Until Dawn

Chapter 7: Broken Friends

     "Josh??" Chris looked up at our friend, his eyes unfocused. 

     Josh's laughter run out through the room. Deep belly laughs, and a smile that was plastered to his face. I stepped toward him but found my shoulders held firmly in place by Mike. Instead he pulled me back and led me toward Ashley and Chris. We both began undoing the arm restraints binding them to the chairs. 

     "Josh..." Mike looked up from Chris's sitting figure to look at our friend. He was pacing around us all, a smile plastered to his face. Droplets of sweat beaded on his skin and wound down his dirty cheek. 

     "Oh good, good. Very good. You all got my name!" Josh chuckled backing away from us, his arms spread wide in gesture to us all. 

     "And after all you've been through?! Good- good- good! I mean, how does that feel?! How does it feel? Do, do you enjoy feeling terrorized? Humiliated, I mean, panicked?" The smile faded from his face slowly. 

     "All those things that my sisters got to feel once one year ago? Only guess what! They didn't get to laugh it off! No! Nope! No no no, they're gone!!!" Our eyes didn't leave Josh's frame. I should have been more afraid of him, or... or irritated but at the same time I pitied him instead. He was broken, so much worse than any of us could have ever imagined. 

     "I don't know if you noticed this, Josh, but none of us are laughing." Mike's eyes were narrowed. It was his angry expression, one I'd seen a few times when we were younger but it had never seemed this severe. I glanced at his bound fingers. 

     "Oh come, come- come- come on! Why the long faces?! Come on! It's good to get the heart racing every now and then, right? And race they did, I mean, every one of you,  just pitter-pat! I hope you appreciated my little phantasmagorical spectacle! I mean no detail too small! No opportunity missed! it was such a delight to play the puppet master to all of your Pavlovian panic! And all that gore? i mean, gore, there was gore galore!!! Fake bodies... I mean, God that shit was expensive. And no retakes. Nope, nope, nope! Only double takes! You should have seen your faces! Hook line and sinker, for every little stinker!" The smile slowly returned to Josh's face. I couldn't help it I walked around Ashley to stand between her and him. 

     "Josh.... You're an ass." I'd meant to tell him that he needed help, but the words tumbled out before I could stop them. He rose his eyebrows slowly in question. 

     "So you got a little dirty! No one got hurt!" He spat out. Mike's figure made his way to my side, disbelief evident in his face. 

     "What are you talking about you ass hat? Jessica is Fucking Dead!" He spat out. Chris and Ashley turned there horrified expressions to him. Begging him to just be fucking with them. 

      "What?" For once Josh's expression was of confusion, instead of glee or sadness. 

     "Did you hear me? Jessica, is dead." Mike stalked forward toward Josh. "And you are gonna PAY YOU FUCKING DICK!" Involuntarily I cried out as Mike lashed out, the butt of a gun connecting with Josh's temple. He crumpled to the ground and I darted forward, dropping to my knees beside Josh. 

     "Mike..." 

     "Tie him up." Mike walked away from me slowly, his chest was rising and falling unevenly. I turned away from Josh in time for a small bundle of rope to land beside my knee. Chris was watching me warily as if I would turn on them. Shaking my head I quickly grabbed the rope and turned around to roll Josh's body over. Before binding his hands behind his back I pressed my fingers against a warm spot on his neck. His pulse beat steadily under the pressure. I sighed before sitting back on my heels.