The rain would not let up. Down and down it fell like buckets being poured over my head. Though August was being surprisingly accommodating and letting me bundle up in his 'borrowed' jacket, it did little to shield me from the buffeting winds and the damn rain.

"Man, I really thought things would be different."

It had been quiet—well, quiet save for the aforementioned wind, rain, and the occasional crack of thunder. I was surprised to hear August's voice. Especially by how clearly it sounded against the near deafening sounds of the storm. It was like his words cut through it all like it wasn't even there.

"I mean, damnit, she took it away. It was gone. Now, look at this shit."

I would be impressed by his ability, if it weren't for the useless things he was saying. I mean, what did he expect would happen? It's not like things with Knowers and Knowledge ever worked out the way you wanted it to.

"I'm back to square one, man. Well, square one plus a fox." My muscles tensed as August readjusted his grip on me. "You're a lot heavier than I expected a fox to be. Bigger, too. Are all foxes like that, or is it just cause you aren't really a real fox?"

How was I supposed to know? And, even if I did, how the hell was I supposed to tell him? He should know we can't talk like this. Was he mocking me?

"Whoa, hey, don't bite my head off," August said as a growl resounded from my lips. "If it's a sensitive subject or whatever we don't have to talk about it. Just trying to pass the time."

I stifled another growl as my eyes adjusted to the sidewalk the witch was walking down. We wouldn't have to be passing time if he just moved a bit faster than the painfully slow pace he was making us go. Was he so wrapped up in his own self pity that he couldn't summon the effort required to move any faster? Or was he wasting time on purpose?

"Hey, so, random thought. I haven't seen you as not a fox lately, but I think we've met before, right? Like, when you weren't a fox?"

The rain that fell in those next few seconds hit extra hard against the fur on my face. The wind that blew was chiller. The thunder more deafening.

"It was back at that cabin place, right?"

But August's voice was just as clear. The rain, wind, and thunder meant little to him. It was under his control. He could drown me, sweep me away, or strike me with lightning with just a thought, if he wanted. Out here, wrapped in his arms, surrounded by his storm, I was his prisoner.

I nodded my head.

"I thought so," August said with a little nod of his own. Then, with a deep sigh, he went on, "Thanks for that."

I craned my neck and looked back at him. Despite the strange clarity his voice had, I swore I had misheard him.

August looked back at me. Or, so I assumed with his face masked by his hair and hood. "You know, for what you did back there. Minerva went a little crazy when she finally caught up to her family. Nearly killed me after she did what she did to her husband. I was thinking about running and getting help somehow when I saw you dragging the guy." The weather witch tilted his head back a bit, letting the heavy rainfall wash over his face as his hood fell away. With another sigh, he titled his head back down, letting me see his pale face and blue eyes. "I don't know what you ended up doing, but things turned out better than they could have, right?"

I could only stare back at him. Even if I could have talked, that's all I would have done. Why now? Why him? I had spent so long pushing away those thoughts. The cabin. Dr. Quinn. Meadow. The vines. The fire. It was too much. He was doing this to mess with me. To mock me. He knew my weakness and was using it against me.

"Don't talk like you understand," I hissed inside my head, not breaking our shared eye contact. "Don't try and act like you didn't have any part in what happened."

August blinked. "But I didn't—"

"Bullshit!" I shot. "You made the fog."

"No, man, that was Fawn who—"

"She got it from you, didn't she? That was your Knowledge or whatever shit in that stick, wasn't it?"

Another blink. August angled his head away from me, still walking his slow pace. "Minerva said Fawn was a good tracker. She could find her family. But they needed something to keep people from tracking her. They needed me to—"

"It's because of you!" I squirmed and snarled and snapped at the air until August was forced to release me. My body hit the wet pavement, but I barely felt it. It didn't hurt as bad as nails wracking into my back. Or watching Kat nearly die.

I rounded on August who had finally stopped walking. He just stood there, drenched in rain, staring at me with wide, blue eyes.

"It's because of you those students were taken away. Your fog let Fawn steal them and fuck them up and sick them on my friends! And because of that Minerva was free to hunt her own family. Because of you there's no family left!"

"I didn't know, okay?" August whispered, though his words were still crystal clear. "I didn't know the truth until it was too late. Even then, what could I have done, man? All I can do is make it rain."

"Shut the fuck up!"

August flinched at the words I hoped were screaming inside his head. I didn't care how he heard them. I didn't care how it made him feel. Now that the words were out, I couldn't stop them.

"I failed. I didn't save them. I couldn't do a damn thing."

It still hurt. No matter how much time would pass, or how hard I tried not to think about it, it would always hurt. My weakness. My failures. It was an ache that would never go away.

The growing growl in my throat  produced a sharp bark that made August take a step back. "But you know what I didn't do? I didn't just sit there and let it happen. You say you were lied to? Fine. I know what it's like to be fucked with. To feel powerless to do anything. But you had what I didn't at the time: a fucking mind of your own." I took a step forward as August stepped back again. Another growl followed by a bark escaped. "You just don't want to admit you were scared shitless. You couldn't risk your own, pathetic life for the lives you put in danger!"

August took in a breath, and a crack of thunder sounded over our heads moments before a bright light struck the ground between us. I was thrown into the air and forced to let out a pained yelp as something white-hot seared through my body. The cement met with my back just as the light faded away.

August had fallen back on his backside. He was no longer staring at me. His bright blue eyes were focused solely on the black streak now carved into the pavement.

"I didn't mean to do that," he said without looking at me.

I managed to get back to my feet, but it was on weakened legs. My whole body felt coated in needles. "Right, I'm sure you say that about a lot of the things you did."

His eyes met mine for the briefest of moments. They returned to the black streak for a second more before closing. "What kind of monster do you think I am?" his soft voice asked inside my head.

"You're a witch," I thought back without hesitation. "That's monster enough."

Whatever I thought August planned to say next, chuckling was the last thing on my mind. But chuckle he did. Low, soft, and miserable. Like his voice when it rained. "I guess you won't be wanting me to take you to the hospital still, huh?"

"I never wanted you in the first place." I turned away from him. "I know where to go."

"You're going to have a tough time of it trying to walk through this without me," August said as I took my first few steps away from him. "Being near me is what makes it easy."

"I'd rather suffer it alone than have it easy with you," I snapped back without stopping or turning around.

Another chuckle reached my ears. It was harder to hear this time, like the storm was swallowing him up. I turned around and realized how literal that almost was. I could barely make out his red hair and ridiculous jacket through the sheets of rain.

I almost missed seeing him raise a single hand in the air and wave it slowly over his head. "Suit yourself," were the words that reached my ears just before being carried off by the swirling wind and pouring rain.

...

Several seconds later...

"Hey, so, you didn't really think I was just gonna let you go through this alone, did you?" the wet pair of boots asked me. "I may be a witch, but I'm not that heartless. I mean, not like you were gonna get far, anyways."

A rumble started in my throat that I swallowed back down. It was his storm, his Knowledge that got me stuck like this. Where did he get off sounding like some big shot all of the sudden?

"Maybe you forgot the conversation we had literally seconds ago," I hissed back, ready to snap should those boots get any closer. "I don't want your help!"

"But you need it, right?" August suddenly plopped himself down on the ground, allowing me to see his rain-soaked jeans and jacket. "It's tough for full grown people to keep a walking pace in this, you couldn't get two steps before having to dive under a car. How are you going to get to the hospital by yourself? Take it from me, this storm won't go away on its own."

"You're controlling it, aren't you? Just make it stop."

But I knew the answer to that without having the witch answer. It was easy enough to put together after what I had seen.

Still, August's chin went from side to side as he no doubt shook his head. "I can't. Really wish I could, though. Ever since it started its been following me around wherever I go."

"Then go somewhere else!" I nearly shouted.

"It's a storm," August emphasized, almost like he was losing patience with me. "I'd have to go really, really far. It'd be faster if you just let me—"

"Take a car! Steal one. Use this one, I don't care, just—"

"If I could drive, you think I'd be dealing with all this shit in the first place?!" August snapped, his sudden anger taking me off guard. "Literally running from witches, from people who want me dead or whatever? I've been on the run since I was a kid, I don't know a car from the fucking moon."

"Those are two completely different things," I couldn't help but say.

"Shows how much I know." August lowered his head so I could see the slight smile as he extended a hand out towards me. "So, can we go already? I get how you feel about me, but if I was such a 'monster' I could have just let you sit and suffer under this moon for hours. But I'm not. Well, not unless you don't let me help, anyways."

While I didn't immediately approach the extended hand, I didn't take the very easy opportunity to bite off a few of the fingers, either. "Why do you care whether I suffer or not? Did what I say make you feel guilty? Or is what the Lady can do that important to you?"

"Bit of both?" August shrugged. "Couldn't it be also cause I'm not a total dick? I want to help you get to that hospital. It's the least I can do after the shit that went down back there."

"Oh, so you are aware of your own fuck-ups?"

"Just cause I fuck things up a lot doesn't mean I don't know it. I learn from my mistakes, I just make new ones. What, you think I'm just totally clueless that my actions don't mess things up for people sometimes?"

In a way, I did. I thought he reminded me of Ash or Mutt. But he wasn't, for better or worse.

"You have to forgive me if I don't go jumping back into your arms. Almost everyone I've met in this life have been untrustworthy. Doesn't help that you worked with a witch who ruined what little people I could trust."

Without a word, August pulled his hand back into his lap. There was not a sound save for the rain for a good half a minute before he let out a little sigh. "I think I was cursed to always trust beautiful, older women."

"Um, what?"

"That's how it all started. I was in child counseling for reasons, and my psychiatrist was this smokin' blonde. Well, I didn't think she was smokin' back then, just that she made me feel 'funny things' downstairs when she'd smile and bend certain ways.

Anyway, I used to live in a place that never rained. Like, literally never. Dr. Blonde came from a place that always rained and she missed it really bad. Would go on and on about how she'd love to dance under the dark clouds and splash in the puddles. Really, she was a terrible psychiatrist. Talked more about herself than anything. Anyway, my young mind was, for whatever reason, really enjoying the imagery of this woman getting wet and dancing, so I asked her if we could play in the rain together if it ever happened. She said yes."

August paused and I considered asking him what the point of this was. It was literally the most embarrassing, inconsequential story I had yet to hear, but something in the way he was telling it kept me quiet.

And it wasn't much longer until he started up again. "So, of course, it still never rained. For days, weeks, and months it was as dry as always. But the more I thought about doing more than just talk with this woman, to see her dance and smile and have actually have fun with— Well, anyways, I started praying for it. Down on my knees and everything. Every night I would pray to God that I would wake up and see it raining.

And, one day, it did. Not just a sprinkle or anything, but a downpour. There was no lighting or thunder, so I figured it'd still be safe to mess around in. It would be perfect.

So, of course, Dr. Blonde did not show up for work that day. Sucks to say, but I was pissed. It was silly—or, I thought it was silly at the time—but it felt like I had made it rain for her, and she had stood me up. It felt like all the praying I did was wasted and all the hope I had built up was dashed, just like that.

It wasn't until I had racked up a good list of mean things I would say to her that I learned she died in an accident. Hydroplane, the one thing that I know about cars, was what did it. The rain made her drive off the road. The thing I had been praying for killed her."

I made to say something then, but August wasn't done. "That Lady of yours talks like Dr. Blonde did. She has a way of making you think that everything she says is the right thing and the most important thing. Minerva made me question a lot of things she said, just not out-loud. It really sucks to say, but I was lonely. She was beautiful and made me feel important. And, Widow..."

"Widow?"

My train of thought instantly went to the broken boy with the long, black hair. But that couldn't be right.

"I was lined up to be a Master, before things went to shit," August said.

"A Master? For Fawn's generation? She never told us that."

His hands clenched into fists in his lap. "Guess the assholes who are hunting me want to keep that as much a secret as they can."

Cautiously, I crawled a few steps closer to the weather witch. Enough to see his face, not that there was much to see. August kept his head down and his red hair clung to his forehead and cheeks like clothing.

"You know they tried to escape, right?" he asked me.

"Yeah," I said.

I also knew that the Hunter picked them off one by one until Fawn abandoned them and Mallard turned himself in. But I didn't say anything further.

"I was the only witch out of the ones with a familiar that didn't have a permanent home of some sort. And I was really curious who my familiar was gonna be. Turns out, she was curious about me too.

We never did anything weird. I don't think she ever saw me as more than her 'future Master'. But she did help me find the closest spot I could be to her training grounds without my storm making that goat asshole suspicious. We would meet up every once in awhile and she'd tell me the shit he was putting her through and I'd listen. I never had much to say, things weren't as crazy for me back then as they are now. Like you said, it's mostly my fault.

Anyways, one day, we meet, but it's not just her there. It's her and all the familiar's and she's saying how they escaped, killed goat guy, and are on the run for their lives. She begs me for my help."

August glanced up and seemed surprised for a moment to see me so close. But he smiled, held out his hands, and clasped them together. "So, against my better judgement, I helped them. Well, I didn't really help them. I didn't really get how my storm worked, so they couldn't move fast. The thing that they were running for their lives from couldn't either, but it figured out how far my storm stretched, and went ahead of us, laid it's traps, and waited."

August released his hands and let them fall to his sides. His smile never went away, and his eyes never left mine. "I think you said it best: I failed. I didn't save them. I couldn't do a damn thing."

"Did Fawn really abandon them?" I asked, something clicking in my head.

"Is that what she said happened?" August chuckled, but it only sounded broken and hollow. "No, me again. They lost one of her friends—Crane, I think his name was—and something about it convinced them that the rest of us weren't all going to make it out of there. By then we figured out that, if someone was carrying me, the both of us could move at a relatively fast pace. The duck and dog guy were tighter than anyone else and weren't planning on being separated just so one could live. Fawn insisted Widow should be the one to take me, but she insisted she was the most capable of taking on that monster if she could fight it on 'her terms'. Whatever that meant. Also, supposedly, Fawn was the fastest of their group. It made the most sense, in Widow's words."

The weather witch took in a deep breath as he let his head hang backwards. "Thinking back, I guess I should of said something. I still don't know what I could have said, but anything would've been better than just standing there with my mouth open. I mean, for shit's sake, they were arguing over which one of them was going to live."

August's hands that were resting on the soaked sidewalk clenched into fists. "Thinking back, I should have just told Widow no. I should have said I couldn't help her. Because I didn't, Alex. I trapped them. I killed her."

"Thinking like that isn't going to get you anywhere, August." I crawled out from underneath the car and let the rain drench me again. This close to its Knower, it wasn't so bad. "Doing nothing is worse, every time. If you do something, you can take responsibility for it. You trapped them. You killed them. Don't run away from that, accept it. Accept it and do a better job next time."

He laughed again. Louder, with a hand over his face. A crack of thunder seemed to coincide with the laugh and only faded away when he lowered his hand to meet my gaze again.

"You're really bad at motivational talk, you know that?" He reached out for me. "Come on. We aren't getting anywhere just sitting here.

I looked from his face to his hand. But, before I could make a decision, the hand lowered to the ground. His face was no longer looking at me.

"What the hell is that?" he asked, but it didn't sound like he was asking me directly.

I heard it before I saw it. Like the sizzle of water on hot pavement, but continuous. Over and over like drops of rain being burned away.

Then I saw it. A literal ball of fire in the distance, moving slowly towards us.

...

*Author's Note*

Did you guys miss devious cliffhangers? Like really devious cliffhangers? You know I did.

Is this meet up part of Foxy's plan? Is he ready to be face to face with another ghost of his past? A ghost that likes to play with fire and has a certain grudge with a certain red critter, no less? Whatever your thoughts, I'd love to hear them!