Chapter Twenty-Nine: Confrontation

(The Matriarch, Part 2)

***

Shit.

That was the only thing running through Allison's mind as she stood there, frozen, in the red-lit room as Laura's and the matriarch's voices echoed down to her, joining the growls coming from Nick still in the cage. Terror spiked in intervals inside Allison, heart thumping so loudly they must be hearing it, hearing the heartbeat of the girl with silver arrows beneath their feet.

The girl the Hacketts didn't know was there, right underneath them. Yet.

Allison breathed shakily, trying to control her panicked thoughts and calm down and think over her precarious situation, to slip into the same focus she had when being in doctor mode. She hadn't been discovered—only Ryan and Laura had been, and while Ryan had escaped Allison doubted he'd been free for long. He wouldn't tell them she was here—Allison knew unquestioningly that Ryan would never sell her out. Laura... she didn't know if she would, if it meant getting free and killing Chris. And even if they talked or not, Allison would still be discovered in due time, depending how long that time was and how much she had of it left.

That left her with two options—either hide and pray to God she wouldn't be found, or get out and try to do something.

Both options would lead to her discovery either way. It just depended on how quickly she wanted to be found.

"Shit," Allison whispered, looking at the ceiling as she thought over her options, heart stuttering at the voices again, running a hand through her hair. "Shit, what should I do?"

A growl was her only response.

"Thanks for your input, Nick," she muttered flatly as he growled again. Only then did Allison realise the growls were probably masking her voice unintentionally—and prolonging her discovery. 

But how long would that last?

She needed to make a decision—and soon.

Forcing herself to move, Allison paced up and down, hands on her hips as she sighed, trying to figure out a way she could get out of here alive. So far, hiding and then leaving when the danger temporarily passed seemed like the better option that wouldn't get her killed—and, if she played her cards right, that could maybe guarantee her rescuing Laura and Ryan as she held the advantage of surprise. But if she ran now, could sneak upstairs and save them, then maybe she could do it, and try not to get killed in the process.

If she could time it right, planned it right for the second option...

The thump of her quiver on her back had Allison keenly realise one fact—she had a limited number of silver arrows. If she missed a single shot while rescuing Ryan and Laura, she wouldn't be able to recover it. And after losing five to the water back in the caved-mines, Allison couldn't lose any more arrows if she wanted to kill Chris and cure Nick.

She needed to conserve her arrows until that crucial moment. And that meant she couldn't rescue Ryan and Laura unless she was certain she could achieve it without losing any of her suddenly precious arrows in the process.

The voices continued shouting overhead as now thumps joined it. Allison stiffened. Shit. She was running out of time—Laura and Ryan were running out of time. She needed to make her choice. Now.

The choice was made for her when she heard grunting and Ryan yelling, "Let me go, man!"

"Quiet!" an unfamiliar voice barked as out of the gloom of the room beyond the red-lit room, two shadows appeared—one tall and large, and one struggling in the grip of the larger shadow's hand.

Ryan.

Allison's heart pulsed with fear as she grabbed her bow and stumbled back, scanning the room desperately for a place to hide. She couldn't run now—she needed to hide before Ryan's captor saw her. Now.

But as she did, Allison's foot tripped over itself and her arm banged against a metal box while trying to make sure she didn't fall, cause a loud, hollow noise to echo out.

"Fuck," she hissed, and when she saw the shadows stop at hearing the noise, she hissed again, "Fuck."

"What  was that?" the large shadow asked. before turning to Ryan and demanding, "Hey! Any more of you down here?"

"No! No, it's just me and Laura," Ryan answered, lying through his teeth—trying to protect Allison.

Allison would make sure it wasn't wasted as she hurriedly looked at the box, trying to see if she could hide behind it, before cursing silently at seeing how thin the gap was. She could fit, but only if she didn't have her quiver or bow—and there was no way she would leave them about, not when they could easily give away she was there if she was just standing in the room, waving her arms and screaming she was there.

"We'll see about that," the shadow replied, not believing Ryan, before he turned and moved to the room—right toward Allison.

"Shit," Allison cursed, mind running, before she saw the cage. The cage where Jacob had been trapped in—the doors still unlocked.

A plan came to mind. An insane plan, but a plan.

Rushing to the cage, Allison hid in a corner where the shadows were the darkest and the thickest, slinging the bow over her shoulder and grabbing an arrow out, heart in her throat as the shadows stepped into the room, the red light washing over them and revealing their faces to her.

The first she easily recognised—Ryan, struggling as he tried to look for her. The second Allison also recognised in a heartbeat—the hunter guy who tried to drag Nick away and then came into the lodge and whom they all just escaped from, holding Ryan in a death grip as his eyes scanned the room, landing first on Nick, backed into a corner and growling, fur bristling and hackles raised as yellow eyes gleamed at him.

"It's only the monster in here," the hunter guy said. A spark of rage burned through Allison at hearing him refer to Nick that way, as Ryan finally found her. Shock shone in his eyes, before he gave her a silent message: Run.

Allison shook her head as the hunter saw the look and said, "Hey! Is there any more of you here?"

"No one!" Ryan lied. "It's just me and Laura, I swear. There's no one else here."

The man glared at Ryan suspiciously, before he began dragging Ryan to Nick's cage—and close to it.

Allison's eyes widened in horror as Ryan's did too, the growling and snarling intensifying as Ryan yelled, "No, I'm telling the truth, it's just me and Laura! It's just us! There's no one else here!"

She had to do it—now. If she didn't, then Nick would bite Ryan or kill him. Allison couldn't let that happen.

Steeling herself, Allison tightened her grip and lunged out of the cage, bowling into the hunter dude. He stumbled back as Allison got off of him, dropped into a crouch,  unslung her bow off of her body, and drew her arrow, pointing it at him as she demanded, "Get away from that cage!"

The hunter paused, getting over the shock of being tackled as he registered her presence. Fear came into his eyes as he said, "You!"

So. He remembered her when she pummelled him with the tree branch.

Drawing the string a fraction of an inch further back, Allison demanded, "Let my friend go right now, or I'll shoot this into your skull."

The hunter did. As he did, Allison noticed for the first time the knife in his hand. She ignored it as she stood up and said, "Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna lead us upstairs and do nothing while we get our friend and do what we came here to do. You get in my way, you try to stop me, I won't hesitate to shoot you, your brother or your mom. Understood?"

The hunter nodded, fear still in his face of a what a girl who beat him with a tree branch could do with an arrow.

"Good. Now—" Allison started, but was interrupted when Ryan warned, "Allison, watch out!"

Allison twisted, and saw that knife come swinging toward her.

Allison ducked, barely avoiding the knife plunging down into her heart. She stepped back, lowering her bow and dropping the arrow as the hunter charged for her, the knife coming for her again. Allison deflected it with her bow, gritting her teeth as the knife bit down into the wood, the hunter glaring down at her.

"Not so tough now are you, girl?" he snarled.

Allison glared back at him, before she spat in his face.

The hunter cried out in disgust, lifting the knife as Allison now jabbed her bow harshly into his stomach. He staggered back as Allison shoved him back using the bow, causing him to stumble again as Allison drew her bow, this time arrow removed and now pointed at his throat.

"Not so tough now are you, hunter?" Allison echoed, panting from exertion.

The hunter glared hatefully at her, before his eyes narrowed on her arrow. "Hey, where did you get those arrows?"

Allison didn't bother to reply, just got ready to release the arrow.

But as she did, a sharp pain lanced through her leg.

Allison cried out as the hunter pulled back his knife after slicing it across her leg. Blood oozed down, soaking her cargo pants, as Allison barely kept herself from misfiring. Allison staggered back, arrow clattering to the ground as she clamped a hand against her leg to slow the blood flow.

A hand grabbed her arm and Allison struggled to get free, the hunter glaring at her.

"You're coming with us," he snarled as Allison tried to fight free of his grip, but he was too strong.

She might have been trapped like that, if Ryan didn't tackle the hunter, the shock of it causing his grip to loosen and Allison able to pull herself free as she snatched up the arrow, terror numbing the pain in her leg.

"Allison, run!" Ryan yelled as the hunter lumbered up behind him and grabbed his arm, trapping him again.

"Ryan—" Allison started, only for Ryan to yell, "RUN!"

Allison hesitated, then slipped her arrow and ran away.

She ran toward the supply room and to the door, barely giving herself time as she threw all her weight onto it and forced it open a crack, relief bursting inside her that it wasn't locked, sliding through it as it closed shut behind her, before she sprinted through the mausoleum-room and out into the tunnel, not stopping until she was halfway between the cave and the room.

Then, alone in the tunnel, Allison collapsed.

***

After giving herself a second to recuperate from the shock, the first thing Allison did was attend to her leg. 

Using an arrow to help cut a strip off the hem of her right pant leg, Allison gritting her teeth as the sharp arrowhead grazed the skin, she waited until the pressure she placed upon the wound had the bleeding slow before she tied it tightly around her wound, wincing and groaning with pain every time she did. She consoled herself with the fact the wound was shallow, and the knife didn't cut any of her tendons or ligaments or any vital arteries—she'd be in bigger trouble if it had. She could walk on her leg, run if she had to—it'd just be painful.

Panting, Allison leaned back against the wall and considered her options. She couldn't hide—the Hacketts now knew there was another person here. And running wasn't an option, not when she didn't know how she could get out of here and she wasn't willing to leave behind Ryan and Laura. And she refused to leave without curing Nick—she would not be going anywhere until Chris Hackett was dead all the werewolves he bit were cured and saved.

That meant she had only one choice. 

She had to get into that house.

Standing up, Allison winced as pressure was put back on her leg. But it didn't seem to have restarted bleeding, so Allison took that as a good sigh. Slinging her bow across her body again and limping toward the tunnel entrance and through the mausoleum room toward the door, she pushed against it as it creaked open and she slipped back out, hearing it close behind her as she retraced her steps, walking across the supply room and checking for a way into the house, a way aside from the trap door above her head that now Allison could clearly see. A way the hunter had taken to get Ryan and bring him back up into the house. Above her head, Allison could hear voices and she blocked them out—she had to focus now.

Walking down the tunnel and grimacing from the throbbing pain in her leg, Allison scanned the room for a sign—any sign—of access into the house above.

Her luck seemed to have changed, because as she considered the trap door might be her only way through, her eyes landed upon a set of stairs leading upstairs.

"Yes, finally," she muttered, going up the stairs as quietly as she could and reaching a door.

Opening it, Allison stepped into a carpentered hallway. Moonlight gleamed through windows onto the wooden walls and paintings and assorted furniture, the moonlight reminding Allison of how time was running out in saving Nick and Sarah.

Which way should I go? she thought. If she went further into the house, she could find Chris Hackett and kill him. If she went toward where she could hear voices, then she could save Ryan and Laura by using the element of surprise. Her leg and the moonlight reminded Allison that depending on the choice she made, she wouldn't have time for the other. And with how big this house was, if she couldn't find Chris Hackett by the time the moon went down and the sun came up...

Then that meant Nick, Sarah, Max and Laura were screwed for another full moon. They wouldn't be free.

Allison bit her lip, before sighing and making a mental apology to Ryan and Laura as she staggered down the other end of the hallway.

This house was big. She needed all the time she had to find Chris and kill him. It killed her not going back and saving Ryan and Laura, but if Laura knew she was still free, she'd want her to finish it instead of losing what time they had with a rescue, especially with her ticking clock. And Allison had promised herself she'd free Nick and Sarah from their curse, no matter what. She had to do this.

She would do this.

But as she walked down the hallway, a gunshot went off.

Allison froze, whirling to the other end of the hallway where the gunshot came from.

Without thinking, she ran down the other end, seeing a large room up ahead with the silhouettes of people inside them—one of them lying on the floor as a now-familiar voice yelled, "EVERYBODY STOP!"

That was when Ryan and the hunter stumbled into sight, narrowing avoiding seeing Allison standing there, the hunter dragging Ryan to the room  and, despite every instinct screaming at her to go back and continue in the opposite direction, Allison limped further toward the room as the hunter bellowed, "What the fuck is going on up here!?"

Pressing herself against the wall, Allison watched as light flared from an old lamp and lit up the room just beyond her hiding place, showing the hunter, Ryan, the cop—Travis—and an old man hunched over an old woman—the Hackett matriarch, Allison assumed—lying on the floor, her face a mess of blood, bone and flesh, and Laura. Allison stiffened realising that Laura must have blown up her face with the shotgun and the old man had to be the woman's husband and the patriarch of the Hackett family as he pressed his hands against her chest in a fruitless endeavour to save her and said, "Oh wake up, wake up. Darlin', come on, wake up. Wake up. Wake up."

Despite how this family had captured Ryan and Laura, had held Nick and Jacob in cages, Allison's heart lurched at the desperation and pain in the man's voice over his wife, as he realised she was dead as he looked at the hunter, the light having the tears in his eyes gleam, as he said, "Oh... she's gone, little Bobby. Mamma's gone. Killed her... no!"

The patriarch stood up and said to the cop, "No more pr... No more... protecting anyone, Travis."

Allison's blood chilled, watching as Laura ran for a door on the other side of the room, narrowly avoiding being shot by the patriarch, and when the hunter—Bobby—stabbed Ryan with the knife, the edge still red with her blood.

Allison stifled back a scream, clapping a hand over her mouth as she watched in horror Ryan scream in pain and collapse, holding his side just below the knife sticking out as Bobby turned to his father and brother and said, "Dad, there's another. A girl. She has arrows. Silver arrows. I got her in the leg."

The patriarch's face twisted before he ordered him and Travis, "Find her. Find the girl. She can't be far—not if she's been stabbed."

Bobby nodded as he, the patriarch and Travis left while Ryan stumbled to the dumbwaiter, getting inside and sliding it down. With him gone, Allison didn't hesitate.

She turned around and sprinted in the other direction, heart pounding in her chest.

The Hacketts were after them. And if they found either her, Laura or Ryan...

Then they would kill them without hesitation.

***

>:)

Yeah, Allison had her badass moment (and Bobby was terrified that this girl who whacked him with a tree branch is now armed and even more dangerous XD) but not without getting injured (I think Nora's the only one who's gonna survive the whole night WITHOUT getting injured) And yeah, she made the tough choice to go and try and find Chris and kill him...

... Until the gunshot goes off and she discovers that not only are the Hacketts now wanting to kill them, but Ryan got stabbed and both he and Laura managed to escape as she does too. But for how long? >:)

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!