Hey everyone.
Welcome back to another chapter of Trapped Until Dawn. Ryan and William are starting to meet everyone now, so let's see what happens next. I haven't played Until Dawn myself because I don't own a PS4 yet, but I have seen every bit of this game via YouTube and I love this game so much. I'm using Jacksepticeye's playthrough to get the dialogue perfect, and use most of the choices he made too, so this story is correct and good, but I used some of Markiplier's playthrough too to get the cable car scene and when Chris opened the lodge door to get the other parts right.
BTW, if you see character's name just before the dialogue, that means that more than one person is talking at once. I hope you like this chapter and this story as a whole, follow and favourite if you do and review if you want.
Ryan's POV, Upper Cable Car Station, 21:17
The cable car inched slowly towards the top of the mountain, dread filling the pit of my stomach the farther up we went. Who knows what kind of horrors could be wait upon this mountain, just waiting to be unleashed. To keep my mind off of it, for the moment at least, I decided to root through the bag that Until Dawn Me had provided to see if there was anything useful to use against the dangers. I knew full well that it was a fruitless venture; Video Game Me obviously wouldn't know what was coming, but it's was still handy to check.
I quickly unzipped my bag and peered into it to find a few snacks, my pencils and sketch book so I could do some drawing, not like I was going to be able to with what is about to happen, but the thought was nice, some extra clothes and something that I was quite glad about.
"Hey Will, look what 'I' packed." I whispered to him, pulling my DSLR camera from the bag. It had been a Christmas present from my parents one year and I couldn't be happier with it. I would have just been happy with a compact camera, but they had to go all out to get me the best equipment possible. It could zoom in quite far, had several different modes and could also record video too. I could even flip the screen around to take a photo of myself. I would have never thought my Until Dawn-self had this camera too, however.
"Wow, you have your camera here too. Do you think you'll be able to keep the pictures once we leave?" Will wondered.
"I wouldn't think so, but I hope I can, at least so I know I'm not going crazy." I doubted, turning the camera on and hanging the strap over my neck. Luckily it had a long battery life, as long as I used it sparingly.
I saw Chris glance over in my direction and smiled when he saw my camera. "Sweet, you brought your camera. I'm sure you will take some epic shots with that baby." He said.
"I didn't know you were into photography, Chris." Sam said, almost disbelievingly.
"Oh, I'm not. I just need someone to take photos and film when me and Josh get incredibly drunk." He smirked, to which Sam groaned and shook her head.
"I wouldn't say I'm that good of a cameraman, but I guess I have an eye for good photos." I supposed, fiddling with the camera settings.
"Come on, you're the best cameraman I know. It's not like you're doing it professionally or anything." Will encouraged.
"I'm the only cameraman you know." I stated matter-of-factly as the cable car swing slightly as it stopped at the top of the mountain.
"You know what I mean! You could take photos with the best of them. You just need more confidence." Those words played in my mind as we stood up and left the cable car.
We got off the cable car and made our way to the door, but as we turned the knob, we realized it was locked. I saw someone stepping towards the other side of the door, probably after noticing the cable car at the top, and it seemed like Chris noticed as well. So, he banged on the door hard and scared them.
"AHHH! What the hell?" The person shrieked, the voice sounding feminine.
(Chris) "JESS! HEY!" (Sam) "JESSICA! OVER HERE!" Sam and Chris shouted to the woman, who was apparently Jessica.
"Uh... Are you guys having a really weird stroke?" Jess said annoyed.
"We're stuck in this stupid thing." Chris said as he tried to budge the door open.
"Can you please let us out? Pretty please?" Sam pleaded as Jessica pushed the button to unlock the door.
"OH. My. God. I thought we were goners. Another ten minutes in there and I would have chewed off my own leg." Chris said jokingly as he opened the door and we walked out into the snow.
"Aw, sick, Chris." Sam grimaced, rubbing her face with a hand.
"Look I got a lot of meat on my bones. This is all muscle down here." Chris said, gesturing towards his legs.
"Yeah... Riiiiight. Uh-huh." Sam mumbled.
"Bwip." Chris sounded out as he swiped a letter that Jess had in her hand that I didn't notice before.
(Jessica) "Hey!" (Sam) "Chris!" Sam and Jess exclaimed as Chris looked the letter over.
"I'm just doing like Sam and Ryan taught me... Other people's private thoughts are my own personal playground." Chris antagonised.
"Don't be a jerk." Sam said annoyed by Chris' reference to her snooping.
"Come on dude. Don't involve me. I told her not to." I defended, pointing towards Sam.
"That's not cool, man! Give that back to her." Will said, advancing towards him and reaching out to take the letter away from him, but he just stepped away, keeping it just out of reach.
"My goodness. Seems that someone has a lil' crush on our good friend and dear class president Michael Munroe." Chris said teasingly.
"Chris-" Sam said trying to stop him but to no avail.
"Aaand... what kind of sizzling erotica might our Jessica be capable of imagining. I wonder...?" Chris teased.
"Mike and Em split. We're together." Jessica explained simply.
"Whoa. Drama." Chris said.
"Not really. Pretty clear cut, actually. Em's out, I'm in." Jess continued to explain rather plainly.
"Huh." Sam hummed, smiling at Chris which screamed 'point to me'. Seems like Chris was looking for some sort of reaction but got none.
"Guess it's just that simple." Will agreed, stepping away from Chris. Chris waved the letter around and Jessica walked over to Chris and took her letter back.
"Alright alright, let's just get up to the lodge already. Getting tired of all this nature and junk." Chris said defeated as he starts to wonder off.
"You guys go ahead, I'm just gonna wait here for a bit... See who else is here." Jess said.
"You mean Mike?" Chris asked jokingly.
"What? I mean, you know, whoever." Jess hesitated, seeming slightly flustered at the comment as she went back to sit on the bench she was sitting on before we got here.
"Uh huh. Sam?" Chris said. I looked around to see Sam standing by the rope by the cliff, looking out towards the mountain landscape. I decided to go join her.
"Did you see this view? I mean, holy cow. I forget to just stop and take it all in." Sam exclaimed as she gestured out to the landscape of the mountain.
"Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it?" I said as I looked out to the mountain. I had always been a sucker for graphics. I don't know whether they had changed because I was actually in the game, but they looked so real.
"Yeah, it's so beautiful and breath-taking. Come on, let's go." Will said sarcastically as he started to walk off after Chris.
"You should take a photo of this. It's stunning." Sam mentioned to me.
"How about we take a picture together." I suggested. She hummed in acknowledgement as she stood on my left and I put my arm around her. I grasped my camera in my other hand, flipped the screen around and aimed it towards us and the landscape, smiled and then took the shot with a snap. "Perfect." I really hope I can keep this.
"Hey, show that to me later." Jessica yelled over to us from her place on the bench.
"Of course, Jess." Sam shouted back, smiling widely.
"We should probably get up to the lodge, Sam." I said to her, letting my camera fall back down on my chest.
"Yeah, they are probably waiting for us." Sam agreed as we turned around and walked along the trail.
Washington Lodge Grounds, 21:55
We had been walking up to the lodge for a while now and we had been walking in relative silence, apart from the random small talk. There seemed to be a weird air around Chris and Sam when it came to talking about the topic of the mountain. I wanted to know what happened to make coming up here weird.
"So, I don't know whether I should bring this up, but why does it feel weird to come up here? What happened?" I questioned curiously.
"I don't know whether we should-" Sam started to say but was cut off.
"No, they should know. They are up here with us, after all." Chris said apprehensively. "We came up here a year ago today for our annual winter getaway. We partied, had some drinks and had fun. Josh and I drank so much, we passed out in the kitchen, but something happened while we were out cold." Chris explain while we walked.
"The rest of the group went to play a little prank on Josh's sister, Hannah. I was trying to find her to tell that it was a prank and Beth, Josh's other sister, was still downstairs, not knowing about the prank. Jessica had made a note that was supposed to be from Mike, saying that Hannah should come to the guest room for something."
"She fell for it because she had a crush on him, even though Mike was with Emily at the time. She went up to be "with Mike," if you know what I mean. Before anything else could happen, everyone came out of their hiding places. Matt even had the nerve to film the whole thing." He gritted his teeth at the thought. Sam continued explaining.
"Hannah was offended and ran out of the lodge into the snow, without anything warm on. We went outside and tried to call her back, but she didn't. Beth had notice Hannah leave and had come outside to see what was going on. We told her, and she was upset, obviously, and ran after her. We thought that they could handle themselves and that they didn't want to see us, so we left them alone… They never came back… We searched everywhere but they had disappeared without a trace." Sam finished explained sadly.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked." I said.
"No, it's alright. You two needed to know." Sam said as we continued to walk to the lodge.
We finally got up to the lodge and while Chris went over to talk to Josh and Sam went over to look at the scenery, I went over to talk to William. I just remembered I needed to tell him about the totem I had found; I think there could be more totems like that all throughout the entire game.
"Hey Will. I need to tell you something." I said to Will as I walked over to him.
"What is it, Ryan?" He asked.
"On my way up to the cable car station, Sam and I came across a statue that looked like a totem pole. On it was a plaque that said something about butterfly prophecies, each butterfly was a different colour, but then I looked on the floor and found an actual totem. I picked it up and turned it over to take a look at it and saw a yellow butterfly, then I had a vision showing me what might happen if we, or someone else in the group, make a certain choice, whether good or bad." I explained.
"Oh, that's what that was! That's actually a really cool collectable and game mechanic." Will exclaimed smiling.
"Wait, you saw it too?" I asked disbelievingly.
"Yeah, I did. I was really confused when I saw it. It made no sense, but now I know." Will answered.
"Well, we have to pay attention when we find these totems and remember the colours. They could help us later." I said.
"Ok. What are the colours?" he asked me.
"Here, I took a picture of the plaque that explained it." I said as I showed him the photo I took earlier.
"Ok, black equals death, red equals danger, brown equals loss, yellow equals guidance and white equals fortune." He read out loud as I put my phone away.
"Wait…" He said as he looked past my shoulder. "I think I see one other there."
"Really?!" I turned around and, sure enough, he was right. There it was, just sitting there on the floor.
"Weird that no one has seen it yet." I said wondering over to it and picking it up.
"Wait, I've seen this colour before. It's a guidance totem."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Turn it over and see what it's about." He said getting a little impatient and excited to see what it is. I then turned it over to see the yellow butterfly and the vision started.
As the scene faded in, suddenly, a bear trap snapped around someone's fingers and a manly scream filled my ears. I mentally jumped at the loud noise and, as quick as the vision had appeared, it was gone.
The snowy scenery came back into my line of sight and Will looked shocked. "What did we just see?" He wondered as I put the totem down and stood up.
"It was definitely a bear trap clamping down on someone's fingers, and by the scream I heard, it's definitely one of the men of the group." I explained matter-of-factly.
"It might not concern us at all yet, but we better keep our eyes peeled, just in case." Will said as we strolled over towards the lodge.
As we headed towards the stairs up to the lodge, I saw Chris and Josh up by the lodge door trying to get it open, and who I thought was Matt and Ashley standing, or sitting on in Ashley's case, on the steps, waiting to be able to get inside. I noticed that Matt didn't look so happy for some reason.
"Hey, Ryan. Will. How are you?" Ashley greeted as we approached.
"We're fine. It's just weird being up here." Will replied to her.
In more ways than one. I thought.
"Yeah, it is, but it's nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, right?" She replied. That saying actually hit quite close to home. It's one of the reasons why I play video games in the first place. It was an escape from the bad things that had happened in my day, such as all of the bullying and stress of life in general.
"Yeah, you're right." I said.
"She is?" Will mumbled questioningly to me. By the puzzled look on Ash's face, she definitely heard him.
I elbowed him in his side. "Yes, she is." I hissed, giving him a stern look. I looked over to Matt to see him give me a strangely angry look before growling and stalking off. "What's up with him?"
"He may have seen something that he wasn't supposed to see… And now it's upset him." Ash replied with a sad sigh.
Before I could ask anymore, I saw Chris and Josh come back down the stairs towards us. Chris stopped to talk to Ash and Josh turned to us.
"Ryan, Will! Glad you could make it!" Josh exclaimed, giving us a big, bright smile.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" Will answered, giving off his winning smile. I could tell he was trying to sound convincing.
"Look, I know that you two haven't been up here before, and that you haven't been a part of our group of friends for that long, but you are still an integral part of our group. You guys may have only been friends with us for a couple of months now, but you are always welcome up here." Josh stated. Wow, this game really did fill out our backstory a hell of a lot.
"Thank you, Josh. That means a lot coming from you." I said reassuringly.
"Don't worry, you're going to have a hell of a time. I know it!" Josh said, giving me another smile, but this one was different to the one he just gave us. This one gave me weird vibes, seeming slightly mischievous, and I didn't like it very much.
"Err… sure." Will said, sounding like he got the same vibes as me. "Anyway, why aren't we out of the cold yet?"
"The door is iced, and Cochise over here thinks he can find a way in that isn't illegal." Josh answered with a cheeky grin, that thankfully looked normal, as Chris walked over.
"I never said it wouldn't be illegal. It's your lodge!" Chris exclaimed.
"Need some back up? We'd be happy to help." I offered.
"Sure, you can tag along in our heist. We might need witnesses." Josh joked as he and Chris started to move round the side of the lodge.
"Is it just me or did Josh put a little too much emphasis on the word 'Hell' just now?" I whispered to Will.
"Possibly. I don't think we should dwell on it though. Let's enjoy the silence while we can." He said as we followed behind them.
William's POV, Washington Lodge Grounds, 22:04
As we strolled, Josh struck up a weird conversation with Chris. "Ashley was looking pretty hot today, right?" We stopped walking for a moment. "She's like a 'sleeper hit' kinda gal, ya know?... Now I just wanna rip that parka right of her... make some snow angels. Right?"
"Hey, cut it out man-" Chris tried to say but was cut off by Josh.
"I mean if you're not gonna bang her... maybe Mike'll take up the case." Josh said teasingly.
"W-...Will you back off already." Chris stuttered annoyed.
"Yeah dude. That's not cool!" Ryan and Will both exclaim at the same time. We looked at each other in disbelief, before shaking it off.
"Re-laaax you guys... I'm just checkin' to see if there's any blood flowin' down there." Josh said with a smile that just made me want to punch him. I may be a bit of a 'Ladies man' myself, but I would never see a woman as just a sex object.
"Tsk, yeah..." Chris said uncomfortably.
"Ugh, start thinking with your head and not your penis, dude." Ryan said sounding irritated, looking like he was really uncomfortable and like he wanted to move on a soon as possible. I gave him a surprised glance at him using such vulgar language; he usually does talk like that, but he just brushed it off. Maybe he's more stressed than he's letting on; he's not thinking about what he's saying.
"Listen dude. Look around you. Look at these beautiful mountains. Do you see any parents? I mean can you imagine a more perfect, ripe scenario, just dripping with erotic possibilities? You, and Ashley, alone at last... You've laid all the groundwork... You've been the perfect gentleman. Now you come in for the kill." Josh said trying to persuade him.
"Maybe you're right." Chris said officially persuaded.
"Really?" I could hear Ryan whisper under his breath.
"You're a hunter, bro. No fear. No mercy. I mean she won't even know what hit her." Josh said gesturing upwards dramatically as he walked off.
"Alright, alright. I got it. Jeez." Chris laughed.
"Ughhh." Ryan said again as he started to move away. "Let's just keep moving. Please?"
"So how are we planning on breaking into my parents' lodge, bud?" Josh asked as we continued walking round the side of the lodge.
"Wait, I didn't say I had a plan-" Chris said.
"You sounded like you had a plan. You better deliver, Cochise, or else you've got four lovely ladies who are going to be freezing their buns off, and last time I checked, that's not a good way to get laid." Josh insisted.
"Well shoot. Nobody likes cool buns." Chris agreed.
"Can we just focus on getting inside, please!?" Ryan asserted loudly, getting annoyed again.
"Ryan! Chill." I said putting my hand on his shoulder. This did seem to calm him down, but he was still shaking with frustration. We got around to the side and I saw a display case that looked like it was supposed to have an axe in, but it was empty, like it had been taken.
"Hmmm." Chris hummed as he looked at the display case.
That's weird. The axe is gone. That could have helped us a lot. Where could it be, and who took it. I wondered as we moved over to a green box.
"Well well well. We got ourselves a thinker. Nice one." Josh said as he and Chris kneeled down and pushed the box over to a window that looked like it could be opened.
Once the box was in place, I climbed on top of it, maintaining my balance, opened the window and vaulted in masterfully, standing on a table and jumped down with ease. Chris climbed up the box next, looking a bit wobbly, and pretty much rolled through the window, landing hard on his back on the floor.
"Whoa! Chris, are you ok?" I asked, rushing over to see if he was hurt.
"Ugh... I'm okay! I should have paid more attention in climbing class..." He said as I held out a hand to help him up.
"You mean 'gym?'" Josh said on the outside as he and Ryan got on top of the box and leaned in the window.
"Yeah, you know, with the climbing up the rope-" Chris said. After that, Ryan came through the window, almost tripping as he climbed off the table, but not falling over like Chris. Suddenly, the lightbulb in the room blow up for no reason, making Ryan and I jump out of our skin.
"Whoa." Josh gasped.
"Did that really just happen?" Ryan asked rhetorically, leaning close to my side.
"Did we do that?" Chris asked, looking around the darkness.
"I don't... I don't think so. Here, use this." Josh said as he took a lighter out of his jacket and chucked it to Chris, which he caught and flicked alight. "Whoa - Guys - I just got an awesome idea."
"Yeah?"
"Totally!"
"Well, what is it!?"
"Okay. So, I'm PRETTY sure that I have some deodorant in one of the bathrooms... You could use THAT with the LIGHTER..."
"I don't- I don't follow. How does a stick of deodorant gonna help?"
"Spray on, it's a can."
"Ohhh... Yeah... Now I gotcha."
"Flamethrower."
"Just like we do with the lil' army dudes!"
"Yep. The ones we melted. Just point the spray-can at the lighter and FWOOOSH!"
"Bye-bye frozen lock."
"Bingo." Josh finished.
"You two melted army men?" Ryan asked.
"Of course, didn't you?" Chris said, looking like it was the most obvious thing to do with deodorant and fire.
"No, why would I? That's pointless, and dangerous." He replied.
"I think that sounds cool." I agreed with Chris, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.
"Obviously you would think that's cool." Ryan mumbled under his breath.
"Hey, I heard that! What's that supposed to mean?!" I said a little offended.
"Guys stop! This isn't helping and we're getting off topic!" Josh interjected.
"You're right. We need to focus." Ryan conceded. "If you have no other way to un-ice the lock, it would work. Deodorant contains alcohol, which is very flammable. It is a group of molecules called hydrocarbons which have a lot of chemical bonds and in turn a large energy potential. When it is lit by something like a lighter, those bonds break and-" Ryan lectured, but I could tell that Chris and Josh weren't really taking it in
I put my hand on his shoulder and interrupted him. "Ryan, I know you really enjoy explaining stuff like this, but, like you said, we need to focus. Chris and Josh are not focusing on what you're saying right now."
"...Oh, yeah. You're right. Sorry. I got a bit carried away there." He apologised, Chris and Josh tuning back in.
"...Anyway... Alright, so you guys got this. I'm gonna sort something out - you up for hunting around in the dark for a little bit?" Josh asked.
"Nope. But I'll do it." Chris replied.
"We'll be fine. You go and do whatever you need to do." I replied too.
"Godspeed, pilgrim." Josh said saluting, getting off the box and walking off.
"I wonder what Josh is going to do" I wondered out loud. Looking around the area, I could see that we were in some kind of storage room. It looked really creepy seeing as we had nothing but the fire from the lighter in Chris' hand to go off of.
"I don't know, and I don't really care right at this moment in time. We can question it later. Right now, I just want to find the deodorant and unlock the door. I don't like being away from the others." Ryan said as Chris walked towards a door. As we walked, I saw something on the ground.
"Hey, what is that?" I asked Ryan, pointing it out to him.
"It's one of those totems I told you about. That was quick." Ryan whispered to me as I knelt down and picked it up. I turned it over to see the coloured butterfly that he had told me about.
"That's loss." Ryan said.
That sounds bad. I thought just before the vision engulfed my sight.
Everything felt really hot as the scene came into view. Just then, out of nowhere, a woman flew into view looking all burnt and a high pitch scream reached my ears, making me mentally jump. From what I remember from what I have already seen of the game beforehand, it was Emily, who we hadn't met yet, engulfed in flames. Fire continued to spread around my vision as I snapped back to reality.
"RYAN! WILL!" Chris shouted.
"Err… W-What…?" I said, shaking the vision out of my head, feeling a bit dazed.
"Hey, you ok? You two had me worried there for a second, just standing there motionless." Chris said putting his hand on my shoulder.
"Um… Yeah, we're fine... Let's get a move on." I said as we continued moving, Chris giving us a strange look but leaving it be.
"That was weird." I whispered as we moved forward.
"Definitely." Ryan said, "I'm starting to feel a little more apprehensive about using this 'flamethrower.' Not that I wasn't apprehensive before, but still..."
"Let's just hope that the rest we find aren't as morbid as this one." I said. I would soon find out that they wouldn't get any better.
"Anyway, I found something I wanted to show you." Chris said as we moved onwards. We followed him into a small room off to the side and he picked up a newspaper from a shelf that said 'Ex-janitor convicted for arson, swears revenge on movie mogul's family.'
"So, what do we have here?" I questioned as we looked at the clipping.
"Looks like a newspaper article." Ryan said.
"'Ex-janitor convicted for arson.' Sounds like a bad dude." I said
"Sounds like Josh and his family could have made some enemies." Chris said as he put the piece of paper down. With the Wanted poster we saw at the cable car station, that totem we just saw, and now this newspaper article, I was starting to really worry what we would be up against in this game.
We went back and though a different door and ended up in a corridor. We continued walking until we came across a portrait of what I could only get was the Washington family.
"Huh, that's cool." Chris said as we looked at the portrait, but we could hardly see because of the low light. You could just barely see the outline of Josh, Hannah, Beth and their parents. As we continued walking down the corridor, suddenly, the door at the end of it seemed to close on its own.
"Huh? What the hell was that?" Chris asked no one in particular.
"Why did the door just close on its own?" I asked as well.
"Let's hope we don't find out." Ryan said. We opened the door to find nothing on the other side, luckily. We walked through to find ourselves in the main hallway on the other side of the front door. Chris went over and looked through the window to see the others on the other side. He looked like he had an idea.
"Hey Will. I have an idea to scare the others. When I count down from 3, you bang on the door as hard as you can. That should give them a good scare hopefully. You in?" Chris whispered devilishly.
"Of course." I accepted as we went to the door and stood on either side.
"I'm just going to stay out of this and continue to look around." Ryan said, not interested at all, going into the next room.
"3... 2... 1!" Chris whispered counting down with his fingers. When he got to 1, I banged on the door as hard as I can, hearing screaming and gasping on the other side, mostly being feminine.
"WOOOooOOooooOOO!" Chris made scary ghost noises.
"Hi Chris, William, very funny." Sam said on the other side, seeing her slightly annoyed face pop up into the window.
"Aw, how did you know it was us?" Chris said jokingly.
"Shouldn't you be, like, getting the lock open or something?" Sam said.
"On it!" Chris said as we walked towards the living room.
The living room was really spacious, having a big corner sofa with a fireplace and TV above it. It was well furbished too, with tables and drawers in corners to fill in the dead space. The stairs to the basement and second floor being in the middle with the backdoor being at the back.
"Hey guys, I think I found something. Come look at this." Ryan said, popping his head through the doorway to the dining room. We followed him to find a landline with an answering machine, and it looked like it still had a message on it. I clicked it to see what it said.
"One new message. New message. Hi Mrs. Washington - This is Sargent Tait again. It's bad news, I'm afraid. We've been through the case files, and there's nothing we can do. He's a free man. We don't have the legal power to restrict his movement. I know it's not what you wanted to hear, so call me if you want to know more. End of messages." The answering machine played.
"Okay..." Chris said slightly confused.
"What was that all about?" I asked.
"Sounds like that arson guy was set free. At least that's what I can gather." Chris said.
"Do you think he came back up here for revenge?" Ryan asked. "Wait, do you think that was who was on the wanted poster? It did say something about arson offenses." He realised.
"That's what I've been worrying about." I disclosed.
"You might be right about that, but I don't think he would be up here. He would be long gone. Like I said before, no one comes up here, except for Josh and his family. We should be fine." Chris reassured.
Famous last words. I thought as we exited the dining room and continued exploring the lodge.
We went around the side of the stairs and I picked up a picture of Sam, Chris, Mike and Hannah. There were in smart attire, smiling at the camera. I turned the photo over to see some writing on the back that said '04/25/13 Ready for the Senior Prom! Hannah/Sam/Mike/Emily.'
"Huh, they look so happy." I said as I put it down and continued walking. We turned around and went up the stairs, taking a right at the top to notice a bookshelf with all sorts of stuff on it, but something caught my eye. A movie award. I picked it up to have a quick look at it.
"Josh's dad won loads of awards for his movies. I wouldn't be surprised if Josh went into the film industry as well." Chris said. I hummed in interest as I put it back and followed him and Ryan to the bathroom.
We moved down a couple more hallways until we finally got to bathroom and we had a look around. I noticed a cabinet that I thought would probably have the can of deodorant in it. I opened to see it sitting alone in the back.
"Hey guys! I found it!" I shouted to them and they came over to me. I went to grab it but as I did, an animal of some sort jumped out of the other side of the cabinet and scared us all half to death.
"AHHHH!" We screamed.
"SON OF A-" Chris said as he got up after he fell down from the scare.
"What the fuck." I said as I got up. I quickly checked myself over to see of the animal nipped me at all. I now had shaky hand, but apart from that I was fine. Chris was trying to slow down his rapidly beating heart, but Ryan was a lot worse for wear. As we stated before, Ryan was never really any good with horror games, and it was showing now. He had fallen down and was currently in the fetal position rocking back and forth slightly to calm himself down. He was shaking like a leaf.
"Ryan, are you alright?" I got no response. "Ryan, speak to me buddy." I lightly slapped him on the cheek, which seemed to snap him out of his trance. "You ok, bro."
"...Y-Yeah... I-I'm fine... Just give me a minute... To recompose myself." He stuttered, not yet moving from the fetal position.
"Chris, Ryan's going to need a minute. Why don't you take the deodorant and un-ice the lock for the others? They must be freezing out there." I offered to Chris, handing the deodorant can.
"Are you sure he'll be alright. He seems pretty shaken up." Chris inquired, looking quite worried.
"He'll be fine in a bit. Get the others inside before the turn into icicles. We'll be down in a few." I reassured him. He nodded before marching out of the bathroom.
I gazed back at Ryan to see him staring at me, looking on the verge of tears. "What are we doing here, Will? Why are we here?" He cried. I kneeled down in front of him and wrapped my arms around him in a comforting hug. "Who would want to torture us like this? Is the universe out to get us?"
"I don't know, Ryan. I wish I knew. It'll be okay." I whispered consolingly in his ear as he wept, body shaking with each cry of sadness. We stayed in that position, Ryan softly sobbing onto my shoulder, for what felt like hours, when it was only a minute or two.
"I don't think I can handle this." He said defeatedly as I pulled away from him.
"Hey, don't say that." I said softly. "Where is the guy who managed to fight of a bully twice the size of him. The guy who shot a rifle for the first time all by himself."
"What if those time were just flukes? If you hadn't been involved, those would have never happened. What if I make some stupid decision that gets the others, or even you, killed? I don't want to live with that! What if-"
"Stop it!" I raised my voice, interrupting him once more. "I don't want to hear stuff like this come from your mouth. Those times were not flukes. Those were all your doing. I may have helped in those instances, but it was you who had the perseverance to achieve what you accomplished. You need to have more confidence in yourself. We can do this. YOU can do this. You understand." I told him confidently. He hesitated for a moment before nodding and relaxing into a normal sitting position. "You okay now."
"Yeah, I'm good now. Thank you, Will." He thanked me. I held out my hand and help him to his feet. "Well… at least we got the deodorant. The others are probably inside now."
"Let's go greet them, shall we?" I said as we went back downstairs.
Ryan's POV, Washington Lodge, 22:27
After finally calming myself down, we proceeded downstairs to find that everyone was indeed in the lounge, talking amongst themselves.
"Hey, there you are." Josh called from the fire place. "Where were you two? We were starting to get worried."
"We were still in the bathroom." Will answered. "After the... thing-"
"Wolverine." Sam added. We looked at her in confusion but brushed it off.
"...Yeah... That... scared us, Ryan was quite shook up, so I took a moment to calm him down." He continued.
"That's sweet of you, Will." Ashley said, giving us a smile.
I noticed that her and Sam both glanced down at something. Seems like Will noticed as well. We both looked down between us to see that mine and Will hands were still interlocked. I guess we never let go when he helped me off the floor. We quickly swiped our hands away from our grasp, looking away from each other and the other in the room, blushing profusely.
"You two are so cute." Sam said, giving us a warm smile as well.
"Shut up." We both warned, embarrassed.
(Mike) "What's up party people!" (Jessica) "Heeey!" Jessica and a male called as they sauntered in suddenly. Happy to be able to change the subject, I quickly realized that this was the Michael Monroe Chris had mentioned earlier.
"Hey." Josh greeted Mike and Jess.
I looked around the room and saw a weird expression on Matt's face. He looked quite angry for some reason, and it was all pointed at Mike.
"Hey, look at Matt. I think something's wrong." I mumbled quietly to Will.
"Yeah, I see. Let's see what happens. I hope we don't have to break something up." He acknowledged as we watched the scene unfold.
"Make yourself at home, bro." Josh said as he fiddled with the fire place.
"Will do." Mike said.
"Yeah. Come on in. Take a load off. Have whatever you want. You just take whatever you want anyways, right?" Matt taunted annoyed as he strolled towards Mike aggressively.
"Whoa, easy there, cowboy." Mike tried to defuse him.
"Mike, stay away from my girlfriend." Matt stated bluntly.
"Dude - what are you talking about?"
"Stay away from Emily!"
"Emily? Why would I want anything to do with Emily?"
"Guys come on. Play nice. There's no need for this." I intercepted, getting up and stepping between them.
"Right... right." Matt muttered, still sounding a little sceptical, but calming down none the less.
"Something going on with you, man?" Mike asked, confused.
"Forget it. I lost my head. Been a long day." He turned away
"Yeah well... Try not to lose it again." Mike finished, sounding almost threatening, as Matt walked away.
"Thanks for that, Ryan. I wasn't in the right state. That calmed me down." Matt thanked me while Mike walked over to Jess on the sofa.
"Anytime. I don't like conflict, so I was happy to help." I replied as Matt and I went back to sit down.
"Well, that escalated quickly." I whispered to Will.
"At least it didn't go any farther. You are really killing it in the mediating factor today." Will said, making me smile.
"Oh. My god. That is so gross. Are you trying to swallow his face whole?" Emily insulted as she walked in.
Nevermind.I thought, groaning and putting my hand in my hands.
"Maybe we will have to break up an even bigger fight after all." Will moaned as well.
"Em..." Matt tried to stop her, getting up from his seat, but she ignored him.
"Seriously can she be any more obvious? No one want in on your territory, honey." Emily continued taunting Jess.
"Excuse me, did you say something?" Jess said as she got up off the sofa.
"Oh did you not hear me? Was you sluttiness too loud?"
"Sounds like someone's bitter about not making the cut."
"Yeah, it's all a big cattle call with that dreamboat. Congrats, you're top cow."
"Cuts real deep calling Miss Homecoming a cow." Jess countered.
"Em, come on-" Matt tried to interrupt.
"Shut up, Matt-" Em said.
"Stay out of it, you dumb oaf." Jess said aggressively.
"Hey watch it-"
"Oh, you're the only one who can put him down? No one else can play with your toys?"
"You're such a bitch!"
"Hey, there's no need to insult Matt." I said, standing up.
"Stay out of this Ryan!" Emily said.
"You wouldn't understand; you don't have a relationship." Jessica added insultingly. That one cut deep. Know I knew someone I definitely didn't like.
"Hey, there's no need to bring Ryan into this!" Will shouted defensively, standing up too.
"Whatever. I don't give a crap what you all think." Jessica disregarded.
"At least I can think. 4.0 bitch, honor roll, try sucking on that when you're trying to sleep your way into a job." Emily said.
"Who needs grades when you've got all the natural advantages you can handle." Jessica retorted.
"Oh please."
"You couldn't buy a moldy loaf of bread with your skanky ass."
"Are you serious? Do you think that's insulting?"
"That bitch is on crack or something."
"Emily! Stop! This is out of hand. There's no reason to fight like this." Matt bellowed, trying to defuse the situation.
"Yeah, Em! Why are you picking fights over your ex-boyfriend? Huh?" Jess continued to taunt.
"To be honest, you did start it Emily." Will said honestly.
"You can shut up too Will. This doesn't concern either of you." Emily said, pointing towards us.
"It does when your shouting and insults could be heard from the bottom of the mountain." I retorted.
"That's not helping, Will." I said through gritted teeth.
"STOP IT! This is not why we came up here. This is not… helping. It's not what I wanted. If we can't get along for ten minutes then maybe we should take a little bit of a break, right? Mike - why don't you go check out the guest cabin? The one I told you about." Josh said interrupting the fight.
"Yeah… Yeah, alright. Wanna go do that?" Mike asked to Jess, getting up and offering his hand to her.
"Any place without that whore." Jess finished with one final insult.
"It's right up the trail." Josh said as they walked off out the lodge.
"Phew!" Matt sounded, making a 'mind blow' action and explosion noise, looking between us, Emily and where Mike and Jess had left, as Emily went over to the bags Matt brought in. Must be her's.
"That was a whole lot worse than Matt and Mike's fight." I said to Will. "They even insulted us."
"Yeah. Are you alright?" Will asked.
"Yeah, I've heard much worse. I've been desensitized to it by now." I answered. "Doesn't mean I don't hate her thought.
"Let's just hope that there are not anymore fights during the rest of this adventure." Will said as Matt asked Josh if he needed help with the fire.
"Where's my bag?" Emily asked Matt.
"Huh?" Matt said confused.
"My bag! The… the little one with the pike pattern! The one I got on Rodeo! Matt are you listening? Oh my god, don't you remember? Next to the Italian shoe place where I got the stilettos and you knocked over the rack while drooling all over that girl at the counter?" Emily explained loudly.
"Well, I mean, she was asking about my letter jacket-" Matt defended.
"Right. Because she gave a shit about your 'designer' letter jacket." She made air quote with her fingers.
"Why do you hate my jacket?"
"MATT, I need MY BAG!"
"Oh my god Em, maybe you just forgot it-"
"Do you seriously think I would forget my bag?"
"Well I-"
"Do you?"
"Guess not."
"You must have left it down by the cable car station."
"Ugh!"
"C'mon, hun. We'll be back soon."
"And then we can get warm?"
"We can get very warm."
"Okay. Okay, let's go." Matt agreed as he and Emily left the lodge again to go back down to the cable car station.
"Trouble in Paradise." Will said.
"Emily can be problematic at times, but she seems to love him. Just leave her to it." Ashley said from her place next to us.
"Okay, I am gonna go take a bath." Sam said out of nowhere as she got up from her place on the stairs and went up them towards the bathroom Chris, Ryan and I just came from a few minutes ago.
"Well, it's official. I don't like Emily or Jessica very much." I said to Will.
"Yeah, me too." Will agreed.
It's going to be a VERY long night.
Butterfly effects:
Will chose not to shoot the squirrel; Nature remained in balance.
Sorry this took me so long. I want this to be as close to the game as possible, but thanks to the people who have followed and favourited my story. It makes me so happy to know that people actually like it, so thank you.
Bye guys.