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[ Chris ]
The overwhelming atmosphere was too much for me to handle.
As we climbed down the slope, a sense of dread came over me.
The mines weren't exactly my favourite place to be.
The former group of investigators did never show up again.
We waited for ten days after they left. Today is the eleventh day of waiting for them.
No matter what I did, the feeling of being watched did never leave. I felt a pair of eyes always on me, staring, studying me and my every move.
As I asked the different officers and investigators, they said I was hallucinating. Paranoid. Imagining things because of the trauma we all had, as survivors of a night no one would ever be able to forget.
I still don't understand what exactly happened, or how. It's all a blurry. You really wish to 'unsee' those things, and that's probably why you can't remember every single detail.
Sometimes you even feel like you don't remember anything. Your brain is trying to protect you with this kind of phenomenon, though.
While exploring the mines, I started to remember a lot of details of what happened back then. I was at the verge of vomiting, and crying at the same time. One of the officers gave me a handkerchief as he saw my current state.
As we walked through the destroyed mine shafts, some parts were still collapsing. It was way too dangerous for anyone to enter, yet there we were.
I didn't think things would end the way they did, though.
We tried to find Josh.
Mike said he was alive when the Wendigo, that was presumably Hannah, carried him away. If that was the case, and Hannah was killed in the burning lodge, then Josh was all alone in a cave by himself.
We checked all the different corners, all the caves & the doors. We walked alongside the rails, trying to find my best friend.
The events from that night happened 25 days ago.
We hoped to find the other investigators.
We hoped that Josh didn't starve to death.
When we found him, he wasn't dead, indeed.
But I wouldn't describe him as alive, either.
His long, bloodied, razor-sharp teeth were facing towards us, as well as his long fingers. My breath hitched, my heartbeat felt off, and I slowly made my way towards him. His gaze was fixed on me, indeed, and now I knew which pair of eyes started watching me as soon as we entered the cave.
One of the police officers pulled me back, which made a loud growl echo in the lair. I put the bag I had with me on the ground, slowly, very slowly.
I gulped harshly when my best friend got up from the ground, still watching us cautiously. He wore the clothes from before, but they were ripped apart, mostly.
"Hello, Joshua. How are you feeling? We were searching for you, to make sure you're okay. We are here to help, do you understand?"
Oh, they didn't understand anything.
They didn't know anything.
They started walking towards poor Josh. They brought ropes and chains with them.
The partly turned Wendigo started growling again. I knew what was going to happen next.
"Stop! Do NOT move, under any circumstances. Stay fucking still."
I warned them.
I did.
One of them actually came to a halt.
The seven other ones did not.
Josh met my gaze. I closed my eyes, and as soon as I did, I heard screaming.
Skin was slit open, wet drops hit my face, and the screams from before were nothing more than whimpering and a disgusting, gurgling kind of sound.
I didn't dare to move, neither did I want to look and check what was happening.
Only when I felt a pair of strong arms wrap tightly around me from behind, I slowly opened my eyes. I only saw two dead police men in front of me, the other investigators were probably on the ground behind us.
The scene didn't exactly shock me. Josh did not cut them open or do any other sadistic thing with them, he just made sure their artery was cut so they wouldn't survive the attack.
Just so they wouldn't be able to tie & lock him up. Was that self-defense?
Why did this not concern or shock me at all?
Those people had a family. They had loved ones, and just because of this goddamn mountain and it's curse, they were slaughtered.
Not only that, but my best friend slaughtered them, without batting an eyelash.
I felt his hot breath on my neck, his hands on my hips. His mouth was making me nervous, and the smell of death surrounded us. His sharp nails were slightly poking my stomach, my shirt gained a few holes through that. His breathing was heavy, but I wasn't able to feel any kind of heartbeat.
"K.. Ch.."
He tried saying something, probably my name, but couldn't. His partly transformed body didn't allow him to talk.
Instead, only a small, very small screech left his mouth. I sighed, carefully touching his arm.
"It's okay. I'm here."
He nuzzled my throat, and my breathing hitched again. I felt his long, dangerous teeth.
They weren't hurting me, but they could rip my skin open through grazing only.
He noticed my tense posture and carefully, very carefully caressed my stomach.
I was not able to relax, though.
As I tried turning my head, one of his teeth poked my skin. I hissed slightly, and he instantly let go of me, head hung down low in shame as if he did it on purpose. I shook my head, carefully pressing my finger onto the small wound, maybe the size of a wound a needle would do.
My eyes fell to all the bodys on the ground. Blood was everywhere, and as I wiped through my face, I wiped off a lot of blood, too.
"Josh, could you-- could you please put these corpses away? They are making me uncomfortable."
My best friend started piling them before lifting the pile on his arms and carrying them away.
He put them in some kind of indent, and there was another pile of bodies already in there. The first group of investigators, probably.
I sighed and sat down on a stone, searching through my bag. What the hell was I supposed to do now?
I didn't notice that he was back already, and jumped when I saw his eyes pop up from behind the bag. He reminded me of a dog in this situation, and I couldn't help myself as I started petting his head. I was glad his hair did not fall out.
He sighed and pushed away my hand, so I continued rummaging.
"I found something that may be a bit of a help."
I took out some scissors, and he raised his left eyebrow. "I'll cut your nails short. I hope that this won't hurt, but it doesn't hurt normal humans, soo.."
Josh sat down beside me and I started cutting his nails. He did not show any kind of reaction, so I figured it would be okay.
I cut them as short as I could, just to a normal length. I tried touching them, and they weren't as sharp as before, so that was great.
After that, I cut a bit of his hair off that was growing faster than usual, and inspected his teeth. There was no way I was able to dull them. They probably needed to be pulled out, so a dentist could put in new, normal ones.
Also, since his mouth got wider, that would need some stitches to get it to the normal size again.
I cleaned up his face with a bit of water, disinfectant and a handkerchief.
Suddenly, as I was checking up on his face, I felt his hand on my hip. I looked up at him, at his wide, milky eyes, and he smiled a bit. Carefully, very carefully, he pulled me close and hugged me. Startled, I didn't know how to react to his affection, but then returned the hug. Instead of letting go after a few seconds, he didn't seem like he was planning on ever letting me leave.
Sighing, I got comfortable against his hard chest, cuddling up to him. His temperature wasn't exactly as warm as mine, but it was okay.
I felt his chest rumble, and a small purr left his lips. That made me chuckle.
Goddamnit, that was cute.
I saw him taking my bag, but I felt rather sleepy. He took out the blanket I brought and wrapped it around me. A few minutes later, I fell asleep.
My glasses were pushed off my face, onto the ground, but I couldn't care less.
It was warm, and I was with Josh.
I was save.
[ - ]
"Chris! Wake up!"
"Wake the fuck up already, I swear, if you don't open your goddamn eyes right now-"
Slowly, I came back to my senses. It was cold, dark and uncomfortable where I laid.
As I opened my eyes, I looked right into Ashleys face. I recognized Mike and Sam with her.
"What..?"
"Why are you sleeping? Where are the officers, and where is Josh?"
I blinked tiredly, yawned and sat up. "Huh?"
I looked around. I was in some kinda cave, my bag was used as a pillow, and my blanket was on top of me.
"I.. I don't know, I- Uh.."
I rubbed my head, looking for my glasses. Ashley gave them to me, and I cleaned them before putting them on again. She instantly hugged me, and I wrapped my arms around her, carefully.
Memories then started flooding my mind again.
Josh.
Panicking, I checked the ceiling and all the corners of the small cave we were in.
"We found Josh, and he- he had turned into a Wendigo. Just a bit, though. He was okay. He was-- okay, really."
I looked at Mike and Sam, staring at me in disbelief.
"Where are the investigators, then?"
"Dead. He killed them, in self-defense."
Sam sat down beside us, rubbing her face.
"Goddamnit, I can't believe it. This is shit."
"Do you even know how long you've been here?"
"Well, no, my phone doesn't have any battery left."
Mike raised an eyebrow.
"A week. Today is the eighth day, to be precise."
"I swear, I have no idea how I got here. He probably carried me away while I was sleeping. I can't remember sleeping that long though, what the hell.."
I felt Ash cuddle up to me and sighed, holding her close. My hand found its way into her hair, stroking it.
I felt like being watched again though, so I let go of her and stood up slowly.
I continued looking around, and in a pretty far away corner, I catched a bright pair of eyes staring right at me. That made me jump and take a few steps back.
As the others noticed, they stayed completely still and stared at the figure crawling on the walls.
"We killed all the Wendigos, didn't we?"
"Yes, we did. That must be Josh, then."
I heard Sam and Mike whisper, so I shushed them. Slowly, I walked up to the figure, and came to a halt as soon as I heard it shriek.
Suddenly, it jumped down right in front of me, and I recognized Joshs clothing.
He was one stage away from having transformed into a full wendigo.
I stood still. Completely still. His face was coming too near for my liking, but I still didn't move as he stared into my eyes. I felt like he saw me, no matter if I moved or not.
I saw his big claws, but nails cut short. His hair had fallen out a bit, but his beanie was on his head.
He still had his fangs, but completely dulled.
Just what did he do to himself?
I carefully took a step back, and that made him shriek again.
"Josh, it's okay. I'm here."
I used the same exact words that I used before, making him go silent.
When I took a step forward again, he did not show any kind of negative reaction.
I touched his arm. He seemed startled, looking at my hand and then back at my face.
I looked over my shoulder, checking up on Mike, Sam and Ashley. They continued being completely still, not moving a muscle. I nodded slightly before looking back at Josh.
This could kill me, but I needed to try anyway.
Carefully, I slid my hand down his arm, took one more step towards him and hugged him.
I heard him growl, but still put my head on his shoulder and held him close. A few seconds later, I felt his arms also wrap around me, his growling slowly turning into purring.
We held each other close, and I felt like I was able to hear a heartbeat now.
The thought of Josh, alive and well inside of this body, made me smile. My smile turned into a chuckle, and my chuckle turned into a laugh.
I was feeling lightheaded.
Probably some gas leaking that shouldn't be leaking.
I looked at Joshs eyes. He stared at me, and suddenly, he lifted me onto his shoulders.
"Huh!"
He started crawling up the wall, and I held onto his head, panicking. What was going on now?
I heard the three others yell after us, but to no avail; he carried me away, deeper into the mines. Deeper, even deeper than we were before.
He misunderstood my hug, probably.
Until this day, I still wonder what would have happened if we went outside. If we got help for him, if we changed the behavior we had shown when we were in the cave.
That, back then, was the last time that I ever saw anyone of my friends.
He never brought me back.
He never did.
He never did.