Something Wicked This Way Comes Ch4

Well first off, somebody should just come over and put me out of my misery because I accidentally posted this to my sfw Patreon and even though I deleted it immediately, you can still read the whole thing in the notification email Patreon sends out.  So my sister might read this extremely embarrassing and self-indulgent fanfiction.  

On another note, I've been ordered by the doctor not to use my wrist for a week so this week's Nightmare Boyfriend update will either be late or pushed back entirely. ;-;

***

Jack wished that Koz had left the music on. Neither of them was talking and in the silence, he kept hearing that gunshot echoing over and over. The AC and the music had dulled the sound to some extent, but he’d certainly still heard it, loud as a thunderclap.

He shuddered and looked out the window, trying to distract himself from his thoughts. The sky was turning a pale pink and orange as the sun slowly sank. It was strange that he didn’t need to fear this. Safety felt foreign. He didn’t like it. He felt antsy, like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The woods passed slowly by. There wasn’t a road this far out in the woods so Koz was driving the truck along a faintly worn path. The way was winding, going around trees and rocky outcrops – even driving across shallow creeks. It was slow going with lots of bumps and turns. Still, there was very little to see.

Jack glanced back towards his companion. Koz was completely focused on the road, so he didn’t see his gaze. Jack was impressed with his companion’s skill, but also terrified. Koz had killed someone. He found himself half disturbed at how little Koz seemed to mind and half jealous that he couldn’t be that brave. He was horrified by the part he’d played in Aaron’s death. He shouldn’t be right? Or should he? Aaron was going to kill him. Didn’t that make it okay?

No. Never. It was never okay to hurt people.

Maybe that made him weak. He didn’t know.

Jack’s thoughts chased themselves around and around until he thought he might be sick.

He started suddenly. Koz had just asked him something, but he’d been too distracted to hear. “What?”

“Sorry,” Koz said. “I was making a poor attempt at conversation. I asked what you were going to do once you got home.”

“Oh,” Jack said. Home seemed like some distant, fantasy world right now. He struggled to pull it back into focus.

“I’ll probably get my ass handed to me.” He looked out the window, not really focusing on anything, before he realized what he’d said. “I mean—” He backtracked. “My parents are probably so worried. I’m going to be grounded forever.” He would be a lot more than grounded if his parents had actually called the police.

He glanced at Koz. “Or do you mean, what am I going to say to explain myself?”

“I am rather curious about that.” Koz admitted.

Jack wrapped his arms around himself. He didn’t want to talk right now, but he also didn’t want to sit in silence anymore. “Maybe I could say I was in a fugue state.”

“Like in Breaking Bad?”

Jack cracked a weak smile at that. “And Teen Wolf.”

Koz let out a soft breath of laughter. “Fugue states can be a little tricky,” he said. “You could end up in a hospital on accident.”

Jack licked his lips and tried to gather his thoughts. It felt good to focus on other things. “So I got lost in the woods, wandered until I found a cabin—”

“No,” Koz cut him off. “Someone might look for the cabin and find the bone pile. That will lead to all sorts of nasty questions.”

“O-oh…” Jack swallowed. He searched for some new idea, but his thoughts were too scattered. “I don’t think I could sell that I survived just by wandering around.”

“No. You were right the first time, say it was a fugue state – but don’t actually call it that until a doctor tells you that’s what it was. Play a confused, frightened kid. Say you don’t remember much after… whatever it was happened that made you run in here with no shoes on. The first thing you remember was walking along the road side, where a good Samaritan – not me – gave you a ride home.”

“Not you?”

“Undoubtedly this will end up on the news and I prefer not to draw attention to myself,” Koz said.

“Oh. Okay.” Jack looked out the window as the truck slowly made its way through the forest. It almost might have been faster to walk, but the air-conditioning was a welcome relief and Jack’s leg could use the rest – it’d been bothering him for a long time now.

He realized as Koz maneuvered through the trees along the faint trail, that the Bennett’s must have left the track. They were obviously very well stocked on food; they must have been coming and going in and out of the forest.

Jack thought darkly about all the nights he’d spent terrified for his life, eating only stale junk food in the cabin while the Bennett family had a happy little camping trip while they tried to kill him.

For one moment he felt a flare of vindictiveness as he thought that Aaron and his brother deserved what they got – but then he remembered Jamie’s face when he’d emerged from the truck with the bag of supplies and asked to make s’mores and he could only feel a pressing guilt. He’d helped kill that kid’s family.

Jack sank into the seat, feeling simultaneously nauseous and hungry. Maybe some of the graham crackers would help. He peered into the truck’s backseat.

Koz’s pack was on the floor where he’d slung it, but Jack didn’t feel like he could handle any of the foods in there. The backseat was covered in junk – Jack didn’t know what - a plaid blanket was thrown across the seat with the trash bag thrown across one side and the grocery bag of s’mores stuffs in the middle. Jack reached back and jumped when something beneath the blanket moved.

“Koz!” He whirled around. “There’s something in the back seat!”

Hands grabbed his head and Jack was roughly yanked back against his seat. Fingers dug into his jaw and scalp as his head was jerked to the side. Jack’s neck wrenched hard and he let out a surprised gasp. Blinking back pained tears as he saw the blur of trees outside the window.

“Stop the car!” A girl shouted.

Koz cursed and slammed on the breaks. He drew his gun as the hands twisted again. Jack let out a gargled cry and flailed, head now twisted up towards the ceiling. She was going to break his neck!

Suddenly he was released as the girl tore out of the car. He gasped for breath, putting both hands to his sore neck. He glanced over in time to see the girl race behind a tree - but not before he saw the shotgun in her hand.

“Oh,” he croaked. He jumped as a hand grabbed the back of his neck and forced his head down. He had a brief moment of mindless panic before the pulsing blackness at the edge of his vision was blown away by an enormous crack. The passenger window shattered next to him. Jack winced away and saw Koz also hunched over.

There was another crack and Jack yelled in alarm as the windshield shattered and sent shards of glass raining down on them.

Koz kicked open the door on his side, gun trained over Jack’s head. He reached out with his left hand, grabbed Jack’s hood, and hauled him over the centerpiece and out of the truck.

“Stay low!” Koz ordered.

Jack didn’t need to be told twice.

Koz peered over the hood of the truck and ducked just as pellets ricocheted off the hood. He swore. “Of course, she’s got extra ammunition!” He snuck past where Jack was crouched and carefully rose up to peer through the backseat windows.

There was a moment of achingly long silence.

“Where is she?”

“She knows she’ll have to reload after this, so she’s waiting for a clear shot,” Koz said. “She’s got a bandage on her shoulder – apparently she was the one I shot last night.”

Jack looked up at the reddening sky. “So… she’s definitely a werewolf?”

Koz followed his gaze and cursed. He opened the back seat of the car, gun up and trained out the opposite window. He grabbed his pack and the grocery bag filled with food and flung them out towards Jack.

“Load that into my bag,” he ordered as he grabbed the Bennett’s cooler.

He ducked around the door as Jack finished stuffing the plastic bag into Koz’s pack and slung it over his shoulder.

“We’re going to run for it,” he announced. “Ready?”

Jack wasn’t ready. “Yes.”

“Good.” Koz grabbed Jack’s hand and pulled.

Jack had one moment to look back and see the vanishing light of day over the hood of the truck and then he was dragged into the dusky world beneath the trees.

There was one last crack of the rifle and then a frantic rustling as the girl chased after them.

“This way.” Koz pulled his hand and steered him… southward.

“But Claussen—“

“Too far!”

Jack couldn’t hear the girl behind them anymore, but he knew that wasn’t exactly a good thing. Sure enough, there soon came a terrible crashing and then a horrendous snarl behind them.

It was strange how this was starting to feel familiar enough that Jack wasn’t nearly as frightened as he might’ve been just the day before. Maybe he was just in shock. ‘Just keep running,’ he thought numbly. ‘Follow Koz and everything will work out.’

They broke through the line of trees just at the edge of a cliff. Koz clenched his hand around Jack’s and the two ran right off and plummeted into a dark, freezing lake.

As soon as the water closed over his head, panic set in. Jack flailed, yanking his hand out of Koz’s grip. He bobbed up to the surface and thrashed. “I can’t—” Water flooded his mouth as he bobbed under and he sputtered as he rose again. “—swim!”

Koz cursed. “Go still!” He cried just as Jack’s head slipped beneath the surface once more.

Jack looked up towards the sky. The surface seemed so close, but he couldn’t reach it.

He bobbed back to the surface with a choked off gasp.

“Stop struggling, Jack!” Koz said.

Jack sputtered water and tried to obey. He went still and instantly sank, immediately the urge to move – to escape – outweighed the logic behind keeping still. His head breached the surface, but he didn’t see the forest or Koz. Instead he saw the handle of the utility sink in the laundry room, a voice roared over his head and he was pushed down. He tried to gasp for breath, but his lungs wouldn’t obey.

His head slipped below the water once more. Koz grabbed at his hoodie and Jack felt imaginary hands on the back of his neck, forcing his head under. He lashed out and Koz let go of him.

Jack could hear the blood rushing in his ears and felt a burn in his lungs that was all too familiar. Darkness pulsed at the edge of his vision. He tried one last time to flounder his way to the surface, but it was too hard. Moving suddenly seemed like too much effort. He was just too tired.

‘What do you know?’ His thoughts burst like bubbles inside his pounding head. ‘I went still.’

*

Jack woke on the laundry room floor, fluorescent lights beating down on him.

No, that wasn’t right. He woke on the dirt. The dim light above him was the moon, a little more than half full; it looked like a glaring eye.

He felt a heaviness on his chest and thought for a moment that it was the moon. The moon was a werewolf, pinning him down. He couldn’t breathe, it was so heavy.

The moon disappeared as a dark shape moved between them. Lips pressed against his.

That wasn’t too bad. They were quite soft.

Then lightning or thunder or death slammed into his chest. He coughed and the world came slamming back to him. Another avalanche of pain crashed onto him and he coughed again. Water, bile, and snot came pouring out of his nose and mouth as he spluttered for air. He choked and hacked, flailing weakly as he was pushed onto his side, feeling his face press against grainy sand.

He coughed and coughed and ugh – gross, gross, ow. He choked. He could barely see anything; everything was a blur of brown and black as tears spilled from his eyes and down his cheeks. The thunder pounded against his back over and over and after he’d gotten a few solid gasps of breath in him, he realized it was Koz’s hand hitting him, helping him get the last of the water out.

Right. Koz.

He kept coughing and slowly Koz quit hitting him and started rubbing gentle circles on his back. Jack was shivering and crying and snotty. Great.

He lay still a moment, pulling air into his ragged lungs and letting it out again, trying to remember how this breathing-thing worked. Lying on his side, he could see the lake sprawled out before him. Beyond that was the cliff he and Koz had jumped from – he could tell because there was a tawny-colored wolf pacing along the top.

As he watched, a second wolf appeared. The two stood and stared across the water at them, neither group moved.

Koz kept stroking his back.

“Thanks,” Jack croaked out at last.

“No need for thanks.”

Jack coughed dryly, eyes stinging from the pain in his chest. “You saved my life.”

Koz let out a huff of air that could almost have been a disbelieving laugh. “I’d be one hell of a bastard if I’d just let you drown.”

Jack coughed again. “Still,” he choked, “thanks.”

Koz let out a shaky breath and fell back from his crouch to sit on the bank. Putting his arms out behind him to steady himself, he let his head fall back. “You’re welcome.” Jack could see him shaking.

They were silent a moment. Jack was trying to remember how to breathe without thinking about it. He didn’t know what Koz was thinking about. When he finally felt strong enough to roll over he found his companion looking up at the moon, a frown on his face.

Jack looked back towards the cliff edge across from them and saw the wolves still sitting there.

“Why aren’t they swimming over?” He said, his voice still gravelly. He coughed, trying to clear his throat.

“They probably don’t know how. Even if they knew when they were human, it’s… disorienting being in such a different body. You have to learn how to do everything a different way.”

Jack moved to sit up, but the pounding in his head convinced him this was a bad idea and he gently lay down again. “They can’t manage a doggie paddle?”

“You couldn’t.”

Jack let out a bark of laughter, then coughed. “Touché.” he mustered his strength for one sarcastic remark. His chest felt like one giant bruise, though he wasn’t sure if the pain was from Koz’s hits or his own hacking coughs.

Koz frowned. “Sorry.”

“No, no, I’m all for inappropriately placed humor. Bring it on.” He smiled weakly, coughed, and pulled the smile up again. “So they won’t come over here? Where is here?” Jack tried sitting up once more, moving as slowly as possible although his head and stomach both protested quite strongly. The world spun in lazy circles around him as he rose onto two feet. Koz stood up quickly and grabbed his upper arm just as everything seemed to start tilting. Jack groaned as everything slowly came back together again.

“Alright?” Koz asked, but Jack didn’t respond. He was looking around, still disoriented. They were on an island, about fifteen by twenty feet around with a sparse patch of grass and a single tree holding it together.

“Jeez,” Jack said. “You know this place like the back of your hand don’t you?”

“I know all the safe-zones, er… almost all the safe-zones. The cabin wasn’t public knowledge,” Koz said. Keeping his hand on the small of Jack’s back in case he started to fall again. “Anything else you want me to find, I’m useless. If you wanted me to find you someplace nice like the highest hill…” He frowned. “Actually, I know where the highest hill is.”

Jack laughed and coughed (but it was only a small one this time, so he was showing some improvement at least). “Wow.”

“I memorized a topographic map.”

Jack stared at him. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

Koz thought about it. He actually thought about it! “Give birth.”

Jack laughed/coughed. “Okay, Batman—”

“Don’t you mean Superman?”

“You’ve surpassed Superman.” Jack wheezed. “What do you have planned now?”

Koz was quiet a moment. “We’ll stay here tonight,” he said at length. “We’ll have to take turns keeping an eye on them. In the morning we can swim back over.”

Standing started to seem like too great a task and Jack slowly slid to the ground, Koz following, hovering in a sort of mother hen way. “What if they’re still there?” Jack asked croakily.

“They won’t be. After they change, they’ll be too vulnerable. They’ll be naked, unarmed, and hungry. We’ll have to swim back towards the shore just before they change, then try to run for Claussen before they can get themselves organized.” Satisfied that Jack couldn’t faint while sitting down, Koz settled down next to him.

“What do we do when we reach Claussen?” Jack asked.

“Head for the nearest public building – get a phone and call for back-up,” Koz said.

“Great.” It was not great. It sounded like a huge long-shot – but so far Jack’s plan had been to slowly starve alone in a cabin, so he couldn’t complain too much.

“Most likely we’re going to have a long day tomorrow,” Koz said. “So we’d both better get some rest. We’ll sleep in two shifts, just in case our friends over there try and give swimming a chance.” He nodded towards the wolves on the bank. “You go ahead and rest first. I’ll wake you in a few hours.”

“Maybe you should sleep first,” Jack suggested. “You’re probably pretty beat from… y’know, rescuing me.”

Koz shook his head. “If I sleep in the second shift, I’ll be rested before I need to swim. You can wake me when the sky starts to get light.”

“Okay.” Jack didn’t really want to sleep. He’d had his fair share of traumatic events in his life and he knew that after today he was in for some intense nightmares. Still, it was hard to argue with someone who’d worked so hard to rescue you. Even if he was sort of a stone-cold killer. Actually, especially so.

Jack pulled off his hoodie. His undershirt was still sopping wet. In the cool night air, the wet fabric quickly turned cold. He ignored it as he wrung out the hoodie and then folded it into a pillow. He sprawled out on the grass, head still pounding. He was sure he wouldn’t be able to rest at all.

*

He woke what seemed a moment later with a start. The laundry room floor, fluorescent lights, encroaching darkness as he struggled for breath – they all faded away in an instant as he started awake to the sound of crying. No. Not crying. Howling.

Jack could see Jamie and the she-wolf on the opposite bank. They both had their heads tipped back, howling mournfully. Why shouldn’t they? Jamie had lost his father.

Jack was trembling. He watched the two wolves on the bank, larger than any wolf should be, as they cried for their lost pack-mate.

Koz’s hand came down to rest gently on his back and Jack started. “Go back to sleep,” he said, his hand running in small circles. “I’ll wake you in a little while. Rest.”

Jack closed his eyes, for no other reason than to placate his companion. The wolves’ cries followed him into his sleep though, and he fell into nightmares.