ACT ONE — CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

1996

"Help! Help!"

Jackie's cries for help awoke Ash from the trance she had been in. Despite the lingering sense of paranoia that still had a hold on her, she knew that she had to do something.

Ash always had a complicated relationship with her friends. She never felt quite like she fit in amongst them, in fact she would say that her sister was her best friend.

Jackie was someone that felt out of reach to Ash. She was popular and headstrong, that's why she always held the position of the sort of glue to the soccer team.

Typically, Ash would have described Jackie as simply being a lot. The team captain could be a bit pushy, and maybe even overbearing.

None of those things changed the fact that Jackie is one of Ash's only friends, and currently crying out for help.

So, the girl forced herself to her feet, stumbling forward practically crashing into one of the cabin's outer walls.

So that's where she was...

Ash pushed forward, hand against the wall for support. Once she had some form of stability, she pushed away from the wall and ran to the cabin's doorway.

Jackie was locked inside of the closet, still yelling out for help by the time Ash made it there. The brunette reached up, unlocking the door.

Jackie seemed slightly surprised to see her standing there, "Do you have any idea what the fuck is going on with everyone?"

Ash's eyebrows pulled together, "Shrooms, I think. Why, what happened?"

The blonde, though relieved to see Ash, looked at her skeptically. Jackie could not help but find it bizarre that she didn't know anything.

"You didn't hear or see anything?" Jackie arched an eyebrow at her.

The Jensen girl shook her head, "No, I was passed out. Me and shrooms do not get along very well."

Jackie would have laughed if she wasn't completely terrorized. The girl had always had a bit of a thing for the brunette that stood in front of her.

Sophomore year, when she and Jeff were broken up for what might have been the millionth time, she had kissed Ash at a party. The Jensen girl later claimed she did not reciprocate Jackie's feelings.

So Jackie did what she did best, and turned back to Jeff, entirely ignoring the part of her that liked Ash. The part of her that liked girls.

"Shit!" Jackie muttered, "We have to help Travis, they're being fucking insane."

"O—okay," Ash nodded, still feeling a bit woozy from the shrooms.

When they found the rest of the team, they had Travis tied up and Shauna had a knife to his throat.

"What the fuck?" Ash cried out and Jackie yelled for Shauna to stop.

Ash shoved Shauna away, helping Travis out of the ties.

"Jackie, I..." Shauna trailed off as the knife clattered into the dirt.

"Ash! The knife!" Jackie called out.

Ash ran forward, knees colliding with the dirt, as she and Lottie when for the knife. The Jensen girl was able to get to it first stumbling to her feet and backing away from Lottie.

Travis stumbled away, into the woods. Lottie took the brief moment of distraction to leap forward and grab onto Ash's wrist.

"It's in all of us, you know?" Lottie breathed, inches away from Ash's face "Even him. Even you."

Ash's eyebrows pulled together, a little bit hurt by Lottie's tone. She had thought that they understood each other. The girl shoved her away, "Lottie, I've had enough, of this weird fucking shit. Just stop, please."

By the time 'please' fell from her lips, the girl's voice cracked. A slightly sympathetic look flickered through Lottie's eyes, but that was soon replaced by a maniacal laugh.

Ash shook her head, turning away from the group, and walking away.

"Do you ever just wanna like—float away?" Emily whispered, her eyes trained on the star filled sky above them.

She always wanted to float away, even when she was a little kid. Emily dreamt of floating away and living amongst the clouds. Her parents' marriage had always been broken, patched up with tape and religion.

"Float away— what do you mean?" Natalie asked, eyes locked on Emily.

"I don't know, just from everything, just like be free."

A soft smile tugged at Natalie's lips at the way Emily's eyes lite up. The girl nodded, "Yeah— I get it. What about you coach, you ever wanna float away?"

"I wanna float away with Paul," he murmured, eyes barely open.

Emily rolled over, turning to Natalie, staring in her eyes, sleepily.

"You're so pretty," she giggled.

Natalie laughed, hand hovering overtop of Emily's head, "You have a halo—like an angel!"

Emily gasped, "Am I dead?"

Her girlfriend's eyes grew wide, "oh my god you have to be—"

"No one's dead..." Ben noted, his voice still sounding as though he was drowsy.

"Noooooo," Emily drew out, "There's lots of dead people, and we'll all join them at one point or another."

A quiet 'wow' fell from Natalie's lips.

"That got deep," she noted.

A giggle could be heard, "Sorry."

Emily's eyes felt heavy, she basked in feeling of freedom, of carelessness. A feeling that she never quite had enough of, one that she turned to many negative things to reach.

Natalie pressed a gentle kiss to Emily's forehead, "You're my favorite person in the whole wide world Emy."

Soon after that, the two of them passed out, sleep overtaking their minds as all hell broke loose just a short walk away from them.

The following morning, they would find out precisely how bad it was. How completely insane it was.

Author's Note:

Kind of a short chapter, but an update nonetheless. As you're probably used to by now, it's not edited!! Anyways, happy holidays and I really hope you enjoyed the chapter!

— Via <3