.₊꒰ 🪓 ꒱:⩩┆( 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙬𝙣 )⊹.*

𝑂𝑁𝐸.         ☠︎︎ 𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙬𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣

ᴏɴᴇ ʏᴇᴀʀ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ

⸝⸝ ʚ 🪓 ! ⌗ °• ━━━━━━━━━ 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑯𝑬𝑴𝑺 𝑶𝑭 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑳𝑶𝑾𝑬 𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮'𝑺 𝑭𝑳𝑨𝑹𝑬𝑫 𝑱𝑬𝑨𝑵𝑺 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑮𝑬𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑮𝑯 𝑨 𝑳𝑨𝑹𝑮𝑬, 𝑹𝑨𝑰𝑵 𝑭𝑰𝑳𝑳𝑬𝑫 𝑷𝑼𝑫𝑫𝑳𝑬 𝑨𝑺 𝑺𝑯𝑬 𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑬𝑭𝑼𝑳𝑳𝒀 𝑺𝑻𝑬𝑷𝑷𝑬𝑫 𝑶𝑭𝑭 𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑽𝑬𝑳 𝑩𝑼𝑺. Before she could thank the driver, he had already driven off. In the middle of the road, all alone, the girl stood in a brown and green striped sweater with a retro brown faux leather jacket while The Smiths played in her old walkman headphones.

Blackwood Pines was just how she remembered it, and there was little to no change in the atmosphere since the last time she was here. It was still beautiful in the odd way that it was also the creepiest place she knew. The beauty of the stars and the icicles that hung from the snow covered branches easily balanced out the eerie silence with the occasional snap of a twig.

While she could not see them, Marlowe could feel as the goosebumps rose on her arms and back. It wasn't because she was cold. She actually felt quite warm. But, it was the haunting memories of the Washington twins. While there were things she missed, such as the sound of the birds, the squirrels playing in the snow, or the snowball fights that she'd often lose due to her terrible aim... she hated being back. It felt wrong that they were all back to have a weekend getaway at such a haunting place. A place where their friends went missing. A place where they caused that disappearance. A place where they searched day and night for the two girls only to find nothing...

      "Okay... this is fine..." Marlowe whispered to herself, a white cloud of fog escaping into the air as she sighed heavily. Music blasted in her ears, and her right hand clutched around the handle of her backpack before she slung it over her shoulder. "Who am I kidding? Nothing is fucking fine."

      And so, she set off along the snow covered trail. The crunch of the snow could both be felt and heard beneath her chunky black boots, and she occasionally stepped on a twig or two. Marlowe was quite absorbed in the scenery. While she wasn't able to hear much due to the music that felt like it was flowing through her brain like the flow of a river, she could watch as water dripped from the frozen leaves, the squirrels chased after each other in the snow, and the clouds broke in the sky to show the stars. It felt just like that night when she sat at the window in the lodge. It all felt so familiar, it was almost overwhelming. Marlowe couldn't even begin to imagine how Josh Washington felt.

While the girls music was quite loud, she could still hear the screech that echoed through the forest. Marlowe stopped in her tracks and pulled the headphones off of her ears. Now that her ears were available to hear anything and everything, there was nothing but the occasional whistle in the wind. She must've been hearing things... at least that's what she told herself. When she let go of her headphones, they slapped back on her ears and she continued on her journey until she saw the gate.

Strange... it was closed. She had expected it to be open. Upon getting closer to the gate that was three times her size, she caught a glimpse of the note that was attached to the gate as it gently followed the breeze. Over and over, Marlowe read the words on the note before finally coming to the acceptance that she would have to climb over the fence as Chris said. Of course the gate would be busted... what a stereotypical horror situation.

      She grumbled miserably as she moved to the stone wall that the gate was attached to. Her slender hands, that were slowly changing colours from the cold, gripped the stone and she pulled herself up until her feet could find a place on the stone. Marlowe safely climbed the stone wall, making sure not to scrape her jean covered knee, or accidentally cut her hand against the sharp and rough edges of the dark stone. It was slightly wet and dusted in snow, and her foot would occasionally slip from one of the protruding stones. But, she made it over the wall without fail.

      Sitting on the top of the stone wall, she looked past her dangling feet at the snow below, pushing off of the wall as she dropped. It was quite a high drop, and Marlowe's knees ached for a split second before it passed. When she looked back at the wall, she knew that Sam would have a field day with that wall, if she hadn't already been through yet.

The rest of the walk to the cable car was undisturbed. Eerie silence avoided by the 60s music that had been playing in her ears. There was the occasional squirrel that jumped from the bushes, spooking Marlowe to some degree. The snow fell gently against her hair, sitting on her short bangs and frizzed curls. While she followed the path. she would stick out her hand to catch some of the larger snow flakes, or she'd stop to take some photos of the sky.

      There was so much beauty in such an awful place.

Marlowe had finally come to the last stretch, stopping to crack her back by twisting from left to right, and then bending backwards with her hands pressed to her lower back. Once the satisfying crunch could be felt, she laid her eyes upon the cable car. However, she wasn't alone. Sitting at one of the wooden benches attached to the side of the building was Chris, his somewhat chunky backpack leaning against his side while he scrolled on his phone.

"Hey, Chris!" Marlowe shouted across the snow covered plain. She hit pause on her cassette player and placed her headphones around her neck.

Upon hearing the noise, the birds all dispersed into the snowy air. Chris, on the other hand, began playing hot potato with his phone. Startled by Marlowe's sudden appearance, he had been quite spooked by such a loud noise among the eerie silence of Blackwood Pines. After a few seconds, he managed to secure his phone in his right hand. By then, he had pressed a bunch of random buttons and he was no longer on the page he was on before almost dropping his phone.

      Chris looked at Marlowe and his eyed widened, "Marlowe? You... you definitely have changed."

"I think we all probably have, huh..." Marlowe smiled sadly, "you changed and became a big scaredy-cat."

Despite the glare that was on his glasses, she could see him roll his eyes with a smile on his face. Chris pulled her in for a warm hug, but due to their height difference, she was struggling on the tips of her toes. It didn't help with the fact that he was almost smothering her in his jacket. Pulling one arm free from the suffocating hug, Marlowe was forced to tap out on his arm in a desperate attempt to breathe.

"Can't.. breathe.. Chris..."

Finally, the blonde man freed her from his death hug. "Shit, sorry... it's just good to see you."

"It's good to see you to, Chris. Just, try not to kill the next person you hug, yeah?" Marlowe joked, and Chris rubbed his hand against the back of his neck.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll try to keep that in mind," his posture changed as he clapped his hands together, "well... I'm going to explore around the cable car. Wanna join me on a great adventure to find squirrels and a whole lot of nothing?"

Marlowe scrunched her nose and shook her head, "not particularly. Have fun with that though while I go and curl up next to a big, warm open fire. Be sure to tell me how you're exploring went when you come back to the lodge freezing while I'm toasting like a marshmallow."

"Placing my bet on there being no wood in the lodge, so you're freezing your buns sitting next to a fireplace with no fire," Chris raised his arms in the air as he began walking backwards, "cable car's to your left!"

"I know that!" Marlowe shouted after him as he disappeared around the corner. She rolled her eyes. Oh how she had missed Chris. Not so much the suffocating hugs, but it was nice to see his friendly face once more.

      Marlowe wasted no more time to look at the view, for now she just wanted that open fire. She pulled the walkman headphones from around her neck and sat them back on her ears. Pressing play on the small button on the side of her blue and yellow retro cassette player, she rested her head against the glass as she sat down in the cable car. She began to move off above the valley as the music played.

⸝⸝ ʚ 🪓 ! ⌗ °• ━━━━━━━━━ 𝑰𝑻 𝑭𝑬𝑳𝑻 𝑺𝑨𝑭𝑬 𝑻𝑶 𝑭𝑰𝑵𝑨𝑳𝑳𝒀 𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑬 𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑭𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝑶𝑵 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑮𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑫. 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑳𝑶𝑾𝑬 𝑾𝑨𝑺 𝑷𝑶𝑺𝑰𝑻𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑺𝑯𝑬 𝑯𝑨𝑫 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑻𝑶 𝑭𝑬𝑬𝑳 𝑭𝑨𝑰𝑵𝑻 𝑨𝑭𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑮𝑳𝑨𝑵𝑪𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑫𝑶𝑾𝑵 𝑶𝑵𝑪𝑬. After all these years of coming up and down the cable car to and from the lodge, and she still had yet to learn her lesson of looking down while being in the air, and also being scared of heights. But, some things would never change... much like the breath taking view of Blackwood Pines.

      She had been right to wait and look at the view from the other station. Rolling her backpack off of her shoulders, she placed it on the ground before fetching her dated camera. It was pink and travel size. She raised it up to eye level and began savouring the moment, taking in as much as she could. It was difficult to fit the entire view into one photo, there was so much she wanted in a single image. She wanted the broken up clouds, she wanted the snow covered pine trees in the valley, and she wanted the birds that were still flying through the dark, but were only seen from the light of the moon.

      "Wow, still using an old camera to take photos? Do you not have a phone or something?" It was a familar voice of a woman, and one that she knew all to well. She didn't need to turn around to investigate who it was, she already knew. So, she continued to take photos of the view.

      "Camera has better photo quality than my phone, Jessica," Marlowe took one last photo before putting the camera back in her backpack. While she would love to stay and watch the view all night, freezing to death was not in her preffered interests. When she turned to face Jess, her eyes widened, "take a look at you... you get more and more beautiful everytime I see you, Jess."

      The girl has her blonde hair in braids thats rested on her purple jacket. Her glossed lips turned into a smile, "you have no idea how glad I am that you're nice, unlike that skank of a bestfriend you have."

      Marlowe's eyes widened, "uh, and I think its quite brave that you talk shit about someone right to their best friend. But, don't worry, I'm sure she already knows. Em... can be a lot, I know. But, she can be nice... sometimes."

      "In dreams, maybe..." Jess replied.

      "Right..." Marlowe dusted off the snowflakes from her jeans before slinging her back pack around her shoulders, "wanna walk to the lodge with me?"

      "Uh, no. It's okay. I'm just going to sit over on that bench and see who else is coming." Jessica waved Marlowe off with a smile. When she was sat on the bench by the station, Marlowe put her headphones back on her ears.

      The next hike to the Washington lodge was going to be a lot worse than the one to get to the cable car.

⸝⸝ ʚ 🪓 ! ⌗ °• ━━━ '' - «🕸»‧₊˚𓍯 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙚
╰┈➤ i have so much motivation for this story rn i'm not gonna lie. my poor joel miller fic is getting cast aside for a little while i work on this since i'm much more inspired for this.