Chapter Text
00:45 | AUGUST 23 — KAITLYN
HACKETT’S QUARRY CAMP POOLHOUSE
“I’m going with you.”
“What?!” Kaitlyn and Dylan’s voices, understandably, joined in exclamation at Ryan’s announcement.
“Uh, yeah… What they said,” Laura agreed with their eloquent outburst, looking none too happy with Ryan’s suggestion.
“I’m going to show you that Chris Hackett has nothing to do with this. He wanted us to stay inside tonight. He wanted us safe.”
Laura still didn’t look thrilled with the idea. “I don’t care what you think.”
Ryan didn’t exactly look the happy camper either. “I don’t care what you think.”
“Alright, this is ridiculous--” Kaitlyn jumped up, placing her hands between the two. “--And a terrible idea.” Kaitlyn looked to Laura, eyes briefly dropping down to her arm, and to where her bloodied bite mark lay. “I do think you should have someone with you, though. With how quick Nick — whatever the hell happened to him — you don’t have much time at all.”
“I’m aware,” Laura snapped. “That’s why I need to get going--”
“I’m not just gonna let you murder Chris!” Ryan protested, trying to push Kaitlyn’s hand out of the way.
“Ryan, calm down,” Kaitlyn said, giving Ryan a light push back once more. Thankfully, Ryan listened, no longer making an attempt to push past her.
That’s not to say he didn’t try to argue his piece, however. “Kaitlyn, this is… it’s insane. I mean, what if… what if she’s wrong?”
“I’m not wrong,” Laura insisted, a touch of heat in her voice. “His brother fucking said it himself! ‘You fucking bit one of them, Chris’, that’s what he said! He bit Max, and now I’m fucking bit, and who knows who else! Your friend over there would be halfway turned by now if you hadn’t removed his hand!” Laura gestured towards Dylan, who was still backed away in the shadows, nervous eyes darting back and forth between Laura and Ryan’s exchange like a tennis match.
Ryan glanced back to Dylan, the fire in his eyes diminishing at the sight of him. Dylan’s eyes dropped away at Ryan’s gaze, hand unconsciously moving towards what remained of the other. Ryan just… He couldn’t imagine it. Couldn’t imagine one of those things had been Chris — or even Kaylee if what Laura had said was true. He couldn’t picture it was either of them hunting them down… Prowling around the cabins. Maiming Dylan--
“I…” Ryan faltered, turning back to the others. “We can’t just let her walk over there and just… shoot Chris--”
“That’s why I’m going with her,” Kaitlyn said firmly, the statement catching Ryan off guard. “I let you two go together, I imagine one of you is going to end up full of buckshot twenty minutes in, werewolf or no werewolf.”
“I don’t need help--”
“It’s not your decision,” Kaitlyn interrupted Laura, now her turn to be caught off guard. “What if you turn into one of those things before you even get to the house? Then what?” Kaitlyn turned her head back towards Ryan, finally lowering her hand away now it seemed like Ryan wasn’t going to try and do something stupid… “I’m not going to let her just walk in there and shoot Chris no questions asked, okay? We will find out the truth… And then make a decision.”
Ryan frowned, unhappy eyes flickering between the shotgun in Laura’s hands and Kaitlyn. “But--”
“I get it,” Kaitlyn began softly, reaching up a hand and placing it on Ryan’s shoulder. “I get that I get it, but don’t really get it. He’s Mr. H to me, but he’s Chris to you. Obviously you’re going to want to protect him. But bottom line here, Ryan, is… there’s a chance this is all true. And given what we’ve seen tonight, it’s seeming likely. And if that is the case… if it comes down to it, and Laura can’t do it and it's up to you… could you do it? Could you kill Chris if it was the only choice we had?”
“I…” The hesitation that lingered after that single word answered Kaitlyn’s question for him — even if he wasn’t entirely sure of the answer himself. Right now, in this moment, could he imagine himself able to look Chris in the eye, wolf or not, and pull the trigger?
“And don’t forget about Dylan and Abi,” Kaitlyn added, her voice low and quiet. Not that it made much of a difference; both parties were about five feet away from them. “They’re gonna need your help getting back to the lodge, and Dylan… He needs some real medical attention A.S.A.P. Once those painkillers start wearing off…”
Kaitlyn had won the argument with that, and she knew it. Ryan made the mistake of looking over to Dylan again, to his clothes soaked in blood and his worry-filled eyes, and it was all over. Ryan’s shoulders drooped as the fight went out of him, finding his hand reaching out to Dylan to reassure him. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”
“You said you drove over here in a cop car, right?” Kaitlyn asked Laura.
“Yeah?”
“Thank God. We can use that to start getting people the hell out of here--”
“You could, if it wasn’t currently at the bottom of the lake,” Laura cut Kaitlyn off before her hopes could grow any higher.
Ryan whipped back around, his soft reassuring tone now replaced with irritation. “Why?!”
“It was a stolen cop car!”
“Okay, new plan,” Kailtyn quickly blew past that hiccup, addressing Ryan. “Okay, so… Maybe the minivan? I know it wasn’t working, but… Mr. H barely looked at it, he was in such a hurry to get out of here…”
“Yeah, before he turned…” Laura mumbled under her breath, getting a glare thrown in her direction from Ryan.
“Just… take another look at it, okay? Start getting everyone out of here to safety.” Kaitlyn picked up the shotgun, pushing it into Ryan’s hands. Ryan somewhat reluctantly took the offered gun, eyes dropping down to it, then over to Laura. Laura narrowed her eyes at his stare, her grip on her own gun tightening just a little bit more.
“Please, just…” Ryan began, but what could he say? Nothing. Nothing was the answer. Laura was set in what she wanted to go out there and do. Ryan shook his head, placing the strap of the gun over his shoulder and swinging the gun around to his back. “Come on. Let’s get moving.”
* * *
01:30 | AUGUST 23 — KAITLYN
HACKETT WOODS
The heavens had opened, pouring out buckets from the sky. For Kaitlyn, it was a relief, the rain making quick work of cleaning away Nick’s blood which had dried into her clothes. And skin. And hair. Everywhere, basically.
“You sure this is the right way?” Laura asked, trudging along through the mud and rain just behind her.
“I think so? Never actually been out here myself,” Kaitlyn says over her shoulder. “No one has, apart from the Hackett’s. Far as I’m aware, anyway.”
“Great…” Laura sighed, gun in hand and her one remaining eye keeping a careful watch out of their surroundings. “Let’s just hope we don’t get lost out here…”
“Amen to that…” Kaitlyn mumbled in agreement.
“Hey, so what’s the deal with that Ryan guy?” Laura asked after a few beats of silence between them.
Kaitlyn looked over at Laura, pace slowing so they were matched. “What do you mean?”
“Is he always… such an asshole?”
“What? No--” Kaitlyn strongly shook her head side to side. "No, he’s not an asshole. It’s just… It’s been one hell of a night.”
”Yeah, and I’ve had one hell of a ‘two months',” Laura shot back. “I mean… I don’t get it. Like, sure, I didn’t want to believe it was werewolves at first either. Who would? But when the evidence was right there in front of me for me to see with my own eyes, it was kind of hard not to take it as the truth.”
“Well… Yeah, but Ryan, he… It takes a lot to gain his trust. And you were asking him to kill someone he cares for over the word of… you, some random chick he met like twenty minutes ago. No offense, by the way.”
“Uh… none taken,” said Laura. “But it’s not just my word, is it? You said your friend, uh…”
“Nick?”
“Yeah, didn’t you say you saw him turn?”
Kaitlyn sighed, eyes darting around the darkness of the woods, as if by simply mentioning his name that… thing that came out of Nick would appear hidden amongst the trees. “Yeah… We did.”
“And what about the tall dude--”
“Dylan,” Kaitlyn corrected once more.
“And what about Dylan? He said Ryan chopped off his hand after one of them bit him! I mean sure, it was the right thing to do, but if Ryan doesn’t believe in any of this, then why the hell did he decide to do that?”
“That, I… don’t actually know,” Kaitlyn had to admit. “Look, I’m not saying I don’t believe you, okay? You’re the only person so far that’s actually been able to explain any of this, even if it is…”
“...Absolutely batshit insane?” Laura guessed the end of her sentence with a knowing smile.
Kaitlyn huffed from her nose, nodding her head in agreement. “Sure. But for Ryan… If he accepts that this is what it is? That you’re right? It means that Mr. H has been lying to all of us. That he kept this summer camp running, putting a bunch of kids in danger as he and his kids turn into werewolves every full moon. I mean, twice over camp, they were…” Kaitlyn shakes her head, beginning to feel a little pill of resentment burn inside. “If you’re right… If Ryan starts to believe you’re right… then it means that Mr. H has to die. So…”
“So he won’t believe it…” Laura realized.
The two began to slow as the thick cover of trees began to break apart, revealing a clearing just up ahead. There, nestled within the forests of Hackett’s Quarry, was Hackett House. To the naked eye it was nothing more than an imposing shadow silhouetted by the full moon, secured by a chain-mail fence wrapped around its perimeter, made extra secure by the vicious coils of barbed wire running along the top.
“Uh… You’re seeing what I’m seeing, right?” Laura gestures towards the house. “Look at this place! You’re telling me you knew he lived out here, in his redneck mansion, with his redneck family, out in the ass crack of the woods, and didn’t think at any point that it was weird?”
“Now it does,” Kaitlyn says, looking over the sprawling structure. “Before all this, it was just a house in the woods. Scenic, if anything.”
Laura scoffed in disbelief, eyes casting over every bit of the house she can see from here. More specifically… “So… How do we get in?”
“Um... Afraid I know as much as you at this point,” Kaitlyn says with a shrug of her shoulders. “Doesn’t seem like the kind of place you can just walk up to the front door and knock…”
Laura huffed, her anxiety levels rising more and more. They were running out of time. More specifically, Laura was running out of time, but given Kaitlyn’s proximity to her when she does run out of time… they’d both be meeting their ends soon.
Well… Unless Kaitlyn chooses to shoot Laura with a shell of silver, of course.
“Just… Keep looking. There’s got to be some way in…” Laura stepped closer, about to move past Kaitlyn and towards the house when the sound of wood creaking under them stopped her. Both of them freeze, heads snapping down to the ground and to the planks under their feet.
One of them moves. There’s another creak, and then all of a sudden the entire platform begins to give way, and--
It was only a few seconds, but those moments of stomach-churning free fall feel like an eternity. But then again, Kaitlyn would rather take that all over again than the sharp slap of hitting the surface of the water — admittedly better than hitting the ground. She’s able to squeeze her mouth and eyes shut as she sinks down into the freezing murky water, grateful that of all the ways she could die tonight, it won't be by drowning. She pushes herself in the direction of what she hopes is up, breaching the surface with a deep inhale of air.
“Fuck. Laura, are you--” Kaitlyn stops, padding in place as she looks around in the dark of the… whatever this place was. The moonlight filtering in from the gap they had just fallen through illuminated the surface of the water enough that she could see — or more accurately not see — anyone else. The water was already beginning to calm, only disturbed by Kaitlyn’s minor movements as she kept herself afloat. “…Laura…?”
Laura seemingly appears from nowhere, popping out of the water a few feet away with what sounded like a pained gasp. She spent no extra time in the water, pushing through the water and over to where the floor of this place met the surface and clambered out. Dylan was right… It did look like when a cat gets unexpectedly wet — which is to say, every time a cat gets wet.
Kaitlyn hurries after her, almost as eager to get out of the cold water as she was. Laura’s breaths were rapid and shaky, hands held out by her sides as she tries to recover. “It stalks your breath but shuns clear water…”
“It stalks your…?” Kaitlyn began to ask, stopping herself as she catches sight of Laura’s arm. Her now unbitten arm. “Whoa, um…? Laura, your… Your arm…?”
Laura glances down at her own arm, seeing nothing but smooth and intact skin. She can’t help but smile at least a little, amazed by the healing capabilities that came with this curse.
That’s when it clicks in Kaitlyn’s mind. Nick… How he was back at the lodge. Covered in all that blood, and yet without a single mark on him. And given Abi’s description as they sat by the fire… He should have been dead. And yet, within half an hour of being attacked by that thing in the woods, he was almost the picture of health once again.
Which, for Laura, meant…
“I might be wrong here, but…” Kaitlyn slowly reaches toward Laura, who at first flinches away at the movement. Kaitlyn stops, eyebrow raised. But when Laura doesn’t say anything else in disagreement, she continues. She grabs hold of the edges of the eyepatch Laura wore, pulling it off her head to reveal…
Yep, just as she thought. Two intact eyes were staring right back at her, not even a scar left over.
“Okay, that’s… both cool as hell and super weird,” Kaitlyn said. “But, uh… Guess you won’t have to go dressing up as a pirate for Halloween anymore?”
Laura blinked at her in her shock, bringing up a hand and holding it in front of her face. She laughs, marveling at the return of her eye — and her depth perception with it. It was perhaps the one good thing that happened tonight… “No shit!”
But as quickly as the smile and brief moment of good had come, it vanished. Because if she was healing like this, it could only mean one thing… “Can you see yellow? In my eyes?” She asked Kaitlyn desperately, moving closer for Kaitlyn to get a better look.
The glow from the moonlight hit her eyes at just the right angle, illuminating her undoubtedly golden eyes. Kaitlyn wisely stepped back, wondering just what this meant in terms of how long she had left before all hell broke loose… “Yep. Yep, they’re yellow alright.”
Laura’s face fell. “Shit.” ‘My sentiments exactly’, Kaitlyn thought. “We haven’t got much time.”
Despite how fast they wished to make their way through this place, the quarry’s treacherous conditions made it a little too difficult. It seemed that even when the quarry was in use that it wasn’t up to code…
Kaitlyn reaches out towards the old metal barriers lining the pathways as they walk, brushing her fingers along the decades of rust that had built up. It felt like the whole thing was going to crumble away at her touch… And was also the only thing stopping them from plunging over the edge and into what seemed like endless darkness below…
“Probably for the best we keep away from the edges…” Kaitlyn says, backing away from the railing.
“Not sure how much of a choice we’ll have, given how run down this place is,” Laura replies, focusing on the not-so-stable ground under her feet. “Would rather we don’t take another fall--”
“Silas!”
The call brings them both to a stop, listening as the unknown woman’s pain-filled cry echoes around the rocky walls of the quarry. “…Did you hear that too?” Laura asks, glancing at Kaitlyn behind her.
“...Unfortunately…” Kaitlyn’s eyes dart around the darkness of the cavern, searching for the source of the voice. “You know, if Ryan and Dylan were here, they’d probably be going on and on about…” Kaitlyn trails off as the realization hits her. “Oh my God… Ryan was right…”
Laura fully turned around at that. “Right about what?”
“The… Hag Of Hackett’s Quarry…” Kaitlyn reluctantly answers.
Laura shot her a perplexed frown at the name. “Sorry, what? The hell is ‘The Ha--’ ”
“Don’t say it again!” Kaitlyn pleaded. “It’s this ghost story Ryan apparently liked telling the kids around the fire. Except… Guess it’s not just a story anymore.”
“This place has its own ghost story?” Laura scoffed. “As if werewolves aren’t enough…”
“Yeah… It was something about a woman who sort of… hangs around the Quarry, I guess. I don’t know, Ryan didn’t fully explain it, but he mentioned something about her having a kid. That’s why she’s stuck here, looking for him.”
“Uh…” Laura raised a finger, twirling it in a circular motion to the cavern they were standing in. “So I’m guessing… Silas?”
“Yeah, seems like it…” Kaitlyn said with a deep exhale. “Maybe she doesn’t want us here…”
“Or… maybe she does,” Laura countered. “That wasn’t the first time I’ve heard her. At least… I’m pretty sure it was her.”
“You’re pretty sure what was her?”
“The voice I heard, back in the police station. Both me and Max heard. It was like… like she was guiding us. We could hear her clear as day in that room, and if we hadn’t… We probably wouldn’t have found all that silver ammo.”
“...But why would…” Kaitlyn closed her eyes with a sigh. She still hated saying that name out loud… “Why would the ‘Hag Of Hackett’s Quarry’ be guiding us? Why would she want us to track down and kill werewolves?”
Laura just shrugs, bringing up her shotgun to hold in both hands. “Let’s find out, shall we?”
As with most things tonight, the peace doesn’t last long. They couldn’t have been walking for more than five minutes before something happens. But sure enough, as the rocky path under their feet turns to long abandoned stairs, the exact thing Kaitlyn thought was going to happen, happened.
She wasn’t even sure why she had been the one to take the lead, given that Laura was still in possession of the shotgun. Either way, it’s as she takes a step onto the crumbling stairs that it collapses out from underneath her, the entire platform shaking as its weakened foundations threaten to give in entirely. It’s more instinct than thought that has her leaping for the part of the platform that doesn’t seem like it’ll be plunging into the dark below, wincing as her ribs collide with the edge. She scrambles up to her feet, panicked mind reminding her that Laura had been right behind her, on those same collapsing steps.
Kaitlyn whirls round, making sure her feet are set as she leans forward, hand held outstretched. Laura doesn’t even need to be told what to do, already leaping up from the platform below. Laura’s hand clasps onto hers, and with one all-mighty pull, Laura joins her on the platform.
By which she means, Laura smacks into her hard enough that they both go sprawling to the ground. Kaitlyn grunts in surprise as the air’s knocked out of her, unsure whether it was her ribs that hurt more, or now her back from hitting the cold hard ground beneath her…
“Good catch!” Laura compliments her with a grin.
“Not so good landing…” Kaitlyn groans back.
Laura snorts, pushing herself off of Kaitlyn. She gets to her feet, offering a hand to Kaitlyn who accepts the help. Kaitlyn glances down at herself, using a hand to try and brush away the cave dust that now seemed to cover her all over.
“I don’t know about you, but I could really go for a hamburger right now.”
Kaitlyn froze in her brushing, looking over to Laura in pure bewilderment. And… a little fear, if she’s being honest. Given the length of time between Nick complaining about how hungry he was before exploding into something that was very much not Nick… “Uh… No? I’m good, actually. And I’m not sure what your chances are of finding a hamburger down here…”
They continue through the Quarry, constantly moving up. Up, past the rickety stairs they could only silently pray wouldn’t fall apart again. Up, moving ever higher just to get back to ground level — back to where they started. Though, hopefully, given this was ‘Hackett’s Quarry’… this path actually spits them out at least inside the Hackett’s property…
“Can’t wait for this to all be over…” Kaitlyn says, her tiredness from this entire evening really starting to catch up with her.
“Yep, that was pretty much mine and Max’s mantra every night we were in that cell…” Laura cautiously toes at the next platform they were to step onto. She must deem it safe, as she quickly continues forward.
“You and Max been together a while?”
Laura slows down at that, throwing Kaitlyn a questioning look over her shoulder. “…Why do you wanna know?”
Kaitlyn shrugs. “Just making conversation. I mean, we were supposed to be counselors this summer. But never too late to get to know someone, right?”
“I guess…”
“Nothing like a little trauma to speed up the bonding process…”
Laura can’t help but snort at the all-too-accurate statement. “Me and Max… It kinda feels like we’ve been together as long as I can remember. It’s your typical story: Met in high school, became high school sweethearts, survived through college together, and now…”
“...Trying to survive a werewolf curse?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Laura sighs heavily, coming to a stop on the walkway. She turns to face Kaitlyn, eyes cast towards the ground. “I don’t mean to like, dump all this on you, but… thing is, I don’t know what’s going to happen after all this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like… plans for the future kind of stuff. Me and Max, we… we already had it all laid out, y’know? After we graduated from college we found a grad school we both really loved, had the courses we were both looking for… Seemed like the best way to go. I got in, and then… Max, he…”
“...He didn’t?”
“He didn’t even tell me,” Laura complained. “I found the damn rejection letter in the car on the way up here… It’s just… we had centered everything around us going there together, and now…”
Kaitlyn gave Laura a sympathetic smile. “You want my advice?”
“Sure,” Laura answers.
“Now, I’m just an objective third party of course, but going from what you told us back at the pool house? I think you guys are going to be okay regardless. Shit, I mean… Here you are, right? In the middle of this dark and creepy quarry, about to straight up murder a guy so you can save Max from a curse. Oh, and this is after he’s already taken a chunk out of your hand, thereby also infecting you, and on top of that, clawed out your eye.”
“Well, I mean… Yeah?” Laura says as if it would be unthinkable for her not to be doing all that.
“I’m just saying, that’s some serious devotion. If you guys can get through all that, then I think you guys can probably work out how to get around not being at the same school.”
“Huh…” Laura says softly, tilting her head in thought. “You know, it does sound pretty stupid when I think about it…”
Kaitlyn chuckled, stepping forward to give Laura a pat on the shoulder. “Nah… Sometimes it just helps to have someone else say it out loud. Let’s you look at it from another angle, y’know?”
“Well… I certainly appreciate it,” Laura says with a warm smile. “So, what about you?”
Kaitlyn’s brow shot up. “…What about me?”
“You got anyone special you’d be willing to… break out of a prison and hunt down a man-turned-werewolf for?”
Kaitlyn guffawed, ducking her head and shaking it side to side. “Me? No, no… Came to camp single, and I’m leaving the same way. Though, to be fair, so are Jacob and Emma… Difference is I didn’t get the sexy summer fling.”
“Uh… What?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Kaitlyn dismissed with a wave of her hand. “Point is: no, there isn’t someone.”
“Really? No one at the camp caught your attention?” Laura teased. “Granted, I’ve only met four of you so far, and… not in the most ideal of circumstances. But I mean… Uh, let’s see… Dylan seems…?”
“Gay.”
“Oh,” Laura blanches. “Yeah, that probably wouldn’t work out…”
“Dude’s also got a massive thing for Ryan, so…”
“Ryan? Really?” Laura asks, seemingly not impressed with Dylan’s taste in men.
“Uh…. You’ve seen him right?” Kaitlyn points out.
“Oh, God…” Laura genuinely sounded disappointed in her. “Not you too… How the hell did that guy get you and Dylan crushing after him?”
“Look, you’ve only had like a twenty-minute time frame to make a judgment on him, okay?” Kaitlyn rushes to defend Ryan — and both hers and Dylan’s choice of men, it appeared. “We’ve known him for two months, when he’s not been under constant stress and dealing with the possibility of someone he looks up to being killed.”
Laura raised a hand in surrender, the other still wrapped around her gun. “Alright, alright, I’ll reserve judgment… I’m just saying, you could do better.”
Kaitlyn felt a rush of heat to her face, much to her surprise. She cleared her throat, awkwardly averting her gaze. “Not that it matters, anyway. Everything that’s happened tonight… Well, let’s just say Ryan and Dylan have been attached at the hip.”
“Do I hear a bit of jealousy there?”
“Maybe a little,” Kaitlyn admitted with a half smile.
“Must have made the summer a little weird…” said Laura, grimacing at the thought. “Were things not awkward between you and Dylan? Liking the same guy?”
“Actually… No. We didn’t really address it all that much. Dylan, he… As much as likes to joke around, he’s honestly the sweetest guy. It’s impossible not to like him. Neither of us really made a move on Ryan the entire summer, so…” Kaitlyn exhaled heavily. “Honestly? It doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Like… Okay, so earlier tonight, we were playing truth or dare around the fire. Before all this shit started going down, obviously. Anyway, Emma picked Ryan, and Ryan chose dare, and Emma dared Ryan to kiss either me or Dylan.”
“Sounds like neither of you made your crushes on Ryan all that subtle…”
“Apparently not…” Kaitlyn muttered. “So, Ryan ends up choosing Dylan. And I thought I’d be like… burning with jealousy or something. But I wasn’t. Maybe a tiny bit of disappointment, sure. But… The whole time leading up to Ryan choosing us, Dylan was practically vibrating out of his seat. Then after they kissed, oh man… If you had seen his face? Dude looked like he just won the lottery. Just… biggest smile on his face.”
Laura shook her head in disbelief. “Yeah… Not at all subtle…”
“He even giggled.”
“Serious?”
“Dead serious,” Kaitlyn says. “Kinda made me think… Maybe we weren’t both looking for the same thing? Don’t get me wrong, Ryan’s Ryan, and there was something about him that just… drew me in. But Dylan? You get the feeling he’s in it for the long haul, y’know? Like, you catch him looking at Ryan, and you just know the guy’s already thinking about what their weddings gonna be like.”
“That’s… kind of adorable, actually.”
“I know,” Kaitlyn groaned. “That’s the worse part; you can’t help but be happy for them.”
“Gotta say, Ryan did seem…” Laura paused, brow furrowed as she thought back to their interaction in the pool house. “…Not as much of an ass when he was talking with Dylan?”
Kaitlyn chuckled, giving Laura’s shoulder a friendly shove as she moved past her, continuing forward down the path. “What happened to ‘I’ll reserve judgment', huh?”
The end of the path, as it turns out, was right up ahead in front of them. They both stared down the creepy mining tunnel, only partly lit up by a lone lantern somewhere within the darkness.
“Hmm… I don’t know.” Laura carried on from their last conversation. She reached out to the planks that were blocking their way, grabbing one and yanking it off like it was held in place by Velcro and not nails. “Maybe the werewolf trying to get out of me is more judgemental than aggressive.”
Kaitlyn watched as Laura continued to pull away the planks of wood with surprising ease. “As much as I’d rather you turn into a werewolf that criticizes my fashion choices over straight up eating me… I kind of doubt it.”
* * *
01:35 | AUGUST 23 — RYAN
HACKETT’S QUARRY LODGE
“Whoa… The hell happened here?”
Dylan’s voice echoed around the trashed interior of the lodge. Ryan kept in front of both him and Abi, gun secure in his hands as his eyes sweep around the entire room for anyone — or any thing— that wasn’t supposed to be here.
“Oh my God… This must have been from Kaitlyn earlier,” Abi tells them, looking over to the furniture that had been thrown about. “After you guys went out to the radio hut, and those… hunters? I… I don’t know how many of them there were, but Kaitlyn ran into one of them… I didn’t realize this happened, though…”
“Well… She’s safe, now. As far as we know, anyway…” Dylan mumbled that last sentence. “Man, just look at this place… Mr. H is gonna be pissed when he sees this mess.”
“If he sees it,” Ryan corrects bitterly.
Dylan glanced anxiously towards Abi, both unsure as to what to say. As much as they sympathized for Ryan… they couldn’t say that sympathy was entirely shared towards Mr. H. It wasn’t that they would ever wish death on anyone — even someone who was turning into a rabid beast once a month. But after everything that had happened tonight… The body in the lake… And who knows what else the Hacketts have been hiding, putting both kids and counselors alike in danger every summer as they attempt to hide this dirty secret of theirs…?
They didn’t want Mr. H dead… but if it was necessary?
They weren’t going to argue.
“Come on… We need to get out of here,” says Ryan, and Dylan can’t help but wince at the emotionless tone. He wanted to help Ryan, soothe him in some way, but… how? How could he? How do you cheer someone up who is dealing with the reality that someone he cares for — someone he trusted — not only betrayed him and put their lives at risk, but was now being hunted down?
All three of them pile out of the lodge, Ryan still leading the way. The minivan was where it was the last they saw it, parked right outside. Which… of course it would be, it wasn’t working after all. They approach the van, that of which Dylan is still ninety percent sure a lost cause given how worked up Mr. H had gotten when he had taken a look. But before they can even think to get anywhere near the hood of the van, it rocks. They all stop, Ryan bringing up the gun on reflex as the van continues to make little rocking motions.
“So… I know they say ‘if the vans rockin’, don’t come a-knockin', but uh… We should probably check that out, right?” Dylan whispers to Ryan, inching closer to him.
“I- I don’t know,” Ryan replies. “I mean… We do need to try and see if we can get the minivan working… It’s the only option we got left of getting out of here.”
“It… It can’t be a werewolf, right?” Dylan asks. “Wait… Do they have thumbs? Do they know how to get into a car?”
“They could have been like Nick, and turned inside the car,” Abi offers, which doesn’t at all make them feel better about the situation. “Or it could be one of the hunters?”
“Right. Great. Okay, time to nearly get myself killed again…”
“Whoa - Whoa, wait,” Ryan reached out a hand, grabbing Dylan’s arm and stopping him as he made to move towards the van. “Are you sure?”
“Uh, no, I’m not sure, Ryan. This is like, horror movie trope number one. But you’re right: we do need to get the minivan working, so someone’s gotta check it.”
Ryan’s mouth flattened into an uncertain frown, glancing between Dylan and the still shifting van. “Alright, just… Be careful, okay? I don’t want to be performing emergency amputations again…”
Ryan reluctantly releases his hold on Dylan’s arm. “Just… be ready to shoot if something pops out, alright?” Dylan says before turning back towards the van, letting out a shaky breath as he once again approaches. “Preferably not me, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Ryan returns his hand to the grip of the shotgun, keeping it steady as he aims towards the van. Dylan creeps slowly forward, trying to peer through the darkened windows of the van but not finding much luck. He grabs hold of the handle, taking a deep breath in preparation and counting to three in his head. He pulls the handle out, yanking the door open to see--
“AHHHH!”
Both Dylan’s and Emma’s screams combine as the latter sprays a bottle of… something, directly into Dylan's open eyes. The pain is instantaneous, the burn of it bringing Dylan to his knees, eyes already streaming with tears.
“AHHH! AH, SHE MACED ME, SHE MACED ME--”
“Holy Shit, Emma stop!” Ryan jumps forward, caught between Dylan and Emma, unsure whether to go to Dylan — who was writhing on the floor in pain — or to Emma, and snatch the can out of her hands.
“Ahh! It burns… Ah- Ah…”
“Oh my God!” Emma saw through her haze of fear, recognizing who she had actually just attempted to blind. “I’m so sorry, Dylan! I’m so so sorry--”
Ryan hurried over to Dylan’s side, placing down the shotgun and kneeling down beside him, placing a hand on his back. “Holy shit, dude. Are you okay?”
“Ah, fuck…” Dylan managed to get back onto his knees, his only remaining fist curled up in pain and trembling by his scrunched eyes. “Fuck, I’m going blind--”
Abi hurried over to Emma, who was still staring at Dylan in shock. She opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped, taking a closer look at the bottle in Emma's hands. “Wait, it’s… it’s not mace!”
Dylan’s eyes pop open, the whites of his eyes turned red and filled with tears. He looks to Ryan first, then over to Abi, blinking in surprise. “…What?”
Abi chuckles in relief, pointing to the spray can Emma was slowly starting to put down. “It’s not mace, it’s just air freshener! But I mean… probably still hurt, though.”
“Sorry…” Emma apologized again. “It was all I could find in the van…"
“Oh…” Dylan sheepishly glanced towards Ryan, who hung his head with a sigh of relief. “Uh, in my defense… It really fucking hurt.”
Ryan stifled a laugh, pushing himself up onto his feet. “Uh, yeah, it sounded like it.” He held out a hand to Dylan, who reached out and took the offered help. Dylan stumbled to his feet with Ryan’s aid, who gave Dylan’s back a reassuring thump as he rapidly blinked away the tears left over in his eyes. “You good?”
“Yep…” Dylan wiped a hand across his eyes. “Might have lost my hand, but at least I still got my eyes…”
* * *
Ryan’s hands were buried within the engine bay, quickly becoming dirtied with oil. He grunted in annoyance, slippery hands making it harder to move cables out of the way to get a better look at what might be wrong with this thing…
“Uh… Dylan?” Emma’s nervous laughter distracted him, glancing around the hood of the car to find Emma glancing between him, Abi, and Dylan’s hand. Or… lack thereof. “Your, uh…”
Dylan followed Emma’s line of sight, face falling and head dropping as he realized what she was talking about. “That’s… kinda my fault,” Ryan tells Emma, the statement forcing Dylan’s head back up.
“Uh… Come again?” says Emma.
“Yeah, what she said,” Dylan agrees. “How is this your fault?”
“Well, I mean…” Ryan looks away, wiping his oil-covered hands across his jeans in an attempt to clean them. “I was the one that cut it off. I mean, I know you told me to, but…”
Emma stares dumbfounded at Dylan. “You… told him to cut your hand off..?”
“It’s… a long story,” Dylan says with a tired sigh.
“Probably could have just added it to the insane one you just told me,” Emma suggested with a half shrug of her shoulders. “The whole time we thought those two were just no shows… they were in a jail cell? For two months?”
“The whole summer…” Abi muttered, shaking her head. “Here we were having fun, and they had been kidnapped…”
Ryan reaches up and grabs the lip of the van’s hood, pulling it closed. The other three glance over at the sound, looking at Ryan expectantly as he walks around the front of the van and back over to them.
“You figure out what’s wrong?” Dylan asks.
“I think so,” Ryan answers, perplexed frown pinching at his brow. “Weird thing is, it’s not… broken. There’s a part missing.”
“Missing?” Emma repeats. “How is that possible?”
“I dunno…” Ryan glances back at the van, frown only deepening. “It’s not like it was gone before we got here, since we drove up in the thing.”
“Could the hunters have taken it?” Abi suggested. “We already know they were here cutting the phone lines and the power… Maybe they messed with the van too?”
“Maybe, but… when?” Dylan asks. “When would they have time to do it? There was so much activity outside the lodge with getting the kids ready to leave, I just… I don’t know if there would have been a time where they could have done it without us noticing?”
“Who knows how long the van hasn’t been working,” said Emma. “They could have done it at any point in the summer. It’s not like we would have noticed, right? Not until we actually needed the van.”
“Look, there’s not much point dwelling over how it was taken. We’ve gotta focus on fixing it,” Ryan says, turning around and picking up the shotgun from where he had propped it up against the side of the van.
“How?” Dylan asks. “If the parts missing--”
“--Then we need to replace it,” Ryan states, cutting Dylan off.
“Again… How?”
“The scrapyard,” Ryan answers. “Chris’s family owns it; it’s connected to the property. Caleb works there when he’s not…”
Dylan can’t resist. “…A werewolf?”
“Shut up,” Ryan says, but there’s not much heat in his voice. “Anyway, if we want a chance of getting out of here? Then that’s where we’re gonna have to go.”
Dylan sighs — loudly — not seeming too thrilled with the idea of heading out into the woods. Again. Likely to be chased down by a werewolf. Again. “I dunno, man… This seems like a bad idea.”
“It’s the only one we got,” Ryan points out.
“I dunno… I kind of like the one where we all huddle together somewhere safe until morning. That seems like a good one.”
Ryan sighed, swinging the gun over his shoulder. “Okay, just… keep an eye out for each other, okay? I shouldn’t be gone too long--”
“Uh, back up there,” Dylan quickly interjected. “It almost sounds like you’re saying you’re planning on going to the scrapyard anyway?”
“Uh… Yeah?”
“Alone?”
“...Yeah?”
Dylan looks at Emma and Abi, eyes wide as his face conveys the question of “you’re hearing this too, right?” at them. “Ryan, when I said ‘we all huddle together’, that does include you.”
“We’ve gotta at least try and get the van working,” Ryan insists. “The safest place to be is not here, and the van's the only way of getting there.”
“Yeah, but alone--”
“And with your hand, I… It’s probably best if you do stay here--”
“Oh no. Nuh-uh--” Dylan stepped towards Ryan, reaching out for the gun. Ryan stared at Dylan’s hand on the gun, then looked up to Dylan with an eyebrow raised in question.
“Dude, what are you--?”
“The only one that gets to use my severed hand as an excuse is me,” Dylan asserts, trying to pull the gun out of Ryan’s grip.
“Uh… That doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
“I know that, I’m just trying to show you that I’m ready to do this for you, Ryan. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go out there alone, okay? None. I’m coming with, and that’s that.”
“But--”
“I’m not losing you, okay?”
Ryan didn’t even know what he could argue in response, too stunned by Dylan’s assertiveness and… well, what he’d just heard. Dylan drops his hand away from the gun, turning away from Ryan’s bewildered stare to address Emma and Abi. “I’m guessing you guys don’t wanna join us on the suicide mission?”
“Uh… No… No, we’re good, actually,” Emma answers for both her and Abi.
“Smart,” Dylan assesses with a nod of his head. “Uh… You should probably go with my plan of huddling together until morning then… Maybe in the storm shelter? Seems like the best option.”
“Okay…” Abi and Emma turn to go towards the shelter, the former stopping to look at the two, clearly worried. “Just… be careful you two, okay?”
“We will,” Ryan says at the same time Dylan answers with, “No promises.”
The comment gets him a deserved elbow in the ribs from Ryan.
* * *
01:44 | AUGUST 23 — KAITLYN
HACKETT HOUSE BASEMENT
The eerie red light spilling out from the hallway up ahead into the creepy abandoned rum distillery they were currently standing in was as much a sign of ‘DANGER, KEEP OUT!’ as any sign could be. But, it was the only way forward, so… Looks like they were heading into danger…
Kaitlyn makes her way forward, breath held in anticipation of what they’re about to walk into. She nearly stops in the doorway at the sight of the large cages taking up most of the room, lit up only by the red light buzzing away above them. The most important thing about it though was that in one of the cages was one of the werewolves, curled up on the floor and seemingly… asleep? And in the other cage…
“Oh my God, Jacob!” Kaitlyn whispers, trying her best to run over to Jacob’s cage without making any noise. Jacob sat cross-legged on the floor, looking lost in his own thoughts as he stares into nothing. Kaitlyn drops down in front of him, trying to catch his eye and snap him back to reality. “Jake! Hey, come on! It’s me! It’s Kaitlyn.”
Jacob snaps to attention at her voice, bleary eyes flicking up to meet hers. The haziness clears almost immediately, lighting up at the sight of her. “Kaitlyn? Kaitlyn! Thank God--”
“The hell happened to you?” Kaitlyn asks as Jacob scrambles to his feet, looking a lot more alive and aware than he did a few seconds ago, some hope kicked back into him.
“Fucking hunter guys got me. I stepped in one of their stupid traps, look--” Jacob bends down, pointing to his gnarled leg.
“Jesus--” Kaitlyn leans closer to get a better look, wincing at the sight of it. The puncture wounds around his calf had become swollen and bruised, perhaps no longer bleeding but had clearly bled a bit judging by the sheen of red covering his lower leg. Then again, it could have been the red light making it look worse than it did, but still, it didn’t exactly look good.
“Alright, hang on, let’s get you out of here--” Kaitlyn hurries towards the door to the cage, reaching out for the handle when--
“Kaitlyn, wait!” Laura hisses, grabbing her hand to stop her.
“What?”
“Might want to reconsider that, unless you feel like getting fried,” Laura whispers, looking pointedly at the sign above the door of the cage. Kaitlyn followed her line of sight, feeling eternally grateful when she sees the big, bold warning sign for electrocution.
“Fuck… That was close,” Kaitlyn mutters. Laura releases her grip on Kaitlyn’s hand, turning her attention towards the other occupant of the cages, whilst Kaitlyn returns to Jacob’s side.
“Are you okay? Other than the leg thing, I mean?”
Jacob huffs, throwing up his arms. “I’ve been better. But… I’m not one of them, so…” Jacob goes to gesture towards the beast in the other cage, but then stops, frowning at what he sees. “Uh… What’s she doing?”
The question of what Jake’s talking about is on Kaitlyn's lips, turning her head to the side only to see Laura advancing towards the cage, towards the slumbering wolf, determination set in her eyes as she slowly lifts up the shotgun--
“Laura, wait--” Kaitlyn jumps towards her, pushing down the gun before Laura could pull the trigger. Laura turns to her, determination turned to irritation, but she keeps the gun down never the less.
“Why? This is it! This is our chance to kill Chris!”
“We don’t know if it is!” Kaitlyn argues, hand still on the gun just in case. “Why would his family keep him in one of these cages? I know you’re not Ryan’s biggest fan, but I’m hoping you at least like me enough to just… wait? Please? I promised Ryan we’d find answers first, and as much as I am on your side about what we should do… We should at the very least make sure this is actually Mr. H, right? For all we know, this could be Nick! Hell, maybe these guys even found Max on the island and brought him here.”
Some of Laura’s confidence wilters at that, eyes darting nervously to the wolf on the ground.
“It… It did seem like those traps were set up to catch… not people," Jacob adds to their conversation. “There was like… a boar head they were using as… I dunno, bait? I guess? And- oh!” Jacob's voice lit up as he realized something. “When they were locking me in here, they said they had ‘two of us accounted for’, and since I’m very much not one of those things…”
“We should assume this is not one of the Hackett’s,” Kaitlyn fills in the gaps.
Laura sighs in defeat, dropping the shotgun to her side. “Okay… Okay, you’re probably right.”
“I wish I wasn’t. Would make this a whole lot easier if this was Mr. H…”
“Uh, excuse me?” Jacob held up a finger. “Can you fill me in as to why we’re wanting to kill Mr. H? What did he do?”
“Long story,” Kaitlyn answers. “For now, let’s focus on getting you out of here. Preferably without me being electrocuted…”
“Right, right…” Jacob drops his hand, moving closer to the cage’s bars, careful not to touch it. “Okay, so, uh… the- the box!” Jacob points to a fuse box installed into the wall behind them. “One of the old hunter dudes used that to open the doors when they were putting me in here. Use that and see if you can open my door, and then the middle door.” Jacob paused, looking over to his werewolf cage mate, and then back to Kaitlyn. “Just not that door.”
“Gotcha,” Kaitlyn made her way over to the fuse box. There were numbers posted next to four separate switches: 1, 2, 3, and 4. She turns back to the cages, taking note of the numbers above each door: ‘7’ over the werewolves cage, ‘5’ over the middle cage, and ‘3’ over Jacob’s cage. “Would sure be helpful if there were three labeled ‘seven’, ‘five’ and ‘three’ to choose from…”
Kaitlyn’s hand hovers over the box, trying to figure out which switches to pull down… She could easily get this wrong... Okay… Okay, she can do this. If they’re not directly labeled, then the next logical method was…
“Oh…” She breathes in both realization and relief, the answer smacking her in the face. “Oh, it’s addition…” She reaches for the ‘1’ switch, pulling it down. Then, she grabs the ‘2’ switch, pulling that down as well.
There’s a creak of metal behind her, and she looks over her shoulder to see that Jacob’s cage door had opened. Jacob almost jumps for joy, turning his excited face to Kaitlyn. “You did it! Alright, now the middle one!”
Kaitlyn nods, turning her attention back to the breaker box. Now, this was really where she couldn’t mess up. It would be bad enough if she opened the middle one and the werewolf’s one, unleashing it onto herself. But now that Jacob’s door is opened, if she opens the werewolf’s cage…
Kaitlyn steels herself, pulling down the ‘2’ switch. It sparks, but doesn’t shock her. She moves to the ‘3’ switch, sending up a short prayer before too pulling that down…
“Yes!” Jacob hisses in celebration, the middle door swinging open. Jacob hustles out of his temporary prison, perhaps slowing down a little as passes the wolf’s cage, shivers rushing down his spine as he stares the sleeping creature down. He barely has the time to look back up before Kaitlyn is colliding into him, not at all phased by his half-naked condition or the repulsive smell that came with being covered in werewolf blood.
“Thank God you’re okay…” Kaitlyn wraps her arms tight around her childhood friend, who was not at all expecting such affection.
“Yeah… Same here.” Jacob returns the embrace, letting himself feel a bit of peace and calm. “Uh, not thank God that I’m okay, but that you’re okay. I mean, I’m grateful I’m okay too, but, uh--”
Kaitlyn chuckles softly, pulling away from Jake with a fond smile. “I got what you meant.”
“So… What happens now?” Jacob asks. “And… who’s the chick with the gun?”
“Oh, that’s Laura.” Kaitlyn flickers her head in Laura’s direction, who was currently sitting at the bottom of the ladder. “Uh, to make a long story short… She and her boyfriend were the counselors that didn’t show up. Turns out they did show up, but Mr. H and his family are… kind of werewolves. Her boyfriend got bit, then Mr. H’s brother — who’s a cop, by the way — kidnapped them and locked them up the two months we were here at camp. He eventually explained what was happening to them--”
“Barely…” Laura mumbled.
“Barely,” Kaitlyn added to her explanation. “And found out that the only way to cure yourself is to kill the wolf that bit you.”
“With silver…”
“With silver.”
“On a full moon…”
“On a full moon.”
“Uh…” Jacob looked between Laura and Kaitlyn, shaking his head. “Okay?”
“Mr. H is… kinda the one that bit Max. Her boyfriend. She thought she had killed Mr. H, but she… sorta… killed Kaylee instead.”
Jacob gave one big blink, eyes wide. “…Mr. H’s daughter?”
“Also a werewolf,” Laura helpfully supplied. “And then I got bit by Max because I thought this was all over.”
“So now we’re trying to find Mr. H somewhere in here and… end this for good,” Kaitlyn finished the explanation, hand on her hip. “Which, hopefully, should mean Nick and anyone else that got bit will be cured too.”
“Anyone… else?” Jacob asked. “Who else would be bit?”
“No one, as far as I’m aware. Everyone’s accounted for, except…”
Jacob noted the hesitation from Kaitlyn. “…Except… who?”
“Jake, um… We… We never found Emma. And… I’m guessing you didn’t either?”
“Oh… Fuck!” Jacob curses, grasping strands of hair in his hands. “She was… Last time I saw her, we were being attacked by one of those things… She fell into the goddamn stream, I… Fuck.”
“She might be okay…” Kaitlyn tried to assure Jacob, but she didn’t sound too confident herself.
“If she fell in the water, she’s safer than any of us,” said Laura. “Poem, remember? ‘It stalks your breath, but shuns clear water…’ The streams all run towards the Quarry's lake, right? If she was in the water, no werewolves would be following her.”
Jacob manages to calm down a little at that, at least enough to stop attempting to pull the roots of his hair out.
“Or… could be her in that cage…”
“Laura!” Kaitlyn hisses.
“What?” Laura tries to defend herself, not seeing the problem with what she said. “Either she fell in the water, meaning no werewolf following her, so she should be safe. Or she’s in the cage which, honestly, is probably the second safest place you can be.”
Kaitlyn shakes her head, Laura’s words whilst making sense… not particularity comforting.
“Look, Jake, I’d say come with us, but… chances are we’re just walking into more danger up there. Best thing for you is probably to go find the others, and… hopefully, find Emma with them, too.”
Jacob nods his head at Kaitlyn’s instructions, though a worried frown still pulls at his lips. “Yeah… Yeah, okay…”
“We came in through that way,” she tells him, pointing towards the rum stills. “Well… fell in is more accurate. Hopefully, you’ll be able to find another way out.”
“You, uh… You wouldn’t happen to have another gun hidden on you, would you?” Jacob asks.
“Afraid not. Just…” Kaitlyn paused, her concern getting the better of her for a moment. “Be extra careful, alright? With any luck… we’ll have ended this curse before you’re even out of here.”
“Here’s hoping…”
Kaitlyn darted forward, wrapping Jacob up in one last hug. “Be safe, okay? Don’t be an idiot or a hero about anything.”
Jacob manages a laugh at that, despite the shitty evening. He gently pats Kaitlyn's back, hoping to god this wouldn’t be the last time he sees her. “Trust me, I’m done being the hero tonight. Idiot, though…? Still on the table.”
Kaitlyn lets go, watching as Jacob limps out of the room and into the darkness of the next. Was it too much to ask of this shitty night that Jake gets back to the lodge and meets up with the others with no problems whatsoever? Most likely… But hey, one can only hope, right?
Laura’s still waiting for her, though now she’s part way climbed up the ladder, ear tilted towards the closed trapdoor above her head. Kaitlyn inches closer, straining her hearing to try and figure out what Laura was listening out for. And then she hears it… Muffled and almost indistinguishable, but right about them…
“I’m a police officer!”
“Oooh, so now I’m blind! You motherfucker!”
Kaitlyn’s brow flies up, exchanging startled looks with Laura. She didn’t recognize either voice, but she didn’t need to recognize who was speaking to know they were super pissed about something.
“Now I’m blind… Oh, you just flashing that badge around like it’s worth a million dollars. Only reason you got it is because Hank got killed in that gypsy fire.”
“Ma--”
“Don’t ‘Ma’. Don’t ‘Ma’ me.”
“Would you sit down, please?”
“Don’t you tell me what to do--”
“Please--”
“--And don’t you go round- don’t you go round like you better than everybody else, coz you ain't!”
“Would you please sit down?”
“Don’t you tell me what to do, you piece of shit!”
Silence follows the aggravated woman’s last words. The end of the argument? Laura shifts on the ladder, trying to get closer to the door to get a better listen, unsure whether the conversation was over or if they were talking quieter, and they had only been hearing them because they were yelling…
In a blink, the trapdoor has been thrown open, and a hand’s darting down and grabbing Laura painfully by her hair. Kaitlyn nearly falls backward at the suddenness of it, no idea what she should be doing. Does she fight them off? Sure, but with what? Laura had the gun… And likely not for long.
“Kaitlyn, run!”
Yep, yep that’s what she should be doing.
“Ma, send Bobby down!”
Kaitlyn’s numbed legs take a moment to kick into gear, and then she’s running. She’s running past the cages, towards the darkness Jacob had disappeared into not long ago. If she’s lucky, she can catch up with him…
A towering beast of a man emerges from the dark, bringing Kaitlyn to a skidding stop. It was him… The same asshole that snatched her gun away back in the lodge. Not hunters… but Hackett’s. Bobby, she’s assuming, given what the guy above was yelling down here. She stands, frozen like a deer in the headlights, unable to do a thing as the man advances toward her. There was nothing she could do. Nowhere she could run to. She might be able to outrun him, but given the rifle slung over his shoulder and the knife brandished in his hands…
“Where do you think you’re going?” The man smiles at her in a way that sends her body into full body chills — and not the good kinds.
“Uh…”
She doesn’t even get a chance to answer his rhetorical question before the man — Bobby — is lunging forward, large hand wrapped around the back of her neck. Kaitlyn struggled against the hold, but instinctively freezes up at the tightening of his grip, and the sharp pinch of a knife being pressed against her side.
“Fuck… Let me go, asshole--”
“Can’t. You’re not supposed to be down here. None of you was supposed to be here at all.”
“Just… fuck, would you just--”
The loud bang of a gunshot going off dries up any words in Kaitlyn’s mouth. Both her and Bobby’s heads snap up to the ceiling, the gunshot swiftly followed by a heavy sounding ‘thump’ against the wooden floor above.
Bobby doesn’t say anything, just pushes her forward towards the ladder. She has no choice but to climb up the ladder — though it’s more Bobby dragging her up the ladder like she weighs less than a feather, flinging open the trapdoor and pushing them both up.
She nearly vomits at the sight that greets them.
There’s a woman on the floor, presumably the one that had grabbed Laura — and had been screaming her head off mere minutes ago. Any chance Kaitlyn has of recognizing her is null and void given that her face had been turned to mush, nothing more than a hollowed-out skull filled with pulverized meat and buckshot, thick, dark, and fresh blood spilling out from the gaping wound.
“EVERYBODY STOP!” A man — a goddamn police officer yells out. Kaitlyn can just about make him out through the darkness of the room, along with another man next to him. He seemed much older than the cop though, looking every bit his age as he falls to his knees in front of the woman.
“What the fuck is going on up here?” Bobby’s voice booms from next to her ear. The police officer strikes a match alight, using it to light up a lamp and, unfortunately, give them all a better look at exactly what was going on.
“Oh wake up, wake up…” The old man's voice trembles as his hands pump up and down on the woman’s chest, trying his best to perform CPR. You didn’t have to be medically trained to know that a shotgun blast to the face wasn’t something you’d be able to resuscitate someone from… But grief does strange things to the mind. “Darlin’, come on, wake up. Wake up… Wake up.”
His attempts come to a stop, head hung over the corpse — his wife if Kaitlyn had to guess. He slowly cranes his head back up, tear-filled eyes landing on them.“Oh… She’s gone, little Bobby. Mamma’s gone!”
Laura twitches her head in Kaitlyn’s direction, a look of ‘we’re fucked’ if Kaitlyn’s ever seen one gracing her features. She wasn’t even holding the shotgun anymore…
“Killed her… No!” They both look over at the old man as he stumbles to his feet. His eyes were wide, glazed over like he wasn’t even taking in what he was seeing. “No more pr- No more… protecting anyone, Travis.”
If this entire night had been the Hackett’s ‘protecting’ them… Then what was going to come next was really gonna suck.
Kaitlyn’s eyes meet hers, and with one look, Kaitlyn knows… There was an apology in those eyes. There’s a beat, and then Laura’s running. She’s taken off, sprinting out of the room and down the hallway. Kaitlyn leans to the side, unable to see Laura once she’s past the door. But she does see as the old man slides a gun out from his side, cocks it, takes aim, and pulls the trigger.
The gunshot rings out, and Kaitlyn holds her breath, waiting for the inevitable sound of a body hitting the ground.
But that doesn’t happen.
Instead, there’s a knife sliding into her side.
She’s not even sure if she screams or not. The pain is sudden and sharp, almost like a very severe electric shock. Then it’s hot, burning pain radiating from her ribs like he had stabbed her with a hot iron instead of a knife. Even if Bobby hadn’t shoved her to the ground, she likely would have ended up there anyway, legs turned to jelly in both her shock and agony.
It’s nothing but pure adrenaline that gets Kaitlyn up to her feet, though even then it still feels like she could collapse back to the floor at any moment. Thankfully, all the Hacketts had left the room, so at the very least Laura was still alive, since surely the only reason they’d do that would be to chase after her.
She struggles over to what she was fairly certain was an actual honest to god dumbwaiter door, quickly opening it up and clambering on in. She winces with every movement, barely able to reach up and pull the door closed.
Yep, she was right…
What came next did indeed suck.
* * *
02:10 | AUGUST 23 — DYLAN
HACKETT’S QUARRY EXIT ROAD
The woods leading to the Hackett-owned scrapyard looked… just about how every patch of woods looked like. And it was precisely because of that, that Dylan couldn’t tell you with a hundred percent certainty if they were heading to the scrapyard and not just… out for a midnight stroll in the woods. Was it even midnight? Had to be later than that, right? Did time even fucking matter anymore…
“You’ve been to the scrapyard before, right?” Dylan makes sure he’s within arms reach of Ryan as they walk, wanting to be close to the person that’s both armed and yielding their only light source. Well, that and… other reasons.
“Huh? Oh…” Ryan shook his head, seemingly preoccupied with other thoughts. “Me? No, never actually been there. Chris has mentioned it to me a few times before though, uh… Said it’s a good source of extra income. Helps… keep them afloat during the offseason.”
“Right… I don’t know why, I just… kinda assumed Mr. H would have like… asked you if you wanted to help out there or something.”
“Nah, that’s… The scrapyards more of a ‘family-run business', I guess. I don’t think Chris himself actually works it, but, like I said before, Caleb would help out down there. I think it’s one of Chris’s brothers that actually runs it.”
“Huh. That’s… kinda weird, right?”
Ryan throws him a frown over his shoulder. “Not… really? Loads of people have family-run businesses.”
“Yeah, but… not letting anyone else but family work there?”
“It’s not like that,” Ryan argued. “I’m sure if I asked Chris, he would have let me work there. He just never asked coz I never asked. He knows I’m already kinda uncomfortable having to leave my sister with my grandparents every summer, so… there’d be no point in asking me to stay any longer.”
“Oh. Uh… I… Didn’t know that.”
Ryan just grunted in response, returning his gaze forward. Was this… something he should press Ryan on further? No, probably not… That grunt didn’t exactly sound like a ‘please, invite me to discuss this more with you’ kind of grunt.
“Gotta admit, it seems kind of tempting to just go past the scrapyard to the main road and then… keep on walking.”
“We’d be walking a long time,” Ryan points out. “And that long time would be just walking to the main road. It’d probably take us days to reach anywhere, and given how little traffic runs through here…”
“Stop finding flaws in my plans, Ryan. You’re supposed to just nod and agree with me.”
Ryan actually stopped in his tracks, turning to face Dylan with a look of disbelief. “Last time I did that, you lost a hand.”
Dylan gestured to… the entirety of himself. “And I’m alive, aren’t I?”
“Can’t argue with you there…” Ryan mumbles. He glances away and out to the seemingly never-ending forest they were standing in, peering into the thick fog that had settled around them. “I think we're pretty close now anyway.”
“Great,” Dylan sighs. A strong gust of wind blows between the trees, the touch of it irritating Dylan’s already irritated eyes. He winces, bringing up a hand to try and wipe away the fresh tears that spring to his eyes, cursing softly under his breath as that annoying stinging pain returns.
“Your eyes okay?” He hears Ryan ask.
“Yeah, I think so…” Dylan mumbled in answer, Ryan’s blurry concerned face coming into view as he drops his hand down. He blinks a few times to try and clear his vision, waiting for the sting to eventually subside. “They just flare up every now and then.”
“Probably should have washed them out with some water before we left…” Ryan realizes perhaps a little too late.
“They’ll be fine.” Dylan brushes off his concern. “I’ve been through worse.”
“Unfortunately, that’s very true,” Ryan agrees with a sad smile that barely pulled up the corner of his lips. “How is, uh… How’s your arm? Painkillers still working?”
“Eh, for the most part.” Dylan lifts up his amputated arm, bringing it up to eye level. The words ‘It’s fine’ are right there on the tip of his tongue, but Dylan can’t force them out. He can’t help but somewhat deflate as he looks to what remains of his hand, which Ryan seems to notice, given the regretful look in his eyes.
“It’s just… taking me a while to get used to this being ‘me’, now.”
“Well… Yeah, of course. It’s a pretty damn big change,” Ryan states. “No one’s expecting you to just… shrug it off. Honestly, I… I’m amazed at how well you’ve kept it together this whole evening… Not sure I’d be handling it all that well if I were in your shoes…”
“Uh, you? Come on,” Dylan gives Ryan a disbelieving smile. “You’ve been ‘Mr. Cool, Calm, and Collected’ all night. Except maybe when you were chopping my hand off, but it would have been a little weird if you did that like… straight-faced and calm, so…”
“Oh, yeah, I was full-on panicking dude,” Ryan easily admits, getting a quiet chuckle from Dylan. “About as far from calm as you can get…”
“Well, you stayed calm enough to get it off and make sure I didn’t bleed to death, so I’d say you were fine.”
Ryan huffed, not quite believing that. “Yeah… I mean, obviously would have preferred it if I hadn’t done that, but… it kept you alive. Or…not one of those things, I guess.”
“Definitely one of the pros,” Dylan agrees with an over enthusiastic nod of his head. But the typical carefree smile he easily gives out doesn’t remain on his face for long. “Cons are… not so great. I’m just… I don’t want people to treat me differently, you know?”
“...Different how?”
“Like…” Dylan lifts his stub back up, eyes downcast as he looks over it. “Like yeah, this is a part of me now. But I don’t want it to become me. Like it’s… the first thing people see. Or the first thing they think about when they think about me. I won’t be Dylan anymore, I’ll be ‘that guy from class who has no hand…’ I know it’s stupid, but--”
“It’s not stupid,” Ryan assures him softly. Dylan’s mouth just barely manages to curl up, thankful that Ryan was lending an ear.
“I don’t want the pity either,” Dylan continues. “And I know I’ll get it. Worst part is I know people are just doing it to be kind, but… I just wanna feel normal. I wanna be treated like I’m normal. And then of course there’s gonna be the assholes who think it’s funny and see me as… weak or something.”
“Some people are always gonna be dicks,” Ryan helpfully supplies, which earns him a snort of surprise from Dylan. “But… losing the hand is almost a good thing when you think about it. I mean, you wouldn’t want to be friends with the people who’d treat anyone like that, right? The missing hand will almost be like a, uh… like a filter. Let’s you see people’s true colors earlier than you usually would; single out the assholes and remove them from your life.”
Dylan hummed, glancing back down to his injured arm. He hadn’t looked at it that way… "Huh... So my hand will be like... An asshole radar?"
"...Please don't call it that."
Dylan flashes Ryan a toothy smile, lightly chuckling at Ryan's failed attempt not to smile back. “So it… Doesn’t bother you then?” Dylan musters up the courage to ask.
“What? No,” Ryan answers, wondering why on earth Dylan would think it would.
“Cool, cool…” Dylan mutters, nodding his head. “And, uh… Would you… Date a guy with one hand?”
Ryan’s confused frown all but disappeared, flattening out as he got what Dylan was trying to hint at. He had to bite down hard on his tongue to fight back the smile trying to break through, forcing his eyes away from Dylan’s expectant face before he loses the battle completely. “I mean… It’d depend on the guy, I suppose. I tend to look for more qualities in a guy than… whether he’s in possession of both hands or not…”
Dylan choked out a nervous laugh, swaying back and forth as he nodded once more. “Yeah, okay, that’s… that’s fair. So, uh… Let’s just say there’s this totally hypothetical guy who, hypothetically, doesn’t have a hand. What, um… What kinds of qualities would this guy need to have for you to be… interested?”
Ryan exhaled sharply from his nose. “Hypothetical, huh?”
“Yep. Just… a hypothetical guy.”
“Okay, so… Uh, I guess this hypothetical guy is kind. Has a good heart. He’s… always wanting to do right by others, y’know.”
“Makes sense.”
“And, uh… he’s… funny. He’s the kind of guy that makes it his job to ensure everyone around him is smiling or laughing... And although sometimes he goes a little overboard with it and sometimes says one too many… He usually succeeds. At least… he makes me laugh, so…”
“Okay, so… kind and funny. Okay, uh… anything… anything else?”
Ryan opened his mouth to continue but then paused, hesitating for just a moment. His eyes dropped down to the ground, index finger tapping repeatedly against the side of the shotgun in his hands. Then, it stilled, eyes flicking back up to meet Dylan’s. “He’s tall,” Ryan utters quietly, and Dylan’s heart stops for just a second. “Not that that’s a requirement, but… this hypothetical guy just happens to be.”
“Oh…” Dylan’s mouth had suddenly gone very dry.
“And he’s so worried about what others might think of him that he hides most of himself, forcing to the front the parts of him he thinks people will like. I think… we can kind of relate, in that way. Which is kinda ironic, since when I think about this guy, I can’t believe he could ever think that. That… there isn’t a single part of him that people wouldn’t love.”
For perhaps the first time this night, Dylan doesn’t have a single comment to make. His heart definitely wasn’t stopping now, and had instead picked up a fast rhythm against his ribcage. They were already standing close together at the beginning of their talk, but the distance between them is made even smaller as Ryan takes a tentative step closer. Dylan stops breathing completely, eyes quickly dipping down to Ryan’s mouth and then back to his eyes - that of which seems to have done the exact same thing. The thoughts of who was going to move first race through Dylan’s mind, along with if either of them were going to move, or if he even should. Does he… does he ask? Or should he just… just lean down and--
Some bird practically screeches as it takes flight from some shrub right behind them, and they both startle back so hard that Dylan nearly trips backward over his own feet. Ryan’s bringing up the shotgun immediately, aiming the flashlight into the bushes. “It’s okay… Just a bird.”
“Sure, yeah… Just a bird…” Dylan says. “Scaring the absolute crap out of me…”
“We should probably keep moving,” Ryan suggests. Maybe Dylan was looking for things that weren’t there, but he could swear he saw a little hint of disappointment flash across Ryan’s face… Ryan lowered the shotgun back down, but kept it in his hands rather than over his shoulder as he turned back down the path they were heading. “Maybe we scared the bird… Or something else scared it off…”
Dylan took just a few seconds to sigh to himself, watching Ryan’s retreating form. He shook his head, glancing back over to where the bird had been, a few twigs and branches still shuffling about from its takeoff.
“Great… Nice one, Dylan. You got cock-blocked by a goddamn bird.”