gave a quick point towards the barrel end of the gun. Okay, this guy was clearly mocking him at this point.
"I know how to use a shotgun, man," Chris said.
"No you don't," the man replied simply, yet still managed to sound admonishing.
"What?" Chris found himself saying, "How do you know?" Almost immediately he wished he could take back his words; his attempt at back-talking this... stranger, that was armed to the teeth with his deadly assortment of weapons. He could feel his hands start to shake and his heart start to beat just a little faster.
To his relief, or maybe only to further fuel his embarrassment, the man simply flashed him a smug smile.
"Trust me, I know."
With that he finally turned around towards the door. Chris supposed he should feel relieved that the guy wasn't saying anything further to embarrass him, or even that anyone else was present to witness his embarrassment. Maybe the cold outside would help him to chill down his ever-growing flushed face of-
"Hey."
And just like that, Chris heart spiked again. Not only from the voice unexpectedly calling out from behind him, but from who it was exactly.
Chris turned around to find Ashley. The girl could be seen slowly approaching him through the hallway before coming to a slow halt before him. Thanks to the moonlight shining in through the window of the door, Chris was afforded a much clearer view of her. This of course meant the 'unsavory' things on her body were more accented such as the splatters of fake blood coating her entire left side and even the black eye that she unfortunately still had. On the other hand, Chris couldn't help but notice some rather... pleasing things about her appearance. The light on her skin seemed to make it glow ever so slightly, despite having a single black eye both her eyes were looking straight at him, and her lips could be seen curving ever so slightly. Not quite into a full-on smile, but something that felt more along the lines of 'hopeful'.
"Come back safe."
Before Chris could even register the short and simple words that she had just said to him, he watched as she was moving again. She was actually moving closer towards him now... Wait... what exactly was she do-
She leaned forward and pressed her lips directly against his!
Chris nearly swallowed the excited noise he was about to let out of his mouth. This was really happening! The girl that he was no longer ashamed to admit he had a crush on for the longest time was kissing him! He could even taste that faint taste of flavored lip balm that she'd had on when she first came up here. And her lips! They felt so unbelievably soft against his own! So soft and warm... The warmth he could feel from her lips along felt like it was coursing through his own lips and filling his own body with warmth. Warmth that was slowly growing with intensity into a raging inferno! He instinctively closed his eyes, just to allow himself to live in this moment, however long it may last...
He felt his arms slump in front of him, which in turn only further reminded him that he was still in fact holding something in his hands.
And as if reality couldn't be any crueler to him, he could sense in that moment that Ashley was beginning to break apart from him. He slowly opened his eyes to look back at her. The 'hopeful' smile he had seen on her face earlier had grown by now into a much, much stronger smile. She was looking at him with genuine happiness and hope. She had really just done that! But now what would be the thing to say in response to that?
"We need to hurry, son."
He felt his nerves jump a little at the 'other' voice yet again behind him. Had that stranger really just witnessed that entire thing!? Well, at the very least he didn't seem to be making any comments about what, or even if, he'd witnessed anything.
He refocused his attention squarely back on Ashley. The girl whom he'd had a crush on- no, wait... This was much more than that now, wasn't it? Was Ashley now 'his'? Was he now 'hers'? They'd both kissed each other now, so this had to mean the next step in 'a' relationship was being taken, wasn't it? Why did this have to happen now, when he was about to go out and rescue Josh?! What could he even say in response? To this rather momentous occasion for him?
"I'll... I'll see you soon..."
Dammit! That's the best he could come up with? Even behind his nervous smile he displayed on his face outwardly, inside he berated his lack of creativity. Still, it was something honest to say; he was going to make it back to her, he was.
Reluctantly, he pulled himself away from Ashley and walked towards the open door. He was greeted with the chilling feeling of both the icy winds blowing against his face as well as the stranger giving him a rather icy look before proceeding to walk himself.
"Um... s-so tell me, you're the expert on these 'things'," Chris spoke in an effort to break the embarrassment he'd been feeling just now, "What's uh... w-w-what's a guy gotta know?"
"You just be careful. You follow my lead."
The man didn't look behind him as he proceeded down the wooden steps of the lodge. Chris followed after him down the steps as well. These simple responses he was getting from the man weren't going to be all that helpful at this rate. He'd have to probe for more detail if he wanted some more tangible answers.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs and into the crunch of the snow again tonight, Chris looked down at the shotgun he held in his hands. It was in fact a pump shotgun, with its pump colored a light brown color to contrast against the dull, dark gray of the metallic barrel. Surely with this thing he'd be safe against it, wouldn't he? Still, best to inquire just by how much.
"So... how many times do I have to shoot it with this shotgun before it's dead?" he asked as he and the man rounded the slight curve of the beginning of the path to the shed.
"Well, you'll be shootin' it a long time."
"What?!" Chris nearly exclaimed, "Y-You mean this thing won't even kill it?!"
"No, but it'll... slow it down."
"But how do you 'kill' it?" Chris pressed. As he studied the man's walking form in front of him and how he still did not look back at him, he noticed that he briefly extended his arm out to present his flamethrower tool for a second.
"They don't like fire," he said as he returned his hands in front of him.
"I don't like fire."
"They fear it," the man continued, "And it can kill 'em, if you have to. See their skin, it's like... it's like, tough armor. Unless you... burn it off first."
"Ugh, gross..." Chris scrunched his face up at the notion. Nevertheless, he continued to follow the man as the two of them snow-crunched their way back along the familiar pathway.
Again, with this notion that there even were such things as 'Wendigos', as this man was claiming. Chris did have to give the guy credit; he was sure trying his best to sell their credibility of being real with that really creepy, foreboding voice of his. If there were even such thing, how had they not been seeing anything like that this evening?
"W-what do these things like?" he inquired, "I mean, are they just crazy unpredictable, or... can you figure out what they're gonna do?"
"Well... they adhere to some patterns," the man said, "Like any animal... or human..." His comment caused Chris to instinctively glance to his side at the nearby ravens that were perched on a tree branch, looking down at them. Those same birds ended up cawwing as they flew away upon their close approach.
"Like how? Like- like they got schedules?" Chris asked further.
"Well, they only hunt at night."
"Oh. Why?" Chris didn't even realize he'd asked that question, much less the absurdity of it until well after it had left his lips.
"I didn't ask."
The stranger's response was quick, sarcastic, blunt, as well as mocking. It was sadly starting to be what Chris was expecting from him at this point with every moment spent with him. He couldn't decide whether to be insulted by his demeanor or just plain intimidated by him in general; probably a mix of both.
By now the two had reached the point of the path where Chris had remembered finding that scarecrow from earlier on the left side. And, to his misfortune, said scarecrow was still posed there as it had randomly popped up earlier. This damn thing, having scared the pants off of him the first time he'd encountered it, then later found out it was a simple scare trick set up by Josh. He found himself half-tempted to simply unload one of these shotgun shells right into this thing's stupid face right here and now. That is until he reminded himself that he was holding an actual shotgun, and as the stranger had so 'eloquently' made clear to the both of him, his actual inexperience with it. With that he simply continued walking forward and leaving the dummy behind, both literally and perhaps figuratively.
Refocusing his mind, Chris made mental notes of reminding himself just what exactly what he was doing out here in the first place. He and this stranger were on their way to get Josh and bring him in. And hopefully, they would not be running into such scary monsters in addition. Of course, that'd be what the weapons were for. As for these things themselves... what more was there to know about them?
"So... any 'pro-Wendigo tips'?" he spoke up again, "Like if I rub garlic all over me they won't be able to smell me, or something-?"
"They'll still smell ya."
"Anything 'like' that?" Chris pressed.
"They can't see you if you're... standin' still," the stranger said, "It's like toads; sight's based on changes in movement in their field of vision."
Alright, alright, this was something Chris was starting to understand now. He recalled learning about both the vision acuity of both toads, other amphibians, and even certain birds in school. How they had evolved their vision to only perceive movement and little else in order to hunt food better. Even one of his favorite sci-fi movies showcased that 'visions based on movement' fundamentality, so Chris was slightly relieved to be learning something that he was somewhat familiar with.
"So, if I don't 'move', I'm basically... invisible?" he asked for clarification.
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't recommend testing it out... Unless you have no other choice..." Well, Chris wasn't planning to test it out himself, but at least he was finally getting some solid answers by now.
The pair made their way across a small break in the forest line on their right side. Through it the moonlight was able to shine down upon them completely unhindered. As Chris was walking more on the right side compared to the stranger, he eyed some details about the man's attire. He was wearing some heavy-duty snowshoes, the snow pants he was wearing had a couple of old-school patches sewn onto them here and there, and even a couple of Native American trinkets hanging from his waist. Was this guy like a collector of ancient artifacts, or was he like a Native American himself? Before he could perceive anything else, the two of them walked out of the light of the moon and back into the dark shade of the forest.
Snow-crunching along behind the man, Chris felt something itch in the back of his mind. Something he couldn't help but wonder ever since the man had first brought it up. Not that he was any closer to believing any of this 'spirit' stuff than he was before, but still... Didn't he mention that these things didn't exactly start off as monsters? Or had he? Chris found himself at a bit of a loss from his brief forgetfulness.
Maybe, he should inquire about that as well.
"If these things, er... 'wendigos'... are, or 'were' human..." he struggled to think of the right way to pose the question, "Do they still have some aspect of... humanity, in them?"
"Well, they retain certain things..." the man replied.
"I mean is it really right to kill them?" Chris continued, only for him to hear the faint sound of a chuckle from the man.
"Maybe they can be cured! Or-"
"They surrender human rights the moment they eat one another," he cut in forcefully, "There is no cure. There's no 'redemption'." His tone carried a strange, biting edge to it. Chris could tell right then that maybe the question of 'ethics and moralities' was perhaps a sore subject.
"I-I'm just saying if they're still human, I don't know if it's right to hurt them-"
Before Chris could say another word further the stranger came to an abrupt halt before him. Chris found himself stopping suddenly and found himself nearly recoiling as the man spun around. He took a single step towards Chris with his head leaning in close to his. The boy visibly recoiled from this sudden action and the impression that something was about to happen to him. However, the man simply remained in place, his arms down and in front of him, and leaving a complete look at 'all' this man's face nearly up in his.
"When you're starin' one in the face, it's them, or you..." he spoke menacingly and threateningly, as if the look on his face didn't demonstrate that clearly enough. Chris felt his heart beat a little faster as his anxiety spiked along with it. This guy was so close to him that he could practically smell that faint scent of cologne and even the foul scent of cigar on his breath. His eyes, or perhaps his one good eye and his bad one, remained fixed on him, narrowed and practically boring straight into him.
And just like that, the man took a step away from him again. He even resumed his walk down along the trail while not even bothering to wait up for Chris.
"Feel free to take the high road," he muttered his tone of dismissal just loud enough for Chris to hear, "You won't be on it for long..."
Chris was almost in disbelief as to what had even just happened just now. He could feel the icy chill of the wind stinging what skin of his was exposed, as well as a chilly feeling building up inside of him. Sadly he was starting to become used to both of these feelings as of being here tonight. As if nothing he would ever do would be just right or exactly as what needed to be done.
Well, no more of that. Chris shook his head to also help shake his anxious nerves. This time he had a plan at least. They were just going to go to the shed, grab Josh, and bring him back inside. Everything else at this point was secondary and not even that important... Well, maybe except for the fact that he now had newfound motivation to get back safely to Ashley!
With that, Chris quickly jogged forward and joined back up with the stranger.
Through the darkness of the night the two could see a single shining light, piercing through the darkness. This was not a place that would hold any pleasant memories at all. The shed was still a good distance away from them, and Chris wanted nothing more than to just tear the whole thing to the ground. The irony was again not lost on him that the only reason he was going there yet again was to get Josh because he and Mike had put him there in the first place...
Dammit, he was starting to slip into negative, uneasy thoughts again. He needed to do something, anything else, to take his mind off of it. His eyes glanced back up at the back of the stranger as he proceeded to walk. This guy was really not one for idle conversation so far, but that didn't mean he still didn't have questions of his own.
"So... guessing you must know a lot about them," he nervously started, "You... been on this mountain long? Er, hunting them, I mean?"
"This is my mountain, as I said," the man simply replied, "Even if I am sharin' it with those... those night demons..."
"You um... you do this alone? Or, you have anyone else to do this with?"
"I prefer to be alone," the man replied again, his tone sounding like it was carrying that biting edge from before again, "Less accidents. Fewer risks." Alone? He really lived on his own on this mountain? He didn't have anyone else to rely on in case he got injured (as his facial scars suggested) or anyone to help him hunt at all?
"It just seems like if they're as dangerous as you say, shouldn't more people, you know, be on this like you?"
By now the shed was directly before them and Chris found the stranger once again bathed in the gentle glow of the lightbulb from above on the shed's outer wall. He didn't stop this time as he had before, but he did cast a single look over his shoulder as best he could towards Chris as he kept walking. The light shone off of his exposed face and the eye that looked back at him.
"I don't need to be lookin' after any more than I have to," he said before glancing once at the shed, as if being reminded that they had reached their destination, "And I meant what I said before; you do everything I say, and we'll all get outta this alive. Got it?"
"Y-Yeah, I got it...!" Chris stammered. Seemingly satisfied with his response the man resumed his walk at his normal speed.
"Alright, now where is he?" the man glanced back at him before motioning towards the closed door before them, "Through here?"
"No-no, he's... around the corner... in the storage area," Chris pointed around the corner, "Here, let me show you." As he took the initial steps towards where he himself led, Chris could feel some renewed confidence within him. For once he knew the way to go and was leading this nitty-gritty guy along with him to get there. Or perhaps this was just a petty feeling of no longer feeling one-upped by him. Whatever the case may be, he made his way around the corner while also confirming the footsteps of the stranger following behind him.
He did find it strange though that he had gotten this close to the shed and hadn't heard a word from Josh by now. This unfortunately caused him to recall that he had in fact knocked him out when he was tied up, so if he was still out of course they wouldn't be hearing anything. In fact if anything, it might make getting him out of here slightly easier without his constant struggling from before. Or maybe it would make it harder if this guy decided to make him carry him instead-
Chris' eyes zeroed in on the exposed space of the storage area, and then widened. There was light still glowing within, but he felt his heart sink at what else he found. Or rather in this case, what he 'didn't' find.
Josh wasn't there! He was gone!
"Oh no...!" Chris muttered as he rushed into the space. The footstool that he and Mike had sat Josh down on had one of its legs broken off and was turned on its side. As it turned out the light was actually flickering and barely producing a dim glow from the lantern that had been knocked to the floor. And it was thanks to this dim, barely working light that Chris caught sight of blood on the floor. Splatters of blood linking from the wooden support pillar and out into the open.
"Dammit, what happened?!"
Chris was beginning to openly panic now. He and Mike had tied him up securely the last time; how or what could have broken his bonds at all? Where could Josh have gone to?!
He quickly ducked around the corner into the adjacent room with the large sawblade. His hopes only remained dashed as he couldn't see nor hear him anywhere within.
"He's gone-!" he found himself exclaiming, "We're too late!"
"Shh-! Quiet...!" the stranger suddenly shushed him. Chris turned to see that the man was looking out towards the thick of the forest. Chris found himself hushed along with the man's sudden command. The man took a single step out further into the open, as if looking for something. It was also at this point that a strange sound could be heard miles away. It sounded like a... a scream?
"We gotta go... right now!" he then said with sudden urgency.
"But, we gotta find Josh! He could still be out here-!" Chris tried to protest of his own. His words were cut short by the man making some sort of scoffing noise and then quickly entering back into the shed's space and closer to him.
"First... the Wendigo..." he spoke with his low, threatening, and deliberate tone while maintaining the silence in his voice, "It'll render you immobile. And then, it strips the skin of your entire body... piece by piece..." With each word of morbid description from this stranger Chris found his features furrowing ever harder. And even now he was still going, "And then... it keeps you alive, and aware, and feasts on your organs! One piece... at a time...!"
And just like that, and sadly many times before, Chris found his words of protest dying in his throat. There really was no reasoning this guy was there? And even if Chris himself wasn't fully believing in this 'spirits' and/or 'wendigo' stuff, this man not only fully believed it himself, but another glance at his flamethrower was a huge indication that he was not about to stop believing anytime soon.
Chris glanced back one more time at the broken stool and the blood splatters on the ground behind him. He hated being wrong, and he was really starting to hate how he'd been screwing up so many times tonight. But now... maybe he could start doing things correctly for once. And, if that meant listening to this guy and rejoining the others in safety... dammit.
"So the Lodge, then..." he finally conceded.
"Let's go now," the man spoke as if not even caring if Chris refused or accepted his advice, "It might still be near...!" With that he proceeded to step out into the open of the forest. Chris quickly followed right behind him, once more feeling the bite of the snowy air against his face.
"Wait-!"
The man suddenly halted in place. Every part of Chris froze, both figuratively and literally. He glanced to his side to see the man stood still as well.
"Don't move..."
His whisper was short, silent, and very blunt, and didn't need any explanation. Chris didn't even dare to turn his head away from the direction he held it focused in. The man remained in the corner of his eye as he himself stared forward at the tree line. His own hands felt like pure ice while gripping the shotgun as tightly as they did. Despite the man's warnings, he allowed his own eyes to dart all around to scan all they could of the surrounding forest.
All he could see however was just darkness. The dark silhouettes of the forests' trees, and thin yet hazy snowflake filled flurries that clouded his vision. He couldn't see any sort of movement out there; nothing that equated to 'out of the ordinary' for trees blowing in a forest anyway. Even that strange screaming sound was no longer heard, replaced instead by the light howling of the snow wind in his ears.
"Be very quiet..."
The man whispered just as deathly silent as before. Chris absolutely didn't need to be told twice. He even kept his own breathing as shallow and soundless as humanly possible. Only the barest of breath fogs he could see being breathed out of his own mouth. Aside from that as well as the hammering of his own heart in his chest that felt like it echoed in his ears, he made not a sound.
Maybe he could just shift his weight to all of his feet by just-
*SNAP!*
The snapping of a single twig beneath his foot might as well have been an actual shot around the world. He gritted his own teeth at his own fuck-up yet again and could even sense the man twitch his head slightly as if to throw him a glare.
Before either of them could do anything further, a heavy rushing through foliage could be heard directly in front of them. Something was coming! Charging towards them!
"RUN!" the stranger suddenly called out, "Go! Now! NOW!" Instinct overtook Chris as he let his legs carry him forward. He almost didn't even know 'where' he was running, and merely held the notion to simply run where the man was going. He eventually identified the trail they had come from, which was where the man was running in the direction of-
Suddenly, a blur of motion appeared directly in front of Chris. Where before there was naught but snow, something popped up seemingly out of nowhere! It was concealed underneath a wide shade of a large tree behind the two, but Chris was able to see limbs. Rather large, long limbs attached to a larger slender body. Something, moving on all fours, had actually leaped out in front of him! He could almost see the features on its head as it looked in his direction.
"Holy SHIT!" Chris exclaimed, "What the fuck-?!" The creature opened its mouth to snarl at him, but Chris suddenly felt motion of a hand against his chest forcing him back.
"Back! Get back-!"
The man had shoved Chris behind him before refixing his flamethrower in front of him and let out a burst of heated flames towards the creature. The world before the two men became brighter and slightly warmer due to the flames as they coated the ground and ice. Unfortunately Chris caught sight of the creature leaping away just before the flames could catch it as well. He couldn't see where it had gone off to, which only fueled his worry.
"God DAMN!" Chris cried out in open alarm. His heart was practically leap out of his chest at what all had just happened. First the guy randomly told him to start running, then he saw that... that 'thing', and then the stranger just let out an actual flamethrower blast!
"We're right out in the open...!" the man growled with a healthy amount of alarm in his own voice as well. His gaze darted back and forth to survey the trees, "We gotta get outta here-!"
Movement once more appeared out of Chris' upper right vision. In a flash, he looked up just in time to catch sight of something, and everything.
"GAAHH-!"
The creature had jumped downwards from a diagonal angle off the right, directly in front of the stranger where Chris heard the strange sound of something 'ripping', and just like that had jumped off into the thick of the forest. At the same time, he heard the man had let out some cry of... pain? Injury?
Wait, what was that dripping from his neck at- oh no...
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my-!"
Chris suddenly became aware that he had been standing a few feet away from the stranger this entire time. Yet despite the distance, as well as with aid of the light from the surrounding fire, he could see everything in almost agonizing detail.
The stranger said absolutely nothing, and only let out some strange gurgling noises. His eyes slowly upturned towards his own forehead. Very slowly, in fact far too slowly, the man dropped down to his knees and his body slumped back slightly. As it did this, Chris was left to witness the man's head roll to the side...
And tumble into the snow. The head lay in place where it landed, its eyes remaining fixed in Chris' direction the entire time.
"Oh... shit!"
Chris grew increasingly beside himself with horror at what had just happened. A man was just killed, right before his own eyes! He was alive, like, a few seconds ago, and now he was dead! He'd even saved him before by pushing him back before scaring it off with that flamethrower blast. Good God, he'd been really annoyed with this guy the whole time he'd known him, yet now it took him getting killed for him to realize that he might not have even survived himself without him!
Movement to the side broke him out of his mental panic. The creature! The 'wendigo' thing! It jumped onto the ground where it was lightly concealed by a patch of knee-level brush. If Chris hadn't seen it jump there at first, he might've almost missed it!
The creature then leaped towards him, its arms with its elongated fingers were stretched out wide. In that moment Chris was almost certain everything around him was slowing down. Pure instincts took over as he aimed his shotgun in the vague direction of the creature launching itself towards him.
He squeezed the trigger.
With a boom and a heavy kick of the gun's recoil, the world around Chris jolted for a moment. At the same time he heard what sounded like a grunt of pain from the creature before him. The world around him re-oriented itself and Chris could now see that his shot had struck true! The wendigo was flying backwards a few feet before falling back first into the snow.
"Did I do it...?" he spoke with renewed vigor. He carefully watched where the creature had fallen back for any further signs of movement, "Oh my God! I killed-"
The creature quickly pulled itself back up and on to all fours. Under the shade of the forest Chris could see it turning its head back to him and snarling.
"Oh no, no, stay back-!"
Panic overtook his vigor and fueled the adrenaline in his body. He quickly turned tail and ran back down the trail. His hand remained clamped firmly on the shotgun as he positively bolted. The world around him became a complete rush; there was no time to stop or even register where exactly he even was, only that he had to just run!
The stinging icy winds practically numbed his face. He became acutely aware that there was a thin layer of sweat building up on his brow as well, likely making the effect of cold on his skin all the more potent. All he knew for sure was that certain death lay behind him. Whether if he were to go back there or if he were to even remain still where he was. But he wasn't going to die here! He just wasn't!
Panting hard and frantically, Chris raced up along the path. Every so often he would throw a glance back over his shoulder just to see if he was being followed. The dark of the night and the thick shadows all around didn't do him any favors however. If there was anything moving out there he couldn't see it at the moment.
As he turned his head forward again, Chris' heart nearly stopped as he saw a large piece of tree suddenly lay out and across his path. Wait a minute, was that tree there before? He didn't remember he and the stranger passing by or around any fallen tree on the way up here! Was he even on the right path now?! Where was he?!
It lay about level with his chest and he surely would've crashed into it with how fast he was moving! Thinking quickly, Chris pulled his upper body down and threw himself into a forward roll. The world around him spun for an instant but he quickly pulled himself to his feet again.
Chris suddenly felt his instincts scream at him in that moment. Choosing to act on them he quickly spun back around towards the fallen tree he had just rolled under. His shotgun hefted and pointed straight back behind him. For about one second, there was nothing to be seen...
All of a sudden, movement appeared before Chris' eyes again. The creature had jumped from somewhere in the forest onto the fallen tree and posed itself facing him. From its pose it quickly pushed itself off to leap at him once again. But this time he had his gun up and at the ready. He remembered to pull back on the pump before concentrating; time for 'Crackshot Chris' to shine once more...!
A booming of sound exploded in his ears once more. This time Chris held a tighter grip on his gun as he unloaded a buckshot into the creature at point blank range! The wendigo was practically thrown backwards and smacked its back into the fallen tree before falling face down upon the ground.
"Yeah! Suck it!" Chris let out a quick taunt before spinning back around and resuming his run.
His burst of confidence fizzled out fast upon realizing the unfamiliarity of where exactly he was, much less where he was going. This didn't make sense though; this was the path that he and the stranger had come up from the lodge wasn't it? With the exception of the fallen tree, where else could he possibly be going? Where could he even be right now?!
Just like that caught sight of a light. A very small, almost unseen light, shining through the dark of the tree line. As he continued to run, the light very steadily grew in clarity and intensity. Chris' eyes eventually widened with renewed hope: that light was the one seen on the back end of the Washington lodge's house! He was on the right trail, literally!
All he would need to do is jump down this small ledge, right within the backyard area, and he'd be home free! He lowered himself down over the ledge and dropped himself down onto the-
"AAARRGH!"
Chris suddenly dropped down unintentionally to all fours as pain shot up his leg. He grit his teeth hard and his open palms pressed into the snow. His entire right leg flared up with pain shooting up from his ankle. Seriously?! Now of all times he had to land wrong and injure his leg?!
"Ah... shit...!"
He took hold of the shotgun again and forced himself back onto his feet. This almost proved to be a mistake with the pain in his leg feeling as intense as it was. It almost hurt so much to put pressure on it at all! Still, he forced himself to literally walk off the pain as he trudged onward through the snow.
He looked back up at the Washington's lodge, directly in front of him. The dim light of the night sky shone directly behind the structure and caused its image to silhouette to become much more pronounced. The actual lodge light above the doors shone like a beacon for him. He had to keep going! He had to make it inside! He had to make it back... to Ashley!
Movement to the right drew his attention again. There, precariously perched atop of the Washington's outdoor wooden pavilion, the wendigo stood. It's long, spindly and unnaturally limber body also silhouetted against the night sky almost made it appear like that of an insect. It shrieked once more and filled the night sky with its scream as it obviously had him in its sights.
Grunting through the pain, Chris pumped and lifted the shotgun up to the ready again. However he frowned further in addition to the pain in his leg. He knew there wouldn't be outrunning this thing with his gimped leg at this rate. There was also no way he'd be able to shoot that thing from this distance between them. For there to be any hope of him getting out of this alive... he'd have to 'let' this thing get just close enough to him...
His death-wish would come sooner than he expected. The wendigo suddenly leaped down to the ground directly in front of the pavilion. Once it was one the ground it again leaped forward towards Chris...
The shotgun exploded once more as its shot rang out through the air. Just like before the Wendigo was send flying backwards towards the pavilion once again. Chris watched the spot of impact for a moment before turning his attention back to the lodge.
'Alright, now's my chance...!'
He quickly dashed forward, trying to put as little force on his injured leg as he-
The Wendigo suddenly popped up again from the spot it had fallen to. Chris forced himself to a stop with a grunt of his own. While he couldn't see clearly this creature's face now or at any point, he had to figure this thing was getting right agitated with him, if not outright angry from the constant shots it had been taking at point blank range!
It let out a couple more challenging shrieks before leaping out yet again towards him! The boy caught yet another horrifying glimpse of the creature's barred teeth and sharpened claws, all outstretched and just itching to get a hold of him! Chris held his shotgun out before him... and squeezed the trigger.
For the fourth time tonight the shotgun rang its blast out through the night air and recoiled itself hard in Chris' arms. Also for the fourth time tonight the creature was sent sailing backwards from the impact. However, this time proved different as the wendigo flew back and straight into one of the wooden support beams of the wooden pavilion. The body of the wendigo smashed clean through it and caused the entire structure to collapse directly on top of it. The creature let out cries that again felt more agitated and angered rather than anything resembling pain.
A quick view of the creature buried underneath the wood renewed his confidence by a small amount. That would be just barely enough for him to make his run! He had given himself this chance, now he had to seize it! With his heart hammering in his chest, his breathing all kinds of erratic, and pain lancing up his leg with each step, Chris was in dire need of a miracle.
He glimpsed a miracle in the form of Ashley, standing on the other side of the door.
"Ash! Ash!" he cried out as he rushed towards the door. Ashley was thankfully quick to act as she was already trying to open the lock on her end. In no time she undid the lock and opened the door before him, "Oh thank God, Ash- let me in, quick!" Adrenaline fueled his movement as he dashed inside and quickly closed the door, while remembering to lock it behind him.
Only once the door was completely closed and locked did he finally take a heavy sigh of relief. The sharp chill of the outdoors' night air was replaced by warmth of the indoors once more.
"Chris!" Ashley could be heard as well as well as her hand on his shoulder, "My God, what happened?"
"Come on Ash, we gotta go!" Chris frantically turned to her, "That thing is like right behind me! Come on, go go go!" Ashley thankfully didn't question anything any further as the two of them quickly made for the stairs.
Thankfully Mike was present at the basement level to guide the two in. He led the two of them into a single room, which had been designated the 'safe room' by Mike himself. The room itself was a small enough room to fit four, maybe five people within, with a couple of still running monitor screens on the wall. It was easy to see that Josh had been using this room himself for his creepy 'surveillances'. Now that he was no longer in control and bent on scaring the shit out of them, it was as good a place as any for them all to hole up in for the moment.
Chris practically spilled into the room, Ashley following behind, with Mike bringing up the rear. The latter closed the gate door behind them.
"Oh my God, guys! Thank God!" Emily spoke with heavy relief. Chris wasted little time in seating himself on a nearby bench against the wall while also setting the shotgun down beside him.
"What took you so long?" Sam asked, "And where's Josh? I thought you went to get him?"
"It's... it's not so good out there right now..." Chris spoke, an especially tired tone escaping his lips.
"Understatement of the night," Mike remarked.
"You... you didn't find Josh?" Sam asked, to which Chris simply shook his head, "Well... what about the flamethrower guy?"
Chris barely managed lift his head up to look at them all, and even then his gaze slipped back and forth between them and the floor beneath them. From what they could see Chris' lips were almost visibly quivering.
"Uh... yeah, he, um..."
"He didn't make it either?" Ashley asked.
"Oh NO...!" Emily put a hand over her mouth.
"What happened?" Sam pressed.
"That thing..." Chris struggled to speak just as much as he seemed to struggle maintaining eye contact with the others, "It... cut his head off-! Right in front of me..."
"Oh God..." Sam breathed, "Chris, I-"
"Alright, these all the doors?" Mike suddenly spoke up. He then proceeded to walk away from the closed door behind him to the other side of the room and the opposing open door.
"Yeah...?" Sam replied.
"Are you sure?" Mike asked.
"W-what are you looking for?" Sam asked him curiously.
"Another way out..." Mike's reply was low and soft-spoken, yet heard easily enough. He by now turned his attention towards the glowing monitors on the wall, scanning the relatively still images for something.
"Wait, Mike- I really don't think that's a good idea," Sam insisted, "I think maybe we should stay put, right here, until dawn! At least we're all safe here!"
"Oh, yeah?" Mike turned himself away from the screens and to her, "All wrapped up like a little present with a little bow on top for that thing to tear us apart on Christmas morning?"
"People will come for us! In the morning!" Sam's reply carried just a hint of hesitation within it, which Mike frowned at slightly.
"You don't sound so sure..."
"That... is what'll happen, right Em?" Sam nearly stammered with her response before turning to Emily, "Wasn't that what you said? Until dawn?"
"Um- yeah, I mean... yeah? That was what he said..." Emily equally stammered her response.
"Well you all can wait! I'm leaving..." Mike dismissed with a wave of his hand. He then proceeded to walk back towards the opposing door.
"Mike, there's no key for the cable car," Emily said, causing Mike to halt in his tracks, "Matt and I were at the station earlier; it was missing!"
"Josh!" Mike slowly turned around to reveal his eyes widened with revelation, "He's gotta have it!"
"Josh?" Sam asked.
"Another one of his dirty little tricks I'm betting," Mike clarified, "To keep us trapped up here longer..."
"Great, just great..." Sam shook her head.
"But if that fucking thing got a hold of Josh," Mike continued, "Then... we're shit outta luck."
"Well, I dunno Mike," Emily said, "It's possible-"
"What's possible?" Sam turned to her.
"It may have taken him... down into the mines."
"Mines? Where?" Mike asked.
"I... all that horrible stuff I saw down there," Emily spoke with her head lowered. At the same time she slowly turned back towards the table behind her, "I think it's where that thing lives, and... Huh. What is...?" Her train of thought seemingly broke off completely from having discovered something on the table.
"Uh, Em?" Sam pressed while moving closer to the girl, "What?" She in turn found herself looking down at what Emily herself was looking at on the table as well.
"Alright, fuck it; I'm gonna get that key," Mike said to himself, "Right from that thing's goddamn bedroom if I have to. Then I'm getting us all the hell out of here...!" He looked back up to the girls before him. Even now they didn't seem to register what he was saying, instead remaining focused on the table before them, "Guys? What are you...?"
He slowly advanced closer to inspect what they were looking at. Over their shoulders he could see an assortment of papers laying out before them.
"Em, where'd all this come from?" Sam asked.
"From... that old guy's bag," Emily muttered as she shuffled some papers around before them. One of them appeared to be a faded white sheet listing a location of some kind.
"Is that a map?" he inspected the paper closer.
"Man, this guy was prepared for anything," Sam commented, to which Mike could only scoff at.
"Not quite..." He'd be alive right now and with them if that were the case.
The three squinted further at the map laid out before them.
"What is this place...?" Emily indicated to the section of land more central to the mountain itself.
"Oh my God," Mike breathed.
"What?" Sam asked.
"I was there... in that place," he said, "It was horrible."
"You were?"
"So, get this: there was this... cave-in, in like the fifties I guess," he explained, "And, these miners got trapped down there. Like, dozens of them at least."
"God..." Sam said.
"And I remember these plans I found earlier," Mike continued, "They like 'knew' the mine was a deathtrap, but they let the miners keep working anyway and get caved in. Some of them must have survived, but like fifteen or them must have ended up dying down there. And... well, I'm not really sure what it means, but... I found this chair. With dried blood and shit all over the place; looked like someone had been... tortured?"
"Um Michael, I'd maybe like to focus on how we're all gonna get the fuck out of this alive, please?" Emily cut in.
"I'm just saying-!" Mike said, "How it's weird, just all the crazy shit that's going on up here...!"
"I'd say what's 'weird' is that there's a tunnel leading from the lodge 'to' the Sanatorium, see?" Emily pointed out with a finger for Mike to see. True enough, a straight-forward looking tunnel linked the territories of 'Sanatorium' and 'Lodge' together.
"That's... that's how I got back here..." he said. He also noted the more curvier connection linking the Sanatorium to a different section marked 'Nest' and 'Mines', "And, this is all mines, right here?"
"Yeah, I saw this when I was in there," Emily clarified, "That's where it's gotta be living in."
"Ugh, shit... fuck-fuck-fuck!" he silently cursed as he stepped away. After a few seconds he shook his head and looked back at the others, "Alright, you all know what to do?"
"Yeah..." Ashley muttered.
"We'll be fine, Mike," Sam added, "Just... yeah, we'll be fine."
"Okay, um..." Mike shuffled in place and looked all around, as if trying to remember something, "Oh and here; I'll leave the gun for you guys." He placed the silver-shined revolver on the table close to the doorway.
"What? But, Mike-"
"No no, trust me," Mike cut Sam off, "You'll have some protection, just in case. I'll be fine." Sam hesitated for a moment, but eventually nodded her head in albeit reluctant agreement, "And nobody leave, alright? It's definitely not safe out there; you'll all be safe here, in this room... I'll be back soon..." With that, he swiftly made his way through the open doorway and into the adjacent room next to it. The remaining kids heard the sound of a door opening and closing soon after.
"Hey, hey Chris?" Sam quickly took a spot next to the boy. He had been extremely quiet the entire time he had returned, keeping his arms wrapped in front of his shivering form despite the thick jackets he was still wearing, "Can you tell more what happened out there?"
"Y-you... don't wanna know..." he managed.
"Are you okay...?" Sam placed a gentle arm around and on his shoulders. To her credit Chris didn't seem to shrug her off in the slightest, or was maybe not willing to do so.
"He was right there..." he muttered, "Right before me..."
"What, the flamethrower dude-?"
"Yeah! The... crazy guy..." Chris quickly replied, "He... got himself killed, saving me..."
"Was it really... this 'wendigo' thing?" Her question only sparked a fresh amount of visible shivers from the boy at the mere mention of the name.
"Y-yeah, he... definitely wasn't lying about that..."
"Shit..." Sam breathed, "Well, what did it look like?"
"Like a... I-It looked like a person! Only... just so... distorted, somehow...!"
In the midst of Sam's attempts of getting Chris to speak more, Ashley listened in as well. While she was initially overjoyed for Chris to have returned safely to them, and her, it was still painful to see him reduced to this shivering mess. In a way... it reminded her a little of herself a mere few hours ago. How any and every little thing in this giant lodge managed to scare the absolute pants off of her, and all culminating in either Chris, herself, or even both of them, risking getting killed in some insane death trap. She still really hated Josh from all of that, but now at least, she could say she was starting to come down from her own nerves acting like crazy. Almost.
And besides, Chris and she were safe now. As long as they remained in this room, they wouldn't be in any danger, just like Mike said. Now though, that did just leave the matter of what could be done to pass the time.
"I thought that... that he was going to help us..." Emily suddenly spoke up from her seat.
"Who, the flamethrower dude?" Sam asked, to which Emily gave a short and small nod.
"And now, we don't have a chance..."
"No no, that just means we've gotta stay strong," Sam tried to assure her and the rest of them, "We gotta make it through this on our own."
"I don't know if I can..." Emily replied, her voice sounding like it was on the verge of cracking.
Emily's comments were definitely adding the effect of weighing heavy on Ashley's mind as well. She bit off the urge to chime in with any sort of comments herself. At the same time however, there wasn't a lot before her she could keep herself occupied with.
Except for... a book?
Curiously, Ashley reached forward in the space between Emily and Sam to pick the book off of the table. She then took it with her to a desk and chair opposite the others, sat herself down, and opened the book.
The very first page she found was that of a newspaper excerpt, the Blackwoods Bugle, having been torn out and taped onto the entire left page. It listed how a 'local man was found dead' but the word 'LIARS' had been scratched onto the page with pencil writing of its own. The opposite page contained text written onto the page itself that most likely could've only been written by the man himself.
'If you are reading this, you will have questions,' it read, 'But I do not have all the answers. This is all evidence and stories of my own experience.'
Ashley then turned the page to find something that nearly made her skin crawl. The upper left page contained drawings of rather graphic detail depicting some... some monster. Like something straight out of a nightmare! The small, hollowed and sunken in eyes, the exposed, sharpened teeth, but also just how thin and slender the rendering was. Ashley could practically count all of the ribs seen on one drawing from how tight the skin was pulled back on it!
These drawings were a little 'too' accurate; this stranger had to have seen such a thing with his own eyes to have get such accurate, and frightening depictions...
'Only a few men have dared to hunt the Wendigo. I am the only man who has kept them under control. Heed these words, or it shall be your death. And your death will not be the last. The Wendigo must be contained!'
"This guy's a little OCD..." Ashley commented.
Even the text on the following page contained more details about the whole cannibalism thing and what all happens. Each description that Ashley read only caused her attention to be drawn back to the scary drawings literally just a page away. With that she turned the page over to read what followed.
Like the first page, another newspaper clipping was taped onto the lower section of the right-side page. This one however only featured the large, bold words 'Mining Disaster' and 'Death Toll rises' along with a few more supposed pictures of the monster, but little else besides that.
'There was a tribe that lived in these mountains: the Cree.' the journal wrote, 'Their shamans tell stories of a tall creature "born in ice". The tribe respected the mountain and all the animals which lived on it. It became sacred to the Cree, as did every animal. The Cree believed it was bad luck to harm an animal on the mountain and would hunt elsewhere.'
"Huh, there's a lot of history to this," Ashley noted.
'In 1893 the miners arrived. They found tin and later, traces of radium. They mined deep into the sacred mountain. The Cree says that the mountain itself cried out and the spirit was released.'
Ashley again turned the page. This set of pages features no pictures at all but did feature an abundance of text covering top to bottom on both sides.
'The Wendigo's eyes change. They come both sharper and dimmer. The Wendigo sees only movement. It is a hunter, like a hawk. But it cannot see stillness. If you are to keep totally still then the Wendigo will not able to see you.'
The first few words of the next paragraph made Ashley's eyes frown upon reading them. Her frown only furrowed harder with worry upon reading further,
'The skin and flesh of the Wendigo are hard, like armor. They seem to feel no pain. They cannot be cut nor stabbed. Bullets will not pierce their skin, though the blast of a shotgun will keep them at bay.'
However, it was next paragraph that filled Ashley with genuine worry, as well as growing and mounting fear.
'Because the Wendigo is mutated from a human, it knows how to hunt us. It can perfectly mimic its prey. You must remain sharp and disciplined.'
"Oh... no," she found herself breathing, "Oh no, no no no...!"
"Ashley?" Chris spoke up.
"What?" Sam spoke up, "Ash? What is that? What did you read?" She made her way across the room and stood next to the sitting girl.
"It says here..." Ashley tried to shake off the momentary fear that had gripped her just now, "This says... because the Wendigo is mutated from a human? When it hunts us, it knows how to perfectly... mimic its prey."
"Wait, what?!" Sam nearly exclaimed, while reaching to take the book from her hands, "Let me see that...!" She picked the book up and began reading it herself. Just like Ashley, the more and longer she read what was on these pages before her, the greater her look of worry grew.
"Shit... Shit, shit, shit!" she breathed, "Does Mike know about this?! We gotta tell him!"
"What? About the mimicry thing?" Ashley said, "Uh, no, I don't think so; I didn't even know of this!"
"Wait, what? Are you crazy, Sam? You can't go out there!" Emily protested.
"I have to! 'We' have to!" Sam insisted, her gaze swapping back and forth between the other three kids in the room with her, "If Mike really doesn't know about this, he could be in danger!"
"He's already in danger by going out there himself, in case you didn't notice!" Emily protested, "But at least he's risking his own life rather than ours! If you wanna go, that's fine; I'm staying."
"What? Em, come on!" Sam practically pleaded, "I can't do this alone! Chris...?" His head slowly lifted up to regard the girl addressing him directly. He maintained silence for a handful of seconds before slowly shaking his head.
"I've seen what these things can do..." he said, "I don't wanna see it again..."
"Sam," Ashley spoke up while putting a hand to her shoulder, "It's okay, I'll go with you."
"You will?" The sheer relief that washed over Sam's face upon hearing this was almost immense.
"Yeah, of course," Ashley nodded, "I mean, it's not like Mike could've gotten far anyway, right?"
"Ashley NO!" All heads nearly spun at Chris' exclamation, "You don't need to go out there either! I'm... I need to keep you safe!"
"Chris! I'll be fine, really!"
"No Ash, I can't let- ARGH!"
Whatever Chris meant to say was cut off in an instant. The moment he tried to pull himself off of the table and set himself down on his feet he stumbled. In fact he stumbled so hard that he ended up on all fours on the ground, cursing under his breath.
Ashley quickly rushed over down to Chris side.
"Chris!" she said, "Are you alright? What's wrong?"
"Ow... my leg..." he groaned as he was finally helped back up to his feet by Ashley.
"Chris, you hurt your leg?" Ashley looked down at Chris' leg. Despite him not openly admitting it to her directly, the fact that he was keeping one leg slightly elevated over the other was evidence enough.
The clear grimace seen on Chris' face as well told Ashley all she needed to know.
"Chris, listen to me, please?" The boy pursed his lips while remaining staring at the floor, but eventually turned a single eye towards her, "I appreciate you trying to keep me safe, I really do. But now... let me do the same for you? You don't need to risk yourself for me, I'll be fine."
"But, Ash... you're wanting to go out there!" he said, "You'll be in danger-!"
"I'll be with Sam the whole time!" Ashley pointed to Sam, "We're both gonna stick together the entire way while we just try and reach Mike, okay?" She reached up with a hand to gently guide Chris face to look at her directly. His glasses lenses were still fogged slightly, but the girl was just barely able to glimpse his eyes behind them.
The corner of his mouth tugged ever so slightly into the smallest of smiles.
"Promise me you'll be safe Ash?"
Her response was to give a quick peck on his cheek.
"I promise, as long as you'll do the same?"
The boy gave a nod of his own. With that the pair separated from each other, though not before Ashley caught the faintest of blushes on the boy's cheeks before the distance between them widened ever greater.
"Alright then, so yeah, you two stay here," Sam directed both Em and Chris, "Me and Ash will be back soon enough, don't worry."
"Good luck..." Emily called after Sam as she already started her leave.
"Ash?" Chris called out to Ashley again. The girl paused in place to regard him once more. She watched as the corners of his lips pulled harder into a bigger smile from before.
"Stay safe, alright?" he said, "I love you."
"I will, Chris," she said, "And, I love you too."
With that Ashley turned away, albeit reluctantly, to follow after Sam. The sound of the door nearby opening and closing nearby filled the room, and once more Chris and Em were left alone in the safe room.
Almost immediately Chris felt a hard yet gentle nudge on his shoulder. He turned to his side to see Emily flashing him a... a grin?
"W-what?"
"Nothing, nothing at all..." Emily simply shook her head and looked away. Curiously the sly grin on her face did not fade at all.
The boy simply looked forward again while rubbing the sides of his arms to ward off the stiff chill in the air. As he did so his eyes glanced up to the table across the room from where he and Emily were. He could see the journal that Sam had placed back down, as well as... wait...
"Oh, crap..." he said, "Oh crap..."
"What? Chris, what is it?" Emily asked.
"Look," Chris pointed in front of him at the table, at the revolver still laying atop the table next to the journal, "They forgot to take the gun with them...!"
-Okay, now I know when I started this massive project that I would be striving as best I could to be keeping most of the plot-related elements in line with exactly what happens in the game. However, this is the point where I unfortunately have to jump the rails ever so slightly. And I don't say this lightly either: starting at the end of Until Dawn's chapter 8 in the 'base' game might I add, Sam goes completely psychotic with the choices that she does from here on out! Tell me, what exactly was the reason for her to drag not only herself but everyone else in the safe room out to go find Mike? Even then was it really a 'good' and worthy reason for doing this? Why did she needed to bring 'everyone' with her to do this? Why would she not think to bring the loaded gun with her for some protection? And even then they get to a point where Sam just sends them all back anyway, putting them in even MORE risk!
*sigh* I gotta stop this rant here and now otherwise I'll actually go on forever.
So anyway, yeah, I had to take some MAJOR artistic liberties in changing this particular point in the story. But please believe me, I would absolutely not do this if I felt the need were not great enough to warrant it, so I hope you'll all understand my reasons.
But anyway, with all that aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and keep on reading! -
