.₊꒰ 🪓 ꒱:⩩┆( 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙬𝙣 )⊹.*
𝑁𝐼𝑁𝐸. ☠︎︎ 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙥, 𝙗𝙖𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙥
⸝⸝ ʚ 🪓 ! ⌗ °• ━━━━━━━━━ 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑳𝑶𝑾𝑬 𝑺𝑯𝑶𝑶𝑲 𝑾𝑯𝑰𝑳𝑺𝑻 𝑺𝑯𝑬 𝑻𝑨𝑮𝑮𝑬𝑫 𝑨𝑳𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑩𝑬𝑯𝑰𝑵𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑩𝑶𝒀𝑺. It wasn't because she was cold, or scared. With them taking care of Josh, she was no longer scared. She was furious. Perhaps she was more furious at herself for not realising that Josh had not been mentally okay, and maybe that she should have checked up on him more considering almost all of them practically left him in the dark after his sisters went missing.
Still, she was unable to wrap her head around all of this. Things still didn't connect. Time wise, what happened to Jess, them following the maniac, and what happened to Sam, Chris and Ashley didn't quite line up. But perhaps after all the shit she had gone through, time may have moved differently up on the mountain that night.
The girl felt slightly warmer, now wearing the jacket that she had draped over the sofa before she left to find firewood. But no amount of warmth could fill the cold void of knowing that the man in front of her, who she considered a friend, was behind this all.
Marlowe hung toward the back of the small parade with Mike pushing Josh ahead of them all, using makeshift cuffs of rope to keep the maniacs wrists behind his back. Chris situated himself between Marlowe and the boys.
"Guys! Guys come on... seriously, this is crazy, you know?" Josh protested, attempting to wriggle from his restraints.
"You're one to talk about crazy..." Marlowe whispered under her breath, something only Chris was able to hear due to their close proximity.
Mike leaned in Josh's ear, "shut up."
His voice was no longer sweet like how he had been with her just prior in the basement, it was bitter. It was apparent that there were a magnitude of things running rampant in his mind. Replaying moments of Jessica, and the awful state they had found her in, and that all being connected to Josh.
"Why'd you hit her man?!" Chris spoke up for the first time in a while, "Why'd you have to fucking hit her?!" His fist slammed into the side of Josh's face, a punch of revenge.
Dropping to his knees, Josh looked up at the group, clearly unsure of what was being discussed, "what are you talking about?"
"You punched Ash you piece of shit!" Chris grew more furious by his best friend's obliviousness to his own actions, watching as Josh got back up after the punch, swaying lightly from the hard blow.
"I got so mad." Josh begun to explain.
Marlowe scoffed at the ridiculous excuse, keeping her arms firmly crossed against her chest.
"Can you just... I dont know... fucking accept that what you did was wrong?" She grumbled, her eyes remaining on the footprints in the snow as her guide so she wouldn't have to look near Josh.
"Lo... I didn't mean for this-"
"Quit talkin' cause I don't wanna hear it," the girl said.
Marlowe closed her eyes and took a deep breath as Mike continued to shove the mentally ill man down the snowy path, planning to tie him up in the cold weather where he would be unable to cause any more harm to his so called friends.
Josh struggled to keep up with the pace he was being pushed at, "where are we going? Where are you guys taking me?"
"Locking you up, bro." Mike shoved Josh harder in front of him, causing the restrained man to fall back onto the ground.
"What?!"
"So you can't do anything stupid before we call the police in the morning," Mike huffed, gripping the pistol in his hard as he stared Josh down into the ground.
Josh looked around, scared maybe? Marlowe wasn't too sure at this point. "Come ON! I didn't DO ANYTHING!" A small groan followed from the man as Mike lifted him from the ground, setting him back on his feet.
"Are you serious, bro?" Chris questioned, amazed at how Josh was acting.
"You murdered Jess, Josh... that's not nothing..." Marlowe whispered.
Upon hearing the word murdered, Mike gripped the gun harder than he previously had, wanting nothing more than to smash it over the head of Josh again.
"I didn't do it! Please! Just listen to me, guys! I did not hurt Jessica-"
"Are you insane? Like, really? Do you not understand what you've done?" Chris scolded, stunned by what he was hearing.
Josh's chest rose and fell, "I'm a healer, man! I bring people together. Not like you assholes."
Marlowe had finally had it up to this point. "You brought us together for some sick revenge plan! There was no need for it... do you really think that your sisters disappearing, never to be found again, wasn't enough revenge for that awful fucking prank? We ALL feel like shit... I still feel awful, Josh... I hid under that bed and laughed. I laughed as the poor girl ran out because she was embarrassed that she had been set up by the one boy she had the biggest crush on..." Mike kept his head down. "So do us all a favour, and just shut up. Please!"
"Alright, I've heard enough," Mike pointed his finger toward Josh before roughly shoving him toward the shed where Chris had thought he watched his best friend die just hours earlier.
"You only see what you wanna see! You're blind!" Josh rambled on, stumbling in front of the group before being pinned to the ground.
Mike brought the gun closer to Josh, "Stop. Talking."
"Michael..."
"It's not my fault that you suckers can't take a joke..." Josh grumbled, riding on his high horse for a short amount of time before his face was pressed roughly against the snow, causing his entire face to sting from the harsh cold.
"Oh, oh wait, did I hurt you?" Mike tormented Josh, "did you just feel a little... little bit of pain? Right now I am SO... SO... SORRY!"
Whining, Josh's voice cracked, "Stop it!"
"Michael... quit it! The police will deal with it, okay?" Marlowe pulled the dark haired man away from causing any more pain. Her hand gently caressed the side of his face, "let's just tie him up and go back to the lodge and wait till morning."
He briefly looked down and nodded in agreement, moving away from the girl as he yanked Josh back up onto his feet once again, holding his bound wrists.
"Michael... 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 that I have no idea what happened to her..." Josh apologised, and to Marlowe, it felt like part of the old Josh was breaking through to talk to them. Like it was the first time he was telling the truth.
Chris shook his head, not buying it. "Josh? Be honest with me. Do you really expect us to trust you, for a single goddamn second, after all the shit you put us through?"
Josh only laughed, going back to his old ways of insanity, "can't we all just get along?"
"We're not dicking around."
"This is not how it's supposed to go down. You're just a bunch of bullies... especially that dumb bitch over there!" Josh shouted, craning his neck to look at Marlowe. "You're the worst of the whole group! She trusted you so much. You betray everyone that loves you! You never speak about what happened with Ashley but I'm sure Michael here-"
"Shut up!" Marlowe blocked her ears using her hands, already knowing what was about to follow. "Just shut the fuck up! Please..."
"Oh, sorry, guess she doesn't want her dirty little secret to get out..."
"Come on, man... you really, really, really need to shut up," Chris sighed, disappointed.
"Oh... Oh that's... that's. I mean, I don't even know what you mean because I don't have anything to regret." Josh laughed darkly, giving Mike no choice but to throw him against the stool that was conveniently places beside a pillar in the shed. Pinning him down, Mike and Chris untied the rope on his wrists to attempt to tie it around the pillar whilst Marlowe stood at the open door.
"Can't tie 'em up if they just wiggle around-" The maniac moved side to side, being as much of a hassle as he possibly could.
"Lo, come hold him still!" Mike ordered, and Marlowe rushed from the door toward the boys, grabbing Josh's shoulder to minimise his ability to wriggle.
Despite all the hands trying to hold him down, Josh continued to squirm beneath them. But once the loop was tied, Mike moved back and grabbed onto Marlowe to move her away from the maniac whilst Chris finished up tightening the restraint.
Forcing Marlowe to look at him, Mike brushed the snow off of the girls shoulders, "you okay?"
She glanced up at him and back down at her feet, "yeah... let's just get whatever this is over with..."
"Aw, aren't you two just the cutest!" Josh spoke excitedly while everyone surrounded him like an animal in a zoo. Nobody could believe that this was THE Joshua Washington.
Mike shook his head, "what in God's name is he talking about?"
"Plastic ties, plastic ties. Way more effective for hostage type scenarios..." The tied down maniac rambled on and on and on.
Marlowe looked over her shoulder at Chris, "hey, has he ever said stuff like this before?"
"No... I've never seen him like this." Chris' voice was low, still processing that it was his best friend in front of them.
"Weird..."
"Hey! Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike!" Josh perked up on the stool.
Mike grumbled, showing a response to Josh's mayhem.
"What happened to Jess, Mike?"
Sighing, and rubbing his thumb and index finger over the bridge of his nose, Mike grew tired of the games, "you know what happened."
"No... No... I don't... I got a problem, Mike... I don't remember killing Jess... I mean, like, I feel like I would remember killing her, you know? She's so soft... and she's probably got like a really tight bod..."
"Shut your fucking mouth!" Mike raised the gun from his side, facing it toward the maniacs face with a finger hovering over the trigger.
"Hey! Hey!" Marlowe waved her arms around, "put the fucking gun down!"
Chris picked up the bat that he had placed on the floor, swinging it onto Mike's wrist in order to disarm him. He hopped around on the spot, his breathing more like a hiss of pain as Mike waved his arm around, the gun now planted on the floor of the shed.
"Seriously? Did you think I was going to shoot him?" He picked the gun back up from the floor once the pain had subsided. Chris merely shrugged, still wielding the bat, while the girl ran her hands over her face and through her hair. "Come on guys, you know me better than that."
"Yeah Chris. You know me better than that!" Josh interrupted, laughing after what had just unfolded, "Oh, you poor little piggies, can't even get your good cop bad cop routine to work. Leave it to the pros, bros!"
"I... I need to get away from him..." Marlowe placed her hands on the back of her head as she wandered out the sheds door, standing back out in the snow.
"Why don't you two go back to the lodge and make sure everyone's alright? We're still waiting for Em and Matt. I'll stay here with this lunatic until morning." Mike proposed, pointing over his shoulder to the said lunatic.
"Oooooh! Sleepover! C-can we order pizza?" Josh laughed, finding his own childish antics hilarious.
Everyone chose to ignore him. Something that made him grow angry.
"FINE! You wanna ignore me? Hey, Chris! Chris, Chris, Chris! Strap in for this because I know you are gonna wanna listen!" Josh wriggled in his spot, "these two got a dirty little secret! Our little class president Michael Munroe was screwing around with with the track teams golden runner..."
Chris looked over, "what's he talking about?"
"Oh but that's not all, ladies and germs! It was while he was dating Em! And after! Tell me Mikey... who do you love more... dead little Jessica, or the girl who has been going behind her best friends back!" Josh laughed manically, taking in everyone's faces.
Marlowe stilled, meeting Mike's gaze as her breathing sped up. "That's not true..."
Before anyone else could utter a word, Marlowe King jogged away from the shed, shoving herself back into the harsh weather of the snow, unable to accept hearing of her own wrong doings.
Denial perhaps... maybe even regret...
"Marlowe!"
⸝⸝ ʚ 🪓 ! ⌗ °• ━━━ '' - «🕸»‧₊˚𓍯 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙚
╰┈➤ please i hate this chapter so much dude, like this motivated me to only write this chapter. usually i get motivated to write the next one but this one drained me from how boring it was 😴
next chapter will probably be out in a few days when i'm not working. also pls ignore any mistakes, i'm in a rush bc i gotta sleep for work. i'll go over it after my shift