Darkest Hour:

An Until Dawn Collaboration

Chapter 4:

Unafraid

Hannah - 6:30 am - The Lodge

They all silently made their way back up the stairs from the basement. The plan was to take the shortcut through to woods back down to the cablecar station. Hannah knew they couldn't leave take the tunnel in case the passages were infested, and she certainly couldn't leave them alone down there in fear they would get cornered with no fire power to protect them. They needed to stick together.

She told them all to move slowly and avoid making any sound. From hearing the crash of the window earlier, she was fairly certain that a wendigo found its way in. If she listened hard enough, she could hear the scratching of nails against wood.

"That's giving me goosebumps…" Ashley said lowly.

"Don't talk," Hannah said with a snap. She stood up straight and slowed her breathing, trying to assess exactly where her group needed to go. At the far end of the hallway, she could also hear the tick - tick - tick of the wallclock as the seconds went by.

"Be vewy, vewy quiet. We're hunting wabbits!" Josh suddenly said in an obnoxiously loud Elmer Fudd impression.

Many of them did their SSHHH!'s while Hannah turned around to glare at Sam, "Shut him up!" She hissed through her teeth.

Sam almost snapped that it wasn't her fault and that she wanted a different assignment in this game, but instead she just slapped her hand over Josh's mouth hard.

Hannah stared at her brother, a sadness clenching her heart at how vacant his eyes were. He had no idea what was going on. He seemed to think all this was in his head. But she couldn't focus on him right now, much as she wanted to. The scratching sounded so close. It seemed more like the scratch of an animal though, not the same pattern as a wendigo.

Then she heard it: the muffled whimper of Balto.

"That's my dog," she whispered, more to herself than the others. But it made her sprint through the main entrance toward the door.

"Hannah!" Mike yelled for her because none of them had any idea if this was part of her plan that she expected them to just know about. She clearly was used to working alone and preferred everyone staying silent, but it definitely was not helping the situation.

Hannah opened the door and Balto ran in, circling Hannah happily as she closed the door again.

"Holy shit, is that a fucking wolf?!" Mike shouted and his loud voice made Balto pause on loving Hannah and raise his ears at Mike. The rest of the group stood behind Mike, but Balto ran right up to him and growled, baring his teeth and bristling the fur on his tail.

Mike clenched his fist, about to follow his instinct and punch the animal in its face. But he stopped himself at the last second. Hannah watched his worried face, smirking just briefly because she knew all she had to do was whistle to get Balto to back down.

"So much for being fucking quiet," Emily said, hating that she was with all of them at that moment. She felt much safer when she wasn't surrounded by a bunch of morons. "And why the hell did you let that thing in, Hannah?"

"He's just a husky," Hannah explained, "And he's mine."

"He's a goddamn wolf!" Mike insisted, and yet he felt brave enough to reach his injured hand down to it, watching carefully as its nose wiggled to his scent.

"Actually, he's a Czechoslovakian Wolf Dog," Sam spoke up, but then gasped when Josh licked the palm of her hand, causing her to snatch it away from his mouth.

Josh giggled, "So that's what you taste like."

"So gross…" Emily commented, his lips curling in disgust.

"Czechoslovakian Wolf," Mike repeated, his heart rate slowing when the wolf began licking his hand, seemingly trying to heal him.

"Wolf dog," Sam reiterated, to which Mike merely shrugged.

"Wolf. Wolfie. That's what I said. We're basically saying the same thing-"

Hannah couldn't believe her eyes. Balto was making friends with Mike like it was no big deal and he was the one person she wanted Balto to hate more than anyone. Were his instincts not as good as she had hoped?

The moment was broken when a loud piercing shriek came from above them. They all looked up to see not only one, but three wendigos hanging from the beams and chandelier. They were not looking directly down at them, which Hannah was thankful for. It bought them some time, even though she could tell all the others were pissing their pants at the sight of them.

"Nobody move a muscle until I say," Hannah spoke with a tight jaw. Still, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam slowly raise her hand to cover Josh's mouth again. Good move. The wendigos moved with inhuman speed from corner to corner of the large room, but it was clear they were not about to leave the area. The could sense them nearby. They were just waiting for the right moment to strike.

"Change of plan. You guys need to get back down to the basement. There's a path that leads to the cablecar station," Hannah explained evenly and calmly, "I will hold them off long enough for you guys to escape."

"I'm not leaving you," Mike insisted, and Hannah wished she had the luxury of smacking him.

"You're useless to me," she gritted her teeth.

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you don't."

"Guys!" Chris spoke up before it could go on any longer, "How do we find the entrance to the mines?"

"There's a…" Hannah trailed off, realizing it would be hard to explain, "Josh! Josh knows where it is."

"Uh, yeah, in case you didn't notice…" Emily started, her sharp eyes following the wendigos quick movements, "Josh literally just quoted Looney Tunes."

Hannah grumbled, knowing that she had a point, but also knowing that Josh was their best hope at finding the passageway. Slowly, and in between the wendigos glimpsing down at them, Hannah inched her way over to Josh. His eyes were downcast, his mouth still covered by Sam's hand.

"Josh!" She whispered harshly, but his eyes didn't even move. She tried calling his name a few more times before finally clapping her hands loudly in front of his face. At the same time, Josh's eyes snapped directly to hers as the wendigos gave their horrific shrieks. "You need to show everyone how to get to the cablecar station from the basement." She tried to speak as slowly as she could, pronouncing each word as though he was a young child. "Do you understand?"

But he wasn't seeing her. She couldn't be sure he was hearing her. She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, "Josh, please. You need to save everyone."

WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE US, JOSH?!

WHY DID YOU WANT US TO DIE?!

Josh's eyes widened as he listened to his dead sister yell at him for failing her. He began shaking his head, the world around him melting into a boiling pool of blood.

'You're dead!' He muffled loudly behind a hand, the words sounding like nothing but a smothered plea. 'You're not real!'

He grabbed his head and stumbled back and his face felt like ice when Sam's hand faded away, "I don't know what happened, I wasn't there, I DIDN'T DO IT!"

A wendigo screamed, but no, it was that constant screaming that always kept Josh up at night and he just wished it would stop, stop, stop, "STOP, pleeeassee stop it!"

The others screamed around him as a wendigo jumped down from a beam toward them, but then a gunshot rang out when Mike fired a bullet at the creature. Hannah stepped forward and, with a heavy heart, she slapped Josh as hard as she could. It caused Josh to stop screaming, his chest rising and falling heavily, his eyes still a bit vacant.

"Don't...don't hit me, please…" He sounded like a little boy who just got punished by his guardians.

"Josh...do you know how to get to the cablecar station from the basement?" Hannah asked, knowing that if she didn't get through to him this time, they were out of luck and the others would just have to find their own way.

"Uh...um, yeah and I...I have the key," Josh reached into his overalls and pulled out the missing key that ran the cable cars.

"Perfect!" Hannah praised, wrapping her small hands around his large one, folding his fingers back over the key as though it was as precious as holding her heart, "Please get everyone to safety. You need to get out of here now. Can you do that for me?"

He paused for only a second before nodding. And she would just have to trust that. Hannah turned to Sam then, "Please. Sam... keep my brother safe. I need to stay behind and distract them if you guys have any hope of escaping."

The wendigos screamed again, making that the cue for the others to leave immediately.

"Wait, what? No, Hannah-" Sam began to object, but when she saw the seriousness in Hannah's eyes she merely nodded, knowing that she shouldn't argue with her. Sam grabbed Josh's arm and turned him toward the stairs, ready to bolt for the basement again.

"Now go!" Hannah yelled at all of them, then watched as they sprinted away, the wendigos coming to life at all the sudden movement. Hannah gripped the nozzle of her flamethrower tightly, turning back towards the monsters to assess her situation. Her heart leapt to her throat when she noticed she wasn't alone. One unlikely person had chosen to stay behind: Mike.

"What are you doing? Get out of here," she hissed through her teeth. He was just going to slow her down. Distract her. And she didn't need his help. She didn't need him to be her hero.

"I'm not just gonna leave you here," he told her lowly, trying his best not to draw attention to their huddled masses near the stairs. As one of the wendigos nearly spotted them anyway, Hannah grabbed a nearby vase and hurled it across the room, trying to get them to follow the movement. It worked.

"Fucking morons," Hannah grumbled, grabbing Mike by the arm roughly and dragging him around a corner so they could figure out their next move. Mike pushed himself up against the wall, breathing heavily.

"Wha, uh… what do you need me to do?" he whispered, but Hannah mostly just looked irritated with his presence.

"Stay out of my way," was her short, hard response. Mike watched as the wendigos scaled the walls, which was something straight out of his darkest nightmares. He'd never seen anything like it, and it made him instantly regret his decision to stay behind.

"Great idea, Mike. Good thinking," Mike mumbled sarcastically under his breath as he watched the wendigos continue to explore the lodge. They were looking for anything to attack, and now Hannah and Mike were the only ones left. His regret over his predicament faded, however, the moment he looked over at Hannah: she looked so concentrated, so strong. It was unlike any way he'd ever seen her before. She was going to end this thing right, with or without him.

But he couldn't leave her again.

He wouldn't.

Not after letting her down. Letting them both down.

"You should have gone when you had the chance," Hannah told him, shaking her head. Mike tried to pretend like she hadn't been reading his thoughts exactly.

"I already said I'm not leaving you," he retorted harshly, only for her to shush him. Mike swallowed, lowering his voice, "what's the plan then?" Hannah's chest heaved in worried, deep breaths as her eyes scanned the room frantically for some kind of answer.

"Who says I have a plan?" she replied flatly. Mike moved forward, the wooden floor groaning under his weight. The both of them froze when a wendigo jumped from the upstairs banisher, landing right in front of them. "Don't move," she instructed, but he knew that already. With monsters quickly closing in, he was having a hard time staying put, however. The human instinct in him wanted to take off quickly, but that would be a fatal mistake - maybe for both of them.

Hannah suddenly ran instead, hurrying around a pillar. Her tank hit the wall with a hollow thunk, immediately causing a wendigo to lurch toward her. Mike wanted to call out to her, to warn her, but before he could she doused the beast in flames. Screaming out, the long limbed creature threw itself back and into a wall before writhing on the floor. It didn't take long for the surrounding furniture to ignite in flames.

"Hooooo-ly shi-" Mike yelped, his arms sheilding his face from the roaring fire. Another shriek came from the other side of the room.

"Here!" Hannah yelled, tossing him what appeared to be an unlit molotov cocktail from her satchel. Mike choked on the smoke around him, his eyes burning as he tried to see.

"What am I supposed to do with this?!" he yelled through the chaos. His eyes met Hannah's, and without her having to tell him, he knew: if it came down to it, they were going down with the lodge.

Mike and Hannah jumped as they watched two of the remaining wendigos lunging at one another, fighting in the center of the lodge living room. Hannah braced herself to open fire at them once more, only for one of the wendigos to get hurled into a beam beside her.

"Hannah!" Mike yelled, watching on in horror as the beam came toppling down, knocking Hannah to the ground and pinning her at the knee. Hannah screamed in agony, her leg snapping and instantly rebreaking under the weight of the wooden plank. Mike ran to her, trying to lift it, but ducking down before one of the wendigos could spot him.

"You have to go!" she cried, her face sweaty and pale from the shooting pain.

"I'm not going without you!" Mike promised, but Hannah only shoved him in the shoulder, pushing him away.

"Get out of here, you idiot!" she cried, her voice hoarse and her throat burning. "I don't need you-"

"Is now really the time to be stubborn, Hannah?" he snapped back. Hannah was shaking, her eyes trailing back down to her leg. Mike brought her gaze back up to his, comfortingly smoothing down her wild hair. "Hannah, it's gonna be fine, alright? Look at me. Keep looking at me-"

"Tell my parents I love-"

"No!" Mike said sternly, giving her shoulders a good shake. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, choking on the smoke once again. He knew that too much longer in all of this fire and they'd both be goners, with or without the wendigos. "No, we're not doing that! We're getting out of here!"

The two heard a growl, followed closely by a snarl. Soon they spotted Balto, bearing his teeth at a wendigo that was slinking toward them. Before the wendigo could come any closer, Balto had leapt towards it, gripping onto it by its neck.

"No!" Hannah cried, watching the only thing she'd loved in the past year risking his life to save hers. Mike couldn't watch as the two tussled, finally finding his chance to lift the beam from her leg. Hannah grunted from the pressure being lifted from her as Mike strained to keep it up. She began to slink her body out from under it, only to find that her tank was holding her back.

"Leave it!" Mike ordered, and helped her tear the tank from her back. Hannah crawled out, still watching in horror as Balto held his own.

Mike yanked her up, wrapping her arm around his shoulder, "c'mon! We gotta go!" he told her. Hannah started to object, wanting to tell him she wouldn't go anywhere without her dog, but instead found herself nodding. She was still full of pride, hating the fact that Mike was 'saving' her, but knowing there was no more time for grudges: if they didn't move now, they were going to die in there.

"Get to the door!" Mike ordered, but he basically swooped Hannah up against her will and made long, fast strides towards the safety of the back door. Hannah gripped onto him, peering over his shoulder to see Balto getting hurled across the room by one of the shrieking monsters. Her fingernails dug into Mike's coat as tears blurred her eyes.

"Balto!" she found herself screaming, instantly alerting the wendigo where they were. Mike didn't stop, just kept moving towards the safety of the outside porch. Hannah could see the stunned dog shake off the injury, but quickly came limping after them. Without another thought, knowing they were all out of the immediate danger, Hannah grabbed the molotov from Mike's hand, throwing it with all of her might right at her tank.

Time seemed to freeze as the room ignited, along with the monsters and everything around them. Mike and Hannah were propelled forward and out into the white, powdery snow of the lodge lawn. Hannah landed hard, the wind getting knocked right out of her. She gasped for air, rolling herself over and staring up at the awakening, pink sky. After a few moments she looked beside her where Mike was. Alive. Wounded and broken, but alive.

And as the lodge exploded in a fiery blaze, their skin ached from the heat on all their wounds , but it was an awakening - it signified their victory. Even so, hearing the terrible shrieks of the wendigo spirits as they went up with the clouds of black smoke would haunt them for years.

Then, as if it came from the smoke itself, a helicopter appeared, its propellers sounding like it was coming from their chests. Their hearts pounded and blood rushed to their ears.

"Down here!" Mike yelled, jumping up to his feet and waving his arms. The helicopter appeared to have spotted them and circled the area as they prepared to land, "Finally…"

Mike cradled his injured hand, the pain shooting through a hundred nerve endings. When he got thrown from the blast of the lodge, his hand took much of the blunt force when he landed, and now he was sure it was also broken. He looked over at Hannah to ask how her leg was. He was surprised to see fear written all over her face as she stared at the helicopter.

All night long, she had warrior eyes and a battle cry in her voice.

"Hannah…" He called to her, and he was surprised that she was able to hear him over all the noise. Her eyes met his and she did not look away; she did not try to hide her terror.

"I...I can't go," she shook her head and took a step back. Her injured and tired leg wobbled only for a moment before she collapsed onto the snow. Balto whined softly, laying beside her and licking her hand.

Mike knelt beside her, trying his best to remain eye contact with her, "Why? Hann, you're finally found, let them rescue you."

The helicopter landed, the biting air intensifying as the blades blew loose snow and suffocating smoke.

"I'll be right back." Mike stood from beside her to tell the rescuers that Hannah's leg was broken and they needed a stretcher to help her. He ran back over to her and dropped next to her. He set his eyes to determination when he looked at Hannah, "I'm not going to leave you here alone again. Let's talk about all this later, okay?" He stood up and reached down his good hand, despite his bad hand throbbing without the pressure, "Come with me, Hannah."

Hannah's lungs were like ice and she couldn't seem to catch her breath, but she slipped her hand into Mike's and allowed him to pull her up. He tugged on her, knowing the crew were coming over to them. He whistled and Balto stood up, tail shaking, "C'mon, Wolfie. We're not leaving you behind either." He barked in agreement and walked with him to the copter.

Hannah's heart fluttered at knowing Balto would be coming with her. He was the only other thing left for her on this mountain.

"Are there any others?" A medic asked. Mike nodded almost absently, realizing in the frenzy he'd nearly forgotten about the rest of the his friends. Hannah exchanged a look with him; they could only pray Josh had led them to the cablecar station in time.

"There should be a few more down at the cablecar station," Mike yelled over the cutting sounds of the helicopter blades. The medic spoke into his walkie before tending to Hannah. Mike helped her onto the stretcher and then the crew began buckling her in. He held onto her hand as they kept eye contact. Then they pulled her away from him and toward the helicopter.

"What happened to you guys down there?" One of the crew asked.

But they didn't answer. They would need a bit more time to process before trying to explain it.

"Wait, are you one of the Washington sisters?" the medic then asked, his eyes wide. He had surely never suspected they'd find her, especially alive. Hannah nodded solemnly, unsure how to even answer that question. She had no idea who she was anymore. She hadn't been a Washington in the last year… and she wasn't sure she'd ever feel like a Washington again.

Hannah looked out the window as the mountains grew further and further in the distance. She thought about her guardian and how he had protected her. She thought about Beth's remains and how she might never get to visit her grave again. Hannah was leaving the place where a part of her would always remain, and now she wasn't so sure she would be able to survive in the real world with only half a heart.

Mike - 2:30 pm - Blackwood Pines Hospital

Mike walked out of his hospital room with a bandaged hand and a mind loaded with strong painkillers. He asked some doctors where Hannah Washington was at, and he finally got informed that she went into surgery to fix her badly damaged leg. So he absently wandered the halls until, but some miracle, he found Sam sitting outside in a waiting area.

"Heeeyyyy," he greeted loudly, almost over the top with excitement.

Sam jumped when she heard his voice, and Mike saw how dirty and drained she looked. She watched him wearily as he sat down heavily next to her.

"Hey, yourself. How's your hand feeling?"

"Like absolute shit!" He said happily, looking down at his left hand that was thick with white bandages, "You think I can still get girls even though I'm missing fingers?"

"You still have one full hand of fingers," she commented dryly, crossing her legs and staring forward with a blank stare.

They fell into a silence and it was the first time since arriving on Mount Washington that there was a moment of calmness; time for reflection. And the more Mike stared down at his hand that would never be complete again, he couldn't help but think how his life would never be complete again either.

There was always a small part of him that believed Beth was alive. And when he ran into Hannah in the sanitorium, his hopes rose to the stars. If Hannah was standing in front of him after a year, it was possible for Beth to do the same. But when Hannah said that Beth was dead - the first time Mike heard the words spoken aloud, confirming what no one was ever completely sure of, it was instant denial.

He held up his hand. Two missing fingers. Two missing people. Beth and himself. The events of the night, followed by the effects of the painkillers, then the reality that Beth really was dead, hit him all at once as the tears streamed down his face. His breath hitched which caused Sam to realize what was happening.

"Beth's dead," Mike told her, his voice broken in a way that he hoped to never hear again. And it brought instant tears to Sam's eyes. She knew, as soon as Hannah didn't mention anything about Beth, that she had been alone.

Sam frowned, her face turning red and her vision blurring, but she refused to let the tears fall. She sat stiffly next to Mike as he let it all out. Over this last year she'd been so distracted by helping Josh that she'd forgotten how much Beth meant to Mike.

She'd forgotten how much Beth meant to her.

Sam couldn't even look at him when he stood from the seat and wobbled, his tired legs hardly being able to support him. She covered her mouth before a sob could escape when Mike pressed his forehead against the wall and scrunched his face in pain. But Mike's mind was blank except for the searing pain that kept flashing on all his good memories with Beth. They would never be accompanied without a deep melancholy and he fucking hated how tainted everything was now.

And what made it worse was that he knew Jessica was dead too and he felt like shit for not mourning her at that very instant as well, but there was already too much pain in his soul to accept that two of the people he was closest to would never see the light of day again.

He punched the wall with his bad hand. He couldn't even hold back the yelp of pain that shot through his veins.

"Mike!" Sam yelled when she heard him. Standing up quickly, she held her hands over her heart but still couldn't bring herself to get close to him.

"It fucking shoulda been ME." He sucked in a deep breath, his throat full of saliva, an awful gurgling sound forming around him as if he was trying to drown himself if only he could just black out from enough pain.

His hand throbbed and he slid against the wall to the floor, ragged breath after ragged breath.

"Samantha? Michael?"

They both heard their names from an older woman; tired but alert. Sam turned around to see Bob and Melinda standing there, having been called in when they got word that their son was in the hospital and their daughter was badly injured but found alive.

"We were told that Hannah was found…?" Bob spoke for him and his wife, but they didn't even breathe a sigh of relief when Sam nodded.

"And my Beth…?" Melinda found the courage to ask, but her eyes soon flitted down to Mike and his face said it all.

"Hannah's in surgery right now," Sam offered, "But I think Josh is awake…"

Melinda barely nodded before going around her to the nurse to ask where her son was.

Sam - 5:36 pm - Blackwood Pines Hospital

"He wants to see you."

"Me?" Sam asked, pointing to herself. Melinda nodded and Sam felt her stomach sink. What did he want to see her for? Especially after everything that had just happened. She'd comforted him, she'd been there for him while he was losing it. Wasn't her job over yet? "I- No… I really don't think-"

"He's in room 612," Melinda said without a beat. Sam glanced at the eyes upon her, the teens all battered and bruised. She'd faired pretty well, actually. Ash was still covered in blood - Sam reckoned she would scold Josh on his pig slaughtering at another time. Emily looked utterly traumatized. Mike was missing two of his fingers.

Matt was still missing.

Jess was dead.

But… Hannah was alive. Tormented and jaded, but alive.

They all were.

She heaved a heavy sigh, standing from her waiting room chair. Her whole body ached, but she knew she needed to go see him one way or another, even if it was just to see with her own eyes that he was okay. She stiffly walked towards his room, checking door numbers as she passed by and silently wondering if this was a good idea.

There it was. 612.

Sam took in a sharp breath when she saw him. The first thing she noticed was that Josh looked so different - fragile and broken, resting in that hospital bed. Had he always looked this way? Had she just never noticed?

Sam began to quickly lose her nerve, turning to go back out before he noticed. Her plan was foiled, however, as her foot lightly and accidently squeaked on the floor, and Josh's eyes fluttered open.

"Heeeeey," he slurred. "Sammy."

Sam felt a faint smirk curve her lips, even though she didn't feel like smiling. Even still, after everything he'd put her through, she couldn't deny that she was relieved to see him alive. She couldn't bear the idea of going through another year of a missing Washington sibling, no matter how she felt about him at the moment. They were so incredibly lucky to have Hannah back - it was the last thing any of them had expected to happen - Aside from the flesh-eating monsters wreaking havoc on the lodge.

"Hi," Sam replied evenly, but her heart beat heavily and sorely in her chest. She was torn in half, wanting to both hug him and kill him at the same time. It was very confusing to feel this way. Her eyes began to blur with tears as she sorted through these very conflicting feelings running around in her head.

"You came," he said next, and he tiredly let his head fall to the side on his pillow, raising his eyes in slight surprise. "Didn't really expect that." Sam crossed her arms, but still involuntarily took a step towards him, anyways. His presence always felt magnetic to her, for some reason.

"Yeah, well… you asked," she replied, a cavalier shrug of a shoulder. But nothing about this interaction was casual. She still felt a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach when she looked at his face - a swollen, bloodied lip. A bandage on his shoulder from where Ashley had stabbed him and the black eye Mike had given him. His nose was broken.

There was one thing she was certain about as she stood before him: It was too soon.

Sure, she'd spent the last few hours reining Josh in, keeping his crazy at bay and being his strength as they battled monsters and he battled the monsters in his own head. That's what you do in a moment of crisis - you work together to survive, at all costs. It was never an option to leave him behind, no matter what he'd done to her that night. But now that she was here all she could think about was the boy she cared for, the one she thought cared for her, chasing her around a dark, damp basement.

She closed her eyes and saw him sawed in half.

That wasn't any better.

"What do you want?" she asked quickly, trying to get the words out before she lost her composure. Josh raised his head a bit, and she could tell from the wobbling he was still loopy from the pain meds.

"Oh. Umm," he murmured at her impatience, clearly caught off guard from the difference between the comforting Sam from a few hours ago and now. Cold. "I just uh…" he stammered. He had just wanted to thank her for saving him tonight. More than once.

"Josh, I shouldn't be in here," she said, glancing back at the door as though someone were coming for her. Josh knew from the way she looked at him that she literally wanted to be anywhere but here with him. He didn't like the way she looked at him now.

Like he was a monster.

Like she was scared of him.

He nodded solemnly, once again knowing that Sam was a good girl - the kind that told you what you wanted to hear and kept things diplomatic and even came to your rescue…. But it didn't mean anything. He folded his lips, his nodding turning to headshaking. He raised his eyebrows and gave a reciprocative shrug.

"Then nevermind, I guess."

Sam was dismissed, and she couldn't contain her relieved sigh as she turned, practically running for the door.

"No, wait," Josh called after her and Sam froze, her shoulders stiff as she turned back towards him slowly.

"What?" It was a hiss. Both of them knew she never meant for it to be. Josh chuckled at her, and the condescending attitude of the whole situation was not sitting right with either of them. They could feel the tension gradually increasing as he eyed her up and down, reaching it's boiling point as he asked, "What the fuck is your problem?"

Of course, Josh wasn't stupid. Insane maybe, but not dumb. He knew she had a right to be mad at him, at least from a logical standpoint. He knew he'd really done a number on her tonight, but he had his reasons, whether they made sense to her or not. He had hoped that one day he'd be able to explain them to her.

"Excuse me?" Sam said, the red returning to her cheeks as she neared him. "What's my problem?"

"Yeah, Sam. What's the deal? You clearly don't want to be here. So, wh-why even bother being there for me at all? Why even bother helping me off the mountain? It's so fucking obvious that you can't even stand me-" Sam was livid now, and practically standing over him, her hands clenched into fists.

"What? Wh-who are you? Are you kidding me?" Her eyes were full of tears now, and Josh couldn't help but look away. It was hard to see her cry, even though he'd been the cause of it only hours ago.

But Sam never cried. She wasn't very emotive in all the years he'd known her and she'd proved that time and time again. She took another determined step towards him, her voice raising,

"I spent the last year being there for you, whenever you needed me! I-I listened to you and spent time with you and leant you my ear and shoulder more times than I can count!" She pointed a finger in his face, gritting her teeth through her tears as she said, "don't you dare say I didn't care about you-"

Josh clenched his jaw, swallowing down the lump that had formed in his own throat now. If he regretted what he'd just said to her, she'd never know it.

"Oh yeah? Well, you had a pretty shitty way of showing it," he grumbled almost under his breath. Sam's shoulders slumped as she stared at him, dumbfounded.

"Wait, what? I'm sorry, I'm confused. What are we talking about?" Sam asked, the acid still dripping in her words.

"You never cared about me, Sam!" Josh accused. Sam snorted, her hands on her hips now as she rolled her eyes at his melodramatic exclamation. It only made Josh's lump in his throat grow, and pretty soon he was afraid he wasn't going to be able to speak at all without losing it.

"Just because I didn't care about you the way you wanted me to, doesn't mean I didn't care," Sam nearly choked. Before she could let too much emotion give her away, she went on, angrily "A-and what does it even matter? You lied to me for an entire year! Y-you pretended we were close, meanwhile you were planning this horrible, elaborate, sick prank! You didn't let me know you at all-"

"I-I tried, Sam! Over and over and over again to get you to show even the slightest bit of interest!" He was sitting up now, flushed in the face as well. He started to wonder why he even bothered asking for her in here in the first place. He should have known those close, comforting moments before and during their time on the mountain were over, now that they were safe and Hannah was home.

"What?!" Sam practically yelled, suddenly realizing that the two of them were talking about two very different things.

"Oh, sure, it was all fun and flirty and cute when you wanted it to be but the second anything turned serious you made a run for it." Sam shook her head at him, her arms dropping to her side.

"Josh, I have no idea what you're talking about," she finally scoffed, a hand in the air to wave him off dismissively.

"We're all here for you," he mimicked her words from earlier, a sharp sarcasm in his tone. "We're all gonna get through this, together." She froze again, her eyes narrowing. "I wanted you!"

"Again, what are you talking about?" she repeated. Josh sighed, drowning in his own frustration with being unable to explain this, and then hissed in pain. His hand flew to his ribs as he reeled from the soreness in his chest. Sam practically leapt towards him, reaching her arms out towards him instinctively.

"Josh, a-are you okay?" she worried. He nodded but his face winced. She neared him, a hand softly on his good shoulder to ease him back onto his pillows. As he laid his head back down, their eyes connected like they had so many times - green to green. And the two of them knew that this was too much, too soon.

"See? You're good at pretending you care about me, huh Sammy?," he said through a strained smile, but Sam was less than amused.

Especially because he was right.

"We all care about-"

"No, Sam!" he shouted suddenly, causing Sam to jump. He'd never done that before. "No, that is exactly my point! Quit hiding behind everyone else and tell me that you care about me! Just you." He hid his face behind his hands after he said it, groaning into them and laying his head back. He hated that he had to spell this out for her, the way it made him feel so small and pathetic and no wonder she didn't like him like that... Was she really so romantically-challenged that she couldn't understand what he was telling her?

"I think coming in here was a mistake," she said quietly. He dropped his hands, defeatedly.

"Yeah, maybe it was," he sneered back at her, and Sam grew weary of his victim act quickly, especially considering everything from the night before.

"You've got some nerve, ya know that?" Sam scoffed again, shaking her head and turning away from him. "I'm not the one who spent the entire night tormenting my so-called best friends," she added callously. There. She said it. Sam needed him to remember that she wasn't the bad guy here, no matter which way he wanted to spin this.

"Ooooh, right. I forgot! I've got Saint Samantha before me, patron saint of bullshit," he spat sarcastically. Sam's eyebrows creased at his crassness, and she was once again trying to hold back tears. "You really think you're innocent in this? You really think your actions didn't push my plan right along?"

"You really are insane-"

"You make everyone believe you're so good and pure, but you're not, Sam. You're just as fucked up and broken as the rest of us. The only difference is you get away with it, hiding behind that good-girl facade. Did you really think after a year of late night conversations and flirting with me and comforting me that I wasn't going to develop feelings for you? And then you just act like you don't know what I'm talking about?"

"You never told me that!" she yelled. "What, was I just supposed to read between the lines?!"

"Excuse me!" a nurse suddenly exclaimed, stepping into the room angrily. "There are people resting in his hospital, this is not acceptable! If you can't play nice, your friend will have to leave," she added, pointing a finger at Josh. His eyes widened as he pointed at himself, his eyes darting from the nurse to Sam and back.

"Why am I getting blamed? I'm the one in the hospital bed," Josh contended, but the nurse was not having it.

"Out," she said sternly to Sam, who thankfully took this opportunity to leave as fast as she could.

"Oh, sweet little Samantha, leaving so soon! What a surprising twist!" Josh yelled after her. The nurse slammed the door behind her before Sam got a chance to hear her chastising Josh for being such a disruptive patient.

Sam finally let out the breath she'd been holding after she was safe in the hallway, but with it came an endless stream of tears. Maybe it was the exhaustion, maybe it was everything that Josh had just accused her of.

Maybe it was the fact that somehow, in some warped way, he was right about her.

To Be Continued...