A/N: And this is where things start ramping up... Enjoy the new update folks! <3
Date Updated: 3/26/23
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Alex shot up with a gasp, sweat coating his face. Once he got his bearings, the teen realized it was morning already. The sun was shining brightly and he could hear birds singing in the surrounding trees. Alex took a moment to take a deep breath. His heart still painfully hammering in his chest. Just what the hell was that? A dream? Vision? Alex ghosted a hand over his throat. It'd felt so real. Like he was... experiencing it first hand.
Voices from outside finally grabbed his attention. The guys were up and, from the sounds of it, already preparing breakfast. Deciding to ignore the strange occurrence, Alex numbly got up, wiped the sweat from his face and dressed for the day. He made sure to keep his troubling experience from showing on his face when he exited his tent and took a seat around the smoldering fire pit where hash browns were currently being cooked.
"Cubbie!" Nick cried out when he noticed him. Wolf was just coming back from grabbing a few small pots from the back of his Audi. "We were just getting ready to wake you."
Alex gave a small smile, feeling a strange wave of tiredness creep up on him. He glanced around, frowning. Two people were missing. "Where are Sam and Ben?"
"'Went to go check the perimeter." James answered after handing him a steaming mug of coffee. "Fox said something about his 'spidey senses' going off or something and wanted to be on the safe side."
Alex nodded along as he drank the semi sweet liquid. He had a feeling Ben's sudden need to verify their safety branched more from Alex's slight discomfort yesterday morning than anything else. The thought made his chest feel warm. Though the whole unit has made it crystal clear they'd do anything for their youngest member, there was no denying the fact Fox took his job as honorary big brother very seriously.
It was right when Eagle was dishing out their cooked breakfast that loud rustling noises came from the brush woodland to their right. They stopped a moment later. They all paused, waiting to see what would happen. Nothing came forth.
"What was that?" Nick finally asked, dreadfully glancing between his leader and where the noise had originated. Wolf, being the closest, stopped and regarded the woods with a steady stare. Behind him, the younger team members went silent as well. James gave it another minute, thinking it was just Snake and Fox trying to fuck with them, before calling out.
"Snake? Fox?" He edged closer when no immediate reply was followed. He felt a hand clasp around his arm before he could go any further.
"Don't." James looked down to see Cub's ashen face. A note of uncharacteristic fear in his light brown eyes. Seeing Wolf's refute coming, the teen quickly added, "It could be a bear or something. If we stay together, it'll feel more threatened and move off."
"But we don't even know if that's what it truly was." Wolf stated adamantly. From behind the teen, the unit leader caught the sharp shooter's eye. Eagle shook his head, his expression clearly saying not to press the issue. With one last look of mild contempt, James relented and took his seat back near the fire. Though he kept his keen eyesight and hearing trained on the surrounding woods. Eagle was no doubt doing it too, if the way he seemed to be hovering around Cub's general vicinity was any indication. Alex for the most part remained quiet after that. Wolf knew better. It didn't take a genius to know something about that random occurrence was troubling the teen.
More rustling suddenly erupted from the woods in the same area as last time. Snapping twigs and splintering branches could be heard as well. It sounded as if something of average size was running towards them. Eagle darted over to Cub's side protectively. Wolf stood, shifting into his wolf form, growling. Keeping himself firmly between the strange noises and his youngest teammates. The leader's hackles raised when bushes began shaking like a strong wind was whipping through the area, though there was none.
Nick's eyes widened, pulling Alex closer to his side. What the fuck was happening? The strong gusts picked up some of the lighter things laying around the camp, ash from the fire billowing up into the air like a funnel cloud. Leaves and dust soon joined in, creating a mild dust cloud around their camp. Eagle hunkered them down closer to where Wolf stood, deciding there was safety in numbers at this point. He could only hope his other unit mates were alright.
Alex could only stare wide eyed, though mentally he was a million miles away. His brain immediately recalled the strange ghostly figure stalking them on their way back to camp yesterday. That hungry, bloodthirsty grin would forever be imprinted on his brain. A part of Alex's mind wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all; a ghost. Haunting him, no less!
Two heavy branches from a pine tree suddenly splintered, groaned and snapped off for no reason. Falling on to the brown earth below with a heavy thud that thumped the ground. A harsh wind barreled through the forest like a bullet train on steroids. The surrounding trees groaned under the pressure, threatening to break as leaves were ripped from their branches unforgivingly.
The mental laughing fit abruptly stopped.
Sorry, scratch that. Alex meant to say a very pissed off ghost was haunting him.
Wolf snarled savagely, sharp pearly white fangs glinting in the sunlight. Cinnamon brown eyes sharply focused. His wolven side took over completely as the instinctual need to protect his pack consumed his mind. He could feel their fear. Hear their very heartbeats, the blood rushing through their veins. They both mingled together with the unknown energy in the air like two opposing flames. Whatever this force was, it was steadily feeding off of their fear.
A waning howl suddenly sliced the tense atmosphere. It was level and steady, the rolling countryside carrying the mystical sound over the treetops. The harsh winds abruptly stopped... and all fell quiet. A moment later, another howl answered the first. This one sounding richer and sweeter. The three remaining unit members knew who the howls belonged to instantly. James answered the call with his own; his howling voice deep and rich, yet somehow still managed to carry out his typical authoritative tone. His cry spanned far and wide, no doubt reaching his two teammates; wherever they may be.
It wasn't long after that, that two wolves trotted into the camp ground clearing. Both looked a little less for wear. Sam looked a bit haggard and Ben seemed tense, almost stressed. Wolf didn't waste another second and herded his pack into the tents where they shifted back to human form to redress. The unit leader then urged them all straight to the Audi where he knew they'd all be relatively safe until they could figure out what the hell was going on. Nick and Alex had shut the doors once everyone was safely tucked inside. Their stressed expressions soon turned to ones of pure alarm.
"You won't believe what we saw out there." Ben began, an uncharacteristic spark of genuine fear in his ice blue eyes.
"Well what was it?" Wolf questioned sternly. He was still tense about the situation. Knowing there was some kind of unknown threat out there possibly out for his pack did not sit well with the leader.
"It was some sort of a spirit or ghost, I think." Sam responded shakily, sharing an uneasy glance with Fox. "I... I didn't get a good look, but it surely did not appreciate us being there."
"What happened?" Eagle asked.
"We caught on to someone's scent by the river." Fox began to explain. "We started to follow it and we came across a fairly large patch of disturbed dirt, but it already had grass growing on it, so you wouldn't notice anything unless you were really looking. The scent was strongest in the very center so we started digging."
"That's when we heard this awful screech." Sam took over, shivering just at the memory of the sound. It was like a banshee screaming into his ear. "We looked up thinking it was some sort of a predator, but instead there was this... this... man. But he wasn't alive. His flesh had rotten off of his body and his shirt was completely bloody in the front." He gave them all a disturbed look. "I didn't know what else to do other than to tell Fox to run."
"This ghost, or whatever the hell it was, started ripping down branches as it gave chase." Ben piped in. Color was finally starting to return to his face again. "We decided to split up to make ourselves a harder target. Snake howled once the coast was clear to let me know where he was. I responded and now we're here." The linguist finished with a small shrug. James narrowed his eyes slightly. Wolf could tell Ben was shaken by the encounter, even though he was trying to play it off as indifference. He'd have to talk about that with him later in private.
"This patch of dirt," Cub spoke up for the first time. Right then, no one liked the thoughtful look on his face, as it could only mean the kid was making some sort of connection. "Would it be big enough to say... bury a body?"
The question was tinted in innocent curiosity. The unit all looked at him with varying expressions of interest. James' brow scrunched, cinnamon brown eyes narrowed. "Why would you ask something like that? You know something we don't?"
Alex gulped and looked a little nervous under their stares. "I, erm. May have experienced... something. I honestly have no clue if means anything, but I just find it quite suspicious."
"What do you mean by 'experienced'?" Snake asked him under an inquisitive stare.
Cub took a breath, steeling his nerves. He just hoped they'd actually take it into account and not blow it off as an odd dream conjured up by his mind. "I've been... noticing things. Around camp or when we're out exploring. They're just small incidents, so I never thought anything of it. But last night..."
Quietly, he began to recount the dream in detail. Bringing up the fact that their first night at the park had also been the first time Alex sighted the ghost, even if it was indirectly so, and how random things would be misplaced around camp. He even confided in them the couple of times he felt like there was someone else with them when out exploring, even though no one else noticed anything. His unit's faces displayed how invested into the tale they were. By the end of his recounting, their faces had gone grim and pale.
Well, all except James. He just looked downright confused and disbelieving.
"So you're saying you think you witnessed this guy's murder in a dream?" Wolf questioned, his tone coming off a little incredulous. Which was warranted honestly, Alex mused. It wasn't everyday a random dead guy decided to disturb your sleep and show you how he died. "And now he's... haunting us because he's pissed." Okay, now he just straight up sounded like he didn't believe him.
"I know it sounds crazy, but how else would I have come up with something like that?" Alex tried to defend his strange occurrences. Luckily, it was Snake who jumped to his defense.
"It's actually not all that uncommon, Wolf." All eyes turned to the medic now. "It's known that sometimes people can dream about loved ones or friends dying. The only difference here is that Cub dreamed about someone else dying that he has no physical or biological relation to."
The team leader seemed to contemplate this silently for a moment. Eventually, he sighed, though his expression looked a bit lost now. As if he didn't know how to go forth from this. "So, what do we do about it then?"
"We could do an exorcism?" Nick suggested. Sam, Ben and Alex all gave him flat looks. Wolf just looked incredulous. "What?!"
"Do you even know how to do an exorcism?" Ben inquired. Nick scoffed.
"Uh, duh. My sister's a Medium. Although she herself wouldn't be able to do anything, she has connections. If I call her, I bet she can have someone come out." The sharp shooter explained. Turning his gaze specifically to Sam and Ben, he asked, "Would you guys be willing to take us back to that patch of dirt you were talking about earlier?"
The medic and the linguist could only share an uneasy glance. So much for this being a nice, unit bonding get away.