Chapter Five: Security

"It's about time we had a day off! I swear this class is going to kill me."

Ashley noticed Chris roll his eyes at her exaggeration. She was both aware General Psych was not going to be the actual death of them, but the course itself was a pain in the ass. "Come on, Ash. It's not that bad."

"I never said it was. It's just hard for me to get motivated for a class I'm not interested in."

Chris shrugged. "I would've thought you'd be into it. I mean, psychology would help you understand the characters for your stories better, wouldn't it?"

Of course the class would help in that regard, but it still didn't change the fact the class made her uncomfortable. With all the psychologists and psychiatrists running around, studying her every movement, acting like they cared in therapy, trying to dissect her every thought, trying to explain where this "idea" of a wendigo came from... there was a bad taste in her mouth at the thought. She shook her head and she and Chris walked to her car, a red Nissan Rogue, trying to change the subject to something she was more comfortable with. "Do you want to do something tonight?"

"It's Tuesday, Ash. What could you possibly have in mind?" Chris was rolling his eyes, trying to think of something elaborate, but Ashley noticed the smile on his face. He did want to hang out. He never said no.

"Why don't we bake a cake?" She pressed the button to start her car and looked at the back-up cam as she pulled out of the parking spot. The silver toyota was parked a little to close to her for her liking.

"A cake?" Chris was laughing. Ashley knew about Chris' dismal cooking and baking skills, though. There was a part of her that just wanted see how much flour he got covered in. She wanted to show him she was getting better. She wasn't just going to throw up. She would keep the food down.

"Don't laugh! Why shouldn't we bake one? We can run to the store on our way back and pick up some, like, coconut and pecans and cream cheese and make an Italian Cream Cake, or something." That was one of her favorite types of cake, and she knew Chris wouldn't say no to Italian Cream. There was another reason for her wanting to have cake. She wanted to have something to celebrate. It was a year ago when their lives changed forever. She didn't want to think about what that meant. She just wanted to keep herself distracted as long as possible.

"Fine then. We'll make cake."

The trip to the store took about half an hour, when it really should have only taken ten minutes or less. Chris kept getting distracted by the cell phone models that were on display ("Who in their right mind would call that a smartphone?") and Ashley kept getting distracted by the pet section ("I should totally get a dog next semester! What do you think, Chris?"). Once they got back to the house, everyone was back from class. Emily was giving could shoulders to everyone and was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to focus on her textbook. Matt and Mike were sitting on the couch, playing Call of Duty far too seriously -Chris looked at this vaguely jealous- and Sam and Jessica were working on a speech that Sam needed to present for her Environmental Studies class. If anyone hadn't known better, it probably would have looked like a normal group of roommates who hadn't had a terribly scarring past.

As Ashley showed Chris what to do with the different ingredients for the cake, a sweet smell started to fill the air. Ashley started to cough. Then everyone started to cough. Ashley could sense the corners of her vision going fuzzy, getting darker and darker. She couldn't keep standing. She collapsed to the floor, not even noticing cake batter from the mixing spoon she had in her hands had gone all over the place. She saw Chris fall to the ground, too. She reached out a hand for him but she couldn't reach. She tried to reach but her vision kept getting darker and darker-

She woke up, her hands cold. This wasn't unusual. Ashley was always cold. She sometimes had to sleep with long pants and fuzzy socks on because of how cold she got when she slept. This was different, though. She was wearing clothes from yesterday. She was able to be comfortable in her clothes, but she didn't go to sleep in jeans and long sleeved shirts, and she most definitely did not sleep in her shoes. Where she woke up was dark. She could barely see in front of her. She stood up and patted her pockets, looking for her phone to find a light source. No luck. She walked forward, hands towards the wall, trying to find a light switch. She wasn't paying attention to the ground and fell, face first, tripping over a large lump. "Oww..." she sat up and rubbed her cheekbone, which took a large amount of the impact. At the same time she heard someone let out a startled scream.

"Wah!" The lump Ashley was on was moving around frantically, trying to get their bearings. A second later a lighter was lit and a face was illuminated in the darkness. "Ashley?"

"Mike?"Ashley was confused. Where did Mike come from? It didn't matter. They were here. Mike got to his feet and helped Ashley get to hers.

"Where the hell are we?" Ashley could hear the nervousness in his voice, though he was trying to disguise it.

"I have no idea," she responded, attempting to show as little of her fear as possible. She wasn't very successful, as her voice came out shaky.

With the light from the lighter helping, it didn't take long for Ashley and Mike to find the light switch. When she saw where she was, she stifled a scream. It was the living area of the Washington lodge, but different. It felt new, somehow. Ashley looked at Mike, and noticed he was just as shocked as she was. "Why the hell are we back here?" Mike's voice was a harsh whisper, one that encompassed terror. "How the hell are we back here?"

Ashley felt herself shaking her head back and forth. "No. No, no, no, no," she looked around the room, trying to make sense of the situation. It didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. She did the only thing she could think of to do, call out for help. "Chris? Chris are you here?" She was getting more and more frantic by the second. There was no sign of Chris.

Ashley vaguely heard Mike shushing her, but she ignored it, until he came over and put his hand over her mouth. "Come on, Ashley. We can't be loud. The wendigos..."

Ashley nodded, feeling the tears spark in her eyes. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Mike, how is this possible?"

She saw something flash in Mike's eyes. It was obvious he was suspicious, but nothing definite was coming to him. Ashley decided to avoid questioning him until he was more certain. Instead, she chose to let a few tears drop before regaining her composure. She was scared was the understatement of the century. She was terrified. She felt her knees starting to give out. She was shaking uncontrollably, to the point that Mike had to come over and support her. "Come on, Ash. We'll be okay."

Ashley looked at Mike and shook her head. "How can you be sure of that? We're back here! This is basically our own circle of hell? And where is Chris? Where are the others?"

Ashley saw Mike sigh. She wanted to calm down, think all of this through logically, but couldn't manage to do so. She was terrified of being here. "We have to make sure this place is real. Maybe we're on at a simulation, or something. It's possible we're not at Blackwood at all."

Ashley nodded. "Alright." She followed Mike as he made his way towards the door. "Should we look for the others?"

Mike shook his head. "We need to figure out if this place is real or not, first. It's possible we're the only ones here."

This didn't settle well with Ashley, but she knew she didn't have any other choices but to go with Mike. She was at least glad she had her boots and jacket with her. Mike was wearing a t-shirt and sneakers. When she took her first step outside and into the snow, she let out an involuntary shiver, not just from the cold, but from the nerves as well. "So, what are we going to do? Like, where are we going?"

Mike looked around, trying to come up with a plan of action. "Let's go check out the cable car. If no one is there, we'll go back to the estate and bunker in the basement. I really don't want to be out here when it gets dark."

Ashley nodded. "Okay." It was a plan, at least. "Let's go."

I'm going to leave the poll from last week up on my profile. Please go place your votes! These are what I use to figure out what you all, the readers, want to see the most.

Please leave a review as well, if you could! These are what I use to know what you all, the readers, want to see about my writing, as well as what you would all like to see change.