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"They don't like fire." The stranger said as he was explaining everything Chris needed to know about the Wendigos. It seemed to Chris that every time he goes outside, each time gets creepier than the previous.
"I don't like fire." Chris stayed behind the stranger letting him lead, although he knew it would be safer if he was right next to him.
"They fear it, and it can kill them if you have to. See, their skin is like...it's like tough armor unless you burn it off first."
"Gross." Chris looked around at the surroundings, walking towards the shed again. "But can you tell what a Wendigo's about to do next? Like ar-are they predictable?"
"Well," The stranger tilted his head slightly, "they adhere to some patterns, like any animal or human."
"Like schedules?"
"They only hunt at night. They're nocturnal creatures."
The wind blew snow at their faces, lightly falling snowflakes to the ground. The air was crisp and the winter jacket Chris was wearing did not cover his legs. He wondered how Bo made it this far with pajama shorts on.
"They can't see you if you're standing still." The man said out of nowhere as they rounded the shed. "Figured you'd ought to know that." The shed door was wide open revealing no sign of Josh or Bo anywhere. The whole place was trashed as if they fought the Wendigo greatly before it took them. The chair was broken and blood stains were everywhere in the building. Chris hoped most of it was the Wendigo's blood.
"Dammit! Oh...no!" He whispered. "We're too late."
"Shh!' The stranger whispered. "It could still be in this room. Right now..." He trailed off. Suddenly, a barrel was kicked in sight. Chris and the stranger armed themselves, ready for whatever was to come.
"Josh!" A feminine voice cried as Bo emerged from the pile, looking completely beat up.
"Bo!" Chris ran up and grabbed hold of Bo's arm to help her out. Instead of accepting, she screamed and cowered away from him, chanting 'no's' over and over again. "Bo, it's me, Chris."
She began to cry as Chris tried his luck and wrapped her in his arms. She accepted, laying her head on his chest.
"It was awful, Chris!"
"Shh, tell us when we get inside. Right now, it still might be here."
"The Wendigo?" Bo whispered.
"Yeah," Chris let go of her suddenly, "Wait, how did you know about the Wendigo?"
"There were three of them, one took Josh, the other ran away and I-I-"
"Spit it out, woman!" The stranger yelled at her.
"Who the hell are you?" She suddenly regained herself again, and looked over at the strange man.
"I helped your boyfriend find you, Miss."
"He's not my boyfriend. And the last Wendigo is right there." She pointed to a barrel. "I killed it."
"What?" Chris exclaimed "How!?"
Bo shrugged her shoulders, ignoring his question. "We need to find Josh. He's out there somewhere, and if we're too late, it'll be my fault. Let's go!"
"Be quiet!" The stranger shushed again, everything becoming eerily silent at his command. "We gotta go."
"That's what I just-"
"Shhh! Do you even know what these things are capable of? First, the Wendigo renders you immobile. And then he rips the skin off your body, piece by piece. He'll then keep you alive just long enough for you to feel the pain of him eating your organs, one piece at a time."
"I know." Bo whispered, giving the man a hard glare, "I don't know how, but I just know about the Wendigo."
"Bo, I think we should go back to the lodge and go find Josh afterwards. Please, Bo." Chris tried to persuade her. She looked behind the barrel where the Wendigo she killed was laying.
"Promise?"
"I promise."
"Well, if we're leaving, we better go now." The man looked both ways out the huge open doors of the shed before leading the two of them out.
"It's still out there." Bo whispered to Chris, as he had his arm around her to keep her from falling. Although Bo didn't seem to show it, he knew she was extremely sick with Hypothermia and all this snowfall was not going to help.
The road to the cabin never seemed so far away since a crazy human-turned monster out for blood was waiting for them, after attacking Josh and Bo. The man went out first, clearing the area with his huge flamethrower at his side.
Feeling the snow melt under her bare feet, she noticed black heavy rain boots and quickly slipped them on, before returning to her friends side.
"When we get in there, you should grab some warm clothes." Chris suggested, "Cover those legs of yours."
"What legs?" She joked around looking down at the almost purple sticks for legs. Chris snorted and quickened their pace.
"Wait...Don't move." The stranger ordered them, Bo's stare hardening into the woods. The sound of the very same inhuman screeches her and Josh heard before they attacked echoed darkly in the forest of endless black trees and shrub. Chris and Bo watched as the flamethrower guy continued in the path. "Run!" He shouted, and without hesitation, they followed him, running full speed. However, Bo's chore boots were too heavy as she fell from stepping on the toe of the shoe.
"Bo! Get up!" Chris shouted, helping her to her feet and threw the boots at the Wendigo that scurried and scratched at the two of them. "Holy shit!" Chris yelled at the sight of it.
"Get back!" The man yelled again, Bo and Chris doing so.
"Bo, leave now! Go with the others, get help!" Chris shouted at her. She shook her head, bravely.
"No! I'm not letting you become like Josh! I'm staying." She said, sticking behind the two. "Besides, I killed one before, I can kill one again!"
"With no weapons?" Chris yelled, as the man shot flames at the Wendigo that reappeared.
"Who said I didn't have a weapon?" Bo pulled out a bloodied piece of wood with two nails sticking out of it, in two different directions.
"Would you pansies stop flirting and get rid of this goddamned monster!" The man shouted, as Chris loaded and cocked his shotgun back. With a flash, they heard a muffled cry and watched as a blur moved past the man making him fall to his knees, completely decapitated.
"Oh, Lord!" Bo screamed, watching the head slip from his neck. Chris shot the Wendigo before they continued running to the cabin for their lives. They didn't know how fast it would take for it to regain it's strength and speed. They both ducked underneath logs and jumped over fallen trees, taking time to throw obstacles in the creature's way.
Chris shot it again in the chest just before it grabbed Bo, making her run faster than before in front of him.
"The cabin's just up ahead!" He shouted, watching Bo disappear from a ledge she had jumped from in shortcut.
"Chris! Come on!" He heard her shout and followed her down the ledge but when he landed, it was incorrect and he hurt his leg. Bo helped him up, quickly, hoping they had enough time. She knew every second counted from her previous encounter with the three that attacked her and Josh. However, the Wendigo was faster and smarter and reached them in the front, the cabin just in view.
Chris shot it again, as it flew backward, tumbling over its head. Taking the time they were given, they reached the patio before it got up again, the two of them pounding on the door.
"Open up! Open, please!" Bo shouted into the glass. Ashley appeared and just as she quickly opened it, the two of them jumping in, she closed it behind them.
"Chris!" She shouted. "Oh God! What happened!" She looked down at his limping leg.
"We gotta go!" Chris said in reply, Bo already far in the hallway as the Wendigo appeared in front of the glass door. Bringing them to the downstairs, Mike was there to greet them.
"You all are here!" He shouted, giving a hug to all of them and leading them into a caged in part of the basement.
"Not all of us." Bo mumbled, remembering how bad Josh looked when the Wendigo took him. But somewhere, she knew he was still alive, and that scared her.
"What took you so long?" Sam asked, but stopped when she saw Bo emerge from behind Chris. "Oh my God!" Wrapping her skinny arms around her friend who she thought was dead, she sighed in relief, giving her a long hug. "Are you alright?" She gave Bo a check over, examining the scratch on her forehead and the dark circles around her eyes giving her almost a ghostly appearance.
"You look like shit." Emily crossed her arms, Bo said nothing as she let go of her friend, Sam. "But better than when you were unconscious, come here." Emily gave Bo a hug as well, while she watched Ashley restrain herself from the rest of the group.
"Ashley, thanks for opening the door. I don't know what I'd do without you." Bo grabbed her friend and pulled her in for a hug as well. Ashley was taken aback at first but accepted anyways and began to cry hysterically.
"I don't deserve a friend like you, Bo. And you wouldn't be hugging me like you are now if you heard me before Chris came out to rescue you."
"What do you mean?" Bo pulled out of the hug, putting both of her hands on Ashley's shoulders.
"I didn't want him to go get you and Josh, I was so selfish and if he had listened to me, you wouldn't be here and I'm so sorry!" Ashley broke down again as Bo pulled her in for another hug.
"Shh." She comfortingly rubbed her back while everyone watched.
"Why aren't you mad at me?" Ashley blubbered, still in her friendly embrace.
"Because what kind of friend would I be if I were, huh?" Letting go finally, they all faced the group.
"Where's the flamethrower dude, Chris?" Sam asked again, always asking the reasonable questions. Bo and Chris exchanged worried glances.
"Ah...yeah, he, uh..."
"He got his head cut off by a Wendigo." Bo finished for him, trying not to remember.
"Oh no!" Emily wailed.
"Oh God." Sam gasped.
"Alright, are these all the doors?" Mike got to business, moving to check the surroundings.
"Yeah." Sam confirmed.
"Are you sure?"
"What are you looking for, Mike?" Sam went to follow him but he came back inside.
"Another way out." He said under his breath, playing with the cameras Josh had set up during his prank.
"Mike, I really don't think that's a good idea. We should stay put, right here, until dawn."
"No!" Bo yelled, getting in between Mike and Sam, "Josh is still out there, he was taken by a Wendigo, we have to find him!"
"And we can stay until dawn here wrapped up like a little present for the Wendigo, right? Give up, right?" Mike backed up Bo.
"People will come for us in the morning." Sam argued back. "Bo, I'm sorry that Josh was taken, and I know how much he means to you, but I'm thinking for the betterment of the group here and going on a suicide mission to save your boyfriend isn't going to help the group, is it?"
"Well you guys can stay down here, and Mike you can go do whatever the fuck you want to, but I'm going to find Josh, and it'll just prove his whole point behind his prank, that we're all just horrible people afraid to do the right thing."
"So now you're agreeing with Josh? That he should have tortured us? Tortured you?" Sam spat.
"No, I'll never agree with his choice, but we did need a wake-up call. And I'm not waiting until dawn to find him." She shouted at her thick friend. She loved her, but right now she was angry and sick and cold.
"Well, there's no key for the cable car." Emily rubbed her neck.
"Josh will have it." Mike admitted. "I'll go with Bo then, kill two birds with one stone." Bo gave him a reassuring nod but she was actually nervous to go find Josh alone with Mike, she had never really spent any time with him, but something told her the experience matured him, if only a little.
"I don't know Bo, it's possible..."
"What's possible?" Sam turned to Emily who seemed to be agreeing with Mike and Bo. "It may have taken him down to the mine."
"What mine?" Bo, suddenly reinterested looked over at Emily.
"The one that Matt and I fell into, I saw some horrible stuff down there. I think that's where the thing lives and...huh." Emily turned around to find a book and picked it up.
"Em?" Sam questioned, trying to look at what she was.
"Fuck it. Bo and I are going down there to get the key-"
"And Josh."
"And Josh right from it's goddamned bedroom, and then I'm gonna get us all the hell out of here." Mike clarified with determination.
"Em, what is all of this?" Sam asked.
"It's the old guy's bag." Bo answered for her. "There's no way around it."
"Is that a map?" Mike said, from behind Bo, looking over her shoulder along with Ashley from the side.
"The guy was prepared for anything." Sam said under her breath.
"Everything except getting his head chopped off." The whole crowd went silent at Bo's statement before she looked around at the room, "Sorry, too soon." She shook her head, and continued to look through the stuff, everyone following after.
"It's weird how much crazy shit has gone on up here." Mike said, ending the silence as everyone crowded around the map.
"What's weird is that there's a tunnel leading from the lodge to the Sanatorium, see?" Emily pointed out the strange tunnel.
"That's how I got back here." Mike realized.
"I saw this when I was down in there. That's where it lives, and that's where we'll most likely find Josh and the key." Emily explained, pointing at the mine in the picture.
Bo watched as Ashley put a hand on Emily, gently.
"Em, what is that?" She pointed to the large gash on Em's neck. She breathed out a sigh like she wasn't hoping for anyone to find it. "Em, oh my God!"
"It's nothing, I just- it bit me, and-" She tried to explain, but Ashley interrupted.
"It bit you? What bit you?"
"The uh...The Wendigo." Emily backed up to the counter, scared.
"The what?"
"It's nothing, really, it's not a big deal!" Emily promised.
"You okay?" Bo asked her, concerned.
"It doesn't hurt anymore, really." Her friend continued, she had no idea what everyone was so on edge for, it was just a bite. "It's not that bad."
"It's bad," Bo raised her eyebrows, "but it won't kill." She nodded her head, Emily smiling at her appreciatively.
"Em, if that thing bit you-" Mike went to say but Bo rolled her eyes.
"Guys, I know what you're thinking, she's fine." She covered for Emily who was trying not to show fear.
"Is she? Are you?" He asked.
"Yes!" Emily exclaimed.
"Emily, at least let us check it out." Sam said, calmly and gently.
"Emily, if the Wendigo but you, you could turn into one of those things." Mike protested.
"That's ridiculous, that's a ridiculous statement, Mike." Bo countered.
"The man said it was from eating each other, remember?" Ashley freaked out.
"Yeah, each other. Unless Emily steam-cooked his guts, she should be fine." Bo told Ashley.
"Th-thank you, Bo." Emily said, her eyes looking like she wanted to cry in relief that someone was on her side. Bo nodded in reassurance.
"But it happens," Ashley continued, beginning to pace, "And if it bit you, you're going to turn into one of them, and then turn on us, oh my God, oh my God!"
"You can't be down here with us." Mike said, softly.
"What!?" Bo, Sam, and Emily all said at the same time.
"Mike!" Chris exclaimed, finally speaking up.
"You gotta go." Mike looked away from the three girls who were protecting each other.
"Are you kidding me?" Emily held her arm, her voice cracking.
"You're putting us all in danger."
"Like hell I am!" She exclaimed, her voice raising.
"Emily, you can't stay here."
"Mike, cool yourself, okay? It doesn't work that way. It's just a bite." Bo told him, somehow she just knew that Emily would be okay. She had no clue how, but she just knew.
"We've seen what these fuckers can do, Bo and I, I don't want to see it again." Chris said calmly, from his seat on one of the counters on the opposite side of the room.
"What is this, guys, what are you doing?" Emily looked so scared around the room, looking at Bo with more help.
"Door's right here." Mike signaled with his head to it. Bo was so shocked she couldn't speak. Why did no one ever listen to her? "I am letting you do this voluntarily."
"No, you're just making yourself feel better about sending her to her death!" Bo tried so hard to change their minds, she didn't want to lose Emily, even with her annoyingness. "We've lost the flamethrower guy, and it. Was. Brutal. We didn't even know him, but we know Emily, we've lived huge parts of our lives with her, and you're sending her out to them with a shiny bow on her head reading, 'I've just been betrayed by my friends, eat me.'"
"Bo, just let her go! Emily, would you just go!?" Ashley shouted at her, pointing to the door. When Emily didn't leave, Bo watched Mike grab his gun, cock it and point it at Emily's head.
"Mike, what the fuck are you doing!?" Bo shouted, grabbing onto his arm. He shoved her to the side and she hit her head on the ground as Emily backed up on the other side of the room.
"You're going to shoot me!?" She began to cry, "Mike? Me?"
His hands began to shake, tremendously, as he hovered his finger over the trigger.
"This is the safe room, Em." He tried to reason, but anyone could tell he had a problem with what he was about to do.
"Please." She choked, grabbing on the edge of the counter.
"It is not safe as long as you are in it. Not for us." He shouted.
"No! Don't do this!"
"I'm really sorry, Em...there's no other choice." Mike whispered, shaking the gun. Everybody held their breaths as they watched him carefully. Bo slowly shook her head.
"Please, Lord...please..." She prayed, looking up in the sky. Mike cursed as he put the gun down.
"I can't do this." He looked away from the scared Emily who was cowering over in a corner, afraid for her life.
"Oh, thank you!" Bo ran up to give Emily a hug as her friend thankfully cried in pure relief.
"You did the right thing." Sam promised the confused Mike.
"I hope you did." Ashley mumbled.
"Maybe...for now." Mike walked away from the group, ashamed with himself for even holding the gun up to Emily. "Keep an eye on her, if you see anything weird, you guys know what to do." He ordered, walking towards the chain door. "No one leave, okay? It's not safe out there. Bo? You ready?"
She nodded her head slowly, more nervous than before about leaving, and walked towards Mike.
"Be careful, Bo. That man is crazy." Emily whispered to her before she let her leave.
Josh sat in the same chair, surrounded by the imaginary contents of his psychiatrist's office. Trees grew from the ground around him as he stared blankly at Dr. Hill.
"Oh, Joshua," He said, in a tauntful voice. "You should have listened to me. Because of your choices, people have died."
Josh played with his hands, ashamed and regretful.
"I don't know which is worse," Dr. Hill continued, his eery tone ever-haunting Josh's every memory with him. The ticking clock invading his eardrums, "actively triggering events that lead to someone's death, or passively allowing a tragedy to occur, because you couldn't lift a goddamned finger to help someone else." He hissed, crossing his legs over the other. "Remember last year?" He asked, not receiving an answer from Josh, "How you left your poor sisters to die?"
Josh's head tilted forward into his hands, pained by his own mind, pained by his own thoughts.
"You did nothing to help them!" Dr. Hill continued to yell at him, as Josh gritted his teeth. "Paralyzed by your own self-centered fear while a real threat was closing in. You drunk yourself for her, and in sacrifice, gave your sisters life for her attention. It's all about you, Josh, it's always all about you!"
Dr. Hill reached forward, a tissue in his hand like he wanted Josh to grab it. Barely lifting his head, he brought out his hand, his fingers just grazing the tissue before it flew away in the wind, sadening Josh as he watched it fly away.
"Your game has gone terribly wrong. Those extra precautions failed. Your friends, your girlfriend, just like your sisters, have deserted you." Dr. Hill seemed to tease him, nodding his head and leaning back in his chair. "You are all alone. Now, why did you hurt her? It is yourself you despise, not her."
"I'm...I'm so sorry." Josh whispered to himself.
"Well, let's hope it's not too late for redemption, and that your friends, if they still are your friends, can save you from this...terrible...isolation."
•••
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