Something to Bond Over || Until Dawn Jossam

The Prankster [Part 02]

"What happened to you?" Josh asks me quietly. "Jess? Last night? What happened to you last night?"

I look away for a moment, not really sure how much to say to someone already so... broken up.

"Come on, Jess. You can tell me anything," he tells me, squeezing his hand on my arm, rubbing it to give me comfort. I never knew how much I needed human interaction until now.

"It was some kind of... monster."

Josh sucks in a breath. He knows about the monster!

"What do you know about them?" I insist. If he brought us up here to get us all killed... I... I...

"Ha—The m-monster dragged me here, actually. I think it's its lair or something."

Oh, well, shit, so he didn't know about them either. Good. I don't know what I'd do if that was his plan all along. Josh is so much better than that—better than most of us anyways.

Still, why the fuck is this stupid mountain full of bad luck?

"It dragged me here, too. In the mines, I mean..." I offer, not really knowing why. Oh hi, we were both dragged by some fucking monster. Let's have a party! God, I miss parties.

"From the cabin?" Josh adds, bringing me away from my dreams of partying. "Yeah, I heard."

Heard?! From who? The only one who was in the cabin was—

"Mike," I whisper. "Mike, he... He came for me."

"Yeah, he told us," he replies with an edge to his tone.

Mike. I love him. I love him so much. He did everything he could to find me. I've never seen someone so devoted for me—so loyal to me. I love him. I love Michael so much I feel like I couldn't breathe from the emotion.

As such, I could feel my eyes well up with tears. "Is... Is he okay?" I ask in a small voice.

"I don't know," Josh says.

"Why don't—"

"Look, I'm just gonna say the elephant in the room: I'm not a good source of information. But if everything that I saw actually happened last night..."

"What?"

"Then... Then Mike was going to help me get out of this place but—" he stops himself, looking at me.

"But?"

He's doing it again—considering his words.

"But he didn't," he finally says with a sigh.

Why would he think too much about that? Unless he... Oh, he got dragged here by the monster alone when Mike was supposed to help him out... He's... He's...

"H-he's dead, isn't he?" I whimper. "M-Mike's dead?"

"Jess, we don't know that."

"Josh, what did you see? You have to tell me."

"Look, the-the monster... It wasn't interested in Mike. I just... We were in the water. Then suddenly, he was dragged underwater, and a second later, it came up and dragged me here. There's a big, big chance that Mike's still alive. The time difference was too short, even for a monster that quick," he deduces thoughtfully.

That's Josh. Intelligent and analytical when it comes to terrifying moments. I mean, even I won't think too hard enough on why the fall from the elevator shaft didn't kill me.

"What else did Mike tell you? Did he tell you anything about me?" I ask before thinking back. "You told me that he told you about me being taken?" I ask him, my full attention towards him.

"Y-yeah," he replies with an edge to his tone, putting his head down and crossing his arms as he does so. "That's it, really," he lies.

What could have Mike told him?

"Josh," I persist.

"What?" he asks me tiredly.

"What did Mike tell you about me and the cabin?" I ask him with a scared tone.

"I told you, it was nothing. He just said that someone took you from the cabin, and that he tried to run after you," he replies defensively.

Something's wrong with what he said.

"You said 'someone' but we both know it was 'something', Josh. What aren't you telling me?"

Josh sighs and turns to look at me. He raises his hand and points at the bruises on his forehead.

"Mike hit me."

My eyes widen at that. I thought that the bruises were from the monster, or from someone else. I never would have expected them to come from Mike. Especially with the fact that Mike had promised everyone that he will protect them. I always joked about his "protecting people" thing. It's noble of him, to be honest. It's an attractive part of him, too.

So, him, hitting Josh in the head? Josh, the sweetest though fondly grossest guy in our group?

"Is that all he did?" I ask him.

He hesitates but he shakes his head as a "no." Before I ask him what Mike did, he tells me, "Let's not go with the specifics, okay? I'm not... I don't like them either."

"But why would he—?" I pause.

Josh turns to look at me with a grave look in his eyes. "Jess, can we not talk about this?"

"No. No, we are so talking about this. I don't like being kept in the dark about these things. You have to tell me what's going on."

"I... It was..."

"What?"

"I was going to prank you, guys, too."

I feel a shiver creep up my spine at that. When I said that I felt fear when it comes to the wrath of Joshua Washington, well, I'm feeling it now, again.

"P-prank us? What's this got to do with Mi—"

Josh sighs. "We have time. To understand this, we have to start at the very beginning."