A/N: I meant to update earlier today, but...procrastination. :)
Thank you for reading!!
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November 10th:
Kevin woke up holding hands with Esther again, for some reason. When he looked over, blushing, she just turned her head in his direction and gave him a wink, then got up and left the tent to let him change. They took turns changing, and were about to consider breakfast when Esther's phone rang.
"It's Derek," she said after frowning at the caller ID. She answered and held the phone to her ear. "Hello - is it okay if I put you on speaker? I just have Kevin with me, you know, Mitch's friend." A moment later, she took the phone away from her ear and, pressing an icon on the screen, held it in her palm between her and Kevin. Kevin leaned in to listen.
"Is it on speaker?" Derek's voice issued from the phone. He sounded worried.
"Yeah. Hey, it's Kevin," Kevin spoke up. "What's going on, man?"
"Okay, so..." A loud breath could be heard on the other end of the phone. "I really can't hold back the investigation on Mitch any longer. I had to turn over the footage I found - they know I'm too good to take very long to dig that stuff up. They're sending a team down there first thing tomorrow."
"Oh no," Esther said, giving Kevin a pitying glance. "Mitch or no, we have to be gone by then, Kev."
Kevin's eyes darted back to the phone as Derek started speaking again.
"I hate to be the bringer of bad news, guys, but that's not all," he said. "They've linked the location to an older case, one with some family that went missing a decade ago after turning off the same exit. They suspect there's something going on beyond people just innocently getting lost."
Kevin and Esther exchanged a glance. Kevin subconsciously reached up a hand to rub his neck where Mitch bit him.
Derek seemed to be trying to interpret the silence on their end. His voice was quizzical. "Um, guys? There isn't anything weird going on, is there?"
Esther spoke up. "Derek, I'm going to tell you something. I need you to not tell anyone. Understand?" Derek made a noise of agreement. "There's definitely more to the story. Two nights ago, we were bitten by vampires. It looks like - "
"Whoa whoa whoa. Vampires? You're saying vampires are real? " Derek asked. His voice had gone up half an octave. "Wait - you were bitten. By vampires. Are you guys..."
Esther clutched her phone harder in her palm. Kevin realized that the new tone that had entered Derek's voice was fear, and opened his mouth to remedy the situation. Esther beat him to it:
"No, we're not vampires. We don't know much, but we suspect there are quite a few vampires here. It isn't safe for the police to carry through with the investigation. Who knows what could happen."
Kevin nodded, a frown on his face.
"Are you okay though?" Derek's voice came through after a pause. "I mean...vampires..."
"We're good," Kevin answered.
"But the police won't be," Esther put in, shooting Kevin a worried look. "I don't know why we were left unharmed. That family that disappeared a decade ago...the vampires must have killed them. They might kill the police too."
They could hear Derek moving around. The sound of a door shutting carried through the phone. When Derek spoke again, his voice was quieter. "Is there any way to stop the vampires from attacking?" he asked.
Kevin looked to Esther, who squinted back, thinking. "I think the police should be fine as long as they're not here at night," she said. "We were attacked at nightfall."
"So we need to keep the investigation as short as possible," Derek mused. "Do you think you could..." he paused, lowering his voice further. "Could you hide any evidence that Mitch was there?"
"I don't think so," Esther said, looking over to where Bae sat in the road. Kevin knew what she was thinking - even if they managed to push the car into the trees and out of sight, it would leave tracks in the dirt, and then there were the glass shards sprinkled on the road from the shattered window. Kevin briefly described the situation out loud for Derek's benefit.
"Well, shoot," was the police officer's response. A moment later, Kevin heard a thud through the phone, and Derek spoke again in a rush. "I'll call you back later, okay? Boss's here. I'll try to think of some solutions."
Esther slipped the phone into her pocket when the line went dead and reached into the Lexus's trunk to grab a few granola bars and bottled water.
Kevin crossed his arms as he ate the simple breakfast. "Man, I don't know what to do," he admitted. "This whole situation..."
He was so absorbed in his food that he failed to notice Esther's widened eyes, but he didn't fail to notice the smack she gave him on the arm.
"What did I do?" Kevin asked, jumping.
Esther seemed to have lost her voice - she just pointed towards the trees. Kevin followed her gaze and felt his stomach drop to his toes.
That couldn't be...
"Mitch?"