CHAPTER TWO
"Oh, my God!"
Clara watched with great satisfaction as Mike stumbled back in pain, clutching his bleeding nose. Sam was by his side, trying to make sure that he was alright.
"Why did you do that?!" The blonde was completely shocked.
"He left us for dead!" Josh exclaimed. "You all did!"
"We didn't' know, Josh!" Sam exclaimed. "We… We all thought they'd gotten you two. We wouldn't have left you, you know that, Josh."
"Oh, do I?" he retorted. "Did he tell you how I met up with him after getting out of the cave? I told him that Clara and I were coming. I told that mother fuckin' bastard!"
Sam looked alarm, almost accusingly at Mike who was still quietly cursing at the pain. "Is he telling the truth? Mike, did you see Josh?"
The dark-haired man stared at her for a moment before averting his eyes. "Yea, but that was before we blew up the lodge! I thought they were dead with how many of those things coming in."
"So you couldn't just wait ten minutes in the comfort of the helicopter? You couldn't even tell the others to rescue us? Or perhaps just look for us?" Clara hissed.
"How the Hell am I supposed to know if you two fucking lunatics weren't going to try to kill the people who were finally going to get us out of that Hell hole?!" Mike spat back, giving Josh a push. "D'you know how much fucking therapy we had to go through?"
"Welcome to our life," Clara deadpanned. She placed a hand on Josh's arm when she noticed how he was about to take another hit on Mike. Sam seemed to be doing the same with her friend.
"We should talk about this. Are you guys free tomorrow?" Sam asked, looking hopefully at the other two. "There's a café – "
"I'm not talking to either of you, motherfuckers," Josh growled before wrenching himself away from Clara's hand and storming off.
Sam looked sadly at his retreating form. She, then, turned to the redhead who was about to follow. "Please, I don't want to lose a friend," she begged.
Clara shot her a dry look. "I think it's a bit too late for that, don't you? The two of you actually seemed to be doing pretty well before you found out you haven't lost us as much as you though." She leaned in a little closer, her eyes glinting dangerously. With a low voice, she added, "I'll kill you if you hurt him." And she was going to make good of that promise.
With a turn of her heels, she was gone, leaving two baffled and slightly frightened people behind.
It had always been a suspicion of hers that Mike wouldn't tell anyone that they were still alive. As much as Sam irked her, it was for a completely different reason. T he blonde had a crush on Josh and although she was hurt by the prank, she seemed to have more integrity than that. Sam was someone Clara would read in a novel – a perfect character with perfect traits. At least, that's what she thought at the lodge. It was one of those things that she had been so jealous of. Except now, there was a haunted look in those pale green eyes.
Clara could see that the happiness she used to portray no long reflect in Sam's eye, but Clara still envied her. She had so many years of living a carefree life. Even Mike didn't have the tumultuous childhood that she had to live through, yet he was complaining about therapy sessions?
When she found Josh, he was kicking around some bins in an alley. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Let's not think about them anymore," she whispered.
"They just make me so mad!" he growled, but he had ceased his actions. "Fuck!"
She ran a hand down his arm and placed a kiss on his neck. "Let's go home. You mentioned something about dessert?"
No one was going to hurt them, again. EVER.
…
Clara sighed happily. The day's event had nearly disappeared from her mind – nearly, but it was a start. No medication worked as well as a night with Josh.
She left a trail of kisses on his chest before murmuring, "I love you."
He kissed her head. "I love you, too."
That night, Clara dreamt of being back in the lodge. There was snow everywhere, even inside the, once, cozy, wooden cabin.
"J-Josh?" she called out, shivering violently as the cold seem to pierce through her skin and straight to her bones. "Josh, where are you?"
There was no reply.
There was no one there.
She found the wall and groped blindly for something – anything. "Josh?!"
As she continued to make her way forward, the wooden walls became rough and jagged. The floor was uneven with long cracks. The snow made room for darkness.
It was so, so dark.
Screeeeeeech!
Her heart raced. No! She had escaped! She couldn't be here, again!
She abandoned the wall and ran haphazardly down the tunnel. She had to get out of here. She had to!
Screeeeeeech!
The cries drew closer and closer no matter how fast she ran. Tears streamed down her face. She was never going to see him, again. She was going to die alone and afraid in a fucking mine shaft where no one was ever going to find her decomposing body.
Screeeeeech!
She chanced a quick glance behind her, but the blanket of darkness was too thick for her to see anything. She turned back around and willed her legs to go faster.
Screeeeeech!
She let out a horrified scream as the creature jumped down in front of her. Wispy red hair was still attached to the thing's balding head.
It snarled at her before wrapping its long, bony fingers around her head. The last thing she saw were two milky eyes.
Josh was jolted awake by her terrified scream. For a split second, he thought one of those things had found them
Finding his girlfriend screaming as if she was possessed may have been even worse. She was thrashing violently. Her fingers found its way across his cheek, leaving a blood trail behind.
"Clara! Clara, wake up!"
When her eyes snapped open, her scream continued to pierce through the room. It was as if she was still trapped in the nightmare.
"Clara! Come on, you're scaring me!" He'd never seen her like this before. Sure, she'd often have nightmares, but it had never been this bad.
Slowly, her eyes began to gain focus. "Jo – " She never got to finish before she tipped her head over the side of the bed and lost her last meal on the floor.
When she was done, she felt as if she was dying inside.
Josh looked worriedly at her. "Hey, maybe you should go see the doctor. You haven't been looking okay since we came back…"
She began to shake her head, but stopped when the motion only made her feel worse. "I'm okay, Josh!" Seeing his hurt expression, she gave him a peck on the cheek. "They're only nightmares from when we were… there. It's just hard to forget something like that."
Josh wasn't sure what to do to help her. He knew that those creatures would haunt him too, sometimes, but what was happening to her was actually terrifying. Deep inside, he wondered if she could possibly be… changing. The thought made his heart sink. It would be his fault if anything happened to her. Why did he ever think that it was a good idea to pull that prank on them? It was what got his sisters killed in the first place. Not only that, Clara hadn't even been there that year.
"Josh, hold me?" she whispered when she noticed his troubled expression being illuminated by the soft moon glow.
His arms were immediately around her in a warm, comforting embrace.
She sighed before falling back into a fitful sleep.
Ring. Ring.
She groaned
Ring. Ring.
"Hello…?" Josh's groggy voice reached her ears as he picked up the phone. "Who is this…?"
Clara cuddled up closer to him until she was tucked underneath his chin. As she was relaxing against him, she suddenly felt his body stiffen.
"Why the fuck are you calling me?"
She looked up at his enraged face.
"DO you think it'd be alright?" he growled. "You left Clara and me up there for twenty-three fuckin' days!"
"I didn't know!" came a familiar voice on the other end.
"Yeah? You never wondered where your best friend went? Did your little bitch already make you forget me?" He had never felt as upset or betrayed by someone.
"Hey, don't talk about Ashley like that!"
Clara sidled up and whispered comforting words into his other ear.
"Then maybe you shouldn't have fuckin' called me!" with that, he hung up and resisted the urge to throw his phone across the room.
Even with Mike, he hadn't been as angry. Josh had always known that the playboy was a selfish bastard, but he had known Chris for a while now. They were best buddies… or so he thought. Whatever happened to bros before hoes? This teaches him to try to set them up together.
He clenched his jaw and tried to keep himself from exploding in front of his girlfriend. The soft strokes of her fingers through his hair was definitely helping him. He looked down at her worried frown and wondered how he got so lucky.
Sure, she tried to kill him once, but he had been a bit of a douche bag to her and he knew his father had stepped on many toes in his lifetime. He also knew what it was like to lose control of himself. It wasn't as simple as someone telling you to stop and everything would be okay. T he sheer force of the compulsion would literally take over the entire mind.
"Chris is a good guy," she murmured. "You should go talk to him."
"Not after what he did to us," he huffed.
"Josh…" Her tone made him grimace. 'I haven't known him as long as you have, but he doesn't seem like the type of person to leave you to die."
"No? He didn't have any trouble leaving me in the shack."
She flinched. She, too, had done just that. She even tried to directly kill him, but here they were – completely vulnerable and not even a drop of blood was shed… usually. "Please, Josh. Talk to him. I want you to go out more and start enjoying life, again."
"Don't think I've really done that for a while now." At her glare, he sighed. "Fine, but you're coming with me."
…
Josh was bouncing his right leg as they sat, waiting in the quiet café. The scent of rich coffee was enough to fuel his adrenaline. If it hadn't been for Clara's insistence, he'd be happy never having to face them, again. Alright, that wasn't exactly true. He did kind of miss spending time with his partner in crime. They were the dynamic duo at school. It was like missing an arm without his pal.
A warm hand touched his knee. Clara was smiling softly at him. "It's going to be okay."
Before he could reply, a tall blond man walked in with a reluctant brunette behind him. They stood awkwardly in front of the table.
"H-hey, buddy," Chris gulped. To be honest, he had been absolutely devastated when Josh wasn't with them on the helicopter. Even Sam was protesting, but Mike had told them what happened. Josh and Clara were taken while they were trying to escape the mine. With the risk of another Wendigo prowling the mountain and finding them, they couldn't send out a search team.
With a heavy heart, he watched as the helicopter ascended. Just a minute in the air, he thought he heard something, but when he looked back, there were only trees and the dark, billowing smoke.
Now, he knew that he had left his best friend to die on the mountains. It only made him feel worse. What kind of friend was he?
"I'm really sorry, man," he apologised when Josh continued to avoid his gaze.
Ashley clenched her hand tightly around Chris. She hadn't wanted them to come here, but Chris was too much of a good guy, sometimes. He had gotten a call from Sam and then decided to do something stupid like this.
"What do I have to do to prove myself to you?"
When Josh continued to ignore him, Ashley had had enough. "Why are you even acting like such an asshole?" she hissed. "If you hadn't wanted to play that stupid prank on us, none of that would've even happened! We wouldn't have to go to all through all that stupid shit!"
Clara narrowed her eyes and stood up. "If you hadn't played a stupid prank, two innocent young women wouldn't be dead. His sisters! I would've been a little more vindictive than just try to push you to get together with the man you have a crush on!"
"Well, you're a psycho bitch!"
Josh had also stood up at this point. This had all been a terrible idea.
"Alright, girls," Chris tried to defuse the argument. He could feel burning stares from the other patrons. The manager seemed to be walking towards them. "Let's take this elsewhere before we get kicked out."
Josh threw a few dollars on to the table, grabbed Clara's hand, and stormed away. Chris shouldn't have brought Ashley. Although she seemed to be a sweet girl, there were instances where he questioned her integrity. She hadn't seem that remorseful after his sisters went missing. There was even a time when her only defense was that Jessica was the one at fault and all she did was watch. What a two-faced lying bitch!
"Josh – ! Josh, I'm sorry," Clara apologised. "I didn't mean to get into a fight with her, but what she said just made me so angry." She hadn't wanted any of this to happen.
He abruptly stopped, causing her to bump into him. "It's not your fault," he mumbled. "I'm not angry with you. I'm angry at her for causing a rift between me and Chris."
Clara laid her forehead on his back. "I shouldn't have forced you to do this."
They strolled into a park and sat down on the bench where the breeze tried to sweep away the lingering frustration. She rest her head on his shoulder. "Josh, I love you."
His heart skipped a beat. It was rare for her to say it first. "'Love you, too." But lately, it's been more often. He kissed the crown of her head. If no one else, at least he had her.
"Josh! Josh!"
They both looked up to see Chris jogging over. Beads of sweat rolled down the side of his face. Missing was the brunette by his side. "Hey, man. I'm really sorry," he huffed in front of them. "I thought Ash would be with me on this. I don't blame you for what happened. No one could've known about the Wendigo. I understand if you feel like it's their fault and I'm not saying they had nothing to do about it…" He trailed off once he noticed that he was rambling. "I mean… I want my friend back."
Josh let out a deep breath. "I want to be friends, too, man." A small smile was on his uncertain face. He really missed him.
Clara watched the two awkwardly stare at each other. "Go, hug it out."
Normally, she was sure that there would be protests, but not today.
…
They laid in bed, comfortable snuggled against each other. "I'm glad the two of you are friends, again. Out of all of them, I probably like him best."
"Should I be worried?" He shot her a teasing grin.
She returned it with a question, "Should you?"
He growled and nibbled at her ear. "If you promise to talk to someone about your nightmares, I'll show you again how not worried I am."
His fingers caressed a sensitive part of her. "Not fair," she whimpered.
"Well…?"
She quivered under each brush and stroke. The words left her lips as she begged.
"Good girl."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Sorry, this story is really going slow… B-but… HAPPY HOLIDAYS! And please, forgive me?
Thank you guests (Jess and Toolazytologin) for reviewing!
Jess: I'm so glad you like this story! I hope this one turns out okay… I'm not feeling too confident right now…
Toolazytologin: Teehee… It's alright if you don't want to log in. I'm so happy that you took the time to leave a review!
Thank you as well to everyone who has favourited and followed this story!
I'll try my best to work on it!