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justinewt · 2 years

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Dreadful Play - UNTIL DAWN REWRITE Chapter Three

[UNTIL DAWN-MASTERLIST]

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Summary: The week-end was definitely not going as planned when Synthya was forced out of her hot bath, having to wander around the lodge, believing her friends were pulling some sort of prank on her but her annoyance grew into utter fear when a psychopath started chasing her down in the basement and she only prayed for one thing, her survival. She had no desire to find out what he would do to her if he caught her.

Words: 4.1k

Warnings: Until Dawn spoilers (chapter 5 and 7 specifically), angst, trauma, injuries, blood, chase, maniac killer, loss, grief, ANGST

UNTIL DAWN taglist is open ! Comment or send an ask if you wanna be added to it :)

Mount Washington’s Lodge, 01:11 AM

SIX HOURS UNTIL DAWN

Synthya closed her eyes, relaxing in the bathtub, taking a deep breath. She finally had her long-awaited moment of calm and peace where she could just chill and log off from the real world, resting in this nice and warm bath. At first, she had been listening to some music, various genres, her headphones in her ears but she eventually took them off and let herself slid in the water, bubbles coming up to the surface when she breathed out, just listening to the silence. It was really relaxing and after some time to herself, she was convinced she would be ready to fully and truly enjoy this winter getaway, looking forward to spending more time together with Josh. After what had been probably like a minute underwater, she emerged, gasping softly for air as she wiped her eyes when suddenly, the door slammed shut and she turned around with a jump. All the candles installed around the bathtub had gone out and she thought of a simple draft that would have caused the door to slam so abruptly, but the windows were all closed in the room, and she didn't think she had left the door open. On the contrary, even though she didn't lock it, she remembered having closed it. She wrung out her hair.

“Hello? Josh...? Guys?” Synthya called but her question was met by religious sience. She sat there, chills aready appearing on her shoulders, just waiting for a response, looking around, confused and after a dozen of seconds, she stood up and got out of the bath, wrapping herself in a towel. Upon walking to the chair where she had folded her clothes, she found nothing and frowned. This was getting weird. She didn’t understand if this was another of Chris’ prank, maybe Josh was involved in that one, or if she had just put her clothes somewhere else and somehow forgot. She was really trying to think of the possible scenarios as she looked in the bathroom, see if it was just her mind playing tricks on her or if they were actually gone and in which case, someone had in fact taken them away, for an unknown reason. She sighed and gave up on finding her close anywhere nearby. She secured the towel wrapped around her body and ventured outside of the bathroom, taking her phone to use the flashlight as she walked to Hannah’s room, thinking of grabbing a bunch of clothes in last resort because maybe walking around, naked, with only a towel wasn’t the best but when the door to her late best friend’s room turned out to be closed, she swore under her breath, resigning himself to wandering around like this.

Upon taking a better look around, she realized there were ballons tied to the stair’s guard railings with arrows drawn on it with a black marker pen or something, indicating a direction. After she saw this, she grew more annoyed than scared as it started to really look like a stupid prank and she figured that if she played along, she would get to the end of it quicker, so she climbed down the stairs, following the ballons, calling out to Chris, Josh and Ashley as she wandered in the empty living room. As she came by the turn off TV, she heard a sudden and very brief high-pitched squeal and jumped on her feet but when she looked at the screen, there was nothing. It was just pitch black. She shot a last gance in the room and walked away, climbing down the last fight of stairs and the ballons led her to the room before the basement, lighting her way with her phone’s flashlight and she arrived in front of the cinema room, frowning in confusion. The double door was wide open.

“Guys? Are you there?” She asked again, as she walked in the room, feeling a little more uneasy. “Hey, come on, now. I want my clothes back. Can someone please answer to me? This is not cool!” She screamed when the door slid shut behind her and she stepped away when suddenly, a distorted voice came from the speakers set on the sides of the screen.

“Hello Synthya. Looking for me?” She frantically looked around, getting freaked out, not so sure it was a mere prank anymore. “I don’t think you’ll have much luck by looking, Synthya. You’re only going to see what I want you to see.”

“What the hell… Josh, Chris… Ashley, if this is you, it’s not funny anymore.” The only response she got was the weird voice laughing at her and carrying on.

“I have quite a lot to show you. Open your eyes.”

“Oh my god.” She stared at the screen showing her relaxing in the bathtub. She swallowed harshly, feeling a lump form in her stomach.

“She’s quite beautiful, isn’t she. A beautiful bathing bird… do you think she has any idea what lies ahead? Do you think these were the last happy moments of this creature’s life?”

“Why are you showing this to me...?” Her voice was shaking.

“Why are you watching?” The voice retorted and she glanced behing her at the projector. When she turned around, back to the screen, she had the horror to see Ashley and Josh, tied up on a wall, a moving circular saw mounted on tracks, cutting Josh in half, screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Josh!” She cried out, putting her hand on the back of the chair in front of her. “OH MY GOD! Josh—" She was cut off by her crying and fell to her knees, sobbing as she looked away, unable to watch her boyfriend being murdered, his guts falling from his torso. She couldn't take anymore and when the weird psycopath spoke again, she slowly stood up, her cheeks wet from the tears.

“I’m going to give you ten seconds… Nine…”

“No, no, no no no...” She walked back to the door, trying to get her shit together but she couldn’t help but cry. She couldn’t believe Josh was dead.

“Eight. Seven.”

“Please no.” She yelled, her face distorted with tears, grief and utter fear. Suddenly, someone entered the room and she let out a scream, trying to get away from the psycho

“Synthya. Sy-yn?” He titled his head, cracking his neck, holding a gas bottle by his side.

“You killed, Josh! You fucking monster!” Synthya growled, frowning in anger and without thinking twice, she reached out to a vase by her side, and threw it hard at the mysterious man who protected himself with the gas canister and she took to her heels, running towards the adjacent room. It was a bedroom. Holding her towel in place, she closed the door behind her and lit the room with her phone to which she clung desperately. She knew that hiding here would be stupid and he would find her on the spot, so she went to jump over the bed and at the same moment the psycho opened the door and slowly walked in but as she was frightened and panicking, she didn’t lose any time and rushed out, running down the hallway and down the steps to the basement in a hurry. She saw many spots where she could hide but it wasn’t very clever as she was sure he would find her, so she kept running in the basement, breathing heavily. She ran into a door with no handle and whimpering, she looked around and pulled down a wine rack, rolling to the side before it fell on her and pinned her to the ground, to the psycho’s mercy to do whatever he had planned to do to her. She noticed a handle had fallen from above the rack, she crawled and grabbed it before standing up and hastily open the door and slam her behind her the moment he came right behind her. Her fingers found the door hatch and she locked the door. He slipped his arm through the opening, trying to get it open but she managed to close it, screaming.

Synthya caught her breath and turned around, walking away to the door at the other end of the room. She turned the handle, but the door remained closed, so she started to slam into the door with her shoulder, groaning. Her sole hope of saving herself from this madman was to manage to open this stupid door and after just one hard bump of her shoulder, the door gave in and she fell as on the other side, the floor was no more so she fell one level below and hit her head, wincing. She brought her hand to her forehead and there was barely any blood, so she sucked it up, grabbing her phone to light her way through the concrete rubble and stood up, chills running down her back. She kept on going, rubbing her arm, trembling slightly from the ambient cold. Reaching the end of the hallway, she found herself thinking between continuing to run down the hallway on her left or hide beneath an old elevator shaft on her right. She ultimitaly chose the second option and jumped down, turning the flashlight off and closing her eyes, swallowing harshly, sticking to the wall as much as possible so he wouldn’t notice her. When she heard footsteps approaching, she held her breath, keeping her eyes shut, biting her lips so hard she felt the metallic taste of blood in her mouth.

“Here little kitty. Here pussy pussy.” He paused, turning around, looking for her but when he swore, she knew she had saved herself, at least for now. “Fuck!” She waited to hear the footsteps receding and she breathed out, cuping her face in her hands, silently crying, releasing all the pressure, her body shook, but not from cold, from all the tension and stress this had put her through. She had lost Josh, seen him get torn apart and was then chased and mocked by a fucking psychopath and she had no idea what he wanted to do to her, but given what he did to Josh, it wouldn’t have been anything pleasant.

Lodge’s basement, 3:05 AM

FOUR HOURS UNTIL DAWN

She crawled through a rather long and narrow air vent, scratching her elbows and knees against the surface, so much that they were covered in a very thin layer of blood. Synthya lit the room beyond the opening with her phone’s flashlight, checking the area she was setting foot in before sitting and pushing the vent with her feet and carefully getting out, looking around her fearfully, worried that the psycho would find her there too, and the fact that just at first glance, she noticed it looked like a sort of workshop didn’t help her calm down, but she couldn’t hear anyone so she let out a small sigh of relief and began to explore the premises. Anything she could learn on this crazy dude would be helpful. Glancing behind her, she noticed a cork board with a map but only the top corners were pinned on it. She frowned, approaching slowly and she lifted the bottom corner and found plans of Josh getting cut in half with little annotations to the sides of the drawings.

"What?" She mumbled. “This can’t be right…”

Little arrows were showing various areas of the drawings, noting head hole, pig blood and latex model. She was quite dumbfounded and stepped away, shaking her head. She didn’t understand. She had witnessed Josh’s gruesome death. Synthya took a deep breath and walked to a desk. She ignored the circular saw put on it and the numerous papers pinned on the wall and opened a drawer, grabbing a file stored inside. She put it on the desk and opened it, and inside, she found Josh’s medical records from his time at the hospital from exactly a year ago, everything was in there. The young woman couldn’t quite understand why this psycho would have all these confidential documents. She took a step away, shuffling her feet to a shelf where she found a phone just lying there. When she turned it on, she saw a photo of herself as the lockscreen’s wallpaper and realized it was Josh’s phone. It was a picture of her in a black dressing gown and only he had this picture. She unlocked it, of course it was Josh’s, it didn’t even have a password and she scrolled through a rather heated conversation he had had with his therapist, well, Josh was being quite heated and angry, telling Dr Hill off until he just stopped answering the shrink’s texts. The latter seemed worried and concerned for him, talking about a “plan” he had told him about and which he advised him against. Synthya stared at the phone, not really understanding what this was about. All she could think about was that Josh was dead, murdered in a horrific way and this asshole made a whole game of it. She couldn’t help but hear Josh’s screaming to death and she shook her head, putting down the phone.

She walked across the room in a heavy silence, now finding a sort of memorial cork board with pictures of Hannah and Beth and little notes here and there. One that stood out was NEVER FORGET, written in red ink. Synthya let out a heavy and trembling sigh and she walked away, following a corridor and climbed down a flight of stairs. She approached a door, her head right at the level of the opening and she got shivers down her spine, reflexively recoiling, silencing her breathing and widening her eyes in fear as she watched the psycho leaning over a table, his back to the door, looking at a bunch of CCTV footage of all around the lodge and the property. She gulped and walked, scared that he would see her. Maybe he was looking for her on all those cameras and it freaked her out that she was right behind the door, so close from him and he had no idea. Down the hallway, she found a voice recorder left alone on a table and pressed the play button, wondering what it was about. It sounded like the psycho rehearsing a speech until the voice changed, as if the voice changer had been turned off and her heart almost missed a beat when she heard Josh’s voice. She turned it off instantly.

“Holy shit… what… no… This is insane…” She shook her head, taking a shaky breath, running a weak hand through her black hair.

There was no way Josh was behind all this. She saw him die. She saw it. It was crazy and fucking impossible. Even though, deep down, she knew it made too much sense for it all to be just a coincidence, but she wouldn’t admit it to herself. She didn’t want it to be true. She couldn’t understand why he would do all this, and why he would put her through this, chasing her down in the basement. It wasn’t him. It was just impossible. As she walked to the stairs, she glanced at the door worriedly and climbed up the steps, hoping to finally find a way out of there, and maybe some clothes on the way because she wasn’t sure she could make it out in the cold with barely a towel on. She was freezing. The first door she encountered was locked so she walked to another one down the hallway. A double door looking somehow resembling that of the high school cafeteria. There was mess behind that double door; furnitures broken and knocked over, stuff spilled on the floor. She found a camera set to the side, a light on the floor and a dummy on a chair, with an awful clown mask on its head. In another context, it wouldn’t have been this creepy and strange to see a dummy dressed up in her clothes. All the clues and things she found would have led her to think it was Josh’s doing but she really had a hard time accept what was probably the truth. All she had hoped for this weekend was to spend time with Josh and everything had been ruined. She thought of just undressing the dummy and get her clothes back but when she saw her bag hanging from the doorknob, she only took her scarf back, because it was her mother’s and she refused to just leave it here. She suddenly felt a hand grab her ankle and she let out a yelp, stepping away, looking down at a vent on the bottom of the wall.

“Mike!” She kneeled down, holding the towel in place. “What are you doing down here? There’s a g—” She sighed in relief. “Thank god you found me.”

“It’s okay. You’re okay.” He whispered, his eyes going from the bruise on her head, her red eyes and bloody lips. She nodded, trying to hammer this into her head. For now, she was okay. Wandering around in a dark and scary place was better than being actively followed by a psychopath.

“I don’t understand… How did you get here? How did you find me?” She wondered.

“There’s some fucking maniac up here on the mountain—”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” She said softly, cutting him off.

“He lives in this like, web of tunnels… I was down there trying to ger out and I found this grate and saw you.” He explained.

“This guy you’re talking about… he attacked me. Chased me down in the basement and he… he showed me these videos too,” Her voice started breaking and she glanced behind her, terrified that he would somehow hear her and get her. “and one of them showed Josh being killed… just… ripped apart by this huge fucking sawblade…”

“Jesus Christ!”

“I think he is living down here, and whoever the hell he is, he’s obsessed with Hannah and Beth. But here’s the crazy thing: I found these plans, like, blueprints for a crazy machine just like the one Josh was in, but it’s fake… it was for a dummy. That—” She stared in the void and exclaimed. “Tha means Josh might not be dead!”

“Synthya, hey, slow down…”

“Also, I found his phone, like, on a shelf, just lying there… there was a whole conversation with his doctor, and… he was talking about a “plan” that was like, a “bad idea” and now he’s dead!”

“What the fuck is going on around here… There’s a door here, it won’t open.” He showed a door on his left, behing the one from which her bag was hanging. “Can you unlock it from your side?”

“Wait a sec’.” She stood up, grabbing her backpack and opened the door. She removed a wooden plank across the door Mike was talking about and opened it.

“Hey…”

“Jeez, you look like hell.” She observed, stepping in the room with him. She must have looked like hell too with the blood on her face and her eyes all red from crying.

“Nice to see you too.” He watched her walk to the back, behind a shelf, putting her backpack to the ground. “What are you doing?”

“Well actually, the towel didn’t turn out to be the best outfit for fighting off killer maniacs, you know? And I’m gonna turn into a fucking ice cube. Do you mind? Mike?” She gestured her hand for him to turn around just so she could change with some of the spare clothes she had packed.

“Oh. Uh, right, my bad.” He nodded, looking away. She changed into a plain T-shirt, a red-hooded jacket, a pair of black jogging pants and tied the drawstring at the waist and put on her dark sneakers. She also tied the scarf around her neck.

“Okay. Done. Let’s put things to bed.”

“Amen to that.” She picked up her phone, checking how much battery was left and she nodded to herself. Her phone wasn't going to die any time soon. They barely took a few steps when they heard muffled voices coming from a distance.

“What was that?”

“Is that crying?” They glanced at each other in confusion and walked to the door across from the one she had opened for Mike and put their shoulders against the door and gave a heavy knock. It gave in and opened to a room plunged in the dark, but they could perceive chains hanging from the ceiling and two people seated at a table near a light on the floor. Synthya was about to light up the room with her flashlight to see who it was but a spotlight on the ceiling came on and she recognized Chris and Ashley, tied to the chairs. Two sawblades were hanging right above their heads. Synthya saw them look to the side as Ashley cried and she saw the psycho walk towards them.

“Noo! No no no! Get away!” Chris had a gun in his free hand and tried to shoot him down, but nothing came out except some drops of blood, which was probably fake.

“Oh Chris… Oh Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris.” He shook his head, walking around the table.

“What the fuck?!” Chris looked at the gun. Mike and Synthya approached, having no idea what was going on. It all seemed so off.

“Oh, you’ve heard of blanks before. I mean, really?” When the psycho took off his mask and revealed who was actually underneath, Synthya froze, staring at Josh in disbelief. She was torn, wanting to scream and cry but not being able to produce any sound for some reason. She had to face it and admit to herself that he was indeed the one behind all this but in spite of everything, she still didn’t want to believe it.

“…Josh?” Chris spoke. Synthya snapped out of her thoughts and staring when Mike put his hand on her shoulder for a second and they walked closer to the table while Josh laughed, hysterically, walking in a circle around the table, and smiling as if there was something hilarious.

‘Oh, very good! Every one of you! You got my name! And after all you’ve been through! Good, good-good-good. I mean how does that feel?” Mike and Synthya went to Chris and Ashley, undoing their ties to free them. Whatever it was with Josh, something wasn’t right. Synthya knew he hadn’t been doing well, for a long time but she had never seen him like this, so erratic. “Right? How does it feel? Do you enjoy feeling terrorized? Humiliated? I mean, panicked? All those emotions that my sisters got to feel once one year ago! Only guess what? They didn’t get to laugh it off! No! Nope! No no no! They’re gone!”

“I don’t know if you noticed this, Josh, but none of us are laughing.” Mike retorted bitterly.

“Oh come, come-come-come-come. Why the long faces? Come on. It’s good to get the heart racing every now and then, right? And race they did, I mean, every one of you, just pitter-pat-pitter-pat! I hope you appreciated my little phantasmagorical spectacle! 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! And all that gore? I mean, gore, there was gore galore!! Fake bodies… I mean, God, that shit was expensive! And no retakes! Nope, nope, nope, only double takes! Oh, you should have seen your faces; Hook line and sinker. For every little stinker!” He cheered.

“Josh…” He cut her off, pointing her finger at her and laughing as he started talking.

“And you really had to run away! I mean, you hopped away like a rabbit and poof, you were gone! I wanted to put you away from all this, but nope! Nope!”

“You knew I would run; I mean… Of course, I would. Oh, God, I am sorry, I should have been more there for you... you're crying out for help, Josh... You wanted me to catch you, didn’t you?”

“Oh sure, I’m totally just crying out for help.” He retorted. “Help me! Oh, help me! Help help! Come on! And you’re so so so so sorry, right? Come on! It was just for fun! I mean you got a little of egg on your face, right? Nobody got hurt—”

“What are you talking about you ass hat?” Mike spoke. “Jessica is fucking dead!”

“What?”

“Did you hear me?! Jessica is dead… and you’re gonna fucking pay you dick!” He walked towards Josh, and Synthya yelled at Mike when he hit him hard on the head with the gun in his hand. She kneeled down by Josh’s side as he lied unconscious on the ground, and she let out a heavy sigh. This was definitely not the chill weekend she had hoped for.

[To be continued…]

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Published (09/07/2022) by Andrea

Taglist: @cathrin2405 @kika64

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sweet-shut-eye · 5 months

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Tools of Self-Destruction

#until dawn #I also like THIS game #my art aha #illustration #josh washington #josh until dawn

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proxythe · 8 months

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honestly, with everything that’s happened, it almost feels like the universe has been playing pranks on us.

#my art #until dawn #mike munroe #ashley brown #jessica riley #chris hartley #hannah washington #beth washington #josh washington #sam giddings #emily davis #matt taylor

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babybirbb · 10 months

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my favorite pastime is shipping ships from stuff i don’t watch

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desperado-raspado · 7 months

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men will be like 'is anyone going to torture their close group of friends out of a misdirected sense of grief and revenge for the death of their sisters?' and not even wait for an answer

#until dawn #josh washington #needle #i know everyone missed my half assed sketches

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ncthandrake · 3 months

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JOSH WASHINGTON Until Dawn (2015)

#until dawn #josh washington #untildawnedit #udedit #gamingedit #videogameedit #*#*gifs

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slasherscream · 7 months

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the crazy ass boys and that punisher scene *would* be kooky crazy and you absolutely should do it - the FLAVOR…

A/N: do i feel bad for reader? yeah, of course... but lowkey this shit kinda funny. TW: the kevin and josh parts of this feature attempted sexual assault of reader. if you get the urge to community label this block me and don't read it instead xoxo.

crazy ass boys gang + reader kills someone based on that one punisher scene

billy loomis:

He deserves it. The hands wrapped tightly around his throat, his mind going foggy from the lack of oxygen. Head pounding in pain from the several blows he’d taken to it. His vision swims as he stares up at the monster he himself had created: Ghostface.

One thing he’d never considered about making it so he and Stu were the sole survivors of the Woodsboro massacre was what tantalizing targets they’d become for any Ghostface copycats. He curses himself for it now. It was ridiculous to think that infamy like theirs wouldn’t inspire other bloodthirsty maniacs.

To be murdered in his own home, the way so many of his own victims met their fate, is particularly insulting.

‘What an ironic way to go,’ Billy thinks as he starts to black out.

And that should be it. There shouldn’t be anything after the blackness. But suddenly he’s taking large, greedy gulps of air again and rolls to the side heaving. He finds himself face to face with the Ghostface copycat who sports a new accessory: a kitchen knife in the side of their neck.

Senses coming back to him, he slowly begins to hear the miserable animal-like whimpering of another person in the room and rolls onto his back. Standing over him and his cheap knockoff is his partner, Y/N, blood splattered across their trembling hands.

“Did I kill them? Are they dead?” Before you’ve even finished the sentence Billy is shaking his head no.

“No, baby, no you didn’t kill them. It’s okay.” The words hurt to get out but he forces them anyway. He has to reassure you that you aren’t like him. That you aren’t a killer.

Believe it or not, he never wanted this for you. You aren’t like him or Stu. You aren’t built for this. But here you are, blood on your hands because it came down to Billy or a stranger and you’ll always choose Billy, no matter what the choice costs you.

Billy forces himself to move when he notices the way the rise and fall of the Ghostface’s chest slow to the jerking heaves of the dying.

He yanks the knife from their neck and they make a gurgling, wet noise of pain. It’s the sound people make while they drown in their own blood. Billy is more than used to it, and barely registers it. But as quiet as the room is, the noise is deafening for you, and you turn to retch.

“You didn’t kill anyone baby, I promise.” Billy slits their throat so quickly it’s done before you even turn back around. “I killed them, okay?”

josh washington:

Josh’s hearing these days is inhuman, which is only fair since Josh himself isn’t quite human these days.

Also inhuman is his bond with you. He’s in tune with you, to put it lightly. His abnormally cold body forever seeks out the heat of your own. He relishes in your calming scent. He listens eagerly for the sound of your breathing, your heartbeat, your voice.

That’s why, even with the music at this party turned up to deafening volumes, he registers the sound of your scream as if you were standing side by side.

The noise awakens something animalistic in him. His mouth, already half split into a permanent, razor-toothed snarl, pulls back even further. He looks monstrous. He pushes and shoves violently through the crowd of mindlessly gyrating bodies in a panic.

‘Where are you, Y/N?!’ He thinks, sick to his stomach.

Even through the heavy smells of sweat, alcohol, and weed, he’s able to follow your scent outside. Here he’s in his element. The air is clear and damp, and it’s easy to track you. You’re in the woods just beyond the house, still screaming, when he finds you.

Immediately he gathers you in his arms, snarling and growling into the open air at any potential threats.

“I killed him. I killed him, Josh.” You shriek, voice high and sharp with panic.

He nuzzles his cheek against yours comfortingly. It takes him a second to remember he’s human and can speak. That’s when he smells the blood. His pupils dilate at the sweet, metallic scent and he searches for the source, eyes seeing perfectly even in the darkness of the night.

His eyes land on a man laying haphazardly on the ground, head bent at an odd angle on a rock. Blood oozes sluggishly over the stone and Josh’s heart stops at the sight.

“I was just trying to get some air and this guy followed me out here and he wouldn’t leave me alone, so I ran, but he followed me. He followed me! And he tried to…” You sob on the words that won’t come and Josh knows instantly what happened. His mind paints the rest of the horrible picture. “... all I was doing was trying to get him off me. That’s all I was trying to do! I didn’t mean to kill him, Josh. Oh god, I didn’t mean to kill him.”

You’re not a killer. Josh isn’t one either… but if he has to choose which one of you will have to bear the weight of taking a life he knows he won’t let it be you.

He crosses over to the man, who looks up at Josh with unseeing eyes. There’s only one thing to do. Josh bends down low and braces himself for the way your attacker's blood will taste when he rips out their throat with his teeth.

stu macher:

text from babygirl/babyboy: [ stu there is someone in the house pls hurry im scared ]

He glanced down at the pocket of his jeans ready to roll his eyes when he heard your text notification.

You were probably texting him because you’d checked the kitchen and realized you needed some spice or vegetable ‘desperately’ to be able to make dinner tonight. He almost felt like ignoring it and telling you he hadn’t seen the text until he pulled into the driveway of your home.

But begrudgingly he paused, shifted the grocery bags around in his arms, and pulled out his phone.

His heart stopped.

Instantly, he knew you were serious. He might fuck with you like this but you’d never do the same to him. He dropped the groceries on the ground and ran to the car.

He doesn’t text you to ask if you’re okay. He’s terrified of the answer he could get. More terrified of getting no answer at all, so he just drives. He focuses on the thought of you at home, needing him, and breaks every speeding law there is to get to you.

He parks down the street so as to not tip off the intruder. He grabs the hunting knife he always keeps in his car even though Billy tells him not to and stalks like an animal toward the home you’ve built together. The rage he feels is indescribable. Someone is in his house terrorizing what’s his.

He creeps in through the wide open back door of the house. He pauses and listens for a sound over the pounding of the blood in his ear.

Nothing. For one soul crushing moment there’s nothing at all.

Then he hears the sound of you crying from upstairs and it makes his heart stop. He runs up the stairs as quietly as he can and throws himself into the bedroom ready to do anything to save you.

But you’ve already saved yourself, it seems.

You’ve curled yourself up in the corner closest to the door, watching as the man who attacked you bleeds out from the stab wounds you put in his stomach.

Stu stops moving and watches as the man tries to stop himself from bleeding out, his own cries blending with yours. You were smart enough to keep the knife and you hold it towards the man, shaking with adrenaline and fear.

“Baby-” Stu’s voice breaks the spell you’re in and you turn to him and begin to cry in earnest. You were holding yourself together, waiting on him to save you and he came too late.

“He’s dying Stu, I killed him. Oh god, I killed someone.” Blood from the knife you’re holding drips onto the hardwood floor of your bedroom.

“No, baby, you didn’t kill him.” Stu already failed you tonight. He’s not going to let you become a killer because someone broke into your house and you had to survive.

He crosses the room, kneels in front of the burglar, and stabs them twice in the neck. The warm blood hits his face and he doesn’t even relish in it. Just waits for the light in the burglar’s eyes to dim. When it does he turns back to you.

“I killed them, honey.”

jd/jason dean:

The sound of a gunshot rings through the basement loud and clear.

JD freezes, mind racing as he thinks of what to do next. It’s not every day that you’re caught planting bombs in the building where the Dean’s office happens to be. This was his last stop.

All the other bombs have already been carefully placed throughout campus. Even if he’s caught now, the detonator is only just out of reach. If he can reach it, the plan will still be a success. The only minor hiccup would be dying beneath a couple thousand piles of rubble. But that’s a small thing. It’d be worth it. For you, JD would do anything.

This university had taken everything from you. He’d watched it happen. Had sat by, rage simmering just beneath the surface as he tried to let you handle your own problems. You’d insisted he’d let you handle the situation. You’d let yourself get walked all over, is what happened. But JD doesn’t blame you for how everything turned out.

You’re too gentle. Too sweet. You don’t have that animal instinct to fight or go to war. It was one of the reasons you endeared yourself to JD so quickly. You were intensely vulnerable in a world so resolutely cruel that you were breathtaking just by existing. To watch you come to harm of any kind was painful. But it all ended today. Even if it killed him.

“Oh no, oh please no.” Your voice makes JD turn in bewilderment.

“What on Earth are you doing here-” JD’s eyes go wide at the scene before him.

There’s a security guard on the ground, unconscious, a pool of blood seeping from them. He can see the entry wound on their back. He wonders if the bullet is lodged in them or if it went straight through.

“I didn’t want to kill him. I was just- I was coming to stop you from doing this but I didn’t… I saw the guard coming up behind you with a gun, and… and his finger was on the trigger. He was gonna kill you. He was gonna-”

JD steps gracefully around the puddle of blood the guard is making and takes you into his arms. You fall into them with a wet sob.

He feels his heart go warm, the way it always does when he holds you. You came here to stop him from protecting you and wound up protecting him in turn. Whether you like it or not, the two of you are soulmates. You’ll always come first to one another. Damn the rest of the world entirely.

But JD knows you’re too tender for this. Knows that killing will break your spirit, not free you the way it freed him.

He gently pries the gun from your fingers (and almost laughs at the thought of you trying to confront him with his own gun), turns, and shoots the guard execution-style in the back of his head.

“You didn’t kill anyone, darling. You don’t have it in you.” He pulls you back into his arms. “But don’t worry about that, you’ll never have to when I’m around.”

kevin khatchadourian:

Kevin told you the guy was bad news. But generally, Kevin was an untrustworthy judge of character because he hated everyone, especially anyone who pulled any of your precious attention away from him. So, you decided to tutor the other man despite Kevin’s insistence you do no such thing.

You should have listened to Kevin.

Of course, your classmate didn’t actually need tutoring. He was just trying to get close to you. He said as much as he pinned you against your couch, rough hand sliding up up up your leg, to the juncture of your thighs. It quickly became clear that your classmate didn’t care whether or not you wanted to become close to him as well.

You’d shoved him away from you as hard as you could once he started trying to remove your clothes. It was a good shove. He’d landed right on the corner of the coffee table. There’d been a sickening crunch as the back of his head hit the wood. Then there was nothing. And now he was making a low, animal noise from what seemed like the very pit of his stomach. He must’ve been in agony.

You didn’t move a muscle. You were probably in shock. You just sat, holding your ripped shirt to your chest. All the while knowing that if you didn’t do something soon, this man that had tried to force himself on you would die.

Kevin walked in through the front door of your apartment. You heard him take off his shoes. Throw his keys onto the table in your entryway. Heard him begin to shuffle his way toward the scene of the soon-to-be crime.

“Y/N?” He’s suddenly kneeling in front of you, blocking the view of your attacker, who still keeps on with that miserable whining.

“Kevin?” Numbly, you reach for him, place your hands on his shoulders and grip them tightly. You try to pull him towards you but he holds himself away, staring at you.

“What happened?”

You glance a little to the side and can see the other man still sprawled across the ground. “I should have listened to you.”

Kevin’s thumb gently drags along your freshly busted lip, smearing blood along the length of your mouth, “What happened?”

His voice is so unusually tender that the haze of confusion and fear breaks and you sob. You try again to pull him towards you and this time he comes willingly, enveloping you in his arms. For someone so distant, who adopts and discards emotions and feelings as easily as a mask, Kevin’s embraces are always tight and all-consuming.

You stay like that for only a few minutes. When Kevin pulls back, he wipes away your tears with your own ripped shirt. You stare at one another. You never know what he’s thinking, now being no exception, but for once you let yourself get lost in the inky blackness of his eyes and feel comforted, not unnerved.

“Go take a bath.” The command comes out of nowhere.

“What? Kevin I-” A slightly louder moan than the rest cuts you off and the look on Kevin’s face fades from whatever was there when he was looking at you to his typical viciousness.

“I’m going to put him out of his misery. He’s already dying. There’s no use calling an ambulance, and I wouldn’t let you anyway. So you’re going to let me do what I need to do, and you’re going to go take a bath while I do it. Then you’ll go to bed, and when you wake up, it will all be over. Understand?”

He doesn’t give you the option to disobey. He helps you to your feet, guides you to the bathroom, and even starts the bath for you. Then he goes back into the living room to kill a man as if it means nothing to him.

You sit in the bath with your knees to your chest, and listen to the sounds of running water instead of focusing on the fact that the man has finally gone quiet.

#crazy ass boys gang #billy loomis x reader #stu macher x reader #jd x reader #josh washington x reader #kevin khatchadourian x reader #heathers imagine #scream imagine #until dawn imagine #we need to talk about kevin imagine #ran out of steam to do nathan sparrow ben and david #maybe one day #if you see any typos respectfully no you didn't lmao #ENJOY y'all been waiting for this one

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grrbrainsorwhatever · 3 months

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Riddle me this what’s um dead and also you ???? YOU !!!!! AAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAH

#digital art #fanart #until dawn #josh washington #until dawn chris #until dawn josh #I think josh tried thinking of riddles to accompany him during the prank but couldn’t think of any and just gave up #horror #until dawn game #cw eyestrain

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m1ssingirl · 2 months

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Ashley Chris

Jess Mike

Emily Matt

Sam Josh

𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐰𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬 ⊹ ࣪

Until Dawn (2015)

“You need to go down to the mines.”

#until dawn #until dawn remake #supermassive games #ashley brown #chris hartley #jessica riley #mike monroe #emily davis #matt taylor #sam giddings #josh washington #aesthetic #icons #messy layouts #horror games #moodboard #match icons #matching icons #pfp icons

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not-your-bro · 2 years

Text

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phantompunkart · 2 years

Text

josh deserves his rootbeer float

#until dawn #josh Washington #chris hartley #mike munroe #climbing class #until dawn josh #until dawn josh washington #until dawn chris #until dawn chris hartley #until dawn mike #until dawn mike munroe #until dawn art #until dawn climbing class

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justinewt · 2 years

Text

Darkness - UNTIL DAWN REWRITE Chapter Two

[UNTIL DAWN-MASTERLIST]

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Summary: After meeting up at the cable car, Chris and Synthya made their way up the mountain and reached the lodge. Synthya wasn’t too hyped about the whole thing, having kind of a bad feeling but she was doing this for Josh. It seemed important to him to get everyone reunited on this day and she would give Josh the world, so she didn’t really think twice before agreeing to come back here... despite her apprehensions.

Words: 5.6k

Warnings: Until Dawn spoilers (chapter 2 specifically), flirting, fluff, fears, angst, chase, lots of dialogues

Mount Washington’s Lodge, 10pm

NINE HOURS UNTIL DAWN

Synthya and Chris walked down the trail, the sole of their shoes sinking slightly into the snow, leaving their footprints in their path. She really couldn’t wait to get into the lodge and settle on a couch, maybe even take a hot bath to chill out a bit cause the uneasiness she felt while walking through this god forsaken forest was getting a little too much for her to handle, although she managed to keep up the appearances. She knew she didn’t actually need to pretend with Chris, but it was almost like she needed to make herself believe she was fine and as they approached the small gate cutting off the path leading up to the lodge, she noticed Matt, his arms crossed, seemingly upset for some reason and just standing to the side and Ashley was sitting on the porch stairs. Synthya let Chris open the gate and they were welcomed by Josh who walked up to them and at the sight of the latter, a sweet smile appeared on her face. He smiled at her and greeted her with an affectionate and soft kiss. Chris cooed and whistled to tease them. Josh simply laughed as he stepped back.

“Man, I feel this mountain gets bigger every time I climb it.”

“Oh yeah? Feels the same to me.” Josh said nonchalantly with a cocky smile. He just had this overall laid-back and cool vibe coming from him, as always. She couldn’t help but be worried about him all the time but seeing him so calm and composed made her wonder, but she knew better. His behavior in public did fool her when she had first met him. She’d never thought he wasn’t so well and that’s why now, she tried to have a constant eye on him, but some things slipped from her watchful eyes. One definitely couldn’t tell that a year ago he attempted suicide. Only her and Chris knew about that incident, though.

“Oh come on, you grew up here. It probably feels like it’s shrinking.”

“I guess that’s true.” He glanced down, nodding.

“When are you gonna install some cell towers up here? I’m getting withdrawals already.” Chris complained lightly, lifting his phone up in the air. Synthya rolled her eyes, subconsciously adopting the same pose as Josh as she watched Chris acting all tech-savyy.

“You got a spare million lying around and I’ll fix you right up.” Josh retorted ironically, shrugging.

“Funny you should say that… Ah, I think I left it in my other jacket.” While Chris was being the comedian he is, Josh put his arm around Synthya’s shoulders and they walked the last feet separating them from the porch, approaching Asley and Matt.

“Hey guys… Get up here, okay?” He greeted the two with his free hand.

“Yeah… well, more or less. But it’s so good to see you!” Ashley said.

“Sup with him?” Josh wondered, looking at Matt and nobody knew the answer so there was a brief silence. Matt even eventually went a little further from the house and stood in the shadow of the trees, ruminating in silence. Josh let his arm slip down her back as he and the moment his hand left her back, she suddenly felt quite nervous and she looked into the dense forest, narrowing her eyes as if she was trying to see something. “Oh, hey, you all right, Syn’?”

“Uh, yeah… yeah, don’t worry. I’m fine. Just… just a bit nervous. That’s all…” She cleared her throat, staring into the dark and Josh rubbed her back and climbed up the porch stairs along with Chris.

She went the opposite direction and slowly came near the small gate and leaned on it, staring straight ahead at the forest path she had just walked up with Chris. Alone in front of it, it seemed so much scarier. She had this pending feeling of being watched and followed and this ever since she got off the bus almost a couple hours ago. Something didn’t feel right but she shook it off and took a deep breath. She stayed still for a second, her heart pounding in her ears and shallow breathing, she swallowed harshly and grabbed her phone and headphones from her bag and put music in her ears. The silence in which the forest was plunged did not help to calm her. She closed her eyes and breathed in and out slowly, her hands now gripped onto the gate. But the nightmares came anyway, mocking her attempt at keeping her shit together. These same images kept haunting her mind. She ran in the forest, with Hannah and Beth, freezing and in panick at they reached a cliff. She suddenly felt a hand on her, and she opened her eyes, right at the moment she saw herself fell and she turned around, only to see Josh standing in front of her. She had never told him about what happened, not in details anyway. She only ever really told her therapist about it and the latter eventually diagnosed her with PTSD. She cleared her throat, taking off her headphones.

“Where did Chris go?” She asked, trying to compose herself.

“He went to look for a deodorant to open the door from inside.”

“A deodorant?”

“Yeah, I gave him a lighter, so he can go all flame-thrower and unfreeze the lock.” He gestured, mimicking a flame thrower with his hand, making the crackling soun with his mouth and her eyes flinched in a brief blink and she sketched an amused smile, nodding, to cover up her reaction, in case he had seen it. She never forgot about that man with the flame-thrower who at first chase her and his sister down before actually saving her from a deadly fall and letting her run away, for some reason. It was still something confusing to think about. And she never said the whole story to Josh because he had already hit rock bottom, she didn't want to upset him even more. “You all right, Syn?”

“Huh? Sure, I—” She was about to tell Josh how well she was when she suddenly heard a branch crach in the distance and she turned around, startled. When she saw a deer just running across the path she cleared her throat, passing her hand in her hair, letting the hood of her jacket fall down her head, making her shiver when cold air blew down her neck, despite the scarf she had tied around it. She felt Josh wrap his arms around her waist, leaning his head against hers and she put her hand onto his. “I’m fine, really. Just a little on edge…”

“I know, but you’ll see, we’re gonna have a great weekend.”

“Oh, really?” She smiled at the smirk on his face and turned her head towards him. The way he pressed his lips against hers, sharing a soft and sensual kiss, made her think he had probably some making out in mind for the two of them, in order to make this the great weekend he promised her. They only broke their embrace when they heard a loud wooo noise coming from inside the lodge and Ashley letting out a gasp, jumping. Synthya smiled, amused and Josh and her walked to the door. “Hey man, shouldn’t be getting the lock open?”

“On it!” After a minute, he lit the lighter and sprayed the deodorant on the flame, melting the ice inside the lock of the lodge's front door. He grabbed the handle and opened the door quickly letting go, waving his hand with a quiet grunt from the heat. He then bowed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week—” He suddenly screamed when a little furball came out of the blue and rushed out of the house. Ashley, Josh and Synthya stepped aside in surprise. “That thing freaked me out.”

“What was it? Are you okay?” Ashley asked, laughing.

“It was like a… bear or a tiger or something—”

“Aww, it was just a little baby Wolverine!” Synthya joked. Unlike Josh and Chris, she wasn’t much of a jokester, but this seemed like the ideal occasion to make a pop culture reference. Josh gave her an amused smile.

“Baby?”

“Don’t worry buddy, you’re gonna be a big boy soon.” Josh teased with a smirk. They then walked in, joined by Mat and went into the living room. All the sofas and armchairs around the fireplace were covered with a sheet. There was an eerie silence floating in the air until Josh spoke up, looking around. “Home sweet home.”

“Sweet is not the word I’d use.” Matt said while putting down Emily’s bags near the wall.

“Oh my god, it’s so good to be inside. Even if it’s still kinda freezing in here.” Ashley sighed in relief.

“I’ll get a fire going.” Josh walked up to the fireplace.

“This place barely looks any different.”

“Yeah, like it’s frozen in time.” Synthya added, glancing at Matt with a nod.

“Nobody’s been up here.” Josh told them, crouched in front of the hearth.

“Even with all the police coming in and out?” Ashley wondered.

“Not a lot of action here lately.” Chris concluded, glancing at Josh.

“Nope.” Josh added. Synthya nonchalantly shuffled her feet, walking around the living room and she went near the windows, parting the slats of the curtain with her fingers, looking out. It took her a second to realize that she was looking outside as if she was awaiting a monster with that same anxiety that made her stomach heavy and she took a step back, startled, almost letting out a loud gasp when Mike came in, casually yelling to greet the rest of them.

“What’s up party people!” Synthya swallowed harshly, trying to compose herself, ignoring the fact that Josh glanced at her. She used to be better at keeping her shit together but being back on that mountain was fairly triggering, but she would do anything for Josh so if it was important for him to bring everyone back up here, she wouldn’t say no to the invitation and the fact that he was there too made it a little easier.

“Heeey!” Jessica waved her hand at the five of them standing there in the lodge as they joined. Josh greeted them back, still busy near the fireplace and Synthya noticed Matt raising his head and staring at Mike, for whatever reason. She thought that maybe Mike had something to do with how upset he was a moment ago when they were stuck outside the house.

“Make yourself at home, bro.” Josh told Mike. Synthya kept an eye on them, silent and she pulled the sheet covering an armchair next to the large sofa and slumped in the chair, sitting sideways on it, facing Josh.

“Will do.” He gestured at his host and joined Jessica on the sofa.

“Yeah. Come on in.” Matt’s tone of voice was overly bitter, which only confirmed Synthya previous thought about the reason why Matt was so troubled, now he looked like he wanted to throw hands and have a beef with Mike right there right now. “Take a load off. Have whatever you want. You just take whatever you want anyways, right?”

“Woah, easy there, cowboy.” Mike seemed genuinely confused, or at least he was acting well. Synthya was watching them, as if she was watching some reality show on TV -which she actually never did- but it felt like it.

“What the hell were you doing with Em out on the trail, huh?” Matt inquired.

“What?”

“I saw you and Em. Through the telescope.”

“Before? We just ran into each other. It’d been a while, so we hugged, and I said hello. Is that against the law?” Matt looked away, clearing his throat, nodding, seemingly a little embarrassed to have gotten carried away. He ran ran his hand through his hair.

“Right… yeah... Duh. Sorry, it’s been kind of a long day. I overreacted.”

“Nah, man, don’t worry about it.” Mike said softly before joining Jessica on the couch and Matt went to sit down on the other end of the sofa. Synthya let out a quiet sigh and rested her head against the back of the armchair. She bent over to grab her phone in her bag on the floor. She let it fall right back inside upon seeing that it was dead already and returned to her previous position on the chair. That’s when Emily arrived. Synthya already knew there would be some drama between her and Jessica and no one had even said anything yet. She wasn’t really thrilled to see them again, after not talking to them at all for a whole year. Synthya had only kept in touch with Chris, Ashley and obviously, Josh.

“Oh. My god. This is so gross.” Emily chuckled, looking at them in a judgmental manner, crossing her arms over her chest. “Are you trying to swallow his face whole? Seriously can she be any more obvious?” Matt stood up while Emily just kept going. This time, the fight would escalate, because Emilly was much more impetuous. “No one wants in on your territory, honey.”

“Excuse me, did you say something?” Jessica took a few steps, rising from the couch.

“Oh, did you not hear me? Was your sluttiness too loud?”

“Sounds like someone’s bitter she didn’t make the cut.” She said, looking at Mike still casually seated behind her. Synthya rolled her eyes and looked at the windows, watching the snow falling outside.

“Yeah. It’s all big cattle call with that dreambot. Congrats, you’re top cow.” Emily laughed.

“Cuts real deep calling Miss Homecoming a cow.”

“Em, come on—” Matt tried to defuse things, but he got off by his very girlfriend.

“Shut up, Matt.”

“Stay out of it, you dumb oaf.” Jessica added and from what Synthya heard, because she got tired from looking at them, Emily didn’t like that one bit.

“Hey, watch it!”

“Oh, you’re the only one who can put him down? No one else can play with your toys?” Jessica rose her voice.

“You’re such a bich.” Emily complained.

“Whatever. I don’t give a crap what you think.” Synthya heard Jessica stepping back to the couch. She glanced at Josh, still working on getting the fire lit. He would probably put a stop to this fuss as this was surely not what he had in mind with this little winter get-away for the anniversary of his sisters’ disappearance.

“At least I can think. 4.0, bithc, honor roll. Such on that when you’re trying to sleep your way into a job.”

“Who needs grades when you’ve got all the natural advantages you can handle?” Jessica retorted with pride. “You couldn’t buy a modly loaf of bread with your skanky ass.”

“Are you serious? Do you think that’s insulting?” Emily giggled at the attempt.

“Emily, stop! This is out of hand. There’s no reason to fight like this.” Matt spoke up, trying to play peacemaker once again.

“Yeah, Em! Why you pickin’ fight over your ex boyfriend, huh?” Before Emily could retaliate, Josh stood up and rose his voice. Synthya straightened up, bringing her legs down from the arm of the chair and looked at the latter.

“STOP IT! This is not why we came up here. This is not helping. It’s not what I wanted. If we can’t get along for ten minutes then maybe we need a little bit of a break, right? Mike, why don’t you check out the guest cabin. The one I told you about.”

“Yeah… Yeah, all right.” He got up, and invitated Jessica to come along with him, to take her away from Emily. “Want to go do that?”

“Any place without that whore…” Jessica sighed, one hand resting on her hip, she took Mike’s hand and followed him.

“It’s right up the trail.” Josh added.

“Phew…” He mimicked an explosion of his head with his hands and sighed in relief. “Glad that’s over.”

“Yeah.” Josh whispered back as he returned to the fireplace, which was still unlit after a few minutes already.

“So, Josh, uh… should we get this fire going?” Matt asked.

“Where’s my bag?” Emily inquired out of the blue. Matt turned to her, confused. “My bag! The… the little bag with the pink pattern! The one I got on Rodeo! Matt, are you listening?” While Emily talked about her stupid bag, Synthya stood up and walked over to the Grand piano. The top was closed, and it was covered with a sheet as well. She grabbed a corner of it and pulled it over before she pressed a key on the piano, and it made a sharp noise. She winced and brought her hand back to her.

“You can't play us a masterpiece today, Syn.” He joked. “The cold has surely ruined it.”

“That’s sad.” Synthya observed. She couldn’t even play the piano anyway, but she saw the beauty in these big instruments and loved them.

“Not as sad as my missing bag.” Emily whined. “Matt, I need my bag!”

“Oh my god, Em, maybe you just forgot it—”

“Do you seriously think I’d forget my bag?” She exclaimed, as if it was crazy of him to suppose that.

“Well, I—”

“Do you?” She cut him off again. She had been doing that ever since she joined them in the lodge.

“Guess not.” He said, shrugging.

“You must have left it down by the cable car station.” Matt grumbled. “C’mon, hun. We’ll be back soon.”

“And then we can get warm?” He asked softly.

“We can get very warm.” Emily cooed. Synthya smirked slightly, looking around the room. It made her think of the similar lusty offer Josh implied in the sensual kiss they shared outside. She played with her septum piercing, walking in circles as she didn’t know what to do know after the storm finally calmed down after Josh’s ultimate intervention. She shivered slightly and the image of a nice hot bath came to mind.

“I think I’m gonna take a bath. I dream of some hot water right now.” Josh stood up, turning to her and she looked at him after taking just one step towards the huge staircase, on which Chris and Ashley had been sitting in silence for the last few minutes of mayhem.

“Hey, wait for me upstairs, I’ll be there in a minute. Just gotta give some directions to Mike and Jessica, or they’re gonna get lost in these woods.” He told her in a low voice, almost whispering and he chuckled. She smiled before he gave her a soft kiss and left in the direction taken by the other couple.

“All right, I’m off. Get cosy.” She said at Chris and Ashley’s attention as she climbed up the stairs. Ashley giggled nervously. Synthya walked past the bathroom, and she noticed a door ajar at the end of a small corridor on the side of it. It was either Hannah or Beth’s bedroom if she remembered correctly.

The lodge was so enormous that it was fairly easy to forget where what was, or where you were even going in the first place. She even wondered if she had really seen all the rooms of that big house. She looked down the railing before entering the bedroom, climbing the few steps at the entrance fo the room. Everything had been left untouched, like the last time anyone ever came in. Synthya gound an old tattoo artist card on a desk and behind was a date “March 18th 2013” and the time of her appointment along with the tattoo design she wanted, the little butterfly she had gotten tattooed on her shoulder. Synthya frowned, letting out a heavy sigh as she walked to the other end of the room to a busy cork jumble on the wall beside the chimneywith various papers and photos pinned on it, she noticed a large rectangular blue box with her initials painted in gold on the top. She carefully opened it and a soft smile stretched her lips as she saw a ballerina spin around and realized it was a music box, and given the inscription she found inside, it was an old Christmas gift from Josh and the smile quickly disappeared. It made her heart sink in grief, and she closed the box quietly. On the cork jumble, she took a look at everything Hannah had put on it, trying not to get overwhelmed by how sad it made her feel; she was, along with Beth, her best friend after all and the trauma she got from watching them fall to their deaths was hard to deal with. She swallowed harshly and lifted a pinned party invite to one of Hannah's birthdays and beneath was concealed a polaroid picture of Mike in a suit.

“Oh, Hannah…” Synthya mumbled under her breath. She entered the dressing room on her right and noticed a torn magazine paper lying on the carpet. She crouched down and picked it up. On the back of it was results of some love test and Hannah got the result telling her it wasn't going to work, and to try something daring to get his attention. Mike's attention. She shook her head, put the paper back down and walked out of the room, giving a sad look around as she closed the door behind her and went near the guard railing and saw Josh climbing the stairs.

“Sent the porn stars on their way.” He said jokingly.

“All right, cause I’m dreaming of that hot bath so now’s your time to shine, big boy.” She teased and chuckled when he picked up, kissing her languidly as he carried her to his old room further down the hallway.

Mount Washington’s Lodge, 10:44 PM

Synthya leaned over the tub, her knee pressed against the edge as she turned the switches to open the water supply and take a nice hot bath in which she could bask for a while after this little hooking up session with Josh. The latter had then joined Ashley and Chris in the living room and continued to try to light a fire in the fireplace. She let the water run for a second and passed her hand through and frowned at the cold water sending a chill through her arm. She kept turning the switches around, trying to get the water to warm up but after a minute, she sighed. As she walked out of the bathroom, she heard a strange noise and looked around, freaked out and fastened her pace as she went to climb down the stairs to join the three others. She chose to ignore the noise she had just heard. It must have been her imagination. She needed to calm down, because nothing could hurt them. They were safe in the lodge and hopefully, the bath would help her chill out.

“How long do you think it’ll take him?” Chris’s voice echoed a little in the high-roofed room. He was probably talking about Josh still struggling to get the fire going.

“My money’s on blankets for everyone!” Ashley joked.

“You can do it, man. We believe in you.”

“Yeah! Totally! Woo-ooh!” She cheered. “Let’s go Jo-osh, let’s go!”

“All right, peanut gallery, you know what? I got an idea for you two.” Josh said, seemingly giving up on the idea of getting a fire started in the chimney.

“What?” Ashley inquired.

“Okay, well, I am pretty sure that somewhere in this crazy place we used to have… a spirit board.”

“Wow, you have a “spirit board”?” Chris asked.

“Yeah yeah. They’re fun right?”

“Wait, are you saying… we should have a séance?”

“Those things are a joke, man. They don’t do shit.” Chris declared. Synthya descended the last step of the stairs and walked towards them.

“No way, bro. We used to do it all the time. Me and… well…”

“Hey, josh.” He turned his head to her upon hearing her voice. “There’s no hot water.”

“Oh yeah, just gotta fire up the boiler. It’s in the basement.” He looked at Chris and Ashley. “You guys see if you can find the spirit board.”

“Chris let’s go find it! It’ll be like a scavenger hunt!”

“Ummm… okay… guess so.” Chris was apparently not as excited about the idea, but he followed Ashley anyway.

“Rad. You’re not gonna regret it.” Josh assured. “You up for a ride along?”

“Let’s go fire up that boiler.” Synthya followed him past the main staircase, and they climbed a couple of flights of stairs to reach the basement. He opened a drawer and got a flashlight out.

“Hey. You notice how I gave Chris and Ash a mission together?” He had a cheeky and mishievious grin on his face. “Yeah, I was thinking they could use some “alone time”.”

“That’s very clever.” She smiled and nodded. “They are sweet together. I wish they’d just freaking get on with it already.”

“I swear they just need like… something to bond over, y’know? Some sort of traumatic event to send them into each other’s arms. I mean at this rate they’ll be in the geriatric ward before Chris makes a move.” She laughed, agreeing with the statement. They needed a little help to get together finally after dragging this flirt situation on for years. Synthya looked around as she walked after him. He opened a door, and they entered a corridor where he stopped, waiting for her. “You know, Syn…”

“Yes, Josh?” They resumed walking.

“I just wanted to say…”

“What…?” He came to a halt and turned around to face her.

“It really means a lot to me that everyone came back this year and you know, that… you came, Synthya.”

“Oh, Josh… We’re here for you. I’m here for you. Always. Whatever you need. Whenever. We’re all gonna make it through this.” She paused, looking aways for a second. “I should have been there for you more. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too.” He said softly and Synthya cupped his face in her hands, gently caressing his cheeks with her thumbs and they rested their foreheads against each other for a few seconds. She softly kissed his lips and drew him into a hug and eventually they kept walking down to the basement. “Hey, watch your step.” He warned as they climbed down a flight of stairs.

“I think I can handle a little old set of stairs.” Synthya chuckled.

“Uh-huh.” He smirked, pointing the flashlight in front of them to light their way into the basement. He opened a high metal cabinet and bent over, taking a look at the boiler. “Sorry to drag you down into the bowels.”

“Ugh, just get me some hot water and I’ll be super-fine.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t want you coming down here on your own, you know?”

“Well, it’s definitely creepy down here.”

“Yep. Not a place to be on your own.” He straightened up and walked to a board with switches and buttons to the side of the cabiner. Synthya looked around them. She really had no intention of coming down her again once the hot water would be turned on and she could chill in the hot bath she longed so dearly. As her eyes wandered, she noticed something inside the cabinet, leaning against the side and she took a few steps towards it and found a baseball bat put there. She picked it up and turned to Josh.

“What’s that doing here? Is that yours?”

“You bet it’s mine.” He smiled, taking it in his hand. “I used to play ball with my dad all the time. Of course, that was before he got too busy to hang out with me… oh well, save it for the couch, right?” She gave a compassionate look as he put the baseball bat down on the ground and got back to fixing up the boiler. “Okay, lemme see what I can do with this old hot water machine.” He turned a switch, but an empty click sound was all he got so he walked back to the cabinet and handed the flashlight to Synthya. “Here, can you… can you hold this?”

“Sure.” She took it and was about to bent over to light up the interior of the cabinet for Josh when a noise echoed around the basement and she instantly stiffened up, glancing around worriedly. “What was that?”

“What was what?” He asked, leaning on his knees before moving on. “Just shine it here so I can see what I’m doing.” After a moment, he straightened up. “Nice one. Ok, first things first: we gotta increase the water pressure before we get the boiler fired up.

“Uhm… sounds kinda complicated.”

“No, it’s actually pretty simple.” He said, now standing in front og the panel with the buttons and switches. She approached it as he returned to the cabinet. She turned the switch, waited a couple of seconds and pressed a button with a little flame symbol on it when the red light right above it lit up. She looked up at the huge boiler sitting behind as a loud noise sounded in the basement.

“Whoa!!”

“That’s more like it! All right! Five, girl.” She smiled and she high fived him as he held up his hand. Josh closed the boiler cabinet and came back next to her when another strange noise suddenly caught her attention and she turned around, startled.

“What the hell is that…?” She asked in a whisper, glancing at Josh and he shrugged.

“Could be a lot of things… and none of them nice.” He teased, tickling her arms to mimick spiders crawling around. She turned around instinctively. “I’m just… just “joshing” ya.”

“Ha-ha-ha.” She faked laughed and ended up chuckling, shaking her head.

“You were really freaked out.” He observed, a smirk on his face.

“I was not scared.” She protested, knowing damn well that she was totally scared.

“No, no, you just jumped because you wanted to squeeze in some aerobics?”

“Totally. You didn’t know your girlfriend was into fitness nowadays?” He shook his head with a chuckle. Then, there was another noise, followed by another and another, like something was hitting on the pipes. “Okay, so you hear that too, right?” He stepped past her, frowning. “Josh…?”

“…What?”

“The rhythm’s like, weirdly regular…” She noted.

“Not… no… nothing “regular” about it.”

“I’m gonna check it out.” Synthya declared, swallowing harshly. She was freaked out but somehow not as much as in the forest.

“What? Why?” Josh inquired.

“I’ll be fine.”

“It’s probably just like, not anything.”

“Why don’t you hold down the fort while I make sure?”

“Okay, whatever you say, madam.” She held tight onto the flashlight as she walked down a hallway towards where the noises were coming from, her free hand hanging down her body as she fidgeted her fingers anxiously. She might have been a brave person, but she was still pretty scared. She swallowed harshly, taking one step at a time. Suddenly, a masked man came from behind the corner of the wall and jumped, screaming as she ran out of the basement with Josh. In the panick, she pushed a mattress on the ground. The mysterious man tripped over and grunted. Her breath was quickening, and her face was distorted by fear. She felt like when she and the twins had been chased into the forest by this scary man. Synthya ran into the door, feverishly forcing on the handle, trying to get the door to open, letting fearful cries out along with some swearing in various languages. When she saw that the man had stopped down the flight of stairs leading to the door, she stared at him.

“…What?” She caught her breath, only feeling now that her cheeks were wet, and she had cried a little. She cleared her throat, wiping the tears, staring at the man who started laughing and booing like a ghost. “…what the hell?”

“Boom! You just got monked!” He lowered the hood, revealing his face and she made an annoyed face to find it was Chris. She had gone through such intense up and downs in the last minute that she just stood there, not really knowing how to react.

“Nice. Nice one. That was good.” Josh giggled behind her.

“Why w… why would you do that?” She inquired.

“There’s all this old movie crap down here. What, was I… was I not supposed to take advantage of the opportunity?”

“Are you… are you serious? I—” She had almost snapped and unpacked what had happened to her in that forest, a year ago but she let the words die in her throat as she sighed and turned to Josh, slapping him on the chest, pushing him lightly. “Were you in on this putz?”

“Nope. But I wish I was! That was too good.” He laughed. Of course, if he knew what she had went through and what this stupid prank had reminded her of, he wouldn’t be smiling and laughing like that but still, she didn’t say anything. It didn’t feel like the right time to trauma dump. She took a deep breath while the two boys high fived and she followed them, silent. Josh locked the door behind them and put the flashlight on the piece of furniture by the door to the cinema room before catching up with them as they climbed up the stairs to the living room. Ashely walked up to them, looking at Chris in disbelief.

“What… in god’s name… are you wearing?”

“I found my true calling.” He joked, pretending to give her a blessing. Synthya chuckled, shaking her head and climbed up the stairs to go to the bathroom. She could hear Ashley, Chris and Josh chatting downstairs, talking about the Ouija board but she had had enough for the night. She desperately needed that hot bath, to calm down and relax and maybe, enjoy a moment on her own, without anyone’s company.

[To be continued…]

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Published (08/24/2022) by Andrea

Taglist: @cathrin2405 @kika64

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