Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn.

I Am Armoured in Courage, I Need Not Your Sword

Chapter Two: The Long Night

"This is going to be hellish," Sam murmurs as they step out of the cable car station.

Jess huffs, giving her girlfriend's hand a squeeze. "Most likely," she agrees brightly. "After all, some of our group only indirectly caused the death of Josh's sisters the last time we were on this mountain and some of us still aren't over it. Not to mention it basically caused Mike and Emily to break up, and now that Emily and Matt are dating –"

"What?" Sam sounds startled. "Since when?"

"Oh, Em texted me yesterday morning." Jess raises an eyebrow. "I…take it she didn't tell anyone else then?"

"Nope." Sam shakes her head, a faint smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Guess you're still her BFF."

Jess huffs a little. Her and Emily's relationship had also suffered in the wake of the ill-fated prank, although it had been steadily recovering over the past few months. The same guilt and grief that had broken her relationship with Mike had made Emily retreat into herself, becoming even more snappish and irritable than usual. It had taken several months of patient waiting (she knew Emily's moods like the back of her hand and how best to handle her friend when she was like this) for Emily to contact her again, like a cranky turtle coming out of its shell.

"Yeah, well," she mutters, unconsciously tightening her grip on Sam's hand. "That was some stupid shit they did." What was worse was that she knew herself; if she hadn't been on the balcony with Sam, she would have taken part herself. Maybe even instigated it. She had a vindictive streak a mile wide, that only increased the more she was drunk, and Hannah's not-so-subtle longing looks at her best friend's boyfriend had always scraped down her nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

"Hey." Sam stops and turns to face her girlfriend. "Stopping beating yourself up over something you didn't do." She brushes gentle fingers down the side of Jess' face and the other girl shivers a little at the heat that trails in their wake.

Jess makes a noncommittal noise, even as her hand sneaks up to catch Sam's hand and twine their fingers together. "It's just – part of me is mad at her for doing it, but it feels so hypocritical because I know what I'm like – that could have easily been me that night –"

"But it wasn't," Sam reminds her gently. "Now c'mon, I'm freezing," she adds lightly. "Let's get up to the lodge before we get frostbite."

Jess grins and sidles closer, letting her girlfriend distract her from her morose thoughts. "Don't worry Sam, I'll keep you warm," she purrs, threading her arm through the other blonde's.

Sam's laughter echoes through the darkness and snow-laden pines. "You're impossible," she says, her voice warm and fond, and Jess' answering grin is blindingly bright.

Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

xxx

"You son of a bitch –!"

"Hey! What the hell is wrong with you two?"

Josh forces Mike and Matt apart, and Sam feels her heart clench in sympathy at the look of weary hurt and disbelief on his face. "We came back here to have a good time, right?"

He eyes the two combatants and then turns to Matt, rummaging in his pockets. "Here." He produces a key and hands it to Matt. "Why don't you and Emily go check out the guest cabin I was telling you about?"

"Yeah," Matt straightens his jacket, still scowling a little. "Yeah, sure."

The standoff is broken and with it, the tension; Sam feels Jess relax a little beside her. "Well, shit," the other blonde surmises in an undertone, watching as Emily and Matt leave. "I didn't expect to be right so quickly."

Sam sighs, wishing that their prediction hadn't been so accurate. She shivered a little, aware of how cold it still was in the lodge – they were out of the wind but the air was still freezing. "Hey," she murmurs. "Want to go for a bath?"

Jess' eyes light up. "Why, Sam," she purrs, slinking closer and wrapping her arms around the other girl. "I thought you'd never ask."

Despite her best efforts, Sam feels her cheeks flush pink at Jess' provocative tone. "You know, I used to just think of baths as the best way to relax ever. I can never look at them the same way again thanks to you." The accusation in her voice is half-hearted at best and Jess' grin widens knowingly.

"Oh Sam, they're still the best way to relax ever," she murmurs, brushing her lips over the sensitive skin behind Sam's ear, making her shiver. "I just…put a different spin on it, is all."

"Minx," Sam mutters, not even bothering to hide her smile and Jess laughs, bright and carefree.

"Hey, Josh, we're going to run a bath," the other blonde calls cheerfully and runs up the stairs, tugging Sam behind her.

"Oh? Do you girls need any help with that?" he calls after them, voice laden with amusement.

Jess mock-growls. "Paws off, Washington. Find your own girlfriend, Sam's mine."

An exaggerated sigh echoes after them. "Oh well. Worth a shot."

Not five minutes later, Jess is dragging Sam back down the stairs. "Hey, Josh, what gives? The hot water's not working."

Josh sits back on his heels from where he's trying to start the fire and wipes the back of his hand across his forehead. "Ah, sorry, I forgot about that. You know where the boiler is in the basement, right Sam?"

"Sure, I can handle it," Sam says, amused by Jess' pouting at the delay.

"Oh, and if you could turn on the generator too, that would be great." Josh gives her a winning smile and she rolls her eyes. "It's further back –"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Sam smiles. "Further back, down the corridor, to the left, right?"

"You got it." Josh gives her a lazy salute. "And if you bump into Chris and Ashley, tell them to hurry up with the spirit board."

"You're playing with a spirit board?" Sam isn't sure what to think of that.

"Sure. That's what this trip is all about, isn't it? Having fun and doing the stupid shit we've always done together." Something like grief darkens Josh's face for a moment, before he makes a visible effort to smile again. "Anyway, once Mike gets back with more logs, Chris and Ash get back with the spirit board, and you two turn on the boiler and the generator we'll get this party started." He grins broadly, a spark of his old mischief lighting his eyes. "Are you sure we can't persuade you lovely ladies to join us?"

"Maybe later, Josh," Jess says, tugging on Sam's hand and blowing him a kiss in farewell. "Right now, there's a gorgeous bath upstairs calling our names."

He laughs as they jog down the stairs to the basement. Once they're in it doesn't take Sam long to locate the boiler; she's spent a great deal of time at the Washingtons' lodge, although never without Hannah and Beth. A lump forms in her throat as she remembers the three of them down here in their pyjamas, all of nine years old and giggling at their own daring in exploring the dark, spooky basement.

Not now, Sam. She focuses on remembering how to switch the boiler on and with Jess' help, the big metal beast wheezes into life with series of clunks and groans, before settling into a low mechanical rumble.

"One down, one to go." Jess dusts off her hands and swings the cabinet door closed. "Where to next?"

Sam leads her through the maze of interconnecting rooms, trying her best to remember the way. Eventually they find the generator room and step inside and Sam frowns at the sight before them. "What the hell…?"

The generator is more or less how she remembers it; what draws her attention is the small bank of television screens on the left hand side of the room. She walks over to it, still frowning.

"What's wrong?" Jess is close at her side, a hand gently resting on her arm.

"These weren't here before –"

Sam is cut off mid-sentence as the door slams shut behind them and they both yelp in surprise and fright, whirling to face it. A deep, electronic chuckle rolls through the room. "Welcome back to Blackwood, my special little subjects."

"What the fuck?" Jess snarls, backing away. Sam searches the room with frantic eyes, trying to find the hidden speakers, even as she seeks Jess' hand with her own. The other blonde grips her hand tight, all but vibrating with tension. "Who are you? What the hell are you doing?"

The laugh comes again, distorted through some sort of modulator. "See for yourself."

The monitors flicker on and Sam feels sick to her stomach. One monitor shows Ashley and Chris sitting at the coffee table in front of a fire crackling in the hearth, throwing golden light across them as they set up the spirit board. Another shows Josh in the kitchen, padding about as he makes up four mugs of hot chocolate. The next is Mike knocking the snow off his boots outside the front door of the lodge, a basket of logs next to him on the porch. And the last is…Sam averts her eyes abruptly, feel her face flush hotly in a mixture of embarrassment and outrage.

"Pervert!" Jess snarls, as Sam tries not to look at Matt and Emily twined together on the couch in the guest cabin, clothes scattered on the floor around them, firelight playing across their bare skin.

The voice only laughs. "We'll talk again soon, Jessica, Samantha." There's a click and the TV screens abruptly go black.

Sam can only stand, frozen in place, her heart beating too rapidly in her chest with shock and fear. "I don't understand,"Jess mutters, unknowingly echoing Sam's thoughts as her grip tightens on her girlfriend's hand. "Who is this guy? What the hell is going on?"

"Good question," Sam murmurs, staring at the blank screens and trying to supress the feeling of sick dread rising in her stomach. "Though I get the feeling we might be about to find out."

A/N: Done! ^_^ I could write out the full night but I don't have the patience for such a long rehash. In case you're wondering, I envision the night playing out as follows: Sam and Jess witness Chris being forced to make the decision between Ash and Josh, and then see Josh die through the TV screens. The door then unlocks and they race off to find a traumatised Chris and Ash. They subsequently discover that Mike is missing and Chris and Ash haven't seen him since Josh sent him off to get logs (Josh gassed him, tied him up and locked him in one of the guest bedrooms). They split up – Chris and Ash to look for Mike; Sam and Jess to hike up to the nearby fire tower, which Sam knows has a way to contact the nearest ranger station.

Chris and Ash can't find Mike and are herded via Josh's remotely operated doors down into the basement; meanwhile, Sam and Jess fall into the mines via the usual wendigo-initiated fire tower collapse. Sam tries her best to pull her up but Jess falls anyway; distraught, Sam utilises her mad climbing skills to begin a slow, dangerous descent down into chasm after her. She finds Jess, miraculously mostly unhurt, and helps her less-experienced-at-climbing-but-still-competent girlfriend climb back up to the place they fell down from.

After a great deal of wandering around trying to find their way out of the mines, they find an unconscious and mostly naked Emily at the bottom of an elevator shaft. She wakes up and a great deal of bitching and fussing ensues as they help Emily slowly limp along with them, during which Jess and a shaken-but-not-stirred Emily have some re-bonding time. They eventually run into Matt, who (being more level-headed than Mike) didn't pursue the Stranger in a heated fit of grief-stricken revenge but instead climbed down into the mines to look for Emily despite being 90% sure she was dead. Then they discover that Emily's claims of a monster dragging her off aren't the result of a head wound and pandemonium ensues. All four eventually do make it outside though, and survive until dawn.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Chris and Ashley unwilling undergo their game of Russian roulette and Josh reveals he is the psycho. Chris manages to undo the bindings with his free hand and get loose, then demands to know where everyone else is. The only person Josh knows about is Mike, tied up upstairs, and in a fit of rage Chris knocks Josh out. He and Ashley tie Josh up in the basement and leave to find Mike.

They eventually locate an awake and furious Mike and let him out, before filling him in. Then the Stranger shows up and tells them about the Wendigo. They don't believe him (seeing as none of them were in the mines/saw anything other Josh's shenanigans) and leave to look for Sam/Jess/Matt/Emily. They encounter the wendigo and change their minds in a hurry, narrowly being saved from certain death by the Stranger. He dumps them back at the lodge and tells them to lock themselves in the basement and stay there until dawn.

They do – and everyone survives. Including the Stranger. ^_^

I hope you enjoyed, please let me know if you did. :)