Post Dawn

39. Persecution

It had been only a few hours after everyone had breakfast at the holiday house.

Josh was half asleep on the couch as something was on the tv that he wasn't paying attention to.

Chris was seated in the chair next to them, looking down at his phone every few minutes. Another thing that hadn't changed from the mountain.

Even then Chris had been big on his phone talk and now he seemed to be on it even more then he had been.

Emily was twiddling her fingers in front of her while Ashley was the only one to look at the tv and pay at least a little attention to it.

A movie had turned on that none of them had recognized. They had all tried to pay attention to it but eventually got bored of it.

Josh was trying his best to stay awake in the moment but it was very hard to.

All of them were bored out of their minds. Ashley started humming something to herself while Emily put her head in her hands.

Chris blew a raspberry to himself and then put his phone down on the chair arm. "Is something going on?" He asked everyone. Josh hadn't heard anything since he had already slipped into sleep.

Emily and Ashley both looked over at him, Emily knowing that Chris could pick up on how tense they were from what she had said earlier.

Even she was nervous about it considering Matt hadn't really explained what happened to them.

"What do you mean?" Ashley asked him. He looked over at Emily who was also facing him and then pushed his lips out in confusion.

"There was.. an incident." Emily said, trying to pace herself.

Ashley looked over at her and then widened her eyes to tell her she probably shouldn't be telling him what happened but Emily ignored it.

"Matt said there were Wendigos in that psych hospital they were staying at. He didn't say much after that but their staying at Sam's apartment that she has I guess." Emily explained slowly. Chris froze at her words.

Ashley and Emily both felt movement on the couch and got a little freaked out until they both saw Josh was up and he had looked over at Chris who was wide eyed.

He apparently decided that he had missed Emily telling Chris what happened even though he had said not to.

"Chris- bud it's- it's gonna be okay." Josh said, standing up and putting his hand out in front of him trying to console Chris.

Chris didn't say a word as Josh crept closer to him.

"They're all okay and they're all out. That's all that matters." Josh said to him.  Chris nodded slowly and then stood up, having the chair to help him stand up.

Josh just put his arms around Chris and patted his back a few times to make sure he knew it was okay.

"Thanks." Chris whispered to him.

Ashley rolled her eyes at the sight and Chris had seen her do this and then gave her another confused look.

When Josh and Chris broke apart, Chris had looked at Ashley and saw her shake her head at him. "We need to talk." Ashley said to him, not leaving him time to respond before walking away and going into Emily's room to wait for Chris.

Chris quickly followed after her, leaving Emily and Josh in the living room.

As Chris walked into the bedroom, he saw Ashley on the bed, her back facing him.

He shut the door behind him and then spoke. "Ash, what's going on?" He asked her.

She had tried to put it in the past. She really did. She just wanted to see Chris happy. And he was with that. But she just couldn't take it anymore.