SILHOUETTE, until dawn

THIRTEEN

"If something in here kills me, I'm coming back to haunt you, asshat," Ellie quips, and to the surprise of those alongside her, there is a hint of humour held within her tone. Her gaze shifts toward the male for half a moment, yet in that time, their eyes meet.

"I wouldn't expect any less," Mike responds, the vaguest beginnings of a smile dancing upon his lips, yet the joyous nature the gesture should behold does not shimmer meet his eyes. Reaching the small landmass before the two females, he lifts himself onto the solid ground, a huff of effort escaping his lips. Turning back, he offers a hand out to Ellie to aid her in the task of doing the same, as Sam had already done so.

Ellie grimaces at the feeling of her clothes freezing material clinging to her skin, each inch of it drenched by the disgusting waters they'd travelled through. Pushing aside her discomfort, Ellie steps away from the ledge of the small landmass, noticing a small, worn-down book sprawled out upon the dirt, open for all eyes to see. Sam kneels before it to observe it closely. Mike, however, does not need to crouch down to see the familiarities in which it holds, his heart dropping at the sight of handwriting he could never forget.

"Oh, shit. This looks like Hannah's writing," Mike exclaims, shining the beam of illuminance from his flashlight in hopes it would disprove his claims. Instead, it only confirms them. Sam begins silently reading through the journal in which had once belonged to Hannah Washington. When she reaches the third page, she reads out loud the words scrawled upon the yellowed, water-damaged paper.

"I'm sorry Beth... I have no choice. It's the only way I can survive anymore. If someone finds this, I'm sorry. I had to... I had no choice," Sam voices the words within the book. Turning over the page, horror floods her as she looks upon the final entry within the diary, consisting of only one word; hungry. Insanity practically drips from the page, the ink in which the Washington girl had written with fleeing her pen slower than her humanity had left her. A build-up of utter dread builds within the depths of Sam's stomach as the pieces begin to click into place, terror threatening to swallow her whole. "Oh god... It makes sense... I think... Hannah dug up Beth. It was Hannah!"

"No that's - that's ridiculous-" Mike head shakes rapidly in denial, his frantic mind unable to fathom that a girl as kind-hearted and innocent as Hannah would do such a thing; and to her twin sister, the person she loved the most, nonetheless. He takes a step back without truly thinking, overwhelming guilt guiding the way.

"Michael... Michael, it has to be. It's the only thing that makes sense- Beth died in the fall," Sam's voice wavers with a horrid mixture of desperation and grief, the girl moving to stand before Mike, meeting his eyes in hopes for him to see the truth, for she could not deal with it alone. "So Hannah must have buried her."

"Why would she..." Ellie trails off, her dull eyes glued solely upon the diary, that had stolen away their blissfulness, and unknowingly, altered the fate of another. Disbelief rushes through her veins with a burning ferocity, and she finds herself unable to meet the gazes of those around her. "She wouldn't-"

"Hannah was down here... for..." Sam continues, the rambles and taken-aback exclaims of those around her like nails on chalkboards within her ears, as she wished nothing more than their turmoil to settle within them. Yet she knew that such a thing would not happen for a long time, maybe even ever. "She would have been starving... she would have been desperate-

"Fuck!"'

"We need to find Josh. Right now," Sam tells them with urgency brewing within her words, her gaze shifting between both those in front of her. A silent agreement passing over the trio, they quickly find themselves venturing back into the water, wading their way through it. The water gets even deeper as they pass by the idle watermill, and just when Ellie believes they may soon be fully submerged, they reach land.