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❝memento mori.❞

SNOW CRUNCHED BENEATH Florence's boots as she exited her car with a sigh.

She took one look around the mountain before she began hyping herself up for what she hoped would be a weekend filled with reconnection and closure. If not reconnection, at least closure. She could only hope, though.

After locking her car and stashing her keys in her coat pocket, she began her trek to the cable car station where she hoped some of her friends would be. Being on the mountain alone was something she vigorously detested, considering the tragedies that haunted it.

Sharp shivers cascaded down her spine, the wind nipping at her reddened cheeks and nose.

It was strange to revisit the origin of her most painful heartache.

It seemed as though she could feel the lingering bitterness the police left behind in the form of tattered fragments of crime scene tape and old missing-person posters.

Harsh memories of the moment she and her friends realized that Hannah and Beth weren't returning came rushing back to her.

She relived everything as she made her way through the snow-covered forest atop Mount Washington: the way her stomach dropped and how quickly she ran to awaken Josh and Chris, how her hands trembled furiously as she called the police in a panic, how everyone began to fall into chaos and yell at one another in attempts to shift the blame off of their own shoulders, how none of them could bare the weight of their guilt as the police interviewed them.

What shook her the most was the utter guilt she was struck with when she remembered that she wanted to go after Beth once she ran off to find Hannah. She desperately wanted to assist her friend in bringing Hannah back, but she figured it would be best to leave her twin sister to calm her down.

She never stopped wondering if things would have happened differently, or if the twins would have ever gone missing at all, if she had gone after them. Maybe she would've found them and lead them back or maybe she would've gone missing, too. Those were all just maybes, though.

Overall, nothing compared to the traumatic events that they all lived that night.

Florence wiped away the single tear that had fallen unto her numbing cheek after snapping out of her daze.

There was nothing she wanted more than to see her boyfriend find some form of happiness, but she still wasn't certain of how good of an idea it was to return to the lodge — on the anniversary of the twins' disappearance, no less.

As she walked through the snow and listened to a distant owl hooting, she felt eyes on her back.

Unsettling goosebumps formed on her arms, the hair sticking up from underneath her coat.

Taking a quick look around her, she decided not to pull the basic move and search the area for anyone — or anything — lurking around. Rather, she simply picked up her pace and kept her eyes ahead of her.

Deciding to leave the unknown where it was seemed to be the best choice to make in every odd scenario.

Now moving at a quicker pace, she found that the trail seemed much longer than she remembered it to be. With a frustrated sigh, she kept walking and eventually came across the gate that served as the official entrance to Mount Washington.

A note hung on the lock and Florence tugged it free to read it.

"The gate's busted,

Climb over!

—Chris"

"Seriously?" Florence groaned.

Climbing over a seven-foot gate was not how she pictured the start of this reunion weekend with her friends.

Nevertheless, she jogged over to the cobblestone wall that sat next to the gate and placed her right foot on the lowest brick that stuck out. She made a mental note to thank her mother for buying her snow boots for the weekend, for about an inch of snow rested on every loose brick she had to step on. She wouldn't have been able to climb it if not for her boots.

A grunt fell from her lips as she chose the safer, yet ultimately slower, route.

Pulling herself up unto the top of the wall, she ensured that there were no rocks or big sticks to land improperly on when she jumped down. Once she was certain that she wouldn't sprain anything going down, she jumped and landed on her feet with a grunt.

Florence sighed, dusting the snow off of her hands and knees. "That wasn't so bad."

Luckily, there were now stairs and lanterns that made the pathway to the cable car station much easier to walk along. She felt safer having a lit walkway due to her slight fear of the dark. Not so much the lack of light itself, rather what lurked in it.

As she walked, she noticed that there were a few footprints in the snow.

On the way up the mountain, she had called Sam whilst she still had reception and the latter informed her that the bus she took was already halfway there. Meaning, since Sam was ahead of her, that she should be catching up to her soon.

A gust of wind swam through the trees, the rapidly falling snowflakes soaring through the thin air. Florence shivered, wrapping her arms around herself despite wearing a fleece trench coat and a parka.

As she continued to walk, she stumbled upon a sign with an indigenous man and what looked like totems on it. Her interest peaked, thus causing her to bend down to read the sign.

"INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND BUTTERFLY PROPHECIES
'Tribes who once lived in these mountains believed that butterflies carried dreams and prophecies of possible futures. The color of the butterfly indicated the nature of the prophecy.

DEATH: Black butterflies prophesied the dreamer's death.
DANGER: Red butterflies warned of dangerous events.
LOSS: Brown butterflies foretold of tragedy affecting friends.
GUIDANCE: Yellow butterflies offered visions to help and guide.
FORTUNE: White butterflies brought dreams of luck and good fortune."

Florence smiled. She loved reading about different belief systems of different cultures and their theories about how they received things like fortune, loss, and guidance; she had always taken interest in things like that.

"Cool." Florence mumbled to herself, yet before she could resume her walk down the path, she spotted a totem on the ground aside the sign.

She picked it up, noting its white frame.

» "Oh, thank god." Florence cried to herself, crawling through the snow to reach the discarded gun she spotted from several feet away.

The freezing snow burned her fingertips as she dusted the gun off.

Every cut and bruise that decorated her frigid skin ached with every step she took, but she refused to stop.

With a grunt, she ensured that the gun was loaded with enough bullets to defend herself before continuing her trek through the desolate forest.

A roar echoed from behind her, causing her to break into a painstaking sprint, the gun gripped tightly in her trembling hands. »

Florence placed the totem back down into the snow, continuing her walk. It didn't take long before she reached the cable car station where she saw Sam. She jogged up to her friend with a relieved smile, tapping her on the shoulder to alert her of her presence.

Sam jumped slightly at the touch, but when she saw that it was only Florence, she visibly relaxed. "It's nice to see a friendly face out here."

"Tell me about it." Florence sighed, pulling Sam in for a quick hug.

"How was your drive up here?"

"Fine. How was—"

Florence was cut off by the sound of someone jumping out of the trees behind them and screaming obnoxiously loud.

Both girls screamed, turning around with matching glares in their eyes.

Chris revealed himself and doubled over with laughter, holding onto his stomach that cramped in tune with his uncontrollable laughter. He had always been an avid prankster and thoroughly enjoyed a bit of teenage-esque fun. The girls were easy targets for him seeing as how they were completely unaware of his presence until he jumped out of them.

Florence picked up a pebble from the snow covered ground and tossed it at him as some form of payback, although it didn't much. Other than make him laugh even harder, of course. Classic Chris.

"You should have seen how hard you two jumped!" Chris chortled, tears brimming his eyes.

"Jerk." Florence mumbled jokingly before going to look around the cable car station whilst they awaited the cable car. Though, when she attempted to pull the door open, it remained tightly shut and allowed her no entry. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at that — the Washington's never locked the doors.

"It's locked, Flo!" Chris informed Florence as he shouldered his backpack with Sam at his ankles.

"Damn." Florence whispered, choosing to follow Sam and Chris rather than push her luck trying to force the door open.

"So, what are you showing us?" Sam asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm not gonna tell you." Chris said. "You gotta see for yourself. Come on. It's this way."

"Where?" Sam quizzed, uncertain of his intentions.

"Right around here. Gonna blow your minds." Chris promised.

Florence remained skeptical. "If someone jumps out at us, Chris, I am gonna lose my mind."

Chris snickered. "No one's jumping out at anyone. Don't worry."

Florence hummed, nodding although she didn't completely believe him. Still, she and Sam trotted after him. There wasn't much else for them to do.

Once they reached their supposed 'mind-blowing' surprise, Sam and Florence were wildly underwhelmed at the sight before them. Unimpressed expressions found their faces almost instantaneously.

"Ta-da!" Chris shot his arms out as he presented an abandoned shooting range to the girls who remained unimpressed. "Pretty rad, right?"

"Yeah!" Sam said as she smiled sarcastically.

"Totally rad, dude." Florence mocked, pushing her chilled hands into her coat pockets to warm them up with a bored look on her face. She wasn't expecting much since Chris was an easy-to-please kind of guy, but she didn't expect it to be as unentertaining as the abandoned makeshift shooting range Josh's father built years ago. Still, she stuck around to entertain Chris's evident excitement.

"Come on! Look at these beauties!" Chris beamed, admiring the few guns that were laid out across the stand.

"'Beauties' is not the word that comes to mind. Why is this even here?" Sam inquired, uninterested in even going near one of the guns.

"What do you mean?"

"What the hell is a shooting range doing at the base of a ski lodge?"

Chris began to load one of the guns. "Dude. Have you met Josh's dad?"

"He's right." Florence chuckled, knowing exactly what he meant. She had met Josh's dad on several occasions and he was quite the interesting man — to say the least. He was a survivalist at heart with plenty of training with weaponry.

"He thinks he's, like, Grizzly Adams or something." Chris explained, earning another snort from Florence. He then motioned towards the shooting range with a suggestive look. "Wanna try?"

"No, thanks." Florence said with a smile, the idea of holding a gun purely distasteful to her. She was a pacifist and she strongly disliked guns or anything to do with violence in general — something that always followed the use of guns.

Sam, also being a pacifist, shook her head. "You go ahead, Grizzly."

"Alright, here goes." Chris placed the gun on his shoulder and aimed towards the farthest target that hung from a tree about thirty feet away.

After hitting the majority of the targets, both the bags of flour and the beer cans, he looked over to the girls with a triumphant grin upon his lips. He seemed vehemently proud of his aiming skills.

"Wow!" Sam whooped. "Nice shootin', Tex."

"Alright." Chris wiggled and scooted around in a victory dance. "I'm bad. I'm a badass."

"I'm gonna go ahead and guess it was a wild case of beginner's luck." Florence joked.

"Nah, I don't think so, girl." Chris said as he wiggled his finger in the air. He then continued to shoot the remaining targets, each bullet thunderously echoing through the clearing. The sound scared off the nearby birds in the process.

"Well, anybody and their brother could shoot a bottle that big, that close." Sam challenged.

Chris shot the final bag of flour, flashing a prideful smile towards the girls.

"Nice shot, Grizzly." Florence patted his shoulder.

"Your ass just got sacked!" Chris boasted as he pointed to the bag of flour.

Sam groaned playfully before glancing behind her and noticing that the cable car was making its way down to the station. "Hey sharp-shooter, our ride is coming."

"Wait!" Chris complained. "I'm just getting the hang of this."

"Come on, Chris. The cable car." Florence pulled the gun from his grip and set it down, dragging him along towards the station. If he wasn't physically pulled away from the gun range, he'd be playing there all night.

As the three of them walked, Chris sighed. "Man, it is definitely weird coming back up here after a whole year."

Florence flinched at the topic of conversation Chris chose, but she remained silent.

"Yeah." Sam agreed. "I swear, the moment I got here, it just all came flooding back."

"A year goes fast." Chris inquired.

"Aw, man. Look at this." Sam stopped and pointed to a wanted poster on the side of the station. It was discolored and torn, signifiying its old age, but most of it remained.

"Nice!" Chris snorted. "You think we'll get a visit from America's most wanted?"

"Looks like someone thought so."

"Oh, come on." Chris argued. "This place was abandoned most of the year. Nobody comes up here."

"That's the man the police considered as a person of interest in Hannah and Beth's case." Florence said as she motioned towards the poster. "They haven't found him since they went missing, though."

"Jesus. . ." Sam trailed off. "Must be really hard on Josh."

"It is." Florence answered her curiosity with a somber tone, for she had been at Josh's side through every breakdown, every nightmare, and every sleepless night where she had to hold him for hours just for him to get a few minutes of rest. He had gone through so much in the year, but he had acquired enough strength to bring everyone together for what he hoped would be collective closure.

"I don't know how he keeps it all together. I'd—I mean I'd be a wreck." Chris sighed, admiring Josh's strength.

"He's strong, Chris." Florence told him with a soft smile. "He's getting through it."

"I'm glad he's got you, Flo." Chris patted her shoulder. "I don't think he'd be doing so good without you there."

Florence simply smiled and silently thanked him.

Sam approached the door to the station, tugging on the knob with a grunt. "Hey, that's weird. Door's locked."

"Yeah, I tried it earlier." Florence suggested.

"Josh wanted us to keep it locked, keep people out." Chris informed them.

Florence's eyebrows furrowed in confusion once again. Nobody ever really came to the mountain unless it was the groundskeepers or the Washington's themselves, and after the girls disappeared, even they stopped going. There wasn't a need to keep the door locked, so it was strange that it was.

The mountain had been pretty much abandoned the day the police stopped needing to scour it for possible evidence or leads. All that remained was desolate forests and the animals that created homes in them.

"He said that?" Sam asked, just as confused. "What people?"

"I don't know." Chris shrugged as he pulled the key out of his coat pocket. "He said they found people sleeping in the station one time."

"That was years ago. . ." Florence mumbled, recalling Hannah and Beth telling her about it during one of their many sleepovers. It freaked the twins out a little, but the police flushed them out and made sure to order the Washingtons to keep the station locked at all times.

"Creepy." Sam inquired.

Chris quickly unlocked the door and opened it for the girls, bowing slightly. "After you."

"A real gentleman." Sam joked, Florence chuckling lightly from behind her.

Sam and Florence walked out to the balcony whilst Chris walked around and looked at the posters that littered the station walls.

Sam groaned upon seeing that the cable car was farther than she originally thought. "I thought the car was closer."

"Guess we gotta wait." Chris brushed it off as he looked at one of the posters that promoted both the old hotel and Sanatorium that sat on the mountains. "What a crazy place to set up house. No matter how rich you are."

"They're not so rich." Sam joked. "They only bought a mountain!"

Florence snorted, lightly pushing Sam with her shoulder. The Washington's were wealthy and did enjoy flaunting it on occasion, but they weren't obnoxious about it all the time. They were decent people who suffered a tragedy and now, they had fallen apart. No amount of money they laid on could hold them up during a situation like theirs.

The sound of the cable car's gears whirring broke Florence out of her somber thoughts and brought her back to her frigid reality.

"Finally." Sam sighed, shifting her gaze towards Chris. "You coming?"

Chris shrugged playfully. "Well, I was just gonna stay here and catch some Z's, but. . ."

Sam shot him a glare.

"Okay." Chris held up his hands in defeat, entering the car and sitting himself opposite of Florence and Sam. "Just like going to the prom."

The cable car closed and slowly carried them up towards the lodge, its gears humming.

"Here we go!" Sam cheered, excited to ride in the car that dangled them hundreds of feet in the air — she enjoyed adrenaline rushes. She was an adventurous young woman with a love for all of the daring and exciting things the world had to offer.

"Right!" Chris beamed. "Adventure begins!"

Sam sighed abruptly. "I hope this was the right thing to do."

"What?" Chris wondered aloud.

"You know, getting everyone together on the anniversary. I mean Josh seemed really pumped about us all doing something didn't he?"

"Yeah, no, he definitely did!" Chris agreed, gesturing with his hands. "I haven't seen him so excited about something in forever."

"He wanted everyone to get together again, like we used to." Florence interjected with a soft smile. She knew how hard it was for Josh deciding to go back to the mountain, but she also could see how much he genuinely wanted to. It meant the world to him, everyone getting together and doing things just like they used to.

"This is the happiest he's been since that night. It's so nice to see that he wants to take the right steps towards coming to peace with things." Florence told them honestly.

"That's great, Flo." Sam placed a hand on her shoulder with a comforting smile. "It's just been hard to tell with him, and I've been worried."

Florence knew exactly what she meant. Josh was hitting rock bottom before he came up with the idea of creating a reunion for himself and his friends at the lodge. He had been worrying everyone, but once he got everyone to go to the lodge, he seemed happier.

"No, no. It was a good idea." Chris assured Sam, soothing her worries about her friend slightly.

"I hope everyone else feels the same way." Florence admitted, hating the thought of her other friends distrusting the idea of coming back the the mountain after a year.

"We're all here, aren't we?"

Sam gently pounded her fist onto Chris' shoulder. "Thanks, bro! Good talk."

"Yeah, dude. You're a good listener." Florence encouraged with a laugh.

"You know what? Let's just stop talking about what happened and enjoy the trip." Chris suggested, wanting to clear the air of any residing tension or anxiety. He simply wanted everyone to have a good time instead of sitting on the memories of the night their friends went missing.

Sam sighed. "You know what? You're right."

"You know how Josh and I met?" Chris asked, changing the subject and peaking the girls' interest simultaneously. "Okay. Third grade. Josh sat in the back of the room, I sat in the front. We didn't even know each other existed."

Florence smiled, already picturing mini versions of Chris and Josh in a brightly lit classroom with multicolored posters all over the walls.

"But," Chris continued, "the kid sitting next to Josh started strap snapping the training bra on the girl in front of him so the teacher made him move to the front — where I was sitting!"

"Okay, so?" Sam quizzed, eyebrows lifted in waiting.

"So I got moved to the back!"

"And?"

"And next to Josh! That's how we met! And became friends. To this day."

"A match made in heaven." Sam teased.

"It's a cute story, Chris." Florence said, for she enjoyed hearing about how Chris and Josh became friends all those years ago.

"If it weren't for the fact that Jeanie Simmonds hit puberty like three years early and on that day decided to wear a low cur shirt that showed off her training bra, I mean who knows?" Chris scoffed.

"You girls could be riding in this cable car alone. Right now. Or talking to some other person entirely."

"Butterfly effect." Florence mumbled with a smile. She had read about the butterfly effect many times and she had even seen about it on the sign she read about the totems.

"Boom!" Chris gave Florence a thumbs-up. "Butterfly effect."

Florence had always wondered about it, yet she knew that it held some truth to it. One decision can alter your entire life, that much she was sure of.

However, she didn't know that she would have to make some of those crucial decisions tonight if she wanted to survive.

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