*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧—chapter seventeen: take cover

August 22, 2021
Hackett's Quarry
Upstate New York, New York

CASSIDY IS ALREADY HEADED OFF TOWARD THE MUSIC CABIN WHILE RYAN AND DYLAN HEAD OVER TO THE RADIO HUT. The path leading to the music cabin was a dirt path more narrow than every other path. It was off to the side, just a ways away like the radio hut, not too close to the cabins, but not too far away either.

Several different noises meet his ears as he walks, other than the wind blowing through the trees. Growling, crunching foliage not from his footsteps, the eerie silence that had overtaken the cabin area. He scans the line of trees, seeing nothing but darkness. The moonlight was no help. But he knew what he heard. He knew the werewolves were out there. Caleb, Gabriel, and Kaylee. And Silas. What any of them were even doing at here since the night started, he had no idea. None of them were supposed to be here. His cousins were supposed to be locked in the basement of Hackett House. Silas was supposed to not be in this area at all, as stated in the letters he read just hours ago. He hadn't even thought about Chris. But he was the least of Cassidy's problems. Chris was chained up in the attic of Hackett House.

But what did the others want?

He doesn't ponder the question any longer as he reaches the cabin. He walks up the steps and pushes open the door. It hadn't been locked all day, which was the only good thing.

Before he starts searching the room for the loose floorboards where he hid the shotguns and the shells, he pushes a table up against the door to barricade it.

As he crosses the room, passing the many instruments the lined one of the walls, he sees a small card resting on the bench of the piano. He walks over to it and picks it up, flipping it over.

TAROT CARD FOUND
7 OF ??
DEATH

They were dead. Most of his family was dead. The only ones remaining were him, Caleb, and Gabriel. Those two were either dead or alive, but he had no idea. But most of his family was dead.

They were dead and he felt empty.

He was alone.

"I'm finding these cards a lot more often," he mutters as he slips the card into his pocket with the other six cards. "Damn..."

He walks away from the piano and heads over to the back of the room. The loose floorboards he was looking for were in the back right corner. He bends down and pries one of the wooden planks open, staring down into the darkness below. He could see the reflection of two shotguns down there and next to them was a box of shotgun shells.

He reaches down pulls the objects out one at a time, before pressing down hard on the plank to get it back into place. As he stands back up, he slings one of the guns over his shoulders and carries the other one in his hand, the box of shotgun shells resting in between his side and his arm.

Just as he's about to start heading for the door to leave, the door creaks open. Cassidy sets the gun and box he was carrying on the floor, not bothering to take off the other gun as he runs across the room to find a place to hide. You couldn't really hide in the music room, as there weren't really any places to keep you mostly hidden. But he had to hide either way.

He ducks under the piano, sitting with his knees tucked close to his chest. Footsteps could be heard around the room as the door creaks closed and the person who had just entered the music cabin starts walking.

He recognizes the heavy footsteps belonging to Bobby Hackett.

"I know you're here, Cass, come on out." Bobby's voice fills the room and Cassidy has to make sure he doesn't reveal himself to him.

He holds his breath, waiting, watching Bobby's shadow move with every step the man takes as he searches for his nephew. Cassidy shifts a bit to see exactly what Bobby was doing. He was reaching for the gun and the box of shotgun shells.

Cassidy backs up, pressing his back against the wall, but the shotgun on his back made it difficult to do that. The firearm smacks the wall and he slaps a hand over his mouth, staying very still as Bobby walks over to the piano.

He sees the shadow move closer as Bobby bends down and peers under the peering, meeting the eyes of his nephew.

"Get out from there."

Cassidy slumps his shoulders in disappointment, letting his hand fall from his mouth as crawls out from under the piano. Looking at Bobby, he notices the gun Kaitlyn had been given by Dylan slung over his shoulders.

"What you need this shit for?" Bobby asks him, gesturing toward the guns and the box of shotgun shells.

"Ain't tellin' you," Cassidy says, slipping his own gun off of his shoulders and aiming it at his uncle.

Bobby just laughs. "You ain't gonna shoot me."

"No, but I need you and Pappy to leave me and my friends alone," the boy replies, moving the gun to aim it at the floor. He pulls the trigger and Bobby takes several steps back.

"We tryin' to help you. There's—"

"I know 'bout the werewolves."

There's silence that follows as Bobby furrows his brows in confusion as he stares at Cassidy. "How?"

"Found the letters and the newspaper and all that other shit in Chris' office," Cassidy answers, shooting at the floor again, which makes Bobby take another step back. "Now get—" Before the rest of the demand gets spoken, the shotgun is yanked from his hands. Cassidy backs up and grabs the guitar off of the wall, raising it over his head as he stares at Bobby.

Bobby just laughs at him again, shaking his head. "Fool."

"Am I?" Cassidy asks and Bobby starts walking over to him. He brings the guitar down and hits him over the head with it before dropping it and grabbing the box of shells and one of the guns, not having time to take the other one, and quickly opens the door. As he runs outside, he sees Jedediah coming this way, so he takes off for the radio hut.

He follows the path back to the middle of the cabins area at a hurried pace, only to be stopped by the sound of screaming. His head snaps toward the direction of the radio hut to see a large and white, muscular werewolf up on the roof, teeth locked around something and biting down on it viciously.

Silas.

The albino werewolf was attacking Dylan through a hole in the roof of the radio hut. Cassidy raises the shotgun, aiming it at the werewolf on the roof. But before he can pull the trigger, a loud, high-pitched noise echoes through the cabins area.

Cassidy drops the gun and covers his ears, wincing at how loud it was. But eventually the feedback stops, the speakers getting blown. Silas jumps down from the roof and runs into the woods behind the cabins.

A door opens and he sees Ryan and Dylan walking out of the radio hut. Blood was covering both of them and Dylan had a hand covering—

"What the hell happened?" Cassidy asks immediately, hurrying over to them. "Did the thing do that?"

"No, no," Dylan winces, shaking his head. "I- I told Ryan to cut it off... Fuck... It's hurts so, so fucking much..."

"We gotta get back to the Lodge..." Ryan says, looking around to see if the coast was clear.

Another door opens and all three of them look toward one of the cabins to see Kaitlyn walk out with Sawyer, Abi, and Nick. She walks down the steps and hurries over to them.

"Is it safe?" she asks them.

"I think we're okay for now..." Ryan informs, looking between everyone in the group.

"We ran into one of those hunter guys," Kaitlyn starts to explain as they walk back to the middle of the cabins area. "Cass, was that your uncle and your grandpa?"

"Yeah. Bobby was the one you guys ran into. Jedediah was out here lookin' for us. I ran into Bobby when I was in the music cabin. He went in there and I, uh... I may have knocked him out with the guitar..." Cassidy replies, nodding.

"Cool. Uh, yeah, he chased us out of the Lodge. We lost both of them on the way up here, though," Kaitlyn says, then she turns to Ryan and Dylan. "You get a message out?"

"I think so," Ryan answers.

"Great."

They reach the middle of the cabins area and slow down to a stop. Kaitlyn turns around to face the group.

"What the hell was going on up—" She pauses, eyes glancing down to see what remained of Dylan's now bloodied arm. "Oh, my God, Dylan, what happened?!"

"Oh, um..." Dylan glances down at his arm as some blood dripped from it, falling onto the grass. "I'm okay, I mean... I'm not, uh— But it's- it doesn't... doesn't hurt—"

"Okay, you're in shock. Holy fucking shit." Kaitlyn shakes her head in disbelief. She turns to Ryan, gesturing toward Dylan's arm. "Did that... thing... do this?"

"No," Ryan answers immediately. "Well... Sort of, it- it..."

There's a loud gunshot echoes through the camp. The group falls into a steadied silence, looking around in fear.

"Kaitlyn, where's your gun?" Ryan asks, breaking the silence.

"I lost it," Kaitlyn answers with a huff of annoyance. "One of the friendly locals wanted to saw hi."

Another gunshot rings out, followed by the splash of something falling into the pool.

author's note
hi 😁

07.30.22