After the unspeakable tragedy of last year, Charlie Pruitt never would've guessed she'd leave her sunny safe haven in California and return to that mountain. A mountain tainted with loss, horror, and unknown death. Thrown back into a group of friend...
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"I DON'T KNOW, JOSH," Charlie continued hesistantly, cradling her phone between her palm and cheek. "I really don't think it's a good idea that I come."
"What?" The Washington boy's voice was riddled with disbelief. "That's insane! You were literally the twins' best friend! You of all people should be there, Charlie."
The Pruitt girl's lips sucked together in protest. "Maybe, but...I just...you know, with them not around anymore...and me moving to L.A. for school, I just...I haven't really talked to anybody."
"Hey, aren't we talking?" She could hear his ridiculous smirk through the phone. "And Sam told me you guys spoke last week."
The girl nodded in slight defeat. "Okay, yeah, I sometimes talk to Sam and I can put up with you," she chuckled sarcastically. "But like, the others? Ash, Chris, Em...Mike..."
"I know," Josh answered in a softer tone. "It's gonna be weird going back, but...I really think we should do this. For Hannah and Beth, right? I want us to have a good time."
Charlie couldn't help but let out a dry snort at that. "Back up there? On that mountain? Josh, that place has always given me the creeps."
A silence drained between the two as Josh failed to respond, and a sinking feeling in Charlie's chest suggested she might've said something wrong. That she was getting too defensive. "I-I'm just...really focused on school here, and I really don't fit in with that group anymore. I'm not the same person I was last year. C'mon, you know that, Josh."
"Hey, I'm not asking that you try to become best friends with any of them again," Josh laughed drily through his words. "But I really think you should come. I know things must be great and...warm, down there in California. But who knows? You could have a lot of fun."
Charlie was still rippled with indecisiveness as she continued to stare at the fading sunset, struggling to give him an answer.
"It would really mean a lot to me that you come, Charlie. It's just one weekend, anyway. Please."
Another fleeting moment of silence fell between them, the passing seconds making her heartbeat quicken. "Fine," she conceded through gritted teeth, her fingers gripping her phone tightly. "I'll come. But you better step it up with your booze collection this year, Joshua. If I'm gonna party, then I'm gonna party, you know?"
The brunet boy let out a celebratory laugh on the other end. "Looks like you haven't changed that much, Pruitt."
"Ha ha," Charlie shook her head. "I'm serious. Bring on the entertainment, Josh," she uttered a quick goodbye before hanging up, letting herself collapse onto her bed in defeat mingled with new apprehension.
One thing Charlie had always failed to tell the Washingtons was the real reason she drank while on the mountain: she was terrified. Although the snowy peaks and winter forest proved to be beautiful during the day, an untamable fear would always swirl in her mind once night came.
Ever since she was little, making weekend trips with the Washington family as the sisters' plus one, there was an unsettled instinct inside her that told her of danger. It carried into adulthood, and she had always possessed a feeling that something vicious, something deadly lived on those mountains.
This suspicion grew much worse after the twins disappeared, and for weeks Charlie found herself submerged in the mystery. She listened to horror podcasts, read police reports, articles, researched the mountain and Native American symbols and culture. It was a sick, strange sort of way to grieve over the loss of her best friends. But it never made the painful ebbing of horror ease up.
So she drank to make it go away. And the only person who knew of this and probably didn't even remember was Mike, when she had blindly uttered it to him during one of their high school trips. She was secretly terrified of the mountain.
It was a fear she'd hoped would never be proven true.
