Until Dawn: The Light in the Darkness

Chapter 6 of my Until Dawn story, enjoy.

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Now onto the story.

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

Chapter 6

MIKE POV

I grinned as Jess and I got closer to the lodge.

"Well, here we go, nearly there." I remarked cheerfully.

Jess nodded. "Yeah."

I paused, a little confused. Something wasn't right here. Jess had been acting strangely since I met her on the path on the way up to the lodge. She had been very quiet and did not respond to any of my efforts, acting rather distant and cool.

"Jess." I queried, making her stop and turn. "What's going on? You've been...kinda quiet, it's not like you."

She shook her head. "It's nothing."

"Nothing?"

She sighed. "Just forget it, let's just…hurry. The others will be waiting."

A little surprised by her abruptness, I nodded in agreement and we continued onwards. I couldn't deny, this was starting to confuse and worry me greatly, but I couldn't see what was wrong with her.

'Seriously, this is not like Jess at all. She's normally so bubbly and happy...' I thought, worriedly. 'I've never seen her upset like this before...'

Preoccupied and more than a little concerned about Jess, I did my best to remain calm and when we arrived, I smiled widely.

I turned to Jess and spoke to her.

"Well, let's go. Time to make our entrance."

She nodded and shrugged. "Alright, let's go."

We entered and I grinned, calling out as I entered.

"What up, party people?"

The others all returned with various greetings, Josh nodded.

"Hey man, c'mon in, make yourself at home."

Nodding, I replied, "Will do."

"Yeah, c'mon in, take a load, do what you want." Matt suddenly replied, actually glaring. "You just take what you want, anyway?"

Almost immediately, I could feel the tension filling the room. I looked around, nobody was saying anything. Jess seemed on edge, but didn't say anything else.

"Whoa..." I responded, incredulous. "Take it easy, cowboy."

Glaring, Matt cut right to the heart of the matter. "What the hell were you doing with Em out on the trail, huh?"

"What?"

"I saw you and Em through the telescope." he explained.

I raised an eyebrow at this and replied casually. "Before? We just ran into each other. It'd been a while so we hugged and I said hello. Is that against the law?"

Matt narrowed his eyes. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. But then, suddenly, things took an unexpected turn.

Before either of us could say anything, Jess suddenly spoke, rather sharply, too.

"Oh please, you expect us to fall for that?" she suddenly snapped. "I saw you with her too, Mike! What the fuck do you think…!"

"Whoa, Jess, listen a minute..." I replied worriedly.

Now it made sense; the reason why she had been so cold since I ran into her. She had seen Emily and I at that point. But how? I never imagined that she would actually...

A sudden feeling of dread overcame me, as if I just knew that something had gone horribly wrong.

She shook her head. "No, you listen to me. Do you think we're blind or stupid? How could you do this?! I thought, I thought you..."

She was still clearly furious, even though from here, tears were visible in her eyes.

I grimaced. 'Shit, this is so not what I wanted to happen, or thought would happen.'

Looking around, none of the others showed any signs of doing anything, all suddenly looking awkward. I could hardly blame them.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Jess snapped. "Well, how can you possibly explain this? What you did; that lame excuse isn't going to work and we all know it!"

"Jess..."

I had never seen her like this before, ever. It was actually kinda scary. Even Matt seemed to have, temporarily at least, let go of his initial anger, stepping back in shock.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. For at that moment, Emily entered the lodge.

"What the hell is going on here? I could hear you all halfway down the trail." she queried as she came in.

She stopped, however, when she saw the obvious signs of a confrontation. Jess reacted suddenly to her presence.

"Oh no, Jess..." I warned, but she took no heed.

"Bitch!" she screamed, before slapping Emily across the face.

There were gasps from the others and I quickly moved to try and pull Jess back before things got out of hand.

But Jess lashed out at my attempt to touch her. "Get your filthy hands off me!"

Emily recovered from the slap and glared at Jess. "What the fuck do you think you…!?"

Jess rounded on her. "Oh, like you didn't deserve that, skank! What's wrong? Matt not good enough for you so you have to go and try and get with Mike...again!?"

"I don't know what you…"

"I saw you, fucking whore! I saw both of you together out there! You couldn't keep your hands off each other!" Jess growled.

Emily actually froze at that, as she probably realized the same thing I did. We had been caught in the act.

Matt shook his head at Jess, practically dragging himself back into the argument. "I saw them, too. Listen, I'm not any happier about this, Jess, but..."

"Save it, Matt. Save it for somehow who cares."

"Please, tell me that it isn't true. I mean, you two didn't really..." Jess trailed off.

I couldn't lie to Jess, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything, either. So I just kept quiet and so did Emily.

I shook my head. This was going to get even more crazy if someone didn't do something soon.

I knew that I had to step in, since nobody else was.

"Hey, c'mon, please. Let's not..." I began, trying to get between them.

But Jess just shook her head. "Fuck you, Mike. I can't believe you would betray me like that! So you two don't deny it? Well, you can have each other! We are through, Mike!"

With that, she turned and, before any of us could say anything, stormed out. Judging from the sound of the door slamming shut, she was actually leaving the lodge altogether. There was a stony silence, finally broken by Grant's sarcastic applause.

"Grant..." I snarled, turning to him.

He shook his head. "Really great job, stud. Well handled...Or maybe not."

"This isn't the time for this!" I snapped.

"Of course it isn't." Grant replied with a shrug. "It never is the time to discuss your shortcomings. But whatever."

With that, he turned and left, much to my surprise. Hearing the door confirmed that he had, in fact, left the lodge, too. But that did nothing to dispel the tension. Emily was clearly seething, Matt still glared at me and I couldn't deny that I was worked up now, too.

But all of that faded when Josh spoke, clearly furious. "Are we all quite done now?"

"Josh..." I began.

"I don't wanna hear it. I think all three of you need a time out, so on you go. Find a room on your own." he snapped. "Don't bother coming back until you've sorted out the mess you've made and are ready to apologize properly."

"Apologize?" Emily scoffed. "Excuse me, didn't you see what that bitch did..."

Josh cut her off, getting right up in her face. "Or you can leave now...go home...and never come back."

That shut her up, especially when nobody else argued at what was, essentially, Josh threatening Emily with being kicked out of the group completely.

Muttering to herself, she left, as did Matt shortly afterwards. Looking around, I found nobody looking my way. With a heavy sigh, I too left and sought refuge elsewhere.

'What a mess. How did it come to this?' I wondered.

But deep down, I already knew the answer. I had stupidly decided to keep seeing Emily while dating Jess and my selfishness had cost me the girl that I really did care for.

One thing was for sure; this was not what we had hoped for when we first came here. None of us had expected or wanted this.

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