Until Dawn: The Light in the Darkness

Chapter 12 of my Until Dawn story, enjoy.

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

Chapter 12

CHRIS POV

I grinned as Josh, Ashley, and I sat together. We had pulled three wooden chairs over to a small table in one corner of the room, set up the spirit board and were now gathered around it.

I grinned as I began to inform the others, deciding to take some 'liberties' with the instructions. "So it says here: 'To communicate with the spirit world, you must free your mind of all preconceptions, drop all inhibitions, and generally give yourself over entirely to the will of others, sublimating your every desire to the whims of the Spirit-master,' which is me-"

"It doesn't say that." Ashley scoffed, rolling her eyes.

I laughed shortly before jokingly adding, "And all present will remove their garments at my sole discretion."

Josh groaned. "Chris, come on, this is serious."

"Oh, I'm deadly serious."

Finally, Ashley shook her head. "Oh shush it, let's try this."

"Yes, please." Josh added.

I shrugged and decided to play along, they were taking this nonsense far too seriously. All three of us placed our hands on the board.

"Okay, then." I remarked. "Let's see what happens. Ashley, since you're a recent convert, why don't you be our medium for today?"

Biting her lip, Ashley nodded as we all touched the pointer. "Okay, um...Anyone there? Will you reveal yourself to us...if you're there?"

There was a lengthy pause where nothing happened. I was about to make a comment when, to our shock, the pointer began moving, guiding our hands. It was startling and we cried out in surprise and consternation.

"Wait a minute..." I gasped.

Josh practically choked his words out. "Did you do that?"

Ashley shook her head. "I didn't do anything!"

"It's moving again." I noted.

The pointer was indeed moving again, this time spelling out a word, starting with H. We continued talking over each other.

"What's it spelling?" Josh cried out.

"Hold on." Ashley whispered worriedly.

"How is this happening?"

I admit, I was still skeptical. "Are you moving it?"

Ashley shook her head vehemently. "I swear, it's just moving."

There was a pause as it finished spelling the word.

"Holy shit..." Josh whispered in disbelief.

Ashley repeated the word, utterly taken aback. "'Help?'"

I shook my head; feeling a little exasperated. "How are we supposed to help?"

"I don't know." Ashley retorted. "What does it mean?"

I thought for a moment, before realizing and pointing out, "We need to know who it is if we're supposed to help them."

Ashley nodded and asked, "Who are you...? Oh, here it goes."

The pointer began moving again. We read out the word it spelled aloud, Josh reacting first, followed by Ashley, and then me, before the cycle repeated.

"Okay, 'S'."

"I"

"S"

"T"

"E"

"R"

"Sister..." Ashley said breathlessly. "Sister?"

"Whose sister?" Josh asked, suspicion creeping into his voice.

Ashley and I shared a look, both of us were clearly thinking the same thing.

I, however, was still a skeptic. This was just too coincidental and ridiculous. "Oh come on, is this real?"

"Shut up." Josh snarled before insisting. "Ask it whose sister."

Ashley shifted uneasily. Finally, however, she voiced her thoughts.

"Josh, it's...it's gotta be..." She couldn't finish, but she didn't need to.

Josh realized, but was still intense as he shot back. "Yeah? Okay, well, which sister is it, then?"

I nodded slowly, figuring that we had to keep playing along, for Josh's sake. "Ashley, ask who it is."

Ashley shuddered, suddenly more afraid than ever. She considered for a moment, before finally simply choosing at random.

"Who are we speaking to…? Beth…? Is that you?"

The pointer suddenly moved to 'Yes' on the board.

"Oh, God." Ashley whimpered, freaked out.

I was even more edgy now, but still maintained a healthy dose of skepticism. "This is messed up."

Worried, Ashley immediately turned to Josh. "Josh, are you…?"

"I'm fine." he insisted.

"Are you sure? Because we can stop-" Ashley began to reply.

"No."

"Dude." I said softly, worried about how worked up Josh was getting. "It's cool..."

"I want to hear what it says." Josh explained, looking suddenly rather manic.

Ashley shook her head. "I don't know where to start."

We fell into a short silence, thinking. Finally, I spoke up, realizing a possible chance, if this was real, that is.

"Think about it." I said quietly. "If this is actually Beth, I mean, we can find out what happened that night."

"Oh...kay..." Ashley whispered nervously. "Let me think…"

Finally, Ashley spoke again, voicing her question. "Beth...We want to know what happened to you that night. Can you tell us?"

The pointer began moving again.

Ashley spoke quickly, trying to keep up. "H-A-N-N..."

"It's spelling Hannah." I piped up.

But then Ashley realized. "Wait, it's still going."

"K-I-" I read.

Ashley continued. "L-L...Oh my god..."

The word finished, adding in 'E' and 'D'.

"Killed?" Josh exhaled. "Guys, guys what's she talking about?"

Ashley shook her head, sounding as if she was borderline to a breakdown. "I don't know if I can keep doing this..."

"We have to." Josh insisted.

There was an edgy silence. Finally, I made up my mind. If it would help, we would keep going. We just had to keep a level head.

I spoke reassuringly to Ashley. "Just, just stay calm...I think it's saying that someone killed Hannah..."

"I don't know..." Ashley said shakily.

"I just..." I bit my lip. "Ask it something else!"

Ashley nodded, trying to regain her composure. "Okay, okay...How was Hannah killed?"

The pointer moved again, as Ashley read out, beginning to spell the word. "L-I-B-"

I immediately caught on. "Library, maybe there's something in the library here..."

"P-R-O-O..." Ashley read out.

I again realized what was going on. "Proof, there's, there's…there's proof."

"In the library?" Ashley queried in disbelief.

Suddenly, the spirit board shook and flipped the pointer clean off the table, making all three of us jump back.

"Watch out!" Josh cried out.

We also cried out. The lengthy silence was broken by Josh, shakily getting to his feet.

"You know what, no. This is bullshit." He was almost growling. "This isn't real..."

"Josh, I don't know what's going on." Ashley insisted.

Josh glared. "Listen, I don't know... I don't know if you think messing with me is somehow going to help me with my grief or whatever, but this is not cool."

He began to storm away.

"Josh, no!" Ashley tried to explain, pointing out, "You wanted to use the spirit board!"

"Hey, calm down, it's not Ash's fault!" I tried to defend her.

Josh merely snarled at them. "I don't need this right now, okay?! You guys are full of it!"

With that, he stalked away, heading down into the basement.

Standing awkwardly, clearly feeling guilty, Ashley turned to me. "Sh-should we go after him?" she asked hesitantly.

I shook my head, familiar with Josh's moods and other issues. "Ah man, I mean...He'll be okay, let's...let's just give him some time."

I knew that he needed some space, some time to calm down. Once he had that, it would be easier to talk to him and sort this out.

All the same, Ashley was still freaked out. "I don't blame him...That was crazy, the pointer flew right off the table."

"I mean, if..." I began, unsure how to word what I was saying. "If you were faking it, you were doing one hell of a job-"

"I wasn't faking anything." Ashley insisted. "I think we should do what it says. We should look in the library."

I nodded in agreement and we prepared to do just that.

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