Obey

Chapter 17: Wendigo? - Part 2 ❤️

October 26th.

"We've been here a whole day and still haven't run into anything," Ashley grumbled beside the old-styled room's vanity.

Leaning against a wooden bedpost, Brandon smiled. "You think they're lying."

"I didn't say that," the Guardian clarified. "I'm just thinking"—she looked to her partner, bypassing the other scattered G/Ps—"Let's crack down, go back to basics. If we all look for clues, maybe we'll find some evidence."

Dinnertime...

As Scamp impatiently dug into his steak tartare, Ashley questioned Amitola's whereabouts.

"She won't be joining us," Rusty clipped from his seat.

"Ami's pregnancy is why my parents insisted that Rusty finally take care of... you know"—Tehya's hands flailed about as her mother muttered something—"They think the added stress is worsening her already weak constitution."

"With work being so busy the last few months, Ami didn't realize that she was pregnant until halfway through the second trimester," Rusty explained to the newcomers. "Since then, we've been scrambling to get things settled."

Mr. Clear's grunting that Amitola's health should've come first was interrupted by Tehya violently decorating her fork in cucumber, avocado, and berry slices. "Taboo subject, Dad," she said, resulting in the conversation's end.

A few silent minutes passed before Rusty broached the so-called taboo, spilled that Amitola was just as superstitious as Seth. "She said that she's had the same nightmare for years, that she'd never see thirty. We're in October"—he looked around the table—"Her thirtieth is in December..."

October 27th.

"Seriously?" Tina grumbled at Denzel. "You couldn't wait for Roscoe to say where you and Dee should search?"

"I wanted out before the conversation picked up steam."

Pissed off that she, Brandon, and Dee just had to play bounty hunters, Tina poked her friend in his skinny chest as she made a comeback about his constant shivering.

With his shakes increasing alongside the snowfall, Denzel didn't bother expanding on why he'd left the planning meeting early.

Trudging through the dark, white woods, brightened only by her phone's flashlight, the girl unzipped her jacket. "As prepared as you were for the cave, you didn't think to grab a coat before running away in a building storm?" she asked sarcastically.

Denzel ran his hands over his arms as his teeth chattered. "Been kind of distracted. Nobody found anythin' yesterday."

A parka-wearing Dee growled, her breath leaving her in puffs of smoke. "I hate this." She squinted to see past her wet lenses. "We're sitting ducks in a Wendigo's playground."

Whilst nodding in agreement, Tina slid her outer layer off her shoulders before turning more toward Denzel. "Take it." A strange sound of protest. "What?" She turned to the cause, her Guardian. "Denzel and I are the same size, you know?"

"You're twice as wide." Brandon chuffed before he recognized Tina's incredulous expression, realized what he'd just said. "I mean, you-"—his affect flattened beyond belief—"Your body's nicer," he rambled.

Denzel turned on the other man. "Bran-Bran," he started, his tone shifting to sly, "did you just accidentally flirt?"

Brandon growled. "No," he said, though the word suspiciously sounded more like fuck off and die.

"Stop drinkin' vinegar," Denzel retorted, ignoring the stabby-eyed, confused look Brandon gave him. Leaning into the Guardian's ear, he elaborated, "It's a Chinese idiom about jealousy"—he chuckled—"It's almost as popular as the one about not ignorin' our blessings for pettiness."