Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

KC 12:00

Everyone got there a bit late, it was already after 10 when they started drinking and even though everyone else was already at least six or seven drinks in, KC had been attempting to be on his third for the past half hour. Beth, however, was determined to stop him.

"You keep telling me to not let you drink more than two! You know what happens when you get drunk," Beth scolded, glaring at him even though she had no real reason to be mad other than the fact that she hated hearing—or seeing—him suffering come morning.

"Do I?" KC hummed, trying to recall with his already hazy memory which only suffered worse the more alcohol he put into his body.

"Let him! That's what we're up here for," Josh said as he rounded into the kitchen to get himself another drink, he was already stumbling and slurring his words. Earlier Beth had bet that he'd be down after his 8th.

Beth then turned to her brother, hands on her hips prepared to scold him for encouraging KC. Before she could, however, KC wrapped his arms around her shoulders and started swaying the two of them, closing his eyes against the movement even if he was the cause. Beth only winced slightly at the cold press of metal from his ear piercings against the side of her neck. .

"You're such a mom friend, B!" He mumbled as he felt Josh slip something into his hand, when he opened his eyes he saw it was an unopened beer bottle and Josh shushing him just beyond it. Beth said something but all KC noticed was the way Josh winked at him before grabbing another for himself.

After that, KC was quick to slip his arms off of Beth before she noticed the beer and took it from him, he then started out of the kitchen without so much as a goodbye. He wasn't so rude as to leave without saying anything, so, before he made it fully around the counter though he stopped to point at Josh, beer in hand.

"This is why you're my favorite, Joshie!" He grinned with Josh giggling as he finally made off with his drink.

KC made it back to the great room before he slowed down enough to open his drink. Only then did he take a swig and notice Ashley standing by the door, on her phone, looking a mix of nervous and nauseous. She jumped as KC slung his arms over her shoulders, which he did only partly to keep himself up.

"You doing okay, Ashley?" He asked but watched her righten her expression, hiding all he saw before. "I could find you someplace to lay down if you're feeling sick."

"No, it's fine! Just not handling my alcohol very well.” She laughed slightly at her own lack of tolerance. One he shared. “And you can call me Ash; everyone else does.”

He shrugged before speaking again, "You still call me Killian," he took another drink. “Not even my parents do that anymore.” She didn't have a response for that one, she just looked off to where some of Hannah's other invitees were being raucous as they played whatever game she came up with this time.

"By the way," KC started, "what were you looking at on your phone with no service?" He leaned his head closer to hers to try and see what she was doing on her phone from where she had it pressed slightly to her chest.

Ashley started nervously blathering. "Oh, you know. It's nothing really! Just some things I have. Some pictures I like looking at that totally don't have anything to do with anyone here.” She must've realized she said far too much as she quickly shut her mouth. “I'm gonna shut up now." KC couldn't tell if she was flushing from embarrassment or from the alcohol but it made him laugh either way.

"Don't worry, Ash, I won't tell him." KC made a pointed effort to use the nickname, hoping she might spill some more but doubting she would.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Does everyone already know I like Chris?" She panicked as she brought her hands up to cover her face as she just kept getting redder.

"Nope. I didn't even until you told me. But everyone will if you keep screaming it," he said with a proud sense of joy filling him at the fact that she spilled it without him needing to try much.

Ash brought her hands down from her face to gape at him. "You jerk!" she said before punching him in the chest with far too little power to actually do anything. KC staggered back in feigned agony, hand to his chest, and damn near spilling his remaining beer. All while laughing.

"Chin up, I won't tell anyone," he said as he pinched her cheek to make it look at least slightly like she was smiling.

Then he walked away, hands raised as she looked about ready to punch him again. He took one more drink before tossing his now empty bottle and then practically toppled down onto the couch.

He was alone for a little while, sitting there and staring up at the high ceiling thinking about everything and nothing in particular all at once. Until Mike came over and sat down next to him.

"So, who all are you trying to sleep with tonight?" He asked, gaining a glare from KC who had no intention of doing anything of the sort.

"Don't you start talking." KC rolled his eyes, knowing that given the chance Mike would get with just about any woman he met.

"No, I'm serious!” Mike insisted. “I saw you with Beth and then with Ash, just wanna know who all you're trying to take up tonight, I might be able to help you."

"Just your girl," KC hummed, trying in his best effort to tease the man as he felt he was being teased. He pulled one of the blankets from beside him up over his face to avoid the now blinding lights of the lodge.

"Em might actually take you up on that offer." That was what surprised KC, not only the fact that Emily might like him, but also the fact that Mike didn't seem all that opposed to letting her sleep with another man.

Ignoring that, KC then changed the subject to avoid the awkwardness and because he couldn't for the life of him get his mind to focus on the topic they had been on. "Ugh! When is Sam gonna come down! She can't hide away in the bath all night."

Mike was called off by Em shortly after and KC was left alone again to wait for Sam to finally come down from her two hour long bath. But, in that waiting, he found his eyes drifting closed and had no will to force them open.

His head felt muddled as he found himself alone out in the snow blanketed woods, that had always been a fear of his whether he'd admit it to any of the Washingtons or not. The snow crunched under his boots and it sounded like there was something crunching just beyond his peripherals but no matter how much he turned it was always just beyond his line of sight.

He couldn't scream, he didn't even know if he wanted to. If it was just someone watching, yelling would just give in and then he'd embarrass himself for falling for such a simple prank. And then he saw the blood. A pool of blood just at the base of a tree and leading behind it.

He didn't want to see what it was coming from, no matter what it might be. Especially not when the scream breached his ears, the sound of pleading quickly followed. A girl's voice, coming from behind the tree, following the trail of blood, and sounding beyond terrified and downright desperate for someone to save her. But he was no hero, he wasn't made for anything like that. He turned to run away, telling himself that he was going to get help, using any excuse to fight off the guilt.

It didn't matter much, he didn't make it far, not when he spotted the malformed humanoid creature in front of him; its bones were twisted at odd angles which was only made more obvious from how its skin was pulled taut.

KC stumbled back at the sight, forgetting what was behind him until he heard the squelch of blood under his boots. He knew immediately that this creature in front of him—this monster—was the cause of the blood and whatever body it came from.

He heard the screaming again, but this time it didn't sound like it came from any wounded girl, it came from that wretched creature. The creature stalked towards him and he knew it would kill him but he wanted to die with the knowledge of the life he'd missed out on saving. A stupid endeavor, he knew it wouldn't amount to anything. But, in the end he didn't even get that much.

KC found himself jolting awake, suddenly upright on the couch with his head swimming and his stomach in his throat; nothing seemed to make sense. Everything was quiet, everyone was missing, but he still found himself gravitating towards the only sound.

He found himself in the doorway leading to the kitchen, watching Sam try to shake Josh awake, tears streaming down her fear-addled face. KC didn't remember much from his dream but after hearing what Sam was trying to tell Josh he knew that the blood he saw was not from one body but two. And it was from the twins. How his mind had predicted that he did not know, but he did know it to be true.

Chapter Text

KC 18:05

The sun was already kissing the horizon when KC made it to the gates of the mountain; but he still knew he'd be the only one there for about another hour. He was at the drop off point leading to one of the many cable cars that would take him up to the house. The snow crunched under his boots as he made his way up to the station, still hearing the car that drove him making its way back down the path, the sound quite loud up where there's no people.

The air was so cold and thin that it made his lungs burn and he kept having to cover the lower half of his face just to get the air flowing into his body just a bit warmer. The station he was at was just about the same as all the others. The building he'd enter to get to the cable car was on his right, a sign stating all the dangers of the area—wolves, bears, elk, etcetera—on his left. He always enjoyed the sign because he had only ever seen one of the animals listed, the elk were everywhere which made him sincerely doubt that the other two were anywhere on the mountain; he also wondered where they went.

Bracing his hand above his eye to look up the mountain, KC saw that the cable car was still a ways away, god did he wish they timed the cars better. He could just sit inside the station, his half-frozen limbs were practically begging him to, but the less he sat around the less he felt like waiting. He set his bags down near the door to keep them from the snow.

Keeping close enough to the station that he could still see the cable car approaching KC wandered by the fence, tapping each of the posts and making indents with the snow as he stalled for time. He could see the faint scarring on the trees a couple feet away that were remnants of when bears had actually been there, but nothing new. He wondered if the Washington's had them removed from the mountain, but if they had, would they not remove them from the sign?

KC had seen so many instances where people would find bears breaking into cars or rooting through their trash like oversized raccoons, but he'd never seen one.

A mass of sticks cracked beside him and he whipped his head around to find himself staring at an elk a few feet away looking about as shocked as he was at the noise. He really should've been playing more attention, there were wolves, bears, and elk around after all. He watched something rustling in the bushes in his peripherals and he suspected it to just be a squirrel, perhaps hiding from the utterly terrifying sticks the elk just broke.

Deciding he'd played enough peek-a-boo with the animals he decided to finally head into the station. Realizing immediately that he should have tried that much sooner, the cold was not his only problem now, the station being locked was likely a bigger one. Josh knew he was coming this early, so surely it'd be unlocked. Maybe it had just frozen? KC tried it a few more times before deducing it was definitely locked and he was without a key. Wandering around the station this time was more an effort in finding a key than a way to distract himself.

Rounding the corner of the building he found a small seating area, one he hadn't quite made into while he was circling the perimeter. On the back of one of the benches he found a note taped to the wood with the distinct shape of something just under the middle. He removed the paper, finding a key taped to the back of it which was insanely hard to remove without ripping the paper.

“Locked you out of the station but I’m not too mean as to not give you a key. Excited to see you, Killer.”

KC all but chucked his bags down on the seat across from his, finally on his way up the mountain. He was nervous to see everyone again, the only people he saw voluntarily after that prank was Sam, Chris, and Josh; he vehemently avoided everyone else. Now he just hoped he wouldn't make things too awkward around them, he still blamed them, of course, but no one else needed to know that. Especially not in a fiery outburst of him calling Mike, Emily, and Jessica fucking terrible people.

He hadn't seen Sam as much as he could, he tried checking up on her every once in a while but he knew it hurt them both seeing as they only knew each other because of the twins and almost never talked outside of them. She was friends with Hannah, he was friends with Beth and that's all they ever were, friend of a friend's twin. He'd talked to Josh a bit before the incident and he would have felt more guilty not reaching out, and that's how he'd spent more time with Josh and Chris. Josh more than either of the other two.

After almost falling asleep in the cable car he finally made it to the top, or, to the top of where the cable car would go. KC slung his bags back over his shoulders as he made his way out of the station. And this would forever be his least favorite part of visiting the mountain; when his friends weren't going missing.

"The older I get, the more shit I bring, the more agonizing that walk is!" KC bent to try and recover his breath from the on-foot trek up the mountain. The lodge was finally in front of him and he could finally set his bags back down, in the snow or not he didn't give a shit anymore.

"C'mon, it's not that bad! Just need to get out more," Josh teased as he approached. Gaining a glare from KC.

"I'm gonna hit you," he huffed, a half-hearted threat made less believable by the grin plastered to his face.

"Oh, are you? I think you'd have to walk some more to do that," Josh pointed as he glanced the space between the two of them.

"Will I now?" KC used his already bent position to get a bit of snow in his hands to chuck at Josh, only wincing slightly as the cold felt like it burned his flesh at the slight contact. It was worth it though as he watched Josh quickly jump to the side to avoid it only to have another one chucked at him.

"I never said how I was going to hit you." KC crouched down with a laugh.

"Oh, is that how it's gonna be?" Josh challenged as he charged forwards, making KC fall back onto his ass when he jumped at the sudden movement, but that didn't stop Josh from picking him up before he even realized Josh wasn't going in for an attack.

"You dick! Put me down!" KC yelled, panic coating his words, despite the fact that he was clinging to Josh like his life depended on it. Somehow even more so when Josh pretended to drop him.

"Put you down, huh? I think I can do that," Josh said as he laid KC in the snow who took a minute to groan at the pain before he was up and tackling Josh who had yet to stop laughing, he only did once his back hit the snow, while he was busy reeling in the pain.

"If you wanted to top that badly you could've just asked," Josh said, in between pained—KC hoped—groans from the fall and now the weight of another man on top of him. KC took that as an opportunity to pick up a handful of snow from the ground beside them and smash it into his face—an excuse not to respond to Josh's comment—before rushing off of him and laughing.

"See. I got you and I barely had to take a step!" KC boasted while he watched Josh get up.

"That's because I did most of the work for you," Josh pushed back, and this time KC didn't have a response as he got a snowball flung at him.

Yelling as he hopped away, KC quickly darted to cover, the two of them now clearly in a very heated battle of ice and snow. 

Chapter Text

KC 20:00

The sound of footsteps coming up the main path was the only thing to cut through the labored breath of both fighters. The two of them being on opposite sides of the main lawn, KC hiding in the frozen brush behind the stairs and Josh somewhere off behind a log next to the gate. KC peaked out long enough to see Ash and Matt standing in the open gate, two very different expressions on their faces. Matt looked about ready to call them crazy.

KC shot up to his feet, ignoring how his joints and muscles yelled at them, straining against the cold. “Hello, Ash, Matt,” he greeted. “We are in the middle of a war of ice and—” As if to punctuate that fact a snowball struck him in the shoulder before he could even finish the sentence.

Josh’s raucous laughs were suddenly heard as he finally showed his face. “Did I get you in the face?”

“No! But you're still a dick. As the host, you’re supposed to be the one greeting them, but instead you’re here trying to pummel me with snow,” KC scoffed, dusting his hand off on his equally snowy pants, wincing at the contact.

“Are we in the way of. . . whatever this is?” Matt asked, gesturing between them as they made their way to the gate. His confusion a stark contrast to Ash’s giggled response. Matt stepped backwards down the path slightly despite the dozen bags in his hands that were no doubt all Emily’s.

“Nah, we should be done anyway, what with everyone showing up now and all,” Josh waved him off, letting him finally step through the gate fully and set some bags down on the snow.

“Why are we just standing in the gate?” Sam asked as she approached, Chris on her tail, phone in his hands and most definitely nothing new happening on it.

“Because Josh is being a dick,” KC said, watching her shrug, not denying nor confirming that. “And, just a fair warning, we are enemies now and I will likely be decking him later.”

"Later? Why not now?" Sam asked, seeming to answer her own question as she took in KCs very red and swollen fingers. “Probably should wait until we’re inside anyway.”

"Enemies is a bit dramatic, you were the one that started the snowballing," Josh said, showing that they were very much not enemies as he wrapped his arm around KCs shoulder to pull him in close. "Not the kind I’d prefer, but an activity involving snowballs nonetheless."

Sam seemed about as disturbed by that comment as KC was, though she probably showed it less in her face, KC knew he was undoubtedly bright red, if the way Chris was chuckling was anything to go by.

KC turned despite the arm he was wrapped. "Joshua," he started.

"Yes, Killer?" Joshua responded with a smirk and that look in his eye that didn't just make KC want to slap him.

"If someone finds your body in the snow tomorrow, I will have been the one to murder you," KC said, which, given what happened last year, may have been a bit inappropriate but god did he wish he meant it.

Pushing Josh away a bit as he exited, KC went to sit next to where Ash had found a seat on the stairs, both of them still sitting to the side enough that anyone could pass by easily enough.

"Seemed like you two had fun," Ash commented, lightly picking at her fingerless gloves. "Were you playing for a while?"

"Yeah, it was fun. When he wasn't getting me in the face of course, but it was fun," KC said, still staring at his fingers, having gotten used to the near overwhelming pain by now. "I came by like an hour or two early but it took a little while to get up the mountain so it wasn't even that long."

Chris and Josh then came by, both of them apologizing as they stepped through, but KC suspected both of them were apologizing to different people.

KC continued trying to warm up his fingers, ignoring the conversation Josh and Chris were having behind him, mostly because now that the adrenaline from playing was gone the pain was back in full swing. He was doing a pretty good job ignoring them too, until he heard Josh start cursing.

"What's up? What's wrong?" KC asked as he leant back, dusting his hair in the snow on the steps behind him. He could see the both of them now, crowding the door.

"It's frozen shut," Josh responded as he slipped the keys back into one of his pockets.

"Maybe there's another way in," Chris offered, trying to find a way to make it so that they weren't all stuck outside in the snow the entire night.

"There are a million ways in; they're all just locked," Josh said as they made their way back down the stairs, a relief to KC as looking at them upside down was hurting his head.

"Wait, so you're saying your parents let you do whatever you want here, the entire night, but only gave you the key for one door? That's fucking stupid."

Whether Josh appreciated KC's comment or not he just responded with a shrug.

"There's gotta be, like, a window round the corner we can get, like, 'get open' or something." Chris was in pure problem solving mode at the moment, which was better than everyone else just waiting around doing absolutely nothing.

"Wait a second, are you suggesting we should break in?" Josh asked, a teasing lilt in his voice just barely hidden by the rest of his tone. KC could tell he was setting up for something. Whether it was dirty or just plain mean he didn’t know.

"I don't think it's technically breaking in if you own the place, right?" Chris said, which would be true if Josh was the one doing the B&E, but he likely wasn't going to.

"Not if I don't report you." Josh grinned, and there it was. Chris only responded in a nervous hum, eyes darting to the witnesses, knowing that normally Josh wouldn’t but after last year no one really knew him. No one except KC who gave a slight laugh, which was seemingly enough to calm whatever worries Josh’s comment had sparked in Chris.

"Lead the way, Cochise," Josh finally relented, the two of them starting down a path around the lodge.

As the two of them left KC looked down to his still painfully red fingers, usually they'd be better by now but still being stuck out in the cold was definitely keeping that pain around longer, and he highly doubted that was a good thing.

"Here. Use these," Sam said as she chucked a couple of things at him, which, upon further inspection he found to be heat packets.

"You don't have to, it's fine," KC insisted.

"Who knows how long those two idiots are going to take and your fingers look about dead; it's fine," she assured and he suspected she might find some way to adhere them to him if he said no too many times so he took them, relishing in the warmth they offered.

From behind him he heard an almost ominous sound, a sound that was similar to when people mimicked ghosts but failed terribly. Despite the horrible effort of the entire thing, Ash yelped, jumping to her feet. And as KC turned around he saw the frosted figure of someone who looked distinctly like the friend they had just watched go around the corner.

"Hi, Chris. Very funny," Sam said, still monotonous but with a bit more amusement in her voice than she usually had.

"What? How'd you know it was me?" Chris sounded genuinely offended at that.

"I can see you, dumbass." KC watched the figure visibly deflate. "And who else would it be? Unless Josh is in there with you."

"No, he stayed outside? Isn't he back out there with you yet?"

"No, he's—" KC cut himself off with a yelp as he felt fingers violently attacking his rib cage. He flung around the moment they stopped to find Josh absolutely laughing his ass off and almost tumbling down the stairs as a result.

"I didn't know you could even make a sound like that," Josh said, still unable to contain his laughter despite how KC glared at him. Seeing as glaring at Josh wasn't working, KC turned his eyes towards the two girls beside him, hoping they read the look in his face as a call out for their betrayal.

"I didn't know until he was right behind you," Sam defended.

"Sorry! He shushed me!" Ash said which wasn't much of an apology but she was cute so it was fine.

Finally they heard more shuffling noises beyond the door, and not Chris trying to scare them this time. As the door rattled KC rose to his feet, hesitant as he wondered if whatever Chris was trying would even get it open.

"We're freezing our buns off out here!" Ash complained, shifting on her feet to try and find some way to warm herself. Thankfully Chris swung the door open, wincing as he did so which KC only connected why when he saw the makeshift flamethrower in Chris' hands .

"Thank you, thank you." Chris bowed. "I'll be here all wee—" Despite his bravado Chris still screamed as an animal left from behind him and scurried off into the woods. KC now understood why Josh had found making him scream was so funny.

"Crap, that thing freaked me out!" Chris heaved, hand to his chest.

"What was that? Are you okay?" Ash asked, concerned about Chris despite the situation. And she claimed she was good at hiding how she felt about Chris.

"It was like a bear, or a tiger, or something—" Chris said and KC couldn't not laugh at that.

"A tiger? There are no tigers up here. I've certainly never seen one on those signs they have everywhere." KC said, despite the fact that he'd only ever seen one of the animals on those signs.

"Aww, it was just a cute little baby wolverine!" Sam cooed and Chris looked at her in utter disbelief.

"Baby?" Chris repeated, voice shaking as he spoke.

"Don't worry, buddy, you're gonna be a big boy soon," Josh assured as he patted Chris on the shoulder. KC didn’t even want to know what he meant by that.

Following what Josh said they all entered the lodge. When they made it to the great room just about everyone dropped their bags, Matt setting down his and Emily's bags quite a bit more gently than KC did.

"Home, sweet home," Josh exclaimed, looking around the space. KC wondered how long it had been since he'd been up there since it seemed much cleaner than he would've expected if police were coming in and out for an investigation.

"Sweet is not the word I'd use," Matt muttered under his breath but loud enough KC was able to hear him. No one else heard, or at least they didn’t react. KC tried not to but he couldn’t stop the frown that pushed to his face, remembering how much the twins loved coming up here.

"Oh my gosh! It's so good to finally be inside," Ash said as she reveled in no longer having to sit out in the snow. "Even if it's still kinda freezing in here."

"I'll get a fire going," Josh told Ash, even if he was looking at KC who was still clutching those heat packets like his life depended on it.

"This place barely looks any different," Matt said, louder this time, as he glanced around the room as KC had done. The only notable difference any of them could spot from the great room was the lack of empty and crushed red solo cups and beer bottles.

"Nobody's been up here." Josh shrugged as he crouched down by the fireplace to get it started.

"Even with the investigation?" Ash asked, whispering the word as if saying it aloud would cause something terrible. Josh didn't respond to that one.

"Not a lot of action up here lately," Chris broke the silence which KC was grateful about, even if it was with a mildly dirty joke.

"What's up, party people!" Mike cheered as he entered the great room from some unknown—apparently unlocked—entrance. KC noticed but didn't comment on it, for all he knew they had been given a key. He was also not going to think about Josh handing over a set of keys to them and not him.

"Heeey!" Jess greeted which started a long slew of "Hey's" from everyone else. Everyone but KC who only offered them a slight nod, still too cold to try and act all excited to see two people he wasn't particularly fond of.

KC shifted his stuff out of the walkway better, pushing it into the wall near the fireplace. He noticed then that Matt, Mike, and Jess were all sitting on the couch together. Jess on Mike's lap with her back to KC and he could only assume what they were doing.

The door they came through opened once more as Emily came through, a sneer as her only expression once she saw the scene on the couch.

"Oh. My God," Emily started. "That is so gross. Are you trying to swallow his face whole?"

"Em. . . " Matt cautioned but didn't move from his space on the couch. In fact, the only one who moved was Jessica as she got off of her man-whore to stand on her own two feet.

"Seriously, can she be more obvious? No one wants in your territory, honey." Em was talking as if she hadn't been the exact same way when she and Mike were together.

"Excuse me, did you say something?"

"Oh did you not hear me? Was your sluttiness too loud?"

"Sounds like someone's bitter she didn't make the cut."

"Yeah. It's all a big cattle call with that dreamboat. Congrats, you're top cow!"

"Cuts real deep calling Miss Homecoming a cow."

The constant back and forth was noticeably getting on a few people's nerves, a welcome amusement for others, Mike especially.

"Em, come on—" Matt attempted, finally getting off his ass to try and subdue his girlfriend.

"Shut up, Matt," Em ordered, barely even glancing at him as she raised her hand to him, not to hit him but just to set a barrier up, as if that could stop anything. But knowing Matt, it might.

"Stay out of it, you dumb oaf," Jess insisted, one of the few things she agrees with Em about but with significantly more venom than needed.

"Hey, watch it—" Em started but KC was getting real sick of it, he did not come here to watch a cat fight and if they weren't going to listen to their boyfriends telling them to stop—though Mike definitely wasn't going to do anything like that—KC wasn't going to sit by and have half of his night ruined because they couldn't get over themselves.

"Why don't all of you shut the fuck up, yeah?" KC was a bit louder than he had intended but it got everyone to look at him all the same. "Mike might be getting off seeing his two favorite skanks fight over him but the rest of us are sick of it! None of us came back up here to listen to the two of you fight over something that shouldn't even be a fucking problem. Jessica, you shouldn't be sucking faces on the couch if you're gonna have a problem when someone comments on it." Emily seemed proud of having KC stand up for her, which wasn't exactly what he was doing. "And Em, you should try listening to your boyfriend for once! He might give you better advice than you think. . . Like telling you to back the fuck up and calm your tits."

"Ugh! Can't you just go back to fucking around in the fire! You're in no way part of this," Jessica practically screeched.

"What? Can't take that he refused to let you get away with your slutty attitude and your bitch of a boyfriend practically cheering it on from back there?" Em teased, seemingly ignoring the comment KC had made about her.

"Oh please! He told you to shut up too. The only reason you're ignoring it and letting him have a say is because you want in his pants and have since you were with Mike!"

KC froze as Jessica's last comment, the fight practically sucked out of him as he saw the expression on Em's face that practically confirmed it, and Matt didn't seem surprised at it either, nor did Mike. KC barely noticed Josh getting up from beside him.

"STOP IT!" Everyone jumped as Josh suddenly yelled, managing to be louder than Jess, Em, and KC combined.

Chapter Text

KC 20:34

"This is not why we came up here. This is not. . . helping. It's not what I wanted. If we can't get along for ten minutes then maybe we need a little bit of a break, right?"

KC winced at his mention of 'helping', knowing exactly what he would need help for. Josh hadn't been telling him about what was going on for a little while but KC now doubted things were going all that well for him. But he knew not to comment on it. If Josh didn't want help in the way of his meds, he couldn't be forced.

"Mike, why don't you check out the guest cabin. The one I told you about," Josh mediated, no one daring to talk back to the guy that could kick them out.

"Yeah. . . Yeah, alright." Mike nodded along, seemingly liking whatever picture he was painting in his head. "Want to go do that?"

"Any place without that whore," Jess snapped, but finally turned back to Mike, crossing her arms as a pout formed on her face, not happy that she didn't win the little argument.

"It's right up the trail.” The two followed Josh down the hall.

KC let the heat packets drop into a pocket on his bag, his fingers had stopped hurting and they'd cooled down enough that they really weren't doing anything. Matt and Emily had started arguing about a bag and a jacket and KC wholeheartedly couldn’t care less, though he was now overthinking every interaction he has had with Em—which is truly not many. He finally rose from his spot on the hearth and took a spot on the couch, Chris settled next to him after a short while.

"Fun winter vacay, huh?" Chris said and KC laughed. 2 arguments within 5 minutes of being inside? This was gonna be the best getaway yet.

"Yeah, all thanks to Mike and his gaggle of desperate women," KC hummed. He knew he was harsh, could see it in the way Chris winced at his words, but he couldn't say he didn’t feel that way about them.

"You don't like Mike do you?" Chris whispered like anyone around them would even care to listen.

KC shrugged. "Don't like Mike, Jess, Em. Not a big fan of Matt either." It wasn’t like it was that big of a deal, he wasn’t planning on going for their throats and if this was what would make Josh feel better so be it. He’d just go back to ignoring them after tonight. What he didn’t mention were his thoughts on Ash, which were admittedly better than Mike but he still wasn’t about to forget her part in it either.

Chris didn't have to ask why. He knew. They all did. They all were wondering why Josh invited his sisters' killers up to the mountain again but no one was going to say anything. It wasn't even like KC was the only one who held some animosity towards the group, he was just the only one not afraid to show it.

"Lighter subject; are you going to use this getaway as a chance to ask Ash out?" KC asked, grinning at how flustered he made Chris.

"Not you too! Josh asked me the same question while we were trying to find a way in," Chris groaned, apparently not having fond memories of the way Josh went about asking him.

"Great minds think alike."

"As long as you don't start talking about how much you want to take her into the woods and fuck her."

"You have nothing to worry about, scouts honor." KC held a hand to his chest. "I'm nowhere near as perverted as Josh is. . . I'd be classy about it and take her up into a bedroom."

Chris offered a look of disgust at that, lightly shoving KC with a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding," KC insisted but with a laugh that he knew would come off the wrong way.

"Okay, I'm gonna go take a bath!" Sam called, interrupting whatever conversation KC and Chris were having, enough that he finally noticed that Matt and Emily had left.

"Don't be in there for too long," KC responded as she started up the stairs. Sam only cast him a short glance back that told him she was going to be up there half the night at least.

"Chris, what is there stopping you from finally telling Ash how you feel? We all know you like her and I can guarantee she likes you back." KC had been practically wasted while he was talking to her—curse his low alcohol tolerance—but he wasn't so gone as to not remember.

"You of all people should know why I don't say anything. I mean, come on, last time we were up here—" Chris had started but KC didn't let him finish as he winced at the mention of the last time they were up there. Thinking about it was one thing, actually talking about it was another.

"Do we really want to talk about last year?" KC asked, knowing that all of his happy memories from the last time they were there had been tainted by the fact that two of his best friends died while he was sleeping.

"There were some happy moments," Chris said, though he didn't quite seem to believe it himself. "I saw you last year talking with Ash and she really seemed to like you. She didn't mind you hanging off of her or the way you smiled at her. . . If I tried to do anything like that I'm pretty sure she'd just shove me away."

"Because you make her nervous," KC countered. "She lets me get away with stuff like that because she doesn't have a crush on me, if you were to do something like that she'd get nervous and embarrassed and scared just like you do when I tell you to talk to her."

"I don't know. The way the two of you talk together feels so. . ." Chris let his words trail off but KC got what he meant even if neither of them had the right words for it.

"Chris, trust me. Even if Ashley did like me she has no chance with me. I can promise you that last year I was more than likely to flirt with Josh than Ash," KC said.

"Wait, you and Josh? Are the two of you—" apparently interrupting Chris was the right of passage for the night as Josh leaned down between the two of them, resting his arms on the back of the couch. He was, admittedly looking mostly at KC, his lingering gaze probably answering Chris's question better than KC ever could've.

"Are me and KC what, Cochise?" Josh asked but Chris did the right thing of not repeating himself, only shaking his head as a way of response. Josh took that as answer enough as he rose from the back of the couch and began calling over to Ashley who had disappeared around a corner somewhere.

"Alright, we need someone to head down into the basement to get some things to make everything up here a bit more enjoyable for everyone." Josh always had that way with talking, people said he was just a natural born leader but KC suspected it came from the level of crowd control and people managing it took to host parties and not have anyone start chucking things across his parents lodge.

KC noticed how Ash blanched at the mention of the basement but she didn't say anything, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway with how Josh was staring at KC, the mischievous look in his eye a contrast to the way he spoke.

"KC? How'd you feel about a trip down into the dungeons?" Josh teased, ignoring the way KC frowned at him.

"I feel the same way about taking a trip down into the basement as I do about walking over hot coals; unless someone is dying there is no way I am ever doing that." KC was prepared to shut down any further insistence from Josh.

"Come on," Josh said, "don't tell me we have a scaredy cat in our midst."

KC gave him a look like he couldn't be serious. "Is it really being a scaredy cat if I don't want to go rummaging around in your parents creep ass basement?" He also knew there was someone much more scared of the basement than he was. "Besides, I don't even know what you're expecting me to find so unless you want me down there for hours searching you should be the one to go down and find things."

"I want you down somewhere for hours." Thankfully Josh started talking at the same time Chris did so all everyone else heard was Chris and not the debauched things Josh was implying.

"How long do you think it'll take Josh down there?" Chris asked, KC only barely hearing what he said and though he heard the end clearer he now took it with a vastly different meaning after hearing Josh. The words 'down there' bring a flush to his face that he hoped no one noticed.

"No idea, probably not that long since it's his place." KC avoided looking at Josh even though Josh was solely looking at him. "The better question is what is he even going to find down there?"

"My money's on blankets for everyone!" Ash said and suddenly everyone was excitedly on board with Josh heading down to get things by himself. Even if he wasn't.

"You can do it, man. We believe in you." Chris offered a thumbs up.

"Yeah! Totally! Woo!" Ash cheered though she was just happy it wasn't her. "Let's go Jo-osh, let's go!"

"Alright, peanut gallery, you know what?" Josh started. "I got an idea for you two since KC refuses to help anyone." KC only grinned up at him.

"What?" Ash asked, nerves suddenly getting to her now that he seemed reluctant to go down into the basement.

"Okay, well, I am pretty sure that somewhere in this place we used to have," Josh paused for dramatic effect, "a spirit board." He was the only one excited about that idea.

"Wow you have a 'spirit board?'" Chris asked.

"Wait are you saying. . . We should have a seance?" Ashley said, her voice quivering at the mention.

"Those things are a joke, man. They don't do shit," Chris brushed him off, easing back into the couch further.

"No way bro. We used to do it all the time. KC you remember that right? We'd sit around all in a circle somewhere and then talk to ghosts." Josh wiggled his fingers at KC, knowing he was reminding KC of how nervous he used to get back in middle school when Josh would push him into a spirit board sesh.

"Hey Josh. No hot water's kind of a major oversight doncha think?" Sam called, traipsing down the stairs.

"Yeah yeah, just gotta fire up the boiler. It's in the basement." Josh turned back to Chris. "Why don't you and Ash head down and I'll go help Sam with the boiler."

"Chris, let's go find it!" Ash said, forgetting her previous nerves. "It'll be like a scavenger hunt!"

"Ummm. . . okay. . . guess so," Chris responded.

"Good luck, man," KC offered as Chris got up from beside him on the couch.

"Rad. You're not going to regret it." And then both pairs left, leaving KC all by his lonesome on the couch.

KC wasn't even alone for all of five minutes before Ash came hurriedly tiptoeing out.

"You alright, Ash?" KC asked, picking his head up off of the back of the couch to see her better as she came to perch next to him.

"It's too dark down there and I got freaked out!" Ash admitted and KC couldn't help but laugh just a bit.

"What happened to it being a scavenger hunt?"

"I thought you were exaggerating how bad it was! Josh wasn't making it seem that bad."

"Oh, yeah no. It's bad. There are some places that they don't even go down because of how dangerous it is. And then there's all the stuff they shove down there that makes the rest of the basement practically a death trap."

Ash grumbled beside him. "Do you think something could be down there?"

"Something like what?"

"I don't know? Something. . . Scary. Like a bear."

"No, probably not at least. There's nothing down there a bear would want so there's no reason it would even end up down there."

"And a ghost?"

That one he contemplated. "A ghost? Who knows." He shrugged. "It's possible."

"Oh my gosh!" Ash lighting shoved at his shoulders but jumped when she heard rummaging around behind the door Sam and Josh went through. "Is that a ghost?"

"No, probably just Sam and Josh," KC assured as he got up to go investigate the door as it sounded like someone pounding on it trying to open it. Oddly KC found that the door had been locked but that was a simple fix.

"Everything alright down here?" KC asked as he opened the door to see Sam and Josh right in front of the door and Chris a little bit down the stairs. Sam almost immediately jumped at his presence, yelping a bit as she turned on him with a glare. Josh didn't seem so surprised and Chris especially wasn’t as he watched him open the door.

"Don't you go doing that too!" Sam scolded, shoving her finger in his face as she then quickly walked past him.

"What the fuck was that about?" KC asked as he stepped to the side to let the others get through easier.

"Chris scared her and she's real upset about that." Josh explained once Chris was through.

"I'm ready to admit that your dumb little prank may have had a slight whiff of humor to it." Sam admitted as Josh took the door from KC so that he could lock it again.

"Jokemaster!" Chris boasted.

"I said nothing about jokes. I said your prank, which was dumb—" Sam started.

Josh wasn't about to let her keep lying to everyone. "You were scared; admit it."

"I was not!" She denied as they all made their way back to Ash who had stood up while KC had his back to her.

"Come on, you totally pissed yourself!" Josh continued teasing.

"Josh!" Sam warned.

"What. . . In God's name are you wearing?" Ash asked as she approached Chris.

"I have found my true calling."

"Please tell me you're going to take a vow of silence."

Chris then pretended to talk as if he had no voice.

"Okay okay. . ." Ash sighed. "Did you at least find the thingy?"

Chris pulled the Ouija board from his costume. "Boi-oi-oi-oing! Here's our one way ticket to the spirit realm!"

"You know what?" Sam raised her hands. No! I've just been through enough spooking for one night, okay? I see a hot bath in my crystal ball." She then started up the stairs before turning to give them one last bit of advice. "Oh but watch out for that Josh. He's a schemer!"

"Oh! Before we go up to start the 'seance' I want to grab something first." KC said as he rushed to kneel down beside his bag to start searching through them.

"Good! That gives me time to take this stupid thing off." Chris was already tugging the thing off before he was even done talking.

"Oh and here we were told it was your true calling," Ash teased as Chris huffed and puffed, apparently he underestimated how hard it would be to remove monk's robes.

"Don't think monks would do a seance." Chris excused, tossing the fabric onto the couch once it was finally off of him.

"Oh fuck me!" KC suddenly exclaimed, each of his bags opened and some of his stuff even sat beside him.

"Well, I would if you'd let me." Josh beamed but shut up pretty quickly when KC glared daggers at him. If looks could kill Josh would be dead ten times to Sunday.

"Cant find it? What is it?" Ash asked. "Maybe I can help." She came to kneel beside him.

"My phone, I know I stuck it in one of my bags on the way up here but it must've fallen out."

The two of them continued rummaging, barely noticing as Josh sauntered over to stand behind them.

"This phone?" Josh asked as he pulled KC's phone from his own pocket. Gaining an exasperated look from the man himself.

"You ass!" KC was quick to stand and snatch it from him. "When did you take it?"

"While you were yelling at Jess and Em,” he shrugged, acting as calm about it as he could before KC shoved his way past him and he just devolved into a laughing mess.

Chapter Text

KC 21:23

The four sat around a small table in a high room of the lodge. Ouija board presented in front of them.

Chris, holding the instructions, began to read to them. "So it says here: 'to communicate with the spirit world you much free your mind of all preconceptions, drop all inhibitions, and generally give yourself over entirely to the will of others, sublimating your every desire to the whims of the Spirit-master,' which is me—"

"It doesn't say that—" Ash interrupted.

KC spoke at the same time as her, “Wow, ‘sublimating’, that’s a big word for you, isn’t it Chris?” He laughed and noticed Ash and Josh stifle a similar noise.

"And all present will remove their garments—-" Chris realized at that moment what KC had said to him. “Sublimating is not that difficult of a word! You cannot seriously believe that is a big word for me.”

KC shrugged as he ripped the instructions from Chris’ hands so that he’d at least have a basic understanding of the rules. Turns out Chris wasn't that far off in his readings.

“You cannot take the rules from the spirit-master!” Chris insisted. “That, like, against the law or something.”

"Chris, come on, this is serious," Josh scolded.

"Oh I'm deadly serious," Chris insisted while putting on some weird accent that KC couldn't even guess at what he was trying to say.

"Oh shush it, let's try this!" Ash said, leaning forward on the table to slap a hand lightly on Chris’ shoulder.

"Please!" KC pleaded, lolling his head back trying to fight off the headache that was building beneath the bone. But finally everyone was placing two fingers in the planchette.

"Since you three are boring let's see what happens," Chris sighs. "Ashley, since you're a recent convert, why don't you be our medium for today?"

Ash nervously shifted in her chair before speaking. "Ok. Um. . . Is anyone there? Will you reveal yourself to us if you're there?" She was so hesitant to say anything and she even jumped when it started moving. KC did too but he wasn't about to admit that.

"What a minute—" Chris started, also startled at the sudden movement of the piece of wood under his fingers.

"Did you do that?" Josh asked no one in particular.

"I didn't do anything!" Ash insisted.

"It's moving again!" Chris pointed out as if none of the others could feel it moving under their fingers.

"H. . . " Ash said, repeating what was showing up on the board

Josh was the next to say something. "What's it spelling?"

"Hold on." Ash didn't bother voicing the E; they all saw it.

Josh then spoke with a shaking voice, "How's this happening."

Chris looked away as the planchette moved to the L. "Are you moving it?"

"I swear it's just moving," Ashley insisted.

KC new Ouija boards were fake, they had to be. It was always someone at the table. But who? He froze as he saw the next letter. "This is fucked."

"'Help?'" Ash repeated

"How are we supposed to help?" Chris asked, looking at Ash and not the board which must've been why it hadn't started moving again.

Ash shook her head. "I don't know. What does it mean?"

"We need to know who it is if we're supposed to help them."

"Who are you?" The planchette started moving once more. "Ohh here it goes!"

"Okay," Josh started. "S."

"I."

"S."

"T." Ash looked too freaked out for her to be behind this.

"E."

"R." Chris was too invested, and he was too bad an actor to try and fake it.

"Whose sister?" Josh pleaded, gaining pitying looks from the two sat in front of him while all KC did was slide his right hand over to try and find Josh's, which wasn’t entirely hard. It was like he was just waiting for him to reach out.

"Josh. . . You're the only one here with sisters." He reminded, rubbing his thumb over Josh's knuckles as he spoke.

"Okay. Well. . . Which sister is it then?"

Ash obliged. "Who are we speaking to. . ? Hannah? Is that you?" The pointer moved to the yes. "Oh God."

KC could feel Josh squeeze his hand. Noting how still he was otherwise. He was reminded of when he’d comforted Josh after losing Hannah and Beth. How even after a year his hands would still shake no matter what he tried to claim he felt. Because he was the one doing it/ He couldn’t be caught off guard with memories when he is the one feeding them.

"This is messed up." Chris commented, both him and Ashley unaware of KC's silent observations.

"Josh," Ashley attempted. "Are you—"

"I'm fine," he bit.

"Are you sure, because we can stop—"

"No."

"Dude it's cool," Chris stepped in, watching his best friend begin to unravel in front of him.

"It is, Josh—" KC almost said too much. "We can stop if you need to. We can find something else."

"I want to hear what it says."

"I don't know where to start. . ." Ashley admitted, giving another chance for Josh to step out.

"Think about it. If this is actually Hannah, I mean, we can find out what happened that night," Chris said. But he was clearly meaning after she had run off into the woods because everyone knew what happened before that. Whether they were awake at the time or not.

Pity swam behind Ash’s eyes as she kept them trained on Josh, but, before she could speak up again, KC gave a quick shake of his head, swaying her from asking again. Josh had made up his mind, pushing more would just make him mad.

"Hannah," Ashley called towards the ceiling. "We miss you. . . And we want to know what happened to you. Can you tell us what happened?"

Again, the planchette started to slide across the board, but this time KC noticed that Josh's fingers seemed to be pressing into the wood harder than anyone else's, and his hand tensed with each movement.

"B-E-T-R-" Ash repeated with each new letter the planchette focussed on. "I don't like this."

"Betrayed!" Chris blurted once the word was filled.

"What does she mean?" Josh questioned but the planchette had yet to stop.

"It's still going!" Chris silenced Josh so they could continue focussing on the letters.

"Oh God—K-I-L-L-E-D—No!" Ashley sobbed. "We didn't KILL them! It was just a prank!"

While Ash and Chris were distracted KC changed a glance up at Josh's face, he didn't seem as frazzled as he did while he was speaking, and the way he held KC's hand into his thigh seemed more possessive than scared.

"Guys, guys. . . What do they mean?" Josh asked, face twisting once more as everyone's eyes were pulled to his. He was asking but if it was anything they could answer he already knew; he saw the video before KC even did.

"Ask them what happened. It's the only way to know what happened!" Chris insisted.

"Who killed you?" Ash's voice quivered, undoubtedly hoping 'You' wasn't the answer they received. "Hannah? Who was it?"

"L-" they knew no one starting with the letter L so off to a good start at least. "I-B-"

"'Library!'" Chris cut in before the word even finished. "Maybe there's something in the library here!" But the ghost—or Josh—wasn't quite done.

"P-R-O-O-"

"'Proof,' there's-there's. . . There's proof," Chris slowed, seeming nervous at the thought.

"In the library?" Ash questioned but there was no answer this time as the planchette was chucked from the board, all four of them jumping back to avoid its trajectory. Josh even ripped his hand from KC's.

"Watch out!!" Josh shouted, the planchette narrowly avoiding hitting Chris as it flew to the other side of the room.

"You know what?" Josh rose from his chair. "No, this is bullshit. This isn't real—"

Ash wouldn't let him continue. "Josh—I don't know what's going on. . ." She insisted.

"Listen, I don't know if you think messing with me is somehow going to help me with my grief or whatever but this is not cool." Josh didn't once look at KC during his rant, either because he didn't blame him or because he knew KC could see through all he was saying.

"Josh, no! You wanted to use the spirit board—" Ash reminded, though she and Chris did practically start talking at the same time.

"Hey calm down, it's not Ash's fault!" Chris protested.

"I don't need this right now, okay?! You guys are full of it," was the last thing Josh said before he charged down the stairs. KC was tempted to jump up and run after him but he was still confused at why it seemed like Josh was the one moving it.

"Sh-should we go after him?" Ash asked, her eyes darting between the two people who know him best.

"Aw man. . . I mean, he'll be okay. Let's just give him some time." Chris said but KC decided in that moment, confused or not, he was not going to let Josh run off like that.

"No," he said as he hurried out of his seat. "I can't just let him leave that upset." And then he ran off after Josh, not quite sure where he went but going anyway.

KC found himself in the kitchen, looking around and calling for Josh. Until he got behind the counter. He paused, he was sure he would've found Josh by now, or he'd have at least responded to his yelling, but he hadn't.

Then, as KC stood facing the fridge he felt a hand grip his shoulders and tug him back to meet someone's chest. He was about to scream when a rubber mask was placed over his mouth and nose. The sudden inhalation of what he suspected to be anesthesia was a shock to his system and he began feeling it almost immediately.

"I'm sorry I have to do this," an odd voice said from just behind him, it seemed altered but KC couldn't place how as he was in the midst of slipping away. The last thing he felt before he lost consciousness was a kiss being placed on his shoulder.

Chapter Text

KC 21:59

“Fuck. . .” KC groaned, pulling himself from the floor, body feeling weighed down by what felt like tons of wet sandbags. All of his bones ached from his rest on the hardwood floor of the Washington Lodge’s kitchen. His eyes darted around to find the space almost as he had remembered it but far messier. The lingering press of something against his mouth forced his hand up, only to find it was merely residual from whatever had knocked him out. He barely remembered, it was all so foggy. He had vague memories of the seance and an immense sense of worry over Josh but his memories faded after that.

Focusing now more on remembering he found himself staggering, having to lean against the counter to keep from toppling over. He didn’t know what time it was, didn’t know what day it was even. Checking his phone yielded the barest of answers, he had the time now, just past midnight, but he didn’t know when they stopped the seance but he knew he couldn’t have been out long.

A chill breeze shot a shiver up his spine and distantly he thought he might have heard screams, but he knew the wind played tricks like that. Especially up on the mountain, having blurry memories of getting lost in the woods simply because he thought he’d heard Beth screaming. KC wondered where the rest had gone, Josh, Ash, and Chris had all vanished in seemingly a matter of moments, he suspected they might feel the same for him—not many people would guess he’d be fast asleep, stone cold sober, on the kitchen floor.

The chill led him through the lodge and out a cracked door, he would’ve thought himself lost if he didn’t spot Ash, Chris, Em, and Matt off in the distance. Approaching, they didn’t seem all too worse for wear, if you ignored the bruise blooming on Chris’ forehead, that is. And the—

“Is that blood?” The words had blurted from his mouth the second they crossed his mind. He guessed whatever had been used to knock him out wasn’t fully out of his system yet. Ash stood in front of all of them, her entire left side covered in a thorough coating of drying blood. He heard then how she was wailing about someone being hurt—dead—and Chris blathering explanations of what happened right along with her.

His mind still hadn’t caught up enough to what any of them said but Em and Matt were looking at them like they were batshit. Ash was sobbing, tears dripping onto her shirt and carrying blood with it down from there. Chris had seemed relatively composed until he saw KC and the undoubtedly confused look that marred his face and that’s when the tears flowed.

“I’m sorry! It’s Josh. He-he’s dead and there’s a maniac and a saw and—and I killed my best friend!” Chris crumpled under his own words. While nothing prior had broken through the fog, that one sentence managed to get through to KC’s anesthesia-addled mind. Now he was processing their words with pinpoint clarity.

“What?” he croaked out.

“In the shack there was all this weird shit and Ash and Josh were tied up with this saw—” Nothing Chris said after that mattered.

KC was stumbling to the shack before he knew it, breath coming out in ragged heaves. It felt like trudging through mud, time moving so slowly as he made his way to Josh’s body. He wished he could speed time up, the wait agonizing, but he also wished he could go back to a time before everything happened. “No,” he said. “I don’t believe you. It’s gotta be some sort of trick or. . . something!” It had to be, or else all of the Washington children would be dead—missing—and on this fucked up mountain no less. No one tried to stop him, not physically at least, and he only realized he was crying when he felt the tears freezing against his cheek. It was going to hurt, he knew, but he had to see, had to see Josh’s body. He was so alive earlier, KC wished he had held onto all of those moments just a bit longer, wished the anesthesia hadn’t messed with his memories, wished he remembered why he had been so worried about Josh in the first place.

There it was. Josh’s body on display. Hanging by the wrists against a wooden board, a saw had ripped apart his midsection. It was still there, hadn’t been moved. The murder weapon still present at the scene, holding his torso in the air. His intestines spilled from the wound and the blood was still wet from the sheer amount of it.

KC felt his breath rush out of him. “No! Nonononono,” KC wept. It felt surreal, like a dream—a nightmare, perhaps. Not real. His mind wouldn’t let him believe Josh was dead. Not like this. Not while he was passed out asleep on the floor because whoever did this had the bright idea to keep him out of it.

The blood didn’t matter to him as he inched closer, standing on his tip-toes to place a hand on Josh’s cheek. He was still warm. It was stupid, KC knew that—Josh’s guts were spilling out for Christ’s sake—but he still found himself searching for a pulse, trailing his fingers down Josh’s jaw until he found what he was looking for. Which was not a seam but that’s what he found anyway.

“What?” KC stumbled back, nearly slipping on the blood as he did. He stared at the body, wondering if he had even felt what he thought he had. And then Josh’s head started shaking, just his head not the rest of him, in what almost seemed like a silent laugh. He was more likely to believe in finding a dead body more than finding a dead body with an alive head. He thought he was hallucinating until Josh pulled his head from a hole in the wood.

Josh rounded the corner in front of him, hands up like he was displaying himself. “No need to cry, Killer. I’m not actually dead.”

“What—” KC started but Josh rushed forward to place a hand over his mouth before he could get the rest of his words out.

Josh shushed him, “Be quiet, I don’t want anyone else to know. Just you.” He lowered his hand hesitantly, eying KC in what he recognized as a plea to be silent. “I can explain.”

KC brought his hand up to punch Josh in the chest, feeling an odd sense of pride when he staggered back. “You’re a dick! You know that right?”

Josh merely shrugged.

KC sighed. “Then explain yourself, I can’t stay here all day.”

“It’s not as bad as it seems.” Josh must’ve read the look in his eyes. “It’s really not!”

“Really? I’m not sure Ash and Chris would say the same.”

“They’re not seeing the bigger picture. And I don’t want them to. Not yet. Come on, we both want them to get together. We’ve all seen it brewing for years and, at this point, it’s not going to happen unless we do something about it.”

“And punching Chris in the head is doing something about it?”

“I didn’t mean to do that, honest. He broke through the door before I expected and I didn’t know how else to handle it.”

“So, dying is what you planned to do about it.”

Josh let out a small sigh, a smirk playing on his lips. “Think about it, Killer. What gets people together more than a little adrenaline pumping? Fear brings people together and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

KC pursed his lips, he knew this was a terrible idea but he couldn’t let Josh do this alone. “And what if this little plan of yours doesn’t work?”

“It will, trust me,” Josh insisted. “If it helps prove it’s working Chris chose to save Ash.”

It might’ve helped prove it but KC didn’t know how to feel that Chris chose to save a girl over his best friend. “So that’s what he meant when he said he killed his best friend.”

Josh, seeming able to tell KC wasn’t convinced on this, stepped forward, grabbing KC gently by the elbows and pulling him in close. “Come on, Cami. I need your help in this,” he said, gazing down at KC with that look in his eye that made him hate himself for how pliable it makes him in Josh’s hands.

“Fine!” KC finally bit out when he couldn’t handle the way Josh was looking at him anymore. “But, if I'm going to let you do this then you have to promise that no one is going to get hurt; that you are not going to hurt our friends."

Josh's smile faltered a bit at KC's expression. "I promise that I will not hurt anyone. . . Anymore at least."

"You're a sick bastard, Joshie," KC declared and Josh should have been offended at that but he beamed at him anyway. "If I get any flack for this it's your ass."

Josh nodded along. "I will take the full fall for this prank if they take it the wrong way."

"Good." KC leaned up to press a kiss to Josh's lips, relishing in the soft press of his lips, another reminder that he wasn’t actually dead. "I'll stall while you make it back to the lodge."

Stepping out into the snow once more he tried his best to fake a look of shock as he saw Chris and Ash waiting for him, distraught but in better condition than he left them in. They shot him a look of sympathy, they knew what he should be feeling and saw what he was trying to convey. KC inspected his shaking hands finding more blood on him than he thought, he didn't think he had gotten any on him. Aside from the blood that had smeared on his shoes when he nearly slipped.

They were coming closer to him now, saying something about finding Sam back in the lodge and he knew he couldn't let them go that quickly. He crumpled to the ground, looking like he was crying into his knees while he covered his face in his arms, choking out false sobs.

"I shouldn't have looked," he sniveled and soon heard Ash breakdown beside him.

"I'm sorry! I should have stopped you," she said as she hugged him, holding him closer than he'd let most people.

"I'm sorry, man. I should've done something; I should've tried to find a way in and stop that psycho," Chris said, voice shaking as he tried to hide his sorrow with anger.

"He left me for dead in that damned kitchen. I should've helped. . . I could've helped," KC's voice came out in a croaked whisper. "Maybe if I had just been awake I could've saved him." He buried his face in his arms again, feeling Ashley wet his shoulder with her tears.

"We should've gone to find you and Josh first! We were too caught up with that stupid Ouija board to be worried that Josh might be upset." Ash tightened her arms around KC and when he should've been feeling guilty he didn't. This prank may not be the real deal but she's feeling remorse, guilt, consequences. All things she avoided for the girls. "If we had gone with you maybe none of this would have happened. . ."

"You're right! We need to stick together," Chris said, seeming to have gained some kind of mental grounding. "We need to go find Sam, she's still in the lodge and the psycho may have gotten to her already."

KC honestly hoped that Josh hadn't gone after Sam, there's no need to really, but he had a feeling Josh had. One person being left out shows clear bias and that's when you get caught, Josh was too smart for that.

KC rose to his feet, Ash staggering off of him to stand along with him. The tears he had shed earlier now formed icy paths along his face and as he turned to Ashley he noticed the same streaks. And behind her, in the distance he saw a shadow moving in the lodge window. Josh was still there. He noticed her starting to realize he wasn't actually looking at him so he wrapped his arms around her before she could turn around.

"I'm sorry, Ash," he mumbled into her shoulder and noted how she quivered as she wrapped her arms around him.

KC watched the shadow retreat and he heard her say something but he couldn't understand it over her heaved breaths. He let go of her after a few moments and turned to find Chris looking at him, face wracked with guilt. He looked as if it took everything in him not to start crying as well.

"I know you and Josh were. . . Close but—" Chris tried to say and KC knew immediately what he was trying to get at.

"You and him were close too," he said before starting down the path. "Let's go find Sam and hope she's okay." She damn well better be.

Chapter Text

KC 022:51

"Was it like this before you came out?" Chris asked as they eyed all of the balloons leading down to the basement.

"No," KC hummed as he took in the copious amounts of balloons strung everywhere. In all honesty he didn’t notice, probably wouldn’t have remembered even if he had. "Feels like we're in a Stephen King novel."

"Oh, do you think Sam is still in her bath? I hope she hasn't seen this yet," Ash whined dancing on her toes at even the idea of having to venture down into the basement again.

"She might be, but we also can't trust that she'd follow the balloons," KC said looking around for any signs she even came down here. "Chris why don't we check upstairs and Ash you can look around down here?" KC suggested, ignoring any kind of protest as he started up the stairs.

Nothing. Chris and KC looked everywhere but Sam was nowhere to be found. KC may have known Josh was a major part of this, but that doesn't mean he knows what Josh's unmedicated mind cooked up.

"She wasn't up there?" Ash asked, fingers toying with her gloves as she watched the pair come back down the stairs.

"Unless we both narrowly missed her each time and she's ignored every time we called after her then no she's not up there," KC said, eying the balloons, some of which had floated to the ceiling already.

We probably got here shortly after this was all set up so he got her to leave pretty quickly, KC thought, trying to spot any sign that Sam went down the stairs. It was definitely a rush job, Josh didn't take the time to make sure they were properly tied, hence how quickly they became loose.

Ashley yelped from somewhere behind him. Turning, he saw candles lit on several surfaces. Candles that were not there when they first got to the lodge. That's why the balloons were a rush job. He had to make sure he got everyone.

"Dammit! What is going on around here?" Chris asked, watching as the candles lined the room, leading them exactly where the balloons were.

"It's a trap, obviously. The psycho," KC struggles to say the right thing, "knew we'd come in here after Sam, so he had to make it interesting for us as well."

"Well, if we know it's a trap we should stay out of it. . . Right?" Ashley suggested, voice cracking in the last word.

"Not if it means leaving Sam," Chris amended, steeling himself to walk down the stairs.

A room with fabric covered furniture and doors open into the cinema. KC could see the wet footprints on the rug there better than he could on the stairs; easier to clean water from wood than something that's going to hold onto it for a while. The footprints took off towards the opposite door. He assumed she was running.

"She probably went that way," KC said, talking over the hushed conversation Ash had started with Chris.

"Why—how do you know?" Chris asks, coming over to where KC had been crouched just before he rose back to his feet.

KC shot him an incredulous look, speaking then like it was the most obvious fact in the world, "She just got out of the bath."

Ash came through last, trailing behind Chris like that would protect her any. If anything she was more likely to get grabbed. Once she passed through the door slammed shut behind them.

Ash jumped forward with a yelp, almost having some of her clothes caught in it with how quickly it closed. "What the heck! Why would it just do that?" She tried to fumble with the knob but it didn't even budge an inch.

"We're not supposed to be in there anymore," KC said as he continued down the hall, hoping to see any more signs of where they were supposed to go. No such luck. KC tried the door he was closest to and found it opening slightly before slamming shut. "Not that one, I guess."

Behind him another door slowly swung open, this one he was content to let Ash lead. Once they made it through Chris looked back through where they came from and held the door open long enough for KC to make it through in case it shut again, and he did, just in time to see a lady in white floating past. He stared stunned at the figure while Ash gasped at it. Chris turned around too late to see anything.

"Wait a minute. Did you see that?" She asked, grabbing Chris's arm and shaking him to get him to pay her full attention.

"Uhh. . . Did I see what?" Chris asked, gaining an irritated look from both Ash and KC.

"It was like. . . a see-through shape. Like a ghost!" Ashley insisted but KC knew it wasn't such a thing. And besides, the only see-through thing about it was the white dress.

"Oh boy," Chris sighed, disbelief lacing his words as KC approached the open door just to see where the thing went.

"I'm serious." Ash insisted. "Why don't you believe me?! I said I saw it, doesn't that count for anything."

"I saw it too." Nothing, it wasn't there anymore. Vanished just like a ghost would. He couldn't even try to figure out where it went without Chris and Ash asking him too many questions.

Chris tried again to deny what they saw. "We've been through hell tonight. Okay? Your minds are fried." KC rolled his eyes at how little he believed them "My mind is fried, even. I don't even trust what I've been seeing."

"No!! You are wrong. I saw it. KC saw it. I'm sure we know what we saw, Chris!" Ashley insisted, stomping forward to join KC.

"Alright, alright. Maybe. . . it's. . . Maybe you did see something." Chris seemed like he was still clung to the belief that they didn't actually see anything, but KC was beginning to suspect that was more from self preservation.

"What exactly did you see Ash?" KC asked, having some ideas forming in his mind but not wanting to make mountains out of mole hills. "Just to make sure we saw the same thing."

"It was like this ghost in a white dress, see-through, with dark hair," she said, waving her hands in front of her face to simulate the thing's hair.

That's what I thought. KC nodded and began heading down the hall some more. Are you trying to make us see what you see?

"Feels like some kind of sick escape room," KC mumbled as the group went down into the basement, a loud, rhythmic banging coming from somewhere right in the direction they were heading.

Once they got down into the hall something slammed close enough for the sound to fill the space. KC wondered if all of this was remotely being closed or if they were right on his tail.

Something loudly flew out of one of the cabinets across the room and sent the group scattering, all yelling various things in their panic—KC's containing a few more choice words compared to the other two.

"What the HELL is going ON!!" Ash whined, turning around only to jump again, Chris and KC turning to see what she was looking at. A rocking horse doing exactly as it was made to do. "Oh my gosh that scared me!"

"You knocked into it, right? You knocked into it?" Chris asked.

Ash started a babbled response, unsure of whether she did or not. "How did everything get so freaky around here? Doors slamming and candles lighting up out of nowhere and that specter or whatever it was—"

"Ashley, I think you're kind of ignoring what's happening here—"

"Don't tell me you didn't see that translucent white figure just passing right by us?"

Chris and Ash went back and forth, KC clocked out when he realized they were just repeating the same thing from earlier. He bent down near the rocking horse, pressing his fingers to its nose to stop its movement. He inspected it stagnant, trying to find some reason it would be moving like that, when he found none he picked it up to inspect the bottom. What he found wasn't a weight or a string or even a magnet. What he found startled him enough to chuck the thing and stand to move away from it as quickly as possible.

Beth Washington.

Two words, written in marker, and worn with the test of time. It was barely legible but he'd recognize that name anywhere.

"KC," Ashley hesitantly started, voice softer than she'd been able to manage in a long while. "What did you see? What happened?"

"It's—nothing, not important, doesn't matter." He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to wash her name from his mind, but nothing was working. "It was Beth's. That horse? She wrote her name on it in big, bold, bright pink letters."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Chris started. "I—"

KC cut in before he could finish. "Let's not talk about it! I just want to find Sam and get out of here." He flung his hands, trying to get feeling back in his numb fingers. Ash nodded at him and began down the hallway opposite

"There's no handle. . . " she called back after a minute.

"Dead end," Chris grumbled.

"Guess we're still needed here then," KC sighed, leaning back against some table to inspect the rest of the room, trying to find another door or a handle even.

"Ooh this is cute," Ashley said as she came up beside him to inspect whatever was on the table he was leaning against. A dollhouse, KC came to realize as he turned around to look at it. "Look look look look! You can see in the windows." She didn't sound as happy at that, her voice trembled as she looked in one of the upper floor windows.

"See what? Tiny furniture?" Chris asked as he walked over to the two of them.

KC bent down to look in as well. "Not just. There's some dolls and stuff but I can't tell much else."

Ash inspected the rest of the dollhouse, moving away a dormer window to reveal a keyhole

"Huh. I guess you need a key if you want to play around in there."

“Wait! Chris-Chris-Chris-Chris-Chris!!” Ashley yelled, pointing down the hall. KC leaned forward to see the long haired ghost just barely before it vanished.

Chris spun around a second too late. “What?”

“Didn’t you see it?” Ash cast him an incredulous look. “You were looking at your phone, you dip! What are you—tweeting?! Hashtag there’s a freaking ghost after us.”

“Hashtag hunting fake ghosts?” KC muttered.

“Ash, calm down, okay.” Chris raised his hands. “There is no ghost here. Ghost of what? You’re freaked out because of what happened with Josh—”

“You’re not paying attention. I saw it. I saw a ghost and it looked like Hannah! It looked like Hannah!!” Ash wailed, and that convinced KC that Josh was just trying to get them to see what he had seen since they went missing.

“Wait-wait-wait WHAT?” Chris sputtered.

“Or-or maybe Beth,” she backpedaled.

“Hannah,” KC muttered, voice almost lost among the silence. “It was Hannah. The hair was too long to be Beth.” My Beth, he wanted to say but he couldn't force the words out. He didn't even know if he wanted to. They wouldn't understand it anyway.

“Jesus,” Chris groaned. “What, do you think they followed us up here from the seance?”

“I don’t know, maybe!” Ash shrugged, gesturing widely and just hoping Chris got the point at some point.

“They didn’t!” Chris insisted. “Because ghosts don’t exist, okay?”

KC knew none of this was real but Chris’ refusal to believe any of it was getting beyond irritating. Even if it wasn’t a ghost it was still something. Suddenly a scream pierced the air and something down the hall fell from the wall. KC rushed to find the source and saw that a painting had fallen and revealed a key on a pin in the wall.

“What did that?” Ashley asked as her and Chris crept over.

KC picked the key off the ring. “A ghost, possibly?” he hummed as he turned back to them.

Chris had started inspecting the ring while KC and Ash turned back towards the main room. And both of them saw the ghost floating there, clear as day, pointing at the dollhouse.

“Oh my GOSH! There-look there, Chris you can’t tell me you didn’t see that!” Ash yelled and this time Chris whipped around fast enough to see the ghost.

“Wow, that’s. . .” Chris stammered. “That’s. . . I dunno. . . I-I just—This is fucking crazy.”

The group ran after the ghost as it vanished around the corner before they could get to it. KC was quick to use the key to open the dollhouse, swinging it open to reveal a scene he never wanted to see. A doll’s remake of that night right before his best friend went missing. Chris and Josh away from everything in the kitchen, KC himself laying on the couch, and everyone besides Beth in the bedroom, watching the doll to represent Hannah. He felt sick.

“Oh God!” Ash choked, “It’s like—”

“It’s not ‘like’ anything.” Chris said. “That’s us. Hiding there, waiting for Hannah. Last year.” Chris said, like he was a part of it, a part of anything. That made KC sick more than anything. To know that Chris felt guilty for it, just as he did, only because they were too drunk to do anything.

“But. . . it’s so accurate, I mean that’s exactly where I was sitting. . . and that’s where Matt was,” she went on.

KC shook his head, backing away from the dollhouse. “I can’t do this,” he said, voice warbling, threatening to give everything away. He wondered if Josh blamed them just as they did themselves, but he knew better than any of them that Josh blamed himself more than any of them.

He found himself back farther in the mess, eying around for the door handle. And instead he found a blinking red light. A camera, a live one at that. He bent to be eye level with it, wiping a stray tear before offering a small wave to whoever was on the other side.

Ash gasped. “It's. . . It's Hannah's diary.”

KC swung around to look at her, seeing the pink book open in her hands. “Maybe we shouldn't read it. Kind of feels disrespectful to the dead.” And the living. But he wouldn't say that. He didn't know exactly what was in that book but he knew it was private information about Hannah, Beth, probably Josh, too. Maybe even him.

Ash looked up at him with a frown. “But, the doll house opened to show us this. Whatever is leading us around clearly wants us to see this.”

Maybe he did, thought KC. Maybe he wanted her to see into the life she ruined. Or maybe he simply forgot. Whatever it was KC didn't speak on it again.

“Oh, this one mentions you, KC,” Ash started. “She called you Cami. . . I never noticed.” She flipped a page, and what he didn’t tell her was that they all did. “It talks about Josh getting home from the hospital—this was a couple months before we all came back up, why was he in the hospital?”

KC felt his heart lurch into his throat. “Mental hospital,” he corrected, voice shaking as he did so. “He was so scared that he just wanted to get better.” He struggled to meet their eyes again. He knew Josh was close to it again, he could see it in his eyes in the shack that he had been seeing things that weren't there, big things, things that would drive him to madness if he let them.

“He was happy when he got back, but Hannah felt like she didn't know him.” Ash frowned. “Apparently you helped a lot, always around, and it says that she felt like he let you get closer to him than they were able to.”

“Because they were trying too hard; trying to keep him happy; not letting him think about all the bad stuff; watching their words,” KC said, feeling his hands begin to shake but this time not from the cold or the pain he felt numb to now.

Ash nodded and she seemed to catch on to his feelings as she flipped to the end of the book. “‘everyone being together here 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. . . ‘ I can't read this!! It's so sad. . .” She shook her head as she gingerly set the diary back in its place.

Down the hall, a door creaked open.

“What was that?” Ash gasped.

“We can leave now,” KC said as he started down the hallway, happy to leave that room and that diary behind him.

Chapter Text

KC: 00:37

The door was open just a crack despite the lack of a handle. KC pushed it open and something jumped out in front of him. Not an animal like before, a face, there and then gone again. A guttural scream ripped through the space as well. Chris sprinted through the doorway, trying to find the source of either phenomenon. Just as he got through, the door slammed shut despite two members of the group still stuck on the other side.

KC’s head was still ringing from the scream as he watched Ash begin to pound on the door, Trying to get it to open again. It did. But only because Chris had turned the handle on his side.

“Nothing,” he assured.

“But you did see it, Chris.” Ash wasn't asking, she knew he saw something, knew he was finally realizing they weren't lying to him.

“I saw. . . something. But where'd it go?”

Before that question could be answered everything around them shook. Not intensely, but enough to be concerning. And something about the oddity of it told KC that it wasn't Josh's doing. He wanted to freak them out, not possible destroy his parents' lodge.

“We should move,” KC insisted, already taking off down the hallway.

More junk lined the room they were in now, and none of them cared to stick around long enough to look through any of it. Not with the risk of being crushed under the weight of the entire lodge. They went farther through the basement than any of them thought possible, and when they thought they were nearing the end, there was another hallway.

“Wait, there's a whole ‘nother room through here. It's mammoth,” Chris commented absently as they rounded another corner.

This next hallway looked even more rundown than the rest of the basement. Completely different style too. While what they'd seen before had been messy it was still finished, where they were now was full of cracked beams and rock and wood covering the floor.

“Are we even still under the lodge anymore?” KC mumbled to himself as he looked around for any sign of where they actually were. “This place seriously needs a ‘you are here’ board.”

“Wait!” Ash suddenly stopped. “I don’t think I can take any more of this.”

“Yeah, I’m at my limit here too,” Chris responded, hanging back with her and forcing KC to stop if he didn’t want to go alone.

“But we have to,” KC insisted, knowing they were being led down there for a reason. Sam would be down here, and so would Josh and once they got down there it would all be over and things would go back to normal. “We need to make sure Sam is okay.”

“I know! But this isn’t what I wanted when we came up here. I just wanted to forget last year even happened,” Ash was so insistent, voice almost to tears.

KC wanted to scream, wanted to lash out and tell her it was her fault. Tell her that the twins didn’t want to go through what they went through either and she sat by and laughed while they did. “Everyone wanted to. . .”

“To be honest, I don’t even know what Hannah thought she was doing,” Chris said and KC had to force himself to look through rubble.

“Yeah. . .well. . . you know how it is when you’re crushing pretty hard on somebody,” Ash said, thankfully she wasn’t blaming Hannah.

“People will do stupid, crazy things for love,” KC said and from how Ash’s eyes snapped to him he knew she thought he was talking about her and Chris, but he just wanted to make sure Josh was okay and didn’t go too far.

“Great, so you’re basically saying that we,” there’s that we again, “put a friend in a terrible situation and essentially caused her to run away and never be heard of again?” Chris was getting angry, and defensive, when that is exactly what they had done.

“If it was you, don’t you think you would have run away?” Ash asked. “I mean, who likes being made fun of?”

“People don’t make fun of me.”

“To your face.”

“What?”

That made KC laugh. Laugh at the fact that she had probably heard some of the same stuff he did; all the things they would hear people say about Chris that they never told him.

“Chris, we made her look so stupid, in front of all of her friends and the guy she liked.” Ash shook her head. “I can imagine doing anything worse to somebody.”

“But still, she didn’t have to run off into the snow. That was a stupid move, and she should have known that,” Chris pointed out.

“What else was she supposed to do?” KC asked, finding the words flying from his mouth before he could stop them. KC wasn’t one to yell but he couldn’t stop himself. “She was drunk and everywhere she went in the lodge she knew someone could have found her and laughed at her. And don’t tell me they wouldn’t. They’d probably do some stupid shit like asking her how she felt and she didn’t want to deal with it. She knew the woods. . . better than any of them did. She should have been fine.”

Chris hesitated before he spoke next. “You’re right, KC. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Just forget about it and let's keep going.”

They followed the hallway in silence for a while after, turning down corners to find even more. Until they came across a set of stairs.

Ash stopped again. “You know what? No. I’ve had enough! I’m not going down any further into this nightmare.

“You can be done all you want.” KC didn’t stop this time. “Whether you’re coming or not, I'm not leaving. Same goes for you Chris.”

Ash whined from somewhere above him as both her and Chris came stomping down after him.

“Don’t you think this is too much?” she asked him. “We shouldn’t be risking our lives because of this Psycho. We should go get help.”

KC laughed at her, a humorless sound. “Help from whom? The police? They couldn’t find the twins, I doubt they would be able to find Sam.”

This time, instead of more hallway they found a door. This time it led into what looked like the back of butchery. Gutted pig included.

“Don’t slip on the blood,” KC instructed as he pointed over to the hanging pig. The blood, he realized as he inspected the form closer. This is how Josh got the blood and organs. He was walking them through the workings of his prank and he knew only KC would understand it. “Sick bastard. . .”

Ash and Chris nodded at him, stepping hesitantly away from the pig, but ended up getting by the other oddities of the room.

“Oh boy. . .” Ash said as she leaned in to inspect the massive metal hooks. “You think all this stuff is his?”

“Unless the Washingtons were into some freaky shit in their spare time,” Chris ventured, “then yeah. . . Probably.”

“Ew.” KC winced at the idea. He knew they were all likely from Josh and his whole prank, but he didn’t even want to think of them like that.

“Hey, come look at this,” Ash called from a nearby workshop table. “That’s us.”

A cork board was what she wanted them to look at. Ash, Chris, Emily, Jessica, Josh, KC, Matt, Mike, and Sam. All of them had photos pinned on this board. But it wasn't the photos that was the problem, it's that Jess, Mike, Emily, and Matt had crossed out eyes. X's made with likely pigs blood. And a heart was painted over KC's photo.

“What is this, like a fucking hit list?” Chris asked as he took in the 9 photos. “Christ.”

“Well now we know why he didn't go after KC,” Ash pointed out, pressing her finger to his picture but being careful to avoid the heart.

“Yikes,” KC mumbled, shaking his head in an attempt to free his thoughts before he turned to the rest of the room. He walked away from the board to look around the room, there had to be something that told them where to go. All he found was doors. But one caught his eye. One smeared with dark red blood. “There.”

“Oh crap.” Chris jumped. “Look at that.”

Ash let out a yelp as she spotted the door. “Blood?!”

They hesitantly approached the door, and KC noted thankfully that it was fully dried, meaning none of it could get on them, but even if they’d escaped the bubble of odor of the pig, it permeated from the blood painted door. A pungent smell, one that called to mind rotten iron.

“Might be Sam's. Let me see if I can get this. . .” Chris attempted to heave the door open, only making it budge just enough for him to push himself against it and let maybe one person pass. “Got it. . . but. . . Damn this thing is heavy.”

“I'll help hold it,” KC said, fingers gripping the harsh edge of the door.

“Oh, be careful!” Ash urged as he pulled the door back.

Chris was struggling even with the help. “You gotta come through, Ash. I don't know if we can hold it. Come on,” he urged.

Ash was about to step through when her head snapped to the side. “Oh!! I think I just saw Sam over there!”

KC's heart dropped. He could see the figure as well, and it was not Sam. They weren't as far off as he had thought. “Something obviously came through here, if it was Sam she could be bleeding. You don't know that what you saw was actually her, for all we know it could be the psycho!”

Ash let out an indecisive hum before she finally charged through the door they were holding. “Alright, let's go this way then!”

“Oh thank god,” Chris groaned when KC followed through as well, meaning he could finally let the door go. “Thanks for the help, KC. That thing might've crushed me otherwise.”

“No problem,” KC sighed, wiping his hands on his pants to try and get the sting out.

Fog permeated the room as they took in the knocked over shelves. The temperature dropped several degrees as they walked through the room. More gutted pigs lined the hallway they walked through, and then something more human swung on a hook in front of them.

Ashley yelped and jumped back, and KC almost did the same himself. Chris pressed a hand lightly to the figure so it would swing around and face them. It was a fake.

“Wait, those are Sam's. . .” Ash pointed out as she inspected the clothes. “That's sick!”

“So the Psycho has been down here. That’s for sure,” Chris said as he stepped back from the dummy in Sam’s clothes.

“Do you think he’s still down here?” Ash winged at the thought. “Why is this thing even here?”

“He knows we’re looking for her, and he’s telling us he has her,” KC spoke up, Ash turning to look at him wide-eyed.

They entered a pair of double doors after sidestepping the body, this led them to a small room, which upon further inspection held a person slumped over in a chair. Just as before KC expected it to be a dummy, a fake with perhaps more of Sam’s stolen clothing. But as Chris turned it around it wasn’t a dummy at all. It was Sam.

Her head lolled to the side with the movement of the chair. She looked pale and waxy under the lights. Somewhere beside him Ash panicked over the sight, but he didn’t care. He was promised no one would get hurt. So she had to be fine. She was fine. KC looked at her unmoving body, dread filling his mind as he rushed forward, placing one hand on her arm and the other on her neck. She was both real and alive.

A wave of relief washed over him and he finally let himself take in the rest of her. She was still in her towel, her clothes having been placed on the dummy they saw earlier. And her skin wasn’t waxy like he’d thought, she was still damp, like she’d recently gotten out of the bath. They really were on his tail.

“If she stays here in the cold like this she’s going to get sick,” KC murmured, slipping his jacket off as he did. She'd done her best to keep him warm and comfortable so he would do the same for her. He draped his jacket over her like a blanket, he just hoped it would be enough.

In his peripherals Chris was yanked back, he turned at Ash’s screams to see the Psycho holding a mask to Chris’ face, holding him as he went limp. It seemed far less romantic than when he had been knocked out. Ash was screaming and Chris was certainly getting no shoulder kisses. Just to keep up appearance he jumped back, letting out some shouts of fear as best he could.

Ashley had only started to scramble back when Josh went for her next, she tried to put up a fight—she was aware it was coming so she could. Thrashing and screaming didn’t do much, Josh was still stronger. It was only when her eyes darted to him after the mask was placed on her did KC finally do more than just watch. He started towards them, faster than he ought given his plan, but she was out before he even got there.

“Jesus! You had me worried,” KC said, taking Josh into his arms when he had eased Ash down onto the ground. “First we were worrying about Sam and then I was worried you might’ve—”

“Might’ve what, Killer?” Josh asked as he slipped the mask off, moving the best he could while having KC’s arms planted firmly around his torso.

KC didn’t want to tell him he’d worried Josh might’ve fallen too far into his hallucinations and hurt either himself or Sam. “I don’t know! There’s so much crap down here for all I knew you’d been crushed under those shelves we’d passed.” Josh laughed at that, a sound more relieving to KC’s ears than he thought possible. He eased his arms off to look at Josh. He didn’t seem too far gone, but given the situation KC suspected he might just be better at hiding it.

“See! That’s why this prank is so good. I even got you all worried,” Josh said as he glanced around at the three unconscious bodies that surrounded them. “I saw,” Josh laughed, “I saw you on one of the cameras. You were waving.”

KC was just glad he didn’t point out the crying. “Well, I had to let you know I saw through you somehow.” He jammed a finger in Josh’s chest.

Josh slipped the mask back over his head as he moved to pick up Chris from the ground. “You gonna help me move them?” he asked but KC only took a hesitant step back towards Sam, answering with a shake of his head. “Suit yourself.”

KC made sure Sam was actually okay as Josh moved Ash and Chris through a doorway, he didn’t know what was through it until Josh led him there as well. A bigger room with Ash and Chris strapped to chairs, their heads dipped forward and back in an almost painful manner. Above them a massive saw blade that made KC’s heart race, he caught a glimpse of something on the table between them but he didn't get a full glance at it before Josh was leading him away again. Not far, just a space tucked behind some shelves and in walls. The worn slats of wood gave them a clear view of the two at the table.

“Josh,” KC spoke hesitantly. “Why are you doing this?”

Josh laughed beside him. “I told you already. Unless the anaesthesia messed with even those memories.” A flick landed against his forehead.

“But,” KC started, voice caught in his throat as he wondered how Josh would take it, “don’t you think this is going a bit far?” Before he knew it a hand was tightening against his wrist.

“It’ll be just fine.”

KC didn’t know how long they stood there, both him and Josh—the psycho—behind a wall, watching their friends sleep, blissfully unaware of what surrounded them. At some point Josh began muttering to himself, KC couldn’t pick out any discernible words and came to the conclusion Josh was just going over his plans. If he had any that was.

Chris stirred first, panic set in immediately as he saw Ash tied up in front of him. He yelled to her to get her to wake up, and there was noticeable relief on his face when her eyes fluttered open.

“What is this?” Ash questioned, bleary eyed as she toon in everything around her, hands bound to the arms of the chair she sat in.

“This is him,” Chris told her. “This is the guy who killed Josh. . .” A funny sentiment to KC now that he was being held by the supposedly dead man himself.

“No, Chris. . . Oh, my gosh, No!” Ash began to writhe in her seat. “Oh, Gosh. . . Chris, where did KC go? Do you think he got him this time?”

“That murdering piece of shit! I swear we’ll get KC back and find him just like we did Sam,” Chris insisted.

“Like that worked—” Ash started but KC was no longer focused on her words as he felt Josh leaning down over his shoulder.

“Seems like they’re really worried about you, Killer.”

“Oh, God, Chris! We shouldn’t have come down here,” Ash wailed as she went slack in her restraints.

“No, we came down here for a good reason. Who knows what might’ve happened to Sam.”

“But, we’re gonna die, Chris! Look all around us. I’m not ready to die. . .”

“No one is going to die.”

“I wish I could just tell you. . . it’s not fair!”

“What? Tell me what?”

“It’s too late! Chris, what’s the point?”

Wow, KC thought as he watched the scene play out in front of him. They went from being worried I might be dead to confessing their love for each other? Really the wrong place to do it. Especially if the camera beside them was on.

Soon enough the saw above their head whirred to life and they broke out in screams. It was moving relatively slowly but likely looked closer from their perspective.

KC could feel Josh begin talking beside him, “Hello there, my special little subjects.” They were far enough away that they couldn’t hear him over the saw and the voice—his modified one—coming through the speakers.

“I’m so scared, Chris,” Ash whined, staring up at the saw as it got ever closer.

“Aw, shit.” His gaze darted around, trying to land on anything else other than the object right in front of him, the gun. “Don’t be scared.”

“Oh, you should be, Ash, because here’s the twist: Chris has made one fatal choice already today,” Josh spoke and KC could hear the grin in his voice. He knew nothing was going to happen. This was going to go just as Josh said, a simple matchmaking prank where no one gets seriously hurt. But as Chris picked up the gun his heart raced, “and now he must make another. Chris. . . you can take that gun and shoot Ashley, or you can shoot yourself. Whoever is left, can live! The choice is yours.”

KC felt that a simple prank to scare them was fine, deserved even. But not Chris and not Sam. And now as he watched he didn’t know if it was guilt he was feeling, or fear of what he might have to see.

Chris aimed the gun up to shoot the saw, missing horribly but it wouldn’t have done even if he had been aiming right.

Josh laughed, not his usual laugh either, one much darker. “Don’t be silly, Chris.”

Seeing that shooting the saw did nothing, Chris then took aim at himself, putting the barrel just under his jaw, prepared to blow his brains out for the girl he loved. KC wanted to yell for him to stop and put an end to this, he never thought Josh would go this far; KC never thought Josh would find this much pleasure in torturing their friends. No matter what he wanted to do he was powerless. Nothing he could do would put an end to it. If he couldn’t convince Josh before then he can’t convince him now.

“Wait, stop. You can’t do it, Chris, it should be me,” Ash lashed out, yelling and thrashing, anything to get Chris to not pull the trigger, but the saw was getting ever closer. “You chose to save me before. Let me choose this time, let me choose to save you.”

“You realize how fucked up this is, right?” KC spoke in a shuddered whisper, barely glancing up at Josh. If he even heard him he didn’t show it.

“If I do one last thing in my life, let me do this! Chris, please! Oh, God. . .”

KC squeezed his eyes shut as the gunshot rang out.

Chapter Text

KC: 01:10

"Play along." Josh's voice was but a whisper as his hand closed over KC's mouth. Soon he was pushing into his back to get him to start forward, out of the quiet of where they hid. 

Now, Josh wrapped an arm around his midsection, holding his arms in place. KC stumbled against the debris-littered ground, normally he would have been able to steady himself but now the only thing that kept him up was Josh's arm. He could feel panic bubbling in his throat, a stupid thing. He was safe and he knew that, it was just Josh. But it didn't feel like Josh, not as he was being shoved down hallways. The hand on his mouth was Josh's, he hoped to feel that as he brought his hand up—any sign that he was stupid to panic. Josh's thumb rubbed gentle circles in his arm, a response enough to get KC to drop his hand and bring back the act. He knew he was stupid to panic, the fact that he did pissed him off, Josh was never supposed to scare him, but was this really his Josh? 

Ash's eyes met his as soon as they rounded the corner. 

"NOO! KC NO!" Ash wailed, voice cracking from the volume and sheer emotion of it. "DROP HIM YOU MONSTER!"

KC shut his eyes against her words, feeling Josh's laugh rumble against his back as it reverberated through his chest. 

Chris poised the gun at them but didn’t dare shoot. “I can’t shoot him without hurting KC too.”

Josh made a show of throwing his arms wide, KC realized just barely too late that he was supposed to run. He pushed his back into the pillar closest, no one was supposed to see his hesitation in leaving the 'psycho'. 

Chris didn't stop to question why the psycho would be so willing to toss away his prey and let himself be shot. Four loud bangs filled the space but no bullet flew from the gun. After each shot Chris' face shifted into one of terror, increasing tenfold when Josh began approaching. 

The double doors slammed open, Mike and Sam filed in to take in the scene. They looked terrible, Mike in particular. KC stared at them, noticing that no one else dared to take their eyes off the psycho. 

“Oh, Chris. . .” Josh shook his head. “Oh, Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris.”

“What the fuck?!” Chris sputtered, inspecting the gun that ended neither him nor his kidnapper. 

“You’ve heard of blanks before. I mean really?” Josh reached up to take his mask of, revealing who he was to the rest of them. 

“Josh?” Chris noted, dropping the gun as he took in the information that his supposedly dead best friend was the one who put him through all this. 

"Oh very good! You got my name! After everything you've been though, you, detective, managed to name your killer." A grin split Josh's face, his eyes darted to the side for a second to pull KC close. 

A look of heartbreak and betrayal painted Ash's face as she stared at KC, Chris wouldn't even look at him. Sam looked perfectly blank as she undid the bindings on Ash and Chris, like she didn't want them to know how much they hurt her, that was always her tactic, even when her best friend had died. Mike was leveling a gun at Josh, flicking it to KC whenever he dared move too much. They thought he was on their side, throughout all of this. If they were really surprised that KC would choose Josh over them then they didn't know him at all. 

"How does it feel?" Josh asked, his tone turning up like it was an actually question. He knew how it felt. "Do you enjoy feeling terrorized? Humiliated? I mean, panicked? All these emotions that my sisters got to feel once one year ago! Only guess what? They didn’t get to laugh it off! No! Nope! They’re gone!”

"That's what this is about? You two did all of this to get back at us for a prank we pulled a year ago? Ash asked in a voice that broke and quivered with every realization she had. "KC, you were part of this? I told you I felt sorry about it. . . why would you help him?"

Josh turned his head to KC, like he would relish in the answer that KC would give them. Proud that KC chose him, over all of them. Each set of eyes on his skin felt like a hot knife pressing into his mind. He hated it. Hated almost all of them. But he didn't hate them enough for this. Not all of them, Mike maybe. 

“I wasn’t helping him. I was just a bystander. You should no what that’s like, Ash.” KC offered her a pointed glare. “All I did to help was make sure we didn’t interrupt him.” 

“And what a great job of that you did!” Josh cheered, clapping him on the shoulder to pull him closer. 

Chris spoke with a calm sadness, like he knew what he was saying was true before he even asked it. “You really just hate all of us, don’t you KC?”

“Not all of you,” he reminded him. “I’ve never had anything against you Chris. Nothing against Sam either. Josh assured me that no one would get hurt.”

“And you just believed him?” 

“Well, are you? Hurt, Chris?"

“Well, no. . . But—”

“Then everything is fine, and we can all sit back and laugh about it.” That was the sentiment Josh was trying to preach, but the words felt sour coming out of KC’s mouth, like the bit of stomach acid that came up right before you vomited.

“I don’t know if either of you sick freaks noticed, but none of us are laughing,” Mike bit out, waving around that gun of his as he spoke. 

Josh was though, he was laughing at the horror on all of their faces, probably not noticing that his own accomplice carried the same expression. But he walked them all through it anyway, told them about all of his plans and how he did them. No doubt hoping that, at some point, someone would crack up along with him. 

“Josh. . .” Sam began. “Why are you doing this?” 

KC wondered if she was serious. She couldn’t be, right? She had to know what would push him to this. 

“Don’t even ask this squirrelly little runt,” Mike bit out. “He’s got no clue. He’s out of his fucking tree.”

“Well he’s definitely off his meds.” Chris eyed Josh, a line of worry between his brows.

Josh laughed. “Aw come on, you guys. Revenge is the best medicine.”

“And what about your actual medicine, Josh?” KC bit out, looking at Josh and watching the way his face shifted, some of the amusement leaving the lines of his face.

“Are you kidding me, Killer?” he asked, sounding hurt at the mention. “I thought you wanted this as much as I did.”

“You can call me killer all you want but it doesn’t make me one.” KC didn’t know how to convince him to take his meds the way he has before, it would cause too much of a scene. “I wanted to get back at them for what happened to Hannah and Beth, sure. But not like this. Not down here. Not when it’s going to push you over the edge like this.”

He could see Josh slowly shutting him out, the walls being built behind his eyes. He couldn’t keeping attacking him like this, it would do no good for any of them. But everyone was watching him, Ash still hadn’t looked away.

“It’s worth it, Killer!” Josh said, flinging his arms wide. “All this was just a game, just a little fun to get the blood pumping. You know that, right?”

“You’re done,” Mike said, stepping forward with his gun. His jaw was clenched and if it weren’t for how dark it was KC might have seen the tears brimming his eyes.

“Mike, he’s sick—” Chris tried to remedy it, just like he always did. He tried to pull Mike back, to get him to put the gun away.

“What? Come on, you guys are all going to thank me when you become internet sensations!” That smile returned to his face, the one that didn’t reach the creases of his eyes but still showed too much of the whites. “You better believe this little puppy is going viral ladies and germs.”

“No. You’re not doing this,” KC said, voice shaking from how he bordered on pleading with this man. “Come on, Josh. Where are your meds?” He reached up to take his hand, turning away from everyone so he didn’t have to see the way they looked at him for how he talked to Josh. 

“I don’t need my meds.” Josh placed a hand on KC’s shoulder. “I’m fine! Great even.”

“Bullshit,” KC laughed, a hollow ache in his chest. “You know you’re not no matter how many times you try to tell yourself that. Just please, tell me where your meds are and I’ll help you take them. You can’t possibly like wanting to hurt people like this, can you? Please, Josh, I don’t want you to have to be taken away again.”

Josh was quiet for a good long moment, his eyes narrowed on KC, not even bothering to look at anyone else. And then he spoke. “They’re in my room. In the drawer.”

KC heaved a sigh of relief, he didn’t even look back at the others to know what they thought of him. He was out the way they came as soon as Josh told him where to go.

The room used to be full of pictures. Ones from parties, family trips, even ones Josh had just snapped of his sisters for fun. They were all face down now. The ache of knowing what was missing was just as bad as it would have been seeing them, but KC thinks they would approve of his rifling around Josh’s room.

Josh never specified which drawer the pills were in so KC spent the time ripping each one open, most of them were empty but the ones that weren’t he made sure he saw ever inch of that drawer. It would be just like Josh to leave the pills just floating around. But there were none. There wasn’t a single pill in any of his drawers. The fucker had lied, KC knew it had been too easy. 

KC drew his bottom lip between his teeth, attempting to believe the best of Josh. He’d keep looking. KC wanted to believe that Josh wouldn’t lie to him just to get him out of the way, but it was pretty hard to do knowing that something like that is a very Josh thing to do. 

“I swear to god if I ever get that boy medicated he owes me,” KC muttered as he checked pockets. Dinner would be nice, maybe a vacation, a car. . . he knew Josh had the money for all of it and then some. 

A box under the bed. That was something he hadn’t noticed before. When he pulled it out he lifted it onto the bed to get a better look at it. It was a jewelry box, 'Hannah' written in glitter pen across the top. KC’s stomach dropped, his fingers gingerly found the latch and lifted the top off. The song was nothing more than a dying whisper, but he saw the bottle, lain next to a collection of jewelry—Hannah’s favorite.