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❝keep going.❞

AT 2:03 IN the morning, Chris, Ashley, and Florence began frantically searching the lodge for Sam. Checking every room and every space where she could be hiding, they came up with nothing. There was no sign of her anywhere at all and that sparked a great deal of worry between the three of them.

It became impossible for them to think of anything else besides the worst case scenarios — Sam was taken or killed by the psycho.

"She wasn't up there?" Ashley asked Chris as he came down from the upstairs portion of the lodge.

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

"We haven't seen her either." Florence informed him, her gaze flittering around the lodge as they all made their way downstairs to continue their search for Sam.

Suddenly, a nearby candle was abruptly set ablaze, the sound of the flame striking sending Ashley into a momentary panic.

"Did that just happen?" Ashley yelped.

Florence looked around the lodge, eyebrows furrowed in anger. "That psycho is messing with us."

Now that her grief and overwhelming loss had subsided momentarily, anger had taken their place. She was furious with whoever was tormenting them and killing them one by one.

He tore Josh apart and forced Chris to make that decision that broke him. He forced Chris, Ashley, and Florence to watch as Josh was brutally murdered.

The psycho was sick and insane and Florence was furious.

"Damnit," Chris cursed angrily. "What is going on around here?"

They continued to move downstairs.

"Sam?" Florence called out, hoping for an answer. However all she received was bitter, taunting, silence.

Chris and Ashley engaged in a quiet conversation whilst Florence looked around, straining her eyes to see through the dark that enveloped the powerless lodge for any signs of Sam.

Moving through the small movie theater the Washingtons had, Chris and Ashley's conversation was ended abruptly when the door slammed behind them.

Ashley and Florence jumped and cried out in a mixture of fear and surprise.

Florence brought her hands to her temples, pushing the hair back from her face. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, desperately trying to settle the growing pit of anxiety bubbling in her stomach with each passing moment.

There was a chance that the psycho had Sam and now, he was closing in on the three of them. Things were getting worse and worse and there was seemingly nothing they could do to stop it.

"What the heck!" Ashley sobbed. When she tried to open the door a few feet away from her, it was slammed closed and she was forced to back away.

"This is so eff-ed up!" Chris complained, his nerves spiking.

Ashley and Florence walked down the second hallway, intending to go through the door that led into the living room before it swung open for them. Ashley yelped, instinctively grabbing onto Florence's arm.

Florence gave her an encouraging nod and the two of them walked through the threshold and into the living room. A slim figure dressed in white fleeted past them, sending them both jumping back in fear. Chris bumped into them, gasping lowly.

Florence shook her head. She felt like she was going insane — candles were lighting on their own, doors were opening and closing by themselves, and there was a psycho going around killing them.

None of those things were supposed to happen. They were supposed to come back to the mountain to get closure and have fun like they used to every winter; now they were being terrorized and picked off one by one.

"Wait a minute." Ashley cried, shining her flashlight towards the area where the figure was walking. "Did you just see that?"

Chris furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, as he was the only who didn't see it. "Did I see what?"

"That!" Ashley stressed, her frustration growing. "Chris, that!"

"What 'that' was that?"

"It looked like a ghost." Florence sighed. She had never believed in ghosts or spirits, but she did believe in evil. And whatever was lurking in the lodge was evil and sinister and it was targeting them.

"Oh, boy." Chris obviously didn't believe either of them, despite how shaken up they seemed.

"We're serious." Ashley exclaimed. "Why don't you believe us? We told you we saw it, doesn't that count for anything?"

Chris' skeptical expression softened. "We've been through hell tonight. Okay? Your minds are fried. My mind is fried. I don't even trust what I've been seeing."

Florence rubbed her temples, trying to soothe her headache. "Please don't call us delusion, Chris, okay? We saw something."

"I don't know, I don't know. We just saw something, Chris." Ashley conceded. She didn't want to believe that they were being terrorized by a ghost or an angry, vengeful spirit but she knew she saw something strange.

"Guys, it's okay." Chris said softly, trying to comfort them. "We're all kind of out of our heads right now. I mean we just gotta pull it together, okay? You two with me?"

Ashley began sobbing, her hands trembling.

"Let's just keep our heads." Chris told them gently.

Florence rested her hands on her knees. She was starting to believe that whatever she and Ashley saw wasn't really there and the trauma they had undergone was forcing them to see things. "Are we going crazy down here?"

"It's the only place left Sam could be, guys." Chris understood their distaste for the lodge, but they needed to find Sam before they left.

"I wish we could just go find everyone else and—" Ashley began before Chris cut her off.

"What if Sam needs us? What if she's in trouble?"

Florence stood up, huffing quietly. "He's right, Ash. We can't leave her here."

Ashley put her head in her hands. "Oh, God."

The sound of the door to the basement creaking open brought them out of their conversation.

"Let's go." Chris was the first to walk through the door, wanting nothing other than to grab Sam and leave the godforsaken lodge.

Ashley and Florence interlocked their hands for comfort before shakily trailing after Chris into the basement.

A rhythmic thumping sound echoed down the concrete hallways, the thunderous noise hurting Florence's head.

The sound of something slamming against the floor made them all jump and stop in their tracks.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You've got to be kidding me!" Chris screeched angrily.

"What the hell is going on?" Ashley's grip on Florence's hand grew tighter.

The rocking horse behind Ashley began to rock back and forth, frightening her.

They continued moving through the basement in search for Sam.

"You knocked into it, right?" Chris asked, unsure that a ghost could really be doing this. "You knocked into it?"

"I-I don't know. I don't think so. I mean I don't know." Ashley whimpered. It was starting to seem like all of them were going insane. "How did everything get so freaky around here? Doors slamming and candles lighting and that specter or whatever it was."

"Ashley, I think you're kind of ignoring what's really happening here." Chris said.

"Don't tell me you didn't see that translucent white figure just passing right by us?" Ashley asked him accusingly.

"We could be seeing things!" Chris was trying to reason, but everything was pointing towards exactly what the girls were telling him.

"I'm not imagining things. Florence saw it too, Chris."

"Yeah, well, I saw things too. I saw what happened to Josh in the shed. You know what? And that's what I'm worried about."

"Then why don't you believe us?" Florence snapped. She never got angry, especially not with her friends, but Chris was refusing to believe that anything her or Ashley said was true. He thought they were delusional and their minds were playing tricks on them, but they weren't.

Everything they saw was real.

"I know, Chris." Ashley told him tearfully.

"You know what I'm really worried about? Okay? I'm worried about Sam! What happened to her? If there's some maniac out here then she could be dead too!"

"Don't say that!" Ashley scolded him. "Please, Chris."

"Sam's gonna be fine, Chris. We're gonna find her." Florence assured him, her momentary anger subsiding quickly. All she wanted was to find Sam and leave the lodge as soon as possible.

Ashley and Florence met back with Chris, only to see the same white figure walking past them again.

"Wait, Chris! The ghost!" Ashley turned him around, but it was too late because Chris was on his phone.

"You were on your phone." Florence deadpanned. She couldn't understand how he would rationalize getting on his phone when they were looking for their friend who could be in danger.

"Seriously, you dip? What were you tweeting? Hashtag, there's a freaking ghost after us?"

"Ash, calm down." Chris pushed his phone back into his pocket. "There is no ghost here. Ghost of what? Both of you are freaked out because of what happened to Josh—"

Florence smacked his shoulder, tears brimming her eyes. "Stop talking about Josh! And stop telling us we're delusional! I can't take it anymore!"

"You're not paying attention. We saw it. We saw a ghost and it looked like Hannah! It looked like Hannah! Or maybe Beth." Ashley wailed, tears streaming down her bloodied cheeks.

"Jesus, Ash." Chris sighed. "What do you think they followed us up here from the seance?"

"I don't know! Maybe!"

"They didn't! Because ghosts don't exist, okay?"

"Okay, who was talking to us at the seance, Chris?"

"I don't know."

Florence stepped back in shock, realizing that when Josh came into his room while she was sleeping, he was upset because of the seance that Chris and Ashley must have with him. "Seance? What the hell are you talking about?"

Chris shook his head. "We got the spirit board out as a joke and then it started saying stuff about Hannah and Beth being betrayed and killed."

"What?!"

"I'm sorry, Flo." Ashley sobbed.

The sound of a bloodcurdling scream broke them out of their argument. A picture frame fell from the wall and slammed onto the ground.

"How does a picture just jump off the wall like that?" Chris asked in horror.

They continued walking forwards until Ashley picked up a skeleton key off of the key rack at the end of the hallway.

She showed it to Chris before the figure appeared again, mere feet away from them.

"You can't tell us you didn't see that." Florence stressed, looking up at Chris in hopes that he would finally believe them.

"Whoa. . ." Chris mumbled in shock.

"See?" Ashley accused. "You do see it."

Chris laughed humorlessly. "This is fucking crazy."

"Chris, it's showing us the way!" Ashley noticed after seeing the figure point down the other hallway. It showed Ashley where to get the skeleton key and now it was pointing to Hannah and Beth's old dollhouse that was softly playing a lullaby.

"Look, look, look." Ashley motioned Chris and Florence over. "You can see in the windows."

"See what? Tiny furniture?" Chris asked as Florence peeped through one of the windows.

"No." Florence answered.

"It's a whole scene, with dolls and everything!" Ashley pulled back from the dollhouse and pulled the key out. "And look, this little key."

She pushed the key into the keyhole and turned it. "What'd I tell you? The ghost is helping us."

Once the dollhouse opened, Florence wanted to throw up.

There were dolls for each of them, their eyes bleeding, and they were all hiding around the room just like they did when they pranked Hannah a year ago.

Hannah was stood near the door, unknowing of what she was walking in to, whilst everyone else hid around the room with cameras and muffled laughter.

The prank that set everything off like a chain reaction was displayed right in front of them like a reenactment scene.

Florence pulled away from the dollhouse and placed her hand over her mouth so she wouldn't get sick. She crouched down, rocking back and forth in an attempt to self-soothe.

Even though she wasn't involved in the prank, her doll was still placed off to the side with Beth's doll — her exact location.

"What is going on here?" Chris mumbled in fright.

"Oh, God. It's like—"

"It's not like anything. That's us. Hiding there waiting for Hannah. Last year." Chris answered Ashley.

"But it's so accurate." Ashley uttered. "I mean, that's exactly where I was sitting, and that's where Matt was."

"This was setup by someone." Chris realized. "Who was there."

"Or someone, or something that was watching us."

"Maybe it's a warning. I think someone put this here to mess with us."

"No, it has to be the ghost." Ashley pressed, certain that a supernatural figure was doing this to them. "It's trying to tell us the maniac killed Hannah and Beth!"

Florence pressed her hands against her ears to shut them out. A single tear fell from her eye and unto her cheek where the light bruise from Ashley's slap laid.

"I think it's this bastard, and he's just trying to fuck with our heads."

"Why would he set this all up, Chris?"

"He's trying to tell us that he's going to come after us all too."

Hannah's doll eyes popped open as he head lolled to the side.

Chris and Ashley yelped and jumped back.

Ashley pulled Hannah's diary from the top of the dollhouse. "It's Hannah's diary."

Florence stopped rocking and slow stood from the ground. "We shouldn't be going through her diary."

Chris gave her a somber glance, but allowed Ashley to read through it nonetheless. They needed to see if it would give them any clues about what happened to the twins.

"'Everyone being here together on the mountain is gonna be so awesome. Cozy fires and hot tubs and OMG Mike. I am so psyched to spend some time with him.'" Ashley read from Hannah's diary before turning to Chris.

"I can't read this! It's so sad, Chris." Ashley whimpered, placing the journal back where she found it.

A low click echoed through the hallway.

"What was that?" Ashley whispered.

"It came from down there." Chris answered, leading the girls down the hallway.

Ashley opened the door, the white figure jumping right in her face with blood dripping down its mouth and a thunderous screech leaving its lips.

Florence caught Ashley as she scattered back, however, Chris walked into the room with no hesitation and was immediately separated from them when it slammed shut behind him. He was now trapped in the room whilst the girls were stuck outside.

"Goddamnit!" Chris yelled.

Within seconds, the door was unlocked and opened once again.

Ashley and Florence scurried into the room and met back up with Chris.

"But you did see it, Chris." Ashley referred to the figure popping up and screaming at them. "For real."

"I saw. . ." Chris trailed off, trying to find the right words. "something. But where'd it go?"

Florence looked around the room and picked up an old book off of the table at the side of the room. She noted the lack of discolored paged and dust. "Hey, look at this. It doesn't seem as old as everything else down here."

"It's a catalog for industrial lightbulbs?" Chris wondered after taking a brief look at the book.

"That's so random." Ashley mumbled.

Florence flipped through the book, spotting one of the lightbulbs that was circled with red marker. "One of them is circled."

"That's a powerful bulb." Chris noted.

Florence set the book down and grabbed the large scissors that sat aside it. She handed them to Ashley since she already had Josh's hunter's knife in her pocket.

"Keep this close." Florence told her in case she would need to use them as self defense. She had a feeling that weapons, as much as she despised them, would come in handy.

Ashley looked at Florence in shock. Florence hated violence and anything to do with weapons or harm. Seeing her switch from pacifism to being ready to hurt someone if necessary was utterly shocking.

Ashley frowned, but took the scissors nonetheless. She didn't like seeing who they were becoming down here.

They all continued to look around the room until Ashley pulled a hidden camera out from behind a box. "Uh, guys?"

Florence's eyes widened in shock. The psycho had been recording them this whole time.

"You think it's the guy?" Ashley wondered.

"Well that'd make sense, I guess." Chris responded.

"I don't like being watched." Florence mumbled, scouring the room for anymore visible cameras.

Chris turned the camera to the side so it would record a box instead of them. "Better?"

Ashley turned the camera towards her with a scowl. "Go suck an egg!"

Florence snorted, some of the tension leaving the room. "Good one, Ash."

"Now it's better." Ashley muttered before following Chris and Florence out of the room.

They walked down the hallway, doing their best to ignore the thunderous booms they heard coming from upstairs.

"Wait, there's a whole other room down here." Chris informed them. "It's mammoth!"

"Chris, I don't know if I want to keep going." Ashley told him hesitantly. The anxiety was getting to her, as it was Florence.

Something wasn't right and Florence felt like there was a target on her back.

Yet, they kept moving. They had to find Sam.

"Where in the world are we going?" Ashley wondered.

The hallway they were walking through was covered in stone rubble and loose pipes. It seemed to be a secret tunnel that was dug out haphazardly, leaving shards of stone and rocks all along the cracked concrete floor.

The hallway stunk of dust and old metal and it was unbelievably freezing, making Florence shiver.

Chris looked around in shock as he moved forward. "Are you kidding me?"

"Did you know this was here?" Ashley asked Florence considering she had come up here way more than any of them due to her relationship with Josh and her tight-knit friendship with the twins.

"I had no idea this was here." Florence sighed, stepping over rubble as she walked.

The Washingtons seemed to have a never ending pile of secrets that only grew as the night went on. There was no way anyone could have found them all out, but it was starting to look like they would find more of them before dawn.

Once they reached the end of the hallway where a room was, Ashley walked up to Chris with heavy pants leaving her lips. "I don't think I can take anymore of this."

"Yeah," Chris agreed, "I'm about at my limit here too."

"All I wanted was to forget last year ever happened." Ashley began tearfully.

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

Florence crossed her arms around her chest, looking up at Chris with slight anger pooling in her veins. She waited to see where he was going with it before she got too angry, though.

"Yeah, well, you know how it is when you're crushing pretty hard on someone." Ashley shrugged as though she knew what Hannah was thinking and feeling that night.

"Great, so you're just basically saying that we put a vulnerable friend in a terrible situation and essentially caused her to run away and never be heard from again?"

"Yes." Florence answered for him somberly. "That is exactly what you did."

She had never blamed anyone or told any of them that it was their fault the twins had gone missing and possibly got killed.

She didn't have the heart to say those things, and she knew that there was no way for any of them to have known that Hannah would have run off like that.

But, they should have known that Hannah would have gotten hurt.

She loved Mike and Mike, instead of letting het down gently, led her on and baited her. He never actually told her that he didn't like her like that, he simply used her infatuation for him as a way to lure her into their sick prank.

Florence had always wondered what would have happened if any of them took even a second to consider the consequences of their malicious actions.

Maybe Hannah and Beth never would have disappeared and maybe they wouldn't be in this situation.

Now, after so many things had changed, she did blame them. She finally saw that if they hadn't pulled that horrible prank, Hannah and Beth would have never went missing and they wouldn't be in their current situation.

"If it was you, don't you think you would have run away?" Ashley quizzed Chris, putting him into Hannah's shoes. "I mean who likes being made fun of?"

Chris took a breath in, trying to avert his thoughts from that night even though he didn't take part in the prank due to his alcohol-induced slumber. "People don't make fun of me."

"To your face." Ashley answered immediately.

"What?" Chris looked offended.

"Chris we made her look so stupid, in front of all of her friends and the guy she liked. I can't imagine doing anything worse to somebody."

Florence felt tears prick her eyes.

She finally knew what happened that night. No one had the heart to tell her since she was Hannah and Beth's best friend, so they kept her in the dark. All she knew was that they pulled a cruel prank, not exactly what happened.

But now she did, and she never felt worse.

They continued moving down the hallways, stopping at a room that connected to the hall.

Ashley bent down next to a package, tearing the invoice notice off. The package was filled with fake news articles sent directly to the lodge.

"Are these fake?" Ashley mumbled. "Why would anyone make fake newspapers?"

Florence's stomach dropped. "To make us think that someone else had something to do with Hannah and Beth's disappearance."

Bitter silence filled the air, yet they kept moving until they reached a set of stairs.

"You know what? No." Ashley stated, refusing to go down the stairs.

Florence didn't blame her.

"Ash—" Chris tried, only to be cut off.

"No! I've had enough! I'm not going down any further into this nightmare."

"Ashley," Chris sighed. "I understand, okay? I'm really freaked out too. But if Sam's down there all alone with a maniac and we leave? We're basically killing her ourselves."

"Goddamnit." Ashley reconsidered staying.

"Ashley, come on." Florence persuaded her, placing an encouraging hand on her shoulder. They couldn't leave Sam to die, as much as they didn't want to continue this nightmare.

"Why are you always right?"

"I'm not always right."

"Well when you're right, you're right."

"I don't want to be." Chris admitted shamelessly. "I want to leave."

"No, we've gotta find Sam." Ashley finalized with certainty. "Let's go."

They all moved down the stairs, ready for what was to come.

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