V I O L E N T     Y O U T H

      THE MUSIC HAD SINCE DIED DOWN, LEAVING DRUNK TEENAGERS TO THEIR IRRATIONAL THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS. Most of the group had dispersed throughout the Washington Lodge, leaving only a handful in the kitchen. Blair Wright had gotten the fun job of weaving through the pricey furniture with the black trash bag Beth Washington had tossed at her. It dragged by her feet against the undisturbed floorboards, only a few cups sitting in the bottom as the girl groaned about her Beth-given chore.

She was set in for a night of fun, and now she had to clean up for the others. Talk about a mood ruiner. The dark-haired girl bent over to pick up a stray red cup from the floor before setting eyes on the blonde sitting peacefully, away from everything else and in her own world while she worked her pencil against the paper.

Dropping the trash bag against one of the sofas, Blair dropped by to sit beside Sam Giddings who remained unphased from practically being sat on top of.

"Whatcha drawing?" Blair lightly held her head, her headache-clouded mind taking a toll from her rapid movement to look over Sam's shoulder. The blonde offered a better view of her sketchbook. Very few pages were left in the book from how often the girl drew, but Blair remained focused on the drawing. "Holy shit! Dude this is sick..."

The page coated in graphite captured Blair's image as though it had been printed from a photo. It was her in her best moment of tonight, a smile on the face of the drawing that was unmissable. Blair hoped every moment of her could be captured in such a way — a way that brought some sort of light into her life.

Sam gently laughed and brought back the sketchbook to rest in her lap, careful not to drag her patterned sweater against the graphite for fear of smudging. "Figured I had to save the best for last," Sam analysed the girl in front of her for a moment before leaning in close, a sly smirk playing on her lips, "might just let you know before the others see — your lipstick's smudged."

Blair pushed away from the girl before throwing her head back against the headrest of the sofa, "ugh, way to ruin the mood, Sammy," she used the knitted sleeve of her sweater to wipe around the outskirts of her mouth as she sighed, staining a part of the sleeve. "And here I thought I'd be better off with you than scooping up the trash..."

"Better than a certain someone giving you a lecture..." Sam threw a glance over her shoulder before turning back to her drawing and pressing the pencil to the paper, "but from what I heard... I think she already knows..."

Blair's head shot away from the headrest, "what'd you hear?"

"Oh, nothing... Just something about you... and Josh... and the theatre room-" Sam teased, nudging the girl.

"Shut up," Blair's hand found Sam's mouth to stop her from saying anything more to embarrass her further. She withdrew her hand, her eyes slowly falling as the headache that had been lingering finally hit at its full capacity. Gently, Blair rested her head against the blonde's shoulder, the itchy sweater was in no way as comfortable as she had imagined, but it provided some kind of solace and that was all that the girl needed. "You know... I don't feel so good. My head's killing me..."

Sam sat up, slightly adjusting the girl resting on her shoulder as she placed a hand against Blair's back. "We warned you about drinking while taking your-"

"You and Beth are no fun," Blair groaned, her eyes beginning to close as Sam set aside her sketchbook and pencil on the empty side of the sofa to her left.

"Look who's having all the fun," the blonde gave a 'hmm' before carefully lifting the girl off of the sofa, "time to get you to bed, huh?" Sam smiled at the dead weight in her arms as they trekked past the center table.

Even through her vision that had turned her world dizzy, Blair made out the silhouette of the man who stumbled through the door to take his seat by the bar. Her heavy hand lifted to point over toward the nearby stools, "mmm, how about over there?"

Rolling her eyes, Sam couldn't help but laugh — shaking her head as they changed their course toward the warmth of the kitchen. Josh Washington looked up from his planted position against the counter, watching intently as the dark-haired girl sat on the stool to his right. Her head rested against the cool touch of the counter to face him whilst Sam tried to get the girl sturdy.

The pair watched each other while Sam ventured off, and in the spur of the moment, whilst their eyes fought to drift to sleep, Blair outstretched her hand to caress his face. Her painted nails trailed through his hair, downwards across his cheek until her hand found the free one that wasn't supporting his head.

Blair smiled as she took a deep breath in, "I think I'm just gonna close my eyes..." She drifted off, her mind yearning for a break after the long night of partying, and to ease the ache that drummed against her head. All the while, her hand remained in the Washington boy's.

When Sam returned, she peered over the rising and falling shoulders of the girl as she smiled at the sight of the two. In their moments of weakness, they were the best for each other. Through all their hardships, at the end of the day, they still had each other. And even in this moment, they remained tied.

"And just like that," Sam dropped the plastic bucket she had gone to retrieve by their feet at the stools before dusting her hands off, "you're both out like a light."

The blonde returned to her place that had indented into the sofa, bringing the sketchbook back into the comfort of her lap as she flipped to a blank page. Her pencil sat still in her hand until she looked up at the pair resting opposite each other — and only then did her hands get to work.

"Can't wait for this to hit them in the morning..."

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BETH WASHINGTON ADMIRED THE WORK PUT INTO THE DRAWINGS SCRIBBLED ACROSS CHRIS' FACE IN SHARPIE — the work of the two masterminds that someone had taken a photo of using her camera. She was careful not to laugh too hard as she turned her head from the camera in her hands, setting in back down against the counter while her gaze fell on the pair passed out on the kitchen's counter. She smiled at the sight of her brother and best friend, yet it was an oddly saddened one. But, as she had grown to do whenever those two were in each other's company, she brushed her thoughts and feelings aside.

A sigh left her lips as her eyes ventured past a passed-out Chris on the sofa, fixated on one of the warm blankets she had set aside. While the fire in the room still burned bright, the night had taken an awfully chilly turn with the thickness of the storm finally settling in. She brushed past the snoring man on the sofa, careful not to knock over the empty bottles — not that knocking any of them over would have resulted in the passed-out trio suddenly waking up. It would take a lot more than just a bottle knock to spring those three back to life.

With the blanket in hand, Beth allowed it to unfold as she returned back to the occupied barstools where she draped it over Josh and Blair. "Sweet dreams," Beth whispered, her eyes lighting up as she listened to the soft snoring that sounded from the dark-haired girl holding her brother's hand. "You've outdone us all, yet again."

Beth had chosen not to drink too much throughout the night, a sip here and there when it was available. Unlike the others, she somewhat wanted to remember the night. A night that had filled her camera with material to put in her photography scrapbook the following day.

But, that would have to wait until then — as her number one priority at the current moment was to clean up the lodge just enough for it to almost look spotless. Hannah had fled to her room for God knows what, and Sam was left in a room just beyond the kitchen where she sketched her heart out. And that left Beth — to clean up the mess as per usual with all these parties they hosted.

      She passed by the other side of the counter, filling up the sink just enough with a few bubbles rising to the surface as she prepared herself to scrub the piled-up dirtied dishes. When the water was just right, she preoccupied her hands in the sink — her sleeves rolled up just enough to not soak with the dishes.

      Beth's head rose at the sudden commotion coming from above as she dropped her hands from the sink to listen further. Muffled talking overrode the soft cries that passed by. Maybe it was just an interconnected twin thing, but something told her that there was something wrong.

      Peering through the shutters of the window closest to the sink, her suspicions were confirmed as a shadowed figure passed through the worsening storm that lingered beyond the safety of the Washington Lodge. Who the hell would go out there during this weather? It was only the slight reflection from the glasses that rested on the person's nose that left the realisation settling in. It all pieced together with the containments of the personally written note from Mike Munroe that she had stumbled across. What did that idiot do now?

      "Hannah?" Beth rushed from the sink, reaching over to grab a towel to dry her hands, "Where the hell are you going?"

      As she ran by the counter to the opposite side, she gave a brief glance to the time. It was two in the morning. Beth could have woken the two passed out on the counter, but she knew it wasn't worth trying. Taking her pink puffer jacket instead, she was better off taking matters into her own hands to find out where her sister was going at this time of night, and throughout one of the worst storms Beth had seen during all of her time within their parents' lodge.

      The stool spun from the velocity of the jacket's drag mixed with the girls' urgency, left to go round and round as Beth slid the jacket on and sprinted through the doors until she reached the group that came flooding from the direction of Hannah's bedroom — some more panicked than others. She should have known they were up to no good when she read that note and noticed that her sister had fled from the responsibilities they had agreed upon sharing.

Despite the protection that should have been provided by her jacket, the chilled blast from the opened door ran through the lodge and sent goosebumps up her arms — turning what was once a warm environment into one that was cold and uninviting, tainted by the consequences of actions. Beth's footsteps transformed from knocking against the floorboards to crunching from the snow beneath her boots.

She pushed through Mike and Matt, sending them to either side of the door that threatened to slam from the harsh and icy wind as she forced her way to the front of the group. "What's going on...?" Beth tried her best to see through the storm in search of her sister before turning to the group that held only an ounce of care, "Where's she going?"

"Oh, it's fine..." Jessica Riley spoke up first given the hesitation of the rest of the group, "she just can't take a joke."

Beth's lip turned at the blonde's tone regarding her sister. Despite knowing they were all in a drunken state, she showed her disgust toward the lack of empathy for Hannah.

"It was just a prank, Han!" Emily called out to the endless storm that offered no response, a smile spreading across her face that soon fell from the side eye that was offered by the twin.

Shaking her head, Beth took in every face of the group outside of the lodge, "what did you do?" She was angry now. Her heart hammering against her chest.

"We were just messing around, Beth... It wasn't serious," Mike defended the group that had a part to play in the prank that Emily had mentioned. With this group, nothing was ever serious enough. At least not serious enough to have given proper thought to chasing down Hannah Washington through one of the worst storms that ran high and low through Blackwood Pines.

"You JERKS!" Beth bit back in Mike's face.

Giving one last passing glance to each member of the group to make sure they knew it was directed at every one of them, she turned on her heels as the snow crunched beneath her and left an indented path before any of them could get another word in to justify and make-up for their actions.

      Her feet carried her as fast as the could through the rugged terrain of Blackwood Pines, shielding her eyes from the rapid pace of the snow as it burned through her skin like the cut of a blade.

      In one hand, she held her phone up for light from the provided torch, coming to a full stop at the sight of an isolated wooden shack. Hannah had to be in there, right?

      Beth trekked through the thickness of the snow that ran ankle deep, phone still in hand as she fastly approached the shack. "Hannah?" She called out to the wooden door, praying for some kind of response from her sister as the air grew heavy around her and the storm worsened.

      Something could be heard rummaging through the run-down building, a sound that possessed her to push the door open in hopes that the girl she yearned to bring back from the storm would magically be on the other side in search of a friendly face.

      But, to no avail, the interior remained empty with no signs of Hannah Washington. Beth was desperate for her sister to be in here, maybe even in hiding, just for her to be somewhere that was at least sheltered from the storm and not too far from the lodge.

      The light casting from her phone fell over each corner of the shack. Beth yelled out as a box from a shelf that her light hadn't yet caught fell to the ground — some sort of can escaping from the rest of the contents of the box rolled toward her feet. Just as her light was about to touch the source of the knocked-over box, the cool-toned blue hue provided by the moon through the thickness of the snow transformed into the warmth orange of flames.

      As the fire travelled toward her fast, coating the shack in its fury, Beth sent herself back into the snow, "holy shit. Holy fucking shit!" She cursed out, pushing her rear through the snow until she could stand back up for herself and run away from the flames that chased her. That was not Hannah.

      Her heart hammered against her chest unlike it had when she was confronted with the sight of the group. That was anger. This was fear. Through her desperate pace through the snowed path, Beth slipped her phone back into the pocket of her jacket — using her free hand to protect herself from the low-hanging branches.

She was held back by a branch catching on the bracelet Blair Wright had made her a while back, tearing the thin line of string that connected the beads. The small rounded pearls fell among the snow. Beth would have to ask for a new one once all of this was over, and she was sure her best friend would forgive her for destroying the hand-crafted bracelet that had been gifted given the circumstances.

Leaving the beads to blend among the snow, Beth continued her pursuit of her sister. Brought to a fork in the road, birds flew from the right while footsteps led to the left — providing the girl with a choice. Figuring it was best to follow a lit and somewhat confident path that was more likely to lead to Hannah, she chased after the marks left in the snow.

The heaviness of the snow partially lifted, created a clear view of the dark-haired girl kneeling in the snow with her head in her hands.

"Hannah!" A sigh passed through Beth's lips as she began to unzip her jacket and rush over toward her sister, "Oh, my god, you must be freezing."

      Hannah Washington welcomed the jacket — comfort through everything that had just gone down within the lodge. "I'm such an idiot! I'm so dumb..." She sobbed.

      "Hey! It's okay! It's okay." Beth comforted her, properly zipping up the jacket so her sister at least had something to protect her from the harshness and velocity of the falling snow. The snap of a nearby twig forced the twins to look in the general direction it came from. She had expected it to be someone from the group — maybe Sam or someone who bothered to give a shit, but her eyes widened at the sight of it. "Hannah...?"

      "Beth...?"

      Beth's hand found Hannah's body, pushing her back from what hunted them. No creature that she had ever set eyes on in Blackwood Pines. "Run! Go!"

      The forest became a blur despite the snow holding them back from how fast their pace could go. Both girls whimpered in fear, blending with the panting that came from their fastened heart rate. Beth had been slightly faster than her sister, encouraging the girl to keep pushing through the conditions to get away.

      She watched Hannah's foot catch on a loose plank in another emptied shack that had been smaller than the one that had caught alight. "Hannah!" Beth retraced her steps back to her sister, pulling her from the snow-covered wood.

      A heart rate that had been running high suddenly dropped. Beth prayed for a fork in the road — or anything that could have helped them lose what preyed from behind. But, instead, she took Hannah's hand in her own as their path had led to nothing but a dead end. A dangerous fall into a nothingness clouded by the snow. They both turned to face what it was.

      Hannah and Beth Washington stared death in the eyes.

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      "HEY, JOSH. YOU NEED TO WAKE UP," BLAIR'S EYES FLUTTER AT THE SOUND OF SAM'S DESPERATE TONE. The shake that the blonde forced upon the Washington boy was enough to send shockwaves through her body through the touch of their hands. Bright light coming from the kitchen forced her to squint as the warmth of Josh's hand left hers. She couldn't make out much to her left, watching Josh stumble as he rose from his seat. "You need to call your parents, or the police-"

      Police? Blair shot up from the cold of the kitchen counter, holding her head in one hand as Josh struggled and tried his best not to bump into her. "What's happening?" She asked, reaching for Josh's hand as he went to move past her.

      But all she got was a shake of the head as he stared at his feet, walking into the next room to presumably find the home phone. When the doors closed behind him she stood up from the stool, using its backing as support as her closed fist rubbed against the lids of her eyes to clear her vision — the lights of the lodge doing no favours.

      "What the fuck happened?" She stumbled over to the group sitting among the sofas. Their faces were riddled with all sorts of emotions — some more distraught than others.

      Sam offered a hand, extending her support to help the dark-haired girl as she begun looking around the room for who was missing among them. "Blair-" Sam tried to diffuse the situation.

      "No," Blair turned back to sam, "where are they? Beth... and Hannah? Where are they?"

      A sigh left the blonde's lips as she looked over the members of the group on the sofas, "these guys decided to pull a good ol' fashioned prank..." Sam explained, crossing her arms over the chest of her sweater, "Hannah ran out there on her own, and Beth... ran after her. They haven't come back yet..."

      "Oh, c'mon... it was just a prank," Emily Davis rolled her eyes, adjusting her position.

      Jessica Riley was quick to join in defense, "not like we made them run out into the storm..." she muttered as she crossed one leg over the other — melting into the back of the sofa.

      A bell chimed in Blair's ear, forcing her to search around the room for the source. A sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes — a bell that was all too familar for her liking. "Well if they... ran out there then why are you all sitting around with your dicks in your hands, huh?" She shouted at the group, her chest rising and falling in a panic. "Shouldn't we be looking for them?"

      "Well, we were kinda waiting for them to just come back..." Mike muttered, tapping his boot against the wooden floorboards anxiously.

      The room fell into silence as Blair offered her gaze to each member of the group. Chris seemed full out of it — sharpie drawings covering his face like he, too, had just been woken up with the news. Ashley fiddled with skin on the outer part of her nail. Jess sat back almost comfortably, and yet, she seemed uncomfortable by the situation. Emily's eyes darted here, there, and everywhere as she tried her hardest to not spare anyone a glance. Matt stood off to the side, rubbing the back of his head — almost in shame. Guilt. Or guilty.

      "Maybe we should just wait for Josh's parents and the police...? It's only getting worse out there by the second, okay?" Sam gently placed her hand against the dark-haired girl's back — receiving a quick brush off from the girl.

      "Fuck that!" Blair cursed at Sam before wandering back toward the kitchen — careful in her step so she wouldn't knock herself over along the way. Her eyes manage to find the clock ticking away with each minute that the Washington twins aren't inside the lodge. It had been hours since she had passed out. "Shit."

      Her feet carried her as she went to make a break for the door, but something caught her eye. A drawing of Hannah marked with a deep red heart that sat beside the laptop resting on the counter. Blair passed a glance over her shoulder, watching the group for a few moments too see them preoccupied by their own discussion. Flipping the page over and scanning the words on the page, her head shook in digust. It was so much worse than she could have imagined.

      When putting the note down in the spot she had found it in, her hand knocked against the small camera sitting beside it — a camera other than Beth's. Her mind remained clouded, but even through that cloud she could hear one of the girls — whether it was Jess or Emily — mention her overreaction. Their voices had beome a blur.

      "That's not fair-" Sam's voice pierced through the cloud, "-you know what she's like after she lost-" Blair chose to block out the rest of what Sam whispered to the group.

Blair didn't care if they were all watching her now, but she took the camera into her hands and pressed play. There wasn't too much to see, but the laugh behind the camera was a dead giveaway of Matt's part in the prank. From the confinements of the spare bedroom wardrobe, Blair forced herself to watch Hannah — all dressed up for no one other than Mike Munroe — baited into humiliation as she began to unbutton her shirt. The camera only slightly caught the two girls hidden beneath the bed before panning to the left, revealing the red hair of Ashley — hidden in the closet beside Matt.

What took her by surprise was Sam, walking in and flicking the light switch before muttering the words that proved her knowledge of the so-called "prank." The video cut short, ending the moment the scared and humiliated girl fled from the room. Blair pressed her lips together as her hands shook — dropping the camera to the floor. For the second time, the same bell chimed in her ears.

"Oh... that..." Matt rubbed the back of his neck as the dark-haired girl who had just discovered the film stormed through the room toward the group, "I totally forgot about that with... y'know... everything going on."

Blair ignored him, although mad at the film. She pushed past the blonde in her way, her eyes only focused on one person among the group for the moment. "Blair-" Sam attempted to stop the girl before a gasp rang out among the group — some covering their mouth in shock.

Her right hand ached as she looked at Mike Munroe — holding his jaw from the right hook he had just taken. Emily shot up from the sofa, and Jess finally straightened her posture instead of sinking into it as an attempt to be hidden from responsibility.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Emily's finger points in Blair's face.

"Maybe you better hide under that bed again before you're next, huh?" The dark-haired girl threatened, watching as the girl rushed over to her boyfriend's aid. Blair watched in disbelief as everyone became more concerned about Mike than the true matter at hand — two girls lost in the snow. "You're fucking joking, right? Look at you all... you care more about a bruised-up class president while you're all here... by a warm fire in the comfort of the goddamn lodge! And- And they're out there... probably freezing to-" She quickly choked up, the tears that had been threatening to fall finally caved in - cascading down her makeup-caked face. "If none of you can be bothered enough to go after them... then I guess I fucking will. Pussies. All to blame."

      She took off, passing through the doors as she didn't bother grabbing a jacket to protect her from the storm that grew furious outside the lodge. She could feel the cold through one small crack at the bottom of the door. It was a risk. But one that she was willing to take.

      "Blair! Wait up!" A voice followed after her. Sam. Her footsteps echoed and rattled against the floorboards as she ran after the distraught girl. "It's not safe out there with the storm."

      Stopping in her tracks as she pulled the door open to welcome the chilling blast of icy air into the lodge, Blair paused. "Who cares," she sobbed, hearing the bell chime in her ear again. "I won't just sit there waiting for the police to show up by the time they've already frozen to death, Sam..."

      She could hear Sam sigh from behind her, "they might show up just as you've run out there, y'know...?"

      Blair laughed — small and quick — because a part of her knew the girl was just lying to try and get the girl to stay put in the lodge. They couldn't afford to lose someone else to the storm. "I don't care..." her lips had puffed up, "this place... it's all I got. And I won't just let it become a bad memory."

      She took off, faster this time in hopes that Sam wouldn't catch her. The icy shards of snow stung against the warmth of her skin — a pain that could not match the throb of her heart. Boot prints indented the snow-covered path, tracking them for God knows how long as the snow crunched beneath her feet.

      "Beth!" Blair called out to the thickness of the snow that clouded the forest.

      It wasn't long before the prints she was following came to an end. Beginning to cover themselves up from the rapid pace the snow fell. She stopped for a moment, her heart hammering in every part of her being as she could hear the blonde calling out for her. Blair turned to face the general direction that Sam was coming from, her heart pausing for a moment.

      "Blair! Over here!" Her head snapped back to the direction she had been going. Calling out from the storm — a familiar voice.

      A smile spread across her lips as her brows furrowed, "Beth? Beth, I'm here!" Sam hadn't managed to catch her before Blair took off deeper into the forest. The same voice continued to call out to her until her path was stopped.

      Catching on a branch, the woven material of her grey knitted sweater caught on an outward branch — pulling the material loose until it created a hole in the side. But, Blair didn't care for the sweater at that moment. Her eyes dropped down to the loose string that fell from the branch and spread the remaining beads attached to it into the snow.

      "Oh, God!" Blair dropped to her knees, her jeans dampening in the snow as the voice she had been chasing ceased from her mind. Her bare hands stung as they dug in the snow for the pearl beads. She picked up every one she could until her hands were full, growing wet from the tears that hit them.

      In the corner of her eye, the blonde had finally managed to catch her. "Oh, Blair..." Sam walked over to her, picking her up like a dead weight in the snow.

      Hands grew white from the tension that Blair could not release of the beads as she sobbed in Sam's arms. "I could hear her. I could hear her, Sam..."

      But, her words received a blank stare, followed by a shake of the head. "Nobody's calling out, Blair..." The look had changed into one of concern given the dark-haired girls' history. Sam placed a gentle hand on her back, "we need to go back to the lodge. We'll wait there for the police and Josh's parents, okay? We'll freeze out here."

      All Blair had to say was, "but I heard her, Sam. I heard Beth," before being dragged out of the snowstorm. Somewhere along the way, through the depths of the forest, the bell chimed for a final time — a haunting sound since she had started her medication. It sounded closer and more violent. Until it rang silent as they stepped foot back into the lodge.

      Left shivering like a wreck, Blair still refused to let go of the beads in her hands. When they were back in the main room, most of the group was sitting around Mike — still holding his jaw — while Chris had his head in his hands. Ashley paced back and forth on her own.

      "Let's get you by the fire. You're freezing," Sam whispered to the girl in her arms. She helped Blair sit on the wooden floor in the warmth of the flames. She sighed before fetching the blanket left on the floor by the barstools — quick to bring it back and place it over the dark-haired girl.

      There was silence for a lingering moment before Blair muttered, "even you."

      "What?" Sam pulled back from the girl.

      Blair's hands remained tightened on the beads, like its all that she had left. But she diverted her gaze and looked up at the blonde. "Even you're to blame..."

──★ ˙ ̟. A U T H O R S   N O T E

╰┈➤ boom, happiness SNATCHED. if ur looking for a comfort story, i fear this will not be the one— unless ofc u find comfort in sad shit :p and it's only gonna get worse from here 😭 but happy new year !!

╰┈➤ also btw i'm following the times of the original games prologue just bc i hate the changed times in the remake. and you're probably confused about the bell chime — just trust me until the next chapter okay? and ignore any mistakes — it's late and i can't be bothered so i'll go over it again in full tomorrow.

★ vote 💬 comment — etc. <3