02/02/2014 - 2:00 am
It was the annual winter getaway party at the Washington's Lodge. Cassidy Wallace was laying down on the black leather couch in front of the fire with a book in hand, she was reading her copy of City of Bones. Her outfit consist of dark blue skinny jeans tucked under black combat boots, a white collared long sleeved shirt under a pale pink sweater. She also sported a matching white beanie that her best friend Beth is also wearing.
Beth was chilling by the fire warming her hands, as she watched her best friend read, and just passed Cassidy was her older brother Josh and his best friend Chris sitting at the kitchen island, helping themselves to the liquor. They were loudly talking and laughing about nonsense. The youngest Washington then glanced at Cassidy who's mood was a bit cloudy.
Shaking her head Beth left the warm comfort of the fireplace, and walked over to Cassidy. Snatching the book out of the blonde's hand while she was distracted. "Hey!" Cassidy exclaimed.
"Sitting here reading and moping isn't going to help." Beth said lifting her eyes at the boys before back on the blonde. With an aggravated sigh, Cassidy stood up and snatched the book out of Beth's hands, bookmarking it before moving to the island and setting it down.
Growing hungry for a snack Cassidy went to go the cabinet, but was pulled back by someone grabbing her wrist. "Hey Cass! Why don't you join ole Chris and I for a little booze?" Josh offered as he held out the bottle, obviously drunk.
"I'll settle for a sip." Cassidy grabbed the bottle and doing just that, the strong liquid left an unappetizing taste in her throat. The blonde wasn't all crazy for drinking alcohol that much. "Besides I'd much rather go for Beth's secret stash of Pringles."
Cassidy left the boys to be themselves as she opened the top cabinet, the tube of pizza flavored Pringles taunting at the 5'5" girl as it sat at the top shelf. "Fuck you Beth." She whispered as she glanced that her best friend is now staring at the kitchen window looking out of it. Looking back at the Pringles, Cassidy cleared the counter space before going to sit on it, carefully lifting herself onto her knees to and went to reach for the chips.
Unaware that Michael Munroe stepped into the room, he observed the kitchen before his eyes landed on Cassidy, well, more like her behind. With a smirk as the short girl still couldn't reach the chips, he struts over and snags them from her.
"Looking for these?" Mike asked as he opened them up and ate a few. Cassidy tried to ignore the heat in her cheeks as she hopped down from the counter.
"Thanks." She said as he handed them to her before she quickly walked off. She didn't want to stick around any longer, fearing she might embarrass herself by spewing out random science facts like the last time she was talking to Mike. Before going back to the couch, she grabbed her book and began to eat the pizza flavored chips.
Then Sam, Emily and Jessica, soon entered the room. Jessica had put a note on the kitchen island. "Oh my god! I can't believe you actually did this." Emily said to the girl. Jessica shushed her so others wouldn't hear. Mike soon joined them.
"Don't you guys think this is a little bit cruel?" Sam questioned the group.
"Oh come on, she deserves it." Jessica stated.
"It's not her fault that she has a huge crush on Mike-" Sam was cut off.
"Hannah's been making moves on him. I'm just looking out for my girl Em." Was all Jessica said before she left the kitchen to head to the guest room.
"Just because he's class Prez doesn't mean he belongs to everyone... Mike is my man." Emily stated.
"Hey, Em. I'm not anybody's man." Mike told his girlfriend.
"Whatever you say, darling!" Emily said, not listening to Mike as the rest of them followed soon after.
Hearing the entire conversation, Cassidy went back into her foul mood. Beth had recently found out about Cassidy's crush on Mike. Being Vice President in their class didn't help the situation any better, the two had to spend lots of time together as they stayed after school planning with other student council members. She was also forced to watch Emily barge in on their work and hanging around on Mike.
To make matters worse, Hannah, Beth's older twin sister, also had a huge crush on Mike. Although according to Beth, hers was starting to get a tad obsessive. Cassidy sometimes would think if Jessica herself had eyes on him, despite him dating Emily. This just made the blonde bottle up her feelings and threw it in a whirlpool, hoping she would get over it. That didn't work out as the bottle kept popping out and hitting her upside the head, every time she is near his presence. Ignoring the group, she just read her book and ate the Pringles.
•~★~•
Cassidy accidentally dozed off for a few moments and woke to notice she had a chip in one hand and her book laying on top of her. Eating the chip, she gets up and walks over to the kitchen to see Beth still looking at the window, she then turns to noticed that Chris and Josh had passed out in their seats. Putting her book down on the counter again she walked up to Beth.
"Hey... Did you see that? Dad said it'd just be us this weekend. Josh?"
"Yeah, I don't think you'll be getting an answer from him." Cassidy commented as she quickly snapped a photo of the two passed out boys to add to the album.
Beth walked over to pick up the bottle. "Jeez, Josh. Once again brother you've outdone us all." She commented patting him on the back but all she got was a grunt.
Cassidy smiled before directing her eyes to a piece of paper. "Hey, what's this?" She questioned as she picked it up and read it. "Hannah, you look so damn hot in that shirt, but I bet you're even hotter out of it. Come to the guest room at 2:00 a.m. - Mike xxx"
"Oh my god. What'd my naive sister get herself into now?" Beth asked snatching the note, reading it herself. "It's not Mike's handwriting." Cassidy stated, she's seen him write before, so this wasn't from him.
Beth drew her attention to the window again and saw a figure running away from the lodge. The figure closely resembled, her older twin, Hannah.
"Shit!" Cassidy cursed before looking back and forth between Josh and the door. "You go find the other, I'll try and wake him up!"
Beth immediately ran out the kitchen as Cassidy went to Josh, shaking him repeatedly, trying to wake him up. "Josh! Josh, wake up! Damnit!" The blonde quickly darts to the door grabbing her black winter coat as she noticed the front door was wide open and everyone was piled outside.
"What's going on!" Cassidy questioned.
"It was just a prank, Han!" Emily called out.
"What did you do?!?" Beth question the group.
"We were just messing around, Beth.... It wasn't serious, Cass-" Mike tried to explain.
"You JERKS!" Beth hissed before running into the woods calling out to her twin. Cassidy's eyes widened before she went after her best friend. "Wait Beth!"
The others called out after the blonde, Mike and Sam trying to grab her, but missed and she kept heading into the woods.When their calls became useless, they went inside to try and wake Josh and Chris up to inform them on what happened.
Cassidy chased after Beth, "Beth wait up!" She shouted as she quickly caught up to the girl, as she rammed into her for the girl stopped at a fork. Soon they heard a noise that was coming from the right but a trail of footprints going to the left. "Shit." Cassidy cursed.
"This way," Beth quickly chose the right option and followed the noise. Cassidy close behind her. The two soon came to another fork in the road. "Fuck now what?"
The girls then saw a shadow of a girl running to the right. "Hannah?!" Cassidy yelled before grabbing Beth's hand dragging her to the right. Beth quickly turned on her phone's flashlight to help guide them. The two walked down the snowy path, a burst a fire appears not too far from them, causing the two girls to jump ten feet in the air. "What the hell was that?" Beth asked, fear clearly in her voice.
"I don't know but I don't wanna stay to find out," Cassidy quickly dismissed it and continued to search for Hannah. "Hannah!" She shouted
"Hello?" A low scared voice called out.
The girls pushed the branches out of the way to see Hannah on her knees, shivering. "Hannah! Oh my god you must be freezing." Beth was already at her twin's side, putting the pink winter coat on her.
"I'm such an idiot! I'm so dumb..." Hannah cried out.
Cassidy immediately went over to her, hugging the middle Washington sibling. "Hey, shh, don't talk like that. Come on we need to hurry up back to the lodge."
The three girls were about to head back but froze when they heard a screech. In the woods they see a shadowy figure coming close by them. "Run... run!" Cassidy yelled as the three ran from the figure, quickly crossing a bridge but Hannah's shoe got caught in between the wood and fell. Beth helps Hannah stand up again, but as they run, unaware Beth's phone falls through the floorboards. They continue running, until they stop, because of the dead end they have run onto.
"Shit!" Cassidy cursed as the twins held each other's hands, slowly moving backwards from the figure and nearing the cliff's edge.
Both of them hold each other's hands and move backward from the thing that is coming for them at the cliff dead end.
"No! Shit! No... Get back!" Beth said squeezing her sister's hand tightly, frightened of what is to become of them.
Cassidy who was in front of them kept a watchful eye on the thing, her hands went to fish for her phone to contact anyone from the cabin or contact the police.
"NO! ARGH!"
Cassidy's head whips behind her to notice the twins feel off the edge of the cliff. "BETH! HANNAH!" Dropping her phone into the snow she quickly goes to see Beth holding onto a branch that was attached under the cliff.
"Hold on!" Cassidy cried out as she tried to stretch her arm as far as she could to get to Beth's hand.
Flames spewed from behind her. She'd be happy for the warmth, but not like this.
Beth looks to see a dark shadow loom over her best friend and screamed, "Cassidy behind you!"
Cassidy didn't have time to look back but was thrown back from the edge by a hard yank from the back of her coat. Crying out in pain as she looked in fear as the figure leaned down to try and get the girls.
All Cassidy heard was a branch snap and two females scream in fear before silence falls on Cassidy's ears. She quickly looked over to see that her friends falling to their deaths.
"NOOOOO!" She cried out, tears running down her cheek.
Cassidy started to shuffle backwards as the figure stalked towards her. She started whimpering as he went to grab her and put her on her feet. "Get out of here now! GO!" Cassidy wasted no time in running for her life once again as she retraced her steps, trying to make it back to the cabin.
Once she saw it in view she pushed farther and made it to the door banging on it. In the window she sees the others rush to open the door to let her in.
They all started talking to her at once but she couldn't listen, her mind was already frozen from what just happened and the freezing cold weather. "Hey, chill. Give her some space." Sam told them.
Sam looked back at the blonde, "Cass? Cassidy. Are you okay? What happened? Where's Hannah and Beth?" She asked calmly.
Cassidy tried slowing down her breathing and looked at each and one of them, their faces painted with worry. Josh and Chris then join. "Where's my sisters? Cassidy?"
She tried to come up with something, but her vision blurred and before she knew it she collapsed.
Matt quickly diving in to catch her before she hit the floor. "Quick Matt get her on the sofa, next to the fire." Mike quickly ordered.
They quickly moved the unconscious girl to the sofa and gathered around her waiting. Josh decided to call the Ranger, since his sisters were still missing.
The group's lives would be forever changed as they heard Cassidy explain what had happened to Hannah and Beth Washington that night, once she woke up. That was only the beginning of the horror that's in-store for the teenagers.