The path to the lodge was short, but we all tried to make it last as long as we could. But soon enough, the cabin loomed before us, as if the fire never happened. Mrs. Washington said the first floor and above had been completely destroyed but the basement was damaged but salvageable.

"Home sweet home, right?" I muttered and Josh smiled slightly. The group crowded around the door, parting for Josh to unlock it. The lock clicked and we all held our breath-except for Hill, of course, who just looked cold and bored. The door slowly creaked open and I cautiously took a step forward like something was going to jump out of the shadows and swallow me. I walked further in and gasped at the familiarity of the room. Everything was the same, furniture, pillows, hell they even dug up the same family photos to put on the mantel.

I heard Josh suck in a sharp breath as he entered, followed by the other. Dr. Hill went directly to Mr. Washington's' office.

"I will see you all in the morning." Was all he said before locking himself inside.

"Finally," Chris sighed. "That guy gives me the creeps." Emily icy glare searched around the room, landing on all those around her.

"Well someone was going to have to say it, might as well be me," she rested her hands firmly on the back of the couch. "What the hell are we doing here?"

"Look," I started, "if you want to leave than do us all a favor and go." She narrowed her eyes at me.

"Why you little-"

"Can we please not fight?" Jess begged. Emily opened her mouth to argue, but Chris stopped her.

"Jess is right guys." He stated, "We're never going to make it through the weekend if we keep trying to bite each other's heads off."

I sat down in the chair with a huff.

"We should figure out where each of us is going to sleep." Sam suggested.

"There aren't enough rooms for all of us." Josh muttered suddenly lowering his voice to a whisper. "Someone's going to have to sleep in the cabin." We all fell silent.

"I nominate Mr. and Mrs. Sociopath." Emily jeered. "No way am I staying in the same house with them." I was about to stand, but Josh squeezed my shoulders from behind me.

"So sending them off by themselves is better?" Matt defended.

"Matt's right, someone should go with them." Chris agreed.

"I'll go." Sam offered. "Or someone could sleep on the couch."

That was when I let my pride get the better of me.

"Hold on a second," I stood up. "Josh and I have lived by ourselves all year. We are perfectly capable of staying a few nights in the cabin. So if you could stop talking about us like we're children or help us when we needed you in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess." Everyone was silent and Ashley's eyes were wide and filled with tears.

"Alexis," Josh whispered.

"Forget it." I spat, storming out the back door. It took a moment for my heart to stop pounding and my mind to clear. Gripping the wooden rail, I stared at the snow covered ground. Through angry tears I studied the foot prints leading away from the house. The door closed behind me and I whirled around, collapsing in my fiancé's arms. "I can't do this Josh." I muttered. "Not with her."

"I know… but we have to try." He soothed, running his hand through my short hair.

"I can't do it without him." I whispered and felt Josh tense. Josh always acted different whenever I talked about Mike. I guess he felt as guilty as I did. He pushed me back so he could look in my eyes.

"You have to try." He tucked a loose strand behind my ear. The sun had set and the dark was slowly covering the mountain. "We should go."

August 1st: Three years ago

I peeked around the tree only to he greeted by a face full of water.

"Michael!" I shrieked, launching my water balloon into his chest. I ran around the front of the Washington's house, finding Sam and Hannah drinking lemonade by the pool, Beth coaxing them to jump in. Emily and Jess were tanning on the cement gossiping about who knows what. Across the lawn, Matt had cornered Ashley, balloon ready. I quietly grabbed a water gun form the pool deck.

I got halfway across the yard I noticed Chris sneaking toward Matt as well, a full bucket of ice water in his hands. I figured I should let Ashley's white knight save the day. I squealed as arms wrapped around me and pulled me behind the wall, where no one else could see. Mike's lips were on mine before I could protest.

"I can't believe your leaving." He sighed when he finally pushed away.

"I'm just moving into an apartment closer to campus." I scoffed. "It's like… half an hour away from your house."

"Five minutes away would be too far." He grinned, leaning in for another kiss. Our lips barely touched when a giant water balloon exploded at our feet, soaking both of us and causing me to scream. Josh laughed so hard he nearly fell off the roof.

"Josh!" We both shouted and I began to drench him with the super soaker.

"Okay, okay!" He pleaded through his laughter as he tried to block the streaming water. "I'm sorry." He climbed down some vines and the three of us headed back to the pool. Everyone had gathered as well, Beth sitting with her feet dangling in the pool. Mike opened the cooler and passed everybody a beer.

"I would like to purpose and toast." Sam held up her can. "To Alexis and Josh, who are ditching us for a 'higher education'."

"Alexis and Josh!" Everybody cheered, except Emily, who glared as Mike draped an arm around my shoulder.

"Don't party to hard without us." Mike added.

"I make no promises." Josh teased.

"You guys act like they're moving to Switzerland or something. "Emily remarked sourly.

"Em's right." I nodded, the others looking surprised that we agreed on something. It was a well-known fact that Emily and I couldn't stand each other. "Just because Josh and I are going to college doesn't' mean things are gonna be different." I kissed Mike on the cheek and snuggled closer to him. "Nothing is going to change."

Today

I dragged my feet through the snow, hugging myself to keep warm.

"There," Josh sighed as the door unlocked. The wood creaked open and we stepped inside. "Last time I was here, we were 14 and playing capture the flag in the dark." He chuckled quietly, looking off as if watching the scene in his mind.

"And we got caught by your mom when you used Beth's bra as the flag." I reminded him with a smirk. The sudden vision of Beth's head with clouded, dead eyes and gaping mouth wiped the smirk off my face. I set my duffle bag on the floor and sat down on the couch, resting my head in my hands, letting the sudden sobs slowly take over my body. The millions of thoughts and emotions flooding my mind finally broke free. It still felt like everything had happened yesterday. Josh sat next to me and pulled me into his lap, his own tears falling into my hair. We stayed like that until we slowly cried ourselves to sleep in each other's arms.

My bare feet left bloody foot prints in the pale snow. Sweat that drenched my shirt froze to my body as I ran for my life through the trees. Fire burned the branches above my head, sending inflamed pieces of wood cascading towards me. A flash of white sped past me and I stopped dead, listening to the screeches surrounding me. As soon as one of them showed their lifeless face, I broke into a sprint. The trees opened at the cliff where a lone figure stood.

"Josh?" I shouted over the shrieks. I jogged closer, but my legs collapsed from exhaustion. A bandaged hand helped me to my feet. His lips crashed into mine before I could pull away. I tangled my fingers in his hair and I finally brought myself to push back, finding brown eyes instead of blue. I gasped any word I tried to say got caught in my throat. I finally managed to utter a single name. "Mike."

I shot up from the couch. My breath was shaky as I ran my hand through my hair.

"Alexis?" Josh wondered in a tired and dazed voice. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I lied. Both of us jumped at the knock at the door. Cautiously, I opened the door, finding a disheveled looking Chris. "What happened?" I asked, studying his worried expression.

"We've got a problem." He answered. "Dr. Hill's gone."

"What?" I exclaimed. "What do you mean gone?"

"I mean he's gone. Sam and I checked the office this morning and all of his stuff is gone. No note, no anything, he just left."

"He can't have just left," Josh stood up. "His life is his patients. He wouldn't just leave us here."

"Well he did." Chris sighed. "You guys should get dressed and come to the lodge." With that, Chris turned around and headed back toward the lodge. Josh and I exchanged a glance before changing out of yesterday's cloths and going back to the cabin.


Chris woke up the rest of the lodge, gathering everyone in the living room.

"What's going on?" Emily snapped.

"As some of you may know." Chris began with a sense of authority. "Dr. Hill is… gone." Isaac's face went white.

"Something must have taken him." Ashley whispered, starting to shake in panic.

"All of his stuff is missing too. He must have left." Sam comforted.

"Sam's right," Chris agreed.

"But what if she isn't?" Isaac shouted, his silent demeanor shattering. "What if those monsters got to him and now they're coming for us?"

"Isaac, you need to calm down." Sam insisted. "Nothing is coming for us."

"But how do you know that?"

"Because they're all dead!" Chris yelled, and looked at me sympathetically. "Mike gave his life to make sure of that last year."

"So we're bringing Mike up now?" Emily scoffed.

"Emily," I stepped toward her, my voice holding warning.

"I mean, if we're going to talk about him, then why not talk about Hannah and Beth, or how Josh almost got us all killed?" She spat at me.

"Shut. Up." I growled.

"Or maybe we should talk about how your precious Michael was going to blow a hole in my brain because he was a coward!" Emily screamed and I brought my hand up and slapped her, the loud crack of skin on skin echoing though the room.

"Alexis!" Sam shouted and Emily dug her nails into my cheek. Within a second, the two of us were a yelling, scratching mess on the floor. It wasn't until the gun clicked that we pulled apart.

The pistol shook in Isaac's hands as he pointed it at us.

"Stop it," he whimpered. "Stop yelling and screaming and scratching. Just stop."

"Isaac," Sam approached him cautiously, "put the gun down." He looked down at his hands, throwing the gun to the floor and jumping back, as if it had tried to bite him.

"I-I'm sorry." He sniffed. "They wouldn't stop yelling."

"It's okay." Sam's expression softened. "Just… calm down, alright?" he nodded sadly. Emily glared at me as she stood up, wiping off her designer jeans.

"You all saw that," she looked around. "She attacked me. Did you see that Matt? She's crazy."

"Well at least I'm not a despicable-" I was cut off by the sound of glass breaking and someone screaming. Josh helped me off the ground and we all rushed to the source, finding a terrified Jessica standing in the doorway of the office. Ashley ran to her side.

"Oh my god," she whimpered. "Oh my god!" Chris quickly ushered both of them away from the door. He gagged and covered his nose with his hand.

It wasn't until I moved next to him that I noticed the smell. I immediately thought of the vial breath of a wendigo as it shrieked before it attacked. I looked on the desk, my eyes meeting those of the severed head of a deer. Blood stained the carefully carved cedar and dripped to the expensive rug.

"What the hell is going on?" Matt exclaimed, backing away from the scene.

"Hill," I growled, "It's gotta be him."

"That's impossible." Sam shook her head. "The guy is creepy, but you don't really think he could do something like this?"

"Think about it," I addressed everyone. "He disappears overnight and the next morning we find this after you had already searched the room."

"How do we know it wasn't any of us?" Ashley wondered.

"We were all in the living room." Chris answered.

"Jess wasn't." Emily accused. We all looked at the shaking blond.

"I was getting a glass of milk." She sniffed. I noticed the broken glass on the ground. "You think I did this?"

"You were the only one who wasn't there." Emily continued and Jess burst into tears, crying into Ashley's shoulder.

"It couldn't have been Jessica, Em." Sam said and I could tell her patience with Emily was dwindling.

"How do you know?"

"Just look at her for god's sake!" I shouted. "The poor girl is about to fall to pieces and you accuse her of dragging a mutilated deer head in here like she was a wendigo!" Everyone stared at me with wide eyes. I had said the beast's name, something we had silently agreed to never do.

"I agree with Lex." Ashley broke the silence. "Dr. Hill has been plotting something ever since we got here."

"He's been hiding something all year. I can feel it." I added. We were quiet again.

"Well we can't just leave it there." Chris sighed. "Matt, can you give me a hand?" The two of them carried the head out of the room, more blood gushing onto the floor and on their clothes.

"I'll get rid of the carpet." Josh offered and started to roll up the carpet.

"We'll have to clean up the blood." I said, stepping aside so Josh could get out the door.

"I'll help." Sam followed me to the kitchen where we found some buckets and filled them with soapy water. We grabbed some sponges and rags and went to work.

August 30: Three years ago

I mopped up the red liquid from the counter with a paper towel.

"Sorry about your punch Lex." Mia, the girl who lived down the hall, apologized.

"That's fine." I laughed. "Josh helped make it so it probably tastes like feet." She giggled and I could tell she was tipsy.

"Have you met my brother?" She grabbed someone by the arm and pulled him over to us. He was tall and blond and had blue-grey eyes. "You two chat." She took another sip of her beer and squeezed through the crowd.

"I'm Alexis." I smiled shaking his hand.

"You must be the owner of the apartment. I'm Isaac."

"Yeah, my boyfriend wanted me to throw one more partly before school started." For a moment his smile falter, but I paid no attention to it. I noticed Mike making his way towards us. "Speak of the devil."

"Hey." Mike greeted, wrapping his arm around my waist. "I told you a party was a good idea."

"And I told you that this apartment wasn't big enough." I pointed to the crowd of people at the door.

"Just shows how many people love you." He said, placing a sloppy kiss on my cheek.

"Or it shows how many people want free beer." I laughed, leaning into him. I remembered Isaac. "Mike, this is Isaac. His sister lives down the hall."

"Michael Monroe, but everyone calls me Mike." He smiled and they shook hands.

"Mike's a legend at our high school." I grinned and Isaac looked uncomfortable.

"I'm Isaac Miller. My sister always drags me to these things." He looked at Mike carefully. "I think I remember you, I went to Los Angeles High school."

"Do you go here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm a sophomore." He looked down at his watch. "I should probably get going. It was nice meeting you."

"He seems nice." I said once Isaac had disappeared into the sea of people.

"I don't like the way he looked at you." Mike huffed. "Like you were something to eat."

"Oh?" I turned to look at him. "And how do you look at me?"

"Like you're the only girl in the world." He grinned and leaned in for a kiss. He pulled back. "Because you are the only girl to me."

"Oh yeah? What about that waitress in San Francisco?" I thought about our trip to the Golden Gate last year?"

"She was flirting with me!" He exclaimed.

"Uh-huh." I went in for another kiss but he pulled away again, this time his brown eyes gazed into mine.

"I love you Alexis and nothing is going to change that." He pushed a loose hair away from my face. "I am never going to stop loving you."


You guys have no idea how guilty I feel right now. I am sooooooooo sorry that this took so long for me to write. If I am being honest with you guys, I didn't think I was going to continue this story. The Until Dawn craze for me had really died down, and I just wanted to give up and move on. But then I started writing again and I realized how much I had missed writing these characters and their stories. I can't begin to say how sorry I am that I wanted to give up, but I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I hope you guys will want me to continue.