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Jessica liked to think she was more than just a pretty face. She may have hated studying but that doesn’t mean she hated learning.
She actually loved english and history and art.
She was planning on becoming a model and that mean knowing everything there was to know about looking amazing from all angles.
Besides all the art and literature and history gave her a distraction from that night, and Hannah and Beth and God- no she couldn’t think about that.
Everything had changed, Mike and Em had split and she’d sided with Em until he’d explained, that he wanted to go out with her and she knew it wasn’t the best idea but could you blame her? Everyone loved Mike and nearly 75% percent of the school had a crush on him. And he was a good kisser.
She said yes. Em and her hadn’t really talked since.
So when Josh’s invitation came out, she was skeptical but she thought she owed it to him to go back. If only she’d known.
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Jess was sitting at the upper station, waiting calmly. In her hands was a love letter to Michael. It was surprisingly cliche, but tropes had been used hundreds of times in literature. So when Sam and Chris arrived, she’d forgotten it was in her hand.
Then Chris had stolen it and she had tired to play it off, she didn’t want to reveal anything without Mike. So they two left and Jessica was left waiting. She returned to the bench and looked down at her book and phone. She’d brought Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, she loved the tension, mystery and the resourcefulness of the final two.
She reached over to grab her phone when a snowball hit the wall next to her. She looked up to see Mike. They engaged in a playful snowball fight that Jess had undeniably won, and ended with a makeout session to boot.
Soon it would all come crashing down.
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Of course the minute they get there, and start getting comfortable Emily has to start clawing. So when the insults start firing, Jess fires back until finally Josh exiles the two to this guest cabin. Sexiled actually, Jess says to try and save her and Mike’s evening. Calls their trek an adventure, selfie and all, and tries to keep the humor up, till they find the tree covered in caution tape.
Mike is respectful and Jess admits hows she feels, like it’s her fault. Mike talks her out of it gently, as if he knows exactly how she feels, and in a way she thinks he does.
They both try to revive their moods and make the best of their creepy mine adventure. Then they reach a telescope and when Jess looks into it she sees… someone. Mike doesn’t so she decides a harmless prank is in order. When she climbs on top of the tree and throws a snowball, Mike turns and she’s gone.
That wouldn’t be the last time that night panic for her set in.
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It’s a harmless prank and Mike, possibly seeing her attempts to bring back the playful mood of their earlier snowball fight. They find a tree with “E + M” and a heart carved into it, and Mike is honest with her so she responds in kind to him and reminds him of their goal.
They move on to a diplitated shack and snoop before moving on. Then Mike pauses and so does she only for an elk to literally coming storming through the woods past them. They both startle and then comes the next thought, what spooked it, a bear?
Barely 15 minutes later, they find another deer, badly wounded. Mike comforts it and she smiles until the deer gets dragged into the darkness. They sprint towards the cabin, with something panting behind them. They burst into the room and have to catch their breath.
Then they get down to business.
Well, first Jess demands mood lighting, because if they’re doing this; they’re doing this right. Jess tries to keep herself in the moment, getting down to her undershirt and jeans before she has Michael stop.
She lays her emotions bare before him and he’s incredibly sweet about it. He reassures her insecurities and listens to her concerns. Soon they’re back on track and now he’s down to his wife beater, and jeans and she’s in her bra and panties.
Then everything goes downhill. First a crash in the next room. Mike goes to investigate it and she follows slowly. It’s her phone.
She’s filled with a stubborn fury and marches around to the cabin porch, ranting into the night, before re-entering and slamming the door.
She makes eye-contact with Mike briefly and then the window shatters and there is a hand in her hair and she’s being pulled through the goddamn window shrieking. As Mike watches on in shock and horror.
This was only the beginning.
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She watches the cabin fade into the darkness, the snow and chill biting her skin. Claws rake across her skin and she half slides half is carried through the night by some monstrous thing. She kicks and screams as she hears someone shout her name, Mike.
She screams back with cries of “No!” and “Help me!” and “Michael!”.
For a second the grip losens and she breaks free, crawling across the icy ground. Then it’s claws grip her leg and drag her.
She hears someone calling at her and she screams back in the hopes that someone, anyone, can save her from this terrifying thing that refuses to let her go.
Eventually the creature drags her into a decrepit mine station and as she’s dragged into a building she sees Mike in his wife beater tooting a lantern and shotgun rushing toward her.
Then the doors slam shut and she’s dragged down into the darkness of the mines. She’s sure it’s over that this thing will kill her or eat her.
It drags her to an elevator shaft and lies her on the grate face up and she’s forced to look at its dark silhouette as its pungent breath repeatedly slapping her in the face.
A light appears from the tunnel along with a voice calling her name. For a brief moment she sees the creature, with gray grotesque skin and blind blue eyes and then its jumping away, up the shaft and she’s alone.
Mike appears at the edge of her vision.
He came, for her, fought his way here for her. She wants to cry for joy but she can barely move.
She tries to pry herself up and he reaches down to meet her. He’s afraid to hurt her and she’s thankful cause her body hurts. He begins to reach for her gently.
Suddenly the floor drops and so does she. And as she falls down, down, down she sees the light and Mike grow farther and farther away.
It all goes black before she hits the bottom.
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She doesn’t know how Mike had traversed the mines and the mountains to find her killer, to avenge her. How he’d beaten himself up over it because he thought she was dead and he could have saved.
She doesn’t know how much of a hero it forced him to be.
She doesn’t know how when Emily finds out she cries because Jess was still her best friend and that thing got her. Emily remembers how it chased her through the minds and the overwhelming fear, and she had the chance to escape.
She doesn’t know how much it caused her to buck up.
She doesn’t know how when Sam heard she had to stop herself from breaking down because she was determined that they should survive and already one had died and two were missing.
She doesn’t know how much it caused her to become deadset that everyone else make it.
She doesn’t know till later.
She doesn’t know because she almost died.
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Jessica Riley wakes up from a sleep without dreams and pulls herself up with groans of pain. She doesn’t know how long she’s been out but she does look awful. She slowly stands on the grate floor that carried her down who knows how far, and is possibly the only reason she’s alive.
She looks around and finds her way over to a miner jacket and a pair of boats. She pulls the coat on and buttons it up before grabbing the boats and slipping her brick like feet into them.
Then a screech sounds and she whips around.
Oh God! Not again.
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Jess shuffles her way across the small cavern to a little table. She fumbles and finds a lantern. She searches more and finds a small box of matches. She struggles to light it until finally it goes.
She starts her search of the cavern for a way out when she sees a body sized lump. She investigates and comes face to face with a knocked out Matt. She nearly gasps. How did he get down here and why is he unconscious. She decides then and there that she is getting them out of here.
She puts the lantern down and manages to throw the large linebacker into a fireman carry. She continues through the mine.
Then she hears the scuttling and screeches of that thing. She knows she can’t out run it so she hides behind a wooden wall and holds her breath while staying as still as possible. The creature scuttles away.
She reshoulders her load and moves further through the mine. She comes to a wall of rotten wood only to turn and here it coming. She sets down Matt and rams through the wall, almost falling off a cliff in the process. In the distance she sees the silhouette of the lodge.
She collects herself and turns to pick up Matt, only to find the creature over his body. It’s staring right at her and she at it. She finally notices all its characteristics from its emaciated body to its deformed limbs and its blind blue eyes which make her stiff with fear.
Then as if it saw nothing in the first place it scuttles further into the mine. Jess unfreezes and recollects Matt’s body. She’s never reading horror again.
“Suck it up buttercup. We’re getting hypothermia or something but we will survive.” With that she exits the mine and makes her way toward her destination.
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She’s stumbling through the woods which are still dark. She hopes to God someone decided to meet at the cable car station.
She’s getting so tired. Matt feels like he’s getting heavier.
‘But mama didn’t raise no quitter and dad always said you were his tough girl.’ Jess is definitely not gonna let Matt die because she gave up.
Suddenly a noise breaks through the darkness. She stills immediately. Her mind flashes back to hours ago when her and Mike were on the trail and carefree.
She’s brought back to reality by a wet nose tickling her hand. She looks down into the eyes of a wolf-like dog. It sniffs her and it’s tail begins to wag excitedly. She smiles lightly the dog begins to walk in front of her.
She’s led by this wolf through the woods. She hopes it’s not leading her to its lair. Eventually the trees part and she’s at the cable car station, deserted. She places the linebacker across her shoulder down. He begins to stir and opens his eyes. He blinked in surprise.
“Jess? Is that you?” He looks around and sees their surroundings. “How did we get to the cable car station?” Jess starts to explain how she found him and brought him here, hoping the others would be there too. He opens his mouth to ask a question only for an explosion to shake them. They turned to see the lodge in flames. They shared a look and took off toward it, the dog not far behind.
Jess definitely should not be running but she needs to damnit. She falls once or twice and Matt helps her up but she pushes them forward as they see a helicopter land in front of the garage.
Before they can reach it, it pulls up and they both fall into the snow. God they were so close. As dawn breaks over the mountains, Jess feels hopeless and like she failed. Then the dog starts barking up at something.
Jess and Matt look up to see another helicopter circling. They wave their arms and Matt calls and for a second it looks like they’ve been missed, then suddenly it comes and settles on the ground near them.
All three of them are swarmed and loaded onto the copter and Jes refuses to be separated from Matt or Wolfie. It’s adorable like something Mike would have named it.
She lays in the copter with a blanket over her and Wolfie curled up against her side.
She starts wondering who else survived, but her thoughts always drift back to Mike.
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They’re taken to the ranger station and dragged into interrogation rooms. Jess sits there and recounts her story from when she arrived to now. They stop her in certain places.
They keep asking how she got to the mines. She responds how she was taken and carried by something not someone.
The ask about how Ashley said she heard her calling out. She says she didn’t she could barely move.
She tells them they have to go into the mines.
She stresses to them how Mike came for her. She pleads with them to tell her if he survived. They just keep saying, “We’ll get back to that at the end.”
Finally she’s let out and into the waiting room. She’s led out with her hand in Wolfie’s fur. Before she can fully process what’s happening she’s caught up in someone’s arms as they repeatedly called her name.
Mike. She wrapped her arms around him and cried. Kisses are exchanged but physical contact of any sort is necessary. To him she’s been dead for hours. To her everything was uncertain till now.
They keep repeating the same phrase.
“You’re alive!” There are tears and smiles.
They’ve been broken physically and mentally.
But, they’re here together and maybe they can begin to heal.
For the first time since that deer was dragged into the woods, and her phone crashed through a window, Jessica feels some degree of safe.