"Kill them? All of them?" Mike nodded at Sam's question.
She shook her head a few times looking around the room and then focused her gaze back on him.
"You and I were on the same mountain right? There was at least a dozen of those things left." Sam said to him.
Mike took a breath and nodded. "I know. But we don't have another choice. Its fucking with everyone without them even knowing. That's why Jess feels all weird. Somewhere she knows that- that she's right fuckin' next to that godamn mountain."
Sam nodded. "We can't just- I dont know, hire someone?" Mike started to laugh at Sam and then she gave him a look and he stopped.
"Sorry, sorry. Just- hire someone? You mean like a professional? Where would we even find someone like that?" Mike asked her.
Sam looked down at her lap as she twiddled her fingers.
"I don't know it's just. I dont want to go in blind."
"We went in blind before. And we all survived it then. Why should it be any different now?" Mike asked.
Sam sighed and leaned back onto the bed. "Mike. We all barely got out of there. One little slip up and we would've been dead. I don't know if I can handle that again."
Mike scooted towards Sam on the bed and wrapped his arm around her. He looked over the clock on the table next to him and saw the time read 2:03.
"I know. I know. But we don't have to think about it right now. We can talk more tomorrow or whenever you want to. It doesn't have to be right now. Especially since it's late and I'm exhausted. We haven't been able to sleep through the night since we went up there."
"I don't mind. It keeps me from dreaming about it." Sam explained. Mike nodded in agreement as the two laid down.
"It'll be okay. If you wake up, just wake me up. I'm right here." Mike said to her. Sam smiled slightly and then faced him as she slowly closed her eyes and drifted off as Mike watched her sleeping.
He didn't want to admit it to her but he hoped she would keep him awake longer. He didn't want to have the dreams either. He hated them. He tried to stay awake at all costs.
He moved a strand of Sam's hair out of her face and smiled slightly.
He was falling hard and he wasn't going to try and deny it. He knew himself that he loved this girl. He only wished he had seen it sooner.
He bit his lip at the thought. About how awkward they had been but now they were sleeping in the same bed.
It was the mountain that had brought them together finally but he wasn't sure how Sam really felt. He knew what she said at the hospital and what she did was all her being her. The truth.
But he couldn't just leave it like that. He needed promise. Promise that she wouldn't lie about her feelings to him. For him. He wanted to know her thoughts every time he saw a hurt expression on her face but sadly he couldn't read minds.
Especially not hers. She was so hard to read for him. Then again, she was hard to read for anyone. That is except Josh. He knew how to pick away at her and find everything. Mike envied that.
He wished he could be more like Josh. Except of course his psychotic behavior on the mountain. Sam seemed to be very open to him. His only wish was that he could be there for her like Josh was.
Even if Josh liked her more then what he hoped, he thought maybe he could learn from him. What he did with her and how he acted with her.
Maybe he could make her open up more just based on how he acted.
Mike took a breath in after all his thinking and then closed his eyes slowly and began to sleep.
His mind was filled with dreams of the blonde he so desperately wanted to uncover.
She would look at him with this look that made him stop breathing. He couldn't help it. For all of his other girlfriends he was tough and he wasn't quick to show his true self.
But Sam's one look and he would spill his guts. He had tried before. To copy her look.
But only she could do it. His just made her smile. In his dream he blinked a few times and they were back in the cabin.
Where they had all escaped and it was blown to bits.
He thought maybe this dream would be like the others. Him dying in the house while everyone else made it out to safety. Or that they would just be stuck there, standing still forever.
But this- this was different. He was over by the light bulb, it was already broken in his hand as he looked up at the shards falling onto his palm.
He slowly turned and saw Hannah, or at least the Wendigo version of her, turning towards him.
He remembered this happening. More times then he would like to. But he remembered Sam saving his life. If she hadn't done something then he would be as good as dead.
That thing knew exactly where he was. It would've ripped him apart.
"Hey!" Right on cue, Sam yelled at the Wendigo staring into his very soul and it turned to look in her reaction.
She stood as still as someone could be standing when worrying about life and death. She was shaking a bit as it neared her. Then she looked over at him with a pained expression and before he could figure out what it meant, the Wendigo grabbed Sam's face and swung her into the air, plunging it's long lanky arm through her abdomen.
Mike's mouth fell open as he felt his tears threatening to fall in an instant. Before he could even stop himself, he yelled after. "YOU FUCK!." He fell to the ground on his knees as his shoulders moved up and down with his sobbing.
"Sam.." he whispered to himself. He felt agony gripping him. He felt angry rising up in him as he raised his head to see the Wendigo still holding Sam in the air.
"No." He said. He stood up and grabbed the shards of glass he had in his hand and hurled it in the Wendigo's back. "How's that feel ya fuck?" He asked.
He heard the Wendigo scream out in pain as it turned to his direction. And then it gave a look and shrunk down. Into Hannah.
"Mike.."
He shook his head. "No. No no. Youre not Hannah. Get the fuck away from me." She ignored his words and drew closer and closer.
With each step, her already abnormally large smile grew larger and larger.
"Don't you want to pull the prank- all the way?" She asked.
He shook his head and put his hands on his forehead.
"Fuck. Fuck no. Sam! Where is Sam!" He screamed.
Hannah seemed normal as she walked over to him and put her hand on his back.
"Mike.. Sam has been missing for over two years. What are you talking about?" Hannah asked him.
He shook his head, still crying and backing away. "No. You're lying." He said to her, pointing a finger at her face.
"You're lying. She isn't. She's okay." He said shaking his head.
Hannah shook her head and then looked down. "Mike. Sam is missing. She's probably more then missing after all this time. You need to think about this Mike."
He shook his head and cried some more and then felt himself being dragged towards Hannah. "Now it's your turn." She said to him, morphing back into the Wendigo.
"No!" He screamed. He fought back against whatever was pinning him down and then he felt himself sit up in the bed next to Sam.
He was drenched in sweat as he looked down at her, sleeping peacefully. He let out a breath and then shook his head one more time.
"Ugh. What the fuck." He said to himself. He looked up and wiped his hands against his face. Wiping off tears that he unknowingly been crying in his sleep.
He then felt his slight beard that must've just started to grow in as he had shaved a few days before going up to the lodge.
He scratched it and felt how long it was already. It must've looked awful.
He sighed and flopped down onto the mattress and put the pillow onto his face.
He tried going back to sleep. But he couldn't.
He glanced at the clock and saw the time read 3:28
An hour. A little over an hour he had slept.
Sam hadn't woken up, or at least that's what he thought since she hadn't woken him up.
He let out a breath and sat up. Then laid back down and tried to sleep one more time.
And this time, he did. And no dreams came into his mind.
~~~~~~~
Matt was the first in the place to wake up the next morning.
He got out of bed and saw Mike and Sam cuddling together on the pull out mattress as they slept. He smiled to himself, thinking how far they had come. How far they all had.
He remembered how Mike had been so kind to him even when he didn't need to be.
And Sam was always nice. No matter what.
He made himself some coffee and then headed back to his room as to not disturb Sam and Mike. As he started walking back to his room, he poked his head into Jess's room.
He saw her staring out the window, the blinds only showing through a sliver of light.
He walked into her room and leaned against the frame, staying silent.
Jess had heard him and slowly turned with a smile forming on her lips. "Hey." She said to him. He waved back at her and started to walk towards her bed.
"How'd you sleep after.. well everything?" He mentioned delicately.
He hadn't even asked what she had been screaming about the night before. He assumed it was a dream but he had no idea.
"I slept through the night after that. For the most part." She replied, scooting over so Matt could sit next to her.
"For the most part?" He asked.
Jess chuckled to herself. "Yeah." She said shortly.
Matt wanted to press but he knew she wouldn't tell him anymore.
"Well how do you feel?" He asked her.
She leaned her head on him and smiled. "I feel better." She replied.
Matt smiled at her response. "Good. I'm glad." He said to her.
In Jess's mind she felt almost the same. Not any better or any worse. But she didn't want to worry Matt. Or the doctors. Or her therapist. She couldn't.
They would just prescribe more meds and send her off on her merry way.
She hated feeling so brittle and useless while everyone was always around her asking if she needed anything.
She huffed at the thought of more meds. She hated them. They made her feel like she needed them to feel better but she knew she didn't.
She didn't want to need them. She liked being there for herself. Making herself get better without any help.
Matt had made it hard for her to push him away. No matter what he was always there. Even her little outbreaks didn't scare him away. She guessed all of the time he had spent with Emily made him build up a resistance to it.
She chuckled at her thoughts. But then she remembered Emily when she had visited. She seemed genuine. And kinder then she ever had been.
She bit her lip as she thought about it. Maybe she has changed.
She looked up at Matt to see him looking right back at her with a warm smile accompanying his gaze.
"You want any breakfast?" He asked her. She nodded eagerly as he laughed and started to leave to go make her some breakfast.
When he stepped out into the hallway, he heard his phone ringing.
He figured it was a spam call as he would always get those and continued on his way to the kitchen.
Little had he known, he would receive multiple and multiple missed calls from Chris and Ashley.