Sam's heart beats hard against her chest, her breathing becoming quicker and quicker the closer the helicopter gets to the lodge. Rationally she knows that the wendigos won't be out right now, it's broad daylight, and she knows that she's safe, but that doesn't stop the panic from seeping through her veins. And judging by the fact that Chris keeps fidgeting with his glasses, it would seem she's not the only one incredibly nervous. Across from her Mike seems surprisingly fine on the surface, but her eyes don't miss the way his Adam's apple keeps bobbing up and down.
The wreckage of the lodge comes into view and Sam's heart lurches at the site of the blackened ruins. If she hadn't been there, she wouldn't think that it had ever been a lodge. According to the authorities, it took the firefighters two days to put out the blaze and another two for the area to cool down. The broken, bare bones of trees around where the large structure was and the sheer amount of wreckage agree with their statement. She still can't believe that she did all of this, that she burned that massive building to the ground. She's doesn't regret it, there really wasn't even a choice, but the amount of destruction she caused makes her wary of her own strength.
The helicopter lands and after a few stern words from the fire chief, they follow a group of officials into the wreckage. Uneasiness grips Sam's stomach and a chill works its way up her spine as she steps into the rubble. In front of her, she spots a torn and smoke stained portrait of the Washington family. Beth, Hannah, and part of Josh's mom's face are missing, leaving only the faces of Josh and his father left for her to see. She stares at it for a long moment when-
A cold hand touches her shoulder and she jumps, stifling a scream.
"Whoa, sorry," Chris quickly apologizes and Sam breathes a sigh of relief. Rationally she knows that the wendigos won't come out in broad daylight, but the paranoia that comes from being back scares her far more than she'd care to admit. "I really didn't mean to scare you. This place," his voice trails off for a long moment. "We have to be more careful around this place. It's seriously freaking me out too."
"Scared of the monsters?" Mike muses, coming over towards them. "That strange guy's book said they don't come out after dawn, right? Then we should be fine, but let's get the hell out of here before the sun sets. I don't need to experience any of that again." Sam tightens her jacket and Chris nods absently. "Okay, so how are we going to play this?"
"We need to check the basement," Sam replies. "If Josh made it out, maybe he followed the path from the mines back to that room in the old hotel we found the book in. He could've followed that back to the basement."
"And maybe those creepy fuckers did too," Mike retorts. "You see the foundation of the lodge? It's practically untouched. If those things made it into the basement, the blast probably didn't kill them and I sure as hell don't want to find out if they survived."
"If there's a chance Josh could be down there, then we need to check," Chris says adamantly. "We owe it to him to look. Yeah, he did some shitty stuff, but we left him behind in the mines with those things. If he made it out, then we have to help him."
"Look, I feel guilty about leaving him behind too. Josh was a great guy, aside from the prank, but he's been down there with those things for four days." Sam opens her mouth to say something, but Mike holds up a hand. "I know what you're going to say, Sam. One of those things was Hannah. I know, I saw the tattoo too, but did it really look like she had any recollection of life? Because to me she looked like all she wanted was flesh and she certainly didn't recognize us." Mike runs a hand through his hair, then grabs his stubble coated chin. "I know it's hard to face, but I think that we need to accept that Josh is dead. The sooner we accept it, the sooner we can move on from this nightmare."
"I'll accept it after we check the basement," Sam announces, unwavering. "If those things are down there, then we have an army of park rangers with guns looking for anything suspicious. Plus, I have this." She pulls a silver plated lighter out of her pocket and flicks the switch with her thumb, revealing a small orange flame.
"Uh," Chris begins, staring at the small flame. "I don't mean to be a downer, but I don't think that's going to do much against the wendigos."
Sam rolls her eyes. "Not this alone, silly. I assume the rangers will be shooting, and with shooting comes gun powder. If we're lucky, we might can light the place up with the combination. Let's not aim to do that, of course, we already did burn down the main building and the sanatorium," she mutters.
"What are you kids doing?" the lead detective on their case questions loudly, making his way over to them.
"Uh, hello, we were cold," Mike replies nonchalantly, taking Sam's lighter and waving it around for the detective to see. "You guys have just been standing around, so we banded together to fight the cold. We're ready to sleuth as soon as you guys are."
The detective cuts his eyes at Mike, to which the teenager replies with a charismatic smile as he hands Sam her lighter back. "Our search and rescue team have found some artifacts in the rubble, see if you can recognize anything," the detective announces, hiking up towards where the front steps used to be. The survivors step up on the foundation behind him, staring at the array of burned and broken objects laid out for them to examine.
The first thing that catches Sam's eye is the music box Josh gave Hannah for Christmas. She kneels down and brushes the ash off the top of it, then gently lifts the lid. The tune that comes out of the box is jagged, pausing in places, and the ballerina moves unsteadily, but she's surprised it works at all. If you look hard enough past all of the caked on ash, you can kind of see the engraving underneath lid. "This was Hannah's," she tells the detective, setting the box back down. "It's always been here."
"This was Josh's dad's trophy," Chris adds, picking up a golden base to what was once a trophy. "He won it for a short film he did. The basement was always full of props and things from his films." Chris glances at Sam and she tries to ignore the fact that Chris scaring her in the monk uniform was the least terrifying thing to happen that night. "I'm sorry, I can't make out what these are," he adds, lifting several torn and stained papers. "Letters, maybe? This one kind of looks like Josh's mother's handwriting."
The detective nods, then scowls at Mike, who happens to be fiddling with his phone in one hand and a burned object in the other. "And what the hell do you think you're doing? This is a crime scene, not something to post on your Instagram page."
"Shh," Mike replies hastily, hitting a button on his phone. At that moment, the burned object in his hand begins to faintly ring. "This is Josh's phone," he announces. "Didn't you say he left this in the basement, though, Sam?"
"Yeah, it was in one of the rooms down there," she replies, taking the item from his hand. She peers at it, having last seen in it the room where Josh prepared his prank as the psycho. It was full of messages from psychiatrists. "I definitely didn't move it. I left it on the table in there."
"This could be a good sign, right?" Chris questions eagerly. "If none of us moved it, maybe he did."
"It could've come up with the explosion, there were some old parts of the basement that were burned along with the house," the detective informs them, taking Josh's phone and dropping it into an evidence bag. The room Sam found it in had been pretty old, probably part of the original structure. Upon seeing her and Chris's expressions, the detective adds, "But let's not give up just yet. There's still a chance we could find your friend. We don't know for sure if the killer had him captive in the house when it exploded."
"Maybe we should check the basement then," Mike suggests slyly, glancing at Sam and Chris out of the corner of his eye. "That's where we're going to have the greatest chance of finding him if he's alive, right?"
"There are protocols in place, son," the detective replies. "The fire department hasn't determined the stability of the basement yet. If we go barging in there now, the whole place could cave in from the fire damage. Even after that, my men have to go in and search it for the killer who did all of this first before we let anyone else in there. Sorry kids."
"Josh could be alive down there," Sam argues, waving an arm towards the crumpled stairs leading to a slab of burned concrete in front of the basement door. "He could be hurt and is probably dehydrated and starving. You can't just risk leaving him down there. It's already been four days."
"If we go down there and the whole thing caves in, we'll all be trapped down there too," the detective retorts. "I'm not risking four lives to save one, not with this little information. I brought you out here for you to help us understand what happened the night the lodge burned down, not to join in a manhunt for your friend."
"How long is it going to take for the firefighters to determine if the area is safe?" Mike questions.
"I don't know. A few days, maybe. They've got to test the stability of the outside foundation and walls. Trust me, you don't want them to rush the process."
"If we help you out with all of the clues and memories of what happened, will you let us join in the manhunt when the basement is safe to enter?" Mike continues.
"Are you trying to barter with the truth of something that might've killed your friend?" the detective asks, incredulous.
"We need closure," Mike says convincingly. "Going through all of these things you've found and recounting the events over and over again aren't going to help us," he gestures to Chris and Sam, "get over or move past what happened without closure. We need to search the basement and see firsthand what's down there. We need it to heal."
The detective stares at Mike passively. "And if we find the killer down there, alive, is that really going to help you heal?"
Sam resists the urge to snort. If only the police knew who the real killer, or rather killers, were in all of this mess.
"Yes, it will. We'll be able to see for ourselves that he's brought to justice, not second guess hearing about it from some tabloid journalist on channel 54. So, do we have a deal? We help you piece together the events as best we can and you help give us some much needed closure?" Mike barters.
"I'll think about it. My men have found some more stuff over there," he points to the rubble in the not-so-far distance. "You should go help them with the identification of the items. I'll let you know what I decide later. And look, even if the basement isn't secure, the park rangers have been combing the mountain for your friend 24/7. The basement isn't our only shot of finding him."
"Thank you, detective," Chris begins, then pauses for a moment. "You should tell the firemen not to work too late into the night," he says tentatively. "When we were out here running for our lives, we ran into some pretty nasty animals that like to come out when the sun sets. Make sure the workers leave before it gets too dark out here."