Endurance // M. Taylor

xiii. repentance

"I was not prepared for how ugly that thing would be up close." Sam says, as we walk down into the mines. We had been walking for a while, so we had to be getting close to where Josh was. Ash and Chris were headed back to the lodge, and Sam and I carried on to find Mike.

"Yeah...and I noticed something kind of weird about it. The Wendigo...it had a scar." Mike spoke.

"So?" Sam asks, looking at Mike curiously. Probably wondering why the hell a scar matters.

"So I've seen it before. I saw these old pictures of some guy with that same scar and...he was transforming into a Wendigo." It was true. I had seen the photo and the Wendigo that attacked us shared that same very scar. I didn't think much of it, until Mike started adding two and two together.

"You're kidding."

"It was one of the miners who had been trapped back in the fifties, in the cave-in, which means that thing is 80 years old, at least." Mike explained. I was shocked, and disturbed. That fucker could move faster than a cheetah, I couldn't believe that it was nearly 80.

"Spunky for an old timer." Sam jokes, trying to lighten the mood.

"They cleaned the place out, killed a lot of people."

"They? You mean there are more of them?" Sam asks, frantically.

"Well, yeah. There was a whole fucking sanatorium full of them!" Mike exclaimed, getting a little freaked out by just how many of these Wendigos there are on this mountain.

"How many?" Sam asks, looking at Mike. We looked at each other and shivered.

"Too many."

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We had been swimming. Not because we wanted to, but because we had to. Mike, Sam and myself climb out of the water, only to find a journal. It was laying on the ground, open.

As curious as I was, I was frozen. The journal looked like it had been written in. Sam began to walk towards the journal and began to read it.

"Oh shit, this looks like Hannah's handwriting..." Sam says, picking up the journal and holding it in her hands. Mike and I exchanged a worried glance.

"I think Hannah dug Beth up. It was Hannah. It's the only thing that makes sense... Beth died in the fall so Hannah must have buried her." Sam explained, trying to make sense of all; the information we had learned during our so-called 'getaway' on this fucking mountain.

"Fucking hell."

"Hannah was down here for weeks...she would have been starving, she would have been desperate." Sam looked distraught as she continued, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.

"We need to find Josh."

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We made our way to the other side of the water, and stood up. Mike began to open the door, but struggles a little before falling over. As the door opens, the water comes flowing out and carries out several heads of our friends.

Out came the heads of the flamethrower guy and Jessica. All of them were killed in their own horrid way. I began to scream, and walk over to where Jess was. Her eyes were sunk in, and her jaw was missing. Her face looks absolutely terrorized.

"Roslyn, we should go." Mike spoke to me, and I looked at Jess. Mike helped me back up to my feet and we continued through the hallway, only to find the rest of the bodies of our friends.