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Switch - Chapter 5

Pairings: Dylan Lenivy/Ryan Erzahler

Chapter Word Count: 14,020

Overall Word Count: 52,863

Status: Multi-Chapter - Complete (5/5)

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“Guess we should ask…” Dylan mutters in response, clearing his throat before speaking louder. "Hey, uh… Not Laura, as you can probably tell, but uh… Who are you?”

“My name’s Max. I’m… I was supposed to be one of the counselors here, but uh… It’s kind of a long story as to why I’m not and… why I’m here.”

“Wait… Max?” Dylan asks, stepping closer to the doors. “Max as in… Laura’s boyfriend? That Max?”

“Uh… Yeah?” Max replies through the door. “And that is my full name, just to be clear. First name ‘Max’, last name ‘Larua’s boyfriend’.”

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04:31 | AUGUST 23 - MAX

The lake of Hackett’s Quarry looked less than inviting, with its inky black surface lapping at the legs of the dock. Max had already been here once, standing on the dock. He had been here a few times actually, going to and from it, trying to convince himself it was a good idea to get in the water and swim to the other side, back to the mainland.

HACKETT’S QUARRY ISLAND

But was it?

Laura had left him here, had told him to stay here until she comes and gets him for a reason. Given the fact that he was human now, and the moon still hung in the sky, he could only assume that Laura had done it — she had ended his curse. So, technically, he’s not a danger to anyone anymore. And whilst that surely meant the danger was over, there had been a little voice in the back of his head that kept him put on the island, not willing to brave the cold waters and whatever awaits him on the other side.

And that little voice in his head just happened to sound a lot like Laura’s, saying “Don’t be an idiot, keep your ass right here.”

And he had. For about… maybe an hour now, if he were to guess, he had remained right here on the island. All he had to do was wait, right? Once Laura had killed Chris Hackett, she would be making her way here, making her way to him. Except… as he said — it had been an hour, and she still wasn’t here. That’s not to say that something was wrong of course. After all, Hackett’s Quarry was a pretty big place. It could easily take more than an hour for Laura to make her way back here.

And that would be enough to put Max’s mind at ease… If it hadn’t been for the fact that he woke up in a goddamn tree.

Something had gone wrong. It had to have. If it had gone right, then he should have woken up back in the tree house, locked away on its upper floor. But he didn’t. Someone had let him out, whether on purpose or by accident, he didn’t know. The only reassurance he had that whoever had let him out was still alive was the lack of a body anywhere on the island. And he checked. Thoroughly. Not much else to do while he waits…

Oh, and that’s not to mention the fact that someone had stolen his friggen clothes.

So, here he was again. Stood on the edge of the dock, looking down into the endless abyss that was the lake, trying to convince himself that this was the right thing to do. Especially given he had heard a damn gunshot go off somewhere in the distance, and--

Wait… Why was there a gunshot?

If Laura had shot Chris… Then it was over, wasn’t it? Nothing left to shoot at. So who was shooting? And at what?

Guess he had to find out…

“Alright… This seems like a bad idea.” Max said to himself as he took a seat on the edge of the dock, quietly slipping down into the water.

“Son of a biscuit, that’s cold!” The first touch of freezing water enveloping his body makes his breath catch, fighting through his muscle's desire to tense up to keep swimming and keep himself afloat. He takes quick, rapid breaths — the only kinds his lungs will allow him to take in his body’s shock — a part of him already regretting this. “Jeez, isn’t it supposed to be summer?”

Max swims as quickly but as quietly as he can, heading towards the other dock he can just about make out in the distance. He doesn’t want to spend another minute more in this cold water than he has to, but he’d also rather not splash about in the water and let everyone and everything in the near vicinity be alerted to his presence.

His fingers, which had already begun to stiffen from the cold, require a little more effort than usual to wrap around the wooden posts of the dock. Max heaves with the effort as he clambers up it, dragging himself over the edge of the dock. He flops onto his back, staring up at the star-dotted sky as he catches his breath.

There’s a part of him that’s almost expecting for something to come rushing out from the trees and maul him to death, but nothing of the sort happens. The trees remain still, apart from the occasional rustle as the wind whistles through them. His teeth began to chatter, Laura’s now soaked clothes suctioned to his skin.

Max groans as he rolls over and clambers up to his hands and knees, then up onto his feet. Drops of water had begun to cascade down from Laura’s cap, dripping down his face. He pulled the hat off his head, gripping it in both hands and wringing out as much lake water as he can before plopping it back atop his head.

“Okay, Max… Time to get a move on before you freeze to death…”

All well and good in theory, except for the part where he has no idea where he is or where to go. In the direction of the gunshot seemed like a bad idea on all accounts… But, there’s every chance it could be Laura, or even just someone that needs help, plus… It beats wandering aimlessly around the woods.

Not one lick of these woods seemed familiar to Max, and why would they? He had only seen the once on his way to the island, and there were other things on his mind as he and Laura trekked over to his temporary holding cell than taking in the scenery.

“Let’s sign up to be camp counselors for the summer, that’ll look great on our college resumes!” Max narrated to himself as he made his way down the dark and creepy trails of Hackett’s Quarry Summer Camp. “Yeah… What a fun summer this was…”

* * *

4:50 | AUGUST 23 - DYLAN

HACKETT’S QUARRY LODGE

“Jesus, Dylan… Would you stop gawking at the dude?”

Dylan looked away from the monitors only to be greeted by Ryan’s rather unimpressed look, to which he only deepens Ryan’s frown by cheerfully smiling at him. “Aww, no need to be jealous, babe. You know I love you the most.”

“I, uh- it’s… that-- I mean, u-um, you--”

“Wow, I actually just witnessed the breaking of Ryan’s brain,” said Emma, looking back at the two over her shoulder.

“Guys, shouldn’t we be focusing on this right now?” Abi hissed, poking at the figure on the monitor. “What do we do? He’s obviously coming to the lodge.”

“Well, he doesn’t have any weapons. Not that I can see, anyway,” Emma says, turning her attention back to the monitors. “Kinda hard to tell though… You’d think Mr. H would have splurged on some fancy 4K cameras if it was this important to record the perimeter of the camp at all times.”

“At least it has night vision,” said Abi.

“Yeah, so Dylan can check out random guy’s abs…” Ryan mumbled.

“Uh, you mentioned the abs, not me,” Dylan pointed out.

“Sounds like someone's a little jealous…” Emma sang, getting a light smack to the arm from Abi.

Ryan scoffed. “I’m not jealous--”

“Focus, guys, focus,” Abi snapped. “Seriously, what do we do? Is he… is he one of the Hackett’s?”

“I don’t think so…” Dylan glanced over to Ryan. “Ryan, you know them better than us. Anyone in the family you think this could be?”

Ryan shook his head. “Chris didn’t talk much about his family past Kaylee and Caleb -- and that his mom lives in that house in the woods. I didn’t even know his brother was a cop until Laura told us about him.”

“Okay, so… if it’s not one of the Hackett’s, then… who the hell is right outside the lodge?” Abi asks. All four of them exchanged worried glances, the figure on the monitor getting closer and closer to the lodge…

“We could just… go out and ask him?” Emma suggests. “It’s not like he has a weapon, right? And we do. He might need our help.”

“I… think it’s better we stay here,” Ryan says. “We can keep an eye on the monitors, keep track of him--”

“Okay, and what if he tries to get inside the lodge?” Dylan asks. “Which, y’know, why wouldn’t he, given he’s headed in this direction?”

“Alright… Alright, I’m gonna go get the gun and go wait by the entrance,” Ryan says. His eyes swivel over to Dylan, the beginnings of a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “I’d say it’d be safer for you to stay here, but I know better than to make that suggestion given the number of times you’ve saved my ass tonight.”

“Damn right,” Dylan agrees, returning Ryan’s half-smile. “Now come on, let’s go see if ‘Mister Mystery Hot Dude’ is good or bad.”

“I knew you thought he was hot--”

“We’ve covered this Ryan: dude is hot; not as hot as you; your tongue was down my throat like five minutes ago; now go -- get gun.”

Ryan huffed, turning around and heading back towards Mr. H’s office, knowing full well there was nothing he could come up with to respond to that. Dylan followed after him, leaving a rather stunned Abi and Emma.

“I’m not sure if that was cute, or gross,” Abi comments.

“Both. It was both, I think.” Emma shakes her head, clearing her thoughts. She looks over to the monitors for one last look, taking in a deep breath. “We should probably follow, right?”

“Might as well…”

They only lagged behind the two boys for a few seconds, but Ryan already had the shotgun in hand by the time they entered the room, loading in another shell. He cocked the gun back into place, nodding to the three of them before leading them towards the door and back out to the main area of the lodge.

They all remain silent as they tip-toe through the lodge, despite the fact they knew there was no longer anything dangerous inside. At least, as far as they knew -- and as much as the cameras could show them. Ryan takes the lead, sweeping the flashlight around the lodge as they move towards the main doors.

Ryan comes to a sudden stop, and Dylan already knows why before he’s even seen it. He already knew that right there in front of them, just outside the kitchen doors, just by the entrance to the entire lodge… was Caleb’s body. He had hoped that Ryan would never have to see it, would be spared the pain of it, but… it was likely to happen at some point. He steps up to Ryan’s side, looking over to see the sheen of pain in Ryan’s eyes as he stares down at Caleb’s blood-soaked body. Dylan has no words of comfort to offer, so he simply places his hand on Ryan’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

“We should… we should move him…” Ryan mumbles, tearing his eyes away from Caleb to look over to Dylan. “We can’t just leave him here in the walkway…”

“Yeah… Yeah, okay,” Dylan agrees softly. He looks at his hand on Ryan’s shoulder, then to Caleb, then… to his non-existent other hand. Pushing around tables was one thing, but lifting a body? There was no denying that there would be some limitations now he was down a hand… “Um… I, uh…”

“We got this,” Emma cuts in, nearly making Dylan and Ryan jump as both she and Abi appear at their sides.

Abi looked a little uneasy at the thought, but it only took one glance at Ryan’s distraught face for her to nod her head in agreement. “Yeah, we can do it, Ryan. You should be keeping an eye on the door, anyway.”

Ryan nodded his head, shooting the two a slightly wobbly smile — which Dylan knew full well took a lot of effort from Ryan right now. “I, um… Thank you. I’m not sure if I… If I could have…”

Emma reached out, giving Ryan a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Ryan began to move forward again, past Caleb’s body, not wanting to look at it for a second more. Dylan followed close behind, glancing over his shoulder to see Abi and Emma had already managed to get Caleb off the floor, Emma holding him up by his shoulders whilst Abi had grabbed his legs, carefully manoeuvring him over to one of the nearby tables.

“You didn’t have a choice, Ryan,” Dylan does his best to comfort him, already able to see the blame Ryan was placing on himself. “If you hadn’t--”

“I don’t regret it,” Ryan suddenly cut in, his gaze snapping from the door in front over to Dylan. “And I think that’s part of why I feel as shit as I do… Because I don’t feel as shit as I should. But if doing what I did meant you were safe? Then I’d do it all over again. In a heartbeat. I just… I wish it didn’t come down to this.”

A knock at the door stopped any other words Dylan was going to say in response to that. Both he and Ryan look to the door, Ryan slowly bringing the shotgun up and keeping it aimed right at center mass. Dylan could see Abi and Emma out of the corner of his eye, the two of them having made their way back over to them at the sound of the knock.

“Hello?” A voice they don’t recognize calls out, muffled from the other side of the door. “Laura? Are you in there?”

“Laura?” Ryan mutters, keeping his voice low so whoever was on the other side couldn’t hear him. “He knows Laura?”

“Guess we should ask…” Dylan mutters in response, clearing his throat before speaking louder. "Hey, uh… Not Laura, as you can probably tell, but uh… Who are you?”

“My name’s Max. I’m… I was supposed to be one of the counselors here, but uh… It’s kind of a long story as to why I’m not and… why I’m here.”

“Wait… Max?” Dylan asks, stepping closer to the doors. “Max as in… Laura’s boyfriend? That Max?”

“Uh… Yeah?” Max replies through the door. “And that is my full name, just to be clear. First name ‘Max’, last name ‘Larua’s boyfriend’.”

Dylan snorted, getting a sneaking suspicion that he and Max were going to get along just fine — likely to the displeasure of both Ryan and Laura. Ryan rolled his eyes at Dylan’s snorted laughter, lowering the shotgun as he approached the door. “Alright, I’m gonna let you in, but just… keep your hands where I can see them, okay?”

“Um… Okay?”

“Here, come help me get this out of the way,” Ryan throws over his shoulder to Dylan, grabbing hold of one end of the table they used to block the door earlier. Dylan hurries over to the other end, pushing at the table whilst Ryan pulls it, quickly removing it from the door.

Ryan reached for the door, keeping the shotgun ready just in case as he pulled the door open. Sure enough, standing on the other side is the very same guy they say walking around on the monitors, exposed mid-riff and all. A quick scan over him proved Emma’s earlier claim right; the guy -- Max -- didn’t have any weapons in his possession.

“Oh, man… you have no idea how nice it is to see other people,” Max said with a beaming smile, stepping through the door and into the lodge.

“Did you swim here or something?” Ryan asked, eyeing up Max’s damp clothes whilst he closed the door behind him.

“Oh, uh…” Max glanced down at himself, throwing his arms out to the side. “…Yeah, actually. I was on that island, in the lake? I was kinda… kinda supposed to stay put actually, but I heard a gunshot, which…” Max trailed off, eyes dropping down to the gun in Ryan’s hands. “…I’m assuming was you?”

“Um… yeah,” Ryan says, eyes dropping down to the floor. Max raises an eyebrow at that, wondering where the sudden awkwardness had come from, but a quick glance to his right, to the body he could say laid out on a nearby table, answered that for him.

“I’m, uh… I’m guessing you guys know about… y’know, everything. Or at least, I hope you do and that’s not just a random dead person over there.”

“We know as much as Laura does,” Dylan tells Max. “She caught us up to speed with everything that happened to you guys.”

Max’s eyes visibly brightened at the mention of Laura’s name. “You talked to Laura? Is she… is she okay?”

“Far as we know,” Ryan answers. “She and Kaitlyn went off together to… to go find Chris.”

“Yeah, and given you’re… you again…” Dylan gestured towards Max. “I, uh… I’m guessing they were successful.”

“How long ago did you talk to her?” Max asks.

“Oh uh… like, hours ago now. Four or five maybe?” Dylan answers.

“And that’s the last time you saw her?” Max asks.

Dylan nods. “How long have you been… back to your normal self?”

“I don't know, like... two hours maybe?” Max says, brow pinched with worry. “They should have been back by now... right?”

“Not necessarily. The Hackett House is pretty far into the woods, so it’s a decent walk to and from here,” Ryan says.

“Yeah, I mean… From what we saw of Laura, she seemed super capable,” Abi pitches in. “And Kaitlyn, too. Them two together… I’m sure they’re fine.”

“I never met this ‘Laura’, so I have no idea what you guys are talking about,” Emma adds.

“You should probably know though that Laura… kinda got bit. By… you,” Ryan tells Max.

“What? I…How?”

“She thought she had killed Chris, but… she killed Kaylee instead. His… His daughter. But because she thought it was Chris, she went back to find you thinking you were gonna be human again, but… you weren’t.” Ryan explained.

“Oh no… Oh… Christ…” Max spat, pacing back and forth with his hands on his head. “I… I bit her? I infected Laura?”

“Whoa, hey, Max — it’s okay,” Dylan assured him. “Think about it — she’s not infected anymore. If you’re you again, it means… uh…”

“It means that Chris is dead,” Ryan finishes the sentence Dylan wasn’t sure he should.

“Right… But the chain of infection starts with Chris, right? Chris passed it on to you, then you to Laura. But if Mr. H is dead, then the chain is broken, so…”

“So we’re both cured…” Max breathed in realization, pacing coming to a stop. He slowly pulled his hands away from his head, breathing a sigh of relief. “Right… Yeah… That… That was stupid of me, I should have figured that out…”

“Nah… You’d be surprised how often stress will just like… stop your brain working,” Dylan says with a shrug of his shoulders.

“I can attest to that personally.” Ryan took a hand off the shotgun to raise it in the air. “I’m fairly certain the stress of tonight has permanently fried my brain or something.”

“What?” Dylan protested. “Ryan, your decision-making tonight has been perfectly fine--”

“Dude, you asked me to chop off your hand and I did it. Like, no questions asked, I grabbed that chainsaw and fucking sawed it off.”

“Yeah, so?”

“We didn’t even know it was werewolves yet! You jumped to a massive conclusion, and I just jumped right along with you!”

“Oh my God, how have I only just noticed you’re missing a hand?!” Max exclaimed, gawking at Dylan’s hand -- or lack thereof. “Did I… Did I do that?”

“What, you haven’t gathered from our conversation that Ryan’s the one that chopped my hand off?” Dylan snarked, getting a light shove from Ryan that had him grinning. “No, it couldn’t have been you. You were stuck on the island, right? So it wouldn’t have been possible. I lost this bad boy back at the radio hut.”

Max stared wide-eyed at Dylan. “You’re… remarkably upbeat for someone that’s lost a hand.”

Dylan shot Max a lazy smile, stepping towards him. “Hi, I’m Dylan — I use humor to mask the pain.” Dylan reached out a hand for Max to shake, looking down to see he was offering… the arm without a hand. “Oops, sorry, that’s gonna take some time to get used to.”

Dylan switched hands, offering out his last remaining one. Max shook his hand, chuckling quietly at the strangeness of it all. “Well… You already know my name.”

“Indeed we do, ‘Max-Comma-Laura’s-Boyfriend’,” Dylan stopped shaking Max’s hand, reaching it out to his side to place it on Ryan’s shoulder. “This is Ryan, by the way. And that’s Emma--” Dylan pointed behind him to her, before shifting his pointed finger over to Abi. “--And that’s Abi.”

“Hi,” both girls said, waves of greeting in sync.

“Would have been nice to have met you guys the normal way, but uh… still nice to meet you either way.” Max glanced down at himself once again, suppressing a shiver from the feeling of his cold damp clothes stuck to his skin. “Hey, is there any chance we can get a fire going in the…” he trailed off, taking in the sight of the destroyed chimney. “…Oh, guess not.”

“Here--” Emma unwraps the hoodie that she had tied around her waist, passing it over to Max. “Hopefully that’ll warm you up a little.”

“Thanks--” Max gives the hoodie a double take, and then looks closer at Emma’s attire. “Wait a second… You were the one that stole my clothes?”

“The ones I found stuffed into an old bag up in the tree house? They were yours?” Emma asks in return.

“Yeah, Laura and I put a change of clothes into the duffel so I’d have something to wear when I turned back, since… exploding into a friggen werewolf tends to rid you of your clothes, and--” Max gestures at himself with a dramatic wave of his arm. “--This wasn’t exactly my first choice of clothing.”

“At least you can pull it off,” Dylan offers, giving Ryan a teasing jab with his elbow. “Right, Ryan?”

“Yeah, I’m not even gonna answer that.”

“I heard a ‘yeah’ in there.”

“What? No- that’s not what I--” Ryan sighed, throwing up a hand into the air. “Fine, sure. He can pull it off.”

“...Thank you?” Max said, hoodie partway on, caught between one of the weirdest ‘arguments’ he’s probably ever witnessed.

“It really sucks that my phone got drenched,” Emma laments, arms folded as she pouts. “I could have shown you this great pic of you I snagged while you were trying to rip my face off.”

“Oh Jesus -- I attacked you too?” Max asks.

“Yeah, but it was… kinda my fault,” Emma admits. “Granted, I had no idea you were up there as a werewolf, but… yeah, I opened up the hatch thingey in the tree house and ‘Surprise! Werewolf in the attic, jumping down on top of me'.”

“Did I hurt you?” Max asks, and they could hear the guilt in his voice, as if he was automatically assuming that was the case.

“Pfft, no,” Emma answers with a snort. “The tazer and bear spray you guys packed into the bag turned out to be quite the werewolf deterrents. Was how I managed to take a photo of you all up close and gross. Uh, no offense.”

Max huffed softly in laughter. “You know, usually I would, but I’ve seen myself on video while one of those things and… yeah, I look disgusting and super gross.”

“To be fair, I think that’s the case for all werewolves,” Abi says. “I mean, the thing Nick turned into was… horrifying.”

“Yeah, and the one that tried to take my hand off won’t be winning any beauty contests any time soon,” Dylan adds. “You know, we still probably could get those photos off your phone, Emma.”

“How? It’s dead,” Emma says, pulling her water-sodden phone out of her pocket and waving it in Dylan’s direction.

“You never heard of the rice trick?” Dylan asks. “Not just rice either. Anything absorbent. Actually, silica gel is the best, but rice usually works, too. Stick your phone in there, let it dry out, then boom – phone turns back on. Sometimes.”

“Okay… Do you have any rice?” Emma asks.

“...No,” Dylan replies after a few moments of awkward silence. “But even if your phone doesn’t turn back on, there’s usually some tools you can use to extract data and shit from it. And given the cops are gonna want as much evidence as possible, I’m sure they’ll put their best resources into recovering those photos.”

“Oh, God… The cops…” Ryan groaned. “What the hell are we even gonna say? How do we explain any of this?”

“I’m getting thrown straight back into a jail cell aren’t I…” said Max.

“But we have proof, right?” Abi asks. “We’ve all found some weird stuff that backs everything up, and been taking photos.”

“Yeah, I got a few.” Dylan waves his phone in the air.

“So… what? We’re just gonna tell them the truth?” Ryan asks.

“Got any better ideas?” Emma asks in return.

“I just… don’t think that the cops are going to believe that it was werewolves. Even if we do have evidence, it’s… it’s too insane.”

“The truth is all we’ve got, Ryan,” said Dylan. “We tell them our story, give them our evidence and… see what happens.”

“Wait… Are the police on their way now?” Max asks.

“We… don’t know,” Dylan admits. “We tried calling them when Nick first got attacked, but uh… phone lines got cut.”

“Also tried getting a radio message out,” Ryan adds on. “Also didn’t work. Well, it did, but it kind of got intercepted by who I’m now assuming were Chris’s family and, uh… You said it had a pretty short range anyway, right Dylan?”

“Yeah, about a mile.” Dylan nods. “The signal booster might have got the message through to someone else, but, y’know… Didn’t exactly get much time to see if anyone was radioing us back.”

“So… Now what?” Emma asks. “Phone lines are cut, radios unlikely to reach anyone, mini-vans busted--”

“Oh, I was wondering why you guys were still here,” Max interjected. “Camp ended yesterday, right?”

“Yeah, we were supposed to be out of here by now, but… There was a part missing from the mini-van, right, Ryan?”

“Uh, missing?” Max directs to Ryan. “How exactly did that happen? Car parts don’t usually just up and walk out on you.”

“We still haven’t figured that one out,” Ryan says with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Yeah, and you guys still haven’t answered my question,” Emma cuts in. “What are we gonna do? As much as explaining this to the cops is going to suck, we do still need them here.”

“Sure, but how?” Dylan asks. “Phone lines were like… cut cut, right? And unless any of you guys know how to repair something like that, the phone’s still a no-go.”

“I suppose we could just, like, walk. At least, far enough until we get signal and can make a call?” Emma suggests.

“You remember the drive up here, right?” Dylan asks. “We all lost signal way far away from camp. I doubt we could walk that far, and if we did, our phones would die long before we get anywhere with signal.”

“You can’t, like… charge them up?” Max asks.

“...Yeah, we’re not all standing here in the dark for aesthetic reasons, man,” Ryan says dryly, the comment earning him a muffled snort from Dylan. “They cut the power same time they cut the phone lines.”

Max huffs. “Well that’s… great. Seriously, what is wrong with these people? Would they seriously rather let innocent people die than go get proper help for this… curse? Affliction? I don’t know what to call it.”

“That’s… kinda what it seems like, yeah. Especially if Jacob did actually see a body in the lake,” Dylan points out.

“Oh. And it keeps getting better.” Max turns away with a sigh, shaking his head as he places his hands on his hips. He stays there for a moment, thinking, before turning back to them all. “Okay, I think I should head back to the island.”

They all stare at Max in surprise for a moment, before Dylan finally speaks up. “Uh… Why would you do that?”

“Because that’s where Laura expects me to be,” Max explains. “Really, I shouldn’t have left there in the first place. But I heard the gunshot and I thought… I don’t know, maybe she was in trouble or… or someone needed help. Either way, you guys are obviously fine, so… Best thing for me to do is go back and wait. For all I know, Laura could be there right now trying to figure out where I up and vanished to.”

“We still don’t know what could be out there,” Ryan says. “Sure, you’re back to normal which hopefully means any other werewolves are back to normal too. But we don’t know that for sure. And even if that is the case…” Ryan hesitated for a moment, the reality of what he was about to say next still not sitting right with him, even if he knows it’s likely to be the truth. “We still don’t know how many more of Chris’s family there are around. And from what we’ve seen so far tonight, they’re… they’re not being all that ‘friendly’.”

“Trust me, I know that. I’ve spent two friggen months under the captivity of Travis Hackett, okay? But even so, I need to at least try and find Laura.”

“Look, for safety’s sake it’s best we all just wait for dawn to break. It’s not that far out anyway,” Ryan suggests. “And it’s not like you’re the only one of us that has someone out there they’re worried about, okay? We’ve still gotta find Kaitlyn, and Nick, and Jacob--”

“Never thought I’d make it into your list, Erzhaler.”

They all whirl around at the unexpected voice, Ryan bringing up the shotgun and pointing it in the direction they had heard the voice coming from. The flashlight attached to the shotgun lands on Jacob, who winces at its bright glare, bringing up a hand to shield his eyes. “Jesus, dude, that’s the second time tonight you’ve pointed that thing at me. Starting to get the feeling you don’t like me or something.”

“Jacob? The hell did you--” Ryan starts, then stops once he realizes there was another person standing just behind him. “Holy Shit, Nick?”

“Oh my God…” Abi utters softly at the sight of him. He was coated in blood, and his clothes could barely be called clothes anymore, reduced to flimsy shreds of fabric that barely provided him with modesty.

“Yeah, I uh… I found him in the woods on my way over here,” Jacob explains, limping somewhat as he makes his way over to the group. Nick sluggishly follows, nervous eyes darting around the lodge with every step. “He’s, uh… He’s a little shaken up,” Jacob adds quietly.

“Where… exactly did you even come from, man?” Ryan asks. “How’d you get in here?”

“Oh, there’s a window open,” Jacob answers, looking over his shoulder to where he and Nick had come from. “I came through it yesterday when Dylan thought it’d be funny to lock the door on me--”

“Uh, I didn’t think it was funny,” Dylan corrects him. “I knew it was funny. And it was.”

“What the hell happened to you?” Emma asks Jacob, an odd mixture of both concern and annoyance shining in her eyes. “After you pushed me off the edge of the walkway--”

“I didn’t… push you off,” Jacob was quick to insist.

“Whatever, after that thing attacked us and I ended up in the water, you sorta just… I don’t know, disappeared I guess.”

“Yeah, it’s uh… it’s a long story,” Jacob says.

“Like the kind of long story from when you showed up with your face covered in blood?” Dylan asks, then pauses, smiling at Jacob as he points to his own face. “Hey! Twinsies!”

“Why are you…?” Jacob begins, but decides it better to not ask. “Uh, anyway, yeah — exactly like that. I ended up stepping into a stupid fucking bear trap one of those hunter guys set up—” Jacob points down at his leg, puncture marks still visible even in the dark of the lodge. “Fucked up my leg pretty bad.”

“I think I can one-up you,” Dylan says, lifting up his stub into the air and giving it a wave.

Jacob’s eyes widen at the sight of it, his mouth falling open. “Holy Shit, dude, what -- what the hell happened?”

“Ryan cut it off. With a chainsaw,” Dylan answers, missing out a few key details in his story.

“Uh, what?”

“Jesus, Dylan. Can you not make it sound like I did it for fun or something?” Ryan asks, giving Dylan a light nudge.

“Sorry, but it is funny seeing people’s reaction when they hear that,” Dylan says, his satisfied smile getting Ryan to roll his eyes. He turns back towards Jacob. “But yeah, full disclaimer, Ryan did it to save my life. Or… stop me from becoming a werewolf after one of them bit me. Wait… How much of all this do you know about?”

“Bits and pieces, I think,” Jacob answers. “After I stepped in that trap those hunter dudes knocked me out and threw me in some fucking cages under their house. And, uh… Nick was there too, in the other cage. At least… I think it was him.”

Nick winces at the reminder, arms wrapped around himself and head bowed, staring at the ground. None of them really know what to say or do that might be of some comfort to Nick. Especially Abi, judging by the way she kept glancing over in his direction as they spoke. But Dylan could only imagine the reminder of what he’d done — and the things he had said — still sat fresh in her mind. Even if they knew it wasn’t exactly Nick.

“So, uh… How’d you escape?” Ryan asks.

“Kaitlyn found me. Her and… shit, I can’t remember her name… She had like this eyepatch and… was kinda trigger happy?”

“Laura?” Max asks, speaking for the first time since Jacob and Nick had appeared. “You spoke to Laura too?”

“Laura! That was her na--” Jacob had to give Max a double take, for one: not knowing who the hell he was, and two… He barely held back a snort, eyebrow raised as his eyes raked over Max’s ‘choice’ of attire. “Dude… The hell are you wearing?”

Max just raised an eyebrow back at Jacob, returning his questioning gaze as he looked him up and down. “Uh… Not sure you can talk given I’m literally looking at your nipples right now.”

“He’s got you there,” Dylan tells Jacob with a teasing grin. “Have you seriously been running around the whole night with your tits out?”

“I mean… It’s not exactly like I’ve had the opportunity to get dressed,” Jacob says. “After Kaitlyn told me about all the crazy shit that’s happened and that they have to… kill Mr. H or something, she got me out of the cage and I came straight here. I wasn’t exactly gonna hang around in my kidnapper's house and find some clothes, am I?”

“Well… Guess we know they made it to the house at least,” said Emma.

“...Who is that?” Nick speaking took everyone by surprise, given he had been silent since arriving. They follow his line of sight to the body laid out on the table.

“It’s… It’s Caleb. Caleb Hackett,” Dylan answers solemnly. “Turns out he was a werewolf too. He, um... He got into the lodge and was trying to kill us.”

“Did…” Nick hesitates, eyes swiveling over from Caleb’s body to them, glossy with unshed tears. “Did I… Did I try and hurt any of you?”

“No, no you didn’t,” Ryan quickly tried to assure Nick. “I… think.”

“Yeah, I mean… I’ve only got this, and you were still… you, when it happened,” Dylan says, gesturing to his amputated hand.

“...How much do you remember?” Abi timidly asks Nick.

“Nothing. At least, nothing when I was… one of those things. But I…” Nick’s voice shakes, a few of those unshed tears spilling free. “I’m so sorry… I… I do remember what happened before I changed… The things I said… What I did…” Nick looks over to Abi, expression filled with shame. “Abi… I’m so fucking sorry… How could I have… Fuck.”

“It wasn’t you,” Abi says quietly. “I know it wasn’t you, Nick.”

“It really wasn’t,” Max adds on, much to their surprise. “Trust me, I know. I was fortunate enough to be drugged and unconscious when I first turned, so I can’t even imagine how intense it is. But I was awake for the next one, and… You just start to lose yourself. You can feel this other thing taking over, and there’s nothing you can do. You feel yourself being pushed back, locked away as this violent being claws its way to the surface. Then, right before, it’s… it’s pain, and burning, and… and it’s every bad thought you’ve ever had about yourself, about others, about the whole damn world all rolled into one, then… lights out.”

Nick nods, eyes cast to the ground. “I’m still sorry, though. I was such a dick…”

“I’m sorry, too,” Abi also apologizes, which confused Nick enough that he looks away from the ground and up at her.

“Sorry for… what?”

“I shot you,” Abi says, in disbelief that she has to remind Nick of that. “I… Oh my God, I… shot you.”

“Because you had to,” Nick insists. “Abi, I… I threw you across the room. I could have killed you. Listen, I’m glad you shot me, because if you hadn’t…” Nick shakes his head. “I don’t even wanna think about what could have happened…”

“Hey, so, uh… So long as we’re on the whole… apologizing thing,” Jacob cuts into the awkward tension they found themselves in — in a way that somehow made it worse. “I, uh… I kinda have something to tell you guys. And… apologize for.”

Ryan narrows his eyes at Jacob, head tilted back as he gives him a suspicious glare. “What exactly could you have to apologize for?”

Jacob exhales shakily, staring down at the floor hands jittering by his side as he works up the courage. “Um… Okay, so… So you know how we couldn’t get the mini-van to work yesterday?”

They all nod, waiting for Jacob to continue. “That was… That was kinda… me…”

“Wait… The missing rotor arm…?” Ryan starts to put the pieces together, suspicion very quickly turning to anger. “Dude, you -- you stole the fucking rotor arm?”

“Whoa, what?” Dylan exclaimed. “That was you?”

“Seriously? Jesus, Jacob… What the fuck?” Emma’s words were the ones to make Jacob flinch, head still lowered in his shame. “Oh my God, wait a second… When… When you said that ‘this wasn’t how you wanted the night to go…’ That’s what you were talking about?”

“I didn’t exactly know all this was going to happen, alright?” Jacob tried to defend himself, hands thrown out to his side to gesture towards the messy interior of the lodge — and towards the night overall. “Like… seriously! How could I have possibly known that this was how the night would go down? I just… I wanted one more night, okay? One more night of summer fun, and I… I don’t know, I guess I wasn’t ready for it to be over.”

“And… what? You thought it’d be a good idea to sabotage our only way out of here and force us to stay another night against our will?” Emma questions Jacob's 'plan’, each word spoken breaking down Jacob’s defense.

“Wait… So where’s the part you took?” Dylan asks.

“I lost it…” Jacob mumbles. “When Emma and I went swimming, it fell into the lake. I tried to get it back but… I couldn’t.”

“Well… That explains a lot…” Ryan says. Dylan looks over to him in surprise at the amount of hostility packed into his voice, a little part of him feeling nervous at how tightly Ryan was gripping the shotgun. “I should have known… When you were being a dick to me trying to get the van ‘working’. More so than usual, anyway.”

“What do you want me to say, man?” Jacob retorts. “That I'm sorry? Because yeah, I am. I can guarantee you that no one in this room hates me more than I hate myself right now. I wish I hadn’t done it, but I did, and I can’t change that.”

“All of this… it could have been avoided.” Ryan shakes his head in disgust. “We wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for you.”

“Hey, back off!” Jacob raises his voice as he — stupidly — steps closer to Ryan. “I know what I did was shitty, but it’s not like I would have done it if I’d known there were fucking werewolves and people with guns running about!”

“Whoa, guys--” Dylan tries to break up the brewing fight he could see coming from a mile away. He jolts in surprise when Ryan all but throws the shotgun at him, pinning it to his chest with his arm. Probably a good idea all things considered given how heated Jacob and Ryan were getting…

“That still doesn’t take away how much of an asshole you are. All because you couldn’t accept that Emma doesn’t want you anymore, you nearly got us all killed--”

“Fuck you, man!” Jacob takes another step closer.

“No, fuck you!” Ryan spits, jabbing a finger in Jacob’s direction. “Fucking look at Dylan’s hand! You see that?! It’s gone. One of those fucking things bit him, and that’s on you. This is your fault--”

“Oh, is it now?” Jacob says. The sneer in his voice makes Dylan’s stomach turn, getting a nasty feeling that whatever he was going to say next might just push Ryan over the edge. “Could have sworn Dylan said you cut his hand off, so I think we know whose fault that is.”

Yep, that did it. Ryan’s eyes may have already been alight with rage, but now they were downright burning. “What did you just say--?!” Ryan steps forward, shoving hard at Jacob’s chest. Despite being smaller than him, the push is enough to send Jacob stumbling back a few steps, who looks about as shocked at Ryan’s — rarely shown — display of strength. Unfortunately, it also pisses Jacob off even more. His fists curl by his sides, and Dylan’s fairly certain there’s about to be another punch thrown.

“Alright, that’s enough!” Dylan drops the gun down on a nearby table, both the loud clang of that and his yell —also rarely shown (or heard, he supposed) — stopping both Ryan and Jacob in their tracks. “This whole 'blame game' thing is fucking pointless. Yes, what Jacob did was stupid and yes, we’re all gonna be a little pissed about that. But you know what? You could put the blame on me, too.”

“What?” Ryan splutters. “Dylan, there’s nothing you--”

“I was the one that suggested the party, remember?” Dylan says firmly. “Mr. H wanted us to stay inside. You wanted us to stay inside. But because of me, we were all out in the woods. Out in danger. So would you put the blame on me too?”

“No, no, that’s--”

“Hell, you could put the blame on everyone. You could say that if Emma hadn’t kissed Nick during that dare--” Dylan pauses to direct his next words to Emma. “--Also, not putting the blame on you in the slightest, just making a point--” Emma shrugs her shoulders in understanding, waiting for Dylan to continue. “--Then Abi and Nick wouldn’t have ended up in the woods, and Nick wouldn’t have gotten bit. Or you could just skip straight to Abi and say that if she hadn’t run off into the woods on her own that Nick wouldn’t have gotten bit. You could put the blame on Max and Laura for showing up here a night early--”

“Or not going to the Harbringer motel…” Max mutters under his breath.

“...What?” Dylan asks.

“Nothing, never mind. Continue with your argument.”

“Right. Well, anyway, point is, there’s no point in pointing fingers in blame and asking questions of ‘what if?’ It sucks, but what happened, happened. We can’t change it. And I’m not saying you can’t be upset about it, but you know what? We’re alive. And I’m sure Kaitlyn and Laura will be back in no time. So we can please just be grateful for that much, and not keep up this terrible night by punching each other?!”

Ryan blinked in surprise at Dylan’s outburst, not at all used to hearing him raise his voice. It seemed to have worked though, both Jacob’s and Ryan’s anger having slipped away after Dylan argued his piece. Everyone in the room was frozen still, apart from the occasional glance at each other, not knowing what to say or do next after all that. And, again, apart from Ryan, who was just staring at Dylan in his shock.

“I think you might have broken Ryan again,” Emma told Dylan, breaking the silence. “Either that or you turned him on. Not sure which yet.”

* * *

05:50 | AUGUST 23 - RYAN

HACKETT’S QUARRY LODGE

Ryan leaned against the banister that overlooked the entrance to the lodge, his forearms resting across the top as he stared out into the forest. He could just about see the few slivers of light through the trees, steadily brightening yellows and oranges replacing the stifling darkness of the previous night. He hadn’t been out here for long, maybe only five minutes or so. Seems he had come at the perfect time to see the approaching dawn of a new day.

“Now that’s a nice sight, huh?” Dylan’s voice comes from next to him, the other boy appearing out of the corner of his eye. He joins him in leaning against the banister, both of them now enjoying the upcoming sunrise.

Ryan hums in agreement to Dylan’s statement. “Never been much of a morning person, but yeah. Don’t think I’ve appreciated the sunrise as much as I do right now.”

“You did always seem extra grumpy in the mornings,” Dylan teases him, lightly bumping his shoulder against his.

Ryan’s mouth ticks up as he huffs. “Could have been a lot grumpier. Your morning announcements made it easier to start the day.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t hate my voice by the end of camp,” Dylan says, turning to the side to face Ryan as he speaks. “You must have been getting tired of the announcements a little bit.”

Ryan just smiles as he shakes his head, looking away from the surrounding forest and over at Dylan. “Nope. Not one bit. I like your voice.”

“Oh, good. Maybe I’ll start a podcast or something. Give you an excuse to listen to my sultry tones.”

“Or we could just… talk over the phone. Or on discord or something. Or… in person,” Ryan suggests.

“Well, that’s a given,” Dylan says with a playful smile. “Now that you’ve caved and given me your number, I will be taking full advantage of the opportunity you’ve gifted me.”

“Go ahead and ‘take full advantage’,” Ryan challenges him. “That is why I gave you my number.”

“...For me to annoy you?”

“If that’s how you wanna see it, sure,” Ryan says with a shrug of his shoulders. “But I see it more as… your own strange yet endearing way of both showing your affection and asking for attention.”

“Hmm, we’ll see if you change your tune a few months down the line. Twenty bucks you get sick of me.”

Ryan snorts, looking at Dylan in disbelief. “Dude, never. That’s never gonna happen. If we can get through two months of summer camp in charge of a bunch of hyper kids and survive a night like the one we did and still come out of it liking each other, let alone like each other more than we did at the start, then I’d say the odds of me getting sick of you are slim to none.”

Dylan’s smile just got goofier and goofier the more Ryan spoke, to which Ryan shot Dylan a perplexed frown as he asked him, “What?”

“So you like me, huh?”

Ryan took in a deep breath, and then sighed. Seemed Dylan was already trying to test him with the whole ‘can’t get sick of you’ claim. Or maybe Dylan just wanted some extra, verbal confirmation. “Yes, Dylan. I like you, if you couldn’t tell.”

“Okay, but do you ‘like like’ me?”

Never mind, Dylan was definitely just trying to mess with him here. “Jesus dude… It’s like we’re back in middle school.”

Dylan broke, chuckling softly at the amused exasperation in Ryan’s voice. His laughter tapered off as his eyes slid away from Ryan and to the sight of Max on the other side of the balcony, who was pacing up and down the small stretch that wrapped around the side of the lodge. He had been out here ever since the conversation in the lodge had come to an end, either doing exactly what he’s doing now, or what Ryan was doing — staring out into the forest, waiting for any sign of movement.

Waiting for Laura.

“Wow. He really loves her, huh?” Dylan says quietly, gesturing with a nod in his head in Max’s direction when Ryan gives him an understandably confused look at the statement.

Ryan twists his head around, following Dylan’s line of sight to Max. “Yeah, I’d say so… Can’t exactly say I’d be doing much better in his shoes if it were you out there.”

Dylan ducked his head, hiding his rapidly reddening face, grateful that Ryan was still looking in Max’s direction. Probably for the best that he doesn’t think too much about what Ryan was implying there. Dylan cleared his throat, trying to clear said implications from his head. “Is there, uh… Anything we should do?”

“I don’t think he really wants to hear comforting words right now. But… Give it ten minutes or so and we’ll start getting ready to go and search for them.” Ryan glanced over at Dylan, just in time to see the wince Dylan was trying his best to hide, amputated arm held in his only good hand. “If, uh… If you’re up for it, that is.”

“Yeah, no, I’m fine, I just--” Dylan winced again, not doing much to back up his claim. “I think those painkillers Kaitlyn gave me are starting to wear off…”

“That… doesn’t sound like you’re fine,” Ryan says, brow creased in worry.

“No, seriously, it’s fine,” Dylan tries to insist. “Every now and then it just kinda… twinges a little I guess. Trust me, it could be worse.”

“Wait here a second,” Ryan tells Dylan, rushing back into the lodge before Dylan could even ask him where he’s going. He heads straight for Chris’s office, snatching up the little bottle of heavy-duty painkillers they had left on the desk before rushing back outside and to Dylan.

“Here.” Ryan holds out the bottle for Dylan to take.

“Oh, cool. Where’d you get these from?” Dylan asks as he plucks the bottle from Ryan, popping open the top and peeking inside.

“They were the ones you grabbed from Chris’s bathroom, remember?”

“Sweet. I mean, even if you had found them lying around the place somewhere, I’m not really in a position to turn down mystery painkillers.”

“Yeah, well… It’s not like Chris will need them anymore.”

Dylan paused, bottle held mid-air as his eyes darted to and from Ryan. “Uh… Was that a joke, or…?”

“More a matter of fact…” Ryan grumbled.

“Suppose you’re right…” Dylan upturned the bottle of pills, shaking a few of them into his mouth and swallowing them straight down. He lowered his arm back down, only to be greeted by Ryan’s part amazed part concerned stare.

“Uh… I don’t know whether I should be impressed that you just dry-swallowed them.”

Dylan wiggles his eyebrows in response, fumbling with the bottle somewhat as he places the cap back on. “No gag reflex, baby. I’ll leave you to think on that one.”

“Isn’t it actually kind of dangerous to dry swallow pills?” Ryan asks.

“...Probably. I think there’s a chance it can get stuck in your throat or something.”

“Dude, you should have asked me to get you a glass of water or something.”

“Well I’m not choking, am I?” Dylan pointed out. “I’m sure it’s fine to do it once.”

“If you say so. I’d just rather not have to explain to the paramedics and the police that you died not because of some rabid animals that were hunting us all night, but because you choked to death on some painkillers.”

“I mean… There are worse ways to die.”

“True,” Ryan conceded, leaning forward against the banister again. “Um… I just wanted to say sorry. For earlier. I… I shouldn’t have got that angry.”

Dylan sighs, cautiously resting his injured arm on top of the banister. “Not really me you have to be apologizing to. I wasn’t the one you were about to take a swing at.”

“I know, I know. And I will. I’m just…” Ryan absentmindedly played with his fingers as he spoke. “I don’t think I’m ready to do that yet. I’m still kind of…”

”Pissed off?” Dylan guessed.

“Aren’t you?” Ryan asked, looking up from his hands and to Dylan. “I don’t know how you were so calm about it. I… I get that I shouldn’t have gotten angry on your behalf, but… Jesus, Dylan. You lost your hand because of tonight. It doesn’t upset you a little that we were trapped here because of Jacob?”

Dylan stares down at his feet, taking in a deep breath. “A little? Sure. Maybe I’m too tired to think on it all that much, but… Like I said before, I’m just glad we’re all alive. Well, hopefully all of us…” Dylan adds on, glancing anxiously towards the entrance of the camp.

“If any of us were gonna make it out of here alive, it’d be Kaitlyn,” Ryan claimed, trying to keep the optimism high. “You put a gun in her hands, and nothing will stop her.”

“Good point. I actually saw you guys during one of the shooting lessons. You seemed like you were doing well until Kaitlyn came along and whooped your ass.”

“It’s a little scary to be honest.”

Dylan chuckles, completely in agreement. “Oh, for sure. And then Kaitlyn and Laura together? Terrifying duo right there… Werewolves are probably more scared of them than they are of them…”

Ryan chuckled softly, his mouth pulled into one of those rare smiles that crinkles at the corner of his eyes. “Anyone ever told you you have a really nice smile?” Dylan asks.

“Only you,” Ryan says, a half smile still pulling at his lips.

“They’re very contagious. First time I saw you smile this summer, I made it my personal challenge to make you smile as much as I could. Didn’t realize how much of a challenge it was, but man was it worth it.”

Ryan tries his best to hide his bashful smile from Dylan’s words, face ducked down as he feels a rush of heat to his face. “Come on… It’s just a smile.”

“Oh, you have no idea how much power that smile of yours holds,” Dylan says, turning to face forward and nudging his shoulder into Ryan’s. “And your laugh? Forget seeing you smile for the first time. First time I heard your laughter, the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy. Knew right then and there that I was a goner…”

Ryan reached out for Dylan’s hand on top of the banister, who flips over his hand for Ryan to take. They lace their fingers together, Ryan giving his hand a light squeeze as he glances up at Dylan. “And yet you waited until the end of summer to make your move.”

“Yeah, well… Didn’t want to make Emma and Jacob jealous when we become the new cutest couple.”

Ryan huffs, finding himself nodding his head in agreement. “Do you… Do you ever regret not making a move earlier in the summer?”

“Yes and no, I guess. I can’t tell you how many nights I spent trying to convince myself to just man up and tell you how I felt. But… every morning I’d wake up and chicken out of it. Didn’t want to make the rest of the summer awkward if you said no…”

“Don’t know if this makes you feel better or worse, but…” Ryan squeezes his hand again. “I was hesitant to let myself feel the way I do until I knew you felt the same, so uh… I wouldn’t have said no.”

“I… don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse either,” Dylan says, getting another laugh out of Ryan.

“Kind of a shame, huh? Sucks to think how much fun we could have had this summer…”

Dylan bites back a grin, nudging Ryan with his elbow to get him to look at him. “Fun, huh? What kind of fun are we talking about here?”

“Well… I’ll leave you to think on that one,” Ryan parrots Dylan’s earlier words.

“I’d prefer to act on it,” Dylan says before leaning down and pressing a kiss to Ryan’s mouth. Ryan tightens his grip on Dylan’s hand at the first touch of his mouth to his, tilting his head to get a better angle as he leans into the kiss.

“I think I prefer that too,” Ryan says as they pull apart, getting a pleased smile from Dylan in response, which Ryan gestures to with a flick of his chin. “And just so you know…. you’re not the only one trying to get as many smiles as possible.”

“Oh, really? This becoming a competition, huh? See who can make the other smile the most?”

“Given you smile whenever we kiss, I don’t think it’s going to be much of a competition.”

“Well, I had to break it to you, Ryan, but…” Dylan dipped down to give Ryan a chaste kiss, pulling back to tap a finger to the corner of Ryan’s mouth, where a half-smile had formed. “I’m not the only one.”

“Hey, guys--” Ryan and Dylan startle at Max’s voice, so caught up in each other that they hadn’t noticed him making his way over to them. “Sorry to interrupt, but uh… You guys hear that too, right?”

Dylan and Ryan tilted their heads, listening out for whatever it was that Max was hearing. Sure enough, now that they were listening out for it… There was something. Something approaching the entrance to the camp. Something that sounded a lot like…

“Is that…?” Dylan begins to ask. “Is that a car?”

* * *

06:00 | AUGUST 23 - KAITLYN

HACKETT’S QUARRY LODGE

None of them had said a word. Both in the walk back to the car, and right now sat in it, driving back to camp. Or at least, that’s where she assumed Travis was driving them back to. Suppose it made sense that no one felt like talking, given the fact that they had just murdered a child. A feral one that turned into a ravenous beast every full moon, sure, but still… he was a child. Just a little boy that had gone from living in a cage to having to survive by himself out in the wild. No home. No family. Just himself and the entire stretch of the east coast to scramble around for survival.

It wasn’t like they had any other choice… right? Like Travis had said, if they didn’t stop Silas, then… then it would just start back up all over again. Someone new to be mauled, or even to be bit and turned, spreading the curse to them, who would then spread the curse to someone else, and so on and so forth until… Until it all got way out of hand.

“I’m sorry,” Travis said out of nowhere, taking both girls by surprise. “I want you to know that. I know my apologies probably don’t mean jack-shit to either one of you, but I still want you to have them.”

“Um… Okay?” Laura didn’t really know how else to respond to that.

“It was never meant to get this far. You know, you spend your whole life convinced that there’s nothing more important than your family. Nothing. That you’d do anything for ‘em, you know? But you don’t… you don’t realize how that kind of devotion and loyalty, the very things they praise you for, end up blinding you from reality. Makes you think that… that the messed up shit you’re doing is reasonable. That it’s okay because… because it means you’re keeping your family safe.

“Every damn day I’d come into work and stare at those missing person's posters, and I’d know exactly where those people were. I’d look at them, and I’d see the chains and cinder blocks I tied to their feet as I shoved them into the lake. And I’m a… I’m a police officer--” Travis slammed his open palm down on the edge of the steering wheel. “I’m a goddamn sheriff. I took an oath to protect the law. To protect the people. And I’m fucking stood there with you and your boy locked away in those cells and just hoping that passion of yours for veterinary sciences might just be of use because otherwise my family’s gonna find out about you and… and they’re gonna ask me to ‘dispose’ of you too.”

“Well… Guess it’s lucky I ended up being useful then…” said Laura.

Travis shook his head, but not in disagreement with Laura’s statement. “You and Max… All you kids… You were innocent in all this. Dragged into my family’s shit, and were made to suffer for it. I guess… I’m not surprised it ended this way. My family’s situation had been a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off. I just never figured the ignition would be a bunch of counselors both showing up too early and staying longer than they should have…”

“Technically, not our fault,” Kaitlyn said. “Mini-van was broken. Wasn’t our choice to stay.”

“And…yeah, okay, I guess it was my fault me and Max showed up a day early. But I wasn’t exactly expecting the owners of a summer camp for little kids to be run by goddamn werewolves--”

“I know, I know,” Travis off Laura’s incoming rant with a tired-sounding sigh. “I’m not blaming you -- none of you kids. I might not have been the one to start this, or to succumb to the same curse as my brother and his children, but… I’m far from an innocent party either. I guess what I’m trying to say is this is me trying to make amends. Or… starting to anyway. I know chances are that I never can, but I’ll still try. And it starts with me getting you kids the hell out of this place and clearing your names.”

“Okay, so… What’s the plan?” Kaitlyn asks. “I assume first thing first is to get back to camp and… and see who made it…”

“If they’re smart, they’ll have headed to the lodge. Preferably the storm shelter.”

“You mean the storm shelter Max got bit in?” Laura asks, sarcasm seeping into her voice.

“You broke in,” Travis said firmly. “Thankfully, werewolves aren’t smart enough to figure out how to do that. If they hid down there and stayed quiet? They’d be perfectly safe.”

“Uh… I know that for a few of my fellow counselors, ‘staying quiet’ isn’t their forte,” Kaitlyn says. “But… given everything that’s gone on tonight, I’m sure they’d be smart enough to keep their voices down…”

“Well, we’ll find out just how smart they are once we get back,” said Travis. “We’ll check the lodge first, then from there--”

“I’m going to the island,” Laura claimed — not at all a surprise to either Travis or Kaitlyn. “Max is probably freaked out by now… I’ve been gone way longer than I should have been.”

“Alright, you can go looking for Max,” Travis agrees. Laura looked seconds away from arguing over the ‘can’, as if Travis was giving her permission that she certainly didn’t need, but he carried on talking before she could get a word — or complaint — out. “While you’re doing that, we’ll check out other areas your friends might be taking shelter in. If there’s still people missing, then we comb out and search the surrounding woodlands. But… But you should probably prepare yourself in case--”

“I know,” Kaitlyn cut Travis off, not wanting to hear him finish the rest of that sentence. “Believe me, I’ve been preparing myself for that since Abi came screaming out of the woods after Nick had nearly been ripped apart.”

“Right…” Travis mumbled, his grip around the steering wheel tightening.

It wasn’t too long after their conversation that Travis was turning off the main road and onto Hackett property. Kaitlyn glanced out of the side window to see the sign welcoming them to Hackett’s Quarry Summer Camp pass, the car already beginning to slow as they approach the lodge.

“Oh my God--” Laura’s exclamation brought Kaitlyn’s attention away from the side window, shifting over to the middle seat to get a better look out of the front — and to whatever it was that had caught Laura’s attention.

Instead of adrenaline flowing through her veins, this time it was relief. There were three people standing on the balcony of the lodge, one she didn’t recognize. But the other two… She’d probably have to be dead to forget about them.

Travis hadn’t even brought the car to a full stop before Laura had thrown open the car door and jumped out of the car. To be fair, Kaitlyn barely waited for him to pull up the handbrake before she too hurried out of the car.

“Max!

“Laura!” Max was already halfway down the stairs leading up the lodge, practically leaping down them in his rush. Laura hadn’t even made it a few paces away from the car before Max was there, colliding with her and wrapping her up tight. Kaitlyn couldn’t help but smile at their reunion, one hand on the open door of the car as she watched them.

“I was so worried, I thought maybe--” Max began to say, reaching up a hand to gently caress the side of her face. “And your eye. Your eye is back, you--”

“I’m okay,” Laura reassured him, smiling warmly up at Max. It was perhaps the happiest Kaitlyn had seen Laura all night. Laura’s eyes dropped down to take in Max’s attire, warm smile turning very much amused at the legging/crop top/hoodie combo. “…What are you wearing?”

“Um, it’s called fashion, sweetie.” Max’s sarcastic delivery got a quiet chuckle from Laura as she shook her head at his antics.

“Are they my clothes?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda all I had available.”

Movement out of the corner of her eye tore Kaitlyn’s attention away from the reuniting couple and to who she could only assume was another couple now given that Dylan and Ryan were headed her way, walking very close to each other. Like seriously, it was a miracle they weren’t tripping over each other’s feet.

“So, you two idiots managed to survi--” Was all Kaitlyn could get out before her breath was squeezed out of her by both Dylan and Ryan hugging her from each side, coming dangerously close to either choking her out or cracking her ribcage. “Yep, okay, good to see you guys too but I can’t breathe,” she managed to squeak out, which got Dylan and Ryan to let go of her in a hurry.

“Shit, sorry.” Ryan was the first to apologize.

“Yeah, didn’t mean to like… break a rib or something,” Dylan said.

“Nah, I’m fine,” Kaitlyn waved them off, softly closing the car door before placing a hand to her side. “Think there might be some leftover soreness from where I was stabbed…”

“From where you were…?” Dylan's eyes widened as they dropped down to Kaitlyn’s side, taking in the large amount of blood soaked into her clothes. “Holy fuck, shit, we should--”

“I’m not stabbed anymore!” Kaitlyn rushed to reassure Dylan before he could go into full-on panic mode. “Werewolf healing took care of that.”

“...Come again?” Ryan asked.

“Also not a werewolf anymore. Or… never really was, I guess. I mean, I was bit, but I never turned.”

“...What?” Both Dylan and Ryan asked at the exact same time.

Kaitlyn sighed. “One of Mr. H’s brothers decided to shove a knife into my ribs. Laura and I quickly realized that the only way I was going to survive it was through werewolf healing, so… she offered to bite me.”

“Kinky,” Dylan commented, getting a roll of the eyes from Kaitlyn.

“We uh… We also found Mr. H,” Kaitlyn said, turning her apologetic gaze to Ryan. “I’m sorry, Ryan. There wasn’t much of a choice for me to make. He was coming at me and… I had to shoot.”

Ryan just nodded, eyes cast to the ground. “I figured, you know. Since…” Ryan gestures over to where Max was, still holding onto Laura like he was afraid she’d disappear if he let her go.

“Dude's been worried sick about her,” Dylan comments. “And… we were getting pretty fucking scared when you guys didn’t show up. What exactly took you guys so long? I’m assuming it’s something to do with the fact that you showed up in a car driven by a cop who I’ve kinda been dying to ask about the moment you arrived, especially coz’ he’s still just sort of… sitting there.”

Kaitlyn looked behind her and past the windshield to where Travis was, as Dylan said, still just sitting in the car. From here it looked like he was talking into his shoulder, but Kaitlyn knew that just under the hand he had to his shoulder was his police radio.

“I’ll explain everything later. I imagine I’ll have to tell it a hundred times over anyway when the cops arrive anyway…” Kaitlyn says, getting nods of agreement from Dylan and Ryan. “So… I’m guessing you guys are… together now?”

Ryan and Dylan glance at one another in surprise, mouths opening and closing repeatedly as they scramble for something to say. “Um… What makes you think that?” Ryan finally manages to ask.

Kaitlyn smirks, pointing to the side of his neck. “You got a hickey on your neck.”

Ryan’s eyes go wide, hand flying up to cover where Kaitlyn had pointed out so fast that there was a slap of skin against skin. Kaitlyn began to laugh as Dylan’s face slowly shifted through different shades of red, still unable to think of anything to say.

“I’m just kidding, you don’t have a hickey,” Kaitlyn put them out of their misery. Ryan dropped his hand with a huff. “But thank you for confirming it for me.”

“Alright, that was a good one,” Dylan had to admit, able to smile through the embarrassment. “Even if you are evil incarnate.”

“Glad to see you two finally figured it out,” Kaitlyn says, giving the two of them a light shove. “Seriously, I’m happy for you guys. I mean that. And Ryan?”

“Uh… yeah?” Ryan nervously replied.

“So you know, just because I thought you were hot doesn’t mean I won’t hesitate to kill you if you ever hurt Dylan. And I mean that, as well.”

“Jesus, Kaitlyn…” exclaimed Dylan. “I, uh… didn’t know I had so much of an impact on you for you to… offer to murder someone on my behalf?”

“Potentially. So long as Ryan doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t,” Ryan says with so much conviction in his voice that Kaitlyn can’t help but believe him.

“Good,” Kaitlyn says with a friendly pat on Ryan’s shoulder. “Then you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“This has been the weirdest night of my life…” Ryan mumbled as Kaitlyn’s hand slid away from his shoulder.

“You’re telling me,” Kaitlyn huffed. “Honestly Dylan, I’m surprised you’re still standing right now.”

“So am I,” Dylan retorted. “We found some more painkillers in Mr. H’s bathroom, so they’re doing most of the heavy lifting right now. But that’s not to say I won’t fall flat on my face any second now that the adrenaline’s worn off.”

“I’ll catch you if you do,” Ryan promised, getting a pleased little smile from Dylan in response.

”Okay, I know I said I’m happy for you guys, but ew, can you not with the sappiness?” Kaitlyn all but pleaded. “And from you, Ryan? Jesus, I really didn’t need to threaten you, did I…”

“Kaitlyn?”

Kaitlyn looked over to her side, surprised to see it was Max saying her name. She couldn’t even get out a response before she found herself being wrapped up in one of Max’s bear hugs, a little too shocked to respond, or even know how she should respond.

“Jesus, Max, at least ask first,” Laura reprimanded him. “Consent and all that.”

“It’s… fine?” Kaitlyn said, bringing up her arms to awkwardly pat Max on the back.

“Sorry, just wanted to… show my gratitude I guess,” Max said as he pulled away. “From what Laura told me, we both owe our thanks to you. You broke our curse. You helped bring her back to me. I won’t ever forget that.”

“We, uh… We saved each other tonight,” Kaitlyn said, nodding her head at Laura, who sheepishly smiled back. “And… you kinda saved me by proxy too I guess, since you were the one to bite Laura.”

“That’s… One way to look at it, I guess…” Max pondered.

“Kaitlyn!”

The screech of her name brought all their attention towards the direction of the lodge, greeted by the sight of everyone piling out onto the balcony. Abi was front and center, having been the first to see her — and yell out her name — pausing for a moment to wave jovially down at her before everyone was scurrying down the stairs.

“Uh oh, prepare your ribs, Kaitlyn,” Dylan warned her, already turning towards the others. “Make way for group hug two-point-oh.”

“‘Two-point-oh’? When was the first--” Kaitlyn doesn’t get to finish her sentence before being engulfed, the pressure all around her making her realize that maybe she should have heeded Dylan’s warning.

Everyone held onto each other, Jacob wisely choosing to be in the part of the group hug that was as far away from Ryan as possible, not quite ready to test his boundaries just yet… Dylan peeked his head out of the hug to look over to where Max and Laura were standing, gesturing to the pile with a flick of his head. “You guys are counselors too, you know. You’re more than welcome to join.”

Laura raised an eyebrow at the display in front of her. “Uh, I don’t think--”

“Sweet, I’ll take a group hug,” Max decided for them, grabbing hold of Laura’s arm and tugging her with him into the hug, easily slotting in with the others.

It’s as they were beginning to separate that Travis steps out of the car, the sound of the car door slamming closed behind him forcing their gaze over to him. Max nervously glanced between the sheriff and Laura, unsure whether to be pleased to see him for, well, being part of helping keep Laura alive, or whether to still be pissed. Which is why perhaps he resorts to making a joke that would break the tension somewhat, holding out a hand as if to invite Travis into the hug. “T-Money--”

“Absolutely not.” Travis shut that down very quickly, looking rather unimpressed as his gaze slides over all of them. “Is this everyone? Every counselor accounted for?”

“Somehow, yes,” Kaitlyn says.

Travis nods, some of the tension in his posture relaxing at the news. “Okay, uh… good. That’s good. Now, I want you kids to get back into the lodge and stay there, alright? It won’t be long before backup arrives to take care of you guys.”

“Um, no offense, sir—” Emma said, hand held up as she spoke. “—But hearing ‘take care of you guys’ from a cop makes it sound like you’re going to take us out back and like… put a bullet in our heads or something.”

“What? No, that’s—” Travis sighed deeply, wiping a hand across his face. “I’m not going to lie to you kids, there’s going to be a lot of questions they’ll want answered. Now, I’ll do my best to answer them for you, but they’re still going to want to hear from you guys, okay? Not even I have the power to just… get you off the hook. But I’ll do what I can to ensure you all get home. That… That they see you’re all innocent in this.”

“...Even if it means putting your head on the chopping block?” Laura asks.

Travis looks over to her, eyes solemn as he slowly nods his head. “Even if it means putting my head on the chopping block,” he repeats quietly. “My family’s mess is my mess too. You guys should never have been dragged into it. And you sure as hell shouldn’t have to be the ones to help me clear it up.”

Everyone remained quiet, all still huddled together as they looked at Travis. Travis sighed quietly, looking down to the floor before forcing his gaze back up. “There, uh… There shouldn’t be anything left that’ll be a danger to you guys anymore, but for safety's sake, you all should stay together in the lodge. Keep an eye out for each other whilst I go and search for my nephew out there–"

“You’re Chris’s brother, right?” Ryan speaks up. Travis raises an eyebrow at the unexpected interruption, but nods his head in response to the question. “Caleb’s uncle?” Ryan adds on.

“Have you seen him?” Travis asks, something akin to hope daring to catch light in his eyes. But that hope is quickly doused by the sorrowful emptiness reflected back at him from Ryan’s, already knowing what was coming next before Ryan even said it.

“I’m sorry,” Ryan says, swallowing harshly past the lump in his throat. “He forced his way in, and… and I had to…”

Travis’s shoulder slumped, posture deflating as he sank in on himself. His head dropped down, eyes sliding shut as he shook his head side to side. “Goddammit… Fuck! We were… We were so damn close… Curse is over and for fucking what, I…” Travis looked back up, eyes glossy with unshed tears as he stared blankly past the counselors and out into the forest. “Where… Where is he?”

“In the lodge,” Ryan answered softly, looking unsure as to whether the sheriff would start to direct his anger at him. Kaitlyn could tell from Dylan’s protective grip around Ryan’s shoulders that he wouldn’t be alone in the fight if he did.

“You… You did what you had to. I get that,” Travis muttered, allowing them to relax somewhat. “I uh… I just… Need a minute to…” Travis got out in a daze, dejectedly making his way toward the lodge. They all watched him go, no one daring to speak a word before he was through the doors and out of earshot.

“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but… I actually feel kind of bad for him,” Laura admits, the first of them to break the silence. “His mom, dad, brothers, nieces, and nephews… All gone in one night. He’s the only Hackett left.”

“Jesus Christ…” Ryan muttered. Dylan’s protective grip turned into a comforting one, pulling Ryan further into his side.

“Could we… Maybe focus on the positives and not… that?” Nick asked, accent as thick as usual and Kaitlyn was delighted to see completely normal ‘Nick’ eyes glancing between the group and not the bloodshot, yellow ones she had last seen of him.

“I think I can do that, given last time I saw you, you were…” Kaitlyn trailed off, looking Nick up and down.

Nick managed the tiniest of smiles. “Yeah… Not exactly myself. I, um… I’m sorry for… telling you to fuck off…”

“You were part way through transforming into a werewolf. You’ve got a pretty good excuse,” Kaitlyn replied in one of the weirdest ways of accepting someone's apology. “I’m just glad to see you’re okay.”

Nick shot her a tired-looking smile. “Right back at you.”

Kaitlyn moved her gaze over to Jacob. “So… You found your way back then?”

“Just about. Picked up this straggler on the way.” Jacob ruffled at Nick’s hair, who didn’t look much pleased with the display of ‘affection’.

“Knock it off, man--” Nick grumbled, swatting Jacob’s bear paws away.

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes at the display of… whatever it is that boys do to show they care about each other, apparently. “Well, I’m glad to see you decided not to try and be a hero or an idiot,” she said, calling back to their earlier conversation by the cages. Ryan very much looked like he wanted to say something about that, but Dylan’s gentle squeeze around his shoulders kept him quiet.

“It’s amazing we’re all still alive…” Abi said, sounding genuinely amazed by her realization.

“Yeah… Anyone else get the feeling it could have gone a lot worse?” Emma asks.

“For sure,” Dylan agreed. “I could have lost both hands.”

Ryan looked up at Dylan, completely baffled. “How… would that even happen?”

“I dunno. I get bit, you cut off my hand, and then another werewolf bites my other hand, and you have to amputate that one too,” Dylan explains like it was obvious.

“That’d be some bad luck,” Max comments.

“Those traps I kept stepping into could have really fucked me up,” Jacob threw in his own woes.

“If Kaitlyn hadn’t stopped me, I could have shot whoever was in that cage,” Laura offers.

“Yeah, that was Nick,” Jacob informs her.

Nick blinks in surprise. “Wait, what--”

“I could have fucked up using the crane and got Ryan bit,” Dylan says.

“Crane--?” Kaitlyn tries to say, but is cut off by Emma.

“Max could have eaten me in the tree house. And not in the good way.”

It’s not much of a surprise that everyone falls silent after that one.

“What… the hell are we doing?” Kaitlyn asks.

“Processing our trauma, if I were to guess,” Dylan answers with a shrug of his shoulders.

“There’s a part of me that still can’t quite believe it’s really over,” said Ryan. “This whole night… This whole nightmare… It’s finally over.”

The shrill of sirens pierces through the air, breaking the momentary peace of the morning. They were quiet, but steadily getting louder and louder as who they could only assume were more cops headed their way down to Hackett’s Quarry Summer Camp, and to the massacre that awaited them.

“Well… that nightmare’s over…” Kaitlyn said. Just through the trees, she could see the flashing red, white, and blue lights, something that would have brought them comfort to see earlier tonight now bringing a sense of dread. “…And now a new one begins…”

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