Wolf's Path (Monstrous Hearts: The Short Stories)

Hunter's Moon (part two of two)

Grayson hadn't even noticed that they had been gone for too long. He still sat on the log, smoking a blunt and eating through a bag of chips. Nothing else had been unpacked. When Gretchen glanced at Micah, she saw that he was drinking a beer to relieve his thirst.

Sarah cracked open the tequila and took a hit straight from the bottle. "Wow, I needed that. The stupid hiking app I used made that trail look so easy. I'm never walking again."

When she passed the bottle to Micah, Gretchen knew it was up to her to get a fire going before nightfall. She was willing to trust them with setting up the tents while wasted, but not with anything involving flames.

Everyone else seemed to cheer up once the fire roared steadily and the stars came out. Booze, bags of chips, and trail mix were passed around, but she ignored them and the conversations, instead watching the forest. The darkness between the trees seemed thick and alive. She was very aware of how the firelight picked out every detail of her face and body even though she couldn't see beyond the clearing.

"What's the matter, Gretchen?" said Sarah, wriggling her bare feet at the fire while she and Micah shared another beer. "Worried about that creep?"

She shrugged. "I didn't think he was creepy at all. He saved all of our asses from being eaten by bears in the dark."

"You're just willing to fuck anything," muttered Micah.

Gretchen smiled. "That explains why I stayed with you after our first night together."

Micah stiffened, crushing the can in his hand until beer foamed over his fingers.

Sarah scoffed at Gretchen while rubbing his shoulder. "You're always so fucking smug. You don't know everything about everyone. In fact, I don't think you know anything at all, especially when it comes to taking care of your man."

It was intended to hurt her but missed the mark by far, and Gretchen just widened her smile while looking back out at the trees. It disappeared from her face at the sight of eyes glowing between two trunks. She jerked despite herself, squinting as the flames of the bonfire flared up from Micah adding another log. When the air cleared again, the forest was back to complete darkness. Had she really seen that? Maybe it had been a mere flicker of firelight.

When she glanced around, wondering whether anyone else had noticed, she found Sarah and Micah nearly rolling into the fire from making out and Grayson throwing rocks at the nearest tree. She kept quiet and waited a few more minutes to see if the eyes would reappear. They didn't.

Realizing this would be the rest of her night if she stayed up, she rose to her feet and announced, "I'm heading to bed."

She scanned the woods a final time before crawling into her tent. Long after she settled into the sleeping bag, she heard Sarah's giggling and the occasional clink of cans being thrown at the trees. Her feet ached, her stomach felt sour from the fact that she was about to spend the night with Grayson snoring in her ear, and her sleeping bag had lost the fight against the cold. Yet despite her exhaustion, she had the strangest feeling that the night wasn't over.

She didn't realize she had fallen asleep until a sharp crack outside startled her awake. The glow of the bonfire was gone. So were any conversations or laughter. Before she could call out to the others, another crack sounded, this one even closer.

When she checked her bag for the pepper spray she'd stowed along, she found it was missing. After licking lips that had gone very dry, she eased out of her sleeping bag as quietly as possible and pulled on her shoes. Her heart pounded hard enough to ring in her ears.

Just as she finished, the silhouette of a figure slipped across her tent. Fear pulsed in her chest even as she told herself it was probably Grayson or Micah walking past to take a piss. Her throat was too dry to force out either name, though, so she eased out of the tent, looking all around.