Until Dawn: Affairs of the Heart

Prologue chapter of a new Until Dawn story, this one will feature an interesting twist, in this story, Emily will not appear, she has been replaced with an OC character, who should make things a little more interesting :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn or its characters.

Prologue: One Year Ago

The snow billowed around the mountain, the moon was high and the night was dark. Standing defiant against the elements was the large building known locally as the Washington Lodge, property of the Washington family; its lights shone bright. Outside the lodge, a mysterious stranger clad in dark clothing stood. He clutched a machete tightly in his hand. Inside the lodge were ten teenagers, all within the age range of seventeen to nineteen.

Right now, the majority of said teens were in the dining room, two of them passed out drunk. The others were all talking quietly amongst themselves, except for one of the girls, who was standing separate from the others.

Three of the occupants of the lodge were the children of the Washington family. The eldest of those was nineteen-year-old Joshua Washington, known as Josh to his friends. He and his sisters all had dark chocolate-brown hair and caramel complexions. Unlike his eighteen-year-old sisters, who were twins, Josh had green eyes. The Washington sisters, meanwhile, had dark brown eyes. One of the sisters, Beth, was in the same room. She was the girl standing separate from the others, looking out the window. Her hair came down to just below her chin, with bangs framing her face. Apart from her hair being longer, down to her shoulders, the other sister, Hannah, was the perfect image of Beth. Hannah was nowhere around right now, while Josh was one of the two boys passed out drunk; the other being his best friend, eighteen-year-old Christopher 'Chris' Hartley, a man with fair skin, short dirty blonde hair worn in a faux-hawk style who also wore a pair of grey rectangular glasses.

The remainder of the friends were all gathering together, further along the room, talking amongst themselves. One of them, a girl of seventeen with green eyes, beige blonde hair in small pigtails, and a bisque complexion, Jessica 'Jess' Riley, was placing a note on the table where it could be found by its intended recipient. It was two in the morning, the group of teens had been partying and enjoying themselves and, some of them quite giddy from the drink, had decided to play a prank on Hannah Washington. The basis of the prank being Hannah's crush on another member of the group: Eighteen-year-old Michael 'Mike' Munroe, a muscular young man with short dark brown hair, brown eyes, and fair skin. This raised some issues, anger especially from Mike's girlfriend Leah Taylor, an eighteen-year-old African-American woman of above-medium height (being the tallest of the girls) with dark brown chin-length hair, brown eyes, light brown skin, and a slender but curvy build. It had been Jessica who had come up with the prank as a means to get revenge, which involved having Hannah find the note, apparently from Mike, luring her to one of the bedrooms where they would trick her into an embarrassing situation which they would get on camera.

"Oh my God, I can't believe you actually did this." Leah remarked to Jessica, her voice shaking with laughter.

Jessica waved a hand, pointing out Beth across the room. "Shh...Shh...Shh."

Leah just smirked and another girl, standing nearby, shook her head.

"Don't you guys think this is a bit cruel?" she said, all too aware of how sensitive Hannah was.

This girl was also eighteen, had fair skin, medium-long blonde hair which she tied in a classic bun style at the back, leaving a few locks framing her face. She also had hazel eyes. This girl was called Samantha Giddings, also known as Sam.

The others turned to her, joined by two others, a boy and a girl, both seventeen. The first was a boy named Matthew Taylor, Matt to his friends, an African-American male with short black hair and brown eyes, and he was Leah's younger brother. The girl was Ashley Brown, a young Caucasian woman with medium-length auburn hair and green eyes.

Jessica shook her head. "Oh come on, she deserves it."

Sam shook her head, replying defensively, "It's not her fault that she has a huge crush on Mike."

"Hannah's been making moves on him." Jess shot back, shaking her head. "I'm just looking out for my girl Leah." She grinned to Leah before they all began leaving the room.

As they walked, Leah spoke up again. "Just because he's class Prez doesn't mean he belongs to everyone. Mike is my man."

Mike sighed and shook his head. "Hey Leah, I'm not anybody's man."

"Whatever you say, darling!" she flirted.

Leah normally wouldn't approve of a trick like this, but she did have a somewhat dark sense of humor. Plus, what girl wouldn't be upset that another girl was in love with their man?

So they all hurried out, heading up to the guest room where their little prank was to take place. Shaking her head, Sam went in a different direction, preparing to find and warn Hannah.

"Hannah!" she called out, desperate to find her before it was too late.

Meanwhile, with Beth looking out the window, Chris and Josh passed out, and Sam searching for Hannah, the others were all in the guest room. They were preparing for the prank, getting into their hiding places. Ashley was hiding behind a partition, Matt in the closet, keeping the door opened enough to film the incident through. Ashley was trying to stifle her giggles, as were Jess and Leah as they hid under the bed. Mike stood by the bed, waiting for Hannah.

Meanwhile, down in the dining room, Beth was looking out the window at the snow.

She bit her lip. 'Wow, it's really coming down. Huh, where has everyone... What the…?'

Her thoughts were cut off as she spotted something outside. It looked like a person, standing out in the snow. The figure turned and left immediately, but Beth saw them and turned quickly.

"Hey...did you see that?" she queried. "Dad said it'd just be us this weekend... Josh?"

No response. She approached her brother and tried to shake him awake, to no avail. She then spotted the beer bottle next to him, amongst others. She picked it up and raised an eyebrow.

"Jeez, Josh." she laughed. "Once again, brother, you've outdone us all."

Shaking her head, she looked around, trying to find the others. It was then that she saw the note on the table and checked it. It was signed by Mike and seemed to be inviting Hannah up to the guest room. The content was somewhat sexual and Beth sighed.

"Oh my God, what did our naive sister get herself into now?"

She shook her head, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

Meanwhile, up in the guest room, Leah and Jessica were still giggling when Leah heard the movement and nudged Jess.

"Oop! She's here, shh!" she whispered.

The door opened and Hannah entered. Immediately noticeable in terms of difference of appearance between her and her twin sister was the fact that Hannah wore onyx-black rectangular glasses. She also wore a heart-shaped locket, which was known to contain a picture of her and Beth.

"Mike?" she said quietly, curiously. "It's Hannah."

Mike smiled as he replied, "Hey, Hannah."

Hannah stepped into the room, closing the door and smiling, suddenly awkward.

"I got your note..."

"Glad you could make it." he said, suave and charming. "Maybe we should start with a little, you know, making out, and see where it goes from there."

Hannah bit her lip, suddenly feeling like this was her chance, that she might finally get Mike's attention. As a result, she reacted eagerly, unbuttoning her blouse, starting to remove it, starting to reveal her recent black butterfly tattoo, located on her upper right arm.

Mike's eyes widened and he grinned. "Ohhhhh, hell yeah."

Jess couldn't help but burst into giggles as she let out a strangled whisper. "Oh my God! She's taking her shirt off!"

"What?" Hannah gasped, hearing her and then seeing Jess and Leah. "Oh my God!"

The others burst out of their hiding places at that time, including Matt with his camera.

"Matt?! What are you doing here?!" Hannah gasped in horror.

She was stuck, her shame caught for all her friends to see, and worse; it was being filmed.

She fumbled her shirt back on, her face burning with shame.

Mike began trying to save face. "Uh, I'm sorry, Hannah. This all got outta hand, but..."

At that moment, Sam burst into the room, realizing in dismay that she had been too late.

She turned quickly to Hannah. "Hannah? Hey, honey. Don't...it's just a..."

But Hannah was too distraught to even listen to her friend. She turned and ran from the room, not stopping.

Sam groaned as she finished her statement. "...Stupid prank."

"Uh...damn." Mike muttered, the others all sharing a look.

Sam turned to the others and glared. "You guys are jerks, you know that?!"

She turned and ran after Hannah, yelling, "HANNAH!"

She only just arrived in time to see and hear Hannah exit by the front door.

Beth was still down in the dining room and looked up at that point and spotted movement outside. She was startled, wondering if it was the same figure as before. She reacted at once, rushing out the door, calling out to the others.

"Guys, there's someone outside!" she called out, before noticing them all heading outside, too. "What the hell…?"

She hurried to pull on her fuchsia winter coat, hearing the others calling her sister's name. Bursting outside into the cold, the others all stopped, Sam calling out in desperation.

"Hannah!"

Beth burst out after them, shoving Matt out of the way as she did so.

"What's going on?" she demanded, looking around at the others. "Where's my sister going?"

Jess shook her head dismissively. "Ugh, it's fine. She just can't take a joke."

In a similar tone, Leah called out into the woods. "It was just a prank, Han!"

Beth glared, looking carefully at them, realizing right away that they were responsible. "What did you do?!"

"We were just messing around, Beth. It wasn't serious." Mike tried to explain.

"You JERKS!"

With that, Beth turned and ran off into the woods after Hannah, calling out to her.

"So..." Mike began awkwardly, "Should we go after her?"

Sam shook her head. "Y'know, I kinda think you're the LAST person she wants to see right now, Mike."

With that, the others turned and made their way back inside. Sam just prayed that Beth would be able to find Hannah and bring her back.

Stumbling through the snow, Beth grit her teeth, looking around for her sister.

"Oh shit!" she muttered. "Dammit, Hannah, where are you?"

She stumbled onwards, stopping when she found a fork in the road. There were footprints on one path and a shadow on the other. Acting on instinct, she followed the footprints, nearly running into a herd of deer, crying out. Still, she stumbled on, frantic, trying to find her sister. It was getting darker and she soon had to pull out her phone and use its light feature to find her way.

'Shit...shit, this is messed up.' she thought frantically.

She hadn't gone more than a few paces when a burst of flames above and to her left startled her. But then she could hear someone sobbing. She reacted at once.

"Hannah!"

Rushing forwards, she found Hannah kneeling in the snow, sobbing.

"Hello?" Hannah replied, looking up in shock.

"Hannah!" Beth cried out, seeing that her sister wasn't wearing a coat. "Oh my God, you must be freezing."

Despite the fact that Hannah was wearing jeans and a blouse and Beth, in comparison, had a simple shirt and yoga pants, she removed her coat.

"Here, take my coat."

Hannah pulled it on as she slowly stood up, both of them standing together now.

Hannah remained distraught as she shook her head. "I'm such an idiot, I'm so dumb..." she whimpered.

Beth did her best to comfort her, but then they heard a terrifying screech.

"Hannah…?"

The girl just shook her head. "Beth…?"

Beth bit her lip, terrified. The screech sounded again and, in a blind panic, they turned and ran as fast as they could. No easy task, due to the snow. Running in a blind panic, they made it to an old bridge. Crossing the bridge, Hannah fell. Crying out, Beth turned to help her sister up, unaware that, at that moment, her phone fell from her pocket, falling under the floorboards of the bridge. They continued onwards, both wanting to find safety, but ending up trapped as they reached a dead end on a cliff.

"Oh Jesus Christ!" Beth gasped.

Hannah let out choked gasps as she and Beth clung to each other, moving backwards until they couldn't go any further, due to the edge of the cliff.

"No..."

They could hear the screeching getting closer.

"No! Shit, no, get back!" Beth cried out. "Fuck, no...ARGH!"

She cried out as they suddenly lost their footing and fell. They now were stuck, Beth hanging onto a branch protruding from the ledge, holding Hannah's hand with her other hand.

A burst of flames suddenly lit up the night above them. Beth looked up in horror as a strange masked figure appeared above them and, after a brief pause, reached out towards them.

Beth grit her teeth. She could feel Hannah's hand slipping through her own. She couldn't abandon her sister and seeing this figure wasn't helping. It only terrorized her more and, unable to hold on anymore, she let go. The last thing she knew was the pain of slamming against the ground several times. She struck a particular rock and life was wiped from her body.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.