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I don't even know what to say about this one guys askjg

I'm so sorry about the slow updates but I'm gonna try to be so much better in these next few weeks! Hopefully a good long update will kind of make up for it. I am not giving up on this story or Madam Q's!

In case you need the reminder, last chapter... well. Let's just say that Lucy met with a terrible fate, hasn't she?

~ iMeowmeow654

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Samuel broke into a sprint. He couldn't identify who the scream had belonged to just from the voice, but a lone scream in the middle of the forest at night? It really couldn't be anything good. His weakened lungs screamed at him to stop, and his heart pounded in his ears, but he didn't listen.

Branches whipped at his face, and he stumbled over the uneven terrain more than a few times, but hardly anything could slow him down.

He burst through the trees into a clearing.

"Oh my fucking God."

Indigo was collapsed on her knees over... a pile of shredded meat that looked vaguely like Lucy. Blood was splattered on the ground, pooled beneath Lucy's body, and smeared across Indigo's hands and face as she clutched desperately at Lucy's torn shirt.

Samuel knew immediately that Lucy was dead. Beyond dead. He... it was hard to tell in the gore and violence embedded into the grass, but he thought he could see internal organs--body parts that were never meant to be seen by human eyes like this.

And Indigo was... sobbing. The most heart-wrenching sobs that Samuel had ever heard, bawling her eyes out and struggling to breathe.

Samuel staggered over to Indigo, falling to his knees next to her. He gently reached out his hand to touch her shoulder, "Indigo, what--?"

Indigo flinched hard, jerking away from his touch. "D-Don't touch me! Stay--stay away!"

 "Okay, okay, I won't, I..." Samuel averted his eyes. He wasn't sure he'd ever get the smell of blood out of his nose. "What... what the fuck happened...?"

Indigo's eyes were horribly red. Rivers of tears had made their mark on her cheek, and she wiped a trail of snot away from her nose--a pointless motion as she was still crying too hard for it to make a difference. Her hair was frazzled, tangled, and she wrapped her arms around herself to try and control how badly they were shaking. Her clothing was torn and covered in dirt.

"I--" Indigo choked on a sob. "I k-killed her...! Th-There was a-a m-monster! A h-horrible horrible horr--"

Indigo was clearly hysterical. Samuel... didn't blame her at all.

"--ible monster and I left her! I l-left her to die...! Oh, it's all m-my fault!"

"Indigo. It--I'm. I..." Samuel struggled to find the words. "If... if there's a monster out there, we need to get to the others and warn then. I have to go check on Millie and Kiara, and I'm bringing you with me, okay? There's... there's nothing we can do for Lucy now."

A few more tears slipped from Indigo's eyelashes, but she nodded. Gingerly, she stood, but as she tried to take her first step, she stumbled. Samuel caught her, ignoring her previous plea not to touch her.

"O-Ow! My... my ankle, I can't-- I can't walk."

Samuel propped her up against him more securely, helping her sling one of her arms over his shoulders. "Well, I'm gonna help you. I'm not leaving you out here like this."

Together, they began the trek through the woods back to the cabin, leaving Lucy behind as they went.

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"...Kiara?"

"Hmph," came a quiet voice in the darkness.

"Good, you're awake," Millie rolled over in her bed, frustrated. "I can't sleep. Something feels wrong. Aside from the van not being here."

Kiara's face fell at the mention of going home. Not that Millie could've noticed in the dark cabin, anyway. "...I don't think my family would've been here anyway."

"What do you mean? Weren't they supposed to pick you up Wednesday?"

"Well... I could say the same about you."

Clearly, both of them were avoiding touchy topics.

The door to the cabin opened, a gentle moonlight flooding the room.

"Millie, Kiara...?" It was Samuel's voice. Millie could see his silhouette, and another, standing in the doorway. Samuel half-carried the other person, who she couldn't quite identify, to the nearest bed. He even took the time to wrap them tightly in blankets.

Samuel was on top of the two of them next. "Are you two okay? Has anything happened?"

"Yeah--" Kiara started.

"Why? Is something going on?" Millie interrupted.

Samuel sighed. "Something... something bad is happening. I'm--I'm gonna keep you two safe, okay? Don't be scared. We're... we're gonna stay safe."

It was then that Millie recognized the other person in the room. Indigo. Sitting upright, wrapped tight in blankets, gently rocking herself back and forth and sniffling hard. Even Millie could tell that Indigo had been crying.

Millie knew something was very wrong. She dropped her voice to a tiny whisper, hoping Indigo wouldn't hear it. Millie knew that Lucy and Indigo never went anywhere without each other, so she had to ask, "...where's...where's Lucy?"

Samuel went silent. Even if he knew that Millie was going through some tough things at home, he still felt like she was too young to hear about it. Not to mention Kiara, too.

But his silence said everything.

"...Oh."

Samuel decided a change of subject would be better. "Let's--Let's come over here. To Indigo."

He directed the two children over to Indigo's bed, and all four of them sat next to her.

Samuel wasn't really good with all this emotional stuff. He never had been. Even in a horrible situation like this, he couldn't find the words to say. To make them feel safe, or to make Indigo feel better or... anything. He didn't know. Fuck.

...Benny would've been better at it.

"Do you..." Millie trailed off for a moment before seeming to regain her confidence. "Do you want a hug, Indy...?"

Indigo nodded real slow. Both Millie and Kiara quickly moved to wrap their arms around her, sitting on either side to completely surround her in hug.

Samuel... abstained. The touchy-feely stuff wasn't really his thing either. Maybe he just didn't have a thing. Whatever. That wasn't what was important right now.

"Do you want Samuel to play a song for you?" Kiara offered next.

"Uh, Kiara, I--" Samuel started in protest.

"Y-Yeah. I think it w-would be nice." Indigo's voice was shaky, quiet.

"...well. Okay."

He wasn't gonna tell her no. Not right now.

Samuel made his way over to his bunk, where his stuff was stored. He hadn't gotten many opportunities to play his guitar this summer, except for a few campfire songs--which weren't his favorite, to say the least. But... he liked the attention. Getting attention just on him and not because of his brother and everyone would sing along and be happy and it would be because of him.

No more time for campfire songs now. Probably ever. Fuck, it really was his last summer coming to camp and this was how it was coming to an end? Fuck fuck fuck.

Samuel plucked at the strings one by one, checking by ear to see if they were in tune. Sure, he wasn't great at tuning by ear but he would manage and he didn't feel like digging his tuner out of his stuff.

"S-So, I," Samuel cleared his throat. "I know a few Beatles songs if you wanna hear those?"

For him to say "a few" was certainly an understatement but between the Beatles and the cheesy overplayed campfire songs, he hardly knew anything else.

Indigo assured him that Beatles was fine.

"Well... here goes, I guess."

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"Dude, you are so drunk right now."

"W-What? N-No way, I'm not," Johnny slurred.

Jackson had his doubts. Johnny seemed to be struggling just to remain seated on top of the tree stump. Right in the circle of vodka'd out teenagers (despite all of them protesting how gross Cass' preferences were, the bottle was empty and had been for quite some time), the fire was dying out, the last burning embers crackling as if they were begging for life.

Benny decided that maybe it was his turn to step up. He was the most sober, he thought. Not a fan of liquor, or getting wasted. He'd only occasionally sneak a beer if he could. "Yeah... sorry kiddo, but you definitely are. I think we should all get to bed. It's dark, we don't have any firewood left, and I'm personally not too big on the idea of a bunch of drunk teenagers stumbling around the woods."

Tory was unconscious. She had fallen directly out of her seat into the dirt at some point, and--after it was verified that she was still breathing fine, just knocked out--Benny had rolled her onto her side and left her to rest. He had continued to check on her every so often, checking her breathing and her pulse and making sure she hadn't thrown up. Currently, she was mumbling something in her sleep and snoring quite loudly.

"No, really?" Calvin said sarcastically. "You mean you don't want to recreate Friday the 13th?"

Benny knew it was only a joke but something in his heart... lurched. His stomach flipped. This didn't feel right. The light breeze was whispering warnings of danger into his ear... He wanted to get everyone to bed now.

"Wellllllll," Jackson joined in on the joke that was making Benny feel queasy. "I haven't heard any stories about any kids drowning in the lake, at least. Have any of you?"

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Cass would know."

"Cass would make up some bullshit to try and scare all of us, and it'd probably work. Just look at Benny."

Benny coughed out an uncomfortable laugh at being exposed. His fingers twitched and he shoved them into the pockets of his decked-out letterman's jacket. "Hey now, don't say that. Come on, let's just get to bed. Tory's already out and I think Johnny's on the way."

"A-Am not!" Johnny attempted to jump out of his seat, but tripped and stumbled and nearly fell to the ground in a drunken haste.

Benny took to waking up Tory, and off they went. It took a substantial amount of time to make it back to the cabin, and there was a sight to behold waiting for them there.

Well, a sound more like. The sound of Samuel playing the guitar for Indigo and the children. He had progressed from Beatles classics to some unheard of 60s rock 'n' roll music that none of them had ever heard of before, originally performed by an artist that none of them had ever heard of before.

At the opening of the cabin door, Samuel startled, fumbling his fingers over the strings and making an unpleasant, discordant twang before quickly and almost too-aggressively shoving the guitar back into its case and sliding it underneath his bed.

Benny quickly scanned the faces of the four who were already in the cabin. Indigo was tangled in blankets, her curly hair only barely peeking out, with Millie and Kiara on either side of her. Benny's eyes lingered for an especially long time on Samuel--his brother, his own twin, seated by himself on his lower bunk. He'd always been able to tell when something was up, and now was one of those times. The way that Samuel's eyes were darkened and sunken into his face, his arms hung weakly at his sides--well, maybe a little bit of that was normal for the 5-minute-younger twin, but still, Benny could tell that something wasn't right here.

None of the four said anything. None of Benny's group said anything, either. Even Johnny and Tory, who were drunk enough that Benny was surprised they could pick up on the intensity in the hair.

"What--What's going on?"

Samuel ushered the group immediately back out of the door and onto the porch. He ignored their pleas for more information, only ceasing his stubbornness once the door was closed tight with Indigo, Millie, and Kiara still inside.

"It's--" Samuel's words caught in his throat. His mouth was dry. He hushed his voice to speak, and it came out harsh and raspy despite sounding just normal when he was singing hardly a moment ago. "Lucy, s-she-- There's something in the woods. S-Something--Something bad."

It was then that Benny noticed the red, flaky substance caked onto Samuel's hands. He reached out to Samuel but Samuel flinched from his touch.

"Oh, Lucy, she... she. She's dead. Indigo's devastated a-and--and the kids are helping her feel better. I-I didn't see it and I couldn't ask Indigo to tell me anything but she said something attacked them. Like... Like a wolf or a bear or something, I-I don't know. But I..."

Samuel's face grew green, plainly visible in the light of the full moon. "I s-saw her. And I... God, it sounds fucking crazy, but I... I don't think an ordinary wolf could have done that."

A terrible, heavy silence fell over the group. No one knew what to say. Tory failed to find her voice, her "Oh my God..." not even coming out as a whisper despite her lips moving.

It was Johnny that spoke up first.

"So... where the fuck are Cass and Michael?"

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