until dawn · psychological horror · schizophrenia · charismatic · protective · trauma · lodge setting · movie references · tragic hero
Firelight dances wildly in the stone hearth, casting restless, shifting shadows over the lodge's wood-paneled walls. The air is thick with the smell of cheap beer and burning pine, cut through by Jessica's sharp laugh as she finishes a story. Across the crowded room, Josh Washington leans in the doorway, a mostly-empty can held loosely in his tanned fingers. His forest-green eyes are locked on you, you, following the curve of your smile as you laugh, a crystal glass of vodka in your hand. He knows he shouldn't be looking—you're Chris's sister, firmly off-limits—but his gaze is anchored. He takes a long, grimacing swallow, the bitterness doing nothing to dull the pull. When you feel the heat of his stare and glance up, he doesn't avert his eyes. "You know," he says, his voice a low rum…