Until Dawn: The Light in the Darkness

Chapter 3 of my Until Dawn story, enjoy.

So, now I can finally get to work on this story, which should be updated more frequently than Embers of Hope, as I hope to do my usual daily updates on this, although it will likely be later in the day the chapters are uploaded as I am having them beta-read by PokemonFreak90, a fellow reader who helped me with some of the details in this idea, as well as coming up with two later ideas for me to do, when I finally get to those ideas I'll be sure to let the readers know, credit where it is due after all.

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Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn or its characters.

Chapter 3

JESS POV

I smirked casually as I sat on the bench outside the upper cable car station. I could see the lodge in the distance, I couldn't believe we were all really back here, after a whole year. A lot had changed in that year; the difficult part to swallow was, a good number of those events were my fault.

I can't deny it, I have a vindictive streak a mile wide and when drinking it gets worse. That was what happened that night, the night of the prank which saw Hannah and Beth disappear.

'It was my idea, when I saw how Hannah was acting towards Mike, how pissed off Emily was. Urgh and look what it led to.' I thought to myself.

Closing my gray-blue eyes I let out a steady breath and tried to distract myself. Dwelling on the past would only bring out the bad memories, and I was sure not even Josh would want that.

He had said after all that he wanted us here to have a good time. Luckily I was distracted at that moment by the sound of the cable car coming to a stop, more people had arrived. Grinning I stood up.

"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, new people." I muttered. "Time to play meet and greet."

I casually brushed off my stone blue parka and jeans, under which I wore a simple white T-shirt, over that a purple long sleeved top; and began to make my way to the cable car stations door.

The only sound I could hear now, over the wind, was my snow boots against the wood flooring as I neared the door. I had barely reached the door when someone slammed a hand against the glass, making me jump.

"What the hell?!" I cried out.

"Hey Jess!" She heard Chris cry out.

I then spotted him, face pressed up against the glass, next to him was Sam. "Jessica, over here!"

I quirked an eyebrow at their odd behavior. "Um, are you guys having a really weird stroke or something?"

"We're stuck in this stupid thing." Sam explained, exasperated. "Can you let us out please, pretty please."

I rolled my eyes; Sam has that effect on people, it's really hard to say no to her, about anything.

Without even hesitating, I pressed the button to unlock the door and they both exited, it was then I saw a third person.

"Oh thank god, I thought we were goners." Chris announced, getting all melodramatic.

Leaving him to it I turned to the third person. "Hi Grant, sorry, didn't see you earlier."

"Cause I was the only one who didn't fancy pressing my face against the glass." He replied casually. "Nice to see ya Jess...you changed your hair?"

I almost laughed at that; casually brushing back some of my beige blonde hair.

He was right, I was wearing it in two dutch braids, whereas the last time I saw Grant, at the lodge last year, I had been wearing it in small pigtails.

"Bwip!" Chris suddenly exclaimed, deeming the sound effect appropriate for his actions.

Those actions; to steal the letter I had been holding out of my hand.

"Hey, give that back!" I cried; trying to take it from him.

Unfortunately Chris was taller than I was, which gave me no chance as he held it out of reach, reading it.

"Well, well, what have we here?" He remarked with a sly grin.

I glowered and heard Sam try to admonish him; before feeling my face heat up as Chris began speaking again.

"Looks like someone has a crush on dear friend and class president Michael Monroe." He grinned "And what sizzling erotica could Miss Jessica be capable of conjuring up, I wonder."

I growled, I seriously can't believe he just did that.

My anger was interrupted however by Grant stepping in, a grin on his face.

"Let me see." He said, holding out his hand.

I almost gasped in dismay as Chris handed him the letter for Grant to laugh and turn to me.

He casually looked over his shoulder at Chris. "Sucker."

With that he handed me the letter back and stepped back, grinning broadly.

I was a little surprised and flustered by this "Uh, thanks...anyway..."

"Jess?" Sam questioned. "What's going on, you can tell us?"

I almost groaned, but what the hell, they'll find out eventually. "Alright, if you must know; Mike and Em split up, now I'm with Mike; that's all there is too it."

Grant let out a low whistle at that. "Mike and Emily breaking up, that can't have been pretty."

"Wow, drama." Chris muttered.

I shook my head. "No it's pretty clear cut actually, Em's out, I'm in, simple."

Chris just shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, okay, let's get up to the lodge, getting tired of all this...nature and junk."

"You guys go on ahead, I'm gonna wait here." I told them; smiling to myself slightly. "See who else is coming."

Chris grinned teasingly. "You mean Mike?"

"What?" I quickly realized what I had just done and recovered however. "I mean, whoever."

With that, Chris went off to talk to Sam who had gone to admire the view. Couldn't blame her, it was pretty damn stunning.

Grant however remained where he was, looking at me strangely.

"Jess…?" He said at last. "Be serious with me, are you actually waiting for Mike here?"

I rolled my eyes and shrugged. "Well, yeah, why not, why do you…?"

He shook his head. "Jess, Mike's already here, I was down on that path, for a while...in fact, I'm pretty sure apart from Josh, I was the first one here. I saw Mike, he arrived a good...twenty minutes before you did."

I paused at that, a little surprised. "Oh, well, what about the rest of them?"

"We're the last, Ashley arrived before Mike did and, just before you showed up, I saw Matt and Emily." He explained. "They'll all be...somewhere up ahead I guess."

I don't know why, but hearing that just didn't sit right with me, it was as if something shifted.

"Well, you know Mike, he'll, show up, he'll come back to check for anyone else." I replied.

Grant just nodded and went to join Chris and Sam as they walked up the path. Sighing I sat back down and waited, for some reason feeling a little edgy. Grant didn't mean anything by his words beyond letting me know Mike had already arrived; I knew that, but for some reason, I couldn't relax now.

I sat for a while longer, thinking hard, trying to figure out what was troubling me so.

'I didn't even feel bothered, until he mentioned Matt and Emily...Wait, is that...Oh God, no.' I tried to push that thought away, I was definitely being ridiculous now. 'Wow, acting obsessively jealous much, Jessica, get a grip on yourself.'

All the same, the uneasy feeling didn't go away and finally, I made up my mind, I wasn't going to wait any longer.

If Mike was already here, I'd either run into him on my way up the path, or we'd see each other actually at the lodge. So I stood, gathering my things and began to make my way up the trail. I didn't exactly keep track of how long I'd been walking, but it couldn't have been too far, but then I heard it, what sounded like hushed voices, both voices I recognized.

'Huh, what the...what's going on…?'

Curious and a little worried, I edged closer to where I could hear them and, taking great care not to be seen, I carefully looked out. I almost gasped, horrified by what I saw, this couldn't be. I quickly pulled back, unable to believe it, an overwhelming sense of betrayal filling me; right there on that very spot.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.