With the beanie securely tucked into a pocket, Kat proceeded to carry me on her back. A position I was grateful for, as the bridal style thing Stallion and Mutt seemed to favor had gotten pretty old.

However, I was very aware of the hands on my backside that were keeping me from sliding off as I feebly clung to her neck. With every jerk or sudden turn I would feel them clench. Despite the dire situation, I was looking forward to the moment when I could be put down again.

"Are you sure Mutt went this way?" Kat asked after we had been running for about a minute through the woods.

"Well, yeah, in this general direction," I said, trying to peer through the fog. The Sorrow was still going strong, more than once Kat had to perform some mighty feats of agility to dodge the trees that would suddenly appear in front of us.

"You know, that was uncharacteristically smart of him to try and mask your scent. Those things see just as well as the rest of you in this fog. They rely on their sense of smell to navigate through it."

"I'll remember to thank him when we find him," I said, hoping beyond hope that we would find him. "How are you sure that's the case, though?"

"It's the only reason I'm still alive."

"Oh..."

I fell silent as terrible, terrible thoughts came to mind. Of Em, or the others, finding Kat or Mutt and tearing them apart with their fangs and claws. I tried my best not to think of poor Stallion.

I was at a loss of what to say until something struck me - reminded me. "Wait, Kat, I think those things are the students that went missing," I said as Kat continued to wind through the trees.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah! Yes. What happened to them? Do you know?"

"I'm not really sure, or rather, I only have guesses at the moment."

"Well, do you mind sharing?"

"This really isn't the time to start getting into it," she said, suddenly stopping against a tree. "Now be quiet."

I bit my cheek. I was getting real sick of all the mystery. "Kat, I'm really-"

"I said shut it!" she hissed with enough force to actually make me close my mouth. Kat pressed her shoulder against the tree as she peered around it.

I held my tongue until the tension became too much. "Kat," I whispered, "what is-"

Something razor sharp dug into my back. I screamed as it tore me from Kat and flung me backwards. I only got a brief instant of her horrified face before it was swallowed by The Sorrow.

I hit the ground hard, sending a shockwave up and down my body. I gasped for air as I lay in the dirt and the rocks. It hurt to even breathe.

A growl, low and sinister, reached my ears. I opened my eyes and saw one of them--one of the missing students--crawling towards me on his hands and knees. As I took in the features barely hidden by mud, I recalled his name to have been Adam. A big guy, someone from the football team. I remembered his friends and family helped to organize a pretty large search for him but, like everyone else who went missing, he was never found.

There were deep gashes down his face and arms; one had even cut through one of his eyes, but he didn't seem to mind it much. The one good eye was trained on me as he inched closer.

I forced myself to squirm backwards from the beast with my only good arm. He took his time approaching me, enjoying my screams for help, relishing in my pleas for life.

When he had apparently sated himself with my fear, he arched back and pounced. I couldn't look away as he sailed through the air towards me, eye wild, black teeth bared and ready to tear into me.

All in that instant I felt my concerns and pleas wash away as I was overcome by the desire to live, to fight. It was so sudden, I wondered if it was yet another side effect of the tea. Even as I pondered this, my body seemed to move on its own as it gripped the dirt with my good hand and flung it into his face. The creature let out a howl of pain as the dirt hit his eyes and the open wounds.

Still, it was too little too late. He hit me with the full force of his jump, sending us both tumbling backwards down a hill I had no clue I had been on the edge of until then.

All I could see was a flurry of teeth, claws, and dirt as we tumbled down. I could smell the wild of the woods on him. It was putrid, overpowering. The smell coupled with the pain of the fall was almost enough to send me into the darkness -- until we hit water.

I struggled with both arms, even the one with the messed up shoulder, to put some distance between me and Adam. Before I could get away, a stray claw dug down the length of my calf. I screamed--the pain was immediate, burning.

I choked as the water filled my lungs. I had to get out or I would die. I had to get out or I would die.

Thankfully, the water was only about knee deep. I pulled myself, hacking and coughing, out into the fresh air. I could barely make out the shore, on the outskirts of The Sorrow, and paddled frantically towards it.

I knew my body was broken. I was killing myself further with each movement. But the growls and shrieks of Adam as he struggled in the water to get a hold of me overpowered all pain and rational thought. I just had to get away from him. Over everything else, I had to get away.

But I wasn't even halfway there when I felt a vice grip on my ankle. The terrible howl that followed it hammered in the final nail of dread. He had caught me. I was dead.

The grip pulled me back. My head went back underwater. I struggled futilely with Adam as he grabbed my throat. I was pulled out of the water and back into the dirtied, mangled face of the lost boy. His mouth was open; I saw the dark teeth, like terrible black daggers coming to strike me down.

And then I was reminded of someone.

A cry of fury, worse than anything I had yet to hear that day, shook the tree line beyond The Sorrow. It was enough to make me unafraid of the blackened teeth. I almost welcomed them. Anything would be better than having to see whatever it was that made that noise.

But the teeth stopped mere inches from my face.

I saw Adam -- his face void of the joy, of any enjoyment he once had in the pursuit of me. He looked down at me, then up towards The Sorrow. I couldn't stop looking at his face. There was confusion in it, something that reminded me there was still someone in there.

Then I looked to where he was staring. There was a creature--a teenager bathed in blood, breaking through The Sorrow. It sent out enormous splashes as it charged the lake towards us, chains flailing through the air behind him. He yelled that terrible yell I only had just heard a moment ago, somewhere deep in the woods. I could see his eyes--red and filled with remorseless fury.

It was worse than any bear, or lion, or tiger. It was Mutt.

Adam's face contorted with rage right before he tossed me into the lake. I fell under for only a moment before surfacing, enough time to see Mutt and Adam collide. They thrashed halfway between water and air as I paddled myself back as far as I could. It was so hard to see--I could make out only flashes of teeth, claws, hands, water, blood, and shrieks.

The blur of motions suddenly stopped when Adam grabbed ahold of Mutt's arm. Howling in triumph, he pulled and threw the boy half his size through the air, far past the shore and into the obscuring Sorrow.

I stared in amazement, no longer moving. My blood ran cold. No way could any normal human throw someone like that. No way.

Then Adam turned his attention back on to me and I was reminded that he was no longer a normal human.

He roared at me, I screamed, then a new figure burst from the fog, landed on Adam's back, and jammed a knife into his neck.

His roar was cut off, blood pouring from his mouth in its place, but he managed to grab Kat by the leg and throw her off of him. She landed somewhere between he and I. The throw appeared powerful, but Kat was already back on her feet in an instant.

Adam hunched over, dagger still in his neck, and was already preparing to make a run at her when Mutt reappeared, bursting from The Sorrow. Before Adam had time to react, he tackled the once football player back into the lake.

"Hold him, Mutt!" Kat shouted, running over to where the two were struggling.

Mutt tried to get on top of Adam as the latter gurgled and shrieked. Kat had only just reached them when Adam sent his forehead into Mutt's exposed face. The latter howled in pain as Adam slipped away.

He sunk into the water, and I watched in amazement as he just...vanished.

"Oh, god," Kat breathed. Her eyes scanned the waters around us, but they had all calmed like he wasn't somewhere beneath them, waiting for the right moment to strike.

I couldn't handle it. I cried out Kat's name. She looked at me, prepared to say something, when Adam emerged.

He shot out of the water like a bullet, directly behind Kat. She didn't even have time to gasp as he gripped her around the neck and pulled her under.

"Kat, no!" I shouted.

"No!" Mutt roared. He removed his hands from his heavily bleeding nose and dove into the water after them.

It was only knee deep. How could Adam do something like that?

Mutt came back up with nothing. He howled in rage. I searched everywhere but the waters had calmed again.

How was that possible? How could he even do that?

But it was just like Mutt and Stallion's supernatural speed and strength. Just like Kat's amazing agility and dexterity. Whatever Adam and Em were...they were just like the people I had come to know.

Just then, Adam burst back out from the water, less than a foot away from me. I fell back, expecting an attack, but he was crying out in pain. He still had Kat gripped in his arms, but she had a hand on the handle of the dagger still stuck in his neck, and was twisting it.

But Adam wasn't done. I saw his powerful arms flex over Kat's neck. Her cry came out as a weakened gasp as the grip on the dagger loosened.

I was moving. I wasn't thinking. I rose from the water with strength that shouldn't exist. I ran towards Adam on legs that shouldn't even be able to stand. I saw flesh, exposed through the torn remains of his shirt. Fresh, unblemished -- begging.

I sunk my teeth into his side and bit down with all the strength I could muster. Blood poured into my mouth as the skin broke. Adam let out a howl before a claw struck my back, digging deeper into the old wounds, but I only bit down harder. Kat's strangled breathing filled my ears. I dug my own nails into Adam's side to resist getting torn away.

I opened my eyes, not sure how much more I could take, and heard that horrible cry of rage again. And then Mutt was there, teeth bared, ramming into Adam.

I was thrown aside, the force of impact dislodging my teeth and nails from him. As Mutt and Adam struggled once again, I searched for Kat.

She was lying face down in the water. She wasn't moving.

"Kat," I groaned as I reached out to her. I pulled myself towards her and grabbed hold of her body when I was close enough. I flipped her over and sat down so she could lie in my lap. My body was near impossible to control, but I tried to keep her head above water. Her face was purple and she wasn't breathing.

Tears filled my eyes. "Kat!"

I looked up at Mutt to ask for help only to see that he was in the process of tearing out Adam's throat. Their faces were both drenched in blood.

I looked back at Kat. She still wasn't breathing.

I felt sick but held back the bile. Without thinking, I brought my mouth to hers and blew in. I had no idea if I was doing it right.

I was weak.

The other world was calling me. I felt it pull on my body, on my mind. With every breath of life I tried to breathe into Kat, I felt another piece of me die. The last gurgled murmurs of Adam filled the silence.

Kat's lips were so cold. Her entire body was so cold. I breathed into her mouth again and again. The final breath turned into a kiss. I didn't know what I was doing. I just couldn't pull away. I couldn't look at her face. So still, so unmoving. Hot tears burned my face as I kept my lips pressed against hers.

There was splashing. I broke the contact and met eyes with Mutt. I could see nothing in the brown orbs that were lost in a sea of blood. He reached down and grabbed Kat's arm, then grabbed my arm. I had no more energy to do anything. I felt nothing.

Mutt dragged us slowly through the water. Each step seemed like a great, impossible struggle for him, but he never stopped. When we reached the shore, I saw something on his leg. It looked like a bite mark, but the wound was black, the veins around it purple.

"Mu..." I tried to say his name, just his name, but it wouldn't come.

When Mutt pulled us free from the water, he collapsed and did not get back up. I couldn't tell if he was dead or not.

Someone coughed, sputtering out water. I quickly shifted my focus back to Kat. Her eyes were open. The bright green. So bright it hurt to look at them. I didn't care if it was a trick anymore. I smiled. "Ka..."

"Thank you," she whispered, smiling back at me.

I felt like I could cry again, but instead I blacked out. No more energy. I was done.

...

When I woke back up, my throat and mouth burned from dryness. I crawled towards the nearby lake, falling away from against a tree. I could crawl on my hands and knees. It hurt like hell, but I could do it.

When I made it to the lake, I drank and drank. It was disgusting, even somewhat metallic tasting, but it quenched the thirst. When I finished, I looked around, and then almost threw it all back up.

Adam, or what was left of him, was lying on the shore of the lake right beside me. His once rage filled eyes were cloudy. The blood had been mostly washed away. The scar over his eye was still as bad as I remembered, but nowhere near as bad as his throat. It looked like some animal had torn it open.

"Hey, Foxy, you're up."

Speak of the devil. I glanced behind me and saw Mutt resting against a tree. Looking back, I could also see that The Sorrow had gone. Still, there was not much else to see besides trees.

Mutt smiled. His clothes were torn near shreds. There were more gashes on his face, arms, and chest that I could count. A piece of what looked like his shirt had been wrapped around the bite on his leg, I could still see the purple veins protruding beneath it.

"Oh, god, Mutt," I breathed. I could not stop staring. He looked near death.

"I'm okay. I'm okay, really," he insisted. His voice was so weak and forced. It sounded a lot like Mr. Mallard's when he wasn't being a psycho.

Mr. Mallard.

"Where is Kat?" I asked, looking around but finding only us and Adam. "Did she try and go find Mr. Mallard and the others?"

"Yeah, she just left, Foxy," Mutt answered, wincing in pain. "Hey, Foxy, do you think you can get me some water too?"

"Oh. Oh, yeah. Definitely. Hold on."

I looked around again, trying to find something that might hold water. Finding nothing, I looked down at my hands which were still covered in dirt and some blood. I turned back to the lake and washed them out the best that I could before cupping water into both.

The crawl back to Mutt was arduous. Whatever energy the severe thirst had given me had left, and then some. My muscles, or the lack thereof, were on fire. I had to move even slower still to lower the risk of spilling it. By the time I made it to Mutt, I was close to collapsing.

He lapped the water from my hands. It tickled. He was done in less than a minute. "Can I have more?"

"Sorry, I don't think I'd be able to survive the trip," I said, rolling over on my back. I howled in agony as the pain returned with a vengeance before flopping back onto my stomach. I didn't think I'd ever move again.

"Are you okay, Foxy?" Mutt asked, his genuine concern breaking through the weakness, slightly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. I mean, I've been better, way better, but I'm alive, right?"

"Yeah, you are."

Inspecting myself, I saw that my clothes were mostly torn to shreds too. Though I could assume that was more from whoever tore them to wrap the make-shift bandages that were wrapped over the wounds in my back and calf.

"Jeez, you wouldn't think from knowing her that Kat would be such a good caretaker," I said, mostly to myself.

However, Mutt laughed weakly in response. "Well, yeah, Foxy, she has to be. It's what her Master wants."

"Mr. Mallard?" I asked, but from the tone of his voice I already knew the answer.

"Noooo, her real master. Dr. Quincy, I think. He's got a lot of kids so Kat's gotta know how to take care of them."

"What the hell kind of doctor needs a slave to look after his kids?" I asked, trying to piece it together in my head even before Mutt could answer.

"Well, Kat told me that his wife was a witch, and that she's trying to kill his kids, so he needs Kat to help protect them."

Okay, things were starting to get into crazy territory again. "You keep using that word, witch. Do you mean, like, a bad person?"

"Witches can be bad people," Mutt agreed, seeming to mull it over for a moment. "Yeah, some witches are bad. But some are good, like my Master. I bet your witch will be nice too Foxy, don't worry!"

"Mutt, what the hell are you talking about?"

Had that bite gotten to his head? Mutt looked back at me, as confused as I felt, but then his eyes lit up and he was suddenly embarrassed. "Oops," he said, glancing around at everywhere but me. "Mr. Mallard didn't tell you yet?"

"Tell me what?" I asked. Mutt didn't answer. "Mutt, tell me what?"

Mutt looked all around, like he was searching for something. But then a smile came to his face as he stared back at me. "You're gonna be a familiar, Foxy!" he announced, like it was the greatest thing in the world. "You're gonna have a really awesome and nice person to look after and take care of. We all are. I don't know who your person is gonna be, but Mr. Mallard went through a lot to make sure you joined us, so it has to be someone really special!"

"What? Familiar? What are you even saying?"

There must have been something in that black bite. It was getting to his head, making him crazier sounding than usual. I looked away from him and closed my eyes. I wasn't getting any real answers out of him.

Familiar. What did that even mean?

There was a knock on the door.

Wait--the door?

I opened my eyes and sure enough there was a door. It was against a tree--no, it was a part of the tree, like it had always been there. A solid and red door carved into a tree with someone behind it knocking.

"It's Mr. Copper!" Mutt called out, grinning from ear to ear. "It's us! It's safe!"

Then the door opened and sure enough it was Mr. Copper. Same oversized coat, same slicked hair. Only this time he sported a large gash down one side of his face, most of it covered by an eye patch.

Also, he was holding a hand gun. "Hello, boys," he greeted casually, like he had just dropped by for a visit.

Someone pushed passed him and my heart almost stopped when my eyes fell on her. "Alex!" Mary cried, running up to me before I had time to move or say anything. She looked like she was prepared to throw herself on me, but hesitated.

"Alex," she repeated in a soft breath. Her big brown eyes behind the glasses were wide and filled with tears. "Oh, Alex."

I couldn't stand her looking at me like that. Despite all the pain and confusion, I stared back at her and smiled "Greetings, Sir Knight. It appears your damsel could...er, could use some assistance?"

She laughed--laughed and cried. Then she collapsed on top of me. I held in the groan of pain as she scooped me up and cried into my chest.

While she wasn't looking, I cried as well. Quietly.

I was alive. She was alive.

Why was she still here?

"Mary..." I began, but stopped when I saw Mr. Copper appear behind her.

"Not to interrupt," he said, raising a curious brow as he looked down at us, "but perhaps this should be saved for later. The enemy is still out there."

"Yes, of course!" Mary exclaimed, tearing herself away and standing back up, brushing down the black coat I just then noticed she was wearing. "Forgive me, Master."

Wait, what?!

I remained silent as Mr. Copper holstered his gun and picked me up in his arms, bridal style. I contemplated a great many things as Mary went up and helped Mutt stand and walk. Together, we made our way towards the door in the tree.

The doorway was still open. I looked beyond it, but could not believe my own eyes.

Inside the tree was that room I had seen Mr. Copper and Mr. Mallard in, from where I was I could see a lot of the stuffed animals. But that didn't make sense. As we continued to walk towards it, I opened and closed my eyes, I rubbed them, but the illusion would not go away.

And then Mr. Copper was taking us through the door. And then we were inside the room.

I looked back towards the door. The door that should now be leading out into a hallway in the asylum, but all I saw was the forest, the lake, and Adam's body.

I still could not speak. It was taking my entire concentration just to keep from passing out again. Mr. Copper walked me over to one of the black chairs beside the fireplace. When he sat me down in it, I saw the other one, across from me, was occupied by Mr. Mallard.

He looked at me with those enlarged blue eyes. I saw no sign of emotion in them. Not anger, or joy. Nothing. Unlike everyone else, he was the only person with no sign of visual damage. The marks from the dogs had long since healed.

At the sound of the door closing, I turned back to see Mary was still supporting Mutt. She watched me for a brief moment before turning her attention back to the door.

There was a strange, complicated symbol drawn in chalk over the center. It was circular, but the amount of shapes and detail inside of it made my head swim. Mr. Copper walked over to the door and wiped away the symbol with a few motions of a coat sleeve. My heart almost ached at seeing something that must have taken hours wiped away just like that.

Mr. Copper opened the door again and beyond it was now the hallway I had been expecting the first time. He held the door open as Mary began to lead Mutt through it. I opened my mouth to call out to her when a hand was placed on my knee.

I turned back and saw Mr. Mallard's withered old hand, his face taking on a touch of concern. "Not now," he said in that weakened voice I had missed so much.

I looked back to the door. Mary and Mutt were gone, but Mr. Copper was still there. He met my eyes and I could tell he was studying me with his one good eye. Like Mr. Mallard, I could not tell what he was thinking. After a moment, he nodded a farewell and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Now, Foxy," Mr. Mallard began, bringing my attention back to him. He had reclined himself back in his chair and folded his hands over his slightly protruding stomach. "I believe it's time we had our talk."

...

*Author's Note*

Well, that was a doozy! Long and action packed, just like my--You know what, never mind, there's no way that tangent will end well.

So do you guys think our haggard hero is going to finally get some answers, or is he destined to be strung along for all eternity? Please let me know what you think on that or anything else that leaves you thirsty for more! Speaking of thirsty, that star up there looks mighty parched, wouldn't you say? I think if you liked this chapter, and gave that vote button a press, it might somehow magically feel refreshed!