Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn, its plot/story or characters. Those rights go to Supermassive Games and Sony Computer Entertainment.

Thanks for all of the comments last chapter! This little plot point was definitely an interesting one to write and now we've got the confrontation in this chapter, hope you guys like it!

Also, since the summer's here, I can hopefully have more time to write up other chapters, but I can't make any promises.

Jack or the Wendigos… which one seems like the safest option right now?

Beth was seriously considering the question as she watched the emotions play out across the man's face. In hindsight, she could've handled what just transpired a little bit better but she wasn't thinking clearly at the time.

Based on the look on Jack's face, it seemed like that excuse wasn't going to work on him.

"Um…" Beth struggled how to approach the situation. "Great… job?" Her voice was filled with uncertainty.

Jack only continued to stare down Beth and the girl began to exercised the possibility that he didn't hear her. Until he took a step forward. "You wanna tell me what exactly happened back there?" His voice snapped at her, it was a low and quiet but Beth could sense the bitterness behind it.

After a moment of silence, Beth settled with sighing and shaking her head. "I'm sorry." She lowered her gaze to avoid eye contact. "I wasn't thinking. I just thought…"

"Yeah, you weren't thinking.", Jack snapped at her. "Not only did your mistake put yourself in danger, you could've gotten me killed as well!" He stepped towards Beth, who slowly backed away in fear. "Haven't you learned anything? I thought you would take even the smallest ounce of caution in the mines!"

"What did you expect me to do?", Beth raised her voice, actually throwing the old man off guard temporarily. "I have told you time and time again that I'm here for my sister! If there was even the slightest chance that…", she trailed off for a moment, remembering the terror and sorrow in her heart when she thought that she had found her sister only for it to be ripped out from underneath her. "…that if might've been her, I would've taken it anyway."

Jack balled up his fists. "That doesn't change the fact that it was a stupid decision! If you had listened to me and thought back to what we talked about, we could've worked out a plan and safely handle the situation."

Beth rolled her eyes, tired of how Jack was treating her. "Oh, like you're so perfect! Don't tell me you didn't make a few mistakes when starting out!"

The old man opened his mouth to respond but quickly closed it and turned his head to the side. He didn't want to admit it; he wasn't exactly the best when it came to Wendigos when he first started out. He only had what he got from his grandfather to go on and on his first few nights he had to rely on him to get him out of any situations that went south. It had taken him several months to get a grip on the basic techniques of hunting.

Another thing he didn't want to admit was that, in his early hunting days, he was almost fooled by the Wendigo's mimicking on more than one occasion. So, yeah, maybe he was being a little hypocritical.

"Maybe not.", Jack grunted. "But you need to learn that, when hunting Wendigos, you can't afford to let your emotions drive your actions. They know and take advantage of that and that's why you need to approach every situation with a rational mind." He looked at her with a disgusted look. "Guess that was too hard for you." He seemed quite confident in what he was saying despite Beth having a shotgun in her hands.

Although, Beth wouldn't put it past Jack to burn her to a crisp if she said the wrong thing to make him mad.

"I have put up with your stupidity for days now, but this is where I draw the line. The sooner you accept that there's no saving your sister, the better chance at both of us living.", he continued.

The terror that blossomed in Beth's chest was twisted further into her heart. She had held onto the hope that Hannah was okay for the last few days, always pushing her feelings aside whenever opposing thoughts caused her to doubt. But hearing 'Hannah's' screams and seeing the Wendigo was close to becoming the nail on the coffin. Beth was almost tempted to call it quits, throw down the gun and ditch the mountain.

But the last thing she had told Hannah was that she'd promised she'd be back for her if she was in trouble. What kind of sister would she be if she broke that promise?

Besides, Beth told herself that, if she couldn't find Hannah in one area, she could always be somewhere else. For all she knew, she was aimlessly wandering the mines hoping to bump into Beth.

(She elegantly disregarded Hannah's broken leg.)

With hardened resolve, she looked up at Jack with an underlying fire in her eyes. "Until I find proper evidence that she's not alive, I'm not gonna stop looking for Hannah." Her voice was low and determined just like how Jack's was minutes ago. He scoffed, frustrated that he wasn't getting anywhere with her. "Like I said at the beginning, if there's a chance that she's alive and I abandon her, I could never live with myself." Her eyes softened for a moment. "And I know you're not one to leave someone to slaughter. When you found me, you could've escaped and caught the Wendigo but you killed it, something you said never to do, to save me."

Jack's face was unreadable. If his expression faltered at Beth's words, even for a millisecond, she didn't catch it. Despite his pessimistic attitude towards those left in the presence of a Wendigo, deep down he wouldn't want to anyone to suffer that gruesome end.

Because he had seen it firsthand. He had mentioned to Beth about his grandfather hunting the Makkapitew but never about him dying at the claws of it and how he had killed it to avenge his family and the presumed dead siblings. At that moment, he didn't care about rule don't kill the Wendigo, he didn't want anyone else to perish because of that monster. That's what motivated him to fully take on his grandfather's role. He worked to protect the mountain and its inhabitants from the curse and the least he could've done was to continue his work.

He couldn't let his grandfather's work be for nothing.

Even though he saw the girls plummet over the edge of the cliff, he couldn't help the feeling of guilt for not being able to reach them in time. For the next hour or so, his feet carried himself down into the mines to check for the girls. When he saw at least one of them alive, he called that a victory.

'Until I find proper evidence that she's not alive, I'm not gonna stop looking for Hannah.', Beth had said.

When they fell off the cliff, he was sure they were both dead but for some reason he couldn't end the night not knowing whether or not they survived. He was sure they were dead but still wanted to look for them.

Okay, maybe he was being more than a little hypocritical.

Why would he deny her the opportunity to look for her sister when he didn't want to stop looking until he got confirmation that they were dead?

Maybe… he was being too hard on her? Still, there was a limit and she was dangerously close to crossing it.

"Besides…" Beth's speech wasn't over. "Something tells me you don't want the police crawling around here. Without knowing what's out here, they wouldn't stand a chance. If I go to them, I don't think I can leave this out."

And that's what got Jack's attention. Deep down the last he wanted was reporters and officers infesting the mountain. That would be like bringing a buffet straight to the Wendigos and that would just further complicate the situation.

"I know you wouldn't say it, but it would be in your best interest to keep the Wendigos a secret and as long as I'm here looking for my sister away from everyone else, it would stay that way."

He had to admit, she was getting good. Before he could retort to anything she said, Beth already even more arguments to back him into a corner. This was the most resilience she had shown in the time she had been here (if only she put that much dedication into her hunting., he snidely thought) and a part of him thought that the surrounding environment and circumstances had a role in that.

Jack definitely didn't want to keep Beth here against her will, but if she was so desperate to look for her sister and that would keep other people away from the mountain, he had no objections.

"You're either gonna end up disappointed or dead, Beth.", he finally replied, his voice giving away partial surrender. "Just keep that in mind."

He looked up to see her eyes glistening with tears that he was sure weren't there before. "Believe me, I am fully aware."

And with that, she strutted off from his sight, up the stairs and back to her tattered mattress. She had a long night and she was just plain done with the day at this point. Jack was mildly surprised to see Wolfie trotting up the stairs right behind her. He then looked down to see Winter standing at his side, snarling angrily at him.

He didn't know what made him more mad: the fact that Beth had made his wolves annoyed at him or the fact that he was now calling them by those stupid names.

You are really one piece of work, kid.

Several hours later, Jack scaled up the stairs that led to Beth's makeshift room with a can of food in one hand. Both of them hadn't eaten for a while and he doubted that the teen would want to be coming back downstairs any time soon. Either he brought the food up or she would probably starve to death.

Saving your life again., he sarcastically thought.

He stopped at the doorway to see Beth lying down on the mattress with one hand petting Wolfie, who was curled up by her side. The wolf ears perked up at the sound of a new arrival and sat up, growling softly. Beth noticed the wolf's change in position and looked up to meet Jack's eyes.

The older man walked over and wordlessly placed the can of food by the foot of her bed. Beth shrugged towards the can. "What's this? A peace offering?"

Jack smirked. "No. You may not be my favourite person right now, but that's no excuse to let you starved."

Beth sighed. "Thanks." She picked up her food and began to unceremoniously shove the food into her mouth, not caring that Jack was still in front of her.

After several moments, Jack cleared his throat, getting Beth's attention. "Listen… I may have been a little harsh on you back there."

Beth scoffed. "A little?"

Jack wasn't fazed by her comment. "But it's what I felt had to be said. If you keep holding onto this false hope that your sister is just wandering through the mines without any protection and hasn't had a run in with a Wendigo, it's only gonna crush you in the end."

"But-"

"And what if you find her body, if there's anything left of it? How're gonna feel when you find that it was all for nothing?" Jack didn't want to tell a teenager the brutal truth of the fate her sister had probably already suffered at, but he needed to know if she was ready to accept the consequences of her actions.

Tears were already running violently down Beth's cheeks as Jack relayed his speech towards her. It was almost the same as the one he told her hours ago. He seemed to be dead set on beating his argument into her head. But her resolve didn't change. Deep inside, Beth knew that she was probably chasing a lost cause that was only going to cause her pain and disappointment in the end. She wanted nothing more than to protect her sister from the terrors this new reality that was opened up to them. Against all odds, Beth had taken up a gun and resolved to fighting against creatures created by a curse and no point did she seriously consider dropping everything and running away.

What would everyone think of her if she had the chance to save her sister but didn't? A coward, probably. But she wasn't a coward, she wouldn't allow it. She wouldn't stop until she got confirmation about her sister's fate. If she kept going, she would either find her family or some form of closure.

"Even she is…", she swallowed thickly. "Dead… this still wouldn't have been for nothing." Jack raised an eyebrow. "Not to me, anyways."

He watched her, before huffing. "Suit yourself. I'll let you continue… whatever this is, but make sure it doesn't get either of us killed."

Beth smirked solemnly. "You got it."

Jack nodded, satisfied that they came to an agreement before beckoning the wolf to follow him. "Come on, Wolfie."

Beth's head shot up, a smiling a surprised smile that went up to her eyes. "You're using their names?!"

Jack shrugged. "What can I say? They're growing on me."

Okay, so Jack was being a jerk but at the same time… not? In this chapter, I wanted to get a little into Jack's head and the way he thinks and have him develop a more considerate and softer side and also show Beth gaining more confidence by standing up to him (Character development for everyone!). Hope this all came across well!

Also, since we don't know that much about Jack and his grandfather and what they did, I decided to create my own little backstory for them (Oh, the joys of fanfiction).

We've probably got at least 3-4 chapters to go until the whole 'one year later' skip but this can be subject to change depending on how things go.

Think that's it for now, see you next chapter!