Yes, this is another chapter. I know I've posted a lot today, I just really want to finish this book strongly! As you can kind of tell, this chapter is not my favorite with my endless dialogue, but its a nice chapter to see the relationships between the characters.

Happy Reading!

"So now we gotta find Sam while Emily and Matt go get help, right?" Ashley repeated, caressing Bo's hair out of her forehead so she can better place the heating pad.

"Yup. You pretty much hit the nail on the head." Chris confirmed.

"Alright, cool. Well, why don't you look upstairs, I'll look after Bo and we can tag team this?" She suggested.

"Good plan. I can work with it." He nodded his head affirmatively and went to go walk up the stairs when Ashley stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever you saw in there? Whatever choice you had to make, I think you made the right decision. It's okay to feel guilty, just...don't let it take over your life." She comforted Chris. He sighed.

"You should have seen her in there, Ash." He looked past his bruised crush and to Bo who was peacefully sleeping. "It was like...she was taken completely over by guilt with Hannah and Beth. Constantly blaming herself, saying she was a burden to the Washington family. Her own boyfriend's family. It wasn't the Bowie we all know and love. She was ready to give her life for Josh's because she was convinced it was an 'injustice' for her to live another day." A tear rolled down his cheek as Ashley wiped it away with her gloved hand. "It was hard. I was so close just to let Josh live, but I knew I'd go through greater grief than now if I had gone through with it."

"I'm so sorry, Chris." Ashley whispered.

"Yeah. I am too." He turned around with one last glance at Bo before continuing up the stairs. "Geez." Chris mumbled to himself as he shone his flashlight over the dark hallways. "Whoever was here beforehand really got a good look of the place." Doors were wide open in every room on the top floor.

And there was no trace of Sam in any of them.

"Ashley?" He called out from the balcony. "She's not up here!" He walked back down the wooden staircase to be greeted by her.

"She wasn't up there?"

"I don't know. I didn't see her. She must have come down here." Chris suggested.

"I haven't seen her at all, too." Ashley whined. "Do you know if it is safe to wake up Bo, yet?"

"Don't have to." A hoarse voice croaked from behind them. The duo turned around to see Bo, ghostly pale, standing behind them. Her sweatshirt had covered her shorts partially and her hair was in a high bun on the top of her head.

"Bo! You're alright!" Ashley rushed forward to hug her, wrapping her arms around the sickly teen.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You alright?" Bo asked, changing the topic from her.

"Better now that you're fine. But we still have to find Sam." Ashley explained.

"I want to come with." She demanded, her eyes on Chris.

"You can't in your condition-" He argued.

"Damn my condition." Bo yelped, a huge crack in her voice, glaring at Chris who eventually gave in after a few moments of hard staring.

"Fine. But you can't stray off, we can't loose you."

"Thank you, Chris."

"Least I can do after-" He cleared his throat, not wanting to bring it up. "Let's go."

"Lead the way." Bo coughed out. As they rounded the corner of the balcony, a candle mysteriously grew aflame. Ashley screamed, while Chris and Bo only jumped.

"Did that just happen?" She treaded lightly, tiptoeing closer behind Chris, leaving Bo to hobble on her lonesome.

"Dammit! What is going on in this place." He cursed from the lead, shining his flashlight in random places, checking for clear spots to stand in the open, obviously still suspicious.

"Chris?" Ashley chided.

"What?" He inhaled sharply as he turned a corner.

"Chris, I just wanted to say..."

"Say what?" He probed but caught on when Ashley looked back at Bo who was several feet behind.

"Nevermind."

"Oh, don't pay no mind to me, I'm just here for the food." Bo teased and laughed, which only turned to a hard cough.

"I'd lay off the jokes unless you wanna cough up a lung." Chris offered, turning his head to the side slightly.

"Good idea." She nodded her head once and continued to follow. Josh's sweatshirt around her made her feel not only comforted but strangely disturbed. A small, and helpless, tear rolled down her cheek just at the reminiscence.

As they walked through hallways, Chris and Ashley talked about anything to keep their minds off the whole 'most likely going to die' ideal and Bo listened in. Walking through a room she noticed a picture and at the sight of it, a small silent sob escaped her dry lips. Not like she could make the cry audio-able, her throat was on edge of throwing itself up.

Taking in the photo of Josh, Hannah and Beth at their trip to Cape Cod, she folded it and placed it delicately in the pocket of her sweatshirt.

As they walked into a doored hallway, the second Bo had stepped foot in it, the door slammed behind her, making Ashley and Chris flinch.

"Bo, can't you be quieter when closing doors? Why did you even close it in the first place?" Chris scolded her. Turning the knob of the door that wouldn't budge, she shook her head, frightened.

"I didn't close it." She murmered, Ashley whining in front of them in fear. Turning another corner, Bo took the photo out and gripped it for her own kind of reassurance. The door suddenly opened in front of them, making scaredy-pants Ashley squirm in her stance.

"I can't go in there..." She whispered, making Bo roll her baggy eyes and go in front, Chris still exploring the other part of the room. As she looked around the doorway, she saw a figure move past the hallway.

"Chris...?" She slowly moved her head in the direction he was in.

"Yeah?" He called back.

"I think you should come protect us." She cracked back. Bo heard his footsteps as the taller and stronger teen came to their aid. "I saw something move, just...thought you should know."

"Yeah...thanks." He grumbled, pushing in front of the girls to lead the way down the creepy hallway.

"Do we even have to be down here?" Ashley blubbered.

"Yes, Ashley. This is the only place Sam could be." He reached the end of the hall, stopping.

"I wish we could just go back, and find everyone else." She begged.

"What if Sam needs us? What if she's in trouble?" Chris's voice began to rise in tone. "What happened to the Ashley who was ready to save her friend?"

"We saw something, Chris." Bo defended. "I'm not even sure Sam is even in the cabin."

"Yeah, you have a fever and Ashley has a bruise the size of a bat on her forehead. You could be just seeing things." Chris spat. At the mention of her bruise, Ash covered it with her hand.

"You know, all night I've been told I was just seeing things when I saw a figure of a man in the forest. And then guess what? A man knocks us out cold, chains Josh and I to a wooden plank and chops him in half! Don't you dare tell me I'm just seeing things." Bo yelled through her tears.

"Okay, okay..." Chris roughly took a hold of her arm and pulled her into his chest, hearing her muffled cries in his bloodied cardigan. "I know...I know it's hard. I miss him so fucking bad, too. We can't turn on each other, I'm so sorry." He apologized as a door creaked open, making Bo slowly move her head from his cardigan.

"Lets go." Bo was released from Chris's grip and traveled first through the self-opening door for the umpteenth time. Ashley trailed behind this time instead of Bo. Walking down more stairs wan't easier for her, especially in a situation where doors opened by themselves. The overhead lights to the basement flickered on and off in a creepy pattern as Bo waited for Chris to take lead at the end of the concrete stairs, meeting up with a forlorn Ashley. A banging on the boiler made all three of them jump as they continued to walk in search of Sam.

A louder crash freaked them worse than before, even making Chris yell.

"Woah, woah, woah! You've got to be kidding me!"

"What the hell is going on!" Ashley fretted, waving her hands once in the air. Bo, however, made no noise or reaction. As they walked past another opening in the basement, a rocking horse began to move on its own, again scaring the trio.

"You knocked into it, right?" Chris the ever-skeptical interrogated Ashley who only stammered in response.

"I-I don't think I did, I mean...I don't know!" She wailed. Bo mentally cursed them to be silent, she didn't want to draw attention to herself and didn't think Ashley and Chris wanted to either. "How did everything get so freaky around here!" She raced in front of Chris, her flashlight waving left and right. "Doors are slamming, candles are lighting up on their own and-"

"Ashley, I think you're kind of ignoring what's really happening here." Chris grimaced. Ashley made her way back, getting dangerously close to his face.

"Don't tell me you didn't see that translucent white figure just passing through right now?" She argued back.

"We-We could be seeing things!" He shouted back. Bo wanted to slap him after what they had just talked about before entering the basement obviously went out the other ear.

"We're not imaging things! I'm not imaging things!" Ashley warned.

"Yeah well, I mean, I saw things, too." He huffed. "I saw what happened to Josh in the shed!"

"Don't you dare use him as an excuse, Chris." Bo gave him a menacing glare.

"I'm not worried about weird doors, candles and figures! I'm worried about Sam! What happened to her!" He cried, as Ashley walked past into another hallway in the basement. "If there's some maniac out here then she could be dead!"

"Sam can't be dead, too..." Bo mumbled, just for herself. The picture in her grip gave her a kind of hope. False, but still present.

"Don't say that!" Ashley corrected, "Please, Chris." As they followed her, Chris went to go say something and turned around to face Ash.

"I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Wait!" Ashley gasped. "Chris! The ghost!" She pointed behind him to see it walking past them for the second time.

"What?" He turned to where she was pointing. Bo's eyes the size of a deer's. "I didn't see it. Ash, calm down, there's no ghost here. Ghost of what? You're freaked out because of our story-"

"You're not paying attention. I saw it. I saw a ghost and it looked like Hannah," Ashley hissed. At the mention of Hannah, Bo looked up from her photo at Ashley. "It looked...like Hannah." She composed herself.

"Wait a minute-"

"Or Beth, I don't know," Ash hid her face in her hands as Bo sneaked around them to catch a better glimpse. Slowly walking down the hallway, the never-ending bicker of Chris and Ashley made her roll her eyes and stop in her tracks.

"Knock it off." Bo managed to croak out. "Sam is-"

A non-distinct scream made Bo's skin crawl as she involuntarily flinched.

"What was that?" She calmly asked, continuing her journey forward, Chris joining her side. Ashley was shivering in the back of the group, barely moving. As they moved forward, Bo caught sight of something in Chris's flashlight. "Hey, check it out." She held it out a small key for them to see.

"Nice work, Bo." Chris gave her a small smile. Bo returned it and moved her head to the side to see the figure from before just standing still in the middle of the hallway.

"Chris?" She whispered, careful not to scare the figure...if it even could be scared. "Chris, come here." She ordered, slightly louder. As he approached, he caught just a small glimpse of the skinny creature as it walked away into yet another hallway.

"Woah, that's..." He trailed, searching for an answer.

"Was it another?" Ashley rushed towards Bo and Chris, shining her light down the hallway.

"Yeah." Bo confirmed. "I think...I think it's showing us where to go." She admitted, holding up the key into the light of Ash's flashlight. Chris ran down the hallway, the two girls following after until they reached the spot where the figure was.

"That's a creepy-ass dollhouse." Chris commented as the shone their lights into the area the entity disappeared to.

"Did the ghost want us to see this?" Ashley wondered. Bo shrugged her shoulders in response as as she made her way to the house.

"You wanna take a look?" Bo asked Ash who nodded her head once.

"You can see in all the windows." She commented. "Woah, Chris come look at this. It's like...a scene." Ashley moved her head from out of the way as Chris suspiciously walked over towards it like it was a disease. "Bo, can I have the key?"

Handing Ashley the key, Bo decided it best to move back a few steps from the dollhouse. Ashley moved a little window to reveal a lock that fit the key perfectly. The whole dollhouse opened up to reveal all of the rooms in the house.

"Oh god...it's just like..." Ashley moaned. "Except Bo's not in it. Bo doesn't have a doll."

"What?" She pushed past Chris to see a scene made out of dolls to replicate the prank. "What do you mean I don't have a doll?"

"Well last year during the prank, you were next to me. I'm the one with the red hair, and there's Jessica and Em...but not you. There's you, Chris. In the kitchen. There's no Josh." Ashley looked all throughout the house.

"That's really strange." Bo admitted.

"Um, guys?" Chris chimed in. Both Ashley and Bo looked over to see Chris holding something. "I found Bo." In his hands, was a curly, yellow haired doll with blue eyes and a green dress on. The only doll actually wearing clothes and had drawn in eyes instead of the creepy black ones.

"Oh my God..." Ashley squeaked.

"I think someone put that there to mess with us." Chris referred the the set-up camera scene.

"No," Ashley firmly disagreed, "It has to be the ghost. It's trying to tell us the maniac killed Hannah and Beth!"

"I think you both are just reaching out for things that aren't there. I have to agree with Chris here, I think someone's messing with us but not to this kind of degree." Bo got up from her spot at the dollhouse and stood back.

"Gah-!" The two cried, completely jumping backwards onto the ground.

"Wha-What happened!?" Bo hoarsely yelled.

"The doll moved! The doll moved!" Ash shreeked as the ceiling of the house opened by itself once again. She reached her hand into it, revealing a book. Like a diary of some sort. Taking a hold of the first page, she opened it and read aloud the pages about the party that she had in the cabin last year. "'There's going to be a fire and 'OMG' Mike. I also invited the new girl Josh is all about nowadays named Bo. He won't stop talking about how smart she is in their Theater Arts they have together.'" Ashley stopped reading, looking over at her friend who had a small smile on her face. Ashley had taken that as a sign to continue, "'Beth and I joke about how his favorite class is Theater Hearts, instead of Theater Arts.'" Ashley placed the diary back into the dollhouse, as if she was putting away filth.

Another door groaned as it opened just a crack. All attention was turned towards the noise.

"What was that?" Ashley whispered.

"Sounds like it came from down there," Chris pointed his flashlight to the door, slowly making his way towards it. "You two stay here, I'm going to check it out." He heroically moved past them and pushed it open, "Huh, seems like noth-" He was interrupted by a screech and full force ran into the room, the door slamming between Ashley, Bo and Chris.

"Chris!" Ashley pounded on the door and jiggled on the knobs, scared out of her wits.

"Ashley!" Bo whisper-yelled. "Just calm down, okay? You need to breath." Just as she had finished speaking, the door opened once again to reveal an unharmed Chris. Going through the scary door, Bo followed close behind Chris who seemed to know what he was doing.

"This whole place is nightmare fuel..." Ashley gulped from behind them. A sudden wave of queasiness overflooded Bo.

"I-I don't feel so-" She ran over to the side of the hall and just let her smore loose.

"Argh, Bo." Chris grimaced, not daring to look over at the sick teen currently upchucking.

"I'm fine... I'm...okay..." She held onto her stomach.

"You finished?" Chris teased.

"Yeah." She managed to breath out. Her latest session certainly didn't do any good for her sore throat. They walked through more hallways and eventually got to a whole different room.

"Chris?" Ashley peeped from behind the group. "I don't know if I wanna keep going."

Chris and Bo ignored her as they continued on their mission to find Sam, no matter how Ashley was feeling. Sam was in trouble, and all this paranormal activity didn't make the matters better. The latest hallway they were in was completely trashed with residue water and random building materials.

"This is like a whole different building..." Bo muttered, looking around the deteriorated wallpaper and doorways. "I had no idea this was even here."

"I don't think I can take any more of this," Ashley admitted.

"Yeah, I'm about at my limit, too." Chris agreed. Bo stared at the two, shocked that they would say such things.

"We have to keep moving. We have to find Sam! What if she needs our help and we just bailed on her because things got too creepy!" Bo argued, her croaking voice scratching with pain.

"All I wanted to do was forget last year ever happened!" Ashley looked down at her feet.

"To be honest, I'm not sure what Hannah thought she was doing."

"Are you kidding me right now. You're saying all this is her fault?" Bo put her hands on her hips and coughed lightly.

"No, but you can't tell me that not even a little bit of fault is on her."

"I can, and I will." Bo glared at Chris with a hard stare. Ashley looked between the two nevously.

"Well, I guess I would run away too, if I was publicly humiliated as she was. But I don't know." Ashley tried to keep the peace between the two of her friends. "We made her look so stupid in front of her friends, her major crush, I honestly don't see any fault in her."

Bo gave Chris a look like, 'I told you so'.

"Woah guys, check it out." She picked up something at the end of the hall. "It's Sam's bracelet. The one she never takes off." Bo held it in her hand to show the two.

"Oh God..." Ashley shook her head lightly. Walking into another room, Bo tried to think of where Sam could have possibly gone through for her bracelet to be taken off. Or was it a Hansel and Gretel thing, giving us a trail of breadcrumbs.

A strange staircase lead even farther down than before and walking down it made her wonder how far underground they really were. And what kind of cabin called for so many tiring stairs.

"This has to be the way to find Sam." I declared. "We're coming for you, hang on." The last step gave Bo a boost of bravery. Until she saw more hallways. Slumping, she followed the trail, more determined than anyone to find her friend. She wasn't ready to loose any more loved ones. Even if they did use the best first.

•••

Another chapter wrapped up! It is currently 1:13 am and I have never been more awake, pwhat is my life. Anyways, make sure to vote, comment, and add to your reading list! I'll see you all most likely in the morning! (Update: as you may have already guessed, I definitely wrote the next chapter by that morning, AHAHAHA)

Graphics credit @ girlpotterheadxx