Chapter Thirty-Four: Return To The Lodge

(Bricks And Mortar)

***

When Hayden, Dylan and Kaitlyn got back inside the lodge, the first thing Hayden thought was that they needed to barricade the door.

Kaitlyn seemed to be thinking the same thing as she pointed to a table and ordered, "The table. Help me."

Hayden and Dylan didn't hesitate, her and Kaitlyn dropping their weapons as Kaitlyn grabbed one end while Hayden and Dylan worked together in using their good arms in holding the other, half-dragging, half-lifting the table toward the door and putting it down against the door, blocking it from anything that might want to come in and attack them. Panting, Hayden and Dylan shoved the table farther against the door, until Hayden was sure nothing could get in.

Once the door was securely blocked, Hayden went back and grabbed her knife, Kaitlyn already holding her gun, as Dylan mused, "Okay, well. Can't get much worse than it already is, right?"

Hayden shot him a disbelieving look. "Dyl, don't jinx it now."

That was when a loud crack of thunder came, lightning flashing through the windows.

"See?" Hayden said.

As thunder still roared, Dylan mumbled, "Great. Just like the cartoons."

"Yeah, because you jinxed it," Hayden retorted. Dylan glared at her and she returned it.

"It's been off and on all night. Gives us a little time," Kaitlyn observed.

Oh. Right. The allergy to water. That meant no werewolves would be prowling around and trying to kill them and let them breathe for a moment.

Right?

Hayden didn't say anything so she didn't jinx it like Dylan most certainly did, as her best friend asked, "How do you figure?"

"They don't like water, remember?" Kaitlyn reminded.

"Nick in the pool? Cat in the bath? Ring any bells?" Hayden snarked.

"Right, right," Dylan muttered, before an epiphany came to his face and he said, "Oh, we should've just been swimming in the lake all night."

Kaitlyn and Hayden stared at him as Kaitlyn retorted, "And die of hypothermia? No."

"Yeah, I'd rather be hunted by werewolves than do that," Hayden replied, rolling her eyes as she exchanged a look with Kaitlyn, the both of them rolling their eyes in unison.

"Alright, well, we're good now," Dylan said.

"We will be if you stop jinxing us," Hayden retorted.

"I'm not—"

"You are," Hayden interrupted, giving him a look. Dylan threw up his arms and huffed.

"Night's not over yet. These fuckers know we're in here and they're comin' back first chance they get," Kaitlyn told them.

That had Hayden be keenly aware of the bracelet in her pocket and hold her knife tightly as Dylan mumbled, "Great news! Okay."

"Alright. We gotta get a vantage point, come on," Kaitlyn said, heading for the stairs.

"No need to tell me twice," Hayden muttered, following. She didn't want it to be like in the scrapyard, their vision limited and unable to see the werewolf until it was almost too late.

If Dylan hadn't warned them...

No. They were okay, for now. They hadn't been hurt. They were still alive.

They just had to survive the rest of the night now.

Climbing up the stairs, they headed left and walked onto the landing, turning in another direction and heading into a room that, to Hayden, looked like some sort of bedroom for any kids or counsellors who couldn't stay in one of the cabins. There was a window and Hayden went to it, peering out to see if there was any werewolves stalking about outside.

Nothing.

Hayden didn't know if that was good... or bad.

"Hey, Hayden. Check this out," Kaitlyn said and Hayden headed over to her, seeing a letter in Kaitlyn's hands.

Hayden's eyes widened as she saw the contents. "Oh my God. Wow."

Kaitlyn nodded in agreement. "They must be really struggling if they're begging for a dollar."

"I'll say," Hayden said, staring at the letter again. 

Kaitlyn set it down before she and Hayden headed out, walking up another set of stairs to another landing, Dylan right behind them, before heading back down and toward the balcony. When they did, Hayden's eyes grew large at seeing the oil portrait hanging above the fireplace.

"Oh my God. That's not pretentious at all," Hayden muttered, eyeing the portrait that must be of a Hackett ancestor. How did she never notice that at all during the summer?

"How long has this guy been here?" Kaitlyn asked.

"My question exactly. Like, how did we never notice him?" Hayden agreed, still staring at the ostentatious portrait.

"A long time ago. Long enough ago that is was okay to have an oil painting made of yourself," Dylan theorised, none too seriously as Hayden and Kaitlyn let out a laugh at it.

"I kind of want an oil painting of me now," Kaitlyn mused.

"Pass for me. Don't think I could stay still long enough without having to move or scratch my nose or something," Hayden said, thinking about the amount of willpower someone needed to have to not move at all while they were painted.

Kaitlyn stared at the portrait, before murmuring, "Maybe I should keep looking."

Hayden shrugged. "Okay. We'll come with you—watch your back."

Kaitlyn smiled in appreciation as together they walked away from the portrait and turned the corner, where Kaitlyn paused and picked something up.

"What'd you find?" Hayden asked, before she saw it was a picture of Mr. Hackett with his kids. "Oh. Wait, how did that get out of his office?"

"Not sure," Kaitlyn replied, shaking the frame and setting something fluttering loose.

"Kaitlyn," Hayden said, but she was already picking it up, both girls squinting at what looked to be a ticket stub.

"Harum Scarum? Huh," Kaitlyn read out.

"Like that sign Dylan found back in the scrapyard?" Hayden observed, looking at Kaitlyn.

"Probably."

That was when Dylan came back and said, "No. Absolutely not. We-we have enough on our plates already. Stop discovering shit."

"Hey, you found the sign and that shady ledger back in the scrapyard," Hayden countered.

"That's not..." Dylan tried to argue, but at the look on Hayden's face, he just sighed and lifted his arms up. "Whatever."

Hayden rolled her eyes as Kaitlyn set the ticket stub down and they continued moving, heading into a room that looked like som sort of classroom as on the chalkboard was a doodle of a sheep with wings and a halo and a message that read "RIP Ian. We hardly ewe you."

"Oh yeah. That's right. The camp was supposed to have a mascot," Hayden said as she looked at the drawing.

"Poor Ian. Some camp mascot to kick it before camp starts," Kaitlyn observed. "In hindsight, sounds about right."

"You said it," Hayden agreed, still looking at the drawing.

"We have a camp mascot?" Dylan asked.

"No. We did. You didn't hear?" Kaitlyn affirmed.

"Hear what?"

"He died before we got to camp," Kaitlyn told Dylan.

"Aww. Bummer," Dylan replied.

"Maybe a werewolf ate him," Hayden joked. At the look Kaitlyn sent her, Hayden asked, "Too dark?"

"Slightly," she said.

Hayden gave an apologetic smile as she and Kaitlyn gave the drawing one last look before the three of them left the room and continued snooping around. As they did, Hayden was aware of the rain, their safety net extending the time before the werewolves could come and attack them soon. She hoped—she hoped—that Nick or Sarah weren't in the woods right now, that she wouldn't be forced to make that decision between her or Nick.

Unless Chris is dead, she thought. And they're cured.

Still, she kept her grip on her knife as firm as it always was this night.

Heading back up the stairs again, Hayden looked around before a glint of something near the couch caught her eye.

"Kaitlyn," she murmured, pointing it out. Her friend saw it, picking up what Hayden could now see was a ring with something engraved on it—a crest of some kind.

"Where have I seen this emblem before?" she questioned to herself, looking at Hayden to see if she had an answer. Hayden only just shrugged—she'd never seen that ring or that engraving before until now.

"What is it?" Dylan asked, walking up to them.

"A ring. With a crest on it," Kaitlyn answered.

Looking at the ring, Dylan quipped, "Ah. Very fancy. You could never pull it off. Sorry."

"I don't think she was meaning to wear it," Hayden sniped back as Kaitlyn set the ring down and looked around the room while Hayden stayed near with Dylan, watching around them as if a werewolf might leap from the shadows.

Hayden.

Hayden jolted, swivelling around to see nothing there, heart leaping into her throat.

"Hayden?" Dylan asked, concern in his face.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, lowering the knife. There was nothing there. She was hearing things.

"What's this?"

Hayden and Dylan turned to see Kaitlyn crouched near a pile of blue plastic boxes and a cardboard one, lifting what looked to be a video tape out of the cardboard box. 

"Trail cam footage," Kaitlyn said, staring at the video tape. "It's like they're looking for something."

Hayden and Dylan walked up to her as Dylan revealed, "Yeah. In Chris' surveillance room. He's storing all the footage. I think you might be right."

Hayden's eyes widened and she smacked her forehead. "Trail cameras!"

"What?" Dylan and Kaitlyn asked in unison.

"When me and Abi were getting firewood, we found a trail camera, along with this weird vial I'm surprised hasn't broken once tonight," Hayden explained, pulling the vial out and showing Dylan and Kaitlyn before storing it away back in her pocket. "I just assumed the trail cameras were for the wildlife, but... maybe they're for looking for werewolves as well. Make sure during the full moon they didn't get close to the camp, to us, or we didn't run into them."

Dylan and Kaitlyn were quiet, processing the new information and accepting Hayden's theory, before Kaitlyn took her phone out and snapped a photo of the tape as evidence. Hayden didn't hesitate to do the same with hers, snapping a photo of the blue boxes that must have more footage inside. them

After they took photos, Kaitlyn put it back and picked up the gun, before they turned and left the room and down the stairs, heading back to the balcony and the oil portrait. Once they were there, that was when Hayden realised the rain had stopped.

Their borrowed time was up.

Hayden gripped her knife tighter before she noticed Dylan looked afraid. She bumped his shoulder, trying to assuage it, before Kaitlyn sang, "Every dusk and dawn all through the summer. What doesn't kill you will make you stronger."

"Make you stronger," Hayden and Dylan sang in unison.

"We're here to lead the way, bunkmates for life we're proud to say," Kaitlyn and Hayden sang in unison, Dylan singing the last word just after them.

"Shout it strong and shout it loud, we're Hacketteers!" Hayden and Kaitlyn finished, Dylan finishing a beat behind them.

Kaitlyn turned to him and she asked, "Two months and you never learned the words?"

"I mean, I learned the words and you've been here longer than me," Hayden said, looking at her best friend in incredulity.

Dylan just shrugged and grinned.

Kaitlyn and Hayden sighed in unison, but the song had helped settle the fear, lighten the mood and have her forget about the werewolves hunting them down.

The mood grew dark again when a roar and howls thundered outside.

Hayden and Kaitlyn looked out the window, but there was nothing there, mist and shadow concealing the werewolf from their sight. Turning back, Hayden gripped the knife tightly, aware of the silver bracelet, before a loud noise came from the roof.

"Guys," she whispered as they all looked up, fear trickling through her system as something heavy walked across the roof, before fading as growling and roaring sounded and the mortar of the chimney trickled.

"It can't seriously get down through there," Hayden whispered, staring at the chimney—at the portrait—as she steeled herself, ready to use her knife and the bracelet in case it could.

"Showtime, motherfuckers," Kaitlyn said, steeling herself for it as well.

The trio gave each other another look before refocusing on the chimney, ready for the monster.

And, for Hayden and Kaitlyn, ready to use their weapons if it meant staying alive.

***

Things are heating up... 

Yeah, not much action happening, but I promise the action will be there!! 

Also, we're in the last few chapters!! I think there's only seven chapters left, and I'm so stunned?? But also really excited and sad this is coming to an end?? Like, I'll miss these characters, but it's been such a fun ride writing this fic!

But yeah, Hayden and Kaitlyn are getting prepared to fight the werewolf and have their final girl moments (and the blood will come into use) >:)

Next chapter should be soon!

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!