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FLORENCE STONE AND BETH WASHINGTON SHUFFLED AROUND THE INFAMOUS WASHINGTON LODGE. Cleaning up after a long night of . . . fun. The lodge sat right at the center of Mount Washington, surrounded by the Blackwood Pines. Outside, snow fell unto the already glistening white ground while moonlight shone down from above. It was a beautiful winter night, perfect for a lodge party.
The aftermath of the lodge parties was always the same: empty bottles and cups of various alcoholic beverages strewn about, miscellaneous snacks and wrappers left on countertops and scattered along the floor, music still humming from the expensive speakers the Washington family bought specifically for the lodge, the occasional Polaroid photo — usually taken by Florence, a lover of photographs — lying around to commemorate the night's events. Additionally, Florence and Beth always took the task of cleaning up after their friends when the party was over. That's just who they were.
The lodge parties were something deeply cherished within their large friend group. They were an annual event — had been for years now.
Near the end of every winter, Josh Washington and his twin sisters — Beth and Hannah — would bring the group up to their family's mountain for a weekend getaway. They'd ride the infamous cable car, which had seen many a drunken teenager in its time, up to the lodge with duffel bags in hand. For an entire weekend, the group would close themselves off from the rest of the world and go as wild as they wanted. They'd go skiing, mess around in the snow for hours, play made-up drinking games that occasionally ended in minor injuries, sing and dance around to whatever would blast from Josh's expensive speakers, cook frozen pizzas and eat premade cookies, drink whatever alcohol they'd stashed in their bags, take countless photos, and just have fun.
Reality shifted from the stressors of life and morphed into a safe space for them to just be teenagers and enjoy each other's company when they were at the lodge. It was there that they could slip away from the stress of whatever was going on in their personal lives — there was always something with a group such as theirs — and just let go. The lodge gave them space to breath, to be wild teenagers without consequences for a while.
That is, until their fun came to a harshly abrupt end on the forsaken night of February 2, 2014.
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Whilst Beth and Florence cleaned up the mess their friends left behind from dinner, everyone else was upstairs hatching the prank on Hannah that sparked the beginning of their endless nightmare.
Josh and Chris were passed out on the kitchen island, their heads resting on their arms with drool running down their faces. They had a little too much to drink during dinner and ended up falling asleep the moment everyone else left the table; it was typical of the two of them near the end of their trip. They'd get blackout drunk, pass out, and usually become the victims of some humorous pranks played by their clever-when-they-wanted-to-be friends.
