Both Cassie and Eric stared after the figure running away in a panic. At first they weren’t sure what was wrong, until a breeze blew her scent towards them. And they both realized their girl was normal. And that’s about when all the blood drained from their faces and they looked at each other.
“Was that a…?”
“I think so.” Cassie said, her voice barely a whisper.
“Should we go after her? She had a camera, I think.” Eric asked nervously. He hadn’t been a were more than a day and yet someone saw him who wasn’t supposed to. It was dark out, so it’s not like they were breaking any of the town laws. That normal was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Well considering we’d probably only scare her, no. But we should tell Ben’s mom. This IS her area of expertise.” Cassie thought of Samantha Twist instantly.
The two ran back the way they came, careful to avoid the normals’ scent so they wouldn’t run into her again. Along the way, they came face to face with another wolf.
“Hey, I was just coming to find you two.” Ben said when Cassie and Eric ran past him. The two skidded to a stop, took a moment to look at each other, and then grabbed Ben and dragged him behind them.
“Whoa, take it easy! What’s going on?” Ben asked, but neither of the two were willing to stop to explain their haste. Only once they were back at the house, did Cassie stop to tell Ben what happened. Eric grabbed their clothing from the ground, and quickly changed back.
“Oh crap. Are you sure it was a normal?” Ben asked while Cassie and Eric dressed. They both nodded vigorously.
“Definitely. From the way she ran away I…”
“Hang on, it was a SHE?”
“We caught her scent. Definitely female, definitely normal. And alone, there weren’t any other smells on her except her own.” Cassie said.
“But what the hell is a normal doing out in the woods at a time like this? It’s past midnight?”
“Camping? Enjoying the scenery?” Eric offered, but Cassie and Ben both couldn’t wrap their heads around that. It was December, what normal person went camping in December? Weres sure, they had fur coats to keep themselves warm. But a normal alone in the woods, that didn’t make too much sense to them.
“Wait, why were you looking for us?” The thought only just occurred to Cassie that Ben had said he was looking for them.
“Oh, right. Uh, something’s come up and my mom needed to talk to Eric. Though considering what’s happened, I think maybe she can post pone it.” Ben hoped his mother would be able to manage without Eric. Because his other mom would most likely want to talk to the two about the normal they saw.
“Is something wrong with Julie?” Eric felt sick in his stomach. If Julie was… and on the same night he and Cassie. If she hadn’t been holding his hand, Eric might have fallen over.
“I don’t know Eric. Mom didn’t tell me much. Said she would explain once she…”
A car pulling up in front of the house stopped Ben mid-sentence. The three occupants, Francis, Samantha and Martha, exited and found the three teenagers in the O’Sullivan’s backyard. Each looked very panicked, and worried. At first, they assumed it was because of Julie. Ben was still in his were form, as his change of clothing was in his own car, and he had yet to retrieve it.
“We’ve got a problem.” Ben said, facing both his mother’s.
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Meanwhile….
Claire made it back to her tent, shaking and sweating like mad. She was certain she’d been hallucinating. Or that they had been wearing costumes. Anything other than the absurd notion what she saw was the truth.
“That’s not fucking possible.” Claire kept thinking.
When she told her friends she was planning on testing her new camera by taking some wildlife pictures in the woods around a small town known as Moon Lake, they had all advised her not to.
“That place is so weird. Lots of wild animals hang around there. Like wolves and stuff. And everyone always says they see weird things going on. Like people disappearing.” One friend had told her. But Claire brushed it off as local legends. And the idea of seeing elusive wildlife had only made her want to go even more.
Now she was seriously regretting her decision. And what’s worse, she was alone. Sure she had a rifle with her, but she wasn’t that good a shot. Claire began to pack her belongings up, eager to get as far away from the forest as possible. But it was late, and she was hardly an outdoor person. She counted herself lucky she’d been able to make it back to her tent without getting lost.
“No fucking cell phone reception, no trails, god what was I thinking?” she muttered as she jammed her gear into her backpack. Taking the tent down would take some time, and Claire worried that, whatever the hell those things were, they’d be out there. And the notion that she might serve as a midnight snack to them wasn’t that crazy to Claire.
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Back to the others….
The Twists and Martha stood in a stunned silence as the three teenagers told them what happened. When they were finished, Samantha told Ben to go get dressed before he was seen too.
“We’re sorry, we should have been more careful.” Eric and Cassie both hung their heads in shame.
“It’s not your fault. It’s late, and how could you have known a normal person decided to camp in the middle of the woods in December? She’s obviously not from Moon Lake, which could prove to be a problem. More importantly, she shouldn’t have been in the woods anyway. Our park rangers close the forests to the ‘public’ after Thanksgiving. Obviously weres are allowed to still enter them, but outside campers are not.” Samantha explained.
“Still, we shouldn’t have made so much noise, or been standing out in the open like that.” Cassie said ashamed she’d made the mistake of bringing Eric to the lake. Lots of trails, from Moon Lake and the neighboring towns, led to the area.
“My mom’s going to kill me.” Cassie thought.
“Look, no one is to blame. What’s done is done, and now we’ve got to go track that girl down and make sure she won’t do anything stupid. You said she had a camera?” That bit of information worried Samantha the most. Pictures were the hardest to cover up, since the internet was a like one never ending copy machine.
Of course it had been night, so maybe she couldn’t have seen too much. And at least it wasn’t a full moon, so there wasn’t a lot of moonlight hitting the lake.
“I don’t think she took any pictures. I mean I didn’t hear the camera click, and there wasn’t a flash.” Cassie tried to remember additional details, but everything had happened so fast. And Eric wasn’t that accustomed to his senses yet. He was surprised he’d been able to hear the girl backing away.
“Alright, Francis I know you had plans…” Samantha didn’t finish as Francis waved a hand.
“Don’t worry. That can wait until morning. Catching that normal is more important.” she said.
“But is Julie alright?” Eric asked again.
“She’s alright Eric. Don’t worry about her right now. Julie’s not going anywhere, she’ll be here tomorrow. That normal may NOT.” Francis said. Eric nodded. He sensed Francis wasn’t telling him the truth, but she was right. Finding that girl, woman, whoever, was much more important.