AN: I don't really know where I'm going with this, or how much I'm going to update, but there's a dreadful lack of femslash, and even worse, a lack of good pairings for the few fics that are in existence. Hopefully people at least enjoy this chapter, will try to not abandon it. Sorry for the lame title, too, I'm bad at this shit.

I'm going to change a canonical detail: Instead of Ashley and Chris having crushes on each other, Ashley has a crush on Sam, and Sam has a slight unconscious crush on Ashley. They're also extremely close friends. A few other details will change too of course, but that's a major emotional change in characters that I needed to note beforehand. With that said, enjoy the story!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN UNTIL DAWN. Also, be warned, there is likely going to be femslash lemons, aka lesbian erotic sex in this story. If you don't like it, you probably should avoid reading this story, as I don't post those awkward "LEMON HERE SKIP IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT AND WATCH FOR ME TO SAY IT'S OVER" things that break immersion and just look tacky.

Prologue: 1 Year in the Past

It was that time of year again, when everyone took a trip to Blackwood Mountain for their winter break. "I'm so happy that we get to come here every year, it's gonna be so much fun!" Ashley said excitedly to Sam as they walked up to the gate that separates the mountain retreat from the world.

"Yeah, I'm excited too Ash, it's gonna be a great time as always," Sam replied as they walked through the open gate and to the ski-lift. "I think we're a bit late, everyone else's cars were there but nobody is at the ski-lift, they must already be at the manor." She said as they waited for the next ski-lift to come pick them up.

"Eh, no big deal, I'm sure they wouldn't start the party without the life of it being there!" Ashley said, grinning at her blonde friend.

"Yep, and I'm sure they'll be happy to see you too," Sam said humorously and winked at Ashley, eliciting a slight blush.

"Oh ha ha, very funny! You won't catch me arguing though," Ashley replied as they boarded the cable car that would take them up to the mountain.

"Hey, you know I didn't mean it, I don't think I'd even want to come if you weren't here with me Ash, you know I love spending time with you. Thankfully I didn't have to choose though, it's gonna be nice seeing everyone in one place, it doesn't happen very often." Sam said with a smile, feeling a slight unfamiliar flutter in her chest as Ashley looked at her with happiness, touched by the genuine-ness of her words.

"Yeah, it really is nice to have everyone together, isn't it? Ever since we all graduated, everyone's been pretty busy with work or school, I'm glad everyone managed to get a break from daily life to come here." Ashley said softly.

"Agreed, most of the others have been going down their own path in life. I guess we have too, really." Sam replied, placing her hand on Ashley's and leaning back in her seat. The rest of the cable car ride was quiet, both girls just watched out the side of the car and took in the view of the surrounding snowy hills. Once they got to the mountain, they exited and walked to the manor at a slow pace, taking in the calm, peacefulness of the landscape.

"I really love this place, it always just seems so beautiful to just walk around in." Ashley remarked about the lush nature around them.

"Same here, we need to make sure to go on a walk on some of the trails here before we have to leave, there's some really sweet sights to see!"

"Sure, want to ask the others if they want to come?"

"Nah, I don't really like walking around as a big group, it seems too rushed, let's just have it be you and me. Unless you don't want to if it's only us, it's cool if not, but it would be nice to have someone to experience it with," Sam said shyly, hoping that Ashley would agree to go with her, as she enjoyed spending time with her.

"Oh, no, I'm still definitely down to go, don't worry!" Ashley reassured Sam and smiled at her, getting one in return.

"Great!" Sam replied. "I see the manor, let's see what everyone's up to." They walked up to the large mansion-like estate. Sam knocked on the door a few times.

"Come in!" They heard Josh shout out. Opening the door, they walked inside and saw that everyone except Jessica and Emily was in the living room with the stereo on at a decent level where it was definitely a presence in the room, but you could still hear other people talking.

"Hey you two! Nice to see you," Josh said, and greetings rang out from everyone else as well.

"Hey everyone, good to see you too!" Sam said and Ashley nodded in agreeance, staying slightly behind Sam since her friend was a bit more confident than she was.

Ashley settled in and got comfortable, and the next few hours were spent catching up and joking around with everyone, including Emily and Jessica who eventually came and joined the group, as well as a bit of sneaking glances at Sam, who was enjoying herself and constantly laughing at the various humors of the party. It made her giddy and excited to see Sam that happy, and the butterflies that she fought to suppress were extremely potent in those moments.

"This is, such, a fun night guys! Ha ha ha! I love you, all!" Josh slurred out from the stool he was sitting on before taking another drink of liquor.

"Whoa Josh, you might wanna slow down, you might not last too long at this rate," Beth teased.

"Yeah, yeah you're, probably right Beth! But just because it's, the smart thing to do, doesn't mean I'll do it!" He laughed and took another drink, causing Beth to roll her eyes.

"I'm sure Josh will be fine, he can take it right bro?" Chris said with a smirk.

"You know it dude, just in my, prime havin' a good time!" Josh chuckled and poured himself another glass.

"Hey guys I'm gonna be right back, I've gotta, uh, take a leak." Mike said as Emily walked out of the room towards the guest room, following her out.

"That's weird, wonder what's up with them?" Sam muttered.

"I don't know, maybe they just wanted to make out for a few minutes.

"Yeah, maybe..." Hannah echoed with a sad sigh.

"Oh don't worry Hannah, there's plenty of guys out there, I'm sure someday you'll even like one of them more than Mike!" Sam said in an attempt to cheer up her nerdy friend. "By the way, I really like your tattoo! It's super cool," she continued to take Hannah's mind off of Mike.

"Yeah, that's pretty sick!" Ashley spoke up in reference to the Butterfly tattoo on Hannah's shoulder.

"Thanks guys, I really like how it turned out! I wasn't sure if it would look cool or not, but I like it." Hannah said with a smile.

A bit later, at about one AM, everyone was starting to get tired. "You guys can stay in the guest cabin like usual, everything should be hooked up and working, you remember the way right?" Beth said to Ashley and Sam.

"Yeah, we remember. See you in the morning! This winter break is going to be amazing!" Sam said and grabbed Ashley's hand, pulling her towards the back door where the path leading to the cabin was.

"Good night guys!" Ashley said with a smile as she let Sam lead her outside. "That was a fun night, are you feeling tired?"

"Not really honestly, but it looks like most of the others were so it'd be a bit lame to keep everyone up on account of me. Are you tired?" Sam replied.

"Not really, wanna stay up and watch a movie?"

"Sure, what type did you have in mind?"

"Well, the atmosphere is pretty right for a horror film, right? Not one of those cheap jump scare gore types though, like an actual psychological one." Ashley suggested.

"Sounds good to me, just don't expect your shoulder to not be clutched the entire way through if the movie is any good, you know how I am with scary movies," Sam said with a shiver.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, don't worry, I'll be right next to you the whole time," Ashley replied and squeezed Sam's hand.

"My hero!" Sam fluttered her lashes and grinned.

"I hate how far away this cabin is!" Ashley complained. "You'd think they would build it closer to the actual home so people don't have to walk up and down a path every time they want to get to or from it."

Sam shrugged. "I don't mind it, though it's a bit spooky to walk the path at night. No big deal though, we're on a mountain that requires a ski-lift to get up to, plus a locked gate to get to that. There's nothing up here that will hurt us, we just have to keep a lookout for bears or something.

"There's bears up here?" Ashley looked around them at the surrounding forest, eyes nervous.

"Yeah, but relax, they've never harmed anyone, they usually keep to themselves, and probably are hibernating at the moment."

"Oh, okay, that's good to know."

"Hey, there's the cabin!" Sam said, fishing in her pocket for the key. They opened the door and walked inside, where the room was comfortably heated. Sam flicked the light switch. "Damn it, why won't the light turn on?" She said frustratedly when nothing happened. The power was clearly working if the heat was on.

"Maybe it's an issue with the circuit board? I'll go check it out, give me a minute, I'm pretty good with these sorts of things." Ashley said and left the cabin, walking out back to where the circuit board was located. Her feet crunched in the snow and the solitude and silence made her a bit nervous. She wanted to get this over with and get back to Sam, and the warmth of the cabin.

She opened the circuit board and looked around in it. "Let's see… Oh, why is this unconnected? Hmmm, that should be, right?" Ashley got to work, but suddenly heard a twig nearby snap, and her eyes darted around her. "H-hello?" She called out in a wavering voice. "Is anyone there? This really isn't funny!" She nervously called to the darkness around her. She heard the snow crunching towards her, and she saw a dark figure that she couldn't clearly recognize. "Who are you?!" She yelled out and stepped back, but tripped on a large branch in the darkness. The figure drew closer and she scrambled away, backing up against a tree. "Please go away! Sam, where are you! Help!" She cried out, and the dark figure said nothing while it walked up to her until it was right in front of her, and she couldn't help but let out a whimper of fear. Wasn't this mountain supposed to be safe?!

"Ashley..." A distorted voice. "I… got you!" A familiar voice called out and Sam took off what looked to be a heavy black trench coat and mask. "You should've seen the look on your face!" She laughed loudly as Ashley looked at her dumbly.

"Sam… Sam that wasn't funny!" Ashley was still quivering and her heart was pumping at maximum speed. "I thought I was going to fucking die!" She said angrily and stomped past Sam back to the circuit breaker, flipping a switch and shutting it with a slam.

"Oh come on Ash, it was just a joke!" Sam said, starting to feel a bit guilty.

"Yeah, well it's not funny, how would you feel if some strange figure came out of nowhere and started silently walking up to you at night! Do you even realize how scared I was? I.. I can't even… Ugh!" Ashley grunted in anger and marched past Sam up to the Cabin door, going inside and shutting the door loudly, though not as aggressively enough to be called a slam.

Sam sighed. She saw that going a lot better in her head when she saw the outfit in the closet. "Ashley, wait up! I'm sorry!" Sam called out and followed her into the cabin. Ashley was laying down on the bed trying to calm her breathing, though she couldn't stop the light whimper from escaping her mouth every few breaths. "Hey Ash, I'm so sorry, I didn't think about how scary this prank would be, please forgive me!" Sam said with genuine regret as she laid down on the bed next to Ashley, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl and burying her head into her neck.

"I… I forgive you Sam, just please never do that again, okay?" Ashley replied, returning the embrace. She could never stay mad at Sam for long, even if she did almost kill her out of fright.

"Don't worry, I won't." Sam stayed cuddled up with Ashley for a few minutes. She could feel Ashley's heart racing, and her breathing was still a bit raspy. She guessed that Ashley was just taking a while to calm down, but in reality the reason why her heart was racing and she was breathing shallowly had shifted from fear to a mix of nervousness and bliss at having the girl she had liked for a long time in her arms like this, and she wanted to savor every moment.

Ashley forced herself to calm down within a few minutes. "We should probably start that movie, huh?" She said, regretfully untangling herself from the cute blonde next to her.

"Yeah, sure." Sam replied with a smile.

"I hope you realize that I'm going to put on the scariest movie they have in here, right?" Ashley smirked wickedly at Sam. "And you have to watch every bit of it without pausing or falling asleep!" Ashley said to Sam's horror.

"Ash! That's not f- er, actually, I guess it kind of is fair, hehe." Sam nervously chuckled, accepting her fate. She didn't know why, but Ashley had a really big stomach for horror movies, whereas she got really scared at even the bad ones.

"Damn right it is." Ashley replied with a smirk. "Let's see… Saw? Nah, too light. Blair witch? Better, but let's go with something more recent…" Ashley came across a title that made her eyes light up. "Okay, I've got the perfect movie, this is gonna be awesome!" Ashley grinned to Sam's dismay, who gulped but accepted it as her punishment for her badly planned prank.

Ashley popped in the movie to the DVD player and hit play, then returned to lay down next to Sam, putting some cushions behind them so that they could sit up and see the screen- the large, wide, amazing screen mind you.

Ashley was feeling bold, so she wrapped an arm around Sam and pulled her close as the movie started, which was a sufficiently scary film about an old woman with a mental illness who was seemingly possessed by a sinister force.

"Oh god.." Sam muttered in one of the many tense silent moments in the film where one of the characters was exploring a dark place.

"I hope it was worth it," Ashley said teasingly and squeezed Sam reassuringly, taking a hold of Sam's hand with her free one.

"Not in the slightest." She whimpered, resting her head against Ashley's shoulder and gripping her hand tightly. Her heart was beating fiercely, she assumed from being absolutely terrified of the movie's events combined with the darkness and somewhat isolated atmosphere outside of the movie around them. Thank goodness she had Ashley, or there was no way she'd be sleeping that night!

She also felt a sense of comfort having Ashley's arms around her, it was… soothing in a way, and kept her relatively calm and happy.

Suddenly there was a loud scare event in the movie and Sam jumped, grabbing Ashley and burrowing in close to her, scared out of her mind. At the same time, a loud screaming sound echoed out.

"Was that in the movie? Why would someone scream there?" Ashley wondered.

"I don't know, I would scream there too though!" Sam muttered, assuming it was just a background sound in the movie.

"Huh, that was weird, it just didn't really fit. Oh well, must just be a weird directing decision," She said and settled back down and immersed herself in the movie, plus in holding the beautiful blonde who had shifted into her lap. She rested her chin on Sam's head and wrapped her arms around the blonde comfortingly.

Soon, the movie finished. "Thank God that's over, holy crap that was scary!" Sam said. "I'm feeling pretty tired, but I don't know how I can fall asleep after that, do you mind if we stay like this? You're really comfortable, and I feel safe." Sam asked, shifting her head back so she could look Ashley in the eyes, who looked down at her.

"Sure, that works perfectly fine for me." She replied, before daringly leaning down and planting a soft kiss on Sam's forehead, her chest's flutters acting up as she did so. "Good night Sammy." She said, rolling onto her side and keeping her arms wrapped around Sam.

"Night Ash, sorry again for the prank earlier, I love you." She said in a warm tone as she snuggled into Ashley's embrace.

Ashley only wished she meant that in a different way, and fell asleep hoping someday that her wishes will come true.