Cameron Keen never expected her life to become entangled in the horrors of Blackwood Mountain.
Drawn back by a past she can't escape, she soon finds herself face to face with her old friend Josh Washington, a man haunted not just by grief, but...
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SECRETS.
The three finally made it to the back of the basement, their footsteps echoing. Chris was the first to spot something unusual—a large, open entryway that had clearly been hidden before, covered by wallpaper that had since peeled away, revealing the dark passage.
"Are you kidding me?" Chris muttered, running a hand over the worn edges of the exposed entry. "This is like a whole 'nother hotel. I had no idea this was here." He ventured further inside, his eyes scanning the abandoned space.
From the disrepair and thick dust coating the surfaces, it was clear that this part of the lodge had been forgotten—left to rot and decay, unseen by anyone for what could have been decades.
Ashley took a shaky breath, stepping hesitantly behind him. "I don't know if I can take any more of this..." She glanced nervously at the crumbling walls and the unfamiliar, claustrophobic space.
Chris nodded, his eyes not leaving the darkened hall ahead. "Yeah, I'm about at my limit here too." The bravado he'd shown earlier had faded.
Ashley's voice was strained as she spoke again. "All I wanted to do was forget last year ever happened..."
Cameron, walking beside them, stiffened at the mention of last year. It had been impossible to forget. Her knuckles whitened as her hands curled into fists at her sides, but she said nothing.
"To be honest, I'm not sure what Hannah thought she was doing." Chris muttered. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, as if doing so could help him see the situation more clearly.
Cameron's head whipped toward him, her eyes sharp. "What did you say?" Her words came out more forceful than she intended. "If it was you, don't you think you would've run away too?"
She didn't wait for an answer, her irritation building. "Who the hell likes being made fun of?" Her voice quivered with anger, and she could feel the weight of that familiar guilt pressing down on her.
Chris chuckled weakly, but there was no humor in the sound. He stared at the ground, his face contorted in a grimace. "Nobody really makes fun of me."
Cameron crossed her arms tightly, her voice lowering but still sharp. "Not to your face." She let the words hang between them like a slap in the face. "We made her look so stupid in front of all her friends and the guy she liked."
The memory had always felt suffocating, and she shook her head, disgusted at the cruelty of it all.
Chris and Ashley fell silent as they continued on. Their footsteps, once steady, now felt slower, more burdened by the regret that followed them.
