UNTIL DAWN: Sam's story

VII.

"Josh?" Chris looked up at our, now unmasked, friend with unfocused eyes.

"Hahahahahaha!" Josh's deep belly laughs resonated out through the room and a smile was plastered to his face. I hurriedly stepped to Ashley and began to untie her, as Mike did the same with Chris.

"Josh!" I yelled at him as we all watched him with cautious eyes. He just kept laughing and pacing around us all, droplets of sweat beaded on his skin and a wound was sitting down his cheek.

"Josh?" Mike repeated, his hands still on Chris's bondages.

"Oh, oh very good! Every one of you! Got my name!" Josh chuckled backing up away from us, spreading his arms wide in a gesture. "And after all you've been through! Good- good- good I mean how does that feel? Right? How does it feel? Do you enjoy feeling terrorized? Humiliated? I mean panicked?" His smile slowly faded, and his expression toughened. "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!" My eyes were focused on him, while I studied his destroyed and broken image. He was laughing but his eyes portrayed a crushed soul. I didn't recognize him. I guess his sanity was shattered the moment his sisters died, and he is now beyond repair.

"I don't know if you noticed this, Josh, but none of us are laughing," Mike spat at him clearly angry.

"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 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 finished wearing a crazy smile on his face.

"Josh. Why are you doing this?" I asked slowly.

"Don't even ask this squirrelly little runt. He's got no clue. He's out of his fucking tree," Mike hissed at him.

"Well he's definitely off his meds," Chris agreed sadly.

"Aw come on, you guys. Revenge is the best medicine!" Josh gushed happily.

"You're done," Mike spat angrily.

"Mike, he's sick—" Chris tried to calm him down.

"What? Come on, you guys are all going to thank me when you guys become internet sensations!" Josh exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Wait what...?" his best friend stuttered.

"Oh, you better believe this little puppy is going viral ladies and germs. I mean we got unrequited love. We got... we got blood! I don't think there's enough hard drives in China to count all the views we're gonna get, you guys," he continued fantasizing, while Mike moved next to me, disbelieve evident on his face.

"What are you talking about you ass hat? Jessica IS FUCKING DEAD!" he snapped. Chris, Ash, and I turned our heads to him in horror. There was a hint of tears wetting his dark brown eyes.

"What?" Josh asked with face full of confusion.

"Did you hear me?! Jessica is dead," Mike repeated, stomping closer to him. "AND YOU ARE GONNA FUCKING PAY YOU DICK!!!!" I flinched when he lashed out, the grip of a gun, connecting with Josh's temple, as he crumbled to the ground. He gave us all a look and began to tie our friend up with the ropes that were once used to restrain Chris.

"Mike?" I asked quietly when he brought Josh up on his feet and pushed him.

"Let's go lock this psychopath up so he doesn't hurt anybody else. Chris, you wanna help?" he looked at the dirty blonde-haired boy, who nodded in return.

"Where are we going? Where are you guys taking me?" Josh squirmed as he was being dragged through the building.

"Locking you up! So you can't do anything stupid before we call the police in the morning," Mike retorted, still holding the gun in his hand.

"Come ON! I didn't DO ANYTHING-" he pleaded.

"You're a goddamned murderer is what you are."

"I didn't do it, Michael please! Just listen to me, man! I did not hurt Jessica-" we arrived at the door leading out of the cabin.

"Are you insane?" I heard Chris ask in disbelieve, when the three of them walked out towards the shed.

I was about to follow behind, but then I realized Ashley wasn't with us anymore. I turned around and heard sobbing coming from the living room. I followed the quiet noise and recognized my friend curled up in a ball on the cough. She had her knees pressed to her chest and her face was hidden in her hands.

I slowly sat down next to her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. When she raised her head and turned it towards me, I realized how drained and traumatized she looked, the bruise on her face only confirming my theory. I saw more tears stroll down her cheeks, so I pulled her into a tight hug as she continued tugging and crying into my shirt.

***

When she calmed down, we sat there in silence for a while, until I decided to ask her what happened. She looked at me and sighed as she began talking.

"Well... all the weird shit started, when we took out the Ouija Board and it looked like Hannah was talking to us. It was so realistic Sam, I actually believed it. There were all these signs, that made me think that. I mean, some candles just randomly lit up, we saw a ghost a few times and we found this picture with a writing on it which made it look like someone was out to get Hannah and Beth. To think that Josh was behind all of this is crazy..." She looked at me, before averting her gaze back down to her clasped hands.

"So how did you two get tied up in that room?" I asked comfortingly.

"I got knocked out when me and Chris got separated. And then I woke up tied to a wall, with Josh next to me. We thought that Josh died, that he got killed by this sawblade, but I guess that was a fake body. Sam it was horrible. I really thought he had died and the screams he made..." Ashley trailed off, looking into the distance, probably recalling those moments.

"Hey," I woke her up from her trance with a soft voice. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry, I'm fine." She forced out a smile and continued. "We met Emily and Matt outside, when we ran away and they went to call for help. I hope they succeeded."

"Me too," I whispered inaudibly.

"Me and Chris came back here to look for you, but we couldn't find you.... We followed some traces to the basement and found the prank video from last year. It was so hard to watch.... And there were other things down there as well. Blood on the ground and this dollhouse, and a dummy dressed like you, it was so scary...," she stammered, so I kept moving my hand on her back in soothing circles. "And then he attacked us, and I stabbed him with scissors I found earlier. That's how I got this bruise." She pointed to her face sadly.

"I can't believe Josh would hit you," I shook my head.

"So, what happened to you?" she asked quietly. I told her my story and her eyes turned to me with admiration. "Wow. You're awesome. I don't think I would be able to run and hide like that." A smile crawled onto her face. "Do you know what happened to Mike? He looked worst then all of us combined."

"I wish I did, but I've got no idea. God, poor Jess. It must've hit him pretty hard...," I trailed off looking to the ground. After that, neither of us spoke, so we sat there, both buried in our own thoughts.