Until Dawn: Atychiphobia

by Universal lizard

One year following a terrible tragedy involving two girls, eight teenagers decide to reunite at the site where they had lost their two friends. An attempt at closure, the night could hold a great many discoveries for them. That is if they do not lose themselves to whatever lies in the cold of the night...

8. Chapter 7: Violence

-I can't believe I managed to get this chapter out literally right at the start of the new year! Talk about perfect timing huh? Anyway, hope you all enjoy! -

---

"Finally...! Come on..."

The image of gentle, yet barred light met Sam's eyes, which was as good enough a sign for her at this point. Having crawled along in this vent for who knows how long, she was ready to finally be able to put her feet down on something! It did feel like a good idea at the time, climbing into this air vent to reduce the chances of the Psycho finding her, but if she'd have known this is where she'd be ending up...

Well, none of that mattered now. Not with there being a literal light at the end of this tunnel! Now the only question remaining however: where exactly would this tunnel's end lead to?

Sam ceased her crawling on all fours upon reaching the bars before her. Upon further inspection, these bars were in fact thin yet secure pieces of plastic, most likely acting as some sort of filter for an air vent.

With bated breath she carefully gazed through the horizontal spacing in between the bars at whatever lay in the room beyond. The bars reduced clarity, and what she could see didn't exactly make her more at ease with where she could potentially end up. A completely rotting wall lay on her left side and stretched forward so that it met the adjoining wall a few feet away. A couple of metallic shelves could be seen stacked up to the right side. She then raised her lit flashlight and shone its light more to the right side. Unfortunately, the light of her tool simply couldn't penetrate the darkness completely, leaving a large part of the room visually a mystery. One thing was for certain though: even with the lack of light to aid in what she could see, there were absolutely no signs of movement within. It was as good an indicator as any that there was no one within this room, which Sam took as a sign of relief.

'Alright... now let's just...'

She shifted her body until she was largely sitting with her legs folded directly in front of her. Shen then raised her leg slightly, poised to kick hard into the plastic grate. Almost immediately she felt a draft... 'down below', and felt the instinctive desire to lower her leg back down again. However she quickly dispelled that anxiety; she'd already established there wasn't anyone in this room for her to grant a 'free show' to.

With that she pounded her foot against the grate once. The cover groaned slightly and shifted a couple centimeters but still held its position. She pounded her foot again, the grate groaning and shifting even more.

With one last powerful kick, the plastic grate was dislodged completely. It clattered to the ground rather noisily, which only served as anxiety fuel for Sam as to whether or not the Psycho might've heard that. With a rapidly beating heart, she slowly pulled herself feet first clear out of the vent. Her feet touched down against the cold, unforgiving stone of the floor and her entire body shivered as a result, but Sam forcefully shook the feeling from her to focus on where she now stood.

Sam immediately recoiled upon glancing to her right, as something vaguely humanoid was standing right there! However she calmed herself slightly upon realizing that it wasn't a 'person' standing there, but in fact a mannequin. The worn, somewhat rotted clothing doll was posed up against the wall completely undressed next to a couple of industrial-looking cans.

Shivering, she let the beam of her flashlight slowly creep along the wall closest to her, dispelling darkness and revealing the individual items within. This was definitely some kind of room for storage, with a pair of large lockers standing up against the wall in addition to the metallic shelves in the center of the room opposite them. A lone clock could be seen up on the nearby brick wall, faint ticks echoing the space. The wall closest to her stretched outwards towards a hallway that remained cloaked in darkness, even with a ray of light shining down in front of it from some source up above through the ceiling.

That ray of light and her own flashlight were not the only bright spots that drew attention. Sam also noted a nearby desk against the wooden wall with a lamp shining its warm glow upon the top. That couldn't have been an accident; seems like someone had to have turned that light on. Especially when she herself had crawled this entire way without finding any kind of lights or mechanical stuff powered on? A shiver ran along Sam's body as she realized: the Psycho had to have been here!

She instinctively raised her free hand up to rub the side of her opposite arm. Ice cold fingers met with warmer flesh of her arm and shoulder, causing her to shiver even harder. At the same time, Sam's hand brushed up against the cloth of the towel that was still wrapped around her. Seriously, while it was a miracle this simple towel she was in had somehow lasted this long, she had to find some actual clothes stat! Between the ice-cold stone floor beneath her feet and the slight chill in the air, there was also simple warmth in addition to decency that she had to consider as well...

Sam held her flashlight beam slightly to the left of her body as she made her way forward. There was that small feeling of relief as she found no one hiding out in those shadows over there. At the same time it only increased her urge to stick closer to actual light sources; at least she could actually see where she was and could verify what all was there.

She came to a stop directly in front of the desk. In addition to the lamp, Sam found an old-fashioned fan, and one of those heavy-duty industrial vices atop the desk as well. The kind that were bolted directly into the desk-top like in old woodshops. A quick glance showing her a large red toolbox underneath, Sam concluded that to be the function of this desk.

"Yikes..."

Sam noted a large, pointed buzzsaw blade found laying on top of the desk as well. The light from the lamp created a harsh glaring reflection against the flat metal of the blade. Memories flashed through her mind of a very similar buzzsaw she had seen not too long ago. One that was spinning, coated in red, and killing her friend...

She shook her head harshly desperate to keep from being reminded of that. Seriously, what kind of sick freak would display something like that as if it were some kind of... 'accomplishment'?! This Psycho definitely fit that bill, along with nearly everything else he had done this evening alone.

'Screw it- I need some protection!' she thought to herself, 'But, if only I hadn't dropped that bat earlier... Oh well, I'll just have to find something else.'

One hand reached down towards the desk's drawer under its top. There had to be something in there she could use, like some scissors, a screwdriver, heck even a really sharp pencil! This was an office/industrial desk anyway, there had to be something in here...

The drawer slid open and Sam peered inside. Unfortunately, her disappointment grew upon not seeing anything that she could use. Aside from a strangely out-of-place manilla folder inside this drawer, the only other thing to be seen was... a highlighter pen?

'Seriously?!' she thought to herself, 'This is that Psycho's... workshop, or whatever? How does he not have anything in here...!?'

A burst of frustration spiking in her, Sam shuffled her hand throughout the contents. Strangely enough while there were pencils in addition to the one highlighter pen, but nearly all of them were either unsharpened or had been worn down to sizes much too small to be of any use when it came to defending herself. It was almost as if that sawblade on the table was put there haphazardly instead of as any indicator that this is where the guy would keep his 'threatening tools of trade'.

As she rifled her hands through the contents further, she felt the back of her hand brush against the folder, causing her to instinctively glance back down at it. Her eyes came to rest upon the folder's small flap, and her hand's movements came to a stop completely upon reading what was written on it.

J. Washington.

Sam's eyes narrowed; unless there was some other family member she wasn't aware of, the J had to be referring to 'Josh' Washington. The writing of this was written rather professionally, more so than she'd expect any crazy psycho to be capable of writing. Just was this folder anyway...?

Curiously, she lifted the folder in one hand and placed it on the tabletop before closing the drawer. Underneath the light of the lamp the manilla folder glowed its plain orange/yellow color. Sam then opened the folder to find...

"'Ocean View Hospital... Joshua Washington'...?!"

Her once narrowed eyes were widened slightly with concern. This... this was some psychiatrist's report on Josh? As indicated by the large 'CONFIDENTAL' written in red bold font? What the heck was this, and more importantly, why was this in a desk in this Psycho's workshop?

With her attention focused solely on the folder, Sam took hold of the first page's corner and flipped it over. She found that this was only one page out of a small bundle of pages, but they were not stapled to each other. Thus she simply set the paper flipped over to the side and looked at the second page.

The next page listed a selection of individual peoples' names, a set of dates for each one, the name of a hospital, and... each one listing a kind of incident that happened? The first date reached all the way back to 2006, nearly nine years ago from now! Some of these were vague by listing them as 'incidents at school', a couple listed negative treatment reactions... and the last one listed 'suicide risk'?

What the hell? Josh was risking suicide? Much less even contemplating it? Sam placed a hand to her chest as she felt a surge of guilt within her welling up; she had no idea! She had absolutely no clue that Josh must've been hurting that bad!

She looked once more at that entry's date to find... Oh. It was listed late 2013, too. A little after that was when Hannah and Beth would end up missing too. Suddenly, it made slightly more sense to Sam. Of course a guy like Josh would be hurting to have lost his sisters, but still... If Sam had only known just how badly Josh was handling this... She should've been there more! She should've tried considering more how he felt over how she was feeling in the wake of that day! Maybe there was more she could've actively done? Like, hung out with him more often?

Well, not that any of that mattered anyway, since now Josh was dead...

She turned the page over to read what the next page listed. This page, under one of his doctors, 'Alan Hill', listed a number of medicines that Josh must've been prescribed, more than half of them she wouldn't even try to pronounce their names. In addition Sam found a list of rather nasty looking side effects had as well. 'Hypotension', 'insomnia', 'hallucinations' and 'paranoia'? The sheer number of all these things happening, and in poor Josh... Some job these medicines must have been doing for him.

Turning the page, the page beneath it was a definite change of pace. With the title of this page as 'SUMMARY OF TREATMENT', Doctor Hill here was listing off full descriptions relating to Josh in larger sentences.

"'Patient arrived delirious/confused,'" Sam silently read the first entry, "' Strong symptoms of major depressive disorder... related to death/disappearance of sisters.'" Sam could feel a deepness within her welling up even further. She had always suspected; both from the way that Josh had acted all jokingly almost as a way to mask something and even from how he physically looked. She would never say it out loud to anyone, but the constant bags she saw under his eyes gave her more than cause for mild concern.

Sam glanced down at the entry found directly beneath the first one.

"'Prior to re-medication, patient made aware personal fears and phobias,'" she read, "'Phobias listed below are but not limited to... Acrophobia, fear of heights... Arachnophobia, fear of spiders...'"

Her eyes squinted at the next, rather unfamiliar word she'd never seen before,

"'Aty- A-tychi-phobia? Fear of failure, whether in general or in relation to subject specifically wasn't made clear." So, Atychiphobia was a fear of failing? Hm, learn something new every day. Looking back down her eyes met another large and unfamiliar word,

"'Auto...mat-o-no-phobia?'" she sounded out, "'Fear of human-shaped/personified objects, mannequins, scarecrows, etc. Could also be interpreted as Body Dysmorphia...' Well, scarecrows are pretty creepy I guess..."

As she continued to read the following entries, she could feel her brow furrowing with every word she saw. According to this doctor's report... stronger doses of medicine had been prescribed to Josh? And all the while with very little progress nor improvement-?

"Oh, wait..." Sam caught herself mid thought as she read the final entry, "'Discharged on May 16th after final consultation proved satisfactory.' May 16th...?"

Sam struggled to think back to the rather specific point in the past. She remembered Josh had met back up with her to talk again around June, having gone so long without talking to him or anyone in their little circle. She distinctly remembered Josh seeming a little more 'chipper', both in comparison to how she had known him before as well as how she suspected he'd be after losing his sisters. Granted the first few weeks speaking with him felt little more than walking on eggshells, but for the most part Josh didn't seem all that angry or even as upset with her. The same could be said for Chris, seeing that he had spoken with him well before speaking with her. So, what- after all that time of medicating with pretty crappy results, Josh actually seemed to be doing alright in the end in spite of it? And well enough that he'd be wanting to hang out with the likes of 'them' again?

Even back then in the back of Sam's mind she did find it a little strange, but that feeling had been quickly overpowered by her not wanting to feel so lonely anymore.

Suddenly, Sam's lips pursed as a reminder flashed across her mind again. What did any of that matter now? Josh was dead, killed by this psychotic maniac! Whatever bridges he wanted to mend with them would likely be forever burned and broken! This whole thing was just plain unfair, to both Josh, to Sam, and likely to her other friends if they likely wanted better relations with him too!

Sam looked down again at the pages to find that there was only one more page to be seen. She flipped the page over to show what the final one held. It was a receipt, for... Her eyes widened in rather envious shock at the exorbitant fees displayed before her. Just under twelve thousand dollars for residence? Consultations? And only an hour's worth of CBT? All of these factors contributing to a total of... just over twenty-six thousand dollars?!

"Jeez Louise! Who the heck can afford that kind of... oh wait..."

Sam looked back up at the very top of the receipt, and who it was addressed to. Washington Pictures Incorporated. Now it all made sense; of course Josh's dad would be able to cover all of that. Guess being a movie director did have perks like this.

The thought of the man himself suddenly caused Sam's blood to freeze.

"Oh man-! What will Mr. and Mrs. Washington say?!"

First they lose their two daughters last year, and now they'll have lost their only son this year! It was almost like... like this Psycho really was targeting the Washingtons. In fact, Sam recalled during the police investigation last year that 'foul play' might've been involved... Which only further begged the question as to why this folder, which was primarily about Josh, was found here, in what was as best Sam could describe the Psycho's workshop? Unless... he had access to personal stuff like this?

"I need to get out of here, and fast," Sam said with a shake of her head. Deciding to simply leave the folder as it was, she stepped away from the desk and turned to her left.

As for where she could possibly go now, the only option that was seemingly open to her was the hallway itself. From her angle she could see that it actually turned a corner to the right, and further into darkness. The ray of natural light shining down from above did little to illuminate that space it seemed, meaning Sam likely would only have her flashlight to guide her way.

As she prepared to walk forward towards the hallway, Sam's eyes casually glanced to the side towards the nearby metallic shelves. They were all completely barren and empty; well, aside from a single object that could be seen resting atop one of the shelves. In fact, Sam had nearly missed it if she hadn't had her eye upon the shelves.

She broke away from her intended course and veered to the left to navigate in between the two shelves. Now that she stood much closer, she could see exactly what this object was. Her eyes widened yet again upon realization of what the object was. It was a small cell phone, but it wasn't just anyone's cell phone...

This was Josh's phone!

Sam's head snapped back over to the desk. First a folder with personal medical info, and now his phone? How the hell had this maniac gotten this stuff? Well actually, this phone in a way made some sense. Thinking back to the film that Sam had been forced to witness with Josh; if he was clearly in that position, likely set up by the Psycho, maybe it would make sense that he'd lift such valuables like this off his person. Despite accepting this small rationale, the unease still remained strong within her.

She tentatively reached her hand in to pick the phone up. As the phone moved the lock screen automatically lit up, greeting Sam with that wallpaper of the dreary yet somehow artistic dark forest. Curiously, she swiped her thumb across the screen within the unlock prompt.

Almost immediately, Sam's eyes squinted as they were assaulted by a change in light. Gone was the dim glow of the forest wallpaper, and immediately replaced by glaring white. Once her eyes finally adjusted to the light change, Sam looked closer at what exactly was open on the phone. The text messages app must have been open on his phone for it to be the first thing to appear. A number of large white text boxes appeared on the screen before her with a couple of smaller blue boxes accompanying them.

"Alan...?" she silently noted the first name before quickly realizing, "Oh- that must mean Alan Hill, from that thing over there... 'I got your email. I don't think your plan is going to work...' Plan? What plan?"

She glanced up at the top of the text messages history to see... This exchange was dated all the way back to the thirteenth of January? A couple of weeks before they would officially meet up again at the lodge? What exactly was going on during that time?

She scrolled down through the messages to see if the following ones held any clue as to its meaning. Unfortunately, Sam could see that the remaining messages were simply of Josh and Alan here exchanging about whether or not the former was taking his medicine. And then... silence? Alan messaged two more times to Josh to pick up his phone, with no responses at all from the latter.

"The hell was that about...?" Sam said to herself. She tried to scroll down further but found that was the complete end of that exchange.

With a finger she pressed the button on the side of the phone to send the screen dark again. This phone was absolutely not about to remain down here in this guy's creepy dungeon! But still, her only form of attire being a towel didn't exactly lend itself to pockets.

"Don't care...! I'll just... hold onto it for now, in my hand," she softly said to herself, "Besides, once I find some clothes, they're bound to have some pockets in 'em...!"

With that she pulled herself away from between the shelves and stepped to the right. To her continued relief, no movement at all was detected within this space that she was in. She instinctively reached her hand up to secure the top edge of her towel on her body even tighter. It was absolutely insane how durable this simple bath cloth was! For it to remain practically glued to her skin as securely as any bit of regular clothing for this long... She still preferred actual clothing for actual decency, thank you.

Rounding the corner of the shelves and back out into the open, Sam stood right at the very entrance to where the hallway would lead to. It would take her to the right, but... what exactly was to her left?

She held her flashlight up to shine into the darkness where the natural light couldn't reach. Her light beam drifted over the concrete stone of the floor, the brick wall, a number of black wires and pieces of sheetrock broken and littering the floor, some rusty old pipes laying up against the brick wall, and a table with a couple of boxes.

It was there that Sam saw Hannah.

At least, that's what her mind immediately jumped to upon seeing it.

"Wait, what...?" she said. Almost hastily she moved to the left, away from the hallway entrance and into the dark corner, her flashlight providing the only illumination. It remained fixed upon the table and that which lay on top of it. There was just no way; no actual way that what she saw could actually be...

Upon reaching the table she lifted a hand up to shift one of the boxes to the side and reveal what lay behind it.

A small cork tackboard stood propped up against the wall atop the table. Sam's breath nearly hitched as she gave closer inspection of what exactly was tacked up on this board. Pictures of both Hannah and Beth, a number of ribbons with different colors, small ticket stubs...

And a single yellow sticky note containing the words 'Never Forget'.

"Wha..." Sam breathed. As if finding stuff relating to Josh weren't enough, now this guy was keeping tabs on Hannah and Beth too? The sheer sickness of this guy just kept rising! "Creep City...!"

Among the various pictures Sam noted one of them. One of the pictures that was posted nearly front and center was a picture of herself, Emily, and the two girls, all posing for a camera. All of them... they looked so happy there, like they were really having fun, though Sam for the life of her couldn't exactly recall when and where that photo was taken. It had to have been at one point when they were all hanging out, maybe even before they'd all gotten together that night?

And that little note there: 'Never forget'? What the heck was that supposed to mean? Did the Psycho write that for himself? A personal message for himself to... Something having to do with the girls...?

Sam took a step away from the board, releasing a labored breath. This was seriously getting messed up. Not like it wasn't messed up to begin with, but this was really starting to feel like this guy was a complete sadist. Like it wasn't enough to simply try and kill them all, but to torture them, mess with their heads, keep trophies, mementos, and even personal reminders hanging around? He had to be stopped, somehow. Sam had no clue as to how, but by God she'd figure something out! She owed Josh and the girls that much!

She turned her head and her flashlight back to the right again. The path towards the hallway thankfully remained unoccupied by anyone else. Any other time Sam would've been more than on edge to find someone there, but given that her only form of attire was her towel, this one time she took solace in having some privacy at least. She made her way across the cold, concrete floor towards the hallway and took that turn into it.

The hallway very quickly enveloped her in further darkness. Only her lit flashlight and a small light fixture at the end of the hallway provided any sort of light for her. The hallway took a sharp turn to the right towards another doorway at the end of this hall.

As Sam took a step forward, she felt her foot kick against something hard, causing dull pain to shoot up her toe.

"Drgh-! Ouch!" she silently cried out, the sound of a piece of wood shuffling across the ground covering her own voice. The pain quickly faded away, but Sam instinctively brought the light down to the floor to find that it was littered with debris like wood and rock. She'd need to be more careful from here on.

She gingerly lifted a foot and shifted it forward, this time paying closer attention to where she would be planting it. Her foot nudged a bit more debris out of the way before it found solid concrete beneath it again. Sam repeated the motion with her other foot as she slowly made her way through the hallway. Here's hoping the Psycho wasn't keen to hearing her fail at being sneaky...

Making her way through the doorway Sam was met with the gentle glow of the light bulb on the wall above her head. The path took a sharp turn to the right, this time down a small flight of stairs. All around her the walls were beginning to hold more brick in them than rotting sheetrock, though that did little to change the musty smell of sawdust filling this space.

As she made her way down the stairs, she noted the most immediate door directly in front of her. A large, almost ironclad door fixed on a metallic doorway, and completely sealed. Sam's mind was quickly reminded of the similar door she had escaped through during her chase with the Psycho in the basement. And, also similar to that door, this one held a small, open peephole at head-level, with a small ray of light shining through it.

Sam lowered her flashlight and Josh's phone in her hands as she approached the door. There was no telling what may be on the other side of this door, and the less risk she had of giving herself away from stray lights the better. Her footsteps were barely a feather brushing against concrete with how carefully she moved. Gingerly she lifted her head slightly to peek through the hole.

The glow that she had seen turned out to be the glow of screens. Some fifteen or twenty feet away on the far wall stood a massive collection of computer screens, all glowing and bathing the immediate room in a glow of blue and even green neon light. From her distance however she couldn't exactly make out what were on these screens; just faint images of various shades in black and white.

What she did see however was someone in front of the screens.

Sam sharply yet silently gasped as she saw him. It was the Psycho! It had to be him! She'd caught a quick glimpse of the greasy, unkept strands of black hair running down the back of his head from earlier, which was what she could see now. Had he seen her though?

It didn't seem like it. At the moment he was standing upright and in front of the screens, occasionally typing something into a keyboard beneath them. Eventually he stopped and allowed himself to simply fold his arms in front of him. His attention seemed to be focused solely on the screens, completely oblivious to anything around or behind him.

'What's he doing...?' Sam thought as she watched him with morbid curiosity, 'What's he looking at?'

Suddenly the Psycho began to shift in place, and Sam felt a sudden spike in fear. For a moment she suspected he'd somehow found her and was closing in on her! Her fear was quickly dispersed though as she saw he wasn't moving towards her. Sam watched on as the Psycho instead moved to the left and further into the room. She watched on for as much as she could until finally the man had disappeared completely out of view through the peephole. Thus she took that as her cue to step away from the door herself; better she not still be here in case he did suddenly appear.

Turning to her left the only way to proceed through this passageway was up a small set of stairs that led along the wall before her. To the direct right of them was a complete dead end with little to be seen in this room other than a wooden table. The tabletop appeared to be light in color which allowed for something much darker atop it to contrast.

As Sam drew closer towards the stairs, she casually glanced over to the table and the strange object. Initially dismissing it as some large book her perception was quickly changed along with her flashlight shining light upon it. Books don't usually look so plastic-like...

She moved away from the stairs this time and closer to the table. Once she was directly in front, it became all-too obvious what it was: a large tape-recorder. The old-fashioned kind of recorders that her own parents no doubt used a lot of during their days.

"What... is this...?" Sam said. She glanced back towards the door unconsciously. The Psycho wasn't suddenly standing there, thankfully. With that reassurance she looked back down at the recorder and tentatively pressed the play button.

There was recorded silence for a few seconds, and then,

"Hello."

Sam felt herself jump a little at hearing the Psycho again. That voice, that horrifying, strangely robotic-filtered voice flooded her ears again. She instinctively shot a glance back towards the door again, fearing that he had suddenly appeared before her. Her spiked fear momentarily abated upon realizing this was not the case; the voice was solely coming from this recorder and not from anyone in real life.

"And thank you all for joining me," the recording of the Psycho continued, "Tonight, we're going to conduct a little experiment..." For some reason there as a noticeable pause after that sentence was spoken, and Sam found herself waiting with held breath for the voice again. Finally, the voice spoke up again,

"Hello, hello children- no, that's not right..." the voice continued, in a tone that caused Sam's eyes to narrow suddenly. The voice was the same, but the way he was speaking felt... different. Almost as if this were some kind of demo reel tape. The sound of a throat clearing and the voice continued, "Hello, friends and f-"

The tape cut its playback, rather abruptly too. Sam was left with silence again, but also a strange sense of... confusion? That was most certainly the voice of the Psycho she had heard, but... those choice words that she had heard him speak just now. He had said the words 'friends and' in manner that felt eerily similar to her. He was almost definitely saying 'friends and fans', in a way that reminded her of...

"No! No no no!"

Sam closed her eyes and shook her head rather violently. That thought needed to be thrown out from her head completely! There was no way, there was just no way in Hell that could ever be an option! And besides, Josh was dead! She had watched him get killed by this Psycho! If anything, this maniac was probably taking after stuff that Josh used to say, as part of his really sick game.

"Yeah, it has to be that," Sam assured herself, "I mean this guy has Josh's med folder, his phone, has got all that stuff of Hannah and Beth's like a creeper... definitely..." Her eyes glanced up to her right again to find that where she stood was a dead end with no way to proceed. Looks like the only way forward was up that small set of stairs.

She rounded the small corner and made her way up each step. One of the steps in front of her was smashed, which brought an unfortunate reminder of the earlier stone step she had almost tripped over during her chase. Walking up it was much easier this time as well as not being chased by anyone behind her, and soon she found herself at the top and moving through another empty threshold.

Sam's light dispelled darkness to show her yet another hallway that hung a sharp left. Decrepit wooden boards and broken brick walls stood on both sides of her. This particular hallway felt strangely small around her; Sam wasn't exactly claustrophobic, but she couldn't shake that sense of feeling really small in this place...

Directly in front of her lay a wooden door, but Sam carefully approached it. Slowly she shone her light beam around the corner to her right. Good, nothing was waiting there to pop out and get her. Just yet another small hallway with a large set of dual doors on the right side.

With that she turned the light and her attention back to the wooden door directly in front of her. She took hold of both the flashlight and Josh's phone in one hand to reach a free one to the doorknob. However, the knob itself refused to open to her twist; it was locked.

Sam then turned to face the hallway, letting her flashlight dispel more of its darkness and give her a better idea of where she stood. Aside from the dual doors on the right side, only a single door lay at the far end of the hallway on the left side. What was important though was that there was no one else in this hallway at the moment. But at the same time, that could be seen as a bad thing as well as a good thing...

She walked forward across the cold concrete to stand before the dual doors. Her light shined upon one of the round windows only to be met with a harsh reflective glare. The glass must have been too fogged on either end to be able to see through. She tentatively reached out to grip the right doorknob and gave it a small twist.

Her eyes widened a little as this time the door actually opened completely. A large, dark room immediately greeted her, causing her to instinctively pull up her flashlight beam. Almost immediately however, the very first thing the light illuminated was sitting at the far end of this room. Sam caught the vague image of someone... sitting in a chair?

She stepped through the door and into the permeating dark of the room. Her flashlight and her eyes remained fixed upon the chair and 'whomever' was sitting in it. This figure wasn't moving at all, and in fact had some rather familiar clothing adorning it. The closer Sam advanced, the clearer she could see. And just as well, the greater the realization set in.

Those were her clothes!

"Jesus! My clothes...!" Sam breathed as she held the back of her hand over her mouth to stifle an exclamation.

Sitting in this rotating chair was what Sam could only describe as an actual scarecrow. Complete with a burlap sack over the head, a mouth-hole ripped open, and a brimmed straw hat atop the head. However to making things even creepier was that every bit of clothing she had worn coming up to this mountain was right here before her, being 'worn' by this dummy! Her jacket, her purple tank top, her striped plaid skirt, and even... good God, even her bra could be seen underneath the top! Someone had painstakingly dressed up a dummy, a really creepy dummy at that, with her own clothes!

Sam felt herself taking a few steps back, completely horrified and purely creeped out by now. Scaring her and humiliating her was one thing, but this... this felt like a whole new level of violation of intimate privacy! She was certain she could feel her heart both throbbing in her chest and even beating a little out of rhythm as a result of this display before her. This was it, this Psycho had somehow found a way to stoop even lower than she had-

Something brushed up by and slightly around her ankle! Sam let out a yelp as she instinctively kicked her foot away from whatever had touched her just now. She didn't even care of whatever noise she made just now, and in fact was brought back to reality by both light being shuffled around and something dropping from her hand. In her panic she had dropped her flashlight. Hastily she bent down to grab her flashlight again. With the light in hand she shot herself around to the direction she was certain she'd felt she'd been grabbed.

To her mild confusion she did not see any other person standing before her; instead a small grate with thin vertical bars lay at the very base of the bottom of the wall, meeting the floor. Her eyes narrowed as she struggled to peer through these bars, until she realized who exactly she was looking at.

"Wha- Mike...?" she whispered, "I-Is that you?!"

Re-angling her flashlight closer, the head of the boy in question could be seen through the bars clearly now. His face was covered in small patches of dirt with even a couple of bruises here and there on his forehead. He looked back up at her through the bars, squinting slightly at the harsh light fixated on him.

"Yeah, yeah it's me," Mike confirmed. A small wave of relief washed through Sam. After what felt like the longest hours of her life, just finding any of her friends alive and around was as welcome as anything for her.

"Oh Mike, thank God you're here!"

"It's okay. You're okay?" he quietly asked to which she nodded. His eyes suddenly narrowed before following up with, "Why are you in a towel?"

"Urgh," Sam glanced down at her body and her only form of attire she had on her with a slight groan, "Long story, I-" She suddenly stopped midway as she turned to look back at Mike. Relieved as she was to find him here, it was only him before her at the moment. Why was he alone?

"Wait... Mike, where's Jess?" she asked, "I thought you and her- Is she not with you?" The boy didn't immediately reply. In fact, his eyes suddenly became visibly more downtrodden. He looked down at the ground at his own feet for a few seconds before finally looking back up at her.

"Jessica's dead," he spoke in a softer voice, as if barely controlling himself.

"What?!" Sam herself nearly exclaimed. Jessica too?! Something had happened to her as well?!

"He killed her, Sam. There's some maniac up on this mountain who's trying to kill us, all of us!" Mike said. The words practically spilled from his mouth, his voice wavering as well with each word spoken, "And I swear to God, when everyone else is safe and accounted for, I am going to hunt that FUCKER down and rip his nuts off, one at a goddamn time...!"

"Holy shit..." Sam breathed. This was seriously getting more and more unbelievable in Sam's head. This crazy Psycho had not only been after her but had actually been after Mike and Jess too? It was almost uncanny the way he just seemed to be in so many places at once, in such short amount of time too.

"Okay well-well listen, this guy, this 'Psycho'... he had attacked me earlier," she said.

"Crap, you alright?" Mike asked.

"Well yeah, I managed to slip away, but before... he had showed me some... videos," Sam started, as well as forced herself to remember. She forced herself to be reminded of that horrible video; the one involving Josh's demise, and that look of pure terror on his face as he died,

"And one of them showed Josh being killed too. Just... ripped apart, but this HUGE fucking sawblade!" Mike's face twisted more and more with a grimace the more she explained.

"Jesus Christ...!" he said, "Josh too-?!"

"He-he might even be living down here too, Mike!" Sam continued.

"Wait wait, what?!" Sam pointed a free hand behind her in the direction of the dual doors she had come through.

"I just came from a room a little way's back over there..." she said, "It... looked like some kind of workshop, and..." Her eyes widened as she recalled Josh's phone in her hand as well. She lifted it up before the grate to allow Mike a better view of it, "I found this in there."

"What is..." Mike squinted his eyes as he looked at the object, "Is that... a phone?"

"Yes, Mike! It's Josh's!" Sam whispered urgently, "I found it there, I found this sort of med-folder on him, I found this creepy tackboard with a bunch of stuff belonging to Hannah and Beth too-" She suddenly stopped to take a quick breath after speaking so fast, "This guy... he's got some like... obsession, with the Washingtons, or something!"

"What... the fuck is going on around here...?" Mike breathed. His head glanced in different directions as he attempted to make sense of this new information. Sam honestly couldn't blame him at all; both of them had just told each other that one of their friends had been killed, possibly by the very same person. He finally shook his head and looked back up at her while also pointing to his left side, "There's a door here, but it won't open. Think you can unlock it from your side?"

Sam craned her head a little lower to look deeper in through the crate. True enough, a door could be seen directly to Mike's side. As she pulled her head back to look forward again, she noticed that while Mike was looking at her, his gaze looked a little...

Sam's eyes widened a little and she gasped; her low angle was giving Mike an unintended 'view' of her chest! She jumped back well and away from him with a hand placed squarely on top of her towel-covered chest. To her credit the boy didn't make any sort of pervy comment himself, but still!

"Yeah-yeah, sure Mike, just give me a sec..."

With that she slowly stood back up on her feet and turned to the door directly beside her. However this door was not the only thing she caught sight of; her backpack! It was here, just hanging on this doorknob?!

'Yes!' she mentally cheered this small bit of providence. She reached forward to unzip the main zip to find... 'Oh yes! It's still here...!'

Having anticipated she'd be traveling up into the mountains, Sam had seen fit before she came up here to pack a set of hiking clothes in her backpack as well. She had brought with her a red hiking hoodie, some tight black yoga pants, some underwear, and some snow-resistant shoes as well as an extra change of socks! She'd even brought her little 'head-band-light' with her too! She'd held some debate before as to whether or not she'd ultimately need this thing, as she figured she'd mostly be hiking during the light of day, but man was she happy she had it with her now!

Amazing that this stuff was still here considering what the Psycho had done with her previous clothes...

Sam first slipped Josh's phone into one of the backpack's side pockets before lifting it off of the knob and slipping it over her shoulders. She then aimed her flashlight beam at the crack of the door before tentatively opening it outward with her other hand. The door creaked open slightly while she kept the light fixed into the darkness. Sam could see that this door led to another hallway again with no other people to be seen. Whereas before she'd be filled with anxiety from not knowing where anyone was, this time she felt a little more relieved at knowing she'd found at least one other person so far.

Step by step she walked into the hallway leading to the left. A small set of steps led down towards a dead end in this hallway, with two doors on both sides. The door on the right side was vastly different from previous doors she'd gone through; for one thing it was massive and metal. It almost looked like a heavy-duty fridge door one would find in a restaurant to keep food cold. The other door was more ordinary and wooden. Sam could also see a large piece of wood set up as a primitive lock-bar on the outside of it. There was no way Sam would be able to push through that heavy-looking door on her own, so she'd definitely have to meet up with Mike first.

She stood in front of the wooden door and gripped the piece of wood underneath with both hands. The board slid out rather easily and she set it to the side before gripping the doorknob. The door swung inwards and for the first time tonight to reveal someone else standing before her.

"Hey," Mike greeted simply to her. Sam was afforded a view of him now that she could see more than just his face. She could see that his face was covered in a layer of dirt and even some scratches. His facial expressions didn't seem to register him being in pain however. Or rather, he had told her about what happened to Jess, so maybe the pain he was in was a different kind.

His attire however definitely stuck out to her. No longer was he wearing that plaid long-sleeve shirt and padded jacket she'd seen him in earlier; now he was wearing some rather oversized dark green jacket that looked like it was made of rugged material. She could even see stitching of numbers here and there on the jacket. Where had he found that thing?

"Jeez Mike, what happened to you?" she asked. Mike gave a quick shrug of his shoulders.

"Ah, you know... the usual..." he said. Sam had to cringe a little at the implication of that response. Of course something bad had happened to him; namely Jess... Thankfully he didn't seem to vocalize that anguish here that he had earlier when she'd found him. Thus it was probably best not to bring up this sensitive topic for the time being. For now, it was good to know that he himself was here, and that she was no longer alone in this cold place.

On that note, she was seriously overdue for a clothing change!

Sam looked over Mike's shoulder and into the room that he was in. It appeared spacious enough with a couple of bare, metallic shelves standing up close by to a brick wall on the opposing wall of this room. That looked like good enough space to finally get some clothes on.

She stepped around Mike and made her way to that small space and lay her backpack down on the ground. As she clicked off her flashlight to place it down too, she suddenly heard Mike speak up again,

"What are you doing...?"

Looking up she found him looking back at her, a strange look of confusion on his face for some reason.

"Well, turns out this ol' towel's not quite the best outfit for running from killer maniacs, you know?" she said, "So, I thought I'd take care of this real quick..." With that she reached both hands down to unzip the main compartment of the backpack. As she did so however, she unconsciously glanced back up at Mike, only to find he was still staring at her? What the hell? Did he not hear what she said? Perhaps she should make it clearer to him.

She raised her hand to motion to spin in place before adding, "Do you mind, Mike?"

"Oh-! Right!" Mike gasped vocally in surprise before clearly taking the message and turning around, "Right, my bad..." His back was now turned completely to her. Would've been better if he wasn't there at all, but at the same time it probably wasn't the best idea to split apart from each other in a time like this neither. So Sam decided to take what she could get as she resumed with her task.

Unzipping her pack she ruffled through her stuffing of clothes until first finding her underwear. As she pulled both her bra and panties out before glancing one more time at Mike to verify that his back was still turned. Once that was confirmed, she reached up to undo the towel from her body. This piece of cloth was a serious trooper, going this whole night on her body, but now it was time to give it a rest.

The towel was then fully divested, leaving her completely bare. Rather hastily she grabbed her panties and put them on, her bra quickly following after that. Finally, after what felt like hours there was some actual clothes on her! She then grabbed her yoga pants and pulled them up and over her legs, then slipped on her white tank top followed by her hiking hoodie. Almost immediately the harsh chill of the surrounding air was reduced considerably already. If only she had remembered to pack a pair of gloves to go with this, but she would just have to make do for now.

Lastly would be her extra pair of socks. Each one was secured over her feet before finally slipping them into her tennis shoes. Her shoes were then tied and Sam then pulled her backpack with her as she stood up. She reached into the pack to grab the headband-light and place it over and around her forehead. A quick press of the button on the side of the bulb section and a beam of bright light quickly dispelled the darkness directly in front of her. Sam felt a smile growing across her lips; no longer was she simply naked and afraid, but instead felt better prepared for the worst.

"Alright..." she said as she clicked her headband-light off and turned back towards Mike. The boy took that as the sign that she had finished and slowly turned around to regard her, "That's much better. Ready to put this thing to bed?"

"Amen to that," Mike casually agreed.

The two of them then proceeded to step out of the room and into the hallway. However, no sooner had they even stepped out when they heard a noise. A rather faint sound, yet the slightest bit familiar.

"... please...!"

"What was that?" Sam spoke in a hushed tone as she tried to listen in closer.

"I can't decide...! I CAN'T DECIDE...!"

"Is that... crying?" Mike said. The sounds at best sounded muffled as well as distant, as if they were originating from some other room completely. From the few words she was able to discern, Sam couldn't shake the feeling that it sounded... familiar? It actually almost sounded like Chris' voice!

"There," Sam pointed out to the large, metallic door directly in front of them, "It's gotta be coming through that door." She and Mike quickly rushed over to the large metallic frame and placed their shoulders firmly against it. The two nodded to each other once, and with one single shove their combined weight caused the door to burst open, revealing to them what lay within.

At first, the only thing Sam could see was complete darkness. Darkness and silence. In an instant, a beam of light suddenly flashed on, shining down from the ceiling about ten to twenty feet away from her and Mike. The distance also gave somewhat of a grasp of the size of the room itself.

But more importantly was what exactly the light was shining down upon specifically: a wooden table, two wooden chairs on opposing sides, and two people sitting in them! Chris and Ashley's heads were lowered, yet slowly began to stir as the light flashed on. They were moving, they were still alive! But, what were they doing here?

And why were there freaking saw blades directly above their heads?!

Before Sam could call out to them, Ashley suddenly gave a shriek as she turned her head to the side. She followed her gaze to where she was looking to find-

Sam's blood froze as she saw a third figure within the dark of the room. The Psycho slowly lumbered forward towards the sitting teens, his head tilted forward and craned a slight angle that looked rather creepy.

"No! No-no-no- GET AWAY!" Ashley cried out. The Psycho continued to walk towards her and Chris, not heeding her frantic cries in the slightest. She thrashed about in her chair while unable to free herself from some sort of shackles holding her arms to the armrests. What was this guy about to do to them now?

Sam caught sight of movement once more, this time watching as Chris' arm suddenly snapped outwards in the direction of the Psycho. Immediately the sound of gunshots rang throughout the room, causing Sam to openly flinch in surprise. Was that a gun Chris was holding; where had that thing come from?

And he really just shot the Psycho with it!

Sam's eyes darted back to the Psycho. The man seemed to recoil from impact as Chris unloaded three shots from the gun, even as the gun continued to click from the spent bullets. The maniac stood in place and with his head bent down almost seemed to be looking down at the front of his body. Except... why wasn't he falling over or something? Chris had hit him, hadn't he? She couldn't tell from this precise distance if there were any bullet holes on his person.

"Oh Chris," the familiar tonal words of the Psycho suddenly spoke. His head looked back up to Chris still holding his gun. He then turned his head back down and shook it slightly from side to side as he walked forward again, "Oh Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris..."

"What the fuck-!?" Chris exclaimed as he looked back and forth between the Psycho and the gun in his hands. The Psycho was now walking around the table to circle him and Ashley. With his back essentially turned to them, Sam and Mike chose this moment to quickly and carefully advance. Maybe he hadn't seen the two of them come in? If not, then that could be their chance to get the jump on him!

"Well you've heard of blanks before," the Psycho said, shrugging his arms at his side. Even with the metallic twinge in his voice, the tone he carried somehow suggested some form of disappointment as well, "I mean really?" The man came to a stop with Chris and Ash directly in front of him. From this angle Sam was able to see the direct side of the man's mask. It didn't seem like he had noticed her and Mike even now. If they were going to do something, they had to do it now!

As she and him moved forward, the Psycho slowly raised his hands up towards his head. No... towards his mask, to grab at its edges. The entire frontal mask and back hair slid off the head of the person underneath, revealing the face of...

---

Emily's head felt so heavy. So thick with something it felt like her head was going to explode. Even her eyelids felt so strained with the simple task of opening. Was she even awake right now? How much more satisfying it would be to simply close them and slip once again into unconsciousness...

In her peripheral vision, a flare of something bright descended from up going down. She was vaguely aware of something passing her, but in a flash was gone just as quickly. She could not for the life of her discern what that might have been.

Another flare of something bright appeared. This time Emily strained her eyelids to open wider. As the flare of light passed yet again, all she could see was complete darkness all around her. The heavy pressure in her head was still present, almost as if every bit of blood in her body was filling her head. Coincidentally, she became aware of her arms up above her head. For some reason she felt a bit of resistance in trying to bring them back down to her sides. What she was feeling was almost similar to a dangling feeling. Almost as if...

She was hanging...?

Eventually, Emily's eyes slowly but surely opened completely. What she saw before her made her gasp deeply. Her heart was beating strangely heavily before, but now it began to beat rapidly as realization sunk in. She sharply drew in breath, a strain on her lungs from drawing in breath... while upside down?

Why was she upside down?!

"Oh God-!" she breathed. Her gaze shot all around her. Everywhere she looked all she could see was darkness; a deep, dark abyss of a cavern stretching downwards for who knows how deep. Where the hell was she?!

Carefully she craned her neck down- or no, she craned her neck 'up' towards what would have been down for her. The world above her changed from deep darkness to bright, and firey? She could see a massive mangling of metallic iron bars, crisscrossing every which way across a massive open hole in the ground above. These bars also held orange flames gracing some of their flames...? Why was there fire? How did she get here? How was she even still alive?!

Squinting closer she could see exactly the answer to that last question. Somehow, her left foot was caught on some long line, stretching all the way up towards one of the metallic bars above her. A metal cable? Perhaps. That single metal cable, having latched on to the edge of her shoe was the only thing keeping her from falling straight down to certain death!

"Oh my God- MATT!" she instinctively called out. And where the hell was that muscle-head?! Was he up there among that mess of wreckage? He had to have been, shouldn't he? Emily's last sight of him was jumping over to that ledge where... It was no use; she couldn't hear him or see any movements of his at all.

Well, that didn't matter now- she had to do something about herself first!

"God! Oh Jesus...!" she cried out loud. Seriously, no wonder her head felt so heavy, especially from this angle! She had to get out of this! But, how and what could she do for herself?

"Shit... oh shit...!"

Only one thing came to her mind in this moment: she'd have to reach up to take hold of the cable that had caught her shoe! It was a long shot, but maybe she could get a better grip on it than the precarious grip it had on her shoe...

Slowly and carefully, Emily curved her stomach and reached her arms down along her body as hard as she could. She could feel blood rushing all around in nearly every part of her body from the inside. Honestly whereas her remaining still while hanging in place was making her real dizzy, this simple act of trying to 'touch her toes' was only making that dizzying feeling worse!

Seriously, it shouldn't be this hard to reach up to grab something near her foot! True she was never the most 'athletic' in school, but she still considered her own belly to be toned enough that she could do something like this! And if ever there was a time for impromptu exercises, it was now!

Alas, she managed to see her hands before her claw desperately, and unsuccessfully, at the cable. The distance between her hands and the wire was so close... but she just couldn't reach it! To make matters worse her stomach was starting to burn with pain from this stretching she was doing.

"Grrgh-!" she strained, "Dammit!"

Emily fully relaxed her body in defeat. She couldn't do it; she just couldn't do it! Somehow it was just too high for her to reach! Her body remained slumped downward as she continued to hang precariously over this dark abyss. This wasn't the end though was it? It couldn't be the end! She was still alive, so she had to do something to save herself!

But what? What could she do?

She turned her neck in every direction before her, desperate to identify anything and everything that could potentially stand out. Unfortunately, not only was there nothing but solid rock and stone comprising the wall before her, but her seeing everything at an upside-down angle wasn't making things any easier for her! This couldn't be right; this wasn't right! There had to be something she could do!

Having scanned every possible thing in front of her, Emily craned her neck back to essentially view everything directly behind her. The familiar bright flare of flames met her eyes, periodically breaking up the permeating darkness. More importantly, the small, miniscule flares of light just barely managed to illuminate the space directly above them. Patches of light here and there helped to paint the image of there being a small outcropping of land stretching out from the wall. Straining her eyes up further, Emily was able to catch a glimpse of something else... was that a piece of metal, stretched out towards her?

Her eyes widened, for it wasn't just a piece of metal; it was an actual metal ladder! Where the hell did that thing come from?! Was it a piece of ladder from the radio tower above her? Emily mentally shook her head; none of that mattered now! The only thing that mattered was getting to it and saving her life!

So why the hell did it have to be so far away and out of her reach?!

'Maybe I can... I can swing to it?' she frantically thought. A quick glimpse down and up to the cable holding her in mid-air did not give her any reassurance, but at this point Emily was out of viable options. It was now or never!

Slowly, she swung her arms forward in front of her as hard as she could. The effect was equally small but noticeable; she could feel herself start to swing in the air. This was unfortunately accompanied by the sound of creaking, unmistakably from the cable itself! Each creaking she heard through her ears she also felt as vibrations through her leg and all throughout her body!

Fixing her gaze to look out behind her, she then swung her arms up and over her head. She could feel the change in momentum as she swung in mid-air. This whole thing felt made her feel like she was an attraction in some circus act, complete with the death-defying stunt work!

In between the squinting of her eyes, Emily frowned as she realized that her current swinging speed wouldn't be enough. The ladder was still out of reach for her, no matter how far she reached! She'd have to swing again to build up speed and distance.

As she swung the opposite way, she continued to feel the cable creaking. The sounds seemed to echo and reverberate all throughout the space of this abyss in addition to filling her ears.

"Please don't break, please don't break, please don't break-!" she silently pleaded.

She could feel the 'up-swing' complete as she proceeded to swing back towards the ladder again. Her eyes strained hard as she fixed them straight up to the very edges of her head. Light reflected off of metallic pieces in small glints, almost guiding her towards her salvation. Her arms remained outstretched and fingers widened; not much further now...

She felt the apex of her 'down-swing', but... No! The very last rung of the ladder was out of reach! Her fingers clawed open air in a desperate bid to grab on to it! With nothing to stop her, she proceeded to swing the opposite way again.

The wasn't going good! Who knows how long this cable was going to keep her remaining in the air?! She could feel and hear the persistent metallic groaning growing ever stronger with each pass, each sound filling her with growing unease. Combined with the rather cold feeling her arms and legs were feeling from the blood having flowed out of them, Emily just had to get out of this now, and fast!

During yet another up-swing, Emily's caught a glimpse of the rock wall, now directly before her. She was swinging so widely by now that she was positively reaching the wall itself! This wasn't good; aside from smacking herself in the face, if she hit that wall now before she was able to grab the ladder, there'd be no way she could reach it due to her specific and precarious positioning!

She felt her swing proceed back towards the ladder again. Air could be felt rushing all around her body and her head as she moved. Her eyes glimpsed once again the darkness of the abyss below as well as the flakes of burning debris that fell around her. Not even they with their miniscule light were sufficient enough to provide any illumination to whatever lay below.

Her eyes fixed once more on the ladder for her third swing forward. She was swinging quite fast and hard now; a feeling welled up inside her that this could be her last time attempting this dangerous stunt!

It was right before she reached the apex of the downswing with her arms stretched out that she felt a release on her leg, followed by the echoing sound of metal snapping in the confined space! The cable, it broke loose!

"AAHHH-!" Emily exclaimed before stopping her scream. Conveniently, she had held her arms out towards the ladder even as the cable had snapped. As a result, her continued momentum during the swing to the ladder essentially 'pushed' her closer to the outer rung! Emily's fingers clamped firmly over the metal object for dear life, her fingers surely freezing from how hard she gripped.

"Oh my God, oh my GOD!" she breathed.

Somehow or other, she had made it! Her impromptu circus swinging had paid off and she was not about to fall to her death!

That is, until she would make her away across the ladder towards the solid ground that lay beneath it.

Emily could feel the blood rushing throughout every inch of her body. Not only due to the quick shift in her body no longer hanging upside down in the air, but probably because her heart was beating so fast and so hard!

Looking forward along the ladder, she could see it stretched forward well enough towards the wall before her, but for the life of her she couldn't tell exactly what was keeping it anchored in place. Not that it mattered in the slightest; as long as it was holding her weight better than the cable had done, she'd be happy. Happy, and alive!

She reached forward to grab the next ladder rung before her with her fist. Her fingers clamped down hard around it and Emily was vaguely reminded of just how freezing cold her fingers likely were when grabbing this metallic object. Her heart continued to hammer in her chest out of sheer terror. She previously had little control when she was dangling by the cable over the abyss, but now she was still dangling over the abyss while holding onto something with her hands. This was NOT the time to screw up now!

Thankfully, one hand led in front and another behind it, Emily was doing fairly well at climbing herself forward as if she were climbing a set of monkey-bars. If anything this was getting easier and easier to do with each-

A deep, rumbling sound quickly drew her attention. Her gaze casually glanced up towards the wreckage poised above her. The mangled metallic remains of the fire tower could still be seen burning away, a threatening inferno just daring itself to fall down towards her. It was also from directly above that Emily caught sight of a smaller piece of flaming debris actually falling down, straight towards her!

"Shit..." she breathed as she watched the object hurtle closer towards her. The angle that thing was falling, it was bound to strike her from how and where she was hanging!

Instinctively, she released her left hand from the rung above her. She could feel the muscles in her right arm practically screaming from the sudden change in weight. Still, her right hand remained clamped tight and the flaming object fell directly past and just barely missing her.

Turning her head back up her eyes widened in horror yet again; another flaming piece of debris was falling towards her! Worse still, it was falling at the complete opposite side of the first one! This meant that with all of her body transferred to her hanging from her right arm, she'd likely be hit for sure! There wasn't even time to quickly swap arms to move...

Before Emily even knew what was happening, she found herself falling straight down. Wind rushed all around her head and her body as she tumbled. Her conscious mind finally relayed to her that she had instinctively released the rung simply to avoid getting hit by a fire ball! This was really it, wasn't it? All of that work and effort to avoid falling into a pit of darkness, only for-

With a small thud, Emily hit something beneath her and felt the air knocked out of her lungs. Dazed, she placed both hands upon the solid surface where she now sat. Her senses slowly but surely came back to her to help her understand that there was in fact solid ground beneath her! She hadn't fallen into the dark abyss below because she had climbed along the ladder just far enough to land over the land outcrop!

A quick shake of her head and she fixed her eyes forward to get her bearings. There was still a good one or two feet of ledge between her and the edge of the cliff in front of her. While looking straight up again, Emily once more gazed upon the massive wreckage of the burning fire tower. The mangled mess of twisted metal was positively groaning and filling the cavern's tight space with its echoes of reverberating metal, all along the walls. With every groan heard, the entire structure shifted down closer her ever so slightly. Emily found herself strangely transfixed by this entire scene of impending doom. A part of her mind she could feel was telling her to move, but for some reason she continued to watch on in morbid fascination.

Her hypnotized gaze was sharply broken by pain suddenly arcing itself up her body from her leg. Emily's eyes briefly clenched shut and she groaned in pain before looking down to assess what had just happened.

There, amidst a ripped slash into her denim pant leg lay a red gash on her leg itself. Something had fallen just now and smacked against her leg hard enough to break the skin and draw a little blood! Her teeth grit from the sting of throbbing pain that her leg was feeling now.

She gripped all around her injured leg and carefully pulled on it as she inched her own body backwards away from the edge. Her own absent-mindedness had cost her just now and she needed to get her head in the game!

The groaning of metal above her was growing louder into a dull roar by this point. Emily kept a firm yet gentle grip on her injured leg as she shuffled herself back and away from the chasm. The space between her and the edge grew further and further with each movement. She had to move faster; that thing was going to fall any second!

As if right on cue, the roar of groaning metal erupted into a mighty roar. Emily watched completely awe-struck as the entire tower's remains soared straight down right before her. The light from the raging inferno it carried with it broke up the darkness of the abyss briefly as it fell. But more importantly, it fell straight down and completely missed her!

And just like that, the tower was gone completely. The roar it had produced decreased in volume and intensity as it tumbled down until it could barely be heard anymore. The chasm itself was once again cloaked in darkness, silence, as well as cold.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, Emily broke herself from her daze to pull herself up to her feet. She almost regretted it as the sting of pain from her leg shot up her body. She hissed with pain with each movement. Nearby patches of burning debris decorated the space around her and affording her just a little bit of light to see. With the light provided for her, she glanced down she could see small streaks of blood were beginning to run down the length of her shin and stain the ripped edges of her jean leg. Her leg already hurt enough to literally stand on, how was she going to get anywhere just by limping?

In the midst of her shuffling, she became aware that she had landed on something. Her rear end felt reasonably sore at having landed straight on it; most likely having bruised her back there as well. Had she landed on some rock beneath her? Her eyes then narrowed as she still felt something beneath her. Her hand drifted back down towards her back pockets, brushed against her right side, and instantly felt something within.

Emily's eyes widened as she remembered: the flare gun!

Hastily she reached in to pull the gun forth from her back pocket and hold it before her. Under the light of the surrounding fires, the utility tool nearly glowed with its bright orange neon in her hand. Twisting it all around, Emily found herself amazed that the object was still intact. It didn't appear to be damaged as far as she could see.

"Fat lot of good this does me..." she groaned as she returned the gun into her back pocket. She needed a constant source of light if she was going to get out of here, not a burst of light that would fizzle out a few minutes later...

She brought her gaze back down, away from her scratched leg, to survey the ground around her feet this time. There, laying next to her left foot lay a stick of wood, about the size of her own arm if it were stretched out. She reached down to take the wood in her hand. It felt surprisingly light in her hand. Not the best, but it would do for what she needed. Of course the other thing she needed to make this a proper torch was something to catch fire with.

Emily glanced down at her own front again. Aside from her phone, the flare gun, and her father's credit card, there weren't any other items in her pocket that would suit her need. Even the very clothing she wore she wouldn't dare mess it up like-

Her eyes then lingered on her wool shirt she wore under her jacket. It was in fact made of wool, like, some cotton-like material. And cotton would burn, wouldn't it? She grit her teeth in frustration; it was foolish to complain about this now, especially when her very survival depended on something like this!

"Oh God..." she groaned. With her open hand she made a small rip into the bottom edge of her shirt about an inch and a half long. Once it was long enough she proceeded to carefully rip it sideways, travelling along the length of her belly and all around behind her.

"Here goes like six hundred bucks..." she remarked. One final rip and Emily now had a thin yet length strip of her own shirt in her fingers. She then held the piece of wood under her opposing arm to free up both of her hand to tie it around the tip.

"This better be worth it- I looked great in that top!" she moaned to herself as she worked.

Once the cloth had been tied around the tip as best as she could manage, Emily took hold of her makeshift torch in hand again. She held it out to dip the tip end into a nearby patch of burning fire, where it almost instantly took to flame.

"Alright...!" Emily spoke with clear relief in her voice as she pulled her new torch back, "Now we're talking!"

Emily's world soon became a gentle glow of bright orange light before her. It wasn't enough to dispell 'all' of the surrounding darkness, but for what it was it was good enough. Even the bit of warmth she could feel from the flame was greatly appreciated as well. At this point, with all that she had on her at the moment, Emily would take whatever good she could afford.

If only the same could be said for her leg.

As Emily slowly turned in place to gage her precise location, her leg erupted in stinging pain yet again. Her leg wound would need to be treated soon as well too.

She reached down to rip off yet another strip of her own shirt when the glowing light from her torch brought something to her attention. Her shirt was already a decent size length that it had covered the length of her belly and a little of her jean's waistline. It was even a size smaller for what it was supposed to be when she got it! As it was now though... Any more shirt ripped off would essentially expose her belly to the world.

'So what? It's not like I'm worried about showing off to anybody!' she thought to herself. A fresh shiver ran along the length of her body, reminding her of the fact that even with the flame of her torch before her she was still feeling a little chilly. As much as it pained her to admit, it was still plenty freezing both outside in the snowy weather and even in this dark, creepy cavern. To say nothing of what, if anything, that might be lurking within...

"Fine...! No more ripping my shirt!" she pouted to herself. Of course this meant that she'd have to find something else to cover the gash in her leg.

She reached down to carefully and gently slide a ripped edge of her jeans over the cut. The wound thankfully wasn't that large, yet it stung all the same when she tried to cover it with the edges. The stinging practically radiated up through her leg, causing her to nearly bite her lip to keep from crying out. Why hadn't she been paying attention earlier and moved her leg?! None of this would've happened if she'd just more attentive!

She eventually pulled her hand away from her leg. The harsh sting was replaced by a dull sting that still hurt, but not nearly as much as when direct pressure had been applied. What's more, the leg gash had been completely covered by the ripped jeans edge at least. A quick glance at the palm of her hand showed her the blood that remained. Scrunching her face in disgust Emily wiped her palm hard on the side of her jacket as best as she could. Inside she rationaled that was all she was capable of doing for herself. The most she could do now was try and find her way out of this creepy cavern.

One painful, limping step at a time...

From what the light of her torch was barely able to illuminate for her, Emily could barely see the outlines of the small tunnel she had to walk through before her. Each step she took into the tunnel, the surrounding walls were lit up further by her torch. Emily didn't like this; it almost felt as if they were closing in on her from how close and tight they were. Everywhere that she could see were these large pieces of wood propped up against the walls and ceiling, almost like support beams. Where was she right now? Some kind of mine?

Her feet practically dragged across the ground with every step taken. Nearly every bit of contact her right foot made to the ground sent a sting of pain up her leg. She glanced down to see that the patch of pants covering her wound had been soaked a dark crimson by now. Gross as the sight was, there was little else that she could do for her injury at this point. In fact with something covering over it, maybe the open bleeding would stemmed just a little for the moment.

Her torchlight illuminated the image of some nearby metal tin plates off to the side. The old, rustic kinds that farmers would typically have on the roofs of their chicken coops. At the same time, Emily stopped dead in her tracks.

She gasped as her breath hitched from hearing something. Something distant, yet the echo it produced made it seem to last even longer. It was some kind of... a shriek? A cry? From some animal out somewhere? Whatever it was, the sound of it alone made Emily's heartbeat spike even harder in fear.

"Hello...?" she whimpered.

Unfortunately, or perhaps thankfully, no one answered her small sound she uttered. That distant cry was also gone as well, just as quickly as it had been heard initially. It didn't make her feel anymore assured in the slightest. If anything her anxiety had only spiked. Each step she took seemed to echo even louder in her ears, and even more so from the surrounding echoes of the cavern walls. Her heart was practically pounding in rhythm with every step taken.

Squinting her eyes slightly as she focused forward, Emily could see the faint outline of more wooden boards directly before her. Walking forward more, she could see they were stacked up horizontally and almost atop each other in the form of a wall. There was no doubt this was man-made, which means if people had made this creepy mine however many years ago, there had to be some way to get out of here... right?

She slowed her walk so that the wall was right in front of her. The rotting boards also held a pale piece of some kind of sign atop them. The picture of... an elevator?

Emily's gasp a little at the sight; it WAS an elevator sign! Which meant there was a way to get out of here! Shifting in place momentarily, she was thus reminded of the stinging pain in her leg yet again. Best she curtail her excitement; she had to get to this elevator first!

The same sign also contained a large arrow pointing to the right where the cavern tunnel itself also turned towards. Emily twisted herself and the torch's light to the right, only to find the path was practically cloaked in darkness. Even with the light she held in her hand and even with the wall of wooden boards stretching out along that path as well, there was still no clear way to see down further where it would lead. Not without actually walking further on and down this pathway herself. Glancing her head up one more time, Emily could not hear any more of those strange shrieking sounds at the moment. She thus took it as mild assurance that it was safe to move on.

Her torch held directly in front of her did help to break up most of the darkness before her to allow her to see where she took each step. The natural ground itself gradually began to incline downward ever so slightly before ending with wooden stairs that continued in their place.

Emily winced slightly as she found placing her injured foot down upon each descending step send dull stabs of pain up her leg. How much further would she have to walk down? A quick glance before her showed that the steps reached down for a good ten or so feet, with at least twenty more steps to walk down before a patch of flat ground could barely be seen. She swallowed a silent groan and continued to walk down.

Eventually, Emily reached the bottom. She placed both feet upon the flat ground and found herself curving left as directed by the path's direction. Her torch held in front of her has she gently but slowly peered around the corner. Her breath held and her heart pounded in her chest with each tentative movement.

The first thing that Emily could see was wood. Directly in front of her was a wall of wood lining the far side across from her, while directly perpendicular to it on the right side another wall of wood stood up next to it. Between them both some wooden planks could be seen lining the stony ground even as it slanted an incline from the left side. She quickly realized that she was in fact able to identify what she could see not from the light of her own torch, but from a completely different source of light. Through the cracks of the wall on the right side, a gentle yet dim glow shone through upon the ground and upon some of the opposing wall. Above all however, there was no movement to be seen at all as far as Emily could tell, which was as good a sign as any that it was safe to move forward.

Emily gingerly took one step after another to emerge out from the tunnel she walked from and into the larger area. She then made her way closer to the wooden wall on the right side. Upon closer inspection and thanks to her torch's light, she could see that this wall was actually a massive wooden gate that would lead to yet another section of cavern on the other side. Her eyes furrowed and she frowned upon noting the large, heavy-duty chain that held the doors locked in place.

"Come on..." she silently moaned. She pressed her shoulder against the wooden gate and pushed. The gate did not budge an inch though, the rattling of the locked chain only serving to taunt her.

She stepped back from the gate. This was no use, she just wasn't strong enough herself to break through, and that chain looked like it was locked up tight. But she had to get out of here! There had to be something she could use...

Emily looked down at the ground she stood upon. Or rather, at the large metal rails that rest upon the stone ground itself. As she followed along where they led, she was quickly reminded of the incline of land that she stood upon. In theory something could come rolling down this slope and crash through this wood. Like a round boulder, or even a mine-cart? Her torch-light could only reach so far, meaning she'd have to walk herself up to investigate...

The muscles in her shins burned a little from walking up the incline. Not only that, but her injured leg was beginning to burn even more from the extraneous force it was being put through. At the same time, somehow it felt slightly better than walking up a snow-covered incline. At least now she wasn't trudging her feet through ice cold snow.

A sound filled the air again. There it was- that shrieking noise, belonging to whatever creature that could've been. Emily shivered as she felt her blood grow colder. She did not want to be here. Why did she have to end up here...!?

Her gaze fell forward again, and the light of her torch brought something to her attention. Following along the mine tracks, eventually she found a large, four-wheeled, metallic cart. Even from the current distance between her and it, Emily could see this would absolutely get the job done! This thing was big, heavy, and already set on these tracks to roll down and crush anything before it! Except... why wasn't it moving?

Emily stepped behind the cart and pushed against it with both of her hands. She could feel the cart moving barely a couple of centimeters, but nowhere near enough to be able to begin rolling down this hill! She pushed even harder, her teeth gritting, but the cart remained in place as if caught on something! How the heck do these carts move if not-

Her eyes glanced up towards the front of the cart. Sticking over the top of the edge a handle's lever could be seen. With a tilted head she approached the lever. Was this how these things worked? An old-timey parking brake for mining carts?

She reached up and pulled the lever towards her. Instantly the cart's wheels squeaked loudly as the entire cart began to roll forward. Emily nearly jumped back by the sudden action, but at least something was going right so far.

Rumbling of wheels on tracks filled the air as the cart practically raced down the incline towards the wooden gate. Emily herself slowly followed after it as quickly as her injured leg would allow her to. In spite of that however, a small grin formed on her lips. That cart would make short work of that old, rotten wooden wall and its metal chain no problem, and she'd be able to get through!

Even from the growing distance between the two of them, Emily had a clear view to watch as the cart successfully smashed straight through the wood as if it were made of paper! The crash itself sent echoes that practically thundered through the dark, enclosed space around her. The cart then continued to roll forward after crashing for a few feet before colliding into some sort of cart bumper at the end of the tracks. This whole thing was pretty loud just now, but no matter; the way was open to her and she was planning to get out of here now!

Upon reaching the bottom of the incline Emily walked through the destroyed gate and into the open of the next room. She was quick to note that she was walking on an actual floor of wooden boards rather than the stone ground itself. Not only that, but the wooden floor led her to an old elevator shaft! Emily's torch-light illuminated a nearby sign to verify this shaft being what it appeared to be, which filled her own being with a sense of genuine hope. Where there was an elevator, there was bound to be a way out of here!

On the frame outside of the shaft lay a small unlit brazier. Emily held her torch up just close enough for the brazier to catch some of the flame. Finally, a notable foothold had been left by her in case she would ever be lost. Not to mention the increase in light in the dark, dreary place.

She then stepped into the elevator car itself, the small metallic lever just beckoning her with the promise of salvation. Thank goodness this car was still here at all; who cares how or why, she was not going to look this gift horse in the mouth!

Emily took hold of the lever in her hand and pulled. For a handful of seconds, aside from the cranking sound of the lever grinding against metal, the car remained stationary. There wasn't even any whirring sound of machinery to indicate anything was happening. Emily's smile slowly faded and her hope slowly began to evaporate. Why was nothing happening? What was going on?

She rapidly pulled down on the lever a number of times in frustration, each time being met with the same result. Unbelievable! Her one chance to get out of here and this thing wasn't even powered on?!

"Shit!" she silently cursed as she stepped back out of the space of the shaft.

"Okay Em, think," she attempted to compose herself, "How do I get this thing on...?" Well, it was an elevator, which meant like those in high-rise buildings, it had to be powered by something, right? Electricity? A gas generator or something? Would old timey miners even have stuff like that for this old, ancient equipment?

She looked up towards the top edge of the shaft. Nearby a black cord could be seen hanging and draped from above and linking all the way across to... A large cage?

Emily squinted her eyes and held her torch light up closer. No, that wasn't simply a cage, it was a set of chain-link walls atop an upper section of more wooden boards, about ten feet above the ground. The draping cord led all the way back to it while it was connected somewhere here at the elevator shaft. It was a long shot, but... A very large extension cord plugging in to the elevator from what might be the source up there? She glanced all around her, everywhere an indicator of what little options she had left. This large cavern was dark, creepy, dangerous, and not where she'd like to be right now; time to get up there!

As Emily walked closer towards the chain-linked upper floor, she could see a metal ladder gradually appearing in view before her. It rose from the ground she herself stood on to the upper balcony above her. At least her way up there was clear and obvious enough. While to the far left of the ladder itself Emily could barely see what looked like some old chart of sorts next to a couple benches. People definitely worked down here some time ago, some really crazy people. The sort of people who would say yes to working deep in a dark and scary mine in a mountain...

She finally reached the ladder when she noticed a dark corridor of another tunnel directly in back of the ladder. She could feel a spike of fear and adrenaline as she glanced at it and all that her torch-light was able to illuminate at this distance. She found herself clutching the ladder more quickly and tighter, eager to get up and away.

With one hand keeping hold on her torch she slowly and carefully made her way up the ladder rung by rung. How many times was she going to be climbing ladders anyway? First the ladders of the fire tower and now this? At least this one felt just as sturdy; she'd rather not experience falling down yet again tonight.

Finally she reached the top of the ladder and the upper balcony. She reached her arm forward to gently place the torch on the ground. This would be a lot easier to do with two free hands-

The sound of metal snapping suddenly rang out and Emily snapped to attention. Instantly this was followed by the world rushing around her; the ladder was falling backwards and taking her with it! Her hands had both been gripping the top rung of the ladder as well during when she was falling backwards so she never even had time to reach out and grab the wood of the balcony either! Before she knew it the ladder had fallen straight down onto the wooden boards beneath her, but to Emily's only rising shock, she found herself breaking right through them!

Emily shrieked in terror as she fell, the world around her drastically darkening from complete absence of light. Aside from the rapidly diminishing glimmer of light from the hole that she'd just fallen through, she was falling straight down into yet another pitch black hole! She couldn't see a single thing yet she could positively 'feel' the rush of motion as she fell. Occasionally she'd feel the sensation of rock or some other hard material scraping against her back as she essentially slid downwards.

Her hands flailed all about, desperate to grab onto... something! Anything, to stop or even slow down her lengthy tumble! Alas, her hands only grasped at lose soil of the walls around her and continued to fall.

"FUCK-!"

At last, she felt her legs touch down against more solid ground after a few seconds of sliding down. The continued forward momentum caused her to stumble forward and fall face down onto the ground. Emily's fall had finally stopped, but she herself felt completely humbled and humiliated in this moment.

"Oh, GOD...!" she groaned.

Eventually the world around her gradually stopped spinning. Not that it did her much good with how little she could see in this pitch black darkness. On top of her disorientation, stinging pain had flared up in her injured leg yet again from hitting the ground as hard as it did. In addition, her forehead held a strange stinging sensation as well.

As she carefully raised herself up and propped herself up on one arm, she reached up with her other arm to touch the right side of her forehead. She quickly felt something wet beneath her fingertips. In an instant, she was reminded of that piece of debris that had hit her in the head back when the tower was first falling! Seriously? How long had her forehead been bleeding without her noticing before now?!

"Damn..."

Emily grit her teeth as she struggled to force herself back to her feet. This proved especially difficult with her leg sending stinging pain radiating up her shin with each bit of effort she forced upon it. Eventually she managed to plant both feet back onto relatively solid ground, followed by her straightening her legs. Glancing down around her though, she could barely see little more than a foot around her, save for the faint outline of her own body before her.

'Great, just great...' she thought to herself. Like an idiot she just had to leave her torch back up there and she just had to fall down yet another dark and creepy hole. Now how was she going to get out of this?!

Her hands lightly patted over her sides, unconsciously taking stock of what all she still had on her. Miraculously, or for whatever good it would do, she felt the bulge of the flare gun in her back pocket. That darn thing was still there, after that downward slide she'd just gone through? What were the odds of that? Well, at the moment some light would be good for this darkness-

Emily's thoughts snapped out of that option upon patting her side pocket. Her phone! It was still in her pocket! If anything she could use the light from her phone to light up this dark place! Yeah, plus again a flare gun was probably good for only one use and in one single place. She needed a constant source of light if she were planning to get out of here...

She slid her phone out of her pocket and into her hand. A silent curse was uttered upon realizing that she hadn't completely charged this thing since coming up to the mountain in the first place. Oh well, here's hoping she'd quickly find her way back out of 'this' dark place and back into the 'other' dark place that she'd fallen into... God, what a mess this whole thing was!

A tap on the phone brought up her settings menu, where the button for phone flashlight could be seen. She tapped her finger on the button and was greeted with a flash of light-

SKULLS! Human skulls!

"AAAAAHHHH!" Emily shrieked in terror yet again. Her eyes widened as she found herself standing before not just one, but a whole bunch of human skulls posed on metal poles and littering the ground before her!

Instinctively she dashed back and desperately attempted to clamber up the incline that she had fallen from. Her efforts were met with clawed dirt in her hands as she unfortunately remained at the bottom.

"No no no no-!" she cried out. This even more horrifying! Surrounded by actual human bones, and her not being able to climb out of here!

Eventually, she abandoned her attempts to try and climb back out. Her heart-rate only continued to spike and her breathing grew more frantic. She slowly turned herself and her phone around, desperate to hope that the bones were not there- nope, they still were.

"Urrrgh-! God... Disgusting!"

They were everywhere too! Why were there so many human bones around here?! Were these miners? Maybe even the ones that used that old clock-in machine back up top? What had happened to them...?

Her phone's light briefly twitched upwards in front of her, unconsciously reminding Emily not only that it was still on but of the dark yet obvious path set before her. Staying here wasn't an option, but she'd have to be careful to step around these bones and not step on any of them...

"Gross, gross, gross...!" she muttered. Step by step, ever forward, it seemed the bones just continued on as far as she walked. Every so often she had to step around a stray piece of bone that just happened to be where her foot would've stepped. Worse still, the walls all around her felt like they would actually close in on her. A horrible feeling that she'd not only be crushed down here, in complete darkness, but likely her own bones added to this impromptu graveyard!

Her phone's light continued to shine forward and illuminate the path directly before her at least. There was a way to go, even if it was shrouded in impenetrable darkness, but there was a way to go. If Emily could just keep following it, then it would have to lead her somewhere! This was starting to sound routine at this point...

As she gently walked forward, Emily became faintly aware that the path was slowly beginning to curve to the right. Her phone's light shone upon the more irregularly jagged sections of the walls around her. She could see the darker shade of black contrasting to the lighter shade of the ground that she walked on.

A sound ripped through the cavern's airspace again. Emily came to an abrupt halt, her breath hitching in a gasp and her heart spiking even faster. There it was again- that shrieking sound! The sound of some... some kind of creature! Her eyes and her camera phone light darted all around in response.

But just like before, the sound vanished just as quickly as it had been heard! Somehow simply not knowing what made that sound made it much scarier than if she had some idea of what exactly.

"M-Matt...?" she found herself muttering. She couldn't believe she was thinking this now; Matt, the same guy that had jumped off the tower for... whatever reason and away from her, and here she was wishing that he were here with her now! Still, where could he be right now? Lost in this mountain mine as she herself was?

Emily passed underneath two massive wooden boards posing as support beams above her in an arc formation. She could then see a small cutout in a nearby stone wall directly in front of her with a thin wall of wooden planks boarded up over it. She came to a pause in front of them and shone her light through the cracks of the boards. From what little she was able to see, it looked like there was a larger space on the other side. But could she get herself past these boards?

She placed an empty palm against them and pressed lightly. To her shock and relief, she could feel the boards giving ever so slightly against her gentle push. It wouldn't be enough for a single hand however, but at the very least she had a mind that with enough force she could practically bust herself through!

Emily stood back, prepped her right shoulder, then shoved with all her strength she could muster.

The boards quickly fell away to her shove with a resounding crash. For a moment Emily feared the loud noise being heard, but her fear was quickly overtaken by relief. Who cares if she was heard at this point? She was through and she would be moving on!

She then stepped a few feet forward and into the larger clearing. This entire area itself was like a large cavern with a number of small tunnels here and there and wooden planks set up to mark each one's entrances. There sure were a lot of these around here; which one was she meant to go through?

However the further in she walked and shone her light up, her frown steadily grew and what she saw. She could see a number of rocks at the very base of these entrances which only grew larger in size. Nearly every one of them were caved in!

"Oh- Are you serious?!" she silently whined. She frantically looked back and forth between each cave entrance only to find they remained the same. Every one of them were blocked off and inaccessible to her.

"Now where the heck am I supposed to..."

Her gaze followed the direction of her camera light shining in one direction. The nearby wall to her right became illuminated in a gentle white glow of light. She could easily see the rough, jagged texture of the stone wall with tiny shadows here and there to punctuate the unevenness. However, rough stone rock was not the only thing to be found.

Emily caught sight of a ladder upon the wall! Well, to be more specific, the broken piece of the top of a ladder seen at the higher section of the wall itself. Following the ladder piece up, she could just barely make out the top edge of what appeared to be a cliff edge! There was no denying that ladder had been put there to reach down to where she stood right now!

"Fucking perfect..." she muttered as she brought her eyes back down to her level. A few feet away and nearby her own feet lay the remains of said ladder. Even from this distance Emily could see that it was in fact broken off from years of rust and wear having destroyed it. This thing barely resembled a normal shape of what a ladder should look like, much less would be able to be used again.

She glanced back up to the ladder top seen above her head, its position up there seemingly mocking her with the promise of salvation, tantilizingly out of reach. A frantic glance back and forth towards the tunnel entrances only reminded her the direness of her situation. There literally were no other options for her; if she was to ever get out of here... she'd have to get up there somehow!

"Oh, this had better work...!"

Emily approached the wall, intent to see her hope of survival through climbing through. She would be the first to admit that climbing stuff wasn't her forte, at least compared to someone like Sam, but her reminder of her little to no options served as motivation.

Fortunately the rock of the wall before her held plenty sizable handholds, which were more than big enough for her to place a hand over and a foot on top of. Emily quickly turned her phone of and pocketed it to free up both of her hands. She reached up with both hands to grab-

A noise suddenly erupted through the cavern, causing her to jump back in surprise. Her heart practically hammered in her chest at the sudden sound erupting out of nowhere. Worse still, this sound was quickly followed up by more shrieks from those-

Wait, 'shrieks'? There was more than one thing making that horrible shrieking sound?!

Emily snapped her head up and all around, desperate to pinpoint the source. The echoes were beginning to die down by now, but her anxiety remained as high as ever. Whatever had scared her with those noises had seemingly vanished, with her not knowing at all where they had even come from!

Hands much more shaking once again returned to the bumps of the rock wall. The stone felt cold beneath her fingers, but she held a firm enough grip on the handholds. Looking up she could see the bottom end of the ladder above her. It was just so high up though! It would take forever to get there from where she was now!

Jumping or leaping up to there was pretty much out of the question; she hated climbing, or at least thought herself bad at it compared to someone like Sam. But, if there was any hope of her actually getting out of here... she would have to make this climb! Painstakingly slowly as it likely would take.

One by one, Emily reached her hands further upwards to take hold of the jutted rock directly above her. As she did so she placed a foot of her uninjured leg on the rock at the most ground level and planted her weight upon it. A thought suddenly flashed across her mind: would her injured leg hinder her too much when trying to climb? She pursed her lips and gritted her teeth; her problems just kept piling up for her, didn't they...?!

Gingerly, she raised her injured leg up to the nearest foothold and gently applied pressure. Her effort was met with slow but dull pain shooting up her leg and throughout her body. It almost became too much to bear in that moment, but Emily powered through the pain. She secured the foot of her injured leg on its own foothold just as she'd done with the other leg. She also made sure to mentally assure herself that her entire weight wasn't placed upon her injured leg or even one leg in general. It did little to ease her rapidly beating heart, but it was something.

Looking up again, Emily caught sight of what appeared to be a ring of iron somehow nailed into the wall. She reached up and took a firm hold of the ring and pulled herself further up. This was good, she was steadily making more progress. Even glancing up the top section of the ladder was growing ever closer to her.

With another wince she forced her injured leg to make the leg up and secure itself first on its foothold. She then quickly brought her other foot up and placed it on a nearby rock. Once both feet were in place, Emily reached up to take hold of a jutted rock seen above the iron ring. Somehow in the midst of her climbing, she noted that she was beginning to work up a sweat. Aside from how she could sweat when it was chilly here, it still made her feel slightly gross and hoped she would be reaching the top soon.

"Gotta... time this right..." she muttered to herself.

The ladder was directly above her now, about three or so feet away. So tantalizingly close; Emily in theory could potentially jump up there to grab it, but... She started to instinctively glance down to her injured leg until she caught herself. She had to have climbed up considerably by now and looking down in general was not a good idea. She instead kept her gaze trained solely on the ladder. This was it, if she was going to do this, then it was now or never...!

Emily mustered all the strength she could into her legs to push off. Her injured leg sent waves of pain radiating up her body in addition to the burn of her muscles. In that moment, Emily was almost blind to the pain completely. Even to the feeling of air rushing around her head and through her hair as she felt her body leaping up. Her hands reached out desperate to grab the lower ladder rung as it drew closer. Almost...!

"Got it!"

Emily's hands clamped down hard on the metal. Her body swung a little from the change in momentum, but eventually she came to a pause in movement. But that was the important thing: she had caught the ladder, and she wasn't falling! Her climb had worked, and she wasn't going to die! Well, not yet anyway; she still had to ascend this rusted piece of crap.

"Alright..."

Her right arm's muscles burned a little as she pulled herself up. Legs were planted as best they could against the face of the rock wall in an attempt to 'walk' up it. Her left hand quickly took hold of the rung above her right hand, with her right foot quickly following up to the lowest rung. At once, Emily could feel a surge of relief as well as nervousness. This was a big step, but also the most dangerous; while she was finally on the ladder there was the chance that it could break off just as easily as the piece that lay on the ground far below. She felt her hands clamp down just a little tighter at the thought.

Climbing the ladder did prove to be somewhat as easy as she'd hoped however. She almost bothered to notice that the outer edges of the ladder themselves were actually made of wood, contrasting the metal rungs themselves. With each rung ascended a silent prayer was made that the ladder would keep holding together, for just a little longer.

Eventually after what felt like an eternity of climbing, Emily finally reached the top of the ladder. She tentatively pulled herself up and over it and the cliff's edge, a few feet inward and further away from the edge entirely. She made it! Yet another thing was managing to go right for her at least.

Emily reached back down to retrieve her phone and light up the darkness with its camera light. Thankfully no gross bones were found this time when she turned it on again. Instead she was met with the sight of a couple of large pipes running vertically along the wall directly in front of her. The wall itself curved inward to the left and funneled into a small tunnel with a wooden pathway lining the ground, indicating the only direction to go from here. Again into yet another dark and creepy tunnel; what else was new?

The tunnel began to narrow down in size slightly as Emily began to walk within. Not only that, but the ground she walked on elevated up slightly and almost seemed to 'push' her closer to the already narrow ceiling. All of this combined created a feeling of being crushed from all around. Emily's light wasn't providing much comfort either as a layer of mist filled this air that she was only able to see because of the light. Granted she was able to see barely a few feet in front of her, just enough to get a sense of forward being the only way to go. But at the same time, it was creepy to be walking deep into thick fog with only hope to guide you.

Another shriek filled the air, causing her to gasp again. This one sounded close by, but not directly in front of her. The echoing itself seemed to bounce off of the walls around her, which with them being so close to her only made it seem even louder!

Emily froze in place, gripped by not only the chill of the air but by cold terror. The sound vanished just as quickly as it had been heard, but the girl was still on edge as a result of it. Her eyes darted all around instinctively only to be met with narrow walls and misty air.

"Matt...?"

Her voice sounded so feeble when escaping her lips, especially when she distinctly remembered calling out his name a little stronger. She should've felt angry and the muscle-head for leaving her! She should absolutely hate his guts that he hadn't tried to save her back there! And yet... Emily found herself completely missing the guy so much. More than anything she wanted him back at her side. Maybe having some company with her when she was fearing for her life was enough to offset being scared out of her mind in a dark and scary cave...

She managed to press herself on and forward. On all sides of her that she could see and from what her phone light illuminated she was met with either rough and jagged rock wall or the occasional metal pipes that stretched up and along their length. The tunnel and the wooden walkway both gradually began to curve to the right before straightening back out.

Emily walked a few feet in front of her before another sound filled her ears. A rather familiar sound that filled her with just as much dread. Her eyes darted back down to her phone to find the screen was dimming! Even the flashlight on the exterior was fading in intensity!

"Oh no-!" she muttered as she eyed the screen. Sure enough, the dreaded symbol of 'BATTERY DEPLETED' blinked across the top of her screen. Shortly after the screen slowly dimmed until it had completely faded to darkness as it powered down.

"Oh come ON! For fuck's sake...!"

Wasn't this just perfect? Her one time she hadn't charged her phone and now it looked like it was going to cost her big time! Now she wouldn't even have any means of contacting anyone even IF she managed to get out of this mine!

"Son of a bitch..." she cursed under her breath before pocketing her phone again. A wave of her skin prickling ran all across her body. Now she was going to have to find some other source of light to-

"UuuuAAAAHHHH-!"

"Jesus- SHIT!"

Emily practically jumped in place as a burst of sound erupted around her yet again. This time, she caught the very faint sign of light barely lighting up the tunnel directly in front of her. And the shrieking! So much was happening all at once: the creepy shrieks of some creature, that burst of something mechanical-sounding, that momentary light, and... a person's voice?

Her eyes darted all around in front of her, desperate to either pinpoint the source or to even anticipate something- ANYTHING, to just jump out at her and get it over with! She even held her position for a few seconds, the sound of her own heart beating filling her ears now. It was comforting as it was terrifying.

After what felt like minutes pass by, Emily dared to continue to move forward ever so slightly. The path was beginning to curve ever so slightly to the left and just barely around a nearby corner. The tunnel was still pitch black but Emily could still see the outline of a wooden catwalk extending up from the natural stone ground. That was... something, at least. More manmade objects suggested that she was still on the right track; however comforting it was meant to be.

That burst of noise and light had definitely happened so close by, and yet Emily couldn't see anything that might suggest she was not alone. She couldn't see the outline of anyone, or anything, before her at all. She took very small, tentative steps closer to the wood path before slowly ascending the wooden stairs. Creak after creak followed each step her feet planted upon each board. Thankfully each step held completely and didn't break.

She rounded yet another corner to the right along where the walkway curved. Almost immediately she caught sight of a small light; a small image of flame. Emily nearly recoiled in place, the sounds she'd heard earlier ringing in her ears again. Except, she steeled herself and focused her hearing. There wasn't any actual sound echoing through these caves; only her imagination and recollection.

Carefully and tentatively, Emily approached the source of what was producing this light. Almost instantly, realization set in, along with a renewed sense of hope! Her torch! It was still there, laying atop where she had let go of it earlier!

As much as Emily desired to dash over to her torch, the pain in her leg put a mild hamper in her step. Still, her reinvigorated hope somehow managed to numb the pain ever so slightly. In no time at all she had reached down to pick the torch back up in her hand.

Her world was surrounded once more by the familiar orange glow of burning light. She could feel her confidence swelling up along with the glow that surrounded her. It was such a little thing to be sure, but somehow being reunited with this simple tool that had provided such a basic necessity as light was a huge comfort for her. She could feel her anxiety slowly melting away from her, as if the heat from the torch was melting it for her. Well okay, maybe not 'completely', but enough for now.

Her eyes glanced around where she stood. Her eyes nearly lit up again as she further realized: she now stood upon the wooden balcony, where she was trying to reach the first time! Where the ladder had broken before and thrown her down! Even more perfect, but then that would mean now she could search for...

She gently made her way forward and closer to the wooden rail-guarded edge of the balcony. A section had been specifically constructed with something being held within. Emily drew herself and her torch light closer to inspect... A switch! A large, single-handled switch flipped into the down position. Even better, a couple of wires could be seen connecting from the switch all the way across to... the elevator!

Rather hastily she took hold of the switch's handle and tugged. The rusted handle gave the smallest bit of resistance due, but nonetheless slowly cranked up along with Emily's motion. The handle was flipped up completely into the 'on' position and a new sound filled the cavern space. A couple of previously unseen lights flickered on, one after the other and dispelled sections of darkness in the cave. The soft hum of machinery could be heard whirring to life as well. Combined with the occasional sparks of blue lights zapping from the large wire connecting overhead, Emily could not be more pleased with the overall result of what she'd just done.

"Oh my God, finally something works!" she let out a silent cheer for herself. That had to have supplied power to the nearby elevator, if these glowing lightbulbs were any indicator. She now had a means to get out of this place!

Only question now was how to get back down there?

Emily glanced all around her, her eyes eventually resting upon a break in the wooden railguard behind her. It was clear to see that was where the ladder had previously been before it had broken off and thrown her back. Between her sore leg, the sheer height between her and the ground below, as well the hole that she had clearly fallen through when she was thrown down, it was clear that jumping down was absolutely not an option. Emily's positivity was hampered a little by frustration as a result; time to find another way back down there.

She turned her head back to the right this time to see an extension of the wooden balcony running the length of the wall and into a break of the wall adjacent to it. If there was any way to get back down, she'd have to find it going along this way.

The boards held their structure much more securely with each step Emily made across them. With the wooden rail guard on her left side she slowly made her way along the pathway. Thanks to the lights being powered on now she could see a little clearer where exactly she was walking.

As she passed through the break in the wall, the wooden pathway turned sharply left a couple of times before descending downward. Emily winced slightly as walking down meant a little more pressure and pain on her injured leg as a result. Although if she were being honest, her leg was starting to hurt and sting a little less by this point. The pain hadn't completely left, but at least it wasn't any crippling pain that was actively hindering her progress anymore.

A wire fence stood up and on the left side as she walked by which casted a rather 'cagey' shadow upon her thanks to the natural light that shone through from the other side. Emily couldn't see any sort of thing on the other side at least, which filled her with as much assurance as unease.

Finally she reached the bottom of the stairs, her feet meeting rocky ground once more. Before her she could see a wooden doorframe that was of course missing a door. That would work out just fine for Emily though; one less obstacle she'd have to work around. She passed through the doorway and walked through the confining space of the cavern tunnel. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she was almost starting to get used to this place... Almost...

Oh, who was she kidding? No one should have to be used to a place like this! The sooner she was out of here, the better!

But for God's sake, why was this tunnel taking so long to walk through?! She'd been walking through it and its random curves for quite a while now. Or, was it just because she was walking slowly due to her leg? All she had seen for what felt like minutes was just more jagged and bumpy walls on all sides of her thanks to the light from her torch. Due to the mist filling the air in front of her, that same light became amplified and made it all the harder to see the ground before her. But thankfully not too hard to tell where she was going thanks to the way the walls curved.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of trudging on, a small 'doorway' of rock appeared before her with clear light shining through. As Emily walked through it, the light itself could be seen as actually natural light! She could even feel a sharp chill of a strange draft in the air as well! Could it actually be...?

Her walk broke into a soft run with the pain in her leg momentarily forgotten. Her eyes remained fixed upwards at what lay before her. A large whole in the cavern above her with light from the outside world spilling in and down upon her. In addition, snow and ice were also allowed to fall in thanks to a natural 'slant'. Perhaps from some kind of avalanche that had happened? Emily didn't care how; what mattered now was that a way out was literally opened up to her!

"Oh, yes! YES!"

She let relief and happiness overtake her being. Forget that old elevator back there; she could much more easily just crawl out of here!

She quickly approached the very base of the landslide, lifted her uninjured leg up and placed her foot against-

Emily let out a yelp that she didn't even bother to hold in. She felt her hopes immediately be dashed: this entire... pile thing, it was much too slick! Too slippery! Even the bits of rock that stuck out from the snow and ice were far too smoothed over and ice-covered. Every inch of the surface before her was not only too slick to scale up, but the sheer angle this pile alone meant that climbing up would be near impossible!

Stepping back a step or two, Emily's eyes drifted back up to the open hole in the ceiling. Natural moonlight pouring down in seemed to taunt and mock her with its mere presence; so agonizingly close yet completely out of reach! She could feel her eyes start to sting with imminent tears of futility. She brought her arm up to rub her eyes while also berating herself; crying wasn't going to do any good here! She needed to figure something else out!

She thus shook her head as her arm lowered back down and permitted herself to look around the space again. However, no sooner had she done so then she caught sight of something.

With her torch's light illuminating the space in soft orange glow to contrast the color of the moonlight, Emily caught sight of a small flare of light on the ground. A few feet away and to her right upon... a piece of glass? Every shift of her own torch in various ways caused the flare to appear and reappear. Emily should've disregarded what she saw as another piece of debris, yet for some reason she found herself drawn to it.

As she walked closer and held the torch closer to the object on the ground, the clearer it began to appear before her. There was in fact a piece of glass, but there was some kind of black outline around it; about barely a centimeter thick all around it.

Emily took hold of the object in her hands, but it was only as she lifted it up and off of the ground could she see that this was no piece of debris. It was a set of glasses; black rimmed, scratched, and all-too familiar.

"Hannah...?" Emily breathed.

The image of the Washington girl flashed in her mind. She remembered the girl always wearing a set of black square glasses every time she'd seen her. She stared at the glasses she held in her hand as her mouth slowly fell open in further surprise. These really were her glasses, weren't they?

She whipped her head back around towards the landslide directly behind her. No, it couldn't be true. While it could be debated whether these were her glasses or not... maybe they had fallen off of her while she had run out in the woods? People lost things all the time, like when she and Matt had found Beth's phone earlier on this evening.

Her linked memory to Matt only filled her being with sadness. They had originally planned to bring Beth's phone back with them when they met back up with their friends or even the authorities in the morning. But now that Matt was gone, possibly even dead... Perhaps it would be a good idea to hold on to these glasses herself. If not for hers and even Hannah's sakes, then for Matt as well.

She slipped the glasses into one of her empty pockets. She made a mental note that she was carrying quite the assortment of strange objects on her person this evening: her own phone, a flare gun, and now broken glasses that possibly belonged to Hannah herself.

Emily then looked up and around in the space that she stood in, seemingly for the first time since arriving within it. She had been so hasty before to try and scale up that landslide that she barely even registered where she even stood now. Much like the room with the elevator in it, this cavern she stood in was absolutely vast in size. A number of stalagmites jutted up from the ground from what she could see at first glance. Even the wooden platform she stood upon now held a wall of wood that had been secured against a couple of them on the other side. Seriously though, this place was so open, but so... empty! What could those miners that had worked here years ago have possibly hoped to find in a mountain like this?

The wooden wall next to her ran a length of a few feet before slowly curving around to the right. It indirectly pointed Emily towards a previously unseen pathway towards another corner of the cavern away from the landslide. In fact, Emily almost didn't even see it if not for the torch's light in her hand. It barely illuminated the mist itself that ran the direction of the pathway, right along with the wooden wall's-

"Huh?" Emily suddenly said. As she had been looking out along this path towards the corner of the cavern, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Right where the wood of the wall ended with the rock of a stalagmite beginning a series of scratches in the rock could be seen. Emily almost didn't even see them if she hadn't caught a glimpse of them the first time.

She brought herself and the torch-light closer to investigate. Sure enough, there were in fact scratches on the stone. A couple of tally marks, with a couple of numbers scratched directly above them.

"02... 02... 14...?" she read to herself, "That's... that's exactly a year ago!" Today was the second of February 2015 after all. Emily could feel a deep pit welling up within her stomach; harsh reality slowly breaking down her feelings of denial.

"No! No no..." she shook her head as she stepped away from the wall scratches, "I-it doesn't prove anything! Anyone could've done that! Yeah..." She walked further in the direction of the corner-led pathway that would no doubt lead deeper into another darkened section of the mine. She forced herself to avoid looking back toward the wall markings, intent to remain looking forward and disavowing the horrid implications.

"Who could've made those marks though?" she muttered to herself, "What could they mean?"

She held the torch light up to attempt to shine further light upon the pathway leading to the corner, only to find that her light only stretched so far. To her credit though she was just barely able to see a small bit of light from the path itself. More natural light was shining through another chain link fence that curved slightly to the left. This was good in a way, meaning that the fence wasn't merely there to block access to where Emily needed to go. At least she hoped that wasn't the case anyway.

Before she began to walk towards the corner path, Emily noticed a small section in the opposite direction to it. A very small, circular shaped clearing that was with natural light barely illuminating it before her. Even from this distance she could hardly see anything that stuck out the way Hannah's glasses did. That is, aside from a couple of thin wooden boards laying crisscrossed over each other, suspiciously like an actual cross.

"Tch, maybe one of those miners got to be buried down here..." she mumbled as she curiously approached the piece of wood. The closer she inspected it, she realized that the very bottom of the cross was jagged and pointed; it had been snapped off from somewhere else and reduced in size.

She slowly lifted the cross up by the top and flipped it over, baring its face to-

"Beth!?"

Emily's hand snapped back and she openly recoiled. All at once she nearly jumped backwards as the cross itself fell backwards onto its back and leaving its front exposed before her. A single word was scratched upon it which openly frightened the girl. Worse still the word was scratched out large and capitalized so that she was forced to see what it spelled even from the distance she stood from it.

Against control of her own body and sense, Emily found herself inching closer towards the wooden cross. Aside from the single name scratched into the front, she could barely see a couple of smaller scratches to the right of it. Unfortunately, what she found there only caused her terror to well up even deeper.

2-2-14.

"Oh Jesus...!"

Emily pulled her torch-light away to shroud the cross in darkness again, but the damage had already been done. The familiar scratches of numbers seen yet again were practically re-burned into her mind's eye. Once was a coincidence born of denial, but twice? Emily found herself at a loss as to the very real implications of what this did in fact mean.

Her friend, Beth Washington, was dead...

Tears that threatened to spill over from before were stinging her eyes even harder now. The worst part about this was that in a part of her mind, she had a very morbid suspicion. It had been a whole year after all, when she and Hannah had gone out into-

In the midst of her mental turmoil she was instantly reminded of the other sister. What could've happened to her? Could she have... ended up like Beth...?

Emily glanced back over to the snowslide in the larger section of the cavern. She remembered having found Hannah's glasses around there as well as those strange scratch marks on the stone wall before. Her gaze slowly was brought back to the cross and its ominous markings scratched upon it. Maybe... well, perhaps it wasn't too impossible an option to consider at the very least...

"I'm so sorry, Beth..." she muttered to herself, "And Hannah... I hope you had better luck in this place than me..." As if the implications of her's and her friends' prank couldn't hit her with guilt any harder.

She forced herself to walk away from the small clearing and the cross. The irony of literally walking away from the truth was not lost on her, but Emily still did not want to look at that thing anymore. When and if she got herself out of this place, she'd let the others know. It had to be the right thing to do, wouldn't it? To let everyone know what ultimately happened so no one had to worry anymore?

"Drgh-! Stop thinking about that, Em!" she berated herself, "Just... let's just get out of here for now..."

With a shake of her head, an attempt to steady her nerves, she proceeded along the western-most path that she had initially intended. Her torch's light provided a lighted outline of the rocky wall on her left to give her some sense of space. It was still extremely confining from how small these tunnels were, but here's hoping she wouldn't be here much longer. She just had to keep moving, one foot in front of the other.

In the back of her mind, Emily became mildly aware of how the pain in her injured leg was starting to fade almost completely with each step by this point. While that in itself was a relief, she didn't even want to look down at the wound to see how much blood might be staining her jeans. Not only was it disgusting but every bit of blood lost wouldn't be physically good for her either.

The pathway curved to the left and slanted up ever so slightly, putting yet again a mild burn on Emily's calves as she ascended. With the wall of rock on her left, a primitive wall of wood and chain-link could be found on her right side. Light could be seen shining down from some source up above on the right side through the cracks in the wooden wall. That had to be a good sign, right? Like the light from that hole in the ceiling behind her: more open holes to the outside world above her promised bigger chances of her being closer to getting out of here!

Unfortunately, Emily found herself coming to a stop. The rock wall on her left and the wooden wall on her right ended up converging into a corner! The pathway had come to an abrupt stop, with no way to proceed!

"Seriously...?!" she silently complained. Her gaze swapping back and forth from left to right, no breaks in either walls could be seen that she could slip through. The only thing of note was a single blue drum barrel sitting right in front of her. A rotted piece of tarp covered the top and a single piece of bronze lay atop of that.

Wait a minute... this wasn't bronze.

Her torch hand providing steady light, Emily reached down to pick up the small, curious object in between her fingers. As she brought it closer to her face, the object almost instantly shone in the light from her torch. Not only that, but it was golden, heart-shaped, with the letters 'H' and 'W' engraved in a stylized pattern on the front.

This was Hannah's locket!

As if she could ever forget this! The second time she'd seen Hannah she was wearing this beautiful necklace around her neck! Emily had absolutely loved it at the time, despite her never openly admitting that to the shy girl. She'd even had the pleasure of catching a glimpse of its 'inside': a miniaturized portrait of the two Washington sisters inside the heart frame.

She tilted her wrist down to allow the object's lid to open up. Sure enough, Emily was greeted with the sight of the Washington girls, smiling their gentle smiles for whomsoever might be looking at this necklace. Amazingly, while the outside of the necklace itself displayed signs of tarnish here and there, the picture itself appeared remarkably well-preserved!

"Oh... she 'was' down here!" Emily said with a small gasp.

Just like with those scratches found earlier, Emily was finding even more items that brought ever more conflicting theories into her mind. First were the glasses, and now was this locket, both belonging to the shy Washington girl. Very slowly, Emily was coming around to accepting the plausibility that... that Hannah and Beth had ended up down here. Lost in these empty caves, the same as she herself was. After all, she could scarcely believe Hannah would ever willingly part with this valuable piece of jewelry. And for it to have been found so far away from that snowslide, unlike her glasses? She had to have moved or even dropped it here!

Emily pocketed the locket in the same one that she held Hannah's glasses in. Seemed like she would have a lot to tell people when she got out of this place!

"But... no; no, this can't be a dead end...!" she silently complained. Looking directly behind her, the rock wall, now on her right side, remained completely solid in form without any breaks to be seen under Emily's torch light. As for the other side, the wall of wood stretched back for about ten or so feet, with a couple of chain-links comprising certain sections of it towards the end.

Her eyes suddenly narrowed as she noticed something. Looking towards the wooden wall, one of these chain link fences seemed a little odd at first glance. She slowly approached this oddity, the torch's illuminating light casting dulled reflections against the rusted metal. It was only when she was standing directly in front of it did Emily discover that it was in fact a gate that was just stacked up casually against an opening in the wooden section of the wall!

Emily opened her mouth to protest, but ultimately pursed her lips and shook her head. Complaining about glancing over something wasn't going to do anything here. She instead reached to the side with both of her hands, took hold of the gate's edge, and pulled hard to the left.

Emily was expecting some stronger resistance at first, so she put a little more strength into her pull. However to her mild surprise, the gate fell to the side relatively easily and clattered to the ground. She could feel relief wash over her once again; another small victory in the name of getting herself out of here. Now she'd just have to... wait a minute.

Almost as soon as Emily had moved the gate out of the way and then gazed at what lay beyond, something caught her eye. From this distance a number of objects appeared fuzzy in detail, most likely due to the layer of mist that filled the air around her. Natural light shining from above only seemed to accentuate the thickness of the mist around her, with everything appearing as a dark haze of black of the rock and light haze of the mist.

The sole exception being a single object colored... pink?

Emily blinked once, then twice. She then rubbed her eyes as she tried and failed to focus in on this seemingly random object spotted in this cavern. Out of everything she'd seen so far, it all had appeared completely drab and unremarkable in color. Plus it was almost pitch dark inside these caverns for most anything to be seen in here anyway.

So it of course was completely strange to see this rather bright pink... 'thing', sticking out in such a cave setting as this.

Emily found herself being almost drawn to this strange object like a beacon. She held her torch in front of her for the dual purpose of providing light before her and also to act as a sort of 'first defense' just in case. With each step closer to it, Emily's eyes squinted harder to focus in on it clearer.

Emily reached to about ten feet away from the object before it slowly became a little clearer to her. Whatever this pink thing was, it appeared somewhat 'puffy', with clear thread marks running horizontal along its frame. Also from this distance Emily was able to identify a round white 'thing' resting on top of it.

She frowned in spite of herself, but her imagination for some reason randomly painted this thing as some kind of bizarre scarecrow. A scarecrow that probably was born of the very rock of this cavern and dressed in strange clothes.

Wait... no, wait a moment...

Emily came to a stop, and her eyes widened in realization. She suddenly recalled where she'd seen that color before! That was... it was Beth's pink padded jacket! Even a year later she remembered the girl wearing a jacket of 'this' very color the last time she was seen again! Memories of Beth wearing her jacket last year flashed through her mind once again.

In fact, that little 'white' thing was in fact her wool hat that she wore that night as well! What was this? Why were Beth's winter clothes down here? Why were they 'dressed' in some weird way as if serving as a 'stalagmite scarecrow'?

Emily found herself tentatively reaching her hand outwards. The little 'point' of Beth's hat pointing straight back at her hand as if they were planning to meet. Something was... seriously wrong here. Simply finding Beth's clothes wasn't enough; someone or even something had taken the time and steps to arrange her clothing around a piece of rock, like dressing a dummy? Something was seriously fucked up with-

Emily nearly recoiled as first contact with the hat caused it to wobble in her hand. However, she did in fact openly recoil as the hat and the rock that it was worn upon fell backwards towards her, falling to the ground with a soft thud.

No. That was no rock that had fallen just now.

Emily let out a shriek of horror as the face of Beth Washington stared back at her!

"BETH!"

The girl's world immediately exploded in panic, then sorrow. She found herself stumbling and even falling backwards. Shuffled across the ground, desperate to crawl herself away from that... that thing! This wasn't happening; what she saw couldn't have actually been real! Tears practically spilled out of her eyes and Emily didn't even make any attempt to stop them. All she could see besides her tear-soaked vision were persistent images of that... that face!

But, that couldn't have been Beth! Beth had a gentle smile, a caring nature, and eyes that were stern but somehow understanding as they looked at you. What Emily saw just now... that could not have been Beth...

"Oh God... Oh God, Beth no...!" Emily practically chanted over and over, a vain attempt to calm herself down. She reached up with both hand to rub her eyes of the tears that were impeding her vision. It was only during this moment that Emily was faintly aware that she had dropped her torch at some point. She didn't care; she rubbed her eyes even harder, almost as if trying to forcefully 'rub' the vision of what she had just seen from her eyes.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity of chanting 'Beth' and 'no' over and over, Emily finally silenced herself. She steadily pulled herself back up to her feet again. Her breathing remained frantic and irregular, and her heart continued to pound inside of her chest. But her eyes had been rubbed clear and were able to perceive the world somewhat clearly again. She reached down to pick the torch up in her hand again, once more bathing the space in the orange glow. Unfortunately, it did not remove the harshness of the truth that lay before her still.

Emily's breath quickened yet again as she gazed upon the head of what was once her best friend. The skin of the face was rotted, decrepit, marred with scratches across the mouth and cheeks, and unnaturally gray in color. Her lips especially, having taken on a dark shade of gray, even black. Her eyes that had once been so full of life the last time she'd seen them were milky white and upturned towards the forehead. Strangely enough, her hair had somehow maintained its shape of her original hairstyle from before, despite the strands appearing differing shades of rotten as well. Finally, the neck area contrasted the necrotic shade of gray with red and pink in the stump. There was no bleeding, no dripping blood from the neck at all. It was just her head, resting atop of a rock and her jacket wrapped around it in a sick display of dressing a dummy.

"Oh Beth..." she muttered. The tears threatened to break again and Emily was forced to avert her gaze. At the same time she could feel a familiar deepness welling up in the pit of her stomach. It felt different this time however, as she could feel her very stomach rumbling with... with disgust. She was actually going to be sick if she kept staring at Beth's remains any longer.

'Should I tell them this too...?' she suddenly thought to herself, 'Should I tell them that 'Oh hey by the way I found Beth's head perched up on a rock in the mines...' Urgh, this is so messed up...!'

She shook her head hard and forcefully dry swallowed instinctively. It did little to ease the mental turmoil, but at least now she was at less risk of losing her own lunch.

"I'll just... cross that bridge when I come to it, I guess..." she reasoned with herself, "Just... I'm so sorry, Beth..."

A quick glance around this space showed her a general layout of where she stood. It was a tunneled path that curved sharply to the left from where she had entered herself, with 'Beth's remains' in a small clearing off to the right side. In fact, it was eerily similar how Emily had found both Beth's cross and her remains in a similar fashion. And both within the span of... only a few minutes? It felt like she'd been down here and discovering horrible stuff for way longer!

And, just like before, Emily steeled herself and focused her gaze towards the left side. Her torch's light cast its glow upon the ground, allowing her to see that it stretched out for about ten feet before reaching yet another nearby wall. Emily shuffled her way along the path and closer to the wall, faintly aware that even now her heart was still hammering away in her chest.

Her eyes drifted up to a wall on the right side where a large, square poster could be seen. The words 'Surface Elevator' were printed across the top with an arrow pointing to the left. She whipped her head back forward in front of her, and to what she could now see was a wooden door closed before her. Could it really be? Another elevator that would get her out of here? But more importantly, would she be able to get to it through this door?

Thankfully, the girl could see from close up that a metallic deadbolt was installed onto this door from her side. She reached up to take hold of the deadbolt and unfastened it. She then took hold of the doorknob and twisted it towards her. To her immense relief, the door swung open and inwards with a gentle creaking on its hinges.

Emily then craned her head lower and inward as she stepped across the threshold. Her torch held directly in front of her to light up all that she could before her. However, in addition to the large glow of the torch in her hand, Emily caught sight of another bit of light glowing in front of her. It was smaller and attached to a wooden wall on her right side.

Her eyes slowly widened in realization. This place did look familiar, didn't it? As she walked further into the expanse of the room, Emily realized that she was back in the elevator room, where she was initially trying to get to in the first place! Finally, there would be no stopping her get out of this place now!

Hastily she made her way around the wall and back into the elevator car. Thankfully the control seemed easy enough: pull on this crank handle and it should lift her out of this place, right?

She took hold of the handle and pulled it once towards her. Her efforts this time were met with the satisfying sound of machinery whirring to life, followed by the rough motion of the car shooting straight upwards.

"Oh yes- come on, let's go!" she half cheered, half pleaded. She spun around in time to view the cavern grow smaller and more distant beneath her. The world before her quickly became a rush of long pipes and a wooden elevator shaft. Finally, it was about time to put this nightmare behind-

The elevator suddenly came to an abrupt stop, causing Emily to momentarily stumble. Her anxiety spiked again with confusion, especially when all she could see outside of the elevator car was more dark and scary caverns! Had she stopped? Why did this thing stop? It needed to take her 'out' of these mines and 'out of this mountain!

"What? No...!" she openly whined.

She took a couple steps outside of the elevator car and looked back up to the shaft itself, hoping to get a better sense at least of how much further up to go. Unfortunately, Emily wasn't afforded as good of an angle as she would've liked; a large piece of wood was sticking up and directly over the threshold of the elevator shaft entryway. She would need to move to the side in order to be afforded a better view.

A nearby wall of wood connected from one side of the elevator shaft's entrance and ran along a sharp curve to the left. Emily chose to follow it that way before-

Within Emily's torch light, she caught the sight of movement. There, walking along a lengthy tunnel a few feet away, a figure approached her direction.

The girl snapped to attention and quickly brought herself back against the wall. She silently swallowed a gasp that had threatened to burst out in that moment. Her eyes were widened in terror as they remained fixed to the corner she had nearly turned. Her back and her entire body were practically glued to the wooden wall behind her. In the midst of her panic, she struggled to remember why she was hiding. But more importantly from 'who'.

She remembered catching sight of a figure; definitely humanoid. It looked like it stood about a few inches taller than her at least. She didn't remember catching a good view of the face, as it must have been concealed. In fact she did remember seeing something covering over its eyes. Circular, black, and almost reflective. In addition this person looked to be holding something, but Emily couldn't tell for certain what it could've been. With all this in mind, there was little doubt whom she was unlucky in this moment to have run into.

The Psycho!

"Oh God, please don't come this way...!" she found herself whispering to herself as deathly silent as she could. Her entire body trembled and shivered as she waited. This was it, wasn't it? This had to be where this Psycho guy lived, and now Emily was about to become his latest victim!

Emily focused her hearing as hard as she could, listening out for any telltale signs of footsteps. Aside from the crackling of her own torch, she couldn't hear anything that sounded like footsteps. Had he stopped? Had he seen her? Was he searching for her if he had seen her? What would he do to her if he found her? A thousand questions raced through her mind all at once, and Emily dreaded the answer to any one of them.

She wanted nothing more than to peek her head around the wooden corner and see that there was nothing there. She was still plenty rattled earlier from finding Beth's remains, now add on top of that a reminder of the Psycho that had definitely killed Josh; Emily wanted nothing more than what she'd seen to simply be a figment of her imagination...

Her hopes were almost immediately dashed upon hearing those dreaded footsteps. Her own breath slowed to a deathly crawl as she focused in, Emily could in fact hear the sound of footsteps, hard and heavy against the stone ground. Even worse still they grew ever so louder! A few more steps and he'd come around the corner and find her! Emily didn't even need to peek around to know that definitely had to be the case!

While remaining practically glued to the wall Emily's eyes darted forward in front of her. Her torch light was barely able to illuminate a nearby tunnel entrance just a few feet in front of where she stood! Even better: it was in the opposite direction of where the Psycho himself was at the moment.

Screw it, she was not dying here!

In a flash, Emily abandoned all sense of reserve and caution and bolted forward. She dared not look behind her to see or even know that the man probably had caught sight of her. She just continued to run forward, her eyes remaining fixed on the tunnel entrance directly in front of her. The painful sting of her injured leg all but forgotten now she continued to run.

"Get back-!" she faintly heard a voice call out behind her. He had seen her! And he was definitely after her! Now she had to keep running as best she could!

Her breath quickened in combined panic as well as exhaustion from running as hard as she could. She could feel moisture running along her forehead, and for the first time in a while tonight Emily was reminded of her bloodied gash she'd also gotten along her temple. Her own heartbeat was practically competing with herself for which one could possibly outrun the other!

The tunnel itself curved left and right a couple times with Emily briefly casting a look over her shoulders once or twice. There was no sign of the Psycho, but he couldn't have been far behind at this point. As long as she kept up her running speed she could maintain her head start ahead of him!

She found herself exiting the tunnel and straight out onto a wooden bridge. In the midst of her run to stay ahead she almost didn't catch the massive hole directly in front of her- no wait, there were two holes in the bridge! Both of them she'd have to jump over!

Emily kicked off with her good leg and easily landed the first jump, then kicked off again to jump over the second hole. With a grunt she came to a momentary hesitation to steady herself on the bridge. She then quickly resumed her run into the adjoining tunnel entrance before her.

Almost immediately however she had to alter her run to avoid stepping onto a small puddle of liquid that seemed to be leaking from a nearby drum. The familiar smell of oil filled her nostrils and she came to a steady halt right next to it. In this moment Emily chose to look back towards the broken bridge she had just crossed over. There was no sign of the Psycho back there, or maybe she just could see him through the dark, but still...

Her eyes glanced back down to the oil puddle, then up to the flame of the torch she held in her hand. Maybe... she could light this puddle up and... delay him? Burn him? Blow him up? But, this torch had been with her this whole time! Was it really a good idea to get rid of it now?!

Movement drew her eyes back up towards the bridge. Emily gasped and in her panicked state she didn't even confirm what she'd seen and just acted on instinct! She tossed away her torch to the ground towards the oil puddle. Immediately her world became a flare of bright light and great heat as the puddle conflagrated. Her arms lifted up to shield herself and she quickly bolted off and away down the tunnel. There was no time to think about what she'd just done, it was time to move again!

The massive flare of light thankfully made her current course a little easier to see. Emily was able to tell well beforehand that the tunnel made a sharp turn to the right. She quickly rounded the corner and made her way down wherever the path would lead.

As it turned out however, the path almost came to a complete dead end directly in front of her with a boarded up wall over a tunnel entrance! A nearby metallic drum held a burning flame atop it to provide some small measure of light in the place she now stood. However that was the only good thing going for her at the moment. She still found herself standing in front of a boarded up wall, yet the railway tracks on the ground pointing towards it indicated it was a possibility at one point! Her heart hammered away in her chest, while at the same time a cold feeling began to well up deep within her being yet again. A mixed feeling of terror, and hopelessness. Was this it? Was there nowhere else she could go to-?

Her head casually turned to the side and her eyes widened. There, directly to the side of the wooden barricade and behind the burning drum, another wooden wall stood perpendicular to the other wall. The only difference being that Emily could just barely make out the entrance of a small spacing directly in back of it! It was a long shot, but... maybe she could hide behind them?

Emily shook her head and was already moving. There was no time to even consider this! She quickly moved over and edged herself behind the wooden wall. There was just barely enough space behind here to lift arms up and forward slightly. Aside from that it was incredibly cramped. Still, Emily hoped it would suit her needs of keeping her alive for a little longer.

She then forced herself to calm her frantic breathing down just enough to listen in. Sure enough, the familiar sound of footsteps could be heard. In fact, movement could be seen from the small cracks in the wood Emily could see through directly in front of her.

She just barely made out the overall shape of what appeared to be a man. Whoever he was, he had a lot of thick, winter clothing on him to keep most of his skin covered. There was also some strange device on his back and he was... holding something? Emily couldn't see exactly what it was, only that the man had held his position at the very entrance to the cavern space she was in.

All of a sudden he started walking. Emily viewed through the cracks as he started walking forward, rather deliberately, closer and closer... to where she was! Emily watched with abated terror as the man steadily grew closer to where she was. His head was strangely fixed in her general direction as well, almost as if he'd already had an idea that she might be there!

Emily's heartbeat grew faster and faster with each step the man made towards her. There was no denying at all anymore; he knew exactly where she was and was going to get her! Had she not been fast enough to hide?! Had she taken too long in running away from him?! Was he just too clever to be eluded so easily?! Her chest had grown positively frozen from the cold feeling from earlier as she knew it was her own failure now that was going to get her killed!

Just then, from around the edge of the wooden barricade, the man appeared before Emily in full view and granted her the unimpeded image of the face of...

---

"Josh?"

Chris spoke his name, the name of the person that was dead, that should be dead, that was no way could actually still be alive right now. Even as Sam heard his name be mentioned it felt like it echoed within her mind. That nagging feeling she'd felt earlier in the workshop suddenly flared itself back up in full force, filling her head with doubts, and of something worse.

But wait! Maybe... maybe it couldn't actually be true! Maybe Chris was just saying Josh's name before someone who somehow bore his likeness! In fact, she could only see half of the Psycho's profile before her from the way he was standing. She couldn't see the full face of the one person she had hoped to the heavens it couldn't actually be. Because there was no way; there was no way the Psycho could actually be who she was fearing and dreading that it could be...

And then, Josh's laughter filled the room.

His body even turned slightly in her direction as he began laughing. With that Sam caught a full profile shot of the one and only Joshua Washington, wearing the clothes of the Psycho who a mere few hours ago had chased her and nearly caught her! No... the truth was much harsher than that, wasn't it? Because there was no denying reality anymore: Josh WAS the Psycho!

"JOSH?!" she found herself exclaiming.

Her exclamation caused Josh to turn even more to regard both her and Mike's approaching forms. Not only that, but it seemed to spark another burst of laughter from him. Sam could see it plain on his face, that all-too familiar face he made whenever he cracked one of his 'killer' jokes that he and Chris used to make. The kind of face he made when he felt something was really funny and amusing. He was genuinely smiling, genuinely laughing, and seemed to be of a thorough mind that everyone was having a good time.

All from him trying to kill them!

Sam's trembling mouth hung open in absolute shock and dismay. Her eyes remained fixed on Josh as he continued to walk around them while laughing. Somehow him laughing at their misfortune felt just as bad as the act of 'pretending' to be some maniac killer!

Sam suddenly snapped herself out of her daze to turn her head to the right. She was then reminded of both Chris and Ashley still seated in their chairs in front of the table. From being this closer up to them she could see that Ashley's wrists were held securely against the armrests by thin metallic shackles. She rushed to the bound girl's side to quickly see to freeing her. Ashley said nothing but still turned to regard her, allowing Sam to see her tear-streaked face. Why was her left eye blackened too? Had something hurt her? Her lips trembled but no words escaped her lips. Even the look of her glazed eyes somehow spoke of how completely drained she must have been feeling.

Thankfully it appeared these shackles were secured by small pins on their undersides that kept them anchored and locked in place. As she worked to undo them she could hear Mike behind her,

"Josh..."

His tone of voice was different from hers and Chris'. Chris had spoken in what sounded like confusion, she herself sounded shocked and even betrayed, while Mike spoke low and threateningly. Despite that however, Josh himself hardly seemed dissuaded by Mike's semi-threatening tone

"Oh-hoho, very good!" he said in between his laughs, "Every one of you, you got my name! And after all you've been through; good! Good good good- I mean how does it feel, right?"

By now Sam had successfully freed Ashley's wrists from her restraints. As she pulled herself away to look back to Josh, a glance out of the corner of her eye told her that Mike was similarly helping Chris out of his restraints as well.

Yet despite their clear intent to free... Josh's victims, an idea still so ludicrous to consider even now, Josh didn't seem to be upset or angry by hers and Mike's efforts. In fact, she could still hear him ranting even now.

"How does it feel?" he repeated, "Do you enjoy feeling terrorized? Humiliated? I mean... panicked?! All those emotions that my sisters got to feel once? One year ago?" Josh's face was barely at the edge of the beam of light, causing most of it to be cast mostly in shadow as he raved, "Only-only guess what? They didn't get to laugh it off! Nope! No-no-no, THEY'RE GONE!"

A deep feeling welled up within Sam's being yet again. However, it was a different feeling from what she had been feeling. Before she had felt shocked, flabbergasted, and ultimately betrayed, by the fact that Josh was here right now and basically validating that he'd done something absolutely horrible to herself and their friends. She was ready to hate the Psycho, which by extension was now to include him: Josh Washington, for putting through the sickest of jokes which weren't funny in the slightest...

And then, Josh mentioned his sisters. One year ago to this day a stupid prank was played upon Hannah Washington, which inadvertently not only got Beth involved, but ended up possibly killing the two of them. They had been declared missing, maybe even dead, from something that they had done to them. Their own stupidity had cost the lives of two innocent souls. And Josh was here to remind them of that in the harshest, most ironic of ways possible...

Sam's mind suddenly flashed back to the Psycho's- no, 'Josh's' workshop. Among the things she remembered seeing within it was the tackboard with pictures of Hannah and Beth, mementos and items that belonged to them, and that sticky note that said 'Never Forget'... That message was written by Josh, FOR Josh!

Sam's mouth opened to protest until she heard Mike speak up first.

"I don't know if you noticed this, Josh, but none of us are laughing."

His waved arms directed to himself, to Sam, as well as to Chris and Ashley still sitting in the chairs. Not a single one of them had so much as a smile on their faces, a sharp contrast to Josh's hysterical laughter he had opened up with earlier.

"Oh, come!" Josh waved his own hand in dismissal, "Come-come-come-come! Why the long faces? Come on! It's good to get the heart racing every now and then, right?" He emphasized his point by holding his hand over his heart, followed by patting his palm into his opposite hand as he continued.

"And race they did! I mean every one of you, just pitter-pat, pitter-pat! I hope you appreciated my little Phantasmagorical Spectacle!" His deranged excitement began to flare up again the more he described in his own words what could scarcely be seen as anything other than a 'Haunted House of Death', "I mean no detail too small, no opportunity missed; it was such a delight to play the Puppet Master! To-to all of your Pavlovian panic!"

Her mouth still hanging open, Sam raised a hand over it. The words coming out of this guy's mouth couldn't actually be for real, could it? Putting her through all that physical humiliation, scaring her with the possibility of certain death?! And Chris and Ash! She had no idea what these two had been through themselves, but judging from the sawblades positioned directly above their heads, it had to have been just as bad if not worse in comparison!

In the midst of her shock, a feeling of confusion suddenly arouse within her. Seeing the sawblades unfortunately brought her mind back to the one sawblade she had seen kill Josh. Or hadn't killed Josh because he was right here now...? But then, the Psycho had shown her killing Josh even though the Psycho turned out to be him- What the hell was up with that?!

"And all that gore?" Josh continued, as if reading Sam's mind of the topic she was thinking of at the moment, "I mean, gore, there was gore galore! Fake bodies! I mean, God that shit was expensive...!"

The mentioning of the word 'expensive' brought Sam's mind back to the workshop yet again. This time expensive attributing to that exorbitant price in fees she'd remembered seeing on that receipt sheet. The sheet that was linked to... Josh's mental health...

Unbelievable. Sam was not one to judge people, and granted this entire 'game' of Josh's was on a sick, sick level of itself, but... With so many previously unknown pieces beginning to fall into place, somehow it was making just a little more sense that... Josh thought this game of his was justified because of his state of mind?

Even Josh's phone that she'd found down there! She mentally kicked herself; that in itself made too much sense now that Josh's phone would be there since 'he' was the Psycho! But more importantly, one of the messages she'd seen on the phone was from his doctor, and something about a 'plan', that he'd thought was a bad idea...

Sam felt her anger and feeling betrayal towards Josh begin to simmer and slowly dim, replaced instead by a heavy feeling of pity. Sympathy. But at the same time, anger was also directed at herself for not recognizing this sooner. Seriously, could so much of this or even ALL of it have been avoided if she'd been able to? It was clear that he'd been suffering, but to such a degree as this... She really had failed Josh, hadn't she?

"And no retakes! Nope-nope-nope, only double takes!" Josh continued his ranting, "Aw man, you should've seen your faces! Hook, line, and sinker for EVERY LITTLE STINKER!"

"But Josh!" Sam suddenly cut in, "No one's gonna believe you didn't do any of this! I mean, your fingerprints were all over it; you basically admitted that this was all you!"

"Oh really?" Josh asked incredulously, his tone of voice considerably lowered from his previous excitement, "Really really really?"

Memories flashed through Sam's head yet again, all of them making sense to the tragic figure that was Josh Washington. His phone in the workshop, the folder containing his psychiatric report, the 'remembrance board' dedicated to Hannah and Beth. And those were just the things she remembered seeing herself! Who knows what other sort of creepy stuff she'd overlooked while she was in there!

Her eyes then drifted all around to the other three people in the room with them. Mike, Chris, and Ashley. These three probably had their own set of testimonies leveled against whatever Josh had done to them as well. Her pity for him only grew, as well as her self-loathing.

"You're crying out for help here, Josh," she said, "You wanted to get caught, didn't you?"

"Oh sure! Yeah- I'm totally just crying out for help here! 'Help me! Oh, help me! Help, help!'" he waved his hands around while crying out in a mocking voice, "Come on! Come on, it was just for fun!"

Sam could not resist ducking her head to pinch the bridge of her nose. After everything he'd done, he had the gall to write this off as 'just for fun'?! Even now he was still ranting as if this was some kind of spectacular accomplishment of his!

"I mean, so what you got a little bit of egg on your face, right? Nobody got hurt-"

"Nobody got hurt? What are you talking about, you ass-hat?!" Mike suddenly cut in forcibly, before following up with, "JESSICA IS FUCKING DEAD!"

"What?" Josh asked with a small tilt of his head.

"Did you hear me?!" Mike spoke threateningly before beginning to approach Josh. It was only when he rounded the table opposite her that Sam noticed he was holding something in his hand, "Jessica is dead... And you are gonna FUCKING PAY YOU DICK!"

In a single motion Mike raised his hand up and smacked whatever it was he was holding hard against Josh's head. Josh gave a single cry of pain before tumbling over and laying on the ground face up.

"Jesus, Mike!" Sam said. She rounded Ash's chair to get a clearer view, then breathed a sigh of relief to find that Josh was still breathing. In fact he was simply holding his head with both hands and groaning in pain. She looked back up to Mike to find that he was holding a gun in his hand! "What'd you do that for?!"

"Wha- seriously? After what he'd done to us?" Mike said before glancing back down at him, "He deserved much worse than just that..." Sam glanced back down at Josh's prone form as well. For a fraction of a second, Sam was certain she saw the 'Psycho mask' in place of Josh's head, before seeing Josh's own head clearly again. Harsh as it was, Mike did have a point.

Mike took a quick breath and turned back to her and the other two,

"Alright... Sam? You and Ash should head back to the lodge's main room. Maybe you'll find Matt and Em up there by now as well. Me and Chris will take care of him..."

"Wait what?" Sam said, "But Mike, what if there are some more creepy surprises waiting for us?"

"I don't think so," Mike shook his head, "You heard Josh admit it; this was all him. I don't think the 'puppet master' here can pull any more strings if we got him tied up or something..."

"I don't wanna see him anymore..." Ashley spoke up in a small voice for the first time in a while, "Get him away from me..."

"Alright alright, Mike, I see your point," Sam conceded. With that she reached over to gently lift Ashley to stand up from the chair. The girl slowly rose to her feet, and Sam could visibly see how much her knees were shaking and trembling. Even her hands felt cold, and the entire right side of her body was coated in, well, 'fake gore' as Josh had described it. Didn't make it any less creepy or disgusting though.

"Come on Ash, let's get out of here."

Ashley gave no resistance and she followed along with Sam's guiding hands. Looking up and around she gave a quick survey of the surrounding room, only to be met with more impenetrable darkness. She reached up with her free hand to turn on the light to her headband-light and quickly dispel the darkness in a conical radius before her.

Turning her head to the side, she caught sight of a familiar set of double doors. These were nearly similar to the ones that she had discovered that dummy wearing her clothes in. No other doors could be seen in the immediate vicinity, which Sam took as a clear sign as to their immediate exit.

Before she proceeded to lead Ashley out, she looked back to the boys once more.

"But wait, where exactly are you gonna take 'him'?" she said, her tilted head indicating to Josh's still prone form.

"I say the shed," Chris spoke up as he stood from his chair as well, "You remember, Mike? That old shed way out down the trail? It's remote, well away from the lodge... good place to keep him in."

"Alright, good idea..." Mike nodded before looking back to Sam, "So yeah, we got him here. You girls head on up. Be safe."

"Yeah, you too," Sam replied as she proceeded to leave the room with Ashley.

---

Icy, razor wind whipped all around, stinging Chris' face ever so slightly. They must've chosen a point to go out when a storm was beginning to pick up again. However, where Chris was certain he should've felt some measure of cold from being both outside and in this wind, a more potent feeling within him helped to keep him relatively warm. The reason being that he was feeling hot with anger. He could even feel heat build up within his fists from how tightly he'd been clenching them this whole time.

They were still clenched even now as he and Mike were 'escorting' Josh down the trail that led to the shed. No way he'd be able to do anything or cause trouble being held in there. Still, Chris was filled with not only a deep feeling of anger, but also of betrayal. How could one not feel betrayed after their best friend basically went out of their way to try and kill them? After he basically 'did' kill one of them from what he'd heard Mike say?

With gun in hand Mike primarily forced Josh down the trail himself. This was so because Josh the entire time was far from being a willing escortee. He'd unfortunately come to his senses for the most part after being hit by Mike, which meant he was able to start ranting again. Every moment he got he tried to stop himself from being pushed forward. He and Mike had thankfully managed to secure his wrists behind his back with some rope that they'd found in that basement room.

"Guys!" he protested, "Guys, come on! Seriously, this is crazy, you know-"

"Shut up," Mike cut him off.

Crazy? Is that the word he wanted to describe this? He had the nerve to write off what was happening to 'him' as 'crazy'?! Crazy is kidnapping someone. Crazy is hooking them up to an insane deathtrap where someone was guaranteed to get killed! Crazy was forcing your best friend to either kill a girl they liked or shooting themselves! Crazy was hitting said girl in the-

Oh yeah, that's right! The Psycho- Josh, HE was the one who had hit Ashley in the face and gave her a black eye!

"Why'd you hit her, man? Huh?!" he suddenly exclaimed, "Why'd you have to FUCKING HIT HER?!" He dashed forward past Mike with a fist cocked back, the let it collide with Josh's face to send him sprawling to the snowy ground.

"OW-!" Josh cried out in pain. Chris felt a sharp sting of pain run up his fist as it hit Josh's face. He couldn't tell if he'd managed to land his punch at Josh's own eye, but frankly he didn't care. For now it was enough to get a single blow to this guy for that alone.

"Why'd you-"

"You punched Ashley, you piece of shit!" Chris punctuated his point with an accusing finger leveled at him. Chris gritted his teeth as his eyes remained fixed on Josh. He watched his form slowly struggle to regain his footing. He was groaning in pain, as if he had any right to feel pain himself.

Eventually Josh managed to pull himself back up to his feet, even with his arms tied behind his back.

"I-I got... so mad, and-" he started, but Chris was quick to dismiss that excuse with a scoff.

"You don't hit a girl! You..." he reprimanded him. "You just don't!"

"Dude, Chris! Bro, I-"

"And I'm not your 'bro'!" Chris dismissed with a wave of his hand. This guy lost any and all right to call him that anymore! "Now go on! Keep walking!"

Mike took that as the cue to resume pushing Josh on his way. Josh gave little resistance as he was forced backwards by Mike's hand pressing his chest, but he was still talking and protesting!

"Where are we going? Where are you guys taking me!?"

His answer came in the form of Mike forcefully pushing him forward and causing him to stumble and fall. Chris could not care what sort of pity he was trying to evoke as he was certain Mike wasn't caring either. As long as he was being moved on his way to the shed.

"Locking you up, 'bro'," he said.

"Wait, what?!" Josh's eyes snapped back up to Chris and Mike, clearly widened in surprise.

"So you can't do anything... stupid, before we call the police in the morning," Mike explained further. The wide-eyed look on Josh's face only seemed to intensify. Even as he scrambled back to stand up on his feet he was almost looking genuinely panicked.

"C-come on, guys! I... I didn't do anything!"

"Wha- are you serious, bro!?" Chris said. How was Josh gonna try and play stupid and deny stuff now of all times?

"Goddamned murderer is what you are!" Mike said as he forced Josh back along the trail even further.

"No- I didn't do it!" Josh said. His eyes were widened with panic and maybe a little desperation by now, "Michael, please! Just listen to me, man! I did NOT hurt Jessica!" Chris' teeth and eyes clenched shut hard at what he was hearing. Every word that was coming out of Josh's mouth serving further as fuel for the burning anger within him. How long was he planning to drag this out for?

"Are you INSANE?!" he declared, eyes leveling directly at the bound boy before them, "Like really; do you not understand what you've done?!"

"I'm a HEALER, MAN! I bring people together!" Josh suddenly exclaimed. His eyes were still widened but this time were widened like he was a screaming madman. Ironically this only affirmed Chris' rhetorical question he'd asked Josh; of course he was insane. But not even 'pleading insanity' was going to save Josh from Chris giving proper punishment to his best friend, no matter how much it was going to hurt...

"Not like you assholes..." Josh continued, his eyes directed at Mike this time, his tone taking on a more spiteful edge. Chris couldn't see Mike's face, but he could see the finger he pointed at Josh in response, as well as hear his own challenging tone when he spoke.

"That's enough! Keep going...!" he said before shoving Josh again to continue walking. The bound boy gave his usual resistance, but at the very least wasn't trying to bolt or run away from them.

Chris could still feel the slow burning of anger within him keeping him marginally warm but having let loose that punch on Josh was starting to notice smaller things around the three of them. For one thing they had passed that creepy scarecrow mannequin that had scared Chris earlier. Josh seemed to take deliberate care to take a healthy step away from the dummy himself even while he was being corralled against his will.

Eventually having walked far enough, the familiar silhouette of the large shed came into view through the snow-filled wind. At this time of night the moon was shining its light through a thin line of trees on the right side directly in front of the shed; almost as if it were lighting the way for them on purpose. No way Josh could've staged that particular lighting at least.

Speaking of Josh, the bound boy continued to rant and rave the entire time he was being herded forward. The three of them had passed by the front of the shed's entry door and towards the open door of the large storage section.

"You only see... what you wanna see!" Josh grumbled out loud, "You're BLIND-!"

"Stop talking!" Mike scolded him as he pushed him forward harshly, causing Josh to stumble forward and fall face forward into the snow. Chris then watched as Mike quickly rushed forward to bend down over Josh's prone form. Though knowing how the two of them were feeling towards him at this moment, it wasn't likely Mike was about to offer him comfort.

"Dude..."

"Argh! Not my fault you suckers can't take a joke!" Josh said, wiggling and thrashing beneath Mike's hand. For a moment however he ceased his movements as well as gave a harsh grunt of pain.

"Oh, oh-wait, did I hurt you?" Mike spoke with a sarcastic edge. Was he messing with Josh himself? Chris couldn't exactly see from his current angle.

"You feel... just a little, little bit of pain, right now? Oh I am so, SO SORRY!"

"AARRGH!" Josh's painful cries rang out suddenly, "Stop it!"

"Mike, dude-" Chris frowned as he tried to cut in.

"Michael!" Josh continued to rant even as Mike pulled him by his arms up into kneeling position facing away from them, "I'm sorry man! I can't tell you how sorry I am... that something happened to Jessica, but I swear... I SWEAR to you! I have NO IDEA what happened to her!"

There he was going again, trying to play denial and innocent with this! Chris pursed his lips in growing frustration with every plead he heard from Josh's own lips. He had questioned him before, but now he was starting to feel like this guy was actually insane with how much he was keeping this up! Granted he himself hadn't seen exactly what had happened to Jess, but from the way Mike was fiercely claiming the worst, it couldn't have been anything that would warrant sympathy from Josh.

"Josh, be honest here: do you really expect us to trust you?" Chris said, "For a single goddamned second? After all the shit you just put us through?!"

A brief moment of silence passed between the three boys. The sound of howling wind primarily filled Chris' ears as he stared at Josh from behind. He still couldn't see his face, but he still waited to hear something. There wasn't a single thing Josh could say to justify what he'd done, and yet Chris just had to hear anything from him! Was it for the sake of their friendship? They'd been friends for years, so that had to have meant something to at least one of them.

Finally, Chris heard a new sound from Josh. Even while the bound boy remained on his knees in the snow, the sound of chuckling could be heard. Chris eyes narrowed in confusion, and then the realization made him frown even harder.

"Can't we all just get along?"

Normally the sound of laughter in light of such heinous crimes would garner a harsher reaction from Chris. However, in light of this being Josh as the culprit, Chris found himself being reminded of past times when... when Josh's brief moments of sanity began to crack. When he was younger he wrote it off as Josh acting eccentric as well as trying to be funny. But the older he grew, Chris slowly came to realize that possibly some actual mental issues were at work here with the Washington boy. He'd never say it, or at the very least only spoke of it on confidence with Josh himself, but over time he came to have a clearer understanding of some of Josh's inner workings as it work.

Not a single one of them could be used as justification though!

Even Mike seemed agree as he reached down to grab Josh's bound wrists to haul him back up to his feet. He harshly forced him up, causing Josh to let out more pained cries.

"Dammit!"

"We are not... dicking around!" Mike leaned his head closer to Josh's and spoke threateningly. His threat didn't seem to garner any sort of fearful reaction from Josh by this point, even as Mike forced him closer towards the shed. In fact, what Chris could hear from Josh was sounding strangely unintelligible by this point.

He craned his head forward slightly to listen in closer and discern the things Josh was saying.

"This not... how it's supposed... to go down...!"

At the very entrance of the shed Josh halted his movements to turn around. Chris was then afforded a full view of the exact facial expressions Josh held. His eyes were widened again, only this time with a clear sense of mania. The guy was clearly delusional, and by now just spouting random nonsense, but it seemed only punctuated by the absolute crazed look in his eyes. Eyes that were not only leveled directly at him and Mike, but also with a clear sense of anger as well. As if he had any right to feel anger about this, or about anything really!

"You-you're just a bunch of bullies!" he declared, "You can't... hang out a... a guy just to dry like this, guys!"

Mike proceeded to advance closer to Josh. The bound boy's expression seemed to be directed more towards Mike himself the closer he approached him.

"Not like... not like you got the GUTS to really do anything about it anyway!"

His outburst towards Mike only earned him harsh action as before. Mike once again reached his free hand out to forcefully shove Josh forward. The bound boy cried out as he ended up tumbling forward face down into the snow-covered ground. He did not remain sprawled out on the ground for long though as Mike quickly reached back down to force him back to his knees yet again.

Chris on the other hand watched this entire display happen before him with disdain. He continued to frown harder at every word that Josh spouted. What the hell did he know about having guts anyway?

"Oh stuff it- you're the biggest coward there is!" he pointed an accusing finger at him.

"Oh yeah?" Josh said in a challenging tone, "I DID something! I made you believe in a world that I'd created! And I showed you parts of yourself that you were too afraid to visit-!"

"You manipulated us!" Chris interrupted, not the least bit deterred by Josh's insane logic, "You tricked us, you hurt your friends, and you did all while you hid in the shadows! You are a COWARD, Josh! That's all you are!"

"A murderin' coward who's getting EXACTLY what's coming to him!" Mike added.

He reached down yet again to grab Josh's bound hands to force him up. This time Josh put up much more resistance upon entering the shed's entrance, trying to force himself out of Mike's grip. Chris held position close by behind the two as he followed them in, keeping guard to block off Josh's possible escape route.

Just like before, the shed's storage room was dimly lit by a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling above them. Aside from the doorway that would lead to larger part of the shed (as well as the 'death-trap' Josh had apparently staged), the room was largely empty and spacious aside from a single wooden pillar also located in the center. That could be a good place to keep Josh restrained against. Maybe if they could also find a chair, or...

As Josh and Mike moved forward, Chris noted just the item needed to the side. A single footstool lay upside down in relatively good shape.

"Hold up, Mike, let me grab this..." he announced as he reached to grab the item. He then quickly moved in front of the two to quickly set the item down at the base of the pillar.

Josh was then forcefully placed down on the stool with his back to the pillar, only to immediately attempt to stand up again. Both Chris and Mike forced him back down with a hand to each shoulder before the former quickly shifted himself around towards his hands.

"Kay, tying me up now, okay!" Josh was raving the entire time.

"Sit still, man!" Mike said.

"Right, right, right, right, still..." Josh seemed to concede. In theory it should be simple enough to simply resecure the rope around Josh's wrists to behind the pillar. Chris held a tight, almost iron grip on one of Josh's wrists before carefully sliding that hand through the rope's loop. Alright, this was the critical stage; despite Mike clearly having a tight hold on Josh at the moment, anything could go wrong still.

Chris quickly grabbed at the rope from around the pillar. Excellent, the hard part was done basically. Now all that was left to resecure Josh's wrist into the tied loop. Just like they'd done before-

"Well can't- can't tie 'em up if they just wiggle around...!"

Josh suddenly began wiggling and shifting in place. His jostling movements nearly caused Chris to lose his grip on both the rope and the wrist in his hand.

"Josh, dude!" he hissed with irritation as he struggled to maintain his grip.

"Leave me a little wiggle room, huh?!"

Thankfully Josh wasn't flexing his fingers much to cause much hindrance in getting his hand resecured. Eventually, in the midst of Josh's wiggling movements Chris finally managed to get the hand back through the loop in the rope. His teeth only grit harder at how much more unnecessarily difficult Josh was making this! One more tug on the rope outta do it...

"What does it take to shut you up?!" Mike could be heard admonishing Josh as Chris gave one more hard tug on the rope.

"Ow-! Not so tight, okay?!"

With that Chris finally stepped up and a few steps back from his handiwork. He supposed that was as good as it was going to get. Those ropes were tied well and secure even before they'd left the lodge, and now he'd never be able to get free while secured around the wooden pillar. Josh himself appeared to be struggling ever so slightly, yet it didn't appear he'd be getting loose himself anytime soon.

As Chris walked back around Josh to rejoin Mike in front of him, the bound boy continued to rave; spouting absolute nonsense bordering on just straight up talking to himself.

"What... in God's name... is he talking about?" Mike whispered while keeping his gaze fixed on Josh. Chris also couldn't help but keep his own eyes fixed on him too. Josh didn't even seem to acknowledge the two of them before him anymore; he just continued to spout out nonsensical words like the filter in his head was shut off.

"This is hard to watch..." he said.

"He ever say this kind of shit before?" Mike asked him directly.

His question caused Chris to think back. Unfortunately, he could actually recall at least two instances where something like this had happened before. Once was when he'd gotten into that 'biking accident' years back that involved him taking a blow to his head. Even as a kid Chris remembered that Josh seemed less about crying in pain and more just letting random words flow from his mouth. And the other time was immediately after their prank just last year...

"No-" Chris started before reconsidering, "Well, yeah, but... don't think I've ever seen him like 'this' before..."

The two of them looked back at Josh's sitting form. By now he was making sounds that almost sounded like chuckling, if not for the fact that they sounded... wrong. Even the light shining down from the lightbulb literally cast him in an eerie, almost creepy light. The shadows under his eyes and his chin seemed all the more accented as a result. But worst of all were his eyes and how this entire time they seemed unblinking, slightly bloodshot, and remaining fixed on both him and Mike.

"Everybody's stupid... so stupid stupid stupid..." he could be heard saying, "Chris... and Ash... Chris is an ass... Ashley's a dumb-dumb..." His own comment seemed to fill him with delight as he started making that strange chuckling sound again. However, Chris found himself perking slightly not at the mention of his name, but at Ashley's name.

"I-I'm sorry, what did you say?" he said in a half-challenging tone.

"Well I said you're a dummy, dummy!" Josh replied.

"Jesus, Josh, what is wrong with you?" Chris said.

"'Oh Ashley! Oh...!'" the bound boy suddenly spoke overly-dramatically, as well as a poor imitation of what was likely meant to be Chris' own voice, "'Oh, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that you liked me!'" His mock rendition of Chris was topped off by him also making a sickeningly smiling face, obviously in self-amusement.

In that moment, Chris could feel the familiar sensation of anger, slowly burning up within him again. Of course Josh would've known about his feelings made known to Ashley; he was watching the whole thing! He was watching when Chris was basically 'forced' to choose between him and Ashley, and he probably was watching when he was 'forced' to choose between shooting Ashley or himself! It was obvious what he was trying to do now, but damn if it wasn't still getting under Chris' skin!

"S-stop it..." he spoke simply while turning his head slightly. It was becoming too much of a pain to even look at the bound Washington by this point. Unfortunately, his ears were then filled by sound of kissing sounds instead which only fueled his burning rage at the implication.

"And you know what that sound is?" Josh pressed, "That's the sound of NEVER KISSING ASHLEY, you PUSSY!"

"Dammit Josh, SHUT UP!" Chris exclaimed. Chris could feel his body burning with anger by now. Yet despite his burning anger subconsciously filling him with the sense of appearing intimidating before Josh, the bound boy's joking, smiling expression did not fade or falter in the slightest. It was as if Josh as the Psycho himself were still taunting at him even now!

Chris quickly looked to his side to find something, like a hammer or some other tool. He spotted a piece of a wood laying on the ground next to his foot, reached down and held it poised in a position to strike at Josh.

However Josh still didn't appear to be intimidated by his threatening pose as he was STILL talking and taunting him!

"Yeah, you know- you might as well let Ashley sleep with Mike here!" he continued while gesturing his head towards the boy in question, "I mean, at least he's got some notches in his belt, yeah? He'll TREAT HER RIGHT!" He punctuated each of the last syllables with a small pelvic thrust before turning his own anger-deranged eyes back to him.

"You're FUCKING pathetic, Christopher!"

"That's it! I'm gonna beat his head off!" Chris felt his anger positively boiling over by this point. It was one thing to talk shit about him, but this guy did NOT get to talk shit about Ashley!

As he moved to strike at Josh with both of his hands on the wood he felt himself getting held back. Mike had stepped forward to place a hand on his front.

"No- don't listen to him, man!" he urged, "He's not worth it..." Chris flashed Mike a look for a second. In that moment Chris could feel his anger simmering ever so slightly. Nonetheless he lowered his hands and the wood held within while leveling his angered stare at Josh.

"Hey Mike?" Josh suddenly spoke, apparently forgetting about Chris entirely, "Mike-Mike-Mike-Mike-Mike." The boy in question shuffled in place at each time his name was mentioned. Chris could see his lips pursing as well. He seemed to be holding in his anger much better than he himself had been.

"Mike."

"What?" Mike finally relented.

"What happened... with Jess, Mike?" Josh asked. Chris quickly looked over to Mike to see him purse his lips even tighter and sharply draw in breath. Just as quickly however he slowly and quietly exhaled.

"You know what happened," he replied with a low, threatening edge to his tone.

"Ah- no... no, I... I don't," Josh shook his head, his eyes still widened with insanity, "I got... a problem, Mike. I don't remember killing Jess."

"Oh- Jesus Christ..." Mike said with a scoff of his own.

"I mean, like, I feel... like I would remember... killing her, you know?" Josh continued, "She's... so soft, and..." After a moment of pause, Josh strangely leaned his head and upper body closer towards the two boys. His face was once again graced with that insane grin he'd been sporting for the last few minutes as of late.

"And she's probably got like a really tight bod...!"

All at once, Chris could feel his anger spiking yet again. This was madness, this was actual madness given form! Josh had truly gone insane and Chris was nearing his own wits' end with how much he was hearing!

Coincidentally at the exact same moment, he caught sight of a rush directly next to him. Mike had dashed forward, gun in both hands pointed directly at Josh's head, and his own voice filling the entire space.

"YOU SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, RIGHT FUCKING NOW!"

Chris almost flinched from the sheer intensity of Mike's outburst. He couldn't see Mike's face from being directly behind him, but he could only guess his anger was just as great as his own in this moment. Combined with the fact that he was pointing that gun right at Josh... was he... was he really going to shoot him?

"Oh, oh no, Mike, you're going to shoot me?!" Josh meanwhile spoke in a tone that sounded almost mockingly pleading, "B-but I'm just a poor boy, you don't feel sorry for me, do you?" Even with a gun pointed directly at his head this madman would not shut up?!

Chris brought both hands to the piece of wood, his teeth clenching hard.

"You're making shivers run down my spine, you know that, right?!"

He raised the board closer to his head, eyes trained solely on the raving boy before them.

"I guess this is it! Goodbye everybody, time for me to go!"

Clenching the board even tighter Chris could feel the anger boiling so hard within him that his whole body practically felt like it was one fire! The cold had all but gone unnoticed to him, replaced only by someone who seriously needed to SHUT UP!

"Nothing really matters-!"

"You SON OF A BITCH-!"

Chris positively leapt forward, nearly shoving Mike out of the way in the process and swung his arms with all his might. Through the board he felt a thud as he made solid contact with something. In that moment, Josh's ranting ceased all together, bringing a feeling of much needed peace to Chris' ears.

Until it was replaced by another sound.

"STOP DUDE! Chill out!"

Ironically, Chris could feel the heat-inducing haze around him dissipate slightly. This was quickly followed by the feeling of once again being forced back by a hand against his chest.

He was left to view the world around him in relative clarity again. He instantly became aware of three things: how tightly he was gripping the piece of wood in his hands, Mike's angered glare now directed at him, and a now completely silent Josh with his head slumped to the side.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

For a moment, Chris almost felt an out-of-body experience at the question directed at him. What was he doing exactly? He just remembered feeling so angry, a burning anger inside of him, and a need to shut Josh up and his ranting. But did he... did he really just...

"I... I thought you were gonna shoot at him-" Chris found the words spilling out of his mouth completely unfiltered. His statement earned him an equally admonishing look from Mike.

"Shoot him, wha-? I was just messing with him, man!" Mike exclaimed as he gestured to the gun in his hands, "You know, fake gun, fake bullets? Trying to scare him!" Chris eyed the gun Mike held in his hand as the realization slowly but surely hit him hard. The gun that Mike was holding in his hands was in fact the same one that he had been holding in his own hands a few minutes ago. The very one that Josh had let him know had blanks in it!

A deep, cold feeling began to well up within Chris.

"Give him a taste of his own medicine...!" Mike even now was still speaking with a scolding tone.

"W-w-what the HELL, man! I-I could've killed him!" Chris exclaimed. His eyes darted back and forth between Mike and Josh's unconscious form. For God's sake, the guy was even tied up too! He never meant to... This was such sickening irony, wasn't it? His friends never meant to do what they did to Hannah and Beth, now here he was having hurt his best friend Josh? What was wrong with him of all people...?

"Relax!" Mike cut in before ducking in closer to inspect Josh's body, "He's... yeah, he's fine. He'll be fine..."

"I didn't like doing that-!" Chris protested.

"Well, now at least, he's... he's quiet," Mike tried to assure him. His words hardly had the effect he intended, as Chris' anxiety only remained spiked. He raised his free hand to rub the bridge of his nose even when he heard Mike speak up again.

"You should go back to the lodge."

Chris eyes shot open and he looked to Mike in surprise and confusion.

"What?! Why?"

"I'm gonna watch him 'til the morning, and I don't need you beating him half to death before them," Mike spoke with a sarcastic edge to his voice.

"Th-that's not fair, I thought I was keeping you covered!"

"Yeah? Well, job well done! Take a vacation," Mike's continued sarcasm blew him off even further. Chris' eyes only further narrowed at Mike's change in attitude to him.

"What the hell man?"

"Go back to the lodge. Now." Mike spoke firmly while leveling his stare at him.

"But dude-"

"Now!" The other boy's tone and face clearly wasn't leaving any room for argument in the slightest. Chris' lips pursed until he let out an exasperated groan. There wouldn't be any further reasoning with him it seemed, leaving his only option to simply do as he was told.

As he turned away to leave, he threw away the piece of wood he held in his hand; the main item that had caused this whole mess in the first place it felt like. Exiting the space of the shed was noticeably different compared to before; he had entered the shed feeling warm with burning anger, but now was leaving the shed feeling much colder, as well as the sinking feeling that he had fucked up yet again...

---

-Bonus points for anyone that figures out just what Josh was ranting about specifically in my 'revised insane Josh dialogue' I made for him. And yeah, Happy New Year to everyone, keep on reading! -