Barely Alive - Josh Washington x Reader

Chapter 8

Y/n's POV:

The snow crunched under my footsteps. My arms wrapped around myself as we walked towards the lodge. My cheeks were stained by salty tears, which were continuously  rolling down my cheeks. I could see my breathing every time I exhaled, reminding me I was still alive, but Josh wasn't.

"Y/n, we have to keep moving..." Chris spoke, but was met by an angry glare. His tone immediately changed and he could sense how angry I was.

"Y/n, we don't have time for this, we need to tell-" My eyes narrowed at him.

"We don't have time for this? We don't have time to mourn over your friend!" Chris flinched at my sudden outburst,and Ashley jumped at my raised voice as well. She was startled, and turned back to me with a slight grunt of annoyance. 

"I'm not saying what he did was right... but Josh has been trying to kill himself a few times before. " Ashley mumbled, scoffing as my hand came in contact with her cheek. Before I had comprehended her sentence, a daze of anger blocked my vision, and in the current emotion I had slapped her hard.

"You bastard! He didn't deserve to die!" I couldn't help but snap in her face, earning a disapproving scoff from my brother.
"You barely know him! You met him today!" He pushed me away from his crush, asking if she was okay and telling her to cool it with some snow. His words only added fuel to my ever growing anger and sadness. 

"I also met her today, but I already know she's a total bitch!" I confessed and she scoffed in my direction. She was about to charge at me, but was stopped by a sudden figure holding her back, and as Chris was standing by my side, it wasn't any of us that could be holding her. We all jumped and screamed at the sudden presence, before turning silent again as Matt and Emily stepped into the light.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Matt asked, and as the memories from the previous 30 minutes seeped back into my mind, another fit of sobs fell from my lips. Matt looked at my with worry in his eyes, and I turned to Chris for support.

"H-he's dead... he's gone..." I said in between sobs. 

"Y/n, tell me what's wrong..." I pointed in the direction of the shed.
"Josh is dead... h-he got ripped in half , there was a voice  a-and..." Matt's eyes widened and I could hear Emily behind him gasp and place her hand over her mouth in shock. 

"There's a maniac on the mountain, and h-he experimenting on u-us or something..."

"Oh my god, we need to get out of here!" Emily exclaimed, for some reason not even questioning any further. Matt agreed with a quick nod, turning back to the three of us and already trying to think of some kind of plan.

"We need to find Mike, Jess and Sam and get out of here, okay?"The four of us nodded at his words, and as Emily offered to go back to the lodge, we nodded again and quickly headed for the wooden cabin. 

I couldn't tell if I had imagined it, but there had been a strange sound coming from behind me. I turned towards it, and eyed the silent woods.

"Did you guys hear that?" Chris turned to me and shrugged.
"I didn't hear anything..."
"I feel like something's there." I whispered, eyes averting back to the front and meeting the ones of my brother. He shook his head and eyed the woods as well, before convincing himself nothing was there.
"There's nothing there Y/n, I'm sure of it..." He sounded unsure, but I figured we both just tried ignore the sensation of being followed. Even if there was something following us, we would be better off ignoring it.

When we finally arrived at the lodge, Matt quickly opened the door and let everybody in.
"Alright, where's everybody at? Sam?" He looked around the group. I shrugged when he made eye contact, motioning I didn't know where Sam was.

"Mike and Jess went to the cabin!" Ashley exclaimed, snapping her fingers at her own thoughts.

"Shit we need to get them!"
"No, we're staying here!" Emily said angrily to Matt, who turned to her.
"We need to get our friends!" She shook her head with a stubborn look.

"No, I'm not risking my life to save them!"
"They would have done the same thing!" Ashley spoke, but Emily seemed as unconvinced as ever. From her bag she retrieved a map, folded several times. The whole mountain was displayed on the thing, and by using this we had a more broad view of every spot the maniac could be hiding. Emily pointed towards the lodge.

"This is where we are now..." Her fingers trailed towards a radio tower, and then towards the cabin.
"There's a radio in that tower over there, we can use that to call for help..." I nodded and so did the rest of the group.

"What about Mike and Jess?" I asked and she sighed.
"I think we need to split up..." I swallowed and nodded hesitantly. The rest of the group joined in on the idea. Emily and Matt would go to the radio tower, Chris, Ashley and I would try to find Sam and go to the cabin.

"What about the cable car?" I asked and Chris cursed. I walked towards the front door of the lodge, wood creaking under my footsteps. A similar sound could be heard from the other side of the lodge, where Matt and Emily left out the back door.
"Josh has the cable car key..." I stopped walking. That meant we had to get back to his body.
"That means..."

"Yupp..." I looked at Chris, tears welling into my eyes at the thought of going back to Josh' body. Chris sighed and Ashley just stayed silent, which was probably the best idea at this moment.
We walked in the cold back towards the little shed. Once arriving there, I took a deep breath before turning the corner. Chris hesitantly walked alongside of me into the shed, and Ashley stayed outside. She told us she couldn't bear the smell. I walked into the lodge, towards the place where he died.
I gasped as his body wasn't hanging there anymore.
"What the hell?!" Chris exclaimed once he noticed too. Ashley ran into the lodge, quickly walking towards us.
"W-where's Josh?" I shrugged while my eyes were still staring at the spot he died at. The wood was perfectly clean, and the saw was nowhere around, as if the murder had never happened.

I ran outside and yelled Josh name. Chris quickly following m and doing the same.
"Josh!" I yelled into the night. I froze in place as we heard a loud sound responding to our calls, something screeching.
"We need to get out of here! what the fuck was that?" Ashley said and she headed back towards the cabin, Chris and I following. I could hear silent footsteps behind me, making me speed up a little more. We arrived at the cabin and noticed the door was open.

"Get in." Ashley snapped back at us. She ran up to the lodge and quickly opened the door, she turned to us and I saw her eyes widen when we ran past her into the cabin. She quickly shut the door behind us, and locked it. We heard another loud screech just outside the cabin door, then footsteps walking away from us. I pointed towards the broken window in the door, the glass was shattered across the floor, and I  could see a hint of blood against the side. 

"What the hell was that?!" Ashley yelled, while falling to her knees.
"It wasn't human, it was crawling behind us, but it seemed like a person or something..." She mumbled to herself. I knew enough. We needed to get off this mountain. I turned to Chris, who was panting just as heavily as I was.
"You heard that, right?" He nodded, still staring at the door.

"Yeah, loud and clear."