--- Henry ---

We spotted the girl on the other side of a sprawling meadow late in the evening, confident that we would soon overtake her. However, she was unexpectedly fast, as if fueled by a force we hadn't tapped into. It was true; our pursuit was only a matter of duty, whereas she was driven by a primal survival instinct that gave her stamina beyond what could be expected. Thus, it was early morning, just before the break of dawn, when we finally came close enough for her to notice our presence.

We found ourselves on the outskirts of a trailer or cabin park as we approached. The girl finally stopped in the middle of a yard, illuminated by the cold light from some lamp posts. No one was around, but I smelled a vague scent of animal blood and heard tiny paws quickly leave the scene as if whoever it was knew there was havoc to be had in this place soon. 

The girl was all dressed in black, with a backpack, her blonde hair in a ponytail, and a dirty bandage over her forehead. She had her back against us, but now she slowly turned around. She seemed to squint with her eyes a bit, and I supposed she had trouble detailing us since the light was directed towards her.

She had a black scarf covering the lower part of her face. She nodded towards a surveillance camera on the corner of a building, indicating that she knew we couldn't do anything to her without risking it being caught on tape. We were at the edge of the forest; this was human grounds, and we didn't want to draw any more attention than necessary. Clever girl.

Still looking at us, she slowly walked backwards. It was a vain movement, a desperate attempt, as all three of us knew we would catch up with her as soon as she was out of reach from the cameras. 

It suddenly didn't matter, though, as she froze midstep and jerked her head to the left. I quickly scanned the surroundings but only heard a low growl from a dog, and for some reason, I didn't believe that was what had caught her attention. 

There was one small house halfway in front of her with a neatly tended garden, and halfway behind her to the left was another small house with a more busy garden area. Even at this hour, there was a faint light in the windows, and I heard some music.

She seemed to have completely forgotten about us when I sensed, rather than saw, that she sniffed the air still with her head facing the second house to her left. I sniffed the air. 

Nothing. 

An owl ho-hoed behind me, making me feel uneasy for some reason. Something was... something.

Tristan motioned me to follow him to the back of the second house. That way, we would come closer to the situation but still be able to avoid the cameras. As we were on higher ground than the girl, I could still see her blonde hair over the roof of the neatly tendered house as we rounded it from behind. We were now as close to the second house as she was but on the other side of a small lawn bordered by low fences.

She dropped her backpack and was slowly sneaking up to the house. Something was bothering her, and when a gush of wind caused one of the windows to move, I finally smelled it.

Death.

Blood.

Humans.

And... was that werewolf?

The girl opened the front door, and unable to stop my curiosity, I sneaked over the first fence to get a better look inside.

The first window I peeked into was the one that had moved in the wind. The room behind it was a bedroom. Half-slumped over the bed was a man figure, the smell already informing me, but the unnatural angle of his head confirmed that this human was not breathing anymore. I ducked down again and was urged to keep low as Tristan passed me to peek inside two more oversized windows.

I heard a low growl unexpectedly close to me, and my gaze darted to the ground. Something black was lying on the ground around the corner from where I guessed the entrance was. It was a dog. It wasn't moving, but the low growls told me it was aware of our presence. I ignored it for now, peeked through the windows, and realised I was now looking at the combined living and dining room.

From my angle, I couldn't see the entire room, but there was a seating area closest to the windows, and from what I saw, two men were half lying on the sofa, half passed out from drinking. This I deduced as the table in front of the couch was covered with bottles, glasses, and some bloodied towels. 

With his back against me, a man stood towards the dining room table, further inside the room. The angle prevented me from understanding what he did until I moved farther to my left, making the room fully visible. At the same time, the girl entered the room from the hallway. Her eyes widened as she saw what I now also saw.

Sprawled across the table was a person. I assumed it was a woman, her legs spread on either side of the man, but it didn't look like she was conscious. Her limbs were not moving as expected in a situation like that. The girl gauged the situation, seemed to shudder for a moment,  then raised her chin, took two long steps towards the man, and hurled him away from the person on the table.

He flew across the room and landed in the middle of the sofa table, sending glasses and bottles flying everywhere. This made the two men on the sofa come to life, but she was already all over them before they could grasp what happened. She wasn't shifted but managed to rip a gash in the closest man that had him almost falling over. A second cut over his arm sent blood splattering all over the window. One of the other men threw a broken bottle at her, managing to cause quite a big gash in her arm, but she was unfazed by it. A second slash from the first guy sent her staggering backwards, but it only made her lunge back harder. 

The two men were unceremoniously thrown, one against the wall and the other on top of the guy on the table. She paused momentarily and looked straight at me, without really seeing me, tilted her head, and sniffed the air. Then she turned back towards the woman on the table and untied her. She backed away from the table as the woman sat up and rubbed her wrists, and then, the girl paused, standing in the middle of the room as if she didn't know what to do anymore.

--- Hild ---

I didn't know for how long it had lasted — probably hours. Every single part of my body hurt. The pain made it hard to zone out, as it was a constant reminder of how.. bad things were. I would be killed after they were done; I knew that. No one did this much to another human and let them live afterwards. I slipped in and out of consciousness.

I had tried, of course. Begged. Pleaded. Argued. Even tried to hit back. Tried to run. It didn't work. It all ended with me on my back, on the table, with someone doing something to me anyway.

It wasn't my fault. This situation wasn't my fault. But still, I scolded myself for going back to fetch my bag. For even thinking about calling for help. What good had that done me?

After a while, death was a welcome option.

The last thing I remembered was begging whoever was between my legs to stop, only to be quieted when his fist hit me in the head, turning everything black.

I had obviously received some head trauma as the next couple of minutes was a blur of superheroes rumbling around the room and.. and then untying me.

When I came to my senses, a girl stood before me. She was bleeding from her arm and her head and was obviously in shock at what had transpired. I rubbed my wrists and looked around. Someone had had a party in this room, for sure. Laverne and his two friends were out, three bloody messes scattered around the room.

Then, I came to my senses even more. I wasn't sure what the girl was doing here, but we needed to leave—now. I jumped down on the floor, only to fall instead. My legs wouldn't carry me. Hours of being tied over the table had made them weak. I crawled up, realising they could carry me again if I just took it slow. I walked to the bedroom to retrieve my bag and grabbed some clothes.

When I returned, the girl stood in the middle of the room with blank, empty eyes. I took her hand and dragged her after me. We needed to leave. 

I opened the front door and turned left around the corner to avoid anyone seeing us. We could escape through the woods. I almost stepped on Harry and quickly unleashed him. He growled but patiently waited for us to pass him, followed us through the garden and over, in his case, under the fence.

As hell wasn't over, two more men were waiting for us there. I moved the girl behind me.

"Who are you?" I snarled. "I have already called the police, and you will NOT harm any of us, you hear me?!"

But before they could answer, the girl walked out from behind me, said "Tristan" to one of them, and then collapsed on the grass.

The one called Tristan raised his hands in surrender.

"It's okay. We are her... Uhm, frie... we know her, and we mean no harm. However, for the sake of all of us, I think we better get some space between us and this place before we decide.. uhm.. things."

He nodded towards the other guy.

"This is Henry Johnson, and I am Tristan Greenwood. Can you walk?"

"Of course, I can walk," I started but trailed off when I saw that I was barefoot and my legs were covered in blood. Was that.. my blood?

I sighed. I hoped my gut instinct was correct and I could trust them. Somehow, I gathered that they must be the reason for our salvation.

"I think I can walk but maybe not run."

"Let me help you for a couple of minutes, and then we can reassess," he lifted me as if I weighed nothing and motioned for Henry to help the girl.

They now carried one of us each and two backpacks, but it didn't affect them. Peeking over Tristan's shoulder towards the house, I could see Harry following us from a distance. Good. I'd miss that son of a.

--- Henry ---

The girl had blood all over. A new gash in her arm had joined her old wounds. The black scarf was still covering half her face, and her forehead was bandaged. It was hard for me to gauge her appearance, but I liked her already. She willingly gave herself up to rescue someone else. I chuckled. The last couple of days had matured me so much that I now was more impressed by a girl's character than by her looks. I was glad my buddies weren't here to witness it.

We ran like that for maybe half an hour before Tristan stopped in a small opening in the forest, and we stopped. It was dawn, and early sunrays gave the forest a pinkish glow. I could hear a small stream in the vicinity and turned to see a big black dog gushing down some water.

Girls, women, and backpacks were all carefully put to the ground. Tristan opened the girl's bag to see if there were some valuable items for this particular situation, and apparently, it was a gold mine. A set of tights and a long-sleeved T-shirt were found and offered to the woman. Band-aids, bandages, and a smaller pharmacy were also obtained, and Tristan ushered the woman to clean herself up and brought some medical tape over to the girl and me, where he promptly started to tape the big gash she had on her arm.

She was still passed out, and I put her head in my lap so she didn't have to lay completely on the ground. Maybe she would get cold? I pulled her up into my lap instead. I could see Tristan raise an eyebrow to himself and half-smile, but I didn't care. It was only polite not to let girls sleep on the ground. A whiff of wind caused by the movement brought a faint scent into my nostrils. Mhm. Vanilla. Not much. Not intoxicating. But existing.

Tristan got up and made a short phone call as the black-haired woman returned from the stream, where she had tried to clean up as much as possible. She looked better now that all the sweat and blood were gone, but from the way she walked, it was apparent she was in great pain. Her face was swollen, and she would be heavily bruised for a couple of days. I turned away my eyes as she got dressed.

When Tristan returned from his phone call, he asked her quietly, "Is there any wound or something you need help with?"

"No. It's... I'm good. Thanks, though."

An awkward silence followed. Here we were, four strangers whose lives had converged in this most peculiar way. One of us still blacked out.