"Did I really have to be a werewolf for this?" Crys asked as she walked down the forest trail.
"Hey, I didn't make you do it." Brandon replied, walking alongside Crys.
The two of them were making their way to the campsite along with Tomas, who was leading the way.
Tomas rolled his eyes because of the banter that was happening behind him.
"Yeah, but did you have to make it sound like such a good idea?" Crys asked back.
Brandon gave an exaggerated shrug in reply.
"Look, neither of you have to worry about anything." Tomas interjected. "My dad's not even ten minutes away, much less than that if he drives. If anything happens, he's right over there." He pointed back behind him towards his house.
"Thanks, Tomas." Crys spoke up, giving Brandon the side-eye.
Brandon threw his hands up, giving Crys an odd look in return.
Crys stuck her tongue out at Brandon, making a face.
Brandon rolled his eyes and looked back ahead of him.
"How much firewood do you have for the night?" Crys asked Tomas casually.
"Easily enough for the whole night." Tomas replied. "My dad brought some to the site in his pickup truck earlier. He even brought extra saying it was in case we ran out. I don't know what kind of a campfire he thinks we'll be making, but it's plenty of wood, that's for certain."
Crys smiled a little, breathing a small sigh of relief.
Brandon was probably the only person to understand why Crys asked what she did, but he didn't mention it. "So you said Emma was already there?" He asked.
"Yeah, Em's tending the fire." Tomas replied.
"Does she even know how to do that?" Crys asked, doubtfully, not trying to be rude.
"I taught her how." Tomas said, getting slightly defensive.
"Anyways." Brandon said, trying to make sure things didn't escalate.
"What snacks do we have?" Crys asked.
"We have smores and some chips." Tomas said. "Did you two have dinner yet?"
"Yeah, we ate something before we left." Brandon said.
"Okay, good." Tomas said. "We have some hot dogs as well, but since everyone ate already, I doubt we'll have any.
"How many marshmallows and chocolate bars do we have?" Crys asked, sounding a little too curious.
"A few bags of marshmallows, I think, and plenty of chocolate bars." Tomas said. "And we have some barbeque chips, some salt and vinegar, regular-"
"Mmmm..." Crys said, already looking forward to the sugary goodness.
"You lost her." Brandon remarked. "She's gonna eat nothing but chocolate and marshmallows the whole time."
Tomas shrugged. "Well, I think Em is going to want the salt and vinegar chips, and I'll have a few of the barbeque."
"I'll just take some of her marshmallows or something." Brandon said. "Maybe a chocolate bar or two."
"Em and I get some smores. She's not taking all the smore stuff." Tomas said flatly.
"I won't take all of them." Crys remarked back with some emphasis on the 'all'.
"You've got to tell us about what's been going on, too." Tomas said.
"I will." Crys reassured Tomas. 'I stick to my word."
"Thank you." Tomas replied kindly.
"This is gonna be so much fun!" Brandon said happily.
"I think so!" Crys responded, being optimistic.
The three friends kept walking for a few minutes until they arrived at the campsite.
It was a peaceful little bit of the forest. A small clearing surrounded by trees, bar the path leading back to Tomas' house, which was treeless. The campfire was set up towards the middle of the clearing with some large logs set around it to act as benches. The extra firewood was piled up off to the side while the snacks were next to Emma. Two tents were set up just by the treeline.
"Hello." Emma said as she saw the rest of the crew approaching.
"Hi Emma!" Crys said with a smile and wave.
"Howdy." Brandon said.
Tomas walked over and sat next to Emma. Brandon and Crys made their way over to the log next to Tomas and Emma's and took their places.
"Mind handing over the marshmallows?" Crys asked.
Tomas grabbed a bag and threw it to Crys. "You and Brandon split that one. We have another one we'll use for smores." He said.
Crys grinned. "Thank you!" She said before opening up the bag and immediately grabbing herself a marshmallow out of it.
Brandon reached over and nabbed a handful of marshmallows for himself to snack on.
"It's nice out, tonight." Crys said in-between bites.
"I saw the forecast for the next week or so. It looks like we should be getting some rain." Tomas spoke up.
"Good thing we went tonight, then." Brandon chimed in.
"So, Crys, are you going to tell us now?" Tomas asked.
Crys finished chewing before speaking. "Yeah." She said, a tad flat. "Um... yeah, so I guess it started right around when school did. This guy kept showing up in the middle of the night in my room. He kept threatening me and saying I was a danger and stuff like that." Crys glanced off to the side. "He uh... he paid off some people to commit a robbery just to see how I'd handle it, then he gave me some sort of drug that made me unable to control myself... a-and that's why I was so rude that one day and almost broke Connor's wrist... and then..." Crys trailed off, zoning out.
Tomas exchanged a concerned glance with Emma.
Brandon gently nudged Crys' arm.
"And then he put me in a simulation and I thought the world was ending. I woke up back home and it took Brandon hours to help me calm down. I didn't even know if anything was real or not." Crys said lifelessly.
"Oh..." Tomas murmured in shock. "Crys..."
Emma furrowed her eyebrows in concerned sympathy.
Brandon reached over and took Crys' hand that she had balled up by her gut. It snapped her out of her trance and she took a deep breath.
"He kept threatening to go after both of you or Brandon to get the information that I wouldn't tell him." Crys added on.
Tomas and Emma kept quiet as they took in the information. Neither of them were able to speak.
Crys hunched over and looked to the ground.
The only noise was the cackling of the campfire. Everyone was silent.
"He's gone now, though." Crys spoke up again quietly after several moments. She looked back up with a weak smile that she could only hold for a few seconds.
The silence persisted even though Crys tried to dispel it. Some crickets could be heard off in the distance. Other than that it was just the campfire, an occasional gust of wind and trees rustling.
Crys picked her head up. She heard something else coming from the forest... footsteps. She looked to where the steps were coming from and froze in place, completely unable to move.
"Now now, werewolf. I wouldn't celebrate just yet." Said a voice, new to all but one of the people at the campfire.
Tomas, Emma, and Brandon all turned to see who had interrupted their peaceful night. It was a man, tall and clad all in black, with slicked back black hair and an eerily calm nature about him.
Crys couldn't even begin to say anything. She was paralyzed, stuck staring Seinhou dead in the face.
"Well, Crystal? Now what do you have to say for yourself?" Seinhou sneered.
Crys kept completely quiet.
Tomas, Emma and Brandon all quickly exchanged concerned glances, keeping quiet as well.
Seinhou gave a laugh. "I suppose since you wouldn't tell me anything, I will just have to settle on having a talk with one of your friends instead. After all, they clearly know more than you let on."
"You aren't supposed to be here." Crys muttered, clearly holding herself back.
"I still have a job to do." Seinhou said clearly.
"He said you wouldn't come back!" Crys shouted, full of raw emotion.
"He merely said to stay out of the city. Out of his jurisdiction." Seinhou remarked. "I am not in violation of either. I am outside the city limits, and therefore, perfectly within my rights."
Crys shook her head a little in disbelief.
"Now then, shall we continue where we left off?" Seinhou said with a slight grin.
Crys sat silently for a moment, tears welling up in her eyes. She didn't feel anything. Not a single thing. Then, all of the sudden, she leapt from where she was sitting, letting out a pained yell of fury. She lunged towards Seinhou ferociously and hit him with the broad side of her arm, throwing him back against a tree with immense force. Before Seinhou could even react, Crys was right in front of him again. She clutched Seinhou by the throat, gripping it just loosely enough for him to remain conscious, then picked him up by it before slamming him against the tree. Then, without thinking, she delivered a sharp punch to his face, then his side, his arm, his gut, his chest, anywhere and everywhere that she could. She didn't care where she hit him, but she kept hitting him, over and over and over and over, not letting up in the slightest, blinded by pure fury.
Tomas and Emma watched on in horror as they saw Crys' onslaught of violence. They were stuck, paralyzed by shock. Neither of them could look away.
Brandon got up, pushing through his shock, desperate to try and stop what was happening. He ran over to Crys and placed his hands on her arm, trying to keep her from throwing another punch.
Crys, feeling dead weight on her arm, threw it mindlessly to the side to knock off whatever was holding her back. She readied herself for another punch, but something stopped her from throwing it. She heard a gasp of pain. It wasn't loud, or particularly agonizing, but it pierced through her rage just enough to shock her out of it. Slowly and hesitantly, she looked over her shoulder. Slumped on the ground haphazardly behind her was Brandon. She saw Tomas and Emma quickly run over to him and get on either side of him to help him up. In both their eyes was fear. Genuine fear. When she looked at Brandon, he too had that same look of dread and terror. It was because of her. Crys was overwhelmed with a sudden sense of realization. She slowly looked back in front of her, her jaw quivering as she dreaded what she was going to see.
In her now trembling grip was Seinhou, though he was barely recognizable by this point. His face was disfigured, his jaw dislocated and his nose broken. Just above his left eye was caved in, and all of his face was covered in blood. Crys dropped Seinhou in sudden shock and took a terrified step backwards, trembling and struggling to breathe properly. She was horrified as she saw that the rest of Seinhou's body was much like his face, battered, broken, and bloody. Slowly, the weight of what she had done was starting to sink in. She held up her hands in front of her just enough to see them. They were shaking uncontrollably and stained with blood. She took another step back, taking another quick glance to Brandon and only making eye contact for a brief moment. She only needed that one minor moment to see how scared Brandon really was, and it was all because of her. The slumped over bloody mess in front of her was her fault. She was a monster. There was no doubt about it. Without a second thought, and without any other hesitation, she ran away.
Brandon clambered to get up, and once he was on his feet, he ran after Crys, calling out after her with desperation in his tone. "Crys! Wait! Please!"
Tomas and Emma were left alone with a broken body struggling to cling onto life. They took a few seconds to work through their shock before Tomas clumsily took out his phone and called his father.
"Dad! Dad! We- we need help! Now!" Tomas called out, horrified.
"What happened?" Tomas' Dad asked firmly, immediately starting to leave for the campsite.
"C-Crys ran off and there's this man here a-and and- I-" Tomas struggled to speak.
"Stay on the phone with me." Tomas' dad replied, taking charge of the situation. "Tell me, is everyone okay?"
"I-I'm fine a-and Em- Emma's okay, but Brandon ran after Crys and-" Tomas said.
"Just stay there. I am on my way right now. Do not hang up." Tomas' dad said.
It was barely even a few minutes later when Tomas' dad arrived at the scene. He parked his pickup truck quickly and jumped out to go to his son. As he was going to Tomas, he saw what had caused the mess.
"Tomas, you and Emma get in the truck." Tomas' dad said firmly, but gently.
"I-I-" Tomas stuttered.
"Now." Tomas' dad demanded harshly.
Tomas immediately shut up, walking silently to the truck with Emma tailing just a bit behind him. The two of them got in and shut the door.
Now that Tomas' dad was alone, he walked over to the sorry mess of a human being slumped beneath the tree. "I explicitly told you to stay out of this city!" He boomed with fury.
"I... did." Seinhou coughed.
"I don't give a damn about whatever technicality you may have thought of, Seinhou!" Tomas' dad shouted harshly. "You know exactly what that meant!"
"I- was right."
"Right!? You're only right because you tormented her! You tortured that poor girl until she was left with no other options but to take matters into her own hands!" Tomas' dad yelled back.
"She- is- a threat..."
"Only because you turned her into one!"
"Doesn-t matter." Seinhou said weakly.
"Now listen to me, Sienhou." Tomas' dad crouched down to stare Seinhou in his one good eye. "You had better consider yourself lucky that she got to you before I did. I wouldn't have shown you as much mercy."
Seinhou suffered a coughing fit, not giving him the chance to reply.
"I think you've learned what'll happen if you ever come back." Tomas' dad said sharply. He stood back up and started walking off.
"You're- not going to help me?" Seinhou muttered.
Tomas' dad froze, then spun around with pure fury. "You dare have the audacity to even ask that question?" He shouted at the top of his lungs. "I gave you a chance to get away scott free, and then you squandered it by going behind my back just to keep torturing her! You can haul yourself to a hospital in the next city over and get yourself out of the mess you made!"
"She'll have... blood on her, hands." Seinhou coughed.
"No, she won't." Tomas' dad hissed back. "If I took you in and helped you, you would live, and because I have that choice, your life is now my responsibility. I take your life into my hands. If you die, it will be solely my responsibility, not hers."
Seinhou suffered another coughing fit.
Tomas' dad turned back around and stormed off to his truck, getting in and driving off without a second thought.
An eerie silence fell over the car on the ride back to Tomas' house. Nobody spoke for the first leg of the small trip.
"Tomas, I'm sorry for yelling at you the way I did." Tomas' dad spoke up eventually, sounding much kinder in tone.
"It's okay." Tomas murmured quietly.
"No, it's not. I could have handled the situation better. I am sorry." Tomas' dad replied genuinely.
"What... what happened?" Emma asked, still in shock.
Tomas' dad sighed. "That man has been tormenting Crys for the past month or so. He was supposed to never reappear, but he did... Crys must have snapped at the sight of him... I don't blame her one bit."
"What about Brandon?" Tomas spoke up, concerned.
"After I drop you two off at home where it is safe, I will go out searching for Brandon to bring him back. If I can find Crys, I will try to get her home safe as well." Tomas' dad explained calmly.
Everyone went quiet, not really knowing what to say or how to react to what had happened. It wasn't long until they all arrived back at the house. Tomas and Emma were dropped off, and Tomas' dad drove back out to the campsite with haste.
"My mother used to yell at me like that all the time." Tomas said quietly as he and Emma went back in the house.
Emma just took Tomas by the hand and didn't let go.
Meanwhile, Brandon was running through the dark forest as fast as he could.
"Crys!? Where are you!?" He shouted. "I'm okay! Please! Please come out!" He kept going and going with absolutely no sight of Crys. He eventually slowed down, getting tired, but he kept walking. He felt terrible. He wasn't upset that Crys had tossed him aside, he knew she wasn't herself, and he knew she would never ever want to hurt him. He didn't blame her for what happened, and while he was definitely scared, his worry for his friend outweighed it. He wasn't able to properly process any of what had just happened, but he knew for certain that Crys was not okay. All he could do was keep trying to look for her. Several minutes later, feeling defeated, he fell to the ground on his knees.
"Crys... please." He quietly begged. "Where are you? I-I just want to talk to you... it wasn't your fault... he... he made you do it..." He was on the verge of tears as the gruesome sight he had to witness finally started to sink in.
He stayed there for quite some time. Eventually, Tomas' dad found him. When he did, he told Brandon that he needed to come back home with him. Brandon pleaded to keep searching for his friend, but Tomas' dad gently told him that there was nothing he could do, and the best thing would be to go somewhere safe and let him keep searching afterwards. With that, Brandon got up and went back to Tomas' house with Tomas' dad. Once he was safe with the others, Tomas' dad went back out again to search for Crys.
After she had fled from the campsite, Crys ran through the forest with blinding speed, desperately trying to outrun what she had done. She stumbled and fell several times as tears stained her fur. One more collapse to the ground later, she decided to quit running and hide. She climbed up one of the autumn trees and sat on a branch that was large enough to support her. She balled herself up as best she could, trembling, trying not to make any noise. Her mind was racing, and so was her heart. Breathing out of rhythm, she felt nothing but horror as she could still vividly see Seinhou's body in front of her, and not only that, but Brandon, slouched on the ground, in pain, all because of her. Many minutes passed without her knowing. She heard someone approaching. Immediately she tensed up and went dead silent. She already knew who it was, but hearing him calling her name only confirmed it. Brandon knelt down just beneath where she was perched. She could hear the pain in his voice, the sound of him crying ever so quietly. It felt like a giant nail was being slowly shoved through her heart. She shut her eyes tight and desperately pretended not to hear him. Thankfully, after a couple more minutes, Tomas' dad whisked him away, and once she knew they were both long gone, she broke down into tears. Her sobbing unbalanced her, and she fell from her perch in the tree onto the cold forest floor. She tried to pick herself up, but her strength failed her, and she just fell back to the ground again. She then curled herself up and cried under the immense weight of guilt she felt.