Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn.
A/N: Hey guys, I'm so glad you're still interested in this fic! ^_^ Thanks for letting me know, and I'm glad you're enjoying it. :)
An Inextinguishable Light
Chapter Four: The Courage of Mice
"Josh!" Beth cried out, completely aghast and completely unheard, as Josh stood, panting, between the unconscious bodies of two of his friends, the light of overwhelming rage slowly draining from his eyes.
"Why?" he muttered, screwing up his face as he talked to himself. Pain leaked into his voice and he scrubbed furiously at his eyes. "Why would she do that? Why?" The bewilderment bled into pain, bled into anger. "Why?" he roared again, glaring at Ashley's unconscious form.
"No, Josh, God no," Beth muttered, tugging at her own hair in anguish. "I'm here, Josh, I'm real! Go back to the spirit board!"
Josh ignored her inaudible plea, instead pacing and muttering darkly. Then seemingly coming to a decision, he grabbed Chris and hoisted him up in a fireman's carry, before setting off down the stairs, trailed by a furious, anguished, impotent ghost. "The show must go on," he whispered faintly, unsteadily, and Beth's heart broke all over again at the thread of instability in his voice, at the widening cracks so apparent in his façade. "The show must go on."
xxx
Watching Josh deposit Chris and Ashley in one of the guest bedrooms, Beth was forced to conclude she may have accidently made things worse.
"Oh shit, Josh, no," she muttered, pacing agitatedly around her brother as he bound the two to chairs with plastic zip ties, first their wrists and then their ankles. "Josh, I'm here, I swear."
I was so close, Beth thought furiously, helplessly, following her brother out the door. He locked it behind him and set off down the stairs. I was so goddamn close to helping him, and everyone else. I didn't even get to mention the fucking wendigos!
Although that would have been admittedly a harder sell than the existence of ghosts, Beth acknowledged to herself as she trailed after Josh down the main staircase, given that they weren't a very well-known supernatural entity and she didn't have any proof, other than the fact that she herself existed.
"What the fuck are you doing now, Josh?" Beth muttered as her brother entered the basement. You've clearly given up on the Chris-and-Ashley part of the prank, although I don't know whether that's because I've given away too much – they're not stupid and they'll figure it out from what I said at the séance if your psycho clown makes an appearance now – or if it's because I derailed you and you're just – skipping ahead.
Like a scratched CD, her mind supplied helpfully and Beth had to tamp down on the feeling of intense guilt. "I'm sorry, Josh," she murmured as her brother went into his workshop, banging the door closed behind him. She glided through the wood after him, watching as he jerkily pulled on pieces of his psycho costume. "What you're doing isn't the answer, but I didn't mean to make you worse. I was trying to help – you and everyone else."
Her words went unheard, as usual, and Josh stormed back out of the room, the instability of his mind and mood an almost tangible thing swirling about him. Beth had to take several deep breaths to refocus herself. You failed. Get over it. The night isn't done yet and you have a bunch of idiots to save before morning.
xxx
Beth didn't know whether to laugh or cry at an increasingly unnerved Matt and Emily being spooked by 'ghostly' activity as they trailed around the lodge looking for the rest of their friends.
Or punch something. Yeah, I really fucking wish I could punch something right now. Or at all. The fucking irony that Josh's fake ghosts are better poltergeists than an actual legit ghost would be funny, if I wasn't so fucking pissed off.
The duo had returned empty-handed from their bag hunt, freaked out by one of Josh's severed pig heads and a bloody warning note, only find the lodge in darkness with no electricity and no sign of anyone else anywhere – Beth's urge to punch something was growing stronger as they wandered around with no clue that an unconscious Ashley and Chris were behind one of the many locked doors on the second floor and that Sam was peacefully soaking in the hot tub with her earphones in, in the bathroom at the top of the lodge. (Beth had been up to check on her, and was torn between relief that she was alright, and frustration at her obliviousness.)
"C'mon guys," she yelled fruitlessly as they discovered and started following a blood trail. "It's not real! It's – oh, that's fucking gross."
"Eww, what the fuck, that's disgusting!" Emily exclaimed, at almost exactly the same moment, stepping back in revulsion and fright. A huge pig corpse lay gutted on the dining room floor, blood flecked across the chairs and sideboard and pooling a little underneath it. "What the fuck is going on?"
"I don't know, Em," Matt looked incredibly uneasy, his hands flexing a little as though unconsciously looking for a weapon. "This is pretty fucked up though."
"Yeah, no shit! If this is Chris or Josh's idea of a funny joke, I swear I'm going to –"
All of the candles in the room went out simultaneously, and Matt and Emily both yelped in surprise and fear. Beth could only watch as Josh melted out of the shadows behind the pair of them, bone-white mask glinting in the dim moonlight coming in through the windows. The gas mask was over Matt's face before he had time to react and he could only struggle briefly before the chemicals overwhelmed him and he slumped to the floor. Emily screamed and backed away, stumbling in her panic. "Fuck! What the hell! Who are you?! What did you do to Matt?!"
Josh chuckled, the sound distorted to something deep and malevolent through the voice modifier. "Exactly the same as what I'm going to do to you, Emily."
Emily blanched, and then bolted for the door. Josh pursed, heavy boots thumping across the floor, gas tank clanking. It wasn't long before he caught her, the darkness and panic and lack of familiarity (in comparison) with the layout of the lodge working against her.
Beth trailed him as he carried Emily to one of the outbuildings, before tying her up in some kind of sawblade trap, next to a headless fake body double of himself. He busied himself at some sort of control panel back in the shadows of the building, while Beth paced in a circle and fretted.
Fuck, fuck, what do I do? Where the fuck is Jack? I hope he's okay, I hope Jessica and Mike aren't being massive morons –
She eventually went back to the lodge – since Josh was clearly waiting for Matt to wake up and follow the blood trail he'd laid from the house to the outbuildings – and went to look in on Chris and Ashley and Sam.
And for the first time that evening, she appeared to be in luck – Josh's first two victims were awake.
"C'mon, Ashley," Chris urged. He was developing a magnificently painful-looking black eye, but he appeared to be doing his best to ignore it. "You're closest to the bedside cabinet – can you try to reach it and open it? There might be something, anything we can use."
Ashley still looked both groggy and frightened, but nodded. "Okay, okay." Slowly, awkwardly, she scraped and shuffled and hopped her chair backwards, hampered by her bound wrists and ankles, until she could grasp the handle and pull open the drawer. She rummaged in the general debris and then let out a shaky gasp of triumph. "Chris! I've think got something!" And she pulled out a tiny pair of nail scissors, almost fumbling them with her bound hands.
"That's great, Ash," Chris encouraged, doing his best to smile at her. "Take your time, the angle's gonna be awkward, but you'll definitely be able to cut us loose with those."
Sure enough, after five minutes and a great deal of wriggling around, Ashley managed to free her wrists, and after that made short work of the rest of their bindings. Christ went immediately to the door and tried to open it. "Shit," he muttered, frustrated. "He's locked us in."
"Chris, what the hell is going on with Josh?" There was a slight tremor in Ashley's left hand, a familiar tell that said she was stressed beyond belief, something that was also echoed in her voice. "He totally flipped out! I mean, he was really upset and God, I don't blame him for that, that was crazy if Beth was really talking to us, but he attacked us –"
Chris took her by the shoulders and her babbling cut off mid-sentence as she fell silent, startled. "Ash, I don't know what's going on with Josh – but I'm sure as hell gonna find out," he said, uncharacteristically grim. "We need to get out of here and confront him about it."
It didn't take them long to work out that while the door was locked, the window wasn't. "Guys, I think you've forgotten you're a pair of couch potato nerds," Beth said, watching with increasing alarm as Chris wriggled his way out of the window feet first, before dropping gracelessly onto the porch roof. "Seriously, guys, don't fucking break your legs, this is neither the time or the place –"
However, before Beth's incredulous eyes, both Chris and Ashley managed to navigate the initial drop without mishap, and then the second drop onto the porch itself with absolutely zero leg breakages. "I don't fucking believe it," she informed them, trailing them back inside. "Actually, I'm calling beginner's luck on this bullshit, because you better believe I saw that embarrassing fall you took earlier Chris, trying to get through the basement window –"
"What the fuck happened in here?" Chris cut her off unintentionally, looking around at the disarrayed furniture caused by Emily's panicked flight. "And is that blood?!"
"Chris." Ashley was pale but determined-looking, despite the tremor in her hand. "Chris, before we do anything else we need to go get that spirit board."
"What? Why?" Chris frowned, baffled, while Beth whipped around towards Ashley, wide-eyed.
"Because B-Beth was trying to tell us something earlier, she mentioned something about Josh and a game and how he should stop before people get hurt, remember?" She looked around at the blood and disturbed furniture, and shifted her weight anxiously from foot to foot. "We need to know what's going on."
"Ashley," Chris said, in his patient, let's-be-reasonable voice. "Ghosts aren't –"
"Real?" Ashley glared at him, even as she worried at the cuff of her hoodie's sleeve with her free hand. "How do you explain what happened earlier then, Chris? Because that wasn't me, and you don't even believe in ghosts, and it sure as heck wasn't Josh judging by his reaction. I'm going to get the board, whether you're coming or not."
"No, Ash, that's not what I –" Chris tried to placate her as she turned and marched up the stairs, determined despite the fear in every line of her body. "Of course, I'm coming with you, even if I don't –"
"Believe in ghosts?" Beth snarked on autopilot. "Also way to fucking go, Ashley!" She leapt through the ceiling in her eagerness and straight through the wall of the library, circling impatiently around the board. Who knew Ashley being superstitious would turn out to be so useful one day!
Ashley, with Chris in tow, soon arrived and immediately gestured him towards the board. "What?" Chris looked taken aback. "Me?"
"Yes," Ashley said firmly. "You talk to her, just you. So there's no doubt it's just me making stuff up." She crossed her arms and lifted her chin, trying so hard to be assertive – and Beth couldn't help but feel a little proud of her, knowing how difficult it was for Ashley to stand up to people, even if that person was Chris.
"Ash…" Chris' voice softened. "I didn't think – I don't think –"
"Please, Chris, just do it."
He sighed, conceding defeat and placed a finger on the pointer. "Um, hello? Beth, are you there?"
Once more, Beth felt the faint energy around the board shift and sharpen into something bright and razor-keen, and it was almost like being solid again as she easily grasped the pointer. Firmly, so there was no chance of misinterpreting it as a casual drift, she pulled the triangle to 'yes'. Then, to underscore her point, she spelled out, 'I'm here, dummy'.
Chris went pale with shock, staring down at his finger on the pointer, alone (as far as he could tell). "That's, uh, I, uh –"
"Ask her what's going on," Ashley interrupted urgently.
"I, uh –" Chris was clearly wrestling with his ingrained skepticism in the supernatural, but managed to say, "What's going –"
Beth was already moving the pointer before he'd even finished speaking, flitting around the board as fast as she could.
"Josh revenge prank," Ashley read out, looking horrified. "For last year. Fake killer. But real danger too. Leave mountain."
"Danger? What danger?" Chris looked as if he was struggling with all the different pieces of information, but seemed to latch onto that statement like a lifeline, perhaps looking to get back on firmer ground.
Well, sorry to disappoint, but this is even more supernatural. And a much harder sell than ghosts to boot, Beth thought grimly. Taking a deep, unnecessary breath, she traced out W – E – N – D – I – G – O.
"Wendigo?" Ashley wrinkled her nose, frowning. "What's that?"
They fell silent as the pointer moved again, spelling out 'monster'.
"What," Chris said flatly.
'Absorbed Hannah's spirit. Living in her body. Twisted. Not her anymore. Monster.' Beth's hand was trembling as much as Ashley's voice as she traced the words, because it felt like a betrayal to call her twin that, to call sweet, naïve, childish Hannah a monster. Hannah – the real Hannah – is gone, Beth reminded herself, aching grief flaring in her chest. And her body is now a supernatural killing machine, and a puppet for a malevolent spirit. Which they need to know if they're going to make it off this mountain alive.
"Are you for real –?!" Chris started to speak, disbelief in every syllable of his voice, before a faint cry suddenly echoed in the distance.
Ashley and Chris' heads both snapped up, looking a little like deer in the headlights, but Beth was just relieved that the cry was only human. 'Josh, prank, Emily, Matt, shed.' She spells out pointedly. 'Tell them too. Everyone leave.'
"Shit," Chris cursed, making to stand up. "Um, thanks Beth," he added, a little uncertainly, before lifting his finger from the board.
"Shit, Chris, I wasn't finished!" But it was too late, the connection had already snapped and Beth's finger once more passed uselessly through the pointer. "Fuck's sake!"
The only positive was that Ashley snatched up the board, taking it with her as she ran down the stairs after Chris, trailed by a pissed-off ghost. You idiots better not get yourselves fucking killed, I swear I will never let you hear the fucking end of it if we all end up haunting Blackwood!
xxx
They all made it to the shed in time to see Josh's sawblade trap in action, Chris and Ashley bursting in behind a panicking Matt as Emily and Josh's frantic cries echoed around the building.
"Josh!" Chris shouted, startling everyone present except Ashley and Beth. "Knock it off! We know it's you setting this whole thing up!"
Beth could only watch as things got pretty ugly, pretty damn fast after that. The confusion and fear rapidly morphed into fury as Chris and Ashley untied everyone, and there was a great deal of shouting from Matt and Emily, which Josh easily matched, until it reached boiling point. The sound of Emily's hand connecting with Josh's face was loud, the slap ringing in the silence that immediately followed.
The shock on Josh's face didn't last long, something thunderous and dark growing in its place as he gingerly reached up to touch his swelling cheek. Simultaneously, Matt and Chris hastily pushed Emily behind them, even as she spat angrily, "That's for the trauma, you fucking asshole!"
Josh laughed at that, a hint of hysteria in the sound. "Trauma? Do you really want to talk to me about fucking trauma, Emily?" His voice grew louder and he took a step forward, one which was instantly matched by Chris, who held up his hands in a soothing gesture.
"Josh, bro, let's all just stop shouting and start talking okay? Besides, it turns out we might have bigger problems than a revenge prank gone wrong tonight."
"What?" Emily's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"
Ashley pulled out the spirit board, and there was a moment of silence.
"Are you fucking kidding me," Emily said flatly.
A/N: So I had initially planned for Josh to do something other than the sawblade trap with Matt and Emily (because surely he had something different planned for them in canon than what happened to Chris and Ashley), but then I realised that he would definitely still have to a) fake his own death to give himself freedom to move around, and b) establish that his 'serial killer' meant business by killing someone. Which meant going ahead with the sawblade trap, and then moving onto the Matt-and-Emily-specific portion of the prank – which then didn't happen because Chris and Ashley burst in. xD
Also, thanks again for the continued interest! ^_^ If you enjoyed, please let me know your thoughts. :)