chapter fourteen –
a monster and a stranger.

     Sage lets out a shaky sigh as she stares down at the floor, thinking of what had just happend. Chris had returned just a few moments ago, not saying exactly why he had came back without Mike, and sat with Ashley on the couch talking quietly.

" Hey, " Sam grasps Sage's shoulder and smiles apologetically when she sees and feels the brunette jump out of surprise. " Sorry, S. "

" It's okay. " Sage shrugs as she turns around to face Sam, refraining from rolling her eyes as she sees the pity in Sam's eyes. " I'm okay, Sammy. I promise. This– " She gestures to the black-eye she sported, " Is the only thing injury I have from an actual person. Everything else? Stupid shit and Mike deciding to shoot the lock off of where explosive barrels were. "

Sam frowns at that, " You're gonna be okay now, Sage. I don't know what you guys ran into, but it's okay now. "

" Yeah, " Sage says quietly as she winces, the pain in her shoulder returning. " I hope so. "

Their talk is suddenly cut to a end as a loud banging made Sage jump out of surprise once again as she and Sam both turned to look and saw Emily knocking on the front door with a terrified expression on her face.

" Let me in! Let me in! " Emily cried out, her voice showing how scared she truly was.

Sage's eyes widened in shock at Emily's appearance, taking note of the blood coating her jacket.

" It's Em! " Sage calls out as she rushes over to the front door and quickly opens it to let Emily in, who basically falls inside out of sheer terror and starts crawling away immediately.

" Shut the door! Oh my god– Shut the door! " Emily cries out as Sam, Ashley, and Chris all crowd around the girl. Sage quickly slams the door shut, locking it for good measure. She had no idea what the hell was out there now.

Emily crawls away from the door, kicking like she was trying to fend off something or someone. The others then help Emily up quickly before heading into the Great Room with Sage right behind them. " Oh god. . I thought I wasn't going to make it. " Emily mutters, her voice cracking as she walks inside the Great Room inbetween Ashley and Sam.

" You were screaming bloody murder! " Chris calls out as Ashley and Sam ask Emily repeated questions out of concern. They all had no idea what had happend to the girl and Matt.

Emily sits on the sofa inbetween Sage and Sam, Sage gripping the raven haired girl's hand tightly as she stares at her in concern, as Ashley and Chris look at her with concerned eyes while standing infront of them.

" What happend, Em? " Sage asks the girl as she squeezes Emily's hand to comfort her.

Emily still seemed to be shook with fear as she glanced at Sage for a split second before turning back as she stared to speak, " There was a monster. " All Emily got in response was confused looks as they all processed what she had said.

" What are you talking about? " Chris asks, confusion clear in his tone.

" I said, there is something out there–! " Emily cries out, it being obvious to Sage how fed up she was getting.

" Like what? " Ashley asked hysterically.

" Ash, relax. . " Sam tells the redhead quietly before turning her attention to the still shook up Emily, " It was Josh, it was all Josh– " She continues while ignoring Emily's protests that she was wrong. " We got him tied up. He can't hurt you. "

" No, " Emily shakes her head as she shoots down the thought of Josh being the thing that was after her, she knew it wasn't. " It was after me! It wasn't human. "

" Wait. . " Sage interrupts Emily's ramblings as she tries to process what Emily had just said. " Where's Matt, Em? Is he okay? "

Emily's demeanor changes immediately at the mention of her boyfriend, the girl's eyebrows furrow in anger as she turns her head to look at Sage. " I don't want to fucking talk about that sack of shit. " Emily spits out, disgust clear in her voice.

" Wow. . " Chris mutters in surprise.

" He left me! " Emily exclaims in anger, " He just fucking abandoned me when I was hanging off the goddamned tower about to die– "

" What tower? " Sam interrupts with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

" And then I fell into this terrifying freaking mine shaft and he was just gone! " Emily summarizes what had happend to her as the four surrounding her looked at her in pure confusion and shock.

" Whoa, whoa, whoa, " Chris says as soon as Emily was done speaking, " What mine shaft? "

Sage listens to Emily explain how there was a bunch of mine shafts running underground making Sage guess that was where her and Mike had found each other so much earlier in the night when she had been running from the psych– Josh. She frowns at the thought of Josh being the one that had been tormenting them the entire night, but quickly shakes her head and gets back into the conversation as soon as she hears Beth's name mentioned.

" –I found this pile and there was Beth's head! " Sage catches the end of Emily explaining what had happend and could only gasp at what had ended up happening to one of the Washington sisters.

Wiping away tears that were threating to fall as the others spoke in disbelief at the thought of what had happend to Beth. Sage pulls her hand away from Emily's to rub the girl's arm comfortingly as she continued to speak.

" I think they fell down there. But the worst part is I don't think Hannah died, like, from the fall, straight away. . I feel like she was down there, like starving to death, for weeks. " Emily pauses for a split second as she lets her words sink in. " When we are all looking for her up here, we had no idea! "

" Jesus. . " Sage mutters to herself as she shakes her head while trying to reassure herself, " We couldn't have known. We couldn't have. "

" Listen, " Emily starts as she then starts to explain what had happend in the tower, " In the tower, there was this radio and I got through to someone, but that was right when the tower collapsed! "

Sage lets out a sigh of relief at the thought of help coming as she notices Mike running in as soon as Emily was done speaking and looks at her in surprise.

" Em! You made it. " Mike says in relief as he quickly hugs his ex-girlfriend and glances at Sage for quick second before

" She barely made it. " Chris adds but was ignored as Mike asked where Matt was.

" We're trying to figure that out. . " Sage explains as she moves to stand next to Mike, grabbing his hand without neither of them noticing. " Em says there was a monster chasing them. . "

She's interrupted by a loud banging coming from the back door, their conversation over as everyone got quiet.

" Who the fuck could that be? " Mike questions as he stares towards where the back door was.

Sage looks around in confusion as she tries to figure out who the hell could be banging on the back door. Matt? Josh? It couldn't be Jess, she was dead. Mike had said so.

" Jess? " Chris offers but Sage and Mike both shake their heads.

" It can't be her. " Mike shoots down the suggestion as Chris apologizes quickly. " We should probably check that out. "

Chris agrees to go with Mike, the two heading to check out whoever could be at the back door. 

Sage grasps Mike's hand tightly before he follows after Chris. He turns to look at her as she speaks, " Be careful. "

" I will. " He promises quietly, kissing her temple before quickly walking after Chris.

Sage hoped everything would be okay after tonight.

━━━━

   Minutes later, Mike and Chris had returned with a stranger trailing behind them. Sage moves to stand next to Mike, quickly looking at him to see if he was okay and relief filling her when she noticed nothing wrong with him.

" Let me say what I came to say. " The Stranger practically demands as he stands infront of the group, the tension in the room thick. " I'm here to tell you what you're up against on this mountain. You never should have returned. I don't know why you did after what happend last year. "

He moves to drop his bag next to the fireplace as Ashley questions him, " You mean with Hannah and Beth? "

" How could you know about that without being involved? " Chris asks in confusion.

" Or responsible? " Sam accuses the unknown man.

" You hold on to your horses. " The Stranger says in annoyance. " I don't take kindly to you kids coming up here to my mountain– "

Mike interrupts him a scoff, " Your mountain? I'm sure the Washingtons would love to hear that. "

The Stranger chuckles, " Well, this mountain don't belong to me, it's true. But it don't belong to the Washingtons either. This mountain belongs to the wendigo. "

Everyone starts asking questions immediately as the Stranger stands there, now quiet for the moment.

" What the hell's a wendigo? " Mike questions in confusion, everyone was confused at that word. What was the Stranger even talking about?

" Let's hear him out. " Sage tells him quietly, nudging him with her good arm to get Mike to quiet down.

" Not like we have a choice. " Mike mutters back as he rolls his eyes making Sage nudge him once again as she hoped that Mike would stop shooting down everything that the Stranger was saying.

" Now, I'm only going to tell you this once. It doesn't matter to me if you believe it or not. I got reasons I want to. . Get it off my chest. . " The Stranger's cut off by Mike once again.

" See? I told you! He's guilty as shit! Guilty of something! " Mike exclaims in disbelief at the thought of believing what the man was about to say.

" Shut up, Mikey. " Sage hisses as she tugs him closer to her by the army jacket he wore, ignoring the way her heart jumped at how close they were now.

" There is a curse that dwells in these mountains. " The Stranger pauses for a moment as everyone watched him, " Should any man or woman resort in cannibalism in these woods, the Wendigo shall be released. You're going to need to find somewhere safe. "

" The basement should be okay. " Sam suggests as everyone nods in agreement, that was their best bet.

The Stranger nods, " Get down there, now. All of you. And wait. "

" For how long? " Sage asks, raising an eyebrow. Until help came? Until the wendigos were dealt with?

" Until dawn. " Emily pipes up, referring to the help that she had called in at the radio tower.

Mike lets out a sigh, making everyone turn to him before he started speaking, " Guys. . I ran off and left Josh when I heard screaming. "

" Where did you leave him? " The Stranger asks.

" In the shed. " Mike reveals quietly, although everyone heard him.

Sage lets out a sigh as the Stranger immediately says that Josh was as good as dead. He had to be okay, it was Josh. He convinced everyone that there was some psycho killer running around and that he was dead, he was smart. He had to be okay.

She misses the rest of the argument between Chris and the Stranger with Ashley protesting that Chris shouldn't go with him, but figures out that Chris and the Stranger would go see if Josh was still alive or not in the shed.

" The rest of you – get down to the basement. " The Stranger turns his attention to the others, " Be safe. Don't go outside again until we get back. "

They'd be okay now. They had help from someone that had been dealing with the wendigos for who knows how long.

They had to be okay now.

━━━
authors note.

sage and mike are the ceos of holding hands 24/7 even when they shouldn't be! also break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored by ariana grande is so sage and mike if there weren't any wendigos/crazy friends involved tell me different.

liability doesn't have a lot of chapters left ): . i just realized that today and got sad. ALSO THANK YOU GUYS FOR 4k READS!