*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧—chapter twenty-four: family is everything

August 23, 2021
Hackett House
Upstate New York, New York

THE FLOOR OF THE ATTIC HAD COLLAPSED AT THREE-TEN IN THE MORNING. The three teens and werewolf Chris land on the floor with a loud thud. They don't recover as fast as they'd like, but werewolf Chris was the first one up, already crossing the room to pin Bobby to the wall to try and kill him. Ryan pushes Laura off of him, sending the girl stumbling backwards. Cassidy blinks rapidly, trying to clear his blurry vision. His ears were ringing and everything was just going so wrong already.

As Cassidy pushes himself up to stand, staggering to his feet, he can tell his senses were heightened even more than before. He could hear everything in this room. Their rapid heartbeats. The blood traveling through their veins. Their heavy breathing. Werewolf Chris' growling. Bobby's strained grunts as he tries to push his werewolf brother away from him. Laura smacking her forehead with the palms of her hands as she freaks out over the fact her transformation was starting. Ryan crawling under one of the tables. The footsteps from out in the hall as Travis makes his way to whatever room this was. And his pupils were dilated, letting in less light but it was making his eyes hurt and his headache was starting to come back.

But this oncoming headache was also accompanied by excessive sweating, the feeling of nausea, dizziness, and what felt like the beginnings of a fever.

"Not now, not now, not now... Please," Cassidy mutters, slapping his face as if that was going to do anything. He hoped fighting it would do something, at least. He hoped.

The door to the room opens and Travis enters, gun held firmly in his hands. He glances around the room, seeing everything that was currently happening, but before he can do anything, blood splatters across the room as Laura turns. A swing of her arm makes Travis stumble backward into the wall, falling against the mirror behind him. It shatters upon contact, the glass breaking off into various-sized shards. His fingers brush a piece of glass and he picks it up, staring at it as an idea popped into his head.

"Silver-backed mirror..." Travis says in realization. He looks up from the shard of glass, turning his attention to his youngest brother. "Bobby—the gun!"

But Bobby was in no condition to get the gun. It wasn't near him, it was by the table where Ryan and Cassidy were. And werewolf Chris had just thrown Bobby into the wall. Bobby kicks werewolf away, but that only angers it. It lunges at him, pinning him to the wall, and the man does everything he can to keep werewolf Chris from ripping his throat out.

Both Travis and Bobby were going to get mauled to death if someone didn't try to save them.

I have to do somethin', Cassidy thinks, glancing back and forth between the two sides of the room.

"Hey, Cass, look at me and keep your eyes on me, okay?" Ryan calls to his best friend, trying to divert his attention from the fact that both Travis and Bobby could die right now. Cassidy looks over at where the Erzahler boy was under the table, but he was so fucking scared of what was going to happen. "Keep your eyes on me. I know you're scared, but it's gonna be fine. Just keep looking at me."

Cassidy nods quickly to let him know he understood, but he so badly wanted to look away and look at the other, just to see if something bad did happen. But if he started panicking even more, it would just make the transformation worse.

"What if I hurt you?" he asks, frowning. He could feel his veins pulsating beneath his skin. A growl leaves his throat and he has to try and force it down. Not now, dammit! Go away! It was already bad enough that he felt like he was dying and that he suddenly had a craving for blood. "Ryan, I- I don't wanna hurt you."

"You won't," Ryan sits up under the table, a determined look was in his eyes. "I promise, you won't."

"You don't know that..." Cassidy trails, shifting nervously on his feet.

"You're a strong person, Cass. You can fight it," Ryan reassures. "You'll be fine. I promise."

Cassidy nods again, squeezing his eyes shut as his headache gets worse and the need to vomit was getting stronger. His entire body hurt. But he couldn't try ignoring any of it now. It was too late to be attempting to do that. It had been much easier to do it earlier when the symptoms weren't this severe. But now? He had no choice but to give in.

But the pain was definitely getting worse and he collapses to the floor on his knees, digging his nails into the floor as he groans in pain. There's a series of growls and snarls that come from his throat as the seconds tick by. He can feel his bones move and shift beneath his skin. An explosion of blood follows soon after, splattering everything in the vicinity.

In place of Cassidy's human form was a werewolf, lowering onto all fours as it looks around the room, crimson red blood coating tis skin. Its yellow eyes were glowing as they flick back and forth the struggles between Bobby and werewolf Chris and Travis and werewolf Laura. He doesn't move right away, trying to figure out exactly what the hell was happening right now. Because something was different about this transformation—not like he knew that since he didn't remember any of his past transformations. But he could just tell. He could feel it. Something—

His human mind.

He had control over it, he realizes. It wasn't held back and guarded by the invisible force of the mind of the werewolf. He still had the wolfish tendencies and instincts but his human mind was very much there.

"Cass, look at me!"

At the sound of Ryan's voice, he glances down toward underneath the table. Ryan was once again trying to distract him. This was going to waste time and someone—Bobby or Travis—would be dying if he didn't act now. So, he turns away from the table stares at the wallpaper-covered wall that Bobby was pinned to by werewolf Chris.

He growls lowly as he walks past the table, nearing werewolf Chris. He wasn't going to let him hurt Bobby. Not like this. Besides, if Chris was still alive by the time it was dawn, the man would be disappointed finding out he had killed his younger brother.

He lunges, sharp teeth grabbing Chris by the scruff and dragging him off of Bobby. His werewolf uncle tries to wriggle free, high-pitched whines leaving the creature's throat as he's dragged across the floor.

Bobby relaxes a bit, breathing heavily as he straightens up, watching his werewolf brother get dragged across the room by his werewolf nephew.

While Cassidy's trying to solve one problem, Ryan is trying to solve another. The Erzahler boy extends his leg, dragging the shotgun towards him with his foot. Once it's near him, he reaches over and grabs it, picking it up, before climbing out from under the table. He gets to his feet, raising the gun. His gaze was on the werewolf form of his best friend, who was still dragging the werewolf version of the camp operator across the room. But instead of shooting either of them—which he never even thought about doing because why the fuck would he ever want to hurt or kill them?—, he turns to face the corner by the bookshelves were Travis was currently trying to stab werewolf Laura with a broken piece of the mirror. He aims the gun at her.

Finger on the trigger, he pulls it. A loud bang sounds as the shot was fired. Blood splatters the wall as the silver slug inside the shotgun shell goes straight through Laura's head. The werewolf collapses on the floor, twitching as the last bits of life leave her. Her body explodes with blood, reverting back to her human form, before going still.

Laura Kearney was dead.

But not all problems were fixed just yet. Ryan still needed Chris and Cassidy turning back to their human forms. But in order to do that, he had to inject them with something.

Slinging the strap of the shotgun over his shoulders, he walks over to Travis, who was struggling to get up from the floor as he avoids having the shards and splinters of glass scraping his skin and getting lodged in his palms. Ryan reaches out a hand, helping the sheriff up from the floor.

"Thanks," Travis says, brushing off his uniform in case there were pieces of glass stuck to the dark fabric.

"Yeah. Hey, uh, do you have, like, something I could—" he starts to ask, but Travis interrupts him when he digs into one of his pockets, pulling out two syringes full of some strange colored liquid, a safety needle attached to both.

"It's not a cure or anything, but it will turn 'em back," Travis says, handing the syringes to him. "Trust me."

Ryan nods, taking the syringes from him. He walks across the room, slowly so that he doesn't accidentally frighten werewolf Chris, he was a bit scared after all. And werewolf Cassidy was staring at Ryan as he walked over with the needles.

"It's the only way you two can turn back," Ryan explains, removing the caps from the needles and bringing one of the syringes near the werewolf form of his best friend.

Werewolf Cassidy flinches slightly as the needle pierces his skin and Ryan injects the drug into his veins. Then, Ryan takes the syringe out and moves into the next one, injecting that into werewolf Chris.

He removes the syringes and discards them on the floor, backing up as he does so, before stopping to wait.

Their skin bursts with blood again as they turn back. Both of their sets of clothes were shredded from the transformations and so much blood was covering them.

Cassidy looks down at himself, screwing up his face in disgust at the sight of the blood on him. He can't even wipe it off, trying to do so would just make it worse.

"I hate this. Like, actually. This is so gross," he says, frowning as he shifts on his feet. "I need a shower..."

Chris brings a hand up to his face, feeling the blood that drenched him head to toe. He grimaces before dropping his hand and looking around the room. Noticing Laura's dead body, how Bobby seemed terrified about what had just happened, and seeing the blood coating everyone else and just about everything in the room, he looks toward Travis, furrowing his brows as a look of confusion forms on his face. "Travis, what the hell happened? It can't be dawn yet... Is Caleb dead?"

"No, it's not dawn," Travis answers, sighing. "I don't think Caleb's dead. Those trackers that Bobby and Dad used went dead about an hour or so ago, so I don't know where he is. I can't tell you where Gabriel is either. But if Caleb was dead, you would've just transformed back on your own without Ryan having to inject you."

Chris nods in understanding, his brows still furrowed in confusion. "Where's Kaylee? And Mom and Dad?"

When Chris asks this next, Cassidy, Ryan, and Travis all share a look. Travis swallows thickly, shaking his head. He looks back up at Chris, trying to find the right words.

"They were... They were brutally murdered..." he informs. "And I wish they weren't."

"What?" Chris' expression falters and a sad expression appears on his face. "How? Who... Who did... Who killed them?"

Ryan gestures to the dead body of Laura Kearney that was behind him. "She did. And, I, um... killed her with silver."

"Ain't that... Ain't that Laura Kearney?" Chris questions, looking back up at Travis. "How did she get out of the..."

"It's a long story," Cassidy replies, answering for Travis.

"I think it'd be better is you heard it all later, C," Travis explains. "Um, the weight of all is too much to handle all at once..."

"T, just tell me..." Chris looks at his older brother. "What happened?"

"Later," the sheriff sighs, shaking his head. "Bobby, get Chris a change of clothes."

"On it, T," Bobby says, pushing away from the wall and going over to help Chris from off of the floor. Then, the two brothers leave the room.

"So, what do we do now?" Ryan asks once the door closes behind Travis' younger brothers.

"Aunt Mary's journal said somethin' 'bout makin' a cure," Cassidy says. He furrows his brows in thought, thinking back on the words that were written. "Five milliliters of blood from the first werewolf... one gram of powdered silver... one sprig of Wolfsbane... and two milliliters of fresh water..."

"What?" Travis stares at him, trying to process everything he just said. "Cass, there's no cure to this!"

"Huh," Cassidy's shoulders drop and he grins at him. "Well, I guess you must've skipped over that part in Mary's journal then. You know, when you stole it from her." Travis looks away from him, scowling. "Laura found it at the police station."

"There's no cure."

"Keep tellin' yourself that, Dad."

"We have less than four hours until dawn and this... it's not over yet, right?" Ryan speaks up. "I mean, Chris isn't dead... And—"

"It's a good thing Chris ain't dead, Ryan," Cassidy says, meeting his gaze.

"Why?" Ryan shakes his head after speaking, realizing what he said might have come off the wrong way. "I mean... what do you mean?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Cassidy can see Travis looking at him. He nods to him and Travis looks up at Ryan, his lips pressed to a thin line.

"Chris wasn't the first."

author's note
when ryan and cass
do the right thing, so
that laura ends up
dying, and all three
hackett brothers get
saved>>>>>

08.13.22