It was dark and windy outside of the lodge. The aggressive gusts of wind gave an eerie choosing sound as it past by the windows which rattled underneath the difference in pressure. The house itself was also engulfed in a strange darkness, the lights not illuminating every corner and leaving parts of rooms in the shadows.

The party was starting to die down a bit. In the beginning everyone was just enjoying each others company but as the hours passed smaller groups formed around the lodge.

The ginger haired girl sat on a random couch with a lit cigarette dangling between her fingers. Her guitar rested beside her, on which she played a few songs before. She was already drunk out of her mind, not even knowing what or how much she drank that night.

The girl turned her head to the side, slightly looking up at the face beside her and motioned to the cigarette she was holding. "What even is this stuff?"

"I have no idea, but that shit is good." A male voice replied.

Valerie nodded and turned away from Mike, one of her good friends at the time, and took another puff of the mysterious toxin. Her, Mike and Emily were sitting on the same couch while some of the others of the group were also sprawled across random chairs.

The ginger looked around in a daze, her eyes not focusing on any specific object. It was a a party and Valerie could never say no to that. She and her band often ended up with the worst hangover after any small concerts they held, but this was worse. Valerie was already imagining how bad of a headache she would have the next morning.

Right now the group was planning a stupid little prank, Valerie had no idea what it was even about. She either didn't care enough to listen or she just forgot what it was about.

She watched as they talked amongst each other and only perked up a bit when Mike started scribbling hurriedly on a piece of paper.

"What's that?" Valerie asked as she leaned over to look at the top secret words.

Emily was the one to lean closer to her as everyone else was just giggling to themselves, but she also allowed a chuckle to escape her lips. "We're pulling a little prank on Hannah. Nothing serious!"

"On Hannah?" Valerie questioned back, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. "What kind of prank?"

Mike finally placed the pen back onto the nearest table and turned around to face the confused girl with a lazy smirk on his face. "You'll see!"

The girl hummed as an answer and watched as Jess grabbed the paper and hurriedly left the room. She was the one who plotted the whole thing but Valerie still had no clue of what was about to happen, maybe she should just join Josh and Chris who were also drunk.

The others continued on plotting while she rubbed her eyes making the black eyeshadow smear across her face even more. She didn't care, that's what made it even better.

"Hey, you coming?"

Valerie's head snapped over to the source of the voice and saw Mike and Emily waiting for her. She glanced around seeing that everyone was already gone, so she stood up slowly, making sure not the stumble over.

The three of them followed the others into the guest room and Emily quickly ushered the ginger girl under a table. The others already hid away into their own respective places while Mike stayed standing in the corner leaning against the wall.

It didn't take long for the door to open and for Hannah to enter the room with a small smile on her face. She wrapped her arms around herself as Mike stepped out from the shadows with a sly smile on his face.

"I got your note." She said taking a step closer.

Mike, being the great actor he was, stepped closer to her and answered with the most genuine voice he could muster. "Glad you could make it!"

Hannah still had a shy smile on her face but the silence was making even Valerie feel awkward as fuck.

"Maybe we should start with a little, you know, making out and see where it goes from there." He said.

That's when Hannah started unbuttoning her shirt and Valerie heard Mike mutter a "hell yeah" under his breath. He seemed to be enjoying this way to much. The ginger could see Jess trying her best to keep the laughter in but she was failing miserably.

Valerie was too drunk to even fully comprehend what was happening exactly so she accidentally let out an "oh la la." Emily snorted from her hiding place while Jess was just shocked at the fact that Hannah was doing exactly what the note asked her to.

"Oh my god, she's taking her shirt off!" Jess exclaimed with a laugh.

Hannah's eyes widened in fear and she looked around as everyone got out from their hiding spot. "What? Oh my god!"

Her eyes scanned the room only to see Matt step out from a closet with a camera so she immediately tried to cover herself. "Matt? What are you doing here?"

The girl then met the dark brown eyes of her ginger haired friend and she felt even more betrayed. "Val?"

Valerie stood there not knowing what to do so she just stupidly waved at her. The others then started explaining how this just got out of hand and how sorry they were but it just didn't seem sincere. The door once again opened only to reveal Sam who looked at all of them in dissapointment, but Hannah took the opportunity to rush out of the room.

"You guys are all jerks!" Sam told them as she hurried after the humiliated girl.

Valerie was the second one to rush after her best friend, who she knew since they were little, and the others quickly followed her and Sam. The friendgroup stood outside in the cold as they began shouting the run away girls name in hopes of her coming back.

Who knew what was in the woods at this hour.

Valerie, quickly becoming distressed at the situation placed her hands on her head, pulling at her hair in fear. She heard about scary legends and the alcohol in her system and the weed was not helping her situation either.

Beth then pushed her way through the crowd and looked into the depths of the woods. "What's going on, where's my sister going?"

"It's fine, she just can't take a joke." Jess answered whilst rolling her eyes.

"It was just a prank, Han!" Emily yelled into the darkness of the forest.

Valerie cringed at that sentence. Her blonde eyebrows scrunched up in distaste and her lips curled down into a frown. She didn't know what to do: run after her best friend or stay where it was safe.

"What did you do?" Beth yelled turning to face Mike.

Mike, who looked like he couldn't care less gave her a bored nod of his head. "We were just messing around, Beth."

Beth yelled at us once more and then sprinted after her sister into the night. The forest gave off an eerie vibe to Valerie, she didn't even want to look towards it. 

The ginger girl looked towards her friends and then towards the snow covered trees. She was terrified but as if she wasn't controlling her body, her legs bolted into the woods.

She heard the others shout after her but she was just running. Her boots dented the snow with every one of her steps and the snow crunched under the weight. The wind howled, making the snow fall in its direction and straight into Valerie's eyes almost every second.

She didn't care. She just wanted make sure her friends were okay.

Suddenly Valerie's leg got caught in a branch buried in the snow and she tumbled over. The girl groaned in pain as her forehead throbbed with pain as that part of her body took the most impact by hitting a smaller rock.

The ginger sat up quickly and looked around not knowing where she was. As she glanced around the snowy landscape she noticed a small object buried under the layers of a white curtain but the tip was sticking out.

Valerie crawled over to claw the wood out from the snow only to reveal a small carved totem. Atleast that's what it looked like. Her fingers were just about to wrap itselves around the object but a drop of blood hit to white snow under her. Then another and another and another.

The ginger girl furrowed her brows in confusion but hissed in pain. She brought her fingers up to her forehead and as she touched the skin her fingertips were tainted with red.

Blood.

Valerie's face had a stream of blood flowing down it as she stood back up ready to run after Beth and Hannah again but a twig snapping took away her attention. She quickly rubbed the blood away from her left eye and looked around in a hurry. Her heart was beating out of her chest in fear.

Another twig snapped.

Valerie turned swiftly to the other side and saw a shadow creep across the path.

After that she let out the most ear piercing scream she ever had.

It has been almost a year and Valerie was just the shell of who she used to be. She didn't remember exactly what happened or how it happend, it might have been completely different as to what she thought happened.

The ginger didn't talk about the incident, didn't mention it and barely talked to her old friends. She hated the reminder of what happened and the fact that she could've done something about it.

Valerie grew apart from everyone except for Emily, who always checked up on her not caring that the ginger had no interest in visitors. She learned that she and Mike broke up but it was all good. Emily tried to keep her updated on all the things she was missing.

The ginger took a break from anything that had to do with her band for a few months. Her bandmates understood her so they all decided on taking a hiatus for as long as Valerie needed. She did do a few concerts but quickly realised she was not able to go back to it just yet.

So here she was, tucked away in her dark home, sitting in the window with her guitar trying to play her misery away. She still had no intention of seeing everyone else's faces, she was content with the way she could hide away from everyone.

Valerie still kept all the articles and newspapers that talked about the disappearance of the Washington twins. They were always sitting on the dining table, in the same exact position collecting dust.

The girl was so used to her routine by now that any small mistake in the perfect plan annoyed her. The biggest flaw in her routine was caused by a message from none other than Josh Washington. THE Josh Washington.

Valerie had no intention of opening the message, video or whatever he sent her but her curiosity beat her to it.

There she sat, on her couch surrounded by music sheets and her fairy lights with her phone in her hands. With a big sigh she finally managed to press the notification that has been sitting there for a few days.

"Well hello friends and fans--" The voice and face of her old friend became clear and she couldn't help but gulp as all the memories came back from that night. "Alright, let's do that again. Alright. Well, hello friends and fans! It's beyond awesome to have you guys all back this year. First off, I gotta say, I am super excited to welcome all my pals back to the annual Blackwood winter getaway! So, um... let me just let you know, let's just take a moment to adress the 'elephant in the room' for a second."

Valerie closed her eyes in frustration ready to just throw her phone across the room. Why did everyone always need to bring it up. Why couldn't she just live her life in peace. Alone.

"I know you're all probably worried about me and I know it's going to be tough to on all of us going back after what happened last year, but--"

Valerie scoffed as she turned her head away from the screen. "Yeah, no shit."

"I just want you all to know... it means, uh, it means so much to me that we're doing this. And I... I know it would mean so much to Hannah and Beth that we are all still here together, thinking of them. I really want to spend some quality time with each and everyone of you and share some moments we'll never forget. For the sake of my sisters." Josh continued on with his long speech that was making Valerie want to tear her ears out from their place. "Okay, so! Let's party like we're fucking pornstars, okay? Make this one trip we will mever forget. Alright? Yes!"

The video finally cut off, signaling it's end and Valerie finally was able to shut her phone down. That video made old memories stir inside her head, ones that she wanted to forget no matter what.

The ginger girl had no intention of going. So she left that invitation linger in the air.

That was until she got home two days later to almost twenty missed calls from Emily. Valerie groaned into a pillow as she slumped down head first onto her bed. She didn't want to ring her back at all.

She was about to put her phone away when Emily's contact flashed up again. Valerie stared at it debating on answering it or just letting it ring until it stopped while she watched.

The ginger sighed and with a small flick of her finger she picked up the call. "Yes, Emily?"

"Val, I was trying to reach you forever!" Her old friends voice filled the room. "Did you also get it?"

Valerie lit a cigarette and took a drag before letting the smoke out from her mouth and nose. "Get what? The longest speech ever from Josh?"

Emily laughed and she could just imagine her nodding her head. "Exactly! Are you going?"

"Let me think. Hmm... hmm... no." Valerie answered with a deadpan expression, unconsciously picking at her lip piercing.

"Please!" Emily whined through the line making Valerie roll her eyes. "I don't want to go there alone!"

"The others will probably be there." The ginger shrugged not understanding why she should go.

"But I like you the most... no offence to anyone." Emily replied making Valerie's mouth twitch up in the slightest. "Please, Val, I'm begging you! I'll do anything."

Valerie groaned as she knew that Emily wasn't going to give up at all. She only had two options: go willingly or Emily will kidnap her and she won't have a choice.

Taking a long puff of her cigarette she gave up. "Fine."

"Thank you! Ugh, you're the best, Val!" The other girl yelled through the phone. "You won't regret it, I know it! Talk to you soon then!"

With a few beeps the line went dead, leaving a very annoyed Valerie behind. She stared infront of her in frustration. Not going to regret it my ass, she thought to herself.

It was only going to be a small get together, what could even go wrong?