#climbingclass

I’m tired, I’m tired of not loving you.

— Mitski, Eric.

Angst

! Major Character Death Warning !

@abigailstardust24 🫂

🦋

The wind howled through the burned ruins of the lodge, its icy breath clawing at Chris’s face as he trudged forward, flashlight flickering in the suffocating darkness.

It would have been a lie if he would have said he recognised the place. Of course, he saw a rotting shelf here or the leg of a chair there that looked oh so familiar but it was close to impossible to imagine what this place looked like only a few months ago. Not a big loss, he did not want to remember.

His fingers trembled, partly from the cold and partly from the weight of what he was about to do. The rifle strapped to his back felt heavier than it should, as if it bore the weight of a decision he wasn’t ready to make.

But he had to find Josh. He had to.

He couldn’t leave him behind. Not like this.

Ashley had begged him to stay. Even Sam, the strongest of all of them, couldn’t mask the pity in her eyes when she said, “Chris, you have to let him go.”

After that he had told no one else. He feared that every pitiful look would make him reconsider.

But at the end Chris didn’t care.

None of them understood. Josh wasn’t just his best friend. He was everything. Even now, memories flashed through Chris’s mind like ghosts haunting him:

Late nights in Josh’s room, tangled in conversations that stretched till dawn; the way Josh’s crooked smile felt like sunlight breaking through a storm. The fleeting moments when their hands brushed and lingered just a second too long.

Chris’s jaw tightened. He’d never told Josh. Not really. And then the prank happened. The fracture in their group, the descent into chaos, and now this cursed mountain that refused to let any of them leave whole. Or leave at all.

His boots crunched through the snow as he approached the old mining tunnels. The air was colder here, thicker, and every shadow seemed alive. The flashlight barely pierced the oppressive darkness, but he pressed on.

“Josh,” he called softly, his voice carrying through the silence. “It’s me. It’s Chris. I’m here.”

Are you?

The only response was the low groan of wind through the trees.

Then, a sound.

A scraping, guttural noise that made Chris’s stomach twist. He froze, heart pounding, as the sound grew closer. His flashlight beam wavered, sweeping across jagged rocks and frost-covered debris until it landed on a figure.

Josh. He would’ve recognised him at the end of the world.

Or what was left of him.

The creature crouched in the shadows, its elongated limbs trembling with barely-contained energy. Its skin stretched tight over sharp bones, and its face

God,

his face,

was warped and inhuman. The skull pushed against thin, translucent skin, its jaw slightly unhinged. But the eyes -

Chris’s breath caught.

They were still Josh’s eyes.

Inhuman and glazed with the fog of death but still his. After all.

“Josh,” Chris whispered, lowering the flashlight slightly. His voice trembled, cracking like the frost underfoot. “It’s me. I- God, I’ve been looking for you. I couldn’- I couldn’t leave you here.”

The creature hissed, recoiling slightly at the voice, but didn’t attack. Chris took a cautious step forward, his fingers tight around the flashlight. Every second he was still alive felt like a win for him.

“It’s okay,” he said, his voice soft, almost pleading. “I know you’re still in there.” Love made stupid and right now Chris felt like the stupidest man alive.

The Wendigo tilted its head, its movements sharp and unnatural. A low growl escaped its throat, but its claws didn’t move.

“Josh,” Chris continued, his tears freezing against his cheeks. “I’m sorry. For everything. For not- for not being there when you needed me. I should’ve seen how much pain you were in. I should’ve told you.” He swallowed hard. “I should’ve told you how much you mean to me.” Would have had changed anything? Would Josh have forgotten his plan? At the end it was stupid to even consider. The thought alone, meant nothing.

The creature froze, its body trembling. For a moment, something flickered in its eyes- something that could be human.

Chris stepped closer, his rifle slung uselessly over his shoulder. It was stupid to bring it. It was useless weight. He wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger. Not even while knowing, that it couldn’t kill the Wendigo.

I love you, Josh.” He says instead. A wet sob tearing through his throat. “I always have. And I know this isn’t the end for you. You’re stronger than this thing. You can fight it. Just- come back to me.” Stupid. Stupid man.

For a moment, silence hung in the air, fragile as glass.

Then Josh screamed.

The sound was raw and guttural, filled with rage and anguish. He lunged, claws slicing through the air. Chris didn’t move, even as instinct screamed at him to run.

The impact sent him sprawling into the snow, the rifle skidding out of reach. Josh’s claws pinned him down, his face inches away, breath reeking of decay. Chris looked up into those tortured eyes and saw something breaking.

“It’s okay,” Chris whispered, his voice steady even as blood seeped into the snow beneath him. “It’s okay.” Maybe it was an attempt to calm himself, rather than the creature above him.

The Wendigo hesitated, its claws trembling. Its head tilted, lips parting as if trying to speak, but all that came out was a guttural noise-

a mockery of what used to be Josh’s voice.

But at the end the hunger surged back. With a scream, the creature plunged its claws into Chris’s chest.

Chris gasped, pain blooming like fire, but he didn’t look away. He held Josh’s gaze until the light faded from his own.

The forest was silent.

-

Josh knelt in the snow, hunched over Chris’s body. His claws were slick with blood, his trembling form cast in the faint glow of moonlight. He didn’t move, save for the shuddering breaths that escaped his throat.

The glasses.

They were broken, buried in the snow next to Chris’s body. Josh’s clawed fingers hovered over them, trembling, as if they held the answers to a question he couldn’t remember.

He picked them up, the fragile metal bending beneath his strength.

Something felt wrong.

He felt- terrifyingly empty.

The hunger gnawed at him, but it was hollow now, like chewing on ash.

As if he deserved it.

The rage was gone, replaced by an ache he was no longer human enough to understand.

He looked down at Chris’s body, his monstrous form quivering. Memories flickered- Memories he no longer had the capacity to remember fully. Warmth and aching or longing for something that was not purely flesh.

Josh’s claws tightened around the glasses.

He stumbled back, clutching his head as an inhuman wail tore from his throat. The Wendigo’s body jerked and spasmed, torn between the beast and the remnants of the boy it once used to be.

The glasses slipped from his hand, landing next to Chris in the blood-stained snow.

Josh screamed again, but this time it wasn’t rage. It was grief.

The creature’s jagged claws turned inward, pressing against its own chest. With one last, guttural cry, it drove them deep, the sound of bone splintering echoing through the clearing.

Josh collapsed next to Chris, his twisted form still at last.

Above them, the wind whispered through the trees, carrying with it a name neither would ever speak again.

Chris: but you know who else is beautiful?

Ashley, blushing: who?