Until Dawn: The Light in the Darkness

Chapter 25 of my Until Dawn story, enjoy.

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thedarkpokemaster: Yup, and now things are going to get crazier.

Now onto the story.

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

Chapter 25

MIKE POV

I sighed as I prepared to move Josh to a secure location. We had discussed things beforehand and, while Sam and Ashley waited in the lodge, Chris and I would take Josh to a shed that was nearby and secure him there. Then we would wait until morning and turn him over to the police.

'I can't believe this actually happened, this is seriously fucked up...Still, at least it's over now.' I thought, bitterly.

Just then, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned. I was startled to see Sam standing there, biting her lip.

"Sam?"

"I um, I just..." she stammered, surprisingly seeming unsure of herself.

It wasn't something that I had expected to see. The whole time that I had known her, Sam was the most confident person that I had ever met.

Still, she smiled and seemed to recover. "I just wanted to say...be careful. Now we know what Josh is capable of, and for God's sake, stay warm, alright?"

I actually felt myself smile in response. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

We were hardly going to leave Josh by himself. I had decided, while the others rested and recovered from this sick game, that I would stay and watch Josh through the night, until it was time. Which meant, of course, I'd be stuck with him, alone in the cold, even inside the shed.

I couldn't deny that I was actually touched by Sam openly displaying such care. While we were friends, I admit that we never really were that close, at least before this trip and all the crazy shit that happened. Especially Jess' death; I had never gotten the chance to try and fix things and I still felt guilty about that.

Now I wondered if Josh had sent me after Jess and Grant, just so I could see them falling victim to his scheme. For I was sure that he was behind what happened to her, him or his sidekick; that man I had seen. That wasn't the only thing infuriating me about Josh. I also recalled how I found Sam, the fact she had been stuck in only a towel, the absolute terror on her face. The fact that he could do that to her, when she had been his biggest support after what happened to Hannah and Beth, was beyond forgiveness.

Nodding once more, I reassured Sam before turning and joining Chris again as we forced Josh outside, and began heading up the path to the shed.

We began to walk, roughly escorting Josh to the shed. Ever since Josh had woken up midway through our attempt to leave the hotel, he just made things harder.

"Guys!" he yelled as I shoved himself forwards, "Guys, come on...seriously, this is crazy, you know?"

"Shut up." I replied, fed up with his nonsense already.

I then saw glowering as he stalked past me, right up to Josh.

"Why did ya hit her, man!?" he burst out, unable to contain his rage anymore. "Why'd you have to fucking hit her!?"

With that, he lost it and slugged Josh straight in the face. Josh crumpled to the ground and for once, I had to hold Chris back from inflicting further violence.

"What are you talking about?" Josh groaned as he managed to get into a sitting position, despite his bound hands.

Chris snarled. "You punched Ashley, you piece of shit!"

Josh looked down at his shoulder, where I saw that someone, presumably Ashley, had stabbed him."I got so mad..."

"You don't hit a girl, you just...don't." Chris snapped.

Josh looked up at him, clearly shocked by Chris' rage. He shook his head. "Dude...dude, Chris, bro...I-"

Chris cut him off sharply as I stepped forwards. "I'm not your bro!"

I was done wasting time and forced Josh to his feet and forced him along the path again.

"Where are we going, where are you guys taking me?" Josh demanded, sounding startled.

I glared at him and spoke darkly. "Locking you up, bro."

"What?!"

"So you can't say or do anything stupid before we call the police in the morning." I explained.

"Come ON!" Josh complained bitterly. "I didn't DO ANYTHING-"

Chris shook his head, clearly getting tired of this, just as I was. "Are you serious, bro?"

I for one didn't want to hear it. "You're a goddamned murderer is what you are."

"I didn't do it." Josh snapped before pleading. "Michael please, just listen to me, man! I did not hurt Jessica-"

Chris replied sharply, "Are you insane, like really? Do you not understand what you've done?"

"I'm a healer, man. I bring people together, not like you assholes." Josh growled in response.

Rolling my eyes, I forced Josh onwards. "That's enough."

We were now close to the shed, the same shed Josh had set up his first saw trap trick from what Chris told me. Josh continued to struggle and yell at us, while also protesting.

"You only see what you wanna see!" he burst out suddenly. "You're blind!"

"Stop talking." I replied blandly, seriously getting tired.

"You are – argh!" Josh's words were cut short when I forced him to the ground, apparently hurting his injured shoulder.

"It's not my fault you suckers can't take a joke!" Josh exclaimed.

I glared at him. "Oh, oh wait, did I hurt you? Did you just feel a little... a little bit of pain? Right now I am SO... SO... SORRY."

As I raised my voice, I put more pressure on Josh's shoulder, making him scream.

"Stop it!"

"Jesus, dude." Chris gasped.

I admit, it was a pretty dick move, but I was so pissed off with Josh right now, that I was past caring.

"Stop...Michael, I'm sorry, man...I can't tell you how sorry I am that something happened to Jessica!" Josh yelled through the pain. "But I swear, I swear to you that I have no idea what happened to her."

Chris spoke up again, sounding somewhere between anger and pity. "Josh, be honest with me, do you really expect us to trust you for a single goddamned second after all the shit you put us through?"

There was a pause, during which, I saw Josh grimace as I forced him back to his feet.

Josh grinned, slipping into crazy mode again. I had noticed that, at times he seemed lucid and himself, at others, crazed.

"Can't we all just get along?" he joked before I shoved him hard. "OW! DAMMIT!"

I made him walk, holding him at gunpoint. "We're not dicking around."

With that, I forced Josh into the shed. All the while, he was ranting.

"It's not right... nope... this is not how it's supposed to go down... You're just a bunch of bullies... You can't hang a guy out to just dry like this, guys- Not like... Not like you got the guts to really do anything about it, anyways!"

"You really, really, really need to shut up, man." Chris shot back.

Josh glared as I forced him deeper into the shed. "Oh... that's... that's... I mean, I don't even know what you mean because I don't have anything to regret."

Chris rolled his eyes while I forced Josh onto a stool near a pole and we began trying to untie his hands then retie them to the pole.

"Okay, tying me up now, okay." Josh remarked sarcastically.

"Stay still, man-" I growled.

"Right, right, right, right...still..." Josh replied before slipping into a mocking tone while wriggling." Can't tie 'em up if they just wiggle around."

Chris let out an exasperated sigh. "Josh, dude-"

"Leave me a little wiggle room, huh?"

I glowered and pulled hard on the ties. As I did so, I snarled directly in Josh's face. "What does it take to shut you up?"

"Ow!" Josh glared at me as we both stood and stepped back. "Not so tight, okay? Not so tight, okay! I can't wiggle around. Plastic ties. That's where it's at. Yeah."

"What...in God's name is he talking about?" I wondered aloud.

It became clear that Josh had slipped even further and was now talking to himself.

"Plastic ties, plastic ties. Way more effective for hostage type scenarios."

"This is hard to watch..." Chris admitted.

I nodded. "He ever say this kind of shit before?"

Josh, meanwhile, was still rambling. "Guaranteed for at least three hostages, or your money back!"

Chris sighed and again admitted, "No, I've never seen him like this..."

"Everybody is stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid..." Josh mumbled, before becoming coherent again and grinning wickedly. "Chris and Ash, Chris is an ass, Ashley's a dumb dumb..."

Hearing that, Chris rounded on him. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Josh giggled and replied, "I said you're a dummy, dummy."

Exasperated again, Chris shook his head. "What's wrong with you?"

Josh then began mocking Chris. "Ohh...Ashley...I never imagined in my wildest dreams that you'd like me…!"

Chris shook his head. "Stop..."

I couldn't believe it. After all of this, Josh thought it was a good idea to antagonize us?

"You know what that sound is?" Josh asked in a high-pitched tone, before becoming aggressive. "It's the sound of never kissing Ashley, you pussy."

"Stop!" Chris demanded. This was going too far.

But Josh simply kept on pushing buttons. He looked from Chris to me, leeringly, his thoughts obvious as he spoke.

"Yeah, you know? You might as well let Ashley sleep with Mike. I mean, at least he's got some notches on his belt, you know?" He emphasized the next four words with vulgar pelvic thrusts. "He'll treat her right! You're fucking pathetic, Christopher!"

That, it seemed, was the breaking point for Chris. He grabbed a nearby wooden board, raising it.

"I'm gonna beat his head off-" he growled.

I held him back, however. "Don't listen to him, he's not worth it."

I couldn't deny that his comments stung, but I wasn't about to just let Josh get the reaction he wanted. That was, until he tried to antagonize me instead.

"Hey, Mike." he began sniggering as he repeated my name several times.

"What?" I replied at last, ensuring my anger was clear.

Josh looked somewhere between crazed and serious. "What happened with Jess, Mike?"

I narrowed my eyes at that. "You know what happened."

No... No... I don't... I got a problem, Mike..." Josh replied. "I don't remember killing Jess..."

I rolled my eyes, muttering as I turned away,

"I mean, like, I feel like I would remember killing her, you know?" he explained before leering again and adopting a suggestive tone. "She's so soft... and she's probably got like a really tight bod…"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" I snapped, aiming at Josh with the gun.

I couldn't believe he was doing this, that he would speak about her like that, after everything. I didn't fire the gun, however. I wasn't about to just shoot a man in cold blood, no matter what he had done.

"Ugh..." Josh groaned before yelling. "You guys are the worst!"

"What?"

He shook his head. "Oh, come ON! You expect me to believe you're gonna shoot me? Just little old me? Just little old me tied up here, and helpless?"

I sighed and shook my head, turning back to Chris. "Why don't you go back to the lodge and make sure everyone's alright. I'll stay here with this lunatic until morning."

Josh grinned and replied jokingly, sounding childish. "Oooh! Sleepover! C-can we order pizza?"

"You sure you're okay?" Chris asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, just...They'll want to know that everything's fine back here."

"You're right." Chris replied. "See you in the morning."

So with that, I made myself comfortable, sitting down nearby. Chris dropped the wooden board and left, heading back to the lodge to tell Ashley and Sam that Josh was now secured. Josh grinned again, but I shot him a warning glare. If he kept up with this nonsense, one of us was going to end this night out cold and it sure as hell wasn't going to be me.

I wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed, but thankfully, Josh had heeded my warning. However, the stillness was interrupted by an ungodly shriek. A shrill, echoing scream that sounded really close by. I stood up.

"Oh, crap." I muttered, exasperated. "What now?"

I thought that things were over, but it looked like that wasn't the case. I immediately took off back to the lodge, determined to get to the bottom of this.

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